by C. M. Marin
“But regardless of the fact he didn’t know about Rod, he was my family. And he must have hurt keeping that to himself and staying away,” she regrets.
“He made his own choice, Cam. Just like Mary did.”
Jayce’s attempt to comfort her fails when a sob prevails over her efforts to show stoicism.
“I never felt the need to meet my real dad, but that was because in my mind, Mary’s silence about him implied that he wasn’t a good person. Now I wish he were still alive.”
“Grant will be at the meeting point in about thirty. We need to move.” Blane’s voice booms in the kitchen right after he opened the door, cutting through our conversation.
He moves back straight away, not waiting for us to answer.
“Fuck,” I mutter as I can hear my brothers shuffling around in the main room, more than ready to get some blood on their hands. “I don’t want to leave you while you’re upset, but this is―”
“A one-shot thing, I know,” she barges in, forcing a smile to flicker on her lips. “Don’t worry about me. I’m crying for nothing these days. God, I feel sorry for pregnant women.”
So that’s the way your brain freezes when you get punched in the stomach by an invisible hit. Not the best sensation there is, if you ask me.
Thankfully, the feeling dulls quickly when Cam rolls her eyes at me and my blank gaze.
“Oh, God, you’re all such a bunch of big boys,” she clearly mocks me. “I didn’t say I’m pregnant. I’m not, so don’t go vomiting all over the place. Actually, it’ll be abstinence week as of tomorrow, just so you know. Now, please, focus on what you have to do, because I need you back in one piece. Be careful, too,” she adds, looking at over Jayce.
While I quit my trance, Jayce stands up and leans across the table to place a kiss on her forehead. “Always,” he assures her before walking away to join the guys.
Once we’re alone, she jumps on her feet and wraps her arms around my neck, holding on to me with a fear that’s almost palpable.
“I love you,” she murmurs.
“Hey, look at me,” I command as I grab her wrists at the back of my neck to get her to obey me. “I don’t want you to worry. There’s no way I’m not coming back to the first woman I love. No fucking way.”
Deep down, I know she’s going to worry anyway, but I have to do this.
Doing my best to ignore the worry creasing her brows, I kiss her briefly.
“I’ll see you soon,” I promise before walking away from her to go make sure she’ll be able to live her life without ever worrying about the Spiders ever again.
* * *
“That’s it. If everyone’s ready, let’s move,” Blane says in a faint voice after guiding us to the Spiders’ hideout.
The small cabin’s lights are on, indicating as well as the signals coming from the phones of the Spiders’ entire inner circle that they’re all gathered in that place lost in a sea of trees. All of them still hiding out like little girls. Hiding from us. Well, the stupid fucks are hiding from my brothers since they think I’m dead.
We left the club two hours ago to meet Grant and his men a couple of miles away from the woods we’re now in, near the main road where are parked our bikes and the SUV we’ll need once this is done. Carefully, we went over the details of our plan, and now it’s time to get down to business. Finally.
Grant is one of the few we trust completely. That’s why he’s here. And because he’s not one to cower when danger stares him in the eye. He’s also not someone you want to provoke unless you’re ready to face his wrath. If any Spider manages to escape the walls that will soon be turned into a blazing hell, he’ll stop them with a certain eagerness to make them suffer.
“Not one of them gets out of this alive,” I remind everyone. “Ben, Liam, ready?”
Once we’re all scattered around the cabin, the two of them will be the only ones getting near it initially to set the place on fire. Then only, when the Spiders realize they’re under attack and instinctively attempt an escape with guns blazing blindly, the rest of us will move in the line of fire.
And then, we’ll kill.
Twelve of them against forty of us, I expect all of us to get out of this unscathed.
Ben and Liam both nod, their eyes set ahead on the cabin as they’re already focused on their task.
Quietly, we split into pairs, each one going to pick out a discreet spot behind a tree. A minute later, we’re encircling the cabin.
“You good?” I ask Jayce, who’s with me.
I’m here tonight for two reasons. For Cam’s safety, and to avenge the man who gave me a family when I was a scared boy fearing to die in the streets before he even got the chance to live. But as important as it is to me to take Rod down, this day must have an even more special taste in Jayce’s mouth.
“Can’t wait to put a bullet in that piece of scum. Or see his body reduced to a pile of ashes.”
“Keep your cool though. No unnecessary risks, alright? You have a sister to go back to. Don’t fucking force me to break her heart once again. She’s had enough of that.”
The sound of broken glass flies through the air, seeming to bounce around as it hits tree after tree before it finally dies. That was the first two fireballs Ben and Liam threw through a window.
“This is it. Careful, J.”
It should take no more than a couple of minutes at the most before the fuckers figure out they need to get out of that place. Our attention solely set on the cabin, we have to wait only a short moment until the second round of fireballs breaking glass cuts through the silence of the humid woods once again, crossing two windows at the back of the cabin. And when the third and fourth shattering sounds echo around us, I get antsy for some action. I’m so ready to deal with anyone hurrying out of that place like nervous rabbits only waiting to be slaughtered.
“Prez! Stop everything, prez!”
