Page 76 of The Piece You Stole

CHAPTER 18

SAIGE

Ascream pierces through my head like daggers into my brain. I moan. I’d lift my hands to cover my ears, but I can’t move. My body won’t let me.

“You tell them, if they value anything in this world, they have tonight to say goodbye to it.” Rylan’s voice vibrates with rage, the prickle of energy—of fury—bringing me back to myself.

A black void snatched me away as Rylan stabbed a needle through my skin, but now it has let me go. Is that a good thing?

Words stir in my head and roll around my mind, but they don’t make any sense.

Am I still sleeping? Is Rylan talking to me?

He must be. No one else makes him as furious as I can.

Maybe if I lie completely still, he won’t know I’m awake and stab me with the needle again.

Stale sweat and the acrid stench of vomit cling to every inch of me. My hair, my skin, and coating my tongue. But at least the pain has stopped.

I blink, and the screaming is no longer a scream but a blaring alarm.

Was it always an alarm?

And sirens? Where did those come from?

A soft whoosh brings a blast of cold air, shocking me awake. I forget about keeping still and whimper when an arm burrows under my thighs and another under my back.

And then I’m moving.

Someone is taking me somewhere, and I don’t understand why.

Is it because of the screaming alarm?

It isn’t Rylan holding me. That’s all I know. The hands don’t feel like his at all. At first, I think it must be Nathan, but then I remember the glass and the blood and the needle.

He’s dead. You killed him.

Is this another punishment because I passed out from the pain?

Is that why they’ve covered my face with a blanket? Because Rylan has finally found the strength to ignore his wolf, but he can’t look in my face when he kills me?

Shouldn’t that make me feel something more than numb?

My back thumps against something soft and familiar. Not a bed. This feels different. Like carpet. I crack the back of my head, but that isn’t what has my eyes watering as I hiss in pain.

My arm. Why does my arm hurt so much?

“Rylan, the cops—” A voice that sounds familiar. Like…

My eyes burn with frustration.

Why can’t I get my brain to work?

“Tell them they can speak to my attorney.” Rylan hisses his rage through gritted teeth. “And if they even think of showing their face at my door, I’ll rip it off.”

“But they need to investigate this—”

Something slams over my head, making wherever I am rock from side to side. I roll onto my shoulder and pain explodes in my mind. I moan, a long-drawn-out sound because holy fuck, ithurts. It hurts so much.

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