Nodding, I unlocked the door letting Leo open it and offer me a hand up. “You okay, Princess?”
“More or less,” I sighed, watching as Spencer waved someone else over.
Valemont Violence worked fast. Before I knew it, the car was swarmed by a small army of bikers, each of whom moved with singular purpose.
While Spencer pulled me into a hug, placing a soft kiss on the top of my head, another biker was opening the rear door, letting Leo take one last look at the girl before gently lifting her from the car. “Where are you–?
“Taking her home.” Spencer murmured. And before I could ask how, another car pulled up: a BMW I’d seen around Lucky Strike once or twice before.
While the first biker loaded our rescue into the backseat of the new car, another went through her wallet, fishing out her ID and passing it to the driver. A third biker emerged from seemingly nowhere, hopping into the driver’s seat of the scumbag’s car and adjusting the mirrors.
“Where’s…?” I looked around, spotting Dom’s shadow already retreating into the warehouse. But my attention was drawn back to the car in front of me as a fist — Leo’s — slammed against the trunk and popped it open.
While the girl we’d rescued was sleeping peacefully, already on her way home, the scumbag we’d caught was awake and fucking terrified.
“Morning, sunshine.” Spencer spat, hitting him square in the face as he squirmed around the trunk. “Welcome to hell.”
Without a word, Leo stepped to the trunk, lifting him by the hair and tossing him into the dirt at her feet. A jolt of adrenaline coursed through me as his body thudded to the ground, muffled screams bleeding from the gag in his mouth.
Leo didn’t waste a second. With a darkness I hadn’t witnessed since the night she rescued me, she grabbed him by the zip ties and yanked his hands over his head, dragging him through the dirt toward the warehouse.
She moved him like he was nothing. Less than nothing.
And as I watched her storm ahead, leading the way to his demise, I couldn’t make sense of my body’s reaction. Fear and arousal thudded through me in a muddied mix as I grappled with the sheer show of strength and the dawning realization of what must come next.
7
LEO
If it had been upto me, I would’ve ripped this scumbag's tongue out before dragging him out of the trunk. But apparently he had information we needed.
So instead, I yanked him out of the trunk and gripped his ziptied hands. I let his body smack against the metal body of his junker car, fine with him getting the shit beat out of him. Once he was on the ground, he tried to kick his tied legs, squirming in the dirt like a pig. Except that was an insult to pigs.
Ignoring his pleas for help, I dragged his flailing body across the dirt and toward the warehouse door.
Fucker clearly hit his poor dog.Fucking piece of shit.
We’d get The Oracle’s information out of him. One way or another.
And there might just be some satisfaction in tearing this woman and animal abuser limb from limb.
Jaw tensed, I looked over my shoulder at my Kiera. Her arms were crossed tight over her chest. Not from the cold, but from her discomfort.
I could only hope and pray she’d never seen this kind of violence. But whatever that haunting backstory was, the tale shewouldn’t tell, I knew that was unlikely given that she hadn’t run yet.
As I pulled the dude’s body, I tried to smile at her and give Kiera a gentle nod. Just something for her to know it would all be alright. I’d already failed to prepare her for the Gauntlet. I couldn’t do that again. Couldn’t have her look at me like I was some monster again.
Behind us, his shitbox car was being driven away. The headlights left us in darkness as we approached the warehouse door. The rest of the Violence were hustling around the parking lot, gathering forces to tail the car and dump it somewhere.
We had lots of places like this, between VV and The Oracle. Locations to dump cars and bodies, somewhere to tie up a bastard and leave him for days. Every once in a while we needed to borrow Laniidae’s barrels.
Once we got to the door, Spencer threw it open from the inside, holding it for us as I dragged the fuckhead over the threshold. Spence wrapped an arm around Kiera — a pang of jealousy coursing through me as I wished desperately to be her comfort in this moment.
As we got to the center of the warehouse, where a cheap, metal chair sat directly under one, bright overhead light, I tossed the guy the last few feet. He’d had some road burn, some scrapes and cuts from the gravel. And hopefully, some new bruises by the time we tied him up.
Over my shoulder, I watched Kiera look around the huge warehouse. It was mostly empty, barring a few empty pallet shelves at the far end. As far as I knew, the place had been empty longer than I’d been alive.
Just waiting for the Violence to revitalize it with blood.
