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Chapter 34

Knox

The second I pull up to the safehouse I know something is wrong. Very wrong. The front door is wide open. I jump off my bike, discarding my helmet on the ground as I run toward the house. The sound of a gunshot momentarily stops me in my tracks, and I swear my heart stops beating.

“Leah!” I scream in panic as I race inside, gun drawn.

At the bottom of the stairs I see Ashley’s lifeless body, I don’t bother to check for a pulse, whoever killed her did a thorough job of it and half of her head is blown away. I race up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Why is it so quiet?

“Leah!”

I find her in a bedroom. She’s huddled on the floor, her back against the wall, her beautiful face is splattered in blood from the dead man who lies before her. Holstering my gun I tentatively walk over to her, moving as slowly and carefully as I can so as to not startle her. She’s in shock, the gun still gripped in her hand, her gaze focused only on the dead man before her. She hasn’t even realized I’m here.

“Leah, sweetie, it’s me, Knox… it’s okay now, you’re safe, I’m here…”

I move over to crouch down beside her, gently taking hold of the gun. She releases it without a fight. She blinks, seeming to come into focus as she looks up at me. She looks so fragile Iwant to pull her into my arms and never let go but she’s just been through a traumatic experience, and I don’t want to overwhelm her.

“Knox?” she says softly, her voice confused.

“Yes baby, I’m here.”

She throws herself with force into my arms, squeezing me tightly to ascertain if I’m real or not.

“He was going to kill me… he killed Ashley, I had to…” she starts to babble.

“Shh, it’s okay, I know… it’s okay,” I murmur, stroking her hair as she finally breaks down, her tears making little difference on my already soaked skin.

I curse myself for not getting here sooner, for not being here to keep her safe. For trusting Ashley, who must have revealed our secret location.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t here. You should never have to have gone through this. We should never have trusted Ashley.”

She shakes her head furiously. “No, Ashley didn’t betray us. She died trying to protect me. I should have saved her,” she sobs.

“How did he find you?” I ask, confused.

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t Ashley. He was torturing her,” this comes out in a strangled, pained sob. “He somehow knew she was going to help me escape, I think he followed us here.”

Wolf must have revealed the plan but the only people who knew the location were us and Ashley, it stands to reason the only way he could have found this place was by following them.

Coming to her senses more, Leah finally notices the others are missing. “Where are Axel, Rider, and Jace?” she asks, her brow furrowed with concern as she clings to my shirt like a life raft. She looks at me with such fear and trust in her eyes I can’t bring myself to tell her the truth.

“They’ll be here soon. Come on, let’s get out of this room.”

She allows me to help her up but as she looks at the dead man who terrorized her for so long, her legs buckle, and I scoop her up into my arms. It feels good to hold her like this. I carry her downstairs, doing my best to shield her from the sight of Ashley. Even so, she lets out a pained cry when she sees her.

I try to comfort her as best as I can. Reluctantly, I call the police. There’s no way we can cover this up or hide it. But I’d give anything for Leah to not have to go through what’s to come. I don’t want her to relive this nightmare. Part of me considers that we should run, get as far away as we can, but I know the cops would track us down eventually and it would look far worse on Leah if she did. If she tells the truth, I know they will see that it’s a clear case of self-defense.

Time seems to drag by painfully slowly while we wait. My mind keeps going to Axel. The race must be over by now. Why aren’t the guys here yet? The fact that they aren’t can only mean one thing, something bad happened.

Do I even have a club anymore, or have Steel Vipers been patched over to the Hellhounds?

My phone rings, it’s Jace. With a heavy heart, I answer it, dreading the news I’m about to hear.

Chapter 35

Leah