Angel Unseen: An Unseen MC Novel

by J Bree

  He hands it back and jerks his head at me to pass. "Extra security on from here on out. You're fine, just so long as you're here for your shifts and that's it."

  My stomach drops a little. Why would they need extra security? What could possibly have happened? Fuck, is it Tomi?

  Why is he the first person I think of? Jesus, him or Speck... even if it were Rue, I'm going to be heartbroken if any of them are hurt.

  It would destroy Poe if anything happened to him.

  I get through my first dance easy enough but when I walk off stage there’s something in the air, all the bikers in the room are on edge and the ones who are working are watching the room like they’re expecting a bomb to go off.

  Something fucking terrible has happened.

  My stomach drops to my knees.

  I take two steps towards the locker room when the big guy from the door calls me over to Tomi’s office. I feel relief for a split second but when I get over to him and look in, Tomi is nowhere to be seen.

  “I need you to wait in here between your sets. I’ll be on the door, no one will disturb you.”

  I chew on my lip a little, my stomach a fucking mess. “Can I grab my bag? I need my phone and to stash my money.”

  He nods and then walks me over to my locker, never touching me but also never letting me out of his arm’s reach.

  What the hell is going on?

  I don’t have Tomi’s number, I don’t even know what I’d say to him, but I do have Speck’s. Poe had given it to me to grab a lift with him tonight if I needed to.

  It takes me three tries to put something together but I text him.

  Hey, things are really weird here tonight. Can you just text me to say you’re okay? And if everyone else is okay?

  Nothing.

  The entire hour between my sets there’s no reply from him. I tell myself it’s fine, he’s a busy guy and I’m like, just barely his friend.

  The biker at the door lets me out of the office for my next dance, giving me two minutes to pee and freshen up before walking me back out to the stage.

  Whatever is going on, they all know about it now.

  The tenseness is now fucking malevolence in the air, everyone riding their own waves of rage and there’s no bikers in the crowd anymore. The only Unseen in the building are the ones who’re working. I make a lot of money with this dance, a lot of the guys at the stage are younger and drunk as hell and without the bikers sitting amongst them they’re a little louder and rowdier. My knees start to shake just a little and I have to forcibly calm myself down before my song starts.

  It’s the longest dance of my life.

  When I get back out to the locker room with my scowling guard Mel is crying as she gets dressed, deep sobs that shake her entire body.

  Diamond stomps over to me and snarls at me, "Tomi is picking you up tonight. You need to go sit in the office and wait there for him, no walking around, no showering, just go there right the hell now. Don’t leave or he'll be finding you and dragging you back to the clubhouse by your fucking throat. His words not mine, I hope you run and he guts you."

  She walks off and I try not to panic. I mean, I haven't done anything wrong. I haven't betrayed the club or stolen anything... I just come here and dance. That's it.

  Why would he be so damn worried about where I am?

  I manage to grab my bag before the biker locks me back up into Tomi’s office. I pull on a pair of yoga pants and an oversized sweater. I feel like I need the armor, like whatever is going on tonight is going to be so bad I’ll need to freaking hide from it.

  It’s almost seven in the morning before Tomi comes for me.

  He looks so fucking bad I want to cry but he doesn’t look at me. “Grab your shit.”

  I stand up, already packed and ready to go but I feel so fucking dirty with the glitter and hairspray still coating me. “Can I grab a shower now you’re here? I’m guessing everyone’s gone anyway.”

  “We don’t have time for that.”

  I follow him out of the office and find that no one has gone home yet. Great. Diamond is glaring at me like I killed her fucking puppy and the other girls are all still sobbing.

  I don’t know what the fuck is going on.

  “I can’t get on your bike like this.”

  He doesn’t snap at me, he barely reacts, he just strips out of his jacket. Diamond gasps but I ignore her. Fuck, I try to forget she exists.

  He holds it out to me and says, “Put it on.”

