Page 52 of Freeing Souls

“Breathe, please. Please, you can’t panic like this. If they see, they’ll drug you. Stop it,” a girl's voice is whispering, yelling in my ear as I slowly come back to reality.

“You’re making it bleed. Let’s get you cleaned up. I’m sorry, we can’t take it off,” Zero tells me as she releases my wrists, and I see in the mirror that I had violently scratched at my chest, leaving deep, bloody marks.

So much for not panicking in front of her.

As I calm myself down, Zero stays a silent and solid presence. She doesn’t give me pity looks or reassure me. She just takes care of me with gentle hands, and somehow, it helps.

After putting on a new dress, she leads me out of the bathroom and into a room I have never been in before. It’s a smallbedroom, with a large bed and a single dresser across from it. As Zero walks in with me, a new person steps into the room as well.

“Head upstairs,” Killer tells Zero, who immediately dips her head and does as he says.

“Your buyer is here.” He approaches me. “I have to admit, when he wanted to stay anonymous all this time, I thought he must be some big, important man, but he surprised me.” He pinches my chin in between his fingers. “You’re leaving today. The thought crossed my mind to keep you, but I watched you with Tank all these nights, and you aren’t broken enough for me to turn into the perfect toy.”

Releasing my chin, he slaps me once. “You’ll be back in my hands someday, and then you will be mine. My only regret will be not having kept your daddy alive so he could watch his precious daughter be turned into someone he doesn’t recognize.”

“I’m not precious,” I seethe, glaring up at him.

He chuckles. “That’s where you're wrong, Harley. You could have become the perfect weapon if I had gotten my hands on you when you were a baby like I should have. Instead, I ended up with a little bitch.”

Furrowing my brows, I ask, “Who are you talking about?”

A sudden knock on the door cuts us off, and Killer says, “Soon, Harley. Soon.” Then he is gone, and my eyes widen at the new man who enters the room.

“Wh–what are you doing here?” I stutter as tears fill my eyes.

“Taking what's mine.” He grins at me as he shuts the door and approaches me. Before I can react, there’s a sharp pinch in the side of my neck, and my body slowly turns to stone.

Cayden

“This is it,” Axe says over the phone from where it lays on Rage’s desk, and we all wait silently.

“Fuck. Let’s go,” Ryker demands, heading towards the door.

For once, no one disagrees as we all follow him out to where everyone is waiting in the main room—three other clubs and the Brooks family. All the women are with Parker at Stone’s house, since it is the farthest away from the main club.

“Stone, Axe, and Blade snagged one of the guards at the buildin’ Oakley was taken to andpolitelyasked him what was goin’ on there,” Sugar says sarcastically, causing the room to chuckle. “It’s the Black Night Ball. We will have to go in blind. If you aren’t comfortable taking them down when we are going in mostly blind, say so now.”

No one says anything, which makes all of us let out a small breath, because we are going to need as many people as possible. Ryker stands next to me, tapping his fingers rapidly on his thigh, while Grayson has thrown himself into his laptop, working away at a table with Nerds.

“Teams are all the same as last time. Only difference is now, we are not going in slow. Break down the fuckin’ doors and destroy them piece by fuckin’ piece,” Sugar growls, and everyone begins to move heading out to their cars.

“Grayson,” Ryker calls as we head towards the truck. “Maybe you should stay–”

“No,” Grayson says without even glancing back as he climbs into the passenger seat. I hide my smirk and get in to drive while Ryker gets in the back seat.

We are all silent on the hour drive to the building that the ball is being held at. Grayson and Nerds feed everyone information about the scene through the ear pieces. It’s an old factory just outside of town, so the likelihood of cops showing up when we storm in is pretty high.

Tapping Grayson’s shoulder, I park the truck as he glances up from his laptop. After I make sure Ryker is paying attention, I tell him, “We are all antsy to get in there and get this shit done, but be fucking safe,” I say pointedly at Ryker, who rolls his eyes.

Grayson catches it as well and sighs. “Please, Ry. Be safe. The last thing we need is someone hurt again.”

“Got it.” He salutes us and hops out of the truck, with us quickly following behind him. Pulling one of my guns out, I keep it in my hand as we run towards the building to meet the others along the side of the empty place next door.

“Everyone ready?” Nerds asks through the comms. Everyone responds and then he says the words. “Alright. Go.”

Sprinting like I never have before, I beat everyone else up to the doors and easily take out the two guards standing there. Ryker comes up next to me and, together, we kick in the door and then storm in with a bunch of other guys behind us.

As we work our way through the maze of rooms, we find more and more people. The louder we get, the more people come out, and eventually, word makes it through that they are under attack. We watch as the little bitches make a run for it through the back, but they won’t make it past the wall of men out there and the two snipers across the street on top of another building.

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