by Sam Crescent
Hardy walked away, leaving her alone.
She looked over toward the table to see the women were still laughing and giggling. Butch was typing something on his cell phone, and Tiny was watching him. Eva didn’t want to know what was going on between them. She didn’t believe what they were doing. It was too dangerous.
Leaving the clubhouse, she walked toward Rose.
“Hi,” Rose said.
“Hi,” Eva replied, sitting on the swing beside her. “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing okay. I’m going to get there. It’s just going to take time.” Rose held onto the swing and started to move backward and forwards.
“Do you love Hardy?”
“Yes. I love him. I love him so much that it hurts to know what he did.” Rose stopped talking.
She watched the other woman take a few indrawn breaths.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want. I won’t hold it against you.”
“No, it’s okay. I know Hardy is worried about me. This is the longest time I’ve kept him at arms’-length. I moved into the spare bedroom.”
“You were both strong. What happened?”
Eva had admired the strong connection between the couple. Rose was completely devoted to Hardy and vice versa. Finding out it wasn’t the case, shocked Eva.
“With everything that’s been happening with the girls losing kids and the attacks, I started to think about everything that happened before. It opened up a wound I thought had healed over, the wound he created. I guess I was wrong.”
Kicking off the pavement, Eva started to swing backward and forward. Rose followed suit.
“Do you think you’re going to divorce him?”
“I don’t know. Part of me thinks it’s best, and another part of me hates the thought of leaving him. I love him. It has been ten years. I shouldn’t be holding it against him.”
Watching the children play, Eva waited for the other woman to talk.
“What do you think I should do?” Rose asked.
Glancing at her, Eva shook her head. “No, this is not my decision. I’m not going to tell you what to do. Hardy is your man. This decision is yours to make.”
“You’re not helping me.”
Eva chuckled. “This is not something to help you with. This is between you and Hardy. It may have been ten years since it happened, but it’s still raw. You’re going to have to decide what to do.”
For several moments neither of them talked.
“I’m scared,” Rose said.
“Of what?”
“Making the wrong decision and living to regret it. There are times we’re together that I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else but him. I love him, Eva.”
“Then you’re going to have to make it work. I know it’s difficult. Love and life are always difficult.”
Stopping the swing from moving, Eva saw Hardy making his way toward them.
“They’re waiting for you,” he said.
Nodding, she gave Rose a smile then turned away. “Take care of her,” she said as she passed Hardy.
Entering the clubhouse, she found Tiny waiting for her.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
She went into his arms, loving the heat and warmth of him as he surrounded her. “I honestly don’t know. They’ve got a lot of pain to live through. She may divorce him.”
“It seems crazy, doesn’t it? Two people we thought were deeply in love are slowly crumbling around us.”
Eva couldn’t argue with him. “Come on, let’s go and finish making wedding plans.”
“These plans can be put into effect after we kill Gonzalez.”
“I know.”
“You’re not angry with what we’re doing?” he asked.
Glancing behind her to see Hardy embracing his woman, Eva knew Tiny had a lot to deal with. “No, I don’t have a problem. You’ll do what is good for the club, and I’ll trust what you do rather than anyone else.”
She pushed past him walking into the club to finish making plans. When was Gonzalez going to make his move? She was getting tired of waiting.
Chapter Ten
Butch pushed past Dalton to make his way toward the sitting room. Lacey was looking out of the window, and Danny was sat at a table rolling a cigarette.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Butch asked.
The other men in the room grew quiet as he directed his anger at Lacey. She turned around to glare at him. “What?”
“Whizz, he’s not part of this. I’ve agreed to feed you fucking information, and this is how you repay me? By going to him, giving him hope.”
“This is none of your business,” she said, folding her arms.
He’d been trying to get hold of Danny all day long. The bastard wasn’t responding to any texts, and he’d not been able to get away from the club until Cheryl went to work. This was his first chance since finding out that Whizz had met a girl known as Lacey. He was pissed. The Savage Brothers were only supposed to be in town for as long as Gonzalez was in their lives.
“None of my business? Whizz is one of my brothers. He’s been through enough, and he doesn’t need you to open up old wounds. What are you doing playing with him?”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Danny asked, getting to his feet.
“She’s been meeting up with Whizz in the café in town,” Butch said without breaking eye contact with her. “We had a deal. I’ll feed you Gonzalez information, but The Skulls are off the record. You do nothing to them.”
“What’s going on, Lacey?” Danny asked.
“I went out for a walk. I got thirsty and stopped in a café, end of story.” She didn’t look away from him either.
“No, it’s not end of story. Whizz is not part of the deal. You stay away from him. He’s been through enough already. Having you there, it’s only going to hurt and confuse him.”
Butch saw the pain in her eyes.
“I’m not doing anything wrong, and you need to back off before you get someone hurt. This is no concern of yours. I’m not part of your club, so don’t think you can order me the fuck around.”
