by K. J. Dahlen
Bruno stepped in front of him. “Thunder…” He raised his large hands at me. “Come-on man, we need him alive so he can tell us where—”
“Fuck no! He’s dead! So is that freak!” I shouted.
“Come on Dino…” Marco appeared next to Bruno. “How are you going to find her? Revenge won’t get her back here safe!”
I blinked. Heaving out a breath and lowered my guns.
“Fuck!” Spider shouted. “Has everyone gone insane?” He looked around. “I have done nothing!”
I moved toward him.
Bruno shook his head. “Come on, Dino think straight. No emotion. Come on! Bella needs you sane!” he shouted the last sentence.
I again blinked and looked over at him. “We need this hitman. He would be tracking that fucker.” I growled.
Nodding, Bruno turned to Reaper. “Put him in a cell. Now.”
“B-but dammit. I didn’t take her! I wasn’t even here!” Spider yelled with shaky voice. “I am not a traitor to the Devils!”
“Fucking lair!” I hissed.
He shook his head. “No! I swore an oath!”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t have time for your shit.”
Reaper pushed him toward a cell and opened the door with a key, then tossed him in.
Spider looked red in the face as he tossed his hands up. “How can you all do this? Where is the proof that I did anything?”
Bruno looked over at him. “You are the only one who coulda done it.”
“Done what?” he shouted.
“You know what,” Bruno replied and turned away to use his phone.
Spider kicked the bunk and pushed his hands through his hair.
Marco came forward. “How did it happen?” he asked me in a low voice.
“Drugged,” I snapped.
He looked confused.
“We were fucking drugged! Me, Bella and Miggs.”
Marco shook his head. “How? I vetted everyone!” he paused and looked up at me. “Miggs too?”
I nodded. “Passed out in the hall where Chloe found him.”
Bruno came back over. “What?”
I heaved out a breath. “No time to—”
Bruno stepped close. “Nikky?”
I bit at my lip. “Cracked in the head. Miggs is with him and Mason is coming. I don’t have time for a fucking debriefing. He has her!” I shouted. “That monster has her right now! He will…” My voice fell away as I again, focused. “What did the hitter say?”
Bruno shook his head but didn’t answer.
I stepped close. “Bruno…”
He looked determined. “We do this right, Thunder. We all go in. Not just you, alone. Use your god dammed brain!”
I wanted to bash his face in. I never felt such fury against this man. Never. I wanted to choke the information out of him.
“Look…” Marco interjected. “We get all of us and storm that motherfucker.”
I shook my head. “And have him shoot her in the head?”
Bruno stilled for a moment. “We go in silent. Then…” He nodded. “Grab the weapons, Reaper.”
“Which ones?” he asked.
“All of them!”
Marco again tried to speak as he looked up from his laptop he had open on one of the counters. “Look… It wasn’t Spider.”
I looked over at him. “What?”
“Not alone, it wasn’t.”
“Not at all!” Spider screamed from the cage. “I would never do anything to this club!”
We all ignored him. “Why do you say this?” Bruno stared at Marco.
“Cutter…” he replied. “He was in charge of setting up the food and coffee for Miggs and I used him on the honeymoon suite,” he admitted quietly.
I stepped forward and closed my hands around his neck.
“I-I didn’t know! We cleared him remember?” He stared at me with fear in his eyes.
“Let go of him, Thunder!” Bruno barked. “Like fucking now!”
I clenched my fingers then let go.
“I was gone with my girl all day, man!” Spider yelled.
Bruno turned around. “Who can verify?”
He looked sheepish and remained silent.
“Who?” Bruno shouted.
“My girl, her parents and family, like ten people in all. It’s where I been on and off.” He sighed and shook his head. “With her.”
I sighed. “I don’t care about his fucking trial. Tell me where to go!” I glared at Bruno.
Bruno nodded. “In like two minutes,” he growled as he grabbed weapons from Reaper as he stood next to him.
Marco moved forward and grabbed a huge pack, then scooped ammo and weapons into it.
Bruno’s phone buzzed and he fished it out.
