I wrap my arms around Pri and bury my face in her neck, some part of me holding onto her to stay here in the present but it’s too late. The memory is here, corrosive, punching at me, pulling me back. And suddenly, I’m living that night all over again.
I walk in the back door of the clubhouse and thank fuck it’s quiet. The game I’m playing every second of my life is taking a toll. When I walk back outside, I have to drink and smack asses and pretend like I’m one of them, while plotting shit that I should be arresting them for instead of helping them. I step into the hall bathroom, relieve myself, and splash water on my face before looking in the mirror and whispering, “You will not kill Waters. That’s not the answer.” Yet more and more, I’m not sure if that’s true. And I still have no proof he killed Mom and Dad. If I had it, he probably would be dead.
I exit the bathroom and a woman’s voice lifts. “No. No. Stop. Stop it.”
I curse under my breath because I’m not watching anyone get raped today. That shit is not on today’s agenda. Anger that has built over months at this outlaw group and its leaders drives me forward and around the corner. The voice lifts again. “No. Ouch. Stop it. Stop.”
The voice is coming from the war room and I shove open the door to find Alex all over some woman, and just in time to watch him rip down her top, and expose her breasts. She slaps him and he catches her hand. “Bitch,” he growls.
“What the fuck are you doing, Alex?” I demand, my voice low, brittle. I cannot even believe what I’m seeing right now, but then, I should. More and more, he’s become one of them, one of the Devils.
He squeezes the woman’s breast and flicks her nipple. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
She squirms in his arms and he elbows her in the face, her head jerking left.
“Let her go,” I order.
“When I’m done with her, I will,” he says, “but I’m not even close to done. Go back to the party.”
“What would Dad say right now, Alex?”
“Fuck off, Adrian. I’m sick of your high horse bullshit.”
The woman recovers from the elbow and explodes on him, punches at him, squirming and sobbing. He laughs and yanks her off the table to turn her and force her to lay on top of it, yanking her skirt up. I grab him and yank him off of her. She whirls on him and punches again, but he grabs her by the hair and twists it around his hand. She screams with the pain of it. I knock the shit out of him and he lets her go.
He puffs up and scowls at me. “What are you doing, Adrian?”
“This isn’t who we are, Alex. Don’t let this shit life change you.”
The woman screams and flings herself at Alex, biting at him and clawing. He whirls on her, cursing in Spanish and flinging her off of him. She hits the table and bounces, her head smashing into the corner and there is a jerk of her neck. I know before she ever hits the ground this is bad, really fucking bad.
Fuck Waters and what he’ll have to say about it. I reach for my phone to call for help.
Alex pulls his gun and points it at me. “Don’t even think about it. Walk away, Adrian.”
“I’m not going to do that. I’m calling an ambulance.”
His eyes bore into me and his finger twitches on the trigger. “What are we doing, Alex?”
“He didn’t kill Mom and Dad. It’s time for you to walk away.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Not without you.”
The woman moans, and he growls in irritation, turning toward her, and to my complete shock, he shoots her. He turns back toward me and it’s in his eyes. That intent and I have to make a split-second decision—live or die. Adrenaline surges and I fire. He fires as well, but my bullet hits first, and his hand moves, his shot zooming past my head. A second later, he hits the ground.
Waters walks into the room, glances at the scene, and then at me. “Clean it up,” is all he says, and he disappears out of the room.
I blink back to the present, still holding Pri, and I tell her everything. And then I wait for her reaction.
Chapter Thirty-Five
ADRIAN
Pri turns in my arms and presses her hands to my face. “How could you think I would hate you for this? How? You did nothing wrong.” Her voice is raw, rasping with emotion.
“Aside from trying to save a woman I got killed?” I ask bitterly. “Aside from the fact, there were others I didn’t even try and save. I couldn’t or I would have ended up dead.”