34. Rogue
“How did you fi?—”
The butt of my gun connects with Waylon’s skull, and he falls to the floor, unconscious. I assess the situation and find that Waylon’s accomplice is bleeding from a wound on his leg, and pride wells in my chest. No doubt Skye did that.
That’s my girl.
“I’m very glad to see you,” Skye says, pulling my attention from the damage she caused. “But can you please cut me loose? My knife is over there,” she says, nodding toward where it sits on a table.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I grab the weapon and slice through the zip ties.
She rubs her wrists when she’s free and smiles, although her smile is a bit lopsided because of all the swelling.
“What? Don’t I look okay?” she asks, her tone teasing.
I press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “You look beautiful as always.”
Standing, I pull her to her feet and guide her to the trailer’s small couch, but she digs in her heels.
“No way in hell am I sitting when we still have to deal with them,” she says, her shoulders square.
“Skye, I can han?—”
“You’re not taking this away from me, Rogue,” she snaps.
I stare at her for a long moment before nodding. “Okay.”
“Waylon, wake the fuck up,” his friend demands. “I think they’re gonna kill us. Wake up, asshole.”
Waylon groans from the floor as he comes to. Ignoring him, I stride toward his friend.
“What’s your name?” I demand.
His eyes widen but before he can respond, Skye speaks from behind me.
“That’s Jared. Or at least, that’s what he’s calling himself. He’s Waylon’s douchebag friend.”
Without looking away from the man, I narrow my eyes. “What’s your real name?”
“Don’t tell him,” Waylon says, and I glance over my shoulder to see him trying to stand.
“Tie him up,” I instruct Skye, who digs through a bag sitting on the table.
When she pulls out a length of rope, I can’t help but picture what these assholes had planned for my woman. If Jez and Fort hadn’t worked their magic, who knows where she would’ve ended up.
If the money is not received, I will be murdered, and my body will be dismembered and scattered across the country. You will never find me.
Chills dance along my spine, but I ignore them. I’m here, and Skye’s safe. The shoulda, coulda, wouldas don’t matter now.
As soon as Waylon is secure, Skye moves to stand next to me. “Now what?”
My mouth tilts into a grin. “Now, we purge.”
Skye’s eyes light up. She doesn’t know any of the specifics of what the club does, but despite what she thinks, she’s not a stupid woman. She can put two and two together no matter how much numbers trip her up.
“P-p-purge?” Jared whines. “Like the movie?”
“Shut up!” Waylon shouts.
“Something like that,” I reply and force my expression to turn curious. “Here’s the thing… I could take a page out of your book and promise to let you live if you come clean about everything you’ve done. Or I could just kill you and damn the consequences.”
“We’ll talk,” Jared blurts.
“No, we won’t,” Waylon snarls.
Skye whirls around, hands on her hips, and glares at her soon-to-be former boss. “You’ll talk. We’ll make sure of it.”
My cock swells behind my fly at her words. I don’t know why it took me so long to see it, but she’s perfect for me. She’s soft in all the ways that matter, but a badass when she has to be. She’s incredible and all mine.
“What she said,” I agree.
“It was all him,” Jared wails. “He planned ever?—”
“Shut the fuck up!” Waylon shouts.
“No! I wanna live. I’m done with this, with you.”
“You idiot,” Waylon snarls. “They aren’t gonna let us live no matter what promises he makes.”
“You don’t know that,” Jared insists.
“Eh, he’s not all that far off base,” Skye quips.
“But he said…” Jared doesn’t finish his sentence as understanding registers, and he narrows his eyes at me. “You lied?”
“Ding, ding, ding,” I taunt. “Give the man a cookie.”
“I kept trying to tell them how stupid they were,” Skye says calmly. “Maybe now they’ll start believing me.”
“You’re such a bitch,” Waylon bites out.
Without hesitation, I whirl around and lunge at him. Wrapping my hand around his throat, I squeeze until he’s almost unconscious again. When it seems like he’s about to go out, I release him and slam his head back against the side of the trailer.
“You don’t get to talk about her like that,” I sneer. “Do it again, and you’re dead.”
Waylon coughs, trying to catch his breath. “I’m dead either way according to her.”
“Yeah, but I haven’t decided how that’s gonna happen yet.” I shrug. “Maybe I’ll take it easy and make it quick. Or I could drag it out in the most painful of ways.”
“Jesus, what have you gotten me into?” Jared huffs out.
“Jesus can’t help you now,” I tell him. Reaching for Skye, I pull her into my side and wrap an arm around her shoulder. “Who should I start with?”
She pretends to think about it for a moment, tapping her chin with a finger, and then grins. “Jared.”
“Good choice.” I kiss the top of her head before turning to face Waylon’s friend. “You said you’d talk, so talk,” I demand.
“B-but…” He swallows hard. “It was all Waylon’s idea.”
“No, it wasn?—”
Skye backhands Waylon to shut him up.
“Go on,” I urge.
“We’ve been doing it for years,” Jared admits. “Infiltrating businesses and stealing as much money as we can.”
“Why?”
He shrugs. “Because we’re good at it. And because who doesn’t like money?”
“In other words, you’re both greedy mother fuckers?”
