“About time you woke up,” Susie called. “I was beginning to wonder if you died on me.”
“Not yet,” I mumbled.
Susie rolled her head side to side and looked up from the diamond art. “Just in time for lunch.”
Holy shit. I had slept for at least four hours. Jenkins being gone and knowing that he wouldn’t be back for a while was the key to me actually getting some rest. “Guess I needed it,” I mumbled. I lifted the chain on my leg and rattled it. “Any chance I could get to the bathroom?”
Susie huffed and rolled her eyes. “I’m right in the middle of this.”
I bit my tongue to tell her she could fuck off. “I’ll be quick,” I promised instead.
Two minutes later, Susie finally stood and walked over to me. “You’ve got five minutes and then your ass is back to being chained up. With Jenkins so far away, I don’t want to risk letting you wander around.”
“Five minutes is all I need.” I just had to pee and maybe run a brush through my hair.
Susie reluctantly unchained me and led me to the bathroom. She pushed me inside and slammed the door shut. The lock slid into place, and I ran to the toilet before I peed all over myself.
I turned the faucet on after going to the bathroom and splashed water in my face.
A light knock sounded, and I looked at the door. “Susie?” I asked softly.
She didn’t reply, but there was another knock.
Where the hell was that coming from? I looked around the small bathroom and then heard a whistle. My head snapped up, and I saw Pipe in the window.
Holy. Shit.
I had never been so happy to see that man’s face.
Brinks’ face would have been better to see, but I knew if Pipe was here, Brinks had to be close by.
He pressed a finger to his lips and glanced behind him. He talked to someone and then turned back to me.
“Three minutes!” Susie yelled.
“Uh, I…” I gulped and tried to calm my voice. “Uh, do you think I could take a bath, Susie?” I called through the door.
I couldn’t see her, but I assumed she rolled her eyes like she always did. “You took a bath two days ago.”
“I know, but I just…I have a headache and thought the warm water would help.” I glanced at the tub. “And I have cramps.”
Susie had to have some mercy on me. I knew she was a crazy psycho, but she had to know that cramps were a bitch.
“I’m not going to give you any more clothes. If you want to take a bath, that’s fine, but you’re going to have to put on your dirty clothes,” she called.
I groaned as if I hated the idea of putting my dirty clothes back on. I had to act like I was seriously going to take a bath. “I can’t even get a clean shirt?”
I glanced up at the window to see Pipe watching me. I held up one finger, motioning for him to wait. He nodded and ducked down. I didn’t know if he could hear me talking to Susie.
Susie stomped away from the door. She was back seconds later, and the lock slid back. “Here,” she snapped she when whipped open the door. She thrust the shirt at me with a scowl on her lips. “Take a bath or whatever. You’ve got half an hour.”
She slammed the door in my face and slid the lock back in place.
That was much too easy.
I tossed the shirt on the tank of the toilet and cranked on the water to the tub. It was loud enough that I wasn’t worried about Susie hearing me talk to Pipe.
His head popped back up in the window. “You good?” he called quietly.
I nodded and climbed on top of the toilet. “Get me out of here,” I insisted.
“Working on it, doll.” Pipe turned from the window, and then, he jumped down.
What the hell? I craned to see out the window, but I was too short to see anything more than a bunch of trees. “Pipe,” I hissed.
I glanced at the door to make sure Susie didn’t hear me. If I messed up and she somehow discovered Pipe was outside, I was fucked. I turned back to the window and came face to face with Brinks. My heart beat out of my chest, and I wanted to jump through the window into his arms.
“Cora,” he called.
My breath caught at my name coming from his mouth. I never thought I would hear him say it again. “Brinks,” I gasped.
He pressed his finger to his lips. “You gotta be quiet, babe. Pipe said you managed to get a few minutes in here.”
I nodded. “I did. Now get me out of here,” I insisted.
A smile spread across his handsome face. “Still sassy as hell.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s not gonna change. Now tell me the plan.”
Thankfully, the shack had horrible insulation, and I didn’t have to talk loudly for Brinks to hear me. I glanced at the tub and saw I had about three minutes before the water overflowed. I didn’t want to have to talk to Brinks with the water not running.
“Where is that chick in the cabin?” he asked.
“Uh, she’s sitting at the table close to the door. About ten feet from it.”
Brinks nodded. He turned his back to me and looked down. “She’s by the door. Sitting.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Brinks turned back to me. “A little brute force, baby. Just enough to get you out of there.”
“Can’t you just break this window and pull me out?” Leaving Susie in the cabin to rot seemed like a damn good plan to me.
Brinks shook his head. “Just trust me, babe. We’ll have you out of here in no time.”
He disappeared from the window.
Panic set in. “Brinks!” I had finally seen his face and then he was gone. I was losing hope I would never see him again.
“Stay where you are, Cora, and don’t move until I tell you to,” he called.
I couldn’t see him, but he was still there.
Now, I was back to waiting.
Brinks was going to save me.
Brinks was here, and I was finally going to be safe in his arms again.
*
Chapter Sixteen
Brinks
“I’m driving.”
“I wanted to drive,” Slayer countered.
