Chapter 39 #2
Now he moves into my eye line again, and he’s not empty-handed. He’s holding a box the size that you get when you buy shoes and places it on my lap. I breathe sharply when I see the wires sticking out. He taps the device, and a red light starts flashing.
I don’t need to be a genius to know it’s an explosive device.
“I’d keep very still if I were you, the slightest jostle will set this thing off.
” His mouth quirks. “You can sit and hope that your brothers will come rescue you, or you can be a hero, move and just kill yourself.” He points to a corner of the room where there’s another red light, this one burning steadily.
“I’ll be able to watch the show remotely.
If your brothers try to disarm the bomb, I can set it off remotely.
” He holds up a control. “Now, any last words?”
“You won’t get away with this,” I growl.
“Oh, I will. With luck I’ll take a good number of your club out.
And the rest will have gone to the meet point where they’ll be disappointed they won’t find me.
But that leaves the compound unguarded, and I’ve got Volkov’s men to help.
We’ll sweep in and take Amethyst before they realise it’s a trap. ”
Agony shoots through my body of the mental kind, worse than the physical.
If his plan works, he’ll kill any club members mounting a rescue, and succeed in taking Ames.
And I’m stuck here with a fucking bomb on my lap unable to do anything.
When he duct tapes my mouth shut, desolation sweeps through me.
I can’t even call out a warning, or scream.
I’ve never felt this helpless, or maybe not since I was kicked out of my first foster home by the people I’d assumed were a father and mother to me.
Either deciding he’s run out of time, or he’s just fed up with taunting me, he chuckles to himself, then without sparing one last glance at me, he leaves.
Immediately after the door closes, I wonder why I hadn’t bucked that damn bomb off before he’d disappeared. I could have taken us both out, and that would have been the end of him. My chance has gone because I wasn’t brave enough.
He’s right. Brothers will be coming for me, or rather for him, they’ll have no idea he’s lured them into a trap. Do I kill myself now to save them, or hope like fuck they find some way to get me, and them, out of this?
Despite what my brothers in the club might sometimes think, I love them all. Love being part of the Kings. And Ames? Fuck, my heart fills with dread at the thought Stone’s plan might work, and he could get to her.
My mind whirls with possibilities. If I move just one inch, I would explode the bomb, and leave the club nothing to rescue. That way I’d save some of my brothers.
But that means I won’t have a chance to tell them he’s set this up to get Ames when she’s relatively unguarded by a skeleton crew left at the club.
I sit, undecided, my mind still weighing up the best thing to do, uncertain how much time has passed, when the sound of multiple engines reach me, getting closer by the second.
In the end I take the coward’s way out, stay absolutely still and do nothing except wait for them and pray that somehow the bomb malfunctions and fails to explode.
The door smashes open. Oh, fuck no. Bullseye’s come himself, along with Tempest and Winchester.
Desperately I try to signal with the only body parts I can move, my eyes flicking urgently up and right accompanied by the exaggerated tilt of my head, but despite my frantic attempts they take no notice.
With Prez in the lead, they enter the room coming up close.
Time seems to slow. I can’t issue a warning because I’m unable to speak. Inwardly I start screaming….
The bomb comes to life in my lap, then the world goes white…
I wake screaming. My whole body contorts as I tremble uncontrollably, the movements causing pain to shoot through every part of my body. I knew I wouldn’t be making it to Heaven, but Hell is even worse that I thought.
“Rattler. Rattler.”
Oh fuck, he’s got Ames if she’s here with me.
“Rattler. Stop, oh my God, you’re really going to hurt yourself if you can’t calm down. Be still, you’re having a nightmare. Come back to me, Rattler, Flynn, it’s Ames, and I’m here.”
A nightmare? The words, the soothing, yet worried voice starts to break through the horrendous images in my head. A nightmare. Not real. Fuck. I thought I was back there.
“Ames?” I ask, hesitantly.
“I’m here.” She’s smoothing her hands over my body, lying closer, trying to warm me, physically trying to stop the tremors still racking my body. “Shush, Flynn. You’re safe. We’re in Freak’s room, in the clubhouse.”
Whether she knows she has to remind me, or whether she’s just talking to try to get through to me, I don’t know, but slowly I come back to myself.
