Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 1: Call Me...Vengeance ~ Fury ~ Jonas

by Natasha Thomas

“Uh, hi,” I say ridiculously, addressing the group.

  A muttered round of greetings sound from the others.

  “Hey, baby,” Jonas’ returns warmly, placing a soft kiss on the tip of my nose. “This is my buddy, Knight. Knight, Blaine, my woman.”

  Knight grunts unintelligibly at our introduction, but I persevere through it.

  “I’d say it’s great to meet you, but I’m sensing you’re not in the mood to make small talk.”

  “Got a favor to ask, Blaine,” Boss grits out, tearing my gaze from Knight to focus on him. He doesn’t look happy, nor does he sound it, but then again, he rarely does. Unless he’s with Beth, that is. “Knight’s wife is here. For now, we’ve put her in Gage’s room until we could get someone here who’d be able to feel her out and see where her head is at.”

  Furrowing my eyebrows, I frown at him.

  “I hazard to mention this, but it looks like you’ve got that person here already. That’s her husband,” I declare unnecessarily, pointing at Knight. “Who’s better suited to take care of her than him?”

  “I like her,” Knight growls. “At least, she fucking gets it.” He is no less relaxed, but, at least, since I joined them he has stopped appearing as if he if going to tear his own arms out of their sockets.

  Jonas nods once to indicate I should go with him as Boss takes me by the hand, and guides me off to the side of their huddle out of earshot.

  “She’s been hurt, Blaine.” At my shocked gasp, Boss hurriedly goes on to say, “Not by him. Knight loves the hell out of Lena, he’d never lay a hand on her. But someone else did. The thing is; she’s borderline catatonic, Blaine. Lena’s breathing, but that’s about the extent of it. We don’t know how bad she was hurt because she hasn’t said a word since Lord brought her in earlier today. All we know is that her back’s a fucking mess, and her husband is about to lose his fucking mind if we don’t let him see her soon,” he shares, the muscle in his jaw ticking wildly.

  “Okay,” I rush out, not giving myself time to think. “I’ll try, but I’m not promising anything. If she is as badly injured as you say, there’s a good chance she may be in shock. In that case, Lena needs a hospital, Boss, not a bunk room at an MC clubhouse.”

  “I get that, and thanks,” he replies, giving my hand a brief squeeze.

  Not that I mind helping out, but I have to ask.

  “Why me? I hate to bring it up, but under the circumstances, Beth would probably be better suited to talk to her.”

  A flicker of pain flashes through Boss’ eyes before he disguises it with a look of determination with a hint of anger mixed in.

  “Beth and Avery are out. Not only would Fury never allow it, and neither would I, but the fact is; there’s no fucking way either of those women will be able to disconnect what happened to them and what’s happened to her. I’m not saying you won’t be sympathetic toward Lena, I know you will, but this is just too close to home for those two. And, truthfully, if they lose their shit, we lose our shot at her telling us anything.”

  I can understand that. Avery and Beth are both strong women and have recovered from their ordeal, but faced with a woman in their exact position just one short year ago, who knows how they will react.

  Tipping my head back to study him, I ask,

  “Is anyone in there with her?”

  “No,” he answers immediately. “There’s a prospect’s outside the door and a couple of my boys in the hall, but other than that, she’s alone. The door isn’t locked, though. We’re not holding her hostage, Blaine, we just want to assess the situation before we let Knight loose.” Huffing out a breath, he adds, “Go in gentle, Blaine. Fuck knows what Lena’s been through, but I can tell you this much. She is only a shell of the woman I once knew, so that means whatever it was, it wasn’t good.”

  Hating that I have to do it, but knowing I have no choice, I force myself to ask,

  “Do you know anything? I mean, anything about how badly she was hurt?”

  “Not much,” Boss admits, raking the hand not gripping mine through his messy hair. “Lord said he caught sight of her back when she was changing her shirt this morning before he brought her in. Took her to a doctor who gave her antibiotics and cleaned her up, but besides that, we know nothing. When I say her back’s a mess, Blaine, I mean it’s fucking ruined. Top to bottom,” he warns.

  It isn’t a lot to go on, but it does tell me something important. If whoever hurt Lena could do that to her, then there’s no telling the extent of how badly she has suffered.

  Squeezing his hand firmly, I nod my understanding and make my way over to Jonas and Knight. I know what I’m about to do is taking a huge risk, especially considering how volatile he is right now, but even in the face of that, I don’t believe he would hurt me.

  Close enough to see his chest heaving with ragged breaths, I slide in beside him, ignoring Jonas’ warning to stay back. I place my hand on Knight’s bicep, and murmur,

  “It’s just me.” When I have his attention, I tell him, “I’m going to go check on your wife for you. I’ll tell her you’re here and that you would like to see her, but it will be up to her to make that decision, okay?” Fighting not to react to his fierce scowl, I add, “I promise I’ll take care of her if she lets me. And I promise that as soon as possible, I’ll come back out and tell you what I can. Does that work for you?”

  I didn’t expect him to answer me, but after considering it, Knight eventually grumbles,

  “Yeah. But tell her something for me, would you?”

