by K. J. Dahlen
This was no place to show weakness. We were in the presence of potential enemies. I didn’t blame him for feeling emotional, we share a bond of brotherhood that went beyond the bloodline. I hated having to be here. But I trusted Dino to have my back with this Border Patrol MC that I just remembered had arrived sometime along the way. And, most importantly, to keep Jesse from piercing a knife through my skill for putting his daughter through hell. And Dino would be needed to keep control of the business of the Devils. He would be donning the Prez vest while I was out of it. He had shown nothing but loyalty to my brothers and me.
“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Dino demanded. All the noise stopped. He gave his cold glare to every man around, and called out over the noise, “We don’t have time for questions. Why we are here should be clear enough. Now either you can fix him up or you can’t,” he growled at the doctor.
“Yep. Yep,” the doctor said, softly in a state of panic.
“Don’t say another fucking word. Get your asses over here and let’s move him inside,” Dino ordered. Without a second thought, he pushed the gurney and the rest of the men followed suit.
I was surrounded by bodies who manuvered my bed across the gravel, I hoped it would be in the direction of some pain relief. The frame quivered, rattled and squeaked on the uneven floor.
A wet wipe smelling like alcohol stroked my arm. I turned my gaze toward the doctor who’d applied it, and he narrowed his eyes at me. A blink later, he injected me with something. The doctor paced a hand on my shoulder, as the world started to spin and everything went silent like on the inside of a coffin.
Chloe kept hold of my hand. Her gentle touch soothed something in me. My eyelids drew closed and I wished that when I woke again, I would find myself in another state with Chloe by my side. It was the last thought I registered before everything faded to black.
Chapter Five
Dino
The journey to Border Patrol MC Territory had been a long one. Jesse drove the van into a large gated area. A place far different from the Devils clubhouse. It sat on the edge of a long stretch of woodlands. Before the van had come to a stop, I opened my door and leapt out. It gave me a chance to take in my surroundings and scout the area for potential threats. Swarms of black, Harley motorcycles – all Choppers ‒ in front of a row of six garages sat to my left and the main building to my right. To its side was a single outbuilding that looked like a small office. Both buildings had exposed brick walls and flat roofs. It had plenty of land and privacy. The windows, at least the ones I could see, were blackened.
I glanced at the main building across the front parking area. Above the outside door were the words, “Ride together, Die together. Border Patrol MC.” The Border Patrol’s clubhouse was a fancy establishment with dark grey bulldog sculptures either side of a large mahogany door with a brass knocker in the shape of a deer’s head. The club was evidently good money makers.
Dagger pulled in beside the small outbuilding, the van’s back doors were adjacent to the front door of the building.
I moved toward the doors at the back of the vehicle and held my hand on the handle to open the doors as soon as I heard Dagger kill the engine. My gaze remained firmly fixed on the front door to Border Patrol’s clubhouse. Nobody else was outside, but I knew they were here. I preferred not to work in broad daylight, but I’d do whatever Jaxs’ condition called for to get him well again.
The mahogany door opened with a low clunk. A gravely, breathless male voice yelled from somewhere inside, “Get your ass outside. Dagger warned you, this is an urgent case!”
The door opened wide and I saw the doctor emerge first with a slight stumble, as though he’d been pushed. Thin and tall, dressed in a combat trousers and a blue top with what had to be blood, and foam clogs on his feet. The doctor was an Indian man who looked to be in his sixties. A stethoscope hung around his neck as he moved toward me. As he introduced himself as, “Dr. Sarma,” Dagger cut the engine and I opened the doors to the van.
When the doors on the van flung open and I saw Jax again he was laying sideways, most of his face pressed against the tangled sheets.
The heavy footsteps of men spilling out from the door to the clubhouse caught my attention. Turning my head, I saw at least thirty bikers, dressed in bad boy leather motorcycle jackets, spiked hair over a tight white T shirt and jeans, weaved in and out of the circle that formed around Jax’s gurney like a pack of baboons while I fought to give him room from the smothering crowd.
