CJ (Aces MC Series Book 6)

by Aimee-Louise Foster

"Well welcome to the family little lady," Duke said from across the table.

  Charity blushed from all the attention she was getting but she held her own, "Let me say thank you by making you all a drink." She made her way over to the small kitchenette in the corner of the room and lifted the kettle over to the sink to fill it up.

  "I like her already," Diesel stated to the roar of laughter from the group.

  I sat in the nearest available chair and glanced around the table. They were all here in force today, Eli, Rian and Finn sat to my left and Duke, Diesel and Recon to my right looking like a force to be reckoned with. It was amusing to see my club brothers dressed as construction workers, a disguise they used to not draw attention to themselves but it was funny to see that they blended in with the 'normal' people as well.

  "I just wanted us to meet to go over the finer details but Recon says that you've got it all under control," Duke sat back in his chair waiting for my response.

  "Yeah, they're meeting at the same place but Charity informed me last night that they've brought the meet forward to 2.00pm."

  Diesel glanced at Charity happily making the drinks in the kitchenette unaware that we were talking about her. "Can she be trusted?"

  I shrugged, "She hasn't given me any reason not to and she could've fucked us all over before now."

  Duke nodded, "I think she's kosher. We've done some background checks on her and it all seems to add up but that all depends whether she has a hidden agenda."

  "And I can assure you I haven't." The group fell silent as Charity placed the tray onto the table.

  "Sorry babe but you can see where I'm coming from, can't ya." Duke maintained eye contact with her and I was surprised that she didn't recoil.

  "Totally and that's why I need to prove to you that I have no hidden agenda."

  "But that's going to take time, probably time that we don't have if you plan to shaft us." I glared at Diesel as his statement was uncalled for.

  "I knew about Locke a year ago," the room fell silent at the use of his name. "Not Saviour as the rest of the group knew him as but Locke the real man behind the disguise."

  "Well now you have our attention," Duke leaned on the table and rested his chin on his steepled fingers.

  "Many people listen but they do not hear, that's a quality that needs to be mastered by most. I hear things and see things, they may be meaningless to most but if you piece all of the little things together you get a bigger picture and that picture reveals a lot." Charity took the mugs from the tray and placed them in front of everyone as she continued to speak, "He was very sad but also full of rage. His ultimate goal was his downfall because he couldn't see the chess pieces moving into position around him."

  Her words stung I closed my eyes trying to conceal the anger building inside me, not at her but how stupid Locke was, he should've told us and we could've sorted it as a family.

  "Sorry babe but if you proclaim to know so much and be so wise, why didn't you try to put a stop to it?" Finn went straight for the jugular to shoot her down as she sounded off about how much she knew.

  "I did," she stated boldly.

  "What do you mean you did?" I asked confused as to what she was implying.

  "I called the clubhouse on the night of the fire."

  I glanced to my right, looking at the guys to see if they knew anything but their faces were as confused as mine.

  "On your website you have a number, I called that and left a message." She was quite convincing for a sixteen year old. I turned to see Diesel hold his head in his hands and a concerned look on Duke's face.

  "What's going on?" I asked as they obviously knew something that I didn't.

  "We don't tend to check the messages left on that. As you can imagine we get a lot of random calls to the clubhouse especially from women so we just choose to ignore."

  I rested my head onto the table and brought my hands up to cup my head, I was a wash of emotion and I was having a hard time dealing with it. I felt a hand placed on my back and I couldn't help but feel the pain that I felt when I realised he had been murdered. I lifted my head and Eli wrapped his arms around me and held me tight as I sobbed in his embrace. I wasn't one for public displays of emotion but there were somethings even men with my military background and training couldn't control and it only proved that I was human.

  I didn't know how long had passed but it had got to the stage where I couldn't cry anymore and the hatred had now come back and filled my body. I needed that, I needed to have that release as I had only cried once since his passing but CJ was now back with a vengeance and there was no way that Onyx was coming out of this alive that was for sure.

