Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 203(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“Never again, Scarlet,” I whispered harshly. At the thought, my heart pounded and I broke out in a sweat. “Christ! I never want to see you like that again!” I pulled her to me again, holding her tight. It was all I ever seemed to do. “I’m afraid I’m gonna squeeze you too hard.”
“You could never be too hard, Mars. Your fierceness is what I need. Your tight hold on me kept me from flying apart. I was scared and broken. Still am in some ways. But you held me together. You still do.”
“Takin’ you to bed. I want to hold you. You don’t have to do anything else, but I need the closeness.” I stood, Scarlet still in my arms.
“Take me wherever you want. And I have a feeling that I’ll love anything else you want to do with me.” She smiled up at me as I carried her to the bedroom and sat with her on the bed. I scooted around until my back was against the headboard. Scarlet still straddled my lap. “You know, I never wanted to leave you that night Stitches had to look me over. You were so possessive, but in a protective way. I loved it when you growled at him.” The smile she gave me then was glorious. I could tell she really had enjoyed that side of me. “I loved the sound and the threat that growl implied if he hurt me again.”
“Bloodthirsty little thing.”
“I’m the daughter of the vice president of Grim Road MC. I was born bloodthirsty.”
That got a laugh from me. “You’re like a honey badger, ain’t you? I’m guessing Hammer didn’t sleep much, or he’d be dead right now.”
“No. He was usually up drinking. Must have gone somewhere else to sleep, because I’d’ve loved to have caught him passed out. But then, none of this would have happened and I’d never have met you.”
“Honey, if I could have spared you any of that, I’d have done it. Then I’d have found you. In a way, I think I’ve been looking for you all my life. It’s why I put myself in situations where I saw so many abused women.”
“I want to hear about that. I need to know what happened.”
“I go with Rocket sometimes when he’s on the trail of traffickers. I do it because my younger sister was taken when she was barely a teenager.”
“Oh, no.” She gasped and smuggled closer to me as she gazed up into my face with sorrow. “I’m so sorry, Mars.”
“She was a beautiful girl. A mini version of our mother.” I smiled at the memory of my family. “I lost both of them in one night, Scarlet. It’s when I met your father. Rocket caught me hunting those bastards and let me come with him and Grim Road if I promised to always come when he called me. I did and he took me with him. I wasn’t much more than a kid. I’d have done everything I had to to save my sister, but the reality was that I’d probably have died if I’d tried to get her myself.
“Rocket took me with him and trained me in the years afterward. Now, I’m one of the best hunters the club has. It’s also why Rocket made me promise to help him. He saw that talent in me and intended to hone it to a fine point.”
I took a breath, remembering even though I’d tried so hard to bury the pain deep. I didn’t want to keep anything from Scarlet. Never. If it meant I was a little uncomfortable, I could deal. “When we finally got inside the warehouse, I was determined to kill every one of those bastards.”
“As you should. Did you get them all?” Her voice was soft and soothing, somehow making the telling a little easier.
“Oh, yeah. Blood flowed like a fuckin’ river in that place. What we did to those guys… They died in unspeakable ways. This is something I doubt Rocket would want you to know. I think I killed more than every man in Grim Road combined. It was a huge fuckin’ ring. Dozens of men holding even more dozens of young women and a few boys and girls. But it didn’t start immediately.”
“What do you mean?”
“We were keeping it quiet. Only killing when we had to in order to keep the element of surprise until we could free all the kids. The plan was to go on a killing spree once the kids were safe.” I swallowed. “Until I found my sister.”
“I take it she was hurt.”
“Yeah, honey. Found her hanging in the room where they’d kept her. So when I saw you… In that tree…” I cleared my throat.
“It reminded you of that night.” She kissed my jaw. My neck.
“I got her down and we tried to resuscitate her. Thought we had her too, but she found my gaze. She clung to me like I was her lifeline. Then she whispered that she was sorry she doubted me. That’s when I knew she’d done that herself. Because she didn’t think I could find her and take her away.”