Claiming Crusher: Savage Brothers MC (9 page)

Read Claiming Crusher: Savage Brothers MC Online

Authors: Jordan Marie

Tags: #romance, #MC, #Fiction

BOOK: Claiming Crusher: Savage Brothers MC
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I can’t keep the panic out of my voice.
I’m saving Nic, right?
I’m giving her a lifeline I never got. Why is it not working? She takes the camera out of my hands and starts looking at it. I step back. It’ll get better now. She’ll see him killing Ms. Martens…no that’s not right. She’ll see him killing one of his own and she’ll see that we have to get away.
We need to make ourselves safe
.

“Why do you have these pictures?” Nic asks, so calm. She gives me this look of disgust and my soul feels…
wounded
. Nic is my best friend. Her and Ray are my only friends in the world. How can she see those pictures, be calm and look at me like I’m the piece of shit? What am I missing? Is the whole world okay with men killing and hurting others? Why does it feel like Nicole is betraying…
me
?

“Tiny is in charge of following Dragon and his crew when they’re in Skull’s city to make sure they don’t do shit like this! Nic, you can’t be so far gone over Dragon that you don’t see how wrong this is!”

“Get the fuck out of my house!” She yells, throwing the phone across the room.

“Not going to happen, bitch,” Tiny says smugly. When I see the look on his face, I feel my panic nearly drown me.
No!
This is not how it is supposed to go down.

“What do you want from me?” Nic growls at Tiny.

“To play with you, sweet cheeks. Maybe I’ll do you and your girl at the same time. Dani here likes to party. The more the merrier, right baby?”

I try to concentrate on what they are saying. I know it’s not good, but a panic attack has me in its sites. The room is starting to tilt and swirl and the noise around me is distorted. I can’t hear what they are saying, but the anger in Nic’s face is clear. I try to concentrate on it and use that to ground me and keep the fear at bay.

“…Now enough of this shit. Strip before I decide your fat ass is more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Tiny baby stop it, you’re going to scare Nic. Besides, I told you I don’t party with other women,” I argue, when I hear the shit he is spouting. I’m starting to think I underestimated Tiny, and how truly vile he is. I need to distract him so Nic can get out of here. I try to let her know that with my eyes. I never meant to put her in more danger. I just needed her to see what Dragon does. I want her safe, but right now the main threat to both of us is Tiny.

I count backwards from one hundred in my mind and promise to wash my mouth out with soap and shower a thousand times as I kiss, Tiny. I do the fake movements Michael always seemed to like. Pulling my leg up against his hip and unbuttoning his shirt.

80, 79, 78, 77…

Tiny pushes me away, but I see the sick look in his eyes. I’ll kill myself before he ever touches me. I never want another man near my body. The only time I ever think of sex is when I’m drunk and high on meds, we’ve seen how well that works out.
I ignore the name Crusher that drifts through my thoughts.

“Come on over here. Let me see what you got,” Tiny orders Nicole.

She walks towards us and if looks could kill, I’d be dead right now. I can’t blame her. I try to keep the tears away, but I know I’m failing. I only wanted to save Nic from the life I have and it’s going horribly wrong and worse, Nic doesn’t even seem to want to leave Dragon.

“Take off your shirt. I want to see the merchandise.”

I can’t let Nic do this. I’m about to push her away and jump on Tiny with my nails, my fists, my legs, my teeth anything and everything I can and let her run, when I see she is palming a knife. I hope she goes for his jugular. If she can stab him in the neck he’ll go down and we can run.

We need to run—preferably to Mexico.

“Oh yeah, look at those big-ass tits. I’m definitely going to bury my cock in those fuckers. I think you’re starting to grow on me, puta.”

I want to kill him. If Nic doesn’t kill him,
I will
. I have a lot of pent up rage, maybe I should let that out for a change.

“I’ve never done anything like this…”

I grab my hands to keep them from shaking. I need to be ready to help Nic and then to make sure she gets away.

“That’s okay puta, lucky for you I have.”

As Nic gets closer to him, I take a step back to give her more room to swing, giving me more room to get a running start to attack him in case she fails.

“Should I…take my bra off?” She asks, and I want to scream.
Can’t she just attack already?
There are black dots swirling in front of my eyes and I’m trying to breathe through them. The last thing Nic or I need is for me to pass out, it doesn’t happen often, but it can during my panic attacks.

