“Oh fuck, what happened?” she says as she comes and looks down at Brendan, who is lying on the ground, shielded by only our bikes and the trucks.
“They fucking shot at us with god damn arrows!” Cody spat out. He’s pacing back and forth clearly not taking the fact that his brother is injured well.
“Brendan, that’s it. I’m calling it. We gotta go.”
“No, you heard what Dela said they are all over the place. They’re probably waiting for me to show up. All of you. They’re going to find us there. We have to fix this ourselves,” Brendan groaned out. His breath had become more and more strained since we had stopped.
“He’s right. They are waiting for you. I would put money on it if I had any.” Dela put her thumb to her mouth for a short second before she pulled it out. “Do you have the arrow?”
“What? What for?” I growl at her. We already got it out of him so what the hell did she want the arrow for?
“Just show it to me. I might be able to tell you how to stop it.”
I quickly grab the arrow and give it to her. She turns it over to the back side and looks at the tail of it.
“Malcolm.”
“What?” Brendan groans out and my eyes drop down to him.
“This is Malcolm’s weapon, he is the one who shot you. The color.” She turns the arrow around and puts the stem toward her nose and sniffs it. “Fucking hell, it’s laced. It’s not going to stop bleeding. You have to flush and cauterize that. I promise you no matter how much pressure you put on it, it will never stop bleeding. He is right to say they are going to be looking for him. It’s just one of those ways for them to push their beliefs where they want them. You would go to the hospital, the doctors would be stumped, they would call in backup, you would get picked up, and no one would ever hear from you again.”
“Fuck me. Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. Which might happen if we don’t get this under control.”
“How do you expect us to cauterize it? You think we have fucking flames shooting out of our fucking palms,” I bark at her. My anger is getting the best of me but she is acting like this is an every fucking day occurrence while I’m over here thinking my brother is about to die.
“Lighter?” She glares at me for a second.
“Oh fuck. Fuck. This is going to fucking suck.” Brendan tries to right himself.
“No, it needs to be hot and long. I’ve seen them use a poker.”
“Does it look like we have a poker? Spark asks.
“We do at the clubhouse,” Winnie says.
“I can’t ride. I’m too tired,” Brendan speaks up.
“Pack the hell out of it. Stuff whatever you have into the wound and we drive like crazy to the clubhouse. Winnie can ride the motorcycle and I can drive.” Dela’s resolution seemed like the best one at the moment.
“Whatever we are going to do, we need to fucking do it fast,” Spark says as he jams some gauze into Brendan who is screaming and trying to pull away. I hold him down.
“Gut the fuck up, Brendan!” I order him. He grabs onto my arm and squeezes but he doesn’t kick away anymore. “Let’s fucking go. You better be right about this.” I stare Dela down again. Inside I know that she isn’t the person that I should be angry with but I need someone to blame. I need someone to release this rage.
“I am. I know I am. Let’s go.” She rushes over to the truck that she just came with Winnie in. Spark and I help Brendan in.
He leans out the window and finds Winnie getting ready to hop on his bike. “Boy, if you crash my bike, I’ll beat the shit out of you. That’s not a joke. Don’t fuck up,” Brendan orders our newly patched in member.
I see Winnie swallow, I wouldn’t even lie and tell him that Brendan wouldn’t do that. He would. His bike means everything to him.
“We are going to move fast, I hope there are no cops,” Dela said out the window.
I dismissed her concerns, I knew all the cops in the county and none of them patrolled this backroad. “You going to be able to handle the truck at high speeds?” I was more concerned with her crashing with Brendan trying to go too fast.
She just chuckled. “Keep up.” She rolled up the window and peeled out.
If I didn’t think that my brother was bleeding to death in the front seat of that truck that would have been the most exhilarating ride of my life. Delaney can drive her fucking ass off. She took turns like a pro and even where there was traffic she didn’t slow and she rolled through smoothly as if they were standing still. If she could do that with a fucking truck I could only imagine what she would be able to do on a bike. Just the thought was enough to have me fantasizing about riding alongside her. Maybe in a race. The first one to lose would have to take their top off.
