My body tenses as Blade whispers, “Fuck no…” as he grips my shoulder.
He’s raping her, the fucker is raping my girl.
I feel hot lava fill me, the need to kill consumes me as little bubbles appear before Mama returns the message.
Unknown:
well, apparently she is! I told him he has a week. otherwise, we will send the flash drive to the highest bidder and that I’m also telling my son that he has the woman he’s claiming in my old home. I need the money, and I’m not willing to hide out in this dump any longer!
“Mama’s old house, that’s where he has her,” I say quickly as I stand, not willing to wait around.
“I’m coming with you,” Ivy snaps, but I don’t pause in my tracks to console her, even as Psycho says, “You can’t, Ivy, you need to stay with Huddy,” and she shouts, “She’s my best friend,”I continue my path out of my office.
Everyone looks at me as I sprint through the common room, the brothers on my heels, my only thought, getting to my girl.
I didn’t expect to find what I did, the state she’d be in, the fact I could have lost her, that Grace, her mama, could have lost her daughter for the second time.
She spent at least ten hours sitting in my room at my home on club property with me. Holding baby Grace, Lake’s daughter, who loved that they shared the same name, before Gregory pulled her away, seeing the exhaustion on her face, the memories of when Raya was fifteen haunting her.
Ivy’s been here twice, both times having to be dragged away, as well as all the girls.
They want her to wake up, worried she might not, but I think Raya needs some peace, some time.
I look over her body covered in my dark sheets and my t-shirt hiding the worst of her injuries. I’m trying to breathe through the images of her naked, bloody, and bruised standing next to a dead Hayden, his head smashed in.
“I can feel you staring at me,” a sweet voice rasps, and more tears fall as I lock eyes with Raya’s beautiful, icy blue ones that I have come to seek out daily, her sole focus on me.
“You’re a pretty sight to stare at,” I whisper, meaning every word, even in this state, my body unable to move.
Her left eye is bloodshot and swollen, she has a concussion, her scars, scars I hadn’t seen in person on her back were cut open and needed stitching, she has several new ones on her hips, stab wounds, tearing of the vaginal walls indicating rape, more than once. When she collapsed after seeing me, I just caught her before she could push the knife that had just been stabbed into her side any deeper.
Doc, an older generation brother, placed an IV in her arm after running some blood tests, which thankfully came back clean. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and she was lucky to be alive.
“I don’t believe that,” she whispers, and I smile slightly despite the tears, before she confirms, “He’s dead?”
I nod slightly and confirm, “He is, you killed him, kitten. Blade, Psycho, Fury, and Viper, along with several brothers, destroyed the rest of them. The Hyenas are no longer, not one member got away, including Talen. They’re all dead, your father's killers are dead.”
Her tears fall as she breathes, “Thank you, Cale.”
I try to swallow my emotions as I choke, “Anything for you, kitten, absolutely anything.”
She nods as her sobs come out full of relief and pain, and that does it. I move instantly before her and kneel, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my lips, not wanting to climb on the bed with her and hurt her more, even if everything inside me is pulling to do so.
She cries for over an hour, her reason for revenge the last ten years finally done before she quiets. I don’t move the whole time, trying to give her the support and love she needs before she finally speaks, her words completely breaking me.
“I need the morning after pill,” she whispers, and my tears fall as I close my eyes and, without a word, I move one hand into my cut pocket and grab the pill in its plastic sleeve before I finally look at her and hold it to her.
She takes it gingerly from my hand as her tears fall, seeing my pain, and I choke, “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you quick enough…”
Her bottom lip wobbles as she admits, “I didn’t want you to find me, I wanted to kill him then-then kill myself, it’s why I left my phone, why I parked my car on campus…”
Her confession stops my heart, and I plead, “Don’t leave me, Raya, not when I’ve finally got you, when I’ve finally opened my eyes to what a fool I’d been over the years, please don’t leave me.”
“Cale,” she sobs, and I drop my head gently to her stomach and sob my fucking heart out, terrified she’s going to do something stupid and try to kill herself.
The past four days, I’ve realized I cannot live without this woman, and if she leaves me, I’ll follow her.
Chapter 24
