Jace (The Black Hornets MC Book 1)

by Savannah Rylan

  I guess she could nestle into my body after all.

  “Hate to break the moment, but the asshole’s waking up.”

  My eyes flew open at the sound of Maverick’s voice, and I saw him standing there, leaning against his bike. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and he was grinning at me. That cheeky little ‘well there you have it’ grin he always plastered on his face. I nodded at him, and he pushed off his bike, making his way back for the house.

  Then, my eyes fell back to Leti.

  “We’re going to get through this, and you aren’t going to do it alone. My club and I aren’t stopping until we know you’re safe and we know those drugs aren’t being trafficked into the area. Okay?” I asked.

  I watched her nod before she heaved a tired sigh.

  “I can’t imagine the grief you’re going through. And what you’re feeling. But I promise you, when I wrap up this dirty business we’ve got going on right now, we’re going back to my place. And we can talk if you want. Or we can sit and not talk if you want. We can order food, or I can cook. We can put on a movie, or sit and stare at the wall. Doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that you get what you need.”

  Her head fell to my chest, and she drew in another ragged breath.

  “I’m so sorry, Leti,” I whispered.

  But I saw Maverick standing on the porch of the house, and I knew I had to leave her to go deal with this shit.

  “I won’t be gone long, okay?” I asked.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  My brow furrowed as Leti picked her head up off my chest, her amber eyes filled with a renewed sense of vigor.

  “I’m coming with you, Jace,” she said.

  Chapter 23

  Leti

  I watched Jace shake his head, but I didn’t want to follow his command. I wanted to go inside with him and finish this. I wanted to look that bastard in his eyes when he squealed like the little pig he was. I took a step back from Jace’s grasp, watching as his hands fell to his sides.

  If I was going to stand my ground, I couldn’t be weakened by his touch.

  “Leti, you can’t go back inside. This is too much for you,” he said.

  “With all due respect, you don’t get to determine that. I’ve been through hell and back with that asshole, and I’m seeing this through. I want to see this entire mess come to an end.”

  “This might not end the way you want it to,” he said.

  I nodded slowly, my eyes locking with his as I drew in a deep breath.

  “It already hasn’t. On that front, I’ve got nothing else to lose, Jace.”

  With the stiffening of his jawline, he held out his hand for me. And when I slipped my fingers between his, the two of us made our way back to the house. I saw the confusion on his friend’s face on the porch. Maverick, his name was. I thought, at least. But he didn’t question it as we walked up the porch and into the house, so I didn’t either. Jace dropped my hand the second we walked through the front door, and I followed behind him.

  And when Sebastian’s eyes fell onto me, he began to laugh.

  Again.

  “You’re more stupid than I thought you were,” he said.

  In a flash, Jace ripped his gun from his holster and pointed it straight at Sebastian. He settled it between his eyes and hovered over the man as I stood there, waiting for things to progress. Sebastian’s eyes connected with mine. I held his gaze, standing my ground the way, I knew I needed to. I didn’t flinch until he was the one that broke the stare. Until he was the dog that flinched.

  “You won’t be speaking to her. You’re dealing with me now,” Jace said.

  “At least, that’s what you think,” Sebastian said.

  “I want to know why the fuck the cartel’s back in town.”

  Sebastian let out another laugh, and it made me want to strangle his throat with my bare hands.

  “Answer the man,” I said sternly.

  I felt everyone’s gaze slowly pan towards me as Sebastian’s laughter settled down. Fire rose in his eyes. A darkness, unlike anything I’d ever seen dripped over his features. It made me shiver in my shoes. It made me want to wrap a blanket around myself. The shiver that crept up my spine threatened to buckle me at my knees with the conniving bullshit that ran across his stare.

  Something was very wrong.

  “The cartel never left,” Sebastian said.

  “The fuck does that mean?” Maverick asked.

  “It means exactly what you think it means,” Sebastian said.

  He finally broke his gaze with me again, eyeing each of Jace’s club members around the room.

