by Khloe Wren
“Don't you dare fucking touch either of them!”
As Scout roared out his words, I flipped open the latches and Sarah fell against me for a second.
“I'm so sorry, I didn't know this was a trap.”
Worried her whispered words would gain his attention, I shook my head. “Shh, I know. Everything will be okay.”
Then I held a finger to my lips as the stupid bastard kept up his rather descriptive lecture on all that he planned on doing to me and Sarah. Bile churned in my gut. This was a very sick man, indeed.
Taking a quick look around the room, I tried to find a weapon but came up with no options. Instead, I found a lever. It had been behind the door, which was now shut. Would that free Scout? How quickly would it work? Dammit. Before I could come up with another plan, Sarah let out a scream and barreled into him. She'd pulled a knife from somewhere and had it buried in his stomach. Bolting over to the lever, I used both hands to shove hard against the thing until it clunked up and I heard chain rattle as I spun back around to see Scout rushing to free his hands. Before he could, the asshole lifted Sarah with a roar and threw her against the wall. I screamed as my sister fell lifeless to the floor, then screamed again when the door came crashing open, barely missing me, and a flood of Charon brothers streamed into the room.
Shocked to my core, I bolted to Sarah and lowered down to the floor beside her.
“No, no, no.”
Pressing my fingers against her wrist, I moved it around but couldn't find a pulse. Tears burned my eyes then flowed freely.
“C'mon, luv. Let me take a look.”
Taz, with his familiar Aussie accent in my ear, gently gripped my shoulders and moved me over until he could get in to touch Sarah. But I knew the truth. She was gone. I'd failed to look after her. Hell, I should have taught her more about the world. Given her the skills to avoid falling for shit like this. Before Taz could confirm her death, I buried my face in my hands and set my emotions free. I cried for Sarah, for that asshole's sister, for all the girls the Iron Hammers had destroyed. It was all more than I could handle. I could hear Taz trying to talk to me but I was too far gone, so I just shook my head as I kept sobbing.
Scout
Everything happened so fast. I was still reeling from what this bastard had told me when I'd seen Marie creeping toward Sarah, so I'd yelled out to give her the cover she needed to free her friend. But after that, everything went to fucking hell. I'd stopped listening to the fucker in front of me as he tried to rile me up with everything he planned to do to my woman. I knew he wouldn't live long enough to do any of it. No fucking way. I refused to believe anything else.
I kept my gaze on the man in front of me, but I was focused on the women in my peripheral vision. Marie had moved over to behind the door, to where a lever was. It took all my self-control to not hold my breath in hope. Then with a scream, Sarah lunged at her tormentor. She'd pulled a knife from somewhere, her boot maybe? And when he turned to face her, she buried that thing deep in the fucker's gut. Marie must have thrown the lever because the hook came rushing down and I shifted fast to avoid the chain landing on my head. Finally able to stand flat footed, my feet and legs came alive with tingles of pain as I tried to free my hands so I could take down the fucker before he could do any more damage, but I wasn't fast enough. My arms and hands were more useless than my damn legs. Sarah was a tiny wisp of a girl and even injured, he had no trouble lifting her, then with a roar he threw her hard against the wall. With a crunch, she fell lifeless to the floor. Fuck. It was then that the door burst open and my brothers arrived. Arrow, Nitro, Mac, Taz and Eagle. I'd never been happier to see them.
Taz went over to where Marie was crouched near Sarah, while the other four came to me. Nitro kicked the back of the asshole's knees and he went down. With his gut injury rapidly weakening him, he kept going until he was lying on the concrete. Mac helped unwrap the fucking chain until I had my hands free. Pain, like liquid fire shot through my arms but I gritted my teeth and tried to push it down.
“Scout, I need you to clench and unclench your hands a couple times for me.”
I followed Mac's instructions and was happy to see all my fingers did what they were fucking told. Hopefully I’d managed to not get any nerve damage from this clusterfuck. I needed my hands to ride and work on bikes in the shop. And to love on Marie.