Melvin’s alarmist command isn’t louder than a yelled whisper, but Jayce and I both spin around anyway.
What the fuck is he doing here when he’s supposed to be back near the main road waiting for us?
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jayce voices my thought in a low growl, but only because he can’t let out the angry roar his mouth visibly fights against as his gaze relentlessly jumps from Melvin to the cabin.
“Camryn’s in there.” He tips his chin toward the small house, and my blood runs cold as my muscles get as stiff as my bones. “I called you. Alexia called me when she couldn’t reach you either. Said CJ got to Jonas somehow, had him at gunpoint and threatened to kill him if Camryn didn’t go with him. She fucking did. Blane left me a phone with all our signals. I checked it out and it says that Camryn’s phone is in there.”
A handful of seconds is enough for him to spill all this, and just as my feet unfreeze and turn around to thankfully help me run toward the cabin, Spiders storm out of it.
Everything goes in a blurry of motions and actions from there.
While they have their guns raised, they don’t shoot blindly like I expected them to. And when one of them catches the sight of one of us to aim at, his finger doesn’t get to pull the trigger. Instead, his body jerks before falling heavily on the ground.
One down.
They now start to shoot at us blindly, and numerous gunshots thunder as more Spiders rush outside the cabin. Some through the back door, apparently.
“Three down!”
That’s Grant’s voice covering the continuous wave of gunshots.
“Two down!” Cody shouts as I keep racing toward the door, hoping that one of my brothers don’t shoot me by accident.
That makes six.
“Four down!” Blane yells.
Two are left alive and still inside the cabin.
Rod and CJ.
Not a surprise that they let their men bite the dust while staying hidden out like disloyal cowards.
Jayce on my heels, I step over bloody bodies to reach the door. A blend of fury and slicing dr
ead grip my guts when I cross the threshold.
“Go upstairs,” I tell Jayce, and he bolts up the stairs without a word.
The corridor I’m racing farther into doesn’t reveal any signs of growing inferno, but my stomach lurches when I enter the first room I find on my path. The fire is already reaching the ceiling, going up and sideways at a pace I now wish were slower. It eats at the curtains and releases a smoke that will soon be clouding the air of the empty room.
I swing around and stride out of the room, my motions controlled by Cam’s face monopolizing my thoughts. And just when I’m about to step inside the second room, two things happen almost simultaneously. First, a resounding gunshot coming from upstairs unfurls a sickness in my guts, and then my gaze flickers to the left where a moving shape draws my attention.
My heartbeat picks up furiously. The vein in my temple throbs as the monster inside of me awakens, eager to prove how ruthless and bloodthirsty it can get if someone touches what’s his. Maybe even more because of the nauseating feeling left in my stomach by what possibly just went down upstairs.
The moment CJ takes in my face, he knows. There’s not a thing he could do to stop the homicidal urge in me that only grows the more I look at him. It doesn’t mean he recoils like a frightened little boy, but I don’t care. A rage matching mine twists his features as he hurls himself toward me. But I’m faster. My fist connects with his jaw, and the crunching sound pushes such a beautiful wave of satisfaction through me that I decide to put away the gun my other hand still clutches. Before CJ realizes what’s happening, I hit again. Blood spurts from his eyebrow, and I strike again. Blood springs from his lips, and I punch again.
I don’t stop hitting. Not until his legs surrender under his weight. And even when he falls on his knees, my rage doesn’t quench. His position compels me to throw a kick straight into his nose, and I watch with blissful fulfillment some more blood spilling. And another kick in his bloody face later, the fucker is collapsing on the floor, unconscious, just as Jayce yelling my name reminds me that I still haven’t found Camryn.
As much as I’m relieved to understand that Jayce isn’t the one who got shot upstairs, I’m dreading to discover that Camryn is the one who took a bullet. That’s why I don’t pull out my gun again, giving up on satiating my need to see the son of a bitch’s brain blanketing the floor. The flames starting to run up the walls only inches from his bloody form will finish the job for me.
As I retrace my steps until I’m sprinting up the stairs, Jayce roars my name again. I follow his voice, my vision dazzled by the expanding fire just as my eyes and throat start to burn because of the strengthening smoke. The place is going to fall down sooner than later, and I can’t believe how much of a damn nightmare this evening has ended up being. If Camryn is hurt… I don’t even want to think about that as a possibility. But when Jayce hollers angrily for me to come one more time, I can’t help thinking that he just wouldn’t have to shout if they were both unharmed and able to walk away from whatever situation they’re in.
That is, if Jayce even found her at all.
Chapter 34
Camryn
I don’t dare move. Just like my muscles, my chest seems to have lost all ability to move, though I’m aware I wouldn’t still be sitting if I had stopped breathing. At least I wouldn’t be sitting so straight. Because my ankles tied to the chair legs and my hands tied behind my back would keep my body from crashing on the floor for sure.
Rod straightens to his full height after making sure the ties would resist the strength of an elephant. He hasn’t spoken yet, and I’m afraid to make myself heard. Especially while he’s so close to me. I could say the wrong thing and earn a punch that would most likely knock me out instantly. Or worse.
