Page 39 of Knox (The Devil’s Luck MC #6)

CAROLINE

I had a gun to my head again. Held by my own damn father.

“ You’ll always be Bates’s little bitch. Bates created you. And no matter what cut you ride with now, you’ll die wearing his brand. ”

“ Whether I live or die, you’re mine, baby girl. ”

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring the scene before me: Devils and Wolverines standing scattered across the floor, watching Walter hold me hostage.

We were both covered in warm, wet blood, both stretched to our wits’ end, and somehow, this was the most humiliating thing I had ever experienced.

I had never felt humiliated before, much less with a gun to my head, and I felt something in me break.

What had my life come to ? Maybe I really am doomed to live in Walter Bates’s shadow for the rest of my life. Maybe I ? —

“No!”

BANG.

Pain seared the side of my head. My body jerked violently, and I collapsed to the concrete. Knox’s scream became my entire world. I closed my eyes against the white-hot pain.

Thud.

My eyes flew open. My father’s body hit the floor. His head was twisted toward me. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

“C-Care…”

Bang!

Walter jolted from a second gunshot—and then another. And then another.

Until I watched the light fade from his single good eye.

Dead.

Actually dead.

Gone.

Never to sneer, command, shout, touch, slap, or kill ever again.

Free.

I was free .

And then I started hyperventilating.

My breath dragged in and out of my lungs like fire. I scrambled away, my hands and knees sliding through blood, eyes locked on my father’s unmoving body like his black soul might rise again.

He wouldn’t. I knew he wouldn’t. But my mind couldn’t catch up.

Only later would I realize the pain on the side of my head was from the graze of Jackson’s first bullet. Just slightly to the side, and it would have been my body on the ground.

I started to cry. Then I started to laugh. Then it devolved into both, and uncontrollable sobs racked out of me.

Everything was hitting me at once—the horror of what I’d done, of what I’d helped do. I did what I had to, and I was relieved my dad was dead.

But… my father was dead .

The truth made me lose the last bit of strength in my limbs.

He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s ? —

Before I could collapse into puddles of blood, arms looped under mine and hauled me to my feet, pulling me to a warm, muscled chest.

“I’ve got you, Caroline,” Knox murmured fiercely against my bloody hair, his voice raw. “I’ve got you, baby. I swear to fucking God, I’ve got you. You’re not alone.”

I just kept sobbing like the fucked-up, broken mess I was.

I didn’t even fight him from scooping me up bride-style and carrying me somewhere.

Suddenly, the fluorescent lights became blinding sunlight.

I buried my face in Knox’s shoulder and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on like he was the only thing keeping me together.

And he was.

I had no one else in my life. Without my father, I was an orphan. I had no attachments to any of the Wolverines—at least, none that I wanted. I had no friends. No allies. No connection.

I heard voices, crunching gravel, and car doors, but I clung to Knox with no intention of letting go unless he pried me away with a crowbar.

I snapped out of a daze when Knox’s lips brushed my neck, murmuring, “Baby, I’m gonna put you down on the truck, okay?”

“Mm-hmm,” was all I could manage, uncurling my fingers one by one to release my grip on him. Everything in me felt numb—but in a prickly, painful way. Like my nerves didn’t know whether to shut off or scream.

Knox set me in the passenger seat of one of the trucks we’d taken to get to this horrible warehouse. The second I settled, the metal buckle touched my hip, and I yelped.

The truck had been sitting out in the sun for who knew how long, and even in March, it baked the cab. It was stiflingly hot and the musty smell made my head spin and I was freaking out.

I scrambled for Knox, rambling nonsense, wanting out, wanting Knox, wanting to get away from all of this and?—

“Care. Care! Calm down, love, please.”

Knox caught my wrists, pulling me almost out of the truck but not letting me flee, standing in the doorway and tucking me against his chest. His one hand massaged my skin where the metal belt burned.

I kept blubbering until Knox put a towel to my face—it made me totally shut down.

“Clean cloth, baby,” Knox said gently. “I need to wipe the blood off, okay?”

“Mm.”

I let him clean me up. I had really gone into shock. I just had to ride the bitch out.

When Knox was done, he tossed the towel and tucked me into the truck, closing the door gently. Somehow, he’d gotten the keys and started the engine, blasting the air-conditioning.

As soon as he sat, I sagged against him, my cheek on his shoulder.

I stared at the digital clock on the dash without seeing what the numbers even were.

Knox took his hands in mine, massaging the backs with his thumbs in soothing circles.

I didn’t think it would work, but eventually, I felt myself returning from an odd, faraway place.

And what made me drop into a stress-induced doze?

Knox’s whisper.

“It’s over, Caroline. It’s over. We’re free.”

When I came to, it was hours later—a dusky blue and purple evening. The AC had been turned off, a blanket was draped over my legs, and a leather coat was over my chest. Knox was snoring softly beside me. The truck was still running, trembling slightly beneath and around us.

My brain registered it all slowly, rather than in a split second, as if I wasn’t completely traumatized.

I tested my limbs and digits, trying to remember how many of each I had. After that, I had just enough strength to stretch from being curled up in the seat for so long—and flinch when all my injuries I’d sustained over the past week protested.

A strangled whimper escaped my lips, and Knox was awake instantly, checking me over like a mother hen.

“Care. You okay? Where’s it hurt? I got bandages. Talk to me, baby girl. You with me?”

I nodded. I didn’t trust my voice yet.

Knox settled, sighing, pulling me flush against him. “Okay. I got you. Anything you need, I’ll get it.”

