Page 10 of Biker's Dark Revenge

She trailed off. I didn’t speak, didn’t cut her off. I knew it helped to put it into words sometimes. Helped clear some of the fog from your head, if only for a little while.

"She was so out of it," she muttered. "I mean, she was using so much. It was like she couldn’t so much as open her eyes without needing something to take the edge off. Like she hardly even knew she had a daughter there..."

"It was probably what she needed," I replied. "Just to keep her head on straight."

"I know, I know," she replied. "I don’t blame her for that, not at all. I don’t know what I would have done in her position, I don’t know how I would have handled myself. I’m not judging her for it, it’s just..."

She glanced over towards the door. Her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth was set into a hard line.

"I get so mad when I think about what that little girl must have been through," she added quietly. "How much she missed out on. And she doesn’t even know it. Those assholes had her convinced that was normal life. They had her convinced..."

Her voice trembled, but it wasn’t with fear or grief anymore. No, it was with anger. Some deep-seated rage rose from somewhere deep inside of her, like she couldn’t control it – like she couldn’t even imagine controlling it.

"I’m sorry," she breathed, trying to bring herself back down to earth.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," I replied. Seeing her so pissed about this, so ready to take them on, it had me feeling some kind of way. Like the two of us were on the same page. I knew Chuck had been right to play it cool all this time, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t want to storm into Lombardi’s compound and destroy him, wipe him off the face of the earth once and for all.

She locked eyes with me.

"I want to destroy him," she whispered. "I... I didn’t know what they were doing. How bad it got. If I had, I would never..."

She trailed off again, thoughts scattered from the sheer level of stress and exhaustion she was dealing with right now. Her hand rested on the couch, just a few inches from mine, and I thought about taking it but decided not to.

"I would never have been able to rest until I knew he was dealt with," she finished up. She looked up at me.

"You guys are working to take him down, right?” she asked. I nodded.

"We’ll get there."

"You need to get there faster," she told me urgently. "Just think about everything else they could be planning, everything that might be going on, and how many other girls they might have locked up in there..."

She trailed off again. I felt a surge of certainty rush through my system. If I hadn’t been dedicated to the cause before, I sure as hell was now, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of it.

"I will," I replied. "First thing in the morning, I’ll go to Chuck, and I’ll let him know what happened. What you saw. You can come with me, fill him in yourself. As soon as he finds out, he’ll change his tune. He’ll make a move."

She closed her eyes and nodded, seemingly relieved.

"Good," she murmured. She opened them again and glanced around.

"God, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sleep tonight," she confessed, smiling slightly. "I thought I was...I never thought I would get to see this place again. But I thought at least I would be sleeping in my bed if I did. Guess I’ll have to get some pillows out of storage and set up the couch, huh?"

"You want me to stay here tonight?" I offered her. She shook her head at once.

"No, no, don’t worry about that," she replied. "You’ve already done enough. More than enough. I know you have your own life to get back to."

"I want to stay, Liana," I replied, the certainty in my words catching even me off-guard. It wasn’t just about taking care of her, though that was of course part of it – it was about taking care of Kara, too. I had already let one little girl get hurt on my watch, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if it happened again.

"Okay, well, if you’re sure," she remarked, cocking an eyebrow. "I don’t think I have much in the way of bedding, but..."

"Trust me, I’ve slept on a few floors in my time," I chuckled. She smiled at me. God, that smile – it was such a relief to see it again. I had been so worried that it had slipped through my fingers for good before. I was glad to see her starting to look comfortable again, though I knew it would be a while before she could fully relax. After what she had been through, nobody would have blamed her for needing time to unwind.

She finished up her coffee and got to her feet, heading to the storage closet next to the bedroom; I watched as she fished out some covers and pillows, and found a smile crossing my face.

I had been right, and I had gotten her out. I knew Chuck was going to have some shit to say to me when he found out how much I had risked by going in there and freeing her, but when he heard what had been going down in that place, he’d be glad I’d done it. We had a better idea of what Lombardi was doing now – and it was so, so much worse than any of us could have imagined. I was ready to do whatever needed to be done to bring that fucker down, once and for all...

And make him pay for what he had tried to do to Liana.

Chapter Seven – Liana

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