Draven Read online

  But, before I had the chance to ask him about any of that, the silence in the room was split with the sound of gunfire. I screamed as glass shattered and hit the floor all around us, my hands flying to my ears to cover the explosions around me.

  It all happened so fast, I didn’t know if I fell to the ground because I had been hit or if it was Draven who had pulled me to the ground as he himself fell. The gunfire continued, but he put his hand to my mouth to stop me from screaming through the whole thing.

  I wasn’t sure what was going on or why he wanted me to be quiet, but I did my best to calm down as the shots started to cease. He held his finger to his lips at the sound of screeching tires, and then he crawled over to the window and looked out.

  “Bastards!” he said. “Are you alright?”

  I was shaky, and I carefully rose to my feet. It was hard for me to think clearly, but I knew I wasn’t hit, so I nodded.

  “What was that?” I asked.

  “I think we both know,” he said, and I nodded. I didn’t have to have him tell me. We both knew that it had to be the rival MC looking for revenge. It scared the Hell out of me to think they would come shooting up the place. I might have been killed just moments ago, and the knowledge made my blood run cold.

  But, Draven was already flying into action. He wasn’t going to let them get away with it, and he wasn’t going to let me stay where it was dangerous, either.

  “Get your things,” he said. “We’re out of here.”

  I nodded once more, grabbing the few things I could fit in my purse before slinging it over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure where we were going next, but I was glad to be out of that house. I didn’t want to be there alone anymore. Hell, I didn’t want to be anywhere alone anymore.

  These men were clearly on the hunt, and this had taken a deadly turn. They weren’t going to stop. I could see that now, and it made me feel sick to my stomach. They wanted me dead. They wanted both of us dead, and I hated to think what that would mean.

  I knew this sort of thing happened in the MC, but never in my life did I think I was going to be part of anything like this. I wanted to cry, but I wouldn’t. Draven was my source of strength, and I knew he was going to get me through this.

  He didn’t look scared. He looked mad. And, as we got on the back of his bike, I knew he was.

  He left rubber on pavement as we pulled away from the house. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but he clearly had a place in mind.

  I just hoped wherever it was it would be safe, and we wouldn’t have to worry about being shot. The thought running through my mind was so crazy, it was hard for me to even believe it was real. How had this become what I was doing with my life? How was this normal for me?

  What did it mean? Would the day come when this was just the normal for me like it seemed to be for Draven? From the way things were going, it seemed like that was more than a possibility.

  My life wasn’t anything like it used to be, that was for sure.

  Chapter 18

  Draven

  I was so pissed, I would have been happy to tear each member of the Hell’s Crusaders limb from limb with my own bare hands. I couldn’t believe they had done such a brutal thing.

  They could have killed Jade with that stunt, and that was just unforgiveable as far as I was concerned. I didn’t care if they were trying to prove a point. I didn’t care if they were just flexing their muscles and showing off. I didn’t care what they were doing, really.

  The only thing I cared about was the fact that they had shot up the safe house. It pissed me off to know that they had figured out where Jade was staying, and it pissed me off even more to know they would go so far as to make that display.

  Hell, if they wanted to show off, then they had better ways of doing it rather than coming for one of our women. I was pissed beyond even thinking straight, that was for sure, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it.

  My impulse was to go out there with guns blazing. I wanted to do the same to them that they had done to us. I wanted to do a drive by shooting on one of their houses. This was more than just trying to prove a point or shake us up. This was asking for war.

  And if it was war they wanted, then it was war they were going to get.

  But, that was why I wasn’t the president. I knew I would be ruthless. I would shoot first and ask questions later, that was just the way I had always been. And, I knew that’s not how Jett ran things. There was a reason we were the top MC in the area, and he would take care of this.

  But, he had to know what was going on. He had to know how that had all gone down, and I was going to make sure he fully understood it.

  We stopped to get gas in the bike on the way to the primary clubhouse. It was a safe house far from the road – too far for anything like that little stunt to happen again, and a place where the club met when we didn’t want to talk about things at the bar.

  I called Jett, letting him know about the shooting and to bring everyone to the clubhouse for an emergency meeting. Then, I checked with Jade to make sure she was alright before we started once more.

  The clubhouse was about twenty minutes from town, but when Jett called an emergency meeting, we all showed up. There was a rule, and we all followed it with a passion. Anyone who was part of the club put the club first. It didn’t matter what else was going on in life. We were to be there when we were called, no matter what.

  And, we were. By the time Jade and I got to the clubhouse, there were more than a dozen bikes parked out front. I knew all the members of the committee would be inside, as well as a good amount of the patch members. It was most of the club right there, and we were all going to come together for the common cause.

