Chapter Thirteen
ONE MOMENT, SHE WAS straining to get close to where Helios was and find out what was happening. The next moment, the sound of gunshot shattered the silence and chaos erupted. She and Katya would’ve been trampled to the ground had they not managed to help each other and find their way to the exit.
“ Helios ?” MJ screamed his name over and over, hoping to hear him answer back. Oh God, please God, please God, please let him answer me.
But this time, all she could hear was a terrifying kind of silence.
When they managed to get out of the cafeteria, there was still no sign of Helios. “Has anyone seen Helios? Please? Anyone?” She stopped one person after another, asking the same question over and over, heart in her throat.
Oh God, oh God, please—
This felt so much worse than lying on the ground, waiting for the motorcycle to rip her face apart.
No, this was more terrifying because now it was Helios on the ground and she couldn’t do anything about it.
“MJ!” Katya was waving frantically for her to come close. “He’s seen what happened.” Katya looked at the guy, who had a shell-shocked expression on his face. “Tell her. Please.”
“They were bikers. I recognized some of them because they go to the same club every week. H-Helios Andreadis went to them peacefully, but the guy who fired the shot – he used it as a distraction and then he h-hit the Afxisi President in the head with his gun and t-they dragged him out by his feet.”
MJ was cold all over by the time the guy finished speaking. She turned to Katya with eyes blinded with tears. “Why wouldn’t he ask for help? Why he would just go with them like that? Why ?”
The boy shook his head. “Don’t you know anything about biker club rules? You’re supposed to be his girlfriend, aren’t you?”
She shook her head, her conscience stinging.
“It’s the most important unwritten rule for underground racing clubs. No inter-club fights over civs.”
“Civs?” MJ echoed blankly.
“Civilians. Like you and me. Non-bikers. Anything that has to do with a club and a civ has to be handled by the police.”
“But what if it’s too late?” Katya burst out.
“He’s ex-Afxisi,” MJ said desperately. “Doesn’t that count for something?”
The boy shrugged uneasily. “I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want to get his club into trouble?”
No , MJ realized a second later. It wasn’t that. Helios didn’t want to get his club involved because he wanted to remain a civ. A non-biker. For her.
“D-did you happen to see where they were headed?”
The boy nodded and pointed. “I think they’re going to their old hunting ground—”
“At the old ghost town,” she finished numbly. Of course it would go back to that. Everything tended to come full circle.
Once, Helios had saved her life. Now, it was her turn to save his back. But first, she had to conquer her fear.
Closing her eyes, she told herself to breathe.
Breathe. Breathe, MJ. Breathe.
You can do this.
In the back of her mind, James’ voice came to her like a familiar, terrifying taunt. Are you ready, MJ? Reeeeeeaaaady?
VROOM, VROOM.
Her heart sped up, but she willed herself to face the sound head on.
She was ready.
Because now, she knew.
Someone loved her, truly loved her, enough to have his life dependent on her.
She would not let him down.
When she opened her eyes, she was as calm as she could be. She honed in on the things she needed to do with single-minded focus. “Katya, could you do me a favor? Can you find a way to contact any of the Afxisi and let them know where the others have...taken Helios?”
Other more horrifying words tried to make their way into her mind, but MJ doggedly pushed them away. They had taken Helios. That was all she was going to permit herself to think.
“All right, but what are you going to do? You’re not going to do anything foolish, right?”
“No. I’m going to do what I’ve always been meant to do.” She looked at the boy. “I need one last favor from you. Do you know of any bike I can borrow—” All her hopes crashed when he started to shake his head.
“I don’t know anyone who rides a bike. It’s dangerous, you know. But...” He pointed to somewhere behind MJ, and she whirled around to find a big, bad-ass Ducati parked at the curb. “Maybe you can borrow that?”
Her heart swelled. “Perfect.”
She ran to it, knowing she was about to square off with her old nemesis. Her heartbeat had tripled its rate by the time she reached the Ducati, and her entire body shook as she lifted a hand to touch the bike. It seemed to bristle into life under her hands, but she knew it was only her imagination.
Or was it?
She shook the thought away.
Monster or not, real or not, she was here to master this beast and not the other way around.
Closing her eyes, she imagined James going through all the motions. She had seen him do it a thousand times. He had done it slowly, done it quickly, done it in every way that was sure to terrify her. There were times when she dreamed she would find the courage to push him off the bike and ride it herself. She would leave and never come back.
But she had never found the courage...until now.
Slowly, she got on the bike. It felt larger than ever with her seating astride it, and again she had to close her eyes and will herself to breathe.
Breathe, MJ. Breathe. You need to breathe for Helios so you can go to him. So breathe.
When she opened her eyes, she went to work quickly. One of the more useful, albeit illegal, tricks that James had taught her was how to hotwire a motorcycle. Her fingers moved deftly, and soon the beast was roaring, awakened in the night.
Its roar made her shiver, but she kept her hands on its bars.
Are you ready, MJ? Are you ready?
In the old days, she would have kept her eyes open, afraid that it would be the last moment of her life. But this time, she didn’t. Because she believed she would survive and that God had meant something better to happen to her.
I’m comiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing——
She squeezed her eyes shut.
SWISH.
Swish.
swish.
And nothing happened.
Nothing happened.
Wiping the tears from her eyes, she gunned the bike and it roared to life under her. And then she was racing down the road, on her way to save the man she loved.
“WHERE ARE YOUR FAITHFUL lapdogs now, Andreadis?”
