Reckless (Deathstalkers MC Book 9)

by Alexis Noelle

  After what only feels like a few minutes I feel the vibration of my phone.

  Mikey: He just left.

  What the fuck was he doing at her place for an hour? I head upstairs knowing how short the drive is and ready to beat his ass not giving a shit about the consequences.

  I take a seat at the bar where Izzy and Nikki are talking, but I don't even look at them. They both think I'm an asshole for the whole Carly situation anyway, so fuck them.

  The door opens, and I see Brick walk in, standing up I clench my fists ready to plow one right through his teeth. A small hand grabs my arm and I still.

  "Follow us," Izzy says quietly.

  I don't reply, but I take a step away, causing her hand to fall off of me.

  Nikki places herself in front of me. "You need to wait a minute. Come talk to us, and then if you still want to act like a dumbass caveman, we'll let you."

  I contemplate how much extra of a punishment I’d get for tossing her out of my way.

  "You do this instead, and you'll fuck everything up." Her voice is full of irritation now.

  "Five. Fucking. Minutes." I look at Brick before turning around and heading to my room. I don't look back, but I know they're following me from the click of Nikki's heels. They follow me in, and Izzy shuts the door. "Make this shit quick."

  "First of all, cut the asshole shit, or I'll decide not to be so nice." Nikki shoots me a smile.

  “This is you being nice? Hate to see you when you’re being a bitch.”

  She lifts her hand up like she's ready to give it to me, but Izzy steps in front of her. "Stop it you two. Now Nikki and I have both been working T, to try and get this shit overturned somehow. We both agreed with the rule, but I also think that not every situation is the same. I like Carly and honestly, the way she's held her own against you, I think she'd make a damn good old lady."

  I relax some hearing that they are on my side and talking to Pres. If anyone can get through to him, it'd be his sister and his girl.

  “If you have any hope of this shit working, you need to chill the fuck out.” Nikki interrupts. “There is no way T will agree to this with you walking around like an uncaged animal attacking a fellow brother.”

  I nod understanding what she’s saying. I didn’t give a shit about anything else when I thought there was no hope for me and Carly. Hearing the girls are on my side makes me want to walk a straight fucking line. “What do I need to do?”

  "You…" Nikki points a finger at me. "Need to calm down and stop walking around here like a ticking time bomb. everyone has noticed and not in a good way."

  I nod. “Keep me in the loop?”

  “Yeah, although I think it might take a little time. You really pissed him off going to him this morning.” She shakes her head. “Put your damn head in the sand. Work on whatever it is you should be and let us handle it.” She opens the door and walks out with Izzy on her heels.

  Needing a distraction, I sit down at the computer and check my email. I see a reply from one of my contacts and the information he gives me only confuses me even more.

  I get up, needing to talk to Pres about it all. I find him just as he’s about to walk out of the office.

  “We need to talk.”

  He looks at me annoyed. “I thought I made myself fucking clear this morning.”

  “Not about that. I found something.” I can’t blame him for his assumption.

  His eyes go wide, and he opens the door. "Let's go." He makes his way over to the desk. "What do you have?"

  “Everyone who has come after us for the last ten years were all on one payroll.” He sits down looking just as surprised as I was.

  “Clarify now.”

  I take a deep breath. "That asshole Ammo you fought that went after Nikki, Viper, Hades from The Devil's Sons, and that asshole Anthony. They all received multiple lump sums from the same damn account. Whoever is fucking with us, they've been doing it for years."

  “What the fuck!” His voice booms and I swear it might have shaken the damn office.

  Whip and Torch come running in ready for whatever, but freeze when they see it’s just me sitting there. “What the hell?” Whip says.

  "Tell them what the fuck you just told me," Pres says, turning his back on all three of us.

  I relay the same information, and both of them look at me like I'm crazy.

  "How is it even possible?" Torch bites out. I know it pisses him off even more because Viper almost cost Tracy her life.

  “I was able to have one of my contacts pull financials from anyone who has ever fucked with us to try and find a common link. It was a last-ditch effort, but I never thought it would actually work. I've checked the records on the account but it's under a fake name and the bank it's through barely collected any information when the account was opened." I toss some papers on the desk. "It's got a shit ton of money in it though. I'm thinking we drain it and then they can't hire people to do their dirty work anymore. They'll come to us to get it back, and we can fucking end them."

  Pres turns to me. “That’s something we would need to vote on. We will call church tomorrow after the guys get back from the run. Until then, this shit doesn’t leave this office.” Everyone nods. “Good fucking job Wrench.”

  I stand up knowing I’ve been dismissed. A part of me hopes that finding this information can get me a little closer to him reconsidering the club girl rule. Especially with what I just dug up.

  I have a feeling a war is coming, and I want to be able to protect my girl from it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Carly

  "Let's go," Jess shouts, and I roll my eyes, grabbing my purse.

  "Jeez, I was coming. You act like you’re my wife or something." I laugh as I walk past her.

  “You wish, I’d be an awesome lesbian.” She nudges my shoulder as she catches up.

