Hard Sacrifice (Savage Saviors MC Book 4)

by J. C. Allen

  This was “grab the girl and run.” Consequences would be dealt with later. They beat the consequences of having to deal with Eve’s departure.

  I came close to the office building—and boy did it look just like that—and parked my bike. At this point, I had the darkness of the surroundings to hide me, but I had nothing else in the form of backup. If I fell, Roost wouldn’t know until he realized I wasn’t coming back. If I got captured, same thing. If I survived but Eve fell, I wouldn’t have anyone to cover me. If I got pinned… well, there wasn’t any help.

  Roost had come with me, but this was a true solo mission.

  I approached the building, not that surprised to find it unguarded from the outside. The last thing the Black Falcons needed was to give away that they had this building covered and to scream “we have special resources inside!”

  I went inside the front door and tried to remember what Tara had said. If she’s with Tyler, they put him on the top floor. They like their new recruits to feel special and loved. That way they can always promise those recruits “it’ll go back to the way things were” long enough for them to feel they have no choice but to remain in the club.

  I found the stairwell and popped it open with my rifle, taking care to look in every direction, both horizontally and vertically, for any unexpected and unplanned ambushes. Nothing.

  I still had the element of surprise. The only question was, was that the case because I was slow, or because the Black Falcons already knew of my presence and were planning an even bigger ambush?

  It was hard to account for the latter, so I just chose not to. If I was seen by now, there was nothing I could do anyways, and a few bullets weren’t going to stop me from getting to Eve. That was priority one, two, and five million, with nothing else in between.

  I made my way to the top of the stairwell. I gulped, prepared to gently push open the door, and then paused.

  A man crossed in front of the glass.

  Fortunately, he never looked into the stairwell, and even if he had, he would have had to have taken a beat to see me before he did.

  But, nevertheless, now was the first moment I had to think. How was I going to pull the men away from their posts, giving me the chance to go in and help Eve?

  Simple.

  Make them think there’s a reason to—

  And so, using the element of surprise on them, just before I could overthink it, I shot a bullet through the glass and quickly retreated to the next flight of stairs, cocking my gun.

  “Are you fucking kidding me!”

  The man slammed open the door and moved quickly down the stairs. That was his first mistake—the right move when you hear gunfire is not to charge into it blindly, but to ascertain the risk and position yourself to attack. But, hey, his loss was my gain.

  A clean shot from my rifle dropped him.

  “Shit, how the fuck did he find us?!?”

  I smiled deviously as more Black Falcons came. I mowed them down with ease, using my rifle to take them out like hot wax through paper. Once a pile of about four bodies had climbed on the top floor, I made my way back up, swiping through the halls.

  Surprisingly, I didn’t see any other Falcons. This led me to believe that either I had found the wrong place, or that if they had taken Eve here, this was just recently completed, meaning…

  Meaning security would be on its way.

  Now or never, Derek.

  I raised my rifle in preparation to knock down the individual doors on the hallway, but when I did, I realized it had jammed. Now you really better hope you get out of here before more show up. You’re a dead man even if you rescue Eve. Even if—

  “And I’m going to get even harder for all of this.”

  Tyler.

  I heard that sniveling weasel of a voice from far away, but I knew it from anywhere. The tone, the pitch, everything about it had been permanently etched in my mind after that damn voice mail.

  I charged into the room, holding the pistol aloft, ready to land a clean shot.

  There was just one problem with this plan.

  Eve stood there, a look of pure terror on her face, with Tyler practically hiding behind her. I’d thought he was a scrawny fuck before, nothing more than a pity admit to the Savage Saviors, but, seeing how easily he concealed his entire form behind my girlfriend, save for his rat-like face and wide, peering eyes, it occurred to me just how small he really was. Eve’s head was cocked back at an awkward angle, her throat stretched and bulging hideously around each breath.

  It took me a moment to realize that Tyler was tethering her by hair, pulling it down and back. Judging from the way her midsection jutted forward, I could only imagine that the gun I’d heard fired was presently slammed so hard against her lower back that it was forcing her to hold that awful posture. There was nothing more I wanted than to take that gun, shove it down Tyler’s throat, and shoot him in the heart from his throat.

