Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"Shit. Fuck. God damn it," Shredder said, skidding to a stop as I put the girl on her side in the center of my bed. "That's the girl from yesterday."

"What girl from yesterday?" Reign barked, needing answers, annoyed that he wasn't getting them quickly enough.

I half-turned away from her, knowing club business was more pressing to everyone around us than some random girl who was still breathing. "Shred and I saw her walking down the street yesterday. She was lost. We gave her directions to Bella's. That's it."

Reign raked a hand down his face, looking around at his men who all had equally tense shoulders and faces. "Okay. First things. The women and kids need to get out of the yard. It's a party, but bring it inside. After that, I leave it to you all to get them home, check out your places, make sure all is tied up tight. Then I need you all back here for church. We need to pool the threats and see who the fuck wants to start war with us after all this time. The girl..."

"Penny," I supplied, making Reign look at me hard for a minute. "I'll keep an eye and have Janie and Alex see what they can dig up about her. She's not a threat though, man. She's innocent. Only reason this happened is because someone saw us talking to her and likely thought..."

"She belonged to you or Shred," Reign finished for me with a nod.

"My guys will be here in ten," Lo said, sitting down on the bed with me and Penny.

"I'll send Janie and Alex in as soon as I can," Breaker said, disappearing, knowing this was club business and, while a friend, he was not involved.

"Secure the property," Reign said to no one in particular, but five or six of the men filed out to do just that, all already charged for a possible confrontation.

That left me, Lo, the girl, Reign, Cash, Wolf, and Repo in the room.

"Fuckin' war," Wolf said after a tense silence.

"Never again wouldn't be too soon," Cash said, likely remembering the last war that brought down half the organization and their own father. It had been a particularly brutal, unprincipled war too. Women got hurt. On both sides.

"Won't be like last time," Reign promised, his voice firm.

"Fuckin' innocent woman," Wolf added, his freaky honey eyes pinned on the prone body on the bed. See, when Wolf got pissed, bad things happened. And nothing pissed Wolf off more than men hurting women. Everything about the giant was tense, like his seams were going to burst from holding in his rage.

Lo was running her hands over said woman, looking for other injuries. Unconscious, the girl cried out when her hands moved over her ribs but showed no signs of distress when Lo none-too-subtly ran her hand between the woman's legs. I think we all relaxed slightly at that, hoping that her medical team would come to the same conclusion- that she wasn't raped.

I wasn't exactly sure I could handle that shit.

Especially seeing as it would be, at least in part, my fault.

"If I hadn't called her over..." Shredder said, mind moving in the same direction as mine.

"You couldn't have known that helping direct some lost girl would end up with her beaten and carved up," Vin, one of the old timers, reasoned.

"Lo!" a voice called from below.

"Send them up!" she called back, moving off the bed so they would have room to do what they needed to do.

Reign gave me a chin jerk and he and the others filed out, trusting me to keep an eye.

"Duke, they'll need to strip her..." Lo reasoned.

"I got orders to keep an eye on things here," I said with apology in my voice. I didn't exactly rejoice at the idea of seeing her body naked without her permission either.

"And do a rape kit," she added, making me flinch. "Go into the bathroom, Duke. I will keep an eye on this. Let the girl have as much privacy as we can possibly give her under the circumstances."

She wasn't wrong.

I took a breath, looking down at Penny's gorgeous, busted face, and nodded as I climbed off the bed. "Okay," I said as the door opened, bringing in two of Lo's people- a man and a woman. They both carried bags and had active eyes as they looked her over.

"Shit. Stitches," the man said, moving past me to sit behind her on the bed.

I shared a look with Lo who gave me an encouraging nod as I moved into my bathroom. Feeling useless, I paced and eavesdropped, hands curling and uncurling.

Regardless of what Vin said, there was guilt.

And, for whatever reason, that guilt had turned into a strange, bone-deep need to take care of her, to repent for the sins of my association, to try to make things a little bit right. To help her get clean again.