“Why?”
“So I can peel their skin from their bodies and make them fucking eat it,” he snaps, earning a whimper from my sister and a growl from both dogs.
“Okay,” I murmur, not dropping my gun even though my arm is starting to hurt. “I think we want the same thing more or less.” I ignore the horrified look my sister gives me. “They’ve taken our brother. We want to find them so we can get him back.”
His body goes rigid and he shudders. Fear. Horrible, consuming fear causes the most fearless man I know to shake like a little boy. I remember the photos of him at sixteen. There’s no telling what they put this man through to transform him from that boy to a psychotic dragon.
“Are they going to hurt Cove?” I whisper.
Green eyes snap to mine. “They’ll kill him.”
Tears flood my eyes, but I quickly blink them away to clear my vision. “How? Did you see them kill other people?”
He pokes at his thumb with his knife, drawing a prick of blood. “They killed Chase.”
Calla starts to cry. I can’t afford to take my eyes off Dragon. He’s losing his fucking mind right now and I don’t trust him with his knife so close to my sister’s head.
“Chase was just a kid,” I say slowly. “How did they kill him?”
His face goes blank. “Over and over and over and over and over and over.” He continues to repeat himself, his words finally fading.
Bile rises up my throat. “Do you think they’ll do the same thing to Cove?”
“They do it to everyone,” Dragon hisses. “Which is why we need to find them and kill them first.”
Okay, so weareon the same page, even if it’s a really fucking terrifying one.
“We can’t do this alone,” I murmur, lowering my gun. “We need the Royal Bastards. Koyn can help.”
His brows furrow and he nods. “Maybe Koyn will let Cove be Batman.”
Calla’s blue eyes are wide with a mixture of confusion and fear. I know he sounds fucking loony right now, but I understand what he means. When Koyn found Dragon and asked his name, he tried to get him to call him Batman. Koyn essentially named Dragon. Dragon, apparently, believes Koyn will rescue Cove too.
“Cove’s more of a Robin if we’re being honest,” I say with a forced smile. “Why don’t you go get Katana and I’ll call Koyn?”
He nods, disappearing toward the back door and leaving it wide-open. I rush over to Cala and yank her to her feet.
“He’s okay,” I assure her. “We need to call Koyn and Copper, though.”
“Who are these people?” she hisses as I drag her through the living room with me. “Hitmen?”
“They’re a biker gang. A really fucked up one.”
“But you’re a Fed,” Calla says, stopping and glaring at me. “Right?”
I chew on my bottom lip before giving her a shake of my head. “It’s a long story and now’s not the time.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The dogs start barking and take off out the back door toward the sounds of gunfire that seem to continue. It’s too risky to go to the bedroom for my phone, so I jerk on Calla’s arm, hurrying her to the storm shelter closet. Before we reach it, Dragon howls—the sound of terror and agony wrapped into an awful sound before he calls out to me.
“Run, Stormy!”
One of the dogs makes a terrible yelping sound that makes my heart split in two. All I can think about is getting my sister to safety. That’s all I can focus on.
“Quick,” I bark out. “Get inside.”
I fling open the door and shove her into the closet. I follow after her, jerking the heavy door back into place. I’m just turning the lock when it’s yanked back open, sending me hurtling into the arms of a man wearing all black with a black face covering. He wrangles the Glock out of my hand but not before I squeeze off a shot that misses him and sails through the wall behind him. Another man appears, rushing into the closet for my sister.