Call Me...Vengeance: Book 1 in the Vengeance MC Series (34 page)

Writhing beneath me and the weight of the steel chair at my back, Laura screeches trying to wriggle away as I bite into the flesh of her shoulder.

“Oh my God, get her off me. Get off. Get off. Get her off.”

Oliver strides forward yanking me upright by grabbing a hank of hair at the back of my head.

“I fucking warned you this wasn’t smart, Laura. Now, get up and get out.”

Sneering at me, Laura cups a hand over her injured shoulder.

“Trash. Just like the rest of them you are trash.”

Stalking out of the room, Oliver watches her as she leaves before bellowing to an unknown man standing in the hallway.

“Bring in the cot and do it quickly, I’ve wasted enough time here and I have places to be.” Turning to me, he smirks at the terror starkly displayed on the set of my features. “Oh, yes darling, this is going to be fun. I have already had my turn with both of your friends, but I have a feeling you are going to be so much sweeter.”

Time is relative when your body is no longer under your control. You feel the agony that is being inflicted, the pain of hands, fingers, a man’s cock tearing through you, but your mind is still under your command. With what Oliver was doing to me as he grunted above me, sweat pouring from his face dripping onto my bruised, abused skin, I had a choice to make. I could allow my mind to absorb the horror of what he was doing, how brutally he was raping me, again, or I could go away to a place far, far away and hide. A place where it was safe and warm. A place none of this could touch me and I could stay protected in a cocoon of beauty surrounded by the memories of Jackson and the gentleness of his touch.

It was an obvious choice, but not a conscious one. As I faded into blackness, I assumed was shock from the devastating injuries my body had already sustained, I thought of him. The broad grin that crossed his face when I said something he deemed hilarious. I remembered the strength of his arms as he held me at night and whispered about all the things he wanted to show me one day. I recalled his promise to keep me safe. I thought about how he made love to me, the tenderness he touched me with, and the way he kissed me as if he owned every piece of me. And he did. But most of all, I wrapped myself in the knowledge that I knew he would come for me. I knew Jackson wouldn’t stop until he found me, and when he did, I prayed he would find Oliver too. I prayed he would find him and hurt him the way he had me.

Later, minutes, hours, it could have been days for all I knew, Oliver grunted one last time as his lean body shuddered on top of me. Lost to the memories I knew would save me, I didn’t hear the explosions, nor did I feel the vibrations of the thudding footsteps thundering the hall, but Oliver did. He scrambled off my prone form, blood I could feel pooling between my legs gushed as he did, and began pulling on his clothes.

Oliver didn’t get past getting his briefs half way up his thighs when the door burst open and the tiny room was filled with huge men. It would have been comical if I was lucid enough to take it in. Ginormous men, a lot of them, filling an eight-by-ten room.

Through hazy vision laced with excruciating agony, I whispered,

“Jackson,” before everything went black for the last time.

It took less than five seconds for me to take in the entirety of the room before I lost my fucking mind. The blinding fury at seeing Beth cuffed, broken, bloodied on that bed set off a cataclysmic reaction I wasn’t able to ignore. I will never be able to erase the sight of her bound, gagged, bleeding, and terrified. Her beautiful body marred with bruises, welts, and burns broke something inside me.

It’s hard to say who moved first, me to grab the weedy fucker who hurt her by his neck to slam him against the wall, or him to try and run. All I knew was that he wasn’t getting away, and fuck him for being stupid enough to think he could. He wasn’t going fucking anywhere until I allowed it, and then it would only be because he’d be seeing the inside of a hole in the ground in multiple pieces. A fuck of a lot of them at that. I was going to mutilate this bastard. Tear him apart piece-by-piece, and he knew it. I could see the fear in his eyes, the terror of his fate and what he knew was coming pouring off him. But it was too late for mercy. I was too far gone and he was the man who had driven me to it.

As my fist connected with is jaw, the bones of his face shattering beneath my fist, I watched with detached satisfaction as he howled and dropped to the floor. Hitting him over and over again, did nothing to quell the rage as it built to epic proportions fighting to break free. And I’d let it this time. Punch after punch, my fist swelling, the skin of my knuckles broken and bleeding, I kept at him.

I have the first fucking clue how long I took my rage out on him, it wasn’t long enough, but at Jonas’s agonized bellow I paused. The sound he made, Jesus, it was torn from the depths of his soul. It was a sound a man would make that lost his reason for living. That fucking sound would haunt every dream and every nightmare I had until the day I died. Every single fucking one.

