Jaxson 3: The Last Vow (Black Devils MC)

by K. J. Dahlen

  Ears ringing, Tori crouched and pressed her palms against her ears to try to block out the noise.

  We all watched as life left his body and everyone waited as Jumper took his last breath.

  Evil fingers of blood escaped from the sudden dime sized holes in his head. Blood rolled down his face ever so slowly and pooled at the base of his neck. Jumper didn’t flinch, he couldn’t. His eyes glazed over as the room grew silent.

  Still, no one moved for a long moment.

  Bruno cleared his throat, “You’re dismissed. I’ll take it from here,” he said to Reaper and Spider.

  Marco unlocked the door and the two men exited the room.

  I turned my attention to the body, splayed out on the floor. His eyes wide open. He smelled like grease and stale sweat. The majority of gunshots had hit him in the forehead. I couldn’t stop looking at him. I know it seems petty, but I had to hurt Jumper where he had hurt Jax. And I still remembered what he’d done to Chole. All that he’d done to Jax and our club. I shot him in the back at close range. Twice. It was all he deserved. The guy was as evil as Hitler. The four fingers on his left hand were the last thing to twitch.

  The hit was justifiable I put on my leather riding gloves and knelt beside the body. Marco’s scuffed boots appeared beside me and we both exhaled loudly. Marco and I taped his mouth shut with industrial duct tape, and tied his feet and hands behind his back. Then, we lifted him up and shoved his body inside of a suitcase. I would probably remember the dead weight of Jumper’s body for a long time. As I closed the lid to the case, I noticed the missing fourth finger on the man and I shuddered. I spat on the suitcase. “More dignity than you fucking deserve,” I said, tugging the lid to a close.

  We carried the body toward the back entrance of the place. When we reached the door, it was already open. It was only then when I realized that Tori had disappeared. I figured she must have sneaked out when Reaper and Spider left the back room.

  Dawn was coming on quickly. Marco and I carried the suitcase out of the open back door and we toward the car. We made quick work outside to open trunk of Bruno’s sedan and heaved the bag inside, slamming the trunk to a close.

  Bruno appeared beside us.

  “What do you want me to do about Tori?” I asked him.

  “Leave her. Life as a fugitive for Tori will be as much a prison as jail.” He shrugged. “Either way, she’ll never emerge with her sanity intact.”

  I opened my mouth to argue about leaving that psycho bitch to run loose.

  “Thunder, shut up and listen.” Bruno growled, “Tomorrow; you’ll be at Juanita’s at two o clock. Wear your colors.”

  I assumed something was up. No doubt about it. But I didn’t ask any questions.

  I didn’t really care how Bruno took care of the body. I’d always assumed that since Jumper was his blood, Bruno might have him buried in one of the De Luca family mob graves. But I would never know for sure. Bruno had been responsible for over a hundred murders, and there had only been a handful of occasions where he’d disposed of the corpse personally…times when it was absolutely crucial that the body never be found.

  The sound of sirens was audible and getting closer. Bruno turned to me and spoke in Italian, “La Cosa Nostra,” he said. Whatever happened here tonight was never to be talked about. Bruno stepped into the front passenger seat of his car and Big Tommy; his driver closed the door.

  Marco took the licence plates off Bruno’s vehicle, and then the car slowly pulled away and disappeared from sight.

  Never to be talked about. Well, I know of two people who deserved to be told about this.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chloe

  I had dozed off when an explosive of sound from a Harley engine practically knocked me out of my chair. I jumped up with a start, trembling violently. My legs were both shaky and still half asleep. Steadying my body with one hand on Jax’s bed, but the bed was cold. I turned sharply in Jax’s direction.

  He wasn’t here.

  A thick gust of air hit me from my left and I could feel that the door was wide open. My pulse kicked into high gear. My eyes widened on full alert. My fist tightened into a solid ball, fingers clenched around Jax’s bed sheets. A current of adrenaline had hit me so hard my body felt queasy. I fought hard not to faint as every alarm bell in my body simultaneously went into overdrive.

