Spark of Hope: MacKenny Brothers Series Book 3: An MC/Band of Brothers Romance

by Kathleen Kelly

  “Put Lola back on the phone.”

  “I knew taking her would work in our favor. You pay the Rochas what we owe, and we’ll leave Lola somewhere for you to find her.”

  “When I find you, motherfucker, you’re going to regret all of this. Now, put Lola on the phone.”

  The line goes dead.

  I slam my hand down on the table, and Angus reaches across and grabs my cell phone. He pulls his own out of his pocket and makes a call.

  “Hey, it’s me.” He nods. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I need you to give me everything you can on a cell phone number.” More nodding. “Fine! Just find out everything you can. Are you ready?” Angus looks at me as he recites the number from my cell. “Five, five, five, eight, one, seven, two.” Then he hangs up and says to me, “It was a friend. She’ll get all the information attached to the cell.”

  “What did you agree to?” asks Sean.

  Angus rolls his eyes. “A date.”

  “How did Lola sound?” asks Logan.

  “She was crying.”

  Logan blanches and appearing unsettled. He obviously knows her well enough to know that she never cries.

  “They want us to pay their debt to the Rochas. Then they’ll give Lola back.”

  My cell begins to ring again, and Angus slides it to me. “Put it on speaker.”

  I do as he says. “Hello.”

  “Have you calmed down?”

  “We’ll do it. Tell us where we’re meeting.”

  “How will I know if you’ve paid the debt?”

  “You could ring Cristiano and ask,” I reply flatly.

  “You’ve spoken to Cristiano?”

  “Yeah, he’s hunting for Yvette as we speak.”

  “Fuck.”

  It sounds like he’s put his hand over the microphone of the cell as I can barely make out raised voices on the other end of the line.

  “Hello?” I ask. “Hello?”

  “Kyle?” It’s Lola.

  “Yeah, babe, I’m here.”

  “Kyle, is Logan safe?”

  “He’s here with me.”

  Lola sobs.

  I glance at Logan, who’s staring at my cell, his eyebrows drawn together, and he’s chewing on his bottom lip.

  “Kyle, keep him safe.”

  “I will.”

  “And Kyle?”

  “Yeah, babe?”

  “I love you. Don’t pay the debt. Don’t you—”

  A loud noise sounds, and then Lola screams.

  “You pay the debt… you get your precious whore back!”

  All I can hear is Lola screaming in the background as the line goes dead.

  Lola

  Blood fills my mouth, so I spit it in Garry’s smug face. He balls his hand into a fist and punches me hard in the stomach. All the air rushes out of me, and I buckle to my knees. Garry raises his hand and backhands me across the face causing me to fall onto the filthy floor of the warehouse they have me in. He was always a nasty, evil-spirited fucker growing up, so I shouldn’t be surprised that he’d hit a woman, even if I am his sister. He doesn’t know the meaning of family. Yvette poisoned all of us years ago.

  “Fuck you,” I hiss.

  Garry laughs and kicks me hard in the side. I put my hands over my head as he continues his assault. I can hear screaming, and I’m wondering where it’s coming from when I realize it’s me.

  The whole time they’ve had me, my one thought was to make sure Logan’s safe. I don’t care about these people. I should never have let Yvette take Logan into her home, but I couldn’t allow myself to tell Kyle. What kind of man would want another man’s son in his life? Kyle is a good man, but I know he doesn’t want to marry me, he’s never wanted children—quite simply, he likes his life uncomplicated.

  No attachments.

  No strings.

  A child was never part of his plan.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” yells Tommy as he runs toward us.

  “Stupid bitch told him not to pay,” Garry yells.

  Tommy pushes him out of the way, then walks him backward into a pole.

  “She’s no fucking use to us dead, you damn idiot.” He strikes Garry across the face. “Use your head!”

  Tommy walks over and helps me into a sitting position. He brushes my hair away from my face and gives Garry a ferocious glare. “Jesus, Garry, she’s your sister.”

  “She’s always thought she was better than us,” sneers Garry.

  “Can you stand?”

