Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
INK
I ’m white knuckling the steering wheel the whole way back to the clubhouse.
I should have taken her to the hospital to get checked out. Let them deal with everything and make whatever reports she wants to make. Maybe call someone who she actually feels safe with.
I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Instead, I texted Doc and told him I have a situation and to meet me at the clubhouse.
I have this need that’s overpowering any rational thought in my brain to see to it myself that she’s okay because if anyone else touches a hair on her head I’m going to snap their fucking finger off before I put a bullet between their eyes.
The only way I can see that through is to keep an eye on her at all times.
Whoever came for her at the motel is in for a wake-up call if they try to walk into the clubhouse and take her.
They’ve already signed their death warrant.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, I spot Hash trailing being me. Cain is standing outside as we pull in. Hash must have told him something was up .
He doesn’t move from his spot as I get out of the truck, circling around the back to open Sutton’s door.
I gently slide my arms underneath her and lift, cradling her to my chest as I remove her from the backseat, careful to not bump her against anything in case she’s hurt in places I can’t see.
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that she doesn’t know she’s here?” Cain asks, ashing out a cigarette as I approach.
My fingers dig into Sutton’s sides harder than intended at his remark. I need to get Sutton settled inside with Doc so I can check myself before I do something that I’ll regret.
“What the fuck?” Cain’s face hardens as he looks over Sutton as we approach him. The bruises on her throat are now a deep purple, making it known to anyone who catches it exactly what happened. “You call Doc?”
“Told him to meet me here,” I grunt. “Looks like I beat him.”
Cain holds open the door to the clubhouse as I walk through with Sutton, who is still shaking in my arms.
I’ve seen a lot of shit, but nothing has ever scared me like this. This kind of stuff hits different.
“Shit,” Scotch exclaims, jumping up from his seat on the couch as he takes in the state of Sutton. “Who are we killing?”
“Don’t know yet. I’m goin’ to get her settled and try to get her to tell me what happened.
” I roll my shoulders back as I reposition her in my arms slightly.
Her long hair moves with me, flashing me her beat to fuck throat.
My jaw clenches and my eye twitches. The rage threatening to boil over at any second.
“Check it, brother,” Scotch warns. I focus on a spot on the wall as I slowly breathe in and out through my nose.
“I’m good,” I say after a long moment.
“She doesn’t need your shit on top of her shit.
It’s clear she means something to you or else you wouldn’t have brought her here.
Let us know what you find out, and we’ll take care of it,” Cain says.
You wouldn’t tell from his tone, but the fire is burning in his eyes.
It wasn’t too long ago that his woman, Evan, got into her own situation and he almost lost her.
“He’s mine.”
“You get him first,” Cain counters. “Your shop is an extension of the club. Anyone that fucks with your shop wrote their own death wish by fucking with the Dirty Devils.”
“Tell Doc to come up to my room when he gets here.”
I take the stairs two at a time, wanting to be shut away from an audience. She’s passed out now. Fear induced adrenaline can leave you feeling like you just ran a marathon. My poor bunny is probably exhausted. I feel better having her in my space.
She hasn’t stirred as I walk into the ensuite bathroom.
“Sutton,” I say, gently shaking her.
Nothing.
“Sutton,” I try again, this time giving her a little squeeze. I watch her long lashes slowly flutter open, revealing her round hazel eyes that are quickly becoming my escape from reality. My gut clenches as I see the torment swirling in the depths.
Her nose scrunches up as she tries to snap out of the fog. She looks fucking exhausted. My jaw clenches as part of the evidence from what happened to her looks me right in the face.
“You’re okay,” I try to softly murmur, but it comes out gruff, even to my ears.
Her brow lowers as confusion sets in. “It’s Ink.
Your uh, boss.” Fuck, what else am I supposed to say?
I’m sure me bringing her here is breaking some type of boss/employee rule, but when have I ever been one to do anything by the book?
Her body tenses in my arms as she starts to squirm, trying to break free.
Afraid I’m going to drop her because she won’t stop moving, I quickly set her on the bathroom counter. “Sutton, it’s Ink,” I say, not trying to be gentle anymore. Gentle isn’t going to snap through this.
What the fuck do I do?
