Captured Devil's Blaze MC Book 1 (17 page)

This is the third day straight that Beth insists on staying at the hospital. I would say absolutely not, but she’s probably safer there than at my club right now. I’m having Briar and K-Rex stay with her, and we have no less than ten men from Cade’s crew monitoring every exit of the hospital.

The fight with Colin has gone quiet since our attacks. We have confirmation that we didn’t manage to take out Colin, and that fucking sucks. There are rumblings though that our strikes have caught attention of the higher powers in the faction. We’ve been unable to get a name, but eventually I will. In the meantime, we’re planning attacks on the personal holdings of the Donahues. We’ll hit the apartment downtown, the country home that Matthew has claimed as his own, the private planes at the small airport they own, and finally the yacht. These strikes won’t do so much about hitting their bank accounts, but it will hurt them personally, especially Colin, and that’s my goal right now. I want the fucker to hurt, bleed, and go to hell. I’m making it my life’s goal to achieve that.

I call Beast’s room and stare off into space as it rings. Eventually Beth picks up, and when her sweet voice quietly whispers, “Hello,” I feel the tension inside of me ease. She has that effect on me. She calms me like nothing ever has or ever will.

“Hey,
mi cielo
. How are things?”

“They’ve just taken Beast down for surgery.”

They’re going to check out his healing tissue as well as begin their first repair on his face. The surgeon warned us not to get excited, that it would take several surgeries, but in truth, not one of us gave a flying fuck. We just wanted our brother alert and talking to us again. We’re all worried about how he’s going to react when he comes back through and has to face the fact that Annabelle is gone. My men got some ashes in an urn for him. There’s no way of telling if the ashes contain any of Annabelle, but we hoped that at least having something physical to grieve over would make it all easier.

“That’s good. Any word on how long it’s going to last?”

“No. The doctor said the surgery could last anywhere from an hour to several hours. It just depends on how he heals and what they find once they start exploring.”

“You’ll keep me updated?”

“Of course. Are you doing okay? Anything going on?”

“I’m fine,
querida
. I told you to stop worrying. Colin will need to regroup before he even thinks of striking back.”

“I know, I’m just worried.”

“I got this. Have some faith.”

Beth grows quiet and I get the sense that once again she’s planning something. I’ve had this suspicion for a few days now. The only problem is, I don’t have any idea what it is. I’ve done the only thing I know to do: I’m having her watched and guarded heavily.

“I love you, Skull.”

“I love you too,
mi cielo
. I’ll show you tonight. I find I’m missing my woman,” I tell her and I’m not joking. I’ve not been between those thighs in at least two nights. She was so upset since Annabelle’s death, and I couldn’t bring myself to do anything other than hold her and let her know I love her.

“Finally.”

“Hey, if you didn’t like it, you could’ve jumped my bones,” I tell her, deadly serious.

“I’ll make note of that.”

“See that you do. You call me if you need me, and keep Briar and K-Rex with you all the time. I don’t know Cade’s men, but I trust Briar and K-Rex to make sure you’re fine.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I think I like when you talk like that, Beth.”

“Don’t get used to it,” she laughs.

“Talk to you this evening,
mi cielo
.”

“This evening,” she agrees. “Love you, sweetheart.”

“You too,” I tell her with a smile, hanging up the phone.

I have a surprise for her this evening and I’m hoping she doesn’t turn me down. When I pick her up, I’m going to run by an ex-member’s house. The dude is crazy as fuck, but he has a license, and I’m marrying Beth.

I want her as my wife as well as my old lady. Part of it is because if Colin manages to get his hands on her, I don’t want him to be able to claim her. I know the fucker will try. This way, he’ll have to get rid of a husband before he can. Our surveillance has shown that he’s been meeting with a wedding planner about his wedding with Beth. Fuck that shit.

I haven’t told Beth; she’s got enough on her plate. Besides, it’s not all about that. I know she said she couldn’t have kids, but I was serious with her. I’m not going to rest until it happens. I have a vision of her nursing my child and I want that so fucking much. I won’t stop until it happens, and when it does, we will be married. No child of mine will be born out of wedlock. I might make up my own rules, but my madre would come back from the dead and scalp me if I didn’t follow the rules she held dear. 

Tonight, Beth will be mine in all ways that matter. Colin can suck it.

I’m alone in Beast’s room. I can’t remember that ever happening. K-Rex is right outside the door and Briar just left to go talk with Cade’s men. Still, for the first time I can remember in forever, I’m actually alone. I’m above ground… and alone. I would almost celebrate, but instead I feel vulnerable and scared, and I
hate
that.

I’m using the laptop Skull bought me to finish my studies. I’ll be taking my GED in a few days. There’s no way I could finish high school the old-fashioned way, but Skull knew how important it was to me, so he’s helping me work around that and achieve it in a different way. I wish I’d met him under different circumstances.

The phone rings again. It’s only been an hour since Skull checked on me. Surely he knows I’ll call him the minute I know anything about Beast.

