Wolf (Black Angels MC Book 2)

by A. E. Fisher

  I headed back out to Jax, shaking my head as he flashed his teeth again, both of us knowing his best friend’s wife was downstairs.

  Just as the thought crossed my mind, we heard another round of gunfire go off and screams and what sounded like a door being kicked in. Jax bolted out the doorframe, and I managed to lunge for him, just in time to catch him by the belt loops and drag his ass back into the doorway, biting my lip before I hurled on him in punishment. He turned to me, his eyes flashing with impatience and rage, but I shook my head at him, knowing we couldn’t rush in without knowing the situation.

  Jax took a breath and gave me a stiff nod before I let him go. But when I went to go first, thinking the cooler-headed of the two of us should lead, that’s where Jax put his foot down. He pushed me behind him before taking the lead out of the doorway and into the hall.

  We followed it until we came to the stairs, and thankfully, we had corners and crevices in many of the walls, providing good cover as we made our way down the steps, one by one, pressed into the wall until I saw a flash of red hair.

  Mallory sat on her knees, her hands over her head in the center of the clubroom floor. I couldn’t see her face, but her shaking shoulders were enough to let me know what was going on. I also saw Pretty and Mint sitting in front of her, their bodies providing a barrier between them and what I guessed was the armed enemy. After taking another step down, I managed to peer over Jax’s tall shoulder and spotted Baby, Sweets, and Ember huddled on Pretty’s other side.

  I didn’t see Kay, and I knew Bell was at school. Everybody else was out, as mentioned in the phone call Wolf received earlier. The boys had wanted to call the kids and the women back to the clubhouse, but Wolf had forbidden it after Lamb warned that tipping them off might be a bad idea since they must have had men on all of them.

  I held my breath against my body’s wishes as Jax wound his hand out behind him to keep tabs on where I was. His hand reached to my arm, and as he took a risky step down to the edge of our cover, he flattened his palm, stopping me from following him.

  I saw Mint’s body stiffen from Jax’s movement, and Jax stepped back. Out of the corner of his eye, though it was barely visible from his firm posture, Mint had noticed us.

  I breathed a sigh of relief, the wooden plank on the stair creaking ever so softly underneath my weight.

  Until I realized that it wasn’t my step that creaked.

  I only had enough time to turn around before I saw the barrel of the gun.

  Bang.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Wolf

  I had a bad feeling.

  But a bad feeling was the least of my problems as we pulled up to the appointed place for the exchange, tasting the bitter irony of meeting up at the bullet-ridden warehouse where we had only been a few months earlier.

  “Bastard’s got a sense of humor,” Hunter growled, coming up at his side. His dazzlingly green eyes were dark as he turned from the warehouse to look at me, shaking his head. “This feels wrong.”

  “Dazhe v doline ten' smerti dva I dva ne delavit' shest',” I said, the words heavy on my tongue.

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Ripper grumbled, coming up on my other side. The light glinted off the scar on the right of his cheek, and he looked upon the warehouse with irritated brown eyes, sympathetic, but not empathetic compared to the rest of us. When the shit fest between us, the Hell’s Runners, and Grim Reapers had gone down here, he had been left at the club to guard it just like Jax, Pretty, and Mint had. The ones left behind had seemed to be the most resilient about going through with this as well, and I didn’t want them to hesitate when it came down to it.

  “Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two does not make six,’” Ash roughly translated, her small brunette head coming up next to Ripper. “Leo Tolstoy.”

  “There ain’t much right in our world from the beginning,” I explained, looking to Hunter, who frowned at Ash’s translation.

  Her sunglasses were replaced with one of Bell’s old pairs, since hers had shattered upon the impact of Anna's fist. However, although they hid her eyes, they did little to hide the purple bruising around the front of her face from where Anna had broken her nose quite brutally.

  Hunter nodded at my words, and I found myself looking up at the warehouse, thinking about what I was about to go through with. Hunter wasn’t the only one who couldn’t settle on this decision.

