“Well, we were coming to get the lowdown on Cora, but since I was late getting in here, Karmen decided to tell you guys about my bowel issues.” Alice leaned against the doorframe and folded her arms over her chest. “We’ll see if I ever tell her anything again.”
Karmen scoffed. “Please. Like you weren’t going to tell everyone.”
Alice scrunched up her nose and stuck her tongue out at Karmen. “It’s all about the delivery, grasshopper. You just can’t lay butt heaving on people without a little humor and backstory.”
I flopped back onto the bed and scrubbed my hand down my face. What had I done to deserve this? Normally, I was lucky to skirt around all the Girl Gang doings, but now, they had decided to bring their three-ring circus to my bedroom.
“It was funny how I said it. A bit cringe-worthy, but funny.” Karmen huffed.
“What are you guys doing here?” I groaned.
“Obviously talking about my butt, Brinks,” Alice laughed.
“What did I do to deserve this? I was just trying to sleep.”
Karmen poked me in the side. “No time for sleeping when Cora is in the hands of that psycho.”
I swung my legs out of the bed and slowly stood. I was fucking sore, and my body screamed with each step I took toward the bathroom. “I don’t need your help with Cora.”
“Right,” Karmen drawled. “You did so good at keeping her safe so far.”
I pulled open the bathroom door and glared at Karmen.
She held up her hands and shrank back a step. “We just want to know what’s going on and help.”
“We don’t need your help.”
Alice pouted. “Wrecker said the same thing.”
“Then listen to Wrecker and just leave finding Cora to us. Enough people have gotten hurt at the hands of Jenkins. We don’t want to add your name to the list.” I pulled the bathroom door shut behind me and leaned on the wood.
“I told you guys,” I heard Wren say through the door.
Alice cleared her throat loudly. “We knew they weren’t going to outright tell us how to help. We’re going to have to go with plan B.”
Did these chicks think I couldn’t hear them through the door? If they thought they could help find Cora and actually be successful, they were way off.
“We have a plan B?” Karmen asked.
Sweet Jesus.
“We do. Let’s gather the other girls and regroup,” Alice ordered.
I waited for some more crazy talk from them but heard nothing. I cracked open the bathroom door and sighed when I saw they had left. I had enough shit to deal with. I didn’t need them to pile crazy on top of everything.
Pipe walked past my open door and halted in his tracks. “You’re up,” he stated.
“Thanks to some of the chicks deciding to camp out in my room to try to plot.”
“Plot?” Pipe asked.
I pulled open the bathroom door and leaned against the frame. “They came here wanting to know what was going on with Cora. Told them I was taking care of it. I heard them talking about some plan B when I went into the bathroom.”
“Nikki in here with them?”
I shook my head. “Karmen, Wren, and Alice.”
Pipe frowned. “They were probably on the way to find Nikki. Swear to God, those chicks are always looking for some kind of trouble. Wrecker already told me to get a handle on Nikki. She and Karmen keep roping Alice into shit.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Pretty sure that’s the other way around. Alice seems to be the instigator.”
“Damn truth,” Pipe muttered. “Church in half an hour. We were waiting for you.”
“What the hell time is it?” I asked.
“Half past twelve.”
“Jesus. You guys should have woken me up a hell of a lot sooner.” I had only wanted to lie down for a couple of hours to try to recharge a bit. I had just slept way longer than I had planned—almost half a day gone. Who the hell sleeps that much?
“You needed the rest, and we got everything under control. The common room wall is rebuilt, and all of the busted shit is in the trash. We’re thinking of going into the remodeling business since we hammered that wall out so quickly,” Pipe laughed. “We just need to get you up to speed on everything.” Pipe nodded to me. “Hit the head, grab a shower, and meet up in church.” Pipe tipped his head and continued down the hallway.
While Cora was in the hands of Jenkins, I slept like the fucking dead.
Real fucking nice.
I turned back into the bathroom and got my ass into gear.
