Bash, Volume II

by Candace Blevins

  Marlin shook his head as he looked at Angelica. “Nice bullshit story, but no one’s gonna let their twelve year old daughter in on somethin’ like that.”

  Angelica shrugged. “Daddy didn’t tell me. He told Mom some of it, and I overheard. I also heard some of the talk in the clubhouse. I was good at disappearing, fading into the background so no one noticed me, when I wanted to know what happened, and I’d really wanted to know what happened.”

  “Believe it, don’t believe… don’t really give a shit,” I told him. “What Bud did is peanuts to what I’ll do if I believe there’s a serious threat to her health and well-being.”

  “That, I believe — which is why I’m here. I’m tired of watching my guys die, or go missing, or go to the hospital. Three gonna live the rest of their lives in a chair. And the bitch of it is? I swear it looks like you’re pullin’ your punches when you fight.” He shook his head and looked at Dawg. “Even when we shoot you almost point blank, you come back four months later as if nothin’ happened. We can either keep fighting and keep losin’ people, or we can find a truce we can all live with.”

  Angelica uncrossed her legs, crossed them the other way. “Your boy, the one they’re offering the deal… I left two alive. If he turns it down, won’t they go to the other?” I wasn’t terribly happy with her in the conversation, but it was a good question.

  “Viper’s the one they planted the shit on, prolly ‘cause he’s comin’ up on three strikes, and he’s the one who fired. The other guy ain’t bein’ charged with enough to be offered a deal.”

  “So, he’s looking at serious time if he turns down the deal. He’ll do that, if you tell him to?”

  Marlin looked at me as if I needed to explain it to her, and I told her, “If Duke tells me to turn down a deal and take more time, I’ll do it. He won’t tell me to unless it’s important, and the good of the MC comes before the good of any one of us. I’m sure it’s the same for the Disciples.”

  She looked at him a second, considering, and finally asked, “So, if we can get your boy off without him taking the deal, will it help your negotiation with the MC?”

  He lifted his eyebrows as he considered her. “Won’t hurt.”

  Angelica looked at Brain and I immediately knew they were talking telepathically. My wolf about went ballistic but I had to control him in front of Marlin. Ten seconds later I realized I couldn’t do it, and my choices were to leave the room or show my wolf’s eyes to Marlin and then have to kill him.

  I left the room, slamming the door on my way out.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Angelica

  I knew there was a chance Bash would figure it out, but I’d needed to check in with Brain on my plan before I said it aloud, and it was the only way.

  Brain made one small change to my idea, and I looked to Marlin. “Don’t know what’s up with Bash, I’m sure he’ll be back soon, though. Meanwhile, I don’t want to give away my cards, but let’s assume I know why Pickering’s under investigation, and let’s also assume I’m the one who made the investigation happen. He made it personal, he started it, but I intend to finish it.”

  “You think you can get my boy off, even if he doesn’t take the deal?”

  “I’ll certainly give it a shot. The assistant DA is in charge on this one, but Pickering has a bunch of cops who do what he says. They don’t know he’s on the way out, apparently.”

  “What you got on Pickering?” he asked me.

  “Abuse of power, amongst other things.”

  Marlin looked to Brain, and I knew Marlin needed to deal with him, not me. Brain’s gaze met mine as he said, “Go calm the beast. I’ll explain things to Marlin.”

  I followed Bash’s scent trail to a supply closet, and turned the light on as I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

  Bash’s eyes were all wolf, and I looked down the instant I saw them. “It happened when I was fourteen, and it was an accident. My dad went ballistic until we explained how it happened, and then he let Brain live. We used it while he was my bitch, but then agreed to never use it again once he got his patch. I didn’t even know if it would work anymore, but I needed to run an idea by him before I gave it to Marlin.”

  “My wolf isn’t okay with him being closer to you than us.” His voice sounded as if he’d been eating gravel, which meant the wolf was doing more of the talking than Bash, at the moment.

