Chapter Twenty-One

“Get the fuck off me!” Ronin roared. “I swear to fucking God I will shoot you!”

“Let him up,” Brim ordered.

The knee in his back left and Ronin jumped to his feet to race after the car that Keres had been taken in. The only thing left was watching their taillights disappear over the hill. He stormed back inside the clubhouse, ready to pound some jaws. He pointed to Ghost.

“I’m going to fucking break you, asshole!”

Before he could even get near, Brim grabbed his arm, holding him back.

“Let me go!”

“Calm down,” Brim demanded.

Ronin rounded on him. “Calm down? Would you fucking calm down if it was Leia in Davorin’s car instead?”

“Leia is my old lad y— ”

“And Keres is mine!” Ronin yelled.

Understanding lit up Brim’s face. “It’s like that, huh?”

“You let her walk away.” His voice cracked. “You fucking let her get into that maniac’s car.” Fear. Panic. Both emotions vied for dominance, and he couldn’t seem to figure out which was worse.

“I’m sorry.” Vivi’s small voice cut through his haze of powerless anger. “I begged her to save Lincoln.”

They all turned to see Lincoln sitting on a chair with a bag of frozen peas pressed on his swollen eye. Vivi held a towel stained with blood.

“What?” Ronin asked, confused.

“I begged her,” she whispered, ashamed. “I knew she could save him.”

His despair snapped. Ronin charged at her, but Lincoln sprang from the chair to step in front of Vivi.

“Don’t you fucking dare lay a hand on her,” he warned.

“I’m sorry, Ronin,” Vivi cried. Tears ran down her cheeks.

Ronin’s fists clenched and unclenched. He turned and stomped away, coming to a stop at the threshold. He turned and looked at Brim.

“If she dies,” he said in a low, dangerous tone, “I will never forgive this club.”

“We’re your brothers,” Brim reminded him.

“Yes, so, please help me get her back.”

Brim walked over and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We will.”

“He’s going to torture her.”

“Don’t think about that. Concentrate on what we’re going to do. You have to push your emotions aside if you want to help her.”

Ronin took a deep breath. It took every ounce of his strength to not fall apart.

“Ghost, you and Ronin chase after the car,” Brim ordered. “Thorn, call Hunter and Ares and get them back here. Set up a perimeter to make sure Davorin’s men don’t double back.”

Men moved quickly. Ronin was halfway out the door before Brim pulled him back.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“As long as I get her back in one piece, yes,” Ronin replied.

“I’ll call Mac and see if he can trace Davorin’s route. I’ll send all the data to your phone.”

“Thanks,” he muttered. “Tell Mac she has a tracker in her phone.”

Brim nodded, then Ronin headed out to his bike. He and Ghost sped after the black SUV that held his woman.

****

“You know, I admire what you’ve done. From being a victim to this badass warrior chick in front of me. I mean, you sliced off dicks! And then stuffed them in their mouths.” Davorin kissed his fingers like an Italian chef. “So vicious. So beautifully demented! Why the fuck aren’t you on my payroll?”

Keres didn’t respond. Her heart thundered with dread, yet each mile they traveled brought a sense of relief. The danger she had brought to the Death Riders door was shut. They were safe. Wiping the tears from her cheek with the palms of her hands, the ring caught her attention. Now that she could breathe easier, her mind snapped back to the half-thought plan she had in Ronin’s bedroom.

“Don’t cry,” he ordered. “I’m not going to have my men rape you. Been there, done that. Am I right? Unfortunately, I do have to make an example out of you. No hard feelings, okay? It’s just business. Unless … you want to make it up to me some other way?”

He ran a finger over her thigh, watching her. He expected her to agree. It was written across the sardonic sneer twisting his face. What he failed to realize was that she’d never beg him for anything. Keres spat at him, letting the saliva be her answer. Anger flashed over his face and without warning, he backhanded her. She emitted a sharp cry as she fell sideways against the SUV door.

“Torture it is,” he said bitingly.

She held her cheek, watching him warily as they traveled further and further from Death Riders territory. Should she use the toxin on him now? His Deathman sitting in the front passenger seat would probably kill her right away, but she would at least take out the asshole before that happened. She had to do something soon, though, because when they reached their destination, she’d be strung up like a Thanksgiving turkey without any hope of taking out Davorin.

Timing was everything.

In her mind’s eye, she plotted each move she had to make. Use one ring on Davorin, somehow take out the guard, and force the driver to stop. She’d worry about the other cars following them when she had to.

“Aren’t you going to beg me not to hurt you?”

Her gaze snapped up to his. “I already know the answer.”

“You won’t see another sunrise,” he sneered. “I plan to make an excellent example out of you.”

“I figured death was where this was headed.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You seem a little too calm.”