  Shaking, I slowly turned my head to my left. My mouth dropped open in shock and surprise at what I saw in front of me. The front wheel of Jax’s motorcycle faced the open door. Its engine purring in anticipation. Leather jacket and riding gloves on, Jax looked over his shoulder toward me from the seat of his Harley.

  Letting out a sigh of relief, I stared at him for several seconds, my mouth gaping. My body calmed. My heart rate began to slow. Yes, he’d been getting better every day for the last 12 days, but to see him like this was still a shock. I waited for Jax to say something but he didn’t.

  His lips spread wide across his face and I noticed a mischievous dimple appear in his right cheek. Knowing his intention, I shook my head from left to right, but a sudden excitement encompassed me and I couldn’t hide it.

  Unhooking his helmet from the handlebars, Jax raised it in the air, offering it to me. With a flick of his gaze toward the free saddle space behind him, he indicated for me to climb aboard. When his eyes returned to mine, a glint behind his green irises took hold of my body and before I knew it, I was clicking the clasps of his helmet to their locked position under my chin. Hands gripped at Jax’s waist, I swung my leg over his bike ready to take off with him as he’d wanted, like a puppet on strings.

  The Harley rolled out of the tiny medical building. I had but a split second to wiggle myself comfortably into the seat close against him. Before I could even think, we’d flown across Border Patrol’s parking lot and disappeared through the front gates, leaving only clouds of excited dust flying up in the air in our wake.

  I let out faint scream as the speedometer rose past 60 mph. I had, at first; worried that Jax’s injuries would cause him to crash. But Jax didn’t seem to have any problem with steering, clutching, or breaking. Still, my fearful brain wasn’t about to relax and focus on enjoying the scenery just yet.

  “Where are we going?” I called out to him, half alarmed, half excited.

  Jax couldn’t hear me. The sound of the engine and of the wheels on the tarmac sang to him. The motorcycle had taken over his body as he’d taken over mine before we left. It held him with such force that he’d become transfixed, tearing through the highway so fast… everything around us become just a blur of color.

  My body trembled with a mild tension as we moved fast from one unfamiliar road to the next. I held on as tightly as I could, because it was impossible to anticipate the turns before he took them. Sensing my fear, Jax dropped his left hand from the handlebars and cupped my hands in his palm at his stomach. The air between us was growing increasingly charged throughout the journey.

  We turned onto another state highway, before pulling off onto to a secondary road. I had no idea where we were, but something told me Jax knew precisely where he was headed. He appeared to judge the turns he took within a cat’s whisker. Though it would have been considered trespassing on Border Patrols turf – and against MC bylaws ‒ for Jax to have been here before, familiarity appeared to guide him though side streets and shortcuts.

  It wasn’t until Jax pulled down a dirt road that I thought, I wonder whether we’re lost? We drove along the edge of treeline, and began to climb up a hill where there was a stretch of path barely wide enough to accommodate the side of the bike. The terrain was pretty rough, and I clung tightly around his waist as the Harley threw me upward with every pothole and bump in the ground.

  As the sun dipped beyond the horizon, we came to a clearing, tucked away behind the trees. Jax rolled to a stop and killed the engine.

  I dismounted the bike and stretched my arms and legs. The semi, circular clearing looked like a secret garden of sorts, like a miniature
green and yellow meadow. The circumference cove of grass was lined with tall pine trees. The grass on which I stood smelled sweet. A mixture of a jungle green and yellow from tiny flowers along the green, the kind of place you would only see in oil paintings.

  I gasped; the beauty of the place took my breath away. The view caused me to stop and stare in complete awe. The sun was setting and had painted the skyline with vibrant shades of pink, gold, and red. It became abundantly clear why Jax had been in such a hurry, in twenty minutes this view would vanish into the cool grey twilight. I stood. Motionless. Speechless. Utterly entranced. It was so serene, so juxtaposed to mine and Jax’s world that was crashing down into the depths of hell. Perhaps, this was why Jax had brought me here.

  “Watch your step,” Jax called out.

