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I should have been faster.
Eyes closed, I lingered there for another beat and then made myself go. I made myself leave the operating room. The nurses moved to take care of things as I continued sightlessly down the hall. It wasn’t until I cleared security that I saw them.
My Vandals.
They stood there, a disheveled wreck of bruises, and stinking of smoke. Even my little bit was there, the bruises in her eyes the first thing to punch through the numbness.
I didn’t have to say a word. Milo turned and slammed his fist into the wall, and then Little Bit was there, and I picked her up as she wrapped her arms around me. I had no business even touching her. Only I didn’t care about those arguments anymore.
Steph was gone. I’d lost her when I wasn’t looking.
Over my dead body was I losing Little Bit.
CHAPTER5
LIAM
The calls to Mom’s phone just rang repeatedly before going to voicemail. Dad’s didn’t even ring, it just clicked over to voicemail. A call to security didn’t get me any closer to answers. The flashing lights, smoke, and chaos sucked me in as I pulled onto the street a block away from the tattoo shop.
They were diverting traffic, so I called Rome.
“I’m here,” I said as soon as he picked up. “One block south. Need me to fight up there, or can you guys get to me?”
“Coming.”
The call disconnected, but those two syllables settled some of the acid boiling in my stomach. Then the text came through to help assuage the rest of it.
Jasper:
Have them. Going to the clubhouse now. She’s bruised but okay.
Bruised.
The singular syllable lit a match to my temper. I wasn’t the one who typically burned hot. Jasper was the rash, impatient one. I was the cold, calculating one.
Jasper:
Status?
I narrowed my eyes as soon as I saw Vaughn and Rome heading toward me. My mirror looked like hell, and Vaughn actually looked worse.
I was beginning to see the value in just letting my temper boil over.
Me:
Got ‘em. Taking them to the hospital.
Normally, I’d take them to Doc, except you didn’t fuck with fires. He read the message but didn’t respond. He didn’t need to any more than I would. The door to the back opened and Vaughn sagged inside, coughing. The reek of smoke was so pungent it made my eyes water.
“You look like shit,” I said, and Rome just stared at me. “Yeah, I look like shit too. You’re going to the hospital.”
Slipping back into traffic, I followed the detour around what was left of the tattoo shop. There were ambulances leaving the scene. They should be on one of those. The fact that neither argued had me cutting around traffic and accelerating.
The ER was chaos, a jam-packed waiting room, and I glared at it. We could go to a different hospital. I had the—
“We’re good,” Rome said as he climbed out, then peered back to Vaughn who was coughing. “Where do you need to be?”
Right here, only…
