Claiming Crusher (Savage Brothers MC #4)(75)

“Fuck!” I hear someone growl and I could almost smile. It’s not physically possible even if I wasn’t tumbling into the darkness.





Chapter 38




Crusher


I’m living on fumes. I look like some motherf*cking junkie. I can’t even remember the last time I ate or did any of the things that you normally do to prepare for the day. I don’t even care. I’ve been casing out this motherf*cking barn for two days. With each hour that passes it feels like a piece of my soul is being chipped away. The woman I love could be dying, hell maybe she’s already dead, and I’m sitting in the weeds, twiddling my goddamn thumbs and waiting. I try not to imagine what they’re doing to her, but I’m failing. Each thing that comes to my mind is more horrific than the other and my own imagination is slowly driving me crazy.

I just pulled to the end of an old, forgotten road that leads to the barn. I went home last night. I didn’t want to, but I needed to refuel and see if there were any new leads at the club. It’s been two days and I can’t afford to waste more time. I need something to do. I need to find Dani. The problem is, I don’t have any more info and not a f*cking source to find more. None. I pour a cup of coffee out of a thermos and watch as my hands shake. Jesus. I have to grip the thermos cup with both hands.

I know I’m f*cked up. I know I haven’t been acting rationally. I keep asking myself would it have been different if I had talked to Dragon. Would he have listened when I told him that Kavanagh’s patsy did give me more information? Would Dragon admit he was wrong? The shit I’ve done…I don’t even recognize myself. I don’t know how I knew that Dani hadn’t got away. I just did. Sometimes her face would come to mind, and then I would think of my mom and the f*cking shit she put up with and then Melly…and that horrible night when I found Melly with her brains blown out, lying on the floor beside that sick f*cker of a father she had and I’d lose it.

It seems my life has been spent surrounded by women that needed my help and my failure, to protect them. I couldn’t save my mom. I couldn’t save Melly. I had vowed to protect Hellcat and I honestly thought I could and yet I f*cked that up too. Would Dani have still ran if I hadn’t called her Melly? Would it have made a difference if I explained about Melly? If I had talked with her? I don’t know and all these questions and mistakes I keep making are weighing hard on me. I just need to find Dani, find her and get her home. Then, I can spend the rest of my days trying to prove to her that she’s all I’ll ever need in the world.

I slide out of the truck and trudge through the briars and weeds until I can see the old tobacco barn in the distance. My heart speeds up and skips before hammering in my chest…hard. There are cars out front. Three to be exact and one is a f*cking Mercedes Benz. My first urge is to run in there with guns blazing. I can’t risk it. If Dani is in there, then I need to make sure she’s out of harm’s way. I can’t think of her being anything but alive. I just can’t.

I slowly make my way to the barn, trying to be as quiet as I can. I have my gun ready, but I’d rather not let them know I’m around. I noticed a giant crack between the wood on the far side of the structure the other day, and I make that my goal. I get there and can literally taste the adrenaline pumping in my system. Please let Dani be okay, please let Dani….

All thoughts cease as I look through the crack. I want to scream. I want to put my gun in and shoot every f*cker in there. I can’t. I need to do this smart. I have to, but what I see breaks me. Dani is lying broken in a corner. She’s unrecognizable. I’m not even sure I’d even realize she was a person, if not for the long dark hair that is knotted and caked with dirt and…blood. Her face is mostly hidden but what I see is swollen and bruised so badly that you can’t even make out her features. Then, I hear the men off to the side talking.

“I planted the bomb in Dragon’s vehicle. It’ll go off when he takes it out of park.”

“It didn’t go off earlier today,” the guy I recognize as Michael says, slapping him on the back of the head.

“Ow,” he says grabbing his head. “It wasn’t supposed to. It set the system up, it’ll go off when the gearshift is moved from park now. You said you wanted them both to pay, Boss.”

Fuck. I need to get a call out to Dragon and warn him. I can’t take the time to do it now though. Doing so, would risk being found and not being able to help Dani. I pray I get through before it’s too late. It twists in my gut that I’m choosing Dani over my brothers, but it doesn’t stop me.

The men talk for a little longer, then Michael and one of the others leave. It takes all I have to let him go. I push up against the barn as they go out the front entrance. I peek around the corner to see them get in a sleek black Mercedes. When they drive off, I take a breath of relief. Before going in and getting my woman, I try and call Dragon. I want to give it enough time to make sure Michael doesn’t come back.

Dragon’s phone rings twice.

“Yeah motherf*cker, want to tell me where you’ve been?”

“Drag, listen quick, man.”

“Where in the f*ck are you? Do you know what went down today?”

Dragon’s voice is faint at best. The line is full of distortion and noise and I have to strain to hear him.

“Do not use the cages today!”