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“We’ll bring him home so everyone can say their goodbyes,” Optimus said, drawing my attention.
I nodded before making my way around the vehicle and leaving my brothers and Judge and his boys to clean up the mess that had been created.
Hadley was my priority, and I knew every man there understood.
Walking into the clubhouse, the women’s eyes all widened.
I hadn’t been able to clean all the blood of Hadley, and while she was finally walking on her own, she was in a daze, tears flowing freely every few minutes.
Chelsea raised a hand to her mouth, moving forward but I held up my hand. “Can you call the doc? She needs checking over.”
“Leo…” Chelsea whispered, the question in her voice screaming loudly within the room as they all held their breath.
They wanted to know whose blood it was.
“Slider,” I answered, my voice cracking. I shook my head, hating that it had even been a question.
“No,” Chelsea said, stumbling back against the bar.
Rose caught her in her arms, Skylar moving a bar stool underneath her and patting her arm softly. They all cried for their lost friend, their arms wrapped around each other in comfort. I started to move Hadley up the staircase before Rose called out to me. I turned as Hadley continued up, forcing one foot in front of each other.
“Is she going to be okay?” Rose asked, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to wake myself up to the reality that I’d just lost a brother and one of my best friends, a man I’d known for years and years. We’d been through so much shit and always pulled out the other side. But this time we weren’t so lucky, and now, he was just gone.
“I hope so,” I told her, hanging my head. “The boys won’t be long, and they’re gonna need you girls when they get back.”
“Of course,” she said quietly.
I jogged up the staircase after Hadley, finding her stripping off her clothes in my bathroom. The shower was already running, the room slowing filling with steam. I put my hand in to check the temperature, the water scorching my skin.
“Fuck,” I cursed, playing with the temperature gauge.
“Leave it,” Hadley snapped, grabbing my arm to pull me away.
“Baby, that’ll burn your skin. It’s too hot.”
She shook her head furiously. “I need it hot, I need to wash this off me,” she said, running her hands over a light stain of red that still remained on some parts of her arms, her face and in her hair.
I pulled my shirt over my head before dropping my jeans to the floor. “Come on,” I said, holding out my hand to her as I stepped into the cubicle. She placed her shaking hand inside mine and followed me in.
The space was small and cramped, but I didn’t care. I needed her close, I needed to feel her hot skin and her pulse against me, a reminder that she’d made it back alive. Not completely unscathed, but alive.
She winced as the hot water hit the abrasions on her wrists. The handcuffs had cut through her skin, leaving it raw. I rubbed soap all over her body, careful not to get it into her wounds. They would need to be looked at and covered with antiseptic.
“Leo?” she asked softly as I turned her body and moved my hands over her back.
“Yeah, baby.”
“What happened?”
I sighed. She wanted to know what had gone down with regards to the FBI raiding the clubhouse.
“Judge finally found the evidence that he needed to bring Simon down. Simon had been stashing funds in an off shore account. He was making a cut of everything the Shadow Syndicate made and not telling either party,” I explained. “When Angelo made contact with one of the men, he learned about the merger with the Syndicate and the Lenthums. The FBI wanted to take down both of them as Isiah Lenthum is high on their list of men that keep evading prosecution, and this was finally their chance to get him on something.”
I moved her body underneath the spray of the water, washing away the soap from her body. It coated the bottom of the shower in a strange shade of orange. I shuddered as I watched the remnants of Slider’s life swirl down the drain.
“None of the agents that showed up knew what was going on except for Melanie, the lead detective,” I continued, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “The second that you were gone she stopped everything. There was a tracker on the car you were in, we were meant to follow you and put a stop to everything before it got out of hand.” My hands stopped moving, and I hung my head, knowing that things had not gone according to plan and because of that, I’d almost lost her.
