SOULLESS (Black Thorns, #2) (3 page)

“Later. Got some shit I gotta do first.”

“Need one of the boys with you?”

“Nah. Personal shit,” I tell him as I shake off my cut and pull my leather jacket outta one of the saddlebags. I slip it on and stow my cut away in the bag. He frowns at what I’m doing, probably figuring exactly why I ditched the cut—to go undercover and not get ID’d as Thorns. He knows the only reason I’d be doing that is to protect the club from what I’m gonna do—so, it’s gotta be bad shit.

But he don’t call me on it and just says, “All right.”

Shame Dealer don’t know when to back off like Smiter does. He barks at me, “Ax! Listen to me!”

Fuck him. I made the mistake before of trusting in someone. And that someone was Trig. Asshole ended up making me lose everything. Ain’t gonna make that mistake again by trusting Dealer here. Ain’t gonna let no one have power over me no more.

I don’t bother looking back.

I mount my Harley and gun it.

Time to get this shit done.

Chapter 3

~Ax~

Jackson O’Neil

The guy at the bottom of my hit list.

I gotta start at the bottom and work my way up. It’ll be quicker that way, cuz the higher up I go, the more complicated it’s gonna be to take each one of the fuckers on it out.

Jackson was the only guy who ever managed to get outta the Devil’s Mavericks—my old man’s club—without dying in the process. Walked right when Skinner started getting into some disgusting flesh trade shit. That
business venture
was short-lived—club ran into too much heat over it. But Jackson didn’t give a crap. As far as he was concerned, he was done with Skinner and his club.

Problem is, Skinner always had to have the last word.

He castrated the poor bastard with a machete, telling him that he turned his back on his family—the club—so he weren’t gonna let him make his own. His punishment for leaving. Not long after, Jackson made a bunch of threats to take out Skinner’s non-club family—his blood. Me and any kids I had down the road. I was fucking stupid, cuz I never did shit ‘bout it and I even had a shot once, a couple of years back after I’d left Thorns. But I’d taken pity on the guy. Come on, what Skinner had done to him was brutal.

But now, all that pity’s gone. All I got now is conviction. All I see now is the threat he’d be to me leaving the club and tryin’ to settle down and start a family with Rox.

And
no one
is gonna be left to threaten us when I’m done.

It’s brutal shit, but I gotta do it. Only way me and her can ever be together—if all the threats are gone.

I swing my leg over my bike and make my way over to the office of the used car lot. Jackson lives where he works—in the apartment above his office.

Brushing my holster as I approach, my hand stills suddenly when I see the state of the door. The lock’s been shot out. Two bullets through it.

I quickly shake off the shock and get my shit together, ripping my gun outta my holster and cocking it real fucking fast.

I kick open the door, the force of it almost ripping it off its hinges.

I step inside to the pitch black office and feel ‘round on the wall for the light switch. I find it and flip it on.

And what I see has my breath catching in my throat.

Fucking hell.

Jackson’s in his chair, slumped over his desk, his face buried in the wood with half his head blown away. Blood, flesh and bits of brain matter are splattered all over the desktop.

Fucker’s already dead.

Someone else has taken him out.

I scan the room. No sign of anyone being here, except him being dead and the bullet holes in the door lock.

I’m ‘bout to check out the place for any clues on who the hell did this, but a voice outside in the lot stops me.

“I’ll save you the detective work.”

I spin to see Dealer standing there by the chain link fence.

“Guilty,” he tells me.

I step outta Jackson’s office and slam the door shut, hiding the blood bath inside. Shaking my head as I approach, I tell him, “Told you this is
my
fight.”

“And I told
you
, you made it mine with this crusade being ‘bout
my
daughter.”

“Fuck, Dealer. You crazy-ass bastard. Did you really need to be so fucking brutal ‘bout Jackson?”

He shrugs. “Guy put up a fight.” He pulls out his phone and I watch him screw ‘round with it, sending a text or something.

“What you doing?”

He finishes up and pockets it. “Thanks to you walking in there and touching shit, I gotta get someone up here to do a
cleanup
.”

“Didn’t touch nothing.”

“Your boots touched the floor, didn’t they? The door?”

Argh. “I can take care of my own shit, Dealer. Don’t underestimate me.”

“Ain’t, Ax. But you don’t got time for that right now. We got bigger problems.”

“What?”

“Forget ‘bout making your way
up
your list. Gotta take out the top dog.
Right
now.”

He pulls a piece of paper outta the back pocket of his jeans and shoves it at me. I snatch it from him and see it’s a copy of my list. “How’d you—?”

“You were in a rage ‘bout Ricky. Didn’t think twice ‘bout leaving me alone in your office. I lifted it and made a copy.”

He snatches it back and points to the top of the list.

Malcolm Kent.

I shake my head. “He’s last.”

“Yeah. I know why you need him to be last.”

“What?” I seethe.

“I know what he did to you.”

Fuck me. Can’t be going there. “Look, ain’t gonna discuss that. He’s last.”

“He’s resurfaced!”

Before I can get a word out, or remember how the hell to speak after hearing those words outta his mouth, he goes on, “There’s been a lot of talk the last few days. And, believe me, he’s the biggest threat right now. It can’t wait.”

“Cuz you decide?”

“He’s looking for Roxana.”

“He’s…why?”

“My question, too. I ain’t sure. Found out that the two of ‘em did some business a few years back.”

“Fucking hell. What was she thinking, getting mixed up with that sadist?”

