Fireball

by KJ Dahlen

  Karly smiled and squeezed Wynette’s hand. “Your Papaw is great. You are so lucky to have him.”

  Wynette turned her head to look at Karly, “Yeah, he said he’s been seeing you.”

  “He just wanted me to look after you.” She began to sob again. “I failed the both of you.”

  “You did nothing of the kind girl.” Joel’s voice came from the doorway. Joel walked further into the room and stood in shock when he saw her. “Oh honey, what did those bastards do to you?” he whispered.

  “Joel, I’m sorry!” Karly called out.

  Joel shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for, sweet Karly. You watched out for my girl and that’s all I could ask of you.” He stepped closer. “You’ll have a home with us when this is over.”

  Wynette nodded in agreement. “That might be a while Papaw. But you’re right. She’ll have a home with us when all is said and done.” Wynette then grabbed her grandpa’s hand and pulled him to the door.

  Ajax looked up at Fireball and shook his head. Wynette may not know it yet, but she wasn’t going anywhere and he doubted Joel would leave her, so that was something that wouldn’t happen, not on his watch.

  Both Ajax and Fireball turned and walked out of the room.

  “You got your cell phone on you Papaw?” Wynette asked Joel.

  He nodded. “Sure, I do.”

  “Hand it to me, will you?”

  He furrowed his gray brows as he got it out and gave it to here.

  Wynette stood against the doorframe with his phone for a few minutes. Then finally, she handed it back. “Papaw, I need you to go to this address and pick some things up from this store. I got the order out in already. It’s only 2 blocks from here. Do you have any cash on you?”

  He nodded. “Not a lot but maybe sixty bucks.”

  “That’s more than enough. Please hurry?”

  He nodded and hurried down the hall.

  The Prez and his VP went into the main room and saw several of the brothers standing there waiting for news, good or bad.

  “Well boss,” Jackman asked. “What’s going on?”

  Ajax exhaled heavily. “Well, it seems this girl Karly was sent to the prison to keep track of Wynette. They were cellmates for the last two years. She was reporting to one of the guards there, a man named Carlson. He wanted to know if Wynette remembered anymore of the murder.”

  “And did she?” Player asked.

  Ajax shrugged. “She said no, but Karly told her she talks in her sleep when she’s upset and she did talk about the man that murdered my brother.”

  “Did she know him?” Cat Fish spoke up.

  “She didn’t say his name,” Ajax replied. “But I do know that he’s got black hair and a scar on his face. Wynette forgot about the scar but Karly reminded her. She was forced to tell Carlson about the fact Wynette knew his face but she didn’t tell him about the scar.”

  “So how did this Karly get here?” Cajun asked. “I doubt she walked here.”

  “You’re right about that.” Fireball snorted. “They took her from her apartment to a warehouse somewhere and beat the hell out of her. Then they brought her to our front door, threw her from a moving vehicle, and watched her roll into the ditch. They didn’t give a damn if she lived or died.”

  Stinger and Moon got to their feet and began walking to the front door.

  “Where are you two going?” Ajax called out.

  “Well boss,” Stinger drawled. “If they dropped her from a moving vehicle, you can bet that fat Sheriff will be around to find her just like he found Mad Dog.” Shaking his head he said, “Just cause she ain’t where they dropped her, don’t mean he won’t keep looking for her. He’ll come here first as this was where she was tossed. She’s behind our gates now, and I don’t want that motherfucker inside as well.”

  “We’re just gonna close the gate and keep an eye out for trouble,” Moon agreed.

  Ajax looked over at Fireball and grinned. “I like how they think, don’t you?”

  Fireball nodded. “Aye...I do indeed.”

  “Oh, and Boss, we didn’t see nothing.” Moon grinned.

  Ajax gave him a thumb’s up and watched as the men went through the front door.

  Chapter Two

  Nuero joined them in the main room a short time later.

  Ajax looked over at him and asked, “Well, how bad is she?”

