“Fine. We had a little spiff this morning so I’m currently at a rest area outside of Philly. I’ll be turning back in a bit and heading up to New York to meet them, though.”
“Spiff? You mean she finally came to her senses and kicked your ass to the curb.” Seamus laughs, deep down I wonder if that’s going to happen. I wouldn’t be shocked if it did. Like I told her earlier today, she is far better than I am. Neither of us are dumb, we both know she is.
“No, nothing like that. What’s going on?” I know something is up. Seamus isn’t the casual phone type, so for him to call means that something happened and it’s not personal news. This is club business. I’m just wondering what kind.
“Elena said something today that reminded me Bellamy’s last show is in New York. You remember what’s in New York?” I think long and hard, not coming up with anything besides Cheesecake. I’d kill for a fucking slice of cheesecake right now.
“Iron Vex.”
Fuuuuck.
“Shit. Shit. Fuck.” I mutter quickly, not able to focus on the level of stupidity that I obviously have today. How could I forget about them? Reed and their Prez are not friends, and Slasher has some pretty fucked history with that MC. “We should’ve told her to cancel. Fuck. Who knows that we’re with her?”
“Well, seeing as you two idiots have been photographed with her I’d say most people do.”
Fuck. Shit. Mother fucker.
Iron Vex does not have a good back history with Slash. I don’t know the details since he hasn’t told us much, but Reed knows and that’s the important thing here. If it was too bad, Reed wouldn’t have him at the club. He wouldn’t be allowed there, so we have to trust Reed’s better judgement.
“Anything else before I tear it up and haul ass to get to New York?”
Seamus quickly tells me that there haven’t been any good updates about Will Michaels’ whereabouts. They pinged his phone’s last location and discovered that the GPS was last recorded in a park a little bit away from the club. The same park that Jenna was attacked in not too long ago. Reed has decided to keep the security up, especially for the women. This just shows us all that Jenna’s attack and possibly Will Michaels’ disappearance are connected. The only thing that we have to do now is figuring out exactly why and how they’re connected. Obviously, this means that we have a bigger problem than just the Cartel. Someone out there is coming after Skulls Renegade MC members.
I make it back to New York in record time, flying up the highway as quickly as I can. I was lucky enough to know the hotel that Bellamy was supposed to be staying at. After a short chat with the concierge, I discover there was an issue with the room because of a broken curtain and they had to wait to have it repaired before they could enter. Neither Bell or Slash came back to check in after that.
This is throwing my red flags up in so many different directions.
Chapter 25
If they fuck you over once, they’ll fuck you over again. -TheGoodVibe.Co
Bellamy
“How’s your momma doin’, Chucks?” Slash asks, a sly looking grin dragging across his face. I don’t know what it is about the circumstances that we’re in, but I just can’t process anything right now. The fact that this man just grabbed us, flat out saying he’s planning to kill us. I can’t freaking do this right now!
“You really wanna be asking me that right now?” The man with the cut marked “Chuckles” mutters, taking a step closer to me. I jolt in the chair as he does what his name represents, chuckling at me. He leans his face down next to mine, sticking his tongue out and running it across my face. “You’re so sweet and innocent, being tied up to this guy? He your ol’man sweetheart? Don’t lie to me. I’ll know.”
My eyes quickly look over to Slash, begging him to help me somehow. “Tell him the truth.”
I listen closely to Slash, and I do. I tell him the truth. “No. Slash is just my friend.”
“You should really reconsider who your friends are, sweetie. He’s the reason you’re going to die today.” The tears prickle behind my eyes, and I throw my head back, trying not to let the lowlife bastard see what he’s done.
“Let her go, Chuckles. She’s just a girl. There is nothing important about her. Just let her run along back home to whoever’s dick she was sucking,” Slash grumbles.
“Now isn’t that a load of shit if I’ve ever heard it. I know for a fact that this girl is anything but unimportant. I’m looking at the rising star, the one and only, Bellamy Mason!” He sounds like a radio announcer speaking the last bit. “You still gonna sit there and tell me this girl isn’t important?”