  There was no point trying to point fingers of who was to blame, at the end of the day it was Locke's doing. He knew the dangers and he paid the ultimate price in trying to seek his revenge. I also knew of the consequences of tomorrow's events but I was still prepared to do whatever I had to so that made me just as bad.

  I stood, "Right sorry about that people, it won't happen again."

  "You've nothing to apologise mate, if anything I can now see that you're human."

  I rolled my eyes at Finn's comment and knew that he'd throw this back in my face at some stage but was thankful that he wasn't being an arse right now.

  "So we all know what's taking place tomorrow we just need to shift everything forward and if the plans change I'll be in touch straight away."

  I needed some air, with Charity's revelation about leaving a message that could have possibly saved Locke's life I wasn't in any mood to be sociable, I just wanted some time to contemplate.

  As I walked to the door, my phone bleeped indicating that I had received a message. I pulled it from my pocket and smiled when I saw that it was from Keira. She'd sent me a photo that I was intrigued to see and hoped it was of the scan. I pressed on the message and opened the image to see Keira bounded and gagged with a hand written sign in front of her that read 'reassurance'. I fell to my knees and just held my head in my hands as my mobile skidded across the floor.

  "What the fuck CJ, what's gone on," Eli was by my side again wrapping me in his arms. I couldn't find the words to explain what I'd just received. I'd lost Locke there was no way I was losing Keira as well, it felt as if my whole world was falling apart around me and there was nothing that I could do.

  I saw Duke bend down to retrieve my phone, Diesel and Recon watched over his shoulder as he opened the image before they all glanced in my direction.

  "Well you know what this is now?" Duke asked the group to our bemused faces, "War."

  Chapter 9

  CJ

  "We can't find her CJ, we've tried everywhere and used every resource we have available to us."

  "I don't fucking believe you Recon, you need to try fucking harder." I was at a loss of what we were going to do.

  "There's no point taking it out on me, I'm on your fucking side." I could hear the frustration in his voice but I didn't care, it had been twenty-four hours since I received that photo and we were no closer to finding her.

  I strutted up and down the hotel room like a caged animal trying to think of where they may be keeping her but nothing was coming to mind.

  "The diary!" I turned to Charity as she sat in the chair at the desk, "Look in Locke's diary there must be something in there."

  She may have just had a point, "Recon get someone to look through Locke's diary. He may have mentioned a safe house or an outbuilding somewhere that could be relevant."

  "Okay mate, leave it with me." I ended the call and returned my mobile to my pocket before returning my attention to Charity.

  "Thank you."

  "What for?" she asked shrugging.

  "For putting up with me last night, I must've done your fucking head in but you didn't moan once."

  She smiled, "Really it's ok, I just hope that you can find Keira."

  "Yeah me too babe."

  We were interrupted by three loud bangs on the hotel door, Charity jumped from her
seat nervously and I gave her a reassuring wink. We'd been through this several times last night and she knew what she needed to do to not any raise suspicion. We were going to play the naive game, like we didn't know what they were talking about. I knew that if he took Charity now he wouldn't have time to cause her any harm because he'd need to be leaving soon for his meeting with the Rogues and if she was asked about me receiving a photo, she was to play dumb, that way she hopefully wasn't brought into the firing line.

  I strolled to the door and took a deep breath before opening, "Good morning Onyx. I wasn't expecting door to door service."I stated sarcastically as I stepped aside allowing him and Hustler to enter.

  "You all packed and ready to go?" Onyx looked around the room making sure everything was in order.

  "Yes I told you I was only in town until Friday, I'm moving to another site this afternoon after I've grabbed some breakfast."

  "Pleased to hear it, well I would like to say it's been a pleasure." Hustler smirked and I only hoped I had the opportunity to smash him up later.

