Blinking back tears, Lena imagined hell but couldn’t bring herself to picture that as the rest of her life when Eric fell on top of her, his cock staring to invade her flesh as he pushed her shoulders into the grass.
“Don’t worry,” he teased. “Once you’re broken in, you can serve drinks. Then we’ll take you above ground. But you’ll still sleep with me when your day is done. Between your uncle and the Kid, think you a got a lot to make right.”
Lena’s body tensed as he started to consume her. Every thrust felt like a blade slicing into her soul, and Lena was resigned for all of a second before she started to kick her unbound legs wildly. Her heel hit his back, and every time she felt as if she could push away from him, every time she nearly did, Eric grabbed her legs and forced her back to his cock.
“Get the fuck away from me!” she screamed.
“Keep it up, slut!”
Eric smacked his hand across her mouth. Lena moaned around the stinging of the bruise, but she still kicked as Eric took hold of her ankles and forced her limbs around his back.
“Can always keep you below ground and whip your back raw. That might be fun, too.”
Mitch laughed as he worked his cock around his hand, and Lena looked from one man to the other, her heart seizing in her chest at the thought that they would hide her away in a place where Jax would never find her and Eric would do all kinds of horrible things…
“I said leave me the hell alone!”
Lena landed a sharp kick to his jaw, and even as her shoes left her feet, she had the seconds where Mitch fell to Eric’s side.
“Big Boss? You okay?”
She held her breath as she found her way to her feet and broke into a hard run. As she peered into the night, Lena’s eyes searched for Jax. He was going to come. He had to. Stumbling and forcing her body back to her feet, her knees skinning against the soil as her bare soles scraped against the ground, Lena wasn’t sure how many more seconds she could buy when a dark figure raced into view.
“Jax…”
Lena fell back into the trunk of a tree, thinking nothing of her bound hands as the shadow drew closer. Had to be Jax. Ready to lift her into his arms and carry her back to…
“That was a mistake, slut.”
Eric appeared and captured Lena where she lay. He pushed her tattered shirt between her screaming lips and pulled her body to her aching feet.
“And here we were trying to make it nice for you,” Eric spat. “Well no more.”
He forced Lena to her back and lifted up her skirt.
“I’ll beat you blind after this,” he threatened. “So you won’t go looking for them that ain’t coming.”
Lena moaned into her blouse. She could still kick her legs, but soon Mitch’s hands held her down, his fingers taunting her flesh as she struggled and screamed.
“Keep it up,” Mitch laughed. “We’ll punish you---”
A gunshot cracked through the air, and Lena spit out her shirt. Sitting up slowly, grateful for Eric’s absence from her body, she saw Mitch ducking the bullet as he fell to the ground.
“Big Boss? What the shit?”
As Eric scrambled to his side, Lena worked her way to her feet and moved to run again when she was caught in the crosshairs of another gun.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“Look who’s back!”
Mitch laughed loudly as he looked to Jax before peering over his head.
“On your own, Kid?” Mitch asked. “Don’t even have Artie for back up?”
“Bald man has a busted arm,” Jax said. “Wouldn’t know anything about that, now would you?”
Mitch pressed his free to his pocket and practically spun up on his heels.
“It’s the only way to deal with traitors,” he said. “You two shits are well matched.”
He stepped aside, and Jax’s heart fluttered in his chest at the sight of Lena. Her breasts were bare and trembling, and Eric has his gun to her temple as he licked her cheek with a laugh.
“Kid, to what do we owe the fucking pleasure?”
Jax hardly heard him as he searched for the entirety of Lena’s stare. When their eyes met, her terror overwhelmed him, but she forced her mouth into a faint smile. Just the sight of that put the best part of his mind at ease, and as he nodded his head, Lena followed his moves. Even scared, she was still brave, and Jax found the strength to pull his gun back.
“I’m here for Lena,” he said. “I don’t care about anything else.”
Eric answered his plea with a twist of her nipples. Lena tried not to cry out, and Jax’s skin crawled at the sound of Mitch’s laughter close to his ear.
“She is fine, Kid,” Mitch said. “But she selected to come with us.”
“That’s fucking right,” Eric said. “Thought you’d be back in bed with your new buddies.”
“Save for Artie,” Mitch laughed. “Did he bleed out or what?”
Jax kept his eyes on Lena as he absorbed the other man’s words. All those times when they had rode together, whether the collections were warranted or not…
“And you’d give no thought to him being dead?” Jax asked.
His love for Lena aside, he forced his stare to Mitch and waited for the answer.