“Oh, Jesus, fuck. Oh, shit,” Gage breathed from somewhere behind me. “Someone get that fucker tied up and ready for transport,” he demanded, toeing the bastard who lay bleeding at his feet. “Take him to the crypt and we’ll deal with his ass later because I’m gonna need all hands on deck to lock Jay down.” When no one moved, he bellowed, “
NOW
!”

Feet scuffed the damp concrete floors, men moved restlessly, angrily, hurriedly making their way out of the room.

“Gonna need you to get your shit together, Boss, Jay, needs us and so does your woman. Let the motherfucker up so we can take care of him, yeah?” When I don’t respond, he reasons, “You need to see to Beth, and I promise you, I fucking promise you this bastard isn’t going anywhere until you get your pound of flesh, brother.”

Grunting my ascent, I’m across the room in three strides taking Beth from Sly’s arms as gently as I can. Burrowing into me absorbing my warmth like she’d crawl inside me if she could, Beth lays her bruised, swollen face on my shoulder gingerly. Slowly, I begin to stroke my fingers through her matted hair. She looks so broken, so damaged, so no the woman who I let laying in my bed a little over one day ago. I’d give fucking anything to go back to that morning and ask her not to leave, to stay in that night.

Before I can find the words to ask her if she’s okay, knowing that without a doubt no woman who had suffered what she had could possibly be alright, Fury steps into the room with his face set in a mask similar to his namesake.

“Need a word, Boss. And I need it private,” he states inclining his head in Beth’s direction.

As I go to settle her onto the mattress, Beth grips my arm, her nails biting into my flesh.

“No, no, no, no. Please don’t go. Don’t leave me. Please,” she begs, her voice barely audible.

With no idea how to deal with any of this, I give her what I think she needs.

“Fuck, baby. I’m not going far, I promise. I’ve just gotta have a word with Fury then I’ll be back and I’ll take you home, yeah?”

Her panic rises as she comes up to her knees leaning heavily into my side until I’ve got no choice but to put my arm around her to steady her.

“Please, no. I won’t say anything, it will be like I’m not there, just don’t leave me.”

“Not a good idea, Boss. I’m thinking with what I’ve got to tell you your woman isn’t in a place where she’s gonna be able to deal with it. Not now, maybe not ever. But definitely not now,” Fury interjects.

Beth’s head snaps in his direction, the one eye she can see out of narrowing dangerously as she shocks the shit out of me. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for a woman who had just undergone the torture, humiliation, and violation she has would be capable of standing up to a man twice her size, but she does.

Struggling to her feet, wincing as she edges her way off the side of the bed, Beth moves in front of Fury so that they’re toe-to-toe.

“I already know what you are going to tell him. I heard everything, I stopped hearing it too. That was hours ago, Fury, and I’m not stupid so I know she’s gone,” Beth declares, her voice hitching on the word gone. “Part of me is glad she is too. Not because I don’t love her like my sister and always will, but because I know Bec couldn’t live with the demons that would haunt her after going through what she did. She’s not built that way. Bec was strong, beautiful, tough as nails, but inside she was just as fragile as the next woman. She would be forever looking over her shoulder every time something went bump in the night, and that would kill her. Bec would hate knowing she couldn’t control that fear, fucking hate it.” Jabbing a bloodied finger in his chest, Beth goes on. “I will never be able to un-hear her screams, the way she begged for them to stop hurting her, stop touching her. I won’t have a memory of her that won’t be tainted with what she had to go through in the last hours of her life, alone, terrified, and in pain. And I will never, ever fucking forget how brave, smart, and beautiful she was. With my dying breath I will fight to remember her like that, not scared and ruined like she was the second they dragged her away from me.”

Her body sways with the exertion of her outburst, my hands reaching out to catch her before she falls. Scooping her into my arms, Beth delivers her final blow. One that has Fury rocking back at its intensity.

“I know you’re concerned about how I’ll take what you have to tell Jackson, and for that I’m grateful because it means you care, but I think you’ve got more important things to worry about don’t you?”

“Not sure what you’re talking about, Beth, but nothing’s more important than seeing to our brother and helping him get to the other side of this.”

“Fury, you know. I know you know what I’m saying,” Beth exhales. “She was first, they took her first, and they didn’t bring her back. Bec and I were left together for hours after they came and took her wherever it is they’ve been holding her. But before they did, Avery told us she didn’t have what we did. She said she didn’t have anyone who will mourn her the way we do. She fucking knew, Fury, Avery knew they were going to break her and how they were going to do it and she was
resigned
to it. All she wanted before they pulled her out of that room was for me to tell her Dad she loves him. Tell her Dad to tell her sisters that they were the best sisters a girl could have hoped for. She wanted me to reassure her Mom that there wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t feel her love in everything she did for her. But the last thing she asked was for me to tell you,
you
Fury, that no matter what happened between you there wasn’t an hour, a minute that elapsed she didn’t think of you.”

