by KT Fisher
Grim smirks the deadly grin that earnt him his club name. “Already done.” He holds up a piece of scrunched up paper for me to see. “I have the address.”
“Let’s get going then.” I return his deadly smirk and all of us pile from the office, ready to finish this shit. Some of our other brothers, like Ryder and Axel are coming along with us too. Before I leave though and end this for Erica, I need to explain to her what’s happening so I quickly go in search of her.
Erica
I’m making sure that Lewis is eating all of his dinner, when I spot Scrappy quickly making his way over. “Hey, are you ok?” Scrappy nods, gesturing for me to talk to him in private by jerking his head away from Lewis. “Stay here sweetie.” I kiss Lewis on the head and follow Scrappy a couple of steps away. “What’s up?”
“I think we have them.” He delivers and I don’t need for him to explain any further.
“You have?” I gasp.
Scrappy nods, looking as relieved as I’m beginning to feel. “Grim just told me, we have some inside men who have tracked them down.” Scrappy beams, looking so pleased with the news. “I’m leaving with some men now and this will all be over.”
My smile falls and dread fills me. “What? I don’t want you doing that.” I begin to panic. “Can’t you let the police deal with them?”
“Sadly, no.” Scrappy smiles, bringing me closer and kissing me on the forehead. “I’ll be fine, there’s no need to worry about me.”
“How can I not worry?” I snap. “That’s pretty stupid of you to ask me.”
“Look, we know where the men are hiding out, we’re just going to drop by and make sure they leave you alone. I want you and Lewis safe and that means that those fuckers need to be far away from you. I won’t rest until I know you’re returned to safety.”
“That sounds like a threat to them.” I point out.
“If they want to take it that way, then we will handle it.” Scrappy shrugs, as if we’re not discussing something dangerous. “I can look after myself babe, don’t worry.”
“Easier said than done.” I sulk.
Scrappy wraps his arms around me, kissing me some more. “I’m going to end this.”
He looks me in the eyes, bringing his hands into my hair and capturing me in a passionate kiss. My own hands travel up Scrappy’s wonderful body, feeling his muscled stomach through his shirt and ending around his neck. I moan into his mouth as he deepens the kiss, bringing his body closer into mine.
“Erm guys?” Maci clears her throat and I embarrassingly break away from Scrappy, who looks pretty pleased with himself. Maci stands in front of Lewis as she smirks at us. “I thought I’d shield the little eyes.”
“Thanks.” I laugh.
I’m shocked that Scrappy did that in front of everyone, and more so with myself for continuing it but I’m glad it happened.
Maci stays with me as we watch the men leave, Lewis comes with us as we follow them to the front. They get on their bikes, strap on their helmets and with one last wave, they all leave the compound.
Maci wraps an arm around me. “Try not to worry too much, I know it’s not easy but there’s no point in getting yourself too stressed.”
She is right, however it is hard not to overthink it all. Scrappy says that he wants me to be safe, but expects me to find it easy when he leaves on a mission to hunt down the idiots who have been threatening me. Never mind that they have potentially killed my father, if my suspicions are true and Scrappy is walking right up to them, and taking his cousins and friends with him. They’re going there for me and if any of them get hurt, I don’t want to be the reason.
Maci leads me to a table to take a seat and grabs me a drink. Nothing alcoholic. We sit down and she does her best to try and calm me down. I just can’t seem to get Scrappy from my mind, knowing what they’re doing and where they’re going.
“Honestly, the men are fine.” Maci tries again. “They wouldn’t walk into it if they hadn’t thought it through. Grim will know what he’s doing, he for sure would not take his men somewhere he hadn’t thought over first.”
This time, Maci’s words do calm me slightly. Not entirely but a little. A familiar voice begins to wonder from across the room as Elise enters the clubhouse. Little Madison makes a beeline for Lewis and runs over, giggling as she begins to play. Elise is with Drew and Tasha and the three of them walk over.
