Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
JD
“That would be a bad idea,” Cash said, yanking Sasha in front of him like a shield.
The red-hot anger already coloring every breath I took darkened as I took aim.
My voice was steady, but my entire body was locked on the razor’s edge between restraint and violence. My gun was targeted on his head, but I couldn’t risk the shot—not with Sasha between us. The bastard grinned, his grip iron tight, and his posture taunting me to make the wrong move. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Cash grinned, drawing her tight to him. The glint in his eyes pure insanity. “You’re not that good a shot. You’d hit her first.”
Sasha clawed at his hand, her legs kicking wildly, but it wasn’t enough. My blood boiled. I couldn’t wait any longer. My patience snapped like a live wire.
“Let her go,” I growled. My finger hovering over the trigger, desperate for the right opening. But Cash only laughed, a grating, hollow sound that echoed in my skull.
“You’re weak, JD. Always were. You can’t save her, just like you couldn’t save the last one. And you sure as hell can’t save yourself.”
That was it.
I charged forward. The bastard clearly hadn’t expected me to close the distance, and the look of shock on his face when I slammed into him was worth every ounce of risk. He stumbled, his grip on Sasha loosening just enough for her to drop to the floor with a gasp. I didn’t wait for her to recover. My focus was on Cash as I drove him back against the wall.
The gun was still in my hand, but he was quicker than I’d anticipated. His fist shot out, knocking the weapon free, and it clattered to the floor somewhere behind us. My instinct screamed to go after it, but I didn’t dare let him regain control. Not even for a second.
Cash threw a wild punch at my jaw, but I ducked, slamming my shoulder into his ribs with enough force to knock the wind out of him. His grunt of pain was like music to my ears. I followed it up with a right hook to his face, my knuckles crunching against bone. Blood splattered across my hand, but the bastard just grinned through crimson-stained teeth.
“You think you can take me?” Cash taunted, lunging at me with an elbow aimed for my ribs. I twisted, catching the blow on my forearm, but his other hand grabbed my shirt and yanked me forward. His head came down in a vicious attempt to headbutt me, but I jerked to the side at the last second.
“Shut the fuck up,” I spat, driving my knee into his gut. He doubled over, but not before swinging his arm up and clipping the side of my head. Stars exploded in my vision, and I staggered, barely recovering fast enough to block his next swing.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasha crawling toward the gun. Relief surged through me, but it was short-lived as Cash lunged again, this time grabbing me by the throat. His grip was brutal, and for a second, I couldn’t breathe. The bastard’s strength was unreal, his manic energy like that of a cornered animal.
“You’re done, JD,” he hissed, his face inches from mine. “Should’ve just left well enough alone and stayed out of my fucking way.”
I could feel the edges of my vision blurring, but I wasn’t about to let him win. With a desperate surge of strength, I brought my hands up, driving my thumbs into the hollow of his throat. His eyes widened, his grip faltering, and I used the opening to slam my head into his nose. He howled, stumbling back.
That’s when I heard the scrape of metal on the floor. Sasha slid the gun across the tile, and I dove for it, snatching it up just as Cash lunged at me again.
This time, I didn’t hesitate.
The red-hot anger boiling inside me crystallized into cold precision. I aimed, and with a steady hand, I pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot was deafening in the enclosed space.
It didn’t go into his brain. He was right about that being a bad idea. He still had a lot to answer for. But his ear? That was a clear shot.
Sasha stumbled, and I dove forward to catch her before she crumpled to the ground, landing on my knees to make it happen.
“Mother fucker!” Cash screeched, clutching his bloody head. “You shot me.”
“Told you I would. It was your choice and you chose not to listen.” I turned to the door. “Bear get this fucker out of here.”
“Is she okay?” He looked as scared as I felt and wasn’t moving because of it. But I didn’t have time to reassure him.
“Goddammit. Cain!”
“On it, boss.” Cain pushed his way past Bear and grabbed a hold of Cash, allowing me to turn my full attention to her without worrying about whether Cash would attack again.
“He shot me! I’m fucking bleeding. I need a doctor.”
“Only thing you’re going to need in your future is a coroner.”
“What?!” Cash screeched from the outer room. “You’re fucking crazy. She’s fine!”
“Fuck that,” I heard Zook growl. “Give me a fucking shovel. All he’s going to get is a dirty fucking hole.”