  “Anything,” I whisper back.

  Waiting a beat, Knight’s whole body shudders in defeat as he says,

  “Tell her it doesn’t matter what they did. Tell her I don’t care how she looks, or if she’s not the same woman I married anymore. Just…tell her, I love her, okay? And that I fucking missed her,” his voice breaks at the end.

  My heart breaking in the face of his pain, I will the tears building at the back of my eyes away. Replying what I hope is reassuringly, I continue to whisper,

  “Of course, I will, Knight.”

  *****

  Slipping through the door, Gunner gives me a wary smile before closing it behind me and resuming his post as sentry outside. He’s an interesting choice to guard Gage’s door seeing as I’ve always considered Gunner to be one of the softer, sweeter members of the MC.

  My age, Gunner, only recently earned his full-patch, something Jonas and I celebrated with him and everyone else at the clubhouse just last month. However, I have a feeling after witnessing the fierce expression on his face, that hints at a side to him I’ve never seen before, my impression of him may have been severely misguided.

  Gage’s room is dark, not pitch black, but the overhead light is off, and the curtains are pulled almost entirely shut. The gap in the curtains allows enough moonlight into the room so that I know exactly where Lena is, though. But unfortunately, I don’t need to be able to see to know that.

  The soft whimpers from Gage’s bed give away her position where she’s curled into herself. The noises she’s making have me wanting to run to her and comfort her any way I can, but I don’t dare. Not until I alert her to my presence and tell her who I am. Lena needs to be comfortable with me being here first.

  Sadly, this was a lesson I learned from Avery after I made the mistake of sneaking up on her once after she had just come home. She didn’t mean to, but I had startled her, and before either of us knew what was happening, Avery swung her arm back connecting with the side of my head.

  It hurt, but what hurt more was seeing the look of horror on Avery’s face after she realized what she’d done. That was not a good day, and it took weeks before I could convince Avery to forgive herself.

  “Lena,” I call out. “My name is, Blaine. I’m here to help you. Is it okay if I come in?”

  The sheets rustle as Lena shifts to the far side of the bed. Her form is still hunched over, but she’s trying valiantly to sit up.

  “Ah, I, yes,” she stutters out,
her voice sounding as damaged as she is.

  Swallowing the painful lump in my throat, I draw in a huge breath and edge closer.

  “Thank you.” When she doesn’t reply, I keep rambling. “Did you meet, Gage? This is his room, and he said you can use it for as long as you want. No rush. But now I’m in here, I’m thinking it might be best if I ask if there are any other room free. It smells like old gym socks in here.”

  Lena doesn’t speak, but I can tell she’s listening. That’s more than I hoped for, so I keep going.

  “Boss told me you don’t feel up to talking yet, and that’s fine with me. Take your time. I just want you to know, I'm happy to listen if you change your mind.”

  Drawing in a deep breath, I release it slowly, praying I don’t screw this up. Because I have no idea what I’m doing, that means I have to rely on my instincts and have to hope they don’t fail me now.

  Keeping my tone gentle, wringing my hands together, my voice comes out only slightly louder than a whisper as I tell her,

  “I have this friend…well, two, actually. My best friend, though, she’s also my cousin. But that’s part doesn’t matter. Just over a year ago, Avery, that’s my best friend, was taken from us. The car she was in was run off the road, and she was abducted with my other friend Beth, Boss’ wife, and another woman too. Her name was Bec. They were gone for almost two full days before the club managed to save them.”

  The mattress begins to shake, but even through her sobs, Lena doesn’t make a sound. God!

  “I was at home when we got the news. I used to live in Blackwater, which is only two and a half hours away, but I might as well have been on the moon as far as I was concerned. I don’t remember all of it, the trip here that is; I know it felt like it took forever to get here, and that I cried the whole way, but that’s about it. All I could think of was how strong Avery would have been if our positions were reversed. Then I cursed myself for playing the martyr while she was God knows where, hurt, scared, or worse. When my Dad and I got here, we had to wait. That was horrible. Not knowing where she was, who had her, or what they were doing to her was bad before, but hours upon hours of it, that was pure torture. Sitting around the clubhouse with nothing to do but hope and pray someone would find out something, anything, made the minutes feel like hours. When the call came in telling us they had found where they were being held, the first thing that I felt was relief, but that only lasted a few seconds before fear set in. Was she alright? Did they hurt her? And if they did, would she still be the same Avery I’d known all my life?”

  Finally, after having made my way to the side of the bed, I sit down on the very edge and watch for Lena’s reaction. The last thing I want to do is frighten her or cause her to panic, but since she isn’t protesting, I take that as a good sign and stay seated.

  Keeping my back to her, affording Lena as much privacy as I can while in the same room as her, I continue my story.

