She noticed the man who had been upstairs with her heading toward the blue crate, and she didn’t stop to think. Throwing her body over the dead man, she grabbed onto his gun, prying it from his hand and took aim, praying the lesson she had taken at the gun range paid off. He was only a couple of steps from the crate and Maddie when she fired, not giving one shit that she had just fired on a man with his back turned. Nothing about this situation was deemed fair play. If she had to live the rest of her life as a murderer, she would wear that badge of honor proudly.
Chapter Five
Brass was just about to make his move when he saw the door to the upstairs office open and the little girl step out. He quickly signaled Creed and Jinx to stand down. He couldn’t have the kid in the middle of anything, he needed to come up with another plan. But where was the woman why hadn’t she come out with the kid? He got his answer when she stepped through the door. Her hair was even more messed up than it had been before, and she was cradling her shoulder. Once she started down the stairs, she dropped her hand and held onto the railing for dear life. He could see the white-knuckled grip she had on the bar from where he was sitting. Damn, was she afraid of heights? He hadn’t noticed her having a problem on the way up.
When Snap came out behind her, Brass found out exactly why she was holding on. The asshole kept nudging and pushing her as she descended the stairs. At first, he thought maybe she was protecting herself, but he quickly figured out she was protecting the kid. When they made it halfway down, she moved the kid to the side, saying something Brass was too far away to hear. Damn, he held his breath with every step each of them made. Fuck, this was getting ridiculous. What did the chick matter, anyway? It was the kid who counted. They would save the woman too, but the little girl, she was his mission.
Looking for any way to get her away from the men, Brass was coming up with a blank. All of those fuckers were standing in front of the stairs or right by it, smoking and popping the shit Bat had pulled out of his pocket. The only good thing in this whole fucking shit for a mission, they were more interested in the drugs than the people coming down the stairs. That might work if the kid stepped off the stairs and walked away from the men. Fuck, that was a pipe dream. He knew damn well even if those fuckers were more interested in their drugs, if that kid or woman took one step out of their sight, they would go for them.
When the kid's foot hit the ground, the chick screamed RUN, and it took Brass a few seconds to figure out what the hell was going on. When the kid started running right for him, he was fucking stunned. Having no choice with all hell was breaking out, Brass exposed himself long enough to get an arm around the kid and bring her back behind the crate with him. The wooden structure wasn’t going to do shit for the bullets that were flying everywhere. He had to hope he was quick enough, he hadn’t given away his hidey hole. His answer to that theory was blown away when a chunk of wood splintered from the impact of a bullet four inches from the kid’s head.
Brass quickly looked around, trying to find anywhere to stash the kid, seeing a cast iron bin up against the wall, eight feet away from him. He grabbed the kid up again and made a run for it, keeping his body down and the kid covered at all times. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Creed returning the assholes fire, buying him some time. It didn’t take long to get the kid situated, there wasn’t anything in the bin. Unfortunately, it was oily, and Brass could see the poor kid squirming to get away from the bottom and sides.
Bending over, he shushed the girl. “Stay.” She nodded but said, “Save my Aunt Jay, there’s room in here for her too,” and she finished with, “Please.” Damn, Brass hadn’t been around a bunch of kids, but this one was hitting him right in the feels. She wasn’t freaking out, screaming, or crying like she should be. The place was loud as fuck with gunfire and people screaming, and she was asking him to save her Aunt, not a bit worried about herself like she trusted him to do what she asked, and it blew his fucking mind.
“I’ll get her,” Brass said and turned away, just in time to see Snap coming right for him. The fucker had his gun pointed and Brass was left with his balls hanging out, having put his gun back in the holster when he picked up the kid. The fucker knew he had him at an advantage and smiled, raising his gun a little further up for a headshot. Just when Brass was about to kiss his own ass goodbye, Snap’s eyes widened, and he started falling toward the floor, but not before Brass saw the exit wound of a high caliber bullet dot his forehead. Brass dove to the floor, not knowing where the bullet would go next, and he sure as fuck didn’t want it coming anywhere near him.
