One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil's Own, #1) (29 page)

After Meadow had checked on Melissa, we got back on the road to head into town. I live in Summerlin West, so it’s about a fifteen-twenty minute drive from the strip. Me and my pops bought the house a few years back and kept it there. We tossed around whether I should just get tenants in to rent it because I wasn’t looking at spending a lot of time there, but ended up moving all my shit in any way.

The clubhouse is situated on the north side of Las Vegas.

We pull into my driveway and I turn off my bike, removing my helmet. Meadow removes her hands from my shoulders and swings off the bike, keeping her eyes on the white home in front of her. She whips her head to me, a smile playing on her lips. “Beast, it’s beautiful.”

“What were you expecting?” I ask with a crooked grin. “A barn?”

She laughs, cheeks turning a light shade of red. “I guess, maybe a little.” Her lip pulls into her mouth, her dimples sinking deep inside her cheeks, and I have to readjust myself before swinging my leg off. She has a direct line to my cock that’s for sure. Bringing her here, is me showing her what I am outside of the club. I don’t want her leaving Vegas thinking that all I have to offer her is my rowdy, psychopathic brothers. That’s hers for the taking protection wise, but I needed to show her another side to me as well, a side that I haven’t shown any woman.

Tucking her under my arm, I squeeze her into me and place a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “Come on.”

An hour later, we’re laying out in the sun in the back yard under the old oak tree that sits in the corner. Her head lies over my leg with my other propped up resting my arm on it. I wipe some of her hair away from her face as her eyes peer up at me from her position.

“I love it here,” she whispers, taking her eyes back to the house. There’s a porch in the back that has nothing on it. It’s still bare. I don’t spend a lot of time here, more time at the clubhouse so it hasn’t got a home touch to it yet but it has potential. “Love it enough to move?” I ask with a smile.

She rolls her eyes, flipping onto her stomach, her hand shielding the afternoon sun from peering into those eyes. I didn’t know it back then. But her damn eyes pulled me in, they fucked me, and now they own me.

“My job, Beast. I have a life outside of being on lock down with you.”

I laugh. “But I like having you here. Fuck, I don’t want you to go.”

Her face falls, her head tilting. She smiles. “I know and as much as I have loved you locking me up in your world, I need to go back. Truth be told, I don’t want to leave, but I have a life there. I think we can do the long distance thing. For now anyway, let’s not rush things and just take them play by play.”

I roll my eyes, pushing back to lie out on my back. “Outside the bedroom, you’re this lady who has class and sass.” I lean up on my elbows, her mouth smiling at my words. I smirk because I’m not done. “But inside the bedroom? You’re my little fuck-toy that I want to play with forever, Meadow.
Forever
.”

Her smile stops, her eyes widen in shock. “Beast!” She slaps my leg playfully and I lift her up from her waist, pulling her on top of me.

She laughs, holding herself up by pressing on my chest.

“Mmm… the only thing that’s as sexy as you riding my bike is you riding me.”

She laughs again, bringing her face down to lightly run her soft lips across mine, and in this very moment, I know that I’m fucked. I know that if it came down to it, I’d give this woman my last breath if it meant she could take one more.

“The boys are here for this purpose. Use them,” I say to Meadow, who has flung her little arms around my waist. Dropping my head to her soft hair, I kiss her head.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asks in muffled tones.

“Positive. We have it all planned out.” We do, but I don’t know how it’s going to end. All I know is I have someone to live for now, so I will do anything to make sure she’s safe and we can have a life outside this shit.

“Okay then…” She steps back and leans up to my face on her tippy toes wrapping her fingers around my neck. I pull her into me and run my tongue over her bottom lip. She stops and pulls back, searching my eyes.

“I…” she starts and then stands back to her feet, “…never mind. Just, make sure you don’t die. Please,” she pleads, looking up at me.

I smile and pull her into me again, kissing her on the lips. “I
know
,” I answer against her lips. Her face freezes, a deep red blush sprawling out across her cheeks. Letting go of her hand, I whistle out to Hella, who’s playing on the PDA with Cassidy, one of the hang arounds. I look over to Melissa and nudge my head to her. She smiles before hugging Nyx goodbye and stepping up beside Meadow.

I swing my leg over my bike and push on my gloves. Looking up to Meadow, I blow her a kiss quickly and she smiles, waving to me before I lead the pack out the gates and toward the place I’ve done everything possible to avoid for the past eight years.

Pulling into the industrial farmland, we all ride up the bumpy, dusty road and I stop halfway, the roar and pulsing of our bikes deafening. After we’ve all cut off our bikes, I swing my leg off and walk up to Hella. “We’ll walk up from here.”

Hella removes his helmet with the rest of the boys following suit. “Are you sure about this? I still think we should go in guns blazing and just tear the place apart.”

Turning my head to the van that the prospects are driving, I point to it. “Because taking the van is a better idea. Stick to the plan and hopefully, we can all make it out alive.”

He nods his head while half the boys jump into the van and the rest of us set out on foot. We are all well-armed. Complete with grenades, M16’s, and if we lose all else—our combat knives. The van drives forward toward the gates while Hella and I separate into our two separate groups. My group taking the front and Hella’s taking the back. We know the ins and outs of this hell hole so it only makes sense that we would be on the ground. Running up to the front of the high barb wired iron gates, the leaves crunch under my feet and the air is crisp with death and silence. I push my back up against the wired fence while looking at Nyx. Bringing my finger up to my mouth, I signal for him to be quiet before I start counting in my head.

