Page 25 of Sins of the Hidden

"V! What the fuck are you doing in my basement?" Victoria snapped.

His eyes were already locked on me. "Oakley."

"Why are you here for Oakley?" Victoria challenged, but V's bat maintained its steady beat.

"Protect her."

"Protect her from what?" Faith spat. "We were just having a girls' night. She's safe."

V's bat maintained its dull knock against the concrete instead of a verbal response.

"I can handle my own better than you assholes ever could." Victoria’s violet eyes narrowed in warning.

"Protect her." His voice dropped lower. The single overhead bulb flickered, casting phantoms of light across his mask. Fresh stains looked black in this light, like his brutality had found new ways to mark his territory.

"You don't need to be here. She can protect herself and she has us." Faith's finger tightened on the trigger. "Happy? Now leave."

"No."

That single syllable electrified the air. Heartbeat thudding painfully as memories of Hellbound flashed through my mind—the way he'd carried me, how gentle his touch had been despite who he was.

My father's words echoed.The club needs a monster.

But watching V now, seeing how his attention remained fixed on me despite the guns aimed at his head, I wondered if 'monster' was too simple a word. Monsters were mindless, all fang and fury. V was something else entirely. Something that thought, that chose, that wanted.

And what he wanted, inexplicably, was me.

"V," Victoria's authority never wavered as she stepped closer, "Get the fuck out of my house."

He cocked his head. "Make me."

Two words that froze the basement air. Faith cocked her weapon calmly. "Bodybag it is."

V unfolded from his position with lethal grace, his massive frame seeming to expand until he filled every shadow in the basement. Victoria and Faith didn't flinch, didn't retreat an inch. Their guns remained steady.

Behind them, Libby's wedding ring caught light as she shifted into a shooter's stance, adding another barrel to the standoff. Even Nyla stood her ground, Joslyn's blanket still draped around her shoulders like armor as she positioned herself between V and her gentle friend. Only Joslyn showed any outward sign of fear, but she didn't run—just pressed closer to Nyla, refusing to leave her side.

I pressed myself against the wall, trying to disappear into the concrete as my knees threatened to buckle. The contrast between my terror and their united defiance burned like shame in my throat. These women who'd survived their own monsters, who faced their own demons without blinking—and here I was, coming apart at the seams from the sheer weight of his presence.

I backed away, my eyes dropping to the floor where his bat had made a macabre of dark droplets. My hands fluttered as I wrung them together, my teeth finding my bottom lip. Blood touched my tongue; V's fingers twitched on his bat.

"You don't protect her by scaring her half to death," Victoria told him.

Something inside me snapped. I spun around and bolted up the basement stairs, a storm brewing beneath my skin. My lungs forgot how to function. My vision tunneled. I couldn't tell if I was running toward safety or away from something inside me. Shouts erupted behind me, but they were drowned out by the rushing in my ears and the heavy footfalls I knew would follow.

My fingers fumbled with the front door lock, panic making me clumsy. When I finally wrenched it open, the cool night air hit my face. I raced across Victoria's front lawn, the wet grass cold against my bare feet as the rain soaked the ground.

My car sat in the driveway, but even as I reached for the door handle, missing it twice with shaking hands, I knew. I could feel it—that shift in the air, the way the shadows seemed to deepen and move. An awareness slithered up my spine.

The overhead light in my car flickered once before dying completely.

A massive hand appeared next to my head, pressing flat against my car window. His heat radiated against my back, overwhelming and intoxicating. He appeared silently behind me, large and impossibly quiet. The scent of copper mixed with ash made my head spin.

"Oakley." My name rumbled from his chest, so close I could feel the vibration against my back. "Look at me."

I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of my car window. Run. Collapse. I didn't know which would break me faster. The baseball bat struck once against my car, leaving a dark smear on the sky blue paint.

"P-Please," I whispered, though I wasn't sure what I was begging for. "I-I need to go home."

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