Blayd: A Bad Boy Biker Romance (The Reckless Riders MC Book 1)

by J. J. Baxter

  19

  Squash the Bug

  I crawled away from the lumber mill with all the energy I had left. I glanced up to the sky when I finally made it to the bottom of the hill, watching the clouds grow heavier by the minute, and I felt a pang in my stomach, worrying about what happened to Angelina the moment I left. I tried to gather myself, to call out to the rest of the Reckless Riders that had made the decision not to move in. Now I was grateful Scotch had made that call. If he hadn’t, it was possible that Scorpion would’ve had the opening he needed to take us all down, to make sure that we would never be able to come back from this.

  Hands grabbed a hold of me the moment I returned to where we had all been parked. I glanced up to see Scotch staring back at me, taking in all of the injuries I had.

  “Now, will you let me do things my way?” Scotch raised a brow at me.

  I nodded my head at him. I was ready to fight on his terms this time. “I’m surprised you didn’t tear the place apart the moment you realized I wasn’t coming back.”

  “If I did that then you wouldn’t be here right now, would you?”

  “What are we going to do, Scotch? I saw her, she’s in bad shape and there’s no way she could walk out of there on her own.”

  “Are you okay enough to shoot, Blayd? I need your honest answer because I can’t have you becoming a fucking liability right now.”

  I nodded at him firmly. “I can do this. I’m ready.”

  “We now have no choice but to give it our all, Blayd. If we sit around waiting here, Angelina isn’t going to make it out of this alive.”

  “When we do this, I’m going straight for her. I’m going to get her out of there first,” I said.

  He nodded. “I wouldn’t expect you to do anything else. Everybody ready?” he asked.

  Every member of the Reckless Riders around me nodded.

  They were all so determined, all standing with me on this, and I felt powerful. I had no idea how this was going to go, but I was ready to fight until the very end. She’d been through enough, and she needed to feel safe after living so much of her life on the run, and after being in danger from the moment she met all of us.

  Scotch gave his orders. Then he placed a gun in my hand.

  I took a deep breath, watching as all the Reckless Riders members charged up the hill with their guns at the ready. Everyone was putting their lives on the line for this, to take down the most abhorrent MC Club the city had ever seen, but also to rescue one of their newest members. Angelina and I both still hadn’t had the opportunity to experience true life as a Reckless Rider. We didn’t get the chance to experience the open road the way we should’ve, because from the moment we met, it had always been about keeping each other safe from the Dawn Vultures. I couldn’t wait to see the day when we no longer had to worry about them, when they would be a thing of the past, and we could move on together.

  We made it up the hill, and all chaos erupted, while I tore through the crowd, fighting off every biker that got in my way, trying to reach the barn.

  I was running on pure adrenaline now, and my injuries didn’t bother me the way they should’ve because I had one mission in mind. I needed to get to Angelina before Scorpion could hurt her anymore, and I wasn’t going to let anyone stand in my way. I fired off bullets into the stomachs of bikers who staggered back, some fell to the ground trying to get back up, but bleeding out, they would just lie there dead in a puddle of their own blood. I’d never outright killed people before in my past, just never had to. It was a horrific sight, something I’d never seen before in my entire life on the road, but I didn’t care. The only thing on my mind was Angelina.

  I rushed towards the barn, fumbling with the door to get it open right as I felt a pair of hands drag me back.

  I fought them off, hitting the man with the base of my gun. I turned around for a moment, getting ready to shoot, when I spotted a few bikes near the other end of the hill take off. For a moment, I didn’t realize what was happening, but I shot the man in front of me, and watched him smile as he went down. It was one of the strangest things I’d ever seen, but he didn’t have to say a word for me to realize I was too late. I entered the barn, shouting Angelina’s name, searching every inch of it, as I stumbled over the chair she’d been sitting in.

  Scorpion had managed to sneak her away from the rest of the insanity happening right outside.

  I rushed back outside, running as fast as I could and caught sight of her on Scorpion’s bike sitting in front of him, barely hanging on, while he rode away with her.

  The air around me grew still, as the chaos was beginning to die down.

  A hand gripped on my shoulder, but it wasn’t an enemy this time, it was Scotch.

  He looked glum, like he just realized what had happened.

  “So, do you think we’re going to get her back now, huh?” I asked, feeling lower than at any time in my life. “He’s going to kill her.”

  “He’s not going to kill her until she gives him what he wants. I know Scorpion and no matter how much damage we cause, he’s still not going to take her out until he gets the information he needs. We might have to give him whatever it is he will ask for, to return her to us. But he’s also going to be scrambling to fix this because he just lost nearly his entire club. Look around Blayd, we did it. More than half of the Dawn Vultures have been wiped out, and some of ours are injured, but Scorpion is weakened now. When a man like that is weak, he’s going to do whatever it takes to regain power. We just have to be ready to meet his demands when he gives them.” Scotch looked so sure of himself, like there wasn’t a single doubt in his mind.

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “We will not stop tearing down his empire until he gives us Angelina, or until we’re forced to take her back ourselves, and he knows that. Look at how we decimated most of his club to come and get her.”

