Death of Cupids (The Blood of Cupids MC) Page 14

  “Because you have nothing to do with this.” Now I was just snapping at him.

  “I know that it’s none of my business, but who is going to pick up the pieces when he leaves you again? I know you. You have no one else.”

  “I don’t need anyone else.” My tone deepened as my voice rang louder. “And I certainly don’t need you.”

  “You don’t mean that.”

  I didn’t answer him; I stood my ground.

  “You know what?” He slid off the bed, resigning himself. “Fine. Do whatever you want to do. I have to start my rounds.”

  “Mark…” I didn’t have anything to say, I just didn’t want to leave things that way.

  “You did this, Grace. You’re the reason no one can get close to you. You pushed me away.”

  Then Mark walked out on me; he had done the thing I never thought he could do. And yet again, I was alone in my hospital room. Yet again, I had said things I didn’t truly mean.

  I really did enjoy Mark’s friendship. He was there for me at a time when no one else was. He filled a void in my life. But he would never understand my past. He would never understand what I had been put through, what sacrifices I had to make. He would never understand the overwhelming sense of security that I felt when I was with Ryan compared to the utter vulnerability I felt at any other time. Maybe, in any other circumstance, Ryan leaving me with no word for half a year would be considered unforgivable, but I trusted that any excuses he had for his behavior were both valid and well intentioned.

  But, to Mark’s point, I was not, and I was never, a damsel in distress; and I refused to be treated as one. I had proved on countless occasions that I could take care of myself; I could hold my own in a tough situation. What was I doing? Why did I let Ryan leave without me? Why hadn’t I been the one to stand up for my part of our relationship?

  I tossed the warming blankets off my legs and swung them to the side of the bed. I looked the other way as I pulled the IV from my arm. I was going to go after Ryan. I was going to remind him that we were a team, and as a team, we could do anything. I had found the motivation I needed to finally take what I wanted.

  But just as my socked feet hit the bare floor, my attention was drawn to the door by the sound of squeaking wheels.

  “Do you need anything, Mrs. Cassidy?”

  The breath was knocked out of me as I stared down at my sleeping child swaddled in her pink blanket. “No.” I shook my head at the nurse as I sat back down. “No, I’m fine, thank you.”

  “Well, the doc said your baby girl is as healthy as can be. Ready to feed her?”

  What was I thinking? How could I put myself in harm’s way? This little person, my daughter, she needed me. She needed me to care for her. I couldn’t be reckless and stubborn any more. I had to protect myself so that I could protect her. Never before had I cared when or how I died. It was something I had never feared, never gave a second thought to, but in that moment I knew I had to live. I had to live for her. I had to let Ryan fight our battle on his own. I had to take a step back for our daughter.

  I couldn’t protect Ryan any longer.

  Ryan

  10:57.

  I was ten minutes later than I said I’d be when I pulled up to the Cupid’s clubhouse. I could have taken the car from the hospital, but there was still a chance things could go sour, and I wouldn’t be able to make it out of this mess alive. If that happened, I didn’t want Grace to be stranded at the hospital. I wanted her to be able to get herself and our daughter home. I had made a choice: I was thinking of her and only her from now on.

  So I left her the car and grabbed a cab back to Old City where I had parked my bike the day before. I hopped on, revved the engine, and took a deep breath before I sped down the cobblestone roads. I tried to call Rocky. I dialed his number over and over, but he was ignoring my call. I couldn’t get through to him. I needed to get to Rocky; he needed to see my face. He needed to know the seriousness of the situation. After the failed phone call attempts, the entire ride to the clubhouse was a blur. The streets were so familiar to me that I didn’t need to think, I didn’t need to focus. The only thing I needed to do was to get Rocky into the clubhouse before 11:00. If not, Sean would attack.

  I knew a group of twenty men, twenty-two including Sean and Danny, were currently hiding under the main meeting room of the Cupid’s clubhouse. Danny and a few of the guys had taken the night to plant explosives on the ceiling of their basement hide out. Once Sean gave the word, they would blow the ceiling, which would in turn cause the floor above to give. Whomever the fall didn’t kill, Sean’s group, my group, would then attack. They had the upper hand. They were prepared, and they were armed. The Cupids wouldn’t stand a chance.

  I needed to get there before 11:00.

  10:57. I was cutting it close, but I still had three minutes. I had three minutes to get Rocky inside a building that was about one hundred yards away.

  Rocky was leaning against his bike staring at his watch when I kicked up the parking lot stones. He stood tall when he heard me, breathing out an impatient sigh.

  “It’s about time, Ry.”

  “Where is everyone?” I jumped off my bike, landing directly in front of him.

  “Who?”

  “The club. Rock, where are the guys?” I needed confirmation that they were all in the clubhouse.

  “They’re all gathering for church.”

  Shit. “Rocky, we have to get inside.” I sped past him, grabbing onto his shirt in the process.

  “Whoa. Whoa.” He resisted my pull and wrapped his hand around my wrist, tugging me back. “I’m not going anywhere until you explain to me what is going on.”