  I do and then I follow him out, trying not to piss him off. I kind of get the feeling he’s holding his shit together by a thread and I don’t want to cop whatever it is he has to say.

  Not today.

  I check my phone but there’s still no reply to my message and bile creeps up the back of my throat. Surely not.

  Please, don’t let it be that. “Where’s Speck?"

  He hands me a helmet and says in the same empty voice, "Hospital. He was shot tonight, point blank in the chest.”

  My stomach drops. "Oh my God. Oh my God, who shot him? Jesus Christ."

  He frowns and turns away from me. "Put that on and hurry up."

  I fumble a little with the straps but I get it on, climbing onto the motorcycle the same way he’d shown me last time I’d been on it.

  The drive over to the hospital is short enough and I do my best to just hold onto him without crushing my body up against his but if my grip loosens even a little bit, he grabs my hands and moves them around himself more so I give up and just hold onto him like he’s a freaking life raft.

  I’m crying by the time he cuts the engine.

  I duck my head so he can’t see the tears, and then I follow him into the hospital. The nurses all seem to know him, half of them calling him by his name as he navigates us through the building with ease.

  When we stop in the ICU Tomi pauses at the door for a second like he’s psyching himself up to walk in there.

  I feel like an intruder.

  This is a private moment and here I am witnessing it, seeing him during something so traumatic. He must be feeling so fucking bad right now, so exposed, and I’m just tagging along because I need a couch to sleep on.

  Fuck.

  "Why am I here?" I whisper and Tomi shrugs.

  "I need to know where the fuck you are. I need eyes on you all night so I know you aren't targeted next. Rue's heading home in a minute to sleep, you can take the pull-out and I'll sleep in the chair if I need to."

  Oh.

  Right. I guess if they're going after club assets and I am now making the most cash, makes sense that they'd want to protect me. Jesus, that must be why Diamond is so pissed off, she's out there on her own and I get an armed brother to myself.

  He steps into the room and I follow him in on autopilot.

  Rue gives me a grimace of a smile as he rolls up out of the chair, his back cracking and shifting as he moves. He's clearly been here for a while, sitting in that chair and just... watching his cousin breathe.

  Fuck, he's a mess of tubes and wires, everything beeping and looking vital to his survival, tears start up the second I get a look at him.

  "Are you crying right now?" Tomi whispers, and I swallow.

  "I can't help it. He's... my friend. Why did this happen?"

  Rue claps him on the back and walks out, his phone to his ear as he checks in with King. I subconsciously lean into Tomi, seeking comfort or just to know that he's okay. He doesn't complain, or move away. He just stands there and lets me lean into his back.

  He smells like a garage and gunpowder.

  "You're shaking," he murmurs and I blow out a breath, trying to calm my nerves.

  "This shit scares me. Were you with him when he got shot?"

  He steps away from me and over to look at Speck's chart. I glance at it as I pass and I see all of his details. Jesus, he's only eighteen years old and now he has a machine breathing for him and his rib cage is hanging freaking open.

  A six-hour operation to save h
is life and it still might not be enough.

  I feel sick.

  "I was there. I held my fucking shirt in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. Doesn't matter, that's what this life looks like. You look like you're about to pass the hell out, just lay down on the pull-out bed and get some sleep."

  I don’t want to make any more trouble for him so I do as he says and, even with the beeping and the door opening every few minutes with nurses and doctors coming by to check Speck's vitals, I still manage to fall into a deep sleep, not waking for hours.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Tomi

  The day passes too fucking slowly.

  Angel sleeps the whole day away which is a good thing, but she twitches and jerks around in the pull-out bed like she’s being fucking murdered which, combined with the mess Speck is in, means there’s no chance of me sleeping.

  Instead, I sit and fucking stew on the rat problem.

  I’d managed to get through all of the footage for the bar with nothing. Fucking frustrating, but I’ll be back to looking through it once my shift here is over.

  The hours crawl by.

  Rue steps back in around three in the afternoon, looking like a pile of ass but at least he's clean and, most importantly, he hasn’t been locked up for the shooting.

