Twisted Rose: Motorcycle Dark Romance 3 (The Darkness Trilogy) (8 page)

Rose had seen that look in men before. She’d seen it in the eyes of desperate men. It was the look of grim determination that gave them the strength and power to do the awful things they sometimes needed to do. It frightened her.

She felt she didn’t know Josh while he was in that state. He was like a different man, a stranger. She wanted to go to him and tell him everything was okay. She wanted to calm him. His face was spattered with blood. His jacket was torn and she knew it was from gunshot. He was hurt. He was aggravated. She wanted to look after him, to kiss him and soothe him.

Josh was looking at her and she could tell he was in a state of shock. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. He was staring at her, dumbfounded, as if she was the last thing in the world he had expected to see in that place.

But before she could do any of those things she saw three men burst out of a door on the second floor landing. They were all holding heavy guns and had a clear view from the balcony down to the bar. Instinctively, she screamed. In the same instant, flashes of light came from the barrels of their guns and all around her things started exploding. They were firing down at the bar where Josh was desperately diving for cover. Glass and splintered wood flew everywhere as they unloaded shot after shot into the debris.

There was so much smoke that she couldn’t even see Josh anymore. She couldn’t see if he was dead or alive. All she could see was Serge, Deuce and Patrice standing on the balcony unloading their guns into the bar. She hadn’t realized until then that she was screaming. She saw Patrice look up at her and she shook her head. He raised his gun to his shoulder and aimed it right at her. She started running. There was a door about twenty yards to her left leading to an office and without even looking to see if Patrice had fired his gun she started running for that door.

Behind her as she ran she heard the crash of splintering wood as shot after shot of Patrice’s gun hit the wall. When she was still a few yards from the door she leapt for it. She hit it hard with her shoulder but luckily it flew open and she fell into the office. She looked back over her shoulder in time to see a spray of bullets plaster the door.

XVII

W
HAT THE HELL WAS ROSE
doing there? That was the thought that flew through Josh’s mind as he dove for cover. Around him the bar was being shredded with buckshot and lead. Three men were above him on the balcony firing down at him. They were using sawed-off shotguns and the shot went everywhere. Some of the shrapnel was small enough that his leather jacket could block it. But not all of it. All along the back of his legs he felt the bites of lead as shotgun spray cut through his jeans and bit into his flesh.

It stung like hell but all he could think about was Rose. He lay on the ground with his hands over his head and prayed none of the real shot got him. All around him, everything was being smashed to splinters.

He crawled through the smoke and debris to the end of the bar and out behind it. There, he had a little cover from the gunshot. He peered back in Rose’s direction and saw her running for her life. Behind her, the wall was exploding as one of the men fired at her.

Why would those bastards shoot at her? The thought filled him with rage. He looked up at the balcony through the smoke. The two men closest to him were still firing at the bar. They hadn’t seen him crawl out of it. He pointed the handgun in front of him at the man closest and steadied his arm. Then he pressed the trigger and in the same instant the man’s head whipped to the left and he fell on his knees before slumping in a pile on the floor. Before the other two men had a chance to react he pointed his gun at the second and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. He was out of bullets. He ducked back down behind the bar just in time. The shotguns sent shrapnel pounding against the bar right behind him.

He looked back toward the door that Rose had been running for. She appeared to have made it safely. He prayed she wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t sure what to do now, though. He was out of bullets and there were still two men up on the balcony.

The gunshots ceased. There was silence.

He heard one of the men say to the other, “I think the fucker’s out of bullets.”

The other grunted, “Come on out,” his voice harsh and bitter.

Josh didn’t dare rise up. He knew they’d spray him in lead the second he showed his face.

“Fuck you,” he called out.

There was silence again and he listened for anything they said.

“Deuce is dead,” one of them said.

Josh nodded to himself. He’d gotten the chapter president. That left Serge and the kid. Josh didn’t care about the kid, other than that he had a gun pointed at him, but Serge was one of the men he still wanted to kill. His mind raced among his options. He didn’t care if the kid got him as long as he got Serge first. He prayed Rose was climbing out a window or somehow escaping.

