by Mallory Funk
Tears are already welling in her eyes. I move to sit beside her with Danielle on the other side. We both grab her hands as Lily walks in with Derek behind her.
His eyes soften on her. “Are you sure? We can still wait if you want to…”
She blows out a breath. “Yeah, he needs to know that I’m okay. It has been months.”
Lily types in the number that Camilla gave her and it starts to ring.
“Hello?” A deep voice asks.
“Hi, is this Xavier?” Lily asks.
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“I have some information about Camilla Jones.”
I hear him suck in a breath and there’s silence.
“I-I’m sorry did you j-just say Camilla?” he asks in a choked voice.
I see Lily’s chin wobble at his obvious reaction.
There is no doubt that he loves his sister.
“Yeah, I did. You’re her brother, correct?” she asks.
“Y-yeah I’m her brother. Do you know where she is or what happened to her?” he says clearing his throat a bunch of times.
“Well I’m with her right now. She wants to let you know that she’s okay, but she can’t come home yet.”
“C-can I talk to her?”
“She can hear you. You’re on speakerphone,” Lily says softly.
“X-Xavier?” Camilla says in a broken voice.
“Holy shit, Cami! I can’t believe it. Where have you been? You know how crazy everyone is going?” he says in a rush.
“I know, but it’s not safe to come home yet.” she says, her voice cracking.
He sucks in a breath. “What do you mean ‘not safe?’ What happened?”
“All I can tell you is that it was Brent’s fault and don’t trust him or say anything to him,” she says almost looking panicked.
“Shit C, he was here yesterday asking if we had heard from you or found you. He was frantic. You’re telling me that asshole boyfriend of yours put you in danger?” he says angrily.
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore. Keep this phone call to yourself. Please. No one can know where I am yet,” she says urgently.
I hear him take a deep breath. “Whatever you need, C. You know I have your back.”
They exchange a few more words before Camilla hangs up the phone looking better since she was able to talk to her brother.
“Camilla , can you tell me the full name of your ex-boyfriend?” Derek asks softly, but I don’t miss the anger that he’s clearly trying to hold back.
“Brent Manns. We dated for a while and he wanted me to join him for a party. I went alone because I didn’t have any reason not to trust him; he had been sweet for the first six months. I should have known!” She breaks off with a sob.
Derek pulls her into his arms whispering words in her ear.
I wish that I could get my hands on this guy and show him a taste of what she went through.
“We are going to look into him, okay? You are safe here. You can talk to your brother when you want, but I need you to do it from my or Lily’s phone. They can’t be tracked,” he tells her, and she nods her head.
Derek leaves once Camilla calms down.
“Well I think this calls for more shots,” Ella says, making me laugh.
We try and help take Camilla’s mind off everything. I have a feeling that she doesn’t want to talk right now, so I won’t try to force her.
“So, tell me, there has to be something that Trigger does to bug you. No guy is that perfect. Does he chew loudly? Throw his clothes beside the basket and not in it?” Ella asks.
Sophie laughs and shrugs. “There isn’t much that bugs me. Oh OH! I know! He likes to whistle. Like not just random sounds that you don’t know if it’s music or not. He whistles the ‘baby shark’ song over and over again! I mean, we don’t even have any kids! I should be safe from listening to that song on repeat. I swear, I’m even dreaming about it.”
Olivia looks at her in horror. “Oh my… I know what song you’re talking about,” she whispers.
I can’t help but laugh at the look on their faces. Then it dawns on me what song they are talking about. “Oh… you mean this one?!” I grab my phone and search for the song. In seconds, the song is playing through my phone’s speakers.
“Yes!” Sophie says loudly.
“Oh no, not again,” Olivia groans.
They both grab some tequila from our selection of booze and pour some shots for themselves. I have to say that I’m impressed because they don’t even bother with chasers or salt and lime. My kind of women.
Lily and Sasha start singing along to the music as it plays over and over. It’s pretty accurate enough to say that we are drunk; otherwise I don’t think that a room full of grown women would be belting out “Baby Shark” at the top of their lungs. A couple tequila shots later, Olivia and Sophie join in.
We are loud. I know that, but not one of us seems to care. The bottle of tequila is being passed around while we sing the song over and over again.
Then the door bursts open, and we are startled to find a bunch of brothers in the doorway trying to hide their laughter but, lets be honest, the sight of us singing this silly song is enough to make them burst into laughter.
“Oh god, I needed that,” Camilla says through tears as we finally stop singing and pause the music.
I nod my head and lean against her shoulder. “Me too.”
We move the girls’ night into the main room of the club and start having drinks with the men since the kids have long since went to bed. The men don’t have too many drinks since it was well known that this was the women’s night to let loose, so the men had to wake up with their kids in the morning.
I happily get drunk with the women as we laugh and let loose knowing that our men are there to keep us safe.
Chapter Twenty
Pyro
I wake up the next morning and head out to get Krista some hangover food. It’s almost noon and she’s still passed out, only waking up to take some pain killers and water. I decide to get her what helps me through my hangovers.