  “You guys have no idea who really controls this town. But after a little while, you will,” Sebastian said.

  “What. Does that. Mean?” Jace asked.

  He cocked his gun, but Sebastian didn’t flinch. Which meant that whatever this was, he wasn’t afraid to lose his life over it. At the very least, he wasn’t as afraid of losing his life over it as he was facing ‘it’ head-on after the bullshit we’d rained down into his world. Sebastian’s eyes came back to mine. He locked his gaze with me and became a vault of unspoken information. And it pissed me off.

  “Answer the question, Sebastian. Or I’ll kill you myself,” I said.

  That statement caused Jace to look back at me, and for the first time, Sebastian didn’t laugh. He didn’t call anyone’s bluff, and he didn’t try to look like the bad or the good guy. Because deep down, he knew I was serious. And deep down, I knew I was as well. Jace’s eyes fluttered down my body before he turned back to the man in the chair, and I took a step forward in order to punctuate my words.

  “Everyone has been under the impression the cartel left. And you’re insinuating they didn’t. But, according to everyone, the drugs weren’t here. So, what happened to them?” I asked.

  A grin ticked Sebastian’s cheeks as I came up to stand by Jace.

  “So many curious questions from such a small little girl. It’s interesting. I knew you had a bit of spunk, but this fight is entertaining to watch,” Sebastian said.

  “Are you not answering your questions because you’re scared I’ll kill you? Or because you’re scared your boss will?” I asked.

  Sebastian leaned his head forward, causing Jace to press the gun directly into his forehead. Causing an imprinted circle to rise upon the man’s skin.

  “No. I’m not scared my boss will kill me, Leti. I’m scared he won’t,” Sebastian said.

  My eyebrows ticked as everyone looked around the room. That was a hell of a line, I’d give him that. Death over torture. Was there really a creature capable of that kind of fear lurking in this town? But when it came down to it, Sebastian was just another cog in a wheel. Another pawn that trembled at the knees when the right person spoke up.

  For some reason, that made me angrier. It was one thing to be controlled and manipulated by a man with power.

  It was another thing to be controlled by a dick-less, scared little bitch.

  “Who is he?” I asked.

  A grin crawled across Sebastian’s cheeks.

  “Who is he!?” I exclaimed.

  “Do you really think these men can actually protect you?” he asked.

  “I know they can, and I know they will.”

  “Do you really think you can outrun the same source that killed your brother?”

  “That’s enough,” Jace said.

  “You said you didn’t know anything about that,” I said.

  “I didn’t pull the trigger. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know the specifics behind it,” Sebastian said.

  “Enough!” Jace roared.

  “Tell me what you know about my brother!” I exclaimed.

  “I know that he was a sorry piece of shit when we picked him up. I know he tried to double-cross us as a kid. Tried to one-up the cartel that fucking kept him alive. You think you’re the only one owned by us? Hmm? You think you’re the only one in your family special enough to be used by us? This was
so much more than a game to keep you in line. You belong to us, Leti. You’re our property. And so was Nicholas. We don’t like it when our property talks. When our property gets smart. When our property tries to double-cross us. Your brother was a whimpering mess before he bled out. And if you run, you will be soon enough, too.”

  The lights in my vision faded after that. Things went blank, and my mind completely shut down. I remember moving. I remember lunging. I remember Jace calling out my name as feet shuffled along the floor. I remember Sebastian’s laughter. The tenor notes that raked along my eardrums like the backdrop of a nightmare. I even remember hearing someone call out my name and yell for me to stop.

  Then, a gunshot rang out into the room, and my vision returned.

  I looked at Sebastian, slumped over in his chair and bleeding from a hole in his skull. I saw a wispy-thin trail of smoke sweeping up in front of my eyes. The smell of gunpowder was thick underneath my nose. The splattering of blood and brain matter, thick along the kitchen counter behind Sebastian’s dead body.

  And in my hands, something cold. Something heavy.