“I-I guess.” Jared straightens his shoulders. “I told Waylon Purgatory was a bad idea. I mean, c’mon, a biker bar? There was only one way that could end.”
“You did not!” Waylon shouts. “You picked the mark this time.”
I watch Jared’s expression at Waylon’s accusation, and I see the truth of it in his eyes.
“Man, you really shouldn’t lie to me,” I say as I lift my gun and point it at him. “Just remember, you made me do this.”
I squeeze the trigger, and Jared screams in agony when the bullet tears into his stomach.
“Y-you shot me,” he accuses unnecessarily.
“I did.” I smirk. “But you talked so I made sure to hit you where it’ll make you bleed. Stomach wounds are the worst.” I shake my head. “You’ll bleed out quickly.”
“A little too quickly if you ask me,” Skye mutters.
I face her and smile. “I gave them my word that I’d make it quick if they talked, and I’m a man of my word.”
“And that’s what I love about you,” she blurts, then slaps a hand over her mouth as her eyes go wide.
“What you love about me?” I ask, arching a brow.
She hesitates for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. Got a problem with it?”
I grin. “Nope. No problem. What else do you love about me?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Waylon cries. “My friend is dying, and you two are declaring your love for each other like nothing has happened.”
As I press my lips to Skye’s, I raise my gun and aim it at Waylon’s knee. He screams in pain when the bullet hits its mark.
“Goddammit!”
Skye pulls away first, and I groan at the loss of contact.
“Finish this first,” she says, patting my chest. “Then we can have fun.”
“Promise?” She nods so I force my attention to Waylon. “Your turn to talk.”
“So you can just kill me?” He shakes his head. “No thanks.”
“Oh, c’mon. Jared’s still alive,” I say, glancing over my shoulder. Jared is slumped over, and his head lolls to the side. His eyes are wide open and lifeless. “Oops. Guess not.”
Skye follows my gaze and whistles. “Damn, that was fast.”
“Yep,” I agree and look at Waylon again. “Talk, and you’ll get the same treatment. Don’t and…” I shrug. “Well, you know.”
Waylon stares at me for several long moments as if giving himself time to think of a plan to escape. There’s no way he’s walking out of here, and he must realize that because he tilts his head.
“I have one question,” he says.
“My patience is running thin, so you better spit it out.”
“How’d you find us?”
“Seriously? That’s your question?” I ask.
“If I’m gonna go down, I deserve to know where I fucked up.”
“You fucked up the second you set your sights on Purgatory,” I snap. “But as far as finding you, that was child’s play.”
“How? We’re damn good at what we do.”
“At stealing, maybe,” I concede. “At hiding, not so much.”
“Then tell me how,” he insists.
I heave a sigh. “Satellites and heat signatures.”
“What?”
“What can I say? The club has connections.” I smirk. “And our hacking skills are a million times better than his,” I say, tipping my head toward the dead man. When Waylon stares at me incredulously, I explain further. “With the satellite, we were able to track your movements. It made sense that you wouldn’t be too far from where Skye was abducted so we focused on the surrounding areas. Your friend also used his alias when he registered this trailer… not the brightest bulb, that one.”
“Son of a bitch,” Waylon mumbles.
“After that, we hacked into several systems that utilize heat signatures for fugitive capture. This is the only domicile for miles, and the scenery outside the window that Skye was sitting in front of for the ransom video was matched via Google Earth. It might have taken more time than I liked, but it wasn’t all that hard to track you down.”
“Wow,” Skye says appreciatively. “The club can do all that?”
I smile at her. “Saints Purgatory can do anything.”
“Good to know.”
“So, Waylon, are you prepared to die?” I ask as if murder is an everyday task for me.
“Yes,” he says, but his voice shakes and betrays his fear.
“Liar.”
“Does the truth matter right now?” he asks.
“The truth always matters.”
“Then here’s some truth,” Waylon sneers, seemingly no longer caring if he pisses me off. “Skye was an easy mark. She’s gotta be the dumbest chick I’ve ever met. As for Purgatory… that was easy too. For a while at least. The money we would’ve gotten from you could’ve set us up for a long while. Had everything gone according to plan, we’d be long gone, and you’d never know what hit you.”
“But things didn’t go according to plan,” I remind him.
Waylon glares. “No, it didn’t.”
“And now you’re gonna pay the ultimate price.” He says nothing, having accepted his fate. I turn to Skye. “You have anything to say before I end this?”
She moves closer to Waylon, her knife gripped tight in her hand. “I’m not stupid, motherfucker,” she growls right before shoving the blade into his groin.
“Remind me never to piss you off,” I joke, my voice raised so she can hear me over Waylon’s shouts.
Skye glances over her shoulder and grins. “I can do that.”
I cup my junk as if to guard it against her wrath. “Thanks.”
After she pulls the blade from his body, she shifts to the side and cocks her hip. “Your turn.”
I step up to him and press the barrel of my gun to his forehead. “Any last words?” I ask, and Waylon shakes his head.
I pull the trigger, and brain matter paints the wall behind him. Then I calmly grab Skye’s hand and lead her to the door. Before stepping out into the fresh air, I stop and turn around to face the two dead sinners.
“Go forth, sinners” souls, from this world. May you suffer in darkness, may your home be in Hell, and may the Devil fuck you with his horns.”