by Geri Glenn
Gunner’s glare fades as he listens. “What are you suggestin’?”
“I say we wait. We watch that fuckin’ clubhouse and wait for Deed to leave. Then we follow him home. After that, we get ahold of him and make that fucker pay.”
I look around and watch as the other guys nod, and it’s as if a giant weight is lifted from my chest. I wasn’t afraid to carry out Gunner’s plan, but the idea of killing so many people, of having their blood on my hands and of getting caught and having to leave Laynie to spend the rest of my life in jail had been a heavy weight on my mind.
Gunner nods. “Let’s put it to a vote.” He looks around at each of us. “All in favor of carrying out Ryk’s plan, say aye.” The ayes are unanimous.
Reaper and Jase move closer to the clubhouse and watch for Deed to leave. They are going to follow him home and call us with the location once he’s settled inside.
We wait another four hours before Ryker gets a text from Jase saying that they’re on the move. It’s another hour after that before we get an address. As one, we ride together to the address Jase had provided.
Deed lives in a beaten-down, old farm house, several miles from his nearest neighbor. Reaper and Jase have already broken in and have him tied up on the floor of his living room. Deed glares at us all as we walk in, silent behind the gag tied around his head. His eyes narrow on Ryker.
“Yeah, it’s me, motherfucker,” Ryker says as he steps forward, his voice dripping with contempt. “You’re a fuckin’ idiot, Deed.” Deed can do nothing but shoot hatred from his eyes. “This shit all started because your fuckin’ guy tried to rape my wife. Nearly fuckin’ killed her. Turnin’ him in was the only fuckin’ option we had, ‘cause my girl needed a fuckin’ ambulance to save her goddamned life. You wanted him, and it fuckin’ killed me not to be the one to kill that prick, but I made you a fuckin’ promise.” He stabs a finger in Deed’s face. “We had nothin’ to do with Krueger bein’ killed. You started this whole war over somethin’ we didn’t even fuckin’ do.”
Crouching down, he puts his face in Deed’s. “You almost killed my buddy over there, and his girlfriend, over something we didn’t fuckin’ do.” Ryker’s voice raises as he speaks, face reddening with his anger. “You shot up our fuckin’ day at the goddamned beach over some stupid fuckin’ shit that we didn’t fuckin’ do.” He grabs the front of Deed’s shirt and yanks him up off the floor, putting his nose only inches from Deed’s. “And you killed our fuckin’ prospect over SOME FUCKIN’ SHIT THAT WE DID NOT DO!” he roars.
Deed’s face pales, but his expression never changes. Ryker snorts in disgust and drops him, Deed’s head cracking off the hardwood floor as he lands. Gunner steps forward and grabs Ryker’s arm. “What do you wanna do?”
Ryker’s fist tighten and his jaw clenches. Turning, he addresses us all. “That cocksucker has fucked us all.” He yanks a large buck knife from a holster on his ankle. Deed’s eyes widen. “We each deserve a crack at him. I say we string the fucker up so we can look him right in the eye. Then, one by one, we tell this useless sack of shit what he took from us, and then we take our stab. When it’s all done, we set this shit farmhouse on fire and go the hell home.”
One by one, we all nod, ignoring the fear in Deed’s eyes. Reaper and Jase grab Deed, and using the long end of the rope they’d used to tie him up, hang him from the wrists to the exposed beams in the ceiling. My heart pounds and the blood rushes behind my ears as Reaper takes the knife from Ryker and approaches Deed once more.
“That fuckin’ kid you killed? He was gonna be a fuckin’ father. You robbed a baby girl of her fuckin’ Daddy, you sick fuck.” Rearing his arm back, he uses all his strength to ram the knife forward into Deed’s belly.
It takes every ounce of self-control I have in me not to flinch. I watch as Jase approaches, taking the bloody knife from Reaper and steps up to Deed, whose screams of pain are muffled behind his gag. “That kid was one of the most optimistic people I knew. He never hurt anyone in his life, and you fuckin’ took that from him. From us.” Clenching his teeth, Jase drives the blade into Deed’s side.
