Unbreakable: An Unacceptables MC Standalone Romance

by Kristen Hope Mazzola

  We both put them on under our shirts then he double-checked that all the guns were loaded and ready to go.

  “We have all the bases covered now.” Abel slapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s bring our girl home.”

  “We know they just moved her from the original holding place to the warehouse I mentioned this afternoon,” Bear explained.

  “Are you sure?” I asked before thinking it through.

  He glared at me. “Oh sorry princess, I didn’t know I was going to have to explain myself at every damn turn. I’ve had a tail on these guys for a few months now. Yes, I am one hundred fucking percent positive they are holding your damn wife where we are about to go.”

  Abel punched him square in the jaw. Bear, just like my dad and I, stood frozen in disbelief as Abel shook out his right hand. “Don’t talk to my son-in-law like he is a fucking imbecile. If he asks you a question, you answer it as if I asked it of you. Don’t forget who wore the patch first, brother.”

  Bear gritted his teeth. “Look, we’re all under a lot of pressure here. I’m sorry, but I am trying to get your girl back and clean up your mess as quickly as possible.”

  Holt loaded a clip into his gun. “Lead the way.”

  I stood in front of them, clearing my throat. “First, I need you all to remember, we’re on a rescue mission for two. This needs to be as clean as possible. Raine is already in a fragile state as it is. We cannot lose this baby.”

  Hearing my own words damn near broke me. I was terrified of what it would do to my sweet wife if she miscarried; she had already been through enough.

  It took a few hours to get just down the road from the warehouse, and we were met by two guys I didn’t know from the Atlanta chapter.

  “Gents, this is Jaxon and Rigger, two of my best men.”

  Jaxon nodded to us while Rigger started to explain, “We saw them take Raine in a beat-up dark van and they went around back of an industrial park just down the road from here. We know there were two guys in the vehicle, but we have not been able to assess how many are inside.”

  Something felt off to me about Rigger. He seemed to know too much for someone that was just tailing. How’d he know the layout of the industrial park we were about to enter, if they couldn’t get close enough to know how many guys were in there? I pushed my concerns to the side because it didn’t matter how he knew any of this shit, he was helping me get my wife back.

  The sun started to peek up over the mountain range off in the distance. I stared off, trying to really get my head in the game. I reached into the side compartment on my bike, pulling out a hunting knife I’d had since I was a kid. The image of slitting all of Raine’s captors’ throats wide open flashed before my eyes as I fastened the leather sheath to my belt.

  Abel cocked his head to the side, looking at me. “What’s one more weapon?” I said with a shrug, and he left it at that.

  “We have a utility van stashed in the woods.” Jaxon pointed behind us. “We’ll leave the bikes here and all ride in together in that beast.”

  Bear started to the walk his Harley back into the thicket. “We’re going to have to act quickly though. The element of surprise and the early hour are the only two things we have going for us. We’re probably going to be outnumbered and outgunned.”

  I started to chuckle, throwing the heavy-ass duffle I’d carried on my back all the way down there at his feet. “There’s no fucking way they have us outgunned unless this is a fucking storage locker for all of their weapons.”

  After stashing our motorcycles, we climbed into the van. Bear was at the wheel with Abel riding shotgun, and my dad looked across at me. “Everything is going to be fine, son. We’re going to get Raine home safe and sound.”

  Pulling up to the gate, Abel jumped out. He cut the security chain and rolled the gate to the side. Hopping back into the front seat, he looked over at Bear. “That seemed easy.”

  “I agree.” He shook his head as he continued to drive toward the back of the lot. He parked the van in an empty bay and we all silently rushed out.

  “I’m not liking how quiet it is here, even for the time of day and location,” Holt said to Abel. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  Rigger trotted over to their side. “It should be right over here. We saw them turn this corner.” He pointed and started to lead the way.

  I was bringing up the rear of the group with my dad right behind Rigger. We were all on high alert and in agreement that something just didn’t feel right about the situation. There wasn’t a guard on patrol, no alarm on the gate, no one by the back door. The damn door wasn’t even locked.