“Wyatt? You good?” a crackling voice popped in through the in-helmet headset. We were back in the clubhouse and everyone had gotten off their bikes but me. I was still just sitting there.
“Yeah, get Brendan,” I order before I hop off my bike and rush inside.
“You bastard, ease up. I’m fucking injured,” Brendan curses at Cody who is basically dragging him inside.
“Oh, shut the hell up, you’re such a baby,” Cody poked fun.
The fire is on and Spark was already sanitizing the metal object that is about to go into Brendan’s leg. He shoves it into the flame to wait for it to heat up.
“What else do we need to know about what they will do to get their members back?” I quickly turn to Dela who is just standing by waiting for us to do what we need to do to keep my brother alive.
“What do you mean?” she answers softly.
“I mean we ran into a bunch of women and a man. When we tried to get the women away, they freaked the fuck out and that is when the god damn arrows started flying. They killed their own man.” My fists were clenched at my sides. This was a fucking shit show. And one we couldn’t tell anyone about according to her.
“Did he talk to you?”
“What do you mean? He didn’t tell us anything.”
“He touched you then?” she asks again.
“Yeah, we fought.”
“He was tainted. He wouldn’t have been allowed back into the compound after touching a non-believer.” She shrugged, like this was completely normal.
“That’s fucking crazy,” Cody says.
“You have no idea.”
“Okay, it’s time, you ready?” Spark comes back with the bright red poker in his hand. His eyes glued to the ember color. Fucking flame head.
“Fuck no. Shit!” Brendan tried to move back but I knelt by his head and pushed down on his shoulders so he wouldn’t be able to get away.
“Here wait.” Dela bends down and starts unbuckling my belt.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I ask. This is definitely not how I imagined her trying to get my pants off.
She pulls the belt from the loops of my jeans roughly, it comes out with a loud pop.
“Your crotch is right near my head, you better be thinking about baseball or some shit,” Brendan groans out.
“Shut the fuck up. This is serious,” I say though on the inside I’m trying to remember the last time the Mets won the World Series and who the relief pitcher was.
“This will help with the pain.” Dela folds the belt up and shoves it between Brendan’s teeth. “Bite down on it. This is going to hurt but it should be over fast.” She stands up and moves away so Spark can get in the right position.
“Cody, Winnie, You have to keep his legs still or this shit is going to be so much worse,” Spark orders. His eyes completely focused on the wound on his brother’s leg.
“Hurry the fuck up. Let’s go,” I order Spark as Cody and Winnie basically throw themselves down on Brendan’s legs. My little brother’s eyes squeezed shut and his jaw clenched hard. Teeth biting down into the leather in his mouth.
“One, two . . .” Before Spark even finishes the word two, he shoves the poker into Brendan’s leg, catching him completely o
ff guard.
“FUCK!!” a muffled scream leaves my brother’s mouth and we all fight to keep him still. The smell of sizzling meat fills the air and I have to fight my gag reflex, when I realize I’m actually smelling my little brother cook.
Spark quickly pulls the poker out and throws it away. “Done. I’m done.”
“Winnie and Cody get off,” I order
When they do, Brendan isn’t moving but his eyes are still squeezed shut.
“Bro, you okay? Talk.” I pull the belt from his mouth.
“I could use that to get information out of someone.” His voice is deep and shaky.
“You fucking sadistic bastard.” Cody stands up and walks away.
Brendan was going to be just fine.
11
I move myself into a more comfortable position. Usually my bed takes me right to sleep but tonight I can’t get even a minute of shut-eye. The shit that went down today was absolutely crazy and only further caused me to believe that our little town of Patis was far closer to danger than I wanted to believe. What did I have to tell my boss in order for him to take some action?
