by J Bree
Illi scoffs at me. "Yeah, no shit. None of these guys know how Matteo thinks. Crawford keeps expecting him to act like any other guy but he’s not, he’s a fucking psychopath. It takes a lot to get into that sort of mindset. Crawford’s too clean-cut for that shit.”
I chuckle at him. "Yeah well, neither of us need any help thinking like a psycho. You're the Butcher and I’m the Wolf. That kind of explains everything."
Harley chuckles under his breath at me and I glance back up to meet his eyes. He looks particularly panty-meltingly hot when he’s gloating over my fucked-up mind.
“You’re making eyes at one of your boys right now, aren't you? I can tell by the way your breathing. It's alright, it’s not like I was hoping for your full attention or anything, kid.” Illi teases, and goddamnit a blush creeps over my cheeks.
“Like you can talk! I've sat through so many nights in bars with you draped all over Odie and me trying not to puke at the cheesy lines you give her," I snap.
He cackles at me and hangs up.
Classes resume the next day and I find myself… bored.
I’m itching to head down to the Bay and deal with the Jackal myself. Knowing that he’s gone full-blown bloodthirsty killer has only made me more sure of our plans to take him out. There’s no chance of redemption. There’s no tortured hero buried underneath the controlling obsessive psycho, there’s just an egotistical maniac who is throwing a temper tantrum over not getting his own way. He’s lost the backing of the Twelve so now he’s going to make the entire city pay.
Harley deals with my twitchy attitude all day like a saint but by dinner I think he’s ready to either fuck or fight it out of me. Avery glares over her pasta at him, reading him like an open freaking book, and he snarks at her.
“This is my room. If I want to fuck my girlfriend in my own room, then I fucking will.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t be a dick, she’s working her way up to being okay in our room again.”
Avery’s eyes sparkle with sadistic glee and she uses her sweetest voice to say, “Keep up with that attitude, Harls, and I’ll gut you in your sleep. Illi showed me how to do it to a big guy like you, you won’t stand a chance.”
Harley grumbles under his breath about not teaching Avery any other techniques until she stops being quite so bloodthirsty, then he tugs me to my feet. “Let’s go to the pool. We can go for a swim to get some of this energy out of you.”
I shrug and get up to grab a bathing suit, ducking into the bathroom to get changed and ignoring Avery’s snarky comments about never using the pool again because of Harley’s jizz floating around because just nope, no thanks. I don’t need to be a part of that conversation at all. Avery takes way too much pleasure in embarrassing the absolute shit out of me.
We get out the door and halfway to the stairs when we find Blaise, all sweaty and flushed from the gym. My knees go all weak at him and he turns on his heel to come with us to the pool.
“Pretty sure I didn’t invite you,” Harley snarks, and Blaise scoffs back at him.
“Pretty sure I don’t need an invitation. Besides, I was there when Star’s bathing suit arrived, I’m not missing this.”
Oh. Right. My bathing suit.
I’d stupidly told Avery she could pick one out for me so I didn’t have to steal hers any more. I’d felt guilty for my last encounter in the pool with Harley, especially when the video got out and she’d thrown the last one out. I’m assuming it was at least a thousand dollars, because all of her shit is at bare minimum a ridiculous price.
So the bathing suit is just barely a one piece because there is a piece of string connecting them. It’s fucking obscene but I guess I should get over being shy about this shit considering they’ve both fucked me until I was screaming. Ash and Harley even fucked me at the same damn time. Jesus. I need to get a hold of myself.
Blaise threads his fingers through mine, smirking at my blush. “I hope you never lose that, Star. It would make fucking with you less fun.”
Harley joins him in laughing, the traitorous asshole.
The pool is empty, thank fuck, and Harley immediately strips off, diving into the water in an elegant arc. He looks like a freaking god as he moves through the water.
“You’re drooling, Star,” Blaise drawls, and I elbow him in the ribs.
“Don’t get pissy, I drool at you all the damn time.”
