I’m already running down the hallway back toward the pits. I go over to the locker and quickly scan the keys hanging there. Finding the one I want, I rush back to her. “I’m here, Ash. I’m here.” I try to unlock it, but it’s not working.
“Goddammit,” I grind out, knowing this is the correct key. It has to be. “I—” My eyes scan the cell, and my words trail off when I see she now has a gag in her mouth. It’s an O-ring, secured tightly around her cheeks and shoved behind her teeth. It’s old. Rusted and jagged. Blood runs from her pried-open mouth and drips to the floor.
She’s sobbing and yanking on the restraints.
A man steps out of the dark corner. He’s dressed in black jeans, a Lords mask covering his face. He’s shirtless, and I can see the Lords crest branded on his chest. “Don’t fucking touch her,” I shout. “Hang on, Ash. I’m coming.”
The lock shakes in my hand while I try and shove the key into it, but it doesn’t work. “Fuck.” I drop the key, and I watch the Lord walk over to the table. Her wide, red-rimmed eyes look at him over her shoulder in horror. Iwrap my bloody hands around the bars and yank on them in a desperate attempt to get to her.
She sobs through the gag and her small body trembles. “Hang on, Ashtyn.” I run down the hallway again. I rush back to the locker to grab more keys. Maybe I’m not thinking clearly. The drugs are fogging my brain, and I just grabbed the wrong one. But they’re all gone. There’s nothing there.
I run both blood-covered hands through my hair and sprint back down the hall. My heart racing at the possibility of what the Lord could do to her if I don’t save her.
My steps slow as I approach her cell. She’s lying across the table she’s tied to. The Lord standing behind her. His jeans are undone, down by his ankles. The table rattles from his hard thrusts while he rapes her.
“I’m going to kill you,” I shout, slamming my hand against the bars.
He leans over her trembling body, grabs a handful of her hair, and yanks her head back.
“No. No. No. No,” I shout, wrapping my hands around the bars.
His free hand is holding a knife, and he places it up against her neck before he slices the blade across her throat from ear to ear. Blood gushes from the wound and her body goes slack before he lets go of her head.
I fall backward into the wall and bow my head. My fingers tighten in my hair, and I let out a scream of frustration. My chest begins to burn, and I slap a hand over my mouth to stop from vomiting. I failed her. Once again, I couldn’t save a woman who needed me.
I might as well let the Lords kill me, too. My brothers will never forgive me for failing one of our own. She’s from a Spade brother and Saint has already claimed her as his.
Looking up from my place on the wall, I see the Lord is no longer in her cell. He left. I place my hands on the bars, and the door squeaks, opening.
I enter and walk over to her body. I untie her wrists and ankles and then pull her limp body off the edge of the table and pick her up in my arms.
“I’m sorry,” I say through the knot in my throat.
Exiting the cell, I take a right, and my heavy boots guide me to an opening. I come to a stop to see my brothers.
My stomach drops when I see them all hanging side by side with their hands secured to the ceiling. Their heads are down, looking at the floor that their feet aren’t able to touch.
I lay Ashtyn on a table to the left and rush to them. “Haidyn.” I shove his head up, and blood runs from his neck and down his body.
I jump back as it splashes me. I begin to gag from the overwhelming smell. Rushing over to Saint, I find he’s also had his neck slashed. My throat burns with bile as my brother’s blood covers my hand and arm. I do the same with Adam.
I take a stumbling step back to see them all hanging there with theirthroats slit. Hearing a sound behind me, I turn just in time to see the Lord’s fist hurtling at my face.
“Fuck,” I groan.
I blink to clear my blurry vision. I’m still in the basement, now sitting in a chair, my hands cuffed behind it. My father sits on the edge of the table in front of me.
The chair rattles when I go to get up, but my hair is grabbed from behind, and I’m forced back into the seat. They pull my head back at an extreme angle, pinching the back of my neck. I bare my teeth at my father. “You fucking piece of shit.” I spit on him.
He glances down at it but makes no move to wipe it off.
His silence makes my anger grow. “Why?” I demand, my muscles tense and my breathing erratic. I’m all alone. My brothers and Ashtyn are gone.
“Why what?” he asks, checking his watch. A sign that I’m keeping him from something important. As if his brothers’ sons being dead isn’t his main priority.
“Why kill them? They didn’t do anything wrong.” They could have failed their initiations. But that still wouldn’t explain Ashtyn. She didn’t have one. A female Spade has never run Carnage, as far as I know. Unless she was collateral damage.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