  We slowly filed into the large empty storage room. I looked around frantically, seeking any sign of where they could have been hiding Raine.

  The sound of muffled weeping came from the very back. I held my finger up to my lips then pointed to my ears for them to listen closely with me. Right when I heard it again, my heart started racing—it was definitely Raine.

  I couldn’t run back there fast enough. I kicked the door open and there she was, balled up in the corner, crying softly.

  “Raine,” I said as I exhaled, scooping her up into my arms.

  “Ryder, I knew you’d come for me.” Her voice was weak as her head fell onto my chest.

  Her hands were cuffed and she was really banged up, but she was alive and that was the most important thing. I started to rush back toward the group.

  Right as I got about two steps away from Abel, a machine gun started firing from the open back door. Without even thinking about it, I rushed back into the room where Raine had been kept. Holt, Bear, and Jaxon were all right behind us.

  “Where’s my dad?” Raine asked, looking at the guys desperately.

  “He’s here, sweetie.” Holt grabbed Raine from me as he reassured her. “He’ll be here any minute now.”

  I looked through the cracked door—Abel was hiding behind some shelving on the far side of the warehouse. As I was about to shut the door again, a man walked up and tried to grab me. Without even thinking, I grabbed my knife. I cut his hand first then shoved the blade right into his eye socket. The body felt to the floor in a convulsing, blood spewing heap.

  Abel ran over to us, ducking into the small space.

  “Daddy! Oh thank goodness,” Raine yelled.

  He wrapped his arms around his daughter. “Baby, I am so glad to see you.”

  “How many were out there?” Bear asked, getting us all back on track.

  “Two from what I can tell. One I got, and the other Ryder stabbed. Nice work with that knife, kid.”

  “Can you walk?” I asked Raine as my dad put her down.

  She nodded. “I don’t know if I can run, but walking has been all right.”

  “Ryder, you carry Raine and we’ll cover you,” Abel instructed.

  They all surrounded me as I pulled Raine up into my arms with Abel directly behind us.

  He put his hand on Raine’s cheek, wiping a tear away. “Let’s get you home, sugar.”

  In the middle of the circle, I ran for the exit as fast as I could. When we were all almost out the door, a single shot was fired. I heard a body drop behind me and I knew who it was but I couldn’t stop. I had to get Raine to safety.

  Holt and Bear both turned back and I heard them yell and unload their clips. Jaxon, Raine, and I were in the back of the van waiting for the rest of our group.

  Rigger jumped in right after us. “Holy shit that was close.” His chest was heaving as he took a seat opposite Jaxon.

  “Where the fuck were you?” Jaxon asked him.

  The look of satisfaction on his face was sinister. “Finishing the plan.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Rigger pulled his gun out of its holster, pointing it right at Jaxon’s head. “This.”

  Before Rigger could pull the trigger, I shot him right in the temple.

  Jaxon was frozen for a few seconds before his fist slammed into the metal side of the van. “Fucking
traitor!” he screamed, “I cannot believe that my own brother would double cross us like this.”

  I tried to think of ways to calm him or ease his rage, but there was nothing. Nothing that I could say would make treason all right. We had a fucking Benedict Arnold in our midst and none of us caught on fast enough.

  Raine looked up at me. “Who are they?” she whispered in my ear.

  I laughed at the simple question. “This is Jaxon. He tailed the van that brought you here.” Then it all clicked—it was never about Raine. It was all a trap to get us there.

  My eyes got wide and I shoved my pistol into Raine’s hand. “The safety is off. Just point and shoot if anyone gets near this van that you do not know.” I looked at Jaxon. “Guard her with your life.”

  I didn’t even wait for either of them to respond as I rushed back in to find the rest of my guys. Bear was standing over a kneeling body with another on the ground. “Dad? Abel?” I called out as I ran over to them.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes: Abel was lying motionless on the ground in my father’s arms, the back of his head gushing blood. My dad started to attempt CPR. It wasn’t working. Abel was gone.

