They strung her up next to me and started to interrogate her. As sweet butts are kept out of the loop, she couldn’t give anything away. No, there were no extra men at the compound, and she hadn’t seen any signs they’d been preparing for more. When she was asked what made her walk into the Chaos Riders’ club, she said she’d overheard where I was and wanted to switch clubs to be with me. The only info she kept to herself was that at least some of the Devils knew I wasn’t a traitor. Though by then she wasn’t capable of saying much at all, but she kept that material evidence to herself, which was the only thing that might have saved her. That was the reason I’d turned my head and forced myself to watch when Chaos at last got bored and shot her through the forehead. She’d known what was coming, and met his gaze head on, even as he pulled the trigger.
Chaos had left her dead body hanging next to mine. Then he left only with his suspicions, still undecided whether I was a traitor to him or the Devils.
Left alone, I’m alternating between going hot and cold, and also very dehydrated. My shoulders no longer have any feeling at all, and when I can separate out the different pains, my legs feel tingly and ache with the effort of balancing on my toes. But my comfort, or lack of, is probably the last thing on Chaos’ mind. When I’m conscious enough to think, I use the time dreaming up different ways to kill him. She might have fucked up coming here with her misguided intentions, but in the end Jill did what she could. Kept quiet. All I can do for her now is revenge her.
I’ve no idea of the time when I next hear footsteps on the stairs. I go rigid, wondering what hell they’ll put me through this time. But to my surprise, they start untying my arms.
Fester stands and laughs when my legs don’t support me and I crash to the ground, my knees taking the brunt of my weight. He kicks me. “Just think, what we’ve done to you will be nothing to what you’ve got to come.”
I clear my throat. “What?” I croak.
“Chaos doesn’t trust you, whether you’re with us or not. And the Satan’s Devils want you back to kill you. He’s going to exchange you for Becca.”
Drummer wouldn’t give Becca back. He guessed my interest in her... Well, the interest I previously had before I knew what she was. But Drum doesn’t know that. They have to be wrong, he’s not here to exchange her. But if I open my mouth I’d drop myself in it. On the other hand, Drummer might have heard she was fucking all the men… He might know more about her than I do, and that she deserves to go back to Chaos. Fuck it. Jill had been right. That’s the only reason Drummer would make an exchange. I won’t have to go back to the club with her in it. Better this way. Never can trust bitches…
“Get up.” Fester kicks me again.
I try. I really do. Apart from wanting to avoid Fester’s steel toe capped boots meeting my flesh for a third time, the thought that the Satan’s Devils might be here gives me determination, but I’ve been strung up too long, am too weak, and my back, fuck, my back…
Annoyed, Fester waves to King and George. Uncaring of my injuries, one takes hold of my shoulders, the other my feet, and with grunts and oomphs of effort, carry me up the stairs, through the clubroom, and into the daylight I’d given up all hope of ever seeing again. Before I have a chance to see who’s there I’m thrown down, only at the final moment being able to twist to stop myself landing with the raw flesh of my back on the coarse and filthy gravel. Drummer’s here. Thank fuck. Half of me thinks I’m still tied up and hallucinating.
When Chaos kicks me in the ass I start to crawl forward, but Drummer’s a long way away, and I know for a fact Chaos will shoot me before I reach him. There’s Becca, her face twisted up. At the state of me? In fear of going back to the cellar? She’s not moving voluntarily, Beef’s forcing her across the compound toward Chaos.
Chaos will have the last laugh. He’ll shoot me as soon as he can take her. He won’t take the chance that I’ll turn on his club, especially after the way they’ve treated me. Every second I anticipate that bullet slamming into my skull. As I come alongside Beef I try to speak, to plead with him to leave her and get himself safe. My mouth opens as he suddenly pushes her to the ground, then drops, his body half on me, half on her.
Then the shooting starts, and I wait for the shot which will hit me in the part of me that’s exposed. It’s agonising lying helpless knowing with all the bullets flying around one has to hit its mark. Or it will hit my best friend. Or the woman. She fucked my brothers. She didn’t know what she meant to me. Still, she doesn’t deserve to die.
