Page 20 of Blade
My blood ran cold. “What?” I asked her as a deadly calm followed the chill that skated over my skin. I knew goddamn good and well, she wasgivingSage to Luis. She’d sold her like a prized hog—I’d bet every penny I’d saved up on it.
The fact that I couldn’t save her was making me feel out of control. Sweat broke out over my brow and I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I failed her.
It was my job to protect her.
And I’d failed.
Then she told me she wished it could be me and I almost choked. Actually, as I said her name, I kinda did.
Holy shit, did she actually have feelings for me that weren’t like my feelings for her? Did she have a crush on me? The horror of that thought almost made me nauseous. We were like siblings… only not.
“Sage—I can’t…” was all I got out before she slapped a hand over my mouth.
“Finley, I know you won’t hurt me. Please,” she pleaded and whispered.
Fury burned the ice in my veins away. “He’s hurt you?”
She refused to actually answer the question, but that in itself was an answer. There was very little I could deny her, but this was pushing it. At her tearful pleading, I caved and though it was without finesse, the deed was done.
The next day she was gone.
“Don’tLetGo”—Deepfield
Present…
My brothers caught up to me about two hours later. I’d pulled over because my leg was bleeding through the bandage. It had also dawned on my stupid ass that if anyone saw me riding down the road with one leg cut off my jeans and blood seeping, I was going to attract unwanted attention.
After digging out my first aid kit from my saddlebag, I sat on the edge of the ditch to assess the damage. Thankfully, I didn’trip any of the stitches out. I was dousing it with some alcohol as they all stopped and shut off their bikes.
Raptor stormed toward me, leaned down and jerked me to my feet in one smooth motion. “If you ever do some stupid shit like that again, I will center punch your fucking ass! Do you hear me?” he shouted as he clutched the front of my cut in his fists and shook me.
Feeling dead inside, I just stared at him and remained mute.
“Fucking answer me!”
“Yes sir,” was my emotionless monotone reply.
“Hey, let me take a look at that,” Gator calmly inserted as he looked down at my leg and placed a hand on Raptor’s chest. He knew it would never hold the big sonuvabitch but I think he was hoping to calm him down.
Phoenix and Ares stood close, poised to step in if they needed to.
“Those were our brothers,” I whispered as I stared out into the dark distance.
“I know,” Gator murmured. “I lost several of my brothers before our original chapter was disbanded. It never gets easier. You just learn how to continue with your life the best you can and always be there for your brothers if humanly possible.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked at the burning in my eyes.
“We need to stick together,” Raptor started. “This isn’t easy for any of us, so I get it, man. Venom and I went way back—back to when we were in the Army together.”
“Yeah, I know,” I replied, suddenly feeling angrily hollow and like a selfish asshole. But Venom, Kicker, and E had been there for me since day one of my arrival to Iowa. E, Hawk, and Kicker kind of became the dad I never had. They didn’t judge me for my need to mete out justice. Nor did they treat me like a freak for the way I craved it. The blood. The screams. The violence.
They accepted me and welcomed me into their family. To think that four of them were gone in one fell swoop was too much.
“We have to find out who did this,” Phoenix ground out.
“Squirrel said Facet was already on it. Chains was talking to Declan while Squirrel was on the phone with me. Gecko told me he would keep us updated on what he could find. If they find anything that ties these events together, then we know we’re all in deep shit—every chapter.” Raptor’s jaw was clenched and one of the muscles was twitching.
“We gotta get home,” I insisted.