I clenched my fists in frustration. She could be dead already! Fuck!
“Ok, like now!” He tapped his phone. “Jaxson is coming.
“I. Don’t. Care,” I seethed. “Give me the address, Bruno.”
He let his shoulders drop. “Factory on the east side, 1011 Nordstrom.”
I went around him.
“Wait for us!” he called.
Like fuck, I was waiting another god dammed minute.
Jaxson appeared in the hall. He turned and went with me. He was already loaded with weapons and a vest. He looked upset and said not a word.
We went out and he grabbed my arm. “We go in silent. I will cover you. You get in. We will backup, as Bruno and the guys will be right behind us.” He got on his bike, then tossed me one of Bruno’s bullet proof helmets.
I caught it and glared at it.
“Let’s hope a cop doesn’t get a look at us, loaded for the kill like fucking Rambo and shit!” He stared his bike.
I started mine too and laced the dumbass helmet on.
We raced at speeds that weren’t safe and sure as hell…weren’t legal But at six a.m., it was still dark. There was no one on the streets yet.
It took too long in my opinion to get there. I tried to keep her face out of my head. I was afraid I wouldn’t see her as I wanted her to be, unmarked, alive. I didn’t want to imagine—I couldn’t imagine her gone.
I heard other bikes and looked behind us.
Four were in the front and there were at least three more behind them. I could tell which was Bruno as his large body could not be missed even in the low light. Then my eyes widened. Spider? He rode right next to Bruno. Why the fuck would Bruno do this? They gave him weapons and shit?
I couldn’t care though. He would be dead in thirty seconds if he made one wrong move, this much I knew about Bruno.
We made a turn and then slowed up. This was the street and we needed to go in silent. We pulled the bikes into a lot and rode around to behind a building.
I kicked my stand down and jumped off.
Jaxson did the same.
Bruno got off his large Harley and strode over.
“What gives?” Jaxson asked him.
“Spider has been cleared,” Bruno stated.
I raised my gaze to the man in question. “How?”
Marco walked up. “Cutter is missing and I tapped into his stuff. He has more money than he should. A fuck of a lot more. Then we checked out Spider. He’s clean.”
Jaxson shook his head.
“I am going in,” I stated as I stared at Bruno because I could give a holy fuck.
“I don’t wanna lose you Thunder.” He glared at me.
“I am going in to kill this mother fucker and it will take all you assholes to fucking stop me.”
He nodded. “We won’t stop you. But you need to let us get into place, man. What are you? A patchless prospect? Think with your head, not your heart!”
I huffed out air and checked my weapons. He was right, damn him. I just wanted her back now, safe, alive. Fuck! I was going insane.
Jaxson patted my back.
I calmed. Well, I appeared calm—two very different things.
“Now… this is what we do,” Bruno began as
he stated the plan.
After a few minutes, the men all scattered and I made my way to the back of the factory through the alleys. I slowed up when I saw a huge man with an Uzi standing guard at the back door.
I moved forward slowly as I twisted a silencer onto my 9 millimeter. I raised it up and got him in the back of the head.
He fell.
I paused at the thump and remained in hiding.
Another asshole came around the building.
Yeah, I knew the fucker was there.
I waited till he got close enough but not enough to signal anyone and I took him out too.
I looked around then up on the roof. Dammit another one. Before I could aim, he went down with the ping of a silencer.
I looked around to see Spider. Fuck, he could’ve taken me out! I stared at him as he moved around the other side to probably get the front roof man.
I now went over and rifled through the dead thug’s pockets. Keys and A three way. I raised the talkie up and listened. Nothing. We weren’t compromised yet.
I rose up and made my way to the door. Grabbing my knife while holstering my gun. I pushed the key in and slowly, quietly, turned it. Then I swung the door open with a pounding yank and got another thug. As he stumbled, I jumped close and slit his throat. I laid him down quietly.
Moving forward, I saw no other men. Fucking cheap ass Mario. Using a skeleton crew. His loss.
I came to an opening… across the open space I saw…My breath caught in my throat.