  It was bad enough that we had just been in a fight not more than a few months before, but to think they would be so eager to strike again was more than we wanted to put up with. Hell, we couldn’t. If they were going to do something so royally stupid and get away with it, what sort of message was that going to send to the rest of the MCs in the area? I thought.

  No, we were going to have to prove a point to them now. We were going to have to tell them that we heard them, and we were going to fight back. I didn’t care what it meant – we were going to do it, and Jett would be right there at the front of the club, as always.

  But, we weren’t going to go in without a plan, and that was why I called the meeting. Jade had been quiet the entire ride out to the clubhouse, but that was okay with me, too. I had been lost in thought, trying to decide how we were going to handle this.

  I knew she would be okay. It would just be a matter of getting through this. She was with me. She was safe now, and she wasn’t going to be put in danger anymore.

  I didn’t care what I had to say or do. She would be safe.

  There was no changing my mind on that.

  “And, you’re saying the best thing to do is to hit them hard and fast?” Jett asked.

  Roman nodded. He looked over the map of the town. “They largely hang out on this side, right on the edge of where our territories meet. I’m saying if we come down hard on them there, we can push them back into their own place and make the point of staying out of our own. I’m not saying that we should kill anyone, I’m just saying if someone dies, then they die.”

  He laughed and a small murmur ran through the small group around the table. We had discussed the shooting, and Jett agreed it was time to make a move. We had put up with them being annoying, but the fact that they had taken it to such a level of violence was enough for him to put his foot down.

  He wasn’t going to let them get away with this any longer, and I was right there with him on that. Jade still hadn’t said much, but we knew she was likely shaken from what she had been through, and I wasn’t going to have her participate if she didn’t want to.

  All she had to do was stay put in the clubhouse. We would take care of this, and she would be free to go. She would finally be safe with the other MC taken care of, and life could go back to normal.
r />   But, Jade surprised me when she spoke.

  “I have a better idea,” she said.

  Everyone turned to her in surprise, and she looked around. “I say we take them on our own turf.”

  “What?” Jett raised an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I know how to get a hold of them. I have all the information of anyone who has come through and tried to fill a prescription at the pharmacy. When those men came in the other day, they gave me a slip of paper and tried to pass it off as a prescription. There was a phone number on it. I’m saying that I should call it. I should tell them that I want to make a deal with them since they aren’t leaving me alone, and we should set a trap for them,” she said as she looked around the table.

  “We could put them in a place where we have the upper hand, and then you can strike them hard and fast, making a point to take the most out of them that you can,” she said.

  “Absolutely not,” I cut in before Jett had the chance to reply. I knew it was against the rules to interrupt him, but I didn’t care. I was shocked Jade would come up with such a plan, and even more shocked she would present it to the club without asking me about it first.

  It was just going to put her in all kinds of danger, and I wasn’t at all thrilled with that idea. But, to my shock, Jett put his hand up to silence me.

  “Let her speak,” he said. He turned back to Jade. “And, you feel comfortable being the one to go in there after they already shot at you? You know that this is dangerous. If something were to go wrong, there’s no telling what we would be able to do for you. I mean, truth be told, they could kill you before we were able to get you back out of there.”

  Jade nodded, only adding to the knot that had formed in the pit of my stomach.

  “I know,” she said. “But they aren’t going to stop until they get what they are after, and if they think that I’m the one who’s coming to meet them, then they’re going to think that they won. I just have to tell them I’m going to meet them somewhere on the outskirts of town, and you can set up the rest.”

  “I think this is a terrible idea,” I chimed in again. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into, and you have no idea what could go wrong.”

  “I think she’s onto something,” Jett said, ignoring my concern. “I think if we have a shot of really getting to these pricks, we’re going to want to get them while they’re concentrating on something else.”

  “She could be killed!” I tried again. But, Jett wasn’t listening to me. He knew the risk, but he also put the club first. If this was going to turn into a battle, he had to think about the club in its entirety, not the individuals in the club.

  I hated to think that meant we would put Jade in the middle of danger. It wasn’t her fight, and I felt responsible for being the one who had this idea in the first place. The whole reason she had been taking the pills from the pharmacy was because I asked her to, and now she was putting her life on the line.

  It made me sick to my stomach, and I hated that I had no power to change it.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Jett asked her.

  She nodded, without looking at me as she did so. She knew this was hard for me, and she wasn’t going to make it any harder if she didn’t have to. But, she had made up her mind, and she wasn’t going to back down because I was worried about her.

  “Alright then, let’s put it to a vote,” Jett said.

  He looked around the room. “All in favor.”

  All the men in the room put their hand in the air except me. I was outvoted, and I knew it didn’t matter that I was opposed to the plan. I was going to have to go along with it, and I was going to have to put my heart and soul into it as though this was the plan I had come up with myself.

  We all agreed when we joined the MC, that was what we served. We did what we were told. When a rule was passed, that was the way things were. Everyone in the club was bound by the same rules, and everyone was to work hard for the good of the club.

