“Hey,” I said, answering the second time.
“Where the hell are you?” he asked.
“The warehouse. Just checking on some shit, making sure that Nero stayed good on his word about Warner,” I replied looking at Red and Honest. Pardon, I mouthed. They both understood and left the warehouse, closing the door behind them. I held my hand over the speaker of the cell phone hoping that the closed door and my hand would be enough to muffle the sounds of their engines roaring to life and leaving.
“Did you find anything?” he asked curiously.
“Not a thing,” I replied, moving my hand away from the speaker.
“Alright, well come to the clubhouse. We’re about to take a vote and I need you here, son,” he said in a tired voice.
“What are we voting on?” I asked as I made my way out of the warehouse toward me bike.
“Havoc vote.”
“Another one? On who?” I inquired curiously.
“You’ll find out when you get here,” he said, before disconnecting the line.
I had a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about this vote. I didn’t know who the hell else Pardon wanted dead, but I knew that finding out was going to be easier than getting the deed done.
Six
Alaska
I wasn't exactly sure who had done it until Swing and Tumbler had come out of my office. As soon as Pardon and his crew had walked out of the front doors, a gunshot rang out, and Boots dropped dead to the ground. They were both gripping guns tightly in their hands; Tumbler had her usual Ruger P89DC and Swing had my Smith and Wesson.
“The two of you look like Bonnie and Clyde,” I remarked dryly.
Tumbler laughed, but Swing didn’t. He had an arm wrapped around his torso, obviously still sore from the stitching I had done on him. Raising my gun he walked straight up to Saylor and put the barrel between her eyes.
“It’s your call,” he said, glancing at me briefly.
“I thought you had a ‘no women and no children’ policy,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. I leaned my head to the right and looked up at his face. He didn’t seem to be wavering on the idea of killing a woman right now. Even when he cocked the hammer back on the gun, with as much as I wanted him to kill her, I knew I couldn’t let him. That would only make this MC debacle and even bigger mess than it was.
“Give me the gun, Swing,” I said softly, holding out my hand. He clenched his jaw tightly and lowered the gun. With an angry grunt he handed it over and I exchanged a glance with Tumbler.
“You know, you sound just like a caveman every time you make that noise,” I remarked with a smile.
“If I was a caveman, I would’ve clubbed you all to death by now and gone after the ‘leader’ of my pack.”
Tumbler shook her head and I sighed. This wasn’t the Swing I had heard so much about; a friendly, dangerous ladies’ man; no, this one was an unfriendly and even more dangerous would be killer of anything in his path right now.
It was kind of sexy in a really deranged kind of way.
“Wait. You said that you killed her sister,” he said, glancing at me. “Was it the person wearing the mask?”
I nodded.
“Yeah. Fuck that,” he said, raising the gun again and pulling the trigger.
I let out an impulse scream and covered my ears. A .357 magnum was a loud ass gun and in an enclosed space like this, it was even louder. Saylor’s body dropped like a rock and Tumbler looked sick. Not only was this gun loud, it was extremely powerful and ripped half her face off.
The semi-silence that followed was almost unbearable. With the exception of the occasional retching sound coming from Tumbler, I felt like I had just stepped into a bad dream. How was I supposed to tell him that now he had a price on his head for killing one of our MC members? What’s more, would he even care?
“Here, you can have this back now,” he said, holding my gun out toward me.
I took it from his hand and he went over to the other side of the stage and set down, letting out a long sigh.
“Before you say anything, I know what this means. I know what my actions are leading up to, but all I ask is that you let me finish this before it has to be done,” he said quietly.
“Normally this is the kind of thing we vote on,” I said, walking over to him, “but I don’t think we need it. You’ll get the time to do what needs to be done and it’ll give me time to think about what to do with you.”
Swing chuckled, but nodded in agreement. “Guess I should say sorry about the mess.”
I shrugged and hopped up onto the space next to him. Crossing my legs together, I swung them back and forth gently, glancing over at Saylor’s body. I’d have to get her out of here and the place cleaned up before we opened in a couple hours, and Tumbler obviously wasn’t in any position to do it.
“Clean it up and we’re even. Doors open up soon which means the girls will be here any moment. If they see brains splattered all over the ground and what’s left of her face staring at them, I’ll lose all my dancers.”
He nodded at me and looked down for a moment, before pushing himself to his feet.
“Got a mop?” he asked, with a small grin.
I laughed and shook my head. “You know, you’re not really as scary as you like to pretend you are.” Swing followed close behind me as I took him to the closet space a few doors before my office and shoved a mop and bucket toward him. “When you’re done with that, I’ll be in here. Can you send Tumbler back please? I’m afraid she’ll lose her shit once you start swishing brain matter all over the floor,” I said, rolling my eyes.
His small grin returned as he leaned on the mop, pushing the bucket out onto the floor. I ran to my office and peeked through the blinds to watch him. Tumbler was sitting at one of the tables in the corner now, her face in her hands, and her shoulders shaking slightly. I knew that she was close to Saylor; they had been good friends since Saylor had earned her cut, but rules were rules and she knew that.