  With Tommy’s help, I get to my feet, and then he guides me toward the bathroom at the end of the building. My side hurts, and every breath in feels like razor blades. If I don’t have broken ribs, they’ve got to be cracked. He opens the door for me, goes into one of the stalls, and comes back with a wad of paper. Tommy separates a few, wets the sheets, and tries to clean my face.

  “I can do it.”

  He nods, hands me the paper, and moves away slightly. I do a double-take as I look at myself in the mirror. I have a cut under one eye, my once-blonde hair is now a shade of dark red, and I have two black eyes from Garry’s earlier beating. I’m a fucking mess.

  “Did you tell him not to pay?”

  Holding the wet cloth to my mouth, I nod.

  “What the fuck, Lola? Why would you do that?”

  “You lot made your bed, and now you can lay in it.”

  “Do you know what those fuckers are going to do to us when we don’t pay them?”

  “That’s not my problem. Why did you do it in the first place?”

  “To make money,” he hisses. “First, your fucking mother throws a party, and her friends either shoot the drugs or steal them, then the money we made from selling them gets taken by her junkie friends. What fucking choice did I have?”

  I face him as I hold the paper to my lip. “Not to fucking buy the drugs in the first place.”

  “Yeah, well, if I knew what Yvette was going to do, I wouldn’t have.”

  I shake my head and stare back in the mirror. Jesus, I look a sight. They made me dye my hair. Now it looks alien to me, and it’s the one thing I loved about myself, my great hair. People describe my features as being hard, but that’s probably because I normally have a permanent resting bitch face. Kyle never described me like that, he took to me the moment we met. Sure, he tells me I’ve got bigger balls than most of his men, but he was always gentle with me, and after a lifetime of hurt, you appreciate being shown some kindness. For an MC president, he was nothing like I expected.

  The moment we had sex—I was his.

  I wasn’t a share-around.

  Kyle.

  Will he still want me after all of this, or am I too much trouble?

  “What’s got your face all twisted up in a frown?” asks Tommy.

  “What the fuck do you think? You morons have screwed the pooch from the word go.”

  Tommy nods and stares out the door back to where Garry is standing. “Keep away from your brother. You know he’s got a nasty streak.”

  “The MC doesn’t have that kind of money lying around. They keep most of their business on the up and up.” I turn back to Tommy. “Run, Tommy, leave Garry and me behind and run. You might still make it out of this alive.”

  “Can’t run. Jesus, Lola, the cartel will hunt me down. And where would I go?”

  Tommy is that guy who’s always chasing the easy money. He’s been around my family for years. Not wanting to work hard, he’s always searching for the shortcut. First, it was multi-level marketing, then drop shipping, then affiliate marketing, and now, I guess, drug running. He could have succeeded at any of his dreams, but Tommy never worked at them long or hard enough.

  But drugs? That’s a new low for him.

  He’s been around us long enough to know that drugs poison everything. Mom used to describe herself as a functioning addict. Like that made everything okay. Except she wasn’t. At her worst, she spent or sold everything she had, including herself, to shoot it up her arm. I’ve taken care of h
er so many times, and I’ve lost count of the number of instances she’s told me she wanted to get clean. Every single time I’ve been there, hoping that this is the one where it’ll stick, but it never has.

  Tommy grabs me by my upper arm and walks me back out of the bathroom. Garry is pretending to box, throwing punches and dancing around.

  Yeah, he’s a big man, hitting a woman.

  If I get the chance, I’m going to pay him back ten-fold for touching me.

  “Stop looking at him like that,” hisses Tommy.

  “I’m going to fucking kill him,” I whisper.

  Tommy stops and roughly turns me to face him. “Stop it, Lo! You know how he is. Don’t give him a reason to hurt you again.”

  Tommy has always had a soft spot for me. I never thought he’d stoop so low as to throw in with Garry like this. Garry is grinning like an idiot, jumping around, throwing punches. The fucker is high.

  “You know he’s using, yeah?”

  Tommy scowls and glares at Garry. Roughly, he releases me and strides toward him. Grabbing Garry by the arm, he turns him around and seizing his face between two hands and stares into his eyes. “Where’d you get it?”