He stared at her. Lacey’s arms were folded over her chest showing off her ink covered arms. Whizz and Lacey were two people with damaged pasts. He didn’t trust her, no matter who she was.
“Do you know about this shit?” Danny asked, voicing his question to Dalton.
“Yes. I followed her. She didn’t mean anything by it.”
Lacey glanced at Dalton, shooting him a glare. What was she upset about?
“I don’t care what happens. You stay away from Whizz or I’m done. I’m not feeding information for you to hurt my club.” Butch pointed a finger at Lacey.
“We were your club once,” Danny said.
“All of us know I’ve not been a Savage Brother in a long time. I gave up that title when I started working for Tiny. I’m helping you because you deserve the chance to take your revenge. I’m not helping any more than that.”
Butch stared at her for several more seconds before pulling away and going outside. His cell phone buzzed the moment he exited the building. Seeing Gonzalez’s name light up the screen, his gut dropped. The Skulls were slowly gaining ground over men Gonzalez had put in place to hurt them. He couldn’t wait until it was all over.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hey. I’ve got a job for you and The Skulls. It’s important and requires a delivery.” Listening to the instructions, Butch didn’t like it. One delivery before the wedding. What was the catch? Butch didn’t know what the catch was.
“Why are you phoning me and not Tiny?” Butch asked.
“Tiny knows about the delivery. He’s agreed, and the Chaos Bleeds crew is going with him. What I want for you to do is make sure they stay away. I don’t want them back in Fort Wills for the night.”
Butch didn’t like this.
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
“Good man. You see, Butch, we’re going to be good to
gether. You’ll see it in no time.”
“What are you going to do?” Butch asked.
“I’m making plans, Butch. I can’t trust you completely yet, but there’ll be time for that soon. I know we can’t meet each other until I come down for the wedding. Don’t worry, I’ll bring you up to speed with what I’ve got going on when we see each other next.” Gonzalez hung up the phone.
Gritting his teeth, Butch hated Gonzalez’s voice. The Italian accent was really starting to grate on his nerves.
Typing in Alex’s number, he pressed the cell to his ear and waited for the other man to answer.
“What’s going on?”
“Gonzalez wants me to keep the crew out of Fort Wills overnight. He didn’t say why.”
“What did he say?”
“That he couldn’t trust me with what he has planned. He’s coming for the wedding, and he’s going to bring me up to speed on everything he’s got planned. I don’t like this, Alex. He’s going to do something while we’re out of town.”
Alex cursed. “I knew this wasn’t an easy fucking run.”
Walking in the direction of the florist, Butch listened as Alex cursed down the line.
“I’ll deal with it.”
In the next moment, Alex hung up.
Entering the florist, Butch watched his woman serve a customer. What the hell was he going to do? Between working for Alex against Gonzalez and feeding the Savage Brothers information, he was slowly losing himself. He didn’t know what to say or do. His club was starting to notice that he was falling apart.
Hearing Whizz say Lacey’s name, he’d started to feel his world shatter around him. He couldn’t let anything bad happen, no matter what.
****
“What the fuck was that?” Danny asked, yelling.
Lacey was shaking inside. She couldn’t let anyone see what was going on. For the last couple of days she’d forced herself not to go to Whizz. It was breaking her apart, but she made sure not to leave the house.
“It’s nothing.”
“It sure as fuck doesn’t sound like nothing to me.” Danny stood right in front of her. His entire body shook with rage. “We’re here for revenge, Lacey. We’re not here to make a fucking family and settle down to become part of the shit—”
“I know that. You don’t think I know how important this entire fucking operation to you is? This is all you’ve been working toward, Danny. Getting revenge on Gonzalez is all you care about.”
“There was a time it mattered to you,” Dalton said.
Turning to look at her friend, she saw the pain in his eyes.
“It doesn’t matter what we all want. The real man who set about hurting and killing us is dead. We’re still only accepting second best in taking out his son.” She pushed past them.
“Where are you going?” Danny asked, following her. The rest of the club stayed seated.
She ignored all of them, heading toward the door. “Out!”
“You going to see Whizz again?”
Grabbing the jacket, she placed her hand on the door. Danny caught hold of her making her yelp. No one touched her apart from Dalton and Whizz.
“Danny, let her go,” Dalton said.
“No, I’m not letting her go until she answers our fucking questions. I’m done with letting shit slide. We’re here for one thing and that’s to get revenge on the bastard who tried to destroy us. We’re not dead, and I’m not going to let you get away with ruining our chance.”
“Get the fuck off me,” Lacey said.
He tightened his grip around her wrists.
She panicked and then focused on the pain he was inflicting.
“Danny!”
Drawing her knee up, she slammed him in the balls. Danny dropped her hands instantly. Bringing her hand back into a fist, she punched him in the face. “Don’t fucking touch me again,” she said, yelling.
“Lacey?” Dalton asked.
