by Cross,Lexi
We took the exit to Barnegat, then rode for the coast. It wasn’t far, only a few more minutes. The first marina we reached was empty—not a boat in sight. The second was the same, closed for the season. I found an old woman outside the main office and pulled into talk with her. She looked scared and ready to run inside, but I held up my hands to show her I didn’t mean any harm.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for somebody who’s in danger. My wife.” I stuttered a little on the word, but I knew it was the only way to get the old woman’s attention. When a woman was involved, people tended to pay closer attention.
“What’s the matter with her?” The woman adjusted her glasses, peering at me. She looked to be somewhere between sixty and death.
“Somebody took her, and I think they’re gonna put her on their boat. Do you know the different marinas in the area? I see this one and the one down the road are closed.”
“There’s one about a mile or two away that’s still open. Only a couple boats there at this time of year, though. Real boating enthusiasts, you know?” I thanked her and pulled away. I didn’t have time to talk about why people had their boats on the water in the middle of winter. I had to get to Jess.
It was a chance, but it was the only chance we had. It was getting dark outside, too, which would make it harder to see what was going on in the boat—if she was even in there. What if he had gotten rid of her already somehow and was only screwing with me? What if I was the one he wanted to lure onto the boat? I didn’t care about that. As long as he told me what he did with her, before I blew his fucking brains out.
“There,” I yelled out to Marco, riding beside me. I pointed to the marina, which did have a handful of boats floating at the docks. I didn’t see anybody near any of them, though.
“Look!” Marco pointed to the car and two motorcycles parked in the lot. We pulled in, cutting our engines and looking around.
“They gotta be here, then.” My heart pounded almost painfully, knowing everything relied on this. I didn’t see any boats sailing away in either direction, and there was clear visibility both ways. The water was still.
“Where are they, damn it?” I looked at the names on the boats, but that didn’t help.
Then, I heard a scream. It didn’t sound like a scream of fear—more like anger. As I watched, a woman ran onto the deck of a boat a half-dozen slips down and tried to jump off, onto the dock. Two men grabbed her, pulling her back onto the deck.
“Jess,” I breathed. She was alive. I pulled out my gun, aiming for the man who didn’t have his hands on her. He was my clear shot.
I pulled the trigger, and he crumpled to the deck. Jess screamed in panic that time, while the other man looked around, trying to figure out where the shot came from. She elbowed him, breaking free and shoving him away from her. Smart girl. I took the shot as soon as he was clear of her, hitting him in the stomach. He fell, too. I didn’t know if I killed him, but it was enough to get her out of his clutches.
“Jess! Run!” She froze for a second, looking around, probably wondering where I was. She couldn’t see me in the dark, but I could see her in the light coming up from below deck. She started to turn, to run for the back of the boat again, but she stumbled and fell like something grabbed her ankle. I saw a moment later than something had. Nikolai.
He pulled her to her feet, putting a gun to her head. “I know you’re out there, Grayson. You got here right on time. I didn’t want to start the party without you.” His voice. It made my skin crawl.
“Take the fucker out,” Marco hissed. I couldn’t risk hitting Jess, or missing him and having him fire in retaliation. Not when the muzzle of his gun touched her head.
“What are you gonna do?” Marco hissed. “You can’t let him shoot her!”
“He’s not gonna shoot her,” I whispered. “He wants me. I have to go to him.”
“No!” But it was too late. I was already walking toward the boat, my hands at my side where he could see them. I still held my gun.
“Drop your weapon!” he called. “Don’t take another step with that pistol in your hand unless you intend to watch me blow her brains out.”
“No, Grayson! Don’t, please. Don’t do this!” I couldn’t listen to her, couldn’t let myself hear the panic in her voice. I bent, placing the pistol on the dock.
“I just want her, that’s all. You can take me if you want to, but let her go. That’s all you’ve gotta do.”
“Don’t tell me what I’ve gotta do, Grayson. Come aboard. I want to have a little chat with you, and then the fun will really start.” I had no choice, as much as I didn’t want to spend a minute talking with him. I heard Marco whispering furiously to the other guys behind me, but I couldn’t pay attention to him, either. I could only focus on Nikolai, and Jess, and that gun. I couldn’t take any chances.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Grayson
I stepped on board the boat, ignoring the bodies around me. His men died right in front of him, and he didn’t care. I didn’t know why this surprised me. I knew the sort of man Nikolai was. He didn’t care about anyone around him. Just himself. As long as he got his way, people were expendable.
