Boz
I HEAD back to Trix’s room, realizing I was kind of a dick earlier. Hell, the feelings inside me have me scared shitless. How the hell did we get back here so damn fast? Shouldn’t that shit have faded over time? The sounds of running feet bring me out of my thoughts. I’m shocked as shit to see the redhead running toward me. So damn shocked, I nearly let her run past me, but catch her just before she’s gone.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I ask as she struggles against my hold.
Instead of answering, she looks at me with fear-filled eyes. Wanting an answer, I give her a little shake. “How the hell did you get out of your room?”
“Let me go!! I have to find Trix!” she shrieks at me as she tries to jerk away.
She’s so damn frantic, with tears streaming down her face, that it takes a minute for her words to sink in. “What the fuck do you mean, find Trix?”
Again, she does nothing but look at me. Her entire body is shaking, and I realize she’s about to go into shock. Knowing I’m gonna need a little help with this situation, I shout, “Brew!”
Focusing on her, I ask, “Where is Trix?”
“She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone…” she chants, blinking away her tears.
Before I can say anything else, Brew walks up to us and jerks her from my arms. My normally rough as hell friend is gentle when he asks her, “What’s going on?”
She sniffles, before answering him. “Trix is gone.”
Brew looks at me for a second, before looking back at her. “Why isn’t she with you, and how did you get out of the room?”
“I was in the shower,” she says, drawing my attention to her wet hair. “When I came out, she was gone. There’s blood on the floor, and one of her shoes was in the middle of the room.”
I turn toward the room they were in and start to run. Before I even get to the door, I hear an ear-splitting scream from down the hall. Changing directions, I take off running to the only other room down this hall—Crank’s room. The only thing on my mind is killing the motherfucker.
As I sling the door open, my dog Grim rushes past me and lets out a deep growl. Before I can even see what’s going on, he launches himself across the room, landing on Crank’s back. It takes me a second to see Trix lying underneath him, tears rolling down her face. Anger like I’ve never known fills me.
“What the fuck?” I shout, pushing Grim away and jerking Crank back by his hair.
As soon as I get him away from her, my fist goes flying. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Another solid punch to his gut, and I scream, “I told you not to touch her, told you to keep your fucking hands off her!”
At this point, Crank has fallen to the floor, but that doesn’t stop me. I send a hard kick to his gut, before straddling him and throwing another punch to the fucker’s face.
Trix jumps off the bed and starts yanking on my shoulder. “Please, just get me the hell out of here...”
Landing one more punch, I get off the floor and shake away the pain in my hand. I look at Trix and say, “He deserves to die. No one is gonna hurt you and get away with it. You should want him dead just as much as I do.”
I look around the room to see that Smoke, Brew, and Addy have joined us. Smoke has a death grip on Grim’s collar to keep him from coming after Crank again. Addy has her head buried in Brew’s chest as he holds her against him. I can hear her muffled crying from across the room.
Lifting a chin to Smoke, I start barking out orders. “Take his ass to the basement and take Grim with you. Don’t get started until I get there and don’t let my dog eat his face off. I plan on taking care of this fucker myself.”
Looking over to Brew, I nod to the hysterical redhead. “Take her back to her room and get her ass settled down.”
With that, I pick up Trix and toss her over my shoulder. She lets out a yelp and screams, “Put me down, asshole! I’ve been man-handled enough today!”
“I’ll put you down when we get to my room. We have shit to talk about,” I tell her, my hand slapping her ass as I step out of the room.
We’re halfway down the hall when she starts struggling again. “We have nothing to talk about unless it’s you telling me that you are gonna let me go home. That’s the only thing I want to discuss with you. Now. Put. Me. Down.” Each word is punctuated by a sharp finger jab to my ribs, but I barely feel it in my rage.
Ignoring her, I walk into my bedroom and kick the door shut behind us. After I loosen my hold, Trix slides down my front and stares up at me. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I continue to ignore her as I take in her scratches and bruises. I look at her face, neck, hold out her arms and check those too, all the way down to her feet. Then, I turn her around and do the same to the back of her.
As I’m pushing her hair out of the way to check the back of her neck, she turns toward me and crosses her arms. “I’m fine, just a few bruises and a little blood. It’s no big deal.”
“Do you wanna explain to me why you have such a problem with me killing that motherfucker?” I ask her as I take in her tear-streaked face. It makes me want to go finish what I started even more.
She stares at me a moment before she replies, “Oh, I want the fucker to die, but I don’t want the fact that you killed someone because of me on my conscience. He’ll get paid back some way. Karma’s a bitch.”
I can’t do anything but stare at her; she has stunned me. She can’t be oblivious to the bad shit I’ve already done and will continue to do… I’m a biker, for Christ’s sake. I have to do a lot of things to protect myself, and I’ll do whatever needs to be done to protect her, as well. “I’m no saint, darlin’. I would do whatever’s necessary to protect you. I hope you know that.”
My eyes land on her shirt, which is covered with blood and what looks like vomit. “Did you get sick?”
“If that dickhead tried to stick his tongue down your throat, you would have thrown up, too,” she says defensively.
I can’t help but crack a smile at her words, my anger finally starting to cool. “You’re right about that.”
She uses two fingers to pull her shirt away from her chest. “Do you think I could get something clean to wear?”
I look at her for a second, still checking for injuries, before I finally nod. “I can do you one better. You can use my bathroom to take a shower. There’s a new toothbrush and all that other shit under the sink. Take whatever you need. I’ll have you something to wear when you get out.”
She turns to the back of the room, where my bathroom door is open, then looks down at her vomit covered shirt. She stands there for a second, before turning back to me. “You promise no one will bother me?”
Nodding my head, I look her straight in the eye. “I swear it on my life.”