Outlaw's Vow: Grizzlies MC Romance (Outlaw Love)

by Snow, Nicole

  The whole area had seen better times. The abandoned power plant was flanked by several old warehouses and factories with busted out windows. Leaving my bike parked at the rear, I headed for the one I'd seen with the most smashed windows, giving me several good places to set up shop and figure out who's head I'd blow apart first.

  I climbed about a dozen flights of stairs to reach some high ground. The place was a fucking disaster zone with broken floors and exposed beams. I kicked aside several ratty sleeping bags on my way in, trash left by bums or urban explorers who'd come through over the years.

  Taking a careful look around on the top floor, I made sure it was just me and ghosts here. Then I stayed low, making sure nobody saw my shadow filling the few remaining windows. The rifle went up fast, and I warmed it with my greedy hands, priming myself for action as I looked through the scope.

  Shit had one hell of a magnifier. I could see the Dragons better than I could through my binoculars. The early morning light coming over the horizon helped too.

  Fucking waiting game. I had to be patient, wait for just the right moment to start dropping the fuckers.

  All the time I'd spent on the range learning exotic weapons was about to pay dividends. I held my breath, struggling to keep my white hot rage from making me pull the trigger as I watched those fucks shuffle through my scope, oblivious to the fact that they were all about to be snuffed out like goddamned flies.

  I wanted to see that fucker, Zee, poke his head out. Elle described him to a tee, so I knew exactly what to look for, an older man with graying hair and crazy fucking eyes.

  If I could pop his head, it'd sew confusion in the ranks. They'd be falling to pieces by the time the boys pulled up, ripe for slaughter, and then –

  “Fuck,” I muttered, stunned to see the same white van that drove outta the warehouse we'd blown to kingdom come in Tacoma.

  It rounded the corner and parked next to the old loading dock. The driver got out and opened the doors, waiting while several of his boys marched outside, towing a prisoner behind them.

  Gil looked like absolute shit. The motherfuckers had carved up his face, lacing it with thick, deep cuts, shit that wouldn't just scar and fade if he managed to live through today. The stump where his hand had been hung limply at his side, and he walked like they'd fucked up one knee, dragging his right leg behind him.

  What came out behind him was even worse. I saw Elle being dragged in chains, manhandled by two sick motherfuckers.

  My vision through the scope went blood red. My finger trembled on the fucking trigger. I narrowed my field of vision to the assholes holding her, looking for a reason to shoot their heads off, plus anything that would prevent my girl from getting shot or stabbed the moment I did.

  That was the damned catch.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  They were taking them away. Relocating. Running like the vermin they were.

  I couldn't let them drive the fuck off! Steam hissed out my mouth in a cold puff as I sighed, sucking in a big breath to hold.

  Watching, waiting, hoping for a miracle.

  The Chinese piled them both into the back of the van and slammed the doors shut. My rifle followed the van as it drove to the front gate, keeping my target fixed on the bored as shit fucknut driving it.

  He'd die first. I had to kill him, and the other shithead in the passenger seat before they rolled through that gate onto the open road. Then maybe I could pick off any other assholes dumb enough to approach the vehicle, before they –

  “Fuck!” I swore louder this time, banging my fist on the ground.

  My boys picked the worst time in the world to roll up, just as the van stopped at the gate, waiting for it to open.

  The biggest pile of shit in the universe hit the fan and got flung to the furthest corners of creation.

  I locked onto the asshole driver, just as the Chinese heard the motorcycles and started to panic. The rifle barked, jerked in my hands, and the windshield exploded into broken fragments, stained red with his gore.

  His fuckhead passenger in the next seat over managed to reach for the handle to pop his door before I took him out. One shot collapsed his skull, took his face clean off. His headless body rolled out the open door and flopped on the ground.

  Blackjack looked almost as confused as the Dragon motherfuckers storming outta the building like angry hornets, their guns drawn.

  Didn't stop him from riding behind Roman's truck. It took down the gate like a fucking battery ram, and I watched the firefight start through my scope like a civil war general, men on both sides screaming, running, shooting at each other.

