Savage Saviors: The Complete Boxset (Savage Saviors MC)

by J. C. Allen

  “Someone ain’t spellin’ for shit, can they?”

  I pressed the power button on my phone, casting the screen and the message on it into blackness, and slipped it back into my jacket pocket.

  “Someone can’t mind their fucking business, can they?” I rebutted to Roost.

  “Forgive me for havin’ my eye on ya right now, boss,” Roost retorted. “Ya ain’t actually gonna go, are ya?”

  “You out of your fucking mind?” I said, laughing as I signed even more papers—probably wasn’t a great move that I was doing this without regard to the actual content, but then again, we were a club, not a business that would do things the white-collar war. “What would you do if a random number told you to go somewhere alone to discuss one of your boy toys?”

  “Heh, well, I’d see if they were an additional toy I coulda get on my—”

  “Stop, stop, stop,” I said, ending that discussion before it went any further.

  A natural silence fell among us as we resumed work. A few minutes later, I saw the phone blow up again. Sighing, I looked.

  * * *

  U realy shuld come. Need to kno about Eve.

  * * *

  “Damn guy’s persistent, huh?”

  I was surprised to hear Eagle speak, but he wasn’t wrong. I just shrugged.

  “Dunno who got my number. Tara? Is this one of your games?”

  “What?” she shrieked from the other room. “Whatcha talking about? I got too many things to do to care about your ego, Derek!”

  That… was surprisingly believable and reasonable to say. It was highly unlikely then that it was her.

  Instead, I really had to believe it was a Black Falcon trying to trick me in a very poor way. I thought about trolling him for a bit but decided my time was better spent doing this paperwork to make Eve happier than not.

  My phone buzzed again.

  But this time, it wasn’t just text.

  * * *

  Look familar?

  * * *

  In the photo, Eve stood on a street corner, but she stood by herself. The weather matched the outside conditions at that moment, and it showed her dressed in a low-cut shirt, seeming to hang by a pole lamp. For a bit, I found myself feeling frustrated and worrying that my intuitions and doubts about Eve were correct.

  But then I reminded myself that Eve had only done her job at night. She would never have been a hooker during the day. Whoever had sent this had either creepily followed her… or…

  If she’s out and about and someone’s following her, then she could be in danger.

  Shit.

  “I gotta go,” I growled.

  “Don’t tell me you’re fucking going there,” Eagle said.

  “Ya outta yer damn mind, Derek?” Roost said. “Yer walkin’ right into a goddamn trap!”

  “Like Eve already has,” I said, showing them the photo. “Someone took that today. Someone knows who she is, has my number, and is stalking her for some God-forsaken reason. If you think for two seconds I’m going to sit here filling out contracts while my girlfriend is getting stalked, then I got a whole house of paperwork for you to fill out.”

  Put in that light, Roost and Eagle suddenly seemed to have the revelation that what I said made sense. No shit, geniuses.

  “We’re coming with you, then,” Eagle said. “You need backup.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  There was no way I was following the advice of some creeper to come alone. However, there was some validity to the notion that this asshole would run or make life worse for Eve if it was made clear that I showed up with backup.

  “I’ll need you two to stay hidden, though,” I said. “This guy wants me alone? He’s gonna think he’s gonna get me alone. You two know to show up if shit gets hairy. Which it won’t.”

  “Agreed,” Roost said. “Yer sure, though? Ya just—”

  “Yes,” I said, quelling all dissension right there.

  Whoever this asshole was, whoever this stalker was—even if he had no affiliation to the Black Falcons, even if he was just some weirdo who loved Eve from middle school or something, even if he was just someone being stupidly silly—he was going to learn a lesson the goddamn hard way. No amount of persuasion of me was going to change my mind, because I couldn’t be persuaded at this point.

  “Tara,” I said. “Your contracts will get done later. We’ll be back.”

  “What? You know I’m not a patient girl! You know…”

  “She’s got some asshole stalking her who wants to see me,” I said. “Some dipshit who is taking photos of her. He’s gonna get his ass kicked.”

  Her voice drifted off as I left the house without saying another word to her. I checked the intersection provided. It was about ten minutes away.

  Guess what, prick? I’m showing up early. It’ll give me a chance to get set up.

  And when I see your face, you better hope that the only thing I break in half is your phone.

  24

  Eve

  I’d let Derek go that morning so he could handle the necessary work with Tara.

  I wasn’t stupid. He said that he was going to do some “contracts” with some “familiar clients” but the fact that he hadn’t spoken ominously or with the fear of the Black Falcons during our morning conversation struck no fear in me at all. In fact, if anything, it made me laugh to think about Derek and Roost trying to handle Tara. Good luck with that. I had trouble handling it at times, and she was my co-worker!

  I did, however, want to see Tara at some point, so I texted her to say I wanted to have some girl time with her. She responded as usual with her flurry of emojis, which I roughly translated as her saying I could come over when they had finished all of their work.

  However, I couldn’t spend the rest of my day just bored sitting in the apartment. To do so would have driven me mad, and besides, freedom was still a new enough of a concept that I didn’t want to waste it watching episodes of TV shows that I barely remembered the name of. And so, after about an hour after eating breakfast, I decided to make my way out to the streets, walking to the nearest mall—about a mile away—and doing some shopping.

