SURVIVING SAVANNAH: GODS OF CHAOS MC (BOOK 16)

by Honey Palomino

  “I have to go slow so her body can process the toxins. If I do it all at once, it’ll show up in the autopsy.”

  I was lying, of course, and half-hoping for a miracle. The toxins would show up no matter what, I was just trying to come up with a way to falsify the medical examiner’s report and buy some time. And I was kind of hoping that something would happen so that I didn’t have to kill this woman at all. So far, that wasn’t looking so good.

  “You should have taken care of her when it happened,” Anton said. “Keeping her alive is useless. We don’t know what she heard, but I’m sure it was enough to bring us all down.”

  “I’m just trying to figure out how to get the report changed,” I said, sullenly.

  “We can take care of that,” Anton barked, clearly impatient. “Do it by tomorrow, Davenport. Stop pussy-footing around, goddammit!”

  I sighed, nodding in agreement. The vial of poison was still in my coat in my office back at the hospital. If I gave her the whole thing, it would be over in seconds.

  The crash still haunted me, and sometimes when I was trying to go to sleep, I could still see Cherry’s twisted body trapped in that car. I hated that I’d been the one to cause that. We’d been at the cemetery that night, Anton wanted to talk through everything and scout out a new location he was considering, but we’d thought we were alone. Cherry heard everything, most likely. By the time we figured out she was there, we’d said a lot.

  Too much.

  Anton told me to go after her, to do whatever it took to shut her up and I knew what that meant. When she jumped in her car, I knew I could easily out run her in my Porsche. Something desperate sparked inside of me as I thought about all the damage she could do with what she’d heard. I hadn’t been involved in the other murders, but I was sure as hell involved now, even if it was against my will.

  I caught up to her and swerved into her. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I barely bumped her car, but she went tumbling and flipping through the air. After that, everything happened so fast. I ran to look in the car but I saw she was still alive and I just froze.

  I left her there and jumped back in my car and sped away. I paid a small fortune to quietly have someone come fix my car out at my parent’s place, and I kept my mouth shut and did my best to shove down the guilt I felt at hurting Cherry.

  I’d never admit any of this to anyone, of course. I just kept silently going along, hoping I’d come up with some way to get out of all of this alive.

  “Now, on to the important stuff,” Anton continued. “This weekend is the weekend we’ve been waiting for, gentlemen. The virgin’s birth is a day to be celebrated and a day to worship the spirits that so generously gifted her to us. We will drink the milk of purity and we will chant and sing to our goddess, Luna, and we will bathe in her light and dance in her shadows and receive the forgiveness we so seek.”

  “Amen,” the others said in unison.

  It was hard not to roll my eyes. None of this made any fucking sense. It was just these stupid old men who got together and stroked each other’s egos at the expense of some poor girl’s life.

  They were so arrogant that they thought their yearly purity ritual from the last few years was what had given them success. It was a twisted tale of greed and blood and sacrifice and violence that made absolutely no sense, as if anything like that ever did.

  “Carlisle, do you have all the supplies?”

  “I do,” he agreed, his eyes shining with sick glee.

  Once again, the feeling of being trapped was overwhelming and I fought the urge to flee.

  “Davenport, do you have your plans in place?”

  “I’m trying,” I said, exasperation washing over me.

  “Trying isn’t good enough,” Anton warned. “If you don’t bring us the offering, we’re going to have to choose for you.”

  The choice I had to make was impossible. This is what Anton was holding over me.

  “Are you sure we can’t consider someone else?” I asked.

  “We’ve talked about this before,” Finley said. I glared over at him, in disbelief that he could so easily go through with this. “Our family was chosen, son. That’s just the way it has to be. If you don’t choose between Magnolia or Clementine, then we’ll have to decide for you.”

  “Rose is your daughter,” I said. “This will break her!”

  “Rose is a good woman, who has served us all well, even you, I might add,” he replied.

  “They’re all three humans, and they don’t deserve this,” I said.

  “This isn’t about what anyone deserves, Davenport,” Anton said, trying hard to put on his fatherly voice but just sounding like a villain instead. “This is about continuing the lifeblood of this town. It may not make sense to you now, but someday it will. Life needs blood, and blood needs life, son.”

  “I understand it now,” Carlisle said, shaking his head with sick enthusiasm. “I know the pain I felt at losing Josephine was worth it, because now I’m pure, too.”

  “You’re not pure, you have the blood of your child on your hands!”

  I was pushing it, I knew that. Any one of them could whip out a gun and shoot me right there, and then kill either of my girls after that.

  “That’s enough!” Anton barked, his anger surfacing.

  “You will do as we demand, Davenport. We’ve given you everything. A wife, kids, a career, a community. It’s time you paid the price for that. Unfortunately, we don’t accept cash as a form of payment anymore,” Bradley said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Are you threatening me?” I asked. I’d never pushed back this hard, but the thought of what they were asking me to do was just too much.

  “Consider it a promise, son,” Anton said, standing up and coming face-to-face with me. “Bring us the girl. Or else.”

  He turned on his heel and left us all there. I shook my head, looking at them all with disgust, before heading back towards the front door and leaving.