  We take the elevator down, and I see Izzy standing outside our door. There is a black SUV parked behind her on the street and the guy who gave me a ride home the other night standing by it.

  "You ready for a much-needed girl’s day?" she raises an eyebrow at me.

  "Hell yes!" Jess exclaims. She looks over at me.

  “Yeah, let’s get it done.” I force a smile, really missing talking to Jax. Seeing Izzy and Mikey only makes me think about the fact that we can’t be together.

  "Well, that was enthusiastic, Carly. Whatever, by the end of the day, you'll thank us." She walks toward the car and opens the door. Jess breaks out into an almost run as I trail behind her.

  It's not that I don't appreciate them wanting to do this for me, I do. I guess I'm just not in the break-up stage where I'm ready to be cheered up. I'm still in the stage where I want to sit in my pajamas and watch Nicholas Sparks movies.

  They have the music blaring during the ride, singing along and acting like fools pretending to serenade me. Their method works, and by the time we pull up to our first stop, I'm smiling and already thankful that they decided to force me into this. We are outside a Mexican restaurant, and the hostess seems to recognize Izzy when we walk up.

  “The other girls joining you guys too?”

  "Not today, just us three." Izzy smiles at her as she starts to walk back to the table. We sit down, and she lets us know the waitress will be with us in a minute. "All of us come here every Monday, they usually have a big table ready for us in the back. We call it Margarita Mondays." She laughs.

  For a minute, I'm upset because I know if the rules weren't different I might be able to be a part of that. They aren't different though, and they won't be, so now I need to find a new dream and accept my new reality.

  "Anyway, their loaded nachos are amazing and so is the guac. That's my usual here, then of course margaritas but obviously, I'll have to leave that to you girls." Her hand finds her stomach.

  "How are you feeling?" I ask. I haven't really had a chance to talk to her since they announced it the other night.

  "Eh, I'm okay. I've been a little sick, but nothing
like Lucy was. That girl would hurl at the sight or smell of any food she didn't ask for." She shakes her head. "Don't ever talk to Lucy if you plan on having kids. She'll scar you and make it your worst nightmare."

  The waitress comes by, and Izzy orders the usual for us. I hope that with everything, I can keep in touch with her, she seems like a really great person, and besides Jess, I really don't have many girlfriends. Tony cut me off from most of the people I liked hanging out with. My friends got sick of me canceling on them because of him, or the fact that whenever I was out of the house, he would call me so many times that it wasn't even worth going out. Plus, whenever I would actually go out, we would fight about whatever money I spent when I was gone.

  “So I know Pres is your brother. Is that how you got involved with the club and with Lady?” I laugh, saying his name.

  “Actually no.” She rolls her eyes. “I honestly can’t believe that Nikki stuck him with that damn name.”

  “Nikki gave it to him?” Jess interrupts. I didn’t think the old ladies were that involved in the club details. “I have to hear that story.”

  "Well, to make a long story short, I didn't know who I was when I came to the club. Our mom had given me up for adoption." She pauses, and I can tell she's remembering whatever happened. "A lot of crap happened in between but it eventually worked out, and now I have a bigger family than I ever imagined I would."

  “I’ve never had a big family.” I shrug. I haven’t talked to my mom much after everything happened with Tony.

  Izzy and Jess both look at me with almost pity in their eyes. "Maybe someday you'll be part of ours." Izzy gives me a smile, but we both know the chances of it happening are almost nothing.

  Thank God the food gets dropped off at that minute, breaking the awkward silence that had settled in. The rest of lunch is fun, we laugh, and Izzy tells us stories about the guys that they'd probably kill her for repeating.

  Jess mentions Brick, and I can tell she likes him from the way her face lights up. I want to tell her how he feels about her but I don't want her going through the same thing I am right now. It's torture knowing that you're in love with someone, they love you, but you have to stay away from each other.

  The sound of motorcycles sound and all of us look toward the street seeing a bunch of them talking to Mikey. Wrench is there, and his eyes immediately find me. Both of us are frozen in some crazy staring contest until one of the other guys hits him on the arm, breaking our connection. He shakes himself out of the daze before turning his head to Mikey. Whatever they're talking about, no one seems happy.

  Lady walks into the restaurant. “We need to head back to the clubhouse, babe.”

  Izzy doesn’t move to get up. “I’ll be there when we’re done. I told you I was having girl’s day today.”

  His eyes narrow at her. "Listen, woman, I get that you're trying to put your foot down here, but it's the wrong time. Your brother called church, and it's serious enough that he sent us all out to get our girls and put everyone on lockdown."

  Her eyes widen. “Um…yeah okay. Sorry girls, we will have to make another date to have a full day.”

  By her reaction, I'm guessing this isn't something to be taken lightly. I hope everything is okay. Looking over at Wrench, he's staring at me, and all I want to do is go to him. I refuse to torture myself like that though. I can't keep chasing a man that will cause me nothing but pain and heartache.

  I look over at Jess. "You still want to hang out, or you think we should just go home?"

  “We can—“ Her phone rings stopping her mid-sentence. “Hey, wait what? Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  Guess that answers my question.

