In the Arms of the Beast (Kings of Hell MC 5)

“Holy shit,” Knight said, already at his side, but Beast was fine. He was always fine, and a tiny bit of fire couldn’t change that, even if the entrapment still left him with an uneasy tension running up and down his chest.

Vars, Gray, and Shadow were trying to deal with the inferno, but Beast remembered what happened at the end and looked at Magpie, who sat cross-legged next to him. Malachite tried to take care of an ugly cut running along his master’s forearm, but Magpie shushed him, shaking his head like a child, and briefly covering the wound with the torn sleeve of his shirt.

To be fair, it didn’t seem like he was bleeding out.

“Thank you,” Beast whispered, so drained he couldn’t bring himself to get up just yet.

Only now was his brain getting enough oxygen for him to connect the dots. Magpie had broken the glass from the outside and put his hands into the fire to help Beast out. The act was so uncharacteristically unselfish, Beast didn’t know what to think.

“Are you fine?” Magpie asked, crawling closer instead of attending to the wound on his arm, which looked way worse from up close, with some of the flesh parting like a chicken breast cut a quarter of an inch deep.

Beast frowned. “Are you?”

Magpie stared at his forearm with a scowl. “No, I’m in pain, and my Yohji Yamamoto shirt is ruined, but I can’t have my child’s father die before Marcel is even born.”

Joker snorted somewhere in the background, but Beast no longer found Magpie’s words amusing or offensive. If creating Marcel for Beast and Laurent had made Magpie see them all as his family then so be it. The man had just taken a massive risk to save Beast’s life. That counted for something.

“Thanks. You should get that taken care of,” Beast said, indicating the cut.

Malachite was, as always, hiding behind men-in-black type shades, but the concern painted all over his face wasn’t even comical. Whatever his relationship with Magpie was, he really did care for his master.

“Please, let me take you to the camp.”

Magpie glanced at the wrecked machine with a sigh, but eventually allowed Malachite to help him up. As they made their way toward the golden Hummer, Joker scooted by Beast, with his silly grin in place.

“And there I was, thinking you didn’t appreciate the barbeque,” Joker said and handed him a bottle of water.

Gray was approaching with an empty extinguisher in hand, but the concern on his face was clear too.

“I switched it off!” Shadow boasted, following him with springy steps.

Beast sat in the grass, trying to even out his breathing, despite the burning stench reminding him of the danger he’d barely escaped. Nausea kept assaulting his senses until Knight nudged his thigh with the tip of his boot, triggering a boost of annoyance in Beast’s veins.

“What?”

Knight scowled but showed him the open bottom of the console. “The batteries are fine, but someone cut one of the wires inside. The thing did work just yesterday, so I don’t know what the fuck happened.”

The sinking feeling in Beast’s chest pushed him back into the memory of flames, and he started coughing.

It was Fox who voiced Beast’s thoughts instead. “Are you saying we have a rat working against us?”

Beast clenched his teeth, trying to rein in the anger exploding in his chest. “What else do you think this looks like?”

Knight shook his head without the usual smile and pointed to the charred cab of the machine they never had the chance to use. “This is fucked for the day.”

Beast couldn’t believe they had a traitor in their own house. As if things weren’t bad enough already. He could have died before even meeting his child. “When we find who it is, he’s dead. Don’t even think about it. Shoot the bastard on sight.”

Chapter 22 - Laurent

Laurent was attempting to distract himself by cleaning the counter for the tenth time, but his mind was still racing after the text message from Elliot. Something had happened with the trees, but Laurent was stuck waiting to find out what. Elliot had been vague and then stopped answering, so Knight must have either told him not to, or Elliot was too busy with his boyfriend to care about Laurent. He was a good friend, but whenever Knight came into the picture, Elliot lost his damn mind.

Laurent had left Marcel in Nao’s care, because he’d gotten his lesson and realized that taking the egg to work had been a stupid idea from the start. If the situation allowed it, Laurent would have left Marcel with Jake, for maximum protection in case of any emergency, but all the guys had been busy, so that hadn’t been an option. And while Nao could act crazy sometimes, and led a life that wasn’t moral by most people’s standards, she was a good friend and her efficiency in keeping the clubhouse stocked up and working proved that she was responsible where it counted.