Chapter Twenty-Four
Mayhem and Madness
The roar of revving motorcycles ringing the bonfire faded into nothingness as I zeroed in on the gun Slash held. He hadn’t fired it yet, so that told me he was either worried about the sound of it going off, or he was waiting for something. Either way worked for me.
“I was wondering how I was going to get the two of you separated from all the fun and games over at the bonfire, but thanks to you, Chef, you solved that problem for me.” In the dimness, Slash’s manic grin widened that much more. “Who knew that one little M-80 firecracker would make you rabbit out of there like your tighty-whities were on fire? You’re such a fucking pussy, it’s laughable.”
“Everything’s laughable to you, Slash.” I spoke in a forceful tone to keep my voice from shaking, but also in the hope that my phone’s connection to Romeo hadn’t been lost and he could hear every word being said. “You know what’s laughable to me? The moment you shoot that thing, the sound of it will make all those LEOs out there swarm. I don’t care how buried we are in these trees, the whole world’s going to hear you murdering us.” The trees, Romeo. Look for us in the trees.
“You really think they’re smart enough to tell the difference between fireworks and gunfire? You’re funny.” As if to underscore his point, the group near Ride Or Die set off a series of crackling fireworks, followed by howls of revelry.
Damn it.
Time to change the subject. “You’re the one who took Arthur out of the compound this morning, aren’t you? You’re the one who murdered him.”
“Well, I didn’t murder him personally, but yeah. That was little ol’ me. I laughed for the rest of the day just thinking about how surprised he looked when I shoved him into Ghoul’s truck.” He mimicked an exaggerated look of surprise, his mouth a sudden, shocked O before he snickered. “Wouldn’t be at all surprised if he wound up pissing himself before he kicked the bucket.”
I would kill this sonofabitch myself with my bare hands. “How’d you do it? Everyone’s on alert and they all know there’s at least one spy in their midst, so how did you get Arthur out of the compound?”
“Ooh, listen to the newest ol’ lady spilling the tea. Someone’s been sharing classified club business with you when they shouldn’t have.” At that, Slash laughed that hyena’s laugh that I hoped pinpointed our location to anyone who was within earshot. “No one outside of the club officers is supposed to know about Tyr’s little spy problem, but I get it. Pillow-talk happens, even with Tyr’s oh-so special Chief of Security. I just find it fucking hilarious that Romeo’s running around like a chicken with his head cut off looking for leaks, when all the while he’s been leaking shit to you. What a hypocrite, am I right? Can’t wait to call him on it.”
That would be quite the conversation, telling Romeo what I’d said right before my murder.
I shivered again. “I’m sure he’ll want to know how Arthur got off-property, just like me.”
“Who gives a shit? Kid’s gone now. Say bye-bye to the kid.”
I really, really hated this guy. “He was my friend.”
“Some friend you are, sending him off to his death when that buffalo chicken-trap was baited for you, not him. Oh, yeah,” he nodded vigorously when my jaw dropped. “I’m the one who took the bags of chicken wings off the delivery truck and tossed them in the dumpster. Spur-of-the-moment plan on my part, I’ll admit, but it worked. Well, sort of. When I went into the kitchen looking for coffee and found you all by your lonesome, I tried to figure out how to get you out of the Barracks kitchen. That’s when the delivery truck showed up, so I went for it. Imagine my disappointment when you sent the kid instead.”
“Why even bother with me?” I asked, fighting the urge to glance at the phone I’d dropped in the bush. The last thing I wanted to do was call attention to it, but if it had broken when I’d dropped it and Romeo wasn’t hearing any of this, my brother and I were doomed. “In fact, why even chase us into this stupid little island of trees? What’s the point?”
“The point? The point is mayhem and madness, you dumb bitch. The point is waltzing into your enemy’s home, eating all their food, moving all the furniture around and taking a dump on their bathroom floor, just to show them there’s nothing they can do to stop you. And then there’s also the order of getting Chef back just so we can kill him as a warning to anyone else who might be thinking of abandoning ship. So, yeah. Lots and lots of points, really.”
I heard Josh’s breath shudder, but he stood his ground. “If that’s the case and Hades wants me dead, why did you bait a trap for my sister? Why not go straight for me?”
“Because I didn’t know where you were, dummy,” came the simple reply. “But I knew where Shiloh was, and I knew that her man Romeo knew where you were. Figured if I could get my hands on her, Romeo would trade you to get her back, so I went for it. I waited for her to come out of the kitchen looking for her missing chicken. When Arthur showed up instead, I decided it was still an opportunity to wreak a little havoc, so I walked him to a gate no one uses beside Ride Or Die, talking fairytale shit about how he was becoming a real Gravedigger or whatever, and he ate it all up right until I shoved him into the back of Ghoul’s truck. Like I said—bye-bye, kid.”