  I kept my eyes down as I told him, “Dad tried to break it but he couldn’t.”

  “How the fuck does that kind of thing happen by accident?”

  I could hear and feel the strain he was under to stay calm. If he ever insisted I show submission outside of sex I’d fight him on it, but times like this, I’d gladly show it to help him out. I leaned against the wall to make myself a little shorter as I looked at his feet and explained, “He was helping me with my trig homework — we started around ten at night, and it was after one in the morning and I was still lost. Usually, thirty minutes and I understood, but trig was hard for me. Calculus was a piece of cake, but trig…” I shook my head. “I don’t know, it’s like he pushed the concept into my head, without words, and from that point forward we could talk telepathically. If there was a blood exchange we didn’t do it on purpose. My left elbow was scraped, his knuckles were beat up, and it’s possible they touched enough to initiate some kind of binding, but we didn’t say an oath, or do anything else to create one.”

  He didn’t say anything, and I pointed out, “If you and I oath to each other as part of a relationship ceremony, we won’t be able to play around with Dawg anymore.”

  “Why’d you keep it from me?”

  I looked up, caught his gaze, and looked back down. He wasn’t ready to move to another subject. “Brain and I haven’t used it since he was patched. I didn’t even know if it was still there. Honest, Bash, it never occurred to me I should tell you, because I didn’t think of it.”

  He took a breath and shook his arms, flexed his fingers. I did that sometimes, too, when I wanted to remind myself I was human — when I needed to make sure the human part of me stayed in control. Finally, he said, “The man can probably accept that, eventually… not sure the wolf can, though.”

  I was quiet while he worked it through, and he finally asked, “Will you accept punishment, from the wolf?”

  “What does he want to do?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll keep it under three minutes, but he needs to be sure you know he owns you. You’ll probably have to shift to heal, and then he’ll take you in wolf form, probably.” He sighed and added, “And a week without an orgasm, but that’s from me.”

  Three minutes. He could put me through a world of pain in three minutes, but I knew Bash wouldn’t let his wolf kill me. Three minutes, and a good fucking in wolf form, probably with a good deal of biting, and it would be behind us. Except for the orgasm denial part, and I was hoping he’d let that part go. “Yeah. Three minutes in human form, and then we let the wolves sort it out.”

  “And then a week with no orgasms. Gonna want you bound to me, too, but we can discuss the logistics later.”

  I shook my head. “If we do a binding it’s going to be because we’ve decided it’s time, not because I have some accidental thing with Brain from long ago. We both know he’s hot and heavy with Harmony. I’m not ready to agree to a week without an orgasm, either.”

  He tilted his head. “We’ll discuss those things later, when we have more time. For now, you’re with me when we go back. I let you sit on your own before, but my wolf needs to claim you, now.”

  I followed him back in, and let him pull me into his lap when he sat. I spoke up a few times to ask a question, but let the guys talk, mostly. It’s hard to come off as a strong female when someone’s petting you in his lap like a child, but I let Bash get away with it because I hadn’t told him about the binding I had with Brain. If he’d had one with another woman and hadn’t told me, I’d be upset, too. I knew it was innocent, and I was pretty sure Bash believed it w
as innocent, but I also knew it was the principle of the thing.

  When Marlin left, Brain asked if he could follow Bash and I to my apartment to talk.

  “No,” Bash told him. “You and I’ll talk later, but Angelica needs her sleep — she has to work tomorrow.”

  He took me home and slept beside me in the bed, but I could feel the distance between us.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Angelica

  Duke asked Brain to set up surveillance in my parking lot, and to let me know when Thomas went into his apartment. I’d put my camera away when nothing happened to our vehicles, but Brain likely would’ve wanted his own equipment in place, even if mine had still been in the window.

  Bash wasn’t around when Thomas finally showed up, thank goodness, and I put the earpiece in and walked to the other end of the complex.

