Lady Sings the Blues

by Sarah Zolton Arthur

No matter how badly I want to heed my own advice, the fact remains there is a heart in the box. Who expects to see a heart, a real live heart, in a box? And since I don’t know enough about anatomy, I have no clue if it’s human or animal. All I do know is whoever left the box left a note inside.

  You cut out my heart, now I cut yours.

  The box stays, I run. Back to my office immediately, dialing 911. Dispatch tells me to lock my office door until officers can get to me, which sounds like a plan. She stays on the line as I’m obviously scared out of my pants. And since this is a smallish town, it doesn’t take long until the shrill of police sirens can be heard outside.

  From there it’s even less time when I hear Tommy call out, “Elise? Elise you here?”

  Safety. What a feeling. I could cry I’m so happy. Unlocking and throwing open the door, I yell, “In here, Tommy.” Then end the call with dispatch.

  Four uniforms stand in the main room of the club. Tommy reaches me, wrapping me first in a friend hug before ever going into cop mode. “In the box,” I whisper into his chest.

  This would be when he morphs from Tommy Doyle friend to Tommy Doyle cop. Using gloves, which I did not use, he lifts the lid on the box muttering, “shit” when he gets a good look at what’s inside. “Why’re you here by yourself? What was Boss thinking letting you here alone?” And I can tell he’s not really asking me but more speaking his frustration out loud. Until he’s speaking them into the receiver of his cell. Beau’s booming meltdown comes through loud and clear.

  Tommy’s busy going over my statement for the third time when Beau shoves his way in, and he looks so pissed. But despite that, he folds himself around me holding me tight, full body to full body.

  “Sorry,” I speak against his neck.

  “What’re you sorry for, darlin’?”

  “You look pissed. Lately you get pissed, I get blamed.”

  And I chance a look in his eyes. The love I see there keeps me transfixed.

  “Hell yeah I’m pissed.” Beau’s words have passion but lack the anger I’d been worried about. “But not at you, baby girl. I’m pissed that someone did this to you. I’m pissed that no one was here to protect you. I’m pissed at myself for droppin’ the ball with you.”

  “I’m scared.” I admit to him.

  At my admission, he hugs me tighter. The short bursts of air he forces so heavy through his nose start to draw out and become softer, as he calms down.

  “Won’t happen again. With my life, I promise it won’t happen again.” He touches his forehead against mine briefly before dropping delicate kisses on my cheeks, forehead, chin and then finally my lips.

  We both turn our heads to the sound of Clint’s voice yelling. “What the fuck?”

  At the same time who I assume to be Shep shows up muttering, “Holy hell.” And then there’s the rumble of bike engines in the background. It looks like the gang’s all here.

  “Can’t have ‘em inside yet, Boss. Crime scene,” Tommy tells him.

  “Gotcha. Shep, Clint. Outside.” There’s no way I’ll let go of Beau, but thankfully, no way is he letting go of me either. Linking our fingers, he leads me out into the parking lot where Shep, Clint, the bartenders and several Lords including Duke, Scotch, Blood, Levi and to my surprise Chaos wait for us.

  I look at Chaos, bruised chin and all, before anyone and tell him outright, “I didn’t do anything this time. It wasn’t my fault.” At my words he flinches as if I’d struck him.

  “Elise,” he starts, but I hold my hand up to stop him.

  “I just wanted you to know, is all.” Then I bury my face against Beau’s shoulder soaking up his warmth and protection. His arms, one around my waist and one around the back of my neck hold me so tenderly I almost break down.

  Almost.

  But I can’t, not here, not now in front of all these men. I’m a Lord old lady. Time to prove my mettle. I vow to do this by not only not crying, but shifting in Beau’s arms to look each man in the eye, speaking clearly and confidently. “I was in my office working, filling out paperwork the whole time. I didn’t do anything stupid.”

  Surprisingly, Duke is the first to speak up. “Elise doesn’t leave the compound without protection.” Then he looks at our bouncers. “Someone is always on her at the club. Until this shit ends, and know it now, it will end soon, she needs to pee you clear the restroom and stand outside the stall until she’s done.”

