Greatest MC Romance Box Set

by Blair Grey

  “So, a picture then,” I said. “All they need is a picture of her sitting in a chair tied up. We can do that, boss. I don’t really want her in New York anyway. It’s too close to the other guys.”

  “I agree,” he said, filling me with relief. “I’ll make a call and see what can be done. I’ll get back to you.”

  I didn’t want to go to Avia until I had good news. So, I let her have her space, holed up in the bathroom. Being part of a couple wasn’t a thing I’d ever really participated in. Knowing when to keep things to myself was a work in progress. Hopefully, she’d understand.

  Fifteen minutes later Carl called me back. Swiping the phone, I was eager to hear what he had to say. “So?”

  “So, here’s the thing,” he began with a somber tone. “Conti’s men will want proof of some kind. They haven’t asked for it yet, but Lucius is sure they’ll want something. He figures there will be a call for him to release Avia too. You know as a show of good faith.”

  “And Lucius is approving all this?” I asked as I couldn’t see the Irish mob cooperating with the Italian mafia – not even a little.

  “Hell, no,” he gave me the answer I thought I’d hear.

  “So, what’s the plan then?” Not truly understanding things, I wanted some clear answers. “I’d like to give Avia some good news, so she’ll finally come out of the bathroom.”

  “Lucius said that we can handle things with her here. They don’t really need her as long as we’re willing to get them what they need from her in a decent amount of time. So, tell her to get her ass out of the bathroom and stop worrying about being sent away. She can stay right where she’s at.” He paused for a moment. “Wait, Britt said something about giving her a makeover. We can’t let anyone see her like that or all that went for nothing.”

  “I think a ballcap with her hair pulled back will work.” Smiling as I headed to the bathroom to deliver the good news, I ended the call. “Let me know what they need and when they’ll need it, boss. Later.”

  Putting the phone into my pocket, I rapped on the door. “Baby, I’ve got awesome news. You don’t have to go anywhere. We’ll do anything we need to from right here. So, come on out.”

  When no reply came, I thought she must’ve gotten out of the bathroom while I was on the phone. So, I went to the guestroom where the things were and knocked on that door.

  When I got no answer, I opened the door and turned on the overhead light to find the room empty. One of her bags sat in front of the closet but the other one was gone. And her purse had been sitting on the dresser and it too was gone.

  My jaw dropped, heart stopped, and my head felt like it was spinning. “No. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.” She didn’t have a phone, a car, no cash – nothing. So, why would she leave?

  Moving like lightning, I went to get on my bike to scour the neighborhood. How long has she been gone? How far could she have gotten? Why’d she fucking leave in the first place?

  She had to have lost faith in me was the only reason I could think of for her leaving. I should’ve known by the way her face fell when I told her that I had to take her to the Irish that she’d lost faith in me.

  And why shouldn’t she lose faith? I had made her promises and the first rattle out of the box, I reneged on them all.

  But I’d fixed it all. Only she wasn’t around so I could tell her how I’d done that for her. I had listened to her and I’d fixed everything. Her lack of patience was unbelievable.

  I’d been in the shower maybe fifteen more minutes. Another five minutes spent getting dressed and she’d gotten dressed, gathered her things and left in that amount of time.

  Another hour had passed while I thought she was hiding away in the bathroom. She had at least an hour ahead of me. A whole hour!

  Thank God she doesn’t have a car.

  If she’d had transportation of any kind, it would’ve been worse. But she had none. On foot, carrying a bag that weighed about ten pounds or so, would make her journey not so fast.

  Not nearly as fast as her patience can run out.

  While I lacked in the communication department, she lacked in the sit back and wait a fucking minute department. We had a lot to learn if we were ever going to be able to be a couple.

  She’d wanted that last night and so had I. But I was beginning to think that the lack of trust she had for me might get in our way. And I wasn’t sure I was fully ready to be the man a woman like her would need.

  Avia needed a real hero. A man who could take all the wrongs in her life and make them right. She needed someone to take care of things while leaving her oblivious to the problems.

  She wanted to be strong and she wanted it to come so fast to her that it proved to be an impossibility. If she never learned how to calm down and work for what she wanted, she would never achieve shit.

  Going back and forth from one street to the next, I saw no sign of anyone walking. Where the hell could she be?

  Thinking about her own safety wasn’t on the top of her priorities either. She seemed to have it in for herself most of the time.

  If she and I were to become a couple, I would have to police her every action. And who the hell wants to do that?

  Not me, that’s for sure.

  Leaving the suburbs, I found myself cruising up one of the busier streets when a terrible thought popped into my head. She might use one of her credit cards!

  If she used one of them, then the Italians would surely be alerted to the activity and head right back to Baltimore. I prayed that she would recall our conversations about not using them and how that would lead to horrible things for her.

  If Conti’s men found her before I did, then they would make her ending something akin to a nightmare. Shaking my head a little, I couldn’t think that way. That wouldn’t do her nor I any good at all if I thought of all the worst possible things that could happen to her.

  I will find her, and she will be just fine.

  Of course, she wouldn’t be so fine after I found her and took her home. There, I would bitch her up one side and down the other for being so fucking reckless with her life.

