by K. T Fisher
“Where’s the blood from?” If Danni collapsed then why are Elle’s hands covered in blood.
Holly sinks to the ground beside Eve and Danni. She looks from her friend on the ground and up to me, her bottom lip trembling. “It’s her back. I think… I think someone stabbed her, Ink.”
What the fuck? None of this is making sense to me right now.
“Was she mugged?” I’m asking the question, yet know how stupid it sounds. This isn’t the big city. Yes, we’ve got a few areas that are rough but not the town center. The only time we’ve not felt our women were safe here was when we had all that trouble with Satan, but that shit’s over with.
“No.” Holly shakes her head and then breaks down. Her head is resting on Danni’s stomach as she cries.
Eve looks from Holly to me. Taking a calming breath. “It all happened so quickly. One minute we’re walking along, the next, this.” She looks so confused, and heartbroken. Elle still hasn’t stopped sobbing.
Cowboy has finished on the phone and is trying to comfort the girls. He sees me looking at him, and nods to confirm the others are on their way. I place my hand on Eve’s shoulder, trying to offer her some comfort as well as Elle. I feel pretty useless right now. Cowboy tries to pry Holly off Danni so he can get a better look, but she screams when he tries, so he leaves her too it. Shit, I don’t like seeing the girls like this at all.
It’s only a few moments until I hear the sirens. The cavalry has arrived.
***
Justice
Cowboy didn’t say much on the phone. He was pretty cryptic really, telling me shit had gone down and to get my ass to the tattoo shop now. As I race for my bike I see Prez and Angel and some of the other guys running for their bikes. I don’t know what the fuck has happened, but it must be bad for us all to be called in.
All the way over I mentally prepare myself for a fight. What else would it be?
As we park the bikes out front of the shop there’s a couple of police cars and an ambulance blocking the other side of the street. Looks like the troubles over there. Cowboy walks over to us, looking even more down than he has of late. Shit must be bad.
“Justice.” He pauses in front of me. Angel and Prez exchange a look I don’t understand. “I’m sorry man.”
Why is Cowboy apologizing to me? What’s he done?
He puts his arm on my shoulder as we start to walk towards the scene. I don’t understand.
“Gabe!” Eve shrieks, spotting her old man and throwing herself at him. What’s Eve doing in the middle of all this?
I look to where Eve just came running from and see the ambulance guys placing a covered body in the back of the ambulance. Ink is there with a hysterical Elle wrapped tight in his arms. I freeze when I see Holly. What’s happening here? Who’s in the ambulance?
Holly looks up at me, and her eyes are full of pain. She’s doesn’t seem to be hysterical like Elle, or even sobbing like Eve is in Angel’s arms. She has dirty tear tracks down her cheeks telling me that she has been crying, but now she’s silent. If anything she looks numb. Slowly I make my way over to her.
“What… what happened Holly?” Her doe like eyes move from the ambulance to my face. Her mouth open and closes as she tries to get words out but fails.
Ink moves closer, supporting Elle in his arms. Fuck. Why is Ink looking at me like that?
“Justice man. I’m so sorry.” Now that’s Cowboy and Ink, why are they sorry? What the fuck is going on here?
“What the fuck is going on, Ink?” I ignore the flinching of Elle and Holly. “Cowboy rang me and told me to get my ass down here but no one’s told me why?” I get in his face.
“Danni’s dead.” The words are barely audible as Holly utters them softly.
“What?” I snap my head around to her; sure I’ve heard her wrong.
Holly sinks to the ground, unable to continue. I sit beside her, wrapping her in the comfort of my arms and turn her face to me. “What’s happened, Hols?” I ask, as gently as I can.
She looks to be in shock. One of the ambulance guys walks over and puts a blanket around her. It’s clear he wants to check her over, but I ask for a moment. He moves away to give us a little room.
“Hols, talk to me, babe. What the fuck happened?”
“It was so quick.” She murmurs. “We were walking Emma to work. Someone stumbled into Danni. Then she’s on the ground. Gone.” Holly looks to the spot in front of the café where I assume this happened. My heart drops when I see the blood on the ground. “They are saying she was stabbed, Justice.” As she says the words the last threads of her composure break, and her body heaves with sobs. “Danni girl has left me.”
It’s only been a few minutes since we arrived, but it feels like this is all happening in slow motion. I nod to the paramedic, allowing him in to check out Holly. As he reaches for her she screams, she won’t let go of me. Cowboy helps release me and stays by her side as I go see if I can figure this shit out. I’m fucking praying to God that what I heard from Holly isn’t real, but the dread filling my body tells me otherwise.
Prez has been talking to one of the uniformed officers; he shakes his hand then walks over to me. “Justice, you okay man?”
Am I okay? This is all happening too quickly. Too quick for me to digest. Looking at my Uncle Bill it hits me; I fight to keep my emotions hidden. I need to be a man, and find out what exactly fucking happened. I need to find Danni. Although I’m pretty fucking sure I know where wshe is.
