Bane (Angel's Rebellion MC: #7)

by Jeneveir Evans

  During Bane’s early years, Dog had been in his late teens. Then he got married to Beth and that was all he saw. No one would criticize him for that, they were newly married and in the honeymoon phase of marriage, then Beau came along, followed two years later with Dog losing Beth and their unborn daughter.

  I knew though that Dog didn’t consider any of that. As far back as I can remember, he has always taken the load of responsibility on his shoulders, even when it wasn’t his to take. That’s how we knew that he would end up one day being the Prez. He just had the disposition and temperament for it.

  We were all laughing at Nickel’s expression when once again after Kenzie gave both men the chance to take their turn, she was running the table on them. Interrupting our laughter was the sound of a gun going off. We all shot toward the front door spilling out into the parking lot.

  Dog and Shadow were standing about sixty feet from the door close to what I’m guessing was Shadow’s bike. Another thirty or so feet further down, Ava stood with a pistol in her hand. I could see dirt still swirling up around Dog. It was very plain to see that Ava had apparently shot the ground at Dog’s feet. In the ensuing twenty or so minutes, the news of what Ava had caught Dog saying was made known to all of us.

  Then Nickel piped up about Dog being in the doghouse and damned if he wasn’t. Dog had managed to put himself into the doghouse by some careless words that Ava had overheard.

  I wouldn’t trade places with my Prez right now for all the money in the world. We all watched a pissed Ava leave the compound in her Tahoe and hit the highway. If anyone had been unsure if she was really mad or not, watching her burn rubber as soon as her tires hit the asphalt and then haul ass down the road made that point very clear.

  All eyes turned toward Dog who was rubbing his hands on his head and striding back and forth. After a couple minutes, he turned and headed inside. He was going to the dungeon to find out her location from Doom.

  We all knew he’d put trackers on Ava’s Tahoe. Most of us were sure Ava knew about them too. Dog knew she had found two but didn’t think she had found the third one. I was pretty sure she had because I’d seen her looking for them one day. I’d watched her smash the shit out of two of them, after she’d popped the hood of her SUV and had done something under it. The smile on her face after she closed the hood said it all.

  Everyone was talking about what had happened as we all walked back into the Clubhouse.

  I looked over at Bane and Kenzie and asked, “Y’all want a beer or something else to drink?”

  “I’ll take a beer,” Bane uttered.

  “I’ll take a Sprite or 7Up if there is any,” Kenzie murmured.

  “Coming right up.”

  While they headed toward our table, I headed toward the bar for our drinks. Arriving back with our beverages, I set everyone’s down in front of them. Bane and Kenzie flashed me smiles of thanks.

  “I don’t know about you, Bane,” I began, only for him to finish my thought.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be in Dog’s shoes right now.”

  We had no more gotten that out of our months when we heard Dog yell fuck loud enough for everyone in a mile radius to hear. Less than thirty seconds later, he walked into the Great Room, went behind the bar, grabbed a fifth of Jack and headed back down the hall.

  “Oh, hell,” Bane said quietly. “That didn’t look good.”

  “Yep, glad I’m not him right now.”

  “Looks like Shad’s home,” Bane laughed at his remark.

  I laughed too. “Wonder if he thought he’d have a gun pointed in his direction the day he returned home? I bet he’s wondering if he should have stayed where he was, he might have been safer there. Got a feeling Ava isn’t going to be too forgiving of either man.”

  “Who’s Shad?” Kenzie’s look was puzzled.

  “Shadow is our cousin, babe. He’s Dog’s little brother,” Bane replied. “He was the man standing next to Dog outside. He leads some military team that none of us really know anything about. The one thing we do know is that Cas and Ghost were members of his team before they came here.”

  “Ah,” she nodded then changed the subject. “What do we want to do today?”

