Page 28 of Hidden Desires (Bikers of Mayhem #2)

BLADE

S peeding West across miles of darkened road, Blade followed his GPS toward the flashing blue dot. The more he thought about Ace, the more anxious he got.

Why had Ace been taken? What did his captors want from him?

Was it a matter of ransom? If so, then why hadn’t they called Marcus directly?

He was pretty sure he knew who was behind the kidnapping, but he just wasn’t sure about the motives.

There was a lot that Blade didn’t know. All he knew was that he needed to rescue Ace. Ace was too loving and perfect to suffer at the hands of a madman. Blade, on the other hand, was not. He was looking forward to meeting Ace’s captor and introducing him to the end of his blades.

Yes… slicing the flesh off the man’s bones was just what the doctor ordered.

He would have to knock out Ace. There was no way that he wanted the person he loved to witness all the horrible and heinous things he was going to do to this man.

Good little gay boys did not want to kiss or fuck a man who disemboweled people just because they dared to kidnap their mates.

No. Blade didn’t want Ace witnessing what he was about to do to the man who had kidnapped his sweetheart.

Making a right, he headed down a long dirt road surrounded by hills and canyons. If he had been a horror movie buff, he was pretty sure that this was where they filmed The Hills Have Eyes .

He scanned the hills, half expecting some psychotic and deranged man to jump out at him and bite his fucking face off.

No, that would not do. He liked his gorgeous face just the way it was.

Correction.

He liked it a lot more with Ace sitting on it, but that was inappropriate to be thinking about right at this moment.

Finally, he came to a small, broken-down cabin with a damaged porch swing and peeling paint wrapped all around the porch.

Blade pulled his bike into a spot near the cabin and killed the ignition.

He shoved his phone into his back pocket, ignoring the three missed calls from Lucas and Marcus, and slowly made his way toward the home.

Groaning from the back of the cabin caught Blade’s attention. He slowly walked around the structure, taking each step with extreme caution.

He didn’t know how many people there might be, and he didn’t know what sort of situation he might be walking into.

When he reached the back of the cabin, his heart stopped when he spotted the source of the groans.

Dangling from a crane that stretched out over the cliff of a canyon was Ace.

His hands were bound above his head with rope, and his body was hanging over a two-hundred-foot drop.

“Ace!” Blade shouted, scared that at any moment the rope might snap, dropping Ace to the rocky surface below.

“Blade! Help!” Ace cried out, clinging to the rope for dear life. The sheer terror in the boy’s eyes was a look Blade would never forget.

“Stay still! I’ll be right there,” Blade shouted, scoping out his surroundings for anything that might help him rescue Ace.

He would have to climb out onto the crane and lower himself down to free the boy. There was no other way unless he found the key to operate the crane.

“Blade! Hurry!” Ace pleaded.

Hearing the fear and panic in Ace’s voice caused Blade to snap. He didn’t have time to come up with a plan and contemplate how to save the man he loved. He just had to get out there and do whatever it took, no matter how dangerous it was for himself.

“Hang on. I’m coming, Ace!” Blade shouted, taking off toward the crane.

“Umm, I wouldn’t do that,” a rough voice said from the shadows.

Blade stopped in his tracks as the crane began to move.

His eyes darted around the sandy brush until they finally landed on the dark figure stepping out of the shadows.

It was hard to see the man’s face. He wore a large-brimmed hat that cast a shadow across the top portion of his face as he stopped between Blade and the crane.

“I’ve always wondered what it would be like coming face-to-face with you after all these years,” the man said, slowly raising his head so that the moonlight and light from the burning oil drums around them caught his features.

Years of repressed anger and trauma came barreling through Blade as he stared at the man who had broken his heart. The man who was supposed to love and support him.

The man who had ultimately… betrayed him.

His father.

“And here I haven’t spent a second thinking about you… Dad ,” Blade responded, glaring at the man standing twenty feet away.

“Dad?” Blade heard Ace whisper to himself. They might be far apart, but sound had a weird way of carrying around canyons and open spaces.

Blade ignored Ace’s comment.

His father was smart. He knew better than to get too close to Blade, especially when he was armed with his blades.

Speaking of which.

Blade reached behind himself and grabbed hold of his trusty blades.

“Hold up,” his father said, pulling out a throwing blade of his own and holding it up above his head.

“You might want to think long and hard before you take another step. That crane is dangling over a two-hundred-foot canyon. One throw of my blade, and your boy will be tomato sauce all over the boulders below.”

“Blade!” Ace called out to him from where he hung, swaying slowly against the pull of his weight.

It had been years since he had seen his father throw one of his knives, but judging by the taunting look in his eyes, his aim was still on point. One throw from his blade, and his father could easily cut the rope holding Ace in place.

He couldn’t take that chance. Not when Ace’s life was on the line. He meant too much to him.

“What do you want?” Blade asked, his eyes darting from his father to Ace and back.

