Turns out gifts with numbers runs in the family.
My nose crinkled at his horrendous aftershave. “I didn’t understand at first, but now I do.”
When I didn’t elaborate, Rubix pulled my hips back, grinding himself on me. “Understand what?”
Asus threaded his fingers through my hair, slowly tightening his fist until agony bloomed. Two Killians tormenting me and all I craved was the third to make it go away.
“Continue, by all means.”
My blood turned to dry ice, smoking through my veins. “I couldn’t understand why Arthur didn’t kill you the day he escaped prison, but now … I do.”
The men in the room grumbled under their breath. The stench of violence and cruelty thickened.
Rubix growled, “I suggest you think about what you’re going to say, otherwise—”
“I know what I want to say,” I snapped, cutting him off. Turning my attention back to Asus, I smiled. “He doesn’t just want to exterminate you; he wants to rip everything from you like you did from him.”
Asus leaned forward, drawn by my quiet voice. “He’ll be dead in a few days; then we’ll see who won in the extermination.”
Rubix’s questing fingers pressed against my inner thigh. “Everything he’s been working toward, everything he thought was secret will come to bite him in the fucking ass.” Raising his voice, he demanded, “Cobra, if you will.”
The bald-headed tattooed biker nodded and stood, leaving my left wrist unfettered.
Tucking my hand beneath my torso, I willed sensation to enter my shoulder and arm. If I spied an opportunity to fight, I needed my body to move swift and sure.
The men watched in silence as Cobra moved toward another door that led to a meeting room where Arthur and I used to eavesdrop on the men while they discussed world domination. He disappeared for a moment before returning with a prisoner.
A woman.
Her head was covered with a black cloth, her body naked and bleeding.
Oh, God.
The ground became quicksand as my hope sank into grainy despair.
“Let Cleo go, Sycamore,” Rubix ordered.
Immediately, my other wrist was freed, relinquishing me into Rubix’s control. Rubix yanked me upright, molding my body against his and holding my chin with biting fingers.
I squirmed. My flattened breasts smarted as blood rushed back.
“Recognize her?” His breath wafted hotly in my ear. “You should. She was there the night my son kidnapped you.”
I blinked, wishing I could ignore his every word. I didn’t know who stood before me but my heart hurt for her—for the obvious torture she’d endured.
One kneecap looked shattered. The right side of her chest was concave, and she couldn’t stand upright without being supported.
She’d been demoted from healthy human to emaciated marionette.
Nobody—regardless of their crimes—deserved to be so thoroughly broken.
“Remove the hood,” Rubix said, gathering me tighter against him. The hollow of my back burned as he ground his belt buckle against me.
Every part of me demanded to struggle and run. Everything about him repulsed and petrified me but I swallowed back the insane pressure to fight and stood stoic. On the outside, I looked queenly and unaffected but inside the pulsing of my blood and the panic whooshing in my ears drove me faster into madness.
Cobra grinned. “With pleasure.” With one hand, he held the girl’s bound wrists in front of her naked body, somehow propping her up, and with the other ripped off the hood.
Blonde hair once the color of sun-warmed wheat was now matted and stained pink with blood. Her eyes were like broken moons in a face butchered and swollen.
I didn’t recognize her.
But wait …
The longer I stared, the more my memories tugged at some vague recollection. She’d been there. She’d been in the truck when we’d arrived at the scene of mutiny with Arthur and his men. She’d stood in line with me as we all stripped and delivered ourselves into Pure Corruption’s control.
I sucked in a breath.
Rubix laughed softly. “So you do remember her.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you’re doing or what you want me to say, but I won’t do it.” My heart was tied to an anchor, slowly sinking deeper and deeper into desperation.
“You do know and you’re far too bright not to see the point I’m about to make.”
No!
I would’ve sold every worldly possession to save her.
But I was bankrupt.
Cobra slapped the blonde girl, dragging her forward and kicking the back of her legs so she slammed to her knees before me.
She screamed, her shattered kneecap excruciating.
It ricocheted around the room like a voice boomerang, ringing in my ears.
My stomach convulsed.
Instant sobs escaped her mouth. She looked up and our gazes locked—hers full of begs and pleas while mine were no doubt bleak and desolate.
“Arthur Killian, my useless treasonous son, stole this whore from Chainsaw’s bed. Do you know who Chainsaw is?”
I shook my head, unable to tear my eyes from the girl.
She trembled. Every rib stuck out from malnutrition. How long had Rubix held her as a captive? It couldn’t have been more than a few weeks. How had he damaged her so swiftly?
“Chainsaw is an honest member of Dagger Rose—he earned this bitch when I gave her to him as a gift for pleasing me. However, she was stolen and given to the president of a Club past our borders.” Rubix’s voice grew angrier the longer he spoke. “Not only was she given as a token, but it also solidified an agreement between the Night Crusaders and Pure Corruption.”