Struck in the Crossfire (BERZERKERS MC Book 1)

by Linny Lawless

  I grunted and chuckled. “You should have a little more faith in your ole man, Izzy.”

  Marie sat on the top bunk bed. “I told her you’d come back for us, Stryker. Because you love each other.”

  Love? After Kage and Sadie were killed, I was empty—a walking, breathing mechanical thing. I felt nothing. I fucked women just to feel a little human. But Izzy put a tick into my dead heart, and I felt alive again. Is this how Kage felt with Sadie? I saw the fear in his eyes and in his heart when he found out he was going to be a father.

  “I’ve never been afraid to fight or kill. But I’m scared to fucking death about being a father.”

  Now that Sinister Creed was annihilated, I knew a war was coming. Outlaws didn’t give up their business, territory, and all they owned without a bloody fight. And just like with Kage, my weakness would be his first target.

  I pulled Izzy’s tight grip around my shoulders and cupped her chin to look at her eyes stained with tears. Tears for me. “You and Marie pack the bags you brought. I’m taking you both up to my cabin.”

  I led Izzy and Marie as they drove and followed me, with Squatch riding close behind an hour away up to my cabin. I’d only been there a few times after Kage and Sadie were killed. As I turned onto the dirt road and parked, the horror of that night came flooding back into my head.

  I unlatched the combo lock on the doorknob and went in with Squatch to check out the place to make sure it was safe for Izzy and Marie. The power was shut off, but there was running water from a well, and a fireplace with wood for heat. We grabbed a few flashlights from a pantry and checked all the rooms.

  I showed Marie a small bedroom where she could sleep, and we found some candles to light up some of the rooms for the night. Squatch sat outside on the front porch on a wooden bench to start his watch. I lit the fireplace with some dried logs and sat on the old musty couch, cradling Izzy in my lap.

  I felt her soft breath against my neck. “I feared you, Stryker. I dreaded you. I saw you as I did all the other men that hurt me, hurt Marie. But you’ve shown us kindness. I’ll admit it to you now that I fell in love with you the moment you came into Durango’s that first night.”

  She snuggled up closer as her soft ass wiggled on my lap, making me hard for her. I wanted to sink myself deep inside her, possess her, and devour her. But I needed to tell her what happened, and how even vengeance and justice would never bring back those you love. That they are gone forever.

  “My brother. His name was Kage. I found him dead here in this cabin two years ago. With his ol’ lady, Sadie. She was pregnant.”

  “Go on. Tell me everything,” she whispered.

  “Kage was my older brother and my hero. Our parents were fucked like most kids we knew. Our old man beat our mom, along with Kage, for as long as I could remember. One day Mom, she just packed up and left, and I never saw her again. She may be dead for all I know. From then on, I was Kage’s shadow, and he was the one that took all the face pounding from our dad.

  “Kage protected me from him, and he took on other boys in the shitty neighborhood we lived in. As I grew, he taught me how to fight back and defend myself. I beat the shit out of one boy my age, to the point he was partially blind in his left eye.

  “One day, I ran away with Kage since high school wasn’t teaching us anything except when and where to stash our drugs. Years later, we formed our club, the Berzerkers. He was President, I was his VP. We held our fights in an old warehouse over at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. As President, Kage didn’t even have to fight, but he did because he needed an outlet for all his pent-up fury and rage. He was brutal and smart, and some men didn’t leave the warehouse alive.

  “Then Kage made the biggest mistake of his life. He fell in love, and that made him vulnerable and a target to our enemies. The only woman that hit him straight through the heart was Sadie. She was a pretty girl even though she was a bit of a tomboy and gutsy too. It was her smart-ass mouth that caught Kage’s attention. Just like you, Izzy.

  “I watched my brother change. We threw a few punches at each other, me trying to talk him out of getting too close to Sadie. I got knocked out cold every time for it too. There was no swaying Kage. Six months later, Sadie wore his property patch, and a year later, she was pregnant.

