Outlaw's Baby: Devil's Edge MC

by Naomi West

  “You might say the same about Castor and Liv,” I pointed out.

  “Oh no,” Cat said, and I could just imagine her tossing back her long, flowing hair. “He refused to sleep with the girl — says he doesn't need your sloppy seconds. Of course, she's still providing quite a bit of entertainment, but he won't mind being done with her. He'd rather have you here, paying for the humiliation that you've caused him.”

  “Fine,” I said, even though I knew I shouldn't be agreeing to anything like this. I could see anger on Damien's face out the corner of my eye, but I knew Cat wasn't going to make the offer again, and she wasn't going to give me time to think things over or anything like that. It was now or never here, and I couldn't leave Liv trapped in whatever fate had befallen her over the past week. “Fine, I agree.”

  “Good, good,” Cat said cheerfully. “You'll need to meet me here, at our regional headquarters. Tomorrow, at noon. Make sure that you're alone; I don't need you trying to play the hero and making us all do extra work to take you in. There will be no escaping.”

  “I understand,” I told her, nodding my head grimly even though she couldn't see it. “I will see you tomorrow at noon.”

  Without bothering to say goodbye, Cat hung up the phone, leaving me staring down at the blank screen. As soon as she had hung up, Damien exploded, cussing me out in three different languages. “For fuck's sake, Rip!” he finally cried, shaking his head. “And here I thought you couldn't do anything more stupid than you already have done!”

  I shrugged a little, staring out the window at the view. “As much as I'd like to say that there is another way to do this, you and I both know that there isn't. This is the best chance that I have to ensure Liv's freedom. Whatever else happens after that, we'll deal with it when it comes to that.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Rip

  Cat was grinning at me as I walked into the national headquarters the next day, and I couldn't help but feel chills run up and down my body. Damien had done everything that he could to try and dissuade me from actually meeting up with Cat and Castor, but he'd ultimately been unsuccessful. I owed Liv at least this much, for getting her caught up in all this mess.

  Anyway, I didn't think my emotions would allow me to leave her there, caught amongst these sick bastards.

  Cherri had supported the plan too, when she'd come over the previous day. Or at least, she had agree with me that it was the most plausible option that we had. That didn't really make it any better, but it was good to have that vote from her too.

  I squared my shoulders and marched over towards Cat. “Where is she?” I asked. Despite the fact that I was bartering away my life, all I could think about right now was Liv, wondering if she was okay, wondering what sort of state she might be in after a week as Castor's plaything.

  “She's fine,” Cat said, rolling her eyes a little. She gestured with the flick of her hand and Liv was led out of one of the other rooms.

  They had her collared, and they were leading her along on a leash. She was stark naked, and I could see goosebumps on her flesh even from here; she must be freezing. But she held her head high, seeming to look straight through everyone around her. I was surprised to see how strong she looked, how little this captivity seemed to have taken out of her.

  Her eyes finally focused on mine, and she looked mildly surprised to see me there, but just for a moment, before that flicker of emotion was gone again.

  “Doesn't she make a lovely pet?” Cat asked, reaching over to stroke Liv's hair as though the woman really were, in fact, a pet of some sort.

  Castor leered at me. “But I sense that you're going to make a much better pet for us.”

  “What?” Liv asked, sounding shocked, and I took that to mean that they hadn't told her exactly what deal I had struck to get her freedom. “Rip, what are they talking about?” she asked. “They can't be taking you as a pet, can they?”

  I shrugged a little. “It's my life in exchange for yours,” I told her. I wished I could tell her the rest of it — how Damien was trusting in me to kill Cat, so that the Gemini Riders could start over again. I wished I could tell her about these feelings that I had for her, about the way I had been thinking about her all week while she was in here, feeling more and more guilty about the whole thing with every passing second. But I couldn't say any of that in front of Cat and Castor.

  I turned to Cat. “All right, you have me here, so that means she goes free. Where are her clothes?”

  Cat laughed a little. “I didn't say I was going to clothe her before putting her free. She can walk out just like that.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You wouldn't dare,” I said, a warning note in my voice.

  Cat just shrugged, though. Finally, I stripped off my shirt and tossed it to Liv, figuring that that at least would give her some amount of decency. She gave me a grateful look and quickly pulled the shirt on over her head.

  “What's in that box?” Cat asked suddenly, pointing at the box that I'd brought with me.

  I shrugged a little. “Just a package for you,” I told her. “You can see what's inside it soon enough. But for now...”

  I pulled Liv into my arms, knowing that this was probably going to be the last time I ever got to embrace her. I held her there for a long moment, trying to memorize the way her warm, sumptuous curves fit against my body, the way she clung to me as though I were a life-raft and she were drowning. “You're going to be okay,” I murmured.

  “But what about you?” Liv asked, sounding scared.