“You killed Arthur for no reason.” I started shaking, and it wasn’t from the cold. It was from a terrible, soul-deep anger. “No reason at all.”
“I told you the reason—mayhem and madness. That’s what this world is all about, Shy, and once you embrace that one inescapable fact, you own this world. Just like I own the two of you right now. Though I don’t really need two of you anymore, do I? Now that Chef has come out of hiding, I don’t need the little sister as a tag-along.” Slash’s smile was sharp as he raised his gun and pointed it at me. “Bye-bye, Shy.”
“No.” As I stared, frozen, down the barrel of his gun breathing what I was sure was my last breath, my brother jumped in front of me, his body shielding me while his hands blindly reached for mine. “You came for me, right? So fine. Let’s just go. I’ll leave with you, nice and quiet, okay? Just let my sister go.”
I stared up at the back of my brother’s head. Josh…
“Damn, Chef, you really have grown a pair since you’ve been riding with us, haven’t you? Better late than never, I guess,” Slash shrugged, taking a phone out of his back pocket while still holding the gun on us. “Maybe we need her, after all, if only to have a little fun. Hold on a sec.” He put the phone to his ear. “Hey, Marvel. Got your old girlfriend and her brother here. You want in?” He waited a beat, clearly listening. “Yeah, we’re at that weird little thing of trees in the middle of the parking lot. How close are you?”
“Close enough.”
My blood froze as Marvel’s voice came out of the darkness, and I turned to look over my shoulder as the thick brush rustled behind me. Since the only light we had was the far-off glow of the bonfire and the security lights fronting Ride Or Die Choppers, it was difficult to see Marvel’s face with any detail. But what I could see made me silently cheer Romeo for what his beatdown had produced.
Marvel looked monstrous. His face was clearly misshapen and covered in a rainbow of bruises. The blackness circling his eyes made me think at first that he was somehow wearing sunglasses in the dark, but then I caught the faint glimmer of the bonfire reflected in his swollen, slitted eyes. His cheeks and jawline seemed lumpy and somehow doubled in size, and I never would have recognized him had it not been for his voice. Wetness glistened on his lower lip as he stared at my brother and me, and Slash made a sound of disgust.
“Dude, you’re drooling again. How can you not feel that shit leaking out of you?”
“Fuck you.” But Marvel did take a haphazard swipe at his mouth, making me realize he also had a gun in his hand.
We were so dead.
“Well, here we are again. A big, happy reunion.” Marvel’s words came out muffled, and I realized he probably had his jaw wired shut since he seemed almost like a ventriloquist trying to keep his face from moving when he spoke. “Where’s your man, Shiloh? Where’s Romeo?”
“Not here.” And for that I was suddenly very grateful. I’d do just about anything to keep these assholes away from him. “You do realize we’re out here in the open, right? Anyone hears us talking in here, and they could come and investigate. I suggest you get your shit done and get out of here before you’re caught behind enemy lines.”
“This spot’s usually where guys go for a quick bang, because they like the pretend danger of someone catching them going at it.” Slash shrugged an indifferent shoulder. “Pretend dangers for pretend tough guys. Tyr’s Gravediggers are bikers-lite, know what I mean? If any of these wannabe 1%ers gets close enough to hear our voices, they’ll be fuckin’ polite little choir boys and go somewhere else.”
“You don’t get it, Shiloh. I want Romeo to come here.” Marvel seemed to spend a lot of energy to make each word clear, and through the darkness the slits of his blackened eyes glittered feverishly. “Call him. Now.”
I tried not to shiver. “With what, mental telepathy? I don’t have a phone.”
“Bullshit.”
“Oopsies. My bad.” Slash gave Marvel a beatific smile. “I made her ditch her phone.”
Marvel turned on him, moving like Quasimodo. Damn, Romeo really did a number on him. “You what?”
“Now, now, don’t get your pretty little panties in a bunch, your drooly worship…”
“Shiloh.” My brother spoke so quietly it was no louder than a breath. “Get ready to run.”
“Come with me?” I couldn’t leave him behind and live with myself.
“Yeah.” His hands squeezed mine before pushing them away from him. “Now!”
My feet were now completely numb, but I could still put them to good use as I turned and dashed into the darkness half a second before I heard a shot ring out. My brother made a grunting noise before the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the ground reached my ears.
“Josh!” I looked back and saw my brother on the ground, struggling—and failing—to get to his feet. In that moment it didn’t matter that there were sadistic maniacs with guns wanting us dead. What mattered was my brother, and I loved him despite his failings. In the end he’d come through for me, because that was what family did.
And there was nothing more important than family.
I skidded to a stop and took a step back in the direction of my fallen brother with the half-baked notion of dragging him to his feet, when strong arms snaked out of the darkness. At the same time more dark figures closed in on the shadowy island of trees.
