18. Chapter 18
BONER
It took me just two minutes, in the chaos of the brawl behind Eugene’s Bar, to realize that one’a the Raiders had taken Blue.
Just two minutes.
One hundred and twenty seconds too late to save her.
By the time I recognized her absence, the growl’a Harleys was already recedin’ from the parkin’ lot, tearin’ onto the Sea to Sky.
“Fuck!” I’d shouted to the sky ’fore startin’ to storm to my own bike.
“Boner, wait,” Axe-Man said, grippin’ my wrist tight so I was forced to stop and turn back to him. Brother was six foot four and built like a tank with long blonde hair like some kinda Viking, but there was no berserker rage in his eyes as they locked on mine, only calm control. And that was with a fuckin’ push dagger embedded in his shoulder. “You think she’s gonna go down for gettin’ involved in this.”
It wasn’t really a question ’cause Axe-Man knew enough about the way Rooster ran a club to understand Blue intervenin’ in the fight would bring hell down on her fuckin’ head.
“You know she will. I gotta get to her.”
“Do it smart,” he urged, tuggin’ me closer to palm the back’a my neck and shake me a little. “Call Zeus, get the rest’a the brothers to the clubhouse, get organized, and we’ll ride out together. Take them down now instead’a later.”
“One day early,” I agreed, panic recedin’ slightly as my brain latched on to the plan. “Fine. I’ll call Z.”
“I’ll call Buck.”
“No, get yourself and Bat to a fuckin’ doctor,” I ordered even though technically Axe-Man had rank over me as the Secretary’a the club.
We had a doctor on call for the club, a new one who worked off the books for us after she got fired from the hospital where Harleigh Rose worked. I didn’t know the details, but havin’ a doctor who could patch up the serious shit we got into without havin’ to go to the hospital was a fuckin’ boon.
“I’ll have her meet us at the clubhouse. I’m fine. Bat’ll be good, too.”
Behind Axe-Man, Bat was already on his feet fightin’ with Dane, Tempest, and Eugene, who were all arguin’ with him, probably tryin’ to get him to rest.
“I’m comin’ with,” Bat called to me, hobblin’ over relatively well considerin’ the bullet hole through his thigh. “You’ll need me to clear the way in.”
Bat’d won medals in the army for bein’ the country’s best sharpshooter and truth be told, our plan had hinged on him takin’ out the sentries at the property with his sniper rifle.
“You up for it?” I asked, claspin’ his shoulder. “Not gonna pretend I don’t want you there, brother, but not if you’re gonna bleed out in the fuckin’ field.”
He scoffed, insult written all over his face. “It’s a fuckin’ bee sting. Had worse and I’ll probably have worse still. I’ll get the doc to pack the wound and head out with you when we’re ready.”
Relief suffused me, leechin’ the starch from my muscles. “Means everythin’, brother.”
He mimicked my grip on his shoulder by squeezing my trap, his dark eyes filled with understandin’. “We lost one Fallen woman and almost lost another last year. There’s no fuckin’ way we’re losin’ one on my watch. You get me?”
“Fuck yeah.” I knocked my forehead against him.
“Get goin’,” Eugene called. “I’ll clean this shit up and get rid’a the body––thanks for that, Dane. I doubt anyone called the cops inside, but just in case, fuck off.”
I tipped my chin at him in gratitude as we collected ourselves and started to move toward the front’a the bar where our bikes were parked.
“Hey, Boner,” Eugene called ’fore I could round the corner.
When I looked back at him, he jerked his head up. “You find our girl and bring her home safe, you hear?”
“Won’t come back without her,” I swore, filled with the support and conviction’a my brothers, so the panic eased to a dull throb between my temples instead’a an incessant, distracting roar.
No one would take Blue from this earth while I still breathed.
The last’a the doubt squeezed outta my chest on a violent inhale as I swiped my phone open and called my brothers at arms into action.
