Ruthless (Dark MC Romance) (26 page)

Tank gazed at me shrewdly. “That might be our only shot.”

Spike struggled to get up, looking furious. “Julia!
You’re not going back to him!
”

“Believe me, it’s the last thing I want to do, but if I don’t you won’t stand a chance. Besides, I was born a hustler.”

The older man spoke before Spike’s red face could scream anything else. “Maybe there’s a way we can go with her.”

“Not a chance. I’m not risking her life.”

An idea formed in my head like a half-forgotten dream. There was no way we could kill him surrounded by his supporters. Spike had a bad leg and Tank’s reflexes weren’t what they were. I had to lure him to a vulnerable spot, but where? What would I say to get him to leave the clubhouse?

“What if I call him and I say that you’re injured and that you need help?”

They considered it. “He’s probably really busy dealing with the shipment, assuming it went according to plan. He might send someone else to kill Spike.”

“Shouldn’t I at least call him to see what’s going on? He might be dead for all we know!”

“If only we were that lucky.” Spike nodded. “Do it.”

My hands shook as I pulled my phone from my back pocket and touched the highlighted bar: Cain.

He picked up almost immediately. “
Where have you been? I’ve been calling you.
”

My blood ran cold as his frozen voice hissed in my ear. It was like he was standing beside me. “Spike’s really badly hurt. I don’t know if he’ll make it. I’ve been busy trying to keep him alive.”

I looked at Spike’s face, which looked anxious. He nodded at me encouragingly. Both of them kept making gestures and mouthing things. I waved them off.

“
I found River’s body. What the hell happened?
”

Biting my lip, I decided to tell him a version of the truth.
Just play dumb.
“River turned on us. I saw him kill Boomer, so I took care of him. Got Spike out of there.”

The speaker cracked with his low laughter. “
Oh, you stupid bitch.
”

“I—I’m sorry. What did I do wrong?”

“
Everything. Get to the clubhouse now.
”

“Okay.” The line was already dead.

* * *

We’re all going to get killed.

I drove my beaten up convertible all the way to the clubhouse, the bumps in the road made Spike swear colorfully.

“Slow it down!”

His muffled voice came from the trunk. Spike and Tank were packed in there like a couple sardines.

As far as a plan, we had none. I could get them in the club, but then what? Cain was surrounded by his supporters.

He might have less people on his side after the mess last night.

The gate opened to my car and I drove inside, chewing my lip to shreds. A few prospects milled outside and I blanched when a familiar bald man left the clubhouse to meet me.

There was a hair trigger on the pistol I clutched in my jacket and my finger trembled over it as Pike walked closer, the expression on his face particularly foul. His leather cut was smeared with blood.

He lunged for my arm but I backed away.

“Don’t fucking touch me.”

“You killed my brother, bitch!” His eyes were just as bloodshot as Cain’s normally were.

“Is that his blood on your cut?”

It was. Next to Crash’s grave was a mound of freshly dug earth. The taunt enraged Pike. I enjoyed the pain on his face.
I would do it again and again.
I smiled at the rage on his face and almost forgot why I came here.

“I’m going to fuck you up.”

That was all I needed. Pike started forward violently and I pulled the trigger. Two shots squeezed out, slamming into his chest. Members burst from the club as Pike stared dumbly at the two dark holes on his chest. He sank to his knees.

“That’s for Bryan, you son of a bitch,” I whispered. “Rot in hell.”

Cain burst out of the clubhouse and I prayed that Spike would remain hidden. He shoved members out of the way as he made a beeline straight for me. Pike collapsed on the ground, making strangled, gurgling noises. Finally, the prospects leapt into action and seized my arms, ripping the gun from my hands. I struggled in their grasp.

The blonde man stopped in front of me, staring at his dying Vice-President in disbelief and glancing up at me. The hole in my jacket smoked where I pulled the trigger.

“You did this?”

“He threatened me.”

He glared hard, his eyes turning into stone as something changed in his face. “Let her go.” Cain showed no emotion for his slain comrade, who gasped his last breaths. He stepped over his body and grabbed my arms, murder in his eyes.

“Why the fuck would you do something so stupid?”

