Derek_A Gritty Bad Boy MC Romance Page 17

  Maria would have killed him, of course, but this was just the way of life for us.

  We were family. We stuck together.

  All of that flashed in my mind over the seconds it took for Isaac to reach out and pluck the gun from Jason’s shaking fingers.

  Jason looked startled, and he opened his mouth and looked to me to say something. Maybe “I’m sorry,” but the words never made it out.

  Isaac pulled the trigger. The shot rang out and hurt my ears.

  And Jason crumpled to the floor.

  He landed face-first in the inch of water at his feet. His blood leaked out of him, turning a bright pink as it diluted in the water.

  Alarm bells went off in my brain.

  This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t. Ryder’s nephew was dead at my feet, and there wasn’t a single fucking thing I could do about it.

  It was then I realized Evelyn was screaming. She’d let go of my hand to press herself up against my back. Her fingers were tightening in my shirt as she hid her face between my shoulders and sobbed against me.

  There wasn’t a single thing I could say to offer her any comfort. Nothing. My tongue was weak and useless in my mouth, and all I could think was “how the hell am I going to tell Ryder?”

  It was a useless thing to think, really, because I wasn’t going to get the chance to tell him anything. Ryder would show up minutes after his nephew had been shot dead, and he’d find my and Evelyn’s bodies splayed out on the ground beside Jason’s.

  I hoped Caleb got here first to spare Ryder the sight.

  I swallowed and lifted my gaze to Isaac. He was looking down at Jason, and there was a smirk playing on his lips. He spat on him. Actually spat on him. Rage boiled inside me.

  He looked up at me. “Well. This didn’t go as I expected. I didn’t think the kid would ever grow balls big enough to say no to me. Good pep talk, Derek. Real smooth. Look what it did.” He pointed the gun at Jason’s lifeless body.

  “I didn’t do that. You did that,” I said. My voice was shaking.

  Isaac shrugged. “Sure, I pulled the trigger, but if you hadn’t given him your Independence Day speech, things would have gone a little differently. Jason would still be alive, and you and your sweet little thing would be dead. Now, all three of you have to pay the price. A pity. I had big plans for the kid.”

  “Go to hell,” I snarled.

  Isaac laughed and raised the gun to point it at my chest. “Why does everyone always say that to me?”

  Chapter 28

  Evelyn

  My throat was raw from screaming, my head was pounding, and my entire body from head to toe felt completely numb. All I could feel was cold. I was so terribly cold.

  I looked down at my feet where little tendrils of pink had drifted through the water like reaching hands to settle around my ankles. Jason’s blood. I stepped backward, trying to escape it, but almost all the water was turning a deep shade of pink. I wondered, dimly, how long it would take until it was as red.

  The shirt I’d taken from Derek’s dresser was still soaking wet and clinging to my body like a second skin. I wrapped my arms around myself, still inching backward until my calves hit the side of the tub, and looked up at the rest of the scene.

  Isaac and Derek had been yelling at each other. I hadn’t caught a single word they’d said since the gun went off. My mind was reeling, spinning end over end like some sickening amusement ride hell-bent on tearing me apart from the inside out.

  There was a body on the floor.

  A real dead body.

  The body of a boy I’d spoken to. Pleaded with. Tried to save.

  Not only had I connected with him, but I knew he was precious to Derek and his family. I wasn’t sure if that was the right word for this club of his, but I had the sense that it was. The way he’d fought to try to save the kid spoke volumes. This was probably what they did for each other. They put it all out on the line.

  And it hadn’t been enough to save Jason.

  Was this Ryder character going to punish Derek for losing his nephew? Would he punish me?

  I shook my head fiercely. “Stop it,” I muttered to myself. You’re losing it, Evie. You know Derek is good. Why would his people be anything different? You won’t be in trouble with them. You’re in trouble now. Here. With this asshole still pointing a gun at you.

  Except, he wasn’t pointing the gun at me.

