Page 38

38

Reagan

The fact that the screaming has silenced isn’t comforting. If anything, the quiet hurts more because they never brought the blonde woman back downstairs, and any reason for that can’t be good.

A whole day has passed, and night fell hours ago, deepening the darkness in the basement. The small amount of natural light that shone through a barred window on one side is gone, and the dim bulb that hangs overhead does next to nothing.

“You’re calm,” Aimee says, closing her eyes and resting her head back against the iron bars.

“So are you,” I point out.

She hums, tipping her head to look at me. “There’s no point being anything else.”

The door creaks at the top of the stairs, and we both jump to our feet. Mine almost move out from under me as blood rushes to my head. I’m hungry and dehydrated, and the nausea hasn’t subsided.

Aimee and I both stand with our backs as far from the stairs as we can be as the man walks down them. In the cages around the room, the girls do the same, scooting back with their eyes widening.

He pauses at the bottom step, and I recognize him as the man who tried to grab me earlier—the one Aimee stopped.

An unholy grin stretches his cheeks when his gaze lands on me.

The hair on my arms stands on its ends. Every cell in my body is on alert.

His very presence with this club tells me he’s dangerous, but the sick gleam in his gaze terrifies me even more. This time, when he steps closer, I pay attention to every detail.

The scar on his chin. The malice in his eyes.

The name on his cut.

Reyes .

His dark hair is slicked back, and his almost-black eyes have deadly focus.

When he reaches my cell, I retreat as far as I can, which only seems to amuse him more.

From the corner of my eye, I feel the other girls in the room watching me.

“I should have brought my camera so I could send Legacy a little video of his woman locked up and scared. Maybe then he’ll regret draining our bank account. Or maybe it would be better for me to record you screaming and helpless. Do you think he’d like that, Reagan?”

“He’ll kill you.” And right now, I hope he does.

“He can try. But it hasn’t worked yet.” Reyes’s lips tilt in a wicked grin. “The Twisted Kings are too soft to win this war. They couldn’t see me when I was in their ranks feeding the Iron Sinners intel, and they couldn’t see Legacy’s former whore doing it now. You’d think they’d learn, but they never do.”

“You were a Twisted King?”

He scoffs. “They thought so.”

I pause, remembering Tempe’s story about how she met Steel. She mentioned a prospect who turned on them, and thinking back, his name was Reyes.

“My uncle might be too weak to give the Twisted Kings the payback they deserve for what they’ve taken, but I’m not. After all, Titan took it out on me when that money went missing in the first place. Like I didn’t do my job when I was the one who planted that flash drive. I gave him everything. I handed him Tempe. It’s not my fault no one else around here can do anything right.”

He's rambling, and I have no idea what he’s talking about. But clearly, Reyes is out for revenge. And I’m a means for him to get it right now, which is unnerving.

Reyes reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key, unlocking my cell. If I thought being behind the bars was bad, his getting through them is so much worse. When the lock frees, he starts to pull it open, but I grab the door and quickly try to pull it shut .

“You want to make this interesting?” He grins, yanking hard so I lose my leverage and fall out of my cell.

My knees skid against the ground, ripping the skin open, and it reminds me of the woman who was taken out of here earlier.

The screaming that followed.

Scrambling, I flip over and try to scoot back before he can grab me. But he’s too quick, snagging an ankle.

“Get back here, bitch.”

My leg hurts from how hard he pulls it.

“Let her go,” Aimee yells.

Behind Reyes, I see hands reach out from between the bars. She digs her fingers into his hair and pulls him back against the cell so hard his skull slams against it.

“Fucking whore.” He grabs her wrist and twists it until she cries out. “You’re lucky I can’t touch you until your daddy is done doing Titan’s bidding, you stupid fucking bitch.”

He reaches through the bars and slams the butt of his gun against Aimee’s forehead.

Blood spills down her eyebrow as she stumbles back. But like she’s fueled by the attack, she doesn’t go down. She recovers quickly, grabbing the gun and trying to wiggle it from his grip.

I use his distraction against him, kicking him in the back of the leg and throwing him off balance.

Reyes drops the gun, and I scramble for it as fast as I can as he reaches for a second one that’s strapped to his leg. I manage to reach the gun that fell, but we aim at the same time .

Two shots ring out.

I wait for the pain.

I wait for this nightmare to end, and I hope Jesse doesn’t see me like this.

That Bea can have the life she deserves.

I wait for it all to be over, but I don’t feel the impact of it. Instead, blood blooms on Reyes’s shoulder where I must have hit him. And then I see him dropping the gun, clutching his hand, and buckling over because he’s been shot there as well.

He was shot twice, but I only pulled the trigger once.

I look over my shoulder at the small window on the far end, and I feel Jesse out there somewhere, looking over me.

Protecting me.

Commotion starts upstairs, and gunshots start to ring out like a chorus. There’s no making out one voice from another, and I don’t have time to try as I drop the gun and scramble for the keys.

Reyes drops to his knees, gripping his wrist and cursing. He’s in too much pain to stop me as I hurry to Aimee’s cell first and unlock it.

With her free, I move to the next. And then the next. Some of the girls step out but others stay frozen.

“Down here,” someone yells, and my back stiffens, thinking it could be any number of this club’s enemies.

But when the first set of boots hits the stairs and I eye the familiar skull logo with a crown on its head and wings at its back, I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Reagan?” Jesse rushes down the staircase .

