Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 741(@200wpm)___ 593(@250wpm)___ 494(@300wpm)
Before ten p.m. What in the world…?
I look back down the aisle. Tango is looking that way, too. Victor comes out of the control booth—though he’s not usually in the barn so late. My stomach sinks as he heads straight to Stone’s cell.
“I have a message for you, Mr. Wall.”
Oh no. No, no, no. Dread pulls me back down the aisle. Because I’ve seen this before. When the Iron Blood threatens or beats anyone, they take a video as proof. I’ve never seen Victor make such a production of it, though, turning off the music first and announcing that he has a message.
He stops in front of Stone’s stall and holds up a tablet—and whatever Stone sees on the screen turns his face white. His hands come up to grip the bars, his burning gaze fixed on the image before him.
I can’t see what it is. But I’ve seen them before. People beaten, bloodied. Crying and begging.
Victor taps the tablet to start the video playing. The volume’s up so high everyone in the barn can hear. At first nothing but a faint, frantic barking in the background.
Then a man’s voice. “Say something to your brother, Anna.”
“I’m okay. Don’t freak out,” is a woman’s quick, hoarse reply. “I’m all right.”
“A little roughed up,” the man agrees cheerfully. “But it could be worse. This could be my fist.”
A sharp crack follows—a slap hard enough that the sound echoes through the barn.
Stone flinches but doesn’t take his gaze from the screen. His jaw is like granite. The barking in the background continues.
The man in the video says, “Now, Stone, here’s the deal. You fight, you win, and you’ll get to call your pretty sister and hear how alive she is. In fact, you can call her after every fight you win. Anna—do you know what happens if your brother doesn’t call?”
“It means he lost,” she chokes out on a sob.
“It means something else, too. Because for everyone else, the threat to their family is enough to make them fight. Then we leave the family alone, even if he loses. And they keep their mouths shut so it’s a win-win for everyone. Yeah? But with your brother, and because he’s so fucking stubborn, we’ll be doing something different. Because as soon as you lose, Stone, I’m coming back here to finish what I started. I’m going to fuck your sister’s sweet ass, I’m going to tear that pussy apart with my cock, and then I’m going to put a bullet in her brain. So as soon as you lose, motherfucker, your sister loses, too.”
Victor lowers the tablet. And the way Stone stares at him—I’ve seen that look before. All humor gone. Only a promise of death left.
Neither man says a word before Victor heads for the barn exit. But I hear Handlebar telling him quietly, “I’m so fucking sorry, man.”
I am, too.
As if he hears me think that, Stone’s deadly gaze slices in my direction, cutting me open with all the hate and anger that I deserved from him at the beginning.
“Let’s be clear, girl,” Stone tells me in a voice that I’ve never heard from him. So cold. So lethal. “Now I’m mad.”
At me. Because I’m the reason he’s here. Because I’m the reason his sister was beaten. Probably raped. Maybe worse.
With a burning knot in my throat, I nod. Stone turns away from me as if I’m nothing to him now. A second later, the pounding on his heavy bag starts up again.
“Come on, then,” Tango says. “Show’s over.”
And no skip left in my step. Just a heart so heavy, I barely make it to my stall before I begin to cry.
10
Stone
Three days later, I’m ushered into a van, chained to a seat, and headed for the Cage. Not to fight. Cherry must have slipped me one hell of a roofie because I don’t pass their drug test. They still bring along all the fighters in the stables to watch, so that we can study the men we might be up against next time.
And I’ll do that. I’ll watch them. Because I can’t afford to lose.
Though on the way there, it’s real fucking hard to see anything but Anna. For three days, whether my eyes are open or closed, my sister is all I’ve seen. Stripped naked and strapped to a chair with duct tape. Tears streaking down her cheeks and blood dripping from her mouth, her jaw swollen from where that bastard hit her. And only one question keeps pounding through my head.
How the fuck did he get to her?
Is Gunner dead?
The Prez?
Blowback? The Hellfire Riders’ warlord knows just about every thing that needs to be known, sees just about every threat that’s coming. And they all knew this one would be coming. So how the hell did that bastard get past all of them?