DARK FALL (A Back Down Devil MC Romance Novel)

by London Casey

  “Christ, you’re fucking amazing,” Erik said. He shut his eyes and wished he could take that back.

  “Erik, you’re fucking amazing, too,” Kaity said. “You’ll see it someday. That’s what I want.”

  Erik had nothing left to say. They stood staring at each other for what felt like hours. Erik battled his decision inside. He could easily make Kaity leave. Call her a cab. Buy her a car. Fly her somewhere. She didn’t need this life. But Erik needed her. Kaity kept him whole. Kaity gave him hope that life could be almost normal again. He knew he was falling for her.

  “What do I do now?” Kaity whispered.

  “Take that fucking towel off first,” Erik said. “After that… we will deal with it later."

  twenty-two.

  Kaity only slept well because Erik was next to her, holding her, keeping her warm and safe. The strength of his hold kept the nightmares away. She hadn't slept that well since before she met Brad. She woke early and rolled over to watch Erik sleep. He was beautiful in his own messed up way, scars and all. Kaity bit her lip and traced her finger along some of his scars. Some were more visible than others. Some deeper. They would be there for the rest of his life. Nothing more and nothing less. Kaity thought about cutting her face in that moment. Not to kill herself, but to cut deep enough that she would have a scar to match Erik's.

  I think I love him…

  The thought sent chills through her. She took her hand off Erik’s face and thought about the immensity of that word. Some people loved their car. Some people loved their dog. Some people loved each other. But Kaity wasn’t sure what it actually meant to love someone and have them love you back. Kaity stared at the ceiling, her heart racing. She felt Erik’s hand move from her stomach up to her chest. He cupped her breast and then opened his hand.

  “Stop thinking,” Erik whispered.

  She looked and his eyes were still shut.

  Did he ever fucking sleep?

  “I can’t help it,” Kaity said.

  “Just stop. Sleep.”

  Kaity rolled toward Erik and buried her face in his bare chest. He was so damn strong. His manly odor was intoxicating. Erik held Kaity tight and she closed her eyes again.

  When Kaity woke, it was already afternoon. She had grown accustomed to waking with the sunrise and fleeing. To sleep past noon was dangerous when you're running from something. She started to worry when she found the bed empty and heard a commotion out in the clubhouse. It was always loud, but now it sounded like something bad was happening.

  Kaity left the bed, naked. She stared at herself in the mirror, able to see just below her chest and up. She never really looked at herself in the mirror before. After preaching to Erik to look in the mirror, she needed to do the same. At least it only seemed fair. Kaity didn’t care for her breasts. Maybe it was just a woman thing, but she wished for something else. They were just a tad too big. Her nipples seemed to point left and right. They weighed a little too much for her liking, but then again, when Erik’s big, strong hand cupped her breasts, he made them feel almost too small.

  Kaity put her hands under her breasts and lifted them. Just that touch alone made her tingle everywhere. The smell of Erik’s room turned her on as much as her own touch did. Her toes curled and she smiled.

  “She’ll fucking be fine,” Erik’s voice boomed as he approached the room.

  Kaity turned around and put her hands to her hips, wanting to tease Erik. When the door opened, Kaity was horrified to see that it wasn’t just Erik coming into the room.

  It was Erik, Gaige, Nate, and Miller.

  “Holy shit,” Erik said.

  “Fuck,” Kaity said.

  The few seconds she was frozen, all eyes were on her.

  “Damn,” Miller said.

  “Not bad at all,” Gaige said.

  “I like this room,” Nate added.

  They all laughed and Kaity hurried to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. She fell to the sink and looked in the mirror. Her face was beat red and she was shaking.

  “Hey, babe,” Erik said at the door. “I need to come in and talk to you. We all need to talk to you. Preferably dressed.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Miller said, laughing.

  “Fuck off,” Erik boomed.

  “Get my clothes,” Kaity said.

  A few seconds later the bathroom door opened and Erik slipped in. He looked at Kaity and shook his head.

  “What the hell were you doing?”

