Jace (The Black Hornets MC Book 1)

by Savannah Rylan

  And the more I worried.

  I looked over at the counter and saw the baggie. Just one little baggie that stood in between a job completed and a job missed. Why should all of this heartache come from one fucking bag of drugs? An entire suitcase was understandable. But this was a little bag. Just a small portion of what I’d been hauling for months. I approached it slowly, reaching my fingertips out for it. And before I knew it, I had placed it into my purse and used my burner phone to call out for the first time to anyone else but Sebastian.

  I used it to call myself a cab.

  My train of thought was that if I gave Sebastian the baggie, we could negotiate a deal. If a small thing of cocaine warranted such a massive outburst on his part, then it was apparently important. Sebastian wasn’t high up on the food chain. He was merely my handler. In the grand scheme of things, he didn’t have much power. Hell, he could be punished the same way I could. That bag, in my eyes, was a bargaining chip for the one thing I’d wanted all along.

  Nicholas.

  “Leti Rodriguez, how nice of you to finally join us.”

  The look on Sebastian’s face made me want to kill him. But the look on Jace’s made me want to sink into the ground. He was upset. I knew he’d be upset. But now, he wasn’t alone. I could use the baggie hanging between my fingertips as leverage for my brother.

  Now, I had to play my cards right.

  I looked around the room as I stepped through the threshold of the front door. I noticed and recognized some of the other guys from the bar, and they all had guns pointed at Sebastian’s men. Coming to the house was worth just seeing that. Seeing those burly men that had pushed me around for months on the floor and up against a wall with their own guns scattered on the floor. One of them was even bleeding in the corner.

  I never thought I’d take pleasure in someone else’s pain, but that made me very happy to see.

  I looked back at Sebastian and saw his eyes fully trained on the bag in my hand. Jace’s gun was leveled straight at his crotch, but his eyes were on me. I looked at him. Begged and pleaded with him for forgiveness as I approached the kitchen. I didn’t want Jace to be mad at me, and I knew his mind was swirling with confusion he couldn’t reconcile.

  I tried to convey to Jace that it was okay. That everything would be okay after all this.

  “You didn’t quite get all of them, did you?” I asked.

  I held the baggie up and watched as Sebastian’s eyes followed.

  “I don’t know. There’s a good chance you stole them from us,” Sebastian said.

  “Not really. You guys have always been very thorough. This is the first time you’ve missed anything. I assume it was for a reason. You never do anything without reason,” I said.

  The room went still. Silent. Hanging onto my words as Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.

  “You know nothing, stupid bitch.”

  I watched him squirm as Jace pressed the gun further into the man’s dick.

  “I might not,” I said. “But what I do know is that you’ve put up quite a fuss for a small baggie. You’ve blown up my phone. Threatened my brother’s life. Tried to track me down, I’m sure. So, let’s make this easy.”

  “You are in no position to negotiate,” Sebastian said.

  “The gun leveled at your crotch says differently.”

  Sebastian looked down, eyeing Jace carefully before his eyes came back up to mine.

  “This your guard dog?” Sebastian asked.

  “Yes,” Jace answered.

  I tried not to show the absolute shock bleeding through my veins at Jace’s answer.

  Sebastian chuckled. “You can leave the drugs and go.”

  I shook my head. “Not how this is going to work this time.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “For months, you’ve promised me, my brother. You’ve promised to let him go. And there has been nothing. I want proof of life. And if I don’t get it, the drugs get swept down the drain, and your boss gets very angry.”

  Sebastian’s nostrils flared. “I’m not in charge of that kind of thing. Not my avenue. I don’t have the power to let your pathetic brother go.”

  “I know you do have the power to get him on the phone, though. So, I suggest you make that call.”

  “Can’t get to my phone if a gun is pointed at my lap.”

  “Yes, you can, because I’m sure your phone isn’t far from your person. It never is, since you’re a call-bitch. Just like me.”

