Page 153 of I am Dressed in Sin (Death by Daybreak MC 2)
“It would make sense, wouldn’t it?” I ask, crossing my arms and doing my best to calm my racing pulse. I don’t want my hunch to be true this time, just like I didn’t when I worried about Rhea Bundy. But I can’t ignore the gnawing fear in my gut.
“I personally saw to it that we used our own product.” Grainger shakes his head as he plants his hands on his hips. “But you never know. There’s always the chance of a bait and switch.” His eyes flick toward the open doors leading to the deck. “Especially with that fucking rat scurrying around tonight. Goddamn it, I should’ve put a bullet through that cocksucker’s skull a long time ago.”
Sin catches a woman who’s about to fall to the floor. He grabs her under the armpits and lowers her gently to the ground, but she isn’t the only one collapsing. All around the room, people are stumbling, falling, fainting.
Not everyone, obviously, but enough that it’s disturbing.
We’ve been poisoned. The club’s been fucking poisoned.
No, no, drugged.
“For every day that you delay, we destroy something,” I whisper, and Grainger gives me a sharp look.
“What the fuck are you saying, Gidge?” he asks, but I’m too caught up in my head.
“Every day, we add another person to the tally. Don’t make us polish off all those pretty families of yours.” I recall the words Grey spoke to me that day on the video call with utter horror.
“Let’s get Gidge out of here—” Beast starts, but his words are cut short by the sound of an explosion. Heat blasts me, and the world rocks like it’s on stilts. One second, I’m standing up. The next, I’m on the floor underneath Beast’s huge body.
People are screaming, shouting, but not nearly enough of them. Many of them are passed out and unaware of what’s going on. Shit, I’m sober, and I still have no idea what’s going on.
My ears are ringing as I struggle to crawl out from underneath Beast. I keep expecting him to help me up, but he isn’t moving.
That scares me. That scares me a fuck of a lot.
Arms grab me, struggling to help me free from the heavy weight on my back.
It’s Sin.
He’s grabbing my face between his hands; I think he’s yelling at me, but I can’t hear him. I reach up with both hands to touch my ears, and my fingertips come away red with blood.
It’s not that I didn’t expect an attack, but … we’re on the compound. We have three full chapters of Daybreakers here. We’re locked down. Guarded. Safe.
But only from the outside world.
Gaz.
My brother’s face flickers in my mind just in time for me to realize that I can see him for real, standing at the edge of the room surrounded by smoke and the flickering lights of several fires.
“Gidget!” Sin’s voice finally breaks the silent bubble around me, and I cry out. Everything hurts. My ears. My eyes. My body. I look back to see both Beast and Grainger half-buried under debris. I lunge toward them immediately, but Sin’s hauling me back, forcing me to my feet.
“What are you doing?!” I scream, turning back to him with fury burning inside of me. “We have to get them out of there!”
“Gidget,” Sin repeats, gritting his teeth as he glances over his shoulder.
Gaz is coming this way, kicking bodies out of his path as he approaches us. He has a group of Daybreakers with him, one of whom happens to be Caper. Which means …
These guys are with Gaz. All of them.
Sin draws his weapon, but he doesn’t raise it. Not just yet. Because drawing his weapon on his brothers paints him as the bad guy.
“They’re both in on it,” Gaz says, lifting his chin in our direction. It’s a brilliant ruse, I must say, blaming us for organizing a mafia hit on our own compound. Based on everything I’ve been doing, it isn’t entirely out of the question. I’ve been talking to Grey. Meeting with Grey. Helping Grey. Just not in the way Gaz is helping the Grey Wolfe Mafia. “Restrain them both.”
The men move forward and Sin curses. His hand shakes as he puts me behind him and raises his weapon. It isn’t that he’s afraid to kill anyone or that he won’t defend me; it’s that the prospect of killing his brothers, of murdering men he’s fought alongside for years, partied with, attended weddings for, is abhorrent.
The whole situation is awful.
I thought I wanted the club to fall. In reality, all I wanted to do is change it.
“Gidget,” Sin whispers as the other men remove their own guns from their belts and holsters. “When I give you the word, I want you to run.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I breathe, blood running down the sides of my face. Sin looks back at me with an expression that tells me everything that I need to know. He loves me. He always has. Maybe neither of us can pinpoint when it happened, it doesn’t matter. It may as well have been forever.