The question came accompanied with a hard jab to his face, followed by a kick to his ribs. Helios’ teeth gnashed together at the pain, but he didn’t make a sound. Letting these assholes know he was hurt would only encourage them to hit him even more.
He wished he could pass out right then and there, knowing it would put an end to his torment. But he was not the kind who passed out easily, and so the torment continued. Helios had counted on the police coming to his rescue right away, but now he knew it was wishful thinking.
The Sfagi had always been on his family’s payroll. No doubt Dahlia had paid them handsomely to teach him a lesson. She had probably learned about him quitting the club and thought of striking while he was down. Smart move. If he didn’t survive this, she would win. For her sake, she should pray that he didn’t.
The jabs kept coming, and gradually he became numb to the pain. He wondered dazedly where MJ was. Goddammit, if these men had found a way to take her and harm her...
He shook the thought away.
They wouldn’t be stupid as to involve the kind of civ MJ was. That was untouchable territory, the kind they were sent behind bars for. Fighting between clubs the police could overlook. But anything that involved innocent civs was a huge fucking no, and no amount of bribe tended to change that. The police would get to them sooner or later.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that one of his tormentors was taking off his belt. What the fuck? So they were going to whip him like this was a fucking BDSM scene? God, these men were wimps. Couldn’t they have gotten a real whip at least?
Bikes thundered into the scene all of a sudden, and the men were suddenly surrounded by the Afxisi. All of them had grim looks on their faces, and it was clear that he only had to say the word and the Sfagi were dead.
The Sfagi had their guns out, all of them tense and waiting for retribution.
“President?”
Helios forced his head to move even though pain had his vision weaving around him. Trying to focus, he saw that it was Christos who had spoken, the aloof twenty-year-old who Kellion liked to leave in command in the event that all the officers were out. Kellion said that Christos seemed to be following in Helios’ footsteps, with the way he hated having anything to do with people outside the club.
Knowing that he was being asked to issue a command, Helios fought to keep himself conscious before slowly shaking his head. He would figure some way out of this. One way or another, he would get himself out of this while staying normal.
But goddammit, why had no one told him how much it sucked to be a normal man?
When the Sfagi realized that none of the Afxisi was going to lift a finger to help their ex-President, their arrogance returned in full force.
“You’re not going to ask for help, is that it? You’re the big bad President and you don’t think you need anyone’s help to get out of this alive?” The leader of the Sfagi laughed. “Be a martyr if you want. We’ll help with you it.” He looked at his men. “Won’t we, boys?”
And the beatings started again.
As the hits became impossible to count, he realized that it was indeed possible to die just by being hit with belts and belt buckles. He also realized that his family had probably paid the police to look the other way just for tonight, and the Sfagi was too stupid to realize that.
Several times, his Afxisi wanted to help him, but he forced himself to shake his head. No. No fucking way. He was going to stay normal because this was what MJ wanted—
“He’s not going to break,” one of the pudgier members of the Sfagi muttered. “I think we should just shoot him. Hit him so he won’t ever ride a bike again.”
Helios’ blood ran cold when he heard the words. No. He didn’t want that. He could stand the idea of never riding the bike by choice. But never riding because he had lost the ability to? That was hell on earth.
As the Sfagi closed in around him, Helios wondered in a painful haze if this was truly the end. All for the love of an eighteen-year-old girl , he thought, and he would have laughed if he had the strength to do so. He was Helios Andreadis, and he had allowed himself to be beaten to death because he had chosen to be—
A sound reached them, and it got louder and louder. The circle of Afxisi around them broke apart just as a bike soared into view—
Helios’ eyes widened.
Did he dare believe his eyes?
Was that really MJ he was seeing on the bike?
The Ducati landed right in front of him.
And then she was there.
MJ.
She was on her knees, tears running down her face, without a care for her life as she crawled to him. The Sfagi tried to get close to her but with every step they took, the Afxisi moved closer to them, forcing them to keep still. Some of them sensed the tide turning against their favor and tried to get out, but it was too late. The Afxisi had them surrounded.
“Helios?” she whispered.
She had used his name. He forced himself to smile, not wanting her to worry. But the effort cost him so, and he swallowed back a groan.
The pain etched on his face was something she knew a lot about. She, too, had suffered through such bouts. She didn’t know where to touch him, afraid to cause him more hurt. “Why did you let them do this to you?”
He didn’t answer.
And because he didn’t, it was an answer in itself, and more tears fell down her face. “Helios, I was wrong.” She took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice from shaking too much that she’d end up incoherent. “I thought I wanted someone normal, but that was just my fear talking. I can’t be with someone normal when I’m not...when I’m not normal myself.”
He rasped out, “Whoever told you you’re not normal...I’ll kill them.”
Another choked laugh spilled out of her. “If you were n-normal, you would n-never have been able to save me. And if I w-were normal, I w-wouldn’t have been able to c-conquer my fear, wouldn’t have been able to come s-save you now.”
MJ wiped the tears from her eyes. “S-screw normal, Helios. I don’t want it. I’m s-sorry I forced you to change. I w-want you back. The real you. The one who started A-Afxisi. The P-President.”
Silence.
A painful groan escaped him. “Why couldn’t you have realized this before I got beaten up for you, brat?”
She laughed and cried.
Helios took her in his lap, and she cried in his arms. Her tears made the wounds on his chest rawer, but he ignored the pain. Welcomed it, actually, because it was proof that MJ loved him. Over MJ’s head, his gaze met Christos’.
He nodded.
Christos’ eyes gleamed.
The leader of the Sfagi caught sight of the silent exchange. Fuck. They were dead. It was his last conscious thought, but for once, he had gotten something right.