Chapter 12

"Take me instead!Just leave her alone!"

It takes everything to get to my feet. My back screams in pain, and my knees feel like they"re going to buckle at any moment, but I can"t just sit back and let them do this. Not to Willa. She"s a good girl. Hell, no woman deserves to be in danger, let alone one who"s about to give birth. I watch as the guards holding Willa swing there clubs at her to get her to stop squirming. Still she fights.

I can"t let this happen. Injured or not, I have to do something.

I charge at the last remaining guard in the room just as they pull Willa, screaming, away.

"Stop!" I roar and try to take the guard down.

It"s pitiful. He clubs my back once, and I feel the wounds open and ooze as I cry in pain and drop back to the floor.

"You weak bastard. Don"t you realize what"s going on in here? No one can tell us anything. This is our show now. Don"t worry, you won"t have to worry about much for too long." The guard chuckles and shakes his head as he leaves me on the ground.

The heavy door closes behind him, and the silence in the room is peppered with the intense sobs of the women in the corner. The three of them hold each other and cry for Willa.

"She"s going to be fine, right? They"ll bring her back, right?" April asks Gabrielle over and over. Except I don"t hear a response. Sweat pours down my face as my body tries to get accustomed to the pain once again. I turn my head and look at Gabrielle. The tears are streaming down her face quickly, but she"s not speaking. I focus on her gaze and see that it"s glazed over. She"s losing the fight faster than I am.

Using the last bit of power I have, I drag myself across the hard floor until I get over to the group of them. Using the adrenaline coursing through my body I roll myself over so my back is on the floor. Instantly, they curl themselves around me as if they need the support I"m so accustomed to giving, the support my broken body won"t produce. Everyone besides Gabrielle, who is still looking off into space with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Gabrielle, look at me. Look at me, please." I reach for her arm and shake slightly. Even that small movement is enough to send bolts of intense pain slashing through me.

Finally, her eyes track down until they find mine.

"We"ll get her back. I promise you we"ll get her back."

"You can"t." Gabi"s voice cracks. The small ember of hope I"ve always seen in her eyes is extinguished. Now there"s nothing but pain.

I want to tell her to have faith, but she"s telling the truth. There"s nothing stopping any of these guards and clients from coming in here and doing whatever they want to any of us. I can"t fight them all.

"I"ll make this right, Gabrielle."

"How are you going to make it right, Bishop? Did you see what they were doing to her? They were beating on her. She can"t endure that. None of us can. It"s hopeless."

"It"s never hopeless, Gabrielle. Don"t talk like that. I"ll make it right, even if it means I have to kill them all. One way or another, I"m going to make sure we"re safe."

Gabrielle stares at me for a few more seconds before her face crumbles and a fresh wave of tears pours from her eyes. She falls forward so she"s lying on me too. The three of them all find a space on my lying body to release their tears and fears. I take it all. Take all the emotions and worries from them that I can.

April is still asking questions about how they could do something like that to Willa. Uma is pissed; she promises, the same way that I did, that she"ll kill all those bastards for what they"re doing to Willa and the rest of us. Gabrielle is the only one who isn"t saying anything. Instead, she just cries harder and harder as if something inside of her was breaking to pieces.

I wish there was something I could do to soothe her. I wish I could"ve done more to stop the guards from taking Willa. As much as I don"t want to believe what Gabrielle said, that small kernel of doubt explodes into a full-blown forest in my body. We"re not going to make it out of here. I curl my hand around Gabrielle the best I can, but she doesn"t soften. She"s cold and hard. The complete opposite of what I know her to be.

I"m losing her.

The Gabrielle that she was, the woman I was starting to fall in love with, is fading fast right in front of me, and all I can offer is a shoulder to cry on.

The last time I was with Liam, he made me believe that the rest of the boys of Djinn and the Wings of Diablo had been able to make it out alive, but what was taking them so long to get to us? Logically, I knew it would be nearly impossible for them to find us. It"s not like our location was marked off on a map somewhere, but I know them. My brothers have done the impossible many times over. They found Ink, they found Wire and his child, hell, they even found Preston, who wasn"t looking to be found. Were they putting the same effort into finding me? I"m not a blood brother, but I want to believe they wouldn"t just leave me here to rot.

"They"ll come," I whisper to myself over and over as I try to console the group of women who are scared for their lives.

"They"re coming."

It"s my last wish. A prayer I hope someone is listening to.