by Sam Crescent
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent
ISBN: 978-1-77233-902-4
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
To all of my amazing readers for coming on this journey with me, and for their constant support and love for The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds. Writing this series gives me immense pleasure, and even though I never know what to expect, I find each new book a challenge in itself.
Thank you to Karyn White for her constant patience, and her love/ hate relationship with each character. Also, a big thank you to Evernight Publishing, and Stacey Adderley for giving The Skulls and Chaos Bleeds a home. Without every single one of you, I wouldn't be writing this dedication.
Thank you all so, so much.
MASTER
Chaos Bleeds, 8
Sam Crescent
Copyright © 2016
Prologue
Piston County
Spider couldn’t open his eyes. He was so damn tired, and he was in pain. He hated pain, unless he was the one inflicting it.
Paris!
Celia!
Fuck, he’d taken them. Master had taken them, and someone called Sir. What the fuck was going on? He didn’t know what to believe anymore, or what to make sense of. He was all over the place, and he didn’t know what was right or wrong.
They had taken them.
Opening his eyes, he groaned at the bright light.
“Shit, he’s coming, too.”
Was that Devil?
Where the fuck was he?
He should be helping Celia and Paris. Someone had to help them. Master was going to kill them. He couldn’t live with himself if anything happened to them.
Spider couldn’t die. His mission was to stay alive. Death was not an option, not today. Opening his eyes, he became aware of the pain once again, and the need to fight. He had to fight. Sitting around on his ass was not what he had in mind for the rest of the day.
Get up.
Get the fuck up.
“Spider, can you hear me?”
Everything came to life, and he gasped, choking on something lodged down his throat.
He couldn’t breathe.
Fuck, the pain.
Grasping the tube down his throat, he started to tug, and suddenly nurses and doctors were around him.
I need to live. Got to live. Got to save Paris and her sister.
“If he fucking dies, I’m coming for all of you,” Devil said.
Spider took note of the hospital room, his brothers, and his brother’s old ladies. Fuck, he was tired. He needed to get out of here. This was wasting time. The longer Master had them, the worse it was going to be.
“Fuck, Spider, calm down,” Butler said.
He recognized all of his brothers, but he couldn’t speak. The nurses pinned him down as they took the tube from his throat. The moment he could breathe, he gasped out.
“Gotta go.”
His voice was hoarse, and he tried to move. Everything fucking hurt!
“We can’t let you leave.”
“No, I’ve got to go. He needs to know I’m alive.”
“Spider, it’s all good, we’re here,” Devil said.
“He’s taken them.” Tears filled his eyes, and it only served to make Spider angry. Never in his life had he ever cried in front of his Chaos Bleeds brothers. Crying wasn’t something he did. “I’ve got to save them. He took them because of us.”
“Get out!” Devil issued the order.
“This is my hos—”
“I’m the one paying for the fucking treatment. Get out,” Devil said.
Spider held his chest, and waited as the nurses and doctor left the room. Every second counted, and he didn’t know how long he’d been out of it.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Master and Sir, they’ve taken them. They’ve taken Paris and Celia, and I’ve got to win them back.”
“How?” Devil asked.
Spider winced, becoming aware of the pain in his shoulder and in his thigh. Why hadn’t he put up more of a fight? Fuck, he was in a lot of pain.
“I’ve got to play his game.”
“This is fucking horseshit,” Pussy said. “We don’t jump to someone else’s tune. It’s not who we are.”
“He’s going to kill them. Celia, she’s not like us or Paris. She’s sick, and has the mental capacity of a child, Devil. I promised Paris I’d help her, that I’d look after her. I can’t fail.”
“What game?” Devil asked.
“I have to stay alive. I have to keep on breathing.”
“You died.”
Spider shook his head. “I’m alive right now.”
“According to the ambulance crew, they had to shock your heart. It stopped.”
“I don’t care, Devil. I’m alive, and we need to make them safe. Please. I have never begged for anything in my life. I’m begging now. My loyalty to the club has always been absolute.”
“I’m not questioning your loyalty.”
“Please, I can’t live without her.” Spider didn’t know what he felt for Paris, only that he cared about her. “They’re going to get hurt if we don’t save them.”
“We’ve got to call in The Skulls,” Devil said. “We can’t hold it off any longer.”
“Do it. We need to end this fucker once and for all.”
****
Paris tried not to show how damn scared she was. Being left alone to care for her sister, stripping her clothes off, even working for the biker club, Chaos Bleeds had not been as scary as this. She’d gladly get naked for a roomful of men rather than be with this … man.
“I have to say there is something beautiful about a woman strung up, at my mercy,” Master said. “You know your sister has gone back to your friends. The boyfriend in the biker club. It’s a pity he actually lived. I was going to have so much fun hurting her. I wonder if she’d scream, or if she would be too damn stupid to know I was hurting her. It’d make for a great scientific study.”