  “She’s bruised from head to toe. Someone kicked her several times in the belly and the hip but I think she’ll be okay. Her lungs sound a little rough at the moment but I’ll keep an eye on that.” He shook his head. “That bastard Carlson needs a lesson badly.”

  “Did Karly say any more about who was at the warehouse hiding in the shadows?” Fireball asked.

  Nuero shook his head. “Do you remember when Joel said he didn’t think Justice Zetran was involved in this drug shit that the boys got going on?”

  Ajax nodded.

  “Well, she did say it sounded like an older man with an ebony cane was at the warehouse. My bet is that Joel was wrong about Justice being involved. I think that fucking bastard is right up to his neck in this clusterfuck of a shitstorm.”

  “I think you’re right,” Ajax agreed with him. “The question is who are they using as couriers? If it is another MC, we should check it out, so we know what might be coming our way, don’t you think?”

  Fireball nodded. “Yeah, we do need to know who we’re up against in this battle.”

  Joel joined them and nodded. “You need to talk to Wynette about that. She can show you the best places to watch the Zetran ranch.” He then looked over at Nuero. “My granddaughter told me to come get you. She needs your help with Karly.”

  Nuero looked confused.

  Joel nodded at him. “Best to just go in there and doc...”

  Nuero looked back over at him.

  “Just follow her instructions, okay?” Joel added.

  Nuero still looked perplexed as he turned and went down the hall.”

  “What did you mean by that?” Fireball asked. “Is Karly worse?”

  Joel shook his head. “Nah, Wynette is just helping her friend. It will be okay.”

  Ajax spoke now, “So what did you mean before? About talking to Wynette concerning the ranch? What does she know that we don’t?”

  Joel sighed heavily. “It’s like this...She grew up pretty much on her own since she was a little girl. Her mother had a social calendar that wouldn’t quit and very often, left her alone every night while they went out for drinks, supper, or endless parties. We weren’t that far away from Shreveport, so they went there a lot, always leaving her on her own. Her parents didn’t have time for her unless she did something they could brag about. She loved to read and explore as a kid. I watched out for her as much as I could but Debbie, her mom, didn’t want me around her too much. I gave her daughter ‘too many radical ideas.’ ” He shook his head. “Debbie had that girl reading high school stuff at the age of ten. Like I said, Wynette always wanted to be a nurse but she was secretly studying to be a holistic healer, ancient Native American remedies and Eastern medicine rather than western medicine. When Debbie found that out, she tried to put a stop to it but Wynette wouldn’t quit. She just didn’t let her mom know.”

  Fireball stared at the older man. “So she might know more about this than she thinks.”

  “She might,” Joel agreed.

  “She told me she was out in the woods that day looking for plants when she saw Mad Dag murdered,” Ajax reminded them.

  “She had a little place that no one else knew about somewhere in those woods,” Joel added with a nod. “She would keep her research and notebooks out there, so her mom wouldn’t find them.”

  Fireball looked over at Ajax. “Maybe she saw something and wrote it down that might help us.”

  “I can ask her about that later tonight,” Ajax commented.

  “And what are we going to do about Karly?” Fireball wanted to know.

  “You can’t throw her out
!” Joel protested. “That poor girl has nowhere else to go and if the Sheriff gets his hands on her, she’ll be headed back to prison or dead.”

  “She ain’t going anywhere old man.” Fireball growled menacingly. “And that fucking Sheriff can kiss my ass, he isn’t gonna touch her again.”

  The whole room went silent at his announcement.

  But Fireball didn’t care. He knew it was too soon but he had a feeling in his gut that she was important to him and he learned a long time ago to mind those feelings. Besides, he couldn’t walk away from that first look he got of her eyes. He saw something there. He just didn’t know what.

  The men were all staring at him like they expected him to explode any minute. Fireball had a temper and he usually checked it well but there were a time or two when he completely lost it and the men in that room had witnessed this before. It was never a good thing. Fireball always put the blame for his temper on his Scottish grandfather. He claimed they both shared it.

