23. Chapter 23
Rox
Half an hour earlier
Pitch walked through the room again. He’d been coming in more regularly, on the guise of taking care of my cuts and bruises.
I didn’t know why they would let him, but fuck it.
The last time Calypso came in here, I’d broken his nose with my shoe.
He’d since removed them, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use my toes next time.
They thought they could scare me into compliance, that they could make me do what they wanted. They had no idea the bitch they had awoken in me. The one I had put to sleep when I left Australia.
But Myth had set her free again.
I was going to be the woman he wanted, the woman he loved, and needed. I was the Royal Bastards’ President’s ol’ lady and they were going to find out why I was the only woman strong enough to tame a man like Myth.
“Untie my chains,” I told him softly. “Not all the way, just enough so I can wiggle free.”
“They’ll know I did it.”
“Don’t do it all the way, just enough so I can get free the next time he comes in here.”
He looked out the door, and nodded quickly, unlatching the top chain. I felt it give way a little, but I was still strung up. My arms were really starting to hurt now, but I couldn’t give away my position too early. Pitch would be killed and I kind of liked him.
“I heard them on the phone,” he said, putting a new alcohol wipe on my latest cut from Johnny. “They’re talking to someone big. I think you need to get away as soon as possible. I think he’s trying to sell you.”
“I ain’t for sale, mate,” I offered him a smile but I could tell it was weak. If they sold me to someone, I knew I’d never be found again. The Royal Bastards had reach, but I didn’t think they had that much reach. “Don’t worry, I’ll get myself out of this.”
He nodded quickly. “Myth…that’s your man, right?”
“Yes. The president of the Royal Bastards.”
Pitch nodded. “Is he as tough as they say?”
“Tougher.”
“Good.”
Pitch left me then, still dangling, still in pain, but I could feel the loose chain now. I just had to hold on a little longer until Calypso or Johnny came back and then I’d have the upper hand.
They would never break me.
The only person allowed to do that was my husband, and he’d never do that to me again. Instead, he’d burn the world to the ground.
And that was hot as hell.
The door opened with a bang, and I moved my head to the side to see Johnny and Calypso heading my way. They both wore a sick grin on their faces.
Whatever was coming was happening soon.
“Save your strength, firecracker. You’ll need that fighting spirit for what’s coming for you next.”
I had no doubt.
“Are you going to let me down then?”
Calypso turned to Johnny then, before he came over to me.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt. They’d want you to use your arms.”
Assholes.
The closer he got, I held onto the chain above me and launched my legs up, wrapping my thighs around his neck and slamming my legs together.
He tried to get free, but I knew this move could incapacitate.
Johnny was stock still as I smothered his VP.
Calypso did everything he could to stop it, but I could feel his energy waning.
I was blocking his breathing. Both nose and mouth were encased in my fleshy thighs.
“Let him go,” Johnny called out. I saw him scramble toward us, a pipe in his hands. I unclamped my thighs from Calypso and kicked him backward. He stumbled into Johnny, the pipe flying somewhere in the room.
I swung on the chains, letting the top latch unhook and landed on my feet. My knees buckled and sent me careening into a kneeling position, but I was down. My arms ached when I moved them, trying to get some blood flow into them.
“Bitch!” Calypso cried out, as he tried to get to his feet.
I located the pipe and crawled over to it, dragging it across the walls of the cell they’d been keeping me in.
The sound was loud, and insanely unhinged.
I saw the way Johnny cowered, like the scared little puppet he was.
It was Calypso who was calling the shots. I’d worked that out pretty fast.
Pitch pushed into the room, took one look at the men on the ground, and me with the handy pipe before he smirked and shook his head.
“Damn. I should have had more faith.”
“What the fuck?” Calypso turned on him. “You? I vouched for you.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know me very well, bud. Which means you don’t know shit about people.”
He stood back up after delivering a swift kick to Calypso’s sternum and sending him back into Johnny on the ground.
“Here.”
He handed me a knife, a fancy one too.
“Make it quick.”
I moved over to Calypso and taunted him, just as he had taunted me with his own blade for the past day since he strung me up.
I slid the blade into his side. It went in smoothly, like a hot knife through butter. Calypso cried out, his hands moving to the wound once I pulled the blade free.
“Jesus, we don’t have time. Just off him.”
“Patience is a virtue,” I told him. “And oh boy does he deserve for me to take my time.”
Calypso was making a move to jump up, so I quickly slipped behind him and grabbed his hair, yanking his head back to look up at me before I slid my knife across his neck. Blood spewed out of his neck as his mouth fell open in horror when he realised there would be no coming back from this.
When I was satisfied that he had bled enough, I shoved him to the side and looked down at Johnny who looked scared shitless.
Good.
“You’re…you’re crazy…”
“Pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?” I asked. “You kidnapped me, tortured me, threatened to kill me and all because I married a biker?”
