There You Stand

by Christina Lee

  I wasn’t as skilled as he was with balance, besides the fact that it was only my second time on any type of board. But after a few minutes, I got the hang of kneeling, using a wide stance as I paddled to catch up.

  We talked and laughed and simply enjoyed being together in the open water. It was so relaxing that I wondered why in the hell I’d been so reluctant to begin with.

  I even tried standing on the board while Jude held on to the side and after a few tries, I was mostly able to keep myself steady.

  “It’ll have to be my goal this year to learn how to stand and fish,” I said, tilting my paddle sideways to regain my equilibrium.

  Jude’s eyes lit up. “I like the sound of that.”

  We were about thirty minutes out when Jude caught his first perch. He unhooked it and threw it back in.

  “So you’re enjoying this?” he asked, wiping his wet hands on his shorts.

  My fingers swayed in the cool water as my feet dangled over the side of the board. “I am.”

  He smiled that magical smile that always sent my pulse racing.

  The waterway was beginning to fill with boaters. We saw them in the distance but still remained virtually alone in the water. We decided to head back at the top of the hour.

  When we heard a motorboat fast approaching in our direction a few minutes later, Jude stiffened and assessed the situation. “Christ, hope they see us.”

  “We’re in plain sight; they’ve got to,” I said, panic rising in my chest.

  They were cutting it close, however, so Jude took his paddle to the water and began retreating toward shore.

  “Inexperienced drivers can make mistakes,” he said above the roar of the boat’s engine. “Better to be safe. Start heading back.”

  I was closer to the coastline so I rose on my knees to row ashore. But I felt like I was only treading water, so I stood up, thinking I’d gain better traction.

  And then it was if everything happened in slow motion. The speedboat decelerated before barely clipping Jude, a wall of water spraying in our faces.

  “You could’ve fucking killed us,” I yelled at the top of my lungs as my pulse hammered in my veins. Unexpectedly two large men jumped down from the boat into the shallow water and surrounded Jude’s board.

  One of them was holding a gun and the next thing I remembered was him pointing it at Jude’s head. My heart jackhammered in my chest and my feet became unsteady from the boat’s wake as well as my inexperience on the board.

  Then suddenly my feet slipped sideways and down I went, my head cracking on the fiberglass edge. I fell beneath the waves and could feel the cool liquid rushing my lungs. My hands fumbled for the side of the board and finally found purchase.

  When I pulled myself up, I fell forward on the board, my hands groping the sides, struggling to hang on.

  I attempted to lift my splitting head but everything looked spotted and fuzzy.

  “Jude!” was all I managed to force out but the boat had already motored away.

  My brain was thudding loudly in my head as I weakly clung onto the board. I felt something warm trickling down my neck and realized it was blood. I didn’t know how long I lay there before I finally managed to propel myself to shore.

  As I got closer to the kayak launch, I began yelling for Smoke, having no clue if he was anywhere around.

  I heard his motor in the distance and then he came running, darting into the water, and pulling me to shore.

  “Holy fuck, what happened?”

  “They got him,” I said, groaning because my head felt like it was splitting in two.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” he growled. “Where’s Jude?”

  “It was a speedboat.” I crawled the rest of the way out of the water on my hands and knees. “Two men. One had a gun.”

  “Fuck!”

  I vomited in the rocks and sank down on the uneven surface. Then everything went black.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  I woke up in a strange bed in a darkened room. I tried to lift up on my elbow but my aching head wouldn’t allow it. The room tilted at a nauseating angle and my body sank back down like a lead weight.

  I rolled to the side and dry heaved over the bed. Where the fuck was I and what the hell was happening?

  I could hear voices, so I clamped my lips shut. Warm bile suspended at the back of my throat as I attempted to listen.

  “Fuck, I never considered the water,” the voice said, and it sounded strangely familiar.

  Water? Then I remember what happened. Jude. The boat. My stomach roiled and I moaned.

  “What do they want, Mal?” another voice now asked.

  Mal. The president of the Disciples of the Road. I was with the MC club.

  Smoke had helped me from the water. I was safe. But Jude wasn’t.

  My muscles throbbed and my chest ached. This could not be happening.

  “They know we have something on them,” he said. “They say they’ll give up the kid if we destroy the evidence.”

  Jude was still alive. The relief was so immediate that my head lolled to the side.

  “What do the feds say?” Smoke asked.

  “Not the feds’ business,” another voice said. “This is club business.”

  “If we destroy the evidence, we’ll be even?” Smoke asked, urgency in his voice. “The boy will be left alone?”

  “You grow fond of him or something?” the other club member said, chuckling.

  “Fuck you,” Smoke said. “He’s a good kid, had a shit life, and deserves something decent.”

  And then I remembered all the conversations Jude and I had about his stepfather.

  I tried to move again and groaned loudly. “Damn it.”

  The door slipped open permitting a shard of light that nearly blinded me.

  “You’re awake,” Smoke said. “Get him some water.”

  “Where is he?” I asked, trying to get some answers.

  “We’re working on it, kid.” The voice came from the doorway. It was Malachi. I heard a whimper and my gaze zoomed across the room. Chopper had been sleeping on the couch and was beginning to stir.

