Page 82 of Demo

Bulldog and Demo came to a halt in the doorway. The room itself looked as it always had, immaculate due to Paige’s need to clean so thoroughly… Except now there was a splattering of blood along the back wall.

“Paige!” Demo yelled when his eyes landed on her bound to her own massage table. Fear radiated off of her. Tears streamed down her face from wide eyes. Her mouth was gagged with some sort of cloth that knotted at the back of her head.

He rushed forward, pulling his pocketknife from his pocket. He cut loose her right wrist, the one closest to him, which released her left he discovered. The rope must have bound them together under the table.

The moment he removed her gag from between her teeth, Paige let out the most heart-wrenching, ear-piercing scream. She threw her arms around his neck as Demo pulled her equally as tight against him. She cried and sobbed against his sweater.

“Where’s Abby?” he heard Bulldog demand.

“Studio,” Angel said. Demo had done a piss poor job of clearing the room before entering. All he’d seen was Paige in distress.

He shifted slightly, still holding onto Paige, so he could see the rest of the room. Bulldog left the doorway, presumably to go find his wife.

Angel stood opposite of Demo by the tall cabinet where Paige kept most of her supplies. The doors were currently open and no supplies were inside, making Demo wonder where it all was. He knew Paige and Abby had been working on inventorying.

On the floor at her feet was a…boy? No, a man. He was dead, given the bullet wound between his eyes. Angel was a former sniper and didn’t miss her targets. Demo’s blood nearly boiled when he saw the man’s cock was sticking out the zipper of his jeans.

“What happened?” he asked Angel through gritted teeth. Paige was in no condition to answer. His heart seized at the idea that he could have lost her.

“I don’t entirely know.” Though the man was dead, Angel still stood guard over him and did not put away her gun. “Abby came running into the tattoo studio. Her hands were zip tied and she had managed to wiggle her gag out of her mouth enough to tell me that a man held Paige hostage here. I left her with Cage, ran and called you.” She indicated to the man with the barrel of her gun. “You know the rest.”

Demo looked down at Paige to see her feet were bare. There was a sheen to them, like something clear was lathered on them, in addition to blood splatter.

Had the man…? Why would…?

Angel answered his unspoken questions. Her voice was soft as if she was worried about upsetting Paige more. “He was masturbating over her feet.”

Paige shot up so fast she nearly clipped Demo under the chin. “Helickedandsuckedon my toes. He kept calling my feet ‘my goddess’! He never even looked at me. I don’t even think he knew I was here once he tied me down.”

Fury seethed from her.

Demo felt himself stiffen. He was not a violent man by nature, but damn he wished Angel had not killed the man so quickly. That was far too quick a death.

Suddenly, Paige gasped. “He has a gun!”

Neither Demo nor Angel corrected Paige on her use of the present tense. The manhadnothing now.

Angel bent and patted the man’s pockets. She reached under his back and pulled out a silver pistol. One look at it, though, and Demo knew it wasn’t real.

As if to demonstrate, Angel pointed the gun at the wall and shot the stream of water from it. “Water pistol. Looks real but isn’t.”

“He knocked me out. I heard the bell and thought one of you had come back since I didn’t have any appointments on the schedule. He tackled me and I hit my head.” She touched the back of her head and winced.

“Let me see,” Demo said gently. He moved Paige’s thick locks around until he found the goose egg on the back of her head. “No blood, but you got a good bump.” He carefully pressed his lips to her head next to it.

“I didn’t know he had a gun until Abby told me. I think that’s how he tied her up. Threatened to shoot her.”

“Abby’s a fighter,” Demo told Paige with confidence. “She knows how to act to make someone think she’s complying while her mind is working on escape.”

Paige looked doubtful by this knowledge, but the club knew it to be true. Abby had spent years in captivity and faced unimaginable horrors. But she never stopped fighting her captors and trying to break free to get back to Bulldog. It might have taken sixteen years, but she finally succeeded.

Whatever Abby had been thinking, Demo owed her for being able to get away and get to Angel.

The clinic door burst open and heavy footfalls echoed into the hallway. Carlos came through the door, followed closely by Steel and Lucky.

“Abby?” Demo inquired.

“Safe,” Carlos and Steel answered in unison. “Bulldog insisted on calling an ambulance for her,” Carlos continued. “One’s on the way for you too, Paige.”

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