“I-I’ve been kidnapped.”
Instantly, the man’s voice tightened with urgency. “You’ve been kidnapped? Is there anyone—”
Before he could continue, I rasped, “I-I managed to stop her.”
“Her? You know who the assailant it?”
My throat grew thick. “I’m looking at her. She’s dead.”
My brain started to whir at that as I tried to figure out how this was possible. How any of this was even happening.
I reached up and rubbed my eyes, but when I did, I could feel the crispiness on my skin where the blood had dried after I passed out.
When he asked for my name, I gave it to him, then I explained it all, everything that I thought I knew from beginning to end, and I knew it would only be the first time that evening that I told my story, that I recounted it.
When the operator asked me to peer out of the window to see if there were any landmarks, I blinked in a daze, because why hadn’t I thought to do that before?
Hissing with irritation at myself, I clambered onto my knees and winced when a wash of dizziness whispered over me—oh, yeah. That was why.
Just crawling around the body, tugging her from her front to her back so I could get into her jacket pocket and grab her phone had been hard, but going over to the window felt like I was being asked to cross the Sahara.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I rasped, “M-My head hurts. I don’t know what she drugged me with, but it’s still in my system.”
“Take it slowly, Stone. It’s okay. We’ve got all the time in the world.”
But we didn’t, we didn’t have all the time in the world. I knew he was just trying to calm me, but it didn’t work, because that was the last thing he should have said.
If I had to stay in this fucking apartment one more minute, I felt certain I would scream.
I peered out of the window, and as my gaze drifted around the area, seeking out a landmark, something that would give me a clue as to where we were staying, I happened to see it.
A street sign.
It was on the side of a building that was a little awkwardly placed, and it required me to squint, but I managed to read it and whispered it to the operator.
“I have two units and an ambulance on their way, Stone. Just stay on the line with me until they get there. You’ve been through a lot of trauma tonight.”
I snorted out a laugh. “You think?”
His amusement was cautious, like he was trying to remain unaffected but my response had surprised him. “I suppose you’re right.”
“I’m a doctor,” I told him. “I’m used to this. I’m just not used to being on the other side of it.”
“I don’t think you ever get used to it.”
There was a nightmare in his voice, one that told me this was just one call in a career of calls he’d fielded where terrified men, women, and children contacted him, scared for their lives.
Being on the front line, in a word, sucked. He didn’t know that I knew that, but I felt for him nonetheless.
Exhaustion hit me again, and I rubbed my eyes, covering my face with my hand as I tried to stop the room from spinning.
Whatever she gave me had been a doozy. I’d never felt anything so fast-acting but also so quick to drain off, to leave me able to function while still affecting everything I did.
I heard the sirens before I saw the flashing lights, and a whispered sob escaped me as I realized they were here.
At last.
I was strong, I was positive. I was used to being on my own, and I was independent.
But I’d admit, and I felt no shame in it, that at that moment, I wanted to give it all up and lean on the one man who was strong enough to hold me upright.
Steel.
And he wasn’t here.
I’d have given up Big Macs for life if it meant he was the one coming to me, not the cops.
I bit my lip again, wincing as I realized that I’d actually bitten through it at some point without even knowing it. “They’re here,” I rasped.
“You need to get their attention, considering we have no specifics as to your actual location.”
I stared at the window clasp, wishing that it didn’t look like a maze, and somehow, managed to unfasten it.
When I thrust myself out of the window, hanging out of it so I could call out, “Help!” my brain started to whirl again as not only the dash of fresh air hit me square in the face, but the way the burst of action made my equilibrium waver.
For a second, I wasn’t sure if I was going to fall out of the window, and then I heard a, “Ma’am? Just stay put!”
What could have been minutes or seconds later, I heard a pounding at the door, and when I just slumped over the windowsill, knowing I was safe, I heard the door being kicked in, and I let go.
I slouched against the low wall and passed out because that used every single ounce of my energy reserves and then some.
When I woke up, only God knew how long later, it was to find I was strapped into a stretcher. A red blanket covered me, and I had a drip attached to my arm while two EMTs worked around me.
I wasn’t in an ambulance, I was outside, and nearby, I saw another stretcher.
This one with a body on it.
I gulped at the sight of the black plastic bag, knowing that I’d been the one to put that woman in there, and I stared at the EMTs, watching them work, registering their actions as I went through the checklist of what they were doing.
“Ma’am, how are you feeling?” one of them asked. The woman. She’d just seen that I was awake.
“I feel like death.”
Her lips twisted. “I promise you, you’re not.”
“My head says otherwise.” My mouth quivered as I asked for something I knew they couldn’t give me. “I need meds for the pain.”
“We need to figure out what you were given.”
I nodded, accepting the answer, even as I rolled my gaze from hers and let my head droop onto my shoulder.
When I faded out of consciousness again, I didn’t try to fight it.
It was either that, or deal with a long and bumpy hospital ride, where each jolt would make me feel like my skull was caving in.
In this instance, being unconscious was the kinder fate, so I embraced it and let myself go.
