Devil (Savage MC--Tennessee Book 1)

by Jordan Marie

  “Where’s the elevator?” I ask, trying to wrap my mind around everything.

  “It connects to the club. You ready to find out what Wolf’s hiding down here?”

  “I think it’s more like a who…” I murmur, hoping I can trust Daniel. He and Dad were pretty close before Daniel’s accident, but I don’t remember him all that well. Considering what I’m learning about Wolf—maybe that’s not a bad thing.

  “All the better. I’ll go first. They won’t think much about a man in wheelchair being here—especially since I’m a member of the club. For some reason these ass-fucks think being in a wheelchair means you’re stupid too. I’ve got a gun, but I’d rather not use it. One shot and it doesn’t matter we’re underground, they’ll hear it in the control room at the club.”

  I nod, because I know he’s right. There’s a giant control room at the back of the club that contains cameras and surveillance equipment as well as the latest computers on the market. The halls are wired with cameras, but I know the rooms are too. I’ve been worrying about it.

  “The cameras—” I start and Daniel grins.

  “Took care of that. I figure we got about fifteen minutes before they discover the problem with the cameras. Which means we need to get moving. You ready?”

  I nod my head and follow behind Dan, praying I’m not wrong to trust him.

  Devil

  “Damn, what’s going on here?” I open my eyes to see an old man rolling in his wheelchair. My guard looks surprised to see him, but I can’t be sure and to be honest, I don’t give a fuck. I’m barely hanging on to consciousness. I’m too fucking weak to care and I’ve been told all day that tonight my suffering ends. I hate to say I’m looking forward to it, but I sure as hell am. Wolf has been taking out his revenge on me hour after hour and I’m in so much pain that I only want it to end. I tell myself that’s not being a coward—it’s being a realist.

  I’ve lived my life with no regrets. If I have any, it would be Torrent. I should have done so much with her different and I should have carried her kicking and screaming out of this hellhole. I should have made sure that fucker Wolf couldn’t ever touch her again. Hopefully Diesel, Crusher and the rest of my crew get here soon enough and will save her. I doubt the man upstairs listens to me, but I hope he gives her a good life. She needs that. I wanted to be the one to give it to her, but if wishes were horses we’d all be fucking cowboys.

  “What are you doing down here, Daniel?” the guard asks—I don’t know his name, haven’t cared enough to listen.

  “Figured I’d see why you pussies keep coming down here all hours of the night,” the man says and if I could still feel my face I’d laugh. Here’s one asshole I’d probably like.

  “I’d watch my mouth if I was you. You’re only alive because Dodger liked you.”

  “I’m only alive because your new President hasn’t found a way to kill me, like he did Dodger.”

  “You’re on dangerous territory, Daniel.”

  “You going to deny it?”

  “No, but it’s none of your business. You want to keep breathing you’ll roll your fat ass out of this room and not look back.”

  “I’d rather roll my chair over your shriveled balls.”

  “You—”

  I hear a gasp and make myself open an eye to look at the two men. My guard is on the ground, groping his neck, which has a knife sticking out of it.

  “I ever tell you, asshole, that I used to be able to throw a knife at fifty paces and kill a fly?”

  I figure the bastard is lying, and I wish like fuck that was Wolf, slowly bleeding out around the blade in his throat, but this beats nothing.

  “Get moving, moonbeam,” the man says and that’s when my world shifts. Torrent is standing there, crying her eyes out. She’s too blurry to see her eyes, but I can hear her sobs.

  “If…dreamin’, Angel… Don’t wake… m… me.”

  The words are a chore to get out. I can’t be sure they were even spoken, but I had to try. I figure she heard something because she starts moving. She looks around the room and then pulls a five-gallon bucket over to me. I thought she was going to put it under my feet. I hate to tell her at this point that wouldn’t help. I can’t even feel my damn legs—at least I don’t think I can. All I can feel is pain. She doesn’t though. She stands up on the bucket so our faces are close together.

  “Hang on for me, Logan. Hang on for me,” she says.

