Chapter 8 #5
I clenched my fists at my sides, biding my time to find a way to get her out of his arms.
“What do you want?” I asked him.
“Isn’t it obvious, son? I’ve been looking for you for over twenty years. It’s time to be done with this and come home to take your rightful place.”
He had to be crazy if he thought I wasn’t going to ruin him for this but if I played along, I could get Shona to safety.
“You just want me to come with you? That’s it?”
“Well yes, you need to be raised in the business,” he said as if it were obvious. “I would have preferred if I could have trained you as a child, but your shlyukha mother ran off with you.”
Bide your anger, I repeated to myself. The first time he called my woman a slut, and now my mother. I was furious, but I couldn’t play that hand…not yet.
“I come with you and you let her go,” I bargained with him. Her eyes widened and she shook her head. She was trying to tell me something.
“Of course…in due time. I’m not an idiot, son. I know you will simply escape from me once we return, so she’ll be coming with us. You make your choice, Alexei. You come to Rome of your own free will and train with me, and when I am satisfied with your progress, she will be allowed to go free.”
Viper was close to them. I could see him edging toward the guys who held her, but they moved out of the doorway with her kicking and flailing about. Boris aimed his gun at Viper in warning. Viper stayed where he was, but I could see the anger rolling over him.
“Be seeing you soon, son.”
He chuckled as he moved out of the clubhouse. Viper and I both ran after him, our guns at the ready, but he was holding the gun to Shona’s head as they drove away.
She’d been so close, and I hadn’t been able to rescue her.
“Church, now!” Ace bellowed. Viper dragged me back inside and shoved me in the door.
I’d failed her.
I moved out of the chapel and in a daze walked outside, unsure of what to do. I needed to hit something, to rid myself of the unused rage building inside of me.
“Come.”
Viper’s voice broke me from my daze. I turned to see him coming down the stairs of the clubhouse. He led me to the shed where Neal was now strapped to a chair. His face was healing, but he had welts on his bare thighs from where one of the boys had whipped him.
“What are we doing here?” I asked.
“You know I know you better than anyone, and I know what I’m about to ask you is something I wouldn’t do unless it was absolutely necessary.”
“What is it?”
“You’re at a level two right about now, more lost to the sensation of sadness than anger…I need you to ramp it up to a level ten.”
“You want me to bring out the beast?” I asked him. He’d never asked me to do that. It took too much to rein it back in, and he knew that.
“The only way we are going to get Shona back is if you accept that Niall isn’t going to do it…Savage is. We need him to come to the surface, and the only way we can do that is if you fully accept who you are.”
He looked past me at the wounded piece of shit and back at me before he handed me my knuckle dusters. I slid them over my fingers and turned to look at the man who had destroyed so many in our club. The man who betrayed my President’s wife and daughters.
He knew it too.
He tried to pull from his bindings, his eyes widening in fear as I approached. Viper was right. I was no good as Niall. I had to be Savage to save my woman, and the only way to unleash the beast was to satisfy its need for bloodshed.
I approached him with calm intent before I circled him like a shark did its prey.
Viper watched on as I laid into his ribs with the knucks, eliciting painful yelps and screams from the loser.
With every scream, I felt myself become a little more of the monster everyone feared.
Neal slumped in the chair, his breathing laboured, his body bloodied and I pulled my knucks off, noticing how bloody my hands had become.
Viper smirked over at me. “There he is.”
I threw the bloody weapons down and left the shed with Viper. I finally felt ready to take on the one man who’d had me running scared my entire life. The one man who had taken everything from me as a child.
He wouldn’t succeed in taking Shona from me.
Shona
I could barely breathe with the bag over my head and the tape on my mouth. At least the bastard had allowed me to have my nose clear, but the heavy bag they’d put on my head when I was in the car was starting to get hot and hard to breathe through.
They’d taped my mouth shut because I’d overheard plans they were making with the Destructive Sons.
So long as Savage was kept alive, they didn’t care what my father did with them.
I wanted to scream out their plans, but he’d realised as we pulled into the compound that I’d been a little too complacent, and that I’d overheard.
“Do not worry yourself,” Boris’ voice was next to my ear. “He will come and I will have my son, and you will go back to making some poor Irishman miserable for the rest of your days. I have a few strong Russian women who will take your place and give him sons.”
I held back the sob. Not because I believed Savage would do that to me, but because I didn’t want him to follow me. I didn’t want him to come to the life he never wanted. His mother died to save him and if I had to die to save him now, I would.
The car stopped and I felt myself being pulled out of the newly opened door and pushed toward something. Another set of hands took hold of me, and I heard Boris speaking Russian. The person who had me was speaking it too. The only word I recognised was aeroport.
He was taking me to Italy? How? I didn’t have a passport or a bag…
how could he even get me clear of customs?
