Salvation (The Devil’s Disciples #3)

Chapter 1

Rachel

I could almost feel the blood drain out of my body as Dante’s words replayed in my head.

I want my son.

I want my son.

I want my son.

I could hear Dante still speaking through the phone, but his words would not register. The voice in my head was drowning him out, screaming at me to run, to get as far away from here as possible and never look back.

If I was stupid enough to let him catch me, he would never let me go again.

This couldn’t be happening. Not after eighteen months of no contact. Not after all the work I had done to put my life back together after he broke me and rejected me.

I had been so careful. I didn’t use my credit cards—hell, I didn’t use my savings at all.

The “Rachel Brooks” account was sitting as dead as my name.

I used “Lisa” now, and even then, I used cash where possible.

I had no social media presence, barely any friends, and my work was in a busy office, hiding behind the safety of a phone in a call centre!

I didn’t even use the name Lisa when I was on the phones.

I gave a different name every time. My boss, John, had thought it was funny.

He had no reason to suspect the soft-spoken girl was hiding a dark and sinister secret.

Regardless of my motives or what I was hiding, I truly believed I had done everything right! Obviously, Dante had Hacksaw on his side, but this was so fucking unfair.

I was finally putting the pieces of my life back together, and here he was, ready to shatter them all over again.

We need to talk. I want my son.

He would kill me for this. Dante wouldn’t shatter my life. He would snuff it out completely.

As far as Dante was concerned, Axel was a King.

Which meant he was destined for the biker life.

He would be indoctrinated into the club before he even said his first word!

He’d be sent to the youth division, and before I knew it, he’d be wearing a leather jacket and calling one of his school friends his old lady.

You need to calm the fuck down!

It was easier said than done when my throat was constricting, and flashes of my life with Dante were playing in my mind—especially that last night on the boat. The night when it had all gone to shit.

The night when he had cruelly violated me in front of his friends, and then thrown me out without a backward glance.

He hadn’t even let me say a proper goodbye to Bee. He certainly wouldn’t allow me to say goodbye to Axel.

I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t lose another child. It would hurt far more than anything Dante could say or do to me.

Muffled laughter came from the phone, and it sent jolts of fear dancing through my veins. Before I knew what was happening, my fingers moved of their own volition, ending the call before he could say anything else.

I already felt better, no longer hearing his voice. But now was not the time to bury my head in the sand. Out of sight, but certainly not out of mind. He was out there, and he was preparing his next move. I had to be one step ahead.

“Lisa?” my nanny, Karen, stared at me, her face white as a sheet. “Lisa! What’s happened? Who was that?” her voice was sharper this time, and yet I still didn’t respond.

I hadn’t been the best at responding to that name under ordinary circumstances. This was definitely not an ordinary circumstance.

The phone fell from my icy fingers, making me jump as it landed on the floor with a crash that seemed far too loud for the small object.

And that’s when my eyes fell on the card.

Happy 1 st birthday, son.

Daddy will see you real soon.

I couldn’t let that happen.

As his mother, I owed Axel the chance at a normal life. I hadn’t been able to save Bee from it, but I was damn sure going to make sure my son had a choice.

What choice is there when he doesn’t even know what his options are?

This was an argument I’d had with myself hundreds of times over the course of Axel’s short life. But it was all irrelevant. Axel was too young to make that choice. I was his primary caregiver; it was down to me, and me alone, to make these decisions.

It's not as though Dante would give him much choice, anyway. The club would become everything for Axel because that life, and all it entails, would be all he knew.

Not on my watch!

“I need to leave,” I mumbled, more to myself than anyone else, but Karen still leaned closer to listen to me.

“Lisa, tell me what’s happened.”

“Stop!” I snapped, and then immediately felt guilt flooding me when Karen’s head jolted back, as though I had slapped her. “Stop calling me that. My name isn’t Lisa,” I whispered.

“What are you talking about? I’ve known you for over a year. What do you mean your name isn’t Lisa?” Her words were rushed, her tone taking on the same edge of panic I knew mine had.

“I don’t have time to explain!” All of a sudden, the coldness evaporated, and my mind escaped the state of fear it had been trapped in. “I need to get Axel, and we need to escape. Ring Hayley and tell her we need a place to stay for the night.”

Hayley would help. She had been my closest friend over the past few months. She had made the cake for Axel’s party… the cake that was now sitting on my hallway cabinet, waiting for the party that would no longer happen.

God! This was all so fucking messed up!

I was kicking myself now for having relaxed over the past few months.

In the grand scheme of things, eighteen months was nothing.

I should have planned for this. I never should have grown lazy and complacent.

It wasn’t in Dante’s nature to let things go.

I should have put a contingency plan in place!

But Hayley would help. Staying at hers would give me the respite I needed. I would have all afternoon to get our belongings together, and then I could escape under the safe cloak of darkness, never to be seen again.

“I need you to tell me what’s happening. Are you and Axel in danger?”

“Danger?” I said with a hollow, barked laugh, my voice almost hysterical. “You have no idea—”

“So tell me. I want to help. I’m your friend, Lisa. Please let me help you.”

“If you want to help, you’ll do as I ask and ring Hayley.

But don’t use our phones,” I hissed as she reached down to retrieve the phone I had dropped.

“They’re probably bugged. This entire house is more than likely bugged.

Shit!” I gasped, a thought suddenly coming to mind.

“Was this card stamped?” I bent down low to retrieve the card from the floor, scanning it for signs of postage.

“I—What?”

“Did the card have a fucking stamp on it, Karen? Yes, or no?”

“N-no, I don’t think so.”

“Shit!” I repeated, my eyes scanning the card again, even though I already knew the truth.

This had been hand delivered today.

