by K. J. Dahlen
THE LAST VOW
BLACK DEVILS MC
BOOK THREE
J.R. Ryder
&
K.J. Dahlen
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.
Jaxson-The Last Vow
BLACK DEVILS MC
Book Three
Copyright © J.R. Ryder& K.J. Dahlen, 2018
Edited By: Leanore Elliott
Book Design & Formatting: Wicked Muse
Cover Art Provided By: Book Cover Love
BOOK TWO AT AMAZON
In Book Two of Jaxson…
Bruno asks Jax if he can take the lead for one more job before he retires. Reluctantly, Jax agrees – not knowing what was in store. Bruno then assembles the Devils, introducing them to the notorious head of the De Grasso Cartel who goes by the street name: The Viper. He makes a deal to run drugs through town for the cartel to make his 200,000 dollars back that he lost with the stolen Whiskey shipment.
Chloe is shocked to find that her father, Jesse (Dagger) is at the safe house with her mother. Dagger reveals that ten years ago, after Jax left the building, Jumper arrived and made absolutely no attempt to help Dagger out of there at all and left him to die, as Jumper wanted the Presidency of the Bloods.
Fortunately, Dagger got out on his own, he was hurt, so rather than go back to challenge Jumper, he took off for the hills around the border. Dagger reasoned that it was better off if everyone thought he were dead, but he never wanted it to go on this long. He couldn’t come back for Chloe and Sheila because he knew Jumper was watching them.
Concerned about dealing with the cartel and the drugs, Dino calls the Red Dragons and they agree to help to fight the cartel. They decide to intercept the cartels drugs as they pass through. On the night of the drug running operation, the Devils take out the cartel.
Jax waits for Marco and Dino so he can send the money to Bruno. Jumper shoots at Jax who he realizes is defenseless. Jax is shot in the Back. Bruno arrives only to realize Jax looks 10 minutes away from death and is forced to call an ambulance.
Dino and Chloe go to the hospital and Jax is in surgery as Bruno is being questioned by the police,
Jax survives but it doesn’t look good. Chole realizes he will not be safe there. She convinces Dino to help her then calls Dagger. They bust Jax out of the hospital and drive off in the ambulance.
The Last Vow, Book Three of Black Devils MC….
Will Dagger put knife through Jumper’s heart for kidnapping and attempting to kill Chloe before he can do any more damage? Will a bent cop come for Jax and frame him for Roy’s murder? Will the cartel come back for a vengeance for the men the Devils killed?
Chapter One
JAX
The dull percussion of two metal doors being unlocked and opened startled me awake. Sun blared in through the open doors of the vehicle and adrenaline immediately kicked in. A great wave of pain slammed though my back causing my chest to tighten violently. I lay on my back. My muscles too damaged and depleted to move. My eyelids too heavy to open, my arms at my sides.
Fingertips trailed down the sleeve of my hospital gown and my eyes opened to slits. As I struggle to come to consciousness, Chloe’s face came into view above me. I blinked as though she was a mirage. But there she was. Her sweet lips, red and plump. Her light brown hair spilling over her shoulders. Her honey colored eyes looked wounded, wet and bloodshot. The skin under them inflamed from exhaustion. She peered down at me and I saw tears form in her eyes.
“You’re awake. Oh, thank goodness.” She sighed with weary but happy expression on her beautiful face.
I fought with stubborn determination to stay conscious. Chloe leaned toward my chest and gently wrapped both arms around my shoulders. My body twitched with pain. She planted a single deep kiss on my lips, like she was trying to draw out my pain through the pores of my skin and replace it with strength. Like she knew the agony was about to tear me out of consciousness again, and this time I may never wake.
A snake of compression bandages wrapped tightly around my chest restricting the flow of oxygen into my lungs to short, shallow inhalations. The raw wound down my cheek had been stitched closed and my face felt tight as I tried to move my jaw to see if I would be able to speak. My ribs hurt like hell to breathe let alone talk, but I needed to know what was happening. “What—h-happened?” Wheezing with every breath, every word, “Why—have we stopped?” Chloe took hold of my hand. I noticed her lips part for a beat but she didn’t speak. She didn’t give me any answers and I didn’t know why. I hated waiting for information as it was, but in this incapacitated state, it was torture.
“The ambulance will have a tracker. We need to move Jax into a vehicle that’s unmarked,” a man’s voice called in to Chloe, over the steady rumble of an engine from another vehicle.
Relief washed over me when I heard Dino’s voice from somewhere outside of the vehicle. At least, my best friend and right hand man was alive and well.
I heard the other vehicle pull up in line with the back of the ambulance. I could see that Chloe looked uneasy, nervous. “Is it safe to take him there?” she asked over the wind. Chloe’s face went in and out of focus. Clear, and then blurry. She gently pried herself away from me, but I didn’t want her to let go. A spilt second later, her face had disappeared from view. Still partially sedated and in agonizing pain, I could only stare at the circles of light on the roof of the ambulance as I fought to hold onto consciousness.
The weighty thuds of two men in biker boots stepped into the ambulance and approached my bed. I saw Dino appear at the back of my bed.
