“You okay dear?” he asked, probably wondering if I was actually some sort of insane woman by that point.
“Yes, I’m sorry,” I replied, extending my hand to shake his. “This is all just… kind of overwhelming right now.”
“I can understand that. That’s why you’re here. I can take that all off your shoulders so you don’t have to deal with it.”
“Sounds good,” a little wave of relief washed over me. “I just want someone who can help Beast get him out of this mess he’s in.”
“I’ll do whatever I can. I assume you brought the money?”
I took the small duffel bag that I was carrying and sat it down on his desk, unzipping it so he could see the cash inside. One by one, he removed the stacks of cash, counting it all to make sure it was all there. I started to tell him that I’d already done that for him but I stopped myself once I realized how ridiculous that would sound. I mean, I know I’m a trustworthy person but he doesn’t have a clue who I am. On top of that, he deals with the lowest common denominators of society on a regular basis as part of his career. That alone is probably enough to make him trust almost no one.
“Looks like it’s all here. Why don’t we go into the conference room and get started.”
We left his office and walked into an adjacent room. This room also had the frosted glass door and windows, but inside was a large conference table with six people seated at it. Each had a yellow legal pad and ink pad in front of them, and they were all staring at me.
“I think this one is already in use,” I said as I quickly turned around, running right into the attorney.
“No, this is where we’re supposed to be. This is my team that I’ve hand selected to work with us on this. When I take on a case, I like to hit it hard. My team helps me do that.”
We sat down before the attorney asked me all sorts of questions. He was surprised that there was a lot I didn’t really know about Beast. I left out the fact that I had just met him on the cruise ship. I didn’t think it was relevant to what we were doing. Once he had all the information he needed, he excused his team and walked me to the front door.
“I’m going to do what I can to find this guy,” he said. “I’m going to hire a few of my best investigators and see if we can’t chase this snake out of the grass. He’s not going to want to come out, though, because he knows if the biker’s get to him before the law does, he’s as good as dead.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, but he was bold enough to be at a gas station just a week after he was supposedly killed.”
“That’s very true. But that’s also before he knew Beast was back in town. Seeing him probably spooked him. I just want to give you a fair expectation of what might happen. An outlaw on the run is hard to track. Look at how long the cops have been looking for your old man.”
I thanked Mr. Retter for his time and walked back to my car. As I walked in the parking lot, I reflected on something he had said. He made a comment about the cops looking for my old man. I couldn’t believe it. It was the first time I had heard Beast being referred to as my old man and I loved the sound of it. It was something I wanted to hear again and again.
My plan was to rush over to Ashley’s house as quickly as I could to fill Beast in on what happened but I couldn’t wait. I knew he was probably on edge wondering what was going on so I wanted to give him with an update right away. I tried calling him, but he didn’t pick up. Immediately, I called Ashley’s phone.
“Hello?” she said, clearly out of breath.
“Hey Ashley. I just got out of the lawyer’s office. Is this a bad time?”
“No, it’s fine. The Kirby salesman was just knocking on the door and Samantha thought it would be a great idea to let him in.”
“Oh no, how did you get rid of him?”
“I just told him that I have a very jealous, very large boyfriend that would be home any minute. He took the hint and took off. What’s up?”
“I’m coming over right now but it’ll be a couple hours before I get there. I just got out of the lawyer’s office and tried calling Beast, but he didn’t answer. He’s probably on the other line talking to the club or something.”
I spent the next 20 minutes going over what the lawyer said and what it would mean for the case going forward. She was jotting notes down so she would remember it all. I told her that I would see her in a bit and started to hang up the phone when she stopped me.
“Hey wait. Before you go, I really need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“I wanted you to know that I don’t think your boyfriend is going to be able to stay here much longer. I can’t help but feel that this whole thing is putting my kids in danger. I looked it up on the Internet and I can get in a lot of trouble if I’m caught harboring a fugitive. That is, of course, if some bikers don’t find out where he is first and come shooting up my house. I can’t have that Paige, I really can’t.”
“I know Ashley. I understand. I feel bad about putting you in this situation but you’re the only person I can trust. This attorney that I hired today really knows what he’s doing. If everything goes well, he’ll be out of your basement before you know it.”
“I hope so.”
The truth was, I hoped so too, but I had my doubts. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this guy was going to be hard to find. I was trying to stay positive but maybe we were fighting a losing battle.
