Chapter 22
Gemma
I hunkered down onto the cot and pulled my knees to my chest. I had no idea what was going on, but I could hear some high-pitched sound outside. I heard someone yelling, but I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. He would yell and then there’d be silence. He would yell, and then more silence. Something akin to a child crying out pierced my ears, and then it happened.
A gunshot rang out that spurred a firefight.
I felt myself trembling with fear while I hunkered down deeper into the cot. Guns were going off, and people were shouting. Bikes were starting up, and that high-pitched squeal filled the air again. I could hear someone crying before the sound of squealing dirt kicked up, and the only thing that ran through my mind was the fact that Talon was out there.
He was out there with a gun, and he could’ve been hurt.
I slowly inched the door of the room open and saw no one in the garage. The gunshots stopped ringing out, and all was silent to the world. The high-pitched squeal and the roar of the motorcycles were slowly beginning to fade into the background, so I got on my hands and knees and crawled to the window.
I had no idea what was going on, but I knew this was the trouble Jace had been talking about. The shit he’d mentioned when we were fighting about Talon. He kept going on about how Talon wasn’t in a good place to take on something like this. He kept talking around the lines, insinuating that something was going on with the club.
Then it was Talon that told me that woman was being used for information. That he was doing nothing else but fucking around with her to get intel or some shit.
Holy fuck… were those people from The Devil Saints?
I reached the window and slowly pulled myself up. I peeked over the windowsill and watched while the dust settled. I could see the guys gathered around in a circle, their guns pointed out in front of them while their heads kept turning on a permanent swivel.
And I saw my brother trying to hold back tears.
I felt my heart drop to my toes. I scurried myself off the floor and headed for the door. I ripped it open, no longer caring about the fate that would befall me. All I needed to know was that Talon was safe.
I needed to know that the man I loved was still alive.
I ripped the door open just as I heard a question. Something about ‘River Run.’ I tried to listen while the men turned around, their heads bowed into the middle of the circle while someone was trying to stand. I watched the blood-soaked body rise up from the desert dust, like a Phoenix rising from its ashes. And in their hands was the body of a woman I recognized.
Calista.
Oh my fuck, Calista was dead.
Then, my eyes rose up to meet Talon’s. Those bright blue eyes connected with mine through all the blood and dust and grotesqueness of the day and I watched Mac take Calista’s body from his arms. And then I heard it again. Those two words they were trying to figure out.
River Run.
“You mean River Run creek?”
I saw all the guys turn around at my voice while Talon’s chest moved up and down with his breaths. He was breathing. Despite all the blood on his body that was already beginning to dry on his hands, he was breathing steadily.
That meant the blood on his body wasn’t his.
That meant he was okay.
Without another thought, I took off towards him. My shaking legs carried me as fast as they could, and in an instant Talon opened his arms to me. I sprang off my feet and barreled myself into his body, feeling his strong and rippling arms tighten their grip around my back. I dug my face into his neck, crying with relief at the fact that he was still standing.
Still breathing.
Still alive.
My beautiful, wonderful Talon was still alive.
“Are you okay, Gemma?” he asked.
“Yes. Yes, I-I-I’m… uh…”
I could feel my body trembling again. His lips connected with the side of my head and all I could do was press myself further into him. I blocked out the blood that was soaking into my clothes, and I blocked out the gunshots still ringing in my ears. I blocked out the fact that Jace was standing right there and I even blocked out the fact that Talon had just been holding a dead body.
All I wanted to focus on was him.
“What happened?” I asked breathlessly.
“Trouble,” he said.
“What happened to… to her?” I asked.
I raised my eyes up to his, and for the first time, I watched the strong man in front of me buckle just a little.
“I broke my promise, and she paid the price,” Talon said.
“What. Happened?” I asked.
I raised my hand to cup his cheek, trying to get his eyes to settle down. His shining blue eyes were darkened with the storm his body was weathering, and I knew I had to get him to settle. I placed my other hand on his chest, trying to prompt him to breathe evenly. I needed him to settle his body and mind. I needed him to find his center.
I needed him to be okay.
“The Devil Saints,” he said. “They’re coming for us.”
“Then we’ll be ready for them,” I said.
“There’s so much…”
“You don’t have to tell me all about it now,” I said. “But if they’re coming, we’ll be ready. Now… why is Calista dead?”
I watched him swallow hard before his eyes reddened with his tears. It broke my heart to see him this way. I broke my heart to see him so… broken in his own right. I was getting a glimpse of the vulnerable teenage boy I’d come to know while I was in high school, and I raised my lips right up to his.
“It’s okay,” I whispered against his skin. “I promise.”
I planted a small kiss on his lips, and immediately his hands dropped to my back. He pulled me into his body, and I could feel his skin quaking. He cloaked my back while his salted tongue found my lips, and I instantly parted my world for him so he could lick up whatever he wanted. Talon needed to forget. He needed to find a way to root himself into the ground. His body was threatening to take off with him, and I wasn’t going to let it.
I moaned into his mouth a desperate approval of his taste, and as he pulled back and sighed his forehead connected with mine.
“Her husband found out she was talking with one of us. Feeding us intel,” Talon said.
“Holy shit,” I said breathlessly.