“We’ve gotta move him fast,” he told someone.
I couldn’t keep myself awake for long enough to catch a glimpse of whoever Dino’s associate was. Wherever I was going, I knew it wasn’t another hospital.
It couldn’t have been more than a few minute later when I came to again with the metallic rumble of the side door to a vehicle being slammed closed. I’d been loaded onto a van. This much was clear. The windowless walls were grey. The vehicle slowly pulled away and there was sickening sound as the metal gurney scratched against the back of the van. I remembered the metallic clank of the gunshots ricocheting off my bike before a bullet struck my back puncturing my flesh. Followed by an explosion of pain and being thrown from my bike.
Now, I heard a pattering sound against the aluminium roof of the vehicle and heard that it had started to rain as we began what would be a painful journey to my destination.
Chloe gripped my body tightly to keep me falling from the bed and to keep the gurney from moving around too much, but still, it hurt like hell. Pain and discomfort was something I had trained my body to ignore. I’d been living this life for years, and had come to expect it.
Now, my body shivered as tiny biting fingers of wind whipped through gaps in the doors, over my neck and face. All my muscles felt depleted and bruised, my bones damaged as though I were an old man before my time. It hardly seemed possible that my body could be this broken and for me to still be alive. When I attempted to move, I inhaled a great gulp of air and held it in my throat to prevent myself from crying out. That wouldn’t solve anything. I was fighting for my life on the inside. Despite my best efforts, I was again, pulled under by the pain into darkness.
; When I came around again, the world around me seemed to spin like I’d had too much to drink as I pulled myself out of this strange suffocating darkness. My vision was more out of focus than it had been before and the pain had worsened. I blinked furiously until my eyes could see with a sharper focus.
Chloe was looking down at me. ‘You’ll get through this,’ her gaze said. She had a look of hope in her eyes, but it was a dangerous look. Though hope was alive in her eyes, I knew my chances were slim. I had lived this life for a decade. I could feel it. It would take a miracle to keep me alive. It was a stark reminder that though bikers may be in Chloe’s blood, this world wasn’t in her nature. She was too pure. Too perfect for me to let her be spoiled by it. My logic told me that since she wasn’t raised in my world… she didn’t realize that death was the norm and happy ever afters were a thing of fairy tales.
The thought that I may have underestimated Chloe nagged at me. Though I’d known she wasn’t like all the other women ‒ a warm and loving girl who was my source of strength. Now, she’d proved herself to be a source of protection too. But that wasn’t her job. It was mine. She’d grown into a great woman. Too bad, I wouldn’t be the man to keep her. I was aware of a growing sense of caution about allowing myself to stay with Chloe.
What kind of monster let’s down his woman for a job? I want her happy, and safe. Now, everything I’d worked for could be over. If I ended up dead, she wouldn’t safe. I wasn’t about to surrender to my fate. I would fight it. I’d fight and drag my body from the depths of hell if I had to.
Now I knew I had to stay alive long enough to tell Chloe to get the hell away from my world. The life of an outlaw biker was tough enough for me. For Chloe, however, it would be a never ending nightmare. She could be used at any moment against me. This might prove that bad things in my MC world could happen in a blink of an eye.
Chapter Two
Dino
A short time after we’d departed, the van braked to a crawl in bumper to bumper traffic. “We’re running out of time!” I pointed out, snapping at Dagger.
“You think I don’t know that?” Dagger responded simply as he craned his head over the mob of traffic. On this particular morning, traffic lodged the roads so much that we were packed in like sardines. Dagger noted that the journey might take over an hour. He sounded his horn intermittently in frustration.
“You’re not fucking helping,” I yelled, throwing my hands toward the back of my head and tightening my fingers through my hair in frustration. This was no time to be drawing attention to ourselves. Should the cops pull us over and perform a stop and search on our vehicle there would be no way for us to explain why Jax was in the back of our van. Pressing the side of my head against the passenger side window, I tried to stay calm and conceal the emotions eating away at me.
We drove in silence for a while. My eyes flicked to Dagger in the rear view mirror every so often. He had a hard and angry expression plastered on his face that had become more severe as time passed.
His eyes locked on mine in the mirror and narrowed a split second before he announced, “He ain’t no good for my daughter.” He gripped the steering wheel with white knuckled force. I should have guessed he’d start with some bullshit about Jax. I wasn’t here to listen to this bastard talk shit about my club brother and President. For Jax’s sake, I shut my eyes, pretending not to hear him.
Dagger growled, cursing Jax under his breath.
Again, I ignored it. That man was getting under my skin.
Dagger pulled the van away from traffic at the next junction. “There’s a faster route than this,” he said, moving into the passing lane and driving at full speed. He made a sharp, screeching left onto another highway.
I winced as I heard Chloe squeal and Jax’s gurney slam into the side of the van as we made a sharp turn at high speed. “Will you fucking think about what you’re doing?” I yelled, holding onto the handle on the roof above me to steady my body as the van dove into potholes and turned erratically.
“You want my help, or not?” Dagger snapped.
