Page 29 of Fervent

“Bullshit.Shewent to the cops with too much info—info she wouldn’t have known unless you told her. She’s Mason’s ex-girlfriend, you idiot! Did you think she was going to sit on her hands when that island went up in smoke?”

Lifting her head, Nikki groaned. She squinted at the people surrounding her and began fighting their grasp on her arms. “I h-have a son. Please…please let me go. I don’t belong here.” She hung her head, and a sob escaped her lips.

She had a son, someone who needed her, who depended on her…holy fuck. I wanted to tell her how sorry I was, but I couldn’t even speak.

Perrone lifted her chin. “Honey, if you want to live, prove your worth. My son has an unhealthy aversion to women—”

“Whose fault is that?” Jax jumped to his feet. “Maybe if you hadn’t forced them on me…” He dragged his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “Let her go. She didn’t do anything wrong. Please…Dad.”

That was the first time I’d heard him refer to his father in such a personal way, and saying that single word had cost him. Nikki was in real trouble.

Perrone pushed Jax back into the chair. “Bring the blonde. I want her on her knees for my boy.”

Nikki pleaded, and Cleft smacked the whine from her as he dragged her across the floor, her heels digging in the whole way. He pushed Jax’s knees wide open and shoved her to her haunches between them.

“Unzip so the slut can suck you off.” Perrone began pacing. “If she can get your confused cock to work, I might let her live.”

Nikki sobbed as Jax unzipped with shaking hands. His erection jutted out, but the sight of his own arousal seemed to horrify him. His face crumbled as Cleft shoved Nikki’s head into his lap, muffling her cries with the girth of his cock.

Chewing on his lip, Jax closed his eyes and fisted his hands until his knuckles turned white. Cleft bobbed her head, pushing her downward when she started gagging. She struggled for a few moments before he yanked her head up, and my insides twisted at witnessing her pain. Snot ran from her nose, blending with the tears drenching her face.

Jax lifted his lids with a quick intake of breath, and when he gazed at Nikki, moisture erupted from his eyes.

“Fuck this,” Perrone said with a sneer. He shoved Cleft out of the way and wrenched Nikki to her feet. Holding her immobile against his chest, he pulled a knife from his pocket.

Time fucking screeched to a stop.

I yelled through the gag, blasting every bit of energy toward Nikki, praying someone would stop this. Her overflowing eyes met mine, and the truth in them nearly stopped my heart.

She knew it. I knew it.

Perrone switched open the blade, and Jax knew it too because he charged his father, mouth open in a silent scream, hands reaching for Nikki.

But it was too late.

Perrone was already slashing a red horizontal line across her throat.

Blood.

Gurgling sounds.

So much blood.

Soaking through her clothing.

Silencing her sobs.

Her body crumbled to the ground, and Perrone tossed the knife to the side. He stepped back, out of reach of the blood pooling on the concrete, and that’s when Alex started screaming.

The room erupted in chaos. I blinked and it seemed as if a lifetime had passed in that mere second. The gurgling noise had stopped. So had my screams. But Jax bawled as he held the blonde’s limp body, his devastation pouring from his eyes in streams of grief. Blood stained his clothing, but that didn’t stop him from sheltering her in his embrace, rocking her as if she were merely sleeping.

Rafe’s gaze swerved between her and me, his glassy eyes round with horror, shock, disbelief. The ball gag kept him quiet, though his rage burst free in his fisted hands, in the veins cording his bunched muscles. In the violent way he pulled at the chains.

He was a caged lion, bound by metal and madness, and this place was a zoo.

I glanced at Jax and the blonde again, and something inside me cracked, allowing memories to creep inside. As Brock freed my hands, I saw sunlight and white lace curtains. Murky water, dark with the kind of death that bled out my mother. I collapsed toward the floor, and Brock caught me in his arms as if I weighed nothing.

“Take her to the cell,” Lucas said, voice booming off the walls. “I’ll deal with her in a bit.”

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