As sniper rifles continue to fire and men drop around me, I know it will be a miracle if we get out of this alive. Rapid fire is now coming in all directions. Chaos Riders will take a defensible position in the clubhouse. There’s far too many for Drummer’s Devils to take on, and they’ll be picked off one by one.
From my position I see Riders are now flooding out of the clubhouse, but instead of joining the fight in front, they turn and shoot back inside. As soon as they’re out they become targets for the men who’ve advanced closer. Drummer’s got help. He must have summoned the other chapters.
With my limited view I have to rely on my hearing, which alerts me that the shots from the assault rifles are gradually slowing. Now there’s single shots, execution style. Men begging and pleading, their cries cut off as another bullet must find it’s mark. It’s a fucking massacre. I start hoping that the right people are the ones winning.
Beef jerks, and his weight feels heavier. Fuck no. Don’t say he’s been shot.
“Beef?”
“Stay down, I’m alright.”
It seems to go on forever, but at last there’s silence, echoes of bullets that have been fired bouncing off the walls of the farmhouse and outbuildings. My ears buzz in the silence, and I’m as pleased as fuck when Beef pulls himself up. Once he’s off me I agonizingly slowly pull myself up to a crouch, my eyes settling on the blood pouring out of Beef’s side.
“You’re bleeding.”
“I’ll be fine. Just a scratch.” But already the colour is leeching out of his face.
Becca stands, her hand covering her mouth, and I’m not surprised when she turns away and vomits as she takes in the scene. It’s been a blood bath. My eyes narrow as they find Chaos, his dead eyes staring up at the sky, a look of disbelief on his dead face. I wanted to kill him myself.
Fester’s body is lying still, as are Wreck’s and Krueger’s. Squirt and Runner are piled on top of each other, with King and George nearby. One by one I count up the Riders I know and see quite a few of them I don’t. Chaos’ support must have turned up while I was being tortured in the basement.
“Time to go home, Brother.” Drummer’s voice is the most welcome sound I’ve ever heard, his words causing a lump in my throat. “Fuck, Brother. What have they done to you?” He’s holding something in his hands, and he chokes up when he shows me what he has. “Brought this for you, but I think I’ll need to keep it safe a little longer.” It’s my cut. My Satan’s Devils cut. I’ve never been so pleased to see any object before in my life. Nor similarly as pissed off to know I can’t yet wear it. Drummer’s staring at the reason I can’t put it on. “Rock, you need to see Doc. You too, Beef.”
“I’m okay,” Beef insists again, but as he tries to walk he stumbles.
“They both need to go to hospital,” Becca insists. Her voice is weak and she’s visibly shaking.
“No.” Drummer is equally adamant.
Turning my head, I see bodies being lifted by, yeah, I smile as I recognise Red and Crash, his VP. There’s Demon, the VP from Colorado, and I’ll be fucked, Dart and Lost. And if I’m not mistaken, I can make out some of the Utah boys. No wonder Drummer had the upper hand. Even with their reinforcements the Chaos Riders had been outnumbered and didn’t stand a chance.
Wraith steadies Beef, helping him stand. I watch him being led away, leaning heavily on the VP. Something warns me, despite his protests to the contrary, he’s seriously injured. He’s got to be okay. I can’t have found my
best friend to lose him again just as fast.
Becca is standing, looking like she doesn’t know which way to turn or what to say to me. “Go with him,” I growl. She means nothing to me now. Not after I heard what, or rather who, she’s been doing. Not waiting for me and instead becoming a whore. It’s not what I’d expected from her.
She still looks scared, and now, confused. But Drummer reinforces my instruction, his voice gentling as he tells her. “Go with Wraith, we’ll get Rock back.”
With one last look and her mouth working as though she doesn’t know what to say, she at last nods at Drum and runs after the VP and Beef. She’s clearly much stronger than when I’d last seen her.
“Can you stand?”
“I need help, Prez,” I say through gritted teeth. Now the excitement has died down my back is protesting all over again.