  "Any news?"

  I shake my head. "Nothing. His vitals only dropped twice so that's a good thing, I guess."

  He nods and steps in, his eyes tracing over Speck like there'll be some sign he's going to survive. I know the feeling, that's all I've fucking done all night.

  "She looks exhausted." he mumbles and I glance down at Angel. She's mumbled and thrashed around all day like she's been chased around in her dreams and even with the sun streaming through the windows she's still asleep now.

  I'm going to figure her the fuck out. Just the second I get the fucker who is responsible for Speck's shooting, I’ll fucking gut him first, then I'm finding out every little scrap of information I can about Angel and I'm deciding once and for all if I need to cut her out.

  "Take her for food. Grab a shower, spend time with her, whatever. Just go and live for a few hours. I've got him," Rue says, rubbing a hand over his face.

  I shouldn’t ask him but I do because I have a newfound respect for the curse. “How’d Poe take the news?”

  He blows out a breath. “Not… great. Thorn told her she couldn’t come here with me today too, so she’s extra fucking pissed. He had a lot of questions for me about Angel, too. You should keep that in mind.”

  I shrug, I don’t fucking care what he wants to know, he’s not fucking seeing her again. Fuck, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t lay eyes on her again until I’ve figured her the fuck out.

  I roll up out of my chair and walk over to gently shake Angel awake because she hasn’t stirred at us talking at all.

  Her hand shoots up to punch me square in the nose but my reflexes are faster and I manage to dodge it.

  "Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" she squeaks and I startle when Rue starts fucking laughing.

  Laughing.

  The asshole, but he rarely fucking laughs these days and I definitely wasn't expecting it today of all days.

  "She's got a great arm on her, can't wait to see the damn bruises you'll be coming home with."

  I glare at him over my shoulder but he just smirks at me, shaking his head as he slumps back in the chair I've just spent all day in.

  "I'm—Tomi, I'm so sorry—"

  I cut her off. "We're leaving. Breakfast and then we're going back to the clubhouse until your shift starts."

  She nods and shifts, stretching her arms up and over her head until a small sliver of skin shows above her pants before dropping down to feel for her bag that’s stashed under the pull-out bed. Look, I'm not stupid, I know she works as a fucking stripper and I can see close to fucking everything she has on offer any night of the week but that little strip of skin just there?

  Nearly brings me to my goddamn knees.

  I'm not expecting it and it fucking hits me in the gut, winding me until I think I'm about to embarrass myself here in front of my asshole cousin.

  "Get your ass moving, I'm hungry," I growl and stand back up, trying to stop myself from rearranging myself in my jeans. Rue spots it, even without taking a good look and starts cackling again.

  Asshole.

  Next time he murders someone for looking sideways at Posey fucking Graves I'll be leaving him with the cleanup. The whole lot, I'll do exactly fucking nothing for him... except maybe scrubbing the security cameras and covering for him with the club.

  Asshole.

  Angel follows me down to my motorcycle and climbs on without hesitation, a little smoother getting on now she has a little practice.

  I stop at the tiny diner on the shitty side of town. It does breakfast all day and no one will expect to see me there so it's a safer place for Angel.

  I pay for her food and she blushes when she thanks me, fumbling over her words. Fuck, she must be tired. She's acting more... human today. Less cold, less heartless, and more open than I've ever seen her.

  We eat together and I find myself talking to her. Actually talking to her, no snarling or judgment and it's a slippery fucking slope.

  "Accounting? Why the hell would you wanna do that?"

  She giggles and picks at the bacon with her fingers, the eggs and toast already demolished. "I'm good at numbers. Plus I want to go into taxes. Like, auditing probably because I just find the whole process... like a puzzle. There's always a loophole or a way to do things to save more money and I love that shit. It's weird, I know, but... I just like it."

  It's stupid. It's so fucking stupid, I know it before I say it, but my dumbass mouth runs with it anyway. "So, if I gave you the books for the club, you could look over them? See if there's anything we could do to save some green?"