We were only a day ahead’a schedule, but it still took longer than I could stand to get the brothers into the clubhouse and organized for the assault on the White Raiders farmhouse. The weapons in the bunker out back were distributed by Wrath and Priest while Bat was seen to by the attractive new doctor, and Zeus, King, Buck, and Lion pored over the map’a the farmhouse plannin’ our approach while everyone else suited up.
Curtains stopped beside me when I struggled with the straps’a my fuckin’ bulletproof vest ’cause my hands were uncoordinated with restless energy.
“Here,” he muttered, layin’ the strap closed.
We stared at each other as words bubbled up my throat, blocked by the fear I couldn’t ease from the back’a my mouth.
“We’ll get her, brother,” Curtains vowed, gently slappin’ my cheek and then holdin’ the side’a my neck. “Just like we got Elsa out, we’ll get Blue. You get me?”
I swallowed convulsively, forcin’ the terror down so I could say, “Let’s hope for a happier endin’ than that one, yeah?”
“Only ever hopin’ for happiness for you, brother,” he promised, draggin’ me into a hug. “No man I know deserves it more than you.”
“You do,” I returned, thumpin’ him on the back as I held him close, takin’ comfort from him like a child with a beloved blanket, somethin’ well-worn with love. “I’m sorry you didn’t get the girl, man.”
“Let’s focus on yours,” he suggested, pullin’ away to smile that crooked, freckled smile at me. “I haven’t given up hope for my someday. If Priest can get a happily fuckin’ ever after, we sure as fuck can too.”
I laughed, chokin’ on the end’a it ’cause half’a me was over the highway down in Furry Creek with Blue, hopin’ like hell she was okay.
“Let’s go get yours,” Curtains said, slappin’ my shoulder.
“You’ll be nice to her, this turns out okay?” I quipped ’cause humour was always my defence. “Save the asshole act for Eugene and Wrath, yeah? It doesn’t suit your Archie comic face.”
“If I’m Archie, you’re fuckin’ Jughead,” he countered.
“Boys,” Zeus said, slottin’ two guns into holsters on his belt. “Get that shit outta your system ’fore we ride out, yeah? I wanna come back with every single brother intact.”
“Blue told me they’ve got twenty-four men in the club,” Lion said as everyone piled into the main room’a the clubhouse, armed to the teeth and shiftin’ on their feet with restless violence. It warmed me to think they were all fired up to help Blue not just ’cause’a me but ’cause they’d fallen for her themselves over beers at Eugene’s. “They have loose shifts of the property, six at a time, three in front, two in back and one waitin’ at the entrance to the only road in and out. Apparently, they’re about to make a deal with some other enemy’a The Fallen to join forces against the club, so look out for more people on the ground than just the Raiders.”
“Never a moment’s peace,” Nova muttered, but there was a curlin’ grin at the side’a his mouth.
“You’d get bored otherwise,” King said, nudgin’ him.
Nova raised his brows. “With a woman like Lila? Yeah, not likely.”
“Game faces on, boys,” Zeus said, voice low and rumblin’ like thunder, shakin’ our bones so sombreness settled over the group. “We ride out to getta woman’a The Fallen outta those bastards hands. She could be hurt, so be careful. You get her, you get out. Leave the others to the rest’a us. Reconvene back ’ere when it’s over, and by over, I mean that clubhouse is burnin’ to the ground with dozens’a bodies in it, ya hear?”
We roared in tandem, a swell’a savage voices raised in war.
“Let’s end this ’fore they get a chance to take anyone else from us,” Zeus concluded, harkenin’ back to the people we’d lost in the club over the years. “Let’s remind them why people don’t fuck with The Fallen.”
Another roar of brotherhood and bloodlust that filled me with hope.
No matter what, we’d bring Blue back into the fold, and this time, I’d never let her go a-fuckin’-gain.
We rode out in perfect formation, Zeus as our leader at the front’a the pack with King ridin’ at the back as Road Captain, our future president. Curtains at my side keepin’ perfect pace with me as we raced down the ribbon’a road toward Blue.