He nods and pulls at my shirt, peeking down the back. “Show me what you’re hiding under here. Arbour is an idiot for jumping in and missing the show.”
There isn’t going to be a show. I pull my jacket off and unbutton my jeans when he interrupts me. “Do it slower, Mounty, it doesn’t feel like a strip tease if you rush it.”
I roll my eyes at him. “You’ve seen it all before, what the hell does it matter?”
He tilts his head back, his eyes hooded and dark, and my mouth suddenly gets dry. “Because when you strip slowly, I get to think about all of my favorite parts of you. All of the parts I want so desperately to see and you make me wait. Then I get pissed off at waiting and tear the whole thing off of you and fuck you on the edge of the pool while Harley does laps.”
I gulp.
He makes a great case.
I drag the zipper of my jeans down a little slower, feeling just a little bit stupid as I slowly push them down my legs. When I bend over to grab them from around my ankles he says, “Turn around if you’re going to bend over, Star.”
I do it, snarking at him, “How many strip teases have you had? Fuck, don’t answer that.”
He laughs at me, which I do not take as a good sign, and I spin back around to slowly strip my shirt off. I still feel like an idiot but when he bites his lip that eases a little.
Him palming his dick through his shorts, already hard for me, helps too.
Harley’s phone buzzes but we ignore it, he’s busy doing laps and then only people we give a shit about know where to find us. But then Blaise’s phone buzzes too. Fuck.
He huffs, frustrated as fuck at being interrupted. “What, asshole I’m kind of busy… no, you said you were taking her down… no, she’s definitely not here… Lips and Harley are both here, there’s no one else… Fuck!”
He doesn’t have to say another word, my spiraling mind already knows exactly what’s happened.
Avery is gone.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I’m on the phone to the Crow before Harley is even out of the pool, cursing up a storm as he snatches his clothes and shoves them on. We all scramble for the door, the pain in my leg be damned.
“Who the fuck was watching her?” Atticus snarls at me and nope, not today, motherfucker.
“She was in our room which is guarded by your fucking men, so this lands with you. You had better fucking find her right the fuck now.”
There’s a pause and then I hear Jackson say, “Ash goes in and then fucking nothing. I don’t see how she’s not still in that room.”
“Well she’s not hiding under the fucking bed!” I snap and Atticus snaps back, “I thought Ash could take care of her? He has no issues throwing it in my face that he guards her better than I do.”
“You fucking survive what he has and then we can talk about whether or not he’s allowed a shitty attitude,” I hiss back at him, and Harley’s phone rings. He frowns at his phone for a second and then answers. His eyebrows shoot up.
I grab his arm to get his attention.
“We’ve got her.”
I ignore Atticus’s enraged snarl as I hang up on him and Harley hands his phone to me.
“Looks like my family has fucked Harley over again, Wolf,” says Aodhan, and I could fucking scream.
Diarmuid.
That piece of fucking shit Irishman.
“Tell me everything right now, we’re on our way,” I say, attempting to stay calm but calm went out the window the second Blaise answered Ash’s call. Fuck, Ash must be losing his damn mind right now.
“I’m following them now. He drove thr
ough the docks with her, he hasn’t been down here since you inducted him, so I knew something was up.”
Fuck me, the traitorous piece of shit must have driven like a psycho to get her down there that fast. He knows if I catch him he’s fucking dead and he’s right, my fingers are itching to slit him open. Slowly, and with great fucking glee.
Aodhan continues, the sounds of cars hooting and shouting coming through the phone loud and clear. “I saw him sling her over his shoulder to switch cars… Wolf, he got in with the Jackal. They’re heading for his territory, I’d say they’re going back to his vaults. I’ll go in after her, you have my word.”
He hangs up on me just as we arrive back at our room. I fling the door open, ready for the chaos and carnage Ash must have unleashed when he’d gotten out of the shower to find her gone.
Ash hasn’t destroyed the room.