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t care how much power Scorpion needed to finally feel secure again. I just wanted to see Angelina alive, take her home with me, and put this all behind us. Scotch was the only one Scorpion would take seriously, so I had to live with that. But I would end this fucker’s life before all of this was over. I will find you and when I do, I am going to put you six feet under.

  We were about to head back out on our bikes, to canvass the entire city. I tried to keep myself calm.

  Scotch’s cell phone rang.

  I immediately felt my heart start to race, already wondering if it was time.

  All the other Reckless Riders members gathered around while Scotch put the phone call on speaker.

  “Are you ready to give up now, Scotch?” Scorpion’s voice echoed out. “You know I’ve had your number for a while, waiting for the right time to call, but now seems perfect. You will pay for all the damage you did at my lumber mill today. You and the rest of the Reckless Riders will have no choice but to give this up, especially if you want to see Angelina alive again.”

  “What do you want, Scorpion?” Scotch asked in a low tone.

  “I know you’re still struggling to walk after the little run-in we had together. I’m guessing you’re surprised to learn that it was me that attacked you, but after Angelina here didn’t hold up the end of our bargain when I hired her to take you out, I found you to finish the job myself. I left you for dead. And wow, you have to be glad your riders found you before it was too late,” he stated sarcastically. “I want you gone, Scotch. I fucking want all of you gone. I will take back the city and the Dawn Vultures will be the only club here. No one is going to mess with us anymore. Once I receive word that you’ve all turned yourself in, I’ll let Angelina go, but by the time she finds her way back to you, there won’t be any Reckless Riders left.”

  I stared at Scotch. Turning ourselves over to the police had to be out of the question. None of our lives were worth sacrificing the entire club over. Scotch had to know that better than anyone. I felt my heart sink into my stomach, I was probably never going to
see Angelina again. I felt like I was about to lose my fucking mind.

  Scotch could see how angry I was getting, so before I had the chance to blow up completely, he raised his hand up to stop me. “You have a deal, Scorpion. Send someone you trust down to the station to witness what you need to and let Angelina go.”

  Everyone stared at him like he’d lost it.

  I saw the look in his eyes and it sure as hell did not look like he’d just given up. Scotch must have managed to find himself a plan in the midst of me panicking.

  “Are you sure you want to do that, Scotch?” Scorpion scoffed over the phone. “You’re telling me that you’re going to put everyone else’s lives on the line just to save this girl?”

  “You gave your demands and I’m meeting them. So fucking let her go.”

  “Yeah, I have no use for her anymore. She’s somewhere safe for now. The minute I hear you’ve all been put away, she will be able to walk free.”

  Scotch ended the call.

  Every Reckless Rider member there completely erupted, telling him there was no way they were all going to go to jail for this.

  “Will you all shut the fuck up?” Scotch held his hands up. “No one is going to jail, okay? We don’t have much time, and we need to figure out where they went before Scorpion’s men head down to the station and realize that we won’t be joining them.”

  Everyone now seemed to calm down, including myself.

  I thought about where that sadistic fuck might be hiding. Then I realized I might have already been to the very place he was holding her at. I had a good feeling that I knew exactly where they were. The way I saw it, we had more people standing than Scorpion did. We had to take advantage of this before it was too late, before Angelina would have to pay the price. “I know where they are, Scotch.”

  “Where?”

  “Call it a hunch, but the only place that was kept secret amongst the Dawn Vultures, that only some of them knew about was that apartment Angelina and I searched. The building couldn’t house anything, but that one apartment could. It was where she found the books with Scorpion’s contacts. It’s out of the way and I believe that he might be holding her there. If I’m wrong, we’re really out of options, but we have to try something.”

  For a moment, he looked doubtful. “But he knows we were there already.”

  I nodded. “But the man is stupid in a lot of ways, Scotch. He would think we would assume he wasn’t there since we do know about it.”

  He studied me for a minute then nodded his head. “The stupid part we all have to agree with. Like what the fuck does he mean turn ourselves in? For fucking what? I mean a few of the Riders have some damn speeding tickets but we have no warrants out for us. What the hell is the man thinking?”

  “I think he’s on crack if you ask me,” Thrasher spoke up.

  The men all laughed but nodded their heads.

  “Yeah…” Scotch looked thoughtful now. “That would make sense actually. He’s hooked on his own stuff, maybe and that’s why he isn’t living in fucking reality.” He looked around. “Well boys, let’s show the man some reality, shall we?”

  A huge roar of laughs rose up.

  Then Scotch began to fire off orders, getting us ready to go.

  I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

  This was probably the last chance that we were going to get to save Angelina and I had to make it count. I believed that we were making the right move as I clutched the handles of my bike, riding out onto the open road as fast as I could. I felt the wind hit my skin like bullets, evading all the traffic in the area, trying to get there before Scorpion could catch on to what we were doing. I heard the sounds of bike engines all around me. I glanced back for a moment to see all the rest of the Reckless Riders following close behind.