Seven
Steel
Before
“Shit. Fuck!”
The words were whispered in my ear, but I knew they were actually a scream.
Rex didn’t whisper.
He hollered.
I squinted up at nothing, my eyelashes flickering and fluttering as I tried to stop the blur from overtaking my eyes, but it wouldn’t work.
My head fell back and rolled against the—
Floor?
I half sat up, then my stomach protested the move almost as fiercely as my brain, which told me that movement wasn’t the best option at this moment.
So what? I was lying on the ground.
So what? I was being hustled onto my side by my brother.
So. Fucking. What.
“Leave me alone,” I rumbled, the words slurred, making me realize my tongue was suddenly as heavy as my entire head.
Huh.
“Can’t. We need to get you to the hospital, you dumb fuck.”
“Hospital?” I sniffed. “I’m fiiiiiine. Don’t need no hospital.”
“You need your stomach pumped. I refuse to let you go to Lana Jane’s funeral like this—”
If anything could have sobered me up, it was that bitch’s name.
“Hate her.”
“I know, man. I know.” Rex heaved a sigh. “Can’t say that I blame you.”
I squinted at him. “Why did you have to hear that?”
The utterance of her name made it a shit ton easier to read his expression.
Guilt.
Fucking guilt.
“I’m sorry, bro.” He hung his head. “We were working on club business, and you just stormed in. I didn’t
think—not until it was too late.”
I reached up and slapped a hand over my face. “Rex?”
“Yeah?”
“I may have done something stupid.”
“What like?” he asked warily. “You ain’t why Lana Jane’s dead, are you?”
I sniffed at that. “And have Stone hate me forever? She loved her ma, for some stupid reason.”
“Not sure that makes me feel better. If you didn’t, and I doubt she did, then that means my pop might have had something to do with it.”
I squinted up at him, but my smirk was gleeful. “Hope so. You should have heard her, Rex. She meant it. Every vicious, venomous, clusterfuck of a word.”
“I can’t believe she’d have sold her, man—” He shook his head. “But they’re all mercenary. You know what club snatch is like.”
“I do.” And I did. Too well. I was reared from one. Only the Old Ladies seemed to have any honor, and that was why they were revered.
Maybe not by their Old Men, ironically enough, but by the MC on the whole, definitely.
We’d kill for any woman who wore a brother’s brand. Shit, we’d go to war for one.
I rubbed my cheek against the grass, deciding it was a good time to ask, “Where am I?”
“You’re in the swamp.”
My nose crinkled at that. We didn’t have any wetlands in West Orange, but behind the clubhouse, close to where the Fridge was, there was a little section where the ground was kind of, well, odd. You stood on it long enough, and it would shift beneath your feet.
The young kids, myself, and my friends included, all tended to ride out here to have parties. It was club land, so our parents usually let us get away with shit, and we never had to worry about the cops breaking us up.
“You’re lucky I found you, dumb fuck. Now come on, what’s the stupid shit you’ve done?”
I heaved a sigh. “Took some pills.”
He tensed. “Fuck, Steel. Fuck! What kind of pills?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know. Went riding into Verona. Bought as much as three hundred bucks would buy. Came back with my vodka, and I had myself a party.”
“Why you telling me this if you wanted to die?”
“’Cause I don’t want to die anymore.”
He snorted. “Fuck. I’m lucky you’re awake, but then the puddles of vomit around you are probably why you’re even talking to me right now.”
I sniffed the air and discovered he was right.
It did stink of puke.
And vodka.
Shit, it reeked of it.
“Thank you for coming for me, Rex,” I slurred.
He heaved a sigh. “Thank me later when you’ve been deep throated by a bitchy nurse who’s about to clean out your guts.”
I sniffed. “Kinky.”
His laugh hurt my ears and made my head ache, but I was glad he’d found me.
What had seemed like the best thing to do, suddenly didn’t feel like that.
If anything, I realized how stupid I’d been. How fucking dumb.
As Rex helped me onto my feet, my knees gave out beneath me the second I was standing. When he caught me with a grunt, my limbs turned to spaghetti, and he heaved out a sigh. “Remind me why you’re worth it?”
I thanked him by puking down his cut.
Eight
Steel
Waiting on Indy to get the call was nerve-racking. She was sitting opposite me, having driven over from Jersey and to the city, arriving an hour ago.
We were camped out in a diner, just getting ready for things to get underway, but this was the first step.
She lit up like a dashboard when she got the call, and the second she heard Stone’s voice, I saw the tears in her eyes and felt her relief as if it was my own, which was weird, considering I loved her and she barely knew Stone.
Still, Indy was weird. She felt shit more than most, but hell, she couldn’t feel more relieved than I felt.
I hated that I wasn’t with her.
Hated that I couldn’t go to her, but Nyx was right. The fucker. By getting involved with my rep, with the Sinners’ rep behind me, it would only muddy the waters.
She didn’t need that.
Especially not in NYC, which wasn’t our town.
Back home, we could deal with the authorities, but here, it was a different situation.