  “Head back to the hotel,” I told her, ignoring her question. “You'll find help there. I promise. You're going to be okay.”

  Liv shook her head, clinging even more stubbornly to me. “I can't let you do this, Rip. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for my sake.”

  I rolled my eyes a little, surprised still by how stubborn she was proving to be. “You can let me do this,” I told her. “There's nothing else for it. Now go.”

  Finally, finally — with one more sad look into my face — Liv started to walk away. I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched her go. Now for Cat…

  I turned towards the woman right when I was sure that Liv was far enough away. I reached down and grabbed the box I'd been carrying, fidgeting with it. Inside were the explosives that Damien had brought for me to use on Cat. The goal was to bring down as much of the headquarters as I could with Cat. I wasn't worried; I figured Damien must have done his job well.

  But before I could detonate the explosives, suddenly there were people swarming out f seemingly every available opening. I cried out in surprise as I was jostled left and right by armed ... FBI agents?

  Somehow, they must have tracked down Cat Zodiac already, and they were here to arrest her. I could practically weep with relief. I dropped the box of explosives and put my hands up above my hand, ready to comply with anything the FBI agents said to me.

  Cat flung herself at me, her eyes flashing maniacally. “You little—” She started to say.

  But before she could make contact with me, one of the FBI agents intervened, pulling her back away. The man was reading her her rights before I even knew what was really happening.

  I looked around, trying to figure out just what was going on. One of the agents separated from the crowd buzzing around Cat and Castor and came over to me. It was Cherri, I realized, staring at her in shock.

  “So we meet again,” she said wryly, a small smile twisting her face. She nudged at the box with the toe of her boot. “All the packages were already delivered, so what's in the box?”

  I paled a little as I looked at her. “Explosives,” I admitted. “Pretty low-level explosives, and I haven't started the timer or anything yet.”

  “What were you planning to do?” Cherri asked with a bit of a frown.

  I shrugged, looking away from her. “The only way Liv could ever truly be free was if Cat and Castor were both dead,” I told her. “So I planned to, uh, take care of that problem.”

  Cherri narr
owed her eyes at me. “You mean to tell me that you were actually planning on dying for Liv's sake?”

  Before I could respond, two of the other agents were there as well. “We'll need to ask you some questions about your involvement in all of this,” they told me. “Right now, you're being arrested under charge of...”

  I hardly listened as the man droned on about my rights. Instead, I fixed my eyes on Cherri. I wanted to say that she owed me one, that I needed her help to get out of this situation, but at this point, I'd lost track of who owed whom. And I knew I probably deserved to go to jail, after the role I'd played in delivering the packages to Cat. It was about time all of this caught up to me.

  I let them handcuff me, not fighting back at all.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Rip

  I drummed my fingers restlessly against the table in the questioning room as I waited for them to send someone in to interview me. I knew they were giving me time to think things over, to decide what I really wanted to tell them. The thing was, I planned to just tell them the truth. I should never have helped Cat with anything; I knew that now.

  Especially since I'd gone against Damien's wishes in doing so.

  Mostly, I wondered what Damien would do now, with the Gemini Riders in disarray. I wasn't exactly sure what sort of evidence the feds thought they had on Cat and Castor now. Cat at least would be going back to a more secure prison for the rest of her original term; she wouldn't be getting out any time soon. But I had to assume that Castor was somehow being implicated in all of this as well…

  The door swung open and Cherri stalked gracefully into the room, falling into a chair across from me. “Well, well, well, Rip Stevens,” she said in her silky voice. “I have to say, I'm impressed. Nabbing not one but two women out from under the nose of Castor Pollux takes skill. Are you sure you aren't an undercover agent as well?”

  I snorted, twisting my fingers together. “It didn't really take skill when it came to freeing Liv,” I pointed out. “If it had, I wouldn't be sitting here.”

  Cherri leaned forwards. “I'd like to believe you're innocent in all of this,” she said, her eyes glinting a little. “But you're going to have to give me a reason to let you go.”

  I bit my lower lip. Surely she couldn't be suggesting that she wanted to just let me walk clear of all of this, right?

  “Do you know how Cat Zodiac escaped from prison?” she asked.

  I frowned and shrugged a little. “Not entirely, no,” I said. I hadn't paid close enough attention to the news story; I'd been more shocked to learn that Cat was already out of the prison. But when I thought about it, I was even more surprised. I could remember a few flashes of the video tape in my head, and I didn't recall there being any blood or anything like that. If Cat hadn't fought her way out using the guns… “No, I have no idea how she got out,” I said, realization dawning on me.

  Cherri was trying to help me out of this.

  “What do you know about Castor Pollux?” she asked, switching gears a little.

  “Most of what I know about him is hearsay,” I admitted. “I've heard he's not a very pleasant guy and that he's been involved in a lot of the top schemes of the Gemini Riders. But I don't know that much about him personally.”

