Read The Black Dagger Brotherhood for Free Online Page B

no idea how to respond and was looking for backup. Then he pounded on his own chest with a solid thumping. I know I’m here.
    Qhuinn leaned down and did the same, a heavy bass sound rising from his chest. “Me, too.”
    Zsadist let his head fall back again, his body scrambling in its own skin so badly his feet tap-danced on the hard-packed floor. “I don’t know . . . if this is real . . . oh, shit . . .”
    John stared at him as if measuring his increasing agitation and trying to figure out what the hell to do.
    Abruptly the guy reached down to Z’s broken leg and gave his turned-around shitkicker a quick tug.
    Z shot upright and barked, “Motherfucker!”
    But it was good. The pain acted like a great broom sweep of his brain, clearing out the web of delusions and replacing them with a focused, pounding clarity. He was very much alive. He really was.
    Right on the heels of that realization he thought of Bella. And Nalla.
    He had to reach them.
    Z shifted to the side to get his phone, but his vision went furry from what was doing with his leg. “Shit. Can you get me my cell? In my back pocket?”
    John carefully rolled him over, took out the RAZR, and handed it to him.
    Â 
    â€œSo you don’t think there’s any working this out?” Rehv said.
    Bella shook her head in answer to her brother’s question, then remembered he couldn’t see her. “No, I don’t think so. At least not in the short term.”
    â€œShit. Well, I’m always here for you, you know that. You want to stay with mahmen?”
    â€œNo. I mean, I’m happy to have her come visit during the night, but I need my own space.”
    â€œBecause you’re hoping he comes after you.”
    â€œHe’s not going to. This time is different. Nalla . . . has made everything different.”
    The young snuffled and burrowed in closer to her favorite nook between upper arm and breast. Bella propped the cell phone against her shoulder and stroked the downy-soft hair that was growing in. The waves, when they grew out, were going to be multicolored, with blondes and reds and browns mixed together, just as her father’s would be if he didn’t trim it so tightly.
    As Rehv laughed awkwardly, she said, “What?”
    â€œAfter all these years fighting to keep you on my property, now I don’t want you leaving the Brotherhood mansion. For real, nothing is safer than that compound . . . but I do have a house on the Hudson River that’s tight. It’s next to a friend of mine’s, and it’s nothing fancy, but there’s a tunnel linkup between them. She’ll keep you safe.”
    After he gave her the address, Bella murmured, “Thank you. I’m going to pack a few things up and have Fritz take me there in an hour.”
    â€œI’ll get the fridge stocked for you right now.”
    The phone made a beeping noise as a text came through. “Thank you.”
    â€œHave you told him?”
    â€œZ knows it’s coming. And no, I’m not going to keep him from seeing Nalla if he wants, but he’s going to have to choose to come and see her.”
    â€œWhat about you?”
    â€œI love him . . . but this has been really hard on me.”
    They ended the call shortly thereafter, and as Bella took the phone away from her ear, she saw that a text had come through from Zsadist:
    I’M SO SORRY. I LOVE YOU. PLEASE FORGIVE ME—CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU.
    She bit her lip and blinked hard. And texted back.

FIVE
    Z stared at the screen of his phone, praying for a response from Bella. He would have called, but his voice was so shaky he didn’t want to alarm her. Plus getting into a huge emotional thing wasn’t a great idea, considering he had a broken leg on lesser real estate.
    Rhage and Blay came back through the tunnel.
    â€œ. . . is why they didn’t come into the house,” Rhage was saying. “The entrance to this