Snake (Twisted Devils MC Book 6)

by Zahra Girard

  “What? You’re leaving me?”

  “I’ll have them send someone else to protect you. Blaze, maybe. Or Rusty.”

  I don’t give her time to respond. I leave before she can say anything more — this is hard enough as it is, and she’s the one woman that I know I can’t resist. Any longer, and I will waver.

  So, I do the right thing.

  I leave her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Adella

  His words hit me like a brick. Leave me stunned, speechless, watching as he crosses the threshold of my doorway, bag in hand, and the door slams shut behind him.

  I finally got close to him.

  And now I’m going to lose him.

  Like hell I will.

  I fight for what I want.

  And I’ve wanted Snake since the age that I first started being interested in men.

  No way will I let him get away.

  Naked as the day I was born, I run out of my apartment, not giving a damn about anyone who might see me, but still grateful as heck that it’s quiet in the hallways and in the dark parking lot. It’s late at night, there’s not a soul around, but I’d run out naked at midday through a damn parade if that’s what it took to keep Snake in my life.

  I pass him as he leaves the door to the apartment building and steps into the parking lot. Sprinting, I run past him and head straight for his bike.

  He lets out a surprised shout as I dart around him, my bare ass getting goosebumps in the chill night air.

  Arriving at his bike, I lean down and unhook the wires from his spark plugs, and have time to spin around and hold those wires behind my back as he approaches me.

  “Put those back, Addie,” he says.

  “Hell no.”

  “I’ll take them from you if I have to.”

  I stare back at him, defiant, and cock my chin to the side.

  “Oh yeah? You’ll put your hands on me? Because I won’t give them up without a fight. And I fight dirty. You’ll have to really hurt me to get these wires away from me. What do you think will happen to you then? Do you think my daddy will let it slide that you put your hands on me? Like hell he will. He’ll tie you to the back of his bike and drag you face-down across miles of highway. He’ll make you wish you were back in Afghanistan.”

  He flinches at that last word and I know I’ve cut him deep. I don’t mean to, I shouldn’t have said that in his state, but I can’t help myself. I’m bare-assed naked in the parking lot of my apartment building, fighting with the biker of my dreams over a set of spark plug wires — things are well beyond screwy right now.

  “Don’t talk like that,” he growls.

  “Like what? Like I care for you? Like I don’t want you to leave? Like it won’t break my heart knowing that I had the only man I’ve ever wanted in my arms, in my bed, in my life, and that he’s leaving because he doesn’t want to get close to me?”

  “It’s not like that and you know it.”

  “Seems to me that’s exactly what it’s like. You’re afraid.”

  “Like fuck I’m afraid. I have a duty, Addie.”

  “I’m a person, Snake. A person who cares about you. Cares about you so deep she doesn’t even know how to describe it. I’ve wanted you since I was a girl. Watched and wanted you for years, and I know you feel the same. And now you’re going to throw it all away because of some twisted interpretation of honor? Give me a break.”

  With frightening speed, he puts both his hands on my shoulders and presses me back against his bike. The cold metal against my ass makes me shiver.

  He stares at me with the hollow, burning intensity of a man who has had countless brushes with combat and death.

  “Your father pulled me out of a dark fucking pit. The club’s given me the purpose that’s saved my life. And my mission is to keep you safe. I know the consequences of forgetting my mission, and the scars of that failure will be on my heart until the day I die. But you want to know what? You want to know why I feel like I need to walk away?” He brings his face right next to mine. His voice burns with emotion. “Because I care so much about you that even knowing everything I know, and no matter how hard I try to control myself, I can’t help it: I fucking want you. I would throw myself into the fires of hell just to have you.”

  “Then stay.”

  He kisses me. A deep, fiery kiss that leaves me breathless.

  “You could ruin me, Addie. Fucking ruin me. And I’d go to hell with a smile on my face knowing that I had you for even a moment.”

  I see a new smile on his face, one that’s full of heat and affection, and my heart is burning with all the feelings of lust, of love, that he brings out in me.

