Hellraiser (The Devil's Own #2)

  “But, Jada dropped us off!”

  I guide them towards the garage, watching everything from the corner of my eye. Each sound has me on high alert. I fish my keys out of my pocket and pull open the garage door. Handing the keys to Melissa, I point to the car. “Go straight home.”

  “I can’t drive this!” she squeals.

  “Yes, you can, and you will. Just don’t floor it. Go real slow.” I direct her towards the driver’s side door and open it up. Millie slides into the passenger seat.

  Melissa turns the key and the deep rumble of the V8 vibrates the industrial-sized garage. “Holy shit,” she whispers, horrified. “Brax, I can’t. I’m not a good driver. I know how to drive stick, but not with this much power.”

  “Hey.” I wrap my hand around her chin and tilt her head up to face me. “You got this, okay?”

  She pauses, searching my eyes before confidence sets in. “Okay. Yeah, okay I got this.”

  I bend down, kissing her hard on the lips before running my thumb over her bottom one. “Go straight home baby and lock all the doors. I’ll ring Jada and tell her.” She nods her head before putting in first and driving out of the garage door and onto the gravel road that leads to all the houses. I could be overreacting, but the chances are slim. Nothing like that happens unless someone purposely wanted those girls here, so I needed to get them out.

  I walk back into the clubhouse just as Beast is leaving the boardroom.

  “We got a problem,” I whisper to him. He pauses with a grip on the door handle. “Someone texted Melissa from my phone and told her to come here. My phone’s fucking gone. Something’s shady.” I spot Skid near the pool tables, motor-boating one of the club sluts. I have to take precautions. “Hey! I just sent Melissa and Millie back to my place. Go and make sure they got back safely.”

  Beast’s head whips towards outside where Meadow is laughing with Phoebe. “Let’s cut everything off. Get everyone inside.”

  It was mainly close family and brothers who were left here anyway. We both walk outside and I let out a whistle, catching everyone’s attention. The music stops and silence fills the air.

  “Everyone inside. Now.”

  No one asks questions. Everyone stops what they’re doing before piling inside. Beast grabs Meadow and we all walk into the clubhouse, locking the doors behind us.

  “What’s going on?” Meadow asks, taking a seat on a barstool.

  “Fucking bikers,” Phoebe whispers under her breath.

  “What?” I tease as she picks up a drink. “Little miss MC princess not used to this?”

  “Oh,” she quips. “I’m entirely too familiar with this. It’s why I never married a man in a cut.” I laugh before turning back to Beast.

  I scan the room when Layla, Asha, and Shelby take a seat beside Meadow. My eyes narrow in on Shelby before Beast’s voice blares through the room. There was always something about Shelby that didn’t sit right with me, but I brushed it off because Beast vouched for her.

  I lean into Beast just as he’s about to open his mouth. “Don’t you think it’d be safer for outsiders to not be in here?”

  He pauses, thinking over my words. “Maybe.” He turns back to all the waiting people. “Devil’s, in church now. All of you.”

  He turns and walks towards the boardroom as we all follow him in. Once everyone is seated and standing around, I close the door behind myself and take a seat.

  Beast turns to everyone. “Someone has taken Hella’s phone and texted his old lady to come down to the clubhouse.”

  “You got enemies?” a brother from one of the other chapter asks, leaning against the wall.

  “None in our world right now. We’ve been playing good with mostly everyone. We have an idea on who this might be,” Beast says, watching everyone closely. “It has nothing to do with the club. This is persona—“

  “Hella!”

  Meadow’s screams pierce the atmosphere.

  I shoot up off my chair and rush for the door. Swinging it open, I find everyone circled around in a crowd. When they see me, they all part and go silent. I begin shoving people out of the way until the crowd reveals Melissa on the floor in a bloody mess. I drop to the floor, my heart hitting the ground and my anger surging through me at dangerous speeds.

  “Fuck!” I scoop her head under my arm, her face barely recognizable and her hair matted to her face with blood oozing out of a wound on her head.

