“I know.”
“Spit it out, Tucker.”
I felt the air get stuck at the back of my throat when I inhaled. “It’s about Sloane.”
“What about her?” He frowned harder, eyes back on the bag.
“I think…” I paused, trying to find my footing when my body and limbs suddenly felt real fucking unsure. “She was attacked, Chief.”
He stopped suddenly. The bag barely swung from theafter-effects of his latest hit, but his body certainly did. Howard’s head shot up, his eyes disbelieving as he stared at me and swayed without control.
“W-what?” he barely whispered.
I cleared my throat, trying to stand strong. “Sloane. She was attacked, Howard.”
“Attacked?”
“Yeah.” I nodded once.
Sutton’s eyes searched mine wildly. The blood drained from his face, leaving him ghostly white as everything dropped south. His eyes dropped, his mouth hung, his heart fucking bled into his stomach. His balls hit the floor as the words I’d spoken seemed to echo around the training room on repeat.
She was attacked, Howard.
She was attacked, Howard.
She…
Was…
Attacked…
Howard.
“You’re lying,” he eventually muttered, eating up the silence and swallowing it as a lump of sharp, prominent fear in his throat.
I stepped out from behind the bag, still holding it as firmly as I could.
“I found her this morning, down on FM 667. I was on my way to a repo job with the boys. I was in the truck all alone.”
“No.”
“The boys went one way,” I continued, ignoring his interruption. “I went the other. You know how we like to race to our jobs when they eat into our Saturday mornings. I hadthe radio on. I was singing…”
“No.”
“I saw a figure on the roadside, all hunched and real scared looking, Sutton. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized it was…”
“No.”
“Sloane,” I finished quietly.
His eyes were frantic, and his body was rigid as I took a step closer. “No,” he growled, tensing his jaw as denial hit him like a freight train.
“I pulled over. I made her look at me. She was covered in dirt, a little scratched up. She…” I sighed, remembering the look of fear in her eyes. “She looked scared, man. So I picked her up, put her in the truck and brought her back here to Ayda.”
“No.”
“I didn’t even call the boys to tell them where I was heading. All I could think about was Sloane. I needed to get her to Ayda. I needed someone else to tell me what had happened, ‘cause I was like you. I was all rage and red and bleeding and fucking screaming in my head.”
