SOULLESS (Black Thorns, #2) (27 page)

“Yeah.”

“She say
yes
?”

“Fuck you. ‘Course she did.”

Both of ‘em fall silent then. And that’s when I realize I need ‘em to keep talkin’ here, keep distracting me. Cuz right away, my eyes stray to the workbench. I zone in on the shock baton there and my stomach lurches.

I try to stop it, but it won’t fucking listen. Another flash hits me:

He strides back to me with the shock baton in his hand, his eyes lit up with excitement.

“I wonder how much you can take of this before your heart gives out. Don’t worry, though, I’ll bring you back and I’ll keep bringing you back. Over and over until you beg me to let you fucking die.”

“You sadistic fuck!”

He steps up real close, the shock baton just inches from my bare chest. “I told you, Ax. I’m going to break you.”

“Ax!”

It’s Dealer hissing at me, jolting me back to the present.

I look down and realize I’ve dropped my picks. “Shit,” I mutter, snatching ‘em up and getting back to work. “Just keep talkin’, yeah? ‘Bout whatever.”

“Boy or girl?” Sin asks.

“What?”

“Your kid. You want a boy or girl?”

Just the thought of mine and Rox’s kid has me grinning. “Girl.”

Dealer laughs. Sin joins in.

“Assholes,” I mutter.

“Nah, just thinking you’re gonna have your work cut out for you with a girl,” Sin says. “You’re Prez of a MC, yeah?”

I know what he’s getting at. “Boys know better than to touch the Prez’s daughter.”

Dealer scoffs. “Yeah? Do they, fucker? Didn’t seem that way when you went after mine.”

“That shit was different.”

“How?”

“You were
dead
, for one. No longer Prez.”

“Jesus,” Sin says, laughing at my screwed up reasoning there.

Dealer shakes his head. “Crazy-ass bastard, ain’t ya, Ax?”

“Just know what I want.”

“Yeah, I know,” he says, quietly. “Just wish you’d fucking stayed with her instead of coming down here and risking shit.”

I just ignore that, cuz we’re already here. What’s him wishing that weren’t the case gonna do? Fuck all; that’s what.

I finally succeed with the cuffs. “Got it,” I say, ripping ‘em off him.

He gets to his feet and rubs his wrists. Looking between us, he asks, “Any of you two got a gun to spare?”

Sin slides a Glock outta his left holster and hands it to him.

A look passes between ‘em, like they’re silently agreeing to put all their past shit behind ‘em.

“Thanks,” Dealer says, taking it from him and cocking it.

I lead the way outta the room, not wanting to stay another second inside the hellhole. I step over the two dead guys slumped on the ground outside the room. Dealer and Sin follow me out as I glance left, then right.

“Wanna go out the same way we came in?” Sin asks.

“The fact that we ain’t run into no one but those two fucks who were inside the room, has me worried.”

“Like I said; Kent figured you’d come, Ax. Betting he knows you’re here right now.”

We all eye the blinking red light of the security camera on the wall over the door to our right. “Then what’s the asshole waiting on?” I flip it the bird. “Don’t matter. We see his guys, we cut ‘em down.”

I see Dealer and Sin exchange a worried look.

“What?”

Sin shrugs. “Nothing.”

But I get it. “This is ‘bout you guys not wanting me to kill, ain’t it?”

“Look,” Dealer starts. “You ain’t like us. Shit bothers you. We got the kills. You just limit your shots to damage shots, not kills, yeah?”

I roll my eyes. Are we really having this talk right now in the middle of a goddamn jail break? I blow out a breath. “We’re all gonna do what we gotta do.”

Dealer starts to the left, to go back the way me and Sin came in.

“Stop!” I tell him as something catches my eye.

The light on the camera stops blinking and goes out. Then the
EMERGENCY EXIT
sign above the door leading right flashes red and clangs, unlocking.

“What the fuck?” Dealer gasps.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out to see a text from Smiter:
We got you.

Shaking my head, I stuff it back in my jeans and tell the guys, “Club’s here.”

“What?” Sin says.

“Yeah. Fuckers ignored my direct order.”

“Must’ve found a loophole,” Sin suggests, knowing Prez orders can’t be ignored.

“Family,” Dealer says, smiling.

“Let’s go,” I say, striding to the door that Smiter clearly somehow just opened for us.

I slam my hands into it and push the heavy thing open. Dealer and Sin follow at my back.

We make it down the corridor—damn thing seems endless—and finally come out into some sort of open lounge area. There’s a bunch of couches, chairs, an entertainment unit.

“Guess this is where his guard dogs hang,” Sin comments.

“Something’s wrong with this picture. No resistance at all? Nah, this is a goddamn trap,” Dealer says, scanning the room anxiously.

“Fuck,” I mutter, realizing he’s right. “Come on,” I call, sprinting over to the far door that I’m hoping don’t lead to another corridor. I ain’t been this way through this place before. Only ever the way that me and Sin came in here. This area’s all new to me. Maybe Kent had it added on since the last time I was here. This part of the hellhole does look cleaner and newer than the rest of it.

I’m ‘bout to push open the door when Dealer suddenly lunges at me and drives me to the floor. I watch Sin drop down too, behind one of the couches with us. In the next second, a shot rings out.

Jesus Christ. That was close.

Dealer scrambles off me and I get up and peer over the cover of the couch to see Kent standing there with a dozen of his guard dogs flanking him.

I duck back down quick and whisper to the guys, “Thirteen, including Kent.”

“Shit,” Sin mutters.

“This place must bring back fond memories for you, Ax,” Kent calls out.

“Must be like a kick in the fucking junk for
you
, knowing you failed,” I fire back.

