Savage Saviors: The Complete Boxset (Savage Saviors MC)

by J. C. Allen

  That’s when I saw it.

  On the far side of the wall, opposite where I’d come down on, was what looked to be some recently sprayed graffiti. Though I normally wouldn’t have bothered, the large splattering of red, dripping letters didn’t seem to carry any of the artistic or territorial tone that graffiti usually carried. It looked more like the sort of halfhearted message somebody scrawled as a PS in a postcard.

  And this was one of the places where the bodies were discovered… Where my father was killed…

  I stepped closer, the dread began to settle in my stomach as I saw what the message said.

  “Black Falcons gonna get YOU”

  I froze, reading and re-reading the message—taking in those big, dripping red letters—and suddenly doubting that what I was looking at was, in fact, spray paint. Though it could have been a generalized message, something meant to invoke fear in any random passerby, something about it at that moment felt eerily personal. And though I had no way of knowing just what I was looking at—whether it was a message to me scribed in blood or if it was even a message to me, at all—I felt a nervous chill.

  I stepped back once again, looking around the area, wondering if I was being watched.

  That’s when I saw the other message, and I became increasingly certain that the message wasfor me.

  Two bodies—additional bodies—had been carelessly dumped in a shadowed corner beside where the message had been written. I frowned, turning my flashlight on the bodies and saw that they had been savagely murdered. I could hardly recognize their faces from all the slash marks, but what was left from their faces that didn’t make me certain was made up for with the jackets they wore.

  Savage Savior jackets.

  I felt sick to my stomach. I was almost certain that these two were men who had gone on the hunt earlier or concurrently with me… but if they were placed here, it meant that the Falcons knew I was here. They’ll try and break your spirit before they break your body. This is the next step in them doing that.

  Gulping, I looked closer at the bodies to better identify who they were. It was a gruesomely difficult challenge, but when I did, I realize they were, in fact, men I had sent out tonight.

  One was Grizzly, a veteran of the team who was set to retire a few years from now. He had had a gray beard that stretched to his chest, but now… I could factually say that his beard had been ripped off, but to think about it was sickening.

  The other was Greg, a new member not yet with a nickname—like Tyler—but unlike Tyler, he was unflinchingly loyal. He’d only been with us for about two months, and it had proved to be a fatal decision.

  I had spoken to both of them one on one in just the last three weeks. And now, I was looking at their desecrated, mutilated bodies. Bodies destroyed by the Falcons…

  I began to shake with rage, looking around the terminal, yearning to challenge anyone who was out there to come out from wherever they were hiding. A very prominent part of my mind begged to scream out, to yell out to the Black Falcons hiding here or nearby so they could get a taste of what they’d done to Grizzly and Greg.

  Show yourselves, you fuckers! Unless you’re too much of a chicken-shit!

  I had to literally bite my tongue to prevent myself from roaring in anger at the sight. I struggled to maintain my composure. It was a good thing, too, because I had absolutely no awareness of anything going on around me—if someone had sneaked up on me at that moment, I’d be toast.

  Which, come to think of it, was kind of weird. Did they really just leave this here for me to find without keeping someone here? What if it hadn’t been me to find it?

  I shook my head, needing to have a clear head to work all this through. I glanced around one last time. As sickening as the sight was and as strong of a message as this seemed to deliver, there wasn’t anyone down here. Which only meant that this was the only message they wanted to deliver tonight.

  Sighing, I switched off the flashlight app and, needing someone to vent my frustration to, went to dial Roost again as I headed out of the subway station. I was glad to see that only a few hours had passed since our call and I wouldn’t be making Eve wait too much longer.

  “Already missed talkin’ ta my cute butt that much, huh?” Roost answered.

  “Not now, Roost,” I said.

  “What’s up?” Roost said, switching to his business mode instantly with the shaking in my voice.

  “We were right to follow this lead,” I said. “Just pissed that we were played like fools. Dammit, Roost. God fucking damnit!”

