“I’ve never had a real family before. Filly and I ran away when were teenagers and never looked back. She fell in line with the Vipers after a few years of slumming it on the streets and brought me in with her. Eventually she got voted in as Prez, and I kinda just followed her around. Infiltrating this club was one of the first things that I ever did that I was proud of until I met Guerrilla and he got me hooked on drugs.”
My heart broke a little for this girl sitting naked in front of me. I wanted to help her out, but right now I had another woman that I needed to save first. Faith was my main priority and once I knew that she was safe, I’d come back for Daisy and help her get away from Guerrilla.
“Just keep doing what you’re doing, Daisy. If Guerrilla even thinks you’re fucking around on him or that you’re planning on leaving, he’s going to hurt you. I know him enough to know that for sure. So, just keep pretending that everything is fine and do whatever he says. Cipher and I’ll do the rest. Now get dressed and get the fuck out of this room. If Guerrilla catches you in here, it’s going to start shit we don’t need right now.”
“What’s going on?”
“Club business, but once this shit gets taken care of, I’ll be working on getting you back to your sister.”
First rule of being a prospect, keep your mouth shut. Club business was for members only. Daisy was being too fucking nosy, and she probably knew better than to ask so many questions.
Daisy nodded. “Thank you, Specter. It’s nice to know I have someone on the inside looking out for me.”
“You have more than just me, Daisy, you got the whole Armada looking out for you. Get dressed, I got to catch up with Cipher.”
I closed Cipher’s door behind me, and made my way to the war room, I was only about two steps away before Jagger came tumbling through the clubhouse door practically slamming into me. His face was streaked with sweat and he looked absolutely terrified.
“Everyone, come quick! Something’s wrong with Faith.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Faith
My foot dragged across the ground behind me. Every few steps felt more tiring and painful than the last. Every cell in my body was weak, and my skin was coated in dried blood. Cars drove past me, some honked, but nobody stopped. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t stop either for someone covered head to toe in blood.
I tried to blink out the images of what happened at Diego’s club, but I couldn’t make them stop. It was like I was tied down to a chair in the middle of a movie theater with a sputtering projector that was watching a snuff film on repeat.
“Is this what you wanted, Fe? This man’s hands all over you? Did it feel good to have his hands where only mine should be?”
Diego grabbed my chin and made me look at Alejandro, who was tied to a chair, mouth covered in duct tape, legs and arms bound to the wooden chair with the same sticky, silver material.
“This is your fault, Fe. Playing games with me never ends pretty, and now this guy is going to pay for your games.”
“Just let him go,” I begged, “please.”
Diego laughed manically as one of his club members, I think his name is Zipper, walked over with a black cloth draped over his arms.
Diego uncovered what was underneath the cloth and pulled out a giant machete.
“Diego, what are you doing?” I screamed.
“You wanted his hands all over you, Fe, now you’re going to get to keep them.”
I blinked out. Trying to fight off the image of what Diego did, but I couldn’t suppress them. Alejandro’s muffled screams were taking over my head. I could hear the terror in his voice and see the fear in his eyes—wide and filled with petrified tears.
I tried to look away. I did. But someone came up behind me under Diego’s orders and made me keep my eyes open. Then the hands. Oh my god, the hands! I kept seeing them being flung across the room and landing at my feet. Fingers still slightly twitching even though they were no longer attached to Alejandro’s body.
I screamed. I screamed so fucking loud, but the dance club’s music was louder than my screams and no one could hear me.
Alejandro wouldn’t stop screaming. I wanted him to stop, but he wouldn’t. Then Diego ripped off the duct tape covering his mouth and the screams became deafening. I couldn’t cover my ears. I had to listen—he forced me to listen.
“Is this what you like, Fe? Do you like these hands?” Diego picked up one of the dismembered hands off the ground; it was covered in blood that dripped across the ground like disgusting bread crumbs I didn’t want to follow. He moved toward me menacingly.
I collapsed to the ground, exhausted and out of breath. My body was shaking, and I couldn’t move another muscle without passing out. I had fallen at the gates of the compound, just as a motorcycle ran up behind me.
“Faith? Is that you?” The voice was familiar—muffled, but I couldn’t hear anything but the screams echoing inside my head.
A hand came down on my back, and I screamed, curling up in a ball. The slightest touch triggering more memories.
“This is what you get, Faith. You wanted him now you can have him.”
“Stop, Diego, this isn’t what I wanted.” He forced me to look at Alejandro, no longer moving. Seven stab wounds, bleeding from his chest.
“Any man that tries to fuck my Fe, is a dead man,” Diego whispered in my ear. “This is what happens when you try to play games. You fucking lose.”
He motioned for his men to untie Alejandro, and I watched his lifeless body slump to the floor. Diego’s men kept kicking Alejandro’s body until he was completely flat on the ground, lifeless eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
“I’m going to give you what you want, Fe. You wanted to get fucked, now I’m going to fuck you. Right on top of his dead body.”
The hands left my body, and I started to sob, a wailing cry that shook my whole body. I needed to feel safe, but nothing felt safe anymore. Everything that made me feel safe was taken away from me today, left bruised and broken back at Diego’s club. My innocence stolen the second I watched Alejandro murdered in cold blood, knowing it was all my fault.
I blocked everything else out, but the blood stained my body, wrapping me in the sins of my mistakes. There was no taking back what I did, and now I couldn’t open my eyes without seeing Diego’s menacing face and Alejandro’s dead eyes blankly looking at nothing at all.
“My fault. My fault. My fault,” I screamed. “My fault. My fault. My fault.” I kept chanting the words over and over, whispering them until they bellowed from my throat. I tugged at my hair, wishing I could pull out every damning image searing my brain.
I barely remember escaping. I waited until Diego passed out and climbed out a second-story window, landing in a metal dumpster a floor below. Old food, cigarettes, and other used things I didn’t want to remember clung to my body as I pulled myself out of the dumpster and slunk away. I didn’t have my keys, so I walked. I walked down the alley and up the roads nobody used. Nobody touched me, I was too broken and disgusting for anyone to touch. So, I walked, and I kept walking until my feet blistered and I couldn’t feel the glass and thorns in the bottom of my feet. Everything hurt. Everything was numb—I was numb.