Gentleman wanted 15

Gentleman wanted 15
Gent

My hand raised to those behind me as a lanky figure detached itself from the looming industrial buildings flanking the road that surrounded the gates of the Black Aces compound.

Parker was hunkered down, with something clutched in his arms. My heart stuttered to a stop as he looked up at me with wide, terrified eyes. Stepping away from the body at my feet, I rushed over to him. 

“Parker.” I reached for the baby in his arms, and he shied away like I was a threat. I let my hand fall to my side as Ruin came up. His face troubled.

“Hey, son, it’s ok. You're safe now.”

Finally, recognition flickered to life in Parker’s eyes. “Ruin?”

Ruin folded the boy into his arms. “Right here, Parker. Right here. You’re safe now, I promise. Give the baby to his dad. Are you hurt?” Ruin was talking in a rush of words. But somehow, Parker understood them. 

Bobby was passed over to me, and I wasted no time in checking over his tiny frame. He looked unharmed, but I was still going to make Young Blood hurt. I was looking forward to making him scream in pain.

“Parker?”

Slowly he turned his eyes to me. He looked guilty. What did he have to feel guilty for? 

“Where’s Gemma?” My eyes scanned the street. There was no sign of her. But if Parker had got out, then so could she. Except there was no sign of her. 

“She told me to run.” He broke down into sobs. “She made me promise that if I got the chance, I would take Bobby and run. I didn’t want to… I wanted to stay and protect her, but she made me promise.” 

Gemma was still in there. Alone and unarmed.

Ruin shot me a look. And I nodded. “Parker.” I kept my voice soft. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. You did the right thing.”

He shook his head. “A man would have stayed and protected her.”

Squeezing his shoulder, I waited until he looked at me. “You did what any man would do, Parker. You got the baby out. Gemma is strong. She will be fine. We will go and get her and-”

He cut me off. “You don’t understand, Gent. He’s going to burn her alive.”

At first, his words didn’t make sense. 

Young Blood was a crazy son of a bitch, but surely Parker was wrong? He couldn’t really be planning on setting Gemma on fire and watching her die in agony? Gemma was innocent in all of this. But then that didn’t seem to matter to Young Blood. She was guilty by association. And that was obviously good enough for him.

He would kill her in the most excruciating way possible just because she had links to Fender. She wasn’t Fender’s woman, though. She was mine. And no one took what was mine. 

With a roar, I rushed forward, for a second forgetting the baby in my arms, and it was only his cry of distress that made my feet stop.

I had to think. I couldn’t go in there all cocksure. We needed a plan. It was just a shame my brain wasn’t working well enough to make one. All I could think about was getting to Gemma in time. I had already thought I had lost her once today. I wasn’t about to go through that again.

“We have got to go and get her.” I sounded as desperate as I felt. My eyes never leaving the clubhouse in the distance. Even when I pressed a kiss to Bobby’s curls, I couldn’t look away from it.

“We will.” Ruin growled from my side. “We are going in there hard and fast.”

Behind him, Wicked nodded, his face thoughtful.

“So, what’s the plan?” I could tell he had one. He always had one. It was the reason he was named president after Fender had been killed. 

At first, he didn’t answer. “Parker is going to take the baby and my phone and ring Truth to come and get them. Until he does, he is going to hide and stay out of sight.”

“And us. What is the plan for getting Gem out?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “We’re going in hard and fast. You want to know the plan? The plan is kill fucking Young Blood.”

That was a plan I could get behind.



Just like Wicked had said, we went in hard and fast. Leaving our bikes at the gate, we stayed low and moved fast. But we weren’t quiet about it.

There was no hiding the sound of our boots on the floor as we swarmed into the building. 

I wasn’t armed. I wasn’t even sure if any of my brothers were. We had been celebrating when all of this started to go down. It wasn’t standard practice to be carrying at family functions,,,, but none of that seemed to matter, not to me and not to the men around me.

Men who were putting themselves in danger to save my woman.

If we got out of this alive, then I would owe them more than I could ever repay. 

Thanks to Parker, we knew where Young Blood was holding her. The games room. The one family-friendly room in the whole place, and he was about to make it something disgusting. He wanted to make it Gemma’s fiery tomb. 

I was so deep in thought that I almost ran straight into Wicked, who had stopped on the stairs. His hand up to signal us to stop. He glanced behind him. His eyes met mine.

“Are you ready?”

I nodded silently. I was born ready. 

“I know you’re there.” Young Blood’s voice was bored. “You send me Ruin, and no one else has to get hurt.”

He was lying. Everyone could tell. He had left two bodies upstairs. Two brothers had lost their lives already. 

Wicked shook his head as Ruin took a step forward. He would not risk any more of his men. 

“You know I’m not going to send anyone in until me and you have a little chat.” Wicked stepped from the stairs and into the doorway. His hands raised. If Young Blood took that as a surrender, he was a fool. Wicked was out for blood. 

Young Blood would not get out of here alive. 

Stepping into the space Wicked had left, I let my eyes peer around his hulking frame and instantly wish I hadn’t. 

