Chapter Thirty-Four
Drew
Ayda’s eyes held mine with a certainty I hadn’t seen there before. Her body was tight, her arms shaking with rage, and I was pretty sure she was doing everything she could do to stop her chin from trembling beneath that big mouth of hers.
The smile on my face just grew bigger while I stared back at her.
There wasn’t much I loved more in life than a plan coming together.
All day I’d spent around her snot nosed brother, taking him under my wing and telling him tales of the life that we lived around here.
I was selling it to him like it was a damn cruise in the Caribbean.
I’d filled his head with promises of topless women, endless beer, and the chance to exert some of that power I knew he held in his shoulders over something other than a football game.
And it had all been for that moment with Ayda.
Raising both brows at her as she stood in the doorway, I raised my beer bottle to my lips and took a slow, steady sip, even when the girl in front of me started to mark her territory by swinging her leg across my lap to take a seat.
Her bare ass cheeks were brushing against the tops of my thighs, and no matter how much I kept my eyes on Ayda and continued to burn holes into her, this chick didn’t stop in her efforts to grab my full attention.
When Hanagan started to shake her head, I flashed her a wink before looking up into the eyes of the woman in my lap.
My hips bucked slowly beneath her in invitation, and just at the point where my chin was pushing forward to kiss her, I heard the stamping of familiar feet followed by the inevitable thudding of Ayda slamming the door as she left.
“How about you get rid of the others in here and me you and make this a party for two?” the girl whispered against my mouth.
“I fucking heard that, Rosie,” another shrieked behind her.
Rosie. Rachel. Why did they all have to sound so alike? No wonder I got confused so fucking much around here.
“Bite me, Gemma,” Rosie snapped back a little louder.
If there was one sure-fire way to make a guy go limp, it was when bitches started bickering like schoolgirls. Dropping my hands to Rosie’s waist, I let them slide up to her ribs before trailing them all the way back down again and squeezing tight.
“How about I make this easy for all of you?” I grinned, my eyes narrowing as I bit down on my lip and made her silent promises I had zero intention of keeping.
Gemma, Leona, Rosie, Michelle, Sara, fucking god knows what they were all called, all started to move closer as though I was inviting them all in for some giant orgy and my dick should have a cape attached to it cause it could fly all night long.
Their faces lit up brightly, each one with their own secret fantasy of sin shining from their eyes as they looked down on me and waited.
With the kid brother gone, this party suddenly didn’t seem like it held much point at all.
The shit with Ayda was weighing on my mind and driving me off-the-wall crazy, and I knew that if I stayed in my room without anything to do but fuck whores for a few hours, things would get messed up, and not in a good way.
I still had to be careful how much time I spent too close to people.
I still had to be aware of my reactions when someone approached me from behind or touched me at the wrong time.
My body hadn’t adjusted and my mind was as fucked up as ever.
I had to get out of there.
“How about…” I whispered, glancing between them all and pausing to hold their attention. “You all get the fuck out of here… fast.
“What?” one of them gasped.
“You’ve let me down and I want you gone.”
“Let you down?” Rosie repeated, her eyes falling wide as though I’d just slapped her around the face in front of her friends.
My hands gripped her tighter, picking her up and literally tossing her to the side as I spoke. “You had one job today. One fucking job. All you had to do was keep that kid here and get him off. You’re no use to me now. All of you, get the fuck out before I throw you out.”
The first two looked at each other and shrugged like they could just go get a ticket to another show in the next room, but Rosie, yeah… she looked wounded. I would probably have felt bad if I had one of those soul things people always talked about, but I hadn’t, so I didn’t.
I jumped up from the bed before she did.
I wasn’t there to wait around and console people like her.
She knew what this place was like and she knew what her life would be like when she agreed to be a part of it.
For her to lie there looking all sweet and innocent, like she’d only just realized I wouldn’t be proposing marriage anytime soon, was nothing short of bullshit.
I was already wound up so tight that she didn't even have to say anything for me to snap when I turned around to see her still there.
Charging forward, my fists sank into the mattress and I leaned over her, roaring in her face with all the power and aggression I could find to pour upon her, “GO!”
She backed up, whimpering as she struggled to find her feet beneath her before she fled from the room, leaving nothing but the sound of her tears filling the air as she went.
My hands flew to my head again, and I spun around in the bedroom, staring up at the ceiling like I was still waiting for those answers it kept promising me.
But nothing ever came my way—not until I went to look at the one place I knew would give me some kind of motivation, even if it only made me even angrier than before.
Pete’s picture.
Scrubbing my face roughly, I stepped closer and kept my hands over my mouth as I stared at him and waited.
It didn't take long for it to happen. There were no flashbacks of happier times, no hidden messages in what I was seeing, and I couldn't hear his voice for the other shit that was rattling around in my brain.
In that picture, Pete was alive.
In reality, he was dead.
In that picture, I was happy.
In reality, I was a mess.
And the only connection I could seem to make was that one thing led to both those tragedies.
