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My heart dropped to my feet as soon as I rounded the counter.
She was naked, her clothes ripped to shreds and lying all over the floor. Blood trailed from her head and down her neck before dripping to the floor. She was face down, her head turned to the side, her nose looking broken and bleeding.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I rasped, quickly putting my gun away and kneeling next to her. “Sophia?” I gently turned her over and supported her to sit her up, but her head just flopped back. She didn’t make a single sound. The only sign of her being alive was the warmth of her skin and the slow rise and fall of her chest.
“We’ve got a fucking problem,” Tango announced, walking into the store. I glanced up at him for a moment to see that he was holding a slip of paper in his hand. I looked back down at Sophia, letting Scorpion handle it.
Scorpion snatched it from him, his jaw clenching as he read it. “Fuck,” he snarled. “Goddamn Johnston.” He looked at me. “Note says to tell Johnston to back the fuck down or they’ll continue targeting our shit.”
I clenched my jaw, anger pulsing through me, but I swallowed it down. I wanted nothing more than to put a bullet through Johnston’s skull, but that wouldn’t solve a goddamn thing, even if Sophia had been targeted because of him.
“This happened because of us,” I snarled. I wouldn’t be the one to say what everyone else was thinking. But what I said wasn’t wrong. If someone was targeting Johnston, they were targeting all of us.
Scorpion nodded once.
“Safe is broken into and empty,” Reese announced. He tossed me a blanket. “Cover her up. Let’s get her to the clubhouse.”
“I’ll make a call to Grim—see if we can’t get Doc to travel down and take a look at her,” he told me. Grim was Scorpion’s old president from when he was a member of the Savage Crows MC’s Texas charter. Grim was a force to be reckoned with and damn near as dangerous as Johnston. “Taking her to the hospital will involve the cops.”
I wanted to rage, to say fuck the goddamn cops and protecting this club, but that went against my oath, against the very grain of my being. So, instead, I nodded my head and worked on wrapping her up before lifting her against my chest.
“They’re going to fucking pay for this,” I quietly told Scorpion as we walked out of the backdoor of the bookstore. Sophia didn’t make a single sound as I gently shifted her to place her into the back of the van.
Scorpion grunted. “We’ll fucking make sure of it,” he promised.
5
Chase
Sophia was just coming awake when we neared the clubhouse. Instantly, she moaned in pain, tears sliding down her pale cheeks. I cuddled her closer to me, wishing I could take away what happened to her. But I couldn’t.
Not being able to only left me wanting to slaughter whoever the fuck did this to her. I wanted to violate them like they’d violated her. I wanted to rip away whatever shred of innocence they had left in their bodies so their souls could fucking rot like the scum they truly were.
Had they targeted Sophia because I was always in her shop? Or was it because she was tied to us through our security company?
“It hurts,” she whimpered, her fingers curling into my cut. They trembled, and I could tell her grip was weak.
I buried my face in her dark hair, curling my body around hers as if I could shield her from the horrors of her mind and the pain in her body. “I know, cupcake. I fucking know. I’m so goddamn sorry I wasn’t there in time,” I rasped. “I’m so fucking sorry we pulled the protection on your shop.”
That regret and that guilt would sit with me for the rest of my life. I could’ve tried harder to get Scorpion to keep protection on her shop. And even if he hadn’t caved, I could’ve spent the night outside her store. Because as soon as we took that extra protection away, she was targeted again. And that time, they got what they wanted.
Sophia hiccupped, sobs wracking her chest as she trembled in my arms. It made me want to bash Scorpion’s face in for pulling the protection because as soon as we had, she’d been attacked. Raped. Beaten.
I had made sure she was safe, and Scorpion thought it wasn’t fucking needed anymore. Goddammit.
“Brother, we’re here,” Tango, who was driving the van, called. I looked up, and sure enough, we were passing through the gates of the clubhouse. I noticed Gidget standing at the gate, ready to shove it back closed as soon as we rode through. We weren’t dumb. We knew a locked gate wouldn’t keep out someone who wanted to get in, but it would slow them down.
And that was all we needed to retaliate.
We were going under a small lockdown. When Scorpion had told me, I’d almost scoffed.NowScorpion wanted to fucking do something to protect her after she was already goddamn attacked? It was a little too damn late for that.
Mark slid open the van door, and I eased out of the backseat. Sophia protested at the movement, her face screwing up with pain. “I’m sorry, cupcake,” I whispered, agony slicing through my chest like someone had just stabbed me. “Just a little longer, okay? You can have a shower. We have a doctor coming to see you. Everything’s going to be alright.”
I strode into the clubhouse as she softly cried, nodding her head, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Scorpion stepped into my path, and I glared at him, clenching my jaw, my hold on Sophia tightening.
“We need to call church,” he told me.
I shook my head, anger flaring. “Church can fucking wait,” I growled. The muscle in his jaw ticked with annoyance at my defiance, but I didn’t give a fuck. “She needs me right now. Fuck off, Scorpion.”