Blood soaks the front of his shirt, and he’s a mess, but I run to him, not caring as I collapse into his arms.

“Jesse.” A sob breaks free.

The river I’ve held back since the blonde was dragged up the stairs swells, and I can no longer contain it. I cry into his chest and let my emotions overwhelm me. But most of all, I sink into the relief of being in his arms.

Jesse sets me on my feet, but his hands don’t stop roaming. They graze my back, my shoulders, my hair. Like he’s checking me for damage.

“I’m okay,” I choke out, looking up at him. “Nothing happened. I’m okay.”

The relief I see in his blue eyes is something I’ll never forget.

Steel walks past us, stopping to stand over Reyes. The darkness in his usually hard glare deepens as recognition settles in.

“Get him to Patch,” Steel says, motioning for the Twisted Kings filling the room. “I want him alive enough to talk. He’s got shit to answer for.”

Something about Steel’s comment isn’t the least bit comforting, and from the look in Reyes’s eyes as he’s dragged away, I get the impression he’d rather they just kill him. Which explains why Jesse didn’t go for the headshot like I know he’s capable of.

He shot his hand on purpose.

Coughing comes from my right, and I look to see a girl crouching over, puking.

“Jesse, they need help.” I blink up at him. “The girls— ”

“We’ll get them out of here.” He holds my face in his hands. “Let me take care of you, and I promise my brothers will take care of them.”

I don’t let go of Jesse as he leads me up the stairs. I’m clinging to his side. Basking in his warmth. There are bodies and blood everywhere, so I keep my focus ahead of me. And while I should probably be affected by the stench of death, I don’t feel an ounce of kindness for these men after what they’ve done.

Jesse leads me outside and takes a blanket from one of the vans, wrapping it around me.

“I’m not cold.” I shiver with the words.

“You are. But the adrenaline is messing with you,” he says, tightening it around me.

Aimee steps out of the house next, but she keeps her distance. Her eyes scan the scene like she’s looking for someone but doesn’t find them. When she finally stops near me, Patch tries to hand her a blanket.

“I’m fine.” She crosses her arms over her chest, stepping back.

“It’s okay, Aimee. They’re here to help.”

She weighs my words, looking between Patch and me. Finally, after a long moment, she accepts the blanket.

“Thanks.”

Patch motions to the van. “We can take you somewhere safe. You’re free to leave whenever you want. But there’s a bed and a shower.”

She looks at me again, and I nod. While I’ve spent my fair share of time around people who are closed off and resistant, I get the sense Aimee’s distrust runs deeper .

At least she finally concedes, climbing into the van.

“Where are you taking them?” I ask Jesse.

“We have a safe house set up for this kind of thing. We’ll help them get back to wherever they came from or figure out what else we can do to help while they get back on their feet.”

I glance between the van and Jesse. “So, if you have a safe house already set up, you’ve run into this before?”

He nods, frowning. “It’s not only for this. Sometimes friendly clubs just need protection while they wait out a problem. But we ran into this particular thing with the Iron Sinners a few years ago. Seems they’re at it again.”

“That’s—” I swallow. There are no words. “Let me know if I can do anything to help with the girls. Some of them were there longer than me. They had it rough.”

Jesse doesn’t ask me to elaborate. He saw the conditions, and if this isn’t his first run-in with traffickers, he knows what I’m talking about.

“I will,” he promises. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine considering.” I wet my lips. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“You’re always taking care of everyone else. Let me worry about you for a change.” He brushes my cheek with his thumb. “Besides, it’s not just you I’m worried about.”

Jesse lowers his hand down my arm, my side, and finally plants his palm over my belly. I know logically it’s too early to feel the baby move, but it doesn’t stop the flutter that swims inside me anyway.

“You saw the test?”

“Right before I found out you were taken.” He frowns .

“That’s some announcement. Definitely not how I planned it.”

Jesse pulls me in for a hug, wrapping his hands around my back and looking down at me. So close I have to lean my head all the way back to face him.

“As long as the two of you are safe, I don’t care how I found out.”

“So you’re okay with me being pregnant then?”

“Okay with it? I’m fucking ecstatic.” A smile stretches his face.

I grip his cut, pulling him closer. “I just thought that maybe everything you said last night might have been because the test was negative. I know this is fast.”

“None of this is fast for me, sweetheart. I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for you—for the family we’re going to grow together. I want it all right now. I’m done waiting.” Jesse releases me, only to drop to a knee in front of me in the dirt.

It’s madness around us as the club circulates the house and the yard, but he doesn’t pay any of them attention, even as they pause to watch.

“I made you a promise when I made you my old lady. That with the club, you’ll always be protected. And I know this wasn’t a great start.”

“Don’t say that.” I shake my head. “You found me. You saved me.”

“I’ll always find you, Reagan.” He kisses the back of my hand. “I want it all with you. Your future. Your heart. I want any and all labels we can possibly put on each other to tell the world you’re mine. Will you marry me? ”

Tears slip down my cheeks, and my heart feels like it’s on the edge of bursting. “Yes, of course, Jesse.”

He stands up, swooping me off my feet and planting his lips on mine. My feet dangle above the ground, and my body clings to his.

When he finally sets me on my feet, I swear my heart is still floating above us. With the stars, full of hope, because this man has given me everything I didn’t know I could have.

“I love you, Jesse King.” I lift to kiss him again.

He smiles, murmuring against my mouth. “I love you too, sweetheart. ’Til my dying breath. And even then.”