by K E Osborn
Niki screams out in pain as the man smashes her across the head with the butt of his gun making her fall like a rag doll to the ground in front of us all.
“Hey! It’s not okay to hit a woman, you arsehole,” Gator calls out stiffening his stance.
Jackson’s wailing as he clings onto Steel, who’s trying his hardest to shush him, but it’s not working. “It’s okay, Jackson baby, Mama’s okay,” Niki calls out trying to pull herself to sit up on the ground.
He continues to cry as Randell steps over to Niki and squats down in front of her. We all stiffen our posture, and I try to break free, but the guy grips harder on my wrists and clocks me in the back of the head. A sharp pain radiates through my skull as I grit out a moan of pain.
“It will be best if you guys don’t try to resist. You already have two men down, you don’t want more,” Randell suggests as Gator looks at me and shakes his head.
Randell grabs Niki’s hair forcing her to look at him. “Niki, where is Tyrell?”
She burst into full on tears almost heaving. “I don’t know.”
He grunts and clocks her across the side of the head with his gun. She falls to the ground as blood pools from her temple. I wince, and my muscles tense desperately wishing I could help her. Lookout lunges forward breaking free from his captor and goes to strike Randell, but he brings up his gun pulling the trigger, shooting Lookout in the leg.
He falls to the ground. “Ahh… cocksucker, motherfucker, titty, arse wobble.”
“I said don’t try to resist. Fuck! You bikers aren’t very smart. Now… is Tyrell dead Nikita?” Randell asks, and she cries harder and shakes her head from side to side.
Randell grunts and stands up rubbing his chin and then lays a kick right into her ribs. She coughs and gasps for air as her entire body moves back toward us with the force of the blow.
My chest is heaving as I watch him manhandle her.
“I said… Is. He. Dead. Nikita?”
She doesn’t reply, and he points his gun at her head, and I tense my entire body as he pulls back the safety.
“He’s dead,” Steel calls out and my head flicks to face him as my eyes widen, and I shake my head in disbelief. I quickly turn to look at Randell to see if he’s going to retaliate toward Steel, and he simply slumps his body and nods.
“That’s all we needed to know. You lied to us Nikita and for that you have to pay.”
I furrow my brows, and he aims the gun at her head, right as she looks up she cries hard turning to look at Jackson. My heart is frantically pounding in my chest, and just as his finger moves over the trigger Steel screams out.
“No! Her kid is here for fuck’s sake,” he yells breathlessly as Jackson continues to howl in Steel’s arms, luckily his face is buried in Steel’s neck so he isn’t witnessing any of this.
“We don’t care about the kid, word is he isn’t even Tyrell’s. Do what you want with him, but Nikita must pay. A life for a life.”
She turns her head to face Steel as tears trickle down her cheeks. “I love you, Jackson.”
“I love you, Mama,” he murmurs into Steel’s neck.
BANG.
The sound of the gunshot shocks me before I have time to register it. The sight of Niki’s brain splattering out onto Steel’s jeans makes me choke up as her lifeless body flails to the ground. Jackson starts to scream and wriggle in Steel’s arms as Lookout bursts into tears. I rest my hand on Lookout’s shoulder as he sobs for his fallen… whatever they were.
“Our business here is done,” Randell says. “Your families are safe, you can come out of lockdown. You have my word.”
Gator looks back toward Blake and Behemoth and shakes his head as the rest of our guys come running out of the clubhouse. Gator nods to them to let them know to stand down. “And what about my men? Where’s my payback for that?”
Randell shrugs. “Well, how ‘bout I know it’s your club that killed Tyrell. So I won’t come after your entire chapter and we’ll call it even?”
Gator looks to Steel furrowing his brows, and Steel nods slightly still trying to wrangle a now parentless Jackson.
“Deal! Now get the fuck off our property. You ever come back, the tables will be turned. You got me?” Gator tells him.
“Crystal clear, Prez.”
