by N. Tetterton
“Nah, Prez. I’m at the clubhouse. Cherry is here but that’s all, what you need?”
“Until I get there, can you make some phone calls? Call around reach out to anyone you can think of, ask them if they have sold anything to Billie's husband.” I hang up the phone and walk into the office looking at Fury who is still sitting in the same spot looking shocked. “Where’s Billie?” He shrugs, “What do you mean, you don’t know?” I glare at him… now I’m kicking his ass for calling her fucking hot and losing her.
“I dunno man, she yelled at me about how Belle makes the beast happy and left the room.” I pause trying to make sense of that sentence, “You seem to be in a mood right now, I’ll explain that later. She kind of yelled at me and then walked out of the room.”
“And you just let her leave?” I ask him and he nods his head.
“What was I supposed to do hold her against her will?”
“You could have stood in the doorway and blocked her exit, you literally take up the entire fucking doorway. Were you not in the room when her husband, who is fucked up on something was screaming at her? You said it he’s going to come for revenge. So yes, if it comes down to it hold her against her will. Protect her, from herself.” He knows that I don’t really mean that and that I really mean he should have found her. I turn to move out of the office and stop looking back at him, “Church in an hour.”
“What?”
“You were there, you gave me the nod. You agreed with me. We’ve got to take it up with the club.”
“What are you going to do if they don’t agree with us?” He asks me and I laugh.
“I’ll deal with it myself.” I turn and move out of the office as I move into the main room. I scan it quickly but cannot find her “Fuck me,” I mutter.
“Okay,” I hear as Blossom comes and runs her finger down my chest.
“Not now, seen the girl that punched that guy?” I ask her and she points to the front door. “Fuck.”
“Just let me know when you want it.” I look at her and she smiles.
“No,” it comes out may be surprised that she would keep asking and I rush to the front door. When I open it I see that she is standing and talking to the prospects that I have working the door. “Oh, thank god,” I mutter and Lenny, one of the prospects, looks at me with a weird expression. “Why did you leave the office?” I ask her, closing the distance between us and she looks away. “Hey,” I step in close to her, “it’s okay. I need to go.” Then I hear Alfred say behind me, he’s the newest one of our prospects and doesn’t have a road name yet. We’re working on it.
“Hey Prez, we heard that church is in an hour, everyone coming?” He asks me and I look over at him shocked. Lenny gives him a hard glare and tries to tell him not to ask while he was asking the question.
Fuck. Like I don’t have enough to deal with tonight. I turn and walk over to Alfred and I stare at him in the eyes, “Do you think with your position and the amount of time that you have been with us. That it equates you to be a part of church?” I ask him and his eyes quickly dart from side to side. “Have you showed us your loyalty?” I’m not shouting, because usually, I don’t need to shout but my voice and words I can visible see it brings fear to the kid. I almost feel bad… almost. “Did we ask you to come?” I’m in this poor kid's face. Again, I almost feel bad.
“Well, no.”
“Then how did you hear about church?” I ask him and I think he’s about to piss his pants. I’m still in this kid's face when Fury walks out.
“Uh, I overheard you on the phone.” Fury’s at my side, getting ready to lay into the kid, but I wave him off.
“No, this one’s all mine,” I say without breaking my eye contact with Alfred whose eyes widen almost past their ability. “So, you’re listening in on my phone calls now?” The kid shakes his head.
“No, I mean… uhhhh. I just… uhhh.” He stutters over his sentence.
“Prospect, the next time that you are wanted or allowed someplace I will personally ask you myself. Just so there’s no more confusion.” Before I walk back over to Billie I stop at Lenny, granted Lenny is still a prospect, but he’s close to getting patched. He’s already proved to me everything I need to know. “Lenny, I need you, only you,” I glance over to the other one for a second, “to collect the money at the end of the night, drop it, and lock up. We clear?” I ask him and he nods his head. “Don’t fuck this up,” I tell him and after seeing how I just handled Alfred he just nods his head. “And get your fucking friend in line.” I nod my head back over to Alfred.
