Knox Brotherhood

by Knox, Elizabeth

  Chuckles shoots to his knees, glancing up at the woman before him.

  “You are my soldier, and today you turn into some outlaw vigilante. Torture? Really? We’re Iron Vex, and we don’t handle our shit alone. We handle it like we always have, together.” The woman pulls out a pair of brass knuckles from the back of her jeans. I watch in awe as the man before her starts to visibly shake in fear when her fingers slide through the holes and she cracks her knuckles he isn’t laughing any longer.

  “I’m sorry, Boss. I just had to. I couldn’t let him get away with being here. Not after everything he did.”

  “That wasn’t your choice to make. You should have come to me the moment you discovered he was here. Everyone may call us monsters, but we are no such thing – you need to remember that.” Boss brings up her fist and lays into him over and over. Never does he make a peep, with every hit he takes it with some sort of honor. Maybe in some way, this is an obvious punishment.

  Unable to close my eyes I watch, this should be wrong, shouldn’t it? I shouldn’t find any of this interesting. I shouldn’t want to see a man being pummeled in front of my very eyes, and yet I do. This bastard deserves it, for everything that he did to me, that he did to Slash, he deserves so much.

  Chuckles falls to the concrete floor of the barn, a tiny puddle of blood compared to Slash’s pool.

  When he hits the ground, she steps over him. Walking over to me she pulls a knife from the side of her thigh. I jolt and try to move as far away from this woman as I can. She may have just hurt her own man, but in no way shape or form could I trust her. “Jesus, girl, calm the fuck down. I’m not gonna hurt you.”

  Boss steps behind me, and I can’t see, the only thing I can do is hear her, which is completely terrifying. The second the rope cuts, I yank my hands to my body, rubbing my wrists where the rope had begun to dig in. She then goes to my feet and does the same. I don’t understand. Why is she untying me? The truth is, I don’t care enough to ask. I come to my feet quickly and dart over to Slash, who’s still bleeding pretty bad.

  As if I’ve had some sort of experience with this, I yank off my jacket and shirt, leaving myself in a bra for just a moment until I can get my jacket back on and cover myself up. “Slash,” I mumble, pressing my shirt to the mauled side of his face.

  He doesn’t make a sound.

  “Slash!” I cry, knowing that this stubborn man has to still be here with me. There is no way that we went through this together and he doesn’t make it out alive.

  My eyes divert to a movement at my right and over comes Boss, knife out, she cuts Slash’s binds around his legs and wrists. “C’mon, let’s get you both out of here.”

  The next thing I know she’s putting her body under one side of Slash and I’m on the other, each of us struggling, as we drag his beefed-up body to wherever she’s leading us. When we get to the barn doors I can see that we’re no longer in New York City.

  No, we’re somewhere far away from the city, that’s for sure.

  “I’m getting you both to that truck and you’re going to drive him to wherever you need to,” she grumbles, sounding out of breath as we continue to walk towards the yellow truck I see in the distance.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  She doesn’t respond to me at all.

  Moments pass by, and I don’t hear a single thing besides her grunting.

  When we get to the truck she helps me get Slash’s body in the passenger side. I buckle his seatbelt and shut the door once I’m finished. Boss is standing there, looking straight past me into the truck.

  “You tell Slash that Boss paid up. You got me?”

  I nod.

  There was nothing else to say as I hopped in the driver’s side to a key that was already in the ignition. Hearing the hum of that engine was a welcomed freedom.

  First destination: the closest hospital I could find.

  CHAPTER 26

  Protect her like a delicate piece of glass… Fuck her like she is unbreakable.

  -dominant_dreams

  Butch

  I waited and waited at the hotel until I couldn’t bear to just sit around and wait anymore. Neither Slash or Bell were around, no one had seen them and as each minute passed my nerves were tearing me apart. I knew something had to have happened, there was no other option.