  Her face is white as a sheet. "That was my mom, Paul got into a car accident, and they're taking him to the hospital." Paul is Jess's older brother and the few times I've met him he seemed nice.

  “Oh my God. Do you need a ride or anything? I could come with you.”

  “No, I-I’m fine. I just need to get down there, I’m gonna grab a cab.” She stands up, giving me a quick hug before almost running out of the restaurant.

  So much for girl’s day…

  I decide to walk home instead of taking a cab. I could really use the peace and quiet to calm the storm in my head.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Wrench

  The clubhouse is packed. Pres told us all to grab anyone who matters and bring them here before lockdown started at three p.m., which is also when he wanted us all in church. I wanted to grab Carly when I saw her earlier and bring her here. If she gets hurt because I can't protect her, I don't know what I'll do.

  The prospects have been told that no one gets in or out without Pres's permission even one of the brothers. I head down to church, and I haven't seen the room this packed and tense in a long ass time. There are a couple of us missing, but I know they were on a run, so they're probably on their way.

  Pres nods to Tracker, and he shuts the door. His face is twisted, and he looks like he's been through the wringer. "Today, we lost two of our own." The whole room freezes, as everyone looks around to see whose missing. I know already, I noticed their absence once I walked in. Two jackasses would always be screwing around until the second that door closed. "Colt and Hunt will be missed, but they will not go unavenged. With each day, we are getting closer to figuring out just exactly who is screwing with us."

  Looking around I can see the toll all of this is taking on the club. Everyone is stoic as they listen to the same speech Pres has given us for a month. He's never wanted to tell them we didn't know shit about who has been coming after us. The only difference is that this time his words ring true. We are getting closer, especially with the information I dug up the other day.

  “They were on their way back after making the run, ran over some barbed wire, then got ambushed. Close to thirty bullets between the two of them. It wasn’t just a killing, it was a fucking message. Now we need to put these last few pieces together and show them who the fuck they decided to come after!” Fists bang on tables as shouts of ‘hell yea’ and ‘get them’ sound from the entire room.

  "Until further notice, no one in or out unless I give the okay. I will not sacrifice anyone else. Aside from that, stay alert, and any information you hear comes straight to me, we are keeping things close this time. I don't think we have any leaks, but I'm not taking any chances. Club girls are not permitted in until this shit is figured out, hope you fuckers have stockpiles of lotion in your rooms." Laughter sounds from the table. "Dismissed, except for Wrench."

  I look up at Pres and give him a nod. Once the room is clear, only the two of us are left.

  "I know that shit has been tense lately. I get why you're pissed off, but I need you to be clear-headed and on point through this whole thing. We could have a lot more casualties if we don't end this shit soon." He sits down, and for the first time today, he looks tired and somewhat defeated. "I get that feeling when you think you met the girl that's it for you. I wish you would have found her before she signed on, before she stepped foot in our doors, before she was labeled. It would have changed everything."

  I really do get what he's saying, but it doesn't mean I agree with it. I've been trying to work through what I really want in my head, and it's been fucking killing me. As much as I love this club and my brothers, Carly is it for me. It's like I can't even take a full breath when she's not near me. If it comes down to my watch or her, I don't know that I'll be able to walk away from her. I'm hoping once all this shit comes down, I can make my case one more time.

  “I need you to keep digging. We don’t have time to drag our heels on this one.”

  “Got it. I’ll be on it day and night.” I stand up and walk out, determined to figure this shit out quickly, and hope that gets me some wiggle room with other issues.

  Walking into my room, I sit down at the computer and go through some documents my financial contact sent me. The account that's been paying everyone is from a small bank that only has about t
hirty accounts total. Each one has a decent amount of money, but nothing compared to the main one. Right now their balance is just below five million dollars.

  I need a few more things before I can make the transfer and take everything they have to their name.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Carly

  Walking home, I suddenly realize which way my feet have carried me.

  If I turn down the road to my left, I'll end up at the clubhouse. There were multiple routes I could have taken home from the restaurant and I subconsciously just started on this one. I think about walking down there and telling Jax how I feel. The way my chest aches when I think about not being around him again.

  A black SUV pulls up near me, and for a minute, I think it might be someone from the club. When the driver door opens, and I see Tony walk around the car, the smile on my face dies.

  “What? Not happy to see me?” He leans against the car. “Imagine my luck when I saw your pathetic ass walking down the street like a homeless beggar. Biker trash throw you out already? Can’t say I am surprised.” He shrugs his shoulders as he smiles at me.

  I hate him so much. All he has ever done to me is put me down. Now even after he's done with me, he gets joy out of trying to hurt me. "Fuck you." My voice is low but I know he hears it because his fists clench at his side.

  "What the fuck did you just say to me, whore?" He takes a step closer, but I don't care.

  I am done being scared of him, letting him control me when we aren’t even together anymore. “I said fuck. You.” Words have never felt better leaving my lips.

  The hit to my face comes before I can even react. I fall to the ground, cutting my knee on the gravel. His foot connects with my side, and I scream hoping someone hears me. It feels like lightning bolts are shooting through my whole body. No one is around though.