  “That’s hardly necessary.” I try to protest.

  While Clint tells him, “Got it” with a curt head nod.

  “Elise sweetheart,” Duke continues. “Boss claimed you as his old lady which makes you Brimstone. But when he slipped that ring on your finger that elevated you to an entirely different level. We take care of our own, but go after a wife or kid, that brings a wrath forged in hell. Whoever did this will pay, and pay dearly. Can you handle that?”

  Without delay I nod my head. “Yes.”

  Beau told me when shit got real they handled it.

  Shit can’t get more real than a heart in a box.

  “Levi.” Beau orders. “Check with Tommy. See if she’s cleared to go. Grab her purse from her office.”

  “On it,” Levi answers quickly, then takes off inside the club.

  “Are you taking me?” I ask Beau quietly. “He’s on his bike.”

  “Yes ma’am. But he’ll come too because I need to be back here talkin’ to Tommy. From here on out, when I’m not with you he’s got Elise duty.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay? Thought you’d at least argue with me a bit.”

  “Baby, someone left me a heart in a box with a note saying they we’re going to cut mine out. After just getting engaged this morning, I’d like to live to see my wedding day, and I’d like to be around to give you those hypothetical children un-hypothetically.”

  He turns me in his arms again to face him, tugging my hair gently to tilt my chin up. With his other hand copping a feel on my bottom, he kisses me full on the mouth deep, long and heavy in front of all his brothers. Surprisingly to no catcalls. It’s not lost on any of them what went down today.

  19.

  Beau

  She’s naked underneath me, movin’, gripping the sheets, bitin’ her bottom lip to keep from screaming out my name again. It might be our fourth time today, and I know I have to give her body a rest, but takin’ her tonight means she’s alive and unhurt. We went through so much to finally be together. Now is the time we’re supposed to get our happy. What he almost took from us, being by herself, anything could have happened.

  Thankfully the douchebag only dropped off the box, but just knowin’ he could’ve gotten to her, I could hardly think straight, which Elise was in tune to. When I got back tonight after droppin’ her off at the clubhouse and heading back to Tommy and my brothers at Slick so we could attempt to figure shit out, she sought to calm me down by bringing me to our bed and makin’ love to me.

  It works. Just as she knew it would. As she comes, I let go right along with her. Collapsing onto my back after my breathing calms down, and pullin’ Elise over to tuck under my arm.

  “You were brave today.” I speak against the skin of her cheek after placing a kiss there.

  “I was scared.” She counters.

  “Bravery ain’t the absence of fear, you know that. I’m so damn proud of you.”

  “But I should have told you about the pranks.”

  “Fuck, yeah. You should’ve. But if I hadn’t been a dick to you that mornin’, maybe you would’ve.”

  Her kiss to my neck, I take as my answer. Then tilting her head to look up at me with those shimmering topaz eyes, she smiles. And this smile she fills so of love and hope, it takes my breath away. “Why don’t we go on a real date tomorrow night?” She says. “We can go to the city, whichever city you want. But let’s go, forget just for a night. What do you think?”

  “Darlin’, you keep smilin’ at me like that, you could get me to storm the gates of hell and spit in the face
of the devil, himself. That’s a mighty powerful weapon you got spread across those lips.”

  “I take it’s a yes?”

  “The boys’ll think I’m crazy, what with all that’s goin’ down, but Duke’ll understand. And if Duke does, the boys will eventually.”

  My woman moves her head, tearing that smile away from me but replacing it by snuggling her cheek against my chest, arm slung around my middle, bare breast pressed against my ribs. Sighing as she snuggles once more. “I love you, Beau Hollister.”

  All the day’s shit gets washed away with those five words.

  Once she closes her eyes, it don’t take long for sleep to catch up. Been a pretty exhaustive day so I can’t blame her for crashing. As for me, not sure I’ll ever find sleep again. Even though she’s safest here, no safer place for her, when I close my eyes I see that note and everything, everything I could’ve lost today comes hurtling back at me. Instead I hold her close, always on alert. Her own private sentry standing guard even if I’m layin’ down to do it.