He reached for his gun and released it from its harness on the way down, taking aim, just in case someone else was going to come around that crate. But that didn’t happen. Looking back to make sure the kid was still where he put her, Brass crept forward to get a better look at the situation. Brass did a sweep with his eyes. It looked like Creed had taken out three of the guys, all laying within his line of fire. Another two were laying where Brass could only assume they were taken out by friendly fire. Brass heard a shot and watched as another one went down, making the casualty count seven. Two more were laying on the ground with head wounds, meaning Jinx got to join the party too. That meant there were only two more, Crabs one of them. Scanning again, Brass noticed the woman lying behind another guy with a gun aimed his way. Fuck this was definitely not his day! Get the kid to safety only to have the chick shoot him, not fucking cool. Then he saw Crabs not even three feet to the left of him, raising his gun. Brass pivoted and took aim, his finger on the trigger ready to shoot when the chick pulled her own trigger and took Crabs out.
Creed came out of his hiding place, and Jinx was doing some monkey shit to get down off the rafters when the chick got up and started walking toward him fast, still holding the gun. He didn’t know if he should say something, hold up his hands, or just go up to her and take it from her.
“Let's get them out of here,” Creed said, slapping Brass on the shoulder.
The woman was even more gorgeous up close; he couldn’t resist doing a head to toe sweep of her body. She had curves for miles, wide hips, and a tiny waist. But what really caught his attention were her eyes. He didn’t have the first fucking clue what color they were. It looked like a mix of blues, greens, and brown, but they were captivating.
When she came right up to him and said, “They have more people coming, something about a VP, they are coming to get Maddie and hold her to get something from Tucker Masterson, I think he belongs to your MC. Where is Maddie?”, she managed to say all of that without taking a single breath. He could see her hands were shaking, and her breathing was accelerated. Shit, he didn’t need this woman going into shock. They needed to pack up and get on the road before any more assholes showed up, or they would all be doing this again. It was already going to be risky taking the kid and her on the road with them. Deciding he could look his fill later, he calmly walked toward her, noticing a small flinch before she stood her ground again.
Brass put his hand on her arm, brushed it down until he reached her hand and the gun she was holding gently, extracting the gun from her, and immediately putting on the safety. She didn’t seem to notice, and he needed to get her in the here and now.
“Hey,” he said forcefully, making her focus on him. “My name is Brass, we’re in the same Club as Tuck, and we came to get you guys. Maddie is okay, I put her in a bin back there to protect her, but we need to get you two loaded up and out of here. Okay?” The chick blinked her eyes a couple of times, then nodded.
“Yeah, okay. My name is Jada Baxter, my niece is Maddie Masterson. I’m going to trust you, Brass, but I’ll warn you if you hurt my niece in any way, I will kill you even if I have to use my bare hands to do it.”
“Got that, babe, now wait here for a second.” Brass turned around and saw Creed was already getting the little girl out of the bin. Jada—damn he liked that name—went off running towards Creed and the kid and Brass felt a bit jealous. He had wanted to be the one w
ho reunited her with the kid. Why? He didn’t have any fucking clue, and it pissed him off.
Walking over to them, he went to Jada and Maddie bending down a little, so he could see the little girls face.
“You did so good, Maddie. I’m so proud of you for staying in that nasty bin. I bet you're glad to be out of it, aren’t you?” Maddie nodded, rubbing her cheek on Jada’s shoulder. “Little one, why don’t you let me hold you for a bit, your Aunt Jay looks like she could use a break.” Surprisingly, Maddie held out her arms to him without looking at anyone else, and Brass fell a little in love with the kid. Jada, on the other hand, looked like she was going to protest. Not giving her a chance, Brass took Maddie in his arms.
“You’re beat to hell and back, I got her.” When Maddie laid her head on his shoulder, he knew he loved the kid and would do anything for her. Just being Tuck’s kid granted her that much, but Brass could feel his heart go soft for her. Clearing his throat from the fucking emotions he was feeling, Brass barked, “Come on, we need to get out of here.” He stopped himself from saying get the fuck out here, like he normally would, for Maddie’s benefit.