  “Get what?” asks Garry as he tries to push him away.

  Tommy pushes him back and puts his hands behind his head. “Where did you get it?” yells Tommy.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re on about.”

  “You’re high, man. You’ve had a fix. Now, tell me… where. You. Got. It.”

  Garry shakes his head, and I begin to laugh.

  Both spin around and stare at me.

  “What?” demands Tommy.

  “Who told you the drugs were gone?” I ask, hoping to drive a wedge between them.

  Tommy snarls and grabs Garry by the shirt, then walks him backward. “Have you got them?”

  Garry swats at his hands as he tries to get free. “You’re listening to her? Come on, man, we’re in this together.”

  “Tell me!” yells Tommy.

  Edging back toward the door, I hope that neither of them will notice me, but I should know better. I’ve never been the lucky one.

  Tommy throws Garry to the floor and runs for me.

  I don’t even try to move.

  Holding up my hands, I freeze.

  “You were going to run,” yells Tommy.

  I nod. “You can’t blame me. Garry’s a psycho and enjoys beating the shit out of me. What you should be asking yourself is… where did he get the drugs?”

  Tommy points at me and hits his chest a couple of times. “Swear to God, Lo, if you try to run, I’ll break your fucking leg.” I nod, then he turns back to Garry. “Where’d you get the fix?”

  With his arms spread wide, I’ve never seen Tommy so undone. He advances on Garry, who’s smart enough to stay down.

  “Come on, man, it’s me,” pleads Garry.

  “I know who and what you are. Now, answer the fucking question!”

  Garry goes up on his knees and rests his ass on the heels of his feet. “Don’t let that bitch of a sister of mine get under your skin.”

  Tommy crouches in front of him. He nods his head. “Where’d you get the drugs?”

  Garry runs both hands through his hair and pulls at it, causing it to stand in tufts on his head. “I-I wanted…” Tears run down his face as he begins to cry.

  That’s my family, drug-addicted, willing to screw you over for anything to get their next fix assholes.

  “It was a good deal. We get the MC to pay for the drugs, we keep the drugs, and everyone goes home happy.”

  Tommy stands and begins to pace. He hits himself on the forehead a few times and is muttering as he walks back and forth.

  “Tommy, come on, man… you have to see it’s a good deal?”

  “A good fucking deal? Do you know what you’ve done? We have a drug cartel and an MC out to get us now, all because you tried to screw us over.”

  “It’s an opportunity, man. One where we can make bank. We just have to stick to the plan.”

  “Tell me, Garry, how are we going to make bank when we’re as good as dead?”

  Garry scrambles across the floor and grabs his gym bag. He opens the zipper and tips out the contents. Money and drugs spill out onto the floor.

  “The MC will pay the debt for her. The Rochas will be happy. We’ll have drugs to sell, and look…” Garry holds up a wad of bills, “… we have this. It’s a win-win.”

  Tommy moves toward Garry and stares down. He nods when he whispers something to Garry. Garry scowls at me, and from the expression on his face, whatever he says to Tommy doesn’t look good for me. Tommy shakes his head, and Garry reaches for his hand and says something. Tommy wrenches his hand out of his and takes a step back.

  “You know I’m right,” pleads Garry in a louder whisper, so now I can hear them.

  Tommy glances at me over his shoulder, his face is flushed with anger, but there’s something in his eyes that causes me to recoil. I take a step back, and he shakes his head once.

  “Don’t run, Lo. You won’t like what I do to you if you do.” His voice is cold, hostile, and full of hatred.

  Tommy advances on me, avoiding eye contact, grabs me by the arm, and drags me toward a chair. “Sit, Lo. I need to think.”

  “What do you need to think about?”

  Tommy glances at Garry. “It appears Garry had a plan all along, one that didn’t include me,” he stares back at me. “But it did include you, Lo. Now, I have to decide.”

  “Decide on what, Tommy? You’re scaring me.”

  “It’s not a bad plan, Lo. We get the drugs and the money, but there’s one loose end.”