Four men helped Dagger and I lift Jax out of the van. Jax’s single visible eye shifted to me. I doubled over the thin, white hospital pillow and carefully propped Jax’s face up on top of it.
I pivoted on my heels to look for Dr. Sarma and was instead, faced with a large man in his fifties with deep-set eyes and thick, black eyebrows that hung over them like a pair of furry caterpillars. He gripped patted me down for any weapons, “It’s just a precaution,” he said.
“I’ll cooperate,” I responded, holding both hands in the air. As his fingers moved toward the holster of my gun, I whipped my right arm downward across my body and clenched him by the wrist. “I’ll cooperate,” I repeated, “But you’ll leave my gun alone!”
He grinned at me in surprise, showing rotting teeth. A split second later, his expression went cold. “Be careful, son. An attitude like that will get you in real trouble in this world,” the brute hissed.
Thrusting my hand into his chest and shoving his body backward I told him, “I’ll take my chances.”
Enraged, the man let out a menacing growl and stepped toward me.
“Enough!” Dagger ordered, and gave his man an indication with his head to move away from me.
I got the bikers to wheel Jax’s gurney into the small office building which I had discovered was the medical room. Chloe followed.
Dagger appeared by my side. “I want you to tell Bruno that Jax is still in the hospital. If you want him to stay alive,” he said, his voice a cold calm tone.
I walked over to the medical room and gripped the doorknob. It turned and opened. The room was full of medical and diagnostic equipment “Where’d you get the funds for all this?” I cocked an eyebrow at the doctor accusingly.
The man appeared to swallow with some difficulty. “The club deals with the finances. I-I just tell them what t-they need,” he replied, shakily. “I’ve given him some morphine to keep him under for a few days.” His hands shook.
I couldn’t work out whether he had a tremor of some kind, or whether he was genuinely terrified of me.
I leaned in close to him, my voice a firm whisper, “Now listen here, Jax is here to rest up. You need to do something serious you call me first. I’m the one making the decisions here. Not you. Not Dagger. Not his MC. Capiche?” I held his gaze.
Nodding his head rapidly the man responded, “Y-Yes. Yes. Of course.” The doctor raised a finger in the air in front of my nose. “J-Just one more question. I- If there is an emergency, would you like me to resuscitate?”
I felt my nostrils flare, “Did you not fucking hear what I just told you!” I snapped.
“Dino!” Chloe cried out and I watched Jax stir. The morphine would pull him under soon but he wasn’t out yet.
I slid my gaze back to the doctor – his eyes wide, unblinking, and apologetic. “Ain’t you got a job to be getting on with?” I asked.
The doctor nodded and turned toward Jax.
I watched as he rolled Jax onto his back, blood escaping from the torn stitches along the gash on his face. I wondered, in that moment, how Jax would react to having been brought to Border Patrol to recover. I knew he wouldn’t like it.
Jesse knew how Chloe felt for Jax. So I had no qualms about leaving him here. My focus was Jax’s survival, and experience had taught me that the Patrol wouldn’t hurt the Devils’ President, less they wanted to get on the wrong side of De Luca while I focused on my target – Jumper.
Chloe’s gaze cut sideways and she whispered to me, “I can’t lose h
im. I can’t—” Her voice caught, verging on tears.
“You won’t,” I promised her. “You want to stay with him?”
A grim line appeared on her lips and she nodded, “I won’t be anywhere else till he is well.” Chloe dropped down onto a chair next to Jax’s bed and rested her head on the sheets beside him.
“I gotta get going. I’ll come by and see you tomorrow. Your dad will be here for you. It’ll all be ok,” I reassured her. Knowing that I needed to meet with Bruno back at the clubhouse soon. I walked out and the door behind me, though I wondered whether Chloe would want to stay with her father. She hadn’t see him since she was a pre-teen, but I knew she wouldn’t leave Jax.
Outside, I could hear the steady hum of engines and saw that twenty or so bikers were gathered. None of them seemed particularly interested or bothered by my presence.
Jesse’s eyes flicked to mine from across the parking lot. We moved towards each other. “I’ll give you a bike to borrow and you can bring it back when you’ve got yours from the hospital later,” he said, his eyes alert; his voice all business.
