Chapter 16
Sixteen
VIOLET
Christ, this hurts.
Goon Number Two is holding my arms back, and Number One is punching me like . . . well, like I just stole his girls.
Because I did.
“I’m going to rape you,” he tells me before he backhands me. “I’m going to fuck every hole you’ve got and make it hurt like fuck before I let you die.”
“You can try,” I reply through swollen lips. My jaw aches, one eye is almost swollen shut, and my ribs sing in horror, likely broken. “You piece of shit.”
He smiles and turns to grab his gun, and with him distracted, I fling my head back again, then grab Number Two’s gun and hold it on both of them as I manage to scramble to the corner of the room.
I’m a shaking, bloody, terrified mess, but right now, I have the gun.
“Are you going to shoot us, little girl?”
These men could have Rosie. They could have raped her and beat her and tortured her over and over again, and I can’t stand it. I can’t fucking stand it.
But before I can take a shot, someone runs into the room and then stops right next to me, and I can smell him.
“Go,” I whisper. “Away.”
“No way, Savage. You don’t get to have all the fun.”
I’m still shaking. I can’t take my eyes off the two that just used me as a punching bag. I can’t breathe.
“Gonna kill them.”
“They deserve it,” he agrees. “But I don’t want you to do that.”
“Because you’re with them.” God, I didn’t want that to be true. There’s a buzzing in my ears as my whole world starts to crumble around me.
“Violet.”
I turn and point the gun at Mateo’s chest, and he doesn’t even flinch.
“I’m not with them,” he says. There’s no humor in his face, no joking around at all. “I came here to stop them.”
“He’s the boss,” Number One says, and it makes a shiver run through me.
I’m shaking so hard, it’s almost laughable.
“I-I don’t kn-know who to trust.”
Mateo licks his lips. “Baby, I need you to give me that gun.”
I shake my head and try to turn away from him.
“What if you’re with—”
I don’t get the sentence out before he draws a gun from his back and, without even looking away from my eyes, points it and shoots Number One between the eyes.
“I’m not with them. And I need you to give me that gun.”
I glance at Number Two.
“Look at me, Violet. Look in my eyes. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
I blink, as if coming out of a fog, and Mateo wraps his hand around mine, taking the gun from me, and pulls me into his chest.
“He can’t get away with this,” I say.
“He won’t. None of them will.”
I try to walk with him and realize that my ankle hurts and makes me stumble, so Mateo lifts me into his arms, and when he carries me into the main warehouse, all I can do is stare in horror.
So many bodies.
There has to be fifty dead men on the ground, at least. The air smells like the coppery tang of blood and gunpowder, and I recognize some of the men standing, waiting for us.
Diego, who’s bleeding from the arm, and some of the men from Rapture the other night.
“Who the fuck are you?” I whisper.
“I’ll tell you everything, but first, I’m going to get you seen by the doctor.” He plants his lips by my ear. “And you’re going to talk to me, Violet.”
“Shit!” I pound on his shoulder. “Put me down. Where are the girls? Where are they?”
“Hey, they’ve been taken somewhere safe,” Mateo says, frowning at me. “They’re okay.”
“I need to see them. Right now. Right fucking now, Mateo.”
“They haven’t left yet,” one of the men says, and with a nod, Mateo takes me through the door and out to where two big vans are sitting, and my heart stops.
“You won’t fucking hurt them,” I growl. “I don’t know what you think you plan to do with them, but they’re human beings, and I will not let you hurt them. I’ll kill you first.”
“Whoa.” Mateo shakes his head, frowning at me. “We’re not hurting them or selling them, Violet. We’re helping them.”
I wiggle out of his arms and hobble over to the first van, sticking my head in the back.
“Have they hurt you?”
Some of the girls are crying, but none of them are restrained, and the one closest to me shakes her head.
My body is starting to hurt. The adrenaline is starting to fade, but I power through it because these girls are so much more important than me.
“I’m going to make sure that none of you are ever hurt again. I promise.”
I back out of the van, Mateo right next to me, and stalk over to the other one. Again, the girls aren’t restrained. One of the girls has a black eye. Another has a split lip, but it’s not fresh.
“I’m so sorry,” I say to them and reach out for one of their hands. “You’re going to be okay. Do any of you know Rosie?”
They all pause and stare at me as if I just said something scary.
“Do you know her?” I try again.
“Not here,” the one who’s hand I’m holding whispers. “Not here anymore.”
No.
I want to break down in tears, and my shoulders fall, but I simply nod and pull away.
“Come on,” Mateo says as he wraps his arm around me, but I pull out of his reach and take a step away.
“I need you to swear to me that you weren’t part of this.” My voice cracks, and I clear my throat, struggling to not give into the sobs that want to come.
“I swear to you on my mother’s grave that we did not do this, Violet.
My brothers and I came here to help them.
” He takes a step toward me, and I don’t back away.
He reaches up slowly, like he’s approaching a scared animal, and gently brushes a strand of my hair off my cheek. “Fuck, I hate what they did to you.”
I can’t stop shaking. And when my stomach heaves, I turn to the side to throw up. Mateo’s hand is big and strong as he rubs circles on my back, and then he takes his shirt off so I can use it to wipe my mouth.
“Let’s go,” he says softly, but I can see the agitation in every line of his body. “I need to get you out of here.”