Spark in the Ashes (Steel Souls MC Book 1)

by Nikki Groom

  “Well, you sure were there pretty quickly.” She pouts as if she were a chastised child.

  “You really want to know?”

  “That’s what I asked, didn’t I? Fuck me, you’re hard work,” she replies sharply, making me laugh.

  “There’s a tracker on my van. We were passing, and it flashed up.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?”

  “What’s it to you?” I counter, giving her as much sass as she gives me, which makes her smirk. “Anyway! I thought I told you not to kill anybody.”

  She drops her head with a sigh, then places her feet on the dash and rests her chin on her knees. “I didn’t plan it.” She shrugs. “It just kinda happened.”

  “You just shot a man in the head in the woods by a playground? What the fuck went on in there, Sadie?”

  She turns her head in my direction, and sadness crosses her features. “Do we have to do this now?”

  “Yes,” I say simply.

  “I needed somewhere quiet to go after the range. I needed to think—to be on my own. So I went to the park, and I saw him dragging a little girl into the bushes. She must have wandered off from her momma as no one seemed to be watching her. He carried her away, holding her little body so tightly, and with his filthy hand over her mouth so she couldn’t scream. I did what anyone else would do. Then you came and scared the shit out of me. The end.” She slaps her palms on her thighs and pulls a face at me, trying to lighten the words that just came out of her mouth. If that piece of shit was abducting a child, I’m glad she shot him in the head, I would have done the same thing. But she was in my van, had bullets loaded in her gun with my prints on them and was in the woods next to a busy park at peak time. It wasn’t exactly the most ideal place to shoot someone. If such a place even exists.

  “Well, we’ve got shit to do before we can take care of your latest victim,” I say, following Tex’s truck and pulling left onto a street with my heart starting to beat fast in my chest. Man, The Wolves are gonna be pissed when they see what we’re about to dump on their doorstep.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” I swing the van in behind Tex and the boys as we pull up at the end of the dirt track leading to The Wolves lair. “Stay here. Do not get out and if anything happens in the next few minutes, and I can’t get back to the van, you jump in my seat and drive like hell, got it?”

  “Wait, where are you going?” she asks, desperately shuffling over to the driver’s side as I get out.

  “Do as you’re told,” I say with a curt nod. I slam the van door closed as Tex and Ruck swing open the back of Tex’s truck. Tex lunges forward and grabs Dago by his bound feet, dragging him out and dropping him to the ground with a thud. He does the same with Spice, and they both lay there in the dirt looking up at us with wide eyes and anticipation.

  “I see you brought the girl …” JJ says, narrowing his eyes at Sadie through the windshield.

  “Yes, problem?” I challenge.

  “If we gotta keep saving her ass and dealing with bodies there is.”

  I get up in his face, puffing my chest out and gritting my teeth. Ruck and Tex step back and stay silent. “When we stopped to check out why my van was there, we just so happened to find a dead man, who had, just moments earlier, tried to lure a small girl into the woods for his own fucked up, twisted gains. So if you have a problem say it now. Otherwise, shut the fuck up, leave my personal life out of it and let’s get on with this shall we? I got shit to do.”

  JJ nods and claps a hand on my shoulder. “Dump them and their bikes over there. Won’t take long for one of theirs to find them,” JJ says to Tex and Ruck with a chuckle, crouching down next to them. “That is unless they’re all outta town in which case that wound of yours is gonna make a very attractive meal choice for the flies.” He ruffles Dago’s long dirty hair, then stands and wipes his palm on the front of his jeans. Ruck and I carry them to the side of the road, dropping them in full view of The Wolves when they come past. There’s no way they’ll miss them. And as soon as they’re found, that’s when it’s judgment day. My gut churns with anxiety at the thought of a fucking war with these boys. It’s been such a long time coming. So many times I thought it would happen, then animosity would always subside, and temporary peace would ensue. But they’ve started to take things too far. The girl at the bar, the old boy that runs the drug store, and all the ears they’ve been whispering into to try and take over what’s ours. It’s no longer whispers on the grapevine and the occasional display of feathers—they’re showing their hand and creeping in slowly, pushing the boundaries to see just how far we’ll flex. The volcano that has been bubbling away underground for such a long time—the rivalry between the two clubs—it’s all reaching boiling point, and it’s either going to go back down for good, or it’s gonna erupt like Vesuvius on an acid trip. As spectacular as that’s gonna be to watch, it won’t be without its sacrifices and casualties. Bloodshed and violence don’t scare me—if it’s not any of my crew bleeding, that is.

