Chapter Seventeen
Almost three hours later, Dux and Drake pulled up in front of their house with simultaneous sighs. It had been one hell of a hassle to go find this part the day after Briley had shown up with her astonishing news, but it had to be done. The custom job was going to net The Garage close to ten thousand dollars free and clear, and that was great for the bottom line. Still, it had been hell leaving her alone and pregnant, and that was why they’d decided to come back the same day, despite the long drive.
They were going to do whatever it took to show her that they were all-in.
Dux sighed again, glanced over at his brother, and he instantly tensed up at the focused, intent look on Drake’s face. The man was practically vibrating , and Dux knew that whatever had put that expression on his twin’s face, their day was about to get significantly longer.
“What, man?” Dux asked, following Drake’s gaze; that was when he saw the front door of their house hanging wide open. “Oh, shit.”
Without a word, the men swung the truck doors open, grabbed their guns from the glovebox.As one, in a single practiced approach, they made their way to the top of the path, and ducked behind the shrubs. Cursing the greenery now – it didn’t allow for a clear view to the house anymore, and they resolved to rip it the fuck out with their bare hands the first second that they could – they risked a quick peek around the corner. What they saw froze their blood in their veins, smashed their breath clean out of their chests.
Rebel was lying there on the path, most of his huge upper body in the house. He was silent and unmoving, and even from fifteen feet away, Dux and Drake could see the blood covering his back, soaking through his cut.
“Fuck,” Drake muttered, looking around them. “I’ll go, you keep watch.”
“Got it,” Dux whispered back. “Be careful, man.”
Drake nodded, then ran down the path to the house; he trusted Dux to have his back, so he didn’t take his eyes off Rebel for even one second. He knew that if his brother saw anything move anywhere , he’d eliminate it, so Drake could just concentrate on the man in front of him, and hope hard that he’d get to Rebel in time.
He skidded to a stop, fell to his knees next to his MC brother. It was with relief and disbelief that he saw Rebel’s broad back rising and falling, shallow and slow, but still… he was alive.
“Fuck,” he said again, this time as a plea, a prayer. “Come on, man. Stay with us.”
Carefully, so carefully, he turned Rebel over, saw the blood spread across the whole of his chest. Before he’d so much as drawn a shocked hiss of air, Dux was right next to him. The men stared at each other, then said as one:
“ Briley .”
At the sound of their voices, Rebel opened his eyes. The rage in those golden depths took them back for a second, then they realized that it was the anger that had kept Rebel alive, kept him holding on. He had been waiting for them to get there, because he had a message for them; he was damn sure going to deliver it, even with his almost-last breath:
“Two guys – took Briley – for Crusher – Crusher… ”
“When?” Dux asked in a quiet tone. “How long ago?”
“Two – three –” Rebel gave a hacking cough, spat blood. “Hours –”
“OK, man, don’t talk.” Drake reached for his cell phone. “I’m gonna call for some help… you’ll be fine.”
“No.” Rebel’s voice was suddenly very strong, very clear. He was fully there and present with them, and more than anything, that told them that it was all over. “Look at me.”
Drake dropped his phone, took Rebel’s shaking hands in both of his. At the same time, Dux stretched out next to Rebel, ignoring the fact that he was lying down in a pool of blood. They held their brother’s bright gaze with their calm blue ones, held his failing body against their warmth, their strength.
And when Rebel closed those astonishing eyes for the last time, Dux and Drake were there. He didn’t die alone.
**
Wolf got to the twins’ house less than nine minutes after Dux had called him. He tore up the path, and saw that Scars and Ice had already arrived.
He reached Rebel’s body, felt his knees give out under him. Wolf had seen plenty of corpses in his life – God knows, he’d created more than one personally – but he never, never got used to losing one of his brothers.
Gently, he touched Rebel’s cold cheek, felt his throat close up when there was no reaction, no response. He looked up and away from Rebel’s too-still face, took stock of the men around him. Dux was covered in blood, from chest to mid-thigh and looked oddly teary; Drake was bloody too, but not nearly as badly, and he had a smoldering anger radiating off him that his twin hadn’t tapped into yet. Scars looked like he’d bypassed sadness and launched himself into full-on fucking furious , and Ice had that look on his granite face… the one that assured Wolf that Crusher Alcott was already a dead man, Ice would see to it.
Wolf touched his fallen brother one last time, silently wished him godspeed, promised him that The Road Devils wouldn’t stop until his senseless death had been avenged with the very meaningful deaths of his killers. Then he got to his feet, and looked at Ice.
Before he’d said a word, Ice said, “I’ll take care of him, Wolf. I’ll get him to a friend who can keep the – keep Rebel safe until we can figure out what – the arrangements.”
Wolf nodded tightly, still not quite trusting his voice, then he looked at Drake.
“Rebel said it was Crusher,” Drake told him. “Not that there was any doubt, but still… he willed himself to live long enough to tell us that, Wolf. It – it mattered to him.”
