Undone

by Brook Wilder

  He had set Diesel up. Diesel was going to die.

  “You’re in the middle of a war, Amber,” Carlos went on. “Something you shouldn’t be. Don’t even contemplate a happy future, even if Jacobsen lives.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “He’s not a happily-ever-after kind of man. Never has been. And he loves to be in control. Everything has to be his way or no way at all, haven’t you noticed?”

  I clenched my fists by my thighs. I did know. And I was seeing that side of Diesel I didn’t like.

  “And you think I should go back to Khloe and be handed over to Torchev?”

  Carlos shook his head. “I’m not saying that. But, at least, Khloe will have your best interests at heart. She doesn’t show it, but she does.”

  I didn’t really believe that. But now I was beginning to wonder if Carlos was right. He never minced words with me, and nothing had been cryptic. He wouldn’t lie to me now. Would he?

  I stumbled to my feet. The world tilted, but I managed to stay upright. “I have to go.”

  “I know you have to. And I know you can’t let me go.” Carlos’ jaw tightened as he stared at me. “Don’t trust Jacobsen, Amber. He’ll turn you over as easily as snapping his fingers.”

  I didn’t say anything, hurrying out of the room. I managed to lock the door and hung the key up again. Then I stumbled up into the main house, falling to my knees in the hall as I burst into tears.

  Carlos had spoon-fed Diesel false information. Now Diesel was going to be killed on that. And Carlos had no remorse.

  Was he right about Diesel and Khloe? Khloe had controlled me and almost everything I did. I thought getting away with Diesel was the best option. Diesel was, after all, the father of my baby and he wouldn’t kill me for being pregnant. But had I just traded being controlled by one person for another?

  I didn’t want to think so. I shouldn’t have listened. But now Carlos had got inside of my head, and the seeds of doubt have now taken root.

  I didn’t know what to do now. Or if Diesel was going to come back alive. Was I about to be in a house alone with a cartel member? Or was I going to end up being a puppet for the man I thought I was in love with?

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Diesel

  “How many do you count?” I asked.

  Beside me, Julius Cartwright was lying prone on the ground, watching the scene below us with a pair of binoculars. We were up on a cliff-side, looking down into a valley. Below us, the cartel was moving about, looking like it was gearing up for a confrontation.

  I wouldn’t have been surprised if the Russians had come along and started a fight just for fun. Torchev was a sadistic bastard.

  “I count fifteen of them, at the very most.”

  I smirked. “Against our twenty, this will be far too easy.”

  “If you say so.” Julius lowered the binoculars with a frown. “I wonder why Ruiz wants this many men to meet the Russians. Where’s the weaponry they were supposed to transfer across? It looks like he’s expecting a fight.”

  “Maybe he is.” I grunted, wiping the sweat off my forehead with my bandana. “Torchev is a suspicious bastard, and he’s always spoiling for a fight.”

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  I caught sight of Terry Sheffield across the valley on the other ridge. Terry signaled that he was still ready, and I saw the ten men I had sent with him dotted along the rise. Everyone was armed, ready to go. The anticipation in the air was incredibly strong, so strong that I could feel it rippling along my skin.

  “Can you see Ruiz?” I asked.

  Julius scanned the cartel throng below again. “No, not yet. Looks like he’s not arrived yet.”

  “When he gets here, we’ll pounce.”

  “Okay.”

  Julius was gearing up for a fight. He was an erratic man who loved to have a brawl, but he was a loyal soldier alongside me, which was what I needed.

  At least someone was ready. I was nervous. This was something I used to do day in, day out, when he was a soldier. This had been my bread and butter. But there was something else eating away at me. Something in the back of my mind that said this wasn’t right, that this felt far too easy.

  It had been the way that Noah had managed to extract the information from Herrera. I had been doing it for hours, and nothing. Yet moments after Noah went in, we got the information we needed.

  That didn’t sit well with me. Something was not quite solid. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be as easy as the others were thinking.

  After what felt like an age, another car arrived, a big black jeep. It was Ruiz’s personal vehicle. I nudged Julius. “There he is.”

  “Where are the Russians?” Julius whispered.

  “Not due here for a while, if Herrera’s information is correct.” Why did I say that? I checked my rifle. “Look sharp, we’ve got two minutes.”

  Even as Julius called Terry and relayed the news, I could feel the unease in my belly. This was far too easy. The cartel wouldn’t stick themselves in a valley like this; Ruiz was far too shrewd for that. I would always have a back-up plan. These meetings would always be in open spaces.

  But I couldn’t doubt it now. We needed to pounce now and wipe them out. If possible, I wanted to be the one who put a bullet through Ruiz’s head.

  I tapped Julius on the shoulder. “Guns up, let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Diesel

  The whole thing had been a fiasco. It had been a trap. And I hadn’t realized until too late. The moment I saw Ruiz smirk at me, I knew we were the ones in a trap, not the cartel.

