Page 61 of Claimed By the Damned

Knox crossed his arms, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I have a bad feeling about this, and I’m about to gut someone with a butterknife.”

Normally, Drake would disagree with Knox’s assessments, but he didn’t think it was such a bad idea at the moment. Maybe it was because the bond was now solidified between the two of them, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was really wrong.

“Maybe she accidentally slept in? We did keep her up pretty damn late.” He was just throwing suggestions out there at this point. Mainly because he didn’t want to admit the truth to himself.

Amara had always said that she didn’t think her father would let her go. There was a very real possibility that he was holding her captive now that she had told him she was leaving. That would cause some problems but wasn’t going to work out the way her father hoped. They would get her back; it was only a matter of how much blood was shed before they did.

“Let’s go inside the bar and wait for her there,” Zeke muttered as a group of women walked by them and gave them some curious looks.

“Fuck that,” Knox retorted. “I’m not moving.”

Zeke sighed. “But –”

Drake’s shoulders sagged in relief as he spotted Amara’s car finally coming down the road, stopping for some passing kids. “There she is.”

The three of them moved toward the car as she pulled up to the front of the shop, but when she began climbing out, they stopped short and took in the sight of her. Despite the warm weather, she was dressed in a baggy sweatshirt, the hood pulled up over her hair, and a pair of large sunglasses. Her hair framed her face from beneath the hood in a weak attempt to hide what was clearly growing bruises on her jaw and cheek. There was also a large split in her swollen lip.

As she moved around the front of the car, she didn’t even look at them, and he could tell that her injuries extended further than he thought because she was moving delicately.

For a moment, the three of them were frozen in their spots. Then, rage took over when he realized what had happened and what had been the cause. It took every ounce of strength he had not to completely flip his lid, which wouldn’t do them any good out here on the street. He noticed that both Zeke and Knox seemed to be dealing with the same thing, and he knew they needed to get inside before one of them lost control.

Amara said nothing as she passed them and moved toward the door, unlocked it, and then went inside, leaving the three of them standing out on the street.

“Oh, fuck no,” Knox declared, yanking the door open and rushing inside after her. He and Zeke followed behind him, but he paused long enough to lock the door. They didn’t need an audience for this.

“What the fuck happened, Amara?” Knox asked as he stomped after her while she made her way toward the office.

“Nothing, I’m fine,” she muttered, still not bothering to look back at them, which was how he knew that was a bald-faced lie.

He and Zeke stopped just inside the doorway of the office, Knox between them but a few steps behind, as she set her purse down in a drawer at the bottom of the desk. The wince that crossed her face as she righted herself did not go unnoticed and only fueled the rage bubbling inside of him.

“Princesa,” Zeke breathed. He moved to her and gently took her chin between his fingers to examine her face. “What happened?”

Drake already knew what happened, and there was no way Zeke and Knox didn’t know either. But maybe they wanted to hear the words from her before they took action. Because they were definitely going to do something about this now. Her father had taken things too far this time.

Amara sighed and removed her sunglasses. Beside him, Knox gripped the door frame, causing the wood to crack and groan beneath the stress when they all got a look at the bruise on her eye.

“I got a reality check, okay?” she replied, her voice thick with emotion. It sounded as though she had been crying for the last several hours. “Look, we… we need to talk.”

“Can I murder him now?” Knox growled to him. “Say the word, and I’m fucking gone.”

“Talk about what, Amara?” he asked her, ignoring Knox for the moment.

He was barely holding it together as it was, and he was pretty sure he knew what she was about to say. Drake was inclined to agree with Knox this time. The words were on the tip of his tongue. He was seconds away from giving Knox the go-ahead to murder the asshole who dared to put his hands on what was theirs.

Stepping away from Zeke, Amara ran her fingers through her hair. “This. Us. We have to end it.”

None of them said anything for a moment as the weight of her words settled heavily in the air around them.

“What did he say, Amara?” he ground out through clenched teeth. “What did he tell you?”

When she turned to him, her eyes were full of tears, and the sight broke his heart. He had never seen her look so broken. “What he said doesn’t matter. We have to end it. I have to… I have to reject you guys and the bond we share.”

“Why?” Zeke whispered.

“Over my dead body,” Knox said at the same time.

Amara sighed. “I told you guys from the very beginning that this would never work. You didn’t believe me. And this?” She pointed to the bruises on her face. “This is because I believed you all when you said that it would be okay. That it would work out.” She wrapped her arms around her middle before moving to look out of the window. “I was naive to believe that he would ever let me be happy.”

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