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Ream, Kat, Emily and Logan arrived ten minutes later. My brother strode in like a furious bull, but the second he saw me, it was like all the tension disintegrated and his shoulders sagged as he rushed toward me. It was the first time he wasn’t cautious about touching me as he dragged me from Crisis and pulled me into a hug.
“Fuck. I got the call from Luke . . . if anything happened to you again . . .” His voice trailed off like he couldn’t even say the words.
“I’m sorry.”
His mouth dropped open and eyes widened. “Sorry? For what?”
“The story. What I did . . . it will be all over the media and it will look bad—”
“Stop.” He cupped my cheek, his eyes softening, and for a second, I let that little girl that I used to be in, as her brother sang to her in the closet. “I don’t give a shit what anyone says. None of us do.” He looked at Crisis who remained with his hand in mine. “We’ve been together this long because no matter what happens, we stick together.”
“What if they find out about Gerard—”
“Haven. We were sixteen living with a drug dealer who is dead because of the shit he did. That isn’t touching you or me. We defended ourselves. We survived. And whatever happens with this story and what is dug up on you and me, we’ll deal with it.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt like I’d been holding it since Dillon showed me the article. “We have amazing fans, sis. They support us. And they’ll support you and see the truth no matter how the media spins it.”
Emily and Kat came over and hugged me. Kat passed me a pair of jeans and a sweater. “We heard your clothes were wet.” Logan came over and kissed my forehead and Roman squeezed my shoulder.
Kat and Emily went with me to the washroom so I could put on the clothes. Clothes, that still had the tags on them and were two sizes too big, but much better than a hospital gown, and I was able to take my gun out of the bag and put it in the pocket of the hooded sweatshirt. I was trying to be strong, but there were parts of me that were scared, that needed the safety of the gun which ended the nightmare for me.
When we came out, a doctor approached the group of us.
“Killian Kane’s family?”
We all turned toward the doctor standing with a file in his hand looking at us.
“Yes.” Logan, Ream and Crisis said.
KILLIAN KANE? I hadn’t known his real name, no one ever mentioned it—ever. When I looked at Emily and Kat, both of them had raised brows and wide eyes. I didn’t expect to know his last name or his real first name, but I thought Emily and Kat would have. Obviously, they hadn’t.
“The swelling has eased,” the doctor said in a low voice. “Vitals are good and we don’t expect any complications.”
“When can we see him?” Logan asked.
He frowned as he looked at the group of us. “Family only.”
“We’re all family,” Logan said.
“And we all want to see him,” Kat said, standing in front of Ream while his hands rested on her hips.
The doctor pursed his lips together then gave an abrupt nod. “I can allow one of you for now. And briefly.” He didn’t wait for us to decide who should be the one to go and started down the hall.
I thought it would be Crisis, but there was no discussion as Logan stepped forward and followed the doctor. Crisis pulled me over to a chair, sat, then tugged me onto his lap. His brows rose when his arm touched the hard metal in my pocket.
“It didn’t drown?”
I bit my lower lip. “Nearly.” I knew he didn’t like that I had it, but he also now knew that it was harmless. In a way, my gun was like a kid refusing to be parted from her teddy bear. The gun was my badass teddy bear.
“Why Logan?” I asked.
“When Logan moved here, Kite and him became friends. Some piss-ants in high school from Kite’s old band went to beat him up. Logan stepped up and the two of them took them down. Been close ever since.” Crisis lowered his voice. “Kite was the only one who knew Logan’s real name for a while. Shit, and Deck, he fuckin’ knew no doubt.” Before I could say anything, he said, “Yeah, he knows Ream’s past too and most of yours, I suspect.”
Yeah, he did. He knew about Olaf and the club. What I hoped was that they found the girls, at least the ones who wanted to be helped. “I want to know.”
“About?” Crisis ran his finger across the back of my neck and gently pushed my hair over my right shoulder.
“I want to know if they found the girls. I told Vic a while ago not to call me again about the club, but now . . . I want to know if they helped them.”
“Olaf wouldn’t be dead if Vic hadn’t gotten what he needed from him. It might take time, but he’ll find the girls.”
“And the men, too?” The men who had fucked me; had their hands on me.
“They’d leave some of that to the police, but yeah.”
Some of the tension eased from my body and I settled back against him, soaking in his comforting warmth.
He clasped his hand in mine and kissed my cheek. “Babe?” I tilted my head, which was resting on his shoulder to look up at him and he leaned forward and kissed me. It was a deep, intense kiss and I melted into him, my hands slipping into his hair as I angled my head and moaned under his mouth.
Fifteen minutes later, Logan returned and we all gathered around him. His voice said it all. It broke when he told us about Kite. He was trying to keep it together for the rest of us and I imagined it would’ve been devastating seeing his best friend with tubes and machines hooked up to him.
