Rogue: The Black Cobras MC #1

by Rylan, Savannah

  Rogue shook his head, like he was disappointed in himself and with everything.

  “Hazel was my top priority, because I knew that would be what you wanted,” he said.

  “Yes. I wanted you to save her first,” Grimm replied.

  “Our sources had the wrong information. Fuck!” Rogue growled and all of a sudden, he punched the wall behind him. I jumped to my feet, startled, seeing that his knuckles were bruised.

  “You’re hurt enough already, Rogue, I think you should sit down,” Amanda said to him. I held my tongue, because I didn’t want to tell him what to do.

  Rogue caught my gaze, staring at me deeply.

  “I don’t have time to sit down,” he said.

  “I think we should be going,” Grimm said. We need to sort this shit out. I need to get back to Pit and talk to the club.”. He reached for Amanda’s hand and led her away to the door. I was glad that they’d to be together, at least till this ordeal was over. Grimm’s presence had given my sister the strength she needed.

  Before Rogue followed his brother, he looked at me. I stared back at him, hoping he would come and speak to me.

  My body shook as he approached me.

  “I’m sorry I hit you. I didn’t mean to…” I apologized quickly, before he could say anything. Rogue stood right in front of me, our bodies close together. I could breathe in his scent, see the way his jaw clenched, and the stormy madness in his green eyes. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in several days. I still wanted him. That hadn’t changed.

  Rogue shook his head.

  “That was a totally reasonable thing to do. I didn’t keep my promise to you,” he said as he pulled me close to him. I felt his lips lightly touch my forehead.

  “But you said you will find her. This is just a minor setback. Isn’t it?” I asked, pleading to him with my eyes. Rogue nodded.

  “Yes, I will find her. Or I’ll die trying,” he said.

  My throat had gone dry. I backed away from him slightly and looked up into his eyes and I saw the seriousness of his statement. He wasn’t just saying it. He meant every word of it. Rogue was willing to give up his life if he had to. I was overcome with an irresistible urge to touch him. I nearly reached for him but managed to hold myself back.

  “I’ll be waiting to hear from you. I still trust you, Rogue,” I said to him. He looked down into my eyes, gave me a quick nod, and then walked away from me.

  I watched him go. Grimm and Amanda kissed as she cried again, Grimm trying to console her. Rogue stepped around them and bounded down the stairs. I ran to the window in our living room to look for him, watching him get into his car and then wait for his brother to come down.

  I couldn’t look away; I didn’t care if he saw me staring. He did. He glanced up and caught my eye and I didn’t shy away.

  “Carli, come here,” I heard Amanda sob. I turned to see that Grimm was gone, and Amanda was in bits again. I turned back to the window and Rogue and his motorcycle were gone, too.

  “He’s going to find her; they’re going to find her. Grimm and Rogue will take care of it,” I said to Amanda, who nodded her head through her tears.

  25

  Rogue

  Grimm and I arrived at the Pit and pushed open the doors. Hollers rang out through the bar the second that Grimm walked in. From the looks of it, the entire club was there waiting for him. I smiled realizing that this was the first time all the guys had seen him since we got him out. Grimm smiled at them but headed straight for the back office to where his main guys were waiting.

  “Someone want to tell me we have some fucking intel on where Hazel is,” Grimm yelled as he walked into the room. Cash, Patch and Bones all stopped whatever they were doing and sat down at the table.

  “We are gathering all the info we can,” Patch said. “So far none of our contacts have seen the girl.” I looked over at Grimm, and for a moment I thought he was going to punch Patch in the face.

  “She has to be fucking somewhere. Do we know where Crow is? What happened when you guys met with him?”

  “No,” Cash spoke up. “We don’t know where he is now. He caught on pretty quickly that we were trying to stall the meeting. He was pissed that Rogue didn’t show up.”

  Grimm shot me a death glare, and I quickly spoke up. “I didn’t think Crow was smart enough to keep you and Hazel in two different locations. I thought he would be keeping you together and I wanted to be the one that got you out.”

  “Fuck!” Grimm yelled as he slammed his fists on the table.

  “We are searching now for where he is,” Cash said.

  “Keep trying,” I said, and I quickly pulled Grimm aside. Him yelling at everyone wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

  “If they don’t find her soon, I will go and torture it out of Crow myself,” he barked.

  “That’s a suicide mission and you fucking know it,” I replied.

  “I don’t give a shit if it’s a suicide mission, as long as I get her out of there,” Grimm growled. We stood there in silence for a moment. I was at a complete loss of what to do next, and I fucking hated it.

  “Look you know Crow the best out of all of us. Try to think of where he would keep her.”

  “Fuck I don’t know Rogue,” Grimm said angrily. “Ever since Bobby picked me to succeed him as president, Crow has never been the same. He became more violent, wanted nothing to do with any of our code, and then joined the Son’s the first chance he got.”

  “Can you think of any clues, anything he or any of the other guys said that might give you a hint at where she is?”

  “Most of the time he would just take pleasure in beating the shit out of me,” Grimm growled. “But one thing I could tell was that he is paranoid. He doesn’t trust anyone to let him hold on to his position in the club. He barely trusted his on VP on where I was. He is probably moving her around because he knows that she is all he has left over our heads.”