  “Hella,” Meadow whispers. “Hella, she needs a fucking hospital. The doc won’t be able to help this time.”

  I nod my head, swallowing and pressing my fingers against her throat to time how slow her pulse is. “Call an ambulance and tell them to bring a chopper.” My heart contracts in my chest, her body floppy in my arms. My girl was slipping away from me in my very hands and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My jaw clenches as I brush away the hair from her face. “What the fuck happened?”

  Meadow dials 911, tears streaming down her face.

  “Hella!” Jada comes rushing through the crowd. “Millie’s gone. Whoever did this has taken her.”

  “What the fuck is happening?” I whisper, clutching Melissa tighter in my hands. Melissa starts stirring, her head turning side to side and a light mumble escaping her. “No, baby, don’t move and don’t talk, I’ll sort it out.”

  “Kurr,” she whispers before she’s pulled back into her deep oblivion.

  It takes too fucking long before we hear the chopper sounding through the air. It lands in the field across the parking lot and I remain there with Melissa, fucking praying that she pulls through. If there is a God, I would fucking swear my ass to church every Sunday just to keep my girl here. I can feel my wrath pulsing beneath the surface, waiting until Melissa is in good hands before it rears its ugly head. I promised I’d never let anything happen to her and I failed.

  The paramedics come rushing in with a stretcher, pushing me out of the way. I let them through and everything begins playing in slow motion. One of the paramedics begin screaming at his colleague before he starts chest compressions.

  “Wait!” I yell, “What the fuck’s going on?” No one is listening to me. I hear the paramedic say, “Cardiac arrest.” And then, “Need to stabilize her before we can take her.”

  I step back, chills traveling down my spine and my blood turning to ice. I took her presence for granted. I fucked with the time we had, forgetting that we’re all on a limited clock. My head pulses as a stream of anger and frustration tingles behind my ears.

  They begin loading her onto a stretcher with an oxygen mask covering her face. I run up to them and ask which hospital she’ll be going to before they run outside toward the chopper, and just like that, she’s gone.

  There’s an eerie silence that seeps through the air, everybody watching me, waiting to see how I’m going to handle this.

  My hands grip around the edge of the nearest barstool, my head hanging between my shoulders as I pick it up and slam it down in frustration. “Jada!” I yell, keeping my eyes trained on the floor. She walks towards me. “Take me to where it happened.” She nods her head and I follow her out with Beast, Ripper, and Hannibal on my tail. It was well past midnight and Meadow stayed behind with Phoebe. We piled into Jada’s car as she drove us toward my house. When we pulled into the driveway, my car was still running, the doors pulled wide open, and the headlights displayed the thousands of gunshot holes that had been penetrated throughout my house. I ran toward the car to see blood splatters throughout the driver’s side. My anger spikes to an uncontrollable level and I slam the door closed before letting out an almighty roar. Beast walks towards the passenger side. “No blood here, but there is signs of a struggle.”

  I rip my cap off and pull at my hair in frustration before walking to the front door of the house. I tilt my head, my eyes focusing in on a dart that’s stabbing a note into the wooden panel. What the fuck?

  Melissa

  Three hours earlier

  I pull onto the main gravel road that
leads the way to Hella’s house, the loud rumble of the engine beneath us. “What the hell’s going on?” I whisper to myself.

  “I don’t know, but something is weird.” Millie rests her head on the side of the door, her eyes scanning outside the window at the dark shadows of the night. This wedding has been crazy to say the least. After going back to Jada’s house to tell my mom and Millie about my dad, we barely got to my mother breaking out into tears before I received the text. We all assumed he had disappeared somewhere or died because his body was never recovered and missing from the wreck, but to have him homeless under a bridge hit me where it hurt. He may have not been perfect, but we still loved him. He was our dad and he was our mother’s first love. It breaks my heart that he didn’t think he was good enough to come home to us. We would have forgiven him for anything. He was our first hero.

  We pull into the driveway at Hella’s house and I stop, leaving the car idling in its spot. I look around the house where the porch light is on. I look toward the front door and shake my head. Something doesn’t feel right. “Millie, I don’t think that text was sent to us to get us to the clubhouse. I think they knew he would send us back here.”

