Dauntless (Sons of Templar MC) (32 page)

A dazed-looking Rosie was sitting in a chair, Cade crouched in front of her, his jaw hard and his hand on her neck.

Her eyes focused on me, and then they widened. “Bex,” she said, trying to get up. Cade stopped her and she glared at him. “You’re bleeding. That is not cool, dude. Not cool.”

“I know,” I agreed. “And I ripped my jeans.”

“Bummer.” She frowned down at her feet. “I think I may have ruined your boots.”

I shrugged. “No big. I needed a new pair anyway.”

“Can we stop talkin’ about fuckin’ clothes and let me fuckin’ look at your
head wound?”
Gabriel roared, making me jump.

“Ouch,” I muttered, putting my hand to my head.

His face softened immediately. “Shit, sorry, baby. Just let me look, okay?”

I met his eyes, saw what a tenuous hold he had on his rage. “Okay,” I agreed.

A hard-faced Brock handed Gabriel what looked like a first aid box.

“You okay, darlin’?” he asked, his voice soft.

“I—”

Gabriel’s head snapped up. “If you say anythin’ about your fuckin’ shoe or jeans again, I’ll lose it,” he growled.

I scowled at him, then smiled at Brock. “I’m fine.”

He leaned in and squeezed my arm. “Happy to hear. Though that head makes me think otherwise.”

His hand was gone as quickly as it was there, but I still shivered at the contact. Gabriel didn’t miss it and he glared at Brock.

“Sorry, bro,” Brock muttered. “We’re gonna have cops crawling this place….” he trailed off as the sound of sirens intensified and flashing lights illuminated the windows. “Right about now.”

“Yeah, well, let them come. We’ve got nothin’ to hide and as much as I loathe Crawford’s little visits, maybe we can make the boys in blue work for our taxes and fuck around while we find who did this,” Cade muttered from his spot in front of Rosie.

She blanched at his words. One in particular, I thought.

She tried to get up again. “I’ve got to go,” she exclaimed suddenly.

Cade stopped her once more. “Are you fuckin’ insane?” He paused. “No, wait, I already know the answer to that question. But you were almost just fuckin’ blown up, kid. You’re not goin’ anywhere.”

Her eyes flared in panic, flickering to the windows. “I’m fine. My eyebrows bore the brunt of it, but nothing a spa day can’t fix. Now I’ve really got to go. I think I left my straightener on.” She struggled against her brother.

There was a commotion at the door and the hunky cop stepped through, his eyes scanning the room until they settled on Rosie.

She stopped struggling.

His government-issue boots pointed in her direction and didn’t stop until he reached our little huddle. Cade immediately stood in front of his sister, going toe to toe with the hot cop I knew as Luke.

“The flaming and smoking remains of the bomb that almost killed my sister are outside, deputy,” Cade said, his voice even. “I would assume that’s where you should be doing your job.” His stare was scary, even from my position on the sofa.

I winced at the dabbing against my head.

“Sorry, baby,” Gabriel.

“Shh.” I waved my hand at him, my eyes on the stare off.

“Did you just shush me?” he asked.

I ignored him.

“I’m right where I need to be, Fletcher,” Luke gritted out, though he didn’t return the death stare. His eyes were focused on Rosie, the look similar to the one in Gabriel’s eyes. “Are you okay?” he asked her, as if he didn’t have a six-foot biker all up in his face.

She nodded.

Luke didn’t seem satisfied but gave Cade his attention anyway, his expression changing in an instant. “I see the story of you going ‘legit’ was a total pack of fuckin’ lies. What did you do now to put your own flesh and blood in danger?” he spat. “That’s low, even for you.”

You could taste the change to the air. “Careful, Deputy,” Cade warned. “You’re getting very fuckin’ close to sayin’ somethin’ you might regret.”

“You threatening me?”

Cade’s stare was even. “Yeah. If you keep talkin’ shit ’bout my family, my club, lookin’ at my sister in a way that isn’t professional, you bet your ass I am.”

Luke moved his glare to Rosie once more. “She’s comin’ with me,” he declared.

Cade’s jaw went granite, and Brock and the one everyone called Dwayne stepped forward.

