Page 223 of Reaper
“You got it, Pres,”Smithy replies, which Nathan echoes.
I grunt before looking down at Lark and she gives me a shaky nod, letting me know she’s okay. Or at least mostly okay.
Cannon, Atlas, Patch, Axe and Beast get to work tying up Zac, Richard and Kelly. Once they’ve got things under control, I flick the safety on both of my guns and put them in my holsters before striding towards Lark. Kneeling, I cradle her face. Her eyes are misty with unshed tears and I bet she’s not going to let them fall just yet.
“Darlin’, please tell me we got here in time.”
“Mostly,” she whispers before licking her lips. “Zac injected me with a fertility drug about an hour or so ago, but you stopped him just in time from injecting me with whatever the fuck is in that syringe,” she pauses as she turns her head and looks down at the syringe Zac dropped earlier with so much anger, I’m surprised it doesn’t combust. “All I know is that the guy who gave Zac the drugs, who I think might have been X from howyou guys described him, said that it would make me go out of my mind with need and that I would be begging whoever’s nearest for sex so long as the drug is in my system.”
She pauses and anger coils in my gut at what’s already been done to her and what came so close to happening to her. Her gaze flicks over toward Kelly before it returns to mine.
“I think Kelly might have put things in motion to do the same to Aiden,” she whispers and my chest rumbles.
While I hate that pussy licker for everything he’s put Lark through and done to her, I’d never stoop so low as to let what nearly happened to Lark happen to someone else.
“We’ll check her phone,” I tell her as I rub my thumb against the corner of her mouth where there’s dried blood.
The corner of her lips quirk up. “Fucker forced a kiss on me after bringing me back in here, so I made him regret it.”
I can’t stop the amused huff that slips past my lips at that. Leaning down, kissing her forehead, knowing full well she’ll want to clean up before allowing me to kiss her on the lips after what she just said she did. A shiver runs through her, and I curse myself for forgetting that she’s only dressed in work clothes and this warehouse doesn’t feel like it’s being heated. Glancing around, I’m about to ask someone to bring me the blanket that’s over on the counter when Atlas crosses the room and brings it over for her. I give him a chin lift in thanks before draping it over Lark. Then, I take a closer look at her shackles and chains.
“Zac’s got a key in his pocket,” she tells me. Cursing has me looking over my shoulder to see Cannon’s heavy boot pressing down on the bullet wound in Zac’s thigh as he fishes the keys out of Zac’s pocket and tosses them to me.
I catch them and quickly unlock her wrist shackles. She groans in relief as she rubs her wrists and rotates her neck and shoulders, working out the stiffness. I frown down at the sight of her wrists. While they aren’t bloody, thank fuck, you can tellshe fought because her skin is red and irritated. Next, I free her ankles and frown when I see the bottom of her sock is covered in blood.
“Patch?” I ask and he comes over, frowning when he sees it.
Lark groans. “I forgot about that. I sliced it a couple of times while he was dragging me back here, however I have no idea how bad they are. I never got a chance to look at them.”
Leaning closer, Patch inspects her foot without taking off her sock. “Well at least there are no large chunks of glass in them. However, I’d like to check for smaller fragments of glass and clean out the debris at the clubhouse, which means leaving the sock in place for a bit longer since the blood has dried to the sock. I don’t want to reopen the wounds when I don’t have anything to sanitize it with right away. Are you okay waiting?”
Lark’s nodding even before he’s finished asking his question. “Absolutely.”
I toss the shackles on the floor and when I look back up at Lark, I notice she’s staring at them. When she finally looks up at me, I raise my eyebrow in question but she just winks at me before she sobers.
“Let’s bring the shackles and whatever’s in the suitcase. Maybe Doc and Patch can find out exactly what is in it and make an antidote. I don’t want anyone to feel that kind of fear or to have that happen to them,” she says as a shudder runs through her.
Taking a steadying breath, Lark swings her legs over the edge of the bed. I help drape the blanket over her before picking her up. As I wait for my brothers, I relish holding Lark in my arms. She leans her head against my shoulder and wraps an arm around my neck.
“I’m sorry,” she says quietly as she turns her face into my chest.
I look up, tilting my head toward the door in a silent signal to Devil. His eyes turn stormy as his gaze roams over Lark and hislips press in a thin line but he gives me a sharp nod. I quickly step outside of the room, and glance around before finally finding a surface not filled with a shit ton of debris. My lip curls in disgust as I take in everything on the floor as I picture Lark traversing over it in just her fucking socks. It’s a wonder her feet weren’t cut up worse. I shift her on my lap and, placing a finger under her chin, I slowly raise her head until she’s looking at me. Her eyes are red and shiny, but still she doesn’t let any tears fall. My heart aches at the emotions swimming in her eyes as well as those that are flitting across her face. I press another kiss to her forehead.
“Lark, the only thing I’m upset about is you not letting Nathan follow you to the backroom to get a new keg, but I also understand why you snapped. I’ve had you under constant surveillance, worried about what Zac would do to you.”
Her shoulders slump. “I know I should have let Nathan clear the area. I should have trusted him to be able to protect me. But there’s also a chance that if Nathan went back to check the backrooms, he would have died. Zac told me that he would have slit his throat. I panicked when he told me that and showed me that fucking blade. I also know I need to apologize to Nathan. I should have listened to him I should have trusted him.” Her body slumps even more as a tear trails down her cheek. “I’m sorry. I should have trusted your decisions better.”
When she pauses again, I so want to interrupt her, but I have the feeling she needs to get this all off her chest. Instead, I hold her and silently promise to make sure Zac’s going to have an extremely painful time in the cellar. She licks her lips and the pain etched on her face and shining in her eyes would have brought me to my knees if I wasn’t already sitting.
“Then when I woke up here… It was all him. He confirmed it. Everything that wasn’t Darren, was Zac,” she says before telling me what happened.
Her bottom lip trembles slightly when she’s done, which has me tightening my arms around her.
“What if I’m already pregnant?” she whispers and I reach up, drying the tears that stream down her cheek. “What if the drug does something to them? What if being tased and whatever the fuck Zac had on that cloth when he kidnapped me does something to them?”
“Shh, Darlin’,” I tell her as I pull her closer and she buries her face in my neck as she cries. “We’ll get Doc and Patch to run some tests to get everything checked out.”
The thought of Lark being pregnant and being forced to endure everything today makes me grind my molars together as I fight to control myself. I can’t go off on Zac and the others just yet. We need information out of them.
