Chapter Fourteen

Blaine

When a lion is silent you should be afraid for there is more inside him than can be expressed in a roar!

 

She’s not here. She should be here and she isn’t. I call her phone which goes straight to voicemail. I hit send again to get the same result. Something isn’t sitting right with me. My instincts are screaming at me to reach her.

“Go find her,” Dia encourages.

Something doesn’t feel right. I nod and take off back to the rail car house.

As I pull up on my bike, her mustang is where I left it. There is no other car to be seen. As soon as I stop, Cleo comes limping from the woods. Blood trickles down her back leg. I rush to her. Immediately, I know shit is wrong.

I want to scoop Cleo up and get her help, but if she’s hurt like this, something is really wrong with Karsci.

Cleo keeps looking back to the house like she’s trying to tell me something. I don’t have to call for back-up because when I turn around fifteen other motorcycles pull up with my dad leading the way. Tank stops his bike where I have Cleo.

“I’ll get a car and get the dog to the vet. Go sort out Karsci,” he tells me looking to the rail car.

The house is locked up tight and I hear no noise as we surround the place. Using the key I snuck and made while she was at work one day, I open the lock. Readying my gun, I slide the door open.

The sight in front of me has me taking pause.

Laying naked on the futon, the very futon where I just had sex with her not long ago is Karsci. Blood covers the pillow from her head and her leg has a gash going all the way up as if they sliced her pants off without caring for her body. A large man in a suit stands over her facing me with his gun aimed at my head. His cock strains against the fabric of his pants.

“Hellion, this doesn’t concern you. This is my property.” His slicked back black hair and stature match the description I have read of Titus Blackwell.

“She’s mine,” I growl.

I mean every word of it too. The sight of Karsci there and vulnerable, it slices through me to my core. It eradicates any confusion about my feelings for her. No matter the past, the connection we share is undeniable. She is mine to protect and protect I will.

“You can have what’s left when I’m done collecting my debt,” he says casually as if I don’t have a gun of my own.

His free hand goes to his zipper. As I fire a shot into his leg afraid he will turn the gun on Karsci I rush him as he fires back. The pain sears my shoulder as the bullet slices through my flesh.

“Karsci,” I call out her name as I charge forward covering her body with mine. She groans under me as two other men emerge from other parts of the house.

Shots ring out around us as I shield her body with my own.

I feel the burn shoot through my leg as I take another hit.

“Let me take him, please,” Karsci mutters coming to under me.

She maneuvers to get my gun and at the last minute I roll off just enough for her to take the shot. One bullet to the head, Titus Blackwell goes down.

I groan in pain as my dad and the other brothers move in on the other two men with Blackwell, taking them out.

“Be still,” she whispers. “Blaine, you’ve been shot, be still.”

“Did they?” I ask worrying more for her than my own injuries.

“I don’t know,” she tells me trying to cover herself as everyone comes in.

“Got our medic on the way,” my dad says.

Karsci looks over to Titus and back to me. “He’s dead.”

I nod.

“I’m free,” she says in disbelief.

My dad begins to move the body. “Yes, Karsci you are. We’ll get this cleaned up and it will look like something went wrong at his place in Virginia. Nothing will be tied to you. You have my word.”

She looks at my dad and nods before looking back to me.

“It’s over. I’m free.”

Leaning over to her I press my lips to hers. “Yes you are.”

“Karsci we got a doctor to check you out,” my dad explains.

“No!” She panics and I want to comfort her but my own body is tightening up from my injuries. The pain is only climbing.

“Karsci,” I whisper her name.

“Blaine, please. I need to sort myself out.”

“Let’s get to the clubhouse and we’ll go from there.” I say not having the energy to fight her.

She nods.

Tank helps me stand and gets me outside where Red is pulling up in a van. The guys help me load up while Karsci who slipped on clothes climbs in behind me with blood seeping through her pants leg.

“Karsci, please let us get you seen.”

Red looks in the rearview mirror making eye contact with me. “Got Cleo to the vet. Dia’s headed there to stay with her until she can be released.”

Karsci’s eyes fill with tears, “thank you.” The words are strained as the emotions build. Her gaze locks to mine. “She tried to protect me.”

“She’s gonna be okay. I say her before I got inside. She’s moving just banged up.”

Karsci nods. “You saved me, Blaine.”

I try to smirk but fail. “Don’t mention it.” My expression turns somber. “I was late. I should’ve gotten to you sooner.”

She reaches out and presses her fingers to my lips. “They would have killed you. I couldn’t go on if that had happened. Your blood on my hands would scar my soul, Blaine. Thank you for the moments you have given me. Thank you for saving me today.”

I don’t speak. The emotions and pain are too much. We get to the clubhouse and the guys help me out of the van.

Karsci stays by my side as the doc comes in.

“Check her first,” I order knowing more needs to be done for me to remove the two bullets.

“No!” She yells backing away.

My mom rushes in. “BW, are you okay?”

I nod. “I will be, but Karsci’s hurt too. She needs to be checked.”

My mom looks to Karsci, they seem to share some unspoken conversation. “I’ll take Karsci to see someone else. You get fixed son. I’ll take care of your woman.”

She looks to Karsci. “I know you got a lot and you’re afraid. I don’t know what happened but as a woman your comfort in your medical professional’s matters. I’ll take you to the doctor myself. I’ll sit in the waiting room so you can have your privacy.”

Karsci’s face softens like the fear is settling. I give it some thought. If I was a woman and unsure if I was raped or not, I would want privacy about my exam too I imagine.

“Karsci, please let my mom get you help.”

She comes back to me and gives my hand a squeeze. “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Baby, I’m not goin’ anywhere. Go with my mom, she’ll take you to check on Cleo, and then you can come back here and see I’m fine and still here.”

“You wanna see me again?”

“We have a lot to overcome, but I’m not ready to let you go. I just took two bullets for you woman, what more commitment do you need?” I joke with her.

She gives a soft smile as my mom comes over. “We need to go so they can fix up Blaine.”

Karsci leans down pressing her lips to mine before she leaves and the doctor gets to work on me.

***

“Dia, enough!” I swat her away. “I got shot. I’m gonna be fine.”

She has been mother hen fussing over me since she found out. Red helped her say goodbye to Sheba and bury her. No one told my sister what happened until after Fox and I were stitched up and settled at my house.

Since then, my baby sister has moved in.

Literally, she is living in my guest room. For the last seven days, I have seen my sister at every turn. I climb out of the shower with Fox who is happy to help wash my back and change my bandages to find my sister waiting at the door just in case Fox can’t handle it. Sorry, but no man wants his sister smothering him, especially when they have a hot fox in bed beside them.

“Dia, I love you. Fox loves you. Fuck, even Cleo loves you. But you need a life.”

She looks at me with tears building in her eyes. “Blaine, I lost Sheba. I almost lost you and Karsci at the same time. Some crazy man wanted me and mom dead all because dad refused to take him on as a client. I’m sorry if I’m a little clingy but I’ve lost enough and I don’t want to lose any more.”

“It’s okay, Dia,” Fox tells her before she looks to me. “We have all the time in the world ahead of us. Until you feel comfortable we’ll make this work.”

“Baby, I can’t make you scream when my sister’s in the other room,” I tease her.

“I think it’ll be fun to see if I can make you scream,” Fox taunts me and I get hard.

The more she’s around the more I can’t let go. She fills a part of me I didn’t know was missing. When push came to shove, she had the power to end my family, to shake my world, and she didn’t. It’s still early, but the connection is something I can’t walk away from. She’s still finding herself and getting comfortable with her new life so I can be patient.

After all the best things in life come to those who wait, so they say.