Page 79 of Red Obsession

“Shut up!” Gabriel yells, knocking Killian off him.

“Watch it,” Killian growls, his temper moments from getting the better of him.

“Shut up!” he screams at Killian again, turning his attention to me. “What happened! Tell me, Zion.”

Taking a deep breath, I stay seated unsure of how to tell him what happened. “I don’t know what happened, Gabriel…She stabbed the guy, and then we got ambushed, they... Fuck, it was too late. One minute we’re getting ready to leave and then I was knocked down.”

“Who was it? Someone after you?” He hisses, “You’re the fucking Butcher for fucks sake!”

“What?” Killian and Aziza both snap their heads towards me.

“Damn, they don’t even know who you are?” Gabriel laughs, glaring at me.

“You... you’re, you?” Aziza furrows her brows, while Killian cocks his head to the side studying me.

“No, there was no one after me. They... they somehow knew her.”

Gabriel suddenly tensed, eyes wide, before he looked at the window and the door. It’s the same expression Izel had when she realized we were in Texas and moments from booking it. Getting to my feet, I snap my fingers at Killian.

“Keep looking. You,” I say, pointing at Gabriel. “We need to talk, and you need to tell me everything. Whoever these people are knew her, and I’m guessing they know you. They said, ‘you’ve been missing for quite some time darlin.’’’ So, my question now is who is after the two of you?” Crossing my arms over my chest, I ignore the twinge of pain radiating through my body.My poor fucking nuts.

Gabriel sighs, dropping down onto the small chair. “What do you know?”

“Nothing.” Shrugging, I debate on telling him, deciding on telling him I probably needed to, so he knows where to start. “She told me what happened to you the night you two left. Besides that, I don’t know anything.”

“Look into the Bones Motorcycle gang in Dallas.” Gabriel motions at Aziza and Killian. “It’s a super long story, but Izel's father is Dan. I unfortunately don’t know his last name. It’s different from ours, which is Hollow if you need that. Dan hates me because our mom cheated on him with someone and got pregnant with me. I’m a bastard child. In a rage he killed our mom and my biological father. And since then, he beat both Izel and I, her more so because she’s a loudmouth and took the heat away from me. I don’t know a lot about what happened to her, she refused to tell me what they did. But I’m sure it’s worse than you can imagine.” Taking in a deep breath, he blows raspberries, tears leaking down his cheek. “The night we ran she overheard something, something I don’t know, she refused to tell me. But they were going to rape me, I tried to fight Ken and Fisher off, but I was no match for them.That night is somewhat of a blur, but she killed them. That’s why she wasn’t scared when you killed those people in front of her. Because we grew up around murder and she’s seen more than I have.”

I try to wrap my brain around the damage Izel grew up with. Remembering that she hadn’t screamed when I killed that guy in the bus station. Why she was okay with me taking her from the basement. Everything suddenly makes sense and I hate that she never felt like she could tell me. She never once told me anything, that she didn’t trust me.

“I found something… Does Blue ring a bell?” Aziza asks Gabriel.

“That’s his VP, Dan is the President of the gang.”

It’s silent, deathly quiet until Aziza says the only thing I need to know.

“He just checked into a hotel ten minutes down the road.”

Time to find my fucking girl.

25

Izel

Asinglebulbhangsabove my head, giving the dark cold concrete enough light that a person with full eyesight can see. I, on the other hand, can barely see two feet in front of me. But I’ve been in this room enough, been beaten in here so often that I know this room like the back of my hand. My body lays across the cold metal table, while my legs are tied to the side of the table, my arms stretch above my head. I wish I could say this was the worst pain I’ve been in, but it’s not.

“He’s not dead,” I mumble into the cold dark air. Willing myself to believe Zion didn’t die at the hands of Dan and his men. He can’t be dead, I won’t believe it.It’s the only way I’ll survive this. He has to be alive;he has to be.

“I’ve already told you darlin’, he's long gone.” Dan, my father, who I refuse to ever refer to as that laughs. It’s cold and hatred filled. “This can all be done if you just tell us where your piece of shit brother is.”

I shake my head, refusing to speak. It’s been a game of twenty questions, all containing “where's Gabriel.” I won’t tell them where my brother is so they can sell him off to the highest bidder. I don’t care what they do to me. They've done it all anyway.If I can save Gabriel from this pain, I’ll do it. He deserves a better life.

“Where is he, Izel?” Dan asks, moving closer. When I don’t answer I’m rewarded with a smack across the face, pain radiating through my jaw down my neck. I’m surprised I can even feel it due to the number of times I’ve been hit in the face.

“You stupid stubborn, stubborn girl. Maybe if I get Reaper in here, you’ll think about telling me where I can find that bastard,” he screams, smacking me again. Ringing echoes through my head, and tears leak down my face.

“She’s all yours, get her to tell me where he’s at,” Dan hisses to Reaper. I’m aware of him moving around as the door closes, and keys jiggle before I’m dragged further down the table, my legs bent and retied.

“Stop,” I mumble, my cracked lips breaking open, bleeding down my chin. I don’t know why I tell him to stop, he never listens. Hasn’t since I was eleven, he won’t now.

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