“Come down here with us. I’ve waited years to have this little chat.” Nikolai pushed Jess down the stairs to the living area below deck, and I followed. Immediately my eyes swept the room for some sort of weapon I could use. It was a simple set-up, just a seating area with a table, a kitchen, a bedroom beyond that. There was a chance of a weapon stashed somewhere in the kitchen, but I didn’t have the time to go through things. I couldn’t search the drawers while he had a gun trained on Jess. I could only stand there and wait while he sat her down. The gun never pointed away from her at any moment. I thought he really might kill her. He would do it just to get back at me for whatever he thought I did to him.
“Now that we’re all here, let me ask you a question that’s plagued me for a long time. Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance?”
I couldn’t answer in any quick, biting statement. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want your blood on my conscience. You weren’t worth it.”
“Like you have a conscience,” he sneered.
“You would know all about that, wouldn’t you?” I asked. “A man like you, who kills for sport. Who let your men die up there without doing anything to help them?”
“They were dead men, it was obvious. You’re a good shot. Besides, I think your ex-wife can tell you from her short acquaintance with them that they weren’t exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer.” His words made me wonder. Were there knives in the drawer? I glanced at Jess, and she nodded just slightly enough to tell me she’d picked up on it, too. I wondered if I could distract him somehow while she went for a knife. I kept the idea in the back of my head while I stalled for time.
“I don’t think anybody who does business with you is the smartest person, Nikolai. Why do you think Axel made it a point to try to wipe you out all those years ago?”
“Don’t say that name to me,” he hissed. His voice had changed. He sounded crazy. Jess shook her head, telling me to stop. What was it he had with Axel?
I needed to know. If Axel was the reason we were there, I deserved to know. “What is it with Axel? What’s your beef with him? I didn’t know you even knew him.”
“I didn’t,” Nikolai said. His bald head gleamed in the overhead light, almost making it look like a spotlight shone down on him. I saw beads of sweat rolling over his skin.
“So what’s the problem?”
“He was an evil man. He ruined many lives, including mine. My wife’s. My daughter’s. Did you know my daughter? Nina?”
I thought back. Nina. There were so many girls in and out of the clubhouse, I couldn’t remember all of them. I shrugged.
“Of course, you wouldn’t remember her. Your Axel ruined her life and made her kill herself. I killed him. He deserved it.”
“You killed Axel?” I didn’t remember it that way
at all. I didn’t know Nikolai had been there.
“Oh, yes. I was backing the Wolves at that time, and they were the ones who lured your men into a trap. I paid for their guns, even, and the warehouse the shoot-out took place in. It was a bloody night. A lot of men died. I knew you would take care of the Wolves—they never stood a chance. I didn’t care. As long as I got my chance to kill that bastard. He was already shot in the leg, but he would have lived. He pulled himself behind a stack of crates and thought he would be safe. But I was watching. I went to him, and I was the one who shot him through the chest. I wanted him to look me in the eye as he died. And he did. It was the greatest moment of my life.”
None of it made sense, but it didn’t matter then. “So you killed him. Congratulations. Why wasn’t that enough for you? Why do you have to make us suffer now? I was willing to let it go. I let you live. Why wasn’t that enough, even? When will you stop?”
“When your entire fucking club is nothing but dust and a vague memory.” He snarled the words, and I knew how deeply he meant them. His hatred of the club went beyond our taking his business. I finally understood him a little better.
“Really, I should thank you, since you’re the one who made me go underground and change my business. Loan sharking has been more lucrative than anything else I’ve ever done, and that’s saying something. You should thank me, too. Without me, you wouldn’t be president of your bullshit club. I got him out of the way for you, and you stepped up. Power is good, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” I said. I held my hands at my sides, clenched into fists. I was tired of hearing his crazy thoughts. He was sweating like a pig, and his hand started to tremble. I watched the gun twitch. I didn’t love what that meant for Jess. He was getting more and more unstable. It had to end, and fast.
“You’ll see how it feels to watch someone you love die. I wanted to leave her in the water for you to find her there, just like I found my daughter in the water after Axel made her kill herself.” My eyes widened. What had Axel done to his daughter? Nina, was it? I tried again to remember her. Was there a girl named Nina? Axel had so many women, and it was so long ago. I never kept track of them.
“Only you got here before I could take care of her. But that’s all right. You can watch. It’s the next best thing. I get to watch you when I kill her. I get to see your face. And then I’ll see your face when I kill you. And I will finally have justice for my daughter when your club knows you’re gone. There’s nobody else to take your place, is there? Nobody who can stand up and take over. I’ve already funded the other clubs around town. They have the money and the muscle to take you over in a heartbeat. I can’t wait to watch it.”
“You’ll never get the chance,” I murmured, moving a single step closer to him.
“I would keep my distance if I were you,” he said.
“And I would watch where I was pointing that gun if I were you,” I said. I took another step. “All I have to do is get my men on board this boat, and they would make the rest of your life very short, but pretty painful. They’ll take care of you. One word from me, and they’ll be onboard. So watch yourself.”