It was almost enough to distract me from the vision’a Blue that kept eruptin’ behind my eyes. Broken, battered, even dead, those neon blue eyes dimmed’a their vibrant light forever.
All I could think as we rounded each corner was no, no, no .
Please, please, please.
Don’t end this ’fore I can give her the happiness she deserves.
Don’t end an unhappy story unhappily.
I didn’t know who I spoke to, God or the universe as a whole, but I wasn’t above beggin’ and pleadin’ for her safety. I would’ve fuckin’ made a deal with the devil himself for an eternity’a servitude if it meant keepin’ her alive.
We split into two factions near Furry Creek, one portion led by Priest takin’ the back exit to the roads behind the farmhouse where they’d ditch the bikes and approach by foot through the backwoods.
The other led by Zeus would go round the front, hidin’ the bikes in the corn crops ’fore the road split off into dirt and led down to the farmhouse.
I stayed with the latter ’cause Blue’d told me her bedroom was at the back’a the house, and I wanted to go straight for it. Curtains was at my side, my twin shadow, as we left the bikes and hiked on foot through the trees for twenty minutes, guided only by small flashlights and the GPS on Curtains phone leadin’ us to the heart’a Raiders territory.
As we got close, gunshots rang out through the still night, stirrin’ birds from the trees above us.
My blood froze in my veins, and without sayin’ a word, our group shifted to a swift jog, headin’ toward the light filterin’ dim through the trees ahead. We crouched at the edge’a their cover, usin’ a pair’a night-vision goggles to sweep the perimeter.
Three assholes by the barn shootin’ bottles and drinkin’ swill, another set up at the back’a the house in the shadows near the porch with a rifle in his lap, head leaned back against the house.
Not exactly vigilant, but why the fuck should they be?
They didn’t know we were closin’ in like a pack’a hounds on the scent’a fresh meat.
The part’a me that rested deep in the pits’a my gut, a darkness without end, unfurled through my blood ’til my tongue and toes tingled with it.
This was the way’a the world I’d chosen to live in. This was how to settle the hearts’a broken men.
With violence and retribution for any wrong.
In my ear, the Bluetooth speaker hissed ’fore Bat’s voice came over the line.
“In position, on my mark.”
“What the fuck?” Curtains whispered, lookin’ through the goggles at the back’a the house.
I snapped my gaze up from checkin’ the safety on my gun to see a dark shadow fall outta the second story window to the roof’a the veranda.
“Hold,” I snapped quietly to Bat.
A second later, two men came out onto the porch, probably to check out the noise. The man with the rifle at the side’a the house roused and got to his feet, steppin’ closer to the forest as he peered into the dark.
I knew Priest was at that side with Wrath, Heckler, and Skell only a dozen yards to the left’a them.
He didn’t stop walkin’, catchin’ sight’a somethin’ that gave away our men in the shadow’a trees.
“Hey,” the White Raider raised his voice to call as the men on the porch disappeared back into the house.
The shape on the porch roof shifted, then paused.
My heart was in my throat, wonderin’ if it could be Blue.
The man near the trees turned back to look at the house, probably searchin’ for the men who’d been outside. Instead, his head tipped up, and he turned his back on the forest to go toward the porch.
And the shape stickin’ up from the flat roof.
“Fuck,” I cursed softly. “Priest, straight ahead. Bat, go, go, go.”
A moment later, the crack’a a sniper rifle echoed across the flat fields, followed by the sharp fall’a glass in a window. Simultaneously, a dark form separated from the trees and arrowed straight at the Raider with his gun raised to the porch roof.
A garbled cry and then he was down on the ground, the shape I knew was Priest loomin’ over him like the shadow’a death.
“Go,” I told Curtains, pushin’ forward as the person on the roof fell to the other side’a the house and outta sight.
