Zero

Hating the kick to the gut he experienced he entered Tiny’s office, sitting at the table in the middle of the room. The other members made their way into the room.

His thoughts returned to Trevor’s death ten years ago. No matter how hard he tried, Zero never got away from the memories. They haunted him wherever he went. No man should have to take his friend’s life. If Alan lived, why did he wait ten years to take him out?

Two down, one to go.

Zero wasn’t afraid of death and hadn’t been for a long time. Providing he took Alan out with him, Zero would welcome death with open f**king arms.

The door slammed closed. He didn’t respond staring at the center of the table.

“Start f**king talking,” Tiny said.

Zero blinked as his thoughts collided into one. “Ten years ago I got a call from my best friend. He wasn’t part of The Skulls, but he was my family. He’d been working for a man known as Alan Lynch.” Zero stopped as the pain returned once again. Trevor should have lived. Burying his best friend should never have happened, and neither should have holding him in those last moments with no way to help him.

For the next thirty minutes he told all of The Skulls what he had done. He didn’t leave a single detail out from the torture and finally walking away after setting Alan on fire.

“He was supposed to be dead,” Zero said.

“Then what makes you think he’s alive?”

Pulling out the card Prue gave to him, he placed it in the center of the table. He listened as they all read it. “Trevor told me it was his signal. Alan goes after all the family. Prue and myself are all that remains for Trevor. He was young and didn’t have the time to create a family. It has been ten years, but Alan’s picking up where he left off, and he won’t stop until Prue and I stop breathing.”

Gritting his teeth, Zero forced the tears back. He wouldn’t cry in front of his brothers. They needed him to be strong. The tears were not for fear of his death; they were for what he’d lost and the woman lying in the hospital.

“Why wait ten years?” Steven asked, hands folded over his chest.

“That’s what I want to know,” Tiny said.

“I f**ked him up big. He wouldn’t have gotten out of there easily. There has to have been something I overlooked.”

“Someone looking like a monster will be noticed, Zero,” Tiny said.

“Not necessarily,” Whizz said. “It’s easy in this day and age to get lost. Look what happened with Snitch, and that f**ker wasn’t even trying. Alan had the money to change his face and start over. No one is looking for Alan Lynch as he’s presumed dead. Why go looking for a dead man?”

“Fuck.” Tiny cursed, stepping away to look outside the window. “We don’t have a clue why this f**ker waited so long. Why didn’t you come to us?” he asked, turning back to glare at him. “You were a prospect and could have come to us at any time. Why didn’t you?”

“I was new, and I didn’t want to get you involved in my shit. I had no intention of coming back,” Zero said.

“What?” Butch asked.

“I didn’t know if I was going to survive, and to be honest, I didn’t care.”

The others around him cursed.

“I was a prospect. I wasn’t going to bring you in on my mess. My best friend had died in my arms. The only thing I wanted to do was take out the f**ker who did it and threatened Prue. I did what I set out to do. I protected her, or at least I thought I protected her, but I didn’t because he’s back.”

“You were twenty-three years old,” Tiny said. “A f**king baby.”

“I’ve been firing a gun since I was ten and fighting at fifteen. I took him out, and I didn’t care if I lived or died. He killed my best friend. Trevor died in my arms, and he asked one thing from me, to keep his sister safe, and I failed.” Zero repeated himself so the club would understand that he did what he’d had to do. If he could go back he wouldn’t change a f**king thing, apart from watching the building burn to the ground.

He stood up, fisting his hands begging for something to hurt. As he paced the room, the anger was filling him. Whenever this happened he went out on his bike.

“I need to get out of here.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Tiny said.

Zero felt the crew’s eyes on him. Slamming his fist against the wall, he lashed out needing to feel the bite of pain from the hit.

“Take him down to the gym,” Tiny said. “You want to fight then the brothers will fight you back.”

****

Prue hurt all over. It hurt to move, and she was so scared as she opened her eyes. She thought about her brother and then frowned. Trevor was dead. He wasn’t going to be coming to help her. What the hell had happened? Opening her eyes, she looked around the dark hospital room, scared, terrified, and shocked.

Where was she? Her memories were all fuzzy.

“Hello, Prue.” The voice that spoke was dark, filled with danger. She didn’t recognize the voice, but she heard the threat inside it. No one besides Zero knew her real name. Waking up, she started to become aware of herself, the blankness disappearing as all of her memories returned in full force. Zero was the main focus of her thoughts. Prue remembered she’d been on the way to see him. She knew he only went by Zero now, not Lucas. The night her brother died, so had Lucas. “You must mean so much to Zero. He posted a guard inside the hospital, but it’s so easy getting around when you wear the right uniform. This hospital sure needs a lot of money and resources. The place is understaffed on every front.”

She looked around the darkened room trying to find the owner of the voice. “Who are you? What do you want?” she asked. The machine monitoring her heart showed her fear. Her heart was racing. The pain increased, and she saw a clip had been placed on the morphine that was supposed to be going into her body to ease the pain.

“I’m not anything of importance,” he said, getting to his feet. “In fact, we’ve never actually met. I never got that privilege years ago.” She saw the outline of him as he came into view, and she gasped.

His face was distorted. The faded silver lines showed so many scars, but there were also scars that he couldn’t get rid of, burn marks down one side of his face. “Ah, I see you know who I am now. I’m surprised Zero told you about what happened. He was so determined to protect you. Your little boyfriend thought no one would come to my aid. I’m going to show him what real pain feels like.” He reached out to touch her face.