  “Heya, lover-boy,” Tyler said, his voice chummy—almost to a horrific degree given the circumstances. “I was wondering when you’d come. Hopefully after I already came! Of course, that hasn’t happened yet, but it’ll just make me that much harder when I kill you.”

  “Tyler,” I growled.

  I had nothing to follow it up with. The name just hung there on its own, a morbid sort of greeting in its own right. It angered me so goddamn much to see him in this position that words failed me—if I had my choice, I’d speak the language of bullets.

  “Your girlfriend punched me in the cock when you first showed up at the house,” Tyler said, delivering the news as one might inform a buddy of last night’s sport’s scores. “Laid quite a wicked punch into me. Almost thought the kids wouldn’t come out again.”

  “Aww, boo hoo,” I said, trying to line up a good angle to shoot him—but it was damn near impossible with how small he was next to Eve, who herself was tiny as well. “I suppose your junk is working just fine now?”

  “Oh, yes, yes,” Tyler said, his voice rising, excited. I realized with more than a little discomfort he sounded like he was hissing on the word “yes.” “Working very well, actually. Now that I’ve had some time to recover. She tried to deliver a nice little kick as well, but I was better prepared this time. Isn’t that right, Eve?”

  Eve’s throat only distended with another nervous breath, her eyes boring back at me, looking almost apologetic.

  “Isn’t that right?!?” he repeated in a shrill yell, yanking Eve’s head back roughly before relaxing his grip enough to let her speak.

  “Y-yes,” she croaked, her voice little more than a whisper.

  “Swear to fucking God, Tyler, you hurt her, and—”

  “And what?” Tyler snarled. “You gonna cry about it? You gonna get drunk and beg Roost for support? You gonna be a giant pussy like you usually are?”

  He laughed maliciously as Eve arched forward some more. He breathed heavily into her ear, an act that almost got me to shoot him right there, even if it meant shooting through Eve’s shoulder—she could survive that.

  “I can feel him, Derek,” she whispered. “Against me… please.”

  “Quiet, bitch,” Tyler snarled. “Why do you think I left the Saviors, Derek? Hmm? Do you want to know? It’s because you’re a giant pussy, that’s why. I heard the stories of your father and your brother. They were men. Real men! You’re just… you’re nothing more than a little girl who has lost her mommy.”

  “If so,” I said, shooting back. “At least I’m taller than my mommy.”

  I knew just how deep that would get to Tyler, whose face blushed a bright red. I briefly worried I might have set him off just a bit too much, but all that happened was he stood with Eve, moving toward a door that looked like it led to a bedroom. It left me feeling particularly vengeful that he was not hiding his gawking for her breasts.

  “Say whatever you want, Derek, but the Falcon isn’t like you,” he said. “He’s strong. He doesn’t let emotions get in his way. He’s competent. He’s a leader. I�
�ll always be loyal to competency.”

  “And you think he’ll be loyal back?” I shot back, though I really wasn’t sure why I was talking to this asshole anymore. Can’t… get… a clear fucking shot!

  “He’ll be loyal enough.”

  “He’ll kill you.”

  “No, he won’t,” Tyler said. “Only one person here is going to die today. It’s not going to be me. It’s not going to be the sex doll in my arms. It’s going to be you. But not immediately. No. You’re going to watch me fuck your lady friend here, watch me go balls deep in her, and then, only when I know your last image will be of my cum all over her tits, will I kill you.”

  “Fuck you, Tyler!”

  The gun was shaking in my hands now. I couldn’t keep playing this game anymore. I had to save her. I had to… I had to find a way, no matter what.

  Eve and I locked eyes then, and I saw the slightest hint of a nod. I had no idea what it was she was conveying in that instant…

  But something in me did. Enough of me knew that now—truly, now—was time to act.

  I ran toward Tyler and Eve, closing the distance like a gazelle. Time slowed as it had a funny way of doing in moments of death. Just let it be his death.