  “Trying to tease you,” Kaity said.

  “You're pretty red right now, babe.”

  “Yeah. I just flashed half the club.”

  “That was more than flashed,” Erik said as he looked down with a hungry grin.

  Kaity looked down and realized just how smooth her body was. There was nothing to hide the fold of her sex, the slit showing. Not to mention she was slightly wet thanks to touching herself. Which also meant her nipples were hard.

  “I’m a mess,” she whispered.

  “Get dressed,” Erik said. “I can’t believe I’m telling a naked woman in my bathroom to do that, but we have business today. There’s no fucking around right now, Kaity. I told the club everything.”

  “Everything?”

  “Every-fucking-thing.”

  Erik left the bathroom. Kaity dressed and prepared to face the music. She opened the bathroom door and everyone but Erik started to clap for her. Her face burned red again. Miller calmed the room down and shut the door.

  “We normally don’t meet like this,” Miller said. “I’d invite you to the table, but I don’t… well, I don’t trust it.”

  Kaity nodded.

  “Are you a cop?” Gaige asked.

  “Fuck, Gaige,” Erik said.

  “What? I don’t care. I want the truth.”

  “I’m not a cop,” Kaity said. “I never was. I was swooned by a crooked detective, okay? I was struggling to survive and thought I was doing the right thing. I never gave anyone up, okay? I tried to help them. I’m not a rat.”

  “Can you prove that to us?” Nate asked.

  “Anything you want,” Kaity said.

  “Careful,” Erik said with his hands in fists. “Watch how anyone responds to that.”

  “You know who we are,” Miller said. “What we do here. We are governed by our own justice and our own beliefs. Does that make us criminals?” Miller shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t give a fuck. What I give a fuck about is making things right. There’s been a war declared on this MC and I’m the goddamn President. You’ve seen enough to get the picture here.”

  “Yes,” Kaity said. “I’ll fight tonight. I’m ready. I want to.”

  “Why?” Nate asked.

  “Because Erik asked me to.”

  “Can you fight?” Gaige asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Punch Nate in the stomach,” Miller said.

  Kaity looked at Erik. He nodded.

  Shit.

  Kaity swallowed and walked up to Nate. He was massive. Tall and wide. She feared punching him because it was going to hurt her hand. She made two fists and lifted them. Her right hand was the strongest so Kaity knew she’d lead with that. She took a couple breaths and then gritted her teeth. She threw a right and slammed it into Nate’s gut. He coughed and Kaity turned, wincing in pain.

  “How was that?” Miller asked.

  Kaity went to respond but realized Miller had been talking to Nate.

  Nate lifted his shirt, revealing muscle mostly, but also a red mark.

  “Not bad,” Gaige said. “Hope you get matched with someone your height.”

  “You can’t quit on us,” Miller said. “You have to keep going until the fight is over.”

  “Okay…”

  “Kaity,” Erik said. “That means you can’t get afraid. You can’t take a punch and fall. You have to give us time to do our job.”

  “Okay,” Kaity said. “I can be tough.”

  Gaige put up his fists near his face. “Protect your face. Your
head. Use your eyes and watch the shoulders, okay? Don’t worry about anything but the fight.”

  Kaity nodded. Now she was nervous.

  “I’m not sure about this still,” Miller said. “But Erik has asked us to trust you. I’m not in the mood to trust people right now but we have no choice. That means I trust you in this. Don’t fuck this up.”

  Miller turned and opened the door. The rest of the guys left the room, except for Erik. He faced Kaity and his eyes were amazing. Bright, sexy, but deep. Man, they were deep.

  “You realize what you’re getting into?” Erik asked.

  “No,” Kaity admitted. “But I can’t imagine losing you. I can’t imagine you never trusting me. I can’t imagine not being right here.”

  “We leave in a little bit.”

  Erik left the room.

  Kaity didn’t see him again until they left for the fight.

  twenty-three.

  They probably should have dressed like businessmen and drove cars to this fight to play the role better, but they all rode their bikes up to an old warehouse ten miles south of Frelen. Erik wasn’t sure what crew ran this territory and that bothered him. It generally was disrespectful to enter another territory and start firing bullets.