Fuck, I’d be glad when she was back in West Orange.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I watched Indy nod, then she scrambled out of the booth where we were seated, put down the phone, and rasped, “She’s at Franklin Mercy Hospital. They’re keeping her overnight for observation.”
I nodded, relieved to know where she was, even if I couldn’t go visit her.
Rex muttered, “Go and be with her, but the second you can get her out of there, bring her back to your place. She needs to come home.”
Indy scowled at him, then at me. “This is her home.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s her temporary home.”
“Stop splitting hairs,” Indy snapped. “Her life is here. This is where her job is.”
“I’m going to work on getting her transferred to West Orange General.”
Indy’s mouth worked like a goldfish. “You’re shitting me, right? You can’t make that kind of decision for her!”
“Yeah, I fucking can,” I growled, annoyed that she was even thinking about this shit when Stone needed her at her side, not fighting in her corner over an argument that was already fucking lost.
Her face scrunched up as she stared at me and Rex, then her eyes flashed over to Nyx, who grumbled, “Indy, this isn’t the war you want to be fighting right now.”
Her nostrils flared. “It’s the exact war I need to be fighting. You making decisions for her is just going to piss her the fuck off. I can’t say that I’d goddamn blame her either.”
“You have no idea what we have going on right now,” I snapped at her. “If you did, you’d be shitting yourself.
“If you were in NYC, I’m pretty sure that Nyx would be bringing you home too, so be grateful you’re in Verona and not here, because that would change everything.”
Her mouth tightened. “You can’t make these decisions for us.”
“Yeah, we can,” Rex rumbled, weighing in with a heavy tone that was like Solomon making a life or death decision. “Like he said, you have no idea what’s going on in this world of ours. Whether or not you like it, you’re a part of the family, and we don’t want you dead. The goal isn’t to piss you off or to irritate you as we force you to accept our decisions, it’s to keep you alive, and in the run up to that, we’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” He stared at her, glowered at her when she glowered at him, then tacked on, “Even if you hate us for it.”
An exasperated gust exploded from her lungs, just as she veered away from the table and started to storm off, striding down the small corridor of the diner like she couldn’t bear to look at us.
Truly, I’d be pissed off as well if I was her, but it was just tough shit.
We weren’t doing this to be pricks.
For once.
“Indy,” Nyx called out.
She froze, hands balling into fists at her sides, before she growled, “What?”
“Heads up.”
She twisted around, just in time to catch Stone’s phone. “Stone’s?” she asked warily, eying the cracked screen.
Nyx nodded. “Found it when we did a sweep of the hospital. Figure she’d like it back.”
She gulped, and I knew the words ‘thank you’ burned on her tongue. She fought the urge and carried on storming off, slamming the diner door behind her for good measure.
If my world wasn’t crashing down around me, I’d have laughed at their antics. As it was, I was barely keeping shit together.
Like he knew… a hand clapped on my shoulder and squeezed. Like always, it was Link. “It’ll be okay, bro.”
But it was going to be the opposite of okay.
Indy’s reaction w
as nothing compared to what Stone’s would be when she got over what had happened today.
She’d been dazed when we’d dropped the bombshell on her. Confused and scared. When she was in her right mind, she would go apeshit. Her initial angry reaction was child’s play in contrast to the fallout that would drop down when she was awake and aware.
I blew out a breath and told them, “I don’t care if she goes mental over this. She’ll be safe.”
“She isn’t in danger now,” Sin replied, his tone cautious.
“Maybe not, but we don’t know, do we? I wouldn’t want anyone I gave a shit about walking around unprotected. The closer we are to the clubhouse, the better,” Rex rasped.
“What about Rachel?” Link questioned gruffly.
None of us were pussies. We’d each gone to war for the MC in our own way, and had killed or almost died to uphold it…but at his inquiry, I wasn’t going to lie, most of us fucking froze.
Link might as well have tossed a live hand grenade into the diner…that was the incendiary power of his question.
Before I wondered if Rex was going to explode, he blew out a breath and muttered, “I have as much of a chance of getting Rachel to stick closer to home than I have of getting a porcupine to keep its quills in. I’ll fight some battles but not that one.
“Rachel lives on her own land, in her own compound that we helped secure, and it’s close to our place at least. She isn’t in the city, and her office staff comes to her place to work. It’s not ideal, but I can handle those odds.”
I cut him a look. “Is it going to be hard transferring Stone?”
“It’s already happening as we speak.”
My brow puckered. “Really?”
His mouth twisted. “Ever since that fucker snatched Tiff and Lily, I’ve been determining just how easy it would be to bring Stone home. I wasn’t lying when I told you she was like a sister to me. I’m not about to lose her over some dumb shit where the Famiglia thinks they’ve spotted a weakness. I’m having to quicken the pace on things, but the ball is rolling.”
Because I could hear the caring in his voice, I didn’t give him shit for it, just dipped my chin. “Thanks, brother.”
Steel: A Dark MC Romance (A Dark and Dirty Sinners’ MC Book 4) Page 10