The man slowly turned to gun toward me. I was still gripping the frying pan in both hands, holding it in front of me like sword.
“Drop it,” he said in a low voice. He didn’t seem freaked out at all about the fact that he’d just killed someone.
I threw the pan down. I wasn’t going to walk the same road. I was a coward; I wasn’t planning on fighting back. The pan rolled to the side with a clatter and I lifted my hands. I stared at Mitchell’s body, dead on my floor, and it all started dawning on me. Mitchell was dead. The killer was right in front of me, pointing a gun at my face. I swallowed hard. “Don’t shoot me.”
He smiled then, his teeth white against the black mask that clung to his face. It was one of those ski masks or whatever you call it, the wool ones. It had to be terribly hot in there. He pulled the mask off. What was the point, then? His face wasn’t much better to look at. He had a scar running from temple to cheek and his eyes were lifeless black holes, as if he did this kind of thing all the time. I didn’t want to know how many people he’d killed in his life.
“Let’s get going,” he said. His voice was as empty and unfeeling as his eyes.
I listened. I didn’t know where he was taking me but as long as I was alive it didn’t matter. I just couldn’t die, not now that my life was going somewhere. And, God, Logan would never forgive himself. I knew he would feel like Mitchell’s death was also his fault, but if I died he would never ever let himself off the hook for it.
The guy in black marched me out of my own door and we walked down the stairs to a big black car. The thing looked like it had escaped from one of those Rap music videos. The inside smelled like pineapple air freshener and smoke. It made me nauseous. As soon as I was sitting in the corner against the other door, huddled against the leather seat, the smell of my fear filled the car, too.
He sat opposite me, not saying a word. His gun was in his lap – passive but not packed away. I couldn’t keep my eyes off it. He’d just killed Mitchell. He was taking me somewhere unknown. I could still die today.
We drove for what felt like about half an hour when the car stopped between containers that looked familiar but I couldn’t place them. We just sat there, doing nothing. I couldn’t run on such a high level of adrenaline for so long so I started relaxing.
“What are we waiting for?” I asked.
“Shut up.”
I snapped my mouth shut. I wasn’t going to argue with the guy with the gun.
I didn’t know how long we were there for, but it felt like forever. The space in the car seemed to shrink, squeezing me, bringing me closer to my kidnapper. The smell made me sick to my stomach. I was starting to wonder if the smell was trying to cover something else up. Maybe I was just making things worse. My writer’s imagination was just eating this shit up, making it worse than it needed to be.
Finally, his phone rang and he held it against his ear, nodding without saying a word. The car started up again and moved forward, slowly, as if we were creeping up on something. I looked out of the tinted window.
My kidnapper moved closer and taped my hands together. He gagged me, too, and I felt claustrophobic, unable to move properly, to talk, to escape. I started crying. We rolled along and then the containers fell away and we stopped next to a group of men with guns. They all looked as dangerous as the guy in the car with me. I didn’t want to be here.
They shifted a bit and someone tied to a chair came into view. A moment later I realized it was Saul. They had me and they had Saul, the two people Logan really cared about. May was there, too. The woman from the library. Logan’s ex, the one that was causing all this trouble. She had a gun to Saul’s head. The adrenaline in my system kicked in again and terror hardened in my stomach, making it hard to breathe. This was going to get really ugly, really fast.
I barely thought it when I saw Logan standing on the other side of the group. He had a mean look on his face, a look I had never seen on him before. He wore leather clothes, a menacing outfit, and he had dynamite strapped to his chest. Dynamite.
The car door was opened and I was yanked out. I whimpered, scared.
Logan had a button he was clutching onto and I was pretty sure I knew where he was going with this. He was going to blow us all up. He was crazy. I suddenly wasn’t sure who the man was that stood in front of me. This wasn’t the man I loved, the man I’d agreed to marry. This was some maniac with explosives and a crazed look in his eye. This wasn’t Logan.
He shouted something I couldn’t hear, the fear overpowering everything else in my mind, and lifted the button. I watched as his thumb came down on the button and I ducked my head down. This was the end. This was where my story ended, the happy ending gone, only fear and despair left. I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut.
There was no explosion. There was a lot of movement, May’s surprised cry, laughter. Laughter? That didn’t make any sense. I looked up and everything had changed.
The men all around May had their guns hanging at their sides. They were crowded around Logan, shaking hands with them. May looked shocked and furious, like she couldn’t decide which emotion to go with. Logan looked at me and smiled as if May wasn’t even there. It was the kind of smile that would make your heart melt.
It washed away all my fear. It would be all right now, I was sure of it. Logan started walking toward me. He was going to come and save me. He was going to take off this tape and the gag and he was going to wipe my tears away and everything would be better. I knew deep down he wouldn’t have done something crazy like blow everybody up.
