Nobody glanced my way, clearly having forgotten me. I should’ve snuck out, ran, left out the door. No one would probably notice. But for some inexplicable reason, I couldn’t move, my eyes wide as I stared at the woman trying to save him.
Blood. There was so much blood. God.
I felt the tension of the room so thickly it wrapped around my throat, squeezing the air from me.
And then it was as if something was loosened, the noose not as tight around everyone’s necks. The three men stepped away, murmuring softly to each other, their voices deep and, although hushed, had a hard edge to them.
The one named Cullen leaned down and kissed the woman on top of the head who’d been working on the wounded man. He ran his hand up and down her back, said something softly to her, and I watched as she nodded, tipping her head back to look at him, the strain and exhaustion very clear on her face.
There was another woman in the room, one who stayed close to the man named Dom. These were their women, I assumed.
“Is he going to live?” the driver asked, although his face was hard and devoid of emotion. The stoic expression on his face was startling, but his voice betrayed how he felt. He was worried. Everyone in the damn room was worried.
The woman who’d been working on the wounded man exhaled and shook her head slowly. “I don’t know, Frankie. I got the wound to stop bleeding, and he’s stable right now by some miracle, but I just don’t know.” The room was silent again. “Right now, he’s out of immediate danger, but the next couple hours will be pretty iffy.” The woman looked over at Frankie. “If you’re not a praying man, now might be the time to start.”
Chapter Five
Wilder
I tasted copper, like I had a mouthful of pennies. It coated my tongue, slid down the back of my throat. Weights held me down, a thickness that coated me in this visceral sensation.
“Fucking hell, someone do something!” I heard Dom shout, or maybe it was Frankie, Cullen.
“He’s losing blood. Get me all the supplies,” a female spoke, maybe Dom’s woman. Cullen’s?
I’m fine. What’s all the fucking panic about?
I thought I said those words out loud, but they rattled around in my head over and over again like that lone shoe in the dryer just banging the shit out of itself.
I tried to open my eyes, but they felt glued shut.
What the fuck?
“Who the hell is she?” one of my brothers spoke, but I couldn’t place who it was. Everything started sounding more distant, distorted. Whoever spoke, his voice was clipped, angry.
“She saw it all. She saw too much.” That was Frankie’s voice, sounding strained, heavy with something, an emotion I couldn’t place, one I’d never heard come from him before. “No fucking way I’d leave her. So she could tell the cops? Fuck no.”
There was a distinct female murmur, one that sounded muffled, as if a hand was over their mouth. I tried to sit up, open my eyes. I needed to know what the fuck was going on.
“Everyone out that is only going to argue. You’re making it worse,” Cullen’s female, Kimber, yelled. She sounded pissed.
There was a rush of voices.
“Everyone, calm down,” Kimber snapped. “I need to focus on this or I can’t help him.”
I groaned as pain started to lance through me like a fucking hot poker.
“Cullen,” Kimber whispered. “I can’t do this. I’m not a doctor.” I heard tears in her voice, but for the life of me, I couldn’t move anymore, could barely breathe.
“Baby, you got this. Please. You got this.” I’d never heard Cullen sound so… distraught.
And then there was silence, a door closing, the heaviness of the room tangible.
“I’m sorry. I’m going to try to save your life, Wilder. I’m going to try, and God help everyone if you don’t make it.”
Kimber was still crying, but it became more distant, like I stood down a long hallway and she kept moving farther from me.
“God help the world, because this’ll break the Preacher brothers apart and have hell raining down on them.”
And it was that last sentence she spoke that finally pulled me under, and I gratefully let that darkness claim me.
Chapter Six
Zoey
He’d been in and out of consciousness for the last hour, and I could see the worry on everyone’s face each time he woke up then passed back out. He murmured incoherently every once in a while, but I never moved from my spot. My legs ached, my body was tired, and the adrenaline high was starting to wane. I had no idea what they’d do with me, but one thing never left my mind.
I’d seen so much. Too much.
I was a liability.
I turned and looked toward the bedroom door, which was still open. I could leave, escape. I could sneak out and run as fast and hard as my legs would take me. They were too engrossed in what was going on to even pay me attention. I thought those things over and over again and found myself edging toward the door. And each step I took, I felt a little tightness in my chest, increasing even more the closer I got. I stared at the one they called Wilder.
Wilder.
The way I thought his name, the way it made me feel, shouldn’t sit well with me.
I was so close to the door now. So close. But right before I could dart out, the one named Cullen stepped in from the hallway, his massive body blocking the entryway, his muscular arms crossed as he looked down at me. His eyes told me he knew exactly what I planned on doing.
“Going somewhere?” he asked in a deep, thick voice.
And after he spoke, I felt all eyes on me.
Looked like I wasn’t going anywhere after all.
Chapter Seven
Zoey
Several hours laters
I rested back against the wall so damn tired, but I couldn’t sleep for the life of me. I kept staring at Wilder, watching the rise and fall of his breathing, drawing comfort from it. It was strange to care about what happened to someone I didn’t even know, hadn’t ever spoken to, and, for all intents and purposes, his twin wanted me dead.
Kidnapped, held against my will, and probably about to be buried six feet under for being “collateral damage” was all pretty clear to me. But despite that, I stared at Wilder’s face and found myself hoping he survived, wanting to look into his eyes, to see if they were the same shade as his brother’s. I wanted to hear his voice, to see how deep it was, to see if it made me feel that the connection, this boundlessness I felt we had, would be stronger.
There was a soft knock on the bedroom door, and it opened a second later. Kimber peeked her head around the corner and gave me a timid smile.
“Can I come in?”
I didn’t respond, because I knew it wouldn’t have mattered what I said. She’d come in here regardless.
And she did.
She pushed the door open and a second later stepped in with Amelia trailing behind her. Amelia held a tray and walked over to me, while Kimber went to Wilder. Someone had come in every five minutes to check on him, but the men had all but ignored me, as if they either forgot I was here or didn’t give a shit that they kept a woman hostage.