As I glance over I see Billie is at her car already. “Goddamnit,” I mutter and I walk over to her, making sure not to run because I don’t want to seem weak in front of my prospects. “Billie,” she turns around and I look at her like what the fuck.
“I’m going to go home.” She tells me and I groan. This woman’s going to put me in an early grave. “I shouldn’t have come here tonight.”
“It’s not safe there.” I ignore her last statement as she shrugs her shoulders. “You may not give a fuck about your well-being, but I sure as shit do,” I say leaning into her.
“You can’t look after me forever,” she tells me. I want to laugh but instead, I just stare back at her thinking watch me.
“Why not?” I ask.
“Ugh,” she opens her door, so I reach over and shut it. She glares at me, I glare at her right back.
“Lucy’s at the house, he knows that if he hurts Lucy it will hurt me more than if he actually hurts me.” She says as she opens her door again. And I close it. “Seriously?”
“She can come with us. Problem solved.” I exclaim to her throwing my hands out at my sides.
“Where are we going?” She asks stomping her foot… that was adorable.
“My house, then I have to go over to the clubhouse. I have to go to church.”
“Church?” She asks.
“It’s a meeting with my guys.” She nods her head. “Is that a yes?” She shakes her head, opening her door again, causing me to groan as I once again reach over shutting her door. “Goddamnit, Billie, why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?” She opens her door again. I close it. She glares at me. I glare at her.
“Are you going to let me drive?” She opens her door
“No,” I look at her like she’s crazy. And push her door shut again.
“Then how is Lucy supposed to get there as well?” Door opens.
“She can ride with Fury,” I tell her wishing she would just fucking listen. Closes door.
“You haven’t even asked him.” She tells me reaching for her door handle again.
“I swear to god Billie if you open that fucking door.” My mouth barely opens as I say the words staring at her daring her. “It’s how things work. I ask him if he’ll do something and he agrees.”
“Why are you so worried?” She asks me and I shake my head.
“Has Brad seemed different lately? He started having mood swings, anger issues?” I can tell that I’m starting to hit close to home and she slowly nods her head. “I suspect that he’s on something. None of my-,” I stop myself before changing my statement, “I’m not sure what he’s on, but depending on what it is, may make him more dangerous and not give a fuck about anything more than he already didn’t. I’m working on figuring out what it is and who is selling it to him, but I really don’t want you alone until we know for sure, okay?” I say the last word moving my head down to catch her eyes so she will look at mine. “Will you come with me?” I ask her and she nods her head. “Why don’t you call Lucy, see if she’s home? Tell her that we are on our way.” She nods her head and does just that.
Jesus Christ.
I walk over to Fury shaking my head and he cracks a smile. “I need your help,” I tell him sighing.
“I like her.” He says nodding over to her and I groan, glaring at him.
“She’s gonna be the fucking death of me,” I mutter to him and he laughs even harder.
�
��The door dance was adorable. You should teach a class.” I can’t help but roll my eyes at him.
“Fuck off.” He laughs.
“What do you need, man?” He asks, goofy smirk still on his face, but seriously asking me what I need.
“Her roommate,” Fury groans and nods his head understanding what I’m asking him to do. I watch her as she gets off of her phone and grabs her purse out of her car. She hurries over to where I sit on my bike next to Fury.
“Oh shit,” she mutters as she grabs her key fob I’m assuming to lock her car.
The next few seconds happen in slow motion. Instead of the car beeping from locking the doors, the car starts “oops,” she says as if accidentally pressing the wrong button and starting her car is something she does all of the time. Then all three of our heads turn in the direction of the sound of the explosion.
“I’M GONNA FUCKING KILL HIM!” a voice comes out of my body that I have never heard before. The amount of rage that is coursing through my body due to this man I have never felt in my entire life. I yell so loud that the shocked faces turn from looking at the car engulfed in flames to me. Even the prospects at the door are staring at me, mouths hanging open. “Billie, get on the fucking bike,” I tell her and her eyes go wide. Reaching up and smoothing the parts of my hair that I’m sure are haphazardly about my head right now from my outburst, I pick up my phone and I dial the only number that can deal with this right now.
