I turned my attention to Tone instead. “Come on,” I half-pleaded. “You seem like you’re one of the few reasonable people here. Tell him that’s stupid.” Another idea popped in my head, one that would carry more weight. “Besides, the Sinners are all about being unbeaten, right? It’ll look bad if one your own goes down.”
Tone stroked his fingers through his neatly trimmed beard. “You have a point there. Creed will be all over my ass if I let our rep take a hit.”
“That won’t happen,” Monster said, stepping up behind me.
His arms went around my waist, right in front of everyone. A flush crept up my neck and cheeks, nearly distracting me. Nearly.
He said, “The word isn’t out yet that I’m a Sinner. Nikolai and his thugs have nothing to go on but my tattoo. This wouldn’t be the first time a fanboy got a tat so he could act like he was part of the club.”
Axle pulled a cigarette from somewhere.
Before he could get his lighter halfway to the end of it, Tone reached out and plucked the cigarette from his mouth. Without blinking, he crushed it underfoot, grinding the remains into the tile.
“I hate you,” Axle said. He didn’t look like he was kidding.
Tone flashed another of those quick smiles. “Yeah, yeah. Heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. Don’t forget our deal. If you don’t stop smoking in here, I’m not helping you organize your client files anymore.”
Axle grumbled something unkind under his breath before looking at Monster and me. His attention dipped to the hands wrapped around my waist. Even with the spotlight on us, I couldn’t feel ashamed about letting my back rest against his strong chest.
“Is it just me, or do y’all love to try and get yourselves killed over pussy?” Axle chuckled when Monster growled. “Just stating the obvious. But this ain’t a daycare. If that’s what you want to do, go for it. It’s a shit plan for a shit situation.”
Tone frowned at his friend and shook his head. “Go outside and smoke. Don’t come back until you pull your panties out of your ass.”
Axle kicked off the wall and headed towards the back, quickly dropping out of sight.
“He doesn’t have an ounce of tact,” Tone said. “But he isn’t wrong. This plan is shit. What are the odds that I can talk you out of deciding for a few days? There’s too much happening with this Palazzo mess. Trusted manpower is in short supply right this moment.”
Monster sighed, breath fanning over my ear. “It has to be tomorrow at the latest. That’ll give me some time to gather what I need and figure out how to get her mom out of there.”
“Hello!?” Did I need to do jumping jacks or something? “I’m right here. Don’t just talk about this like I don’t exist.”
Monster pressed his lips to my jaw, the stubble of his beard brushing against my skin. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
I almost laughed. “Of course not.”
“I figured you would say that.” His sigh was long.
All at once, he hiked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I was slow on the uptake, so he was already heading down the hall in Axle’s trail before I started beating at his back.
“What the hell? Put me the fuck down.”
“I don’t think so.” He grunted as my blows came heavier.
But I wasn’t making any progress or doing any damage. His pace didn’t even slow. I was chipping away at a mountain with a spoon.
Monster stopped and the sound of a heavy door being rolled to the side had me looking over my shoulder. I didn’t have a chance to ask why part of the parlor looked like it had been converted from a freezer in a warehouse. There was plush, black carpet, and a mattress with gold sheets in the middle. The rest of the room was empty but for a few sketches mounted to the ceiling.
Monster stepped in and tossed me. And I do mean tossed.
I was airborne long enough that landing on the bed took my breath away and sent pain lancing up my back. Gritting my teeth, I sat up and glared at him. Anger turned to surprise, then shifted straight to a dangerous cocktail of rage and disbelief when I saw his hand on the sliding door.
“Monster,” I said slowly, carefully, making sure there was no mistaking the I’ll fucking kill you for this note in my voice. “Don’t you dare.”
His brows bunched together, throat bobbing. “I’ve always broken things for my entire life. Let me fix this.”
I tried to get to my feet. I really, really did. But my body was telling me enough was enough. A spasm worked its way up my back when my feet hit the floor and I tried to stand.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I collapsed back onto the bed, breathing harder than the exertion warranted because of the pain.
“Stay,” he ordered, as if he was giving me a choice. “Recover. I promise I’ll bring her back to you, even if it’s the last thing I ever do right.”
You didn’t do anything wrong.
I’m sorry for blaming you.
Please, don’t go. We can figure this out together.
The words all wanted to flow at once, creating a traffic jam at the end of my tongue. As it was, nothing came out. The only thing I could do was lay there as Monster traced his eyes up and down my form like he was memorizing the sight of me in case he never saw me again.
His arm flexed and the door started to close.
My heart screamed. The sudden tightness in his expression said that not only could he hear it, but that his was screaming too.
Silence rang in my ears when the door shut.
But the screaming?
That didn’t stop.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Josie
You’re going to get one chance, I told myself. You have to make it count.
Where the inspirational speech had come from, I wasn’t sure.
Maybe it was a side effect from spending the last however many hours trapped in this cell. And calling it a cell was accurate.
Whose bed was this?
Why was the room barren otherwise?
Why was there a lock on the outside of the door?
