One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil's Own, #1) (30 page)

I’m sitting at the bar waiting to hear the roar of bikes to come down the gravel road like they have so many other times when Melissa takes a seat beside me, bending over the bar to pull up a bottle of vodka.

“Have a drink, you need it.”

I shake my head. “No, nope. What if something happens to him, Melissa? I only just got him back.”

Her mouth drops as she places the bottle back onto the bar. “I guess this is their life, babe. It’s dangerous and life threatening. Are you going to be okay with it?”

Running my tongue over my dry lips, I shrug. “I don’t know. But I do know that I want him, and it comes with the package, so I guess I will have to learn to live with it.”

The creaking of the rust ridden doors sound out with Jada rushing up to us, pushing through the bikers from another chapter who rode down to help out with the aftermath.

Standing from the bar, I wipe my sweat-ridden palms over my pants and make my way toward her. Her face drops, wiping a single tear off her cheek.

“What?” I say, slowing my walk. My heart thuds in my chest in deep, shallow beats and I draw in a deep breath.

“They’ve got him.” All the air leaves my body and my knees wobble from under me.

“They’ve got who?” I whisper, wrapping my arms around myself.

“Beast. They’ve got him and they let the rest of boys walk. Bar one…” she whispers, squeezing her eyes closed.

“Why would he stay?” I yell, turning in my step and walking over to the bar to grab my bag.

“Meadow, we just have to wait for the boys to get here. Nyx didn’t make it out, we need to see what’s going on. It just doesn’t add up, Beast and Hella? They’re fucking Einstein’s in the biker world. There’s no way they would’ve let this happen, surely?” She breaths out, taking a seat on the barstool.

“Nyx didn’t make it?” Melissa whispers, tears streaming down her cheek.

I forgot all about her and Nyx becoming close.

“I’m sorry, Melissa. I don’t know what was going on there, but Nyx was a good guy, he didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

Melissa picks up the bottle, wrapping her lips around the rim and drops half the liquid down the rabbit hole in one go.

“Jada,” I warn, my eyes bugging out. “I’m not letting him sit in there by himself.”

“Meadow, what are you going to do? Just sit down and wait for the guys. I want to hear what’s going on.”

“What if it’s nothing,” I yell, standing from the stool and swinging my bag over my shoulder. “What if…” I whisper to her, “…he
dies
, Jada.”

She swallows, her eyebrows creasing as she peers back at me. “He won’t. He can’t. This is Beast, he’s indestructible.”

“Wake up, Jada, he’s also human. It doesn’t take much to kill a human.” Turning on my feet, I walk to the doors, tears surfacing in my eyes with my heavy heart thumping to the beat of the soles of my feet while they pound the dirt ridden ground.

Pushing open the door, I stop in my tracks when I see the mass of bikes pull up with the van following behind them. Wiping my eyes roughly, I scan the front to see Beast’s bike, but with Hella riding on it instead. My stomach drops and more tears stream down my cheeks. Gripping onto my chest, I move to Hella.

“Where were you?” I yell, fisting his cut.

“Calm down, Meadow. Come inside so we can explain.”

“No.” I shake my head. “Screw you.” Pushing off his rock hard chest, I turn toward my car and I’m almost there when a strong grip around my arm pulls me back.

My back pushes up against Hella’s tight chest where he drops his lips down to my ear and whispers, “It was a setup, Meadow. We knew he was going to get taken, we knew everything.”

My chest rising and falling deepens as I turn in his hold. “What do you mean?” I ask, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

He nudges his head to the barn. “Come on, I’ll tell you in there.”

“No, tell me now.”

He rolls his eyes. “So stubborn. Beast is going to have lots of fun with you.”

“Get to it, Hella.”

Running his hands through his hair, he exasperates a breath of air while dropping his arms to the side of his body. “There was no way we would be able to just roll in and kill them all. We needed to get Beast in there.”

“Why couldn’t he just walk in and say
take me
?”

He laughs, shaking his head. “Because they would have questioned his motives, Meadow. Beast and I have been running from this organization for a long fucking time. Don’t you think it would be a little shady if Beast just walks in there one day throwing up a flag? No, he needed them to think we failed with our mission. We needed them to think that they have won.”

“And have they?” I ask, tilting my head. Some of the uneasiness loosening.

“Have they what?” he asks, pushing his hands into his pockets.

“Won… have they won?”

He smirks, hooding his eyes. “Not even close.”

He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. “Come on, I don’t want to share this twice.”

