Rift’s POV

I did not like the way Anna had snapped at Marina. I felt like snapping the crazy bitch’s head off and I didn’t like the reason behind it. Feeling abnormally protective of a 22 year old woman at my 35 years of age was a questionable act. Even the brothers had noticed the way my shoulders squared off as I glared at Monroe.

After Anna became quiet, a whole new reason to protect Marina rose up inside of me. I knew, Marina knew, everyone in that room knew that something horrible had fucking happed in that day. Marina did not want to know what but she sat there quietly as I squeezed her hand in mine once more. Fuck. This was taking a toll on everyone in here, even Satan.

“Continue talking, woman.” Satan snapped at Anna again and the woman growled a pained ‘fine’ at him. Her eyes pleaded at him to spare her the pain, but Satan was called that for a reason.

“It’s okay.” Marina whispered, her head hung down as she sighed unsteadily. Nova turned her gaze away, a haunted expression passing her as she sat back down. Cecilia on the other hand was trembling, trying to grasp the right time to get to Anna. But Monroe was not having it. She stood there, spread legged as if at any moment she would disappear into thin air.

“That woman…” Monroe started but she cut herself off again. Sighing she tried again, eyes open now and staring at me instead of Marina. Again she knew, I knew, everyone in that room knew except Marina that the youngest woman belonged to me. From the moment I met her that was the fact. But I also knew that I couldn’t, wouldn’t make any kind of move with her. Marina is too fucking young for that shit, she has her whole life in front of her. She doesn’t need to settle for a fucked in the head biker twice her age. Well, almost twice her age. Not the time.

“Silvie.” Anna continued, spitting out the name and fisting her palms at her sides, anger as clear as day painting her face. “She set us all up. She got a bounty on me, about three hundred to get me alive to them. She knew she couldn’t fight me head on so she came up to us, acted all innocent and pitiful. It was all an act.” Anna said the last part so silently I wondered if she really did say it.

“But what does that have to do with me? Or Madelyn for all that matter?” Marina asked, as confused as everyone felt in that room. “Let her take her time Marina. It isn’t going to be pretty.” Cecilia said softly and Anna let out a cold laugh. “Nothing is pretty about me Cecilia, you know that. Marina knows that.” she said and narrowed her eyes at everyone in the room, seemingly taking back the control over her emotions.

“That woman set us up, we all went in there with guns in our hands, ready to rescue her. Well me and Cecilia, Marina came with us because we had been told that there was another woman needing to be saved. Marina would get her out of there while me and Cecilia would get to Silvie.” Anna spat the name again and I exchanged looks with Rebel. Something was fucking off here.

“What happened then?” Riot asked in an alarmingly undetached tone as he looked up at Anna, something crossing his eyes, but I couldn’t understand what it was. “Short version is, Silvie came out with-” she sighed and continued, “With men and started firing at us. There were too many of them and it took time for me to get them all dead. Cecilia helped and after half an hour or so, they were all dead.”

“You killed them all by yourselves?” Tucker asked in surprise, “Two against an army?” he continued, eyes confused.
“We are trained.” Nova answered after a while and everyone looked at her now. “What do you mean trained?” I asked her and she glanced from Marina to me before continuing. “Cecilia is a former nightstalker and I am a former marine.” she said and my eyebrows were raised so high I felt like they were going to disappear from my head. “That makes sense.” Shaw started, but does it really make sense? “You know how to hold a gun, how to fight. You have a sense of responsibility and the ability to lead. It all makes sense now.” he said and sighed as Satan was now on his feet, palms planted on the table as he glared at Anna, who stared right back at him. Fucking great!

“What are you?” he asked her in a serious tone, but she didn’t answer him. “Lift the fabric from your bicep.” He ordered and glared daggers at her. Now it made sense why every time I saw her she was covering her right bicep with those kinds of cotton gloves.

“Prez.” Rebel tried to calm him down but Satan did not even bother answering him, his eyes were glued to the woman who had gone rigid under his stare. “We are getting off topic here.” I reminded them and somehow, after a moment Satan had sat back down and Anna looked at Marina with regret in her eyes.
“Being stuck in the middle of gunfire, I hadn’t noticed that they had snatched Marina. When the shooting stopped, I looked around and knew right then that they had taken her. No, that bitch took her.”

“You mean I was taken away? But I- I don’t remember any of it…” Marina said softly, confusion eating up at her. “Thank fuck you don’t remember!” Anna practically growled and looked at Marina with a sharp inhale of breath. “It took me two weeks to find you. And when I did…” No… No, no no. This was not happening! Fuck! I can’t hear this shit!

Marina trembled as she looked up at Anna, tears threatening to fall and stain her beautiful face as she looked around the room in need to escape. She was panicking and I was boiling up with rage for those bastards. This shit needs to be over with already!

Marina surprised all of us when she stood up quickly and jumped over the broken chair in front of her, rushing to the door. She thought escaping the situation would make it go away, but it wouldn’t. I knew, she knew, they all knew.

Jumping to my feet, I silently leaped around the table and barely caught her as she grabbed the knob of the door. “DON’T TOUCH ME!” she screamed as she shook her head, trying to take a much needed breath, but she was panicking, she could’t fucking breath if she didn’t calm down. “Calm the fuck down!” I growled at her as I squeezed her wrist in my palm, stepping into her personal space and bringing my forehead to hers. “Fucking breathe!” I said, almost starting to panic myself, but I couldn’t. Fuck, I need to protect her, even if it’s from her own self at the moment. Why the fuck was this shit happening? Fuck!