I stand and walk over to the back window that looks out to the clubhouse. I can still see it clearly from here. I like my fucking privacy, it’s the only reason I elected that we all have our own personal space. I see something moving out of the corner of my eye but before I can get a good look at it, it darts off.
“Fuck no.” I toss my jeans on as fast as I can and grab my gun. I don’t want to make any noise in case there are more but at the same time I don’t want any of my brothers to be caught off guard. I raise my gun and jog quietly to the side of the building. It’s probably one of those fucking cultists. They came for Dela.
My heart beats triple time in my chest when I realize that she may be in danger. I’ll never be able to live with myself if something happened to her. I move a little faster and when I round the corner, I raise my gun so I can see down the barrel.
“No!” Dela screams and she falls down to the ground as I suddenly appear right in front of her.
“What the shit?!” I pull the gun straight up in the air in case of an accidental discharge. The last thing I need is to shoot her by accident. It’s just Dela. No one else but her, I must have scared her half to death because I know she did the same to me.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whimpers.
I put the gun back into the side of my jeans and lean down. “You should know by now that I’m not going to hurt you, Dela. Come on, get up.” I put my hand out and help her to her feet. She stumbles slightly and her hand collides with my bare chest. The bare skin of her hand against mine shoots sparks through my body.
I fight to keep a growl down. Everything about this woman is an enigma and yet she feels so familiar.
“Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to scare you,” I say as I hold her steady.
“Why are you running around with a gun, half-naked?” She takes a breath and moves back slightly.
“Why are you running around in the middle of the night?”
I catch a look of embarrassment in her eyes before she looks down. “I thought I was still there, I woke up and my first instinct was to run. It wasn’t until I realized that there was no one trying to stop me did I realize that I was safe and not with Emerson.”
I could understand the nightmare, what I didn’t fucking understand was where the fuck Winnie was. It was his watch, how the fuck was she able to make it all the way outside without anyone seeing her.
“Winnie wasn’t there?” I’m trying to keep my anger under control, it’s not her fault the kid is a fuck up.
“He might have been, I jumped out the window.” She shrugged, her head still down.
I put my hand under her chin and force her to look at me. “You stop this shit right now,” I order.
“What shit?”
“Beating yourself up like this is something that you did wrong. You got dealt a shit hand and you won. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever fucking met. I’m not going to let you sit around and cut yourself down.” Again, with the pep talk, what the hell is wrong with me.
“Thanks, Wyatt. I really appreciate that.” She turns and walks back toward the clubhouse.
“Wait.” I put my hand up, I couldn’t believe I was about to ask this but there is no way I would be able to get any type of sleep if I thought there was a possibility that she would find a way to get out again. “Do you want to stay at my house? It’s right here and it’s more secure. No one will be able to get in and I can keep a better eye on you.”
“Keep a better eye on me?” She smirked slightly. “I think I like the idea of you keeping an eye on me.” She turns back to me and slightly grabs my wrist. “Come on, take me home.”
My entire body jerks toward her, against my will. That was an invitation if I ever heard one. One that I fucking wanted to take her up on. I know she has gone through some truly fucked up shit but I couldn’t help but notice how she was looking at me. I shouldn’t even be paying any mind to it but it’s the first time in a long while that I have even let myself lust after someone. She had something that none of the other women I’ve been with did. Mystery.
“Be good.” I lean back, my words coming out gritty and with meaning.
“Of course,” she says and she waits for me to start walking. I grab her hand and tug her along behind me. Her small delicate fingers felt almost childlike in my massive paw.
I’ve never given much thought as to why I was still single besides the fact that no one seemed to be the right fit for me in town. The truth of the matter is they are all so fucking predictable. They want to be with a biker. They want someone they can start a family with. They want someone to make their ex jealous. All of them basically just trying to further their own agenda. With Delaney, I had no idea what the hell she wanted besides to get free. When she smiled at me, I could tell that she wasn’t trying to push me to do anything that she wanted; she was just smiling at me to do it.
