Sniper (Devil's Shadow MC, Book 2) Page 2

“After your brother had that bike accident. I know.” She nods, avoiding my eyes. My fingers tighten seeing her uncomfortable, so I quickly change the subject.

  “Look, forget it. This is your new job, Ginger. Prez gave me the job of protecting a woman but I know next to nothin’ about nursing, and I can’t protect her all the time if I have to be anonymous about it. Hence, where you come in. She needs help and you are the only woman I trust.”

  “Ok.” She nods humming. “I can do it as long as it’s nothing serious. So who is she?”

  The little sister of a woman that won’t leave my mind- the words are on the tip of my tongue but at the last moment I keep a leash on them.

  Lethal doesn’t deserve calling shots on his woman.

  I know it’s only a matter of time till she will bear his mark. Me, feeling something for her will only complicate things.

  Clearing my throat, I start. “The name is Gloria Evans. Apparently, her family pissed off Mad Dog and he retaliated the only way he knows. He has been after her for years and after the sudden attacks in the Southside? I’m pretty sure he’s addin’ up our names to dig a whole cemetery.”

  “Fuck! Please tell me, that’s a joke!” Like every one of us, she’s clearly surprised to hear about the asshole’s return.

  “I wish.” Scoffing I give her a report on Gloria, what I heard from her sister and finally what she has to do. Letting her taking every words in, I tell her that the doctor usually goes to check Gloria over now, and Ginger nearly makes me stumble by the force she uses to go find him. I know she will take care of everything for a while, so I don’t worry when I stand farther from her room.

  Though I’m not given a time break as I hear the telltale sign of my phone ringing. Getting the phone out, I’m worried to see Lethal’s name glaring at me from the screen.

  “Hello?”

  “Sniper.” I hear the unmistakable laugh of Reaper and all the other Devil’s talking over each other. Clearly Lethal is in the bar. “I have news for you. I know where Mad Dog is.”

  For a minute there’s no words exchanged between us. I would have loved to see his face right now just to gauge his reaction. But I offer my silence as the same hate we all bear.

  “So you finally found him?”

  “Yes.” Prez sounds calm to know where the asshole could be hiding. Though I’m not stupid enough to believe that facade. I know he wants to kill the asshole. Hell, even I want to see Mad Dog dead.

  Fuck it! Who doesn’t?

  “Do you want my help? Should I get around to find-” For a second my voice slips. The door opens again, but this time with Ginger helping the woman to enter the dining room.

  A pair of dark eyes with equal dark sadness, a small button nose, a pair of lips in a frown stares back at me. And at that moment I realize how I didn’t give her the benefit of being anything but just a woman who makes pain beautiful. She radiates pain like a light all the way to my damn chest without any warning.

  “I will talk to you later, brother. You clearly didn’t hear whatever the fuck I just spat right now.” Lethal hisses before the call goes blank.

  A choked laugh leaves my lips but it’s bitter. It’s fucking dangerous. Like it isn’t enough that I was failing to keep myself together with Jade, here I am getting trapped under Gloria’s sadness.

  I hate myself to care when her eyes go over the room as if waiting for someone to jump at any time. Maybe it’s something about the Evans. My nostrils twitch when I see the other people looking at her like she is nothing but filthy trash they forgot to take outside.

  I’m tempted to go there and fix some of their bones but unfortunately, that doesn’t come with the job description. Only hurt the people who are harmful to her.

  Maybe I can make an exception for them?

  Walking toward the room, I hear Ginger chatting about meal choices and all of that about a healthy diet. But I’ve yet to hear a word from her. Suddenly I’m curious.

  I’m unexpectedly wondering what she will sound like, if she could talk. Will it be like Jade? Filled with cold detachment? Or soft like a melody? I don’t have to think too much when she starts to show the same sign of an afraid kitty.

  So I step dutifully into the shadow of the dark corner and inhale the familiar scent of nicotine. They don’t make me confused. They don’t make me wonder about the mute woman in the room. Wondering will only lead to disappointment, cause when Mad Dog leaves our life.

