“He’ll get to the PD alive?” Drake asked.
“Yeah.”
“You sure about that?” And I knew Drake realised how I felt about Strummin.
“Yeah.” Okay, I’d taken in dead marks sometimes, not entirely my fault, they shouldn’t fight back.
“I’ll trust you.” Drake said, and I bit my tongue hard. Drake stepped back. I climbed into my SUV and sped away.
A quick glance in my mirror told me Drake was standing in the road, his eyes narrowed at my vehicle. He was alert, and I saw Slick come to him, and then after a final gaze, Drake strode into Rage. Hatred and bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed it back. Drake had caught me unprepared, that wouldn’t happen again. I had my own reasons for hating Rage MC.
I passed Strummin off at RCPD and handed over photos and filed the paperwork. The families of the boys he’d abused, had clubbed together for a two hundred thousand reward. I called in to Buzz as I walked through the corridors of the PD. Buzz sent a well done over the phone and told me that another mark had been spotted locally to my position.
I sighed as I told Buzz to get me the details, a bounty hunters work was never done. Tired, I put my phone in my pocket and left the PD. As I rounded the corner to where my SUV was parked, I froze mid-step as I saw Drake leaning against it. Alert, Drake watched as I walked towards him and didn’t make a move to get out of my way. I stopped a few feet from him.
“What now?” I asked exasperated.
“Wanna know who you are.” Drake replied.
“Told you, the name’s Artemis.”
“That ink on your shoulder, seen it a long time ago.”
“Bully for you.” I snapped back.
“A girl I once respected, admired and cared for a whole fuckin’ lot, had that same ink on her shoulder.”
“Good for her.”
“That tat darlin’ was one of a kind. Wanna know how I know that? I designed that ink for Kayleigh Mitchell.”
“Again, good for you both, but whoever you think I am, I’m not. My name’s Artemis, and I’m a bounty hunter.” Drake took two strides and got into my space.
“You’re Kayleigh,” Drake snarled at me. Pain lurked in his eyes as he ground out, “what happened to you?”
“Do I look like her?” Drake’s brow furrowed.
“No.” He admitted. I shoved past him.
“Then leave me the fuck alone.” Drake reached out to grab me, and my phone rang.
“Stace!” Buzz boomed down the phone loud enough for Drake to hear it. God bless Buzz.
“Got details?” I asked. Today was shaping up to be busy. Buzz rattled them off and then confirmed he’d send a text. I ended the call and stared at Drake, who was staring at me in sheer puzzlement.
“Stace?” He asked, confusion in his voice.
“Now you know something very few do, my given name. I’ll thank you to keep it quiet.” I opened the SUV door, climbed in and drove off, leaving Drake standing behind yet again.
It was midnight when I opened the door to the cheap motel I’d booked. Dead on my feet, I wanted to hit the sack and sleep. I’d been scheduled to make a call tonight, but it was far too late. I checked my phone and saw a new message. ‘Love you,’ I read and smiled. Yawning, I kicked off my boots, shoved my gun under the pillow and closed my eyes.
It felt like I’d hardly been asleep when my eyes snapped open, and I came to alert with my gun in my hand pointing at Drake. He sat in shadows but leaned forward as I snapped awake, his elbows on his knees and his chin propped on one fist.
“Death wish?”
“Now we gonna talk woman, without you drivin’ away.” Drake said.
“For fuck's sake, you got an obsession with me?” I snarled keeping my gun on him. My other hand groped for my phone and clasped it.
“Wanna know what’s goin’ on. How you have that ink and why you denyin’ who you are.” Drake growled.
“You want to know about the tat?” I growled back. “Check out a website called Tripp’s Tattoos. You will find several images of that tattoo on several people. I saw it in Tripp’s shop, liked it and had it done.” I spelt out Tripp to him. Drake grew silent as he did what I told him, and his jaw clenched. The ink was distinctive. A skull surrounded by roses with a flaming sword through the top of the skull.
“Don’t mean nothin’.” He said. “That’s precisely as I drew it.” I rolled my eyes at him. Drake, always so damn stubborn.
“Hey, little princess, I got something for you.” Drake said as he walked into Kayliegh’s room. Kayleigh looked up at him.
“What?” Kayleigh asked. Drake handed her a piece of paper, she stared at the image on it, confused.
