by KJ Dahlen
She hugged him tight. “How come we like each other now?”
He laughed. “I never didn’t like you.”
“But I hated you.”
“Yes, yes that’s true, so why did you change your mind?”
Sara let out a sigh. “You...well, wanted to protect me. Are helping me. I figured you...”
“What? You’re grateful? So you let me fuck you?” he growled again as he held her tighter.
“No. I wouldn’t do that...be like that. You were kind and I’m not used to anyone helping me, so at first I really hated it. But tonight, you were being genuine. Then I stared dreaming about you again and there you were in bed with me for real.”
“Ok.” He relaxed again with this answer. “But you do know we are going to be in bed together every night right?”
“Yes. Though I have never shared a bed with anyone.”
“Neither have I,” he replied.
“Never? I mean you have had women.”
“Yes, I have. Fifty remember?” he joked.
Sara rolled her eyes. “Ok, so...”
“I never stayed with them. I never wanted them to get the idea I was going to stay with them.”
“So, why me?”
“I’m... I’m not sure. But we are married.”
“Yes, there is that. Now we really sealed it too.”
They both fell quiet.
Hound smoothed her silky hair with his hand marveling at the feel of it between his fingers. “Let’s sleep. Then we can see about tomorrow.” He felt so calm suddenly, so sound. Like the world had been righted, like he was alive and doing everything right for a fucking change.
They both remained as they were with her head on his chest and his arms around her.
Hound smiled to himself as he caressed her hair and closed his eyes. He wasn’t wearing any damn jammies and it was far past 10 O’clock.
Chapter Eight
A pounding sounded on the door.
Sara felt warm and happy. She heard the sound but didn’t want to move.
More pounding.
The bed moved and she heard a grunt. Her eyes popped open to see Hound stand up in all his muscled, naked glory. She stared. It all really happened? She saw him for herself standing there so it had to be all true. Damn he was so...
More pounding as Hound found his briefs and put them on then stumbled to the door. He swung it open.” What the hell—?” His voice halted immediately.
Molly stood there. She stared at him, then looked around him to see Sara.
Sara groaned and hid her head under the pillow.
“Well... everything ok?” his mother asked.
“Everything is fine, Ma.”
“Alright, well you need to get up. There’s been... well.”
“What?” Hound asked in exasperation.
“No need to get that tone with me, Duggan.”
“I’m sorry Ma but what’s going on?”
Molly sighed. “Bones called and...”
“What Mom? What?”
Sara sat up and tucked the quilt over her bare breasts, concerned now.
“The fire trucks and police are at the shop.”
Gasping Sara looked over at them both. “W-what?”
Moly literally pushed past Hound and came over to the bed. “Oh, sweetie. I’m sorry but...” Molly looked pained. “Your shop... it burned down last night.”
Sara held her breath. Or her breath was robbed from her. “Nooo.”
Molly grabbed her hands. “The firefighters tried to save it but...it. wasn’t possible.” Molly patted her hand.
Hound came over and stood above his mother. “Dammit, Sara. I’m sorry. We should’ve had men watching it.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I-I built that from nothing. I-I mean not the building but everything in it. Why? What’s happening to my life?” she yelled. Then sobbed into her hands. She couldn’t stop the tears and she wept like she hadn’t done since her Grandma died.
Movement shifted on the bed and then his arms came around her as the bedroom door shut quietly and Molly left.
“Oh, Hound. What am I going to do?”
“We will put it all back,” he growled. “We will find out who’s doing this and I am going to kill whoever it is.”
Sara halted and looked up at him through her tears. “Y-you can’t kill anyone over me.”
“I can and most likely will.” He held her tighter. “No man does this to my woman and lives.”
Sara blinked his woman. He means it! She then sat back against the pillows and Hound let go of her. “Well, there’s no reason to get to the shop today.” She sniffled.
“We will get another building. In fact...” His voice fell away.
“What?” She looked up at him.
“We own a few buildings.” He nodded. “I gotta call a meeting with everyone again.” He looked around then got up and grabbed his jeans from the chair.
“W-what are you doing?” Sara asked.
He shook his head with no answer for her and swiped his cell screen then tapped it, putting his ear to the phone. “Yeah.” He listened. “Really? Yeah, that’s obvious. Ok Prez, yeah.” He swiped his phone and looked down at her. “They are all already downstairs.” He shook his head. “And Deke is pissed.”
Sara let out a sigh. “This isn’t The Sin’s problem, Hound. And it isn’t the Moore’s either. I know you wanna help but—?”
“—no fucking buts Sassy. This shit ain’t gonna stand. This is going to stop. Fuck!” he seethed as he looked enraged.
Sara batted her eyes at him. He can’t mean this. I was a virtual stranger up until yesterday to these men. Why would they be so involved? They could all get hurt.
Hound put his jeans on. “I’m heading down.” He stopped as he grabbed his t-shirt to look over at her. “You can come down when you’re ready.”
Sara just wanted to stay here, bury herself in grief, and not face this at all, but she knew she couldn’t. “I will be down soon.” She swiped her tears away and sat up.
Hound sat and put his boots on.” It would be okay if you just rested, you know?”
