by Eve R. Hart
“Sorry,” she whispered but let me pull her back into the shadows a bit.
There wasn’t much around. I could see buildings a little ways down on the same side of the road that we were on. They all appeared to be empty and long abandoned. Across the cracked, seen-better-days street was a huge fence that looked like it was made for keeping people out. However, the front gate looked to be wide open.
I got a bad feeling in my gut. One that told me it would have been a really fucking good idea to turn around. But I knew she wouldn’t have it.
“What’s in there?” I asked needing to know what I was heading into.
“It’s The Devil’s Kings compound. There’s someone in there I need to save.”
There was more to that story but now was not the time to ask.
“I think there is something already going on in there.”
“Yeah,” she said but her eyes stayed focused on the big warehouse just beyond the fence. “I think war has come. Now move.”
My head snapped back as my arm tightened around her.
“Please,” she said a little more sweetly. It made me almost believe that she meant it nicely.
“I can’t talk you out of this?”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“Stay behind me,” I said and shifted so that I was covering her front.
There apparently was…someone to save.
And a war to throw ourselves in the middle of.
Yep, all of this seemed like a really good idea.
I shook my head and moved, my body crouched slightly as I moved across the street. I scanned the area as I stepped forward, my feet keeping a steady pace.
The closer we got to the warehouse, the louder the chaos rang out. Music was blasting at a volume that was sure to make me deaf.
The first room opened up to something that resembled a shabby lounge area. And the bodies hit my vision right away. This room had been cleared by whoever it was that had busted up in here. I kept to the walls, moving deeper into the place. Cheap walls had been erected no more than seven feet high creating little cubicle rooms. The first ones seemed to be smaller lounging areas. Then they seemed like they turned into something that could be considered living spaces. Small rooms that held a bed and maybe a dresser. Some had doors, some didn’t. Some had dead bodies, some didn’t. But all of them free of any sort of life. Meaning that the men that had been left there were sure dead.
Who the hell was in here?
There must have been a lot of them to take out these guys with no problem.
I’d seen the cuts. The leather vests so far only held one club name. So whoever was moving through here taking these men down had big numbers and the stealth of a damn snake.
I was hesitant to move on because there were still shots coming from the back of the warehouse. I held her back in one of the rooms that happened to be body free.
Then like a damn miracle, the place went silent. As in no gunshots, no boots pounding pavement, and no music—thank fuck.
I let another minute or two linger on and then I gave a nod to let Lucy know we’d be moving again. I knew she’d be right behind me. This was so beyond messed up. I mean, I’d seen some things in my time, but this night had turned into the biggest shit show I’d ever witnessed. And I had a feeling that it was about to take an even stranger turn. I didn’t know why I felt that way, just did. I was sure it didn’t help that I didn’t have the first damn clue as to what was going on.
“Should have just driven off,” I said almost under my breath.
Her hand fell on my shoulder with a sharp whack, causing a tiny, cute, little sting. I turned my head, cutting my eyes at her over my shoulder. She returned my look with one of her own. One that very much said ‘I heard that, asshole’ and damn if I didn’t find it extremely adorable.
I let out a low chuckle then reset my focus on my front.
We made out way down the hall, moving to the back where I could see the outer rim of a crowd gathering. Something was going on. I felt like whatever it was, was coming to an end. Only I wasn’t sure it was safe because I didn’t know what we were walking into.
Then sadly, near the end of the hall was a body. I knew that hair and that tattoo that vibrantly colored the back of his neck. I knew that man, even if the back of his cut hadn’t of told me he belonged to the Steel Paragons MC. I let out a sad sigh. Dutch from the South Carolina chapter.
“Well, shit!” a voice rang out. A voice I knew really well. Cal, the President of the mother chapter for the Paragons. I moved a little faster, feeling a lot safer than I had before. There was something in his tone that was more happy-shocked than angry.
There were more words said, but I was too far away to make them out.
“I was hired by…” a man that I most certainly didn’t recognize said. We were a few feet away and I was approaching cautiously, Lucy plastered to my back. I was close enough to see that he was wearing a Devil’s cut and I wondered why the hell he not only seemed so cool and relaxed, but wasn’t dead. “Well, that one right there,” he said right as he caught sight of us. His finger raised and pointed in my direction, but it wasn’t at me.
That was when Lucy let out a gasp, her head was peeking around me to see what was going on.
“Lulu?” a woman that looked like she could barely stand on her own said with hope in her tone.
“Lucy?” This came from a tall woman that had a deadly air about her.
“Clean?” Diesel asked, great confusion ringing in his tone. He was staring at the top of my head, so I wasn’t sure if he was asking why the hell I was there or where had my hair gone. Maybe it was both.
Feeling awkward and confused as hell, I spoke without a filter.
“Uh, there is not enough money in the world for me to take on this job,” I said, actually pulling off a casual tone as I did another scan of the nearby area.
“Oh, holy fuck,” Cal muttered and I almost could have sworn I saw him roll his eyes.
