Chapter Ten
Tessa woke to pain. It was the first thing she registered. There was pain in her wrists, shoulders and throat. Her head throbbed like it had been cracked open and stuffed with cotton.
For a long second, she didn’t know where she was. Only that she couldn’t move and that cold fear was already sliding through her veins. Tessa forced her eyes open and noticed concrete ceiling, a flickering fluorescent light, and rust-stained walls.
Then there were the chains. They were wrapped tight around her wrists and bolted to a metal ring in the wall above her head, forcing her arms painfully overhead.
Her ankles were bound, too, rope biting into her skin. Someone had gagged her earlier, but it was gone now, leaving her mouth dry and her throat raw. A low whimper slipped out before she could stop it.
She swallowed hard, forcing herself not to panic. Panic wouldn’t help Dillon or Brick, it would only make this worse. She was in a basement, or a warehouse, or somewhere forgotten. The air smelled like oil and damp concrete and sweat. Somewhere nearby, a drip echoed steadily.
Time felt wrong and slow. Her memory came back in broken flashes. The alley. The text. The van. The threat.
Dillon.
Her chest tightened until it hurt to breathe. They had him, and because of her, he was paying the price. A door creaked somewhere to her right. Hearing footsteps, Tessa’s whole body went rigid.
Two men entered the edge of the light. Both wore leather cuts with the unmistakable patch of the Iron Serpents. One was tall and thin, his face hard and sharp like it had been carved from stone. The other was broader, with a lazy, cruel smile that made her skin crawl.
“Well, look at that,” the taller one said. “Little social worker’s awake.”
Tessa lifted her chin. Her hands were shaking, but she forced them still.
“Where’s Dillon?” she asked. Her voice came out hoarse but steady.
The big one chuckled. “Still breathing. For now. That depends on how cooperative you feel like being.”
“I already told you,” she said. “I don’t know anything about the club. I don’t know their business. I don’t know their routes. I don’t know their weaknesses.”
“You know Brick,” the thinner one said smoothly. “That’s enough.”
Her heart slammed violently against her ribs. She stayed silent. The big one stepped closer, looming over her.
“You really gonna test us, sweetheart? You think your biker boyfriend’s gonna save you?” he asked.
She flinched before she could stop herself.
That was a mistake because he widened his smile.
“There it is,” he said softly. “You care.”
“I’m not telling you anything,” she whispered.
The thin one sighed like she’d disappointed him. “Then we’ll ask again later. After your fear grows some teeth.”
They left her alone again. The door slammed and silence rushed back in.
Tessa sagged against the chains, tears burning hot behind her eyes. She blinked hard, refusing to let them fall. Crying wouldn’t help Dillon or Brick, either. Brick. Her chest clenched at the thought of him.
She knew what the Iron Serpents had done. They hadn’t just taken her to punish her or scare the club. Tessa had a feeling they had taken her to bait him, and that terrified her more than anything else.
Brick would come. Of course he would, and that meant they’d be ready for him. Her breathing turned shaky.
Don’t come alone, she begged silently. Please don’t come alone.
Time dragged. Her arms ached, her fingers went numb and her shoulders burned. Every shift of her weight sent sharp flares of pain down her spine.
Tessa counted breaths to stay grounded and counted drips from the ceiling. She whispered Dillon’s name under her breath like a prayer. Every sound made her flinch. Boots in the hall, a distant door, muffled voices and laughter.
Then something different. A noise she couldn’t place at first. A dull, distant thud. She froze. Another sound followed.
A crash, followed by a shout. Her pulse spiked. She strained against the chains, ears straining. The sounds were faint through concrete and distance, but they were real. Too real. Too sudden.
A sharp crack echoed through the space. Was that gunfire? Her breath hitched violently. Another crack followed, then another. Chaos erupted outside the room. There was shouting and running. The unmistakable sounds of a fight breaking loose. Her heart leapt into her throat.
Brick. The realization slammed into her with breathtaking force. He was here.
