Tyrant (Satan’s Angels MC #1)

Chapter 17

Lark

T he sweet silence we’ve enjoyed for the past few hours after Gray fucked me into a near senseless state is shattered by an alarm pealing from Gray’s phone. It startles me so badly that I gasp, jerking against him. He holds on tight to me with one arm and reaches across the bed with the other. Palming his phone, he frowns at it, then curses. I was startled but not afraid until I hear that guttural fuck from him.

He shoots off the bed, killing the lights.

I scramble off too, already tugging my clothes back on. Someone’s coming.

“Who?” I wrench my sweater over my head and tug my jeans on frantically. He’s doing the same, throwing jeans and a t-shirt back on.

“No one I know. Wizard will be seeing it. My brothers are on their way.

We both see the sweep of headlights out in the yard at the same time and hear the low hum of an engine, the whir of tires crunching on the gravel driveway.

Gray flies to the dresser, pops the top drawer open, and palms a handgun. He doesn’t check it, which means he knows that it’s loaded. He’s alone in here most of the time. There’s no reason for him not to keep a loaded weapon at hand.

A wave of anxiety pummels me. The fact that this man, who plans so carefully for everything, doesn’t know who’s out there is chilling.

“Stay there.” Gray flies to the window. He plasters himself up against the wall and peeks over.

My mind races through every single horrible scenario. Men with guns. Knives. Enemies even Gray never saw coming.

“Fuck,” Gray’s guttural growl flies through the room and hits me like a sharp smack. He moves away from the window. I’ve never seen him look afraid, but he’s pale now.

I rush to him and throw my arms around his neck, plastering my body against his. “Who’s out there? I know you know.”

“Get Penny. There’s no lock on the door, but stay there with her. Half the club will be coming soon. Those men out there didn’t give a shit about tripping that alarm even though they must know about the cameras. They don’t want a fight, or they would have gone straight to the clubhouse. They want me. I’m going out there and I’ll make sure they take me before anyone else gets here. They’ll leave you alone and no one else will get hurt then.”

I’ve never known terror like this. My legs are like water and Gray has to hold me up.

“How- how can you know that?” I try to see who is out there, but he twists me in his arms and grasps my face, tilting it up to his brutally. “Gray? Who?” I dig both fists into his t-shirt and cling lightly. I’m not letting him go out there to sacrifice himself like a martyr. He’s not allowed to throw his life away to save ours. I’m filled with a rush of adrenaline, the strength that I’ve been trying to dig down and find.

Gray’s chest heaves. “My dad.”

“Your- your father?”

I’d collapse if he wasn’t bracing me. I’ve been trying to make peace with whatever Gray has done in the past. Did I really think that he had murdered his own father? He never told me so, and I’d confronted him multiple times. His evasion of it explains a lot. He couldn’t tell me, because he hadn’t killed him.

“I don’t have time to explain, but the club wanted him dead. He’d betrayed some of the brothers, and the rest finally found out. He wasn’t the prez we all knew anymore. We called a meeting, and the brothers made it clear they wanted me for their next president. He was my father, and I couldn’t just let them kill him. I convinced them to let me take him out and do it, to bury him myself. Out of respect for me and my grief, they agreed. I did take him out, but I told him that he had to leave. Change his identity and go somewhere else and never come back.”

“You spared his life and he’s back for revenge?”

“Something like that.” Gray pushes me gently away. He shakes his head. “I was so fucking stupid trusting him. I should have known he wouldn’t have gone down quietly.”

“But- but you let him live!”

“I thought that would be enough too, but if he’s back, it’s because he wants what was taken from him. He views us all as traitors, even though he was the one who betrayed us first.”

That sinking feeling shoots from my stomach to burst like a grenade in my brain, painting the room red. “Who? Who did he betray?”

“Raiden. That bust. It was his doing. He was wary of the power we were building up in the club. The brothers liked us. It was me he should have banged up because I was his son and the most likely candidate to replace him and he knew it, but that would have been too obvious, so he took down my closest friend.”

Tears flow down my cheeks. I’m terrified for Gray and for myself and Penny, but I’m also angry. The rage swirls through me like dark, toxic smoke. My brother lost five years of his life because of one man’s arrogance and greed.

I set that aside because Gray doesn’t need me spitting nasty words. He needs me to be strong, so he doesn’t have to be strong for me. A single shot can start a war. “Please don’t go out there.”

“They wanted me dead, they could have done it a dozen times before now, I’m guessing. This wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. My dad’s clearly been planning this for years.”

“I don’t want a hero. I want you, not your sacrifice.”

I can tell how much it hurts him to step away from me. He thunders downstairs even though he’s in his bare feet and not his boots.

I can’t let this happen. The denial is so strong in me that I almost don’t listen. I wait too long. I can already hear the front door opening before I make myself move down the hall. I gather Penny up, thankful that she doesn’t even stir. She’s such a deep sleeper. I grab her bunny again, horror nearly paralyzing me.

This is so much worse than anything I feared, but it doesn’t make me want to run. I want to be at Gray’s side, but I can’t do that with our daughter to protect.