  Thinking to how she was in high school, I hadn’t ever pegged her for the reckless type. But she did have sex with a guy she hadn’t had a thing to do with before. He’d even come in through her bedroom window.

  She had let a teenage boy she didn’t know well at all come right into her bedroom at night, without her mother knowing a thing. The bad things that could’ve happened to her were too many to count.

  In my opinion, losing her virginity to that guy was the least dangerous thing that could’ve happened. And then she left Baltimore to go to New York all on her very own.

  How unsafe is that?

  I had no idea what all had happened to her during those years. Probably a fair share of bad shit had occurred since she ended up with a mafia boss who beat the living shit out of her regularly.

  As I kept driving around, keening my neck to stretch it out to see all around, I knew I had to make things work with her. Even if she was difficult, I had to try my best to be her hero.

  She might not think that she needed one. She wanted to be her own hero. But Avia was definitely not ready to watch out for herself. She was still too quick to snap.

  It made me wonder if she killed Conti on accident after all. Maybe she was just really quick to grab things and hit him with them. How would I know for sure, since he wasn’t around to tell his side of the story?

  My stomach knotted as guilt immediately filled me about the negative thought. Avia hadn’t killed her fiancé on purpose. It had to have been an accident, just the way she’d said it was.

  The woman was many things. A killer was not one of them. She had a good heart. And she wouldn’t hurt a soul on purpose. Especially since so much pain had been caused to her soul.

  She didn’t talk much about her mother’s passing. That had to hurt. I don’t care how her mother treated her - the loss had to be felt.

  As I kept driving, it b
ecame very clear that Avia Forester felt completely alone in the world. She had to feel that way or she would not have ever come to me for help.

  I had felt a little like that when I first struck out on my own. Becoming a member of the Iron Cobras gave me the family God hadn’t. Sure, all my brothers were rough sons-of-bitches, but we all had each other’s backs. We all cared about each other and the loved ones each of us had.

  Avia had none of that. She didn’t have a single person she could count on. That’s what she came to me.

  And even I had let her down.

  Why did I have to tell her something before I had even tried to change things?

  I hated being the type of person who blamed every bad thing about them on their parents. But so far, I hadn’t figured out any other reasons for my idiot behavior.

  The men I called my brothers all had bad childhoods too. Some were far worse than mine. Still, we all took responsibility for who we had become. We all held each other accountable and we all worked to make our brothers into the men we all wanted to be.

  If my parents had bothered to try to be supportive, there was no end to what I might have achieved. But they hadn’t and I had to deal with that.

  I needed to learn how to become the hero I never thought about being before. Thinking of Avia before I thought about myself is what I had thought I was doing. Only that wasn’t entirely true.

  An older man walked out of a door to one of the businesses, looking up and down the street. Since he was looking for someone and I was too, I thought I’d stop to ask him if he’d seen Avia.

  Pulling alongside the curb, I turned off my engine and flipped up my visor. “Excuse me. Can I ask you a question real quick, sir?”

  “Yeah, if I can ask you one first.” He pointed back the way I’d come. “On your way up this street, did you happen to see a young woman with her silver hair put in a ponytail? She was carrying a Gucci duffle bag.”

  Found her!

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Avia

  With the engagement ring back inside the small pocket of my purse, I headed back to Lyle’s. Whatever was going to happen to me, I had to trust Lyle’s judgment that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me.

  I had to stop being so quick to make decisions. Especially since I hadn’t made my own decisions in years. Making good decisions took practice. And I’d yet to practice making them much at all.

  As I turned off the main street to go down the side street I’d come up, I saw a black Cadillac coming toward me. Chills ran down my spine as those were the kinds of cars Jerome and his buddies preferred to drive.

  But those guys had left Baltimore. I didn’t have a thing to worry about.

  Right?

  Ducking my head a little, I kept walking in the same direction I’d been going. The car moved slowly along the street, but it didn’t go any slower as it went by me.

  Breathing a huge sigh of relief, I raised my head but didn’t turn back to look at the car. And that’s when I saw another black Cadillac had been right behind that one.

  Our eyes locked as Jerome’s driver looked straight at me. He pointed one finger at me, shooting it at me as if it were a gun.

  My reaction – one of complete panic – had me turning to run down a different street. Cutting through yards, I hurried to hide before they could get to me.

  Blackness began moving in from the sides of my vision as my heart pounded in my chest. I’d never been more afraid in my life. Jumping over a fence, I found myself face to face with a German Shepherd who wasn’t happy to have an unannounced visitor.

  Three sharp barks had someone opening the backdoor. “Hey, you! What the hell are you doing in my yard?”

  Seeing that it was the voice of a woman, I slowly turned my head so she could clearly see me. “I’m Avia Forester. I need help.”

  “Avia?” the woman asked as she came outside. “Forester?” She grabbed the dog’s collar. “It’s okay Freckles. She’s an old friend.”

  Blinking back the blackness of panic, I slowly began to recognize one of the girls I’d called a friend back in my school days. “Roesha Jones? Is that you?”

