Forever - Book 3 (Star Crossed MC Lovers)

by Sierra Rose

  “So this is your last ditch attempt,” I said in a lethal tone of voice.

  “Not quite. We still have some tricks we can pull. But this plan will work. I know it,” Rhonda insisted.

  “Let’s hear it then.” I said. I waited with baited breath. I couldn’t even imagine what ridiculous scenario the Feds were about to put me in, in order to save my lady love, but one thing was for sure. I’d do anything for Selene, and they all knew it. I’d do anything, including killing her father.

  I had a sick feeling that I was going to be rushing in wherever it was that the Black Hearts escaped to, guns blazing, taking out as many of them as possible. As long as the boys in blue were behind me, I was good. Killing in front of the authorities only to end up behind bars for the rest of my life wasn’t going to happen-- unless it saved Selene’s life. Then, anything was game.

  Rhonda continued to take the lead. “We think they’re going to take her to Saint Monica’s Catholic Church on the outskirts of town.”

  “St. Monica’s? Why?” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice. What an unlikely place for Raphael to haunt. He wasn’t at all a religious man. Hell, we’d all made jokes that the bastard had sold his soul to the devil years ago. I might not have to kill him. God might strike him down dead for darkening the pretty white steps of the old church.

  “Sacred ground. We’ve been doing surveillance at the church and the Delgados are present on the site every day. A nun at the parish reported that they saw Raphael Delgado lift a tile in the floor, and inside there was a locked bank box,” Another DEA officer, Joseph Dooney, stated.

  “Oh, really?” I asked. “What’s in the box?”

  “We think it’s where Delgado keeps his stash,” Rhonda admitted.

  “It’s why our previous raids on the club house have never been successful. That club house is as clean as a baby’s ass,” Dooney said as he lit up a cigarette. Bringing the Marlboro Light to his mouth, he set the tip ablaze and watched me a little too closely.

  “Cunning snake,” I said as I shook my head. “He’s keeping cocaine, meth, heroine and pot in a locked box, in the floor of a church…”

  “The very church where he was baptized. Where his mother was married. Where his grandmother was married.” Dooney shrugged. “He’s incorrigible.”

  “That man has no fucking soul,” I responded bluntly. “There is nothing sacred to him.”

  “Well, no shit,” Rhonda said. “He’s using his own daughter as a pawn in his sick game. We put nothing past him. The only hide he will save in the end is his own.”

  “What do you plan to do about his minions? The trolls that terrorize this town? They aren’t exactly a bunch of boy scouts. I should know, I’ve spent my life protecting Selene from them. And I’ve got the scars to prove it.” I glanced behind me, worried about who might be in the house if I decided to play hero and just attack.

  “Well…” Jack Thompson said, Chief detective for the Pennsylvania State Police. “You’re gonna wear one of these…” Jack said as he held up a bullet proof vest.

  “You will also be well-armed,” Rhonda said. “I think a pair of these should do the trick.”

  Rhonda whipped out a pair of Glocks from a silver case that sat on the control desk. “Here, try these on for size.”

  Rhonda passed the guns to me and I raised my eyebrow at her. I was beyond impressed. “Now this is some serious artillery… Got ammo?”

  Jack held up some magazines. “We’ve got two dozen mags for you. There’s a fresh one in each. That should get you through.”

  “Hmmm… I don’t know,” I said with a shit eating grin on my face. “How many rounds does each mag hold?”

  “Fifteen or sixteen usually…”

  “So if my math is correct, and we go on the low side of your calculations, that’s three hundred and sixty bullets…”

  “Plus the thirty already loaded,” Rhonda reminded him.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” I said and slid the guns into my leg holsters. I slipped my own Glock back to rest against the small of my back and rolled my shoulders. I hated the reasons behind all we were about to do, but I sure loved a good gun fight more than I should.

  “These are unmarked, unregistered guns. They are service pistols and belong to the Drug Enforcement Agency. If you get caught, you didn’t get them from us,” Joe said sternly.

  “So what’s the plan other than the beautiful artillery?” I asked, anxious to get this mission started with.

