“If you need me to be there when you tell him, or answer any questions either of you have, talk about the next steps, anything at all — just give me a call.”
“Thank you, Bones,” I nodded. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Yes,” he replied, gently.
“Okay,” I sighed, as I stood up, my knees shaking.
A knot formed in my stomach. I wasn’t ready for this today.
My God, look at my life.
Now this?
How would I fit this into my world, when Solid Ground already consumes so much of my time? Tears filled my eyes as I doubted every choice I’d ever made in my life.
Had I chosen the wrong path in life? Had I been selfish to chase this dream, leaving all other lifestyles so far out of reach?
How would Ryder handle this?
I shuddered to think of his face when I told him. He’s a good man, but he won’t take it well.
“The sooner you tell him, the better, Grace,” Bones gently reminded me, for the third time, as he wrapped his arms around me with a huge bear hug.
“You okay to go home by yourself?” He asked.
“I’m okay,” I nodded. “I’ll see you this weekend?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he said, referring to our Sunday family dinner that we had at the clubhouse every week. “Maybe you’ll have told Ryder by then and we can talk about it.”
I nodded, but I knew I probably wouldn’t tell him by then.
It was too soon.
I needed time to wrap my head around this.
“It’s not real. Not yet,” I whispered later, staring in the mirror of our bathroom at home. None of this felt real. It felt like a dream, like it was all happening to someone else. Someone much more prepared to handle this than me.
I took a deep breath, trying to shake it off. I needed to appear normal. Ryder and I were so close. If I wasn’t careful, he’d know something was up.
I took another deep breath and opened the bathroom door, Ryder’s face startling me as he stood waiting outside the door. I let out a little yelp and my heart raced in my chest.
“You okay, babe?” He asked, his warm eyes full of loving concern.
“Absolutely,” I said, my voice a little too high.
“I just got a call from Riot,” he said, his brow wrinkling. “Slade and Bullet seem to be missing.”
“Missing? What do you mean?”
“They’ve just vanished. Apparently, after the job ended yesterday, they went for a ride, but they never showed back up. Diana called Riot and told him Slade never made it to dinner. Bullet should have come back to the clubhouse, but nobody’s seen him either.”
The hair stood up on the back of my neck and my stomach churned.
“That’s not good,” I replied.
“No. No, it’s not. Riot’s calling the police to make sure they weren’t arrested or didn’t have an accident. I’m getting the guys together to form a search party. We’re headed out in just a few minutes. Want to come with me?”
“I think I should stay here,” I said. “Stay in touch with me. Let me know if I need to do anything. I’ll call Diana.”
“Okay, love,” he said, kissing me on the forehead, before turning and walking out the front door of our cabin. It closed behind him and I stood alone, staring after him.
My fingers were trembling and the feelings rushing through my body overwhelmed me. Nothing felt any different and yet nothing was the same.
“Pull it together,” I whispered to myself, grabbing my phone and dialing Diana’s number. This wasn’t the time for me to break down with fear or worry.
Slade and Bullet needed me to be strong. And if one of us was in need, we were all in need. There was nothing we wouldn’t do to help each other.
“Diana, it’s Grace,” I said, after she answered.
“Grace, thank God,” she said. “I’m so worried.”
“The guys are on it, take a deep breath,” I said. “Let’s not jump to conclusions until we know something. In the meantime, I think you and Jeremiah need to come stay at the clubhouse. It’s the safest place for you and it’s what Slade would want. Do you want me to come pick you up?”
“As much as I hate doing that, you’re right,” she agreed. “Let me pack up and I’ll be there in a few hours. I can drive us over. Thank you, Grace.”
“Of course. We’re family,” I replied.
My heart fluttered as I hung up the phone.
I’d woken up this morning thinking it was just any other day.
I should have known better than to think it would end that way, too.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LIBBY
I stared at the apples with pure hatred.
Red, shiny, and perfectly formed, they sat in a pile in the corner, the bottom ones beginning to rot.
I’d been imprisoned for ten days now in this dank basement and the apples were the only indicator of exactly how much time has passed. With the windows boarded up from the outside, daylight had no way of getting in, making it impossible for me to calculate how many days I’ve been down here.
But those damned apples didn’t lie.
Every day, the crazy woman who was keeping me hostage delivered breakfast, along with one, perfect shiny apple. And no matter how much I told her my name was Libby, she insisted on calling me Eve.
If that wasn’t enough to let me know she was crazy, her eyes just reinforced the fact. Wild, frantic, and constantly darting around, her big hazel green orbs stared widely at me with a mixture of fascination and adoration that made my skin crawl.
Don’t get me wrong, the food was actually great, but it certainly didn’t make up for the fact that I was being held hostage for some unknown reason. At first, I resisted eating anything at all. Partly, because I was afraid it might be poisoned, but also because I was mad as hell. I was still angry, but the raw anger now came in waves. Rage like that just isn’t sustainable for days on end. It dissipates, crawls under your skin and resides there like a monster just waiting for the right moment to pounce. After a few days, hunger overcame that rage.