  I smiled to myself, feeling the fire ignite inside of me, ready to take Scorpion on myself, to tear him to pieces for what he put Angelina through, for what he did to all the members of the Reckless Riders. I was tired of having him toy with us, playing us like fools so he could get what he wanted by the end of this. I was ready to blow through that entire building if it meant that I could get Angelina out of there. I wanted to see the look on Scorpion’s face when he realized that the few men he had with him, the last remaining survivors of the Dawn Vultures weren’t going to be enough to keep us at bay. We had him outnumbered for a change, and this would be the fight that went down in history, while we finally had the chance to destroy the worst Club President this city had ever seen.

  He was the kind of man that could never rebuild when he lost everything, even if he convinced himself he was. He would feel every ounce of our wrath, while we take the final shot, while we watched him bleed out, the life behind his eyes disappearing.

  20

  You’re One of Us Now

  I never thought it would end up like this, that I would be under Scorpion’s watch, having destroyed his plan time and time again until he was forced to take it out on all the people I’d come to care about. It was too much for me to handle, and I wasn’t sure how much more of it I could take.

  Scorpion laughed and his eyes looked wild as he acted jittery. “You look sad, Angelina. I thought you would be happy with this news. You get to walk free. You get to walk away from this and make a better life for yourself. You lost everything the moment you joined the Reckless Riders. You had skills, you had a real reputation, and now all you have is a bunch of fucking bikers about to go to prison to save you. You did a good job convincing them that you were a good person, that you gave up all your old ways, but you can’t tell me there isn’t the smallest part of you that isn’t relieved. You get your life back.”

  I wanted to spit in his face. I wanted to scream, cry, to punch, kick, and fight my way out of here, but it was no use. I could barely feel my legs and the wounds were so deep, I was beginning to bleed out. They didn’t even care to clean me up, to stop the bleeding and I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I laid in a pool of my own blood.

  I remembered what it felt like to be on the freeway, heading back to this apartment, feeling the wind hit the knife wounds on each of my thighs, as I tried not to wince. I tried so hard not to cry, but I couldn’t help it anymore. I was broken hearted at the thought the Riders were going to give up everything, just so they could protect me. There were some members of the Reckless Riders that had known each other far longer than they knew me, and I couldn’t understand the logic. I couldn’t understand why they would decide to do that when letting me die would’ve been the best option for them all. At the end of the day, it was Scotch’s decision to make and they all vowed to follow him.

  I glanced around at the very apartment Blayd and I had searched, where I’d learned about Scorpion’s true involvement in hiring me to take out one of his biggest rivals, making the way for him to rein over the city. Then turning themselves in didn’t make sense. Were they going to confess to moving guns? To other illegal schemes they had going? I wanted to believe there was more I had yet to uncover. I thought about the way Scotch did business, how he always managed to have something up his sleeve. “You took my life from me the moment you hired me to do your dirty work for you. It amazes me how someone who believes he’s so powerful can’t even do the job himself.”

  “Listen bitch, if you had done what you were asked to do, I would’ve had so many rewards waiting for you. You would’ve been playing for the winning side and now, everyone that you ever cared about is going to resent you for what you did. You’re not going to have to deal with that guilt for long though are you? Because you’ll be back on the road soon enough, won’t you?” He kept rubbing his fingers over his beard, smoothing it out, his eyes bloodshot red, while he sat with his gun pointed at me, ready to take the shot in case anything came up.

  I felt a lump in my throat, fighting back the tears, trying to use the last of my strength to wiggle out of my bindings. I felt woozy, lightheaded, like the room around me had been spinning. I glanced
up at the ceiling, focusing on the light, trying to bring myself back down to reality, but it was no use. I was losing consciousness, I might die right here on the living room floor of an apartment Scorpion had hidden from the world, my blood joining the blood in the seams of the hardwood floor and no one was ever going to know.

  I heard slight rustling coming from outside and for a moment, I just thought it was the rest of the Dawn Vultures members taking their positions in case there was trouble waiting.

  Scorpion looked unconcerned like it was highly unlikely anyone would be showing up here, because he seemed far too happy.

  I just felt so weak and weary. I closed my eyes for a moment, as the pain started to climb up my legs. I laid on my side with my hands and feet bound like I had been before, feeling my eyes grow heavy. I couldn’t keep them open any longer, and right before they completely shut, I saw the look on Scorpion’s face, worry returning to his expression, like he’d just seen something he didn’t expect to.

  A loud crash blew through the entire apartment, jolting me awake, keeping me steady enough to focus on what was going on. Bullets started to fly through the air, tearing into furniture, making holes in the walls all around us.

  Scorpion rose to his feet, holding his gun to the window as he looked down to see what the commotion was all about. “That’s not fucking possible,” he said.

  I hoped the last remaining members of the Dawn Vultures were suffering for what they’d done, wishing they had been the ones to choose different sides in all of this.

  Scorpion inched closer to me, grabbing my chin and squeezing hard, so I would have no choice but to look up directly at him. “I’m going to kill you, Angelina. This has to be your fault. That’s the only explanation that makes sense!” He screamed at me.

  “You’re the one that let yourself get comfortable, Scorpion. They’re coming for you. Did you really believe that they were going to put everything on the line for me, give up everything Scotch and the rest of the Reckless Riders have built together? Even you should’ve seen right through that.”