I rush back to Gray’s room and slam the door shut, bolting the lock. He told me to stay in the other room, but I can’t just abandon him, let those men take him away not knowing what happened. I put Penny down gently on the bed and edge closer to the window keeping to the side.

There’s a huge pickup parked to the side of my car with its lights still on. Seeing the hulking form of shadowy men, their figures distorted by the night and made grotesque and monstrous, is like being at a theatre of the macabre. No one looks more ghastly than the man at the front. Barrel-chested, long gunmetal hair, a thick sooty beard. Zale Grand. He’s waiting at the head of the pack of men flanking him like an alpha wolf. There are at least five on each side, though there could be more. I can only see what their headlights show me.

My heart lodges in my throat when I hear Gray’s strong voice ring out in the night. “What are you doing here, old man? You’re supposed to be a ghost. You couldn’t stay gone. I won’t be responsible for what happens to you now.”

Zale Grand always had the raspiest voice, low and husky and somehow booming and terrifying. Hearing it freezes the blood in my veins. “Nah, son, it’s the other way around. I came to collect what’s mine, and that would be vengeance. Hart is my city. It’s going to be mine as long as I have breath left in my body.”

“I can fix that for you this time. Make good on what I should have done a long time ago. Rabid animals need to be put down. You’re my dad, but I won’t hesitate a second time to put a bullet in your head.”

“You do that, and my men will personally make sure you’re torn apart slowly, over a matter of days. They’ll see to it that you live long enough to see the slaughter of every man you call a brother. You want to be responsible for all their deaths?”

I gasp, my legs giving out so that I sit down on the floor hard enough to bruise my tailbone.

“I’ll take you as a trade. They agree to reinstate me as their prez and include my men in the club, they swear loyalty on pain of death, and all will be forgiven. I know they were just following you. You headed the whole thing. Wanted your old man out of the way so you could rule the kingdom I made.”

“It wasn’t like that, and you know it. You betrayed your club brothers. I wasn’t lying to you about any of that. It wasn’t me who found out. It wasn’t me who wanted you gone. I was shocked and fucking shamed that my own father would be betray the club he’d bled for and would die for. You betrayed your vows and your oath to serve and protect the club and all the men in it.”

Zale lets out a chilling laugh. I hear a snap and a shout from Gray makes me pull myself up and peek over the window. Three of those monstrous shadows have wrestled him down the porch and into the yard. They force him to kneel at Zale’s feet. I whimper at my own helplessness. Gray won’t fight back with us here and I can do nothing.

“A trade? You can’t offer up what’s already mine. What should I start with first? How about a finger for every year I’ve been away?”

Gray thrashes, his shadow moving in a black cage, batting its way against the bars.

Horrifyingly, Zale doesn’t watch Gray. He turns his head to the window, looking directly at me. I don’t duck. I know he can’t see me, but he frowns like he can.

Despite the glass, his voice carries through the still night. “A finger for every year, unless you come down here. Don’t think I don’t know you’re in there, I have a message I want you to take back to your brother.”

There’s no breath left in my body. I don’t have a voice to let out a scream. I’m paralyzed with fear.

“You have one minute, or we burn that house down with you and the kid inside,” Zale yells.

Gray yells too, a stream of panicked words. I can’t let him do something that is going to get him killed. Zale is threatening every single thing that he holds dear, and he’s not going to be able to hold onto his control much longer before he tries to kill each and every man out there.

Gray’s right that Zale could have harmed either of us at any time if he wanted to. He could have taken me or Penny. This was too well planned out to be random. He was watching and waiting, biding his time. He’s made a threat in front of his men and he’s not going to lose face.

I snatch Penny back up against me. She mumbles something sleepily, but I tuck her face against my neck and rush down the hall and fling us both down the stairs. I burst through the open door, running like I’m fleeing for my life, even though everything feels slowed down.

Zale Grand looks like a demon in the night, even more so down here than he did from upstairs. Gray filled out over the years I was away, but his father looks like he made it his sole mission to become wider than a literal tank. I study him slowly, sizing up my enemy. I get a good look at the other men, committing each cragged and rugged face to memory. The two holding Gray down on the ground have their backs to me, a laughing demon-like monkey on the back of their vests taunting me.

Gray twists around just enough that he can see me and Penny. His eyes rake over me and lock on my face. His agony is obvious. I shake my head, hoping he can read my thoughts from my expression.

No. I’m not giving you up again. This is our worst nightmare, but we’re going to live it together and get through it together. We’ll be okay because I’ll do anything for you, and I know you’ll do beyond that for us. I love you.

“Alright. You want this done, get it done,” Gray bites out. “But let them go.”

Zale snarls at his son, spittle spraying silvery in the night. “You no longer give orders. You are nothing. Not president, not my son.”

There’s only one truck here, but with all these men, they must have more vehicles or bikes parked further away.

Zale reaches down into his boot, and I smother a scream as he pulls out a wicked blade. Bile bites the back of my throat. I need to bend over and empty my stomach, heave, scream, but I stand there like a shell, doing nothing, saying nothing, barely even breathing. The only strength in me is in my arms, which are latched tightly around my daughter who’s now awake and rigid with fear.