  “What about the sick fuck with a bullet in his head?” I ask JJ.

  He purses his lips and scratches the scruff on his chin, looking between the pedophile in the van and the sorry-looking Wolves at the side of the road.

  “Put him over there with those fucking clowns. But I want you to cut off his ears and take out his eyes and stuff ‘em all in his mouth. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Let’s see what President Rev thinks of that little message.”

  “You pushing for this war now, JJ?” Tex asks, and I detect a little unease in his voice.

  “If we can do this the easy way and make them back off, I’m down with that. But I want that message driven home loud and clear. I’m not messing. I’ll take them all out one by one, day after day if I have to,” JJ reassures him with a determined look in his eyes. “Get to work, boys, then let’s get out of here,” JJ orders.

  I don’t miss the look he throws in Sadie’s direction as he stalks back to Tex’s van, and even though he doesn’t say anything, I know what he’s thinking. She is a distraction, but as far as I’m concerned, she’s a welcome distraction from some of the heavy bullshit that goes on around here. “I’m gonna stop off at The Liquor Box, check on the guys and girls,” I call out after him.

  “Whatever,” he throws over his shoulder. I know he’s up for war. I know he wants it, craves it even, but the severity of this one could go down in history, and that plays on his mind more than mine because he has more to lose—hasn’t he?

  Tex and Ruck drag the body of the bastard pedophile from the back of the van and Tex pulls out his knife, slicing off both of his ears without even a second thought. He pushes them into the guy’s mouth before prying his eyelids open to get to his eyeballs. Ruck turns his head to the side, screwing his eyes shut tightly. “What’s up, Rucky, boy? Too gruesome for ya?” I tease.

  Ruck pushes his shoulders wide and stands up to full height in front of me. “You’re turning into a twisted fucker, you know that, Ramsey?”

  “Ah, shut it, you baby,” I say, playfully pushing his shoulder. But the hardness in his eyes doesn’t falter.

  “You think this is normal? Torturing people?” He gestures to Dago and Spice lying bound on the side of the track. “You think it makes you a tough guy sending messages back and forth in the way of severed ears and gouged-out eyeballs?”

  “Ruck,” I warn, my voice low.

  “Don’t Ruck me,” he seethes, sucking air between his teeth.

  “You know how it is. How the life is. It’s kill or be killed.” I try to placate him as this is not the time or the place.

  “Yeah, well maybe I don’t want this life anymore. And maybe, just maybe I’d like my brother back. The one that didn’t enjoy removing body parts,” he spits resentfully, his lip curled in distaste. “Only I haven’t seen him in a while. You know where he’s at?”

  “Ruck.”

  “Fuck you,” he yells, jumping in the van and slamming the do
or behind him.

  Tex comes to stand next to me. “Just leave him for an hour or two, he’ll calm down.”

  “Yeah?” I say, watching him get into the back of the van. “I’m not so sure.”

  “We all have off days, tension is high, it’s gonna take its toll, but we gotta pull together.”

  “I hope you’re right, Tex, man. I hope you’re right,” I murmur to myself.

  “Let’s get outta here before they come back. Job’s done. Message left for them loud and fucking clear.” He chuckles with a satisfied smirk.

  “See you back at HQ,” I say, still watching Ruck as I turn back to my truck.

  “Yes, sir.” Tex salutes, then he jumps in the van and peels away in a cloud of dust, and I follow behind.

