Savage Outlaw (Renegade Souls MC Romance Saga Book 8)

by V. Theia

  Now his Roux was messed up with them.

  Cupping her face, he leaned in and kissed her softly. She made a frightened kitten noise and it tugged at his heart.

  It was like looking at a brand new version of her. One whose default wasn’t to verbally fight first with piss and vinegar sarcasm.

  He didn’t like it one bit.

  “Everything is going to be okay, but we need to move quickly, okay, baby?”

  She nodded and tried to move around him so she could see the body. He suspected she hadn’t taken her eyes off it this whole time. “No, you don’t need to see that. We’re gonna take him to the truck, wait here, baby.” Again, she bobbed her head, and he had to bite down on his back teeth.

  Fuck, all he wanted to do was erase time and make this go away for her.

  She was going to suffer.

  Taking a life, even in defense wasn’t easy.

  She talked a massive game, did his girl. She put up verbal walls and smack-talked with the best of them. But inside, where she didn’t let many people in, she was soft and could hurt.

  “I didn’t mean to do it, Tad.” She whispered urgently.

  “Ah, baby. I know that.”

  “He was trying to get my money and he hit me.”

  The surge of anger came quick and now he wanted to stab the dead cunt multiple times. Butcher pulled in her trembling body. Fucking hell, she was going to die of pneumonia if he didn’t get her out of her sopping clothes.

  Kissing her forehead, her cheeks, and lips, she listed into him, taking a shuddering breath. “Slider, let’s do this.”

  “Yeah, boss.”

  “Cookie, use the light on your phone to check the ground for anything you might have dropped. Now, Cookie.” He hardened his voice to get her to pay attention. Shock had taken over as he watched her stunted movements. He and Slider got the body into the back of the truck, leaving Slider to deal with wrapping it up so he could retrace his steps.

  It was too risky to be out here like this for a long period. Too long already but his girl needed him, and it wasn’t to sooth her soul yet.

  He took her by the shoulders and waited until her dazed eyes lifted.

  “Goddammit, Roux. I thought you were smarter than this, stronger than this. You’ve wilted like a fucking flower. I thought you were a survivor?”

  Oh yeah, he knew that would work to get her back. It put flames in her eyes and brought her out of her shock. She tried to push him off and he held on tight. “I didn’t ask you for help so you’d be a cruel fuckhead.”

  His heart wanted to scoop her up and never let her go but that wasn’t his kickass girl. He needed her to be present until he got her to safety then she could fall apart.

  “Then fucking survive, you listening? It’s happened. It’s done. So, we deal with it now and you can punch my face later.”

  A crack of a smile and he lessened his hold so he could stroke her lovely face, so drawn with paleness.

  “We?”

  “Always we. Fucking always, yeah?”

  That went without saying. They’d been a we even when they couldn’t. A dead body wasn’t going to make him change his mind at this stage of his feelings. He was knotted up in Roux as much as he was his own skin and bones.

  She shuddered and pulled strength from somewhere because she moved around him, her spine straight, her steps sure as she pulled her phone out, doing as he asked.

  The prospect handed the bleach over. He started by tipping it carefully around the area.

  “You carry bleach in the truck?”

  Butcher turned his head and grinned at her, continuing with his murder clean up.

  “When my woman goes around killing soldiers of the cartel, yeah I do.”

  The prospect chuckled and when it was his turn to do clean up, he started to wash away the blood and bleach into the drain with a portable water jet spray.

  It wasn’t ideal, the best Butcher could think to do in very little light, but it helped that rain was forecast tonight and tomorrow.

  Hooking up Roux’s hand, Butcher felt a stirring of relief when she locked around his fingers and fused herself to his side.

  “You have everything, yeah?”

  “Yeah. I only have my phone and money on me. Oh, and this.” Unfurling her other hand, his heart pinched seeing the stained blood on those fingers, she held out the white pocket knife. “I don’t know what to do with this.”

