“I can’t help but feel sorry for him. Russ might have had a chance if Taylor had lived,” Phoe said.
I shook my head. “No, Phoe. Before Russ discovered his powers, he’d been hyper-focused on a girl in school. She would have been his first victim.”
“Christ,” Phoe muttered. She reached out and took Drake’s hand.
Drake clasped it tightly. “We’ve got the luck of the devil.”
“Yeah, we keep surviving this shit. What do we do about Russ? It seems cruel to kill him in this condition,” she inquired.
“Hand him over to the cops. Tell them you found him here. They’ll lock Russ up in a psychiatric ward, and he’ll live there for the rest of his life,” Stitch suggested.
“He’ll never recover?” Drake asked as he slowly got to his feet.
“No, Belladonna did a beautiful job,” Romeo confirmed.
Drake nodded and pulled his phone.
Drake
The Royal Bastards left first. I offered a marker, which Undertaker took. Phoe flew them back on her plane, which returned for the Harlots. Phoe doubled the money she’d originally paid, and again I gave Stitch a marker. Stitch accepted on behalf of Sapphire. The cops had picked up Russ Kennedy,some of them recognising him, but none had a clue what had happened.
The last we heard, Russ was locked up in a psychiatric ward. I heard he was undergoing a barrage of tests, but nobody understood what was wrong. Drugs had been floated as an idea, but again, there was no evidence. But Russ would turn into a cautionary tale of a bright young man who blew his own brains out with narcotics. So be it.
I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The darkness Russ had forced upon me was gone, and I was back to myself. Yeah, ain’t gonna lie, some guilt and self-recrimination lingered. They always would. Same as the self-doubts, but at the end of the day, that was natural and within the normal range.
No sooner had Russ been captured than everyone went home. Phoe and I had Reading Hall back and manageable levels of chaos. This was my life; it wasn’t perfect by a long shot, but for me, it was.
Belladonna
I entered the clubhouse and sighed. Thank God I was home. I headed for the bar and saw Blue and Saxon behind it. Nun whistled at him, and Blue grinned and came around as Nun leapt into his arms, and Blue carried her to her apartment. Sapphire laughed as I grabbed a seat next to her.
“I swear Nun banged a Hellfire MC prospect while we were there,” I said as I tapped the counter.
Saxon poured a Jack and Coke and handed it to me.
“It’s her life. All resolved back in Rapid City?”
“Yup. Drake offered a marker. Stitch accepted it.”
“Nice. Rage MC has power behind them.”
“Yeah. Plus, he also offered a second marker for Stitch healing one of their old ladies. That’s a right situation that part of South Dakota has. Lots of raw emotion. It may be a year and a half since the war, but that city is still deep in grief,” I said.
“Gotta be anger and blame there too,” Sapphire mused.
“Yup. Ain’t a single family that wasn’t affected in one way or another. Rapid City won’t heal for a long time.”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“Yes. Don’t send me there again. The Rage MC Hellions are fuckin’ nightmares. Who needs an army when we’ve got kids like that walking the planet?” I drawled and took a huge swallow.
Sapphire raised her own glass and laughed. She tilted it at me and drank. “Yeah. We’ll see. Piss me off enough, and that’s a suitable punishment.”
“Bitch,” I muttered at my best friend, sister, and president.
“Too damn right.” Sapphire lit up as her handsome man walked in. She put the glass down and sauntered across the floor. Wylde grinned and picked her up, hands full of her ass. He kissed her and then carried her away. Shit, I needed to get myself a man!
“Hey, Cass,” I called, seeing one of the stable.
