Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 121153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Mae took hold of my hand. As one linked unit, we faced the so-called devil’s men. The Cursed Sisters of Eve, protecting the fallen false prophet of The Order . . . and I had never felt so free.
“Prez?” Someone finally spoke. “Are you just gonna stand here and let this fuckin’ happen? These bitches ain’t got no place here. They got no fuckin’ say.” But Styx did not answer. He stayed fixed on Mae, his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw as rigid as his tense body.
Rider let out a low groan, and I spun my head around. “Help me,” I said to my sisters urgently. I rushed to Rider and tried to reach his chains. Mae moved to the wall and I saw her pull down on a lever. The chains groaned loudly as they began lowering him down. I reached out and caught his broken body in my arms.
“The keys,” Lilah said to Mae. Mae retrieved them from a hook on the wall and brought them to Rider’s wrists. My sisters undid the cuffs as I leaned over his swelling, injured face. His one open eye tracked me deliriously. He groaned when one of his arms fell free from the chain. I rubbed the muscles with my hand, trying to get the blood to flow back to his limbs. “Bella,” Rider said huskily. “You should . . . have let me . . . die . . . ”
I shook my head. “Never, baby . . . never.”
A tear seeped from his eye. I wiped it away with my thumb. “Help me move him,” I said to Maddie. She moved to Rider’s other side, and we tried to lift him off the floor. Rider hissed in pain. “He is too heavy,” Maddie said sadly. Lilah and Mae looked on hopelessly. But one was injured and the other pregnant. I would not let them harm themselves.
“It is okay,” I said. I stroked back Rider’s long hair from sticking to the wound on his chest. “I will stay here with him. Bring me water and bandages.” I took hold of his hand. “I will stay here with him until he can walk again . . . until he can walk away from this hell of a place.”
“Bella,” Mae said and I could hear the sadness in her voice. I loved my sisters, but she knew I was not going to live here without Rider. I would not live in a place of hate.
Never again.
I looked up, about to plead my sisters to do as I asked, when someone began pushing through from the back of the crowd of men. Low murmurs came from the brothers. A long-haired man stepped toward us. I crouched over Rider, to shield him from whatever this man was about to do. The man held up his hands.
“Smiler?” Mae said. My head snapped up. Smiler. Rider’s old best friend.
He inched forward. “Can I?” he asked.
Lilah smiled at me and nodded her head. I trusted her completely.
Still holding Rider’s hand, I leaned back and let Smiler in. He crouched down and wrapped his arms around Rider’s back. He pulled him up; I helped hold up Rider’s other side. I looked across at Smiler, and my heart ached. His clothes were clean. He had no weapon. He had no bloodstains on his chest.
He had not taken part in the punishment.
“We need to get him to my room,” Smiler said, taking the brunt of Rider’s weight as we carried him forward. I felt my sisters walking strong behind me, and the feeling that washed over me almost brought me to my knees. As lost as I had felt in this outside world, as distant as I felt from the women they were now, this blew all those worries away.
We left the barn, and Smiler flicked his head at a vehicle close by. “Get him in the truck, I’ll drive him up to the clubhouse.”
Rider’s feet dragged on the muddy ground as we struggled to support his weight. But we got him into the truck, his head cradled in my lap. As Smiler pulled away, I stared down at Rider and stroked his wet hair. His one open eye was once more fixed on me. The white of that eye was red raw. Even in his fractured stare, I could see his love for me shining through . . . but to my sadness, I could also see regret.
He had wanted to die.
Still wanted to die.
I bent down and kissed his forehead. “I will not let that happen,” I whispered, for his ears only. “I will not let you be alone ever again.”
Rider’s eye closed, and he slipped into a deep sleep. We got him into Smiler’s room in the clubhouse. He slept on the bed as Smiler—apparently a novice medic—stitched his wounds.