  Something metallic.

  “Let it go, Leti,” Jace said.

  I felt his lips against my ear as his hand slid down my arm.

  “Give me the gun,” he said.

  His hand wrapped around mine and I released the cold metal in my hands. I let go of the evidence of my spiral. The smoking gun. Literally. I took a step back from Sebastian’s body. Zip-tied to the chair and hanging lifeless with his head bowed in front of him. Blood was everywhere, and the room was stock-photo still as tears rushed my eyes and fell over my cheeks.

  I didn’t know what to do or what to say. I didn’t know what the appropriate reaction was. I was shocked. Stunned. But the regret I should have felt, I didn’t. And I had no idea what kind of person that made me. My hands slowly came down to my sides as Jace passed off the gun, and I heard the guys murmuring in the background. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from Sebastian. I couldn’t stop processing what had just happened.

  Sebastian was dead.

  And I killed him.

  I felt someone’s hands come down onto my shoulder before my body was turned. And I didn’t try to fight the guiding hands. I recognized the touch. Appreciated the way the fingers splayed out against my clothed skin. My feet mindlessly marched down the hallway and out onto the porch, then the two of us made our way back to the motorcycles. Everything was a blur. A dream within a dream. Sounds were muted, and the world felt as if it had stopped. And the only thing I could comprehend was the emptiness I felt inside.

  I should have felt good that I killed my brother’s killer. Deep down, I knew Sebastian had a hand in it. Whether he pulled the trigger or gave the order, I knew he was involved somehow. I should have been proud of myself. Happy at the fact that I had dealt some sort of justice to one of my brother’s murderers.

  But, I didn’t.

  Chapter 24

  Jace

  She moved quicker than anyone I’d ever seen. I watched something ignite behind Leti’s eyes, and before I could get a handle on the situation, she lunged. I knew she wasn’t processing what she was doing. What was happening? Because the look in her eyes was dead. I knew that look. It was a look I’d gotten twice in the field before. And every single time, the guys had to dig me out of a hole I never thought I’d come back from. I lunged at her, trying to snatch the gun off the kitchen table before she got to it. But when she gripped it and cocked it back, it took her a split second to level it as Sebastian’s head and pull the trigger.

  And in a flash, he was dead.

  For a moment, the entire room was silent. Everyone stood there, trying to process what had just happened. I looked around the room at the guys and saw them as well as the cronies they held standing there with their jaws scraping the floor. Silence filled the room. A feather could have floated in, and we would have heard the flapping of its softness. Leti slowly lowered the gun and I watched her vision refocus, and then a snap of horror ran across her eyes.

  I placed my hand against her arm and tried to coax the gun away from her. I pressed my lips close to her ear, beckoning for her to give me the gun. I slid my hand down her arm. I wrapped it around the evidence and slowly peeled it away from her grasp. She was stunned to her spot. Rooted in shock. Which meant I had to get her out of there as quickly as I could before she came back to her senses.

  Something like this was better dealt with behind closed doors.

  I don’t think she even realized it, but tears started wafting down her cheeks. She didn’t cry out, and she didn’t jolt. She simply allowed the tears to fall down her skin. I tossed the gun to Maverick, and he knew exactly what to do with it. He took out a cloth from his pocket and began cleaning it down before taking it apart and handing the pieces off to the guys. That was how we got rid of guns that weren’t supposed to be used in operations. Each of the guys in the club took a piece of the cleaned gun and found a spot in the desert or the woods to bury it.

  We needed to get rid of the damn thing. And quickly.

  “It’s okay, Leti. I’ve got you. If you can hear me, know that I’ve got you,” I said.

  She didn’t move at my words. She didn’t turn to look at me. She just kept staring at Sebastian’s slumped-over body. I placed my hands on her shoulders and slowly turned her around, then panned my eyes over to the guys. They all nodded their heads, catching pieces of the gun as Maverick cleaned it down and tossed it to them.