  Derek had moved back with me, following my retreat with equal steps of his own to keep himself planted firmly between me and Isaac. The gun was trained on his chest and hadn’t moved since Jason pitched to the floor.

  White hot fear shot straight through me. My knees buckled, and I went down in a crumpled heap.

  I hated how weak I was. I wanted to stand up and be strong for Derek. But I couldn’t. I was about to lose everything. I should have listened to Penny. Penny always knew wrong from right, danger from safety, insanity from sanity. She’d warned me about all of this over and over, and every time I’d shut her down. I’d begged her to trust me, and she’d finally caved.

  Now, she was going to have to go to my funeral.

  Fuck, she’d probably have to plan it, knowing my fucking parents. They’d abandoned me. Chances were, they’d have no part in the service after they found out how I died and who I died with. They’d forget they even had a daughter.

  I started sobbing.

  My shoulders shook, and I buried my face in my hands as I cried. I cried for myself and for Penny and for my parents who I still loved but hated all at once. I cried for Derek. And Jason. And Ryder—whoever he was. He’d lost someone seconds ago and didn’t even know it yet.

  Derek took a slow step back so that his calf was pressed against my shoulder. I willed myself not to wrap my arms around his leg and cling to him like a desperate child. Instead, I leaned against him and fought with myself to get the crying under control. He needed me right now, and I was falling to pieces. This was not the time.

  There may not be a time left to cry. Or for anything. So, I should seize control of the situation and handle it like a grown woman. I wrapped my fingers in Derek’s jeans and pulled myself up, wobbling like my legs were made of spaghetti. I clung to his shirt and managed to stay on my feet. I had to stand by him. I’d chosen him. I’d chosen this.

  I lifted my gaze to Isaac, who was shaking his head at me. “You are more than just a pretty face. I’ll give you that.”

  I ducked behind Derek’s shoulder. I was incapable of speaking. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, all that would come out of me were more sobs or a scream. Then, I would lose control again, so I kept my lips sealed.

  Derek was stiff in front of me. Every muscle was straining for release. The gun held him in place. I knew if I wasn’t there, things would have gone differently. Derek probably would have been able to fight his way out if he didn’t feel the need to protect me.

  The guilt and fear made my stomach toss over.

  “Do you have any last words, Lost Breed?” Isaac asked. His lips were drawn upward in that terrible smile of his, revealing yellowed teeth with rotting gums. I’d never seen his smile so broad before. He cocked his head to the side, his finger feathering the trigger. His hand, unlike Jason’s, was completely steady. He would not miss, and he would take the shot.

  “You’ve fucked up here tonight,” Derek said. His voice was surprisingly steady for a man who was staring death in the eye. He was calm and poised. It was like he’d known all along this was how it was going to end. “Everything will change after this.”

  Isaac shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose it will, but that’s not your concern anymore.”

  I pressed myself flat against Derek’s back. Maybe the bullet would go through him and me all at once, and we could die together. If I was lucky enough, that’s how it would happen. Then, I wouldn’t have to watch him die, and I wouldn’t have to wait for Isaac to end me too. It could just be over as fast as blinking.

  I squeezed my eyes clos
ed.

  Then there was a sound—a voice from somewhere else in the house. I opened my eyes and looked up. Isaac had heard it too. That smile of his had contorted into a furious snarl, and the gun was lowering.

  “Derek!” someone was yelling for us.

  Isaac kicked the water with the toe of his boot. A splash of blood and tub water rained down on us before he took off out the bathroom door.

  I reeled in place.

  Was I still alive? How was that possible? I’d accepted my fate. I’d known it was over.

  “Derek!”

  “In here!” Derek called back. His voice startled me. He spun around and grabbed my shoulders. He lowered me down to sit on the edge of the bathtub and kissed my forehead. “I’ll be right back. Stay right here. Caleb is coming for you.”

  “Wait. No. Stay—”

  “I can’t. I’ll be back. I promise.”

  And then he was gone. He tore out of the bathroom and stepped over Jason’s corpse, leaving me alone with him.