  “We know that Elec has Selene in the trunk of his car. He is still on the premises. We wait for him to leave. You trail him,” Rhonda ordered in a stern tone of voice.

  “Betcha a grand he leads you right to Saint Monica’s Church…” Joe said.

  “Don’t expect Selene to stay in that trunk. You know she knows her way around a car,” Rhonda went on to say.

  “I hope you’re right…” I said anxiously.

  “I am. We’ll have back up for you once you get to the church.”

  “You’re pretty sure about this church thing…” I said as I tried to think through why the hell Raphael would think that using the beautiful old church was a good idea.

  “Yeah. We are,” Rhonda said firmly. “Now off you go,” Rhonda said as she extended a hand. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

  “Thanks for the Glocks… and the vote of confidence,” I responded with a smirk, and firmly shook the officer’s hand.

  “Bring her home safe, man,” Dane said as he slapped hands with me and pulled me into a tight hug. “And be safe yourself, please.”

  “You know I will,” I replied.

  With a final glance back, I turned on my heel, and moved around from the back of the surveillance van, ready to handle the business at hand.

  ***

  Darkness had settled over Pleasant Valley as night officially set in. I sat on my hog in the shadow of the Black Hearts Motorcycle Club, waiting with baited breath. It took almost thirty excruciating minutes, but finally, Elec Delgado’s car ripped from the driveway.

  He stopped in the middle of the road in front of me and revved his engine.

  “What the fuck are you doing, douche bag?” I mumbled under my breath as I watched the crazy bastard closely.

  He was taunting me. Baiting me out of the darkness. And lucky for him, his game worked.

  I pushed my bike out into the street and tilted my head to the side as I lifted my Glock and pointed it right at his ugly mug.

  As I did, Elec smiled and slammed his feet on the gas pedal as his engine made a guttural sound. I got off two shots toward the car. Only one of them hit as Elec zoomed down the road. The glass in the back window exploded, but it wasn’t enough to stop the car.

  I watched as the right taillight popped out of the car, my hungry eyes full of anticipation. From what I could tell, a dark high-heeled boot was kicking furiously at the tail light from inside the trunk. A smile touched my mouth, and I tucked my gun away and took off after them.

  “Selene…”

  To hear that they had taken Selene and locked her in the trunk of a car was one thing. It was a whole different matter to actually see her trying to escape. My stomach hardened as the truth of the situation kicked in.

  As the car sped down the road ahead of me, I pressed the gas harder, screaming as loud as I could, “Mother fucker! Hold on, baby! Hold on Selene, I’m coming. Delgado, count your minutes, they’ll be your fucking last!” No one could hear me, but it didn’t matter. I was a madman--on a mission to get my woman back.

  The remaining tail light of Elec’s car grew smaller as the car sped away, far down the mountain road, leaving a trail of dust in its wake. I was pushing the bike as hard as I could and it wasn’t enough. I’d catch up to him eventually, but I hated the fact that I hadn’t just gone into the garage and pried the fucking trunk open when I had the chance.

  I sure as hell opened the Feds knew what they were doing. They didn’t seem too sure of themselves. I let my thoughts go and bent down a litt
le, pressing my chest closer to the base of the bike. Needing to keep my head in the game, I focused on my hatred of the Black Hearts.

  It was one thing to assault the safety of the town. It was another completely to cause harm to Selene. Without a doubt I would make Raphael Delgado’s daughter my bride. She would be the mother of my children, and I would do all this whether the MC liked it or not.

  Selene was a woman who had made her choices. The Delgados could no longer play God with the lives of the Pleasant Valley residents. If Selene was hurt, I would break every bone in Elec Delgado’s body. If she were killed, I would bring down all of them. I would make the Black Hearts Motorcycle club nothing more than a distant memory. In that moment, I would be the one that put all one hundred members of the Black Hearts Motorcycle Club on the endangered species list.

  My knuckles turned white as I jumped on the accelerator again, causing my vintage Harley to purr as I ripped down the road after Elec’s car. I could still see Elec’s left tail light in the distance, but I had to make it through the melee that was occurring in the middle of Poinsettia road.

