When in the hell did I start crying?
“Is that Tawny?” Carly asks, horror in her voice. Horror that I feel down to my very core as I try to pull my gaze away from the contents of the box but I can’t.
She just keeps looking at me…
Tawny’s severed head stares back at me as my hands shake and my stomach churns violently. It’s terrifying, hard to look at, and I desperately want to turn away but, no matter how hard I try, I can’t force my eyes from her face, my heart pounding and my entire body rigid. My ribs feel tight and Travis wraps me up in his arms, pulling me firmly against his body as he buries his face in my hair and presses his lips to my head. His body is impossibly tense and he’s shaking, too, pulling on every last one of my heart strings as I turn into him and wrap my arms around his waist. We back away from the group a little, needing a private moment as we both try to wrap our heads around everything that has just happened but as far as I can tell, it’s senseless.
Who could do something like this?
As soon as the thought pops into my head, I want to roll my eyes at my own idiocy. Every person in this room knows who did this. The question is why? But as I run it through it in my mind, it doesn’t take long to come up with an answer. Tawny told us everything she knew so she was no longer of any use to Warren and with her able to identify him, she had to go. It’s as simple and sick as that and as an added bonus, he could send us this part of her to one, ruin what was supposed to be a happy day but two, let us know exactly what he’s capable of.
“This is my fault,” Travis whispers and I jerk back, looking up at him but he won’t meet my eyes, his face contorted into a grimace.
“What are you talking about? This isn’t your fault. This could never be your fault.”
He shakes his head and his eyes finally find mine before he closes them and takes a deep breath. “I went to talk to her about Warren and now she’s dead. How is this not my fault?”
“No,” I whisper, cupping his face as pain floods my chest. His eyes pop open and his pain filled gaze meets mine, stealing the air from my lungs. “This is all Warren and you’re reacting exactly the way he wants you to. You couldn’t have known he would do this.”
“I should have,” he hisses, gritting his teeth as his gaze goes back to Tawny. He blows out a breath again but it doesn’t seem to calm him in the slightest as he drags his eyes back to mine. The pain shining back at me feels like a knife to my chest and my heart cracks wide open as I try to think of anything I can say or do to ease his suffering right now. “I should have fucking known, Rowan. I should have known.”
I lean up on my toes and press a kiss to his lips, feeling every ounce of his pain as he holds me tighter and kisses me like I am the air he breathes. I don’t know if it’s doing any good but any other time he’s been too stressed to function with all this Warren stuff, distracting him with a kiss has helped. And more than anything, I just want to help him release this guilt he feels right now. When we finally part, I meet his eyes again and hope he can see my sincerity. “You’ve done everything you could think of to find this monster and his actions do not reflect on you, do you hear me? He is the only one responsible for this and I will not listen to you talk about yourself like that when you are one of the most sincere, genuine men I’ve ever met.”
“Rowan,” he whispers, his voice cracking as he shakes his head.
“Is that another note?” Carly asks before he can say anything else and we turn back to the group as she points inside the box where a little envelope is tucked on the side. Storm takes a deep breath as he reaches in and grabs it. We all stare at him, the air in the room thick with fear, as he pulls out the little card and hisses a curse.
“What does it say?” Tate asks, her expression fierce and her gun in her hand as my brother wraps an arm around her, pulling her into his side. Storm scrubs his hand down his face and shakes his head.
“One down, four to go.”
Chapter Seventeen
Travis
“Mmm,” Rowan groans as she throws her arms above her head in a stretch and I glance down at her. She arches her back, pressing her body against mine before she relaxes and opens her eyes, blinking up at me. Flashing me a sleepy smile, she snuggles closer and shuts her eyes again. “Morning.”
I pull her closer and release a sigh. “Morning.”
She pulls back, scowling up at me as she cups my cheeks and inspects my face. “Did you get any sleep last night, Travis?”
“I’m fine,” I tell her, pulling her back into my body. I’m fucking not fine but I would have been a hell of a lot worse if she hadn’t been here by my side. Fuck. I don’t even want to imagine the spiral I would have fallen into if I didn’t have her grounding me all night long.
“That’s not what I asked you,” she shoots back, arching a brow and I sigh. From the moment Piper opened that box and we all realized what was inside, Rowan has been my fucking rock and she spent hours last night, just lying in bed with me and telling me that what happened to Tawny wasn’t my fault. It was sweet of her to try and take the blame from where it belongs, firmly on my shoulders, but I know the truth and, according to the package we received last night, so does Warren.
After we read the second note from Warren, the one that made it clear he was gunning for certain members of the club, Blaze called Rodriguez. As soon as he showed up and took one look inside the box, he called in a whole damn team of people, including the medical examiner who took the head away to inspect it. If I didn’t know her death was my fault before, I sure as hell did after Rodriguez told us that Tawny’s tongue had been removed and in its place was the business card I had given her the morning Rowan and I stopped by her apartment.
I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do about all of this.
A part of me feels like Warren wants me looking for him. It feels like he has singled me out for some reason and he enjoys the game we’re playing as well as my growing frustration but sending Tawny’s head the way he did, feels like a clear fucking warning to stop looking into him and I would be stupid to ignore it. But how can I just abandon my club like that?
“Travis,” Rowan sighs, pulling my attention back to her and I shake my head.
“I’m fine.”
She lets out a huff of annoyance. “Again, not what I asked.”
“Sorry, Princess,” I tell her, sighing as I stare up at the ceiling and pull her into my body again and sigh, her presence once again comforting me. “My head is just all messed up.”
“Yeah, that tends to happen when you don’t get any sleep and can’t think clearly.”
I shake my head. “I’m fine, Rowan.”
“I swear to God,” she growls, swinging her leg over my body and climbing on top of me as she plants her hands on my chest and pins me with a glare. “If you tell me you’re fine when you’re so clearly not one more time, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“Yeah? What are you going to do?” I ask, fighting back a grin despite my somber mood. She scoffs.
“Like I’m gonna tell you my game plan.”
I grip her hips, loving the feeling of her skin underneath my fingers. “That sounds like the talk of someone who most definitely doesn’t have a plan.”