Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (37 page)

~ Ella ~

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and she pulled it out to check the screen.

Goddammit, Dan, not right now!

She sent him to voicemail. He called back seconds later.

Fuckkk…

“Yes?” she said, trying and not particularly succeeding at keeping the frustration out of her voice.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” Dan’s voice boomed through her phone. “Why the fuck does Brock think you’re in New York? ‘Cause unless you paid for your own goddamn ticket home, you sure as hell ain’t here.”

“I have to go - I’ll explain this later,” Ella promised quickly.

“I sent you there to write a goddamn puff piece on a goddamn group of goddamn sexy guys in goddamn leather chaps!!!” His voice was getting progressively louder by the moment. People in Vermont could probably hear him hollering at her. “What in the name of the Lord have you gotten yourself into??”

And that’s when she hung up. She
really
didn’t have time to placate the man right now. Later - if there was a later - she could explain it to him.

Her phone buzzed in her hand. She turned it off.

It was time to get serious.

Chapter 26

~ Ella ~

Ella watched as Lain wrestled the plastic blow-up doll, with garishly large breasts, into a chair at a small desk they’d pulled up to the front of the room. He pushed and prodded at the arms until they were resting on the table in a casual pose.

Totally believable if, say, you weren’t looking at the doll face-to-face but rather, were looking at the doll at night through a window with filmy curtains drawn over it and lights on, backlighting the doll.

Which just happened to be
exactly
what was going to happen. Convenient, that.

Once Lain got the doll into position, a brilliant red teddy adding to the supposed allure of the damn thing, Ella whacked him on the shoulder.

“You have a blow-up doll??” she hissed.

“Can we fight about this later?”

“If you live through this, I may kill you anyway!”

He picked her up in his muscular arms and kissed her, his tongue delving into her mouth, making her forget everything.

Even the doll.

And the fact that there were other men in the room.

Or really, that the world existed at all. She gave back as good as she got, and right as she was about to wrap her legs around his waist and kiss her way down his sexy chest, he dropped her, winked, and walked off.

Which is when the whistles from the other members finally registered. She turned brilliant red.

Okay, maybe she’d forgive him for the blow-up doll.

Lain switched on the clock radio next to the bed and tuned it to a local country western station, and then turned it up as high as it would go. He had Dumbo grab the clock radio from the other motel room, plugged it in, and tuned it to the same radio station. Together, they created a reasonably party-like atmosphere.

If you didn’t think about what was about to go down, of course. Which Ella was trying very, very hard not to think about it.

Lain grabbed her elbow and steered her into the bathroom and into the tub. It wasn’t until he started lifting her up that she realized that he intended to shove her out the window.

“Hold on a moment here!!” she yelled, and started beating him about the head and shoulders. He continued to shove. She grabbed his head and wrapped her arms around it, pulling him into her chest. She figured her breasts would be a sufficient distraction to stop him in his tracks.

Which, she noticed with
great
satisfaction, was absolutely true. He started nuzzling her breasts, biting and sucking on them, and she threw her head back and giggled. She wiggled her way back down to the ground…tub -
who does this kind of shit in a bathtub??
- and looked up at Lain, grinning. Despite his double frustration (not managing to get Ella out the window, nor managing to fuck her) he grinned back down at her.

“Okay buster,” she said sternly, “why were you trying to shove me out of the window?”

He suddenly grew serious. “I…just got you back, Ella. When I left you yesterday at the airport, I…” he took a deep, shuddering breath, “I thought you were gone forever.

“And then, you came back. Magically, wonderfully, amazingly came back. Even if you fucked up your hair, I have you here again. In my arms. And I never thought that would happen to me. When I saw you at the police station, I didn’t know if I should kiss you or kill you for stirring up yet more shit.

“I can’t lose you again. And I sure as hell can’t lose you in a gunfight between members of the Blue Devils. Tonight, you’re watching the death, and hopefully rebirth, of the most important family I’ll ever be a part of. That I have to do this is slowly killing me inside. That you could be hurt during it…

“I can’t. So go. You can walk to my apartment - it’s only a block away - and hide out there until the shooting is over. I’ll come get you then.”

She reached up and brushed the strands of hair out of his eyes as she stared up into them, her own swimming with tears.

