Shake (The Club Girl Diaries Book 8)

by Addison Jane

  Damn it, Romeo, you fucking idiot.

  Why can’t you trust me and come to me with this shit?

  “Kiss your women and meet me out the front.”

  We managed to catch up to Romeo pretty damn quickly. We pulled up just on the other side of Huntsville by the state park to look at the map Wrench had. He pointed out that Romeo’s movement had stopped only minutes ago close to the base of the mountain. It wasn’t on a road or path, so I guessed we were going hiking.

  I knew who he was looking for. I knew exactly what his mission was, but this shit was dangerous. He didn’t know the area. He was obviously being given directions, or at the very least, been given a destination.

  How the hell does he know what’s waiting for him up there?

  He’d barely talked to me the past couple of days, avoided me like the plague, but chatted to Meyah several times. Also, conversations I wasn’t included in.

  Romeo was harboring a lot of shit inside including the need to keep himself separate from anyone who could matter. He didn’t understand the idea in strength together. While I saw my brothers as strength standing behind me, he saw them as a weakness that could be used against him. I needed him to hear me. I needed him to learn and understand because I didn’t want to let him or Phee walk away again.

  I had to make him see.

  I just didn’t know how yet.

  We finally pulled up down a dark road that was barely wide enough for two of us to ride side by side. We pulled off onto a farmer’s roadway which was made of clay.

  “There’s a huge amount of machinery at the end of this road,” Wrench called out as we pulled up at the entrance, and he took a pair of bolt cutters from his saddlebags. We hadn’t passed a house in a few miles so, luckily, we wouldn’t have to worry about witnesses. “I know the farmer. Anyone hears us riding away, he’ll tell them he was just out here starting up his babies at 2:00 a.m.”

  Wrench cut the bolt, and we took off down the rough road as fast as we could go without being thrown off. He was right, there were huge bailers, mowers, tractors, and some other scary looking pieces of machinery with blades. We stashed our bikes in between a few pieces of hulking metal. We all took flashlights from our saddle bags.

  Wrench pointed his at the mountain ahead of us. “He came down that road over there,” Wrench noted, pointing at a road that was a dead end, not too far from where we were standing. Still, there were no houses around which gave it an eerie feeling.

  “There’s a light up there,” Blizzard hissed, pointing up into the trees where there was some kind of square shaped glow. “Looks like a small private cabin, probably one of the old ones that they rent out to hikers. We need to get going now and get the hell out of here.”

  We all ran out into the sparse field between us and the tree line, trying to keep our flashlights down and not alert anyone that we were coming. It took a few minutes for us to reach the tree line and then the climb began. I was fighting for breath already, and the hard part was about to start. Loose leaves and tree branches made an already difficult climb even harder when we couldn’t use the path that was made to lead to the cabin, and we were all wearing heavy boots and dark clothing which covered our body as much as possible. While most of us had tattoos, whenever we were out doing things we weren’t meant to be, we tried to cover any identifiable features that could lead to evidence.

  Tonight was no different, even in the dark, even somewhere as remote as this.

  I was starting to worry.

  It was taking us too long.

  We weren’t going to make it in time.

  How was I going to tell Phee I hadn’t done what I promised her I was going to?

  A hand pressed on my back, and I looked over my shoulder at Blizzard, my eyes now adjusted to the darkness. “It’s not over yet,” he growled quietly. “Your brother might be an idiot, but he’s a fighter.”

  He was.

  Romeo was one of the strongest people I knew. Ever since we were kids, he always saw the world for what it was. I was his older brother, but he was always the first to stand up for Phee and me, if he felt like someone wasn’t treating us fairly. And it wasn’t just us, it was anyone who seemed like they were the underdog. He was always there ready to fight for them.

  Sometimes it got him in trouble, but it earned him a lot of respect.

  A couple of weeks ago, I’d had this idea in my head that Romeo would come here, he’d see this life, and feel what the club was about. He’d prospect, join the club, and be my brother in more ways than one. But I could feel that this wasn’t what he wanted, this wasn’t the life that called to him as it did to me.

  I didn’t care if he wanted to join the circus.

  Or if he suddenly decided to start a drag show where he dressed in sparkly pink dresses and sung Lady Gaga songs. I just wanted to have him be part of my life.

  Bang.

  The shot fired echoed through the trees around us and down the hill, moving out across the open farmland.

  I couldn’t lose him

  Not again.

  With Blizzard right behind me, we fought through the mess of foliage feeling spits of rainfall through the trees above us and onto our faces. All I could think was, hopefully, it rained hard enough to wash away our tracks after this because I had no idea what the hell was about to happen.

  The cabin was old, part of it made of large stone, original stone, from when these cabins were built during the depression. That only made up about one-third of it, though. The rest was thin cladding that someone had obviously used as a cheap repair. The roof was falling to pieces in places, and it honestly looked like something out of a fucking horror movie.

  My brothers moved around the house surrounding it securely.

  Blizzard followed me up to the window. It was dirty as fucking hell, but with the light on inside, we could easily see Romeo pointing the gun at the sheriff who had his hands raised in the air like he was surrendering.