“No, she’s fuckin’ not,” Cade replied.

“She needs a hospital,” Luke argued. His eyes went to me. “So does Bex.”

Gabriel and I stiffened at the same time. I put my hand on his to make sure he didn’t bite the cop’s leg or something.

“I don’t do hospitals, Captain America,” I informed him. “They mess with my complexion. Plus, the nurses here are way hotter.” I moved my eyes to Gabriel, whose eyes were granite.

Luke’s jaw went hard as he realized he was not going to win this one. “None of you go anywhere,” he growled. “I’m gonna want statements from fuckin’ all of you.” He gave Rosie one more stare and turned on his heel.

My mind was so focused on what was going on between the two of them that the memory took me by surprise, it having taken a while for me to get all my thought processes back.

“This is my fault,” I whispered.

Gabriel froze. “No, it’s fuckin’ not.”

“Yes, it is. I knew about what was going to happen because I was warned. Or threatened,” I said, my voice low. “It was Dylan. He called me and said this was payback. This. So it’s my fault.”

The air, which had already been bitter, turned rancid at my words. Cade and Brock both focused on me.

“That fucker called you,” Gabriel bit out, the hand at my forehead shaking with rage.

Cade put his hand on his shoulder. “Easy, brother. How about you take care of your bleeding woman. Then we work on the other shit.”

Gabriel was still for a moment, his eyes on me but not really seeing me. Not the me in front of me, anyway. I had a feeling he was seeing the me in that room. He shook himself and he was back here, nodding once and setting to work. Not before clasping my chin in his hands and bringing our foreheads together. “This is not your fuckin’ fault, Becky. None of it,” he promised.

He waited for my nod before he continued his first aid in silence.

“
S
he who walks
the floors of Hell finds the key to the gates of her own Heaven, buried there like a seed.”

-"Underworld", Segovia Amil

G
abriel patched me up
.

Then I was questioned relentlessly by Luke and the sheriff about the explosion. I’d grown up with a distrust of law enforcement, even the hot ones, so I lied my effing ass off.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Captain,” I said sweetly. “I was walking, minding my own business, and then the car went boom.” I shrugged.

I knew the men approved of my story since the corner of Cade’s mouth turned up and Brock full-on grinned. Gabriel’s granite expression didn’t move, nor did his grip on my hand which was bordering on painful. The sheriff, a balding, older, and very tired-looking man, had eventually put his hand on Cade’s shoulder talked in hushed tones and then literally dragged Luke off the premises. I was guessing Cade had the older one on payroll.

That was totally dope.

I wondered if we could figure out a way to get me off my parking tickets.

I didn’t get to ask because I was spirited away to biker church, which had no crucifixes in sight, only a grim reaper etched into the long table. Very apt.

Then I recounted my phone call, word for word, to the room of grim-faced bikers. They’d all stared at me in varying degrees of fury.

I considered myself a strong woman. Only recently had I come to believe that was true after the events in that room, but I was getting there. The weight of their stares proved too much, as was the memory of my two newest friends almost dying.

I looked at my hands. “I’m sorry. I know I brought all this shit here, almost got Rosie and Lucy killed—”

“Stop,” a male voice growled.

I glanced up to Gabriel. He was hard-faced, but wasn’t the one who spoke.

It was Bull, the scary large one with a lot of tattoos who barely spoke but had a crazy wife who spoke enough for the both of them.

“None of this shit is on you,” he told me, his voice excruciatingly gentle for someone I thought would have been on a watch list somewhere. “This is on them. The fuckers who made the bomb, placed the bomb, and pressed the button. No one else. We clear?”

I nodded. “We’re clear, Rambo.”

Gage shook his head and grinned at me. That weirdo grinned whenever everyone else was grimacing, and grimaced whenever everyone else was grinning.

After that, I’d been kicked out of the war room so men could talk battle plans, I guessed. The women and their delicate ears were obviously placed outside.

Gabriel set me on the sofa beside Lily, who reached out to squeeze my hand. “You feel sleepy, nauseous, or get dizzy, you fuckin’ tell someone. None of this staunch woman, crap. It’s hot as fuck everywhere else, but not here,” he ordered.