  Just don’t let me see Chuck again. I don’t need this shit again.

  First, however, I decided it was due time to dress up a little bit. I had realized after my date to the Fiddler on the Roof how much I enjoyed getting doled up. Prostitution had ruined that for a good six months, but being with Derek had reinvigorated that desire.

  Being with Derek had actually rewarded me in a lot of ways, really. Things that I saw as fake and boring now suddenly had real value. Things that I had forsworn now seemed appealing. Things that I had associated with the life of a whore now slowly began to take on new meaning.

  It wasn’t a clean cut, to be sure. I still struggled with the idea of wearing a bikini, for example, and feared that doing so in public would get men approaching me as if I was a hooker. I just couldn’t get past the idea that showing that much of my body wouldn’t lead to an extra couple twenties in my wallet and an unknown cock in my mouth.

  But I was comfortable enough to wear a short skirt and a shirt with just a little bit less modesty than normal. If I wanted to get comfortable again with my body outside of Derek, anyways, I needed to do things like this.

  That, and it was hot as hell outside!

  Once dressed, I admired myself in the mirror, telling myself that I was a woman, proud of it, and not going to dress any differently just because of my past. Not every day, but today, yes, I would.

  I took the elevator down, walking out of the parking lot, waving to the security guard at the parking lot entrance. The look on his face said it all—it was kind of sweet, his admiration, but I knew if he had it, then a whole lot more people would have it too.

  And sure enough, as I passed people on the street, walking to the mall, and even walking through the mall, I caught a few people looking at me. I can’t lie—I wasn’t totally comfortable with it, especially from the men, and esp
ecially from some of the men who looked like they would have bought me if they could have. I wasn’t as uncomfortable as before, but there was definitely a feeling of queasiness in my stomach I couldn’t shake.

  I was just glad that I had not yet run into Chuck. The closest I had come—which, I guess, wasn’t really that close—was seeing a couple of guys in cars hollering at me, and one guy at an intersection seeming to gawk at me through a car window, but that was of no consequence. The light turned green, they went forward, and so did I.

  When I was at the mall, I really didn’t do much there. I was the definition of a window-shopper, looking at every store, thinking about what I would do with it—and then appreciating that now, I could do those things through the generosity of Derek. If I wanted to buy it, I could.

  Well, I specifically couldn’t. I didn’t really like that Derek was spending his money on me with me barely able to return the favor. There was just something completely unbalanced about that. Just get back to school. Get that job in finance you’ve always wanted. And then we’ll see who is balancing who.

  I chuckled at the thought, passing by a movie shop and a JC Penney. The thought, though, had triggered the idea that I should reward Derek more for what he did for me. And I didn’t mean sexually, although there were no complaints about our times together.

  I just felt more that, in our time together, I wanted to show my emotional appreciation for him. Small gifts, meaningful purchases, vacations to his favorite spot—I wanted to give those to him. That, way more than a multi-thousand dollar dress or anything like that, was what I wanted to have my own money for.

  I perused the various windows for a couple hours before my phone buzzed. Tara called. Smiling, I picked it up.

  “Hey girl,” I said with a smile.

  “Eve? Where you at?”

  Tara’s voice sounded a little on edge—not so much that I worried about it, but enough that I made note of it. My guess was that even she had limits when it came to the other girls, and if both Derek and Matty were over there, tensions, egos, and hard heads were probably colliding to some extent.

  “I’m at the mall, silly,” I said. “I can get an Uber, don’t worry about grabbing me. You OK?”

  “Well,” Tara said. “Might be best explained here.”

  “Are you sure?” I said, feeling a little nervous. “Is Derek OK?”

  “Well, he’s fine, but I’m not sure who the guy he’s gonna go beat is.”

  Uh oh.

  “Where’d he go?”

  “I don’t know, girl, if I did, I wouldn’t have gone with him then either. That boy is hot right now!”

  I just sighed. Derek with a temper was like a motorcycle set to full blast without handlebars—it could fly, but it could just as easily go off-course and cause more trouble than it ever should have. Still, at this point, I didn’t see a way to fix this, and I decided it was just as well to stick with my current plans.

  “Tell me more when I get there, OK?” I said. “I’ll be there in a bit.”

  I called my Uber, was relieved to find it was already at the mall entrance, and hurried over. When I got to the black car, I leaned over—only realizing after the fact how much I had perfected this somewhat sexual position of my cleavage forward, my ass sticking out, and my head looking into the car.

  Except now, this was to have someone service me, not the other way around.

  Still, I felt oddly public doing it and found myself looking around. One guy in sunglasses was staring at me with a smile—not Chuck, his skin was too dark—to which I just rolled my eyes and got into the car as the driver confirmed his name.

  The ride over was completely uneventful, although I couldn’t help but wonder if Derek was getting himself pulled into something with my brother. How many other guys were there who Derek wanted to beat the shit out of? Sure, some random Falcons would be nice, but it was doubtful Derek was leaving the safety of Roost’s house to do just that.