  If you go through with that deal, we’re done.

  Anna’s face and words had been turning over and over in my head on the entire ride here. I knew by going through with this, I would be sacrificing so much more than just Ash for my club.

  Just.

  The word made my stomach feel sick, disgusted with the fact my life had come to the point that the word “just” could come before a human’s life. Ash was about the same age as Oral would be, maybe a slight bit younger, and I was ready to hand her over to a man who was planning to kill her.

  “I’m guessing Anna gave you an ultimatum?” Ash’s crisp accent, almost as jarring as the cold, interrupted my thoughts. I looked down at her, finding her on my other side, unsurprised, as Lamb was now standing next to Ripper, handing him, Hunter, Polo, Jasper, and the other brothers extra magazine clips as Hunter unloaded them from the saddle bags attached to his bike.

  “Let me guess,” Ash said, reaching up with her tanned, slender hands to brush her hair away from her mouth as the cold wind chipped at everybody’s skin. “No me means no you and her?”

  My eyes narrowed on her, and she nodded her head, her lips flattening into a line. “Yeah, I figured as much. I was hoping she wouldn’t be like this.” She turned to look at the warehouse, but her expression showed she was looking distantly beyond anything around her.

  “Hoping she wouldn’t be like this?” I growled, pissed at the apathetic tone of her voice. “You wanted her to be fucking flowers and sunshine when her best friend, the person she thought she had sworn and failed to protect, says she wants to hand herself over to the very same people she swore to protect her from?” Ash flinched hard at my words, but I didn’t feel the slightest bit regretful for saying them. “If you hadn’t fucking appeared, we wouldn’t have had to deal with this shit!”

  Ash’s anger must have flared, because she spun on me faster than I expected, and being she was taller than Anna, she managed to push up onto her toes and make use of the slight hunch in my shoulders to shove her snarling face into mine. “My father would have come whether or not I fucking turned up. I kept as far as fucking possible from her to make sure he never came anywhere near here! But Anna settled with you guys! She knew the risk of hanging out in the same place for too long. Deep down, she knew he would find her eventually and things would no doubt come to this, but she chose to ignore that and stayed anyway. She stayed for you. This is the only way I can protect her now, do you understand? I’m doing this for her! I’m doing this to make sure she can finally have the happily ever after love disaster that she wants. So she doesn’t have to be dragged through the mud anymore with me! She deserves a future!”

  The whole group around us became silent as they all turned to face Ash, eyes wide and expressions shocked as Ash blurted out everything.

  I searched her face, her tinted glasses hiding her eyes but not hiding the way her body dropped back down onto her flat feet, her shoulders slumping with the weight as her anger drained from her. Her lips flattened into a thin line as she looked down at the ground, and I sieved through her words. “Then you lied about being done?”

  “No.” Ash shook her head. She reached up to her face, her rough, broken-nailed fingers running along the smooth sunglasses. “Running away from my family was always just a dream. I’ve been doing it for four years, but I’ve been fighting them for a lot longer than that, Wolf. The only thing that ever gave me hope, that ever made me want to fight, was Anna. I used to be an obedient good little girl until Anna showed me that that kind of life wasn't living and I should look for more. Fig
ht for more. She was beautiful and dazzling in my dark world, and she was the hand who in my darkness moments saved me and showed what the real world was. But the one thing about the past is that it never completely goes away. Do you think my family would be okay with me murdering my mother and running away? Do you think I would have gone unpunished? There's no escaping the dark, Wolf. There is only running for as long as you possibly can. But I'm running out of road, and if my last thing to do on this earth is protecting her, then so be it. Call it pretentious; call it selfish. I don't give a fuck. This is how I'm giving back to her, for everything she's done for me. I'm done letting her sacrifice everything for me. I'm done.”