I stilled in Cain’s grasp, no longer afraid. “I hated him. Just like I hate you.”

His hand was a vice grip over my arm. His eyes were dented as if he was in pain. “I did everything for you. For us.”

“There is no
us
, you psycho.”

I screamed as his hand yanked my head back by my hair. He pulled the pistol from his leg and pressed it against my temple.

“Spike!” he bellowed. “Come out, or I paint the dust with her brains.”

Don’t come out.
I looked anywhere but the trunk of the car as Cain swung me around, looking for Spike. I fought in his grasp and he pulled my head back as if to slit my throat. He was too strong to fight and too full of madness to reason with.

“Cain, let her go. This is crazy!”

Someone in the crowd shouted it. Cain wildly aimed with his gun towards the sound and fired his weapon. They ducked out of sight, but some poor bastard was hit. I could hear him screaming. Most of the members were outside; their faces tense as they watched me struggle.

“Jesus fucking Christ!”

“You do not tell me what to do,” Cain snarled.

“I’m here.”

Spike’s voice suddenly made Cain whirl around. The hood of the car was still shut where Tank hid. Seeing him so exposed and unarmed made a devastating pressure crush my lungs.

“Spike, don’t!”

“Is this what you fucking wanted?” A low chuckle reverberating from deep inside Cain’s chest became wild laughter and then suddenly sobered into a deadly hiss. “
Julia is mine
.”

Spike just looked at me. He ignored Cain. It was as if he knew he was going to die.

“What the fuck is wrong with all of you?” he screamed, discontent with everyone’s disapproving silence. “I stole the biggest distribution of Red in this county. It’s ours, now. The Tigers will be finished.”

“You killed Crash—”

Cain didn’t know it, but he was in more danger than I was.

“Please, that old bastard had it coming. He lost his taste for blood. He was WEAK! GET BACK!”

Spike limped back, his normally light brown eyes dark and frightening.

“STAY THE FUCK BACK!” he screamed at all of them. “What, you think I won’t kill her?”

His members, once passive sheep, now circled him like wolves. He could feel their anger around him like a ring of fire, slowly closing in. I gritted my teeth and waited for an opportunity to escape.

“Let her go, she has nothing to do with this.”

I winced as Cain yanked my hair to face Spike again.

“Like fuck she doesn’t. Look at you. What happened to you? One taste of her pussy and you’re ready to lay down your life for her, like all of those chumps in the pool halls.”

I watched as Spike’s face contorted with outrage on my behalf. “I love her,” he said simply.

Everything was building up, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from Spike. He gave me a quick, reassuring smile. The deep dimples I loved so much curving into his face.

“
Love
.” It was somewhere between a shriek of laughter and a sneer.

“What the fuck would you know about it?”

“I know what love is much better than you. She is mine. Everything I do to her makes our connection stronger. Transcendent. She will know. She will see. Even if I have to kill her to show her that. I will set her free before I give her to
you
.”

The Red made him insane, or perhaps he always teetered behind the edge of sanity. I felt rage building up behind my back as he suddenly shoved. I sprawled forward on the dirt and a loud blast behind me made me jerk my head. A searing pain slashed the side of my neck and suddenly the dirt sprayed with my blood. I ducked my head as bullets and explosions blasted in the air like fireworks. There was a strangled yell and a very loud thump. Clutching my neck, I rolled on my side to see Cain’s whitened face on the ground.

“Julia!”

He ran to me. He had a gunshot wound in his leg, but somehow he ran.

“He tried to kill me,” I mouthed to the dirt. Cain’s widened eyes stared into mine. I crawled on my elbows towards him, a faint feeling in my head. I wanted to tear him apart. Spike’s hands curled around my shoulders and jerked me upright.

“Let me see it.”

“No!” I screamed as they raised their guns to deliver the deathblow. They looked at me incredulously. “
I want to do it
.”

“Julia, you’ve been hit.”

“I don’t care. Give me your fucking gun!”

Cain’s chest flowered with red stains and his mouth bubbled with blood. The grey eyes sliced at me as his teeth grinned in a red smirk.

“You think you’re so much better. You’re just like me; you want to see me suffer. You love it.” Cain reached out and threaded a hand through my hair. “You are me.”