  Bear dropped to his knees as a burly scream rose into the air. Looking past them, I saw three Sinners’ bodies sprawled out.

  “Come on, Abel. You can’t die like this. Not here, not now.” My father growled, “I will kill every last one of them.”

  I pulled him to his feet. “Let’s get him out of here.”

  Bear and I carried Abel’s limp body toward the van.

  “Give me a second.” I set him down before getting back into the van.

  “Raine, baby? I need you to be so strong right now.”

  She batted her eyelashes at me, waiting for me to continue.

  “It’s your dad.” The words formed a lump in my throat. I didn’t know how I was going to tell her.

  Her cuffed hands flew to her mouth. “No….Ryder? Please…don’t…he’s fine. You’re just fucking with me, right?”

  I shook my head and she started slamming her hands onto my chest.

  “No! He can’t be,” she sobbed.

  “Honey, I need you to sit in the front seat for me, please,” I begged, carrying her through the back of the van up to the passenger’s seat. She frantically tried to get out of my arms to see what was going on. Pulling my wife onto my lap, I held her against me as tightly as I could, covering her eyes.

  “Ryder, please stop.” She tried to get me to move my hand.

  “Jaxon, will you please help Holt and Bear.”

  He hopped out and I could hear the guys struggling to get Abel’s body into the back of the vehicle.

  “Babe, trust me, you have to keep your eyes closed. You do not want to see this.”

  She didn’t listen, and how could I blame her? Her father was her world. The shrill that broke from Raine’s lungs was one I would never be able to forget. It was the sound of a heart completely shattering.

  “Daddy! No! Wake up! Please!” She thrashed in my arms, trying to get back to him.

  “Raine, I am so sorry.” I sobbed as I forced her to stay with me.

  I had thought I was heartbroken when Raine went missing, but that anguish paled in comparison to watching the woman I loved with my entire self completely break down in my arms and not being able to do anything about it.

  We got back to where our bikes were within minutes, and Raine was still wailing. Bear looked at me. “I’ll make a call and get all your bikes back up to Vilas by the evening.”

  I nodded. “Thanks.”

  He ran his hand over his face, his eyes glassed over. Looking back, he sat there for a few seconds. “Abel is the best man I have ever known and his love for his family is unparalleled.” He hopped out of the driver’s seat with the van still running. “Y’all take her back up with you. Holt, are you good to drive?”

  My old man made his way up front, blood covering most of his body. “Yeah. Good to go.” He hopped out to give Bear a hug before climbing behind the wheel.

  I tried to ignore the fact that we were heading back home with two dead bodies in the back of an unmarked utility van that probably had fake or stolen plates on it. All I could do was focus on trying to calm Raine down. I completely failed. She cried so hard that she ended up passing out in my arms after about an hour, simply overcome by exhaustion.

  “Do not go to the bar,” I told my father.

  He shot me a blank stare. “We need to get Crickett and Collin.”

  “Go to Abel’s house. I’ll take his truck and take Raine to the hospital.”

  My dad glanced at me again. “And what, just ignore that other issue?”

  I shook my head. “We have to get her to a doctor right away. Once I am out of there with Raine, call Crickett, do whatever the fuck you have to do, but right now, just get me to that damn truck as fast as you can.”

  Chapter 8

  Raine

  The beeping of a monitor was the first thing I heard when I groggily tried to open my eyes. Suddenly, it all started to come back to me. The sight of my father motionless, covered in blood in the back of the van slapped me across my face as my chest tightened.

  “Oh my God! Dad!” I screamed as sobbing took over my entire body.

  Ryder’s soft voice came from my bedside. “Hey baby.”

  He grabbed my hand and I gripped back with as much force as I could. “Tell me it was all a nightmare. Please, Ryder. This cannot be real life.” He stayed quiet, and I forced my stinging eyes to open. “Ryder, please don’t go silent on me now.”