  Taking it from her, he slid it into his back pocket. “Let’s go, baby.”

  “Please. I want to go home.”

  Giving Slider the instructions to take the truck up to the pig pen high on their mountains, he helped Roux inside his SUV and rounded the back.

  “Man, you got some girlfriend.” Remarked Slider with a half-smile.

  Didn’t Butcher know it and love it. “I’ll meet you up there, thanks, prospect.”

  “Never a dull moment, boss.”

  He grinned and hopped into the truck. He’d owe that guy a yes vote when the time came.

  Taking her hand, he drew it to his thigh. “Doing okay, baby?”

  “I’m freezing.”

  “Gonna get you dry soon, hang onto me a while longer.”

  For fucking ever his whole body was screaming.

  This changed everything.

  Not that he was pleased in any way she had this hanging over her now, but it changed everything. His timetable for one. He was not letting her out of his sight.

  If it’s taken a tragedy to get them to this breaking point, then he’d take it.

  He wanted Roux more than he needed anything.

  Attachments in this life were dangerous, it gave a man a weakness, but he’d seen up close how well it worked for his boys.

  He wanted that.

  Butcher needed his weakness with him. No more scraps for either of them.

  Tonight altered the whole shebang, and as scared as his girl was, he wasn’t sorry it was happening. Because it was forcing them to admit what they had now and always.

  Each other.

  She couldn’t see it yet through her numbness, but they were going to be fucking formidable.

  The beat to his heart squeezed his hand and he turned his head from the road, he was already going over the speed limit to get her home.

  “Am I going to be in trouble?”

  Ah, fuck. Her small voice killed him. He’d give anything to hear her tell him to go fuck himself. It usually ended up with them screwing against a wall until he ate all her curse words off her tongue.

  He would give anything to not have this life touch her. She was meant to be protected and revered as a MC princess, as his old lady. Untouchable to the world and now the filthy world had put its pain on her. Butcher intended to do whatever it took to make it right for her.

  It was a no brainer what he said next.

  “Listen to me, Roux. If this is found out … it won’t, but if, then I did it.”

  She caught her breath as he chose the turning to head into Armado Springs, he felt relief putting distance behind them. Jamie Steele would have to be told that a murder was taken care of on his patch. The two clubs had an accord and he didn’t want his girl to be the one who broke it.

  He was more worried what Ruiz would do. If anything. No one usually gave a fuck if a foot soldier got whacked. He was hoping that was the case tonight.

  “No you didn’t. It was me.”

  “Listen to me,” he said with more force to his voice. “This was me. You get it? If anyone asks, it was all me. You were nowhere near Fort Springs tonight.”

  “But you’d go to prison…”

  “For you, I’d go to the fucking guillotine.”

  He possessed a deep-seated necessity to give her the whole lot of whatever she desired in this burning world. Happiness, stability, a forever with someone who would die for her no questions asked. It poured out of him like an open sore, unable to hold it back.

  He listened to her stuttered breath like a sob trapped in her throat and
then she un-clicked her belt and crawled across the console right into his lap while he drove. She buried her face in his neck and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  And that’s where his girl stayed for the rest of the drive with him whispering soothing words in her ear.

  Roux Tucker had always been a handful. But as the cliché goes, she was his handful.

  No woman before her had owned what was inside his chest. He wanted to be led around by the dick and to indulge in whatever she desired. And to watch as she flew off into moods that he calmed down with his mouth on her sweet pussy.

  He didn’t have a clue if he could get her over this and back to a place of normalcy. For a tough girl, she felt things and this was going to be her biggest regret.

  Because someone was in the lifestyle, didn’t mean they were suited to it. For all his faults, Axel would have protected her from the badness of the one percenter troubles.

  She was a little girl trembling on his lap and he’d die first before he let this ruin her.

  Running a hand up her spine, feeling it bend to his touch, she nestled in deeper and the sense of satisfaction that she needed him made him a sick bastard because he was so fucking fulfilled.

