by Harley Wylde
“He’s going to kill me.”
The guy snorted. “No, he won’t kill you, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he spanked your ass. Why did you come to the gates without him?”
“Thought I could send Trotter on his way.”
“I don’t know if she’s brave, or batshit fucking crazy,” the other one muttered.
A motorcycle was coming in fast, the engine roaring toward the gates. I had no doubt it was Dingo. I heard the tires skid and then booted steps racing toward me. Dingo dropped to his knees at my side, a look of horror and grief in his eyes.
“I’m fine,” I assured him.
“No, Mei, you aren’t fucking fine. You’re bleeding.” His gaze scanned the area. “Where’s the asshole who shot her?”
“Full of bullets.” The guy who had been holding me down let go and rocked back on his heels, giving Dingo more room. “If he’s still breathing, he won’t be for long.”
Dingo looked down at me again. “Why the hell didn’t you wake me up? How did you even know he was here?”
“Phone.”
“Prospect called you, but Mei answered instead. Idiot started talking before he realized it wasn’t you who answered. It seems your woman thought Trotter would just walk off when she told him she was staying.”
“Thought I was safe behind the gate,” I said. It was getting harder to breathe as the pain in my neck intensified.
The others backed away, leaving me alone with Dingo. I reached for his hand. He laced our fingers together, then leaned down to press a kiss on my lips. The shift made him press harder on the shirt against my neck. I hadn’t even realized he was holding it now. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I saw the panicked look on his face as he started shouting for the doc.
“Doctor Larkin is here, Mei. I’m going to let him look at your neck, and then I’ll carry you into the clubhouse, or wherever he needs me to take you. Just lie still, sweetheart.”
“Who helped me?” I asked. “Thank them.”
“Wolf was holding you down and Dragon literally gave you the shirt off his back.”
I cracked a smile, hoping his sense of humor meant things weren’t that bad. If they were, I’d have died by now, right? Being shot in the neck couldn’t be a good thing. Since I was able to breathe and talk, it had to mean I would be just fine. Everyone was probably worried for no reason. A bandage and I’d be good as new. And maybe some pain reliever.
The doctor came into view, giving me a kind smile, as he reached for the shirt against my neck. Dingo relinquished it to him, and Dr. Larkin pulled it away. He reached into a bag he’d brought with him and pulled out a small packet.
“This is going to sting, Mei. It’s an alcohol swab. I need to clean the area so I can get a better look at what’s going on.”
I took a deep breath and prepared myself. Sting? Holy hell! That wasn’t a sting. My neck felt like it was on fire. My grip tightened on Dingo’s hand and I hoped I wasn’t breaking his fingers. The doctor hummed and prodded the area before giving a nod.
“She’ll be fine. It doesn’t look deep enough for stitches, but I want to make sure I get it cleaned well. I’ll put a dressing on it, but it would be best if left alone for at least twenty-four hours.” Dr. Larkin stood and picked up his bag. “But I’m not treating her on the ground near the gate. She can ride with me to your house, Dingo.”
Dingo helped me stand and led me over to the doctor’s car. Once I was seated, he pressed a kiss to my forehead, then shut the door. The doctor drove slowly through the compound, and I could hear a motorcycle following. I figured it was Dingo. At the house, I waited for someone to help me from the car, then Dingo led me straight to our room. I’d noticed earlier that he’d changed the bed, and my stomach knotted, remembering exactly when and why he’d done that.
“Dr. Larkin, how much longer before the test results are in?” I asked. “The ones from yesterday.”
“About two more days. Why? Are you not feeling well? Any pain or anything other than from your gunshot wound?”
“No, it’s not that.” I looked at the bed. “We, um… We had sex earlier and I’m worried I might have given something to Dingo.”
“No protection?” the doctor asked with a raised eyebrow.
“I fucking forgot, okay?” Dingo asked with a hint of growl to his voice. “Would you just stop the bleeding and get her patched up?”
The doctor helped me onto the bed, but I refused to lie down and get blood everywhere. “I need a towel to put under me.”