  But this needed to be done.

  The fighting setup resembled the fights the MC had gone to. The main difference was that the cars were expensive. Big, small, even some custom motorcycles. There were three small private jets and six helicopters. This was definitely serious. Erik rode with Kaity on the back, her hands tight around him. He hoped she could pull this off. It bothered him to imagine her getting hurt, or getting spooked. He wanted to trust in her and believe in what she said. But the image of her working undercover bothered the hell out of him.

  Figures he would fall for a woman and she would be a rat.

  Falling for her…

  Good fucking hell.

  They rode to the back corner of the large lot and found Strokner sitting in the back of his SUV with the window down, waiting.

  The crew included only Miller, Gaige, Blaine, Shay, Landon, and Erik. They didn’t need to show up with thirty guys. No need to draw more attention to the scene here.

  Erik looked around and saw that most of the businessmen walking around weren’t in fancy suits and ties. A lot of them were dressed in their version of casual. It would help the MC not stick out like a sore thumb as much.

  “Ready for this?” Strokner asked.

  “Ready as ever,” Miller said. “Where’s our guy?”

  Strokner stroked his chin and looked at Erik. “That your woman going in there?”

  “Does it matter?” Erik asked.

  “Should have just grabbed some random person,” Strokner said.

  Erik reached for Kaity’s hand and held it tight. “What does that matter?”

  Strokner smiled. He produced his cell and handed it to Miller. “This is one of your guys. He’s in there right now.”

  “Fuck,” Gaige said.

  Erik inched forward and looked.

  Sure enough, it was a bad looking guy. A sly smile on his face and a noticeable scar on his cheek. It wasn’t the guy with the scar on his neck, but this one had something to do with it too.

  “He goes by Mr. Arengson,” Strokner said. “Very powerful man. He makes a ton of money and he won't let anyone get in his way of that.”

  “Is he alone?” Gaige asked.

  “Nobody is alone. You have to figure the rest out. I’ve gotten the approval to get you guys in there. You walk in, hang to the left.” Strokner looked at Kaity. “Sweetheart, you go straight down to the floor. You’re fighting first.”

  “Wait, what?” Erik asked.

  “We can’t have that,” Miller said.

  “Can’t help it. New person fights first.”

  “Oh fuck,” Nate whispered.

  “Then we spread out and move fast,” Miller said.

  Strokner took his cell back and the SUV started to move. Miller leaned against his motorcycle. He looked around the lot. Erik scanned the lot too, trying to come up with a plan.

  “We should move the motorcycles out of here. Then when we make the kill, we flee. I don’t know if they would try to lock this place down. Or if they ever had problems before.” Erik pointed to a spot that seemed hidden. “Right there nobody will see the rides. When we run, we hop on and fucking roll.”

  “I like that,” Shay said. “Doesn’t help us once we’re in there.”

  “Once we’re in there, I can’t be held responsible for anything,” Miller said. “We just have to move fast. Everyone has a weapon. Make the kill and keep moving. We have until the end of the fight to get out of there.”

  “With Kaity,” Erik said.

  Erik saw the look in Miller’s eyes. Kaity had now become sacrificial. Erik shook his head. There was no way he was going to leave without Kaity. The silence that followed was uncomfortable. Miller adverted his eyes to look at the building.

  Erik understood it. This was about the MC. This was about revenge. What it wasn’t about was falling in love or playing the tough, romantic guy. This wasn’t some dumb chick flick. This was real life. The men inside this building were rich and powerful. One of the men had a direct hand in the bombing that almost took Erik’s life.

  “Let’s move,” Erik finally said. “I can’t wait around. Maybe we can get in there and get lucky.”

  They walked across the lot to the side door of the warehouse. Two men stood with their arms folded, another with a notebook. Before the man could speak a word, Strokner appeared from nowhere and explained they were all there for the fight. The man wrote down Kaity’s name and Miller gave the man a wad of cash.

