Wild: Tiger's Blood MC (23 page)

“You want me to save Elliot?” Vero’s face twisted into a sneer. She got down on her hands and knees and glared at me. “You really want me to save him? Why, Persephone? Because he’s a
man
?”

“No,” I said sharply, wincing at Vero’s accusation. “Because he’s a
good
man, and he didn’t rape anyone. I don’t believe in ruining someone’s life just because you have it out against them!”

Vero laughed. She tutted and sucked her teeth. “You fool,” she said with a nasty glint in her eye. “You absolute idiot. You wanna save men just because they look good. Men like Elliot are scum, Persephone. That’s the little story I wanted to tell you. Men like Elliot, with their MCs and their boys behind them, they’re fucking scum. They don’t give a shit about women. They don’t care what happens to us, don’t you get that? They don’t fucking care, Persephone. They care about themselves, and following their dicks and getting rich. Elliot doesn’t love you. As soon as he gets old and you do too, he’ll dump you for the latest model. Persephone, think about what you’re doing! You’re throwing away the whole MC
for a man!
”

“I’m not,” I protested hotly. Now I was really getting angry. I’d always known that Vero hated men with every fiber of her being, but this was something else. This was a senseless desire to ruin Elliot’s life, to wreck everything that he’d built. Sure, he may not be the most honorable man in the world, gunrunners rarely were, but he wasn’t a rapist, and he didn’t deserve to go to prison.

Vero laughed. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on one heel. “That’s what you say, Persephone, but I’ve had another plan all along.” She grinned at me. “It was real fuckin’ generous for you to offer the Amazons to me, y’know, after you’re done with them.” She yawned and fanned a hand daintily in front of her face. “But I got a little sick of waiting. You were just so goddamn competent! The girls loved you for some reason!” Vero’s eyes flashed malevolence and anger. “And I couldn’t stand it! Where was their respect for
me?
After all, I’m the goddamn muscle of the whole group! You may be a charismatic leader, Persephone, but everyone knows you suck at fighting.” Vero laughed again. “You barely even bruised me before, you bitch.” She spat the last word.

I felt confused and angry. “Vero, what the hell are you talking about? You need to tell me what the fuck is going on, and I mean
right now
.”

“I’m getting there, kitten,” Vero said in a patronizing little whisper. “You’re not listening yet. So, I had this great plan. Instead of you leading the Amazons, I decided that it should be me. And don’t be mad about that—everyone seems to like me better than you, and you know it, Persephone.” Vero winked. “So…Lydia and I cooked up a little scheme, just the two of us.”

My stomach dropped and I shifted uncomfortably on the ground. All of the blood had drained from my hands and I was in intense pain but I knew there was no use in struggling. Vero was much stronger than me, and she’d bound me so tightly that I knew I had little chance for escape.

“Lydia faked her own assault?” The words sounded even worse out loud than they had in my head. “Are you fucking kidding me?” I shuddered, remembering the dark blood that had soaked through Lydia’s sheets and onto the mattress. She’d been in bad shape after that attack! She wasn’t even able to have children now, for fuck’s sake! And sweet, innocent Lydia! Lydia, whom Vero
hated!

“I love watching you think,” Vero growled in a low voice. It sent a shiver of fear through my body. “You ain’t as smart as you think you is, Persephone. You’re actually pretty fucking dumb. I never hated Lydia, I just needed you to think that I did. She and I have been in this since the beginning.” Vero made an obscene gesture with her fingers against her mouth and suddenly I understood. “We’re lovers, Persephone. Lydia and I are in love, and we wanted to take over the Amazons for ourselves. I knew that if we brought Tiger’s Blood down and got rid of you, we’d be the biggest MC in the city. And isn’t that what you always wanted for your little girls?”

“No!” I shouted as loudly as I could. My world was falling down around my ears in a haze of fright and confusion and I had no idea what was going to happen. Vero dating Lydia? They’d been in love the whole time? They’d been working together? That still wasn’t nearly as chilling as the fact that she’d hurt herself so badly just for the sake of revenge against an innocent group of men.