Dingo snorted. “Like I give a shit if you bleed on the damn bed. I can replace the fucking sheets, Mei. What I can’t do is replace you. Will you just let the doc take care of you?”
I just stared and waited. Eventually, he gave in and went to the bathroom, returning with two towels, which he folded in half and laid across the pillow and top part of the bed. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy that he was so worried about me. No one had ever cared before. I’d thought Beau had, but I had to be realistic. If he’d cared about me as much as I’d believed, he wouldn’t have left and never checked to see if I was okay. I wasn’t angry with him. He’d done what he needed to in order to survive. Just as I had.
I lay back and let the doctor move my hair out the way. Dingo reached up to hold it in place over my head while the doctor cleaned and dressed the wound. Whatever he put on it stung a bit, but nowhere near as bad as the alcohol swab had. I was just thankful it didn’t need stitches. Maybe it was just a minor wound.
The doctor pulled some pills from his bag, then hesitated. “If you had unprotected sex, I can’t give you these, Mei. Not if there’s even the slightest possibility you could be pregnant.”
I didn’t think it was likely, but there was always a chance. Between the miscarriages, which I hadn’t mentioned, and the abortions my foster family and Trotter forced me to get, getting pregnant wouldn’t be easy. I’d only had one abortion with Trotter, and only because the shot hadn’t taken effect yet. And even if I could get pregnant, I wasn’t exactly mother material, was I? I didn’t even know how a mother was supposed to act. I couldn’t remember mine at all.
“Trotter made us take birth control. I got a shot about two months ago. I think.” I frowned. It had just been two months ago, hadn’t it? Was I due for another one? “He said it was cheaper to prevent the pregnancy than get rid of it.”
I heard Dingo mutter something that sounded like asshole and the doctor didn’t look too pleased either. I had a feeling if Trotter wasn’t already dead, he would be soon. Dingo looked ready to murder him. As much as I would hate for him to get blood on his hands for my sake, I wouldn’t exactly mourn the loss of a guy like Trotter. The world would be better off if every man out there like him were wiped off the planet.
“If the pain gets too bad, I can call in something that would be safe if you’re pregnant,” Dr. Larkin said. “Until then, take Tylenol if you need anything. I’ll call as soon as I have your test results back from the lab. At least that will be one worry off your mind. I didn’t see physical signs of anything during the exam, but there are certain diseases that wouldn’t be noticeable in the early stages.”
Right. So, there was still a chance I’d been infected with something. Until we knew for sure, I’d keep my hands to myself. Of course, getting shot would probably put a damper on things in the bedroom. The way Dingo was eyeing me I figured he’d be handling me like I was made of glass. Until I healed at any rate.
“When can I take the bandage off and shower?” I asked.
“Leave it on until tomorrow if you can. After that, you can clean it in the shower, but try not to submerge it in water until the skin knits together a bit. Otherwise, you might start bleeding again. It should be healed enough for regular activities to resume within a week.”
I translated that into we could have sex again after a week of healing. Fate must be fucking with me. After all these years I finally have an orgasm -- multiple ones -- and find a guy who treats me well, and I only get to have sex with
him once before getting injured. And yes, I could admit that I was entirely at fault. If I hadn’t gone to the gate to see Trotter, then this wouldn’t have happened. Then again, if I’d woken Dingo, he might have been the one shot, and what if Trotter’s aim had been better with a larger target?
Dingo walked out with Dr. Larkin and I closed my eyes. Now that the excitement had worn off, I was starting to feel incredibly tired. I struggled to stay awake in case Dingo came back into the room, but it was a losing battle. I could feel my body growing heavy and my thoughts turned a bit fuzzy. As I sank into sleep, I briefly thought about Dingo and hoped that he wouldn’t do anything stupid, like kill Trotter, if the bullets hadn’t done the job already. He seemed like the type to seek vengeance, and I much preferred him out of jail than in it.
