Arsen

by Kathryn Thomas

  “Nice shot!” Arsen whispered, pumping his fist in triumph. He didn’t know Gage had a bow, and he damn sure didn’t know he was as capable as he was. There was no way he could have a guaranteed kill shot at that range with a pistol, and the noise would probably would have brought the Horsemen on the run anyway.

  Gage picked up another arrow, and let it fly, followed by five of its brothers. All six found their mark, puncturing the fuel tanks on the parked motorcycles. While they waited for the fuel to drain, Gage taped a nine-volt battery to his bow. He nocked another arrow and drew it back, then waited.

  “Jeff!” a man called, stepping around corner on the opposite side of the building. “Do you smell gas?”

  Gage fired. The shot was at least fifty yards, more than double the distance of the previous shot, but his aim was just as deadly.

  “Remind me not to piss you off,” Phil whispered, grinning at Gage.

  “You better do it in case they come out to see what that asshole was shouting about,” Berk suggested.

  Gage looked to Arsen who nodded. He picked up another arrow, this one specially modified with a wad of 0000 steel wool affixed to the end. He nocked it, and as he pulled it back, the wool contacted the battery. Almost instantly the wool glowed red hot and then burst into flame. Gage aimed high and let the arrow fly in a high arc, the air passing over the wool as it flew fanning the flames. It painted a bright yellow path through the night sky before dropping into the middle of the bikes.

  Nothing happened for a moment, then they saw flames licking up from the spilled gasoline. “Bummer,” Berk hissed. “I wanted to see an explosion like in the movies.”

  Gage carefully placed his bow aside and drew his weapon. It was about to get real. It took a surprisingly long time before the Horsemen realized their bikes were on fire, but there was plenty of fuel to keep the fire burning until they did. As the tires and seats caught, the fire began to grow, thick clouds of dark smoke billowing into the air.

  “The bikes are on fire!” a Horseman yelled after opening the door, ducking back inside and reappearing a moment later with a fire extinguisher, the rest of the club rushing out behind him. The Blades waited a moment to see if more men appeared.

  “Do it,” Arsen said, as he opened up. With so many men standing together as they whipped at their bikes with jacket and blankets, the Blades couldn’t miss. Their suppressed pistols popped, sounding like loud claps or a nail gun, but the effects were no less devastating. There were several women standing back, watching the men fight the fire, then die, but by unspoken agreement, they weren’t targeted.

  The muffled sounds from their weapons made the Horsemen slow to respond to the threat, so they stayed focused on fighting the fire. They didn’t realize they were being cut down until more than a third of their brothers were hit. Arsen dropped the magazine out of his Glock and slammed a new one in, racked the gun, and continued to fire, his brothers doing the same. The women dashed for the clubhouse, and several Horsemen made an attempt to follow. One by one they fell before they made it to shelter. When nobody was left standing, Gage holstered his weapon and nocked a regular arrow. He shot it through the front window. Three more, the last of his supply, followed, the last one finally knocking a big enough hole in the glass for a fire arrow to pass through.

  He nocked the three remaining fire arrows and fired them through the broken window in quick succession but nothing appeared to happen. “I didn’t think that would work,” he said as he rose. It was time for the Blades to retreat.

  As they were trotting back to their van they heard a muffled thump behind them. They slowed to a stop then turned to see the night sky lighting up. “There’s my explosion,” Berk chuckled.

  They began to run again. “I wonder if that was a bike or the club house?” Zane panted.

  “Probably a bike,” Phil gasped, struggling to keep up. He’d already given Berk the bolt cutters, but he was still lagging. “I doubt—” he was cut off when a much bigger thump lit the night all around them a moment before they felt a breath of hot air pass over them.

  “Holy, shit!” Berk panted. “Now I’m glad I wasn’t there to see it!”

  “We need to hump it, brothers!” Arsen called as he put on a turn of speed.

  They reached the van, legs burning and out of breath. Zane ran around to the driver’s side, piling into the van and starting it as the rest of the brother crawled in. “Move your fat ass, Phil!” Arsen cried, waving the last brother into the van.

  The van was already rolling as Phil jumped through the side door, Berk slamming it shut behind him as Zane floored the accelerator. “I’m so fucking out of shape,” Phil gasped, lying on his back in the back of the van.

  Arsen checked the time on his phone. “We have two hours to make a two-and-a-half hour drive.”

  As the van squealed out onto Highway 85 heading south, Zane planted his right foot against the floor. They might not make it, but it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.

  Chapter 33

  Even though it was almost eleven, thirty minutes after the park closed, there were no signs the Blades’ barbecue was close to winding down. Arsen grinned as his crew crossed the street to the park. They quickly moved along the row of bushes to disguise their shape, then seamlessly blended in with the rest of the club.

