by Vivian Gray
I stuff my phone back in my pocket and ride up as far as the gas pumps. I need gas anyway, so I get off my bike, open up the gas tank, and start filling it up. I’m about to head inside to pay when I hear a gunshot explode through the air, then another one. It seems to be coming from inside the convenience store.
I immediately grab my gun out of my back pocket and turn the safety off, drawing it out and ready to pounce on whoever comes out. I’m amazed when I see, of all the fucking people in the world, Juan Espinoza exiting the convenience store and stalking towards his car, which is parked on the other side of the gas station at the pump furthest from me.
Rather than going in guns blazing, I take my time, hiding behind the pump. I want to ensure that I get the best jump on him possible, and I need to be extra certain that Maria isn’t in the way. I peer around the pump to look, but I don’t see Maria anywhere.
Now is my chance.
I pull out my gun to a forward position and aim it directly at Juan.
“Juan Espinoza!” I call out as he’s rummaging through his trunk. “Drop whatever you’ve got in your hands and get down on the ground. Now!”
Juan turns to me. He recognizes me immediately.
“Ah, Blade, good to see you again, amigo,” he says with sarcasm.
“I’m not your amigo,” I sneer out back at him.
“Oh, but we are all friends here. You, me, Maria, the kid I just wasted – we are all amigos, Blade. So tell me. What are you going to do? Are you going to shoot me, Blade? Is that your great plan?”
I approach him with caution, ready to take him out. In the distance, I hear a motor revving behind me, but I refuse to take my eyes off of Espinoza.
“What have you done with Maria?” I demand. “Come on, Juan, what the fuck have you done with her?”
“She… is safe.” He grins. “Nothing you’ll ever have to worry about again. You won’t be seeing her after today.”
“Oh really? And why’s that?”
“Because I’m going to kill you, Blade,” he says in a simple, monotone voice devoid of emotion.
“I think you’re misreading the situation here, Juan.” I almost laugh at his idiocy. “Come on now. I’ve got you covered. You move, you die. It’s that simple.”
“Perhaps, perhaps… But at this moment, I only have to look out for you. You, on the other hand, have bigger problems to deal with.”
“Like what?”
“Like him.”
Immediately, I feel the butt of a gun smack me on the back of the head. I fall down to the ground and drop my gun. I rush to pick it up, but I’m too late – Juan has already got it and trained it on me. I manage to stand up and look to my right to see who clocked me from behind. When I see who it is, I immediately want to vomit. Or kill him.
“Slime,” I mutter, “you sorry son of a bitch.”
“I go where I’m needed.” Slime cackles like a supervillain from a movie. “And clearly, you needed me, Blade.”
“The fuck do you mean, I needed you?” I ask, irritation and anger rising in my voice.
“You needed someone to put you in your place,” Slime responds. “You see, you and your buddies in the Blood Ravens, you don’t know what the Espinozas have to offer. We’re going to run the entire state, man. We’ve got people we can hook up with all over the place. We’ve got contacts. There’s no way the Blood Ravens can keep up. So, we’re going to put you and Crusher and all the rest out of business.
“That’s the way the industry works, compadre. You either keep up, or you get put down. And you, I’m afraid, are about to get put down. You can thank your pal Crusher for this. He’s the one who pushed me out of the Blood Ravens. His mismanagement made me do what I’m doing now. And you’re caught in the middle.
“It’s too bad, really. I’m going to miss you. I always liked you, even if I thought you were a fucking pussy. You might’ve been soft, but you have a good side. It’s a shame, it really is. So, any last words before you go, Blade?”
“Slime, you bastard,” I sneer out as he trains his gun on me. “Don’t you get it? This was never about Crusher, or about the Blood Ravens. It’s always been about you. You, being too stupid and too much of a pussy to confront Crusher. Instead, you went running to your boys in the Espinozas like a little bitch. You ran to Juan Espinoza like he was going to be your ‘Big Daddy’, helping you get out of your sad situation. Well, fuck you, man. You’re nothing but a little bitch, and you’ll never be anything but a little bitch.”
Slime mimics a yawn. “That was touching, but I’m bored now. Juan, can I shoot him now, please?”
“Be my guest, Limo,” Juan says.
Slime cocks his gun and takes aim. I grimace, knowing that this is going to be my last moment on Earth.
With what I presume will be my dying breath, I mutter, “I love you, Maria,” loud enough so Juan can hear me – I’m defiant to the last. I can almost feel Slime’s finger rubbing the trigger.
In an instant, everything changes. A motorcycle comes out of nowhere and runs Slime down, causing him to fly up into the air, over the bike, and fall down off the other side. In the confusion, Juan begins firing at the culprit.