  The way he’s studying me causes my skin to crawl. “Me. I’m the loose end?” Tommy nods. “I won’t say anything,” I whisper.

  “Yeah, but Lo, we both know you love that MC guy. You’d tell him, and then we’d be hunted.”

  “I won’t. Tommy, you know me. Please, don’t do this.”

  Tommy touches my face and brushes the hair away. “I’ve always liked you, Lo, but I need to consider my options.”

  Garry begins to laugh, and Tommy walks toward him. “Tie her up.”

  “We could do it now.”

  Tommy grabs him by the shirt. “I said… tie her up.”

  “All right, all right. I guess we need her to talk to her boyfriend again, anyway.”

  Kyle

  I’m staring at the cell phone when Sean puts his hand over mine, then Lochlan touches my shoulder. Both are trying to reassure me in their own way, but their touch does little to abate my emotions.

  “She’s alive,” says Angus.

  Lochlan pats my shoulder. “That’s right, brother, she’s alive.”

  I know what they’re doing. They want me to focus on the fact she’s not dead, but those screams came out of my woman—the woman I love. And as long as I live, I’ll relive those screams in my nightmares.

  “What do we do?” I ask.

  Sean looks to Angus. “You must have something.”

  “My friend is good. Give her a minute.”

  Logan has tears in his eyes. “Lola never cries, and she never screams.” He wipes his face. “She’s always taken care of herself. Always.”

  Standing, I go and sit next to him. Da’s dining table is big enough for twelve people, and apart from some nicks in the tabletop from Sean when he was younger, it’s in perfect condition.

  “Remember that. Lola can take care of herself. She’s a fighter. You know she’s strong.” I glance at my brothers and say with a certainty I don’t yet have. “She will get through this.”

  “We have to go,” says Sean. “Church.”

  I stare at Lochlan. “Can you take care of Logan?”

  “No, I want to come.”

  “No. You and Angus stay here.”

  “But why?” he asks.

  “We aren’t MC,” answers Angus.

  It’s the simplest and truest explanation. Church is strictly for MC. It
is not for outsiders. I’ll have a lot to explain and having him there is a distraction I don’t need.

  “Look after him and don’t do anything until I get back. Understood?”

  “What are we going to do?” asks Angus.

  “I’m not playing,” I reply sternly.

  “I’ll make sure they both stay here,” replies Lochlan.

  “Thanks, brother.”

  Sitting at the head of the table, I search the faces of the men I’ve come to trust. Sean, my brother and VP, sits to my left. On the other side is Wheels, then Rocky, who’s our Road Captain. Next to Sean is Arrow, the club’s Secretary, then Bags, our Treasurer, and next to him is Cutter, our Enforcer in the MC. The rest of the seats are taken up with patched-in members. No prospects are allowed to attend church.

  The room is silent as all eyes are on me. It feels like I’m under an interrogation lamp, but in truth, apart from those closest to me, no one knows why they’ve been called. Arrow is going to be the hardest hit, he was Smokey’s sponsor, and I don’t believe there’s a member at this table who didn’t think Smokey wouldn’t get patched in. He was well-liked.

  “I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called you in today.”

  Bags taps the table and grins. “You missed me?”

  Laughter filters around the room, but I keep my emotions locked down.

  “Sunday morning, Lola was abducted.”

  “What the fuck?” says Arrow.

  The room explodes into conversation, and I hold up my hands to quieten them.

  “There’s more.” If I thought they were silent before, now I can hear a pin drop. “Smokey is dead. Murdered.”

  Arrow sucks in a breath, and there’s much cussing around the table. I say nothing, then hold up my hands again, and again they fall silent.

  “The Rochas killed Smokey, but it’s complicated. Also looks like Wheels’ old lady is chasing the dragon.”

  Wheels shifts uncomfortably in his chair.

  Rocky, who’s one of his closest friends, slams the tabletop and points at him

  “Is Wheels tied to the Rochas? Is that what got Lola kidnapped and Smokey dead?”

  Despite the fact that Rocky is built like a linebacker and people often mistake his bulk for stupidity, he’s sharper than most. It took him no time to put things together.