Steel 2: Blackthorne MC #2 Read Online Free PDF Page B

Blackthorne, and he’d been brought here for justice.
    Behind the group of men who were dragging Darren along, was an older man. I hadn’t seen him before, but I knew who he was. His name was Brian McManus, and he owned the gas station where Darren worked.
    I felt Ella press her body against mine, and I could sense her fear. “What’s happening, Nick?”
    I shouldn’t have told her. I should have kept her safe and protected from all of this, but perhaps if she knew the full story, she would realize how dangerous this lifestyle was and how bad I was for her. It could be the thing that turned her against me. That thought hurt, but if staying away from me kept Ella safe, that was how it had to be.
    “The man they’ve brought in to see Victor, Darren Miller, raped a sixteen-year-old girl.” I nodded at Brian McManus, the old man stood behind them, his face plastered in misery. “That’s the girl’s father.”
    Ella had grown pale. “What’s going to happen to him?”
    “That’s up to Victor.”
    Ella shivered against me. I pulled her closer and fought the overwhelming temptation to scoop her up and carry her out of there.
    Victor had taken up his chair on the stage, ready to sit in judgment. The bar was silent, apart from the feeble sobs coming from Darren.
    “We all know what happened here. Would anyone like to say a few words?”
    Darren tried to rush forward, but the man holding his arms pulled him back. “I’m sorry, Mr. Blackthorne. Truly. It was just a bit of a misunderstanding… She led me on. You know how girls can be, right?” He tried to smile at Victor through the snot and tears covering his face.
    Victor sneered at him and turned his attention to Brian McManus. “Anything you would like to say?”
    Brian McManus took a step forward. His whole body was shaking. “My Lizzie is a good girl. I welcomed that man into my home. I gave him a job. He ate dinner with my family. Lizzie won’t come out of her room anymore. She just lies on her bed and cries all day.” He turned to look at Darren and his bottom lip trembled. “I want him punished for what he’s done.”
    There were a few shouts of support from people in the bar and then it fell silent again as everyone waited for Victor’s judgment.
    Victor nodded. He turned to Jackson. They conferred for a moment and then Victor turned back to the crowd, “Darren Miller, I find you guilty, and your punishment will be to lose two fingers of your right hand.”
    Ella gasped beside me. “What? They’re not really going to cut his fingers off are they?”
    I looked down at her horrified face and wondered for a moment what it would be like to live back in a normal society where justice meant going to a police officer and attending a trial.
    “Nick, you can’t let them do that. You have to do something.”
    I hated the way she looked at me, as if I was some kind of hero. I would never meet her expectations. I wasn’t a good guy.
    “Are you volunteering to be the one to go and tell Lizzie that Darren should go free and unpunished, Ella?”
    She shook her head. “No, of course not, but they should go to the police and have him charged properly. Have him sent to prison. They can’t just cut his fingers off.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know the relevant statistics, Ella, but I’m pretty sure that most rape cases don’t make trial. Why should she have to live through that again? There was a witness. He forced himself on her while her little brother was in the house. Now he has to live with the punishment. You have to realize we do things differently around here.”
    I felt my chest tighten as she looked at me in a way she never had before. Horror filled her eyes, and I realized for the first time she was seeing the real me.
    She backed away from me, shaking her head. I wanted to reach out for her and tell her I was sorry. I would try to be a better person. But I didn’t.
    She whirled around from me, heading for the exit. Jesus. Did she really