Darren
He couldn’t believe his eyes as he came through the door.Sadie was naked and covered in blood.So much blood.She looked like something out of a horror movie.He had no idea how much of the blood was her own and how much might be Jed’s or Tinker’s.Both men had pools of blood surrounding them, and there was a path from Tinker’s body to Jed as if she’d crawled through it all.
His gaze raised to Sadie, and where she was standing in front of Jed, protecting him from the threat she perceived was coming through the door.He could tell she was in shock by the wild-eyed gaze with which she watched the rest of the men enter the cabin.She clutched a hunting knife in her hand, prepared to take on anyone who came near her or Jed.
He swallowed past the lump in his throat.What the hell had she been through?
The whole scene was right out of a nightmare.Jed sat slumped in a chair behind her, his shirt bloody with a whole lot of blood pooling beneath him.Tinker was lying in a pool of his own blood, his throat slashed, and was that a stab wound in his chest?What the holy hell happened here?The only one able to answer their questions was standing in front of them, looking like the lead in the movieCarrie, ready to stab anyone who attempted to move closer to her or Jed.And from the looks of it, they really needed to help Jed now.Before it was too late.
“Sadie.”He called out to her, taking the lead before Race could.He may have overstepped, but she looked like a scared animal fearing for its life.Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Race motion for the men to fan out, but keep their distance.“Sadie,” he called out again.She tightened her grip on the knife as her gaze shot down and to the right.Shit.A gun.In the state she was in, she could hurt herself or one of them easily if she got her hands on that weapon.It worried him that she wasn’t recognizing him.Jackson tried to move in closer, presumably to take the knife away from her.He saw her muscles tense and knew she was going to strike out at him.
“Sadie!”he shouted this time.She jumped and appeared to focus a little more on him.“It’s me.Darren.We’re here to help you, but you’ve gotta put down the knife.”He continued to hold his hands palm up in front of him.
She blinked several times, her brows dipping in confusion.“Darren?”
“Yeah, Sadie.It’s Darren.Can you give the knife to Jackson now?We’ve got Bacon and a couple of paramedics here.They need to take a look at Jed.You want Jed to get help, right?”
Jackson startled her as he grabbed onto her wrist and gently pried her fingers from the knife.He smiled at her as he tossed it to the side.
Darren could see the adrenaline crash coming on and rushed to catch her before she hit the floor.She broke down in tears and started rocking back and forth as he held her.While he comforted Sadie, the others went to work around him.Trick and Jackson cut Jed free, then eased him to the floor, where Bacon and the paramedics went to work.Dagger and Maverick checked out Tinker’s body, confirming he was dead.
“Sadie, how much of this blood is yours?”Darren asked, drawing her attention away from what was going on with Jed.
She stopped rocking and sat up straight.She looked down at herself like she had no idea she was covered in blood.Panic set in as she started trying to wipe it all off.There was no way she could do that without a shower.“Shhh.Shhh.Settled down, Sadie.I’m going to put you in the shower.Would you like that?”
She nodded her head, whimpering and looking lost.
“Come on.While Bacon works on Jed, you need to take a shower.You can’t go with him to the hospital looking like a vat of blood was poured over you.”He grabbed her behind her back and under her knees.
“My room is closest.”Race led the way to the room he used when he was here.He hurried to the shower and turned it on.Once it was ready, he stepped back and allowed Darren to set her inside.When she just stood there under the spray, Darren looked at him.
“Go ahead and help her.She’s more likely to trust you than anyone else,” Race told him.
Darren stripped down to his boxer briefs and then stepped in behind her.“Let me help you, Sadie.”
“I’ll be outside.I’ll find her some clothes.”Race stepped out, leaving the two of them alone.
He turned her around so that he could start by rinsing the blood from her hair.His breath caught in his chest when he saw a thin pink line running down the length of her body from chest to stomach.There was also a nick on her stomach that had bled a little but was now stopped.
A growl escaped him before he could stop it.“Hecutyou?”
She looked down as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.“Oh.Yeah.He did that when he cut off my shirt.”
“Motherfucker,” he growled.He had to gather himself before he scared her worse than she already was.“Did he hurt you anywhere else?Did he force himself on you?”
“No.”She shook her head.“He was going to, but I bit his neck.”
He supposed that explained the blood that had run down her chin and neck.“You bit him?
“Yes.He was going to rape me, so I went limp to let him think I was too tired to fight him anymore.Then, when he bent over me, I bit into his neck.He fought me until I let him go.That’s when he backhanded me so hard I almost fell off the couch.I saw the knife on the floor and grabbed it.”
Darren’s hands faltered at her admission as he gently worked the shampoo in her hair.His eyes clenched tight as he asked, “Then what happened?”
“While he was holding his neck, I stabbed him in the chest.He reached for the knife, then tried to climb off me, but he fell to the floor.”
He backed her into the stream of water to rinse the shampoo out.He was picturing it all in his mind, and he had to fight to keep his hands from shaking.God, so many things could have gone wrong.What if she hadn’t gotten the knife?What if, in his anger, Tinker killed her?What if the club hadn’t gotten there in time?
“Then what happened?”His voice sounded like he had gravel in his throat when he asked her to continue.