I shut up again. After another ten minutes, we turned off the highway and headed down a dirt road that ran alongside thick, woodland.
“You’d better not double cross us. You hear me?” I barked my voice a warning.
Unlike me, Dagger had appeared to resume to his usual cold look. “We’re two fucking minutes away from the help your Prez Needs. Now calm the fuck down!”
I looked back at him. My eyes scanned his face for a moment. Fucking easy for him to say.
Chapter Four
Jax
Pain had never been a problem for me.
When the van bumped hard, I woke with a start. I titled my head to the side and eyed Chole’s face as though I may never see it again. A thundering boom in my head threatened to pull me under and a split second later, my eyes closed.
A vision of Jumper with a gun at Chloe’s head appeared in my mind. It was what Jumper did best. He was a heartless monster who fed off of human pain and suffering. And I’d denied him his food. That bastard won’t get away. To a creature like Jumper, it is an, eat or get eaten world. Why did Antonio and Jumper turn out this way? What had I done to make them so hateful? Jumper had shot me for some imagined or real reason, only in his mind. Or did each of them simply refuse to believe that they deserved the brass ring except for me. No doubt, the pair would have killed one another once they’d killed me in a quest for power.
Why did he do this, knowing what he stood to lose? As president of the Devils now, I had command of all the connections Bruno had. Connections far more intelligent and far more deadly than Jumper. Connections that would make that maniac piss his pants.
“It’s all right, Jax. I’m with you.” Chloe said.
With her words, the pounding in my head diminished for the most part.
The van came to a stop with a jolt. My head slammed to my right side against the thin mattress bed. I groaned and partially opened my eyes. I wanted to stand to release the pressure and pain on my back and my ribs. My body throbbed but part of me felt numb. It was then when I realized I couldn’t feel my legs. My stomach turned to ice. I felt almost immediately subdued. Please, for the love of god, no. Panic struck me. I felt my blood pressure shoot up even higher as the pain transformed into anger. I wondered whether Jumper had shot a nerve and I had been paralyzed. When the surgeon had come into the ICU Unit’s room, I’d seed the grim expressions on his face. I’d thought it meant I was going to die. Even if I survived, I might never be able to ride, never live again.
I awoke to the sight of two eyes watching me through a pair of thin wire cells.
The eyes narrowed at mine. The man leaned over me and I felt the cold metal of a stethoscope touch my chest. His breath smelled of coffee and lemon lozenges. The man spoke in a voice I didn’t recognize, “Jaxson Coltrane?” he questioned.
“I- I- I need to know he’ll be ok,” Chloe stammered softly, gipping me firmly by the arm.
“That’s right. He’s with me,” a gruff, male voice responded. “He’s in a critical condition. As best I can tell right now, Jax is going to die, if we don’t help him. It looks like Jumper shot him in the back when he was alone.”
I met the stare of Jesse and in that moment, Jesse knew I realized exactly where we were. I felt my blood boil as I fought the urge to yell with rage. He’d taken me to his Compound, not to mine.
If Chloe had thought these people were safe allies of ours, she was very much mistaken. In this world, all allies are future enemies. I’d never trusted outsiders, and that wasn’t about to change. I was a damn fool to think that the job with the Cartel would be a simple business transaction. We had a zero tolerance rule on drug dealing and drug use for a reason. It had a nasty habit of stirring up shit no matter how careful you were. I’d played right into Jumper’s fucking hands. I’d no longer be able to protect Chloe and there was no way I could fix it. I had ample opportunity to put a stop to this run with the cartel and I didn’t.<
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I stared at Chloe’s face, thinking about how I’d always said I’d die before I’d let anything happen to her.
“I’ll get you through this,” she said to me.
My rage calmed a little, but my worry hadn’t gone away.I may never be able to walk, or ride again.
As they offloaded me from the van, I felt the tension in my gut build in me with every step they took. I tried to prepare myself, to come to grips with what I might become.
I caught a glimpse of a logo I recognized on the man’s back and I saw a crowd of at least six large men jumping from their bikes and approaching my gurney. They killed the sound of their motorcycle pipes. The noise of people rushing toward my bed assaulted my ears. Recognizing that logo—my heart beat wildly in my thorax.
I squinted at Chloe, my eyes finally adjusting to the brightness outside.
She stood by the gurney close to me, her eyes filled with fresh tears. She clutched my hand fiercely; as my eyes closed again, I saw only darkness the last sounds were of Chloe, sobbing.
Sometime later, I fought to open my eyes.
Pain had drawn me out of consciousness. I looked back at Chloe, her gaze was full of worry.
A man with a stethoscope on his chest hurried over to me. “I’m doctor Sarma,” the man said, “I need to give him some morphine to keep him under for a few days. We will have to keep him here for a month or two. Internal bleeding can be a bitch. Does he have a concussion?”
“Fuck. Not that I know of. That’s your fucking job to find out.”
Following the sound of his voice, I twisted my head to my left, catching a glance at Dino as my vision faded in and out.
Dino was frowning while rubbing the lines between his brows. “I mean we…d-don’t know.” His voice cracked a little with a moment of emotion but he cut it off quickly.
