Page 55 of Tess, Property of Blaze

“Hello?” Tracker calls out, but still nothing from the other side that I can tell. Then there’s a click, and Tracker begins to play around with the lock. I see him pull out the tool he uses to unlock doors on jobs; it shouldn’t take long now.

We wait patiently, Hawke biting on his thumbnail while Prez doesn’t move his gaze from the screen. I don’t realize I’m grinding my teeth so hard my jaw hurts, until a shot of pain travels up my neck. I make myself relax and take a few deep breaths.

We all hear another click, and then Tracker slowly opens the door. My eyes try to adjust to the darkness when Trackers steps into the room, and the first thing I see is a body lying on a mattress on the floor. Tracker suddenly has a small penlight in his hand, and he shines its bright beam toward the person. He takes slow and steady steps, and once the light hits the mattress, recognition slices through me. Those tattoos—they only belong to one person.

My body freezes still. Hawke and Prez are talking to me, but I can’t focus on them. All I can hear is the sound of my heart thumping through my eardrums. My eyes don’t leave Tess. She’s limp, lying flat on her stomach, naked. Rage boils up inside me, but what sets me over the edge is the sight of the blood running down her leg. He raped her.

A loud, animalistic roar echoes throughout the van, and I only realize it’s coming from me when both Hawke and Prez push me down on the ground and keep me there with force. They struggle to hold me down as I throw myself up and to one side, knocking Hawke on his ass and nearly getting free. Quill struggles to hold me down on his own, but then Hawke is back, straddling me this time and keeping my hands behind my back and locked together.

I growl and call them all kind of names, but they don’t budge. I need to get to Tess! Frustration has me screaming like a caged animal wanting to be freed, but it’s no use, I can’t get out of my restraints.

Tears suddenly spring to my eyes at the image in front of me, Tess bleeding and unconscious, Tracker crouching down beside her and trying to wake her up. It should me there with her now—she should never have been there in the first place!

“I let her down, I practically gave her to him. I’m a fuckin’ asshole, I’m not worthy of her.” The words pour out of me, my chest aching with the agony I’m feeling.

“Brothers, I need your help, Tess is in a bad way.” Tracker’s voice comes through the speaker. “She needs a hospital as soon as possible, and I have no clue how to get her the fuck out of here without them seeing me.”

“You cool?” Prez asks me. The strength of his hands hold me in check, and I know that Tess needs me to be rational right now.

I nod. “Please let me up, I need to help her,” I beg, my voice shattered and broken.

“You promise you won’t do anything stupid like just run in there? We must do this together.”

“I promise,” I say with no hesitation. “Please, let’s go get her.”

Quill gives my shoulder a tap. “Okay, brother, okay.”

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