“Shut up!” Jim’s face turned a bright scarlet. “Shut the fuck up! Lies! You’re the sickness in this place. You’re the fucking infection. Infection must be burned out. It needs to be cut out. You raped my daughter and you’re going to pay with your life. After… after you watch us take turn with your woman. You’ll feel my pain, the pain of a father who knows that his daughter has been violated. The pain of a father who-”
“He didn’t fucking do it.”
Silence fell over the warehouse, oppressive, thick. The place was huge, abandoned, with empty crates stacked along the walls, and old chains hanging overhead. A thick layer of dust coated everything. It was windowless, which made it the perfect place for these men to carry out their own form of justice.
The massive building was so silent, if a pin dropped, everyone really would have heard it. It wouldn’t have just been a stupid, cliche figure of speech.
Kate’s head jerked up and she watched an older man with silver hair step forward. He was well built, though nothing like Creed. Creed was a different kind of man. He was a mountain, like he’d been hewn from the earth with picks and chisels and given life by some celestial being. No other man in the room compared to him.
Jim’s head whipped around. “What the fuck did you just say?” Strands of spittle sprayed from his mouth and when he turned to the guy who was brave enough to speak up, Kate got a good view of rotten teeth. She shuddered.
“I said, he didn’t do it. Your daughter wanted him. She’s wanted him forever. We all knew it. Creed didn’t want her and her pride was hurt so she went and cried to you like a brat. She wanted him dead. Look at us. We’re here and we all know that it isn’t right.”
“Isn’t right?” Jim spat. “Isn’t right? You’re here because I tell you to be here!” He stabbed a thick, disgusting, nicotine stained finger into his leather clad chest. “Me! I’m the leader! Not this piece of shit. Not you. Not any one of you. No one has the balls to challenge me. So unless you want to end up in the ground right along with him, you’ll step back and shut your fucking cunt mouth!”
Jim’s screams of rage echoed through the warehouse long after he was done speaking.
Kate knew they needed a miracle and then, it happened. Another man stepped forward. He was older as well, his dark hair and long beard streaked with silver. He eyed Jim up and squared broad shoulders. Though the guy couldn’t have been more than forty, he looked old and tired.
“Crow was a good man,” he said in a deep, steady voice. “A real good man. We were a family. The kid’s right. Since you took over, we’ve been nothing but slaves. Machines. We aren’t people. We have no rights. This isn’t a fucking club anymore. This isn’t what I gave my vow to. I swore to my brothers. This here, this isn’t a brotherhood. This isn’t anything. And I know for a fact, the kid isn’t lying when he said he didn’t rape your daughter. We all know how much you wanted to lead this. The problem is, you’re not a leader. You’re a sack of shit who likes the taste of power and women and blow. To you, that’s all life is. I have no doubt that you killed Crow.”
Jim’s face turned purple. He drew his gun and cocked it, held it straight out towards the man who had just challenged him. “Oh yeah? That fucking right? Anyone else?” He waved the gun around madly. “Anyone else want to meet their fucking maker today?”
The men shuffled anxiously. The guy who had just spoken stood there, so calm, so very calm. His face gave nothing away. He stared Jim down, like he was daring him to pull the trigger.
Kate looked around wildly. That’s when she saw it. A man, standing not more than a few feet away. His gun stuck out of the top of his pants, near the back. He’d edged closer, trying to get around them, behind Jim, in the opposite direction of where shit was about to go down.
She knew she had one chance. One chance to save Creed and maybe even herself.
She had to take it. She couldn’t let them die there.
Not when she’d just figured out what it was to really live.
When she decided to move, that was it. She sprung off her knees and lunged forward. Her hands might have been tied, but she had the element of surprise. She grabbed the gun, and did exactly what Jack showed her.
She fell to the ground, gun extended, and fired blindly. Five times.
The shots went off before she’d even hit the cement again. She rolled as panicked voices, shouts and yells, rang out. And then the bullets rained down.