  “How’d it go?” Chet asked as he offered Berk and Phil a beer, Greg doing the same for Zane, Arsen and Gage.

  The men opened their beers and drank thirstily. “Fine,” Gage replied first. “I don’t know how many we actually killed, but we put a hurt on them. There was an explosion as we ran for the van that sounded really big.”

  “So the flaming arrows of death worked?” Greg teased.

  “Like a charm,” Berk grinned. “Gage took out both guards with arrows.” He turned and looked at Gage. “I thought that fire arrow scheme of yours was a disaster waiting to happen, but you pulled it off better than I would have believed.”

  Gage grinned at the praise. He’d only been a Blade for a couple of years and it felt good to have earned the unflinching praise of the old-timers.

  “Can you teach me to shoot one of those things?” Berk asked, drawing his hand back like he was shooting a bow and letting go with phew sound.

  “Sure. I’ll let you use mine until you find out if you like it.”

  The Blades didn’t go in for a lot of patches advertising accomplishments. In Arsen’s opinion, it just raised questions by outsiders, but they did have a wall of fame at the clubhouse and Gage was going up on it as soon as they could get his name engraved. Normally it took a two-thirds vote by the club, but the first person who voted against his name going on the board had better be ready to defend his reasoning.

  Arsen finished his beer. He wanted another, but he had to ride and he hadn’t had anything to eat, so he let it go for now. “Let’s wrap this up,” he ordered.

  They were still packing everything away when the park manager showed up. “I came by to let you know the park is closed,” the man said.

  “The time got away from us,” Arsen said as he dumped ice and water into the grass. “We’re out of here as soon as we can pack up.”

  The man nodded and pulled their rental sign from the holder and walked away as the five men on the raid looked at each other and smiled.

  ***

  “Fuck,” Arsen groaned as he stepped into their house and closed the door. “It feels good to be home.”

  Quinn turned to face him. It was a bit after midnight, but she was anything but sleepy. “How many?”

  “How many what?”

  “How many did you kill?”

  “Me personally? I don’t know. Between the five of us, we put ten magazines into them. That’s a hundred and fifty rounds. I don’t know how many are dead versus how many we only wounded, but we put all of them down.”

  “Berk said the fire arrows worked?”

  “Yes. We set their bikes on fire, then gunned them down when they came out. As we were running for the van,
we heard a couple of explosions. A small one then a much bigger one. We didn’t stick around to find out what they were.” Quinn nodded then looked down.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I thought this is what I wanted. I wanted you to kill them, to wipe them out. But now that you’ve done it…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know how I feel about it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you killed how many people today? Gunned them down in cold blood.”

  “It had to be done. I didn’t want this. I tried to avoid doing it, but those assholes left me no choice. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t shed a tear over the murdering bastards who killed my wife and parents. Have you forgotten what they did to you?”

  “No!” she snapped, her eyes flashing, but then looked down again. “But where does it end?”

  “It ends here. I ended it. Even if we didn’t get them all, and we probably didn’t, we have hurt them so badly they’ll probably never recover.”

  She looked up at him. “You don’t think all the Horsemen are dead?”

  “I doubt it. I think there are more members than we saw. I’m also assuming not everyone we shot will die.”

  “So what prevents them from coming at you again? And again? And again, until there is nobody left?”

  “What are you talking about? If they’re smart, they’ll leave us alone, but if they want to fuck with us again, we’ll fuck them right back. We got away clean, Quinn. The only evidence we left behind was Gage’s arrows and some empty shell casings. We were all wearing gloves, so no fingerprints, no nothing. It’s done. You won’t have to worry about them again.”

  “What about you?” she asked. “Do I have to worry about you?” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them, and she saw his face go hard.

  “You’re welcome to leave anytime you want. So long as you keep your word, you’ll never have to worry about me.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

  “Are you sure?” he snapped.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” she cried. “I’m just not used to all this…violence! I was a Rider for two years and nobody got shot! Nobody’s bike or clubhouse was set on fire! People weren’t trying to kill me!”

  “Until they did,” he said softly. “I gave them their chance to walk away, but they didn’t take it.”

  “If they’d pulled out of the molly business, you would have let it end there?”

  “If they’d just stopped counterfeiting, and turned over whoever it was that gunned down my family, I would have let it end there. But they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do that. You heard them! They wanted to trade you for the drug business. What kind of sick fucker makes an offer like that? The world is a better place now than it was this time yesterday.”

  She stared at him. Until now, she’d looked at Arsen as more of a business man, but she realized he was as ruthless as any man she knew…and that scared her a little. She chewed her lip, trying to sort out how she felt.

  He saw the fear in her eyes. Fear of him. “If you want out, I won’t try to stop you. We’ll pay you your shares, and I’ll make up the other half out of my pocket.”