  So does my job.

  CHAPTER 5

  GWEN

  Something is terribly wrong.

  That’s I’m sure of as the week passed by. My new nurse, Debra is good at what she does. She gives me therapy every day and tries to make sure I can use my voice little by little. It’s like learning to do everything again. The experience is tiresome but at the end, the result is marvelous. And it’s everything I could ever ask for.

  Yet when she stops being my nurse, she becomes someone else. Her eyes are too cold and calculated. Her hands are always inside her jacket hiding something. Sometimes I see her fidgeting while looking behind us every time we are out of my room. Sometimes at night when I can’t sleep, I hear her talking to herself.

  It’s strange.

  It’s unknown.

  And I hate it when she looks at me like she knows everything. Like she can see the dark promise of destruction in my eyes. Like she can hear my breath hitch, when a man comes near me. Like she knows that my soul has already left me.

  Like she knows I’m nothing...

  “Gloria? You alright?” Someone chuckles near my ears. Looking up, the beaming face of Debra welcomes me. Inside my room, she can be the best friend I’ve always wanted. Hell, sometimes she reminds me so much of Grace that I have to look away, scared that she will ask me what’s wrong.

  I’ve no other choice than to give her a small smile. But I know she won’t take it. She wants me to talk. To voice out what I’m thinking. My throat is too dry and it takes me several tries to say a word.

  “F-Fin...e.”

  Her grin widens, her arms already around me for a hug. I try to hug her the best way I can and yet I know it’s just pretending. The dark corner of my room whispers the truth every night. They taunt me to open my eyes and just give up.

  You are nothing.

  Why are you pretending, Gwen?

  Do you really think she wouldn’t know your secrets? Do you think she cares for you?

  Lies, lies, lies...

  Who are you hiding from?

  “See? I told you it will be easy-peachy if you do the practice of using your facial muscles. I heard your voice, twice now!” She exclaims laughing. The first time was when my wheelchair wasn’t working and the stair was just a few feet away. Scared out my mind, I was trying to make Debra look at me. But she was too busy talking to someone on the phone that I had to let out a small scream with the word help.

  Since that day, her whole personality changed. My nurse wasn’t supposed to stay the night in my room but she started doing just that. She even stopped leaving me to take a bath alone. And then started the scared looks over her shoulder, as if the devil was chasing her.

  “But all things aside, I don’t even know you properly! What town are you from?” Fear burns me again. What town? What did Grace tell them? I never knew.

  “Shit! I keep forgetting you can’t talk that much.” When I give her a look she winces. “Or not at all. But I can tell you about myself right?”

  My pulse increases. My last nurse used to leave me when I didn’t need her. Why can’t Debra do the same? Still, when I see her waiting for me, I nod.

  “So, I’m from Southside. I know, I know it’s pretty far from the facility but that’s where this beautifully trouble-making redhead was born.” She laughs hearing herself. “I have a brother, who was in a coma a couple of years ago. He had a bike accident, lost his ability to walk.”

  My interest pikes up. Even she realizes that as she continues. “Now he’s running like he’s high all the time. My parents ar
e busy with family business so I don’t see them much like I used to. Oh! Do you know that there’s a curfew going on at Westside? Apparently, cops found bugs all over the warehouses or something.”

  I don’t.

  Southside is the one town you stay away from. Everyone knows fights break out every night there, they know the danger that follows that town which makes me question what Debra’s parents’ family business really is. And also as she talks about her, I notice another thing which I didn’t notice before.

  As if my fingers have a life of their own, they start to lift and then, they are touching a small tattoo of a skull on her pinky. It’s so small that if someone didn’t look at it carefully, they would never notice.

  As soon as I touch the tattoo her whole body freezes. There is it again. That look of horror. Is she angry at me for touching her? Immediately I brush my hands off her and yet the questions in my head are clear as day.

  Why do you have a skull tattoo with the words D.S? Who are you?

  “Hey, Gloria. Um...I gotta take this call, it’ll only take a minute. I-I gotta go.” With that, she runs out of the room. Questions are swirling in my mind that I have to swallow down, to not let the doubts grow. But I’m already falling deeper into the terror of my nightmare.