Tears spilled free now, unchecked. Fear twisted with relief so sharp it hurt. He had come. Of course he had, and now she was terrified that she’d led him straight into hell.
“No, no, no,” she whispered. “Brick ... please...”
Heavy footsteps thundered past the door.
A scream cut off abruptly, she thought a body hit the floor somewhere close.
The building shook with violence. Then Tessa came to the realization that what was happening outside wasn’t a sloppy fight.
It wasn’t panicked, but precise and ruthless. Efficient almost.
That was what frightened her most. Because that wasn’t the sound of a man trying to survive. That was the sound of a man hunting. The door to her room rattled as someone slammed into it from the other side.
Voices shouted, then a gun went off so close it made her ears ring. Then heavy and suffocating silence. Her chest heaved and Tessa found she couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.
Slow, steady footsteps approached the door again. Even through the ringing in her ears and the terror clawing at her ribs, Tessa felt it. The shift in the air and the way the space seemed to tighten, like the world itself was bracing.
Her breath hitched painfully. The handle turned and the door exploded open with a violent crack, slamming against the wall. Tessa broke before she even saw his face.
“Brick.” His name left her like a prayer and a sob tangled together.
He filled the doorway like something summoned out of wrath and devotion both. Blood streaked down his forearm in dark, tacky trails. His knuckles were torn and red. The shoulder of his cut was ripped, the leather hanging loose.
For one terrifying second, all she could see was the damage, and her heart nearly stopped. Then his eyes found hers and everything inside her shattered.
They were black with violence that hadn’t finished burning. With terror that he’d been too late. With something so raw and fiercely protective it stole the breath from her lungs.
For a heartbeat, neither of them moved. The world narrowed to the space between them. Then he crossed the room in two strides.
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.
Brick gripped the chains, fingers brutal and shaking all at once. Metal shrieked as he wrenched at the lock with savage force. Once, twice, then it finally snapped free. He tore the second chain loose just as her legs buckled beneath her.
He caught her without hesitation. Tessa collapsed into him like the world had finally stopped spinning. Tessa wrapped her arms around him hard, desperate, as if he might disappear if she didn’t hold on tight enough.
Brick crushed her to his chest, his hold unyielding. He dropped his forehead to her hair. He shuddered once, violently, like a man barely holding himself together.
“I’ve got you,” he said hoarsely. “You’re safe. You’re safe now.”
The words broke something open inside her. Her knees trembled and her strength vanished. She sobbed into his chest, the sound ripped out of her like it had been waiting behind a dam of fear for hours.
“I thought you’d come alone,” she whispered against him. “I was so scared...”
His jaw flexed hard against her temple.
“You really think I’d ever leave you like that?” he said quietly.
She shook her head, fingers fisting helplessly in the back of his vest. “I didn’t want you to die for me.”
“Too late,” he murmured roughly. “Already decided I would.”
Her breath caught painfully at those words. She pulled back just enough to look at him.
Blood streaked his skin. Sweat darkened his hair at the temples. Rage still lived in the set of his shoulders. Fear flickered in his eyes, but beneath it all there was love. Raw and unhidden.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Brick touched her face, cradling her cheeks with a gentleness that felt impossibly out of place in the wreckage around them. He brushed away her tears with hands that had just ended lives.
“I know,” he said softly. “And that’s why they’re dead. We’ve got Dillon, too. He’s unharmed.”
Relief filled her at those words. Boots thundered in the hall.
King’s voice cut through the haze of violence and emotion. “We’re clear! Let’s move!”
Brick didn’t hesitate. He scooped Tessa up into his arms like she weighed nothing, holding her tight against his chest. She buried her face into the curve of his neck, trembling, inhaling the scent of oil and leather and him like proof she was alive.
As he carried her out through shattered glass, past blood-smeared concrete and fallen bodies, past the echo of war he’d carved through for her, the truth settled deep into her bones.
Brick hadn’t just come for her, he had gone to war for her, and nothing on earth would ever make her forget it.