25. Verona
25
VERONA
M y chest caved in on itself when Hollywood spoke up because I knew what he planned to do. I’d seen it in his eyes moments before he said anything, and I remembered what Selene had said about him. He believed himself to be dispensable, just a lowly MC grunt with no one in his corner.
That may have been true the first time he got shot for this club, but it wasn’t anymore. I’d watched these heartless vultures steal two club members from me. I wasn’t about to sit here while they killed the love of my life and the rest of my family.
“I took him to a safe house.” Hollywood winced as he moved, and the blood pooling on his shirt had my heart in shambles. I couldn’t tell how bad the injury was, and that made me even more anxious. Selene moved next to me, silently slipping out of her restraints. “I kept him there until his knee got infected.”
“Infected?” Gabriella’s shrill voice sent shivers down my spine. “What are you talking about? Where is he now?”
I bit harder into the gag around my mouth, trying to keep myself from crying out. My muscles trembled, adrenaline shooting through my veins, begging me to do something— anything.
“ I told you.” Hollywood twisted his features into a wicked smile. “He’s dead. I killed him.”
“Boss,” said the man holding a gun in front of me, lowering the pistol. “Maybe he’s right. We haven’t seen any signs of Leo in months.”
“No. He’s lying. They’re all lying.” Gabriella growled and grabbed the gun out of his hands before walking over to Hollister, pointing it at his head, and pulling the trigger.
I sobbed as Wheels cried out, pulling against his bindings, trying to get up so he could take out his vengeance on this sadistic bitch. This wasn’t an interrogation. This was a slaughter, and we were unlikely to make it out alive. Gabriella lowered the gun at Wheels next, his chin quivering as he held back his rage.
Julia’s soft ridiculing laughter stopped Gabriella and sent a chill down my spine. She turned to her niece, who pushed herself up so she could stare down her aunt with the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut.
“Look at you,” Julia said, spitting blood at her aunt’s expensive shoes. “Do you realize how weak you look? Chasing after my brother instead of ruling your kingdom?”
“I need him dead,” Gabriella hissed, stalking back to the broken, bleeding woman on the floor. “I need to see it with my own eyes.”
“You’ll never defeat him.” Julia shook her head with a broken smile. “You’ll never defeat me.”
Gabriella furrowed her brows, seemingly confused, before the roar of a truck came from outside. For a moment, my heart leaped and I thought we were saved. The sound of boots boomed up the porch and into the house, but I froze at the sight of two bikers from another club coming into the house. I recognized the one in the back as the guy from the Viper.
Hoss.
He made eye contact with me and grinned in a slimy, sadistic way, like he had big plans that didn’t involve anything good.
“Ah,” Gabriella said, turning to face them. “Just in time.”
The tall gray-haired one at the front wore a Hell’s Knights cut with the name tag, Crank.
“I’d never miss a pickup,” Crank said, rubbing his hands together as he walked through the center of the room, gaze landing on me. “This her?”
“You wanted the president’s daughter, right?” Gabriella pursed her lips and straightened, staring down her nose at the newcomers. “Verona Montgomery?”
“That’s the one,” Crank said, squatting down in front of me, bringing his decrepit-looking face toward mine. “Been watching you for a while, little girl. Ever since your daddy killed my brother.”
I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself calm as Crank eyed me like a prized brood mare. This had to have been the guy that sent me those messages. My stalker. In the flesh. I shifted my attention to Castor, whose wide, panicked eyes confirmed he thought the same. The Hell’s Knights had been following me and here was the proof.
“The information in exchange for the girl,” Gabriella said. “Take her, and thank you for your business.”
Crank chuckled to himself and stood, snapping at Hoss, who grabbed my biceps and yanked me to my feet. It took a moment for my brain to catch up, but as they hauled me toward the door, I realized I was being taken ... that my family was about to die here and I’d been sold off to another club as repayment for whatever my father had done to this guy’s brother.
I didn’t know who that was. I didn’t know what had happened to cause this. My world narrowed down to the race in my blood and the crazed look in Hollywood’s eyes as I passed him. That set me off, making this real.
Screaming through the gag, I struggled against the two men, shaking my torso and kicking my legs out, but they easily overpowered me. Just when I’d been about to thrash harder, a sharp knock reverberated through the back of my head and the world went dark.