  “Where are we?” I said, squinting into the light coming from the hallway.

  “Somewhere safe,” Malachi said.

  I peered around the room at the wood-paneled walls and floors to match. It seemed like some kind of cabin.

  Chopper jumped on the bed, sniffed and licked my face, before sinking down by my feet. My hand groped for his collar and I scratched him behind the ears. It felt good to have him there. A little piece of something that belonged to both Jude and me.

  Then I remembered Ace and Patch. “My dogs.”

  “Vaughn’s got it covered,” Smoke said.

  Another recruit I’d sometimes seen with Smoke brought me a glass of water with some pills.

  “Doc said you might have a concussion, which is why we’re keeping you here,” Smoke said. “He stitched you up and told us you needed to rest.”

  That would account for the painkillers and the bandage I now felt on the back of my skull.

  “My guys have been waking you up every few hours to check on you,” Malachi said.

  Fuck. How long have I been out?

  “Thanks,” I croaked out.

  With some exertion, I sat up on my pillow and surveyed my surroundings. I noticed plaid curtains on the window and some kind of closet near the couch.

  “Why did they take Jude?” I asked with some effort.

  “Elias wants to make a deal,” Malachi said.

  “Why now?”

  “That kid at the skateboard competition? He verified for Elias that it was Jude,” Smoke said. “Either he’s still in contact with him or Elias broke him down. Probably threatened the intel out of him.”

  I shivered at the thought of what they might do to intimidate someone. I couldn’t allow my brain to go there. Not while they’re still holding the man I love.

  “Why do you want to make a deal with him?�
�� I asked Mal. “What’s Jude to you except some guy you’ve been asked to protect?”

  “Good question,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. “We want to keep a relationship with the feds. It’s a win-win. And this is settling up an old score.”

  My face fell, because at the end of the day, Jude was only a pawn in all of this.

  “Elias is a filthy piece of shit and deserves a bullet through his skull,” Malachi added. As if he knew he somehow needed to redeem himself in front of me. “We’d love to do it ourselves, but then we’d have to deal with the aftermath. And we don’t need more blood on our hands. But maybe someday he’ll get what he deserves.”

  He strode out the door followed by a couple of other recruits who’d been listening from the entryway. Smoke started backing out of the room. “Stay put and rest. I’ll let you know when the deal goes down.”

  “Smoke,” I said, my stomach churning. His hand stilled on the doorframe. “He said something to me one night. Jude did.”

  Smoke nodded. “Go on.”

  “Said he’d never allow himself to be hurt by Elias again,” I said, and the room began to spin. “I’m afraid he . . . he’ll do something drastic . . . if he thinks he has no chance to come out of this . . .”

  Smoke stared me down.

  “I’ll do my best not to let that happen,” he said, his fist thumping once against his heart. “I promise.”

  “Thanks,” I mumbled. I placed my head in my hands and groaned, my body descending to the sheets.

  “Take care of him, Chopper,” Smoke said as the door closed and blotted out the light.

  ***

  I woke up and hauled myself out of bed, my head weighing about a thousand pounds. I opened the door and eased toward the voices down the hallway.

  There was an enormous great room with a fireplace, couches, and long wooden table. My gaze dragged across the window and it looked like we were someplace outside the city, in the woods. Had this been under different circumstances, I might’ve enjoyed the view.

  My hand gripped the doorframe as nausea washed over me.

  “You look like shit,” Smoke said from the couch.

  “Jude—”

  “We’re figuring it out, Cory,” Malachi said sitting at the head of the rectangular table. I wondered if that was always his seat.

  “I want to help,” I said, leaning my shoulder against the frame. “Please.”

  “How?” This came from a new voice and my eyes slid over to his. It was Alex, the federal marshal whom I’d now seen twice.

  “He needs to get back in bed and let us make that happen,” Malachi said.

  “No,” I said. “I’m not going to sleep when everybody else is trying to get Jude—” I practically choked on the words.

  “You have a head injury,” Smoke said.

  “I’m sure you’ve had worse,” I bit out. “I’ll be fine.”

  I shuffled toward the living room couch and when I got there, I gripped the back of the cushion.

  “Get him some coffee,” Malachi barked to one of the recruits. I sat down and held my head in my hands.

  The same dude who brought me a glass of water last night now handed me a cup of liquid gold and I sipped it gratefully as I surveyed the room. Sitting next to Alex was a man I’d seen but never interacted with before. Jonas, the vice president of the club.

  He was pointing at Alex’s laptop and speaking in a low drone.

  “Is the deal going to happen?” I asked anybody who would listen. I also remembered one of them saying last night that it was club business, so I wondered why Alex was here at all. Did they need his help?

  “We’re working on it,” Malachi said.

  Alex’s eyes connected with mine and I saw a spark of determination in them that immediately placed me at ease.

  “Elias contacted Malachi a couple of hours ago with his demands,” he said. “We’ve been hunting for Elias for years.”

  I nodded, trying to process this information.

  “We get Elias, we’re closer to taking down his whole operation.”