  “I’m not some defenseless girl, Snake. Let me see your gun. I’ll show you.”

  With an eyebrow raised, he reaches into his belt and pulls out his gun. It’s a SIG Sauer M17, the current sidearm for the military, except the Marines, who use the M18. It’s one of the many guns my father offers for sale, and I still remember the day he brought the first of these around the house to test it out. Still remember the days we spent together on the range shooting it, just like we did with so many of the weapons he brought home.

  If Snake needs to see the hard-edged side of me to be comfortable with a relationship, then I’ll show him everything. I’ll be ruthless if I have to, just to keep him in my life.

  Because some things are worth risking everything for.

  And love is one of them.

  Locking my eyes on him, I field strip it by touch alone. Disassemble it down to its basic parts and then put it back together just as quick as I took it apart.

  There’s a flicker of motion in his eyebrow as he watches, a slight widening of his pupils as he sees me strip and reassemble the weapon without looking.

  I smile at him.

  “I know how to shoot. I know how to fight. I’m not a fucking child, so don’t treat me like one. I like you, Snake. A lot. So much it scares me, too. But I’m not afraid of facing that fear for a chance at having you and I swear to god, if you try to walk away from me over some misplaced fear of what my daddy might do, I will give you the kind of hell he can’t even imagine,” I say as I snap the last piece of the weapon back into place and hand it over to him. “Now, seeing as I’m stark naked, I will not show you my shooting accuracy because that could wake the neighbors. So you’re just going to have to trust me that I could take your head off at a hundred yards. Now, why don’t you come inside and get back in my bed?”

  “I think I can do that,” he says, leaning in to kiss me again. This time it’s tender and makes my toes curl against the cold concrete of the parking lot.

  “Good, because it’s really darn cold out,” I say, smiling.

  “You think you could put the wires back on my spark plugs?”

  “Can’t you do it?”

  “I can, but I want to watch you bend over. You’ve got a fucking fine ass, Addie.”

  “If you insist.”

  I do as he asks. Take my time at it, reattaching the wires with the speed of someone who needs a repair manual just to do an oil change.

  “Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of your curvy ass,” he says.

  “Good, because I’m not going to let you go, Snake. You’re mine.”

  A pleasant rumble comes from his chest, and I take his hand as I stand up again. Lead him into the building and into my apartment. The door’s hardly shut behind us when a ringing comes from his pocket.

  “It’s the club,” he says, looking at the caller ID before answering. “Yeah?”

  My heart waits in my throat as I listen to his call. To the grim, muffled words that come through the receiver. As I watch the dark look come across Snake’s face.

  There’s murder in his eyes, menace in the scowl that takes over his mouth.

  It hurts to know he will be torn away from me again. Just as I feel like I’ve convinced him to open himself up to what he really wants, to what I really want. Our relationship is so new,
so tenuous, so fragile. Who knows what could happen to it over the next few days?

  He ends the call.

  Drops his bag, opens it, and takes a few spare clips of ammo out and shoves them into his pocket.

  “What is it?”

  “Axel and Crash were on a patrol, scouting around. They’ve found Silas. I’m to take you to the clubhouse. And then me and some of the club are going to pay that bastard a visit. I’m finally going to get my hands on that son of a bitch who thought he could touch you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Snake

  “Nephew of a notorious thief and he’s hiding out here?” Blaze says, eyeing the sign for Big Richard’s Motel from our stakeout position half a block away. “I’ve seen this place in, like, at least half of the ‘Casual Encounter’ ads on Craigslist.”

  “Does Tiffany know you’ve been looking around on her?” Rusty says.

  “This was before Tiffany. And I never followed up on any of them. But sometimes you get real drunk and you start to wonder a few things and Craigslist is a real easy way to satisfy your curiosity, you know?”

  “No, I don’t know, lad. What sort of satisfaction did you want to gain from these casual encounters?” Mack says.

