Page 2

Hannah

This was it. This was where I died. On a bar floor smelling of beer and piss and vomit… And it’s no more than I fucking deserved.

I smacked my head on the floor when I fell because Dillon hit me so hard it knocked me silly, and I couldn’t protect myself. There was a horrible noise like an angry wild animal, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from or what exactly the threat was. Then Dillon’s fist came at me again. I had time to suck in a breath just before the blow landed across my temple and my world tilted sharply as pain exploded through my head again.

I thought I might pass out -- prayed to pass out so the beating would be over when I woke up. Instead, something inside me refused to go down. Even for a minute.

Then Dillon was gone. I whimpered, not sure if I’d been given a reprieve or if he was simply getting rid of someone trying to pull him off me. It had happened more than once in this same club. It was why he brought me here. If he got drunk and hit me, no one would do much. Occasionally someone would try to defend me, but Dillon was a huge man. If he didn’t want to do something, it took some force to make him. We’d both learned that when faced with an enraged giant, most people stayed clear. Oh, they might take out their phones and record the beating, but that was as far as it went. Which rarely helped me.

Closing my eyes, I reached for oblivion with all my heart but I just couldn’t go under. There was a fight going on. I could hear the familiar sound of flesh hitting flesh. Grunts and sickening squishes. My stomach rebelled. I wasn’t sure if it was the smells, the sounds, or the injury to my head, but I was going to hurl and there was no way I could get to the bathroom.

Somehow, I managed to roll over on my stomach and push myself at least part way off the floor. Sure enough, I vomited in an explosive rush. A whimper escaped me when the very last thing I wanted to do was show weakness to not only Dillon, but every motherfucker in this stupid club. I might die right here on this funky-ass floor, but I would do it in silence. Well, except for the retching.

The noise around me was gradually drowned out by the roaring in my ears as I vomited again. Just as I was about to collapse in my own puke, someone wrapped a beefy arm around my waist and pulled me off the floor to my knees.

“Easy there, girl. You’re OK.”

“Get… off… me.” I could barely gasp my words, but I didn’t want anyone touching me.

“I ain’t gonna hurt you, honey. Just tryin’ to get you off the floor.” The guy’s voice was deep and gruff. Not like Dillon’s. And shockingly familiar. I was afraid to look up at him out of fear I was right, and I knew who this guy was. I was also afraid maybe I was dreaming, and it was Dillon. And he was going to finally beat me to death.

“I’ll call Pain and tell him we’ll meet him in the infirmary,” a second man said. I couldn’t get a good look at any of them because my eyes were blurry from the blow to my head and the tears streaming from them after puking my guts up.

“Knight gettin’ the cage?”

“Yeah. Glad you decided not to ride to this meeting.”

“Something felt off from the start. Still feels off. I thought we might need the extra cover if there was too much trouble. Wasn’t plannin’ on this kind a’ trouble, though.”

I turned my head to look up at the guy. Again, he was sickeningly familiar, but my eyes refused to focus on the large blob looking back at me. And honestly, I didn’t want to confirm what I knew in my heart was true. The man who’d come to my rescue was fucking Knuckles. “Don’t want to be no one’s trouble.” It was embarrassing how sulky I sounded. And how hurt.

“Poor choice of words, honey. I’m glad I was prepared ’cause you ain’t in no shape to ride a bike, and no way in hell I’m leavin’ you here for any fuckin’ reason.”

“If you could just help me home, I promise I won’t be any more of a bother.”

“Like fuck.” Knuckles scooped me up in his arms. The guy was freakishly strong, because he picked me up in a deadlift before settling me against his chest with one arm around my back and the other under my legs. He might have been picking up a gallon of milk for all the effort it took him. “I’m takin’ you home with me. Pain’ll take a look at you. You might be hurt worse than you realize.”

“Where’s Dillon?” I couldn’t help the question.

I realized it was a mistake to say Dillon’s name when Knuckles stiffened around me. “Dillon.” He spat out the name like it left a bad taste in his mouth. “I hope you’re talkin’ ‘bout your pet chihuahua and not the motherfucker who hit you.”

I sighed. “Look,” I said in a soft voice for Knuckle’s ears alone. “You know as well as I do, you can’t disappear him now. Too many people saw the fight.”

He took me out of the club in long, confident strides. I clung to him, ducking my head but resisting the temptation to bury my face in his chest. That would be too embarrassing for words. Especially when he was my twin’s best friend.

“Fully aware of how to carry out a hit, sweetheart.” His voice was as soft as mine had been when he spoke to me. “You know he’s gonna die. If not by my hand, by Gunnar’s.”

“No!” My heart pounded at the thought of Gunnar killing to protect me. “Not again.” The last two words were said in a whimper. I struggled to get out of Knuckles’s hold, but I might as well not have tried. I wasn’t going anywhere Knuckles didn’t want me going.

