Finally, she left Jason’s body. Thorn jerked his head, and two prospects immediately moved to cover Jason’s body in case someone was able to get over the fence to investigate the noise. But he’d be Goddamned if he’d make her be quiet. She needed to get this out of her system if she was going to heal. To his surprise, someone did, in fact, get through the fence. Coming to stand with Mariana, Pops handed Mama a blanket. The older woman draped it around Mariana’s shoulders. Instinctively, Mariana clutched the light material over her body.
“I -- I didn’t.” Steve got a panicked look as realization dawned on him. “Oh, God! That was you and Jason? At that motel. I heard on the news, but they didn’t give any names.”
“Yeah,” Mariana snapped. “That was me. He left me there to die, Steve. Then he came after me tonight to kill me. I don’t pretend to know why, but he’ll never hurt me again.” She lifted her chin high, facing Steve and the other two. “If you’re here to hurt me, I’ll make sure you never get the chance to.”
Fuck, but Thorn was fucking proud of her! She was fierce as an MC president’s ol’ lady. Right up to the point where she burst into tears. It broke his heart. He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her up tight. “I swear to God, Ana, no one will ever fuckin’ touch you again. Not as long as any member of Salvation’s Bane is alive. This will never, ever, fuckin’ happen again. We will fuckin’ fix this.”
Carnage stepped over to them, resting his head on top of Mariana’s damp head. “You can count on us, little sister,” he murmured.
Thorn nodded once, his eyes stinging suspiciously, like he might show a tender emotion in front of the club. “Take Mariana up to my room. Have Fleur and Lucy sit with her.”
“We can watch over the child as well,” Mama said. “She’s a good girl.” She shook her head. “A good girl.”
“Why are you still here, Josephine?” Thorn had to know. He wasn’t sure why his aunt had been so upset before.
“To make sure you and that girl finally got the stubborn out. You need each other.”
“I knew that,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his face, still unwilling to let Mariana out of his arms. She was far too fragile for that at the moment. “I was taking care of it when you lost your temper.”
Mama gave him a rueful smile. “You were the only one of my boys who could rile my temper.”
Papa snorted. “Because he’s just as stubborn as you. I told you to let him do it his own way.”
Thorn chuckled softly. “You and I always did butt heads. But you have to know I love you. You might not have given birth to me, but you were my mother in every way that mattered.”
His aunt actually blushed and blinked several times, probably trying to prevent any tears from leaking. “Well, then. I’m glad we slipped past Red when he thought we got on the plane.”
“Why did you come back?”
She shrugged. “Maybe to apologize. Maybe to make you apologize.”
“You haven’t changed a bit since I was a kid. And I hope you never do, Mama.”
“Good. Now. Pops can carry her to your room. The girls and I will get her cleaned up and into bed. You take care of the trash.” She glanced at the three men standing there. Now that Thorn looked at them closely, only Steve looked worried. The other two looked angry. Like they’d been just as deceived as Steve had and were royally pissed about it.
“I’ve got it. You take care of her. She’s the most precious thing in my world.”
Mariana looked up at him. “Please don’t leave me too long, Thorn. I’m so sorry about this.”
“Honey, why in the world would you be sorry?”
“I killed a man. In your clubhouse. I’ll take full responsibility. I don’t want the club to take the heat for this.”
“For what, honey?”
“For…” She gestured to where Jason’s body lay under a tarp. “For that.”
“Sweetheart, by the time Blood is finished, no one will know he was ever here. We started covering his tracks before he got here. There might be something on the news if anyone bothers to report him missing, but no one will find any trace of him.” He tipped her head up to his. Blood had splattered over her cheek, and there were a couple of spots on her forehead, but he ignored it. Cupping her face in his hands, Thorn kissed her softly. “You go with Mama and Pops. Lucy and Fleur will help you clean up and get you into bed.” He winked at her. “If you want to seduce the pair of them, just make sure you don’t let their men in there. I’d hate to have to kill my brothers.”
“Thorn!”
He laughed, kissing her nose. “I’m kidding, honey. I’m kidding.”
