“Has she been touched, Dempsey?” she asked, blowing out a breath of hostility.
I looked down at her pants which seemed to be intact but that didn’t mean shit. A fresh wave of fear lashed over me at what could have happened. She’d been raped before and I knew how long it had taken for her to recover, we’d spoken about it when we were getting to know each other. If it happened again, and because of me, I would unleash all holy hell on anyone I got my hands on.
“I don’t…she didn’t say.”
“Okay, well I need to do an examination just in case,” she said. “You are welcome to stay, but it can be quite confronting.”
“I’ll give her privacy,” I said, and although it broke me to leave her, I did, closing the door behind me. I moved out into the fresh night air, my knees falling to the ground as I let out an almighty roar of pain. My cry echoed throughout the woods surrounding the clubhouse, scaringbats and birds away from their homes among the trees.
I was vaguely aware of someone behind me but I knew it would be Alex.
“Leave me be.”
“Can’t do that,” he said. “You need help.”
“I need a fucking time machine so I can go back and kill him again,” I said, still staring out into the night’s sky, tears rolling down my cheeks.
“We got her back, she’ll be okay. It’ll take a couple of weeks to heal, but she’ll still be intact,” Alex said, his hand on my shoulder, squeezing it. “Come in, get a drink, and focus on the meet with the Reapers tomorrow. We still have a job to do.”
I nodded, and he left me kneeling on the hard ground, unable to move. This wasn’t over.
But all I could think about right now was Shae and her survival.
I went inside and sat on the couch in between a few of the Nomads who tried to take my mind off what was happening in the other room, but it was no use. Everything around me happened while my mind reeled at what I would find out.
Morena appeared at the doorway to the hall where the rooms were and motioned for me to come over.
“She’s not been touched down there,” she said. “But she does have a few cracked ribs. I asked a doctor I can trust to come and see her tomorrow. For now, she needs to rest. I’ve given her a sedative so she should be okay, but if you can keep an eye out? You have my number if you need me to come back up.”
I nodded and thanked her before I moved back into the room to see her sleeping under the covers. Pulling my boots off, and my shirt and jeans, I climbed under the covers with her and held onto her hand, whispering sweet nothings into her hair. I didn’t think she could hear me but it didn’t matter. I needed to say it more than have her hear it.
“You’re my soul, Shae, and I need you to be okay after all this. You’re the only one that matters to me. Please, be okay.”
I kissed her forehead and she squirmed slightly under the pressure, but rather than pull away, she cuddled into me more. I held onto her, the only woman to ever make me feel this helpless, and prayed she’d wake up better.
EIGHT
Dempsey
“What time did you say?” I asked Alex as he stood next to Hawk on the porch of the clubhouse. I’d had a bad feeling about this meet all morning as we cleared out the clubhouse to make sure everyone was safe if anything happened.
“9.”
I looked down at my watch and grimaced. “How long are we going to stand here and wait?”
Alex looked down at his watch and let out a sharp breath of air. “This is bad.”
“We’ve had bad before,” Hawk said.
“I don’t remember it being thisbad.”
“You drink a lot,” Hawk shot back. “Your memory is foggy. Don’t you remember the crisis in Wales?”
“Fuck that,” Alex shot back. “Wales was almost a decade ago.”
“Will you two stop?” I barked. “This isn’t a game.”
Alex sobered. “I know, and we are sorry, Dempsey, but there’s not much we can do if they don’t show up. We burned their clubhouse to the ground, killed most of their guys. They can be pissed off if they want.”
