Hearts: Motorcycle Club Romance (Savage Saints MC Book 7) Page 16

  “Yes, sir,” the crowd said.

  Joseph nodded, took a step back, paused, and came back forward.

  “I hope you all realize the importance of tonight.”

  What is this? Joseph almost never gives serious speeches like this.

  “The man on the other side, Scar, has caused us more trouble and more damage than any of you can ever know. You see the damage done to the buildings, sure. You see the casualty count. But you don’t know how long he has haunted these walls.”

  Please don’t say anything. Please don’t mention me. Please don’t call me out, Joseph.

  “This is a chance to vanquish these fucking assholes once and for all,” he said, his voice rising. “This is a chance to defeat whatever demons you fight. Whatever darkness you have in your past, project that onto Scar and the rest of the Degenerate Sinners.”

  It’s not just for me. It’s for himself. He’s giving himself a pep talk as much as he is the crowd.

  “So remember, when you go in there tonight, kill Scar. Kill the Sinners. And kill the evil from within. For the Saints!”

  The crowd roared, raising their fists, slapping at each other, flexing in anticipation.

  “To the bikes!”

  Everyone who wasn’t on stage headed for their bikes. I went up to Joseph, ignoring that people were still present to see us, and embraced him tightly.

  “Thanks for bringing me back into the fold,” he said.

  “Hell, if I’d known that you were going to give a speech like that, I never would have given you a choice!” I said with a laugh. “I’ll lead these boys. You do whatever it is you need to do in your vehicle. Promise me you’ll survive, will ya?”

  “I mean, duh,” Joseph said. “I’m like the Eye of the Tiger, you know? I’m a survivor.”

  “Oh my God, that was so bad,” I said. “But it’s from you, so it’s perfect.”

  And then I did something that came on an absolute whim, something I would not have ever anticipated doing in public even after we opened up about our status.

  I kissed him.

  I kissed him long, I kissed him good, and I kissed him passionately. I gave Dom the middle finger when he yelled, “Ohhh shit!” but otherwise, my attention was fully on Richard.

  When I pulled back, I saw everyone staring at me with slack jaws. And I mean everyone.

  “Oh, whatever,” I said. “Like you all never gossiped about it.”

  I patted Joseph on the ass, kissed him on the cheek once more, and headed out to the bikes. Richard caught up to me in the alleyway, having to speak loudly over the hordes of bikes revving to get into battle.

  “You’re sure you wanna take charge, huh?” he said.

  “Hell yes, hun,” I said. “Joseph gets first shot at killing Scar. But if he fails, I want to lead the charge in.”

  Richard smiled.

  “I do sometimes get tired of being in charge of everything,” he said.

  * * *

  Two minutes later, the five men, armed to the teeth with machine guns and what body armor we had, drove ahead of us in a white van. I had ordered the men to stagger out in two-minute rotations, the better to keep us separate, and for everyone to take a winding route to the parking lot about half a mile from the warehouse. As soon as two minutes passed, I led four other men down the highway.

  Since we were the first, we took the quickest route. The van was not cause for suspicion; the bikes were. Having five of us drive might have drawn some curiosity from the Sinners, but not the kind that would have readied them for an all-out assault.

  When we pulled up to the parking lot, the van was already parked at the corner and unoccupied. I couldn’t see the men in the distance, but that was a good sign. It meant that they had begun their journey, their mission to take out Scar. Go get ‘em, Joseph. Kill them all.

  And most of all, kill that motherfucking asshole. Kill him good.

  While I waited for the rest of the bikers to head over, I pulled out a cigarette and took a much-needed stress break. I inhaled, felt the smoke hit my lungs, and then puffed out. I wasn’t going to have many relaxing moments for the rest of the day, and it was for the best that I took advantage of them whenever I got them.

  Richard pulled up about five minutes later, having taken a slightly longer route. He cut off his bike, walked over to me, and joined me in smoking a cigarette.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  “Fuck no,” I said. “Would you be ready if you found out you might finally get the chance to kill someone who has fucked with your head and left scars on you for over a decade?”

