One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil's Own #1)

  “The boys are here for this purpose. Use them,” I say to Meadow, who has flung her little arms around my waist. Dropping my head to her soft hair, I kiss her head.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asks in muffled tones.

  “Positive. We have it all planned out.” We do, but I don’t know how it’s going to end. All I know is I have someone to live for now, so I will do anything to make sure she’s safe and we can have a life outside this shit.

  “Okay then…” She steps back and leans up to my face on her tippy toes wrapping her fingers around my neck. I pull her into me and run my tongue over her bottom lip. She stops and pulls back, searching my eyes.

  “I…” she starts and then stands back to her feet, “…never mind. Just, make sure you don’t die. Please,” she pleads, looking up at me.

  I smile and pull her into me again, kissing her on the lips. “I know,” I answer against her lips. Her face freezes, a deep red blush sprawling out across her cheeks. Letting go of her hand, I whistle out to Hella, who’s playing on the PDA with Cassidy, one of the hang arounds. I look over to Melissa and nudge my head to her. She smiles before hugging Nyx goodbye and stepping up beside Meadow.

  I swing my leg over my bike and push on my gloves. Looking up to Meadow, I blow her a kiss quickly and she smiles, waving to me before I lead the pack out the gates and toward the place I’ve done everything possible to avoid for the past eight years.

  Pulling into the industrial farmland, we all ride up the bumpy, dusty road and I stop halfway, the roar and pulsing of our bikes deafening. After we’ve all cut off our bikes, I swing my leg off and walk up to Hella. “We’ll walk up from here.”

  Hella removes his helmet with the rest of the boys following suit. “Are you sure about this? I still think we should go in guns blazing and just tear the place apart.”

  Turning my head to the van that the prospects are driving, I point to it. “Because taking the van is a better idea. Stick to the plan and hopefully, we can all make it out alive.”

  He nods his head while half the boys jump into the van and the rest of us set out on foot. We are all well-armed. Complete with grenades, M16’s, and if we lose all else—our combat knives. The van drives forward toward the gates while Hella and I separate into our two separate groups. My group taking the front and Hella’s taking the back. We know the ins and outs of this hell hole so it only makes sense that we would be on the ground. Running up to the front of the high barb wired iron gates, the leaves crunch under my feet and the air is crisp with death and silence. I push my back up against the wired fence while looking at Nyx. Bringing my finger up to my mouth, I signal for him to be quiet before I start counting in my head.

  One…

  Two…

  Three…

  The first explosion rips through the air and I kick the fence in where Hella and I came back to pop open a few nights ago. After the boys are through, I jump through and draw up my .45 scanning around the area to make sure it’s clear before we make our way to where the van entered. Following closely, we round the first corner where a soldier walks through, I draw my gun up, shooting him right between his eyes and his lifeless body falls to the ground.

  “Come on,” I wave at the pack. Hella’s voice comes through the walkie-talkie that is sitting on the waist of my jeans, so I unclip it.

  “Yeah, what’s up?”

  “It’s Ripper. He’s in a bad shape.”

  “What happened?”

  “They drew faster than us. He’s sitting out… should be safe there until this shit is done.”

  “Don’t tell me you left him unattended, Hella!”

  “Nah, Skid is there.”

  “Yeah, all right. Stick to the plan.”

  “Roger.”

  Pushing the walkie-talkie down, I bring my head up to the tall lookout tower that sits in the corner of the property. Dropping the duffel bag to the ground with the sound of gunshots ringing out in the distance, I pull out the grenade launcher, hitching it onto my shoulder before I look through the scope. Aiming it at the middle of the tower I launch it into the concrete, the flames ignite and the tower comes crumbling down. Chuckling under my breath, I push the launcher back into the bag and swing it over my shoulder.

  “You good?” Nyx asks, bringing his gun back up.

  “Yeah, just wanted to do that for a long time.”

  He nods his head before stepping in front. “Let’s go.”

  We make our way to one of the back doors of the main building and I pull out my .45 and shoot out the locks, kicking the doors in with my feet.

  “It’s fucking quiet,” Hannibal stirs next to me.