  Sadie moves over to the passenger side without a word, and I purposefully don’t look at her or say anything. I don’t know what I’m going to see in her eyes when I do look, but I’m just not ready for it yet. I’m still reeling over Rucks words. I know he’s been fighting a war in his head for some time now, and I fear that he’s not coping with everything life has thrown at us as well as I am. I know we all deal with shit in our own different ways and most of the time I bury it. I bury it so deep that it threatens to get lost under all the other shit I dump on top of it. But it’s all there, and the problem with burying your feelings is that they get buried alive. Ruck is the one that brings everything back. The look he gives me, the disapproval, the hurt, the sadness that he wanted something different for us in our lives, for our future, it digs everything back up and brings it to the forefront. Like we don’t have enough shit going down.

  “Thank you for dealing with the body,” Sadie whispers, troubling her lower lip with her thumbnail.

  “No big deal,” I say, clearing my throat. “About the other guys there …” I try to think of the right words to explain to her what’s happening, but how do you explain to a girl that you tortured them to send a message to their leader? It sounds like a fuckedup movie.

  “You don’t need to explain.” She scoots closer across the seat and places her hand on my thigh, squeezing gently. I smile over at her and cover her hand with mine.

  “It’s been an eventful day for you, huh?”

  “You can say that again,” she sighs, and I instantly feel guilty for everything she’s witnessed today. It’s enough to scramble anyone’s brain that isn’t used to it.

  “I’ll take you home.”

  “No,” she answers quickly. “Please don’t.”

  “You don’t have someone waiting for you? Wondering where you are?” I ask, hoping she doesn’t.

  “No,” she smiles, shaking her head. “I don’t really want to go back to a big empty house. My stepdad is away on business, and I hate rattling around in that place on my own.”

  “It’s not really safe to be around me, Sadie.” I drop my shoulders with a heavy breath.

  My words have two meanings. The Wolves will either blow the fucking place up when they find their men, or they’ll back off, and I don’t want to risk having her caught up in it all.

  Secondly, I’m trying to do the right thing and save her from me. It goes against everything I selfishly want in my head, and it’s the only time I feel I’m going to be strong enough to give her an out. The more time she spends with me, the harder it is for me to stop thinking about her, wanting her. And I’m her biggest threat.

  Chapter 15

  I would be lying if I said it didn’t turn my stomach watching that biker cut out the eyeballs of the pedophile and stuff them in his mouth. I know he wasn’t alive to feel it. I know he was such a sick individual that he probably deserved to be alive when he was being fed his own body parts, but it still made me feel sick even though I couldn’t look away. My mind drifts back to a few nights ago when I was pulling out every last breath from Donny Carden before I sent him to Satan. Was what I did any better, or indeed, because he was alive, any worse?

  “I don’t need protecting, Ramsey.” I look over at him and squeeze my hand on his thigh. “I can do that myself.”

  “I guess you can,” he says with a smile letting his eyes flick to mine before snapping back to the road ahead.

  “So where are we going?”

  “You’ll see when we get there.”

  I settle into the ride, watching the world go by as we take some back roads that I haven’t had time to explore yet. It’s really quite beautiful when you can sit back and take it for what it is, but as we near the town, I realize we’re hitting the part that I would never walk alone in, and if I did, I would make sure I was armed to the max and ready to shoot or stab at the first opportunity. We park up a side alley, and Ramsey adjusts his gun in his waistband, before hopping out. I follow, and he takes my hand, entwining my fingers with his in a firm grip and tucking them tightly to his side. He pushes open the door to a bar called The Liquor Box. The sign outside makes it look smarter than most bars along this strip, but the flashing neon blue instantly makes me think ‘Strippers’. I’m about to drop his hand and tell him that I really don’t think I should have come and that he can take me home now because I’m not the least bit interested in seeing strippers, when a loud guy with a huge round belly and a beard that trails down to the neckline of his t-shirt, comes over.

  “Ramsey!” he booms, wrapping his arms around him and giving Ram no choice but to drop my hand. I take this opportunity to look around and am pleasantly surprised to see no dancing girls, no stripper poles, and no podiums. Thank fuck.

  “It’s good to see you, Len,” Ramsey says as the air is squeezed out of him with Len’s bear hug.