“Words, words,” he said. “If you wanted to take me, if you were man enough, you would have done it years ago. The chance was there, and you pussed out. Just like the other fake heroes in your club.”
“I won’t make that mistake again.” I lunged for him, pushing Jess down with one arm while driving my fist into his face. He grunted and fell against the wall. From the corner of my eye, I saw Jess scramble from her seat to the kitchen area.
I struggled with Nikolai. He was stronger than I would have expected from a man of his age, but insanity could do that to a person. And he was insane. He’d plotted this out for so long, and his obsession had driven him over the edge. He used all of his strength to push me away, but he wasn’t successful enough.
We fought for the gun, with him trying his best to press it against my chest, then my stomach. I held his hand in both of mine while he repeatedly punched me anywhere he could reach. His punches meant nothing to me. All I cared about was getting the gun away from him and ending his miserable life.
I broke his grip, and he dropped the gun. We grappled using just our hands, and I head-butted him. He slumped against the wall like he saw stars.
“Grayson!” Jess used the opportunity to get my attention and slide a butcher knife across the counter. I knew it would come back to me at some point that my woman handed me a weapon to kill another person, but at the moment all it meant was I could kill him and come out alive.
He lunged for me, and I sank the knife deep in his gut. It only took a second, less than that. He froze, clutching me, gurgling. His eyes were open wide, like he couldn’t believe I had bested him. I stared into his eyes—hadn’t he talked about wanting to watch me die? Then I looked away. I wasn’t sick like him. I wasn’t that twisted.
It was over.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jess
It was like something out of a dream. A nightmare, more like.
Watching Grayson sink the knife into Nikolai’s midsection. His eyes bulged, and he gripped Grayson’s shoulders as his body shuddered in a strange, twisted parody of orgasm. I couldn’t turn away any more than Grayson could, and the two men locked eyes in those crucial last moments.
Then, Nikolai’s breathing turned to gurgles, and he slid to the boat’s deck. His eyes didn’t seem to change when he died, I thought dimly, somewhere in the back of my mind. They were still hard and cold, and just as empty.
“Oh, God.” I started shivering and couldn’t stop. It had nothing to do with the cold.
After a moment of heavy breathing, staring at Nikolai as though daring him to move, Grayson turned and gathered me in his arms. “Oh, baby. Baby. I thought I’d lost you.” His breath was hot and so sweet on my skin. I closed my eyes, letting him envelop me. I knew how he felt. I was sure, in those last moments before the lights of the motorcycles swept over me, that I was gone forever. I was certain it was all over. I was finished. I wouldn’t see Grayson or our son again in that lifetime.
We held each other for a long time—probably longer than we should have, considering the dead men on the boat. We should have run right away. We couldn’t. We had to be together for just a little while, had to hold each other.
“I never stopped loving you,” I whispered through my tears. “Not for a minute. I thought about you every day. I dreamed about you. I wanted you, all this time.”
“Me, too. I love you so much.” He pulled back, and everything we could have said disappeared in one perfect kiss. His arms tightened, and our hearts pounded against each other’s chests. It was perfect.
Nothing perfect could last for long. “Come on, guys. We gotta get outta here.” I turned to find one of Grayson’s men, one I didn’t recognize, peering down from the upper deck. Grayson nodded.
“We can’t stick around and let the cops show up,” he muttered, taking me by the hand and leading me to the stairs. We climbed up in a hurry, then rushed off the boat and onto the back of Grayson’s bike. I was freezing, and he gave me his jacket to wear. It was different from wearing Nikolai’s. It smelled like Grayson, and I never wanted to take it off. I was sure everything that had happened would make sense eventually, one day, but at that moment it was enough to wear my love’s jacket and ride behind him as we pulled out of the harbor. We were just in time, too, as I could see blue lights flashing in the opposite direction, just coming around a bend. Somebody had heard the shots, then. We made haste in escaping.
Only we didn’t ride for long. Grayson made sure we got a safe distance from the scene before pulling over. The rest of the men stopped, too, forming a sort of protective circle around us. I saw a lot of smiles and felt a lot of relief from them. I shared their feelings, and knew I could never forget what they’d done for us.
“Why did we stop?” I asked. I had to get home. I had to hold my baby again.
“There’s a phone call you h
ave to make, first. I promised.” I took the phone with shaking hands, dialing Cindy. She picked up on the first ring.
“Yes? What happened?” She sounded breathless.
“Cin? It’s me. I’m okay.” My friend went from breathless to hysterical, weeping on the other end of the line. Then I heard fumbling, then a very small, frightened voice.
“Mama? Is that you?”
I burst into tears, shaking. “It’s me, baby. I’m coming home.” I felt Grayson’s arms circle me, and the sound of David’s excitement rang in my ears.