Savage Kings MC Box Set 2

by Lane Hart

  “Sax?” Isobel shouts fearfully from underneath me.

  “Are you okay?” I ask her.

  “Y-yeah, I-I think so,” she stammers, her voice shaking. At least, I think that’s what she says. My ears are filled with a high-pitched keening, that thankfully begins to fade after a few moments.

  “Just stay still a little longer. I’m gonna get us out of here soon,” I promise her.

  Once the worst of the debris seems to have fallen down on us, I lift my head to glance over and check on Gabe.

  He’s lying face down on the ground, arms covering the back of his head to protect it while shouting a string of profanities.

  “You still in one piece?” I ask him.

  “Yeah, you?” he replies as he lowers his hands to the pavement to push himself up into a sitting position.

  “I think so,” I respond, lifting my weight off of Isobel so she can breathe.

  “Sorry if I hurt you,” I tell her when I get to my feet and offer Isobel a hand up. “Are you all right?”

  “No. No, I’m fine,” she says while dusting tiny pieces of gravel from her knees that are raw and scraped.

  “What the fuck just happened?” Gabe exclaims as he puts his phone to his ear. “Shit,” he mutters. “Coop’s not answering!”

  “I’ll try Torin,” I say since the clubhouse is right across the street from Avalon. If he’s there, he’ll be the closest who can help. “You need to call Abe right now and let him know you’re safe before he hears about the studio from someone else and panics,” I tell Gabriel.

  “Yeah, okay,” he murmurs. “Dammit, now I can’t remember his number. Oh, right.”

  I try to remove my own phone from my cut, but fuck if my hands aren’t still shaking with adrenaline. I know without a doubt that if Gabe hadn’t been running late, the three of us would have been inside, and all of us would be seriously fucked up, if not dead. Isobel could’ve died, and it would’ve been my fault for bringing her here.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask her as she stands frozen, staring at the flames shooting out of the shop.

  “This…this is why you need a bucket list,” she says, her eyes wide and face stunned. “We almost…we could’ve…”

  “God, I’m so damn sorry this happened,” I tell her as I wind my left arm around her, clutching my phone in my right hand while I hold her to me.

  “Why? Who would do something like this?” she lifts her face to mine and asks, her greenish-blue eyes sad, scared and confused.

  And just like that, a name comes to mind.

  Her father’s not so fucking insane that he would come after the Savage King businesses I just told him about last night, is he?

  I need to find out if Avalon was hit too; because if so, the other Kings’ buildings could be at risk.

  “What?” Isobel asks. “What was that look? You know who did this?”

  “No,” I reply since I’m not one hundred percent sure yet. “I’m just worried about the other Kings.” Keeping one arm around her, I flip open my phone and try to call Torin, and then his brother, Chase, our VP, when he doesn’t answer. Both of the calls go straight to voicemail.

  “I can’t believe it,” Gabe whispers across from us, pacing with the phone to his ear as he watches what’s left of his tattoo shop burn to the ground. “I can’t fucking believe it! Everything I own just POOF, gone,” he grumbles before his brother must pick up. “Abe, holy shit bro, you won’t believe what just happened! I’m okay, but my shop sure as hell is not. It just blew up! Had to be a bomb or some shit in a planned attack because we think Avalon may have been hit too.”

  My next phone call is to Reece, our all-knowing IT expert.

  “Can’t really talk right now, Sax,” Reece says when he thankfully answers the phone after several rings. “Avalon just went up in fucking flames!”

  “Is everyone whole? Cooper okay? Was he in there?” I ask him in a rush.

  “Coop is pretty fucked up,” he says. “Torin and Cedric just pulled him out of the rubble and loaded him into the van,” he says. “Torin doesn’t want to take him to the hospital until we find out who the hell did this, so we’re taking him to the safehouse in Sandy Creek. He needs a doctor bad. He’s rambling and shit, in a lot of pain. There’s a ton of shrapnel in his arms and chest that we’re gonna have to dig out.”