  Right as the words leave my mouth, a group of men round the corner of the house cloaked in the darkness with hoodies and steel ghost masks on. Each mask has a distinctive mark or pattern on it, I observe. I quickly push in the clutch, but just as I’m about to slam it into reverse, both our doors are ripped open and Millie lets out a scream as someone yanks her out of the car by her hair. I swing my head towards the men who ripped my door open and into the bleak dark eyes of the man behind the mask just as his hand reaches in and pulls me out of the car.

  “No!” I scream as I land on my back against the gravel. “Get off me!” My leg kicks up, connecting with his crotch before I turn onto my stomach and begin crawling for the field, the dirt from the gravel digging under my fingernails at my desperate escape. From the corner of my eye, I see a boot swing back before the side of my head stings and numbness takes over with a trickling of wetness flowing over my face. I cough out, turning onto my back, my eyes attempting to open. The bright stars shining above me start to smear from my losing grasp on reality before the sole of a military boot stomps down onto my face with a crack.

  My consciousness drifts in and out. I can hear Millie crying. Tears attempt to prick the side of my eyes.

  “What are we doing with her?” a low voice asks, his breath heavy.

  “Leave her. We have to take the nun. Beat her until she’s unrecognizable to make our point to these bikers.”

  “What point?” a female voice whispers harshly. “This wasn’t the plan.”

  Shit, that voice sounds familiar, but I haven’t heard it enough to know who owns it.

  “That they shouldn’t have come looking. We don’t work around your revenge. I’d start running now, little girl.”

  “When Hella sees her, he’s going to have your head on a stick,” she sneers before the gravel under her departure crunches through the night.

  “I’m counting on it.”

  My body curls over as each blow they lay into my body molds into me. Hands go under my shoulders with one man on each side, lifting me to my feet and holding me up. A few other men bounce around in front of me before each of them take a turn at laying their brutality. Each blow that connects with my face or torso takes an inch off my life. My head drops between my shoulders as the metallic taste fills my mouth and slips down my chin towards my neck.

  “Hey!” someone growls. His hand gripped around my chin, tipping my head up. “Tell your man that Kurr isn’t playing around. We’re his soldiers now, and we will slice you from ear to ear the next time they search for us.”

  He draws his fist back before the darkness of the nothingness draws me in deeper and my pain dissipates.

  Hella

  “When all is gone, and the only thing left of your mere existence is the embers which fell from the flames you created, I’ll be the one clutching my bundle of wool…”

  Ripping the cryptic note off the door, Beast walks up behind me while Ripper, Hannibal, and Jada search the driveway.

  “They fucking beat her.” A whisper leaves my throat in between it closing.

  Beast’s hand grips around my shoulder. “I know, brother. I’m sorry.”

  I’m not a crier. I’ve never cried in my fucking life, but right now, I could cry a fucking river large enough to give the Nile a run for its money, but I won’t. It’s not going to solve shit, so I mask it with my anger.

  Squaring my shoulders and swallowing, I flick the note to Beast. “Know what the fuck this means? Melissa said this was Kurr, but what the fuck has this got to do with Kurr?”

  Beast’s eyebrows draw together. He takes the note off me and flips it around, searching for clues. “I don’t. I can’t count how many people we’ve taken out. What the fuck is this supposed to mean?”

  “Fuck knows.” I take the note off of him and shove it into my pocket with the dart before turning around to see Jada shaking her head standing beside the driver’s side door.

  “They took Millie,” Beast sighs beside me. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Why would they take Millie and not Melissa?” I say to Beast, watching him closely.

  “That’s simple. He needed to show you that he can do that again if we fuck up. He needed you to still have something to lose, so he took the sister.”

  “Took Millie for what? Why not just beat them and leave them both? Nah, brother. We’re missing a whole lot of bullshit here.”