“But—"
I blocked out the rest, pressing my fingers to Sasha’s neck. My heart jerked when I couldn’t find a pulse, forcing me to search another spot. “No, Sasha. This is not fucking happening.”
Only when I finally found the steady beat of her pulse did I take another breath. Although I left my fingers there for a minute and allowed that sensation to soothe my angry soul.
Seeing Cash’s hands squeezing her throat had nearly stopped my own heart. Not in my wildest thoughts did I think he would take it this far. I’d underestimated the asshole, and that was a huge fucking mistake.
“Is she alive?” Bear asked on a broken whisper. Hearing his pain nearly doubled mine.
“Yeah. She’s just unconscious.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
I shook my head. “No.That fucker is mine.” I turned my head to address the rest of the men crowded into my guest bedroom. “Listen up! Take him to the cellar and don’t bother being gentle about it. But nobody kills him. That pleasure’s mine. Got it?”
There was a lot of grumbling, as I imagined they all wanted a piece of the traitor. And while I’d make sure they all got their pound of flesh, his death would be on my hands and my hands alone.
“Consider it handled,” Tel said, poking his head into the door. “Since he’s bleeding all over your carpet, we’re gonna haul him out now.”
“Good. And someone fucking call the paramedic.”
As soon as my instructions were followed and they’d hauled the traitor out of my house, I lifted Sasha into my arms and carried her through the bedroom, past the living room and across the cabin to my bedroom. I’d have to burn everything in that room, maybe even remodel it. Anything to erase the image of Cash’s hands wrapped around Sasha’s neck.
I’d probably never let her out of my sight again. Right now, I didn’t care how unrealistic that sounded. The amount of trauma this woman had endured was enough to fill several lifetimes. And I was drawing a fucking line and letting the world know enough was enough.
She was mine now. My woman. MINE. And nothing bad was going to touch her again.
“Paramedic is on her way. She said about five minutes. Are you sure we don’t need to call 911?”
I gave Bear a look that halted him. We both knew that we couldn’t risk anyone knowing what was about to happen here tonight. If Sasha’s life was in danger I’d be rushing her to the hospital myself.
“JD?”
I looked down at Sasha to see she’d opened her eyes just as I pushed my way into my room.
“Hey, babe.” I tried to smile, but I couldn’t force it. Instead I gently laid her on the bed and followed her down. “How do you feel?”
“Like I was nearly choked to death,” she whispered darkly, her voice hoarse.
I shook my head. She might think we could laugh this one off, but it wasn’t happening.
“I’m going to kill him for this.”
She stared up at me, and I didn’t know if she understood the promise in my words. But I meant it. It was my vow.
“JD.” She reached up and touched my face. “Thank you for saving me.”
“Never should have let him get that close.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Yeah. It is. I had a feeling he wasn’t the brother we thought he was. But I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t want to fuck this up this bad.” I stroked my finger against the red marks he’d left behind on her neck. That was going to be a tough image to let go of.
I closed my eyes and pushed those thoughts away. I’d tried to tell her I was too fucked up for this and now I was about to prove it.
“Still not your fault. A man like that makes a choice to hurt people, that’s on him.”
That didn’t sound much different from the decisions I’d made over the years and the countless people I’d hurt.
“You’re different,” she whispered. “You don’t hurt for the sake of hurting. You don’t have a selfish bone in your body. If you make the decision that someone has to be taken care of it’s because they deserve it.”
“You don’t have to try and justify who I am, sweetheart. I made my peace with that a long time ago. I just don’t like that my life keeps putting you in harms way. Or that you have to witness any part of this. This is why I don’t get involved. Why you and I weren’t supposed to?—”
“Please don’t do that. Don’t use this as an excuse to push me away again. I’m an adult, I make my own decisions.”
I cocked my head, but the look she gave me quelled the retort sitting on the tip of my tongue. For now.
“Jeanne is on her way here. She’s going to check you out.”
“I’m pretty sure I’m fine. Throat’s just gonna be a little sore.”
It was my turn to give her a look. “Either she checks you out or we’re going to the hospital. Those are your only choices.”
I could see she wanted to argue, but I also could spot the tell-tale signs of fatigue. The red rimmed eyes that kept drooping, and the slow movements of her limbs. I only hoped those weren’t symptoms of something more serious.
“Maybe we should just go to the hospital. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“No!” Her eyes went wide with fear again and I pressed her hand to my cheek.
