Chapter 48 #2
I’m about to pull her into my arms again when my cell buzzes. I pull it from my pocket. It’s a text. From Legion. No explanation, only a location.
“What is it?” she asks as if she can tell my blood just ran cold.
“Legion.”
Her breath hitches. “ Did he find Ace?”
“I don’t know,” I say, shoving the cell back in my pocket and grabbing my keys.
Her fingers cling to my leather jacket before I can turn. “I’m coming with you!”
“No,” I say, too sharp. “You need to stay here, in case?—”
“He’s not walking through that door!” Her voice cracks, and the desperation in her eyes breaks my heart. She holds my arm tighter as if she can anchor me here. “Take me with you.”
“I don’t know what I’m walking into, Vanna.”
“ I don’t care. He’s my son.”
“He’s ours, and I’m not taking any chances,” I say, gently prying her grip from my leather jacket. “Stay here. I will call you the moment I know anything.”
“If you won’t take me, take someone!”
I hold her arms firmly but gently at her sides and press a kiss to her forehead. “Call Viking and tell him I’m going to the spot we negotiated the truce with Reaper’s crew. He’ll know where.”
I release her and dart out the door before she can grab me again. Heart pounding, I mount Serene and barrel out of the driveway.
If anything happens to Ace because of Legion, there won’t be enough of him left to bury.
“ L et me call Viking. Sit down,” Cherry gently insists at the sight of my trembling hands as I attempt to bring up Viking’s number. When the phone buzzes and rings before I get the chance, I nearly jump out of my own skin.
I answer on a shaky breath. “I was just about to call you. Dean told me to?—”
“ Ace is safe!” Viking’s voice is rough with urgency over the wind. “I’m riding to get him now!”
My knees almost give out. “ Oh my god! Are you sure? Where is he?”
“With someone safe. I’m minutes away. They’re racing to me as we speak. I tried to call Dean, but he’s not answering his cell.”
“Viking, who has my son?”
“Val and Jett. They just picked him up. He’s alright.”
I suddenly realize Cherry is squeezing my other hand. She leans in closer to the phone as I speak. “Dean said Legion sent him a location pin. He’s going to where you met Reaper’s crew.”
“Legion traded himself for Ace there.” I barely hear him over the roaring wind, but my heart stops for a beat.
“What?”
“He handed himself over. No backup. Just him. Whatever hell he’s in now, he chose it to get Ace back.”
Cherry and I stare at each other. Dean doesn’t know what he’s riding into or that Legion made a deal for Ace. What if whoever has Legion isn’t satisfied with just him? What if they want Dean, too?
“Where is he? I’m going now,” I say, rushing to my purse on the kitchen island to dig for my keys.
“I’ll send some guys in that direction,” Viking says. “Stay put.”
“No!” I snap, already heading for the door. “Tell me where!”
“Ain’t safe.”
“Viking, this is my family, and if our friendship has ever meant anything to you, you’ll tell me where my husband is going!”
He curses under his breath but finally gives me an address. “Don’t go alone, you hear me?”
Cherry and I lock eyes as I pull open the front door. She nods, and we run to my car parked in the driveway. The moment we’re both inside, I crank the ignition and slam my foot on the gas.
“Viking, promise me something,” I say, whipping around the bend in the road so fast, Cherry grabs the handle above the passenger door to brace herself.
“What?” Viking reluctantly asks.
“You won’t let Ace out of your arms until you’re putting him in mine.”
“ F unny, isn’t it? Love and hate. Hope and denial. Do you know what they have in common?” I let the question hang between us as I light up a cigarette. It might be my last.
I pull a long drag and allow the slight wave of calm I don’t trust to settle over me. Releasing the words on a smokey sigh, I tell her, “ A very thin fucking line.”
Puppet doesn’t say anything. She’s still got the gun pointed at me. Her other hand is toying with the detonator at her side. Her smile is still stitched too tightly across her face, unhinged.
“So, what’s the plan, Gem? Was all that talk earlier just a show for Reaper’s sake?” I ask, smoke curling from my lips.
“Sometimes… Sometimes I hate you… Sometimes, I can’t picture my life without you.” She tilts her head. “That’s always been our dance, hasn’t it? Do you know why I tracked you down after Chad?”
I pull another drag and flick the ash with my thumb. “Revenge… Despite the fact that you betrayed me first .”
She smiles, soft, but off . “You could have killed me, too…the night of the graduation party… You spared me… You love me… I just needed to remind you.”
I nearly choke on my smoke as I laugh. “Is that what you’ve been telling yourself?”
