One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil's Own, #1) (18 page)

Pushing my hands out in front of me, I feel for the wall and when I find it, I make my way to where the door once stood. Running out, I gasp for air. The crisp, fresh air soothing my lungs instantly.

“Meadow!” Alaina screeches from the crowd of injured people that made it out, and from where I can see the kids are not harmed.

I begin walking to her when the loud roar of bikes sound from down the street, vibrating the concrete under my feet.

The high gates open and in roars both clubs. The Sinful Souls’ men run to where Alaina and Vicky are located, checking to see if they’re okay, and when I look up, I see Beast, Hella, and their crew running up toward me.

Once Beast reaches me, he wraps me in his arms, engulfing me in his presence.

“Fuck! What the fuck happened? Are you okay?” he asks, checking me all over.

I push back. “We need to go back in there! Melissa is trapped. Phoebe and I tried to—” Hella was already storming off into the building before I could finish my sentence.

Beast kisses my forehead. “Wait here, I’ll go with him.” Nodding my head, I slowly let go of his hand as he follows Hella inside the, what was once, a perfect building.

I begin pace walking up and down, the rest of the guys watching my movements carefully.

“Meadow? I’m Hannibal. This is Ripper, Nyx, and Toke.” He points to the other men standing beside him. I nod my head with a small smile. “Hi. Okay, I’m going in,” I say, walking off toward the building.

“No. No, you can’t,” Hannibal says, pulling me back. “They won’t be long.”

Blake runs past me, storming into the building with Zane on his tail. I turn around to see Alaina, so I walk to her. “Hey, everyone okay?”

She nods. “Yeah, kids are a little shook up, though.”

“Has anyone called this in?” I ask, wrapping my arms around myself.

“Yeah, they have. In a few minutes, this place will be crawling with Feds, firefighters and bomb squad,” she answers, picking up a little girl.

Her body stills as she eyes the entryway to the bar. I turn around and see Hella carrying Melissa down with her wrapped in his cut.

Well, if that’s not owned, I don’t know what is. Phoebe is closely tucked into Blake while Zane and Beast walk beside Hella.

Beast scans the area for me and when his eyes find mine, his shoulders relax.

“Thanks for everything, Alaina.”

“No problem,” she smiles weakly at me.

I start walking back to Beast when he meets me halfway, wrapping his massive arms around me tightly. “Beast, that’s a little tight.”

His arms relax a little, pulling me into him. I watch as Hella takes a seat at the picnic table with Melissa on his knee. “She’s breathing. It’s like she’s asleep. What the hell happened to her?”

Walking to Hella, I take Melissa’s hand in mine. “What, you didn’t know?” I ask with a little venom in my tone.

Bringing his eyes up to mine, he narrows them. “No. Enlighten me.”

I take a seat beside him, keeping her hand in mine. “It seems Lisha got a little jealous tonight. Before the explosion happened, she put something in Melissa’s drink, had her dancing on the pole and everything. Anyway, she and her friend were videoing it and laughing at Melissa from across the room. So, I… um…” I pause, looking at Beast when he rounds the table and walks to me.

“You what?” he asks, eyebrows raised. My chest heaves as a sinking feeling pulls in my gut. Feels like I’m in trouble. Why does he have to be so sexy? Even my voice box submits to him.

“She whipped her ass that’s what,” Melissa coughs from her position.

Beast’s eyes narrow with a smirk.

“Melissa!” Standing, I scan her face.

“I’m fine, Meadow. What happened?” she asks, pushing away from Hella slightly. He doesn’t let go, and when I see the look he’s giving her, even I cringe.

She rolls her eyes. “Let me go, Hella.”

“Not happening.”

Rolling her eyes again, she readjusts her position, wrapping his cut around her tightly.

“There was an explosion. When Alaina took me out back to clean up my nose,” I begin, a hiss escaping Beasts lips and I flinch.

Jesus, what’s his problem, he’s far too intense.

“That’s when it happened.”

She tilts her head. “I only remember bits. I remember Lisha pulling you back by your hair, and I remember you jumping on top of her and pounding her face, but everything went blank after Phoebe arrived.” Her eyebrows drew in before looking up at Hella from her spot. Beast pulls me into him, taking a seat next to Hella and placing me on his lap. “Baby, you did
what
to Lisha’s face?” He laughs into my neck.

“She deserved it. She was out for Melissa… over you.” I narrow my eyes to Hella.

His jaw clenches. “Where is she?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Alaina told her and the rest of the whores to pack their shit and leave. Do you know who this was? Who did this?”

