Brick Brick (Knights Corruption MC - Next Generation, #4) - S. Nelson Page 0,100

cheek.

“You might want to leave for a few minutes, sweetheart,” Addy said, touching my arm with caution, her voice soft yet adamant. I didn’t even notice that she’d moved away from Zoe until she was directly in front of me.

“Why?” I pulled my focus from the bed. “What do you have to do?”

“I have to try and wake her to do an internal exam, as best I can with what I have. I need to assess the damage if there is any.”

“They raped her.” My voice trembled with the affirmation of what Addy was already thinking. I seized the back of my neck, my fingers digging into the knotted muscles. Had I only suspected beforehand, the damage to her body would’ve shoved me toward the conclusion. But I had firsthand knowledge, both from Zoe’s freak-out when I first approached her in that room, and from Braylen’s affirmation.

Drowning in the silence that followed my outburst, I hung my head and left the room, struggling with abandoning Zoe and not wanting to watch Addy exam the most intimate parts of her body. In the end, I stepped into the hallway, closing the door most of the way and leaning against the wall. Otherwise, I would’ve fallen to my knees, collapsing under the weight of the warring emotions raging through me.

Footsteps drifted down the hall, but I had my eyes closed, and the next time I wanted to pry them open was to look at Zoe. But that wasn’t to be as I heard Ryder’s voice inches from my disheveled form.

“How is she?”

“Addy’s tryin’ to wake her up now to check and see…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish my sentence, and I didn’t need to because her father knew exactly what was going on in that room right now.

“I don’t even know what to say. I failed to protect her from them and now…” His voice broke, his arm lifted and pointing toward the room behind me. It wasn’t a common sight to see Ryder so vulnerable, but this was a completely different circumstance. I didn’t know how he wasn’t punching holes in the walls, screaming his head off at anyone and everyone, scouring the streets for any signs of Reapers just so he could take out his anger on them.

Then again, I could ask the same of myself. But the answer was simple. I needed to keep it together right here, right now, for Zoe’s sake.

The time for unleashing my anger would come.

I’d make sure of it.

44

“I failed to keep her safe, Ryder. No one else. It was my job and I let them get their hands on her.”

“It’s not your fault.” He clasped my shoulder and squeezed.

I could only stomach his comfort for so long before I shrugged away from him. “It is, and I’ll do everything I can to pay them back for this.”

The hum of lowered voices drifted from the bedroom, and for as much as I wanted to rush in there right now, I kept my feet firmly planted in place. I’d do nothing but scare her if I tore ass back inside, and the last thing she needed was to continue to be afraid.

“How’s your leg?” Ryder figured a change in topic was needed, and I agreed, appreciative for the quick distraction.

“Hurts. But I’ll be fine.”

He nodded, flicking his eyes back to the slightly ajar door. “I need to take Braylen to the hospital to make sure everything is okay with the baby.” It was then I noticed he’d changed his shirt. I supposed it wouldn’t look good if he waltzed in there with blood on him, even though none of it was his.

“I thought we didn’t want to take anyone to the hospital unless we had to.”

“The checkup on the baby is different. No cops are gonna show up because of that.”

It was my turn to nod. Feeling more and more deflated by the second, I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned my head against the wall behind me. Ryder walked away without another word because, in all honesty, there wasn’t anything more to be said. His grief over his daughter was matched by mine, and he wasn’t gonna tell me to watch out for her because he knew I would now that I had her back.

I stood in the hallway for what felt like an eternity, the pain in my leg be damned. I wanted to slide down the wall to take some of the pressure off, but I needed to be