by Nikki Groom
“You okay?” Sadie asks as she stands in front of me. I was in such deep thought I didn’t even feel her get off the bike.
“Yeah,” I say, forcing a smile. I jump off and adjust my gun in my waistband before unclipping the helmet and lifting it from her head. I watch her closely as she shakes her hair out and pushes it back from her face. That’s a sight I could get lost in a thousand times over.
“Thanks for keeping me safe.” She smiles, tilting her head in such a way that it makes her look young and innocent. There’s far more in that head of hers than innocence, but I’m still certain she’s too good for me. Hell, she is innocent in comparison to the life I’m dragging her into.
The clubhouse door slams, diverting my attention as I see JJ striding towards me with thunder in his eyes.
“Fuck,” I mumble. “Okay. Darlin’. I got shit to do.”
“Um, aren’t you forgetting something?” She taps her foot impatiently.
“What?”
“You might have taken me for something to eat, and sweet-talked me a little, but you still owe me wheels.”
“Wheels,” I muse, aware of JJ approaching to my left.
“Ramsey,” he barks.
“JJ.” I turn towards him, turning my back on Sadie but not to ignore her. I’m shielding her from his wrath. “I know what you’re going to say.” I hold a hand up to stop him, but he pushes hard at my chest, and I stumble backward, catching Sadie off balance and knocking her to the ground. As I right myself, I’m torn between knocking him the fuck out or helping her up, but she’s on her feet as fast as a cat, so I lunge at JJ with my fists clenched and loaded, ready to knock his head clean off his shoulders. Ruck dives between us, pushing us apart with his hands on our chests, then Tex and Dev are there, making sure the situation is diffused quickly. I glance back over my shoulder at Sadie to check that she’s okay, just in time to see Dev placing his hand on her shoulder. “DON’T,” I yell, louder than intended and pushing myself between them. “Leave her.”
“Okay, man.” He holds his hands up but stands nearby.
“Ramsey, get your ass to the table right now,” JJ orders, narrowing his eyes at Sadie before walking away. “Send the girl away.”
“I’m sorry, man,” Ruck says. “He’s pissed. He got a call, bawled Tex and me out. We had to tell him about The Wolves in the cabin. You should’a told him before we were forced to. I fuckin’ hate all these secrets.”
He hates all the shit that goes with being an outlaw, but he’s so far gone that he’d climb the fucking walls if he were a civvy with a nine-to-five.
“I know. I’m sorry, bro, I’ll smooth it all over, okay?” I pat his cheek with my palm and hold his gaze. He nods with a sigh, with the look of a lost little boy in his eyes. I just need to sort all the shit with The Wolves, and we can go back to how things used to be. I can try and fix whatever brokenness is going on with him.
I take Sadie’s hand and brush past Dev. I don’t know why I don’t trust him around her. Maybe it’s because I know what a fucking animal he is. If he so much as touches her...
“You’re hurting my hand,” Sadie says, wiggling her fingers under my now vice-like grip as I walk her across the yard.
“Shit.” I shake my head. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on?” she asks as innocently as she would ask the weather.
I laugh, “You really, really don’t want to know.”
“Are you in danger?” She stops walking and tightens her grip on my hand, pulling back so I have to stop too.
“Danger?” I ask, and she nods. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t in danger.”
“Oh.” She drops her gaze to the ground between us. “Can I help?”
“You? Why? Why would you want to help me? I mean, in your words, I totaled your car and kidnapped you.”
“Well, yeah I guess you did do those things, but …”
I step toward her and brush her hair from her face. “If you had any sense in that pretty little head of yours, you would run far, far away from here, from me, and never look back.”
“Yeah, well,” she shrugs. “I never was one to heed advice.”
“Look, I got a whole heap of shit to sort out, come here.” I lead her over to my van and open the door for her to get in.
“What’s this?”
“You’re asking me what this is?” I chuckle. “Maybe you really don’t have any sense in that head of yours.” She frowns at me, and I laugh. “Okay, don’t get caught speeding, drunk driving or anything else that draws attention to you while you’re driving my van.” I put the keys in the ignition and step back to close the door.
