Damaged & Dangerous: The Sacred Hearts MC Book VI (23 page)

I showered and took my bundled clothes I’d been wearing out
back where I met the rest of the guys in the grass beside the garage and Dani’s
shop. I threw my tee, jeans, shoes, and whatnot into the burn barrel. Blue
trudged up in some comfortable sweats from the low outbuilding and waited for
my shit to catch and start burning before he added his.

Dray took a pull off a fifth of bourbon and held it out to
me. I took it. Watching the flames reflected in our VP’s black as sin irises.
Maybe it was just my mood.

“We’ll get him,” Duracell said with confidence, and
stretched.

“We’d better. He’s the mind behind all of this, last thing
we need is him putting a new club together somewhere and bringing this war to
our table all over again.” Dray spit.

We stared into the fire that consumed the evidence of our
misdeeds, and not one of us looked happy. Each of us weighed with our own
demons riding our backs. We’d been so fucking close. So goddamned close.

“And then there was one…” Reave muttered cryptically.

“Yeah,” Duracell agreed. Blue nodded, his gray eyes distant
as he stared hypnotized into the flames.

And then there was one…

I turned and left the guys by the burn barrel and went back
in to the club. I found myself leaning in the doorway to my room, watching
Revelator work. Dani looked tranquil, she was definitely heavily sedated. I
pushed off from the door and rounded the massage table. Doc looked up from the
thick paperback in his hands before going back to reading. I sat on the floor
by Dani’s head and buried my fingers in the silken strands of her deep, dark
hair, massaging at the base of her skull. Her eyes fluttered open and she
turned her head in my direction.

“How you doing, Rocket?” I murmured and her lips smiled
faintly but there was a wrinkle between her eyes, a tightness there.

“It hurts,” she whispered, “But not too bad…” It was
surprisingly coherent and I looked over to Doc.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Think she’s coming out of it.”

“Almost done back here,” Rev stated, his voice a study in
concentration, “We’ll be able to move her, put her to bed, in just a few more
minutes.” I nodded.

“You need something for the pain, Baby?” I asked her softly.

“No,” she huffed a sigh, “Just promise you’ll stay with me.”

I gathered her hand up in mine and pressed the knuckles to
my lips. It wasn’t enough so I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her
forehead. Her eyes drifted shut and, my lips beside her ear I promised her. I
wasn’t going anywhere.

Doc pushed something and she closed her eyes. He gave me a
look and I nodded my thanks but kept my lips pressed to her hair, breathing her
in.

“I love you, Dani.”

I did, didn’t matter if she heard it, I needed to say it. I
was deeply affected by the killing I’d done. While I couldn’t, Hell, I
wouldn’t
regret it, taking a man’s life had a weight to it. A certain gravity. To not be
affected by something like that made you something less than human in my book.
Even if you found yourself feeling bad for not feeling bad about doing it. I
rested my forehead against Dani’s hair and continued to massage her neck. A
mindless action of affection that was doing more to soothe me than my oblivious
girl.

God, how I wanted to leave this part of things far behind…
We were almost there. The lot of us. Almost back to being able to go -and
stay-
completely legit.

And then there was one… Just one… standing all alone. We
just had to make sure to keep it that way.

Dani…

It’s surprising to me. Go through something once, know what
to expect, and take all the mystery from it, how easy it is to adapt to it.
Bath time the next morning after having the color go in still sucked, but not
as bad as the first time, and I didn’t find myself spending two days pretty
much in bed before getting up and moving around, but rather just the better
part of the morning.

Thirteen, after helping me get the rest of the ink off the
surface of my skin and anointing the raw areas with thick, moisturizing goo,
had kissed me and gone back to bed. He wasn’t just tired, something weighed on
him and I was betting he had gone somewhere while Revelator, Trigger, and
Disney had worked on my back-piece the day before.

I found myself wandering out to my shop, moving slowly,
gingerly. It wasn’t that it really
hurt
, I mean, it was
uncomfortable
but it was more that the skin felt drawn tight, like the skin over a drum. Any
time I moved, it pulled, and I loathed the sensation, and so I moved carefully
so it wouldn’t pull too much. I slipped up gingerly onto my stool so I could
start sketching at my little drafting table, ideas for new pieces.

