Broken (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 1) (27 page)

I feel Zeb’s fingers dig deeper into my wrists, which somehow makes me forget about the pain in my shoulder, and an uneasy silence fills the corridor. There’s no noise coming from out in the clubhouse either, although I never wanted everyone to get involved in this. This wasn’t supposed to end in more loss of life than was necessary. In my head it wasn’t going to end in
any
loss of life. How fucking naïve does that make me sound now, huh…?

Izzi

‘Don’t get in my way, Sam. Don’t do that.’

I don’t know what he’s doing but I don’t need this shit, I really don’t.

‘Guess the party’s over, sweetheart.’

Viper grins in my face and I nudge my arm so hard against his throat he starts to choke, and I smile, because it feels good, to finally see a glimmer of weakness in him.

‘That’s enough, Izzi.’

I finally turn my head slightly in Sam’s direction, but I’m keeping one eye on Viper. ‘It’s not nearly enough.’

‘Zeb!’

He’s really doing this? He’s calling in Zeb?

‘No, Sam…’

‘Now, Zeb.’

I keep focused, keep my eyes on Viper who narrows his as his smirk reappears and I dig the gun further into his flesh.

‘All you have to do is pull that trigger, darlin’,’ he drawls, ‘and you got me. Bang! I’m gone. Game over. You win.’

‘Get her away from him, Zeb.’

I hear Sam’s voice but it’s like he’s miles away. And then I feel Zeb lightly touch my hip, feel his warm breath on my neck, his hand covering mine as the gun’s slowly pulled away from Viper’s stomach.

‘Come on, baby,’ he whispers, and I close my eyes and fall back against him, letting him take the gun from me. ‘I got you, princess. I got you.’

It’s over.

My dream, it’s dead.

It’s dead…

Mack

What the hell am I looking at here? He touches her, and she pulls back? Just like that? Who the fuck
is
this guy? It’s like he’s got some weird and twisted hold over her, Jesus, I ain’t seen anything like that before. One minute she’s all evil Barbie and the next she’s in his fucking arms like he’s just flicked a switch or something. This whole situation just got fucking crazier, man, I need a drink.

Zeb’s whispering in her ear and he’s got his hand on her hip, his fingers splayed out possessively, gripping her just enough to clench up the denim of her skirt and I watch as she turns around in his arms and he pushes the hair from her eyes and, for Christ’s sake, he kisses her! Am I in a fucking dream here? Is this shit actually happening?

‘Is someone gonna tell me what the fuck is going on?’

Viper’s voice makes me look away from Izzi and turn my attention to him, but this Sam guy seems to have it all under control, and that’s what’s making me uneasy. The calm he’s displaying, it’s almost inhuman, but it makes me see where Izzi gets it from. What the hell did those two crazy bastards do to her?

‘Izzi won’t be a problem anymore, I can guarantee that.’

I almost hear the atmosphere suddenly shift. Something changes, in an instant, and that bad feeling I thought had subsided slightly, it’s back…

Izzi

I won’t be a problem anymore? What the hell…?

I pull away from Zeb but his grip on me tightens and he yanks me back, and I swing around and fix him with a look that tells him I’m not doing this. It works, for a while, his control over me. But I’m done now. This is fucking wrong.

‘Calm down, darlin’.’

I glare at him, and he knows I’m angry. He sees it, and I know he’s only trying to keep me from doing something stupid, but that blanket of anger and hate has swept back over me, frustration and confusion diluting that dangerous mix of emotions I can barely control.

‘What’s he doing, Zeb? What the
fuck
is he doing?’

‘I don’t know, Izzi…’

From somewhere deep inside of me I find a new strength, and I manage to pull myself free of Zeb’s grip, and even though I don’t have my gun anymore I can still do damage. I can still rain a world of hurt down on that bastard, and Sam is not going to take that away from me, not after everything I went through to get here; everything
he
put me through.

‘I won’t be a
problem
?’

Sam turns his head to face me, and I briefly drop my gaze to see his hand pinning Viper’s wrist to the wall before I look back up. And his eyes burn into mine. They’re telling me to leave this alone, he doesn’t have to say anything, I know what he wants me to do. But I ignore him. He took this off-plan, he can deal with the fucking fallout.

I lunge towards Viper but Zeb gets to me first and pulls me back, his arms folding around me, and it’s pointless struggling but I’m so fucking angry. So
fucking
angry!

‘Calm her down, Zeb.’

Zeb lays a hand against my stomach and I feel something, a warm, soothing feeling but I fight it this time. I know what he can do to me, but that’s only because I’ve been almost conditioned to let it happen. I’m fighting it now. I am fucking done.

I grit my teeth and focus as Zeb’s hand presses harder against me, and he’s whispering in my ear but I’m shutting him down, he’s not doing this, not now.

