by E. C. Land
The first impact of Titus’ hand against my face has me seeing stars as I cry out. I’d have fallen to the floor if it wasn’t for the grip he still had on my one arm.
“Stupide move, Brielle, thinking I wouldn’t find you. You screwed up when you put those two fuckers in school.” I know I shouldn’t have but damnit they need an education and to be able to be around kids their own age.
Titus releases his hold on my arm as another slap of the back of his hand meets the side of my face. This time I stumble backwards into the counter. He doesn’t say anything else as he steps forward, snags my hair in his fist and pulls me into his front. “Time for that lesson, ma vilaine.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming out as he steps back and throws me against the table. My head hits the corner of it and my vision blurs as I topple to the floor. Titus is on top of me and his hands rip my shirt open as I weakly try to fight him off me. Once he has my front exposed to his gaze, a malicious grin contorts his features as he pulls out a knife and slides it along my skin until he reaches my stomach where he thrust the blade in to the hilt, leaving it there.
I cry out in pain from the sheer pain as Titus stands over me. “If you think I’m done with you, you’d be wrong. I’ll be back and don’t think anyone can keep me from you, Brielle. You fuckin’ belong to me and I intend to make you feel every little thing I do to you. This is just lesson one.”
With this Titus reaches down, grips the handle of the knife and twists it further into my stomach causing me to scream. “Yeah, ma vilaine, scream and know this isn’t the end. And if you run again putaine, I will fuckin’ kill you without hesitation and take those boys and sell them to Delancy, who will make sure they are sold to the highest bidder.”
Standing back to his full height, Titus kicks my leg with his steel toed boot sending a sharp pain through my body.
I close my eyes in pain as I try to concentrate on the movement of Titus’s boots as he walks away.
God, what did I ever do to deserve going through this? Better yet, what did my boys do? They don’t deserve this kind of life.
Tears prick my eyes as my vision blurs and darkness starts to take over.
Chapter Two
Ryder
Since the day Nora, Breaker’s ol’ lady was kidnapped, none of us knew whether we’d have a war or not with the Toxic Warriors MC. Chains had reached out to Viking, their Prez, informing him of what went down with the men of his club.
Viking didn’t intend to go to war with us. According to what he and the rest of his club knew, was that Granger needed help rescuing his girl and he paid the club for assistance. None of them knew it was our club who were protecting her from the psycho himself.
His VP, Ice, Granger’s cousin admitted to the fucked-up choice in not looking into the information more.
From what I know of their club, they’re ruthless in keeping their shit together and not letting anyone fuck with them.
“Hey Ryder, do you want another beer?” Tiny, my nephew Chains ol’ lady asks.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” I mutter from where I was sitting on the stool at the bar near where she was working.
Over the past couple months since we found out that her and Nora were both pregnant, my nephews have been in overprotective mode. Chains especially. I’m sure it’s due to his parents being killed and he intends to keep that from ever happening to Tiny and the twins she’s pregnant with. Crazy how things happen.
I’d ended up raising all four of my nephews from the time they were kids. Because of my two selfish vindictive cunt of sisters my brother and his wife were killed, and my niece was sold to none other than the man who became the governor of Louisiana. Due to being deployed at the time, I’d been too late to stop the adoption, but I wasn’t too late to stop my sisters from killing their own sons. They’re now sitting pretty in an institution up in Virginia where they’ll never see the light of day again. One filled with people who need to disappear but don’t deserve to merely die, but rather suffer in the depths of hells as they say.
“Here you go,” Tiny says, smiling as she places the beer in front of me.
“Thanks, Tiny,” I murmur as my phone rings in my pocket.
“No problem, let me know if you need anything else. I’m going to try and get some schoolwork done,” she states.
“Why don’t you let Steel take over the bar for you so you can focus on your schoolwork?” I suggest as I pull my phone out to see it was an unknown number.
“Because I’m still going to work. This is my job and I want to keep doing it,” Tiny retorts.
“Bitsy, told you, you weren’t supposed to be behind the bar working. Don’t need you exhausting yourself,” Chains mutters as he approaches the bar, glowering at his ol’ lady.
“Oh don’t you start with me, I already told you earlier, just because I’m pregnant and showing doesn’t mean I can’t work still,” Tiny argues, placing her hands on her hips as she narrows her eyes on Chains.
Chuckling, I shake my head at those two. I swear both Tiny and Nora can both be firecrackers when they want to be. Especially Nora, she’s hell on wheels when it comes to whatever she’s doing. Such as the other week when one of the new Strays decided they were going to rub up on Breaker, she’d pulled the bitch off him by her ear and shoved her away. The Stray ended up falling into another bitch who was suckin’ Speeds dick which caused her to choke. Fuckin’ hilarious until the one suckin’ Speed off puked all over his shit from choking.
I tune the two of them out as my phone rings again. Glancing at the screen seeing that it’s an unknown number.
Furrowing my brow, I swipe my finger across the screen and put the phone to my ear, “Hello.”
“R–Ry–Ryder.” My body tenses at the sniffling cry of my name.
“Yeah, who’s this?” I ask, my gut twisting at who I thought it was on the other end of the line.