  Middle of the night, clock says three a.m., I been watchin’ her sleep for a while, twisting tendrils of her hair around my finger and untwisting them gently. Strokin’ the side of her head. Someone has the nerve to disturb us, knockin’ lightly on the door. Then displaying his death wish, Carver shoots his head into the room, just his head between the door and jamb.

  “I know.” He cuts off before I go at him. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t important. You gotta come see this Boss. Has to do with the Elise situation. Toby just got home from closing down Lady’s. He found it at the gate… You just better come see.”

  Then he ducks out, closing the door behind him. With a kiss to her temple, I extract myself from her hold, from our bed. She rolls over on her side, using my pillow as a body pillow but don’t stir. Knowin’ she’ll be fine, I shrug into my jeans from last night, pull a T-shirt over my head and slip on my boots before I head out to the common, makin’ sure to close the door quietly behind me. Don’t want one of my brothers to accidentally see her gorgeous body naked while she’s sleeping.

  They’re all waitin’ for me in the common. And not a one of them looks happy.

  “What?” I ask. “What am I missin’?”

  Duke, of all people, walks up layin’ a hand to my shoulder. “We got a message tonight.”

  “A message?” My eyebrows pull together.

  “Brother, you can’t freak out. Freaking out will not keep her safe. But I warn you, it’s pretty gruesome. Tommy’s been called.” He takes a long breath in then lets it out even slower. “Shit,” he says. And turns to walk out the front of the compound. I follow, my brothers filing in behind me. Somehow I feel more like a death row inmate taking his final walk than I do the VP of a motorcycle club.

  We keep walking past the rows of parked bikes and couple of pickups to the front gate. Blue and Blaze pull back the chain-link. Sitting in the middle of the drive there’s an old, metal, milk can. The kind dairies used to use at the turn of the last century to hold the milk they’d eventually fill the smaller glass jugs with. Waist high and equally as round, I'm not sure how anyone could have breached the compound to set this sucker down without one of us hearing.

  Duke hands me a pair of gloves. “Put these on first.”

  I slip them on just before unlatchin’ the lid and liftin’. “What the fuck?” Hand thrown to mouth, I stumble back attempting to reel in my shock and not vomit in front of my brothers. “Is… is that?”

  “Sorry Boss,” Carver says off to my side. “I wanted to warn you but you’d never have believed me. And you needed to see this before it gets tied up in red tape.”

  He’s right, I did need to see it. And he’s right, I’d never have believed it. Shayla McCrery, shoved inside the can filled with water. Pale and waterlogged. Who would believe this? She’d wanted Logan something fierce when we were in school. She was a hot little piece back then, probably would’ve had him for a time if Elise hadn’t shown up in front of the Whippy Dip that day. I’d hooked up with her a few times because, why not? A fact I’m painfully reminded of by the note floating next to her head. Sloppy Seconds. That’s all it says. That’s all it needs to say.

  “No one saw who dropped it off? Where were the prospects? Who was guardin’ the gate? Elise has to fuckin’ feel safe somewhere, and if we can’t make it here, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Blaze was taking a leak, and Blue heard something bothersome coming from further down the fence. He snuck away to check it out. The man was doing his job. And a man is allowed to relieve himself. This was in no way a fuckup.” Duke makes sure to remind me.

  It’s at this point sirens rip through the air, flashing red and blue lights up the nighttime sky. Tommy, along with several county sheriff deputies spill out of cruisers surrounding the entrance to the compound.

  He walks straight to me. “Got-dammit, Boss. What the hell is happening? Twice in one day?”

  “You think I want this? My fiancé was threatened this mornin’ and now there’s a dead woman in a milk can, a woman I’ve had sex with.”

  “Who is it, Boss?” he asks, this time more angry friend than police officer.

  “Pop the lid. Look for yourself. It’s bad though, man.” Tommy pulls on a pair of rubber gloves from a bag by his feet and pops the lid on the can, sucking in a sharp breath when he registers who’s inside.

