I try to gasp for air but get nothing.

And then the door bursts open and in they come – one, two, three.

Collins is tackled by Maddoc while Captain and Royce drop beside me.

Cap reaches out, pushing my hair from my face.

I cry out when his hand scrapes across the glass matted in it, and he freezes a second before yanking it back. His eyes widen when he finds it covered in blood. “Oh, fuck!”

“Oh shit...” Royce drags out, gripping my hand.

“Royce.” My eyes start to roll, and things grow foggy. “I...”

“Raven,” Cap calls, but I can’t see him anymore. “Maddoc ... shit, Raven!”

Everything goes black.

It’s crazy, how a drop of blood expands when it touches a cotton shirt. Even more when it’s a continuous flow. It spreads like a silent explosion until all surfaces are covered, then it starts to drip.

I was covered. My brothers were covered, and still she bled.

Through the towel we held while waiting for the ambulance. Through the bandage they temporarily wrapped around her head. Through the bedding on the stretcher.

It didn’t stop.

We’ve seen this shit before at the warehouses, we know the head bleeds more than anything and gauging the seriousness of the injury is not always as cut and dry as it appears.

It’s never been the blood of someone we love before, though, so staring at the shit someone else made spill from her body to the point she lost consciousness, has me teetering on the edge of insanity.

If Perkins and half the fucking school hadn’t followed us into that bathroom, pretty sure all the blood in Collins’ body would have been running across that tile floor.

I wanted to keep beating him, but when Captain freaks out, I know it’s serious.

I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when he lifted his hands, both smeared with her blood as she laid there, lifeless.

We weren’t there in the seconds before, we had no fucking clue what had happened, so to us, she was fucking dying right then and there.

I’d never felt so helpless in my life.

My fists couldn’t fix it, my money couldn’t help her. My name meant jack shit. In that moment, I was nothing but a scared fucking boy who thought his girl was dying right before his eyes.

She didn’t.

She woke up on the drive to the hospital, told the nurse who stuck the IV in her to fuck off and passed back out.

All three of us about fucking fell over in relief.

She was busted up, bleeding out for all we knew, but she was still her – fire and sass.

As soon as we got to the hospital, they had to put her under to remove the glass from her skull and run some test to make sure she didn’t have any swelling in her brain, but that was two hours ago and she’s still sleeping.

I dart from my seat, and Royce yanks me right back down, growling in my face.

“Do not fucking wake her up.” He glares, glancing at Raven in the hospital bed.

“Fuck you!” I hiss. “She’s mine, I do what I want.”

The nurse scoffs and cuts me a glance, before walking out.

Fuck her, too.

Maybell walks in the second the lady is gone. “All’s taken care of. Signed what needed signing.”

“And her mom won’t find out?” I ask.

“Her mama won’t care.” She shakes her head.

“Will she find out?” I ask again.

Maybell darts her eyes to where Victoria is sitting, pretending not to listen.

“Call me when you leave,” she tells me. “Come on now, Tor.”

Captain stops pacing long enough to plant his feet in front of Victoria who is lying across the little couch, tucked under a hospital blanket she snagged off Raven’s bed.

“She stays.” He glares down at her and she doesn’t acknowledge anyone has even spoken.

Maybell scoffs, mumbles something under her breath and walks out, but Cap makes no move to step away.

As soon as Maybell’s gone, Captain’s stance widens, and Victoria’s eyes lift. “What?”

“Tell us what the hell happened in there,” he demands.

She rolls her eyes and drops them back to the stupid fucking magazine she’s acting like she’s reading.

He slaps his hand over it, bending to get in her face. “I asked you a question.”

She sighs and pushes up a bit, getting even closer. “I don’t know what you take me for, and I don’t care to hear it, but spare me your ‘holier than thou’ bullshit. Raven will wake up and she’ll tell you what she wants to tell you, be it the truth, or a lie. And you’ll be none the wiser because I’ll agree and go right along with it, just like I did the night she said she fought but was jumped.” She yanks the magazine from under his hand and he slips forward more, now even closer to her. “Because it’s her story to tell or lie to cover, and the answer she gives doesn’t affect me. But my answer? It could affect her now, couldn’t it?” She gives a bitchy grin. “And who am I to dictate the outcome of her mess?”

“She’s kinda growing on me...”

All eyes dart to Raven as she gives a weak grin toward Victoria.

Victoria snorts. “Yeah well, you’re all right, I guess, when I’m not having to save your ass.”

“Bitch please, you’re weak compared to me.”

“Says the busted-up chick in the raggedy gown.”

Raven grins, shifting her eyes around the room, pausing when they land on me. “Guess I’m in the hospital.”

We rush to her side.

She rolls her eyes, then winces. “Fuck, my head.”

“Yeah, your fucking head,” I snap, waiting for her to come back at me, but her brows smooth out when she looks my way again.

I have to use all my fucking concentration to force my body not to shake right now.

“I’m good, Big Man,” she rasps and sits up.

Good. Right. She got attacked on our grounds, again.

“Doc said soon as you woke up you could go. You wanna?” Royce asks gently.

She nods. “Why would they even put me in a room if they were letting me leave?”

“Because the caveman demanded it, threw their name out there real big and loud like,” Victoria offers and Raven laughs, looking to her.

Our eyes go with her, and now that Victoria is standing and the blankets fallen, we see her torn shirt and the dozens of scars across her stomach.

Her eyes hit Raven’s, who pointedly looks down and Victoria’s eyes snap wide as she spins away, clearing her throat.

“Well, you’re awake, so I’m gonna head back.” She rushes for the door, freezing when Captain’s bloody sweatshirt lands on her head.

She stands there facing the door a minute, before pulling it off and over her head. She slowly steps from the room without a backward glance.

Raven shrugs off our questioning glares while reaching out to touch Cap’s arm in thanks.

“Raven,” I regain her attention. “The fuck happened today?”

“What did you steal from the Graven cabin the night we broke in?” she asks, frowning when all three of us hesitate.

She pulls her hands away from us, looking off to the side.

“Why are you asking this now?” I eye her.

A humorless laugh leaves her, and she tenses from the pain it causes.