  Every one of us — Mack, Rusty, Axel, Stone, and myself — all turn to look at Blaze. He hardly notices the look of disbelief, and concern, on our faces and plows right ahead like his usual self.

  “Not like that, man. But sometimes you want to mix up the ratio a little, or whatever, and you think about what it would be like if—”

  “Blaze, I swear to god, if you keep talking about your sexual explorations on the Internet, I will send you in there to face Silas without your gun and without any of your fucking clothes. Then you can see if meeting strangers naked in a motel is everything you’d hoped it would be,” Stone says.

  “Oh, come on, prez, you had to have thought about it. I thought you older generation types were all peace and free love.”

  “That was before my fucking time, Blaze. My generation, we were about different things. I mean, I met Trish at a Talking Heads concert in the 80s. I started a fight with one of the bouncers just so she could sneak backstage and steal one of their guitars. We sold it and used the money to drink for a week. We got a little hedonistic, yeah, but I never had the urge to look up anonymous dick pictures online and think ‘Yeah, that’s how I want to spend my Friday night.’ I’ll be honest with you, brother, sometimes you distress me.”

  “Thanks, prez,” Blaze says. “I mean that.”

  “So, what’s the plan, Stone? Can you lay it out for us before Blaze tries to convince us to take up pole dancing?” I say.

  “How do you think we should handle it, Snake?”

  I look at the motel for a moment. It’s an unassuming, rundown heap of a concrete building. Two stories, with an outdoor walkway connecting every room on the second floor and offering an overlook of the parking lot. There’s a decrepit office building at one end of the building, but there’s no one inside, though the light is on.

  “Are there any back entrances? Any fire escapes on the other side?” I say.

  “Does it look like Big Richard gives a shit about building codes? Big Richard wants you to keep your mouth shut and take what he gives you,” Axel says.

  I grin at him. Axel’s been in the club nearly as long as me. He’s an enormous man — big arms, barrel chest, a bit of a gut, and a thick beard; like a teddy bear gone wrong.

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “So, Snakey boy, how the hell are we going to hit this bastard?” Mack says.

  “It’s a simple plan. First, we strip Blaze down, then we send him knocking on Silas’ door. We have him say that he’s got a pizza delivery. Silas answers the door, Blaze distracts him — in whatever way that he sees fit — and then, after we give the two of them some time alone, we break the door down and take Silas hostage, or whatever the hell it is you want us to do with him. I’m sure Blaze has a few suggestions on what to do with a tied-up Silas.”

  “You ass, I am not going in there as the pizza boy,” Blaze protests. “I’ve tried that shit before and it doesn’t work. The movies lie.”

  “No, I like the plan,” Stone says. “Blaze, I’m serious, you get in there. Do us proud.”

  “You’re fucking joking.”

  Stone takes out his gun, levels the barrel of it right at Blaze’s face.

  “Do I look like I’m joking?”

  Blaze stares at him, a blank look of shock on his face. And then he undoes the buttons on his long-sleeved flannel shirt.

  “If you guys insist, I ain’t afraid of the human body.”

  “Stone, stop this fucking travesty before we see things you can’t unsee,” Mack says.

  Stone doesn’t move.

  At least, not for a moment. Then he puts his gun away.

  “Blaze, sorry to bust your bubble, but you won’t be going in there alone.”

  “Stop kidding around. Let’s focus, guys,” Blaze says. “And someone give me a commitment: do I take my clothes off or not?”

  “You ready for the real plan?” I say.

  “As long as it doesn’t involve Blaze having anonymous sex with strangers, yeah,” Stone answers.

  “If you know their name, they’re not anonymous. That’s the fucking definition of the word,” Blaze says.

  “You’re not helping,” Stone says. “Snake, lay things out for us for real.”

  I nod. Though I love kidding around with my brothers and recapturing that same sense of camaraderie that I had in the military, we’ve got a mission ahead of us. And now is not the time for fucking around.

