Chapter 5 #3
Griz and Sam went quiet as I put away the tools I’d been cleaning. I hoped they didn’t notice how my hands had started trembling.
“Where’s Trey?” Sam asked.
“In the bunkhouse,” Mac responded.
I pretended not to notice the looks they were exchanging. There was some unspoken shit happening. I finished my work and wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. Griz and Sam were both frowning, but they didn’t say anything. Mac glanced at me and strode out the door, expecting me to follow.
Mac led the way a few paces ahead of me.
The closer we got to the watchtower, the more my hands shook.
As soon as Mac opened the doors, I could hear the screams, and they only grew louder as we descended the stairs.
My panicked urge to flee choked me. If I turned around and moved quietly, Mac might not even notice—
As though he heard my thoughts, he turned and stared at me, that muscle in his jaw ticcing. I stopped in my tracks. When he strode up the stairs toward me, I retreated up a step, but he caught my forearm.
“What the fuck?” I seethed, yanking against his tight grip.
“You really gonna tell me you weren’t thinkin’ about running?” he said.
I snapped my mouth shut, but I wasn’t sure if I was holding back from cursing at him or begging him for help.
A middle-aged man sat restrained in the chair, blood dripping onto the straw-covered floor.
Madame had already carved his arm up like she’d been too impatient to wait for me.
His screams echoed off the walls as he sobbed and swore he didn’t know anything.
Mac dragged me in and shut the door. Madame barely spared a glance at us, which made me feel even worse.
She didn’t seem worried I would refuse to come.
I tucked myself into the corner, rubbing my arm where Mac had grabbed me. Mac leaned against the wall a few steps away, still as a coiled wire. The man in the chair screamed again, and I wished I would have run. What would Madame do if I refused to heal him?
Do what you gotta do to survive, Wolf snarled.
“Who recruited you?” Madame asked.
“No…one,” the man said, panting. “I s-swear. I’m loyal.”
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
“Bones.”
I flinched at Madame’s summons, but my feet didn’t move. Her cold gaze narrowed on me.
“Bones,” she repeated in a dangerous voice, “you need some motivation?”
Several of her men chuckled, and Mac shifted toward me, just enough to be a warning.
I pushed off the wall, my stomach dropping.
Fear shone in the man’s wet eyes as I wrapped my hands around his arm and called on my healing powers.
He gasped as they began to flow into him, healing his wounds, but I couldn’t look at him.
You fucking coward. That wasn’t Wolf’s voice. That was mine.
Madame’s sugary-sweet smell drifted around me, mixing with the scent of blood and urine. A cold wave rolled through me, and I tasted acid and copper. When I retreated, her men prowled around the chair like wild animals.
“One name. That’s all I need,” Madame coaxed.
I traced a crack in the floor with my eyes, trying to block out the man’s howl of pain.
After the third or fourth healing, two of the men surrounded me as I withdrew to my corner.
“You know, I think I got something I need you to take a look at, Bones,” one of them said as he leered.
I tried to move past him, but the second one blocked me.
“Me too.” He grinned, licking his lips. “Been hurtin’ me so bad.”
“C’mon, sweetheart, help me out.” The first yanked me toward him.
I struggled to jerk away, furious, but Mac appeared at my side and grabbed the man’s arm.
Mac didn’t say a word, just stared into the other man’s eyes with an expression that made goosebumps rise on my arms. The man sneered, but I could see the fear he tried to hide.
He dropped my wrist, and I darted to my corner.
“Calm down, Mac.” He spit in the hay. “We’re just havin’ some fun.”
“Not with her, you’re not,” Mac said, his voice cold and hard.
The two of them grumbled but rejoined Madame, who was sawing off one of the man’s fingers as he screamed.
I stared at the hay and tried to feel numb, to let my mind float away like I’d done so many times with Juck.
Mac returned to the wall, a lot closer to me than he’d been before, but I didn’t look at him.
The next time I stepped forward when Madame called me, he followed like a protective shadow.
Madame’s men glared at him and muttered to each other, but no one tried to grab me.
Madame eventually killed the man by slicing his throat, then dismissed us.
It didn’t seem to matter how many people I’d seen killed, because it still made my heart lurch when she struck that death blow.
The man’s body slumped in the chair, blood dripping onto the floor, and I stood there staring, my brain stuck on the stupid thought that I didn’t even know his name.
Mac hauled me out by the elbow, and I let him, my legs weak and shaky.
Once we got a safe distance from the watchtower, Mac stopped and turned to me. I kept my eyes down and attempted to calm my ragged breathing. But he didn’t say anything. He remained silent for so long that fear crept in. I finally peered up at him. In the dim light, I couldn’t see his expression.
“You good?” he asked in a low voice.
The moonlight illuminated the straight line of his nose and the curve of his brow.
His eyes were cast in shadow, but I could feel the heat of his gaze on my face, almost like a thread I could follow.
He still gripped my upper arm—firm but not painful.
I could feel the heat of his skin seeping into mine. Slowly, the question registered.
Good?
Fury brought me back to my senses. “Fuck you, Mac,” I hissed before I wrenched free, striding toward the clinic.
He didn’t try to stop me, but I heard him following a few paces behind.
When I angrily threw the door open, I faltered on the threshold. Trey, Griz, and Sam were standing around the exam table, as if waiting for me.
“Bones—” Trey’s eyes were wide with concern as he moved forward.
I stormed to the ladder.
“Bones?” he called, but I didn’t stop.
I heard the door open and shut again as Mac followed me inside.
I retreated to the corner where they couldn’t see me and stripped, throwing on Clarity’s thin tank top and the extra pants Jax had brought over.
I wished I had a sink up here so I could clean the blood out of my clothes without having to go back down where the four men spoke in low, angry tones.
I debated leaving the stains, but I didn’t feel like seeing the reminder of what I’d done every time I got dressed.
I grabbed my dirty clothes and descended the ladder.
Everyone stopped talking, and my cheeks heated, knowing the brand on my chest was visible.
I tried my best to ignore them, dumping my clothes into the sink and turning the water on.
I lathered my hands with soap and scrubbed viciously until they stung. Behind me, the men resumed talking.
“He didn’t know anything,” Mac said.
“I knew that was a personal vendetta,” Sam muttered.
“Keep an eye on Dale and Pike,” Mac said. “They were real interested in Bones.”
My spine stiffened.
“What do you mean?” Trey asked.
“They tried to make a pass at her.”
I bit back a furious scoff at Mac’s phrasing.
“Bones, you okay?” Trey appeared at my elbow and I flinched, anxiety still thrumming through me. “Sorry,” he added, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I ignored him, moving on from my clothes to the blood streaked up my arms. He stood quietly beside me, watching me try to scrub my skin off.
When Trey spoke again, the softness in his voice made my heart clench. “Bones, say something.”
“I’m fine,” I lied through my teeth.
He frowned, but I looked away, checking my reflection in a metal pot to make sure I got all the blood off.
I rinsed the rag out and draped it on the side of the sink before gathering up my wet clothes and pushing past him to return to the loft.
No one tried to talk to me as I disappeared upstairs again.
I draped my wet clothes on the single chair to dry and crawled onto my mattress, pulling the worn blanket over my head.
The four of them stayed downstairs, talking quietly for a long time.
I curled into a ball, trying to forget the sound of the man’s screams. Eventually, I heard Mac, Griz, and Trey say good night to Sam, who had the night watch.
“Night, Shortcake,” he called, but I didn’t respond. When he flipped the bulb off, it was a relief to be plunged into darkness.