by Sophia Gray
Normally, I’d have cursed and told him he looked like shit, but Jamie was right behind me. I didn’t want to freak her out any more than she already was, and I hoped that being calm myself might do the trick.
Unfreezing, I walked farther into the room, knowing that Jamie was directly behind me and that she would witness all of this in a matter of moments.
I heard the exact moment when she did see him.
There was a gasp behind me and then a muffled sob like she’d slapped her hand across her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle the sound. The urge to glance back at her, to check that she was alright, was strong, but I ignored it in favor of helping Kato.
I crossed the room to him in quick strides. When I reached for his wrists, preparing to catch him when I released him, he jerked back from my touch. My eyebrows shot skyward. I really hadn’t expected him to be even semi-conscious. Hell, I was half convinced he was already dead…
“Kato? It’s me.” My voice was gruff, pissed off and concerned at the same time.
“Boss?” he croaked. His voice sounded awful, like he’d swallowed a bunch of broken glass.
I had to shove that image away quickly because I wouldn’t have put it passed them to try some crazy shit like that.
“Yeah.” There was a long stretch of silence, then I cleared my throat. “Think you can manage to stay out of fucking trouble for two damned minutes?”
He laughed…or tried to anyway. The sound was more of a burst of air from his lungs, followed by a wince from the movement. I gave him a second to compose himself before speaking again. Licking his lips, he said, “Don’t worry about me. Worry about Jamie. She—”
“I’m here.” She stepped forward, though Kato’s eyes were half closed, so I didn’t know if he could see her.
But more to the point, what the hell? I was thoroughly caught off guard by the concern in his tone. When I’d left the two of them together, I’d been worried that he’d try to kill her himself. It was only a confidence in my own orders that made me comfortable enough to leave him alone—well, mostly alone—with her. Now he was worried about her personal safety?
Staring at me with bleary eyes, he must have seen the surprise written across my face because he grinned at me. It wasn’t a pretty expression at that moment. “What? Torture can change a man.”
Despite the joking tone he used, there was real honesty beneath it. Torture really could change a man, and right now, he looked almost…haunted. I stared at him stupidly for a while, and it was actually Jamie, brushing past me, that went to Kato.
Her fingers dusted along his exposed chest, and something in me tightened. I had to remind myself that he was injured and that she was a nurse by trade, that there wasn’t a damn thing sexual about it. That was the only thing that kept me calm and just barely, at that.
“Don’t worry, Kato,” she told him in a cheery voice that I imagined was her bedside tone. “These wounds look pretty superficial. With a little burn cream and some nursing, you’ll be as good as new.”
Kato let out another hoarse laugh. “Sure, sure,” he told her, but his face remained grim, despite his attempt at lightheartedness.
I swallowed, then went to his wrists again. “I’m going to get you down, okay? Lean on me.”
Kato nodded.
They were cuffs around his wrists, attached to a chain, and I realized my mistake. I didn’t have a damn key. And while I could pick locks, I wasn’t likely to do it without a damn kit. I should have been more prepared, but when I left, I hadn’t anticipated having to rescue hostages.
Before I could get too frustrated with the whole thing, Jamie nudged me. “Here. See if one of these works.”
I glanced down to see that she was offering me up a set of two keys. Frowning, I asked, “Where the hell did you get these?”
Her eyes shifted slightly until she was staring past me and out of the room, her eyes focusing on the floor in the next room to the man, the dead one, who was lying on the floor. Anger rose swiftly. It was so strong that I felt like trying to rip those handcuffs open with my bare hands, which would have been infinitely stupid, and thankfully, I could curb myself enough to avoid that moment of stupidity.
Taking the keys, I put my hand against her cheek, pulling her gaze away from the body and back to me. “Thanks, baby,” I told her.
She nodded, forcing a shaky smile.
I tried one key first, then the other. The second one actually worked, which was a huge relief. Kato slumped forward heavily, and I only just managed to catch him. He barely put any weight on his legs for a moment, but with me bracing him and Jamie going to his other side, he managed to half-walk, half-stumble out of that damn bin of water.
We were in the midst of slowly dragging him out of the room when one of the boys came rushing down the stairs. It was Jarren. “Boss! We’ve got ‘em. Bastards started running and surrendering left and right once they realized that Huxton was dead. Shit, have you seen him? Fucking head’s bashed in!”
I gritted my teeth, thinking of the rage I’d seen, but Jamie barely batted an eyelash, and Kato was too wounded to really poke at the topic. He’d do that later, I was sure.
“How many you got upstairs?”
Jarren shrugged his big shoulders. “Fuck, boss, I don’t know. A dozen? More? We lost a bunch who were too fucking chicken-shit to stay and fight and more died. But some just put down their weapons, man. It’s been crazy!”
