Page 8 of Devil's Due: Sarge

“Hid. In the bathtub.” That’s the last he says to me, revving his engine, he speeds off with me in tow.

I don’t think I’ve ever ridden so fast up mountain roads before, leaning my bike way over to take the curves without slowing down. It’s stupid, I’m taking my life in my hands and I know it, but I have to get to the cabin. I have to get to her –to Greer—to make sure she’s okay.

The drive turning up to the cabin is a single lane, all dirt and mud from some of the summer showers we’d had recently. My tires skid. When we make it into the clearing, the virgin is dead, laying gray on the ground in a pool of blood. Vlad and I rush inside and I stop short. That tiny fireball of beauty and sass is curled in a ball in the corner of the room, rocking. She’s sobbing.

Seeing her there, scared out of her mind, something breaks inside me and I push past Vlad, hell, I’d kill Vlad if it meant getting to her faster. Nobody dares get in my way. In seconds, she’s in the air, in my arms, where I can carry her over to an old recliner next to the sofa. I sit, Greer on my lap, and move her arms around my neck. She buries her face against my chest.

“Got you, baby girl,” I whisper in her hair. “Sorry I wasn’t here. I should’ve been here.” I hate myself for not being here to protect her.

Being as wrapped up in Greer as I am, I don’t see it until it’s too late how badly Vlad is spiraling. Not until he’s up on us shouting. “How could you just let him take her?” he screams. “She fucking puts her life on the line for you and you just keep letting her.”

I know he’s hurting. Nic’s his woman, I get that. But this isn’t Greer’s fault and he knows what I’m capable of. Greer’s my mission, my duty, and I will neutralize any threat against her, even if that threat comes in the form of my best friend. When he doesn’t stop, I whip my head up to look him directly in the eyes. Deadly serious. Begging him to see my intentions. “Step back, brother. She’s traumatized and you’re not helping. Don’t make me have to lay your ass out.”

It’s ancient instinct, that pure protection mode stemming back millennia to when the first man saw the first woman and he claimed her as his that drives me to step between my brother and Greer. I know he’s not thinking straight; his woman is gone. But if he thinks to come atmywoman, I’ll end him. Put him down like a rabid animal.

How the hell did I end up willing to fight my best friend, my president, for a woman I haven’t even fucked yet?

He looks between me and Greer, a look of remorse replaces his anger, though not his fear, but he doesn’t apologize. Instead, he nods once, dragging his phone from his pocket. He makes a call to Duke.

“We need you again,” he says without fanfare. “Nic’s gone. Had a guard on her. Guard’s dead. Greer’s here, unharmed.”

That’s it. We wait. I fucking hate waiting.

I hear a vehicle, but not bikes. And it’s too soon for the Lords to get here. “Going to move you into the chair,” I whisper to Greer, and slide her off my lap to stand.

She frantically shakes her head, pulling down on my arm with enough force I stumble forward and have to brace my hand against the back of the recliner so as not to fall on her. “No, no, no… Don’t leave me.”

Greer cries while I shake her free. “I can’t protect you if you’re sitting on my lap.” She’s still crying while I turn my back to her and pull my piece. The first man to enter the cabin almost gets his head shot clean off.

He ducks, screaming, “What the fuck, dude?” Shit. It’s Blue. One of the Lords. He’s one of the brothers to help get Greer and Nic out of Texas after their safehouse was compromised. Thank fuck I decided the last minute to miss as a warning shot. If I’d gone for his head, he’d be dead on the floor.

“What do you think’ll happen when you come in after one of our boys is killed?”

“They need you outside. They’re going after Nic.”

“I can’t leave Greer.”

He shakes his head, “I’ve got Greer.”

“You okay with that?” I ask her. Tears continue to roll down her cheeks but she shakes her head yes. I bend down to kiss the top of her head and it’s on.

We’re getting Nic back.

Greer

Present day…

When we’re not up at the cabin getting it ready to turn into a new safehouse, we spend an exorbitant amount of time at the Horde clubhouse. Nicola is in love with and thus claimed – an archaic way of thinking in my opinion – by the club’s president, Vlad.

Nic had me show up early to get ready because the Horde were having a party to celebrate the death of Rage, the Horde’s former president, who was the one responsible for kidnapping and abusing Nicola. He got everything he deserved, in my opinion. I don’t feel bad one bit that the man is no longer breathing on this Earth. He was a scourge on humanity – though if you would’ve asked me a year ago, I probably would have said all bikers were scourges of humanity. That was before I got to know any bikers.

The men have been great, but there’s a definite hierarchy. Women seem to come in second class compared to the “brothers.”

There’s almost no warning aside from the phantom smell of gun powder that happens right before I see it.

The girls are laughing, running around the courtyard. “It’s Texas,” I laugh to myself while watching Tasha mess with a big slab of beef on the grill.

“Get away!” Tasha screams, giggling as Mae gets entirely too close to the grill with the water hose she’s trying to squirt Jess with. The sun is shining bright and hot. It’s a beautiful day.

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