“I'm fine. Let me at him.”
Mac shook his head but shifted out of my way. The little shit was groaning on the floor, clutching his gut. The wound would kill him, but not fast enough for my fucking liking.
“Go straight to hell, you fucking bastard.”
With that I lifted my foot and kicked his head with the heel, hard enough we all heard the snap of his neck, even over Marie's sobs.
“Right, we need to move out. You bring the bus, yeah?” When they all nodded, I continued. “Great. I'm going to take Marie up to Donna, then we're cleaning house. Taz? Sarah breathing?”
“Yeah, but her pulse is weak. I don't want to move her, pretty sure she's got a spinal injury going on. We need to call in the professionals for her. It's the only way she'll live. Sorry, prez. I know you'd prefer just burn this place to the ground, but it's not what she needs.”
I'd been certain the fucking asshole had killed Sarah when he'd thrown her against that wall. Guess not. But the woman wasn't moving, and Taz hadn't tried to shift her either. Although, with all things considered, death was probably the kindest outcome for the poor woman. What she'd been through all these years would be one hell of a thing to overcome. At least she'd gotten that blade into him, got some vengeance. I shook out my arms that were still fucking hurting. “Fine, call them in. I want everyone in this place rounded up, and I need to pick out the fuckers who were working with that asshole, then we'll leave the rest to the cops.”
“That shouldn't take long, prez, we brought the whole club with us. The other brothers have been rounding up everyone while we came looking for your sorry ass.”
I nodded at Arrow's words as I tried to make my way over to Marie, who was still crying like her soul was bleeding and it was breaking my fucking heart.
“Whoa, where do you think you're going?”
I turned to glare at Arrow as he caught me mid-stumble. “To my fucking woman. You got a problem with that?”
“As a matter of fact I do, prez. In case you weren't aware, we're in a fucking basement. That means stairs out of here. You wanna risk dropping her on your way out? You want to waste a shit ton of time getting your sorry ass out to the bus and not have time to do whatever the fuck it is you want to do with the others in this place before the cops turn up? Because you know as well as I do that the second we call that ambulance in, the cops will follow that bus out here.”
That had me wincing. “No way to keep the cops out of this, is there?”
“Afraid not, prez. But we'll be fine. We've done nothing wrong here. They took you, we came got you back. The girls will back us up. As for the rest of these bastards, they've been contained. We didn't go on a murdering spree. Since we didn't know exactly what we were dealing with, we went with an initial plan to contain, not destroy.”
“That's gonna change a little. This fucker has produced a drug that needs to never see the light of fucking day. I need to figure out who knows about the drug, and make sure they all die. And there's one other man that needs to fucking die. The bastard who cut me up. We got room to take him back with us? Wouldn't mind venting a little frustration on that little piece of shit.”
Arrow chuckled darkly. “We brought cages, we'll get him gone before the cops turn up. Since you can't lift Marie, hurry up and pick which one of us gets the job so we can get moving here.”
I wanted growl and thump my chest. Dammit, she was my woman! But Arrow was right, I'd probably drop her if I tried to pick her up right now.
“Mac, she knows you best. You do it.”
With that, Mac was fast on his feet. He scooped up Marie and when I raised my hand, he brought her
to me so I could press a kiss to her forehead, tell her it would be all right. I didn't think she heard me though, she was lost to her sorrow. I wondered if she'd heard Taz say that Sarah was alive.
“Eagle, you stay and watch Taz's back, yeah?”
“Of course, prez.”
As soon as Mac was out the door, we followed. Arrow stayed close to my side and didn't say a fucking word when I had to grip his damn arm to steady myself as I contended with the stupid fucking stairs. Didn’t help I had bare fucking feet. I hated not going with Mac and Marie, but I had a job to do.
“Did someone find my boots and my fucking cut yet? If that bastard destroyed it, I swear, I'm gonna find a way to bring him back so I can kill him again.”
“I've got it right here.”
I turned to Nitro, who'd spoken. “Give it to me.”
“You sure you want to get blood and shit all over it?”