I believed it. Occupied with Kato, I urged Jarren down the stairs. When he caught sight of the injured man, he swore. Kato looked pretty bad. Jarren brushed Jamie aside and took up Kato’s weight on her side. Together, we hauled him up the stairs to the main part of the house. Jamie trailed behind us.
When we got to the living room, I saw that Jarren hadn’t been kidding. The living room had about fifteen men sitting down, legs pretzeled beneath them, with my men holding guns trained on them. They looked about as happy as a kid without his candy, but they sat without a fuss. I motioned Chevy over, and he willingly took my place beneath Kato.
“Get them outside.” I motioned towards both Kato and Jamie. Hesitating, I thought for a second, then said, “Get the keys to one of the cars outside. Kato’s not going to be able to ride.”
Chevy nodded and both he and Jarren carried Kato outside. Jamie, however, lingered. She folded her arms across her chest, and I remembered how damn stubborn she could be.
“What, woman?” I asked, irritation spiking quickly.
She lifted her chin. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
I fixed her with a glare, but secretly, I was pleased. She was mine, and in my eyes, her statement meant that she now knew it, too. “You’ll do what I fucking tell you.”
“The hell I will!”
I laughed, running a hand through my hair. The only one that didn’t listen to me was a damn woman. Figured. “Just go, woman. We’re all leaving.”
She hesitated, her eyes darting from the dead Huxton lying on the floor to the row of men lined up along the walls. I could practically see her mind ticking through scenarios of what I might do. Part of me felt sort of insulted that she thought I would just outright kill these men. I would have done so in battle, sure, but what would be the honor in an execution?
Finally, she made up her mind about something, then stepped forward. Her hands ended up on either side of my face, then she pulled me in for a long, lingering kiss. There was passion, a little anger, and a lot of relief in that kiss. When she broke away, we were both breathless.
“Fine,” she said, then she followed Kato and the others out.
For a second, I just watched her go. When the door closed behind her, I turned to my men and the remaining Chaos Disciples. I addressed them with a hard, edged voice. “You boys wanna live?”
They didn’t say anything.
“Well? Fucking do you?” I boomed.
Several of them murmured “Yes” in response. I grinned. “Good. Then abandon the Disciples. Your leader is dead, and if I see one
more of you flying those colors, I’ll make sure the rest of you are, too. I’m giving you one chance to walk. If you fuck it up, it’ll be the last decision you ever get to make.” I motioned to my guys. “Get these assholes out of here.”
They did so quickly, but before they all left, I pulled one of my guys aside—Lonnie was his name. “I need something from you…”
He nodded quickly and rushed outside. A few minutes later, all of the men were outside. My guys were still holding them at gunpoint. Lonnie came back inside carrying three gas cans. “Found what I could, boss.”
I nodded in approval. “Good. Start upstairs.”
He took one of the cans and hurried to the second floor. I started with the basement, dumping gas along the walls, the body, the chairs—everything. I trailed it up the stairs and then started on the first floor just as Lonnie started coming down the stairs from the second. He made sure to coat those stairs, too.
We used the last gas can for the first floor, and when I felt that wasn’t enough, I went to the kitchen and turned on the stove and the burners. I found a couple of bottles of alcohol, motioned for Lonnie to leave, and brought the bottles with me to the porch. I dumped them out there.
That was when I flicked open my Zippo and threw it on the porch.
It didn’t take much for the place to go up. Once the fire caught, there was no stopping it. The house was old, the furniture antique, and everything was doused in gasoline. There was no chance that the place would survive.
Turning back to the men who were being forced to watch the blaze, I announced to them, “The Chaos Disciples are dead! This is Hellrider territory!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jamie
The blaze was scary beautiful, strangely entrancing. I felt something ease in my chest at the sight of it, relief coming despite the fact that this was most definitely arson. But after the day I’d had, it was hard to look at things the same way anymore.
Was it really arson after I’d been kidnapped? After Alex had been shot? After Kato was tortured? And after that asshole Leo tried to rape me?
Maybe under the letter of the law it was still considered a crime, but I couldn’t make myself be very upset about it. Instead, I was just really relieved to know that that place was burning and that the men responsible for everything that had happened were dead or had fled.
Funny, knowing the bad guys were dead did a hell of a lot to make me feel better.
I rode back in the car with Kato. Part of me wanted to stay with Pax and ride with him, but I was rattled pretty badly. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold on the way I needed to if I rode behind Pax. Besides, there was no question that Kato needed medical attention, and I understood a little better now that they wouldn’t be able to take him to the doctor.
Still, I wished they would, but I wasn’t going to waste time arguing about it.
The car ride was quiet. Kato mostly just seemed relieved. He was slumped in the backseat, laying horizontally across it, too exhausted to bother with anything else. One of the guys—Chevy, I thought was his name—was driving, and I was sitting in the front seat this time. A great change from the last car ride, that was for sure.