  “Leave them the fuck alone, John,” Romeo hissed.

  Visser looked him dead in the eye like he was completely unfazed by the fact that Romeo was spitting tacks right in his face and could easily put four or five bullets in his chest in less than three seconds.

  “Must have been nice seeing your big brother again. That one who left you at the mercy of the system. You remember him, don’t you?” Sheriff Visser taunted, standing at the opposite end of the cabin’s worn and run down table, a cigarette hanging from his fingers, a lighter in his other hand. The table was at least six feet long and made of solid wood, but looked like it had seen one too many termites in its day, with the legs and sides full of holes.

  I guess you could say it matched the décor of the place—torn shreds of what looked like T-shirts being used as curtains, and a sofa that had the stuffing of the arm picked out so much you could see the wooden frame protruding. There were also cobwebs everywhere, and broken floorboards that led to God knows where. The place was one I could only imagine people would ever stop to rest in, never to actually stay. I was pretty sure the roof could collapse at any moment.

  “That’s what I’m here to discuss with you…” Romeo growled through clenched teeth. “What’s it gonna take for you to stay the hell away from them?”

  My finger moved to the trigger of my gun—my spare fucking gun because my normal one was in Romeo’s fucking hand—I was ready to put a fucking bullet hole in this bastard, and it would only take me one shot from right here. This could all be over. It could be all done with, and we move on.

  “No,” Blizzard hissed, standing across from me. I could just see his face in the light from the cabin window. He was staring me down shaking his head.

  It took every tiny fucking bit of self control inside of me not to raise my gun right then and put a bullet through his fucking skull. But part of being a member of the club was respecting my VP and trusting he had my best interests in mind when he ordered me to do something.

  The sheriff tilted his head just slightly. “Well
, this is new, you offering to do whatever it takes for him,” Sheriff Visser noted as if he were surprised. “The golden boy. The one your parents favor—”

  “You don’t fucking know him,” Romeo roared, slamming his palms on the worn table, and like I expected, sending it crumbling to the floor, the legs snapping like rotten twigs.

  Still the sheriff barely even blinked at the noise and threat of harm toward him. Instead, the first show of emotion appeared, a pull in the corner of his mouth. “Let’s not pretend like at some point you despised him. Hated that your mom and dad always fought so hard to help him get where he needed to be while you struggled in school, fought just to make average grades.”

  I could kill him.

  I wanted to kill him.

  “So family fights sometimes,” Romeo threw back, seemingly unfazed by the sheriff’s words. “I hate that his hair is nicer than mine, too, but he’s still my fucking brother.”

  The sheriff flicked his thumb across the lighter in his hand as if he was considering lighting his cigarette but couldn’t decide. Or maybe it was just a nervous habit, one he’d done well concealing. “Well, may as well let you in on this little secret now,” Sheriff Visser announced, lifting his chin just slightly, letting me know he was about to drop a bomb, and one he was fucking proud as hell of. “I do know your big brother. He fought hard to get you and little Ophelia back, but when you fell into my lap… the spiteful and angry little shithead teen you were… I knew instantly you’d be an asset to me.”

  My entire body went cold like I’d been struck by an ice storm.

  “The hell are you talking about?” Romeo demanded, his voice breaking as he stepped forward. The wood from the table snapped under the weight of his heavy boots, and he fell just to the side as if he was too weak to clamber over the splintered mess. Romeo’s eyes blazed, his nose flared as he continued to point the weapon. “Tell me!”

  His finger brushed against the trigger, and my heart leaped up into my throat. The sheriff still held his ground, his face not changing, his body tall and stoic. He was a fucking robot. He had no emotions. No feelings. And that thought was reinforced by what he said next. “I knew you’d do as well as you did. Earn the respect that you earned. You were a fighter. We were willing not to follow the rules, and if I’d let Hamlet win those cases, I would have lost a prized possession.”

  Time ticked by, I could hear it in my ears.

  One second.

  Two seconds.

  Three seconds.

  Fou—

  “You bribed the judge?” Romeo accused, his eyes glazing over as if everything we’d been through, every moment of the past six years could have possibly been different had it not been for this man. I could practically see him running through the screen in Romeo’s head, playing each event, each time where we needed our family, each time where he was forced to do something he didn’t want to.

  Everything in me burned.

  I wanted to take back those years he’d stolen from me.

  I wanted that time back.

  Time that he stole from me, that he’d ripped away from all three of us when we needed each other the most. We were all grieving, all dealing with one of the most stressful and painful events that could ever happen in our lives, and we had to each do it all alone because this asshole wanted a bum boy?

  Hell no.

  “You bastard!”

  Bang.

  Romeo, stumbled backward barely catching his footing.

  I wondered for a moment if he was drunk with the way he was acting.

  “Go!” Blizzard hissed. My boots skidded on the loose ground, dirt and leaves making me slip as I fought to get enough traction to get to the front door of the cabin. The gloves I had on made it hard to turn the handle, or maybe it was just the fact that I wasn’t quite able to process what was happening. What this guy had said. This wasn’t just about having someone do his dirty work, this was about Visser destroying Romeo’s life.

  That was what he set out to do—to ruin him.