“This is so fucked up,” I said softly, leaning back and letting my head thump against the concrete wall  of the warehouse. “I can’t believe you, Vero. I can’t believe you would fucking do this to your own goddamn club. What about Anya? What about Brienne?”

Vero whistled. I was horrified as Brienne and Lydia stalked out of the corners of the warehouse. They were clad all in black and holding assault rifles cradled in their arms. Brienne winked at me.

“Hi, Sephy,” she said with a grin. “I couldn’t want for you to figure out the plan! Isn’t this great?”

I glared at her and scowled. “Fuck you, you bitch,” I said under my breath.

Lydia walked closer, all smiles like Brienne and Vero. She still looked innocent and cute, but for once, that wounded air about her was gone and I realized it had been an act from the very beginning. For all her talk about being shy and quiet and young, that was all a fucking ruse to get my guard down. I felt rage seething in my body when I realized how badly Lydia had played me—even worse than Vero, considering I’d trusted her so blindly.

“You didn’t want to get revenge for me,” Lydia said softly. She smiled at me and I shuddered. “That was when I decided that I’d made the right decision to support Vero instead of you. You were a shitty leader, Persephone. You only thought of yourself.”

“That’s not true!” I exploded loudly. “I hate you, you fucking cunt!”

Lydia gave me a cutesy smile and spun around in a circle. She walked over to Vero and put her arm around her waist, kissing her deeply. Vero broke the kiss and turned to face me.

“Any last words, Persephone?” She spat my name and I shuddered.

“Yeah,” I said sharply. “You can go straight to hell.”

Elliot

I drove the van as fast I could to the outskirts of town, keeping my foot slammed on the gas pedal. Tony, Nero, and Calvin were with me—we were all armed heavily, but I was worried about what was awaiting us. Vero had told me that she’d taken Persephone to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of LA. I believed her. I’d heard the greed in her voice, knew that she was hungry for the weapons.

“This is gonna be fast, and it’s gonna be bloody,” I warned the guys in a loud voice. The sound of the motor filled the entire van and we had to yell to be heard. “Vero, this bitch, she’s gone crazy and we have to take her down. Under no circumstances do I want you to hurt Persephone. Remember, Vero kidnapped her and if she says anything suspect, chalk it up to her being forced to talk.”

Tony glared at me. “This is fucked up, man,” he said. “First the cops, now this. Can’t we just forget this bitch and go home?”

“No,” I said sharply as the van skidded around a sharp curve. “No, we can’t just forget about her. This woman, Vero, who kidnapped her, is one of the biggest bitches in the world. She’s hell-bent on bringing us down, Tony. This has to be part of the plan. I just don’t see how, not yet.”

Tony nodded. “I get that, boss,” he said. Tony leaned back in the seat and began loading his assault rifle with ammo. “We’ll take her down, don’t worry,” he said, giving me a lazy grin that I knew meant business. “We’ll take her the fuck down.”

“We’d better,” I said darkly. The hot, arid day was turning into a damp evening. I could tell the sun was going down and the sky was beginning to glow in the corners, showing the faint outline of the moon and stars. I shivered from anticipation. I used to love this feeling—gearing up for a fight, going out there and kicking ass. But now it filled me with dread and I couldn’t figure out why.

I couldn’t think about Persephone without feeling sick. I didn’t want to see her again, but I couldn’t let her be killed by a psychopath either. After all, it wasn’t her fault one of her girls had turned out to be such a snake. It showed a lack of judgment, sure, but I knew Persephone wouldn’t have chosen someone like Vero if she’d known her true colors from the beginning.

This whole thing was such a mess. I was mostly just looking forward to getting it sorted out and seeing where everyone stood.

“Hey, stop,” Tony said loudly. He reached over and smacked the steering wheel. “Do you see that?” He pointed down at the road where I saw a belt of nails lined up on the brown dirt. “Stop!”

I slammed on the brakes just as the van went sliding over the trap. The front tires both blew out and for a wild and terrible moment, we went skidding across the desert. I felt my body slam against the steering wheel and the force of the fall knocked the air out of my lungs. When I opened my eyes, the air was filled with dust and all of the men were coughing.

“You guys alright?” I glanced behind me. “You’re okay? All of you? We need to get a move on. This is the only way we’re gonna save her is if we go in with our guns blazing.”

