THE DEVIL’S BRIDE

by April Lust

  It wouldn’t have been hard to keep my head down until I got somewhere safe. Then, thanks to the internet, no one had to know where I was when I transferred the money out of my bank account electronically.

  “What are you thinking, Clara?” I asked myself under my breath. “Thinking about running?” I owed both men for their kindness and their help, but both of them had used me to some extent. Then again, I had used them, as well.

  My eyes darted back and forth, torn between waiting for Skull’s car and watching out in case I decided to make a run for it.

  “If you’re going to run, now’s the time to do it,” the homeless man called out to me.

  I jumped at the sound of his scratchy voice. I laughed. “It’s that obvious, huh?” I asked.

  “Yep, but if you’re going to do it, it’s best to stop thinking about it and just go,” he added.

  “Is that what you did?” I asked him.

  “Not quite. I got booted out of my life,” he told me. “I landed here the hard way, but whenever I want to go now, I just walk. Nothing’s tying me down, lady. You got something tying you down? I mean, besides what you’re thinking about running from?”

  I glanced over in his direction, but I couldn’t see him. He was talking to me from his camouflaged hiding place in the boxes and papers. I didn’t know how to answer him. I had one man who wouldn’t let me go very easily. He was my boss and probably thought of himself as my father. The other one thought of me as either his lover or a threat to his business.

  Before I could formulate an answer, I heard the car pulling up. It was a shiny black sedan with blacked out windows. It was the same car from the park. The old man had been right. I should have run.

  Three men got out. It looked like the same three men from the attack at the park, but I knew two of them had taken shots to the head. Whoever hired them just had a knack for finding guys who fit that particular mold.

  I reached for the gun in the waistband of my jeans.

  “I wouldn’t do that, Clara,” one of the men said, approaching me slowly, carefully, with one hand out and the other tucked into his black suit jacket.

  I looked around. I could feel myself starting to panic. I looked for an escape route.

  For the last five years, I’d been able to get out of any jam I got myself into. I’d been able to steal from every crime boss in the city—and there were many. But in the last couple of weeks, I’d been caught three times now.

  “Your boyfriend isn’t going to save you this time,” a second one said.

  The third one grabbed my arms.

  “Fuck it,” I said under my breath. I was pretty sure Skull had sent these guys this time. I kicked myself for not listening to Mason when he tried to convince me he’d sent the others.

  I shifted my weight and threw Number Three over my shoulder. He landed on his side in front of me, forcing the other two to step aside. They looked down at their fallen comrade and then back at me. Through their dark sunglasses, I could only imagine what their eyes must have looked like, probably just as expressionless as their square jaws and tight lips.

  These men were programmed like robots not to show any emotions. They were probably going to take me, but I was going to get some emotion out of them first.

  I stepped back and lowered my center of gravity. They were all taller and wider than I was. They had very square bodies with thin, broad shoulders and long arms and legs. They all had black hair cut short and brushed back. They were easy targets, as they hadn’t expected me to fight back.

  Number One pulled out his gun, and I quickly disarmed him with a kick to his hand. The gun hit the ground and slid underneath the car. While he stepped back and grabbed his hand, Number Three tried to dive under the car to get the gun, but a couple of kicks to his head left him at least unconscious if not worse.

  That was when Number Two grabbed me from behind and found his face slammed against the front driver side window. He backed away, stunned.

  That left Number One again. I turned to face him and reached behind my back for my gun—it wasn’t there.

  “Looking for this?” he asked, holding up the gun.

  “How in the hell?” I blurted out.

  He shrugged and pointed the gun at me. “It doesn’t matter, because if you don’t calm down and get in the car, well, I’m sure you can guess what’s going to happen.”

  Numbers Two and Three stepped to either side of me.

  “Glad to see I didn’t hurt you too much,” I offered condolences to Number Three.

  “Better than what we’re going to do to you,” he threatened. He tossed the gun he’d pulled out from under the car to Number One.

  I saw my opportunity when Number One looked away to holster his gun. I knew very well that if I weren’t successful in fighting these assholes off, it could have been my last stand. What they didn’t seem to realize, was that I was pretty sure Skull had sent them. If that were, indeed, the case, there was only so much they could do before they got in trouble with him. He wouldn’t have accepted my dead body. And anything short of that was fine by me, so it didn’t matter.

  Using my skills as a thief in the night, I shoved myself against Number One and grabbed his hand, bringing his arm around in front of me until the gun was aimed at Number Two. His reflexes kicked in, and he squeezed the trigger. Number Two’s chest erupted in a red spray, and he fell back against the car.

  Number Three watched his comrade fall to the ground and dove down to his side to help him out, but it was pretty obvious it was too late.

