Chapter 38
“ H ound…Hound!” I shake the useless fucker awake. Yeah, it’s ass-crack of dawn early but I couldn’t stay in that motel room a second longer. I had to make a stop at Uncle Vin’s on the way here, and when I realized how late it was when I got here, I decided to get myself a room and wait till morning.
Now morning’s come and I’m ready for this conversation that me and Freya need to have.
“Huh, what?” Hound lifts his head from the table he’s resting over, and uses a finger to push the white residue under his nose up his nostrils.
“What the fuck are you doin’ here?” He looks at me with one eye still shut.
“I came to speak to Freya, she here?” I get that what I’m about to do could easily cause a civil war, and I get that Cam has feelings for Freya but they don’t match mine. Once I’ve spoken with her, I’ll deal with him man to man and hope we can leave things on friendly terms for the sake of our charters.
“Do you know what time it is?” Hound heads over to the couch where one of the Arizona members is sleeping with a whore passed out and straddled on top of him. He lifts the guy's wrist so he can look at his watch
“It ain’t even seven thirty.”
“I know, but this is urgent. I need to talk to Freya,” I tell him again, losing my patience.
“Well, she and Prez are in their room, and we’ve been given strict fuckin’ orders to never disturb ‘em.” He winks at me as he lifts the bottle of Jack up off the floor and drinks from it. I won’t let myself think about the fact they’ve been sleeping together for five nights straight, that's the kinda shit that sends a man crazy.
“Hound, this is important.” I didn’t want to face off with Cam before I got the chance to speak to Freya alone, but I ain’t waiting any longer. I start heading for the stairs, knowing that one of the rooms on the second floor is his.
“Don’t be stupid, Ruckus.” Hound moves to block me, and I’m about to toss him out my way, but the loud, high-pitched scream coming from upstairs makes us both freeze. Our heads turn to the door where it came from, and when I barge past Hound and start making my way up to it, he follows close behind me.
I throw open the door and see a bed covered in blood, but that's not what sends me feral. Josh on top of Freya with a knife pressed against her throat is what makes me charge forward. I leap over Cam’s dead body and grab the arm Josh is holding the knife with, twisting it behind his back and forcing him to the floor. Freya climbs up the bed as I keep forcing his arm outta shape until it cracks, and the knife drops from his hand.
“What the fuck are you doin’?” I press his face against the floor so I can check Freya’s okay.
“Freya, ya good?” It's a stupid fuckin’ question but she nods her head. I can see she’s freaked out and clearly fucking scared but, as much as I want to comfort her, I have to deal with this little fucker first.
“She’s a tease, Ruckus, a fucking whore!” he yells out and I grip the back of his head and slam his face hard into the floorboards.
“Boss? What the…what happened? I watch Hound shaking Cam’s body trying to get some life out of it.
“He must have stabbed him while we were sleeping. I woke up and he…” Freya tries to explain, she’s covered in blood and I do my best to see if any of it’s coming from her.
“I’m fine, he didn’t hurt me. Not yet.” I watch as her eyes lower down Josh’s body and when I flip him over and see his cock hanging out the front of his jeans, I don’t need an explanation.
I reach for the knife, taking the handle in both hands and I drive it like a stake into his chest, over and over again. I don’t count, but I taste the blood, and I feel it warm and fresh as it splats against my skin. Freya is screaming behind me, but I keep going until I have to wipe the fucker’s blood from my eyes ‘cause I can’t see out of ‘em anymore.
“Ruckus, stop! He’s dead.” Freya’s kneeling beside me now, crying her pretty little heart out. “You killed him,” she whispers, and I drop the knife and wrap her up in my arms, pulling her tight to my chest and holding her so close I feel her heart thump against mine.
“What are you doing here?” She eventually pulls away from me.
“What do you think I’m fuckin’ doin’ here? I came to take you home.” I drag her back onto my chest and kiss the top of her head, taking a long, exasperated breath as I look up at Hound and realise there's a whole lotta mess to be cleared up.
“We have to leave, we're not safe here.” Freya waits until Hound’s left the room before she grips at me desperately.
“What are you talkin’ about? Look at him.” There's barely anything left of Josh’s body, he looks like he’s been torn into by wild animals.