  Richard didn’t say anything in response. He just took a puff, gruffly nodded, and then took another puff.

  “I don’t mean to bring this all back up,” I said. “Pork’s just given me the confidence to face it and the opportunity to fight it.”

  “It’s fine, and besides, it’s not for me to say if it’s fine or not,” Richard said. “I’ve wanted to kill that asshole for many, many reasons for a long time now. Helping you is the biggest one, but I can’t pretend I don’t have my own selfish motivation.”

  “Oh, I know,” I said.

  A gentle silence settled in as more bikers pulled up. By now, I assumed that the group of five had achieved penetration into the warehouse. I assumed that the five had at least killed some targets. It might have been too soon to declare victory and Scar dead, but at least the buzzer hadn’t gone off.

  At this point, there were no more words to be said. All of the motivational cries, the rah-rah speeches, the moments of contemplation had passed. There was nothing more to do than to wait.

  And wait.

  And wait.

  Probably fifteen minutes passed as we all nervously sat around, waiting for our cue. It felt like speaking about it would jinx it, or at least disturb the silent calm that everyone had found. We were usually a chatty group, but on this night, the only chattering was coming from nearby citizens doing their grocery shopping.

  And then it happened.

  My buzzer sounded.

  “Let’s go!” I roared.

  I hopped on my bike, not waiting for the others to start their engines. Mine was the first one on, and I gunned it, driving over the sidewalk and onto the road. I looked behind me to see about three other bikers immediately behind me, with the rest catching up. I reached back, grabbed my pistol, and pulled up on the right side of the compound.

  No one was shooting at us, but even with my motorcycle going at full force, I could hear the gunfight within the warehouse. At least we found the right place. I held my gun up, pointed it at a window, and then thought better of it. If we could get into the building without drawing any attention, then we could end this within seconds. If we drew attention outside, we’d get pinned down and into a hopelessly drawn-out long-distance fight.

  “I’m going in!” I shouted as I sprinted for the door.

  I briefly looked back to see the three bikers struggling to catch up with me. I didn’t care. I was going to find Joseph and the other military guys. I was going to get the kill shot on Scar.

  I turned the first open door—

  * * *

  I came to in a different room with a massive, aching pain in the back of my skull. I tried to rub my head, but my hands were chained to the side. I was at least on some sort of soft surface, but there was no mistaking it.

  I was a prisoner.

  “She’s still alive?”

  I recognized that voice. It was a voice that haunted my dreams, persisted in my nightmares, and came without warning during the waking hours. It was the voice that dehumanized me, demeaned me, and reminded me of how worthless I was. It was the voice that had forced Mama to go from a tough but sweet girl into a tough and guarded woman.

  It was the voice of Stewart Elliot, or, as he was referred to now, Scar.

  “She was breathing when we dragged her fat ass in here, boss,” another man said.

  I didn’t move any more than I already had. I didn’t want
to alert Scar to the fact that I was awake now. If I played dead, it could delay him until he got bored of waiting for me to wake up.

  That was the hope, at least. I didn’t feel too good about my chances with the reality of the situation.

  “About time you did something right,” Scar said with a snort. “And the Saints problem?”

  “There are reinforcements coming from nearby, but we’ve got them pinned outside. Three of them were right behind her. We killed them.”

  Oh, fuck.

  “And the ones inside? The ones who are actually a threat?”

  “We’ve got them pinned too. They’re well trained. They know what they’re doing. But they can’t last forever in there.”

  “Well, do me a favor and try not to make it feel like forever, would you?” Scar said, his voice rising. “I don’t have time to win a battle of attrition. I want them bleeding out, on the deck, within the next ten minutes. Understood?”

  “Ye-yes, sir!” the man shouted.

  “Get out of here and go fucking kill them.”

