Page 29 of Total Carnage
"Then let's make sure this ain't it," I replied, my promise etched in the lines of my face, the grip of my hands. “Fuck, I can’t believe I’m holding you.
“Vin,” Moab called. “We need to get the fuck outta here. Now.”
There was no room for doubt, no second-guessing. The path forward was tangled with gunfire and bloodshed, but I'd walk it a thousand times over if it meant keeping her safe. Because some things are worth fighting for, worth dying for, and the woman in my arms? She topped that list.
The dust had barely settled when I turned to my crew, their faces smeared with the residue of a fight hard-won. I clapped Canon on the shoulder, his sniper's eye having saved our asses more times than I could count tonight. Moab cracked his knuckles, a grin splitting his beard—he was born for this shit. And Shivs? Cool as the steel he wielded, surveying the aftermath with eyes that missed nothing.
"Listen up," I said, voice low and steady as the throb of our idling bikes. "We came, we saw, we kicked some serious ass. But don't go getting cocky; this party's just gettin' started."
They nodded, the silent language of warriors who'd danced with death and come out grinning. We were bruised, not broken. Hungry for more.
"Stansfield thinks he’s untouchable, hiding behind his money and power," I continued Raven by my side, her presence like a live wire against my arm. "But he ain’t faced the RBMC in full swing. We’re gonna show him what happens when he fucks with one of our own."
Canon spat on the ground, the dark stain a testament to our shared disdain. "Let's burn his empire down, Vin."
"Damn right," I replied, the corner of my mouth ticking up in a feral smile. "We ride back to the club, come up with a plan, and then tear through his defenses like a fucking hurricane. No mercy, no prisoners. We end his reign of corruption."
Shivs stepped forward, his voice a blade. "For Raven. For us. For every soul he's trampled on his way to the top."
"Live hard, die free," Moab rumbled. The words were a vow, echoing off the walls, a promise etched into our very bones.
A fire blazed behind Raven's eyes, fierce and unyielding, and at that moment, I knew we were unstoppable. Stansfield’s days were numbered, and hell itself wouldn't be able to save him. She climbed on the seat behind me, and for the first time in four years, we were speeding down a dark road together again. She moved her arms around me and held tight. Dead or alive sitting in front of her, I was the luckiest bastard on the planet.
Raven
Ikicked off my boots as I crossed the threshold into Vin's bedroom, the door clicking shut behind me. My heart hammered like a damn V-twin engine revving inside my chest. This was the kind of moment you don't even let yourself dream about because it's just too cruel when reality comes knocking to remind you dreams are for suckers. Except this wasn't a dream. Vin was back from the dead—literally—and here I was, about to lay eyes on the ghost that haunted every mile I'd put between me and our past.
"Jesus," I said under my breath, taking in the room. It was like someone had pressed pause on our life together and then hit fast-forward, landing us in some alternate universe where Vin got to keep on living without me. The bed was big enough to fit a whole damn MC meeting, but the sheets were new, dark blue—a stark contrast to the white linen we used to mess up. There was an old leather jacket thrown over the chair in the corner, oneI didn't recognize, which meant he'd been riding without me. A pang of betrayal twisted in my gut, stupid as it was.
My gaze drifted to the empty walls, walls that needed a female’s touch. I’d put up photos, moments frozen in time, that I’d saved on the Internet. A fresh scar on the hardwood floor caught my attention, near the closet. The story behind it was a mystery, one I couldn't help but want to unravel, but not now. I wanted and needed him.
"Fuck," I exhaled, feeling the surreal weight of standing in the very place I'd thought I'd never be—in front of Vin. The man I loved had come back from the dead, and I... I was just trying to figure out how the hell to live with the ghost of him that'd kept me company all these years. I took a step toward him, feeling like gravity was pulling me across the expanse of that room, every inch closer to Vin charging the air with electricity. I could almost hear my heart thumping against my ribcage, a relentless drumbeat syncing with the intensity in his eyes as they met mine.
"Vin," I murmured, the name a prayer and a curse all at once. My hand lifted, trembling not from fear, but from emotions so potent it could knock out a heavyweight. Fingers outstretched, skin ghosting over his forearm, rough with the memory of road and wind. The contact sent a jolt through me, a spark of relief, love, and a shard of fear for the unknown road ahead. The warmth of his flesh, the thrum of his pulse beneath my touch—it was real. He was really there.
"Tell me." My voice barely rose above a whisper, the words laced with a quiet urgency that betrayed my need to understand, to know everything. "How did you come back to me, Vin?" He looked at me then, those penetrating eyes that had seen too much, and I saw the flicker of something dark and deep within them. A storm waiting to break.
"It's a long story, Raven," he finally started, his voice the rumble of distant thunder, promising a downpour of truths I wasn't sure I was ready for. "Thought I was done for, you know? But fate’s got a fucked-up sense of humor."
"Try me," I shot back, steeling myself for his tale, my mind working to clear the fog of the past two hours.
"Alright." He sighed a sound that seemed to carry the weight of his past, present, and future. He shrugged. “I don’t know much about it, Rave. I woke up in Paradise Cemetery in Arizona. With nothing.” He stared at me for a long time without saying a word and then began nodding. “Fuck. I was brought back to save you, baby.”
My breath caught and hitched in my throat as the image of him broken and fighting for life painted itself in stark colors behind my eyelids. I felt my nails dig into my palm, the pain grounding me. "Shit," I breathed out, the word escaping like steam from a pressure valve. "You were always too stubborn to die."
"Damn right." Vin's lips quirked up in a half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Took a few minutes before I could even stand. Had to relearn the basics—like some fucking toddler. Every time I wanted to give up, I thought of you, of the promise I made to myself. To come back to you."
"Vin..." I choked out, my own scars throbbing in resonance with his story. A sense of connection to this man, seared into me deeper with every word he spoke, every shared agony laid bare. Four years…
"Hey," he said softly, reaching out to catch a tear I hadn't felt slip free. "We're here now, Raven. That's what matters."
"Yeah," I agreed, voice steadying as I wiped my face with the back of my hand, the raw edges of my world starting to stitch back together with him at its center. "Yeah, we're here."
"Raven, I clawed my way back from darkness because of you," he said, his voice filled with emotion. Those words, they hit likea fist to the gut—hard and unyielding. I grappled with the notion that I had been a beacon for him, even as I'd been locked away in my own hell.
"During those years... it was like being buried alive." The confession slipped from me, raw and unvarnished. I could feel the weight of the chains that had bound me, the cold whisper of isolation that had been my only companion. I realized then just how close to insanity I was. "I counted days at first, then seasons. Eventually, I stopped counting altogether."
"Shit, Raven," Vin murmured, his eyes never leaving mine.