  “Get her out of here,” Colt said. “We got this mess.”

  “Yeah. We’ll burn the damn thing down if we have to,” Duke said.

  “Well keep the rest of the thugs for questioning,” Thor said.

  “Then we’ll get these pieces buried and reconvene with Dean tomorrow or something,” Maverick said.

  “Thanks. I appreciate it,” I said.

  Then, I led Leti down the hallway.

  I walked her out of the house and down the stairs. We crossed the road, and I led her all the way back to my motorcycle. I place her behind me, and I gripped her arms around me so she wouldn’t slip off from the back seat. She hadn’t said a word to me. Not a damn thing. And I didn’t want her zoning off in the middle of the ride and falling to the pavement. I held her with one hand and drove with the other, sticking to back roads and deserted highways to get us home.

  And the entire ride back, she didn’t say a word.

  She clung to me. Tighter and tighter, with every turn we took. Her legs locked around my waist and her arms slipped underneath mine as her hands gripped my chest. That was the only way I knew she was coherent. That was the only evidence I had that she hadn’t zoned out yet. She nuzzled her face deep into my back like she was trying to hide away from the world. Like she was trying to get herself away from things.

  But every once in a while, I felt her grip go slack.

  We pulled up to my apartment, and I turned off my bike. I threw the kickstand down and gathered her limp body in my arms, soaked to the bone from her tears. I carried her up the stairs and got us inside, then settled her onto the couch before I closed the door and locked us in. I walked around to all of the windows and locked them down, then pulled the blinds and turned on only a few additional lights. I didn’t want the outside world intruding on us. I didn’t want anything distracting us from trying to decompress and unwind.

  I also didn’t want any assholes taking aim through my damn windows.

  I went back to Leti and crouched down in front of her. I watched her eyes focus and unfocus like her memories had control of her entire mind. I gripped her hands within mine and brought them to my lips, and my warm kiss slowly pulled her gaze to mine. Finally, for the first time in almost an hour, she graced me with her stare. That beautiful amber color, filled with so much anguish and disbelief.

  “I want you to sit here, okay? I’m going to draw you a bath,” I said.

  But if she heard me, she didn’t give any indication that she had.

  I reache
d up and pressed a kiss to her cheek, then made my way into the bathroom. And all the while, I remembered my first kill. The first life I ever took at the club’s side. It was a dark day for me. I was never the same after that. As I drew her a bath and added some bubbles, I recalled the man’s eyes. His snarl. The way he lunged at Maverick before I pulled the trigger. Killing to defend a friend in the span of a heartbeat. A killing that, by any standard, would be justified.

  But it still stuck with me. The sound of the cracking of the gun. The smell of the gun smoke. The way the man fell to the ground. The way the blood stained the linoleum floor. I’d never forgotten any of it. Including the fear and pain, I felt filling my chest that threatened to swallow me whole.

  I knew precisely what Leti was feeling.

  And I knew exactly how this was impacting her.

  Once the bath was done, I turned the water off and went back out to the couch. She was still sitting there, in the same position, with her eyes locked on the same spot in front of her. I helped her up and guided her to the bathroom, then slowly began to help her out of her clothes. I reached back for a washcloth and dipped it into the water, wiping splotches of blood away before her eyes could land on them. I wiped away the evidence of Sebastian’s death from her skin, and I wished to fucking hell I could wipe it away from her memory.

  But it would take more than a bath to tame that snapshot.

  I knew from experience.

  Scooping her up into my arms, I settled her into the tub. Then, I sat on the edge and began slowly pouring water over her shoulders. Down her arms. On top of her head. I tilted her head back and slowly poured it through her hair, watching a twinge of red seep down her back. I washed the blood away. I rattled my hand around in the bath water to disperse it before Leti could see. I kicked off my boots and pulled up my jeans, taking my socks off before I slipped my feet into the bath. I pulled her between my legs. Laid her wet head against my thigh as I cupped water with my hand and trickled it over her exposed skin.