  I don’t tell her about the missing money.

  She swallows and shrugs. "I could. I'm not certified or anything yet, I still have classes left to go but... yeah, I could do it. I could pick up the basics and if the guy you're going to now isn't picking that shit up I can let you know so you can find someone new."

  I nod and finish my coffee. I'm dead on my feet but I still have a few hours left before she goes to work and I want to go over the security footage again.

  When we leave, she drops a twenty on the table as a tip and smiles at the waitress. She's still careful to make sure no one touches her but when she walks, she tucks herself in a little closer to me as if she's using my body as a shield.

  I like it a little too much.

  I give her my helmet again and I wait until she's wrapped around me fully before I start my hog. She still smells like honey and sunshine, even after a night of sleeping in the hospital and I want that smell all over my fucking sheets again, just in case it’s faded some.

  This is starting to get outta hand.

  When we get back to the clubhouse it's still like a fucking ghost town. King has every single member out on the streets either looking for intel, guarding our assets, or out of the fucking way because they're on our list of possible rats.

  I duck my head into King's office on my way through, Angel looking around at everything like she's fucking terrified.

  He barely looks up from his paperwork as I speak."Rue is in with Speck. I'll go back tonight. Any sign of Hell?"

  He grunts at me. "He's sleeping his hangover off at Hawk's. Keely's with him to make sure he doesn't choke on his own damn tongue. Did you find Angel?"

  Jesus. I nod. “She's going to stay here until she starts her shift tonight."

  His eyebrows shoot up and he finally looks up. He can't really see her past me but when she peeks out from behind me he quirks an eyebrow. "Make sure you call Keely. She's fit for a fucking heart attack and Hawk's turned into an asshole about it."

  I give him a curt nod and start back down the hall. Angel scurries after me, King's chuckle following us both down. I feel like a fucking teenager, the cur
se is fucking worse than just the obsessing... you have to deal with smug, asshole family members too.

  Utter fucking bullshit.

  Angel is uncomfortable as fuck when I unlock my room, kicking the door open and wincing at the state of the place. She doesn't seem to notice the mess though, just stares around at the piles of computer shit and weapons I have littering every damn surface.

  I get her all of the financials for the bar and set her up on my bed with my laptop and an energy drink. I grab a shower and pull on clean clothes, ready to fucking pass out but there's no time for that shit. I do make time to text the head biker bitch to get her to come grab some of the dirty laundry that’s everywhere.

  I never let people into my room so I'm sure there'll be a fight over who gets to come do it. I haven't fucked any of them since I laid eyes on Angel and there's been some talk about it. Fuck, maybe not the best idea to have anyone come in but... well, Angel has made it clear she's not fucking interested in being mine. Maybe I'll fucking test that theory.

  I park my own ass at my desk and get back to trawling through the security footage.

  Anna walks in wearing a tiny pair of shorts and a halter crop top to grab the piles of dirty clothes on my floor. Angel stiffens but keeps to her work, tapping away quietly.

  I keep an eye on Anna and when she opens her mouth to speak to me, I shut that shit down with nothing but a look.

  Angel sitting on my bed wouldn’t be a deterrent for Anna, she’d probably enjoy the audience.

  When she finally leaves, Angel lasts about thirty seconds before snapping, “So do you always have women in here picking up after you?”

  I purposefully don’t look up from my own work. “Why would you care?"

  She sniffs a little, turning her fucking nose up at me. "I don't. I was just going to say they aren't exactly doing a good job."

  Frigid fucking bitch.

  The warm and open girl who woke up at the hospital is long gone, the same old Angel back in her place. I go back to ignoring her to work on my own shit but now I'm fucking fuming.

  We sit in silence for another hour but it's not as comfortable. She's jittery and twitchy, and I'm one step away from snapping at her, pushing her buttons until she drops back down to her knees for me. Fuck, she sucks dick like a pro and that's the type of release I need right now.