  “Shit,” I mutter, understanding Torin’s concern even though it sucks. We can’t protect Cooper if he’s out in public where anyone can ask and find his room to finish the job. But he needs some type of medical attention. Isobel’s hand rubs soothing circles over the back of my cut, like she knows I need the comfort. Which is when it hits me that she could help Coop. It’s perfect, actually. Almost too perfect…

  Without another thought, I tell Reece, “I’m with a nurse right now over at Gabe’s. His shop blew up too, but we were all standing outside when it happened. We’ll meet you at the safehouse in half an hour.”

  “You’re with a nurse? Fuck, that’s lucky. See ya then, man,” Reece says when he ends the call.

  As soon as Isobel’s hand freezes and then she takes a step back out of my arms, I know I’ve fucked up.

  “How…how did you know I’m a nurse?” she asks softly, eyes wide in surprise.

  “You’re not the only one who takes precautions with lovers,” I hedge. “I looked you up on the internet, saw that photo of you with a bunch of kids in Africa or whatever getting vaccines.”

  “Oh,” she mutters, her voice telling me she’s still not convinced.

  “It wasn’t hard to figure out your last name since you’re the governor’s daughter,” I point out. “You are a nurse, right?” I ask, finally letting myself look at her face.

  “Yeah, I am. I was,” she answers quickly with a shake of her head.

  “Why did you give it up?”

  “Long story,” Isobel says with a wave of her hand. “Why don’t you tell me what’s happened and where we’re going?”

  “One of our brothers, Cooper, manages Avalon, a strip club the Savage Kings MC owns right down the road where that first explosion was. He was inside the club when this shit happened,” I say, waving a hand toward the smoke in the distance.

  “How badly is he injured? Why aren’t they taking him to the hospital?” she asks.

  “Shrapnel is all Reece said; and until we know who attacked us, it’s not safe for any of us to be in public. That could just make a hospital a target.”

  “I’m a pediatric nurse. What if I can’t help him?” she asks.

  “If you think he needs to go to the hospital, then we’ll take him to one out of state, or whatever we need to do,” I tell her. “Okay?”

  “Okay,” she agrees.

  “Gabe!” I yell to get his attention since he’s still on the phone, probably with his brother asking a million questions. “We need to get to the safehouse in Sandy Creek off of highway seventy-four,” I say while Isobel and I get our helmets on. “Tell Abe to meet us there too.”

  Once he gives a nod, we hurry onto my bike and take off.

  As promised, I have us rolling up at the safehouse in less than thirty minutes. I pull down the driveway and ride around to the back of the house to park my bike with the row of other Harleys hidden from view.

  “You were taking it easy on me before,” Isobel says when she climbs off the back of the bike and stumbles. I jump off quickly and grab her arm to steady her.

  “We weren’t in a hurry before,” I reply, removing her helmet and setting it on the seat to take her hand. “Come on,” I tell her, leading her to the back door.

  It opens before we get there. Then Torin is filling it, his pistol already in his hand.

  “Who the fuck is she?” our president asks with a nod towards Isobel. Reece must not have filled him in. He even puts his free hand up on the door frame to keep us out.

  “I’m the fucking nurse,” Isobel responds before I can even open my mouth. She lets go of my hand and ducks down, slipping right underneath Tor
in’s arm.

  His jaw gapes as he turns and watches her disappear into the house. Not many people would ever think about standing up to our president. Straightening, Torin faces me again as he holsters his pistol. Crossing his arms over his chest, his green eyes narrow and his cheek ticks in annoyance before he says, “Explain who the hell that was.”

  “Her name is Isobel. I met her a few days ago, and she’s a pediatric nurse. Or at least she used to be, but she’s on a hiatus.”

  “She doesn’t look like any nurse I’ve ever seen,” he mutters.

  “I think that’s pretty much her goal,” I tell him, remembering her comment about her current look being a costume. “But if she can help Cooper…”

  “Yeah,” he replies with a sigh, dropping his arms back to his sides. “Sorry. I’m just on edge since we don’t have a goddamn clue who the fuck blew up Avalon.”