He’s not a young man anymore, but he certainly still knows his way around a gym. And there’s that anger he wears so easily. In simple words, I’m petrified. Even when he takes several steps back, the tremors don’t give my hands a break. Then again, I’ve been terrified since Colin showed up at the club and coerced me into leaving with him. He had a gun aimed at Jonas―who he probably snatched after school―, so I didn’t have a choice. I followed him.
Now that I’m inside the cabin the Chasers are soon going to burn to the ground, the terror is even greater. I first thought of telling them about Nate’s plan. Logically, both men would get me out of that place to protect me since I’m supposed to be Rod’s daughter and they’re supposed to love me. But just as logically, Rod shouldn’t have tied me to a chair, right? But he did. I don’t understand what’s happening here, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Even if I could save myself by telling him the truth about the Chasers being around, I wouldn’t say a thing. They would lose their advantage, and I’d rather die than put them in danger.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?”
From across the room, leaning against the wall in a relaxed posture, Rod only stares at me for a moment. The air shifts to feeling as creepy as his gaze on me feels, and only when I start to believe he won’t answer me does he open his mouth.
“What do you think it is I want?”
Okay. Apparently, we’re playing riddles.
“I think you believe that my blood allows you to make me your prisoner. But it doesn’t.”
“Well, I think it does. But let’s save us some time. We both know my blood isn’t the one running through your veins,” he says.
Air is knocked off my lungs as fear crawls over my skin in myriad prickles.
“Though it’s fresh news to you. I was the only one knowing it before good old Lilly rolled her ass back up into town. Always fucked with my balls, that one. Should have put a bullet in her a long time ago.”
He knows. He also knows I didn’t see this one coming, because he snickers in a wicked way, the sound sending a string of cold shivers to my skin.
When his right hand disappears behind his back as he strolls back toward me, my breath hitches as I can’t refrain from flinching in recoil even if it only painfully reminds me that my ankles and wrists are tied tight with some plastic things that bite into my skin at the smallest movement.
A surge of relief assaults me when I see that it’s not his gun Rod pulled out. Now brandishing a stack of papers, he tosses it onto my lap once he’s close enough. Then he retreats back to the door, his sour expression never losing sight of my fearful one.
Even though he didn’t order me to look down at what he manifestly wants me to see, my gaze travels south to glimpse at the picture that’s on top of whatever that pile of papers is.
My first thought when I catch Mary’s bright smile is that Lilly didn’t embellish her memories. Mary looks radiant and happy leaning into Connor’s side, his arm around her shoulders.
“After Mary disappeared, I spent every day looking for her and my baby for a fucking long time,” he says bitterly, and I raise my head again. “There was no doubt in my mind that she had been snatched. I was convinced of that until some lawyer came to see me and informed me that she had just died. He gave me this very short letter where Mary explained that she lost the baby because of the cancer. But I knew it was bullshit. I never believed the baby was gone. Lilly never came back, so I knew it was her taking care of my child. I kept looking for her but never found a fucking thing. She had just vanished. And I never thought about looking into adoption records―something that one of my guys could have done easily―since that possibility never even crossed my mind. I was so sure Lilly was with you. And more than twenty years later, I was watching the local news, and there you were,” he shakes his head. “They were talking about some fatal car accident. Your adoptive parents’ accident. They’ve always loved that kind of futile news,” he rolls his eyes, and I grind my teeth to rein in my anger. The rage I feel for this man is even stronger than my fear right now. “Anyway,” he goes on. “They showed a picture of the three of you―don’t know where they found that―, and I swear that I knew it was you. You were looking just like Mary. Just
like her,” he insists, sounding truthfully in awe about my resemblance with my birth mom. “They also said you were adopted. Sure, it didn’t mean a thing, but fuck if the resemblance wasn’t incredible. That’s why I sent CJ. He was supposed to approach you and find a way to get some DNA sample. That was an easy job for him. He knew everything about becoming someone else since he had done it so many times through undercover missions for the club.”
He knew everything about becoming someone else because he’s a freaking schizophrenic, that’s why.
God, these people are twisted.
“In the end, I didn’t even need a test done. The few questions CJ asked you were enough. You talked to him about your life and origins and you showed him Mary’s blanket. From the moment he sent me the picture, there was no more doubt in my mind. You were mine. Even then, I still thought Mary had always loved me. Sure, I was pissed at her, but I thought that what drove her away was her maternal instinct. The life we live, it’s dangerous, you know?”
No kidding.
What’s happening in his head is the greatest kind of fucked-up. That man lives in his own little fucked-up world he created in his mind. He’s delusional.
“I wanted you back here as soon as I found out, but I thought you’d accept the club life more easily if CJ got you to fall in love with him. But that takes time, obviously.”
I’ll say it again. Fucked-up.
He manipulated my life like it was no more than a funny game, and he’s proud of it. He really is.
At the back of my throat, a scream is begging me to let it boom out. But I hold back my anger again, too afraid to trigger in him some crazy switch. I feel like he could go from deceitfully relaxed to truly murderous in a blink. He could put a bullet in my head in a blink. Or he could do worse. I’m deeply convinced that he could do a lot worse to anyone bold enough to contradict his twisted opinion.