Released (Devil's Blaze MC #3)(32)

“It’s the truth,” Louise adds. “We didn’t really give her a choice.”

“You know what, Skull? You can just go to hell. This war isn’t yours. It’s my sister’s and mine,” Katie says, but her voice is full of pain.

“Katydid, you need to…”

“Just drop it, you guys. Torch, get her to the doctor,” I tell him. In response, all I get are glares. Perfect. I just sigh, wanting this night over with.

“You were planning on doing this alone?” Skull asks and his eyes are appraising me.

“Yes.”

“You would have been killed. You almost were!” I don’t say anything to that. There’s nothing to say. “That’s what you planned all along, wasn’t it, Beth? You were just going to walk in and risk your life without a thought to…”

“All I do is think, Skull. Every damn minute I think. I think about all I lost. I think about all my father and grandfather stole not only from me, but from Katie. I think of how they hunted my mother. I think about how they lied over and over. I think of all the hell I lived through. I think about losing you. I think about denying Gabby a home with two parents. All I do is think and I’m tired of it. I’m so tired, Skull. So sure, I would have probably died tonight, but by God, I would have taken Matthew into hell with me and I would have made sure his filth never touched my daughter. And you know what, Skull? That was a win for me, at this point!”

His eyes are locked onto me and I can’t read anything from him. I turn away from him. It’s time I go.

“What are you doing?” I cry when Skull’s hand wraps around my arm and pulls me back around to face him.

“Everybody, get the f*ck out. Right now!” Skull growls, and there’s so much anger in his face, alarm bells are starting to go off.

“Hold on,” Katie protests. “You can’t just…”

Torch ignores her argument and picks her up, carrying her outside. I can hear all the ladies arguing, but I can’t take my eyes off Skull.

I think it would be dangerous to at this point if I did.





I wait while Briar and Latch drag Matthew and his henchmen from the room while Torch carries a screaming Katie and makes the other women walk in front of him. It takes a few minutes, but the room is completely empty now. Beth doesn’t speak during all this time. Her gray eyes are locked on mine.

Me, I’m seeing red. Rational thought has fled and let’s face it, it’s never too close around when Beth is, regardless. She was walking to her death. She was walking to her death, again. She was trying to handle it all by herself—again. Moving ahead, not counting the people she had around her.

I’m not letting her get away with it this time.

“What do you think you are…?”

I’m tired of hearing her talk. I’m tired of her not thinking I can’t handle whatever is thrown at her. I’m tired of accepting that she doesn’t have faith in me. Fuck, I don’t have faith in me. How can I expect her to? So, I do the only thing I can at this point. I shut her the hell up with my mouth.

She’s rigid in my arms at first. Holding herself so taut that it pisses me off. My hand moves up to her breast, cupping it in my hand. I squeeze it through the black sweater she wears, loving the way it overflows in my hand. Larger than before, but fitting in it, feeling like a lost piece of me. I groan, because I can feel her nipple pushing against the palm of my hand even through her sweater.

Beth still hasn’t opened her mouth to me, though her hands have moved up to my shoulder and her fingers are biting into my arms. I suck on her bottom lip. Instantly, the taste of sugar sweet vanilla hits my taste buds along with another flavor that is all woman, but even more. It’s all Beth. A taste that I had forgotten over the years. A taste I barely experienced with our last kiss and a taste that hits my system like a f*cking drug.

I can feel the shift in her body and I know it’s hitting her, too. Frustration fills me that she won’t give in to it. I bite her lip. Not hard, but definitely not gentle. She gasps, her hands tightening on my arms to push me away. It pisses me off. She doesn’t want to kiss me? Fine.

I break away, holding one side of her neck tight in my hand. I run my lips along the opposite side, tasting the skin and letting my tongue trail up the path my lips make. When I reach her ear, I suck the lobe into my mouth, biting on it with the same exertion I expended before. Beth breathes out, the sound loud, ragged, and loaded with want. It calls to the need clawing inside of me.

My fingers wrap in her hair. How could I have forgotten the feel of that over the years? How right it felt when each strand grazes against my skin.

“You never learn, querida. Always pushing ahead with what you think is best. Never considering your options,” I growl against her ear before moving my lips back down to the inside of her neck and biting into the tender skin and sucking on it, marking her in ways I’ve never been able to mark her on the inside.

“I do what I have to do,” she whispers breathlessly, but her voice is stubborn.

“I got this. I got you. This is not your fight alone, querida, it never was,” I tell her, my voice hoarse with anger, regret, and pain. Always where Beth is concerned, there is pain.

“Maybe once you were right, Skull. Not anymore. I’m not yours,” she responds, and maybe it’s wishful thinking, or maybe it’s just plain stupidity, but I think I hear regret laced in her words.