  I jerked Number One’s arm down, bending it the wrong way and forcing him to drop the gun. I quickly spun away from him and grabbed the gun. My back against the car, I aimed at One, then at Three.

  “I’m leaving,” I told them. “Either one of you tries to stop me, you’re going to be on the ground like your buddy there. Got it?”

  One raised his hands up, showing me he was unarmed. Three stayed on the ground with Two, who wasn’t responding to anything, much less to my threat. I started to back away from them, sliding myself along the back of the sedan until I was past the rear bumper.

  I had no choice but to run. By taking out one of Skull’s men, there wasn’t a safe place to hide in this town. I had to leave. I had to get the hell out of Dodge, but I froze. I could have turned right then. I could have high-tailed it out of there. I could have run across the alleyway, jumped the low wall of the parking garage, and I could have disappeared into the darkness. But I also knew that turning my back on those two men would have been a deadly mistake.

  “Take out your guns,” I told both of them, assuming they both had guns under their coats. I knew Number One did.

  They both slid their hands into their coats and pulled out their handguns, holding them up in the air over their heads.

  “All right, good,” I said. “Now, drop them and kick them over here towards me.” I wasn’t used to being involved in standoffs like this. It felt like I was on TV or something.

  They obeyed, just like the bad guys on TV did. Men who worked for my boss were the bad guys. What did that make my boss?

  I bent down, keeping my eyes on them as I reached for the guns with my free hand. I grabbed one, stuffed it in the waist of my jeans, and then reached for the other.

  “You forgot something,” Number One said.

  “What do you mean?” I stopped what I was doing and put both hands on the gun as I stood back up. “What did I forget?” I asked again.

  “You forgot one of us,” Number Three said.

  I looked at One, Three, and Two lying on the ground. Then, I glanced at the car. The driver side door stood open. How did I miss that? I stepped away from the car, turning to point my gun at the open door while keeping the two men in my sight.

  “Where the fuck is your driver?” I asked them.

  “Right here,” a voice said behind me, and as I turned around, something hit me. I didn’t know what it was, but there was a bright white light in my vision, and everythin
g went hazy after that.

  I didn’t go out immediately. I felt a couple of strong arms catch me as I fell. They went under my shoulders and wrapped around in front of me to hold me up, not letting me fall completely.

  I couldn’t see. I blinked a couple of times, but my eyes didn’t want to open back up. I closed them against the blurry world around me. I tried to listen as the men who had me talked, but their voices were muffled. I heard someone laugh. Then I heard the doors closing around me. It sounded like there were too many doors for the car.

  Then, I started falling, except I was falling sideways, and the darkness washed over me as I realized we must have been driving away from the apartment building.

  I’m sorry, Mason, I thought as I finally lost the fight and gave in to the darkness behind my eyelids.

  Chapter 16

  Mason

  The address we’d been given as Skull’s hideout was for an old boarded up office building downtown. It was a squat little brick building with an awning over the front door and a metal staircase leading up to a second story door on the side. The back of the building was set against a wall separating that lot from the next. There was an old faded sign on the front of the building advertising a grocery store.

  I waved my hand, signaling to the guys to circle around the building. We were still in the old industrial section of town, so everything was vacant, or at least it was supposed to be. I pulled up underneath the awning with Mick and Liam on either side of me. We killed our engines and sat listening for a minute before climbing off the bikes.

  “This was where all the factory and warehouse workers would come to cash their checks, I bet,” Liam said, eyeing the building.

  “You still remember when it was open, don’t you?” Mick joked.

  “I was a kid when this place shut down,” Liam told him, shutting him up.

  “All right, you two. This is where Skull is supposed to be hiding out, so let’s keep it professional until we’re out of here,” I told them, swinging my rifle around in front of me.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone’s here right now,” Mick said.

  We approached the front door and stood on either side of it. The only sound I could hear was the purring of all the motorcycles waiting to be given the word to close in on this joint. I looked at the guys.

  “I don’t think so either, but we’re going to be careful either way. They could just be waiting for us. What do you think, Liam?” I asked.

  “Who cares what I think? Let’s just go in. If we see anybody, we take them out. If not, well, your girl better hope they’re still here and didn’t get tipped off,” he said, looking me dead in the eye.

  “I’m right there with you,” I told him.

  I kicked the old wooden door. The lock exploded, and the door flew open into a dark, musty room. The air that escaped was rank and caught all three of us off guard. I shook my head while we all coughed away the heavy stink that fell on us.

  “They’re definitely not down here,” I told the guys.

  “If they are, they can stay down here,” Liam said.

  “I promise you, anyone in there isn’t going anywhere any time soon,” Mick added.