The Syndicate let us all go, and I rub my wrists then help Lookout stand to his feet as they all back out and get into their van. They pull back and drive off, and we race around the car to see Behemoth not moving, but Blake showing some signs of life.
Lookout hobbles over to Behemoth as I drop to my knees beside him seeing the two bullet wounds to his chest. There’s blood everywhere, and he’s definitely not breathing, and he’s pale, so pale. Lookout falls to his knees by Behemoth’s head as he grabs his cheeks making his head face forward rather than to the side.
“Behemoth you crazy motherfucker, you better not be fucken dying on me you pansy arse bitch or I’ll fucken kill you myself,” Lookout says as I place my fingers to his neck to check for a pulse that’s most definitely not there.
Huffing, I sit back on my heels and rest my chin on my chest as Gator walks up behind me and Lookout pulls Behemoth’s torso into his lap cradling him.
“C’mon big man, it’s always you and me. You save me from everything… all this blood that’s pissing out of your motherfucken body, I should be passing the fuck out, and you should be picking me up. But it’s your blood, Behemoth, I can’t handle this if you’re gone, too. You’re my brother, my motherfucking brother. I fucking love you, you bastard, you can’t leave me here to fend for myself,” Lookout cries as he leans down pressing his forehead to Behemoth’s.
My chest tightens as I rest my hand on Lookout’s shoulder. “Lookout, brother—”
“Don’t say it. Don’t you motherfucken say it, Techie!”
Gator exhales as he shakes his head squatting down beside me. Blake murmurs and opens his eyes.
“Fucking hell, I feel like I’ve been hit by a train,” Blake states and Jigsaw rushes over to him along with Crash.
“You were shot in the side, but it looks like it might have just grazed past your ribs. I think you’ll be okay, Blake, but we’ll get Stevie to come out and take a look at you,” Crash tells Blake nods.
“I feel woozy,” Lookout announces. I stand up and rush over, picking him up and wrapping his arm around my shoulder then walking with him toward the clubroom. “I can’t believe they’re both fucken gone, Techie. How the fuck am I meant to live in this world without them?”
“Don’t talk like that, you still have us.”
He nods as he wobbles slightly. I think the emotion, the blood, and the bullet to the leg is a bit too much for him. Poor guy needs to sit down. As I walk in, Steel is handing Jackson off to Flame, who’s looking down at Steel with tears about to spill over her eyes. There’s blood and brain matter splattered over his pants. She shakes her head and walks off with Jackson down the hall. I take Lookout in and place him down on the sofa and then make my way over to Gadget, who’s looking at the security feed from the gate. Gator obviously has the same idea as me, and we both step over to Gadget at the same time.
“How did this happen, Gadget?” Gator asks.
Gadget shakes his head and swallows hard. “They looped the security footage outside the gate, that’s why we didn’t know they were there. I should have known. My system should have picked up the hack.”
“Guess you’re not as tech-savvy as you thought hey, Stephie?” I tease.
“Only Shay calls me that. Oh… and fuck you, Techie!”
“Enough guys. You two bickering isn’t helping this situation is it?” Gator chastises us both, and I wince taking a deep breath and shake my head.
“Sorry, Prez,” I say.
Gadget doesn’t offer an apology. Instead, he walks off. I huff and notice Flame and Steel walk back out with a calmer Jackson, who’s firmly attached to Steel. So I walk over to them, Steel notices me and shakes his head.
“Wha
t a mess,” he murmurs.
“I’m sorry guys,” I offer.
Flame leans in wrapping her arms around me, and I stiffen not knowing what to do with Steel right here watching me with his woman. But he nods, so I wrap my arms around her, and she nuzzles into my shoulder and softly cries. I’m a little uncomfortable, I’ve never been good at consoling people, but Flame’s a good friend and I want to help her. So I hold her tight and lean my head against hers as she cries into me. Steel cuddles into Jackson, and we stand as a group in a comfortable silence with Jackson and Flame both softly crying.
“What’s going to happen to Jackson now?” Flame whispers pulling her head back, but still staying attached to me. “He can’t go and live with that family, not after what they’ve done.”
