Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 81 - Chapitre 90

KNOX’S POVThe lodge came into view as we pulled up the long driveway, I jumped down before the car stopped moving, everywhere ached and I was exhausted but I needed to get to Elera. How was I so stupid? How?My thoughts cut off as I saw Elara standing outside the park house. She looked exactly how we left her, and unlike what Marcus said nobody was here. But something was wrong. Her posture was too rigid, her face too pale.Ray stood beside her, closer than he should be. One hand rested on her lower back almost intimatelyExcept Elara was crying.Silent tears streamed down her face as she looked at us, her eyes wide with something that looked like terror.“What the fuck?” Rylan muttered beside me, already opening his door.I was out of the truck before it fully stopped, my hand going automatically to my gun. Every instinct screamed that something was wrong.“Elara?” I called out, starting toward the porch.“Stop!” Ray’s voice cracked like a whip. “Don’t come any closer.”Rylan and I

RYLAN’S POVThey dragged us down the stairs, with weapons pressed against our spines, and our hands zip-tied behind our backs.Knox was ahead of me, he had gone completely silent now except for the ragged sound of his breathing. Blood dripped from his nose and mouth, spattering on the concrete steps.My head throbbed where they’d hit me, my vision slightly blurry. But I could still see. And I could still process what was happening.We’d lost. Completely. Utterly lost.And now Marcus had Elara.The thought made me want to vomit. Made me want to tear my own skin off. Made me want to die rather than imagine what was about to happen to my sister.Silent tears tracked down my face. I didn’t try to stop them. I didn't have the energy to pretend I was strong anymore.I’d failed. Failed Dad. Failed the club. Failed Elara.Failed everyone who’d ever trusted me to lead. That title, the world's biggest fool, was very fitting for me.We passed through the basement, heading toward the storage area

ELARA’S POVI woke to hands grabbing me again.My head throbbed where Ray had hit me, the pain radiating down my neck and into my shoulders. Everything felt fuzzy, and disconnected, like I was watching from somewhere far away.“Get up.”I heard rough voices of multiple men.They hauled me to my feet. My legs didn’t want to support my weight, but they didn’t care. They just dragged me toward the door.“No,” I mumbled, trying to pull away. “Please…”My voice was barely a whisper. My throat was raw from screaming the night before.They pulled me out of the room, down the hallway, down the stairs. Each step sent fresh pain shooting through my skull. I could feel dried blood on my face, in my hair.Morning light filtered through the windows of the lodge. It looked so normal. And so peaceful.How could the sun still rise when everything was ending?They dragged me through the main room…past the furniture that had been overturned in the fight, past blood stains on the floor that were alread

ELARA’S POVI couldn’t look away from Rylan’s body.My brother lay motionless in the dirt, blood pooling beneath him, his eyes staring sightlessly at the sky. The medics had rushed past him to get to Knox first…Knox, who was still breathing, still alive, still savable.But Rylan…“No,” I whispered, stumbling toward him. “No, no, no, Rylan, please…”I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands hovering over his chest, afraid to touch him, afraid to confirm what I already knew.His skin was still warm. But there was no pulse. No breath. No life in him anymore.“Rylan!” I grabbed his shoulders, shaking him. “Wake up! Please wake up!”Nothing.My big brother, who’d protected me my entire life, who’d taken on the burden of leading the Vipers after Dad died, who’d tried so hard to keep everyone safe…Gone.The sob that tore from my throat was inhuman. I collapsed over his body, my tears mixing with his blood, my hands clutching at his shirt.“Please,” I begged. “Please don’t leave me. Rylan,

ELARA’S POVDays blurred together in that room.I tried counting them at first…scratching marks into the wall with my fingernail…but after a while, I lost track. Three days? Five? A week?Time stopped meaning anything.Ray came twice a day. Morning and evening, I think, though with the boarded windows it was hard to tell. He’d unlock the door, slide in a tray with bread and a cup of water, then leave without saying a word.I stopped trying to talk to him after the second day.Stopped begging. Stopped asking questions. Stopped fighting.What was the point?The bread was stale. The water tasted metallic. But I ate and drank because my body demanded it, even though part of me wondered why I bothered.The loneliness was the worst part.I’d never truly been alone before. Even when I’d left LA six years ago, even when I’d been trying to build a normal life in New York, I’d had people around me. Coworkers. Jason, before he showed his true colors. The noise and presence of a city full of st