I doubt that Krista will leave the bed much today. I think most of the women will be nursing hangovers because, wow, I have never seen any of them that drunk before! But they needed it, and we brothers could see that they needed it.
We couldn’t help but look when they began singing that ridiculous song. The carefree look on all their faces was worth it though. Seeing Camilla laugh and smile for the first time since we brought her back made everyone’s night.
I get back to the club with a bunch of greasy food for the three of us, and Gatorade and coffee for Krista. I head into my room, and Krista is over the toilet vomiting.
When she comes out of the bathroom, she smells the food and stills. “Give me that coffee. Hopefully I won’t throw it up. I don’t remember getting drunk like that before. At least, I don’t remember ever puking the next day,” she says before taking a small sip of coffee, probably to see if it’s going to make her sick.
Once she feels like she isn’t going to be sick, we all sit and eat.
Before any of us can speak, there is a knock at the door. “Brothers. Church, now,” a voice says loudly from the other side of the door.
Bullet and I get up and give Krista a quick kiss before leaving.
We head into Church. Every brother is there.
“Tech pulled the information on Brent Manns last night. This morning, we were able to get a couple pictures of him. Tech believes that he found his connection to the Devil’s Souls,” Prez says.
Tech pulls a file out and throws it on the table.
“Brent Manns is the missing Vicious Snake we have been hunting,” he says in a growl.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Damien asks grabbing the folder.
“Brent Manns is also known as Cutter,” Tech spits out venomously.
There is a bunch of shocked faces around the table.
Holy shit, the betraying brother is also Camilla’s ex-bo
yfriend. Why did we not bother to ask any more details on her kidnapping? As hard as it was for her to explain, she had the key to finding him all along.
“It seems that he has been hanging around Camilla’s family asking if they have seen or heard from her. He’s acting like a concerned, heartbroken boyfriend. The men he is working with don’t seem to know that it was us who took the women and the boss from that warehouse. Pretty fucking stupid if you ask me. They have been trying to search clubs to find them. They think that we have the women hiding in some sort of secret location,” Tech adds.
The picture reveals Cutter. His tattoos are covered, and he isn’t wearing any cut, but it’s definitely him. His arm is around a grinning Camilla . “This was taken off her social media before she disappeared. There are a lot of posts of a distraught boyfriend looking for the love of his life,” he says with a roll of his eyes.
“This guy is a real piece of work. He’s the fucking reason she has been missing for months and he’s just playing up the image. I have to wonder why he would do such a thing. Why the fuck did he sell his woman?” Steal says angrily.
“We can ask him that once we capture him. Now that we have his real name instead of the fake one he gave to us, we were able to find him. He has a place just outside the city. We can catch him off guard since he doesn’t think that we know his real name,” Prez says.
There is a lot of anger flooding the room. I know that everyone is trying to hold in their rage.
We are close to catching this fucker. When we get him to our clubhouse, he’s going to wish that he was dead.
Tech pulls out everything he knows about Brent Manns. There is a lot of information around Camilla’s disappearance. He really played up missing her; you wouldn’t have known that he was the reason that she was gone. If I didn’t know the story then I would want to believe him too; that’s how fucking well he pulled it off.
Fortunately, he was seen just yesterday at a bar in the city. He’s a fool if he didn’t think that we would find him. Especially since we have Camilla . It took time to hear her story, but she was in the hospital under a different name that Tech came up with on the spot. That brother is fucking smart. I don’t know how he came up with that so fast.
I just hope that he fucking leads us to the rest of the Devil’s Souls so that we can get rid of them once and for all.
Bullet
It has been a few hours since we first found out Cutter’s whereabouts, but we had to make sure that the women were taken care of by trusted brothers while Pyro, Damien, Steal, Torch, Bear, Prez, Crash, Kid, Stitch and I left for the city.
We took a van that one of Stitch’s brothers had ready for us. The van wouldn’t be traced back to us.
We needed every advantage we could get to catch Cutter unaware.
The stupid fuck has a house on an acreage outside of town. We pull up far enough away in the woods so that he, or anyone else that he has in his home, won’t hear us coming.
It’s quite a walk but we are ready to go. We set up a line around the house in the bushes. There is enough of us to adequately spread out.
I hear laugher in the house and a bunch of voices. Cutter isn’t the only one in the home.
The lights are on, but it doesn’t look like a party.
Two figures step out of the house, and I make sure not to make a sound.
“They better quit fucking around. We need to find those bitches,” one voice says.
“The boss is gone. Why do you still care if we grab the women?” another voice asks.
“Because it’s our fucking job. We can’t let those bitches get away because we are going to look weak and like we can’t handle our own shit. How else are we going to rebuild our club if we can’t repair what Demon and those assholes lost? Now we are all hiding out just so that we don’t get fucking caught by the Snakes. We need to get stronger to take them down. Three greedy fucking bastards had to mess with the plan. Now we are fucking stuck here until we find out the Vicious Snakes’ next move.”
