Released (Devil's Blaze MC #3)(35)

“Before what? You mean before when you were planning on dying here?” he growls, showing me he is still upset.

“Whatever. Surely, you can see that now that we have Matthew, we can use him to smoke out Colin.”

“Smoke out? You’ve watched too many police dramas. Besides, I don’t need him to find Colin.”

“You do. We have to find both of them, Skull, so that this ends.”

“I’ll find Colin. I don’t need that sad f*ck-bag outside to do it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive,” he confirms.

“Good,” I tell him, walking towards the door.

“Where are you going?” he asks, following me.

“I’m going to go kill Matthew,” I tell him, deadly serious.





“I don’t quite remember you being so bloodthirsty,” Skull says.

I stop and take a breath. “There are things that change you forever,” I tell him, trying to blot out the memories. “The girl you knew had to grow up fast.”

I expect him to say something in response to that, but he doesn’t. I’m almost to the door, congratulating myself. I extricated myself out of that relatively easily, and now we’ll be one step closer to me getting away from the club. And away from Skull. I may not want that, but it’s needed. I wonder if hypnosis can really make people forget things? Maybe there’s someone in town that does that.

“What are you doing?” I gasp when Skull grabs me from behind and brings me around to face him. I hold onto his hand to try and steady myself. “Skull! Stop!” I cry in outrage as he lifts me up and throws me over his shoulders.

“I’m saving you from yourself this time, querida,” Skull mutters.

“What does that even mean? Let me down right now!”

“Afraid not, cari?o.”

“If you don’t let me down right now, I’ll make sure your girlfriend knows all about what we did back there!” I threaten him.

“I don’t have a girlfriend, but be my guest to tell anyone you want, Beth. I doubt it will be much of a secret since my men had to have heard you screaming for me,” he calmly tells me. If blood wasn’t already rushing to my face from being held upside down, I know I would be blushing bright red right now. Then… it hits me. I go completely still.

“Beth?” Skull asks, noticing the change at once.

“Skull, let me down,” I order him and I can tell from the surroundings that we’re practically at the back door.

“I don’t think so, we…”

“Let me down!” I scream, close to the edge.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks.

“Please, put me down,” I beg, my voice broken.

He does so, but barely in time. I cap my hand over my mouth and rush outside, barely making it there before I throw up. Skull is right behind me. He even holds my damn hair. As soon as I’m able, I pull away from him. He whisks his shirt off to hand it to me. I use it to wipe my mouth, trying to ignore that it smells like him. I mostly achieve this. I have a harder time ignoring his chest. The designs of the ink he wears and the way the skulls are intricately woven together… I always loved that. Then there’s the tiny barbells in his nipples… the ones I just had in my mouth… Shit! What the hell is wrong with me? This is Skull’s fault. All his fault. He’s done something to me.

I look around and all of the men are there. Candy, Louise, and Sacks are all there, too. But I don’t see Katie and Torch anywhere. Beast is standing over Matthew with a gun. I look at him briefly. Sadly, there’s very little blood visible on his pants. That’s Skull’s fault, too. When I planned it out in my head, I was going to thrust my knife into his jugular. That would have killed him. All of this is Skull’s fault.

Skull—who has destroyed my life. Skull—who threatened to take my child away from me. Skull—who f*cked me even though he had a girlfriend. Skull—who has ruined me for other men. Skull—with the perfect f*cking pierced nipples.

“Where’s Katie?” I ask the men, still thinking of all the reasons I should hate him.

“Beth, are you sick again?” Skull asks, concern and worry laced in his growly-He-Man voice, which feels good. Which, in turn, pisses me off.

“I just threw up!” I hiss at him. “I’m done. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing left in there to be sick with again. Trust me, if there was, I’d probably still be barfing! Now can we get your…”

“What the hell is wrong with you that you’re throwing up?” Skull yells, jarring me. His face is tight and I could swear he’s trying to keep himself from shaking me.

“I want to know where my sister is!” I yell back.

“Torch took her to the club doctor,” Skull says.

“You took her to your whore?” I screech.

His men starting laughing, and I’m pretty sure that if I could get away with it, I’d slap them all.

Skull has a strange look on his face. “No, to that damn doctor who tried to examine you,” he finally says. Then, his mouth twists into a grin. “Are you jealous, querida?” he asks cockily.

“Shut up,” I growl. “I want to go see Katie now.”

“No.”