Chapter Thirteen
Jag
The warehouse door groaned as we pushed it open.
I moved first, every muscle in my body coiled tight with rage as Knight, Cain and I moved inside the door with purpose.
The others were behind us, but I only cared about Ada.
My eyes adjusted quickly to the dimness.
Then I saw her. Ada sat tied to a metal chair in the center of the room, her face bruised, lip split and bleeding.
Something primal roared inside my chest.
Rat Man stood beside her, a gun pointed vaguely at Ada, but he seemed to swing the gun in whatever direction he looked.
His face twisted into a smirk when he spotted us approaching.
I could see the wild panic behind his eyes.
I glanced in Ada’s direction and my gaze locked on her.
I needed to look away, to watch Rat Man or at the very least scan the area for any more minions Rat Man had working for him other than the two we caught as they tried to leave the warehouse, but my focus now was Ada.
She met my gaze and held it. Despite her split lip and the angry bruise blooming on her cheekbone, her gaze burned with defiance. My girl. My fucking warrior.
“Well, well,” Rat Man started, his voice high and tight. “If it isn’t --”
The gunshot cracked through the warehouse like thunder. Rat Man jerked backward, a look of profound surprise crossing his face as a dark stain bloomed across his chest. He stumbled once, twice, then crumpled to the floor in an ungraceful heap.
I glanced left. Cain moved past Rat Man, not looking at him as he did.
He holstered his gun and took out a pair of trauma shears, knelt beside Ada, and started working to carefully cut the zip ties at her ankles.
His expression hadn’t changed a bit. He might have been checking the time for all the emotion he showed.
Everything happened so fast it took me a second to process. Cain might be older than me, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy I wanted to make my enemy. Knight managed to be a step ahead of me as we both hurried to Ada as well.
“I’m fine, Knight.” Ada tried to reassure her brother, even managing to frown in disapproval. She thought she got to boss Knight around. Cute. “Go do whatever the shit you guys do and give me a minute, yeah?” Uh-oh… Ada’s snippy voice never boded well for the receiving party.
“Right.” Knight still knelt beside her, meeting her gaze directly.
Whatever he saw in her eyes satisfied him because Knight stood, glanced at me and then back to Ada.
Take care of her. Message received loud and clear.
“Tiny’s coming in from the back.” He paused before glancing over at Cain. “Don’t shoot him.”
I rushed to Ada. Her wrists were raw and bloody where the zip ties had cut into her skin. Her ankles were still bound to the chair legs, but Cain worked carefully to free her. Rage burned hotter in my gut at the sight, but I pushed it down. She needed me steady now.
“You okay?” I asked, kneeling in front of her. The words felt stupid and inadequate. Of course she wasn’t okay.
Ada’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at me, her lip trembling. “You’re late,” she managed to say, forcing a smile through her tears.
“Traffic was hell,” I replied, my voice rough with emotion as I stroked her face. The plastic at her ankle gave way with a snap, and Cain immediately moved to the other side while I checked her over. Her hands were bloody and freezing when I took them in mine.
She trembled as she looked up at me, wincing. “Circulation’s coming back. I didn’t notice before, but my fingers hurt like a motherfucker.” Her voice trembled almost as violently as her hands did.
Knight returned from his sweep of the building. “Clear,” he announced. Tiny followed behind him but at a distance. With his hands out to his sides. “Must have only had the two bozos with him.”
Cain stood over Rat Man’s body, nudging it with the toe of his boot. The old man looked down at the corpse with an expression of disgust. “Who the fuck takes the name Rat Man?” he asked no one in particular.
Gunnar, who’d slipped in when I wasn’t looking, snorted despite the tension hanging in the air.
“Good Goddamned question,” he replied, glancing at his father with a mixture of exasperation and respect.
“The two guys out there are hired thugs. Said he paid them a couple grand each to meet him here and beat up a couple bikers. Said they didn’t have anything else to do and liked to fight. ” He shrugged.
“It was only Rat Man who grabbed me,” Ada offered. “I mean, those two didn’t do anything to help me, but they didn’t hurt me either.”
“Either way,” Gunnar said. “They’ll be having themselves an accident. Nothing lethal, but enough to let them know this is our territory and we protect our own.”