  “We’re here, baby. Let’s get you inside.”

  She didn’t even question that he’d brought her to his house.

  He got her stripped and into the shower in seconds. Only when she was wrapped in a towel did he ask for details of what happened. She told him in clear words and now Butcher was glad the fucker was dead for manhandling her.

  “I didn’t cheat,” she said. “I think she was trying to rip off her old man’s table.”

  He’d have to tell his club about this.

  He helped dry her hair and got her into a pair of his sweatpants and t-shirt. When he had her sit on the end of his bed he hunkered down and pulled a pair of thick socks over her feet. He frowned when she didn’t so much as flicker when he rolled a fingertip over her arch.

  Trembling again, he knew shock had set in and he didn’t want to leave her alone.

  “Are you going out?” She asked from where he’d tucked her into his bed.

  “I’ll be quick, baby. Need to sort this out first but then I’m coming back.”

  She accepted it. His outspoken girl who had opinions on everything, only nodded, looking at him through wide eyes.

  Leaning over the bed, he took a small kiss on her cold lips. “Call me if you need me, okay? I won’t be long.”

  At the door, her voice reached him.

  “He bled so quickly it was over before I knew it.”

  Fuck.

  “I couldn’t do anything even if I’d tried to help him, Tad.”

  “You did the right thing, Cookie. Never forget that. Some fucker puts his hands on you means you do anything you can to survive.”

  Clean up this mess and hope there were no repercussions and get back to his girl.

  They were the only two things on Butcher’s mind.

  EIGHTEEN

  “The sins of the father won’t touch the daughter.” - Axel

  Butcher wanted to be at the Diablo Disciples compound about as much as he wanted a feral bull ripping off his dick. But there he was, stepping out of his truck and approaching the doors.

  It wasn’t yet 5 a.m. and having found that Axel’s ride wasn’t parked outside of his house he’d headed here.

  He thumped several times on the door until a prospect opened it.

  “Axel here?” He stepped around the kid and headed into the main room.

  Several Diablos looked his way.

  It was the dickhead he’d rather not see who approached him first.

  “Could have sworn I heard Axel telling you to keep away. You must want to swallow a bullet.” Reno conveyed in his cocksure tone.

  Resisting an eye roll, Butcher looked around for Axel.

  “Yeah, I don’t listen so good. Is he here?”

  “You’ve got some balls walking through our doors. You’ve hid so long under Rider’s wing, it’s given you a false sense of security, but you’re on our land now, our rules.”

  Butcher scoffed. “What I’ve got is lack of patience if you think for a second I hide from anyone. But you wanna needle me? Go ahead. It’s not gonna work; Roux still wants me.”

  Reno’s lips tightened. His club cut stretched over his chest when he folded his arms and then he smirked. “Not what she was saying in my bed the other night. In fact, she was pretty fucking vocal about how much she did want me. She’s feisty, man. Scratched me up, gotta love her little biting teeth.”

  A trip wire of bombs burst in the back of Butcher’s head.

  He wanted to react so fucking badly.

  To choke the lies out of this motherfucker’s mouth.

  Jealousy was a slick truth in his gut because he didn’t know for real if she had been in his bed at any point, but he didn’t care because Roux was now and always his.

  He answered coolly. A bitter taste coating his tongue. “No one worthy of her would ever share shit about her. Speak of Roux in that way again, even to push my buttons, and I’ll bury you.”

  The smirk dropped off Reno’s face as soon as he heard a growl behind them. “Not if I get to you first, you little shit.”

  Reno whipped around. “Just fucking with him, Prez.”

  “Don’t fucking care, you show my daughter respect or answer to me.” Then the man turned his cool eyes to Butcher. “I don’t repeat myself, Butcher.”

  “I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here. Thought you’d want to know I just burned a body.”

  “I’m thrilled.” He deadpanned.

