Page 67 of Silent as Sin
Bones let him lie. The room spun around me, and I wanted to vomit. He turned back to me with that grin that never quite reached his eyes.
“You see, puppy?” His tone was soft, almost tender. “People have debts. They pay how they can. Some with their lives, others with the lives of everything they love. Choice is a funny thing.”
Panic lit me raw. My fingernails dug into my hand. Inside, one truth burned ridiculous and fierce, Ashen will come. I whispered it into my bones like a prayer.
Bones reached out, a single finger under my chin, lifting it with velvet control. “You’ll talk,” he promised, as he shoved me against the wall, his hands touching me in a way that made we want to puke. “I’ll fuck you over and over, and each time meaner, until you’re not even able to tell me to stop.”
Tears slid down my face in defeat, I had witnessed enough to know he wasn’t lying.
CHAPTER FORTY
THE ROAR OFengines cut into the night like thunderchasing lightning. My brothers and I rode hard, fast, the kind of pace that broke rules and roads alike. Every mile slammed into my chest with one thought, one name—Wren.
We hit the rutted parking lot as one. Gravel spit under our wheels, the warehouse looming black against the sky. No hesitation. No second chances. We stormed.
The first lock didn’t last a second. Maul’s boot splintered the door. Scyth and Rex swept in first, guns raised, their shouts rolling over the walls like a warning bell. The sound of boots, of safeties clicking off, of voices claiming space, it was chaos meantto rattle prey. I was behind them, weapon drawn, my blood boiling hotter with every step.
And then I saw her.
Wren.
Her body pulled tight against Bones’ chest like a shield. His arm banded her waist, his other hand steady around a gun pressed cruel to her temple. Her face was pale but fierce, eyes wide, locked on me the second we broke through. She didn’t cry. She didn’t scream. She just found me.
Something inside me split.
Bones grinned like the devil himself, eyes glinting in the thin light. “Well, well. I should’ve figured the old man squealed like the rat he is,” he sneered, voice slick, calm as ever. “Guess you get to watch me kill this bitch.”
I raised my gun. “Let her go.” My voice didn’t shake. Didn’t have room for it. “Now.”
He pressed the barrel harder to her skin, the metal biting into her temple. “Or what? You’ll paint the walls with me? Don’t tempt me, boy. I’ll take her with me first.”
Every muscle in my body screamed to lunge, but one wrong move and she was gone. The club fanned out behind me, every weapon trained on him, but Bones didn’t waver. He was patient. Hungry. Ready to bleed us all just to prove he could.
“Look at you, puppy,” he whispered against her ear, loud enough for me to hear. “Your man is here, but he can’t save you. Not from me.”
Her eyes flickered—fear, fire, a prayer. And then, to my shock, she moved.
Her elbow jerked back hard into his ribs. It wasn’t much, but it was sharp enough to make him grunt, to jostle the gun just off her skin. Her voice, raw and shaking, cut the air: “Ashen!”
The sound of her calling my name—her voice so loud and strong—lit something inside me, a blaze that burned throughevery shred of hesitation. My grip tightened on the gun until the metal bit into my palm. My heart hammered so hard I thought it might break free.
Bones jerked Wren hard, shoving the gun harder into her skin. My stomach dropped when I heard a click, but then a growl sounded, and everything broke.
Dusty.
What the fuck?
He came out of the shadowed corner, staggering, face bloodied, eyes hollow but set with rage. For a second my brain couldn’t catch up, couldn’t understand. But then he was moving, lunging, both arms wrapping around Bones from behind, dragging him back with every ounce he had left.
“Now!” Dusty roared, his voice tearing from somewhere deep.
Bones cursed, spinning with fury, the gun ripping free from Wren’s temple. The shot cracked, deafening in the concrete room. A bloom of red spread across Dusty’s chest as the bullet tore through him.
“NO!” The word ripped from me raw, my body already moving, scared Bones would fire again—at Wren.
She collapsed free, stumbling forward, scrambling across the floor on hands and knees, away from the danger, toward us. Toward me. That spark of fight still in her eyes even through the terror.
Bones twisted to bring the gun back around, but I was faster. I slammed into him, the world narrowing to nothing but the fight.
