Page 39 of Ruined

She had shut it all off, and she hadleft.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tristan

ONE YEAR LATER

Iwalked into the bar where Vin had set up our next exchange. A year had gone by since Adelaide had left, and it was like she’d disappeared off the face of the earth. There was no fucking trace of her anywhere. Honestly, if we couldn’t still find proof of her driver’s license and social security number, I would have thought she was a mere figment of my imagination.

Vin had mellowed out shockingly, but I still had a feeling he knew where Adelaide was, and I also had a feeling he’d been the one to attack her and leave her for River to find. I’d tried to go after Rodney too just in case he’d had a hand in her attack, but someone had beat me to it, leaving him bloody and broken, his limbs bent at unnatural angles. When I confronted Joey about it, thinking he’d been the one to take Rodney out, he’d been as shocked as I’d been. Someone had shut Rodney up before either one of us could, but we just put that down to the dumbass having too many enemies.

So, a couple of months after Adelaide had disappeared, I set aside my pride and formed a truce with Vin in the hopes that I would find Addy before it was too late to save her.

“Fuck, this place is a disgusting ass strip club,” Jesup muttered, following me back to the small booth in the very far corner where it was the darkest, where Vin always decided for us to sit. He didn’t like being able to be seen. He preferred to keep his business in the dark, just like the shady mother fucker he truly was.

A roach crawled across my shoe. I flung it off, disgust crawling down my spine. I was glad this place didn’t serve food, but I seriously worried about the alcohol the patrons were consuming. Jesup wasn’t joking. The club was disgusting and dirty. It was one of the filthiest establishments I’d ever stepped foot into.

Vin sauntered out of the back, his suit immaculate, a stark contrast to his strip club. “Welcome, boys,” he greeted us as he took a seat. A waitress dressed in practically nothing sauntered up to our table, and Vin ordered three rounds of vodka shots, but I wouldn’t be drinking mine, that was for sure. I might be an outlaw, but I had standards, and cleanliness was one of those standards.

It was silent around the table for a few moments. Vin liked to do this—let the silence linger. It made him feel powerful, like the big man in charge.

The song playing over the speakers switched, and the blonde girl that had been dancing on the stage walked off as another dark-haired girl appeared to take her place. She was wearing a red ensemble that barely covered her. She looked starved, way too fucking skinny. Hell, I could see her ribs from my table, and we were in the far back corner.

She turned her face our way, and I sucked in a harsh breath, the need for blood to be spilled pulsing through my veins. “Grim, is that—” Jesup started, but before he could finish his question, I snatched my gun out of my cut, pushing it against Vin’s temple. He hadn’t had any warning, so all he could do was sit still and just hope that I didn’t blow his fucking brains across this booth.

That hope would be fucking futile.

“Why the fuck is Addy on your stage?” I snarled at him.

Vin’s lips tilted up into a smirk. “She’s mine now, Grim,” he informed me, using my street name.

“Not anymore, she’s not. She’smine,” I barked. I pulled the trigger, his blood splattering across my clothes and my cut. I roughly booted his dead, lifeless body out of the booth and stood up, glad that I had my silencer on my gun. No one had noticed the commotion, but everyone was soon going to see the blood splattering my clothes. And I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone came across the owner’s dead body, half his skull missing.

I couldn’t even bring myself to give a fuck about that though. I’d found Adelaide, and right then, that was all that mattered to me.

I stormed up to the stage. A man, more than likely some kind of security guard, blocked my way, crossing his arms over his chest. “No one is allowed up on the stage with the girls,” he told me gruffly.

I was past the point of giving a fuck about his goddamn rules or anyone else’s. I’d found Addy, and I was fucking taking her home.

I quickly put a bullet in his chest, and then I stepped over him, storming up onto the stage. Addy snapped her eyes over to me, stumbling in her heels as her dark eyes widened in shock. Her face paled at the blood covering me.

“It’s time to come home, Adelaide,” I told her.

“I—Tristan—” she stuttered, not able to form an entire sentence in her shock.

“Hey, you’ve got to wait for your fucking turn!” a disgusting man barked from the foot of the stage. I clenched my jaw and closed my eyes, my patience fucking gone. “I paid two fucking grand for her tonight.”

From the foot of the stage, Jesup snapped the man’s neck, shaking his head. “I would hope she’s worth more than two grand,” my VP grumbled in distaste as he spat on the man’s lifeless body.

Addy stumbled, her eyes rolling to the back of her head as she passed out. I caught her before she hit the stage and lifted her into my arms. Fuck, she was light—too light. She’d lost so much fucking weight that it was a miracle she was still alive. She wasseverelymalnourished.

“Good thing we brought the van,” Jesup commented.

I silently agreed. We’d originally planned to leave here with guns, but I had cargo in my arms that was way more important. I would send a couple of other men to get my weapons. I had to get Addy back to the clubhouse where it was safe and where I could keep an eye on her.

And where she couldn’t fucking leave me again.

I carried Adelaide through the back entrance of the club to where the van was parked in the back alley. Addy grunted quietly, her eyes slowly opening as she began shivering when the cold air slid over her exposed skin.

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