  I had my eyes closed the whole time, but now I made an even greater effort to keep my eyes closed and my body still as the Sinner left the room. I guessed that Scar was about ten, maybe fifteen feet away, but he was too close already. Being chained up meant any distance with him alive was too close.

  Unfortunately, no amount of playing dead or asleep was going to help me right now. Because seconds later, I could hear Scar’s footsteps approaching me. He sat down next to me, patted my cheek, and smiled as I failed to keep the character of being knocked out.

  “Hello, Tanya,” he said. “Did you miss me?”

  I spat in his face. He reeled, slapped, and laughed as he rose.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” he said. “You should have missed me. I might be the only person you know who is alive at the end of the night.”

  “That’s an awful big boast,” I said. “Considering that we have a number of men who are much better trained and we have more reinforcements than before.”

  “Oh?” he said. “Perhaps you didn’t hear my worthless assistant, but you are down to the five men who came in here first. The rest of your backups are pinned with no way to get in. Face it; you are trapped.”

  He sat back down next to me, placing his hand over my mouth so that I couldn’t spit at him.

  “And now, we are going to resume what we once had long ago,” he said. “Do me a favor and don’t resist, would you? I’d hate to have to give you new scars.”

  Chapter 19: Pork

  I don’t know how the fuck we’re going to get out of this situation.

  Things had started so well at first. We’d managed to sneak up to the warehouse without being detected, at least to the best of our knowledge. We killed the first five Sinners that we came across with nary a sound, and we moved through the warehouse, closer to where we knew Scar had to be residing.

  But then, just when we were about two rooms over, in one of the largest open areas, the fucking damndest thing happened.

  The fucking air conditioning came on.

  One of the Sinners, clearly not expecting it, turned in casual interest. In doing so, though, he also saw BK pressed against the wall. We managed to take him out, but we had to shoot him instead of breaking his neck, and the noise got out. Seconds later, we found ourselves pinned on all fronts.

  We were five men—five well-armed and well-trained men, but just five—facing off against seemingly the entire forces of the Degenerate Sinners. If we could figure out a way out of there and to Scar, I knew we’d find him. We’d caught them off-guard, and their leader would have to have been here.

  But we were five men, not fifty men. We were not going to stem the tide against a force that had us outnumbered by a significant factor. We were going to have to rely on help to get us out of this spot.

  And right now, despite me having pushed the buzzer a few minutes ago, I had no idea where the fuck the help was.

  It wasn’t helping matters that, in the chaos of the first few bullets firing, I had gotten separated from Barber, Dom, and Krispy. Only BK and I were together right now.

  “We’ve got four hostiles on the railing above us,” I said, peeking over my shoulder for a quick glance. “We have to take those out first.”

  BK, true to form, even in the middle of the madness—or maybe especially in the middle of the madness—didn’t say a word. We both turned at the same time, drawing their fire in multiple directions. I killed one of the Sinners, and BK also managed to get one.

  I turned back. Two down; two to go.

  “Not bad, huh—”

  I caught my breath. BK had been hit in the arm.

  “Dude!”

  “I’ve taken worse,” he grunted before nodding back.

  I shrugged. A battle like this was no time to confirm a person’s feelings. If he said he was fine, fuck it, he was fine. Not like we could have medically evacuated him.

  I turned again and fired. This time, we got both of them.

  “Nice!” I shouted.

  I looked across the room and saw the other three of our men pinned down, firing across the room at a force of about a dozen Sinners. They were holding strong, and Dom especially was pulling off some audacious moves, standing for far longer than he should have, but they couldn’t last forever. We had to help.

  “Cover me,” I said. “We—”

  And then, out of nowhere, a flash grenade went off.

  Instinctively, I dropped to the floor. A standing target covering his face was about the easiest thing in the world to shoot, and when I regained my senses, I’d know what to do.

  But the senses were slow to come back. The fog… the fog of war…

  Where the fuck is everyone? Seriously, where is everyone?

