“Can you hear me?” I asked, worried about whether or not she was coherent.
She nodded, and I quickly sorted out my priorities in my head. She was a mess, but she was upright and conscious, so I decided that ensuring Bug couldn’t hurt either of us was most important. I turned to the man sprawled on the floor, clearly unconscious. I looked around the room for the roll of duct tape, planning to secure his hands until the police arrived.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Krystal stand up, shed her ruined clothing, pull a shirt out of the dresser and put it on. I knew there were injuries under that clothing, but I figured we could assess her condition as soon as I had Bug immobilized. Duct tape in hand, I grabbed Bug’s wrists, turning him so that he was facedown on the floor. I could see that some blood had pooled beneath his head, and a massive bruise covered the side of his face. I didn’t bother to be careful with him as I roughly wrapped the tape around his wrists and dropped his hands onto his back. I might have injured him further, but I didn’t care.
I kicked at his feet, trying to see if I could rouse him, but there was nothing. No response, no movement. I stepped back, and decided that when he did wake up, that I’d probably incapacitated the fucker and that we could handle him if he tried to come after us. Only once I was certain he was immobilized, did I turn my full attention on Krystal.
“Baby, come here,” I said, pulling her into my arms briefly, before stepping back and examining her.
She tugged at the duct tape over her mouth, eyes watering at the pain of separating the strong adhesive from her skin. I let her do it at her own pace, and when she’d finally gotten it off, her face red and bleeding in a couple of spots, she sat down on the edge of the bed, shaking from head to toe.
“Luke, he was waiting just inside the from door for me. He covered my mouth, and dragged me back here.”
“Hush, baby,” I said, afraid to touch her because I didn’t know the extent of her injuries. “You were covered in blood. How badly did he cut you?”
“Oh, my God, it was so awful. He was gonna kill me.”
Krystal was shaking and started to breathe faster as she became more and more upset. I was afraid she was going to pass out if I didn’t get her calmed down.
“Krystal,” I said, as I knelt on the floor in front of her. “Baby, listen to me. Calm down. I’m here, and he can’t hurt you. I need to see how badly you’re hurt. You have to calm down and let me take care of you, okay?”
The tone of my voice soothed her a little, and she took a deep breath, made eye contact with me, and seemed to calm down a little. She lifted her shirt, and I gasped as I saw her injuries. The cuts didn’t look deep, but they were ugly. He’d cut one of her breasts, beneath her breasts, and he’d scratched her repeatedly. I could only imagine how terrifying it must have been to have that evil fucking man torturing her with the blade of his knife. I pulled her shirt back down to cover her, and I took her hands.
“The police should be here any minute. I called them before I came inside.”
“You called the police?” Even in her distress, she seemed surprised.
“I know that’s not usually the way the Sons do things, but I couldn’t take the risk of your being hurt, not if I could prevent it.”
We heard sirens approaching, and in no time, we heard someone banging on the door.
“Denver Police. Open the door.”
“Go open it,” I told Krystal. “I don’t want to leave Bug alone, just in case he comes to.”
She left the room, and I looked at the man on the floor. I supposed that I should feel guilty, that another human being was injured because of what I’d done, but I didn’t. I felt nothing but contempt for the man I’d taken down. He didn’t deserve my pity or my mercy. I had done what I knew was right, and I had protected Krystal.
Two policemen rushed into the room, guns drawn, and interrupted my thoughts. I held my hands up, even though I was sure they wouldn’t shoot me. I was unarmed, and I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Are you the one who called 911?” one of the cops demanded, pointing his gun at the floor near my feet.
The other officer holstered his weapon and went to check on Bug. He put his hand at his neck to feel for his pulse and looked up at me and his partner. “This man is dead,” he announced.
Chapter 32
Krystal
I sat on the couch in Bug’s living room, trying to calm myself down enough to explain to the police officers in the living room what had happened. A paramedic came rushing in from the ambulance that had just arrived, and she took my pulse while I talked to the cops.