“This is your van?” she says, resting her elbow on the open window.
“Yes, Einstein, this is my van.”
“You don’t need it?”
“I wouldn’t give it to you if I did.” I press a hard, swift kiss to her lips and leave her gasping for breath as I pull away. “Keep it until I can get your car fixed up,” I say, scratching the side of my head as I know there’s very little chance of mending the Camaro, but also knowing that there’s no way I’ll wait any length of time to see her and by her having my van, I have the perfect reason to see her again. “Oh,” I call out just before the door clicks shut, “try not to kill anyone, okay?”
“I’ll try.” She winks and fires up the engine.
I watch her drive out of the gates, shaking my head and steeling myself for what’s to come inside. I should have thought it all through more. But hey, shit’s happened and we just gotta deal with it.
“And you thought it would be a good idea to bundle two of The Wolves into your van, take them to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and you thought you could do all of this without anyone on their crew noticing?” JJ’s voice raises an octave, and his face turns beet red as he jabs an accusatory finger at me. I was prepared for this. I knew he would be pissed, but JJ knows the score, he trusts me, I think, and he knows that we have to make our voices loud to be heard.
“Stop being a dick, JJ. You know they needed a hard warning. You know they needed to be pushed so we could see how they’d handle it.” I sit forward in my chair, imploring him to understand. “These furry fuckers will go back to Rev with a warning. They’ll know we’re not to be messed with, and we’ll be ready for them should they be stupid enough to retaliate. We’re a big, bad, motherfucking army, JJ.”
“And when were you going to tell me about it?” He throws down a pack of cigarettes and his silver Zippo lighter which spins across the shiny surface of the table, then leans back in his seat with a slow blink, knowing I’m right, folding his arms across his chest and still looking pissed as hell. “You wanna take a good hard look at that patch on your cut, boy. ‘Cos last time I looked, I was the president of this damn club.”
“I wasn’t gonna make any more decisions without telling you about it sometime today. I just knew I had to get them roped up and ready to fuck with. They make that run two days a week, same time, same route. I’ve watched them. When you’re tucked up with your old lady and Dev’s worn out from making some poor girl scream all night, I’m out there, watching and waiting. So don’t you dare fucking tell me I’m not acting in the club’s best interests.” I bang my palms on the table, and he raises his brows.
“I never said that,’ he warns, sitting straighter.
“You might as well have.”
“Don’t put words in my fucking mouth,” he roars, mirroring my stance, his face up in mine. “You’re vice president, not the president. You make decisions like that again that without consulting me, I’ll be stripping that patch and cutting the ink from your body myself. It’s a privilege, Ramsey. Don’t fucking forget it.”
I sigh, bowing my head. I know he’s right. I shouldn’t have made the call without him. “Fine,” I mumble by way of apology. “It won’t happen again.”
He sits back in his chair, nodding his acceptance. “So what’s the plan now?” he asks, and I grin.
“I take you up to the cabin.”
“What about the girl?” He tilts his head curiously. I wondered when he’d start asking for more info, but I’m not ready to give him any just yet.
“What about the girl?” I ask with a shrug of my shoulders, picking up the zippo and mindlessly flicking it open and shut.
“Well.” He stretches his arms and rubs his palms the length of his thighs. “She’s not just a whore, is she?” He narrows his eyes just a fraction and studies my reaction to his words.
I immediately feel defensive of her. “No,” I grit out. “She is not a whore.”
“Then she’s a distraction,” he states.
“She’s not a distraction, either!” I raise my voice, frustrated that he just won’t let it go.
“Okay, fair enough. You know the score, Ram.” He pins me with a hard, knowing stare. “But two words … Donny Carden.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I toss the lighter on the table, and it spins towards JJ. “He was a filthy fucking child molester, and he got what he should have had coming a long time ago.”
“Did he molest your girl?” he asks quietly.
“No,” I reply.
“Then what does it have to do with her?”