“No.” She swallowed heavily. “I have faced worse. I-I can... face this too.”
He paused and reached out to run his fingers down her tear soaked cheek.
Their eyes met.
Sara was floored by the intensity in his blue eyes they had darkened to a deep cobalt.
“We will make this stop and we will end whoever did this.” He stood up and went to the door.
“I-I will be down soon.” Sara trembled at the thought of Hound or any of them getting into this mess whatever it was. This person was out to destroy anything in their path and she did not want Hound or his family in that path.
She scooted to the edge of the bed. Could Corey have done this? She just wasn’t sure. Why would he? It was just a small bakery. Pennies as compared to the 5 he owned. No, it had to be someone else, but she had no enemies, no past that could have caused this kind of hatred.
Sighing, she stood and went to get dressed. The tears hadn’t stopped and she hoped she could get herself in control by the time she went down to face all those men again.
The Sin’s bastards were gathered and sitting around at the long dining table.
Hound looked around.
Deke, Wiley, Gator, Bones, and Gambler, even Chance and Bowie were in attendance.
The only ones not present was his dad, Black Jack and his brothers, Raine and Gambler.
He nodded at them. “So what do we know?”
Deke shook his head. “We should have been watching that sop and it was my bad.”
“No, prez. None of us thought about it,” Hound replied.
“We should have though,” Bones replied. “It makes sense. First, her house then her shop.”
“So...” Hound looked over at Judge, “are dad and gambler at work?”
Judge nodded. “They had to open up as there is that contract to be signed with Develer and Gam
bler went out with the crew to the Longford site.”
“Ok, well maybe you should go in and see if dad needs anything?”
Judge shook his head. “No go on that, I got orders from Dad to be here or I would.”
Hound pursed his lips. Yeah if Black Jack gave you and order, it would be followed.
“So,” Deke spoke up again. “We need to talk to Ms. Bassette again.”
Hound stared at him. “She’s a Moore now.”
“Oh, really?’ Bones raised a brow at him.
“Yeah, I got it straightened out.” Hound shrugged.
“Ok, well we need answers. And they gotta come from her,” Deke stated.
Hound tilted his head at his president.
“Zipper dug up some things on her family and they ain’t pretty,” Deke explained.
“What things?” a voice asked.
They all looked toward the entryway.
Sara stood there looking pale. Her eyes were obviously red and swollen. Coming further into the room, she stared at Deke then at Bones.
Deke stood. “Have a seat, Mrs. Moore.” He motioned to the chair at the head of the table.
Blinking at him and probably at the name he used, she slowly moved to the chair and sat.
Hound looked over at Deke, Sam and Wiley. “What did you need to ask her?”
Deke sat down again. “You need to have a seat too, Hound.”
He realized he was still standing, but instead of sitting, he went over and stood behind Sara’s chair then placed his hands on her shoulders.
Sara looked up at him, her eyes wide.
He nodded then looked across at Deke.
“Zipper did find a relative.” He picked up a file that sat on the table in front of him.
Sara stared at it. “I only have one living relative.”
“Yes,” Bones spoke up. “Derick Bassette or better known as Razor. Aka... the Devil’s Razor.”
Sara stared at him looking baffled. “What?”
Deke let out a sigh and looked over at Gator.
Gator nodded. “Razor, the enforcer for the Devils Own MC or better known as a killer for hire too. And this MC is nothing like ours, they trade with and for the cartel, running drugs, guns and illegals across the border.”
Sara blinked hard. “What?”
Hound grasped her shoulders and tried to comfort her. Dammit, even he had heard of this guy. He was the worst of the worst as far as MC men went.
“He is...” Wiley started. “Not a good man, Sara.”
She looked around at them all. “He was when I last saw him. I mean yeah, he liked bikes and he wore some leather, but he never hurt anyone.”
“Well, that all changed in the last few years.” Bones stared at her.
“So what does that have to do with...” Her voice fell away and she stood from her chair. “NO!” She looked even paler now. “You’re saying he did this?” Her voice rose.
They all shook their heads sadly.
“We aren’t sure and we think you might have the answer,” Deke said.
Hound sat her back down. “Come on babe. It will be okay, they have to go through all the known factors. It doesn’t mean it’s true. Just tell us about him.”
Bewildered, Sara stared down at the table. “Ok...well... My grandma died as I told you before. Then Gramps started drinking and Derick hated it. They fought more and more. Then one night... I came in and Derick was standing over him, yelling. Pops was laying sprawled out on the floor. Derick must have hit him. Which he had never done before. I rushed over and got on top of my pops to protect him and told Derick to stop.”
“What did he do?” Deke asked.
“He was angrier than I had ever seen him. I don’t know what this fight was about but Derick said gramps was a fucking liar. That he was a fool... a drunken fool. Then I told him to shut up. It hurt to have them so hateful to each other. They—they were all the d family I had left and I wanted them to stay that way. I so wanted us to be a family after... My parents were killed when I was like two. So, we moved here to Troy and my grandma and gramps were raising us. That night though, I never seen Derick look like that.”
“Like what?” Bones asked.