  Jace panned his gaze back to mine, and I could’ve sworn I saw the ticking of a grin upon his cheeks. It felt good. So, fucking good to taunt Sebastian the way he had taunted me for months. Watching him get angry brought me happiness and pride I couldn’t explain. I would walk out of here with what I wanted. I would walk out of here listening to my brother’s voice before I turned over anything.

  And I knew the guys were on my side. It was why neither of them had made a move to interject.

  “Get him on the phone,” I said.

  “Not until the dogs are called off,” Sebastian said.

  “Not a fucking chance,” Jace growled.

  “Then you don’t get to hear your brother,” Sebastian said.

  “Then you don’t get your drugs,” I said.

  I opened up the baggie and watched Sebastian move in his chair. Jace pressed his large hand into the man’s chest, shoving him back into his seat. The gun moved from his pelvis to his chest, pushing directly into his heart and twisting, nestling right in the middle of his sternum. Sebastian let out a grunt of pain. A sound that washed so much reverie over my system I was beginning to worry about the type of person I had turned into.

  The type of person they had made me.

  “Get me, my brother,” I said.

  “No,” Sebastian said.

  “I want to hear his voice. See him on video. Something that tells me he’s alive.”

  “No. No. And no.”

  I cocked my head, my eyes narrowing as my heart began to slow.

  “What do you mean, ‘no’?” I asked.

  The grin on Sebastian’s face sunk my stomach. The glimmer in his eye made me shiver with fear. I felt the world slowly tilt on its axis as that small voice at the back of my mind became a dull, throbbing roar. Sebastian chuckled. He grew that sound into a full-blown fit of laughter. I felt my knees growing weak. My resolve caving. I felt my life forever shifting and changing, even though the words hadn’t been uttered yet.

  I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “Oh no,” I said.

  “Where the hell is her brother,” Jace said.

  Sebastian’s laughter turned to groans of pain as I stumbled, leaning against the wall. The baggie of drugs dropped from my hand. Scattered across the floor in slow motion. I heard feet scattering along the floor before wrestling began. Grunts and groans coming from all directions, all of them blending together in a chorus of sounds that would forever change my world. That would forever mark this moment in my life.

  “Oh no,” I whispered.

  “Where is her brother!?” Jace roared.

  “Sweetheart, you are so fucking naïve,” Sebastian said. “Your brother has been dead a very long time.”

  The world stopped. Everything fell silent. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, and nothing existed. Images bombarded my mind. Memories flooded my system. And that small voice at the back of my mind began to chant something different. Something taunting. Something sinister, like the entirety of my life.

  I told you so. I told you so. I told you so.

  I saw Nicholas, running around in the front yard with a popsicle dripping in his hand. I saw us both at the food truck in town, getting tacos and sodas we could never finish. I saw him creeping into my room during thunderstorms and wiggling under the covers, so he didn’t have to be alone during the thunder. I saw him smiling as he came in from school, wondering when dinner would be ready. I saw him as a baby, all wrinkly and sad. I heard him screaming for me. Calling out for help the first time he ever
scraped his knee. I saw him in the hospital for the first time when he cracked his head open on a corner running down the hallway.

  So many memories that didn’t seem important.

  Until now.

  “My brother’s dead,” I whispered.

  The world slowly started to fade back into my mind’s eye as I began to process that truth.

  “My brother’s dead,” I said a little stronger.

  There was fighting and scuffling. Sebastian’s laughter and Jace’s muffled commands. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see through my tears. I had to get out of there. I had to seek shelter. I had to get back to Jace’s. His place was safe. There, my brother was still alive. There, the chance of my brother hugging my neck again was still on the table.

  There wasn’t here, and I didn’t want to be here anymore.

  In a flash, I was off my feet. I ran down the hallway and burst through the door as the world came rip-roaring back to the forefront of my mind. I heard Jace calling after me. I heard guns cocking in the distance. I heard Sebastian telling me to get back there. That I owed him something for the destruction of his product. But I didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Whether I lived or died. Whether Sebastian killed me or whether I did it myself. I didn’t care if Jace came after me or if the club murdered all of them or if they took my case or not.

