24. ~Levi~

24

~Levi~

Six Years Ago

She was so beautiful.

Like a princess.

She even had a jeweled tiara on to go along with it.

But the white summer dress beneath a black leather jacket… no, it was like she was an angel who'd been dragged through the gates of hell because of some awful mix-up.

I knew who she was really.

The club princess of the Steel Dawn Motorcycle Club.

I'd met her before when my dad had taken me to the clubhouse her father ran. A couple of months back. It had been part of his training, to show me how to do business, how to strike deals with dangerous men. And Curt Walker had definitely fit the bill. But so did my dad.

That made it all the harder to swallow that this had happened.

That I'd been taken.

I didn't want to think about it.

When reality was too brutal, fantasy helped you through.

So she was an angel to me. One who'd lost her way, one who the bad men would come to realize didn't belong here soon. And then they'd take me with her as they sent her back to the good place where she was really supposed to be.

I started as I watched her fingers flex in her binds, nasty zip-ties trapping her to that metal chair just like they were with me a few feet to her right.

Hope blossomed as her head moved and shifted from its uncomfortable lolled state.

And then she raised it, wincing. It had to be from the nasty bruise I'd seen on the left side of her face when they'd dragged her in here and bound her right beside me. I'd yelled so much when I'd seen them manhandling her that one of the bad men had knocked me out. Now I had a bruise the same place that she did. She also had a nasty cut down the right side of her face, though. It had to hurt. But one grimace and she seemed to just shrug it off, as she opened her eyes and fully came to.

Whiskey.

Her eyes were the color of the liquor my dad drank.

His favorite kind. Something he called top-shelf. I forgot the brand. It didn't matter, I'd tasted the stuff when he'd offered me a sip as some sort of rite of passage, and I'd nearly thrown up, I'd hated it so much.

Oh crap, my mind was wandering all over.

My dad always warned me to keep my focus, especially in tense situations. This was way beyond that, though. Way.

"Hi there."

I jolted and it took me a moment to realize that the angel was speaking to me.

Her voice was the sweetest sound.

I'd heard nothing for hours on end and hearing her… I'd never forget it.

"Curt Walker's daughter. Brianna, right?" I whispered back.

"Yeah." She took me in, noting my school uniform—black pants and a now rumpled and dirtied formerly white shirt. They'd taken my tie, but I still had my school blazer on—royal blue with golden markings and the uppity school's crest. "Levi Knight. Roman's son."

I nodded. "Are you all right?"

She smiled and it was amazing through this awfulness. "Of course."

I frowned. "You're lying."

Her lips quirked. "Why do you say that?"

"Your eye twitched."

"Right, that's my tell."

"Like in poker?"

"In life. Say a lie into the mirror when you get home and see if you have one, then school it. Practice and no one will ever know. It'll help you out a great deal as you get older, especially in our world."

"Our world? The badness, you mean?"

She smiled, but this time it was sad. "Yeah."

A gloomy silence filled the space between us and I hated it. I couldn't take it again. So many hours of nothing but the screeching of doors in the distance and heavy footsteps all over. The bad men's footsteps.

"You're dressed so nice. Were you at a party?"

"In a way. It was my high school graduation ceremony. We were on our way to the party afterward when—" She stopped herself and looked at me. "I mean, when this detour happened."

"I'm fifteen, not stupid. We've been kidnapped."

She stared at me for a moment. And then she sucked in a breath. "We'll sort it out, get you home for dinner."

"And you to your party?"

"Exactly." She started looking all around, then studying the chair and the binds. "I'm going to hasten that along, but I need your help."

"That's dangerous. They got angry at me for trying to stop them from tying you to the chair when you were unconscious earlier. And that was barely anything. If they find us trying to escape, it won't just be a knockout punch to the face that we'll suffer."

"They did that to you?" she seethed.

"Yeah."

"You're just a kid. Those sick bastards."

"I might be a kid, but I'm also Roman Knight's heir."