  I don’t know if it’s possible. I’m pretty damn close to death—hell, I already smell like a rotted corpse. But I’ll try. For Torrent, I’d try anything.

  I start moving and recognize immediately she’s cutting the ropes. I want to tell her to stop, to leave and get as far from Wolf as she can—to go to my club so they can help her get free. I don’t say any of that, because in the next instant the ropes give and I fall to the floor. The pain explodes through my body and I can’t fight it anymore.

  I give in to the blackness and let it swallow me.

  Torrent

  I can’t quit crying. Devil is so bad. God, he’s so bad. I wouldn’t even know it was him, from just looking at him. The only thing recognizable is some of his face and his hair… though his hair is matted with blood and is so much darker than normal. His once vibrant deep blue eyes are pale and lifeless—at least one of them is. The other is swollen to the point I don’t even know if there’s an eye in there, but I’m scared there’s not. He’s been stripped and there’s not a part of his body that hasn’t been cut, torn, and made to bleed. He’s bruised and swollen everywhere, his arms are broken so bad there’s a bone sticking through one and his legs are at odd angles too.

  How one man could survive a beating this severe is unimaginable. If I hadn’t heard his broken whispers, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.

  “I don’t think you did him any favors, girl,” Dan says and he’s right. I shouldn’t have let Devil fall like that, but I had to get him down. I’m trying to be quick and I can only do what I can do.

  “I know!” I cry. It’s then I realize that I’m crying so hard my body is shaking. I have no clue on how I’m supposed to get Devil out of here. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I do get him out of here. I’m scared. No… I’m terrified that I’m too late. If Devil dies because I was too stupid to look for him sooner, I’ll never forgive myself.

  “Fucking hell! I knew I was too rusty! Duck!” Daniel yells and I jerk around to see one of Wolf’s men, I can’t even remember his name because he came not long before my dad’s death, is pointing a gun at us.

  It’s so weird. You would think a man with a bowie knife sticking out of his neck couldn’t find the strength to hold a gun but there he is. I can even watch as it cocks and I’m not sure where it’s aimed, but it looks like it is at me.

  “I said duck!” Daniel growls and the next thing I know he’s moving in front of me, his chair tips and he’s lunging at the man holding the gun. I hear the gun go off, but it’s muffled. I scream. I take my knife and hold it tightly in my hand and then I stab it into the side of the man’s neck. The rest of his body is covered by Daniel—who is groaning. The man underneath is slack, and I pull Daniel away as gently as I can. He looks at me, his eyes dull.

  “Oh God. We can—” I start but he shakes his head a little.

  “Thanks for one last ride, moonbeam,” he says and then his body goes limp, his eyes open but lifeless.

  I really want to fall apart now, but I don’t let myself. I pull the wheelchair the rest of the way out from under Daniel, unceremoniously dumping him on the ground. I wince.

  “Sorry,” I whisper, which is crazy, because Daniel can’t hear me.

  I wheel the chair closer to Devil, setting the brake. I pull and tug and pray I’m not doing more damage and I somehow manage to get an unconscious Devil into the chair. He’s slumped and at an odd angle, but he’s in there. I move his feet, carefully so he fits better against the leg rests, and then I get behind the chair and take off, pushing Devil down the
hall and back the way I came. There’s no way I’m going to be able to get him up the stairs in my house, so I head toward the club. I have my gun and at this point I’ll shoot first and worry later. I have to get Devil to the elevator and out to my car.

  It seems to take forever, but in reality it’s only a few minutes, I’m sure. When the elevator dings and the doors open I scream when there’s a gun pointed directly at me, before I even get a chance to draw. Then, through my tears I focus enough to see that it’s Fury standing in front of me—the guy who was always with Devil during the early days at the convent.

  “Help!” I scream. “You have to help him!”

  “Motherfucking hell. Crusher! Over here!” Fury screams. That’s when I look around and see the chaos all around me. Devil’s men have attacked the club and from the looks of who is standing and who is not… they’ve won. I hope they managed to kill Wolf. If not, I really hope I get the chance.