“I would have succeeded if your biker boys hadn’t interrupted my work.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Sadistic fuck!

“It’s a shame I had my men kill Roxana. I would have enjoyed breaking her.”

Dealer snarls in fury. I’m right there with him, but that’s what Kent wants. He tries to lunge forward, but I grip his jacket and hold him back down and shake my head at him.

“She woulda broken
you
, motherfucker!” Dealer roars.

“
Motherfucker
? Isn’t that your M.O., Cal? Ax’s mother, for example?”

“You piece of shit!” Dealer bellows.

“He’s tryin’ to bait you. Chill,” I hiss at him.

“And Sin,” Kent goes on. “You here to attempt to finish what Skinner never could?”

“Yeah,” Sin fires back. “I’m here to blow your fucking brains all over the walls.”

The crazy guy jumps up and fires off three shots. I hear two screams and then the
zing
of the third bullet ricocheting off something.

He ducks back down behind the couch with us real quick and says, “Two outta three.”

“Shit. We gotta pull a retreat here,” Dealer says.

“Retreat?” I spit with disgust.

Dealer fists his hand in my t-shirt and jerks me into him. “This ain’t like any other time you been in a situation like this. You got stuff to lose now and my daughter needs the father of her kid alive! So, you’re just gonna have to swallow your goddamn pride here!”

I rip his hand off me and tell him, “Ain’t ‘bout pride.”

“It’s ‘bout closure,” Sin cuts in. “After what Kent did to him.”

“Well that day ain’t gonna be today,” Dealer says.

“You better believe it is! Rox and me are never gonna be safe with that fuck still alive! Don’t you get that?”

The startled look of realization on his face tells me he does.

“Kill them. Except Ax,” Kent calls out to his guys. “He and I will finish what we started last time he was here.”

“Finish what?” a familiar voice rings out suddenly.

Jesus fuck.

All three of us rise up to peer over the couch.

My heart fucking stops beating for a good few seconds, as pure terror grips me, at seeing her standing there.

Rox.

Kent looks white as a sheet as he watches her walk into the room.

“What the fuck is she doing?” Dealer hisses at me. “She ain’t even armed. Her gun’s holstered. She lost her mind?”

“Your apparent death was just a ruse,” Kent realizes. “You should’ve kept it that way, Roxana. What you’re doing here is a big mistake.”

“We need to talk, Malcolm.”

“About what? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here? Don’t worry. You’ll get your turn. In fact, you can watch as I break your boyfriend and then I’ll take my time with you.”

She holds up her left hand. “Fiancé,” she corrects him.

“Jesus Christ, is she
tryin’
to piss him off,” Dealer whispers to me.

Kent glares at her. “You bitch.”

“Bitch?” she questions. “So, it does bother you then?”

“What?” he snaps.

“Me marrying another man?” She slides her hand down to her belly. “Me having another man’s child? A
biker’s
child?
”

Something in him snaps then and he strides over to her, basically snarling at her. He grabs her arm.

And she grins.

What. The. Fuck?

She uses his hold to pull him into her and the next thing I see is the flash of a gun being drawn so fucking fast and then shoved into his gut. He screams as she fires and his whole body shudders.

Instantly, his boys spin and aim their weapons her way.

And that’s when all hell breaks loose.

In a flash of movement, I see Runner dart inside, wrap his arms ‘round Rox and pull her outta the room. Shit. Thank fuck. I can breathe again. Fucking hell.

Grit and Smiter barrel in then, armed with automatics. They tear into the remaining ten guys.

Me, Dealer and Sin leap over the couch to back ‘em up, but the whole thing’s over in a matter of seconds before any of us can even fire off a shot.

With ‘em all down on the ground, the room falls silent. I stare at Grit and Smiter. As they catch my eye, they look shit-scared.

Grit clears his throat. “Uh...Rox—”

I hold up my hand. “Save it.”

Runner comes back in, still trapping Rox in his hold.

“Runner! That was not part of the plan!” she cries, tryin’ to fight her way free.

“Babe,” I growl.

Her gaze snaps to mine and she instantly stops struggling. A huge grin spreads over her face. Runner releases her and she comes running over to me.

“Don’t you ever fucking do that again,” we both say at the same time.

She pulls away and startles the hell outta me as her fist comes at the left side of my face.

“Fuck,” I grunt. “That was vicious. Damn.”

“We do things
together
! No more lone-wolf sacrifice crap! Do you understand me?” she yells.

“Rox, no. I—”

“Look around, you idiot!” she screams. She shoves her hands into my chest. “This is what we accomplish
together
. Separately? That has one of us buried in the ground! Do you hear me, Neil?”

All the boys are staring in open-mouthed shock at me getting my ass handed to me here.

I blow out a breath. “Fine.”

She narrows her eyes. “Really? You swear?”

I slap my hand to my heart. “Swear. Together.
But
that don’t mean you’re gonna be putting yourself in danger like this again. I’ll tell you shit. You can help. But no front line stuff no more.”

“That’ll do…for now.”

“For now?”

She don’t answer. She just reaches up and grabs my neck, pulling me down to her for a quick kiss.

I take her hand and walk over to the boys who are tryin’ their hardest not to crack up at what they just saw going down between me and my girl.

Dealer pulls Rox away from me and wraps her up in a father-daughter hug.

Runner slaps my shoulder and nods his head at Kent lying gutted on the floor. “He ain’t dead.”

Smiter and Grit wait to see what I’m gonna do.

I turn from ‘em and walk over to Kent. I crouch down and say real low, “You never fucking broke me. Never fucking could, even if the boys hadn’t come to pull me out back then.”