Fifteen minutes later, my ass was planted in my usual chair waiting for the rest of the guys.
“You good?” Wrecker asked from the head of the table.
“I’m fine.”
Wrecker leaned back in his chair. “Boink said your arm should have gotten looked at.”
I shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I’ve had worse.”
“Just cause you say you are fine doesn’t actually make it true,” Wrecker replied.
“You become a shrink while I was gone?” I snapped.
A smile slowly spread across his lips. “No, but if you want to come lay on my couch later, I’m sure Alice would play therapist. Though, I wouldn’t take any advice she’d give.”
“Probably end up in a cow print onesie in an insane asylum,” Nickel chuckled.
Wrecker pointed his finger at Nickel. “More than accurate.”
“Where the hell are Freak and Slayer?” I growled. I wasn’t interested in talking about how I was. I wanted to find Cora, and I wanted to do it now.
“They ran out to get some lunch.” Pipe leaned back and propped his arms above his head. “Though they took Carnie and Wendy with them. I’m sure Carnie is ordering come elaborate shit and planning on laying it all out on the table before anyone can touch it.”
“Bro,” Maniac groaned. “She made some bombass enchiladas the other night except by the time we got to eat them, they were lukewarm. I can’t even tell you how many pictures she took before she said we could eat.”
Clash pointed at Wrecker. “She’ll shoo all of us away except for Wrecker. Just send that fucker in and she’ll finish up her pictures real quick.”
“Except that first time,” Pipe hooted. “Funny shit watching her scold you for trying to eat her food.”
“Real funny,” Wrecker grumbled.
Freak and Slayer walked into church, each with brown bags in their hands.
“Frankos?” Nickel asked.
Freak nodded and took his seat next to me. “Yup. It was the only place Carnie wanted to eat.”
“Isn’t that place like twenty minutes away?” Pipe started pulling containers out of the bags Slayer set in front of him.
“Don’t even ask when it comes to food with Carnie, brother. At least she told me where she wanted to go. Normally, it’s a damn guessing game for half of the day trying to figure out what the hell she wants.” Freak pulled out a container and handed it to me.
“We can actually eat this?” Wrecker asked.
“Yeah,” Clash laughed. “Carnie doesn’t need to come in and take fifty pictures of it before?”
Freak shook his head. “She’s got plenty of food for the girls that she can take pictures of. Plus, she knows we’re too busy to be dealing with blog stuff.”
Frankos was a greasy spoon diner that made the best burger within a hundred-mile radius. Not to mention their onion rings were fucking amazing. But we could eat while we talked about getting Cora back.
Once everyone had their food and they all took a couple of bites, Wrecker cleared his throat. “Time to figure shit out.”
I took a bite of my burger, and it tasted like nothing. I knew it was good, but nothing was registering to me other than getting Cora back.
“So far, everything is going to plan, right?” Freak asked.
I slowly turned my head to look at him. “You wanna tell me what the fuck you mean by everything is going to plan? Jenkins has Cora.” I glared at Wrecker. “Wa
s that the fucking plan all along?”
Wrecker leveled his gaze on me. “Part of it.”
I held his stare and tried not to jump out of my chair and wrap my hands around his neck. “Your plan was to have Cora kidnapped by that psycho?”
“It was the only way we could get you back.”
“You should have just left me there. I would have found my own way out without you bargaining with Cora’s life.” My blood boiled. What in the hell had changed with the Fallen Lords? Wrecker never would have put one of the other girls' lives on the line, but he would trade Cora like she was nothing? “You didn’t need to bring Cora into it.”
Nickel shook his head. “She’s always been a part of it, Brinks. She’s the reason why this whole thing started.”
“That’s fucking bullshit,” I growled. “Jenkins wanted us to take Cora. He wanted her out of the way.”
“That’s partly true,” Wrecker agreed. “At least, until everything started crumbling around him. He saw us taking Cora and giving her what he wanted. She was with us, and we were thriving while everything he touched turned to shit.”
