I barely have time to think before he’s on top of me, straddling my hips. My face is pushed into the ground, scratching up my cheek and I breathe in the smell of the asphalt.

My breath see-saws out of me as I lie there helpless beneath his bulk. No, no, no. I won’t let him do this to me again. I won’t. His hand goes to the back of my neck and his mouth moves to my ear.

“You’re really testing my fucking patience, bitch.”

Short-lived relief floods me when he lifts off me and drags me up. I scrape my hands against the ground and pain burns through my palms. As soon as I’m upright, he brings the gun down hard. It slams into my face with enough force to make me see stars. I stumble as my vision darkens and pain throbs through my head. His bruising grip on my arm is all that keeps me on my feet.

Warmth spreads down my face. I swipe at it and my fingers come away covered in red. Blood. I feel dazed, my head dizzy as he pulls me towards the parking area.

I can barely see through the film of red dripping into my eyes as I’m pushed into a vehicle, Sin climbing in after me. He holds the gun on me as he starts the engine.

I’m completely fucked.

27

Ravage

My heart sits in my throat the entire ride back to the clubhouse. Nervous energy tingles through me as my bike rumbles beneath me. I know he’s going after her. I can feel it in my soul. I just hope like fuck we’re not too late.

I have no clue what to expect as we pull down the road, but I see the main gate is open. Immediately, I go on alert, my stomach churning. The gate is never fucking open.

As the bikes roar past the security booth, I see it’s empty. Where the fuck is the kid? Zack’s supposed to be here. He’s out for this. No second fucking chances.

Fear licks a path up my spine as I stop my bike near the door and kick the stand down. It’s not something I usually experience. Like oil and water, it doesn’t belong in me. This life has taught me to be unafraid. I don’t fear the Grim Reaper. I’ve been tortured by an enemy club and I still didn’t talk, and I’ve faced the end of a gun barrel on more than one occasion. Fear never raised its ugly head until now.

Praying to the fuckers in the sky I don’t believe in that Sasha is still in the shower or crashed on my bed, I don’t bother to pull the keys from the engine, but I drag my helmet off as I run towards the door. My boot steps are loud as the rumbling of the Harleys dies down.

My brothers yell at me to stop, warning me to be cautious before entering the building, but I don’t listen. The devil himself could be behind that door and he wouldn’t stop me. My heart is galloping in my chest, fear that something might have happened to Sasha fuelling my long strides. I shove through the door and when I step inside, my stomach fills with ice.

The room has been turned over, chairs flipped the wrong way up, tables upturned. A chill works its way up from my feet. What the fuck happened?

I hear movement behind me as my brothers pile into the room, but I don’t pay them any attention, instead taking in the destruction. A fight happened here.

Sasha?

“Shit, Rav!”

I move around the fallen chairs, tossing the debris aside to move towards Daimon who is kneeling at the side of the bar.

Zack is crumpled on the floor faced down, a pool of sticky blood around his head. The metallic scent of it clings to the back of my throat and I cough, trying to clear it from my sinuses. Whizz crouches down, taking in the mess of brain and blood matted into his hair around a large ugly looking exit wound.

My eyes trail over the blood sprayed up the wall and anger replaces every other emotion as it flares through me, a storm brewing.

Sasha.

Without thinking, I turn and rush towards the common room doors, ignoring Day and Nox yelling after me. My only salvation is the thought that if Sasha is still here maybe she was able to hide. Maybe she’s still safe. She grew up in the club, she knew what to do if we were attacked. Maybe she got to safety.

I call her name as I rush up the corridors, my heart dancing in my throat. My voice is pitched higher than usual and I hear the anxiety in my tone. I don’t give a fuck. My only focus is on finding my woman.

The further I get from the common room the more my fear tears at me. She’s not here. She would have heard me shouting and come to me by now, but my voice just roars off the walls around me only to be met by my echo.

When I push into my room, her smell surrounds me, still lingering in the air, but there’s no sign of her. It’s like a bullet to the chest as I take in her clothes draped on the end of the bed. At the sight of it my legs nearly give way. He’s taken her. Under my watch he came into my clubhouse and took my woman.

“She’s not here?” Nox demands as he pushes into the room, Daimon and Fury on his heels.

I close my eyes, asking the universe for patience, but I don’t find it. My rage, my frustration, my fear pours out of me. I tug at the dresser, pulling it over. It crashes to the carpet hard enough to vibrate through the floor. It doesn’t do anything to help soothe the demons rising in me.

“We need to find her! Now!”

“We don’t know it was Sin who did this.” Daimon is all about facts and reasons. We have enemies. You don’t live this life without them, but everything is screaming at me that this was my brother. I know he took Sasha.

“That cunt has her.”

Fear of what Sin might do to her washes through me. My brother hates me. It’s clear from the photographs how deep that hate runs. Is this why he raped her? To hurt me? Questions assail my mind and I have no answers to any of them. All I know is I promised Sasha I’d protect her and now she’s in danger.

Failure weighs on my shoulders like I’m carrying a ten-tonne anvil. I can’t let her down again. I already fucked up once. I left her with a monster and she got hurt. Now, I’ve left her in his path again.

“Fuck!” I scream to the empty walls.

Sin started this battle, but now, I’m going to bring the fucking war, and there can only be one winner.

I push out of my room and head back down to the common area. Titch and Whizz are attempting to clean up the mess of Zack’s body.

Levi steps towards me. “I found this.”

He hands me a mobile phone. I swipe the screen and the background photo pops up. It’s Lily-May. Fuck. This is Sash’s phone. A glacial cold wraps itself around my throat, squeezing until I can hardly breathe. In my life, I’ve faced situations that were so bad I thought I wasn’t walking out of them. I’ve been tortured, I’ve been hurt, but I’ve never felt fear like this. I don’t know who my brother is anymore. I can’t predict what he’ll do next and that sends a wave of terror through me. What the hell is he doing to my woman? He’s already proved he has no trouble taking from her something that isn’t given freely. He shot Zack in the fucking head. Now, he’s spiralling knowing his life is on a countdown, what will he do to her?

“Zack was helping Sin,” I mutter. “See if he’s got his phone on him. There might be clues as to where my brother was going.”

Whizz digs in Zack’s pockets and comes out with a mobile phone. He uses Zack’s finger to unlock the fingerprint scanner and then starts swiping through the phone.