Page 9 of Biker's Dark Revenge

"Here you go," I told her, trying to keep my voice as bright as possible. She offered me a small, nervous smile. She must have been freaking out, though she was doing a good job of pretending she wasn’t.

"Thanks," she muttered. It struck me that this might have been the first time that she had ever seen anywhere outside of the confines of the room she and Hadley had been trapped in all that time. Fuck, that was so twisted – would they have kept her in there forever if I hadn’t come along? I could only imagine what they would have done to her given the chance...

I planted myself down on the edge of the couch, a few feet away from her, giving her the space she needed. I tried not to let my mind wander to too many horrible possibilities. Right now, we were out, and that was all that mattered.

Even though I knew whatever came next was going to be seriously tough.

Chapter Six – Lee

"Is she asleep?" I asked as Liana stepped out of the bedroom. She nodded and yawned.

"Yeah, she’s out for the count," she replied. "I was worried she would be too stressed to get any rest, but it looks like she’s exhausted from everything that happened."

"They sleep a lot at that age," I remarked. It was hard to tell exactly how old Kara was, given that she hadn’t been fed properly, but she looked close to the age Dina had been when she...

No. I couldn’t even think about that. I needed to keep that shit out of my head. What mattered was what was right in front of me right now, and I couldn’t let my past get in the way of that.

"Right," she sighed, and she slumped down into the couch. I was standing against the wall, not wanting to make myself too comfortable without her say-so. She had been through hell, and I imagined that she’d want some time to herself to decompress.

She glanced back over towards her bedroom, where she had left Kara sleeping.

"I just can’t believe they were keeping a little girl in there," she murmured, shaking her head. "I mean, I heard some stuff about Lombardi from the Dogs, and I knew he was a bad guy, but this...this is beyond anything I could have imagined."

"I know," I agreed. Truth be told, I couldn’t believe it was real. I had known he was into some twisted, dark shit, but keeping a little girl there? Locking her up and raising her without any contact, while her mother was using drugs in front of her? From everything Liana had filled me in on, Kara would have been better off being raised in the woods by wolves than stuck in the mess she’d been in in that compound.

"You want to sit down?" she asked. I found a yawn escaping my lips before I could stop it. I knew I needed to get in touch with Chuck and update him about everything, but I was sure he would be sleeping right now – I could fill him in on all the disgusting details in the morning.

I sat down next to her, distinctly aware of how close we were to each other. This apartment was pretty small, and it wasn’t as though we had much choice but to be on top of one another.

"I don’t know why they went after me," Liana admitted, shaking her head. She was clutching a coffee in her still-shaky hands, and the way her delicate fingers were wrapped around it was hard to ignore. I had never seen her so vulnerable in all the time I had known her; usually, at the bar, she could keep up with the jokes and banter that flew back and forth, giving as good as she got from the guys. But this? This was different. She was shaken to her core, and, after everything she had seen, I couldn’t blame her.

"I do," I muttered, my voice low. I didn’t want to have to admit it, but shit, what choice did we have? She turned to me, eyes wide.

"You do...?"

"They went after you because you work at the Kennels," I replied, through gritted teeth. It was their way of sending a message to us. Making sure we knew that they were the ones calling the shots. They’ve been abducting women from all over the city – getting them hooked on their product and then only giving it to them if they work at one of his fucked-up brothels. But they knew they had to send a message to us. They knew they had to show us we weren’t safe from it either. We don’t have a lot of women around the Dogs, at least ones who aren’t dating members – you were the perfect choice for them."

She fell silent for a long time, as though it was all just hitting her now.

"Fuck," she murmured, her voice trembling. "I... I thought just working there, I would be okay, but..."

"You know this world, Liana," I reminded her gently. "You know that nobody is off-limits when it comes to people like Lombardi."

She nodded. I knew she had a past in motorcycle clubs – her father, I was pretty sure, had been part of a gang back in the day, if what I’d heard from Chuck was right – but having a past in that and facing up to the reality of what it meant to be associated with the Dogs were very different things.

"I know," she sighed, lifting the coffee to her lips, and taking a sip.

"Should you be having coffee right now?" I remarked. "It’s late, you should get some sleep..."

She shook her head.

"Probably not," she admitted. "But I don’t think there’s any way I’m going to be able to sleep tonight."

There was a haunted look in her eyes, a distance, as though she was still trapped in that cell. I couldn’t imagine how terrified she must have been or what they had threatened her with. They hadn’t set her to work yet, at least, but it probably wouldn’t have been long till they forced her into one of those dingy rooms to spread her legs for whoever would pay for it.

"You’re okay," I reminded her. "You’re safe."

"I don’t know how I can ever feel safe again, knowing they’re out there," she replied softly. "I... I knew that it was dark, the shit they were involved in, but seeing Hadley like that..."

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