I nodded, though the motion hurt. I didn’t tell him that, I was a staunch woman after all.

He leaned forward to press a hard kiss on my mouth before disappearing into the war room.

I looked around the room.

Evie locked eyes with me, smoking. “Well, babe. You know how to make a fuckin’ entrance,” she stated mildly.

Maybe I was concussed, but I grinned. I had the biker queen’s approval.

All it took was a car bomb.

* * *

T
he men appeared not long
after Amy had sucked down her third cocktail. I was totally jonesing for one, but I resisted.

Rosie and Lucy were mysteriously absent. I had an inkling that their non-biker significant others had spirited them away somewhere.

I’d so like to see how they’d managed that.

Cade stood at the front of our strange little crowd, his face grim. “We’re on lockdown,” he declared.

All women groaned, and Amy let out a string of curses that so didn’t go with the while Upper East Side princess thing she had going on.

“Lockdown?” I asked Lily. “Please tell me that isn’t what it sounds like.”

Instead of Lily answering, Gabriel pulled me closer to his side. “That’s exactly what it sounds like,” he murmured. “You not leaving and going somewhere where you’re in danger.

I swallowed and tried to ignore the panic at being locked anywhere. Unable to leave.

Nope. Not happening.

“We’ve got some major shit going down,” Cade continued, oblivious to my incoming freak-out. His gray eyes touched his wife. “Shit that will not come anywhere near our women. Or our kids. But shit that is dangerous. Players who won’t hesitate to hit our hearts. Which is you.” He hadn’t stopped looking at his wife. “As evidenced by today’s events. Luckily, we got warned.” His gaze flickered to me. I barely noticed it.

I had one word replaying on my mind.

Lockdown.

“So we’re going to make sure these players are wiped from the face of the earth. We just need to make sure you stay safe while we’re doing that.”

“Nope,” I blurted out.

Gabriel’s hands tightened around me. “Becky,” he warned.

I yanked out of his arms. “Don’t ‘Becky’ me,” I snapped. “I’m not getting stuck here while you all run off and save the day. Leaving us here in some biker version of an ivory castle. I don’t know what acid trip you’re on, but this place got
blown up
not three hours ago. I’m thinking it’s not the best place to serve as a fortress.” I paused. “In fact, nowhere is going to serve as a fortress, at least not for me. Welcome to the twenty-first century. Men no longer ride steeds, and women no longer are confined to palace walls having to wear corsets—outside the bedroom, anyway.”

Gwen choked out a giggle at that.

“In light of these developments, I think I’ll have to use my not-so-recently liberated voice and say you are not fucking locking me down. Anywhere.”

Amy grinned at me. “Amen to that, sister.” Brock glared me, then her. She blew him a kiss.

The weight of every single alpha male’s stare was heavy, but I managed to shoulder the load.

I looked around the room, running my eyes over the attractive, grim-faced stares. All were grim-faced, apart from Gage, of course, the crazy fuck he was. I purposely didn’t stare at the man behind me.

“You men, you’re all so desperate for validation for your manliness that you seek out women you think need saving. Fashion them into damsels who need their dragons slayed. Have you ever thought for a moment we could slay our own fucking dragons?”

I pointed to Gwen. “This bitch shot a fucking psychopath
three times
, and then gave birth moments after doing so. With no anesthesia. That’s not even mentioning all the shit she survived before that.”

I pointed to Amy. “She managed to somehow come out with a soul and a sense of humor when it sounds like her parents did the best to suck both out. Then she survives not one but
two
kidnappings,
and
a punctured artery.”

My eyes went to Mia. “She got knocked up at fifteen, by another psychopath drug dealer kingpin maniac. Gets beaten within an inch of her life, while nine months pregnant, but manages to survive that and deliver the baby. Then escapes said psychopath to raise her daughter, give her a home and love when she had nothing. Sixteen years on, she faces him again and manages to make it through the other side. Now her kid is a fucking famous rock star who will support her in her old age.”

My eyes rested on Lily. They got a little misty but I managed to keep my steam. “This one,” I whispered. “She struggles with a demon more ferocious than any of you have ever seen. One you’ll never see because it only exists inside the mind. She conquers that on her own. Then finds her way to untie herself and drag my bleeding old man out of a
burning fucking building
and saves his life.”

