Dead souls mc complete s.., p.35
Dead Souls MC (Complete Series #1-5), page 35
Which I would need with my wounds.
Sucking up the pain, I bent over and loosened the ropes at my ankles. But the second those fell from my skin, it felt like I was being placed into a meat grinder. I could feel blood still soaking into my socks and I closed my eyes. Swallowed my whimpers. Tried desperately to quell the raging anger within my chest. I sat there as I stretched out my legs, listening as my joints cracked. The angle they’d been strapped at for hours robbed me of my breath. As blood began to rush to my feet, the tingling sensation was almost unbearable. My vision tunneled as my ankles throbbed. Not an ounce of skin was left around the bony protrusions. I was shaking in the chair. Close to vomiting into my lap as I tried to keep some sort of hold on myself. I didn’t know if I’d be able to stand on my feet. The pain of moving blood alone made it hard to breathe.
But once I found my strength, I stood.
I was unsteady, but on my feet. Standing didn’t hurt, but lifting my feet did. I placed my hand on the metal shelving to stabilize myself and a searing pain ricocheted up to my shoulder.
I needed a doctor, and quickly.
I reached for the doorknob and quietly tried it. But it was locked. I fumbled with the knob to see if there was any way of unlocking it from the inside, and there wasn’t. Fuck. All that work and all of that pain only for the damn door to be locked from the outside. I squinted my eyes and reached for the lighter, then struck it on and panned it around the room. Maybe there was a key, or something sharp I could use to try and pick the lock. I scanned the metal shelves in the hopes that something would appear, but all I saw was bleach, some Comet, and dusty towels that didn’t look to have been used in years.
Suddenly, the laughing stopped. I stood in my spot and held my breath. I heard a chair scrape along the floor and I began to panic. Was someone headed my way? Were they coming to check on me? Shit, the last time they did I convinced the guy I was still passed out. What if they opened the door and saw me loose? I had no way of defending myself. I didn’t have the wrist strength to fight them off and I was still unsteady on my feet.
Then, my eyes landed back onto the bleach.
“She awake yet?” someone asked.
“She better be. I’m ready to have some fun.”
I grabbed the bleach and released the lighter, then stuffed it into my pocket.
I stood with my knees bent as I uncapped the bleach. This time, I needed that asshole to open the door. I needed someone to unlock this thing long enough for me to choke them on bleach so I could run. I tossed the cap down at my feet and grabbed it with both hands. I watched as a shadow appeared underneath the door, the footfalls coming to a stop in front of it.
Then, I coughed.
“I think our playtoy’s awake,” the guy said.
“What?” someone asked.
“Speak louder!”
“I said, I think she’s awake!”
“The fuck did he say?”
This was my moment. I watched the doorknob turn as the door swung open, and before me stood someone I hadn’t seen before. Yet another person I didn’t recognize despite my involvement with their stupid club. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth, ready to call the guys to let them know I was loose.
Then I doused him in bleach, watching as it poured down his throat and splashed into his eyes.
He stumbled back, choking on the liquid as he clawed at his eyes. I hovered over him and poured the rest of the bleach onto his skin, making sure he had plenty to keep him entertained. My eyes rose down the hallway as I stepped over the man, gurgling and groaning on the ground. Luckily, I’d been in their lodge enough times to know exactly where I was the second I got my bearings.
I was in the back room of the lodge. With the kitchen and a back exit.
The issue with the back exit was that it poured me into an alleyway, and I could easily be cornered. And since speed was not on my side with the wounds I was dealing with, that wasn’t the ideal situation. I crept down the hallway as the man behind me struggled on the ground, his throat sputtering. Trying to talk. I peeked around the corner and saw the rest of the guys hanging out at a table with empty beer bottles littering the floor. Some were slumped over and a couple were swaying in their seats. Drunk as fuck and not even concerned about where the other guys was.
My eyes panned over to the exit at the other end of the bar and I smiled. That was my way out. It dumped me onto a back road I could follow out to the highway that ran through Redding. There was a neighborhood only half a mile away from the bar I could get myself lost in, and surely someone would help me. Or at least allow me to use their bathroom to clean myself up. I shoved my hand into my pocket to get my phone. Now I could call Grave and let him know what happened.
But when I saw my phone was dead, tears filled my eyes.
Fuck.
I was alone in all this.
I had to get out of that exit somehow. I wouldn’t have the energy to run the extent of the alleyway if I used the back exit. I crept around the corner and ducked down behind the bar, figuring I could stick to the shadows. Press myself closely against the wall and literally slide out from underneath their noses.
It was the only plan I had, so it needed to work.
I crawled along the grimy bar floor, holding back my disgust as my knees sank into a slimy, wet substance. I gagged. Heaved. Felt bile rising up the back of my throat. This place was utterly disgusting and I couldn't believe I’d spent time in this place. With these manipulative psychopaths who murdered for fun and didn’t give a shit who they hurt. I crawled to the end of the bar and looked up, taking in the bathroom door in front of me before the bar stopped to allow people out from behind it.
I peeked around the corner and looked at the guys again, watching as one of them got up.
“You guys want another?”