  Beast nods his head, shoving his hands into his pockets. “We are, but whatever the fuck this is, they’ll pay. We just need to be more diligent next time. We need a bigger I.T. team and to get Hannibal to kidnap the girl he knows, if that’s what it fucking takes. We can get a few more people in. We need to start building our own army, build our brothers stronger. There’s no way we’re going to stand a chance against him with how we are right now and it’s not fair to ask the club to take the hit for it. We can vote on who’s going to go through this with us, then go from there.”

  “Maybe. I’ll head to the hospital. Just wanted to check out this shit before I leave.”

  “I’ll take you back to your bike.”

  We walk back towards Jada’s car and everyone gets back in. Jada hands me the keys to my car and I stare at it for a few seconds before pushing them into my pocket.

  “She’s going to pull through, Hella.”

  “She fucking better.”

  Melissa

  The echoing beeping of a machine awakens me and I wince at the sudden rush of pain pulsing through my body.

  “Get a fucking doctor!” Jada yells.

  My eyes won’t open, weighed down with pain. I moan in my sleep before darkness seeps into me again and pulls me back to my dark abyss.

  ***

  “I don’t fucking know, Jada!” Whispering, loud angry whispering. “Jesus Christ, this is bad.” That was Phoebe. Tears prick my eyes and an unexpected sudden wash of comfort comes over me.

  “Phoebe, sit down, give me the phone.” Mom? My eyelids shake from my trying to open them.

  “No, it’s fine. He’s asleep. Hasn’t left her side all week.” Week? Panic surges through me and I let out a loud gasp of air.

  “Oh my God, did she just gasp?” Phoebe yells. A door opens before she yells, “I need a doctor in here!”

  Hands wrap around my fingers. “Baby?”

  “Step back. Everyone needs to clear out. She’s still out. Melissa? Can you hear me? I’m Dr. Smith.” Another set of hands wrap around my free hand. “Squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”

  I urge myself to squeeze with all my might. My brain is yelling at my hand to squeeze, but it’s numb, stock still, and not budging. Her hand lets go and panic seeps into me again. Every ounce of my being is put into squeezing Hella’s hand.

  Then my index finger curls against his, and he gets to his feet in a hurry. “She ju
st squeezed my fucking hand.”

  “Okay,” the doctor says. “Calm down and stop swearing. We need to give her rest. The fact that she’s responsive is a good sign, however, we’re still unsure what sort of state she’s going to be in when she does wake. Bear in mind, her injuries were significant. She was an inch away from losing her life. We lost her on the operating table—twice—so I think you get the picture that she needs rest.”

  I died? Twice? I don’t want to die, not like this. I was supposed to die like Hunter S. Thompson quoted, though I would arrive to my grave in a totally worn-out body. I had a different picture of “worn-out body” in my mind when reading that quote. The sass in the doctor’s tone makes me want to smile. She didn’t care that Hella was a big-ass biker; she still gave him lip. My head begins to pound again, suddenly filled with fatigue before I’m dragged back in.

  ***

  The beeping I wake up to this time is louder, more profound. The crickets chirp outside, and the heat from the afternoon sun warms my arms, setting off goose bumps that travel over my skin.

  “Brax?” I manage to croak out through my parched mouth.

  “Melissa?” He rushes to my side and clutches my hand in his. My eyelids are still heavy but I manage to pull them open wide enough to see a slit of fog as Hella rushes to the table to get water. “Here, baby. Take a drink. Phoebe!” he yells.

  “Mmm?” she slurs before the other side of my hand is covered by hers. “Oh my fucking God. I’ll get the doctor. Don’t fall asleep again or I’ll fucking kill you.”

  “Phoebe!” Hella sneers at her.

  “Sorry,” she apologizes. “Too early?”

  “Yes,” he hisses. “Get the doc.” He brings his attention back to me and I try to lift my head up. “Hey, no, lie back down, babe.”

  “Millie,” I whisper, remembering that she was with me. “Is she okay?” My vision clears and the sudden bright sun causes me to squint.

  “Hold up.” Hella jumps off his seat to the blinds, pulling them closed. He comes back to sit on the bed beside me, his eyes searching mine. “Fuck, I don’t even know how to say this.”