Page 48 of Dark Knight

It turned out my years of watching the Discovery Channel had paid off. I never thought my binge watching would be used for something like this, though.

We were back at the mansion in record time. As the car skidded to a stop on the gravel, I let go of Evie for a split second to open the car door. She whimpered, and the block of ice that had been around my heart for most of my life cracked.

For once, I knew what it was to want to take somebody's pain away instead of inflicting it. I also knew a fury the likes of which I hadn't felt for a long time.

Dylan was there a moment later, likely having been alerted to us arriving back on the property. "What the fuck happened?" he demanded.

Evie burrowed her face into my chest. "We need to go somewhere private," I said as calmly as possible.

He just jerked his head in the direction of his office like I expected he would, and the three of us set off in that direction. Evie seemed to weigh next to nothing as I carried her, which surprised me.

Once we were inside, he shut the door, guaranteeing us privacy. Nobody outside of the room would be able to overhear anything, which was the way the office was designed. I sat on the couch with Evie in my lap, and she continued to tremble slightly.

"Evie, are you okay?" Dylan asked as he moved toward the couch as well.

I wanted to snark at him, to tell him that snapping at us as soon as we walked through the door probably didn't help the situation, but I understood his fear. Seeing her come back to the house with blood smeared across her face, seeing me clearly rattled for maybe the first time ever…It had set him on edge.

"Somebody touched her again," I began before carefully choosing my next words. "When she got down from the stage and went back to her locker, she found that It had been vandalized." After shifting a little of Evie's weight, I pulled out my phone and showed him a couple of the pictures I snapped while I was waiting for Ty and Dina to get back to the room.

As I had expected, he was furious.

Red crept up his neck and onto his cheeks until it went all the way back to his ears, covering his face like a damn cartoon. The bloodlust shone in his eyes for a moment before he spun and pulled out his phone, hitting two buttons. "Theo, get to my office. Now."

He didn't even wait for Theo's answer before hanging up. The three of us sat in silence. Well, Evie and I sat in silence while Dylan paced like a caged animal. Theo appeared a moment later, clearly having run from his room.

"What's wrong?" he panted, his face going white when he saw Evie in my arms.

"We need to go to the club. I need you to get the security footage and any other information that we can find about the guests that were there tonight." Dylan gritted out each word like it was causing him physical pain to talk instead of growling like an animal.

"Theo can do that remotely. I'll go with you," I said.

"No, you’re staying with Evie. Send me those pictures."

I nodded, knowing that Dylan was in no mood for me to pick a fight with him. "Theo, if you know anybody who can do blood typing or whatever bullshit, you might want to reach out to them."

His face went even paler, which I didn't think was possible, but he gave me a nod. As much as I wanted to go with Dylan, I also recognized the wisdom in his decision to have me stay with Evie. Theo, as good as he was, wouldn't really be able to protect her if we did come under attack at the mansion. I was decent with a firearm and excellent at physical combat, so I stood more of a chance of protecting her, which I knew was what Dylan wanted the most.

Still, him leaving made me uneasy. "Take one or the other guys with you. We don't know whether this was targeted specifically at Evie or if it happened because of the display you made out of claiming Evie as yours at the club last time. This might just be a lure to get you out of the house."

Dylan nodded as he shrugged into his coat. The long, black wool would hide the multitude of firearms I was sure he would be wearing by the time he left the property. "Put her to bed. Keep her safe." Seven words and he was out the door.

I understood his need to be active, to go and do something. If I hadn't been there to find Evie, I would have put up more of a fight about going with him. The image of her shaking and covered in blood with wide, terror-filled eyes was still at the forefront of my mind, though.

"Let's go get you cleaned up," I said. I lifted her and carried her upstairs to Dylan's room, going straight through to the bathroom where I ran some warm water into the tub. "Can you stand?" I asked.

"Yes," she squeaked the word out.

I wanted to ask if she was sure, but she was an adult. I took her at her word, turning away from her so I could properly turn on the bath. "I'm going to take your clothes off and we're going to get you cleaned up, okay?"

She nodded, but in her state of shock, I wasn't sure she really understood. So I was tentative as I began to peel the skin-tight clothes from her body. About half way through, I gave up and pulled the pocketknife from my boot and sliced them off. I made sure to only use the knife where she couldn't see, not wanting to cause her panic.

Once the tub was ready, I set her down in the warm water. It quickly took on a pink hue as the blood washed away from her skin. I vowed to myself then that we would find whoever did this, this person who's been harassing her. I had no doubt that she was right, that whoever it was was somebody in the house.

When I found that person, I was going to punish them for everything that they had put her through. I would bleed them dry. There wouldn't be a corner of this earth that was safe enough for them to run to to keep me from them. There wouldn’t be a scream loud enough to stop the punishments that raced through my head.

25

Evie

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