Wrath (Seven Deadlies MC)

by Kaitlyn Ewald

  Chapter Five

  “So, what the fuck are we doin’?,” Green asked.

  Fury glanced at his fellow brother and the club accountant while he waited for Ox to answer.

  Church was only five minutes in, and he already had a headache.

  Of course, his headache could be from the fact that all of the blood in his body had settled below the belt overnight.

  He’d been hard ever since Rayna was tucked up against him last night, all naked and soapy.

  At first he wasn't sure if he should look at her naked body. She'd been crying and vulnerable and the last thing he wanted to do was make her think he was like the Blazin' Eagles in ants ways.

  Still, his eyes had been glued to her small, perky tits and no matter how many times he told himself to calm down, he couldn’t hide the fact that his dick was rock hard just looking at her.

  It was obvious she’d had an hourglass shape when she was healthy, and that was something Fury could definitely appreciate- but this? Lusting after her when she’d awoken the whole damn clubhouse with her pain and her tears?

  Fury felt like a real bastard already, so how could he tell her that he wouldn’t settle down?

  Why do I fucking care?

  Fury was sure the fact that she was bruised and practically wasting away should have deterred his dick from jumping at the sight of her like an excited dog, but no- if anything his cock had already claimed her, even if Fury had done no such thing.

  “Fury, you said she killed half of them?”

  Fury nodded and flipped his Zippo open, pressing a cigarette between his teeth.

  “Yeah, Ox. Believe me when I say the whole clubhouse is gone. Incinerated. I don’t have any details on what happened before I got there, but that hell hole blew sky high when I arrived.”

  Slayer whistled from his end of the table and slapped a palm against the thick wood.

  "She did it all on her own?," Limit asked.

  Fury nodded.

  “Damn, sounds like my kind of woman.”

  “She ain’t your kind of anything,” Fury spat.

  Slayer’s eyes widened, and so did Green’s.

  “Is that the way of it, then?”

  “Is that the way of what?,’ Fury demanded.

  “Man, calm down...I was just joking,” Slayer said.

  Fury rolled his eyes and continued to smoke his cigarette, and fuck what anyone thought about that.

  “So we’ve got half a renegade crew out there somewhere who are about to come home to a burned down clubhouse and a missing hostage?,” Ox asked.

  “Sounds that way,” Prettyboy said.

  Fury glanced at him, noting the bandana covering the bottom half of his face was back.

  Prettyboy was burned badly in an accident two years ago, and one of the areas affected was the entire left side of his face.

  Sometimes he wore a bandana to cover the mess of mangled flesh and tendons, but lately he’d been going without it.

  “What’s with the bandana?,” Fury asked.

  Prettyboy shrugged.

  “I didn’t want to scare Rayna.”

  Fury frowned, but Rider spoke up.

  “So they’re gonna be lookin’ for her, especially if she can I.D. their whole club. Obviously she burned all of their weapons, their shipments, their coke- everything?,” Rider asked.

  “Everything.”

  Fury could tell by the look on Ox’s face where this was going, and he was absolutely going to argue against it.

  “Don’t even think about it. Let her rest for a day,” Fury said.

  Ox raised his eyebrows.

  “How do you even know what I’m going to say?”

  “We’ve been brothers a lot longer than you’ve been president. I know you.”

  “Then you also know I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or upset her- but right now, I don’t have a choice.”

  Fury knew that Ox was right, but he didn’t want Rayna upset; it’d taken him half the night to calm her down enough to get her to sleep, and even then she’d tossed and turned.

  “If she can take down an entire MC she can handle a few questions, Fury. Give the broad some credit,” Limit said from his end of the table.

  Fury glanced at the big brute before he nodded and motioned towards the door.

  “I’ll go get her.”

  Ox only nodded.

  Fury rose to his feet and went in search of Rayna, wondering if she was still asleep or not- he quickly got his answer when he heard her and Laura arguing.

