Chapter Fourteen

Abbie

Iwasn't sure what to expect the next morning. I understood where I stood with Cameron, but the rest of the club? His brothers—his family? I didn't know. Because despite them coming after me, I was still a cop. I was still a woman who'd manipulated Cameron and tried using him to get to his family so I could climb the ladder at work.

Did they know I'd done that? Did they know what I'd done to Cameron? Sure, he'd played me, too, but he was protecting his family.

I was willing to destroy him—destroy all of them—just for more money on my paycheck. He was trying to save their lives and their freedom.

"Come on," Cameron said softly, his fingers twining through mine. My legs were a bit unsteady beneath me, but I was determined to walk. I'd been raped and beaten and burned, but I was still alive. I was still breathing. Which meant I would still fight.

"Do your brothers know…" My voice trailed off.

Cameron glanced over at me before he nodded his head. "Yeah, but they're not worried about that shit, Abbie," he told me as we made our way to the stairs. "We've got a lot bigger shit to worry about. But if you're still thinking about?—"

"I'm not," I rushed out. My throat closed up with tears, and I squeezed my eyes shut when we stopped at the top of the stairs, a ragged breath filling my lungs. Opening my eyes, I looked at him, swallowing past the lump in my throat so I could speak. "I'm not," I promised, my voice raspy. "I fell for you, Cameron, and it wasn't supposed to happen, but?—"

He cupped the side of my neck and pulled my lips to his in a soft, short kiss that rocked me to my core. "Okay, little devil," he said softly, pressing a kiss to my forehead after. "Okay."

The trek down the stairs was long and tedious, but Cameron, who usually displayed so much impatience, was soothing and didn't seem to mind waiting and letting me lean on him for support when I began to grow tired. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, thankfully to be on flat ground again, but then quickly grew a little alarmed by everyone sitting around, eating breakfast.

All of whom were now looking at me.

Shaw stood from the table he was eating at and came over to us. "Cameron, you want to grab her food? I want to check for any broken or fractured bones."

I frowned, taking a step back into Cameron, who dropped my hand to grasp my hips. "I'm fine?—"

Cameron gently squeezed my hips and dropped a kiss to the shell of my ear. "Yeah. Check her burn wounds, too. She has another." His eyes flickered to Blu and Grey. "It's on her wrist. Matches theirs," he said, inclining his head to them.

Shaw clenched his jaw but nodded his head. Cameron pressed a kiss to my temple before slipping around me, heading for the kitchen. Shaw led me to a table and pulled out a chair for me. "Do you have full range of motion everywhere?" he asked, gently feeling over my shirt around my ribcage.

I nodded. "I'm fine. Just… banged up." I licked my dry lips. "Do any of you know if my partner is okay?"

A shadow fell over Shaw's face, and my gut churned. "Trent is in ICU on life support," he said quietly. Tears filled my eyes. Trent, while I hadn't known him for very long, was a good guy and an even better friend. He didn't deserve to get tangled up in this giant web I was now in, yet he had been. All because of his affiliation with me.

"Oh," I croaked, reaching up to swipe a tear away.

"What'd you do to her?" Cameron growled, dropping my plate of food on the table with a clatter that made me flinch. He slipped his fingers into my dark hair, scraping his nails along my scalp in a way that settled me.

"She asked about Trent," Shaw calmly informed him.

Cameron looked down at me, a frown pulling at his lips, but he didn't say a word. Once Shaw was done inspecting me and he'd assured Cameron my burns were healing well, I turned to the table and began to eat. Cameron just nursed a cup of coffee, his eyes tracking every move I made. While before, it might have annoyed me, especially to have him—or anyone, for that matter—just stare at me while I ate, it was comforting now. I knew Cameron would keep his word; he wouldn't let anything happen to me.

Konrad came over after sending Blue and Grey to the kitchen to help Blakely clean up. Cameron eyed him, his upper lip curling the slightest bit, but Konrad just simply nodded once at him as he pulled out the chair across from me and settled into it.

"If you're coming over here to say something that'll upset her, we're gonna have fucking problems," Cameron warned him.

Konrad ignored him, his dark eyes locking on mine. "Can I see your wrist?" he asked.

Without a word, I held my left wrist out, chewing slowly on my last bite of scrambled eggs. He gently cradled it, eyeing the burn wound, his jaw clenching so tightly, I could see the muscle in his jaw ticking. Finally, he released me, and I pulled my arm back into my lap.

"I rescued Blu and Grey from a man involved in all this bullshit," Konrad told me. I blinked in surprise. "They have the same mark you do, though Grey's has stretched over time since he was kidnapped as a boy, and Blu's has faded into a pink mark since she was kidnapped a few years ago." My heart throbbed in my chest for them. Both Grey and Blu seemed so young… just how young had they been when they'd been kidnapped and raped and tortured?

"We're trying to dismantle this ring," Konrad said. My heart skipped a beat in my chest. "If you're feeling up to it, Shaw and I would like you to come sit in the chapel and tell all of us everything you remember. Any big players. Guards. Doctors. We don't care—we want anyone who participated that you can remember."

I nodded, swallowing past the lump in my throat. "I can do that," I said softly. "I want them to pay. Not just for me. But for Trent." My lips trembled, and I clenched my fingers around the fork I was still holding. "And for the girl who they killed simply because she couldn't be used due to her endometriosis."

Cameron gripped my thigh, his fingertips biting into my skin through the sweatpants I was wearing. I didn't let a single tear fall, though my heart was aching something fierce. Konrad nodded once. "Whenever you're ready, we are, too," he told me, standing up from his seat.

I stood from my chair, no longer hungry. Cameron pressed his hand to my lower back. "I'm ready now," I told Konrad's back. He turned to look at me, a bit surprised at my words. I tilted my chin up, steeling myself to retell the horror I'd gone through.

Something akin to respect gleamed in Konrad's eyes, and he nodded once.

By the timeI was done talking, Cameron was silent. Eerily fucking calm. His eyes were flat and cold, like he'd shut off everything in his body to keep himself from raging and losing his shit.

"You were set up," Cameron said as Ace passed him a blunt. He quickly lit it, inhaling a lungful of smoke. He let it settle before slowly releasing it, turning those vacant eyes on me. "Benjamin Carlisle, Carmen Rigby, Jeffrey Richards—yeah, we figured out long ago they were on someone higher-up's payroll. I'm guessing that'd be Johnny Dorman."

What?

Shaw nodded in agreement. Anger burned through me so fast, it turned my vision red for a moment. "My fucking boss?" I seethed.

Cameron nodded. "Yeah, little devil. Your goddamn boss. He was probably given orders, and like the little bitch he is, he followed them, turning his back on you and Trent."

"I could have died," I croaked. "Trent may die."

"Mhm," Cameron hummed, nodding his head. He glanced at me. "Still think we're the bad guys, little devil?"

I shook my head, so many emotions coursing through me, I could barely breathe. Anger. Betrayal. Hurt. Sadness. Pain. A tear ran down my cheek. Cameron reached up and gently wiped it away before bringing my head to his chest and pressing a kiss to my hair.

"They'll pay for this, too," he promised me, his hand cradling the back of my head as I cried into his shirt, falling apart right there in that chapel, surrounded by his brothers. "Everyone involved will pay for taking you from me," he growled.