I tried to remind myself it was only for a few months and that I could still come and visit on the weekends if I wanted, and that Kit would be coming to see me as often as his presidential duties allowed. But as soon as I walked out the clubhouse doors, my body itched to just walk back inside and say screw it all.
“Lift is going to drive you up there and stay a couple days. The guys riding beside you will just ride up and head straight back.” I nodded as I stood next to Kit’s truck. He hooked his finger under my chin, forcing me to look up at him. I was rewarded with a gorgeous smile which I couldn’t help but mirror. “You’ll be okay, the boys have you covered.”
“I know.”
While the threat of Daniel still hung in the air, Kit wasn’t taking any chances. Along with me and Lift in the truck, there were four bikes riding with us. I hoped like hell this was just him going into overkill and things weren’t about to escalate to a place where having five men on me was a necessity. But I guess anything is possible, and covering all our bases was a necessary evil.
“Go on.” He helped to hoist me into the truck where Lift sat grinning in the driver’s seat. Kit stepped up and leaned in, eyeing the young guy with a glare so intense I was actually quite shocked that Lift didn’t instantly burst into flames. “You guard her with your God damn life. You hear me?”
“Yeah, Prez,” Lift said quickly with a sharp nod.
Kit kissed my forehead. “I’ll call you tonight, baby.”
With the door slammed shut, Lift wasted no time in pulling from the clubhouse carpark and heading toward the highway. The first half an hour or so was quiet, the only sounds were the soft music of the stereo and the rumble of the Harleys that surrounded us.
“I thought about studying once,” Lift said as he stared straight ahead, watching the road carefully.
“Oh yeah? What did you want to study?” I asked. Lift intrigued me. He was young, maybe nineteen or twenty. But his mind seemed much older than his age. He was smart, so smart.
“You have to promise not to laugh,” he said, eyeing me cautiously.
I smiled. “Not sure I can make that promise, Lift.”
He grinned. “I wanted to be a pilot.”
“Why would I laugh at that?”
He shrugged. “I dunno, it’s just really different than being a part of an MC.”
“It is, but it’s still an excellent job. What happened to stop you from going after that?”
He sighed. “My parents were killed a few years back. Drunk driver. I was in the backseat. To be a pilot you have to have perfect vision. When the drunk guy hit us, I got glass in my eye. It doesn’t affect my sight much, but just enough that I couldn’t pass the tests I needed to in order to get into flight school.”
My eyes softened. “Wow, I’m really sorry about your parents.”
“Yeah, they were pretty cool, you know? I didn’t have any other family apart from them and I wasn’t eighteen yet, so they threw me into foster care. It was hell.” He gripped the steering wheel tightly for a minute before his body relaxed again and I caught a smile. “Doesn’t matter now though, if I hadn’t gone through all that crap I wouldn’t have joined the Brothers by Blood. Now I feel like I have a place again.”
“You do,” I reassured him. “You have more family than you’ll ever know. I’m sorry about what happened to you, but I’m glad you found the club.”
His face beamed, his broad smile lighting his face up like a Christmas tree. “Me too.”
“Hey Optimus, I need to shoot into the College and pick up a couple lessons and tests that I missed.”
He turned from the bar and nodded. “Someone will have to go with you.”
“I’ll take her.”
My stomach instantly turned hearing the voice behind me. I’d managed to avoid Target since I’d been back. I wanted to keep it that way, but I knew I would have to be in his presence at some point.
Optimus frowned, knowing that I was uncomfortable being around him.
“The rest of the guys have gone out and Leo should be back from that run soon. You’ll want to catch up with him when he gets here,” Target explained, walking around the bar and lifting a pair of car keys from the hanger.
Fuck! Did I wish I’d taken Lift up on his offer to have him stay a few extra days. But I knew he was itching to get back to Kit and the club. Now that he was a full-patch member, he would have more responsibilities and he couldn’t wait to take them on and show them all what he was capable of.
I was proud of him.
“Harmony?” I shook myself out of my daze as Optimus looked at me questioningly.
“Is Chelsea around?”
He shook his head. “She picked up an extra class this morning.”
I sighed, I knew that. I’d just been hopeful she might have been able to tag along. Help it not be so awkward. “It’s fine. I just have to run in then come straight back.”
He looked apprehensive but nodded in agreement. I followed Target out to his car. Most of the boys opted for vehicles like trucks or SUV’s, but Target was different. He had a beautiful new 2014 model BMW with sparkling chrome and leather seats. A very unexpected ride for a biker.
I slid into Target’s car and buckled my belt, opting to stare out the window and make as little contact as humanly possible. At first when I’d joined the club, it was Target’s manner with women that had bothered me. Yes, the members could be crass to the club girls, but Target straight up treated any woman that he came into contact with like they were a piece of shit on the bottom of his boots. He reminded us all constantly that we were there for one thing and one thing only, to please a man. As club whores, we took it. It was expected in some ways because we knew exactly what we were there for. But then I’d watched him treat the strippers and the occasional Old Lady with the same demeaning attitude.
He was a chauvinistic pig. That was all there was to it.