  “I really don’t have time, Rock. Believe me, we need to get inside.”

  It wasn’t enough; he didn’t budge. “Well, that’s too bad, Ryan.” He gave me a light push. “What the fuck is going on with you?”

  10:58. I had no time to explain the facts to him, but Rocky refused to move. What did I have time to tell him? What would quickly make him see that I was trying to protect him, to protect the club? Did I tell him the rumors he heard were true? Did I tell him that I had helped found a new club that would rival his? Did I tell him how Sean had built a secret lair under the club? That he had been spying on them for months? That he was planning a takeover and would be more than happy if it turned hostile? Did I tell him that if Sean didn’t hear Rocky’s voice in two minutes the club would explode?

  “Sean is in there right now. If you don’t get in there, everyone is going to die.”

  Rocky just stared at me.

  10:59.

  “Rocky, move, do something… say something, anything.” I was becoming frantic.

  “What are… Sean is… and you…” He was trying to wrap his head around what I might have gotten myself into, and he wasn’t finding clarity. “Fuck, Ryan.”

  “I know. Believe me, I know. And you can curse me out all you want, but only after we get in there and save your people.”

  “And you let me wait here for an hour? You didn’t try to warn me?”

  “I called you a thousand times, Rock!” I yelled at him. “But that’s not the point.”

  “What the hell were you doing?”

  “Rock, it doesn’t matter. We have to get inside.”

  Rocky disappointingly shook his head, but finally took a step toward the club. I followed and then took lead, quickening my pace to a run.

  “Rocky, I am so sorry. For everything.”

  “Shut the fuck up. I don’t know you.”

  It stung, but I knew I deserved it. I had let the Cupids, the group of people who raised me, walk into a trap. If something happened to them, it was completely my fault.

  I tried to speed up my feet, but it was useless. The second hand on my watch was faster than my run.

  It turned 11:00 a.m.

  Then came the explosion.

  Grace

  I paced the room back and forth as I cradled my daughter in my arms. I w
as torn, to say the least. One minute I was planning my escape. I was working out ways that I could run away from this place and hide my daughter forever from the MC world, from Sean Cassidy. I thought of where I could go, how often I’d have to keep us moving around to ensure he’d never be able to find us.

  But then the other minute, the more intense and determined minute, I was thinking how easy it all would be if I could find it in me just to kill him myself. We’d never have to fear him; we wouldn’t have to constantly look over our shoulders. And of course, if I killed Sean, if I murdered him, Ryan could come back to me. He’d have no reason not to, and my daughter would know her father.

  But could I bring myself to do it? I had almost once before, in the warehouse just outside of Alexandria. If I could just harness those feelings again…

  I watched as he punched Ryan over and over again. His face, his stomach, his ribs, his face again, then his stomach. I couldn’t watch the torture any more. Ryan wasn’t fighting back. His body looked lifeless. Was I too late?

  I slowly walked over behind a swinging Sean and jabbed my bowie knife into his thigh. The trance-like state I was in both intensified and disappeared at the same time. I knew what I was doing, and it felt great. I felt powerful. I was able to stop the monster. But was it I stopping the monster? Why did my arms feel like someone other than myself was controlling them?

  Sean was on the floor, grasping at his thigh as I continued to push the knife in and out of his leg. I avoided his hand, aiming for the spots between his bloody fingers. I could’ve stopped, but I didn’t want to. He deserved to be tortured. He deserved to die.

  He did deserve to die. And I deserved to be the one to end his life. I stood over him, straddling him between my legs. Nothing could stop me. I raised the knife over my head as I aimed for his chest… as I aimed for his heart.

  “Grace!” I heard my name, but I didn’t know the meaning. “Grace, no!”

  It was Ryan. I knew that for sure. Ryan? He was calling me? Still positioned with the knife above my head, ready for gravity to give me power, I turned my head to the sound of the voice.

  It was Ryan, and he was calling me. Looking into his eyes shook me from my stupor-like state. Ryan was telling me to stop. Ryan didn’t want me to kill Sean.

  “Grace, knock him out.” I watched his lips move as his words pierced my ears. But I had to listen to him. Somewhere inside of me, I knew he was right. I found a PVC pipe against the wall and grabbed it in my hands, leaving bloodstains on the white plastic.

  Sean struggled to his knees, blood still pouring from the holes in his leg, but my swing was faster than his stance. The thick plastic pipe curled down, knocking him flat on the head.

  Sean fell from the blow, landing in a pool of his own blood.

  He didn’t move. What did that mean? Although I had fully planned on ending him right then and there, seeing him in an almost comatose state truly shook me. Did I do that? Was I the reason he wasn’t moving? Did I take his life from him?

  “Baby, you did it. You did it.” I did. Ryan told me I did. I took his life. I killed Sean. I killed Sean. I killed Sean. I couldn’t stop repeating that as I turned to Ryan.

  “Is he dead?”

  “No he’s not so we have to move fast. Where’s Danny?” So he wasn’t dead? I didn’t kill him? Why wasn’t he moving?

