Page 54 of Ruckus

“Then she’s right. We go to him. Rocco, Finn, you stay here with the girls. Lock the gates behind us. No one comes in and no one goes out.” Raze starts heading for the door with his shoulders pulled back, his head held high. I can see he’s putting on a brave face. He has to, he’s our leader. If he crumbles, we all do.

“You take care of her,” I tell Freya before I follow him and my brothers out the door, stopping beside Vike on my way to grip his shoulder and check he’s up for this.

“Wait…” Freya rushes after me. “You're going with them?” She looks worried, far too worried for a girl to be, about her brother's best friend.

“Of course, I am.” I frown.

“You can’t, it’s too dangerous.” She looks at her brother as he kisses Eden and heads out the door.

“Ruckus, don’t go. Stop him from going too,” she begs me, clinging to my wrist.

“I’m sorry.” I shake my head and drag myself away, taking Vike with me. I wanna kiss her, promise her I’m gonna be okay. Instead, I have to leave her scared and comforting her friend, so I can go and say goodbye to mine.

The emergency services are already at the gas station when we get there, half an hour later, and we block off the road when we park up our bikes behind Raze’s and follow him toward the area the police have cordoned off.

“Authorized people only past this point.” The duty officer tells him, and as I look past his shoulder, I see the white, plastic sheet they have laid out over the body by the door. The body that I’m assuming belongs to Saul. What it don’t cover, is the pool of thick, red blood that's seeping from under it onto the forecourt.

“Listen officer, we ain’t got no intention of messin’ up your crime scene,” Raze explains as he lifts up the tape and gestures for us to go under it.

“Sir, you really can’t?—”

“Make this easy on yourself, son.” Raze dusts off his shoulder once we’re all on the other side of the tape, then ducks himself under it to join us.

We all form a semi-circle around the body that's lying on the floor, and when I look up at Vike it burns me inside to see him biting on his fist and trying to hold in tears. Saul was his best friend, the two of them did everything together, and I can’t even imagine how I would feel if I knew I’d never see Wrath again.

“Excuse me, you can’t be here.” A voice comes from behind us, and a woman who looks important heads toward us.

“Sorry, miss, but we’re havin’ a moment here, if you could just give us a fe–”

“This is a crime scene and you are contaminating it,” she cuts Raze off before he can finish.

“Isaidwe were havin’ a moment.” Raze narrows his eyes on her. “You can give us a damn fuckin’ moment.” His voice growslouder, and seeing the thunder in his eyes and hearing the rage in his tone, she decides to take a step back. I figure from the way the guy in the suit who stands beside her takes a second glance, that it ain’t something she does all that often.

“Should I…” Saint gestures to the corner of the plastic sheet and when Raze slowly nods his head, he crouches down and pulls it back.

I close my eyes and count to ten before I force myself to look at my fallen brother. His eyes are wide open and the blood from the hole those fuckers put in his forehead has made a trail that leaks into the left one. The exit wound must be much worse, because that's where all the mess on the ground seems to be coming from.

We stand in silence, united in grief, holding in anger, and not really sure what to do next.

“What are you doin’?” I hear Sasquatch’s deep voice speak up and see two men pushing a stretcher toward us. “You ain’t takin’ him. You ain’t fuckin’ takin’ him.” He grabs the end of it and shoves it back at them, shunting them back and growling like a feral animal.

“I’m sorry but–”

“Did you not hear what I said?” Sasquatch grips hold of the guy and starts to rattle him, and suddenly Quinn comes rushing from the other side of the tape.

“Stop. Sasquatch.” She dips under his huge arm and places herself between them, stretching her neck to look up at him.

“Don’t hurt him. He’s just doing his job,” she whispers, placing both her hands on his heaving chest and eventually easing him down.

“What ya doin’ here?” Raze asks her, once Sasquatch has retaken his place.

“Peyton called, she told me what happened and that you guys were here and I…” She glances back to Sasquatch, who’s breathing like a bull trying to contain his emotion.

“The police are gonna want an autopsy,” she explains calmly.

“No, they ain’t takin’ him. He belongs with us.” Vike shakes his head, still looking at Saul, and I quickly throw the sheet back over his head, because I can’t take it anymore.

“I’m gonna speak to the investigator.” Quinn looks over to him and smiles sadly. “I’ll request they take him to Long Beach. He’ll be with me. I’ll take care of him,” Quinn assures him, before reaching up and stroking Sasquatch’s thick, dark beard with her hand. “Did you hear me, I’ll look after him.” She forces him to look at her and when Sasquatch slowly nods his head, she slides her hands away and nods to the guys with the stretcher.

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