Colt (Devil's Nightmare MC #10) - Lena Bourne Page 0,83
were quickly subdued by four of the most efficient bouncers I’ve ever seen. The guys getting dragged out through some door in the back didn’t even put up much of a fight. Whoever this Monarch is, he seems to be running a pretty tight ship around here.
It’s nearly midnight, and I have managed to convince myself I’d know it if she was dead. I’d feel it or something, somehow I’d know. And I don’t know. In fact, I know she’s alive. So she must be. The more I repeat it in my head, the more real it becomes. Flimsy and transparent, but at least it’s holding my blind rage, hatred, and terror away from the forefront of my thoughts.
A weird sort of silence starts on one end of the space, somewhere to the left of the bar where I can’t see that well because of all the people crowded into this space. But the crowd soon starts parting, and the blaring eighties ballad that’s playing is suddenly the loudest sound.
A tall, gray-haired guy’s round stomach comes into view first. And the next thing I see is Brenda’s serenely smiling face as she walks beside him, holding his arm. Her dress must be made from a piece of the night sky the way it glimmers and shines just like her eyes. The only eyes I want to see. Eyes that don’t see me.
Relief like I’ve never felt it washes over me, leaving no room for other, baser feelings like betrayal, anger, bone-deep disappointment. At least she’s alive. Even if she’s with someone else, at least she’s alive.
But that only lasts for a second after her eyes lock on mine. They’re cloudy and dark, and I can clearly see an outline of a bruise around the left one even though she tried to cover it with makeup. But it’s not that which makes me leap to my feet to get her away from that fat old piece of shit. The stark naked plea in her eyes does that. It’s unburdened by anything else—there’s no guilt there, no regret, only the plea to save her.
My ass slams painfully against the hard chair as Blaze pulls me back down.
“Don’t,” he hisses, gripping my arm so hard I’m gonna have bruises in the shape of his fingers tomorrow.
The fat man leads Brenda all the way to the podium, helping her ascend first before he follows her. Along with five big men, who are clearly there for protection and not because they’re the elite worthy of sharing the king’s throne area, or whatever the fuck that leather sofa’s supposed to be.
A sea of tightly packed men and women is between me and Brenda now, but the podium is high enough that I can see her clearly. And as far as I’m concerned, we’re the only ones in the room. She’s searching for me, her lost pleading eyes straining to find mine, but we’re too far back, she can’t see me.
The fat man turns her around and stands beside her, facing the crowd. His bodyguards make a half-circle wall around them.
Someone turned off the music, and it’s so quiet in here now I can hear men breathing and drops of water from a broken faucet somewhere hitting metal.
“My princess has returned to me,” Monarch bellows. “My beautiful Brandy is back, telling me she never wanted to leave in the first place. Saying she loves me madly.”
The words are like a rat eating its way into my stomach. But it’d be worse if Brenda’s eyes weren’t full of fear and pleading as she frantically searches for mine. It’d be worse if Monarch’s words weren’t met with silence even deeper than before.
What the fuck is going on? Shouldn’t they all be happy to hear this? The waitress with the huge boobs is standing a few feet away from us, biting her nails, her eyes filled with fear.
“Who here believes the lovely Brandy?” Monarch asks after basking in the fearful silence for a few heartbeats.
“Fucking no one!”
“The bitch double-crossed you!”
“She’s a fucking liar!”
“Show her what we do with liar and traitors!”
And that’s just a few of the hundred shouts in the same vein that I can decipher. Female voices are raised along with the males.
The rat has gnawed its way into my stomach and it’s devouring me from the inside now.
What the fuck do I do?
I stand up again and this time Ace, Blaze, and even Stormi all rise with me, but Blaze is still holding me back firmly.