Reaver came out at the appointed time to slather my back
with more moisturizer. There wasn’t a way I could reach it all and I was
perfectly content to let my new friends and Thirteen’s brothers help me with
it. I was surprised at how comfortable I had grown with them, after such a
short amount of time. Each of them moved around me like I was made of china or
might break at too harsh a word or gesture. It hadn’t taken me long to realize
I was likely not the first lost soul or abused girl to find my way here, a
suspicion that’d been confirmed by Trigger one night while we’d all eaten
dinner together in the common area. His woman, Sunshine, had come from a bad
place too.

“It’s good you’re up and moving around the first day after a
piece this big. You had more done with the color than you did the last time.
Looks like you’re getting used to it.” Reaver’s comments broke me out of my
reverie.

“I guess. Maybe I’m just still used to having to adapt
quickly,” I murmured.

“Aw, yeah. Shit, sorry,” he looked sheepish when I glanced
over my shoulder.

“Its fine,” I shrugged and winced a bit, right after the
lotion went on it always felt better, looser until it absorbed again, which
happened rather quickly.

“So you hooked yet?” he asked with a teasing grin.

I rolled my eyes and smiled back faintly, “No. I’m done.
This is most definitely the last piece I will ever do. Somehow I think if I
wanted any more, Doc would be a whole lot less inclined to drug me into next
week to get it done. And honestly, with the way those drugs make me feel…” I
made a face, “I don’t like being that numbed-out.”

“Yeah, well, glad you trust the lot of us enough to let us
help you.”

He retreated for the door and I nodded faintly. That part
had honestly been the hardest for me. Still, it hadn’t been lost on me that
these men had taken a leap of faith with me. Taken me in after knowing I would
willingly rat out The Suicide Kings, which just wasn’t done in the MC world. No
matter how altruistic the intent behind the action may or may not be. Good
intentions didn’t keep you alive in this world.

The Sacred Hearts had taken a big chance on me, letting me
live, setting me up here without expecting anything in return. I scraped my
bottom lip between my teeth and sighed, bending carefully back over my drawing.
The least I could have done was give them equal measure for equal measure but
still, it wasn’t lost on me, even with how much my back stung and pulled, that
the three brothers of the Sacred Hearts had done me more of a boon than I had
Revelator by making those wedding rings.

I heard the door open behind me.

“Forget something?” I asked. I had grown too confident, it
would seem, let a false sense of security settle in over the last several weeks;
it was a mistake that I recognized too late, and only when a man’s large hand
fitted over my mouth. I was dragged back hard into a barrel chest and the smell
of sour alcohol and stale cigarettes stuffed my nose.

“Now what would you be doing here, Coon?” Griz growled in my
ear. His breath was beyond fetid, more ashtray and booze as it poured over me, the
stench of body odor adding to the mix as he hauled my slimmer and much weaker
frame off the stool.

The buttons on his denim cut dug painfully into my raw back,
but still I twisted and fought and struggled, kicking and screaming muffled
cries out from beneath his meaty palm. I tried to bite but couldn’t find
purchase with my teeth. Griz laughed at me as all I managed to accomplish was
slobbering all over the inside of his palm, the tang of metal and grease
coating the inside of my mouth.

“Now where are your new little friends? Huh? I wanna see
their faces when I blow your pretty little face off in front of ‘em.” I froze
in his grip as the hard metal barrel of a gun pressed to my temple.

“See, now that’s better, Bitch. Now walk.” He shoved me
forward with his body and I stepped as he instructed, his gait awkward as he
walked with me and tried not to trip. He turned us to the side and kicked the
inside crash bar to the metal door to the garage. The single door flew wide and
bounced off the outside garage wall.

I swallowed hard and tried to breathe calmly, even as my
heart raced. He pulled me out into the rich sunlight and I closed my eyes as
the warmth touched upon my skin. The Sacred Hearts were outside waiting. I
blinked slowly at Thirteen and his brothers lined up, guns drawn, marching
across the grass towards the shop, towards me and Griz.

“Dani!” Thirteen called, “You okay!?”

I tried to nod but Griz’s grip tightened on my mouth and
chin, forcing my head up and back against his chest.

“She look fine to you, Boy?” he roared and swayed on his
feet some. I squeezed my eyes shut against the sensation it caused against my
back, and tears started in my eyes.

“You just hang in there, Chica, we’ll get you out of this,”
Dragon said kindly.

I opened my eyes and blinked, but the only person I could
see was Thirteen. His expression was cold, shut down and murderous as he looked
at Griz over my head. Then his eyes fell on my face and something in them
softened. I blinked several times rapidly.