  She is lying. She doesn’t want to help you.

  Who would even want to help a girl like you?

  “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me!” I hear a male voice shout outside suddenly. It’s not my doctor, his voice doesn’t match anyone from the facility.

  Who is he?

  The old fear is easy to come. It’s making me clench my fists in worry. Take a deep breath Gwen- I have to remember when I don’t find any air in my lung. When the door opens with a thud, all my energy is shoved down to not let out a horrifying scream. The dark corner of my room isn’t just a corner anymore.

  A man lives there now.

  An unknown man who can hurt me like them.

  “We gotta hurry, Kitty. Ginger won’t be able to hold them off for much longer.” His blue eyes are hard and soft at the same time. His jaw tensed as if he’s worried about something. Who is he talking about?

  Don’t listen to him. The monsters say. He’s bad news. He’s going to take you from us. Don’t listen.

  Before I can take a secure place in my dark corner, he’s touching my wrist and I can’t stop the flinch from washing over me. Someone screams so loud that I feel my ears ringing. I hear another voice curse but my eyes are aimed in that dark corner. It’s getting smaller by the second.

  Why? What’s going on?

  “Fuck, Kitty! I need you to keep quiet or we are both done for.”

  For the first time since that day, I’m truly scared. I’m vulnerable. I’m fucking disgusted with myself for not being able to fight this hulk.

  “Shhh. It’s alright.” The man carrying me mumbles near my neck. But he’s wrong. He’s so wrong. They will not let me go. They still live in my head. They still watch from the shadows.

  And now they are even louder than they’ve been for years...

  CHAPTER 6

  SNIPER

  Fuck!

  This isn’t exactly how I thought everything would go down. A shudder runs through me as I think about the moment I saw the lanky kid trying to sneak around. He even came with a bunch of high as hell other kids with a gun to break into the facility. Looks like Mad Dog is using kids to do his errands nowadays.

  Fucking asshole.

  “Shhh, close your eyes, Kitty.” I’m not even sure if my words have an effect on the scared woman beside me. “I’m takin’ you somewhere safe.”

  My entire body tenses when we reach the safe house. As soon as I’m in the driveway, I call Hawk to escort us through the underground. The dark underground is lit by small lights which are now being admired by the lost soul beside me.

  My knuckles throb in pain when I get out of the car and try to help the woman. She lets out a small gasp when my arms circles around her. And fuck me for feeling another jolt of pain going through my heart.

  Shit!

  “Hawk! Which room is it? Quick!” Avoiding her eyes is a hard job, the softness of her skin, the dark pool of pain in those eyes are hard to ignore, but I manage to do that until Hawk leads us to one of the rooms in the underground ready for her. Reaching my arm behind her, I have to clasp her from not stumbling over when I open the room. Looking around only when it’s confirmed that the prospects got us clothes and a bag of weapons that Hawk leaves us alone.

  “Let’s make you comfortable.” It’s a strange experience to talk to someone who has no words left for me to hear. Dropping her on the mattress softly, it doesn’t take her long to flinch away from me. Her whole body is shaking and she’s almost curled up into a ball.

  “I’m not gonna hurt ya.” My confession isn’t nearly enough to make her see anything as I notice her gaze at the dark corner of my room other than me. What the fuck is she looking at?

  “We are all gonna die! Fuck! Sniper shouldn’t have brought her here. Are you nuts!? If Mad Dog knows-”

  Who the fuck-

  “Here you are!” The door opens with a loud thud that I have to wince. Tucker pokes his head in only to start his argument again. “The fuck were you thinking! Did you leave Ginger to handle everything alone?”

  Before I can answer, Rider storms in with a scowl on his face. “Mad Dog is killin’ off everything and everyone. Still, you take her here, knowing if he followed you…”

  “Fuck off Rider!” The anger brewing in me has nothing to do with his tiny brain. “And you Tucker, she has already called to let me know that everything’s under control. Now get out of the room and let her breathe.”