I knew in my fuckin’ bones it was Blue and thanked the fuckin’ universe that she was well enough to try to escape herself. Pride undercut the cold sense’a purpose keepin’ the hot edge’a panic at bay as I shot forward from the trees. Men poured from the back’a the house, guns raised, eyes set on the trees.
On us as we spilled forth like a dark plague of locusts.
Another boomin’ shot from Bat’s rifle thundered across the flat lands, but I was too focused on the gunshots pepperin’ us from the Raiders crouchin’ behind the rails and pillars’a the porch.
“Goin’ after Blue,” I shouted to Curtains. “Get my back.”
“Always,” he grunted as he slid to his belly on the ground behind a picnic table in the backyard, shootin’ at three men who aimed blindly at us in the dark.
I circled the table and broke toward the right’a the house, firin’ off a bullet that caught one’a the Raider’s in the throat, takin’ him down with a cut-off scream. Another fired back at me, the bullet skimmin’ my shoulder with icy fingers, leavin’ a brutal burn behind.
Still, I ran, sweat breakin’ over my forehead in the sticky summer air.
No one lay on the ground around the side’a the house.
The men shootin’ beer bottles by the barn were engaged with Zeus and King, father and son workin’ in harmony to fight two’a the men hand to hand. The third lay at Z’s feet, neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
A scream cut through the night, blood-curdlin’ and raw with terror.
I’d recognize Blue’s voice in any form, even if I’d never had the horror’a hearin’ that nightmarish call’ fore.
“HELP!” The word echoed through the clearin’ as clear as the bullet from Bat’s sniper rifle.
I shot across the packed earth beside the barn, trustin’ the Garros to take down their rivals without help.
Blue needed me more than them.
The edge’a the cornfield was a solid wall’a darkness, Blue’s voice comin’ from somewhere within. I searched the seam methodically for a point’a entry and lost my breath to the relief that surged like gorge up my throat when I noticed the broken stalks at the other end’a the barn.
I dove into the narrow gap without hesitation, my heart beatin’ hard at the back’a my tongue.
’Cause the screams had stopped.
I refused to think about what that could mean for Blue and sprinted through the stalks, corn slappin’ across my face and body as I plunged forward.
“Help me!”
The sound’a the scream was almost sweet to me as it pierced the clouded night sky ’cause it meant she was still alive.
And I was gettin’ closer.
Behind me, the sounds’a shoutin’ grew near, and the rustle’a stalks echoed my own as someone dove into the dark field behind me.
I didn’t focus on that.
Blue’s cries grew louder and louder, a beacon for me in the dark.
When I suddenly broke into a small clearin’, I immediately noticed the tangle’a two bodies on the ground. Without thought, I shoved the flashlight in my mouth to shine the light on the pair and raised my gun in both hands, steady as a boat keel, not a shake’a a finger.
When I pulled the trigger, the blast reverberated through the clearin’, loud as a cannon shot.
A man’s head slumped between his shoulders, a neat bullet hole through the base’a his skull, the front’a his face blown out to glisten across the crops like a rural Jackson Pollock paintin’.
No more screams pierced the night.
“Blue!” I shouted as I slid to my knees in the blood-soaked corn and worked to move the dead body’a the Raider off the form pinned beneath it. “Blue, fuck, Blue, baby!”
With one forceful shove, boots slippin’ in the bloody stalks, I forced the body to the side.
Revealin’ my woman, crushed in the greenery, covered in a man’s blood and, maybe, her own. Her closed eyes were caked in blood, chin tipped to the night sky, unresponsive. My hands feathered over her body, checkin’ for bullet holes and stab wounds, broken bones and missin’ limbs. Her shorts were unbuttoned, but not removed, and I righted them with shaky hands, refusin’ to think in what-ifs. I didn’t stop murmurin’ her name as my fingers pressed to her blood-hot neck, searchin’ for a pulse.
It thrummed and thrummed beneath her skin.
“Fuck,” I said with an explosive sob just as a shout behind me alerted me to another threat.
