Chapter 31 #2
My gut plummets to the filthy floor. He… he did what ? “Jesus, Axe. That’s fucking low. Even for you. What the hell were you thinking?”
Axe rolls back his shoulders, spine straightening a little.
“I was doing what needed to be done. I was putting the club in a better position so that Jimmy’s legacy wouldn’t be destroyed because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants when it came to your mother.
” He adjusts his position against the wall, wincing.
“I was thinking my father dropped his cut at my feet, that the club was falling apart, and that no one was about to trust their new twenty-four-year-old prez without some kind of sacrifice. I had to prove myself, and Officer Good Boy over here was getting on my last nerve. All his talk about cleaning up South Bay . Give me a fucking break. Someone had to put him in his place.”
Decker’s got that look on his face. The one he got the night he nearly choked the life out of Keegan. A loss of control. A need to kill.
All the hate. The anger. The resentment. All the shit he keeps bottled up, that he directs at my family. I get it now. Maybe I even get the part where he needed to stay. End this , as he said. Burn it all down, even if that means burning with it.
I know what that’s like. Feeling like there’s no other choice, no way out, no way to turn back the clock, to fix what’s been done.
Knife slicing down, body slumping, eyes wide, fresh blood on my hands.
Like Linc, I had no one in my corner, no one to get their hands bloody for me .
Until him. He used the violence forced into him and willfully threw himself into this mess right along with me, even after I dragged him into it at gunpoint, even after he had the chance to walk away.
The man who’s racked up his kill count a few notches just to keep me safe.
I understand. But more than ever, I need to protect what we have.
I can’t let him strike that match. I can’t watch this end—us, the club. I can’t watch South Bay fall into the hands of Raiders. I can’t watch any more bodies hit the ground.
Clearing my throat, I nudge Linc. “Maybe you should, uh, say something. You know, about… what you’re feeling.”
He quirks a brow. “What I’m feeling ? I think I’ve made it pretty fucking clear. I’m not interested in a reconciliation, Grace. I kind of just want to kill your brother.”
I give him a tight smile. “Well, you’re all tied up right now. So how about we give it a try anyway? Like adults.”
When no one speaks, I sigh and shift my attention to Axe.
“Fine. I’ll go first. I’m sorry,” I say, my tone earnest. “I should have come to you when I was in trouble. I should have hightailed it out of that place the second I saw that skull and crossbones.” With a deep breath out, I steady the tremble in my voice.
“I lied. It wasn’t by accident. I knew what I was doing, who I was getting into bed with.
I honestly don’t know why I did it. Maybe because I needed to feel something.
Feel this again. Or maybe I did it as a big fuck-you to Jimmy for dragging me away from my family.
To you and Jack for not dragging me back. ”
More silence.
“Now it’s your turn,” I say to Axe.
He tilts his head, regarding me. “My turn to… what?”
“Apologize. You can start with Decker. Say you’re sorry for being an absolute piece of shit. For doing what you did.”
His barking laughter echoes off the metal walls of the building. “I’m good, Gracie. I got nothing to apologize for.”
“Really?” I cock a brow. “No regrets about blackmailing him into a life of crime? About using his dead pregnant girlfriend to do it?”
He dips his head back against the wall, holding my stare, keeping that scowl perfectly in place.
These fucking men. Neither willing to back down, to lose, to wave the white flag and forget all this.
It’s shocking how similar they are. They both have a code. A way of life. A doctrine they live by. They’re willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe, to get bloody in the name of their own sense of justice, of morality.
Regardless of where they came from, of how they got here, they’re cut from the same cloth. A cloth I seem to have wrapped around my life. Despite how long I’ve been gone, this dogma, this way of living, it’s engrained in me too.
This life is one I’d kill to protect. That I’d die fighting for. All the shit in between doesn’t matter.
The silence stretches. Axe shifts and lets out a breath.
“I did a shitty thing. So what? We all do shitty things. It’s business, Linc.
Don’t take it so personally. I saw an opportunity, and I took it.
I didn’t make you into anything. This has always been who you are.
You proved that the second I put that blade in your hand.
You’re just pissed I made you face that. ”
Decker snorts. “Pretty sure I’m pissed about the blackmail. But yeah, let’s go with your thing.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” Axe says. “We’re about to meet our maker. All because you couldn’t fucking lay down and do what you’re told. Want to apologize for that? For selling what’s left of your soul to the enemy? To the club that’s gonna roll into our town and take what I built? What we built.”
“I saw an opportunity and I took it ,” Decker mocks. “Don’t take it so personally.”
“Except they turned on you, didn’t they? And now we all die. Good job. Know that if we end up in the same place in the afterlife, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Axe grunts. “You wanna go hand-to-hand with me? Sure. I’ll sentence you to a fucking lifetime of it. A million lifetimes.”
