SAVAGE LOVE (A Back Down Devil MC Romance Novel) (33 page)

“
You
fucking killed her,
”
Emily
yelled as she clawed and swung at Blaine.

Blaine simply stepped back,
allowing Emily to have her peace with his face. When she stopped for a second,
she saw deep scratches on his left cheek. He put his hands up and smiled. There
was a smear of blood on his teeth.

“
You
calm yet, babe?
”

“
You
took my best friend from me.
”

“
I
didn
’
t, babe. The bullets
did.
”
Blaine touched his
chest.
“
I
’
m in pain too. It hurts.
”
He reached down and cupped himself.
“
I
’
m in pain here too. I wanted to fuck
…”

Emily growled and spotted an
earring at the top of Blaine
’
s
ear. She reached out and stuck her finger through the loop and pulled. Blaine
bent over and the earring ripped free. Emily let out a cry and stumbled back.
She collided into Gaige and he wrapped his arms tight around her.

“
That
’
s enough,
”
Gaige ordered.
“
No
more, beautiful. No more.
”

“
It
’
s his fault,
”
Emily said as the tears filled
her eyes.
“
He fucking did
this
…”

“
No,
he didn
’
t,
”
Gaige said.
“
I did. Turn around and fucking
look at me.
”

Emily slowly turned and looked up
at Gaige. She blinked away the tears.

“
I
did it,
”
Gaige said.
“
This shit is on me. And I
’
ll make it right.
”

“
Hey,
babe?
”
Blaine called out.

Gaige opened his arms and Emily
turned. There was blood dripping from Blaine
’
s
ear now.

“
I
’
m sorry,
”
Emily whispered.

“
No,
don
’
t be. Fuck it. I have
something for you.
”

Blaine reached into his pocket and
pulled out a fist. He reached for Emily
’
s
hand with his other hand. He rolled her fingers open and placed his fist to her
hand. He opened it and pulled away. Emily looked down at a necklace.

“
I
took it off her,
”
Blaine
said.
“
Not sure if it means
anything to you or not. I figured things are fucked as it is, right? At least
you
’
ll have something to
remember her by. At least that
’
s
how we do it around here.
”

Blaine lifted his hand and pointed
to his pinky finger. There was a woman
’
s
diamond ring on it.

Emily held the necklace up with her
pointer finger. The necklace was a simple heart. It slowly twirled back and
forth. At the clasp she noticed a little bit of blood, a haunting reminder of
the fate of her best friend.

Emily looked at Blaine again and
swallowed hard.
“
You
brought it to me.
”

“
Yeah,
I did,
”
Blaine said.
“
I
’
m
not good at this shit, so I don
’
t
know what to say to make you feel better.
”

“
You
don
’
t have to say anything.
Thank you for doing this. And I
’
m
sorry about your face.
”

Blaine smiled.
“
Don
’
t worry about it, babe. I actually like it rough.
You pulled that earring out of my ear and I threw a hard one. I
’
m still kind of hard
…”

“
Blaine,
”
Gaige growled.
“
Get inside.
”

Blaine touched between his legs and
winced as he started to walk away. Emily held the necklace out and Gaige cupped
his hand under it and lifted. He put his hand around Emily
’
s.

“
You
need to come inside. I have a meeting to attend.
”

Emily looked back at Gaige and
nodded.

He leaned down, gently pressing his
lips to Emily
’
s.

Their first kiss
…
as she held her dead best
friend
’
s bloody
necklace
…

seven.

Gaige lit a smoke and took a deep
drag with his eyes shut. All he could see were Emily
’
s eyes. There was so much mystery hidden in them,
and it was getting to him. As he exhaled, Gaige opened his eyes and pushed from
the wall and went to the bar. He sat for a minute and called for a shot.

The first one stung like a bitch.

The second tasted better.

The third tasted like water.

His nerves started to relax.

Gaige got a beer and found Blaine
sitting on a pool table with two relievers.
Relievers
were women who
hung around Back Down Devil MC, hoping to eventually be picked up as an old
lady by one of the club members. Until they were picked up, the relievers were
to do as their name indicated. They relieved when asked. That meant cooking,
cleaning, sucking, fucking, and anything else they were asked.

Blaine was with a blonde and
brunette. In a sick way, the two women resembled Emily and Rachel. Gaige shook
his head, knowing Blaine wouldn
’
t
let his threesome fantasy rest until he had it. The blondie had her head on
Blaine
’
s shoulder and her
hand between his legs. She was rubbing fast, helping to relieve Blaine of the
problem that started when Emily attacked him. The brunette had her mouth over
Blaine
’
s ear, sucking on
it.