“Which is why it’s a good fucking thing we had Cora. He would have either sold her for blow or killed her with his fucking temper.” For twelve days, I had been with Jenkins. I saw what he was capable of. I knew what he would do to Cora. “Which leads us back to why you thought it was a good idea for you to trade her for me.”
“Because it was the only thing we had that he wanted.”
I slammed my fist down on the table. “You should have let me die!”
Wrecker shook his head. “That wasn’t an option, and neither is letting Cora die.” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “I know you can’t see anything besides getting Cora back right now, but you’re really not giving Cora enough credit. She knows Jenkins. She knows how he works.”
“He’s not the same guy. He’s different from when she knew him.” I had been present for the downfall of Jenkins. Before all the botched deals and just straight-up idiotic ideas, I had hung out with Jenkins. We had been brothers under the same MC.
“She knows what she is doing, Brinks.”
I sat up, shocked. “What the hell do you mean she knows what she’s doing?”
“I told you he wasn’t going to be happy about this,” Boink muttered.
“What the fuck is going on?” I roared.
Wrecker stared at me. “It was her idea. She said she would trade herself for you if it came down to it.”
“Her idea?” I shook my head and ran my hand over my face. “The girls have crazy fucking ideas all of the time, and we never go along with that shit.”
They had to be fucking kidding me.
Freak fidgeted in his chair. “We were thrown for a loop, brother. None of us had a clue that you and Cora were knocking boots. We figured it out when we were looking for you.”
“Again, you find out Cora and I are together and decide the best way to get me back is to just hand her over.” What in the ever-loving hell was going on?
“All right, all right,” Wrecker called. “I’m gonna fucking talk, and none of you are going to interrupt me, you got it?”
Everyone mumbled and grumbled for a few seconds, but then, we quieted.
Wrecker slowly looked around the table. “None of us knew that you were with Cora. We were all shocked as hell when it came out. We called Cora in here to ask her about the last time you talked to her. She pleaded with us to let her help us. She wasn’t taking no for an answer.”
“You should have made her take no for an answer.” I leaned forward and pointed a finger at Wrecker. “You tell Alice no all the fucking time, but when it comes to Cora, you just let her do whatever the fuck she wants?”
“I didn’t have a fucking choice,” Wrecker thundered. “My fucking hands were tied! He only wanted her. She was the only way I was ever going to see you breathing again.”
I shot up out of my chair. “Then you should have let me die! I’m not worth another person's life! She’s more important than me.”
Wrecker slowly rose from his chair. He planted his hands on the table and leaned toward me. “She is not going to die. That chick is one of the toughest people I have ever met. She knew exactly what she was walking into. She knows he’s a psycho. She knows he’s off his fucking rocker.”
“You don’t know any of that! You can’t make a promise that she isn’t going to die because you don’t know what you just sent her into.” My voice shook with anger. “The club. The club is what you are thinking about. Don’t stand there and tell me you’re worried about Cora.”
“You’re damn right I’m worried about the club! The club is what we are! It’s what we all live for.” He slowly looked around the table, making eye contact with each of us. “Our women are also part of this club.” Wrecker’s eyes connected with mine. “Cora is one of those women. Even if you two hadn’t hooked up, I would do everything in my power to get her back. You can’t see past your nose right now, and I get that. If it was Alice, I would be demanding Jenkins’ head on a platter. I. Get. You.”
“Then why in the fuck did you do this? Why did you just let him take her?”
“It was the only way,” Pipe interrupted. “We sat here for hours trying to think of another way, Brinks. None of us wanted to use Cora, but there wasn’t any other way.”
That was bullshit. They could have just let me go. That was the other way, and I would have been fine with it. I would have understood.
“It appears they started without us.”
My eyes darted to the door. I had been so wrapped up in demanding to know why they had bartered with Cora that I hadn’t even noticed Leo and Oakley walk in.
Oakley leaned against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets. “He’s still freaking out about the fact we gave his chick to Jenkins. I don’t think we missed much.”