  “You too, man,” Len says, detaching himself from Ramsey and setting his sights on me. “And who’s this young beauty?”

  “This young lady …” Ram grabs me around the waist and yanks me to his side, “Is mine.”

  “Nice.” Len nods in appreciation and whistles in a breath. “Drinks?”

  “Thought you’d never fucking ask.”

  “So, what’s new, boss?” Len asks, making conversation as he crosses to the other side of the bar, grabbing two tumblers and mixing bourbon with lemon juice and something else in a cocktail shaker. It’s a funny sight to see such a burly, bearded man making such a good job of a cocktail show.

  “I just thought I would bring my girl here to try out your famous whiskey sour.” Ram smirks as he tugs me to the bar, sitting on a tall stool and positioning me with his left leg between mine, so I’m practically sitting on him, his arm around my waist.

  “How do you even know if I like whiskey?” I ask, messing with him.

  “You’ll like it.”

  “You’re very confident,” I remark, twisting to look at him. The position we are seated in puts us in close proximity, and I take in the lazy, seductive look in his eyes as his hand brushes up and down my thigh. It feels good. Safe. Intimate. In a way I’ve never felt before. I’ve had sex, plenty of sex, but intimacy never went with it. It was more about need and want, than intimacy and desire, which is what seems to be firing off throughout my system here and now.

  “Yes,” he says quietly, talking so that only I can hear. “I am confident because I know, whatever I give you, you’re gonna want more.” He winks, holding my gaze and silently challenging me. I feel the heat creep across my chest and sweep up my neck, which makes his lips twitch with amusement, and I refuse to let him make me feel bashful, even though his eyes strip me bare.

  I lean in close and brush my cheekbone against his. “We’ll see,” I whisper in his ear. He stifles a groan and shakes off a shiver that runs down his back, and I turn back to the bar, settling myself on his thigh, my legs propped either side of his leg provocatively, and feeling extremely smug.

  As Len places our drinks in front of us, Ramsey tucks his hand under my tank top at the waist and strokes his thumb softly across my bare skin. Noting my deep intake of breath, he clears his throat, “So what’s been going on around here, Len? Ruck tells me you weren’t here when he stopped by…
”

  If Len detects the change in tone from Ramsey he doesn’t seem affected by it, but not only do I hear it, I feel it as his body tenses ever so slightly against mine. “When’d he stop by?” Len shrugs, drying his hands on a bar towel and tossing it into the corner of the bar. “This place is open fifteen hours a day, seven days a week. A man’s gotta eat, sleep, and fuck, I can’t be here every second of the day.”

  “I know, man.” Ramsey continues to rub circles on my bare waist while spinning an ashtray on the bar with the index finger of his other hand. “You’re a good manager. I just wondered if everything was okay? I’ve heard a couple of rumors around town, and I’d hate to think there was something you weren’t telling me.” Ramsey is clever with his way and his words. Praise and a warning all in one, and I plant my feet firmly on the ground, ready to stand up fast should something kick off.

  “What’ya heard, Ram?” Len places his elbows on the bar and leans forward, tilting his head and almost looking smug, but not daring to show so little respect.

  “Know anything of a new dealer around here?” Ramsey’s body presses flush against my back, and his hand stills on my waist as he moves in closer to Len with me caged in between.

  Len shakes his head, unfazed by the scrutiny. “Nup. Nothing that I know of. I can ask around, see if any of the girls know anything. To be honest, it’s been business as usual around here. Well, other than one of the bar girls not turning up two shifts in a row, so I’ve had to be on my feet double time. It’s pretty much groundhog day here.”

  “Which girl?” Ramsey asks, sitting straighter and gripping me tighter around my waist.

  “Jade. She’s a quiet one. Always blushes when the punters tease her and to be honest, I didn’t think she would hack it anyway. Too much of a nice kid. Out of her depth in a bar like this.” He laughs.

  “You called her cell?”

  “Yup, nothin’. Probably moved on to somethin’ else by now. No drama. I’ll have her replaced by the end of the week.”