Saving Della Ray

Finally, she broke her gaze from mine and turned to him. “I’ll make the call. I don’t need a reason stronger than Gage’s supposed death for me to move out of the county for a fresh start.”

I couldn’t breathe.

Yuri pulled his phone out of his pocket and she went with him as they returned to the cabin’s living room.

Gage

I heard the car crawl to a stop and waited for Michael to come to me.

The first thing they noticed as they walked into the room was the body of their colleague sprawled across the bed that had now turned a bloody red.

“Holy Fuck!” Tav roared.

Michael staggered away in fright. They were both completely speechless for the first few moments before Michael darted his head around for lingering danger. His eyes instantly connected with mine at the opposite end of the room, where I was seated while calmly waiting for the both of them.

All the color drained away from his face.

“Isn’t this …” Tav stuttered. “The fucking biker from Order of Blood?”

“Aren’t you meant to be dead?” Michael gasped. A crazy laugh escaped Michaels lips then as he shook his head in realization. “You tricked everyone. You’re the fucking rat.”

I wasn’t interested in him … yet. Instead I looked at Tav.

He had begun to slowly retreat away from the room.

The sound of a cocking gun came from behind him. He froze, his hands in the air. When he glanced around and saw Yuri behind him, he shut his eyes with defeat. He knew it was an ambush. The game was up, but he didn’t know why. “What the fuck is going on?” he asked.

“Do you remember Mace Herald from the Black Angels club?” I asked.

Not even an ounce of recognition flashed in his eyes.

I went on, “Three years ago, on June 15th, you knocked on the van of his window at the Maple Canyon intersection. And when he rolled down the glass, you put five fucking bullets into his head. His wife couldn’t recognize him, you lowlife. He had two kids. Babies. But you don’t care, do you? Nah …”

His eyes widened with the memory. “Joker? Are you talking about Joker? What the fuck does he have to do with you?”

“He was my best friend.”

“How the fuck is that possible? He was a fucking agent … he was working for the ATF and that’s why the club—”

“You only found that out a year later. You killed him because he found out about the funds you stole from the club’s merchandise. He called you out on it and told you to report yourself to the club, but you killed him to save your own fucking neck. It’s taken me a long time to catch up to you, and here I am. I swore to avenge him, so time’s up for you, I guess.”

“So what now?” he asked. “You’re going to off me too, do the same to me as I did to him? You can’t, can you? You’re the law.” He had the audacity to smile.

I pulled out my gun and pointed it straight at him. The smile dissipated from his face at the realization that I wasn’t joking.

I cocked my gun and his hands flew up in a useless warding off gesture.

He was gunned down straight through the heart, and then through the abdomen to throw off the precision of the hit when they ran their investigations. Being hit in an attempt to attack us would be his end story.

As he dropped down to the floor, breathless and bleeding out, I placed the gun on my lap and turned to Michael.

He instantly dropped down to his knees, his hands together in a panicked plea. “Bone, I didn’t mean to harass her. I swear to fucking God. I was just going to scare her a little bit … but never hurt her. I have feelings for her too. I was just a bit angry at how she had treated me … She chose you over me, man and that hurts. You know how it is … Just please. There’s no need for this—we can just go our separate ways. I swear, I’ll never tell anyone, or even cross your path again.”

“We need to wrap up and get out of here. We have a lot of explaining to do,” Yuri said.

I gazed down at Michael as he covered his head, his entire body trembling with fear.

I sent two bullets into him. One in his left arm and the other straight through his lungs.

After wiping my prints, I handed the gun over to Jeremiah and walked out of the room. I then sat with Della-Ray as she made the call to say she’d been kidnapped.

When she was done, she turned to me, tears in her eyes. “Will everything be okay now?”

“I think so. But even if it’s not, I promise you that I’ll never leave you to face anything alone again.”