“Why don’t you guys adopt him?” I whisper, so Jackson doesn’t hear.
Flame looks at Steel, and he smiles wide and nods running his hand up and down Jackson’s back soothing him.
Flame sniffs and smiles at Steel. “I think we need to talk about this,” she says.
Nodding, I let go of her, and with a smile I turn to walk away leaving them to discuss their future. Plus, after the danger that was on our doorstep, I need to find Shay to make sure she’s okay.
CHAPTER NINE
Walking aimlessly around the packed and highly strung clubrooms, I find Shay sitting in a corner with Irina and Meli. I exhale wondering what kind of bullshit stories they’re probably filling Shay’s mind with about me as I walk up.
“Is everyone okay?” I ask.
“We’re fine. We were a bit scared when the gunfire was going off, but now we know lockdown is going to be lifted it’ll get back to normal, and it will be good,” Meli admits.
“Yeah, so anyway, the shoes I was talking about go on sale at the end of the week, and I can’t wait to buy them.” Irina changes the subject.
“Oh yeah, I know the store I like is having a storewide sale too. So I might go and buy some new dresses, attempt to glam things up a bit. You know try and make a better impression on a certain someone,” Meli chimes and the girls laugh.
I raise my eyebrows and huff being forced out of the conversation. I don’t have anything to add to it, even though I really wanted to spend some time with Shay, but she seems to be happy with the girls. So instead, I decide to just walk away. I don’t bother saying anything feeling completely deflated.
“Techie, Techie, wait up!” Shay calls out, I turn to see her jumping up and racing over to me.
My heart jumps into my throat, and I smile so wide knowing she’d rather talk to me than talk about stupid sales.
“Before I leave lockdown, can you help me design my tattoo?”
I’d forgotten about that. “Yeah, for sure. When?”
“Now?”
“Okay. Let’s go to the games room, it’s quiet in there and I doubt we’ll be interrupted.”
She nods, placing her hand out. “You must’ve been through something stressful out there, you need destressing,” she says. I smile remembering her facts about hand holding being an anti-stressor. So I lace my fingers with hers and walk with her toward the games room.
As we enter the room, I close the door to give us some privacy from the array of people in the clubhouse at the moment. It will be fun to spend some time one-on-one with Shay.
She shrugs as we walk over to the table, and she lets go of my hand and takes a seat. I move over to the desk to grab some paper and pencils to draw with.
Looking up at me, she winces. “So how are you doing after what happened out there today?”
Grabbing the utensils I need, I wander over to the table and slide onto the bench seat next to her. Our legs graze against each other’s and my heart rate spikes up a notch. She really does have an astounding effect on me. I smile at her and nod. “I’m okay, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, it’s just shit when you know the person. And having Jackson there to watch the whole thing was—”
“Horrible?”
Nodding, I sigh. “Yeah.”
She rests her hand on my knee and squeezes. “Does it affect you, though?”
Tilting my head, I purse my lips. “I guess after being in the club for so long, and seeing this stuff so much, you kind of become numb to it. But when it’s close to home, and knowing that all our family is right inside and the bad guys are on your doorstep… that scares me. Knowing you were inside and the Jones’ were at the gate. That shook me a little.”
She half smiles and exhales. “Well, lucky they didn’t come through the gates.”
“I think it would have been a blood bath for them if they had tried,” I say honestly. No one tries to break through our walls.
“So you’re really okay then?” she asks, and I smile at her.
“Having you around calms my nerves for some reason. Knowing you’re here and safe sets my mind at ease. You have this soothing effect on me.”
She looks down to her lap as her cheeks turn a bright pink like she’s blushing, it’s the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.
“So… do you have any ideas about what you’d like?” I ask.
She looks back up and smiles at my change of conversation. “I’m not entirely sure, that’s why I want your help. I’ve seen hints of your tattoos, and I know they look amazing from what I’ve seen, so I figure you can lead me down the right path?”
“Okay, well I guess we need to decide whether you want something meaningful or just something pretty.”
