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Tweak had a look, his normally tan complexion taking on a decidedly green hue. He covered his junk and looked over at me in horror.
I shrugged. “Wasn’t me.”
Tweak looked back over at Beast. “Hunter?”
“Nah,” he said, his lower lip curling as his dark eyes met mine. “I think he made the mistake of fucking with the wrong woman.”
Stel hated to appear weak in front of anyone, especially a man, so if Hunter had to carry her out of here, it was because she couldn’t walk on her own. Yet, the girl had still castrated a man. Pride swelled in my chest, knowing that my girl had given them hell until the very end.
Colt looked up from his phone, his brows drawing together. “Hunter’s tried texting Gunner, but he hasn’t responded yet.”
“Ask him what’s up,” Ryder said as he walked over to where Colt stood in the center of the room. “I’m sure Gunner just hasn’t checked his phone. Him and Val are dismantling the long-range rifles while they wait for Pops and Dagger to pick them up in the van.”
Colt’s phone dinged, and he held it up so Ryder could read the message on his screen. Both of them looked over to the doorway where Beast and Tweak still stood.
Ryder cocked his brow. “Stella wants us to bring her back the dark-haired girl and insists Tweak will know which one she’s talking about when he sees her.”
“Don’t look at me like that. I doubt any of the girls I’ve ever fucked are locked up here.”
“You never know,” Beast said with a shrug. “The odds are pretty good. You’ve fucked a lot of chicks.”
“Shit,” he grumbled as he trudged over to the row of cells behind me. “You’re right. I better have a look.”
A few of the girls sniffed or shifted, but none of them said anything to him as he passed. When he got to the far end, he shook his head and started down the other side. He hadn’t gone very far when he halted, his eyes glued to whoever was in that cell.
“Who is it?”
Ryder had just asked the million-dollar question. Stel was akin to a coconut, you had to get past her tough outer layers before you got to the sweet goodness that lay underneath. So, color me suspicious, but I had a lot of questions for this girl, whoever she was. Starting with how she and Stel had become that close while locked in separate cages.
“I’ll know for sure in a second.” Tweak cocked his head to the side and asked, “Sweetheart, by any chance do you have a brother named Jules?”
That name wasn’t ringing any bells, so I snuck a sideways glance at Ryder. Judging by the pursing of his lips, he didn’t have a clue about what was going on, either.
“Yes,” she said, her voice cracking as if it hadn’t been used in very a long time. She cleared her throat and tried again, a set of long, pale fingers winding around the bars. “Did he send you?”
“No, but we’ve been looking for him. Seems he vanished around the same time as my friend.” His voice took on a hard edge as he asked, “Would you happen to know anything about that?”
Stepping over the body at my feet, I stomped over to her cell, staring into it, my face a scant few inches away from hers. If this girl knew who took Stel, I wanted names, and I wanted them now. It would be up to her whether she willingly gave them to me. While I’d never hurt a woman before, I was willing to make an exception. Fuck an eye for an eye. I wanted an eye for a soul.
“No.” Her dark soulless eyes held mine captive like a monster who’d sank their claws deep into my throat. “But my brother couldn’t have had anything to do with her disappearance.”
“What makes you so sure,” I gritted out, my hands on either side of hers tightening around the bars.
She backed away, her hands falling to her sides as she said, “Because he’s in the CIA.”
CHAPTER 16
STELLA
I sat on the shower floor, my chin resting on my knees, watching as a river of red snaked its way toward the drain. Steam enveloped me in a protective cocoon, yet I hardly felt safe. Logically, I knew he was never coming back, Hunter had made sure of that by slitting his throat, yet I couldn’t seem to help it. Every time I closed my eyes, all I saw was his face.
Not even a vat of holy water, if I believed in that sort of thing, could cleanse me of his touch. It was like a piece of him had crawled beneath my skin and latched on.
Goose bumps raised the hair on my arms despite the hot water pelting my skin. The sting of it should have served as a reminder that I’d survived. Only, it didn’t feel like I had. Not all of me, at least.
The bathroom door swung open, cloud puffs escaping through the gap, before it closed again. My heart thudded against my ribcage, and I buried my head, curling in on myself. No, not here. Not again. Not right now.
A second later, the faint scent of roses reached my nostrils, and I peeked over the top of my knees.
