Chains by Kristine Allen

“Gravedigger”—Dave  Matthews

A few months later….

Wiping the excess ink and blood from my work, I checked every bit with a practiced but critical eye. Then I set my equipment to the side. “What do you think?”

“Looks perfect,” Venom said with a soft smile as he watched me finish cleaning the newest piece of his sleeve and cover it. It was his daughter’s name and birth date written on the belly of a striking viper.

“You know the drill,” I told him as he slipped his arms in his flannel and buttoned it.

“So how are things going with Jasmine?” he asked. Despite his nonchalant tone, his eyes studied me like a hawk.

Unable to hold back, I grinned. “Really good.”

“Mmm,” he said, then shrugged his cut over the shirt. “Madame Laveaux will be here tomorrow. She said something about you needing an answer for her by the time she got here. Does that make sense to you?”

My good mood plummeted.

I’d been procrastinating discussing the “treatment” with Jasmine. She’d asked me repeatedly if I was going to tell her what it was. Each time I put her off.

It would seem I’d run out of time.

“Yeah,” I muttered before peeling off the black nitrile gloves and pitching them across the room into the trash. Not that I should be surprised. Voodoo’s grandmother had called me several times to ask me what Jasmine had said. We both knew she was aware I hadn’t given Jasmine the details yet, though I knew she was getting impatient.

“Thanks for taking that last-minute job in Texas with Voodoo for his brother-in-law’s buddy,” he said.

I shrugged. Though the things we’d stumbled upon with that job left me unsettled, I decided to keep my mouth shut for the moment. “No problem.”

“You still gonna be able to do that job tonight?” he asked me.

“Yeah, I got it.” Me, Voodoo, Raptor, and Angel were the best snipers in the chapter. That’s why when we took on a job that required an anonymous assassination in a public place, it cycled through the four of us. This one was mine.

“You have all the details down?” he asked me.

I tapped my temple. “Yep. 2215 on the dot. The Station on Main Street, Kansas City.”

Satisfied, he gave me a nod and walked toward the door. He knew better than to shake my hand when I wasn’t wearing gloves, and I appreciated that.

“See you when you get back. We have church scheduled to discuss the shit that we found during the job for Dmitry,” Venom said. I nodded and he left. Dmitry was Kira’s brother. He’d called us in to help out with a situation one of his hockey buddies had gotten into.

A glance at the clock told me I had time to grab my shit, then swing by to check on Jasmine at her apartment before I had to hit the road.

I made quick work of cleaning up my station and said my goodbyes before I left the shop. Then I climbed on my bike, drove to the clubhouse, and went into the basement through the concealed door in the bar.

Knowing what I was taking with me, I went right for my new favorite. We had acquired several Remington Defense CSRs. The best of both worlds, it was a concealable sniper rifle that broke down into sections no longer than sixteen inches. It could be assembled in less than sixty seconds and broken down quicker. It was perfect for carrying in a saddlebag.

Methodically, I grabbed everything else I needed, shoved it in the small assault pack, and locked everything up again. Taking the stairs two at a time, I rushed out.

“Be back tonight,” I called out to Raptor and Phoenix as they played a game of pool. Then I pulled out my phone and called Ghost.

“You about ready?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, sounding like he was running.

“Are you at the gym or fucking?” I asked without shame.

“You really wanna know?”

“Nope. ’Cause that’s my answer.”

“Meet you at your place in twenty,” he said as I heard the pre-orgasmic mewls of a woman before the called ended. I shook my head and sped over to Jasmine’s complex. I showed my ID to the gate guard, looked into the facial recognition camera, then entered the code to open the gate. The security of the place was the only reason I hadn’t put up a fight when she decided to get separate places while we “dated.”

On a tight schedule, I scanned my card at the door, then pressed my thumb to the reader, then bolted through the door and up the stairs. I let myself into her apartment and called out, “Jasmine!”

“In the office!” she replied. Her website design and management business had really taken off and I was so proud of her. It had been her dream that became her reality. Things were coming together beautifully for us too.