  Brain had given me a burner smart phone loaded with the video of Thomas threatening me, and I tucked it in my pocket with the video ready for me to hit play.

  When he answered the door, Thomas merely asked what I wanted without inviting me in, which worked for me.

  I handed him the phone, touched the play button, and let him watch it all the way through before telling him, “If you don’t back off on everything you’re doing against me and the MC, that video goes viral. The deal you’re offering Viper, and anything else you’ve put into play, needs to disappear as if it never happened. Viper can be prosecuted for attacking you and me, but the drug charges need to go away. Don’t know or care if he had them or if they were planted — he says they were planted, and at this point I’d be more inclined to believe him than you, or your crooked cops.”

  “You’re blackmailing me?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. I’m trying to get you to do the right thing.” I reached for the phone as if I wanted it back, and he stepped away and held it behind his back. I hadn’t wanted it back, just wanted him to think I had, so I glared at him and said, “Fine, whatever. You have to know that isn’t the only copy,” before turning and walking away.

  “You did good,” Brain said through my earpiece. “See you in a few.”

  I didn’t go to my apartment, but to my bike, and then to the compound.

  Dozer was in the main room when I walked in, and he still eyed me suspiciously, but I ignored his look as I let him know, “Brain’s waiting for me.”

  He nodded. “I know, and Duke wants me to take you to the workout room and spar with you when you’re finished with Brain. He said he’d planned to, but something came up and he can’t.”

  I didn’t even slow down as I said, “That’s okay. I’ll wait until Duke can.”

  “Duke didn’t make it sound like a suggestion. I’ll be waitin’ out here for you, when you finish with Brain.”

  I started to tell him I didn’t have to do as Duke says, but decided to ask Brain what was going on before I argued with Dozer.

  I pushed the button outside the control room, aimed a cheesy smile toward the camera, and then pushed the door open when I heard it buzz.

  “What’s up with Duke wanting me to spar with Dozer?”

  “Just do it, see if you can’t win him over. Still can’t get to the bottom of why he dislikes you so much, but the sooner we get past it, the better.” He shook his head. “I think it’s rooted in his distrust of you because of Pickering, and the fact he thinks you’ve snowballed the rest of us. Whatever it is, why don’t you see if you can change his mind?”

  I handed him the earpiece I’d been wearing, and sat in the chair beside him. “Sure. Has Pickering made a move, yet?”

  “He made this phone call after watching the video another time.” Brain punched a button and we heard Thomas saying, “We got a problem. Meet me at the coffee shop in ten minutes.”

  The mic on the phone I’d given him was open, with a direct line back to Brain. It looked like it was off, and would even work if he tried to call someone on it. We’d hear him until either the battery went dead or he turned it off, and nothing gave it away as having an open mic.

  “This is the live feed.” Brain punched another button and we heard the local talk radio station, and I saw a dot moving on the map. It’d taken me less than ten minutes to get to the compound, so he was still on his way to whatever coffee shop he was headed to.

  The radio station and car noise turned off, we heard the car door close, and then not much of anything for a few minutes. He ordered coffee and a pastry, and must’ve taken it to sit down because there was silence for a while.

  When he finally spoke, he said, “Took you long enough.”

  “I still have a job, and I had to stop and talk to a few people on my way out so it wouldn’t look like I was in a hurry to get somewhere. What’s up?”

  “We’re going to have to take the deal off the table to implicate Angelica Wright. Need to make the trumped up drug charges go away as well.”

  “Why the hell would I do that?”

  I didn’t recognize the voice, but didn’t want to interrupt to see if Brain knew who it was.

  “It appears the MC and Disciples are going to work together on this. If they prove it was all trumped up crap, it won’t look good on anyone involved.”

  “Fuck, Pickering. You’ve really stuck your dick in it this time. I can contaminate the evidence, or maybe get rid of the chain of custody records for it, but this is the last time I’m doin’ anything for you.”

