Billionaire Protector (Billionaire Bikers MC #1)

“You knew she was dead.”

“Yes. Her name is Karen, and we are, I mean, we were roommates.” She shook her head. “She died in my arms, and those bastards just threw her body away as if she was trash.”

“What happened? Why were you both taken?”

Licking her lips, she forced herself to look at the very handsome man. He was the kind of man that would have loved Karen. She was the prettier out of the two of them. Anna, she liked to eat, and cook, and bake, and eat. Not many men liked a size eighteen woman with a lot of meat on her bones. She had brown hair, mousy brown at that. Karen had been slender and beautiful, full of life.

“We were walking home, and a van just pulled up. One of the guys hit me, and grabbed Karen. I fought for my friend, and they took me. I wasn’t going to be taken, and they only took me because it was easier than me causing a fuss.” If they hadn’t taken her, Anna would have fought until she got Karen back.

“We’re so sorry for your loss,” Lewis said.

Anna didn’t say anything. She handed the picture back to Russell.

“Thank you for rescuing us.” It was the polite thing to say even though she hated it. She didn’t want to say thank you or be grateful for them saving her. In that moment, she wished for death just like she had in that cage.

Karen was gone, and it wasn’t fair.

Chapter Three

“She’s not thankful at all,” Lewis said.

“Notify the nurse, and warn her that Anna Little should be placed on suicide watch.” Russ stared into the room, and it was hard for him to take his eyes off the woman who was now silently crying on the bed.

“You think she’d take her own life?”

“Her best friend just died, and I bet she witnessed it. She fought for her, Lewis. I wouldn’t put it past her, and I think it’s a wise precaution.”

He watched her move, and wince at the same time.

“She’s different to you?” Lewis asked.

“I don’t know what she is, Lewis. I think I heard her scream the night before when you told me about that place.”

Lewis nodded. “Karen wasn’t notified as being missing, but her information is here, alongside Anna’s.”

He took the file from Lewis and had a quick glance. The two women lived in the same apartment but worked elsewhere. Mrs. Lions ran a supermarket where Anna worked, and Karen worked as a telephone operator. Both women took long shifts and overtime every chance they got. They were both hard working, and spent every chance they could, earning money.

“She’s pretty.” There was another picture of Karen, not one taken of her dead body.

“Yeah.”

“No one reported her as missing?” Russ asked.

“No one did.”

Russ shook his head. He glanced back into the room, and he just couldn’t shift this uneasy feeling inside him. “Will you finish talking with the other women?”

“What is it?” Lewis asked.

“I don’t know. I just can’t leave her alone right now.”

He handed the files back, and the photographs. Lewis gave him a funny look, and Russ kept his stare blank. He wasn’t in the mood to be analyzed today.

“Okay. The devices are waiting for us back at the club.”

“I’ll come and handle my part soon. I promise.” He shook Lewis’s hand and made his way into the room. Anna was flicking through the channels, going up and down, and not stopping on one.

“Is there something else?” she asked.

“No. I just don’t think you should be alone right now.”

“Why?”

“You lost your friend.”

She bit her lip, and Russ sat back in his chair, staring at the woman in the bed. There was a bandage around her head, and she was dirty. The nurses had given her a sponge bath, but they had missed bits.

“I know I stink. You don’t have to stay.”

“I want to stay. You should be able to take a wash tomorrow. They don’t want you standing for too long.” He reached out, and took her hand. She made to pull away from him, but he kept on holding her hand. “Did they, erm, did they hurt you in any other way?”

“Are you asking if they raped me?”

He winced at the sarcasm in her voice. “I’m sorry.”

“They didn’t rape me.” She took a breath, and he saw it was hard for her to move right now. “They made me watch as they hurt my friend. Karen, she begged for death long before she got it.”

“They didn’t kill her.”

She shook her head. “None of them listened when I told them she was a diabetic, and that she needed her insulin.”

“Were you there when she died?”