“Oh yeah, show ole’ Tiny what you got for him.”

Nicole screams as she stabs him. She didn’t go for the neck, but it seems to work, because Tiny falls back on the couch cussing. Nic and I look at each other and we both yell for the other to run. When we discover that neither of us have keys, my heart flips in my chest.

“We have to hit the hills. We’ll circle around and come back out on the main road by Dragon’s compound!” She says.

I don’t agree but I can’t keep arguing, so we run. I don’t know how long we go. I know it’s been awhile, but it feels like forever. We’re walking in circles and mostly in silence now. Nic is pissed. I feel horrible about the mess I created. It’s just another sign of how fucked up I am. Maybe Michael is right and I am nothing but a worthless waste of air? How many times did he tell me the world would be a better place if I would fucking end myself? Maybe I should listen to him?

I’ve tried to defend myself with Nic. I’ve tried warning her further about Dragon. She’s not listening. She said they were taking revenge for what was done to that girl who was beaten. I find it hard to believe. Why would they care? They were so callous about her that night at the house. In my experience men don’t care about anything if it doesn’t pertain to them. I’m so tired. I thought escaping Michael would give me a life, a chance to be…
normal.
That hasn’t worked out. I’ve only managed to hold on because of Nic and Ray and now Nic is so upset with me.
If I lose her…

“I’m sorry, Nic,” I say again, because without Nic, I don’t think I could go on.

“Forget it. I understand, but you’ve got to trust me when I tell you Dragon is nothing like Michael,” she responds.

I hope she’s right. I really do.

“Should we try getting off the trail and sliding down the mountain to see if it might end up near the road?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady, knowing we’re so high up, sliding might be more dangerous than facing Tiny and whatever goons he’s called for help. I think of Beast and the betrayal I feel in my gut…it hurts.
Why did I trust him?

“Hell if I know at this point, Dani. You know my parent’s. Our trips to Lexington and Louisville were their idea of hiking. I don’t know shit about climbing hills—or directions apparently.”

“Did you hear that?” I ask. Someone is following us and they’re closer than they’ve ever been. I stare at Nicole. I can’t panic.
I can’t
. I show Nicole a big rock behind me, we’ll have to hide behind there. It’s not much, but it’s better than being out in the open. We crouch down behind it and I grab her hand hard. God never hears me pray, but I pray that he makes sure Nicole makes it through this.

“Alright bitch it’s time for you two to come out. I know you’re here, Irish tells me I don’t have time to watch you squirm anymore. It’s time we finish the game,” a strange voice calls from in front of the rock.

As further proof God hates me, my prayers are not only unanswered—my boss, the man who offered us an escape to London, Kentucky, is now standing behind us while the other guy had us distracted. He’s pointing a gun at us.
Shit.

“Irish?” Nicole questions.

“Sorry Nic, just business. You got caught up in it. It’s time Dragon is brought down and sadly girl, you are a sure way to keep him so wrapped up in his head he has no idea what’s going on.” He says, pulling her away from me.

He grabs me by my hair at the same time, pointing the gun at my temple walking us around the rock and making sure Nicole leads the way. I don’t fight or scream. I’m trying to figure out a way to save Nicole.

“How can you betray Dragon like this? He thinks of you as his brother?” Nic asks. In a lot of ways she’s naïve. Men don’t need a reason to be cruel.
They just are
. The two of them go back and forth and I tune them out. I need to find a way out of this.

“Fucking shut it. What are you doing telling this whore our business?” The first voice we heard yells. I had forgot about him.

I swing around to look at who it is and see….
evil.
I see the same anger and hate in him that has been in Michael’s eyes every time he hit me. Irish is a dumbass, he won’t survive this. This guy will kill him, easily.

“What does it matter anyway? She’ll be dead and we’ll be long gone by the time Dragon finds her or her friend,” Irish maintains.

They argue back and forth a little longer and I can hear Nicole’s voice but I can’t concentrate. They’re discussing mine and Nicole’s death. I can’t let her die. I need to get them focused on me and give her a chance to get away. If they aim their anger at me she might have a little more time to get away. I fucked up so bad. Nicole would never be in this situation if not for me. I was trying to save her and instead…I’ve killed both of us.