“
Yeah,
baby,
”
Blaine whispered in
his rough voice. A cigarette hung from his mouth and he had his eyes closed.
“
Make my ear feel better, baby.
”

Gaige took the smoke from Blaine
’
s lips, dropped it, and stepped
on it.

“
Hey,
bro,
”
Blaine said. He
opened his eyes and they were bloodshot and wild.

“
You
’
re high as a fucking kite,
”
Gaige said.

“
Make
that a jumbo jet, brother,
”
Blaine said.

“
You
two,
”
Gaige said, nodding
to the relievers,
“
take a
fucking break.
”

“
Oh,
come on
…”
the blondie said.
She gripped Blaine tighter.
“
He
’
s so close.
”

Gaige wasn
’
t in the mood. He grabbed the blondie by the hair
and threw her from the table.
“
Did
I fucking stutter?
”

She looked up at him, her eyes
wide.
“
I
’
m sorry.
”

“
Get
the fuck out of here,
”
Gaige ordered.

The two women hurried away.

“
Wait
for me,
”
Blaine called out
and laughed.

“
Christ,
Blaine, you can
’
t wait a
minute, can you?
”

“
What?
I
’
m relaxing. Unwinding. It
was a rough workday today, brother. And you stole my smoke.
”

“
Here,
”
Gaige said and gave Blaine his
smoke.

Blaine inhaled deep and laughed as
he exhaled.

“
What
the fuck is so funny?
”

“
Your
girl, man,
”
Blaine said.
“
She ripped that fucking ring
right outta my ear. Fuck. She
’
s
wild, bro.
”

“
She
’
s hurting right now. Because of
us.
”

Blaine slapped Gaige in the face.
“
It
’
s
all good. It
’
ll all be
good. Now can I go fuck those women?
”

“
Yeah,
go,
”
Gaige said.
“
I
’
ll
need your proxy vote though.
”

Blaine nodded.
“
I
’
m
all in on this. We find the assholes that pulled the triggers and fucking gut
them. No questions asked.
”

“
You
realize it was retaliation because of something Nate and I did, right?
”

“
I
don
’
t care,
”
Blaine said.
“
Nobody takes a shot at one of
us. And nobody kills pussy I planned on fucking.
”

“
You
’
re fucking sick,
”
Gaige said.

Blaine jumped from the pool table.
“
Yeah, I am. So sick, bro.
”

Blaine walked away, and a second
later, Nate whistled and motioned for Gaige. He pointed to the hallway. It was
time for the meeting to begin.

Only the members of Back Down Devil
MC could vote at the meetings. The actual MC had hundreds of members spread
across dozens of charters. From California up through Washington state and even
into Canada. Spread south and east, the MC had charters in Arizona and up
through Colorado. There was even a few
lost men
charters in the Dakotas.
They were inhibited by guys who were ousted, voted out, or voluntarily left the
main MC charters to survive on their own. They were still bound by the laws of
the MC, but they weren
’
t
given the same resources.

Down the hall and to the left,
there was a steel door. Nate opened the door and Gaige walked in. The musky
scent of cigarettes and weed filtered throughout the air. Each member had a
beer and a shot glass in front of them. Handguns were placed on the table,
facing the middle of the table where the ashes of the founding member of Back
Down Devil MC sat. All the guns were pointed to the urn as a symbol of
protection. To honor the club. To honor the purpose. To honor each other.

As Gaige walked along the table, he
patted shoulders and shook hands with the crew that sat at the table. At the
head of the table sat the president, Miller. He had the gavel as long as Gaige
could remember. He was secretive yet loud. He could be a father figure and a
dictator at the same time. His connections were deep and spanned many years,
which is how the MC had a lot of the relationships it had.

Gaige hugged Miller and then took
his seat directly to the left of Miller.

Next to Gaige sat Griffin. He was
the brains and money behind the MC. An accountant who was caught stealing and
then busted for insider trading, Griffin came to the table wearing a tie and
traded it in for the open road and a leather cut to match. Then there was
Landon. The opposite to the head of the table sat Nate and Shay. The last three
seats were for Erik, Jace, and Blaine. The only empty seat was Blaine
’
s.

Gaige lit a fresh smoke and
deferred to Miller.

“
Where
’
s Blaine?
”

“
Three
knuckles deep in pussy,
”
Nate said.

