Page 23 of Pain

“Yes,” Gemini ground out.

“Get everyone in here,” Knight said sharply.

There was a short silence, and then more shuffling as several more people—the rest of the crew, I assumed—came into the room. The door from that room into mine opened, and Gemini appeared, his face twisted into a scowl. He motioned for me to follow him, then turned and disappeared.

I followed, wearing a frown of my own. What was I supposed to do in here? If they were going to have a vote, I had no place in it.

I’d never been invited to any of Devil’s votes.

When I got to the other room, I found Knight holding court over his men, the guys evenly spaced around a rough piece of wood. Knight sat at the head of the table, his chocolate eyes on me and his mouth drawn into a grim line.

I lifted my eyebrows at him, asking without words what the fuck I was doing in here.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and his eyes warmed a bit, sending heat rushing through me. I fought not to squirm, knowing it would only make me look ridiculous.

But damn, a slight warming in his eyes should not do that to me.

“Saraya,” he said softly. “We’re taking a vote on whether to keep you here or not. Do me a favor and tell me what Devil and his crew did to you.”

Oh. Shit.

I hadn’t been expecting that, and I hadn’t exactly come in here with my story prepared.

But when it came right down to it, I guessed I probably didn’t need to prepare anything. I just needed to tell them what had happened. And I needed to make it believable enough for them to agree that Knight had done the right thing in refusing to send me back.

I launched into the story, keeping it as short and sweet as possible. Enough detail to make sure they understood what had happened.

I watched Knight the entire time, drawing strength from his eyes as I shared the story of how my boyfriend and his crew had backed me into corners again and again and beaten me until I couldn’t see straight.

When I was done, Knight nodded once. “And what did you tell me you want now?”

“I want to stay here,” I told him firmly. “I want revenge against Devil for what he did to me.”

“And in exchange for us helping you?”

I twitched. We hadn’t exactly gone over an exchange. What would he want? What would make this worthwhile?

“I’ll give you all the information I can on Devil and his crew,” I said, coming up with the best weapon I had at my disposal.

The only weapon I had at my disposal.

Knight’s mouth twitched again, which I hoped was a good sign, and then he turned to his men. “Well, there you have it. And now, we vote. Ayes?”

Every single man voted to keep me there.

Even Gemini.

And with that done, Knight turned to the mountain of a man I thought must be Brock Sanders. “Get everyone organized for tomorrow, Brock. We’re going for a ride.”

CHAPTER 11

KNIGHT

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I WENT DIRECTLY BACK to my room after the vote, not bothering to say goodnight to anyone else or confer with them about what tomorrow was going to bring.

Conferring with them would have meant running the risk of having to talk about what we’d just voted on, and though I knew what my instincts were telling me, I also know that there were too many reasons to discount those instincts and act on reason instead. I’d just spent most of the day justifying my decision to Gemini, and I was exhausted.