Page 5 of Healing Souls

He stares me down for a minute before nodding and speaking again, “She came in here raising a gun at Rage. Rage was trying to get her to put it down, but before he could, prospect Daniel shot her.”

I feel my anger boiling under my skin, and I tense up.I’ll kill him.

Axe hurries to explain, “She’s okay. Luckily, it went straight through. They took her to Rage’s house because Nerds found out right before she got here that Rage is her father.”

My eyebrows raise towards my hairline as I process this information. Holy shit. That just made everything so much more complicated. But then my mind goes back to the prospect. “Where’s Daniel?”

He grunts at that. “He is down in the cells. Stone is guarding them until Rage is ready to go down there and come to his senses.”

“What are you talking about?”

Axe takes a second to scan my features before he huffs and tosses his arms up in the air. “Fuck, everyone around here is insane. You’re not seeing Daniel, so whatever plan you have cooking up in that fucking brain of yours, squash it.”

Knowing Daniel is at least locked away for now, I let thoughts of beating him until he is gasping for breath go. My mind is racing with thoughts of Harley and the fact that she is here. Not only that, but the blood on the ground belongs to her. She should never fucking bleed. I need to fucking see for myself that she is here and okay.

“I’m going to the house,” I mutter as I stomp past him. Axe gives an understanding nod and goes back to whatever he was doing on his phone.

Quickly walking out the backdoor and straight across the yard to Rage’s house, I let myself inside and find Rage, Nerds, Sugar, Noah, and Grayson sitting in the kitchen.

All eyes turn to me as I come in. “Where is she?” I grunt, growing tired of using my voice.

“She’s in the guest room. Ryker is sitting with her right now. She’s not doing well—mentally anyway. She woke up, but not actually—”

I snap, “What the fuck does that mean?”

Noah narrows his eyes at me. “Don’t fucking interrupt me and you’ll know. Cool it or get the fuck out of the house.” I offer a sharp nod, and he continues. “She woke up screaming and thrashing in the bed. She ripped her stitches out. Luckily Doc hadn’t left yet, so he fixed them and gave her a sedative.

“It was like she was stuck in a nightmare or something. She was screaming outnoandMotherandnot again. Her voice was hoarse and raw. She gripped Ryker’s hand before the sedative kicked in, so he stayed with her. But it took most of us to keep her down on the bed.”

Noah spins a switchblade in his hand, his eyes hardened with unbridled fury: his mask to cover how hurt and bothered he really is.

I should’ve been here. I should’ve been helping.But I can’t.

I turn and head down the hall to the guest room. I slowly open the door, finding Ryker, his eyes immediately jumping to mine. He nods and then looks back at Harley. I walk in and go to the other side of the bed. She looks… so small and fragile.

I can’t help but stare at her. I’d almost forgotten how gorgeous she is. I glance down and see Ryker holding her still hand. It pulls me from the warm feeling that was rising in my chest.

I still have to stay away. I can’t let myself fall for a girl who already has my brother wrapped around her finger. He is crazy obsessive, and I know he already loves her. It pains me to walk away from her, but I know I can’t do anything about these feelings. It doesn’t matter that I’ve never felt this way before. I’d rather hurt myself than ever hurt my brother.

My eyes roam over her one more time, then I lean down and lightly kiss her cheek. I look back up and see Ryker staring at me as if he can read every emotion I am feeling on my face. I know he wants to say something but is holding himself back.

“Take care of her,” I murmur.

He nods, furrowing his brows. “Of course I will. I will always take care of her.”

With one last glance, I walk out of the room knowing I have to stuff my feelings so far down I never feel them again. I go back out to the kitchen where everyone is still at and take a seat, waiting for the conversation they are having to end.

Nerds is currently filling them in about everything he learned, which wasn’t much.

“Lilian died three years ago in a house fire. There isn’t anything about where Harley was or what happened to her during it. After the fire, Harley disappeared. I can’t find anything else until she got enrolled in school last year, but I’ll keep digging. I have a feeling Tammy has something to do with all of this.”

“So how do we know for sure that she is Rage’s kid?” Noah asks.

Nerds shrugs. “Her original birth certificate. I found it. Whoever was covering everything up didn’t try to have that one destroyed. They just made a new one with Tammy's and Richard’s names. They did have her legal last name changed to Wilson, so my guess is that they have someone at the station in their pocket.”

Sugar scowls, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the police department has someone tangled up in the sex trafficking stuff. They’ve kept things under wraps for too many years not to have at least one person in this. Whether they are directly involved or just on the payroll to cover shit up,” he seethes with mounting rage.

That same rage courses through me. It’s disgusting, and I’d like to destroy every single person that is helping with this shit. Take them down slowly and watch them crumble to ashes one by one.

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