He peered around the corner of the bar and saw Serge and the kid making their way cautiously down the stairs.

“Come on out you son of a bitch,” Serge said. “The game’s up. Face what’s coming.”

“Serge Gauthier,” Josh called out.

“That’s me,” Serge answered.

“I’m not leaving this building till your body’s cold on the ground.”

Serge laughed. “That’s some fine talk, mister, but I believe you’re out of bullets and me and my friend here still have a lot of fight left in us.”

“I’m not out of bullets,” Josh said. “I’ve got one for you, Serge. I just don’t have one for your friend.”

He peered around to see if that slowed them down any. They seemed to have paused on the staircase. Serge was wondering whether it was true or not.

“You’re bluffing,” he said at last.

“Am I? You willing to take that bet.”

“If you had a bullet, you’d have used it,” Serge said. “You’ve got nothing left.”

Serge and Patrice continued down the steps and slowly started making their way through the debris toward the bar.

*

R
OSE WAS PRESSED UP AGAINST
the wall by the door. Patrice had sent a lot of shrapnel her way but none of it had found its mark. She had her gun in her hand, clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. She could hear Josh and Serge out in the bar but she was too scared to look around at them.

“I’m going to skin you like a pig,” she heard Serge say.

She knew that Serge and Patrice were getting closer to Josh. She knew too that he was probably out of bullets. If she didn’t do something soon to help him it would be too late.

Nervously, she peered around the edge of the door frame. There they were, Serge and Patrice, tentatively making their way down the stairs toward Josh. They hadn’t seen her yet but she couldn’t believe she was facing them again. She’d only just escaped and now she was back. She wished desperately that she didn’t have to look at them, that she didn’t have to let them see her, but there was no other option.

Very slowly she brought the gun to the edge of the door and pointed it at Serge. She couldn’t really aim from where she was but she did her best and pulled the trigger. The recoil from the gun in her hand startled her. She could feel the force of the bullet as it fled the gun and flew directly at Serge Gauthier’s chest.

When the bullet struck him, Rose felt a strange mix of exhilaration and dread. Serge hadn’t been expecting the shot and the look that flashed across his face when he got hit was more of surprise than pain. But the pain followed. The bullet had struck him firmly in the left shoulder and the force of it made him miss his step. He began to fall down the remaining steps.

Rose fired a second time but she missed.

Patrice didn’t know where the bullets were coming from and in his confusion he fired a load from the shotgun in the direction of the bar that Josh was hiding behind.

Rose didn’t know what to do next but she saw Josh rise up and in an instant he was on top of the bar. He leapt from the bar, over Serge, onto the steps. Patrice hadn’t had a chance to reload and Josh grabbed the gun from him. He used the butt of it to strike Patrice across the face, and then dug it into Patrice’s gut. Patrice doubled over before Josh brought the gun down on the back of his head.

Rose could see that Serge was about to get up and fight so she stepped out from her hiding place and fired at him again. She missed but it was enough to halt Serge.

“That’s it,” she said in as firm a voice as she could muster. “Don’t move a muscle, Serge.”

Serge looked over his shoulder at her but he didn’t attempt anything. Rose had just shot him in the shoulder and he knew she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him again where he stood.

“Drop the gun,” she said.

Serge dropped it. She looked up at the stairs and saw Josh standing over Patrice. The immediate danger was over.

She allowed herself a chance to catch her breath. She looked at Josh. The look of surprise and admiration in his eyes was unmistakable. He hadn’t expected her to do anything like this, she could tell. She’d impressed him.

“Nice work,” he said to her.

Rose shrugged and let a smile slip across her face.

“No problem,” she said.

XVIII

R
OSE WATCHED AS JOSH ACTED.
They’d cleared out the clubhouse but they had no time to lose. Any moment, an army of DRMC members could burst in through the door and gun them down. Time was of the essence. Josh gathered up the guns from the floor and checked which of them were loaded.