“Lain, I know that now is not the time to discuss our future together, but know this: I’m not leaving you. Not now, not ever. This whole blow-up may have happened whether I showed up in Copper Lode or not, but I can say for sure that it is happening right now because of me. I am the catalyst. I pushed and I poked and I prodded and I asked questions until things got so stirred up, you couldn’t help but respond.

“I can’t cause a mess and then walk away from it and hide. I have to be here. Please don’t push me away.”

“This should’ve happened a long time ago, Ella,” Lain said softly. “I’ve…I’ve been ignoring shit for a long time because I didn’t want to admit that my beloved club was getting in over its head. I didn’t want to face up to the rift growing in it. You forced me to look at my own club and say, ‘That’s not right, and I’m not going to stand idly by any longer while Brock fucks this up.’

“With any luck, I’ll kill Brock tonight and this will finally end. But if I don’t, I will die instead. One or the other of us will die tonight. And if I die for this club, I just want to do so knowing that you’re safe.”

He pulled her hands up to his mouth and kissed them, and Ella felt the tears spill down her cheeks. She’d never had a man kiss her hands before.

She’d never had a man love her before. Not like Lain. He’d never said the words, but she knew it was true, more true than anything in her life had ever been.

She couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t walk away.

“I’m no good with a gun,” Ella said quietly, “but what if I hid in the closet, out of the way?”

“You think just hiding in a closet will protect you?” Lain shot back. He was getting agitated and she didn’t blame him. But she couldn’t give in.

“What if I have a bullet-proof vest on?” she offered as a compromise. “I’ll be in the other room, in the closet, with a bullet-proof vest on. Brock will never even know I’m here. I just…I
cannot
leave you. As hard as it was for you to leave me at the airport, it was just as hard for me to walk away. I just got you back - I can’t leave you alone, in the mess that
I
made.”

“I guess I’m not gonna talk you out of this fucking stupid idea…” Lain said grudgingly, and she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. “Thank you,” she whispered against his cheek.

They walked back out into the main room, and Ella could feel it, like a tangible thing she could reach out and touch. The tension was almost overwhelming. She realized that this was a group of men who were about to take on their own brothers, and although everyone here knew it had to be done, the regret was palpable. This was tearing these men apart.

Will they hate me forever for causing this?
she wondered as she hunkered down in the closet in the second motel room, the thick vest making her movements awkward. Lain had given her a pistol “just in case” and she sat with it cradled in her lap as he pulled the sliding door closed in front of her. This sealed her into the darkness, leaving her with only her thoughts to keep her company, as miserable as those were.
Lain said he would never let me go. What does that mean? Where are we going to live? Do we have a future together?

She laid her back and closed her eyes. There was nothing to do but wait.

Wait for Brock to walk into the trap.

Chapter 27

~ Lain ~

The bright lights and blaring music seemed almost garish to Lain - painful, even. He was standing, ready and waiting, at the door that connected the two rooms. He had a perfect view of the front door and blow-up doll, and had all of his brothers behind him. All talking had stopped; jokes had disappeared a long time ago.

They were ready.

BAM!

The door flew open and Brock came barreling through, aiming and killing the blow-up doll with one bullet to the head. The doll collapsed in on itself into a pile of pink plastic and red sequined fabric. Brock let out a yelp of surprise as the doll deflated before his eyes and he spun, trying to find his quarry.

It was the last thing Brock would ever do. Before his cry of surprise could even fully escape his mouth, Lain shot him in the back of his head. One bullet through the brain. He didn’t bother with a chest shot - he knew Brock would come wearing a bulletproof vest.

Lain could grieve for his childhood friend later.

And then his president crumpled to the floor in front of Lain, with blood spreading out on the floor and splattered on the wall and Lain stood over him, his heart breaking in two, and his brothers poured out of the dark adjoining room into the main motel room, guns at the ready, and Brock’s men stopped in surprise and cries and shouts of chaos reigned.

Lain took careful aim at the two blaring clock radios, twanging out
You and me go fishin’ in the dark. Lyin’ on our backs and cou—

BAM! BAM!

Almost instantly, the room was deathly quiet. His brothers had their guns trained on the members in the doorway.

Not a sound was made.

“Put your guns on the table,” Lain said quietly into the silence, “and then come up and stand up against that wall.” He gestured, keeping his eye and his gun trained on his former brothers as they filed in past him, dropping their weapons on the table as they walked past.

