Mel just nodded. When it came to enforcing, he had to shut his emotions off and keep himself steady otherwise he'd never be able to get the job done.
"We'll need more tequila," Mel mumbled just to try and appear not so robotic, so disconnected.
Bishop looked up from his phone and laughed. "Yeah, buddy. Tonight we fuckin' celebrate and tomorrow we get fuckin' gone."
Mel liked the sound of that.
He couldn't wait to get gone, get home and get into the soft sweetness of his Lulu.
*.*.*.*.*
After a Jules and I got ready to meet the day, tidied our rooms and had breakfast we were onto phase two of our project: the petticoats. I showed my little shadow how to pick out the accent colors in the chintz fabric of her skirt and she chose a cute combo of lavender and pink for the ruffles that would help puff the full skirt out in a fifties bell shape.
I taught her how to make ruffles and the importance of having two layers of fabric between her legs and the stiff netting in order to stay comfortable. Time flew by as we worked, her soft giggles when she accomplished something I'd showed her adding to the merriment of our efforts.
There was a knock at the door and we both stilled before I cautiously and as quietly as possible peeped out through the spyglass. There was a younger guy on the porch wearing a hat from our local pizza place and carrying a large pizza box.
After dinner the night before, I done a quick scan of the pantry and fridge before shooting Carly a text detailing if the siege went on beyond Monday then we'd need groceries. Maybe she'd misunderstood thinking Julie and I needed food right away. But, I wanted to make sure before opening the door.
"We didn't order any pizza," I called out, hoping he could hear me.
"It's already paid for, miss," the delivery guy yelled back.
Glancing at Julie who was still in the chair by the sewing machine, I opened the door slowly but was shoved back so hard I fell on my butt as three men came barreling into the house.
And was screaming at the top of my lungs as one man grabbed me and another grabbed Julie only to hold a piece of cloth over her nose and mouth until she went completely limp. The third man, the one I thought was pizza delivery guy, came towards me while pulling a black heavy piece of leather from his back pocket and slapped it against his palms a couple of times.
He smacked the edge of my jaw with the leather thingie and that was all it took for my world to slide to black.
*.*.*.*.*
Mel had never been so cold, so wet in his life. The rain of Sunday afternoon hadn't stopped, but it had turned to snow overnight. And with the warmer daytime temperature, had gone back to the sideways sheets of water again on Monday.
Terrible fucking shit to try and ride in.
Bishop kept pulling them off the freeway every couple of hours but the group wasn't making any progress to speak of in their effort to get back to Missoula. So the decision was made to grab another room to try and wait the storm out.
Which was more than fine by Mel since the night before he hadn't so much as slept as passed out after overindulging in tequila. Something he discovered came with the morning after hangover of headache, nausea and a nasty tasting mouth. Added to the lack of sleep to of Saturday night due to the shenanigans of his brothers and the hooker, his energy was depleted.
He was in the shower before the motel room door had barely closed and, after finally warming up, pulled his boxers back on, draped his wet jeans and shirt over his saddlebags before he crawled into bed. He didn't care if his brothers stayed or went out, watched TV or even threw a fucking party. Knowing the duo would wake him when it was time, Mel let everything else go and was practically asleep before he'd fully closed his eyes.
He felt a boot kick his covered feet and heard Donny mumble, "up, man," which was his cue the next day. By his calculations he'd been asleep for fifteen hours but it was what his body needed.
"Yo' Cinder-fuckin'-ella! Let's hit it, dude!" Bishop crowed coming out of the bathroom with his long brown hair wrapped in a towel. Mel idly wondered if the man ever wore the long locks loose before digging around in his bags for clean dry clothes. "According to the fuckin' app, we got nothin' but blue skies and clear miles all the way home."
"Don't you need the sun to be fully up to have blue skies?" Mel mumbled pulling on his clothes before sitting on the edge of the bed to put on his socks and boots.
"You wanna be home before two? Then shut the fuck up and let's ride, asshole!"
Mel pulled his phone off the charger and saw he still hadn't received a reply to the text he'd shot Lu the afternoon before. Even with the storm she should've gotten it even if it was later than when he'd sent it.
"Ah, Bish? When was the last time somebody checked on my girls?" Mel had to yell in order to be heard over the blow dryer the big biker was using on his long, thick hair. Bishop's eyes captured his in the mirror as he kept the unit moving.
Turning it off and putting it back in the holder, but not letting go of Mel's eyes, Bishop reached for his phone.
"Yeah, what's doing? Just getting ready to head out. Listen, who was the last one to check on Hardwood's place? No. I want a team over there immedioso, dig? And I want a call fuckin' straight back, no passing go, no collecting two hundred. Yeah? Right back at you, baby. Serious as shit, Dare. Yeah, late, motherfucker." Bishop looked back at his recruit and simply nodded.