  “I know, I get it,” I tell him. “Did Reece tell you about Gabe’s shop?”

  “What about Gabe’s shop?” Torin asks.

  “Savage Ink blew up while Isobel, Gabe and I were standing outside of it. We weren’t hurt, but the shop is toast.”

  “Goddamn it!” he exclaims before spinning around to slam his fist into the siding.

  “It’s fucked up; but if anyone can figure it out, Reece can,” I assure him.

  “I had hoped Avalon went up because of a gas line or some shit. Guess that was naïve of me,” Torin grumbles while cradling his now bloody knuckles.

  “How’s Coop doing?” I ask.

  “He was lucky,” Torin replies. “From across the street, we didn’t think it was possible for anyone to survive and hoped he hadn’t come in to work yet. But then we saw his bike, and there he was under a pile of debris on the backside of what was left of the building.”

  “Fuck,” I grumble as I swipe the sweat from my brow.

  “Peyton told Dalton that the ATF is all over this shit already, wanting us to answer questions, tell them who could’ve been behind it.”

  Sighing as I inwardly cringe when I think of who may be to blame, I say, “And we can’t exactly sit down and turn over a list of our enemies without implicating ourselves in a fuck ton of crimes.”

  “Exactly,” Torin replies. “Most of the guys are inside. The women and kids are heading back to the safehouse in South Carolina, which I absolutely fucking hate because we can’t protect them there. But Cooper was in too much pain to make it down to South Carolina. And there’s just not enough room here. Besides, we can’t take the chance of any of us leading whoever is behind this disaster home.”

  “Right, yeah,” I agree after he finishes his rant. “Shit!” I yell when I suddenly remember I haven’t done my job. “I need to get a message out to the other charters.”

  “You haven’t done that yet?” he asks incredulously. “Good thing the women all had each other’s phone numbers!”

  “Sorry. I’ll do it right this second,” I tell him as I rush to get my phone in my hands, praying that there haven’t been any attacks in any other cities with Savage Kings charters. “What should we say?” I ask. “Just tell them that Avalon was blown up and to increase security on all Savage Kings establishments until further notice?”

  “That’s all we can say right now,” he agrees with a nod. “You should ask them to report any other attacks in their area, and maybe mention that one brother was injured, but should make a full recovery so they won’t panic, thinking we’ve been wiped out.”

  “Okay,” I say as I quickly type it all into an email and then send it to the entire Savage King list, which goes to around two thousand members nationwide. “There. Done.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Isobel

  I don’t have to ask where the injured Savage King is. The crowd gathered in the hallway at the first bedroom is the dead giveaway.

  “Excuse me,” I say to the dark-haired man covered in tats. “Coming through.”

  “Sorry,” he grunts when he turns around and we’re face to face. Frowning down at me, he says, “Hold up. Who the hell are you?”

  “Jeez, are you all this polite?” I mutter. “I’m with Sax and I’m a nurse, so do you want me to see if I can help your friend or not?”

  “Sorry,” he mutters again. Not only does he step aside, he also shouts, “Get your asses out of the way! Nurse coming through!”

  The rest of the guys in leather vests listen to him, making a path for me to squeeze into the room where a shirtless man in torn jeans is laying on the center of a queen-sized bed. He’s bleeding from the cuts and slashes on his face, arms and torso. When I’m by his side, his glazed over, pale blue eyes meet mine. “J-jenna?” he croaks softly.

  “Ah, no. I’m Isobel and I’m a nurse. Can you tell where it hurts the most,” I say slowly and clearly before I lift his wrist to take his pulse. Only once the words leave my mouth do I realize I’m talking to him like a child.

  “No!” he exclaims, jerking his hand out of my grip. “Jenna! Help Jenna first!”

