STARSTRUCK: A Dark Bad Boy Romance (The Destroyers MC)

by Zoey Parker

  I didn’t. I was ready to be out of the hospital bed. I had been under the scrutiny of the doctors, the nurses, and members of the MC. Robby had been there, but he’d brought Blade’s actual brothers in to watch me – Hammer and Sketch. They looked like younger versions of their big brother, serving as constant reminders that I was about to stab him in the back after everything he’d done for me.

  When news came that I was being discharged, Robby sent the brothers out of the room. I overheard him tell them he was going to be taking me to the clubhouse later to make sure I was safe.

  “I need to grab my things from Blade’s house,” I told Robby when he came back in the room. I wanted him to know I had overheard his conversation, but I didn’t want to say anything directly to him about it.

  “Yeah, we can do that.” He made no apologies for talking to the guys in the hallway.

  I got up and changed from my hospital gown into my clothes in the bathroom while we waited on the nurse to come in. It occurred to me that my pack was probably still in Blade’s car. I’d grabbed it before going to see my father, and we hadn’t stopped by the house after that.

  “What happened to Blade’s car when he was arrested?” I asked Robby when I came out.

  “They left it at the club. We had a guy pick it up. Why?”

  “Is it at his house?” I asked.

  He narrowed his eyes. He was looking out for one of his brothers. Blade had been put in jail, and even though he didn’t hold a special title in the MC, everyone treated him like he was up there with Brick. He’d been locked up, most likely on bogus charges, most likely because of my dad, and I was starting to ask a bunch of questions after being hospitalized for abdominal pain related to my pregnancy, that had turned out to be nothing at all other than just my body’s reaction to stress.

  “Yeah, we dropped it off at the house,” he said in a guarded tone.

  “My backpack is in it. It has my things from the clubhouse because I was supposed to be moving back in with him,” I said with a laugh. I shook my head.

  “What?” He almost looked embarrassed that he’d been so obvious about his suspicions.

  “Just all this back and forth,” I told him. “From my house to his, to the clubhouse, back to his house, but not quite. It’s a mess. Is it always this messy?”

  “It can be,” he said cryptically.

  I nodded. Fair enough.

  When the nurse handed me my paperwork, Robby declined her offer to have someone walk with us downstairs, out of the hospital. He insisted that he had me and we were fine. I was beginning to understand what his function within the club must have been. When he spoke, people didn’t just listen. They backed up to listen.

  His truck was parked along the curb. He opened the door for me and made sure I was in comfortably before closing it and getting in on the other side. On the way to Blade’s house, he explained to me that he was going to take me to the clubhouse afterwards. They all felt like it was safer to have me where they could keep an eye on me.

  “It’s not that we don’t trust you,” Robby said apologetically. “We just don’t want your father to do something stupid, or whoever’s after Blade, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get it,” I assured him, keeping up the charade.

  “Okay. I don’t want you to think it’s because we think you’re in on it.” Was he still upset that I’d caught him looking at me suspiciously back at the hospital? I found that incredibly amusing.

  He parked in the driveway, behind the Charger. The car was unlocked. I reached into the back and grabbed my backpack. I opened the bag and pretended I was checking to make sure everything was in it.

  “I need to get in the house,” I told him as I closed it. “Need to grab a few more things.”

  Robby had a key. I wondered who all had keys to his house in the MC. It seemed strange, but, at the same time, they were so communal and protective of each other, I just shrugged it off as something they would have done.

  He let me in, but he stayed outside. The MC had obviously made sure the house was free of any threat they perceived from whoever had framed Blade. I felt panicked, knowing he was waiting for me right outside the door.

  I wasn’t going back to the clubhouse with him. I wanted to keep my son, and staying with Blade and the Vicious Thrills meant losing him to Dylan. I had to get out of the house without being noticed.

  I didn’t actually have anything I needed to get from inside that was mine. I had come in because in Blade’s closet, there was a false panel in the wall above his clothes. Behind that panel was a small space, like a safe, where he kept an unregistered gun and a stack of money, just in case. He’d shown me those things one night, telling me there was always the possibility that things could get hairy.

  I didn’t need the gun. Rather, I didn’t want the gun. It might not have been a bad idea to grab it, but guns always felt like a bad idea, and I wouldn’t have known how to use it even if I’d taken it. The cash was in a thick wad of what looked like mostly twenties, secured with a thick rubber band. I pulled it out and stuffed it into my pack.

  I closed the panel on the wall and went to his desk. I found a piece of paper and left him a note apologizing for taking the money but promising I was going to pay him back. I told him that, one day, I would be able to explain to him what I had done and why I had to leave. I left the note on the desk and crept downstairs.