  I looked at Bane. I thought he’d say something about taking Kenz back to bed. I kinda figured I’d be spending a lot of time alone now since they were together. That led me to thinking of what he had been scared of, he’d been scared of being pushed away and forgotten. Now it looked like I was going to be that person. I glanced at him to see him looking at me. He shook his head at me.

  “Not doing that too you, Brother,” he murmured.

  “Y’all have to live your life, Bane.”

  “You’re a part of our life, Eagle. Always will be.”

  Kenzie was looking between us. She got up from her chair, sat down on Bane’s lap, kissed his jaw, then looked at me.

  “He’s right. No one is pushing anyone away. We’ve got time for other things later.”

  “Things like sex, you mean?” Bane asked wickedly as he nuzzled her neck.

  “Behave yourself. You know that’s exactly what I mean. I have something I want to do.”

  Bane and I looked at each other and sighed. Looked like we would be going shopping or something, oh joy.

  “I’d like to go to the Harley dealership. They have this pair of black boots in their clothing section I’d like to look at.”

  “Hell, yeah. I’m down for that,” I exclaimed.

  “Me too, let’s get out of here.” Bane planted a kiss on Kenzie’s nose then set her on her feet.

  The rest of the day was spent doing things together. Yeah, I could get behind this. Kenzie brought a breath of fresh air with her that made Bane and I both enjoy the day even more.

  ~*~

  Eagle

  February 5th, 1999

  Church had been interesting today, really what happened before our meeting began was interesting. The club had decided that we were going to start doing a little vigilante work. None of the men here could handle a woman or a kid being hurt.

  Our new endeavor started when we helped Ava get justice for her murdered husband and son. Mr. Miller, an attorney, was the man who had ordered her family killed. He was a buyer and distributor of drugs. The club had voted to try to find out what was going on with him only to find out a judge was involved in it as well.

  After Ava and Dog found out she was pregnant, it had been decided it was time for Miller to depart the world. He did that in grand style too. His death had been ruled asphyxiation due to a botched sex game. He might or might not have had a little help dying while hanging from a rope attached to the canopy hoist over the bed in his sex playroom. Good old Mr. Miller had been left hanging naked for the world to find.

  Next, Doc brought her cousin Sophie to us for help. Sophie’s ex ended up being tied to the judge and Miller. Apparently, the esteemed judge and the now dead attorney had branched out from drugs into trafficking women and children. We found out this has been going on for several years. We are still working on a resolution for this matter.

  I say we, it was more like the Brothers in the club who had a military background. They were trying to find out the key players running this ring so we could try to shut it down.

  I wasn’t a lot of help with what they were doing. I sure as shit wasn’t trained for anything like that. You needed someone to help you work construction or weld something. I was your man. Doing any type of covert shit and you’d be better off on your own.

  We all knew that today we were meeting Ava’s friend Dani. She was running with her four kids from her husband. We were to learn all the specifics during Church, only we learned a lot more before Church started. I don’t think there was a man in the room who wasn’t shocked as hell when Ghost got up hollering at Dani for keeping his son away from him. Apparently, Ghost was the father to Dani’s thirteen-year-old boy. Once we learned that, it didn’t matter what the relationship was between Ghost and Dani.

  This i
nvolved a Brother’s kid. The club would be behind whatever needed to be done one hundred percent.

  Things between Dog and Ava hadn’t been resolved yet and now it was involving the single men of the club and the club girls. The club girls got pissed when they heard what Dog had said. They were in Ava’s corner and now the single men were paying for that fallout. While the girls would have sex with a Brother, she wouldn’t participate.

  Let me tell you, trying to have sex with a woman who just lays there isn’t something a man wants. I didn’t even attempt trying. Cotton tried because that fucker is hornier than any man I’ve ever been around. Even he gave up when the women tried their damnedest not to respond.

  I was left with the hand method and this time I didn’t have the pleasure of thinking about Kenzie. No way in hell would I start thinking about her like that again. I’d worked damn hard to get her out of my mind. While I wasn’t one hundred percent successful, I was ninety-five percent. I’d take that.

