Page 59 of Diesel
Blackjack walks in, breaking the stillness. “Rest of the building’s clear.” His mouth is pulled into a line.
“Survivors?” Nic asks. Blackjack just shakes his head, and my gut does that slow turn again. “Crank did this.”
“You don’t know that,” Nox says, trying to be the voice of reason.
“He ain’t lyin’ on this floor in a pool of his own fuckin’ blood,” Nic snaps. “So, he either did this, or he ran and left them to fight whoever did.”
“A dog backed into a corner will eventually bite,” I say quietly.
“Nic!”
Mace steps into the room clutching a small body in his arms. Nic slides between the tables, heading for him. All Ican see is long hair. Every inch of skin is bruised and swollen.
“Fuck, Chloe?”
I blink. Shit, it is her. She’s barely recognisable beneath her injuries. Mace carefully lowers her onto the pool table. She lets out a pitiful, broken whimper, and curls into herself.
My jaw twitches, my nose flaring.
“You know this girl?” Ravage asks, clipped.
Nic nods, his brow tight. “Yeah. She’s… she’s club.”
He doesn’t explain. He can’t. Chloe’s relationship with the club is… difficult.
“She’s a brother’s kid,” Mace adds.
Ravage glances at him. “Which brother?”
“We don’t know.” Nic brushes her hair back from her battered face and she flinches as if he struck her. “Chlo… Who did this to you?”
“What do you care?” she whispers, her voice thick and slurred.
Nic’s fingers curl into fists at his side. “You know I care.”
She peels one swollen eye open just a fraction. It’s so bloodshot there’s no sign of the white.
“I thought he loved me.” Her voice cracks. “I thought he?—”
Nic squeezes her shoulder, the only part of her that doesn’t look like a roadmap of wounds. She latched onto a monster, thinking that would give her a way to be around the club family she desperately craved.
“Crank did this?”
She turns her head away, as if she can’t bear to hear his name. “He let them at me. They were… they were like wild animals. Then he left me here to die.” She sobs like a small child.
I grind my teeth together, adding this to the list of reasons Crank has to die.
“You got any good contacts here who can patch her up without questions?” Ravage asks.
Mace nods and steps away to make a call.
Nic hasn’t moved, hasn’t breathed in the last few minutes. He’s just staring down at Chloe like she’s the final straw to break him.
“He killed brothers,” he says between gritted teeth.
“And he’ll pay for that,” Ravage says quietly.
“We find him and we fucking end him.”
