He isn’t pacing. Not shouting. Not smashing bottles just to hear himself sound dangerous. He stands there, ice-blue eyes fixed on the video, face carved from something colder than anger.
Lady used to tease me about him. Pretend it was only sex. Pretend she liked him because he was pretty and mean and didn’t ask stupid questions.
But I saw her around him.
Lady Nyx, who could make a room bow with one hand on a DJ board, softened around that man when she thought no one was watching.
And now he is watching her bleed on a phone screen.
My gaze cuts to Cherry.
She is sitting in a chair near the pool table with Magic behind her and Six by the door like she might grow wings and fly. Her red hair is tangled, mascara streaked down her cheeks, Saints tank stretched tight over her chest like she thought wearing the name would protect her from what she did. Her hands shake in her lap.
I should feel bad.
I don’t.
Cherry lifts her face, eyes red. “I didn’t know they were going to take her.”
The room goes still.
Shady doesn’t look at her.
That is worse than if he did.
Magic’s mouth twists. “You keep saying that like we’ll believe it if you repeat it.”
Cherry swallows. “They said they just wanted a scare. They said if I got them into the garage, they would leave me alone.”
“Who is they?” Vice asks.
“I don’t know names.”
Six laughs once from the door.
Nobody else does.
Cherry flinches.
“You knew enough to text him,” I say.
Her eyes snap to mine.
“She texted Shady before they hit the garage,” I say, stepping away from Diablo. “That’s what Shady said.”
Cherry’s face crumples, but her voice sharpens under the tears. “They made me.”
The words land messy and small.
Shady’s grip tightens on the chair.
Cherry sees it and keeps digging because some people can’t stop even when the grave is their own.
“Lady came in all famous and shiny, and suddenly he forgot the women who were already here. The ones who licked his wounds before she decided bikers were cute.”
Lady’s blood on the screen pulses behind my eyes.
“You helped them take her because you were jealous?”
