Sniper (Devil's Shadow MC, Book 2)

by K. H. Kate

  SNIPER

  Devil’s Shadow MC

  Book #2

  K.H. KATE

  SNIPER

  Copyright © 2020 by K.H. Kate

  All rights reserved.

  First Edition: JUN 2020

  All rights preserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To my mom, who bravely fought with cancer last year and to the amazing readers who supported me through all.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  EPILOGUE

  THORNED PREVIEW

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  GWEN

  “What do you think of this one?” I twirl around, showing the new dress I just purchased for a special occasion. Not that Grace can’t detect the happiness practically radiating from me.

  I think even mom has been questioning my sudden cheeriness, when between the two of us, I’m the only one who usually shows the least amount of hyperactivity.

  Then again love makes you stupid. It makes you vulnerable, it gives you the chance to try something new, something you never thought you were capable of doing. And, I have fallen under the same illusion without even realizing.

  “Nah, the yellow one was better. But then again, the person you are dressing up for prefers red, so you’re good to go.” Grace jokes laughing. I go to shrug off her joke with a smile, but it diminishes the moment I see him standing outside my door like he was there the whole time.

  “Josh?” My brow furrows in confusion. He shouldn’t be here, at my home, not when mom is only a few feet away in her room. “What are you doing here?”

  His brown eyes somehow look different today. He’s not smiling, not looking at me with that look I can’t help but return. No, he is…he is laughing. A laugh so familiar yet so unknown. I turn around to seek Grace, but my heart stops beating when I find myself alone in the room with him. No Grace, nothing.

  “What-”

  “Shhh…it will be quick. I promise.”

  Oh, no, no, no.

  That voice.

  That bone-chilling look.

  It isn’t Josh. Oh, God, it’s them. As if my mind finally catches up to what’s happening, Josh’s warm eyes turn into a couple of stark dark gazes.

  There’s nothing I can do, when the same old fear comes rushing through me like a storm. All I know is how to go through it. Relive them over and over and-

  And just like that, I’m transported to the reality where I wake up to tears in my eyes and whimpers in my dry throat, where they catch themselves without letting the world know how loudly they really want to escape.

  Scream.

  Shout.

  Cry.

  Anything but the memory of their hands on my body. But like every other wish, they don’t come true. The shadows around me don’t leave, the men in them even more determined to keep me with them. No matter where I am, I can never escape them.

  Numb at the feeling, I try to stop the voices, the laughs from getting to me. But I can’t move. I can’t scream in frustration. The only thing I can do is clutch the button near my bed hard until a loud ringing echoes through the rather empty center.

  I wait impatiently for an hour for my nurse to come through the door like every time, but something else has her busy today. Did something happen? It’s an alarming thought that forces me to hit the button repeatedly until she finally emerges through the door in a daze. Though, her face is crestfallen and there’s a new wave of fear in her eyes.

  The same fear seeps into my bones with no return. Something happened today that was bad enough to shake her like that.

  Before I can panic, she is already helping me to sit in the wheelchair. Taking out a towel, she turns to me. “Usual bath?”

  I nod, looking away. Almost every night I wake up to remembering that horrible day and then I take a hot bath until my skin is pruned. Until I can feel their touches wash away with the dirty water.

  When she is sure that the water is hot enough, she drops me gently in the tub. My skin prickles but still it’s better than the cold air nipping at me, making me remember…them.

  “You have therapy in the morning. Don’t be late.” I nod enjoying the burn. She washes me until I give her the signal to stop. After helping me dress in my clothes she lays me down the bed again.

  Please don’t make me go through that again, I pray but I know it’s not working. My nurse starts to walk out but suddenly stops as if she forgot something. When she turns back, I see the same torn look on her eyes.

  “I forgot to tell you. I’m helping you out now but from tomorrow someone else will help you.” Hearing her, my heart stops. She has been my nurse since I was admitted here. She knows how I am at certain times. She knows me more than Josh knows now. And she is going to leave me? Just like that?

  You are a burden, Gwen. What did you expect?

  “It’s not you.” As if realizing what I was thinking, she quickly responds. My fists clench at the thought of someone laughing at my inability. Some other nurse making gossips about me, of my nightmares, of the scars on my body that reminds me every day that I’m not the same Gwen Knight I was two years ago. “I earned my vacation time after a long wait. I couldn’t exactly say no. Don’t worry, the new nurse knows everything. She will take good care of you. I will make sure of that Ms. Evans.”

  With that, she leaves me in the darkness for those demons to come and haunt me all night. I try to close my eyes and at least sleep. But her words keep repeating in my head.

