We encounter brothers as we hit the stairs and I nearly blow the Cardiff’s RC’s head off before I realise he’s a friendly.

I hear a whimper from Lucy. Her eyes are wide as she takes in the blood from the bodies riddled with holes, slumped against the walls or lying on the floor where they fell.

“Luce.”

“I’m okay.” She kisses my neck.

I have no choice but to walk through this massacre, and we have massacred Blackwood’s men. Those fuckers won’t come back at us now. There will be no retribution.

As I hit the last step, Rav appears in the hallway with Fury and Daimon on his heels. He peers up at me and then his eyes shift to Lucy. I watch as they all take a deep breath.

“House and grounds are cleared,” Rav says. “Take her back to the clubhouse. I’ll send Whizz as soon as he’s finished helping patch up some of the injured.”

He leaves the rest unspoken, but I know what he’s saying. They’ll handle clean up. I’m grateful as fuck because I just want to get Lucy out of here.

“Rav.” My throat works.

He shakes his head, telling me there’s no need for thanks. This is who we are, who the Untamed Sons are.

“Go and look after your girl.”

“Blackwood’s in the front bedroom. First one off the landing,” I tell him.

I don’t tell him he’s dead, but from the look in his eyes he knows it. I wouldn’t let that fucker keep breathing free air after what he did to Lucy. If she hadn’t killed him, I would have done.

He nods and juts his chin to Fury and Daimon, who start up the stairs. Daimon pats my shoulder as he passes, giving me his support without speaking a word.

“Ravage!” I reach for my gun, but hold as Maverick, President of the Devils Dogs, strides towards us, his face a mask of irritation. The man wasn’t happy about his club getting dragged into this shit, but a marker is a marker.

His eyes go to Lucy in my arms, flicking to the bruises, the swell of her eye that she can barely see out and stopping at the blood covering her. His shoulders drop slightly, understanding appearing in his eyes.

“That’s us square now, right?”

Rav meets his gaze unflinchingly. “Yeah,” Rav agrees.

“Put me down,” Lucy says softly.

I don’t want to let her out of my arms ever, but I slowly set her on her feet, gritting my teeth as she winces, grabbing her ribs.

She looks at Maverick.

“Thank you.”

He nods as I pull Lucy into my side, needing her close to me and together we walk out of the house. She stops walking as we hit the porch and pulls out of my hold. I’m about to ask her what she’s doing, when she walks over to Leon’s body—the first casualty in this massacre. I watch her, unsure what is going on, and she surprises the fuck out of me and all the brothers watching by spitting on his corpse.

When her eyes meet mine, she says, “He was always the cruel one of the two.”

By two, I assume she means out of him and Elijah, Blackwood’s right-hand men. I wish I could kill him again.

She comes back to my side and burrows into it. I sit her on the porch, wincing at the way she holds her body as she lowers onto the steps. I’m glad she did what she had to in order to survive, but the loss of my vengeance hangs heavily around my neck. I wanted to make Blackwood pay for every hurt he inflicted on Lucy, for every name he called her, for every freedom he squashed. That vengeance was taken from me and the injustice of it nips at my heels.

I push it down. Dead is dead, at least he can no longer hurt her, leave her afraid or make her run for her life.

I make a call to Kyle, asking him to bring the van to the front entrance. I don’t want Lucy walking any further than she needs to with her injuries.

As we sit on the steps, she leans her head against my uninjured shoulder and I wrap my arm around her. Brothers and support club brothers gather on the lawn, waiting for their next instruction. I lift my chin to them in thanks before I tune it out, focusing instead on the blonde head leaning against me, thinking about the things I want to say to her. We have a shit ton to discuss, but it can all wait.

Kyle turns up with the van just as Titch steps out of the house, his gun held at his side, covered in blood. He gives me a huge grin before he moves over to a group of brothers standing on the lawn. Crazy fucker.

I help Lucy into the van and climb in behind her. Kyle doesn’t say a word as he hits the gas and the van starts to move.

As we get further from the house, I glance in the wing mirror and see smoke rising behind us from the house. I wish I could have stayed to see the flames licking through that shithole, but my woman needs me more.

My lips quirk into a smile. Torching that place and sending all those fuckers on a one-way trip to hell is the best thing that could happen.

“Look.” I bend down, whispering in her ear.

Her eyes go to the mirror and widen as she sees the scene behind her.

“It’s over,” she murmurs.

I nod, unable to tell her that it’s not really over. Isaac might be dead, but his death will haunt my girl. She’s not the type to kill and not be affected.

Lucy leans her head against my shoulder and I place my hand on her denim-clad thigh, letting her know I’m here for her, that I’ll pick up the broken pieces wherever they may fall, because despite everything, I love Lucy and I don’t care what her fucking name is, who she is, because none of that matters. Lucy Franklin is mine.

31

Lucy

By the time we make it back to the clubhouse my hands are shaking so badly I can hardly keep them still. I clench them together in my lap, but Nox sees and grabs my closed fist, squeezing it. Having him here calms some of the tension in my body, lets me relax my shoulders slightly, but I know we have to talk about all of this at some point, and I’m not sure it’s a conversation I want to have.

Kyle parks the van outside the side entrance of the clubhouse, opposite where the bikes usually go. I peer through the windscreen, unable to believe I’m back here. I thought I would never see the clubhouse—or Nox—again. This feels unreal.

Nox climbs out of the van first and turns back, his arms reaching for me. I move slowly, my chest throbbing and slip into his arms as he lifts me down. The movement is like ice picks stabbing at my ribs, and I can’t stop the whimper that falls from my mouth.

Nox growls, “That motherfucking cunt.”

I can’t even imagine how bad I look. Now the adrenaline has worn off, I can feel every inch of pain returning. My face feels like I went ten rounds with a heavyweight boxer and lost, my ribs and stomach are aching and my head is spinning.

We walk for a few steps, but my movements are slow. Every step makes something on my body hurt.

“Fuck it.”

Nox scoops me up into his arms, pressing me against his chest. I can smell the blood, his aftershave and the leather of his kutte. It’s a heady mix, but it doesn’t distract me from the fact that he’s also injured. I didn’t miss the way he winced as he held me through Isaac’s house.

“Your shoulder!” I hiss at him, but he shakes his head.

“Quit worrying, woman.”

He doesn’t take me to the common room, but carries me up the stairs to his room. When we get inside, he places me carefully on the toilet and rubs at his shoulder. Stubborn as fuck man. No doubt that pulled at his stitches.