I turned back to Ada, gently cupping her face in my hands. “Are you hurt anywhere else, baby?”
“Pain’s waitin’ at the clubhouse,” Knight offered. “He can check her over good. We should go if there’s nothing she needs taken care of immediately.”
“Just the hits you can see,” she said. “He kicked my thigh and my leg’s still kind of numb.
I don’t think I can stand on it.” Then, the last of her composure cracked.
Her shoulders began to shake, tears spilling down her cheeks and cutting tracks through the dust and blood.
I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her as tightly as I dared without hurting her.
Her fingers clutched at my cut, holding on like she might float away if she let go.
“I got you,” I whispered into her hair. “I got you now.”
Her body trembled violently against mine as weeks of tension and hours of terror finally found release.
I picked her up, carrying her to the cage Tiny’d brought, and sat in the back seat.
I held her through her storm, one hand cradling the back of her head, the other wrapped around her.
I just held her to me, kissing the top of her head.
She clung to me and I tightened my hold on her, needing to comfort and protect her as much as she needed reassurance she was safe.
She cried until we got to the compound, which thankfully took less than ten minutes. Tiny opened the door and I slid out, still cradling Ada against my chest like something precious. Because she was. The most precious thing in my fucked-up world.
“I’m taking you home,” I promised, my lips brushing against her forehead. “Never gonna let anything happen to you again.”
“Not your fault,” she mumbled against my neck. “Shoulda left the damned cookies.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied, tightening my grip slightly. “No one touches what’s mine. Not ever again.”
I took her through the compound straight to our rooms. Pain followed.
Thank God, too, because I couldn’t take her anywhere else but my safe space.
Nowhere else. We might not officially be living in the same space, but I’d been there since the beginning.
This was where I needed her. Safe. In my space. With me.
As I approached her apartment, Pain stepped ahead of me and swiped the door open. I hadn’t known the man was that near and I started back, cradling Ada closer to me as I bared my teeth and growled.
“Hey,” Pain raised his hands in defense and stepped back. “We’re here to help your girl. Not hurt either of you.” Pain gave me a steady look, like he knew I rode the edge of sanity pretty close.
“I’m here with him.” Pain’s woman, Nadine, slipped closer but still stayed behind Pain. “Knight is right behind us.” She gave me a tentative smile. “I thought Ada might need a woman’s help. Hannah is on her way too.”
I closed my eyes and took a breath. This wasn’t prison. I didn’t need to get her in my cell to be safe after a fight. We were all safe. One breath after another. Rub my chin over Ada’s hair for comfort. Breathe in her sweet scent.
“I think he’s back with us,” Pain said, never taking his gaze from me. “He knows we’re here to help. Not hurt.”
I took a breath. Then another. Ada still clung to me but she was silent. She’d also buried her fingers in my hair at the base of my neck and squeezed the tense muscles. The relief was almost instantaneous.
“It’s okay, Jag,” Ada said against my neck. “We’re both okay.”
My knees gave out. I managed to back against the wall before sliding down it with Ada still held tightly in my arms. Sweat immediately erupted over my skin and my body shuddered around Ada’s as I still held her close.
“Back up, guys. They’re fine.” Pain’s voice sounded like it came from a well or something. The roaring in my ears drowned out everything but mine and Ada’s breathing. Her little whispers that she was okay, that I was okay, anchored me to the here and now. “Give ‘em both a minute here.”
After a while, Ada threaded her fingers through my beard, touching my face with her fingertips. “Jag?”
“Yeah,” I managed, my breathing evening out, my heart rate slowly returning to normal.
“Can we go inside? I’d really like a shower.”
I grunted. Neither of us made a move to get up.
“Uh, well, I suppose I could carry you both.” I jerked my gaze upward to see Tiny standing over me, scratching his head as he squinted down at us.
Like he was trying to work out how best to go about his task with the least amount of effort.
The implication he’d pick both of us up and carry us inside -- like a kid who’d fallen asleep on the floor with his or her favorite doll -- broke the haze over my mind better than a bucket of ice water to the dick.
“NO!” I got my legs under me and stood, Ada still in my arms. And yeah, I wasn’t graceful with the move. “We’re good.”
“Okay, brother.” Pain gave me an encouraging smile. “Let’s get your girl inside and look her over. Yeah?”