One of the other guys headed toward Saul and started untying him May shouted at him to stop.
“I’m still in charge here, asshole!” She sounded panicked.
He laughed and shook his head. “Tables have turned, sweetheart.” The way he said sweetheart was like it had a foul taste.
May picked up on that, too. Her face went red. “You don’t tell me what to do. I tell you what to do. That was our agreement. I’m paying you, for God’s sake!”
He shrugged. “Logan’s paying me more.”
Loyalty was all about money? It didn’t make sense. I’d seen different with Logan and his guys, but maybe that was what made them so special. May shook her head and kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand. He looked at her, angry.
“You may think you make the rules around here, but I still have a gun.”
She pointed it at Saul’s head and everybody froze. I looked at Logan. He’d gone pale. He believed she would do it. That wasn’t good. I trusted Logan and I went along with what he believed. He knew what he was doing.
“Don’t do this, May.” It was Saul who had started talking. “If you kill me now, you’ll die. They’re all on his side and you know Logan won’t let it go until he sees you dead for killing me.”
Saul was right. If the bond Logan had with his men was anything to go by, he would never rest until May paid for killing one of them. God, if he knew about Mitchell…
“Maybe you’re not the right person to use as a target, then,” May sneered. She turned the gun slowly away from him and for a moment I breathed easy. That moment passed and then I was looking down the barrel of the gun. I couldn’t breathe. I saw my death in that round mouth, the gun that would spit my death at me.
Logan lunged forward. “Don’t!”
May laughed. “I never thought the day would come where you lose your cool about something. She means more to you than your men, does she? That’s interesting. I thought you weren’t capable of love.”
“Just not with you,” Logan said.
May’s menacing smile disappeared. Did he have to insult her now? With the gun trained on my face? I was whimpering again no matter how hard I tried not to. May seemed to relish in the fact that I was so scared I could barely stand. I had never had gun pointed at me and it was the worst thing I’d ever experienced.
Everything was frozen. The gun was on my face. Saul’s face was shock. Logan’s face was horror. All the other guys had their guns
pointed at May but I had a feeling it wouldn’t make any difference. She’d lost her mind, after all, and she was angry and jealous of me. I had taken her place in Logan’s life, after all, and he cared for me in a way I was gathering he never cared for her.
She wanted to see me dead and with her heartlessness, her lack of morals and values, her obsession with the Fallen Thorns, I wasn’t under any illusion that she wouldn’t shoot me. None of the men, not even Logan, could outrun a bullet.
I closed my eyes and conjured up Logan’s face the way he looked at me when it was just me and him, when there was nothing in the air but love. I didn’t want to be the horror, the anger, the fear, to be the last thing I saw before I did. I was pretty sure this was the end.
Chapter 27
Logan
There was no way I was losing Selena. There was no way I was losing her to May. No fucking way. The moment she moved the gun from Saul to Selena it felt like I was dying inside. I had never cared for anyone this much in my life, including all the men. Including Elijah. It was something different than I’d ever felt before and I wasn’t going to lose it now just when I’d found it.
I cried out and jumped forward without thinking about it. May laughed but she looked more upset than amused. “I didn’t think you would ever find someone more important to you than the boys.”
The truth was, I hadn’t thought so either.
“It’s a pity she has to go so soon.”
She was pissed off and jealous. She was upset I hadn’t loved her the way I loved Selena. It was difficult, though, to love someone who loved herself so much that there wasn’t space for anyone else. Besides, May had lost the plot ages ago. I had never wanted to spend the rest of my life with a lunatic.
The jealousy was insane, though. I could see her bristle. She almost had a green glow to her. It was awful because she knew exactly what Selena meant to me now and she had the gun pointed at her.
I still had my guns on me – I hadn’t only packed the dynamite. I knew well enough that it was good to be prepared for every contingency with May. There was no telling what she would do. Selena closed her eyes. I could see her giving up, giving in, accepting her death. There was something very strong about a person who had the ability to do that instead of panicking. Selena was amazing in every way, and the more I got to know her, the more I was reminded of how spectacular she was.
This was not the end.
I pulled a gun out of my pocket and aimed it at May. I closed one eye and then opened it again and pulled the trigger. It had been aimed at her head. At the last moment I’d aimed it at her hand instead. The gun kicked back in my hand and the shot was loud, ringing in my ears. Selena cried out around the gag. May screamed and the gun fell to the ground with a clatter, pointing at no one in particular. May howled on the ground, her bloody hand clutched against her chest.
She was damn lucky I hadn’t just killed her.
Selena’s eyes shot open and she sagged to the ground after she realized she wasn’t dead.