When I hit the doorway, she was already up and throwing her arms around my neck.

“I missed you,” I said, and she giggled.

“You just saw me this morning before you left.”

A grin stole across my face as I nuzzled her nose and pressed a chaste kiss to her bee-stung lips. It didn’t matter how long I was away from her, it was always too long. When I had to fly to Texas to help Voodoo’s brother-in-law and his friend, I’d only been home a week. The distance had me crawling out of my skin.

“And that was entirely too long ago,” I said, then I stepped back to kneel at her feet. “Daddy loves you, and I’ll be back later.”

I kissed her very large belly as she sifted her fingers through the longer hair at the top of my head.

“What time do you think you’ll be back?” she asked. “Or will you go to your place when you get back?”

“Don’t wait up. It’ll be late. But I’m coming back here so I can hold you.”

An affectionate smile lifted the corners of her mouth, followed quickly by a concerned frown. “Please be careful,” she begged. She had no idea where I was going or what I was doing, but she knew I had a mission.

“Scout’s honor,” I said, and she snorted.

“You weren’t a Boy Scout,” she scoffed with a smirk.

“No, but we can play like I’m one and you’re a Brownie so I can eat you,” I said.

Her laughter rang out, and my heart soared at the sound. “You are terrible.”

Reluctantly, I stood. “Unfortunately, I gotta go.”

One last kiss, and I rested my forehead to hers. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her how I was feeling, but I couldn’t. Not yet. She hadn’t said it either, and I was loath to ruin the good thing we had going if she wasn’t ready for it.

“I’ll be back before you know it. Do you need anything before I go?”

“No, I have three more websites to update and I’m done for the day. My back is killing me, so I think I’ll soak in the tub after I’m done.”

“Grrr, now I’m thinking about you naked in the tub. I’ve got a chub from the mental image.”

Again, she laughed. It was my favorite sound. One last kiss and I left, ensuring her door was locked.

I made it back to my place with five minutes to spare, but Ghost was sitting on his bike thumbing through shit on his phone.

“Damn, what did you do? Nut, smack her ass, and leave?” I joked with a chuckle.

He shrugged. “Pretty much.”

My eyes rolled, and I went inside to change. While Jasmine had chosen an apartment, I had bought a house. It was in Angel and Korrie’s gated neighborhood and was the perfect setup for a family. Jasmine had fallen in love with it, but she was being stubborn about moving in. I respected her choice, but it didn’t mean I had to like it.

Dark jeans, black T-shirt, black boots, black hoodie, and an old black leather jacket was my uniform for the night. In less than ten minutes, Ghost and I were heading down I35 toward Kansas City.

The job was a sadistic, abusive husband who was cheating on his wife with his secretary. The last time he’d beat his wife so bad that he put her in the hospital for two weeks and had the authorities believing it was a mugging. While she was in the hospital, he was fucking his secretary in his office and in their bed.

Her brother found out and tried to get her to go to the authorities, but she was terrified.

That’s where we stepped in. The brother was loaded and connected to Gabriel De Luca. Oh, and he also happened to be another of Voodoo’s brothers-in-law. Storm Montgomery had married Voodoo’s stepsister, Rose. We’d all been surprised as fuck when she had turned up, but we’d quickly taken her under our wing.

Ghost and I parked our bikes in a parking garage, then I slung the small backpack over my shoulder and we casually walked down the sidewalk.

“We made good time,” Ghost said as we reached the building Facet had scouted out as our best location.

“Yep,” I said as I grabbed the fire escape ladder with a gloved hand and pulled it down. When there was no response to the slight sound it had made, we climbed up to the roof.

The intel we had from one of the shitbag’s men said the douche canoe was going to arrive at the popular nightclub around ten fifteen. Storm wanted the hit to be public. He wanted it to be known that he was cheating with the secretary when he died. Evidently, the dickwad’s parents were real assholes too. Storm wanted it to make the papers that he was a lying, cheating fuck. Personally, I didn’t give a shit. A job was a job, and the mark was a piece of crap. That’s all I needed to know.

