Page 77 of Truths

They can't see the women, but they can hear them. And Colt gives him a strange look, but Dax just holds a hand up. He doesn't want to interrupt them and make Dani clam up before she can share what she may not even know she knows.

“I don't know what you want me to say,” Dani says, and Dax can hear the shake in her voice from the unshed tears.

“You need to share what you know. I know you don't want to remember or relive anything, but there's something they think you know that will keep them coming for you. Until we know what it is to get a leg up, you're at risk. We may as well have just left you in the basement.”

Dax's anger flares up at this, but he remembers what Tripp said. Tough love mixed with fierce protectiveness. Dani has to know Lex will do whatever she needs to in order to protect her, considering there are two men lying dead right now.

“I don't know how.”

Sniffling, Lex sighs. “I was kidnapped by the Slashers. Three other old ladies and I were held captive for three days.”

“What?”

“Yeah, and I was the one they really wanted. They shocked us with old battery chargers. Mel was burned with cigarettes and cigars. Heidi was choked with a belt until she passed out and woken up to do it all over again. And again and again.”

Dani gasps, and Dax looks at Colt, who just nods as he looks at the ground. The man really does have an idea of what Dax feels.

“What about the third one?” Dani asks.

“We don't talk about Autumn. She's fine. And a coward bitch,” she says. “When they took me, I was outside the Black Valley clubhouse. They beat me after I got a few solid hits in andknocked me out. After shocking me, they stripped me down to my underwear, shackled me to a giant steel table, and they waterboarded me for information on our supplier. The water was disgusting. So disgusting that I thought I had a parasite or something because I got so sick.”

A small gasp comes from his wife. “They waterboarded you?”

“When that didn't work, they strapped me to a chair. Scarface cut along my collarbone and splashed me with cheap alcohol. Whiskey, I think. Then he and Red beat the shit out of me, trying to get me to answer their questions. Oh, at one point, Red whipped it out and threatened to shut me up with his pathetic dick, but I threatened to bite it off. Melanie was able to get out of a window and get help. She saved me from anything worse that would have likely happened. Got me out of that place barely alive.”

There's a pause. “He threatened to shut you up with his...?”

“Yep. But the worst was when I got out. I thought I'd gotten something from the disgusting well water they used, but, long story short, I had been pregnant before I was taken and didn't know it. And when I went to the doctor, I wasn't so pregnant anymore. I don't know the exact cause of how it happened, but if I was going to bet money, I'd say it was from the beatings I took.”

Looking at Colt, Dax feels his heart break for the man as he just hangs his head and wipes his eyes with his index finger and thumb. No wonder Lex said she could relate to Dani. It was shorter lived, but she lost something big at the hands of a rival. A rival of the club, not her. God, they lost a baby.

“How do you get through it?” Dani asks, pulling Dax from his thoughts.

“For starters, I keep guns in the house and shoot bad men who want to hurt people. Or I bash in the faces of club bunnies telling me they're fucking my husband. I think that one helps more than shooting, actually, but they both seem really effective.”

“Wait, you called him Scarface?”

Colt and Dax make their presence known, and Dani jumps at the sight of them. “Nice aim, baby,” Colt says, kissing Lex's temple.

“Thanks, hun,” Lex says and looks back at Dani. “His real name was O'Malley. I have no idea what his first name was, which I assume he had one, but he had scars on half of his face because Psycho shot him. The fucker refused to die, and hereallyliked me. A lot. Severely creepy.”

“Really fucking creepy,” Colt says and rubs her shoulders. “He'd watch us having sex and send her his version of love notes. Which really just detailed everything he wanted to do to her when he got her.”

Dani's eyes stare hard at Lex. “And he was the President of the Savage Slashers? Were their kuttes a shamrock and a dagger or something like that?”

“Yeah,” Lex says and reaches out to take her hand. “What is it, Dani?”

She swallows and glances at Dax but refuses to keep eye contact. The look on her face makes Dax want to vomit. “I know him. Knew him. The scarred guy. All I know is that the Kingsmen and the Slashers worked together. The scarred one would come with a man in a suit to the basement. They... they'd hurt me. Together. Once, when they thought I was passed out, the one in the suit asked Scarface why the President of the Kingsmen wanted me, and why he demanded I stay alive. I never heard who he was, and if I asked anyone, they'd beat me.”

Rage he's never felt before makes Dax shake as he stares at the two dead men, his fists clenched at his sides. All he wants is blood. Lots and lots of blood.

“The man in the suit... do you remember anything about him?” Lex asks.

She looks up at the ceiling. “He was Russian. Some organization that dealt with guns, I think. His accent was really thick, and I tried to disappear when I heard him upstairs.”

“Was his name Dimitri?” Colt asks.

Dani shakes her head. “No, I never heard anyone by that name. I know his name. Ian? No, that was the guy Kara was trying to get in with.”

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