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me,” he mutters to himself, shaking his head. “She was a bitch, especially to Maryanne, but she didn’t deserve this.”

  “No…she didn’t.”

  By now the sirens have woken up every hot mama or piece who spent the night, and Elise standing outside barefoot, with sex hair, shivering in nothing but my tee, being held back by Levi and Blood.

  “Beau?” she calls out. One terrified word.

  “Go to her,” Tommy tells me. “Just make sure I get your statement in the morning.”

  Don’t have to tell me twice. I take off feigning as much confidence as I can muster before reaching my woman.

  Levi and Blood move off to the side, allowin’ her passage, and when they do, she takes off full sprint, crashin’ against me. I immediately wrap my arms around her, using one hand to pet her hair while tryin’ to calm her down. “Shh… it’s okay, darlin’. You’re safe.”

  “What happened this time?” she cries into my shirt. “Another message for me, isn’t it?”

  “This one I’m afraid was for me, baby girl.”

  “What is it? I can’t tell from here. What was the message?”

  How do I tell her? I decide to just rip off the Band-Aid and tell it to her straight. “Shayla’s dead, darlin’.”

  Elise presses even closer at the news, but don’t say word one. So I give her the rest. “Stuffed in a milk can filled with water. She drowned. There was a note. It said… see, what you need to know is that she and I hooked up a few times. Nothin’ serious, just hookin’ up—”

  “What’d the note say, Beau?” she cuts me off.

  “Sloppy seconds.”

  She gasps, going stock still in my arms.

  “Baby girl?”

  “It was Houdini, wasn’t it?” she whispers, stifling a sob.

  “Why you think that?”

  “She drowned in a milk can. One of his most famous escapes.”

  That didn’t even register. I feared it might be him, but…

  “And, he called me sloppy seconds. In the cemetery, remember?”

  Shit. No, with everything going down, that’s something I did not remember.

  “Why is he coming after you? Why me? What’d we do, Beau?”

  I don’t know how to answer her, and it makes me even more pissed off. We take off walking back inside the compound, my arm around Elise as we move through the common back to our room. I kick my boots off and drop my jeans using only one hand, because I refuse to let go of her. Then I climb back in bed, and tug to bring her down on top of me.

  Carefully, I rip my tee up over my head
and peel away the one she’s wearing until we’re skin to skin, and tuck the blankets around us like a cocoon. No barriers between us. I know she’s scared, hell who wouldn’t be?

  For a good long while she holds tight onto me, her body trembling. Seems like she trembles for hours, neither of us finding sleep. Now though, she finally begins to settle, and neither of us has spoken in all this time.

  It’s time. “I don’t want you goin’ into work today, darlin’. Please don’t argue with me. I know we can’t let this control our lives, but it is for now. Two attacks yesterday. A woman’s dead. Stay here.”

  “I’ll stay home. Call Clint, have him stop by to get the key. I don’t want those girls left alone for any reason while they’re setting up.”

  “I’m right there with you.” Then I lean down and kiss Elise with everything I have in me. Don’t even try to hold back the emotion. Not today.

  With both hands, she rests them against my bare chest, pressin’ her lips harder against mine as I continue to hold her. Not holdin’ back her emotion, either.

  “All I ever did was love you, Beau,” she says after she breaks away from my lips. She glides her hand from her tattoo over my heart to hold my cheek in her hand. “And I don’t regret that. Not for one minute. Just…when do I get the chance to really show you? To give you the home you want?”

  “One thing you need to remember. As long as I have you and you’re safe. As long as we’re together, I am home. You’re my home, Elise. No matter where we end up in the world, you stick by my side, and I’m home. We’ll work on normal, on that weddin’ and babies when all this has settled down. But I’m always home with you, darlin’.”

  “Do you think Logan cursed us or something?”

  I bark out an easy laugh. “No, I don’t think he’s cursed us. I just think some jackoff is usin’ him against us. Someone knows our history and is takin’ advantage.”

  One rap on the door cuts our conversation. It opens and Duke strides in, as I make sure the blankets are tucked securely around my woman. He stops next to the bed. “Heard voices, knew you’re up.”