  "I would say that my stay has been very pleasurable as I got to enjoy Charity's company for a couple of nights. I just hope I've showed her all of the right things and that her next encounter is as fulfilling as her time with me, I even hope that he can pleasure her like I did." I smirked and glanced in Onyx's direction. I didn't want to annoy him for Charity's sake but I couldn't help having one last dig.

  He grabbed her wrist and yanked her towards his side, "I'd love to stand around here talking all day but I've got an important meeting to attend to." Hustler strolled from the room followed by Onyx who still had hold of Charity's wrist but it was a little too tight for my liking. I bit my lip preventing me from saying anything and made my way to the door to see them out.

  When they were in the corridor Onyx turned towards me, "Your package will be delivered to you if our meeting goes according to plan."

  I shrugged and faked a confused expression, "I'm sorry mate but I don't know what you're talking about. It was great meeting you though." I stepped back and closed the door letting out a huge sigh of relief that I'd managed to keep my cool. I rested my head against the door and stood contemplating what he'd said. His statement now opened a can of worms and I didn't know whether to pull the guys from the job through fear of them doing Keira harm. I couldn't risk it as I knew they had her but I wouldn't get a better opportunity of finishing what Locke had started than this. I knew that I'd already put the guys in danger by not informing them about the wire I found on Damian and now I may be leading them into a fight that the enemy already had a heads up on.

  I let out my frustration by pulling my arm back and punching the door, my fist left an imprint but I wasn't finished. I pulled back my arm again and lay blow after blow after blow on the door watching the first skin of the panelled door crumple around me. I needed to channel this anger and somehow managed to calm down enough to stop the onslaught.

  I walked over to the bed and sat contemplating what to do. It was difficult to make rational judgements with so much swimming around my brain but I needed to act quickly. I swiped the screen to my mobile and called Duke, I needed to vent my views quickly.

  "Has she gone?"

  "Yeah he's just taken her," I said frustrated.

  "Everything go to plan?"

  I sighed heavily, "I think we need to pull the ambush."

  "Go on,"

  "Well he knows something is going to take place, he's not as stupid as I first thought. I'm thinking that we leave it long enough for them to think that they're home and dry before we ambush them."

  "Okay explain further."

  "Well, they will most certainly travel down towards Chapel Street. We need to be further down that road ready and waiting before the road splits in two otherwise they could split which will make our job more difficult."

  "Okay and then what."

  "We need to make sure that we disable them. I'm all for taking the whole club down and fuck the consequences," I spat aggressively.

  "Even if those consequences mean Keira comes to harm?"

  I let out a sigh, "Onyx said that I could have her back if his meeting goes according to plan. Now I wouldn't put it past the sick bastard to do her in anyway. As much as that pains me to say this man is a fucking head fuck and likes to play games so there's no way she's coming back to us in one piece Duke. That's why we've gotta do some further digging to find out where he's keeping her."

  "Okay so you're thinking about the element of surprise?"

  "Yeah but giving them long enough to think that they are home and dry. They'll be on their motorcycles and won't be able to contact whoever has Keira unless they stop. I'm hoping if we ambush them and do a good job, we'll be able to beat it out of one of them." Saying my plan out loud had me feeling a little better about the situation.

  "You may have a point but what if any get away?" I knew that Duke was just thinking out loud covering every scenario.

  "We'll cross that bridge if we come to it but we'll just have to chase them down."

  "Okay well I can't see how we can do better than that."

  I was pleased that Duke seemed to like the new plan I had given him. "Neither can I at the moment. So tell Woods to be our eyes and ears at the meeting point and he can keep us informed. Once they have their drugs and are all heading towards Chapel Street we can ambush them if we position ourselves correctly."

  "Okay mate so we'll be there for around 2.00pm."

  I let out a deep sigh, "Yeah."

  "That's great I'll speak to the others."

  "Thanks Duke."

  "Hey CJ before you go mate, how you doing?"

  "I'm ok, why you asking?" I was confused as to why he was asking.