“Skull, sweetheart, I told you I’d call you the minute I knew anything about Beast,” I say, answering the phone.

“Elizabeth.”

My heart freezes. Only one person ever calls me Elizabeth. And, if it had been ten minutes, ten hours, or ten hundred years, I would know that voice… I used to adore that voice.

“Dad.”

“I’ve missed you, sunshine.”

I say nothing. There’s nothing to say. How can he miss someone he gave away?

There’s silence for a few minutes, then I hear his heavy sigh. “I need to see you, sunshine.”

“I can’t right now. There are things going on. It’s just not possible,” I tell him. It’s truthful, but what I leave out is that even if nothing was going on, I never want to see him. I don’t even want to look at him. How could he think I would? He took my sister away from me. He chose her over me. There’s a list of offenses he’s committed and I’m not about to forgive any of them.

“Elizabeth—” he starts.

I don’t let him finish. “I’m sorry. I have to go. I don’t know how you tracked me, but please pretend you never did,” I say, and I’m pulling the phone away from my ear when I hear him say the one thing that would make me stop.

“Skull’s life depends on this, Elizabeth. You need to talk to me.”

I get this sick feeling in my stomach. How can Skull’s life depend on it? Why would this war involve my father in any way? I try and breathe through my panic and pull the phone back to my ear.

“I’m listening.”

“Not over the phone. It’s not safe. You will need to come to me.”

“There’s no way to arrange that. Skull, unlike some men, makes sure the people he loves are safe. He has men with me all the time, especially when he can’t be here himself.”

My father sighs, and I know my verbal strike hit its target. Too bad I can’t feel any joy from it.

“In fifteen minutes, Pistol will show up and take Briar’s place.”

Again my father manages to take my breath away. How does he know Skull’s men? How does he know their names? Worse, how does he know what’s about to happen?

“How do you—”

“That’s not important right now. Listen closely. When Pistol gets there, he will escort you down to the cafeteria. You will follow him and
not
alert anyone to what is about to happen. When you get there, excuse yourself to the restroom. Once you’re there, there’s a small hall off to the right. Pistol will lead you to it. That goes to the kitchen. Someone will be waiting for you there. Don’t mess this up, Elizabeth. I’m trying to save lives here, but if you don’t cooperate, that won’t be possible.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because you don’t have a choice, sunshine. I’ll be waiting,” he says, then hangs up.

My hand is shaking when I put the receiver back into the cradle. My heart is slamming against my chest. I’ve imagined seeing my father in a million different ways, and none of them included this one. The door opens and I look up to see Briar. My first instinct is to ask what’s going on, but right behind him comes Pistol—
just like my father said.

“Beth, are you okay?” Briar asks. I can’t stop my eyes from going to Pistol. He looks at me impassively, but his hands are on the gun he keeps in a holster just beneath his leather cut. He makes sure I see it. The bastard knows exactly what he’s doing. I take a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves and look back at Briar. I can’t risk him getting hurt.

“I’m fine,” I insist. “Just worried about Beast. The surgery seems to be taking a while.”

“That’s why I’m late. The doctor tracked me down at the nurse’s desk. Beast pulled through and the surgeon was encouraged by the results.”

“That’s great,” I tell him, genuinely relieved.

“Yeah, it is. I’m going back to report to Skull and do a few things. Pistol here will be taking over for me. K-Rex is going to stand guard over our vehicles because one of Cade’s men got sick. If you need me, all you have to do is call.”

“Sounds good. I’m actually getting a little hungry now that I know Beast is going to be okay. Could you take me down to the cafeteria, Pistol?”

He clears his throat and his disgusting voice has a tinge of joy in it. I want to hit him in the balls. “Sure thing. Getting a little hungry myself.”

“Great. I’ll ride down the elevator with you two, then,” Briar adds. 

We all go out and I’m doing my best to walk and keep my shaky legs from giving out on me. I manage to laugh or respond where it’s needed as Briar talks. We part ways when the elevator stops on the first floor, then Pistol puts his hand to my back and leads me to the cafeteria. When we get there, right away I recognize one of Cade’s men. Skull made sure he introduced me to every one of them so I’d know who they were if I needed help. Ironically, I think it’s these men who may be helping to hurt me. Well, them and Pistol, obviously.

“I need to go to the restroom,” I announce, loud enough so Cade’s man can hear me. He starts to come forward, but Pistol waves him off.

“I got this. Come on Beth, I’ll escort you.”

Asshole.

I follow him. As soon as we’re out of the other’s vision, I jerk away from him. “Skull will have your head,” I hiss.

“He won’t ever know.”

“You’re disgusting. Skull thinks of you as his brother. Don’t you have any ethics?”

“I’m not dying over some fucking whore of a woman. Now hurry up. Daddy waits,” he says. I really seriously
hate
him. If I survive this, I need to make sure Skull knows he can’t trust him.

We walk from the hall into the kitchen and there, surrounded by the silver counters and lunchroom equipment, is the one person I never thought I would see again in my life.

“Hello, sunshine.”

My fucking father.