I watched him as he set up the bucket by Saylor, and then walk over to Tumbler. She glanced up at him and nodded as he approached, before he sat down across from her. I saw him wince; even from where I was, before he took one of her hands and held it in his. I don’t know what Swing said to her and I would never ask, but it seemed to have worked because she straightened herself up and smiled at him. Then I watched as they both cleaned up the mess he had made, including disappearing with the body out back, before coming back in and making sure that it looked like nothing had ever happened.
I watched him nudge her and say something, then smiled as she laughed and they high fived each other. I watched him put his arm around her shoulders as she grabbed the mop and pushed the bucket back toward me. That was the last thing I saw though. I let go of the blinds and plopped down into my chair hoping they hadn’t seen me watching them. And even if they had, so what?
I just wanted to make sure that he—she was okay.
Seven
Swing
I walked into Alaska’s office and laid down on the couch. Stretching out on my back, I tried to get as comfortable as possible while I thought about something- the obvious fact that she was starting to develop a crush on me. I could tell by the way she always found a reason to put her hands on me and how carefully watching me with her little biker babe buddy.
I thought it was insane to be honest. I had been sent to kill her, killed the wrong person, and then she came and saved me before I died. That was the craziest fucking scenario I could ever think of and to have her starting to get a little piney over me made it even weirder.
Not that she wasn’t sexy, because she definitely was. Long wavy black hair, narrow blue eyes, tattoos all over her body, and full lips that curled up at the end when she smiled. For someone as dangerous as a motorcycle club president, she was awfully tiny but something told me that she wasn’t someone you would fuck with lightly.
I rolled onto my side and stared at her. She had her legs up on the top of
her large oak desk and was eyeing me.
“What did you do to them, Swing?” she asked quietly. “I want to hear it from your own mouth.”
And there’s the official club president voice, I thought chuckling.
“I killed you.”
“But why would that piss Pardon off so bad that you ended up in the situation we got you out of?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.
“I don’t know. From what I was told, he was sick and tired of me mouthing off to him and honestly, with as much as I respect him, I was sick of being his little errand boy of death. The last few? I didn’t even know if they deserved what I did to them, but I did it because Pardon said the club voted on it. I was damn loyal to that MC and they shit on me for it when I needed them the most,” I said quietly, shaking my head.
“And that’s the truth?” she asked.
“As far as I know.”
She let out a sigh and turned her chair slightly. I watched her peek through the curtains again before getting to her feet and leaving me alone in the office. The sound of her boots echoed down the hallway and faded when she entered the entertainment area.
Moments later a small explosion of giggles and laughter filled the hallway and I pushed myself to my feet. Cracking the door open I raised an eyebrow at the dancers that were walking back and forth getting ready to start their day. There was definitely something for everyone; big bottomed girls, girls with thick waists, girls with big fake tits, flat chested and flat assed girls too.
I closed the door again and smiled as an idea to test Alaska suddenly jumped into my head. She had obviously asked me those questions to test my loyalty to my crew, so now I was going to test her loyalty to what I had a hunch about.
It had been a few weeks since her and Tumbler came busting into Leon’s old workspace and dragged me out, so I was starting to think that this was something of a record for me. Unfortunately for her, the only thing I had on my mind right now was getting revenge, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t throw my little test out and have some fun. I went back to the window and peeked through the blinds in time to see her heading back again.
With the grin that Ricki told me I was famous for, I counted to five before I opened the door and poked my head out into the hallway full of pussy.
“Has anyone seen Alaska?” I asked, looking around at them.
A couple of girls turned red and giggled, a couple stared at me, and the majority of them looked at each other with wide smiles on their faces.
“I’m right here, Rader. Get your ass back in there,” Alaska said, walking through the girls.
“Rader?” I asked, with a laugh. “Suddenly we’re on a last name basis?”
“You’re being a perv,” she hissed swatting me back into her office.
I rolled my eyes and grinned. I couldn’t tell yet if it was her crush that had her mad at me right now or if she really thought I was being perverted. Though truth be told, if I wanted to fuck any of those girls, it wouldn’t be an issue. I was too torn up still, physically and mentally, to worry about some random lay.
“You’re such a bitch, Alaska,” I said once she closed the office door behind her.
“And you’ll do well to remember that,” she said with a smirk. “Now, I’m still trying to figure out what to do with you.”
“Meaning?”
She ran a hair back through her hand and smoothed out her ponytail. “Meaning, I can’t let you stay here obviously. But I can’t let you go home either. I don’t know where to hide you.”
“If you think I’m afraid of Pardon and the MC, then you obviously don’t know who you’re dealing with,” I scoffed.
“That’s the problem, smartass. I know you’re not afraid of them and I don’t want you to go charging after them until you’re one hundred percent.” She went over to her desk and hopped up on it. Then she leaned back and opened one of the top drawers, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. I waited patiently while she lit one, exhaled, and looked at me gravely.
“There’s a price on your head, Swing. It’s not just the MC that’ll try to take you down. It’s anyone they’re associated with. I can’t let you die yet.”