“Where the hell did Fender go?”
“Probably having his fun. We told him he could.”
“Man hasn’t gotten his dick wet in months. Go him.”
“So, drinks? Then we go check?”
“Hell yeah, drinks. And maybe we’ll get to watch a bit.”
Their conversation was disgusting. Who the fuck had my brother-? It didn’t matter any longer. The brother I’d grown up with was dead. Didn’t exist any longer. As far as I was concerned, I had no family. No brother to speak of. I buried him the day we buried Mom. His heart fell into that woman’s coffin at her funeral and never came back. I inched the bathroom door open quietly, hoping to the high heavens none of them would catch the movement. One of the guys was coming back behind the bar and I had to get out of sight.
But before I could, gunshots rang out.
“What the fuck?”
Then, a bullet crashed through the window of the front doors.
“They’re fucking here! How the hell did they find us!?”
I ducked into the bathroom and closed the door, then curled up into a corner. I gripped my knees as gunfire rang out around me and I closed my eyes. I had to ride it out. Whatever was going on, I had to ride it out. And in a way, this type of thing was good. If the firefight drew them outside, then I could roam the bar freely and try to find another way out. I didn’t know if any other exits, but there were plenty of windows. I could crawl out one of them and make for the woods. Or run down the road.
Yes, the firefight was good. The bullets crashing through the lodge was good. The bullets buzzing around the bathroom were good.
If one of them didn’t kill me first.
27
Grave
We slid by the neighborhood the club was patrolling unnoticed. Knox’s gun was ready and hanging out the window as we turned onto the back road that led us to The Black Saddles lodge. Brewer was inching the van along the road, turning off its lights and riding as silently as he could. Once we hit the corner of the lodge, Diesel and I jumped out of the back. Rock opened the door for us and we silently cleared corners, working our way to the back of the building. We hopped over the fence into an alleyway and poised ourselves at the back exit, ready to swing the door open and run in from behind. I could see Mick and Rock standing at the other end of the alleyway, standing at the front corner as Brewer put the van in reverse. Even in the dark, I saw the smile that crept across Knox’s cheeks.
Then, he let out a warning shot as Brewer rushed the van backwards.
Gunshots ran out from all angles as Knox mowed down the front of their lodge. The second Mick and Rock ran from their position to infiltrate the front, Diesel opened the door. We walked into the hallway and saw a guy getting off the floor. The smell of bleach fumes brought tears to my eyes. Diesel was coughing and my eyes were streaming with tears. There was an open supply closet I rushed to in order to see if Everly was there. Diesel put two in the guy’s chest, putting him out of his bleach-soaked misery as my eyes fell onto the chair.
And the blood-stained rope sitting on the ground.
“She was in here,” I said as gunshots rang out in the front of the building.
“Then we keep looking. She’s here somewhere,” Diesel said.
I walked alongside the President of the club as we shot everyone that came into our vision. If they had a gun, they were put down. I could hear Mick and Rock firing outside, drawing the party to the front lawn as Knox and Brewer got in position to get us the hell out of here. They were supposed to be around back so we could all hop in and get the fuck away from this place. But if I did my job the way I wanted it done, there would be no one alive to run from.
Motorcycles revved in the distance and I knew more were coming. And if we became overrun, there was a chance we wouldn't be able to get out of here. I traded my empty magazine for another one, then jammed the empty one in my pocket.
“You need to go find Everly,” Diesel said. “I got this.”
“If those assholes roll up on you, we’ll need all the firepower we can get,” I said.
“And Everly will get killed.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“Grave, look at me.”
My head whipped over to Diesel as a man jumped out behind him. I leveled my gun over his shoulder and popped off one round, catching the man right between his eyes. DIesel turned around and shook his head, then looked back at me as a grin slid along my features.
“You were saying?” I asked.
“You love her, don’t you?”
My jaw pulsed as Diesel leveled the gun over my shoulder. He shot off two rounds before a body dropped behind me and I nodded my head.
“Then find her and get her the fuck out of here. I promise you, we’ve got this,” he said.
“The only way out I’ve got is that van. We didn’t bring bikes.”
“Then take one of these fuckers bikes. They’re dead. The hell they gonna do with it?”
Both of us leveled a gun around the other and took out the men coming for us. One by one, they dropped to the ground as we slowly spun around in the hallway. Dropping them left and right until no one was standing but the two of us.
“If I take her, I’m not telling anyone where we’re going,” I said.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Turn off your cell phones and take the batteries out. When the two of you are recuperated, come find us. Trust me, we’ve got this,” Diesel said.
“You’re going to run out of bullets.”
“Knox won’t,” he said. “I loaded up four strings of those fuckers in a trunk in the van. Knox will be able to mow them down before they get around the damn corner from where they’re sitting.”
And on cue, I heard Knox let out his thunderous laughter as the buzzing of bullets sounded outside.
“You know he’s having too much fun, right?” I asked.
“It’s Knox. He’s about to have a kid. Things are tense. Let the man blow off some steam.”
“You good here?” I asked.
“More than good. Now go. Find Everly and get her the fuck out of here.”