I watch Slash’s face as he’s thinking, I stay silent and let him take the lead. After all, he’s had much more experience being kidnapped and dealing with rogue bikers than I do. “Fine. You’re right. She’s important to a lot of people, which is exactly why you should let her go. The real beef here is between you and me. She doesn’t have to take any part in our shit. Just let her go.”
“The more and more you ask me to let her go makes me believe she’s more important to you then you’re letting on. Who is she to you, hmm? She seems to be a bit more than just a friend.”
“Let her go!” Slash roars, trying to jolt forward in his chair. It’s no use, the binds are too tight and he can’t break free. Whether we like it or not, both of us are stuck here.
Chuckles grabs the back of my hair right at the root and tugs hard, making me yelp in agony. “Who are you to the Skulls and why is this bastard trying to protect you so much? Who are you, the Prez’s side piece?”
“No!” I yelp as he tugs once more, holding his firm grip on my hair. I can feel the strands being ripped from the root.
“Who the fuck are you to them?” he screams, spit flying from his mouth onto my face. I want to coil at my disgust, but any movement is sure to make my pain grow.
“Elena is my sister!” I whimper, tears now rolling down my cheeks in full force.
He releases my hair, popping his tongue from the roof of his mouth to the bottom in that annoying clucking sound. “Well. Well. Well…what a prize I’ve got today. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Let her go,” Slash growls, annoyance evident in his salty tone. The kind of tone that is going to get us both killed if you ask me. “She has nothing to do with this!”
“You’re right. She doesn’t, but I’m feeling a bit poetic here today. You killed Veronica, she was my girl, who was Piston’s sister. You remember Piston? Don’t you Slash?”
I wasn’t able to figure out why we were taken, but as Chuckles speaks more and more I can finally put the puzzle pieces together. Slasher was to blame for a girl getting killed, but not any girl, Chuckles’ girl. “Yes. She was Cujo’s wife.”
“You murdered my girl in cold fuckin’ blood, she was my Prez’s sister in law. She was Piston’s sister. It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it? I feel like an eye for an eye is the only way to fix this.” Chuckles comes at me with his fist bundled up, he knocks it right into my face and my head rocks back with the impact of the hit. Immediately my head is pounding and I’m groaning. Never did I sign up for this. This is the reason I knew Butch and I would never work because this kind of danger is constantly surrounding him. In the end, though, did it really matter? Did it in fact matter that I let him slip away, no…that I let him walk away? It didn’t because this will always be part of our lives. It doesn’t matter if we’re together or not. My affiliation with the club alone brings this kind of danger to my doorstep.
“Stop it you sick bastard! She’s just a fucking innocent girl!” I hear Slash’s voice going in and out, the pounding in my head gets worse and worse over time. A hand is under my chin, and I feel my face being tugged up, the swelling is starting now. No matter what, I don’t want to look up at the man who is standing before me, because if I do – it might be the last memory I ever have. I think of anything that I can, of everything that I can, and the only person who comes straight to my mind is the one who I let leave. The one I
should have fought for.
“There is nothing innocent about any woman in a club. What kind of shit are you on?” Chuckles laughs at Slash.
He grabs my throat forcefully, clenching so tight that I can barely get a breath in. “Stop that shit! Do whatever you want to me, but don’t fucking hurt the girl!”
That does it. Immediately Chuckles releases my throat and turns to Slash. “Are you giving me permission, Slasher?”
“You don’t fucking touch her.” Slash was bargaining with a psychopath; there was no way that either of us could count on Chuckles keeping his word. If everything that happened until this point wasn’t proof enough that he couldn’t be trusted, I don’t know what would be.
“I’ll do whatever I damn well please, first things first. I’m gonna give everyone a reason to call you Slasher. You think those cute little scars give you a reason to be called that? Oh no. I’ve got some nice shit planned for you.” I can hear the coldness laced through his voice. I don’t have all of the information with what happened in their past, but I can tell that there is a lot of animosity left. Whatever is about to unfold isn’t going to be good.