  It was almost certainly Chuck.

  Well… don’t kill him, Derek.

  That’s all I ask.

  He’s evil, but he’s harmless. He just hurls insults and makes you feel like shit, but…

  He did sell me out. That’s not harmless.

  … Just don’t kill him, Derek.

  The car pulled up to the pink house, to which I saw the Uber driver struggle to keep a straight face. I just said “thanks” and got out of the vehicle before he said anything else. I wasn’t really in a “crack a joke” mood.

  When I got inside, I found Tara texting someone as some of the other girls of the house—a house that looked much quieter than what I had been expecting—just meandered, looking bored.

  “Tara,” I said.

  “Oh, girl! Let me tell you, all three of these men left. Derek, Roost, and some dude who looks like a younger Hulk Hogan! They ran out looking to kill someone!”

  “I know,” I said with a sigh. “I know who they’re likely to kill.”

  Tara looked at me askance, as if she couldn’t believe I would let myself get involved again. I couldn’t believe it either, although I wasn’t really sure I had gotten myself involved so much as my brother had dragged me back in. As he always has. It’s what he does. He drags me into the hells I don’t want to experience.

  “Chuck.”

  “Chuck,” Tara said, in disbelief. “As in, your brother, Charles Kellerman?”

  I nodded.

  “And your thoughts are?”

  For such a simple question, my mind never quite seemed to settle on an answer. I suspected that on a very dark level, I kind of wanted Derek to kill Chuck so I wouldn’t have to go back and forth on this answer. Chuck alive could die, but Chuck dead could not come back to life. There was some finality.

  But… could he ever be redeemed? Wasn’t salvation possible? Wasn’t there a chance at getting his life together?

  Eve. Be real.

  “I don’t know,” I finally said with a long, drawn out sigh.

  “You don’t know?” Tara said, as if I had just said I didn’t know if I wanted oxygen. “Are you out of your mind? You need to step the hell away from him before he does something to you.”

  “I know.”

  “You say that, but girl, you keepin’ him around. And for what?!? To feel good ‘bout yourself? Uh uh. Get that scum outta your life. Ignore him as best as you can if he’s stalkin’ you.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Uh uh, no buts, girl.”

  I bit my lip.

  “Derek is gonna go take care of him. I don’t know if he’ll kill him or not. But if he does? Girl, you’re in your shoes now because of your brother. He’s not family. He’s evil. Family loves and supports.”

  Not the family I grew up in. Maybe the family most people grow up in, but not mine. Not even close.

  I just sighed. There was no point in fighting Tara, mostly because there was nothing I could do about Derek at this point. When Derek flew into a rage, nothing was stopping him. Nothing.

  “Look, let’s forget about him until he comes home, mmk?” Tara said, dragging me to the TV. “Let’s just spend the day here. Go home to your man tonight when he’s had some chance to blow off some steam. Alright?”

  Well, might as well. Not like it’s gonna make any difference. If Chuck’s gonna die…

  Then maybe it’s best I’m not there to witness it or to experience Derek in the immediate aftermath. Give him a chance to settle down.

  “Alright,” I said.

  But it wasn’t all right.

  Then again, these days, it was hard to know what was when it came to my brother.

  Or, really, to anything outside of Derek Knight.

  Heaven forbid I began to question how things were with the only stable part of my life.

  25

  Derek

  “Stay close to me but out of sight,” I warned to Roost and Eagle once more as I dismounted my bike. “Last thing I need is some sniveling weasel running away from me because he realize
s he’s outnumbered. I’ll kill the prick if I have to, but you know to jump if I need back up.”

  “Yup.

  Eagle’s one-word reply gave me everything I needed to know. I nodded, kicked my bike into gear, and headed to the corner.

  I immediately recognized the all-too-real significance of where I had come.

  Even if the mystery sender hadn’t mentioned Eve by name, that they were having me meet them at this corner—what had once been Eve’s corner—would’ve made the subject obvious enough.

  Except that it’s not. Not anymore. Eve’s days as a prostitute are over and Tara… well, she’s doing this by choice now.

  Just a random intersection; another corner of concrete and lights with a little extra nugget of sordid history haunting the alleys. Nothing more.

  But…

  It would never be nothing—not to Eve or Tara, and not to me. That much was evident from the whirlwind of thoughts storming about my skull as I pulled up the corner and killed the engine to my chopper.

  I looked around for some mysterious creeper to appear with missing tooth, a crooked smile, maybe some bad body odor—all things I’d make sure he had by the end of this if he didn’t get on his knees and beg with tears in his eyes for all of the horrible things he had done.

  But one thing had nagged at me, even when I was sitting in Roost’s house, considering the message.

  I had no idea who this even could be. It was almost certainly a Falcon… but it wouldn’t have been the Falcon. That was too bold of a move for a man of that stature to pull, or at least in the sense of putting himself in the public eye.

  It could’ve been one of the former Saviors who had joined the Falcons, which would explain them having my phone number, but most of them were the older types who had simply gotten greedy—the younger ones were too easily swayed by the truth and hadn’t become bitter at not moving up yet. As possible as it was, it didn’t seem likely.