I ate.
Some days it was a veggie omelette. A few times she brought down blueberry pancakes. Twice, it was scrambled eggs and bacon. Always healthy and organic and fresh, displayed artfully on a bamboo tray with a tiny crystal vase with one single red rose sticking out of it and that damned, dreaded apple sitting next to the rose like a mocking gift.
When I heard the key in the lock, I figured it must be morning again. Shielding my eyes from the sudden light pouring down the staircase and blinking through my fingers, I waiting for Mona to stroll down the stairs with the tray of food like some kind of twisted Martha Stewart, just as she did each morning.
But today was different.
Instead of food, Mona and her burly goon, Zane, delivered something entirely new. I stood with my mouth open, watching Zane and another man carry two more passed-out men down the stairs one at a time. They deposited them together on the mattress in the tiny second bedroom.
I stood still, watching in confusion and fear.
While I didn’t know what she had in mind for me, she’d treated me like a queen so far. Nobody had laid a hand on me, despite my worse fears of being raped or beaten or killed.
But now, I had no idea what was happening. Adding two strange men changed everything.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, as Zane and Mona stood over them as the other man walked back up the stairs and closed the door behind him.
“You have a few roommates now,” Mona said, an eerie smile spreading across her face. Her eyes were illuminated with glee as she stared down at them. “Aren’t they adorable?”
They were huge. Massive, amazonian men. I would never have called them ‘adorable’.
Both of them wore leather biker vests emblazoned with patches. The guy on the right had a shaved head, but the other one had long, blonde hair that concealed his face.
“Bikers?” I asked. Mona and Zane turned to
leave and I panicked. “You can’t leave me here alone with them!”
The comfort I’d found in the fact that I’d not yet been hurt quickly faded.
“Relax, Eve,” she replied coolly, smiling at me over her shoulder as she ascended the stairs, “I can see everything with the cameras. They won’t hurt you. And if they wake up, Zane and I will be back.”
“Mona, please,” I begged. “Just let me go.”
“Eve, darling, don’t worry,” she cooed, “I would never let anything happen to you.”
“But —.” The door slammed before I could finish. I wanted to tell her that I wouldn’t tell. I wanted to somehow convince her to trust me, that I wouldn’t tell anyone what she’d done, if she’d just release me. But she never stayed long enough to have a real conversation and she never answered any of my questions.
She just kept bringing me food and calling me Eve and now…this.
I turned back to the two men. They were out cold, but they were breathing. They appeared to not have a scratch on them, so I assumed they must have been drugged. Guys like this don’t let themselves be locked up without a fight.
I considered trying to shake them or make some noise to wake them up, but if they hadn’t woken up while they were picked up and moved all the way down here from God knows where, I figured shaking them wouldn’t do any good, either.
I would just have to wait.
In the meantime, I took advantage of their unconsciousness and took a closer look.
The patches on their vests told me their names. Slade and Bullet. They were slathered in tattoos, every visible inch of their skin covered with visions of demons and monsters and guns and countless things I couldn’t really make out.
They would have made the toughest man shudder in fear.
My eyes crawled over their skin, inspecting every inch I could see. The bottom half of a bright red heart peeked out from under Slade’s black t-shirt.
With trembling fingers, I reached down, carefully lifting the fabric from his bicep to see the rest.
I smiled when I saw the heart was lined with barbed-wire. The name “Diana” was scrolled on top and the name “Jeremiah” was on the bottom. My eyes shot down looking for a wedding ring, and instead found a huge skull ring staring back up at me with twinkling ruby eyes.
I released the edge of his t-shirt and turned to Bullet. His face was covered by his tangled hair, so I reached down and pushed it away gently to get a good look at him.
Stunned, I took a step back.
He was gorgeous, even in slumber. High cheekbones and a strong jaw framed his handsome face. My eyes trailed down, drinking in his wide shoulders and widening at the sight of his huge biceps that were the size of my thighs. Bullet’s hands were strong and large, but there was no sight of a ring having ever resided on his long fingers.
I took a deep breath and turned away, walking out of the bedroom. As I always did, I ran up the stairs and jimmied the doorknob, hoping that Mona or Zane might have accidentally left the door unlocked, but just like always, it was locked up tightly.
I sat on the stairs, keeping my gaze on the bedroom door. Eventually, those sleeping behemoths would wake up and I would have to deal with them.
For ten days, I’d been waiting for something else to happen, dreading the beginning of each day imprisoned down here, because I was sure something bad was coming for me. People don’t get kidnapped just for fun, I knew that. I also knew I didn’t have any rich relatives, so getting money for me wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t pry any answers from Mona, so it was all a mystery.
None of this made any sense whatsoever and I’d been racking my brain trying to make some sort of sense out of it, half-waiting for another shoe to drop.
Not once, in all that time, did I imagine she’d drop two burly bikers in my lap.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SLADE
Drums pounded in my head. Loud, angry, incessant banging that tore through my skull like a freight train. I groaned in pain, residing in a deep darkness that drowned me in despair. My eyes wouldn’t open, no matter how hard I tried.
