Page 14 of Beauty & Corruption

…Finally, the pain was gone.

Chapter 12

Stone

The lone ride back from the clubhouse was a welcomed one. Bird was impossible. I just couldn’t win with her. Although, I couldn’t say things would have gone any better if her stubborn ass would have stuck around instead of storming off. If our roles were reversed, I would have probably done the same, though. She was right about one thing; she wasn’t really given a choice in anything nowadays. The reason she wasn’t asked for her thoughts about anything concerning her was mostly because it wasn’t only her that the decisions affected. Yet, in that same sense, they weren’t all about us either. I agreed with her that her voice deserved to be heard, and it should hold weight when decisions were made. It was going to piss her off that she didn’t have the ultimate say over things when it came to her, but she had a habit of putting herself in harm’s way, and her life wasn’t something to gamble with. I knew I was a hypocrite for not extending her the same freedom of choice in a situation where I, too, had gambled with that very subject, but there was never any questioning the fact that I would always keep her safe. Even if she never took me back, I would ensure her safety. There had to be a middle ground where we could meet. Something thatmade both of us happy, would keep her safe, and would still allow her to feel like she was heard.

As the headlight flooded the yellow siding of the house, I breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn’t our permanent home, but it was our temporary one. Even if I one hundred percent despised the green shutters that clashed with the house’s yellow exterior, the whole thing had kind of grown on me. I paused, taking a moment and making a mental note to never buy a home with that ugly puke-green color anywhere near it.

Something was off. Alarms blared in my head as soon as my eyes landed on the black door. The nickel-brushed handle wasn’t there. The hell? My eyes squinted to make out the spot where it should be, but it was gone. I kept my eye on it as I approached the house, realizing someone had left the damned door open. If Mordy’s ass forgot to close the door and something happened to Bird, I would never forgive him. Hell, I would never forgive myself for trusting him with her life. I was already pissed he let her talk him into bringing her here instead of the clubhouse with us. If it was Bird who absentmindedly left it open, I was going to give her a piece of my mind as soon as I knew she was okay. I needed to tone myself back. She was okay. She had to be. I would never forgive myself or Mordy for her being here unprotected if she wasn’t.

“Bird?” I called when she was nowhere in sight. “Regina? C’mon. Quit fucking around,” the words passed my lips, and then something on the floor caught my attention. Fear flooded my body as it shuddered in terror. What the hell happened? Red spatter speckled the hardwood floor. Instantly, my heart stopped. Blood spatter. I followed the trail for a few steps, my sides heaving while I prayed for the best out of a worst-case scenario. Maybe she cut herself doing something conniving with Mordy’s toys. The amount increased the closer I drew to the backdoor. A huge puddle of blood lay inside the house and streaked across the L and E of the welcome mat outside.

Instantly, rage sank its claws into my body, and I ground my teeth. In the middle of the blood was a pattern. No. Not a pattern. A message had been scrawled in the blood that I presumed was Bird’s. Well, it was a poor attempt at angel wings. None of this made sense. Why in the hell would Kirill go to all the theatrics of us keeping his daughter safe only to have her die by his own hands. Logic was out the window. I didn’t have time to sit and ponder the reason any of this happened. The only thing I was certain of was that I had to get to her and fast. If the bratva had her, then her fate had been determined.

There was a very short list of things I cared about in this world. My club, my brothers, my ride, and Bird, and they just fucked with three of them. I was going to gut all of them.

I dialed Mordy’s number, filling him in while I rushed through the house, grabbing his bag of weapons out of his closet and stuffing my piece in my waistband. I should have killed Andrei as soon as his stupid mouth opened and claimed Bird was his family, then she would still be here, and our entire fucking lives wouldn’t be flipped upside down.

The line rang two times before Mordy picked up, “Ah,Deartháir, missing me already? I missed?—”

“Mordicus, tell me you didn’t!”

“Okay, I didn’t.”

“You fucking didn’t, did you?”

“Stone, as much as I love games, I’d like to know what is being asked of me so I can figure out which angle I need to answer from.”

“Did you fucking leave the door open?”

“Have you lost your fecking mind? You do know who you’re talking to, right?”

“Yes, Mordicus…” My voice trailed off. He was right. Mordy had a problem with anyone touching his belongings, so he tended to be anal-retentive when it came to locking things. I should be relieved knowing he would have locked the door, but it wasn’t a relief at all. If he locked it, that meant my suspicions were true. Someone took her, not that the blood hadn’t already confirmed that, but I was in denial that she was truly gone until I was assured Mordy didn’t have something to do with her disappearance.

“She’s gone, Mordicus,” I said in a grave tone; my heart pounded against my chest so hard that it was physically painful.

“Gone where?” he asked, his tires crunching in gravel in the background. “Stone, why the feck is the door open? Don’t you know we have a naughty little Bird to protect?”

“That’s what I’m trying to get through your thick skull, dumbass. Someone took her.”

“What in the hell do you mean someone took her?” Mordy yelled, rushing into the house and passing me, his eyes landing on the blood spatter as quickly as mine had. He bent and ran his fingers through her blood.

“You’re a sick fuck, Mordicus. I thought she had changed you, but here you are playing in her blood instead of grabbing your bag o’tricks and getting your ass out the door!” I shook my head directly at him when his attention lifted from the blood to me.

“Deartháir,it’s true I like blood as much as the next guy, but I was checking the temperature. You know, to see if it was still warm...to get a timeline if we could.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” I backpedaled and almost felt bad for what I said, but I didn’t take the time to apologize. I opened my mouth knowing what I was going to say would change the entire dynamic of relationship between us, “Mordicus, we have to find our girl.” I tossed his bag on thefloor in front of him, and the knife with the longest blade was flung out onto the floorboard upon impact. It was Bloodlust, his favorite.

Mordy bent, and as his hand curled around the handle, his eyes zeroed in on the silver blade’s edge. “Shhh. Don’t worry. Mommy will be back soon. Daddy’s going after her,” he cooed. When we had the time, obviously not right now, we would have a long lengthy conversation about how all of that was wrong on so many fucked up levels. “Come on, Stone. I’m not about to live in the darkness for the rest of my life. I’ve gotten a taste of the sun, and now I have grown accustomed to loving the pain of the burn.”

“The fuck? You know what? Never mind. I don’t care. Let’s go!”

Chapter 13

Stone

Dumble, our chapter’s Vice President, cracked open his beer and tipped the brown bottle toward the rest of us brothers in attendance. “We all know who wants first dibs on the spineless pussies who took her.” He nodded toward Mordy and then to me. “Thing is, we have to be certain who that is before we go in guns blazing. A war is going to start; that’s clear. It’s inevitable, but we have to know we’re going after the right people.”

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