Chapter Thirty
“NO.” ELIAS LOWERED his arms from his friends’ shoulders and pointed his Sig at Eddie. He couldn’t allow his father to kill Iona. No one meant more to him than the woman he loved with every beat of his heart. If Eddie killed her, Elias’ life would be meaningless. “Don’t.”
“You can stop this, Elias.”
“How?” Elias knew. Oh, he knew what his father wanted. His heart, his will, his soul. Everything. To become what his father demanded was Elias’ worst nightmare. But to save Iona, he’d do anything, even give up a life he loved.
Elias had warned Iona how ruthless his father was, how he manipulated people to gain the outcome he desired. Ironic how he’d run from his father for over twenty years only to come full circle and fall into Eddie’s grand scheme, anyway.
“Elias, no,” Iona said. “You know what he wants. Don’t give it to him.”
And allow his father to kill her? Despair rolled up like a tidal wave.
He’d have to give her up no matter what he desired.
That would be the price of her survival.
Elias scowled. If his father kept his word.
No guarantee on that. “What do you want?” he asked his father, forcing the words past his lips.
That was the last question he wanted to ask.
“You will accept your place by my side. Together, we’ll build the strongest MC ever known. To save your woman, you will give me your wholehearted obedience and submission to my will.”
And there it was, the one thing he’d run from since the day he escaped the Reckoners.
Elias literally heard a death wail in his head, the death of everything he’d fought to become.
All for nothing. If he accepted Eddie’s bargain, his life was over.
If he refused, Echo, Artemis, and Iona’s lives were forfeit, and still he’d be forced to bend to his father’s will.
“That’s the price of the lives of my friends and the woman I love? ”
His father beamed at him. “Give me what I want, and they can walk away unharmed.”
“Don’t, Elias,” Seth snapped. “That’s an order.”
“Oh, tsk, tsk, Dixon. You should rethink that. One of my men has a bead on your Old Lady.”
Echo unit’s leader laughed. “She can shoot the wings off a fly. Your man is the one who should watch out for himself.”
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Teagan said. “Shall I demonstrate my prowess to them?”
“Do it,” he murmured.
A gunshot rang out, and a man shouted in pain.
Eddie glowered at Seth. “You’ll pay for that.”
Seth gave a hand signal. “Bring it, old man.”
The operatives tucked and rolled in various directions as gunshots rang out.
They landed in a crouch and pulled the triggers of their weapons almost in sync.
Men all over the compound staggered and fell.
Some groaned. Others rolled on the ground, fighting the pain of their injuries.
Still others just dropped and remained still.
Iona bent to check the MC member at her feet for a weapon. She snatched the Desert Baby Eagle from his lifeless hand and tossed the weapon into the thick underbrush on the other side of the fence.
When she turned to check another MC member for weapons, Eddie wrapped his arm around her neck in a quick strike and pressed his weapon to her head a second later.
“Hold,” Seth shouted. The operatives paused. “Put it down, Eddie, and let her go.”
“Never. Elias, drop your weapon and come to me now, or your Old Lady dies.”
“Dad, don’t do this. She has nothing to do with what’s between us.”
“She’s the key to your cooperation. Drop your gun, Elias.” He shoved the barrel of the gun harder against Iona’s temple. A trail of blood dripped down the side of her face and neck, then into her shirt.
One glance at the fury in Iona’s eyes told him what she wanted.
He couldn’t do it. She didn’t understand how determined his father was to accomplish his goal.
With threats, Eddie Knight didn’t bluff.
He meant every word he spoke. He would kill Iona to punish Elias, then kill his friends one at a time until Elias gave in to the inevitable.
“All right. I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt her or my friends.” He tossed his Sig to the side, making sure the weapon was far enough away from his father that Eddie couldn’t use it against Elias and his teammates.
“That’s better.” Eddie relaxed. “Come to me. We’re leaving. Lucky for you, we’re taking your Old Lady with us. I have plans for her.”
“No.” Elias shook his head. “Iona stays here, or the deal is off.”
“You have nothing to bargain with.” He gestured with the weapon, then pressed the barrel against Iona’s temple again.
“That way. Get moving. You’re already going to the punishment chamber as soon as we reach our destination.
Apparently, Sarge didn’t have enough time to tame your independent streak, so I’ll remedy that myself. Just like old times.”
Nausea built in Elias’ stomach at the memories swamping him. Hours and hours spent in the punishment room each week, all because he couldn’t and wouldn’t be what his father demanded, a copy of himself. “Fine. You have me. I’ll do whatever you want for as long as you want. Just don’t hurt Iona.”
“That’s more like it.” He inclined his head toward a faint trail leading deeper into the forest. “We’re going that way. You go first.”
Elias forced himself to follow the trail, stumbling over roots and loose rocks. He righted himself time after time and stumbled on until his legs gave out and he sank down on all fours in front of a tree.
He hoped to catch his breath for a few seconds, but nausea got the better of him and he upchucked repeatedly.