  Biker against biker.

  Cousin against cousin.

  Friend against friend.

  When you join an MC, all allegiances take second place to the patch. You uphold the honor and the interests of the club to which you belong . It didn’t matter who you loved. It didn’t matter what your status was in life. You did the club’s bidding or you found yourself with a one way ticket to hell.

  Slowly, I approached the madness that was playing out before me. Elec had slowed down just a little too, but not enough. The bastard definitely got the jump on me. I eyed the bikers with a cautious look on my face as I passed. Some were brothers in arms, others were mortal enemies… All had lost their ever loving minds. My heart raced as I turned my attention back to Elec’s car to see the tail lights grow smaller and smaller in the distance.

  “Snap out of it,” I barked. “He has Selene. Snap the fuck out of it, man!”

  As I shook off my nerves, I pressed down on the accelerator once more and sped forward, preparing to rush straight through the war that had broken out. I tried to ignore the scene before me, and just focus on getting through to the other side, but it was damn near impossible to do when the men who’d helped raise me were in danger.

  Knife had his hands around Santino Delgado’s neck. Javi Delgado had a gun to Rusty’s head. As Javi pulled the trigger, Rusty went down like a sack of potatoes, blood gushing from his head onto the dirt road. My head seared with pain as I rode through, not stopping, though I desperately wanted to.

  I wanted to shoot Javi dead on the spot, but I had to get to Selene. If I stopped, I would get sidetracked. Then who knew what the fuck would become of my girl? I had to keep going. One of my other brothers would take care of Javi. Sure enough, not more than two seconds later, Viper gutted Javi with a knife to the throat. Crimson spilled from Javi’s neck and mouth; he sunk to his knees as I glanced back.

  Spike was being attacked by two Black Hearts when he pulled a pair of pistols out and shot them both down, clear in the eye sockets. It all happened so damn fast, but for me, time seemed to slow down. It was fear.

  I could only imagine the full scope of the violence that had taken place. It made me sick to my stomach with worry.

  Selene. I had to get to Selene.

  The fight was nothing more than a grand diversion. The Black Hearts were trying to keep the Stone Wolves in town, or at least that’s the way it seemed. If Raphael could keep my boys busy, all he’d have to do was lure me out of town by using Selene as bait. He knew that I would show up to defend her honor, her life.

  The king pin expected me to show up at Saint Monica’s cathedral with guns blazing. Good thing that was exactly how I planned to do it. What Delgado didn’t realize was that I had a plan of my own, and a damn good one at that.

  Chapter 18

  Selene

  I squirmed in the trunk of my cousin’s car, though some part of me believed it was a useless endeavor. My wrists and ankles were tightly bound, and grey masking tape covered my mouth. The nasty metallic flavor of the tape brushed by my tongue again and I gagged.

  Stop it. Now. You’re going to throw up and where the fuck is it supposed to go? I had to calm down.

  The air in the trunk was stifling and the upholstery had a sour odor, as if something had spilled in the trunk and Elec had never cleaned it up. It made the air putrid and hard to breathe, but it was all I had at the moment. I needed to break free, needed a plan. If only I could get my hands free, I could easily break out of the trunk.

  Think, Selene. Think.

  I adjusted myself so that my feet were nearest the right tail light. With my legs tied together, it wouldn’t be easy to move, but I had very little in the way of options. Wriggling on my back, I adjusted myself so that my feet were right up against the right tail light. I took a deep breath and almost gagged again. Damn dirty-ass boys.

  It was hard to maintain my composure as I was jostled around the trunk, while Elec drove full speed down the dirt mountain road, but somehow I managed it.

  “C’mon Selene. Focus. Stay calm… Don’t be a coward,” I coached myself, trying to coax myself into doing what I knew I had to. I was tough as nails, but with all the heartbreak I’d encountered earlier that day, some of my ‘give a damn’ was kaput.

  Bending my knees, I began to kick at the tail light. Thrusting my legs again and again as the heel of my boots smashed against the plastic guard where I knew the tail light would be.

  Ten kicks, twenty kicks… I kept going.