Chapter Eight
Dingo
Grizzly had read Simon the riot act over letting Mei anywhere near the gate while Trotter was there. Even if the kid hadn’t known the asshole was armed, he should have protected Mei at any cost. While his quick thinking had gotten Demon there before anything worse could happen, it wasn’t enough when the entire situation could have been avoided. He never should have mentioned Trotter over the phone without knowing it was me and not Mei who answered.
Since Beau was still on my shit list, I’d asked Henry to stand guard outside my house in case Mei needed anything. Griz had put Carver on the gate for now with Beau and Simon helping in the clubhouse. We honestly needed some fresh blood. If any of these guys washed out before being patched in, then we’d be short on manpower for the shit jobs the rest of us didn’t want.
Some of the clubs had a barn or warehouse where they persuaded men to talk. I knew a few with underground bunkers for that sort of thing. Thanks to some fairly recent renovations, we now had a room under the clubhouse for those types of meetings. Griz had spared no expense to have the place soundproofed, added a drain to the floor, and a fancy lock that only patched members could access with a retina scan. Maybe he was being overly cautious, but it was understandable. We’d had enough men go to prison, and Griz was trying to protect his club while letting us get the job done our way. Not that this room would have saved Badger from getting locked up. He’d beaten a man to death when he caught the asshole raping a teen girl. Any of us would have done the same.
Now that teen girl was all grown up, and married to Badger. They’d had some bad luck, though. Adalia had lost their baby and it had hit her hard. We’d all worried about her when it seemed like she’d sunk into a state of depression. No one faulted her for it, but I’d watched as Badger tore into anyone who even looked at him wrong. He was so stressed and concerned for his woman that anyone was fair game as an outlet for him.
I glanced over at him. “You couldn’t have kept him breathing a little longer?”
Trotter, or what was left of him, was in a heap in the center of the room. He’d been hit by no less than six bullets. Somehow, he’d managed to stay alive long enough for my brothers to haul him down here, get him to talk a bit, and then Badger had let loose on him. If Trotter hadn’t been the worst sort of man, I might have felt sorry for him.
“Fuck, Badger. What the hell did you use on his eyes?” I asked, nausea welling up at the gruesome sight.
“Blowtorch,” he said matter-of-factly.
That would explain why it looked like his eyes had exploded. They’d probably popped from the heat before the flame even touched them. Badger was a sadistic fucker when it came to torturing men, but I’d also seen him treat Adalia like a damn queen. Watching the two of them, seeing how gentle he was with her, you’d never know he was capable of something like this.
“He came to get Mei because it seems she was just on loan to him,” Demon said.
“On loan?” I asked. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Demon rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Whatever he’d learned, it had pissed off the Sergeant-at-Arms. Demon only ever did that move when he was ready to bathe in someone’s blood, and since Trotter was already dead, it couldn’t be him.
“What did Mei tell you of her life before working for Trotter?” he asked.
“She was in foster care. You saw the damn video in Church yesterday. You know what her foster family was like. Why are you asking me this?”
Demon rubbed at the back of his neck. “Because her foster father somehow managed to herd her toward Trotter. It was a form of payment. Trotter got to use her to earn some cash, but once the amount the foster dad owed was paid in full, then he was supposed to deliver Mei back to the guy. It seems she was due back now. Only thing I can figure is the foster parents were hoping to get in a few more videos and make more cash off her.”
Wait. What? “But she aged out of the system. How the hell could Trotter give her back? It’s not like she’s underage and needs a guardian.”
Demon looked away, and Wolf shuffled his feet, looking decidedly uncomfortable. Exactly what weren’t they telling me? Shit. “She is legal, right?”
“Yes,” Demon said. “Now she is.”
That… didn’t sound good. “The age of consent in Georgia is sixteen. Are you telling me that…”
Fuck. Even if it was legal to be with her, I’d never knowingly had sex with anyone under eighteen before. But no… Mei had said that she was fourteen when those videos were first taken, and that four years had passed. She said she’d aged out of the system.