  “I am so sorry, Raine. It was a trap.” His head fell onto our clutched hands. “Your father was the target all along.”

  His words weren’t registering. “What do you mean? How was it a trap?”

  He scooted his chair a little closer. “You were bait to lure us to that warehouse. Abel was the target all along and we walked right into it like fucking idiots. But we didn’t know. There was no way to know. We assumed that they kidnapped you as revenge for a deal that went wrong. We had no way of knowing that killing Abel was their ultimate goal the entire time.”

  “That’s why they didn’t hurt me?” My eyes searched Ryder’s as he nodded. I kicked my feet and flailed my arms around as the pain of losing my father took complete control of me.

  “Raine, sweetheart, you have to calm down.” Ryder put his hand on my cheek as I gasped for air. “You’re still pregnant and the doctor said that with the stress of everything you have been through, it is a miracle that our little peanut of a kid is still hanging on.”

  I started taking in sharp breaths. I couldn’t believe it. After all of it, in the first trimester, there was no way that was true, but it was.

  “Crickett? Collin?” I asked Ryder.

  “They’re at home. I told them I wanted it to just be us when you woke up,” he said while brushing my hair away from my face.

  “Are they okay?” My heart was breaking even more thinking about how the rest of my family was handling all of this.

  Ryder tried to smile. “They’re just happy you’re all right. They’ll be on their way soon.”

  Ryder

  When the nurse came in to check on Raine, I slipped out into the hallway to call my dad.

  “Hey son.” Holt’s gruff voice came through the line quickly.

  “Raine just woke up. She’s doing well.”

  I could hear Crickett yell, “What about the baby?”

  “Tell her the baby is fine as well.”

  “Glad to hear it, Ryder. We’ll head your way now.”

  “Any word from Bear about the bikes?” I asked before letting my old man hang up.

  “They’re already at the shop and fine. I have one of the prospects checking them out for a third time just to be on the safe side.”

  “Thanks.”

  With everything that had happened, I was beyond paranoid that someone was out to get all of us. I knew I was probably just overreacting, but one death in the famil
y was all I could take right then.

  It didn’t take long for Crickett, Collin, and Holt to join us.

  “Hey sweetie.” Crickett tried her best to put on a brave face, but it only lasted seconds. I stood in the corner as I watched Crickett climb into bed with Raine. They sobbed together for a least an hour as the three of us stood quietly

  I wanted to comfort Collin, but I had no idea where to even begin. Finally, he broke the silence. “At least he went out fighting for our family.” Collin sank down into a chair as his body started shaking.

  Holt put his hand on his shoulder. “Don’t hold it in. There’s no shame in letting your emotions out.”

  “Dad was the first to say that the life we live is dangerous. I just never thought that it would be him. I always thought that my old man was fucking invincible.” Collin was choking on his words, staring down at the floor.

  “None of us are invincible but Abel would tell us to never fear the reaper. He would be sitting here proud of us for saving Raine, not upset because there was a casualty. War has casualties. It’s just a bitter fact about our lives.” Holt was right, but it didn’t matter. Nothing was going to make the situation all right.

  We were all grieving. We were together and we were family, but we were missing our heartbeat. Abel had been our guiding light, our core, and it was gone. I didn’t know what to do. He had always directed us, protected us, known the answer. Nothing was ever going to be the same again.

  Raine spent a few days in the hospital and I didn’t leave her side for one second. Crickett brought me changes of clothes and took turns with Collin and Holt, keeping us company.

  The bar and the garage were both closed for business while we all dealt with what we had to. My dad was doing his best to keep everyone in the club calm, but people were freaked out and worried. I couldn’t blame them, but the threat was gone. The Sinners had gotten what they wanted, so there was no more reason to be concerned.

  “Ryder, that was our turn,” Raine remarked as I passed the street for our house.

  “We’re going to be staying at your dad’s place for a bit. Crickett doesn’t want to be alone right now, and I think it will be the best for you too.”