  “Sadie’s older brother Rubik is a Berzerker. He’s a loyal soldier and road captain of the club. He’s a giant at six-foot-five and doesn’t say much. He keeps to himself and has an obsessiveness quirk with Rubik’s cubes. He can get all the colors the same on all sides of the cube in seconds. He was very protective of Sadie, but he had a shit-eatin’ grin on his face when he heard the news that he was going to be an uncle.

  “Being President of the MC and the weight of the bloody world we lived in was like a heavy crown on Kage’s head. His heart wasn’t in it anymore. He didn’t want to be Prez. He wanted to give it all up for Sadie and the baby she was carrying.

  “But the Berzerkers were in an all-out war with a diamond club called the Soul Takers MC. Wraith, the club’s president, wanted in on our action with the drug trade, gambling, and fighting. Every other week there were bloody bar brawls or fist fights at biker swap meets and events, even wedding and funerals.

  “One night, I was with Ajax enjoying lap dances at a local strip club. A couple of Soul Takers came walking in, planning to jack us up. We went out in the back ally, and one of the greasy motherfuckers pulled a knife. The fight ended quick, one of them with his knife stuck in his gut, and the other knocked out cold on the cement. Ajax kicked both their bikes over before we got on ours and twisted full throttle, burning rubber, and hauling ass.

  “Word got back to Wraith about his club goons getting their asses beat and bikes dumped. He gave orders to his club that all Berzerkers, and even their women, were targets to hit. One night, five of his twisted lowlife’s kidnapped our Berzerker brother, Dodge, and his ol lady, Ginger. They were taken to some vacant apartment building full of crackheads and beat Dodge up really bad, five against one.

  “But they didn’t end it there. They went after Ginger next. She was raped with a beer bottle, and by the five of them. The Soul Takers left them for dead in that abandoned apartment building. But Dodge was able to carry Ginger out of there, get to a pay phone in the middle of the night and call Grim, our Sergeant-at-Arms. We didn’t report it to the local law but got them both to the hospital. Ginger was roughed up really bad. Not just her body. Her head was messed up after that forever too.

  “We were outlaws, and we dealt our own justice. Kage held church at the bunker and told us that he was going to kill Wraith, and the Berzerkers would destroy the Soul Takers, take their patch, their bikes, and fuck their women. And he was going to hand me the gavel and the President patch. He didn’t want it anymore. All he wanted was Sadie and the baby.

  “But Wraith knew this too. Rubik was with me that night when we found Kage and Sadie here. We buried them about fifty yards away from the cabin.

  “I became President, and I passed my VP patch to Rubik. The Berzerkers were on a bloody warpath and killed every Soul Taker. Ajax, Tug, and Squatch did it the Berzerker way, knife fights, shootouts, even tossing Molotov cocktails into their clubhouse. And Rubik got to Wraith first, shooting him in the dick so that he suffered and bled out. I went berserk on a few Soul Takers myself, killing them with my bare hands in the warehouse as my club brothers watched.

  “Then the worst of nightmares that could come true actually did. The last time anyone had seen Grim, our Sergeant-at-Arms, was at church in the Berzerker bunker the day before Kage and Sadie were killed. He just disappeared. Come to find out, the feds and ATF were staking both my club and the Soul Takers’. Since the Soul Takers were pretty much all dead, the local law got ahold of me when somehow, dead bodies were found buried in shallow graves outside the city limits of Baltimore. I was convicted of two counts of manslaughter, doing my time like every other lowlife serving in that hellhole of a prison.

  “But one day, I’m introduced to
Cullen, a very powerful mob boss up and down the East Coast. He has connections with cartels and New York City mafia families. As I wasted my life away in a state pen, Cullen comes in and offers me a gift. The traitor. The brother who betrayed my club. Grim. The feds got to him over a year ago before all the shit went down. He flipped and worked for the feds and ATF to help build a RICO case on the Berzerkers and Soul Takers. He was the one that led Wraith to this cabin to kill Kage and Sadie and their unborn baby.