A cold, black abyss washed over me, as visions danced around in my brain, lighting up the darkness.
Diana’s smile, my son’s hand in mine, the sound of his laughter, the smell of her hair…
I clenched my fist, attempting to raise my arm to reach for them, but my arm stayed still, buried under the dead weight of my body.
Piercing pain shot through my head again, the feeling of softness rubbing against my cheek.
Nothing made sense but the darkness.
I groaned again, the sound of the drums far away and small — too far, too small…
I sank back into it.
The only comfort I could find was to give in to the darkness, to let it blanket me with blackness, to go back to its sweet embrace, escape the pain…
CHAPTER NINE
BULLET
The bullet pierced my chest.
Replaying the past in my mind like a movie, I watched as the bullet tore open my skin and then reversed course, shooting back out and stopping in mid-air, only to reverse direction again and shoot back through me.
Over and over and over again…
It was all I could see.
I knew it was a dream.
There was no blood. Just skin, muscle and hot, piercing metal — contracting, invading and extracting.
There was no trigger.
No gun.
No smoke.
Nothing existed, just me and that one bullet.
Dancing together like we’d become willing partners in a macabre tango of death.
Only I didn’t die.
I just watched until I wasn’t there anymore and the softness of the quiet darkness took over, willing me back into the deepest slumber, leaving me lost in an endless nightmare…
CHAPTER TEN
MONA
“Miss Mona, they may be waking up,” Zane said, gently tapping on the door of my bedroom. I nodded and stood up, glancing at the monitors in the corner. Indeed, the two men were stirring. “What do you want me to do?”
“They’ll be angry,” I said.
“I can deal with anger,” he replied.
I turned to him with a smile, “Your confidence is always so comforting, Zane.”
“Thank you, Miss Mona,” he nodded.
Zane was so valuable to me. Willing to do anything I asked, always professional, always available. Not to mention he was intimidating as hell. He walked with the confidence of a warrior, always ready to protect me. “Shall I go down there?”
“I’ll go with you,” I said. “They’ll have questions.”
Silently, he followed me through the house, past all the treasures I’d filled it with within the last few months. Paintings and sculptures, mostly, with a few pieces of antique furnishings sprinkled around. I’d painted all the walls pitch black, just like the walls of my apartment in Portland — a perfect backdrop to highlight my beloved art.
Tucked a few acres back in the woods behind the rest of the buildings I now proudly owned, this house was invisible to anyone who didn’t know it was there. I’d chosen it for that very reason. Someday, my little town would be bustling with energy and people, and I knew I’d want my privacy.
Plus, it was a charming house — a white Victorian cottage, with three bedrooms and a large wrap-around porch flanked with intricately carved columns. All that was missing was a white-picket fence. Large fir trees surrounded it instead, creating a canopy of shade that kept it cool in the summer and completely hidden year-round.
Plus, it had a two-bedroom apartment in the basement. It was the perfect place to rest while I made all my dreams come true.
As I walked down the hallway, a surge of anticipation rushed through me. It was very possible these two men wouldn’t work out, but what if they did? They looked virile enough. Strong enough. In fact, not only did they appear strong, but they were hot as fuck, which was a strict necessity.
N
obody wanted an ugly baby, and I certainly didn’t want to populate my new town with ugly babies that would grow up to be ugly people.
No, good genes were essential.
As Zane opened the door to the basement, I brushed past him, nodding at him gratefully. If it wasn’t for him, none of this would be possible.
We’d met in prison, a lifetime ago.
He was a guard. I was an inmate.
As I stared up into his patient eyes now, my heart swelled with love for him. I loved him, but like a big brother. I suspect, in the beginning, he felt something more for me, but I latched onto him in a strictly platonic way, insisting it stay that way once I served my time.
I mused about how much time had passed. It truly was a lifetime ago.
“Look at us,” I said. “Living out our dreams finally.”
“Yes,” he nodded, his eyes softening. We’d spent many nights discussing our vision, planning, plotting, finding a way to make it work. For a long time, it was just that — a dream. But now it’s real. “We’re doing it.”
I nodded and put my mask back on — that face that takes no bullshit, stern and serious and determined, with not a speck of softness showing. Only Zane saw that, because he was the only person I could really trust.
In the basement, I was all business.
Eve sat in the corner of the kitchen, her eyes full of alarm, tears running down her cheeks.
“Darling, I told you I wouldn’t let them hurt you,” I said, as I came down the stairs. I leaned down in front of her, caressing her face and wiping the tears away. “You look so worried.”
“How the hell do I know what’s happening? You won’t answer any of my —.”
“Hush.” I put up a hand to silence her and stood up. “I don’t want to hear it.”
I walked into the bedroom where the two bikers were still completely dazed, but they were moving around on the bed a little, a groan escaping from their lips occasionally.
“They’ll probably still be out of it for a little while,” Zane said. “That shit we gave them is really strong.”
CAGED: GODS OF CHAOS (BOOK TEN) (Gods of Chaos MC 10) Page 3