15. Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
Reaper
The SUV screeches to a stop behind Doc’s house, gravel crunching beneath the tires as Max throws it into park.
Torque’s already at the door, yanking it open before we’ve even killed the engine.
I’ve got Wrenley cradled in my arms, her weight limp against me, and Max is pulling Margot into his own arms just as gently.
Doc’s waiting at the door, eyes sharp, hands gloved, all business. Elias stands behind her, face pale, jaw tight, like he’s trying not to combust. He hasn’t said much since I called him, but the way his fingers twitch tells me he’s seconds away from burning the world down.
“Get them inside,” Doc says. “Reaper, if you can keep it together, I need your help.”
“Yes,” I say, already moving. “Of course.”
Max is pacing behind me like a caged animal, his fingers curling and uncurling as we lay the girls down on the exam tables. Elias doesn’t speak, just moves to the far wall, watching everything like a storm ready to break.
Doc checks Margot first. She’s finally conscious, groaning softly, her eyelids fluttering as she sees Elias. He rushes to her side. She murmurs his name, and his knees hit the floor, his legs giving out beneath him.
“She’s concussed,” Doc mutters. “Needs stitches here,” she motions to a gash near her hairline. “But stable.”
I turn my full attention to Wrenley, and that’s when I really see her.
The bruises on her neck aren’t just from the crash. They’re handprints.
Her wrists are raw with rope burns, skin split in some places. There are more bruises down her arm, along her legs. Her ribs are swollen, one side already turning a sick purple beneath the skin.
“Jesus Christ,” I whisper, my hand trembling as I brush her hair from her face. “Wren…”
She doesn’t look at me. Not really.
Her eyes are open, but they’re far away, focused on something none of us can see. Then she blinks, slow and deliberate, and her voice is hoarse when she speaks.
“I need everyone here before I talk,” she says. “Because I’m only saying it once.”
I nod, heart cracking down the middle.
I press a kiss to her forehead, then her mouth, soft and reverent. “Okay, little warrior, I’ll get them.”
Doc continues wrapping her ribs with practiced hands. “Both of them need to stay awake for the next few hours,” she says, not even looking at us. “If they get worse, dizzy, slurred speech, out of it, take them to the hospital. No arguments.”
Max and Elias nod wordlessly, both of them pale and furious.
Just then, Wrecker pushes through the door, Riot trailing behind him. Riot makes a beeline for Margot, dropping beside her without a word. Wrecker stops just inside, eyes scanning the room until they land on me.
He doesn’t say anything. Just gives a slow shake of his head. My lungs seize. Donnie’s still missing. I close my eyes for a beat, forcing the grief down into the pit of my stomach. Later. We will deal with that later.
Wrenley’s eyes are on me when I turn back, wide and wet but focused. The surface is all pain, but underneath it's all fire and steel.
“Okay,” I say quietly, stepping close enough to take her hand. “We’re all here. It’s time.”
She closes her eyes, just for a second, her chest rising in a shallow, stilted breath, ribs clearly making it hell to breathe. She opens them again looking right at me when she begins to speak.
Wrenley’s voice is a thin thread of sound, but it cuts through the room like a scream. “The crash… it wasn’t an accident.”
Everyone goes still.
She’s lying propped up on Doc’s exam table, Max on one side of her, me on the other. Her face is pale, lips split, bruises spreading like ink beneath her skin. Her eyes are still fire. Still unbreakable.
“I remember the car hitting us. Then, waking up in the woods, tied between two trees. Arms stretched out like I was some kind of sacrifice.” Her voice cracks, and Max reaches for her hand, but she doesn’t flinch; she doesn’t move at all.
“Sebastian?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
She nods once, the movement stiff. “He was waiting for me in the shadows. Said this was what he really wanted. Not to kill me, not yet, but to peel my world apart.”
The fury coils in my gut, burning hot.
She shifts her gaze to me, and the hollowness there guts me. “He said he wants me. And more than that, he wants you to know that you can’t save me.”
My hands curl into fists. Max looks like he’s about to put a hole in the wall.