“You weakling.” Eddie cursed at him. “I suppose I’ll have to go back to Plan B and use Dutch as my heir. Why did you have to take after your mother?”
Iona pulled Eddie’s arm away from her neck and took a deeper breath. “Sorry, Eddie. You’re out of luck.”
He scowled. “What do you mean?”
“If you’re expecting good old Dutch to resume his place as your heir, he can’t. He’s dead,” she said flatly.
“You killed him?” His voice echoed in the night.
“You bet I did. He was aiming a gun at Elias. I took him down with no regrets.”
“I’ll kill you for that,” he roared. “He was family.”
“Yeah? Sure couldn’t tell by the way you treated him or Elias. Some father figure you are.”
Keeping his hold on her wrist, Eddie spun her away from him and slapped her face. The impact of the blow split her lip, causing blood to trickle down her chin.
“Knock it off, Dad,” Elias snapped. “Hurt her again, and our deal’s off.”
“I’m not sure you’re worth the time and effort needed to train you.”
He laughed, his bitterness clear in the sound. “Too late for that, isn’t it? You gave me your word. I’m holding you to it.”
Elias gathered his strength and climbed to his feet. He held out his hand to Iona. “Let go of her. Now.”
In a move that surprised Elias, his father released Iona’s wrist.
He tucked her against his side. “Are you okay?” he murmured.
She wiped away the blood from her split lip using the back of her hand. “I’ll survive.”
“Get moving or I’ll shoot your woman.”
“You said you had plans for her.”
“She has plenty of places to shoot that aren’t fatal.” He chuckled. “Controlling you will be so much fun. I should thank you for providing years of entertainment, Elias.”
He didn’t bother to reply. No need to encourage Eddie’s madness. Elias wrapped his arm around Iona’s shoulders and walked along the path once more.
As they walked, Iona studied him. “How bad are you?” she whispered.
Suck it up, Knight, he told himself. In these circumstances, honesty between partners was a necessity. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.”
She took more of his weight. “Hold on to me.”
“You can’t do that for long.”
“I won’t have to.”
“We’re two minutes out,” Seth said through the comm device in their ears. “Had to take out the trash first.”
The news was so welcome that Elias swayed on his feet.
“Don’t you pass out on me,” Eddie said, then cursed loud and long when Iona helped Elias to a fallen tree to sit. “Get him up and moving. Now.” He waved the barrel of the pistol around in an explicit threat to punish Iona for Elias’ problems if she didn’t get him up on his feet.
Elias rolled his eyes. What was she supposed to do? Wave her magic wand and magically infuse him with strength? Eddie’s enforcer had done his job so well that Elias needed a hospital.
Ironic that one of his father’s henchmen had injured Elias badly enough that he might die, the one thing he’d feared as a kid growing up.
When he was a teen, he couldn’t imagine anything worse than dying before really living.
His gaze locked with Iona’s. Now he knew the worst thing was leaving Iona alone in the hands of his father.
“Get him up,” Eddie screamed at Iona.
“Ninety seconds,” Seth whispered through their comm devices.
Wouldn’t be fast enough. Elias allowed Iona to help him to his feet. “Hurry, Seth,” he murmured.
“Copy.”
His father was losing his cool fast. He could see Eddie’s patience unraveling with every slow step Elias took.
“My vehicle is just over that rise.” Eddie shoved Iona from behind. “Go. I don’t want Elias’ friends to interfere with my plans.”
“Why do you care anymore?” she asked. “You don’t have an MC left. Your members are dead or incapacitated. What good will it do you to set yourself up as a king with no followers?”
He laughed. “Is that what you think, that I don’t have members left?
You are so wrong. Six MCs are joining under the Reckoners’ banner with me as their leader.
Can you imagine? No law enforcement agency will stand against me, and more MCs will join us, making me the most powerful president of all the MCs nationwide. ”
“How will you do that if you’re in prison?”
“Who is going to arrest me? Certainly not you or your friends. No one will stand against me. If my weakling son survives his injuries, he’ll stand by my side to rule the MCs, subject to my wishes, of course.”
“You’re deluding yourself. None of that will happen.”
Elias heard the back-and-forth between his father and Iona, and knew she would push Eddie’s buttons, but he couldn’t make his mouth work to tell her to back off.
An insulting woman never fared well in Eddie’s presence.
Iona was everything his father hated in women.
Beautiful and strong enough to defy his orders.
“Who is going to stop me? Certainly not you,” Eddie crowed. “This is my day of destiny.”
Iona stopped walking as the darkness circling Elias closed in. She slowly shook her head.
Although his ears rang, he still heard the quiet snick of Iona’s throwing knives sliding into place in her palms.
“Eddie Knight, today is your day of reckoning.” Between one breath and the next, she sent those silver knives flying, the blades sinking deep, one in his throat and the other in his heart.
Eddie’s eyes widened as he looked down. He fell to the ground and lay still.
Thank God was Elias’ last thought before he sank to the ground and fell onto his side. The darkness swallowed him.