The familiar pain in my chest starts to tighten as the same feelings I had growing up with my mom slam into me full force.
I promised myself I would never feel helpless like this again.
I promised myself I would always have a plan and know what’s going on with the people I care about, so I’m never blindsided.
I didn’t plan on a woman who doesn’t belong in my world unexpectedly knocking me on my ass.
I rub my chest, trying to ease the ache that has me damn near doubling over.
The ache doesn’t lessen, instead it intensifies, permanently burrowing in.
The longer I watch her tremble and stare at me like she doesn’t know who I am, the harder it is for me to breathe.
She might as well be the one choking me out, cutting off my life right along with hers.
Fuck.
Remembering a trick I learned when this used to happen growing up comes back to mind.
Acknowledge five things I can see around myself.
My eyes frantically dart around the bathroom.
Towel on the rack. Dirty clothes on the floor.
The Harley Davidson bathmat Evan bought all the brothers when she found out no one had one in their bathroom.
My breathing is coming in short pants.
It feels like I have one hundred pounds pressing in as the tightening sensation spreads from my chest to my throat in a vise grip.
The empty bottle of body wash I threw on the floor during a shower and never picked up.
A startling noise comes from Sutton, pulling my attention from finding my last object.
I zero in on her lips. The subtle pout draws me in, making me wish I could sink into her and never leave. Sutton .
The ache lessens enough for me to feel like I can finally breathe again, drawing my focus back on her.
She’s trembling like a fucking leaf.
She’s looking at me, but she might as well be a million miles away.
“Sutton.” I place my hands on top of her shoulders, trying to get her to come back to me.
At the feel of my hands pressing into her skin, she starts violently thrashing, blindly kicking and hitting me at any chance she can get .
“No!” she screams. “No, no, no!”
“Sutton, stop! You’re safe! You’re fuckin’ safe!”
She doesn’t stop. Doesn’t even fucking pause to look at me. I’m not sure if she realizes I spoke.
I hiss as her nails slice across my forearm, deep enough to draw blood.
Grabbing both of her wrists, I pin them behind her.
“Sutton! Fuckin’ chill out!” She thrashes harder.
This time, a foot kicks me square in the balls.
“Motherfucker,” I grunt, my legs turning inward on defense.
By some miracle, I still manage to keep a hold on her wrists as I clear the white spots from my vision.
Wrapping my arms around her in a bear hug, I squeeze her tight, hoping the pressure from me will bring her some sort of comfort, even if it’s just enough to calm down for a minute.
“You’re okay,” I roughly whisper in her ear over and over again, never letting up on my hold I have on her.
Just as I start to lose hope that something weighted would help her like it helped me so many times, her fighting me starts to settle until only her chest is rapidly rising and falling.
“You’re safe. They’re not goin’ to get you.
And if they try, they’ll have to go through me and my brothers first.”
A high-pitched hiccup abruptly escapes Sutton. “He took it all! It’s all gone!”
“What’s all gone, bunny?” She lets me tuck her head into my chest as I slowly rock her back and forth, aware of the wet spot on my henley from tears rolling off the leather of my cut that she’s crying now.
A few more hiccups come in short bursts as she tries to speak and catch her breath at the same time. “The money. The money’s gone.”
The money?
“What money?”
“My paycheck that you gave me early.”
Motherfucker.
“Everything I do is for nothing. I take two steps forward and get pulled back ten every single time. Madame Salem made me feel like good things were coming, but this does not feel like a good thing.” She cries, shaking in my arms. “It freaking sucks!”
Who the fuck is Madame Salem?
“I hate him. I hate him so much.” The tears have completely soaked through and are now rolling down my stomach. One trickles through the gap in my waistband, rolling right onto my dick. The feel of her tears right there has my dick hardening. I pray to fuck she doesn’t notice.
I’m going to hell.
“I don’t want to go back. I would rather die than go back.” Sutton starts hyperventilating, her breaths sounding short and tight.
“You’re not goin’ back,” I vow. “I kept you around for a reason. And I always keep what’s mine.”
My chest tightens again at the realization that this isn’t working. Propping Sutton up against the corner of the countertop so she has a wall to lean on, I quickly turn on the shower as cold as it will go.