“I can’t,” Lily sobbed.
“Not alone, but together we can. I’m beside you. I won’t let you go. Shade is here and so are Beth and Razer.”
As Rachel spoke, Shade moved as close as he could to Lily, placing his hand on her shoulder. Next to her, Beth and Razer each held her hands tightly. “We’re all here for you, Lily. Lead us home.”
The doctor moved to the side, opening his bag and taking out a syringe before inserting it into her arm.
“It will relax her,” he said quietly so Shade could understand what he was doing.
Lily cried softly, her legs scissoring on the carpet as if she was actually walking.
Suddenly, a tortured scream filled the silence of the room as she withered on the floor.#p#分页标题#e#
Shade was about to yell at the doctor to give her something to knock her out when Rachel spoke loudly over her screaming.
“The pain will lessen as you go through the flames. You’ll leave the pain behind, Lily, because they can’t hurt you anymore. Keep walking.”
Lily began talking, revealing the monsters she had lived with while hiding them from the ones she loved. She had suffered alone with the memories of her childhood. Shade had heard most of it the night he had turned the lights out in the hospital. However, it wasn’t any easier hearing it again; it was actually worse because, this time, others were listening. He almost made them leave then decided against it.
For Lily truly to heal, she had to have others around her who loved and understood the horror she had survived. Keeping it a secret was driving her to lose her mind. The Last Riders were a family, and it was going to take a family’s love and compassion as strong as them to destroy her monsters.
Chapter 57
Shade carried Lily upstairs with the doctor following on his heels. He opened the third door down, thinking Raci could sleep with Rider or Jewell. He wasn’t letting Lily sleep in his basement room until the situation with the fire was sorted out.
He laid her on the made bed, brushing her hair back from her face.
“Go downstairs while I check her out,” the doctor ordered, pissing Shade off, but then Beth came into the room.
“Go ahead, Shade. I’ll stay with her in case she wakes,” Beth urged, coming to stand by the bed.
He nodded. “I’ll be right back. I want to shower and get some clean clothes on. I don’t want her to smell the smoke on me when she wakes up. Find something to change her into and wash her off when the doctor leaves.”
“I will,” Beth said, sitting down on the side of the bed.
Shade left the bedroom, going to Razer’s room where he showered quickly, looking through Razer’s clothes for jeans and a T-shirt to borrow before getting dressed.
Then he went downstairs to see if Viper had discovered where the fire had started, finding The Last Riders still standing in the living room. Viper was holding Winter who was crying. Bliss was sitting on a chair with her head buried in her hands, also crying. Train was holding Jewell while Rider had his arm around Evie. The rest were shell-shocked.
“We’re not going to let Lily know that we know she was abused when she was a kid.” Shade placed his hand on the banister, wanting to rip it to pieces at the things she had talked about happening to her. “She was too young to defend herself then. Fuck, she was too young to even know she was supposed to defend herself. We’re going to act as if nothing happened unless she wants to talk to us about it.”
Viper looked at him. “Anything you need for her, you tell me, and it’s yours. We’re going to find out who fucked with her, and then we’re going to fuck their lives up permanently.”
The members all agreed.
Shade nodded. “I’ve already been looking into it. Beth doesn’t remember much, and we can’t find her adoption papers. That’s why Lucky wanted the basement cleaned to see if we could find Beth’s father’s legal papers. Nothing’s turned up so far.”
“Lucky knows?” Razer asked.
“Only that it was important to Lily’s safety that we find out about her adoption.”
“You knew how bad it was before tonight, didn’t you?” Razer asked.
“Yeah, I knew.”
Razer ran a hand through his long hair. “I’d heard some of it a couple of times when the lights went out or she had a panic attack, but I didn’t think it was to that extent.” Razer turned from the group, giving them his back as he raised a hand to his face. “I promised to protect her … but I was too late, wasn’t I?” he said in a choked voice.#p#分页标题#e#
“We’re here now, Razer. We all are. She’ll never have to go through that shit again,” Shade vowed.