Page 65 of Cries of Cassie

Never have I rolled the throttle and dropped the clutch as fucking fast as I do now, screeching to a stop at the front door of the clubhouse. I've also never dropped my bike to the ground, skipping the kickstand in favor of scratching the silver paint.

Nothing matters more than Cassidy Sterling. My sunshine. Our Starlight.

I sprint past the cloud of dust the four of us kicked up in our haste and follow Ripley through the busted wooden door into the building where our girl is being tortured.

Women cower in the corners, glasses shatter against the walls, bullets fly and agents with cuffs tackle the monsters who walk above Cassidy. I have no choice but to trust Ripley's path through the chaos, even after a bullet grazes my thigh with a lick of lava heat.

"THERE!" Ripley shouts moments before ramming his shoulder into a door and practically falling down the steep, dark staircase.

"Careful," I hiss, grabbing the collar of his cut. He doesn't bother to reply as the four of us rush down the stairs.

Before I can do anything to stop the trajectory of this moment, a large body slams into Ripley, sending him crashing through another door. I don't have a spare second to help as the attacker rounds on me with far too many teeth bared to be normal.

Victor.

Every shitty, abusive, downright evil thing he's done flashes through my mind.

"Parker!" Koa screams, lunging for me at the same time Victor does. He doesn't need to worry, though. Not now that every ounce of vengeance clouds my vision in a haze of red.

Using the momentum of Victor's pursuit, I twist around his reach and wrap my fingers around the back of his neck. With the cement wall as his destination now and my muscles forcing the outcome, Victor's face explodes in a spray of blood.

Fingers on his pulse points, I yank him back and ram his face into the wall over and over again. Not once. Not twice. But three times.

Three cathartic, disgusting, garbled times.

Each squelch of his brain matter clears the red haze from my vision, allowing me to see this for what it really is. I didn't sacrifice my morals or my soul to save Cassidy. I wielded them and eliminated a threat to innocent lives.

With that thought, I retract my hold on the disgusting mess of a corpse and watch as his lifeless body thumps to the puddle of blood at my feet. Unrecognizable.

Vicious I may be, but always for Cassidy and always for good. Definitely a gray area. Hmm, like some of the chunks of Victor's brain.

"CASSIDY!"

Just like that, the life I took ceases to exist because when I turn around, what I find blinds me.

I force myself to ask the question I've dreaded since the day I laid eyes on her. "Is she dead?"

Chapter Forty-One

Maddox (Shade)

Idon't...I don't know where to look first.

Koa just collapsed into a puddle of Cassie's blood and piss. Ripley's crawling toward her with a knife sticking out of his side. Parker's standing in a pool of my cousin's blood, some of his own oozing down his leg. At his feet lies Victor's body and mangled flesh where his face used to be.

"Is she dead?"

Parker's question snaps me out of my bone-deep shock. Rip's still moving; Cassidy isn't. She's my destination. My critical destination.

Cassie is kneeling. Arms above her head, one shoulder with a protruding bone, too many wounds to count, limp neck, a swollen eye and mouth, and bruises blemishing every inch of skin I can see. I've never been so horrified by anything in my life. The woman I've loved for almost a decade literally dangles from the ceiling by chains while her essence seeps out of her.

"Parker, help Rip! Call the medics," I order and rush to Koa.

I don't have the liberty to cringe or acknowledge the splash of my boots in her fluids. Nor can I wave my hands around her like Koa, too afraid to hurt her further. Time to step up. Be the boss. Be their fucking man.

There's no other choice. I need to help her. This is my doing. My fault. I wasn't there to protect her.

All I can think as I crouch and slip two fingers between her curtain of red hair is how, if I had done my job as her man, I wouldn't be feeling for her pulse right now. I sure as hell wouldn't be begging the universe to give me a sign that my soulmate isn't dead.