Savage Love (Back Down Devil MC #7)(118)

“I have something to do,” he said.

“What?” Emily asked.

“I made a promise to someone else. I have business to finish.”

“Are you… are you going to kill someone?”

Gaige stood tall and let out a breath. “Do you want me to answer that?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said.

“Then don’t ask it. I’ll be back. Okay?”

Emily nodded. She blinked fast.

“Don’t,” Gaige said. “You’re f*cking safe here.”

Gaige left the clubhouse and went back outside. He saw the gate opening and a few of the guys were coming back. Miller must have decided that there wasn’t a need for the chief to meet with the entire crew out there. Miller, Blaine, Nate, and Griffin were just fine.

Gaige rushed down the ramp and went into the underground garage. He unlocked the door and found Vinny near the door. Bloody from the motorcycle accident. Scratched and clawed from Emily’s attack.

“Hey *,” Gaige said.

Vinny looked up at Gaige. “Just f*cking do it, okay? I’m not telling you anything. I’m not sorry for anything. I don’t give a f*ck what you do.”

Gaige smiled. He slid his knife out and looked at the blade. “You’re going to really regret saying that…”

Gaige knelt down and slammed Vinny’s head to the ground. Vinny cried out and looked at Gaige.

Slowly, Gaige brought the knife down to Vinny’s left eye…

One more promise to keep.





twenty-six.



Emily couldn’t sit. She paced the room, her body shaking, heart racing. When she looked around the room all she could think about was Gaige. The smell of the room. The bed where they f*cked each other. The way he touched her, held her, loved her. But when she closed her eyes, she saw Max’s face and then heard the sound of the gun and spray of blood and brain out of the back of Max’s head.

Gaige had done it. He had kept his promise to kill Max.

Emily opened her eyes and rushed to the bathroom. She fell to her knees in front of the toilet and tried to vomit. She screamed and coughed, but nothing happened. Her hair covered her face as tears dripped from her eyes to the toilet.

That was it.

There was no getting sick. The feeling inside Emily was unfiltered anger. Anger because revenge had been sought yet it fixed nothing. Rachel was still dead. Max had still beaten the hell out of her years ago. Nothing changed the past and nothing changed the present. It was only the future that had a brighter outlook, if Emily could shed it all from her mind.

Emily stood and went to the sink. She turned on the water and washed her face. She looked at herself in the mirror as she came to terms with it all.

Max was dead.

Vinny would be dead soon.

Mr. Strokner would have no choice but to mourn the loss of Rachel and move on.

Just like Emily would.

Reaching into her pocket, Emily pulled out the necklace that had been around Rachel’s neck. She put it on the bathroom sink.

“I’ll never forget you,” she whispered. “But I have to let go.”

Emily closed her eyes again and took deep breaths. Her life was changed now forever. She belonged to Gaige which meant she belonged to Back Down Devil MC.

The door to the room opened and Emily spun around.

Gaige’s shirt and hands were covered in blood. She reached for a towel and put it under the running water. She walked the towel to Gaige and handed it to him. He stared at her as he wiped his hands free of blood. When he moved his hand to throw the towel, Emily took it from him. She took it to a trashcan and dropped it in.

She walked back to Gaige and slowly stripped Gaige off his leather. She could smell the blood, a smell she would never forget.

Emily then put her fingers to his shirt, touching the blood.

“Emily…”

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay…”

Emily ran her hands down to the bottom of Gaige’s shirt. She rolled it up and helped him take it off. Again, she took the shirt to the trashcan and dropped it in. She went back to Gaige and put her hands to his beautiful, chiseled body. She smeared the blood from her hands down his body and stared into his eyes.

“It’s done?” she whispered.

“It’s done. I took care of everything.”

“Now what?” Emily asked.

Gaige smiled and put a hand behind her neck. He pulled her in for a kiss and then licked his lips. “I’m covered in blood, beautiful. I need to shower and clean up… but I’m not f*cking doing it alone.”

Emily smiled back. She liked the idea of falling in love with a biker and never doing anything alone again.

Gaige stepped by Emily and dropped his pants.

What a perfect ass…

Emily bit her lip and hurried to strip herself.

All Emily could count on right now was the moment in front her… and that moment she would savor for as long as she was alive.





twenty-seven.



Bob Strokner rolled the fat cigar between his lips. He sat with his chair turned, able to look at the door to his office were looking out the window across the city. He hadn’t lit a cigar since before Rachel was killed. It wasn’t the same without his daughter bitching at him about the look and smell of the cigars. The businessman refused to walk down a path that involved wondering if he could have done anything different. It had been hard enough when Rachel’s mother was killed. Being a single father with a conglomerate business to run didn’t make for the easiest life for Rachel, but Bob always thought she would do just fine. She was pretty. She had money. But to face the fate of bullets from piece of shit bikers wasn’t fair.