“Oh honey you look so sad.” Elise frowns, looking over at me.
“She’s worried about the men.” Maci explains and understanding shows on the girls faces.
“The men will be fine.” Drew assures. “They know what they’re doing, I trust them with my life.”
“She can’t help but worry though.” Tasha points out, bouncing baby Greyson on her lap. “This is her first experience going through this, and you would be silly to not at least be concerned whenever they go away on a job.
“Of course.” Elise nods.
“But after knowing what it’s like stressing over what they’re doing and the unknown, I try not to focus on it now and try to keep myself busy.” Drew sweetly smiles over at me and I appreciate their understanding. Scrappy told me what happened to Drew and her pervious partner. Before she met Cyrus, she was with another and he was unfortunately killed. Understandably, Drew took it really hard and I could understand why she would never be able to settle when Cyrus is on a job. I bet all sorts go through her mind. Now I feel a little bad because I don’t want to be the reason that Drew starts to think of all that and worries about Cyrus.
“Well, now that I have all of you I’m beginning to feel better.” I smile at all of them.
“What would you do without us?” Elise flickers her eyelashes.
I am really grateful that I have them in my life now. They sure do make it interesting.
“We’re always here to help.” Tasha smiles and it makes me feel good. Out of all the girls, I was most worried about Tasha and I think it’s because she seems like one hell of a tough nut. Drew is too, but she made a huge effort to get to know me at the beginning whereas Tasha is a little more stand offish and guarded, which I now understand is the way she is. Not because she wants to come across as mean, she’s just careful of who she lets in and now she’s one of my favourite people.
I love being around them all and it just makes me wish even more that I had never ran and stayed here, gotten to know all of these amazing women a lot sooner and had Lewis brought up amongst his family. My life has always been a lonely one, my mother passing and my father never being a loveable man, I’m just happy Lewis will never be lonely. He has more than enough people who love him.
I need to use the ladies room, so I leave Lewis with the girls who are more than happy to keep an eye on him as he plays ever so nicely with Madison. He always does when he’s with playing with his little cousin. He’s so gentle with Madison and I never have to worry, however he’s the total opposite when he’s playing with Connor.
I walk towards Scrappy’s room, there’s other toilets in the clubhouse but I always prefer going to the private one in his room. As I round the corner and begin to walk down the hall, I spot a figure standing near the rooms’ door and as I walk closer, I’m not very happy at all to see that it’s Talia.
“What could you possibly want?” I ask her. “Scrappy is unavailable.”
“I’m not looking for Scrappy.” She smirks. “I was actually wanting to talk to you.”
“Why?”
Talia looks at her chipped painted nails as if they’ve just been done. “I just thought I would give you some friendly advice and to go home.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I’m not going anywhere, now would you mind and move out of the way?” She’s quickly beginning to piss me off.
Talia seems shocked at my reaction. “He’s gone out there, doing god knows what for you. You better hope he comes back in one piece.” She frowns, still not moving. “I’ll kill you if he comes back hurt.”
“I don’t think that’s a
ny of your business Talia.” I smile. “You can leave Scrappy to me now, and if you were to put a hand on me, I’m pretty sure Scrappy would kill you.”
She really doesn’t seem to like that response. Her face scrunches up in a murderous scowl. “You shouldn’t even be here! You ran away, you didn’t want him but I’ve always been here all the time and he still goes back to you.” She glares. “You’re nothing special, what does he even see in you? Why can he not see that I’m here for him?”
“Maybe if you didn’t make yourself look so desperate?” I suggest, not letting her pathetic digs get to me.
“You’re not even right for this club, you don’t have a clue about living in an MC and you don’t deserve him!” Talia continues to whine.
“Look, I need to go to the toilet, can I get by?” I try to nudge her out of the way but she doesn’t move, she’s too busy moaning.