  ~*~

  Bane

  “God, I am so fucking glad I’ve got a woman,” I murmured to Eagle as we entered the Great Room after Church. “Every single man is looking like a morose motherfucker.”

  “Yeah, well, you’ve got a warm, willing, welcoming body in your bed. Some of us aren’t lucky enough to have that,” he muttered in response.

  “You really want to sit here with these sour pusses, or do you want to come to Kenzie’s place?”

  “You sure y’all don’t mind?” Eagle asked.

  He’d come over every night since the club girls had decided to become unwilling participants in sex.

  “Nah, Brother. We don’t mind. I think Kenz was making dinner for us anyway.”

  “Then what the fuck we still doing here?”

  I smiled at him, held my fist out, he bumped mine, we nodded and took off toward the door.

  I can’t tell you how fucking glad I am to have my best friend back. Not having him in my life had left a hole that no one else had been able to fill. Not even Kenzie and she filled damn near everything in me. Without him, a part of me had been missing. It was hard to do without someone who had been there your entire life.

  I was just glad I didn’t have to do that any longer.

  ~***~

  Chapter 20

  If I had a flower for every time I thought of you… I could walk through my garden forever.

  ~Alfred Lord Tennyson~

  Eagle

  February 13th, 1999

  Other than still not being able to fuck a club girl, things were going well. Bane was the lucky motherfucker out of all of us single men. He had Kenzie. The last couple of weekends he hadn’t brought her to the club, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d told him that our Brothers were not pleasant to be around. Thank heavens they’d invited me to Kenzie’s place every night. Sitting around in the Great Room was nothing but pure torture.

  They’d told me I could sleep in the spare room over the weekend, but I didn’t do it. It helped just being able to get away in the evenings until I could go back to the Clubhouse and go to bed.

  While I was now ninety-nine percent sure that I didn’t have any feelings left for Kenzie, I still didn’t want to stay there at night. I wasn’t a glutton for punishment and I for sure didn’t want to hear them having sex. To this day, I made it a point not to touch Kenzie. I didn’t want to find out that there could possibly be a minute spark left. I really didn’t think there was, yet it was better to be safe than sorry. I didn’t want to mess up anything between Bane and me. We were back to where we used to be. I wanted to keep it that way.

  I was in the dining room eating breakfast before heading off to go spend the day with Bane and Kenzie when the room started getting quiet. Viper was on the phone. The longer we listened to his one-sided conversation, we all knew something bad had happened. He had his eyes closed as he talked and just the look on his face let us know he was devastated by whatever he was being told.

  After he got off the phone, he told Dog what had happened. Hearing him say that his baby sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a boating accident caused a lump in my throat. If something happened to Kelly and Amber, my little sisters, I think it would wreck me. I felt for my Brother. The man was hurting.

  ~*~

  I’d gone on to Kenzie’s to spend time with them since there wasn’t anything I could do for Viper. Now it was starting to get late and as the credits to the movie ended, I stretched then reached down and grabbed my boots. They were sitting beside the chair I had been holding down the majority of the day. Bane, Kenzie and I had decided to have a movie marathon. It wasn’t that late, just ten p.m., but Kenzie had looked like she was dragging all day. She’d fallen asleep halfway through the last movie.

  “I’m gonna go ahead and get out of here, Brother. Your girl looks like she needs rest,” I spoke quietly.

  “If you want to stay, I can put her to bed and we can watch another movie if you want,” Bane replied.

  “Nah, bro. It’s all good. I’ll probably call it a night too once I get back to the compound. My ass is worn out after this last week of work.”

  “I hear that. This job has been a bear.”

  “That it has.”

  “Hey,” Bane began a little hesitantly. He glanced down to make sure Kenz was still asleep then continued, “Tomorrow's Valentine’s Day and I planned to take Kenzie on an outing. You’re more than welcome to come with us if you want.”

