Page 30 of The Queen of Nightmares

Oogie sighed and shook his head. “That was my VP you just shot.” His tone said he was more bothered by the inconvenience than losing his second in command.

I stared at the dead man in disbelief. “That was Kara’s brother?” I mumbled.

Everyone ignored me.

“Let her go, Oogie,” Jack growled, his tone low and deadly.

I could feel Oogie’s chest move against my back as he chuckled. “Never gonna happen. I warned you, didn’t I? I told you what was going to happen. Then I discovered that you are planning to destroy my compound. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out that you sent a drone to map my territory? I have spies everywhere,Jack.You pushed my hand. This is really all your fault.”

“I won’t let you take her,” Jack ground out between clenched teeth. His fingers shifted on the gun he was holding, adjusting his grip, and I knew he was itching to pull the trigger. “You’re outmanned, Oogie. You can’t walk away from this. But if you let her go, I’ll let you leave.”

The Boogeyman President threw back his head and gave a short bark of laughter, immediately bringing his eyes back to Jack. “Oh, how wrong you are.” His tone went from amused to deadly serious with his words. He gave a loud, piercing whistle, making me wince. While my ears rang, I watched as Jack’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes went from deadly intent to dread. They darted from the left, where the maze was, then back to my face. I knew whatever he’d seen wasn’t good. I had never seen Jack afraid before, but what was there scared the shit out of him. I sucked in my breath and held it, knowing that what happened next was going to be bad.

Movement from the corner of my eye had me shifting enough to try to get a look. That was when I realized Oogie hadn’t come unprepared. Several members of his club had entered the scene, emerging from the maze where they had likely been waiting for the signal from Oogie.

I closed my eyes, inhaling through my nose as it stung with the sudden stark terror that swept over me. When I reopened them, I blinked rapidly to clear my vision, wanting one last look at Jack before my entire world was ripped away from me. As I tried to tell him how much I loved him with eyes, Jack’s expression became filled with so much impotent rage that my heart ached for him.

“As you can see, gentlemen, you lost before you even played your first hand. The game is over. I win.” He laughed again, then gestured to one of his men. “We’re done here.” He looked back at Jack. He pulled me backward with him as we awkwardly climbed into the back of the van. “If you ever want to see her again, you know what to do.”

The body of the prospect was kicked unceremoniously out of the back of the van onto the cold, hard ground. Barrel and Doc had moved to stand next to Jack, both of them with a hand on an arm, attempting to hold Jack back. He shoved them off with a snarl and stepped forward.

“Stop!” He shouted. “Don’t take her. You can’t take her.” His deep voice became gravelly, cracking at the end. “Take me instead.”

“Prez—” Barrel spoke low next to Jack, sending me an apologetic look. I understood. Without Jack, it was almost certain that the club, as well as the town, would fall under Boogeyman rule. I was just a woman. Jack was going to need his men to remind him of that. I gave Barrel a small smile.

Jack growled. “No!” He strode forward, dropping his gun to the ground, leaving it lying there as he came forward. “You fucking take me. Not her, goddamnit.”

“Jack, no!” I didn’t want to be taken, and I didn’t want what I knew would most assuredly happen to me. But I loved Jack more than I loved myself. It would destroy me if Oogie got a hold of him. I knew it was what Jack was thinking, too, though. Both of us were willing to sacrifice ourselves for each other. A sob broke through when I realized there was no winning this. Not for me and Jack.

“Done.” Oogie shoved me forward as his men immediately swarmed Jack, taking him by the arms as one of them slammed a meaty fist into his gut. I fell to the edge of the van, barely stopping myself from tumbling over the side before one of the Boogeymen grabbed me roughly. He pulled me through the cold, congealed blood of the dead prospect and dropped me with a bone-jarring thud back onto the ground several feet from where they were punching Jack. He never fought back as he watched Doc and Barrel rush forward to grab me and pull me a safe distance away. I cried out as a particularly vicious punch knocked his head back, and blood sprayed from his mouth.

Watching them beat on Jack was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but I didn’t want to lose a single minute of seeing his beautiful face. Doc tugged me into his arms, attempting to offer me comfort, but my body and mind were going numb as I watched them finally pull Jack into the back of the van as they heaved out heavy breaths. Jack was bent over, wheezing. He spit a mouthful of blood on the ground and raised his head to look at me. One of his eyes was already nearly completely swollen, and the other had blood dripping into it from a cut above his eyebrow.

As I sobbed in Doc’s arms, Oogie paused at the doors he was closing. “I’ll be seeing you soon, little girl,” and then he winked at me. Jack roared from inside the van and rushed forward, heading for Oogie as the doors slammed closed. Muffled sounds of fighting could be heard through the walls of the van as the whole vehicle rocked back and forth. I held my breath, terrified of what was happening. Jack was outnumbered, with at least four Boogeymen in there with him. The sound of a gunshot made me jump and shriek. All sounds of the fighting ended abruptly. When the van started up and began rolling away a second later, I cried out, screaming Jack’s name.

ChapterTwenty-Two

THE QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES

Doc carried me through the crowd of gawkers back to the parking lot as I sobbed uncontrollably. I ignored all of it, even when we stopped for a brief moment to speak quietly with a man who looked vaguely familiar. I didn’t care about anything except for Jack. That gunshot played over and over in my mind on a horrible loop.

Once we got to the SUV, Doc shoved me up into the seat, quickly belting me in. Through my tears, I could see other Devil’s Nightmares climbing into their own vehicles but turned away. When Doc slid behind the wheel, an unexpected torrent of rage came bursting out of me.

I slapped and punched as much as I could, trapped behind the restricting belt, too far gone to even think about undoing and making my assault on my would-be brother-in-law easier. I screamed and sobbed at Doc while he just held up his arms to protect his grim face. “You should have stopped him! You should have let them take me! I hate you! I hate you! Get him back!” My door opened behind me, and I felt large arms wrap around me, holding me still as I struggled to free myself as my chest heaved. “It should have been me!” I screamed, ending with a sob.

“No, Red.” I recognized the voice as Barrel, and that just spurred me on. He had been there, too. He should have stopped Jack from sacrificing himself for me. That shot reverberated in my mind like a broken record, making my shoulders shake from how hard I was crying.

“I’m sorry, Sally,” Doc muttered.

I felt a prick in my upper arm and glanced down through blurry eyes to see Doc pulling a syringe back. I moaned in defeat. “Jack.”

“I know, Red,” Barrel whispered into my hair as his grip loosened. “I know.”

I slumped back into my seat. My whole body trembled even as my sobs quieted to whimpering while the tears continued to stream down my cheeks to drip off my chin. I rolled my head against the headrest. “Not Jack. Not Jack.” I whispered. “It should have been me.”

I felt the door close, and the vehicle start up. “Red, the town would be in ashes anyway if they had taken you. Bones would have burned down the whole fucking town in a rage.” I heard Doc’s words, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything but Jack. Let the whole fucking world burn.

My eyes must have closed as we drove through the town. Once we pulled back into the compound and parked in the lot in front of the clubhouse, my door opened again. Barrel clicked my seatbelt, and I felt it loosen from around me. He lifted my arm to allow it to slide from around my body. I blinked at him, my eyelids feeling heavy.

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