  I chuckled at his comment and nodded to the side of the building. We quickly rounded the corner with our guns drawn. Liam took the stairs first, leaving us to cover his back on the way up. At the top of the stairs was a metal landing with a couple of chairs sitting along the brick wall past the door.

  The door on the second floor was much sturdier and had a slot at eye level, allowing whoever was inside to look out before admitting anyone.

  “Shall we knock?” I asked my partners.

  “Be my guest,” Mick said.

  We stepped aside and pressed ourselves against the wall, hoping to be out of range if anyone opened the slot. I banged on the door with the butt of my rifle and ducked back to the side. We waited. No one answered.

  I was starting to get the feeling we’d been had. I could see by Liam’s face that he was thinking the same thing. Either we had bad information or someone had ratted us out to Skull and his men. I had a feeling I knew who that was, even though I would have been reluctant to admit it to the guys.

  I knocked again.

  When there wasn’t a response the second time, Liam stepped in front of the door and shot the lock with his revolver. What was left of it fell out of the door, and he slid it open.

  “After you, sir,” Liam said, stepping aside and holding out his arm to invite me into the building.

  We walked into a large, mostly empty office. It was dark, but enough light crept in around the corners of the boarded-up windows that we could see the desks and chairs all facing each other.

  I stepped back and hit the light switch. Fluorescent office lights in the ceiling came on and let us see the room clearly. The walls had wood paneling along them. The desks were old, probably left over from the last legitimate owners of the building.

  “Check the desks,” I told them.

  There were three desks. Mick and Liam went to the ones on either side of the room. I went to the one along the far wall, facing the door. Behind it was a cork board with a single picture tacked to it. I pulled the picture down and looked at it.

  “Guys, they knew we were coming,” I announced, holding up the picture of me for them to see.

  “You’re kidding me,” Liam said, slamming one of the desk drawers closed.

  “We both tried to tell you,” Mick said, standing upright.

  “Let’s go through the desks anyway, but I can almost guarantee you we won’t find anything useful,” I said. I opened every drawer in the desk I assumed was Skull’s. I had no idea who the other two would have belonged to. I didn’t know anyone else in his organization other than Clara, and I was pretty sure she didn’t have a desk.

  Liam kicked over his desk.

  “Hey, brother, calm down. It’s just a desk,” Mick said.

  “It’s not just a desk. It’s Mason,” Liam complained.

  I knew what he meant, but I kept my mouth shut. There was nothing I could say to him at that point that wouldn’t make things worse. I turned my attention to a file cabinet and opened each drawer, knowing already that they were going to be empty.

  “Nothing?” I asked the guys.

  “Not a damn thing,” Mick said.

  I crumbled the picture of me and dropped it on the floor.

  “Looks like your girl sold us up the river,” Liam said, stepping in front of me. “You going to bring her in?”

  “Not now, Liam.” Mick put a hand on his arm and tried to push him aside.

  “Yes, now. I got my ass kicked for this chick because Mason thought he was getting an old lady out of the deal, but she just turns out to be Skull’s little snitch.” His breath was hot in my face.

  “Do you want to get your ass kicked again, Liam?” I asked. “Because this time, you’re earning it on your own.” I pulled my gun off of my shoulder and set it on the desk.

  Mick stepped between us and pushed both of us away.

  “Nobody is getting their ass kicked here, guys. Both of you back the fuck up. We have a job to do here, and it looks like we’ve been had. I don’t think anyone will deny that. Right?” He looked back and forth between us, making sure we agreed with him.

  “Okay, good,” Mick continued. “Now, the question is, where do we go from here?”

  I ran a tired hand through my hair and sighed. I knew exactly what needed to be done, and I felt like such a jackass for not handling it sooner. I’d let that beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed thief steal something more valuable than my drugs this time around. She’d taken my integrity, and it was a good thing I was starting to catch on before she stole my heart with it. Of course, I couldn’t mention that last part to the guys. They never would have let me live that one down.

  “From here, I need you, Liam, and everyone to go back to HQ. Get the basement ready, because I’m going back to my apartment to pick up our girl,” I said.

&
nbsp; “Your apartment? She’s at your apartment?” Liam started again. “Jesus H. Christ, Mason, no wonder you can’t get it together, brother. How was it?”

  “Fuck off, Liam,” I said, grabbing my gun and heading towards the door.

  “No, really, was it worth selling out your MC?” he asked behind me.

  “You know what? It was. And if her answers satisfy me back at HQ, it’ll happen again. So don’t think I’m going to bring her back for anyone to lay a finger on her, got it?” I snapped, turning around and getting right back in Liam’s face.