No…
I couldn’t see if…
She hung there from the ceiling. Nude and still.
Her red hair hanging over her face as that freak sliced her legs. Down along her bare stomach, blood poured, vicious and red.
Everything in my gaze matched this sight, as all I saw was red.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bella
“Fuckers!” Mario shouted.
I tried to breathe through my nose as he ranted on. He’d already sliced a bleeding nick with his knife from between my breasts to my mound. It wasn’t deep but it was bleeding. He then had reached out and pinched my nipples hard.
I laughed at him for his effort and he slugged me. Now my lip was cut and my jaw ached. Oh, I knew…This was just the start. Next, he would cut deeper and deeper. Then he would…I shivered, probably start cutting into my anatomy. Like I’d done to him. I hoped that I passed out by then. But he knew his torture. The man had been doing it most of his life. Only he liked doing it to females.
He went on with his rant, “I couldn’t believe what Bruno De Luca had pulled off. Turning it around so it was about his dammed family. About fucking Charlie’s grandchild!”
I didn’t make a sound. I hoped his madness and ego would keep him talking to buy me some time. I wondered…Time to do what? Maybe Thunder would come… My thought faded away. I don’t even know what happened to Thunder. We were drinking champagne after we made love too many times to really count and then… I woke up in a trunk. When the vehicle stopped, I heard voices and tried to listen. I only caught some words. But essentially, someone at the Devil’s had traded me in for a new life and fat bank account to go with it. I listened hard but the voice speaking with Mario was not Spider’s like I had thought.
Mario kept on with his tirade, “Then what about what you? The conniving little bitch that did this to me? Huh? No recompense for that. They just let you get away with it! I knew I would have to get it for myself. I already had an inside man. One that was very key to this. Bruno’s son no less. One that hated him almost as much as I do.”
I raised my head. What?
He grinned at me. “Yeah, Bruno’s son sold you out.”
I licked at my cut lip and felt confused. Jaxson? He did this? No. I refuse to believe—
“I paid him a lot of money. He won’t stick around neither.” Mario shrugged. “So Beauty about to be ugly and bloody…where were we?”
I knew I shouldn’t but maybe he would get so mad he would just kill me so I answered, “We were at the point when the dickless freak was gloating as his fucking yapping got out of control and his fat ass—”
Roaring with rage, he cut a huge slash in my thigh. “You cunt! Fuck, that mouth!” He watched my blood drip from my leg to the floor. “Yeah, bleed bitch.” He laughed loudly. “You were all wrong for being my bride. Talking back and…” He stopped speaking and narrowed his eyes at my hand.
I swallowed heavily as my leg stung badly and I was getting lightheaded from the blood loss maybe.
“Is that a fucking wedding ring?” he shouted. “You married someone else?”
My head was dropping, as the room seemed to swim in and out. “Yes… And he is a real man! Sexy as fuck, take no shit warrior, the best cock I ever had… Nine inches and he could just kiss me and I would come.” I narrowed my closing eyes at this freak. “Otherwise, he was everything I ever wanted and he wasn’t YOU! You filthy, sick piece of scum!”
Mario’s eyes bulged out of his face and his skin seemed to turn purple with rage as he dropped the knife to the cement with a clatter and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a very large gun.
Thank Fuck! I sighed. I love you… Thunder. I lowered my head. Waiting for whatever came when someone killed you. I forced an image of Dino’s face into my mind, smiling at me as he called me wife. I wanted him to be the last thing I saw, not this fucking loser freak of a useless excuse for a man. I would not give him the pleasure. This was my choice. My very last choice on this earth. I chose to see the man who brought me to life. The man that gave me a clean slate. My family, my world. The one who’d made all that I’d endured, just go away. He made it all disappear to where it couldn’t ever hurt me again. He was warmth, love, life and I only regretted that I never got to have his baby. It could have had his eyes, his smile. A tear rolled down my cheek to mix with the blood on my face.
I heard the click of Mario cocking his gun.
