I cracked it open, the sounds of showers running reaching me from all along the hall and I took a heavy breath before stepping out and hurrying downstairs. This wasn't goodbye. I'd find a way to get us all together again. But there was no fucking way I was leaving Rogue to her fate.
The house was silent downstairs and I moved along carefully, gazing through the windows as I searched for any sign of Luther. I spotted him by the fire pit in the covered seating area out the back where the property led onto the beach and my pulse skipped as I quickly hurried in the opposite direction. I wouldn’t be able to get off of the property with my motorcycle because of the men on watch at the gate. So I ran flat out to the kitchen then unlocked the sliding door that led to the patio and pushed it closed behind me. The rain was cascading down on the pool, causing ripples and splashes all over it as I ran to the brick barbecue on the other side of it. I tugged up my hood as the rain beat down on me, gazing up at the tall wall that boxed this place in as I climbed onto the barbecue.
With a deep breath, I leapt for the top of the wall, catching hold of it and hauling myself up. I rolled over the top and dropped down the other side, my feet hitting soft ground as I landed behind some bushes. I pushed through them then sprinted up through the trees to the road. I needed to get to the highway and hitchhike, but it would take me half an hour to walk there on foot. I didn't know if that was long enough before Luther noticed I was missing, but I didn't have much damn choice. So I started jogging, the rain still hammering down, though not nearly as fiercely as it had up on Devil's Pass.
My heart clenched as I left my home behind, my boys. But I'd find a way to fix all of this shit. I refused to give up.
I'm coming, beautiful. Just hold on.
I was soaked through by the time I made it to the highway and started walking in the direction of Fairfax, holding my thumb out to the traffic as it sped past me, headlights flaring at me as cars zoomed by. Water splashed over my legs again and again and I cursed as I kept my thumb resolutely up and my hand became numb and the cold started to get its claws in me.
Come on, stop, assholes. One of you has to have a fucking heart.
Finally, a set of headlights flashed and the vehicle pulled over behind me. I jogged back towards it, squinting against the bright lights as hope filled my chest. I was really gonna pull this off. Find my girl, save her, hold her again and tell all the stuff I'd been too chicken shit to say before now.
The driver's door pushed open and a man stepped out, making my blood freeze. Luther came at me with a snarl on his lips, throwing a punch at my face that sent me sprawling onto the ground. I tasted blood and failure as I leapt back to my feet, desperate to run. But his hands gripped me and he wheeled me around, throwing me against the side of his truck.
"This is the biggest mistake of your life, boy!" he yelled over the raging storm, leaning down so he was right in my face. I still struggled, but he was stronger and he used the hard plane of his chest to crush me in place.
"Let me go!" I bellowed back at him.
"All you had to do was fall in line," he spat, rainwater flying from his lips to spray over me. "I made it easy for you. But here you are fucking defying me."
"Get off of me," I growled, shoving at him, but his grip was like a vice.
"Now you've gotta pay the price," he hissed.
"Don't do anything to Rogue," I begged, suddenly losing all fight as I remembered the words he'd spoken. The threat on her life if any of us went after her. "Don't touch her!"
His eyes narrowed and he suddenly yanked open the passenger door, forcing me inside the car and slamming the door. I dropped my pack from my shoulder, fumbling in my bag for the gun I'd stashed there earlier. I'd kill him, take his truck, get my girl.
Luther dropped into his seat just as I pulled it out and he lunged at me before I could get my finger on the trigger, knocking it into the footwell. He grabbed the back of my head and slammed my face down on the dashboard, blood pouring from my nose and my thoughts scattering as I groaned.
My pulse roared in my ears and pain was slicing through me that had nothing to do with my injuries. I'd failed Rogue. I'd lost her. She was gone and there was no way of reaching her.
I released a noise of anguish as hate and rage twisted up inside me, turning on the man who had taken me in. Who'd tried to raise me for his own purposes. But never stopping to ask what I wanted. Always ignoring my desire to rule in favour of the plans he had for his real kid. I was as capable as Fox to lead. I was just as strong, just as fucking good. But Luther had never even let me be in the running for top dog. All because of the blood that ran in my veins. It was bullshit.
"Fuck you," I cursed him as he swiped up the gun and he tutted at me, pressing the button to lock the doors before smoothing back his unruly blonde hair which had fallen over his face in the storm.
"Listen to me," he said in a calm, deadly tone which I'd noticed Fox had been perfecting lately too. It was the kind of tone that said you're fucked without having to shout or swear to drive the point home. "I can't let this go, Rick. You're a Harlequin now. You swore in. And there's rules I gotta abide by that are beyond even me."
"If you hurt her you're a dead man," I vowed on everything I was, staring him right in the eye. "You'll have to put me in the ground too if you touch that girl."
He nodded like he understood that and fear trickled through me at the thought that he just might pick that option and kill two birds with one stone.
"Here's what's gonna happen," he said eventually, my pulse feeling like it was going to burst my ear drums with how fiercely it was pounding in my head. "Someone's gotta take the heat for killing Snake Eyes," he said quietly. "Axel's body is with the Sunset Cove PD, it's outta my hands. So we need a fall guy and it looks like you just volunteered."
"What?" I croaked, staring at him as those words ricocheted around my skull. Fall guy?
He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin. "I'm a reasonable father, kid. But you're not just my boy anymore. You're part of my crew. And you've wronged me bad tonight. There ain't no two ways about it."
"You can't do this," I rasped. "I've been nothing but loyal to you!"
"Well that ain't exactly true, is it?" he growled, his eyes narrowing and they looked so much like Fox's for a second my hate extended beyond Luther to his whole fucking family. But then I pushed the thought away, because Fox wasn't like him. He'd always have my back. He'd give me an alibi, all my friends would.
I lifted my chin, a snarl on my lips. "You wanna send me to prison?"
"Juvie," he corrected. "Maybe a couple of years in there will straighten you out anyways because I'm tired of you fighting me, son. Maybe I'll pay your way out once you've got the message."
"I'm not your son," I snapped, my blood heating up, burning away the cold. "Never have been. Clearly I was just kept here to go down for whatever you want to save your ass and the ass of your real son from."
Luther lurched forward, grabbing me by the back of the neck and pressing his forehead to mine, looking me directly in the eye. "You will learn what it is to be a man one day, Maverick. And you will learn your value among my men too. I know your potential. You're not meant to lead the Harlequins, that's not what you're best at. If this is what it takes to teach you that lesson, then I'll pay the price."