“Dumb bald fuck,” Mitch sneered. “Never was anything to---”
Jax fired a bullet into Mitch’s face and watched his skin separate from his skull as he stumbled back and fell the ground. Only the sound of Lena’s screams as the blood pooled around his feet brought Jax’s focus back to his girl, and Jax aimed his gun again.
“Now let her go!” Jax threatened. “I’ll do you the same way if you---”
“Not if kill this cunt first.”
Jax’s heart bloomed in his chest as Eric lowered his gun, but in its place was a long shard of glass pressed to Lena’s pale pink throat.
“How about it, Jax? Think she’ll be as fun to fuck without a neck?”
Even as he hated making the move, Jax lowered his gun and pressed a single hand into the air.
“Why?” he asked. “Why did you do this to my family?
“Your… shit, Jax.”
Eric pushed Lena closer to his chest, the glass between her legs and laughed.
“It’s called a crew, Jax,” Eric said. “Your daddy was too dumb to get the long and short of it. So yeah. I laid the man down and worked all these years to keep you in line.”
Strange as it was, Jax felt a burden leave his shoulders, and he sighed as started to lift his gun.
“Didn’t do such a good job,” Jax spat.
“Point taken. Should have probably killed you when you first sniffed around this one and thought you were something special.”
Lena moaned as he twisted her nipples around his fingers, and Jax’s heart broke at the sound of the pain leaving her lips.
“Take your fucking hands off of her!”
Eric shook his head as he grazed the glass down her side, the sharp edge ever threatening to slice into her soft flesh.
“But this is so much more fun,” Eric teased. “Watching you dance for your life. And hers. Bet you’d give any hope of getting back in charge up I let her go.”
“I would,” Jax said. “Just stop hurting her.”
He forced Lena to her knees as he retrieved his gun and pressed the glass close to her eye.
“Want to see your girl blind?” Eric asked. “Or are we in agreement.”
Jax was ready to lose his gun when Lena slightly shook her head. Same move Aggie might have made… no. His mother ran. Maybe it wasn’t her fault, but she gave Jax no choice but to lick Eric’s boots and call him dad.
“Answer me just one more thing.”
He watched Eric drive Lena deeper into the dirt.
“Speak, Kid.”
Inhaling a deep breath, Jax threw his shoulders back.
“If you had it to do over,” he started. “Would you have killed me as a kid?”
Eric seemed to ponder the possibility, and as soon as their eyes met aga
in, Jax fought the cold suddenly pouring through his veins.
“After tonight, Kid, answer is yes. Didn’t need you getting wise and making trouble.”
Jax bit down on his tongue with baited breath as Eric retrieved his gun.
“So it ends now.”
“Sure as shit does, Big Boss.”
Falling and turning to his side, Jax fired quickly. Lena held her ears, her screams muffled against the grass as Jax rose to his feet and peered down at Eric clutching his bleeding arm.
“Hope it hurts,” he hissed. “Far more than you ever gave my father.”
Eric kept groaning into the grass when Jax turned his head and saw Lena struggling to crawl away from the blood staining her soft hands.
“Lena!”
He was on her heels, absorbing her kicks and scratches as he eased her body back to the ground and gently held her down.
“Lena! It’s me!”
Even as he felt her breath calming, Jax watched with wide eyes as she brought a bloody hand to his face. Choking on a sob, she shuddered and stayed silent as he pulled her into his arms.
“Lena?”
CHAPTER FORTY
“Jax!”
Lena felt her blood pouring between her fingers as she kissed every inch of Jax’s face.
“You came! I knew you would.”
“Always. Forever.”
Another stream of blood dotted her knees, and Lena saw Eric Stiles struggling to draw just one breath.
He suddenly looked so small, and part of her wanted nothing more than to kick him where he lie and hear him groan. She nearly made the move when Jax’s shadow enveloped her form, and she scrambled to her feet to take him in her arms.
“Jax.”
His hold was tight and strong, and she forgot every other set of cold hands as his arms centered on her, and his lips met her hair.
“Shhh. It’s okay now. I’ve got you, Lena.”
She nodded into his chest and gulped back a sob as she lifted her head to find his eyes. Despite the smile on his face, there was still fear in his stare. Lena moved fast to stroke his cheeks and nodded her head.
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” she said. “I had to get them away from everyone.”
Her chest heaved at the thought of what could have happened, of what very neatly had.
“I always knew you’d come,” she choked out. “But suddenly it was happening all over again.”
Jax brought her back to his chest and smoothed his hands through her hair as he kissed her temples and found her ears.
“Never again, Lena,” he swore. “You just stay close to me now.”
