Crack and his buddies have done some awful things to me. Some very awful things. Things that don't bear thinking about. I won't waste what little time I have left on this earth thinking about it. It's done with.
“Almost time to speak to daddy, bitch.”
How original, calling a woman a bitch. Filthy biker pig, he's the kind of man who gives bikers a bad name. He really thinks I'm going to beg and plead with my dad to come save me. There's no way I want my dad coming here, they'll kill him. He has my mother and three young siblings to take care of, not to mention Jett, Nova, and Ember.
Jordan will be fine without me, he'll move on. Men always do.
My mother never will. Losing your child must be the most awful thing a parent could go through. But if she lost my dad it would kill her. She'll grieve for me, but dad will there to pick her up and hold her close to him. That's all she needs.
I'm not scared of dying per se. It's more a fear of how I'm going to die. I've never really been big on pain. I'm kind of a wimp. But I've taken the beatings I've been given here, even put up with their grabby hands and threats about raping me again and again without shedding a tear.
No, that would be giving them what they want should I cry and beg. And if there's anything my mom taught me about situations like this, about men like these, they get off on seeing you cry, hearing you beg. Never give them what they want.
Pigs, all of them.
I'm tied to a chair right now, camera set up in front of my face, ready to send my dad a message.
“Right, bitch, tell daddy to come save you. Tell him he has an hour to give himself up or we'll kill you.”
I say nothing in response to Crack, but I do look at the camera and blink.
My father might not be mine biologically, but he's the only father I have ever known, the man who has always been there for me, the man who tucked me in at night and told me that I was his princess, how much he loved me, and how he'd never let anything bad happen to me.
People used to say he was a bad man, and maybe he was, but at home, he was the kindest man I'd ever known.
Jett and I spent so many years wondering if Nova would ever come home. Even after VJ, Max, and Sophie were born, we wondered. Daddy's heart had a piece missing.
Then she came home with a child of her own and our family was complete again, the missing puzzle piece was slotted back in place with an extra piece for Ember.
When I'm gone, will a piece of the puzzle always be missing?
I don't know, but I do know that I won't let this man trick my dad when he's never going to let me go. He will kill me, either way, he will.
“Daddy, Crack wants me to tell you how if you give yourself up he'll let me go. How the feud he started will be over between your clubs. He's lying, don't come here, Daddy, he's going to kill me anyway!”
“Bitch!” Crack strikes me so hard I'm on the floor still bound to the chair, pain thumping through my whole body.
That video was streaming live. Daddy heard me, he knows the truth. I don't know what will happen to me now, I just know my father will figure some way to end these pigs for good.
I love you, Daddy. Take care of everyone and make sure my mother knows how much I loved her. Goodbye.
The plan is a good one. Nova is smarter than we all gave her credit for. She found the old warehouse where those cunts are keeping Willow within five minutes. I mean, seriously? We'd been looking all damn night and day, and night and day again and found nothing. She pulled in so many favors for us. She wouldn't tell us with whom, nor what they were going to do. She told us only where we were to be positioned and who would storm the place.
She's going to be in position to take out the guards around the warehouse one by one. Once they're down, Shepard is to call Crack and give him one last chance to release Willow unharmed. Well, any more than she already is. He'll refuse, we all know that. That's when one of Nova's men – yes, she calls them that – will blow the front out of the warehouse. There are enough explosives wired up to the place already for that.
Once that's done, the club is to take out any and all Barbers in our way. Hammer, Jett, and Red are to go ahead and find Willow. Their job is to get her out of there safely. Stryker, Ghost, and Ace are to cover them at all costs. Their only aim is to get Willow out.
Once we clear the place, we get out of there as fast as we can. We don't wait for anyone. We have fifteen minutes before Nova gives the order to her men to blow the place apart. Anyone left behind will perish with the Satan's Barbers. No exceptions.
No one wants to leave a man behind, and none of us will. It's just not in our DNA to leave a brother behind to die. But no one said that to Nova. She told us point blank that anyone derails from the plan and she'll make 'em suffer. She might be a woman, but she's a damn crazy one.
Each club member has a specific job to do, anyone fucks up and it could cost us Willow's life. Roman is to make sure no one leaves anything behind, no guns, ammo, the camera Crack used to send those feeds to Shepard. Nova doesn't want there to be any way the police can bring this back on us.
Before we left the clubhouse, Shepard got another live video stream. Willow screamed how Shepard wasn't to hand himself over because Crack intends to kill her anyway. There's no way Shepard wouldn't go to her, no matter if it cost him his life.
We throttled it here, took twenty minutes to get here, bikes, trucks and cars alike. Seemed to take forever. But then it always does when you need to be somewhere fast. But we're here, all in position waiting for Nova's cue to storm the place.
I don't see Nova anywhere, but I see the guards dropping one by one in a mist of blood. There's no sound from the gun she's using, no attention being drawn to us. Roman is looking at me and I him, we're both impressed. She's fuckin' good. But how in the hell is she moving so fast undetected?
“Now!” Nova screams into the air. Every man is rushing toward the warehouse just as the front of the building collapses.