  Ajax was one of the many that prayed Fireball would rein in his temper. They didn’t need it right now. “Cool your jets, man. We won’t let anything happen to her.”

  “Damn right we won’t.” Fireball growled. “She’s mine now, and I’ll be damned if anyone hurts her again.”

  “Yours?” Player stared at him.

  “Yeah Fireball,” Jackman called out. “Does she know that yet?” he snickered trying to break the growing tension in the room.

  “Fuck you brother.” Fireball took off down the hall to Nuero’s Infirmary.

  The men all looked at each other. He was serious about this.

  Ajax looked around at the brothers. “I’ve never seen him so determined about something.”

  “Well, I for one am gonna stay out of the way of that determination,” Player added quietly.

  Silently, Fireball opened the door because he didn’t want to disturb her if she was sleeping. Wynette must have gone back to her room, as she wasn’t present in the room now. He noted Karly was sleeping, but she was covered from head to toe with some kind of cheesecloth wrapped poultices and he reached out to feel that they were still warm.

  “She’s got poultices all over the girl,” Neuro spoke in a low quiet voice from behind him. “Then she gave Karly some concoction to drink. This holistic shit is beyond me, but if it helps the girl, I am all for it. We’ll have to wait and see.” Nuero left the room.

  Fireball stared down at her. Karly’s face was covered with an odd looking cloth, unlike the rest that were all over her body. Quietly, he sat down on the chair beside the bed.

  He studied the woman on the bed. She wasn’t very tall, maybe all of five feet four inches from what he could tell. Her long dark hair looked dirty at the moment but he would see to it she was clean again very soon. He did know that her eyes were the clearest green he’d ever seen.

  As he stared at her, he didn’t know why he felt this way about her but there was no denying it and he knew he couldn’t just walk away from her until he knew why he was drawn to her so much. He’d had his share of women, but none ever interested him for long. They just didn’t have whatever it was, he’d been looking for. He also never believed in like long relationships. They just got to be annoying and messy. So, all the women he slept with in the past knew this up front.

  This girl got to him in a different way though. What was done to her. Maybe that was it? Looking at her now, all bruised and battered, he felt a fine rage over what happened to her. He remembered well the lessons his grandfather and dad taught him about how men were stronger than women were. And how a real man never had to raise his hand to anyone of the female persuasion. He was taught to walk away rather than hurt a woman. The lessons he learned as a child made him the man he was today. If he ever found this bastard Carlson, he was going to teach him this same rule, but he would use a language only his kind understood. Fireball looked up at the ceiling to cool his inner rage. An old fashioned beating. But man to man. Not this cowardly shit. Then he would allow Ajax to get his two cents in. Carlson deserved it.

  With a long released breath, Fireball sat back and closed his eyes. She would probably sleep for a long time, considering the shape she’d been in when he’d brought her here. He then dozed off.

  Opening his eyes, Fireball noted the room had gotten darker. He must’ve slept for a few hours at least. He sat up and stretched out the kinks. Then he looked over at Karly, he noted her eyes were open and she was staring back at him. She had pulled the odd cloth from her face. He could see that the bruises on her face had almost faded to just faint shadows. He stared at her. How? Earlier today, they had been black and blue.

  He sat up straighter in his chair.

  A hint of fear showed in her eyes when he leaned closer to her and she stiffened as she tried to curl up into her ball again. She then noticed that she really couldn’t with all the cloths on her.

  He moved closer and whispered to her, “Sweet girl, I’m not going to hurt you, nor will I allow anyone else her to do so. You’re safe here.” He could see her trembling and it just made him angrier over what those men had done to her.

  She frowned and then tried to move again. “Why does my body feel so heavy?”

  He shook his head. “Your friend applied poultices to your injuries.”

  She laid back and sighed. “I do feel better, but I’m still tired. And I deserved the beating I got, because I betrayed the only friend I ever had.”