Beast shakes his head. “Nah, I don’t know. Now that both our chapters have joined, it could be about anything. The Russians are settled, it wasn’t them. That’s all we really know.” His hand rests on my upper thigh and my breathing hitches. He must feel me tense because he brings his hand back down on my knee and I relax instantly. I’m comfortable around Beast, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m a work in progress.

Running his lips over my back, he whispers, “Relax baby.” His breath skimming off my skin lightly.

Hella coughs from his position. “All right, since no-one else is going to ask, when did this become a thing?” he asks, raised eyebrows.

Flashing red and blue lights light up the area, bringing my attention back to the mess in front of me.

I shake my head while peering over my shoulder at Beast. “I don’t know. Good question?”

A smirk pulls across his lips, his eyes drifting down to my lips before traveling back to my eyes. His stare darkens, summoning a collection of lust to come rushing up from between my thighs before resting in my chest where it contracts tightly. He’s hot, it’s ridiculous. He’s all man, though. He’s not pretty, he’s strikingly handsome with an edge of danger. Not with me, but you can see it in his eyes. There’s a lonely emptiness inside those dark depths.

Throwing up his hood, he shakes his head. “Shut up, Hella.”

Is this what this is? A thing? We haven’t even kissed yet. As much as every time his large hands join with mine, it makes me want to jump his bones, but something tells me my body is a liar. I couldn’t jump anyone’s bones, it’s just not in my nature—I don’t think. Tapping my leg, he lays a soft kiss on my shoulder. “Hop up, baby. We need to get that arm looked at.”

I forgot all about my arm, I glance down and see the dried blood that has crusted over the wound and shrug. “It’s okay, I’ll get Alaina to stitch me up,” I answer, getting off his knee and scanning the crowd for Alaina. Phoebe is pacing up and down on the phone, probably talking to Ryder. She needs to get out of here before the media eat this place up.

“Arm up. Not the cut one, it needs to breathe,” Beast demands from behind me. I’m so new to feeling things for a man that I don’t know what is too much. I need to talk to the girls about it when this club stuff flies over. Raising my arm up, he drops his hoodie over me, the warmness of it blanketing me in warmth and the smell of sweet, musky man engulfing my senses. I smile because it smells of him, this is all him. He even smells like a man. He turns me around and tucks me under his arm. “Come on, we need to go and sort this out.”

I nod my head and cast a quick glance over at Melissa to see her and Hella arguing. Oh dear, I have no idea what the hell those two are trying to defy by being together but it’s not going to work. They are either too similar in things or polar opposites. You know that saying,
‘She be but little, but she be fierce
.’ Yeah, that’s Melissa to a T. She dances to her own beat, no-one else’s, especially not to the deep growl of a blood red Harley. Good luck to alpha domineering dark and alluring Hella. He and Beast are so similar it’s scary. Only Beast has more muscle on him and has dark hair, where Hella has mouse blond hair.

Walking to Zane and Alaina, Beast nods his head. “The fucking Feds are crawling all over.”

“Yeah, I know. Meadow, Alaina can take care of that arm.”

“Okay, thank you.” I look at Alaina as she points to her car.

“Come on, the second time I’ll be cleaning you up tonight and I don’t think you’ll be the last. It’s a good thing Vicky took the kids home.”

Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be her last either. I need to ask her some pointers on President alpha males. I feel I may have bitten off more than I can chew.

Watching Meadow walk toward Alaina’s car with her side-by-side has me itchy. I don’t fucking like what the fuck is going on. Of all times for shit to hit the fan, it has to be when I have Meadow.
If
I have her, I don’t know why I don’t just fucking kiss the girl. If I’m reading the signals right, she wants me to. No, I know why. It’s because I need to tread carefully. If I come on too strong, I might scare her. But if I don’t make a move at all she might think I’m not interested. What a fucking mind fuck.

“Brother? You okay?” Zane is smirking at me, looking between Meadow and me.

Shaking my head, I rub my fingers over my face. “No. Fuck, I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”

“We can get to that later. Right now, we need to sort this shit out.”

“Who you thinking?” I ask, swinging a chair around and sitting on it backward.

Zane shakes his head. “Well, it’s not Russian. We have enemies, though, it could be any of them. But then so do you, with
The Army
, so it could be them too. We need to play this safe and keep everyone close together. I think for here, I’m going to have to separate everyone into three groups. Each group goes to mine, Blake and Ade’s house until Blake can have his boys working the construction back here,” he answers, looking over at his compound. I follow his gaze, goose bumps prickling over my skin because I’m only wearing my white T-shirt under my cut with jeans and army boots on.

