Page 276 of Conquered

The next several moments blur into a violent dance, both of us exchanging blows, landing an almost equal number of hits. Blood paints our skin, streaking it with red until we look like demons that have stepped out of hell, covered in our sins. Panting hard, Ash has put up more of a fight than I expected, I’m a little tired from my previous three fights and pause for a millisecond to take a breather. But, unfortunately for him, it looks like I’m still stronger than he is as in the next second I land a solid punch to the side of his temple and he goes down like a sack of shit.

“The Black Knight wins again!” the ref calls, but I sidestep him, going to my fallen leader, kneeling down in the dirt, and giving him a shake. He groans as his long, black eyelashes flutter—no wonder Baby Girl fell for him so hard, fucking pretty boy indeed—and he rolls onto his back.

“Fuck you, Jax,” he rasps, coughing and spitting blood next to my knee.

“Yeah, fuck you too, Ash,” I reply, grabbing his hand and hauling him to his feet.

“Urgh, careful, you fucking neanderthal,” he complains as I settle his arm across my shoulders, wrapping my own around his torso a little more tightly than necessary, eliciting a hiss of pain from his swollen lips. “You were the one that beat the shit out of me, what do you have to be salty about?” I look down into his grey eyes, one almost swollen shut, and just give him a look. “You're still sore about me marrying Lilly, aren’t you?” he questions, a stupid fucking smile on his face. “I just did what I had to do.”

Another sharp grunt of pain leaves his throat as I poke what I suspect is a very bruised rib.

“Sure you did,” I reply, huffing as his smile remains fixed. People give us a wide berth as we exit, probably on account of the grinning idiot next to me who can barely walk but seems ecstatic about it. Luckily we rode together, as I doubt he’d be able to drive himself, stupid fuck.

Goosebumps pebble my skin as the high of my fights leaves my system, and Ash sighs next to me when we get to my truck. I open the door for him, and before he gets in, he turns to me, his bruised face weary.

“There’s been a development,” he tells me, eyes shrewd once more. My heart gives a painful thud in my chest

“What kind of development?” I question, knowing that it relates back to Baby Girl.

“I’ll tell you when we get back to the dorm,” he replies, and the metal of the car creaks when my fingers tighten on the edge of the door.

“I should have fucking hit you harder,” I grumble, stepping away and making my way around the front to the driver’s side.

“Yeah, you should have,” I hear him mumble, before he steps in and closes the door behind him.

Hand clenching the door handle hard enough that my bloody knuckles turn white, I look to the star-freckled sky and send up a prayer to whatever motherfucker might be out there.

Keep her safe for me.

KAI

I flinch as Jax throws the coffee table across the room, the tinkle of shattering glass at odds with the violence swirling in the room. Loki isn’t faring much better, his fists clenched, breathing hardas he tries to remain in control of himself and his wrath. But I see it, clear as day, swirling in the depths of his emerald eyes. A fire that rages and burns, threatening to consume us all.

I can feel my own pulse spiking, Ash’s revelation about his phone call with Lilly in the early hours calling to my own inner demon. Her situation is so similar to my own, her uncle is as much of a pervert as mine. More so if he is actually her father. Sick fuck. The blackness of my own rage threatens to consume me, eating at the corners of my vision, but I keep my head. Pushing it back until it simmers in the corner, waiting for its target; Adrian Ramsey.

“We have to get her now, Ash,” Loki bites out through clenched teeth. “We can’t leave her there, you must know that?” My heart thuds at his pleading tone, my spirit breaking that much more at the knowledge of what she’s up against.

“We don’t have any other fucking choice!” Ash shouts, throwing his hands out wide, an ice pack clutched in one. I wince at the bruises already marking his face, the purples and blues of them already visible. “If Julian even catches the slightest whiff of what we’re planning…”

He doesn’t need to finish his sentence, we all know what Julian Vanderbilt is capable of. The depths he will go to in order to gain more control over the company. Although…

“Are we sure that he’d order her death?” I question, Ash’s head snapping to look at me. “I mean, he knows that we care for her and that if any lasting harm came to her, we’d rebel big time.”

“But as far as he’s aware, we believe that she’s missing,” Ash answers, rubbing his face then hissing when he hits a sore spot. “She could stay missing, he could move her or just cut his losses. Unless we confront him about it, which just feels too risky with her still there, I can’t see any other way forward but to wait until it’s too late for him to do anything about it.”

I nod, hating his words but knowing them to be the truth. We can’t give Julian any reason to hurt her, to kill her. And I’ve no doubt that he would if he felt so inclined. He may find her…appealing, but if she were to die, all her assets go to Ash and thus stay under Julian’s control. For now anyway.

“So we just fucking wait?” Jax snarls, and at least he’s calmed down enough to speak. “And leave her with that pervert?”

“I know, I fucking hate it as much as you do,” Ash confesses, voice fractured and pain-filled. “But I’d rather that than not have her at all. We can help her get over this. We can’t bring her back from the dead.”

We all flinch at his last words, feeling them to the pit of our very tortured souls.

“Fuck!” Loki exhales, though with a sad resignation and not the anger of a few moments before. “How will she ever forgive us for this? We’re leaving her in the hands of a monster.”

“She’ll have the Shadow twins,” Ash assures us, as much as himself I think. “One of them will be with her twenty-four seven. Plus she’s got Mai now, to make sure she’s no longer drugged.”

I clear my throat. “I’ve been able to hack into his security system,” I tell them, narrowed eyes swinging my way. “We can watch her using the CCTV cameras and see for ourselves that she’s okay.” It’s the only reason that I’m able to keep my beast in check right now.