BLAMELESS: MC Biker Romance (Black Thorns, #3) (15 page)

A vial of liquid and a packet with a syringe inside. He smirks to himself as he sets ‘bout ripping it open and filling it up.

He gazes at the needle. “This is one of our new products. Special brand of heroin. Also been working on a real special brand of coke, I know you’ll love. Some of my best work, Zeb. Maybe I’ll let you try that next time. But for now…gonna give you a taste of this.” He nods at one of the three guys. He holsters his gun and then walks up to me. He grabs my arm, working with the guy on my right to hold it out in front of me so Jase can tie it up and shit.

Jesus Christ. No. I know what he’s gonna do to me. No! No! No!

“No! Jase, don’t do this!” I find myself screaming rabidly.

I’ve lost my shit. The idea of him doing this to me after all these years and how hard I’ve worked…I can’t…I can’t stomach this. I can’t keep it together.

Jase ignores my freak out and steps closer. “How long’s it been exactly?”

“Too fucking long for you to do this to me now. You ain’t that sick, Jase. Don’t. Don’t fucking do this to me. I can’t—”

He grabs my chin, squeezing painfully. “You can’t what? Get clean again?” He smiles. “I don’t want you to. Wanna welcome you back into the life you ran from. The life you belong in. And this is the only way you’re gonna agree to it. You gotta
need
it. Gotta need the high. That’ll ensure your loyalty.”

The door to the bedroom flies open then and Sarah runs out into the hall. There’s a gun in her hand. Where’d she get it? Fuck. Dealer must have one somewhere inside the bedroom. She fires at the guys crowded ‘round me.

And misses.

The bullet drives into the drywall.

Before she can fire again, Torvin’s lunging at her.

“Get outta here! I told you! Go! Now!” I yell at her.

But she don’t. She pistol-whips Torvin across the side of the face, shocking everyone, even me.

As he falls back, I fight to break the hold on me, cuz she’s gonna get herself hurt real bad any second now. I can see her hands shaking wildly as she tries to point the gun again.

And then it happens.

I feel it.

I stop breathing for a few seconds as the horror of what’s happened hits me.

I look down to see the syringe buried in my arm. My eyes flick up to Jase and he’s smiling with victory and some demented pleasure at seeing the look on my face.

He pulls it out and tosses it on the ground.

“Gonna hit you any second now,” he tells me. He nods at his guys and they release me.

Everything slips away in the next few moments and all that’s left is that all-consuming haze of the intense high I ain’t felt for so long. Something I never wanted to feel again.

It’s too much.

I can’t deal with it.

It’s racking my entire body in a few more seconds and I collapse to my knees, puking my guts up.

I hear Sarah screaming.

And then I don’t.

I got no idea how much time passes before I finally stop throwing up. Through it, I hear shots and screams. Yelling. Thuds. Rushed footsteps.

And then just hushed whispers.

I feel hands on my shoulders.

My head’s too heavy. Drowning under the effects of the drug.

Someone grabs the sides of my face and I look straight ahead to see a very blurry image of Dealer crouched down beside me.

“Sarah?” I croak out.

“We got her. She’s fine. What was in the syringe, Runner?”

“It…it were…”

“Yeah? Gotta know to get it outta your system.”

“Heroin.”

“Fuck,” someone mutters behind him. Sin, maybe? Probably.

“Come on. Gotta get you outta here,” Dealer says and I feel his arms ‘round me, lifting me up. “Gonna help you. It’s gonna be fine. You hear me, Runner?”

I shake my head. “Nah. Ain’t gonna be. It’s…over.”

“It ain’t,” he snaps. “We got you. We got you.”

That’s the last thing I hear before I pass out.

Chapter 17

~Sarah~

I don’t know what to do with my hands.

One moment they’re down at my sides and I’m digging them into my thighs.

The next they’re in my hair, fisting and tugging.

Then they’re rubbing my face.

I can’t keep still.

I’m too anxious.

My left foot’s tapping an incoherent rhythm on the hardwood floor of the corridor outside his room. It’s reflecting the state of my mind at this very moment in time. A complete mess.

I can’t remember the last time I was so afraid. So utterly terrified.

Never. Not even during the worst times with Eddie.

But now?

For Zeb?

I am. And I can’t get a grip.

I will never be able to get that look on his face out of my head. Ever. Pain and utter terror when that maniac had jabbed him with that needle.

The corridor is jam-packed with so many bikers and that’s just making me even more ill at ease. I wish Rox was here with me, but Ax has banned her from the club, because the entire place is on lockdown right now after Jase’s attack and his current threat status. No one is allowed to enter the clubhouse, except the members. They can only leave with Ax’s permission. I’m not sure what that means for me. Do I have to leave? Ax let me come back here with Zeb, but that might not last. Things are hectic right now, so maybe he hasn’t really realized I’m still here. He’s fully focused on Zeb right now.

I’m in the corner, trying to keep a low profile, while also being in a position to see the second the door to Zeb’s room opens and the doctor and Ax finally step out.

Come on! Come on!

I feel a hand on my left shoulder suddenly and a small gasp of surprise leaves me. I turn to see a familiar face. Thank goodness.

“Smiter,” I breathe.

Before I can get another word out, he wraps his arms around me and pulls me in for a gentle bear hug. He’s a huge guy, so it really is a
bear
hug.

He pulls back and folds his arms across his chest. He shifts his weight uneasily as he tells me, “Runner’s gonna be fine, sweetheart. He’s a hard-ass.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that Smiter isn’t actually looking me in the eye as he says those words.

“He’s had problems in the past…with drugs, right?” Although, Zeb hasn’t talked to me about it, that was made clear to me from his reaction when I’d wanted to give him painkillers after he’d been stabbed.

