40. Kelsey
Kelsey
With her ears ringing and blood covering her body, Kelsey accepted someone’s offer of a shirt. The evening had passed in a blur. She was numb and unable to process anything more.
Who were these people? How had they gotten there?
Once she tugged the Henley over her head, she searched the parking lot.
Where was Carrie? Kev had told someone to get her. Had they?
Frantically trying to keep Kev from falling over, she scanned the crowd for her friend. Her heart hammered in her ears. She couldn’t be the only one who escaped alive. Carrie had to get out too. Did she survive? Had she been shot?
“Get in,” Kev ordered as someone opened the back door of an SUV.
She shook her head. “No.” She clung to him harder. “Where’s Carrie?”
“My brother has her,” he assured her. “We can’t wait around.”
Where? She had to put eyes on her friend for peace of mind. There was no way she could leave without seeing Carrie.
“I’m not going anywhere without her.” Kelsey hadn’t been able to stop Carrie from getting raped, but that didn’t mean she would abandon her friend to die there to protect herself.
“We don’t have time for this,” a blond man growled, wearing a stony expression and clad in black.
Kev nodded. “She’ll be in a different car. We have to go.”
Meeting his eyes, panting wildly, Kelsey had a choice to make. She could dig her heels in and refuse to flee the chaos so she could look for Carrie, or she could believe him.
Leaning into her, Kev brought his hand to her cheek. Their foreheads met. The pain in his eyes made her heart ache. There was so much blood. His. Hers. It all mingled together at this point. He could barely breathe, but he didn’t leave her side.
“Trust me, Kitten,” he murmured.
He’d gone into the fires of hell with guns blazing to rescue her. The least she could do was believe him.
With her bottom lip quivering and tears running down her face, she glanced around a final time, desperate for some reassurance that she had made the right decision.
There.
In the arms of the thin man Kev was often with was Carrie. He’d covered her with his own shirt. Her head rested against his shoulders, and her arms were around his neck as he carried her.
Kelsey released a breath and sagged against him.
Carrie was alive.
They’d both made it out of the house of horrors.
Swallowing hard, Kelsey ducked into the back of the SUV, the faint sound of sirens in the distance.
Kevlar
Kevlar’s head pounded. Agony throbbed in his shoulder. Breathing was difficult with the blade in his side. If that fucking asshole nicked his lung, he’d be royally pissed. They hadn’t established medical connections yet, and going to the hospital wasn’t an option.
Too many questions.
Gritting his teeth, he let his head fall back. What he wouldn’t give to be in Washington, with his national chapter. They had someone reliable who could look him over and stitch him up. He didn’t have that shit yet.
He couldn’t even remember who his father used years ago. Those were the sort of resources he should’ve established before he went behind enemy lines.
Jesus Christ.
He was lucky he survived going in half-cocked like that. He was his father’s son after all.
“Where are we headed?” the man behind the wheel asked.
Kevlar opened one eye and studied him. The driver was one of Paul’s men. Thank fuck they hadn’t gotten into the car with some random asshat or worse.
“The shop,” he said, because he couldn’t come up with anywhere else to go.
The Knucklehead would be wall-to-wall people. They weren’t in any condition to crash the back room right now. Kelsey and her friend were practically naked. No. They had to go somewhere private. There was only one place he could think of.
Considering he wasn’t on the best of terms with his sister, he should probably give her a heads-up that they were headed there. Let her get the yelling out of her system before they showed up, because this wasn’t negotiable.
With a grunt, he shifted slightly to get his cell. As he did, he couldn’t help but study Kelsey.
Blood. His? Hers? He couldn’t tell. Either way, there was too much. Beneath her chin, he noticed some minor cuts.
He clenched his teeth. A renewed rage boiled in his veins. This was his fault. He should’ve had eyes on her. He left her to the fucking wolves. His fingers curled into tight fists. What he wouldn’t give to put more bullets in Yogi and every one of his brothers.
“What’s wrong?” Kelsey asked, inching closer to him.
She bumped into the butt of the blade in his side.
“Jesus!” She recoiled backward. “You’re stabbed.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed. Hadn’t she seen that happen? She’d been right there saving his ass.
She placed her hands on the grip. “Should we take it out?”
“No!” The man in the front seat joined Kevlar’s protest.
Releasing the handle of the knife, she backed farther away from him and lifted her hands up, palms facing him.
“He’ll bleed more if we do that,” the driver explained.
Worry glittered in her eyes as her lips tightened into a thin line.
He couldn’t remember the last time anyone looked at him like that. The last time he got stabbed, someone cackled gleefully. This was a little different.
He cupped her cheek and pulled her closer to him. “I’ll be alright.”
“You better be,” she whispered as she covered his hand with hers.
He forced a smile as warmth blossomed in his chest. This woman was something else. She’d just been through hell. Who knew what had happened to her before he got there. Yet she wasn’t concerned about herself. Her focus was on her friend and him.
She was one in a million.
She was his.
He sighed, tapped the screen, and found his sister’s number. As it rang, he brought it to his ear, bracing himself for the slew of curses she’d hurl at him.