He calls Shooter over, and together they each take an arm and have me on my feet. I stagger, but they get me moving in the right direction and soon have me lying face down on the rear seat of a second SUV as explosions ring out behind me.
I’m half out of it on the journey, my mind playing tricks on me. I feel hot, though I’m sure the air-conditioner’s working, then go cold and wish they’d turn the heat up. I drift off, then come too with a start fully believing Becca’s sticking knives into me. Then, when I doze again I see her lying on a bed with my brothers, being passed around between them, smiling as one by one they fuck her.
I’m almost completely out of it when I’m carried into the clubhouse and taken to a crash room out the back. Then I pass out completely.
When I come around I’m still lying on my stomach, and now there’s an IV in my hand, and I hear Doc’s voice mumbling.
“Welcome back.” Prez gets down on his haunches so he can look me in the eye. “Thank fuck we got you out when we did. You’re not going to die from your injuries, but infection had set in. Doc’s set you up with intravenous anti-biotics and dressed your back. Fuck man,” he toys with his beard, “why the fuck did they have to go and do that?”
“Chaos told me to get the ink blacked out.”
“They removed the top layer of skin, which will be fuckin’ painful.” Doc walks around, but all I can see is his denim-clad legs. “The important thing is to change the dressin’ daily and let new skin grow without formin’ scabs. You should be able to get a new tattoo eventually, which will cover any scarring we can’t prevent. I’m also giving you intravenous morphine, as you must be in a fuck-load of pain.”
But it’s not me I should be worrying about. Instead it’s my best friend, and the man who quite possibly saved my life. “How’s Beef?” My head feels woozy, but I’ve enough sense about me to ask after him.
“Took a bullet that nicked his stomach. I managed to get it out.”
“Will he be alright?”
There’s a pause and neither of them answer me. I go to sit up, but Drummer easily pushes me back down.
“He’ll be fine. Man’s strong enough to fight anything off,” Doc says. “You worry about you for now.”
But Doc can’t keep the edge of worry out of his voice. I squeeze my eyes tightly closed to stop the threatening tears escaping as our long history together flashes through my mind. “Drum, tell him I love him, you hear me?” He might have fucked Becca, but he wasn’t to know she’d meant something to me.
“I’ll tell him.”
Fuck, what Doc put in that IV must be strong. I barely feel the pain in my back, and now I’ve closed them, my lids are so heavy I can’t reopen my eyes. Drummer and Doc are talking, but I can’t distinguish any words.
The next time I come around it’s to see a chair pulled up by the bed and Becca in it, asleep. For a moment I allow my eyes to feast on the sight. She’s looking healthier already, there’s colour in her face which wasn’t there before. She’s still too skinny though, and needs more meat on her bones. Her hair’s been cut short to the scalp, enabling me to see the beautiful features of her face. Her ears are delicate, her nose straight and narrow, and she’s got a luscious mouth I’d just love to put my cock inside.
But I’d just be one amongst many. I turn my head away. Taking a deep breath, I pull myself up, wincing when my back twists. The sound of me moving wakes her.
She sits forward, her face showing concern. “Rock, Doc said you had to take it easy. You ought to stay lying down.”
Her voice makes me look at her again, the woman who I’d fantasised about and who I’d got to safety, dreaming about the time I could get to know her properly, to explore this strange attraction I felt for her. Before Jill had opened her mouth I’d toyed with the idea of getting her away from that fucker Hawk and taking that huge step of making her my old lady. Only to find she couldn’t wait and had had all my brothers before me.
She’s been with Beef, that’s what Jill had told me. She never had any intention of waiting. I don’t blame Beef, he’d had no idea. No, I blame her.
“Get out of here, Becca.”
Her face scrunches. “Rock?”
“I don’t want to see you.”
She shakes her head. “Rock? What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m already sick of the sight of you.” The pain in trying to find a comfortable position makes me angrier than I might have been. She didn’t know what I felt for her. You can’t betray someone you’ve never had. “I don’t want to see your fuckin’ face.” There I go, far too brusque once again.
