Page 65 of The Devil's Pair

An image of Rebel flashed in her mind’s eye now, and the tears welled up behind the blindfold. He was dead, she was sure of it: there was no way that anyone could have survived three gunshots to the back that passed right through to the chest, and she wassurethat she’d heard one more just as she was succumbing to the effects of the drug. Seeing as these boys had shown up intent on shooting to kill, she had to assume that they’d taken a head shot. Shealsohad to think that they’d hidden the body, cleaned up the blood; they wouldn’t want to tip off that anything bad had happened.

No witness left behind. No evidence. No crime at all. Nothing to see here.

Which meant that all she had on her side was time: she had to hope hard that Dux and Drake got home not long after Rebel’s murder. She knew that when they found her gone – TV on, a mug of cold tea sitting there, her phone and purse still on the coffee table – they’d immediately jump to Michaeland Crusher. They’d call Wolf and Scars and Ice, they’d calleveryone, and then those boys would do what they did best.

As a woman who’d seen just how effective a few of them were at taking down a compound of rabid cult lunatics, she could scarcely imagine what thewholeof the MC could do, if they set their minds to it. If Wolf pointed them in a direction, and instructed them to let loose, what would that look like?

She thought it might well be hell on earth.

Just then, the van stopped suddenly, and Briley was jolted sideways. There was a laugh from the front of the vehicle, and she gritted her teeth and sent up a quick prayer. She had a plan – not a terrible one, considering that she’d only had about twenty minutes of conscious thought to formulate it – and she had to turn in an Oscar-worthy performance now.

But it would only work if Michael was here, wherever ‘here’ was. If not, and she was alone with these two men and the living nightmare named Crusher, she was dead. It was just that simple.

The door beside her opened, and automatically, she turned in that direction even though she couldn’t see anything.

“Well, well, well... look who we’ve got. Briley Cross, you fucking bitch.”

Despite the malice and hatred in the voice, her heart still jumped with a tiny bit of hope:

He’s here.

Rough hands grabbed her now, yanked her over and out, and she found that she was instinctively crouching, trying to protect her stomach. She was jerked up straight, though, and dragged across what felt like loose earth or sand. She decided to not resist being bodily moved: she didn’t want them to punch her in the stomach, or knock her out so she fell forward.

“Oh, look atthat,” another man spoke. “Look at how eager she is to get inside with us, Web.”

“Huh,” Michael responded. “I thought she’d be more trouble, man.”

“Well, we killed one of her biker asshole boyfriends right in front of her,” said a voice behind her. “Maybe the poor little thing is in shock.”

“You two,” barked the man who had called Michael ‘Web’. “You fuck off, right now. Go back to Utah, lay low and wait until I call you. I’ll let you know when to come to the clubhouse for your patches.”

Murmurs of assent, footsteps walking away, then the roar of the van engine. Briley listened to it fade in the distance, and that’s when she heard crickets. Like,literalcrickets, loud and trilling and close. It suddenly occurred to her that she must be someplace with lots of nature, and she hoped that if she was going to die, it was at least going to be in a beautiful spot.

Then she remembered the two steady little heartbeats on the ultrasound, the little hearts that were beating safe and warm in her own body, and she resolved to protect them for as long as she could. She’d find a way to keep drawing breath until Dux and Drake and The Road Devils found her.

Until they findus.

Suddenly, the blindfold was ripped from her face, and she screwed up her eyes, squinting around a well-lit cabin. It was very bare and dirty, and she swore again that she wasnotgoing to die here. No fucking way.

“Briley Cross,” Michael said again, an ugly smile spread right across his disgusting face. He gestured at the massive man standing next to him. “My friend here has a few questions for you.”

Without any warning, without even a word, the man (who surelyhadto be Crusher, with hands likethat), punched Briley in the face. It was so fast that she didn’t even see it coming. All she knew was that with a single blow, she was on the floor,her nose was bleeding, and she was utterly terrified already. She suspected that he’d barely used one-tenth of one percent of his enormous strength, and it wasstillenough to take her down.

“OK, bitch,” Crusher grunted. “Where’s Brian Fielding?”

She blinked up at him, her bound hands cupping her nose to staunch the steady flow. Whatever she thought this man could want with her,thiscertainly wasn’t it. “Who? I don’t –”

“Don’t mess with me, you dumb whore.” Crusher hit her again, this time on the side of her head, and she felt her vision start to dim. “I know that those Road Devil fuckers had something to do with him going missing, so how’s about you tell me which one of them actually killed Fielding? And where they stashed his body?”

“Idon’t –” she started again, then she realized that she was wasting time by talking to the wrong man in the room. There was going to be no reasoning with Crusher, partly because he was asking her things that she had no clue about, but mostly because she didn’t have anything that he wanted or needed.

But I might have something for Michael. OK, girl, remember the plan. Aaaaand show time.

“Right-Guardian Michael,” she said thickly; her nose was swelling horribly and it made enunciation damn near impossible. “Please protect Gideon’s baby in my womb.”

“What?” Michael goggled down at her. “Whatdid you just say?”

“Right-Guardian, I carry the heritage of Gideon.” Briley scrambled to think of some more Biblical-like words, hoping that they were at leastcloseto the bullshit spouted in the cult. “I am so joyful that his seed has bore fruit in me, and I am blessed to have been chosen. Please save him.”

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