Page 2 of Dark Biker Protector

Oh, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. No. This couldn’t be happening...

"Is she dead?" I asked the doctor, my voice dropping to a threatening low. I needed to know. I needed to hear this from him. I needed to find out just what had happened to my sister.

The doctor hesitated. I slammed him back against the wall behind me, blind rage taking over.

"Is she dead?" I roared in his face. I could feel the other men trying to pull me back, but I didn’t let go. I wasn’t going to ease up until I knew the truth. They were trying to control me, contain me, but I wouldn't let them until I knew what had happened to her.

Finally, slowly, as though he wished he could give me any other answer than this, the doctor nodded.

I sank to the ground, my knees giving out from underneath me. No. No, no, no. I couldn’t...she couldn’t be dead...

The guys opened the door and I wanted to turn to check, to see her like that on the bed before me, but I knew that it would have destroyed me. I didn’t need to see her body like that, laid out in front of me. I knew what had happened to her, who had done this, and it ripped me apart that he had gotten what he wanted from her. He had won. He had taken her from me, from everyone who cared about her, and there was nothing we could do to bring her back.

"She...she came in with some severe injuries," The doctor explained, still shaky, as I knelt there on the floor before him – like I was praying to him, praying to anyone who could hear me that she would come back.

"She was beaten," he continued. "We don’t know by who-"

"I do," I replied, my voice hollow. "I know."

"You’ll need to talk to the cops about it-"

I rose to my feet, staring down at him.

"I’m not talking to the cops about shit," I growled. "You think that they didn’t know about this? They knew what he was doing to her. I can’t count how many times one of the neighbors called it in. They didn’t give a fuck about her. They were just glad for one less person to have to worry about."

I turned on my heel and walked away, my eyes blurred with tears, my jaw set so tight it hurt. My fists were clenched at my sides as I strode to the entrance of the hospital. There was still so much I had to do, so much I had to think about in terms of her funeral, getting her affairs in order, but now, all I could focus on was the blazing pain in my chest.

Fuck. I couldn’t...this couldn’t be happening. I wanted to tear the stupid little plastic chairs from the wall in the waiting room, smash them through the window and watch them splinter into the street, but I knew it wouldn’t change anything other than getting me locked up in prison.

I breathed in a lungful of the cold night air, and it felt like it was ripping holes in my lungs with every breath. I didn’t know what to do now. What, did I just go back to the life I’d known before, the life without her? It didn’t seem possible. It didn’t seem fair. It didn’t seem right that I should walk out of here alive, when she, sweet, kind, and loving Anna, would be zipped up into a body bag.

I made it to my bike before my legs gave out underneath me again, and I gripped it tight, focusing on the feel of leather beneath my fingers. I wanted to howl out into the night. My sister, the only girl in the world I gave a damn about, was gone.

I couldn’t change what had happened. I couldn’t go back and undo the hurt that he had put her through, that much I knew for sure. But, at the very least, I could use the power I had in this city to make sure no other girl went through this again without protection. The cops wouldn’t do shit: I had learned that the hard way. And now? Now, I was determined I would be the one to step up.

It was all I could focus on to get through the pain that was tearing me apart right now, as I thought back to that hospital room, those cold, sterile walls, and the knowledge that my precious baby sister would never leave that place.

Chapter One – Abbey

I poured myself a generously strong cup of coffee and headed over to my laptop to scroll through the new stories that had come out today. I had been at something of a loose end lately, and I needed to find something else to focus my energy and attention on.

It had been nearly a month since the story about Sal Salina had dropped, and I was pretty sure I had sent this city into a tailspin in the aftermath. Though, honestly, they should have been thanking me – the way that guy had been going about his business, I could only imagine how far down that rabbit hole went, how much corruption there was in the upper echelons of Atwood that I had helped lay out for everyone to see.

Well, me and Star, at least. When she had reached out to me, I had seen the chance I needed to actually settle in a new town – I had been kicking around the county for a few months, trying to put as much distance between Franco and I as I could, but I knew there was a story out there waiting for me, something I could settle on to make all of this come together. It might not be easy, and it might not be quick, but when I had a case to pour my energy into, everything else seemed to make a little more sense in the process, you know?

But now that story was good and done, and I hadn’t had anything else to work on all this time. It was starting to drive me a little crazy. When I had started out as a freelancer, I had figured it would be a better fit for me than anything in an office, working those long hours to churn out the same boring articles about local events and human-interest stories that all the rest of the graduates from my journalism course did these days.

I could never stay focused on a single topic for too long, which meant that I was always at my best when I was bouncing around from case to case and story to story. That was how I had always liked it , and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that. I had put together some stuff I was really proud of, like exposing a business award in my last city, Lilyvale, that had been dismissing women’s businesses without any consideration. Maybe I could have done more down there before I left if it hadn’t been for...him.Not that I was going to let him get hooked in my head right now—nope, no way.

As though sensing my anxiety, my little ginger tabby, Cinnamon, bumped his head against my leg, and I reached down to pick him up and planted him on my lap.

"Thanks, buddy," I told him, as he chirruped and pushed his head into my hand. I had found him wandering around outside my apartment building when I first moved in, and call me a softie, but I knew he needed a home at once and took him in to live with me. I adored cats, always had, and even though I wasn’t entirely supposed to have any pets in this particular apartment, I wasn’t going to let a little thing like the rules get in the way of me taking care of this sweet little baby.

He curled up on my lap as I scrolled through the news for the day, eyes darting back and forth as I took in headlines. Something I could use to build a story from. There had to be something, didn’t there? I had been out of sorts for the better part of a month now, and I didn’t know what I was going to be able to do to kick-start myself back into work when the time came. I drummed my fingers on the desk, the scent of the coffee filling my senses as the light streamed in from the window beside me.

There had been that biker gang that Star had been part of...what were they called? The Dogs? Something about dogs? I glanced down at Cinnamon on my lap and grinned. Yeah, I was more a cat person, but maybe I should have opened myself to the possibility of a more canine approach...

All at once, my phone buzzed, and I jumped, snatching it up.

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