  Eve, seeming almost to move in slow-motion, was twisting and side-stepping. Her hair went taut, but the rest of her didn’t seem to care as she twirled and Tyler’s hand started to drag out as he maintained his hold. Tyler, all the while, seemed only confused that the pair of tits he’d been working to ogle were no longer occupying the field of vision he’d established for himself.

  Then, twisting free of her captor’s hold, Eve escaped. Tyler, the man who had betrayed my trust and stolen my woman, stood before me without his human shield—or any shield for that matter.

  Just as Eve had been forced to confess, there was a steely erection in his pants. It was as disturbing as the gun in his hands, albeit in a much more discomforting than dangerous way. The gun wavered uncertainly between me and Eve. Then, deciding, it started to swim through slowed time in my direction.

  “Fine, you die before I fuck—”

  But I reached him before either his gun or his mouth could finish.

  I came upon him like a missile, barreling him back. He managed to keep his feet on the ground, but what this kept in balance he lost in control. Then, exhausting the open space, we crashed into the wall, with Tyler’s back and shoulders making a loud whoomp sound as we did.

  His hot, stinking breath was knocked from his lungs and into my face, and visions of cramming my head in a gas stove swam on my thoughts. I was screaming in a raging murderous spree, but I couldn’t be sure when I’d started or how long it went on. My fists pummeled—left, right, left, right; an ever-constant rhythm—into the skin and bones of Tyler. He barked and coughed under the weight of each impact, showed all the telltale signs of pain, but never seemed to truly be worn down by it.

  I realized then this was not Chuck that I was trying to kill, but a real clubster, a man who at least had been tough enough to join the Savage Saviors. A few gut blows weren’t going to do the job. I had to do something much more vicious, much more savage to bring him down.

  And, all the while, his erection never went down. He delighted in taking my abuse—the fucking masochist had wanted this!

  Still I worked, punching and screaming and, once or twice, throwing a knee into his groin, hoping to see him finally buckle and fold.

  Then, before I could react, he brought his weapon up in a moon-like arc, cracking me along the side of my head with the long, flat silver of his pistol.

  “Hahahaha,” Tyler laughed as I crumpled. “Shoulda known I like getting hit like that. Oh, how it makes me feel so alive!”

  The world corkscrewed to one side. I worked to counterbalance this sudden shift. Then I discovered the world hadn’t moved at all. I was falling.

  I looked up, at Tyler, leering, aiming his gun at me, snickering some more.

  “There was one other thing I forgot to mention,” he said. “In all of your attacks, you failed to realize how easy it was to disarm you. Your gun is far, far away from you. See, that was another part of your errors, Derek. You are too predictable in fighting.”

  He stepped forward, put his boots on my chest, and smirked.

  “Looks like you ‘Harley’ knew what was coming, Derek.”

  I closed my eyes.

  “I love you, E—”

  BANG.

  The sound of the gunshot, something that the past few minutes had made me very familiar with, blurred my hearing. My body scrunched up in pain, having fully anticipated the bullet coming into my skull. At least my last words had been to say that I loved Eve.

  At least I had shown the effort to make my way out to her. At least she knew that I really did love her, and I wasn’t just speaking empty platitudes. At least…

  Wait. How am I still thinking all of this? How am I still alive?

  I… I am alive?

  I should… I should’ve been shot.

  Except…

  Except that I didn’t feel shot.

  Absently, my hand traced up to my left shoulder, just above my heart, and it occurred to me that it was very stupid to wonder if I’d been shot in the same place twice.

  Then how come that’s the only part of me that hurts right now?

  Then it was raining blood.

  It poured like it had earlier, hot and thick and awful.

  Tyler’s body slumped over me, dead as dead could be.

  And I fell in love with Eve all over again as I knew, even without having witnessed or experienced a moment of it, what had just happened.

  “Saved my life again!” I shouted as I shoved Tyler off of me as if he had every contagion known to man.

