Chapter 21
Talon
I looked back at the door one last time before I headed out with the guys. We could hear the motorcycles rumbling up the road, and we knew what it meant. There was only one club whose bikes made the high-pitched squeal theirs did. Every Devil fucking Saint wanted you to know when they were coming.
I pulled my gun from my back and cocked it before I even stepped out into the yard. I had precious cargo back in the back of the mechanic's shop, and I’d be damned if anyone was getting near us. Four bikes pulled up, each one gaudier and louder than the last, but there was a passenger I recognized.
A passenger crying for her life.
“Where the fuck’s my daughter!?” Beast yelled.
A monster of a man got off his bike before he ripped Calista from the back seat. Her hands were roped behind her back, and she was crying. She’d been beaten far worse than I’d seen before, with both her eyes swollen shut. Her lip was busted and bleeding, and a line of caked blood ran across her hairline.
But I knew exactly what had happened. Calista must have found her daughter and hid her. And now Beast was beating her to a pulp to find out where she was.
“Beast… stop,” Calista said.
But all the man did was kick her in her ribs.
“Where. The fuck. Is my daughter?” He roared.
“Beast!” Mac exclaimed. “What the fuck are you doin’!?”
I looked the man straight in the eye before my eyes dropped down to Calista. She was shivering and practically naked. She was bleeding from every inch of skin I could see. The woman was suffering in ways I couldn’t even imagine, and at that moment I wanted to slaughter every single one of these assholes. I didn’t give a shit about Calista, but she was a woman. A woman who’d brought life into this world. She was to be respected. Honored. Coveted.
Not pimped out and beaten for information when someone was at their wit’s end.
Tears were streaming down her face while her snot dripped into the sand. She was on her knees, murmuring something I couldn’t make out. Beast was hovering over her-- the President of the Devil Saints and her husband-- except he wasn’t protecting her.
He was about to kill her.
“Now… which one of you’s been fuckin’ my girl?” Beast asked.
“Thought you wanted to know where your daughter was?” I asked.
He kicked Calista again, and I listened to her howl in pain. She began throwing up blood onto the ground and immediately Hawk was at her side. He was trying to scoop her up while Beast did nothing but spit on her, but then I saw him raise his gun to Hawk.
And I positioned mine right between his eyes. Hawk stopped and backed away from Calista.
“You been fuckin’ my girl?” Beast asked.
“Don’t you pimp her out anyway?” Hawk asked. “Who gives a shit if I’m fuckin’ her.”
“I know she’s been feedin’ you guys information!” Beast said, roaring. “I wanna know who the fuck’s toyin’ with my woman!”
He moved his gun to the back of Calista’s head, and I put my hands in the air.
“Me,” I said.
“Talon shut the hell up,” Mac said.
“You?” Beast asked. “My wife’s been talkin’ with you?”
“Yes,” I said plainly.
“Shut up, Talon,” Fox said.
“What the hell’s she been tellin’ you?” Beast asked.
I stared at the man trembling in anger in front of me. His blackened eyes were wild, and his stature was tall. He was easily six-foot-four with two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle on him. He had me by four inches and at least fifty pounds, but I wasn’t about to let that scare me. This woman I’d promised to protect was laying on the ground halfway to dead, and I had no idea what the hell had happened to her daughter.
“I’m only gonna ask one more time,” Beast said as he pointed his gun at me.
“You take one more step, and you’re done,” Mac said.
He trained his gun onto the massive man in front of me, and in an instant, he moved. Beast’s gun whipped back down towards Calista and went off, and I heard Mac fire. Everyone started running while guns started discharging, but all I did was drop to the ground. I threw my body over the trembling woman, trying to cover up her naked body while she bled out into the ground.
Her coward little husband shot her right in the back, and I could feel her blood soaking into my shirt.
I looked into Hawk’s eyes and nodded to him. I needed to get her out of here. I’d made her a promise that I would protect her, and now I needed to apologize. The rest of the guys drew their weapons while they chased the cowardly fuckers off our property, their bikes buzzing away with that high-pitched squeal I’d forever committed to memory.
And there was Calista, sputtering blood up while cradled in my arms.
“I’m so sorry, Calista,” I said.
She shook her head ‘no,’ but she didn’t have the energy to formulate the words.
“I should’ve had someone protecting you,” I said. “I should’ve kept a closer eye on you. I should’ve forced you to run. Or kept you with me. This whole plan went to shit, and you’re the one who’s paying for it.”
She was shivering and shaking while my hand pressed into the wound in her back. There was no exit in her chest, but I could tell her lungs were filling with blood. She was trying to draw air, but all she could do was gurgle, and I tried my best to hold back tears while I watched the life drain from her eyes.
“River… Run…” she said, choking.
“What?” I asked. “Calista, what did you say?”
“River… Ru-... -un. No one…knows.”
“River Run?” Hawk asked.
I looked up at him and shook my head. I had no idea what ‘River Run’ was. I had no idea if she was hallucinating or if her brain was shutting down. I gathered her closer and sat on the ground, cradling her in my lap while the men stood around us. They were keeping watch, their guns in the air just in case anyone came to disturb us.
They were shielding a naked woman’s death from the world so she could die in peace.
“It’s… okay…” she said.
“No. No, it’s not okay. I made you a promise. You and your daughter,” I said. “And I didn’t keep that promise, Calista. I didn’t keep it.”
“Thank you… for… caring,” she said. “He… he never did.”
I leaned my lips down to her forehead and pressed a kiss to her skin. She knew our time didn’t mean anything to me. She knew that what we did was nothing more than an informational exchange while we passed the time. But I tried my best to treat her with respect and honor while she was with me. I tried my best to make her feel as welcome as I could without dampening the existence of my own life.
And it brought my heart some sort of solace that she felt cared for when she was with me.
“You never hit,” Calista said.
“And I never will,” I said.
Her shaking was uncontrollable, and I held her into my chest to try and get her to stop. There was so much blood, and there were so many tears. I had no idea whose tears they were or whose blood was pouring from whose body. There was so much of it, I had a hard time believing it was coming from this shriveled up woman in my arms.
But when I looked up to see if anyone else was wounded, she spoke those two works again.
“River… Run…” she said, whispering.
“I don’t know what that is,” I said. “I don’t… what is that, Calista?”
“It’s only the beginning,” she said. “Find her. She’s safe for now, but find her.”
And with that, I watched the life flee from her eyes while her body went limp in my arms.
I couldn’t think. In that very moment, with the cars whizzing by and the desert wind kicking up a sandstorm, all I could do was shake. I stood to my feet while her blood continued to trickle down my legs, and it was all I could do to take my eyes off her. The guys turned around and looked at me, their eyes dripping with sorrow while my eyes slowly panned over to Mac.
“Did you hear her?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“‘It’s only the beginning,’” I said.
“I was more focused on the ‘find her,’” Mac said. “I think she’s talkin’ about her daughter.”
“What the fuck’s ‘River Run’?” Fox asked.
“You mean River Run Creek?”
We all turned our heads towards Gemma while her eyes stayed connected with mine. I could see the shock in her eyes while she studied my blood-soaked form. I felt someone lift Calista from my arms before they walked off with her body, and in an instant, Gemma was charging me.
Everything inside of me was screaming to push her away. To hop on my bike, ride off into the sunset, and not look back until I knew she was gone. Her legs were carrying her towards me at a lightning pace, and the only thing I could think about was how the blood on my body hadn’t dried just yet.
But as she leaped into my arms and pressed her face into my neck, the only thing that filled my nostrils was the smell of her perfume.
Gemma was all right.
My beautiful Gemma was all right.