“It’s okay, baby girl. Either way, I’m not leaving your side. Just relax. If Jeanne gets here when she says she is, we’ll let her look you over first and then she’ll make the call whether we need to go, deal?
She nodded, and while I normally preferred to hear the answer when I asked a question this important, I wasn’t going to force her to talk this time. Plus, her soft fingers were caressing my cheek and beard and I didn’t want to interrupt that process with my gruff demands.
Seeing her like this was hard enough, so the last thing I wanted to do was force her back to the hospital if I didn’t have to. I think between the two of us, if we never saw that place again it would be too soon.
A minute later a knock sounded at the door, breaking our quiet moment, and bringing me back to the ugly details at hand. It wasn’t only her health I had to deal with. Although she was by far the priority.
“Come in,” I answered, grabbing Sasha’s hand from my cheek and bringing it to my lips for as tender of a kiss as I was capable of.
“I came as quickly as I could.” Jeanne rushed through the door with her medical bag in hand. “What happened?”
“Intruder. He tried to choke her.”
“What?!” Jeanne jerked her gaze to mine, and I read the clear disbelief in her eyes. “I thought this place was a fortress.”
“It is.” And if she thought I was going to elaborate beyond that, she was wrong. What went on here was none of her business other than if someone needed medical assistance and we paid her far beyond well for her services to keep it at that. Besides, the less she knew the better for her own sake.
She finally jerked her eyes from mine and turned towards Sasha. “All right, let’s make some room and let me make an assessment. Did you call 911? I can handle it until the ambulance arr?—”
“No! We can’t.” Sasha looked panicked at the suggestion and Jeanne shot me a questioning look.
“The less you know the better. Besides, if she needs to go to the hospital, I can get her there quicker than waiting on someone to show up out here.”
I could tell Jeanne wanted to say something, but instead, she just shook her head and moved to Sasha. “Let me check her out then.”
I nodded and tried to stand, but Sasha wouldn’t let go of me. “It’s okay, baby girl. You know I’m not letting anything happen to you. In fact, none of us will. The whole club has your back now.” I wasn’t going to explain what that meant in front of Jeanne, but I knew Sasha would get my meaning.
“How long?” I had another issue I needed to take care of, and the longer it waited the worse it would get. I wanted to make sure that fucker didn’t have anything else in the works or some kind of partner I had to worry about before my guys beat him to death.
The clock was ticking.
“Exam probably won’t take long, but even if we don’t need to make a trip to the emergency room, I’m going to be here for the night. Maybe tomorrow too. We can’t afford to take chances with this.”
I should have bristled at her ordering tone, but her protectiveness of Sasha meant a fuck lot more than my goddamned pride. That she would tell me she was staying without asking or being asked told me volumes and assured me that I’d chosen well when adding her to the team.
“All right. I’m going to step out to talk to Bear?—"
“Don’t.” I turned back to Sasha, seeing all the emotion evoked from that one word. She could have been asking me not to leave or asking me not to do what we both knew was coming. Probably both.
“You know I wouldn’t leave you for a second if I didn’t think you were safe.” I pulled her hand back up to my cheek and rubbed my face against it again. There was something about having her touch and her scent on me that seemed to calm us both. Although my calm wasn’t going to last long. Not until this was finally done.
“You don’t have to be the one.”
“I do and you know it. That’s who I am. That’s my life. If you can’t handle that, it’s best we face it now.”
Jeanne spared me another glance, which I ignored. I had chosen my words careful enough. She might surmise something from what we said, but there would be no details to confirm or deny and her plausible deniability would remain intact.
“I can handle it. I just wish you didn’t have to be the one.”
“You just focus on what the doc here has to say?—“
“Not technically a doctor,” Jeanne interjected sharply.
“Fine. Focus on what the cranky paramedic has to say and do whatever she wants you to. I’m going to step outside to talk to Bear and I swear to you either him or I will be here at all times. Either way, we’ll both be close. You are safe, I swear it.” I leaned down to kiss her forehead and wiped the lone tear sliding down her cheek. Like it or not, this had to be done and I did need to know she could handle it.
Me and the club were a package deal. She knew this. And I had a feeling she wouldn’t have it any other way. She’d been through too much lately though, and it was impossible to blame her for feeling emotional about this mess.
My body stilled. She wasn’t the only one feeling emotional.
Fuck . I loved her.
Of course now was not the time for that epiphany. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her for the first time in front of another woman. Or as I walked out the door to go kill a man.