  I turn to look at the faces of the men standing around us to see if Jenna is here, and if I need to check on her first. One of the guys with a reddish-blond beard and sad green eyes gives a slight shake of his head. So either they didn’t find her yet or he’s delusional.

  Well, that really sucks. And I don’t want to upset the guy even more.

  Grabbing his hand again, I tell him, “Jenna’s worried about you,” I lie. “Let me see how you’re doing so I can let her know.”

  His confused eyes watch my lips and then he shouts, “What? What’s going on? I can’t hear you! Where’s Jenna?”

  “He’s been like this since we found him,” the red bearded guy speaks up and says. “We keep telling him what happened, over and over again, and he keeps asking us and wanting to know about someone named Jenna.”

  “Does anyone have a flashlight?” I ask when I realize what could be the problem. Then, I remember my phone is in my purse hanging across the front of my body and quickly pull it out. Turning on the light app, I hold it up to the injured man’s right ear and then lean over him to look at the left one. “His ears are bleeding,” I tell his friends. “I think his eardrums may have blown, which explains why he’s shouting and not able to understand what we’re telling him. He can’t hear us.”

  “Fuck,” a buff guy with a shaved head who looks ex-military says. “Is it permanent?”

  “I can’t say for sure. Sometimes after a trauma there’s improvement within a few days and some, if not all, hearing returns to normal. Sometimes there can be a significant loss, though. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “What supplies do you need?” the military man asks me.

  “An antiseptic solution to start cleaning out the cuts would be good. Gauze and bandages to cover them, a thermometer, and ah, an intravenous sedative or pain reliever if you have it?”

  “I’ll see what Eddie has and have him get his ass over here,” the man tells me before he slips out and makes room for Sax to come in.

  “Jesus,” Sax mutters when he sees his buddy. “Anyone see who did this?”

  “Not yet,” Red Beard replies. “Reece said it’s a fucking ghost, for all we know. Just a man in a black hoodie that went into the club last night but never shows the cameras his face. No vehicle, so no plates either.”

  “Oh shit,” Gabe, the tattoo artist mutters when he joins us in the bedroom. “A guy in a black hoodie wearing a backpack came in the shop last night,” he tells the group. “He asked to use the bathroom, and I was in the middle of a back tat, so I just told him to have at it. I didn’t even get a good look at him.”

  “Goddamn it,” someone groans.

  “He must have put a bomb up in the air vents or some shit,” another person opines.

  “So far we haven’t heard from any other charters about similar attacks,” Sax tells the room when everyone goes quiet. “So at least there’s that.”

  “Which means it’s personal,” the big, angry guy from the back door says w
hen he comes into the room. Everyone’s attention turns to him, like he’s the one in charge, a man they look up to. “Someone’s coming after our charter, and we need to figure out who they are and how to stop them. Right now Jade has sheriff’s deputies stationed outside of the clubhouse, hotel and salvage yard. But there aren’t enough uniforms to watch all of our homes. All we can do is hope that’s all the destruction they planned for us.” Facing me, he says, “Thanks for taking care of Cooper. I really hope we can trust you.”

  “You can,” Sax says before I can even reassure him. And even with everything going on, I can tell that there’s something he isn’t telling us. Sax has an idea who did this but wouldn’t tell me.

  And I would have to be an idiot not to have a pretty good guess who it is myself.

  Would my father risk killing people just because he doesn’t like the man I lied and told him I’m in love with?

  Now I wish I had never asked Sax to go along with such a stupid idea with the sole intention of pissing off my father because it may have seriously backfired.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Sax

  “The nurse is a keeper,” War says when we all head to the backyard to wait for Abe, our last member to arrive, so we can talk shit over as a group.

  “You think so?” I ask, even though I already know Isobel is. My problem isn’t wanting to keep her but convincing her to stop running.

  “Yeah, she looks like a woman who can roll with the punches. And it would be nice to have a nurse around twenty-four-seven.”

  “No shit,” I snort. “But Isobel is a free-spirit. I’m not sure if she’s the type to settle down.”