  The Chinese had some tricks up their sleeves, but we had more. Several fuckheads popped up on the rooftops, looking for the sniper, without having any clue I'd gone lone wolf.

  I took them out in seconds. Tried like hell not to focus too hard on the van, praying Elle and Gil would be all right.

  Yeah, that's right, I even hoped her asshole old man would survive, because anything that happened to him in the back of that shitty white van was bound to hurt my girl too. Plus keeping his evil ass alive would save her heart from getting torn into a million pieces.

  My rifle shifted across the battlefield. I killed a few more Chinese hiding behind crates, shooting at Rabid and Brass as they smashed their way in, heading toward the door with the Tacoma brothers close behind.

  Roman circled for the van, and I breathed my first sigh of relief since this shit started.

  The wind blew fierce, and I saw Blackjack turn around and follow it, his eyes scanning the walls of the broken old place where I'd holed up.

  I'd given them a huge advantage – the boys would just have to pick off the ones inside now. Time to get the fuck down there and fight with them, man-on-man.

  I ran down the same flights of dirty stairs and climbed on my bike, holding the sniper rifle on my side.

  When I rode across the street and crossed over the broken down gate, the Prez shook his head, shooting me a death glare while he tried not to grin.

  I'd done him a big fucking favor. I'd saved lives. But I'd still disobeyed a direct order, and I'd pay for it later, like the defiant motherfucker I was.

  Parked my bike by the loading dock as I listened to gunshots firing inside. I dropped the sniper rifle off where Roman could see it, and drew my nine millimeter, heading inside to find the fuck responsible for this shit before anybody else did.

  I had to kill him. Had to put that Zee piece of shit down like the rabid dog he was.

  My brothers were just coming out from behind their crates when I busted in.

  Brass' eyes went big as fucking saucers when he saw me. “Holy fuck. You must've been the asshole playing sniper? What're you doing –“

  I fired before the mobster asshole popped up behind him, and put a bullet through his brain. I hit the fuck in the thigh and his shot went into the ceiling as he collapsed, screaming shit in Chinese I couldn't understand.

  The second miracle of the day arrived.

  Zee rolled on the ground like a fucking coward when I found him. He'd been reaching for the gun he'd lost when he hit the floor and started clenching his leg. I picked it up, walked over, and stomped his hand so fucking hard his fingers snapped like twigs.

  The other guys were behind me in seconds. One-eyed Line made a grunt of approval, and both the Veeps reached for the asshole, ready to hoist him up.

  Wouldn't fucking let 'em. I pushed my boot down even tighter, hearing his pain echo like a song through the huge place as I ground the bones I'd broken into dust.

  “Asphalt, what the fuck, man?” Rabid looked at me, reaching for Zee's leg.

  “No. Put him the fuck down. Where's the Prez? This asshole needs to die right here. His scalp is mine, and it's Elle Jo's too.”

  They looked at me like I'd lost my mind. I'd been around for ages in this club, long enough to know the drill.

  When Lady Luck sent us a head honcho like Dragon Fucker here, their ass belonged to the Grizzlies. We
grilled them before we executed them, or else used them for ransom. But what the fuck could Zee tell us that mattered, seeing how we'd just slaughtered his entire crew?

  It took several minutes for the rest of the boys to join us. Roman scanned the warehouse, making sure we'd annihilated every last one of the mobsters. A couple gunshots rang out in the distance, telling us he'd put one or two more outta their misery.

  Blackjack walked up to me, his arms outstretched. My jaw nearly hit the floor when he threw them around me in a big brotherly hug.

  “That's for saving our lives with the sniper stunt,” he growled into my ear.

  Stunned, I ignored Zee's groans and started to put my arms around his back. Then the meanest blow I'd felt in awhile cut across my chin like a fucking hurricane. He hit damned hard.

  I reeled back, fell against several crates, and doubled over, rubbing the blinding pain shooting through my face.

  “And that's for defying a direct order and lying to me, son. Next time, you'll catch a bullet in your kneecap.” The Prez pointed, his finger stern and cold as a dagger. “Never again.”

