Link: SATAN’S SINNERS’ MC: TWO

by Akeroyd, Serena

  After around thirty seconds of the deepest intimacy I’d ever had with another person, I let my gaze drift to his eyes and whispered the stark, horrendous truth. “I know where Luke kept them.”

  He tensed, his body turning rigid in front of me. Distance appeared between us, a distance of my own making, especially when those weren’t the words I’d wanted to say, but they were all I was capable of. And the space that suddenly pushed us a state apart made me want to sob. I longed to reach out, to grab his hand, to get that connection back. The link where I felt the beating of my heart as much as I’d sensed his own, but that was gone now. I’d cauterized it with my family’s evil.

  His words confirmed what I’d hoped—the MC had been looking into Luke’s past to find a way to undermine my father’s desire to pin a murder charge on Giulia Fontaine. “His captives?”

  I nodded. Once.

  “Who was he to you?”

  My mouth twisted, and my throat choked as reality punched me there. “My brother,” I spat, speaking those two words like the curses they were, and he reared back, either because he was surprised I was related to Luke or because my vitriol for that bastard had come through loud and clear.

  “Where are they?” he demanded, his voice low, rough. Raspier than before. But now wasn’t the time to be caught up in how his voice made me tingle in places no one had ever made me tingle before.

  Now, I had to think about those poor women. Those poor women who my bastard of a brother had—

  Fuck.

  I couldn’t even think about that.

  I just had to get them out of the hell he’d placed them in.

  “Give me your phone number,” I ordered, my voice sounding a little more like mine again.

  I couldn’t believe I’d shown weakness to a man like this, but hell, even I was overwhelmed at the depravity my brother had waded through in his short lifespan.

  Knowing someone was evil and seeing it?

  Two separate matters entirely.

  The guy narrowed his eyes at me but reeled off a number which I quickly input into my phone. I found the email where I’d stored all the information I’d found when I was sneaking through Luke’s stuff, copied it into a text, and sent it to him.

  “That’s all I know.”

  He frowned as he stared down at his phone which lit up with my text. “How long have you known?”

  My throat grew tight. Not just at the horror at what my brother had done, but at the threat in the MC brother’s tone. I was grateful I didn’t have to lie. “A few days. I didn’t know where to turn.” I sucked in a breath. “My father would let them rot, and the cops are in his pocket along with the mayor.”

  “The sheriff isn’t.” When my mouth worked as I tried to figure out what to say, since I hadn’t known that was the case, he merely shook his head. “Why come to us?”

  “Because Luke attacked one of your women.” My smile was tight. “You protect your own.”

  He tipped his chin up. “You should have come to us sooner.”

  “Not as easy as you think when you have security following your every move. They’ll report to my father.” My throat grew tight again. “I’d hurry. If he decides he needs to get to them first…”

  The guy didn’t stick around to hear my conclusion. He just walked off, his boots silent against the ground as he disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared. A breath escaped me as I pressed back into the wall.

  My task was over. I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

  Two

  Link

  “I believe her.”

  “She had tits and ass. Of course, you believe her,” Steel muttered, snorting as he began shuffling a deck of cards. It was a nervous tic of sorts, a new one. That damn deck was in his mitts at all times, had been ever since we’d found out about Luke Lancaster’s little harem from hell.

  I figured it had to do with the prospect of some innocent women being imprisoned somewhere in the United States of America. Starving to death…

  I blew out a breath.

  Yeah, no wonder he had a nervous tic. I was getting that way myself. When I closed my eyes at night, I thought about those poor bitches, locked up, not knowing when the cunt who held the keys to their prison would return. Not knowing that he’d never return. I thought about how hungry they must be. How cold. How fucking alone, and yeah, I ended up not sleeping.

  I was a callous son of a bitch. By nature and nurture. You couldn’t do what we did and have a big heart, but even the cold stones lodged in our chests were flopping like dying fish at what those women were going through.

  Even so, I resented Steel’s words. You made one fucking mistake as a teenager, and these bastards never let it drop.