  Ash shook her head before her hand reached up to the frame of her glasses and pulled them from her face. The cool tint of green, I realized up close, was tinged by the silver sheen of fog over her eyes as she turned to look at me, squinting against the brightness of the low sun before a small smile overtook her face. “A bird with broken wings can’t fly. I won’t ever be free, not while my family is around. So, you can let me do this, Wolf. You can let me do this, knowing this is what I chose to do. Don’t carry the guilt on your shoulders.”

  The smile didn’t look satisfied. It didn’t look happy.

  It looked lonely.

  Ash lifted the sunglasses to cover her eyes once again, and for whatever reason, I noticed for the first time the silver scars around her slender wrists faintly hidden by her tan. She didn’t acknowledge the way my eyes followed them as she released her grip on her sunglasses, comfortably setting them on the bridge of her nose, away from her purpled bruises. With her armor replaced, she turned and took a small step toward the warehouse.

  “Let’s get this over with.” She slung her rucksack over her shoulder and began walking.

  I watched her walk away in the quiet wake of her words, the light warmth of the sun on my back like a push forward, but my feet didn’t get the message as her face replayed over and over my mind.

  “I know what she said,” Hunter said beside me, his eyes following the small, straight back of the girl. “But are you sure you want to go through with this, Wolf? There’s no going back, and making up for mistakes isn’t easy. Trust me.”

  I looked at him, a man who had given too much for the club and so much more for those he loved, and despite how true his words were, I couldn’t give him the answer they all wanted.

  “If I weren’t sure, I wouldn’t be here,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel and began to walk forward into a deal I knew I shouldn’t make but had no choice but to go through with.

  By the time we entered the big warehouse doors, Ash had been placed in a circle of bikers. We didn't want to risk her being taken in an ambush in case any of the other parties had any dirty tricks up their sleeves.

  We had our guns loaded and down by our sides in case we needed them, not caring if it made us seem defensive because we were; I wasn’t ready to sacrifice a ready defense to posturize in front of men I had no doubt would outnumber us.

  Our feet echoed across the concrete slab, small bullet cases rattling as they kicked into them. Thousands of them were dispersed across the warehouse floor, reminding me of the shit fest that had gone down here last time. I kept my eye on Hunter as his drifted around the room; he almost lost his wife here a few months back, and although I hadn’t wanted to bring him when I heard about the meeting place, I knew I needed Hunter’s quick reflexes if this broke out into another gun war.

  Shadows danced around the edge of the windows, their outlines cut through as light spliced through holes in the rigid metal walls. As I counted the men in black around the room, I noticed the tattoos many of them bore, and it wasn’t difficult for me to know these men were the Black Jacks. My total added up to around twenty, making it 2:1 against our ten. I also remembered Charon had told me that the Black Jacks had thirty members. It was possible Charon was wrong, but seeing his smug face in my mind made me highly doubt that.

  I didn’t like this.

  I disliked it even more as I heard the growing sounds of a car’s engine and the big garage doors began to open. Bright winter light cut into the shaded warehouse, and a whistling breeze caught everybody’s skin as the black SUV tore across the compound.

  I tensed up, forcing my hand to the side of the trigger so I wouldn’t pull it despite my instincts telling me to take out every single man in this room. I noted my action reflecting in my brothers beside me, their own eyes jumping around the room as they kept the rigid posture of calmness.

  We stayed apprehensive as the vehicle pulled up only a few feet before us. The engine cut out, and silence dawned upon the room.

  It felt like a long few seconds before the click of the car door echoed in the huge chambered warehouse.

  A slight warmth hit my back, and I didn’t have to turn to know Ash had moved closer to me as the brothers tightened ranks around her. There was a slight quiver in her breath as the shining black door swung open.

  As the first polished shoe touched the floor, I knew this man was business. The cuff around his ankle was a tailor-made suit, the color a dark gray, and the socks white. By the second shoe, I could practically smell the lethality in the air as he cruised with smooth, simple movements out the car, not a single unnecessary movement expended until he stood facing us.