“Right,” Tony said. He wiped his hand across his face, leaving a streak of brown. We were all covered in dust and dirt but I was finally starting to feel the thump of adrenaline in my chest.
This is it,
I told myself grimly.
This is when the winner and the loser come out to play. Only problem is, I don’t know who’s who yet.

“Man, look,” Nero said. He grabbed my sleeve as we jumped out of the van. “There’s a bitch over there!” He pointed up and I saw a girl walking on top of the warehouse, strutting in heels and carrying an assault rifle. She was wearing leather pants and a black shirt and I thought I vaguely recognized her from one of the trips to the Amazons’ hideout.

“Calvin,” I said loudly, grabbing his sleeve. “That’s not your girlfriend, is it?”

Calvin shook his head. “No,” he said. “Don’t worry. It ain’t her.”

I took aim and waited until the sight of my rifle was right on the girl’s head before firing. She went down gracefully, like someone had touched her on the head and made her go to sleep.

Tony clapped me on the back. “Nicely done,” he said darkly. “Come on. We better get inside as quickly as we can.”

The men and I darted to the side of the building and flattened ourselves against the wall. The glow of LA was in the distance but there were no lights—not even old lights on top of the warehouse. Vero picked a good place for a showdown; if we could barely see what was going on, I knew that it would be tougher than usual.

“Elliot!” Nero hissed loudly. “Look!” He pointed inside through a broken panel in the concrete. I saw Persephone, dazed and bound, against a wall with her legs in front of her. Her arms were twisted behind her back and her face bore an expression of pain and misery that I couldn’t even begin to contemplate. She had her eyes closed and after a few seconds, I realized that she looked delirious. I wanted to go to her: to hold her hand, to comfort her, to do anything to help her realize that help was on the way. But I knew that Vero and the girls were probably watching her like a hawk, just waiting for me to show up so they could shoot me in the back.

“I see her,” I said darkly. “We have to find another way in. We’re totally exposed if we go in through here.” Looking around, I didn’t see Vero anywhere. The guys followed me along the wall and I crept slowly, looking for any sign of a good place to enter the warehouse. So far, there was still nothing to be found.

“Elliot,” Calvin hissed. He pointed to a dilapidated staircase that was wrapped around the back of the building. “I bet I can go up here and snipe,” he added in an excited tone. “You want me to take ’em out?”

I nodded. “Everyone except Persephone, if it comes to that,” I whispered back. Calvin ran off before I could tell him to be safe, but deep down I knew that he’d watch his back. He was eager to prove himself to me, just as eager as he’d been before the Russians had kidnapped him.
This time I’ll go easier on you
, I thought with a pang of regret. If Calvin had never been taken by the Russians, maybe this whole goddamn mess wouldn’t have happened.

Calvin’s footsteps barely made a sound as he scaled the stairs. I heard a slight creaking overhead but figured he wasn’t making any more noise than the dead girl had been before I’d shot at her.
Good man
, I thought in my head. A rush of gratitude filled me for the guys. They may not have trusted my judgment all the time, but they almost never questioned me. That was what loyalty was about. I felt shitty for having treated Calvin so badly before this had started. Maybe if I’d been a better president, I never would have had to deal with so much resentment in the first place.

I finally saw her. Vero. She was strutting around with an assault rifle slung over her shoulder and a pistol in her hand. I watched as she walked up to Persephone and began slapping her roughly in the face.

“It’s now or never,” I hissed to Tony and Nero. “Come on!” We sprang into action, darting into the middle of the room and pointing our guns at Vero.

“What’s all this?” Vero sounded amused. “You know I have girls around here with guns, don’t you, boys?”

“Except for the one on the roof,” I snapped. “I took care of her as we drove up. Not a very good sniper. She could have seen the van from a mile away but she was too busy trying to look like a badass.”

Vero’s smile didn’t falter. “Silly bitch,” she said almost affectionately. “Brienne wasn’t ever cut out to be a member of the Amazons. At least, not the Amazons that I’m going to run,” she added with a sinister wink. “Elliot, everything’s going to be different now.” I kept my gun trained on her head as she inched closer to me. “And I’d advise you to put that gun down. Lydia!”