Those were questions that plagued me, providing a welcome distraction from the panic that held my chest in a crushing grip.
Eyes closed, I took another deep breath and tried to calm down. I really didn’t know how much time had passed. When my body had finally allowed me to get to my feet, I spent an unhealthy amount of time pounding on the door and screaming, usually both things at once.
I kept that routine going until I collapsed against the door and passed out. An indefinite amount of time later, I got up and started all over again. The only thing that stopped me the second time was that my hand was on the verge of falling off after banging against a solid slab of metal for so long.
Things were already going to be crazy.
I wouldn’t be any good to Monster or Mom if I couldn’t use my limbs.
After accepting that the beating and screaming were getting me nowhere, I switched tactics. That was what brought me to the here and now, sitting cross-legged on the floor right in front of the door. Telling myself I was going to have a chance to get the hell out of there.
Monster might think his moniker fit him, but I’d met the man beneath the violence.
He’d invited me into his inner sanctum to keep me safe.
He’d taught me better ways to defend myself.
He’d raced across town in the cold just because I’d asked.
Whatever else he was, he was good. I was counting on that goodness coming into play here. He would send someone to check on me. Whoever it was, I was going to come out swinging. Then I was getting the hell out of here come hell or high water.
In the next heartbeat, the sound of the latch being thrown on the other side of the door reached me. A vicious grin split my lips. Even though I resembled a geriatric old woman as I slowly got to my feet, I was sure I was about to unleash a world of hurt on whoever had the misfortune of being on the other side of that door.
At least until it opene
d and I found two women staring curiously at me and the fist I had cocked and ready to fly.
One of them I recognized—angelic good looks, blonde hair that fell like a curtain down to her waist. She was the one whose purse I’d tried unsuccessfully to steal.
The other was about the same age as us with electric blue hair tied in a messy bun sitting on top of her head.
She stared at my fist. “Are you gonna do something with that? If not, you can go ahead and put it down. We don’t bite, and you look way too buff for either of us to deal with.”
I wet dry lips and let my shoulders relax.
This changed things. I could probably get away from them, but I’d underestimated the blonde once already. And because karma remained a cruel bitch, I wasn’t even surprised that a girl I’d tried to rob had ties to the very same Sinners that I couldn’t seem to get away from.
“You,” I said to the blonde. “Are you here to gloat?”
“About holding onto my purse?” Her voice was angelic too and I was oddly annoyed. She shrugged. “Hadn’t really crossed my mind. I don’t even know why I bothered, honestly. There wasn’t anything in it except coupons to a barbecue place.”
“Wait,” said the one with blue hair, giving her friend the side-eye. “You promised we were gonna check that out together. What were you doing wandering around town with the coupons in the first place?”
“Don’t give me that look, Kayla. I was just going to stop in and see what kind of appetizers they have. Is that such a crime?”
“When it’s you? Yeah, it actually is. Wherever you go, Texas is sure to follow. And once he finds out about it, so will the rest of them. We’ll never be able to get good seats because bikers will be crawling all over the place.”
Are they serious right now?
I was oddly entranced by their back and forth. They’d found me locked up in a bedroom and hadn’t said anything about it. I thought my life was interesting. Apparently, I had nothing on whatever these two had seen.
The blonde huffed. “You always say that! You’re basically Creed’s little sister at this point. You can always just tell people to move the hell out of your way and—”
I cleared my throat and they both turned to me, blinking. If I didn’t know better, I would think they’d genuinely forgotten I was here.
But that would be impossible.
Right?
“I hate to interrupt...whatever this is.” No, I don’t. “But I was planning on punching the first person I saw when that door opened. I stopped because I didn’t expect you two, and now it seems like it might be a good idea again.”
Kayla twirled her finger and pointed at the blonde. “Elizabeth volunteers as tribute. Thanks for taking one for the team.”
“I volunteer for no such thing! And did you just full-name me, Ms. Thomas? Don’t make me go there.” She turned to me, smiling so bright that I waited for a choir to chime in. “Lizzy works just fine. Welcome to the Sinner’s Angels, and yeah, the name is still a work in progress.”
This is it. I must've finally gotten punched in the head one too many times and fallen into a coma.
Things haven't felt quite real for a while.
“I think we lost her.” Kayla waved a hand in front of my face. “I told you we weren't meant to be jail-breakers.”
“No, we needed a better lead-in.”
“You try introducing yourself to a girl unafraid of Monster.”
His name was a trigger, setting off a painful chain reaction in my chest. I rubbed at the ache.
Definitely not a dream. Dreams don't hurt this much.
I glanced between my unlikely rescuers. “Monster. Where is he?”
Lizzy tugged my hand, leading me to the front of the shop. Darkness greeted me outside the window, inside as well. Axle was back in his recliner, feet kicked up. That he was wearing the clothes I’d seen him in last gave me hope that it was still the same day as I came to a screeching halt.
I pinned him with a glare, wondering how bad I would need to hurt him before I could make it out the door and find my hero before he made himself a martyr.