Mel's phone rang but he didn't recognize the number. "Hello?"
"Mr. Davis? This is Mrs. Messerschmitt from Grace Elementary. Julie wasn't in class today and we didn't receive the required call…"
"Excuse me? Julie wasn't in class?" Mel saw Bishop reach for his phone again as the big man rushed out of the bathroom .
"No, Mr. Davis, she wasn't and you were supposed to have called in if she was ill or unable to attend," the woman's voice continued. "It is vital that we receive that phone call to ensure…"
"Mrs. Messershed? Julie was supposed to be there today. I don't know why she isn't but I'll get to the bottom of it. Thank you for calling!" Mel was roaring by the time he disconnected and ran back into the room to see both Bishop and Donny on their phones. He tried calling Lulu direct on both her cell and at the office. But both went to voicemail.
Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!
Mel's curses were being repeated by his heart as it beat heavy and hard. He didn't know what to do or where to go. Julie missing? Lulu not answering?
"Okay. Here's what we know. Your place is empty though there was a pizza box and a delivery man's hat on the porch. The front door was unlocked. Your car and her car are still there." Bishop pushed his hair back over his shoulders and bounced his cellphone on his knee. "Trey is asking for the brothers to bring the Ghosts into the Hellion compound to see if any of them might know what's doing. I've got Brand searching the hospitals to see if Lulu's fuckin' ex went to a hospital in Missoula or after he got back to Albuquerque."
The big man breathed deep before continuing. "At the moment, we have no clue what went down. Carly's on her way to Lulu's place. I'd run a check on her finances to see if maybe she took Jules out for breakfast or some such but with her car still there that's just singing in the wind, bro'."
"Twenty-one Ghost cuts," Donny said. "So that's just around, like, half, right?"
Bishop nodded but Mel could tell his mind wasn't on counting coup of the Ghosts, it was on what happened at his place and where his girls might be.
"Fuck!" Mel yelled as loud, as hard and for as long as he could. It was a bellow of such magnitude it brought him to his feet and had him tensing every muscle.
He couldn't breathe but his panting was so damn deep.
He couldn't think but his brain was whirling with thoughts that went by too fast to capture.
"I fucking gotta go home," he said finally shrugging in to his heavy coat and pulling on his cut. He slung the saddlebags over his shoulder and without a backward glance, stormed out of the room and to his bike. "I gotta go home," he repeated, strapping the bags
to the bike and pulling on his gloves before wiping off the seat and sitting down.
The words came out just one more time before he tightened his jaw to prevent them from escaping out of his mouth again.
It was when his boys, his Hellion brothers, caught up to him about five miles north of where Mel'd been when he learned his world had been blown apart.
Chapter Twenty Seven
I woke up to a tiny little voice tearfully repeating, "please wake up. Please, please wake up."
"Julie?" I tried to ask but my voice was a weak whisper whereas the eyes I tried to open were almost too heavy to obey my mental command.
"Lulu? Are you okay?" She was close enough I could feel her warm breath on my face which was in direct contrast with how cold the rest of me was. But her hands were cold too as I felt them bracketing my forehead.
"I hope so," I replied trying to smile but the action caused my jaw to scream in agony at the move. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?" Even though I was having a hard time seeing her, I could tell she was crying. The hiccups that went between her sobs told me she'd been weeping a while. "The men came into the house…"
The memories came rushing back with just her small reminder. The men, her going limp and me getting hit which explained my shrieking jaw pain. I tried to sit up but found my neck was injured as well, feeling as if it had been wrenched. Levering myself slowly up on an elbow, I tried to push up but there was something heavy on my right wrist.
I slowly twisted my head trying not to squeal at the anguish the move caused and saw a large metal bracelet surrounded it. And the bracelet was attached to a thick chain.
"You don't look so good," Julie said and I tried turning her way but ended up having to turn my shoulders along with my head in order to prevent the glass shards of pain from digging in.
"I think they hurt my face," I mumbled and found my lips were so chapped it felt like if I used them too much they'd crack. Julie's face came into my field of vision and I saw her look me over.
"Yeah, they did. Your face is all swolled up on this side," I heard her little voice say as her cold hand met my hot face.
"Are you okay, kiddo?" That was enough about me. My role was to take care of her and as the cobwebs of being knocked out cleared one strand at a time, I tried to rally myself.
"I have a bad headache and my back hurts," she said as she snuggled into my side. I raised my arm, gritting my teeth at the pain the movement in my left arm caused my neck. But the teeth clench tightened my jaw so I settled for a tiny, little squeak instead. Eventually I got her settled against me, my arm around her back and was able to take stock of where we were.
We seemed to be in some kind of cellar or basement that had one bare bulb burning over the only door.
Each of us were chained to eyehooks set up high in the wall. Too high for me to reach.
Lastly, we were on some kind of plastic kiddies air mattress which meant it was short and not very wide.
