A Sinful Vow: Inked Angels MC (18 page)

More than half of the Diablos were dead within seconds, but the ones who remained had finally gotten their shit together and began to return fire. Bullets were flying in every direction, zipping by me like pissed off hornets with lethal intentions. I ducked behind an overhanging pipe, breathing heavily.

I scanned around the room for Lobo. Where the fuck was he? In a far corner of the room, I saw Croak grappling with a Diablo, his gun having fallen from his hands. He took one punch to the face but didn’t even blink before grabbing a knife from his boot and jamming it hilt-deep in the man’s stomach and ripping upwards all the way to his chin. That man had been in his fair share of fights; he knew how to handle himself.

All around me, Inked Angels and Diablos were locked in combat, crouching around the protruding pipes to fire off shots at each other. I heard screams piercing the air as lead met flesh. Personally, I hoped as many of these assholes as possible were left alive so we could take our time exacting revenge.

But for now, I had a mission. Where had Lobo gone?

There he was. Clutching the rope between his hands, I saw him dragging Olivia behind him. They were headed towards the main entrance at a full sprint as bullets whizzed past them in all directions. I hoped to God that Olivia wouldn’t get hit.

Whipping around the corner, I took off running after them. With any luck, Lobo was about to run straight into the pincer trap I’d laid out for him. If Steezy and Ember had done their job right, he would have nowhere to go.

The long, dim hallway took half a dozen twists and turns. I had to be careful not to slip on the puddles that had collected on the concrete floor. The plant was rickety and ancient, though millions of gallons of water still sat in its pipes, waiting for purification that would never come. The whole thing was only one misplaced bullet away from unleashing a massive flood.

I heard Lobo’s footsteps slapping wetly up ahead, trailed by Olivia’s frantic cries for help. Every time I managed to catch sight of her back, they turned another corner and disappeared. I didn’t dare risk taking a shot, for fear of hitting Olivia or the main pipes that ran overhead. If this hallway started flooding, we were all done for.

“Get back here, you son of a bitch,” I growled as I ran, still holding my gun by my side. There was a bullet in the chamber that had Lobo’s name written all over it. I wasn’t going to kill him, though—oh no, far from it. This cocksucking motherfucker was going to be begging for death by the time I was through with him.

We had to be nearing the end of the tunnel. I knew there was a ladder that led up to the ground level. If I could get there in time to stop Lobo from climbing, this whole thing would have been worth it.

Only a few more turns,
I thought to myself as I sprinted down yet another long corridor. One left, another right, and then the last stretch before the final turn that led out. I glimpsed Lobo and Olivia make it around the corner. I redoubled my effort, hauling ass to save the woman I loved.

Twenty more feet.

Ten.

Five.

I turned the corner and found myself staring down the barrel of a gun, for the second time in as many days.

Lobo grinned from the other end of the pistol he had pointed at my face. I saw his other arm wrapped around Olivia, who was shivering in the cold and blanched white with fear.

“Oh, no,” he said to me, his voice dripping with false concern. “We have reached the end. But your friends will not be able to help you, I am afraid.” He jerked his head behind him.

Oh, fuck.

I saw Steezy and Ember seated on the floor, bludgeoned so badly as to be near unrecognizable. Blood was caked around their broken noses. The Diablos standing above them had high-capacity assault rifles jammed into the back of their heads.

“I’m sorry, Blaze,” coughed Ember. “They knew we were coming. We were outnumbered ten to one. We tried.” He winced in pain, one hand pressed against his rib cage. When he pulled it away, I saw that it was painted with red. He must be badly hurt.

“If you kill any of them, I will hunt you down,” I said, staring fiercely into Lobo’s black eyes. “You’ll wish you were never born.”

He laughed in my face and replied, “It is not you who should be making threats, my friend. I have your woman and your friends, and there is a gun pointed in your face. What do you have?” He cocked his head to the side and licked his lips, then grinned. He was enjoying this, I could tell. I felt rage brewing in my chest. I’d give my life to be able to crack this motherfucker in the jaw just one time.

“We will be leaving, now,” he announced. “Take his gun from him.” One of the men standing guard over Ember strode forward and snatched the weapon from my hands. They began to clamber up the ladder. Their guns stayed pointed at me.

The Diablos thugs disappeared over the upper rim. I looked Olivia in the eyes.

“I love you,” I told her. “And I’m coming to get you back.”

Lobo laughed again. His cackle rang out like a bell in the dank hallway. “
Amigo
, you will never see her again. I am taking her away with me, and I will use her like a whore until she is useless. Then I will discard her. There is nothing you can do.”

My fists tightened, but if I moved I’d end up with a bullet in my face, and then Olivia would be truly doomed. I was trapped.

“Come along, then,” he said, tugging the leash that was wrapped around Olivia’s throat. She couldn’t talk through the gag buckled around her mouth, but I could see everything I needed to see in her eyes.

Lobo handed the leash off to the last of his men still below. The Diablo pushed her up the ladder and followed, leaving Lobo and myself facing each other in the dingy room. I glanced at Steezy and Ember, but they were too injured to do anything. I was on my own. The light overhead flickered.