They came from all directions. Kate didn’t have time to watch. She knew if she was going to survive, she had to get behind something that would take the bullets for her.
She was already on her stomach, so she wriggled as fast as she could towards a stack of huge wooden boxes a few feet away. She was almost there, so very close, yells of panic and screams of pain and agony thick in the air, the pop of gunfire, the maddening sound of bullets spraying, when something hit her in the thigh.
She screamed as fire instantly took over. She kept on crawling, knowing if she stopped, she’d be as good as dead out in the open.
Finally, finally, she dragged herself behind the crate. She collapsed on the ground, tucking herself as low as she could. She kept her eyes open and glanced down at her leg. A puddle of bright red blood was already pooling beneath the area she’d been shot.
Holy fuck. Holy fucking hell. Oh god. No. No… please let Creed be alive. Please.
She shut her eyes when the trembling started. Her body shook so hard she vibrated against the concrete floor. The gag was still in place around her mouth and she screamed uselessly against it. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes, both at the pain tearing through her body, searing bone and blood and muscle, and for Creed, who was in the middle of it all.
She’d had one chance, only one. She thought it would be a distraction. That if she distracted Jim long enough, Creed might get to him. Or maybe one of the two men who challenged him would take him down.
Why the hell had everyone started shooting each other? It was obvious that’s what had happened. She didn’t have to peek out from behind the crates to know that her shots set off a fucking chain reaction. The screams that filled the air, the acrid stench of gun powder and blood and dying men, reached her.
She tried to block it out. She tried to go somewhere else, deep inside of herself, where it wasn’t happening, where the pain and the horror didn’t exist.
It helped that she was going into shock. Her vision went black around the edges as the trembling increased. The shaking rattled her very bones. The noise grew dimmer, like it was all in the background, until it stopped completely. The silence that followed was heavier and more oppressive than the gunshots had been.
As the blackness closed in, fear crept up her throat. Something was wrong. Her body was cold. So cold. Like she’d just been stuck in a freezer. The trembling wasn’t as bad anymore. Her body relaxed against the concrete…
Is this it? Am I dying?
The dark swallowed her up completely. She felt like she was floating, floating higher, off the cold concrete. Suddenly there was warmth, something, or someone. Was it a dream or was it real?
Kate summoned the last of her strength and opened her eyes.
Creed.
But it wasn’t his face. His face was perfect. No bruising, no cuts, no blood. She tried to reach out, but her hand remained locked in front of her, where her wrists were still bound.
She knew she was dying. She was dying and his face was the last she saw. Perfect, like it was meant to be. Perfect, because to her, he’d always be that way.
Right before she felt and saw nothing at all, she thought she heard her name, distant, but in the sweetest voice, Creed’s voice.
Chapter 14
KATE
A thin ray of light pierced through the darkness. Though opening her eyes was harder than anything she’d ever done, nearly impossible, a hazy figure took shape. The blur slowly turned into the dark hair and fine lines of her sister’s face.
Kate struggled to sit up, but her s
ister’s hand shot out and gripped hers. Her eyes traveled there, to the connection and the warmth slowly seeping up her cold hand. She realized there was an IV at her wrist.
As the fog cleared from her head and her ears turned back on, she realized there was a beeping sound to her right. It hurt to turn that way, but Kate swiveled her eyes in that direction. She could just make out the gray blobs of equipment. Something green danced across one of the screens.
“Hey,” Tia said softly. She leaned in and her eyes gave away all the worry she kept from her voice.
“Where- am- I?” Kate’s voice came out all wrong, raspy and scratchy, like she’d just chewed broken glass. Her throat hurt because it was so dry.
Her entire body felt sluggish. She struggled to remember what happened. Hospital. I’m in the hospital. She nearly sat up again when her head cleared and everything came flooding back.
“The hospital, sweetheart.” Tia squeezed her hand so tight that it actually hurt. “Oh my god, I can’t believe any of this.”
“What… happened?” She had to know.
