BLAMELESS: MC Biker Romance (Black Thorns, #3) (23 page)

The place is a few miles outside the City of Brockford.

Deserted.

Just what I need.

“Took me some time to check you kept your word.” I spent the last half hour scoping out the place, making sure he really did come alone. Never know with him. But this time, he’s kept his word. He’s alone. No muscle. No Torvin. Nobody. Guess he were willing to take the risk, considering what he
thinks
I’m offering. Me coming back into the fold.

“Well, as you can see, I did.”

I come to a stop a couple of feet in front of him. “Rare, ain’t it?”

He don’t rise to my comment. Instead, I see him staring at me. At my eyes.

“What you on?” he asks, smiling and looking happy ‘bout it. Sick bastard.

“You know how I roll, Jase.”

He nods. “Your favorite?
E
?”

“Yeah.”

“Must be real amazing riding on it.”

“You got no idea.” He don’t ride. Never has. And how dumb is he? No way nobody could ride hopped up on that shit. Well, not without crashing and burning anyway.

He shifts his weight and asks, “You rode through Brockford, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, you saw it?”

“Yeah, you kept your end of the deal. Torvin’s offices are all packed up and abandoned.”

“Promised you, didn’t I? Him out for you coming back in.”

“Promised me shit before, Jase.”

“This is different. When I make a
business
deal, I never go back on it. You know that.”

Yeah, I do. It’s what I’d been counting on.

Now Sarah, nor the club, have gotta worry ‘bout going through Jase to take down Torvin no more. Ax can handle Torvin. He can deal with that. But Jase woulda been another thing altogether, cuz of all the shit he’s connected to. Woulda dragged the club into some bad shit. But Torvin’s just a suit who had some good backing in Jase. And now he don’t. Be easy to take him down now.

“Hands out to the sides,” he orders me, stepping forward.

As he moves, patting me down, his suit jacket rides up. My stomach lurches as I catch sight of a .45 holstered at his hip. Fuck. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him packing. Hard to believe he even knows how to shoot. He’s always had his muscle for that.

“Good,” he says, stepping back. “You followed my orders.”

“Yeah,” I grit out.

“There was a time when you always did, little brother. A time when you looked up to me. You see, at the end of the day,
I’m
your family. Not that club. They ain’t
blood
, Zeb. And they don’t got the bond with you that I do. After mom and dad died in that car accident, I was the one looking after you. Guess you’ve finally remembered that, huh?” He shakes his head then and I see something real rare in his eyes. Emotion. “Twenty years, Zeb? Twenty years you made me believe you were in the ground. You hated me that much?”

“Weren’t ‘bout hate, Jase.”

“What was it then?” he roars. “I gave you everything!”

There’s that dangerous temper again. I watch his hand brush his hip where that piece is holstered. But just for a second.

“Everything? You made me into a junkie!”

His eyes flash and he storms over to me, getting in my face. “I just gave you a push.”

“Like hell. You made me into this,” I growl at him.

A malicious smirk crosses his face as he tells me, “That shit’s in you, little brother. It’s who you’ll always be.” He fists his hands in my jacket and jerks me into him. “You know it, too. That’s why you’re coming back to me. You know nobody will ever accept what you are, but me. You thought you were better than me. Better than the life I built for us, Zeb! But what I did to you, I did for a reason. Cuz I
knew
. Once a man tastes that shit, there’s no going back. It seeps into you. You become it. And it’s what you’ll always be now. A dirty junkie.” He lets go of me roughly and spits, “There’s no escape from
that
. No way out of it.”

“There’s
one
way.”

“What?”

“I ain’t gonna let it dig my grave for me.”

Shock plays on his face and I know he gets what I’m saying. He starts shaking his head, pain in his eyes. “You weren’t really planning on coming back to me,” he realizes out loud. “You came here to say goodbye. You’re gonna end it…end your
life
.”

My eyes narrow and I take a step towards him. “Not just
mine
.”

Before he can react, I lunge at him.

I slam into him hard, taking him across the waist in a football tackle.

Guess I got more pent-up rage towards him than I even realized, cuz I drive him right into one of the huge cafe windows. The cheap glass explodes ‘round us and we crash through it. I grit my teeth as I feel shards of glass slice into my face and through my leather jacket and jeans. The bites of pain kick start my adrenaline and, as we both hit the floor, I react real fast, rolling to my side and jumping back to my feet.

He grunts, tryin’ to lift himself up from the wreckage of a table all ‘round him. He might be stronger and bigger than me, but he ain’t never been faster. And in this moment, it’s all ‘bout speed.

I dive towards him, straddling him as I grab for the gun in his holster. I yank it out, but before I can do anything else he grabs my arm. I smash my fist of my free hand into his face. His head snaps to the side and his grip loosens.

But then he jabs the heel of his hand into my throat. It’s so brutal that it has me choking. It screws with my grip on the gun and it hits the floor. Shit. Lucky the goddamn safety were still on.

Jase lunges for it, but I throw my leg out and manage to kick it away across the cafe floor.

I push off him quickly and stumble back tryin’ to catch my breath.

But he don’t give me that time.

His fist comes at my face. I grunt as it slams into my cheek, knocking me back a step.

“You think you can play
me
!” he roars, socking me brutally hard in the gut next. Once. Twice. I fall back into the counter.

Another left hook from him has me spitting up blood over the damn floor. Instinctively, I bring my fists up to my face, a defensive move to minimize
some
damage. Shit.

As he keeps wailing on me, I see a flash of movement to my left. He’s grabbing for something. A second later, he smashes a bottle of syrup down on the edge of the counter right next to me.

