“I don’t know anything,” I answer before my chin drops to my chest in shame.
“Clearly,” he spits before walking away.
Closing and locking the door behind him doesn’t ease my fear. If I have a keycard to get in this room then so do others in the clubhouse, but I can’t worry about anyone except the groaning man in pain on the bed.
“Stay still,” I urge as I cross the room and go to the bathroom for a warm washcloth. “Where does it hurt the worst?”
Pressing the cloth gently to his forehead, he winces, his busted lip tugging up on the right.
“Are you smiling?”
He tries to nod but groans when it causes too much pain. I wash his face as best I can without hurting him further before returning to the bathroom for some pain relievers and a glass of water.
“I’m only giving you Aleve. When the clubhouse settles down tonight, we have to get out of here.”
“Staying,” he mumbles after it takes three attempts at swallowing to get the pills down.
“We aren’t staying here. I can’t trust them after they did this to you.” When he tries to argue, I press a soft finger to his lips. “Rest. I can’t carry you out of here on my own.”
When he passes out, I sit and wait, but the sight of his dirty clothes from the basement floor is too much to stare at. After the first snip of scissors at the hem of his t-shirt, I’m wishing I had just left him alone. His torso, from below his belly button all the way to his throat is bruised. The reds, blues, and purples make my stomach turn, and although I was able to keep it together earlier, right now is a different story. I barely make it to the bathroom before I’m heaving into the toilet.
I stay that way, hunched over the bowl for god knows how long, but a knock at the door startles me. I’m on my feet, hand clutching the gun Briar stashes in the bedside table before the electronic whir of the lock on the door tells me someone is coming in.
Situating myself between Briar’s unconscious body and the door, I raise the gun to welcome the intruder.
“You going to shoot me?”
“You hurt him.”
“Not as bad as I could have.” TJ challenges me with his eyes, but he’s smart enough to stand still in the doorway.
“What do you want? Come here to finish the job?”
He laughs, classic TJ, not really giving a shit which way this goes for him. “I brought some things to help make him more comfortable.”
His hands lift, and it takes everything I have in me not to pull the trigger.
“A fifth of whiskey and a bottle of pills? Please tell me you’re not considering a job in the health care industry because you’d flunk out on the first damn day.”
His smile widens.
“I want you to leave.”
“You’re worried we’re going to hurt him again.”
“You’ll have to kill me first.”
For the first time since he opened the door, his smile falters.
“I don’t have to explain the ways of the club to you, little sister.”
“Because I’m just a woman, and we aren’t supposed to know shit?”
“Because you already know what should’ve happened in that fucking basement. You’ve seen how little it takes for someone to end up swinging down there,” he seethes, taking two steps closer to me without an ounce of fear in his eyes.
“You still want him dead.”
“If we wanted him dead,” he says emphasizing the second word as a reminder that Lynch is involved in this, too, “he wouldn’t be lying in that bed.”
“It’s over?” How can that even be possible?
“I don’t imagine that Lynch is going to be doing backflips when he sees you two together anytime soon, but what he got down there was it.” He looks past me at Briar. “He was given numerous chances to tell us what was going on. He didn’t take us up on them.”
“So you beat the shit out of him?”
TJ places the whiskey and pills on the dresser near the door.
“We took him down there to kill him. Make no mistake about that, but he—” TJ swallows, shaking his head as he keeps his eyes on my man. “He said some things that we couldn’t ignore.”
“What did he say?”
Did he beg for his life? I highly doubt that. Even knowing he was going to die, Briar wouldn’t lower himself to beg.
“Not my story to tell, Sis.” I lower the gun as he walks closer. My skin tingles in fear for the first time as his lips brush my temple. “I’ll be honest, I had my doubts, but there isn’t another man alive I’d approve to be with you other than him.”
I’m still confused, staring at the door when he closes it silently behind him.Chapter 36