Cain’s right hand is still cupping my elbow, while his left hand comes around and pulls my head into his upper arm, squeezing me there, cutting off my line of sight.
I feel Cain take a long step forward; we’re hip to hip now. I know that a throw is coming.
He pivots his body. My own gets washed away with the force of his rotation and he throws me to the edge of the table.
He drops his knee, intending to break my ribs, but I roll to the left off the table, jump straight up and back three feet into a defensive posture.
“You’ve become soft; you’re no longer a fighter. She’s made you into a pussy,” Cain says as he moves to the edge of the table.
He uses the table’s ledge, jumps off, rotates his hips and comes at me with a flying side kick. I step back; he misses. He lands and now I have the upper ground.
As he lands, I kick his left thigh. There’s no time for him to defend. He buckles and I get a chance to strike a right punch to his temple. He falls to the left, and uses his body weight to roll and get straight back up.
Cain charges toward me. I throw a punch in anticipation of the exchange, but Cain fucking squats, back straight, wrapping his arms around my thighs as his head comes under my left arm and drives my back into the table.
My lower back hits the table’s edge, and with a long, extended arm he covers my entire face with the palm of his hand. He lands a punch to my temple.
Shit, I gotta get out of this hold. A few more hits like that and I won’t survive.
Another punch to the temple and it’s time to make my move.
I grip the arm that’s on my face and lock it into my body. My other arm protects the side of my head. When he goes to strike again, I cup the back of his head and roll him off me.
But Cain grabs onto my arm and rolls me over too. Now he’s in prime position.
He sits on my chest, knees either side of me and he starts hammering into me.
I bring my hands up to defend my head. His fists are coming hard and fast.
He lands one, square on the chin. One more like that and he’ll knock me out.
I hear a whistle and look in that direction.
There’s still mayhem happening in the room, Phoenix is struggling to get out of her head lock, the boys are fighting the other two suits that were in here when I charged in. It looks like there’s a few more of Cain’s men fighting with mine.
One of the suits is down, one of Cain’s thugs is down, Milina’s in a tight ball with her knees up and her back against the wall. It’s pure chaos.
Cain and I both look in the direction of the whistle, and he momentarily ceases his attack on me.
One of his thugs throws Cain a serrated hunting knife. Cain catches it by the handle, and we both know what’s about to happen.
I bring my hands up in defense and his first stab is straight into my arm.
Immediately, I feel the blood pour out of the wound on my arm, and I hear a high-pitched scream.
“NO!!!!” Phoenix yells with such passion and intensity.
“You fought with your heart, and now it’s gonna cost you your life,” Cain says as he draws the knife back above his head for the death blow.
“Fuck you!” I say to Cain. My jaw’s clenched in anger. I’m drawing on all my strength to roll him off me and to finally finish him.
A sound that I’m so familiar with brings everything to a halt.
It’s deafening in a room like this; it echoes through the entire place. My ears are ringing and my entire body is humming with adrenaline.
I stand to my feet, staunching the bleeding from the cut in my left arm with my right hand.
Looking around the room, my men have guns on two, and the rest are down. Their chests aren’t moving, their eyes are open, and there’s a lot of spilled blood.
I turn around to see Phoenix’s angry, vacant stare. She’s holding a gun with steady hands, pointing it at an immobile Cain.
“Sugar,” I say as I step up to her.
“He was going to kill you, then me and Milina. Fucker had to die,” she says, her voice flat, devoid of any emotion.
“Give me the gun, sugar,” I say, stepping up to her side as I put my hand on hers.
“He was going to kill you, then me and Milina. Fucker had to die,” she whispers, repeating her words. Shock is starting to set in. I gotta get my girl away from here.
“Phoenix.” I lower my tone and move my body in front of hers. “Give me the gun,” I say again, trying to ease her with just my tone.
Her eyes are wild, and she’s starting to shake.