She smiles. “Definitely meaningful.”
“I thought you might. Right, so do you want an image or script?”
She purses her lips, and I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to take her bottom lip in between my teeth and tug on it. My cock twitches at the thought, so I clear my throat slightly trying to gain some equilibrium.
“I think an image… something to do with family or growing as a person.”
“What about a tree? That can represent the branches of your family, and also the growth in your life?”
Her eyes light up and she smiles wide. “Oh my God, I love that idea. It’s perfect!”
“So where are you thinking?”
She stands up turning to face me. Her pussy is in line with my face, and I can’t help it as my breath catches. I want to nuzzle my face in between her legs. She turns slightly and pulls her shirt up baring her perfect alabaster skin. My cock semi-hardens in my jeans, and I shift slightly on the seat as her hand rubs along her ribs. My breath quickens as she steps in closer to me.
“Here?”
That familiar electrical charge is surging through the room. Glancing up at her, her ice blue eyes stare down at me through her lashes. Her chest heaves through her heavy breaths letting me know she’s just as affected by me as I am by her. Swallowing hard, my hand comes up and I softly caress her grazing my thumb over her pale hip. Her skin litters in goosebumps as I lick my lips trying to fight the urge to lean in and kiss her delicate stomach. Sparks are shooting off in every direction as we gaze at each other, both practically panting with want.
“Here?” I ask running my hand up her side, her body trembling beneath my fingers as it slides up her ribs.
She nods and chews on her bottom lip, her breaths becoming short and sharp. The warmth of her skin under my hand is setting me on fire, and I wish I could lift her shirt off completely and bend her over this table kissing every single inch of her. My hand runs up to right under her bra line, and my fingers trail along the seam. She pants hard and my cock strains in my jeans.
“Do you think this would be the right place?” she whispers breathlessly.
Swallowing hard, I nod. “You’re perfect.”
She smiles wide and I shake my head and gasp at my words. “I mean, it’s perfect.” Regretfully, I slowly move my hand down her side and she brings her top down covering herself back up. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I have a photographic memory. That image will stay with me forever anyway. She turns and sits back down next to me.
Our legs touching completely again, and I close my eyes for a second trying and reign myself in. She takes a deep stuttering breath and when I open my eyes she’s looking at me with a slight smile.
“So do you think we can figure something out?”
Smiling, I turn picking up a pencil. “I think I can draw the best-damned tree you’ve ever seen, Peach.
She giggles leaning her shoulder into mine. “Well then, let’s see what you got.”
I nod and pull out the paper to start drawing a goth-inspired tree.
The whole time she’s leaning on me, or touching me in some way, as she makes suggestions and we add to the drawing together. It’s coming along really nicely, and to be honest, we make a really good team. The chemistry from before is still there, but the intensity has fizzled from a ten to about a two, and now it’s mainly us laughing and enjoying our time together. She’s really a lot of fun to be around, and we have more in common than I would have thought. She is basically me, with tits.
I finish the last leaf on the tree and put the pencil down. She lets out an impressed huff, and I turn to face her with a smile.
“So, what do you think?” I ask.
“You’re perfect.” She giggles. “It’s perfect. Thank you. I don’t think anyone could have gotten what was in my head onto the page like you have. You seem to get me.”
“I think we’re pretty similar, you and me.”
She nods. “Yeah, you’re fairly awesome, so I can see that you could be like me.”
Chuckling, I look at her and my chest starts to ache. There’s something about Shay, something that makes me want more than the life I’m living. She’s amazing, and in the short time I’ve known her, she has sparked a fire inside me, ignited an insatiable want for a new kind of life. She’s special, and I want to hold on to that.
She gleams and raises her eyebrow. “What?”
“No, nothing.”
She pushes my shoulder. “No, tell me!”
Exhaling, I lick my lips and look into her eyes. She looks back at me through her lashes and instantly that spark, that buzz, that electric pull, is there again making my chest ache. She swallows hard, and she leans in a little closer to me.