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He stepped closer to me. “Brother—”
“Prez,” Halo called, coming up to grip Scorpion’s shoulder, “I know you’re on edge, but Chase and Sophia need some time. Give them that. He’s right; church can wait.”
Scorpion narrowed his eyes at me. “We’ll be fucking talking about this later,” he warned me.
Oh, we certainly fucking would, and he had better hope I was calm enough by then to handle the matter civilly.
I snorted, and without another word, I marched up the stairs to my apartment. The rest of the members gave me a wide berth and probably for good reason. I was always the jokester of the club. I never let shit get to me. But today, for the first time since Scorpion had become president and he’d built the Texas Charter back up to something great, I hadn’t backed down to him.
If it had been Jessica, Scorpion never would have pulled the protection. He would have kept it on her, no matter how much time, money, or man-hours it cost us. And the fact that he hadn’t extended that same courtesy to Sophia, knowing how I felt about her…
It pissed me the fuck off.
“I don’t want to be alone,” Sophia confessed in a whisper as I opened the door to my apartment. It was a bit messy—dirty clothes on the floor, a towel hanging on my bedpost, a pile of clean laundry piled up on my couch. But she didn’t even glance at any of it. Her eyes remained locked on my face, fear pooling in the dark depths.
“I’ll be right here while you shower,” I promised her as I carried her into my en-suite bathroom. “You won’t be alone.”
She shook her head, clinging to me when I tried to set her on her feet. “No. No,” she choked out. “Please don’t leave me.” Sobs wracked her chest, more tears sliding down her face. I almost crumbled. “They—I—”
I set her on her feet and then pulled her into my arms, holding her as she fell apart again. She clutched at the blanket wrapped around her, her smaller body shaking in my hold. “Calm down,” I pleaded. “Please, cupcake. I’ll stay in here with you. I’ll even shower with you,” I added when she shook her head. “I won’t leave. I promise. I’m right here as long as you need me.”
It was a vow I’d take to my fucking grave. Of that, I knew without a shred of a doubt.
She hiccupped and nodded her head. Leaning her back a little, I reached up and swiped at her cheeks with my thumbs. She was so fucking pretty when she cried, but I never wanted her tears to be out of fear.Neverout of fear.
“I need to get undressed,” I told her. “Can you sit on the counter for me while I do that and get the shower started?”
Hiccupping again, she nodded, swiping at her cheeks. I grasped her hips and lifted her onto the counter. She kept the blanket wrapped around her, shivering now. No doubt, the adrenaline was wearing off. She would be exhausted in a bit.
I stripped out of my clothes and turned the shower on, changing the setting on the shower head to a softer one. I had no doubt her body would already be discoloring, her muscles and skin sore and throbbing. I wanted to make this as gentle and easy as possible for her.
“You ready?” I asked, moving toward her.
She released a shaky breath before she let the blanket fall from her shoulders. I bit back a growl at the sight of her. I hated that my first time seeing her naked was because she’d been attacked. I hated that I wasn’t seeing her unmarred, though that didn’t make her any less fucking beautiful in my eyes.
I just hated that the special moment had been ripped away from us by greedy, careless monsters.
Her skin, as I had predicted, was already discoloring, turning different shades of purple and black. Bite marks littered her skin, and fingertip-shaped bruises were scattered across her breasts, hips, and thighs. A hand-shaped bruise wrapped around her throat.
No doubt in my mind that she’d taken that beating and rape for the fucking club. It took everything in me not to fall to my knees.
This was all my fucking fault.
“Come here, cupcake,” I murmured, drawing her into my arms. “Let’s get a shower, and then we can rest until Doc gets here. Sound good?”
She nodded, allowing me to help her down from the counter. “Who’s Doc?” she asked me, a yawn falling from her lips as we stepped into the shower.
“He’s a doctor for a club Scorpion was part of before he became the president of this club,” I informed her. “He’s trustworthy, and we call him for everything we need if a hospital can be avoided.”
She looked up at me. “Thank you for not taking me to the hospital,” she whispered. She closed her eyes, and a tear ran down her cheek. “I can’t take the questions, the cops—”
I drew her into my arms, ignoring the way her soft body felt against mine, the way her curves seemed to mold to me.
“I know, cupcake. I know,” I rasped.
And for the first time tonight, I was thankful for Scorpion. He’d doneonething right, which was to not allow me to take her to the hospital. Because that was exactly where I’d wanted to fucking take her.
Sophia was curled up in my arms on the couch, her lips slightly parted as she slept. She was wearing a pair of my boxers and one of my t-shirts with one of my plain black hoodies on over it. She’d refused to leave my arms after the shower, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to complain.
