“I… You don’t understand. You don’t know—”
We never found out what she was about to say. Our bedroom door practically imploded only seconds before half the MC flowed in through the opening and closed in around Drew like a rockslide. The wordsasshole,fucker, andworried, were the most overused as they all talked at once, not one of them seeing the anger burning in Drew’s eyes.
It was only when Kenny pushed through the group and fell to his knees next to me that the room fell into a temporary silence.
“What’s happened?” he asked, looking manically between Drew and me.
“I’ll tell you what hasn’t happened,” Slater growled from the door. “No one has answered their fucking phone whenwe’ve been fucking ringing it after expecting our fucking president to be on a fucking job, leaving us to imagine all sorts of fucking nightmares all over again.”
“Jesus, Slate!” Drew snapped, his head snapping up to him and his frown deep. “Sense the tone, you fucking dipshit.”
“Listen,” Slater snapped back. I’d never seen him looking so angry. His finger pointed straight at Drew, all his muscles tensed and the veins in his neck stretched. “I don’t have a clue what’s gone on here, and I know it ain’t good, but don’t you ever,ever,do that to me again. I thought it was the Emps attack, part two. Only this time I thought you were already dead.” And with that, he marched away, leaving Jedd and Harry in the doorway while I looked back at Kenny with concerned eyes.
With the new interruption, we weren’t going to get anything more from Sloane. I could see the way she and Kenny looked at one another. “Can you take her into my room? I think she needs some company, but just don’t push too hard, okay?”
Kenny nodded, and it didn’t take much for Sloane to fall into his arms almost naturally. If those two hadn’t already formed some kind of a relationship, I would eat my own foot. This complicated things on a hundred different levels, but the biggest one was who was going to need retribution the most. Howard or Kenny?
I pushed up to my feet, unsurprised when Kenny lifted her into his arms and slipped past the others standing at the door. Once they were gone, all eyes turned on Drew.
Chapter Nineteen
DREW
“This is serious shit,” I growled. I could feel my mask of calm dropping to the floor and smashing into a million pieces the moment Kenny disappeared with Sloane in his arms.
Jedd and Harry closed the door, leaving me with them and Ayda, the four of us a circle of cautious glances, confused faces, and stiff bodies.
Jedd stood tall. Always tall. A brother ready to go to war at any time. A formidable force.
Harry stepped forward, glancing down at his feet before looking up again.
“Was she…?”
“Raped?” I finished for him, wide-eyed and angry as hell.
Ayda stepped closer to me, her arm sliding under my cut and her palm landing flat on my back. It was a gesture of solidarity, her way of reminding me that she was still here and we would get through this.
“Not rape,” Ayda said quietly. “At least, not in the full sense of the word, but she was violated. More than she told us she was, I think.” She looked up at me for agreement.
“She…” I stopped, all breaths and exhales, glancing down, looking up, and anger racing through my veins. “I don’t know,” I finished.
Did I believe Sloane hadn’t been raped? I couldn’t allow myself to really think about that. The only thoughts running through my brain were all the promises I’d made to Sutton and how they were now shattered, like broken glass across every inch of The Hut. I’d promised him, guaranteed even, that no harm would come to her. I’d made those assurances just days ago, too. Now there I was, with Sloane’s tears on my clothes and her dirt on my fingertips, carrying my lie around like it weighed more than she had done when she’d crumbled in my arms.
“Someone is going to pay, whatever happened.” I looked up at Harry and Jedd, noticing the difference in their reactions. Jedd was eager to seek revenge already, willing to stand by my side and do what needed to be done.
Harry was pale. Tired. Sighing internally at the realization that our honeymoon period was over and the old tricks and turns of the MC everyday life had returned.
“She’s a young fucking kid, Harry,” I practically whispered.
“I know that, son. I know.”
“She’s got no one but us, aside from Sutton.”
“I know.”
“I made a promise.”
“I.Know,” he said firmly.