I tore my gaze away to focus on Gabriel, who was regarding me intently.

“Something I’ll be forever indebted to her for.” With effort, I looked around the room. “Sure, you muscled brutes may have had a small”—I held my thumb and forefinger inches apart—“hand in that, but it was mostly the chicks who bore the brunt of the horrors. And are still standing. Laughing. And wearing fucking heels. You’ll never know that pain either.” I paused. “So how about you stop treating us like we’re made of glass, because here you’ve got living, breathing, glittering proof that we’re not glass. We’re diamonds, and we’re fucking unbreakable.”

All the men were glaring at me by the end of my speech, and all the women were grinning. Wide.

I ignored all of it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home to watch
Women Who Kill
and eat frozen pizza.” I glanced around the room. “I’d advise you to free up some time in your weightlifting, steel-eating schedule to give it a watch. It’d prove educational so you can see what might happen if you do something like, I don’t know, try to ‘lock down’ a woman who spent three fucking weeks in chains and isn’t looking to spend two more fucking seconds in them.”

On that, I turned on my heel and walked out. I realized mid-storm out that I’d come on Gabriel’s bike and didn’t actually have a ride.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. Asking for a ride would seriously mess with the badass vibe I had going. Maybe I could hotwire a motorcycle. I hadn’t driven one before, but I was guessing it couldn’t be that hard.

“Okay, I’m going with her,” I heard Amy’s declaration from behind me.

“Fuck, Sparky,” Brock growled.

“I’m totally going too. She had me at frozen pizza,” Mia’s voice chimed in.

“Jesus, Mia, don’t you fuckin’ dare,” Bull warned.

“Love you too, honey,” she called.

I grinned and stopped.

Amy caught up with me. “Movie night?”

“Sounds good.”

So that’s how we ended up crowding Rosie’s living room watching serial killer documentaries while Rosie was noticeably absent.

“Jesus, brother, your woman….” Brock shook his head, rubbing his hand against his mouth. “Fuck, I thought I had the one with the most fire, but she’s givin’ Sparky a run for her money,” he exclaimed.

Lucky didn’t smile. “I fuckin’ know,” he muttered. All that shit Becky had said? In front of his brothers? Pissed him right the fuck off. And turned him right the fuck on. And made him proud as punch all at once. All the while fighting that shit that lurked in her eyes as she spoke of dragons and diamonds. Because he saw it. She was fighting the pull of that fuckin’ room, and she was winning. He was proud, but he also hated that she even had to fight.

Cade leaned forward. “We owe your woman a lot. I owe her a lot. My sister….” He visibly flinched. “Shit would have gone fuckin’ dark if she hadn’t stepped in.”

“Stepped in?” Gage repeated. “The bitch fuckin’ ran into the fire to save Rosie.”

The thought chilled Lucky. To the core. His woman, so fucking fearless. Dauntless. He was terrified it’d be the end of her. And him.

On that poisonous thought, Cade spoke.

“We need to up our efforts to find and exterminate these swine. This was close to home. Far too fuckin’ close. No one hits us where our families walk and lives to tell about it.” He looked to Bull. “We got any more on Devlin?”

Bull shook his head. “Nothing from our end. Info Tucker gave us? Old and useless. This Devlin fuck was smart enough to cut off everything the Tuckers had on him. Must have known about our meet.”

“Fuck,” Cade bit out. He looked to Jagger, who was there temporarily until they fought this shit. “Your charter got anything on him?”

Jagger shook his head. “All smoke and mirrors. Sorry, brother.”

The lack of info had Lucky set to explode when Wire entered the room.

“You better have some fuckin’ good news, kid,” Cade gritted out.

Wire looked up from the laptop. “Does the location of Dylan Tucker count as good news?”

The whole table stilled.

Simultaneously, Lucky and Gage grinned.

* * *

H
is screams
of pain were like a lullaby. Music to his fucking ears. The blood on his hands was exquisite.

“Brother,” Gage brought him out of his happy place. That being slowly killing Dylan Tucker.

Cade had a turn, obviously. And they’d tried to get info on Devlin or Carlos. He had none. They were sure of that.