“Put those on,” his father ordered, nodding toward a box off to the side.

Sitting on top of the box were a handful of zip ties.

“What?” Blade asked, confused by the man’s weird request.

“The zip ties. Use them to tie up your hands. I’m giving you the opportunity to exchange your boyfriend’s life for your own.”

“Blade! No! You can’t do this!”

“You’ll let the boy go if I give myself up?”

“I’ll even have one of my men drop him off back with his family,” the man sneered, nodding over his shoulder as two men emerged from the shadows and began walking toward the crane. “So? Do we have a deal?”

Blade marched over to the box and snatched up two zip ties. This was an easy choice. It would always be his life in exchange for Ace’s. He didn’t care what happened to himself, so long as Ace was safe and happy.

From the crane, Ace continued to yell profanities at Blade’s father. Threatening to cut off his balls and feed his limbs to every animal with sharp teeth.

He loved Ace and his wicked tongue. The boy might not be a muscular beast like some of the other guys in the crew, but his words could deliver just as painful a blow.

Using his teeth, Blade pulled the end of the zip tie tight, binding his hands in place in front of him. Once he was done, he held them up.

“Done. Now, let Ace go.”

Blade’s father smirked. He nodded to a man standing next to Blade and watched as he pulled the remainder of his blades out of his back pockets.

The man grabbed Blade by the arm and held him firmly in place.

“Love is weakness, boy. I should have done a better job of teaching you that when you were a kid. See how easy it was to capture you? All I had to do was dangle this little homo piece of shit in front of you, and you’re willing to stick your head in the lion’s mouth. It makes me sick.”

Fuming at his remarks, Blade lunged forward, only to be tugged back by the man standing next to him.

“Not very smart either, I see,” his father taunted.

Over by the crane, two men pulled Ace to safety. Blade watched as they climbed down, carrying Ace over their shoulders.

Once they were safely back on solid ground, they put Ace down, holding him firmly in place.

“Let me go, asshole!” Ace shouted, fighting his hardest to break free from his captors.

“Ace, stop!” Blade shouted, capturing the attention of those fierce brown eyes that he had spent so many years secretly loving. He wanted to get Ace away from his father and back to the safety of Marcus and the rest of the crew as soon as possible.

“Stop fighting and let those guys take you back to your brother and the rest of the crew,” Blade ordered.

He didn’t want to risk his father changing his mind or turning on them both. The sooner he got Ace away from his dad, the safer Ace would be.

Ace stared back at him with tears in his eyes. “Blade. No! I’ll never stop fighting for you. For us. You’re crazy if you think I am just going to leave you here.” He continued struggling, using his legs to kick at the men holding him.

“Ace, please,” Blade shouted once again. “I’ll be fine. Once you’re safe, I’ll break free of these pesky little zip ties and end my father’s life. Right now, I need you to go with these men so that I know you are safe.”

Blade wasn’t sure what was going to happen once his father’s men left with Ace. He would probably be killed by his dad, but at least he would know that Ace was safe.

“No, Blade, you won’t be fine. This madman is going to kill you, and I refuse to leave you here to die,” Ace barked.

God, he loved this guy. He was fearless and loyal, and fought for those he loved.

But so did Blade. He needed to make sure that Ace was safe. No matter what happened to him.

“We had a deal. Get him out of here,” Blade growled at his father.

The man who had abandoned him nodded toward the guys holding Ace.

“Are you sure about this, boss? Aren’t you worried about him coming back with the rest of his crew?” one of the men holding Ace by the arm said.

His father just chuckled.

“Did you see how fast they turned on this cunt when they found out he was boning his brother? Those guys aren’t coming after this piece of shit anytime soon.

And, hey, if they do decide to come and try to rescue their boy, I’ll cut them down just as quick.

Those meatheads are no match for me and my blades. ”

The confidence in his father’s voice was disgusting. Blade couldn’t wait to break free and cut his father’s throat.

Nodding, the men proceeded to pull Ace toward the car. Ace let out one final protest, struggling and fighting with all his might. It was no use. Two against one was always a struggle.

Tired of all the fighting, one of the men punched Ace hard in the face.

“You piece of shit!” Blade shouted, lunging toward the men once again.

The man standing next to Blade barely caught him in time before he nearly escaped his grasp.

Ace’s body fell limp to the ground. He moaned as one of the men added rope around his legs and then lifted him up from the ground.

Blade watched as the men opened the door of a car and tossed Ace into the back.

Some way, somehow, Blade was going to break free of his restraints and murder every fucking last one of those assholes. He made a silent promise to God about that.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Blade hoped his father would keep his word and return Ace safely back to his brother.

The man was a monster, but hopefully, this was one promise that the asshole would keep.

“There. Now that the baby biker has been returned to its nest, it’s about time that you and I had a bit of fun.” His father turned and started walking toward the broken-down cabin.