While I shuffled sideways, Axle scowled. But it was Lizzy who looked at me curiously.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
Somewhere behind me, Kayla snorted.
“You said this was a jailbreak.” I pointed a finger at the man across from us. “He was here when Monster locked me in there and didn’t lift a finger to help.”
“I’m an all-inclusive kind of asshole,” he muttered, folding his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. “So, I’m not going to lift a finger to keep you from getting the fuck out of my shop either. You’d be doing me a favor.”
“Ignore him.” Lizzy pulled me along again, headed outside. The cold gusts of wind bit at me as she walked towards a large Hummer and tossed me a pair of keys. “There. Anything else you need?”
My eyes narrowed on her. “What is this? Why are you helping me?”
Kayla came from behind and nudged me closer to the over-sized vehicle. “Because from everything we’ve heard about you, you don’t seem like the type to appreciate being locked in the castle while your man goes off to battle.”
“You don’t even know me,” I said, grateful for the cold to keep the warmth in my chest at bay. “What if I drive off into the distance and never come back?”
They both glanced at each other, sharing secret smiles.
Lizzy stepped forward suddenly and pulled me into a quick hug. She let go before I could squirm out of her grip.
“You’ll just have to trust us,” she said. “We know what it’s like to be involved with these guys. Even when you want to club them over the head...there’s just something there that hooks in soul-deep and won’t let go.”
She was so right it was making me uncomfortable.
Ever since that first day Monster appeared in the warehouse, he’d been a constant presence in my mind. He wouldn’t appreciate the comparison, but he was like glitter—impossible to get rid of.
I’d tried to shake him early on. Maybe not as hard as I should have, but who could blame me?
For the first time in years, I had something stable in my life. There wasn’t any question of whether I was going to starve. I wasn’t sleeping on park benches with one eye open and a knife clutched in my fist. I wasn’t shivering beneath a bridge in the rain, desperately praying I wouldn’t get sick.
Monster had given me a gift without even trying. Now, he was risking himself for Mom because she mattered to me.
I could be upset with him all I wanted later.
There would be plenty of time for curses and hate-fucking once I knew they were both okay.
The two women who had become my unlikely allies were still standing there with me in the cold, eyes dancing. Somehow, they already knew what decision I was going to make. From the sound of things, they’d known before they even opened the door.
And God, this was awkward all of a sudden.
I couldn’t remember the last time I had something close to a friend. Unless paying prostitutes to be on the lookout for the police counted, and I didn’t think it did.
How was I supposed to deal with this?
“Umm…” I tugged nervously at my braid. “Thanks for letting me out?”
Kayla snickered. “Are you asking us or—”
Lizzy elbowed her friend in the side, lips thinning. “Ignore her, she had shots on the way. You’re welcome. Now, go. Shoo!”
“I’ll bring this back,” I said, throwing the door open and climbing into the seat. Saying I had to climb wasn’t a joke either. The Hummer was lifted so far off the ground I almost needed a ladder.
“Don’t worry about it.” Lizzy smirked. “That’s not ours.”
I turned the engine over and the headlights beamed into the tattoo parlor while I frowned at her. “Whose is it then?”
She hooked a thumb over her shoulder.
Axle came charging out the door, fist in the air. Turns out, I
didn’t need a verbal answer to my question after all. I threw the large vehicle into reverse and peeled out of the parking lot, rolling the window up to the sound of his pissed-off yelling.
In the rear-view mirror, I saw Lizzy and Kayla playing interference. Axle stomping back into the shop. The two of them waving after me before doing the same.
I made a mental note to thank them appropriately next time I saw them. I also needed to apologize for trying to mug Lizzy. But as the road disappeared beneath me, those concerns drifted into the background.
Worry pinched my gut as I drove straight towards the place I was supposed to be meeting Nikolai. If there was a sliver of luck left somewhere in my metaphysical tank, Monster wouldn’t have been able to find them yet.
Maybe I could get in there, enact the plan I’d concocted before I ran into Monster again, and get out without either of us losing anything.
Except I knew better than to spend too long hoping for something that foolish.
Knuckles paling as I clenched the wheel, I drove faster.
If we made it out of this, I was going to kick his ass and kiss the hell out of him. I wasn’t sure which was one going to come first, and it didn’t matter either.
Making it in time before I lost the two people that carried my heart side by side with theirs was the only thing that did.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Monster
Thugs never grow past a certain point, do they?
The abandoned house Nikolai was holed up in looked like it had seen better days.
What was once white paint had been assaulted by the elements until it was piss-stain yellow with gaping holes in the exterior. The beams that once made up a wraparound porch were either missing or falling over completely, making the awning on the front hang to one side like a crooked smile complete with missing teeth.
I approached slowly, aware of the figures moving in the cracked windows. Of course they were watching me. They would be dumb not to. I made a big ass target and that was the point.
The more they paid attention to me, the less chance they did anything to the woman I was here for.
Monster: A Seven Sinners Novel Page 20