One…

Two…

Three…

The first explosion rips through the air and I kick the fence in where Hella and I came back to pop open a few nights ago. After the boys are through, I jump through and draw up my .45 scanning around the area to make sure it’s clear before we make our way to where the van entered. Following closely, we round the first corner where a soldier walks through, I draw my gun up, shooting him right between his eyes and his lifeless body falls to the ground.

“Come on,” I wave at the pack. Hella’s voice comes through the walkie-talkie that is sitting on the waist of my jeans, so I unclip it.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“It’s Ripper. He’s in a bad shape.”

“What happened?”

“They drew faster than us. He’s sitting out… should be safe there until this shit is done.”

“Don’t tell me you left him unattended, Hella!”

“Nah, Skid is there.”

“Yeah, all right. Stick to the plan.”

“Roger.”

Pushing the walkie-talkie down, I bring my head up to the tall lookout tower that sits in the corner of the property. Dropping the duffel bag to the ground with the sound of gunshots ringing out in the distance, I pull out the grenade launcher, hitching it onto my shoulder before I look through the scope. Aiming it at the middle of the tower I launch it into the concrete, the flames ignite and the tower comes crumbling down. Chuckling under my breath, I push the launcher back into the bag and swing it over my shoulder.

“You good?” Nyx asks, bringing his gun back up.

“Yeah, just wanted to do that for a long time.”

He nods his head before stepping in front. “Let’s go.”

We make our way to one of the back doors of the main building and I pull out my .45 and shoot out the locks, kicking the doors in with my feet.

“It’s fucking quiet,” Hannibal stirs next to me.

“Too quiet,” I answer, walking into the darkness. We make our way to the silver stairs that sit to the left of where we came through and start walking down them.

“What sort of sick shit do they have going here?” Gunnar asks from behind Nyx.

“You’ll soon see,” I answer. Gunnar is new, he’s been prospecting for almost a year. How he acts on this run will determine whether he gets patched in on his one-year anniversary.

We walk down the silver steps, our heavy boots thumping underneath the soles of our feet. When we reach the bottom, I look around, attempting to adapt my eyes to the darkness.

The lights flick on suddenly and surrounding us is an army of soldiers, in every angle with their weapons pulled. I chuckle to myself. “Figures.”

Glancing to the side of me, I begin counting how many there are in this very room and I’m heading toward twelve—against our six. The five men who are standing in front of us with their rifles drawn, standing in their armed defender armory, begin to part like the Red Sea.

“Well, well, well…” a familiar voice pierces my ears like nails to a chalkboard. Brian comes strolling out, wiping his knife off with a white cloth. “If it isn’t my favorite soldier.”

“I was never
your
soldier,” I seethe, bringing my gun back up and raising it right between his eyes. Cocking my head, I picture myself pulling the trigger, his blood and brains raining down on me in splatters of redemption.

“You might want to put that gun down, son. I have double on you.”

“Maybe I don’t care?” I say, keeping my gun drawn. “Maybe I have nothing to lose?”

He chuckles, walking closer. “We all know that’s a lie, Beast. Little Meadow is something you could lose? Am I not correct?” His ginger hair still sits roughly on the top of his head and his beard is still hanging low.

“Maybe,” I answer, smirking at him. “Or, maybe not.” I shrug. “After all, it was your training that took all of the human out of me and replaced it with a hard-ass replica.”

“Beast?” Hella’s voice comes out of the walkie-talkie again. I narrow my eyes at Brian, who nods his head. “You might want to check on 666, Beast. I hear he made a slip-up.”

Unclipping the walkie-talkie off my jeans, I keep my eyes locked on Kurr and bring it to my mouth.

“What?” I answer, my voice shallow and low.

“We’re surrounded.”

“Ditto.”

Turning off the walkie-talkie, I bring my attention back to Kurr. “What is it you want? If you wanted to kill me, you had plenty opportunity to do so. What do you want?”

“Well…” he begins, “…you came in here, blew up my spot and killed a few useful men.”

“So, I don’t care. What do you want?” I repeat, my breathing dipping into shallow territory.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He smirks. “You.”

“You could have had me. Why be so theatrical with it?”

He steps around one of the men, who still hasn’t moved, and comes closer. “You know I prefer a good chase, Beast.” He stops, tilting his head. “Or maybe you don’t remember.”

Clenching my jaw together, I drop my gun. “Fine,” I say, smirking at him. “Take me, let my men go.”

He laughs, narrowing his eyes at me. “Really? That’s your only ask?”

I nod. “Yeah, it is. Take me and
me
only, let my men walk out.”

Tsking my comment, he shakes his head. He brings up his index finger and shakes it in front of me. “Sounds good, but you’re missing one thing,” he says, his eyes scanning my face with menace.

“And what is that?” I growl, bringing my eyes down to his. Clenching my jaw.

He raises his gun, not moving his eyes from mine and lets the barrel go off, the bullet shooting right between Nyx’s eyes, his blood spattering out over my face. The metallic taste of a fallen brother filling my mouth.

“You’ll pay for that,” I growl. “Maybe not today, but you
will
pay for that.”

He laughs, using the same white cloth to wipe away the blood drops that were splattered over his face. “Maybe. But you started this charade, Beast. I took one of yours, you took five of ours including the watchtower that I know you’ve been dying to take down since you were a little boy.”

He turns his back and points to the four soldiers in the front line. “Take them out. Make sure Beast’s wishes are kept and no-one is hurt. Come on Beast, we have lots to catch up on.”

Turning my head, I smirk at my brothers who are seething under heavy breaths. Nodding my head, I follow behind the one man whose blood I want most.