He’s standing by the kitchen, staring at the photo Lance had taken of us all together that Avery loves so much. He doesn’t move when we come in, like he’s saying some prayer over her photo.
“We know where she is. Diarmuid took her, Aodhan is following them,” I say, and Harley starts throwing shit around as he grabs his guns and a leather jacket, suiting up for blood. The Crow tries calling me and I ignore it. There’s nothing he can do for me now.
Ash doesn’t speak, he just moves to strap his body with every single weapon Illi delivered to him, and then he perches on his bed with blank eyes. He watches me with the sort of intensity that chokes me up but I ignore all of that as I pull my clothes on.
I’ve been here before. I’ve lost someone like this before. I can get her back.
I just can’t think about what exactly might be happening to her right now. I can’t think about whether the Jackal has gotten his hands on her already because that’ll only make me reckless and I can’t be that right now.
I need to be as calm as Ash is. As sure as he is that we’re going to fucking fix this.
Blaise finishes up strapping his knives on and then he perches next to his best friend without a word, just a silent show of support. All in, ride or die. We’re going to do whatever it takes to get her
My phone starts buzzing again and I finally look at the fucking thing, only really to turn it off. The Boar’s phone number flashes at me. Fuck it, I pick it up.
“The Crow called so I heard you’ve lost your friend, kid. I’ve got info on her, a couple of guys heading over there to take stock, they were with the Stag when the Irish cock went past. The Crow is heading over here now, so stay calm and just head over—” I cut him the fuck off even as my vision goes fucking blood red in my rage at his nonchalant tone.
“Don’t fucking tell me to stay calm, my fucking sister has been taken. That’s what she is, she’s more to me than blood!” I scream down the phone, and the Boar just fucking lets me.
“I’ve sent someone else to watch her. There is nothing that could happen to her with him there. Nothing, Wolf,” he says, calm as anything and I try not to fucking scream at him again but, sweet lord fuck, it’s hard.
“I’m not really up for trusting anyone right now, Boar. The last person I trusted is the dead man walking who took her.”
The Boar grunts a little and I can hear him walking. He’s somewhere in the Bay, I hear a door swing shut behind him and the noise of the street turns into the raucous sounds of bikers. “The guy watching her is the guy who’s been sending you those packages. He walked into Beaumont manor and cut little Joey Beaumont’s head off while fifty or so of his father’s men were downstairs keeping watch. Did the same thing at the Lynx’s estate. You telling me you don’t think he can handle O’Cronin and D’Ardo? I promise you, he won’t let anything happen to your girl. Fuck, if I thought you were one to sit around I’d just get him to bring her home but we both know you’re already halfway out the door to her.”
I groan and let my head drop back against the wall. “Tell me who the fuck he is.”
He sighs and I hear him swallow. I know it’ll be whiskey and that makes something kind of break in my chest. “I think it’s better if you meet him. You two can talk things through after we get your girl back.”
He hangs up and then my phone lights up with a text from the Crow.
The Boar’s MC clubhouse. Now. We’re going in together. Be ready to end this, whatever it takes.
I argue with Harley about going to the clubhouse the entire way out to the car.
I get it, I want to head in there for her right the hell now but the Jackal knows we’re coming. Illi is going to meet us there, having been away at the safe house with Odie, and we can’t show up without the cavalry; we’d be dead and gone in under a fucking minute. Surprisingly, it’s Ash who agrees with me.
“We can’t save Avery if we’re dead. Just get in the fucking car.”
The rest of the trip is silent.
We arrive at the MC clubhouse and before I get out of the car Harley grabs my hand. I glance up to find him mulling over something in his head, a deep frown over his face.
“Everything is going to be fine. We are going to find Avery, we are going to find your uncle, and we are going to fix everything." My voice sounds so sure and fuck I wish I felt that sure.