  I finally tugged the door open, only to find Visser on the dirty, broken floor and my own gun pointed at my face and the door slamming shut behind me. Visser was holding his shoulder just above his heart, writhing in pain, twisting and turning. And laughing, he was fucking laughing. The man who showed no emotion, finally breaking.

  “He did this to us,” Romeo roared rushing forward. Ignoring the maniac on the floor, I pushed in front of him, holding him back, knowing we couldn’t rush this. We needed a plan to deal with this situation that was now getting way out of hand.

  There’d been too many gunshots.

  Someone would have questioned them by now.

  Did we leave this asshole alive, or did we kill him, and drag his body back down the mountain to do with as we pleased? “He can’t hurt us anymore,” I said, trying to be the calm, collected one when my body screamed at me to turn the hell around and beat the shit out the guy who I now knew stole the last six years of my life. “We need to clean up this mess, though.”

  Romeo’s eyes moved to my gun he was holding in his hand, his eyes squinting as if he was having trouble seeing it.

  “So we need to figure out right now what is goi…” I paused. Sniffing the air. I was finding it hard to breathe, my head feeling like it was lifting off my shoulders. “What’s that smell?”

  Our eyes met, the both of us inhaling, the strange smell. I started to choke. It was getting thicker, and the thicker it got, the more I realized what the smell was.

  “Gas. It’s fucking gas,” Romeo spluttered, pulling his hoodie to cover his mouth.

  Sheriff Visser coughed a deep throaty cough that was followed right up by more laughter. When I looked over my shoulder, ready to make a run for the door which was on the other side of him, I froze. The lighter he’d been flicking what I thought was unconsciously, he was now holding in the air.

  Flick.

  He’d been slowly filling the cabin with gas.

  It explained why Romeo had slowly been losing his ability to focus, the gas affecting his senses.

  “Too bad you won’t live to find Eliza,” Sheriff Visser taunted, his face pale and his breathing slow.

  Flick.

  He was trying to blow us up.

  “What the hell do you mean?” Romeo demanded, taking a step forward, taking the bait Visser was laying down. “What did you do to her?” he yelled.

  I ran at Romeo. Hitting him with my shoulder and forcing him back, the only escape that didn’t include us getting closer to the explosion Visser was trying to set off was the bedroom behind us.

  His thumb was moving for the lighter again. The gas in the house was becoming too thick.

  It was like now I was seeing what was really going on.

  There were boards, new ones, nailed into the walls in places where there may have been holes or leaks. There was tape around the windows, and towels laid across the bottom of doors to keep the gas from escaping.

  This was his plan.

  I hit Romeo so hard that the both of us couldn’t keep our footing, our bodies and minds already struggling with the lack of oxygen in the room. We flew into the makeshift bedroom, and somehow, I scrambled across the floor to slam the door shut.

  Flick.

  Nothing.

  Trying to climb to my feet, I focused on the window. It was boarded up. But we could—

  Flick.

  WOOSH.

  The bedroom door was the first thing to go, flying off its hinges and slamming into my brother’s back before flipping into the air. He roared in pain, my gun falling from his hand and clattering across the floor.

  It wasn’t the bang I was expecting.

  Like the explosions you see in movies where the roof flies off in a blaze of glory, and there’s this almost satisfying boom that accompanied it.

  Then came the heat, it was like nothing I’d ever experienced before and instantly the fire was climbing the walls where we’d just been standing less than half a minute ago. Like a
parasite it ate away, swallowing the walls in its blaze.

  Romeo and I tried to get as far away from the doorway as possible, my face and my leather feeling like it was fucking melting off my body.

  At first, I was thankful thinking that the stone had saved our asses—the bedroom being that one-third of the cabin which was still the original stone they had built the house with. Then I realized that wasn’t the case because we’d put ourselves into a fucking stone oven which was quickly beginning to heat up.

  I couldn’t breathe, the strange thick dark smoke was swiftly filling the room with no escape. That bastard sealed everything. He wanted this cabin to be like a fucking coffin, and he was willing to go down with it. That’s the point where you know someone has made too many shitty life choices. He knew if he survived this, Romeo would have already talked, and it would have only taken a few words from the club for not just the criminals, but also law enforcement to know who he was and come after him looking for blood.

  He was going to take Romeo out with him.

  The bastard wasn’t going down alone.

  “We have… to get out,” Romeo yelled, trying to pull himself across the floor to me.

  I tried to cover my mouth and take a breath, but even that was already a struggle. The air was too hot, it felt like it was burning my lungs. “Window,” I managed to yell. My brothers were outside. I knew they would be surrounding the place waiting for some kind of sign if they weren’t already trying to get in.

  Romeo looked up and spotted the window that had boards over it, and without a second to think, pulled his entire hood over his face and pushed his weak body up into the heat and thick smoke. Reaching out, he grabbed one of the boards, roaring as he fought to pull it from where it had been nailed.

  “Fuck,” I choked, leaping to my feet and trying to fight my burning eyes, grabbing the other side of the board and pulling it with him. On the second pull, it came flying off, throwing us both backward and onto the floor. My entire body ached, it burned, and my head told me it was okay.

  Just lay down.