No! Blink against the pain. Wake up.
I forced my eyes open, trying to focus, and I caught a glimpse of the porch outside, the bright sunshine making my eyes water. Unconsciousness gripped me again as I clenched against the agony, but I swallowed it down, shaking my head to regain my focus.
Wake up, V!
Loud gunshots came from inside the shack as the Knights hauled me into the back of their truck, Crank sliding into the seat next to me before slamming the door shut. Hoss got into the driver’s seat, cranking the engine to life, and my attention caught on a third person in the passenger seat before the world went momentarily dark again.
“You recognize my VP up there, don’t ya?” Crank said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, but I could barely understand what he was saying to me. More shouts and gunshots echoed through the midday air, eventually getting muffled by the truck’s tires as we took off down the driveway.
“She’s got a mean right hook,” Hoss said with a laugh, looking at me in the rearview mirror. “Don’t worry though. I’m gonna take that out on your ass later.”
Shit, shit, shit.
My head ached from where they hit me and my heart pounded at the thought that Gabriella had just massacred my whole family. No one would come for me. No one would even know I was missing, not until the rest of the Roses figured out what was going on. If Gabriella was right, they had their hands full with the Feds.
I was on my own.
Tears blurred my vision and slid down my cheeks as I let myself sink into despair for a moment. Only a moment, I told myself. I’d survived a lot. Sure, this was pretty grim. I was outnumbered three to one by big, ugly men. But I was my father’s daughter. I could get myself out of this ... right?
“I bet you didn’t even know we were there for you that night,” Crank said, running a finger over my face to gather my tears. “At the Viper? We’ve been watching you for a while, Mistress Mayhem.”
I gulped, the bile rising in the back of my throat, resisting the terror in my chest and the remnants of the memory from that tiny apartment in Manhattan at the back of my mind. I could lose myself in it if I let it take over. My muscles trembled, and I gripped my hands together at the base of my spine, trying to figure out if I could get out of these plastic bindings. I could slip them down behind my legs to get my arms in front of my body, but these fuckers would notice if I did. I wouldn’t be able to do it in time to grab a gun before they knocked me out again.
“Yep, that’s right.” Crank grabbed my chin and leaned forward, dragging his disgusting tongue over my cheek and up the side of my face, licking my tears away. I nearly threw up at the smell of his rancid breath, but the Knights in the front laughed, making me ache to kill them, too. “Your daddy owes me a life for the one he stole from me, and you’re gonna pay up, little girl. We’re gonna fuck you bloody, and then I’m gonna send your head to your daddy in jail. Do you think he’d like that?”
I shook harder at the mental image, now more determined than ever to get out of this.
You have to fight. You have to fight as hard as you can.
“Boss, we have a tail,” said Hoss, glancing in the rearview.
“Are you sure?” Crank cursed and turned to look out the back window.
When I followed his gaze, I sobbed harder. One of the Caputi SUVs gained on us, and I honestly didn’t know whether I wanted to stay in the car with these psychos or be taken by my family’s sworn enemies. Both were a fate worse than death. If my family was gone, if Hollywood was dead, I’d rather follow them into the dark than survive whatever these sick fucks had in store for me.
But as the SUV got closer, I recognized my brother behind the wheel. And in the passenger seat sat Hollywood. I had only a moment to be thankful before another force slammed into the truck from the driver’s side. I ducked down as we catapulted off the road, the crunching metal sound reverberating though my body. With my hands tied behind my back, I couldn’t stop myself from careening into Crank, who shoved me back as soon as the chaos stopped.
He shoved the door open, jumping out onto the street with his guns out, the Knight in the passenger seat quick to do the same. Hoss slumped over the steering wheel, either knocked out or dead, but I didn’t wait around to find out. Gunshots rang out into the air while I rolled onto my back so I could maneuver my arms down my legs and over my feet, screaming while I used my boot to snap the zip tie in half. My wrists protested and I burned the skin raw, but once I was free, I scrambled for the gun in Hoss’s holster.
Once I had it, I jumped out of the truck, determined to help my family end this. Crank stood near the bed, aiming the barrel of his gun at Bear and Castor, who were hunched together near the SUV that had rammed into us. Hollywood had the other Knight in a chokehold near the hood while he elbowed my boyfriend in the face, trying to get him off.