  Devil

  I open my eyes slowly. Fuck, everything in me still hurts, but somehow it’s duller than it was before. I look around and know immediately I’m in the hospital.

  “Sunshine…”

  “Hey, Twinkle-toes,” Beast cracks.

  “Did I die?”

  “Close, but no cigar. You’ll be here to bust my ass for years to come, long as you take care of yourself.”

  “Then why are you here? Where’s Hayden?”

  “She’s at Torrent’s. The babies are a little too wild for the hospital. She sends her love.”

  I look down to see Torrent sleeping, her head is lying on the bed, her hand reaching out and cupped over my arm, right above my IV. She’s pale, and she’s lost weight, but she’s never looked better.

  “What did I miss?”

  “Torrent saving your sorry sack of bones. The boys dismantling Wolf and his goons and setting fire to their clubhouse and Torrent meeting Jenn.”

  “Christ,” I wince.

  “That went surprisingly well, by the way. I don’t think Torrent’s ready to meet DD right now.”

  “I get the feeling you’re enjoying my misery, asshole,” I say and I try to laugh, but it’s too damn painful.

  “Not even a little. You almost died, man. It was way too fucking close.”

  “I’m actually surprised I’m still here.”

  “It was a close call. If I ventured a guess, I’d say the man upstairs was answering prayers,” Beast says.

  “I doubt the man upstairs listens to anything about me these days, Sunshine.”

  “He listens to her. I’d lay odds on it,” he says, pointing to Torrent.

  Emotion swamps me as I look down at Torrent.

  “He might at that,” I tell him, my chest feeling tight.

  “Got to tell you something, asshole,” Beast says and a laugh bubbles out before I can stop it. I moan in reaction. Beast walks over and puts his hand gently on my shoulder.

  “It’s good to find someone who’s uglier than I am now.”

  “Bastard, I’ll never look that bad.” I cough and son of a bitch if that doesn’t hurt worse than the laugh.

  “Better not look in the mirror,” he says.

  “Logan?” Torrent whispers, looking up. I look down at her and her face is drawn and she’s worried, damn worried—sick and pale with it. I try to think of something to reassure her, but truth is I’m starting to feel tired already.

  “Love you, Angel,” I tell her and that causes her face to change, a light shining so bright in those whiskey eyes that I have to worry I have died. Surely nothing on earth could be this beautiful.

  “You’re a lucky son of a bitch,” I hear Beast say, repeating words I once told him and I have to agree with him.

  “We both are,” I tell him, but I don’t know if he hears me, because I slowly fade into sleep.

  Torrent

  Two weeks later

  “Damn man, I thought you’d be looking better by now,” Fury says, as about four of Devil’s brothers come walking into his hospital room.

  Fury is joking, I know, but he’s not far from wrong. Devil does still look like hell. He’s going to be in the hospital for much longer, though there is talk after his skin grafts heal, that they will move him to a rehab facility. Devil’s not crazy about that, but he needs it. Both of his legs were so badly broken that he will have to learn to walk all over again. He’s got one arm that had such a huge break that he’ll have to work to regain full use of it. His ribs are wrapped tight, a lung had to be re-inflated and that’s only the highlights of everything he’s undergone. He’s worried about the skin grafts and all of the jagged scarring he will have. I’m praying they don’t become infected. He spiked a fever a few nights and it scared me to death. The biggest loss has been his eye. He completely lost his right eye and I know that’s bothering him more than anything. His face is bandaged up right now, and eventually they will put a patch over the wound. They’ve talked to him about reconstructive surgery, but I don’t know what he’s thinking. I don’t care.

  He’s alive… and he’s with me. I’m thankful and that’s enough.

  “Fuck off, I still look better than you,” Devil mumbles.

  Fury, Crusher, Gunner and Beast have become familiar faces to me. They’re good men. The kind of men that I wish my father could have surrounded himself with.

