Chapter 12
Laney’s eyes opened slowly, and it took her a second to figure out where she was. It was still dark out, so she wasn’t sure what exactly had awoken her, but when she heard a distinct clicking sound again, her gaze was drawn to a dark shadow in the corner of her room.
Blinking through hazy eyes, Laney’s vision finally cleared to show her Pierce standing in the corner of her room, a gun aimed right at her.
Before she could panic, he held up a hand.
“Don’t bother, princess. I don’t care about anything you have to say. This here is a duel that doesn’t have anything to do with you,” He said with a grimace.
Laney, confused, looked over to see Axel curled up next to her, sound asleep.
“Wake him up.”
Laney’s fingers were shaking as she gently nudged Axel, tears filling her eyes. She was terrified, confused, and neither one of those emotions were going to help her out of this situation.
“Axel, come on. Wake up.”
When his eyes finally opened he must have been able to see the fear in her eyes because he rolled over so quick he almost fell off the bed.
“What the fuck are you doing? Put the gun down, Pierce!”
Pierce smiled sadistically as he stood up from the wall he was leaning against.
“Now, now. Let’s not be too hasty with the demands. I do, after all, have you right where I want you.”
“Right where you want me- Pierce, what the fuck are you doin’? All I have to do is yell and every man on this lot will be puttin’ a bullet or two in you!”
Pierce rolled his shoulders and shrugged.
“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I’ll put a slug in her pretty little head before they get here. It would be worth it, ya know. To see you suffer,” Pierce snapped.
Axel glanced at Laney and caressed her cheek.
“Let her go and I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Pierce stepped even closer to them, making the fear in Laney’s belly rise up like the waves of a tsunami.
“Not this time. I’m gonna finish what Chris and I started. Without him.”
Axel looked confused too for a moment before he muttered, “With Chris?”
Anger swept across Pierce’s face as he waved the gun at Axel, his fury beyond evident.
“Yeah! That stupid fucker and I were on the fast track to taking this club over and making somethin’ out of it! But, he went and got soft after snortin’ too much coke and getting hitched to that stupid bitch, Esme! This club should have been ours. Mine.”
Axel subtly shoved Laney behind his back, and her shaking hands landed on his shoulders.
Don’t freak out, Laney.
Remain calm, think of how you can distract him.
Axel choked on a breath, “You helped Chris? You were workin’ with him to overthrow me? Why?”
Pierce pointed the gun at Axel and rolled his eyes.
“You and Ox, you’re fuckin’ weak! This club ain’t like the other clubs I’ve been a part of. You’re all fuckin weak! This club could be great and you leave it at mediocre. So, Chris and I thought, ‘why not take it over and rebuild it from the ground up’? Only, you got to him first, and that plan went to shit! Well, not anymore. Not after tonight.”
Axel sucked in a low breath before he asked, “So, what’s you plan? You kill me and then everyone else will fall in line? You really expect the men under my command to give in to you that easily?”
The thought was a terrifying one, because then what would happen to Laney? Pierce would never let her off the lot and by the time Ox got wind of what was going on, she’d be dead.
Or worse.
“I’ll give your men a choice. Join my ranks or they get executed. That simple,” Pierce said.
“Chris was a good man who could have been saved. He didn’t have to die. His death was an accident, and I live with that every day. Those men won’t join you. But, something tells me you already know that,” Axel said with narrowed eyes.
Pierce’s stare was dead, cold, and filled with loathing.
“Maybe I don’t need them. I can start over completely if I don’t have them around anymore. Chris and I were gonna end all of you anyways if shit didn’t go as planned.”
Axel choked out a laugh at that.
“Are you crazy? You want to annihilate an entire MC just so you can have it? What sense does that make?!”
Pierce seemed to be agitated by Axel’s line of questioning, and Laney guessed it was because Axel’s logic made more sense than Pierce liked.
“This isn’t a debate! This is a fuckin’ execution. This club is mine now, and whatever happens after that, is my choice. Not yours. Your time is up!,” Pierce yelled.
He was so angry that spittle clung to his chin as he bared his teeth, making his sinister expression even scarier.
Laney glanced at Axel who was obviously planning something, she just didn’t know what. From her vantage point, they were fucked. No weapons, no back up, and neither one of them had time on their hands either. Pierce would shoot them both before either one of them could make a-
Axel shocked her when he shoved her over the side of the bed and lunged at Pierce. His gun went straight up in the air as Axel twisted his arm, and he managed to shoot two rounds in the light overhead, shattering it.
The room was then completely bathed in darkness, making it harder for Laney to see who was where and what they were doing.
Try as she might, she couldn’t forge a clear path to the door with both men fighting over the gun, so she crawled towards the closest wall hoping that she would be able to squeeze past them to get help.
“Admit it old man, your time is up! You’re too old to run a club like we need!,” Pierce growled as he managed to land an elbow into Axel’s kidney.