‘She won’t be a problem anymore.’ I watch as Sam lets go of Viper’s wrist and steps back from him. ‘You have my word on that.’

‘You’re just letting him go?’ How I keep my voice as calm it is I don’t know, because inside I’m screaming. I’m dying and I’m screaming and I don’t understand what the fuck is going on.

Sam turns to me, sliding his hands into his pockets and his calmness is both irritating and confusing. ‘Yes, Izzi, I’m letting him go.’ He turns back to look at Viper, who’s checking out his wrist, and even from where I’m standing I can see deep red welts starting to appear. ‘On condition that he in turn leaves
you
alone.’

Viper raises his gaze and looks at Sam. But he doesn’t say anything.

‘Do I have your word? Viper?’

Viper narrows his eyes as he looks from Sam to me then back to Sam. ‘One wrong move from that psycho bitch…’

‘Do I have your
word
?’ Sam’s voice is colder now; harsh. He’s losing patience.

Viper laughs quietly, but it’s a laugh tinged with nerves because he’s as confused by this situation as I am. More so. He doesn’t know anything about Sam; what he represents. What he can do, when pushed. I do. I know. How do you think I got to be the way I am now? ‘Seriously?’

I feel Zeb’s hand press even harder against me as Viper almost sneers the word out, and my stomach pulls itself into a knot so tight my breath catches in my throat, and I watch as Sam takes a step towards him, invading his space. He doesn’t look threatening – Sam. His appearance is very misleading. But you don’t cross him. And that should be something I practice rather than preach, but he’ll never hurt me.

‘Your word, or we go back to where I came in.’

Viper stares at Sam, and the silence is foreboding, the stand-off terrifying.

‘Do I have that?’

Viper continues to stare at Sam, but Sam doesn’t flinch, he never does. He won’t. And then Viper shrugs and steps back from him. ‘She ain’t worth my time, bro. She’s all yours.’

I swear to fucking God…

‘Then we’re done here.’

Viper lets out another short, sharp laugh and reaches down for the gun that was knocked from his hand when Mack pushed him to the ground, but Sam’s quicker than him. He kicks the gun out of his reach towards Zeb, who retrieves it, slipping it into the back of his jeans.

‘Did you hear me? I said, we’re done. Get your men and get out of this clubhouse.’

Mack

‘Hey, whoever the hell you are. You giving orders now? On
my
territory?’

Who the fuck does this guy think he is?

He slowly turns to look at me, and I don’t know where he gets off throwing this shit around my clubhouse but he ain’t in charge here.
Fuck!
I gotta get me some control back because I’m losing it, big time.

‘I’m sending everyone home.’

Is he fucking kidding me? What the hell’s going on here?

‘A lot of my guys are still out on a job…’

‘A job
I
set up. Because I needed this to happen, tonight.’

Huh?
What did he just say?

‘One of your prospects is clearing everyone out from the clubhouse and compound and locking up behind him. We’re the only ones left here now.’

I narrow my eyes and laugh nervously, I can’t help it. I’m freakin’ lost, man. ‘Does somebody want to tell me what the
fuck
is going on?’

‘Good question.’

My head snaps around to see Izzi, still held captive against the much bigger Zeb, and quite obviously against her will but there’s a part of me that still can’t help thinking that if she really wanted to be free of him, she would be. I’ve seen her at work, and that kid got some strength.

Sam looks from me to Izzi, and he smiles a slow smile that doesn’t go anywhere near his eyes; eyes he keeps fixed on her. ‘It’s over, Izzi.’

She shakes her head, and I can see the anger in her face. Her expression is both heartbreaking and terrifying. And then Sam turns to face me, and I still can’t shift that bad feeling. Something’s going on here, and I don’t know what the fuck that is, but somebody better tell me fast before I freakin’ lose it.

‘There’s something you and I need to talk about, Mack.’

‘Really? Like what? I mean, I don’t even know you…’

‘No, you don’t. But I think it’s time you did. You’ve waited long enough.’

I’m even more confused now. This shit is seriously messing with my head, and my shoulder, man, that fucking hurts. I raise my hand and gently touch the spot Izzi grazed with the bullet, and I feel blood on my fingers.

‘I’ll deal with that. Have you got medical supplies?’

I look back over at Sam. ‘Yeah. In the chapel.’

‘We’ll talk in there.’

He looks at Zeb, who still has Izzi in his arms, and I can see she still ain’t happy.

‘Is she going to be OK?’

Sam directs that question at Zeb, who nods and presses his hand harder against Izzi’s stomach and I watch as she visibly flinches. But she could just kick back and hit him in the balls, if she wanted to, and I don’t understand why she doesn’t do that. None of this feels right.

‘Good. I’ll leave her with you. I’ll deal with Mack.’