Pipe waved the keys in Slayer’s face. “I’m the VP, and I decide.”
Slayer tried to snatch the keys. “I’ve always wanted to drive through a building.”
“And so have I,” Pipe insisted.
“I don’t care who the hell is driving, as long as this truck drives through that wall.” I pointed to the shack. “Let’s just get Cora out of here and get the hell back to Weston. If we’re lucky enough, we’ll be able to be there when Jenkins strikes.”
Freeing Cora and then killing Jenkins would be the icing on the cake.
Pipe stepped around Slayer. “You can do it next time.”
“Next time?” Slayer laughed. “This better be the last fucking time any of us have to save each other.”
That was the damn truth. I could go for a couple of months of complete boredom. “I don’t think there’s anyone else to get kidnapped.”
“Let’s fucking hope so.” Pipe climbed into the truck. He rolled down the window and leaned out. “Get in, losers. We’re gonna knock a fucking house down.”
Slayer shook his head. “Can he ever be serious?”
I shrugged and opened the passenger door. “He keeps it interesting.”
Slayer hopped into the backseat, and I sat in the passenger seat.
When we first arrived, we had parked the truck at the end of the driveway and walked to the shack. Now we were going to barrel our way down the driveway and let the bitch inside know we were taking Cora.
Pipe crept down the driveway, a sinister smirk on his face. “‘Jingle Bells’ or ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb?’”
“What?” Slayer and I asked in unison.
Pipe smashed the accelerator to the floor and laid on the horn.
“Is that…is he honking ‘Mary Had A Lamb?’” Slayer yelled.
I listened closel
y and shook my head. He sure the hell was.
“I was thinking of doing ‘Hells Bells’ but it has such a long instrumental in the beginning that by the time I got to the good part, we’d already be in the house,” Pipe shouted as he continued to tap out the song.
“He’s fucking crazy,” Slayer shouted.
I guess you had to be slightly crazy to willingly drive through a house.
I braced my hand on the door and grabbed the oh shit handle. “Aim for the front door!”
Cora was in the bathroom which was in the back of the shack. She should be fine as long as Pipe didn’t drive the whole way through the house.
He slammed on the brakes as soon as he hit the front door, and we skidded into the house with a loud crash. We rocked to a stop in a cloud of dust and dirt.
“Let’s do that again!” Slayer shouted. He was half in the front seat with us, and a broad grin occupied his lips. “That shit was crazy.”
I kicked my door open and jumped out. “Find her,” I called.
Pipe got out of the truck with Slayer right behind him.
“You sure we didn’t just run the bitch over?” Pipe called. He walked to the front of the truck and crouched down to look underneath. “Kind of like the wicked witch of the west, ya know?”
“Over here,” Slayer called. He lifted the top of a table and tossed it aside. “I think she’s dead.”
Pipe and I walked over to where he stood and looked down at the woman. A low moan sounded from her lips, and she tried to lift her arm.
“Or not,” I muttered.
“We got her. You go find Cora.” Pipe crouched down and poked the chick. “Ya dead?”
I made my way through the debris and called for Cora.
“It’s locked from the outside,” she hollered.
Of course, it was. Jenkins had to have constant control.
Boards had fallen on the door, and I shoved them to the side. “You okay?” I called.
“I’ll be much better once you open this damn door.”
“So sassy,” I muttered. I twisted the lock and threw open the door.
Cora catapulted herself into my arms and wrapped her body around me. “It’s about fucking time.”
I didn’t have anything to say. It was more than about time. She was back in my arms, and the only thing I wanted to do was kiss her and never stop.
My lips crashed down on hers, and her arms wrapped tighter around my neck. Her body trembled at my touch, and she sighed against my lips. Her mouth opened instantly, and my tongue invaded, not asking for permission. She wanted me there.
“Hey, yo,” Pipe called. “You two wanna put the happy reunion on hold and help us figure out what to do with Humpty Dumpty over here?”
Cora delved her fingers into my hair and kissed me harder. We both were gasping for air when we ripped our lips apart.
“Good God. You two are acting like she was kidnapped or something,” Slayer chuckled.
I pressed one last kiss to her lips, and her legs slid down until her feet touched the floor. “Or something,” I whispered.
“I missed you.” She reached up on her tiptoes and kissed me again.
“Can we please figure out what we’re doing with this chick?” Pipe drawled. “She’s trying to crawl away, and I don’t know if I can kick her or if she’s a good guy. I can only kick chicks who are bad.”
I laced my fingers through Cora’s and tugged her over to where Pipe and Slayer were standing.
“Oh, shit,” Cora gasped. She looked down at the woman and cringed. “I didn’t think you were actually going to run her over.”
“I never ran into a building before, but I figured there was a possibility of running her over.” Pipe shrugged. “And the odds of that happening were pretty damn good since you gave us a good direction to head in.”
“I didn’t know you were going to drive into the damn shack,” Cora argued.
Pipe pointed to the bathroom. “Your ass was trapped in there. I made the decisions out here.”
The woman on the floor groaned and reached out to Cora.
“Who was she?” Slayer asked.
Cora crouched down and moved a board off the chick’s legs. “She was Jenkins’ girlfriend.”
