Sitting in the empty clubhouse, waiting for Pain to come back was eating away at my nerves. I paced around the bar and pool tables, my fingers locked together. What if Pain was killed? Or seriously injured? I imagined him being brought in, his arms around the shoulders of Tank and Tater. They fling his bullet-ridden body onto one of the pool tables, blood pooling into puddles and pouring into the pockets of the table.
I shook the nightmare away and went to the bar for a drink. I picked up a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels and poured a glass. I noticed something funny on the glass and looked closer to find a smudge of blood. Pain tried to shield me from seeing the massacre that happened here but I had seen enough. The corpses littered the floor, their dead eyes staring up at me. Just like Cash back in the basement. Was he still down there? Dead and lifeless. I didn't dare go down there to check. I couldn't face that monster again.
I left the blood-smudged glass on the counter and took the bottle of Jack instead. I sat down on one of the barstools and spun around. The first few tastes scorched the insides of my throat on the way down. As the alcohol warmed me up, the burning sensation subsided.
I wondered how why I was still here. I could leave at any point. Pain nor Byron owned me. I could go back to school. Have friends again. Become a normal girl. I thought about calling Heather to tell her that I was all right. But I had no idea what to even tell her. My story sounded ludicrous. I wasn't even sure I believed it.
What I did believe was that my heart was connected to Pain's. I barely knew the man but he had a power about him. It wasn't just all physical attraction either. I would have left the first chance I got if it was only about the sex. Pain was the first real man I'd ever met. Someone that I could spend the rest of my life with.
But did I really want to live the outlaw life? This nerve-wracking feeling I was experiencing right now would only be just a taste. I could be living every day in fear that we would be killed by any one of the Devil's Hellions's enemies.
The bar rumbled as I heard motorcycles parking outside. Please be okay, Pain. Please be okay. I closed my eyes and chanted over and over again. I couldn't get the image of a almost-dead Pain laying on the pool table.
The door opened and in came Pain, Tater, and Tank. All alive with not even a scratch. I bounded off the bar stool and jumped into Pain's arms, smacking my lips against his. Pain was exhausted. I could see it in his eyes.
“How did it go?” I asked, sitting back down at the bar. Tater and Tank came around and poured themselves drinks.
Pain took a sip from my whiskey bottle. “We hit them hard. Byron lost a man but we took out the majority of The Death Merchants MC.”
Tank lifted his glass. “To our fallen brothers. May you rest easy now that you're avenged.”
Pain almost broke down in tears. He'd been through so much lately. Lost so many friends. Pain lifted the bottle and clinked it against Tank's glass. Tater silently drank in the corner. Even with the success they just had, the men knew that their MC would never be the same. Sacks County would never be the same.
“What now?” I asked Pain.
“We rebuild the Devil's Hellions MC.”