  There was no case to take any more. The outcome I had wanted was no longer a choice.

  As far as I was concerned, the case was done.

  “Leti!”

  I ran off the porch and down the steps. I clutched my purse as I ran across the road. My legs pumped faster and faster, guiding me towards a paved parking lot in front of an abandoned store. Motorcycles were parked there. Did they still have their keys in them? Could I recall how to drive one long enough to get myself out of there?

  I slung my leg over Jace’s bike before I looked around for the keys. And it wasn’t until I watched them being slid into the ignition that I broke down.

  “My brother’s dead,” I sobbed.

  I felt my head being pulled into Jace’s chest as he wrapped his arms around me. I felt my entire body unleash the rest of its contents as I sat there, straddling his motorcycle. I caved into him. My body fell limp, like a bag of broken bones in the middle of a graveyard. And as my heart broke and my soul fell into the bowels of Hell, one thing was there to keep me afloat. To keep me rooted in reality as the rest of my world slipped away.

  “I’ve got you,” Jace murmured.

  And the stroking of his fingertips through my hair kept me from losing myself to a darkness I felt was swallowing me whole.

  Chapter 22

  Jace

  The second he uttered those words, my head whipped back around to Leti. I watched her grow pale. I watched her eyes dim and fade away. Her beautiful olive skin turned white as a sheet, and her beautiful amber eyes became cold and gray. She fell to her knees. The drugs plummeted and strewn out along the floor. Sebastian’s minions jumped to the rescue. To try and salvage the little bit that was still in the bag. My head panned slowly back around to Sebastian. With his lanky form and his face tattoos and that wry grin on his face. He was still laughing. Like this was some sort of sick entertainment for him.

  “You bastard,” I murmured.

  I stood to my feet and cocked my gun back. I wanted to fucking kill him. But a small part of me knew that I still needed him alive. So instead of pulling the trigger, I cracked the butt of my gun against his temple and knocked him clear out in the middle of the kitchen. He slumped into his chair, causing his goonies to freak the fuck out. And then, the tussling began. Duke and Colt and Maverick had to wrestle the assholes to the ground. They had to pull out zip ties from their damn pockets to keep the men from wriggling away. They bound the cronies at the ankles and wrists, then latched their ankles to their wrists.

  Like stuffed fucking pigs.

  I whipped around to go comfort Leti, but the only thing I saw was her charging for the front door. Her legs carried her faster than I could have ever imagined in her current state, and everything in my body screamed to go after her.

  “Duke, make sure this asshole doesn’t go anywhere when he wakes up. Maverick, find a broom or some shit and sweep that coke into a trash can or something. Colt?”

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  “Don’t kill anyone. We need them for questioning,” I said.

  “You’re no fun.”

  “Sometimes, it has to be that way, my friend. In the meantime, if you want, you can tie Sebastian up. Get creative. Let your mind wander. I’ll be back.”

  “Perfect,” Colt said, grinning.

  Then, my legs propelled me toward the door.

  I watched her soar across the street as I leaped off the porch. I heard her sobbing. Even with the feet of space between us, I listened to the depth of her sorrow. I watched her run down the sidewalk. I closed the distance between us as she ran for the bikes. I knew there was only one thing on her mind. Getting away. She wanted to do anything and everything in her power to get as far away from this scenario as she could.

  It warmed my heart, however, when she threw her leg over my bike.

  Not at the fact that she was trying to take it, but at the fact that she had navigated to it. With how we were running, my bike was the furthest one away from her. She could have swung her leg over Colt’s bike and been done with it. But she navigated to mine. Ran just a little further to get to mine. And maybe I was reading too much into that action, but the idea that--even in her grief--she wanted something of mine?

  I don’t know. I can’t really explain the feelings that ripped through my gut.