  “The state pen had their own illegal gambling on fights set up between two prisoners in an old abandoned building about one hundred yards from the perimeter of the prison. Cullen arranged a fight between Grim and me. There were only a few men there to watch the fight, and I took my time with Grim, and he didn’t even put up a fight or defend himself. He was ready to die. With all the fiery rage that burned inside me, I grabbed Grim by the throat with my bare hands. I looked into his eyes and watched the life disappear from them as I crushed his windpipe. As his body dropped to the ground, I became empty inside. I felt nothing because no matter how much blood I shed or men I killed, it would never bring Kage and Sadie back.”

  I pushed Izzy off my lap and onto the couch, and swiftly nestled my hips between her thighs. I gripped a handful of her hair, pulling her head back. “You brought me back to life, Izzy. You make me feel again. You’re my weakness.”

  She cried out, digging her nails into my back as I clamped my lips and teeth into the soft skin of her throat.

  14

  Izzy

  Stryker carried me to his bedroom and made love to me that night. Early the next morning, I reached out to him and felt the emptiness next to me. I opened my eyes to see only wrinkled sheets, and my heart sank. He must have left before dawn.

  The sun was bright above the mountains when I walked into the kitchen and saw an old tattered phone book on the table. Thick, rolled up wads of cash in rubber bands sat next to it. On top of the phone book was a piece of paper that Stryker wrote a list of things to do: Get to a pay phone in town and get the power turned on at the cabin and a phone hooked up. And finally, to find a good doctor in town to get Marie checked out. He would be gone for several days and to be aware of everything and everyone around me and left his pager number. He ended the note with a few words written to me:

  “I can breathe again because of you. Nothing and no one will take you away from me. Ever.”

  I choked back a sob as a tear splattered on the note.

  Marie woke up not long after, so I took all the cash Stryker left, and we drove into town only a few miles away and undertook the list of things he left for us to do. We busied ourselves around the cabin—cleaning, scrubbing, and sweeping.

  It was very spacious with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The furniture was old but just looked right and felt cozy, and we bought a few things from the local thrift store to brighten up the place. Marie found some pretty purple wildflowers growing behind the cabin, and she put them in a tall glass with water, setting them on the kitchen table.

  On the backside of the cabin was a deck with a nice view of the mountains. It was quiet; the only noises were flying bugs, the breeze, and the occasional loud buzz of a cicada that sounded like tiny maracas fading out to a low drone.

  The next day, I made a few phone calls and found a doctor to have Marie checked out. The doctor was a young woman with kind eyes and insisted we call her by her first name, Carrie. Even though Marie was nervous, the doctor talked to her in a soft-toned voice, telling her that having babies can be painful, but it was a miracle that only we women could do and that men could not.

  Thankfully, Marie was healthy and so was the baby, which would be born within the next three months. Carrie sent us home with big bottles of multivitamin for Marie along with some pamphlets on pregnancy and babies.

  As we climbed back into my car, Marie looked down and held her swollen belly. I knew that all the changes to her body and her emotions were taking their toll on her. She looked out the window as a tear stained her cheek.

  I placed my hand over hers. “Everything will be okay, Marie. You’re healthy, and the doc said the baby seems healthy.”

  She turned from the window to look at me as her bottom lip quivered. “I’m afraid, Izzy. What if my baby turns out like me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Stupid, like me.”

  I covered my hands over hers. “You’re not stupid, Marie. I know you struggle sometimes with reading. But that does not make you stupid. You’re kind, and you’re so pretty on the inside and on the outside. It’s okay to be afraid. That’s when your courage comes out to overcome that fear. You have been through so much that I know I could never survive through. You’re the bravest person I know.”

  Marie’s eye lit up, and she tilted her head. “You really think so?”

  I smiled, wiping away her tears. “I know so, little sis. Now cheer up because Stryker left us a whole bunch of money, and I’m taking you shopping!”

  Spending money to buy us both some new clothes and things for the baby made the day for us both even brighter.

  I woke up early the next morning, yearning to feel Stryker next to me. I picked up the new phone I got hooked up in the kitchen and dialed his pager number.

  Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang, and I picked it up on the first ring. “Stryker?”