  “Could be a trap,” Rex concurred, breaking into my irritation, rubbing his chin as he eyed up the way Steel was shuffling those damn cards.

  “Doubt it. She was nervous as fuck. Paid Cody behind the bar to dope up her guards’ drinks with vodka. Then was antsy all night waiting on them to get drunk. Plus…” I winced as I dragged my pointer finger along the curve of my cheekbone. “She’d been beaten. All covered up. Well, too. Not the first time she’s been hit with makeup skills that good.”

  Steel’s jaw clenched. “She put herself at risk.”

  At his words—words that were a statement and not a question—I muttered, “Yeah. I think so.”

  Rex sighed. “We can afford to send out a couple of brothers to check this shit out. Even if she’s blowing smoke up our asses, I’d rather be safe than sorry. Don’t think I’d be able to fucking sleep at night if we didn’t at least look.”

  Steel winced. “Yeah.”

  Rex clapped him on the back. “You’re watching out for the MC, brother. That’s what your job is.”

  “Feel like a cunt.”

  “We all do,” I retorted, shrugging my shoulders uneasily. “We’re all hyped up. Worrying about Giulia, worrying about Nyx worrying about Giulia, and wondering when he’s about to break and go on the fucking rampage.” I let a breath whistle out from between my teeth. “Then there’s those women.” I gulped. “Dunno about you, but I’ve slept like shit for the past week.”

  Rex dipped his chin. “Yeah. I’m going to go and tell Nyx.”

  “You know he’s going to want to come along for the ride,” Steel pointed out.

  “Which means Giulia’s coming too,” I said dryly. “No way in fuck he’s gonna take his eyes off her.”

  Rex grimaced. “Because taking her to some fucked up prison in the middle of nowhere is his idea of a date now. Jesus Christ.” He scraped a hand over his head. “Last thing she needs to see is that.”

  “Bet she wants to go. She’ll want to help. And fuck, she knows what it’s like to be vulnerable to that cunt. Maybe it will help them?”

  “Won’t help her though, will it? And I have to think of Nyx.”

  Despite myself, I had to snicker. “You worry about him too much. He’s not as vulnerable as you think he is.”

  “I don’t think he’s vulnerable,” Rex denied instantly, but his glower told me I’d hit a nerve.

  “Yeah, you do. He ain’t,” I countered. “Bro’s got brass balls, and even if he was fucked up, Giulia’s straightening him up some.”

  Steel’s eyes widened. “How did you say that without busting your gut laughing? Last thing that bitch is gonna do is straighten a guy like Nyx out. If anything, she’d encourage him.”

  “Two psychopaths in sweet harmony,” I joked, leaning back against the wall and digging my heel into the drywall as I did so. “Did you hear about what she did to her stepfather? Good thing Nyx’s balls are brass. That’s the only thing that’ll keep them safe if she goes nuclear.”

  My words got my brothers smiling, just as I’d intended, then I reached forward, gripped Rex’s shoulder, and urged, “Hustle, Prez. We need to get them girls out.”

  “If they’re even there,” Steel muttered.

  “Don’t be negative,” I chided. “Let’s hope they are there,
then maybe we can sleep again.”

  Rex grunted but moved down the hall to Nyx’s room, where he and Giulia were probably sleeping. He knocked and I heard a few thumps as Nyx made it to the door. When the door slammed shut a few minutes later, and I heard more thumps, I knew he was getting ready.

  Steel cut me a look. “You think this is true? Not BS?”

  “Fuck knows. I just hope she wasn’t lying.”

  “I’ll slit her throat myself if she is. What kind of sicko—”

  Before he could continue, I mumbled, “She’s related to Luke Lancaster. A guy who rapes for fun? Let’s hope being a psycho isn’t a genetic trait in her family.”

  Steel grimaced but shoved the deck of cards away in his jeans’ pocket.

  About twenty minutes later, Nyx and Giulia were on his hog, Steel was on his, and I was climbing onto the back of mine. A quick glance at the clubhouse told me everyone was watching, even though this was supposed to be under wraps, and I mock saluted those peering at us from behind the curtains before I kick-started my bike into action.

