“Tala, Tala,” I repeat her name over and over again while I turn her over. I even shake her, looking for a sign of life, and she flutters her eyelids. Her normally picture-perfect skin looking like an abstract painting. Dried blood below her nose and lip. Bruises already turning purple, blue, and black on her face.
“Oh my god,” Devi makes her shock obvious.
“Is she dead?!” Venom asks, her tone full of concern and worry.
“No, no. She . . . she’s alive. Barely. We need to get her back to the club. Now. Call Ricochet. Get one of the cars out here. I don’t wanna carry her out on the street like this.” I’m dishing out orders and Devi’s already on her phone doing as I tell her.
“Cowboy,” Tala whispers my name.
I look back down to her torn apart face and she presses her lips together, almost like a tremble as if she’s about to break down crying. “Sssh, baby. Relax. That’s all you need to worry about.”
She tries to move her head to the left and the right, to tell me no I assume, but she grimaces in pain. “Stoney . . . we need to call S-stoney.”
“No, we need to focus on getting you back to the club.” I tell her, brushing my hand against her hair. I do my best to soothe her. She doesn’t need to worry about anything right now. Not a damn thing.
I didn’t miss the way her jeans were cut . . . so I know what happened to her.
“Dragons F-fire, Spark . . . threaten . . . Destiny.” She rasps out, her eyes pleading with me. She wants me to get this message to Stoney as soon as possible and there’s no doubt about it.
The front door comes open and Venom clears her throat, “Relax, it’s Ricochet.”
“Call Emerson, I need you to get a message to Stoney right now.” I tell him before he’s even turned the corner. He pulls his phone out and presses it to his ear. “Em’, I need you to call Stoney for me. You need to tell him,” Ricochet pauses and waits for me.
“A guy named Spark threatened Destiny. Boss’ beaten up really bad. We just found her. That’s all I have for now.” I say, and Ricochet nods, repeating pretty much everything I just said.
Glancing back down to Tala, tears are streaming down her face. She’s fucking terrified, but she’s trying so damn hard to be strong through this. I pull her closer to my chest and press a kiss to her forehead, “Don’t you worry about a thing, baby. I got you. Everything is going to be okay.”
Epilogue
As long as you feel pain, you’re still alive.
~ Unknown
Boss
Three Days Later . . .
“What are you doing here?” Cowboy questions someone at our apartment door, but I have no idea who he’s talking to. Everyone at the club has been giving me space, some time to rest after my attack.
“I came ‘cause I damn well needed to, now get outta my fuckin’ way. How is she?” Stoney practically pushes past Cowboy to get to me, but I see he isn’t alone.
There’s a woman with him, and oddly enough . . . she looks an awful lot like me. My skin tone is a bit more tan, but we both have dark hair and dark eyes. She keeps her eyes trained on me while Stoney rushes over to me, taking a seat beside me on the couch he grabs my hand, which is weird as fuck. “Are you okay?”
“I’m alive, Stoney. I’m fine.” I tell him.
“Yeah, well you look like fuckin’ shit.”
I cock a brow, “Well, aren’t you a real peach.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry. I . . . I just couldn’t stay down in Virginia knowin’ how bad you were messed up. It didn’t feel right to be down there, to just sit down and not do a damn thing. And I figured you could give me the details, about what happened.”
“Have you found him yet?” I ask, hoping he has. I need this monster off the streets, away from our daughter.
“Hi, I’m Rachel.” The woman interrupts our conversation, causing Stoney to tear his hand away from mine.
“Boss,” I introduce myself, but then again, she probably knows who I am.
She smiles lightly, but anyone can tell this girl feels awkward as fuck. “This is my fiancé, Cowboy.”
“Fuck, I thought that was a rumor.” Stoney cackles in amusement.
“Is it really so hard to believe someone can stand being with me?” I cock a brow, getting an amused chuckle from him. Though, I don’t miss the way Rachel keeps her eyes focused on our interaction.
“Rachel’s my woman,” Stoney says with the biggest smile.
“And it’s obvious you have a type,” I let out a laugh, and see Rachel release one as well, but as I laugh a rearing pain shoots through my side.
“Shit, baby. You okay?” Cowboy comes over to my side, taking the other seat that’s open on my alternate side.
“Mhm, just hurts to laugh too hard,” I murmur, trying my best not to let everyone see me this messed up. There isn’t any hiding the bruises, but damn, if I can hide how weak I am I will. I look over to Stoney, “You said you wanted to know what happened?”
He nods, “Yeah. I wasn’t given very many details.”
“I’ll give you the CliffsNotes if that’s cool?”
He gives me a curt nod, “Yep, that would be better.”
“Went there to grab lunch for Ricochet and I. The door was open, so I walked in. Knew something wasn’t right so I rounded the corner and saw one of the guys there dead. Knelt down, tried to see if he was alive but he wasn’t. Your boy, Spark, came at me from behind. God,” I roll my eyes, “He’s a cocky fucker. Thought by threatening me I’d give him what he wanted.”
Stoney narrows his eyes, “What happened next, Tala?”
I vividly remember the way everything went down, but I’m not giving him every gritty detail. He doesn’t need to know what was done to me. “He pressed a blade to my neck and said if I didn’t vow to be an ally to his club, he’d do what my father did to Kathryn, to our daughter.”
“Slimy piece of shit!” Stoney slams his fist down on my coffee table.
“It was only a bunch of threats before the beating started to happen, but I didn’t align myself with him or his club. I’d never do something like that.”
I feel Cowboy’s gaze on me, but I’m not going to say a damn thing. Stoney doesn’t need to know his arch nemesis raped me. “That’s it?” Stoney questions, almost like he’s assuming something else happened.
“That’s it.” I lie through my teeth. Enough people are pitying me right now for being beaten as severely as I was. I don’t need pity for another reason.
“I’m gonna get his ass, and when I do, he’ll suffer more than he’s ever made anyone else.” Stoney promises me.
“Correction. We’ll. Whenever you have him, do me a favor and don’t fuckin’ touch his ass until I’m there. I have my own bone to pick with him.” Cowboy hisses in a dark tone I’ve never heard from him.
“Agreed . . . but, Tala, I had an idea. An idea that if . . . if Spark was to ever come by and dig into shit legally, it would be a way to protect her. You open to hearing it?”