“Roxana has a tendency to get mixed up with people she shouldn’t,” he says, pointedly.

I know he’s talkin’ ‘bout her getting mixed up with me. “I ain’t nothing like him.”

“Ain’t saying you are, but you ain’t exactly a model citizen either. You ain’t
safe
.”

Fine. Can’t deny that. I shift my weight and fold my arms across my chest, tryin’ to keep my shit together and not lose my temper from these revelations. “How’d you know Kent’s looking for her?”

“Cuz while I been keeping an eye on you and been away from Brockford, the asshole sent a couple of his Mafioso thugs in to shake up Ralph, to try to get her location. Guy ended up in the ER. Found out a few hours ago.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. He’s gonna be okay. He took down Kent’s guys, too. He knows how to fight. He should; I taught him and had him teach Roxana as well after I went to ground.” He pinches the bridge of his nose and says, “We gotta pull her out before he gets to her. If he finds out ‘bout the two of you, he’ll lose his shit. Any friend of yours is another hit to him, yeah?”

“All cuz of what Skinner did to his mom.” He did some messed up shit to her. Took her, used her ‘round his club and then put a bullet in her head when he’d had enough of her.

“Yeah, well, with Skinner dead,
you’re
his target. And now he’s back, he’s gonna be gunnin’ for you, Ax. I’m willing to bet that’s why he’s tryin’ to find Roxana. She never kept her hatred of Skinner
or
bikers, in general, on the down low. He probably wants to partner up with her to take down you and the club.” He shakes his head with disbelief. “Little does he know that’s the furthest thing from reality these days. But, Ax, all he’s gotta do is see that tat of hers and he’ll put two and two together. Puts
her
in some major danger.”

“Where’s she at?”

He fists his hands in my jacket and jerks me closer. “If I let you make contact with her and tell you where she’s at, I want your word on something.”

“Say it.”

“You gotta be ready to fight. Gotta be all in.”

“What you think the damn list is all ‘bout?”

“I’m talkin’ ‘bout Kent. Like I said; I know what he did to you, Ax. You won’t admit it, but you’re scared. You got issues there with the twisted shit he put you through last time he got his hands on you. You gotta push that down and be ready. You think you ain’t, any part of you not on board with doing whatever it takes to bring that fucker down, then you making contact with Roxana again is gonna leave her as good as dead.”

“You got my word. Now tell me where the fuck my girl is.”

Chapter 4

~Roxana~

As soon as I close my eyes, he comes to me again. The one person I’ve failed to shake, but the one person I know I should. Why? Because he can hurt me. He
is
hurting me. The only man I’ve ever let inside my heart. Hell, not just my heart. My body. My fucking soul. And now all of that is ripped to shreds and it just won’t heal. It won’t. I can’t…I can’t move past it.

Every night and every day he comes to me. Those promises I’d believed in so badly…so stupidly:

“I love you. I fucking want you and I’m gonna have you. Don’t give a fuck what no one says, who or what gets in my face, cuz I’ll pound it all into the ground…”

“But I—”

“But fucking nothing. I swear it, Rox. I’m gonna walk. Are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. We’ll start a new life together away from all this shit; all this darkness and death. Just us, babe.”

“Just us.”

I can see the look on his face even now. The determination. The honesty. He’d meant every word. He’d wanted it to be true.

But it never could be.

He walked away.

He left me.

I lost everything. Him. Our unborn child.

And
me
.

It shook me to the core. I felt the burn right down to the bone. It’s been almost a year since we were last together and six months since the last time I saw his face when he stood in my driveway and walked away. And, in all that time, it hasn’t faded away like I’d thought it would; like people say pain does. Time, right? Time is all you need. Just ride it out until then.

But once you’re broken, you’re broken.

And that’s me now.

Weak.

The shadow of the woman I had been.

The
ball-buster
that Neil had fallen in love with is gone.

I’ve lost her somehow.

In her place?

I don’t even know who looks back at me in the mirror now.

The business woman? The owner of
Roxana’s
Interiors
; the interior design company I’ve been building up here in this new city? The sophisticated, lady-like designer who rubs elbows with all the high-rollers? Is that who I am now? It’s definitely the life I’ve built here.

But it’s not the life I want.

And it’s all because of him.

Neil Barron.

He opened up a part of me that I kept locked away for so many years. But once I’d let him in, I couldn’t get him out. He made me want things. He made me want a life that I can’t have anymore. Because of who
he
is and what he’s caught up in.

So, where has that left me?

Where else? Just going through the motions. Living a life I don’t even want.

“I love him, Ralph. I love someone. Why is this…it can’t end like this! It’s not fair. It can’t!”

He doesn’t say anything, he just strokes my hair gently, trying to soothe me.

But nothing can soothe me. No one. Only one person ever could. And now he’s gone. He’s left me. Me and….

“Ralph? My baby?” I ask, anxiously, pulling back to look at him.

His eyes are glazed over with tears too as he bites his lip and shakes his head at me. “No, Rox. I’m so sorry.”

My eyes snap open and I shake my head, trying to push away the awful flashes. I blow out a breath and lean against the railing in front of me. I bring my smoke to my lips and take a harsh drag.

Those flashbacks have been assaulting me ever since I saw Neil standing in my driveway that day, just seconds before he’d turned his back and really walked away from me.

I can’t even hate him. I know why he did it. He was just protecting me and, as much as I used to hate any man thinking they needed to protect me, I understood it. And I still do.