“This. See that sword? That’s you, in all your glory and strength, burning bright to light the way for my brother. The skull, that’s those you’ve survived and beaten, the roses, the beauty you bring to the MC, little Kayleigh. In two weeks you’re sixteen, we’ll get it inked over this.” Drake slowly and within her line of sight raised a hand and touched the scar on Kayleigh’s shoulder left by Adrian.
Drake shook the flash of memory away. He remembered designing and drawing that tattoo for the girl like yesterday. Kayleigh had been so excited at Drake’s thoughtful gift. Drake always looked out for the women he valued, it was inbred in the man.
“The only thing I’ve in common with this girl is a tattoo and her height. I did a bit of research. Kayleigh Mitchell was slender but curvy, long blond straight hair and blue eyes. The girls face shape is different from mine. Kayleigh disappeared nearly twelve years ago, just after your faction went to war with Bulldog’s faction. Most of you think she ran away.” I snapped. Drake focused back on me.
“Yeah.” Drake muttered. “Kaleigh running away broke my brother.” My heart hardened, and hate swelled in my heart. Shame his brother broke, fucker should after what he was party to, please note my sarcasm. Hate swelled deep inside.
“Not my problem Michaelson. Now get out of my room. You’ve five minutes before the police arrive.” I turned my phone, and he saw my 911 to Buzz. Drake rose to his feet and looked at me.
“You’re Kayleigh, and you’re not, darlin’. I’ll find out the fuckin’ truth, so run as far as you want, I have your scent now.” Drake muttered and left my room. I kicked the door shut behind him and watched as his bike rode away. Only then, I allowed myself to curse
out loud. Still cursing, I picked my phone back up and dialled a number.
“I need help.” I said when a voice answered.
◆◆◆
Two weeks later, Drake strode into Rage’s clubhouse and gazed around, taking in everything and then marched to the inner sanctum. His gaze dropped to Texas, the MC’s secretary, who sat at the table. Texas was tapping his finger on a file in front of him. Texas’s gaze rose towards Drake, and it was solemn.
“What you got, brother?” Drake asked, sitting in his chair. Texas had sent Drake an SOS ten minutes ago.
“This came today. Unsigned and not addressed to a brother, Lex brought it to me. Inn’t good.” Texas looked pale under his tan. Drake lifted one eyebrow and then tapped for the file. On the cover of the file was a handwritten note.
‘Now back off, we’re even.’ It was signed with a bow and arrow with an initial A curved around it, “Artemis.” Drake muttered.
“Brother before you open it, warning ya, brace.” Texas warned. Drake shot Texas a glance, and Texas nodded. “Freakin’ brace brother.”
Drake nodded an acknowledgement and opened a police file. The front page held details of a 911 call from a citizen who’d driven past a body in a clearing. It detailed the date and time and names of responding officers and the investigating officers. The transcript of the conversation was disturbing, the citizen described a young girl, cut up and dead laying in the dirt.
Drake turned the page and gagged in his mouth as he took in the naked body of a young girl he’d cared about. Kayleigh’s beautiful, battered face stared up at him from another photo. Drake flicke
d through close-ups of the wounds and turned to the coroner’s report.
Someone had beat Kayleigh to a pulp, multiple bones broken, sliced and stabbed with a knife a multitude of times and kicked and punched. She’d been raped numerous times. Broken glass and wood shards were discovered inside her vaginally and anally. Kayleigh had been tortured over several hours, the report stated, left for dead and gutted like a pig.
“Kayleigh was fuckin’ pregnant.” Drake whispered. The babe had been twenty-eight weeks. He turned a page and read a further report. As she’d been dumped in Wyoming, it made sense why their searches hadn’t found her. Drake was sickened at the damage and hurt caused to the girl.
Images flitted through his mind, imagining her pain and terror and Drake closed his eyes for a few seconds. Kayleigh was owed by Rage. Drake continued to read on, details of injuries and summaries of the investigation, but without an I.D, it went nowhere. Just another Jane Doe. Furious, Drake slammed the file shut and dropped his head to his hands.
“Kayleigh was a casualty?” He asked Texas, bitterness in his voice. Texas shrugged, but Drake saw the man swallowing his own grief.