At first, I thought Gemma’s hair and clothes were wet. Like she had showered fully clothed. The pungent smell of petrol hit my nose. She wasn’t wet. She was soaked in petrol. 

She stood there. Her back ramrod straight. Her face defiant even as the crazy man at her side flicked the lighter from one hand to another. She was frightened; I could see it in her eyes. But she wasn’t showing it.

My beautiful, brave girl.

“Here.”

I didn’t know who passed me the red fire extinguisher, but I was thankful for their quick thinking. 

“Why don’t you let her go.” Wicked was talking again. His chin jutting in Gem’s direction. “And then we can chat.”

Hysterical laughter filled the quiet air. “This doesn’t end with anyone listening to me. We don’t need to chat Wicked. You need to pay. All of you.”

“Gemma doesn’t need to pay.” My voice shook as I stepped forward. I knew Wicked wanted me to stay out of sight, that I was showing our hand, but I couldn’t just stand there and wait for him to throw that lighter. Couldn’t and wouldn’t. 

“Oh, look, Gem. Your man is here to watch the show as well. Who else is here? Ruin, Truth?”

“I’m here.” Ruin gritted out between his teeth. 

“But no Truth, huh? Not that I blame him. Cali was a fine piece of ass. I would have loved to have got between her legs even once.”

Wicked roared at his words. Like hearing those words about his brother's woman were enough to tip him over the edge. 

Everything happened at once. 

Young Blood screamed as Wicked attacked, his finger flicking the lighter to life. He tossed it towards Gemma as she tried to scuttle out of the way. 

Almost instantly, that tiny yellow flame blazed to life. Her dress ignited. And then it was her screams that echoed around the room. She desperately tried to pat them down. To extinguish them as they started to lick at her hair and skin. 

“Get down, Gem. On the floor now.” Swinging the fire extinguisher towards her, I let the foam fly. Covering her as she screamed and writhed on the floor. 

Her screams were the only thing I could hear. They cancelled out everything else. It was only when the last flame blinked out that I stopped the flow.

She wasn’t moving. She wasn’t even making a sound, and I couldn’t move. 

Slowly I turned my head. My eyes locked on the man held in Wicked’s grip. I could hear Ruin fall to his knees as he started to tend Gemma. 

I didn’t know whether she was alive or dead. But one thing was for sure, the young man I had loved as a brother was about to die.

A crooked smile spread across my face, and I knew the moment Young Blood realised his death was imminent. His eyes widened.

And then I smashed the red fire extinguisher into his face.

He dropped like a stone, and Wicked let him go. Stepping back so I could do what I needed to do.

Kneeling over Young Blood, I forced him to look at me through the blood that was soaking his face. I wanted him to know that it was me that was going to kill him. Mine would be the last face he saw before darkness took him. 

He had killed Ruin’s father. Murdered two brothers upstairs, but he was mine. He had tried to take my family from me. 

“Look at me.” Oddly my voice was calm, unlike the rage that was like a wildfire inside. 

Blearily Young Blood blinked through the blood. He opened his mouth to speak, and I smashed the fire extinguisher into his mouth. Blood and teeth went flying as he gargled.

I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. I didn’t want to look at his face for another minute. All I wanted was for him to die. 

Again and again, I smashed it into his face. The gargling stopped. There was no sound from him but the wet sound of metal hitting meat. Wet meat. 

That’s all Young Blood was now. Raw, bloody meat. The man I had loved like a brother was gone. If he had ever been real to begin with.

And still, I couldn’t stop. I didn’t want to stop until there was nothing left of him. 

I wanted to wipe him off the face of the earth. 

I ground the metal into the ruins of his face. Feeling the grating of his bones as they turned to dust. One eye hung lifeless and unseeing from what remained of the socket. 

And still, I couldn’t stop. I kept bringing it down into the mess of Young Blood’s face. 

“He’s dead.” Wicked put a hand on my shoulder, and I froze. The fire extinguisher raised over my head. “He’s dead, Gent. You need to stop now.”

Stop? For a second, I was confused. Young Blood’s face looked like bloody hamburger meat. 

I had done that. 

My hands started to shake. 

“It’s time to go, Gent. Gemma needs you.”

It was Gemma’s name that did it. I shook my head. The fog of aggression lifting. Swallowing hard, I glanced around.

Gemma was nowhere in sight. 

Panic gripped me. Stumbling to my feet, I searched the room for her. 

“Where is….”

“Ruin got her out. He will be halfway to the hospital by now. Come on, it’s time to step away now. Gemma needs you.”

“I…” I glanced down at the man lying dead at my feet. 

What the hell had I done? Even if he deserved it, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. I hadn’t just killed him. I had annihilated him.

Wicked sighed. “I know Gent, I know. But Gemma needs you now. Let’s get you cleaned up and you can go and see your woman.”

“Young….” I glanced behind me. 

“We will get rid of him. You just concentrate on your family.”

My family. I shook myself. I had to take his advice. From now on, I would concentrate on my family and nothing else.

Nothing else mattered.