“The fuck you will!” Griz pressed the barrel of the gun into
my temple harder and I shuddered. I opened my eyes and tried to communicate to
Thirteen, my silent plea.

“Just what the fuck you want, Man?” Dray demanded. His dark
eyes burning, a raging inferno; a maelstrom of anger, rage and hatred going on
just behind the veil of darkness that was his eyes.

“Justice!” Griz roared, “Justice for m’boy! Retribution you
sons-a-bitches! An eye for a fuckin eye.” Griz swayed on his feet again and it
was obvious to anyone who had half a mind to put to it that he was drunk, high,
or both.

“We told you what would happen,” Dragon intoned, “He did it
anyways. Hurt a girl he had no business hurting.”

Griz spat, “A club whore! Weren’t no-one’s Ol’ Lady! Who the
fuck cares!?”

“I do.” Reaver glowered and Dragon put up his hand in the
scary man’s direction. Reaver stood, nonchalant, idly spinning an open
switchblade between his long fingers.

“What you give a fuck for? Weren’t nothin’ but club pussy!
Not worth a man’s life, not worth my boy’s life! Raised him m’self…” Griz
started some nonsensical mumbling and his grip loosened on me marginally. I
breathed out and swallowed hard, making eye contact with Thirteen, pleading
with him with my eyes to do what needed to be done regardless of the outcome
for me. Griz had lost it. Lost it completely and he needed to be stopped.

“Not the point. Girl didn’t belong to him, Man,” Revelator
spit on the ground like he had a bitter taste in his mouth.

Griz pressed the muzzle of his gun harder into my temple and
I closed my eyes. I opened them to Thirteen’s calm gaze. He stared into my
eyes, while his brothers held Griz’s drunken attention, and mouthed at me to
hold still. I closed my eyes again and did as my lover asked. I held very, very
still as the men argued back and forth. Griz became more agitated.

“Okay Coon, I’m gonna move my hand, I don’t want to hear no
bitching or caterwauling, just giving you a chance to tell your man there bye
before I blow your pretty fucking head off. No screamin’ you hear me?” I nodded
against his hand and finally he took it from my mouth.

“I love you.” I bit my lips together and looked at Thirteen
beseeching him with my eyes before saying out loud, “Shoot him, please shoot
him!” my voice cracking.

“You stupid cunt!” I felt rather than saw Griz’s arm draw
back to hit me with my back to his front like it was. I closed my eyes and
braced for the blow and -- POW!

The gunshot rolled out into the open air, loud and strong,
echoing back from the wild blue skies. Something coated my face and globbed in
my hair, warm and sticky and wet. I was still tensed and Thirteen was suddenly
there.

“Don’t open your eyes Dani, don’t open your mouth!” his
voice was tense and strained and I did what I was told when all I wanted to do
was drop in a heap and give over to the panic splitting my chest, cracking me
wide and vulnerable. When was it ever going to stop?

Red-XIII…

I was laying in my bed staring at the ceiling when it went
off. A loud buzzer in the common room, loud enough to wake the fucking dead. I
bolted from the bed and threw on some jeans and a tee. Tugging on my last boot
as I hopped on one foot in the hallway, I watched Ghost and Trig climb up the
access ladder to the roof. I caught Reave by the arm, who was adjusting the Velcro
strapping on his body armor as he went by.

“What the fuck is that, Man?” I demanded.

“Perimeter breach, someone hopped the fence somewhere.
Tripped a motion sensor.”

Data called from the fish bowl ops room of his, “I fucking
got it man! He’s going into the garage!”  

“Fuck, Dani!” I moved, Blue falling in to step beside me,
handing me a gun. I took it and the rest of the guys fell in with me as we
poured out the back door, but it was too late. He was edging out of the shop’s
single door, Dani pressed to his body, a gun pressed to my woman’s head.

“Keep her calm Man, we gotta wait for an opening for Trig
and Ghost to do their thing,” Reaver murmured under his breath before we drew
near them. I swallowed my heart back into my friggin’ chest and, with it
pounding, advanced with my brothers across the grass.

Griz stopped short and did he ever look like fucking hell! Clothes
dirtier than usual, and all out of sorts, hair in a wild halo around his head,
coming loose from his ponytail, which was skewed off to the side and hanging
over his shoulder. His eyes were so bloodshot you’d swear the whites were pink
to begin with and they bounced from one to the other of us so erratically –
dude had to be on something. There wasn’t any way that he was any kind of
sober.