Paris closed her eyes, trying not to be afraid as he spoke about Celia like that. This man was a monster. There was nothing good about him, nor was there anything good about the man who worked for him. Both of them were vile and needed to be put down.
“I thought you’d be a lot more talkative. We’re alone, and your sister is safe.”
“You took her,” Paris said.
“Ah, she speaks now.”
“You took her, and you’re the reason my sister stopped being safe. You.” Her arms hurt from being in the same position for so long. She was tired, fed up, and part of her wanted to give up. She couldn’t though, not yet. Celia needed her.
“I wonder how much Spider is willing to do to get you. Do you think he’ll take care of your sister? Personally, I’d put her out of her misery, and kill the bitch.”
“Stop.” His cruelty knew no bounds.
“No, I don’t want to stop.” He climbed out of his chair and moved toward her. She couldn’t help but tense up. Every time he came near her, he always caused her pain. She didn’t want any more pain. He gripped the back of her head, and tugged until she followed his hand, crying out
. He held onto her jaw. “No whore tells me what to do. You see, Paris, you may be pretty to look at, but I’m the one who calls the shots, not you. Your role is to be quiet, and to give what a man needs. You’re nothing more than a bunch of holes for me to use. Your mouth, your cunt, your ass, are only good for one thing and that is being filled.” She gasped as he tugged her hair so tight she thought he was pulling it out of its socket. “Your ass is mine. I wonder how much I can break you before I give you back to Spider.”
The moment Paris started screaming, she thought she’d never stop. Master was determined to ruin her, and she truly believed he’d succeed.
Chapter One
Right after Gash
“What the fuck?” Stink looked around the chaos of The Skulls compound, and he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There was blood, carnage, and death around him.
“Fuck, fuck,” Adam said, holding onto his leg.
Tugging his belt, Stink quickly wrapped it around the top of Adam’s leg. “Keep pressure on it.”
“As if I wasn’t fucking doing that already, bastard. Fuck! Andrew got this one down.”
Stink tried to cut out the child’s screams, focusing on Adam before he moved onto the next one. “You good?”
“Yeah, help everyone else.”
“I’ve called medics,” Pussy said.
He looked toward the Chaos Bleeds member, and saw Pussy’s old lady, Sasha in his lap, out cold. Blood was coming from her head, and her dog was whining.
“She can’t fucking die on me.”
Rushing toward him, Stink placed his fingers against her neck, feeling the faint cold. “What else happened?”
Pussy held onto her shoulder, and blood soaked between his fingers. “She got shot, and I fucking reacted, and I didn’t cushion her fucking head. She hit the ground hard.”
“Keep her still, Pussy. The ambulance is on the way.”
Moving on, Stink’s heart was racing as he looked around the main compound. He couldn’t see Sandy anywhere. The moment the bullets had started firing, he’d taken Eva down as he’d been near Tiny’s old lady at the time. Where was his woman? He couldn’t lose her, not now. They were just starting to make a go of it.
“Simon!” Devil’s scream of his son’s name had Stink turning around to witness the leader of the Chaos Bleeds lifting his son in his arms. There was no sign of life in Simon’s body, and right next to him, Tiny lifted Tabitha.
“No!” Eva ran toward her daughter, and Stink watched helplessly as two of the children were held tightly against their parents. Neither Simon nor Tabitha showed signs of life.
“I’m not going to wait for a fucking ambulance,” Tiny said, rushing toward the car with Devil following close behind.
Lexie and Eva were both waving at them, sobbing. Miles wrapped his arms around his mother, as Lexie’s kids did the same with her. Everywhere he looked, there was pain, fear, violence.
“Ah!” Angel screamed, panting, trying to close her legs. Lash was by her side. “I can’t hold on, Lash.”
Suddenly, Stink took a deep breath as he caught sight of Sandy lowering herself before Angel. “We’ve got this, Angel. We’ve done it with Anthony, and we’re going to keep on practicing, aren’t we?” She took some deep breaths, and Stink turned away.
His woman wouldn’t appreciate being taken from her work, and there was so much to do.
Twisted grunted as he lifted up Judi. Ripper got to his feet, rushing toward the house. There were babies inside, and Stink made to follow but stopped as he caught sight of Millie, the toy shop owner who Baker was besotted with.
“I’ve got to stop the bleeding,” she said, sobbing as she did.
Stepping close, Stink saw that Nash was there as well.
On the floor, covered in blood was Happy, the brother who’d joined them from the Nomads in the hope of settling down. He was a brother who’d not spent all that much time at the clubhouse, but his loyalty had known no bounds.
Baker came forward and hugged Millie, trying to stop her from attending to Happy. No matter what she did, Happy was gone. A bullet to the head had taken him, along with several more to the chest.
“No! I’ve got to help him.” She kept trying, but it was no use.
With no other choice, Baker wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her away using sheer force. Millie screamed and tried to kick out, begging for them to save him.