“Nothing,” I sigh. “I don’t fully know.” My answer seems to be enough for now though as JJ is silent and chews on his thumbnail considering my reply carefully.
“You know how I feel about distractions, Ram.”
“I know,” I answer, feeling a little pissed off that he can have Lia, but he always warns us off making a commitment to a woman. Not that there’s ever been anyone that I’ve wanted to pursue, but I want to have the freedom to make my own choices. Despite living as a family, and having all the guys around me as brothers, there’s a void, a black hole, when you crave something you’ve never had, that others seem to have all around you, but you’re on the outside of their perfect little lives, looking in through the smeary glass, wishing you had someone, a family of your own. “You have Lia,” I throw at him without thinking, frustration and bitterness tingeing my words.
“And she’s the fucking biggest distraction in my life,” he answers with certainty. “I put that woman before everything. I would lay down my life for her in a heartbeat—she is my heartbeat, Ramsey. Can’t you see how that makes a man vulnerable? Can’t you see how much of a burden that is on me, on my mind? I worry about her safety in this life, day in and day out. She’s a bigger target than me because more painful than ripping out my heart, they know it would hurt me longer and harder to rip out hers.” His voice cracks with emotion and anger that he let himself become so vulnerable, especially after what happened to him in his past, but also because the tension and the heightening threat of The Wolves that’s been hanging over us lately. That’s why he is so pissed off at me for my move with The Wolves boys in the cabin. Not only did I put us at risk, I put Lia and all the other old ladies at risk too.
“I get it.” I nod. If I’m feeling a fraction of the way he feels about Lia, I now understand completely.
“Right.” He stands abruptly, flexing his knuckles. “Let’s go sort this shit out.”
Tex yanks up the handbrake and slides sideways to a halt in the dust outside the cabin. “You’re such a child,” Ruck teases.
“Whatever,” Tex retorts, smacking Ruck in the chest with the back of his hand.
JJ checks the guns and knife he always has strapped to his leg.
“You’re not going to need any of those in here, man. They’re secure, pretty sore, and they’re not going anywhere in a hurry, unless we take them there,” I say.
“Always be ready, Ramsey,” he tells me seriously. “How do you know that they’re still there? How do you know their bastard friends haven’t found them and are waiting to fill us all with bullets as we cross the threshold?”
“Because, Prez, no one knows this place is here, and there are no fresh tracks leading up to the cabin, so …”
“Okay, smartass, let’s go,” JJ orders, flinging open the door of Tex’s truck and jumping out.
I enter first, even though I’ve paid close attention to the surroundings and it doesn’t look like there are new tracks, that doesn’t stop me from heeding JJ’s wisdom and being aware and playing it cautiously. I push the door open, with one hand on the handle and one on my gun. I look to the room down the corridor where we left them and see exactly what I wanted to see. Two Wolves, still bound, still at our mercy. Ruck stays on the front porch to keep watch, and we advance. As I enter the room and they look up at me, I smile. It smells of piss and fear, and that feels like a small, early victory.
“Hi, boys,” I say, grabbing Spice by the jaw and forcing his head from side to side, inspecting him. “You good?” He breathes heavily through his nose but doesn’t react otherwise.
Tex crouches in front of Dago, tilting his head, eyeing his bandaged face and dried blood trails that run down his neck. He holds his silence for just a moment before talking in a quiet, controlled manner. “Now, you’re going to tell us what your Prez has planned, and we’re going to let you go home with all of your limbs. Well,” he glances down to Dago’s ear on the floor beside him, “nearly all of your body parts, anyway. So you can tell all of your friends to back off and retreat to the hole that you all climbed out of, okay?” Dago turns his head away, angling it up and effectively sticking two fingers up at Tex. If there’s one thing Tex doesn’t like, it’s bad manners. JJ chuckles from the doorway, leaning into the frame and letting Tex take the lead.
