Marek (Knights Corruption MC #1) (38 page)

“Hurry up,” I yelled to their retreating backs. Stone was hurtin’. Maybe not physically, but his body was taking the brunt of his trauma.

I heard the screeching tires in no time, rushing out to place Sully in the back of the van. I’d swiped the comforter from the motel room to help make her as comfortable as possible, even though it was covered in blood.
Her
blood. But I didn’t want to lay her down on the cold, bare floor of the vehicle. Rushing back inside, I grabbed my VP’s gun, which had fallen out of his hand when Vex had shot him.

“Hawke, go out and get in the van,” I demanded.

“What do you wanna do with him?” he asked, pushing his knee further into Vex’s back. I’d insanely thought Vex was choosing to remain silent all this time. What I hadn’t realized was that when Hawke had tackled him, he’d inadvertently knocked him out.

“He’s gonna meet his maker tonight,” I sneered. Hawke moved away from his body, allowing me to kick Vex then roll him over. I expected the unconscious bastard to wake up, throw some attitude my way, as if he were invincible, and then eventually plead for his life.

I wasn’t particularly fond of torture, or at least being the one to do it, but I would thoroughly enjoy what I had planned for the man who’d made Sully’s life a living nightmare. Day in and day out. I knew she chose to still protect me, or herself, by not divulging a lot of the things that went down when she was living with him, and because of that my imagination was my worst enemy.

Time quickly escaped me, and if I was gonna do something, now was the time. I had to make sure to get both Sully and Stone to the safe house as soon as possible.

A bullet to the head while he was unconscious seemed unfair. No, I needed for the bastard lying before me to suffer in ways I hadn’t even thought of yet. Making the quick decision to bring him with us, although the thought of him breathing the same air as the rest of us tugged at the unraveling string of my sanity, I picked him up off the floor and threw him over my shoulder. Taking one last look around the disheveled room to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, I closed the door and walked the few feet to the vehicle waiting for me.

Once we were on the road, I instructed Hawke to place a call to Trigger, asking him to bring Adelaide to the safe house right away.

Hopes were high that both of the people who meant the most to me would live to see another day.

Marek

Hunching over Sully in the back of the van, I cradled her head in my lap, securing her to me while making sure she was as comfortable as she could be, given the circumstances. She was still out cold, her motionless body making my own tense in sorrow.

“She’ll be okay,” Stone assured, turning around in the passenger seat to look at me. Clutching his side, he tore his hand away to assess the damage, blood coating his entire side. It looked pretty bad, and I was extremely grateful my friend didn’t feel an ounce of pain. His body’s reaction to the intrusive bullet, however, was less than desired. All signs of life seemed to drain from his face, a pale shadow of disbelief coloring his features. His sitting form wavered, unable to fully control himself while Ryder drove like a maniac. I think it was the only time either one of them used their seatbelts.

“Are you okay, Stone?” I asked, not doing my best to hide the worry in my voice.

“All good, bro-brother,” he stammered slightly. A deep breath later and his head lolled to the side. Ryder took a corner faster than he should have and Stone’s body tipped over, his head hitting the passenger window with a thud.

“Goddamn it, Ryder!” I shouted. I wanted so much to berate him for driving so carelessly, but at the same time I wanted to urge him to go faster. He never said a word, all the apology I was looking for pouring forth from his reflection in the rearview mirror.

The rest of the trip was executed in silence. Stone had come to only to pass out once more before we arrived at our destination. Sully’s body still lay across my lap, unmoving except for the shallow breaths of air she took into her lungs. And Vex form still laid in a crumpled mess across the back of the van, stuffed into the corner so Hawke could keep a closer eye on him. Primed to make a move in case he woke up and tried something.

So lost in my own head, I hadn’t even realized we’d pulled into the garage at the safe house. The place was located in a normal residential area, hiding right out in the open.

Throwing open the side door, the first person to greet us was Adelaide. At first her composure calmed me, until she moved closer and was able to witness the destruction we hid inside the vehicle. Reaching forward, she touched Sully, her hands roaming all over her body to locate the source of the damage. When she skimmed her fingers over her friend’s ribs, she jerked them back in horror.

“Oh, my God!” she cried. “Who stabbed her?” Her eyes were on me instantly, silently pleading for an answer, but there simply wasn’t any time.

Jerking my head toward Ryder, who’d come around the back of the van, I indicated I needed his assistance. He carefully cradled Sully’s body until I was capable of extracting her from the vehicle myself. With my wife in my arms, I shouted for whoever else was around to attend to Stone. I didn’t need to tell Hawke to stay with Vex—he knew what he had to do until he was told otherwise.