I spun, crouchin’ over Blue with my gun raised, the flashlight in my other hand keepin’ it steadily trained at the parted corn path I’d tunnelled through moments ago.
From the dark maw, an unfamiliar man appeared with a hatchet in his hand, the beam’a the flight light glintin’ off his smile.
Before I could get a shot off, he fell with a surprised grunt to his knees, eyes blown wide a second ’fore a dark shape appeared over him. The sound of a blade slicin’ through sinew and muscle hissed slick through the air, openin’ a line straight across the Raider’s throat.
He fell to the ground at Blue’s feet with a gargled cough as he started to choke on his own blood.
In the space where he stood was Curtains, outta breath but grinning maniacally at me in the light’a the flash.
“Told you I got your back, brother,” he panted ’fore droppin’ to Blue’s other side. “She’s…?”
“Alive,” I whispered hoarsely. “I think she’s got a broken hand and can’t tell what blood’s hers or not, but she might be bleedin’ from the face or head.”
“Fuck,” Curtains muttered. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to her sooner, man.”
“We got to her.” My voice was wrecked with relief, cracked and fissured around the consonants so I hardly recognized it. “We got to her. That’s what matters.”
Carefully so I didn’t hurt her anymore than I needed to, I lifted her into my lap and stood with her cradled in my arms.
“Why’s she out?” Curtains mumbled, fixin’ her hair so it wasn’t in her face.
My throat burned. “Don’t know. Shock, I hope?”
Without a word, my brother moved in front’a us, leadin’ back out the field toward the farmhouse. The distant sounds’a warfare were infrequent now, a shout here and there, a last crackin’ gunshot, and then silence. By the time we wound our way outta the corn––I decided I’d never eat a fuckin’ cob again––the fight was over.
A half-circle’a Fallen men stood at the front’a the house, three Raiders on their knees with their hands behind their heads ‘fore them.
“She’s okay?” Nova asked, steppin’ outta line to go to us.
“’M fine,” Blue shocked me by whisperin’, blinkin’ up at me sluggishly.
I shifted to cover my hand with the sleeve’a my black hoodie and gently cleaned her eyes’a blood so she could see right.
“Bones,” she murmured, tears floodin’ those pretty blue eyes, vibrant even in the lowlight’a the porch security floodlight. “You came.”
“Told you I’d burn down the world for you, Blue,” I reminded her, duckin’ to press a kiss to her bloody mouth. “Nothin’ and no one could keep me from my girl.”
She sobbed, clutchin’ at my hoodie with her good hand. “God, I was so scared I’d never see you again.”
“Even when death comes for us one day, I promise, I’ll be waitin’ for you on the other side,” I whispered just for her, kissin’ the tip’a that pierced nose. Love crashed through me with tsunami strength, purgin’ my blood’a the violent rage and panic that’d consumed me.
“But first the ever-after shit, right?” she said with a crooked, pained smile.
“Exactly.”
Zeus appeared beside me. “Glad we got you home safe, girl.”
Blue’s smile wobbled, voice thin as she said, “Thanks, Zeus. I-I can’t thank you enough.”
“Lovin’ him,” he said, slappin’ me on the back. “’S good enough payment for me. But we got a job to finish ’ere. Know you’re injured, but you good to wait while we do what Boner promised and burn this shit down?”
I watched her swallow thickly and shift with a wince in my arms.
“Can you put me down?” she asked me, waitin’ for me to do so, hand still clutched in my shirt ’fore she faced Z again. “Okay, you can do it. I want to stand on my own two feet as we watch it go down.”
“We didn’t get Hazard and Rooster,” Priest said, appearin’ like a wraith over Z’s shoulder.
Blue only nodded. “Rooster had to clean up a mess in Alberta, and Hazard was meeting this ‘patron’ they’ve been trying to strike a deal with. A guy named Javier Ventura.”
Shook reverberated through our group as the familiar name took root.
Javier Ventura.