  When I’d heard it was Ash’s father coming, I hadn’t quite expected someone so... old. This man’s face was wrinkled, deepened with heavy frown lines around his face, and a lack of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes. His hair was short but styled over his head in a cut that might have been out of date by at least fifty years, and he carried it as if he didn’t care. This man screamed old school, from the striped Armani suit to the silk-gloved hands tucking the golden cane underneath his arm. This suit didn’t wrinkle in the places it normally would in his movements, and I knew it had been custom tailored. Designed to hug, and hide everything he didn’t want to be seen.

  Pale green eyes reflected the late morning light as they narrowed on me and my brothers. He didn’t look surprised by much; even my height did little to impress him as the weighed brows sat close above his eyes.

  “Where is Alexandria?” he asked, not one for small talk, it seemed.

  I figured Alexandria was Ash’s real name, and I gestured behind me without moving a step. “Take your men off my people,” I demanded. “Then I’ll let you see her.”

  The man’s eyes darted across my face, slightly shocked at the audacity in which I told him what to do. I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out, but when I saw his lips flinch with what could only have been a smirk, I felt a momentary swell of relief.

  “Fine.” The man held out his hand, and only a moment later did both the front car doors pop open and out stepped two giants. I mean, I was tall, but these guys must have been at least seven foot. With scars, piercings, and tattoos covering so much of their skin, the word “goons” immediately came to mind. One was dark haired, though, while the other had gone to the extent of bleaching his an almost yellowish blond. Both held many of the tattoos that I knew were faded old Russian military markings. They were strikingly different from the classic man’s attire.

  One of the men handed him a black phone, and the old man reached into his suit jacket, pulling out a pair of reading glasses. He balanced them on the bridge of his nose and dialed a number before lifting it to his ear.

  “Your work’s done. Come back,” was all he said before ending the call and handing it back to the blond goon.

  “Now, Alexandria.” He gestured his arm out to me as if expecting me to move.

  I didn’t.

  The man’s relaxed expression quickly turned into a frown as I saw his patience wear thin. He opened his mouth, probably to demand I move this time, but before he could, the shrill ring of a phone cut him off.

  The older man looked to his goon, but it wasn’t his phone that was ringing.

  I held out my hand as Polo placed a black burner phone inside it.

  �
��What’s that?” the man snapped, his aged voice dipping into a hoarse growl.

  “Assurance,” I replied as I answered the call, placing the phone to my ear.

  “Wolf,” Amanda, Polo’s old lady, greeted me, her voice calm. “Big, tattooed, and ugly just walked off. He got into his car and left.”

  We had managed to call the salon on the sly and get in contact with Amanda only, considering she was the old lady with the most seniority. I knew I could trust her to keep her calm and not look suspicious when I told her something was up. This old bastard had been behind killing off Spider by saving him only to dump him in the nearby lake, so I couldn’t be entirely sure that I wouldn’t be double-crossed. This was the only way I could be sure.

  “Thanks,” I said, hearing her quick goodbye before I hung up the phone and passed it back to Polo, who dropped it to the floor before crushing it under his boot.

  With that, I stepped aside, letting Ash step forward.

  Her shoulders were squared, her chin raised as she took the long, confident stride around me, eyes forward as she faced her father. But she couldn’t deceive me. I could see the way her shoulder muscles rippled down her back through the exposed jacket. The way her bones looked like they were about to snap as she fought every urge not to curl into herself and cower in front of this man.

  Her father’s expression suddenly changed, and darkness descended like a screen over his face. I saw him force down the need to snarl, his eyes shrinking into tiny slits as he regarded his daughter.

  “Alexandria.” He practically hissed the word, and the bad feeling inside of me only grew worse. Despite the fact I didn’t like her, every fiber and instinct in my body demanded I grab her and put her back behind me. Sacrificing herself for Anna was so wrong. So very wrong that I couldn’t help but think it was a mistake.

  I was only momentarily distracted by the anxiety clawing its way up into my brain as the older man snapped his eyes from his daughter and moved back to my face.