“Thought the girl ran. Kayleigh realised what was happening, thought she ran.”
“Should have known.” Drake muttered. “She’d never have left Ace of her own free will. He’d have been a father. Fuck shit, Ace should have been a father.” Pain shot through Drake on what his brother was soon to find out. It didn’t bear thinking about.
“Kayleigh was a kid in a situation that was fast deteriorating.”
“Kayleigh was a fuckin’ kid!” Drake roared and shoved at the table and rose to his feet, his chair flying backwards and tilting over. With a primal scream, Drake punched the wall hard, his knuckles splitting. Wounded, Drake paced the room, and Texas ordered Lex, who’d rushed in, to get Phoenix. Lex left the room at a run.
“Gonna need to lock down Ace,” Texas told Drake, “you need to get a handle on this and lock it tight.”
“Lock it down?” Drake roared. For nearly twelve years he’d watched his brother suffer. Drake hit the wall again, punching through drywall. Furious, he kicked a chair that Texas ducked.
Drake needed to hurt someone right now. The urge to hurt someone so bad clenched his fists and Texas watched him warily. If Drake flipped, more than Texas would be needed to lock him down. Drake swallowed as he thought of Ace, his brother.
Ace changed weeks after Kayleigh disappeared. He’d searched, dragging his close brothers into the search and then he shut down. There was nothing, no trace, no calls, simply nothing. The openness Ace once had disappeared, and he became mean, cold and bitter. And Ace began fucking up those in Rage’s way, without hesitation or thought.
More than once Drake thanked god Ace had been on his side, he feared no one but Ace made him pause. Ace took Bulldog out himself, a bullet to each knee and then carved the ink off the bastards back with a blunt knife. Sliced the man’s throat with the same blunt knife and when Bulldog neared death, Ace then put a bullet straight in the man’s head. This was after Ace had played with Bulldog for over twenty-four hours. Ace was beyond salvation, and the only thing Ace had left was his brothers and club.
Ace never engaged with a woman again, he fucked when he needed too. Didn’t care if the woman enjoyed herself. Once he’d done what he needed, Ace made them leave. No softness, no spark of humanity was left in Ace. The only crack in Ace’s shield had been Phoe.
“Lock it tight brother, ‘cause tellin’ you Ace won’t.” Drake realised Texas was right. Ace would lose it, totally apeshit. He looked at the older man, a brother who’d stayed by his side when Drake took the club. At the same time Hellfire MC, his cousin's club underwent a change of leadership too. Chance kicked ass the same way Drake did. Hellfire and Rage were clean. At the time without Chance able to take his back, Drake had relied on Axel and Texas.
Texas was fifty-five. He’d started coming to the club when he was a kid. Texas watched Bulldog take over and drag the club into places some brothers didn’t want to go. But they did, as they were Rage. When Drake was older and gained VP, objecting to the way the club ran, Drake began a slow takeover.
Most of the younger members backed him, quietly and on the side. They worked hard at getting the legit side going and lucrative. When Drake shut the not so legit side, the women, the drugs, the gun-running, no one took a hit on their pocket. The legit businesses were lucrative, more than Drake had dreamed of.
Texas sat on the fence until Bulldog pulled a knife on Drake, while Drake’s back was turned. Then he waded in, and with Texas wading in, Drake won. Drake gave his brother the secretary job as thanks, and the man excelled. Texas was loyal to Rage first and then Drake.
“Get the brothers. Ace last.” Drake ordered, and his gaze lifted as the door opened and Phoe strutted her ass in. His wife took one look at her man, walked over to him and wrapped around him. A slender hand touched Drake’s face and pulled his head to her shoulder. Drake clutched Phoe tight to him and shoved his face into her neck.
“Baby.” Phoe crooned. Drake rested his hand over her stomach. Phoe was three months pregnant and was starting to show.
“History raising its head, Phoe.” Drake muttered.
“And Rage will get through it.”
“This could tear the club apart, wife. Gonna be bad. Ace gonna need you.” Phoe stiffened when he mentioned Ace’s name. The one brother she was close to was Ace after the man had taken five bullets meant for her. Ace had bled for Drake’s wife.
Ace handled her affection in his usual way, ignoring it. But sometimes Drake saw Ace gaze at her with a soft look on his face that quickly was wiped. Drake was sure that Phoe had wriggled her way into some small part of Ace’s heart.
