The Revenge by Tijan

Articulate genius, I never claimed to be.

His eyes widened, but I was still going. “It was you! You’re Chase.”

“You got the upstairs, right, Chase?”

Arcane team member Chase. Chase who broke into my house, told me he was supposed to rape me and I was about to be kidnapped. That Chase!

“He better have, or was the two pumps not long enough?”

Their sick laughter. I was hearing it all over again.

I was back in my house.

I was arching my back and screaming, “Aahhh!” A breath. “Heeelp me!”

He went still, staring at me. It was like I had captured him and he was being held hostage. Then, “Shit” slipped from him.

Shit?

Shit!

Shit?

I frowned. “What do you mean, ‘shit’?”

A door opened down the hallway. The nightclub’s music blared loud, and someone said “Hey!”

Not Kash/Definitely Chase cursed again, but the door was pushed wider and we heard more shouting, then a stampede was happening, and all the hallway lights were switched on, and he was gone.

I mean, it didn’t happen just like that. He didn’t vanish.

His whole face pinched in on itself. He took two steps back, grabbed the door, opened the door, and was out the door. The SUV’s back door was shoved open and I surged forward.

I had to see. I had to see.

I saw—and my lungs seized.

They stopped working, too, because there was no way.

I was seeing a ghost.

Chrissy Hayes was staring right at me, and there wasn’t a flicker of recognition on her face.

My mother was alive.





THIRTY-EIGHT

Bailey


“Bailey!”

Kash was there and his arms were around me, and he was carrying me back inside the club.

It was pandemonium all around me. Guards were running outside. Kash’s arms were tight around me, but he was barking orders at the same time. Guards were sent to every exit. Every floor. Every room. They were checking the entire club, and then checking the perimeter around the club. I knew all this, heard all this, because Kash refused to let me go.

We were in the stairwell.

Kash was bounding up them, two at a time, still with me in his arms. He was carrying me like I was a baby, and then we were in his office. He laid me back down right where the imposter had woken me. I kept that to myself, knowing Kash would further lose it.

So I sat, and I waited.

Fitz ran in, took Kash aside.

“What the fuck happened out there?” Kash growled.

Fitz’s head went down and he was talking, but in a rushed, panicked way. I knew he was giving Kash a report on what happened, and with a searching look at me, Fitz nodded when Kash told him to go. I didn’t hear his instructions for him, but I knew there were some. The rest of the arrivals started.

Torie first. Melissa was right after.

Tamara came with them; she started fixing my hair. Her eyes were worried. She was biting down on her lip in a fierce way, but she couldn’t sit. And she couldn’t stop touching me, so my hair was fixed one way and then another. My shirt was righted. She swept over my top, making sure the creases were all smooth. When she went to my ears, to fix my earrings, she had to pause. I didn’t have earrings, and she shot me a wry look.

“Oh God, girl.”

I held my arms up and she crumbled. She buried her head into my shoulder, her arms wound around me tight, and I held her as she cried.

Torie came over, reaching around her roommate and took my hand. She was blinking back tears, giving me a shaky smile, and I saw the concern from her, too.

I mouthed to her, “I’m fine.” I patted Tamara’s back. “Help her?”

Torie blinked away more tears, clearing her face before she patted Tamara’s back. “Hon. Tam. We gotta go.”

Tamara let go of me, reluctantly, but she was nodding as Torie grew more insistent. “Yeah. Okay.” Tamara eased up from the couch but looked back at me. “If you need anything—anything—you’ll call us?”

I nodded, my throat swelling.

I think I’d been in shock, but now emotions were starting to swarm up.

I rasped out, “I will.”

Melissa came in, but she just gave me a quick hug. She cupped the back of my neck and whispered, “I’ll see you later in class, but hang in there. I’m here if you need anything. Call me. Promise, please?”

Again, my throat was damn near choking me. I whispered, “I promise.”

Matt was next.

He pushed inside, Chester, Guy, and Tony behind him.

At the sight of the last three, a growl came from Kash, who was standing halfway between me and the door. He was surrounded by guards. Matt and the guys all stopped short. Everyone stopped short.

The growl was primal sounding. Savage.

Matt’s eyebrows went up, but he indicated for them to hold back. He went to Kash first. Their heads bent together. After a nod from Kash, Matt headed over to me.

“Hey.” He sat next to me, pulling me into his arms.

Okay. It hit me then.

Not the emotions. Those were there, but I was stuffing them down.

All these people coming up here, they were the emotional ones. They were the ones needing to be reassured I was okay. They were coming over, hugging me, and that was all for them. Kash was ready to rip someone’s head off, but I knew he was handling business until it was just him and me. As if he could sense I was thinking of him, I felt his eyes on me. Looking over Matt’s head, I met Kash’s gaze, and whoa.