No invitation in her life had ever sounded more tempting, and she leaned into his shoulder, thinking of nothing but hopping back on his bike and riding the hell out of this place when a clammy hand surrounded her ankle.
“No! Get the hell off---”
“Fucking prick!”
Eric was down but not out, and even though Lena was able to kick away from him and clasp Jax close, her tormentor pushed his body to his elbows and laughed up at them.
“Bet you’ll get some grateful pussy tonight,” he mocked. “From what I could smell, she’s still so fine.”
Lena bristled at the insult, her eyes filling with tears as Jax pushed her behind his back and aimed his gun.
“You killed my father,” he started. “Made my mom a stranger. But it all ends here. No way you get to even think about touching her again.”
Eric laughed again, a mouthful of blood leaving his lips as he fell back to the ground and clutched his injured side.
“Then finish what you started, Kid,” he said through a cough. “If you fucking can.”
Jax took aim, his finger curling around the trigger, when he suddenly pulled the gun back.
“Pussy ass cunt,” Eric hissed. “No way you ever had it in you.”
“Maybe that’s right.”
Jax turned on his heel and eased Lena’s shuddering form to his side.
“You really okay?” he asked.
“I am now,” she insisted. “Now that I see you again.”
***
He kissed her tenderly, but he left her lips as he pushed the gun into her hands.
“Jax? What are you doing?”
“It should be you, Lena,” he said. “After everything he put you through… can’t think of anyone more worthy to end this asshole’s sorry life.”
“That a boy, Jax,” Eric scoffed, a fresh stream of blood trailing down his chin as he clutched his chest, his eyes rolling back in his head as he looked into the chasm of fading stars hanging over their head.
“Let a woman do your work.”
Jax kicked his bloodied side and spit in his face.
“If it would just make me sleep better to smoke you right here, you’d already be dead,” he said. “But… but Lena…”
The gun was still in her hand as she felt Jax back at her side, his arms surrounding her body as he kissed her eyes.
“Something tells me you need this more,” he whispered. “To end it for good and all.”
Her mind flashed back to what it was to feel the man’s unwanted flesh grinding on top of her. In that moment, it felt like the end of the world as she knew it, and even Jax wasn’t enough to calm her soul. Now he knew. Now she had him back in her arms and around her heart. That should be enough. And it almost was. But Eric kept laughing through the blood pushing through his lips, and she steadied her stare on Jax and curled her hand around his wrist.
“I need… I think I want…”
“Better pay close attention to her, Jax. She’s calling the shots.”
“I fucking am, you pig!”
Lena fired four rounds into his crumbling chest. She gritted her teeth as he strained forward with a final sigh, and when his body mercifully went still, Lena let the gun fall to the grass and felt Jax’s hands on her shoulders.
“Lena? Look at me.”
Turning to face him, Lena nodded, her hands arms shaking as he pulled her close.
“It’s over,” he promised. “Bastard’s never going to touch you again”
“Because I killed him,” Lena sobbed. She wept into his chest and clung to his arms. Eric’s body grew rigid under her eyes, and she was suddenly scared that there would be a price to pay.
“Jax, I murdered him. What happens now?”
He kissed her brow and carried away from the scene, snatching her torn clothes as he covered her quaking flesh.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said with a light kiss. “And then I’ll take you home.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Riding back to the farmhouse, Lena felt no fear, no need to look over her shoulder. The bodies burned behind them, and Jax assured her he would send the Silver Horses back at first light to bury what was left of the men’s remains.
“There’s still those back in Deerfield,” Lena murmured over the roar of his bike.
“They’ll fall in line, or they’ll go the same way,” Jax said. “Eric ain’t calling the shots anymore.”
As soon as the farmhouse came into view, Lena spied the sun starting to poke through the clouds. The air still seemed ready to burst, just as it had when Eric and the others laid siege to the place. But now, instead of a danger that would swallow them whole given the chance, Lena sensed too many possibilities to count, and she pressed Jax closer as she kissed his neck.
“Jax…”
He brought his bike to a stop and lifted her from the seat, his arms tight around her waist as he kept her suspended in the air, his lips playing around hers as he stroked her hair.
“Did I thank you for coming after me?” she asked.
“Did I tell you that it was a damn fool thing to do in the first place?”
Lena slid down his body, and in her hurt and fatigue, she started to hang her head when he pushed his fingers under her chin.
“But fucking brave, Lena. Just like you.”
Jax kissed her gently and took her into his arms,
moaning as he pushed her close to his chest.
“Let it be the last time,” he said. “Don’t want to see anything else happening to you.”
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 23