“Thanks.”
Jesse made his way toward one of the garages, lifted the door and disappeared within.
Eyeing the right side of the clubhouse from where I stood, something suddenly made me stop what I was doing. Something I just had to get a look at. I’d become aware of a petite redhead that caught my eyes in a small upstairs window. I peered up through the window of the second floor of their clubhouse. I’d thought all the windows were blackened but this one had escaped my notice.
She was tugging on her shirt and noticed me.
We looked at one another and she paused for a beat, when a second figure appeared behind her. A male figure. I watched as he lifted the girl, placing her on the bed ahead of the window. The man stood at the foot of the bed facing her. The girl lay on her stomach. I watched as her head started to bob forward and backward as she sucked his cock. I felt my gut churn in disgust. The thought of watching another man get his rocks off made me sick to my stomach. Yet, something about the girl intrigued me and my eyes didn’t leave her.
“I call her Blaze.” Jesses voice called from the doors of the garage.
I felt my spine stiffen in surprise. My eyes widened and I turned to face him, letting out a silent exhalation in relief. He hadn’t seen what I was watching.
Dagger wheeled a 2010 Harley Chopper in my direction. “A smooth ride, she performs great every time and gets better every year. And she’s always got a pleasant surprise in store for you.”
I shook my head with a smile on my lips.
“Careful as you go. She’s got a unique personality,”
“I will,” I said, tossing a cigarette between my lips.
“Don’t get too attached now. She’s mine. Blaze knows how to make an unforgettable impression.”
I put on my helmet. “I won’t,” I responded my cigarette dangling between my lips, glancing up at the girl in the window one last time. Imagining the girl in the window throwing her slender leg over the saddle, her arms clinging to my waist from behind.
My left palm made contact with the handlebar and I gave it a soft squeeze. The rational side of my brain took over. As good as this all was, it did nothing to curb my appetite for revenge. I needed to get to Bruno at the clubhouse before he came to find me at the hospital and found out that Jax was gone.
I stared at the Border Patrol men sitting around the outside table, drinking beers while wondering how far I could trust them. They looked content, as the Devils had been before this shit storm hit us. Life had been good with the Devils; we were a tight knit group and liked it that way. We never needed to work with anybody…until this shit with Antonio, Jumper and the Cartel landed on our doorstep.
“Get going, I’ve got it from here,” Jesse said.
Defiance washed over me. “First, I’ll have a word with your men,” I told him as I watched the whole scene apprehensively. Leaving my best friend at the mercy of an MC I barely know didn’t sit well in my gut. “I need to make sure your brothers here know how to keep their lips shut.”
Jesse’s eyes hardened. “Now you listen to me, son. My men aren’t rats. ” he rasped.
“A word of this gets out, and I’ll fucking kill them all. You hear me? You double cross me, and your life will fucking end,” I hissed out. I took a step closer, “Don’t fuckin speak to me like that again. Jax is our president. And I’m his VP. That means he’s not just family to me, he’s worth killing for. Do you understand that, Dagger?” I told him.
Dagger looked at me incredulously. He shoved me backward toward my ride. “You got a death wish, son? Because you hurt my men and I’ll stab a knife through your God damn skull,” he yelled. To prove his point he lifted the holster strap on his thigh and pulled a large blade from of its holster.
I noted that the man had good taste in equipment, but I still didn’t like the guy one bit. Slowly, I shook my head.
Tense silence filled the air. We stood face to face. Dagger was a few inches taller than I, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6’4, with dark thick hair as though he were still in his mid-forties, with wide shoulders and huge steel like arms. His tight white t-shirt exposed a powerful athletic body. Unlike Bruno, who was huge, Dagger was monstrous in size and he still had an indisputable aura of authority. Though, right now, he was struggling to maintain his composure. I could see he didn’t have the stoic discipline of Bruno.
“Then go kill the one who brought this down, son.” He growled, his voice trembling, struggling to speak over his mounting rage.
Anger settled deep inside me but he was right. My fists clenched, my chest heaving, I walked away. Almost raging like a mad bull, I wanted to turn and plunge my fist into his stomach but I held myself back for Jax’s sake.