Leo nodded. “You’re right. Though I did think he would be over that shit by now.”
“They’re a part of this?” I demanded. It was hell having decisions made about you when you weren’t around. Hell must have frozen over if Leo and Oakley were in the same room without hurling insults at each other.
Leo glanced at Oakley. “We’ve come to realize there are redeeming qualities in each of us that work in our favor.”
“For now,” Oakley muttered.
Freak jumped up and grabbed two chairs. He put them on either side of Wrecker and sat back down.
“Is any of this supposed to make me feel better?” So Leo and Oakley were fucking friends now. Who the hell cares?
Oakley sat down beside Wrecker, and Leo moved to his other side.
“He’s really got it bad for her, huh?” Leo unbutton his suit jacket and sat down. “Cora does have an appealing quality about her, so I can’t really blame him.”
He was talking like I wasn’t ten feet away from him. “Say one more word about her appealing qualities and I’ll punch you straight through that wall.”
A slick smile spread across Leo’s lips. “It’s nice to know we’re not all putting our necks on the line for nothing. At least she is more to you than a roll in the hay.”
I stepped back, ready to punch Leo.
“Don’t fucking move,” Wrecker growled. “Reel it the fuck in, Brinks. He doesn’t mean anything he’s saying.”
“You guys must not tease each other much. I didn’t know you were such a stick in the mud, Brinks.” Oakley pulled a deck of cards out of his pocket.
“We playing poker or discussing getting back Cora?” Pipe asked, his tone amused.
Oakley shuffled the cards in his hands. “I quit smoking, and this seems to be the only thing that keeps my hands occupied when I want one.”
Wrecker watched Oakley. “You serious right now?”
Oakley shrugged. “We all have our vices.”
Leo pulled out a cigar and placed it in his mouth. “Anyone have a light?”
Oakley growled and shuffled the cards faster. “We ma
y have a truce, Leo, but if you light that fucking thing, I’ll kick you in the nuts and then maybe call Bryn after.”
Leo’s hand froze midair. “You don’t get to say her name.”
“She’s my cousin. Pretty sure I have more right to her than you do.” Oakley continued to shuffle the cards methodically. “Afterall, you’ve had plenty of chances to make her yours and yet, you do nothing.”
Oh, how the tables had turned. Not even five minutes ago, Leo had been talking about Cora, and now, he was pissed at Oakley for talking about some Bryn chick.
“She’s your second cousin that you haven’t talked to in years.”
Oakley shrugged. “Grow a set of balls and take what you want, Leo. Your unwillingness to claim Bryn is becoming a joke in our world.”
“After this, you’re fucking dead to me, Oakley,” Leo growled.
Oakley sat back, a smug smile on his lips. “I look forward to going back to our disdain for each other.”
“As entertaining as these two are, you think we can get back to Cora?” Slayer asked. “The vein in Brinks’ neck is about to burst any second.”
Everyone turned to look at me. My teeth were clenched, and it was taking all of my willpower to not tear out of church and search for Cora until I found her. “What. Is. The. Plan,” I growled.
Wrecker put me out of my misery. “Jenkins wants to come back. He wants to be part of Oakley’s drug ring and be an ally with Leo.”
“Not happening.” Oakley shook his head.
“As if,” Leo muttered.
“Those of us who live in the real world know that is never going to happen.” Wrecker sat back in his chair. “And for the most part, Jenkins knows that, though he thinks there might be a possibility of that happening if he joins forces with a new duo who seems to be rising in the ranks in the cartel.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Cartel, my ass. They’re a bunch of punks who are selling blow for cheap. Little do their suppliers know that they’re cutting it with cornstarch and not benzocaine.”
Oakley leaned forward and looked at Leo. “You’ve heard those rumors, too.”
Leo nodded. “And they’re not rumors. One of their cookers came to me looking for new employment.”
“You take him?” Wrecker asked.
Fallen Lords MC: Books 7-9 Page 29