As we drove toward the college, I watched him out of the corner of my eye. He was smiling. No, not just smiling but grinning like he was the cat that just got the milk, or however that saying goes. I tried to bite my tongue, but my curiosity got the best of me.
“Why are you so happy with yourself?” I sneered.
My tone only made his smile grow wider. “So now that Kit has claimed you, you’ve forgotten how to speak when talking to a Brother?”
I laughed darkly. “I haven’t forgotten, it’s just convenient that I no longer have to put up with your shit and risk getting kicked to the curb by calling you out.”
“Oh Harmony, Harmony.” He shook his head, still smiling. “One day you’ll learn. You should always treat a man with the respect he deserves. Every woman should, no matter her status or her place.”
“If you treated me with respect, I might return the favor. But you don’t.”
I watched his eyes as they flicked back and forth from the road in front of him to the rear vision mirror, more often than he would need to as we were driving on a straight, empty road out of town toward the campus. I checked the side mirror and saw two large black vehicles riding very close behind us.
“Target, are they following us?”
He shrugged, but he couldn’t hide the smirk on his face.
“What are you doing?” I asked, voice low and dark, the reality suddenly dawning on me.
“Like I said, one day you’ll learn your place.” I watched as one of the vehicles pulled up beside us. “That day just happens to be today.”
Target slammed on the breaks of the car. The seatbelt which should have locked into position with the sudden motion and held me back in the seat snapped, and before I could brace myself my head hit the dashboard. Things started to spin as I groaned out in pain and the world moved in and out of focus, blackness threatening to take over completely. I lay against the dashboard, my body refusing to move.
“She out?” a gruff voice asked.
“Not quite,” Target replied.
My door opened and I felt my body being lifted from the
car. My ears were ringing softly and my head was thumping. A slick wet substance ran down my forehead and blurred my vision, turning it red.
Blood. Awesome!
The tingling in my body was starting to reside and my fight instinct began to kick in.
“Get off me!” I screamed, not being able to see the man who was holding me. I started thrashing, but whoever it was had a firm grip around my waist. I caught sight of Target standing next to his car, all the vehicles parked in the middle of the deserted road. He was smug, almost laughing.
“Control her you idiot!” a man yelled over the commotion I was causing.
“Just plug her. This one’s a fighter,” Target offered.
I spat at him as I got near. Obviously I was more out of it than I thought because it didn’t go far, seeming to just dribble down my chin and force Target’s smile even wider.
A strange man finally rounded in front of me, the dark suit instantly making my heart jump and my stomach want to empty its contents all over his shiny fucking shoes.
“No!” I screamed.
Daniel Ashley just smiled at me, his face full of malice and hate. “I would prefer to use force to get you to do what you’re told but, unfortunately, your buyer would like you as unharmed as possible.” He held up a needle, allowing me to eye it for a few second before he forced it into my thigh.
I screamed, the noise quickly becoming gurgled as I began to drift. My mind almost feeling like it was leaving my body. I stopped fighting, allowing my body to be dragged away.
“Gotta make this look legit, Ken.”
Who’s Ken? What’s going on?
My head was dizzy, and I couldn’t feel my arms.
“Yeah, go hard. A few black and blues is worth knowing that little wench is going to get what’s coming to her,” Target answered, but my brain couldn’t compute what was going on. I heard the sounds of flesh meeting flesh and a few grunts before I was thrown onto another hard surface. My body bounced and my head hit the floor hard, the hovering black finally taking over.
I shook hands with Mansel. He ran the local street gang, the Lifers. We had always had a good relationship with these guys, they dealt in things I could work with, mainly drugs and guns. The Lifers were big in the city, but they weren’t your typical thugs. These guys were high-class criminals, with high-class clients from CEO’s of businesses to politicians. People who did the dirty, but needed to keep it on the down-low and paid out their ass for just that.
“The president patch suits you, Kit,” Mansel said with appreciation. He had dealt with my father for years, but as my father had always known I would take over the club someday. I had always been a part of their meetings, earning Mansel’s trust alongside my father.
“Cheers, man.” I patted him on the back. “Pull your van up in the work bay, I got the parts you need in there.” Having a working garage on the club lot was an added bonus. It meant we had sufficient cover for moving shit in and out. Mansel only ever bought two guys with him to dust off any suspicion, if we were being watched. We packed our shit tight into old car parts just in case, for some reason, they were pulled over when they left.
Mansel and I walked toward the garage as his boys pulled their large van around. A couple of my Brothers followed closely behind but were casual about it.
“Word on the street tells me you got a girl now?” he asked with a smile as we closed the large roller doors and the boys got to work loading the goods.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, man.”
“Where she at? I get to meet this lady that tamed your ass?”
I laughed. “Nah man, she’s up north at Athens. College classes and shit to finish before I manage to tie her down.”
“Athens, huh?”
I raised a brow at him. “Yeah, we got a chapter up there.”
He nodded. “Yeah I know, bro. Just heard some shit on the street the other day about Athens.”
“Anything I should know?” I gritted out. I flicked my head at Tally indicated I wanted him near me to hear what Mansel had to say. My gut told me I would need him.