This meant they were in the vicinity. Scotland was around a four-hour drive from Leeds—at least the part of Scotland we were in. If they had hand delivered this card, they were already here, and they were waiting for me.

I flew up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and raced down the hallway to my bedroom. I quickly peeked through the blind, half expecting Dante to be sitting outside on his motorbike, looking at me with that knowing, mocking smirk of his.

Thank fuck he wasn’t there. Deep down I knew he wouldn’t be, but I couldn’t escape the thought that the entire club had their eyes on my every move.

Karen was hot on my heels, arriving just in time to see me hauling a suitcase out of the wardrobe and haphazardly throwing clothes into it.

“I’ve never seen you like this! What could possibly have you this worked up?”

“The less you know, the safer you’ll be. Just trust me on this one. Please.”

“Trust you?” She laughed, as though it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

“Lisa…” She paused for a moment, stepping closer to me.

There was a look of caution on her face, as though she were approaching a feral lion that needed taming and calming down.

“You have twenty children arriving in less than an hour for your son’s birthday party, and now you’re looking as though you’re about to do a midnight flit. What am I supposed to tell everyone?”

“Tell them Axel has the chickenpox. Tell them we all have Covid. I don’t actually give a flying fuck what you tell them. It’s not as if I’m ever going to see any of them again.”

“Lis—”

“My name is Rachel!” I snapped, my temper finally reaching its peak.

Karen didn’t look at all surprised by my outburst. I guess hearing that I was living under a false name was the least of her fears.

No doubt with the way I was acting, she was imagining I was running from the mafia.

She wouldn’t have been far off the mark if that was her line of thinking.

I might have preferred the mafia.

“Fine,” I sighed, scrunching the T-shirt I was holding onto and hurled it into the suitcase. “You want to know what we’re up against?”

She hesitated a moment before she nodded.

“Did I ever tell you about Axel’s dad?”

“No. Only that he wasn’t in the picture.”

“Have you ever heard of the Devil’s Disciples?”

“Yes… I mean, only in passing, but what does that have to do with… No…” I smiled sadly as her words trailed off, her hand coming up to slap over her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed in sympathy.

“Yup. It doesn’t take a genius to put the pieces of this puzzle together. Axel’s father is the vice president. Actually,” I laughed, shaking my head. “That’s a lie. Dante is the president. There was a war just before I left, resulting in the president’s murder. Dante’s dad.”

“War?” Karen breathed.

“Yup,” I said, popping the P. “So now Dante is the president.” I finalised my words by slamming more clothes into the suitcase with a panicked, shaky breath.

“President of which charter?” Karen asked, and I narrowed my eyes at her.

“What do you know about the charters?”

“Enough!”

“Have you ever been involved?” I snapped, more out of suspicion than genuine anger.

“No. But the Scottish charter has been around longer than I can remember. So many of us during our romantic teenage years had the ridiculous notion of falling in love with a biker and being his old lady.”

“Yeah, and that was my reality. Trust me, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

“I know,” she murmured, her eyes softening with sympathy. “What charter?”

“Founding,” I said, feeling my heart skip yet another beat as Karen looked like she was going to be sick.

If she was having this sort of reaction, Lord alone knew what was going through her head.

The Devil’s Disciples had committed some heinous crimes over the years.

Even I didn’t know the true extent of it.

But judging by Karen’s reaction, she knew enough to be horrified at the thought of me and Axel being involved with them.

“I’ve heard of the Scottish charter, and they’re not guys you want to be messing with. I’m guessing the founding charter isn’t much better?”

“Worse, probably.”

“And I’m guessing by this,” she gestured to my frantic packing. “That he didn’t know about Axel?”

“Nope. But he sure as hell knows now. Fuck knows how he found out, but clearly he has. So, please, will you do one last job for me as my employee and go across the road and fucking ring Hayley for me? Please,” I repeated, softening my tone.

None of this was her fault, and I felt awful that she was being dragged into the middle of all this.

“What shall I say?” She asked, biting down on her lower lip.

“Just tell her it’s an emergency and we need to stay with her for the night. She won’t question it. I’ll explain more when I get there.”

“Okay,” she breathed, her eyes bright with unshed tears. I was really going to miss her. Luck had rained down on me the day she had applied for the job to be Axel’s nanny.

“And Karen?” I said, as she went to leave. “I’m really sorry about this. I’ll make sure you’re paid for the next few months, but—”

“Stop. It’s fine. I get it, Rachel. Huh… Rachel,” she said with a soft smirk, rolling the name around on her tongue. “Funny. That suits you much more than Lisa ever did.”

And with that, she turned around and made her way down the stairs.

I took a deep breath, my fingers fisting the material in my hands as I fought with all my mental strength to calm down.

This was okay. We were going to be okay.

Dante might know where I live, but Dante was also a sadistic bastard. He would toy with me before making his move. He’d get a sick pleasure out of mentally torturing me, driving me half mad as I wondered when he would finally strike.

If he had any plans of striking immediately, he would have done it already. He wouldn’t have sent Axel a card—and therefore me a warning. Because that’s exactly what that card was. A warning.

He had the means and the manpower to storm in here and take Axel, and I’d be powerless to stop it.

No. He thought he had me caged. He wanted to toy with me like a laboratory rat experiment.

I wouldn’t give him the fucking satisfaction.

I had enough savings to get out of here and fly far, far away.

Fuck going under the radar. He knew where I was, so withdrawing all the money I could get my hands on wouldn’t make a difference.

No doubt he had spies at the airports, but that was okay.

I wasn’t stupid enough to go straight to the airport.

He was not going to make me lose all sense of logic and reasoning.

I would go to Hayley’s, and I would make a plan. Between the two of us, we would figure it out. All I had to do was make it to Hayley’s, and we would be okay.