Shafted (Devil's Blaze MC Book 4)

by Jordan Marie

  “Breezy, at least allow yourself to date and see what is out there—”

  “Stop it! Just stop! Do you hear yourself? Do you know how many boys I’ve been attracted to in my life, Aunt Katie?”

  She flinches. “No, but—”

  “None. Not one. I’ve never been like the other kids at school. I’ve been through too much. I’ve seen too much darkness. I can’t pretend to want to be around those people. I don’t. They may be great people…but we have nothing in common.”

  “Who’s to say that down the road you might find someone who will—”

  “Do you honestly think that if you lost your husbands today that there would be another man who would even come close to who they are to you? Today? Ten years down the road? Twenty? Even fifty? I know in my heart that Jax is the man I’m supposed to be with for the rest of my life.”

  “Nothing we say will change your mind, will it?” Beth finally says after we sit in silence for a few minutes.

  I confirm, “Nothing whatsoever.”

  “Good. Then we need a game plan on how to tackle the men and Pops, because we’re going to need a united front here,” Beth says, and I stop.

  “Good? You mean you were okay with this all along?”

  “Honey, I love Skull with all my heart. That kind of love is special. I have it, Katie has it—”

  “I do, even if he’s an idiot, he’s my idiot,” Katie jokes, and I have to laugh. It lightens the mood.

  “All we wanted to do is make sure you had that too. Skull told me he thinks Shaft is completely gone for you. He’s sure risking a hell of a lot by being with you. So, now we need to make sure we can contain Skull and Torch.”

  “I’m afraid they may be the easy part in all of this. The one we really have to look out for…” Katie adds.

  “Pops,” we all three say together and the worry can be heard echoed in each of our voices.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Jax

  My brother looks like hell. If I didn’t see the tattoos I wouldn’t even know it was him to be honest. He’s bloated, bruised and more than battered. Sabre has broken ribs, a broken arm, his jaw is broken, his eyes are swollen shut, while his chest and stomach are all varying shades of maroon, blue, and purple. I don’t know what the fuck he has been through, but it’s clear he’s been tortured, and tortured by someone huge. I can say that because there’s about a size fifteen boot impression against one of Sabre’s ribs. It’s a miracle he’s still breathing—even if it is by a machine. Sabre’s a hell of a fighter though. He’s moved his good hand twice since the brothers have been here, so we know he’s in there somewhere. That gives more hope than we have with Briar at the moment. Unfortunately, because he can’t talk, we still have no idea what happened to them, or how the fuck he ended up in a small county hospital four counties away from where the first attack happened. Something is stinking here, and I sure as hell wish we could find out what the fuck is going on.

  When I look over at Skull and see the tension on his face, seeing it mirrored in each of my brothers, I know I’m not alone.

  “I don’t understand how the hospital knew to call us? It’s not like Sabre is telling them anything.”

  “One of the nurses on duty recognized the tatt on Sabre’s back as belonging to the Devil’s Blaze,” Torch answers, his eyes never leaving Sabre’s.

  “Where the fuck is his Devil’s Blaze cut?” I ask.

  “That’s the hundred-dollar question,” Skull growls.

  “What do we do now?”

  “We leave two men here watching Sabre’s back. The staff is getting him ready for transport. He’ll be back home by the end of the night and in the same hospital as Briar. That way we can lockdown that place and make sure they’re safe,” Skull says.

  “I can stay,” I pipe up, not wanting to, but feeling like I owe Saber. I took two days off while he was here alone, without someone at his back.

  “You and I have business. K-Rex, and Sway can stay here,” Skull answers. I knew it would happen. Still, a part of me was hoping he’d let me and Bree slide. Looks like it’s not going to be that easy.

  We slow down and the crew pulls into the old meat packing plant that our crew and the Savage Brothers usually do business together in. Skull makes a motion with his hands, and everyone turns in. He turns off his engine and we follow suit.

  “Torch and I have some business with Shaft. You guys head on back to the compound,” he orders, and fuck, that bad feeling I had just exploded. Son of a bitch. They all are looking at me, including Beast and he doesn’t look too fucking thrilled with me either. Will he be my next beat-down? They’re all gone within a matter of minutes.