  “One of Ruiz’s men.”

  This caught some interest from both men who exchanged glances.

  “Roux killed him.”

  It wasn’t a mic drop he was pleased to deliver.

  He thought about not telling Axel jackshit. But then the conversation Axel had with Rider at the fight kept circling Butcher’s head while he was up the mountain disposing of any evidence. This club was involved somehow with the Mexicans. From what he told Rider, he was trying to detangle from Ruiz and having no luck.

  He’d asked Jamie and Rider what they knew about Ruiz. Wanted to know if the man was trustworthy. He was a fucking cartel kingpin, trust him as far as you could spit. If this meant more trouble for the Diablos, he had no fucks about that, until it involved Roux.

  “Shut the fuck up, Roux is at home.”

  “Yeah, she is. My home. I got her settled and went to clean the mess.”

  He could tell Axel was listening now. There was no other reason Butcher would ever come here unless it involved Roux.

  “She was at a card game.”

  Axel hissed. “I fucking warned her.”

  “The Ruiz chick accused her of cheating and set her man on Roux to get the money back. He got rough and she stabbed him in the neck.”

  The next minutes were not quite pandemonium, but neither were they quiet while Axel raged, demanding answers. Then yelled for his VP.

  “Fucking Mexicans. I told her to stay the fuck away from the tables, those fucks run them all. But does she listen? Does she hell. Reno, grab my keys, I’m going to get my daughter.”

  Expecting it didn’t lessen Butcher’s irritation. “She’s sleeping and I want her to stay that way, she’s in shock.”

  Axel rounded on him. “My girl kills someone after being attacked and you think I’m gonna sit on my ass and not see her?”

  “You can see her later, she was a fucking wreck, Axel. This isn’t about you. Roux is fine right now; she’ll need you later.”

  “You’re fucking pushing it. I’m her father, I know what’s fucking best for her, and she needs her family.”

  “I’m her man, but you know that already, so you bank on me wanting the best for her and sleeping is right now. This was a courtesy call so you could deal with whatever shit you’re involved in, so it doesn’t touch Roux any further.”

  “The fuck
you say to me?”

  Butcher lost his patience. “If you didn’t have your tiny dick and balls deep in some club snatch, you would’ve known I was the one your daughter turned to.” It was a cheap insult, but he’d learned over the years that cheap got the quickest results. “I was the only fucking one throwing a body into a fire because she’s mine, she’s always been mine to take care of. And you can kill me right now and she’ll still be fucking mine. Either get on board or get the fuck out of my way. Either way I don’t give ten fucks what you think, Axel. I’m her man who fucking cleaned up her mess. And I’ll clean up every single fucking mess if she wants to slaughter the whole lot of them.”

  They exchanged silent stares before Axel growled and got in a huddle with Reno and Chains, talking low enough Butcher couldn’t hear.

  “I’m at your place in an hour. Try and fucking stop me from seeing my girl and watch what happens.” He turned to Butcher, his eyes dark and thunderous. “And don’t think for a second because you helped her out that this changes anything.”

  Butcher sucked through his teeth, keeping the fight inside him. Roux needed him now, and he’d done what he’d come for. He turned on his heel and headed for the door.

  She was asleep when he got home, running a hand that had dealt with death over her hair, he stood there a minute just soaking in her rangy frame beneath his bed covers. He was gonna be riding that relief wave for weeks.

  She was okay. She was here. Everything was going to be fine; he’d make sure of it.

  He showered quickly, dressing in fresh jeans and a t-shirt then he took a seat on the side of the bed, watching over her.

  While she slept, he made Rider aware of the situation. The Prez wasn’t too concerned over Ruiz, but as always, it was better to be forewarned and prepared for any fight than be taken by surprise. Rider was going to recon with Steele.

  It was when Butcher heard the pipes of a hog pulling into his yard that he went to let Axel in by the back door. Chains was with him and both men entered without a word.