“He’s who ordered the guns,” Bones shouts.
The Skulls lower their weapons, but none of us do. Fuck that. I’ll lower my gun when I’m dead. These fucks are up to something, and I don’t trust a single fucking one of them. I know what untrustworthy looks like. I used to be the spitting image of it and I see all of it reflected in the eyes of this stranger looking directly at us.
“What the fuck?” Bones demands.
The guy looks from Bones to us and frowns. I don’t care if he doesn’t appreciate having a dozen guns pointed at his face, he can fuck right the fuck off.
“We didn’t know they were going to start shit this soon,” he says, his tone pleading.
I would have a pleading tone too if I wanted a bunch of people to believe me. Too bad, I don’t believe a fucking thing. I don’t believe anything anyone says at this point, not in this situation. Bones shakes his head, but I can’t see his face, so I have no clue what he could be thinking.
“This doesn’t look good for you or anyone else. Brother, we cannot hang out in the middle of a gunfight. My men, my associates, are not going to prison because of your drama.”
“I need you guys,” he practically whimpers.
The gunfire gets closer and I know it’s do-or-die time. There isn’t going to be any way out of this. We’re going to have to fight our way out and hopefully we don’t all end up in goddamn prison.
Chapter Thirty-Five
JAGUAR
Coyote jumps up on the end of the truck and unlocks the back. Rolling the door up, he turns to us and starts throwing out guns. Thank fuck they’re preloaded or we would be fucked as shit.
Wordlessly, we arm up, then turn to the guy who was supposed to buy all this shit from us. He is watching, his eyes wide as he stares at us.
“You don’t get shit, but you’re still going to give us our money,” Dragon announces.
He blinks, then opens his mouth, but it’s Bones who decides to step forward. “You fucked us. You could have called us, but you fucked us. You’re going to pay us or we’ll just finish the fucking job and both clubs will be eradicated.”
For the first time, maybe ever since knowing him, I completely respect Bones—at least in this situation. The other man, I don’t even know him or his club’s name, jerks his chin, but doesn’t say he doesn’t agree to the terms.
Maybe he thinks that we’ll go soft, let him off after the smoke clears, but we won’t.
That’s not how we do shit.
We go full force. Coyote and Silver stay back to guard the truck full of loaded firearms.
With our guns ready, we do what we always do—we take care of goddamn business.
PAMELA
As the hours pass by, Gisele and I pace. She keeps her phone clutched tightly in her palm and I keep my thumb firmly in my mouth as I bite my nail. I don’t know what to expect, or what is truly going on. I want to cry, but at the same time, I can’t. I feel completely and totally emotionally drained.
When Gisele’s phone finally rings, we both scream as she throws the phone across the room, then as if we’re on a television show, we dive for the device. I grab it first, then toss it gently to her. I watch as her shaky finger slides across the screen, then she touches something and a voice comes from the speaker.
“Hello?”
“Coen,” she cries after hearing his voice.
I watch as tears instantly fill her eyes and fall down her cheeks. She doesn’t even try to wipe them away, though it would do no good because more would just fall, they are coming in a steady stream.
“I’m okay,” he says, his voice scratchy and husky.
He doesn’t sound okay. Not at fucking all. She doesn’t say that though. Instead, she asks him what’s going on and he naturally tells her that it’s club business, but that he’s okay and they’ll be home later tonight.
“Tonight?” she screeches.
I lick my lips, wanting to ask about Dylan, but decide against it. This is her moment, and I doubt she remembers that I’m even in the room right now.
Then as if she realizes that I’m thinking about myself, about Dylan, her body jerks and she turns to look at me.
“Is Jaguar okay?”
There’s a moment of silence and he grunts. “Jailbait there with you?”
“Yeah, she came over when she woke up and the clubhouse was completely empty.”
“Good,” he grunts. “Like that you two are together.”