“You two,” he said to Serge and Patrice, pointing his gun at them, “get over by the pool table. Justice has finally caught up with you.”

“This aint justice,” Serge said and spat on the ground, but he did what Josh told him and stood in front of one of the pool tables.

Patrice joined him. They both looked worse for wear. Patrice had taken a beating from the butt of the shotgun and Serge had Rose’s bullet in his shoulder. Josh didn’t look much better, he had gunshot shrapnel in his leg and back, but at least he was alive.

Rose went to him. She knew it wasn’t the time for it but she put her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as she could.

“Rose,” he said, his voice smooth and soft. It sounded loving.

“Josh,” she said as she let him go.

“What are you doing here?” he said to her.

“I couldn’t let you do this by yourself. What if something happened to you?”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Josh said, but she knew he was glad she was.

If it hadn’t been for her he’d still be crouched behind the pool table waiting for Serge and Patrice to come get him.

Josh was looking at Serge.

“I guess you know why we’re here,” he said.

Serge looked Rose over. She could see the anger in his face and it still frightened her. She told herself that there was nothing he could do to her now but that wasn’t true. As long as he was alive he could hurt her.

“I’m going to get you for this, you little bitch,” Serge said.

Rose tried to remain brave. She wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen next. She looked at Josh. Josh was looking at Serge like he wanted to hit him. Rose could see how tense he was. He was like a coiled up spring.

“Josh,” she said quietly, trying to calm him. “What are we going to do?”

Josh looked at her, then he looked over at the three dead bodies at the bar. One of them was Fat Boy. Rose couldn’t believe that Fat Boy was dead. One of the men who’d hurt her, the man who’d forced her to piss herself on the bed in the motel room when she’d first been captured, was lying dead on the floor. She tried to assess how that made her feel. Did it make the pain of what he’d done to her any less real? She wasn’t sure. She felt numb.

“That’s for you to decide,” Josh said to her. “I came here to get revenge for you. I thought you needed it. I thought you’d never be able to get over what these men had done to you unless you saw justice done to them. That’s why I’m here.”

“But now I’m here too,” she said.

“Yes, you are,” Josh said, “and if you want to be the one to pull the trigger, you can.”

Rose looked at Serge. She looked at Patrice. They stared back at her with blank faces. They’d done such terrible things to her. She had no doubt that they would do the same to other women too if they were given the chance. It made sense to kill them. It made perfect sense. And yet, as she looked at the bodies of the dead men on the floor she knew that she wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger. Fat Boy was dead and she couldn’t even tell if that changed anything for her. She didn’t know if it made things better. She didn’t know if it would help her to heal the wounds she felt. She certainly didn’t know if pulling the trigger would help. Perhaps there was only one way to find out but she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t kill Serge and Patrice. Not by her own hand. They deserved to die, she had no doubt about that, but she couldn’t pull the trigger.

“I don’t know,” she said to Josh.

He looked at her and to Rose it seemed as if there was a wisdom in his gaze. It wasn’t that he knew what she was thinking but more that he understood the way the world worked. He understood the way the universe was. Life had been hard on him and it had taught him things that other men didn’t know. He knew what to do in this situation and she trusted that he would do the right thing.

“You should go wait outside,” he said.

Rose looked one last time at the three bodies on the ground. Those were men that Josh had already killed. He’d brought justice to them. Now he was going to do the same to Patrice and Serge. It had to be done. It wasn’t a pleasant task, it wasn’t a task that he took any pleasure in, but he was man enough to do it and that was what she needed from him. That was what the world needed from him.

She looked at Patrice and Serge one last time before leaving. She was glad they were going to die. Serge Gauthier was an evil man. He made his living on the suffering of other people. He’d established a chain of bars that specialized in providing whores and strippers who were forced to perform against their will. He’d practically made a business out of letting his clients rape those women. He’d also been the one who decided to round up the daughters of the men he’d killed in the past, just so that he could dishonor their memories. He was evil.