I didn’t even think. I raised the gun, aimed it at the back of Crank’s head, and fired, blinking as his brains exploded down the obsidian fender and his body went limp. Then, I turned to Hollywood, stalking toward them like an assassin on a mission. I’d almost reached them when a hard grip circled around my throat, yanking me back against a tall, revolting body.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy to get away, did you?” Hoss’s voice whispered in my ear, the cool barrel of a pistol aimed at my temple. “Put the gun down, you little cunt.”
I watched as Hollywood finally overwhelmed the third kidnapper, shoving him to the ground before rising to meet my gaze. He looked rough—bloody and bruised and barely alive on his feet. But he was still alive, staring at this new predicament with a hatred in his gaze I’d never seen before.
“No one move,” Hoss said, tightening his arm around my throat, forcing me to straighten against him in order to breathe. “Drop your weapons, including you, little cunt. Go on. Drop them and I won’t kill her.”
Hollywood shifted his gaze between me and Hoss as my captor took a step back, angling his body so he could see Bear and Castor walking around the front of the truck, still aiming their guns at his head.
“Don’t you see you’re outnumbered?” I said. “Even if you kill me, they’ll tear you to pieces.”
“You think I’m afraid of that?” He laughed and shook his head. “I knew the risks when I decided to make a deal with the Caputi bitch.”
Hollywood used his distraction to take a step toward me, but Hoss pointed the gun at him instead, firing two shots at the love of my life. The world went blank, a loud ringing in my ears making me incapable of understanding reality. Hollywood dropped like a stone, and terrorized screams tore out of my throat as I wrestled away from Hoss. Bear and Castor descended on him like wolves, filling his torso full of holes while I raced to Hollywood’s side.
He’d been shot through the chest twice, his shirt drenched in his own blood. He met my stare with glazed-over eyes, pulling his lips into a shadow of a smile as he reached a hand toward my cheek.
“V,” came Hollywood’s shallow voice, the feel of his bloody fingers on my face making this real instead of the nightmare I wished it was. “V, it’s okay. We’re okay now.”
“Shhh,” I said, pressing my hands into his wound, trying to staunch the bleeding. But fuck, there was so much of it ... too much of it. I blinked against memories of the last time Hollywood bled out in front of me, the horror of that night in Saint’s truck so close to the surface now. “Don’t move. It’ll be ok-k-kay. You’re okay.”
“Is he alive?” Bear asked, coming to the other side of me so he could lean down and put his fingers on Hollywood’s pulse.
“We n-n-need to get him to a h-h-hospital.” I had to force the words through trembling lips. “Can you c-c-carry him?”
Castor grabbed Hollywood’s arms and Bear got his legs, and together, they lifted him into the back of the SUV that hadn’t rammed into the Knights’ truck. I crawled in after Hollywood, lifting his head so it rested on my lap before putting my hands back on his wounds, pressing down so they’d stop bleeding. But they wouldn’t stop. His blood just flowed and flowed, covering me and the back of the Range Rover.
We left the Hell’s Knights fuckers where they were, and when Bear called Thor to let him know we were safe, he told the sergeant at arms we needed a cleanup crew.
“How’s everyone at the cabin?” Bear asked. “Any casualties?”
“ Coins and Skulls,” Thor said, sinking my heart into my gut. “Hollister is still alive, but barely.”
“We’ll see you at the hospital,” Bear said before hanging up. But I couldn’t focus on anything except the man slowly dying in my lap and the agonizing thought he might not live to see tomorrow. Suddenly, all those dreams about a future with him in it went out the window. Once again, Hollywood had sacrificed himself so I could live, and this time might actually be the last.
“You better not leave me, Hudson,” I murmured, brushing the hair out of his eyes. “Stay with me. Please. I’m so sorry for everything I said. I’m so sorry. I love you. Please stay with me.”
His eyes fluttered shut and he winced, but didn’t regain consciousness. When we got to the hospital, Pollux’s nurse took one look at us and let out a deep sigh. Hadn’t we just picked up the survivor of our last run-in with the Caputis? Now, here we were again, and this time, we were just as fucked up and demoralized.
