by S. Nelson
We were ushered through a narrow hallway, down two flights of steps and around a few corners. It would’ve been easy to get lost, which was probably why Psych chose that place in particular. It was enormous, and anyone inside was like a rat in a maze. Unless you knew your way around, of course. Which I did.
Eventually, we came to a stop, one of the men knocking three times on a large steel door. It opened right away and none other than the president of the Savage Reapers stood before us, grinning like he was privy to the biggest fucking secret.
Little did he know we were the ones who held the secret.
“Come in,” he said, stepping back and allowing us to enter. The room was huge, but my eyes instantly found Kena. She was crouching in the far corner, hovering over Adelaide’s body, when she saw us. The look on her face gutted me, and I’d never forgive myself for putting her in danger. Stone had seen them at the same time I had. Both of us moved to rush forward but we were shoved back, guns pointed directly at our heads. “Don’t fucking move until I tell you to,” Psych warned.
“Adelaide!” Stone shouted. “Is she okay?” His voice became frenzied when he couldn’t get to her. Sully buried herself in Marek’s embrace the entire time, clutching on to him knowing she would have to stand next to her father soon enough.
She’s unconscious, Kena signed.
“What did she say?”
“She said she’s unconscious,” I translated.
Turning his fury toward Psych, Stone shouted, “What the fuck did you do to her?”
“Your woman has a mouth on her.” That’s all he said, but we were smart enough to fill in the blanks. The gun pointed at Stone’s head wouldn’t have stopped him from attacking Psych, but the fear Adelaide would be killed in the struggle somehow was the only thing that stopped him from crushing the Reapers’ leader. I knew because it was the only reason I hadn’t rushed him either.
Leering at his daughter, Psych motioned her closer. “Come here, Sully.” She withdrew from Marek and stood straight. After a single step, her husband stopped her.
“Not until you release them.”
“Well,” Psych huffed, then turned to Stone. “Seeing as how your bitch is out cold, how do you think that’s gonna happen?”
“Then let Kena come over,” I interjected, desperately needing to touch her. Protect her.
I’m not leaving her, Jagger.
“This isn’t up for debate,” I responded, pissed she was putting herself in more danger by not listening to me.
She shook her head, refusing to budge.
“Kena!” I shouted, taking a single step forward only to be shoved back once more, the same gun now pressing into my forehead. Kena’s hands flew to her mouth, but she finally listened and rose to her feet. When she tucked her hair behind her ear in nervousness, I saw the side of her face was swollen, her lip cut and bleeding.
“Come now,” Psych demanded, his patience nonexistent the longer his daughter kept him waiting. Marek leaned in close and whispered in Sully’s ear before reluctantly releasing her. Both women walked at the same speed, Kena coming to stand next to me as Sully reached her father.
While I welcomed Kena into my arms, careful not to explode and kill every motherfucker present because someone had hurt her, Psych’s reaction to his daughter was the exact opposite.
“You know you’ll be punished for consorting with them, don’t you? You married the president, for fuck’s sake,” he said, his anger on a slow simmer. “You disgust me.”
Sully never said a word, waiting to see what he would do next.
We all were.
Then it happened so fast, none of us saw it coming. Psych clenched his fist, raised his hand and punched his daughter, the slam to the side of her face sending her crashing to the floor. Her hand flew to her cheek to hide the damage as she crawled toward the wall. Unfortunately, I knew some of the abuses Sully had suffered at the hands of her father, and this wasn’t the first time he’d struck her. She knew what she was agreeing to when she’d insisted Marek trade her for the lives of the two other women. Observing her abuse firsthand, however, was entirely different than hearing about it, and if I ever got the opportunity to repay him for what he’d just made me witness, I would. And I’d take every bit of pleasure I could squeeze from it.
“You’re gonna pay for that!” Marek roared, quite possibly shedding the last of his sanity right before our eyes.
“Don’t,” Sully squeaked, raising her hand to warn Marek not to retaliate.
