by Erin Trejo
“I was only a kid. Why?” I ask walking closer to him. Our eyes meet. I look so much like him that it makes me sick.
“Didn’t matter. What was I supposed to do with you?” Link’s fist collides with his face. As fast as it all happens, he has a knife pulled and set against his throat.
“You won’t touch her ever again. Neither will Bone. You made that mistake. When she fell into my lap, you became my problem.” I watch as Link slides the blade through his flesh. Blood sprays but Link’s eyes are void. I’ve never seen the dark, blank look, in his eyes. I’ve never seen the killer in Link. Yet, there he is. The killer that I knew was in there. There’s a beauty in watching Link when he’s this wild. There’s something otherworldly about him. He’s like a caged animal that only attacks on his release. He was released tonight and he did attack.
Chapter 49
Link
Her body shakes when my phone rings. I pull it out with bloody hands.
“What?” I snap.
“You have somethin’ that belongs to me,” Bone’s voice filters over the line. My heart sinks in my chest. He knows we’re here.
“I don’t see shit that belongs to you except for two dead bodies,” I growl into the phone. Bomber moves closer to me before I shake my head.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” he roars. Bomber grabs the phone out of my hand before he yells back, “Oh, we did it. And you ain’t far behind. You comin’ for us or are we comin’ for you?” His voice is deadly. I’ve never heard him this way before.
I know the man is fierce. I’ve seen him in action but this is different. Jordyn walks toward me slowly, her eyes never leaving the dead body of her dad at my feet. Bomber roars into the phone but my eyes stay on Jordyn. She’s not ok. She’s scared of what she saw. I can’t blame her. I was a monster. I am a monster. I took his life like it was nothing. He was nothing.
“He’s gone,” she says softly. I nod.
Jordyn swallows hard, tears filling her eyes. So many things run through my head. I killed her father. I killed the one person that was left, who was related to her by blood. A part of me regrets that. The better part doesn’t. She’s safe from that part of her life now. That part of her past is gone. She doesn’t have to fear him ever again. She wraps her arms around me, holding me tight.
“I’m covered in blood,” I whisper. She looks up at me before reaching for my hands. She drags them around her body anyway. I hold onto her like my life depends on it. That’s when I hear the guns exploding around us.
“Get over there and hide!” I shove her off me and grab my gun. Jordyn runs and ducks behind a wall like I told her to.
I fire back before Bomber yells, “Rangers! They tailed us.” Shit! I knew I should have been watching the surveillance. I should have been at my place in the command center but instead, I had to run the fucking show. Not that I regret it. It gave Jordyn closure and that’s all I really wanted for her.
The gun fire rains bullets throughout the room. The sound is deafening. We all duck low and shoot but without seeing where they are coming from, we’re going in blind. It’s not until I hear her cry that I know where the fuck they are.
“Jordyn!” I roar as I rush toward the wall. I’m stopped in my tracks when a gun slams into the side of my head. I stumble back and drop to the ground. My head screams in pain. When I reach up and pull my fingers away, I see the blood. That motherfucker.
“You want her? I want Bomber!” Bone roars. I glance around and catch the looks from the other guys but I don’t see Bomber anywhere.
“Let her go, Bone. You fuckin’ messed with the wrong club,” I say as I shove myself off the ground. Dirk stands there and smiles like a goddamn fool.
“We got you outnumbered this round asshole!” he announces. The rest of the club’s here. Good. We can finally kill them all. The motherfucker’s.
“Let her go.” I hear Bomber. I turn and glance at him. He looks different. His body is bigger. What the fuck is he doing?
“Let her go. You got me.” His hands are raised in the air. He’s surrendering?
“No. Fuck that!” I roar. His hand lands on my shoulder when he gets closer to me. The gunfire has ceased but something in his eyes is off. I can see it. Clear as fucking day.
“It’s time, Link. Get them out of here.” He keeps his voice low so that only I hear him. I shake my head before he shoves me out of the way. He walks toward Dirk when Bone steps out with Jordyn in his arms. There’s a gun aimed at her head. My heart beats wildly in my chest.
“Let her go. Let my guys go. No repercussions.” I hear Micah roar behind us. The guys are going off. That’s not what I’m thinking about right now, though. No, it’s his words. Get them all out. He has plans. Plans that we aren’t going to like. I can feel that ache deep in my bones. This isn’t ending well for us.
“You makin’ good on that?” Bone asks. Bomber nods before he steps forward.