  “Rayna, please. Just eat a little something.”

  Fury listened to them argue back and forth for another second before he pushed Rayna’s bedroom door open and stepped inside.

  “I got it, Laura.”

  She looked relieved as she threw her hands into the air and left Fury and Rayna alone together.

  Rayna looked down at her hands, avoiding eye contact.

  “What’s the matter, baby? Why don’t you want to eat?”

  Fury kneeled in front of the bed next to her and waited for her to look up at him.

  “I keep trying to tell Laura that I’m nauseous, but she says it’s normal. I’m not trying to be difficult, I swear-”

  “Relax, Rayna. No one is mad at you. We’re just tryin’ to help. What’d she give to you?”

  Rayna gestured towards a discarded plate on the bed and Fury eyed the abandoned sandwich. He picked it up and took a big bite.

  Rayna was watching him with wide eyes, so he made a show of swallowing the sandwich whole while she watched.

  “There. Now Laura can’t be mad at you.”

  Rayna’s mouth quirked slightly at the corners before she leaned in and wiped the pad of her thumb across Fury’s bottom lip.

  He watched her, like a fucking hormonal teenage boy, as she slid the digit into her mouth.

  “You had some mustard on your lip.”

  Jesus fucking-

  “Okay, how about I make you some soup? Nothing too heavy, okay? You need to eat, and Ox wants to talk to you. You can sip on your soup while we have Church.”

  Her whole face paled, but Fury didn’t let her panic.

  He took one of her hands into his and squeezed.

  “He just wants a better idea of what we’re dealing with, okay?”

  Slowly, Rayna nodded.

  “Okay, Fury.”

  He tried not to concentrate on the way her mouth formed his name or how fucking bad he wanted to taste those sweet lips, and instead worked on getting her to her feet.

  He wrapped an arm around her waist and hoisted her up, waiting while she slid on a pair of socks.

  Her left arm had a new cast on it that he noticed was signed already.

  “Green signed your cast?”

  Rayna nodded.

  “He insisted he be the first. Told me we were going to be best-fucking-friends, too.”

  Fury snorted and led her into the kitchen where Laura was sipping on a cup of coffee.

  “Hey, I'm gonna make her some soup. Why don't you go catch some shut eye? Head home for a while?”

  Laura nodded, glancing at Rayna.

  “Sorry I lost my cool, Rayna.”

  Rayna didn't say a word.

  When Laura realized that Rayna wasn't going to say anything she just nodded and scooted around Fury so she could leave.

  “Thank you,” Rayna called.

  There was a pause before both of them heard Laura call back, “You're welcome.”

  “What kind of soup do you want? Chicken noodle?”

  “Sure.”

  Fury smiled at her for the first time and Rayna stopped in her tracks.

  She smiled in return.

  “What are you smiling for?,” Fury asked.

  It was a dumb question, really- he didn't care why she was smiling.

  All he cared about was the fact that she was smiling, and that her gorgeous smile was aimed at him.

  “Thank you for being so nice to me.”

  Her
words stopped him cold.

  Fury hadn't been nice to anyone in a very long time.

  He didn't see the need.

  If he wanted something, he took it.

  He drank too much, smoked like a chimney and fought like a fucking madman.

  Fury didn't take the time to be nice to anyone, let alone a woman he barely knew.

  She's getting under my skin already.

  Fury’s smile disappeared and he grew quiet.

  Instead he looked at her, with her hands twisting nervously against her stomach.

  When her soup was finally cooked thoroughly Fury poured it into a large coffee mug and dropped a spoon into the steaming cup.

  “Here.”

  Rayna bit her bottom lip.

  “I'm sorry if I made you mad, I didn't-”

  “You didn't make me mad, baby. Let's go get this over with.”

  His clipped words were smoothed over by that pet name he kept calling her-baby- like she was someone special to him.

  He didn't miss the way her hand shot out towards his, like she was seeking his touch.

