Dex
Fuck. I knew I was right to follow Melissa, once she took the turn off a mile back my gut sunk questioning why she was driving out here. She told me she was going out for air, I might’ve believed her if she hadn’t have been acting shady on the phone. I heard it was Kyle as I sat next to her and when she leaned away from me, my instinct told me something was going down. Creeping around the back of the house, I look in the window and see Cas tied up and Kyle sitting on a chair in front of him, waving a gun around.
Cas’s eyes settle on me for a second and then back to Kyle. I can’t see Melissa or Alannah. She’s been fretting over not being able to trust me and all along she’s been concocting with her brother to get to Cas.
Treading lightly along Alannah’s flower beds, I turn the knob on the back to find it locked. I can hear Leo’s cries fade and backtrack around to the front of the house. The front door is shut but not locked and through the small window I can’t see any movement. Taking out my gun, I open the door slowly and step inside, leaving the door ajar behind me.
The floor boards squeak under my weight and I try to tread as lightly as I can until I’m just about to turn into the living room.
Kyle’s banging on about Danny and Cas is saying nothing. Alannah is soothing Leo upstairs and I keep my ears open for Melissa. My heart is racing away with itself and I take the deepest breath I’ve ever taken and step around the doorway and aim my gun straight at Kyle. He’s got his back to me and doesn’t look over his shoulder until Cas starts laughing.
He jumps off the chair and moves closer to Cas, aiming his gun at my president.
“Put it down, Kyle,” I warn him.
“If you shoot, I shoot. If I die, so does he.”
My aim is steady, his is shaky and I’d put money on me getting the shot in first.
“Last time, put the gun down,” I grate out.
“I can’t do that.”
Squinting one eye, I make sure to perfect my aim to his head so he doesn’t have time to take his own shot when one voice halts my shot.
“Dex?”
I don’t take my eyes off Kyle and Melissa comes into view and Alannah rushes over to Cas, he bumps her around him and she gasps as she looks down at something behind him. What the fuck is she doing with a gun?
“What are you doing with that?” I hiss, nodding to the piece that looks wrong in her hand.
“What are you doing here?” she retorts.
She looks worried but not for herself, for her brother.
“I followed you, you left with a weak ass excuse and I knew something was up.”
“You see, Lissa, he won’t ever believe you, like you won’t ever believe him.”
“Stop trying to twist shit, you know fuck all about us,” I spit out, then to Melissa, “Don’t listen to him, you know I’m not playing at this anymore.”
She looks between us and I don’t know if I’m winning her over or losing her.
“He used you, and then he kept you around because he had to, not because he wanted to,” Kyle argues.
“Just shoot him, Dex,” Cas yells and Melissa jumps.
She shakes her head frantically and moves closer to her brother. She steps in front of him and I hold my aim. As long as I make the shot, I can still get him between the eyes and not hurt Melissa.
“I’m going to count to three and then I’m going to shoot, put the fucking gun down,” I shout.
I don’t want to take a man’s life but I will.
“One…”
“Please, Dex. Don’t…”
“Two…”
“Dex! I’m begging you.”
“Talk to your brother then.”
She doesn’t, tears fall and she shuts down. We don’t know each other all that well, but we do know each other well enough to know we both stand up for what we believe in.
Instead of talking her brother around, she raises her arm and aims the gun in her hand at me.
“Please, don’t make me do this,” she sobs and my heart breaks.
“I guess I’ve got your answer, we won’t work,” I huff.
“The same as I’ve got my answer, you’ll always choose the club no matter how it affects me.”
A single tear rolls down my cheek for her, if she’s not with me then she’s with her brother and against us and I can’t do anything to help them.
“I’ve fallen for you, Melissa, so I really am sorry.”
It takes one second to adjust my aim and another to pull the trigger. One bullet fires and hits Kyle in his forehead and he falls to the floor in a heap. The shot rings in my ears but it doesn’t drown out her screams.
Bent over, she clutches her chest and screams until her throat is raw and her screams turn into cries. I don’t move and Alannah helps Cas move away from the body. Their movements get Melissa’s attention and she spins to face them.
“You started this,” she screeches, “Because of you, I have no one left.”
I want to say she’s got me, but we’ve gone too far. She could never forgive me for shooting her brother.
Her rage is consuming her and she points the gun at Cas.
“You’ve brought me nothing but death and you have to pay.”
“Melissa, look at me,” I growl and she ignores me, “Melissa!”
“Shut up, you’ve made it perfectly clear where you stand and it isn’t with me,” she says, keeping her back to me.
“I’d say I’m sorry but I’m no more sorry than you are about my brothers,” she purrs, in a strangled voice.
Cas flicks his eyes at me and slightly nods his head. The sound of her releasing the safety pauses all debates of what to do.