“But as for letting them go, I fully intend to.” Zale’s sharp, green eyed gaze lands directly on me. His eyes are furious and burning so bright they’re unnatural. There is none of the kindness and warmth that have always been in Gray. “Lark can run straight to her brother and tell him everything. Tell him how his best friend fucked his sister behind his back and knocked her up.” I let out a choked cry, which seems to satisfy the monster because he turns back to his son. “She can tell her brother that instead of putting a bullet in my head, you let me go free. You think your club will care what happens to you, when they find out how all this time you’ve lied to them? You broke every promise. If they wanted me dead, they’ll want you doubly so. Don’t worry, I’ll send them a message and be sure to tell them where to find you when we’re finished with you. Since you spared me once, I’ll do you the same courtesy, though you might not thank me for it.”

“You think you’re the kind of man who deserves to lead anything? You’re insane. You’re full of bitterness and hatred.”

Zale’s sneer is oily and black. Blacker than the darkest night. “The apple doesn’t fall far as it would turn out.”

“No. There’s a difference between you and me.”

“Certainly. You’re soft and pathetic. You knew that letting me go was a mistake, but you did it anyway. You must have known that I’d come back, but you carried on here, building your little empire thinking you were untouchable, and now I’m here to take it all away from you.”

“I might be soft, but you’re a coward. You always have been, beneath that mean exterior.”

Zale’s brows crash down dangerously, and he runs his thumb along the blade menacingly. “I’m going to take everything away from you. Your ability to give orders and to lead. Your club and all your brothers will turn their backs on you. I’m going to tear down this life you built for yourself. It was never rightfully yours.”

I gasp and Gray turns and looks right at me. I believe that Zale is going to let us go. He’s mad with the lust for vengeance and power, but he’s never been the kind of man who makes war on women and children.

“Whatever happens, Lark, I love you,” Gray swears.

The men at Gray’s side clamp down hard, and another, steps forward. The third wrenches Gray’s hand away from his side. This time, Gray fights. He thrashes and gets an arm free, swinging and landing a blow, but then more are on him. More of those demons. I scream as my knees give out, finally realizing how Zale intends to take Gray’s ability to lead away from him.

My cry sets off Penny, who lets out a shrill wail over my own panic. I hold her close, screaming, the sound echoing through the night, ripped from the depths of me. I keep her face turned, I won’t let her see what I’m seeing.

Zale’s blade glinting in the night. A swift flash, a cry of agony, and then Gray is on the grass, blood pouring from his hand, grasping and clawing at the ground, writhing in shock and pain. I realize that it’s not his hand.

It’s not his hand.

I can still see them both attached to his body.

Still. I can’t stop screaming. I’m wild, a banshee, a ghost, a spirit of a dead thing trapped in my living body. My daughter is wailing, thrashing against my arms that hold her tight. I’m scaring her senseless, but I can’t stop. I’m out of my mind with horror at the violence.

Zale walks over and throws something dark and wet onto the grass beside me.

“Take that with you, girl. Tell your brother that Zale Grand is back and that Satan’s Angels belong to him.”

He stands above me, evil personified. I need Gray. I need to get to him. I can’t. Zale’s men are already lifting him, taking him writhing and groaning, to the back of the truck. I realize now there are other men back there. One of them bends over Gray. He seems to be assessing the damage. Zale promised he’d keep Gray alive.

Penny has given up thrashing and has gone still at the sound of me being sick. So utterly still. She didn’t see anything that happened here, but she heard it. she heard her father screaming in agony. She heard my heart wrenching screams. She smelled the blood. Zale Grand tainted her with his evil and he will pay.

I make that silent vow as I get to my feet, my mouth foul, my arms aching with the weight of my daughter. Her small hands close around my neck, locking there tight.

“Mama?” Her tiny little whisper tears what’s left of my heart out of my body.

It turns out when you’ve lived through the worst thing you could ever imagine, you don’t have to find the strength inside of you. It wrenches it out of you with astounding violence. I’m not the woman I was at the start of this night. I’ll never be that version of Lark again. I’m someone else now. Someone burning with the need to spill blood.

Zale Grand’s.

I think about the gun in the car, but I know that I can’t get there. I would never put Penny at risk like that, even if I could reach it and somehow fire a bullet straight into my lover’s father.

Zale’s attention turns from his son, back to the farmhouse. “First rule of a road trip is always come prepared. Luckily, we brought extra gas.”

His men circle the house, jerrycans in hand. I’m a silent, raging statue as I watch them douse the porch. It’s Zale who lights the match. He won’t let anyone else torch his son’s life. He has to have the honor.

The farmhouse is old, the wood dry, but even if it was brand new, it wouldn’t stand a chance against the instant rushing blaze.

Zale doesn’t spare more than a glance for the lives he just ruined. He stalks back to the truck with his men. They load themselves into the box. He gets into the passenger side of the cab and the black pickup purrs out of the yard, as silently as it entered.

I’m left here with Penny, with the ruins and the fire, the blood and the vomit. I turn my head to the uncaring stars above, witnesses to the atrocity man can commit against one another, and I make a vow that Zale Grand will die by my own hand.