CHAPTER 19
BEAST
The broad upstairs was talking on the phone a little louder than she probably thought she was. She must have been on the phone with Paige because she was freaking out about how much trouble she could get in if anyone found out I was in her basement. Well no fucking shit! Did she think that I hadn’t thought about the same things? If I got caught, I’d be going straight to the county jail to await trial. There’s no way they’d set a bail amount for me that anyone would be able to come up with. That didn’t really matter anyway. Those fucking Aces have so many people going in and out of county, I’m sure I’d be dead within the first week. That’s why setting this shit right was so important to me. I’d never even make it to my fucking trial. Even if they put me in solitary, they’d still find some way to get to me.
I was just settling down on the couch to check out the news on my laptop when the chick who owned the place started coming down the stairs. I wanted to say something about announcing herself but then I realized it’s her fucking house and she can go wherever she wants.
“Hey, Paige just called. She wanted me to fill you in on what happened up in Tucson.”
Ashley sat down on the couch and gave me a basic rundown of what Paige had told her over the phone. She said there was actually a lot more to it than what she was saying but Paige wanted to be able to explain it all to me in person. I thanked her for letting me know and she went back upstairs. Throughout the conversation, it was clear that she despised having me in her basement.
The wait to find out what was happening with the attorney was excruciating. I knew that Paige was on her way but it would be a couple of hours before she got there. To pass some of the time, I put in a call to the president to see what was going on with the club and to let him know what little bit of information I had so far.
“What’s the good news, Stone?” I asked as soon as he picked up the phone.
“No good news, brother. I’m busy planning a funeral at the moment. Those fuckers got to Womp last night. Broke into his house in the middle of the night and shot him while he was sleeping like the bunch of pussies they are. His wife and kids heard every fucking thing,” he replied, struggling to keep his emotions in check.
“What the fuck? Who is they?”
“Who the fuck do you think Beast? It was the fucking Aces. This was a very clear message. They know you’re around and they know we’re onto them. This was a fucking warning to us to back off.”
“Motherfucker!” I balled my fist and punched a hole in the concrete wall. “They think th
is is going to make us back off? I’m going to kill those slimy assholes myself!”
“The fuck you are! Are you fucking retarded, Beast? Don’t you think that’s exactly what they’re hoping for? If they can draw you out into the open, they’ll either kill you or have you locked up. Either way, they fucking win. You’re just gonna stay right where you are until this shit blows over.”
He had a point. The worst thing I could possibly do would be to show my face in public. It didn’t matter how pissed off I was or how my need for revenge was going to eat at me. I had to have faith that my club would be able to handle things in my absence. That was easy to do. My family was filled with my brothers who would do whatever they had to to bring those assclowns to justice. It just irritated me to know that I wouldn’t be there to see it.
Just because I couldn’t be there in person didn’t mean I couldn’t take part in planning what we should do to the Aces. In fact, I had a brilliant fucking idea. I already knew where we could find some of the Aces quickly. Assuming they weren’t just there for a short time, there were at least a couple members taking up residence in my house. No doubt they were hoping that I would sneak into the house where they could use the element of surprise to ambush me. They had no clue that I was already onto them.
If we were going to make any progress on getting to the bottom of the situation we found ourselves in, we needed to get to the president of the Aces. The problem was, he was so far underground that only a few of his guys even knew where he was. That was total bullshit as he was supposed to be their leader. Leaders don’t fucking hide when shit gets rough. They stand up for their club. Not this guy, though and that says a lot about his character. In order to get to him, we were going to have to go to more extreme measures.
“I’ve got a fucking idea, Stone,”I said. “We need to get their president out in the open so he can feel how real all this heat is. Once he feels the heat, he might turn over like the pussy he is.”
“I’ve already thought of that. Nobody can find the bastard. Trust me, we’ve been looking.”
“Hear me out, we already know these cocksuckers are in my house. Why don’t you have the prospects watch my place from a distance for a while and let you know what the police activity is like. Figure out when they’re coming and going. Hell, they may not even be watching the house at all now since my face is all over TV. Have them watch and report back to the club.”
“I can do that. What do you suggest we do after that?”
“Well, if there ain’t no pigs watching the place, send as many of the boys into my house as you can and take whoever is inside. Don’t kill them unless you absolutely have to. They’ll be much more valuable to everyone alive. Grab them as quick as you can and get them out of there, take them to that old pole barn off of Old State Road and hold them there. Once you have them, put the word out to the Aces that the only way they come back alive is if their president shows his face and starts fucking talking.”
“Beast, I like the way you think brother. I’ll start putting it together. Stay by your phone. I’ll call you back in a bit.”
After setting my phone down on the table, I looked up to see Paige standing there smiling at me. That smile quickly turned to a look of concern as she looked down to see my hand badly swollen and bleeding.