Taking a breath, Ade adds,

“What she told me she wanted most in this world was for you to find happiness. Find someone who would make you breathe easy, smile, love again. That’s what she had to give. That’s
everything
Avery had left in her to say before she gave herself over whatever those sick fucks were going to do to her. So, if you think there isn’t anything more important than seeing to your brother, like say, seeing to the woman whose last words were about your happiness then you’re a bigger asshole than I gave you credit for.”

Beth slumps into my chest unable to hold her head up to glare at Fury anymore and takes a shaky breath. Gathering her closer, leaning against the wall to prop us both us, I ask,

“Say what you need to say, brother. It’s pretty fucking clear my woman isn’t going anywhere and neither am I. We need to get this shit done so I can get her back to the clubhouse and get her seen to. Doc’s waiting.”

Fighting with himself, torn between wanting to go to Avery and do his job, Fury rubs the back of his neck roughly.

“It’s not good, Boss. Far from it. Jay shouldn’t have been let in that room, and you’ve got a fucking fight on your hands trying to get him out of it now he’s in. He won’t put her down, won’t let any of us take her so we can get her the fuck out of here.”

“How bad is bad, brother,” I question carefully. Fury’s nostrils flare as his eyes flick to, Beth. With a barely there nod, she lets him know that he’s okay to speak freely. Fuck but I admire her. Not many women, actually none are as strong as the one in my arms.

“You sure, sweetheart?” At her murmured, ‘yes’, looking to me Fury continues. “Fucking bad. Not once in the years we’ve been dealing with these assholes and the damage they’ve wreaked across six counties have I seen anything like it. Don’t know how long they had her.”

Interrupting Beth asks,

“How long have we been here?”

“They take you from the car after you crashed, babe?” Sly enquires.

“Yes,” she replies weakly. “I don’t know how long we were trapped because I was fading in and out, but it wouldn’t have been long after I lost control of the car that we were pulled out.”

“Right,” Sly nods. “Then you’ve been here, at least, twenty-seven hours, babe.” Rubbing his hands down his face he adds, “I’m sorry, so fucking sorry, darlin’. We should’ve gotten here sooner.”

Beth sighs deeply, twisting her head to meet his eyes saying,

“And you would have been. If you knew where we were, how to get to us, you would have been here. The three of us knew that. Please don’t take that guilt on, honey. Please don’t let something you can’t change and couldn’t do anything about eat away at you. Don’t let them do any more damage than they already have because that’s what they’re doing if you give into thoughts like that. You’re letting them win.”

A small smile quirks the corner of Sly’s mouth as he tips his head.

“You don’t man up and claim this one then I’m just putting it out there that I want a shot at her,” he proclaims.

Smacking him upside the head, Fury mutters,

“Fuck me. Stupid.”

Ignoring the banter between them, I kiss the top of Beth’s head whispering,

“Just making it clear, baby, but that will never fucking happen. You are mine. All mine.” Pressing another kiss, this one to her temple, I add, “I love you, Sweetheart. From the bottom of my soul, I love you.”

That’s when I get the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. In a cold, dark room, inside a building that’s seen more horrors than I can imagine, Beth smiles at me. Not a full, blinding smile like the one’s I’d become used to in the weeks since she’s been mine, but a smile nonetheless. One that reaches her eyes. One that tells me we’ll be okay. That everything will be alright as long as she’s got me and I’ve got her.

Fury clearing his throat has me refocusing on the matter at hand. As much as I’d like to carry Beth out of here, take her to Doc to have him reassure her and me that she’s going to be okay, and burn this fucking place to the ground, I need to hear what he’s got to say.

“Say it, and say if fast, brother. Like a fucking Band-Aid, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he nods desolately. “Couldn’t get close enough to her to get a good look at the full extent of all that she’s gone through, but at the outset, I’d say she’s got more than a few broken bones, ligature marks around her throat, and not a few of them. Bruises up and down her legs, burn marks too. Like I said, Jay won’t let us close enough to check her, but it’s safe to say they violated her too. Repeatedly. The room is fucking trashed, brother. We don’t know how much of that happened before Jay got in there, but she put up a fight. A fucking big one.”

Beth’s gasp has me commanding,

“Hurry, yeah?”

“Lots of blood, her hair’s fucking caked with it. My guess, she’s got a good hit to the back of her head before she passed because no woman bleeds like that from a simple cut, brother. Her face was left relatively untouched.” Looking at Beth, he says, “Sorry, sweetheart, but this is gonna be the hardest part for you to hear.”