The table broke out in laughter.

“
He
gave me his proxy vote,
”
Gaige said.

“
Fuck,
”
Miller said and shook his head.
“
He
’
s lucky he
’
s
fucked enough in the head that we need him.
”

“
Hear,
hear,
”
Shay called out and
lifted his shot glass.

“
Yeah,
”
Miller said.
“
Lift
‘
em.
”

Everyone at the table lifted their
shot glass. Gaige lifted his beer bottle.

“
I
’
m not going to say shit,
”
Miller said.
“
Let
’
s drink and let
’
s
figure this out.
”

Everyone drank and the shot glasses
slammed against the table. Everyone kept smoking, staring at Miller, waiting
for the next orders to come.

“
What
happened out there?
”
Miller
asked.

He didn
’
t need to look at Gaige for Gaige to know the
question was meant for him.

Gaige said,
“
I sent a message. My call to do it.
”

“
Message?
”
Miller said.
“
Thought the message would be the
dead bodies they
’
d find in
the morning.
”

“
Vultures
ripping their eyes out, right?
”
Jace asked. His eyes were icy.

Gaige stared back at Jace.
“
I did what I had to do.
”

“
Which
was what?
”
Miller asked.

“
Three
showed up,
”
Gaige said.
“
We took care of two and I sent
one back with a clear message.
”

“
He
did the right thing,
”
Nate
said.
“
Eight Under has been
sneaking around our backs for a while now. They needed the message.
”

Miller made a fist and slammed it
on the table.
“
And that
fucking message came back to us. With bullets. At a fucking fight. You realize
the heat I
’
m going to take
for this? You want to step into that circle, Nate, and swing your big dick
around, that
’
s fine. But
bullets?
”

“
They
need to be reminded of who we are again,
”
Gaige said.

“
So
the dead bodies weren
’
t the
message?
”
Jace asked.
“
Did you
…
actually do anything to them?
”

“
Fuck
you,
”
Gaige said.

“
Come
on,
”
Jace said.
“
Come on over and talk.
”

Gaige slapped his beer bottle at
Jace. The bottle spilled and Jace grabbed it. He smashed it off the table and
held it toward Gaige, who grabbed his gun and pointed it at Jace.

“
Jesus
Christ,
”
Shay yelled.

“
Cut
the fucking shit,
”
Miller
bellowed.

Gaige held his gun out until Jace
dropped the broken bottle. Gaige put his gun down and shook his head.

“
They
almost took out Blaine, myself, and Nate,
”
Gaige said.
“
They had
automatic weapons. They went right into the circle, shot the two fighting, and
then looked for us. This was a blatant attack on Back Down Devil. There
’
s no fucking way that the guy we
messed up was able to go back to his shithole club and have them send guys out
for us.
”

“
So
this was an attack before they knew of our attack?
”
Miller asked.

“
Sounds
right to me,
”
Nate said.
“
They want to rattle us. Shake us
up.
”

“
They
’
re moving then,
”
Griffin said.
“
It
’
s
a diversion. They want us to look at this while they do something else.
”

“
Then
we spread wide,
”
Miller
said.
“
We stop this before
it becomes something.
”

“
It
might already have become something,
”
Nate said. He looked at Gaige and nodded.

All eyes were on Gaige.

“
What
now?
”
Miller asked.

“
Blaine
had two women with him,
”
Gaige said.

“
Shit,
”
Shay said.

“
One
of them was shot and killed,
”
Gaige said.

“
Fuck,
”
Miller said.
“
The other?
”

“
She
’
s in my room,
”
Gaige said.

The table starting whistling and
clapping.

“
Whoa!
”
Landon called out.
“
Soothing the friend
…”

“
Hey,
”
Gaige called out.
“
Fuck off. All of you. Fuck off.
”

“
That
’
s a risky move, Gaige,
”
Miller said.

“
No,
it
’
s not,
”
Gaige said.
“
Blaine used her best friend as a
fucking shield. Those bullets were meant to be in Blaine. He
’
s alive because of this woman
’
s friend. The least I can do
…
the least we can do
…
is make this right for her.
”

“
So
what are we voting on?
”
Miller asked.
“
Settling
this thing with Eight Under
…
or settling Gaige in bed with some girl?
”

The table chuckled.

“
We
go after Eight Under,
”
Gaige said.
“
We stop the
drugs. We find the two assholes that tried to take us out. And then send our
message loud and clear.
”