“You’re out of this, honey,” came Ashtray’s voice close to my ear. “Romeo and Ajax’ll take care of this from here on in.”
“But… wait, Slash is the spy and my brother needs help, he’s been shot—”
“We know. We’ve known since Slash popped off about Marvel drooling after he got out of the hospital. How the hell could he have known about that? We didn’t know about it until Romeo did some checking and found some pics that our guy took with Marvel clearly drooling like a St. Bernard. But none of us ever saw those particular photos. Slash gave himself away.”
“You mean you knew he was Hades’s man right here in the compound with the rest of us?” I literally saw red. “Why didn’t you jump on him right away?”
“Can’t hit a brother without absolute proof, or you shatter the trust that holds us all together. Not to mention Tyr wanted to see who Slash met up with here on the inside to see who else was on Hades’s payroll. We’ve tagged two for sure, and a third is a strong possibility. If you and your brother had stayed put at the bonfire under our protection, we could’ve had more time to figure out who’s friend and who’s foe.” I felt him shrug as another round of firecrackers went off, scaring the crap out of me. “Shit happens, I guess.”
That was one way to put it. “Let me go to my brother so you can help Romeo and Ajax.”
“Honey, trust me, those two can handle Slash, no worries.”
“But it’s not just Slash in there, Ashtray. Marvel’s in there too, and he’s got a gun and a score to settle with Romeo. If anyone can pull dirty shit in a fight, it’s Marvel.”
“What? Marvel? Fuck me.” In a flash, Ashtray dug for a phone but still kept one arm firmly around my shoulders to keep me in place. “Tyr, mayday, mayday, we’ve got Marvel and who knows who the fuck else in the compound. Flood the place with—”
Another shot rang out, this one from behind us and Ashtray lunged forward, almost knocking me down. He went face-first into the pavement, and before I could even register what that meant, I was grabbed again, this time with rough savagery. I knew even before he spoke that the blood-chilling, dark presence surrounding me like a suffocating miasma belonged to Marvel.
My personal nightmare.
A sharp pain bit into my side, and I knew without looking that it was the muzzle of the gun he’d used to take out Ashtray. One twitch from me or one spasm from him, and a bullet would tear through my body, and that would be it. He’d kill me, and he’d laugh while doing it. Too well I remembered Marvel’s capacity for cruelty, a cruelty that I’d often dreamed of destroying with my bare hands. Choking, shooting, stabbing, hitting him with my pickup… I’d dreamed of it all, but never once did I imagine that I might once again be his helpless victim. It was enough to make me cry tears of pure rage.
Wait.
Stabbing…
“Romeo!” Marvel let out as ear-piercing screech, while at our feet Ashtray lay unmoving. Horror locked my throat in place at how still he was, but just as all hope began to trickle away I saw my brother stir. “Romeo, you motherfucker, I’ve got your woman!”
I nearly choked on a hysterical laugh. With Marvel’s jaw wired shut, he had so much trouble with Romeo’s name it basically came out as “Womeo.”
“If you want this cunt to live through the next five minutes, you’ll get your ass out here!”
Grimly I tried to keep the panic from closing a fist on my mind. I snuck my hand into my jacket pocket, hiding that sneaky movement by overtly struggling against his hold. Knife, knife, knife. I put it in my pocket, didn’t I? Where the hell was it?
“Stop moving, bitch.” Wetness sprayed my cheek, and I realized it was Marvel’s drool as he took shelter behind me like the coward he was. “I got no problem shooting you dead. Just look at all the bodies on the ground. You wanna join ‘em, just keep this shit up.”
“You’re going to shoot me anyway.” At last, my fingers closed around the sticky grip of the knife Romeo had given me. With more desperation than finesse, my thumb flicked the snap on the sheath before sliding the knife carefully free. “Somehow I always knew it would come down to this. You are truly my personal nightmare.”
“Everyone’s gotta have a hobby,” Marvel said almost cheerfully before screeching out once more through his wired-shut teeth. “Come on, Romeo. You gonna stay hidden like the fucking coward you are, or are you gonna come out and play?”
“Playing is for children. I don’t play.” Romeo emerged from the shadows directly in front of us, his arms held loose at his sides, his eyes so hot they seemed to glow even through the darkness. “And look at you, having the fucking nerve to call me a coward while you hide behind my woman. By God, I’m going to enjoy doing my version of an autopsy on you, you unworthy shitheel. I’m going to go looking for your guts, your balls and your spine, in that order. I’ll even keep you alive while I’m doing it, just for kicks. That’s how your last night on earth is going to be spent, Marvel. I swear it.”
Oh, God. He would do it, too. I could hear it in his voice.
The muzzle of the gun bit into my side so hard it made me cry out and struggle to get away from it, and again I used the movement to slip my hand holding the knife out of my pocket.
Now, all I could think about was being so scared I’d drop it.
