Danny pulls out a gun from the inside pocket of his cut and it dangles in his hand. Still, my heart doesn’t beat any harder or faster in anticipation at to what he plans to do with it.
Since I’ve been here, he’s been all rage and talk. He hasn’t done any real damage to us and I don’t believe he will now.
“You’ll be happy to know you’ll be going home tonight,” this peaks my interest but I don’t let him see it, “both of you.” He adds.
What’s Cas done to make this happen?
“Only…”
Ha, it sounded like it was too good to be true.
“Only, what?” Sparky hisses.
“Only, one of you will be dead.”
My blood runs cold and looking across to Sparky, he is as white as a ghost as well. We haven’t given Danny any satisfaction from our reactions, until now.
“Don’t worry though, I’m going to let you choose who lives and who dies,” he smirks, knowing he has got to us, “you have five minutes to decide.”
I don’t say a word and Sparky doesn’t either. It could be another bluff, but something about him now is telling me this real and it’s going to happen.
My heart, for the first time in years, beats a little harder and too fast for my liking as the minutes start to pass and the air hangs heavily around us.
“One minute left, you really should start discussing who’s gonna be walking out of here and who’s gonna be carried,” he rambles on, “if I were you,” he says, looking at me, “I’d want him to die, otherwise, he’s gonna have to haul your arse out of here.”
I still don’t say a word. Sparky’s face is turning a shade of red I’ve never seen before and anger oozes from him in droves. He still doesn’t speak either.
There is no way I’m going to discuss this with my brother, he has no chance of us taking this seriously and bantering who is going to live or die.
He keeps his eye on his watch, as we both watch him and listen as he counts down from ten.
“Three, two, one…” he looks up at me first and then to Sparky, “I tried to be nice and give you both the option, but I guess, I’ll have to choose.”
Pushing up out of the chair, he swings it to the side by the stairs and trains his gun on Sparky, he flicks the safety off and my heart stops completely.
“No!” I yell, struggling against my restraints.
They don’t let up at all but I don’t feel the pain of them cutting into my flesh.
“I’ll die, not him.”
“You’ve found your voice, how fucking sweet,” he laughs.
“Shut up, Oak,” Sparky hisses.
“You have more to live for than I do,” I argue.
Danny steps back, humour in his eyes as he watches us closely.
“We’re not dying here by his hand, so shut your fuckin’ mouth.”
“Untie them,” he orders his men. One heads for Sparky and the other comes towards me.
He pulls a knife from his belt and in seconds my arms fall heavily down and again, pain shoots everywhere, slowly, I rub my hands together to get any feeling back in them and curse when it hurts like fucking hell.
Rolling my shoulders, there isn’t one muscle or bone that doesn’t hurt. The stiffness is like nothing I’ve felt before.
I must not get up fast enough for them as he yanks me up by my hair and the fight I thought I didn’t have any more returns and I push my weight into my shoulder and barge into him. He doesn’t go down and Danny is over in a flash and pulling me along with his man to the middle of the basement.
Sparky is already on his knees and Danny makes sure I’m close beside him.
“Just shoot me,” I growl.
If one of us have to die today, it will be me. Sparky has a wife and a son, I have nothing but haunting memories of a life I could’ve had.
“Shut your fuckin’ mouth, Oak. I swear to God, I’m gonna shoot you myself soon.” Sparky yells.
“Ah ah, you had your chance,” Danny mocks, standing in front of us.
“Fuck you, boy.” Sparky snaps, and spits at his boots.
This earns him a back hand but he rolls with it and is unaffected by it.
“One of you will die in the next thirty seconds, Cas isn’t gonna save you and there won’t be any last minute changes of mind.” He drones on.
Going back to my original thoughts, as a Lost Soul, we’ve always came out on top. We’ve had fatalities and near misses and like I said, it made me feel untouchable. Today is my comeuppance.
I know what I have to do.
“Think of Bonnie and your son, they need you, brother. I’ve done my time, I’ve seen too many come and go, I can’t watch you go too. It’s not right.”
“Oak, you don’t need to go out like this,” he moans, sounding like he’s finally taking this as seriously I am.
“We don’t have a choice, he’s right, Cas isn’t coming in time and if one of us gets to go home, it should be you.”
I look at the man who I’ve known since he was seventeen and I feel honoured I got to watch him grow into a man and find himself. It was what the club was made for, to help the lost find a place to be themselves. At least Mark and I got that right for Sparky. He deserves to be with his wife and kid.
I don’t want to die here, on my knees and by a man half my age, but I have nothing to live for like my brother does.
I’m too weak to fight and Sparky is outnumbered. There is no other way. I’ll find peace in knowing, my death will be avenged and even if I’m not around to see it for myself, the Devils Bastards will all die by men who wear the same patch as I.
“Do it,” I growl, nodding to Danny.
“Oak, brother, don’t do this,” Sparky warns, but his voice is fading into the background.
“You do this, there’s no going back,” he continues to shout, I lock my eyes on the barrel of the gun pointing at me and will it to go off, “we will kill you all, we won’t stop there, we’ll kill everyone in your families, anyone you’ve ever spoken to,” Sparky continues to shout at Danny.
