Chapter 37
Ihear a scream when I pull up outside the house. One that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I waste no time wondering who the three bikes that are parked beside Peyton’s car belong to as I dash inside.
“Peyton!” I call out her name and follow her cries for help, and when I kick open the door I’m immediately met with a flying bullet.
I crouch and charge at the guy who fired it, crashing him into the wall, then take out my gun and fire it at the asshole who comes at me from the right. When I’m sure the bullet I just put in his forehead has killed him, I turn my attention back to the guy who tried to shoot me. He’s folded over on the floor and I slam the base of my gun into his skull, over and over, until blood sprays the walls and his limbs go limp.
I turn around to help Peyton and when I see Sonny knelt on the bed between my old lady’s legs I ignore the kid who’s sitting on the bed beside my girl and stare at him in confusion.
“What the fuck do you think ya doin’?” I ask, taking in the scene around me. Neither of the two still living seem to be armed, I’m sure if they were, they’d have their weapons drawn on me. Peyton’s tied to the bed, her legs open and her face, red and streaked with tears. I don’t need to use my imagination to know what’s goin’ on, and it doesn’t just make me sick to my stomach, it makes me fuckin’ murderous.
“Just tastin’ your old lady’s pussy, Boss. Now I see why you like her so much.” He shocks the fuck outta me when he gives me his answer without guilt or fear and it makes me want to blow his damn head off his shoulders.
I need some answers first.
I pick up the two guns their dead buddies dropped on the floor and head toward the door to close it so no one can’t escape.
Suddenly the guy who’s sitting beside Peyton doesn’t seem so confident, and I know from looking in his eyes that he’s her sick cunt of a brother.
“You’re disgustin’,” I tell him, pointing a gun at each of these boys who are tryin’ hard to be men, and goin’ the coward's way about it.
“Which one of us?” Kane smiles at me cleverly.
“Both. Now get off the bed and stand over by that wall. I don’t wanna have to wash your brains off my girl after I’ve blown ‘em out ya skulls.”
They both have no choice but to do as I say. They’ve got themselves into a real shitty situation and they must both know that this is the end for them.
“You good, darlin’?” I look to Peyton, and despite how broken she looks she manages to nod her head for me.
“Good girl, you're safe now. No one’s gonna hurt ya.” I can’t even think about how scared she must be or what might have happened before I got here. If I do, I’ll kill these fuckers before I get any answers.
“Raze it wasn’t Billy, it was…” She can’t say the words, and I have no idea how badly all this is gonna screw her up. What I do know is that I’ll be there for her every step of the way.
“I know. I know, and I’m gonna fix it. You just tell me how you want it done.” The guy in front of me may be a monster, but he’s still her brother, she gets to decide how he dies.
If I had my way. I’d make him suffer, long and hard just like she did, but she’s calling the shots on this one.
“I don’t want to see it.” She shakes her head and looks away from me, and when she starts to gag I keep the guns held up and pointed between them, but back myself toward her.
“It’s okay. Listen, baby. I don’t have to kill him, we could go to the police, have him arrested, but that has its risks. He would?—”
“Rat like his daddy,” Sonny pipes up, and I fire a bullet through his foot for it. He drops to the floor, crying in pain as he clutches it.
“He can’t live, can he? Not after what he did.” She knows it makes sense as she shakes her head and sobs. I want to untie her but I can’t risk not keeping a gun on both the fuckers in front of me. Sonny’s still on the floor clutching his foot and Kane is staring at his sister as if she’s the one betraying him.
“So you're big enough to make the call but you can’t watch.” The slimy prick laughs at her.
“Don’t you fuckin–”
“Raze!” She shouts over me. “Just shoot him.” She focuses on Kane and puts on her bravest face.
“Or he could put the gun in your hand and you could do it yourself. I won’t be the first guy you’ve killed.” Kane tips his head and smiles darkly.
I don’t know what the fuck he’s talkin’ about but it takes me off guard. I stop myself from wondering what he means and focus on what’s important.
“This guy doesn’t deserve a bullet, Pey.” I look at her sadly. “He needs to pay for what he did to you.” I put a shot in his knee and send him to the floor with Sonny, giving her a chance to change her mind. Then, I move my stare toward Sonny’s hunched-over body and force his head back against the wall.
“So, what’s your story?” I ask, flicking my eyes between him and Kane in case he tries anything.