  Robby was still standing in the doorway. As long as he was watching me from the front of the house, though, I knew I had the back of the house. I hurried through the back door, made my way across the patio, and went through the pool house at the back end of the property. I knew I was going to come out in someone else’s backyard, but I didn’t have a choice.

  I had never done anything like I was doing. I felt like a criminal, slinking through people’s yards, keeping low, and trying to avoid being seen, even in broad daylight. I hurried along the edges of the yards until I could get out onto the next street. I wondered how much time I had before Robby realized I was missing.

  Once I hit the main road, I knew I had to be careful not to get spotted, but as I made my way back into town, that task was going to be easier. Once the sidewalks through Blade’s neighborhood became the sidewalks in town, I was going to blend in with the crowd, as long as I didn’t get spotted first.

  I kept a close watch over my shoulder, making sure I hadn’t been followed. I couldn’t believe I was making my escape, and it looked like I was actually going to pull it off as I walked into the bus stop.

  I tried to look natural as I walked up to the counter to get a bus ticket.

  “What’s the next bus leaving?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry,” the kid behind the counter said.

  “Look, I don’t care where I’m going. I need a ticket out of here. I need a ticket for the next bus leaving town,” I explained.

  I could see from his face that my request wasn’t as common as I would have hoped. Or, if it was, he considered a red flag.

  “Look, my abusive boyfriend is after me. I think he saw me come in here. If he catches me, I don’t know what he’s going to do.” I worked up some fake tears for him, impressed by my skill at manipulating him. I had never lied quite like that before, and it seemed to be working.

  “If you need, I can have security or the authorities help you,” he said.

  “No, they’ll just send me home with him again because I don’t have any bruises from being beaten. They never help.” I was getting desperate. If he didn’t give me a ticket soon, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Even though I was making up the abusive boyfriend story on the spot, it really did feel like it was only a matter of time before the MC found me. If they took me back to Blade, I was going to lose my baby.

  The boy wasn’t buying it. It was only a matter of time before he tipped off a supervisor.

  “Come on, just help me out,” I begged.

  He looked down at the computer screen in front of him and sighed. He told me the next bus wa
s leaving in five minutes, and it was making a stop about a hundred miles away at a small bus station. I thanked him, got the ticket, and left, figuring I’d be able to hop another bus when I reached the next stop.

  He looked relieved when I left the counter and headed for the bus. I kept checking over my shoulder to make sure no one was following me. So far, no one had spotted me. No one knew where I was or where I was going. I had paid in cash, so the kid behind the counter didn’t even know who I was.

  I was on my way to simply disappearing from everyone’s lives. I was nervous and a little scared of what lay ahead at my next stop, but I felt free for the first time in my life.

  Chapter 25

  Blade

  Robby had managed to find me a new lawyer through another MC, the Ghosts. I was escorted from my cell, again, to a room where we could meet privately, which I knew meant we were the only two in the room, but there was probably someone sitting on the other side of the window listening in to us. So, there wasn’t much we could say to each other.

  Elizabeth “Liza” Collins walked in dressed in a black suit and skirt with a red shirt under her jacket. She had hair the same deep red as her shirt. She was cold. Her presence chilled the room. She was legendary. There was no question about whether or not I could trust her. She’d won a handful of impossible cases, keeping guys out of prison who probably should have gone in. She was also known for sticking up for MCs when the law got out of hand with us.

  Everyone wanted to know what The Ghosts were paying to keep her on their payroll. Someone like Liza shields couldn’t have come cheap. I personally wondered what it was going to cost the Vicious Thrills to have her for me.

  “Before we talk, Mr. Shaw, I am sure you are aware our conversation is likely being recorded by the police. In the interest of maintaining our confidentiality, I’m going to ask you to keep your answers simple and not to divulge any information today that could incriminate you on these or any pending charges,” Liza said coolly when she sat down.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” I said, letting a confident smirk play across my face. I liked her. We needed her on our side.

  “Good. Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, I must admit,” she said with a genuine light in her eyes. She glanced around the room. “Honestly, I don’t know if I should regret the circumstances or be thankful for them,” she added.

  “Funny.” I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms. Liza had requested no shackles for our meeting, and, surprisingly, the police complied.

  “Well, let’s get down to business,” she said. “I’m sure they’re going to cut our time short. The judge has it out for you, which is usually the case in biker cases. It’s just because you’re in an MC. I’m going to talk to him to see if we can’t get you out on bail.”

  “Thanks. I understand it will probably be high,” I told her. “I can pay anything.”

  “I’m aware. Also, we need to establish your innocence and show you were framed. You were framed, weren’t you?” she asked.