  “Too quiet,” I answer, walking into the darkness. We make our way to the silver stairs that sit to the left of where we came through and start walking down them.

  “What sort of sick shit do they have going here?” Gunnar asks from behind Nyx.

  “You’ll soon see,” I answer. Gunnar is new, he’s been prospecting for almost a year. How he acts on this run will determine whether he gets patched in on his one-year anniversary.

  We walk down the silver steps, our heavy boots thumping underneath the soles of our feet. When we reach the bottom, I look around, attempting to adapt my eyes to the darkness.

  The lights flick on suddenly and surrounding us is an army of soldiers, in every angle with their weapons pulled. I chuckle to myself. “Figures.”

  Glancing to the side of me, I begin counting how many there are in this very room and I’m heading toward twelve—against our six. The five men who are standing in front of us with their rifles drawn, standing in their armed defender armory, begin to part like the Red Sea.

  “Well, well, well…” a familiar voice pierces my ears like nails to a chalkboard. Brian comes strolling out, wiping his knife off with a white cloth. “If it isn’t my favorite soldier.”

  “I was never your soldier,” I seethe, bringing my gun back up and raising it right between his eyes. Cocking my head, I picture myself pulling the trigger, his blood and brains raining down on me in splatters of redemption.

  “You might want to put that gun down, son. I have double on you.”

  “Maybe I don’t care?” I say, keeping my gun drawn. “Maybe I have nothing to lose?”

  He chuckles, walking closer. “We all know that’s a lie, Beast. Little Meadow is something you could lose? Am I not correct?” His ginger hair still sits roughly on the top of his head and his beard is still hanging low.

  “Maybe,” I answer, smirking at him. “Or, maybe not.” I shrug. “After all, it was your training that took all of the human out of me and replaced it with a hard-ass replica.”

  “Beast?” Hella’s voice comes out of the walkie-talkie again. I narrow my eyes at Brian, who nods his head. “You might want to check on 666, Beast. I hear he made a slip-up.”

  Unclipping the walkie-talkie off my jeans, I keep my eyes locked on Kurr and bring it to my mouth.

  “What?” I answer, my voice shallow and low.

  “We’re surrounded.”

  “Ditto.”

  Turning off the walkie-talkie, I bring my attention back to Kurr. “What is it you want? If you wanted to kill me, you had plenty opportunity to do so. What do you want?”

  “Well…” he begins, “…you came in here, blew up my spot and killed a few useful men.”

  “So, I don’t care. What do you want?” I repeat, my breathing dipping into shallow territory.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He smirks. “You.”

  “You could have had me. Why be so theatrical with it?”

  He steps around one of the men, who still hasn’t moved, and comes closer. “You know I prefer a good chase, Beast.” He stops, tilting his head. “Or maybe you don’t remember.”

  Clenching my jaw together, I drop my gun. “Fine,” I say, smirking at him. “Take me, let my men go.”

  He laughs, narrowing his eyes at me. “Really? That’s your only ask?”

  I nod. “
Yeah, it is. Take me and me only, let my men walk out.”

  Tsking my comment, he shakes his head. He brings up his index finger and shakes it in front of me. “Sounds good, but you’re missing one thing,” he says, his eyes scanning my face with menace.

  “And what is that?” I growl, bringing my eyes down to his. Clenching my jaw.

  He raises his gun, not moving his eyes from mine and lets the barrel go off, the bullet shooting right between Nyx’s eyes, his blood spattering out over my face. The metallic taste of a fallen brother filling my mouth.

  “You’ll pay for that,” I growl. “Maybe not today, but you will pay for that.”

  He laughs, using the same white cloth to wipe away the blood drops that were splattered over his face. “Maybe. But you started this charade, Beast. I took one of yours, you took five of ours including the watchtower that I know you’ve been dying to take down since you were a little boy.”

  He turns his back and points to the four soldiers in the front line. “Take them out. Make sure Beast’s wishes are kept and no-one is hurt. Come on Beast, we have lots to catch up on.”

