She melted into my kiss. It felt right, fucking safe, to hold her in my arms and to kiss her deeply. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had something outside the club worth fighting for.
We kissed for what felt like hours, but it was probably only a minute or two. Finally, she pulled away, resting her head against my chest.
“Okay,” she said. “Okay. I think I’m ready to let it go.”
“Let what go?”
“Everything.”
I wanted to ask what she meant, but the door opened and Larkin stepped in.
If he thought it was strange that I was hugging Janine, he didn’t say so, didn’t even miss a beat actually. “He’s awake,” he said. “You coming?”
“Yeah,” I said, stepping back from Janine.
“I’m coming too,” she said quickly.
Larkin went to argue but just shook his head. “Okay. You’re in this now I guess.”
We followed him back down the hall and into the weapons locker. It was a pretty big room, about the size of a one-car garage. It was soundproof and full of weapons hanging on the walls in racks, plus ammunition and bulletproof vests.
Noble was leaning against a rack, absently picking at his nails. The Rebel was awake and looking around, clearly a bit groggy.
I shut the door and locked it.
“Well, Leeroy,” Larkin said, “you’ve made a fucking mess.”
“Where am I?” he asked, slurring his words.
“You’re in a locked, soundproof room,” Larkin said, “surrounded by men who want to do you harm.”
He slowly seemed to wake up a bit, looking around. “Ah, shit,” he said.
“That’s right,” Larkin said. “Shit.”
“What do you want from me? Just fuckin’ kill me if you’re gonna.”
“We want answers first,” I said, stepping toward him. “You can save yourself a lot of pain if you tell us what we want to know.”
“Why bother?” he asked. “You’ll just kill me anyway.”
“Maybe, but we might let you live if you play along. You like being alive?”
“Yeah,” he said, “I do.”
“Okay,” Larkin cut in. “Then tell me who put you up to this.”
Leeroy stared at him for a second before shaking his head. “I can’t. I just can’t.”
Larkin nodded at Noble, who pushed himself upright and walked lazily over to Leeroy. Noble slowly unsheathed a long, wicked-looking knife.
“What you doin’?” Leeroy asked.
Noble took the knife and slowly ran it down Leeroy’s thigh, cutting a long, thin red line into his flesh. Leeroy screamed.
“Ah fucking bastards!”
“Leeroy, come on now,” Larkin said as Noble stepped back. “Our boy Noble here is very good with that weapon. He can do this to you all night long, and trust me, it only gets much worse.”
“I’m very creative,” Noble added. “Been wanting to try some stuff out lately.”
Leeroy shook his head. “Fuck, please. I can’t tell you.”
Larkin nodded at Noble, who stepped up and looked over at Janine. “You might want to look away,” he said to her.
She looked back defiantly. “I’d rather watch.”
Noble grinned and then took the tip of one of Leeroy’s ears. With a smooth motion, he lopped it off, and Leeroy screamed.
“Now don’t move,” Noble said. “If you do, I could make it worse. I have to get the other one.”
He moved around Leeroy, took his other ear, and cut him again. Leeroy just screamed and screamed.
Larkin stepped up to him again. “I can make it stop. Tell me who put you up to this.”
“Burke! It was fucking Burke!”
“Does Jetter know?”
“Yes! Yes, he knows. Fuck, he knows.”
“Why?”
“They didn’t explain this shit to me,” he said.
Larkin nodded at Noble, but Leeroy started talking fast.
“Okay, okay. Boys think Jetter wants to take the Demons back. We kill the girl, make you weak, and then take you out and put Jetter in your place. I think that’s the plan, just please stop.”
I shook my head, surprised. “Fuck, that bastard.”
“This was all to take over the Demons?” Janine asked, anger and dismay in her voice.
Larkin walked over to us. “It would make sense. Jetter is known to try shit like that.”
“But the Demons?” I asked. “Just makes no damn sense. We’re too big for that.”
“Jetter thinks he’s invincible.”
“What do we do?” Janine asked.
“I’m not yet sure.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Leeroy called out. “Jetter is going to outthink all of you fucking bastards. Even if you know, he’ll still win. We’re Rebels for life.”
Larkin nodded at Noble.
Noble plunged the knife deep into Leeroy’s chest. Blood welled up, and Leeroy stared at him, shocked, before collapsing back.
“Good riddance,” Noble said, spitting.
“What a fucking mess,” Larkin said, eyeing the blood and the body. “Get the pledges in here to clean it up.”
I turned to Janine and expected to see her staring, horrified, at the dead body with a knife in its chest, but instead she was just looking thoughtfully back at me. “What?” I asked her.
“Nothing. Just wondering what to do now.”
“You okay?”