  “Understood. Sorry, Prez,” I mumbled, spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth, hoping I'd be able to talk so I could get the very last thing I needed.

  “Get this sack of shit loaded for the ride to Redding,” Blackjack said to Brass and Rabid. “We'll bring him home and find out everything he knows.”

  “Prez, wait...” I touched him gently on the shoulder, and squeezed. “I don't give a shit if you wanna torture this fuck any way you please for intel. But the kill needs to be mine. I gotta give Elle something to make up for all this. I need to –“

  My words stopped in my throat as Roman stepped up, a switchblade in his hand. Elle Jo stepped out behind him, her hands cut free from the cord binding them. Her attention was totally on Gil, hanging onto her shoulder, and she didn't see me 'til I spat more blood.

  “Asphalt, baby, oh my God!”

  Fuck. I took one more long look at Zee, his head twisting unnaturally as the boys carried him toward the truck. He'd have a long, hellish ride to California. The tourniquet they'd put on his leg would keep him from bleeding out, but he'd suffer just the same, knowing he was completely at our mercy.

  And we had none.

  Shit, I had absolute zero. Negative fucking mercy, if such a thing were possible. I wanted to kill him, slice through his nasty face, lift the fucking scalp off his head and hand it to my baby girl as payment for what she'd suffered.

  She needed a bloody guarantee that my word was solid, and this shit would never, ever happen again.

  But she needed my arms around her more right now.

  I stepped away from the cursing, wriggling mafia don and hugged my woman. For just a second, I could savor having her in my arms, something that seemed downright impossible a couple hours ago.

  “Never should've let you leave the clubhouse,” I said, reaching for her hand. I pulled it to my lips and gave it a kiss.

  Fuck if it didn't make my dick throb. That woman could've touched me with nothing but her eyelashes, and I'd still have a raging hard-on worse than I got when most girls straddled me, feeling their pussies leaking all over my cock.

  “It's not your fault. None of this is.” She kissed one cheek, and then the next, before centering her lips.

  I took what was mine. We kissed long and hard and deep.

  Didn't give a fuck about the dead assholes laying all around us. Didn't care about Zee screaming one last time as I heard them throw him into the back of Roman's truck like a sack of trash. Didn't even give a shit about Gil and Blackjack both eyeballing me, looking like they wanted to rip my head off for very different reasons.

  Then Gil looked at his daughter, and the fucker's face tensed up. He started bawling like a baby. Whatever the fuck happened out here, it was bad, awful enough to break him.

  “It's over now. You're coming home with me, babe, and it'll be awhile before you ever see the Pacific fucking Northwest again.”

  Her old man bit his tongue when he heard me say that shit. He cried harder, his whole body quaking, dying from the shame of going completely broke. Good.

  I motioned his way. “Come on. Let's help get him in the truck with his crew so he can get some proper attention.”

  Gil didn't say shit as I grabbed his other arm and we helped him walk outside. He'd taken quite a fucking beating thanks to the Chinese. His sobs slowed as we led him out.

  Fucker was red as a tomato, embarrassed, probably the reason he wasn't giving me any shit or whispering threats about the glorious hold I had on his daughter. He'd never give our love his stamp of approval, and I didn't fucking care.

  Right now, he was too fucked up and traumatized to say a damned thing about it.

  Line stood near the open door to the truck, just waiting. I finally got a good look at him as we hoisted him inside, me stepping back so Elle could fasten his seat belt.

  The man was completely, irreparably fucked. If Karma was an absolute bitch, like everybody said, then she'd decided to rip everything away from him except his daughter.

  She'd taken his hand, his face, and whatever manhood he had left. Tacoma's soon-to-be-ex Prez would never ride again with that stump on his arm, and if he found a woman who'd let him bed her with that sliced up face, he'd be paying for her company.

  Much as I hated him for putting my girl in danger, shit was fucking sad.

  Christ, I needed a smoke. I fought the urge and took Elle's hand instead, leading her toward my bike.

  “It isn't really over,” I growled, jerking her into my embrace and whispering in her ear. “I lied back there.”