One word that killed Pete and one word that had turned me into what I was, when just a week ago, I'd promised myself I could be something more.
Only one word standing in the way of what had been, what was, and what would be.
Emperors.
I took a few steps back before I really started to move.
The decision was instant and I didn't waste any time waiting around to find a reason to pull myself away, think things through or worry for anyone else.
It was all on me. I knew what I had to do and it was the only thing that would make me feel better.
I didn't even care if I got caught doing it.
Grabbing my hoodie and my cut from the back of my bedroom door, I flung the door open and charged out of The Hut without looking at anyone.
Their voices filled the air. Harry, Slater, Kenny, Jedd, those girls that I swore to Hades had to go by the next morning…
I could hear them all. But I couldn’t see anything apart from the path that led to my bike.
Stepping outside, I jumped down all the steps in one go, landing on the ground with a thud before jogging over to my bike and somehow managing to dress myself along the way.
I was confident enough that my brothers would stay behind and not follow me out.
Considering Rosie was crying like she was giving birth, I knew they’d think this was about her and the stuff that had just gone down with Ayda.
I guess it was in a way, but mainly this was about me needing to make the black turn to some kind of murky gray, just so I could see a something a little more clearly for a single minute.
I was so intent on moving, I didn’t even throw my helmet over my head before I kicked my feet along the ground to back up the bike.
As soon as I felt those vibrations beneath me and the sound of her breathing filled my ears, that same old feeling of being indestructible came back to me in full force.
Then I was gone.
Every road I took was tackled with aggression and fuelled by anger. The pounding in my chest was almost as deafening as the roar of the Harley. I was so fucking pumped to do this for me. To do this for Pete. To do this for my pack.
Tearing through town, I kept my eyes focused on the path in front of me, not stopping at any lights or for anyone as I weaved in and out of cars and turned down smaller roads that I thought could get me there faster.
The Thank you for visiting Babylon sign flashed by me as I rode out of my safe zone and into the one place I knew I shouldn’t be more than any other place on Earth, considering that the day before I’d put everyone I knew and loved on lockdown.
But there I was and once my tires had crossed that marker, I knew for damn fucking certain there was no going back.
You don’t put one foot in the water and not dive in. Not in our world.
The Emperors’ base wasn’t anything like what we had.
There weren’t any yards, safety gates, cameras, business lots or parking bays in place.
For them, there was an old bar off the road with a garage to the side where they kept their bikes and some other stuff that I’d come across when crap had gotten real bad, right before Pete died.
Back when we were forced to do jobs for the scumbags under the pretense that we could all work together for a better tomorrow.
Bullshit.
Unlucky for them, I’d been let through every room they occupied so many times, I had the lot committed to memory like I’d built the place myself.
I also knew their routines, and right now, those fat fucks would all be in the bar, smoking joints, feeling high and forgetting about the possibility of anyone turning up on their doorstep to cause trouble.
Sorry, boys.
I parked up a half a mile away and jogged the whole way down, moving along through the side of the trees in all black clothes so no one could see me.
Every now and again, I’d stop to scan the streets, pausing if I heard a twig snap somewhere underneath an animal’s foot or take a second to make sure Harry hadn’t somehow managed to jump on my ass and follow me the whole way there.
As soon as I saw the lights on, I ran around the back and charged straight for the building where the bikes were locked up for the night.
The place was surrounded by empty beer crates, and after dragging a few over, I managed to create myself a stack that allowed me enough height to get up to the window at the back.
My feet wobbled beneath me when I climbed up and straightened my back, glancing over both my shoulders one last time to check that no one was on lookout and that there were no boy scouts out here waiting to pop a bullet in my kneecaps.
Once I thought I was clear, I brought my elbow up and rested it against the bottom right hand corner, as far into the point of it as I could.
The adrenaline was pumping through my bloodstream so much, it took all the power and control I had not to fuck this up and just smash it wide open.
Patience. It was the first thing Pete taught me when we discussed enemies and tactics.
Quiet.
Count it in.
Take your time.
Go unheard.
Closing my eyes, I kept my elbow in place and took a deep breath inwards.
Then I tensed my fist, raised my other hand up high and smacked down on my knuckles hard, sending my opposing elbow into the window panel with enough force to cause it to dislodge, but not shatter completely.
It stung like a fucker and the pain of having hit my own limb full force sent shockwaves up the bone in my forearm, but it was worth it the moment I saw that the panel had come loose and I knew I could shake the rest of it free.
Sweat was trickling down my spine and my breaths were coming thicker, heavier and faster as I gritted my teeth and started to work the panel out of place.
The bottom corner had split enough, but not shattered.
I could pull pieces out and eventually, I’d manage to create enough of a gap for me to get through.
Once I jumped down there, I was surrounded by the engines of my rivals.
I was at the heart of my enemy’s MC. And I didn’t intend on leaving this place until I’d caused enough damage to put them all on a life support machine.
But then I heard movement outside.