“Happy… whatever the fuck today is.” Cobra pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen with his index finger. “Let’s see, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, so why don’t we just celebrate early? Isn’t that what you used to do with your prisoners? Spout off all the inane holidays as if they needed to be reminded of how long they’d been with you?”
None of my captives had ever lived long enough to need to know the date, with the exception of one.
Manny.
I wracked my brain, struggling to recall how many of my men would’ve known that detail. To my knowledge, there were only two—Crossbones and Bear.
The chains rattled as I jerked my arms forward, suddenly convinced I was the goddamn Hulk thanks to the adrenaline that had just been dumped into my bloodstream.
Had it been one of them?
I didn’t want to believe it.
“Trying to escape again? What’s that—the third time this week?” Cobra sank into a chair in the corner, crossing one leg over the other with a wry grin. “Thought you would’ve realized by now that you aren’t walking out of here.”
It seemed I had nothing but time.
And I’d spent every second trying to find a way out. The chains around my wrists were bolted into a stone floor. I’d used something similar in my kill rooms, knowing that unless my prisoner knew how to tunnel through rock with his hands, there was no way out. It hadn’t stopped me from trying to break my own body down, piece by piece, to get back to my family, though.
Something that had fascinated Cobra to no end.
“Tell me, did Manny think he was going to be saved?”
I shook my head and sank down against the wall, completely spent. “He knew he was a dead man the second we showed up. My club’s gonna come lookin’ for you, and when they do, you’ll know exactly how that feels.”
My fingers twitched from the tremors that had wracked my body for days. I didn’t know whether it was from the wound in my chest or the stress put on my joints from being shackled to a wall. Fuck, for all I knew, it was nothing more than nicotine withdrawals.
Cobra pulled a cigar from the inside of his jacket and lit up with a smirk. “Is that so? You really think your men are out combing the streets to find you?”
I nodded, wanting nothing more than to puff on the cigar in his hand until my head cleared. “They won’t rest until—”
“Until what, Grey? Do you see them going on television to plead for your safe return? Passing out flyers? What exactly is it that your men are doing?”
I didn’t know.
Everything had gone dark after I was shot, punctuated by only the briefest bursts of color. I saw Rick above me, pleading with me to stay alive. At one point, there’d been a blinding whiteness directly overhead, like the headlights on a Mack truck and then everything was a blur. Maybe that was when I’d gotten separated from my men. All I knew for sure was that I'd woken up here, in nothing but my jeans with stitches too perfect to have come from any club doctor running the length of my chest.
As long as the club was still searching for the Sons, I had a fighting chance.
“That’s what I thought. Nothing.” He exhaled a stream of smoke toward me and glanced at his watch. “I think it’s time for a little bedtime story. You’ve been looking more… worn down. What do you say?”
I shook my head. It was just another ploy to fuck with my mind.
“No?” he asked. “Alright then, how about this? Your family had a lovely funeral in the middle of a goddamned ice storm; so, tell me again how hard they’re looking for you. You should’ve seen Celia; not one single tear. Why do you think that is?”
My heart plummeted to the concrete. I knew exactly why; in fact, I was probably the only person alive who was aware of how she shut down when shit got too heavy. Only this time, I wouldn’t be there to shoulder the weight and bring her back.
She thought I was gone.
They all did.
I’d always known I’d never survive without her. Now, it was apparent, neither would she.
“Why the fuck am I still kickin’ then?” I growled. “Saint got what he wanted, didn’t he? Took a fuckin’ bullet to the chest—why not end it already?”
“See, now it’s interesting to me that you’re willing to give up so easily. Manny? Sure, I expected that cocksucker to go to his grave sniveling like a toddler. But, you?”
He clicked his tongue against his teeth with a shake of his head before bringing the cigar back up to his lips. “I had a lot more riding on you fighting until the end. Manny, he thought he knew better than everyone because he spent more time on the streets. He was too impatient to see the big picture. I cut my losses when he wanted to go after your daughters—”
“Don’t sit there and act like you weren’t talkin’ of doin’ the same goddamn thing to them. Ain’t that what you said when I got here?” I was baiting him into doing something stupid in the hopes he’d give up more information. The more he talked, the more I’d learn.
If my family thought I was six feet under, then I was going to have to work twice as hard to escape; even if the wound in my chest was nowhere near healed.
Cobra freed another cigar from his jacket and held it out. “You want this? Then shut the fuck up. I have no interest in going after children, but news flash, your girls aren’t so little anymore. Now, before you lose your head, just know that as long as you’re cooperating, they’ll stay safe.”
“Like you kept my wife safe?” I growled, my wrist popping against the chain. “So, you caught a fuckin’ break and got me. Just gonna leave me chained up to the goddamn wall until I die of old age? Oh, that’s right. You don’t call the fuckin’ shots. That’s what Hawk told us anyway—said you answer to Saint. What I don’t get is what’s in it for you?”
There had to be a plan in place. Saint had worked too hard moving us around like pieces on a chessboard for it to have all been for nothing.
I just couldn’t come up with anything that made sense.