Not much to go on and I couldn't see a way out except through the door.
"Have you seen anyone or has somebody checked on us yet?" I asked trying to keep the panic I was feeling to myself.
"Nuh-uh. I tried listening too to see if, you know, there was anybody upstairs but I can't hear anything," she said, turning her face up to me. I couldn't see her and I sure as shooting wasn't going to use my neck to look at her but I felt her movement.
"You are so smart, pretty girl! Good thinking about listening for other people." I didn't want to go overboard but I also didn't want Julie to suffer from the stress of our situation the rest of her life, either. So I tried to keep things light.
I attempted to cuddle her closer without using of my upper body and felt her burrow against me tightly. "I'm cold, Lulu."
For our 'Special Sewing Sunday' as I'd named it, we'd both dressed 'cazh' as Julie had called our attire. Sweatshirts and jeans, only mine were heavily covered in rhinestones and studs. Nice, thick clothes that had been perfect and cozy at the house. But in our underground, unheated chamber, we were both very cold.
My only consolation was that I'd insisted we both wear heavy socks which I'd had to borrow from one of Mel's drawers.
"How long do you think we've been here, baby?" I asked hoping she'd have a feel for how much time we'd been unconscious.
"I don't know. I just woke up a few minutes before you. My stomach is growling so I'm guess it's been a while," she said in a small voice. "Do you think anybody knows we're gone? Do you think they called Mel so he can come and rescue us?"
Her question broke my heart and I just didn't have it in me to give the 'I don't know' answer. Because with everything going on at the club, I didn't know that anyone knew we'd been taken or that we were even missing.
The last I'd heard from Mel, the club's business in Idaho was done and they were hoping to leave Monday morning to come home.
I didn't know what time or even what day it was.
But the questions that I was avoiding, that I was studiously ignoring as they marched in big letters through my head were…who had taken us and why.
*.*.*.*.*
"We've got another round of ten coming in," Silo advised and caught Trey's nod.
"Do we need to keep fucking including their recruits in the sweep?" the president asked as he looked around the table at his council which was only missing Bishop.
"They are the easiest to get info from without having to go to extremes," Brand countered.
"Yeah, but they're so low on the fuckin' totem pole they don't know shit," Dare said with an eye roll.
"Perhaps we are not asking the right questions to the Ghost recruits." Brand paused and the table went silent. The big Croatian had been with the ATF and had training in these kind of a situations. "I believe we should point blank ask them about a woman and a child. If they have or have not heard of them or know of their whereabouts."
"Yeah, that makes sense. I don't need to know how the fucking Ghosts do their shit. Don't fuckin' give a care. But going in straight up? That works for me," Silo concurred.
The rest of the table agreed.
"And since they're already pissing themselves just being on Hellion land with their fuckin' eyes taped shut, the fuckers are almost shittin' to tell us anything we want to know," Dare said with a small chuckle. "Good idea, Brand."
"Anybody have Bishop's twenty?" Huff asked.
"Fifteen minutes ago they were just getting close to Deer Lodge," Trey rumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Just a warning, goddamn Hardwood's gonna be a wreck. He gets fucking disrespectful, let him. But let's see if we can get some fucking news before they land, yeah?"
Every man rapped his knuckles on the tabletop before standing and peeling away to interrogate the next round of Ghosts or to ask new questions of the assholes they were already holding.
*.*.*.*.*
Julie wasn't getting whiny or even complaining but I knew I needed to distract her from our surroundings. And I could use a little distraction myself because I had no idea how I was going to get us out of our situation.
So I told her stories. Ones I remembered from my childhood and some tales that were cleaned up and given new treatments that I'd read as an adult. At one point I think I even recapped a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy.
Then we started singing softly together. Songs from some of our favorite artists which I found for her were Taylor Swift and, of course, Katy Perry. Of my choices, little Jules loved Sarah McLachlan's 'Chocolate', probably because it was so easy to sing and learn the lyrics to.
After exhausting our playlist, I found out there was a boy in her class that she liked named Gary and who she thought liked her back. "But we're not boyfriend and girlfriend because we're too young," she confided. I thought it was sweet that Julie knew she was too young although I couldn't figure out at ten what would constitute a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. Sitting together at lunch? Spending time together at recess?
"Are you Mel's girlfriend?" In the sequenc
e of the how the conversation flowed, I should've anticipated the question. And I was surprised that she asked it so nonchalantly.
"I don't know. We've never talked about it," I admitted. But made a mental reminder to get some sort of definition for whatever it was that Mel and I had between us.
"But you kiss, right?"
I took a deep breath and wondered how far I should go in my explanation. Thinking it would be better to error on the side of innocent, I said, "yes but not every boy you kiss will be your boyfriend. It doesn't work like that." I didn't add the 'thank god' out loud to the end of my sentence but I thought it.
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