“I don’t understand all this shit, Prez. What the fuck has happened here?” I look up at him.
He points to Emma sitting alone on the coffee shop front steps. “The girls had a coffee with Emma this morning. They were walking her over to Ink’s shop when it looks like someone stabbed Danni from behind. The officer says it was real quick, professional.” He hesitates before saying the next words. “She’s dead. Fuck man, Danni’s dead.”
I angrily run my hands through my hair. “Why?” I ask harshly. I’m not addressing the question at anyone in particular, I’m asking the fucking universe. “This shit doesn’t make sense Prez! Who the fuck would want to kill Danni? Everyone fucking loved her.” My breath hitches, and I cover my mouth, closing my eyes I try to get a hold of myself.
“We don’t know.” Prez sighs, shaking his head. He looks around the normally quiet street, which is packed with onlookers. His eyes are alert, watching for anything suspicious.
“Is this down to the club?” I take a step closer to him. “Is this because of me, Prez?” My question comes out as a whisper, but he doesn’t know. I can see it in the way he stands, looking almost defeated. My uncle’s a strong man. This is the first time I’ve ever seen any weakness in him. Fuck, he’s president of Severed MC. He’s like a God to me. Being part of an MC we’re used to death, we’re used to dealing with some pretty tough shit. The club’s just been through hell as it is. But, Danni’s not part of this life. Not really. I drove her away from her home; I brought her into the club. Guilt starts to eat at me. Is Danni dead because of me? Did her death have anything to do with me?
The ambulance doors close, the sound bringing me back from my thoughts. I watch as it drives away, as Danni goes further away from me. Holly starts to cry again. I look over at my broken sister, crying in the arms of an awkward looking Cowboy. The police are still questioning witnesses. Someone must have seen something. A woman doesn’t just get stabbed in the street and no one sees anything.
I quickly make my way back to Holly. “Tell me again what happened?” She flinches at the angry tone in my voice.
“Justice, let’s get the girls back to the compound. They need to get away from here. They can tell us what happened then.” Prez orders from behind me. Agreeing, I hold out my hand for her to take. But she stays in Cowboy’s arms, looking at me warily. Shit, I’ve scared her. Prez holds his hand out to her, and she takes that instead.
“Holly, you come with me.” He offers.
We’re leading the girls back to
our bikes when Elle stops suddenly, breaking free of Ink’s hold and running back to the coffee shop.
“Emma! Emma!” She calls as she runs over to the hunched figure on the steps. I feel bad as I look over at her. We’ve all been so busy worrying about our girls, that she’s been ignored. She’s sat hugging her knees and looking vacant. Out of everyone, it’s Elle who runs up to her. I hope to fuck she’s not going to bitch slap her again. It wouldn’t exactly be appropriate right now.
Emma looks up as Elle reaches her, holding out her hand. “Emma, you’re coming with us.”
Emma shakes her head slowly. “I can’t.” She looks so small and defeated. “This is my fault. It’s all my fault.”
Elle stands her ground, looking a little more like the tough cookie I know her to be. “Don’t talk crap, Emma.” She looks around, realizing that we’ve all come on our bikes. “Justice, can Emma ride back with you?”
Emma gasps at the suggestion, watching me with wide eyes.
“Yeah, sure.” Holly is riding back with Prez, so I have room on my bike.
I’ve never had a woman other than Holly on my bike before, not even Danni. I cringe as more guilt eats away at me at the realization. I really didn’t treat Danni very well. I’m a fucking prick!
Emma reluctantly stands to walk over to me, and Elle wraps her in a hug. Again, what the fuck is happening around here?
Am I in an alternate dimension or something here? Nothing about this morning is making any sense to me. Last thing I knew, Elle hated her.
I’ll never fucking understand women.
Chapter Eighteen
Justice
After making sure that the women are safe and settled, and they’ve stopped their hysterical crying, Prez calls us all to his office. He sits behind his desk, scratching at his stubble. He looks as confused as the rest of us. Silently, he looks around at us all, when his gaze reaches me in the corner he stops. I don’t like the sadness and pity that I see in his eyes. It makes me feel like I’m about to explode, and until I step out of this room, I can’t allow myself to do that.
“What the fuck happened?” He asks us, but none of us have an answer.
“It wasn’t like Danni had any threats against her.” Angel is the first to speak.
“She didn’t have any enemies that I know of.” Cowboy looks even worse than he did this morning, all this shit is destroying him.
“Yeah, everyone liked her.” Angel says calmly.
Everyone nods in agreement, and my anger erupts.
“It doesn’t fucking matter if she was loved or not! The fact is she’s dead. We need to find the fucker who did this, and deal with him.” I take a deep breath as they all look at me. I can’t look at them, they’re all wearing the same sympathetic expression as Prez and it’s killing me.
“That’s what we’re here for.” Angel stands beside me, and slaps me on the shoulder. “We’ll sort this out. You have my word.”