“Sorry about the clubhouse, brother.”

He shakes his head. “It’s fixable. What isn’t, are the two family members Travis lost in there.”

Widening my eyes, I nod my head. “Yeah, that’s true.”

Exhaling out, I add, “We’ll head back tomorrow morning. We can sort this out separate now that the Russians are taken care of.”

He narrows his eyes on me, shoving his hands into his pockets. “And Meadow?”

“She can ride with us,” I answer casually without missing a beat.

He chuckles, taking a seat on the chair opposite me. “It’s like that is it?”

Running my hands over my head, I nod. “Yeah, I think it is.”

Meadow and Alaina walk up to us laughing. “You all done?” I ask, pulling Meadow into me. She looks cute as fuck with my hoodie on.

“Yeah, I’m all done. Thanks, Alaina,” she says, squeezing herself into me.

“All right, I need to go and sort all this legal shit out,” Zane says, turning to Alaina and kissing her on the head.

“Hey, I was thinking. My place is small, but you guys can all crash at mine for the night.” Meadow suggests, peering up at me from her position.

Pushing her hair out of her face, I smile. “They can get a motel. But I need to be with you to make sure you’re safe. No doubt Hella wants to keep an eye on Melissa, too.” I look over to find them both sitting on the table not talking to each other.

Jesus, what the fuck happened there.

“Okay, you can stay with me. Should I see what Melissa wants to do? I don’t think she’ll want Hella staying at hers, so maybe she can come to mine. You can watch the both of us or Hella can come too?”

“Yeah, good plan. Go check on her. She looks like she wants to rip Hella a new one.” I chuckle.

She laughs. “Yeah, I think she does.”

She walks off to Melissa and I follow behind to check on Hella. Taking a seat beside him, I rest my elbows on my knees. When the girls have walked away, I turn to him. “What are you doing with her, bro?”

He leans his elbows back on the picnic table. “Fuck knows. She’s a pain in my ass. I’ve never met a girl so fucking stubborn.”

I scoff. “No, you’ve never met a girl who doesn’t bend over when you say go.”

He laughs, running his hand over his mouth. “And you? What’s with Meadow?”

I shake my head. “I want her. No questioning and no games. Unlike you.”

His eyebrows raise around a smirk. “Yeah? That part is obvious. Who knew?”

I laugh. “Who would’ve known? All right, I need to tell Meadow that she’s coming back to Vegas with us, see how that goes.”

“Shit,” he breathes out. “I forgot all about that.” His eyebrows rise.

“Yeah, we’re heading back tomorrow. Russians are out of the way, but we still have our main issue that needs to be taken care of. Zane has a feeling that this could be something to do with them, but we’re still not sure.”

“
The Army
,” he answers. “We just need to kill them all. Fuck the collateral damage, they’re not worth it.”

Clenching my jaw, I zero my eyes into Meadow. “Yeah, maybe.”

The girls walk back to us. “All right, we’ll stay at mine. You two can sleep on the floor. In the living room,” Meadow adds.

“Yeah, sounds good,” I answer, wrapping her fingers into mine and pulling her back into me. She turns in my grasp, her chest rising and falling against my chest in heavy breaths. She peers into me, glancing down at my lips and I smile, bringing my thumb down, dragging it across her lips slowly. Her breathing hitches. “Don’t do that,” I growl so only she can hear.

Pulling her bottom lip into her mouth she answers, “Do what?”

Running my hand down her long toned back, I pull her into me closer, my cock stirring to life at her proximity. “Look at me, begging me to kiss you with your eyes.”

“Maybe I am,” she whispers. I push a few stray strands away from her forehead, her eyes closing and her head resting on my hand.

“Not yet,” I smirk, pulling away from her face.

A growl escapes her lips and I laugh. “What was
that
?”

It was cute, like a baby cub growling.

“Come on, let’s go. We can take my car.” Meadow pulls me closer to her, and God if that didn’t make me want to throw her over my shoulder and drag her back to my cave.

“You and Melissa take your car, we’ll follow you on our bikes,” I answer, letting her go. The cold emptiness it brings with her not being close to me has become foreign. The past couple days have been like we’ve known each other for years. She’s low maintenance, relaxed, and doesn’t question everything or want answers right away. She doesn’t want to get inside my head. She’s perfect in all aspects.

She’d be the perfect Old Lady.