OWNED & UNTAMED (A Back Down Devil MC Romance Novel) (9 page)

Right on cue, Prez and Jasper hung back. Then the rest dropped off about a mile from the bar.

It was me, Kye, Cash, and Trent.

We fucking rode right up to the bar and parked our rides. I counted ten motorcycles outside the bar. Now, this wasn’t exactly the main meeting place for the Hell Five, so some of these rides were just for regular bikers. Guys passing through. Prospects looking to get in on the crew.

Trent grabbed for the door and I stopped him.

“Let me,” I said.

“I’m the goddamn enforcer, Duke.”

“And they goddamn shot me in the leg,” I said.

Technically it wasn’t really a gunshot wound, nothing like my shoulder. But it was enough to make Trent back off for a second.

I tore open the bar to the Hell Five and stepped inside.

An enemy… looking for a fight… with a giant target on my back.

**

I ordered a shot of whiskey while Kye, Cash, and Trent ordered a beer.

All eyes were on us.

I took note of three guys in the back corner playing pool. They stood with their sticks in their hands, shocked at our appearance in their bar.

I threw the shot glass back and felt it burn all the way down to my belly.

“What do I owe?” I asked the barkeep.

“You’re not from around here,” he said. He reached under the bar and put a gun on the bar.

“I’ve got one of my own,” I said.

“Mine’s bigger,” Cash said. “He gets jealous.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” the barkeep said.

“Not getting a tip that way,” Kye said.

“I’ll give him a tip,” Trent said. He leaned over and quickly put his hand on the barkeep’s gun. “If you ever talk to one of my brother’s like that again, I’ll kill you.”

Trent moved quick and smooth, taking the clip out of the gun.

From the corner of my eye came the three guys that were shooting pool.

Guns were already drawn.

“Sorry about your beer,” I whispered to Cash.

“What?” he asked.

I grabbed Cash’s beer mug and tossed it to my left, hitting all three guys with beer. I then jumped to the middle guy and smashed the mug off his fucking face. It hit with a hard thud and didn’t break.

As I drove him back, a brawl broke out.

I waited for a gunshot or ten but it was quiet. Other than the fighting.

I took my guy back and over a pool table. I landed two rights to his nose before I felt a hot fire against my ride side. I rolled out of the way and fell against a pool table. A guy stood there holding half of a broken pool stick. He then thrust the broken piece at me like a spear. I jumped back and grabbed for a pool ball. It was the eight ball.
How lucky of me.
I tossed it forward and clanked the asshole right in the forehead. He dropped the pool stick and grabbed for his face. I went after him, dropping him with two punches.

Cash had a pool stick against one of the Hell Five member’s throats, lifting him up the wall.

Kye put a guy head first on the bar and slid him down, knocking over all the drinks. At the end of the bar, he threw his arms and the guy went off the bar and into the kitchen door. The door swung open and then shut, smacking the guy in the head.

Trent had two guys working him pretty good.

I hung back, knowing Trent would figure it out.

I saw the barkeep going for the gun. He probably had plenty of ammo under the bar.

I quickly took out my gun and shot, hitting him in the shoulder. He flew back into the wall of booze, clearing half a shelf.

That’s when all the fighting stopped.

Trent broke away from the two guys he was tangling with. Then in typical Trent fashion he threw a right hook at the guy on the left and a left hook at the guy on the right.

Then he turned and grabbed two guns off the floor.

Shit, we had done good. We disarmed the Hell Five guys that were there and fucked up the bar.

“Clear the register,” I said to the barkeep.

“Fuck you,” he yelled. “Call Carlo!”

I shot, breaking a bottle right over his head.

That was my version of a warning.

Trent had another.

Trent jumped over the bar, grabbed the old barkeep, and tossed him right back over it. The barkeep crashed into barstools and hit the floor hard. I stepped up to him and put my boot right on his back.

“You fuckers are dead!” one of the Hell Five guys yelled.

I looked to Cash and nodded.

Cash grabbed a pool ball and tossed it into the air. “Corner pocket… no, wait… eye socket!”

He laughed and smashed the pool ball against the guy’s eye. Over and over and over, putting the guy to his back.

When the other guys moved, we turned our weapons to them.

They were fucking helpless.

Trent opened the register and cleaned out the cash.

“Where’s the safe?” I asked the barkeep.

“Fuck you,” he yelled again.

I pressed the front of my boot right to the base of his skull. It was an instant pain pressure point that made you feel like you were suffocating and about to throw up.

He groaned and tapped a hand on the floor.

I let up.

“Try again,” I said.

“In the fucking back.”

Trent hopped the bar and we got the barkeep to his feet. The old bastard had pissed himself on the floor.

“If you lie, Trent is going to kill you,” I said.

“Let’s go,” Trent yelled.

They returned a minute later, Trent with a handful of cash and a handful of the barkeep’s shirt. Trent tossed the guy aside like a toy and made way for the door.

“Wait!” Cash yelled. “It’s… too clean in here.”

We all then unloaded our weapons. Breaking bottles, shooting the bar, the pool tables, the neon lights in the windows and the ones hanging from the ceiling. We reloaded, all nodded in unison, and left the bar.

There we were, just a bunch of crazy outlaws, tearing up a bar, stealing all their cash, and riding away unscathed.

I had to admit… it felt fucking good to do.

Shit, being in that bar, fighting, shooting, and stealing, it was the only time that day I didn’t think about Belle.