  Elena called me later that night, demanding an update. It was no secret what had happened, how I just darted out of that damn tour bus with my tail between my legs. I suppose that I couldn’t keep it a secret, especially not from Elena. I let everything out, not holding any residual feeling inside of my body. I vented to her about how I felt like a shitty person, just leaving her alone with Slash and now look where we are. No answers. Not knowing a damn thing. I had let her believe that I was done with us, with whatever the hell this is. It couldn’t be further from the truth. There was never a day where I would be done with Bellamy Mason.

  “There’s a simple solution here. If you want my sister, you have to be everything that she is. Relentless.” Just like that, I knew Elena was right. I would fight for Bellamy, even if she didn’t have an ounce of fight left in her.

  Today was just an off day. Bellamy wasn’t done with me, deep down I knew that even if I was struggling to remind myself of this every second. It’s funny, I’ve never fought for a relationship this hard in my entire life. I find myself wondering why I fight so hard for her. It doesn’t take me long to realize that Bellamy Mason is unlike any other woman that has entered my life, she’s not temporary. This woman is my future. It’s why I’m riding around New York in the hopes that I’ll spot her and Slash walking the streets. I’m a dumb motherfucker, and I know it. If they could have reached out to me they would have by now. Something has gone seriously wrong. I just knew what it was. Not knowing is tearing me apart. She could be bleeding somewhere, terrified, sobbing in a shipping container. Is it wrong that I think of these things? No. Because this is the type of danger that is associated with me.

  I am dangerous.

  I just have to wonder. When have I ever not been?

  ***

  Seventeen hours.

  That is how much time passed before I heard from Bellamy, her voice shaky and broken with every word that she spoke.

  It took me five hours to figure out where she was, somewhere in the Northern part of New York state. When I walked through the hospital doors I didn’t bother asking a nurse for help, they stared and immediately viewed me as a disturbing visitor. I walked around every corner of that Emergency Department looking for her. Eventually I found her, right after a security guard made the mistake of putting a hand on me.

  If it wasn’t for her running right into my arms, I don’t know what I would have done. I might have killed him.

  “He’s my boyfriend, it’s alright. Thank you for your concern, Sir,” she assures him, her watchful eyes peering past my shoulder to see that he’s let us be.

  “Jesus, Bell. What on Earth happened?” I asked, taking in her features. Her face is swollen, a puffy combination of red patches of yellow and blue. She bites her bottom lip, not looking up at me. “Sugar, talk to me,” I plead and beg with her. There’s not a bone in my body that would blame her for not wanting to talk to me about this. Fuck. I should have been there. I should have never of left that damn bus the way that I did. If I didn’t, nothing would have happened. She would’ve been safe.

  Fuck.

  This is all my fault.

  “We were attacked…,” she starts off, telling me the grueling story of her abuse with Slash, how Chuckles, that motherfucker, hurt them both. He won’t live another day when I get my hands on him. That’s for fucking sure. Bell doesn’t leave out any details, telling me how a woman named Boss, who I know to be the Iron Vex MC’s Prez, helped get the two of them out. Why did that happen? Why in the hell would Boss help them leave when one of her men did this to them? The story gets worse as I hear about what Chuckles did to Slash. The doctors don’t know too much, but they had to sedate hi
m in order to even clean out his wounds. There were talks of skin grafts and multiple surgeries but given the extent of the damage to the left side of his face, they won’t know for quite a while. The surgical process is going to be anything but easy. It could take years, that’s what they told her.

  “I feel so bad for him. God. I can’t believe this happened…,” she tells me as I take her over to a quiet corner in an empty waiting room. I slip my hand over hers and pull her gently over my lap, making her lean on me, making sure that she’s wrapped in my arms.

  I don’t ever want to let her go, not when she’s like this – right where she’s always fucking belonged.

  “Sugar, things like this happen whether we want them to or not. The only thing that we can do right now is be here for him with whatever he needs.”

  “I know, I just never expected anything like this to happen.”

  “We don’t expect a lot of things, but they still happen.”

