Death Ride (Blue Bandits MC Book 5) (17 page)

“No, we can make it, just go faster,” Jamie commanded, not willing to allow him to die for her.

“I can’t. Fuck, hold on,” Crook growled when a bike pulled out in front of them trying to force him to stop. He didn’t and they clipped the bike, sending a jolt through the truck as the impact sent the bike sliding across the road in front of them. Crook jerked the wheel to avoid hitting the bike and slowing them down. The truck fishtailed for a minute that seemed to make everything move in slow motion until he had the vehicle under control again.

Jamie heard the squeal of the tires as they finally stopped fishtailing but they weren’t out of the woods yet because two more bikes were roaring around them and one of the men was pointing a gun at Crook in the driver’s seat. Jamie couldn’t breathe as she watched the gun being raised and aimed. Crook jerked the steering wheel again pulling himself out of the line of fire and she gripped the handle tighter, her insides shaking.

The truck sped up again and Crook cursed again when the bikers kept up and moved out in front again to line up the shot as they went around the curve. Crook looked over at her for a split second and she knew he was about to take a bullet because his face was grim.

“Before they shoot me you have to grab the wheel, Jamie. It’s the only way you are going to make it,” Crook said, his eyes back on the road.

“No, no, swerve again.”

“I can’t. If I do we are going to wreck,” Crook said a split second before the bullet crashed through the windshield. It happened so fast she barely had time to think before Crook grunted as it tore through his shoulder making his hand on the wheel jerk and the truck was suddenly out of control. Jamie tried to grab the wheel but it was too late. The truck swerved right and it spun around hitting the embankment on the left side of the road and then the world was flipping over and over as the truck rolled.

Things flew around and the gun she’d been holding went off. Pain flooded her leg and her head hit the dashboard hard enough that she saw stars. Jamie screamed and she couldn’t seem to see for a moment as the truck finally came to a stop. Crook groaned from the other side of the cab and she tried to move to see if he was okay. She could feel wetness running down her leg and wondered what it was as she became aware they were both hanging from the seatbelts. She unhooked hers, falling to the roof of the truck which was beneath her, feeling glass dig into her hands as she did so. She cried out, moaning as pain ripped through her whole body.

“Jamie, find the gun,” Crook told her, his voice choked. Pain could be heard in the deep moan he let out.

“I can’t, it hurts,” Jamie moaned because she wasn’t even able to move. The impact from falling to the roof of the truck had left her stunned and her head felt like it was going to explode. She had blood running down into her eyes from the wound on her head and her sight was fading in and out. Jamie could hear Crook speaking through the sudden roar in her ears but nothing seemed clear and she couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“You have to stay awake, Jam-jam,” Crook was saying when she was finally able to understand him but she couldn’t seem to open her eyes for long. She tried to tell him okay but as she heard someone outside the truck scrambling towards them, she couldn’t stay awake and darkness began to close in on her. Her sight slowly faded to black as she heard gunfire again echoing loudly in the truck’s cab and she prayed it wasn’t because they’d shot Crook as she let the darkness take her.

Death opened the armory behind his desk, reaching in to grab his Glock and his .38 special getting ready to go visit with the Headhunter they’d capture yesterday. It was five days after he’d spent two hours making love to Jamie only to leave before she woke. He’d been in a mood since the moment he’d walked out of her room and this week hadn’t made it better. He wanted to be with her and the wait was fucking with his head.

Even Max had commented on how irritable he’d been these past few days because Death had had been like a bear with a sore paw snapping at everyone. Max had told him this morning that tomorrow the renovations on his and Jamie’s house would be finished and he was damned glad. Death planned to ride out to get his woman right after he helped with this interrogation. He’d spent enough time away from her for a lifetime.

He was just fitting his Glock into the holster on his belt when his phone started ringing. Death glared at it hoping it wasn’t something he was going to have to deal with before he left because he didn’t want any more time separating him from Jamie. He needed to see her so badly his whole body ached and any delay was going to make him angry now that the house was ready. He snatched the phone off the edge of the table, nodding to Max who entered the door.

“You ready?”

“Yeah, give me a minute to see what this is and I’ll be good to go,” Death growled, hitting the button to answer the call.

“Go,” Death muttered into the phone.

“I’m going to be in your territory in ten minutes. Make sure no one shoots us.” Blade’s voice was colder than he’d ever heard it and things had been pretty arctic since his last visit to the compound.

“That’s not how this works and you know that. You need approval from me to even enter and I need time to tell my men,” Death said, not in the mood for any bullshit because he wanted to get his duty taken care of so he could get Jamie home where she belonged. 