  It hit me after he told me about his plans that he had been hesitant to say anything to me. Fuck, was I spending too much time with them? Was I letting them have enough couple time?

  “Stop that shit right there,” Bane growled. “I can almost see the thoughts that are running through your head.”

  “Brother, I’ve been spending way too much time with y’all, haven’t I? I’m interfering in your time alone.”

  “I told you to stop that shit. We have plenty of time alone. I know all I have to do is tell you if we have something we need to do without you.”

  “You sure?” I asked, I knew my voice portrayed the fact that I wasn’t convinced. “Maybe I should start limiting the amount of time I’m over here.”

  “You fucker. You better not. I just got you back not long ago. I went for over half a year without your company. Don’t you dare pull back now.”

  I searched his eyes for the truth and it was all there for me to see. He meant every word. I lifted my chin toward him, stood up, stepped over to the couch and held out my fist. He bumped it with his. We’d done this exact same thing when we parted company ever since we were kids.

  “Y’all have a good day tomorrow and I’ll catch you on the flip side,” I stated as I started walking toward the door.

  “Eagle,” Bane called out as I opened the door. I looked back at him with an eyebrow arched. “Take it easy going home. There’s black ice out there.”

  “Will do, Bane. Night.”

  I heard him say ‘Good night,’ as I closed the door.

  Despite what he said, I needed to think about this. Maybe I needed to talk to Kenzie and see if she felt the same way. I didn’t want to be the annoying third person you couldn’t get rid of.

  I made it to the Clubhouse without incident, took a hot shower and crawled into bed. I groaned as I settled under the covers. Fuck, but it felt good to lay down. I was out before I finished rolling over.

  ~*~

  Bane

  Damn. Now I wish I hadn’t said anything to him. I could have canceled my plans for Kenz or easily made it to stretch to work for the three of us. However, I wasn’t so sure how he would have reacted to a few of the things I had planned.

  It bothered me to see the doubt in his eyes when I told him that he wasn’t over here too much. I had been telling the truth too. I had missed him those long months I had gone without him being around.

  When you spent the majority of your life being with someone day in and day out, having them suddenly ripped away from you was like a death. I’d felt exactly tha
t way when I lost Eagle. I’d mourned for our relationship. It didn’t matter that he was still alive. It had been as if he was gone with the way he managed to keep away from me.

  I looked down at the face of the woman whose head was in my lap. I smiled as I gently tucked a strip of hair behind her ear. She’d been tired lately, said work had been extra demanding the last couple weeks.

  I eased out from under her, turned, and picked her up in my arms. I took her to our room and undressed her. She never stirred. I stripped out of my clothes, got into bed and gently pulled her to me, snuggling her into my body. Now I could rest, I had my woman in my arms. All was good in my world.

  Before I drifted off to sleep, I kissed the top of her head and murmured, “I love you more than you’ll ever know, Kenzie. More than you’ll ever possibly know.”

  ~*~

  Bane

  February 14th, 1999

  I got up and left Kenzie in bed sleeping. I went to the bathroom, washed my hands, brushed my teeth and ambled into the kitchen. I started coffee and took out the makings for homemade pancakes.

  Once I had the batter ready, I took out the strawberries and capped them real quick. I took a little sugar, added water and heated it up on the stove. Once I had it syrupy, I mashed the strawberries real quick and added the syrup to it. Next, I grabbed a skillet, got a pat of butter and dropped it into the bottom of the pan. I set the flame to just the right height, watched as the butter melted then poured in some batter. One thing that Mom had taught me how to do was cook a little. I was grateful for that now. I had plans of breakfast in bed for Kenz.

  Hearing the patter of feet let me know those plans were toast.

  “Hey, you,” she murmured as she leaned against my back and slid her hands around my waist. “You look awful busy.”

  “You spoiled my surprise. I was going to bring you breakfast in bed.”

  “I can go back if you want me to.”

  I took the handle of the pan and flipped the pancake in the air and caught it with a plate.