“She a bitch to you?” Pipe asked.
Cora shrugged. “She was, but then she was also nice to me, too.”
“Cora,” the woman gasped.
“Is she gonna die?” Cora whispered.
I looked from Slayer to Pipe. We had ran her over with a truck and buried her under a wall. Her odds were not so good.
Pipe ran his fingers through his hair. “Uh, well. Do you want her to die?”
“‘Cause if you don’t, then we can try to get her to a hospital, though we don’t really know where one is and,” Slayer drawled, “who knows if the truck will make it there.”
Pipe scoffed. “The truck will totally make it there. It was a small wall.”
I crouched down next to Cora. “This is your call, babe. Jenkins is another story, though.”
Cora looked over at me. “Jenkins is a dead man walking right now.” She nodded to the woman on the floor. “I’m torn on Susie because she started out nice to me and then she turned her bitch switch on toward the end.”
“Rock, paper, scissors?” Pipe suggested.
“That’s three options, Pipe.” Cora shook her head and sighed.
“Hear me out,” Pipe replied. “Rock wins, we take her to the hospital. Paper wins, we leave her here. Scissors wins, she gets a bullet in her head.”
“Does everything have to be a game with you?” Slayer asked.
Pipe shrugged. “It makes things more interesting.”
Cora stood and looked down at Susie. “She was helping Jenkins sell me and planned on helping to sell the rest of the girls from the club.”
Slayer nodded. “We know.”
“What?” Cora gasped. “How in the hell do you guys know that?”
I stood and moved close to Cora. Even though I knew she was safe, I needed to be touching her. That feeling wasn’t going to go away, at least not for a while. “Details for later, babe. We had some unlikely allies who helped bring you home.”
Pipe raised his fist in the air. “Let’s do this.”
I looked at Cora to make sure she was good with Pipe’s hairbrained idea.
She shrugged and placed her fist on top of her open hand. “I’m fine with either of those options. She didn’t do anything to help me escape, and if you guys hadn’t gotten here when you did, she would have happily handed me over to Del and Tray.”
“No,” Susie croaked from the floor. “Please don’t.”
Cora shook her head. “I gave you a chance to befriend me, Susie. I thought for a second that you were different from Jenkins, but you two were made for each other.” Cora closed her eyes and sighed. “God have mercy on you.”
We all put out fists on our open hands.
“Rock, paper, scissors,” Pipe chanted.
Cora had her eyes closed and laid her hand flat. Paper.
Slayer, Pipe, and I each had our eyes open.
Scissors won.
*
Cora
I startled awake, and Brinks wrapped his arms around me. “I fell asleep?”
Brinks pulled me into his lap and brushed my hair from my face. “Just for a second, babe.”
We were sitting in the back of the truck at the end of the driveway to the shack. “Was that…” I trailed off, unable to say it out loud.
“Yeah, babe. It’s done.”
I laid my head on Brinks shoulder and sighed. “I don’t know if that was the right choice, Brinks, but I don’t know if there actually was a right choice.”
I didn’t know what I wanted to happen to Susie.
On one hand, she seemed innocent in most everything. She was guilty of falling in love with the wrong guy and getting roped into his bullshit. But if that were the truth, she had plenty of opportunities to make things right. She could have
walked away. She could have helped me escape. She could have just been nice to me the whole time.
I chose paper because we wouldn’t have been the ones to kill her, but we also wouldn't have been the ones to save her. To me, paper was leaving it up to fate. Would she have likely died if we left her there? Yes, but it wouldn’t have been on any of our hands.
Now, Susie was dead, and it was added to the Fallen Lords’ body count.
“There wasn’t any other way, babe. If we would have taken her to the hospital, there would have been tons of questions and if we left her there, there was a possibility of her not dying and then coming back to get revenge.”
I knew that.
I knew killing Susie was the only logical thing to do, but it still sucked that the little glimmer of hope I had seen in her was extinguished.
Pipe and Slayer came into view around the bend of the winding driveway. They hopped into the truck, and Pipe was whistling.
“Where are we?” I asked.
Pipe started the truck and looked over his shoulder at me. “Bumfuck Colorado.”
“Wow. I figured we were somewhere far away seeing as we drove for a while, but part of me wondered if Jenkins just drove around in circles to make me think we were far away.” I slipped off Brinks’ lap and pulled the seat belt over me.
“Sounds like something Jenkins would have done,” Slayer laughed.
Pipe backed out of the driveway and pulled onto the road.
“So, it’s over,” I sighed.
Brinks laced his fingers through mine and pulled my hand into his lap. “For you, it is, babe. There’s just one more thing I have to take care of.”
Slayer and Pipe both nodded.
I didn’t know what to say. Brinks was planning to kill my brother, and I didn’t feel anything. I should have felt something, right?
Anger?
Remorse?
Something.
“He never was good.” I gulped and looked out the window. “He’s deserved to die for years, and it’s about damn time he pays for all the pain and hurt he has caused.”
Jenkins was technically my family. He was all I had left of my blood.
I closed my eyes and prayed for God to have mercy on his soul.
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 36