I ran down the hallway and busted into the main bar area. I took out three guys in front of me before I started yelling her name. I roared as loudly as I could above the shower of bullets Knox was raining down on the fucking place, and a movement at the corner of my eye caught my attention. I whipped my head around and saw a door swing open and I poised my gun. Ready to shoot anyone who was waiting for me.
“Grave?”
Her voice. Everly’s voice. Filled with fear and tears and an odd sort of strength. I raced behind the bar and dove for the door, crashing it open and turning on a light. There she was, on her knees trying to get herself up off the floor. Her wrists were bleeding and her ankles had no skin covering them.
And she smelled faintly of bleach.
“Come here,” I said as I bent down. “I’ve got you.”
“Grave. What’s going on?” Everly asked.
I picked her up into my arms and her head fell back. The bruises around her neck and against her head made me irate. Good. Those fuckers deserved death after what they’d done to her. A bullet whizzed by my head and I turned around, pointing my gun underneath Everly’s ass at the man who managed to get by Diesel. I fired three rounds at him, taking out his knees before planting one into his stomach.
Then I stormed out of the bathroom and ran back down the hallway.
We passed the guy dead on the floor that was covered in bleach. I curled Everly into me so she wouldn’t see anything. The last thing she needed to think was that she was responsible for someone’s death. I carried her out into the alleyway and backed us into the darkness, watching as two of those Black Saddle assholes came running by us. I stepped out and popped two in their backs, taking them down before they had a chance to get inside to Diesel.
“You’re not killing them, right?” Everly asked.
I looked down into her fear-filled eyes and shook my head.
I didn’t mind lying to her. Not at this point. She was in pain. Afraid for her life. In a situation she should’ve never found herself in. The last thing she needed to know was that the man holding her was an expert at killing.
Her safety was paramount, even if it meant lying to her.
I walked us down the alleyway and took a sharp left. I had to find a bike to put us on. My eyes scanned the street as the gunfire grew farther and farther away, but the only thing I could find was an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road. I checked the tires and things didn’t look to be flat. I tried the doorknob and it was open. It was the only thing I had to get us out of here, so I had to try.
“Here you go,” I said as I slipped Everly into the back seat. “Stay here. Hold on. I’m getting us out of here.”
I opened the driver’s side door and ripped out the plastic undercarriage of the steering wheel. I ripped out some wires and struck them together, seeing if I could get the car the start up. It struck up like a dream and I checked the gas tank. It had over half a tank, and the engine didn’t seem to be heating up.
It wasn’t until I got behind the wheel that I realized why someone abandoned it.
The power steering was out.
I shifted the car into drive and eased the gas pedal onto the ground. I gripped the steering wheel as tightly as I could, then eased us onto the road. The steering wheel was a bitch to fucking turn, but the car worked other than that. I turned us slowly onto the main road that led into Redding, leaving the gunshots and the blood and the mayhem behind us. I kept my eyes out for any signs of motorcycles. Anyone that might pour out of one of the neighborhoods and follow us. I inched by all of them without my lights on, hoping to stay concealed in the black car that had been abandoned on the side of the road.
And when the gunshots were nothing but distant pops, like fireworks in the sky, I put the gas pedal to the ground and raced us out of there.
28
Everly
I laid down in the backseat and closed my eyes. Grave weaved us through town, and every once in a while, I heard him grunting. Cussing. Slamming his hands against the wheel of the car. I wasn’t sure why he was upset. It could’ve been a number of reasons. The only thing I was excited about was to be out of there.
Away from The Black Saddles and back with the only person I trusted.
I heard the door open before a pair of arms draped around my body. I was heaved into the air, my tired form planted into one of the strongest things I’d ever felt in my life. I laid my head onto Grave’s shoulder, feeling the way his arms cradled me.
And I recognized where we were.
He walked us into his house and it seemed completely untouched. The furniture was there, sitting in the same places we had left them. My car was outside, sitting and waiting like I hadn’t disappeared. The kitchen was stocked full of foods we’d left behind and the night had settled heavily over the house. The stars were out in droves, the Milky Way hung lowly in the sky, and all I wanted was to lay outside and look at the stars.
“Grave?”
“Yes, Everly?”
“Can we go outside?”
“We can do anything you want,” he said.
I heard the sliding door give way before we stepped out onto the porch. He placed me down in one of the lounge chairs and my eyes peeled open. They throbbed with the pain in my head. I could feel bruises rising on my face and my back. But the beauty above me washed away all those sins. The beauty of the night sky above my body at the back of Grave’s secluded desert home made me forget about the terrors of the night. About the enemies lurking in the shadows. About the things my brother had done.
“I need to go get a first aid kit,” Grave said. “Stay here, okay?”
I nodded my head, my tongue darting out to lick my lips. They were chapped. Slightly bloodied. I didn’t want to look at myself. If I looked as bad as I felt, then I wanted no part of it. My body slumped against the lounge chair and molded into the cushions as Grave’s footsteps backtracked. I focused on the sound. On the rhythmic thumping of his body I’d become so familiar with. He had a distinct walk. A distinct way his feet fell against the floor. I’d be able to recognize his walk anywhere. In any scenario.