  “Calm yerself, Derek,” Roost said, but he wasn’t lecturing me—bless him, he knew when to punch them and when to hug them, and he was doing the latter right now. “Just tell me what happened. Just the facts. Mmk?”

  “OK,” I said, taking a deep breath. “They got two of our guys. Grizzly and Greg. Left them dead down here—fucking mutilated. Then, to add insult to injury, they left a fun little message on the wall. And, oh yeah, they left the message in their blood, too. Fuckers!”

  “Shit…” Roost groaned, sounding like he was going to be sick.

  And who could blame him? Even by Black Falcon standards, this was brutal. This was evil. This was cause for some sort of revenge that went beyond “we’re going to attack your hood now.”

  “Derek, we’ll get them, don’t worry.”

  I flushed at that, realizing how much he was keeping contained for my sake. I hated that Roost had to stay calm and collected for me. I was staying calm too, at least for the sake of the mission, but there was no question who still reigned supreme in emotional stability.

  Nevertheless, Roost was right. We would get them, and I had to stay calm. Had to stay calm for Eve, Roost, and hell, for myself.

  But it was so fucking hard. They played us for fools! Used our own men to send a fucking message.

  And the message was clear.

  They weren’t done playing, far from it from the fucking way they left Greg and Grizzly—and knowing that more would follow.

  “Derek? You there?” Roost said.

  Lost in my own little word again.

  “Yeah, I’m here,” I said, sighing. “Can you call your buddy on the force? Tell him about the crime scene and see if he can’t keep it under wraps. We don’t need photo proof of this to the team. They don’t need to see it.”

  “Already planned on it,” Roost said. “I don’t think I need to remind ya, but this is Falcon gearin’ up. Ya think this is bad…”

  Not even Roost could finish the thought at that point.

  “Listen, I ain’t heard anythin’ else from anyone else on patrol,” Roost continued. “Well, unfortunately, aside from Grizzly and Greg.”

  “Check in on everyone,” I said quickly. “Call me back the second you do.”

  “Ya got it,” Roost said, hanging up.

  I moved back to my bike, keeping my gun in my hand at all times. I swept the open area, even though I could never contain or observe every single part of this park. The odds of me getting jumped seemed depressingly high.

  But I got back to my bike and stared at my phone, intermittently checking to see if anyone had moved into the area. I was desperate for a kill—bloodthirsty was a term that had begun to make more and more sense in the previous few weeks, and now it had reached a boiling point. I wanted Falcon’s blood, and I would never wash my Saviors jacket if I got it on me.

  And then my phone rang.

  “Roost.”

  “All good.”

  I had never felt such relief.

  “I’mma pull all the boys back tonight,” Roost said. “I think ya saw the message, and I ain’t lookin’ to hear anythin’ else from the Falcons. In the meantime, why don’t you go back to yer place and get some rest with that pretty lady of yers. Ya did what ya needed to do.”

  I checked the time quickly, seeing it was after 1:30 a.m. Somehow, that seemed both earlier and later than I expected—earlier, because I had planned on this being an all night mission, and later, b
ecause damnit, any hour past midnight without Eve felt later than I wanted it to be.

  Get it together before you see her.

  “Right,” I said, hating how hard it was to try and stay calm. “Thanks, Roost.”

  “All will be well, okay? Just stay calm,” Roost said. “We gonna get ‘em. But only if we keep our heads.”

  Both literally and figuratively, I thought with a shudder.

  “I’ll try,” I said.

  I needed this right now. I needed to get away from the madness, have some detachment, and take care of things later. I hit the ignition and sped out of the parking area towards the freeway. I decided I’d go for what usually helped.

  I needed a drive.

  But instead of invigorating me, just before I got to the highway, I suddenly found myself so mentally damaged that I had to pull over to the side of the road—something that, best I could remember, had literally never happened before.

  I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, hating the oncoming tears as I realized I bore the weight of responsibility for the deaths of Grizzly and Greg. I felt so weak suddenly. I had been so strong, fighting everything that came my way, but how was I supposed to fight Frank? The man who killed both my father and brother, two men who seemed so much stronger than I was.