  Slamming my boot against the car, I was desperate to knock out the light and catch someone’s attention. I thought I heard a shot, but I wasn’t sure. Was somebody shooting at us? Was someone helping me? Thirty-five kicks in and the protective covering finally shattered. More furiously, I kicked harder, and harder until finally the glass shattered.

  I had done it, but I wasn’t through. I kept going. Kept kicking.

  I forced emotions to spring to life in me over the fact that my own damn father had coached me on how to survive a kidnapping in the event I was ever kidnapped by a Stone Wolf. He had always worried that one of them would try to use me as a pawn to get back at him for all the terrible things he had done.

  How ironic was it that it wasn’t a Stone Wolf doing me harm, but my own kin. Had the Stone Wolves ever thought to take me, it would be a damn waste of their time. My dad wouldn’t come after me, wouldn’t bother even trying to save me. Not even to save face. My stomach wretched as my thoughts poisoned my mind.

  My heart hurt so damn bad, but I wouldn’t allow myself a selfish moment to cry. I needed the emotion to push me forward. I had to stay strong in the face of whatever came at me next. I’d signed up for this shit, and now it was time to pluck my contract back from my father’s fingers. Some part of me hated the fact that it would most like be his cold, dead fingers, but he’d made his bed, and now it was time for him to lie in it. I could do this. There was a chance at surviving, which meant that I could warn Lucky and make sure he didn’t get hurt in the middle of all of this shit.

  “Fight, Selene…” I said to myself. “The second that trunk pops open, you fight!”

  With a final blow, the entire right tail light was completely shattered, and I could faintly see the road outside. Allowing myself to relax a little, I took a deep breath and shifted. My heel caught on something, but I was unsure of what. I contorted myself until I could pull the object up behind me and run my hands along it. It took a few minutes to figure out what the hell it was, but when I did, I couldn’t help but smile.

  “It’s his tool bag,” I said as I allowed myself a glimmer of hope. “Fucking jackass. Who leaves a tool bag in a trunk with a woman like me? A woman who knows her way around a car.”

  I shook my head and quickly unzipped the bag, digging in it until I found an X-acto knife. Being careful to push the sharp head up, I pressed my teeth in my bottom lip and closed my eyes
as I began to cut. I wanted to visualize what I was up to just to help myself get through it a little more easily.

  We hit a bump and I let out a yelp as the damn thing cut into my skin a little. It didn’t take too much longer, and the tape on my wrists was loose. I reached up and ripped the tape from my face, flinching at the intensity of the pain. My cheeks were already sore from being hit one too many times, and I had no doubt that bruises were already forming.

  Lucky Morrison was going to be one pissed off mother fucker over someone slapping me in the face. I smiled and flinched again, reminding myself to leave the smiling for later. Now wasn’t the time to get cocky. It was the time to get free.

  I finished getting the tape off my ankles and curled up in a ball, shifting toward the broken tail light in hopes of being able to see into the bag a little better. No luck. It was too damn dark outside to get any light in the trunk. I carefully shifted through the contents of the bag and pulled out a screwdriver. I tucked it and the knife into my back pockets before relaxing for a few minutes. There was nothing I could do until the car stopped. To try and roll out of the back of a moving car would not only hurt like hell, but call attention to my dumb ass immediately.

  No. I would bide my time, and when they opened the truck or left the car out in the darkness, I would make my move. It wasn’t but a few minutes later that the car stopped, and the engine was cut off. Elec didn’t even come to the back from what I could tell, and I was beyond grateful.

  I leaned in and began frantically working on the lock from the inside. My hands shook as I worked the screwdriver into the lock and pushed down as hard as I could. I’m sure the car was bouncing a little, but that was expected. I was in the back of it. They knew better than to think I would lie down and just take whatever medicine they were dishing out.

  The sweet sound of relief filled up the space around me as the lock popped and the truck opened. I reached up and pulled it back down, not wanting the damn thing to swing all the way open. Carefully, I opened it just enough to get out, and rolled myself onto the ground as easily as I could. To say I hit the ground gracefully would almost be funny. I pulled the trunk down and rolled under the car, letting myself get my bearings.