Before I disappeared inside the house, I heard Adelaide’s cries once she realized Stone was out cold inside the van, but I couldn’t falter. I needed to ensure Sully was taken care of before I gave my attention over to my buddy. Being torn between two people was the worst feeling in the world, but I knew the woman lying lifelessly in my arms was my first priority.

If the roles were reversed, and it had been Stone carrying Adelaide and me bleeding out, he would make the same decision. I knew he cared for her as I did for my wife; I saw it in his eyes, and in the way he reacted to situations where Adelaide was concerned.

There was a flurry of activity inside the makeshift hospital room, aka the living room. Adelaide had set up rather quickly, calling in the assistance of her doctor friend, the one she’d relied on to help Tripp when we’d found him dumped outside the gate. They both worked diligently to repair the two broken people placed before them.

After what seemed like the longest five hours of my life, they were both on their way to recovering.

Luckily, most of Sully’s wounds were only superficial, although her knife wound was certainly going to leave a nasty scar to match those already marring her beautiful skin. I viewed the newest addition as a testament to how strong she was, but I knew she would see it as yet another possibility for me to pull away from her, thinking such imperfections would make me change the way I saw her.

The way I felt about her.

Stone’s wound was a bit more damaging, nicking his liver before it passed through his body. Thankfully, I’d been informed he wouldn’t sustain any long-lasting effects because of it, the liver being one of the organs which rejuvenated itself rather quickly. The other plus to that was Stone didn’t feel anything, other than Adelaide’s anger when he’d tried to get up and move around too soon. We transported them both back to the clubhouse the next evening. I gave strict instructions not to allow either one of them to leave the confines of the compound, needing as many people around them for protection until they were both completely out of harm’s way.

Plus, I needed time to deal with Vex before I followed them home.

I needed someone with me who wouldn’t think twice about what I had planned for Vex, so I placed a call to Cutter to meet me at the safe house. Any one of my men would have helped me out, but Cutter was fashioned from a different cloth. He didn’t get off on torturing people—it wasn’t an unearthed desire he had brimming below the surface. He was just able to switch something off and do whatever was necessary without a second thought.

Waiting in the hollows of the vast basement, I heard the garage door followed by the door to the kitchen creak open then close, the deadbolt locking in place soon after. Our safe house was a well-guarded secret, but just in case we’d been compromised, I cocked the gun resting in my hand, ready and able to take down any intruders who thought they could get one over on me.

I waited in anticipation while footsteps drummed down the wooden stairs, followed by unhurried walking down the short corridor. Not having to give direction to which room I’d be in, mainly because it was
the
room we used whenever we found ourselves in this predicament, the handle turned and very slowly, the door swung open.

Cutter loomed on the threshold, his short, graying hair perfectly styled in place. He’d come wearing all black, as was the necessary required uniform for someone about to torture another person.

A quick nod between us was all the greeting we gave each other before he moved further inside. Years ago, we’d transformed the room into a soundproof area. For obvious reasons. We didn’t need to alarm any of the neighbors because otherwise, we’d have to find another location for our safe house. And, well . . . that was just a pain in the ass.

Vex had woken the previous night while Adelaide was tending to her two patients, but since he’d been confined to this room, which was directly below the living room, no one heard him when he started yelling obscenities to no one in particular. The only people who even knew he was there were me, Hawke, Ryder and Cutter. Maybe Stone knew, but he was so out of it for the majority of the night I doubted he’d paid any attention to what was going on around him. Other than Adelaide tending to him, of course.

Naked and bound to an old wooden table with coarse rope, Vex’s crazy eyes followed me as I moved around him, making sure his restraints were still properly tied. I didn’t need him busting out of them during what we had planned. A small piece of me wanted to free him, to best him with nothing but my brute strength, ending his life with my bare hands, but I didn’t have time for it. I needed to save whatever reserve I had left for Sully.

She needed me whole.

Physically as well as emotionally.

The one thing I allowed Vex to have was his voice. I wanted to hear him beg for his life, all while I explained what was coming next. I wanted to hear his excuses, his reasoning for tormenting Sully for however long he had access to her. To hear why he chose to treat her like he had.

Did he have any regrets?

Was he sorry in the least for what he’d done to her?

Would he beg for forgiveness before pleading for his life?

We were about to find out.

Cutter stood off to the left while I remained close to the table, Vex continuing to follow me with his stare.

“So,” I started. “Although I’m gonna snatch your life from you today, yours won’t be a quick death.” He closed his lids and exhaled a long breath, but remained silent. When his eyes connected with mine again, he looked . . . crazier? If that was even possible.

Whatever he’d told himself inside that fucked-up head of his was enough for him to hide his fear from the two men who would be the last to see him alive.

Going against my better judgment, I asked him a question. “Do you have anything to say before we get started?”