  “Prez man, I’d like to stay here,” Keys says and my eyes go to him. Motherfucker, is he planning on joining them when they kick my ass?

  “We got it covered,” Skull says, arms crossed at his chest, leaning back on his bike.

  “Just the same. Shaft is my brother, and I want to be here…for him.”

  Skull and Torch ignore him and push me towards the plant entrance. I follow, keeping an eye on Keys who follows behind me. It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but then Skull flips on the old florescent shop lights, and the buzz of them fills the room.

  I’m still in shock. Partly because of what’s getting ready to take place here, and partly because of my brother. Here Keys was putting his neck out there for me. What the hell does someone say to that? I love my brothers. Being part of this club is all I’ve wanted in life. It’s one reason I didn’t mind prospecting at my age, even when the rest of the brothers were a fuck of a lot younger. I knew in my heart that this club was where I was meant to be. But now, to see Keys stick his neck out for me, when there was no reason to, I feel that bond in my blood. We’ve always had each other’s back in battle, but this…This is different.

  “No,” I tell him my voice hoarse because I’m charged with emotion. It’s not a comfortable feeling for me. Shit, since being with Bree, maybe I’m going soft—at least with everything but my dick. “I’m fine. You don’t need to be here, brother.”

  “I’m not asking for your permission,” Keys grumbles. His face is a mask of stone.

  “Maybe not, but I’d rather not have any other witnesses when I get my ass kicked. You could go back and watch over Bree, until I get back.”

  “What makes you think you’re going to go back motherfucker?” Torch growls, and I guess Skull found time to clue him in on this morning. That’s great. Are they going to end me? God knows that shit has been done here before. I knew it was a possibility when I got involved with Bree, I just kind of figured it would be at her grandfather’s or the Saint’s hands and not by my own club. I don’t want to go down like this. But, I’m not going to beg them. I wouldn’t even change shit if I could. Bree is my woman and no matter the time we’ve had together, no matter how short lived, it has been worth it.

  “Then so be it. Then let Keys watch her and make sure she’s okay for me.”

  “You got shit backwards chico. We don’t owe you a motherfucking thing. You were the one who should have come to us before you laid a hand on Bree.”

  “Pres—” Keys starts, but I wave him off. This is me. All on me.

  “You’re right. I should have.” I own it, I own it all.

  “Then why didn’t you, motherfucker?” Torch demands.

  “Because you would have tried to stop me.”

  “Damn straight we would have! She’s a fucking kid.”

  “She’s not. Bree’s more adult than people twice her age, but the truth is, nothing you would have said could have stopped me. She’s mine. What happens here tonight won’t change that. I claimed her, and she’s an old lady of the Devil’s Blaze. Whatever the fuck you do to me, nothing is going to change the fact that she’s my woman.”

  Torch grabs a baseball bat that was leaning in the corner, palming it in his hand. His face doesn’t leave mine, and I will not give him the satisfaction of blinking.

/>   “You know what I’m thinking, Skull?” he asks.

  “What’s that hombre?” Skull answers.

  “I’m thinking Shaft don’t get that if he’s not breathing that Bree is up for grabs.” His voice is gravely.

  “The fuck she is,” I growl.

  “Si. Especially since every snake out there is crawling through the grass with the hopes of being the next leader of the Saints,” Skull adds in.

  “Fuck them all! She’s mine,” I roar like a damned lion. “That makes her the club’s. She has your protection,” I growl going after them, only to have Keys try and hold me back. It doesn’t work, I act like a wounded animal. I almost make it to Skull when Torch sweeps my legs out from under me with the fucking baseball bat. I fall to the ground hard, knocking the breath from my lungs.

  “Look at that Skull. The bastard has enough balls to come at you, but not enough to tell you he’s going to be fucking a kid.”

  “She’s not a motherfucking kid!” I scream.

  “She’s in high school, you sick prick!” Torch grits as Skull’s foot connects with my chest.

  “Oomph.” What little air I didn’t know I had left in me blows from my open mouth.