Kate had to know if Creed had survived. She searched her memory, a sea of black that refused to cooperate. She tried to summon back those last sensations before everything went dark. Her heart and stomach clenched at the same time and she thought, for a second, she was going to be sick. Bile crawled up her throat as fear gripped her.
The men. There were so many of them. The guns. The rage on Jim’s face, the hate and insanity in his eyes. The courage on the face of the man who stepped forward, who dared to speak for Creed’s innocence. The ones who questioned the way Jim ran the club- however he saw fit. They were tired of being pawns and tools. She’d just been a catalyst for all that anger. Well, really, Creed had. She’d been the one stupid enough to get to a gun and pull the trigger.
Tia released her hand and shifted in the uncomfortable chair she was sitting in. The thing had hospital written all over it with a straight up back, a hard black seat with little cushioning, and glaring metal legs. Because it wasn’t like anyone who sat with their loved ones might want to be comfortable.
Her sister dug a paper out of her purse and passed it over. Kate narrowed her eyes and stared hard at it once it was set in her waiting hand. She couldn’t read. The words refused to focus. They swam in front of her blurry eyes.
“Sorry.” Tia took the paper back. “I- here. I’ll read it to you.”
She began, but Kate tuned out everything but what she really needed to hear. That she’d apparently been kidnapped. That the club had one hell of a showdown. Some of the members were wanted on several counts of murder, armed robbery, rape, abduction, breaking and entering- the list went on and on. In short, they were bad guys. Duh. Her heart beat hard in her chest when her sister hesitated near the end.
“No,” Kate whispered through her sore, raw throat. “That’s not it. That’s not the end.”
Tia glanced away. When her eyes drifted back, they were tear stained. Kate’s heart stopped dead in her chest. No. She refused to believe it. He isn’t gone. I know he found me. I know he’s the reason I’m here.
“I’m sorry,” Tia whispered. “Everyone was dead. The entire club. They- they all shot each other. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“But- people- don’t really care because they were bad.”
“I- I don’t know,” Tia admitted. “I think that the police are doing their best to figure out what happened.”
“How did I- get out?” She wanted to believe it was Creed. That he’d carried her to safety. If that was true, though, where was he? Had she just dreamed those last fleeting images of him?
“You were found behind a stack of crates. You were shot once, in the thigh. You were there, unconscious.”
“What?” she gasped. No, no, please don’t let that be true. Please. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled over. Obviously her sister thought they were for another reason entirely.
Tia clenched her hand hard, like Kate was hanging from a cliff and Tia was her last lifeline. “It’s okay. We’re going to get you whatever help you need. Therapy. Jack knows some good people. I know it must have been an awful experience, getting kidnapped, being taken, getting shot. I can’t imagine what those men-”
“They didn’t do anything to me.” Kate needed Tia to know that. “They didn’t touch me. Creed, he made sure it didn’t happen.” Of course Tia knew nothing about them. She knew nothing about how Kate had lost her heart. She’d held onto it so tight her entire life, protected herself, and then she’d given it in the span of twenty-four hours.
Tia nodded slowly. “I know that they didn’t touch you, you were examined when you came in. You didn’t have any injuries other than the bullet wound.”
Tia blinked hard and her eyes grew shadowed. “I think knowing you weren’t molested is the only thing that has kept Jack sane. I’ve never seen him like this. Like- he’s just- haunted.”
Kate reached over and placed her hand on top of Tia’s, sandwiching the small palm between her own. “I’ll talk to him.” She looked right at her sister. “It’s okay, Ti. Everything’s going to be okay.”
Her sister’s eyes filled up again and when she blinked, tears spilled down her cheeks. “I didn’t call mom and dad, since the doctor said you weren’t in any danger. They said you’ll be out of here in a couple days. It’s just- I don’t know what I would tell them. That my husband isn’t who they think he is? That we let a dangerous man in the house and those men found him and they took you too? That you were shot in the whole crazy thing? That you were the only one who survived?”
Tia ripped her hand away and began to rock slowly back and forth in the chair. She shook her hands, wrung them out in front of her, while she trembled and sobbed.
