Free Smolder: Trojans MC by Kara Parker Page B

worked up.
     
    Luckily, Sparky’s place was close by. Luke slotted his bike in the driveway next to Sparky's and bounded up the steps, bursting through the door without so much as a knock or a holler.
     
    “In here,” Sparky called from the living room.
     
    Luke’s boots pounded against the laminate, his hands clenched in fists at his sides. He prepared for the worst. He could hear quiet sobs. A woman. He prepared to see Shayla bloodied and broken, crying and ruing the day she ever met him.
     
    But the woman crying on Sparky’s couch wasn’t a woman at all. She was a girl, no more than sixteen years old. Her hair was inky black, but the blonde roots showed through at her scalp. Her clothes were tight and black, with rips and tears that looked like they’d been put there for fashion, not through use. She had been wearing heavy eyeliner and mascara, but her tears had smeared her makeup down her pink cheeks.
     
    He was ashamed at how much relief flooded through them.
     
    “Who is this?” he asked Sparky, allowing his face to soften into something a little less likely to frighten the girl.
     
    Sparky was seated next to her, rubbing her back with one hand but looking very uncomfortable about it. “This is Rose.” He gave her back a pat. “Rose, just tell him what you told me.”
     
    Luke walked over to the coffee table and dragged it back a bit so that he could sit on it without being right in her face. He looked at her expectantly, and watched as she took a couple of steadying breaths.
     
    “My best friend Holly and I were at a party yesterday, and we were both pretty drunk.” Her voice was strained and cracked, like she’d used up all of it on her sobs. “This guy came up to us and asked if we were looking to score. Neither of us had done ecstasy before, but he told us it was the most amazing high. He was cute and Holly thought he was into her, but when we said we’d think about it he just kinda like...I don’t know...moved onto the next girls.”
     
    Rose sniffled, wiping her nose on her arm. Luke didn’t like where this story was going. He didn’t know how it had anything to do with his crew, but the thought of some guy pressuring teenage girls into doing drugs already had his back up.
     
    “So anyway, Holly starts saying she’s going to do it. That she really wants this guy to like her and whatever. But I didn’t want to do it, and I wanted to make sure that he didn’t drug her and rape her or something, so we bought some, but I only pretended to take mine.”
     
    Smart girl. Luke liked her.
     
    She broke down even further, and he knew that whatever came next was going to break his heart, and he’d probably end up breaking someone’s face.
     
    “And then...Oh god... She just fucking passed out. Like starting seizing, right in the middle of the fucking party. I thought he’d fucking poisoned her, but I was too busy calling an ambulance to confront him. Then when they came and got her I couldn’t see him anywhere.” She put her face in her hands. “The doctors said it was cut with something, but like she would have been fine except whatever it was, she was allergic to it.”
     
    Luke swore under his breath. “Did she....”
     
    The girl looked up at him with big, sad eyes. “She’s not dead.” She screwed her eyes shut and shook her head. “But she’s in a coma. They don’t know if she’ll come back. And it’s all my fault! I should have never let her do it!”
     
    Sobs wracked her shoulders again and Sparky continued his awkward comforting.
     
    The story pissed him off, but he still didn’t understand why it had anything to do with him. How had she come to Sparky? Why has Luke been called in to deal with it? He looked at Sparky, his eyes full of those questions, and Sparky tilted his head down to the girl. “Rose, this is not your fault. She made the decision, and you did the responsible thing by taking care of her. I’m going to go talk to Luke and explain the rest