“Yeah, don’t,” Psych mocked, the evil smirk on his face making me wish I could kill him where he stood. But all in due time. “You know I never intended to let you leave, right? Any of you. Our clubs’ war will end tonight, retribution for everything you’ve done to us, mainly cutting off our supply with Los Zappas. That one really hurt,” he said, scratching the top of his head as a deranged look took hold.
His men flanked us, promises of our ultimate demise drifting in the air. Before anyone made good on any threats, though, gunfire was heard faintly in the distance, pulling us all back into the severity of the situation. Not that we hadn’t resided there to begin with. Swinging his eyes toward Marek, our prez shocked the fucker when he announced, “And you know you’re not walking out of here either, right?”
Psych laughed.
He actually laughed, making me believe he’d truly earned his road name. He was definitely psychotic, teetering on the line between reality and madness.
“I knew you’d bring all your men with you,” Psych said. “That’s why I sent my men to your compound. So even if you made it outta here alive, you’ll have nothing to go back to.” The leader of the Reapers grinned, thinking he’d bested us. Yet again. When would he ever learn?
“Seems as if we anticipated each other’s moves.”
Psych’s brows knit tightly together.
“What does that mean?” he asked, glaring at Marek with intent to do him harm very soon.
“It means your compound is already in ruins. So, if by the grace of God, you somehow get outta here alive, you’ll have to run and hide because you’ll have nothing to return to. No shelter.”
Both men locked eyes, their fierce intentions battling the other for dominance. Little did Psych know we would be the victorious ones. We’d always win when it came to them. They may have bested us here and there, attacking our brothers and now our women, but in the end it would be their club that would perish into dust. Not ours.
From the look on Psych’s face, the time for talking was over. The gunfire we’d heard in the distance had breached the warehouse’s walls. There were men yelling, their words still muffled enough we couldn’t make out what they were saying, but we all heard the urgency in their tones.
Someone pounded repeatedly on the other side of the door. I wasn’t sure if they wanted to get inside, or wanted someone on our side to come out. It could’ve been one of our men, or one of Psych’s. Either way, we weren’t to open that door until the situation had been handled.
By handled, I meant the men holding us hostage no longer had breath in their lungs, and Psych was shackled, ready to be transported back with us.
The plan was to keep him alive long enough for Marek to make him pay for everything he’d ever done to us, but more importantly everything he’d ever done to Sully. The latter taking precedence.
My eyes stayed glued to Psych. All it would take would be a nod, or a wink, or a flick of his wrist to tell his men to pull their triggers.
All of us remained stock still.
We had a plan.
All we had to do was wait to make our move.
Kena
My eyes flitted from Adelaide’s unconscious form, to Jagger, who continued to stand close to me, to the man who’d orchestrated our kidnapping. I briefly glanced at Stone, Marek and Sully as well, struggling with the belief that she was related to that madman.
It wasn’t until I was taken that I fully realized Jagger’s hesitation to be with me. I had no idea. How
could I? My world before him had been all butterflies and roses compared to the way he lived. While I believed the men of his club to be good people, they’d obviously been involved in things which put their lives and their families’ lives in jeopardy. I felt horrible for giving him such a hard time about us, never in a million years seeing things from his perspective. But again, I didn’t know any of this danger existed, another facet he’d tried to protect me from.
Jagger’s hand brushed against mine, pulling me back from my drifting thoughts. My eyes connected with his and I saw his warning. It was quick and subtle, but because I’d grown up honing my ability to read people’s body language, I instantly knew he was telling me to get down with a simple flick of his eyes toward the ground.
One moment there was an unsettling silence inside the room, all of us waiting to see what would transpire in the seconds ahead.
And the next there was complete anarchy.
