Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Iris
“Sola! Sola!” Rot’s booming voice cuts through the chaos.
Getting up from the floor, Sola shoves past me and unlocks the bathroom door. On the other side? Rot, in his Kings of Anarchy cut, tight black jeans, boots, and a fitted T-shirt. With a happy squeal, his redhead launches herself at him, locks her legs around his waist, and smashes her lips to his.
They proceed to make out like teenagers as Kali and I slip past them to find our guys, now that Sola is in safe hands.
Though I can’t say I don’t wish that was me. Not with Rot, though he’s hot… but with a certain someone else, I hoped would find us first.
In the hall, dozens of men in cuts work. Bodies of dead men are dumped into the pool. There’s debris everywhere, from what must have been an explosion. We step over broken shards of glass and bits of crumbled building.
It isn’t until the scary guy from the house, Monster, stops in front of us and eyes my chest that I realize I’m still mostly topless. He grins in a creepy way, eyeing my nipples.
Huffing under her breath, Kali steps in front of me, shielding me from his gaze, before she reaches up and slaps him across the face.
A perfect handprint blooms across his cheek, and Monster grunts. His nostrils flare as he rolls his shoulders, as if he’s about to start shit with Kali. Which won’t end well for either of them.
Not one to back down, my brunette companion shoves him in his big pecs. “Don’t be a dick.”
Monster shakes his head and snarls a low, gritty, “Bitch.”
“Don’t do this,” Kali growls back, with just as much venom. “Now go help the kids.” Stepping back to give him space to move, she lifts her chin toward the pools.
With his jaw clenched and a fist at his side, Monster slices Kali with an icy glare, but he does as he’s told and leaves us the hell alone.
Tucking my arms around my middle, I breathe a sigh of relief. Kali bumps her shoulder into mine and winks. “You can’t be nice to that one, or he’ll think he can act however he wants,” she explains.
I get that, but I’m not one to posture in front of a dude twice my size who could easily rip my throat out with his bare hands if he were so inclined.
Unsure how to respond, I nod and smile, though it’s weak.
As if we haven’t already reached our daily quota of interactions with bikers we don’t know, well, I don’t know, another biker I’ve never seen before with broad shoulders and dirty blond hair, streaked with gray, watches Monster storm off before his attention swings our way.
He immediately notices I’m exposed and shrugs off his cut.
“Here.” He shoves the heavy leather vest at me with the name Thunder patched on the front.
“You don’t—” I start, but Kali cuts me off.
“Yes, he does.”
Right.
Okay.
The tall man’s lips twitch. “She’s right. I do. Just find me after.” He eyes my feet. “Be careful. Those soles won’t hold up against all the nails and glass. They’ve set up a station out front. You’ll find some clothes there.”
“Thank you.” I paste on an uncomfortable smile, and Thunder gives us a curt nod before he slips into the crowd to get shit done.
Kali steals the cut from me, spins me around, and helps me put it on.
Even though I’m not a small woman, it’s huge on me, but it covers my chest, even if there’s a lot of side-boob action going on.
It’s fine. Better than fine, if it keeps crazy men like Monster from gawking.
The scent of leather and man hit my nostrils as we navigate our way out of this mess, with our eyes peeled for a certain father-son duo.
“Where the hell are they?” Kali hisses as we reach the lobby.
There’s a van parked where the center of the room used to be. Water pours out from under the vehicle, covering the floor. It soaks into my shoes as we slosh toward the entrance.
Wait. That’s Sunshine’s van.
Shit.
Kali and I exchange looks.
“Careful,” a bald, darker-skinned biker calls from the front door, flashlight in hand. Angel. At least this is one I know. Sorta.
“Where’s Sunshine and Dark?” Kali asks as we step over a support beam.
Not saying a word, Angel massages his nape and stares up at the massive hole in the ceiling.
I dunno why, but my stomach drops. He’s avoiding something. I can tell.
Kali must notice his brush-off the same as I do when she glances my way, concern etched across her face. “Angel?” she addresses him, wanting an answer.
“Let’s talk outside.” He backs away, and Kali takes my hand and holds on tight.
Without a word, I understand her perfectly.
Something’s not right, and I don’t mean the fact that we’re walking through a dark room with charred walls, lit only by beams of headlights outside and whatever backup lights this place had installed that survived whatever went down.
It’s creepy. Like the set of a horror movie.
Like a nightmare.
We take it one step at a time.
Out front, vans are parked along the perimeter.
There’s an ambulance with the med bay open, and a bald man helping a line of patients seated on folding chairs.
Most of them are children of varying ages.
My heart aches at the sight. This is what I miss every time Dee and I run our jobs and leave the children to be found by the Sacred Sinners.
This is what they do—help. They have an entire crew dedicated to this.
I’m in awe as Kali tugs me along, avoiding the central chaos, to the fringe, where we approach Angel, sitting on the tailgate of an old pickup truck, smoking a joint.
“Talk,” Kali demands, crossing her arms over her chest.
Angel exhales a cloud of smoke and sighs. His throat bobs as he swallows hard, and tears well in his eyes when he looks at us. First Kali, then me, where his gaze lingers, and those tears fall, one by one, down his cheek.
“Dark’s dead,” he croaks and takes a long drag.
“What?!” Kali screeches, taking the words out of my mouth, words that are stuck as my stomach drops to my feet.
“He got shot, then Monster set off his explosions. We didn’t know where they were, but shit went sideways, and Dark covered Sunshine.”
“Where is he?” Kali demands.
“At the hospital.”
I inhale.
“So, he’s not dead?” Hope imbues Kali’s question.
Exhale.
“Yes. He is. There was too much blood,” Angel rasps, clears his throat, and rubs the back of his hand across his eyes. “And he had no pulse. None.”
No. Pulse.
“I don’t understand,” I add, my voice a mere whisper as the woman beside me sobs quietly. Kali wraps an arm around her middle.
“Sunshine wouldn’t let him go.” Angel drops ashes onto the ground.
I…
My bottom lip trembles. “What… what do you mean? Wouldn’t let him go?”
“His son died in his arms. He wouldn’t let him go. So they took him to the hospital. For Sunshine.”
Oh.
“So he could get closure,” Kali sobs, staring past Angel in shock, her face etched with anguish.
I… I feel nothing.
Numb.
Out of body.
My face is wet.
Someone hugs me, but… nothing.
There’s a loud sob.
Then another.
Dark’s dead.
Dead.
I never got a chance to tell him how I feel. Not really. Not like he did.
I held back.
Why…
Why didn’t I just say it?
Why didn’t I… go all in like he did?
Why did I let this man into my life, buy me a house and breakfast, and touch me in ways nobody ever has before?
I didn’t even acknowledge it when he said he loved me.
I pretended he didn’t. Because how could someone love me? The real me?
Tightness presses down on my chest, making it hard to breathe.
Dark died trying to save us.
To save children.
What about his kids? Tarek, Fog, and Lily.
Oh. God… He never got a chance to make it right with them. Not like he wanted.
Grasping my throat, I try to force air in and out, but I can’t. Just like I can’t see. Everything’s blurry.
I can’t see.
Why can’t I see?!
My pulse pounds through my ears.
Distant voices register, but all I see is his face.
That handsome, unshaven face and that smile.
Oh. That smile.
For me. Just me. A gift I took for granted.
Everything goes dark, and I die alongside him.
I’m so sorry.
For everything.