I was up the stairs so fast it felt like I’d flown. I tore down the wide hallway and threw open the heavy metal door.
Smith. It was Smith. My brain registered distantly that I’d been right all along. But I didn’t even look at him. I looked beyond him at the slender figure hanging from her wrists.
There was blood. Too much of it. And her head was slumped forward. She was so still. Too still. Despair crashed over me as I realized that I was too late. She was dead.
“Two piggies for the price of one.”
I roared and leapt at him, knocking the knife out of his hand. He was strong, but he wasn’t expecting a frontal attack. I slammed him into the ground and started hitting him. Over and over and over. I didn’t have time for a knife. I didn’t have time to get creative. He had destroyed the most beautiful thing in the entire world, and I would make him pay.
I would never forgive myself for letting this happen.
Smith had destroyed the two most beautiful people I had ever met. My brother and the love of my life. The only two people who made me think that the world was worth living in after all.
The sick fuck was smiling as I pummeled him. Blood was leaking from his nose and mouth and eyes. And he still had the nerve to smile.
I wasn’t going to stop until I heard a bone crack.
I wasn’t going to stop then either.
I wanted his face to look like a squashed tomato.
Arms grabbed me from behind and hauled me off him.
“Shane!”
I fought them. I did. But there were two of them, and they were strong ass motherfuckers. Of course, they weren’t in the semi-psychotic state I was in, so they had to use all their strength to hold me back.
“Hmmph?”
I froze, lifting my head. Parker’s beautiful blue eyes shone at me from across the room. I tore myself free and ran to her, holding her face, trying to lift her, trying to get her down.
“Baby, oh my God, baby, you’re alive!”
Then Cain was there, helping me unhook her. We laid her on the floor. I was checking her wounds as Cain sliced through the bonds on her wrists. Her hands immediately went to the tape over her mouth. She tugged it free.
“Shane?” her voice sounded weak. Her face was wet, washing some of the blood away. I realized I was crying on her.
“I’m here, baby. I’m here. I love you so much, Parker. Please, you got to hold on. Be strong for me.”
Cain shouldered me out of the way and lifted her shirt. We stared in horror as a diagonal wound in her side started to spurt blood. That’s when I noticed it.
The tip of her pinkie was gone.
“Oh, fuck. Her finger.”
“Put pressure on the wound. The finger can wait. Connor, get an ambulance.”
“Already on their way.”
Hunter was here. Vice too. They were helping us clean her up. Checking her vitals. Conn was holding Smith on the ground with his knee in the fucker’s back and his arms twisted up behind him.
I looked over my shoulder for a split second.
“Take him somewhere nearby. We don’t want the EMTs to see him.”
Connor stared at me, then at Cain. Cain nodded.
“We deal with this. No cops.”
Connor cursed. He was an FBI agent. But this guy had killed his partner. He closed his eyes and nodded.
“Fuck. Yeah, okay. We take him next door and hold him until we figure out what we want to do.”
He pointed at me.
“But no one fucking kills him.”
“He killed my brother.”
They stared at me.
“What?”
I swallowed and looked at Parker. She was out of it, but she gave me a tiny, brave smile. Her heart was in her beautiful blue eyes.
Billy’s eyes.
“He and Dante. They killed my brother. They took his eyes.”
“Jesus, Shane.” Mason stood there, staring at me. “I didn’t know.”
I laughed harshly, staring down at my woman.
“I’m not even a biker. I just joined up to catch this fucker.”
Cain’s hand came down on my shoulder.
“You’re a good man.”
I exhaled, terrified about the blood spurting out against my hand.
“She’s losing too much blood!”
Just then, we heard wail of the approaching ambulance. Mason and Connor stood and hoisted Smith between them. They hustled him down the stairs and hopefully someplace very fucking secure.
“Go with them,” Cain said to Vice. Then he jerked his head at Hunter. “Make sure they can get up here. Tell them to fucking hurry.”
I made eye contact with Cain for a moment, nodding to show my unspoken thanks. We were both worried about how much blood she had lost. We were both not sure she was going to make it.
I bent to kiss her forehead.
“Hang in there, sweetheart. They’re almost here.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Parker
I heard hushed voices. Familiar voices, though I couldn’t place them at first. I knew them, I just didn’t know how I knew them.