  Danny… Danny… I knew that name. Oh right, before Sean was Danny. “He’s outside. I kicked him a lot.” The words were just coming out of me. I didn’t plan them, I didn’t pick them, they just happened.

  “Grace, can you get the keys from Sean’s back pocket?”

  “Yes.” I saw the key ring. If I could do that, we could get out of there. Ryan could get to a hospital. This nightmare would be over. I knelt down and fished out a set of keys.

  “Great. Now untie me.”

  I wanted to kill him then, but could I replicate those emotions? Now, as a mother, was I given an extra dose of that need, that desire, to protect? Would it be enough to follow through on an act I had hoped I would never have to carry out myself? Would the sacrifice of taking another person’s life be worth the peace of mind I would have knowing my child will forever be safe?

  And if it were worth the psychological ramifications, all that would only work if I were successful, if Sean didn’t kill me before I killed him. And what were the chances of that happening? Wouldn’t there be a far greater possibility of my child ending up an orphan in the process? Could I really risk that?

  I peered down at her as she wriggled in my arms. I couldn’t risk that. I couldn’t leave her alone. We would have to run. It was the only option.

  But just as I had resigned myself to a lifetime of being on the run, I heard a familiar voice sneak up behind me.

  “Grace, I have to take you to him now.”

  Ryan

  No. That single word took over my thoughts. I was stopped in my tracks, letting the facts sink in. I didn’t get there in time. I didn’t deliver. This was my fault; I let this happen.

  The debris and dust from the explosion began to settle, and we were able to see the full extent of the damage. It looked as though it was just one wall that was affected by the blast. Whatever explosive they had decided to use wasn’t meant to completely demolish the place. Hopefully that also meant no one was terribly hurt; I couldn’t have that on my conscious as well.

  I started running again. I needed to see what had happened inside, and I needed to stop what was about to happen. I could hear Rocky close behind me. His pace quickened with mine. He was so obviously just as worried about what had happened to his club, to his members. And I was sure he felt almost as guilty.

  As I closed in on the building that stood in the spot of the one I had once called home, I saw Sean out of the corner of my eye. Our paths crossed at the door, where he made sure to stop me before I could enter.

  “Sean, stop this now.”

  He smugly smiled at me. “This was your plan, kid. I just followed your orders.”

  But he didn’t say it to me. He said it directly to Rocky, throwing it in his face that someone he once trusted, had so blatantly betrayed him.

  “Ryan, what’s he talking about?” I could hear the anger in his voice, but he only asked out of formality. Rocky was smart. He was putting the pieces together. He had heard the rumors. He knew what I had done.

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.” I cautioned.

  “So when you said, and I quote, ‘take the guys into the bunker under the clubhouse. If Rocky agrees, I’ll bring him back to the club. If not, you have full reign for a sneak attack,’ you didn’t mean that? What, you were just teasing me? You know I can’t resist a good fight.”

  I spun around to Rocky, ready to face the blow from my misguided plan. “Rock, please, you have to believe me.”

  “I actually don’t have to believe anything you say, Ryan.” He shook his head out of disappointment. “And right now, I need to go see my guys.” He tried to push past me, but Sean held up his hand to stop him.

  “I can’t let you go in there, not just yet. See, my guys, the guys Ryan so ruthlessly trained, are rounding up your guys. This is a takeover.”

  “You fucker.” Rocky jumped at him.

  “Stop this now!” I pushed my way between them, hindering the violence that was about to take form.

  “Ryan,” Sean placed his hand on my shoulder and looked me square in the face, “something seems different about you.”

  “Get off.” I tried to push him off by rolling my shoulder, but he locked eyes with mine as he dug his fingers in, letting me know he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Oh, no, no, no.” He shook his head at me before yelling into the doorway. “I need two guys and I need two guns, now!”

  “Sean, don’t do anything stupid.” I warned him.

  Within seconds, two guys with two guns were standing in the doorway.

  “Each of you, take one.” He pointed at Rocky and me.

  “Uh, boss…” One of the
guys obviously didn’t understand why he was supposed to hold me, his superior, at gunpoint.

  “Do not question me, just do it.”

  I looked at the gunman, making eye contact. “Just do as he says.”

  I was surrendering. I didn’t need any more bloodshed under my watch.

  “See, Ryan,” Sean began to circle me, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you went to see Grace sometime between last night and this morning.” I tried to keep my composure, to not let him see the change I felt when he said her name. “But see, I know that would be stupid, because we had a deal.”

  “What’s he talking about, Ryan?” Rocky was now genuinely concerned. I could feel my posture wilting as Sean continued to taunt me. There was no doubt that they both could see that too. I wasn’t able to hide anything.

  “Ha!” Sean cackled. “Maybe it’s you who doesn’t know any better. You saw her, and now you doubt everything that we’ve been planning for six months. Six whole months, Ryan! You see now why I was so adamant that you stay away from her, right? You did this to yourself. You’re the reason Grace has to die.”