“Her husband’s also the President of The Devil Saints,” he said.
“Good fucking lord.”
“I promised her I’d take care of her. Her and her daughter. And now she’s gone… and I have no fucking clue where her daughter is,” he said.
And then I remembered it.
River Run.
“Who was asking about River Run Creek?” I asked.
“We all were, honestly,” Hawk said. “Do you know it?”
“Yeah. She kept repeating it,” Fox said.
“It can’t be on our territory. I know our fucking territory like the back of my damn hand,” my brother said.
“Because it’s not ‘in our territory,’” I said.
“Then where is it?” Mac asked.
“It’s about twenty minutes into the other side of town. I guess what you guys would call Devil Saints territory,” I said.
“How the fuck would you know that?” my brother asked.
“I did plenty of shit in high school you’ve got no idea about,” I said.
“We’ve got the reason to believe that her daughter’s there,” Fox said.
“Any idea you could talk us through where it is?” Hawk asked.
I gave the guys basic directions before Mac headed to his bike. Hawk and Fox were right on his heels, but my brother only took a step towards us. Talon immediately stepped out in front of me, his protection instincts kicking right back in, and the two of them stood toe-to-toe while my brother stared Talon down.
“We don’t have time for this, guys!” Mac said.
But my brother didn’t fucking budge.
“I will always protect your sister,” Talon said.
“Like you protected Calista?” Jace asked.
I watched Talon raise his fist, and in an instant, my hand came down onto his arm.
“That was a cheap fucking shot, and you know it, Jace,” I said. “You can either accept it, or you can move the fuck on from my life.”
My brother’s stare hit hard onto mine, and I knew in that very moment which man I stood behind. I’d always stand behind Talon. I’d always support his side. I’d always make sure he had everything he needed, and I would weather any storm that came his way. My brother was a hot-head, and he needed to figure out that his hot-headedness had consequences.
But then I saw him do something I’d never seen him do before.
I watched my brother back down.
“I see how the two of you care for each other,” he said, “and trust me, that tastes terrible to admit. I know what Talon’s capable of when it comes to protecting those he cares about. This whole fucking situation that spiraled out of control was because he was trying to balance all the shit he gave a shit about.”
I felt Talon thread his arm around me while I walked up to his side.
“But the moment you hurt her, Talon. The moment she comes to me crying. The moment you break her heart-- or hell fucking forbid, you strike her-- I will kill you. Without a second fucking thought. You might know how to hack into a website, but I know how to make shit disappear. I’m a fucking magician, you hear me?”
I saw the flurry of fire behind my brother’s eyes and I knew he was serious. I knew the moment Talon really fucked up, he’d be gone from my life. Jace would make that man disappear in a heartbeat, and I stood there holding my breath.
But once Talon nodded, my brother held his hand out to shake.
“Good luck,” Jace said. “She’s a fighter.”
“Hey now. I resent that notion,” I said.
“I don’t,” Talon said as he held me close. “Not one bit. And Snake?”
“Yup?”
“I’ll never hurt Gemma like that. Ever,” he said before he shook my brother’s hand.
And every single part of my being believed him when he said it.
“Hate to break up the party, but we got a little girl to find,” Hawk said.
“You comin’?” Snake asked.
“No, he’s not,” I said.
I felt Talon look down at me, but I stood my ground. I knew he wanted to go with them, but I knew the guys could handle it.
“He’s been through enough. He’s coming with me. Text him when you find her. I know we’ll both wanna know she’s all right,” I said.
My brother looked up at Talon, but all he did was shrug. I grinned up at him while his eyes flickered down to mine, and at that moment we made a silent pact. The two of us were headstrong, independent fighters.
But we both knew when enough had been enough.
“We'll letcha know,” Fox said as he started up his bike.
“Call me if you guys need help,” I said.
“Will do,” my brother said.
The both of us stood there while the rest of the guys got onto the road. They kicked up dust behind them that swirled around our bodies, but that still left another job to do.
We had to do something with Calista’s body before we could go anywhere.
“Does she have any family?” I asked.
“None that I know of, except her daughter,” Talon said.
“What should we do?” I asked. “We can’t just leave her in the shadows.”
I looked over to where Hawk had carried Calista’s body while nausea started to roll over my body.
“Why don’t we do this?” he asked. “Why don’t you go back to my place and get cleaned off? Take a hot shower, wash that beautiful hair of yours, and figure out what you might wanna eat. I know what to do here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I said.
“Yes, you are. I’ll be behind in about an hour, okay? I’ll send one of our prospects with you to make sure you are safe.”
Everything inside of me wanted to fight him, but the darkness that clouded his vision had finally dissipated. His sparkling blue eyes I’d always known him to have, were back, and I clocked the even swelling of his chest. His breathing was stable, and his hands were no longer shaking, and I knew at that moment I was talking to a level-headed man.
A man who was thinking through his actions instead of allowing the moment to consume him.
“I’ll see you in an hour,” I said, nodding.
The only thing he answered me with, however, was a grin, and I knew exactly what that grin meant.
Talon needed a way to lose himself tonight. A way to forget about all the turmoil and the bullshit that had just been experienced tonight.
And I knew exactly how I would greet him when he got home.