  “Prez, maybe we can stop and talk about this,” Keys says and he looks a little green. Shit, he should be on this end.

  “You need to leave Keys. I’m already fucking pissed at you for not coming to me. Cristo, do my own men not know who they answer to?”

  “He was coming to you, it’s why we fought,” I gasp, trying to cover for him. “Let him go be with Bree so she won’t be alone.”

  “Bree is not alone, estúpido. Beth and Katie are with her.”

  “Boss. I know I don’t deserve it, but I’m asking—”

  “Asking what?”

  “Let me keep her. I promise you I’ll bust my back every fucking day to be the man she deserves.”

  “What do you think Torch?”

  “I think he’s a sorry sack of shit.” He laughs. The motherfucker laughs.

  “Si. But then so were we once, el cofrade, were we not?” Torch rakes his hand across his beard and the son of a bitch actually smiles.

  “I suppose we were, but you were a sadder sack of shit than I was.”

  “Whatever, cabrón,” Skull laughs. “Keys your idiot brother is safe. Go on back to the compound,” he orders. Then they both squat down to look at me.

  “Then it’s over? You’re letting me go home to Bree?”

  “Oh, it’s not over. Far from over. We’re still going to beat the shit out of you. You should have never touched her without our blessing,” Torch warns.

  “You never would have given it.” I breathe out regaining air in my lungs.

  “Probably not,” Skull shrugs. “But, she seems to love you and she could do worse.”

  “Maybe. I still say she could do better. She’s short changing herself,” Torch adds.

  “Who understands women? Beth and Katie both settled when they picked our ugly faces.”

  “Speak for yourself motherfucker.”

  “Okay, time for the pain,” Skull growls, standing up.

  “But, I thought you said…” Keys trails off, lost as to what’s going on and hell, he’s not alone.

  “I’m not going to kill him, but he kept secrets from his club. Secrets that involved his President’s family. That’s no good. That buys him a beating, and it just so happens I got a lot of pent up frustration.”

  “He gets to come home though, right?” Keys asks.

  “Sure. If he can drag his ass on his bike when we get done with him,” Torch says, hauling me up on legs that will barely hold me. “Let’s see how bad you really want her, fuck-head,” Torch sneers.

  “I’ll make it home to her,” I vow. In response Torch and Skull both just grin.

  Shit. This is gonna hurt.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Bree

  “You’re late! I was getting worried!” I exclaim going to the door when I hear Jax’s gruff order to open up. I’m not prepared for what I see when I do. Jax is being held up by Keys. He looks like he’s been run over by a herd of elephants. “What happened?” I cry, immediately trying to help hold him. Keys moves him through the room with my pitiful help and lays him on the couch. Jax breathes out in pain and groans. He coughs and you can literally see the pain his body spasms in. He closes his eyes, and I can’t stop the tears that fall from my eyes. “What happened?” I ask again, looking at Keys.

  “Nothing, baby. I’m fine,” Jax mutters, trying to pat my hand to reassure me.

  “It doesn’t look like nothing!” I cry. “Oh, your poor face.” Tears are battling to fall down my face.

  “Skull and Torch decided to welcome him into the family,” Keys says.

  “They what?” I screech. Anger and sadness rush through me.

  “Reckon they welcomed him in really well,” Keys says and it pisses me off. I bury my elbow in his stomach. “Hey! What was that for?”

  “For being an asshole,” I grumble.

  “Baby, calm down. I’m fine,” Jax chokes out. He’s not fine.

  “You don’t look fine.”

  “Well, I am, and I’d be better if my woman would come over here and give me a kiss.”

  “In a minute. Though I’m not sure where I’m supposed to kiss you. Your lips are all swollen and bruised,” I wonder, grabbing a bowl from the kitchen. I fill it with hot water in the bathroom, grabbing some alcohol and antibiotic cream. I add a whole box of bandages thinking there’s no way it will be enough.

  “Baby—”

  “Don’t you baby me. Where were you? Why didn’t you help him?” I look to Keys for an explanation.

  “He tried,” he tells me, defending his brother.

  “Funny, he doesn’t look like he’s been ran over by a pack of wild animals,” I complain.