Then Margot speaks, her voice still hazy from the concussion, but clear enough. “Before I blacked out… he told me he was going to kill us all. So he could have Wrenley all to himself.” She shudders. “He meant it.”
Wrenley’s head snaps toward her, disbelief and horror written across her bruised features.
I can’t take this shit anymore. I turn to Doc. “I want you to get a tracker.”
She blinks. “Excuse me?”
“You’re family. That makes you a target. You don’t get to argue this.”
Before she can answer, Torque steps up from his place near the back of the room, voice calm and unshakable. “She already has one.”
Doc gives me a knowing smile.
“I put it in after she implanted all of us, when I brought her home,” he adds with a glance at me. “You think I’d let someone this important walk around unprotected?”
She turns to him, her eyes softening.
He isn’t done, “And I want you at the mansion.”
“What?”
“I want you close. You’re too tied to all of us to stay here alone. You saved them. Now we protect you.”
Doc looks between all of us, Wrenley, Max, me, Margot, and finally sighs. “Fine. Let me pack a few things.”
Wrenley exhales like she’s been holding her breath for hours. I reach over, brushing my knuckles against her arm, careful not to touch any bruises.
“You’re not alone, Little warrior,” I murmur.
She nods, her voice barely above a whisper. “I know.”
But I don’t think any of us realize just how far Sebastian is willing to go. Not yet.
The SUV rolls to a stop in the driveway, headlights cutting through the night. The mansion looms ahead, safe, familiar, but it doesn’t feel like a sanctuary anymore. Not tonight.
We’ve barely killed the engine when Hunter’s truck comes screaming up the drive like the devil’s on his tail. He’s out before the tires finish rolling, shouting my name.
“Reaper!”
I’m already moving, rounding the vehicle just as he wrenches open the passenger door. Cash spills out, mumbling nonsense, pupils blown wide. He collapses into Doc’s arm.
“Fuck,” she hisses, catching him with surprising strength, “He’s been drugged. Torque, get my bag now.’
Cash keeps repeating something, fragmented syllables, garbled dread, over and over again. I crouch, trying to make out the words, but it’s all static.
Hunter wipes a hand across his mouth, his skin is pale beneath his Serpent tattoos. “There’s more.” He stalks around to the bed of the truck and yanks the tarp back with a violent snap.
His lips are pale, skin tight and waxy, sunken eyes staring into nothing. The blood where his throat is slit is dry now. Donnie. There are words carved into his chest.
I’ll take pieces of you until there’s nothing left.
There's blood around them. I shake my head wrapping my mind around the fact that this was done while he was still alive.
I turn too late to block their view. Margot gasps first, loud and broken. Wrenley’s is quieter. A sharp inhale. Like she’s been punched in the lungs. She stumbles back, her face slack with something worse than horror.
No one says anything, because what can we say?
Inside, Doc has gotten Cash onto the couch. She’s injected something into his arm and is whispering calmly, evenly. His hands twitch. His voice is steadier now.
“I—I saw someone drop him. Donnie. At the back door. I ran to see—then something hit me. Needle. Just gone after that.”
I stay in the doorway, arms folded tight across my chest, watching Wrenley.
But she’s not watching anything. Not really. She’s gone still. Her breathing’s even. Too even. Her eyes aren’t glassy, they’re blank. She’s not breaking. She’s dissociating.
“Wren…” I murmur, but she doesn’t blink.
She leans into Doc, whispers something I can’t catch. Doc nods without hesitation and reaches into her bag, hands her something small. She curls her fingers around it, turning towards the door. I follow.
At the base of the stairs, I catch her wrist. “Little warrior…”
She turns to face me, and for a second, I think she might fall apart in my arms.
“I just want to clean up,” she says quietly. Her voice isn’t shaking, but I can hear the fracture beneath it. “And I need a few minutes alone. Please.”
I nod once, slowly. I know if I press her now, she’ll either shatter, or kill something. Maybe both. So I let her go. I stand at the bottom of the stairs, staring after her, praying that whatever Sebastian just broke inside her… isn’t the piece she needed to survive him.