  Fifteen men against twenty bikers, the bikers would have won. But my heart had sank to my boots when I saw twenty more cartel men appear out of nowhere and open fire. Ruiz had jumped back into his jeep and torn his way out of the valley. I tried to follow, but the gunfire kept him down.

  We were massacred. The other nineteen had been mown down before they knew what was happening. Even Julius, who had managed to get back up again to fight, but then he had been shot three more times before taking one to the face. I still had his blood on my clothes, on my skin. I had cradled the young man’s ruined face in my arms as the his life gurgled away out there.

  How I had managed to get out of that without being killed myself, I still have no idea. Maybe there was a reason I had been left alive. Was Ruiz trying to send a message? Whatever it was, the ambush had been planned. Their trap had worked perfectly.

  I was still shaking as I stumbled back to my bike and went back home. Now I knew why Herrera had given up that information so quickly to Noah. It was the cartel’s back-up plan. They knew Herrera had been taken and had a strategy in place. Ruiz had wanted them to have the rug pulled out from under them.

  That bastard was going to pay. I would make sure of it.

  I tore into the front yard and barely stopped the engine before I climbed off, forgetting to put the stand down. Right now, I didn’t care if my bike was damaged when it fell over. I ran into the house, barging through the door.

  “Diesel?”

  Amber came through from the kitchen. She was wearing a white vest with a light gray cardigan and black leggings. Her hair was freshly washed, and she looked more wide awake. I didn’t have time to duck out of sight before she me him. Her eyes widened, and she let out a scream. She ran to me.

  “Oh, God, Diesel! What happened?”

  I caught her wrists before she got too close, setting her away from me.

  “It’s not my blood. Go to our room, Amber.”

  “What?”

  “Now!” I growled, and Amber jumped back with a shriek. I felt a stab of pain as Amber scampered from me, but I was too angry to care much.

  “Go!”

  Amber trembled. Then she staggered back and ran to the stairs. I didn’t even wait for her to disappear onto the landing. I hauled open the basement door and charged down the stairs. My hands were still shaking as I unlocked the door to the torture
room, kicking it open. Herrera was still as we had left him, now slumped over asleep in the chair.

  He wasn’t going to sleep for much longer. I snapped out a kick, catching Herrera in the face. His head snapped back, blood spraying across Diesel and hitting the ceiling.

  “You bastard!”

  Herrera groaned loudly and lowered his head. His nose was broken, blood covering his mouth and dripping off his chin. He smirked. “You’re still alive. You have far too many lives to spare, Jacobsen.”

  I punched him, sending more blood splattering across the floor. “You fucking bastard!” he bellowed. “You knew it was a trap! All of them, dead! Because of you!”

  Herrera snorted, spitting blood onto the floor. Then he looked up at me. “You really are as dumb as you look, Diesel.”

  “Says the man who’s tied down in a chair in virtually nothing.”

  “You thought I was going to give you fuckers the right information to stop you from beating me? I would never give away Fernandez like that, and he knows it.”

  I was seething. The bastard had played us and had played us big-time. Now nineteen of us were dead, and I was hanging onto my sanity by a thread. I grabbed my gun from the back of my jeans, took off the safety, and pointed it at Herrera’s face.

  “Well, your lies have just sealed your fate,” I hissed.

  Herrera looked at the gun, and then up at me. There was nothing in him that showed fear. If anything, he was confident. Arrogant, even. Like he had all the cards and was about to play the winning hand. Herrera leant forward as much as the bonds would let him and sneered at me.

  “What are you going to do now, Jacobsen?” he goaded. “You going to shoot me in the head? Make it quick? Or are you going to shoot me where I can bleed out. Slowly and painfully. You kill me, and you’ve sealed your fate. Fernandez will kill you for taking my life.”

  “He cares that much for a bodyguard?”

  “We look after our own. One of us dies, it’s not brushed under the rug.”

  “Much like us.” I didn’t lower the gun. I wasn’t scared of the cartel; I was past the point of caring. “I’ll take the risk. I’m sure I can take them on.”

  “On your own?”

  “If I have to, yes.”

  Herrera arched an eyebrow. Then I sat back with a mirthless laugh.

  “Oh, really? And what about Amber? You think you can hide this from her? You think she’s not going to end up in the middle of this mess after your actions right now?”

  I growled. I wasn’t about to discuss Amber. The man might have ended up in Amber’s presence, but that was not going to happen anymore. No member of the cartel was going to touch her.

  “What she doesn’t know can’t hurt her,” I snarled.

  “Are you sure about that?” Herrera shot back. “She knows I’m here. That girl of yours. She’s seen me for herself. She’s not a fool, Amber isn’t. Not by a long shot. She knows I’m down here trussed up like a turkey, and she knows what you’ve been doing to me.”