I look to Sarge, who’s wrapped a badly beaten Milina in his t-shirt and has her in his arms, walking her out of the room.
“Clean this shit up. Get rid of them,” I say to Hash, Wake and the rest of my brothers.
They all nod, understanding my instructions.
“Nix, look at me.” I pry the gun from her fingers, put the safety back on and tuck it into the back of my jeans. Phoenix’s eyes are glued to Cain, who’s lying on his back, arms out beside him, with a hole through his chest.
“I killed him,” she whimpers as her big, blue eyes fill with tears.
I cloak her in my body, turning her and shielding her from what’s just happened.
Jason comes into the room and looks around him, before his eyes settle on Phoenix. “She alright?” he asks me.
“Get the truck,” I say, shaking my head. He bolts out of the room and goes to get the SUV. I take my bloodied and half ripped shirt off, “Lift your arms,” I say to Nix.
Without hesitation she lifts them above her head and I slide the shirt over her.
“I’m sorry, Jaeger,” she whispers as she begins to sob.
“You’ve got nothin’ to be sorry for, sugar. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m sorry you had to come looking for me,” she says as she leans into my body.
“I couldn’t stay away even if I wanted to.”
She’s struggling to walk, her body is trembling and she’s crying a fuckin’ river. I hate seeing her so God damned broken.
“Jaeger?”
“Yeah, sugar.”
We’re taking it slow, one small step in front of the other. I’d carry her if my mother fuckin’ arm wasn’t ripped up by that fucker’s knife.
“I…” She collapses.
What the hell?
THIRTY-
TWO
“Hey,” I say to Sarge as he walks into the kitchen, and grabs a cup to pour some coffee into.
“Hey,” he replies.
“What did Doc say about Milina?”
“Doc’s still in there with her. They fucked her up pretty good. Makes me wanna dig ‘em all up and fuckin’ kill ‘em again.” He drinks his black coffee as he sits at the table.
“Yeah.” I nod, wishing I too could kill them all again. Slowly, and with a lot of painful torture.
“Phoenix?” he asks as he lifts his head from his coffee.
“She’s passed out. Somethin’ about her mind protecting itself from everythin’ it’s seen. I don’t really know what shit Doc was saying, just that Nix needs the rest.”
“Was she raped?”
“Doc said there wasn’t any scarrin’ or rips or anything in her pussy or ass, but I’ll ask her when she wakes up.”
“Lina’s been beat up pretty bad, probably take her some time to recover.”
We both go quiet. I’m not really sure what to say to him about his girl. All those fuckers are dead. Can’t really kill ‘em any more than they are, or I’d be first in line to fuck ‘em up real good.
“Bank manager’s supposed to be coming out so I can sign the papers for the farm, but seein’ as there’s a hole in the building, and FBI is due, I’ll take Hash and we’ll go in to the bank. You alright looking after the girls?”
Sarge shoots me a look, telling me that if I question him again, we’ll settle it in the ring.
“How’s the arm?” I ask, pointing to his gunshot wound.
“Just a scratch. Yours?”
“A few stitches, nothin’ serious.”
I finish my coffee, and walk down the hall toward my girl.
When I open the door, she’s lying exactly how I left her. Her hands tucked up under her cheek, lying on her side.
Her wild red hair is all over the place, in complete disarray. She looks so peaceful lying in my bed.
I sit beside her and run the back of my hand over her face, just tucking the loose strands away behind her ear. Phoenix shifts in her sleep, moving closer to me.
This damned chick has seriously screwed me over. I’ve never felt anything like this for a woman before, never wanted to protect someone with every part of me.
Her little moans rip through my damned heart and I know that I need her close to me, to guard her and keep her safe.
***
“Skinny,” I greet him as Hash and I walk into the Crowes clubhouse.
“Jaeger, hope you brought the deeds,” he says as he leans back in the seat while some chick gives him a blowjob.