  “Does Elias know that the club is working with the feds?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

  “Doubtful,” Malachi said. “Besides, Elias’s bigger concern is payback from that other club, the Scorpions.”

  “Because of the information you said you had on them?”

  “Exactly,” he said. “They’ve got problems with the feds, but they don’t want retaliation from the Scorpion MC.”

  Just then Chopper bounded down the hallway from the bedroom and hopped up on the couch. I stretched my hand to scratch his head.

  “So you’re going to destroy the information like Elias asked to get Jude back?”

  Malachi looked at Alex and my stomach pitched. There was more to it than that. But this was Jude’s life we were talking about. Fuck.

  “It’s not the information that Mal has that we’re focusing on,” Alex said. “Mal can make the deal free and clear. We’ve got plenty more to pin on Elias.”

  “Then what?” My eyes pleaded with Alex’s. They were kind in comparison to Malachi’s.

  “If we can figure out where Elias is holding Jude, we can finally get our man,” Alex said. “Jude running into Mateo actually helped our case because we were able to cross-reference intel. With all the government red tape, that just didn’t happen soon enough.”

  Everything on my body felt so damn tight. My muscles, my stomach, my chest, my head. Like I couldn’t breathe. Like I wouldn’t breathe until I got Jude back.

  “How can I help?” I asked for the second time. I was coiled so damn taut, I had to do something or I would spontaneously combust.

  Malachi leaned over to whisper something to Alex and he nodded. Then Malachi looked at Jonas and Smoke as if they were communicating with their eyes. It made me realize how close this outlaw group was. Guess they had to be to deal with all of this heavy and dangerous shit.

  Smoke walked over to the couch. “Follow me.”

  I stood on shaky legs as he led me down the hallway to another room, which looked like an office. Again, the Disciples of the Road crest hung on the wall. There was a television on the other side of the table and Smoke reached for the remote.

  “Have a seat, Cory,” Malachi said, moving into the room with Alex behind him.

  “We’re going to show you my video call with Elias.”

  “You recorded it?”

  He nodded. “He needed to prove that he had the boy.”

  Chapter Thirty-five

  I pushed a shaky hand through my hair, ignoring the throbbing in my forehead.

  “He’s arranged the meeting time and place to make the transfer,” Alex said. “That will be handled by his men. If we can figure out his location before then, we can get Jude back and shut him down at the same time.”

  I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I want you to tell us if you notice anything,” Alex said. “Anything at all. We suspect he might still be somewhere on the water. That’s new information for us. Like finding a needle in a haystack.”

  The memory of that speedboat came flashing back to me.

  “More than likely he sent his men out to grab Jude and then drove him back to his hideout.”

  Smoke hit play and the screen came into focus. I swallowed down the horror that threated to claw up my throat. Jude was sitting in a chair, with his hands tied behind his back. His head faced downward, but I’d recognize him anywhere, even though he looked different. He had a bruised cheek and his hair had been shorn off.

  “What happened to him?” I croaked wishing I could break through that screen and get to him.

  “Elias cut off his dreads.” Smoke shrugged as if it were the most normal thing in the world. It probably was in their world. “It’s a show of dominance.”

  Jude must have struggled, which would account for the injured face. Shit, what about the rest of his body?

  Before I had time to p
rocess that, another imposing figure filled the monitor. It was unmistakably Elias. He was an attractive man with a commanding and almost regal presence. He had wiry black hair and a large build.

  I shivered when he turned toward the screen as a thick, ugly scar that ran across his neck came into view. His eyes appeared black and hollow.

  Then Elias spoke and I watched as Jude flinched at the sound of his voice.

  “I need proof that you destroyed the evidence. That’s the only way we’ll return him to you,” Elias said. “Though I’m not clear why you’re so eager to get him back.”

  “Not sure why he didn’t work out for you,” Malachi said in a clear voice on the recording. “No hard feelings. The boy’s been a strong recruit for us. You know as well as I do that good men are hard to find.”

  Even though I knew what Malachi was saying was a lie, the idea of Jude being a Disciples recruit made my blood turn cold.

  Elias stepped backward and grasped Jude by the neck so that he was forced to look at the camera. His eyes were lifeless jade stones and my stomach bottomed out.

  “Good men, sure,” Elias said as he leaned down to stare into Jude’s eyes. “But loyal men are even harder to find. Hope this one doesn’t disappoint you.”

  “His reasons for leaving your organization are his own,” Malachi’s voice rumbled and I flinched. “He’s never divulged any of your secrets. It was pure coincidence that he found us and we just so happened to have business dealings with you. As it turns out, running guns is a small world.”

  Fuck did Malachi sound convincing. Had Alex not been standing there and had I not known the information that Jude shared with me about Elias and the club, I might’ve even believed him.

  “Do you like what we did to your boy?” Elias asked running his finger over Jude’s bruised cheekbone. “He likes to put up a fight. You mess up this deal, Malachi, and I’ll do worse things to this pretty face.”

  “Fuck you,” Jude rasped out and my head sprang to the screen. The hatred in Jude’s gaze made my skin tingle.

  Elias’s whole countenance changed upon hearing Jude’s voice. Had this been the first time he’d spoken directly to him?