"Hospital. Now," Logan said, rising to his feet with Cade cradled against his chest. Her thin arms wrapped around his neck with a desperation that spoke of unspeakable trauma, her face buried against him as if afraid to look at the world. I still couldn't move. Couldn't speak. My throat had closed up entirely, choked with emotion I couldn't process. This was Cade, our Cade, reduced to a trembling, sobbing wraith.
Logan strode past us into the corridor, holding Cade as if she weighed nothing, which, horrifyingly, seemed close to the truth. Her body was skeletal beneath the oversized shirt and jacket, with ribs visible and hip bones jutting sharply. Ryder and I fell into step behind them, my legs moving automatically while my mind remained trapped in that freezing cell, surrounded by the stench of fear and abuse.
"I found her on the floor completely naked," Logan said, his voice tight with barely contained fury. "Some fucker was just coming out of the room when we breached. Zipping up his pants." His jaw clenched so hard I could hear his teeth grind. "Enforcers have him secured." Ryder's head snapped up, his eyes narrowing to dangerous slits.
"Which guy?" Logan jerked his chin down the hall. "The one they're holding by the stairwell." His pace never slowed as he carried Cade toward the exit.
"Any sign of McIntyre?"
"Not yet," Ryder growled, his hands curling into fists at his sides. The comm unit at my belt crackled to life, Sebastian's voice cutting through the background noise of the raid.
"Ambulance is three minutes out. High Lord Killingham is ordering a full containment protocol. No one leaves, nothing gets out. The sexual assault response team will meet you at the hospital." Logan nodded once, tightening his hold on Cade as she continued to sob against his chest.
"She needs heat, fluids, and out of this fucking place," he said, pushing past a group of enforcers who flattened themselves against the wall to let us through. "Now."
I followed close behind, my eyes never leaving Cade's small form. Each sob that wracked her body felt like a knife between my ribs, twisting deeper with every step we took. I should have found her sooner. Should have connected the dots faster. Should have protected her from the beginning. The litany of failures pounded in my head with each heartbeat, a relentless drumbeat of self-recrimination.
As we approached the stairwell that would lead us back to the surface, I saw him, the man Logan had mentioned, being held against the wall by two Trivium enforcers. He was average-looking, the kind of face you'd forget in a crowd, but his eyes were dead. Empty. The eyes of someone who enjoyed causing pain. And then he laughed, a low, filthy sound that crawled along my skin like insects. His gaze fixed on Cade's huddled form in Logan's arms, and his lips curled into a leer that told me exactly what he'd been doing in that room.
Something inside me snapped.
The red haze descended without warning, obliterating rational thought. One moment, I was walking behind Logan; the next, I was shoulder-checking through the enforcers, my hands closing around the man's throat as I slammed him harder against the wall.
"You fucking animal!" I roared, driving my fist into his face. The impact jarred my arm to the shoulder, but I barely felt it. All I could see was Cade's broken body, all I could hear were her sobs. My fist connected again, and again, blood spraying from his nose, his lip splitting under my knuckles.
"You hurt her!" I screamed, barely recognising my own voice, distorted as it was with rage. "You fucking hurt her! You need to die!" I was shouting at the man that I was brutalising, but I knew deep down I was talking to myself. Blaming myself for all the pain she had endured because of my failure.
I was dimly aware of shouting around me, of hands trying to pull me back, but I shook them off, lost in the violent frenzy that had consumed me. Six weeks of terror and helplessness exploded outward, channelled through my fists as I pummelled the man's face into a bloody pulp. My knuckles split, warm blood, his or mine, I couldn't tell, coating my hands, but I couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop.
"Cole! COLE!" Someone grabbed me from behind, arms locking around my chest. I thrashed wildly, still trying to reach the man who was now slumped in the enforcers' grip, his face a mess of blood and broken skin.
"Let me go!" I snarled, twisting against the restraint. "He deserves to die! He deserves worse than death!" My feet went out from under me as I was tackled to the concrete floor, the impact knocking the wind from my lungs. A heavy weight pinned me down, and Ryder's face appeared above mine, his eyes blazing with a fury that matched my own.
"Breathe, Cole," he commanded, his forearm across my collarbone, pinning me in place. "Look at me. Not him. Look at me." I struggled for another moment before the fight drained out of me, leaving me shaking beneath Ryder's weight.
"Cade's in the ambulance in sixty seconds," Ryder continued, his voice dropping to a fierce whisper. "You with her, or you here?" The question penetrated the fog of rage, forcing me to focus. Cade. She needed me. Needed us. This piece of shit wasn't worth losing precious minutes that could be spent helping her. Hot tears spilled from my eyes, tracking down my temples into my hair.
"He hurt her," I choked out, my voice breaking. "He has to die." Ryder's expression shifted, the fury giving way to something colder, more controlled, but no less deadly. "He will," he promised, his voice dropping to a lethal calm that sent chills down my spine. "They all fucking will. But right now? She needs us."
I exhaled shakily, giving a small nod. Ryder's weight lifted, and he hauled me to my feet with a rough jerk. The man was being dragged away by the enforcers, blood streaming down his face. As they passed, he turned his head and laughed again, a wet, gurgling sound through broken teeth and swollen lips. The urge to lunge at him rose again, but Ryder's hand on my shoulder anchored me to reality.
"Come on," he said, already turning toward the staircase. "Logan's almost at the surface with her."
We ran, following the path Logan had taken, up the narrow stairs and out into the freezing night air. The contrast from the stifling underground bunker was jarring, clean snow and biting cold replacing the stench of fear and abuse. I gulped in lungfuls of the crisp air, trying to clear my head as we sprinted through the trees toward the staging area where the ambulance waited.
The ambulance sat at the edge of the property, its red and blue lights slicing through the darkness, casting eerie shadows across the snow. Logan was already inside, cradling Cadebeneath thermal blankets as paramedics moved around them with practiced efficiency.
"Female, early twenties, severe hypothermia, dehydration, multiple contusions, possible fractures," one was saying into a radio as I climbed into the ambulance, my hands still shaking with adrenaline. "Initiating sexual assault protocol. Request trauma team standing by." The clinical assessment hit me like another punch to the gut. Hearing the extent of Cade's injuries laid out in medical terminology somehow made it more real, more horrifying. Logan sat on the gurney, still holding her, his face a mask of controlled anguish as a paramedic attached an IV line to Cade's thin arm. She flinched at the needle prick, a whimper escaping her cracked lips.
I moved closer, desperate to help, to be useful, to do anything that might ease her suffering. The smell of blood, antiseptic, and cold filled the confined space, mingling with the unmistakable scent of fear that seemed to emanate from Cade's trembling body.
"What can I do?" I asked, my voice rough with emotion. The paramedic glanced up at me, her expression professional but compassionate.
"Hold the oxygen mask for her, and keep pressure on this gauze pad at her temple. She has a laceration that's still bleeding." I nodded, taking the mask and positioning it carefully over Cade's face, my other hand applying gentle pressure to the gauze at her temple. Her skin was ice cold beneath my fingers, her pulse thready and weak.
Ryder appeared at the back doors of the ambulance, his face set in hard lines as he barked orders to the enforcers surrounding the vehicle.
"No cameras, no leaks. Damien is still priority target. Move out and find that fucker." Even unconscious, Cade seemed tosense the tension around her. Her body twitched beneath the thermal blankets, her lips moving behind the oxygen mask in a broken litany of pleas.