“Relax,” Wolf said. “The reason Trotter was here today is that he fucked up. Mei was seventeen when the foster dad told her she’d aged out of the system. He lied. Trotter was supposed to keep a tighter rein on her and return her before she aged out for real. But Mei is eighteen now. Her birthday was last week.”
I was starting to get a headache from all this bullshit. “How did she not know that she hadn’t aged out of the system? Does she not know when her birthday is? Is that even possible?”
“I asked Outlaw to see what he could find, but he’ll probably have the others help,” Demon said. “Others” most likely meaning Wire and his woman, Lavender, another hacker who went by the name Dark Labyrinth. “I think this is much bigger than just Mei, possibly way bigger. We think that Mei’s social worker might be in on it. Maybe a kickback, or they might be blackmailing him or her. Either way, I don’t see Mei going back to that hell willingly. If she’d thought she’d aged out, I’d imagine she’d have fought against them. Or maybe that’s what they wanted, to have her struggle. Sick fucks.”
I didn’t know what to make of any of this shit. All I knew was that I wanted everyone who had hurt Mei, even if they contributed by not doing a damn thing and knowing she needed help, to be hauled to this room. And then I’d make them all pay. In blood.
“Go take care of Mei,” Demon said. “When we find out something, we’ll call or stop by. For now, she needs you there with her. Not lost in your head and plotting to murder half the men in the city.”
Wolf cleared his throat. “You do know if you want to kill every guy who’s touched her, the death toll is about to get a lot higher around here. The Ruby Slipper does a shit ton of business, and as far as those men know, the women chose to be there.”
“Just get me names, and I want details of how they hurt Mei. I’ll decide who gets marked off the list after that.” I turned to leave but paused. “She needs to know she’s not alone. I know Griz is overprotective of Shella and Lilian, but meeting them might help Mei.”
“Not Adalia?” Badger asked.
“Not if it’s going to make you want to kick my ass. If she’s up for it, then send her by. Maybe not right now, but tomorrow. Mei was resting when I left.”
I walked out of the room and up the stairs to the main part of the clubhouse. Not even nighttime and already the club whores were showing up. A few of my brothers were at tables or on the couches. More than one had their dick out, which wasn’t something I ever cared to see. I gave them a half-hearted wave as I left the building and went out to my bike.
Before I could swing my leg
over the seat, a flash of purple caught my attention at the edge of the clubhouse. The skirt was too long to belong to a club whore. If Adalia was this close to the clubhouse, Badger would lose his shit. Deciding it was better to send her on her way before he came out, I headed over and turned the corner. Except it wasn’t Adalia.
“Lilian?” I asked, keeping my voice low. She always startled so easily. Getting close to her was sometimes as difficult as approaching a stray cat. “Is something wrong? Did you need Grizzly?”
She backed up a step and shook her head.
“You know he won’t like you hanging out here, especially while the other girls are inside. Better get home.” I eased back a step, trying to give her more space.
“I can’t. Not yet,” she said.
“Can’t or won’t?” I asked. What the fuck was going on? If Griz found out she’d been here, he’d lose it. I’d never seen someone so protective in my life. They might be his adopted daughters, but he guarded them like they were his flesh and blood.
“Maybe a bit of both. I’m supposed to meet someone. It’s only for a moment, but… they’re late.”
I snorted. “I’m not stupid, honey. You can say he. It’s obvious you’re meeting a guy, and since you’re still inside the gates, that means it’s a brother or a Prospect. Either way, Grizzly will be pissed as hell if they touch you.”
She glanced away, her lips pinched tight. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t sexual. So what, exactly, was she up to?
“I just needed some advice. Dragon said he’d help,” she said.
Yeah, I bet he would. He’d probably try to help her right out of her clothes. He was a decent guy, but when it came to women, he had a bit of an issue. He’d never met a woman he couldn’t charm, and their panties dropped within seconds of meeting him. I’d seen him make eye contact with a woman, give her a chin nudge, then go fuck her in a bathroom. For Dragon’s sake, I hoped he kept his dick in his pants or Grizzly might kill him.
“If he doesn’t show in another minute, go home, Lilian.”