Just as I thought, the place is crawling with Barbers, guns drawn, pointing at us. But we outnumber them two to one. We're a bigger MC, bigger than any around.
Hammer, Jett, and Red run by me. Each member covers them, taking out the ugly fuckers in front and all around us. It's carnage, but I love it! The fuckin' adrenaline rush this kind of shit gives me is all consuming.
A stupid little fuckin' prospect comes at me. He might be pointing a gun at me, but he hesitates. He's not made for this, and I wonder for a split second why a kid of possibly eighteen would want to get involved in something like this. Did he even have a choice?
I don't wanna kill him, but then I don't have to, Ripper takes him out from behind. Kid’s blood sprays me across the face and chest, and I don't think there'll be a day that goes by from here on in that I don't see that look in his eyes swimming through my brain. Kid knew he was gonna die here, but like everyone else who ends up like this, he thought he could wing it and maybe survive.
Kid should've hidden. Only thing that would have saved his life. Ain't no pride in being a coward, he can at least take to the grave that he wasn't that.
Takes a strong man to stand up to a Snake, or a stupid one. Ninety-nine percent of the time it ends in a man's death. But at least it ain't a coward’s death.
Every Barber in the room is dead, not one survived. I scan the dank room quickly for any Snakes that might be dead. Everyone's alive. Someone is definitely looking out for us tonight.
Yelling draws us to the door at the back of the warehouse and a dimly light room that's empty of furniture. Well, from what I can see. Prez has taken down the Barbers VP. Hammer is taking down another, more are coming for the rest of us. But the closer they get, the faster they die. Not one of us is hit, but every one of us is miffed. Someone is shooting them all dead, and not someone in this room.
I look to Ace, he smirks and tells me, “Your girl.”
I only get one smile in before I hear my brother’s high pitched scream. He's didn't scream like that when Cindy was killed. What
the fuck is going on? The fear that he's been hit, that he's already dead is crushing me.
I can't see him through the gun smoke in the room, but I can suddenly hear him through the sudden silence as every Snake is deathly silent and still.
“Don't you dare give up! Hold on, Will. Please, baby.”
And as the smoke clears I see her, we all do, lying on the ground, her eyes wide with fear, face as pale as pale can be, body shaking, my brother’s hand around her throat, blood pouring out between his fingers. Jesus, fuck! Her throat's been cut.
“Let. Me. Go.” I hear her gasp out.
“What the fuck happened?”
Jett gets to his feet and rushes the Prez, stopping him moving closer to Willow. “Crack, he slit her throat, Dad.”
“No!”
Everything we've done to prevent something like this happening and we failed. God, did we fail.
“We have to get her out of here.”
“Call the fuckin' Doc!” Red yells.
We were too late. That motherfucker Crack slit Willow's throat, just like Cindy. And just like Cindy, Willow will die. And I'm not sure it won't kill my brother this time.
“Don't let go of her throat, Hammer,” Blackjack tells him as Jett lifts her into his arms. My brother holds onto her throat as though he's choking her, Prez following them out of this place as fast as he can.
I watch my brothers sweeping the place for weapons while Roman collects the camera.
It doesn't look like we've left anything behind but bodies and Willow's blood. But that can't be helped right now.
I doubt the cops will think anything of it, there's so many dead here that they'll probably put it down to one of them. If they manage to find anything left of the place, that is.
“We lose anyone?”
“No,” Roman tells me. “Just Will if we don't get her to the Doc.”
“Fuck!” I rake my hand through my hair. We might not have lost any of our men, but we could lose who we came here to save. Fuck it! “Everybody out!”
It's going to be a long fuckin' night.
Killing scum shouldn't bring a person so much joy, but it does.
I don't know If everybody got out, or even if my sister is alive, I just know that I heard their bikes and the trucks and cars rumble off in the distance. Good. They listened. Makes a change.
Every bike but mine is gone. They all made it out, which means my sister is just fine, I can breathe easily. I don't know if anyone was hurt, but I know that no one is dead, that's all I can ask for.
I smile to myself and press the igniter in my hand. My men did a good job rigging the place up in the short half an hour I gave them. Lucky for me, Zammo and Cole were around to help. Two of the best and craziest men I've ever worked with. Always there when I need them. I have men everywhere. It comes in handy for things like this, even if it did cost me a small fortune this time. It was worth it to get my sister back in one piece.
And as the warehouse fire warms my skin from afar, I smile. Another club ended at the hands of the Snakes.
My last official job as The Exorcist.
I jump on my bike and ride away. I don't need to make any calls; my men know to get out of there before anything goes down. I wait for no one. The billowing black smoke will draw the attention of the authorities soon enough.
I wonder if they'll give a shit about the bodies in and around the place. It's a fucking mass murder scene! They won't look to us, just as long as Lion and Roman did their jobs and grabbed everything that links us to the place.
We'll all breathe a little easier in our beds tonight.
Tomorrow we'll tighten security around the women and kids belonging to the club. Just to be on the safe side.
Tomorrow they'll all want to know just how I did what I did and pulled it off without any casualties.
