Chapter Twenty Four
Nero
The next time I punch, I think one of my knuckles breaks but I ignore the pain, like I’m ignoring everything else around me. His head lolls forward but I don’t give a shit, I hit him again and again, his head moving away and bouncing back straight into my waiting fist.
“He’s no good to us brain damaged.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Nero, stop.”
I turn to Rebel. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Whatever I had to, to get you to stop pounding his face into meat. We’re not going to find Storm if you fucking kill him. The other two are already dead. This asshole is inner crew, unlike Chains.”
Deep down I hear what he is saying but the rage I’d kept bottled up for Taylor and Oscar’s sake is finally unleashed. And who better to take it out on than a man who thought it was okay to break into my house, and terrorize my family.
My breath is coming in heavy pants, and my knuckles are thumping with the pain. I can barely make a fist now I’ve stopped. Looking around the barn, I spot a two by four plank. The only people here are officers, we have everyone out looking for Storm, and making sure the cops aren’t on our backs.
“Jesus,” Rebel sighs as I point at the plank.
“Fury,” I snap.
At least he doesn’t question me. He grabs the piece of wood and brings it over.
Rebel curses but I ignore him taking the plank.
It has a nail in it. Good. Getting a good grip on it, I swing it at his leg.
The nail goes into the meat of his thigh making it hard to pull it back, tearing his skin, but it wakes the fucker up and he screams.
“Where the fuck is he?” I scream at him.
“Stop, please, stop.”
Fuck this. I pull the gun out of the back of my jeans and fire into the top of his foot. It blows apart, his toes flying in all different directions.
Serves him right for wearing sneakers like a fucking middle schooler. No one is speaking now, not even Rebel. Whatever they’re seeing, they won’t interrupt. I’m like a fucking animal, I won’t deny that is exactly how I feel right now.
Wrapping my hand around his throat, I push him back, making his back arch and bend, and the front legs of the chair lift off the floor.
“Where. The fuck. Is he?” I grind out.
His lips flap and his face is turning blue. Shit, I didn’t even feel my hand squeezing around his neck, it’s gone numb from punching him so much, my knuckles are swollen and split.
I let him go, and he huffs out and sucks in air, over and over, then coughs when he takes it in too fast. His eyes widen when I point the gun at his groin. He starts groveling again, over and over, begging me not to do it.
Finally reaching his breaking point, he tells us an address. I lower the gun and look at Fury. He smiles and takes the gun and I walk away. I don’t give a shit about that guy, all I care about is Storm. All of them head out after me, a gunshot breaks the silence making me pause.
Fury comes out and looks at all of us. We can still hear him screaming.
“What the fuck?” Beast asks, turning as if to go back and finish the job.
“Blew his dick off,” he shrugs. “He’ll bleed to death before we’re half a mile away. In a lot pain.”
“Jesus, you’re sick,” Blaze throws him a dirty look.
“How is that any worse than feeding him to pigs?”
“They’re dead when that happens.”
“He’ll be dead when it happens, having done it slowly, painfully and deserving.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Everyone looks at me. I’m all for finding fun in dark places but not tonight. When they all stop and look at me, I take in a deep breath, then exhale. There is no getting away from this.
“You all saw my son tonight. I’m not going to talk about him, who his mom is, or why I’ve hidden it from you. I did it for a reason and that is all you need to know.”
“Why would he go after him?” Rebel lights a cigarette and blows the smoke up in the air. We can still hear the dickless idiot wailing. It’s irritating as hell.
“I’m not sure he did. Taylor told me she thought Jesse’s prescription had been messed with.” I briefly explain his diagnosis and what happened with his medicine. “But he knows about him now.”
“We’ll protect him with our lives Prez. And Taylor,” Nashville says and the others all agree.
“He got away tonight because of the fucking coward he is, hiding away while he sent these men into my house. He might be a chicken shit prick but he isn’t stupid.
He’ll know we grabbed one of his men, and he knows they’re not loyal and will give him up without a second thought,” I glance at Fury. “Or having his dick blown off.”
Nashville grabs his crotch and winces.
“What are you saying?” Rebel steps closer.
Despite what I did in that barn, the rage that tore through me, I see this for what it is.
He’s slipped through my fingers. The anger, the brutality, that was all for the man who was in my house, who went after my son, my friend…
And her. I know they’re not going to like hearing this but we’ll only end up chasing our tails if we go looking for him now.