I do want to see you suffer. But only because it is what you deserve.

I yanked the gun out of Spike’s trousers and shot the man who had been my abuser for months. Blood burst from his pelvis like a small fountain. Then I aimed it between his legs as tears streamed down my face.

For raping me.

BAM.

The guys surrounding him winced as I shot his cock. Cain let out a scream that made me smile and his jeans rapidly turned a dark shade of red. Cain fell on his side, vomiting blood.

“Let him bleed to death.”

Spike wrestled the gun from my hand and shot the man in the heart, killing him instantly. What little color remained in his face faded away. I whirled on him, enraged.

“Why did you do that?”

Spike’s face was impassive. “We’re not like him, Julia. The only way to free ourselves of him is to start doing right.”

The anger took a few moments to fizzle as I realized he was right. Between my fingers, which were still pressed against my neck, a glut of blood shot out and a wave of dizziness made me sink to the ground.

“Fuck!”

His terrified voice surrounded me and then his hand pressed against the side of my neck. I looked at Cain’s tortured, dead face and wondered if I was going to be joining him soon.

“Spike. He got me. I—I’m—”

“Don’t talk. The ambulance is coming. You’re going to be all right.”

There were too many people crouched in front of me. A few removed Cain’s body just before a siren blared in my ears. I could feel my body disconnecting, the molecules holding me together were gradually drifting and I desperately tried to hold them together, but I was
so tired
.

“No!” he screamed in my face. “You do not get to leave me.”

Wetness dropped on my face and my eyes opened. Tears clung to his eyelashes and dropped, mingling with mine. I could barely focus on his face anymore.
That’s right. He loves me. Stay awake.

My body lifted into the air and for a moment I thought I really was dead, but then it rolled forward.

Stay awake.

* * *

The stale air burned my nostrils. Lips were like sandpaper. I groped through the artificial drowsiness, numbed and dumbed. I fought my way to the surface like the bottom of a pool, kicking and kicking until finally I was able to open my eyes to an unfamiliar, white ceiling.

Sound returned, finally reaching my ears as if through a long tunnel. It was busy, wherever I was. People in white moved past my bed. I moved my head and there was tightness on my neck. I felt plastic tape there and my hands jerked. A tube protruded from my hand, feeding me something from a bag.

“Hey.”

The familiar voice turned my head. Lying on a bed next to me was a heavily bandaged Spike. He groaned as he shifted himself so that his legs draped over the bed.

A nurse came running, and rolled her eyes when she realized it was Spike. “Sir, we’ve told you many times. You must rest. You have two gunshot wounds.”

“Bite me. I’m going to sit next to my old lady and you won’t stop me. I won’t rip my stitches out.”

He called me his old lady.

My neck twinged when I smiled and in response, Spike’s dimples flashed on his face. He gripped the nurse’s arm and hopped the green chair beside my bed.

“Aaah!” he sighed as he sank into the chair. “Thanks.”

The nurse shook her head and walked away. As soon as she left, Spike took my hand.

“Is this a dream?” His fingers brushed the skin of my hand lightly and I sucked in breath.

He chuckled at that. “I’m pretty sure it’s not. Everything’s okay, Julia. We’ll be out of here soon.”

All of it hit me then—Cain’s torture, Spike getting shot, Cain’s death. I was weary of it all. “And then what?”

He squeezed my hand.

“They wanted me to take over, but I told them to fuck off. The chapter showed up, finally. More than anything, I want to leave this town. There’s nothing left here for me anymore. Nothing except bad memories.” He gave me a hopeful glance. “I’m hoping that you’ll come with me, after we’ve both healed.”

“There’s nothing for me here, either.”

* * *

Long hours on the bike made my ass numb, but with my arms around Spike’s waist, I didn’t care. We zipped through canyons and climbed mountains, exploring parts of the world I had never seen. For so long, my life was confined to Victoria and Los Angeles. Now, I was finally out, playing pool and hustling with the man I loved.

The wind whipped my hair, even though I tucked it deep into my jacket. The strands flew wildly around my face. My frozen hands stretched over his stomach and I rubbed his abdomen, trying to warm them.