I look over to the motorcycle, and I see, to my amazement, Crusher, standing triumphantly, bleeding out of one bicep but looking otherwise like a fucking god.
“Crusher!” I say enthusiastically. “How the fuck did you—”
“No time!” he calls out, tossing me a gun from his back pocket. “You’ve got four shots in that gun. Make them worth it, okay?”
“You bet, boss.”
He gets off his bike and walks over to Slime, who lays there on the concrete, probably dealing with at least a few broken bones, if not worse injuries. He stands over Slime, kneels down, and begins wailing on him, punching his face with his enormous fists.
I can’t stay to watch this deeply satisfying conclusion. I have other things to worry about – other things like Juan Espinoza, who has run around the back of the convenience store. I dash after him, catching a glimpse of him running through the weeds growing behind the store, and I fire off a warning shot.
“Juan!” I call out, my voice filled with rage. “Stop right the fuck there!”
“Not a fucking chance, coño,’ he calls back behind him.
He turns quickly and lets off a shot. He misses, but just barely. Motherfucker is a good shot, to say the least. I dodge it and run after him, trying desperately to catch up.
“Juan – just fucking stop!” I yell out again, getting tired of repeating myself. “I don’t give a fuck about you at this point. Your cartel is in shambles. The Blood Ravens have seen to that. All I want is Maria. Where the fuck is she?”
“You’ll never fucking get her, you worthless piece of shit!” Juan screams back. “She’ll never love you. Just like my other daughter – Carmen. Yeah, that’s right, I knew about the two of you. What, you thought I was estupido? That I don’t know what the fuck goes on under my own roof? I knew about it. And man, I was so happy she ran off. She was an ungrateful brat, but at least she didn’t end up with the likes of you. A fucking butt-boy for a motorcycle crew. Fucking worthless scum!”
That does it. I’m absolutely sick to fucking death of this game.
I take aim, and I fire. I’m not going for the kill – I manage to hit him in the kneecap, and he falls. I run up to him and kick his gun away. He groans, finally realizing that he is defeated.
“She’ll never love you, you know,” he wheezes out as I aim the gun at his head. “You have nothing to offer her.”
“I have myself,” I tell him, my eyes narrowed. “That’s going to have to be enough.”
With that, I take aim, and I put a bullet dead center in the middle of his eyes.
***
Ten minutes later, I return to the front of the convenience store to find Crusher still wailing on Slime’s corpse. He has some issues to work out, apparently. I let him be and instead go into the convenience store. I need a water and a cand
y bar, something to give me energy while I determine what I’m going to do next.
I need to find Maria. I have no idea what Juan has done with her. He may have stashed her at a storehouse we don’t know about, or imprisoned her in another county – she could literally be anywhere. I need to have a good long think on how to go about this.
I enter the convenience store and immediately notice the kid laying in a pool of his own blood. I hear whimpering coming from the bathroom, so I walk over to it and knock on the door.
“Hello?” I ask, a little concerned with the scene I’m looking at. “Anyone in there?”
“I – hello?” comes a familiar voice.
“Maria?!” I ask, astounded.
“Blade?!” she returns, equal amazement intoning in her voice.
The door flies open, and suddenly, Maria is there in front of me, her tears of fear giving way to tears of happiness and gratitude.
“Blade, where did you come from? Where is my dad?”
“Dead,” I say quietly. “I’m so sorry, Maria, I had to—”
“Good.”
There’s something, some kind of pain and hurt, in her eyes as she says it, but she’s clearly happy to be rid of her father.
“I can’t believe you found me,” she says, her eyes welling up again.
I don’t hesitate this time. I lean forward and kiss her, and she kisses me back, with passion.
I break the kiss after a moment, saying, “Maria, I will always find you, no matter where you go. I love you. I love you so very goddamn much.”
“I love you too,” she says, then adds with a smile, “I love you so very goddamn much too.”
Epilogue
Maria
Blade brings me home to his house on the back of his bike.
When we get there, he looks at me and says something that I never expected before: “You’re free, Maria. I release you. You can go start a new life wherever you want.”
“What if—” I start, then, clearing my throat, I look him deep in the eyes and smile, continuing, “What if I want to stay here? With you?”
“With me?”
“Yeah.”
“Maria, I would love that. But you don’t have to.”
“I want to.”
“Well, who am I to stand in the way of what you want?”
“Is that a challenge?” I laugh.
“What do you mean?”
I take his hand and lead him into the house. Instead of going upstairs, I bring him downstairs to the basement, where we had our first experience. The handcuffs are still on the ground.
I hand them to him and say, “I want you to take me, Blade. Take me like you did so many times before.”