After we each pulled on a thin black balaclava, we got to work. It took no time at all to set up, and then we waited. Ghost kept me apprised of the time as I watched the comings and goings at the club through my scope. When the time came, I needed to ensure there was no collateral damage. It was a busy club, and there were a lot of people that would be standing in line to get in.

The guy had bodyguards that traveled with him because he had several enemies due to dirty business practices. That made it helpful for us too. There would be so many possible suspects, that they’d never figure anything out. Besides the fact that we were good at what we did.

“There he is,” Ghost said barely above a whisper as the tool helped his mistress out of the fancy town car dropping them off.

From the second he said that to the moment the guy dropped dead on the sidewalk probably took less than a minute. Before he hit the ground, I was breaking down my weapon and packing up. Ghost and I ripped off the balaclavas, shoved them in the pack, and quickly made it back to the ground. We were walking back to the bikes as if it was another normal Saturday night.

We were turning into the garage entrance when I had a strange sensation and turned slightly right. I heard the pop, and my arm was on fire.

“Fuck!” I said as I stumbled and fell. Ghost disappeared, and I painfully got back to my feet, then hurried to my bike. Wincing, I stashed the bag in my saddlebag, locked it, and climbed on.

Ghost reappeared as I was starting it. “You okay?” he asked, and I nodded. “Guy disappeared into thin air, and I don’t know how far behind him the other guys were or how the fuck they knew it was us.”

We both looked at the other with concern, and I knew we were both wondering the same thing. Did the guy have the same ability Ghost did?

“Let’s go!” I said, gritting my teeth against the burn. We raced out of the garage on the opposite side and didn’t stop until we hit a small gas station right after crossing back into Iowa. We filled up, then moved into the shadows alongside the building.

“Take off your jacket,” he ordered.

“I’m fine,” I insisted, but I was feeling a little lightheaded.

“That wasn’t a request, goddamn it!”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I muttered, then I flinched as I shrugged out of my jacket.

“Holy shit,” he said under his breath as he realized my hoodie sleeve was soaked with blood. Using his knife, he sliced off the sleeve, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and shoved it in his saddlebag.

As Ghost assessed the damage, I breathed deeply to keep my head steady. I winced a few times but didn’t make a peep as he wrapped my bicep and grumbled to himself.

“We need to get you home to Angel. We’re about halfway. Think you can make it?”

I nodded, but shit started to spin when I did.

He whipped out his phone, and I heard him talking but half of it didn’t register as he ran inside and came out with a Gatorade and clean hands.

“Drink this,” he said as he held out the open bottle. I shot him a deadpan look but took the bottle with my left hand and chugged it.

“Let’s go if we’re gonna go,” I said as I handed him the empty bottle that he stashed in his saddlebag with the bag holding my sleeve. I prayed he hadn’t left any evidence behind when he went inside.

Ghost was bitching and cussing the entire time we got situated until we hit the road again. It was like I was driving drunk, but I forced myself to keep my eyes open and riding in a straight line. The rest of the trip was a blur. The next thing I remembered was awkwardly kicking the kickstand down, then falling off my bike.

I woke in the infirmary with Angel staring down at me. If thunder had a face, it would look like him at that moment.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked me with his arms crossed.

Obviously, I’d said that out loud.

“Uh, yeah, you did.” A dark brow arched as he blinked at me.

“Fuck, how long have I been out?” There was a slight twinge in my arm that hit me as I sat up.

“That will go away soon. You got back here about two hours ago.”

“Shit, Jasmine,” I said as I tried to get off the gurney.

“Sit your ass down. You know better than to pop up like that. Go slow. Just because I healed you doesn’t mean you’re good as new yet.”

“I told her I’d be there,” I argued.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I had Phoenix go get her. They should be back here any minute now,” he said with a shake of his head. I glanced at the time.