“Well since you’re doing the world a favor and ridding it of morons, maybe you could turn the gun on yourself,” I say, trying to sound cocky. I need to draw them away from Nic. I have to.

The man doesn’t react like I thought he would though. In my experience men enjoy hitting and beating up their trophies first. Apparently not this guy, because he shoots me. I feel the sharp pain in my leg in unison with the sound of the gun going off. Nic is screaming as I go down, again I want to focus, but I can’t. All I can feel is the white-hot agony of Nic pushing at my wound and the warm liquid pouring against my skin. I want to look and see the wound, but everything is going black.

Chapter 6

Crusher

H
ow do you
know when your ass is sewn up over a woman? You see her lying in a pool of blood.
That’s it.
That’s all there is to it. My world stops for the space of a minute and my heart actually hurts. I’m in deep and I haven’t even had my goddamned tongue in her mouth.

When I got to the top of the mountain to find Irish, an original member of our club, had shot not only Dani, but Nicole too, I thought it was a nightmare. I was afraid the club had a traitor but a brother who helped create the Savage MC? Never. A brother who fought with us overseas betraying the club cut so fucking deep, there just wasn’t words. It still hasn’t fully sunk in. I haven’t had time to think about it, because we had to rush both women to the hospital.

One of the bullets that lodged in Dani’s leg, nicked an artery. If not for Nicole trying to stall the blood and having a compress wedged against it, I would have lost her. She’s undergoing emergency surgery. I stayed close, waiting for word that she’ll be okay. The other brothers are with Dragon, because Nicole is in bad shape. I’m worried about her too, don’t get me wrong. Still, it just didn’t seem right that everyone turned their backs on Dani and left her alone. I get the feeling the girl has been left alone a lot in her life.

“Mr. Dawson?” A nurse asks, coming out of the surgical room door.

“Yes, Ma’am?”

“Ms. Smith did fine with everything…but…”

“But?” I question, trying to ignore the way my heart kicks against my chest.

“I’m afraid she’s disoriented. She had a panic attack and the doctor ordered a sedative, but first we were hoping if she saw you, it might help. We hate to give her more medicine so soon after coming out of the recovery ward. However, we can’t allow her to hurt herself.”

“Take me to her.”

I follow the nurse down the hall, more anxious than I can ever remember.

“Ms. Smith? Look we told you it would be okay. See who I’ve got with me? It’s your step-brother.”

I had to tell the staff that I was Dani’s step-brother before they would give me information on her, or let me near her in general. I was afraid she would ruin the set up by denying our involvement. She doesn’t and I’m glad, but I think it has more to do with the fact that the girl is in the middle of a full blown hissy-fit.

She is holding one of those big huge thermal cups and aiming it at an orderly. I take in the mess on the floor, a couple boxes of Kleenex, a plastic pan like they give you to wash in, toothpaste, generic deodorant, a phone… Hell, she must have thrown everything at them she could get her hands on. Just as I’m about to speak to her, the cup she was holding comes sailing at my head. I duck, but it hits me in the chest and ice scatters over me, the nurse, and the floor.

“I told you I don’t want to talk to anyone but Nicole! Take me to Nicole!”

She looks brave, lying in the bed in a faded blue hospital gown and her hair a tangled mess around her head. She’s pale though,
too pale
. Her lips which are normally adorned in bright red lipstick are a pale pink and dry. The black circles under her eyes are so dark, it gives her a haunted look. I can also see the shaking in her hands. She may be fighting like an alley-cat but she’s scared shitless.

“Nicole is in surgery, Hellcat, and you’re in no shape to go see her. I can take you down there when she comes through.” I don’t add that she might not, it’s not something that Dani needs to hear right now. It’d take a fool not to tell that she’s close to a nervous breakdown.

She looks at me like she just now realizes it’s me.

“Crusher…it’s me…I mean, my fault….”

“Leave the room!” I growl. The nurses and doctors stare at me like I’m insane. I cross my hands over my chest and wait. They look back at Dani and then to me, before finally leaving.

“Don’t talk about this shit in public, Hellcat,” I caution her.

She looks down at the covers she’s holding in her lap. She’s gripped the edges so tight that her fingers are white from her hold. Before I can stop myself I walk over to her bedside and sit down putting my hand over hers.

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