“He died just twenty seconds after,” Dux added. “He held on for us to hear that.”
“Understood,” Wolf rasped, relieved that he sounded hard, not broken. “Scars?”
“I’ve already called Jinx,” his Vice-President said. “I told him to look through all the security footage from when Rebel – when Rebel left Satan’s. I’m hoping that whoever killed – whoever did this to him and grabbed up Briley was caught on camera. No way it was Crusher himself… somebody would have seen him.”
Wolf nodded again, his mind now busy. “The man is fuckin' impossible to conceal, unless he stayed hidden. Then again, he ain’t the type to skulk and shield. He’s always right in the action, man, so if he’d been here personally, he’d have left a callin’ card.”
“You think this isn’t it?” Dux said, gesturing at Rebel.
“No way.” Wolf exhaled hard. “He’d have – killed Rebel differently. He’d have made a point of – of crushin’ his throat, just to let us know without a doubt he was responsible. We all know that, right?”
The other men thought for a few seconds, then as one, they nodded.
“So,” Wolf said. “Crusher was behind this, no fuckin’ doubt, but he wasn’t here in person. He sent someone else.”
“Well, whoever the hell he sent, they have Briley,” Drake said. “And I’m assuming that she’s now on her way to Utah.”
“I’m not sure that I agree with that,” Scars said slowly. “They’ll take her to Crusher, that’s for sure… but how? I mean, they can’t put Briley on a plane. Imagine Briley being dragged into economy class after all of this, being asked if she wants some peanuts. Impossible. So unless The Highway Hellions’ budget stretches to a private jet, flying is out.”
“Yeah,” Dux conceded. “But going by road all the way back to Utah is equally unlikely. Why would Crusher take the chance of us catching up with his asshole kidnapping goons en route? Between the whole of the MC, we could fly and drive. We could have ten of our boys standing in front of The Hellions’ clubhouse in just a few hours, or a bunch of us on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, or maybe at the state border. Or even all three locations.”
“Agreed,” Ice said in a clipped, cold tone. “The only thing that makes sense is that they’re driving, but a short distance. Crusher is here, in Colorado, and he’s waiting.”
“So what do we do?” Drake asked. “What’s the play, Wolf?”
Wolf sighed. “This one is way fuckin’ beyond us, guys. Too many movin’ parts, too much ground to cover, not enough time. We need to call in some help.”
“Who?” Scars said, though he already had a pretty damn good idea. “Who do we call?”
“We all know who.”
There was a short silence, then Ice said:
“King. Again.”
“Damn straight, King again,” Wolf said. “Ice?”
“I’ll call him right after I call my – after I take care of Rebel.”
At his name, the men looked down at him again; they all knew that the next time they saw Rebel, he’d be more gone to them than he was right this second, he’d be farther away somehow. Maybe because he’d be closer to being buried and out of sight forever, or maybe because they’d be referring to him only in the past tense.
“Make sure your friend treats him right,” Wolf said. “He deserves that, at the very least.”
“I know,” Ice said. “Trust me, Wolf, I’ve got this.”
“OK. Take him.”
Hating to do it, knowing that he had no choice but to move his ass because Rebel might be dead, but Briley was still (hopefully) alive, and she needed their help, Wolf turned away. He forced his mind from Rebel, and trained it on the woman who was depending on him to make smart, strong decisions, ones that would bring her back whole and sane.
“Wolf.”
Something in Dux and Drake’s unified voice immediately caught everyone’s attention: Ice took the phone away from his ear and cut off the call he was making, and Scars fixed that unnerving sky-blue gaze on the twins. Wolf cocked his dark head, already knowing that this was not news that was going to make him feel any easier about any of this.
“OK,” Wolf said, bracing himself. “Hit us with it. What?”
“Briley,” said Dux. “She’s pregnant.”
There was a stunned silence, then Wolf said:
“She’s fuckin’ what ?”
“Pregnant,” Drake said heavily. “With twins.”
“Holy fuck,” Ice said, in an utterly uncharacteristic show of emotion. “Yours?”
They shrugged.
“I mean, one of ours,” Dux said. “But we’ve already decided that they’re both of ours. No real sense trying to play that game, what with us having almost identical DNA. We could go for some really specific tests to know for sure, but we talked about it with Briley, and none of us want that. We’re both the father.”
“Uh,” Scars said, staring at them, trying to get his mind around this latest bombshell. “Congratulations?”
“Yeah, man,” Drake said. “We’re happy about it.”
“Well,” Dux interjected. “Not this very second we’re not, seeing as Briley and our babies are being hand-delivered to Crusher Fucking Alcott.”
Wolf blinked as the urgency and tempo of the ticking clock in front of them tripled-down, then he fixed that ferocious wolf-grey stare at Ice. “Turns out that we have three lives at stake, Johansson, so you call King. Now. ”