“Not him, Ruckus. There's so much you don’t know.” Freya stands up and starts panicking again.
“Hey, he’s dead, he can’t hurt you and Cam…” I may have spent five days straight being furious at the man for taking Freya from me, but seeing him dead brings me no pleasure. He was a good guy, and I can’t blame him for falling for her. “I guess we’ll figure it out.” I close my eyes and try not to think about the two of them together. I’ve been with tons of women in my past, it’s something I expect her to forget about. I’m just gonna have to learn to suck it up and do the same. That’s if she even wants me to.
“Ruckus, I didn’t come here willingly. Cam…he…he gave me no choice.” She keeps looking toward the door like she’s scared.
“Freya, what are you talkin’ about?” I stand up myself so I can be closer to her. We’re both covered in blood, so much of it, that when I grab her hand it slips out from mine.
“Cam was working for my dad.” She keeps her voice low. “Him, and some others here are still involved.”
“Why the fuck did you not tell me that back in Long Beach? I only let you leave because you told me this is what you wanted.”
“Then why are you here?” She smiles at me, cleverly, covered in blood, surrounded by two dead men.
“Because, I’m a real bad fuckin’ loser. Now, tell me why you lied.”
“I had to, I had to come with him.” She turns serious again, her eyes still flitting nervously at the door.
“He didn’t have a gun to your head, you told me and Wrath you wanted this.” I knew something was off and I ignored my gut. She could have been fuckin’ killed.
“He knew stuff about me,” she blurts out in frustration. “He threatened to tell everyone, and Ruckus, I’d rather be dead than have those secrets out.” I can see how scared she is, and if what she’s saying is right, we are in danger. I need to take this back to Raze so he can warn Jessie and the other charter presidents.
“Freya, we’re gonna get outta here, and then you're gonna tell me what those secrets are.” I go to kiss her, but she pulls away from me.
“You might want to wait until you’ve heard them before you do that.” Her bottom lip starts to wobble and I grab her face in my sticky, stained hand and pull her closer.
“I ain’t waitin’ another second,” I tell her, pressing my lips to hers and making sure she realises that nothing she can tell me is gonna stop me from loving her.
I can tell who's involved with Cam from the looks on the brothers’ faces as news breaks around the club. Four men out of the ten who make up the members of this club don’t look sorrowful, they look scared, and as I sit outside the door of one of the rooms while Freya showers the blood off herself, I make a note of who they are. Hound steps in front of me, trying to puff out his chest. I look up at him and wait for him to speak.
“Why would your prospect kill Cam?” He eyes me suspiciously.
“I guess he was in love, makes us all do crazy shit. Club’s been busy, we didn’t even notice he was gone.”
“And was it that same, crazy shot that brought you here? You never told me what you wanted with her, but you were determined to talk to her.”
“I came here to take her home, she doesn’t belong here, and she didn’t belong to him.” I look toward the door where Cam’s body is still lying on the bed.
“I think Cam would disagree with that if he were breathin’.” Hound looks hurt, and I can’t decide if he’s in on this shit or not.
“I spoke to Freya while you were rounding everyone up. She told me that Josh killed his own brother, he was obsessed with her. You saw for yourself what he was about to do when we walked in.”
“He killed my fuckin’ president.” Hound raises his voice.
“And he was gonna rape my girl!” I stand up and tower over him. “I served justice, no more needs to be done.”
“That girl belonged to Cam, she was his old lady.” He looks a little shaken as he looks around him and tries to save face.
“Well, she ain’t anymore.” The door behind me clicks open and when Freya steps out wearing clothes she borrowed from one of the hangouts, I smile at her and take her hand.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” I purposely clip Hound's shoulder as I step past him, and when I get Freya out into the fresh air, I lead her straight to my bike.
“Wait, you can’t ride out of here lookin’ like that, you look like you ju…”
“Killed someone.” I smile as I take my saddle. “I ain’t trusting you with any one of them while I clean off. I got a motel room a mile away from here, I can grab a shower and then you can explain what Cam was usin’ against ya.” I watch her face turn red with shame.
“It’s bad, Ruck,” she admits.
“It better fuckin’ be, because it made you run from me, twice.” I start my engine and wait for her to climb on the back before I pull away.