Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Hellhound
“Why are you telling me this now?”
The sound of Isabelle’s voice trembling goes straight to my gut. From the way everyone was acting when we stepped into the room, I should have known something wasn’t right. Shit, I should’ve stopped it before they could tell her.
Isabelle’s been through a lot of shit in the last god fucking knows how long.
“Because you deserve to know the truth,” Styxx answers. “You deserve to not go through another day without knowing you weren’t born to those fucked up people.”
He had a point. She did deserve to know that, but I would’ve preferred to be the one to tell her. At least ease her into the knowledge, rather than outright inform her of what they found.
“This is a lot to take in,” she whispers, breathlessly stands, turns away from the room, and tilts her head back to look at me. “I . . . I need time. I’m going to go back to your room.”
I nod and cup the side of her face. “I’ll come check on you soon as I can.”
Isabelle gives me a sad look and looks away, steps back, and starts passed me to walk back in the direction of my room. I keep my gaze locked on her backside until she’s out of sight.
Fuck me.
Just thirty minutes ago, I’d been deep inside her. From the moment we woke up, she gave me the best gift—her body. We spent the morning fucking. Now that shit is tainted with this bullshit.
I turn my focus back to my brothers and glare at both Styxx and Scythe. “What the fuck are you two thinking?”
“Brother, cool it,” Angel mutters calmly.
I whip my dark gaze to him and curl my lip in frustration. “You want me to cool it? What the fuck? I get shits real, but did anyone think of the pain she’s been through and what this is going to do to her? Fuck.”
“We knew what we were doing,” Scythe grunts and straightens to his full height.
“Ivy, why don’t you and Sutton go check on her?” Reaper suggests stepping between my brothers and me.
Ivy nods and looks between all of us, but it is Sutton who speaks up.
“I wish you would have come to us first before telling Isabelle. You might have just found that out and wanted her to know. That’s great and all, but remember something, you don’t know Isabelle like we do.
You also think you might know, but you don’t know the pain she’s been through.
Shit, she doesn’t even know we know. However, she’d run and hide as she’s doing now if she did.
We know the truth because she can’t hide anything from us.
Not really. We all start drinking. She opens up. ”
“I hope this doesn’t set her back,” Ivy whispers and waddles toward Reaper. “I don’t know what you all are doing, but I also don’t want to lose one of my best friends. She’s my family.”
“Precious, I’m not going to let you lose your family,” my Prez mutters, his gaze gentle but the tone of his voice annoyed. “And nothings gonna happen to her . . . besides, she’s got her own ol’ man who’ll look out for her.”
Ivy nods and looks at me. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Not gonna happen,” I grunt.
“I believe you.” She smiles and moves to Reaper and kisses him before she and Sutton follow where Isabelle disappeared to.
I refocus on my brothers and plant my hands on my hips. “Someone want to start talking?”
“We got special guests out at the hunting cabin,” Angel announces, a glint of anger flashing in his eyes. “Styxx, Scythe, Daemon, Beast, and Ghost went hunting last night. They brought back some morsels for us all to slice into.”
Well shit.
Glancing at them, a malicious smirk falls into place, seeing where they’re taking this. “I get first dibs.”
“As her ol’ man, yeah. I’m calling seconds,” Angel grumbles, flexing his hands and cracking his knuckles.
“Then let’s do this . . . so I can get back to Isabelle and see where her head’s at.”
Styxx moves and comes to stand in front of me. “I don’t have a say in this shit cause her life is hers, and she’s just coming back into ours, but don’t fuck her over.”
I blink, clench my jaw and simply stare at my brother without speaking.
“We know you won’t,” Styxx states, a look of misery taking over. “But it had to be said because it’s what our dad would have wanted. We lost years with our sister doing the whole brotherly bond bullshit and scaring off boyfriends.”
“I get it,” I mutter inwardly, flinching as the memory of the night Stella was attacked tries to come forward.
As a whole, we all head outside and head to the back of the area clubhouse and to the ATVs we keep back there. In no time, we make our way to the hunting cabin.
I’m the first to step through, only to come to a stop. I glance around the room, not seeing but one body in the middle strung up.
Dexter’s.
“What the fuck?” I snarl, curling my lip and scanning the rest of the cabin.
My brothers fill in behind me one by one. The tension filling the room is nearly overwhelming.
“Thought you said you had three,” I mutter, looking at Dexter’s dead body.
“We did,” Daemon answers. “Don’t know how they did it. Fucker’s escaped but they killed the dealer before going. Shit.”
“Let’s get back to the clubhouse,” Reaper says, already heading back out the door. “Something’s not sitting right with me. Get the prospects to clean this shit up.”
I follow after Reaper, completely in agreement with him. Those druggies got away, killing the dealer before going. Something about that smells off. I know a drug addict will do anything for their next fix but fuck me if I can figure this shit out right now.
My only concern at the moment is getting back to the clubhouse and making sure Isabelle is safe. Then I gotta see where her head’s at. After that, I’ll help her work through things and get her to relax.