“About?”
“About how I hope the house is fixed and secured.”
“I’m sure Sledge made sure that everything was done correctly,” Rachel replied. “He knows how much your home means to you.”
“Our.”
“What?”
“Our home,” Diesel corrected. “Not mine, ours. “
“Our home,” Rachel whispered, more to herself than him. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one of those.”
“Now you do,” Diesel responded, reaching over and grabbing her hand.
Pulling up beside the house, Diesel noticed Reaper’s truck parked next to the back porch. Hoping he had news, Diesel hopped out of the truck and made his way to the back door with Rachel a step behind him.
“Reap?” Diesel hollered as he entered the house.
“In the kitchen,” Reaper yelled back.
“What do you have?” Diesel asked as soon as he entered the room.
Reaper glanced over to Rachel and then back to Diesel.
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of her,” Diesel said.
“Okay,” Reaper said, nodding his head. “Sokolov is the son of a former KGB high ranking official. From what we have been able to gather, Ginx was given a mission to retrieve a file from Malik Sokolov, which she did.”
“What file?”
“Banjo is trying to figure that out,” Reaper answered.
“My mother won’t tell you what the file was?” Rachel asked.
“She says she doesn’t know, but Sledge and I don’t believe her.”
“I don’t either. She would have looked, or at least asked what she was staking her life on,” Diesel replied.
“Agreed,” Reaper nodded.
“So they were going to use me as leverage to get the file back? Is that what you’re saying?” Rachel asked.
“We think so.”
“Lovely,” she said sarcastically.
“Where is Andrei?” Diesel asked.
“He is no longer a problem,” Reaper answered.
“How is he not a problem?” Rachel asked.
Diesel laughed as the color drained from Rachel’s face when Reaper delivered the look of the Grim. The man had a way for striking fear into everyone with that look. It promised death.
“Never mind,” Rachel mumbled. “I don’t want to know.”
“No, you don’t,” Reaper agreed.
“So it’s over?” Diesel hated to hear the hopefulness in Rachel’s voice.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her that it would probably never be over. Until they knew what was in the file, they had no idea how far or wide this spread.
“For the moment,” Reaper answered.
“But, we live life,” Diesel added.
“Definitely,” Reaper approved. “Don’t let a few dipshits stop you from living life.”
“Okay,” Rachel acknowledged.
For the rest of the day, Diesel and Rachel tried to get back into the normal groove of things. They watched TV, snuggled on the couch, played a few games of strip pool - to which Rachel ended up naked and bent over the table twice, and even went swimming off the pier. It wasn’t until later that night that Diesel woke up knowing something was wrong.
“Rachel!” Diesel coughed. “Wake up!”
“What?” Rachel asked and immediately started coughing, too.
“Smoke. We need to get out of here.”
Diesel climbed out of bed, the room was filled with smoke. His lungs started to burn. There wasn’t any time to get dressed. They needed to get downstairs and out of the house - now!
“Move towards the door,” Diesel instructed.
“Okay.”
As the two of them crawled to the door, the smoke was getting worse. Diesel had never known fear until that moment. If something happened to Rachel, his life would be over. He had to get her safe.
Reaching for the door handle, he quickly pulled back.
“Fuck!” Diesel yelled. “It’s hot.” The knob had burned his palm.
The sound of shattering glass could barely be heard over the roar of the fire outside of the room. They were trapped. Looking over to Rachel, he knew she knew it, too.
“Marcus?” Rachel asked.
“I know,” he said, not wanting to voice what they both already knew.
“Marcus,” Rachel repeated.
“What, baby?” he said, moving closer to her.
“I love you,” she said, pulling him into her arms. “I love you more than life.”
“I love you, too,” he said.
In that moment, Diesel knew that he had to try again. Those three words broke something in him. How could he never hear them fall from her lips again? How could he not continue to fight?
Crawling back over to the bed, Diesel pulled the sheet off of the bed and quickly made his way back to the door. Wadding it up, he placed it over the door handle.
“Get back,” He hollered. “There might be a backdraft. Go to the other side of the bed and get down.”
“Marcus, no!” Rachel screamed. “A backdraft will engulf the room and you!”
“It’s the only way to try to get you out.”
“No! I am not leaving without you!”
“Rachel, please.”
“Goddamn it, Marcus. I fucking said no!”
“Such dirty words out of such a beautiful mouth.”
“Good grief, will you be serious?”
“I was.”
“There has to be another way.”
Diesel watched as Rachel moved away from him. There wasn’t another way. They were on the second floor. There was nowhere to go except out of the door.
The smoke continued to blow in from beneath the door. It was getting extremely thick in the room and visibility was almost gone.
“Rachel,” Diesel yelled. “Where are you?” Diesel tried to yell again, but the smoke caused more pain to encompass his chest.
He couldn’t die without knowing she was either safe or with him. Moving in the direction she had disappeared, Diesel heard the sound of wood creaking. The floor was getting warmer. It wouldn’t be long before it caved in and sent them crashing into the inferno below. Realization hit him. He and Rachel would die here.
“Marcus!” Diesel heard his name. But couldn’t tell where the sound had come from. The smoke was too much.
“Marcus!” The voice came again.
An angel, he thought. Only an angel could have a voice that beautiful.