  That might mean that we had to put our own lives on the line, and that might mean we had to work around when people we loved were in danger. But, that was just the way of the club, and I had agreed to it from the beginning.

  I never thought I would be in a position such as this. I never thought I would have to deal with someone I loved being put in the middle of a dangerous situation like this one. But here we were. Now was my chance to prove to the club that I put it first above all else.

  But, now was the chance I had to prove to Jade that I loved her, too. I wasn’t going to approve of this plan – not one bit – but I would put my heart and soul into it to make sure she came out the other side.

  I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, and I knew she was going to go through with this no matter what. I had to just fight for her and hope for the best.

  After all, I had been the one to pull her into this in the first place. I had been the one to let her cross that line, and I had been the one to say there was no turning back now.

  Deep down inside, I knew this was what she wanted, and deep down inside, I knew she would do the same thing for me if the situation was reversed. I was going to support her in this, and I would fight to get her out on the other side. This was happening, there was no changing that, but I wasn’t going to give up. I wasn’t going to let it beat me down or make me turn my back on any of this.

  I would be there for her through it all.

  Or God knew I would die trying.

  Chapter 19

  Jade

  The light shining under the door told me Draven was still awake. I had to admit, I wasn’t entirely surprised by that. He wasn’t happy with the plan. I knew that from the beginning, and I felt a little bad that I had pushed for it, despite the fact he made it clear he was against it.

  But, he didn’t have total control over me. He might have some. He might be able to tell me what to do here and there. Hell, I might give him most of the control over my life, but that still didn’t mean he had complete control over everything I did.

  I wasn’t going to let this get any worse, and I was afraid if I didn’t do something, then it would. After all, the MC had already dealt with one of their safe houses being shot up because of me, and I knew at any moment it could happen again.

  At this point, it didn’t matter whose idea it had been to put this into action in the first place. All that mattered was that we had to stand together to make sure we were all safe. It was like Callie had said: at the end of the day, all that mattered was the fact that we were in love, and love held us all together.

  I loved Draven, and I would do anything to make sure he was safe. He loved this MC, and I knew with time, I would grow to love them all, too. They could be my family, I could see it. They were already so accepting of me, and I knew it was just going to grow with time.

  I just hoped I would be able to see it.

  I knew this was a dangerous plan. I knew that there was a chance I wasn’t going to walk away from it. I hated that. I hated to think I wasn’t going to see my father live. I hated that he might have to bury me. I hated that I might not get to spend the rest of my life with Draven. But, I knew this was for the best.

  If I didn’t go through with this, there was no way I would ever be at peace. There was no way we were going to be able to live our lives without wondering if the rivals were going to put bullets through the front wall of our home. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life constantly looking over my shoulder.

  I didn’t want to wonder if I was going to be kidnapped or shot at on my way to or from work. I just wanted my life to go back to normal. Hell, I wanted a new normal. I wanted a normal that let me be with Draven, one that didn’t threaten my life on a nearly daily basis.

  So, we put the plan into motion. I went back to the pharmacy and I got the information I had to get, and now, we were going to meet with the rival MC.

  Well, I was going to meet with them, anyway. They had chosen a time and a place to meet
me, making it clear I was to be there alone. Of course, I told them I would be, even though we had set an ambush in place for them. I would go in there, I would act like I was doing the deal that we set up, and I would give the signal.

  Then, the rest of the MC would come to life. I didn’t want to think about what was going to happen after that, I just wanted to know things were going to be okay. I wanted to get through the next day, and I wanted to focus on what was going to happen when we were done with that.

  But, it was hard. I knew there was a chance I wasn’t going to be walking out of there, and the thought that this was my last night was almost unbearable.

  I was pacing around the safe house, wishing for some company, and I had to admit, I was glad to see Draven’s light was on. I knocked softly on the door, creeping in when I heard him ask who it was.

  “Couldn’t sleep,” I said.

  He was in bed, but with the blanket over his lap alone, I could see he was naked. It made me wet, and when he held his arms out to me, I didn’t hesitate to let my tank top and shorts fall to the floor before I headed to the bed with him.

  “Me, neither,” he said. “I’m worried about you.”

  “I’m worried about tomorrow,” I admitted. “I hope we can just get through this without anything bad happening.”

  “I know,” he replied. “You know, there’s still time for you to pull out of this. You don’t have to do this.”

  “Yes, I do,” I said. “I want to get through this, I want to be able to put this behind us and not have to worry about it anymore. If anyone else but me goes in there, they’re going to suspect something. I don’t want that to happen.”

  He bit his lip and said nothing. I knew he wanted to try to talk me out of it. But, I wasn’t going to let him. I knew this is how we had to take care of this, and I wasn’t going to be afraid to do it.