I bit my lip so hard it hurt. My throat burned with restrained tears. Knox held me tighter, but not enough to break me. Just tightly enough to hold me together.

“Nate.”

Knox kissed my temple. “Yeah?”

“Please don’t let me fall apart.”

His breath hitched, and he was quiet for a long moment, then whispered so gently I started crying, “I found you once, Caroline. I’ll keep finding you every time you get lost.”

I didn’t care how weak I looked or sounded.

I didn’t care who saw or heard me. With Walter Bates gone, I didn’t have to be strong all the time anymore.

It would be a tough habit to break—damn near impossible—but I was willing to work on it as long as Knox was my sponsor in creating the “new me.” All that mattered was the process of healing.

It was nearly ten at night by the time I was able to dredge up a passable mask of composure to face the Devils and remaining Wolverines who had stayed—whether willingly or not.

Knox tried to convince me to continue resting. “You don’t have to do this yet, Care.”

I tied my hair back into a loose bun—the opposite of the severe ponytail I had worn for years. “No. This needs to be over and done with once and for all.”

“Okay. I’m right behind you.”

We returned to the warehouse floor, where it looked like the aftermath of a war zone. Wolverine bodies were stacked like firewood by the garage door, which had been shut. The Wolverines who were still alive huddled against the far wall, not talking, just existing, waiting for judgment.

The Devils were clustered together in the area least affected by blood and death, Brody still fussing over his brothers’ patched-up wounds. But they were all there—Jackson, Mason, Jameson, Abel, Grant, and Brody. Beaten but victorious.

When the doctor saw us approach, he immediately wanted to look me over. I let him. Jackson and Mason sat beside each other and looked up with the same neutral expression.

One thing I didn’t need to dredge up was raw, soft honesty—if quite blunt.

“Thank you.”

Abel barked a laugh, shattering the awkward silence. “Damn, girl, don’t get too wordy.”

To my complete surprise, the other Devils chuckled—Grant, Mason, and Jackson not as much, but I didn’t blame them. They were all exhausted, mentally and physically. They had all been trying to kill Walter Bates for a long-ass time. Now that he was dead?

The biggest question of all: what now?

“Thank you for what?” Jackson asked.

“Killing the biggest threat to Reno it’s ever seen. For not killing me.”

Jackson grunted and scrubbed roughly at his face with his palms. “Yeah. Just disperse these fuckers so I can get back to my baby mama.”

“Yeah, same,” Abel said. “I hate not being able to call Elle.”

I nodded briskly. There were no emotional conversations with these men. Understandable.

I caught Mason’s eye before I turned.

He dipped his head once. No words. No expression.

But it meant everything. It was the smallest, subtlest apology. We weren’t on good terms yet, but this was a huge start. And it was enough.

I lifted my chin, straightened my shoulders, and stalked over to the huddled Wolverines. They all tensed, watching me warily. It was almost amusing seeing these big, grizzled, tatted men flinch at a woman less than half their weight.

Maybe it was because I was the heir to the Wolverine MC—the new president—and I had the power to do very bad things to them.

But I wasn’t the same heartless Caroline Bates they used to know.

“Walter Bates is dead,” I said.

There were varying reactions to what they already knew.

“And we are all aware I was born to take his place.” I paused, looking each of them in the eye. “Moss is long dead now. Vane is dead. Heel is dead.”

I looked at the pile of bodies. Each one of them had lives, people they cared about, or cared about them, but they had pledged themselves to a man who asked them to murder for a living. They had sacrificed their humanity long ago. Were these survivors any different? Were any of them worth saving?

“The Wolverines had been led astray for a while now, while Walter slowly lost his mind. None of us was strong enough to stop things—neither was I. But now it’s done.

My father is done.” I inhaled deeply, feeling the moment like committing it to memory.

“As president, I’m dissolving the club. The Wolverines are no more.

If any of you have a problem with that, you can take it up with me. ”

“With us.”

The voice came from beside me.

Jackson Black stood there. Unblinking, unmoving.

But he wasn’t just beside me.

He was with me—a Devil, backing up a member of a rival MC.

But that wasn’t entirely true now.

He looked down at the Wolverines—former Wolverines—with an expression that said this was something not up for debate.

Jackson didn’t need to say more. That one line said everything—and my father’s former goons were smart enough to take the not-so-subtle hint.

I gave Jackson a slight nod of gratitude. He returned it and then went back to his brothers. Closure settled in my stomach in the best way.

I turned to the clubless bikers. “My father hadn’t been in his right mind for a while. I know we were all affected by Kyle’s death—and others who succumbed to Walter’s wrath. His own bloodlust turned inward on his own club members. The Wolverines have been corrupt for a long time. But now…”

I inhaled deeply again. “Now it’s over forever.

Go live your lives without obeying commands from a psycho murderer.

To be clear, I’m not a part of any of this anymore.

” I channeled my heartlessness one more time to jerk my chin at the pile of bodies.

“I’m entrusting you and whoever else didn’t come to this final battle to deal with the fallout—including the law of Reno.

Without me or Walter, your crimes are unexcused. ”

“What about your crimes?”

I looked at who spoke—a younger guy, Logan.

I didn’t hesitate. “I’ll deal with my own fallout.”

“So where does your loyalty lie now?” Logan asked.

Knox stepped up next to me, wrapping his arm around my waist, watching Logan like a hawk as if he was about to start flirting with me.

A strange sense of satisfaction and pride swelled in my chest. I almost—almost—smiled.

“Right here.”