**

“Seventy-five-hundred,” Trev said and clapped his hands together.

“I didn’t expect that,” Jasper said.

The cash was spread out across the table.

“What do we do with it?” Max asked. “Call Ivan?”

“Fuck that,” I said.

“We’re not calling Ivan until we have the sixty-five,” Trev said.

“At least we have a start,” Cash said.

“This is not for Ivan,” Trev said.

He then went to divide the cash up between all of us. He did so with a sick smile on his face.

“What are you doing, Prez?” Trent asked.

“Enjoying the fucking outlaw life,” he said.

“Christ,” Jasper said.

“Hey,” Trev said. “This is for us. My share is going to Duke for taking that bullet. I’m going to go check on my very pregnant old lady, try to fuck that baby out of her, and then I’m going to call Carlo and see what he wants to do next. I’m guessing those slimy Hell Five fucks are all over that bar.”

“Do we need protection here?” Hudson asked.

“Favors have been called in,” Jasper said.

I didn’t bother asking what that meant. I just listened to the words being slung around the table. Hell Five started this little spat and we just dumped gas on the fire. That was okay though. It was needed.

Ivan wanted his money back, with blood, and he’d get it. This was about earning trust with the Russians and about showing power with our enemies.

Trev ended the meeting and asked to see me privately.

He kicked out Jasper’s seat and told me to sit.

“That’s for the VP,” I said.

“So much respect,” he said and grinned.

“I’ll stand, Prez.”

“How you feeling today?”

“I feel fine.”

“You’ve been raising some kind of hell around here since that night you tried to slit Cash’s throat. Still don’t want to talk about it?”

“Nothing to talk about, Prez.”

“You gonna ease up on the clubhouse?”

“I do what I do.”

“Can’t argue that, Duke.” Trev stood up. “I trust you. You’re patched in and at the table for a reason. Don’t spend that money on something bad for your health.”

I laughed. So did Trev as he walked toward the door.

“Hey, Prez,” I said.

“Yeah?” He stopped and looked back at me.

“I took that bullet because of your family. I would do it again. And for anyone here. I went through some dark shit somewhere else. I saw things nobody needs to hear about. I did what I felt was right, even if it wasn’t.”

“That’s why I trust you. Brother.”

Trev left the room and I stood there, alone.

I walked around to the head of the table and looked down it. The way Trev looked at the table. I put my fists to the table and shook my head.

The club had been through hell and back. I had been through hell and back. Yet we were all still standing. And we would continue to stand. No matter what happened.

I made it two steps away from the table when my cell began to ring.

It was Belle calling.

For some reason, I damn smiled.

“Hey, sweetie,” I said.

She quickly cut me off.
“Hurry! Help! I think Jim tried to kill himself again!”

twelve.

(belle)

I left Maggie’s place with a smile on my face. She swore to me two things before I left. First, she could never go near her ex again. That was tongue-in-cheek, but I made my point clear that Maggie was only hurting herself. If she was in it for the fun, fine, but not to let her ex control her.

I was a total hypocrite as I said it though.

I let Duke into my house. I let him touch me, kiss me. I wanted him to press me against the wall and have me, knowing it was purely physical and nothing else.

But I didn’t have to let Maggie know that.

The second thing was that I needed her to show up and clean Jim’s house. I told her to charge as much as she wanted, but Jim needed his place clean and he needed the company. I always knew there was a little flirty thing between Jim and Maggie.

So, yeah, I was smiling as I left, ready to go home and stare at my cell phone for hours, wondering if I should call Duke and try to make sense of something between me and him. Not that there was a future, but at least to settle the past. Was that so much to ask for?

Apparently so, because the second I entered the house, I knew something was wrong.

I saw the bathroom light on Jim’s side of house pouring out into the hall. And I saw something on the floor.

A pill
.

I dropped everything and started to run. I spun around into the kitchen and ran through the living toward the bedroom. I did a crazy jump move over the coffee table, my eyes locked to the open door. My heart raced. My mind frantically tried to prepare for the worst. I thought by having Duke talk to Jim it would have helped. Maybe there was a good reason why Duke and Jim never spoke since they came back. Maybe this was why. Maybe I caused Jim to…

I hit the brakes and slammed my shoulder against the doorway. Jim was on the bed, on his left side, right hand tucked under his head, left hand outstretched.

I saw the pill bottle in his hand and I knew it was empty because he had it upside down.

The first thing right then I should have done was call an ambulance. Instead, I reached for my phone. My mind saw Jim and thought of Duke. Not that Duke had any medical training, I just wanted someone to come save me. To come save Jim. To fix all of this goddamn mess.

When Duke picked up, I yelled, “Hurry! Help! I think Jim tried to kill himself again!”

“Jesus Christ!” Duke bellowed. “How? Where is he?”

“The pills.” I stepped into the room. “The bottle is empty. He’s on the bed. I don’t know if he’s sleeping…”

“I’m on my way,” Duke said. “Get him help. I’ll be right there, sweetie.”

The call went dead.

I hesitated for a few seconds before my body kicked in again. My mind screaming
Save your brother!

I grabbed the pill bottle out of Jim’s hand and dropped to my knees next to his bed. I did the same as before, jamming my fingers into his neck to check for a pulse. There was a pulse. I inched forward with my knees and opened my mouth to say his name when I felt something crack against my knee.

I inched back and looked down.

I saw a crushed pill, next to my knee.