  Turning my head, I smirk at my brothers who are seething under heavy breaths. Nodding my head, I follow behind the one man whose blood I want most.

  I’m sitting at the bar waiting to hear the roar of bikes to come down the gravel road like they have so many other times when Melissa takes a seat beside me, bending over the bar to pull up a bottle of vodka.

  “Have a drink, you need it.”

  I shake my head. “No, nope. What if something happens to him, Melissa? I only just got him back.”

  Her mouth drops as she places the bottle back onto the bar. “I guess this is their life, babe. It’s dangerous and life threatening. Are you going to be okay with it?”

  Running my tongue over my dry lips, I shrug. “I don’t know. But I do know that I want him, and it comes with the package, so I guess I will have to learn to live with it.”

  The creaking of the rust ridden doors sound out with Jada rushing up to us, pushing through the bikers from another chapter who rode down to help out with the aftermath.

  Standing from the bar, I wipe my sweat-ridden palms over my pants and make my way toward her. Her face drops, wiping a single tear off her cheek.

  “What?” I say, slowing my walk. My heart thuds in my chest in deep, shallow beats and I draw in a deep breath.

  “They’ve got him.” All the air leaves my body and my knees wobble from under me.

  “They’ve got who?” I whisper, wrapping my arms around myself.

  “Beast. They’ve got him and they let the rest of boys walk. Bar one…” she whispers, squeezing her eyes closed.

  “Why would he stay?” I yell, turning in my step and walking over to the bar to grab my bag.

  “Meadow, we just have to wait for the boys to get here. Nyx didn’t make it out, we need to see what’s going on. It just doesn’t add up, Beast and Hella? They’re fucking Einstein’s in the biker world. There’s no way they would’ve let this happen, surely?” She breaths out, taking a seat on the barstool.

  “Nyx didn’t make it?” Melissa whispers, tears streaming down her cheek.

  I forgot all about her and Nyx becoming close.

  “I’m sorry, Melissa. I don’t know what was going on there, but Nyx was a good guy, he didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

  Melissa picks up the bottle, wrapping her lips around the rim and drops half the liquid down the rabbit hole in one go.

  “Jada,” I warn, my eyes bugging out. “I’m not letting him sit in there by himself.”

  “Meadow, what are you going to do? Just sit down and wait for the guys. I want to hear what’s going on.”

  “What if it’s nothing,” I yell, standing from the stool and swinging my bag over my shoulder. “What if…” I whisper to her, “…he dies, Jada.”

  She swallows, her eyebrows creasing as she peers back at me. “He won’t. He can’t. This is Beast, he’s indestructible.”

  “Wake up, Jada, he’s also human. It doesn’t take much to kill a human.” Turning on my feet, I walk to the doors, tears surfacing in my eyes with my heavy heart thumping to the beat of the soles of my feet while they pound the dirt ridden ground.

  Pushing open the door, I stop in my tracks when I see the mass of bikes pull up with the van following behind them. Wiping my eyes roughly, I scan the front to see Beast’s bike, but with Hella riding on it instead. My stomach drops and more tears stream down my cheeks. Gripping onto my chest, I move to Hella.

  “Where were you?” I yell, fisting his cut.

  “Calm down, Meadow. Come inside so we can explain.”

  “No.” I shake my head. “Screw you.” Pushing off his rock hard chest, I turn toward my car and I’m almost there when a strong grip around my arm pulls me back.

  My back pushes up against Hella’s tight chest where he drops his lips down to my ear and whispers, “It was a setup, Meadow. We knew he was going to get taken, we knew everything.”

  My chest rising and falling deepens as I turn in his hold. “What do you mean?” I ask, wiping the tears from my cheeks.

  He nudges his head to the barn. “Come on, I’ll tell you in there.”

  “No, tell me now.”

  He rolls his eyes. “So stubborn. Beast is going to have lots of fun with you.”

  “Get to it, Hella.”

  Running his hands through his hair, he exasperates a breath of air while dropping his arms to the side of his body. “There was no way we would be able to just roll in and kill them all. We needed to get Beast in there.”

  “Why couldn’t he just walk in and say take me?”