  “Angelica’s going to have to be off limits for a while. She has friends in high places we don’t want to fuck with. Don’t know how she managed to get the FBI on our asses so hard, but we all need to stay on our toes.”

  “There’s something you aren’t telling me, but as far as I can tell her only crime is breaking up with you and then getting in bed with the RTMC Sergeant at Arms, so I got no problems backing off. I only agreed to your plan because you promised to give me five major favors. I’m thinking you’re poison now, though, so we’re done.”

  “We’re done when I say we’re done.”

  We heard the sound of a chair scraping, and then no more talking. Brain flipped a switch and told me, “It’ll keep recording, and will alert me if there’s any more talking.”

  “Did you recognize the voice of the man he was talking to?”

  “Deputy Chief Hansen. He worked his way up through the detective division and I didn’t think he was dirty.”

  “You’ll let Marlin know I took care of my end of the bargain?”

  He nodded and I asked, “You and Bash get things worked out?”

  “We’re still on shaky ground, but I don’t think it’ll come to blows again.”

  Again. Fuck. I shook my head and told him, “I’m sorry.”

  He grinned, and didn’t look the least bit upset. “Don’t apologize. We hadn’t used it in so long, I wasn’t sure it would still work. I guess I was trying to pretend it was broken, and I think you were doing the same.”

  “I’m glad you have Harmony. Ya’ll are perfect for each other. Our binding was a fluke, and it isn’t a relationship binding because I’ve never known when you were with someone.”

  “It’ll be okay, Angelica. Bash and I’ll get it worked out.”

  I walked towards the door, but stopped a few steps from it and turned back to him. “I really have to spar with Dozer?”

  “Don’t have to do anything, but I think it’s a good idea.”

  I sighed and walked out the door. Dozer was leaned against the opposite wall, looking at the door when I stepped through. I knew they’d soundproofed the room, knew he was trying to knock me off my game, and I smiled at him and said, “Looks like we’re sparring.”

  He followed me downstairs and the hairs on the back of my neck wanted to bristle with him behind me, but I worked to keep my breathing and my nerves steady so he wouldn’t know.

  He sat and began taking his boots off when we made it to the sparring area, and I followed suit.

  He went to the center of the mat and told me, “Okay, let’s see what you have befor
e we start. Take your best shots at me — feet, fists, elbows, knees. Whatever you can hit me with.”

  I stepped to within a few feet of him and looked at him a few seconds, debating. Dozer is huge, and if he were human it would mean he’s strong but slow. He’s a wolf, though, which meant he’d be strong, fast, and huge. His reach would be a lot longer than mine, so I needed to get in close to him to keep him from getting too much power behind his punches.

  I smiled, stepped close, and did a series my dad taught me, with the final punch supposed to land on his face hard enough to get his attention.

  I landed the first three, but was shocked when he caught my fist as I attempted the final punch, twisted my arm so he held my fist behind my back, and had me totally disabled before I took another breath.

  “Fuck, Dozer! Uncle! Shit.”

  He let go of me and chuckled. “Did you just say uncle?”

  I rubbed my shoulder and glared at him. “That fucking hurt, so yeah, I did. Now that you’ve shown me the error of my ways, want to show me what I should’ve done?”

  He shook his head. “What is it about you? You have them all charmed, like your shit don’t stink.”

  I chuckled this time. “How dare you! Implying my shit doesn’t smell like roses!” I rolled my eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you. I didn’t know Pickering was the DA at first, and then once I found out, maybe I should’ve walked, but I didn’t. I never gave anything to him on ya’ll, and did nothing but defend the MC to him. I broke up with him, in part, because he kept disparaging my dad and the club.”

  He sighed. “You had the right idea, stepping in close, and it would’ve worked if I was human, or even if I was wolf and didn’t have training. But with a wolf my size who knows how to fight, it’s never going to work.”