  My vision was coming back, but it was still blinded and filled with bright colors. I couldn’t make out who was on what side any longer; it was like my world had flipped on its orientation. I knew I had moved, and I suspected that my four allies had moved, which made this only that much more difficult.

  Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot. Don’t do anything you’ll regret.

  “Hey!”

  I turned to my left and saw a rifle raised at me.

  It was not an ally.

  I had no time to react.

  I closed my eyes. The gun fired.

  And then, somehow, I opened my eyes.

  The man was dead on the ground, dropped. And in his place was Krispy, smiling in triumph.

  “At your service!” he said. “Come on! Let’s get your ass over to safety.”

  He ran over to me. I provided cover fire, still somewhat shooting a little blindly. He motioned for me to follow him, which I did. I covered his six while he led the charge forward.

  Eventually, we got to the spot where the others had originally been. It was as if BK and Krispy had swapped places, but now, all five of us were reunited for the first time since we’d entered into the building.

  “Goddamn!” Dom yelled. “Where the fuck is our backup?”

  “Outside,” BK said. “Dealing with their own problems.”

  Shit. Tanya is part of that group.

  “We need to have someone retrace our steps,” I said. “They’re just going to pick them off as they come in. It was a narrow entrance, remember?”

  “Should we all fall back?” Krispy said. “You go alone—”

  “We can’t give up the ground we’ve gained,” I said. “Not with Scar as close as he is. Not with justice so close to us.”

  I knew there was only one person who should have gone back, especially since that one person had someone they loved on the other side of the battle lines.

  “I’ll go,” I said. “I’ll be fine. The four of you just kill everyone that you can. Scar is trapped in here; this is whoever dies last wins. I’ll clear the area for reinforcements to follow, and then we can make a clean sweep of this area.”

  Dom looked at me like I was fucking crazy, and I supposed he wasn’
t wrong. A solo run in an environment like this was a good way to ensure I’d get killed. But I also knew Tanya getting pinned down outside was a good way to ensure she’d get killed.

  And goddamnit, I hadn’t come this far to have Tanya get killed after I’d returned to the club.

  “I’ll be back,” I said. “I promise. If I’m crazy, just know it’s not you making me crazy; it’s me.”

  “Even now,” Barber said with a chuckle. “Go fuck ‘em up, Pork!”

  I turned back, waited for the signal of cover fire, and made a beeline back for the entrance as the other four troops gave me cover to move back.

  To my surprise, though, as I winded through the hallways and the next open storage room, the place was surprisingly empty. There were the dead Sinners that we’d taken out on our way, but I had to go all the way to the narrow entrance before I saw a Sinner there.

  It was sickening to see a pile of about five dead bodies by him, all of them Savage Saints. Fuck, we’d lost so many today—and it was only going to get worse. This had to fucking end tonight.

  I lined up my gun, pulled the trigger, and killed the Sinner before he even had an idea of what had hit him. I emerged out of the opening, only to quickly duck back in when someone fired at me. Fuck! That was close!

  I tossed my gun forward, raised my arms, and stepped out.

  “Pork!”

  Richard! Thank God!

  “What the fuck is going on?” I shouted.

  “They’re shooting at us from the windows and making it all but impossible to get in,” he said. “Did you take out the guard sitting right there in the doorway?”

  I nodded.

  “That’ll help things out. See if you can sneak under a few and take them out.”

  I gave a thumbs up and moved forward. I couldn’t get a perfect angle on them, but I was able to shoot about six more Sinners out of the windows. Of course, this made it so that more were aware of me, and at some point, I had to rely on the cover fire of my Savage Saints comrades, but the pressure valve was released.

  As soon as I finished with this, I ran over to Richard, who charged toward the door, looking like the grizzled motorcycle veteran that he was. He may have been older than all of us, but he was no less badass—it wasn’t too long ago that he had led a daring rescue of Natasha, literally swiping her mid-road and saving her from Scar’s clutches.