The blond guy still has ahold of my wrists. I struggle in vain against them while Brayden and Janice just stand at the end of the pool table watching me. Felicity reaches me and pulls my dress down over my thighs. “Let her go, you sick animal!” she screamed, the blond man still holding me. “Hawk, please.”
I don’t know what she’s pleading for, but the next sound I hear is the scream of pain as Brayden crumbles to the ground after two quick, hard punches to the face. Then he’s beside of the blond guy, grabbing hold of his short blond hair and twisting the guy around to face him. “Evil fuck!” I hear and then I’m free.
I can’t move. I’m sobbing too hard,
my body refusing to cooperate with me even when I desperately wish to be as far away from here as humanly possible. Gentle fingers stroke over my hair, and I look up to find Felicity whispering soothingly to me. “You’re going to be okay now, Gracie. We have you. Hawk will kill them all if they touch you again.”
Chapter 8
Hawk
The girl is still sobbing so hard her body shakes. With both sick bastards lying on the floor unconscious and the twisted bitch that had been filming the whole thing long gone, I pull a blanket off the back of the closest couch and wrap it around the girl. She shies away from me until Felicity tells her that I won’t hurt her.
I’m still fighting the urge to vomit as I lift her into my arms, holding her tenderly as I carry her toward the closest door. Felicity flanks me, already pulling out the keys to her car and unlocking the doors as I near her Jeep. I tuck the girl into the back seat and debate leaving my own car in favor of going with Felicity. I know that if I have to come back to pick it up, I’ll kill every frat boy inside that house.
“Where are you taking her?” I demand.
“I can’t take her to my house. We’ll have to go to yours.”
I nod once and run to my car as Felicity tears up the grass on the lawn in her rush to get out of there. I shoot one last murderous glare at the frat house as I start my car. The boys and I will be coming back. We’re going to make sure that this fucking place burns to the ground while those fuckheads watch.
It’s with that silent promise to myself that I follow after Felicity.
It’s still raining and the roads are slick. I stress over Felicity getting to my house safely but know that she can handle her cage like no one else. Jet and I had taught her to drive ourselves, and that girl can handle almost anything behind the wheel of a cage. It feels like it takes forever to get home, and I start to hit the steering wheel in frustration when I see the lights from Felicity’s Jeep as she brakes long enough to turn into my driveway.
Felicity must have called ahead to warn Raven because she’s already in the driveway with a clean blanket. Bash stands off to the side away from her, but when he sees the look on my face as I slam the door of my car, he rushes forward. “What? What happened? Raven only said that Flick had a girl that was in trouble.”
I don’t answer right away, not sure I can speak through the rage anyway. Instead I open the back of the Jeep and carefully lift the girl, who’s now crying silently. I toss the smoke scented blanket aside and reach for the one Raven offers before wrapping it around my bundle. She buries her face in my chest, hiding her pretty face from everyone’s eyes.
“I know her from my History class,” I hear Felicity explaining to Raven behind me. “She’s so nice. So sweet. And those sick animals …”
“Flick!” I growl at her over my shoulder when the girl whimpers. “Shut the fuck up!”
“Set her on the couch,” Raven says, the nurse that we had made her kicking in. She watches as the girl clings to my neck as I try to release her once she’s safely on the couch. “What’s her name, Flick?”
“Gracie. Gracie Morgan.”
Raven carefully wedges herself between me and Gracie, speaking softly as if to a small animal or child. “My name is Raven, Gracie. I’m here to help you. But I can’t do that if Hawk is in the way. Okay, baby?” Raven gently pries the death grip Gracie has on my neck free, and I step back, reluctantly.
“Go, Hawk. I have to check her over. She won’t thank me if I let you see this.” Raven is still speaking in that soft tone, but I hear the command in it.
Clenching my fists at my side, I walked away while everything inside of me screams that I should stay. Maybe it’s the situation and my hero complex, but I feel an odd link to that girl, and with each step that takes me away from her my heart screams in protest.
Bash is standing just inside of the kitchen doorway, his big body tense and ready for anything. I don’t spare him a glance as I jerk the fridge open and pull out a beer. I feel his eyes on me watching me like a cat about to pounce on his prey. I ignore him. I can’t spare a second of thought for him when my mind is a storm of chaos.
From the living room I can just barely make out my sister’s soft murmurs over the continued sobs of Gracie. Each sob tears something inside of me. If I’d been thinking straight I would have realized that I was hooked even then, because I’ve never let something like this affect me before. I’m an unemotional brother in moments like this, able to turn off everything so I can take care of what needs to get done.
Bash knows that and it puts him on guard even more as he watches me. All his years of being the enforcer have him on high alert, his protective instincts for taking care of his woman—my baby sister—surging toward the red zone.
He waits until I down half the beer before speaking. “What happened?”
I glare out the kitchen window, the scene flashing through my head over and over again. “There were two of them … They were holding her down … Some girl was taking pictures or filming. Twisted bitch.”
Bash mutters a violent curse. “What do you want to do, man? You know we will all back you. I don’t condone that shit and neither do any of the Originals.”
Fantasies of what I want to do to those frat boys, each and every one of them, not just the two that had been hurting Gracie, enter my mind once more. “I’ll let you know. For now let’s just take care of the girl.”
Felicity comes into the kitchen, her face was the palest I’ve ever seen it. Tears glaze her blue eyes and that tears into me. Dammit, she has her own shit to deal with, without adding this to it. “Raven says they didn’t get the chance to rape her,” she whispers as she falls into one of the chairs at the breakfast table.