“I’ll see you tomorrow?” she asks me as she looks over her shoulder at me.
I stare into her eyes, trying to decipher if she really is okay. Finally, I sigh and nod before pressing a kiss to her temple.
“Sleep well.”
She gives me a tight smile before slipping back into her room, the door clicking shut.
I wait a beat before I head down the hall, stopping before I pass Eagle.
“Try to put yourself in her shoes. She went through literal hell. That scene out there? That happened daily where she was kept. Fighting, blood, threats. All of it. I did everything in my power to keep her from it, but as you keep reminding me, a prospect can only do so much.”
He swallows hard. “Did they rape her? She never would say.”
My mind flashes back to that night. The one where I fought Monster for the right to fuck her.
My heart aches in my chest.
“If she wants you to know, she will tell you.”
I start to walk away, but he stops me.
“If you hurt her, I will kill you.”
I snort. “Funny you think you’d beat me to the punch.”
I leave him standing there as I head into the bar. Ridge is sitting at the bar, looking torn up.
I slide up next to him, tapping the bar for a drink. One of the club girls delivers one as we sit there sipping our beer.
“Is she okay?” he asks.
“I don’t know.”
It’s the truth. I don’t know if she is okay or if she will ever be okay. She won’t talk about anything she went through. It’s not healthy for her to bottle it all up inside. I know she is in therapy, but I don’t know if she is even opening up there. If anything, I feel like she is getting worse. Whatever is eating at her is slowly killing her from the inside.
I had a glimpse of the girl she could be if she allowed herself to process the feelings inside of her for a second in that hallway. Then it was gone in a flash.
Guilt rides me hard for my hand in the entire situation.
I should’ve tried harder to get her out that first night or any night after that. I never should have allowed it to get as far as it did. I thought I was doing the right thing. Trying to take down one of the worst MCs in the area.
I should have said no and blown my cover earlier. Then things wouldn’t have gotten so out of hand. I might be dead, but if there was even a chance that she would have been free sooner? Even a slight possibility that I could have saved her a sliver of pain?
I should have done it, but I didn’t. Now all I can do is spend the rest of my life trying to make hers better.
I sigh, chugging my beer.
“I’m going back to the gate. Call me if you need me.”
With that, I leave him, heading back to where Yak waits.
At least I know with Yak I will have a distraction. I have never wanted to hear that man talk more than I do tonight.
Anything to get me out of my head.
CHAPTER
SIX