He had one massive, dirty paw over my girl’s mouth and
Dani’s cornflower blue eyes were so wide in her paler than usual face, it made
my heart fucking bleed.

“Dani!” I called out to her, “You okay!?”

She tried to nod but Griz tightened his grip, pulling back
on her head. Her slender throat worked in a swallow and her eyes squeezed shut
before she opened them, leveling me with her gaze. Her expression was
beseeching but I knew my girl, my woman…

“She look fine to you, Boy?” Griz roared and swayed on his
feet, jolting Dani, who swayed limply in front of him. She might as well be a
fucking rag doll and I seethed with anger. Her eyes glimmered wetly with her
tears and her expression spoke clearly to me.

Don’t worry about me… Kill him, just kill him.

“You just hang in there, Chica, we’ll get you out of this,”
Dragon said, his voice low and even but my eyes, my heart, my very soul was
being held against Griz’s dirty denim cut looking at me with wide eyes,
frightened but absolutely sure. Purpose glimmered in her gaze where it was
locked to mine and I felt my chest rise and fall, hard, a crushing weight
making it tough to get enough air as I half listened to my brothers argue with
the fucking shelled-out, drugged-out, crazy as fuck man who had a hold on my
woman.

“Okay Coon, I’m gonna move my hand, I don’t want to hear no
bitching or caterwauling, just giving you a chance to tell your man there bye
before I blow your pretty fucking head off. No screamin’ you hear me?” I focused
then as Dani nodded faintly, a jerky up and down against the resistance of his
fucking hand on her mouth.

“I love you!” she blurted, and her eyes held such a longing
and desolation that I would gladly burn the whole fucking world down. Again
with that pleading look. I felt myself shaking my head. No. Not only no, but hell
no! I wasn’t letting her go, but my woman’s lips were moving again. Her perfect
fucking lips. And she shouted, “Shoot him! Please shoot him!” her voice
cracking on the plea.

I took a step forward but Reaver grabbed my arm down low,
his hand above my wrist. I looked down just as Griz shouted…

“You stupid cunt!” he drew back his arm with the gun, intent
on clocking my woman in the back of the head. He was going to fucking pistol
whip Dani! Without thought, with a singular purpose, I lunged just as the
bright summer day erupted in a riot of sound and Griz’s head exploded. Dani
cringed, knowing, expecting a blow to land, and her eyes and mouth squeezed
tightly shut is the only thing that saved her from getting a mouth and her eyes
full of the man’s blood.

The whole world slowed down, I screamed her name as I
covered the distance between us and when I touched her, when I pulled her into
my arms, against my chest it was as if the world let out its collected breath
and everything returned to a normal speed.

“Don’t open your eyes Dani, don’t open your mouth!” I told
her, Blue grabbed the garden hose and dragged it towards us.

“Cold Baby, this is going to be cold, I’m sorry. I got you
Dani, I got you, I always fucking got you…” I kept talking as she shuddered and
shook in my grasp. Her hair matted, her face awash in Griz’s blood and heavier,
wetter things. Dani cried out and I felt the shock myself as Cell turned the
crank on the faucet and Blue aimed to get the worst of it off.

My brothers were milling around us, all of them trying to
help as the cold water soaked our clothes, soaked our skins and sluiced through
Dani’s raven dark hair. The icy water puddled at our feet running red then
tinged pink as it crept towards the grass.

“Good enough!” Doc declared, “Get her in the house, hot
shower, soap and water.” He ordered. I didn’t care; I picked her up, her
slender arms wrapped tight around my neck and shoulders, her face cold against
my neck. I carried her into the club, Reaver and Blue our vanguard, sweeping
out in front of us.

They got the tap going as I set Dani to her feet on the
bathroom floor, and then it was a flurry of hands, stripping wet cotton off of
the both of us. I didn’t care; I wanted him off of her as much as she did. Dani
started to shriek, started to scream when the clothes came off, and I couldn’t
blame her for that either. Too much, too many people, but I held her fast to me
and I wasn’t letting go and I honestly needed the extra hands.

“Dani, Baby, it’s okay, shhh, Baby it’s all right. It’s me,
it’s Chris. Thirteen. I got you, Baby, just come on and let us help…” she
cried, limp in my arms against my chest as I got both of us into the bath.
Reave poured some of her sweet smelling shampoo into his palm and Blue appeared
from somewhere I hadn’t seen him go, with a pitcher.

