An Outlaw Monster (Back Down Devil MC #10)(56)

“Shit,” I whispered.

I suddenly couldn’t calm down.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a glass and filled it with water. Now would have been a great time to get drunk and forget the night. But Eden couldn’t do that. She was living with the same fear as me and she was carrying a child.

I drank the water and filled the glass again.

I looked at myself in the reflection of the dark window.

All I could do was hope that Trent was okay. That whatever he was doing, he’d do good at it and come back to me safe and in one piece. That whatever happened, it would be the benefit of the club.

As I put the glass down and continued to stare at myself, I saw something. Not in the reflection, but something coming toward the window. There was a split second hesitation before the glass exploded at me.

I jumped back and crashed into the kitchen table. I tripped and fell, smacking my head on the floor. To my right there was a bottle on the ground, on fire. A moment later, there was more fire. Then the sound of liquid splashing. The smell of gasoline hit me just as the flames ignited even worse. I rolled to my left and climbed to my feet. The door was just a few feet away. I could escape the fiery hell with ease, but I couldn’t.

Eden.

The kitchen was burning, the room filled with smoke already. I jumped through the growing flames and knew I needed to save Eden. She didn’t deserve to die like this. Nor did her unborn daughter. Hell, I didn’t deserve to die like that either.

The second I crossed the threshold of the flames, I knew I had made a mistake.

I wasn’t going to be able to make it out.

**

Eden was on the toilet. I felt bad bursting in on her, but I had good reason. Before I could tell her what happened there was a billow of smoke behind me.

“Fire?” she asked.

“Someone is trying kill us,” I said. “We have to get out of here.”

Eden got to her feet and I grabbed her hand.

The hallway was filled with smoke. It kept climbing toward us. I backed down the hallway and went into the bedroom. I ran toward the window and it exploded within a foot of me getting there. Again, another bottle, lit on fire. It was accompanied by a smell that went straight to my stomach and throat. I felt like I was going to throw up and that my throat was going to shut. I turned and ran toward Eden again.

The smell was some kind of gas or something.

I put my hand to her mouth and we left the bedroom.

I didn’t know what to do. I pulled Eden to the ground and screamed for her to crawl. That made sense, right? Get under the smoke and climb to safety.

But where was safety?

Who was trying to kill us?

Were they going to bust in and just finish us off?

Poor Eden couldn’t get completely flat because of her pregnant belly. I felt her hand squeeze mine tighter. We were just near the living room when she let my hand go and touched my face.

“Go,” she said. “I can’t breathe.”

“No,” I said. “I’m not leaving you.”

The smoke was so thick and it started to feel like I was swallowing razorblades. It burned my eyes not to mention the heat made me sweat and our sight was almost at zero. I was going to have to do it all by feel, which was impossible enough. Add in a pregnant woman who was losing herself…

“Shit,” I yelled as Eden fell to her left side.

She grabbed her shirt and put her face into it. I grabbed for her arms, thinking maybe I could drag her out of the apartment. I’d find anyway possible to make it happen. I couldn’t lose Eden as a friend and she couldn’t lose her baby. The hell that would ripple through the MC would end up killing all of us.

I sat up and pulled, screaming as I did so.

I felt like my back was on fire.

The smoke poured throughout the apartment and into my mouth, deep into my chest. Each breath got harder. Even though I was touching Eden I was barely able to see her. True panic began to set in.

Attacking the MC was one thing. Taking out one of the guys was another. But to come after Eden and her unborn baby? Her unborn daughter?

“Help!” I screamed. “Someone!”

My mind demanded to know who did this. I wanted to face the attacker and see the man who was going to kill us.

I heard a large crashing sound.

I tried to pull at Eden one more time and felt our grips slip away. I toppled back and knew I’d never see Eden again. I reached my hands out, wondering what I could grab onto. I touched something and then I saw something through the heavy smoke.

It was a face.

The person behind the attack. The fire. The smoke.

The person who wanted me, Eden, and her unborn child to not see tomorrow.

The face got closer and I knew exactly who it was.

It was Duke.





twenty-nine.



(trent)



Denis sliced the piece of glass to my shoulder, cutting me open. I twisted out of reflex and then saw the bloody shard of glass coming for my throat.

This really had become life and death here.

I half expected the guys to come rushing to the ring to help me, but they knew better. If they f*cked with what was happening, we’d lose the cash. No cash meant no guns. No guns meant not settling all the old bullshit so the MC could push forward.

I lifted my arm at the last second and blocked the attack. I grabbed for Denis’s wrist and twisted, driving him back. I brought my other hand up to his hand and grabbed his hand, squeezing the glass. Denis growled and screamed, blood pouring between both of our hands.