  “In here.”

  Fury led Rayna through a large set of doors that were adorned with a carving of a serpent wrapped around a bright red apple.

  Fury wore it on the back of his cut, and he caught Rayna studying the nasty looking serpent as she entered the room.

  Green smiled at her immediately, sending her a wave.

  She nodded in his direction.

  Her fingers were wrapped tightly around her warm mug and she gripped it to her chest as she locked eyes with Ox.

  It was the first time Rayna and Ox were in the same room since she was taken by the Blazin’ Eagles.

  His gaze covered every inch of her in a matter of moments.

  “Fuck, Rayna. I'm so sorry.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and tried to back out of the room but Fury stopped her with a hand on her lower back.

  He could see everyone's eyes on her and instinctively knew she wanted to hide.

  To run.

  Rayna didn't want anyone to see her like this, and it was blatantly obvious.

  “You're safe here.” Rayna slowly opened her eyes and Fury saw Rider watching her from across the table.

  “Am I?”

  He nodded.

  Rayna moved away from Fury’s soft hold and lowered herself into a chair right next to Ox.

  “What do you want to know?”

  If Ox was surprised by her change in attitude, he didn't comment.

  “What happened?”

  “I took- My father asked me to join him on a delivery. We were on our way to Missoula when we were stopped. Ambushed. It wasn't until days later that I realized who had taken us.”

  Rayna paused to sip on her soup, the only thing keeping her throat from closing up altogether and suffocating her.

  “And then what?”

  “And then they bashed my father’s skull in while I watched. Used a baseball bat.”

  Green swore and Fury turned towards her in his chair.

  She didn't meet his curious eyes.

  “That was months ago. Dad refused to cooperate. They killed him,” Rayna said emotionlessly.

  Ox watched her for a moment before he slid a cigarette towards her.

  Rayna took it gratefully and before she could even ask, Fury was lighting it for her with his own Zippo.

  Still, she didn't meet his gaze.

  “I'm assuming you want to know what happened next?”

  Ox nodded.

  “Crash gave his crew the green light to do whatever they wanted to me.”

  Her words were followed by silence as she stared at the burning end of her own cigarette.

  Talking about it like this, detaching herself from the situation- it would hurt less.

  The only way she could tell anyone the brutal truth was to just say it- Fury knew that better than anyone.

  If she ever wanted to move on and feel better Rayna had to admit that they'd hurt her.

  “How did you burn the clubhouse down?”

  Rayna smiled then; not an expression filled with joy, but rather, the sick heady satisfaction of knowing she'd slaughtered the men who dared to lay a hand on her.

  “Crash and Ringer always left me the with same man, Flight. He was my keeper. They weren't supposed to be back until today. Flight loved to torment me when we were alone. He'd chase me around the clubhouse with a gun aimed at my head. I managed to get it away from him, but he broke my arm in the process. I hid in his bedroom until he broke the door down. We fought over the gun. He tried to strangle me, so I blew his brains out,” Rayna said.

  She wasn't looking at any of the men sitting on the edges of their seats as they listened- she was zoned out, reliving the memory as if it were happening all over again.

  Fury could tell that she was too caught up in the moment to realize her cigarette was burning right down to the filter.

  He slid an ashtray beneath the burning menthol while she spoke.

  “I called you from his phone. I heard their bikes as they neared the clubhouse- knew that they wouldn't see it coming if I surprised them. I knew that I could pull it off too- they were always too fucked up to do their jobs. They snorted more coke than they sold...so I slipped into the armory and grabbed an assault rifle. I loaded it the way daddy taught me. I waited in the dark.”

  Fury could feel his anger and awe mingling together as Rayna told them what she'd done.

  He was fucking proud of her.

  “I knew that once they realized I'd killed Flight they wouldn't stop hunting me until I was dead. So I killed all of them. They screamed and cried and there was so much blood...” Rayna trailed off abruptly as she recalled what she'd done next.