  “If he is moving her around, then we should get a whole list of every spot he has his hands on. Think we can get some of our allies to help us track her down?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure they second we tell them that she is my kid they will be willing to help.”

  I let out a slight sigh of relief. I had to give Grimm some credit for keeping good relations with all the other gangs in the area. They respected him because of our what our uncle started, and he continued one once Bobby was gone.

  “We have to fucking find her,” Grimm said his eyes pleading. I was taken back on how much he seemed to care for Hazel after just finding out that she existed. I never once in my life pictured Grimm as a father.

  “We will Grimm, I promise.” He nodded slowly and I headed towards the large table in the center of the room where everyone was. He sat down and put his head in his hands.

  “I still can’t believe you have a kid,” I said honestly as I sat down next to him.

  “Neither can I,” Grimm said with a small laugh as he looked up at me. “But the second I saw her; I knew she was mine.”

  “What the fuck happened Grimm?”

  “Fuck Rogue,” Grimm said as he ran his hands through his hair. “I knew that Crow was pissed about our club’s success. And like I told you at the bar, I knew he was probably going to try something. I wasn’t expecting Hazel though.”

  “Did have her already?”

  “Yeah,” Grimm sighed. “He did. He asked me to meet him alone, acting like he wanted to come to a truce. When I got there, he had most of his guys with him and an unmarked van. Hazel was inside.”

  “So, you went with them,” I said understanding.

  “I had no choice. Crow threatened to kill her right there if I didn’t get in the van. Rogue we have to get her out of there.”

  “We will,” I said grabbing his shoulder.

  As I looked into Grimm’s eyes, I hoped that I was right.

  26

  Carli

  The next day, I had no choice but to go to work. I couldn’t risk causing any more problems with
my boss. I knew he was pissed with me already for snapping at him. I went to work and kept my head down all day, trying to avoid bumping into him as much as possible.

  Of course, my heart wasn’t in it. I couldn’t think of anything other than Hazel. And when I wasn’t thinking of her, I thought of Rogue.

  I sat at the reception desk on the tenth floor of the building, grateful that it was a relatively quiet day. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to be polite to people who came in or called the office. But still, I had to do my job. I wanted to make sure that there was a warm and happy home waiting for Hazel when she got back, and for that we would need money.

  Worry started to build up in my chest. What if Rogue was too late? What if something happened to Hazel? I hated that there was absolutely nothing that I could do, other than sit and wait.

  Amanda had been more positive that I was, especially since seeing Grimm again. I could see the relief in her eyes. She trusted Grimm completely. She was sure that he would do everything to get their daughter back. Despite the whole ordeal of the day, Amanda was finally able to get a few hours’ sleep last night.

  I on the other hand, hadn’t.

  I’d laid awake in bed the rest of the night, staring at the ceiling in the dark and wishing that there was something more that I could be doing. I knew I was no match for Crow and his men but sitting and waiting for Rogue to call was slowly starting to kill me. Hazel had been with Crow for so long, and I could only hope that she was remaining strong knowing that we would somehow get her back.

  My day at the office dragged along slowly. I heard nothing from Rogue, Grimm, or Amanda. Whatever plan they had up their sleeve, they weren’t going to share it with us. What the hell was taking so long?

  Eventually, it was time for me to go, so I packed my bag and got ready to go home. Part of me wasn’t sure I actually wanted to go back home to our apartment and continue to sit and wait, but I didn’t feel like I had any other options.

  The elevator doors were quick to open for me and I slipped in, hopeful that my boss had already left. When the doors shut, I noticed that there was someone in the elevator already.

  “Oh, sorry, I’m going down,” I said to the man. He jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt, which I found out of place in our office building. He leaned against the side wall of the elevator.

  “Me too,” he told me and smiled. There was something about the man’s smile that put me on guard. Even while I kept my face firmly turned from him, I could sense his eyes on me. I looked over at him nervously and he smiled again.

  He was a skinny, tall man with dark slicked back hair and a toothpick hanging from his lips. I was positive that I hadn’t seen him in the building before. However, he seemed to either know me or looked like he wanted to say something to me.

  I looked away from him, watching the lights on the switchboard blink. Something about him gave me a bad feeling and I wanted to get to my car as quickly as possible.

  When the doors started to open in the underground parking lot, I stepped forward to rush out, but the man stopped me. He put an arm in my way, keeping the doors open and me held back in the elevator. I gasped and looked at him with fear in my eyes.

  “Not so fast, Carli,” he said, that same sly smile spreading on his face. I pushed against him, trying to get out of the elevator.

  “Who are you? How do you know my name?” I asked with a slight shake in my voice. He kept smiling, holding his arm in place, blocking my way.

  “We need to talk,” he said and finally the smile dropped from his face.

  “I don’t need to talk to you. Let me out!” I said. He removed his arm from the doors, and I hurled myself out, already running in the direction of my parked car. I’d expected him to chase me, but he didn’t.