Talia looks at me in disgust. “You don’t belong here, fuck I could have got knocked up by Scrappy and trapped him myself, if that’s all it took.” I can’t believe what she just fucking said! “I mean, it’s not as if I didn’t try. I could have has his brat and he would be falling on the floor for me!”
I don’t want to listen to anymore. I’m done with her ass! I won’t hear anyone bad mouth Scrappy and especially not my son! Say what you want to me but you come after my child, I become a protective momma bear. My claws are out. As Talia still continues to bitch on, I lean in with all my strength and land a sharp slap across her face. She gasps but thankfully stops talking.
“You done talking?” I stand tall opposite her, done with her shit. Talia’s eyes widen but she stays silent. “Now you listen to me, don’t you ever fucking talk about my son like that again. You hear me? I will fucking attack you on sight if you so much as mumble something under your breath about him.” Talia nods her head quickly. “Now, as for Scrappy. You can leave him alone now, I’m sick of seeing you sneaking around him, it’s pathetic! We’re together now and he’s not interested in you and quite frankly, he never has been. You were a quick fuck when he didn’t have another, but I’m back now and I’m not going anywhere, I’m not going to take any shit from you for any longer. I might not have grown up in an MC or fucked my way around like you, but I’m learning what club life is and I’m pretty sure one rule states you cannot talk to me like you have done. That’s grounds enough for you to be thrown out of the club for good, no questions asked.”
“You’re completely correct.” Comes Drew’s voice behind us, she smiles at me but glares at Talia. “What’s going on here?”
Talia goes to answer, but I jump in for her. “Well Talia here surprised me as I was on the way to the toilet, she wanted to give me a helpful heads up that I shouldn’t be here and I don’t belong and that she should have gotten herself pregnant by Scrappy all along, so she could trap him just like I did with my own little brat.” Drew scowls at Talia and looks as though she’s about to hit her herself. “Don’t worry, I already did the honours.”
Talia gently rubs her rough and reddened cheek.
Drew scoffs. “I would have landed her a punch, not a slap.”
“Well, let’s just say that’s she’s had a warning because the next time she approaches Scrappy or talks about my son in any way, she will be scarred for life.” I flash Talia a warning smile. “I’ll make sure of it.”
For the first time, Talia looks scared of me and I like it. I think it will make my life around here much more manageable if she’s wary of how she is around me, then she won’t be trying to go behind my back and get naked under Scrappy. Not that he looks Talia’s way. He’s going to have his hands full with me from now on.
Talia takes the smart option and begins to walk away. Drew waves her goodbye. “Be good now.” I laugh, running inside Scrappy’s room. “Where are you off to?”
“A pee!” I rush to the toilet. “I’ve been holding it in while bitching with Talia!”
Drew laughs as I disappear into the room and I’m finally able to have my wee. That talk between Talia and me really needed to happen and I’m so glad it did. I don’t usually go about talking to people like that, but she needed to be told, especially living within an MC. If I hadn’t she would have kept on pecking at Scrappy again and again and her spiteful digs towards me and her bitchy glances were getting too much. It was going to happen at one point or another, it’s just perfect it has happened whilst Scrappy isn’t here and can’t get involved. This had to be done by me.
Chapter Thirteen
Scrappy
Grim is at the front, with Devlin and Baby riding right behind him in their club ranking. I’m always right behind Baby, and it’s where I am now as we make our way to the address our informant has passed onto us. My hands are shaking from anger as we near the location. The thought of anyone threatening Erica and Lewis makes my blood boil. Anyone who dare harm a hair on her pretty little head has a death wish that would be personally delivered from me.
All of us follow Grim as he comes to a slower speed, pulling up in front of a rundown brothel. There’s a small number of cars parked outside and you can hear the base of the music filtering through the brickwork. We get off our bikes, preparing ourselves for anything that could happen when we walk inside the brothel. Grim has had this place checked out by my dad and other club brothers before we arrived, and they’re waiting for us in the shadows as our back up, if we need them.