“Damn it, Marcus!”
He felt himself being yanked. It wasn’t an angel; it was Rachel calling him. He tried to fight the fog taking over his brain. Tried to get it to function. But no matter what he did, the darkness continued to creep in on him. He failed. Because of him, he and Rachel would die. As the darkness took him over completely, Diesel sent a silent prayer up that Rachel would one day forgive him. That the Henchmen would honor him. That maybe, just maybe, someone would remember him.
Panic filled Rachel as she watched Diesel collapse on the floor. She was alone. She was in a burning house, alone.
Pull it together!
She had to get them out of here. Crawling over to the closet, she grabbed the sheets off the shelf and made her way back to the windows. It was the only way out. But how would she get Diesel and herself out safely?
Rachel spent valuable time knotting sheets together, end to end. Then a thought hit her. Tying one end to the king size bed, she grabbed the lamp and smashed it against the window. Watching the glass fall around her, she reached over and tried to pull Diesel towards the window.
“Rachel!”
She thought she heard her name, but that was impossible, she was alone. Using all the strength she could gather, she pulled Diesel as far as she could, but it wasn’t enough. If she couldn’t get him to the window, she wouldn’t be able to tie the sheet around him to get him lowered to the ground.
“Rachel!”
Again, the sound of her name reached her ears. Leaning
out the window, she thought she was imagining things. The Devil’s Henchmen were frantically running around. Sledge was screaming her name!
“Sledge!” Rachel coughed.
“Where is Diesel?’ Sledge yelled.
“He’s passed out,” Rachel coughed. “I can’t... I... I can’t... Move him.”
“Fuck!” Sledge yelled. “Reap, Diesel is out. We need to move now!”
Rachel watched as several Henchmen ran towards the window carrying a long ladder. Sirens could be heard from somewhere outside. Reaper slammed the ladder against the side of the house, but as he was about to start climbing, a loud explosion rattled the house, something heavy landed on top of Rachel and everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
3 months later
It was such a beautiful day. Winter was coming. The cabin was finally finished. After the fire, there was nothing left. Nothing. No hope. No dream. Pay back was a bitch. Reaper killed one of theirs, so they came after one of his.
“Wow, it looks amazing.” Diesel turned to see Rachel wheeling herself towards him.
During the fire, a gas line exploded causing a beam to fall from the ceiling. It had landed on Rachel, breaking her back. She would never walk again, but Diesel still loved her more than anything. She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
“Not as amazing as you,” Diesel replied.
“Oh please!” Rachel rolled her eyes, giggling.
“Are you ready to go inside?”
“Yes,” she answered.
Diesel pushed her chair up the ramp and onto the back deck. Entering the house, he let her wheel herself. Rachel’s independence was still very much important to her. While he wanted to wait on her hand and foot, he knew she hated it.
“Wait.” Rachel said, stopping just inside the kitchen. “How am I going to get upstairs?”
“I already have that worked out.”
“You are not going to carry me up and down the stairs, are you?”
“No,” Diesel laughed. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
Diesel led her over to the stairs and handed her a controller.
“Press the button,” he instructed.
Rachel pushed the button on the remote and watched in awe as a chair descended the stairs.
“Oh my goodness!” Rachel had never seen anything like it.
“You like?” Diesel asked.
“Oh honey!” Rachel cried. “It’s perfect.”
“No tears, baby,” Diesel said, wiping away the moisture.
“I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Me either to be honest,” he laughed.
Diesel helped Rachel move into the electric lift and instructed her to push the same button. He watched as her smile grew the higher the lift took her up the stairs. At the top of the stair sat another wheelchair.
“I figured you can have one for upstairs, and another for everywhere else. It would make it easier for you.”
Rachel moved herself into the other wheelchair and slowing rolled from room to room. The previous room she had stayed in was now an art studio. Everything she would ever need now lined the walls. But the room she was most interested in seeing was their bedroom.
Wheeling herself further down the hall, she opened the bedroom door. Sometimes flash backs would pop up, but not today. Today, all she wanted was to lie in bed with the man she loved.
Turning around, she saw him leaning against the door frame smiling back at her. She truly was the luckiest woman alive.
“Take me to bed,” Rachel instructed.
“My pleasure, Mrs. Briggs,” Diesel smiled.
Reaching down, he lifted Rachel from the chair and carried her the few remaining feet to the bed. Softly laying her down, Diesel climbed into the bed next to her and pulled her close.
“Thank you,” Diesel said.
“For what?” Rachel asked.
“For giving me forever.”
Not just forever, Marcus,” Rachel said, running her hand down his chest. “I want forever, plus a day.”
“Then that is what you will get, starting now.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Samantha McCoy spends her days playing taxi driver and refereeing her last two remaining teenagers at home. Both of which she home schools. A mother of three, she stays fairly busy. Samantha lives in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, right off of Lake Buchanan. When she doesn’t have her nose buried in a book, either reading or creating; she can be found working long hours on Books and Babes Promotions, a company and blog she started after witnessing the struggles of many new writers and models in the Indie Industry.
If you would like to learn more about Samantha
and her upcoming releases,
check out her page on Facebook!
Sergeant at Arms: Devil's Henchmen MC, Book Three Page 15