Her smile fades.
“My love for you died the night I nearly did at the end of that chain… You just got lucky and happened to survive. I didn’t care whether you lived or died.” I toss the cigarette on the ground and snuff out the ember beneath my boot. “ Until now…”
Death has always been in my cards, but if I can make this my last act of true love …
then maybe I can leave this wretched world with a shred of something that might look a little like redemption in Vanna’s eyes.
I was already leaving anyway. She can get on with her life, raise her son with Keegan, heal from the consequences and misfortunes of having drawn me— a demon —into her compassionate, magnanimous orbit…
My fingers slip around the horns of the demon belt buckle, and I slip the small push-blade free, turning to face the woman I’ve driven to madness head-on.
I can almost hear the haunting melody of Mozart’s Lacrimosa in my mind as an insidious grin stretches my mouth.
“Did you know Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died before completing the entire Requiem? His student, Franz Xaver Sussmayr, completed the work, including the rest of the Lacrimosa movement.”
Puppet smiles. “I did, actually.”
“It’s such a shame you let your musical talents go to such tragic waste.” I grip the horns tightly, the little blade—eager for her blood—protrudes between my fingers. “Let’s dance, Gemma… One last time…”
I move fast, but her bullet is faster. The shot cracks through the air like a thunderclap and rips through my side, lightening hot.
My body buckles, but I surge forward, and she stumbles back in fear, heel catching on the edge of broken concrete.
The detonator slips from her hand and clatters to the ground, skidding beyond reach.
Panic flashes in her eyes, and she raises the gun to fire again, but I knock it wide and slam into her with everything I’ve got left.
Pain explodes through my side as we crash to the concrete.
I barely hear her screams through the ringing in my ears.
She kicks and claws beneath me, eyes going wide with terror when I slug her in the gut with the push-blade…
once…twice…three times. The blade slips from my grip, the smooth metal horns of the handle too slick to hold onto.
It clangs on the ground beside us, and I wrap my crimson-stained hands around her treacherous throat.
It’s fitting she should die this way…the way they killed whatever good remained in me years ago.
Her eyes bulge as I squeeze. She desperately bucks beneath me, kicking and clawing at my wrists, before abandoning the task in an attempt to grab for the gun just beyond reach.
“You always wanted to see the demon dwelling within me,” I snarl. “Take a good look, Puppet! This is our blood sacrifice, and he’s our escort to hell!”
I barely hear the metallic scrape of the push-blade against the concrete floor when her flailing hand finds purchase…
She plunges it into my side, and hellfire erupts where the blade nicks my ribs through my leather jacket.
She twists and pulls it out to stab me again, and I nearly lose my grip on her throat from the blinding pain and my draining strength.
“ Keep stabbing, you little bitch…” I pant. “I want your last breath soaked in failure…”
“ A xel and the guys are ten minutes behind us,” Cherry says, just as I cut down the old road leading up to the address I strongarmed out of Viking. It doesn’t appear to have been maintained in years, but I don’t ease up on the gas pedal.
The old factory comes into view when we reach the wide clearing, looking like something out of a nightmare—gray, cracked, rust stains from exposed rebar marring it as if the structure itself is bleeding.
Dean is already off of Serene, moving toward the looming structure with his gun drawn, muscles coiled tight like he’s walking straight into hell.
His head snaps in our direction the moment he hears my car, weapon still raised in the direction of the factory.
I can read the muttering of “Jesus Fuck, Vanna!” on his lips.
The car skids to a halt, and I throw it in park, barely twisting the key from the ignition before flinging the door open as he hurriedly jogs toward us, gun still cautiously trained on the building.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he says, low but firm. He glances at Cherry when she steps from the passenger side door. “Either of you.” His concerned gaze shifts back to me. “I told you to stay put for a reason.”
“I had to come,” I quickly say. “Ace is safe. Viking has him. He’s at the clubhouse.”
A mixture of relief and confusion eclipses Dean’s stern expression. “What?”
“ Ace is okay.” I grip his tense shoulder and stare searchingly into his dark eyes. “ Legion might not be … He traded himself for Ace. We can’t just walk away.”
Dean’s eyes narrow, and he glances back at the condemnable structure. “It’s dead quiet in there… If not for his bike and that Meg woman’s car…” He cocks his chin in the direction of the parked vehicle and Legion’s motorcycle. “I wouldn’t think there’s a living soul inside this place.”
“We need to see if he’s still here.” I stare at the looming structure, looking more and more like a giant, decrepit mausoleum.