Page 114 of Cook

“Brotherhood, asshole. You came for me in Mexico. Somethin’ I’ll never forget. I probably owe you my life, Bou’s and Celt’s too. But you gotta screw your head on straight. Let us come for you too.” Then he left. It took too long.

The bikes rumbled to life and revved as they took the curve off my property.

So much for fixing the porch and maybe developing more pictures with Maddie this afternoon. She had taken a lot of them today, but I didn’t know if she’d be calm enough to tackle the work.

Lanie lost a lot of time with her sister, I knew that, but I wasn’t the only shithead in this situation with trust issues. I wasn’t making it easy for anyone but Maddie.

Both sisters had lost a lot, but Maddie was the one who’d been kidnapped, tortured, and raped. Not Lanie.

My hands were still balled into fists from earlier, and I threw a right hook into the door. The entire house groaned, and the photo frames clattered against the walls. Pulling back my hand, I finally flexed and inspected the door.

I would have a bruise tomorrow, but no dents. Good thing too. I had enough work around here without cleaning up after my own tantrums.

Maddie

The sound of the motorcyclesleaving didn’t quiet every thought in my head. Mel was gone, along with the tall guy with long dark hair, and then Bou and Wilde. I thought she was supposed to be my friend, but she’d brought them here.

So much for trusting her.

Laying on the bed, I had scraps of notebook paper and a pencil, carving the old memories into the light blue and red lines. The faces were blurred, always shrouded in darkness, but the fingers were like claws, sharpened into blades.

They had cut into me until I bled. My blood turned into a river, and I drew myself screaming until my throat turned raw. The men raped me, but they also wanted my body for their torture. It was never about sex for them, but violence.

So much blood and pain.

Sobs and gasps.

Scars and nightmares.

“Maddie?” Cook’s voice shifted the haze around my mind, slowing my scribbling hand, but then I blinked.

I was back in a hotel room. Immersed in fear. Something curled around my neck until I couldn’t breathe.

I had to get it out, so I scratched the pencil against the paper, cutting through it like it was flesh. Like I could stab the men again and again, giving them every piece of my pain. I needed to hear them scream.

“Maddie!” He grabbed my shoulder, and I turned toward him, baring my teeth.

I would get revenge on these men. All of them. I wouldn’t stop or the monsters would come after sweet Roni again. To burn her.

They’d find me and cut me.

They’d hurt Bou and her baby.

And Mel—my sister.

Lanie? She said Angel called her that. Was Angel her Cook?

They would eat her alive. Her long-haired biker wouldn’t be able to stop the sharpened fangs of the monster. I had to destroy them!

I peeled away from Cook as he dropped his hand, his eyes wide. How was he really this weak? How did he ever think he could help me? How did I think he saved me?

We would never be safe... until I killed them all. I stabbed the pencil into the paper. Gray lead spurted from the wound, covering thepage and my hands, up my forearms. I stabbed again, listening to the screams in my head that sounded too much like my own.

“Help! Don’t! Please!” I had screamed when I was a child before learning better.

When I started swallowing my screams, it made the torture sessions shorter, because they liked it when we screamed. They got off on it. Too many times I had lost that battle when the pain grew too deep.

I had to stay awake to at least fight because if I was unconscious, they might slice off pieces of me.

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