He extends his arms to the back of the chair and nods to another club whore to get us a drink.
She scurries off and comes back with a bottle of tequila and three shot glasses.
“Drink?” he asks as Hash stands by the door and I sit on the single chair opposite him.
“All good,” I say, declining his offer.
“She can make you come in about four minutes,” he says pointing to the chick who brought over the tequila.
He motions for her to get on her knees in front of me, and immediately she does.
“Nah, I’m good there, too. Just dropping the deeds off.”
He grabs the hair of the chick who’s giving him a blow job and snaps her head back. Her mouth is all pouty and red, she must’ve been suckin’ him off for a while.
“Take Trix and go to my room, when I come in there I wanna see you eatin’ her pussy,” he says to the chick on her knees in front of him.
“Sure thing, Mr. Prez.” She giggles, gets up from her knees and walks over to the chick Skinny just offered me.
They start kissin’, and damn, they’re fine. My cock begins to strain against my jeans, and I adjust it as I watch the girls take their tank tops off and suck on each other’s pert little nipples.
“Want ‘em?” Skinny asks as I eye-fuck the girls.
“Usually I’m all for shit like that, but I gotta decline. My girl’s waiting for me,” I say without taking my eyes off the two girls.
Damn, one strips the other’s tiny little shorts and starts fingering her in front of me.
I hear a deep guttural moan from behind me, and I know that Hash has gotta be having a hard time watching these two girls.
“Him?” Skinny offers as he flicks a look over at Hash.
“He’ll be alright, too.”
The girl takes her fingers out of the other one’s pussy and starts sucking on them, then goes back to kissing the girl. Fuck, I’m holdin’ on, only just, but I’m holdin’ on.
I gotta look away before I get up and jump in there, one can sit on my face as I lick her cunt while the other lowers her ass onto my cock and I screw her hard.
“Um…” Look away, Jaeger. Nix will kick your damned ass. “The deeds,” I say dragging my eyes away from the sexy exhibition the girls are putting on for us.
“You brought them?” He sounds surprised.
My eyes go back to the beautiful girls caressing each other, each slowly moving their mouths against the other, devouring with leisurely sensual long licks of their tongues.
“If you want them?” Skinny offers, making me drag my eyes away from them.
“Nah,” I say, my voice slightly husky. I quickly glance at them and stand. I hand the deeds to the land over to Skinny and take a step to the back door.
Back door – HA! I crack myself up sometimes.
“As promised,” I say and back away from a scene that has the potential to see my balls detached from my body if Nix ever finds out.
“Excalibur’s happy with how you handled shit,” Skinny says as he stands and takes the few steps over to me.
“Good. Don’t wanna piss off the cartel.”
“They know you’re running for the Pace family, but they’ve offered an additional job opportunity for you.”
“Not interested,” I say as I shrug my shoulders.
“They knew that was gonna be your answer.”
“And?”
Christ, don’t tell me that Excalibur will end up wiping us out.
“And nothing,” he pauses for a moment, silently telling me that Excalibur won’t bother us… for now. “We’re good,” Skinny states.
“Yeah, we’re good.” I chance one small look at the two chicks enjoying each other and walk out that door.
“Damn,” Hash says. Clearly those two club whores had the same, if not a worse effect on him.
“I know, brother.” I get on my Harley and start her up.
“Damn,” he says again. He takes a deep breath, looks over his shoulder, like he can see them through the brick wall. He starts his bike and takes off.
***
Walking into the clubhouse, the only thing I wanna do is have my girl curl her body around mine, as close as she can get.
Although the two club sluts were all into fuckin’ each other over at the Crowes’ place, and I was ready to be on the receiving end of a seriously great blow job, I’ll hold off on getting Nix to suck me off ‘til she’s ready.
The clubhouse is quiet, and I know that Sarge will be in one of the rooms down the back lookin’ after Milina.
Tough motherfucker, my ass.