Lobo started to climb the ladder, keeping the gun trained on me the entire time. He never blinked. I watched, sweating in fury, as he climbed out of the hole above. “
Adiós, amigo,
” he said, waggling his fingers in a cheery wave.

Then he was gone.

I let loose a wordless yell and beat my fists against the wall. The sound of my knuckles on the hollow metal ricocheted all the way down the tunnels, over and over again, like the world’s most miserable church bells ringing just to acknowledge my misery.

I’d fucked up. Lobo had gotten away, taking my wife back to his godforsaken lair. I’d finally acknowledged that I loved her, only to have her snatched away yet again. What the fuck was this game I was embroiled in? It didn’t seem like there was ever any escaping it. I’d get so close, and then it would slip through my fingers.

I was sick of this shit. One way or another, it was going to end.

I heard footsteps bouncing down the hallway. Croak turned the corner, gun at the ready. When he saw there were no Diablos anymore, he lowered it.

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

I could hardly bring myself to answer. “He got away. He has her.” I looked up at Croak. His gray eyes softened. He could see the pain tearing me up inside.

He bridged the distance between us and crouched next to where I had fallen on my knees. The hand he clapped on my shoulder was full of brotherly sympathy. He locked eyes with me.

“I’m sorry, Blaze,” he said.

The rest of the men came pouring in. Like Steezy and Ember, several were nursing wounds, but we’d managed to get through without any casualties. They slumped against the walls all around where Croak and I sat and set to taking care of the men who needed medical attention.

Bringing up the rear were two prospects. They supported Luke between them. His arms were draped weakly around their shoulders. He looked like he was on the verge of death. The blood loss and the hours of torture had taken their toll on him. Even if he lived, he would never return to full strength.

Luke trained his gaze on me. Looking in his eyes, I saw that his spirit was as broken as his body. His head dropped, overcome by shame.

The prospects laid him gently to rest against a wall. His chest continued to rise and fall with breath, but he could barely sit up straight.

The men murmured to each other as they each did their best to help stitch wounds closed and set broken bones back into place. Eventually, they all fell quiet and an eerie silence hung over the crowded room. I could see the first rays of the dawn beginning to sneak in through the open circle above the ladder.

Luke’s rasping voice broke the silence. He struggled to talk, but he forced himself to continue. Labored breathing punctured every sentence. “Where…Where is my sister?” he finally said.

Everyone looked expectantly at me.

It took a long time for me to muster the strength to answer. “They escaped,” I said. “Lobo took Olivia. He fucking got away.”

My anger overwhelmed me. I started to beat on the pipes again. I needed to feel solid contact. With every smash of my fist against the wall, I imagined that it was Lobo’s face I was beating to hell. I could almost feel his bones shattering under my knuckles. I roared, letting my voice tear the sides of my throat raw.

“I’m going after them. I’m going to rescue her,” I said. My breath came in fuming spurts and my nostrils were flared like a bull’s in the ring. “And I’m gonna kill every last one of those motherfuckers.”

“No,” interrupted Croak. “You’re not.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I yelled at him. “Of course I am! That’s my goddamn wife he’s got with him!”

Croak stared me down without flinching. “You aren’t going after him. They’re well on their way back to the Diablos stronghold by now. You won’t be able to catch up to them, and once they get inside, it doesn’t matter how many men or guns you have—breaking into that place is a suicide mission. I’m not letting you get any of my men killed.”

I flipped the fuck out. “You can’t tell me not to go after her!” I brayed. “You think I’m going to just let him slip away?”

Still, Croak did not budge. “As long as you’re wearing this patch, you’ll do what I say. And you’re not going after them. That’s an order.”

The men around me stayed silent.

Croak wouldn’t let me go. He expected me to sit and wait. For what? Negotiations with the Diablos? There was no negotiating with that kind of insanity. I didn’t see another solution.

I played back Lobo’s threat in my head.
I am taking her away with me, and I will use her like a whore until she is useless. Then I will discard her.

My blood burned hot in my veins. The thought of him laying a single fucking finger on Olivia sent electricity coursing through every muscle. I clenched and unclenched my fists, desperate to draw blood and hurt him.

I had to choose: my patch or my woman. Croak had given me an ultimatum. Did I defy the rules of the only real family I’d ever known? Did I renounce the people who’d taken me without question when I’d been exiled from my hometown? Did I leave behind my brothers?

How could I not?

I hadn’t realized it while it was happening, but Olivia had become everything to me. I had claimed her as mine, in body and soul, and as long as I was alive, I was responsible for protecting her. For the first time in my life, I was at one with the voice in my head, the one that always spoke up even when I tried to muzzle it while I chased the women, the booze, the fighting, or whatever else I had used to distract myself at one time or another.

You love her
, it had told me, and it was right. I did love her. She was mine.

And there was no fucking way I’d let the devil take her from me.

As all the men watched, I reached into my boot and drew out the little knife I always kept there. I didn’t say a word as I reached it to the chest of my cut and sliced the threads that held in the grinning skull patch. One by one, I cut the cords that bound me to the club, until the patch fell on my lap.