“If you go now, I won’t let him chase you down,” Alannah offers, and I hope she takes it because from Cas’s nod, I don’t want to be the one who takes her out.
“I’m not doing this because he’ll find me if I run, I’m doing this because he needs to pay,” she shrieks.
“I can’t let you do that,” I interrupt her.
A sharp cackle escapes her and she says, “Of course you can’t. You do what you have to and so will I.”
She steps around Cas keeping her gun on him so she can face me.
“I could’ve loved you if you were any other man.”
“I could’ve loved you despite who you were related to.”
With one last half smile, it quickly fades and the hatred for Cas returns. She looks down at Kyle one last time and a fierceness I haven’t seen from her consumes her.
Her finger twitches on the trigger and my heart stops. She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on, she drives me insane with her non-stop mouth and her touch sets me on fire. She’s also seconds away from shooting the man who gave me a home and somewhere to belong.
She’s been right all along, I will choose Cas and the club.
Before she can fully pull the trigger, I squeeze mine and the shot buries the bullet in her heart. Hers stops beating and so does mine. As Melissa drops to the carpet, Alannah scrambles over Cas and picks up Melissa’s gun.
She stands and shoots her three more times.
“Just to be sure,” she snarls, and drops the shooter by the two lifeless bodies.
She runs past me and into the kitchen. Melissa’s wearing her black heels, I like them ones, she was wearing them when I first took her to bed in order to gain information on Danny. I focus on them while feeling Cas’s stare burning into me.
“Dex?”
I’m frozen.
I don’t reply.
I don’t look away from her heels.
Alannah pushes me out of the way running back into the room and I fall onto the couch, unable to control my legs.
She cuts Cas’s ties off and helps him up to his feet. His wrists are red raw and blood drips from his fingertips.
He dotes on Alannah, checking her over and then makes a beeline for me. He kneels in front of me and while I hear him saying my name, it’s hard to focus on him. I focus harder on Melissa’s heels and he lands a stinging slap across my cheek.
“Look at me,” he demands and I do.
“I killed her,” I whisper.
“You saved me, you stayed true to the patch and you had my back. You defended me and my family and I will never be able to thank you for it, but I will spend my life trying.”
He cups his hand around my neck and squeezes, “I know you liked her and this shit is dark for the soul, you’ll get through it with me and the brothers.”
I nod but I don’t believe I’ll ever get through this. I’ve killed the one woman who made me feel something.
I’ve never noticed how dark Cas’s eyes are before, but as I stare into them I realise it wasn’t Melissa who held the power of his life continuing or ending, I was the one who held all the power.
Deep down I know no matter the outcome she was always going to die tonight when she made the decision to drive out here. If she killed Cas, I would’ve killed her. If she hadn’t, she would never let Kyle’s death go unnoticed and Cas would’ve done anything to keep her silent.
The room becomes a flurry of brothers and I hang my head in my hands.
“What the fuck happened here?” Sparky demands.
“Kyle played us, he only wanted to prospect to stay close,” Cas tells him.
“I knew something wasn’t right with their family,” Pope mutters and hovers over Kyle’s body.
“Why are you bleeding?” Is Sparky’s next question.
“The cunt had me tied up, Dex here is the one who took them out.”
I lift my head out of my hands and Sparky is staring at me, wide eyed and opened mouthed.
“You took out your girl?” he manages to ask.
My throat is bone dry and my vocal cords have forgotten how to work. Cas steps in and turns him away from me. I can’t be assed to try and work out their hushed words and focus once again on Melissa’s heels.
Nothing between Melissa and I has been easy or smooth and now it can never be changed. My loyalty to the club and her loyalty to her brother was too strong to ever exist side by side.
I listen to all the murmurs flying around the room and then I hear Pope.
“Rick, you take her and I’ll take him.”
I fly off the couch and stand guard over her body. I don’t want any one touching her.
“I’ll take her,” I manage to say.
“Maybe you should let us do this,” Ricky offers.
I bunch my hands into fists and roll my neck, no one is going to do this but me. I don’t want to, but I’ll fight anyone who says different.
“Leave it, Rick. I need you here, Dex can handle himself.”
Ricky stands down and backs away from Melissa. Pope picks up Kyle like he weighs nothing and flings him over his shoulder. Bending down, I scoop Melissa up into my arms and Alannah steps in front of me.
"I'm sorry she's dead, but I'll never be sorry you chose to save my husband. Thank you."
Out of respect for her being Cas's old lady, I slowly nod accepting her gratitude but I feel nothing.
"Come on, it's better to get it over and done with."