“Everyone knows my story. I’m the club kid who never had a dad. But we all know that ain’t true. There’s only one man at the club who could have been my father, one man who had thoughts as fucked-up as the ones I get in my head when the lights go out. It’s kinda ironic that we’ve ended up here.” His eyes are cold and disconnected as he looks up at the ceiling.
“Cliff.” I’ve always had my suspicions, but the boy’s played a clever game, I see Cliff in him now.
“The funny thing is, I’m more like my father than any of the kids he chose to raise. It wasn’t him that killed that girl who Grimm had to come from Colorado to help cover up. It was me, and I’m not gonna lie to ya, Raze, I really liked how it felt.” I don’t know what the fuck he’s talkin’ about but I’m still disturbed by how it sounds.
“I’ve been prospectin’ for the Reapers since Cliff took me to their clubhouse last year. He knew what was comin’ for him and he knew I’d never fit in once he was gone. He wanted me to have some security.” Sonny looks proud of himself, it’s almost as if he’s forgotten I’m holding a gun at him.
“Are ya tellin’ me Cliff was workin’ with the Reapers?” I check I’m hearing him right.
“For the past year, yeah. It was his idea for them to set up another charter close by. He knew when his takedown came the club would be weak and the Reapers could take over Long Beach.” What he tells me may come as a surprise, but it doesn’t shock me, nothing does when it comes to Cliff Adams.
“Do you know where he is?” I ask a simple question that seems to get right under his skin.
“He’ll come back for me when he’s ready,” he snarls at me. “He only took Willow because he knew she was weak. He left me here so I could make something of myself with the Reapers.”
“Well, I’d say from the position you're in now, that like most other things he got that wrong.” I press the gun to his head.
“You're not gonna kill me, Raze.” He shakes his head and starts laughing hysterically. “Everyone goes on ‘bout what a good, loyal man you are, you wouldn’t break my mother’s heart like that.” He smiles up at me like he’s invincible.
“You broke your own mother’s heart when you put your mouth on my girl’s pussy.” I pull the trigger and Kane screams when chunks of Sonny’s brain splatter all over the side of his face.
“You're crazy!” Kane breathes heavily trying to compose himself.
“I’m crazy?” I laugh at his accusation. “You’re a sick, weak little fuck who got his kicks from hurting his sister.” I crouch down at him and screw the barrel of my gun into his temple.
“You're not gonna let him kill me. Peyton, you love me.” His eyes flick across to her helplessly.
“I hate you,” she tells him. “I hate you for all you did and what you were going to do to me. Raze is right, you deserve more than just a bullet, but I don’t want to spend a single moment more of my life with you in it.”
“Close your eyes, darlin’,” I tell her, keeping mine focused on her brother’s.
“Raze, I need you to make it quick,” she begs me. “I wanna go home.” She better mean back to the club because that’s where she belongs. I don’t care what happened in her past or how she ended up with me. I’m never gonna let her go again.
“You can’t kill me. She doesn't know what she wants. She’s in shock. If you pull that trigger, she’ll never forgive you. You will always be the man who took me away from her.” He tries to save himself and I look over to her smile sadly while I wait for her to close her eyes, and when she does I look back to Kane and smile.
“That’s somethin’ I can live with while I’m keepin’ her warm at night.” I wink, putting a bullet right into the center of his forehead.
His body falls on top of Sonny’s and I don’t waste another second of my time on them. Rushing to Peyton, I place the gun on the nightstand and take her head in my hands.
“It’s okay, you can open ‘em now, it’s over,” I tell her, kissing the top of her head before I start to untie her.
“I can’t, I’m too scared,” she admits, keeping them scrunched up tight.
“Listen, you have nothin’ to be scared of anymore. They’re dead.” I take her face in my hands again once I’ve freed her. “I’m sorry. I’m so fuckin’ sorry that I reacted how I did back at the club.” I kiss her lips and hold her so tight I feel us both shaking.
“It was him, Raze,” she tells me again, opening her eyes and looking up at me with tears brimming them. “I used to go to him sometimes after, pretend I had a nightmare. I let him hold me and comfort me and all that time he’d–”
“Shhhh, don’t think about that. Come on, let’s get you back to the club. Let’s take ya home.”
“He was gonna take me to the Reapers and they were gonna–”
“Stop.” I cut her off because I can’t stand to hear it. “It didn’t happen, I’m here...”