“You’d try to kill your own brother!” he screams, his left hand wrapping ‘round my throat and making me gag from the pressure.

Adrenaline rips through me as he holds the broken bottle in front of my face. The neck’s completely broken off and it’s sharp and jagged.

He brings it down.

My training kicks in and my hand shoots out, grabbing his wrist, just before it makes contact.

“You ain’t no brother of mine, Jase!”

He snarls at me and I can feel him pushing harder. Both our hands are shaking from the effort.

“Thought this is what you wanted? Death? Why you fighting me on it? I can end it right here and now for you, little brother.”

I thrust my knee up into his gut.

“Cuz
you
gotta be dead first!”

His grip ‘round my neck loosens. I grab his hand with my free one and yank it off my neck. Then I push up on his wrist holding the bottle, raising it above my head. I turn into him and slam my elbow up into his armpit. It has the automatic effect of breaking his grip. I rip the bottle free and toss it behind the counter. The thing smashes into a million pieces, raining glass everywhere.

Before I can turn back to him, he fists his hand in my hair and uses his grip to smash my face down into the countertop. I hear a crack and pain rips through my nose. Shit. Mighta broken it.

He holds my head down and slams his elbow into my back, drilling down hard. Holding it there, he snarls in my ear, “I know that bitch of Torvin’s means something to you. I’m gonna kill you and then I’m gonna get my hands on her. Gonna take her as my whore. You remember how I like to fuck my whores, Zeb? Ain’t never the same again after I’ve had them, are they?”

I know exactly what he does to his girls, so his brutal threat to Sarah ain’t lost on me one bit.

And it enrages me beyond anything I’ve ever felt before in my life. Guess this is what Ax deals with on a daily basis with that infamous, fierce temper of his.

“Can’t wait to break her, little brother.”

Fucker!

Nobody’s gonna touch her! Nobody!

I kick at the back of his leg. Once. Twice. It knocks him off balance, his knee giving way, and making his grip on my hair and his elbow in my back loosen.

It’s all I need to regain the upper hand.

And I ain’t gonna lose it again.

It’s painfully clear to me how screwed up I really am from him messing up my body with all ‘em drugs. I’m weaker than I’ve ever felt in a fight before. And slower. That’s the worst part. Without speed, I got problems, cuz I ain’t a big guy like most of the guys I go up against.

But I ain’t gonna lose this fight. No matter what. Even with me being nowhere near my best.

Cuz of her. Sarah.

Gonna win for her. Gonna win to make sure she’s safe.

The only way to guarantee that is to kill him.

I push back hard, forcing him off me. And then I spin ‘round, using the momentum to drive my fist into the side of his face so fucking hard that it knocks him right to his knees.

I step up to him and grab the sides of his face.

“You piece of shit! You threaten my girl?” I scream at him as I smash my knee into his face. Holding his face steady, I do it over and over again. Every drop of blood, every crack of bone, every pained grunt from him, drives me on. I’m caught up in a haze of rage and determination. Gotta take him out!

He goes limp in my hold and I let go of him, letting his dead weight collapse onto the floor.

And then the worst happens.

I see it a split second before he reaches out across the floor.

His .45.

He scrambles to get hold of it and then he takes aim. Choking out a crazed laugh, he tells me, “You lose.”

As I hear him cock it, I scan the area with my peripherals.

“On your knees!” he bellows, jerking the gun at me. “Now!”

As I lower myself down, that’s when I see my saving grace.

Glass. Glass all over the floor from the neck of that bottle he broke off and the window we crashed through.

I close my hand over a pile of shards. The bitches bite into my palm, but I don’t show no reaction to Jase. Can’t risk him seeing what I’m ‘bout to do. I got one shot here.

He struggles to his feet and staggers over to me, closing the distance between us. Knew he would. He’s so fucking sick, I know he’s gotta do this up real close to see the look on my face. Fear. He gets off on that shit. It’s the ultimate rush for him.

“You could’ve been at my side again, Zeb. Instead, you chose to get in my way. Big mistake. Now you’ve left me no choice. I don’t trust you. You ain’t with me, then you’re my enemy. And you know what I do to my enemies.”

For once in my life, I manage to keep my goddamn mouth shut. I can’t rile him up into a sudden explosion of anger, cuz that explosion’s gonna be a bullet driving through my skull.

But I can’t do shit ‘til his gun ain’t pointed right between my eyes. The second I make a sudden move the thing could go off from him being startled.

And that’s why I end up saying, “I’m sorry…brother.” It’s hard using that word with him. Calling somebody
brother
means everything to me and having to fake it here with him is going against everything I stand for.

But it ain’t ‘bout
me
right now.

It’s ‘bout Sarah.

I can’t die here. Not at
his
hands. I gotta put him in the ground, or she ain’t never gonna be safe. And I can’t live
or
die knowing that.

“Sorry?” he asks, all hesitant and unsure.

I knew it. I knew the brother thing would strike a nerve and get into his head.

“Yeah, you’re right. You’re the only one who don’t judge me.”

He drops his shoulder then and I see him start to move the gun away from my head.

“Cuz I’m your
blood
, Zeb,” he says, kneeling down in front of me. “Not like that club. Not like your best buddy, Ax. He can’t never be what I am to you.”

Gun’s down now, hanging loosely at his side and pointed at the floor.

“Nah, he can’t,” I tell him, tightening my hold on the shards in my hand. “You wanna know why?”

He leans in closer. “Why?” he asks, really needing to know.

It cuts into me then. He’s got so much power over people. He strikes fear into ‘em all, too. But underneath all that, he’s just so fucking broken.