Fighting back the nausea, I watch as one by one, each of the brothers jam that blade into Deed’s flesh and tell him what he’s done. When my turn comes, I step forward and take the blade from Ryker. I don’t know if I can do this. Deed is nearly unconscious as he hangs limply from the ceiling, blood streaming down his body. But then I think back to the motorcycle ride I’d been on with Laynie, when Deed’s goons had run us off the road. I think of the fear she must have felt when I didn’t answer her after that crash. And then I think about the day that Mouse had been shot. Of the way Laynie had screamed and pleaded for help, and how she looked with tears and blood splattered on her face.
Stepping up to him, I use my finger to lift his chin. “You almost had me killed. You almost killed my woman. You did kill my brother. You’re a waste of fuckin’ oxygen.” Driving my knife into his belly yet again, I watch as the life slowly drains from his eyes.
Taking a step back, I turn to the others. Everyone is standing there, arms at their sides, shoulders heaving with the heaviness of their breaths. Gunner is the first to walk away. Looking to Reaper, he calls out, “Burn this shit hole to the ground.”
As I step outside, I hear a muffled voice coming from around the side of the house. “If you’re comin’, you better fuckin’ come now, ‘cause Deed ain’t gonna last much longer. These bastards have sliced him all to hell.”
My blood starts to boil as I look around the corner of the house. Tiny stands there with his back to me, one hand on his hip, the other holding a cell phone to his ear. That betraying son-of-a-bitch.
“I don’t fuckin’ know. I’ll stall them for as long as I can, but you better fuckin’ hurry.”
He ends the call and turns to walk back to the house, almost running into me. Raising one eyebrow, I watch as his face pales. “Who were you talkin’ to, Tiny?”
He stands up straighter. “None of your fuckin’ business, scar face.”
My fist crashes into his face, flattening his nose on contact. “I’m gonna ask one last fuckin’ time. Who the fuck were you talkin’ to?”
Ryker and Gunner come around the corner as Tiny rolls around on the ground, clutching his hands over his nose. “You crazy fuck! You broke my fuckin’ nose!”
Turning to Gunner, I struggle to calm the fuck down and explain what I heard. “That fat fuck was talkin’ to someone. Sounded like he was tellin’ them where we are and what we were doin’ to Deed.”
Ryker’s eyes bulge and his fists tighten as he takes a step forward, but Gunner raises his hand. “Give me the phone.”
Tiny stops his bitching, fear filling his eyes as he watches me pick up the cell phone he’d used and hand it to Gunner. Gunner taps the screen a few times and puts the phone to his ear, his eyes never leaving Tiny’s prone position on the ground. A muffled greeting comes from it and Gunner’s eyes close. Disconnecting the call, he looks to Ryker. “Seems like Tiny here’s been talkin’ to the Devil’s fuckin’ VP.”
Rage pins me in place as I stare at Tiny. Ryker’s foot flies out, kicking him in the ribs. “Fuck!”
“I didn’t tell them shit!” Tiny gasps between desperate gasps for air.
Gunner hands the phone to Ryker. “Go through it. See how often he talks to these assholes. And for how long.” Reaching down, he grabs Tiny by the collar and pulls him to his feet. I step forward and hold his arms behind his back as Gunner searches him, pulling three different guns from his holsters.
Ryker taps the screen, searching through the call history, his face darkening with every tap. His eyes flick to Tiny. “Explain.”
“Fuck you,” he spits, hatred shining brightly in his eyes.
Ryker holds up the phone, his jaw tight. “Says here you had a seven-minute conversation with Deed himself the night Tease and Laynie got ran off the road.”
Tiny says nothing.
Ryker continues. “It also says here that you
spoke to him again, for eleven minutes this time, the morning of our little picnic. The same day those fuckers swooped in and killed Mouse.”
He tries to back up, but I hold his arms tightly. Gunner takes the phone from Ryker and turns to face Tiny. “So, these assholes are on their way here now?”
He glares at us all as he spits on the ground.
Gunner gives a curt nod and reaches behind him, pulling out his gun. Tiny’s eyes widen a fraction, but he doesn’t say anything. Gunner raises the gun, pointing it in Tiny’s face. He looks to me, and flicks his eyes to the side, indicating that I need to step away. I drop Tiny’s arms and move to stand behind Gunner.