It looked like it hurt even to Laney, but it didn’t knock him on his ass like she thought it would. It only made him angrier which seemed to make Pierce even stronger as him and Axel fell to the ground in a heap. Laney screamed in surprise when the barrel of the gun landed right in front of her face. Pierce was too distracted fighting Axel for it to register that he could kill her in that moment, and Laney was grateful.
Just as she crawled her way to the door, she turned in time to see Pierce’s hand hit the floor hard enough to knock the gun out of his grasp. It rolled away from him and Axel as their fists started to fly. Pierce was fighting to the death, it was obvious to her, and Axel looked like he knew it too when they made eye contact.
“Go, Laney! Get out of here! I’ll be fine!”
Laney knew that she couldn’t leave Axel there. She couldn’t, not like this. Any other scenario, maybe, but this?
This is life and death!
The only option was to run and get help, or pick up the gun and handle business right then and there. Leaving Axel would mean that maybe Pierce got the gun in his hands again and ended Axel’s life right then and there. What kind of a woman would she be to leave him there on his own?
“Laney, get out of here! Go!,” Axel screamed.
Laney looked back at the door and then back at Axel, whom she realized in that moment that she couldn’t leave. She wouldn’t do it.
Laney reacted on pure instinct and grabbed the gun from the floor, aiming the heavy piece at the man that had threatened her very existence. He had planned on killing her, on killing Axel, on killing everyone that got in his way.
Not to mention the way he’d handled her before, like he would have her, like he could hurt her.
Laney’s hands shook slightly, but she got the gun aimed at Pierce with no problem.
“Stop! Everybody stop!”
No one listened to her the first time, and she hadn’t really thought that they would, so she looked at the gun, flicked off the safety, and aimed.
Both men were tucking and twisting, their limbs entangled in a way that made it hard for Laney to make out any one shape from another. This was her worst fear in a nutshell; what if she missed? What if she killed Axel instead, and then everything they could have shared together, every moment she wasted being hesitant, would overshadow her.
Laney tried one more time to get them to stop, to at least slow down so she could separate the two visually, to no avail. She was surprised, shocked even, that no one else in the clubhouse had heard, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. For all anyone else knew, two brothers were having a scuffle, and that was when she realized that Pierce was a little smarter than she’d given him credit for.
Laney lifted the gun a little higher and aimed for what she could see was Pierce’s head, and froze.
Just pull it!
The shiny glint from the blade of a knife Pierce dug out of his boot made the decision for her. She couldn’t wait any longer.
She had to pull the trigger.
Laney wrapped her shaking finger around the trigger and aimed as best she could…
Bang!
The gun went off and all pandemonium came to a dead stop. It happened so quickly she barely had time to register the fact that Pierce was dead on the floor, his eyes wide open, blood pooling around his shaved head.
Axel was breathing hard, but so was she, and Laney couldn’t necessarily differentiate between her breaths and his. He looked over at her, eyes wide, hair mussed, blood dripping from his mouth and nose.
“Baby, are you okay?”
Laney shook her head because no, she wasn’t okay.
Laney Jackson had just committed murder, and unlike most of the ladies she’d met in both clubs, she had a hard time with it.
A really hard time.
This was exactly why she didn’t fucking want anything to do with any MC’s; but she’d saved Axel’s life, so that had to make it a little better…right?
Axel slowly climbed to his feet, his hands reaching for her. He gently removed the gun from her tight grip and eyed her.
“Laney, you did good. You saved my ass, okay?”
Tears were streaming from her eyes, her heart was pounding; what Axel didn’t realize was that killing Pierce, saving his life, had just slammed the last nail into her own romantic coffin. She couldn’t stay in Bryson City with the Seven Deadlies or the Lone Rangers.
She didn’t belong there.
Not until she figured out who she was, what she really wanted, what she really needed. She couldn’t lead Axel on with one foot out the door, with her heart torn to pieces, with her mind un-made.
“Axel, I just killed a man.”
The look on his face told her that he knew exactly where her mind was at, and that it hurt him deeply.
“You did. You saved my life,” He whispered softly.
But, they both knew that it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t be.
Laney needed more, Axel deserved more, and even though it physically hurt her to admit it to herself, she knew she had to go.
He looked just as shocked about it as she did, and Laney had no idea how that was even possible.
“I’m sorry,” She said weakly.
She was apologizing for far more than not following his orders to run when she could, and they both knew it.
Axel wrapped her in his strong arms and pulled her in as close as he could, their chests aligned. She could feel his heart pounding against hers, their pulses in tandem with one another. For a split second, she imagined what their life would be like…
Blood, guts, and chocolate cake.
Parties, holidays, and heartbreak.
When would it end?
Where would it end?
The sight of Pierce’s dead body was too much for Laney, so she turned to face the door, which was flung open. There were men everywhere, all at once, anywhere she looked. She had no idea when everyone else had joined them, and she didn’t really care, because she realized that right then, she didn’t matter.
None of it did.
Her eyes met Axel’s over the crowd, and the sadness in his gaze told her that he knew exactly what she was going to say.
I have to go.
I don’t belong here.
Limit had been right; she was playing house with a man she couldn’t possibly keep happy.
Merry Christmas, huh?