  The roar of the trio of hogs made my blood sing, and even though our end destination might be the definition of a nightmare in the flesh, I felt energy flood my veins as we began the roll down the drive.

  The gates opened the second the Prospect saw us, and we sped up, flying out of the compound like we were using winged chariots.

  As the wind smashed me square in the face, I let out a holler, and wasn’t surprised when a feminine version that matched my own came next. I twisted around and saw Giulia was clinging to Nyx, but her hair was whipping around in the wind, her face was tilted to get it full frontal, and her eyes were closed as she gloried in the moment.

  If I hadn’t known that she came from biker stock, I had proof then and there. This shit was genetic. Passed down from generation to generation. We were born to ride these beasts, just like our ancestors had lived on horseback. Some people were meant for the constraints of city living, of the rat race, then there were folks like us. Folks who lived on the fringes of society. Who led their lives the way they wanted, not the way the government did.

  The three-hour journey was broken up by two breaks at a pitstop. It was late already, none of us had been sleeping right anyway, and Giulia was sore after what that fucker had put her through. We each downed a large cup of coffee which, of course, necessitated the next stop.

  Fucking coffee.

  Lancaster’s little sister didn’t realize how lucky she’d been coming across me. As Road Captain of the Satan’s Sinners MC, it was my fucking job to lead my brothers into chaos. She hadn’t just caught the eye of any brother, she’d caught mine.

  But then, looking like she did, I knew every fucker with a dick had seen her walk into the bar when she had. No one could have failed to spot the elegance she exuded. Everything about her screamed money. More than that, it screamed ‘hands off,’ which of course, was more of a challenge than anything else. Especially to a fucker like me.

  The coordinates to our end destination were on my phone as I led us to hell, but along the way I thought about her, thought about how she’d looked around Daytona like it was dog crap on her expensive heels. Then, I thought about the vulnerability in her eyes when I’d had to help her breathe through her panic. At first, I just thought she was scared of me. Lots of country clubbers approached the MC, wanting to get laid. Wanting to get fucked hard by the local scum. I’d thought she was one of them until Cody had shared her intentions with us, then I’d learned otherwise.

  She’d entered my world with a purpose.

  A purpose that saw me driving straight through the heart of New Jersey and close to the Pennsylvanian border. The reason it was so far from the MC was because of a windy motherfucker of a road that brought us to the town itself and took a goddamn age to traverse.

  Stewartsheim, according to Google anyway, was home to less than three hundred souls. I had to assume the women being held against their will weren’t included in the census so, yeah, more like three hundred plus.

  My mouth twisted into a grimace as we approached the township. Lancaster’s sister had given me fucking coordinates. How the hell she knew them, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when we went off road, driving onto a field, and approaching a body of water I had to assume was a reservoir, seeing as we were in the middle of the goddamn country, and I didn’t know about any lakes in this part of the state.

  The early morning sun made the body of water gleam and glitter where it hit, but it was still dark enough for me to see that, in the distance, there were rows of homes where the good folks of Stewartsheim lived, and who were slowly starting to wake up.

  The coordinates took us past the township, past the reservoir—if that’s what it was—and onto slightly higher ground that was surrounded by trees.

  When we reached our destination, I didn’t even fucking realize it. The sun had started its rise, sure, but we were surrounded by a chaos of trees that kept us in the shadows. Only when I braked to a halt did my brothers join me, and Nyx was the one who called out, “Where the fuck are we? Why did we stop?”

  “These are the coordinates,” I stated firmly, peering at the map and wondering if Siri had failed me. Again.

  “Looks like that bitch was toying with us,” Steel muttered.

  I glowered at him, aware he’d see my expression because of the glow from my phone. He grunted at the sight, and I bit off, “We can’t see for shit. There could be a fucking creepy ass cabin right in front of us and we wouldn’t know it was there.”

  “We have our lights on,” Steel retorted, as he folded his arms across his chest.