“Dammit, Angel. Why would you wake her up at four in the morning? You should’ve just let me go to her,” I grumbled as I fell back to the pillow, not wanting to admit I was lightheaded.

“I didn’t wake her up. She called me, worried about you because you weren’t there yet.”

“Shit,” I muttered. Jasmine needed her sleep, and she didn’t need the stress of worrying about me.

Venom, Raptor, Voodoo, Facet, Squirrel, and Blade came in. “Good to see you’re doing okay,” Venom said as he gave me a gruff but concerned look.

“Jesus, don’t any of you sleep?” I asked as I sighed and closed my eyes.

“Someone ratted us out. Gabriel’s men picked up the informant to see if he double-crossed us. No way did that guy just happen to know it was us to shoot at,” I heard Ghost say and cracked an eye open.

“If they knew it was us, then who’s to say they don’t plan to come after us?” I asked, suddenly worried about the safety of our families, but mostly Jasmine and my unborn child.

“That’s why we’re bringing everyone in. We’ll be on lockdown until we get some answers from Gabriel,” Venom said. “Everyone is already here; we’re just waiting on Jasmine and Phoenix.”

Jasmine was going to be pissed. She loved having her freedom. The last thing she would want was to be confined to the clubhouse again.

A commotion in the hall had all of us on edge until I heard my woman’s voice in the hall. “Ghost, if you don’t let me in that room right fucking now, I’m going to rearrange that pretty face of yours!”

“And that’s my sister,” Angel said with proud grin. In truth, all of us were pretty happy to hear her sounding so spunky. She’d continued with her therapy every week and had made massive strides. Though she occasionally had a setback or two, I was proud as hell of her.

The door flew open, and my whiskey-eyed, sable-haired, pregnant as fuck avenging angel burst in. “Nico!”

“I’m fine, I promise,” I said as she rushed to my side and wrapped her arms around my neck. Without thinking, I hugged her with my hands splayed over her soft long-sleeved T-shirt. The tips of my fingers brushed the skin at the neck of her shirt under her untamed hair. When ripples of memories started to surface, I quickly balled my fists and lifted them off her while keeping her in my embrace.

Her cold hands palmed my cheeks when she pulled back. “When you didn’t show up, I figured it was okay because you said it would be late, but when you weren’t home by three, I started to panic and called Angel. He sent Phoenix, who made me pack a bag.”

With a wry smile, I sighed. “Sorry, babe. We’ll get shit sorted as soon as we can.”

“As long as you’re okay, I don’t care. And I’m staying in his room,” she firmly announced to her brother with a glare. He gave it right back to her, but quickly backed down when she snapped, “No! This is my life and my decision. For fuck’s sake, Angel, how the hell do you think I got pregnant? Like I haven’t seen the goods already.” She rolled her eyes at her brother.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed my ass off at Angel’s expression. He flipped me off.

“Well, let’s get this big oaf to his room so we can all get a little sleep,” Venom instructed as he motioned to me.

Angel and Ghost helped me to my feet and kept me steady as I walked back to my room, where I promptly collapsed on the bed. Angel might’ve healed me, but afterward the “patient” was always a little weak and groggy. The amount of damage impacted how Angel fared. Then again, if I’d been out for over two hours, he already crashed and recuperated.

“Scoot over,” I heard Jasmine say after she shooed everyone out of the room and locked the door.

Too tired to argue, I did as she asked and waited for her to climb in. She leaned over me and kissed my lips. “I’ll be back in a sec, okay?”

I nodded, hating feeling so tired.

She went in the bathroom, and I heard her messing around, presumably getting ready for bed. Then she shut the light out and used her phone for light to get to the bed.

When her warm body curled up into mine, I wrapped an arm around her and held her close. My baby gave my arm a boot, and I smiled. I’d worry about what had happened later. For the moment, I was going to enjoy the feel of my woman cuddled up close, knowing she and my baby were safe.

For now.