Page 76 of Broken

Entering the main warehouse, they saw the dirtiedfootprints—again, another sign—and as they got to the main room where Fritz’sscreens were, all of them had been shot at. Paperwork was strewn everywhere.

There was no sign of Fritz, but there was a trailof blood, and then Dirty heard it, the pained groan. Turning, they saw Fritz.His arms were above his head. The man was alive.

“They’re gone,” Fritz said, but he struggled tospeak.

Blood poured from his mouth and on the ground.Dirty noticed at least three teeth had been pulled. They had tortured Fritz.

“Help me get him down,” Colt said.

They were able to unhook him from the chain and asthey did, Fritz cried out.

The man had taken a beating, as there were bruisesall over his body. The leather cut had been cut from his body, and whoever haddone it, had also taken bits of flesh with it. Dirty had a feeling it wasn’tscissors they had used, but it looked like knife wounds.

This screamed Daemon’s work. The man loved to makeanother man feel so fucking weak, so helpless.

“Who did this to you?” Colt asked.

“We know who did this,” Dirty said. “It was theEvil Fuckers. We know this.”

“Not Predator,” Fritz said. “Someone else. Someone… we don’t know.”

He looked toward Colt.

“I can’t—”

“No, no, no, Fritz. You don’t get to die,” Coltsaid. “Come on, man, stay with us. Dirty and I are here. The guys are coming.We’re going to get you out of here.”

“I wouldn’t talk,” Fritz said. “No matter what, Iwouldn’t talk.”

His words were a mess. His mouth was pouringblood.

“We’ve got to get him to a hospital.”

Dirty pulled out his cell phone and dialed Petal’snumber. They needed a car, and they needed it now.

At the sound of bikes, Dirty knew no one hadbrought a car, and that was what they needed.

****

Petal sat in the hospital waiting room. Kim wasthere, as was Rosalie, and the whole club. Or at least most of the club. Shehad noticed in the past couple of hours, men came and went, to relieve one orthe other. She figured they all had jobs to do. Simply stopping was not theplan.

She’d not expectedDirty’scall, at least not so soon, and she had just finished the pancakes he wantedher to eat. They had tasted good. She didn’t know how he knew she hadn’t eatenbreakfast, but she wasn’t going to argue with him.

Dirty had said he needed her to bring the car. Oneof the men was hurt bad, and she had to hurry. She told Tanya to man the diner,and she had gone without a second’s hesitation. Dirty had given her thedirections, and when she arrived, she did not expect to see the man she did.She had never met Fritz, but he looked like he stepped out of a horror movie. Bloodhad covered his body, and he’d struggled to speak.

She knew it was going to take a lot of cleaningand scrubbing to remove the blood from her car, but she didn’t care. The manhad needed medical attention.

Dirty paced the hospital waiting room, then he’dcome sit with her, and get up and pace some more. He was angry and trying tocontain it.

“Do you want some coffee?” Petal said, getting toher feet. She looked around the room and a few men raised their hands.

“I’ll come,” Kim said.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go,” Dirty said.

Kim nodded. She was helping to settle the men.They were all angry. Fritz was one of them. They had made a vow to protect him,and he’d done everything to keep them safe. She heard them all say it, withoutsaying the words directly. The men had failed. They didn’t know Fritz would beattacked.

She had no way of consoling them, no way oftelling them it was going to be okay. She didn’t even know if itwasgoing to be okay.

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