Gunner narrows his eyes, hate etched heavily on his features. “Guess we don’t have time to put it to a vote.” Then he pulls the trigger.
Turning to me, he stuffs the gun back in his pocket. “Put him in the house so he can burn with his buddy Deed, and let’s get the fuck home to our women.”
Sighing, I touch the screen, accepting the phone call from my mother. “Hi, Mom.”
Her voice is quiet when she responds. “Hi, Laynie.” Surprised by the uneasiness in her voice, I wait. “I’m glad you answered.”
“You OK, Mom?” Worry creeps into my mind while I listen to her take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Laynie.” Her words wash over me, shock freezing my tongue. “I’ve been doing some thinking since I talked to your young man …” She takes a deep breath. “He was right, you know? What he said. I knew he was right. I just couldn’t accept it.” Her voice fills with tears. “You and I used to be so close, honey. And I ruined that.”
Tears fill my eyes as I listen to her confession. “No, Mom. You didn’t ruin it.” I smile. “You may have squashed it a bit, but you didn’t ruin it.”
She chokes out a laugh through her tears. “I’m going to work on being so overprotective, OK? I just … after the accident, I think I just started focusing on you to help concentrate on something other than losing Garrett. I almost lost you too, Laynie. There was a while there when we didn’t know if you were going to make it. It was terrifying.”
Tears slip down my cheeks. Sometimes I forget that even though I had lost my vision and my brother in the accident, my parents had lost a son. Hearing her admit to that pain makes me realize just how selfish my thinking has been.
“I love you, Mom.”
She sobs into the phone. “Oh, baby, I love you too.”
My mom and I stay on the phone for another twenty minutes, and when we finally hang up, my heart feels lighter than it has in years. Things are finally working out with my mother, and my dad and I have always been solid. He’s wonderful, but he avoids confrontation at all costs. I know he loves me, but he never gets in my face. As for Daniel, I need to fix things with him still, but at least we’re talking.
Hearing the key in the lock, I sit up, waiting for Travis to get inside. Though he wouldn’t tell me where he was going, I knew. It was in the heaviness of his voice, and the whispered telephone calls, not to mention the fact that he has been gone so long.
“Hi.” He sounds exhausted.
I smile and hold my arms out, motioning for him to come to me. “Hi, honey.”
The couch dips as he settles down beside me, dragging me up onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me tightly. Pressing his lips to the top of my head, he just holds me. He smells like soap and laundry detergent.
“You were gone a while,” I whisper.
He nods, lips still pressed to my hair. “I got back a couple hours ago. Stopped by my place to have a shower first.”
I say nothing and just squeeze him tight.
“Fuck. I’m so glad to be home, Laynie.”
My heart squeezes and my belly flutters. Squeezing him even tighter, I whisper, “I’m glad too, honey.”
We sit in silence, holding each other, and just listening to our breathing. Finally, I can’t stand it anymore. “Are you OK, Travis?”
He shakes his head, his lips twisting in my hair as he does. “No.”
I turn, placing my hands on his cheeks and press my lips to his. “Tell me.”
He shakes his head again. “I can’t. If you don’t know anything, you can’t get into any trouble.”
Swallowing, I nod. I knew it was bad. “I know you went after the Devils.”
He freezes. “How the fuck do you know that?”
“Just the way you’ve been acting. The whispered phone calls the last couple of days, and the fact that you were gone so long.” I sweep my lips across his cheek. “You don’t have to tell me anything, but you can talk to me.”
Sighing, he picks me up and sets me back on the couch before he stands. I can hear him pacing back and forth in front of me as he talks. “Fuck. That shit we did … while I was away … it was fuckin’ bad, Laynie. How can we live with ourselves after that shit?”
Forcing my face to remain expressionless, I keep it pointed straight ahead as I answer him. “Is it over?”
He snorts. “Oh, it’s over.” He goes back to pacing. “Do you believe in an eye for an eye, Laynie? Retribution?”