My heart warms at the fact that he’s glad I’m here with her, instead of upset that I am. I hold my breath, waiting for him to tell me about Jaguar. He clears his throat, but he doesn’t say anything right away.
“Coen,” she urges.
He chuckles. “He’s okay. Took charge today, kicked ass. Earned more respect and trust. It was a good day for Jag.”
I let my breath out in a heavy sigh and roll from my stomach onto my back. A few minutes later Gisele and Coen end their phone call and she joins me, lying on her back as well. Looking over to her, I can’t hide my smile.
“They’re okay,” I whisper.
“They are, and Jag earned some more respect and trust. That’s huge.”
“It is,” I agree. “What do we do now?”
“What about dinner? You’re in charge.”
Laughing, I shake my head from side to side. “I can’t cook.”
She hums. “I’ll teach you. In this world, everything revolves around food. You’ll see that the longer you’re part of us. We cook for each other. We cook for our men. We cook to celebrate and to mourn. It’s just what we do. We’re a family unit.”
“I like that,” I whisper. “But I seriously can’t cook.”
“You made those cookies,” she points out.
My lips curve up into a grin and I shake my head. “With your help.”
Gisele hums. “Then you’ll have my help with dinner. We’ll make enough so that the guys can eat when they get home.”
Then… we cook.
Gisele teaches me how to make baked potatoes, along with putting together all of the fixings. She even shows me how to fry bacon to do fresh bacon bits. Once that’s finished, she teaches me how to do baked chicken and green beans. These things are probably basics, but I don’t mind, I need the basics.
“Next time we’ll do homemade mac and cheese,” Gisele informs me.
“You can do it homemade?” I ask, not even trying to hide the awe in my voice. I thought mac and cheese just came from a box.
She hums. “You can and it’s awesome.”
“Wow.”
Eventually we end up on the sofa watching a movie as we wait for the men to come home. I don’t know what time later tonight means, but I end up nodding off sometime after ten in the evening.
JAGUAR
The police never show. I know that this club has them paid off because of that right there. The bodies of the other club line the outskirts of the highway. It doesn’t take us long to gather and pile them up. It’s fucking gruesome, but that’s war.
“What happens now?” Bones asks the stranger.
I have no desire to learn his name. He will be nothing but a distant memory in a few hours. He looks around, between us, then looks over at the bodies and shrugs.
“Burn ‘em?” he asks.
“Don’t give a fuck. What you do to get rid of your bodies is what you do,” Bones growls. “Where’s our fuckin’ money?”
He shakes his head, his eyes widening. Maybe he thought that we weren’t serious. Maybe he thought that we would just hand over the guns and not expect anything in return. I honestly don’t know what the fuck he expected, but he’s sure as shit surprised by the fact that we want our money right now.
“C’mon out to the clubhouse, it’s all there.”
We should all tell him to kick rocks. However, the clubhouse is only a few miles away. We’re all bone tired, bloody, and exhausted as we hobble to our bikes. Thank fuck, it seems like nobody’s bike is fucked beyond repair. We’re all able t
o start our engines.
My bike roars to life and I grin as I look over at Coyote. He’s riding on Silver’s bike because his shoulder is too fucked to ride it himself. Instead he drives the truck behind us. I notice the stranger has his eyes on the truck, but he won’t be seeing it for long.
A few of his guys stay behind to do whatever the fuck they’re going to do with the bodies, burn them apparently. It doesn’t fucking matter what they do, we’re after our money, then we’re bouncing the fuck out of this crazy as shit place.
The gates open to the clubhouse and we all pull in, all of us except the truck. Silver keeps driving. Without us even having to tell him, he’ll drive out of the way and around, down a different highway before meeting us somewhere on the road.
This is why the Savage Beasts are the fucking best of the best—the elite. We don’t even have to give orders to one another when we’re in a situation like this, we just automatically know what to do.
Trust.