  I laughed. “I’m afraid so. I had some girls who I suspected were up to stuff like this. The cops had been putting some pressure on me to do something about it. They told me they were convinced there were drugs in my club and that there were a couple of girls trying to turn tricks on the side using the club. I got rid of the girls and had the MC do a full sweep of the place to make sure there wasn’t anything in there. The place was clean,” I explained.

  “Right. Robby told me about the problem with the girls,” she said. “Now, if drugs were found, is there any evidence that may show they don’t belong to you?”

  “Yeah, there are security tapes. If anyone planted anything, it should be on those tapes,” I said. “Of course, if nothing was found, I’m pretty sure it’s on there, as well,” I added.

  “How do I get the tapes?” Liza asked.

  “Talk to Robby. He can get you in there.”

  “Great. They said they actually found something, so I’m sure there is evidence somewhere. If it was planted, like you said, we’ll find something on those tapes to get the case dropped. Either way, once we get you out of here, we can talk more,” she said, standing.

  “That’s it?” I asked. “No strategy or anything like that?”

  “Nothing for now. Right now, my biggest concern is getting the charges dropped or getting you out of here on bail,” Liza told me, standing above me. “I’ll let you know what happens.” She walked to the door and knocked on it.

  An officer came in to escort her back down the hallway while another came in to grab me and take me back to my cell. We didn’t say a word. I wasn’t really in the mood to antagonize the cops, and there wasn’t much to say between us anyway. I walked quietly back to my cell and sat on the bunk. I had been moved to a real cell, no longer contained in the holding cell with just the bench. I had a bed now. I was moving up in the world.

  I waited. I knew nothing was going to happen overnight. I needed to get comfortable and wait patiently. I wondered how Lucy was doing. Surely, she’d been released by the hospital by then. She was probably back at the clubhouse wondering what was going on with me. I knew the guys had probably talked to her about it. Robby certainly would have told her why he was taking her to the clubhouse instead of back to my place. Once I was out, I was going to fix everything.

  Liza came back the next afternoon. I was surprised to see her again so soon. We met in the same room. I was led in, like before, without any shackles. She was already waiting for me, in another black suit. She sat in the chair on her side of the table as the officer led me to the other side and sat me down. He walked out of the room after that, leaving us mostly alone.

  “I’ve got news,” she said.

  “Is it good news or bad news?” I asked. The way she said she had news so simply and plainly made me nervous.

  “It’s interesting news. I got the tapes yesterday and delivered them to the court. Today, the judge said he hasn’t seen them, and when he tried to pull the records, they weren’t there. They hadn’t been logged,” she told me.

  “That would definitely be bad news.”

  “It also lends credence to your position, that you were framed. Unfortunately, since there is no official record that they were even delivered to the court, there’s no official record that they were lost. So, the security footage doesn’t help us at all in court.”

  “Okay, so what’s next?” I asked, growing impatient. If the footage was “lost” by the court, it meant Lucy’s dad had someone on the inside, someone besides the cops who framed me for him. It made everything a little harder.

  “Well, I’ve filed to have the logs themselves released into evidence.”

  “Can you even do that?” I asked.

  She just smiled at me, like I should have known the answer to that already. “I’m going to keep working this case. I’m going to continue looking for angles that I can work to get you out of here so we can build your defense or find a way to get the case dropped,” she explained.

  “Thanks, I guess,” I told her.

  “Don’t act like this is charity, Blade. It’s my job. While I do focus on MCs because of the way the law treats you guys, I don’t do this out of the kindness of my heart, so no thanks necessary. Got it?”

  I’d never been scolded for being grateful before. It was a new experience for me.

  “I talked to Robby. He told me what you guys think is really happening here. I’m going to do some digging to see what I can come up with. If that’s what’s really happening here, we’re going to get to the bottom of it, and he’s going down for what he’s doing,” she said, and I believed her. I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her wrath.

  “Just get me out of here,” I told her. “I can do a lot more on the outside than I can in here.”

  “That’s my main focus right now, Blade.”

  I was surprised she was using my street name so much. I figured for the sake of keeping everything professional, she would have used my real name more t
han she was. However, given her confidence, she probably didn’t feel the need to dance around what was really going on any more than absolutely necessary.

  I sighed. I was getting anxious. The longer I was locked up and the longer my lawyer was tied up in the court’s little games, trying to get me out, the stronger the case against me seemed to be getting. The longer I was out of the way, basically, the more opportunity Bryan Smithfield had to work against me to keep me in and keep me away from his daughter.

  That wasn’t going to fly, though. I was going to get out and put a stop to all of it. The woman sitting across from me was going to handle it. I had complete confidence in Liza’s ability.

  “All right, make it happen,” I told her, tapping the table. This time, I was the one who got up to call the meeting to an end. I walked over to the door and tapped on it to let them know we were done.