  I could look nowhere else but at the body. More blood was seeping out. I was thankful he wasn’t facing me.

  Suddenly, the nausea in my stomach doubled tenfold, and I pitched forward to cling to the side of the toilet, where I expelled the contents of my stomach in violent heaves. When I was done, I flushed the toilet and sat back on my heels. I dragged my hand across the back of my mouth as someone burst in through the door frame.

  I knew without looking that it wasn’t Derek. But it wasn’t Isaac, either.

  “Holy fuck,” the man breathed.

  I looked over at him. Caleb. His sweaty brown hair was plastered to his forehead and his blue eyes looked rather wind.

  He looked from the body to me. “Evelyn?”

  I nodded, surprised that he recognized me. We’d only met once.

  “Where’s Derek?”

  I nodded out the door. “He took off after him. Twenty seconds ago.”

  He stepped over Jason and made to come to me.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m all right. Please go after him? He might need help. Isaac has a-a—he has a gun.” Tears sprang to life in my eyes again, and I shook my head furiously to try to clear them. “Just leave me here.”

  Caleb didn’t need to be told twice, and I appreciated that because I’d hit my maximum capacity for words and sentences. He sprinted out the door and left me alone, just as I’d asked.

  I desperately wanted to get the hell out of that bathroom. But moving somewhere else meant I had to step over the body, and I was not capable of that. There was simply no way.

  So I pushed myself into the corner between the toilet and the wall and drew my knees up to my chest. I did my best to ignore the reddening water all around me. I was sitting in it. I pulled down Derek’s T-shirt over my thighs so my bare ass and thighs weren’t in the water. I knew it didn’t matter. It was just fabric, but it made me feel a little bit better.

  Then, I pressed my forehead to my knees and took slow, deep breaths.

  I told myself over and over that I was alive. Derek was alive.

  Jason was dead, but I was alive.

  It was only sort of comforting. I wished I had my phone on me. I needed Penny. I needed her desperately. But if she saw me like this, she might have a heart attack. I had to get it together. I had to wait for Derek to come back. He would know what to do. He’d know what I needed.

  I hoped.

  I didn’t have to wait long. After a few minutes, I heard them come back into the house. Derek and Caleb’s voices spoke in hushed tones as they came down the hall. When they got to the bathroom, Derek didn’t hesitate to step over Jason. He came to me, and Caleb hung back in the doorframe. Derek crouched down in front of me and rested his hands on my shins.

  “Evelyn?”

  I looked up at him and felt the tears leaking down my cheeks. His brow was furrowed. He looked terribly distraught. But he wasn’t hurt. Thank God.

  “Evelyn. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you. Fuck. I’m so sorry.”

  My bottom lip trembled. I couldn’t tell him it was okay, so I reached for him. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly. I cried into his shoulder, not caring that Caleb was there to see me come apart.

  Chapter 29

  Derek

  I inched slowly backward, pulling Evelyn out from the corner she’d squeezed herself into. I wrapped my arms tightly around her and scooped her up off the floor. She was soaking wet and shivering. As I moved across the bathroom, I rested my chin on the top of her head.

  Evelyn clung to me and held her breath as I stepped over Jason.

  I hated that I’d put her in this position.

  She was terrified and rightly so. Everything she had just seen was simply too much. A man, more like a kid, had died before her eyes. I was still trying to process the consequences of Jason’s death, but Evelyn’s safety was still my top priority. I moved slowly into the bedroom and sat her down on the edge of the bed.

  “Your sheets,” she mumbled, looking aimlessly around at my bed.

  I knelt in front of her. “Don’t worry about the sheets. I’ll get new ones.” I looked over my shoulder at Caleb, who was watching us from the doorframe of the bathroom. “Can you go get her a glass of water from my kitchen?”

  Caleb nodded and left.