  Bell brings her head back off of my shoulder and looks at me square in the eye. “I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do, or if I was going to ever see you again. I thought I was going to die in that barn.” Slowly tears slide from the corner of her eyes, down her cheeks.

  Never in my life have I felt more like a disappointment then at this very moment. I was supposed to be the one that stood by her, that didn’t give up, that would never leave her, and what did I do? I left. I let my anger get the best of me and walked out of that door. I failed her in every way I promised myself I wouldn’t.

  I take my forehead and press it against her own. At this point, we’re both crying for completely different reasons. I feel like the world’s biggest disappointment, and her tears are out of fear for her life. The salty mixture hits our lips at the same time. “I will never let anything happen to you like this ever again. Do you understand that? I failed you, and you have no idea how much regret I will live with the rest of my life for not being here for you when you needed me.”

  “Promise m-me.” Her voice cracks as she speaks, the series of events taking an obvious toll on her emotionally.

  I snake my hand around the back of her neck and hold on, pressing my lips both softly but firmly against hers. “I will never fucking leave you again. You are stuck with me, Bellamy Mason, whether your perfect ass likes it or not. You are my woman, my fucking Sugar. You are the woman I am going to die with, the one who gives me the two kids I want, the one whose hand I put a ring on and whose ass I brand as mine. You got that?”

  “Yes,” she whispers quickly, just before she kisses the fucking daylights out of me.

  Nothing, there has never been anything more that I’ve wanted then what’s right in front of me.

  This girl is everything to me. I can only hope that I’m the same for her.

  CHAPTER 27

  Life is about finding people who are your kind of crazy. -Anonymous

  Bellamy

  Two days had passed, and the first opportunity Butch had to take me to Tennessee he did. I tried to argue with him, telling him that Slash needed us there to support him. I tried and failed, miserably. He made sure that a couple of the guys took our place as Slash’s support system, and boy did that make me mad. Over the past few weeks, Slash has become like a brother to me. No way did I want to leave him in that hospital alone. It felt wrong, every part about it just felt so wrong. I didn’t have much of a choice, though. When Butch wanted his way, he made sure that he damn well got it.

  Somehow, deep down I knew it wasn’t just him who wanted me back at the club. Elena was written all over this, even if I still don’t know her that well. The woman is bossy, and just like Butch, something tells me that she always gets what she wants.

  When we arrived at the club Elena was the first person I saw. The concern written all over her face was a little bit surprising to me. We’d only known each other for a few weeks and yet she cared so much for me. If the roles were reversed, I know I would feel the exact same way she is right now.

  “Are you hurt?” she asks me, wrapping her arms around me in a soft and light hug. I have to say, I’m doing pretty good. After my meltdown with Butch in the waiting area, I knew that I needed to be strong. I should be thankful that it wasn’t worse. I needed to be thankful for that. So, I would. I was lucky.

  Elena takes my arm and leads me back into Reed’s office, the door shuts quietly behind the two of us as she leads us over to one of the couches. We sit down, the door opening again. When I look up, I see both Reed and Butch joining us. Butch makes it a point to sit right next to me, pulling me as close as he possibly can. Reed chuckles, no doubt at Butch and his caveman ways. He always figures out a way to make sure that he lets everyone know who I belong to – him.

  “You need to tell us everything that happened. I already heard it once from him, I just need you to elaborate,” Elena tells me, her voice is soft, almost as if she’s tip toeing around my feelings. I’m not some broken little girl who is going to break into a million pieces. I have never been. My parents’ deaths made sure to turn me into the strongest woman I could be, even at such a young age.

  I start off slowly, a little aggravated that I have to tell this tale to someone else. She may be my sister, out of concern needing to have all the details, but recollecting what happened over and over again isn’t easy. It’s a nightmare.

  I tell her about the man named Chuckles and how Boss helped me get Slash into that truck, basically helping me save his life. I told her what I learned about Slash contributing to a woman’s death, adding that I don’t think he did it, because I don’t, and even if he did – I knew that there was a reason. Never would I ever believe him to be the type of man who is capable of murdering a woman in cold blood.