So you are planning on killing me after all. I smiled, a genuine heart felt smile. It was nice to know that someone finally meant what they said even if it meant I had to die. I was fine with it though. I knew that I sealed my own fate by shooting Saylor and I honestly just wanted the chance to put a bullet in Pardon’s head before it was all said and done, and Alaska had already agreed to that.
“Let me make some calls. I think I know what to do with you,” she said, spinning around on her ass and dropping into her chair.
I nodded and went back to the couch. Lying down with my back to her, I decided to go to sleep. I didn’t care where she planned on housing me as long as I got what I wanted in the end. Dallas, Pardon, Tidals & Anchors and Mary Ann dead at my feet.
After a few phone calls where she was obviously talking in code, Alaska walked out and I went back to sleep.
Eight
Alaska
I had to admit that so far, I wasn’t entirely impressed with the Legend of Nero Rader. He seemed like an ordinary enough man with the exception of being chewed up and spit out by his MC. Saving him would be the ideal thing, but saving my family, my MC, was becoming far more important to me.
And now here I was; on my way to make a deal with the Devil in exchange for some peace. Survival was nothing I had ever thought of before, but when you’ve got the president of one of the most dangerous motorcycle clubs knocking down your front door and ordering you dead, shit has gotten pretty real.
I pulled up to the red light on Juniper Avenue and waited. I knew I was one left turn away from where the Tidals & Anchors MC clubhouse was. My destination wasn’t exactly the most ideal place in the world, but that’s where I was headed and I was going to walk in like I owned the fucking place.
The light seemed to be taking longer than normal and I sighed, dropping my hands onto my legs. From behind me, I heard the sound of bikes coming toward me and I chuckled. I had too; knowing my luck it would probably be Pardon and his damn goons coming to head me off and take me out right in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Bend.
I turned slightly and looked behind me. I didn’t recognize any of them as Pardon’s guys, so that was a small relief, but when one of them pulled up ahead of me, I felt a little uneasy. His bright red hair was the first thing I noticed, but then I saw the Tidals & Anchors cut and I wondered if he was the one I was looking for. But I knew I was faced with now or never since I was pretty much surrounded.
Clearing my throat, I glanced up at the light, before putting my hands back on the handlebars and pulling up next to him. He glanced over at me and smiled.
“Are you Dallas?” I asked in a choked voice. Goddamn it, Alaska. Get ahold of yourself.
“Are you Dallas?” I asked again in a clearer, more controlled tone.
He shook his head and jerked his head back. I turned again in time to for the light to apparently turn green and the rest of the crew that had been on either side of me and behind me, go around and take off. I rolled my eyes in frustration and took off after them. Picking up speed, I saddled up next to the redhead and signaled for him to pull over. He raised a curious eyebrow, but did it anyway.
I hadn’t exactly expected that everyone that was with him would pull over too, but shit had to get done, so if I had to, I would cross-examine all of them to figure out who among them was the one I needed.
“You alright?” the redhead asked me curiously.
“Which one of them is Dallas?” I asked, dismounting my bike and walking over to him.
“Who wants to know?” he shot back.
“I don’t have time to play games, kid. I need to know which one is Dallas.” I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him the deadliest look I could muster. Truth be told, I wasn’t feeling very deadly, I was just tired of the bullshit.
“I am.”
&nb
sp; I raised an eyebrow at the man that spoke up. Well, you aren’t you pretty? I was beginning to think that was a prerequisite of being in this fucking MC.
“Dallas as in the Tidals & Anchors President’s kid?” I asked for clarification.
“Yeah,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. If it was any other day and I was in a different mood, I’d find myself amused. We looked like we were trying to out fierce the other, or getting ready to square dance.
“Good, let’s go then,” I said, walking back to my bike and getting on it. I roared the engine to life, expecting to hear an echo. I turned to look at Dallas who was still standing where I had left him. “Come on! I don’t have all fucking day!”
“Normally, if a hot chick pulled over one of my guys demanding to know who I was, then told me to follow her, I’d be all over it. But I’ve got kind of a club situation going on right now that’s making me wonder why we even stopped to talk to you. So unless you have some really damn good reason for pulling us over, I’d suggest you leave and never come back down this way,” he said evenly.
I ran a hand irritably back through my hair. Considering this was Pardon Quinn’s son, I couldn’t exactly shoot him and drag him back to my clubhouse, but I was losing my patience and was starting to think it would be a phenomenal idea. But I was a lady and decided to be ladylike in this instance.
“Suit yourself. I’ve got something you’re looking for though. You can find us both at the Femme Fatale Gentleman’s Club,” I replied with a shrug and pulling a U-Turn to go back the way I came.
I didn’t genuinely smile though until I heard the beautiful sound of all of the motorcycle engines following behind me. It had maybe taken him one or two seconds to decide that he should check out what I had to offer.
I really hope I’m doing the right thing.
Nine
Swing
I opened my eyes feeling stiff and shuttered. All I seemed to do was sleep lately and it was getting to be monotonous. However, this time when I woke up, Tumbler had been sitting in Alaska’s chair, flipping through a magazine.
Reprisal (Tidals & Anchors MC Book 2) Page 3