She shrugged. “Do you want me to rant and rave, and try to make a deal with you not to kill me?”

“It’d be normal.”

“Not my style,” she taunted. “Tell me, did Sapphira recover from her drugging? Did she feel violated? Because that’d be interesting considering that’s what your men did to me.”

Fury took over and he grabbed her arm to yank her up, getting in her face, just as she hoped.

“I’m going to skin you alive,” he spat. “You’re going to wish you’d never been born.”

Slowly, she carefully opened the hidden compartment on the ring.

“You first,” she said. Then she brought her hand up and blew the white powder into his face, directly over his nose and mouth.

“What the fuck?” he hissed, wiping his face. “What is this shit?”

Davorin let go of her and she scooted back as far as possible, watching him. She closed the ring and waited. His Deathman in front turned to look at them.

“Boss?”

Davorin’s eyes watered, and he wiped the tears away, no doubt smearing some poison into them.

“Ah!” he cried. “It burns.”

He coughed and gasped for air, only to cough again.

“Boss?”

Davorin turned to look at her. The cool, calm, and arrogant crime lord was gone. Panic and anxiety blanketed his face. More coughing, turning into an agonized wheeze.

“What did you do to me?” His tone bordered on hysteria.

“I poisoned you.” Keres flickered her gaze at the Deathman. “Tell your goon to give me his gun and maybe I’ll give you the antidote.”

“Do it!” Davorin ordered and the man handed over his nine mil. “The antidote. Give it to me! Right now!”

The gun was passed to her.

“There’s no antidote, you idiot,” she mocked, pointing the gun at him. “You’ve ingested sarin powder. And this shit was found in a lab somewhere in Russia, so I’m betting it’s pretty potent stuff.”

“No!” he shouted. “No, no, no!”

He furiously wiped his face, as if that would save him.

“That’s exactly what I said to my rapists,” she mused. “I’m going to take a page from them and ignore your protests.”

She flipped the safety off the gun, and before anyone could react, she moved the barrel and shot the Deathman in the face. Blood and brain matter flew everywhere, and Keres had to wipe it off her cheek. The SUV swerved a little as the driver glanced in terror at the dead man crumpled next to him. With her ears ringing with the reverb, she swung the gun to point at the driver.

“If you want to live, keep driving like normal,” she ordered, pressing the barrel against the back of his head. “Understand?”

“Y-yes,” he replied.

When she was positive he wasn’t going to give her any trouble, she refocused on Davorin.

“Sarin is a terrible way to go,” she said, with a small shake of her head. “About now your breathing should be very labored because fluid is accumulating in your lungs. I imagine it must feel like you’re drowning. Heavy chest tightness. Blurred vision. Paralysis.”

He coughed had turned into a desperate rasp, and he frantically clawed at his throat.

“When your men raped me and failed to kill me, I swore I’d do anything to avenge not only myself but my friend as well,” Keres continued. “I learned everything I could about you. Your businesses. Importing drugs. Selling people like they’re cattle. Running guns. You’re a really, really bad man.”

“Please,” he wheezed. Drool started to drip from the corner of his mouth as his muscles seized.

“I know there are bad people everywhere, because I’m one of them.” She shook her head. “You made me, you know. You created me. And now you’re going to die, and I’m going to sit here and watch the life leave your ugly fucking face.”

“My m-men will kill you.”

“I know,” she said solemnly.

It only took another minute before Davorin slumped in his seat, staring into eternity. Gasping for air as his brain tried desperately to stay alive. The death rattle, it was called.

Then his chest stopped rising.

It was over. She’d done it. For Abigail. For Jonathan. For Darby. For herself. The monster was gone, and the most heavenly sense of peace descended over her. Leaning her head back, tears of relief gathered in her eyes. Blinking them away, Keres turned the gun back onto the driver.

“If you want to stay alive, I suggest you don’t do anything stupid.”

“What do you want?” he demanded.

“Pull over to the shoulder of the road.”

“There are three cars behind us. They’re going to fuck you up.”

“Just do it.”

He didn’t say anything else as he flipped on his turn signal and pulled onto the shoulder. Three cell phones went off immediately as Davorin’s men were probably wondering what the hell was going on. As soon as the SUV came to a stop, she shot the driver. He slumped over and his blood and brain matter mingled with the goon she killed a few minutes earlier. Knowing she didn’t have time, she hurried to find his gun, not wanting to touch Davorin’s body and retrieve his.

With a gun in each hand, she glanced at the mirrors, watching as the Deathmen carefully approached. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get out of this, but she was going to damn well try. The door could be used as a shield. No doubt Davorin paid to have his vehicle bulletproofed. Each gun had nine rounds, and two were already spent. Then she heard the unmistakable rumble of motorcycles, and her heart sped up with happiness. Ronin had come for her.