It’s why everyone was so pissed off at me that they couldn’t trust me anymore. I did something that broke all of that, all of our trust in one another to make the right decision for the club, for the families waiting for us at home—for each other.
The clubhouse is empty when we pull up to the main building. This must be their entire club. I look around and wonder how they got the money to pay us. This place is a fucking shithole. Granted, ours isn’t anything special, but it doesn’t look like it’s about to fall over with a gust of wind.
Coyote looks over at me and he arches a brow, he’s obviously thinking the same thought. I don’t say anything, deciding to stay silently alert. Taking my handgun out of its holster, I hold it loosely at my side as I disengage from my bike.
The rest of the Skulls and Beasts do the same, obviously feeling just as uneasy as I am. I’ve felt uneasy about this whole fucking thing and my gut was one-hundred-percent correct. This is a shitstorm of epic proportions.
“Where’s the money?” Bones demands on a growl.
I can’t believe that his man was on this place for weeks and didn’t tell anyone the clubhouse itself looked like a goddamn shanty. I don’t know what the shit any of these people are thinking.
They shouldn’t have agreed to any of this. Not in these mass quantities at least, the liability that it brings is far too fucking great.
The men walk into their clubhouse, but this just seems really off. Looking over to Bones, I clear my throat. He shifts his gaze to me and turns his head slightly.
“Where’s your man?” I ask. “The one you had on this place?”
Bones doesn’t say anything, but he jerks his chin and grabs his phone out of his pocket. I watch him find the number and then press the call button. Almost instantly I hear a phone ringing from inside the shanty.
“He wasn’t supposed to infiltrate, was he?” I ask, my heart racing.
“No,” Bones growls.
“Fuck, they know.”
The words no sooner leave my mouth than those fuckwads come out of the shanty with their guns raised high. All they fucking did was go inside and reload on ammo. I don’t have much of my own ammo left in my gun, but fuck this and fuck them.
Without hesitation, we all shoot. We are not listening to their goddamn demands. We don’t give a fuck who they even are. They’re useless, pointless, they’re nothing and we prove that by wiping them out before they can even get ten rounds out between them.
It’s pretty sad that this shoot-out lasted only a few minutes, when the other seemed to last much longer. My heart is slamming against my chest and I look around to the others. We all step away from our bikes and without speaking a word, we clear the shanty.
Bones’ guy is dead in the middle of the room, his cell phone still in his pocket when Bones checks.
“Fuck,” Bones shouts.
“Load the bodies inside, burn the place down,” Dragon growls.
Dragon looks over to Bones, his eyes leveling his with a glare. He’s pissed, but even as shady as I think this whole thing was, I don’t think it was Bones’ fault. Not really. As much as I want to blame him, he lost a man in this, in trying to ensure that it was safe.
“No more,” Dragon murmurs. “Nothing like this again without bringing it up to me in advance.”
“Understood,” Bones croaks. “I didn’t think that any of this would go down.”
“Nobody could have guessed, especially since you did your due diligence, but without true intelligence like Worm, you can’t really know people’s moves, even then it’s not without risk.”
“Yeah,” Bones grunts.
It doesn’t take us long to load the bodies into the room. “What about the men that were left behind to burn the bodies on the highway?” I ask.
Dragon grins. “I sent Silver back a while ago. Got confirmation they’re in the fire as well.”
“Good.”
“Let’s go home. We were victorious when we didn’t even know we were going to be under attack. Let’s get back to our women and our club. I’m sure we have a lot of worried people back there.”
“I’m thinkin’ you’re probably right.”
I think about Pamela, about how I left her a note that I would be back soon. I think about leaving her sleeping in bed and how damn gorgeous she was in the early morning sunlight. I can’t even call her to make sure she’s okay, to make sure she ate something today.
Makes me sick that I did this, that I fucked up my life so badly that my club doesn’t even trust me with a cell phone. Shaking my head, I lift my hand and run my fingers through my hair, tugging on the ends.