  “It’s me.” The sound of a car moving slowly down the street had her looking around me. “Someone’s chasing you, huh?”

  Nodding, I said, “It would be great if you let me come inside your home for a bit.” Then I thought about the danger that might put her and her family in. “It’s okay to say no.”

  She took my arm, pulling me with her. “Come on. I’m not leaving you out here. I was at the reunion picnic when these creeps came around asking for you.”

  Wit her willingly helping me, my heart slowed to somewhat of a normal pace. “Thank you so much, Roe. If they get me, it will be the end of me. And I have a feeling that my end would be on the tortuous side.”

  “Damn, girl. What did you do?” She closed the door quietly behind us, leaving the dog outside. “If they come anywhere near this house, Freckles will do the intruder bark.”

  “Ah, the three sharp barks.” What a smart dog.

  “Yeah. She’s trained to attack too. So, if anyone does get inside, which would be a miracle,” she pointed to the five locks on her front door, “I’ll let her inside to handle them.”

  “Sounds like a great plan.” Putting my bag on the floor, I eyed one of the chairs at the bar that separated the living room and kitchen that we’d come into.”

  Before I could even ask, Roe took me by the shoulders and steered me to take a seat on the sofa. “You sit down and try to calm down. I’m gonna make you some green tea and toast. You’re pale as shit, girl.” She walked back to the kitchen and put on a kettle of water. “Would you like to tell me why these guys are after you? I mean – you don’t have to – but would you like to talk to me about it. I’m not trying to be in your business. I just want you to know that I’m here for you. I’ve missed seeing you around town too, Avia.”

  Biting my lower lip, I tried to make a rational decision. But my mouth popped open before I had time to do that, “Roe, I’ve made terrible choices since I left home and went to New York. I ended up with a fucking Italian mafia boss. And he beat the living shit out of me on a regular basis. And I – well, I did something that stopped him from doing that anymore. And that’s why his goons are after me.”

  “Is the mafia boss your husband?” She tossed a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster as she looked at me with wide eyes.

  “He was my fiancé?”

  Her dark brows raised. “Was, huh? Say no more. I understand now.”

  With a sigh, I laid my head back. “Lyle Franklin has been helping me. I came to him to ask for his help.”

  “Whoa, wait just a damn minute. You came to Lyle Franklin – the guy who used to bully the shit out of you – for help?” She shook her head. “You’ve got to be messing with me now.”

  “No, I’m not messing with you. I came to him because I couldn’t think of anyone meaner than he is. Or was. He’s not so mean anymore. Not to me, at least.” It suddenly occurred to me that he might be worried about me. “I don’t suppose you happen to have his phone number so I can let him know where I am?”

  “Me? Lyle Franklin’s phone number?” Shaking her head as she laughed, she answered, “No. And he’s not even on any of my social media either. So I can’t even DM him. After you drink this tea and eat this toast though, we can get into my car and I’ll take you to him if that’s what you want.”

  “It is. I’ve been staying with him. He told me that he’d support me in anything I wanted. But then he told me that I had to do something this morning that I didn’t want to do.”

  “Sexual stuff?” she asked with a grin.

  “No. I want to do all that sexual stuff with him. But part of the plan to get me off the mafia radar is to use another organization to fake my death. They wanted me to go back to New York – a place I never want to go to again – so they can use me for something. I don’t care what it is. I am done being used by anyone. And Lyle said I
have to do whatever these people want me to. So, I left while he was in the shower.”

  “What do they want you to do that’s so bad you don’t want to do it?” She came and sat down next to me, handing me the saucer with the teacup and toast on it.

  “I don’t know. But I didn’t want to go, and I didn’t want to let them use me in any way. I know that sounds bratty and maybe even unappreciative.”

  “Yeah, it does. Faking someone’s death might take a bit more work than you’re thinking. Maybe they need you to be in a scene where it looks like your dead if they’re going to really sell the idea.”

  She had a good point. “Yeah. Well, I did come around to thinking along those lines. I had the chance to sell the engagement ring I have to this man. He was going to give me a car and a hell of a lot of cash for it. But I walked away from that deal. I was heading back to Lyle’s when I was spotted. I had no idea the bad guys were still in town.”

  “So, this fake death thing – does that mean you’ll be leaving Baltimore?” She patted my thigh. “Because I sure would like it if you stayed around. You’ve been missed, Avia?”

  A knot formed in my throat. “Really? You’re not just saying that?”

  “I am not a person who just says shit. I really mean it. You were a great friend. I know it upset you that you didn’t get to graduate with the rest of us. But you didn’t need to let it make you stay away from all the people you’ve grown up with. Lots of people have asked about you through the years.” Slipping her arm around my shoulders, she gave me a sideways hug. “We can all help you, Avia. You’re not in this alone. You’ve got a huge family here in Baltimore. So, tell me what the plan is and let me see what your old high school classmates can do for you.”

  Overwhelmed, tears fell in rivers down my hot cheeks. I had to put the saucer down to turn and hug my old friend. “You have no idea how wonderful that sounds to me. I’ve thought of myself as all alone since even before my mother passed away. To know that you still care about me makes a hell of a lot of difference.”