Biting my lip, I think about his question. I think about Mouse, and Sarah, and the baby that she’s carrying. Then I think about how those men had pulled up to that picnic area, opened fire on us and drove away without the cops being able to do a damn thing about it. Clenching my fists, I set my jaw and nod. “Absolutely.”
Air rushes from his lungs and he kneels in front of me, placing his hands on my knees. “Just when I was starting to believe I wasn’t a monster …”
Running my fingers through his hair, I aim my eyes at his face and whisper, “Monsters don’t feel remorse. Monsters are people like those men, who come along and steal a precious life, then move on like nothing happened. You’re not a monster, Travis. You’re human.”
His fingertips trail across my cheeks. “You make me want to believe that.”
I smile softly. “You should. It’s true.”
He sighs. “Laynie, my world is fucked-up. I’m not some fairytale biker from one of your books, and I don’t live in a fairytale biker world. It’s real and it’s fuckin’ dangerous.”
Smirking, I nod. “Getting run off the road clued me in on that. Getting shot at confirmed it.”
“Jesus,” he mutters.
Biting back a smile, I sigh. “I know it’s not like my books, Travis. I know that it’s dangerous. But do you wanna know something? I don’t care. Since I met you, my life has gone from lonely and dark to exciting and full of color. I’ve made new friends and had more adventures than any of the heroines in my books.” I smile. “Best of all, I have you. You are the first man to ever look past my blindness and treat me like a normal human being. The first man to ever make me feel like I’m special.” Nuzzling my face into his hand, I continue, “Who cares if it’s dangerous? I’m not afraid of living this life with you. I’m more afraid of living it without you.”
He’s silent a moment before laying his head on my lap. “Fuck, I love you,” he whispers.
“I love you too, honey.”
IT’S BEEN THREE MONTHS since that terrible day that Mouse was ripped away from us all. Since then, not a night has gone by that Travis hasn’t slept in my bed. No matter what either of us had going on that day, at the end of the night, we crawled into bed together, falling asleep in one another’s arms, and waking up every morning in a tangle of arms and legs and tousled hair.
Today we’d made it official. Travis had packed up the few things that he owned and moved them into my apartment. Already I had tripped over his enormous motorcycle boots, almost fallen in the toilet after he’d left the seat up, and had put my hand in a small puddle of mysterious liquid that he’d left on the counter. It seems living together for real is going to take some getting used to.
Hearing the water turn off in the shower, I fluff up my hair one last time and make sure to position myself in what I can only hope is a sexy position. As soon as Travis had gotten into the shower, I’d r
un to the closet and pulled out my favorite high-heeled shoes and stripped off my clothes, leaving only my lacy thong panties. I’d then found his leather cut and pulled it on as well. Now, I’m standing in the doorway to the bedroom, hand propped on one hip while I wait for my man to get out of the shower.
I hear him enter and hear the whisper of a towel running across his wet skin, then his deep intake of breath.
“Jesus,” he whispers.
Smiling, I place my finger inside the opening to the cut I’m wearing and slowly trail it down between my breasts and down my belly, slipping it just inside the band of my panties.
“Stop,” he orders in a deep, husky voice. I pause, pulling my lower lip between my teeth. I hear his footsteps as he approaches me. “Don’t fuckin’ move.”
The sound of his knees hitting the floor in front of me takes my breath away. My smile fades as my heart races. Uncertainty starts to creep in as I wait for him to do something, say something … to touch me.
His breaths come out in jagged pants. “Fuck, Laynie. You fuckin’ wreck me.” My belly flutters at the sound of his strangled voice. “You are the most beautiful fuckin’ woman I’ve ever seen.” His fingertips slip inside the cut and trail slowly up my belly. “You have no fuckin’ clue how incredible you are,” he whispers.
Parting the cut slowly, his other hand slips inside. He cups my breasts with both hands, rolling my nipples between his finger and thumb. Heat builds low in my belly. I can feel the wetness between my legs soaking into my panties.
I can feel his warm breath on my mound through the lace of my panties just before I feel the firm swipe of his tongue through my folds. Pleasure spikes through me, almost bringing me to my knees. His tongue pushes against my panties once more and drags slowly across my clit.