Page 57 of Ensnared By Silence
Chapter 20
Hayden
Igot off work andran into Devlin and James in the parking lot of Falcon’s Tavern. We were cutting the crap, joking about how many cookies we were expected to eat from our ladies, when my phone rang. I answered with my usual “Hello?”
“One of my brothers was patrolling your house and someone let themselves in about five minutes ago. He said Aubrey was there too,” Skid barked into the phone and the sound of rushing wind was audible over his voice.
“Fuck! Get here. I’m on the way,” I yelled back and hung up to see Devlin and James in fight mode.
“What is it?” James asked, stepping closer to me.
“Someone just broke into my house and Aubrey’s there alone.”
“We’ll take my car,” Devlin barked and the three of us ran to his SUV.
He gripped the steering wheel tightly as James began typing away on his phone from the backseat. My leg jumped, and I gripped the handle over the door as Devlin took the turns leading through town too fast. We had just turned onto the road to my cabin, the festive houses of my neighbors blinking happily as James began cursing from the backseat.
I turned to find his green eyes filled with murderous rage as he explained, “It’s Tucker. I found him on surveillance footage from the stoplight at the tracks.”
I punched the roof as Devlin sped past the houses. A bright light lit up the back of the truck and Devlin looked into the rearview mirror. “It’s Skid.”
He made the last turn onto my driveway and pressed the gas harder as he rolled along, the overhanging trees giving a foreboding feeling as my cabin came into view. He hadn’t even put the car into park before James and I were busting from the car and running toward the front door.
James flung the door open, and it took a second to recognize what I was witnessing. Aubrey was on her back with Tucker on top of her. Her face was swollen and turning colors, her shirt ripped, and her breasts exposed. Tucker was wedged between her legs with her skirt pushed up to her waist and she was fighting hard, crying and struggling to get away from him as he held her to the floor.
Something inside me snapped when I saw her, broken and vulnerable, unable to stop him from hurting her. I ran across the room with a deafening roar and tackled him off her, punching him in the face as we rolled away from Aubrey. I was sitting on top of his chest, raining thunderous punches against his face, each blow more violent than the last. My focus was on hurting Tucker, and when Skid pulled me off him, I wanted to turn my rage on him.
“Calm down, Hayden. Aubrey needs you. We’ve got him,” Devlin explained, and I fought to be released.
Skid whispered into my ear, “He’ll die for what he did. Go check on Aubrey. Let us handle him . . . for now.”
I looked over my shoulder at my friend and I could see the deadly intent in his dark green eyes. I shrugged from his hold and ran to Aubrey, seeing James standing over her with worry and anger. Everything from his stance showed he wanted to pull Aubrey into his arms and protect her, but she was mine to defend.
Carrying her upstairs, I could feel her trembling in my arms as she cried against my chest. Knowing we stopped him before he was able to hurt her again was the only reason he was still breathing. If he had violated her again like that, I would have snatched that gun from James’s waistband and shot that fucker between the eyes. Realizing he was going to be dead soon, I steeled myself before asking her to show me her injuries.
The black eye pissed me off. The bruises on her neck and wrists infuriated me. But when she showed me what he did to her breast, the teeth mark visible with painful bruises sure to follow, something inside me shattered. I always thought justice was served to people who were wronged, but after seeing the pain Aubrey had endured her entire life, I now understood Devlin, James, Skid, and the Death Hounds’ belief in vengeance and retribution.
I helped her into the bathroom and stood outside the door, listening to see if she needed me. After a minute, I walked out of the bedroom and found James pacing the small hallway. He snapped his attention to me when he heard the door close and I walked to him, holding my hand up to stop his advance.
“She’s taking a shower. I needed a minute before I lost it in front of her. Fuck! How could he do this? Not even under any pretense other than he’s a sick fucker. Where is that asshole now?” I asked, exhaling, running a hand through my hair.
“Skid took my truck and moved him to one of our facilities in the industrial park. After tonight, Tucker will no longer be a threat to her or any other woman.”
“I want in. There’s no way that asshole gets away with hurting my woman, trying to rape her,” I admitted on a muttered curse, “and I don’t have some say in the last minutes he’s alive.”
“Hayden, I understand how you feel, but this isn’t something you walk away from. Demons will follow you, begging you to join them in the darkness. To hold the power of life or death, to watch a man’s life end, to see the realization in his eyes fade, it changes you. No offense, but you’re not built for that kind of burden, and I carry enough on me that Tucker won’t even tip the scale.”
His words shocked me, and while I respected his opinion, I was still going to be there to watch that stupid prick die. Then I’m going after Jared and Wesley. Any motherfucker who hurt her is as good as dead, they’re just still walking around.
“Aubrey is mine to protect, James. I can’t have her brother fighting her battles when it’s my job, and I won’t be pushed aside. I want to watch that asshole die, and I want to be the one who sends him to hell.”
James went to speak when the door opened and Aubrey appeared, he wet hair brushed back away from her face, with a dark bruise growing on her cheek. The fingertip bruises on her neck were distinctive, and I was going to break every one of his fingers before I cut his hands off. She was wearing a pair of loose sweatpants and one of my hoodies, the clothes draping down her guarded frame. She crossed her arms over her chest, and I noticed she was standing taller than when I left her in the bathroom.
“I want to be there when you deal with Tucker.” Her green eyes were locked with James’s and I could see the same icy fire burning in both. “And I want to know what you’re going to do about Jared and Wesley.”
I worried what she went through would cause her to break, and for a few minutes, she did. But standing in front of me now was a strong woman who was going to have her day of reckoning with the men who hurt her, with or without our help, I’m afraid.