  Her sweet blue eyes turned up, a little darker than usual, fear streaking through them. “Huh? What do you mean?”

  “I'm gonna kill Zee myself for what he did to you and your old man. He needs to fucking die for this, and I wanna be the one to plunge the knife in his throat, maybe do worse.”

  She looked around, making sure nobody else could hear. I could've rolled my eyes. The girl should've known by now how crafty I could be.

  “Won't that get you in trouble?”

  “We'll see.” I shrugged. “Honestly, babe, I don't give a single fuck anymore. Even the Prez acknowledges the fact that I saved his ass and everybody else's today. The Chinese might've taken you and your dad in that van if I hadn't started shooting. They definitely would've given my brothers some casualties.”

  “It isn't worth it,” she said, refusing to look at me. “I just want this to be over. For real, Austin. We've suffered enough. I don't need more blood to make this right. I'm safe, I'm with you, daddy's alive...that's all that matters. That's enough.”

  Her eyes told a different story. I saw the way she looked away from me, turning toward the truck where they'd loaded up Zee. Poor girl had a flood of pain building up inside her, ready to burst.

  “No fucking way,” I said coldly.

  I grabbed her chin and jerked her face straight, locking down her eyes with mine. “I told you what's gonna happen once we get home. You'll never sleep another peaceful night if that animal's still wasting air breathing on this earth. And if we don't kill him, we'll regret somebody else doing it. Told you, babe, I'm gonna carve a piece off his carcass and bring it to you with my bare hands. That's a promise.”

  She gasped. I let her go and walked away before she could try to talk me outta it.

  “Stay here and drink some water. There's a canteen in my saddlebag. Gotta help clean up so we can get our asses home.”

  I left Elle waiting next to my bike while I headed back inside the old plant. I had to help the boys clean this shithole up, dispose of all the assholes we'd killed.

  The club couldn't handle another massacre in the media. A couple politicians were already screaming for action 'til we paid 'em off, and they'd start squawking for more if they saw another opportunity to fill up their campaign coffers.

  It took about a solid hour with the full crew carrying bodies into a big, empty p
it we'd dug out back before we finished. Their skin sizzled like a witch's brew when Roman tipped the acid barrels over their carcasses, dissolving them like they'd never existed, before we shoved the dirt over their bones.

  If anyone ever came out here and found this shit in fifty, maybe a hundred years, they'd never piece together who the fuck the remnants belonged to, or what had happened here today.

  That secret died with us. It was about to die a whole lot faster with Zee too. My fingers itched to feel his blood all over them when I smashed my fists through his rotten, fucked up face.

  Nobody hurt my girl and lived to whine about how sorry they were. Fucking nobody.

  I flexed my fists, nodding to the big Enforcer as I helped him pile the empty barrels back by the loading dock for the prospects to carry. Glassy walked up and winked at me before he picked one up and hauled it over his shoulder.

  “This bullshit gets old, don't you think?” Roman said, squinting into the rising morning sun. “I wanna go the fuck home and stay there this time around. I'd rather be with my wife and kid any damned day over throwing more dead bastards into the ground.”

  “We're getting there, brother.” I threw my arm around his shoulder. “Give it a year and I'll be right there with you. So will Rabid and Brass when they knock their girls up. The Prez can be a real fucker sometimes, but he's right.”

  The giant cocked his head, wondering what the fuck I was talking about.

  “He's helped us clear out practically every asshole who could ever threaten us. We're earning our peace by blood, and it's so damned close I can taste it. No more rogues in our ranks once the other charters hear about what happened to Tacoma and Gil fucking up. No more mafia goons or vicious cartels breathing down our throats when they find out we took out a whole crew of Dragons. Look up there, man.”

  I pointed to the sky, and we both stared at the big, fiery ball 'til our eyes burned. “It's a bright new day for this club and every man in it. All we gotta do is keep the peace, and make our women the happiest, most spoiled bitches on the face of the earth.”

  He laughed. It was still weird to hear the big guy bust a gut, though he'd been doing it more lately, ever since settling shit with Sally and his son.