Page 3

C rap. Double crap. Crap on a cracker, crap.

This isn’t how I wanted this to go. We always knew it was possible that things could go wrong and I’d be exposed before we were ready, but that’s life. You prepare, but till the time comes, you never know when shit is going to hit the fan.

And let there be no mistake, the shit has officially hit the fan.

Rue wouldn’t have come and found me unless it was bad. I sprint after her, around the clubhouse, and the scene that unfolds is beyond awful. It’s catastrophic.

I glance around and am happy to see that we’re the only ones on this side of the compound, and Jack was smart enough to keep the cars between her and the gate guard. I’m sure any of these boys would be all for a little girl-on-girl action, but what Jack is doing to the other girl is not something I would call pleasurable. Well, unless you’re into masochism, which I’m not.

“What the fuck is going on?” I keep my voice low as I come in close. Jack won’t stop staring at the girl she has up against the wall, hand wrapped around her neck as she holds her a solid inch off the ground. The girl isn’t choking, but I’m sure if Jack wanted to put a bit more pressure on her, she would be.

Jack doesn’t answer, so I turn to Rue, who is also close to us. “What happened?”

Her bangs fall in her face as she shakes her head. “I don’t know. I took her to the picnic tables and got her a plate of food. She was sitting by herself till this one”—she points to the girl up against the wall, who looks about ready to pee herself—“came over and sat by her. Jack was fine. I looked away for a second only, I swear. Next thing I knew, Jack was pulling her up out of her seat and telling me to go find Billy.”

That doesn’t give me much to go on. I take my eyes off the girl and look back at Rue, who shakes her head. She knows nothing else; otherwise, she would have told me. Girl has a long way to go in the company, but she learned quick to speak up about what she knows when asked.

I sidle toward the wall, putting my shoulder on it to be close but still far enough away for me to see both Jack’s and the girl’s faces.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Em-Emily.” Her sage-green eyes are wide, fear clear in their depths. She looks young, super young, but the caked-on makeup makes her look more vamp-like than mature. It looks like the girl is out hunting for a biker’s dick to ride, and that isn’t something we usually blow our cover for. I look again at Jack, but she gives me nothing.

“What did you say to my sister?”

Emily blanches, might have even fainted a bit if Jack weren’t holding her steady. I look them over and see that while it might seem like Jack has her by the neck, her other hand is on the wall, by the siding that’s attached to the brick, creating a ledge. It’s tiny, but enough for Emily to sort of rest on it. If Jack’s hand weren’t there to act as a base, no doubt the girl would fall. Not a long distance, but the fear of not being able to touch the ground and not being able to move your neck to see how far off the ground you are can be terrifying.

“Sister? N-Nothing. She’s crazy. I just sat down and told her General was my uncle. That’s all. She started going nuts. I had half a mind to scream, but she pulled a gun on me.”

I give Jack a pointed look. She only has eyes for this Emily chick, but I know she can feel my gaze. The grunt from her lips means she knows she’s in trouble. We don’t show a weapon in front of people. That’s not how we operate.

“That it?” I keep my eyes on Jack, watching her sharp jawline twitch from grinding her teeth—a terrible habit she picked up as a kid when she was holding back her anger. I might not be able to cure her anger issues, but at least I can sleep soundly knowing she uses her mouth guard at night to cut that dentist’s bill down.

“She’s been marked,” Jack grits out.

I narrow my eyes. “Where?”

That one word has Jack finally looking at me, and I watch the silver flecks almost swirl in the satin gray eyes. If she could cause destruction with her eyes, she would. Many times I almost got lost in them, watching how her mood affects the approaching storm through her eyes alone.

“Upper left arm.” I arch an eyebrow as Jack speaks. “Inside by the elbow.”

Her words are the catalyst that has me spinning, grabbing Emily’s arm and pulling up her loose sleeve.

“Fuck.” Sure enough, the mark is there. To anyone else, it might seem like a random set of dots and nothing else. Maybe even a weird night out. But that cluster of dots will fade into a symbol that won’t be erased by anything given time.

I would know.

I grab her arm and pull her to me. She lets out a small yip of a scream as she tumbles to the ground and out of Jack’s hands. Now I’m the one in her face, and I’m not giving her any leeway. To be fair, Jack didn’t either, but with her holding the girl up, there was still space between them. I remove that space.

“Where were you the last two nights?”

“No-Nowhere.”

“That’s a lie. You wouldn’t have gotten that if you were tucked in your bed every night like the ‘good’ girl I’m sure your uncle wants you to be.”

She starts crying, and it only makes me angrier. Crying girls are like a brick wall thrown at me. Don’t get me wrong, I can still get the information out of her, but it’s just annoying as hell, and when a chick cries, it usually takes twice as long to get answers. They get all hiccup-y and wail, and even if they do talk, you can’t understand them as they sob.

“Rue,” I snap at the newest member on my team, and as I expected, she doesn’t disappoint.

“Last night, she was with General, and they stayed in. The other night, she was out and didn’t come back till the morning.”

Emily stops crying, but we’re back to the pale face and wide eyes. Girl can’t be but seventeen, eighteen tops. Her facial expressions are simple to read. She must have had a very cushy life before coming here. She never learned to hide her thoughts and feelings, or at the very least pretend behind others.

“You followed me?” Her voice is soft, unsure whether she should be offended or afraid.

“No,” Jack supplies for Rue.

No one else says anything while I think. I might not be the smartest person—pretty sure one of the Hounds’ old ladies has the title—but I’m the brains for our little group. I don’t need to think to know what happened. I just need to know how to get to Emily. What tactic will work best for her to spill without wasting our time? We’re already pushing our luck that none of the Hounds have found us like this yet.