The same man who’d pitted the Nightstalkers against us years ago. The same man whose wife had nearly got Lila and Honey killed. The current beloved mayor’a Entrance.
He’d been curiously quiet for the past year, but we’d figured it had somethin’ to do with Lila. There was an unanswered question’a paternity there, a history between him and Li’s mother that made us wonder if he’d stopped targetin’ the club and decided to work around it to keep her from harm.
Apparently, that was no longer the case.
“Fuck,” I cursed, sharin’ a look with Z.
My Prez shook his head, lookin’ everyone’a his forty-some odd years. “We’ll deal with all’a that later. For now, let’s end this and get Bat and Blue back to the clubhouse and the Doc.”
Wrath, Wiseguy, and Shadow all stepped forward with gallons’a gas, Wrath headin’ in to soak the ground floor with the other two takin’ a side’a the structure, pourin’ as they went.
Axe-Man stepped forward with a bag filled with the same incendiaries we’d brought here ’fore—Molotov cocktails, Firestarters, and flare guns.
“I think Blue should be one’a the ones to do the honours,” I suggested, pushin’ her forward a little bit. “Blue, Axe-Man, Bat, and Z. You all got beef with this club, and you should be the ones to see it burn.”
Blue turned her face to me, eyes shinin’, the prettiest thing I’d ever seen even covered in blood, even broken boned and ashen with exhaustion.
“Set the monsters on fire,” I said to her, steppin’ up against her back to wrap a hand around her belly.
“My monsters are still out there,” she confessed.
“Yeah, but today you won a battle. Tomorrow we’ll worry about the war. They’re not gonna lay a hand on you again, Blue, you hear me? That’s a promise I’ll die protectin’. You believe me?”
“I believe you,” she said instantly, leanin’ her weight back against me as Wrath, Wiseguy, and Shadow emerged from the house and took their vigil in our half-moon formation.
Without a word, Axe-Man handed her a flare gun and me a Firestarter stick.
“You’ll all die like fuckin’ animals for this,” one’a the Raiders promised darkly from his place on the ground, kneelin’ in surrender. “You got no idea what’s planned for you.”
Kodiak whipped the but’a his gun against the man’s temple and folded to the ground like a dropped scarf. Clearly, we were keepin’ three’a the Raiders for questionin’. Arguably a worse fate than dyin’ on the property given Priest’d be the one to interrogate them.
“Ready?” I asked Blue, holdin’ her to me, wonderin’ how I’d ever let her outta my sight again.
“My aunt Rita,” she said on gasp. “She was inside, I think.”
“Here, ducky,” she muttered from somewhere down the line of Fallen brothers.
A moment later, King helped her forward by the hand so she could smile tremulously at Blue.
“Thank you,” my woman whispered to me and King and all’a the brothers. “You’ll come with us, right, Auntie?”
Rita sighed, looking back at the house for a moment, a strange kinda longing in her eyes probably ’cause that life was all she’d known.
When she finally turned back to Blue, her mouth was set in a firm, pugnacious line. “Set it ablaze, Faith.”
“Ready?” I asked again, squeezin’ her hip and givin’ her a small, encouragin’ smile.
“Ready,” she breathed, gaze fixed on the house that symbolized the cage she’d been forced back into by Rooster and Hazard and this fucked-up club.
“Fuck the monsters,” she breathed as she raised the flare gun and shot it through the window Bat’d busted open with his gun.
The front room sparkled with light, almost beautiful in the quiet, dark night.
A moment later, I chucked the Firestarter into the porch, Zeus followin’ suit. Axe-Man lit his Molotov cocktail and hurled it through the open front door while Bat shot his flare into a second-story window.
And we stood together, Curtains pressed along one side’a me, Zeus standin’ on the other, Blue in my arms, the rest’a my brothers shoulder to shoulder in a line’a family that I knew in my bones could weather any fuckin’ storm, as we watched the White Raiders clubhouse burn to the ground.