Ahead of me, stood a large man who wore a motorcycle jacket and a Border Patrol patch, he proceeded to pull a gun from his jacket pocket. “Get. On. Your. Bike,” he said in short, threatening tone.
Taking one reflexive step back, warning lights flashed in my mind. I so wanted to mix it up with these dickheads, to show them they’d better not mess with Jax.
The man’s gaze narrowed, as though surprised that I had the audacity to go against his orders.
I headed toward my ride and Dagger called out, “Oh, and never disrespect me in my club again or I’ll slit your throat. You hear me?”
I stared at him with my head over my shoulder and gave a curt not in his direction. I hopped onto my bike, as my fingers curled around the handlebars. For Jax’s sake, you need to stay calm. “Yes, Boss,” I called back with sarcasm.
As I glided around the corner and sped off down the street, I was acutely aware of the firearm that could shoot me in the back as I left.
My mind now wandered to the man I rode to see. It didn’t feel like it was a betrayal to Bruno to lie to him like I was about to do. Death from his injuries or death by murder from Jumper returning to finish the job loomed over Jax right now. I couldn’t tell him anything nor could anyone find out where Jax was.
The world started to travel beneath me and I returned to the image of the redheaded girl. Why? There were plenty of babes I could think of. I talked to the breeze, “She’s nobody. She’s Nothing to you.”
An hour later, I glided into my reserved VP parking slot in front at the Devils clubhouse, I told myself Jax would have been fine had he not given his bulletproof vest to me, a detail which I knew Bruno would openly blame me with. The front door to the clubhouse was propped open, as though inviting me to enter. I stepped inside, knowing I had a tongue-lashing coming…
When I walked in, Bruno was standing just inside the door. He switched off the football game he’d been absorbed in.
I entered the clubhouse and immediately called to him, “You all clear with the cops?”
Bruno headed my way. “Yeah, how’s Jax?” he snapped.
“He’s at the hospital. Don’t visit him. He needs to be safe.” I picked up on Bruno’s
anger but decided to ignore it. “So Jumper doesn’t catch wind of where Jax —”
“Have Jumper brought to me,” Bruno snarled, interrupting me. Needless to say, Bruno was pissed that Jumper had gotten away.
“But nobody knows where he is,” I countered. “Jax will pull through but it will take 2 months for him to get back on his feet. I’ll take over Jax’s duties at the MC. I’ll keep us together until he can take his rightful place again.”
“Why wasn’t he wearing the bullet proof vest?” Bruno barked out in a gruff voice
“I feel responsible. Jax was looking out for me. He didn’t want me going into Tijuana without protection. He wanted me to be safe.”
Bruno gripped the edge of his desk. “But he insisted you take it?”
“Yeah, I said I’d ride into Tijuana rather than him. I thought I’d be protecting him.”
“I can’t blame this on you then can I? Not really.”
I argued that, “Nonetheless, Jax would be well if I hadn’t suggested we change the plans at the last moment without running it by you.”
Bruno looked shocked. And there wasn’t a lot that shocked the notorious badass Bruno. A moment later, he got on with business. There were people who had to die. “I want every member of the Bloods dead, Capiche?” He kept his dark eyes locked on me. It was clear Bruno wasn’t giving up the role of ‘Boss’ just yet. “Except for Jumper he’s mine.”
“Yes,” I responded, reading the handwriting on the wall… don’t kill them and it’s your blood on the line.
“Good.” Bruno’s eyes were full of wrath.
“What do you want me to do with them once I kill em?”
“I don’t give a damn. Drop them in pieces off a boat to feed the sharks. Feed them to the fucking rats. It’s more than they deserve,” Bruno responded with solemn finality. With death and mayhem in mind, his hands balled into fists at his sides.
I couldn’t tell if it reflected his fury or determination, or some way of keeping his emotions in check. Bruno clutched my hand and we shook hands, and the contract was sealed. I was in the zone. And for some unlucky bastards, that wouldn’t be good. I made my way out to Blaze, my borrowed ride and got on.