“Pl-please…I’ll call them off. We’ll leave Sydney.”
“Oh grow a set, Johnny. You’re the goddamn president. Presidents don’t beg. They take.”
The rumbles of motorcycles filled the air outside. My heart did a little leap of joy. He came for me.
“Uh-oh,” I said, with a little giggle. Maybe I’d lost too much blood, but I was going to love watching my husband beat the ever loving shit out of Johnny for what he’d done to me. “Time’s up, Johnny boy. Now, you’re going to find out why they call him the man, the myth, the legend.”
“No…no…”
Johnny was shaking like a fucking leaf, trying to push the lifeless corpse of Calypso off him so he could flee. I stood back, making sure Pitch was out of the way when my husband came pounding down the door.
“Stupid whore,” Johnny spat. I’d been so caught up in the fray that I hadn’t seen him move Calypso to the side. Johnny raised a gun up and aimed right at me.
I couldn’t move.
Guns had always rendered me frozen.
The shot went off, but I felt someone shove me out of the way. A grunt came from beside me, and I looked over to see Pitch had taken the bullet meant for me in the shoulder. He’d landed against the wall, a trail of blood smeared down the wall once he fell.
“No!” I cried out. Crawling over to him, I dropped my knife and held my hands over his bloody wound. “Don’t you fucking die on me now.”
The sound of the outer door being kicked open was loud, but I kept my eyes on Pitch. His eyes were going funny. Fuck.
The door to this room slammed open and I looked up to see Myth enter with his boys.
“Get him!”
His eyes shot over to Johnny who was trying to sneak over to the window.
Myth grabbed him by the throat and hauled him backward, slamming his head against the wall a few times before the gun fell to the ground.
Gears swept in and kicked the gun away from them before his eyes locked on me, and on Pitch.
“Fuck.”
He ran toward us, taking his hoodie off and holding it over the wound and pressing down. “What the fuck?”
“He shoved me out of the way. He took the bullet for me, but I can’t get it to stop.”
“This much blood…Rox…”
“No, don’t say it.”
“I think it hit his carotid.”
“No, please…”
“Fuckers!” Gears called out. “Get me some help here! Carry him outside and get him to an ambulance!”
I could only sit back, watching as the man who saved me was carried outside by Royal Bastards.
My eyes travelled back over to where Myth was currently choking out Johnny.
His large hand tightened around Johnny’s throat.
His face was turning a magnificent shade of purple, foam was forming in the corners of his mouth as he tried, in vain, to get Myth to let him go.
My pussy was clenching. How sick was that? Yet, I knew it was because he was protecting me. Me being taken must have hit him hard, and it was all my fault.
“Hey,” I heard Fang say, stepping in front of me. “Come on, Rox, let’s go outside. Get some fresh air.”
I nodded, keeping my eye on Myth as we passed by. He wasn’t letting up. I knew it made me sick in the head, but I was glad for it.
Fang and the boys crowded around me, protecting me from outside views. I let Fang direct me toward Myth’s bike just down the road a bit. He told the boys to get lost and go help Myth to leave us alone for a bit.
“You good?” he asked, handing me a bottle of ice cold water. I took little sips, trying to get rid of the dry taste in my mouth.
“Surprisingly yes, but I know there’ll be a time when I crack.”
He nodded. “Yeah. But you got an entire clubhouse behind you.”
There was something off with his delivery. He wasn’t meeting my eyes, and that wasn’t like him.
“He was bad, huh?”
“We won’t blame him for it.”
“You do already,” I said. “How bad was it, Levi?”
He sighed, his eyes finally landing on mine. “You’re safe. That’s all that matters. The rest can wait until tomorrow.”
I nodded, pulling him down to hug me. “He’s a brute, but he’d be lost without you, Levi.”
He tensed at my words, but soon he moved into the hug.
It felt good, I couldn’t argue with that, but I knew if Myth saw me hugging him, something else would crack.
We parted and I sat on the bike, waiting.
Everything hurt. The cuts on my skin, the bruises all over, and my feet for some weird reason were aching.
“Rox?”
We both turned to see Myth heading toward me, putting his weapon in the waistband of his jeans at the back, and closing the distance between us. He pulled me up into his arms and held me tight. It was almost too tight, but I liked it.
He pulled back just enough to look at my face, smoothing my blood-soaked hair out of my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“I am. I might need a couple of days to heal, but I didn’t let them break me.”
“I knew you wouldn’t.”
His lips were on mine then, soft and tender, but claiming in a way that could have broken me if I let it.
“Prez?”
We broke apart. Destroyer was standing there, waiting for instructions. So were the rest of the boys.
“Burn it down,” he commanded, before he kissed me again, and leaned his head on mine. “Let’s go home, baby.”