  Was it any wonder that he had sent that email to my entire crew? The letter may have been complete bullshit, and no one may have joined, but if I was acting like this, it wasn’t the most inaccurate letter. It was… it was…

  It was right.

  What good could I do to kill Frank when he had not just killed my father, but desecrated his body? How the fuck was I supposed to take him out?

  Simple. Together. With all of your team.

  You sure as hell don’t do it alone.

  I frowned, beginning to slow the bike down as I realized how stupid I’d been. I wanted to get this all done on my own, but this wasn’t the way, was it? I had help and it’d been stupid to go into this on my own. Everything since the day I had met Eve had been about being “the lone wolf” of sorts, going out to conquer an entire herd of enemies. I wanted to do this on my own. Wanted to prove something that I didn’t even need to prove.

  Stupid! So fucking stupid!

  Yes, it is pretty stupid. But you know what you need to do now. You accept that you can’t do it on your own. So, do what Roost said. Go home to your woman. And then figure out how to do it together in the morning.

  Feeling a new sense of strength—or at least just not as weak as I was in the moments before—I revved the bike back up again, racing to get home. To get to Eve.

  I wouldn’t do this alone any more than I had to. I’d do this right.

  For my father.

  For my brother.

  For Eve.

  For Roost.

  As I made it to the exit, I slid onto the side streets, pulling out the small Bluetooth device Roost had gotten me and decided to call him back. I realized with some horror that I had been brooding for nearly an hour, undoubtedly causing some serious stress for everyone. Not gonna do much good to have everyone involved when your only contribution is scaring everyone.

  And this phone call was to set things right on that.

  “Ya gonna hang up on me again, asshole?” Roost bellowed. “And where the fuck are you? I called Eve and she said ya still ain’t home!”

  “Sorry, Roost,” I said. “You were right. I am an asshole. I just—”

  “Well then,” Roost said, snorting. “Sounds like someone had themselves a revelation.”

  “Yeah, yeah, shut it. And I’m about to be home, I hope you didn’t worry Eve too much.”

  “Don’t get yerself in a tissy, I told her you had one more stop and was just seeing if ya had gotten in touch with her yet.”

  “She’ll see right through that.”

  “Well, better go make things right.”

  “Yes, of course,” I said with a little more sarcasm than I meant to—sarcasm that wasn’t great for the context of our call.

  “Fuck you! Ya got me worried, Derek. Sorry,” Roost said. “Ya know, yer father and I were close too… all this business with Frank, well, it bugs me too, ya know.”

  “I know, Roost,” I said. “And I’m sorry for not including you more. That ends now, I promise. Between Eve, Tara, you, and the rest of the Saviors. We’ll take Falcon and his Black Falcons out together.”

  I gave a heavy sigh that was matched by Roost. On the same page. Finally.

  “Sounds like ya got yer shit together,” Roost said. “Good drive?”

  “You could say that,” I said. “Anyway, I’m pulling in now. I just wanted to call… and well, apologize.”

  “Well, consider yerself forgiven,” Roost said. “For this time. Don’t do it again!”

  “Alright, alright!” I said, laughing. “I won’t, I promise.”

  “Good, have a good night, Derek.”

  “You too, Roost,” I said before hanging up the Bluetooth device.

  I quickly parked the bike and moved through the lobby, hoping Roost hadn’t worried Eve too much. Luckily, the elevator didn’t take too long and I was home within a few seconds. Of course, a few seconds was enough time to assume that Eve would be in some sort of justified panic or sweat, so I mentally prepared myself to calm her down as needed.

  As the doors opened, I saw Eve pacing with her phone to her ear, obviously talking to someone.

  “I don’t know, Tara,” she said. “Should I call him? Maybe I’m being paranoid, right?”

  She paused and I watched as she listened to Tara’s response. Whatever she was saying seemed to be helping, and while I was glad that it was helping, this wasn’t Tara’s job right now. This was my fuck-up and I had to be the one to help.

