bar for us to find.”
“He was only protecting me,” I said.
“Look how that turned out. Now we get to punish you. Not only for running off, but for your man killing our Pres. Shouldn’t have done it, Phoebe. You’re club pussy. You know your damn place. On your back with your legs spread.”
I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to cry. I knew what was coming. It wouldn’t be pretty. Would hurt a hell of a lot. They wouldn’t go easy on me. Still, I loved the time I’d spent with Kraken, and I hoped he wouldn’t come for me. It would be a suicide mission. I didn’t know if Morgan had stayed behind. If he had, would he hurt the others? He wouldn’t want to risk the women telling the Hades Abyss what happened.
The miles passed and eventually, we pulled up to the Sadistic Saints’ clubhouse. Pitch got out and yanked me from the backseat. I stumbled as he dragged me into the clubhouse and threw me on the sticky floor. The few who’d remained behind crowded around. Looking in their eyes, I saw evil. If these men had souls, they’d been burned away long ago.
“Strip her,” Brimstone said.
“What about Leviathan?” one of the men asked. “He’ll want to have some fun with her.”
Brimstone shook his head. “He’ll get here when he can. This is all we’ve got right now. Everyone else is teaching those sorry bastards a lesson. Time to get the party going.”
Pitch reached down and started cutting my clothes off with a sharp blade. The smile he gave me set a chill inside me, bone deep. He flipped the knife in his hand a few times, then grabbed a fistful of my hair. “I think you need a reminder of who you are. Every time you look in the mirror, you’ll remember.”
He sliced down my cheek, and I screamed out. The way he laughed, I knew it’s what he’d wanted. My pain. Humiliation. He ran the blade down my other cheek, then went back to the first. I felt the blood drip down my face. Pitch shifted and looked at the others.
“Hold her.”
Hands closed around my arms and legs, someone pressed their weight down on my shoulders. I couldn’t see through my tears, didn’t know who was surrounding me. The blade dug into my chest. Blackness rolled across my vision. Pitch took his time, carving me up like a piece of meat. My blood soaked the floor and gathered in my hair.
I felt the jab of a needle in my arm, then bliss. No, no, no.
“That’s it. Good girl, Phoebe,” Brimstone crooned. “Toss her in her room. We’ll give the others a little time to get here. Then we’ll teach the bitch a lesson she’ll never forget.”
Someone lifted me, carried me down the hall, then threw me onto a mattress. I floated, a haze settling over me where time had no meaning. I was vaguely aware of raised voices. I rolled to my side, knowing I needed to clean up. The last thing I wanted was infection to set in. Assuming I survived this, anyway. If I didn’t, then it wouldn’t matter. I managed to get to my feet and staggered my way into the bathroom.
The sight of my face horrified me, but it was the word he’d etched into my chest that nearly broke me. Whore. The cuts were deep enough I knew they’d scar, especially since I couldn’t properly treat them. Despite the burn from the soap, I cleaned my wounds best I could, even though I tumbled to the floor multiple times. The drugs coursing through my veins made me feel like I’d walked into one of those funhouse tunnels, with everything spinning around me.
I rubbed ointment into the wounds before collapsing on the floor. The darkness crept in, until I tumbled into nothingness, my last thoughts of Kraken and my sweet Ember.
Chapter Nine
Kraken
When I reached the clubhouse, chaos rained down on the Hades Abyss. The Sadistic Saints had blown the gate off the hinges and poured through. One of our Prospects, Robert, lay dead near the gate. Cowboy had taken a bullet through the shoulder and another to his side.
My brothers were scattered, bleeding from various wounds, and Leviathan stood in the center of all, a grin spreading across his face like it was fucking Christmas. I got off my bike and threw myself into the mix, stabbing and shooting anyone in a Sadistic Saints cut. I took down four of them before