“Jeff, I have a car on fire in my parking lot.”
“Damnit Dax, who have you pissed off now?” He asks me and I just shake my head even though he can’t see me.
“Car isn’t any of my guys.” He’s silent for a few minutes.
“Whose is it one of the girls?”
“None, that works for me.” He pauses again and he’s more confused. “Jeff, can you deal with this for me. I need to get her out of here.”
“Who did it?” He asks me and I think for a minute. I could just tell Jeff who did it he’s most likely on video putting it there. He would go to prison for attempted murder, but that’s not good enough. I want to handle this one.
“Jeff, can you get it?”
“Yeah,”
“Thanks, I’ll get all of the information you need to you.” And I hang up the phone. Fury, is fuming, no pun intended, as well and as I nod to him we both pick our comms out of our pockets and put them in.
As we pull up in front of Lucy’s house I stop and Billie has yet to move off of the bike. “Billie,” she looks at me, still wide eyes from the explosion, “10 minutes.” She nods her head as I walk with her inside. Fury walks inside first to make sure that the coast is clear. We sweep all the living spaces as we go throughout the house. I only wish that I had my Kevlar and more than my one Glock and its one clip. When we clear it we move on to the girls' rooms. Lucy hasn’t come out so I knock on the door. “Lucy, you in there?” I ask her and the door flies open.
“Yeah, what’s going on? Why do I need to pack?”
“I would ask you to trust me but you don’t know me, so do you trust Billie?” I ask her and she nods her head, “Do you want her to be safe?” She nods her head quickly, “Do you want to get caught in crosshairs if someone comes after her,” I lower my voice a little and add, “it’s fine no one else can hear you.” She shakes her head no. “Then hurry we only have the bikes so pack as light as you can, preferably a backpack. We can always come back later and grab more stuff if you need it.” She nods her head again. “5 minutes.” I say to them as I check out the front windows and I see Fury walk from the back. “See anything.”
“Not yet,” he tells me.
“Do you think, he thinks she was in the car?” He asks me.
“Not a fuckin’ chance.” He looks at me asking why, “Unless, he’s just an idiot and trying to kill his wife he staked it out and watched.” He saw her walk away and probably saw where she was at. “Let’s go,” I shout to the girls as they both come back from down the hallways with a backpack. I walk out in front and Fury takes the rear. ”Lucy you’re riding with me.” Almost as if Fury can read my mind he agrees when Billie protests.
“No,” she runs up to me, instead of listening to the fucking rules, I kiss her. It’s a brief kiss but it’s what I need after the last hour, after Brad coming in, and after her almost dying. I pull away from her and let my forehead rest against hers. “If we switch the two of you up and he sees it, it might confuse him so we can have a better shot of losing him.” I pause, “If he even follows us.” I would be shocked if he doesn’t.
“Who will he go after?” She asks me and I shrug.
“I have no idea.”
“Khan.” Fury laughs from behind him. “He fucking hates you, dude.”
“I’m not putting Lucy in that sort of danger then.” I have a feeling that I’m not going to win this battle, and we really don’t have the time. so I groan and just look at her again.
“Whatever, get on the fucking bike.” I motion to her and she looks proud for winning.
“Slow and easy brother?” He asks me through the earpiece.
“Yeah, no need in drawing attention to ourselves unless need be,” I say to him
“What?” I hear from behind me as I slow down for the light.
“Nothing,” I point to my ear, “it’s an earpiece.”
“Wow,” I smirk and shake my head at her.
“Bil, tell me if you see his car.”
“Okay,”
I keep a watch on her in the side mirrors on the bike. She keeps a watch out as we roll slowly through traffic.
“Dax,” she mutters from behind me. “Black mustang.”
“Why is it always a fucking mustang?” Fury and I both end up saying at the same time
“Billie, hide your face. Fury, See if he turns around first.” Suddenly wishing that I would have brought along Ella’s full-face helmet.
