Page 5 of Havoc

“Grim,” she sniffed, “I can take care of myself.”

Against my better judgement, I gave in.

“I’ll check in on you later.” I turned to go and nearly knocked into Leo. He’d gone to get her some water and a painkiller.

Good, he could fuss over her, while I hunted down the fucker who dared hurt one of our own.

“Holy shit,” Leo’s voice brought me back to the present, and I went to see what he looked at.

“What?”

“Just this,” he pressed play on the screen, and Kenna popped up.

“Is this it?”

“Yeah,” he stood next to me as we both leaned close to the TV, “she gets a call here.” He pointed at the screen. “Then…” His words trailed off as we watched the horror unfold.

“Jesus.”

Kenna

Iwiped the mirror free of steam and blinked through the tears that blurred my vision. In a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, I limped to my bedroom. I hadn’t wanted to stay in my suite at the hotel. I needed to be in my own space, my real space. Once everyone stopped hovering, I left. I’d decided to do the fifteen-minute drive to my house. It was pretty late when I got there, but I was glad I did. I slept like the dead, got up and managed to eat, then called in sick.

I had shared everything with Minnie when she came to my suite that morning. Grim had called her and told her. He probably wanted her to report back. Her mouth hung open when I got to the part where I was being blackmailed. I stopped her rant about how I needed to share the truth with everyone, and I told her I would. I convinced her I needed a little time to heal before the wrath of Grim was set upon me. She was horrified at the idea of me leaving the hotel, but she also understood my need to be in my own space to recover. She made me promise I’d check in, and I called her as soon as I arrived.

Feeling only slightly better, I checked the locks on my windows, closed the blinds, then pulled out the metal box from my vanity drawer. I removed the small gun, loaded it, and put the safety on.

The floor-length mirror I stood in front of showed no mercy when I pulled up my shirt to reveal a massive, deep blue bruise on my right side and several scattered scrapes and nicks around my back. It was the first time I’d examined the damage. Even my arm was sore from where I was grabbed and hauled into that nightmare.

“So, he was right,” came from the door, and I whirled and wildly pointed the pistol at him.

“What the hell are you doing here, Morgan?” I winced at the pain that went through me with the unexpected movement. I thought about offering myself over to the reaper featured on the leather Devil’s Reach cut he wore. It sure would make things easier at this point. “I could have killed you.” I carefully put the gun down and shifted my shirt back in place to cover the bruises.

“Not with the safety on, you wouldn’t’ve.” He stepped into the room and came close. He lifted my shirt and made a noise of disapproval. “You take anything for that?”

“Yeah.” I pointed to the pain relievers by the bed. “Hopefully, they’ll help. They’re expired.”

“Those won’t touch that, anyway.” He handed me a joint. “Take this for now, and I’ll get you something else in the morning.”

“’K.” I sniffed, and he studied my face.

“Wanna tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“All right.” He leaned against the desk while I lit the joint. “Grim found me that night at the fundraiser, said you left. He wanted me to check in on you.”

“Is that so?” Sweet smoke rose from my lips. “Seems he is telling everyone my business.”

He ignored my words. “I thought maybe you had it out with Jayden again, but I saw him at the bar. He was talking to that bartender Dale slept with last week. Then I thought, what did your dad do now? But he looked happy as a pig in shit entertaining his clients with your mother on his arm.” He took the joint from me, drew in a hit, and passed it back.

“Then Minnie told me you went to her club, so I went lookin’ for you there.” He paused and watched me for a moment. “Guess I just missed you, according to the bouncer. I called Shore, your all-time favorite driver, and he said you got a text just when you stepped out of his car at the hotel. Said your face went pale. Then fifteen minutes later, you show up on the twentieth, with wet hair, red eyes, lookin’ like shit. What happened in that fifteen minutes, Kenna?” He crossed his arms and waited for me to speak. I took another much-needed draw.

“Someone watches too much true crime with Rail.” I coughed and my eyes watered.

“Kenna.” His tone told me he wasn’t having it.

“Fine.” I dropped my arms. “I pissed off some people and had to deal with the consequences.” That wasn’t a lie. I certainly had pissed someone off; I just wasn’t sure who or why.