  Ms. Evans.

  Another lie we tell to save our lives.

  Another hell I will wake up to every day.

  CHAPTER 2

  SNIPER

  Whoever said that pain can't be beautiful, has to be a Goddamn idiot. It's all bullshit. It's a lie. Cause I've seen it. I've seen it in her. I've recognized the beauty of pain in those dark as night eyes.

  Though I would never tell her that. Just like I will never tell her about how I feel. Cause for me, my brothers will always come first. So no matter how it pains me to see her watch Lethal with that look...she will never know.

  "Excuse me?" I'm stopped from thinking more, when another life joins me in the night. She's short and cute with a worn smile on
her face. Two months ago she could have been my type. Now...not so much.

  "Did you do what I asked you to do?" I ask her, lightening a match. The smoke catches her unguarded but she knows not to argue about my choice of poison.

  "Yes, I did." She pauses, glancing at the closed door once. "Ms. Evans will be ready for a new nurse. But are you sure that is what’s best for her?"

  What I say next makes her gasp but I'm not a saint. Being a Devil has its perks. So I don't hesitate when I throw her the file I've had with me.

  "Accused of two murders. Sold his little girl for gambling and is still runnin’ from town to town because someone is after him. Your father isn't exactly the perfect example of parenthood, that's for sure. And, with all that gambling, and money going away…Ms. Evans should be the last thing you should worry about." I finish giving her a grin.

  "I know that, Sniper." She is still on edge, even before meeting me. Fidgeting in her spot, she speaks in a low tone. "But he's still my father. And the only reason I agreed with your crazy idea to refer to a Devil as a nurse is because you are willing to clear his name."

  "And I will," I promise her. "When you leave this town tomorrow, your old man will get his freedom. But after that, if he does anythin’ to prove the accusations to be truth-"

  "He wasn't lying, Sniper. He never had a hand in anything he was accused of. Lorenzo made it up. All of it to take my family down and the bastard won." I can clearly see the hatred in her eyes even before she sighs dejectedly. "Look, I will leave with my father and never come back to your club. The only reason I went to beg at that clubhouse was because someone said you guys could help me. Now that we can run freely, Lethal doesn’t need to worry about us. And I don't know what business you have with her, but please make sure that Ms. Evans is ok. She has gone through a lot."

  She has no clue that I already know what I'm here for. She peeks the door open to see the unknown woman's face before leaving me with a nod. Jade's words flash through my brain alongside Lethal's warning.

  Make sure nothing can harm her, brother.

  I'm giving my trust in you, Seth. I hope you know what it means.

  Of course, I know what it means. So I light another match and finally feel like seeing the woman. Entering the relatively small room, I've to squint for a moment to see a figure of someone's back through the dim light coming from the window. My job is sleeping in the bed but I can clearly see the stiffness of her shoulder.

  Instantly, I feel something...like pity for the woman. She doesn't even fucking realize that someone is looking at her while she is sleeping in her room. No wonder she will need help.

  So I watch over her in the darkness.

  I inhale her fearful breaths.

  Until the figure turns around and opens her eyes. I know her breath freezes but I also know that she can't see me through the haze of the dark. She couldn't even if I was standing right in front of her, cause pain is all she's seeing, all she’s feeling. I watch her hate the pain and after a minute embrace it like a warrior.

  And right then, I feel just how beautiful pain can truly be.

  CHAPTER 3

  GWEN

  This morning I woke up to the feeling of someone watching me. It wasn’t the fact that I am going to meet my new nurse. No, that has nothing to do with the air in the room. It’s too dark, too blurry and most of all, the scent of nicotine getting into my nostril has me watching back and forth at every corner of my room in alarm.

  “She’s responding very well to the new therapy. If only we could have gotten her out of Springfield, then maybe…” Outside of my door, I hear the doctor talk to who I can only assume is my new nurse. Truth be told, I have already started to miss my old nurse. Though a nonstop chatterbox, she was a pleasant company to help spend my days.

  Especially on the days, I missed Grace.

  And Josh.

  My heart clenches again thinking about him. The last time I saw Grace, she promised that he was going to be waiting for me at home. And some days I believed her. Other days I just brushed them off.

  There was nothing to be liked about me.

  I just wasn’t Gwen anymore.

  I was a liability. A painful burden he didn’t deserve to carry for the rest of his life. I wasn’t that much of a selfish person to hold him off from getting what he deserved in life. If only he would understand what I was going through. The remainder of what happened...it made me scared of my own shadow.

  Now how can I promise to always be there for him, when I can’t even be there for myself?