Mansel scratched at his jaw, his eyes on me and narrowed. I knew he was debating about whether to share information that he had always vowed to his clients would not be released. “This could get me in a lot of trouble, Kit.”
“Come on man, I’m always throwing extra shit in the van without charging you. Throw me something,” I urged.
The guy sighed, checking over his shoulder to make sure his boys were busied. “I have a client a few states over, he deals in a different kind of stuff – Rohypnol and shit. I have my suspicions about what he does with it, but I have a firm don’t ask policy.”
I wanted to grip him and shake him. Selling date rape drugs is never a good thing. There’s a fucking reason they’re called date rape drugs. But that was his business, not mine.
“Some dude associated with him came to me recently, a few weeks back. I gave him the stuff. Said he needed it in a hurry. Had to get back to Athens to deal with some shit.”
My fists clenched and I felt Tally’s hand on my shoulder. “Don’t suppose it was a well-off guy in a suit?”
Mansel laughed. “Brother, all my clients are well-off dudes in suits.”
“Daniel Ashley.”
His eye’s widened. “You know him, huh?”
“I’ll get Optimus on the phone.” Tally rushed off, ripping his phone from his pocket.
“We’re loaded up, boss!” one of Mansel’s boys called across the garage before he jumped in the cab of the van.
“This got something to do with your club?” he asked, his brow now worried. Mansel was a loyal guy, our club and his group had always had an excellent relationship. I knew he’d never do something to jeopardize that.
“The guy wants my girl.”
“Shit, bro. I didn’t know. Fuck!” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Anything I can do?”
“You got a number for this guy?”
He nodded and pulled his cell from his pocket, rattling off the number as I scribbled it onto a scrap piece of paper I found lying around. “It’s legit. He answers the phone with his name, so it’s not a burner.”
“Thanks.”
“Man, you need any help, throw me a line.” He was sincere. Mansel’s laws mirrored our own in ways. One of the majors, you don’t mess with women.
I gave him a firm handshake and a pat on the back. My legs were cemented to the ground as I watched him pull out of the roller doors. My stomach clenched. This was bad. Very bad.
I saw Tally standing in the doorway that led from the garage to the clubhouse. His face was pale and his eyes wide, his hand clenching his cell so tightly I thought it might snap in half.
“No,” I muttered, shaking my head as I forced myself to move, my stomping echoing in the large space. “Fucking no,” I said, pointing at him sharply. “Don’t fucking tell me, Tally.”
“She’s gone, Brother.”
The ride up north to Athens took a lot less time than usual. All but two club members and two prospects had joined me and we’d flown down the roads. My Harley pushed to its limit and my Brothers’ right beside me. I tried not to let anger and urgency cloud my vision as I rode, but it was inevitable. The thoughts of what that asshole was doing to Harmony playing over and over in my head like a fucking horror movie.
I knew Daniel was after Harmony because he had a buyer for her, and with the amount of money that was placed on the table, God only knew who this guy was. If we didn’t move fast enough, she could be shipped out of the country before I could even sneeze. If that was the case, my hopes of finding her were slim to none.
I’d just found Harmony. I knew it was ridiculous, but after a few weeks with her, I’d found something I didn’t know I’d wanted before. This wasn’t just about some asshole taking something that I claimed belonged to me, it was about them taking something that I knew I would never find again.
Fucking love!
Optimus was waiting out the
front for us. Chelsea, Harmony’s best friend clutched to his side with tears streaming down her cheeks and looking completely devastated. Optimus bent so his mouth was at her ear. She nodded and he kissed her on the forehead. She detangled from him and walked back inside, wiping her eyes and holding her chin a little higher.
As I walked toward my Brother, I briefly heard her yell at whoever was inside to get off their lazy asses and get things sorted for the visitors. If Optimus ever decided to stop looking at the past and start thinking about his future, she would make a good Old Lady.
Optimus gripped my hand and pulled me in. We patted each other on the back before separating. I watched as my Brothers all parked their bikes, stretching as they climbed off.
“Church,” Optimus called. They all looked up and nodded.
I followed Optimus inside, club girls and prospects scattered, cleaning up as they went. Chelsea was still throwing orders around. She caught my eye and I stopped as she came around the bar to stand in front of me.
“I’m sorry, Kit,” she said sadly.
I hadn’t spent much time with Chelsea, but Harmony talked about her constantly so I knew she would be hurting just as much as I was. I hooked my arm around her neck and pulled her to my chest. “Not your fault,” I told her quietly. She gave me a squeeze and stepped back with a small nod and tears trickling down her cheeks.
Optimus’ crew already crowded Church, some of the Brothers stood to let my VP, Loose and my SAA, Tally take a seat next to me. Mix stood behind me. I needed him close. He knew the most out of all of us about what the hell was going on. His info could be significant.
“What have we got so far?” Optimus asked, eying his boy, Wrench.
“They were headed to the college to pick up some shit for Harm’s classes. One van cut them off, the other behind them. Our boy slammed on his breaks, said Harm’s belt broke and she hit the dash. They pulled them both out and beat the crap out of him and took off with her,” Wrench explained, his voice tight as he stared down the table.
Harmony (The Club Girl Diaries Book 1) Page 17