“I'm the fucking president of the Charon MC, and I got shit to do. Shit I need to wear my fucking cut for.”
Whatever got on it, would wash out. But I needed the strength wearing it gave me for what I needed to do right now. Nitro handed it over and Arrow discreetly helped me shrug into it. Damn, but I felt better already. Hated being without my cut. I planted my ass down on a seat to pull my boots on before I rose to stand again. I bit back the groan but fuck, I felt like I was about eighty years old.
“Right, brothers. Let's go find us some fuckers to kill.”
We made our way out the rear of the building and found a nice line-up of men all kneeling like they were waiting on their executions. Keg, Tiny, Bash and Bank stood over them with guns drawn, ready to accommodate just that, should any of them move. Bulldog stood at the end of the group and I had to double-take to be sure I was seeing right. Was he holding a fucking kid?”
“Bulldog, who you got there?”
“Got me a little princess. Ain't that right, sweetheart?”
His voice was falsely calm and the little girl clung tightly to his cut, clearly scared out of her damn mind. Grateful my cut was covering most of the damage that had been done to me, I strode over to them―thank fuck my legs and arms seemed to have recovered already. I looked into her little face and bit back a curse.
“She's Sarah's daughter. Bulldog, get her out to the bus. If Marie’s awake, tell her she's Sarahs. We'll take good care of her. You understand, darlin'? You're gonna be safe with us, okay?”
She gave me a shaky little nod and Bulldog rushed her off around the side of the house. I shook my head. A fucking child. Just what this mess needed.
I strolled down the line until I found the fucker who'd cut me up. With my hand on his throat, I lifted him to stand.
“What's the kid's name and are there any more?”
He rasped in a breath and I loosened my hold so he could speak.
“She's the only one.”
“It's been over twenty years, how is there only one toddler?”
“Bruce thought she was past being able to have kids a few years back. Wanted to save money on birth control. Turned out he was wrong.”
“And her name?”
I asked again, because I knew Sarah well enough to know she'd have named her daughter. When the bastard shook his head in the negative, my temper rose. These bastards couldn't be bothered learning the name of the only child in the fucking place?
“Who's the fucking father?”
“No clue. Could be just about any one of us.”
Fury coursed through me at what that poor woman had been put through. Guilt ate at me that I'd done such a fine fucking job of keeping her protected. Ron would be turning over in his grave right now.
“You know where the drug lab is?”
His eyes went wide but he refused to say a thing.
“Nitro? Take this little shit to go find that lab, and I want it burned to the ground. Nothing can survive that'll enable some other fucker to recreate that shit. We clear?”
“Crystal, prez.”
“And, Nitro?” I waited for the man to look me the eye. “He's the one I told you about, yeah?”
His grin was dark. “Sure thing, prez.”
Couldn't wait to have some fun with my new toy later. It'd been a while since I got a good workout in. Taz had the fun of working over the last fucker we had visit our basement.
I turned back to the others.
“You know who the fuck I am?”
No one said a word, but I had their complete attention.
“I'm the motherfucking president of the Charon MC. And your leader decided it was a great idea to fucking kidnap me, then use me as bait to grab my woman. It's not by chance that my club was named after the Greek ferryman, who in the myths was the one who decided where he ferried the souls of the dead to. Either Hades or the Elysian Fields. Heaven or hell. Guilty or innocent. It was up to the Charon to decide. Now it's my turn to play Charon. How you answer my questions is gonna make a big fucking difference on how your day ends, get me? Now, who was involved in the drug production?”
Naturally no one offered up a confession, but clearly none of these boys played poker and between all of us watching we soon had four men admitting they were involved.
“Now, who here has taken advantage of Sarah while she was fucking hopped up on that fucking drug?”
This time it was easy to pick who was innocent. We ended up with just three men innocent.
“Bank, Jazz and Keg take these three and tie 'em up out front. They get to go with the cops. Make sure they know the score. You other fuckers, well, you're getting sent straight to hell to join your motherfucking leader.”