“Hella,” I whisper. “Whatever is happening, I want in.”

He stops in his tracks. “Pardon?”

Tilting my head, I widen my eyes. “You heard me. I’m coming.”

He shakes his head, laughing. “You definitely are
not
coming.”

This was like a bad case of flashbacks. My wrists are bound to the roof, rings of fire wrapping around them—just as I remember. My heavy head is hooded between my arms when I hear the sound of the heavy steel door swinging open. I rise up, looking out to see who just came through.

“Beast?” Kurr’s voice vibrates through me like a jolt of electricity that makes me want to rip his head clean off with my bare hands. “I believe you’ve never met the brains behind the entire operation? The woman who created Schyronide,” he asks, eyebrows cocked.

I drag my eyes to the figure that’s standing beside him and smile.

“Who? The bitch that’s obviously riding your dick?”

He laughs, walking closer to me so I pick up my head and peer down at him.

“Actually…” he states, waving the woman over. I haven’t had a good look at her yet, but I can see she’s wearing a long white trench jacket and has her hair in a tight bun that’s sitting on top of her head. “She’s not mine. But she is yours,” he says, looking at me up and down. I bring my eyes to hers and her lips drop along with her head.

“Beast?” she whispers under her breath. I pull on the bonds around my wrists, baring my teeth at Kurr.

“What the fuck do you mean?”

“Get with it, Beast. This is Dr Carrisa Kurnikiva to you.” He smirks, bringing a cigarette to his mouth. “But her real name is Courtney Kurnikiva AKA
your mother
.”

Pulling on the cuffs that surround my wrists, I shake my head. “You’re fucking lying.”

He lets out a deep, smoky chuckle. “Oh no, son. I’m not.”

I bring my eyes back to the woman and she lifts her head up to face me. “I’m so sorry, Beast. I didn’t know.”

“Shut up,” Kurr says to her, rounding a little table that sits in the middle of the floor. I know that table, and I know what it contains. I pull on the cuffs again when a sharp sting strikes through my wrists and the dropping of blood begins to trickle down my arm.

With my chest heaving, I bring my eyes back to her. “Is it true?”

She swallows down, placing her hands into her pockets of her jacket. “Yes, I’m so sorry.”

A deep, sadistic chuckle escapes my mouth. “You’re kidding, right? ‘You’re sorry’? Are you fucking shitting me, woman! You! You created the fucking acid they pumped through me—through all of us!”

She drops her shoulders and walks to me. “Look, I had to, I had no—”

“Shut the fuck up,” I seethe, boring my eyes deep into hers. She flinches and steps back.

“Kurr, give me a minute please.”

Kurr chuckles. “Hell no.”

She turns toward him, squaring her shoulders and pointing her glare right into him. “I need a minute with my son.
Get out
.”

He shakes his head, understanding setting into his eyes. “You try anything? I’ll kill you myself and gut the piece of shit in front of you. Got it?”

“Yes,” she whispers. “I got it.”

He slams the heavy iron door behind him and she clears her throat, walking to me. “Is he gone? Or is he still looking through the window?”

I nod my head. “He’s gone.”

“Good.” She pulls out a knife and slips it behind my hand so I can grip onto it without him noticing.

“Look…” she begins, bringing her eyes to me, “…you end this shit, and you boys end it tonight. Got it?” she demands, her eyes as hard as stone. I see pain and deceit laced through her eyes which are unsettling considering she has beauty in her features.

I nod. “I got it. I’ll get you out, too.”

She shakes her head. “That wasn’t part of the plan, Beast. I reached out to Ringer to get you in here. You plant that C4, and you blow this place apart with or without me with you. Got it?”

Swallowing down, I cross my eyebrows. “All right. Why?” I ask, searching her eyes.

“They stole everything from me, Beast. But the most important thing they took from me was you. They kept me after I had you. They kept me bleeding in a cell while you grew. It must’ve been a year later when they’d done some digging into my school work, seeing I was a smart kid when it came to science. As always,” she says and I end it for her, “They used your strongest suit,” I say, nodding in understanding.

“Yes, I’m sorry. I kept them away from you. Manipulated the system by saying I would kill myself if they touched you. We had an understanding. They stay away from you and your father, and in return, I stay alive to cook their potion,” she says, her eyes a deep ocean blue that is weighed down by sadness, loss, and heartbreak.

“But I’m tired, Beast. I’m tired,” she reiterates, resting her palms on my cheeks. My heart begins to fill with warm razors blades that cut through the ice wall I’d built within me.