Chuckles pulls a knife from his pocket, removing the sleeve slowly, he then presses the blade against the concrete floor of the barn that he’s dragged us to. I glance around, looking for any sort of out that I can, but come up disappointed when the only bit of outside light I can see is coming in from a cracked door above us. It looks to be where they store hay. The three of us can hear the metal dragging against it, the way that it screeches. It’s then that I see Chuckles move up his hand quickly and drag it against the left side of Slash’s face. I shut my eyes the second I hear him groan, that was no light cut. That was deep.
“I want you to suffer the way she did, you hear me?”
“She didn’t suffer,” Slash groans. “You never fucking listened, you old ass!”
I open my eyes, regretting the decision to do so when I watch bit by bit as I see Chuckles press the blade into Slash’s skin again and again. His face is slowly becoming unrecognizable between the blood and the cuts. I can’t tell where the wounds are at this point. My stomach churns, disgust coiling deep inside of me.
“Stop. Please, stop,” I beg, pleading with the monstrosity that stands before me.
“What? You want me to start on you already?” Fear ripples through me, inch by inch my blood goes still at his comment and the bastard starts to laugh. He picks up his blade and slices Slasher’s face, again and again, even going as far as to cut a long gash of skin off. No, carved is more accurate. He carved his skin off like he was an apple.
I don’t take my eyes off Slash’s, someway, somehow, we are going to get out of here. I don’t know how, but I’ll figure it out.
I watch the scene before me unfold endlessly, at this rate I can’t keep track of the time. The only thing I can see is blood. Blood is everywhere. All over Slash, it covers the untouched side of his face, down his whole body and is pooling below him on the floor. He hasn’t moved for a few minutes. Is he dead? No. He can’t be dead!
“Seems like this one’s out. You’re up next, buttercup.” Chuckles laughs, stomping his big feet with every step he takes towards me.
Out of nowhere the doors to the barn open. I want to shield my eyes from the light, but I can’t because of the binds around my hands and legs.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” A woman roars, she’s about five feet two, maybe my age or younger. When her eyes land on me I see nothing but fire, instantly she is enraged, and she doesn’t do anything to hide this fact. I thought she was pissed when she noticed me, but when her eyes went to Slasher she turned into something else entirely.
“None of your business, Boss.”
“Come again? Who gave you the right to speak to me that way, old man? Kneel.” Chuckles doesn’t move as the woman barks out orders. “I said KNEEL.”
Chuckles shoots to his knees, glancing up at the woman before him.
“You are my soldier, and today you turn into some outlaw vigilante. Torture? Really? We’re Iron Vex, and we don’t handle our shit alone. We handle it like we always have, together.” The woman pulls out a pair of brass knuckles from the back of her jeans. I watch in awe as the man before her starts to visibly shake in fear when her fingers slide through the holes and she cracks her knuckles he isn’t laughing any longer.
“I’m sorry, Boss. I just had to. I couldn’t let him get away with being here. Not after everything he did.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make. You should have come to me the moment you discovered he was here. Everyone may call us monsters, but we are no such thing – you need to remember that.” Boss brings up her fist and lays into him over and over. Never does he make a peep, with every hit he takes it with some sort of honor. Maybe in some way, this is an obvious punishment.
Unable to close my eyes I watch, this should be wrong, shouldn’t it? I shouldn’t find any of this interesting. I shouldn’t want to see a man being pummeled in front of my very eyes, and yet I do. This bastard deserves it, for everything that he did to me, that he did to Slash, he deserves so much.
Chuckles falls to the concrete floor of the barn, a tiny puddle of blood compared to Slash’s pool.