She sighed. "I get it, believe me. Being Curt Walker's little princess comes with a crapload of stuff like that too. This isn't even my first time being taken. Last time was by a rival club."

"Oh my God. What happened?"

Something dark flittered across her face.

But it was only for a moment before that sunshine returned and she told me, "Nothing much. Steel Dawn MC showed up quickly and got me out."

Why didn't I believe her there?

"I didn't see who was responsible for taking us tonight. The guys that tied us up were wearing ski masks and they didn't speak, didn't come in to tell me what was going on, or how long we were going to be here, nothing."

"That doesn't bode well."

"You don't think?"

She caught herself again, forcing a smile. "We'll be fine. There's two of us, we can work well with that. Now, listen carefully, our ankles are tied with rope, not zip ties. They've used special knots, but I can walk you through how to undo it. We'll slide our chairs close enough to one another, then I'll knock my chair over so I can reach behind me to untie your feet and then—"

"And if they catch us in the middle of this?"

"Given that you're here alongside me, it's clear who took us. Malcolm Lynch and his organization. We can't wait, believe me."

"Lynch? Never heard of him."

"Then your dad has done his job well shielding you." She rolled her eyes. "Much better than mine. Lynch didn't take us for ransom or leverage. He's taken us as punishment, to hurt our fathers."

I swallowed hard.

But before I could respond, the door screeched open.

A figure came into view and we watched as he sealed the door behind him, then drew closer.

It wasn't one of the bad men this time. No ski-masks.

In his forties but well-preserved with very few age lines, the guy was built like a linebacker. He had a dirty-blond buzz cut that gave him a severe edge. Those beady eyes of his added a creep factor too. He was dressed in a pair of gray dress pants and a V-Neck muscle tee, a forest of chest hair showing through.

He smirked as he caught us looking at him warily.

He pointed at himself in dramatic fashion with two thumbs. "Malcom Lynch."

He drew ever closer with wide, measured strides. "We're going to be spending a lot of time together, so best to know whose care you're in."

"What do you want?" I found myself blurting out.

The rapidly ramping up tension combined with the hours' long wait I'd already endured was apparently making me more impatient than usual.

He looked at me and that nasty smirk spread like an infection. "Two little heirs to formidable empires," he mused, looking us over, a sadistic gleam flashing in his eyes. "That will be remedied over our time together. You'll break, and without heirs, your fathers' legacies end. Not to mention how destructively they'll react when they see what I've done to their precious offspring. Two empires will fall and with the heirs useless they will never be resurrected."

Brianna hissed. "Your plan is foolish. Neither of us are heir apparent. Steel Dawn MC won't accept a woman as President. And Levi isn't destined for the family business either, he's treading his own path. My dad showed me an announcement that Roman was a couple of days away from making to that effect. So doing this is completely pointless."

Wow, she was good. Amazing, actually. None of that stuff about me was true. My dad was training me to take his place one day, to carry on our legacy. Or, our dynasty, as he called it.

Lynch walked up to Brianna, his lip curling. "You've inherited Curt's smarts, I see. His defiance too."

I yelled out as he shot out his hand and grabbed her jaw in a painful hold.

"His overconfidence too, pretty princess."

"Get your fucking hands off me," she seethed.

"Daddy's not here to save you now, so I wouldn't be making demands if I were you."

"Get off her!" I shouted, bucking in my chair.

He swung his head toward. "Getting worked up already at this? That doesn't bode well for you, boy. I've barely touched her yet."

Yet? Oh my God.

"Don't. Don't hurt her."

"It's okay, you won't be left out. You'll get to enjoy the show."

"Take me instead. Hurt me. My father is way more powerful than hers. It'll be a much bigger coup to break me and mess with his empire."

He released her roughly and spun to me.

"No, Levi!" Brianna cried. She fought against her binds wildly. "Don't hurt him, you monster. He's just a kid! Just a fucking kid! Kidnapping him is traumatizing enough, you don't need to do more to him. I'll take it all. I'll be compliant, or I'll fight… whichever pleases you."

