Chapter 8
“That was the Brotherhood?” Zed’s eyes were wide as he stared at me.
I couldn’t rip my gaze from him, knowing we were both reaching the same conclusion.
Ace might know by the time the night was out. Zed’s mask had come off. But that would mean…
My breath caught, a whine almost escaping. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.
How the hell was this supposed to go, actually?
It had been a mess from the start. There’d been no good option, not from the first second I’d opened the door to the private room, and found my goddamned mates waiting for me.
“It’s over,” I said, voice weak. “I’m gone. That’s what you want.”
That was the best I could do now.
I tried to take a step away, but Zed snarled, grabbing me and shoving me against the wall by my neck. “You set us against our own fucking family?”
I flipped my knife in one easy motion, meaning to deter him, but Knight reacted in an instant, grabbing my wrist and pinning it to the wall.
“No more games.” Knight snarled.
“What the fuck have you just brought down on our heads?” Zed sounded more angry than I’d heard him yet.
Me?
What the hell had they been doing at the High Roller on the same night Ace had found me?
I opened my mouth, about to lash back, to accuse them of bringing Ace here.
But that was a lie.
It had to be a lie.
This feeling of being watched, it had been lingering for weeks now. The paranoia that wasn’t paranoia.
Unless this was a test. Ace played games upon games. What if he’d known they were coming tonight? What if it was all a plan to see?—
“You’re done, Glade,” Zed growled, ripping me from my panic. “You needed our help. Now it’s on our terms.”
“What the fuck does that mean—?” I cut off as he shoved me to my front, trapping my arms behind my back and easily dragging me down the alley in stumbling steps. “Zed—wait!” I began, but he ignored me.
“Cuffs. Knight. Now,” he snarled.
“Cuffs?” Knight sounded as dumbfounded as I felt as he followed us.
“What?”I tried to pull from Zed’s grip, but he renewed it with both arms, hauling me closer.
“You wanted our help, sweetheart,” he hissed. “This is what it looks like.” He turned from me as we reached a beat up truck. “Get me the fucking cuffs.”
“Zed.” Knight caught us up. “Think about?—”
“Before she takes my eye out.”
I twisted in his grip enough to see it was a rather delighted looking Kyan who reached into the truck and tugged out a pair of police cuffs that looked strong enough to hold an Alpha.
“They want me!” I snarled. “Take me, and it just means?—”
“In-fucking-surance. That’s what it means,” Zed growled as he tugged my arm behind my back and I felt the cuffs close around them.
“No.” They couldn’t do this. This was too dangerous. “You don’t understand?—”
“Oh, now you know what’s going on?” he demanded.
I heard the clink of keys. “Knight, you’re driving, unless you think you’re going into a rut?—”
“I won’t if we don’t bring the literal goddamned siren in the car.”
“Does Kyan seriously need to drive?” Zed asked.
“I can fucking drive.” Knight sounded furious as the front door was ripped open.
Then Zed was dragging me back by my arms. My mind was spinning. Everything was changing too fast.
They were actually taking me?
That buried creature stirred, something relieved flipping my stomach.
They didn’t… hate me? But that was obviously not true, and I had bigger problems as Zed climbed into the truck, before dragging me behind him.
He was so close, and my pulse was racing. It was hard to think straight as Kyan ducked in after us.
“Wait, wait, wait!”I was trying to catch my breath, speaking through the mouthful of hair I couldn’t rid myself of. “Lucy… please, just let me get Lucy.” My voice was shaking but I had no room to be embarrassed. What if that hadn’t been all of them. What if they raided my room… My blood chilled at the thought.
Ace would take anything from me that he could.
“Who the fuck is Lucy?” Zed asked.
“Please… she’s in my place.” I hated begging but they’d leave her otherwise. I scrambled for a way to convince them. “She’s… she’s only two. I can’t?—”
“Two?” Knight sounded startled, turning in the driver’s seat to stare, eyes wide with shock.
“You have to let me get her. My room is under the club.”
“You’re lying so I un-cuff you?—”
“I’m not. I swear, I’ll do anything if you get her.” I could see the distrust on Zed’s face. Please let there be something of the Alpha I’d fallen for in there.
Please.
“Fine.”
“Thank you?—!”
But he was rooting in my purse for my keys. “You,” he snarled, “are not going back into that place.”