“I’d really recommend you cooperate with this man,” JJ warns Dago as Tex stands and links his fingers together, then pushes his arms out to limber up, making all his knuckles crack. JJ, Ruck, and I all stand back as Tex’s face hardens, and his arm swings back, slow and calculated, before gliding forward effortlessly. Dago jerks his face to the side and jams his eyes shut as if it’s going to stop the blow, but it doesn’t. Instead, it lands hard on his jaw with a crack of breaking bone and knocks him, and the chair he’s bound to, on its side. He cries out from behind the gag, then groans as he lays there helpless, hurting, and despite his protests, scared for his life. Spice whimpers next to me and for a split second I actually feel sorry for him. He’s not tough like Dago, probably not cruel like him either. Dago has a reputation that precedes him, evil and merciless, almost as bad as Rev’s rep, but not quite as prestigious. But my sympathy for Spice doesn’t last long. He should have been painfully aware of what it takes to be a biker. He should have a very firm grasp of life as one of The Wolves, and if he’s going to be one of them, follow their rules and laws, and work under their guidance, he will be treated like the mangy, flea-infested dogs he lies with.
“Hold up here, boys,” JJ says, pushing off the doorframe and moving further into the room to stand between the two men. Tex hauls Dago back upright and steps back so they both have a good view of JJ. He snorts out a laugh then rubs his hands together. “My oh my, poor old Dev doesn’t know what he’s missing here. He would’a loved to have his way with you boys, but if he were here, you probably wouldn’t be going back home to your little friends at all, so you both better think yourselves lucky that you got just us.” He leisurely peruses the room, and I see his eyes gleam when he spots the crowbar by the door. He rubs his chin slowly, then takes three long, deliberate strides to pick it up. “Take off his gag,” he orders Tex sharply, jerking his head to Dago. Tex rips it off, and Dago takes a sharp intake of breath tensing his body, steeling himself for what’s about to happen. JJ eyes him with a cruel smile as he takes a step towards him, Dago tries to push himself further back in the chair, but JJ takes us all off guard when he turns and swings the crowbar, full force, taking out Spice’s kneecap with a sickening crack and a resounding cry of excruciating pain.
“Fuck!” Dago cries out. “You fucking cunt. I told you he doesn’t know fuck all.” He seethes, breathing hard through clenched teeth.
“I know, but you do.” JJ waves the crowbar in his direction. “And you�
�re gonna tell me everything I want to know, or I’ll take out every one of his joints, and you’ll be carrying him back to your president in a limp, useless, ball of blood and mashed up flesh.”
Spice whimpers, semi-conscious from the shock and the pain. The lower half of his leg would be hanging off if it weren’t for Tex’s rope work strapping him to the chair.
“Where is your President?” JJ asks.
“I don’t know. God’s honest truth, I don’t know where he is.”
“Why did you beat the old man half to death at the drug store? What could you possibly want with all those prescription drugs? You selling them on, in Reno?”
Dago eyes us all one by one, gauging his chances of lying and getting away with it, but JJ measures up the weight of the bar in his hands and Dago starts to talk. “Yes. I told you, Rev wants to take over. The girls, the drugs, the lot. He wants Reno, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it,” he says, revealing far more than I expected him to.
“Was it you that raped one of my dancers?” I get up in his face, forcing his gaze to mine and watching his eyes closer than close. The drugs I can understand, but beating an old man, and raping a girl, one of mine at that, is not going to happen, not while I have breath in my body. I may be an outlaw. I may have the ability to torture and maim, but I know what’s right and what’s wrong and my wrath is never directed at anyone that’s undeserving of the punishment. His lips twitch, and a silent smile stretches across his eyes. Not only did he do it, he enjoyed it, which means I’m gonna enjoy this. I rain my fists onto his face, splitting his flesh and exposing blood and bone. He takes it with a smile, knowing that I could beat him until there’s nothing left in me, but I won’t do that. I won’t give him the satisfaction of such an easy way out. I grab the bar from JJ and swing it hard into his chest with a crack. Broken ribs, a missing ear, and a beat up face, yet still he smiles at me through those swollen, narrowed eyes.