She didn’t stay around to talk. Opening the front door, she charged out into the sunlight. Putting the jacket on, she ignored Dalton’s call.
Right now she didn’t need to hear what they had to say. Her entire body was shaking. Danny had never touched her in anger before. In fact, no one had ever touched her other than Dalton.
Putting the hood up over her head, she folded her arms and moved away from the house they were all cooped up in. The house was starting to get to each of them. She knew Danny didn’t mean anything bad by what he did. He hated that they all had to wait to get revenge. Gonzalez had taken from all of them, and yet he was still walking around, causing death and pain wherever he went.
She stopped outside of the Fort Wills graveyard. Holding onto the rail, she stared at all of the gravestones, marking someone’s name and relation in the world.
Going to the open gate, she slid inside. In the far corner she saw a grave that was covered over by a tent of some kind. Ignoring it, she moved toward the bench in the opposite direction. The surrounding trees and bushes provided enough shelter for her to not be seen.
Lacey placed her hands out in front of her and saw them shake.
Flicking them out, she tried to force the shaking out of her hands.
Crap, she needed to go back home and apologize to Danny. She’d kneed him in the nuts, and that wasn’t going to go down well for him. He wouldn’t hit her, but he’d be pissed and in pain.
Leaning her arms on her knees, she held her head in her hands.
Fucked up.
She wished there was something else she could do to take away the pain that this revenge was opening up. The whole club seemed to think that once they killed Gonzalez it would be like a magical switch where they were all better. Lacey wasn’t under any illusion. She knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as others made it sound. When she was around Whizz, he made her forget everything else and simply focus on him. He didn’t deserve to be in any kind of pain.
“I thought that was you,” Whizz said, taking a seat beside her.
“What?”
“I was passing by when I saw you. The jacket is the key. It makes it all look distinctive. The jacket lady.”
She laughed.
Whizz rested with his arms spread out along the back of the bench. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just had a falling out with my family.”
“I didn’t know you had a family.”
“It’s a selected family. We’re not going to be around for long. We’re only here for a short time. When we’ve done what we need to do then we’re leaving.” She didn’t like the thought of leaving.
“You’re going to leave then.”
“Yeah, not for a few months yet. We’re waiting for something.” Running fingers through her hair, she shook her head. “Forget I said anything.”
“No, I like listening to you talk. I’ve been thinking about you,” he said.
Jerking to the side, she turned to look at him.
“Why?”
“You made an impact on my life, and now I can’t stop thinking about you. You’re in here now.” He pointed at his head.
Should she tell him that he’d been in her head?
“What do you want me to say?” she asked.
“Nothing. I don’t want you to say anything.” For several minutes they sat at the graveyard where so many people were laid to rest for others to remember. It had been years since she went to visit her parents and brother. They were laid to rest along with all of the Savage Brothers MC. There weren’t any marked graves, simply the remains of the building that once used to be their clubhouse.
“Do you want to go for a walk with me?” Whizz asked.
“No, it’s okay.” She couldn’t risk being seen by Butch. Lacey got the feeling Butch would ruin the club’s chance of revenge. She didn’t agree with what they were doing to Butch, but she knew they deserved a chance to find some solace.
“We don’t have to go walking through town. I can see you don’t want a lot of people around you.”
&nb
sp; “How?” she asked.
“Spending your time at a graveyard gives away you want some privacy.”
What harm would it do to walk with him a little while? He took hold of her hand. Together they walked out of the graveyard. Lacey wasn’t scared as they took off in the direction away from town.
Her hand was nice and warm within his. She closed her eyes for seconds just enjoying the feel of his hand around hers.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes, this is nice. Different, but nice.”
“I like taking walks. They help to clear my head when nothing else will.”
“Do you still get nightmares?” she asked, running her thumb over the scar of his palm.
He squeezed her hand and didn’t answer. They started to walk along a dark alleyway. Whizz made her feel safe, happy. He tugged her toward the wall and stopped.
“What are you doing?” she asked. He caught her hand above her head.
“Who are you?” His question caught her off guard.
“I told you I’m Lacey.”
“Lacey who?”
She shook her head. “This is not how this works, Whizz. I’m not going to give you my name so you can run a check on me.”
“What makes you think I’m going to run anything on you?”
“I saw the way you were with that laptop and your name. I bet you’ve got a thing for computers and know your way around anything, even a government system filled with identities. I’m not an idiot.” He held her trapped against the wall, and yet she wasn’t frightened. Whizz wouldn’t hurt her.
She licked her lips, and she noticed his gaze dropped to the action.
“I’m going to find out who you are.”
They were alone down a dark alley. She was an idiot for being pulled out of the open.
“Then continue trying to find answers. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
Whizz stared at her lips then returned his gaze back to her eyes. The tension inside him changed. Heat flooded her pussy at the way he was staring at her.
The distance between them grew less as he got closer. Within the next second, his lips were on hers.