“You have my word.” Bone kisses Jordyn’s cheek before running his tongue up her neck. My hands clench at my sides, ready to slit his throat when he tosses her to the side. I watch her body as she falls roughly to the floor.
I make a move for her when Bone grabs Bomber around the neck. Holding him in front of him I notice the glint his eyes. He’s up to something. That’s when I see it. I catch a glimpse at what’s under his jacket. I shake my head but he just grins.
“Get your girl, Link,” Bomber says in a calm voice. Too calm.
I do as I’m told, grabbing her off the floor. Jordyn slams into my chest with all her strength. I hold her tightly when Bomber’s eyes come to meet mine. He gives me a slight nod. I don’t want to do this. I can’t fucking do this. My breath catches in my throat.
“Move out!” I yell as a tear falls from my eye. The world slows around me. The guys try to protest but I say it again, “Move, the fuck out!”
I drag Jordyn toward the door but my body is moving on its own. Everything is happening in slow motion. My chest constricts, all the air being ripped from my lungs. We’re out of the building and moving when the explosion rocks us all. We’re tossed through the air, slamming into the ground. When I roll over, all I see is fire and debris. Smoke billows over the now leveled warehouse. My heart falls in my chest.
Chapter 50
Link
It hurts. It hurts to lose someone that meant so much to you. We’ve lived a world of pain and happiness. We’ve lost great soldiers. We’ve gained others. Our lives were changed. Now, they’ve changed again. We’ve lost a leader. We’ve lost a friend. We’ve lost a brother. He knew it was his time. He’s been telling us about it. He was tired. He was worn out. He was over all the fighting. He took his chance to not only save this club but redeem himself. I can’t say that I don’t understand his reasoning because I do…. More than I should.
“Who is that?” Jordyn asks walking up next to me. I follow her gaze to the pictures of Benny and Stryker, where they hang along with the other fallen Knights.
“That’s Benny. Aubrie’s brother. That one’s Stryker.” Jordyn grabs my hand and squeezes.
“And now, Bomber,” she says softly. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” she sobs.
“Let’s not do that today, ok? It wasn’t your fault. It was comin’,” I remind her. She has to know that this wasn’t her fault. None of it was. Bomber knew what he wanted. He knew what he was doing that day. He stepped up to the plate as the president of the Knights of Sin and played his part well. Not many men were as strong as he was. Not many men would have taken that step to insure the safety of his club. We’ve always known what we had in Bomber.
“He’s right. Not your fault, darlin’. Bomber was ready to end this. He was tired. There was no other way out for him.” It’s Bullet that surprises me. I look over my shoulder at the same time as Jordyn. They lock eyes and I can see the apology in them. She can, too. She gives him a soft nod before looking up at me.
“What happens now?” she asks. I smile because the next words that
leave my mouth are words that she’s been waiting to hear for a long time. They are words I’ve been waiting to say to her since this shit started.
“You’re free. You have nothin’ else to worry about. It’s all over.” She smiles but there’s that lost look in her eyes.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Now I have nothing.”
“You have me. I asked you once to choose me, Jordyn. I’m askin’ you again. Choose me. Let me be the one that takes it all on. We don’t know each other well. We know we click. We know that we care about each other and you know now that I’d kill for you. Choose me.” I kiss her head before she sighs.
She turns to look at the pictures again with her head resting on my shoulder. We stand in silence not sure what to say to the other. It’s a dark feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel a bit of a remorse. I feel a bit of rage. I hate that Bomber is gone. I know that he wanted this. Hell, he planned it! He was ready. He was prepared for this.
“What are you thinking?” she asks me.
“I just wonder how he could be ready for his own death. What makes a person ready for that?” She’s silent for a second before she says, “You come to that decision. You know that... that’s the only way out. There is nothing else.”
“You would know, wouldn’t you?” Jordyn nods her head once. I pull her tighter to me.
“I choose you, Link.” Those are the only words I needed to hear.
My happy ending is standing next to me in my arms. I never thought it would happen.
I found Jordyn, but I, in turn, lost Bomber. You never think that your life could take on a whole new direction like that. You never want to face it but I did. And now I have that piece of myself that I found—I need her more than the air I breathe—and she’s standing next to me with her fist tangled in my shirt.
“I choose you, too.”
Thank you for reading Promise of Love, Link and Jordyn’s story! If you enjoyed it, don’t hesitate to leave a review!!
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