  My attention turned to the sharp drop beneath us and my heart beat a little faster. And the view was memorising, I could see the whole city from here. Though the cliff like edge to this hill overlooked the most beautiful lake, one misplaced foot and I could fall a hundred feet. I breathed out a sigh of relief; I was safe.

  “Fucking beautiful, right?” Jax’s voice interrupted my thoughts

  “It’s the best view I’ve ever seen,” I said, hearing a slight echo as I talked.

  He glanced at me and his hard face softened a bit. “It’s a little place Bruno and I found on a job once. Off grid. No signal can get here so no one can ever track you. This place isn’t even on the state map. It’s called Falls Peak.” Jax sat down on the sweet smelling grass and gestured a hand toward me. “I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to put you through all through this.”

  I didn’t say anything in response. What could I have said? My mother was in the hands of a psychopath. And I had been anticipating the worst. Despite the reasons, the rational side of my brain came up with from not letting him in. It was already too late. I loved him for good or for bad. Checking that there was nobody around, I followed Jax and sat at his side. It looked like we were entirely safe here, but perhaps we weren’t.

  Why couldn’t our lives be as simple and perfect as this place? I asked myself. I looked at Jax with sad eyes.

  Tilting his head, he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me.

  The thought of leaving everything to be together here, forever and escape his harsh world was almost as seductive as the thought of letting him take me on the ground right here.

  My mouth opened for Jax’s and his tongue teased with mine. His tongue danced in my mouth and in this moment, I could forget everything twisted and corrupted that was going on. It wasn’t often we had the time for romance, but just now, nothing else existed but he and I. No threats. No deadlines. No interruptions.

  Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I could feel a faint tremor in his muscles – caused by the strain the motorcycle ride had put on his weak and damaged body – and I was reminded of his condition. I attempted to pull away but Jax held me against him and let his weight fall down on me until we lay on our bed of soft, luscious grass.

  The scene may have been serene, innocent, and untouched, but the sexual tension between us was as thick and heavy as fog. It told me exactly what kind of pleasure he wanted. Raw. Wild. Uninhibited.

  Jax took his time, slowly exposing my body to the cool breeze. Time, was something we so rarely had to spend together these days. I took my time with him too. As Jax eased off my clothes, a little voice had drifted into my brain. It told me, I better remember every moment of this encounter in case it was the last time we ever had together. In case, something should happen to one of us.

  This thought caused me pause.

  Jax’s body detected the tiniest of movements in mine as I jerked away from him again. I sat up and looked around. Should somebody be hiding in the trees that surrounded us, there would only be the open air between us and a bullet. Jumper could shoot the both of us any second and we would be nothing more than distant screams heard only by the woodland, and a pair of bodies that would never be found.

  “What’s wrong?” Jax whispered.

  I stared at Jax, wanting to absorb every part of him. My eyes trailed the outline of his athletic, muscular arms, upward to his face. My gaze met the thick scar that had been left down the left side of his face from being thrown from his motorcycle. “Nothing. Nothing at all,” I responded.

  Jax smiled, and the look of sexual intent returned to his eyes. He’d studied my face for a moment with an intensity to his gaze I couldn’t quite describe. Somehow, I saw within it both tenderness and strength.

  Slowly, he edged my body down toward the ground as he hitched up my skirt. He supported the weight of my back and trailed his fingers over my shoulder blades, then worked his way down the slight indentation of my spine as he lowered my body. My legs fell apart to allow his body to fall between my thighs.

  Now completely undressed, I watched his eyes carefully scan my body with a look of awe on his face, as though seeing me for the first time, as though I were the only woman that existed in his universe, before to returning to my eyes with a look of longing. I felt myself growing wet between my thighs.

  Jax’s questing fingers trailed down my stomach, down further, toward my slit.

  I shivered. I had been so captivated by Jax’s gaze that I hadn’t felt him remove his own clothes.

  Flexing his tatted arms around the back of my head, he moved his lips to my ear. “How did I get so lucky?” he whispered against my ear a nanosecond before he thrust himself inside me.