I don’t need Fury to tell me he is because the sign is loud. As the squealing of the tires as he speeds around is all the sign I need.
“Billie, hold on.” And I speed up as we barrel around traffic trying to speed away from Brad. “At least he most likely won’t start shooting until we get out of traffic.” Fury laughs
“You think he’s that smart?” He asks me and I laugh back, “Cross over breakaway?” He asks to me
“You read my mind, bro.”
“You call it,” Fury says to me and I nod my head.
“Billie, hang on.” Traffic starts to lighten up, which means two things. He may be able to close in on us and he will start shooting if he has a gun. “Fury you see it.”
“Yeah, over/under,” he says to me. “Over/under? Over/under?”
“Over.” More likely to come my way, just have to make sure there’s enough room for Fury to sneak in without Brad clipping his bike.
“You got it.” We both gun the bikes, pushing them to their limits. We are racing through the streets of downtown Sonston End as the clearing comes up further. There’s a light coming up at the intersection of Main and Terminal that I am very clearly not slowing down for, is red, but I can see the sides. I can see that we will be clear to roll through without an issue. “Billie lean with me, okay.” I don’t look for her nod, but Fury tells Lucy the same thing. We are fine. No cars are coming down the road. I can see in my side-view mirror that Brad is behind me. Not sure if he knows she’s on my bike or just assumes. Fury is on our right. We are both pressing our bikes to the limits and at the last second before the intersection of the light Fury flicks his wrist just enough to slow down for a second. Which is just enough for us to shoot above him towards the right and he goes below me to the left. To the left is clear. There isn’t anything there. Please god, let him follow us.
“You’re right he’s turning.” Fury calls into my comms but we have already slid down a side street. I slow down as I make the next immediate right and pull up to the stop sign as I see the back end of the black mustang. Looking both ways first I shoot out into the intersection and fo
llow the street. It takes us a few minutes to catch up to Fury and Lucy in a parking lot of a gas station to the side.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I say into the comms as I roll up to their location and Fury is on my right again. When we turn off onto the dirt road I start to feel the sting in my left arm and I know that there is most likely a graze of a bullet. I try to put the sting out of my mind as I’m winding the bike along the road until we reach the large building which was once an old warehouse. I hit the button for the gate to open. Driving past the old warehouse, which now on the inside actually resembles an old resort, that we restored into a safe haven for the club. We take the short trail back to my house and pull the bikes into their spots.
I wait for her to get off of the bike before I dismount and she continues to just stand there, not moving, barely breathing. I lean my head to the side to try and break her zoned out state as I reach over and unclip her helmet and she looks up at me. “What?” Her lips are slightly parted as she stands shocked.
“Holy fuck.” And she leans forward and just wraps her arms around my neck, clinging, hanging on as if her life is still in danger. “I thought we were going to die.” Then she leans back and looks up at me again. “Dax, you saved my life.” Her look is so intense. “Twice,” I fight the urge to lean down and kiss her, losing that battle, that is until Fury’s voice starts from beside us.
“Yeah, had he not played the door dance with you, you would be pretty hot right now.” I just look over at him trying to control myself from not smacking him, “Oh yeah!” He mutters as he looks up nodding his head as if understanding why I’m pissed with him, “Most people don’t almost die more than once. Sorry, I keep forgetting.” Billie’s eyes grow even wider as I give her a quick kiss on her cheek.
“I’m late to this meeting.” I nudge for her to follow me up to the house making sure for the girls to be on my right at all times. I don’t need them freaking out more than they already are.
“Where are we?” Lucy asks no one in particular.
“This is Khan’s. Well, technically it belongs to the MC. The Prez stays up here. Just makes more sense. But when Oz got arrested and Khan got custody of Ella before he took over officially as El Presidente, we forced him to move out of the clubhouse and in here so he didn’t have to uproot her if he got a new place.” I glare at him, “What? Also, there wasn’t a question who was going to take over.”