Then Lucy broke away from me, running at top speed of to the girl that had called her Lulu. There was hugging and whispering as I made my way over to Lucy. I wasn’t going to let her out of my reach, not just yet.
There was some club shit that we’d just stepped into the middle of. I tried to follow along as everyone talked and tried to work things out.
What I got was a whole lot of what the fuck? and a few things that pieced themselves together.
Lucy had hired this Burke guy, who also happened to be a member of The Devil’s Kings, also known as Vice. He was looking for some kind of journal. After they found it and handed it over to the Burke guy, the girl that Lucy knew, whose name was Allison, ended up going a little crazy. And everyone stood around and watched as she stabbed the hell out of Savage. And I learned that Savage was the big bad, though I felt like I had already known that. He was tied up to a chair. Allison took a knife to him, stabbing him more times than I think any of us could count. Lucy had buried her head in my shoulder while this was going on and I wrapped my hand around her head trying to be comforting. Also, maybe trying to shield her from the violence a little.
Allison had a rage inside of her. One that I could tell had been building up for years. It was apparent by the state that she was in, that she’d been through Hell and back.
It wasn’t until Axe, one of the members from the Moon Hill chapter, moved in behind her and whispered something in her ear, did she snap back to reality a little.
“Looks like I’m the one who gets to see your fear,” she said and there was an eerie calmness to her tone. I could sense that the statement was personal to her.
Then she stabbed him in the dick.
Oh, yeah.
And I couldn’t help but cringe.
Because…it was in the dick.
There was something about it that I knew every man in the room felt. I imagined it was very much deserved, but still.
Savage screamed out and it came out strangled. Then the girl fell back into Axe’s arms.
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Cal took over at this point and shot the man in the head, effectively giving him a well-deserved end, I would have guessed. Then he barked out orders, taking control of everything. Eventually, he turned to me with an amused, curious look plastered on his face.
“And how the fuck is it that you are here anyway?” he asked in a bark.
“Long story?” I supplied because I didn’t have the first clue to even explain it.
“Found your psychic?” Diesel asked, a knowing look barely covered his face.
“Yep,” I said pulling Lucy closer into my side like I was never going to let her go.
That was when things got even more insane.
“FBI. Nobody move.” Was called out loudly from behind us.
Damn, how the hell did we not hear them coming up?
My first objective was to shield Lucy. Right now I needed to be invisible and I had a good feeling she did too. I turned slowly, pushing her body behind mine. Luckily, I was able to shuffle us back a few steps to get lost in the giant crowd. I just had to figure a way out of here without being noticed.
The FBI agent was pissed that Savage was dead, but Burke seemed to know him and was able to ease the situation by handing over the journal that they’d gotten from Savage earlier. You know, right before he ended up dead. It seemed to satisfy the agent and then things got even weirder. Like the kind of weird you’d only see in movies.
The lead agent called his men off and even offered to help the Paragons out with getting medical attention as soon as they got to the hospital. He went as far as to lay out a plan for how this all went down. I knew everyone was all ears because the place was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.
“Get your men up,” the agent said to Cal. “Take the ones that need medical attention to county. I’ll need a statement from the girl, but as far as I can tell, it looks like the leader of The Devil’s Kings—Savage, as he went by—went crazy and took out half of his men.”
He went on to paint a picture of how the Steel Paragons were in town on an unplanned charity run. Cal agreed by saying that a local women’s shelter was about to get a donation. Then the agent went on to explain how Allison was found running down the road by the Paragons. In his story, Allison had burned the place down before she left but had managed to get the journal, which would somehow later end up in Burke’s hands and that was how the FBI got a hold of it.
Man, this was some confusing stuff to follow along with, especially when I didn’t have the first clue what was going on to begin with.
Then, by some kind of divine angel looking over us and shooting lightning bolts of luck our way, the agent and his team were gone.
The men scattered, going in all different directions and it was like Lucy and I had been forgotten about. Which was fine because we needed to get the hell out of there.
Lucy struggled with me for a moment until I reassured her that it was alright. Then we made our way out and back to my truck.
“Please,” she begged after I told her that we wouldn’t be going to the hospital. “I need to see her. Please, Derrick.”
It broke my heart to tell her no. To speak the truth that we both knew.
“We can’t. The FBI is going to be there and we can’t get near that. We can’t be noticed. Cal and his crew have a free pass, but I have no idea if that extends to you and me. And even if it did, I can’t risk being there. I’ve stayed invisible this long, I can’t risk ruining that.”
“I-” she said, then stopped herself. “Okay, you’re right. But I can’t just leave her. Not after I just got her back.”
“I’m pretty sure I know where to find her,” I said, pulling her across the bench seat and into my arms. It wasn’t a lie. I had seen the way Axe not only looked at Allison, but I noticed the way he would do anything to protect her. There was clearly something there and I’d put money on the fact that Allison would end up in Moon Hill really soon. “Besides, it looks like she’s been through a lot. She needs to get checked out and some time to rest.”