Then again, sometimes the boys could hire a private plane with the O’Farrell’s, and they got into Europe with ease.
I could only imagine the pull someone like Boris Markov had over officials.
I was shoved into a car again, and this time I felt the bag slip from my head and fall into my lap. I looked out of the shaded window of the car I was in and up at Boris, who was talking with his men and the newcomer.
The newcomer that I knew well.
Had he betrayed the club?
Anger swirled through me as I kept my head bowed down to hide the fact that I was now unbagged.
The traitor got in the car and behind the wheel.
No one else joined us. I wanted to lash out at him, have him crash the car and die, but I bid my time as he pulled away from the road where I’d been exchanged and toward what I would only assume was a private airfield.
“You can look up, Shona,” he said in English. “I loosened the bag so it would fall off once you were in the car.”
I looked up at his reflection in the rearview mirror. He leaned over and ripped the tape off my mouth. The pain seared across my face where the adhesive had been. “Why?”
“You think someone like me would ever betray the Ghost Rebels, Shona?”
“Wolf…”
“I’ve always been more loyal to them than the Outlaws.
When I saw the request come through from the society that they needed an ally in Ireland, I saw my chance.
I’m a member, Shona, but so are a lot of other assholes.
I made sure I was here. When we get to the airfield, I need you to stay close to me. Nod if you understand.”
I slowly nodded. “But…I’m going on a plane?”
“No, Shona, I have people coming to take out Markov. I need you to run to safety when I tell you to.”
My heart was racing as I tried to come to terms with what he was telling me.
“He will have people come after you.”
“You leave that to me to worry about,” Wolf said. “You just run when I tell you, and get to safety.”
I nodded. “Okay."
“I can’t untie your hands, they will know immediately something is wrong, but the bag I can explain was lost in the exchange.”
I nodded again. The airfield was coming into view, and I felt a new wave of fear steal over me. What if I’m caught and Wolf is killed? What if they kill me anyway, and Savage still goes over there?
God.
This is so fucked up.
“Wolf…”
“Yeah?”
“If something happens to me…something bad…make sure Savage doesn’t come for vengeance.”
Wolf sighed. “Firstly, it pains me that you don’t have faith in me…but secondly, no matter what I try to do…if something happened to you, Shona, ain’t nothing in this world stopping Savage from taking his vengeance.”
Why hadn’t I told him how much I loved him before?
Why had I pushed him away for so long when I knew, deep down, that I couldn’t bear to be without him?
I pushed the tears back, knowing I was going to need to have my wits about me. I wasn’t out of danger. Not yet.
He pulled into the airfield. We were the first ones here but the car was behind us, and I knew there was no chance I could run now. I had to wait for Wolf’s signal.
I had to trust in Wolf.
He got out of the car and helped me out while holding my upper arm.
“Who is that with him?” I asked Wolf. A beautiful woman got out of the car, probably the reason why I had been passed off. They needed to pick someone else up. She wasn’t in bindings though, and she looked regal, almost like she was a boss herself.
“That’s Tasi,” he said. His voice was tense, like he didn’t like that she was here, but I couldn’t understand why. “Markov’s eldest daughter. She’s as malicious as he is.”
Oh great.
Boris made his way over to us, and looked at my face with no tape and no bag. His eyes shot to Wolf, anger evident.
They spoke in Russian, and I could see Boris relax a little and nod sharply before turning when a small plane was coming our way, taxiing close by. Fear shot through me again.
What if we failed?
“Wait for Boris to turn his back,” Wolf said in my ear. “Then run toward that opening, do you see it? The opening in the fence?”
I looked to see where Wolf was talking about, and then I nodded. It wasn’t too far from where we stood, but if someone saw me, they could shoot and I’d be dead.
“When you run, do it in zigzags. Don’t run straight, and don’t look back.”
I nodded slowly to show I understood.
“Ready…” Wolf said, loosening his grip on my arm. The sound of motorcycles came thundering into the airfield and distracted the men. “Go!”
I ran for the hole in the fence. My breathing was caught up as I ran and ran just as I heard bullets fire all around.
I couldn’t see if Wolf was alright, but I knew I had to keep going.
I got to the fence and chanced a look. That’s when I saw Savage, Viper and Lorcan standing in front of Boris and his men.
Tasi saw me and aimed her gun at me to shoot.
Something pushed her from behind, and the shot ricocheted off the fence above me.
Then it was on for young and old, everyone was fighting everyone. Bullets flying in every direction.
I couldn’t take my eyes off Savage as he advanced on his father.
An arm grabbed me, and I kicked at it only to see it was Ace. I fell into his arms and he helped me to a nearby car with Bear behind the wheel.
“We have to help them…”
“No, we need to get you to safety. They know what they’re doing.”
I couldn’t argue.
All I could do was pray that Savage would return to me in one piece.