He grinned. “You still want to believe that what happened to you was a random attack, something completely unplanned. Sure, you got a little suspicious when we wiped out the Serpents—which, you’re welcome for that—”
“That’s where shit goes off the rails for me,” I drawled, fighting against a sudden wave of dizziness. I needed water but refused to beg my captor for a goddamn thing.
“Which part? The fact that your enemy took out another rival club, or that you saw my kutte and immediately assumed you’d found me? Speaking of, I’m going to want that back.”
With a heavy sigh, he snagged a small black bag off the table beside him. “Look. Let’s start over, yeah? What do we have here? Camels? Nice choice.”
I watched through narrowed eyes, fighting to figure him out as he walked over and tossed the pack next to my foot. For the longest time, my enemy had been a faceless entity.
Not anymore.
If I wanted to make it out alive, I needed to learn everything I could from Cobra.
When I made no move to grab it, he rolled his eyes and bent to tap one from the pack. “And… nothing. C’mon, Grey. I’m feeling generous tonight; you might consider taking advantage of it while it lasts.”
He offered the cigarette to me, and this time, I took it. My shoulders screamed their protests as I brought it up to my mouth and leaned toward the lighter in his hand. The urge to numb myself by filling my lungs with smoke outweighed any of the risks associated with him holding an open flame near my face.
Once it was lit, he calmly stood and walked back over to the chair, leaving me more confused than ever. If he was trying to convince me that he was a nice guy, he was barking up the wrong tree.
I’d seen what he’d done to my girl.
Fuck, I’d seen what he’d done with a rifle and decent aim.
“Why the fuck are you doin’ this? Tryin’ to earn brownie points with your boss?”
“Told you,” he replied, crossing one leg over the other again lik
e he was on the cover of a fucking fashion magazine. “I was feeling generous. Plus, the story I’m about to tell required something a bit stronger. From what I understand, you don’t drink. That’s something we have in common. So, we find other ways to kill ourselves.”
I took a long, desperate drag before leaning back against the wall to let my shoulders rest, hating that he made sense when nothing else did. “Fair enough.”
“Haven’t ridden with the Serpents in years. That’s something you would’ve known had you actually bothered to look into the club, or, I don’t know, call a meeting with them. They wanted to hold on to the old-school way of thinking and weren’t big on me going after your family to get to you. It didn’t matter. With the money we took from Celia, I had enough to start over with more… like-minded individuals. Remind me, what is it we call brothers who turn their backs on us?”
“Enemies,” I answered, blowing a stream of smoke in his direction. We weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination. The closest I could come to describing us was death row inmate and jailer, but damn, if it wasn’t nice to have some company.
Even if I was considering all the ways in which I wanted to send him to the Reaper.
“Exactly. I didn’t have the stomach for a long, drawn-out death, even if it was exactly what they all deserved. Their new Pres, Viper, was a different story though. He’d been the one to rat me out, claiming that my actions had started a war. When the fuck did that happen? When did bikers get soft? Back then, we loved nothing more than a good fight…” his voice trailed off, and he puffed on his cigar in silence, reminiscing about the early days.
He wasn’t wrong.
When I’d patched in, it seemed there was always another club to go up against; someone else that needed to be reminded of who we were and what we were capable of doing.
Death had been my first love, replaced only by Celia.
Maybe it was as simple as that. We’d all gotten older and realized that there was more to life than getting bloody.
“You’re thinking about her again,” he said with an unreadable expression. “I can tell. Your face changes. Is that why we all became pussies in the end, Grey? Because finding a nice warm cunt to sink our dicks into was suddenly more important than keeping a stranglehold over our territory? You know, you might’ve just solved the entire goddamn mystery. We let our dicks do the thinking.”
The vein in my forehead throbbed steadily as I bit out, “And what would you know about that?”
He laughed softly. “The club whores are all the same after a while; more concerned with their next fix. They don’t care what you do to them as long as you fill their veins with something nice afterward. No, it’s better when the woman has a certain look in her eyes like maybe you’re the only man who’s ever gotten her. She hands over her trust, knowing you’ll keep her safe. You could fuck countless women, but you’ll never have that kind of loyalty.”
In a fucked-up way, I understood.
“I’d never experienced anything quite like it until Celia,” he mused. “It didn’t matter what I did to her body, she still believed I was going to hold true to my word and keep her girls safe. I told her I was going to let her live, so she trusted me completely. Fuck, I’m getting off-track. You didn’t come here to hear about my love life—”
“I’m gonna force-feed you your own cock and watch you choke on it, you piece of shit motherfucker!” I roared, rattling the chains on my arms as I reached for him, losing my cigarette to the concrete floor.
Cobra raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? And how exactly do you plan on doing that from where you are? As I was saying, before I got completely sidetracked, taking out the Serpents was my own personal brand of karma for all the ways I’d been fucked over. Knowing Viper had already ratted me out once, I decided to not take the chance of him spoiling the surprise early and cut out his tongue. Did it work? Were you surprised?”
“Surprised? Not really. When the fake prospect announced that the Sons didn’t negotiate, it kinda gave away the punchline. What I don’t get, though, is how he thought he was gonna waltz out of that building. Don’t make a damn bit of sense.”