“Like he might kill my grandpa. So I got in his face. He-he then said he was done with us both. That we had known the truth all along and we had lied to him.”
“The truth about what?” Wiley asked.
Shrugging Sara sighed. “That’s just it, I don’t know. Derick left that night. I asked grandpa the next day and he said that Derick couldn’t accept the truth like the adult he was. That when I was old enough he would tell me. But he died six months later and never did tell me. But Derick can’t be this man you’re talking about. I mean he would only be like 27 now.”
“Yeah, a young killer,” Bones piped up.
Sara again stood and her face was flushed a bright red with insult. “You stop it! My brother was a decent...is a decent guy!”
Bones let out a breath and leaned back as his lips formed a grim line. He looked over at Deke. “Show her.”
Hound had heard enough. “Listen guys, she’s had some real shocks in the last 24 hours. Maybe we should wai—”
“NO!” Sara turned to him. “They have to be wrong. It couldn’t be Derick. He wouldn’t hurt me.”
Hound stared into her tear filled eyes. Wasn’t he supposed to protect her? He couldn’t just stand here while his brothers tore her world apart with this news after it was already in shreds. “I think you should wait a day before you face all of this.”
With a frustrated grunt, Sara pushed him away and marched around the table, all the way down, to where Deke sat and she grabbed the file folder. “I will disprove this. They have the wrong man. Derick is no razor or whatever it is!” She grabbed it up.
Deke shook his head and he looked troubled.
Hound looked around at the MC brothers he knew so well. None of them seemed happy about this either. They looked sorry. They also were rarely wrong and Zipper did not make identity mistakes for as long as he’d known the guy. Hound felt a bit sick, because he knew they had to be spot on. For the entire history of this club, they rarely made huge mistakes as it could cost all of them their lives and their family’s lives too. He lowered his head and wondered how he was going to help her to... accept this. Damn, he never knew marriage would be this difficult. Or caring that about a woman to this depth would hurt him so much just seeing her in pain.
The room was silent as Sara stood, refusing to sit as she went through all the papers with trembling hands and a desperate look on her face then she gasped as photos fell out and hit the floor.
Hound rushed over and helped to pick them up. He spotted some grisly ones and kept them from her. They were of murder victims, forensic photos.
“Give them over,” Sara snapped.
Hound shook his head then turned his glare to the guys. “She doesn’t need to see these.”
“She does. The R he carves into their chests... is his mark.” Bones stared at him.
“The R?” Sara asked looking confused then she grabbed the photos looked through them. Her face went white. “No, no. It can’t be him doing this.”
Chapter Nine
Sara trembled. “My god...” She looked up at the men. “You are saying my brother murdered these men?”
Deke stood and looked at the photos then plucked one from her hand. “Is this him?” He held it out to her.
She stared at it. It was him, but he was a wall of muscle and had full sleeved tats along his arms. He looked older than she remembered but he wore a cut that said Razor on the left of his vest. His hair was long and he was bearded but there was no mistaking the Bassette green eyes. His gaze held a hard glint. Shock rolled over her in waves. Never in her widest imagination would she ever have thought her brother would turn out this way. Her knees felt weak as her body swayed.
Hound steadied her and then grabbed the photos and the file. “Come on sit down.” He looked over at Judge. “
Get her a glass of water?”
Judge got up and went over to a side table then grabbed a glass.
Hound sat her down at mid table.
Sara was trembling and she was silent as Judge set a glass of water in front of her.
Hound lifted it to her hand. “Just take your time, babe.”
She grabbed it and her hands shook so badly she sloshed water onto the table.
Hound grabbed a napkin and set it over the spill. “Just take a drink.”
She did and the room was silent for a few minutes. She had no words. No defense and no ideas as to how Derick became this man.
“In that file, it shows how he got that way, Sara,” Bones said softly while looking saddened as if he knew what she was thinking. “I’m sorry we ... I mean I know this is hard on you.” The older man that looked so tough actually did look sorry too.
“W-what did it show?” she asked in a broken whisper. “How did my brother become...that?” She pointed at the bloody photos.
Wiley spoke up now, “It seems after he left here, he went back to Maine.”
Hound looked surprised. “You came from Maine?”
She nodded. “But I was just a toddler really when we lived there.”
“The Moores moved here from Maine. Gator, Dad, and I moved from there as well.” Deke stared at her.
Sara looked up feeling lost. “So?”
“That is a strange coincidence if you ask me,” Bones muttered.” I don’t like odd coincidences no how. They’re usually telling you something and it’s never a good something.”
Sara did not get what he was saying at all. “I don’t understand?”
“No, you don’t, but let’s leave that for later,” Deke told her. “He went back there and he was recruited by the Devil’s Own or he prospected with them, we don’t know. But he became a member and he moved down to El Paseo near the border. There it seems he was trained to do what he now does.”
She raised her head to stare at Deke.
“To kill. Take out anyone they tell him to,” Gator spoke.
Sara shook her head as more tears rolled down her cheeks.
“But he was also caught on the wrong side one day, 2 years back it seems,” Wiley picked up the story. “He was thrown into a Mexican prison.”