Page 12 of Blood & Honey (Saint’s Outlaws MC: Deadman’s Beach, AL #2)
Chapter Eleven
“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” I direct my question at Goose and Slasher. Who knows what Blood and his men were riding into. It could have been a trap. An ambush set up by Shelby and whoever is helping her. There’s no way she is doing all of this on her own.
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Goose attempts to reassure me, patting my shoulder. “They’ve got each other’s backs. They’ll be fine.” He chugs the rest of his beer and belches.
But his words do little to appease my concern. The loud music now seems too intrusive and isn’t helping the budding migraine that’s forming in my head. I can’t shake off the growing feeling of dread curling in my stomach.
Something is wrong. I can sense it.
I try calling Blood, but I’m sent straight to voicemail as I pace the length of the bar, fighting the urge to go off searching for my husband.
The clubhouse door swings open, and in walks Blood, his face as pale as a ghost. His gaze sweeps over the crowd before meeting mine. His green eyes are dull, devoid of any light. He looks defeated. The sight breaks my heart. Something bad must have happened.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, rushing toward him. Goose and Slasher stay silent, sensing that whatever news Blood is about to share, it can’t be good.
“Candyce and Ash,” he says, his voice on the verge of cracking, sounding absolutely gutted.
The words pummel me, practically hammering me into the floor.
“What?”
“They’re missing.” His words hardly register in my mind. The implication doesn’t need to be voiced for it to sink in.
My breath leaves me. My head feels swimmy, and I know I’m on the verge of fainting. “You think it was Shelby?”
He nods, confirming one of my worst fears. My sister is the awful person everyone says she is. Deep down I guess I’ve always known, but this cements that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. The room blurs around me as my knees buckle under me.
Blood’s voice distorts, sounding like white noise or the inside of a seashell. Strong arms catch me, preventing me from collapsing onto the cold floor. Goose transfers me to my husband. Blood clutches me to his chest as if he’s afraid I’ll break. And hell, maybe I will if he lets me go.
“What happened?” I intended to keep my voice steady, but the wobble in my bottom lip has me on the verge of tears and sounding whiny.
“There’s not much to go on,” he murmurs, but I pull away and look up at him, demanding answers with my gaze. I know he hasn’t been fully transparent about my sister.
“I’m not a child, Blood. I can handle whatever the truth may be.”
His gaze softens, and he sighs. “Okay. I’ll tell you.”
He pulls me over to one of the worn leather couches in the corner of the bar.
My face must be one of shock and horror as he goes over the details of the day his father and Eightball passed away.
Blood doesn’t skimp on the details, not sparing me when he talks about how he was with Shelby the night before.
My heart breaks for him all over again when he recites the sight of Shelby standing before him covered in his father’s blood and how eventually she confessed to her part in the plot to destroy the club.
“And now we’re here and that little boy is in danger because of me.”
“You didn’t know she’d come back.”
“Hell,” he says with a scoff. “Maybe I did. I was too weak to do what needed to be done back then, but now I’m ready. If I get my hands on her, Ashley. I’m going to kill her for what she’s done.”
“Blood,” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Don’t.” He closes his eyes, pulling away from me. “Don’t try to talk me out of it.”
He’s right. I was about to try to defend her even though I know all the horrible things she has done and part of me still loves her.
Only I know Blood is the President of this club, and he has his role to play too.
He has to avenge his father. Not only for himself but for his men.
“She’s my sister.” I have to ask him despite knowing what his answer will be.
I have to try. “She has to have help. Do you think there’s a chance that Momma Tee is behind this?
You said it yourself that she was pulling the strings. She manipulated Shelby.”
“Shelby made her choice. She signed her death warrant the second she set her sights on my old man.”
“If you find them…will you––can I at least say goodbye first?”
He chews on my question for a moment, keeping his gaze trained on his boots, likely realizing the gravity of what he’s confessing to me and how it will change things between us once more if he goes through with it.
He loves me, I don’t doubt that. But he loves his club more. They will always come first.
“I know what I’m asking is a lot.”
His gaze snaps to me, cold and hardened, the deep green of his irises dark as storm clouds. “I won’t promise you that, honey,” he says, his voice grave.
I nod, swallowing past the lump in my throat. I understand his position, although my heart is splintering in two. I want to be with Blood, but I also want Shelby to have a life worth living.
“The second I know Ash is safe, I’m ending that cunt’s life.” His words are as brutal and ugly as they are simple.
Blood means what he says.
I know what he must do, and I shouldn’t want to condemn him for being exactly who he says he is, but she’s still my sister. Part of me will always love her and want to fight for her no matter what, even if it severs my relationship with the man I love.
“If you don’t let me see her, I’ll never forgive you.” My voice breaks, weakening my statement.
“Ashley.” He grabs my hand, and I jerk away, going to my feet.
“I need some air.”
I don’t wait for his permission. I march out the back entrance of the clubhouse, the cool night air a welcome shock against my skin as I storm past the pool, my course set on the beach.
I trudge through the sand as waves crash on the shore, sounding as violent as my mood. As unforgiving as Blood’s vow to end Shelby’s life.
I fall to my knees, staring out at the dark water, part of me wanting to walk into it and just let go of everything. I’m numb even though tears sting my cheeks along with the spray of the ocean.
I mourn my sister all over again just as I did a year ago when she left without so much as a goodbye. But this time the ache carved into my chest is deeper. This time I know I’m losing her forever.
I fall forward on my hands and knees, begging God to hear my plea and somehow make all of this right, even if it means I have to give Blood up. I’ll trade my life with him for her to live hers.
I’d do that for her.
As much as I’ve hated her or been jealous of her at times, she’s flesh of my flesh. Blood of my blood. We’re connected in a way that he doesn’t quite understand yet, but it’s that same drive and need he feels to protect Ash as his brother.
I love you is the greatest lie he’s ever told me. Because how can he love me and be the cause of my greatest pain? My biggest loss.
I snort and realize that this must have been how he felt the moment he found out she had betrayed him.
This is what heartbreak feels like.
As though the person you love most is reaching inside the cavity of your chest and ripping every shred of what makes you whole away. Holding your heart in a blender. Destroying your faith in anything good.
Blood’s words, and Shelby’s actions have me turned inside out.
Someone’s shadow falls over me. Part of me needs it to be Blood. The other half of me wishes for it to be someone else.
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
I glance up over my shoulder at the voice of Momma Tee.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’ve got a message for Blood.” She grabs my chin, forcing my head to stay cocked at an awkward angle.
“You tell that prick I have what he wants. If he wants his brother back, he’d better bring me my money.
” She spits in my face then kicks me in the stomach with her pointy steel-toed boot. “Tell him I’ll be in touch.”
I roll to my side, clutching my stomach as she saunters off, her laughter ringing in the distance.
“Where’s Shelby?” I scream after her, but she’s already gone. An icy chill fans up and down my spine, and I get this awful sinking feeling that Shelby is already dead.