He’s seriously pussy-whipped, and they haven’t even screwed yet.
I walk into my room and Nix hasn’t moved a damned inch.
Doctor said when her brain calms down she’ll wake on her own, or some shit like that. I really wasn’t listening, only heard the key points.
I toe off my boots and lie down under the thin blanket covering her and drape my arm over her waist, pulling her in toward me.
Holding her.
Protecting her.
Claiming her.
Ahhh, shit.
As I lay behind Nix, with her warm, soft body pressed against mine, strands of her flaming red hair falling haphazardly across my face, I finally figure my shit out.
I fuckin’ love her, just… shit.
When did that happen?
Why did that happen?
I don’t do stupid, meaningless emotions. Who the hell wants to feel like crap when they’re left holding the damned pieces of a screwed-up, dysfunctional relationship? I saw enough of that shit growing up.
Nothin’ stays. Ever.
People that should have had my back and been loyal to me have turned out to be my biggest disappointments. Just look at Aaron.
But does that mean that Nix will follow in the path of the others?
She put a bullet in Cain’s chest…for me.
And there’s no chance in hell that I’ll ever let her go.
She belongs with me. Not just because I wanna keep her safe, but because I God damn love her.
I. AM. SO. SCREWED.
THIRTY-
THREE
Phoenix
“I’ll never let anything happen to you again. Wake up, sugar, my cock needs sucking,” Jaeger murmurs in my ear.
What?
I open my eyes and I’m lying in Jaeger’s arms. My head is resting on his upper arm, his bicep is hard beneath me, but his warmth is so inviting.
“What did you say?” I mumble, my voice all gravelly. My throat’s rough and dry.
“Phoenix!” Jaeger half-shouts, scaring the crap out of me.
“What’s going on?”
Jaeger moves me from his embrace, laying me back on the pillow, and raising himself up on an elbow to look down at me.
“How are you feelin’, sugar?”
“Not well enough to do what you want.” I try and str
etch, but my body is tight and sore. “What happened?” I ask, trying to think back to the last thing I remember.
“You killed Cain,” Jaeger says in such a deadpan, emotionless voice.
It takes me a few seconds, and I focus on an invisible spot on the wall. I can feel myself frowning as I bring a hand up to rub the back of my neck.
It only takes those few seconds to have an instant replay of everything that happened in that room with those beasts.
“I… I…” I start to panic. My heart’s beating so fast it feels like it’s about to seize or beat straight out of my chest.
My palms are sweaty and my body begins to tremble.
“Shhh. It’s alright,” Jaeger says as he wraps his arms around me, pulling me to sit between his open legs.
I notice his arm is bandaged, “What happened to your arm? Did I do that?”
“Nah, it was Cain. He was just about to kill me, and you shot him.”
“I remember that,” I whisper as I snuggle closer into Jaeger. “Oh, God, I killed him.”
“You have to know that this entire bullshit situation had nothin’ to do with you.”
“Milina?!” I shout, trying to push Jaeger’s arms off me. His grip is like a tight vice; his subtle aroma of tobacco swirls around me, and he immediately becomes my safe place.
“She’s alright. She’s with Sarge. We got the doc to come out and check you both out.”
“Will she be okay?” I ask, nuzzling into his frame further.
I feel so protected here, comfortable, loved.
“It’ll be a while before she’s back to normal, but Sarge will look after her, and so will the club.”
I feel tears begin to fill my eyes and I want to let them go, but I’ve been such a girl lately – always crying.
“Why did he take us?” I ask, my voice starting to break.
“Because of your father.”
“My dad?” I lift my head a little and look up at Jaeger, whose own eyes look so forlorn and sad.
“Yeah, I’m sorry to be the one to tell ya’, sugar. But your old man, he was a bastard.”
“Huh?” I don’t get what he’s trying to say.
“Your father. He sold you to Cain to clear his gambling debts. Milina was just an added bonus.”
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