  “No, you did what you had to do. And no one should have harmed you at all.” He shook his head. “Wynette understands that and so do the rest of us. If you hadn’t, they would have killed you and you didn’t deserve that.” He reached out and carefully took her hand. “Believe me when I say, we will teach this bastard Carlson a good lesson his daddy forgot to teach him. A real man never hits a woman.”

  She gave him a half smile. “The women of Huntsville prison would appreciate that very much. He loved to lord his position over us.”

  “Can I ask what you were there for?” Fireball continued to hold her hand.

  She scoffed. “I got two years for taking a loaf of bread. We were starving and I didn’t even do the taking. John did but when that Sheriff caught us, he could tell John was crashing. He made a phone call and before I knew it, I was walking into the prison. It was Carlson who told me after I was already inside what they wanted me to do. I had to watch Wynette and report everything I learned to him, in order to keep my brother well and alive on the outside. He told me someone was taking care of him while I was inside. If I did what I was told, my brother would be okay, but if I failed... they would throw him out on his ass and he could just disappear or die as far as they were concerned.” Karly paused as she swallowed hard. “They let him die anyway.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Chapter Three

  Fireball studied her for a minute then asked, “You said it was Sheriff Munroe and this stupid fucker, Carlson...Was anyone else involved in this?”

  Karly shook her head slowly. “Carlson talked to someone else all the time but I didn’t know who it was. I never saw the men at the warehouse but I did hear the old man speak and then before I passed out, I saw that cane he was using but that’s all.” She let out a sigh. “In the end, they threw me away like I was yesterday’s garbage.”

  Fireball gripped her hand hard. “You aren’t yesterday’s garbage. You aren’t garbage at all.”

  “It’s hard you know?” she whispered.

  “What is?” he asked softly.

  “Growing up in a world where you barely survive day to day. To watch your mom waste her whole live away for that next fix and then forget her own kids when she was high. Then watching her die because her body just quit on her when you were fourteen and you had a little brother to look out for. Then knowing he’s well on his way to making the same mistakes your mom did. Prison was almost worth it. Almost. At least in there, I was getting enough food to keep me alive and enough sleep where I didn’t have to worry about someone raping me. All I had to do insid
e those walls was rat out someone who befriended me. Like I said it was almost worth it.” She wore a bitter look on her face as she stopped speaking.

  Fireball raised her hand to his mouth and brushed his lips over her skin.

  Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she stared at him. She snatched her hand away and hissed, “Don’t you feel pity for me! I don’t need your approval and I sure as hell don’t want your pity.”

  Fireball smiled but no mirth could be seen in his eyes at all. He stood and bent over the bed. Then pressing his lips gently to hers, he kissed her. When he broke the kiss a moment or so later, he gazed her in the eyes and said, “This is not pity. This is me, showing you that you belong here with me. It’s not safe for you outside these walls. Don’t fight this because you will lose the battle. I can and will keep you safe. No one will ever hurt you again and you can believe my words, because they are as strong as a promise and I never make a promise I don’t keep.”

  With that said, he turned and walked out the door, leaving her alone.

  Stinger reached for his phone and sent his President a quick text as he watched the Sheriff’s car come down the road toward them. He felt glad the gate was closed and locked when the car stopped and dust flew all around.

  When he threw the door open and lumbered out, Jackson Munroe adjusted his police belt and settled it under his big belly. Then he came forward and sneered at the two men behind the gate. “I need to come in and search the grounds for an escaped prisoner,” he announced sounding more important than he actually was.

  “Excuse me?” Stinger frowned. “What escaped prisoner? There isn’t anyone here that doesn’t belong here.”

  “I don’t have to tell you the details, now do I? It’s police business. You don’t mind if don’t take you at your word do you?” Munroe snarled. “I can get a warrant if I need to but that would just piss me off. And you don’t want to do that... son.”

  Stinger crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, I ain’t your son and you aren’t getting in here while we’re on lockdown.”