I turned away when I heard someone coming and gave Bulldog a nod as he stopped next to me. With my arms crossed over my chest I watched as my brothers fired their weapons. Shots rang out loud in the quiet as each of these fuckers went to meet their maker.
“Nitro's rigged the lab up to blow, along with the rest of the house. He left me the switch before he took off to take your prize back to the clubhouse.”
“The bus here for Sarah yet?”
I hadn't heard sirens, but I'd been more than a little preoccupied so could have missed it.
“Five minutes out, cops are about ten minutes behind them.”
I nodded. “We have a little time then. Brothers, load these bastards into the house. The moment Sarah's out, we'll clear out and blow the fucking joint.”
“You ain't helping with it, prez. You need to go see Donna and get patched up.”
I went to tell Arrow to go fuck himself, but he stood before me with his arms folded like he was getting ready to fucking toss me over his shoulder or some shit.
“You know, some days you really piss me off, brother.”
“Yeah, but you love me for it. Now, get moving before I gotta drag your ass out there.”
With everything pretty much taken care of, my adrenaline was fading fast. It seemed to take forever to walk around the side of the house. Fuck me, but I was getting too old for this shit. By the time I made it out to the front of the property, I was grateful to see our bus sitting there all ready to go with Marie laying in the back on the stretcher, Sarah's little girl curled up beside her. One of the best things we ever did was trip out this tank of a van into an ambulance, even if the thing did come in handy way too often for my liking.
Keys and his old lady, Donna hopped down from the rear and rushed over toward me.
“Dammit, Scout, what the hell did you let them do to you?”
“Donna, it wasn't exactly like I had a choice. What's wrong with Marie?”
“She'll be fine. Just a little shock and a few scrapes and bruises, I had to sedate her to calm her down. The child seems physically fine, but she's refusing to talk. Bulldog told her that Marie was Sarah's sister and she willingly curled up against her and went to sleep herself. Guess Marie's motherly vibe is universal, huh?” She paused to shake her head, as though trying to clear it. “Now, lose the leather, I need to see what I'm dealing with.”
Shrugging out of my cut, I passed it to Keys, but before I attempted to get myself up into the back of the bus, I froze. Marie and the little girl were on the stretcher.
“Yeah, we're kinda full but since you seem to be fine standing, I'll take a look at you out here quickly, then we'll head back into town. You can get sewn up at the hospital.”
I blew out a breath. “Can't you just throw in some stitches now? I got shit to do.”
“No, I can't just 'throw in some stitches.′ Shit, Scout, you should know better than to even ask. Now, how about you shut up and let me do my job, yeah?”
Keys, along with Arrow, laughed as I grumbled under my breath about stubborn females. Not that it got me anywhere. She went back into the bus and started rummaging around for something when the professionals pulled up. Bulldog was on it and quickly had them following him inside.
By the time the door opened again and the paramedics came out with Sarah strapped to a board, Donna had cleaned up my cuts and had slapped a bandage on them to last until we got back into town.
“Scout? With the condition Sarah is in, I think it might be in your best interest to get Child Protection Services involved with her case. Even if Sarah survives, she's going to be in hospital for a good, long while. The little one will end up in foster care.”
An icy chill ran down my spine. “No way in hell is that girl going to some strange foster home. She'll be going with Marie and me.”
I glanced around at the brothers with me to see who I could put in charge of this shit.
“Arrow, brother. Remember that senator we dealt with a few years back?”
The senator's aide decided to beat and rape a young woman, then the good senator decided to buy his aide out of any trouble he might get into over it. We didn't agree with that outcome and took it upon ourselves to deliver the deserved justice on the fucker. The senator couldn't prove it was us, but he knew. Also knew he fucked up by covering for the little shit and now owed us. He also knew what we'd do to him if he didn't honor his debt to us.
“Yeah. Little hard to forget.”
“I need you to go pay him a visit, take a couple of the brothers with you. I want paperwork done up before that little girl leaves hospital so she goes home with me and Marie to my place. Understood?”