Tomorrow, I'll tell them.
Tonight, I'm going to lie in bed with my man and our daughter and thank God we're all safe.
Tomorrow...
* * *
Where the hell is everyone?
The clubhouse is deserted. The plan was to meet back here. They had at least fifteen minutes head start on me, they should have been back by now.
What the fuck is going on?
I can't even get through the gate because there's no one manning it. That means no one has arrived back yet. How the hell could I have arrived back here before them? I'm a fast rider, but shit!
Unless everyone took off to my dad's so Lynette could see Willow.
Yeah, that's more than likely where they've all gone. Willow would definitely want to see her mom, and I know Lynette would want to hold Willow tight. She's a good mom.
But why the hell wouldn't they send the prospects back to the clubhouse?
I ride the wind toward my dad's house with a smile on my face. I could just scream with laughter right now. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say I was a total psychopath, but there is definitely something inside of me that's not right. How else am I meant to explain this feeling inside of me?
I'm over the fucking moon with the fact I just massacred a warehouse full of men. Killing those six guards wasn't enough for me. I positioned myself and my sniper rifle and shot the few men who were left in that room with my sister and the Snakes.
I know the MC could've handled it, but I am a greedy bitch, I get a blood thirst and I have to quench it until I'm satisfied. If I don't, I become irritable. Makes me sound crazy, but I'm not. I don't go around killing just for the sake of it. Like I said, I do it for justice. Liking what I do, eradicating the filth of this world is a damn service people should be proud of.
I'm not saying you should go out there and be a vigilante, leave that shit to people like me. Or the law if you have enough faith.
There are no bikes outside my dad's place and no lights on inside. Seriously, where the hell is everyone? I pull my cell from the inside of my leather jacket and call Tank. I'm about to end the damn call because he's taking too long to answer, but he does at the last minute.
“Where the fuck are you? And every fucker else for that matter? You were supposed to meet me at the clubhouse!”
“Nova...”
“I've been to the clubhouse and my dad's place, no one's around.”
“Nova,” He tries again but I'm not done ranting at him.
“The fucking plan was that we all meet at the clubhouse, that Shepard would collect Lynette, and...”
“Will you shut the fuck up and listen!” He yells so loudly I'm gobsmacked. Bastard! “Seriously, Nova. We're not at the damn clubhouse because we're at the infirmary at the safe house.”
Typical. One of them had to go and get themselves injured. I expected it if I'm honest. I mean, it's inevitable in those situations.
“Which idiot got himself shot? Don't tell me one of those pussy dogs managed to beat down one of our men?”
“Crack slit Willow's throat, Nova.”
The world suddenly seems very small and cold. We were too late. We should have gone sooner. If Tank had let me look for her sooner none of this would have happened!
No. I can't blame Tank. I should've moved quicker. I should have fired through that window and killed that bastard first. It would have taken me a second, then I couldn't've killed the guards. Willow would still be alive if I had. I did everything the wrong way round!
Oh god, she's dead!
We didn't get to spend enough time together.
We should've spent more time together.
I should have made more of an effort to get to know her. She asked me so many times if I'd like to go for coffee, or shopping for things for Ember because she wanted to treat her niece. I was too busy with other things to go with her.
What the hell was so important that I couldn't spare an hour or two out of my day to be with my sister?
I put by some time for wedding and bridesmaid dress shopping. Lynette, Willow, Tammy, Coral, Tessa, some of the other girls and me, we were all going to spend the day together. Spa, drinks
, dress shopping. We were going to have facials and all that crap that makes a girl feel good. Now we'll never get to do those things. And until this moment, it didn't seem all that important to me.
It's crazy, isn't it, how things seem trivial until they don't. It's crazy how you go about your life day in and day out, letting life pass you by, putting off the things that seem small at the time because there's always something bigger to be getting on with. Only to then go on and wish more than anything that you could go back and make that day happen.
Only when you lose someone special do you pray and beg, like I am right now in my head, for this to be a lie. I'd give anything, do anything to have those moments with my big sister.
I can't go to that place right now. I have a little girl and three younger siblings who need me. Or do I need them? I don't know who my little brothers and sister are with right now, but I know where my baby girl is.
I don't know how I've managed to ride over here without crashing my bike, and I don't remember ending the call to Tank, but it's obvious that I did.
“Is everything okay?” I can't answer Coral, I just rush past her, I need my baby girl.
She's sitting on Coral's floor, playing with building blocks in her little pink sleepsuit. “Mamma!”
I grab her and hold her against my body tightly, kissing her head frantically. I'm so numb, I need to feel something real.
How does a person ever get over something like this?
I've only known Willow a short time, but my heart is broken so badly that I don't know what to do.
How the hell will Lynette cope?
Willow and Lynette have the most amazing relationship, she's going to feel like she's lost half of herself. I don't even want to imagine what it would feel like to lose my daughter. I hold her closer, fighting back my emotions, but it's so hard. So very hard.
“Nova? What's going on?”
“We were too late,” I tell her quietly as I rock my daughter, who simply lies her head on my shoulder.
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