“Not if I kill you all first,” he snarls, “I’m only keeping one of you alive today because I want my sister back.”
“Cas finds one of us dead and she’ll die,” he warns him.
“He won’t know until I have her.”
His finger begins to squeeze the trigger and I finally close my eyes. Memories of partying with Mark and the gang back in the day before we knew what we were truly doing come to mind. Finding Shellie in my bed for the first time, my old friends, Micky and Flo, Rayna and everyone who I haven’t seen in years make me smile. Dying won’t be all bad, I’ll get to see them all again. The only one to truly hurt, is Alannah. Watching that girl grow into the beautiful woman she has become has been an honour I’m more proud of than Sparky.
Shellie was right, I am going to die and I’m okay with that.
“Lost Soul till I die,” the whisper barely passes my lips and I know it is only seconds I have left.
Looking back, I was never going to die of old age. My death was always going to be caused by alcohol or a bullet.
The shot finally is fired and I open my eyes as I’m pushed back by a heavy body and land on the floor, Sparky is on top of me and is unresponsive.
No, this isn’t happening.
“Sparky,” I yell in his face, being so close to mine.
His eyes don’t flicker and his body doesn’t move.
“What have you fuckin’ done, brother.”
It wasn’t meant to be this way, the fucking motherfucker had to be the fucking hero.
For the first time in years, tears seep from my eyes and I wrap my arms around my brother. I scream into the crock of his neck but it doesn’t stop the pain from trying to crush my chest in around my heart.
Laughter filters through the mist I can’t see through and gets louder, closer to my ear.
“I nearly got two in one bullet.” Danny mocks, his breath hitting my neck as he speaks.
“You just kil
led the VP of the Lost Souls, you just signed your death certificate,” I manage to say.
“Who? Sparky? The fucker isn’t dead, it’s not his blood creeping out on my floor, Oak. Baz knocked him out to shut him up, he just fell on you at the right time. Here, I’ll show you.”
Sparky’s weight is lifted off me and he presses his foot down on my stomach. As soon as he does, burning pain courses everywhere. Lifting my head up, I strain my neck to look down at myself and see blood gushing out of me.
“You got what you wanted,” he murmurs, quietly, kneeling beside me.
He looks over to Sparky and I join him.
My brother isn’t dead and will go home to his family.
“I did warn you one of you will die, Sparky will go home, only because I want my sister back but I will kill you all. I give you my word.”
“I might be dying but you’ll be next to join me, I give you my word on that. When you join me in hell, I won’t be alone and I’ll be waiting for you. Cas won’t make me wait too long, I promise.”
Blood begins to fill my mouth and swallowing it only chokes me. I cough and feel it spray over my face.
“I used to like you, you were funny and for that, I won’t make you watch what happens next. Sparky is going home but he isn’t going in the condition he came in.”
One of his men come into view and swings a bat over his shoulder. Motherfuckers.
Cold metal presses against my temple and I continue to choke on my own blood. No matter what Sparky endures, he is going home and the club will help him heal. I know they will. The only reason I wanted to go home was so I could warm my stool at the bar and get blind fucking drunk. I would’ve healed from this and life would’ve carried on and I would’ve carried on drinking to the extreme. Nothing would’ve changed for me, Sparky has a lifetime in front of him with his son, that shit changes all the time watching them grow.
In the cold light of day, I wouldn’t have searched for Shellie. I haven’t done it for all these years because I wanted her happy having a life she always wanted. I wouldn’t have ruined it for her now just because I came close to death. My love for her isn’t selfish. It’s one of the things I got right in my life.
I don’t regret anything, no matter how angry I am at myself for letting her leave. I couldn’t be anything else but a Lost Soul and we both knew it.
“I change my mind. Sparky isn’t going home either. I like watching Lost Souls die too much.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cas
Everyone is in place. The house is barely standing and is quiet. So far everything looks the same as what Melissa sketched for us.
There are no bikes around, but one truck parked around the back. We’re too late to catch Danny, I just hope Sparky and Oak are still here. I’ve put a lot of faith in the hope that Danny will stiff us over at the swap, and I hope I’m not wrong.
Slade comes up beside me and readies himself for anything.
“What now?” he asks.
“I want you, Pope and Ricky with me, everyone is to hang back unless we call for them.” I say, knowing he will get the message to everyone dotted around the house.
We parked our bikes up the road and off into the trees so they can’t be seen from the road.
There’s no movement in the windows, top or bottom and no one makes a sound. An eerie calmness settles around us.
I step out of the trees and into the open, keeping my eyes everywhere. Pope, Ricky and eventually Slade follow suit and together we head for the house. We get closer and I nod for Pope and Ricky to go around the back.
Slade and I walk slowly up the front steps and the screen door creaks open, if anyone is in the house they will definitely hear us coming.
The front room is clear and Slade silently tells me the other room is clear too. We move silently through the hall and there’s two men sitting at the table with Pope and Ricky and both their guns on them.
“Is anyone else in the house?” I ask.
They both shake their heads no, like I’ll take their word for it, I don’t know why I bothered asking.