“He’s gone, Millie,” Stink said, reaching out and pushing his eyelids down. “He’s dead.”
Millie ceased her struggles and fell to her knees. Tears fell from her eyes. “What happened?” she asked.
“It’s okay,” Baker said.
“No, it’s not okay.”
Getting to his feet, he put a hand on Nash’s arm.
“I don’t need your support,” Nash said.
“What?” Stink asked.
“Sophia was inside. She was safe.” Nash looked up at him with tears in his eyes.
“Help! Help!”
Stink looked up toward the broken window Ripper leaned out. “Sophia’s been shot! We need some help up here.”
He didn’t need asking twice and rushed inside at the same time. Charging upstairs, he heard the sound of steps behind him, and he hurried into the nursery, finding Ripper pressing on Sophia’s chest.
“She’s losing blood, man. I don’t know what the fuck to do.”
Sophia’s eyes were watering, and she was gasping for breath. This was not a situation he could handle. He’d been part of Sandy’s many labor classes that she’d given him in case he was alone with one of the pregnant old ladies. Rushing downstairs, and outside, he traded places with Sandy. “You’re needed upstairs. Sophia can’t breathe. I think you need to relieve the pressure in her lung.”
Kneeling down on the floor, he looked at Angel, seeing the pain clearly on her face. She was holding her shit together, and he respected her for that, also considering the fact she was heavily pregnant.
“We okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine, but it’s not okay.”
“I know.”
“People are dying.”
“No, they’re not. We’re injured, but we’re fine,” Lash said.
Stink shook his head. “We’re not all fine.”
“What?”
“Happy that I know of, he’s gone. Bullet to the head. Tabitha and Simon are on their way to the hospital. Pussy’s old lady, Sasha, she’s not waking up. Take a look around, Lash, it’s not okay.”
Stink didn’t know what to say or what to do.
“Go, Lash, your club needs you. They need you now more than ever.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“I’m fine. Go!” Angel gave him a look, which had Lash gritting his teeth.
“Anthony.” Lash grabbed his son, and held his arms. “You stay with your mother, you hear? Do whatever she needs, and come find me if anything happens.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“It’s okay. Take deep breaths,” Stink said, showing her what he meant by deep breaths.
“It hurts.”
“I know. The ambulance is coming.”
****
Staring around the compound, Lash looked at his fallen brothers, each one a part of The Skulls. Fort Wills was The Skulls’ home. There were members of the club elsewhere, in Nomad or different towns, but this was where it all started, where it all began, and now, it looked like it was going to be where they all ended.
Happy was dead. Adam, their only British member, was injured, not to mention everyone else.
Pushing his panic down, Lash allowed the anger that had been dormant inside him for so long start to pull up to the surface. Angel, she calmed the monster within him, and little by little the attacks on his club had been rocking his very core. Andrew—Master, Gash’s brother, whatever you wanted to fucking call him—had gone too far.
This was his club, and he was determined to fucking protect it.
In the distance he heard the sirens, and he s
tarted to work his way through the crap. Each step he took, his anger built. Picking Adam up, he placed him by his woman, who was nearest the parking lot entrance. She was going on the first ambulance out, along with Pussy and Sasha.
“What the fuck, man? How can you fucking lift me?” Adam asked.
Lash didn’t say a word, and kept on moving.
“I can’t move her,” Pussy said.
“Fine, I’ve got to help the others. We’ll get her taken care of, Pussy, I promise.”
“How can I help?” Killer asked.
“Where are Kelsey and Markus?” Lash asked.
“They’re fine. They were in the fucking pantry for more food. They’re fine. They’re helping Sophia upstairs.”
Lash froze. “Sophia?”
“Sandy’s with her. She’s been hit bad.”
Fuck, his brother wouldn’t be able to handle anything if something happened to Sophia.
Rushing toward the house, he saw Nash was carrying his woman downstairs with Sandy holding something against her rib cage.
“We need to get to the hospital now,” Sandy said.
“Ambulance is outside.”
Lash was back, and he put Sophia, Nash, Pussy, and Sasha into one ambulance. In the next went his wife, followed by Adam.
For the next hour, Lash helped his club and Chaos Bleeds sort through the damage that had been left in Master’s wake. From the Chaos Bleeds crew, Curse and Mia had both had to go to the hospital. The bullet had grazed Curse’s knee and impaled Mia’s thigh. Jessica, Snake’s old lady, had a gunshot wound to her arm. Phoebe, Vincent’s woman, had to go to the hospital as well with her injuries. The ambulance crew kept coming and going. The Chaos Bleeds two prospects, Bob and Wild, were fine.
The Skulls didn’t fare much better. Murphy was hurt, and Tate rounded up the kids that weren’t injured. She had Anthony, her Simon, Rachel, Miles, Daisy, and Darcy. Sally was hurt, as well as Lacey. Whizz assisted both to the hospital.