  Tyler thumped to the floor, alone and forgotten as easy as that, and I was distracted with the suddenly tolling chore of standing. Eve let the spent weapon drop from her hand. My gun clattered to the floor, and, like Tyler, like Chuck, like Rock, was discarded in favor of the woman who had saved me.

  “At least this time the place isn’t on fire,” she said with an exhausted smile.

  “Wouldn’t it be funny,” I said with a groan as I stood. “If you saying that made it happen?”

  She studied me for a moment, smiled sympathetically, and shook her head.

  “No,” she said, “that wouldn’t be funny at all. I’d like to save you at least once without danger.”

  Touche. That was stupid.

  “Right,” I nodded, pointing to what I was sure looked like a sizable head injury. “Sorry. Just a little concuss at the moment.”

  She giggled a little, but it seemed more for my benefit than out of any actual humor.

  “Come on,” she said, “let’s get out of here.”

  “First things first,” I said.

  I went up to the girl who had saved my life twice—actually, three times by now—and pressed the fattest kiss I had ever produced in my life for her. Of all the times she’d saved my life, this was the most necessary. I might have escaped the Black Falcons’ fundraiser with some dumb luck, and I might have crawled out of the fire of the meth lab after some time.

  But this? I was dead. Without Eve, Tyler would be slapping his dick on my face in celebration. Without Eve, the Savage Saviors would have crumbled to bits. Without Eve… even if Tyler hadn’t killed me, I wouldn’t have anything to live for.

  Eve had, once again, saved me in more ways than one.

  “OK, for real,” she said, muffling half her words against my lips. “Let’s get out of here before reinforcements show up.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  We hurried out of the apartment just in time to see Roost coming downstairs to pick us up, just as he had promised.

  “Mission accomplished, Roost!” I shouted. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  He let out a cheer as we hurried onto his bike. I hopped on with Eve on my back. I turned to Eve, kissed her, and smiled.

  “Next time, I’m real
ly saving you,” I said.

  Eve just kissed me once more.

  “Nonsense,” she said. “That’s exactly what you did for me today.”

  18

  Eve

  In the days that followed, Derek kept true to many of the promises that he had made me.

  He didn’t drink at all. He didn’t even have a victory drink back at the shop, all the while Roost drank an entire handle of whiskey—without even seeming that drunk—and the rest of the shop went through a few bottles of their own celebration.

  He didn’t let his emotions get the best of him. Though he was frustrated that Tyler had left in the first place and was trying to conduct a post-battle analysis, he kept his cool throughout.

  And most of all, he showed that he loved me. In those first few days, it took the form of making sure I had not suffered any damage or trauma as a result of what Tyler had done to me. Once I reassured him that Tyler nor anyone else had raped me, he became more flirtatious. He bought me chocolates and theater tickets. He cooked dinner for me.

  We hadn’t had sex yet, but that had nothing to do with some mental block on my end or anything to that effect; rather, he simply had a lot of work to do, and I was just so tired and revved up from everything that had happened that I wasn’t really in the mood to do it.

  But as I held his hand up the elevator to a top-floor steakhouse, holding a binder in his hand that would reveal the last of his secrets to me, I had a feeling that last obstacle was going to be cleared with the ease of a fighter jet soaring over a runner’s hurdle.

  He took me back to a private room. On the surface, this was so we could have a private dinner and he could reveal to me the business of the Savage Saviors and the intel on the Black Falcons.

  But now, this just seemed to be about making love to me while I wore a seductive, revealing red dress.

  “It’s really tough to read this when you’re kissing my neck, you know,” I said, having grabbed the binder from his hand.

  He grinned, nodded… and then kissed my neck again anyways.

  “Yes, I know,” he said. “That’s why I’m doing it.”

  I giggled at this, tried to pull away—trying, in fact, to pretend I didn’t love it—only to have my giggles slip into laughs. Betrayed by my response, I fell against her and craned my neck to accept a few more kisses before turning my head to catch the next “attack” on my lips. We both moaned, satisfied by this turn of events, and explored its possibilities a bit further.