Lucy nodded. She was shaking and I tightened my arms around her.
“Yeah,” she said in a sad sigh. “Let’s get out of here.”
She broke away from me, scooted back to the other side of the seat, and buckled herself in. I felt cold instantly. I was torn. I had to drive but I felt like she needed a comforting touch. Or maybe I needed one.
My hope that we’d have a long drive to get to know one another was quickly taken away. No sooner had I headed out of town had her head softly fell against the window and she was out. I tried to wake her so that she could give me some sort of direction to go in, but she was down for the count.
The crash.
Or the beginning of it.
So I thought it was best just to let her body rest and try to recover. I headed in the direction of my closest place, with all intentions of giving her somewhere to feel safe until she was ready to leave.
Only, I sort of hoped she wouldn’t. Because even in all the chaos and death, I’d come to feel a deeper connection to her. And I wasn’t ready for it to end.
-15-
If I could, I would
Lucy
I knew it was going to happen. The fall. The come down. The crash. Whatever the hell you wanted to call it, I knew it was just right around the corner. Truth was, I had no idea how I’d held it together for so long. One minute, I was there surrounded by more bodies that I could count and laying eyes on Allison for the first time in seven years. The next, I was climbing into the cab of Mr. Clean’s—I meant, Derrick’s—truck and the weight came down in full force. So hard that I literally crashed. As in, all the air that I felt I’d been holding in the entire night rushed out of my lungs as my eyes closed. And they did not open again.
Then my eyelids were fluttering open and I was met with a room I didn’t know followed by the panic of how the hell I’d gotten there. Not only that, but how much time had I lost? Was I out for hours? Days? It honestly wouldn’t have surprised me if it’d been days. I was sure my mind and body were like I’m taking a fucking break here, lady.
“Hey,” his voice filtered into my ears.
It was soft and calm and just the thing I needed right then. I couldn’t tell you why, but it put me at ease. Just one simple word. One little nudge to let me know that I was safe and not alone. I wanted to cry. And actually, I did. The tears flowing down my cheeks like a dam had broken. I supposed it had. Years I had held it all in. I had promised I wouldn’t cry until I’d found Allison. Years of holding it all back. Years of keeping the weight up and keeping the secrets within.
“It’s okay,” he said in a husky, strained whisper.
Then the mattress dipped and his arms were circling around me, pulling me tighter into his body. I fisted his shirt just to have something to ground me. I cried and cried and fucking cried.
“Come here,” he said reclining back against the headboard and pulling my body into his side.
His scent filled my nose even through the river of snot running out. It did something to me but I couldn’t begin to explain it right now. It was warm and rich and dangerous at the same time. Not rich like money, rich like…wise and regal. Like a man that stood tall and strong. A man that would protect what he believed in at all costs. A man that would love with everything he had in him. How the hell could I have gotten that from one smell, I honestly couldn’t tell you. But that was what it spoke to my soul as I buried my face in his shoulder and took another healthy whiff. I wasn’t sure, but I felt his body bounce a little like he was silently laughing at me. That was enough to break me out of my weep-fest and drag my eyes up to his.
“Sorry,” he said almost sheepishly. “I know you were having a moment and it’s not funny at all…but you were smelling me.”
Maybe I wasn’t as subtle as I thought I was being. I couldn’t help but begin to laugh at myself. It was just the tension breaker that I needed. I brought my hand up and wiped my eyes. I tried to suck the gross snot back to where it belonged, but
there was no way to do that gracefully. I was sure I looked like a train wreck right now.
He reached over and produced a small box of tissues. I gave him a timid, thankful smile as I snatched up one. Without caring about how unladylike I was, I blew my nose until I could breathe again.
“You feel better?” he asked a while later, once I’d gotten myself under control.
“Yes,” I replied with a few quick nods of my head. I planted my hand on his chest and went to push up. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to stay there holding me, especially since I was a bit better now. At least my eyes weren’t leaking all over his soft, cotton shirt.
Wait!
What?
Soft…cotton…t-shirt…?
Yeah, that was what he was wearing. I lifted my head to inspect the rest of him to find his lower half covered in a pair of black sweatpants. And his feet, well, they were bare and for some reason, I found it incredibly sexy.
No.
No, I couldn’t go there right now.
Oh, my, fucking, God!
It all hit me at once. I was in a bed. Not only that, but my cleaner, the man that had been a mystery for so long, was right there next to me. Fucking, holding me. His arms—his strong, warm arms were holding me.
I must have been dreaming and I had a very strong urge to pinch myself. Oh, I knew what was going on. I really died in that motel room. Everything that I thought happened—the saving myself, the killing people, the call to him—it was all some kind of after death dream. I was in limbo, maybe. This was some kind of confusing conjured up image to make me pay for all the things I’d done. That made more sense than this actually being real. Right?
“Lucy,” he said my name so sweetly. So calmly. So…tenderly. It actually had me shaking my head like I couldn’t believe I was hearing it that way. “I can see the freak out happening behind your eyes. Talk to me.”