“Oh, you’re such a hound dog!” She slapped at his chest, and a grin tugged at her lips even as a tear tracked down her cheek.
“Hey, what self-respecting man wouldn’t want to watch three hot chicks going at it?”
Fleur snorted. “You’re just like Beast. He thinks he’s cute, too.” She put her arms around Mariana’s shoulder and guided her to Pops. “Come on, honey. Let’s go.”
Pops lifted her carefully, Mama making sure the blanket didn’t slip. Then all of them left the pool area and went inside. Thorn hated leaving her alone, but he had to deal with this. He had no idea how deep these three men were in with Jason Harrison, but he was about to find out.
“Here,” one of the two men with Steve said, holding out his phone to Havoc, his other hand out in front of him in surrender. “Call him yourself. He’ll vouch for us. We were only here to make sure you guys got the job done.”
“What job?” Thorn was pissed beyond measure. Now that Ana was safe, he was ready to kill a motherfucker.
“The job of killing Harrison and deciding if his cousin needed killing, too.”
“And the other four? The ones who high-tailed it outta here when the heat cranked up?”
“Never figured they’d get far. They wanted to be hardasses, but they weren’t. I’ve already got men picking them up,” the man said.
Havoc took the phone but made no move to call the person in question. “Says El Diablo sent him. Says Jason made contact with Black Reign the same day you left with Mariana from Red’s.”
“I take it he was trying to put some kind of hit out? Who on? Me?”
“Yes. He said you’d kidnapped the girl and were having your club rape her repeatedly.”
Havoc snorted. “Can’t imagine a man like El Diablo appreciates that his reputation has gotten around enough that little pissants are looking him up to put a bullet in someone’s brain. I’d think that was a bit beneath him.”
The other man scowled. Now that he thought about it, both men looked familiar. “Wait. You’re Rycks.” The man nodded. “What the blue fuck are you doing associating with these assholes?”
Rycks’ partner spoke. “We were coming to make sure Jason didn’t live through this, and to see how much Steve knew.”
“Jekyll’s brother is a cop here in Palm Beach,” Rycks said and nodded to his companion.
“I contacted Beau the second Jason brought this to us. Kid don’t know jack about Black Reign except that the authorities consider us rivals of Salvation’s Bane. Don’t think he expected us to actually check out his story. Guess he thought we’d just roll in, guns blazing. But we dug. Didn’t take long to uncover what happened. El Diablo sent us here to put that fucker out of Mariana’s misery if you hadn’t already. When Jason got with Steve over there and put this shit plan together, we figured it would be the perfect way to see exactly how much Steve knew.”
“You took a chance we wouldn’t kill you, too,” Thorn said.
“No,” Rycks said. “You guys are a lot of things, but you’re disgustingly moral on some issues. You don’t shoot first and ask questions later. Might should have in this instance, but we knew you wouldn’t. Even know about your little raid on Harrison’s apartment. If you’d been like us, you’d have just walked in and shot the motherfucker and worried about the collateral damage later.”
“I don’t kill innocents,” Thorn said. “N
ot if it’s avoidable.”
“We know. Which is why we took this chance,” Jekyll said. “After Mariana’s questioning of him, I’m convinced Steve didn’t know as much as we first thought he might. Not sure it’s enough to get him off the hook, but he did seem to have been deceived.”
Thorn snorted. “Would help if we could question Jason, but that ship has fuckin’ sailed. And good riddance.”
“What do you want to do?” Rycks raised an eyebrow, giving Thorn the impression this was all his decision when Thorn knew if he didn’t do as El Diablo thought he should, Rycks would take matters into his own hands.
“Beat him,” he said, acting on instinct. “Make an impression that if he opens his mouth to anyone we’ll kill him, even if no one believes him and we never hear about it from your brother.” He nodded at Jekyll. “And he’ll be just as gone as Jason is fixin’ to be. No one will ever find the body. Or, rather, the pieces.”