“Now, Sully!” Marek shouted. At the same time his voice rang out, Jagger shoved me toward the corner before swiftly ducking away from the gun pointed at his head. He swept his leg out and the man standing closest to him lost his footing, his arms flailing, dropping his gun in the process. The weapon skidded across the floor and stopped in front of me, but instead of picking it up, I kicked it back toward Jagger. Thankfully he’d been able to retrieve it before one of the other men saw the exchange. Marek and Stone had been able to disarm their men as well, their opponents no match against their fighting skills.
When I looked toward the opposite side of the room, I saw Psych on the ground, clutching his upper thigh. From my position, I couldn’t see anything other than he was still alive and looked to be in tremendous pain.
My eyes darted back toward Jagger, watching him stand over the man he’d disarmed. Without looking at me, he said, “Kena, look away. Now!” The urgency in his tone was enough to make me shut my eyes and bury my head in my hands.
A gunshot rang out, the thunderous sound making me jump. Two more shots sounded, and I knew all three previously armed men were dead.
“Are you okay?” Jagger asked, crouching next to me and pulling my hands from my face. “Look at me, baby. It’s okay.” When I finally pried my eyes open, I saw blood spattered on his face, hands and clothes, the result of shooting someone at close range. But fear didn’t shake me; gratitude that he’d survived did. Tears poured from my eyes as I swung my arms around his neck and pulled him impossibly close.
Jagger helped me find my footing, kissing me as he removed my hands from around him. “I’ll be right back.” I nodded my understanding before he walked toward Marek and Sully.
Stone had run to Adelaide as soon as the threat had been eradicated, bending down to gather her in his arms. Stopping next to his brothers, he’d demanded they leave immediately because he was worried about her still-unconscious state.
Marek turned toward Jagger. “Can you get them outta here?”
“Yes,” he simply answered.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Sully cried, throwing herself into her husband’s arms. “I can’t . . . I won’t survive if something happens to you.”
“Nothin’ will happen to me,” he reassured, lifting her chin so he could look into her eyes. The love between them was palpable, and I felt like an intruder watching their interaction, but I couldn’t look away. With everything that had just happened, I clung to the love they shared, allowing it to fuel my strength to survive. To get out of here alive and forge ahead with Jagger once more. If he’d have me. What happened may have solidified his need to stay away from me, but I simply wouldn’t know until after we got ourselves away from this place.
Clasping my hand, a gun in his other, Jagger pulled me toward everyone else. “Follow close behind me. I’ll take you the back way.” Looking toward Marek, he said, “Once I get them out of here, I’ll call Salzar. He should be close by.” No one said another word as Jagger cautiously opened the door, peering into the hallway to see if it was safe for us to leave.
We followed him down multiple winding passages, stopping every hundred feet or so and waiting for the threat of armed men to pass. Luckily the lighting inside the building was dim, some areas left in complete darkness. After hiding out in one of the numerous rooms, Jagger deemed it safe to continue on. Finally, after walking up two flights of stairs and down a few more narrow hallways, Jagger led us into an area which looked like a dead end.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Stone whisper-shouted from behind me.
“Yeah. The back exit is just up ahead.”
Sure enough, after a few more feet we came upon an old run-down-looking exit. Jagger withdrew his hand from mine and passed me the gun while he pried the weather-beaten door open, the squeak of the metal hinges sounding much louder in the quiet space.
“Hurry up, man,” Stone grunted, shifting Adelaide’s weight in his arms.
Flinging the door the rest of the way open, Jagger walked ahead of us. “Hold on a sec. I wanna make sure no one is waiting to ambush us outside.” He disappeared and my heart leapt inside my chest. Fear of the unknown fueled the tremor of my hands. I could barely catch my breath when Jagger popped his head back in, giving me a half smile before reaching for my hand once again. “Come on. All clear.”
Sully walked close behind me, followed by Stone carrying Adelaide. We trudged through an open field for what felt like miles, but it probably only seemed so long because I was utterly exhausted. Mentally as well as physically.
