Page 74 of Devil's Due

“You’re going to answer my questions,” I tell him in a conversational tone. Then hiss, “If you want to play hero, this blade is going to make a pretty mess of your throat.” I don’t add I’ve already dispatched his brother to meet Satan. “Uh uh, I wouldn’t try to nod if I were you. When I take my arm away, don’t scream or call out. Don’t think there’s anyone close enough to save you before I slice into your neck.”

His face is going red because of the pressure I’m applying to his neck. I ease my arm away a fraction, and he takes a deep breath.

“How many of you are there?”

“Four.”

“Who are you working with?”

“No one,” he lies.

One thing Blade had taught me was to always be prepared. Using just one arm to crush his windpipe again, I reach into my back pocket with my free hand and extract a zip tie. None too gently I then use my legs to sweep his out from under him. Whatever little air he’d managed to take into his lungs is knocked out of him as he falls to the ground. I come down hard on his back, and yanking his hands behind him, zip tie them together.

I then pull him up.

“I’ve got my knife and gun at your back. One wrong step and you’re dead. One shout of warning and you’ll wish you’d never been born. Now walk.”

I hear motorcycles, lots of them. They seem to be close. Then the engines cut out. Help has arrived.

Then I hear shots, screams come then are suddenly cut off. An automatic rifle firing followed by silence. All I can do is walk my captive down in the direction of the cabin, hoping the right side has won.

I walk into the clearing behind the old building, sidle along the walls, then pause and peer around the front, my gun held at the ready. I inhale a lungful of relieved air at the sight meeting my eyes. Demon is standing, his arms folded, staring at a man writhing on the ground.

As I step into sight, he grins in my direction and calls out, “One dead, one wounded. What you got, Beef?”

“One dead, one alive.” I grin.Stevie’s safe.We’ve come out on top.

“Buck,” my captive breathes out, his shoulders slumping. I ignore his reaction. A man wanting to kill an innocent woman deserves no sympathy.

“What we going to do with them?” Ink asks.

“Torture the truth out of them, then kill them,” Pyro suggests as he walks up and relieves me of my burden.

“Got the prospects coming with a truck,” Demon tells me. “Want to talk to them yourself?”

“Stevie?” I’m not leaving her alone in the cabin.

“This place is compromised, Beef. Fuck knows how they knew she was here, but they did. Best bring her back to the club.” He raises an eyebrow. “She is safe, I take it?”

“Yeah, got her stashed away in an old hunting blind.” My lips press together. She’ll have heard the shots and will be worried sick. “If you’ve got it under control here, I’ll go back and get her. Then I’ll bring her and the dog back in the truck. I’ll get my bike later.”

“Christ. A fuckin’ dog on the compound. Not sure how Bitch is going to take to that.”

“Twenty bucks says the cat wins,” Rusty calls out to Ink.

“My money’s on the dog,” Thunder joins in.

Demon throws them a look of disgust. His own tone is serious as he gets back to business. “Don’t know how the fuck they knew you were here, Beef. Been no leak from our end. Unless,” his face goes dark, “Beaver or Karl said something.”

I want to know how the Devils knew the Jokers were coming. But I’ll ask later, the fact is, they did, and quite possibly saved our lives with the information. Now, it’s time to come clean.

“Nah, you haven’t got a loose mouth in the club. Beaver and Karl didn’t see shit.” I take a breath. “Dog wasn’t wearing his collar, didn’t need it. I didn’t think to check out any of his stuff until we had to move. As he’s a service dog, there was a fuckin’ GPS tracker on his collar. Mystery is how a bunch of fuckin’ bikers knew of it, and how to track it.”

He stares as if estimating my level of culpability in risking the club members’ lives. Then nods. “Would have been useful to know about that earlier, Beef, but can’t blame you for not looking. We know the how, but apart from this sorry foursome, we don’t know who the fuck else knows you’re here. You need to get her out of here as soon as possible. Get her back to the club, and we’ll take it from there.”

“Hold up, Prez.” I raise my hand to stop him walking off. “What about the Wretched Soulz? They want her silenced as much as the Warped Jokers.”

He meets my eyes for a second, then looks away. “Shit.” The twisting of his mouth shows he’s realised giving Stevie our protection openly would be pitting us against the dominant club. “I’ll need to have words with Drummer. For now I want her where we can keep an eye on her. She’s blind, Beef,” he reminds me as if I wasn’t aware of the fact. “A helpless woman. Who in their right fuckin’ minds would turn her away?”

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