  Chapter 41

  RYDER

  Davenport had only been inside the house a short while before he stormed out, his face contorted with intense anger. I waited for him to start up his black Porsche to leave, and moved to follow him, but then the front door opened and several other men poured out of the home.

  I grabbed my camera and started snapping photos of them, until they’d all climbed into their respective cars, and then I took photos of their license plates.

  Something about this doctor wasn’t right, that I was sure of.

  I’d decided to follow him to see what I could find out and this all looked like a good place to start digging.

  I sent the photos to Riot for analyzing, texted all the Gods to meet me at my hotel in the morning, and headed back to Grace and Sadie for the night.

  Chapter 42

  SLADE

  Saturday night in Savannah was a little bit sleepy. The town seemed to roll up by midnight, leaving not much for me to do but hang out in my ghostly room or stroll through the ghostly park across the street.

  Since I was a night owl, and opposed to getting assaulted again, I opted for lots of booze to get me through the night again. I figured if I was drunk enough, maybe I wouldn’t notice what the ghosts were doing to me.

  Ironically, I’d still not heard the voices of any children while I was here, although, admittedly I’d spent as much time outside of this damned inn as I could. I still wasn’t giving in. Riot kept digging to see if I was freaked out, but I kept my cool and didn’t let him see me sweat at all. Once we were back home, though, he had a fistful of knuckles just waiting to make contact with that handsome face of his.

  I wandered through the city for a few hours, drinking discretely from my flask, smiling at the few people I passed by. With all the bars closed, everyone seemed to have headed home.

  I was so alone it almost made me feel like a ghost myself.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about poor Zelda. What it must have felt like to lose two children at once like
that. Since I’d heard the story, I couldn’t even look at the fireplace in my room and I gave it a wide berth when I was in there.

  Bored and drunk, I finally stumbled back to my room at three in the morning, doing my best not to make a sound as I fought the creaky stairs to my room. Once I was locked in, I peeled off my clothes and fell right into bed, without a thought of Zelda at all.

  Instead, I dreamt of Diana, beautiful and sweet, waiting for me at home. I missed her like hell and couldn’t wait to get home to devour her. She was so patient with my insatiable appetite for her and always took the time to make sure I was happy.

  She was the best thing that ever happened to me, and as I drifted off to sleep, I had a smile on my face and knew I’d dream of her, just like I always did when I was away from home.

  Hours passed, the moon rising and falling outside my window, the weeping willows blowing softly in the night. Diana danced through my head, her green eyes sparkling, her blonde hair blowing in the breeze, her pure smile lighting up my heart as she danced around behind me, pressing her body into mine, her hand reaching down and grabbing my throbbing cock from behind.

  I moaned and leaned back into her, rolling my hips back, giving her full access to my hardness. Her fingers wrapped around me, sliding up and down and pulling the pleasure from deep inside my body, until it was too much — I needed more, I needed all of her.

  With my eyes shut tight, I reached over and pulled her on top of me, her warmth sliding down my shaft one extraordinary inch at a time. She moved with an increasing rhythm, her smooth center white-hot with wetness.

  “Oh, baby,” I cried out. She squeezed me tightly as she pulled herself up and then slammed back down on my hips, my cock buried as deep as it could go. Over and over, she worked her body onto mine, until she whipped against me furiously, violently. I reached up, my hands sliding over her hips, her waist, her big, voluptuous tits —

  My eyes flew open in surprise.

  Diana’s tits were small and perky, they were in no way big or voluptuous. I blinked hard, trying to make some sense of the dark foggy vision in front of me. A flash of green eyes, a lock of red curls, and then the fog was gone, slowly dissipating in the air like a puff of pot smoke.

  Fear gripped my gut as I sat up in bed.

  I was naked, my cock was wet and hard, and my heart was pounding like a drum.

  But I was completely alone.

  I reached down, touching the moisture on my cock and bringing my hand to my nose to sniff it, my jaw dropping when I realized it was the same rosy scent of perfume I’d smelled earlier, when I’d gotten slapped on the ass.

  “Goddamnit, Zelda! I’m married!” I growled, falling back on the bed.

  Chapter 43

  CHERRY

  The darkness lifted.

  My eyes blinked awake to the sound of beeping machines, and I looked around at the room I was in.

  A hospital room.

  Alone.

  A window ledge lined with flowers and cards.

  A notebook and pen on the table nearby.

  The curtain, slightly open and giving me a peek of a distant moon.

  I smiled, remembering my moments in the darkness with Doc. He’d reminded me of a strength I’d forgotten that I possessed. He’d reminded me who I was. Why I should fight.

  There was always a purpose.

  With alarming clarity, everything came back to me. I grabbed the notebook and pen and began writing, starting at the beginning and not putting the pen down until I’d reached the end.

  Someone would read it.

  And if I didn’t make it, for whatever reason, I’d done my part to save the girl. I could go back to the darkness with a light in my heart, knowing I’d done the right thing.

  I laid back down in bed, pulling the covers back over my body and went back to look for Doc again.

  I never could get enough of that man.

