Page 168 of Steel

His mom, Desdemona, is serving consecutive life sentences for the premediated murders of the six men who raped and tortured her twin daughters when they were younger. Vanessa ended up overdosing after chasing anything and everything to make her demons disappear. Carissa ended up in an institution when it all became too much to bear and she got locked inside her head. The last I knew, she hadn’t spoken since it happened. Her days are spent staring at the walls of whatever room she’s in for the day. Thrasher pays for her care and goes to visit her a few days a week. He refuses to give up, believing she’ll one day be present again. He’s always full of anger and sadness after his visits with her. So much so that Wraith has been considering opening a gym so he has a place to safely purge all the negative shit that burns through him on those days.

“Still running her shit,” he replies.

Desdemona runs Iron Port Penitentiary. She went into that place taking no shit and continues to hold her own if anyone dares to disrespect her. She earned a hell of a lot of respect for taking the trash out without asking for help. We use her whenever we need assistance from the inside.

“And your sister?”

He turns to me, and I can tell something has changed. There’s not as much darkness in his eyes as usual when the question is posed.

“There’s been some recent signs that she’s becoming more lucid.”

I clasp him on the shoulder. “Fuck, man. That’s good, yeah?”

He nods. “Don’t want to get too optimistic. Docs aren’t sure what’s gonna happen if she does. She’s spent so long locked in her head and not dealing with what happened to her.”

“You’re scared,” I state, witnessing the emotion flash in his eyes.

“‘Course I am. It’s been over a fucking decade, brother. So much shit has changed. Fucking terrified what that’s gonna do to her.”

“Goin’ to have a whole club at her back, brother. Whatever she needs, let us know.”

I peer over at Bailee to find her eyes on Lyric again. Her brow furrows as her head slowly swivels toward where Sage is sitting with Jagger. An expression of horror crosses her face, and she jumps to her feet.

I’m moving before I even catch Sage’s body jerk. Everything after that blurs as we go into protection mode and try to figure out where the fucking shot came from.

Bailee rushes to Lyric, grabbing her around the waist and dropping them to the ground. She tucks Lyric into her chest as she rests over top of her, protecting my daughter with her body.

Pulling my gun from the holster, I sweep my eyes around the area, trying to ignore the pandemonium around me.

Prospects surround the kids and Old Ladies, their backs to them and guns at the ready. No more shots have been fired, which leads me to believe they’d hit their intended target.

Sage.

This was a fucking message to Crow. Bet my goddamn soul on it. If it was Killer, he’d have hit Bailee and she wouldn’t be breathing anymore.

I push through the prospects and squat down so I can put eyes on my girls. Lyric is crying, her little body shaking, and Bailee is doing her best to soothe away the distress she is in.

Bailee jerks when I reach out to touch her. “Shh. Just me, Hummingbird. Want to check on you two before we go huntin’.”

She whips her head in my direction, fire burning in her glassy eyes as her lips pull back from her teeth. “Fucking find them and destroy them.”

Despite the chaos around us, a smile ghosts over my mouth. “Do what I can, baby girl.”

“You’re not hearing me, Steel,” she snarls, glancing at Lyric before coming back to me. “Find them andfucking destroy them.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I reply, amusement heavy in my tone.

With a glide of my fingers down her face, I climb to my feet. I give the prospects a nod to let them know they’re back on lookout duty then jog over to where everyone’s crouched around Sage.

Blade and Kiwi are working on her, and when I get there, I catch Blade mutter, “Sniper.”

“Wouldn’t the wound be worse?” Crow asks.

“Not if they’re not using a traditional sniper rifle. If I was to guess, she was hit with a twenty-two long rifle. There’s only so far that bullet will travel before it starts falling. For it to do thisdamage, they’re not far.” He calls for Wraith. “You’ve got about a three-hundred-yard radius. Can’t tell trajectory right now, so do what you can with that.”

Blade turns back to Sage as he and Kiwi continue working on her. She’s safe in their hands, with a wall of brothers surrounding her, so I step away and over to Wraith and Thrasher.

A group of brothers fall into the space around us as we wait for our President to speak.

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