  He laughs, shaking his head. “Because they would have questioned his motives, Meadow. Beast and I have been running from this organization for a long fucking time. Don’t you think it would be a little shady if Beast just walks in there one day throwing up a flag? No, he needed them to think we failed with our mission. We needed them to think that they have won.”

  “And have they?” I ask, tilting my head. Some of the uneasiness loosening.

  “Have they what?” he asks, pushing his hands into his pockets.

  “Won… have they won?”

  He smirks, hooding his eyes. “Not even close.”

  He wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me into him. “Come on, I don’t want to share this twice.”

  “Hella,” I whisper. “Whatever is happening, I want in.”

  He stops in his tracks. “Pardon?”

  Tilting my head, I widen my eyes. “You heard me. I’m coming.”

  He shakes his head, laughing. “You definitely are not coming.”

  This was like a bad case of flashbacks. My wrists are bound to the roof, rings of fire wrapping around them—just as I remember. My heavy head is hooded between my arms when I hear the sound of the heavy steel door swinging open. I rise up, looking out to see who just came through.

  “Beast?” Kurr’s voice vibrates through me like a jolt of electricity that makes me want to rip his head clean off with my bare hands. “I believe you’ve never met the brains behind the entire operation? The woman who created Schyronide,” he asks, eyebrows cocked.

  I drag my eyes to the figure that’s standing beside him and smile.

  “Who? The bitch that’s obviously riding your dick?”

  He laughs, walking closer to me so I pick up my head and peer down at him.

  “Actually…” he states, waving the woman over. I haven’t had a good look at her yet, but I can see she’s wearing a long white trench jacket and has her hair in a tight bun that’s sitting on top of her head. “She’s not mine. But she is yours,” he says, looking at me up and down. I bring my eyes to hers and her lips drop along with her head.

  “Beast?” she whispers under her breath. I pull on the bonds around my wrists, baring my teeth at Kurr.

  “What the fuck do you mean?”

  “Get with it, Beast. This is Dr Carrisa Kurnikiva to you.”
He smirks, bringing a cigarette to his mouth. “But her real name is Courtney Kurnikiva AKA your mother.”

  Pulling on the cuffs that surround my wrists, I shake my head. “You’re fucking lying.”

  He lets out a deep, smoky chuckle. “Oh no, son. I’m not.”

  I bring my eyes back to the woman and she lifts her head up to face me. “I’m so sorry, Beast. I didn’t know.”

  “Shut up,” Kurr says to her, rounding a little table that sits in the middle of the floor. I know that table, and I know what it contains. I pull on the cuffs again when a sharp sting strikes through my wrists and the dropping of blood begins to trickle down my arm.

  With my chest heaving, I bring my eyes back to her. “Is it true?”

  She swallows down, placing her hands into her pockets of her jacket. “Yes, I’m so sorry.”

  A deep, sadistic chuckle escapes my mouth. “You’re kidding, right? ‘You’re sorry’? Are you fucking shitting me, woman! You! You created the fucking acid they pumped through me—through all of us!”

  She drops her shoulders and walks to me. “Look, I had to, I had no—”

  “Shut the fuck up,” I seethe, boring my eyes deep into hers. She flinches and steps back.

  “Kurr, give me a minute please.”

  Kurr chuckles. “Hell no.”

  She turns toward him, squaring her shoulders and pointing her glare right into him. “I need a minute with my son. Get out.”

  He shakes his head, understanding setting into his eyes. “You try anything? I’ll kill you myself and gut the piece of shit in front of you. Got it?”

  “Yes,” she whispers. “I got it.”

  He slams the heavy iron door behind him and she clears her throat, walking to me. “Is he gone? Or is he still looking through the window?”

  I nod my head. “He’s gone.”

  “Good.” She pulls out a knife and slips it behind my hand so I can grip onto it without him noticing.

  “Look…” she begins, bringing her eyes to me, “…you end this shit, and you boys end it tonight. Got it?” she demands, her eyes as hard as stone. I see pain and deceit laced through her eyes which are unsettling considering she has beauty in her features.