  “How’s he doing, Torrent?” Beast asks. Beast apparently isn’t a member of Devil’s crew, but he and Devil are really close. He and his wife Hayden are staying at my house until we can get Devil shipped back home and I go down there. I haven’t been home much, and not sure I want to be—not after everything that has happened. The clubhouse is completely gone now. Crusher and his men burned it to the ground. I don’t know what happened to the members of Dad’s club; I’ve decided to apply the old military standard… Don’t ask, don’t tell.

  “He ate real food today,” I tell him, still proud of that accomplishment.

  “I don’t think you can call that crap they brought me real food, Angel.”

  I roll my eyes, and bend down to kiss him.

  “I love you, Logan,” I tell him, ignoring everyone else in the room. I almost lost him and now that I’ve got him back, I’m going to make sure to tell him how much I love him, each and every day—as often as I can.

  He brings his good hand up to my face. He touches a finger to my cheek while staring at me intently. There’s sadness in his face, but there’s love too.

  “I love you, Angel,” he says and I kiss him again.

  “You’re a lucky man, Twinkle-Toes,” Beast says and Devil looks at him and grins.

  “Don’t I know it, Sunshine. Don’t I know it,” Devil responds.

  It’s a familiar exchange between the two and I don’t understand the significance of it, but I know it makes Devil happy.

  “Have you found Wolf yet?” I ask, and from the looks of the solemn faces around the room that answer is a no. Shit.

  “Sorry, Torrent. We’ve torn the place apart, but there’s no sign of him.”

  “And you’re sure Diesel and Ryan are safe?” Devil asks and the men look around at Devil—none of them happy.

  “Diesel went dark as soon as he sent us after you. He left me a note, and told me he’d be in touch, but damn it, man, I haven’t heard anything from him,” Crusher says and my heart squeezes in panic.

  I hope and pray nothing happens to them. I feel responsible, even though they’ve all tried to convince me I’m not. To their way of thinking, Diesel and Ryan have had evil after both of them for a while and at least I’ve helped them get a direction to look. That doesn’t make me feel any better. I may not want to know what happened to my father’s men, but Wolf… I’d like to see Wolf die a very violent and bloody death.

  “Maybe it’s good he’s dark and doesn’t know what’s going on,” Gunner says and everyone turns around to stare at him. “What?” he asks us all defensively. “It will kill him to find out that Ryan is not his.”

  I couldn’t even imagine the pain that woul
d cause. By all accounts, Diesel adores Ryan and has tried to give him the world from day one.

  “That it will,” Fury agrees. But Beast growls under his breath.

  “He’s that boy’s father,” Crusher says vehemently. I smile. Devil has told me about Crusher and Dani and how they couldn’t have kids. So far they’ve adopted five and have another in the works.

  “Damn straight,” Beast says. “I dare anyone to say anything different.”

  I feel a little shudder of fear. I’m not really afraid, but the cold tone in Beast’s voice would make me feel sorry for anyone that pissed him off, for sure.

  “So what’s our next move?” Fury asks.

  “We keep hunting for Wolf and we keep trying to monitor this damn King. That’s all the moves we have right now,” Crusher answers, his voice filled with anger.

  “And in the meantime we hope like hell we hear from Diesel,” Gunner adds and everyone in the room silently agrees.

  Epilogue

  Torrent

  Five Months Later

  I look out the kitchen door and see Devil standing on the deck, looking out over the lake and my heart flips in my chest. It’s been a long, hard five months, Devil’s been home officially two months today, but it sure hasn’t been easy. He’s better—so much better than he was when he first came home, but he has his good days and his bad days. Today was a mixture of both. We had a good breakfast together, but most of the day he’s been in bed with a debilitating migraine. Those are something he never got before, but they happen with sad regularity since Wolf’s torture. I still pray every damn day that they find that asshole and he dies a very bloody death. So far it hasn’t happened.

  “You okay, Logan?” I ask, opening the kitchen door. He turns to look at me and maybe it’s because we spend so much time together lately, but I can sense his mood from looking at him. “Stop it, Logan Dupree. Stop it right now,” I warn him.