“Tia!” Her sister’s head flew up. “It’s okay. If I could get out of this bed, I would come around there and hug you. I promise you, I’m fine. Mom and dad don’t need to know, okay? This can stay between us. You and me and Jack. But- I need you to tell me something. Did they find…” it was impossible for her to say body. She couldn’t believe that Creed was dead. That she’d never see his handsome smile, the spark of life in his eyes. She couldn’t believe that his hands, strong, amazing hands lay cold and lifeless.
“I don’t know. Jack is doing his best to find out, but it’s hard for him since they’re not releasing much information. He’s going to phone around and pretend like he’s next of kin to get some answers. A brother or something.”
A spark of irrational hope shot through her. Tia didn’t know if Creed was dead. Jack didn’t know. It didn’t mean that he was safe, but it also didn’t mean that anything was confirmed. She couldn’t banish the seed of hope inside of her. It was what kept her alive throughout the whole thing.
Creed might be dead because of me. Because of what I did.
Kate shook her head slowly, side to side. She couldn’t think that way. She and Creed would both have been dead if she hadn’t grabbed that gun. It might have been the wrong thing to do, but they were condemned long before she’d pulled that trigger.
The shots went high and wide. She knew that. She’d pulled as she hit the ground and the shots went into the roof. She hadn’t killed anyone. She knew that for sure.
She searched her memory, trying to pick out the finer details. She wanted to believe she saw, out of the corner of her eye as she tried to crawl away, Creed throw off the men holding him. She wanted to believe that he’d used his last ounce of strength to get himself to safety before the firing started and the shots rang out.
She needed to believe it.
Obviously mistaking her worry for something else, trauma over what happened, Tia slowly ran her hand over Kate’s forehead. She closed her eyes and let her sister’s touch thaw the block of ice that was wedged, cold and hard, in the center of her chest. She was the older sister. She was the one who was supposed to be there for Tia. It had been that way their whole lives. Always her watching out for Ti.
It was the first time that it
felt the other way around. That Tia was the big sister. Kate felt small, lost, like a little girl again.
A little girl with a broken heart.
Her eyes popped open. “How did- how did they know? Who found me? They took me to some warehouse. I’m sure it was abandoned. Not the kind of place anyone would hear gunshots. Who found me? The police?”
Tia nodded. She ran her hand down Kate’s cheek and jaw in a gentle caress. “Yes. The police. I guess there was a call placed from inside the warehouse. Someone called. They think it was one of the guys from the club. He was injured, trying to save himself, but he died before anyone got there.”
“And they found me behind a stack of crate?” Kate had to be sure. That was her last memory, crawling back there. She’d thought that she was lifted, being carried. By Creed. That was the last thing she felt. How could such a vivid feeling be false? How could it not have happened at all?
“Yes. One officer saw your foot sticking out. It was so lucky that they found you before you lost any more blood.”
Kate tried to move her leg, but winced. “Jeez. Getting shot really hurts.”
Tia’s eyes teared up again. “You’ll have to stay with us for a while longer, while you heal. If mom and dad can’t know about this then… we’ll figure something out. We’ll call your work and-”
“Ti…” Kate waited until her sister’s eyes were firmly back on her face. “I lost my job.”
“What?” Tia gasped.
“Yeah, I know. You’re the one who is usually way better at that than I am. I might have- played with fire that I shouldn’t have. He might have been my boss and uh- he might have been screwing around with a few other women there. Someone eventually blew the whistle and the whole thing came out. He confessed, unfortunately, and named us all. Unlike you, when the same thing happened with you and Jack, everyone got fired.”
“Oh my god.” Tia shook her head. “If we weren’t in this situation right now, you with a bullet having just been surgically removed from your leg after being kidnapped by a bunch of violent, horrible bikers, I would actually rub it in right now. Just like you did to me after I lost my job.”
Lonely Rider - The Box Set: A Motorcycle Club Romance - The Complete Series Page 37