I couldn’t let him get into my head.
He bit down on the cigar and clenched his hands into fists before relaxing with a deep breath. “Kid knew it was a suicide mission from the start. That’s why we’re on top, and every other club is in the ground. We’re willing to give our lives for our cause. Can you say the same?”
“Wait a minute, so this Saint guy is actually convincin’ people to die for him? What kind of fucked-up, Koresh-soundin’ bullshit is that?”
My men had always been willing to die defending our colors, as were most of the other clubs, but never once had I asked them to sacrifice themselves for me personally. I thought back to the months and years after Celia had been attacked and realized that maybe I had. For all I knew, that was what had landed me in this prison.
Wolverine had pushed us into a battle over Molly, but I’d started an all-out war over Celia.
Cobra gave me a hard smile and drummed his fingers on the thigh of his slacks as if he was bored. “We’re all Saint.”
He held the lighter under the tip of the cigar until it was glowing red before popping it back into his mouth. “Now, here’s where it gets fun. I know for a fact that you spent that entire wedding searching for a dirty cop. You want so badly to believe it was a coincidence that we showed up when we did because it’s easier than knowing one of your own tipped us off. Tell me, Grey. Who was it?”
Days and nights had begun blending into one, making me feel as though Dakota’s wedding had taken place years ago. I thought back, struggling to see what I’d missed. Almost every biker in my clubhouse had been in attendance to ensure that nothing happened to my family.
It was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
As far as I knew, it was just another trick. Another way to get me to let my guard down.
“You’re wrong.” I shifted forward, trying to alleviate the worsening ache in my neck and shoulders, fighting not to imagine Bear and Crossbones betraying me. “My men are loyal—”
“Are they?” Cobra asked with a low chuckle. “Look around you! If they were loyal, you wouldn’t be with me. Why would I tell you this now? We both know you’re not getting out of here. Now, think. Who wanted you gone?”
“Besides you and your imaginary friend, Saint? No one.”
My list of regrets had only grown longer the more time I spent in here. If I hadn’t been strung out, I could’ve ended the Sons before they even began.
Fuck.
Maybe if the club hadn’t been my number one priority, I could’ve saved my wife from ever crossing paths with Cobra.
Keeping the cigar in his mouth, he slipped the jacket from his shoulders and laid it across the chair before slowly coming toward me.
As sick as it was, I was looking forward to it. The monster that was hard-wired to need violence was still in there, rattling the bars of his cage.
Cobra’s face tightened in irritation as he looked down at me. “Saint wants you alive, but he didn’t say jack shit about roughing you up a little. I try to do something nice, but it seems that there’s still only one way men like you know how to communicate.”
I jerked my head back in shock when he grabbed a rope from the ceiling, looping it around my neck. A sudden coldness descended over me. I knew torture, but this wasn’t it.
“What’s wrong, Grey? Is this not how you do things? Last chance, tell me who betrayed you? If you guess right, I’ll let you rest.” He tapped an index finger against my skull. “C’mon… think!”
The implication of his words hung heavy in the air. If I told him what he wanted to know, he wouldn’t string me up. For all I knew, he’d take the name for their next target, and I wasn’t willing to put anyone else’s life at risk just to save my own ass. I’d take whatever he wanted to do to me if it meant that my family stayed safe.
“Told you,” I growled
. “You and your buddy, Saint, are the only two who had anything to gain by takin’ my club.”
“Fair enough.” He calmly walked over to where the rope was wrapped around a hook on the wall. A quick glance upward confirmed my suspicions. He had a multiple pulley system almost identical to mine; meaning, if he wanted to hoist me up to hang to death, he’d have no trouble. “Last chance…”
I spit a mouthful of saliva onto his fancy leather shoes in response, and he yanked the rope, jerking my body up until just my bare feet rested against the concrete. I took long, deep breaths, bracing myself for what was to come, only to remember that Cobra didn’t do predictable.
He took a step back, wrapping the slack around his hand with a grin. Somehow, the cigar remained clenched in between his teeth, and he shifted it to the side of his mouth before speaking. “Do you know how hard my job was that night? I had to factor in the fact that you’d decided on a vest last-minute, on top of ensuring that your wound wasn’t fatal, but something that would require more than a club doctor to fix. I go to all that trouble and can’t even get a goddamn thank you?”
I looked up from the floor. “How’d you know I was wearin’ a vest?”
“It’s funny; I toss a rope around your neck, and you suddenly want to chat. You know the answer. The one cop you never investigated—tell me, how does it feel, knowing that your own son turned on you?”
Even though I was one good pull away from being hanged, I exhaled a laugh. The evidence against Mikey looked solid on the surface, but it wouldn’t hold up. He and I might’ve had our differences over the years, but I knew without a doubt that there was one person he’d never turn on. One person he’d move heaven and earth to keep safe.
Lauren.
Even if he’d considered taking me down, there wasn’t the slightest chance in hell that he would’ve partnered with the same club responsible for killing his wife’s mother. They’d gone out of their way to make it look like an overdose, never expecting anyone to look into it.
Savior: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Five Page 4