by Jessica Ames
“I get it. It was pretty intense in there.”
It had been. “Havoc still needs a hospital.”
“Yeah, but he won’t go. He won’t risk bringing heat to the club.”
“Even if he might die?”
“Babe, club is family. What would you do to keep your family safe?”
I think about Chase, Mallory, Georgia, my nieces, my dad. “I’d do anything.”
“Exactly. Havoc is the same. Ain’t his first time getting shot either. He knows how this plays out.”
“That doesn’t fill me with confidence, Shane.”
“Not sure it was meant to.” He takes my hands in his. “I just need to know you’re in this, that you’re not giving up on us.”
I peer into his eyes, see the love shining in them, feel the stir in my belly that I always get when Shane is close, and I shake my head.
Could I walk away from him? Could I pretend the past few weeks never happened, that I didn’t feel my life tip on its head when I saw Shane? I can’t. I love him. Plain and simple. I don’t like his lifestyle, but I can look past it to have him, because at the end of the day he’s what matters and I love him with every beat of my heart.
I peer up into his eyes and I meet his unsure gaze.
“I’m never giving up on us.”
30
Whizz
We move Havoc to his room and I leave Amy watching him while I go to find Omen. He agreed it’s time to move against Mac, so he’s called church—a club meeting. Considering what happened to Havoc, it won’t seem weird or out of place, which is just as well. Don’t want to give Mac a reason to run before we get him locked down.
The club’s officers, minus Havoc, sit around the table, waiting. Crank is tapping his fingers off the table, his leg jiggling. The tension is thick and I understand it. They had started a war by touching the club. For that, we’ll destroy the Fallen Demons. We’ll burn their clubhouse to the ground, with them inside if we can.
“We going to kill the fuckers who shot Havoc?” Crank demands.
“We have a bigger problem,” Omen say. “We have a rat in our house.”
Murmurs go around the table. “Who?” Hatchet demands. The anger blazing in his eyes is a little unnerving.
“Mac.”
Crank jolts in his seat. “Fuck, you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck, Prez, I’m fucking sorry. I sponsored that motherfucker and he’s fucking dirty?”
He stands and upends his chair as he lets out a roar of pure frustration. Chains grabs his arm and Crank stills, his eyes sliding toward the brother.
“Not your fault,” Chains says. “Played us all.”
“I fucking sponsored him. It’s my fault. I should have smelled a rat.”
“Chains is right. It’s not your fault,” Omen says. “Sit back down.”
Crank picks his chair up and sinks into it.
“Question is what do we do about it?” Flash asks. “Guy isn’t patched in. Do the usual bylaws apply?”
“It’s a gray area. I spoke to Ravage, see what he thought. He thinks we treat it like a full patch, especially considering we’re certain he was selling secrets to the Fallen Demons. Selling us out is bad enough, but telling our enemies our movements is something else.”
“I want first crack at him,” Crank growls. I’ve never seen the brother anything but playing the joker. This side of him is so different from that. I see now why Omen brought him on. I can see the danger below the surface, the lethal demeanor he keeps hidden under the easy grins and smirks.
“Have at it.”
“What do we do about the Demons?” Flash asks.
“Well, we can’t leave them breathing, right?” Hatchet says, a macabre grin on his lips.
“They’re going to die for what they did to Havoc, to Flash,” Omen agrees. “For what they’ve done to us. They think they can shit on our name? They’re wrong.”
He brings down the gavel, indicating the meeting is done. Crank pushes back up, Chains following. Flash and Hatchet on their heels. As I start to stand, Omen orders me to stay a moment.
Once the brothers have left the room, he speaks again. “Rav said you were looking to transfer.”
My brows draw together. “We can talk about this another time.”
“Crank needs this moment with Mac. Not going to deny him that. You serious about transferring?”
I think about Amy upstairs and I consider putting an ocean and thousands of miles between us and it makes my stomach roll.
“Yeah, I’m serious.” I know she’s having some last-minute wobbles about the club, but I’m confident we can work through them. I will make it right with her.
“We’d be fucking happy to have you, brother,” Omen says, holding his hand out.
I shake it and he pulls me into a crushing hug.
I leave the meeting room and head straight for the common room. As soon as I step foot inside the atmosphere is taut, the air crackling with electricity.
Crank has Mac by the neck, pressed against the wall and is spitting threats at him that sound lethal. I push through the crowd, satisfaction rolling through me.
Chains is standing off to one side, watching, ready to jump in if necessary. I notice his hand is resting on the knife he’s got sheathed on his belt. One wrong move and Mac will be pushing up fucking daisies.
“What’s going on?” another brother, Franz, demand.
“This cunt is playing us,” Crank snaps out. “I’m just waiting for Omen to get here before I slit his throat from ear to ear.”
There’s no sign of the joker he usually is, no sign of the laughing brother I’ve come to know. This Crank is deadly, a lethal weapon ready to strike.
“Playing us?”
Crank’s mouth pulls into a sneer. “He sold us out. He’s been talking to the Fallen Demons.”
“That’s a lie,” Mac snarls.
“Omen has proof, asshole.”