“What in the hell happened to you?” she asked, realizing she’d already answered her question when she saw the wall.
“Just got some bad news from Stone. The Aces got to our treasurer and murdered him in cold blood. All of it’s my fucking fault. They’re trying to flush me out in the open so they can get to me.”
“Shit babe, I’m so sorry. I’m sure it’s club business now so you can’t talk about it and that’s fine. I just want you to know that I’m here for you if you need to talk. Let me take care of that hand for you and let you know about the visit with the attorney today.”
Paige went upstairs and grabbed a first aid kit, a baggie, a towel and some ice for my hand. As she cleaned me up, she told me all about what the lawyer had told her and what he was going to try to do to help prove my innocence. She seemed hopeful after the meeting but I wasn’t quite so sure. If my club wasn’t able to find out where this scumbag was, I had serious doubts that anyone working for an attorney would be able to force that weasel out of whatever hole he was hiding in. I couldn’t dwell on that, though. It was out of my hands. Everything was out of my fucking hands and I didn’t like that. I’m very much a hands on person and all I wanted to do was lay my hands on any member of that piece of shit club I could find.
The whole situation with Womp had my head all kinds of fucked up and Paige could tell. She didn’t say anything because she knew that anything she said wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Instead, she put her arms around and pulled me in close to her, allowing me to rest my head on her shoulder. I didn’t realize it before that moment, but it was exactly what I had needed.
A few hours later the phone rang and it was Stone on the other line. He had talked with a few of the guys about the best way to handle the situation. He was going to bring up my idea to everyone at church the following afternoon and they would vote on how to proceed. Even though I was on the run, I was still a fully patched member of the club and I was going to be allowed to vote by proxy. Stone already knew exactly what my vote was.
Paige hung around as long as she could before she finally had to get back home. As much as I wanted her to stay with me and keep her as close as I could, I knew that wasn’t possible. I was already asking so much of her with all the bullshit that I drug her into. The least I could do is allow her to keep what little bit of a normal life she still had left away from me.
CHAPTER 20
PAIGE
I’ve often heard it said that no news is good news but that sure didn’t feel like the case to me. Every day that went by without a call or update from the attorney made me more anxious. I thought back to a lot of the crime shows that I’ve watched over the years and tried to replay some of the harder cases in my head. How did they find these criminals? However they did it, I was hoping his attorney would be using all the same tricks, and then some. Worst case scenarios plagued my mind as I thought about all the trouble he’d be in if they didn’t find the alleged murder victim who was able to phone in an anonymous tip. Anonymous tip, my ass!
I felt so bad for Beast. He must have been going crazy in Ashley’s basement. He would never tell me that but he didn’t have to. I could see it in his face. He felt trapped, and he really was when you think about it. He may not have been in the custody of law enforcement but he wasn’t free. He was merely being held prisoner in a basement instead of a jail cell. Sure, he had the ability to leave whenever he wanted but it wasn’t like he could get far. His face and hair are very unique; he would be spotted very quickly, especially with how much his face has been plastered all over the news. His only choice was to sit and wait.
When the lawyer finally called, I fumbled with the phone so much that I dropped it on the floor. I was physically shaking as I prepped myself for what he was about to tell me.
“Please tell me you have some good news for me,” I said as soon as I was able to hit the talk button on my cell phone.
“Actually, there are some things I need to discuss with you. How quickly can you make it into my office?” he asked, his tone somber.
“Is everything okay? Can’t you just tell me now?”
“This would really be better discussed in person. I’ll be here all afternoon. It would probably be best if you came right now.”
“Okay, I’ll head right over.”
None of this sounded good at all. It reminded me of when you have tests done at a doctor’s office. If the results of the test are good, they’ll usually call you up and tell you. If the results are bad, however, you seem to get that dreaded phone call asking you to come in and discuss them with your physician. That’s what the conversation felt like to me.
As I hung up the phone, I couldn’t help but feel defeated
. Something must have gone extremely wrong. I wanted to call him back and ask to him to at least give me a hint as to what he was talking about but I realized that it wouldn’t do any good. I’d either annoy him, or sound like a babbling idiot.
I got dressed and into the car as fast as I could. There was a nauseous feeling in my stomach that was only made worse by the heat inside the car. I cranked up the air conditioning as high as it would go but it was no use. Anxiety was getting the best of me. There were several times on the trip where I had to pull over on the side of the highway because I thought I was going to get sick. Fortunately, I never did.
BEAST (A Coyotes of Mayhem MC Novel) (Motorcycle Club Bad Boy Romance) Page 11