  I slid to a stop beside her and immediately wrapped my arms around her body. I pulled her head to my chest, feeling her body quivering as sadness wracked her body. She gasped against me. Fell weakly into my body while she sat on top of my bike. Her sobs hiccupped her chest, and her hands hung limply at her sides, and all the while I stroked my fingers through her hair.

  “My brother’s dead,” she cried out.

  “I’ve got you,” I murmured.

  “I can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe you were… were right.”

  I kissed the top of her head as her hands fisted my leather jacket.

  “They killed him the moment they took him!” she shrieked.

  I’d never felt so close to tears in all my life.

  “They’re going to pay for this. You know that, right?” I asked.

  Every single tear that soaked my black shirt broke my heart. The way she tugged at my leather cut made me angrier than I’d ever felt. It was like she was trying to burrow herself into me. Literally, peel open my body and put herself in there. Like she didn’t want to be herself anymore. And that worried me. It worried me, the types of thoughts currently running through her mind.

  “I will make Sebastian pay,” I whispered.

  It was the quietest promise I’d ever made. And I meant it with my entire gut. Sebastian would curse the day he ever decided to mess with Leti and her brother. He’d curse the day her brother died, whether or not he had something to do with it. He’d curse the day he ever attempted to use her dead brother as leverage to manipulate her into a life like this.

  I’d made every single one of his counterparts pay for it, too.

  “I don’t know what to do now,” Leti whispered.

  “We work the case,” I said.

  “There is no case,” she said, sniffling. “There’s nothing. Nicholas is dead. That’s all I wanted from this, and it’s not possible anymore.”

  “We still have to get you safe. We still have to stop the influx of drugs coming into this town. The fight isn’t over, but I promise you this.”

  I reached down and crooked my finger underneath her chin. I pulled her watery gaze up to mine. I wiped away the snot forming around the nostrils of her nose and brushed away the tears rushing along her jawline. I took in the redness of her eyes. The puffiness of her cheeks. The harsh crimson tint of s
orrow that rose up in her features.

  I committed all of it to memory, so I knew exactly what I never wanted her to look like again.

  “You will never have to work for the Roja Diablos again,” I said.

  I allowed my forehead to fall against hers. I allowed my arms to wrap around her waist. I hoisted her off the bike and held her against me, her legs dangling helplessly in midair. Her arms snaked around my neck. Her sobs finally died down. I nuzzled my nose against hers, listening as her ragged breaths came in short spurts.

  “You will never be in danger like this again. Not with me. Not with us working this,” I said.

  “I’m alone,” Leti whispered.

  I shook my head against hers, watching as her eyes fluttered open. They connected with mine, and I felt my heart skip a beat. I felt the whole of my soul cry out for her. I settled her back down onto her shaking legs and felt her cling to me as my hand slid through her beautiful locks. I gripped her soft tendrils and tilted her head back. I caught her gaze, watching her amber eyes bleed nothing but hurt and anger at her situation. My lips approached hers. I felt her breath pulsing against my skin. And when she didn’t move, I allowed the small tip of the truth I felt in the pit of my gut flourish on my lips.

  “You’re not alone when you have me,” I said.

  I captured her lips in a soft kiss. There was nothing needy or passionate. Nothing desperate or wanton. Just a comforting kiss to try and put a punctuation on the point I was trying to make. She wasn’t alone. She had me. And she could have me as long as she wanted me. Never in my life had I felt that way with another woman. Usually, I was upfront about the fact that I was doing nothing but having a little bit of fun. Fooling around. Not getting serious about anything. I was the first to go after a new woman. The first to break her in before the rest of the guys hounded her if they wanted.

  But not with Leti.

  From the beginning, it had never been fooling around. It had never been for pure play. She had always been mine to guard and protect. To feed and take care of. I took it all on willingly. I opened my home and my body to her willingly, for repeated pleasures if that was what she wanted. And as our lips slowly moved together and my arms cloaked her back, I felt my heart open to her as well.