Kneeling down next to me, Knox asked, “We need Doc to look at her?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. She fainted, but she’s fine. The wounds are superficial.”
“Want to tell me what happened? I noticed the bruising when she got here,” Knox growled.
“What do you mean, damsel in distress?” Siam demanded, at the same time. “I noticed the bruises, too. She didn’t have those when she left earlier. She was shaky when she got here, but I didn’t say anything since we had others around us. I figured she would tell me when we got back to the apartment.”
I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Verity. “I heard a scream. I stopped and found an asshole dragging her down the alley. Without thinking, I shifted, and he pissed himself.” My brothers in the room laughed. “He pushed her toward me, and I leaped over her and hit him. He screamed and passed out.”
“Where?” Gray asked.
“Portage.” I was about to question my sister about what she knew, but Verity’s eyes began to flutter. Everyone crowded around, and I almost demanded they back away, but I held my tongue. For now, Siam was probably the one person who could get us answers; therefore, I would back off a little.
“Do you have something you want to share with the class?” Knox spoke in my head, and I could hear the humor in his voice.
“She’s my mate,” I admitted.
“Figured,” both Gray and Knox said, and I rolled my eyes.
Shaking my head, I asked, “How do you figure?”
“You’ve never paid any woman the attention you are her,” Knox said.
Gray added, “Maybe Siam.”
“Shut up, assholes,” I growled.
While my brothers had been razzing me, Verity’s eyes opened, but she didn’t focus on anyone or anything. Leaning forward, I nudged Siam out of the way, and that was probably the worst thing I could have done. Verity jumped up, knocking her head with mine, and scrambled away. Her arms were wrapped around herself, and she looked terrified. What the hell?
367
Verity
I felt like I had been floating on a cloud, far away from anything that could do me harm, away from the bad. And then I woke up, staring into a pair of silver eyes framed by light brown hair falling forward and catching in a short beard. Dimitri? Snow? Whoever. The man wore a Dark Leopards MC cut, and that meant he was dangerous.
It wasn’t until I backed away from him that I noticed the other men in the room. Their cuts told me all I needed to know about them. “What do you want?” I inwardly slapped myself for the tremor in my voice. Only then did I notice Siam standing with them. Siam, Snow’s sister.
“I…I…I have to go.” I attempted to rush past them, but Snow caught me before I could take more than a couple of steps.
“Not yet,” Snow said, gently yet firmly holding me in his arms.
“Let go!” I screamed in a panic. All I could see was my little brother, lying in the street, blood dribbling out of his mouth as he tried to speak while his life was slowly fading. At sixteen, instead of beginning to really live, he died.
“Verity,” Siam grabbed my face, her hands on my cheeks. “calm down. You fainted, and Dimitri carried you back here.”
I could feel it building up, the pain and panic. “Please, just let me go,” I begged, my terror choking me.
“Verity,” Snow whispered softly, his mouth near my ear, “you’re safe.”
I didn’t feel safe. Not with these men, and I didn’t know if I could feel safe with Siam any longer, not if she was associated with these murderers. Sister; you couldn’t get more associated than that. My head whipped back and forth. “I want to go home. Now,” I demanded as tears streamed down my face. They were impossible to stop because my past crashed into me, and the pain I thought I’d forgotten came rushing to the surface again.
Snow loosened his hold, and I wasted no time in escaping, running for my life. Tonight had turned into hell on earth for me. First, Wes, and now, this. Was this my punishment for living?
368
Snow
My body moved toward the door to follow Verity, but my sister stopped me. “You’ll only make it worse right now. Let me talk to her first.”
“Siam—” I snapped my mouth shut when I noticed her don’t fuck with me expression. My sister might have been smaller than me, but she was tough and could take down several of my brothers. I’d seen her do it after she moved here. When we rescued her, she decided she wanted to be closer to me, and I decided to give her a couple of bodyguards. I didn’t expect to find the two prospects who were guarding her to be discovered hogtied and gagged. Seeing that, I gave her the freedom she demanded and insisted she never do Ryde again since that was how they kidnapped her in the first place. That and the drugs they pumped into her system.
“Look, I understand that she is your mate, but that woman is completely freaked out.”
“Not hard to believe since she was attacked and dragged into an alley,” Gray stated the obvious.
Tilting her head to the side, Siam narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think that’s it. She’s been on edge, and sometimes, she screams in her sleep. The first few times,