Jagger shoved his gun into his waistband, reached around me and held out his free hand to Sully. She clasped on to him without hesitation. I suspected she and Jagger were close, and I couldn’t have been happier he was looking out for her. Witnessing the brief encounter between her and her father told me she’d endured horrible abuse at his hands. I saw the fear in her eyes when she’d stood next to him, the complacent acceptance when he’d hit her, as if she were not only expecting his backlash, but was used to it.
We eventually came across a clearing, jogging the rest of the way, conscious of Stone having to carry Adelaide. Otherwise we would’ve run as fast as we could just to put that much more distance between us and the place where we could’ve spent our last moments.
My ears pricked when I heard a whistle off in the distance. I squeezed Jagger’s hand. “Don’t worry. That’s for us.” And sure enough, just a few more yards ahead, there was a large SUV waiting, men jumping out and surrounding us. I didn’t recognize anyone besides the guy who’d insulted me at the cookout, and Ryder.
Filing into the vehicle, Sully and I huddled close together while Stone continued to cradle Adelaide in his arms, the worried look on his face increasing the longer it took her to wake. She’d flitted in and out of awareness the entire time she and I were held captive in that room. My only guess was that they must have hit her in the head at some point.
“Gimme a phone,” Jagger demanded, holding his hand out to Ryder. Walking in front of the truck, he blocked out some of the illumination from the headlights. Returning moments later, he came around my side and leaned in, clasping my hand. “Kena,” he started, the tense flick of his jaw preparing me for what he had to say. “Wait for me back at the clubhouse. You’ll be safe there.”
Instantly I tried to snatch back my hand. I vigorously shook my head, trying yet again to tug my hand from his. But he wouldn’t let go.
“Go. I promise I’ll meet you there. I have to help Marek.” He released me. Bringing his fist to his chest, he rubbed it in a circle. I’m sorry. Then he did something completely unexpected. Unclenching his fisted hand, he held up his thumb, index finger and pinky, the two remaining fingers bent forward.
I love you.
I sobbed, clutching the area over my heart to help ease my despair. It didn’t work. Sully comforted me the entire way back, offering as much support as she could. Her husband had also chosen to remain behind, and I couldn’t help but wonder if either of us would see the men we loved alive again.
Leaning back in my chair, my hands folded on top of the table, I wanted to be engaged in the conversation but I was too distracted. Looking around Chambers, my eyes stilled on the vacant seat diagonal from me.
Zip’s chair.
He was a good guy. Occasionally a little hot under the collar, but his anger was often fueled by his need to make the Reapers pay whenever they’d crossed us. Zip was loyal to the club one hundred percent. And he would be missed.
Hawke and Tripp had gone to the site of the accident, but they never found Zip’s body. After calling every hospital in a fifty-mile radius, we learned he’d been picked up by paramedics who’d arrived at the scene shortly after Psych’s men had snatched the women.
Marek had been the one to claim his body, seeing as we were his only family. And since he spent most of his time at the clubhouse, it was only fitting he be buried behind it. The Knights owned close to ten acres surrounding our compound, so we designated the perfect spot for his grave, a shady area under an old, strong oak tree. We gathered to pay homage and said our good-byes four days after his death, drinking to the lost soldier of our group well into the early morning hours.
Before we’d walked into that warehouse, we had devised the plan that Sully would smuggle in a knife. We knew she’d be checked for weapons, just like the rest of us, but we’d prayed they’d overlook the one hidden in her boot. They had. Luckily. She knew to wait for the signal before striking, to plunge the blade deep in his leg and twist so the wound refused to close. We didn’t want her to kill him, just temporarily put him out of commission. Thankfully, she’d succeeded.
For as evil and corrupt as Psych was, he wasn’t very smart; he’d only had a few men in the room to protect him. The absence of his own weapon continued to baffle me. The only thing I could chalk it up to was arrogance. Which had been his downfall. Sure, he probably figured since his men had disarmed us, he had the upper hand, but he should’ve known better.