He nods and says, "Diarmuid’s death is mine. Avery took me in after my parents died and she’s helped me with fucking everything, no questions asked. The O’Cronins only ever wanted a fucking puppet. An empty heir they could mold into the perfect leader they wanted. It doesn’t fucking matter that he left them, Diarmuid’s the exact same. He wanted me to prove a point and now that Liam’s dead, he just wants the fucking bounty taking Avery in will get him. Fuck the O’Cronins, I’m taking him out myself for touching her.”
I squeeze his hand back. “I would never take that right from you, but you’ll have to work it out with Ash. He’s going to need blood for this and I will also say, the Stag is turning out to be a decent enough kind of guy. Maybe the next generation won’t be so fucking bad.”
Harley grunts, not exactly agreeing with me. I slide out of the car and meet up with Ash and Blaise, who are both staring at the clubhouse like they’re about to raid it.
There is nothing human left on Ash’s face. I thought that would remind me of his father, or his brother, but it doesn't. All it does is remind me that we are perfect for each other because we won’t let anything happen to Avery. We will get her out because how the fuck can we not?
The biker at the door nods at me respectfully and lets us pass. I was expecting the place to be empty after the Jackal attacked but the walls are bursting with brawny bikers.
“There’s our fucking backup,” Blaise mutters, looking around like he’s afraid to catch a disease just from standing in the room.
I shrug. “As long as they know how to shoot, I don’t care what they look like.”
Harley rolls his shoulders back. “The fuck are we waiting for? Where’s that dickhead Crawford?”
As if summoned, he stalks out of the hallway the Boar had taken me down for our meeting, looking… well, like a pile of shit. Okay, so he’s still dressed in his usual suit and his hair still looks all perfectly trimmed but his face is all sorts of fucked up.
I feel a little less like gutting him.
The Boar walks over to him to take his side and face the room. The chatter dies down instantly, the respect for their Prez is a palpable thing. They start giving out the orders for how the night is going to go down, who is moving in where. None of it matters to me, I just need them in there shooting at the Jackal’s guys enough to slip past them all and find Aves.
Illi stalks in behind us, quietly clapping Ash on the back. Ash ignores it, doesn’t even acknowledge Illi is there but the Butcher doesn’t take offense. He just gives me a grimace.
“Sorry it took me so long.”
Harley shrugs. “We’ve just been standing around with our thumbs up our asses anyway, no big fucking deal.”
I roll my eyes and Blaise crosses his arms, staring the Crow down like he’s
planning on killing him for Ash. Fuck, I forget sometimes just how loyal he is. I need to get this over with before the whole lot of them start throwing themselves into danger to get her back.
If anyone is doing that, it’s me.
Illi starts huffing and grunting under his breath, entirely unimpressed with the plan of action. I am too but I trust my family to get the job done.
When he huffs again, loud enough that bikers around us turn to give him a look. I elbow him and whisper. “How obvious is it that he wasn't made for blood?"
Illi's dark chuckle is soft but I hear his answer well enough. "Good thing we were."
No truer words spoken in this shit-fest of a night.
I finally decide I cannot take any more and I grab Ash’s arm, tugging him out and back into the night air. I can’t stand to listen to anymore of the bullshit. The Crow finishes up as we leave, solidifying his bullshit plan. They aren’t going to be able to find the Jackal. None of them have been in there before except Luca, and I haven’t seen him anywhere so far.
It’s going to come down to me.
Illi takes his own car and we all pile back into the Cadillac. The drive is short enough, the MC might be out of the slums but it’s still straddling the line between there and the docks.
Blaise parks the car and we all step out, silent and fucking ready to face whatever the fuck is happening in that building. The roar of the motorcycles is deafening as dozens of men ride in, then the sleek black town cars of the Crow’s men park around us. I don’t bother paying any of them attention. I’m too busy looking at the mess the Jackal has made of this place.
There’s blood and bodies everywhere.
None of them are men.
For fuck’s sake.
“He always was a fucking psycho,” Illi murmurs, lighting up a cigarette as he walks over to me.