I hear Pope and I walk out past everyone to the truck where Pope is dumping Kyle in the back. I lay Melissa down with a little more care and sit up front with Pope. He drives for nearly two hours and neither of us say a word. I've been here before with him when we buried all the Devils Bastards and while it doesn’t look like a normal cemetery, it still has the haunting element. Pope cuts the engine and we continue to sit in silence. I will have to live the rest of my life knowing she is out here. No funeral, no one apart from me knowing where to mourn her, her death will never be recognised. She didn’t deserve to die, but yet, she's still gone and I'm left alive for her to haunt.
“I don’t usually care where I bury them, but, if you want, there’s a tree over there that blossoms in the spring.”
Pope is the guy you don’t want to meet in a dark alley, fuck, he’s the guy you don’t want to meet ever. To hear him talk about blossom trees makes me smile for a beat.
Who would have thought he has a heart under that armour of his?
“Sure.”
I jump down and slam the truck door shut, I meet Pope around the back and he hauls Kyle out like he’s done this hundreds of times before, which he has and I climb on the truck bed and carefully lift Melissa into my arms. He slings him over his shoulder and grabs two shovels.
She’s still warm and I tell myself she’s asleep. Walking over to the tree, Pope dumps Kyle on the ground and holds out one of the shovels for me to take.
I lay her on the ground next to her brother but I do it with a lot more care.
“I’m pretty sure no one is here,” he says and I freeze.
“Surely you remember where you bury people, Pope?”
A cackle escapes him and he begins digging.
“Sure I do, I’m just fucking with ya, trying to lighten the mood.”
“You have a sick sense of humour if that’s how you try lightening the mood.”
“Sometimes it works and sometimes it don’t, tonight it didn’t,” he shrugs.
We work in silence and I’m sweating by the time we’ve finished. I throw the shovel up onto the ground and heave myself up. For a moment, I think I’ll have to help Pope out but with the smoothness of a feline, he’s out and dusting the dirt off his jeans.
“You don’t have to watch what happens next, you can wait in the truck.”
“What are you going to do?”
I’m pretty certain we just have to shovel the dirt back in and make it look like we’ve never been here.
“We burn them and then bury them.”
“Burn them?”
“Yeah, across this land is a sea of burnt skeletons. It’s how I do it so I can sleep at night.”
Oh for fuck sake. This guy gets darker and darker the more time I spend around him.
“I’m fine.”
He walks back to the truck and brings back two canisters of gas. He puts one beside each grave and then dumps Kyle’s body in. He sets to work dowsing the body and then lights a cigarette, flicking the match in the grave.
The darkness erupts into light and the flames burn a golden orange. The burning flesh doesn’t bother Pope and he carries on smoking his cigarette like he’s waiting for a drink at the bar.
“Get on with it, we haven’t got all night,” he grunts and I scoop Melissa up into my arms.
I don’t have the heart to throw her in like trash. I jump into the grave and place her down as gently as I can. I fold her arms over her chest and sweep her hair away from her face.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.
“Here.”
Pope is looming over her holding out the can and I jump out and take it from him.
I don’t think about what I’m about to do and get on with it. I’ll have the rest of my life to think about this night and what I’ve done.
Pope hands me the pack of matches and stands beside me.
“What you did for Cas and the club will never be forgotten, never,” he says. I look at him and he looks the most sincere I’ve ever seen.
“You’re a true brother and I’ll always stand beside you knowing you’ve got my back. Some men say they’re loyal but it’s the actions that prove them. You proved tonight that you are what the Lost Souls stand for, family.”
“I don’t think anyone’s had to shoot the woman they were falling for before.”
“The night I met my Sally, she saw Michael kill someone. I had to chase her down and the moment I caught her and felt her silk skin, I felt a connection to her that scared the hell out of me and intrigued me at the same time, but if she went against Mark, who was the president at the time, I would’ve done the same as you and lived with my actions for the rest of my life. I’m not trying to make you feel better, all I’m saying is, you’re not any different to the rest of us. You wouldn’t have been patched in if you were.”
I scratch the match against the grain on the packet and close my eyes as I flick it in the grave. I should watch as the flames devour her but I turn my back, I can’t do it. I can’t watch her burn to nothing but bones.
“This isn’t your happy ever after or whatever the fuck they say, if it was meant to be, she wouldn’t be beside her brothers.”
Great, love advice from the king of death and burials.
“Go wait in the truck, I’ll finish up here.”
I don’t need to be told twice. With two graves burning, two lives I ended, I walk towards the truck with my heart so heavy it feels like it’s sinking to my feet.
Whatever the future holds, I know it will involve the club. Right here and now, I decide love isn’t for me. If I can kill someone I was falling for once, I can do it again…I won’t let that happen.
I’m a Lost Soul and I will be till the day I die. No woman is ever coming between me and my patch.