Brass led the group out through the back of the warehouse. It would be a trek to get to where their bikes were, but it was doable. Jada kept close to him, something he found he liked. What he didn’t like was what she made him feel. It reminded him of Suzie and all the shit she had put him through, never being good enough for anything more than a booty call. When they got to the bike and Jada sneered at it, it confirmed his suspicion she was just like Suzie, thinking less of him because of the life he chose to lead. Well, fuck her. He didn’t need the bullshit or the aggravation. Been there done that. Brass always learned from his mistakes. Jada might be hot as shit, but he wouldn’t be tapping that anytime soon. If he had his way, as soon as they got back to the Clubhouse and things got sorted with Maddie, she could go back to wherever she came from or a safe house. One thing he knew, Maddie would be staying with the club whether Jada Baxter liked it or not.
Chapter Six
Jada was in shock. She’d just shot not just one man but two, killing them both in cold blood. Now, she was following three strangers to only God knew where and allowing one of them to carry Maddie. All the guys were big, but the one who had Maddie seemed to be the most unpleasant. Well, then again, maybe it was just her because he was sweet to Maddie. Jada could deal with that. The one thing she did have to give him, he had at least introduced himself, the other two not so much. Had she not seen the RBMC–Defiance chapter on Brass’ back, she wouldn’t be following any of them right now.
She just wished he would slow the fuck down. She knew they needed to get out of there, but did they really have to do it at mock speed through the dark where she tripped ever two seconds? She was just about to say something when Brass finally stopped. Right in front of him stood three motorcycles. Damn it, she was so fucking stupid sometimes. Of course, they had motorcycles, they were part of a motorcycle club, but there was no way in hell Maddie was getting on one of those, she was only five years old. What were they thinking? All the men in the warehouse were dead, they could have taken one of the vans. It would at least have been safer.
“Hey, Princess, Brass barked, “get your ass on the bike, we need to move now!” Jada was stunned silent, she didn’t know if it was because of the way he was talking to her or if it was him calling her Princess. The big guy with all the tattoos and piercings came forward and took Maddie from Brass after he introduced them to each other. Shit, it would have been nice if she got an introduction, but obviously, she wasn’t worthy or some shit. Jada stepped forward and put her hand on Brass’ arm
“She isn’t getting on one of those.”
“What, do you have a problem with motorcycles?” Brass asked curtly with some venom attached. Jada wasn’t in the mood to put up with anything. She had been through enough. It didn’t matter if she found him attractive—because she did—but with him doing one-eighties with his moods at the drop of the hat, she’d had it. She had known him for all of like five minutes! What the hell could she have done to deserve this? Jada had dealt with more than enough psychos in her life.
“No! I don’t have a problem with motorcycles, I actually like riding on them, but I do have a problem with putting a five-year-old on one!” She wanted so badly to add the words “you ass,” but she kept them to herself, not wanting to risk being left behind or worse.
“Hey, listen,” the tatted-up guy holding Maddie said, “I’m sorry, this isn’t the best way to meet, but my name is Jinx. Tuck—” he started to say, and Jada quickly shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about Tucker Masterson in front of Maddie. Jinx was gracious enough to slightly nod his head in acknowledgment while Brass huffed out an annoyed breath, the jerk.
He had no right to judge her or how she parented Maddie. Maddie knew about Tucker, Jada just didn’t want to get her hopes up if the guy turned out to be bad news or didn’t want anything to do with Maddie or worse yet, turned out to be no better than Mazie. Until he proved himself worthy of Maddie’s love, Jada was determined to keep him at arm’s length. Maddie had already had too much disappointment in her life from the people who were supposed to love and cherish her the most.
Jinx continued talking without missing a beat, not mentioning Maddie’s dad again.