“Slade, Ricky, go check out upstairs.” I point my gun at the guy Ricky had his gun on and I wait till I hear their boots lightly climbing the old wooden stairs.
“Where’s Danny?”
No one says anything, not until Pope pushes his gun into the back of one of their heads with force.
“He left an hour ago to meet you.”
“Did he take my men?”
“One of them.”
“It’s clear,” Slade calls down.
“You ready?” I ask Pope.
“Fuck yeah,” he smiles.
I don’t bother with a count, we both pull our triggers and the two men slump down onto the floor, their blood oozing across the wooden floor.
Pope walks out of the room first and stops by a door.
“You didn’t give them their last rites,” I point out.
For as long as I’ve known him, he has always said them.
“Things change.” He grunts.
Ever since Sally dumped Kyla on him, he has changed. He’s more approachable, and he talks more without having to be spoken to first. And now, he isn’t saying his ritual.
“Cas, you should come and look at this,” he grunts, as Slade and Ricky come down the stairs.
Stepping around Pope, he moves back and points to the blood smeared across the door and wooden panels under the stairs.
I jiggle the handle and it opens easily. Peering down into the darkness, I take the first step down and then another. A small window doesn’t offer much light, but Slade finds the light switch on his way down and Sparky’s broken form greets us when we reach the main basement. Dropping my gun to the concrete floor, I rush to Sparky’s side and ignore the amount blood across the room from him. He isn’t moving but his chest is rising and deflating very slowly.
“Sparky,” I yell, trying to bring him round.
His face is unrecognisable, bruised and covered in dried blood from a major cut opening his right cheek. His colourful tattoos on his scalp can’t even hide the dark bruising and blood.
“Check his arm out,” Pope grunts.
“He’s been shot, looks like it skimmed his flesh.”
“Where’s Oak?” Ricky asks.
I don’t look at the pool of blood and concentrate on Sparky. The guy upstairs said they took one of them so there is nothing I can do about that right now.
“Sparky, wake up,” I yell, again, slapping his face but not too hard.
It takes too long for his eyes to flutter open and he nearly has me thinking he wasn’t going to wake up at all.
“Sparks, it’s me, Cas,” I coax, trying to get him to focus on me.
I see the second it registers and he begins shaking, from head to toe.
“I died,” he croaks.
“No you didn’t, brother. You’re alive and we’re gonna take you home now. First, do you know where they took Oak?”
His face contorts in pain and it worries me when he doesn’t try to get up on his own. He’s never been one to stay down.
“I don’t know, but he’ll be dead if I ain’t.”
I can barely hear him, his chest is rattling and he sounds awful.
“Is that his blood?” Pope grills hard, but to no good.
Sparky’s eyes roll around and it’s obvious he’s struggling to stay awake.
“Come on, we have to get him out of here,” I say, sliding my arms under his back, “call the prospect and have him drive up to the house, and help me carry him.”
I don’t know who I’m barking orders to but Pope, Ricky and Slade all move into action. Slade gets on his phone and Pope and Ricky each help lift Sparky without causing more pain for him. He half groans and moans and it’s such a sweet noise, to think we could be lifting his dead body off the floor right now. We’ll get him to the doc and he’ll get better, Oak on the other hand, is still another fight.
Getting him up the stairs is diffi
cult because of his size and being deadweight. Moving him through the house is easier and the prospect pulls up as Slade opens the front door for us.
Noah and the others filter out of the trees and run over to surround us.
“Is Oak not here?” he asks, looking past us into the house.
“No,” I grate out through gritted teeth, in frustration.
“Get those fuckin’ doors open.” I shout.
The prospect yanks the doors open and together, we lay Sparky down and he remains unconscious.
The time is too late to ride out to the old yard and make it there before he leaves. My blood pumps angrily, every pulse in my body thrumming, and there aren’t enough bullets in the world I could lay my hands on to seek revenge with.
“Burn it to the fuckin’ ground,” I yell, losing my temper altogether. The prospect passes by me and I shove him into the side of the van. His face pales and he shrinks his head down into his neck.
“Drive Sparky straight to the clubhouse, do not stop for anything or anyone.”
“Su..sure..” he stutters.
I release him and he stumbles to the side. I turn around and face my brothers, relief washes through them gaining one brother, but frustration grows stronger not having Oak.
We were on the right track with their location, it was our timing that was wrong. One of the brothers that came with Noah, exits the house with smoke billowing out after him and shortly after, flames begin to grow in the upstairs window.
“I couldn’t find any accelerant, so I set fire to all the curtains and bedding, and left a lit cigarette on the couch. The place won’t be standing for long.” He tells me, looking proud with himself.
I don’t have time to stand around and praise him, Sparky needs a doc and Oak is still out there and bleeding heavily judging by the pool of blood back in the basement.
We have a long ride back but I have a feeling it won’t take as long as it normally does.
“Everyone back to your bikes, we ride surrounding the van and shield our brother all the way.”
Within seconds, everyone is moving and heading back for their bikes. I bang on the side of the van and the prospect starts the engine.
He could be going full speed with a ten-minute head start, but it won’t take us long to catch them up. I watch the van until it drives out of sight before returning into the trees and back to my bike.