Mac’s eyes dart around the room and I can practically smell the fear coming off him as Sons draw closer to him.
“Question is…” I say. “What the fuck do we do with him now?”
Chains steps forwards. “What do we always do with traitors?” He leaves the threat hanging in the air.
They drag Mac toward the kill room. I don’t stick around to see what they’ll do. I’ve been programmed to save lives, not take them. I’ve never derived much pleasure from seeing a man tortured, not like some of my brothers who get off on the blood lust, enjoying the process of draining a man dry.
Instead, I head upstairs to check on Havoc and Amy.
I find her sitting at the edge of his bed, watching him sleep. Her eyes come to me when I enter and her face softens.
“Hey,” she says softly, as if afraid she’ll wake Havoc, but I’d pumped him full of morphine after we’d stitched him up. He’s not coming around for a while.
“You okay? You seem tense.”
I lean down and kiss her, my hands going to her shoulders. “I’m better now you’re here.”
She kisses the hand on her shoulder. “I love you,” she tells me and relief floods me. I didn’t even realize how scared I was of losing her because of my lifestyle.
“I love you too, babe.”
I sink into the chair next to hers, and together we keep a vigil on Havoc, keeping him alive through the night.
31
Amy
Havoc makes it through the night and I’m hopeful he’ll pull through. He should have been in a hospital. Back room medicine isn’t me, but I’m glad we could save his life. He’ll have a long road to recovery. Luckily, the wound isn’t complex and is something Shane and I were able to treat. Watching him work had been fascinating. He doesn’t do anything by the book, and I can see where his years of field medicine come into play.
I’m sitting on Shane’s bed in the clubhouse, reading a book when my phone starts to jangle. He’s in something he called ‘church’, which I think is a club meeting. I’
d checked on Havoc then come back to the room. I want to go home, but Shane isn’t sure it’s safe yet, and I don’t want him to worry. I took some personal leave from work while this mess is cleared up, and I feel better not having to worry if he might turn up at work, where I wouldn’t be able to escape him.
I peer at the screen, my attention still mostly on what I’m reading. That changes as soon as I see whose name is on the screen.
Natalie.
Quickly, I swipe my finger over the screen.
“Natalie?”
She lets out a sob that makes my heart shatter. “Rick… H-he attacked me.”
Ice fills my veins at her words, fear trailing up my spine as my breath sticks in my throat.
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“I’m in the hospital. The police are here. Can you come?”
She sounds so scared, so alone. “Absolutely. Tell me where you are and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I’m at the hospital you work at, in the ER.”
That fills me with some relief. I’ll have some sway there if I need to use it, not that I expect I’ll need to use it.
“I’m on my way. Sit tight.”
I hang up and scramble off the bed, looking for my jeans. I’m just stripping out of my yoga pants when the door opens and Shane stops in his tracks.
“Didn’t realize I was walking in on a show.”
The amusement in his face changes as he gets a look at my face.
“What’s going on?” he demands, all business now.
“Natalie got attacked. I have to go to the hospital.”
“I’ll drive you.”
Relief floods me. If Rick is willing to attack Natalie after the police reports, I doubt he’d have any guilt about attacking me, and he’s already made it clear what he wants to do to me, none of which is good. Having Shane with me makes me feel less on edge, more in control and safe.
Shane borrows a truck from the club and he drives us to the hospital. He doesn’t speak much on the way, leaving me to my thoughts, which I’m grateful for. As we pull into a space in the hospital and he cuts the engine, I turn to him.
“Is this my fault? Did I cause this?”
“Babe? What the fuck? No.”
“I pushed her to file a complaint, to do the police report. If I’d left it alone—”
“This still would have happened. Men like this fucker only know one language—violence. He would have escalated to that point, with or without you taking action, Amy.”
He’s right, I know he is, but guilt still crawls through me. I should have kept her safe. I’m supposed to be a safe place for her, not the cause of her getting hurt.
Shane grabs my hand. “Ain’t your fault,” he tells me, his voice stern. “None of this shit is, so stop thinking it.”
I give him a wry smile. “Can you read minds now?”
He leans over and kisses me. “I can read yours.”
I huff out a breath. “You’re too good to me.”
“Not good enough, babe. Come on, let’s go and see Natalie.”
We climb out of the car and he takes my hand in his before we make our way inside the hospital. It’s always weird being here and not being on duty. The urge to jump in and help is always overwhelming, but we make our way to the nurses’ station and main reception area. Julia is there and her eyes flare when she sees me with Shane before she manages to cover her reaction.
“Amy. I didn’t expect to see you in today.”
“I’m here to see a patient.”
I give her Natalie’s name and she heads over to the charts, rummaging through them before she pulls the right on out. “She’s in exam four.”
“You want me to come in with you?” Shane asks.
“Can you wait here?” Natalie might have a problem trusting men after what she’s been through.
He kisses my cheek and I let my fingers slip away from him. I hate losing his touch. It makes me feel so vulnerable.
When I step into the room, I can’t stop the gasp that escapes me. Natalie’s face is a mass of bruises and cuts. She looks so small sitting in the bed, so vulnerable. My heart aches for her.
