by A. E. Fisher
Then she’d left.
And come I had.
We pulled into the compound; Anna seemed to have sobered up during the ride. Her wind-torn hair was all over the place, and she was trying to smooth it down as she slid off my bike. She took off my jacket and handed it back to me. I put it on, realizing it now smelled like her. She looked down at her clothes and frowned.
“I need new clothes,” she said, turning to look at the lot before she stopped. “I left my car,” she added on a soft note, her eyes focused on the concrete.
I turned off the engine before rising from my bike and taking Anna’s wrist in my hand. She didn’t fight me as I guided her in through the club doors and into the bar. I stopped at the edge of the bar, reaching to pluck a spare set of keys for one of the cages we kept in the parking lot from behind it. I threw them at the next unlucky bastard to walk through the door.
Mint caught them out of the air with fast reflexes and looked in the direction they came from, then glancing at the keys before giving me a curious look.
I turned back to Anna, pulled her keys out of her hand, and threw them to Mint as well. “Go get Anna’s car,” I commanded.
Mint nodded, looking for the second unlucky bugger to come with him. He looked at Jax first but quickly settled on Pipe instead, who didn’t bother to bitch as he got up and went with him. Prospects didn’t get to give a shit, after all.
I headed back toward my room, the only one on the ground floor next to my office, and pushed Anna inside. She stood with a frown as she looked around the room. Her eyes narrowed on the pack of cigarettes and a couple of empty whiskey bottles on the bedside table. She didn’t say anything, though. Her eyes just proceeded to look everywhere and anywhere.
I leaned up against the door, folding my arms against my chest.
“I told you not to look into it,” I said. My voice was hard and rough, and I watched as Anna stilled with uncharacteristic caution. “But you did it anyway. You disobeyed me. And your informant got killed and you almost along with him.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Anna bit back, her voice a conflict of annoyance and resignation.
“No, I don’t think you do,” I growled, shoving myself off the door with force. I had held off on this shit while we were at the diner on another club’s territory, but now we were back under my roof. I had shit to say, and Anna was sure as fuck going to listen to it. “I think if you knew the danger you were putting yourself in, you wouldn’t have gone and fucking done it.”
“I had it under control,” she argued but still didn’t dare look at me.
I walked toward her until I stood within reaching distance. I leaned down close to her face, and with a snarl, I growled, “If you had everything under fucking control, he wouldn’t have died.”
“You know what?” Anna snapped, spinning so fast her face almost crashed into mine. “I don’t give two shits what you think, Wolf. Shit happened that was out of my control. His death isn’t on my hands, so stop making me out to be the bad guy!”
She shoved at my chest, forcing me to take a step back. She marched her way to the door, grabbing the handle and pulling the door back.
I slammed it shut with enough force to make the wall shake. My palms lay next to her head, my arms caging her in. I leaned in close again, letting my lips come near to her ear. “Don’t you fucking run away from me,” I growled.
“I can do whatever the fuck I like,” Anna hissed, moving her head away from me.
I scoffed. “Yeah, and look where that got you.”
She screamed in frustration, shoving at me again and again as she tried and failed to break out of my hold. “What do you want, Wolf?” she yelled, her nails digging hard into my skin. “What do I have to do for you to get the fuck off my back?”
“Don’t pretend it didn’t happen,” I snapped.
Anna’s fight stuttered and died, her grip relaxing. Her eyes fell to my chest, distant. A look washed over her face, and I didn’t like what it did to her. Her shoulders drooped, but her hands still held on to my arms, as if my body anchored her to the here and now.
I dropped my head, letting it fall to the side of hers, my cheek touching her cool skin. “Don’t pretend like it doesn’t affect you; I can see it’s got to you, so don’t pretend it hasn’t. Don’t put that shadow on you,” I whispered.
“I was the last thing he saw, Wolf,” she whispered, her voice so very soft and injured. “I was the last thing he saw as he died. He was just a kid. Barely older than twenty, and it was my fault he died. It shouldn’t have been me he saw... not me.” Her head fell forward against my shoulder. She wasn’t crying, but her breathing caught every few seconds. She was quiet for a long time. I felt her head shift on my shoulder every now and then as if moving to free her mouth to speak. But then she’d think twice and her mouth would close. I didn’t think she would ever say it, but I didn’t move, and only after another minute or so, she pulled her head back.
“I didn’t cry,” she confessed on a desperate and soft note. Her blue eyes looked up to mine as if I could give her an explanation, or some kind of reassurance, but I had no idea what she was asking of me. “You’re supposed to cry,” she added. “When someone dies in your arms, you’re supposed to cry. But I didn’t.”
Anna shook her head, her eyes becoming absorbed with despair. “I can’t even cry now...What's wrong with me?” The question was spoken into the air; she expected it to be rhetorical, but I didn’t let it.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,” I answered. “Not everybody cries. Just because you didn’t cry, it doesn’t mean you didn’t care, and it’s not your fault, Anna. I know that when shit like this happens, it may feel like it, but it wasn’t your fault. Lizard made his own choices that got him that far. In the end...” I paused, feeling the words hit close to home. “In the end,” I started again, “it was his decision to meet you. His alone.”
