She’d run off to the Sons of Hell because of me, and now that she had returned, shestilldidn’t want shit to do with me. Everything was over.
Almost losing my life had put a fuck ton of shit into perspective for me, and I didn’t want to waste any more time with her. Iwantedher. But now, I was too goddamn late. I’d fucked it all up.
Sighing, I pushed away from her door, my heart aching in my chest. I turned and frowned at Adelaide who was standing a couple of doors up from me, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes steadily regarding me.
“What?” I growled.
She sighed. “Come with me.”
Grumbling under my breath, I followed her to the chapel. I could have told her no, but then I’d have to deal with River. And while he was my best friend, he didn’t fuck around about his woman. Disobeying her was essentially disobeying and disrespecting him.
River was sitting at the head of the table. Joey was sitting to his right. I took my seat to River’s left. Adelaide settled on River’s lap, placing her feet in Joey’s. He just draped his arm over her legs, curling his hand around her calf.
“What?” I demanded again.
“Reina didn’t run to my club to escape you,” Joey began.
My frown deepened. Now, I was confused. The entire club had been telling me that’s what she’d done. And they’d made sure they fucking rubbed it in, too. By the end of the day of my first day home, I’d almost gotten in three fights.
“I was told she had.”
River sighed. “She’s been marked.”
I clenched my fist, but I prayed I’d fucking heard him wrong. “You want to fucking repeat that?” I growled, my temper spiking. The fuck did he meanshe’s been marked?
“Exactly what he said,” Joey told me. I turned my murderous glare on him. “The day you got shot, she was kidnapped from the hospital. Your club searched for her but couldn’t find her. She was dropped off back here, bleeding a hell of a lot with the Angels of Hell emblem cut into her back.”
It took me a moment to process what he’d said because there was no way in hell my club had failed her like that. I trusted each member to take care of her. And they were telling me I was out of commission for merehours, and she got fucking taken, got fuckingmarked?!
I drew in a deep breath, trying not to destroy something. I was normally pretty calm and collected—unless the situation involved Reina in some way, shape, or form.
“If I find out she was marked because of this club—”
“She was marked because of us,” Adelaide said softly. My nails bit into my palm as I slammed my fist onto the wooden table in front of me. “Whoever cut her, he called Axel his nephew. We can’t find a trace of anything, and the Angels of Hell are smart. We haven’t—”
I lurched out of my chair. River set Adelaide on her feet at the same time Joey jumped up as well, moving in front of her. River put a hand on my chest, but I knocked it off, fucking seething.
“I trusted you!” I roared at him. I was seeing fucking red. River had been the one man I thought I could completely trust, and he’d not only let me down, but he’d possibly ruined my woman’s fucking life. “I trusted you to fucking protect her, to keep her goddamnsafe!”
He didn’t say anything because he knew I was right. He hadn’t just let me down. He’d potentially ruined Reina’s fucking life, and if we didn’t wipe the Angels of Hell off the fucking map, she belonged to them. It was the fucking twisted way our world worked.
“Someone better tell me what plans have been made,” I warned them.
“Can’t find them,” Joey told me. “Alejandro is hunting.”
I punched River in his jaw, knocking him back a couple of steps. He lunged back at me, but Adelaide stepped between. “Don’t,” she warned River. He was seething, his enraged gaze locked on mine. But I wasn’t backing down. “He’s got every right to be pissed. If it were me with that mark on my back, you’d be punching the shit out of someone, too,” she reminded him. She looked up at me. “We’re trying, Sam.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m going to try to save my woman,” I snarled at them. “Because I’ve got no doubt in my fucking mind that she’s dying inside. She feels alone. And because she’s a club woman, I betnoneof you have told her that you’re trying to help her.”
Silence met my ears. I snorted and shoved past River, clocking him in the shoulder hard enough to knock him back a step. I spun back around at the last second, stepping up so close, our chests brushed. He gritted his teeth, somehow keeping his cool. “She’s my old lady. I’m laying claim to her right fucking now,” I snarled, jabbing him in his chest with my index finger. “And she’s out of the goddamn dark.”
With that, I stormed out of the chapel, slamming the door shut behind me so hard that the walls shook. I walked down the hall back to her room and leaned my forehead on the door, placing my hands flat against the smooth wood.
“Reina, baby, I know,” I said softly, hoping this would get her to open the door. “I know about your back.”
Suddenly, I heard the lock twist, and my heart twisted with it. The door opened. I stared down into her pale, upturned face. She’d lost weight. She didn’t look healthy at all. And she looked tired, her eyes bloodshot, misery coating them, hiding that once bright shine.
Her lips trembled. “You know?”