I turn back to her and loosen my grip on her arm. I don’t release her, because I’ve got no doubt she’ll run the second she has the chance. “You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. But I can guess why you’re here. Mommy and Daddy were tired of chasing you back home in whatever small town you came from. I bet there you were something, weren’t you? Or should I say a few people’s something?”

She starts crying again, but this time it’s softer, like I’ve broken her, rather than wails in despair. I can work with this.

“You were on top of the world till your parents shut it down and kicked you out. You had two options, I bet. Go your own way or come here, where your uncle might knock some sense into you. And while your parents saw this place as a type of sanctuary to get you to follow orders, you saw it as your new stomping ground. Somewhere to do whatever the fuck you wanted. Or so you thought.”

I give her a once-over, and she turns her head in shame as her tears continue to flow. “They didn’t go for it, right? The offers never came, and when you gave them an offer, they turned you down flat.”

I lean in close, talking to the side of her head, making sure she hears everything I have to say. “And why would they want a girl when women, far more experienced and less needy, are walking around offering shit up for free with no strings? Did you even think that perhaps because this is a biker club, they might actually have standards? That young wannabes aren’t their type?”

I pull back and tilt my head. “Yeah.” I nod. “You knew. You figured it out quickly. But you still went after the attention you thought you were owed. You just went someplace else to get it.”

She looks back at me. The tear tracks are clear on her cheeks, but at least her eyes aren’t leaking anymore. “None of this would have happened if they didn’t push me away. They—”

I slam my hand against the side of the building so hard that I know I broke a bit of skin on my palm from the brick I tried to push through to the other side. “Don’t you dear blame them for what you did.” I would have roared it if I could, but I keep my voice low.

She flinches at both my actions and words. I was quick in reaction, enough to make her pee herself if she was the type. But I’ve got a feeling that this one is stronger than even she knows.

“Unlike them, I know what happened to you.”

Her eyes jerk to mine. She might have held my gaze a few times, but her eyes primarily focus on what’s behind me. Hoping help is coming, or maybe thinking if she looks away from the problem, it won’t be there anymore.

“You do?” Her voice is almost hopeful. Pity clouds my mind for a second, as I know what she’s going through. The feeling of not knowing but knowing all at once.

I nod. “Tell me where you were.”

I watch her face shut down. She thinks I don’t know, that I was lying, and the hope she had about finding out the truth dies quickly. She shakes her head. “Nowhere.”

Great. Back to this again. I never understood why people revert to saying they know nothing when we all know it’s bullshit. Even when they know we know.

I pull out my gun, and she presses her back closer to the wall. I don’t cock it or even aim it at her. Just drag it over her skin, eventually pushing her head to the side to speak into her ear again.

“Lie to me again, sweetie, and I’ll make sure I finish what he started.” Her tears start up again, but this time I don’t care. “I’m not making shit up. Got no reason to lie to you. I know what he does. He does it to all of his….” I struggle with the next word and see Jack take a step in my direction. Not sure if it’s in support or just to take over if I crumble.

“Conquests. He finds you in a bar. You don’t even see him. You’re talking to others, and then you get up. Maybe it’s to leave, maybe to go to the bathroom. But one second you’re walking away from the person you were talking to, and the next you find yourself outside. Hours, maybe even a day later. You can’t remember what happened at first, but then it comes back. Bits and pieces. Not enough to fully remember but enough to be afraid. You remember seeing a face above you. Your clothes are on, but it’s as if someone else put them on you. Everything is just a bit off, and you wonder.”

I move the gun to the side, though I doubt she notices. Her full attention is on my voice, even if her head is to the side. She’s a silent ball of waiting. Wanting to know the truth even if it tears her apart on the inside.

“Did he rape me? Did he take something else from me?” I whisper it in her ear, so close as to have my lips brush around the shell.

I lean back half a step, and she turns to look at me. “Did he?”

“What the fuck is going on?”

I don’t turn away from Emily at Casper’s voice. He must have rounded the corner fast enough for neither Rue nor Jack to see him coming. Or they were both too invested in my story to watch my back. Either way, we’ll be doing some extra practices after this, plus a bit of punishment. I don’t like it when someone gets the upper hand on my team and I’m not aware of it first.

“Drop the fucking gun before I drop you.” His voice changes from surprised to deadly, and a part of me shivers at the octave level. I always knew Casper could be a cold-blooded killer. Just never expected for me to be turned on by it.

Liar. Okay, I knew, but this is the first time I’ve seen it since he brought Domino in and demanded I fix him up. It was hot then, still hot today.

“Think again.” Jack pulls a gun of her own and aims it at Casper’s head.

Life might be spinning behind me, but I still don’t look away from Emily. I’m cruel enough to let her mind wander with the possibilities of what happened. I’m not a nice person. Used to be, but life happened. I learned early on that being cruel gets you things. Nice only gets you a smack in the face.

But I don’t have time for this. So I give her what she wants to know. Say the one word she’s craving.

“No.”

Her body deflates, and I hear Casper yell to back up, but I don’t take orders from him. If he shoots me, I know my team will take out the threat. I might enjoy parts of the guy. He’s nice to look at, easy to talk to. And yeah, he might be the main man in my thoughts when I’m having some personal alone time with my vibrator, but that’s about it.

Liar.

If I could banish that 1 percent of my mind that thinks it knows me and calls bullshit when the rest of me disagrees, I would.

“Bob’s. I was at Bob’s Place,” Emily says before she crumples in on herself.

I look to Rue to see if she got the name, too, and watch her pull her phone out and start looking it up. Good, she’s proving to be more useful every day.

Turning, I come face-to-face with a gun. Sort of forgot Casper pulled one on me.

Why is that so hot?