  I put my hands on her shoulders. She was still trembling. “Let’s get this wet shirt off of you.” She let me peel it off over her head. I tossed it into the corner and grabbed a dry towel from my linen closet. I rubbed her down, making sure there were no little droplets of pink left on her skin. She sat with it wrapped around her shoulders as I went and grabbed a sweater and a pair of jogging pants from my dresser.

  I helped her get dressed. She swam in all of it, but she wasn’t shivering anymore. Caleb arrived shortly after, and I had her sitting propped up against the pillows on my bed. He handed me the water, and I pushed it into her hands. “Drink.”

  She did as I asked and sipped at the water delicately.

  Caleb was lingering off to the side of the bed with his hands in his pockets. “Ryder and the others are going to be here any minute. I feel like we should, I don’t know, cover him up or something.”

  I nodded. It was a good suggestion. I stood from the edge of the bed. Evelyn watched me and gave me a small nod. “I’m all right. Do what you have to do.”

  I kissed her cheek and followed Caleb into the bathroom. I gathered nearly six towels and laid them out all over the floor. They soaked through right away and didn’t do a good enough job, but they were all dark colors. At least this way, Ryder wouldn’t see all the blood. Caleb went to my linen cupboard and found a navy sheet, which he brought over and delicately draped over the body.

  Then, we stood and stared at each other.

  Caleb raked his fingers through his hair. “This is going to change things. It’s going to be a manhunt.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “Are we ready for that? Can we fucking handle it? The destruction this guy leaves in his wake is—”

  “We can handle it,” I said flatly. And for the first time, I believed it. “He’s just a man like us. And we have more information this go-around. We have his name. Dani’s a damn good detective. With her on the job, we’ll find out everything we need to know about him to bring him down.”

  “I fucking hope so. I’m getting tired of this shit.”

  I looked down at the navy sheet. “Yeah. I hear you.”

  My muscles tightened with dread when I heard footsteps down the hall. Several voices were talking loudly, and Caleb leaned out the bathroom door to call them over.

  Sabian emerged first and drew to a dead stop. He looked at the sheet and then up at me. Jax and Axel appeared behind him. “Is this him? You fucking killed him?” Sabian asked.

  I shook my head.

  Sabian and the others looked back and forth between me and Caleb, who sighed. “It’s Jason.”

  “Oh,” Jax muttered. “Fuck.”

  Axel weaved
between them and crouched down beside the sheet. He lifted up the corner to peer at Jason’s body and let it quickly fall. “This isn’t going to be good.”

  “You should leave, Derek,” Jax suggested. “We can handle this shit. Ryder’s going to be pissed, and you know how he gets. Tunnel vision. He’s going to want someone to pummel.”

  “Let him,” I said. “This is my fault. I fucked it up.”

  Axel shook his head and got to his feet. “No. Ryder will regret it once it’s done. We’ll keep him off you if that’s what it comes to.”

  “It will come to that,” Sabian muttered, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously.

  Then, we heard Ryder yelling for us. We all exchanged an uneasy glance. My stomach rolled. Then I called out, “We’re in here!” This was going to go down, one way or another, and no matter what, it was going to be brutal. I clenched my jaw and squared my shoulders. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

  The men in the doorway parted and came all the way into the bathroom, stepping over Jason’s body—all except Axel, who remained outside to greet Ryder when he came into the bedroom. Axel caught him by the arm before he turned to come in. “Johnny. It’s not good in there. All right?” Axel was one of the closest of all of us to Ryder, and I’d never heard him call our president by his first name before. He was letting him know that shit was about to get real.

  Ryder narrowed his eyes. “Who’s dead?”

  Axel stepped aside and let Ryder come in. He looked at all of us first, no doubt doing a tally in his head. Then, he looked down at the body. He didn’t ask the same question that Sabian did. He knew right away from Axel’s warning that the corpse did not belong to Isaac. It was someone he cared about.

  I stared down at the navy sheet. “I’m sorry, Ryder. I tried to do everything I could to save him, but it wasn’t enough.”

  Ryder dropped into a crouch.

  Axel put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “It’s Jason, man.”