“I’m saying,” I face my VP. “Chances are he’s gone. We’re not going to find him at that address. I don’t think we’re going to find him any time soon. He’s lost, every time he’s come at us, he’s lost. But he’s a fucking cockroach,” I spit out. “We will never stop looking for him.”
“You don’t want to go check it out?” Fury asks.
“We’ll check it out, but I’m a hundred percent sure he’s gone. And he won’t stick his neck back out until he thinks he can take us on again.”
“What changed?” Rebel asks me. “From that,” he points to the barn, which has gone quiet now. “To this.”
“Logic. Let’s say I’m thinking straighter now that I’m out in the clear air.” As if to contradict my words a pig snorts. “I fucking hate it here.”
Some of them laugh but Rebel looks irritated, he knows there is more to it than what I’m saying.
“I’ll go," Rebel says. "Razer, Beast you’re with me, call Ronin to meet us there with Webber and Holdem.”
Rebel raises a brow to me, because even though he’s my VP and I rarely have a problem with his plans, he still defers to me. I nod. He has to do this, even though my gut is telling me not to waste time.
The three of them head to their bikes. After the sound of the engines dies down, there is another groan from the barn.
“That cockroach analogy applies to everyone around him,” Nashville laughs.
“Someone go fucking end him,” I sigh.
Fury happily goes back. We don’t hear any gunshots and when he comes back, he is wiping blood off a knife, which he puts into the leather roll he carries and tucks in his back pocket.
“If he’s gone,” Blaze says, stroking a hand through his beard. “What are we going to do?”
“We hunt him.” They look around at each other, then back to me. “Whatever way we can. No matter how long it takes. This isn’t over. We need to be ready for however he comes back at us.”
Blaze frowns.
“What?” I ask him.
“What triggered this? He’s been gone for three years, now this?”
“We kicked him out, burned off his patch. He’s festered, like the fucking open wound we left on his back,” Beast mutters.
“He’s right, something happened,” I muse, looking across the dusty ground to the outdoor pen.
There are two pigs standing there, not doing anything, just staring at one another.
“We need to find out what it was. Day and night, until we figure this out. We question anyone who worked with the shitbag, I want to know every move he’s made over the last three years, from the second he dragged his sorry ass into the ER to treat that burn. ”
Everyone agrees.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I fully believe Storm has gone to ground. He has failed, after three years of venom filling his bloodstream, he didn’t get near us. But he will come back. And we need to be ready.
“We can’t leave that mess for Stryker’s workers,” I pull out my keys.
“Not it, I did it last time,” Nashville says holding a hand up.
“Pussy,” Fury shakes his head.
“They creep me the fuck out. You ever heard them crunching bones. That shit is fucking obscene.”
“Where is a prospect when you need one,” Blaze laughs.
Anyone watching this would think we’re insane, but this is who we are.
They don’t think any less of the situation, they know how grave it is and how pissed I am but they understand that sometimes, we need to let it out in different ways.
Do I hate that I am not going to get at Storm now, damn fucking right I do, but I will get him. Rebel still thinks we can catch up with him, and he’ll go at it for as long as it takes to convince him otherwise.
“I don’t care who, someone do it. Nashville, I’m going to check on Jesse, you’re with me.”
I pretend not to notice when he flips them off and follows me.
Nashville waits in the hallway while I go into the private room where they’re keeping Jesse. He may be loaded, but I’m not exactly living on the breadline. I stand by the side of his bed for a long time, looking down into the face of my best friend.
If anyone other than Taylor was there today, he’d be dead. And without Jesse, I would never have met her.
I stay for an hour, then head outside. Nashville is busy chatting up a nurse, but he walks away, with a wink and a smile. That shit comes easy to him.
“Speedway called,” he says as we make our way out of the hospital.
“What he say?”
“He’s pissed he wasn’t there.”
“If he had been, he’d likely be dead.”
Nashville lowers his head. I haven’t forgotten that one of our brothers was killed today, last night… I can’t remember what fucking day it is anymore. The sun is lightening as we leave the hospital. Gunner’s death won’t be forgotten, it adds to the list of things Storm will pay for.
“Fuck I’m tired,” I rub my forehead.
“It’s been a rough twenty-four hours.”
I blow out a sigh. “What else did Speedway say.”
“He said call him when you get a chance. Where to now?”
Nashville won’t ask, even though he sees there is an underlying tension.
“You can head back to the clubhouse, or home or whatever.”