He obliges. He puts the handcuffs on me and wraps them around the bed. He then looks at me darkly and holds me down, putting his hands around my neck as he strips off my clothing piece by piece. He is already hard when he removes his pants, and he keeps his hand firmly around my throat.
As I gasp for air, I whisper, “Give it to me, Blade. Please. Give it to me.”
He releases me, and I suck in the cool air, which feels amazing. Without warning, he penetrates me, his hard cock hitting the walls of my pussy. This isn’t going to be a long session, I realize, but it’s feeling hot all the same. He pumps into my folds, not worrying about what he’s doing to me – until suddenly, he looks in my eyes.
He immediately falls down on top of me and kisses me, his passion overtaking his will to be dominant. It feels different now. He’s not trying to make me feel something – degraded or dirty or whatever. He’s trying to make me feel whole. And as I build towards an orgasm that happens at the same time as his, I realize that this is exactly where I’m meant to be.
Afterward, he lets me out of the handcuffs, and we go upstairs to the bathroom to shower. When we’re finished, we lay in his bed, ruminating on the future. With Slime gone, Blade looks set to become the vice president of the Blood Ravens, and with my father’s cartel out of the way, it looks like there will be plenty of money to go around. As vice president, Blade says he’ll get a huge cut of whatever comes the club’s way.
Then, he says something that makes my whole face light up. “I want you to have it. For school. If you still want to do that, that is.”
“Oh, Blade,” I say, feeling myself on the verge of crying. “I love you so much. But I can’t do that to you. After all, I’m just your girl.”
“What if you were more than that?” Blade asks, a twinkle in his eye.
“What do you mean?”
At that moment, Blade gets out of bed, unashamed of his nudity, and suddenly, he gets down on one knee.
“Maria,” he says, “I have been falling in love with you for weeks now, but when your dad took you away from me – that’s when I knew that I can’t live without you. I want to protect you and be with you for the rest of my life. Maria Cristina Maribel Espinoza, would you do the honor of being my wife?”
“Your wife?” I ask, stunned.
“That’s the general idea of a proposal, yeah.”
“Blade, I—”
I don’t know what to say. Well, that’s not true; I do know what to say. I say the only thing that is in my heart, the only answer that I can truly give him without thinking I might one day regret it.
“Of course I’ll marry you, Blade,” I say, tears streaming down my face. “I love you. And yes, I will be your wife.”
We settle into his bed, cuddling together on the pillows. I have never been this happy before in my whole life. For once, everything has worked out perfectly. I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with Blade – to have his children, to grow old together. And I’m going to get to do it while hopefully being the lawyer I always dreamed of being.
For the first time in my entire life, I am really, truly, free.
THE END
Sneak Preview of SILAS
Read on for a sneak preview of my first book, Silas!
Silas: A Bad Boy Motorcycle Club Romance (Death Knells MC)
Biker. Outlaw. Bad boy. Killer?
On his deathbed, my MC president made me swear to keep his daughter safe.
But marrying the girl is a dangerous mistake.
She’s in my house now – and I can’t keep my hands off of her.
Which is how she ended up pregnant with my baby.
JESSA
Silas has always done what he needed to do to survive.
But I could never be with a man whose hands are covered in innocent blood.
It doesn’t matter that he’d do anything to keep me safe.
I don’t need to be protected – I need to be free.
Free from pain.
Free from violence.
Free from my past.
But I’m trapped in a contradiction.
Because the only place I truly feel alive is on the back of Silas’s bike.
I can’t submit to this life.
I’ve got a bright future, far away from here.
At least, that’s what I used to think.
But now, every time Silas lays his hands on me…
Every time he takes me to his bed and shows me what my body craves…
I’m forced to admit:
I belong to him.
SILAS
Jessa tried to run away from the biker world.
But I jumped into the deep end.
I’ve done bad things in my time down here.
Robbed. Hurt. Killed.
All for the club. For my brothers.
But my sins have changed me. Marked me.
I can’t be near a woman anymore.
Especially not one as pure and innocent as Jessa.
If she gets too close…
There’s no telling what I might do to her.
Which is why this fake marriage is a huge mistake.
I swore to her father – my dying president – that I’d protect his only daughter.
But I never expected it to come to this:
H
er walking through my house.
Sleeping in my bed.
And – God help us both – having my baby.
Chapter One
341 B. 341 B.
Jessa swallowed a sick knot in her throat as the room number ran through her mind. The hospital had too many damn hallways. She skidded to a stop in front of a plaque with room numbers pointing in opposite directions. The anxiety made it impossible to digest what she was seeing. She pressed a hand to her forehead.