I look up at him, managing a tiny smile. I believe him.
From the way he suddenly becomes alert I can tell Cowboy has thought of something. His eyes are bright. “Fuck! Holly told me she’s spotted Ted hanging around.”
My body tenses. “When was this?”
“When we found her by the ambulance. She said she’d seen him the night she arrived here. She thought she must have been mistaken, so didn’t say anything, but then she said she thought she saw him again this morning, watching from a car as they went in the coffee shop.”
Anger takes over at the thought of that fucker coming here, and hurting my sister. Why the fuck didn’t she tell me?
“Ted?” Prez asks as he looks at me. “Is this the piece of shit who hurt my niece? The one you and Cowboy dealt with?”
I nod. “Sure is.” How the fuck did Prez know we’d dealt with him?
Cowboy chuckles. “Looks like he lived then.” If I weren’t so relieved at seeing him smile after all this time, I‘d have snapped at him. This isn’t funny. Ted might be here on the hunt for my sister Holly.
“Wait.” Ink interrupts. “You don’t think this guy could have something to do with Danni’s death do you?”
Shit! I hadn’t thought of that.
My body tenses. I want that little ‘piss his pants’ pansy in front of me, so I can bleed the life out of him. If he had anything to do with this, I’ll make that fucker pay with his life this time.
Prez looks over at me. “What do you think?”
“Did anyone ask the girls what happened?” Cowboy queries.
“Elle is making no sense at all.” Ink shakes his head.
“Eve just said they were all walking to the shop together when it happened.”
I look over at Angel. “Were those her exact words?”
“Well, shit Justice. I don’t know!” His tone is full of anger.
“I need to know.” I shout at him.
“Justice!” Prez roars, trying to bring me back down. I’m about to lose my shit, and he knows it.
I turn to my uncle. “What? If Ted wants to harm Holly, he might have decided to do it through her best friend, or he could have killed Danni by mistake, meaning...”
“Holly was the target.” Prez finishes for me.
I let out a long breath, desperately trying to hold back my emotions. That is a possibility. This could be Ted, looking to take out his vengeance on my sister. Deliberate or mistake, he killed Danni. Her death has hurt Holly, and every member of Severed as well.
I just wish Holly had told me the first time she thought she saw him. Why didn’t she tell me today, why did she tell Cowboy instead?
“I agree.” Angel speaks up. “This Ted guy seems like the only person who’d have a reason to hurt Danni.”
Prez stands. “Everyone else agree?” Everyone in the room does. “Then we call Church and we decide what to do about this fucker.” He calmly states.
“Justice, stay behind.” Prez demands, as everyone else starts to leave his office.
When we’re alone he walks around his desk, he may be the president of Severed MC, but right now he’s just my uncle.
“I think you need to take a step back from this one.”
“What?” What the fuck is he talking about? There’s no way I’m stepping back on this.
“Listen Jack.” He starts, and I know he’s deadly serious. He never uses my real name. “I know you want to find him, and hand out your own punishment, but this is a club matter now. This affects us all. I think you need to let me handle this. You shouldn’t have gone rogue on him last time.”
I stand my ground. “No fucking way! She’s my sister; I need to take care of this. It could have been her; we’re lucky it wasn’t. It was Danni instead. She didn’t deserve this. I should be the one to deal with this. Holly’s my sister and Danni was my girl.” I protest. He just shakes his head. His word is final.
I’m so angry right now I want to hit him, instead I storm out of the office. I don’t look at anyone as I pass. I need to get back to my room, and be alone.
Chapter Nineteen
Emma
I can’t quite get my head around what’s happened. It feels like some horrible nightmare and I’m hoping that I will wake from it soon. I also can’t get away from this overpowering feeling of guilt. If the girls hadn’t been walking me over to the shop they wouldn’t have been there. They’d have been off doing whatever else they had planned, and Danni would still be here. Out of everyone I know, she’s the last person to deserve this.
When I saw Justice outside the coffee shop, my guilt deepened. Danni was his girl, for all his protests. I saw the way her face lit up when she spoke about him in the coffee shop. I’d decided then that I wouldn’t come between them, no matter how much I was tempted. I am still tempted. He’s got the hottest body I’ve ever seen. There’s just something about him. Don’t get me wrong. It was hot as fuck sleeping with Ink, but I’ve got a feeling that it would be better with Justice. There’s something about him that draws me in. Shit. I can’t think th
oughts like this. Not now. Not with Danni dead.
The memories from this morning play like a movie on repeat in my mind. One minute we’re all laughing about something stupid, a lipstick color or some crap like that I think. Then everything happened so quickly. Danni muttered something about whoever bumped into her being rude, and then suddenly she’s on the ground. Dead.
I’ve never seen anyone die before, and I don’t want to see it again. She didn’t even know what happened. Just before she slumped to the ground, she gave us her beautiful smile and laughed as she made a comment about her unknown attacker. The smile quickly fell from her face as the pain hit her, and that quickly she was taken from us.