  “Honey—” his voice is so hoarse.

  “Don’t you honey me.”

  “What are you mad at me for?” he asks, like an idiot.

  “You’re trying to get yourself killed. You promised me you would be okay!”

  “I wasn’t trying to get myself killed.”

  “I don’t think I want a woman,” Keys states grabbing a couple beers out of the fridge. He hands Jax one, but before he can get it, I grab it and set it on the table, settling on my knees in front of the couch so I can try and clean him up.

  “You can have it after I get done bandaging you up,” I tell him.

  “Baby, no offense but the beer might help the pain more than what you’re doing.”

  “Will the beer help you when these cuts get infected? Oh crap, Jax! Is anything broken? We should get you to the hospital and let them check you out. I can’t believe you!” I shake my head as I assess him, debating where to start.

  “I don’t have anything broken, and honey getting home on that bike was about all I had in me. I’m done here.”

  “You drove home?” I ask, and yes, I’m definitely still screeching.

  “No. He rode, on the back of my bike, like a chump. He did better than I thought. Of course, I handcuffed him—”

  “You handcuffed him? Oh my God! You let him handcuff you to the bike? Are you crazy? What if he had wrecked or something?”

  “Why are you yelling at him for? Technically, it’s your family who did it and this was nothing compared to what they could have done,” Keys grumbles falling back into the chair so that it scoots a good six inches. I’ve decided I really, really don’t like him.

  “It was nothing?” I ask Jax, and I’ve gone from screeching to whispering in no time flat as it starts to dawn on me what Jax has endured.

  “They took it easy on me baby,” he whispers softly, his eyes fluttering. He’s spent. Not even a nickel left of him.

  Easy? He looks like they almost killed him! Suddenly, the gravity of the situation—of everything begins to settle in. My family did this. My family almost killed him. This is all my fault. With that thought tears begin to fall. I fa
ll back on my ass and just let them well up and flow like a steady rain over my cheeks. I can’t stop them. It’s like a dam broke and more and more just keep flooding.

  “Come on, sweetheart, don’t cry,” Jax says doing his best to sit up even if he is in all kinds of pain, and that makes me cry harder too. He wraps his arms around me as sobs rack my body. “Bree, baby, you’re killing me here.”

  “Christ. I know I don’t want a woman now,” Keys says to no one, and if I wasn’t in the middle of a meltdown I’d throw the bottle of rubbing alcohol at him.

  “Bree—”

  “They hurt you!” I sob.

  “It looks worse than it is,” he tells me, trying to smile, but his poor lips won’t let him give me my smile. The one that spreads completely and makes my stomach tingle.

  “Because of me! This is all my fault. Everyone’s right. I should have stayed away from you,” I cry in despair, my head dropping down. I got Jax hurt. In response, Jax’s hand tightens up around my neck until it’s almost painful. I pull my watery eyes up to him, and his beautiful face is blurry from my tears to the point I can only see the bruised colors that are starting to bloom further along his skin.

  “Listen to me, woman. Nothing anyone could do to me would make me regret being your man. Fuck them all. I have you and that’s all I need,” he growls, his voice suddenly sounding stronger. I’m trying to get myself under control. I need to be stronger too. I need to be the kind of woman Jax can be proud of. I need…to kill my uncles.

  “I’m sorry, Jax,” I whimper through my tears. Feeling like I’ve let him down, feeling guilt he’s hurting, and just a million other things and none of them good.

  “I’m not. I’d take this and more for you. You hear me?”

  “I love you,” I whisper giving him the only thing I can.

  “Then dry up those eyes. I don’t want my woman crying.”

  “Christ. I’m never claiming a woman either,” Keys mutters from behind me, and I take a shuddering breath, using the back of my hand to wipe my eyes.

  I see the light in Jax’s eyes now. Just me getting a hold of myself has made him happy. Then I grab the bottle of rubbing alcohol, hurling it hard as I can at Keys. I played softball in school, so it’s pretty much a direct hit. I did close the lid so it didn’t pour all over him. He should be thankful. It however hits his beer and he spills that on his pants.