Page 46 of Masked Darling

“Nice night for illegal activities,” the older woman drawled. She wasn’t much older than them, early thirties at best. She was in ripped jeans and had a black sweatshirt pulled up over her head, her blonde hair flowing out the sides of the covering.

The Dregs were here.

Could tonight get any worse?

The memory of their last encounter had Jagger staring at Camille with such venom that she outwardly winced. She knew better than to have them here because she knew that they were trouble. They’d taken care of that territorial gang bullshit over a year ago. So why was Jazlyn here if she was forbidden from ever coming near The Serpent Pit again?

Behind her, you could see a few members of the Renegade Rebels along with Dregs members carefully putting the girls in the backs of trucks in the parking lot. Kade’s eyes widened as he panicked, his hand instinctively reaching for his gun. Camille placed a hand on his arm too, effectively keeping both brothers from approaching any further, her eyes landing on Jazlyn.

“Relax, pretty boy,” Jazlyn said, her grin aimed at Kade. “We’re just here to help.” She nodded toward the trucks outside. “Your girls are safe.”

Jagger’s nostrils flared as he and Kade shared a look, his muscles coiled tight as he fisted his hands by his sides. Camille stepped toward Jazlyn, placing her hands up in front of her to keep the boys back.

“I don’t have time to explain everything, but we’ve been seeing each other since last year. I trust her. You need to trust me now,” Camille straightened her shoulders, her pink hair now tied up in a messy bun on top of her head. “I knew that even the Rebels wouldn’t be enough to get this handled tonight, so I snuck off to call her for backup. And she came.Without hesitation. She came with her whole crew knowing that this was an absolute shit show.”

Camille crossed her arms over her chest and tried to stare down the brothers she had grown up with. “So while all our members are workingtogetheroutside to get these ladies to the nearest hospital, you’re going to smile and say ‘thank you,’ do you understand?”

The tension drained from Jagger’s shoulders as he processed her words. “Right... Thank you.” He shot a glance at Kade, his eyes filled with an unspoken incredulity that Kade almost laughed at but the sound wouldn’t come out any time soon. There wouldn’t be laughter from anyone for a long time.

Jazlyn stepped forward, clasping Camille’s hand in hers. “Camille and I will take the girls to the hospital. We’ll get them back to their families.”

“We can take them,” Jagger tried to argue, but she cut him off.

“It’s better if they have other women with them right now.”

Warren finally joined the quartet on the floor as he jumped from the stage.

“That makes sense,” he said as he approached them. “They will feel safer with them right now.”

Camille nodded, her voice soft but firm. “We’ll make sure they get there. And we’ve already started giving them a backstory as to how they escaped that doesn’t lead back to The Pit.”

“To tell the cops?” Kade asked, only to find several pairs of eyes glaring at him.

“We’re not calling the cops.”

Kade blinked at Camille. “Why not?”

“That’s not how things work with shit like this,” Jagger said, his tone carrying a note of impatience. “The cops get involved, things get messy. We aren’t putting those girls through more than they’ve already endured unless they want to tell it to them themselves. You don’t think I went to the cops first about Green Light? They didn’t care to use their resources to try and bring them in. That’s why it had to be done this way. They can’t hurt anyone now–This way there’s no one out on bail or running away.”

The group nodded in agreement.

“You guys go. We’ll deal with this,” Warren added, his voice speaking of years of authority. He moved back onto the stage, casting a shadow over the tied-up men who were beginning to wake up. “I’ll take over from here and find out where they sold the other girls once these guys are talking.”

Jazlyn exchanged a glance with Camille before calling out to Warren in a voice that was not as confident as it was a few minutes ago. She was still intimidated by the leader of the Renegade Rebels–and with just cause. His father was a fucking menace. “Good luck with that.”

Kade watched as Jazlyn and Camille moved toward the exit, joining the crowd that had gathered outside as they decided where to move the bodies, while Camille and Jazlyn drove off in the trucks that had the girls piled in the beds all huddled together.

Jagger and Kade stood side by side, their faces now ghostly pale as their eyes fixed on the door through which the girls had exited. There was no more threat. No more screaming. No more gunshots. Just the stereo as it playedAll For Usby Labrinth and Zendaya pulsing around them.

Fucking fitting.

“How are they?” Jagger’s voice cracked as he turned to Kade, desperate for any scrap of news on how his girl was doing.

“Madison and Sadie are both pretty upset, but they aren’t injured.”

“But your girl was bleeding, wasn’t she?”

Kade shut his eyes and let out a breath as his throat tried to close against the emotion that flooded him. “She’s been assaulted. They pierced her nipples. I–I don’t think,” He faltered as it all started hitting him. “Jag, theyhurther. And then they wanted me to hurt her.”

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