  Gasping with pleasure, I slid my arms around his waist. I reached upward and clutched his wild, blonde hair between my fingertips as his tongue melted into mine.

  I gasped, and kissed him. Deeper. Harder. Moving my hands down his back, I wished that I could tear the bandages away, which mummified the man I loved. I wished I could kiss away the lacerations my hands found all over his body.

  Jax rolled my nipple between his lips. I moaned. Gently, he tilted my head upward. His lips pressed hard against my neck and I couldn’t keep myself from moaning again. The intensity of the sensation told me there would be several circular bruises on my neck tomorrow morning.

  Panting, I told him, “I need you,” I whispered.

  “You’re mine, Chloe. You’ll always be mine,” he whispered roughly against my ear, pressing his cock further inside me. I flicked a glance down his muscled torso and bit my lip with suppressed desire at the sight of his hard, rippled stomach.

  He placed his hands either side of my head, those two powerful arms caging me into his body. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pounded relentlessly into me. I moaned and bucked against him over and over. I was sore, and pleasure started to mix with discomfort. But I didn’t want it to stop. He withdrew for a second and turned me around onto my hands and knees, before pressing into me again. Faster and deeper this time. I groaned and whimpered.

  “Tell me who you belong to, baby,” he growled.

  “You, I only belong to you,” I moaned. I’d thought that would tip Jax over the edge but the strokes only got faster. Jax groaned. He surged into me and his essence shot into me in with three final strokes. On the second last thrust into my core, my hips picked up as I moaned into orgasm again.

  Trailing his fingertips down the outside of my thigh, Jax pulled back from my body as he settled down onto the ground. For a few minutes, neither of us could move. Still breathless, I rolled onto my belly, and he rolled onto his belly too to follow me. He spread an arm across my back possessively.

  Then, something I hadn’t planned on happened… Tears formed at the corner of my eyes. Before I could wipe them away, more unformed tears filled my eyes, stinging them, and nearly blinding my vision. Dread had flooded my mind, and my stomach twisted in knots.

  I know I was probably overreacting, but I embraced the fact that at one time I thought we might never have this again. The feeling of him inside me, the whisper of his voice in my ear. Taking in that scent of him that I loved so much. All of it. We could’ve lost all o
f it with one well planted bullet.

  Jax swiped away my tears as he studied my face his eyes full of concern. “I’m so sorry for what all this has done to you, sweet Chloe …” He gave me a tender kiss on my trembling lips.

  It was if he knew what had caused my tears. As he hadn’t even asked why I cried.

  With his mouth meeting mine, he spoke to my lips, “I heard you through my dreams. Your voice. Every time I sunk down into the blackness. I would hear it and would fight to swim back up.” He gazed into my eyes, his emerald orbs locked onto mine. “You saved my life, sweetness. You were my lifeline. You were in my soul, my heart in your hands…” He kissed me deeply.

  Finally, he seemed to pull himself out of his tender melancholy. We laid side by side in silence for a bit.

  “We’re lucky that Border Patrol MC have been so accommodating,” I commented, but I really wanted to talk to him about something else.

  Jax turned to look at me as he held my stare for several seconds and I waited for him to respond but he didn’t. His expression became guarded.

  “You think they’ll find her?” My voice was hopeful. The guilt and regret almost overcame me, the kind of guilt that makes you want to become invisible. For all I know, my mom could be dead. Did I wish I could go back and take a different path? My body prickled with tension, and my heart thrummed with the intensity of a caged hummingbird.

  Jax’s gaze followed my tears as they fell down my cheeks. His face turned hard, and serious. “We will keep looking.”

  I placed my head on Jax’s shoulder and tried to calm my breathing.

  “Dino’s got it under control,” he added as he swiped my tears away..

  “I’m going to go out there and help look for her,” I declared.

  He stiffened as he rose up to look at me. “You’re not going anywhere.”

  I harrumphed and placed my arms over my chest. I hoped Jax and his men would make the Bloods pay. Make them all pay.