Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
By the time I exited her room, Breaker and Rage were searching the rest of the house. My heart pounded in my chest, making my ears roar. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the panic threatening to push its way through to my mind. I broke out in a sweat, and it was hard to put one foot in front of another.
“She’s not in here.” Rage sounded calm, but I could hear the underlying tension in his voice. “Check out back.”
Breaker was the first out the door. He moved a few steps into the yard, then stopped dead in his tracks. “Fucking hell…”
I pushed past him to see a sight I never wanted to see. Scarlet. Hanging from a tree in the corner of the yard. I knew it was her like I knew my own name.
“Get Stitches!” I yelled on the run, needing to get to her. Please, don’t let it be too late…
I pulled out the knife at my hip with one hand while I wrapped my arms around her legs with the other, trying to lessen the tension on the rope in case there was still a chance she was alive. I stumbled against the chair lying on its side underneath her. There was little doubt she’d done this to herself. How much Hammer had been involved remained to be seen, but once I found him, I was going to make him pay. Slowly. Painfully. He might not have killed her, but this was his fault as sure as if he’d put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. It was also my fault. Because I’d stood outside on that fucking porch and hadn’t pushed my way inside to make sure Scarlet didn’t need help the day I’d followed her and Hammer from the clubhouse.
Reaching the rope with my knife was going to be hard while I had my arms around her. I needn’t have worried, though. Rage was at my side, snagging the knife from my fist and cutting Scarlet down.
“Lay her on the ground.” Stitches hurried to us, a jump kit slung over his shoulder as he entered the yard.
I did as he ordered, laying her carefully on the plush grass, I saw the bruising to her face and arms. The rope burns around her neck. I’m sure there were more injuries, but I couldn’t seem to look away from her face. I willed her to open her eyes, but she didn’t.
Then Stitches was pushing me out of the way while Rage started CPR. Stitches hooked up an AED to her as I watched. He was barking orders, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was like his voice came from a deep well. Distorted. Vague.
Stitches called out something and Rage stopped doing chest compressions. I tried to force my way to Scarlet, to continue to try to save her life when it felt like Rage was giving up. The other man held me back.
Her body twitched slightly before Stitches put his fingers at her throat. Checking for a pulse? When he didn’t start CPR again immediately, I howled with rage. I would find Hammer and kill the motherfucker. Then I’d go after her father and Grim Road.
“Get him under control,” someone snapped. I honestly couldn’t tell who.
The next thing I knew, Rage and Breaker grabbed me and pulled me farther away from Scarlet. I fought, throwing fists and lashing out in a blind rage. I had to get back to her. To save her.
“Mars, stop!” Rage had his arms wrapped around my neck in a choke hold. He wasn’t trying to cut off my air or the circulation to my brain so I passed out. He was merely trying to pull me out of the hell inside my mind I’d stumbled into. What he didn’t realize, and what I had no way of explaining, was that this rage wasn’t the result of my past. At least, not solely. Somehow, Scarlet had become my present nightmare. Her. Not the ghosts from my pasts. “This isn’t helping her, brother.”
Rage tightened his hold on me, making dark spots swim in my vision. Slowly, the fight seeped out of me until all I could do was breathe. The big man loosened his hold fractionally. Probably trying to see if I was going to lose my mind again. I could have told him I had very little left of my mind to lose. All I could see was Scarlet’s lifeless body…
She sucked in a breath. Her eyes fluttered open. Then she whimpered and turned her head away from us.
“It’s all right, honey.” Stitches tried to soothe her, but he was distracted as he started an IV in the bend of her elbow. “We’re gonna take care of you.”
“Please,” she pleaded weakly. “No more. Let me go.”