Fuck me. She’s wiping moisture away from her eyes, crocodile tears I expect. She’ll soon be after her next conquest. Then she stands, her back straighter than I’d seen it before. “I don’t know what the hell’s got into you, Rock,” she starts stiffly. “I just wanted to see you’re alright. You saved me, and I’m sorry if helping me escape was the reason for this.” She waves her hand at my back. “That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll go now.”
She wastes no time leaving, doesn’t even slam the door behind her. I’m left feeling like an asshole. I wanted to hurt her because she’d hurt me. Not my physical injury, but the pain in my head. Why couldn’t she have waited? Why did she have to jump into the bed of the first brother to ask her?
Only a couple of minutes later, the door opens again. It’s the prez. He’s looking at me strangely. “Just seen Becca crying in the corridor. You say something to upset her?”
I don’t want to admit to being weak, and explain how her betrayal had hurt me. “We just cleared the air, she thanked me for saving her.” I’d said a lot more, but I don’t tell him what.
He affords me one of his steely gazes. “Fuckin’ brave woman, is Becca. She volunteered to be used in exchange to get you out of the Riders’ clubhouse. Girl didn’t need to do that.”
Fuck. I’d got it wrong. Drummer hadn’t come up with the idea of using her, she’d done that herself. For me. She’d no need to thank me for arranging her escape. She repaid me yesterday. Offering herself to be used so I could be rescued, and with all those bullets flying, it could be her lying dead or dying.
Seems I need to thank her. But to do that I’ll need to try to forgive her. For something she didn’t even know that she’d done. She didn’t know how close I’d come to claiming her.
Chapter 17
Becca
Shocked by Rock’s cruel words and dismissal, I stand leaning against the wall outside his room, needing the physical support as I try to put together what the hell just happened. Perhaps in my head I’d built his concern for me up into something it wasn’t. Maybe my dreams of our joyful reunion had all been in my head. At the very least, I’d expected him to ask how I am, how I was adapting to life on the compound. For him to be polite. Not rude and obnoxious.
Tears stream down my face. Angrily I wipe them away, uncertain why I’m crying. I didn’t know Rock except as my jailer, and then my saviour. Had I built him up as a fictional character in my mind? A woman would have to be blind not to find him attractive, and my eyes are working just fine. Is that all he is? A pretty shell with not
hing inside? Why do I feel so disappointed?
Lost in my thoughts, I’m only aware of footsteps approaching at the last minute. I look up to see Drummer has paused in front of me, his head tilted slightly, eyes creased. Then he shrugs and moves on, heading into the room I just left. I’m glad he didn’t ask me to explain why I’m crying in the corridor.
I feel lost, unsure of my place now. People referred to me as being Rock’s woman. So much so, perhaps I’d come to believe it myself. How wrong they’ve been, how far from his true intentions. He’s made it clear he wants nothing to do with me.
He’s in pain. But how does that explain his rudeness? Christ, his back looked so terrible yesterday it had been hard to see. Could that account for him being unrecognisable from the man who had been so sympathetic when I’d been kept in the cellar, and who had put his life on the line to help me escape?
What has changed? What’s made him so adamant he wants nothing to do with me? It can’t be anything I’ve done, I’ve had no contact with him, and while I’ve been at the clubhouse, I’ve been too weak to do much other than laze around and concentrate on allowing my body to heal. I’d been looking forward to seeing him again. Hoping for a chance to get to know him.
A sudden commotion at the end of the corridor catches my attention. It’s coming from Beef’s room, loud voices, exclamations and hurried feet rushing around. Now, Beef, he’s really been kind to me. And yesterday he quite possibly saved my life, sheltering both me and Rock with his big body, and taking a bullet that otherwise might have had either mine or Rock’s name on it.
As Drummer exits Rock’s room abruptly and races down the corridor, I follow, anxious to know what’s going on with the man who, unlike Rock, has treated me well. I pause as Drummer stops outside the open door, noticing how drawn he looks as he peers in.
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