  As the elevator doors closed, Eve jumped, glancing over and saw me standing there. I gave her a comforting smile that faded a touch when it wasn’t reciprocated immediately.

  “Actually, Tara, he just got in,” she said. “I’ll call you back later, OK?”

  There was a quick pause at Tara’s reply, and I watched as Eve smirked at me. It was funny how such little things mattered so much in moments like these.

  “Yeah, I’ll make sure he gets the memo, thanks, Tara,” she said, pausing. “You too, have a good night.”

  As she hung up the phone and moved to step over towards me, I lifted my hands in defeat. She stopped, raising an eyebrow as she waited for me to speak up. I took a deep breath, running my hand through my hair wondering where exactly to begin. I didn’t think any of my options were all that great, but something as simple as what had just happened seemed… eh, good enough.

  “I take it Tara had some choice words for me?” I said.

  “Something like that,” she shrugged, her eyes narrowing at me.

  Yeah, that ain’t gonna work. You’re going to have to get right to the truth.

  “Alright, fair enough,” I said, my shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry for worrying you, Eve. Roost said he called and I… I figured you wouldn’t believe what he said.”

  “Not for one instant,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “What happened, Derek? You better tell me everything.”

  Yeah, absolutely no fucking fooling her or hiding anything. You better tell her everything, Derek.

  “You know I went out on patrol to see if we could find the clue or stop the murders before they happened,” I said, to which she nodded. “I found an area with a subway and a couple other areas. Well, right before I got there, Roost called me and it was a bit of a feisty call, let’s say. Though ours tend to usually be.”

  If I was expecting a joke or a laugh from her, I got none. I continued.

  “At one point, he asked me if I knew how my father died. Turns out, I didn’t know the whole story. He got curbstomped to death by Falcon.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Yeah. Not fun to learn. But it made the point. If I saw Falcon and I was by myself, I was under strict orders to run. I promised Roost that if I saw him
, I would. So. I knew that the subway was where my father had died and, though Roost and I never discussed it, it wouldn’t have surprised me if that’s where Dustin was killed too. In any case, the only good news of this story is that there were no Black Falcons down there.”

  I paused to gather myself and make sure I told the next bit in as stoic a mindset as possible. I wasn’t feeling great about my chances of doing so, but at least trying would mitigate it some.

  “However, I did find Grizzly and Greg murdered, mutilated, damaged beyond all but the smallest of identifying signs. And… well, the Black Falcons took their blood and smeared it on the wall as a warning sign.”

  “Seriously?”

  I nodded. Eve silently mouthed “wow.” It felt appropriate that words failed us both there.

  “It got to me. I almost broke. I almost yelled, hoping for some Black Falcons to come. Luckily, I had just an ounce of strength to not say anything and called Roost to vent. He told me to start coming home, so I did, but I nearly broke. I had to pull to the side of the road… basically to gather myself. It was a severe moment of weakness, and I’m sorry I didn’t communicate better with you on that. But… that’s why I’m here so late. Nothing bad happened to me. Our club suffered a bad blow, though. A heavy moral one.”

  I could see from the tightness in her lips that she wasn’t happy with the situation at all and I was relieved to see that the look had calmed since I told her about my revelation, about not doing this alone any longer.

  “I can say this, though, Eve,” I said. “I promise next time, I’ll communicate better with you. I know it can be scary not knowing if I’m alive. I’m not going to put you in that spot again.”

  “You promise?” she said. “Promise you won’t do this bullshit again?”

  “I promise,” I said, glancing down at my feet. “I was being stupid.”

  “Yeah, you really were. Real fucking stupid.”

  I nodded slowly, realizing how upset Eve was. I hated that I’d done this to her, hated that my stupidity had effected both Eve and Roost like this. I ran my hand through my hair, glancing back at her. Her own shoulders had slumped as she sat at the dining room table, moving her hands to her thick, curly hair.