  “Listen, there are only two entry points: the window and the door. And, if Silas is even half as capable as we think, he will have them covered, and he’ll probably have a gun on him. We break in through either entrance, he’ll be shooting right away,” I say. “If I was back in the Army, this is the point where we’d call in an airstrike to flush out our dug-in adversaries. But we can’t. So we need to draw them out to us. So, Blaze, you will have to get naked.”

  “Didn’t we just go over this? Fuck, I understand you wanting to see me naked, Snake — your name's one of many on an endless list of people who want that privilege — but it ain’t happening. I was just kidding around earlier.”

  “I’m not fucking around, Blaze. We need a distraction to draw Silas to the door without him getting his guard up. None of us can be as loud or as attention-getting as you. So, pretend you’re fucking drunk, that you’ve got the wrong room, and get Silas to come to the door. Then grab him.”

  “You heard him, Blaze,” Stone says.

  “Fine. If we’re doing this, we’re fucking doing this,” Blaze says, enthusiastically stripping down to his underwear. “Any of you got a flask or anything? Cause I am all about commitment.”

  With his eyes looking anywhere but at Blaze, Mack reaches into his pocket and pulls out a silver flask. He holds it out without looking. “Here, take it.”

  “Thanks, brother,” Blaze says, snatching the flask and then pulling Mack into a hug. “This means a lot to me.”

  “Get your naked ass off me, Blaze,” Mack snarls.

  Grinning, Blaze takes a step back, then takes a swig from the flask and pours some of it on his chest. “You all are gonna give me a fucking Oscar when this is over.”

  Then, swerving and stumbling, he walks across the road and toward Big Richard’s Motel. He takes his time climbing the stairs to the second floor and, once he reaches it, his voice carries across the parking lot as he sings. The faint tunes of a Backstreet Boys song hit my ears. Moments later, he’s at Silas’ door, singing his heart out and pounding his fist on the door.

  “Son of a bitch has balls,” Axel says.

  “We know. We’ve all seen them, now,” Stone says.

  “You think Silas will really fall for it?” Rusty says, stroking his beard.

  I shrug. “How long do you think he can hold out against Blaze’s singing?”<
br />
  “Was it me, or was he a little hard heading up there?” Axel says.

  “Well, wouldn’t you be if your friends gave you permission to act out one of your fantasies?” I say.

  Axel nods. “True. We just gave him a hall pass. And the worst thing is, we really can’t give him shit for it.”

  “Oh, I’ll find a way,” Mack grumbles, finishing what’s left in his flask.

  “Here he comes now,” I say. “We should start moving in. Blaze might need our help.”

  The four of us start our approach as the door to the motel room opens to Blaze’s relentless singing and knocking. For one tense and silent moment, the two men — Silas and Blaze — stare at each other and then Silas’ voice cuts through the parking lot, screaming, “What the fuck?” as the almost-naked Blaze charges through the door and tackles him.

  Our approach turns to a run as we charge through the lot and up the stairs.

  But our presence isn’t needed.

  As we get to the room, we find Blaze on top of Silas, one knee pinning the man’s arm and the other square on his chest.

  “Brothers, I gotta admit, I was a little leery at first, but this was fucking fun,” Blaze says, a big dumb grin on his face.

  “What the fucking hell is happening? You send a naked man to tackle me? That’s fucked up,” Silas snarls from beneath Blaze. “And can you please get your fucking junk out of my face? You’re hard, man, and it’s fucking weird as hell. Torture me, do whatever you want, just get your dick out of my face.”

  “Keep your voice down, you piece of shit,” Stone says, coming in to kick Silas in the head.

  “Actually, Stone, I don’t think it matters how much he yells and screams. I doubt it’d be the first time people at Big Richard’s heard a bunch of dudes getting rough in a room late at night.”

  “True. You’re all ours, Silas,” Blaze says. “You ready to play?”

  Those words come out with extra menace, punctuated by a punch to the face that makes my teeth hurt just witnessing it. The blow makes Silas’ head bounce against the floor. When he shakes himself clear, he turns to the side and spits blood and a broken tooth against the dirty carpet.