Perversion (Perversion Trilogy #1)(48)

I sit up, and although I’m in pain, I decide to ignore it because the pain in my head isn’t shit when it comes to the pain I’ll feel if I don’t get to Gabby in time. I hear voices on the other side of the door so I stand, wrapping the sheet around my body I shuffle toward them.

“She’ll be fine. She’s bruised and scraped up pretty bad, but it’s not life-threatening. She’s got herself a few cracked ribs. A minor concussion. It could be a lot worse. She’s a tough one, though,” I hear Marci say. “When she’s up, we all need to talk.”

“She’s not going back there,” Grim grinds.

Belly coughs before collecting himself. “We already know Marco’s the one jacking our trucks. He’s probably the one responsible for the rain of bullets in the park, too. He’s looking for a reason to start a war. The truce has only got a month left on it. I doubt he’ll be making an offer to extend it if he comes up with one.”

“She’s not going back there,” Grim says again. “And that’s final.”

Belly pauses. “I understand, son. And I’m going to leave this one in your hands. I expect you to make the right decision. For all involved.”

I open the door. “I’m going back,” I say.

The three of them look to me.

“Tricks,” Grim says with a shake of his head.

“No. Marco said that if I didn’t get back to him by morning or my dead body didn’t show up on his doorstep, he’d do the same thing to Gabby that he did to me. Only, he’d make sure she didn’t survive. I can’t do that to her. I’m going back.”

“We can figure out a way,” Grim begins.

“No, there is no other way. I’ll come back with Gabby when it’s safe,” I say with as much determination as my scratchy voice can muster.

“I knew you were a good one from the second I laid eyes on you,” Belly says, pulling me in for a gentle, yet firm hug. I’ve never been hugged like this in my life, and I find myself overwhelmed by it. I burrow into the comfort of his big body. “Don’t do this because you think anything will happen to you by our hands if you don’t. You’re family. Always have been. We tried to bring you home years ago. It’s about damn time you finally got here. You got a place here, regardless of what you decide.”

I look to Grim whose jaw is in a hard line. “Do I?” I ask.

His answer is a simple nod.





Grim


“I can’t be the reason people die,” Tricks says.

I stare down at her beautiful battered face. “You won’t. Marco is going to find a way to start a war regardless of whether you go back or not.”

“But I can’t be the reason, Grim,” she explains. “I just can’t. I have to get Gabby out. I can’t leave her there. I won’t.”

I pull her into the room and sit her down on the bed. We’re both silent for a moment. The space fills with tension and unspoken words.

“I fucked up. Marci told me everything,” I finally say.

She holds up her hand. “Let’s not do this. Not yet. Not now. You don’t owe me anything. I’m going to prove myself. I’m going to help take down Marco. When I’m free of him and Los Muertos, we can talk. Regardless, I’ll come back. I promise.”

“Belly was right. You don’t have to do this,” I say, holding her hands in mine.

“I know, but for the first time in my life, I want to.” The sincerity in her voice strikes me like a fist to the heart. “It’s the only way to see my way clear of all this bullshit and keep Gabby alive.” Tricks winces as she begins to unwrap the bandages from around her ribs.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Showing up to the compound all patched up is going to raise a lot of questions I’m not going to want to answer.”

She’s right. Fuck, I hate this, but she’s right. I help her unwrap the rest, revealing the purple bruises along her torso which match the cuts and bruises around both of her swollen eyes.

Marci comes in, holding an oversized T-shirt with a ridiculous image of cats climbing a rope. “Wear this. You can say you picked it off a clothesline.”

“Thank you,” Tricks says. She reaches for the shirt, but I grab it first, gently tugging it over her head.

“Sandy will take you in the van and drop you as close as he can to the compound without being noticed. The rest is up to you,” Marci says.

Tricks nods. The corner of her lip is caked with dried blood.

I look at Marci. “She’ll need something else,” I say.

“What?” Tricks asks.

“He did this because he wants your loyalty, right?”

Tricks nods, but confusion lines her face. “Yeah. Since I won’t give it to him, he thought he’d beat it out of me.”

I growl. “Marci, Belly, we need to give her something to bring back. Something important she can show him to let him think his loyalty test actually worked.”

Belly stands behind Marci. He nods in understanding, then takes off his Bedlam ring, and tosses it to me. “That should work. I take it off when I work on my bike. I set it on the shelf closest to the door. You can say you swiped it to prove yourself.”

I hold out the ring to Tricks. “Marco wants loyalty, and this is how you’re going to give it to him.”