  “I used all the liquor from the bar as an accelerant. Tossed the rifle into the fray and dropped a lighter. Then I walked out and waited for the whole thing to blow.”

  “How many were inside?”

  “Eight including Flight,” She said.

  Ox eyed her.

  “How many are left?”

  She held up one hand.

  “Five left?”

  Rayna nodded.

  Fury didn't like the tone of her voice, like she was having an out of body experience. She sipped on her soup, swallowed the entire mug full, before she spoke again.

  “Yeah, five left. If they made it back from Mexico. I heard murmurs in the clubhouse that the cartel wasn't too happy about the fact that they were snorting so much of their own product.”

  Fury knew that to be true.

  He could only imagine the hell they'd manage to bring down on themselves if they fucked over the cartel.

  He glanced over at Rayna.

  “You'll stay here, then.”

  She slowly set her mug down on the table and looked up at Ox.

  “You sure you want me to stay?”

  His gaze flickered towards Fury before he nodded.

  “You have a home here for as long as you want it. For now, we’ll take it easy. You need to rest and heal. If the Blazin’ Eagles come knockin’ on our door, we'll handle them.”

  Rayna let out the breath she was holding slowly; Fury had no idea why, but hearing Ox say that made him feel so much better.

  “Thank you,” Rayna said softly.

  “No need to thank me. Your father was a good man. He'd want you safe.”

  ~’~

  Rayna knew that Ox was right; he’d been close friends with her father for years.

  That’s how she’d known she could call him to help her. Ox would never turn her away, and Rayna knew that, but suddenly all she could think about was how fucking screwed everything was becoming.

  Sure, being held captive against her will for months wasn’t exactly a vacation, but what was she supposed to do now?

  My father is dead, and now I have no one.

  She had no one.

  No family, no close friends.

  “I’ve got nothing left,” Rayna whispered as she lo
oked down at her lap.

  It only took an instant for her to understand that in a matter of ninety days she’d had her entire world upended, torn apart, and shredded into pieces that would never fit back together correctly.

  She’d have to start all over.

  “That’s not true, you’ve got us,” Green said.

  Rayna’s head snapped up as she eyed him closely, looking for an signs of a deception; she found none.

  Green nodded at her, a small smile on his lips.

  His green eyes were sparkling, his auburn hair was falling into eyes.

  “Thank you.”

  More than one man around the table nodded their agreement, causing tears to burn the back of her eyes as she stubbornly tried to control them.

  Ox cleared his throat and gestured towards her.

  “I want you to rest, Rayna. You need time to recuperate. Don’t worry about club business anymore, okay? We’ll handle it. As far as you staying here goes, I’ll have Laura bring some stuff here for you-”

  “No! I want to go into town and get the things I need. I have to...I have to get back to my own place and get some money.”

  Rayna bit her lip hard, and her nostrils flared as she fought back tears.

  “I'll take her.”

  There was no way she could let someone else take her back to her own house where she’d be surrounded by memories and all of her old man’s things to keep her company and make her even more miserable.

  But, she knew she didn't have a choice, and it made her feel better to know it would be Fury.

  “Are you sure?,” Ox asked.

  Fury nodded.

  “I’m sure.”

  Rayna didn’t want to speak up and tell him that she was relieved to hear him offer- she was still thrown from the abrupt turn of conversation in the kitchen.

  All she knew was that Fury was the only person there apart from Ox that she trusted one hundred percent.

  She couldn’t think of anyone else she’d want with her while she confronted her father’s memory.

  Going back to their house was going to break her; it was going to tear open all of her wounds and leave them gushing, but she had to go.

  She needed money, she needed closure, she needed something to remind her that this wasn’t some terrible nightmare.

  “Okay, then. You guys should go now, the sooner the better. I don’t want the Blazin’ Eagles to catch you alone,” Ox said.