  Fucker looked like he was settling in for a fight.

  I opened my mouth to give him what he was asking for, then Giulia whispered, “Did you hear that?”

  She sounded shaken, and I knew the difference. She hadn’t been around the clubhouse that long, but she was a weirdo who I quite appreciated. She was snarky, usually a bitch, and had a wicked right hook. I actually liked that she’d managed to bust her stepfather’s ballsack because with a fucker like Nyx in her bed, she’d need to be ready for anything.

  Not that he’d hurt her, but living our life the way we did? Shit got real and weird, fast.

  “What is it, babe?” Nyx rumbled, his voice low. His leathers squeaked as he twisted to face her, giving her all his attention.

  The second he did, she released a sigh, like she could breathe or something because he was looking at her, seeing her. I wasn’t sure why that would help, but it did. Hell, it had helped Lancaster’s sister this evening too. Breathing with her, calming her down, it had felt oddly natural. But then, I’d done it often enough with my ma, helping her climb out of her panic-fogged stupor, for me to be at ease with it.

  “I don’t know,” Giulia admitted. “It was like a cry.”

  “Probably the wind,” Steel muttered, earning himself a glare from both me and Nyx as well this time.

  “Why are you trying to be awkward?” I groused. “You want them found as much as we do.”

  He gritted his teeth. “‘Course I fuckin’ do.”

  “Then don’t be so damn difficult.” I turned my focus to Giulia once more. “I didn’t hear anything. The bike’s engine is still whistling in my ears.”

  “Mine too,” she admitted, “and it was faint.” She reached up, tugging slightly in a way that made me realize Nyx had somehow managed to grab a hold of both her hands. She ran the one he released over her face and muttered, “Maybe I’m losing my mind.”

  Nyx snorted. “No way, baby. You’re not losing shit. I’ll find you every fucking time. You hear me?”

  Her lips curved in a dry smile, and she surprised me by raising their joined hands and brushing her mouth over his knuckles. That small act of tenderness probably gained more of a reaction from me and Steel than her getting naked would have. Women didn’t do shit like that around us, but Giulia had because, it figured, she wasn’t like an
y of the women we usually had at the clubhouse.

  And weirder still?

  Nyx didn’t mind.

  He didn’t pull back. Didn’t pull away. Didn’t even shoot us embarrassed looks.

  Fuck, he loved her.

  He actually fucking loved her.

  I mean, I guess it made sense. He’d given her his brand, she wore his patch. But still. I hadn’t thought about love. Love wasn’t a thing in this world of ours.

  On edge at what I was witnessing, I kept quiet. I didn’t want to be on the end of Nyx’s fist tonight, not when there might be some women who needed our help around here. Last thing they needed was to see their saviors bruised and bloodied after getting into a stupid fistfight. But I wanted to speak. Fuck, I wanted to ask questions.

  How did it feel to be in love?

  Was it weird? Was it nice? I’d never felt anything like that myself and I was curious, even if I probably shouldn’t be. Badass bikers didn’t fall in love…supposedly. Nyx had, though. And shit, he was the biggest, baddest motherfucker I knew. Demons would cower before Nyx, that was how messed up he was.

  The shit I’d seen him do to those sick fucks who messed with kids?

  Yeah, I couldn’t see Satan himself not feeling squeamish at the shit Nyx did in his spare time.

  Giulia sighed, catching my attention once more, and I saw that their hands were lowered and she’d pressed her forehead to Nyx’s arm. Was she crying?

  I cut Steel a look again, saw he was just as uneasy as me.

  A noise whispered through the trees as I was about to clear my throat, trying to get shit moving. It was quiet. Like a shushing sound, but it was high-pitched too.

  I tensed and so did my brothers, and my brother’s woman, who scrambled off the bike at the noise. Nyx had her back a second later.

  “What was that?” I rasped, even as I started to climb off my bike too. I pulled off my helmet and hung it from the handlebars as I straightened up.

  Steel, peering through the trees where only the faintest of light was bleeding through, muttered, “I heard it too.”