Smiter nods. “Yeah.” He rubs his hand over the back of his neck. “Doing this to him was fucking sick, demented shit. Twenty years he’s been clean. And now…fuck.”

“Ax told us…he said…the doctor was cleaning it out of his system ASAP.” That was the last report Ax had given us. That was about an hour ago now.

Smiter looks pained as he says, “He’s still tasted the high, though.”

Oh my God.

Before I can respond, he adds, “But, like I said, he’s strong. Always been a hard-ass. That’s Runner through and through.”

His words of comfort are hollow. I know he’s just trying to reassure me, though.

This is all my fault. Zeb crossed Eddie, because of me. Because he protected me. And that’s how his psycho brother found him. Because of me. It’s all my fault that he got stabbed and now it’s all my fault that he got injected with heroin.
I’m so sorry, Zeb.

Oh shit. I need to get out of here.

I’m just causing him more hurt every time he’s around me. I need to stay away.

“I…I need to go.”

I’ve barely made it a couple of steps away when the door to Zeb’s room flies open and Ax strides out. His eyes land on me immediately and he grunts, “Sarah. Come here.”

“I…what?”

“He’s asking for you. Come on. Hurry up. Won’t be long, before he’s out cold again.”

I feel a hand on the small of back, gently guiding me towards Ax. I look over my shoulder to see that it’s Smiter. He gives me a kind smile.

The next thing I know, Ax is leading the way inside and then shutting the door behind us.

The room’s small. The only furniture is a double bed, two bedside tables and a chest of drawers over by a window. There’s also a door at the far end of the room, which I assume leads to a bathroom.

I see a doctor standing by the bed over Zeb who’s lying there. As I approach, I see that he’s hooked up to a bag of some sort of solution. He looks really weak. His eyes are barely open.

“She’s here, Runner,” Ax says, stepping out of the way, so I can get closer to Zeb.

I sit down on the edge of the bed and take his hand. His grip is non-existent. Oh God. Seeing him like this is tearing me up inside.

“You…okay?” he croaks out, so quietly, it’s basically a whisper.

“Yeah. How are you?” It sounds like such a stupid question, because it’s obvious he’s not doing well. But, I don’t know what else to say.

I watch him frown, thinking of how to respond. And that’s when I realize how out of it he really is. His pupils are
so
tiny. He barely even seems awake.

“We’re doing a rapid detox. Given his history, getting the narcotic out of his system ASAP is vital,” the doctor tells me. “It isn’t a pleasant process, but he
will
be fine.”

“He’s gonna be under for most of it,” Ax adds.

“Under?” I ask.

“Knocked out. Anaestetic.”

“Wow…oh…okay. But he’ll be fine?”

“The drug will be out of his system quickly, but he’ll need time to recover beyond that,” the doctor tells me.”

I nod, taking his words in.

The doctor eyes Ax. “He’ll need to be monitored.”

And then something occurs to me and I ask Ax, “Why can’t we take him to a hospital?”

I see him and the doctor exchange a knowing glance.

“Jer, you done here?”

The doctor nods. “I’ll be back to check on him tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Ax says, stepping forward and shaking the doctor’s hand.

With that, he walks out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Ax strides up to me and folds his arms across his chest. “We don’t talk ‘bout no business of our club members in front of civilians,” he growls at me, giving me that stern, scary look of his.

“I…I didn’t know.”

“You do now,” he grunts at me.

“Ax,” Zeb croaks.

That gets Ax’s angry glare off me as he crouches down to Zeb’s eye level. “Yeah, brother?” he asks in a gentle voice I would never have ever expected he had within him.

“Mine,” Zeb breathes.

Ax’s eyes widen and his gaze darts to me. There’s disbelief all over his face. And, as he looks back at Zeb, a huge smile comes over his face. “Yeah? That right?”

“Yeah,” Zeb says, closing his eyes for several seconds. They open again and I feel him squeeze my hand ever so slightly as his dazed eyes find mine. “Don’t leave.”

I forget about Ax being right here for a moment and I lean forward and gently stroke Zeb’s hair. “Zeb…I….”

He squeezes my hand again and tries to tug me closer, but he has no strength left. “You…love you.”

Hearing those words out of his mouth is so shocking that I can’t physically respond for several seconds. By the time I’ve found my voice again his eyes are closed and he’s asleep.

I sit back, still holding his hand. “Oh my God,” I gasp out loud.

“Shit, woman,” Ax comments.

I jerk my head towards him. “What?”

He’s smiling at me now. “Never thought I’d see the day for him.”

“He’s...out of it,” I tell him. As much as I want it to be true, I’m hesitant to believe it. Plus, my guilt is clouding everything else around me. Before I can stop myself, I’m admitting to Ax, “I’m not good for him.”

He shakes his head. “None of this is your fault, Sarah.”

“Of course it is. He crossed Eddie and got stabbed, because—”

“That’s who Runner is. Rash and reacting on instinct all the damn time. If we’re playing the blame game here, it’s more my fault than anyone’s. He warned me ‘bout Torvin being connected to Jase. I was too cautious. Too slow acting.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose as he eyes Zeb. The way he looks at him, it’s clear how close they are.

The room is tense and thick with our regret.

I rack my brain, trying to think of something to cut through it. Anything.

But then Ax ends up being the one to do it when he says, “He wants you to stay, yeah?”

“Is that…okay? I’m not…with the club.”

“That ain’t the absolute truth now, is it?” he says with an amused grin.

“I don’t understand.”

“He just claimed you as his woman.”

“Claimed me?”

“You’re his girl. He just announced it.”