Anna’s eyes lowered once again, and I hated the defeat that was still buried under her skin. She didn’t believe me.
I opened my mouth to speak again when a knock sounded on the door. Anna flinched in surprise and her eyes jumped up to mine.
“Prez,” Hunter’s voice came from the other side of the door.
“What is it?” I asked, hoping it was something I could put off until later.
“Church is ready,” he said, followed by the sound of his footsteps walking away.
“Fuck,” I groaned, knowing it was something I had to deal with immediately. This shit couldn’t wait.
I dropped my arms from the door and stepped back away from her. Anna’s body shivered as my warmth left her, and as much as I wanted to bring her back into my chest, I fought it. I reached my hand out to brush down the side of her cheek and said, “Stay here,” before letting her step away from the door so I could exit through it.
I hesitated as I left, and as much as I hated myself for it, I turned to look back. Anna’s eyes were pinned on me, watching me go. Fuck, she looked so vulnerable and open. It was the first time I’d seen her like this, and it tore at me to let her go, but I had no other choice.
My club needed me.
So did she.
But club always came first. That’s what being president meant.
I closed the door behind me and headed to Church.
I sat at the head of my table for the second time this week, pissed that we had to hold a second meeting when we weren’t even halfway through the week. We normally only had one or two meetings a week. Everyone’s club workload was divided in a way that meant they could handle their shit on their own, and even if they had an issue, Lamb could normally sort it on his own. Everybody was always busy doing something, so we weren’t thinking of expanding our investments at the moment, which meant fewer club decisions to be made; it was supposed to mean less Church.
“Somebody better tell me quickly how the fuck Anna almost ended up with her head blown off while we were none the wiser,” I growled, my hand clasped tightly around the
handle of my gavel, ready to throw it at something at just the thought of what shit could have gone down.
“They followed Lizard, the kid who got killed,” Hunter explained. “He was sprouting shit on the guy who’s got his eye on us, and that’s the information Anna got her hands on.”
“What did he manage to tell her?” Pretty asked, looking at me. But it wasn’t me who knew.
“Nothing you’re gonna like,” Jax answered, his eyes also on me. I felt my hands squeeze the little wooden handle. “Anna said Lizard had found out that the bastard’s been buying up real estate left, right, and center, all in our surrounding areas—including the empty factories in the industrial area north of Fellpeak. Been getting as many clubs under his wing as he can. Most of them refused offers from him because the west is still under Charon’s influence, though he’s turned a few. Got himself some dirty politicians, too.”
“Fuck,” I growled. It was worse than I thought. “How the hell has this guy been moving around like this without us knowing about it? Somebody buys up a shit-ton of property, some fuck’s got to notice, especially when it’s on our territory.”
“It’s because he’s been flying low under Charon’s radar, basically hiding behind him. People just figured it was the Grims buying up more investments. It’s not uncommon for them to buy shit under false names. Nobody put the dots together until Lizard did.”
“But what the fuck has it got to do with our club? The fuck did we do to have this pain-in-the-ass bastard on our backs?” I pried my fingers from the gavel and threw it aside on the table, concerned I was going to start throwing it at my brothers’ heads. I would have if I didn’t have just as much a part in not noticing as the rest of them.
“He’s looking for something,” Jax informed the room, his eyes narrowing. “Apparently, we’ve got the key that’ll lead him to it.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I snapped. “A fucking key? This isn’t some kind of treasure hunt shit.”
“I don’t think he means a literal key,” Lamb interrupted. “Whatever it is, it’s the means to getting what he wants. Be it a person or information.”
I looked around the room at my brothers. Neither the old ones nor the young ones looked like they had a fucking clue what he was talking about. “Anyone got anything they want to confess?” I turned and looked at them all one by one. “Someone hiding some secret stash of gold or some shit we need to know about.”
Nobody moved, and I thought we were going to remain in silence until I saw Jax open his mouth, and I just knew some bullshit was about to come out of it. “Not unless he’s after my Italian underwear collection.” It got worse as his expression turned into genuine concern. “That shit cost me a fortune.”
“Wait.” I saw Pretty look up from his seat, his eyes dancing with light as he turned to Jax. “What about my stamp collection?”
“You have a stamp collection?” Jax scoffed, looking like his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
“No,” Pretty scoffed. “I was kidding, you dick. Do I look like some pussy to you?”
“Hey,” Polo snapped from across the table. “Ain’t nothing wrong with collecting stamps.”
“There ain’t nothing wrong with it,” Jax returned. “If this were still the 1950s.”
“You bastard—”
The gavel slammed down on the glass table and sliced through the noise like the crack of a whip. Silence fell upon the whole room as their gazes traveled to me.
“I run a fucking motorcycle club,” I growled, looking at each and every one of them. “Not a goddam fucking nursery!”
“Sorry, Prez.” Jax raised his hands in surrender. Pretty apologized in a similar suit, and Polo gave a huff and looked away. I’d known the old man my entire time in the MC; he’d been a hardass from the very beginning, and getting a full apology from him was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Not to mention, I didn’t have time to grill him, so I let it be and got on with this shit before I managed to blow my cap and smack one of them into a wall.