  “How much?” she asked.

  “Two shares normally pay about ten thousand a month.”

  She flushed. Ten thousand a month! That was more than three times what she was making at the motel. “Do you want me to go?”

  “I want you to stay,” he said softly. “But I won’t try to stop you if you want to leave. I saw how you looked at me. Answer me honestly. You’re afraid of me now, aren’t you?”

  She wanted to deny it, but she was afraid he would see right through the lie. He’d been able to look into her soul since the beginning and know just what to do or say. “A little, maybe.”

  He nodded. “Thank you for being honest with me.” He paused until she met his eyes. “I’m the same guy I was yesterday, Quinn. You weren’t afraid of me then, were you?”

  “No,” she said softly.

  “Then don’t be afraid of me now. I’ll never hurt you. You can leave any time you want, and I won’t try to stop you, but I want you to stay. I want to find out if we have something.”

  “Do you think we have something?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. Last night I would have said yes. Today, especially now, I don’t know. I do know if you leave, we’ll never know.”

  “You want me to stay?”

  “More than I can tell you, but it has to be your choice. I would rather you leave now than for you to stay because you are afraid of what I’ll do.”

  “If I leave, what will you do?”

  “I’ll help you pack your clothes, pay you your full share, and buy you a plane ticket to any place you want to go. What happens after that is none of your concern.”

  “And if I stay?”

  He smiled. “If you stay, I’ll take you to my bed and make love to you until we’re both exhausted.”

  She gave him a ghost of a smile. “And if I don’t want to be taken to your bed?”

  “Then I’ll be disappointed as I sleep alone.”

  Her smiled widened as she wondered why she thought tonight had changed him. “Take me to your bed.”

  He smiled at her as he took a step forward. To her credit, she didn’t flinch or take a step back, and he bent, placing an arm behind her knees and shoulders before he swooped her up in his arms.

  She smiled as he carried her across the room. Every time she faltered, every time she was wracked with self-doubt, he was there, willing and able to pick her up and carry her until she was ready to stand on her own two feet again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, thankful he hadn’t run out of patience with her.

  Chapter 34

  Arsen lowered Quinn softly to the bed and followed her down. She had cut him deeply with her comment, but he reminded himself what she had been through. She would be a long time healing, but every day he could see she was a little better than the day before, and he could wait. Yesterday had been a major step forward, with her finally believing she was safe. She’d had a bit of a relapse in the kitchen, but he couldn’t fault her. He was the same two steps forward, one step back, as he tried to cope with Holly’s death.

  She sighed as he settled over her, holding himself above her on hands and knees as he looked into her eyes. They were the same eyes she’d peered into yesterday as he made his promise that before anyone could harm her, they would have to get past him. She could see in his eyes the kindness that resided within him. He could be ruthless and diamond hard when he wanted to be, when he needed to be. But that wasn’t the whole of him.

  His lips tugged into a smile when her face softened as she stared into his eyes. She had such beautiful eyes, and when she looked at him that way, he could feel his heart beating faster. He remembered this feeling and his smile broadened. He’d felt it once before, and now he was feeling it again, the first blush of new love. Though he recognized it, it was different this time. He didn’t know if it was because he was older, or because Quinn wasn’t Holly, but his feelings for her were deeper, richer, somehow more fulfilling. It was steak instead of hamburger, a delicate rose instead of a plastic flower, or making love instead of fucking. The night in the cabin had changed the way he felt toward her. She had given herself to him that night, and from that moment she stopped being a stray he’d picked up on the side of the road and become more than just someone who needed help. It had only been five weeks, but he was beginning to fall for her. He smiled down at her, his heart fluttering as she smiled back. Did he love her? No, perhaps not yet, but he hoped she would give him the chance.

  He smiled at her then lowered his lips to hers. His kiss was so loving and gentle, so full of warmth and promise, she was certain she would have gone weak in the knees if she’d been standing. As he slowly pulled back, she watched his face, her lips spreading in an easy smile. She’d taken plenty of lovers, more than she would ca
re to admit, but he was the first to be able to touch her heart. With him it was more than fucking, more than having an itch scratched. There was something about his touch that went beyond the physical. She’d felt it in the cabin. Even though she’d been afraid, his touch calmed her and excited her at the same time. It was as if with each touch of his lips, each caress of his fingers, he peeled away another layer of the pain, regret and fear that resided inside her. He was slowly reviving her and bringing her back to the living, nursing back to life that spark that allowed you to live and not just exist…and oh God how she wanted to live again.

  “Make love to me?” she whispered

  “Yes,” he murmured as he nuzzled her neck.

  She smiled as she felt that little spark grow a tiny bit with his words. “Slowly.”