“It’s working that way today, Death. I am not asking, I am telling you I am going to be in your territory and nothing on this earth will stop me from going after the men who almost killed my sister.” Blade’s words started a roaring sound in Death’s ears as he shook his head, sure he’d heard the man wrong.

“What happened,” Death demanded, his hand gripping the edge of the table trying not to allow his knees, which were suddenly weak, to collapse.

“They ran her off the road yesterday and almost killed Crook and her both before we could get to them,” Blade growled.

“She’s alive though, right?” Death demanded, his whole world stopping as he waited on the reply from Blade. It seemed to take forever for the other man to answer him and when he did, Death wasn’t sure if the answer gave him any relief from the agonizing pain already ripping through him at the thought of her nearly dying.

“She’s alive, barely, but motherfucker, I will be killing every man involved with her being in the state she’s in right now and territory rights aren’t going to stop me,” Blade growled

“Why the fuck didn’t you protect her?” Death roared into the phone, shoving the table into the wall with a loud bang, not caring that the impact left a huge hole in the plaster.

“I did but she had to be seen about the babies and the only doctor was in Bracken. We took precautions. Fuck, look, I don’t have time to explain this now, I’ll call you when it’s done.” Blade finally stopped explaining but Death was still stuck on the first words he’d said.

“What fucking babies?”

“Your fucking babies, man, what the fuck, I know she told you about them,” Blade said, making Death feel as if the only air in the room was escaping his lungs as he let out a breath he’d been holding.

“No, no, she didn’t,” Death said through numb lips, feeling his whole world crashing in the seconds it took him to process that he’d not only left Jamie with Blade thinking he’d protect her but he’d left his babies too. What the fuck had he been thinking?

“Fuck, I didn’t realize she hadn’t told you, that explains a lot about your attitude but now isn’t the time for this. I have to take these fuckers down before they can crawl into a hidey hole and disappear,” Blade growled.

“Where are they heading and I’ll stop them from this end,” Death growled, suddenly finding the darkness inside him that he normally depended on to get him through.

“Franklin Road,” Blade replied, not arguing with him because he likely wanted revenge too bad to care who helped him get it. Not that Death would leave much for him to do because once he caught up with the fuckers who’d hurt Jamie, they were all going to die screaming.  

“We will meet you there,” Death said hanging up the phone without another word.

“What’s going on? I thought we needed to interrogate the man we caught yesterday?” Max asked as Death shoved his phone into his pocket and grabbed four clips from the armory before moving toward the door without speaking.

“Jamie was attacked and they’re running into our territory to get away from Blade,” Death said when Max didn’t move out of his way immediately.

“Fuck, so I guess you’re going after them,” Max said looking grim.

“Yep,” Death said, shoving him out of the doorway as he headed out the door and straight to Sheba. He climbed on without waiting on Max or any of the others because right now he needed to make damned sure that the men flying down Franklin Road didn’t get away.

“Death, wait on us. We need more men,” Max growled as he followed him but Death didn’t bother to answer, he just kicked Sheba into gear and took off because he wasn’t waiting. The men who’d hurt his woman weren’t getting away because if he had anything to say about it, they were going to be skinned alive before the day was done.

“Jesus, Death. For fuck’s sake, you need to calm down,” Blade was saying as he tried to prevent him from continuing his current task on the third man he’d started working on.

“Not going to happen. I want to send a clear fucking message to these bastards.
No one
touches Jamie ever again,” Death growled and went back to skinning the fucker lying on the ground beside his friends who were still screaming as they bled out after he was done with them. He’d flayed them like fish, peeling the skin from their bodies while they screamed for him to stop. Gruesome work but he knew they deserved it.  He knew that Jamie wasn’t their first victim and if they weren’t dead when he was finished with them, they would have continued terrorizing women.

“Let him finish. He’s not going to calm down till he’s done and then it still might take a while. These idiots fucked up and flipped a switch they never should have touched,” Max muttered, pulling on Blade’s shoulder.

“He’s fucking crazy. I wanted to just fucking kill them but this is just sick.
Fuck
,” Blade muttered, sounding horrified at the carnage Death was leaving in his wake. Death didn’t care, he was busy making these fuckers pay for what they’d done and not a single man in three fucking territories was ever going after his woman again or they would face deaths similar to the one he was currently enacting.

“Look, when he’s like this it’s best just to leave him. He isn’t going to go back to normal until he’s done. I know you knew the rumors about his revenge for his sister’s death so you can’t be that surprised,” Reaper grumbled as he leaned on the tree nearby.