  “Shut up.”

  He was trying to put me on the back foot. It wasn’t going to work. Amber didn’t know about Herrera, I had made sure of it. There was no way she would have been able to get in there. Herrera was just trying to shake me up.

  It wasn’t happening.

  “You want to keep her like a possession,” Herrera sneered. He seemed to be on a roll now. “She’s pregnant with your baby, so she belongs to you in your eyes. Problem is, she now belongs to Torchev, and he’s not one for bringing biker bastards into the world.” The bastard laughed. He laughed! “That baby will be dead before it takes its first breath.”

  That made me feel cold. I fired a shot at the back wall, inches away from Herrera’s head. The man didn’t even blink.

  I focused back on Herrera. “Anyone touches that baby and there will be hell to pay.”

  “I don’t doubt that.” Herrera’s eyes glinted. With the blood on his face, he was looking maniacal. “What are you so scared about more, Jacobsen? Losing the baby, or losing Amber? Because once Torchev knows that she’s let a biker get her pregnant, she’s dead as well.”

  “Amber’s not going anywhere,” I growled. “I won’t let her.”

  “And what about what she wants?” Herrera pointed out. “Does she want to stay here with you? Or does she want something more meaningful in life? Without you?”

  “Shut up.”

  I didn’t want to listen anymore, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger. Herrera seemed to have struck a chord with me, and the bastard knew it.

  “Amber would be a good mother,” Herrera went on. He seemed to be growing in confidence. “I know that. And that baby will not go without. But with you there in the picture, Amber would have to look over her shoulder to protect her child. She doesn’t deserve that.”

  “You make it sound like you admire her.”

  “I do. She’s a lot like my little sister. And my Carla died when she got involved with a biker.” Herrera’s lip curled in a sneer, more blood dripping off his chin. “That man didn’t last long once I found out about it.”

  I could feel my chest tightening. The thought of losing Amber was more terrifying than I cared to admit. And from the look on his face, Herrera knew it. He was stripping me down, and I wasn’t stopping him.

  I gritted my teeth. “Amber’s not going to die.”

  Herrera barked out a laugh. His eyes flickered over my shoulder towards the door, and his smirk widened.

  “Unless you love her, you should not be saying that. Because if you loved her, you would let her go. The cartel will know that you escaped by now, and they’ll be on their way here. You can’t afford to let her get in the way.”

  I had enough. No one was coming near Amber. And Herrera wasn’t going to take her. I didn’t want to listen anymore.

  The shot rang around the room, making my ears ring. The bullet hit Herrera in the left eye, jerked his head back, and then he slumped over, blood pouring onto his lap. It slid over his legs and onto the floor, forming a pool around the chair. It felt like the whole room was different, now Herrera wasn’t sneering. The room was silent.

  Then I heard a whimper behind me. My heart was sinking when I turned and saw Amber in the doorway, her face ashen as she stared at Herrera’s body. How long had she been there? Had she heard everything?

  Amber looked up at me. There was terror in her eyes. I had seen it before, but never directed at me. She began to shake.

  “You killed him.”

  “Amber…”

  I tried to go to her, but Amber backed away so fast she bumped into the wall. Her hands were up to ward me off.

  “Keep away from me, Diesel!”

  I stopped in the doorway, and put my gun on a bench out of Amber’s sight. Seeing her in pain was making me feel sick. It was a sight I hated.

  “You shouldn’t be down here, Amber.”

  “Oh, really?” Amber cried. “Neither should Carlos! He shouldn’t be here at all! And now…” She waved a hand towards the room. “He didn’t deserve that.”

  “He was from the cartel.”

  “That’s not a reason to kill him!” Amber shrieked. She was crying now. “He was my friend, Diesel!”

  “You make friends with cartel bodyguards?”

  “He treated me with respect. Something a lot of my clients never did.”

  That made me feel sick. “You mean to say you slept with him?”

  “Of course, I didn’t! I was for company, in his case. All we’d do was talk.” Amber tossed her hair over her shoulder. “We’re not just for sex, you know.”

  “Like I’m going to believe that,” I snorted.

  Her shock was beginning to fade. Now the fury was building. I couldn’t deny it was a turn-on. The only thing stopping me from fucking Amber against the wall was the look on her face; she would happily gut me if I came too close.

  “He gave you the wrong information, which you should have checked out first,” Amber cried.

&
nbsp; I snarled. “And you’re telling me how to do my job now?”

  “Clearly, someone needs to. You’ve never been this reckless before.”

  “How would you know?”

  “Because I know you!” Amber shot back. “He might have fed you the information that killed your friends, but you didn’t have to kill him like that.”

  Her hands were balling into fists. She looked close to taking a swing at me.

  “This is a turf war, Amber,” I said in a low voice. “You wouldn’t know anything about it.”