“Be safe,” she whispered as I stood from the bed and turned away from her. My gut burned with the fact I had to walk out that door right now. She needed me and that fucker had not only done this to her but now was responsible for my having to leave her—again.
I couldn’t wait to make him pay.
I slipped quietly out the door and found Bear just on the other side looking as sick and worried as I felt.
“How is she?”
“Shook up. I don’t think Jeanne is going to find anything serious. But mentally, it was more than she needed right now. And I’m going to make that mother fucker pay for this.”
“Good. It sounds like everyone wants a piece of him now. He caused a lot of damage. Put a lot of lives at stake. I about lost my mind when I got your call. How did you find out it was him?”
“We almost didn’t. We had some circumstantial bullshit on some of the other guys that was weak at best, but it was all we had and that’s the information we were following. A last second lead came in on Tel’s phone from the serpent’s clubhouse as we left the compound. Some video footage from Seattle. Five fucking minutes later and we might not have been close enough to stop him.”
The gnawing pit in my stomach grew, spewing acid straight into my gut and causing my entire body to burn with the need for retribution.
“I know you’ve got to go handle him and it can’t wait. You can count on me to keep her safe. I swear to you nothing will happen to her again on my watch.”
I stared eye to eye with Bear, which said something because the man was fucking massive. We were equally tall, but he probably had forty or so pounds on me and it wasn’t fat. I didn’t doubt for a second that I could trust him with her. And that said something too all things considered.
“We need to get a clean up crew in the guest bedroom asap. I want the paramedic to stay here all night to be sure there is nothing to be concerned about. She can stay in there.”
Bear’s right eyebrow hiked to his hairline. “I take it the situation has changed between you and Sasha?”
“Yeah, it has. Is that going to be a problem?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “She already tried to let me down gentle earlier. But I saw the writing on the wall from the beginning. I didn’t want to be the impetus that finally got you going, but you did need a push.”
“Do not try and tell me that you only pretended. I’m not stupid. You care for her.”
“I did. Do. But she didn’t have to say the words for me to know. I’m smarter than I look.”
I bristled. “No one said you weren’t.”
He rolled his eyes. “Comes with the territory. Most people don’t look past my size. Think that’s all there is.”
“I know better, brother. We good?” I held out my arm. He only hesitated for a second before he grabbed my forearm and we came together with a hard chest thump and a clap on the back.
“Fuck yeah. I hate that it took all this to bring the two of you together, but it’s about goddamned time. It was exhausting to tiptoe around the fact you wanted her more than you were willing to admit.”
A deep chuckled rumbled forward before I could stop it. Now was not the time for laughter, but it would be soon. We were all going to get past this. It’d be messy as shit, but we’d get it done.
“We’ll see how you handle yourself when the right woman comes along. If she’s good she’ll string you up and put your heart through a thousand paces before you realize what the hell has happened.”
Bear’s laughter boomed. “That’s quite a specific picture you paint. And a future I’m not sure I look forward to. Something gentler perhaps…” His eyes lost focus over my shoulder for a minute and I wondered if there was already someone he had in mind.
“Sorry to interrupt.”
I swung around to meet Jeanne’s gaze, anxious to hear if she had any news for me. “You’re not. We both want to know anything going on the moment we can.”
She sighed. “Good. And I’m happy to report that I don’t think there will be any long-term repercussions from what happened tonight. Some bruising likely, maybe a sore esophagus. Speaking of. Do you have any ice cream?”
“Yeah.” I started for the kitchen to retrieve it, but Bear stopped me.
“I got this. You go take care of business. The sooner you get that done, the sooner you can get back here.”
“Yeah,” I grunted in agreement. As reluctant as I was to leave, my departure couldn’t wait. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I looked at the woman waiting for the ice cream and back at Bear. “The room?”
“Yeah, I got that too. I’m sending a text as soon as I get Sasha what she needs.”
I nodded, giving one more glance at the door to my bedroom before turning my back. This was the price I’d agreed to pay when I’d become the president of the club. And I only hoped that Sasha truly understood what that meant. It had been a bitter pill for Malia and had caused a lot of issues, especially in the early days before we had a decent network built up and got busted for a lot of our shit.
These days we usually worked smarter, not harder.
But there were still too many moments of shit.
I shuddered at that and pushed what I could of Sasha out of my mind. I owed it to her to do this right and that meant all of my focus on this next task so I could get my ass back home and in bed with her where I belonged.