  "I'm just making sure you're okay, just think that in a couple of hours from now everything will be sorted."

  "Let's hope so."

  I hung up and held my phone firmly in my hands contemplating my next move. This had been a long time coming but now I had the added pressure of Keira and Charity to think about. I couldn't let anything happen to Keira, she'd been through so much already and I'd protect her with everything I had but the problem was we didn't know where the fuck she was.

  I swiped through my phone and called Finn, I was thankful that he picked up on the second ring.

  "What's up?"

  "Have you got any leads?" I asked hopeful.

  "Still empty mate but we're not giving up."

  "That's great keep going Finn, it doesn't matter who you need to call in or what it costs, I'll do anything to find her and the baby."

  "I know and we're on it, I promise you that." I loved the way that my family were rallying around me doing everything that was in their power to help.

  "Thank you. I'm gonna make a move soon but I need a favour from you and the guys."

  "Anything you know that."

  "You said you'll be on standby should we need you, does that still stand?" I asked hoping that it did.

  "CJ we're family, of course it does." It was strange to hear Finn talk like this, I'm not saying that he wasn't family orientated but he was a live wire with psychotic tendencies so I must've caught him on a good day.

  "Okay, could you split up into two groups and position yourself either side of the town?"

  "Yeah, what you thinking?" he asked obviously knowing that I had my reasons for the gesture.

  "Well we're hoping to beat her location out of one of the Satan's and when we do, I want her picked up as quickly as possible. If you're on either side of the town, one of you will be closer and can get to her quicker."

  "Yeah liking your logic there mate, that's not a problem I'll be with Rian and Eli and Jay can go together."

  "That's great. Where's Fallon has she headed home?"

  "Don't be silly as if she'd leave you in your hour of need." I sniggered at his comment, we were all close but Twizz and I were the closest and because of that she had a special place in my heart.

  "Is she out of harm's w
ay?" I asked hoping that she was keeping her whereabouts low key.

  "Yeah she's at the hotel safe and sound."

  "Good, I don't want her getting involved in all this."

  "No she's been told several times to stay put!"

  I let out a sigh, "And will she listen?"

  "She better."

  I sniggered at his words but there was an underlying threat and I wondered what exactly he'd said to her. We didn't keep secrets so I knew she'd tell me later, I just hoped she hadn't taken it to heart like she usually did when Finn kicked off.

  "Okay, are you clear on everything then?" I asked wanting to make sure that everyone knew what they should be doing.

  "Yes mate just stop worrying."

  "Okay, I'll see you later, stay safe."

  "And you."

  I ended the call and placed the phone back into my pocket. I didn't have long and there was still so much to sort out that I needed to get my arse in gear and quickly. My motorcycle had been brought up on the back of a van and I needed to collect that along with some equipment that may come in handy. I walked to the wardrobe and opened the doors, my rucksack was placed on the top shelf and I needed to stand on tiptoes to be able to reach it and get it down. I walked from the wardrobe and placed the rucksack onto the bed, I pulled on the cord at the top to untie the straps and then unfastened it using the zip. As I dug my hand inside I felt the cold metal against my skin and it made me shudder with delight. I held the blade and pulled it slowly from the rucksack, the metal glistened under the light above and a smile filled my face as I felt Locke with me.

  He'd left this to me in his will and this was sacred, this is what hopefully would kill Onyx and would be the final piece of the puzzle. I twirled the blade around before I placed it into its sheath that I'd just taken from my bag. It was too sharp to place in my pocket or waistband of my jeans, I'd probably end up stabbing myself of even worse cutting something off. I sniggered at the thought knowing that Locke would also find it amusing and took the sheath to secure it around my waist.

  Looking in the mirror, I could see that it was quite visible and picked up my coat from the back of the chair by the desk and put it on. My coat concealed the knife enough so that I didn't need to worry about it, and I was happy to ride out with it undetected.