Then a roaring sound….What? It sounded like—I fought to raise my head but I couldn’t. It sounded like a growling roar, a man’s voice. I tried to see, but think I lost control over my body. Too weak. When would the bullet come? I heard a crash and a man screaming. Then some shots and shouts.
Dammit…I fought to raise my head. Do it Bella! I strained and heaved as I became breathless. I raised it just a little as I heard screams and an odd sound. Like a pounding or a squishing. Cracks and crunches as the screaming grew louder and louder then stopped to then be mumbling and whimpers.
I opened my eyes and blinked.
Thunder was on top of Mario. His fists bloody as he pounded the man’s face over and over. Bones crunched and snapped. Blood spurted from Mario’s face to fly at least a foot away as he was beaten into pulp. No longer recognizable at all. Blood pooled on the floor underneath his head and chest.
Still, Thunder didn’t stop. Blow after bloody blow.
“Thunder!”
I slowly passed my eyes over to where the shout had come from.
Bruno rushed forward with another man.
They pulled a bloodied Thunder from what was once Mario Balemi. Now, he was just meat. Bloody, wet, meat.
Thunder was heaving and breathing hard as blood splattered his face, neck and chest as he tilted his head up to look at me. “Bella?” he cried out.
I tried to speak but I couldn’t seem to. His face faded in and out.
“Cut her down!” Bruno shouted.
Thunder was already up on a chair holding me around my waist. He reached up with a knife and cut the rope holding my arms up.
He looked so strange to me as my arms just flapped down by themselves with no warning. His face was bloody and I could only really see his eyes.
“Fuck!” Bruno shouted again. “She’s bleeding out.”
I could hear a tearing sound like cloth ripping as Thunder gently took me down and laid me on the cold pavement.
I peered up at him. “T-thunder?”
He framed my face with his hands. �
�Yes Bella, I got you. You’re safe.” Tears filled his eyes. “I-I thought he had killed…”
I felt something tighten around my thigh.
“Fuck! Where is Mason?” Jaxson shouted.
Jaxson? Bruno’s son. The man who sold me out. No, why was he here then?
I could feel Thunder’s arms around me so I felt that everything was okay now. I was where I belonged…with my Thunder.
It grew dark then and I could hear Thunder pleading, “Don’t leave me! God Dammit woman. NO!”
His face remained there in my mind. The face of the only person who ever really loved me.
Then as hard as I tried, I couldn’t hold onto the image and it faded as everything swirled to black.
EPILOGUE
The clubhouse was quiet. Bruno usually like the quiet. This time he couldn’t fucking stand it. He waited and it grated on his nerves. He’d never been good at waiting. Today would be a long day.
Things were changing in his world. He’d lost two sons and gained a grandchild through that poor addicted girl Antonio had abused. Then he’d gained another son, Jaxson. One he could be proud of and he was. The kid was about to get married too. Bruno smiled a little.
Jaxson would give him grandchildren. His family grew simply by what fate had brought… a niece, a nephew.
When he thought of this, he felt saddened. He shook it away. It wouldn’t be good for the brothers to see him as a weepy old man.
He had the mess at the factory cleaned up and reported to the council what Mario had done. Then what Thunder had done, as was his right. Thunder had killed five men in total. Fuck, had that had been a mess to clean up, what he’d done to fucking Mario. Whatever he had left of Mario on that cement floor. Bruno had told Marco, “Remember to remind me to never piss that biker off.”
Marco looked a bit pale and he hadn’t laughed.
The shipment to South America was sent off without a hitch. No losses. The families were now happy with it all. Thank fuck, as he was sick of them anyway. He planned to make his money back for the loss of what Cutter had stolen. He had definite plans as to this, but no one was going to like it. As usual.
They had a tribunal for Spider and he was acquitted. He’d proven he had nothing to do with any of it. It had to be Cutter. But no one could figure out how he did it. He had up and disappeared. With the club’s money and whatever he made from Balemi. Bruno had trackers on him. He’d wanted to use a hit squad but he really needed to find out if anyone had been working with Cutter. It had to be. He couldn’t have done it alone.