Julia, KC, and Hollister were already in the back when we walked in, but they took Hollywood immediately while the rest of us were put on the list and asked to sit in the waiting room. My leg burned, but now that I had a moment to get a good look at the wound, it wasn’t much more than a deep scratch. I’d done worse to myself at the lowest points of my life, so I figured I’d get a few stitches and they would let me go.
Bear stood in a corner talking on his phone while the rest of my family tried to get their heads back in the game. We’d been hit really hard this time, much harder than ever before.
“How did this happen?” I asked. “How did we let this happen?”
“It was a coordinated attack,” Thor answered from his spot where he had Selene’s hand in a death grip. “They must have known the FBI would raid the clubhouse today. They knew our locations and our run routes.”
“How?” Alba asked, running her hands under her glasses to wipe at her eyes. “Is there another spy?”
“It was the Hell’s Knights MC,” Castor said, running a hand over his dark curly hair. “They were spying on V and selling information to the Caputis.”
“He said Dad killed his brother,” I said. “Anyone know who his brother was?”
“A former SRMC brother,” Bear said. “He betrayed the club to the Feds back in the ’90s. Dad tore him to pieces.”
“I’ll have Switch check out your laptop to see if there’s anything I missed,” Castor added. “But we might want someone to reach out to whatever remains of the Hell’s Knights to make sure no one else is after us.”
Bear gave our brother a nod. “The prospects have cleaned up the mess from today,” he said. “We’ll regroup tomorrow to figure out next steps. Everyone get some rest. Try to heal.”
Heal . When he put it like that, it sounded so easy. But nothing would ever scab over the events of today. I’d watched my family’s sworn enemy take us out, one after the other, in the most callous way. I closed my eyes and I saw Hollywood’s chest exploding, his limp body falling to the ground. My stomach churned with helplessness over the simple fact he’d needed me, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
My body went numb, everything except for the scar in my chest, which burned hotter than it ever had before. I rubbed it, yanking my necklace out of my shirt so I could look at the bullet again, the one that Hollywood had taken for me so many months ago.
You better survive this, Hudson, I thought, knowing somehow he could hear me. Whatever connection had been formed between us that day had solidified in the months since. I can’t lose you. Please stay alive. Please.
Hours later, after I’d been stitched up, I learned Hollywood had made it through surgery. Relief swelled inside me, but I couldn’t fully relax until I saw him, until I could hold his hand in mine and kiss every inch of him again.
I pieced together the events after I’d been taken as everyone talked. I’d barely made it out the door before Selene, Hollywood, KC, and Lore jumped into action. Ru and Alba fought off their attackers while Selene and KC drilled bullets into whatever henchmen didn’t run off. Gabriella, the slippery cockroach, still managed to get away.
It had been a coordinated attack between the Hell’s Knights, the Caputis, and the FBI. While we were getting our asses handed to us by the mafia, the pigs were raiding the clubhouse.
“Detective Jordan finally had everything she needed,” Bear said, his tone defeated and weathered. “She had a warrant for what had happened two years ago at the Holabird Docks. She said she had undeniable proof Crow and Aris were there, that they’d led the attack on the Caputis.”
“Is she going after Gabriella?” Ru asked, her gaze emanating with the same rage brewing in all of our hearts. “Is she going after them, too?”
Bear shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“We’ve elected Bear as interim president,” Saint explained. “KC as interim vice president, at least until the lawyers can get Crow and Aris out.”
“Slip, Picasso, Skulls, and Coins”—Bear rubbed at his tired eyes—“they didn’t make it. We’ll talk about a new road captain and treasurer after we lick our wounds.”
“You can’t let this stand,” I said, eyeing my brother with fury. “You need to find Gabriella and you need to kill her.”
“It’s not that simple,” Bear said, glancing around to make sure we were out of earshot from any pigs that might be lingering around. “We had plans in motion, we had things brewing.”
“Plans can change,” Thor said. “We may need to move up your impending nuptials.”
“Nuptials?” I narrowed my eyes at my brother. “What nuptials?”
Bear took a deep inhale and let it out on a sigh, shaking his head before running his hands back through his hair, tangling it up further. And that was how I found out my eldest brother was getting married to Julia Caputi in a desperate attempt to end this thing once and for all.