“We’re going into lockdown. We don’t have a fuckin’ clue what this bastard is after. With what happened with Anna today, I’m not taking any chances. I don’t like this shit happening so close to our turf, so I want everyone in. Part-timers, weekenders, the whole lot. I don’t give a shit if we don’t have enough room; you bastards are going to have to share. And if you even think about bitching about it, I’m gonna knock you into next week. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Prez,” echoed throughout the room, some of the bastards grumbling under their breath but conceding to my authority nonetheless. There wasn’t much more to argue on, since none of us had a clue as to what the bastard wanted, nor who he was.
With everyone in agreement, I told Jax to fill Mint in when he got back, and I slammed the gavel down once more, getting the fuck out of that room as fast as I could.
Chapter Six
Anna
I got out of my car, popping my trunk and reaching for my bags as I heard his familiar voice roar across the car lot. I made a point of ignoring him as I continued to pull my bags out and shut the trunk before locking it with the key.
His towering shadow swallowed me as I opened my purse and dropped my car keys inside. I then proceeded to count the bags I had on the floor to make sure I got them all, despite already knowing I did.
I waited until I heard his growl before I looked up from my bags and pretended to feign surprise at him. “Oh, I didn’t see you there,” I said, drowning my voice in that fake, crappy-acting voice on purpose. He did that thing where his height seemed to grow, towering over me like a huge, enraged giant as his heavy brow formed that perfectly constructed scowl across his face, squinting his deep brown eyes into tiny slits. I ignored his anger and instead pointed down to my bags. “Since you’re here, get those for me,” I ordered before strutting past him toward the door.
He followed me in silence, and I huffed when he didn’t pick up my bags. I continued walking until I got inside the bar, ignoring the presence behind me, my eyes scanning the crowd. Brothers from all over had turned up to the lockdown, and many were still piling in as the retirees and weekenders filled the room from wall to wall.
I spotted Mint behind the bar with Lamb, but upon seeing what followed me, the new recruit ducked away before I could lock onto him. I considered Lamb, but from his growing grin, I figured it was best not to put fuel near the spluttering fire behind me.
I eventually found Pipe talking to one of the younger weekenders, Moon, before I caught his attention. “My bags are by my car. Can you fetch them for me?” I called out to him. His eyes looked up to Wolf, who emitted a controlled, silent rage as he patiently followed behind me, and the prospect was out the door before I could add please. I even watched as Moon quickly followed behind him. Pussies.
With that out of the way, Wolf moved from behind me and began walking toward his office. The crowd parted like Moses and the Red Sea as they all took one look at his face before scuttling out of the way. I trailed after him, knowing it would be better to get this done sooner rather than later.
He waited until I shut the door before he began yelling.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” he roared, his eyes almost bulging out of his head.
“Collecting my clothes?” I replied with a shrug, my expression a mask of confusion and innocence.
“Don’t get fucking snarky with me, Anna,” he snapped, punctuating my name with his beloved growl.
I couldn’t help my scoff. “Did you hit your head again yesterday?” I wondered, looking up at the bruising around his cheekbone. “Because I swear you must have forgotten who I am.”
I could see his eyes flash with the memory of what had happened when he’d returned to his room the night before. Of course, upon entering, everything would have looked normal to him. Until he reached for one of the many whiskey bottles on his bedside table he drank before bed without fail. People thought the fact he slept like the dead was a
part of his disposition, but it was actually because the bastard drank himself to sleep every night.
I peeked around him, my eyes peering through the connecting door to his bedroom just enough to see that the bedside table was empty, noting their absence. I would have got rid of them, too. It would be dangerous if someone unknowingly drank from it.
“Oh, I see what it is,” I cooed, nodding my head with understanding. “You woke up on the wrong side of the bed, didn’t you?”
It was like there was a little meter on his chest, and with my comment, I saw it fly into the red zone as steam began to pour out of his ears.
“For fuck’s sake, Anna!” Wolf snapped, his hands coming up on either side of my head. They hit the wall so hard, I wondered if he’d broken a bone or two as his face leaned close to mine, his lip curling up in a snarl. “Stop fucking pushing me.”
“Why? What are you going to do about it?” I taunted, pushing my face closer to his.
I blew a hot breath across his lips, and much to my surprise, Wolf didn’t bite at my teasing like usual. Instead, he shoved himself from the wall, walked over to his bookshelf, and threw his fist into it with such a force, the wood split around his knuckles.
“Wolf!” I screeched in surprise. I reached for his hand as he snatched it from the bookcase. Wood splinters crumbled to the floor. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I snapped as I checked his bloodied knuckles.
“You!” he roared. He pulled his hand out of mine and wrapped it around my biceps to give me a rough shake. “You’re my fucking problem!”
“What the fuck did I do?” I pulled out of his grasp as my hands defensively propped on my hips.
“You almost got your head fucking blown off yesterday, that’s what you fucking did!” I watched as his bloodied hand ran through his long hair, tugging on it with such a force, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tore a clump out of his head. As he began to pace up and down the small confines of his office, I felt my hands slide off my hips.