When he hits the ground, she steps over him. Walking over to me she pulls a knife from the side of her thigh. I jolt and try to move as far away from this woman as I can. She may have just hurt her own man, but in no way shape or form could I trust her. “Jesus, girl, calm the fuck down. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
Boss steps behind me, and I can’t see, the only thing I can do is hear her, which is completely terrifying. The second the rope cuts, I yank my hands to my body, rubbing my wrists where the rope had begun to dig in. She then goes to my feet and does the same. I don’t understand. Why is she untying me? The truth is, I don’t care enough to ask. I come to my feet quickly and dart over to Slash, who’s still bleeding pretty bad.
As if I’ve had some sort of experience with this, I yank off my jacket and shirt, leaving myself in a bra for just a moment until I can get my jacket back on and cover myself up. “Slash,” I mumble, pressing my shirt to the mauled side of his face.
He doesn’t make a sound.
“Slash!” I cry, knowing that this stubborn man has to still be here with me. There is no way that we went through this together and he doesn’t make it out alive.
My eyes divert to a movement at my right and over comes Boss, knife out, she cuts Slash’s binds around his legs and wrists. “C’mon, let’s get you both out of here.”
The next thing I know she’s putting her body under one side of Slash and I’m on the other, each of us struggling, as we drag his beefed-up body to wherever she’s leading us. When we get to the barn doors I can see that we’re no longer in New York City.
No, we’re somewhere far away from the city, that’s for sure.
“I’m getting you both to that truck and you’re going to drive him to wherever you need to,” she grumbles, sounding out of breath as we continue to walk towards the yellow truck I see in the distance.
“Why are you doing this?”
She doesn’t respond to me at all.
Moments pass by, and I don’t hear a single thing besides her grunting.
When we get to the truck she helps me get Slash’s body in the passenger side. I buckle his seatbelt and shut the door once I’m finished. Boss is standing there, looking straight past me into the truck.
“You tell Slash that Boss paid up. You got me?”
I nod.
There was nothing else to say as I hopped in the driver’s side to a key that was already in the ignition. Hearing the hum of that engine was a welcomed freedom.
First destination: the closest hospital I could find.
Chapter 26
Protect her like a delicate piece of glass… Fuck her like she is unbreakable.
-dominant_dreams
Butch
I waited and waited at the hotel until I c
ouldn’t bear to just sit around and wait anymore. Neither Slash or Bell were around, no one had seen them and as each minute passed my nerves were tearing me apart. I knew something had to have happened, there was no other option.
Elena called me later that night, demanding an update. It was no secret what had happened, how I just darted out of that damn tour bus with my tail between my legs. I suppose that I couldn’t keep it a secret, especially not from Elena. I let everything out, not holding any residual feeling inside of my body. I vented to her about how I felt like a shitty person, just leaving her alone with Slash and now look where we are. No answers. Not knowing a damn thing. I had let her believe that I was done with us, with whatever the hell this is. It couldn’t be further from the truth. There was never a day where I would be done with Bellamy Mason.
“There’s a simple solution here. If you want my sister, you have to be everything that she is. Relentless.” Just like that, I knew Elena was right. I would fight for Bellamy, even if she didn’t have an ounce of fight left in her.
Today was just an off day. Bellamy wasn’t done with me, deep down I knew that even if I was struggling to remind myself of this every second. It’s funny, I’ve never fought for a relationship this hard in my entire life. I find myself wondering why I fight so hard for her. It doesn’t take me long to realize that Bellamy Mason is unlike any other woman that has entered my life, she’s not temporary. This woman is my future. It’s why I’m riding around New York in the hopes that I’ll spot her and Slash walking the streets. I’m a dumb motherfucker, and I know it. If they could have reached out to me they would have by now. Something has gone seriously wrong. I just knew what it was. Not knowing is tearing me apart. She could be bleeding somewhere, terrified, sobbing in a shipping container. Is it wrong that I think of these things? No. Because this is the type of danger that is associated with me.
I am dangerous.
I just have to wonder. When have I ever not been?
***
Seventeen hours.
Relentless (Skulls Renegade Book 4) Page 15