  “And yet you were there in the Gemini Riders' national headquarters talking to him and Cat as though you were all best buds.”

  “I made a deal with Cat,” I said, shrugging a little. “Castor Pollux was keeping a good friend of mine as a captive. I told Cat that she could have my life if Liv walked free.”

  “And the explosives?”

  “I meant that quite literally,” I said, smiling sharply. “I told Cat that she could have my life if Liv walked free. I planned on setting off the explosives and ensuring that Castor and Cat were both caught in the mess. I wanted to ensure that they weren't able to hurt anyone else in the future.”

  “Vigilante justice,” Cherri muttered under her breath, a small smile on her lips.

  “I'm not sure if it was justice or not,” I said truthfully. “That's for you all to decide. I just knew that based on what I know about the two of them ... well, the world would have been a safer place.”

  “Except that you admitted yourself that you don't really know much about Castor Pollux and that what you do know is based off hearsay,” Cherri argued.

  I stared at her, wondering if she was actually helping me at all or if this was just hearsay. I thought suddenly of Damien, of his insistence that Cat and Castor be removed from their positions of power in the Gemini Riders, about how the organization needed to be rebuilt without them in it.

  “You need to talk to members of the Gemini Riders,” I told her. “There are plenty of people who want Cat and Castor removed from their positions. People who think that the organization has become too much of a criminal activity lately, full of brash and impulsive, and bloodthirstyleaders.”

  “And who might you suggest I talk to?” Cherri asked, leaning forwards again.

  I shook my head, leaning back casually. This might doom me, but I had no desire to be the snitch. “You'd have to talk to one of the Gemini Riders,” I told her again. “But I'm not one of them.”

  There was silence in the interrogation room. I could tell Cherri wanted to ask me more, to get me to snitch the names of everyone involved in the organization, but I couldn't do that, no matter if it meant I was going to jail or not. That would just make new enemies for me and continue to put Liv in danger. I hoped, of course, that Damien had already spirited Liv far away from here, got her set up back at home. But even there, she could be found if someone had a big enough grudge against me.

  I refused to be their snitch.

  To my surprise, Cherri stood up and walked around the table, offering me a hand up. “Well, in that case, Rip Stevens, I have no further questions for you,” she said. “I'll make sure that all charges against you are dropped.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Rip

  Damien jumped to his feet when I walked into the hotel room, looking exhausted, as though he'd been up all night waiting for me to return. “Where the hell have you been?” he snapped, striding over to me and pulling me into his arms.

  I collapsed a little against him and then pulled away. He continued to eye me critically, looking for signs of injury. “Damien, I'm exhausted. Can we just sleep on it and leave the story-telling for tomorrow?” I grimaced. “I need a shower too. Jail cells are not the cleanest places in the world.”

  “You were in jail?” Damien snapped, catching my arm as I made to walk past him. “What happened? Who paid your bail?”

  “There was no bail,” I said wearily. “I was only in jail because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the feds showed up. But Cherri got everything straightened out for me and let me go.”

  Suddenly, there was a noise from the doorway of the bathroom. The next thing I knew, Liv was flinging herself into my arms. “I thought for sure that you were going to jail,” she sobbed into my shoulder. “Or if not, I thought that Cat was going to find some way to kill you after all. What happened? I left right as the FBI were swarming, but they were so focused on all of you that I had time to get out.”

  I sighed, just reveling in the feeling of having her close to me again for a moment. I could see Damien raising his eyebrows at me from over her shoulder, but I chose not to respond to that.

  “I need a shower and a nap,” I told both of them. “Everything's going to be fine, and I'll tell you all about it when I've revived myself a little. But I need a shower and a nap before I'll say anything else.”

  “Of course,” Liv said immediately, pulling back away from me. She leaned up shyly to kiss me, though, glancing over at Damien and blushing a little when she was done. “Sorry,” she said. “I've just missed you.”

  I pulled her back into my arms and kissed her resoundingly, sucking at her lips and forcing my tongue into her mouth, claiming her as mine. Even though I had no intention of starting anything right n
ow — not when I was so tired, and not in front of Damien — I cupped her firm asscheeks with my hands and pulled her in close so she was pressed against me.

  Finally, we broke apart, both of us panting for air. I couldn't stop myself from leaning down and gently kissing her forehead, a tender gesture that I would never normally have allowed myself. Knowing that she was safe and that she was here ... it was all a bit surreal.

  I broke away from her and went to shower.

  Later that afternoon, we all sat down together for lunch. “Cherri was a federal agent the whole time,” I told the other two. “And I suspect that Rosetta was as well ... I don't think they were really sisters, I think that Cherri was trying to get her free because they needed her information in the case they were building against Castor. And that explains why Cat was so dead-set on not letting her go.”