  “Ms. Evans?” My eyes immediately dart to the far end of my door and instead of my doctor or nurse, I see a petite woman beaming at me. She has beautiful red hair tightly secured in a ponytail and a matching red jacket over her white knee-length dress.

  “You’re Gloria right?” she asks again when she doesn’t get any confirmation from me. So this time, I give her a small nod. When she enters the room, I tug the hem of my shirt hard.

  Is she my new nurse?

  Or is she someone those people send to-

  “You look tense. You ok?” She has no idea. But still, I nod giving her a barely-there smile.

  “Good! So I’m your new nurse and I will help you from now on. Everyone calls me Ms. Valentine but you can call me Debra.” I think she lost the irony that I can’t utter a word without fear wrapping their vicious claws around my throat. Still, I act like it’s fine and give her another nod.

  Suddenly, she has a cute frown on her face. And I’m the one surprised when she says the next words. “Um...why are you just nodding? I want to hear the voice of my patient.”

  My eyes widen but I have nothing to say. Doesn’t she know that I-I can’t-

  “Did they try speech therapy before?” she asks me, losing the smile on her face. When I shake my head, she curses.

  “Fuck! This is going to be an even bigger mess.” Her eyes go over to my trembled form and she sighs in frustration or something else that I don’t get to know, before she’s speaking again. “But don’t worry, I will try to give you speech therapy along with the physical one. I can’t wait to get you operated on and running on your feet.”

  How can she be so hopeful? How can I even hope for an operation when I can’t go anywhere far from here?

  Those bad people were still after me. In my mind, my dream, my life.

  “I know you feel like this is the end of the world.” I’m startled to hear her talk. Her face hardens when she continues. “I know you think that nothing can be fixed again. But it can be. You don’t have to feel all of that awesomeness in one day. You can take just one step at a time. Then one day it will feel like you’ve become whole again.”

  I want to. God, I want to break this chain I’ve gotten myself into. But I can’t, I just can’t. My world has become far too dark to even see an ounce of light again.

  “But you have to believe that yourself.” Her hands capture my folded ones and I see that welcoming smile again. “You have to be the one to take that step. If you take a step back every time you think you can’t go ahead, then none of us can help you.”

  At this moment I am not sure what I feel but I’m sure that the darkness doesn’t take me away in their embrace.

  “So, would you like breakfast in bed?” she asks with a grin.

  I’m tempted to nod again. To not see the other people in this facility and let them judge me. But I know the dark doesn’t need me for now. So I take its full advantage. Instead of nodding, I jerk my chin towards the wheelchair. She understands quickly because in a minute, she is helping me to wheel toward the dining hall.

  My heart beats with anticipation and fear but I hold them down. My breath quickens the closer we get to the hall door. When Debra opens the door with a big encouraging smile I can only chant her words over and over.

  One step at a time.

  CHAPTER 4

  SNIPER

  In silence, the world speaks fucking louder.

  That much I am sure of as I heard th
e labored breath of the woman all night. Sometimes she changed her position in the bed, sometimes a small sob broke through the relatively small room until it was daylight and I slipped through the door. And sometimes I even thought if her sister was suffering the same way.

  Not that, this was a new thing.

  Watching over people is what I’ve done since the moment my old man took a bad turn with Mad Dog. He started to snap at everyone, I started doing his errands. He ended up breaking his kneecaps in a fight, I ended up selling drugs to get his hospital fees when Mad Dog refused to help us. I admit I was a little harsh on my old man, when deep down inside I knew he was protesting against Mad Dog for good reasons. He was doing it for the Devil’s Shadow.

  He was doing it for me.

  So that I don’t end up like Lethal.

  But did he really succeed? Did I really become what I wanted to see myself as?

  Sometimes I don’t think so.

  Feeling a burning gaze on my back, I turn around to see the old woman from room no 15 glaring at me. Confusion fills some of their eyes as to why I’m here. But they know not to talk. Everyone knows their place when it comes to the Devil’s Shadow. People around here ain’t much of a talker so my gaze quickly turns to a redhead, when I hear the sound of a happy scream.

  “Sniper, hi!” Debra, also known as Ginger between the Devils, grins the moment she gets my attention. It’s hard to keep the same emotion from showing, so, in an instant even I’m grinning.

  “Ginger. Glad to see ya again.”

  “Well you asked, I came. I’m just that awesome.” She laughs before the laugh vanishes and the seriousness of the situation makes her look over my shoulder. “Though, wanna tell me what am I really doing here? I mean when you called for help I was fucking confused. I took nursing at an early age but I never finished my training properly. You know after...” She trails off unsure if I knew it.