“They were gonna–” She looks past me at the two dead Reapers on the floor and I can see that she’s starting to lose it. I can almost see her heart thumping outta her chest and the panic in her eyes as she relives it all.
“Pey, focus on me.” I stare into her wild scared eyes and wipe under them to clear her tears.
“I need you, Raze,” she tells me.
“I know, and you got me. I’m right here.” I assure her with a smile, because after how I treated her earlier I never thought I’d hear those words from her again.
“No. I mean… I need you.” She looks ashamed as she wraps her trembling hand around my wrist and drags it down her body so my hand rests over one of her tits. “I need you to make it all go away. Everything, what happened, what they were going to do…” Her voice turns into a sob.
I look around me at the four dead bodies, one of them being her brothers, and the irony that she’s laying on Cliff Adams’ fuckin’ bed ain’t lost on me.
“Please, Raze.” This time it’s her who takes my head in her hands and forces me to look at her. They tremble and her eyes are so full of desperation that it dampens all the rage inside me. “I need to feel like I’m yours again. I need you to make all the thoughts in my head go away,” she pleads with me, knowing that there ain’t a thing in this world that I wouldn’t do for her. I take her throat in my hand and draw her closer to my lips.
“You are fuckin’ mine,” I tell her, kissing her again, this time hard and firm so she feels the meaning behind my words. My cock is already hard when she places her hand over my jeans and rolls her palm over me, and I crawl over her body, laying her back against the pillow as I take it out for her.
“I own every fuckin’ part of you, Peyton,” I remind her, slowly lifting up her dress and pulling the panties off her hips. Just thinking about Sonny having his mouth on her makes me wanna bring him back to life so I can kill him again, and when I slide my hand between her legs and cup her pussy in my palm she gasps.
“This pussy will always be mine. Always.” Sliding one of my fingers inside it I hear the sigh she makes as she gets a little of that comfort she needs.
I kiss her neck as I slowly stroke inside her and when she reaches between us and starts palming my cock, all thoughts of where we are and what mess surrounds us becomes irrelevant. This is what my girl needs and now I need it just as much as she does.
“I killed a Reaper,” she confesses as I slip another finger into her tight, warm pussy. “He tried to hurt me like they were gonna, and I took his knife and stabbed him with it,” she manages between the heavy breaths she makes for me. I roll my tongue over her neck until I get to her ear
“Good girl.” I smile against her skin before I take her earlobe between my teeth.
“He said they’d come after me and he helped me leave town. I called my dad because I was scared.” She starts moving her hips to the rhythm of my fingers.
“He told me to come to you. He said it was my safest option.” She sounds as if she’s gonna cry again and when I pull back I see her eyes glistening and looking so pretty it actually hurts.
“But everything that happened after that was real. I love you, Raze, and I would never have intentionally done anything to put you or your club in danger.” She swallows thickly, her hand clinging to my arm like she’s scared I’m gonna run away.
“The past don’t matter now.” Taking my cock in my hand I line it up with her entrance, and lifting her thigh around me I slide inside her.
Her body stops shaking once I’m fully seated and when I look down at her she’s smiling. After all she’s been through, and the massacre that's around us she’s fuckin’ smiling. Maybe there’s a little bit of psycho in all of us.
“That feels good, Raze,” she whispers in that sweet, innocent voice that makes me weak.
I take my time, moving slowly inside her, and kissing her in all the places where they might have touched. Hearing the pleasure she takes from it soothes all my rage.
A dull groan comes from the floor and when I glance over my shoulder and see the guy who I thought I’d knocked dead start to stir, I reach for the nightstand and pick up the gun. Aiming it back in his direction, I pull the trigger, ending him for good, before I get back to kissing my girl and making all her bad thoughts go away.
She doesn’t flinch or scream, just nods at me as I place the gun down on the mattress beside her head and thrust into her a little harder. I bury my head into her shoulder when her soft fingertips slide through my hair as I keep moving inside her.
“This is us now, Raze, we’re supposed to be together and I want it to always be this way. No more secrets.” I lift my head and can’t believe how strong this girl is.
“No more secrets,” I promise, before I kiss her lips, gripping her hip with my fingers as I take her over the edge and make her come for me. She opens her mouth and holds her breath as the pleasure takes over and I do my best to keep her in that state of distraction for as long as I can, because in this moment it’s just us, we’re alone, and nothing about the past can hurt her.