  “I’m from the Son’s,” he called out to me, calmly, almost too casually. I stopped in my tracks, thinking I’d misheard him. I looked over my shoulder to see that he still stood at the doors of the elevator with the toothpick hanging from his lips and his hands stuffed deep in the pockets of his pants. I looked him up and down again and realized that I spotted tattoos creeping out from underneath his shirt at his neck.

  “That caught your attention, didn’t it?” he asked with that smile again. I was breathing hard, my shoulders heaving. The fact that he hadn’t chased me or tried to harm me yet made me stop and stare at him. If he wasn’t trying to kidnap me, then what did he want?

  “You can call me Lynch,” he continued and took slow steps in my direction. I turned to him, assessing him as best as I could. He didn’t look like he had a gun, but for all I knew, he could be hiding it somewhere. I quickly glanced around the parking garage realizing that we were completely alone.

  “What is going on?” I asked and looked back at him.

  “It’s just you and me, Carli. Crow thought we should finally talk,” he said.

  “Crow? What does he want from me?” I asked.

  He had walked up close to me, but I didn’t step away. I stood my ground against him. I was sick and tired of doing nothing.

  “He’s been keeping an eye on you for some time now. Months actually,” he continued.

  “Months?” I squeaked and he nodded.

  “Yes months. We have known about Hazel for a while. She a cute kid,” he said. When I heard her name, my heart dropped to my stomach.

  “What have you done to her? Where is she?” The questions poured out of me as Lynch smirked. He tipped his head toward my car. He even knew which car mine was. He wasn’t lying when he said he had his eye on me.

  “Maybe we should sit down and talk a little,” he suggested. I crossed my arms over my breasts. Suddenly, I was feeling very cold.

  “Out here is fine, thank you. You need to start answering my questions.” I tried to be as firm with him as I could, hoping he would see that he couldn’t just intimidate me with a badge and his sly smile.

  “Whatever makes you comfortable, Carli.” He tilted his head to the side. “You know, I’m not surprised that you were so easily fooled by a guy like Rogue Daniels. You seem so innocent, so naive,” he continued. The color drained from my face.

  “What are you talking about? Fooled in what way?” I hissed through gritted teeth.

  “You have no idea, do you? You don’t know who he is,” he said. I could barely stand still there. My whole world was crashing down around me. I had no clue what he was implying, other than that Rogue had fooled me somehow.

  “Who is he?” I snapped and he laughed.

  “Well, Carli, for starters; Rogue Daniels is a very dangerous man. And he found the perfect innocent prey in you. You poor thing,” he said.

  I gulped, staring at him as my body trembled. This couldn’t be true. This couldn’t actually be happening. What had Rogue done?

  “You look surprised. He had you fooled, didn’t he?” Lynch continued.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I snapped and he nodded his head, sympathizing with me.

  “You must be really worried about Hazel. You and Amanda both,” he said.

  “Tell me where she is.”

  “I’m not going to do that. But I can tell you that you don’t know the whole story,” he replied and looked over me closely.

  I was still hugging myself like it was freezing cold.

  “All I know is that Crow took her to get to her father Grimm,” I said, trying to breathe through my nose to keep myself calm.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong. The Crow and the Sons of Satan have not been working alone,” he said.

  My mouth fell open as fear gripped my heart.

  “What do you mean they haven’t been working alone? Who else could have been involved?” I barked at him.

  “Think about it, Carli. Who fed you with the idea that the Sons of Satan took her?” he asked.

  “My sister saw Crow at a gas station while she was with Hazel. She knows that Grimm and Crow have been at odds for years,” I replied. Lynch raised hi
s brows and shook his head again.

  “But who’s been responsible for finding her? Who failed to rescue her last night? Who keeps insisting that it’s Crow who kidnapped Grimm? Have you actually seen that man? Has Amanda actually spoken to him?” Lynch continued in a more insistent voice.

  “Rogue brought over Grimm last night,” I replied. “Grimm told us that he was held by Crow and that they took Hazel,” my voice shook as I spoke.

  “Think about it Carli. Grimm trusts his brother blindly. You and Amanda trust him blindly now as well. He’s the perfect man for the job. He’s lived in the shadow of his brother for too long,” he said.

  His words sunk deep into me. I stared at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying.

  “Rogue? Are you saying that Rogue is jealous of Grimm?” I murmured. Lynch smiled again.

  “There you go. You figured it out all by yourself, good girl. Rogue is more than just jealous of Grimm, sweetheart. He wants what Grimm has. He regrets leaving the club all those years ago and he wants it back. He wants to take over as president and carry forward his uncle’s legacy, but Grimm just never gave him the chance,” Lynch continued.

  None of this made sense. I thought I knew Rogue. I thought I’d seen a softer, more human side of him. I trusted him. I thought he was a good man who was really trying to help us. I shook my head furiously.

  “I don’t believe you! Grimm said he was with Hazel before Crow took her again!” I said.

  Lynch pursed his lips together and sighed.

  “Rogue can’t do this alone. Of course not. He’s not an angry man, but he’s not that smart. Of course, he needed help. And who better to work with in destroying his brother, then his brother’s worst enemy?”

  “So, Crow and Rogue are working together to take down Grimm?”