  Glancing at her again, I’ve to stop myself from explaining shit. I have learned it the hard way to read the emotions swirling in those eyes. Fear has a new name for her and unfortunately, it’s me.

  Not Mad Dog...not those kids...me.

  “I need to warn Prez. You two take your fight somewhere else.” Thankfully the two idiots march off farther from her room, leaving me with no choice but to bask in uncertainty.

  Did I really fail Jade?

  Should I have been more careful?

  “I’ll come back in a few.” My hand itches to just comfort the scared kitty, but I know I’ll scare her off more. So I leave without any other word.

  It’s all too familiar once I’m out of her room. The screams of those two idiots arguing over each other, Hawk giving me a pitiful look, me making sure our brothers are ok.

  “Yes.” I hear Lethal’s flat tone behind the phone.

  “Hello? Lethal? Fuck! I’m callin’ from the safe house. Someone attacked the center. Did you hear me? Jade might be in danger.” For minutes, I wait for something to be heard. A curse. The sound of someone’s bones breaking. But it’s all too quiet. Which makes me more worried than ever.

  “Don’t worry though. I took Gloria from there at the right time. It was hard to get her in the car as she still thinks that she’s being kidnapped so try to send Jade in here. That way both will be safe. I gotta go, though. See you soon, brother.” I cut the call too early to go back to the other woman crumbling inside.

  When I open the door, her stiff back welcomes me. I know she doesn’t want to hear me talk yet I’ve to say something. The urge to talk never seemed this painful.

  “I know you think of me as a dickhead and it’s alright. But I’m trying to protect you here Kitty, at least give me a sign that you understand. That you won’t do anything stupid like try to run.” I don’t know how a paralyzed person can do her worst and yet if she is anything like her sister then I’m doomed.

  I’m fully prepared to leave with uncertainty, when a small sound meets my ears. Looking back, I am welcomed by the dark eyes criticizing me. Suddenly I’m tempted to take one inhale of poison to avoid her looking at me like that. Like I’m the answer to all her questions. To stop her from getting too close to me.

  But it’s already too late, when she
lifts a dainty finger and caresses my thumb with wonder in her eyes. I don’t know at that moment what I feel. Creeped out? Confused?

  “What are you doing?” I ask curiously. She doesn’t say a thing as predicted, but there’s a determination in her eyes. It’s new. It’s fucking beautiful. Her jaw clenches as the fingers pass by an old scar. She takes her time to memorize it, leaving me exposed to these confused feelings.

  Fuck-what is this even?

  Before I can stop her, my phone rings angrily. That knocks her out from whatever she was feeling, cause in a second she’s far from me, her eyes blank and unfocused. Even I’ve to take a deep breath to stand up and walk farther from her to take the call. When I see who it is from, a familiar feeling of dread fights through me. I know the cigar won’t take it away nor the mysterious woman in the bed.

  “Hey, Foxy. What’s up?” Surprisingly she cuts right to the chase instead of muttering pleasantries like every time. And that has me struggling to not let the woman know that, I’m this close to freaking out.

  “Fuck, Sniper! I need you to go to the New York safe house. Prez is going insane. He will end up killin’ himself!”

  “What the fuck you’re talkin’ about?” I can’t stop the snarl. “What happened?”

  “Look, it’s a long story but I’m gonna cut it short for you. Jade Evans doesn’t exist. The woman livin’ in our club is Grace Knight. Mad Dog not only attacked the facility tonight, he also used a bait to take Grace in his disgusting hand. Now Prez is goin’ insane. I need you to be there for him, Sniper. We can’t handle him like you can. Please!”

  Hearing Foxy beg is a rare sight. And in any other circumstances, I would have shaken my head as Reaper’s laughter will be following to hear the desperation in her voice. But the only thing getting inside my head is, Jade Evans doesn’t exist. Those dark eyes, the same eyes as the woman in front of me, is a liar.

  A perfect pretender consuming me in her lies.

  “I’m coming.” I let Foxy know. “I’m comin’ for Lethal.”