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“Stop!” Lakeland snaps. They freeze and turn to me waiting for my orders. She moves toward the women. I hold my hand up, telling them to wait. She kneels in front of Laura and gently strokes her hair back from her face, her eyes are open and stare vacantly ahead. Lakeland removes her panties from her mouth and looks up to Patrick nodding for him to cover her. “I’m so sorry for what happened to you,” she whispers as she moves onto Sophie. Unlike Laura, her eyes are closed. Lake tugs her panties free and then jerks back when Sophie gasps. I dart forward and place two fingers against her neck and when I feel it, I turn to Thomas.
“Get her to a hospital now and don’t leave her fucking side for a single second. You piss in a cup if you have to.” He nods and scoops her up in his arms before dashing out of the house with Patrick hot on his heels.
“Knox.” I tug Lakeland to her feet and pull her behind me as I go in search of Xander. I find him in Tristan’s makeshift office at the back of the house. The sight before me turns my arms to lead and my blood to ice. Lakeland yanks free of my hold and darts in front of me before I can stop her from seeing the gruesome sight.
“Nooooooo!” she screams so fucking loud it jolts me out of my shock as she races around the desk and drops to her knees in front of her sister, who is strapped to a chair with a bloody note nailed in the center of her chest that reads, A sibling for a sibling, boy, you’re next. River’s face is bloody and bruised, her head hangs forward limply. Lake tries to free her sister from the binds as Xander stands there staring at River like he’s looking at a ghost. “Hang on, sister. I’ll get you out. Hold on, okay.” Lakeland sobs. “Someone fucking help me!” she screams.
I move forward and pull my knife free from its sheath at my side and slice through the ropes. River falls forward. Lakeland catches her and shifts as she slides along the ground so her sister is resting between her legs. She rests River’s head against her shoulder and brushes her hair back. Blood is dried to her face and it’s clear those cunts tied her down and beat the shit out of her before delivering the final blow, this was a message that Percy and Gio are willing to do whatever it takes to take me down.
The note that is nailed to her chest is from Gio. He’s coming after me for taking the top spot from him and for killing his useless sack of shit of a brother.
“It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay,” Lake chokes out as she continues to stroke her sisters hair. “I choose you Riverland, I fucking choose you. Do you hear me?” Recoiling at her words, I stare down at her. River said she couldn’t remember anything but she remembers my words! “You can’t leave me, you can’t fucking leave me because I need you.” Sobs claw their way out of her. She hiccups and clutches her sister tighter, placing kisses on the side of her head.
“River,” Taylan whispers brokenly as he enters the room staring down at the Deveraux sisters. He drops to his knees beside them and reaches out to touch River but Lake bats his hand away, glaring at him.
“Don’t fucking touch her. Call an ambulance now!” Tay’s features contort in pain but it’s not his, he’s feeling what she’s going through. He isn’t the only one. The sight of her holding her sister’s body brings up feelings and memories I thought I had buried. A quick glance at Xander tells me he isn’t seeing River either. We’re both seeing a scene from six years ago that paved the way for us.
“It’ll be quicker if I drive you.” Lake frowns for a second and gnaws on her lip debating if she should trust Tay.
“I don’t think–.” Taylan pins me with a look over his shoulder that has me closing my mouth.
“You of all people should know she needs this. You can worry about being an asshole and breaking her after this but right now, we need to help her so she can get through this.” His words hit their mark. Sighing, I nod my head. Before Tay or I can grab Riverland, Xander pushes us both away as he crouches in front of the girls and grips Lake’s face between his hands, forcing her to meet his stare.
“You’re going to let her go so I can carry her out of here.” Her tears fall rapidly as she shakes her head.
“No, she’s strong she can?—”
He cuts her off. “Every man here either knows her or has heard stories about your sister. None of them will view her as weak, you have my word.” My brows raise. Xander never gives his word to anyone. “I don’t know if what she told us about you is true but if it is, then listen carefully, Lakeland.” Her brows draw in as she gulps loudly. “Your sister was one of our best friends. We love her like you do now, so give her to me so we can take her to the hospital where you will hear from the doctors what you already know to be true.”
“She’s not dead,” she says with such conviction that I almost believe her. Xander just nods but says nothing as he gently scoops River into his arms, her body limp, her arm flopping to the side. I reach out and gently place it on her stomach, then run my hand over her head.
“Go get em, killer,” I whisper. That was something River used to say to me all the time when we were kids. I never understood what it meant but it just kind of became our thing. Tay wraps an arm around Lake’s shoulders as the three of us follow behind Xander. When the guys see who he is carrying, those who knew River from our earlier days in school bow their heads and those who didn’t get the chance to know the spitfire that is Riverland Deveraux, still bow their heads in respect for the woman who they can clearly see means a shitload to me and the guys.
She meant a lot to all of us.
Watching Xander climb into the backseat with her body in his arms has pain flaring to life inside my chest. The sound of Lake’s sobs draws my attention to her. I motion for Taylan to get in the car, at the look on my face he doesn’t argue and does as he’s told. I grip her shoulders and force her to face me.
“Look at me,” I say in a firm tone. She whimpers and slowly lifts her tear-filled gaze back to me. The pain I see in her eyes mimics the pain I feel daily. “I know what it’s like to lose a sister. The pain you feel inside, latch onto it.”
“Why?”
“Because that pain is going to be the only thing that gets you through this.” She shakes her head trying to deny me but I push on. “You are going to learn some harsh fucking truths. Learn to channel that pain into anger because your whole world is about to come crumbling down leaving you no choice but to live in my world.”
Lakeland
Numb…
I have no other word to describe how I feel.
Lost. My soul is shattered.
Maybe that is another way to describe the situation. Since arriving at the hospital hours ago that’s all I have felt. Before the doctors could wheel my sister away, Knox snatched the note off her chest. I had forgotten all about that and I don’t even have it in me to ask what it says, nothing on that paper can or will change what happened. The doctors were gone for mere minutes before one of them came back out to us in the waiting room. The moment he removed his surgical cap, I stood up and walked away. There is only one reason why they remove those caps and I refused to hear the words come out of his mouth.
Everything else passed by in a blur after that, one minute I was in the waiting room then the next I had the doctor's poking and prodding me, a CT scan done and questions hurled at me. I answer each of them on autopilot not really hearing what they say and honestly I don’t care to know, I want to remain in this state of nothingness. Nothing hurts here, I don’t feel anything. The only thing I do register through this whole fucking ordeal is that Knox has been with me every second. Taylan and Xander are nowhere to be found and I can’t even remember when they disappeared.
I watch as the doctor enters the room and looks to me sadly before turning back to Knox, who is sitting across the room with his gaze fixed on me. I watch his features change from confusion, sadness, anger and finally murderous as the doctor tells him something.
“What the fuck do you mean there is no record of her?” he snaps. The doctor looks shaken and swallows clearly nervous.