  Then they were let inside.

  The warehouse was massive and everyone's voices bounced off the tall walls and high ceilings. There were small platforms built around the center of the floor, which was nothing but hard concrete. One good punch or one hard fall could end a fight in a matter of seconds.

  Erik roughly estimated there to be about a hundred men. In the middle of the floor he counted eight women. Some were tall and dark. Some were short. The women for the most part were simply beautiful. They were just like the relievers back at the clubhouse, just trying to earn their way into the comfort of protection and money. The difference was that these businessmen had to pay for protection while the MC was the protection.

  “Split this up,” Gaige said.

  He started to spout off orders as to who went where. Erik held Kaity’s hand tight. He thought about calling this off. It suddenly didn’t seem right to do to her. She had proven enough already, right?

  Erik looked down at Kaity and she looked scared to death.

  “Fuck,” he whispered.

  “Gentlemen!” a voice yelled.

  Strokner stood just a few feet away with a cigar in his mouth.

  “We’re busy here,” Miller said.

  Strokner lit the cigar, puffed on it, and stepped close to the group. “I have some information for you.”

  “What’s that?” Erik asked.

  “Your friend, Mr. Arengson is right on the other side of the warehouse. And he’s not alone…”

  Strokner smiled.

  Erik broke his hold on Kaity’s hand and went forward, pushing into the crowd to get a look across the warehouse. Right there on the other side stood two men. Even from the distance it was easy to see the scar on his cheek. When the other man turned his head, he revealed a scar on his neck.

  These were the guys… the guys who almost killed me… the motherfuckers that started this war… the guys who made death feel so easy to me… the guys who left me scarred and wanting to swallow a bullet…

  Erik turned and his body was on fire. He looked at Kaity and simply pointed.

  “Go,” he said. “Fight. Now.”

  Kaity nodded and rushed to him. She went up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I want to tell you… just in case… I’m falling in love with you…”

  Kait
y slipped away and Erik didn't know what to do.

  Stuck between heaven and hell, living and dying, romance and pain.

  It would all end soon.

  Very soon.

  twenty-four.

  Kaity walked down to the floor and looked around. It was a crazy sight. So many men. Talking, laughing, drinking, smoking. Powerful men with a lot of money and the urge to watch two women fight each other. To the left was a small area where it seemed most of the women were gathering. Kaity made her way in that general direction. As she walked, men catcalled and whistled, and some even grabbed at her.

  Hey pretty thing!

  Shake that ass!

  Look at those tits… fuck…

  By the time Kaity made it to the group of women, she was shaking and thought about leaving. She could go out to the lot and steal a car. Hightail it the fuck out of the state. But she couldn’t leave Erik. She loved him. She wanted him like she never wanted anything else in her life.

  Kaity stopped walking and looked at the other women. Tall, short, skinny, thick. Some where in cut off shirts showcasing their amazing stomachs. Others seemed to be dressed up, like they were part of some crazy fantasy. Kaity felt too plain in her jeans and t-shirt.

  A tall woman looked at Kaity.

  “Hey,” Kaity said.

  “Hey yourself, bitch.”

  “What?”

  The woman slapped Kaity across the face without hesitation. Kaity stumbled back and touched her swollen cheek. The woman came at her again, staring down at her. A small group of men who saw the incident started to cheer.

  “You want to fucking do this now?” the woman asked. “Little cunt.”

  “Shit,” Kaity whispered.

  The woman backed away.

  Kaity held her face. Her teeth throbbed. Her cheek stung. She licked the corner of her mouth and tasted blood.

  After a few more minutes, a short man in a suit holding a notebook walked out to the middle of the floor. He let out a long whistle. That’s when the place erupted in cheers. Kaity stayed by herself, afraid to go near anyone. She looked around the crowd and tried to find someone from Back Down Devil. They are still here. Kaity kept telling herself that. They won’t leave without me. That part Kaity wasn’t sure of. She had seen the look in Miller’s eyes. Whatever they were planning on doing would be done fast. Then they would need to leave.