  “Yeah, it’s me, Izzy. It’s good to hear your voice.” The sound of passing cars came through the earpiece along with his deep grumble. “Did you take the money and get everything done on that list I left you?”

  “Yes. We cleaned up the cabin and got the power turned on. I got this phone hooked up too. And I took Marie to a good doctor in town yesterday. Both she and the baby are doing good, considering all that’s happened to her. I spent some of that money on clothes for us and things for the baby. Marie is due to give birth in three months.”

  I heard the flick of his Zippo lighter as he lit up a smoke. “Good.” He grunted.

  “Marie is accepting the fact that she will be a mother. I want to do whatever I can to give her and the baby the best in life they deserve. A better life than I ever had.”

  “You will, Izzy. You have the same bond with Marie that I had with Kage. It’s hard to find that these days.”

  “When are you coming back to the cabin? How long do we need to stay here?”

  “In a few more days. Things are heating up around the bunker and Durango’s. Not safe for you and Marie to come back here anytime soon.” He heard my groan of annoyance. “No back talk, Izzy.”

  “I miss you next to me. I miss you touching me, kissing me, fucking me.”

  This time he groaned. “I’m standing in this phone booth with a fucking hard-on right now for you.”

  I giggled. “Well, the sooner you come back to me, the sooner I’ll take care of that for you.”

  15

  Stryker

  I hung up the phone, slid the dirty glass door aside, and stepped out of the phone booth. I dropped my smoke, crushing it with my boot, and rubbed my palm down the front of my jeans to calm my raging hard-on.

  Just hearing Izzy’s voice got me hard as a rock. And I was getting blue balls the longer I was away from her. When she said she’d take care of me, all I could picture were those bratty, plump lips of hers wrapped around my dick as she sat on her knees looking up at me.

  I swung a stiff leg over my shovelhead and started it. I twisted the throttle and rode back to the bunker. The bloody battle had just started only a day after I killed RamRod. Some of his men in Sinister Creed scattered, hauling ass on their bikes and leaving the state to lick their wounds. Some stayed though and weren’t turning over their colors, territory, or their businesses in meth and blow. And they weren’t going down without trying to take a few Berzerkers out with them.

  Ajax, Squatch, and Bandit sat in the room where we held church as I descended into the bunker. I sat at the head of the table, as Ajax sat to my right, and took a swig off a bottle of Jack, passing it
over to Bandit. Squatch sat to my left, digging out grime from under his nails with a switchblade.

  “Do you want Bandit to go up to the cabin to check on your ol’ lady and the sister?” Ajax asked.

  Bandit didn’t say much and mostly just grunted. His only focus was hitting something or someone in front of him. He had a dark past, even creepy to some people. He kept his head shaved with a mohawk, and his body was covered in tattoos. The Berzerkers slapped a prospect patch on him not too long after I was sent to prison, and he was a full-patched member a year later.

  I looked at Bandit as he guzzled another swig from the bottle of Jack. “No, she’s good. I’ll make the ride up there tomorrow. Tell me what happened yesterday.”

  Killing RamRod was easy, and Syko wanted a piece of me now. I was foaming at the mouth just to get him in the fight pit and take his life. But he disappeared. And any man still wearing Sinister Creed colors were a moving target for the Berzerkers.

  Ajax lit a smoke, tossing a pack of matches on the table. “Squatch rode along with me to a dive bar in some hick town down out west of here. It’s where some of the Sinisters do their meth and coke trade. We saw a few in there still wearing their rags.

  “Me and Squatch roughed ‘em up a bit. I snatched up a pool stick and swung it at one. It snapped in fuckin’ two across the side of his face, and he went down.” Ajax nodded over at the grinning Squatch, “Your Sergeant-at-Arms over there just used his bare fists on the other one. Laid him out cold on a pool table, blood all over the goddamn place. Broke that poor fucker’s jaw.

  “I kicked their bikes over outside, and we took their two club bitches with us. One had some really huge tits, too, man! They climbed right on our bikes.” Ajax leaned his head back and let out a loud laugh. He loved to fight and fuck like all of us Berzerkers.