Grim wouldn’t just let us roll up to here with no preparation and plan. He’s learnt from the very best, Uncle Franky and he’s doing a great job taking over after him. We all trust our President with our lives and it why they’re here now. I would have been here anyway, whether there was a plan or not because I want to see the fuckers who threaten to harm Erica. Stupid fucks.
I look over the building, strapping myself up and I get even angrier. This run down, grotty brothel is where they planned to bring Erica and work? Fuck that! That would never happen.
Grim brings us all in close, whispering the quick version of the plan to check once again that we know what we’re doing. We already knew before we left the clubhouse, but Grim is a sucker for detail and there’s no harm in that. He doesn’t want to risk anyone’s life and neither do I. After all, they are all here for Erica and that’s on me.
We then enter the building, Grim and Devlin both leading as President and Vice President. Our guns in our hands to protect ourselves from any surprises. My nose scrunches slightly as a dirty smell hits my nose and I’m careful to not touch anything because it all looks rank. Just being in here makes me feel like I need a shower and I’ve been in some questionable places. Believe me when I say this place is bad.
We come to the end of the hall and enter a large room, a stage in the middle with girls dancing on poles. Some are giving lap dances to the men in their seats. The music is so loud that you wouldn’t be able to hear the person next to you talk. Usually in these places, there’s security at either side of the room at least, but there’s nothing. There’s a fat guy in the bar area, that’s it. Something is either not right, or this place is poorly looked after. I think I’m going to go with the latter.
At the same moment, the girls begin screaming when they notice us and the fat guy behind the bar stands frozen with his eyes wide. All of the girls run towards the back to hide, struggling to be as quick as they want to in their high heels. The men who have come here to be entertained stay sat in place and the fat guy behind the bar finally begins to slowly walk towards us.
Grim turns to the men who have just lost out on their dancers and strippers. “All of you, fuck off now.”
They don’t need telling twice, and they all run off leaving us alone with the shit scared looking fat man. But not for long, because a door opens and a pissed off looking short guy walks out. He’s wearing a tight black top and trousers, obviously wanting to look tough, but we all know this guy is anything but tough. One look at us and his glaring disappears. “What’s going on?” He asks us, looking around at us all and not missing
the weapons in our hands.
I’m starting to think we didn’t even need the guns, or the fucking planning and scouting! We could have just arrived and sorted this. This place is fucking pathetic! Is this even the right address?
Grim steps towards him. “You in charge here?” The man nods in answer. “So you’re the one responsible for all the blackmailing and threats towards my good friend?”
The man’s eyes almost pop out of his head, his eyes widen that much. “What? I haven’t don’t anything.”
“Really?” I step forward. “Because we were told to come here, you’ve been threatening my woman and child! It fucking ends now or someone will be dying tonight.” I raise my gun holding hand and his eyes flash to it in a panic.
“I promise!” He holds his hands up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I own this place and run the girls, that’s it.”
Grim and I look at each other. This guy looks like he’s about to shit himself and I hate to admit that I think he’s telling the truth.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Baby asks behind me and I turn to see him facing the fat guy who was behind the bar. Ryder and Devlin are also standing by close, so he can’t run off. Probably wouldn’t get far anyway.
I walk over while Grim stays with the shaken owner.
“Who are you?” I ask the bar tender.
His eyes dart everywhere. “Tony.”
“He’s my brother.” The owner adds. “Ah fuck Tony, what have you gotten into now?”
“It wasn’t my idea.” Tony begins to crumble. “They said I’d get paid and that’s it, I wouldn’t get any of this.”
“Who?” I step closer, stepping up the threat by letting the gun touch his arm. He whimpers.
“Men wanted to use this place to meet, they would talk about this girl, Erica and that she had lots of money. They want it and her dad is helping them.” The whole place quietens and my anger falls.