Behind us, scores of motorcycles rumbled. These were the Hellriders, Pax’s men, and for once, I wasn’t freaked out to know that a motorcycle gang was following me.
Chevy drove us back to the house that I’d spent the week at, where I’d taken care of Kato and made love with Pax. It was comforting, actually, to see it as we pulled up to that huge, fancy house. It felt more like home than my apartment ever had. We pulled up and parked outside. Several of the motorcycles followed us in, but most of them had already pulled off to go to their own homes. Maybe they’d get together again for a barbecue or something? A party that said, “Hey, we destroyed our enemies!” Wasn’t that the type of craziness warriors did?
I didn’t know, but I was relieved to see that most of them had left. I was still shaken, and I wanted some quiet, some peace…and Pax.
Chevy got out of the car and went to the backseat. One of the other riders had dismounted quickly to join Chevy. Between the two of them, they managed to haul Kato out of the car.
“Get him to the mudroom again, please,” I told them. The both glanced back at me in surprise but didn’t argue, they just dragged him into the house. In a few minutes, I’d follow them and tend to Kato, but I needed to see Pax first.
I didn’t have to wait long for him.
He dismounted and walked over to me. In seconds, I was wrapped up in his arms. We held each other, silent, for God knew how long. He smelled like gasoline and smoke and blood, but I didn’t care. I was just grateful to have his arms around me.
After a while, he finally pulled away from me. He brushed my hair away from my face, pushing it behind my ear, and I saw how bloodied his hand was. The urge to clean him up was strong, but I knew that Kato needed me more right now.
“I…I need to take a look at Kato,” I murmured.
He nodded. “Go.”
I pulled away from him but hesitated on the porch, glancing back at him. “I need to take care of you, too. Don’t go far.”
He grinned at me, then winked. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. I live here, remember?”
# # #
Kato was in rough shape, but most of the damage was superficial, thankfully. I cleaned him up and used a burn cream for the places where the electrical cords had been placed on his skin. I also checked over his other, previous wounds to make sure they hadn’t reopened. After cleaning them and restitching a couple, I finally just let him be to rest.
I told him while he was still conscious that he should stop being such a pain and just go to the hospital. He laughed at me and told me to go to Pax, that he could use a good stripper nurse.
I rolled my eyes at him and left.
Pax was upstairs in his room. Hesitating only a moment, I tentatively knocked on the door and waited. A second later, Pax’s deep, rough voice came through the wood. “Come in.”
I pushed open the door and stepped inside. He was sitting on a chair off to the side of the bed. He looked exhausted and drained but very much alive, which I was grateful for. The exhaustion could be fixed, death could not.
Lingering in the doorway, I asked, “Are you alright?”
His eyebrows lifted and he nodded his chin towards the space behind me. “Close the door and come in.”
I bristled a little at the order, but not near as much as I might have a few hours ago. Stepping further into the room, I closed the door gently behind me, then leaned against it. I wasn’t quite sure what to do right now, so I let silence spread between us.
After a moment, Pax said, “Well? Are you going to fucking take care of me or what?”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Is that how you ask someone to do something nice for you?”
He grinned wolfishly at me. “I don’t ask. And who said anything about nice? I just want you over here.”
Despite, or maybe because of, his cheeky response, I felt my body flush. Now that we were safe and alone, I couldn’t deny that my body was reacting strongly to him. I wanted him, badly, and might have stalked over there and sat in his lap without a second thought if I didn’t spot the blood still lingering on his hands.
He hadn’t washed up yet. He must really be tired.
Swallowing, I pushed away from the door and went to him. I hesitated, then knelt down in front of him so that I could get a better look at his hands. “I figured you would have gotten cleaned up.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “You said you needed to take care of me, remember? Thought I’d wait.”
My heart fluttered in my chest, and I wondered if he really had been waiting for me or if he’d just been too damn tired to bother with such things. He looked pretty wiped out, except for his eyes. They burned with intensity, just like they always seemed to.
Clearing my throat, I stood up again and smiled sweetly at him. “Alright
. We’d better get your shirt off, then. So I can have a look at you.”
He laughed at me but didn’t hesitate to strip off his shirt. It took everything I had not to gasp at the bruises beneath it. They lined his sides, along his ribs and his stomach, turning the skin an ugly bluish purple. If they were as bad as they looked, he probably had broken ribs. The thought made me angry; I couldn’t do a damn thing for broken ribs. They had to be left to heal on their own.
“Wait here,” I told him, pulling myself back to the here and now. Then I got up and went to the bathroom. There, I grabbed a towel, dampened it, and grabbed a few bandages that had been left from before. Returning to the room, I knelt down in front of him again. Taking his hands in mine, I began to clear away the blood from them, revealing how much of it was actually his and how much wasn’t.