A deep chuckle spills from Decker’s mouth. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll end up in the deepest part of hell, Axe. Right along with you. We’ll have plenty of time to beat the shit out of each other. But no one’s dying today. There’s a way out of this. There’s always a way out.”
He lies back and closes his eyes, doing that deep breathing thing he does when he’s trying to not punch everyone in the face.
But his hands are tied, so there will be no punching. And I’m not done talking.
“Linc—”
The large sliding door of the hangar screams open, and one of our captors walks inside. Leather cut. Skull and crossbones. Half-rotten smile and his eyes on me. A phantom sensation hits me. A reminder of what his hands felt like getting too close to all the places I didn’t want him touching.
He points to me. “I’m bored. Time to pay penance, little snake.”
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Decker snarls.
He only gets a cold, menacing laugh in return as a big leather-clad biker stalks towards me.
I’m moving before he can get his hands on me, but my bindings keep me from gaining much ground. He buries his hand in my hair and yanks me towards the exit, dragging me across the dirt floor, the pain in my scalp searing. White hot.
Decker is on his feet, hands still tied as he runs at the man holding me. He makes contact. The pain intensifies as I’m jerked back, unable to brace as two large bodies fall to the ground and take me with them.
There’s a scuffle, a grunt. The hold on my hair loosens, and I clamber away as Decker slams his head into the nose of my attacker with a sickening crunch.
But as Decker moves to strike again, a fist pummels into his face.
He’s thrown to the ground, and the Raider immediately pushes up and kicks him in the ribs.
I scream again, scrambling to help, to stop the attack, but Decker is given another hard punch to the jaw before I can get up, and he stops moving.
No. No, no, no. “Linc? Linc!”
Face twisted in anger, blood flowing from his nose, the Raider grabs a fistful of Decker’s hair and angles up his face. “You wanna watch me fuck your girl? Fine by me. I love an audience.”
Hands pin me in place, then a massive body crushes down on me.
No.
Bile rises in my throat, my heart banging against my chest.
No, no, no, no, no.
I kick. I flail. I fight with everything I have. But I’m already losing energy. He’s too strong.
“Hold still, bitch,” he snarls.
This will not fucking happen.
I know better than this. I know how to fight this.
With a deep breath in, I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him forward.
With all my might, I thrust out my hips.
He jerks back, and I slam my feet into his stomach as hard as I can.
As he stumbles, Axe swings his legs out, catching the man’s ankles, and the asshole falls to the ground.
Then Decker clamps his thighs down on his head, and he’s squeezing and squeezing.
The man slaps at Decker’s legs, his face turning red, then purple. His other hand reaching to his back and pulling out a?—
“Gun!” Axe yells.
Decker jerks his whole body, moving his legs swiftly to one side. There’s a crunch, and then the man’s body goes limp.
“Shit,” he murmurs as he loosens his hold and the body slumps beside him. He lies back a minute, catching his breath, and then he angles up and gives Axe a curt nod. “Thanks.”
Axe merely grunts and rests his head back against the wall.
Decker pushes to his knees and shuffles to my side, and as he leans into me, I sit back on my heels and rest my head on his chest. The beat of his heart thumps hard against my cheek.
He looks down at me. Warm, whiskey-coloured eyes sliding over my skin, cataloguing my face. “You good, babe?” he asks.
I nod and do that thing. Push it all down. The fear, the panic, all the thoughts of what could have happened. I’m fine. I’m good.
Never let ’em see you sweat.
He presses his forehead to mine. “Stop doing that,” he whispers. “You don’t have to wear that face all the time, Gracie. Not with me. We can do ugly, remember? After all this, we can do real.”
My heart jumps a little, and the sob I’ve been holding in, that I buried deep down in the darkest parts of me, worms its way out.
And when the tears start to flow, he kisses me.
Not gently. Because I’ve never needed that.
In moments like this, when the world is falling apart, I need this .
Passion and possession. Ferocity. Teeth.
Biting. Pain. Hurt that I choose over the kind that’s chosen for me.
Axe clears his throat. Loudly. And I pull my lips away from Linc.
“You said there’s a way out of this.” Coughing, he kicks out his foot and drags the fallen gun closer. “Now would be the time to fill us in.”
Decker smiles. “Got any weapons on you, Gracie?”
I grin. “You think I’d show up to the Sinner clubhouse without a way to take someone out? Who do you think you’re talking to?”
He hums. “Beautifully ruthless.”
He’s got my switchblade out of my boot and the ropes around my wrists half cut when a smug voice draws my attention back to the open door.
“Look at you three. Getting along. Love to see it.”
A snide smirk stretches across the square jaw of a face I fucking hate.
Sergeant Bag of Dicks.
Decker lets out a long sigh. “Sorry about this, babe. I promise I’ll make it make sense,” he says, voice low. A slow smile curls across his face as he pushes to his feet, morphing into another man completely. “Allen. About time you fucking got here.”