“I had no idea that shit wasn’t made up. I didn’t realize he had actually done this shit to five men ten years ago. Why is he acting crazy like this? My sister wasn’t important enough to take with him when he left so why is he tripping over her being hurt?” Blade asked

“Seriously? You think he wasn’t coming back for her? You’re more of an idiot than I originally thought,” Reaper replied. Death just ignored them and continued with his task, hearing the whimper of the man as he flayed the skin off his arm.

“He left her with us. Why would we think he was coming back for her?” Lake asked.

“He’s patching her, you idiot. Just wanted to be sure she was safe first,” Max growled.

“Shit, well that explains why he wants revenge,” Blade said.

“Could you go over there near the bikes to discuss this? I want to finish so I can get to my woman and your constant chattering is preventing me from doing it,” Death finally growled, having had enough of the back and forth when he was fucking busy.

“Fine, we will go make sure our other buddy is still watching his friends die so he can tell all his other little friends the story. I still think we should keep him a few days to see what we can learn,” Max muttered, likely still angry that Death had told him to bring the man they intended to interrogate out here to be a witness to what happened to people who fucked with his woman. Death was going to make damned sure they knew not to fuck with her again and he didn’t know why he hadn’t just done it to begin with.

Their voices faded away as they moved closer to the bikes and he could hear Blade and Lake talking about his being crazy but Death didn’t fucking care. He would protect Jamie any way he could and this was going to be a clear message to anyone in the future who thought they could hurt her. He wouldn’t allow her to be hurt ever again.

Blade said she was currently lying in a bed still breathing but not waking up. He was really screwed up over the idea that she might not ever wake up. No, no, he wasn’t taking any chances because
when
she woke up she wasn’t ever going to be in danger again—at least not while he was still breathing.

Forty minutes later he was holding the Headhunter who he was allowing to live with bloody hands as he showed him his friends up close and personal. Pushing the man down to his knees, he shoved his face into the blood on the dead man’s chest. He began to beg and cry and the heavy smell of urine meant he was likely pissing himself. Death wasn’t sure where the smell of urine was coming from because the three men he’d just killed had pissed themselves several times before they’d died so it might be from them.

“Don’t kill me,” the man shrieked, his body trembling as he tried to cower away from Death.

“Remember what I said when I started this, Eric? What I told you was going to happen and why?” he demanded as he forced the fucker’s head closer to the body of his buddy who was still a bloody mess but wasn’t breathing anymore.

“You sai—you said nobody messes with the—the girl.”

“That’s right and you’re going to tell all your people that, aren’t you, Eric?” Death asked, having discovered the little fucker’s name when he started babbling after watching him kill the first guy. He’d began blabbing all he knew and claimed to have only been in the club for about six months and denied being involved in Jamie’s injuries.

He hated letting the fucker go with him being such a pussy and so easily convinced to give up all his secrets. He would have been an easy mark for them to mine for information but Death needed him to talk about what he’d seen so no one ever thought they could go after Jamie ever again. He wasn’t going to allow that to happen because the thought of her hurt was killing him inside. He should have taken her with him and then she would have been safe because there was no fucking way she would have gone anywhere without men to protect her and she never would have been hurt in the first place.

Blade explained that Thorn was the one who’d told the Headhunters about her being on the road and how to get to her. Death would have liked to settle the score with him too but Blade said he’d killed him when he found him with the other Headhunters who’d run her off the road before they’d taken off after the other three. 

“All right, motherfucker, there’s a truck with the keys in it over there and you’re going to drive it back to whatever hidey-hole you bastards have and tell everyone about what happened here and what will happen to anyone who fucks with my woman again. Do we understand each other?” Death asked, holding the man’s face into the dead man’s chest.

“Ye-yes, I will te-ell them,” he screeched as Death let go of his head and he scrambled back away from his dead friend.

Death didn’t stop him from moving back and looked down at him dispassionately seeing the blood smeared across his face and the way he shook as he sat in the dirt looking up at him. Blade was shaking his head from a foot away as he watched Death take a step towards the cowering man. Death watched him try to scramble back further and he leaned close to Eric’s face.

“You’d better not fuck up this message, Eric, or I will find you and make you the next one. Capiche?” Death asked him, his voice cold and his bloody hands clenched into fists as he spoke to the man. Eric nodded and scrambled to his feet when Reaper tossed the keys to the old junker they’d stolen from the Headhunters a few months ago at his face. Eric grabbed them and took off running towards the truck as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. Death watched him leave as he wiped his hands on his jeans before turning to Blade.