“Oh, Natalie!” I come to her side, and grip her hand. “I’m so sorry. What happened?”
“He was waiting for me when I got home after work. The police say he broke in through a back window. He…” She swallows hard and a single tear falls down her cheek before another follows. “He hit me over and over, calling me names. I think a neighbor heard the commotion. Someone came in anyway and Rick ran off.”
A knock on the door has my head coming up. Cobi and my brother are standing in the entrance. Chase’s eyes go to Natalie and his jaw clenches as he takes in her injuries before coming back to me.
“We need to talk to Natalie,” he says softly.
“Amy can stay,” Natalie says. “I don’t want to be alone right now.”
Cobi moves forward. “Can you tell us what happened?”
She recounts the incident and as she speaks tears clog my throat, even though I’ve heard the story already. The way her voice shakes makes me grip her hand tighter until she’s done.
“I thought you said the restraining order would work!” she sobs and my heart breaks for her. She doesn’t deserve this.
“We can’t predict what a person will do,” Chase says, his voice soft, “but it was needed to give you legal protection.”
“We’ll put out an APB on him,” Cobi says, flipping his notebook closed. His eyes come to me. “He contacts you or comes near you, call the police. No vigilante justice from your boyfriend.”
A chill goes through me. “Is Rick likely to contact me?”
“Just be vigilant,” he tells me.
Chase squeezes my shoulder. “You can come and stay with me.”
“Thank you, but I’m staying with Shane.”
His jaw tightens at the mention of his name. I roll my eyes. “You’re going to have to learn to love him. He’s not going anywhere.”
He opens his mouth to argue and I place a finger over his lips. “I love him, Chase.”
This information doesn’t please him, I can tell.
“Amy—”
“No. I’m done talking about it. Shane’s mine and he’s not going anywhere, so you’re going to have to get on board with that.”
I glare at him, anger pulsing in my veins. I don’t need my brother’s blessing to date, and I’m not giving up Shane. I love him. I meant it when I said that. He’s everything to me and that’s not going to change because my family don’t approve.
Chase grits his teeth, but before he can say anything else, I walk back over to Natalie. I don’t want to be arguing about Shane in front of her.
32
Whizz
Amy doesn’t want to leave Natalie, I can tell, but she can’t be discharged yet, so we head back to the clubhouse when it starts getting late. There’s nothing we can really do there and Cobi has an officer stationed outside the room, so we are just in the way.
I can tell she’s stressed as hell, though, and I don’t know how to help her. She’s still blaming herself for what happened, which is ridiculous. Amy couldn’t have known Natalie would get attacked. No one could have predicted any of this. You never know inside a person’s mind. I’m just worried about protecting Amy. Will this fucker see Amy as a target now?
I put Amy to bed in my room and head downstairs to speak to Omen.
I find him sitting at the bar in the common room, smoking a cigarette and making his way through a glass of whiskey—his usual. He glances up when I sit down.
“Our rat problem has been dealt with.”
I don’t even want to think about how that was handled. I know Mac’s end won’t have been pretty, though. Rats aren’t tolerated in our world.
“He say why he did it?”
“Same reason most fuckers lose loyalty. Money.”
It is a tale as old as time. Really, it didn’t matter why Mac betrayed us. The fact
he had was enough for the sentence to be passed. No mitigating circumstances.
“I have a new problem,” I tell him. He gestures to the stool next to him and I slip onto it.
“What’s going on?”
I quickly run down about Rick and what happened to Natalie. I tell him I think he’s a threat to Amy.
“Club can’t do much unless she’s yours, Whizz. You claim her that’s a different matter. Old ladies are under the protection of the club.”
“So, I’ll claim her.”
He stares at me a beat before he takes a drag of his cigarette. “You understand what claiming her means? Anything she does is your responsibility. If it negatively affects the club it’s your ass on the line, not hers.”
I nod. “Know that, Prez.”
“You’ll need to make your transfer official, too.”
“I want that too. Love London, but there’s nothing for me there anymore.”
He eyes me critically for a moment.
“Be glad to have you, brother. We could use a man of your skills. You saved Havoc’s life.”
“Amy helped with that,” I remind him.
In truth, we were lucky the wound wasn’t more serious. I’m glad for that. I can do field medicine, but I’m not a fucking surgeon. There’s only so much I can do. He’s going to need a shit ton of physical therapy, though, to get his shoulder working the same as it did before he was shot.
“She’s a good girl. I like her. That isn’t the issue.”
“I want to get her protected as soon as possible,” I say.
He nods and pulls out his phone. “I’ll call church. We can vote on you patching over and on Amy at the same time.”
“Thanks, Omen.”
“You’ve been good for the club and loyal. I won’t forget how you helped us root out Mac. Be fucking honored to have you at my back, and I know a lot of other brothers will feel like that too.”
“I did what I had to for my club. I’m loyal to the patch.”
He nods as he finishes typing the message.
I wish I knew the fucker’s name. It’s probably just as well I don’t. I’d have killed him. Maybe that’s why Amy won’t give it to me. She knows I’ll lose my shit.