Finally -
finally
- they were lined up against the wall. All eyes were on Lain.

“Brock and I have been friends since we were born. Since our daddies started the Blue Devils together. I don’t think it was even a conscious choice - it was just the way it was. But when Brock took over when his daddy died, something changed inside of him. I don’t think it’s any secret that we haven’t seen eye to eye on anything in a very long time.

“But when he started pushing us to sell guns to child traffickers…that was over the line. I know you were told that I just went a little crazy and that I had to be killed for the good of the club, right? What Brock wasn’t telling you is that the
Chupas
kidnapped a bunch of little girls and are going to use the guns we sell them at midnight to protect these girls as they transport them to their buyers for a life in the sex trade.”

Some of his mates blanched. At least a few of them could be saved. It gave Lain hope.

He plowed on.

“Eight, nine, ten-year-old little girls. I can’t help make that happen, I don’t give a good flyin’ fuck how good the money is or how angry the
Chupas
will be at us backing down.

“So I’m giving you a choice - right here, right now. Either give up your cut right now and ride away from Copper and never come back, or stay.

“Stay with me as the president. No more gun running, not more drug running. The Blue Devils are going legit. Only legal cargo in our semis from here forward. We’re no longer gonna be a 1% gang.

“I know that isn’t the gang that many of you newbies patched into, so I’m giving you this one chance to walk away. Know right now that the money ain’t gonna be as good. I won’t lie to you and say that legal cargo will be just as profitable as illegal, ‘cause it ain’t.

“But that desire to make money no matter the cost - no matter who it hurt - is what got us into this mess in the first place and I’m gonna get us the fuck back out of it.

“Know that if you choose to leave tonight, you will
stay
gone. If I see you again in the streets of Copper, I’ll kill you.

“Choose now.”

After a few moments of deafening silence, some of the men started to shuffle forward, dropping their cuts on the bed and walking out the door. Lain watched them carefully, his gun trained on them as they moved. These were his brothers - men he’d stood beside, bled beside.

He felt like a small part of him was dying.

Or maybe not so small. He’d worked so hard for so long to keep exactly this from happening. It was his worst nightmare come true.

And then, as Pug walked by the front table, his hand shot out to grab a gun from the pile on the table.
Fucker!
Lain shot a bullet through the front window and glass rained down, sparkling in the light as it fell. Pug yanked his hand back and ran for the door.

Lain let him go.
Pug was young, and more than a little stupid, and Lain had just fucked with his world. Too much blood had been spilled tonight; he wasn’t going to shed more unless he was forced to.

Lain caught the eye of Chili as he laid his cut down on the bed. The hatred in Chili’s eyes…As Chili walked past him, he spit in Lain’s face and proudly walked out the door and into the night.

Lain wiped the spit from his face, never letting his gun waiver. It would take a lot more than spittle to rattle his composure.

As the former members roared out of the parking lot, sirens began wailing their way in. Ambulances, cops, even a firetruck pulled up in the parking lot. Someone must’ve heard the shots and called 911.

Dammit - just what I wanted to deal with.

He hailed the chief of police, Sam Reynolds, and as the rest of the cops spread out through the motel and parking lot, Lain walked with Chief Reynolds towards the adjacent room so they could talk in private. The remaining Blue Devils - the
only
Blue Devils, he reminded himself grimly - had pulled alcohol out, and the drinking had begun. As Lain and Reynolds opened the adjoining door, he spotted Ella, looking a little lost. A little bewildered. And a lot shook up.

“I’ll be right there,” he promised the chief. “I just need to do something real quick.”

He walked over to Ella, pulled her up into a giant bear hug, her legs dangling off the ground, and just held her. “I’m going to go next door and talk to the cops,” he whispered in her ear. “When I get back, we can talk some more, okay?” She nodded, her face pressed against his cheek. He pulled her in just a little closer, not sure if he wanted to hug her or fuck her. He was just so goddamn glad she was alive.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered fervently, and then slowly, ever so slowly, let her slide down to the ground. Every inch of him felt every inch of her softness as she slid down, and his dick responded accordingly. She grinned up at him for a moment and he knew she felt him pressing up against her soft belly.

“I’ll be
right
back,” he said again, and this time, she laughed. For the moment, the shadows had been pushed from her eyes.

He walked into the other room.

Let’s do this shit
.