Steve made a whimpering sound where he stood on the concrete next to Jason’s covered body. At first, Thorn thought he was afraid of what was about to happen to him. Instead, the man was looking down at the pool of blood and trembling. “I can’t believe she killed him. I-I never thought she would ever hurt a fly. She was always so sweet to everyone.”
Thorn reach out and snagged the young man’s T-shirt and dragged him two steps away from the body. “Your cousin there beat Mariana until she miscarried her baby. The child Jason conceived with her. I have no idea what their relationship was like, and I’m not asking her, because I can’t kill him again. But trust me when I tell you, he got off easy considering what he did to Mariana.”
Steve nodded quickly. “I never thought he’d hurt her. If he did before, I never knew about it. I’d never have let him get the others involved. I especially wouldn’t have let him get Black Reign involved.” He glanced over at the two patched members. “They’ll probably kill me for this. Can’t say I don’t deserve it since I never bothered to question Jason. He’s my family. You’re supposed to side with family. Right?” In that moment, Steve looked like a teenager, confused as to what to do. He was resourceful, and not only because he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. Thorn thought he was genuinely sorry about what had happened.
“Damn shame you didn’t look into Harrison’s claims before you decided to go after Mariana. Even if you thought she’d been held here against her will, you should have made an effort to find out before puttin’ out a hit on someone.
“I know,” Steve said, softly. “You’re right.” He took a shuddering breath, then looked up at Thorn, his face a hard mask. “Do what you have to. Ain’t dyin’ like no fuckin’ coward.”
That took Thorn by surprise. Judging by the way Rycks’ eyebrows shot up, it had him too. Thorn nodded to the Black Reign men. “I’d like to hear your opinion on this. Your club was at risk, same as ours.”
Rycks shrugged. “Not sure about that. I think we coulda took you if we needed to.”
Havoc snorted loudly. “If a buncha pussies like you guys managed to get a shot in, then I suppose we’d deserve to have you kick our asses.”
Jekyll bared his teeth, but stayed quiet. Beast cracked his knuckles and grinned, as if he was looking forward to a rumble.
“We’ll take him,” Rycks said at length. “What happens tomorrow depends on him.”
“Keep me informed. And Rycks? Next time El Diablo decides to run an op against my club, he better fuckin’ give me a heads up or I will shoot first.”
Epilogue
The following few days weren’t the easiest of Mariana’s life. She had nightmares about the police arresting Thorn because he refused to let her take responsibility. Sometimes, she tried to kill the men who’d come to arrest Thorn. Other times, she kept screaming she did it. She was the one to kill Jason, and she was glad she had. Always, there was blood on her hands.
Each time the nightmares came, Thorn was there to coax her awake, then make love to her until she was passed out in an exhausted sleep. He was always patient with her, but he wasn’t always gentle. The man seemed to have a sixth sense about what she needed from him. The first time she told him she didn’t need sweet and slow but hard and rough, he’d flipped her over onto her belly, swatted her ass, then proceeded to fuck her until her lungs heaved and her throat was raw from her screams. Even then, he’d cleaned her, then turned her into his chest and cuddled her close, murmuring how much he loved her and how fucking sexy she was. After that, she’d gone to sleep with a big smile on her face.
Today, he’d told her he wanted to take her back to the diner. “Marge and Elena been askin’ ’bout you, and I promised I’d bring you back. Today is peach cobbler day, and it’s kind of my favorite, so we’re goin’.” She laughed, hugged him, then agreed to go anywhere he wanted.
Another thing he’d started doing a lot of was taking her on long bike rides. Most of the time, his brothers flanked him. Carnage always followed in what they called a “cage” but was really just a big Ford truck with a trailer that housed all kinds of tools, spare parts, oil, and plenty of room to haul a bike should one break down. Mariana was surprised how the show of solidarity made her feel safe. She never worried about anything happening to her or Thorn because the other members of Salvation’s Bane wouldn’t let anything happen. They were a solid wall of muscle and fury when it came to protecting their president, and they’d included her in that circle of protection. She saw it every day in how they treated her. They truly thought of her as their “little sister.” Mariana loved the feeling it gave her.