The brothers began to enter, and Phoe gave him one of her sweet kisses. “I’ll be waiting.” She whispered and strutted away, her ass wriggling in a way that usually made his cock hard. Not today.
Ace looked up as a brother knocked on his door. “Meetin’.” Slick shouted through it, and Ace pushed the woman in his bed away from him. He rose to his feet and dropped the used condom in the bin. Misty rolled over and showed her ass.
“Want me to wait?” Misty asked him silkily.
“Get out. Fucked you, now leave.” Hurt flashed across her face, and Misty rose on her elbows.
“We gonna keep doing this baby?” Misty asked. Ace looked at her as he dragged his jeans on.
“Doin’ what?”
“Dancing around. I’ll be your old lady, you know that.”
“Why you think I want you as an old lady?” Ace sneered.
“Over ten years, we been doing this dance. I’m the one you continue to take to your bed.” Ace snorted as Misty sounded so sure of herself. He sent her the most mocking lock in his arsenal and the bitch blanched.
“The fuck you’ll ever be on the back of my bike. I’ll never take an old lady. I fucked you, now get out. You’re just a hole I stick my cock in when I need to. Nothing else.” Misty’s face turned nasty, and she got up on her knees.
“Always goes back to Kayleigh. Stupid bitch ran away and you still moping after her.” Misty snapped. Ace grabbed her arm and slung her against the wall, crowding into her face.
“Yeah, always gonna be her, stupid bitch. You think you’d ever be a patch on her? That you’d ever walk in her shoes? Don’t you get it? I do enough to get you wet so I can slide in and fuck you. Minutes later, it’s over. That’s it. Never made love to you, I fuck you. Don’t care that you don’t get off, who cares if a whore gets off? That’s all you are!” Ace hollered. Misty flinched under the harsh words. Eleven years, she’d been on and off in Ace’s bed, and he was right, it never lasted past him shooting his load. But she kept coming back hoping he’d see her as more. She’d screwed his brothers, hoping to provoke a jealous reaction and got nothing.
“Why her? Ace, get over her. What did she have that I don’t?” Misty whined, laying herself bare. She’d always wanted Ace, but the Ace she got wa
sn’t the version Misty wanted. Misty had sucked up his scraps for a decade. Never had Ace ever looked at her the way he had that insipid bitch, Kayleigh. Why couldn’t she be what Ace needed, fucking Kayleigh Mitchell had been dead years?
“My kitten never fucked every brother in this club for one. You think I want an old lady that every brother knows what her pussy looks like? My kitten was innocent and beautiful, something you and your skanky whore cunt will never be.
You’ve had more cock than fucking Casanova had pussy. You’re a whore, understand? Just a whore that every brother fucks. You mean nothing to none of us ‘cept when we need a fuck. You must piss cum.” Ace sneered dislike and hated written over his face. Misty’s head dropped.
“I waited years for you, Ace, and for nothing? I hate you, I’m glad Kayleigh’s…” She whispered, breaking off. Horror crossed her face, and Misty glanced at Ace, he’d missed her slip.
“Good, because you disgust me. That’s why I screw you from the back. Don’t need to view your bitch face. Just a hole to fuck. You stupid fuckin’ bitch, I hate you. Loathe you. You’re lower than shit. So easy, you’re pathetic, all I gotta do is click my fingers and along you come running. Droppin’ ya panties as you do. Chance was right, you got a fuckin’ bucket cunt, and I’m done. Need something tighter now.” Ace sneered.
Misty’s face paled as Ace’s hate-filled words stabbed into her and cut deep. Misty realised there and then, Ace never belonged to her, Kayleigh still owned him. All her dreams went up in smoke, the dreams she’d nurtured for nearly twelve years. Her plan to get rid of Kayleigh had backfired, and Ace didn’t give a shit about her.
“You’ll come beggin’, needin’ me.” Misty said to him in a last-ditch effort. Ace got in her face.
“Look around. I fuck you, and I don’t give a shit if you get off on it. You’re nothing, just a cunt I can fuck. Plenty more in the sea. You think I treated her like that? Oh no, my girl was sweet and wild. Innocent and greedy. Took my time getting her ready for my cock.
The Hunters Rage Page 3