I almost cried in relief when I saw the faces I have come to know and love like brothers over the past few weeks. Rage was last to come in the room and the face he gave JP was not one I would ever want to be on the receiving end of. As it was, we were in somewhat of a standoff at the moment. Until JP spoke.
“You all must want to die over a fucking woman. What the fuck kind of sick joke is that? Is she one of your cherished whores that you pass around the clubhouse?” He cackled. He was really losing it here and not that I didn’t trust each of these men with my life, but I mean, there was a gun aimed at my temple now. But strangely I wasn’t scared. At least if I died none of the men were going to get hurt. I felt at peace with what was about to happen.
Are you out of your fucking mind? We are not fucking dying, you asshole! You have a life to live with Axel. He needs you. Fucking look at the man. He will be ruined if something happens to you, Riley.
My eyes opened even though I didn’t realize they had closed. They went straight to Axel. His eyes told me so much in a single glance. They said the words that were never uttered that I so badly wanted to hear before I left this earth. His eyes went wide when I gave him the slightest of nods and a smile that was sad but accepting. Reese was right, I couldn’t die without hearing those words first. I didn’t have to try hard for the tears to come so I spun around so quickly that no one anticipated it.
JP’s face turned into surprise. I would like to say this was a horrible idea of mine. That this idea played out exactly the way I wanted it to. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Grabbing JP’s face, I smashed my lips into his. His moment of surprise didn’t last nearly as long as I thought it would because all too soon his gun went off and there was a burning sensation in my right leg. They both buckled and to the floor I went. Momentarily stunned, I laid there bleeding and begging for someone to end all of this before someone ended up dead.
I hit the floor at the same time a gunshot rang out and this time JP was the one hitting the floor. Axel was standing over him with his finger still on the trigger, breathing heavily. Hearing a groan from my left, I looked over to see Rage on the floor right next to me. I didn’t realize how bad he was shot until I saw the blood pooling on the floor underneath him. It was slowly growing bigger and bigger, inching its way towards me. I watched in horror as his eyes slowly closed and his body went limp.
“Rage!! Don’t you fucking dare. You don’t get to leave me alone!” I screamed. I dragged my sorry ass the rest of the way to him so I could slap him across the face. That worked in the movies, didn’t it? Just so happened that it wasn’t my luck because it didn’t fucking work.
“Rage, damn it! You don’t get to leave us! We just found you and you haven’t even gotten to meet your niece or nephew yet. You don’t get to leave!” I cried. I felt his neck for a pulse and though it was hardly there, it meant his heart was still beating. “Axel, we need to call an ambulance. Axel, god damnit! Snap out of it, my brother is dying!” I was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Everything that happened in such a small amount of time making me slightly unhinged.
“Axel… please, get Rage… to the hospital…” Then the darkness swept me under like a tidal wave pulling me into a sea of night.
Bullet
The smell of the hospital was something that stuck with someone forever. It smelled like bleach and death. If you could even describe death as a smell. My nerves were frayed since we got here. What with Rage being in surgery and Riley getting her leg sewn up since it was just a flesh wound, I was pacing a hole in the fucking waiting room of the hospital. I couldn’t fucking wait any longer. Making my way over to the nurse’s station, for the twentieth time I asked how they were doing.
“Riley is just about done. She should be out in about five minutes. I will check on Declan in a couple minutes for you, but as I said sir, there isn’t much more information I can give you since you aren’t immediate family.” I gave her a nod and headed back to the waiting room where everyone else waited with me. I took a seat and shut my eyes thinking back on everything that happened tonight.
Riley was saying goodbye with her eyes. I could see it before she kissed JP. Then he shot her and she hit the floor. While I watched her body fall to the floor, JP took that time to shoot Rage and when he fell to the ground lying next to Riley I knew then what I had to do. I had to kill my brother. He was so far gone there would have been no way for him to survive like a normal human being.
After I shot him I heard Riley begging Rage not to leave. It took me a couple seconds to realize she was begging him not to die. I didn’t realize how bad a