  “She wasn’t by the way; the same that is. Those men had hurt her in the worst possible was. It’s not my story to tell, but I can share this. It took her a long time to heal afterward, not just physically either. But Avery was lucky because she had so many people just waiting for her to give them the chance to help her. She didn’t want that, though. No, Avery, wanted to do it all on her own like she always has. I tried to talk to her like I’m talking to you now, but she shut me out, and that broke my heart. The girl I had done everything with since I learned to crawl, wouldn’t even look at me anymore. She wouldn’t talk to me, wouldn’t listen to me, and she definitely wouldn’t let me help her. Everything I did was wrong. Avery yelled, screamed, hell, she even kicked me out of her room so many times I lost count, but I kept going back because I couldn’t give up on her.”

  Shockingly, Lena interrupts, asking,

  “Is, um, she okay now?”

  I thought it would take hours to get her to say anything. I was prepared for that. If I had to stay in here with her all night talking to her to get her to trust me, I would have, but I can’t say I’m not ecstatic it didn’t come to that.

  “For the most part. She will always remember what happened to her, but it doesn’t haunt her or give her nightmares anymore. Now, she says she can make it through pretty much every day without even thinking about it,” I admit honestly. “But in the end, it was her now fiancee, Fury, that helped the most, though. Where everyone else failed, Fury didn’t try to put her back together again. He picked up her broken pieces, but he didn’t want to fix her. Fury just held Avery together until she found a way to fix herself. He encouraged her, no doubt, but he didn’t push her. She had been going to therapy for months when they eventually got together, which was helping, just not as much as the love of a man who would do, literally, anything for her.”

  “And he loved her anyway, even though she was hurt?” She questions, turning her head to look at me.

  Risking a glance over my shoulder, I see Lena’s palms pressed under her cheek, her knees pulled up tight against her belly, but it’s her eyes that make me smile. They are wide and interested. Not morbidly, but because this story resembles so much of her own.

  “Absolutely,” I state resolutely. “Fury didn’t care about her appearance, how many nights Avery cried herself to sleep, or if she was scared of things she never used to be. It was her heart he wanted. Everything else was just window dressing, or so he says. Fury would think Avery was the most beautiful woman in the world even if she was wearing a paper bag in the rain,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Do you know who else said something very similar to me before I came in here tonight?” I ask carefully.

  Tears falling from her eyes, Lena whispers,

  “I can guess, but I don’t need to. I heard him, you know. He was shouting so loudly.”

  “He was,” I confirm, nodding my head. Changing the subject momentarily, I ask, “Do you think it would be alright if we turned one of the lights on? Not all of them, just maybe the lamp,” I clarify. Simply put, I need to see her because I can’t assess her injuries like this.

  “Only if you switch it off right away if I ask you to,” she murmurs.

  I can live with that, so I reply,

  “Of course.”

  It takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the light once it’s on, but when they do, I can’t hold back my gasp at seeing just how badly this poor woman has been hurt. Lena is black and blue, and I mean that literally.

  One side of her face is entirely covered in a large bruise that stretches from her hairline at her temple all the way down to her throat. Under her eye the skin is split, it doesn’t look deep, but the location of it has only made the swelling worse. It’s so bad that I’d be surprised if she could see out of her left eye at all.

  But it’s the bruising at her throat that worries me most. Her face will heal, she may have a small crescent shaped scar under her eye, but I’m relatively sure she won’t have any other lasting damage. However, her throat is another story altogether.

  Multiple rope burns are visible starting from the very base of her neck to about halfway up. These aren’t abrasions, though. Lena must have struggled viciously to try and free herself, there’s no other explanation for them. The skin looks as if someone were to consistently, over an extended period of time dragged the rope back and forth across her neck, applying significant pressure while they were at it.

  Unlike the side of her face, Lena’s throat won’t be without a permanent reminder of what she went through. There is no way skin, and most probably the tissue underneath will heal without ending up a cross-hatch of scars.

  Lena nervously twists her hands together drawing my attention to the torn broken skin at her wrists. They must have bound her with some type of rope by the looks of it. The grooves are deep, red, and angry looking.

  I need to check her back to see if she can continue to be treated here by one of us, or if she needs a hospital. If it is actually as bad as Boss says it is, it’s highly possible the latter will be our best bet.

  Givin
g her what I hope is a kind smile, I gently request,

  “I know this is a big ask, and I know you don’t know me, but Boss told me something that’s troubling me.” Lena stiffens immediately, her eyes flying to the door while the rest of her remains statue still. “He told me your back has been injured, so to make sure we get you the treatment you need for that, I’m going to need to take a look at it, honey.”

  Shaking her head rapidly back and forth, Lena hisses,

  “Lord told them? He promised he wouldn’t tell anyone. Why would he do that?”

  “He had to, Lena. You’re hurt, and he isn’t in the position to be able to help you,” I remind her. “If there is any chance of infection, you need a hospital. And if it’s bad, we need to see to that quickly.”

  “No. No, hospitals,” she snaps. “I’m a nurse. I know it isn’t infected, not yet, so no hospitals.”

  “What about cleaning and dressing it? I’m more than happy to help you if you let me. You were on, Lord’s bike today, and then here, so I assume no one has helped you take care of that yet.” I know the answer already; she hasn’t.

  “No, but…” she stammers, playing with the hem of the overly large T-shirt she’s wearing.