I clear my throat. “I’ll get you out. You can come with us, once this is over. You’ll be safe.”

She wipes the tears from her eyes. “Maybe.”

The door bursts open and Kurr walks in with his switchblade, the same switchblade I’m all too familiar with. My abs contract and I squeeze my eyes shut tightly.

“That’s enough of a reunion, don’t you think?” He chuckles and Courtney steps back toward the door. “Yeah, I do.”

He chuckles again, scattering through the ornaments on the table. “So,” he begins, sharpening his knife. “Now that you and mother dearest over there are well acquainted, what do you say we get into some good stuff, break you back down again? You have it in there still Beast. You’re far too good a vessel to be wasted on a Motorcycle Club. Do you know the number of kills you had?” He laughs to himself, stopping his sharpening to bring his eyes to me. “I do!” he whispers excitedly.

My eyes narrow as I slip the sharp knife down into my palm a little more, twisting it around so the sharp side is pushed up against the rope. I begin cutting slowly, trying not to bring attention to my hand. If this fails, we will be fucked. I need to get to the basement underground, and the only person who can get in and out of that basement is Kurr’s finger.

That’s where they keep all their weaponry and explosives. If I can get to those, I can blow this place up in one go and the rest of the people in it. The ones who wanted to get away had ran when we blew up the watchtower. All that was left now was the soldiers who were too far gone to help anyway.

“Do you want to know?” he asks, cocking his head. “I’ll tell you anyway because I’m feeling generous.” He laughs, placing the knife down on the table. I see Courtney look at the knife as he walks up to me, his hands in his pockets. I shake my head slightly at her, signaling her to not do what I think she is about to do.

“Six hundred and forty-nine,” he whispers harshly, his breath running over my bare chest. My breathing heaves and I spit to the ground. “You think I give a fuck? I don’t.”

He laughs, spinning on his feet and walking to the table again. “That right there, son is exactly why you’re perfect for this life.”

Carrying on my cutting, I get through the rope, jolting under the release of the tension. He turns his head to Courtney, walking up to her with a knife in his hand. “You see, little scientist. We have your formula now and we don’t need you anymore. Consider yourself… freed!” He swipes at her chest and I lunge forward, wrapping my arms around his neck in the sleeper hold, he jabs me in the ribs before jumping at Courtney again.

He grips onto her and she screams out, “Beast, run!” I turn my head to see four other men barge in through the doors. I get to my feet and rush toward them. Bringing my hand up, I slice one of them clean across his neck, blood pouring out in rivers down his throat. I turn around, round house kicking another in the chest, causing him to fly across the room and smash into the opposite wall.

The other man that was standing there runs at me, slicing me across the chest in one sweep and I step back, throwing my weight into my right hook, landing him down cold on the floor.

I look to Courtney, who’s standing there with a machete. She must have got one on top of Kurr during all the commotion. “Leave Beast. More are coming.”

“You can come, too,” I say, rushing toward Kurr and bringing my knife down to his finger, slowly pushing the sharp side of it into his skin, sinking deeper and deeper into his flesh slowly. His screams howl out and I laugh, spitting in his face.

“Beast!” Courtney screams again. “So help me God, son. You need to go and do what you came here to do!” The door smashes open again with another group of armed soldiers bursting in. One swings his fist right into my cheek, dropping me to the ground before they’re pulling me up and dragging me across the floor to the door. I look over my shoulder at Courtney.

“Finish him!” I yell. “Meet me outside in thirty minutes!” The door slams shut halfway through my sentence and one of the guard’s jab my stomach, causing me to heave over, the metallic taste of blood spitting out of my mouth. Looking up, I count how many men are next to me. One on each side, one in the back and one in the front. My eyes drag to the belt buckle of the fucker who laid one out on me to see his heat packing on his belt. Smiling, I quickly pull my arm out of his grasp. I take hold of the gun quickly and shoot the guy who was holding a gun on me from behind before elbowing the other one in the head and shooting a round in the rest of the soldiers who were left standing. Dropping the now empty gun, I make my way down the cold corridor, ducking and hiding between walls. Pushing the finger into my pocket, I keep walking to the stairway that I know leads you down to the basement. I’ve only been in there a handful of times, but I remember exactly where it is. I round the last corner and hit the steps, dropping down them two at a time. Taking the finger out of my pocket, I push it up against the little glass pad that sits beside the door and wait as the red light turns green and the heavy doors beep, opening them up wide.

A smile stretches wide across my mouth. “Time to blow shit up.”