The other voice speaks up. “Fuck, you’re right. Where would they hide them? There is no way that they would keep them at the club if they knew that we were after them. Been there before and shot the fucking place up, so they will be expecting that again.”
I shake my head. These guys are fucking idiots. Talking about a plan while you are out in the open is amateur hour. We now have even more information. Also, their assumption that we aren’t hiding the women in the club is also naive. We knew that it would be smart to hide the girls in plain sight.
When my phone vibrates saying everyone is in place, I make my move.
I shoot my gun at the fucker who was so eager to get the women back in his arms. The other guy tries to pull his gun to shoot in the direction that I shot at, but I get to him first. They both fall down, and the back door opens with a dozen Devil’s Souls holding their guns in the air.
I have Crash a few feet to my right who begins shooting back at them, and a couple brothers from the sides also start shooting their guns.
I try to duck down low to make sure that no bullets get me.
I know that the front of the house is being stormed by Steal, Damien, and Torch.
I watch as more Devil’s Souls fall to the ground, but a few more come running out the back. I’m guessing that the guys made it in the house because they aren’t looking where they are going.
We definitely came prepared for this.
One comes out from the side and starts shooting.
Unfortunately, I notice too late.
I feel the bullet when it hits its intended target.
I fall over in pain.
Fuck, I forgot how much this hurts.
They don’t call me “Bullet” for nothing.
Blood is gushing from my stomach and my hand goes to where I was hit.
I fall to my knees. It’s only seconds later when everything goes black.
Chapter Twenty-One
Krista
I get a call from Declan to get Shield to take me to the hospital.
I can barely move after he says the words. It’s not until Sophie comes in the room holding her phone that she gets me to move.
If Declan is telling me that I need to get to the hospital, that means something happened to Blake, right?
My mind fills with all sorts of thoughts; none of which are good.
Sophie and a prospect take me to the hospital.
I don’t remember the ride there but, before I know it, we are pulling up with Sophie holding my hand.
Sophie finds the brothers in the waiting room and, as soon as I see Declan, I run into his arms.
“What happened? Where’s Blake?” I ask in a rush.
“He was shot. We got him here as soon as we could. They rushed him off to surgery. There was no exit wound, so the bullet is still inside. We won’t know any more for a few hours,” he says holding me tighter when I let out a small sob.
I don’t know how long we sit in the waiting room, probably hours, but I won’t leave when one of my men is in there.
Brothers come and go to eat and check on their women; however, once the women found out what was going on, there was nothing stopping them from checking on the status of Blake. They took turns watching the kids.
I’m exhausted and a mess.
I don’t know what I would do if Blake didn’t make it out of the surgery.
Finally, after what feels like forever, a doctor comes into the room.
“Blake Andrews,” he says, and every single one of us stands. I don’t miss how the doctor’s eyes go wide.
“We are all here for Blake,” Prez says coming to the front.
The doctor swallows hard, eyeing everyone before telling us about Blake’s condition.
“Blake is in stable condition. He lost a lot of blood, so we had to give him a transfusion. He’s resting in recovery right now and we expect him to make a full recovery. Once he is in a regular room, I will send a nurse to let you see him. Please, only two pe
ople at a time until he gets the rest he needs,” he says, and then walks out of the waiting room.
Prez starts sending people home, but I firmly shake my head. I’m not going anywhere.
I’m thankful that Declan doesn’t try to make me leave, but I’m guessing that he needs to stay for the same reasons that I do.
Sophie and Trigger sit with us and barely leave our sides. At one point, Trigger goes to get us coffee. I’m sure that everyone else would have stayed too, but they have little kids who need their moms and dads.
I tried to tell Sophie and Trigger that they could go, but they weren’t having it. Sophie told me that I would do the same for her, so she’s staying to take care of Pyro and me.
It’s late when Blake is finally in his own room.
The nurse comes to get us. Declan and I head into Blake’s room. As soon as my eyes land on Blake, I can feel the tension leave my body.
He looks a little pale, but he’s resting and I’m sure he’s not in any pain. I sit on the edge of his bed and grab his hand in mine.
“Thank God you’re okay. I was worried there for a second,” I say with a strained voice; there’s a crack in my words and I can’t help the tears that flow.
Declan comes up behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders.
“He’s okay, baby. You didn’t lose him,” he says softly.
I nod my head, but I still break out in a sob.
“I know, but I can’t help but wonder what if I had? He’s so important to me. You both are,” I say.
Declan kisses the side of my head.
“It’s okay, baby. Let’s sit back in the chair and wait for him to wake up. I won’t bother trying to make you leave because I know that you won’t until you see him awake yourself,” he says pulling his chair close to the bed so that I don’t have to let go of Blake’s hand.
I sit on his lap and rest my head against his chest.
I fall asleep with both my men. I’m happy and calm now that I know that they are both alive.