I ran toward her, holding onto the gun, and caught her. “Hey, it’s okay,” I said, trying to sound as soothing as possible. “Everything’s safe now. You’re safe.” I took the gag out of her mouth and she swallowed twice. A sob racked her chest and she started crying. “It’s okay, I’m here. No one’s going to hurt you.”
I glanced up at the guy who had been watching Selena. He shook his head and surrendered his gun. He put his hands up and stepped away from it. He knew he was outnumbered.
I turned my attention back to Selena and pulled the tape from her wrists. The skin was red after I got it off and she rubbed her wrists. She was crying and I pulled her against my chest, rubbing her shoulder, trying to get her to calm down.
“It’s going to be all right.”
I looked up at the guys and nodded at one of them who walked over to Saul and started untying him, too. He got out of the chair and walked toward us with a limp. I noticed bruises on his arms. They must have roughed him up a little, careful not to hurt his face. If I’d seen that I would have lost it right there. May had known that.
“Thanks, man. I owe you.” Saul clapped me on the back.
I shook my head. “You don’t owe me a thing. This is what brothers do.”
He nodded. Being called my brother was the biggest honor I could bestow on him after Elijah. He looked at Selena, concerned. She whimpered in my arms but the worst was over.
She finally looked up. She took my face between her hands and kissed me. She tasted like salty tears. “I thought I was going to die.”
“I would never let that happen to you.” That was the God-honest truth.
She ran her hands through her hair, tried to wipe the tears and the make-up streaks, and took a deep, shuddering breath. “How did you do it?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I bought them off. I knew May had offered them money, so I went to my banker and I told her to release enough funds so I could pay them more.”
Selena frowned. “You had that much money?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t want to tell you what I have. I didn’t want you to date me for my money.”
She smiled and it was a wonderful expression. Saul chuckled.
“If you don’t have morals, money usually does the trick.”
Selena shook her head. We got up. I held her against me as we turned to face the rest of them.
“They’re on our side now right?”
I nodded. “They work for me now. At least, for today, anyway.”
I thanked them and one by one they dispersed. Saul made a call to the rest of my gang, asking them to meet us at the clubhouse.
“Come on,” I said to her. “I want you to officially meet the guys.”
I got on my bike and Selena got on behind me. One of the others, I wasn’t sure who, offered her a helmet. I drove to the club. Saul would ride with one of the gang who would pick him up on the way. Everything was going to be fine.
The trip back was like going back in time, in a way. It felt like a million years ago that I was last at the club, in a different lifetime. Now I had Selena at my side, all my men were safe, May was taken care of. I knew the others would run her out of town. They were on my side now – if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Right? That was what I did. Sort of. I’d really just offered then a price they couldn’t refuse so they’d ended up joining me but that was beside the point. The only thing that mattered was that everyone was safe. Selena. Saul. My boys. Me. I’d lost a lot of people in my past but those days were over and I wasn’t going to lose any more of them.
I also wasn’t going to sacrifice my life to save them. I had Selena now, and even though my boys were still everything to me, I was going to make sure everyone was safe, and that included me.
I was exhilarated. We’d won. I’d managed to beat May. I’d managed to get rid of my past. It was a lot more than just facing someone in the flesh. This had been all about facing my demons and I’d managed. I knew I was ready for the new chapter in my life now. I could give Selena a clean slate. I could offer her the life, the man, she deserved.
When we pulled into the lot at the club all the other bikes were there, lined up. Selena eyed them when she slid off the bike and took off her helmet.
“They’re family,” I said to her.
She smiled at me and I knew she understood. I wanted her to feel safe around my men, safe in the life that would come with me no matter how hard I tried to change it. I was still me, after all, and there would still be parts of me that would never go away.
We stepped into the club and everyone clapped and cheered. I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. Selena seemed shy. She stood very close to me, but she was smiling, too.
“Do you mind if I go make a call?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I don’t have a phone on me.”
I led her to the office. May had draped herself over this very desk just over a week ago. Maybe it was a good idea to christen it with Selena, just to get rid of al
l the bad memories. I looked at her, at her body, her face, and I wanted her. I always wanted her.
She smiled at me and in her eyes I could see she knew what I was thinking.
“I need to take care of this,” she said firmly. It wasn’t a no; it was a ‘not right now.’ I pointed at the phone on the desk. She could use that to make her calls. I checked the window, made sure everything was safe and secure. I knew we were out of danger now but I was still in protective mode and I’d been way too close to losing her to just be able to relax now that it was all over.
I stepped out of the office and closed the door behind me.
One of the boys stood in the hallway, looking at me. “I’ll make sure she’s okay,” he said.
Hard Ride: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Fallen Thorns MC) (Whiskey Bad Boys Book 2) Page 19