Please, God. Please, please, please help me do this. Help me not miss.
But… wait.
If I stabbed Marvel, I could startle him into pulling the trigger.
I didn’t want to die.
What’s worse? Getting shot, or watching Romeo get shot while you could have done something to prevent it?
I knew.
Of course I knew. I knew, because…
“I love you.” I looked into Romeo’s eyes, wishing it wasn’t so damn dark. I wanted to see his face, because this might be the last time I’d ever get to see it. I wanted him to see me, so he knew that no matter what happened, I was okay with it. “I love you.”
Through the gloom, I thought I saw his eyes widen in immediate, terrible understanding.
I brought the knife up and stabbed it down and back behind me where Marvel’s leg pressed against mine. I used every ounce of force I had, fueled by years of rage and humiliation at this one monster of a man, and the impact of it jolted through my whole arm even as Marvel screamed in my ear.
Then things moved hyper-fast.
I spun away from the hand that held the gun even as it went off. Heat singed my side as I stumbled into the folds of darkness and away from Marvel. Romeo moved faster than any human his size had a right to move and launched at Marvel. I heard the unmistakable sound of the gun clattering against the pavement before Romeo let out a feral growl, plucked out the knife I’d stuck into the side of Marvel’s thigh, and brought it down once, twice, three times into the center of Marvel’s chest.
The world suddenly went very still.
As if in a dream where sound dwindled away to nothing in my ears, I moved in slow motion toward Romeo, my eyes glued to Marvel as he lay motionless on the ground. A faint gurgle escaped him as the glitter in his swollen eyes slowly trickled away, before at last becoming lifeless.
Finally.
With his breath coming out in short puffs that vapored in the icy air, Romeo surged to his feet and hauled me into his arms, squeezing me so tightly I could barely breathe.
“You hit?” A scant second later he put me down and frantically moved his hands over my torso. “That final shot, did he get you?”
“No. No, I’m good.” And alive. Dear God, we’d both made it out alive. Everything in the world was perfect.
“No. Fuck, he got you. But it’s just a scratch, I think.” I gasped when his hand came away dark with a smear of my blood—how odd that it looked black in the dim light—before he yanked up my shirt to look at the damage. “Yeah, okay. Okay baby, you got your side grazed, but that’s it. Oh Jesus, Jesus, fuck, that scared me, Jesus…”
“I’m okay.” Then I gasped again. “But Josh and Ashtray—”
“We’re on it.” Tyr and several other Gravedigger brothers appeared out of the darkness while Romeo squeezed me to him so hard I was fairly certain something cracked internally. “Zee, Tomahawk, get Ash into the nearest vehicle and get him to the hospital, ASAP. Ajax, you done playing with Slash?”
“He’s still conscious. Hold on.” Somewhere in the trees, the sound of flesh impacting flesh sounded several times, then a terrible silence. “We’re good.”
“Transfer him into the Clubhouse vaults, along with what’s left of Marvel, and do it fast and quiet before the LEOs decide they want to check out what all the noise was about. Once we’re done with them, we’ll ship them off to Hades whenever the fuck I feel like it. Romeo, go ahead and have our fireworks guys stand down, and let’s start cleaning up the remaining spies—”
“Shiloh’s been hit,” Romeo interrupted, his voice glacial. “I need to take care of her.”
Dear God.
The world seemed to pause as the enormity of Romeo’s words hit with the force of a meteor.
Romeo just chose me over his Gravedigger brothers, even to the point of ignoring the spies.
He chose me.
The world swam around me even as my heart swelled so much it was a wonder it didn’t explode out of my chest.
“Understood. Zee, take however many men you need to round up those assholes we tagged as belonging to Hades. Let’s move.”
There was one glaring omission in Tyr’s barked-out orders. “Wait, my brother—”
“I’m… I’m okay.” Clearly not okay, Josh staggered to his feet, then doubled over with a groan of pain. “Fuck me, that hurt.”
I stared at him, my legs too shaky to move toward him without collapsing out from under me. “How…?”
“He’s got a shit-ton of body armor on underneath that hoodie, baby,” Romeo murmured in my ear, before holding me all the tighter when I began to shake. “You think I’d bring him out in the open for Slash to target without doing everything possible to keep him safe? And safe is exactly what you would’ve been if you’d just stayed by the bonfire,” he added harshly, looking up to glare at Josh while Zee and two other men got Ashtray into a truck someone pulled up. “What the fuck were you thinking, dragging your sister away from all the people who were there to keep her safe? If she hadn’t called me, then left her line open so I could hear exactly where you two were, you’d both be dead now.”
Oh, good. Good, good, good. Romeo had been able to hear me after all.
“There will be time to bitch at each other later,” Tyr said, shutting down the conversation with a voice made of steel. “Right now we’ve got a man down and spies to round up. Let’s get the fucking lead out.”