  Chapter 44

  DEREK

  I pulled up to Rose’s house and was happy to see that fucking motorcycle wasn’t there. Even Rose’s car was gone, but Maggie’s SUV was in the driveway. Rose had fought me like hell when I said I wanted to get it for Maggie’s sixteenth birthday. She’d said it was too expensive. She said she might wreck it. We should get her something used and beat up for her first car.

  I’m glad now I didn’t listen to Rose.

  I felt bad for Maggie. She’d been miserable lately and I suspected it had a lot more to do with the divorce than it did the usual teen angst that she was going through.

  Unfortunately, I was never one to bring the girl comfort. We just never clicked, never really bonded. She was Rose’s daughter and they’d been best friends most of Maggie’s life, until they just weren’t anymore. I don’t know what happened between them, but to be honest, I was never really around too much anyway. I always chalked it up to the usual mother-daughter struggles.

  I walked up to the front porch, remembering the way Blade’s fist had sent me flailing down them. My ass and side still hurt from the way I’d landed on the bottom step. And I was still jealous of the strength of his punch. I wasn’t sure my pride would ever recover. I was just thankful nobody else had been there to see it happen, because I’d never live it down if they had.

  After realizing that if I sued him, I’d have to admit in public that he’d kicked my ass fair and square, I opted out of that real quick. Besides, I had more important stuff to worry about right now.

  I paused at the front door — the very door that I’d picked out myself, that I would normally just fling open or unlock with my own key, and the one that I was expected to actually knock on now. It was irritating and unnerving and the anger rolling through my veins had me fantasizing about kicking the damned thing open, but I was already in enough lingering pain that I didn’t need my feet fucked up, too.

  I opted for a polite knock and impatiently waited until Maggie opened the door.

  “Oh. Hey,” she said, pulling open the door and walking away, neither surprised or happy to see me.

  “What kind of greeting is that?” I asked. “No kiss for Dad?”

  She turned back and half-hugged me before walking away and plopping down on the couch. She grabbed the remote and absentmindedly began flipping through the channels.

  “I was hoping we could talk, Maggie,” I said.

  She shrugged, without looking my way. “So talk.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Where’s your Mom?”

  “She went to pick up Clem. She stayed at a friend’s house this weekend.”

  So Rose was alone most of the weekend. Or, rather had the house to herself without the kids. I pushed away the thought of what she and Blade may have been doing and concentrated on Maggie.

  “I want to make up this missed weekend, Maggie. Instead of hanging out at my place this coming weekend, how about we take the week off and go to Hilton Head together for your birthday?” I asked, trying to sound happy and convincing. She looked over at me suspiciously.

  “You can take the week off school,” I said. “Your mom might resist but I think I can talk her into it.”

  “No,” she said, finally, shaking her head.

  “What do you mean, no? I get you for your birthday, the court said so. We’ve known this for months now. And I could use some time away from work. We both need this, let’s do it. What do you say?”

  “No!” She insisted.

  “Maggie!” I shouted, anger rising in my throat. “I’m not taking no for an answer, young lady!”

  “I don’t want to! I want to spend my birthday with my friends, Dad! What don’t you understand about that?”

  “Maggie, I —.” My phone rang out, breaking the tension between us. I pulled it out and saw it was Beddingham. “I have to take this.” I answered and walked through the kitchen and into the back yard. “Davenport.”

  “I didn’t appreciate your attitude yesterday, Davenport,” he said.

  “I’m not sure what you expect,” I said. “This isn’t easy.”
>
  “Of course it isn’t,” he replied. “Important things aren’t always easy. And this is big, I understand. We’re asking a lot of you, Davenport. But it’s important you don’t let us down. You understand that, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you take care of the problem at the hospital?”

  I sighed. “Not yet, I’m heading into work in a few minutes. I’ll take care of that then.”

  “Excellent,” he said. “Now, about the other issue. Do we need to make this choice for you or can you truly take care of this yourself? We have a preference, of course. We can save the younger girl for later. But, if this is too much for you, Davenport, just say so and we can have someone else take care of Magnolia for you.”

  “I can take care of Maggie myself!” I barked, fury pounding through my head.

  “Very good then,” he said. “See that it’s taken care of. You don’t have much time.”

  The phone clicked in my ear and I shoved it back in my pocket. I was exhausted and exasperated and more than anything, I needed a fucking drink.

  Anton wanted me to sacrifice my daughter for him. And if I didn’t, he’d take them both. They wanted Maggie because the rumor in town was that she was still a virgin. It was her eighteenth birthday, and she was not only a Finley, she had Davenport blood, too. To them, she was the purest of pure, and her blood would absolve them of whatever bullshit they thought they needed to be absolved of.

  And if I didn’t agree, they’d take matters into their own hands.

  It was a situation that I never would be able to win. Unless we left and I bought some time to think of a way out. That’s why I was desperate to get away — now.

  I walked back into the house and Maggie was still sitting on the couch glaring at me. I didn’t have the strength to argue with her anymore.

  “We’re leaving tomorrow. Be packed in the morning,” I said, heading for the kitchen. I opened the cabinet we kept the liquor in and poured myself a big glass of whiskey, then turned back to Maggie.