Before I could react, a petite brunette girl sprung out of the shadows. She had a fierce look on her face and she was wielding a pistol, pointed right at my head. She snarled at me, “Put the gun down, asshole!”

“No,” I replied. “That wasn’t the deal. The deal was that we hand over the arms, and then you let Persephone go. Remember, Vero?”

Vero jutted her hips to one side and put a dark finger against her chin. “Hm,” she said, pretending to think. “The thing is, I’m not sure that I
do
remember,” she said in a playful tone. My stomach felt sick as Vero stepped closer. “I think I just need to whack Persephone and then we’ll call it a deal,” she added nastily. “I mean, provided that you understand the repercussions, of course.” She pointed outside. “The cops will be coming soon, and they aren’t gonna like that you shot this poor girl,” she added, pointing to Persephone. “I’d say that’s prison time for all of you. Especially you, Elliot. Tiger’s Blood can’t exist without a leader.”

“Oh yes, it can,” I said, stepping closer. Vero snarled at me and I resisted the urge to backhand her across the room. “Fucking bitch,” I snarled right back. “You think you can betray your leader and ruin my club? It doesn’t work like that.”

“It does,” Lydia said in a diminutive voice. She stepped up and put the barrel of her gun against my temple. I could feel it pressing into my temple, the cold steel almost a respite after the incredible heat of the day. “I’ll shoot you if you move a muscle,” she added.

I almost laughed. Here I was, being held at gunpoint by someone who probably weighed less than half of what I did. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, snorting and laying my gun down on the ground. I looked up and caught a flash of Calvin darting around on the roof. Luckily, Vero and her bitches hadn’t noticed him yet.

“I’m not being ridiculous,” Lydia said softly. “You move a muscle and I’ll blow your brains out. You got that, asshole?”

“Fine,” I snapped. “The guns are in the van, Vero. If your bitch-stooges hadn’t set up a nail wire, we could have brought them closer to the warehouse for you.”

Vero blinked. “I didn’t think winning you over would be this easy,” she said in a soft voice, almost like a caress. “I thought we’d really have to fight you, asshole,” she added. “But this is better. I prefer this, definitely.” She walked over and pressed her own gun against Persephone’s temple. Persephone’s face was filled with pain and anguish and more than anything, I wished that I could comfort her.
This is temporary,
I thought.
Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you, Grace
. Vero grinned and whipped Persephone’s head with the pistol until it was drooping on her graceful neck. Even through a heavy coat of blood, Persephone was still beautiful. “She dies if you try to move,” Vero said with a deadly calm. She smiled. “And I’ll take pleasure in killing this bitch, don’t you worry.”

“A thank you might be nice,” I muttered as I dropped to my knees, keeping my eyes on Persephone’s body. Just as I was about to lay my second pistol on the ground in front of me, a shot rang out and Vero dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her long black limbs spread out on the white concrete and her face was a twisted mask of pain.

“Fuck!” Vero screamed. “That asshole shot me in the fucking leg!”

Calvin came thundering down the stairs, looking triumphant. I nodded at him and together, we grabbed Lydia and tackled her to the concrete floor. I could feel the delicate bones grinding in her wrist and for a second I worried about hurting her permanently. Then she twisted and growled in my arms and I realized I was basically dealing with a human-sized cat. As Calvin and I wrestled her down, Lydia gazed up at me with pure hatred in her pretty eyes.

“You won’t get away with this,” Lydia snarled.

I laughed confidently. “Oh yes, I will,” I said with a grin. “I’m gonna get away with everything. Calvin, Nero! Bring some ropes!”

Nero came trotting over with a bundle of smooth rope in his hands. “I’ll help, boss,” he said, leaning down. He began to truss Lydia up like a pig, trying her arms behind her back and her ankles to her knees. “She won’t be able to move when I’m done with her.”

“Did you bitches really think you could take down Tiger’s Blood by calling the cops?” I couldn’t resist the urge to laugh. “You two were really a bunch of stupid bitches!”

Lydia growled and fought in my arms. I saw that tears were leaking from her light, pretty eyes. “We would have ruled LA,” she hissed. “And you had to go and fucking ruin our plans!”