The mystery, the unknown drew me to her like a fucking pig to shit. I shouldn’t even be thinking about her in that manner but at this point there is nothing that I could do to stop it.
I open the door to my large cabin. It’s about 400 feet from the clubhouse but it goes far enough back into the land that it feels like it’s far away. The last time I brought a woman into this cabin was maybe four years ago and that was my last long-term relationship. A fucking car wreck that shit was.
“Nice. Very homey,” Dela says as she gets a look at the surroundings. It was clearly decorated by a man, but what the fuck could anyone expect. I’m a man.
All leather and dark colors.
“Yeah, it gets the job done,” I answer gruffly.
“Where do you want me to sleep?” She looked around the house trying to get her bearings, I assume.
“I have a guest room on that side of the house but honestly I think it would be better if you stayed in the room with me. You okay with that? I’ll be the perfect gentleman,” I say smiling at her. Instead of returning my smile she looked away.
“I think I’ve met my quota of gentlemen. Just be who you are, Wyatt. Don’t put on any façade for me.” She wrapped her arms around herself.
“Okay. I still think you need to be in the room with me. It’s the safest spot.” I put my hand out and she takes it again. I open the door to my bedroom. It has a large king-size bed. The sheets are mismatched but they are clean. The frame is made out of a solid oak with iron grates. It’s very ornate but still very manly. The walls are a deep tan and there are only very few pictures on the wall. The bookshelves are full of James Patterson and Jack Lee. Murder and Mystery. The pile of dirty clothes is overflowing slightly but it’s not as bad as it could be. At least the room doesn’t smell.
“You have something for me to sleep in? I was a bit uncomfortable sleeping in the clothes that Cody gave me.”
“Yeah, hold on.” I pull out one of the many black t-shirts that I own and toss it to her.
“The bathroom is . . .” I expect her to walk out the room and change instead, she turns her back to me and pulls the sweater that Cody gave her over her head and lays it on the bed. Her back is still scarred up but I’m more fucking interested in the way her waist dips in and the slight side curve of her boobs. Fuck, this girl is sexy as fuck.
Again, I have to think about anything but the fact that she is basically standing in my bedroom naked. My cock has been in a fluctuating state of arousal since I met this woman and all of it at the most inappropriate times.
I close my eyes and turn away from her. Maybe if I don’t see her, I can calm myself the fuck down. I take in a few breaths trying to keep myself quiet.
“Wyatt?” Her soft voice caresses my ears. “I’m decent.”
I turn back around to see her dressed in only my shirt. Fucking hell. This is a bad fucking idea.
“Cool, hop in the bed, I can take the floor,” I say, opening one of the closets in my room and pulling out the extra blanket I keep there. I’ve slept on the floor before just never in my own fucking house.
“No way, this is your bed. I can take the floor.” She walks over to me and grabs the blanket in my hand. I snatch it back but she doesn’t let go.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m not going to let you sleep on the floor. I’m not that much of an ass.”
“You don’t have to be an ass, I’m telling you I’m okay to sleep on the floor. If it were one of your brothers would you make them sleep on the bed?” She finally let go and crosses her arms over her chest.
I wouldn’t but then again, I wouldn’t have them in my fucking house. They don’t know how to clean up after themselves and it would end up with one of us fighting.
“No, but then again they would never be here overnight.” I roll my eyes. “Look stop fighting me.”
“Never.” She gave me a soft smile. She meant it, she was always going to fight. Her eyebrows go up slightly. “Compromise?”
“I’ve been known to do that from time to time.” I lean back slightly, waiting to hear what she is going to say.
“You want to sleep in the bed with me? I mean it’s big enough for the both of us.” She looks over her shoulder at the massive frame. “If it makes you uncomfortable, I can sleep on top of the covers or use this one to cover myself.”
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