Shea’s head snapped up. “I’ll take them.”
“No.” I didn’t want her out of my sight, and I needed her to tell me what happened, to assure me she was okay.
“I’ll do it.” Liliana pulled herself from the huddle of women. “Come on, ladies.”
The queen of the Mississippi Queen really was stunning. Her chocolate skin glowed in the flickering light of the candles, her body tall and lean beneath the satin of her ivory slip. But the horror of what she’d just witnessed trembled her delicate hands and stained her cheeks with tears.
“Liliana.” Link stared at her, his black eyes creased with warning. “Until I get this sorted, you should…”
A look passed between them, and she tilted her head. “Watch my back?” She gestured toward the women to follow her and stopped at Link’s side, her focus on his face instead of the massacre soaking the carpet beneath him. “Sugar, I was fighting off men before you were a bullet in your daddy's gun.”
The tanned skin around his eyes tightened. “What the fuck are you implying?”
I didn’t understand what they were talking about, especially since I still didn’t know what had happened here. But I could guess on the latter. Rape. Self-defense. Perhaps Link blamed himself for trusting the men who turned on these women?
The blond woman had died during the fight, her eyes staring blindly at the ceiling. I hoped her final thoughts reflected on a happy life rather than on the two brutish men who lay dead beside her.
My chest ached, and I forced a deep inhale, pushing past the tightness.
Liliana reached for Brooke, the brunette standing behind her, but her eyes remained on Link. “You’re not on my payroll anymore. You have nothing to prove to me.”
With that, she led the women out, tugging on Brooke’s hand. I’d been introduced to all of the women throughout the course of the day and remembered Brooke as the girl who’d demanded the vibrator. But now that I saw the colorful cosmography of stars inked on her arms and the metal rings pierced through every feature in her delicate face, I knew she was the rebellious one Shea had cured after I left the house.
Angie, the blonde with shoulder-length hair, stumbled after Brooke. The rabid look in her hazel eyes wasn’t just from all the bloodshed. Two days ago, she’d been the nymph tapping on the window, the one who looked like she’d lived in the wild for two years. She wouldn’t remember those years, but they seemed to have left a savage kind of vibration humming across her skin.
Jillian trailed behind them, also blonde, her hair falling in sheets around her elbows. She quickened her bare feet to keep up with Angie, but her gaze strayed to Jesse. Even as she sniffled and blinked her swollen red eyes, the flushed look on her face was undeniable. She tripped, her fixation on Jesse never wavering until she was out of sight down the hall.
Jesse seemed oblivious to his admirer as he stepped beside Link, his attention on the bodies. “Shea?”
Darwin brushed against her leg, nuzzling her fingers. As she absently petted his head, he angled his neck to give her easier access, his little black eyebrows pulling against the golden fur on his forehead.
Shea wiped her other hand on her sleep shorts, streaking the yellow cotton with blood. “That one came in first.” She pointed at the man with the metal handle protruding from his eye. “I woke with him on top of me.” Her expression darkened. “He didn’t know I slept with my scalpel.”
That’s my girl. My lungs expanded with a heady swell of pride. “Did he…?”
She shook her head. “I stabbed the son of a bitch in his brain before he got his dick out.”
The man she’d knifed in the eye was the tattooed volunteer who had been following her around all day. The same man who’d been assigned to guard the stairs while the women slept.
“The other one…” Her chin trembled, and her hands balled into fists as she glared at the man beneath Link’s bent knees. “He was the second guard on the stairs, right?”
Link nodded, his eyes tapered into dangerous slits.
Shea flexed her hand at her side. “He was over by the door, wrestling Jennifer to the floor. I…I think she attacked him first. She tried to protect us.”
I pulled away from Roark’s arms, stepped around Jennifer’s body, and hugged Shea to my chest. She pushed away at first, but as I tightened my embrace, she deflated against me, hugging me back.
Self-defense was all well and good, but Shea was still new to this world. Deep down, she needed a certain level of normalcy, and standing over the body of the woman she’d been taking care of was a reality few could stomach. Even I struggled to maintain my composure, regret chewing painfully at my insides. The valuable and very rare life of a woman ended tonight because of the greedy, selfish needs of a man.