“Trust me to know what I’m doin’, Hannah. Ain’t no one goin’ back to prison. I made a promise to myself after I killed the motherfuckers who hurt my sister, I wouldn’t do anything like that without a plan ever again. Not because I regret what I did, but because I took action without a plan firmly in place to buffer the fallout.” He met my gaze with a steady one of his own. “Make no mistake, baby, Dillon’s gonna die. But not before I’m ready.”

Knuckles slid into the back seat of some kind of SUV. My vision still wasn’t right. Probably because one eye was starting to swell where Dillon had backhanded me with the first blow. The car door shut, then a few moments later, we sped off.

“Wait.” I tried to sit up but couldn’t manage to do more than push away from Knuckles’s chest slightly. My head pounded and I couldn’t focus properly, but I was becoming more aware -- of way more than was good for me. “Where are we going?”

“To the compound. Pain’s gonna check you over. Remember?”

“No, Knuckles. I want to go home.”

“Honey, Kiss of Death is your home. Gunnar is gonna be pissed as shit when he finds this out. What the fuck, Hannah?”

“Stop the truck.” I pushed away from Knuckles with more effort this time. “I’m not going back to the compound. And you’re not saying shit to Gunnar.”

“Stop it! Hold still. You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Stop the fucking truck. I want out.” I continued to struggle. It didn’t take much for Knuckles to hold me still. I could tell he was trying to be careful not to hurt me or let me hurt myself, but I was not going to that compound. I wasn’t getting anywhere near Gunnar until any damage Dillon had done was healed. If that meant I took a vacation for a couple weeks, I’d get out of town.

“Christ, Hannah.” Knuckles sounded alarmed but irritated. “Quit squirmin’. You can’t get up with the truck movin’.”

“I told you to stop the vehicle, Knuckles. Either let me out or take me to my house. I’m not going to Kiss of Death.” Thankfully, the vehicle slowed and we pulled off on the side of the road. Knuckles was right. Moving so much, struggling after being knocked silly while in a moving vehicle made me nauseous as hell.

“She OK?” The man driving spoke softly, as if he knew my head was hurting and was trying to keep it down.

“I’m fine. I just want to go home.”

“If you don’t want to go to Gunnar, that’s fine. I’ll take you to mine.”

“Either take me to my house or let me out of the fucking truck, Knuckles.” I put every ounce of demand in my voice I could. I still sounded weak, but I thought I finally got my point across to him.

“Fine. But just so you understand, there is no version of events where I leave you alone tonight. Understand?”

“Probably the best I’m gonna get,” I muttered. “Fine. Take me home.” My stomach chose that moment to rebel. I reached for the door handle. “Right after I throw up.” I fumbled until I managed to get the door open, and tumbled out onto the pavement on the shoulder of the road.

“Christ, Hannah! Be careful!”

I heaved and heaved. I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d thrown up my shoes. When I finished, I fell back on my ass against a solid body. I was pinned in the V of his thighs as he supported me. Thank God too, because I’d have fallen in my own puke if he hadn’t.

“She’s gonna have to have medical care, Knuckles. If she’s hurt bad, Gunnar’s gonna go nuclear even more than he’s already gonna.”

“You’re such a dumb shit, Knight. And I’m tellin’ Gunnar you said that.” Hawk, one of the guys with Knuckles smacked the other man in the back of the head.

“What? I mean, I’d want to get her help even if it wouldn’t throw Gunnar into a homicidal rage.” Knight shrugged. “No offense.” If I hadn’t been so sick and in pain, I might have laughed. I’d liked Knight from the first moment I met him. He was like that annoying younger brother you wanted to grab by the ear and drag around just because you could. But that wasn’t the takeaway from the exchange. It would be much easier for me to go to Pain, Kiss of Death’s club safety officer, than for him to come to me.

“I’m not… going to… the compound.” I was still nauseous as fuck, but the vomiting seemed to have stopped for the moment.

“Fuck.” Knuckles held me for several moments, letting me catch my breath. “Get her a bottle of water.” He didn’t address my concerns, and I knew he’d do everything he could to bully me into doing what he wanted.

“Look. I’ll let Pain look me over, but he has to come to my house. I’m not going back to the club for a while.”

“Gunnar’s gonna want to know why.”

“I’m a grown-ass woman, Knuckles. I can go where I want, when I want.”

He helped me to my feet, keeping an arm around me. I wasn’t too ashamed to admit I needed his help staying on my feet. My knees felt like Jell-O. “Yeah, honey. You can. But I don’t keep secrets from Gunnar. Not about you.”

“Then make yourself be where he’s not. Don’t be around him for a few days.”

“Not splittin’ hairs with you, Hannah. I’ll take you home to your house and get Pain to meet us there. I’ll stay with you tonight but tomorrow, I’m telling Gunnar.”

“But --”

“Be grateful I’m giving you as much as I am. I might have been the one to keep Gunnar alive when he first went on the inside, but make no mistake, I have his back as much as he has mine. Let it go.”

I sighed but nodded. “Fine.”

“Good. Now, let’s get you back in the truck and get you home.”