“We have a harness, it isn’t ideal, but I’ll make sure she’s safe. You and Brass will be in the front, me and Maddie in the middle, and Creed will take up the back. We aren’t going to let anything happen to her, I promise. We just don’t have a lot of options, right now, and we need to get moving before the rest of their club or gang shows up.”
“What about the vans, couldn’t we go back and take one of those?”
Brass grunted, “No,” and got on his bike without explanation.
The quiet man came up and put his hand out. “Name’s Creed.” Jada took it tentatively and shook it, releasing it quickly. He didn’t scare her or even intimidate her, but there was an aura about the man that said don’t mess with me, and she heeded it. “Jada, we can’t take one of the vans because we don’t know if they’re traceable. I think our best option is to go as planned before their buddies show up, see what we left them, and start looking for us. Right now, we need distance.”
Jada nodded but remembered something she hadn’t told these guys yet.
“Shit,” she blurted out, “listen. Before that guy brought us out of the office, he was on the phone talking to someone. He said they knew you were in the area looking for them.”
“What do you mean, they knew we were in the area?” Jinx questioned.
“I only heard one side of his conversation, but he said three RBMC members were in the area, and they were looking into them. That’s all he said. Whoever was on the other end of the phone was late because they were looking for you guys. I’m sorry, but that’s all I heard.”
“Shit!” Brass exclaimed. Jinx and Creed echoing his thoughts. “Mount up, we need to hole up somewhere until Tal can send in a unit.” Jada watched as Creed got on the phone and barked some words about location three, compromised, and van with trailers. Jada was still standing there when Brass said, “We don’t have all day, Princess. If you would have lead with that part earlier, we could have made different arrangements.” He was still being a dick. Even Jinx raised an eyebrow at how he was speaking to her. Jada was done, putting her hands on her hips she snarked right back to him.
“Oh, sorry, I kind of forgot with I don’t know… worrying about my niece, being kidnapped, held, and manhandled. Then shooting two people to save your ass, but hey, let me apologize for not speaking up sooner. What could I have possibly been thinking?”
Jinx started laughing and even Creed had a small smile on his face. Brass, on the other hand, just scowled at her like she was out of her fucking mind for talking to him that way. When Jinx finally stopped laughing, he pointed at Jada and addressed Brass.
“There, man, is your quality. Better snatch it up while you
still have the chance or step out of the way and let another brother have a chance. That shit only comes around once in a lifetime.” Jinx winked at Jada, and she couldn’t help but look at him like what the fuck are you talking about. He just laughed again.
“Get on the bike, Jada, you’re with me,” Brass grunted. “We need to move,” Brass said with a little less bark in his voice. But that didn’t get her to move. Jada watched as Jinx finished strapping Maddie onto his chest with the harness he had talked about earlier. When he pulled out a tiny helmet from his saddlebags, she wanted to go over and kiss the man. She must have had a look on her face because he said without her asking, “I have a kid her age, I’ve done this before Jada. I’ll make sure she is safe.”
“Thank you, Jinx.”
Brass grunted a few more times, but Jada didn’t get on his bike until she was sure Maddie was okay. She had been surprised how fast Maddie was accepting these rough and tough men. Maddie was shy and quiet most days, and it took a long time for her to warm up to people. Apparently, that rule didn’t apply to these men. She worried for a second Maddie might be in some kind of shock, but she saw Jinx talking to her softly, and Maddie smiled back at him. Once he had the helmet in place, Maddie laid her head on his chest and shut her eyes. Jinx started up his bike with one hand and rubbed Maddie’s back with the other. Jada would bet her last dollar that man was a good father. He looked bad ass and even a little scary, but there was something sweet about Jinx.
Jada had been on a bike before, that experience wasn’t new to her, but riding on a bike with Brass, that was a whole new experience. At first, she tried to keep her body away from his, only holding on lightly to his belt loops, but he wasn’t having that, gripping her arms and pulling her closer. When that wasn’t enough, he put his hands back, gripped the backs of her knees and brought her even closer still. Jada went to move back, but he growled, “Stay” and for some unknown reason, she listened.
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