“Mi–Micah.” Shit I knew it had to be either him or Marcus.
“What’s wrong?” I demand.
“Maman,” Micah says and I barely understand him.
“What about her?”
“Sh–She’s n–not wa–waking u–up. M–Mar–Marcus is tr–trying b–but th–there’s b–bl–blo–blood ev–everywhere.” My body grows taut as what Micah just stated sinks in.
“Where are you buddy?” By this time my brothers have all grown silent and are listening intently to my side of the conversation.
“H–home. We h–had t–to w–wa–walk h–home c–cau–cause maman w–wasn’t at s–sch–school to g–get us this af–afternoon,” Micah states.
“Alright buddy, did you call 911 yet?” I ask heading for the door.
“Mar–Marcus did,” he murmurs.
“Good, I’ll be there in two minutes, hang tight,” I mutter, disconnecting before he could respond and put the phone in my pocket and at the same time shoving through the door.
“You good Ryder?” Chains calls out as he and the rest of my brothers follow me.
“Nope kid next door just rang. Somethings not right,” I state as I make it to my bike and throw my leg over to straddle her.
Guilt consumes me at not having spoken to the beauty of a mom, I’d let her be since the day they moved in only talking to her boys when they saw me outside. Knew plenty about the boys. How they hated their dad and didn’t want to see him to their love of motorcycles and football. I didn’t know anything about their mom, not even her name. To me she’d only been, mon bijou. Well silently that is.
“We’re coming with you,” Chains declares as he and more of my brothers move toward their bikes.
Nodding, I start my bike, back, her out of the spot, and hit the throttle making my way to my road. I meant what I’d said to Micah when I’d be there in two minutes. I only live five from the clubhouse, but I wasn’t playing around in getting to him, his brother and mom.
No fuckin’ way.
Not when all I heard in his voice was pure terror.
&nb
sp; Putting the kickstand down, I barely get off the bike before Micah is plowing into me taking me back a step.
“P–Please Ry–Ryder help maman,” Micah cries.
“Alright buddy, do me a favor and hang back with a few of these guys okay. These are my brothers they’ve got you,” I state, handing him over to my nephew Brake who was looking at the way I’d embraced the kid like I’d done with him, his brother Tyres and cousins Breaker and Chains.
“Okay,” Micah murmurs with a nod.
“Good,” I state and head for the house, hearing sirens in the distance and Marcus yelling at his mom to wake up.
Fuck this can’t be good.
Opening the door, first thing I notice is the blood soaking Marcus.
Shit, this isn’t good fuckin’ one bit.
“I need to get Marcus out of here,” I mutter to Breaker, who was directly behind me.
“Leave it to me, Ryder,” he rasps as he takes in the scene.
“Marcus, bud, need you to step away from your maman and go outside so I can help her, okay.” Gaining Marcus’ attention as he stares up at me with wide eyes and shakes his head.
“I–I ca–can’t le–leave her. Sh–She al–always pro–protects us a–and we d–didn’t pro–protect her Ry–Ryder.” Damn if he does mean every word he just said.
Before I can say anything, Breaker puts a hand on my shoulder and steps forward. “Hey, little man. I’m Breaker. Ryder’s my uncle and this here are my brothers Tyres, Axel, and our Prez, Chains. Can we let Ryder get to your maman? The ambulance is on the way and we don’t want them to think it’s you that’s hurt right?”
Marcus seems to contemplate this as he stares at each of us. “Y–you pro–promise h–he wo–won’t g–get her?” he asks.
“Yeah but can you tell me who I need to protect her from?” I ask in return, moving to kneel next to him.
“M–My d–dad, Ti–Titus Pelletier,” Marcus murmurs, rocking my world as I stare at him in stunned disbelief.
I know that name, very fuckin’ well. Because Louis Pelletier is none other than Tyres and Brakes biological father, making these boys family.
Glancing behind me at Tyres, I sense he’s putting the same information together as he stares at Marcus and nods.
This shit just got fucked further than I even thought it could.
As the ambulance noise grows closer, Marcus finally stands and moves to Breaker who takes him down the hall, I’m guessing to help him clean up some as I move to kneel next to the boy’s mom. Her face so pale, her shirt ripped open and blood soaking her entire front with a knife still stuck in the left side of her stomach.
Motherfucker.
Titus fuckin’ Pelletier is a dead fuckin’ man.
Chapter Three
Brielle
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
What is that insistent noise?
I struggle to open my eyes and when I manage to open them a mere crack, I’m blinded by a bright light causing me to close them tight again.
Jesus why did I leave the light on. I never do that.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Where is that damn beeping noise coming from?
Micah and Marcus must be doing something to cause it.
Taking a deep breath, I open my eyes enough in the hopes to reach over the side of the bed to turn the light off but find I’m not in my bed.
Panic starts to set in as I realize I’m in a hospital and I close my eyes again as I try to think of what happened.
Then it’s as if everything hits me at once, Titus finding us, the knife to my stomach, his promise to torture and torment me. Confused by this all and why he didn’t do his normal routine and force the boys and I to go back with him. That’s what he always did the other times I’d run with the boys.
