I began to tremble. Shit, this is bad. This guy was obviously a psychopath and by the looks of those bloody pliers, he had done this before. Before he could take another step towards me, all hell broke loose.
The doors, which must’ve lead into a house crashed open and the two goons who had been quietly watching pulled guns. The sound of gunfire rang in my ears and I saw the two men go down. I watched in horror as Scary guy pulled a gun and started shooting at the door where Bull, Brock and Cade were standing, guns drawn. Scary guy was standing in front of me, which I guessed was why none of them shot back, in fear of missing him and hitting me. Instead, Bull rushed forward, in the path of bullets, and tackled my would-be torturer to the ground. He wrestled the gun out of his hands and commenced in beating the shit out of him.
Cade appeared in front of me, taking my scantily clad body and battered face in with a mask of fury and concern. Quick as anything his face changed and he gazed at me with an expression so gentle I almost cried. Yes, this is what made me cry, not the man who had just punched me in the face and was about to pull out my teeth. I was so weird.
“I’m going to get you down, okay, baby,” he murmured in a voice so soft it was hard to believe he had possibly killed two men.
He reached up with a long knife and cut me free of the rope holding me to the ceiling. I collapsed into his arms, unable to hold my weight. His arms circled around me, holding me tight. Brock appeared in front of us, shrugging off his cut then his shirt, handing it to Cade who grunted thanks.
“Arms up, baby,” Cade ordered quietly.
I obeyed silently and he pulled the shirt over my head covering me. He cupped my neck with his hands, and with a face like thunder looked at my battered face.
He gathered me in his arms and glanced at Brock. “I’m getting Gwen out of here,” Cade grunted.
Brock just nodded.
“You two on cleanup, the boys are on their way,” he barked before striding towards the door.
I regarded the bloody scene clinically, none of it sinking in.
Brock gave Cade a hard look, then directed a softer one at me.
That was all I saw before Cade took us through a dirty house and out onto the street. We were in a seriously dodgy neighborhood, nowhere that looked familiar, and I wondered where the hell these bastards had taken me. I didn’t have much time to contemplate this as an SUV screeched in front of us at the curb. I jumped for a moment, thinking it was more of the Spiders.
“It’s okay baby, it’s just Lucky,” Cade told me quietly.
Lucky jumped out of the driver’s seat and hissed when he saw me, his normally carefree face marred with fury.
“Those fuckers dead?” he barked at Cade, his voice almost feral.
“Yep,” Cade clipped. “You take my bike, I’ll take Gwen in the cage.”
Lucky nodded tightly, starting to the house. He stopped in front of me, stroking my cheek softly before continuing.
Cade opened the passenger door, depositing me carefully on the seat before buckling me up. Our eyes locked for a beat, something passing from him I didn’t entirely understand, but something important. I didn’t get long to scrutinize it as he closed my door and rounded the car.
He took off quickly, weaving through the streets at speed.
“Where are we?” I whispered, trying to find a familiar landmark.
“Barnett, next town over,” he replied, eyes focused on the road.
That would make sense as to why I didn’t recognize where we were. Silence descended as we left the town behind, the road looking all but abandoned. I felt overwhelmed, but numb at the same time, my brain not being able to handle all the crazy shit that had just happened. My face was hurting like a mother fucker, not to mention my ribs, which felt like they were on fire. I gingerly touched my lip, wincing at the pain that erupted. Cade must’ve seen this because he slammed on his breaks and pulled off the road. He was out of the car and by my side at lightening speed before unbuckling me and turning my body to face him. He lightly touched my face, eyes hard.
“You hurt anywhere else?” he asked evenly, voice flat.
I gulped and glanced down at my torso, not being fooled by his flat tone, I knew he was barely restraining his fury, but he would see my ribs sooner or later. His eyes followed mine and he lifted the edge of Brock’s tee up to expose my ribs. I heard his hiss of breath as his eyes encountered the purplish bruise already forming. His stare came level with mine, eyes glittering with caged fury.
“They touch you?” he managed to grind out. I knew how much he feared the answer, looking like he was barely holding on.
I clasped my hands around his neck, pulling him between my legs. “He didn’t touch me, you got there in time. I knew you would,” I spoke softy.
His eyes focused on my lip, the bruise that I knew was already forming on my cheekbone, his huge palm spanned my ribs, touch feather light.
“I didn’t get there in time, the fucker put his hands on you. Had you hanging off the fucking ceiling in your underwear.” His voice was almost a snarl. “He marked you. You’re hurt.”
“You don’t get it Cade, I knew you would come. I’ve been in that situation before, and I was paralyzed with fear last time…”
Cade’s eyes became midnight at my words, body stiff.
I tightened my grip on his neck. “This time I wasn’t paralyzed with fear, I didn’t feel hopeless. Because I knew you would come for me.” My voice was fierce.
Cade stared at me for a second as if he was mentally pulling himself together. He closed his eyes then plastered my body into his, my butt left the seat and I had no choice but to wrap my legs around his waist. He held me tight, face in my hair.