  “I’m so sorry that this happened to you. I tried so hard to make sure you were protected at all times. No matter how much I did, there is always going to be that possibility of something happening, Bellamy, and you need to know that. I hate to even say this, but you need to make a decision if our relationship is even worth the dangers that it brings, and I can’t make that decision for you.”

  I take in what she’s saying. It makes my heart all warm and fuzzy that Elena would even give up our relationship to make sure I’m safe, but like she said, it’s my decision. “You could have the whole world at your back and I’d still want you to be my sister.”

  Elena softly smiles, brushing her hair back with her hand. “Well, we’ve got a lot of lost time to make up for. What do you say we go hang out at Bubba’s?”

  She didn’t have to ask me twice.

  Bubba’s was essentially becoming my home away from home.

  The night went on quickly, drink after drink being poured by the girls manning the bar. I lost count on how many Moscow Mules I drunk. The last time I remember I was on six, but something tells me I’m almost double that now. Luckily, I’ve always been the kind of girl that could hold her liquor.

  I sat in a booth with Jenna, Elena, Maria, and Michelle, the only person missing is Daisy, who’s basically the equivalent of Elena’s best friend. She’s at home with her boyfriend, Seamus and their son, Ryder.

  I find myself learning more and more about each of the girls that I’m surrounded with. They are each so similar, yet different. This makes me really think about why they’re so close. Their bond is beautiful, and I can only hope that one day I’ll fit into their puzzle.

  Each of them fans out, one after the other they find their men, and I see them leave. Jenna and I are the last two in Bubba’s, both Dmitri and Butch sitting next to each other at the bar.

  I walk over to him, sliding my arms around his waist and lean my head against his shoulder. “Can we go home?” I ask, looking up at him.

  He nods, standing from the barstool, taking my hand and leading me over to the dance floor. Old Dominion’s ‘Written in the Sand’ played over the speakers, he took my hands, bringing them over his neck and slid his hands over my waist, pulling me closer to him with every sway.

  “I’ve wa
nted to do this for a long ass time, Sugar,” he mutters, his voice a dark, low whisper.

  “No one was stopping you,” I point out, sassy as all heck.

  “You’re damn right about that.”

  Neither of us says much for the next minute or so, listening to the music, moving with the beat, content in our silence.

  There’s something I’ve wanted to tell him for a bit, and finally, right at this moment, I have the courage. My heart pounds in my chest, just from the pure anticipation of what I’m about to say. “You asked me what I was looking for that night. I told you I was looking for Elena, that I wanted a sister more than anything, and it was true. But there was something I didn’t tell you, Abe. I was looking for more than just my sister. I was looking for a home, and I found you.”

  He presses a soft kiss to my forehead, nose, and lastly, a lingering one on my lips. The man sure knows how to make me swoon.

  “You sure as hell got it, Sugar.”

  EPILOGUE

  The beauty of darkness lets you dance on its rhythmic waves. -Shaikh Hajra

  Bellamy

  It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a month.

  Every morning when I wake up I’m shocked beyond belief that this is my life. That I wake up to a man who adores me beyond belief, that my rising music career has only been doing just that – taking off, and the fact I have the most adorable little puppy named Mia, who isn’t exactly that little anymore.

  I roll over onto Butch, who’s playing one of those stupid shooter games on his phone. “Sugar, what have I told you about that?”

  “And what have I told you about this?” I toy with him, pulling off my Skulls Renegade tank, leaving myself completely bare.

  “Mine.” My caveman still has it.

  Butch grabs my shorts, pushing them off to the side and quickly shoves himself inside me. I gasp, adjusting to his size. The man has it all, length and girth, and boy does he know how to use it. I take the phone out from his hands and toss it into the corner of his room. He growls lowly at me and I can tell that while he hated what I just did, he freaking loved every second of it.