Captured (Devil's Blaze MC #1)(72)

“But you did hurt me,” she says, pulling away from me suddenly. “You murdered me, Skull. Why? I loved you so much.”

The white of her dress slowly has deep crimson red leaking from it.

“What? No, I didn’t. What’s happening? Beth? Sweetheart!” I look up into her eyes, only to find her face covered in blood.

“Why did you kill me, Skull? Why? I loved you!” she cries, backing away from me.

“No! Beth! Don’t leave me! I can fix this! Don’t go!”

“I loved you, Skull.”

“Beth!” I scream.

“Boss? Wake up man! Wake up!”

My body jerks. When I open my eyes and sit up in the bed, I’m still screaming her name. Torch stands over me appearing worried, but for a minute it’s not his face I see at all. It’s Beth’s.

I reach over, grab the opened bottle of scotch on my bedside table, then take a large gulp and hope the alcohol burns out my insides.

“What are you doing here?” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “Fuck, what am I doing here?” I ask when I realize where I’m at.

“Little early for alcohol, boss.”

“Fuck you. I asked why I’m here.” I try to get my legs to cooperate. I want to go back to the dock, back to the last place my Beth was. That’s where I need to be. I can’t leave there. “She might show up,” I whisper without realizing I’m saying that out loud.

“She’s not going to show up, boss. No one could survive that blast.”

I ignore him, he doesn’t understand. He couldn’t.

“Ese, Matthew wants to meet today. You need to get your ass out of this bed, shower, and get your ass in gear.”

“What the f*ck are you doing here?” I retort. “Shouldn’t you be back in Tennessee?”

“I’m here to kick your ass in gear. We’re going to meet with Matthew and see what the f*cker has to say, and you’re going if I have to kick your ass all the way.”

“What the f*ck for?”

“He and Colin want to bring Redmond down, and you’re going to help the motherf*ckers.”

“Why the hell would I meet with them? Fuck them, and f*ck you too. Get out and leave me alone.”

Diesel pulls me off the bed, letting me fall to the floor.

“I never pictured you as a chump, ese. I thought you were made with more metal than that.”

“Fuck you! You don’t know shit.”

“I know your Beth deserves vengeance, not a sad-ass f*cker who smells like shit.”

“How the f*ck do I get vengeance? I’m the bastard who killed her!”

“You start by dragging your ass into the shower. Then, you gather up your sorry balls and go to the f*cking meeting and work on ending that son of a bitch Redmond.”

I stare from the floor up at Diesel. I’m about to tell him to go f*ck himself yet again when he says something that stops me. He kneels down to get a closer look at me.

“Your woman died,” he says. “I get that, motherf*cker. But you have a chance to kill the man who kidnapped your woman, who is responsible for Beast losing his daughter… You have a chance to take his f*cking blood. Your woman deserves that. Beast f*cking deserves that.”

I close my eyes. Diesel doesn’t understand. The one person who needs to die for Beth… is me.





“Where’s Colin?” I ask Matthew. I’m at the f*cking meeting just like Diesel wanted. This is the most sober I’ve been in days, and it’s not a f*cking joyride.

“He’s not your concern,” answers Matthew. “Let us just say, I had to make sure he understood some things. I go out of town for a month and come back to chaos and my sister dead, and that is just the beginning of the f*cking shit storm that welcomed me back. It’s time I get my house in order, and you can either be a part of that, or I’ll look elsewhere.”

“Why come to me?” I ask the question that’s been bothering me since I sobered up.

“Because I figure the only person hating Redmond more than my brother or me right now… is you. If I’m wrong, then—”

“No,” I say at once. “I want in. I’m just wondering what you could possibly want us for, since you obviously have your own resources.”

“True, but word has it, Redmond’s in France. While I’m chasing him down, I can’t be worried about everything going to hell here.”

“I’m not a damn babysitter for your brother Colin, and it isn’t why I agreed to this meeting.” I push away from the table. “I’m out of here.”

“Redmond will be back in two weeks for a family meeting that Colin and I called. He thinks it’s to welcome him back as ruler of the family.”

“And it’s not?”

“It is, but it will also be Redmond’s death.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Extra firepower.”

“What do I get in return?”

“When the time comes, I’ll let you put a bullet in him.”

“Why would I wait for you? Now that I know where he’ll be, I’ll just do it myself.”

“Because I think, if anything, Beth’s death has shown us that we will achieve more working together.”