Oh God. Where are my boys?
“I’m sorry sir but you shouldn’t be in here,” a woman says drawing me out of my thoughts.
“Bullshit, you’re not keeping me away from my fuckin’ wife,” a sexy gruff man’s voice filters through my head and I open my eyes to see who it is and find it goes with the hot neighbor who lives next to me.
Ryder.
What is he doing here?
Wife?
I’m not his . . .
“Sir, still it’s after visiting hours you can’t be in here,” the woman states again.
“Woman you think I’m leaving this room you can forget about it. Now do your fuckin’ job and get out. Oh, and while you’re at it make sure to have a different nurse come in next time,” Ryder growls, crossing his arms over his chest.
I’d never heard Ryder’s voice and as I stare at him now, I can’t help but gawk at him. Especially, when his gaze drops to meet mine.
“Mon bijou,” he murmurs.
“Oh, you’re awake. Are you okay?” the nurse who’d just been trying to get Ryder to leave asks, stepping into my view.
Ignoring her, I hold Ryder’s gaze, “Micah and Marcus?” I ask.
“There at the clubhouse with my brothers,” he murmurs, stepping closer to the side of my bed.
“Sir I’m going to have to ask you to step outside the room so that I may examine her,” the nurse states firmly.
“Like I said, I’m not leaving her. This is my fuckin’ wife and she was just stabbed. You think I’m about to let her out of my fuckin’ sight?” Ryder snarls.
Holy donkey ears, Ryder is more than just sexy on a normal day but right now pissed and defending me, yeah that’s on a whole other level all together.
“I’m sorry sir, but our policy states . . .”
“He stays,” I mutter, interrupting the woman.
“Ma’am,” she says but I raise a hand to stop her.
“If he says he’s not leaving then he stays. I don’t know you and he’s my husband so back the fuck off and do your job or go get another nurse who will actually do it. Actually, that is a good idea. You can go get someone else,” I snap, weakly as Ryder crosses his arms over his chest. His brows furrow even deeper.
With a huff of annoyance, the nurse storms out of my room and I focus solely on Ryder. “Umm, can I ask, why are you here?”
“Brielle, I’m here because there was no way in fuck you were being left alone after being stabbed,” Ryder growls, stepping closer to the bed and sitting on the edge of it gentle enough not to jostle me.
“How did you know?”
“Boys had my number, they called me when they got home to find you.” Something about them having Ryder’s number and not telling me about it hurts. Like they didn’t want me to know and I was failing in protecting them.
“I need to get out of here. Get Marcus and Micah out of here . . .”
“Woman you’re not going anywhere. Those boys aren’t going anywhere. And if Titus fucking Pelletier tries to come after them or you again, he’ll be met with a bullet that is waiting for him. Same goes for his dickhead of an uncle.”
Oh.
My.
God.
He . . . He . . . knows about Titus.
Wait he knows who Titus is.
This isn’t good.
I need to get out of here asap. Call Ice and see if we can’t find somewhere else to go. Maybe Quebec or Melbourne. Somewhere out of the country with new identities.
“Baby, I’d don’t know what you’re thinking right now but get it out of your head,” Ryder demands, pulling me out of my head.
“Don’t tell me what to do.” I snap, narrowing my gaze to glare at him. “You don’t know me and speaking of the fact that you don’t know me, wife?”
“Yeah, wife just like you called me your husband not two minutes ago, mon bijou, to shut that bitch up. Far as anyone is concerned in this hospital, you are my wife and Marcus and Micah are my boys.”
Oh my.
The way Ryder said that shouldn’t cause me to want to jump him, especially, not when I’ve been stabbed and I’m lying in a hospital bed of all places.
It’s just my libido talking right now. It’
s been years. I mean years since I’ve had sex. Mainly I was too afraid of Titus doing something to someone let alone me or the boys. Not even with Titus have I had sex. Not after I got pregnant with the twins. He’d claimed my body was now ruined for him, yet he had refused to let me leave him. God I was stupid at the age of seventeen hooking up with a guy five years older than me. I should have known better but it’s not like I had the best role models at home.
Mom was never home, always off with her latest hook up. My big brother, he ran off and joined the military the first chance he got leaving me behind. Sure, we talk, he knows about his nephews and thinks I’m all happy and everything; however, he hasn’t seen me since I was fifteen and he’d left for boot camp. Now that he’s out of the military he lives somewhere in Virginia, I think, I’m honestly not sure where. I knew at one point he was stationed in Texas. It’s been a while since I’d seen him last.
“Why would you do that?” I ask, quietly losing the glare I’d been giving him.
“Brielle, you’ve missed it but the past six months, those boys of yours became my boys as well by putting their claim on me and by doing so I put mine on all three of you. I just hadn’t acted on it until, and I’ll say this, my boys called crying because you were stabbed. That shit ain’t happenin’ again. Got me?”
With wide eyes and fully aware of every word he just said I swallow and nod my head.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur.
“Good. Now let’s see what we have to do to get you out of here and to the clubhouse so our boys can set their eyes on you,” Ryder mutters as he leans in and brushes my hair away from my face.
I’ll repeat again.
Oh.
My.
God.
