Page 150 of Dagger

“One. Two. Three…”

We both turned to face into the room, guns pointing to the middle. “Don’t fuckin’ move,” Atlas bellowed, then his shoulders slumped, and he murmured, “Shit.”

It took a few seconds for my eyes to get used to the dim light. The shadows cleared, and I blinked at the scene in the room. Four women sat naked against the wall, crying and shivering and shielding a young girl who couldn’t have been older than a teenager. Blood splatter was everywhere, and the Sinner I must’ve shot just minutes ago lay on his back, his face a mangled mess of blood and flesh.

“Please don’t hurt us,” one of the women pleaded.

“We’re here to help,” I said softly, moving slowly forward and holding my hands out defensively. “We’ll get you out of here.”

“There’s three more of them,” another one of the women whispered urgently. “They ran out to hide when that one—” she jerked her head toward the dead biker “—got shot.”

“Where would they have gone?” Atlas asked as quietly as his booming voice would allow.

“Kitchen.” Her arms tightened around the young girl. “They’re armed.”

Atlas nodded. “Have you got any clothes?”

“Some,” she replied. “But not enough for all of us. They kept us naked…” her voice trailed off, tears filling her eyes.

I slipped my cut off and pulled my tee over my head, handing it to her. Luckily, I’d put a wifebeater on underneath it this morning to keep me warm in the early morning ride. I took that off too and handed it over, waiting while Atlas did the same.

“Thanks,” she murmured, taking the clothes and immediately dressing the younger one before handing the rest to the other women.

I put my cut back on, watching Atlas follow suit, then looked around the room, eyes settling on the broken window. Jagged shards of glass hung from the top pane. We’d cleared the other window just fine because it was small. The one in this room spanned most of the wall, and the glass hung dangerously. We couldn’t clear the glass without the proper tools, so that exit wouldn’t work.

“We’ll have to get ‘em out the front door and hope for the best,” Atlas muttered as if he’d read my mind.

I looked out the window into the deserted courtyard. “I don’t like it.”

“We just need to get ‘em to Abe, and they’ll be safe,” he assured me. “We don’t gotta choice.”

I nodded, my lips thinning unhappily at the prospect of putting the women—and especially the girl—in more danger. My heart sank when I realized that in another life, it could’ve been Layla and Sunny naked in this room. If we never got together and my Doe was left vulnerable, God only knew what would’ve happened to my girls.

The thought spurred me into action. I crouched down and held my hand out for the girl to take. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ll get you safe.”

She remained tucked into the other woman and shook her head furiously.

“I’ve got two daughters,” I murmured softly. “They’re both younger than you, and if anything happened to them... well, I hope there’d be somebody who’d get them safe.”

Her head turned curiously, and I caught a flash of her frightened brown eyes. “I’m fifteen. My name’s Eva,” she whispered.

“I’ve got Willow, who’s one, and Sunny, who’s eight now,” I told her. “Sunny’s a handful.” I jerked a thumb toward Atlas. “See this big goof?”

Eva nodded, her eyes slanting toward my bud.

“His name’s Atlas,” I murmured. “Sunny has a bit of a lisp, so every time she goes to say his name, she calls him Assless. It’s a running joke between me and my brothers, and he says he hates it, but really, he loves the attention.”

A faint smile played around her mouth, and I took the opportunity to hold my hand out again. “Come on, sweetheart. I’ll get you outta here and keep you safe.”

She paused briefly, then slowly extended her arm and grasped my hand.

My jaw clenched when I felt her icy, clammy skin. The poor thing was frozen despite wearing my tee. The Sinners had kept this kid like a caged fucking animal, and they were gonna die for it.

With a newfound sense of determination, I hauled Eva up and swung her into my arms. “Keep close to us,” Atlas ordered the other women, who had all stood, too. “If you hear gunshots, you get down and stay down.”

We turned for the door, and I froze at the big, bald fucker wearing a Sinner’s cut standing at the door with his gun pointed at us.

A couple of the women cried out in fear,

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