But the thrall of the nightmare has still gotten me in its hold.
Air bursts out of my lungs in a huge sob, and suddenly I’m crying like a fucking baby, and I can’t stop.
“Flynn, oh, Flynn,” she murmurs, stroking my cheek. “Flynn, babe, you’re safe.”
“I was back there,” I rasp out between gulping sobs, “but this time we all died. I couldn’t warn them.”
“Shush.” She places her hands around my face. “You’re not there, you’re here.” Her fingers move until they’re caressing my temples, gradually easing me.
The rhythmic stroking calms me, and slowly the shakes leave my body and the sobs stop.
I give one final hiccup, and then, still breathing heavily, I come fully back to myself to see her staring at me, her brow furrowed.
Her eyes are once again filled with tears, but this time they’re not for her, they’re for me.
But there’s also a wariness in those gorgeous orbs.
I’ve scared her. “Ames,” I place a shaky hand over hers, and draw it away from my face. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry.”
Brushing off my apology with a shake of her head, she suggests, softly, “Talking about it might help chase the demons away.”
If I was truly in my right mind, I might have kept the details to myself.
Instead it all floods out of me. “Malachi placed a motion sensor bomb in my lap. He told me to be a hero, to move and set it off, then I’d kill only myself.
But I didn’t have the fuckin’ guts, I was a grade-A coward.
I waited until Bullseye came. In my dream, he, and the others were all caught in the blast along with me. ”
She sucks in air through her teeth. “A bomb? A fucking bomb? Malachi set it up to kill you?” As she rears back, I realise I’ve shocked the hell out of her, and know yet again I’ve fucked up.
She doesn’t need that image in her head.
But after giving a shudder, she huffs out a breath, and reassures me.
“Obviously they found some way to disarm it, as you’re here, and I can attest you’ve not returned as an angel.
” Leaning forward with a quirk to her mouth, she places a soft kiss on my lips, then her head moves, and she repeats her action to both of my cheeks and my forehead.
It’s not sexual, her caresses a gesture of comfort.
She takes in a shuddering breath, and repeats ,“You’re here, you’re safe.
Thank fuck. Rattler, I couldn’t bear it if he’d killed you.
I already grieved you once, don’t ever let me do that again. ”
Now it’s my turn to reassure her, at least for now - who the fuck knows what will happen in the future?
“I’m here, I’m safe.” I give her her own words back.
Then shrug, “Maybe damaged and with a case of PTSD, but I’m here, Ames.
The club saved me.” Actually, disarming the bomb had been all Pippa.
A woman I once thought was safest dead. I’m reminded I owe her a fucking big debt, along with the brothers who risked their own lives to get me free.
She takes a shuddering breath. “Is Malachi really dead?”
“Dead and gone,” I confirm. “He’ll be ashes by now.”
Then she surprises the fuck out of me. “That’s a shame. After knowing what he’d done, I’d have liked to have had a hand in killing him myself.” Her face grows hard, her lips narrow. “Just tell me you made him suffer for all he put you through.”
I snort. “Wanted to, but wasn’t physically able. But Freak did the honours.”
And then, after hearing confirmation that her brother, half-brother, was tortured, she blows me away by kissing my face again.
“You’re still shaking,” she observes and pulls away. “You hurting?”
I’m man enough to admit it. Fuck knows all that thrashing had made my injuries worse.
She pulls away from me, takes the bottle of tablets Bronwyn had left and taps out a couple. Then she passes them to me, and after helping me raise my head, as I place the pills in my mouth, she takes the bottle of water and puts it in my hand. I swallow them down.
“You trust me to leave the room?” I raise a brow in question. “I’m going to go get more ice for you.” Oh yeah, I’d locked her in as she’d discovered what an asshole I really am.
“I don’t want to force you to be with me, Ames. I’m just worried you could leave and find yourself in Volkov’s hands.” Already emotional, my voice breaks as I add, “I couldn’t bear that.”
Again she shushes me. “You need ice.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I confirm. “And, darlin’? Grab a bottle of Jack, will you?”
“You shouldn’t drink with painkillers,” she tells me, primly.
“Tonight, Ames, after reliving my time with your half-brother, I think I can.”