“Called Gisele, Jailbait’s with her, has been all day. She’s going to stay there until we get back.”
“Thanks,” I say, turning to Coyote.
He grins. “Even if it was a shit day, it was a great fuckin’ day, brother.”
There’s that word again—brother.
Chapter Thirty-Six
JAGUAR
I’m tired, dirty, and fucking exhausted, fucking exhausted. Honest to shit, I wasn’t sure that I could ever be this tired in my whole fucking life, and yet, here I am. I don’t think that I could ever adequately describe just how goddamn bone tired I am.
Once all the guns have been cataloged at the Skulls clubhouse, we all head back to Eagar. The ride is uneventful, which is fucking perfect, because I have had just about enough drama-filled events to last me a lifetime.
When we reach the Eagar city limit sign, the men that don’t live or aren’t staying at the clubhouse, peel off and head home. The rest of us make our way to the clubhouse. I have one mission and one mission only, to get to my woman.
Riding through the gates, Coyote beside me and a few other men in front of me, we ride directly up to the front of Coyote’s place. It’s dark, save for the single porch light that is on to guide us in.
Coyote goes first and unlocks the door, he doesn’t have to invite me to follow him, I do without him saying a single word. The house is dark save for the blue light that comes from the living room. There we find the women. They’re each curled into a ball, a blanket covering them and they’re passed out.
Coyote walks straight toward his woman and slides his arms beneath her body. She gasps as her eyes open, then they turn lazy.
“Coen,” Gisele breathes.
He bends his head and touches his mouth to the tip of her nose before he turns to look back at me.
“House is locked up, got a guest room with clean sheets. Go ahead and use it. It’s too fucking late to walk through the clubhouse. No sense in it.”
“Obliged,” I rumble.
Coyote jerks his chin in the direction of the guestroom and I dip my own before I turn to Pamela and slide my own arms beneath her sleeping body. Unlike Gisele, she doesn’t even flinch at me picking her up. I think she’s just as exhausted as I am.
Making my way to the bedroom, I don’t even have to turn on the lights. There is a low nightlight in the room. Making my way to the bed, I reach out and
grab ahold of the comforter. Pulling back, I watch as decorative pillows go flying across the room.
Setting Pamela down, I look at her and expect her eyes to open, but they don’t. With a smile, I peel her out of her clothes until she’s just in her panties. Fuck me, but even as exhausted as I am, I could still fuck her.
She’s beautiful.
Shaking my head, and shaking off the thoughts of fucking her, I grab all the decorative pillows from the floor and throw them into a pile before I make my way over to the bathroom. I have to shower.
With the blood and sweat that I’ve accumulated today, I have to get it all off of me before I slide in next to Pamela. I can’t let that shit touch her, not ever. She’s had enough bad shit in her life, she doesn’t need it coming from me too, at least not right in her fucking face.
Once I’m showered, I crawl into bed beside her, completely naked. I still want to fuck her. My cock twitches when I slide my arm around her waist and pull her close to me, but I don’t try anything.
Instead, the second my head touches the pillow, my eyes close and I fall asleep. I’m completely fucking dead to the world. For the first time, in probably my entire life, I feel at peace. I feel complete and total peace.
I have everything I have ever wanted in my entire life. I have my brothers, a good woman, and a baby on the way. I couldn’t make this shit happen any more perfect than it has. There is no way it could have fallen into place any other way and worked.
We work.
This works.
It couldn’t happen with anyone else. I tried to force it with Della, but it would have never worked. It would have never been harmonious. I would have never felt this peace and neither would she. We would have made one another miserable, I was just too lost to truly see that.
Not that I am suddenly found, because I’m not. But I hit rock fucking bottom, and where I am now is so much better than I ever thought I could be. I am living a dream that I never thought possible, even if it’s not perfect, it is better than I deserve and it’s exactly what I need it to be.
UnCage me (Savage Beast MC Book 8) Page 26