Lynch pulled up short and eyed her incredulously. "My, my, what an offer."

He stepped up to her and trailed his thumb over her lips, exerting painful pressure that made her grunt. "Such a pretty mouth." He ripped open his belt. "Prove to me you'll give what you've offered first and I won't touch the boy." He paused as my yells became more vehement with every passing second, his fists clenching in agitation.

Brianna noticed and tried to save me in yet another way, telling him, "Let him go."

"Can't do that. Roman needs a lesson."

"Then at least take him out of the vicinity. He doesn't need to see any of what's coming. He's already traumatized like you wanted."

"Best to take it all the way then, isn't it?"

He ignored Brianna's protests as he stormed to me and drew a flip knife from his pocket.

Before I could even react, he was sweeping it across the left side of my throat, cutting painfully through my flesh.

"Won't kill you, but it'll certainly serve as a warning for you to shut the hell up. Know that I'll do far worse if you don't."

Brianna was bucking in her chair, and shouting. She looked so pained for me, it was hard to stomach, much more than the brutal burning pain in my throat now.

With a roar, Lynch thrust his boot into my chair, sending it careening onto its side. I cried out as I remained bound tightly to it as it hit the concrete with a bone-jarring thud.

"That'll do for now," Lynch said, striding predatorily back to Brianna.

He grabbed her jaw again to stop her screaming protests on my behalf. And then, with his free hand, he opened his pants.

No. No. No!

I saw Brianna's fingers tightening around the chair arms, her body trembling, even as I could see her fighting to hide it, to muster courage.

Our gazes clashed and pain met pain.

"Close your eyes," she beseeched me.

But I couldn't.

I couldn't leave her alone in this.

So I kept eye contact with her throughout.

And it killed a piece of my soul knowing that was all I could do to help her.

I snapped back to reality, feeling my pulse pounding in my ears, my hands shaking.

Next, I would be struggling to breathe easily and sweating profusely.

I was on the verge of having my first anxiety attack in ages. Fuck.

I'd often thought about that time, obviously. Especially with my mission at hand, and through connecting with Brianna again. I also had recurring nightmares about it if I allowed myself to sleep for more than a couple of hours a night. But I'd never actually spoken about it or gone there in detail like I just had, I'd never recalled that hellscape to the point of basically having to relive it.

And I hadn't even covered more than a very small portion of what had gone down over those two weeks. Not who else had been dragged in there. Not how Brianna's gunshot wound scar in her back had been caused in that place. Not what else had happened to us.

I couldn't.

It should be enough to make Mason understand where I was coming from, though.

I sank against the wall, trying to stop myself from entering into a full-blown attack.

Looking out at Brianna, I saw Colt on the arm of the chair beside her now, stroking her back and whispering words of comfort to her as she leaned forward with her head buried in her hands.

I wanted to go to her, but I could barely move currently.

"It's okay, Wildflower, " I spoke, my voice sounding like it wasn't my own and like it was so far away. "You're safe. It's over, it's long over."

She lifted her head and instantly I saw that she was struggling with the same reaction that I was—she was having an attack. Her eyes were wide and glazed, sweat slicked her brow and down her chest, and she was panting. Just as Colt started to talk her through it like he and Mason used to do for me when I'd had attacks regularly, a wall of muscle blocked my visual.

I blinked, struggling to make out what was happening in my discombobulated state.

And then I managed to take in Mason through my blurred vision.

"I'm sorry, Lev. So sorry you both suffered through that."

I jolted as he grasped my biceps.

"Breathe with me. Focus on me."

I couldn't speak, could barely comprehend what he was saying.

He eased me closer, making more physical contact, and it was enough to get me to focus on my breathing with him.

"Good. Very good," he spoke softly at my ear.

"Mason," I croaked.

"It's all gonna be okay. I'm fucking here now, I swear it, brother."

He wrapped his arms around me in one of his warm bear hugs, and I sank into it.

For the first time in a really long while, I let him comfort me.

I let him see the pain beneath the armor.