Now, they all pulled into the diner. Marge stuck her head out the door and yelled, “How many you got this time, Thorn?”
“Eight or ten. Nothing you and Tito can’t handle.”
“Well, give a girl a heads up next time! I thought you were just bringing Mariana!”
As they filed in, Marge had already started Tito on the orders. The woman knew what all of them liked, apparently. She eyed Mariana with a critical eye, then a sad expression. “I think someone needs a Marge special, Thorn.”
“You’re a miracle, Marge. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.”
He urged Mariana into a booth then scooted in beside her. Beast sat across from them. Vicious and Havoc sat in a booth next to them, one on each side of the table. The others found room and started flirting with Marge in hopes of getting a free milkshake. A notion she might have encouraged by telling them they all had to outdo Red if they wanted to get a free Marge Special. Marge basked in the attention, but still ran a tight ship, never missing an order.
The bell to the door rang, and Mariana’s gaze automatically swung in that direction. The second she did, she froze. Thorn, ever the attentive, wonderful man he was, noticed. He dropped his arm around her shoulders and scanned the room until he found who she was staring at.
Adelaide Everly. Mariana’s mother.
Adelaide’s eyes narrowed as she saw her daughter. Thorn leaned down and brushed a kiss over Mariana’s temple. “Don’t you back down from her, woman. You’re the ol’ lady of Salvation’s Bane’s president. You don’t back down from no one. Got me?”
Mariana turned her face up to his and gave him a smile. “I got you.” Then she cupped the side of his face and pressed her lips lightly to his.
“That’s my girl.” He hugged her before sitting back and stretching out his legs in a lazy pose. Mariana could see him ready to pounce if need be. But, really. What could her mother do other than berate her? And even her mother might think twice, seeing her with this lot.
After the initial recognition, Mariana forced her gaze to Beast. “I never got the chance to thank you and everyone else for coming to my rescue. I want you to know I appreciate it.”
He winked at her. “Any time, darlin’. You’re one of us now. We protect our family.”
“Mariana.” Her mother stood beside the table, her arms stiffly at her sides. Her clothes were immaculate, and she looked fresh as the morning even though it was pushing a hundred de
grees and humid as hell outside. “I need to speak to you immediately.”
She glanced at Thorn, who shrugged. He wasn’t going to fight this fight for her. At least not yet. Mariana knew it was only because he knew how much she needed to do this herself that he held back. Beside her, his body had tensed, as though he might protest should she try to leave him.
“I think you said all you needed to a few weeks ago when you left me stranded on the side of the road after I called you for help.”
“You will come with me this instant, young lady,” her mother insisted. All she needed to do was stomp her foot for good measure, and Mariana might have burst out laughing. Of all the nerve! Why in the world did she expect Mariana to just drop everything and do what she was told?
“No, Mother. I won’t. I’m about to be served the best cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate malt in the whole world. I intend on eating them while they’re fresh. If you want to talk, you have my phone number. Call. I’ll answer if I’m not busy.”
Her mother turned every shade of red before settling on purple. “How dare you disrespect me this way?”
Mariana shrugged. “I’m sorry, is there a point to this?”
Her mother leaned in slightly, giving a wary glance to both Beast and Thorn. “You’re ruining our family’s reputation!” she hissed. “You will come with me this instant. I’ve found a place where you can give birth to that ill-conceived child, and no one here will be the wiser. You can put it up for adoption immediately, and we can get on with our lives.”
OK, that hurt. Fortunately, sensitive to her as ever, Thorn intervened.
He stood. Adelaide backed up a step only to bump her ass against the table where Vicious and Havoc sat. That prompted her to give a little cry of surprise and to jump back straight into Thorn. “That’s enough, Mrs. Everly. If you’d care to sit, I’m sure Marge would be happy to serve you whatever you want.”
Mariana thought she heard Marge mutter under her breath, “That’ll be the day,” but she wasn’t sure.
“Otherwise, it might be best if you moved on. Mariana’s had a rough few weeks after she was attacked. Losing the baby has been exceptionally hard for her, and I’m sure she doesn’t want to talk about it with you.”
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