I held onto Dani while my brothers frantically washed her
hair, the shower spray gentler way down here at the bottom of the tub, stopping
all together when Blue thrust the pitcher under it to fill. Dani continued to
shiver despite the heat from the shower, her face buried in the side of my neck
as her slender body shook.

“Head back, Baby Doll,” Reaver implored and, her eyes still
squeezed shut tight she went with his subtly urging fingertips and Blue rinsed
her hair. She started to calm with every pitcher full of water that sluiced
through her hair and across her skin, rinsing her clean, the water going from a
faint pink to running crystal clear as it swirled down the drain.

“Dani, Baby, look at me,” I murmured. She tipped her head up
and met my eyes. Hers were still so wide, her damage showing way too prominent,
and I couldn’t blame her. Every fucking time she thought she was safe for a
minute… I sighed. Well, she was safe now. As safe as I could make her, but
there wasn’t any way I could make her believe it. Not in the state she was in.
I tightened my hold on her, rocking her absently, and her eyes slid shut. She
tucked her head under my chin and let me take care of her.

Reaver stood up and backed away, “I think we got it all,” he
said quietly and, shaking his head, unstrapped his body armor. He muttered
something about it being fucking soaked and with a last glance at Dani held
tight in my arms, both of us naked in the bottom of the tub, left the bathroom.

“You okay now?” Blue asked Dani softly and I blinked. Dude
never talked. He was like the Silent fucking Bob to Duracell’s Jay. Dani
blinked and nodded her head, a bit too rapid. She didn’t really have anything
to be afraid of, or embarrassed, the front of her body, hell even her ass was
hidden from view against my body and my bits were just as hidden by hers. Still
I got her, her discomfort, and I thrust my chin at Blue to get gone over her
head.

“Be right back,” he murmured and I looked down at Dani, she
and Blue had their gazes locked and seemed to be saying something without
words. Blue got up, his jeans and tee clinging wetly to him and he came back
with a comb.

He used conditioner in Dani’s hair while I held her, and
combed it through. Making sure that there wasn’t anything left. Nothing at all.
Dani closed her eyes, her arms tightening around my shoulders as she let Blue
do his thing. Something about having her hair combed by the silent brother
calmed her. Put her at ease, and that in turn calmed me.

A final rinse or two and Blue shut off the tap. Reaver
appeared in the doorway in fresh, dry clothes and handed Blue some towels. Blue
had always struck me as a mellow kind of guy but this was weird. He closed his
eyes and held open the towel and I asked Dani if she thought she could get up.
She nodded and slowly let me go. Standing, she stepped out of the tub and into
the offered towel, holding it around herself. I took the one Blue held out to
me.

He studiously didn’t look at either of us. I wasn’t so much
worried about that. I could give two fucks. I wrapped the towel around my waist
and tucked it in so I could free my hands for my girl. I rubbed over the towel.
She was still shivering but I don’t think it had fuck all to do with being
cold. I drew her to me and gently patted her back dry through the towel.

“Okay?” I asked. She sniffed and nodded but still hadn’t
spoken. Instead, she tucked herself into my side and arms around me let me lead
her to our room.

“Thanks, Blue.” I muttered and, his gray eyes full of worry,
he nodded carefully, staying behind in the bathroom as I moved her through the
hall. She relaxed, marginally, when we got into our room. A familiar space. I
sat her on the edge of the bed and knelt in front of her. Her dark hair clung
wetly to her face and shoulders, dripping on the bed. I dried myself off and
did my best to sop the water out of her hair to keep it from dripping on the
bed.

“You okay, Baby?” I asked, swallowing hard. It was starting
to seriously freak me out, her not talking. She nodded her head, her clear blue
eyes wounded, and I touched her face. A light touch, grazing her lips with my
thumb.

“Did you see?” I asked softly. She shook her head, too
rapidly, and I nodded sighing.

“I’m sorry…” she whimpered and I shook my head.

“Oh, Baby no, I just wish you hadn’t seen it is all. For
you. Shhh, it’s okay…” I pulled her against my shoulder and let her weep.

Trig never missed, and Griz’s head had blown apart like a
melon. Dani had just been too close, but it was the only shot, the only chance
Trig was going to get. Some things were just so horrible there wasn’t enough
brain bleach in the world to scrub the image out. Some things were just burned
in there forever. Dani had more than her fair share of mental and emotional
scarring and I vowed right then and there, as she cried it out against my body,
that this would be the last reason she would have to cry for anything for a
real fucking long time.