by Sadie Savage
“Right,” Jake said, pushing through the heavy door. He was surprised to find Michelle and his kids walking into the reception area.
“Hey,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
“Daddy!” Mary exclaimed, running to hug him. He lifted her up into his arms and grinned at her.
“Hey there, sweetheart. What are you guys up to?”
He directed the question at Michelle. He wanted his kids as far away from Kent as possible, but there was no way he could say that to her out loud. Not with him right there in his office.
“My father asked me to get some work done for him. Apparently there’s a big shipment set for the Raptors and we’re going to intercept it.”
“I heard about that,” Jake said, glancing over his shoulder at Kent’s doorway. “I’m about to get to work.”
“Oh, all right,” Michelle said. “You kids mind hanging out in the office with me?”
“Sure!”
Jake glowered, but he didn’t have time to protest. From the sound of it, he was going to have a chance to get more information at the docks. He would just have to trust Michelle to keep his kids safe from Kent. If he showed too much suspicion, who knew what would happen? It would have to be an ambush on his part and the whole MC would have to be in on it. It would take some planning and he might not succeed. Still, it was worth a try. He would do anything to keep Kent from corrupting the very streets his children were going to grow up on.
“All right, gotta go,” Jake said, kissing Mary on the cheek and setting her down. He ruffled JJ’s hair and looked longingly at Michelle. He couldn’t kiss her goodbye like he was longing to do. It was still bizarre for a man his age to be interested in such a young woman, and he couldn’t bring himself to be open in his attraction to her, even in front of his kids. But she seemed to understand the meaning of his gaze and smiled privately at him.
“Come back soon,” she said.
Jake gazed, mystified by the beauty of her face, and then smiled back. “Of course. See you later.”
Jake turned away, his mission clear in his head. He would go to the docks and learn all he could about the Raptors and their plans with Kent. And then, if he wasn’t killed in the process, he would take the information back to the MC and deal with Kent himself.
Chapter 22
Michelle’s eyes narrowed as she looked through the documents that her father had demanded she enter into the computer. If Jake was right about what her father was doing, then that meant things were a lot further along than he thought. According to his records, he was planning on having a mysterious stream of cash coming in from an unnamed source. It didn’t take much to guess what that source was going to be now. Especially not after seeing the picture that Jake had taken in Kent’s office.
Michelle frowned when she found a piece of paper that stood out from the others. It was on a different type of stationary that had an almost imperceptible R stamped at the header. It didn’t look like it belonged in the folder of documents where she had found it. In fact, it was stuck between two pages of a specific report.
As she read through the document, cold fear began to course through her body. The letter was on Raptor’s stationary. It was talking about replacing Jake as vice president with Leon of the Raptors. How could her father do that to him?
“Michelle, I have more information for you to enter,” Kent called on the loudspeaker.
Michelle stood, casting a glance at the kids. She was reluctant to leave them, but her father clearly meant for her to come in and get the documents herself. It was silly to worry about going into his office for just a few moments, right?
She inhaled deeply and stepped into the office, looking darkly at her father. The more she learned about him, the more she hated him. How could he have betrayed Jake so deeply? Even to the point of having his wife killed? What had Jake done to him? It was ruthless.
“What?” Kent asked, apparently able to sense the bitterness in her mood.
“I just wish you would tell me more, I guess. Everything is such a big dark secret around here, and I still feel like you treat me like a little girl who can’t handle anything.”
Kent chuckled deeply and leaned back in his chair.
“Just what do you want me to trust you with, princess? You haven’t done too much to move up around here. I was under the impression you hated the MC business.”
He had her there, but Michelle smiled. “I hate a lot of it, yeah, like how it used to keep you from spending time with me.”
“We spend time together all the time, sugar!” Kent exclaimed. “You work right next door to me.”
“Yeah…” Michelle sighed. Kent raised an eyebrow.
“Look, there are just some things it’s better people don’t know, all right? And it doesn’t matter how you feel about it.”
“Like nobody should know that you’re going to get rid of Jake and replace him with Leon from the Raptors?”
Kent’s face paled and he looked at Michelle in disbelief. “Where did you hear a thing like that?”
“In a letter stuffed in between one of those documents you wanted me to enter. What the hell is going on?”
Kent’s eyes grew dark and Michelle froze. She knew that look. She had crossed the line. Why had she opened her mouth about it? She was just so angry. How could her father really be such a horrible person?
“Oh, princess, you’re going to regret laying eyes on that,” Kent said.
“What, you didn’t want me to enter it into the database?” Michelle asked, her voice quavering. “Was that a mistake?”
Kent rose from his seat. “Sit down.”
Michelle stared at her father defiantly, anger bubbling in her chest. “No.”
Kent took in her defiance and nodded, a strange grin on his face.
“All right. Kids, get in here!” Kent shouted.
“No!”
But before Michelle’s warning could reach them, the door opened and Mary and JJ walked in laughing, gripping the motorcycles in their little hands. JJ’s eyes widened when he saw Kent standing up, and Michelle gasped as her father pulled out his gun.
“Hi kids! Welcome to my office. We have some talking to do.”
“Leave them out of this!”
“No! It concerns their worthless family, too! They should know what scum they’re spawned from.”
“Don’t listen to him, kids,” Michelle said as gently as she could. She smiled kindly at them. “Cover your ears.”
They whimpered and obeyed, and Michelle looked hard at her father.
“Answer me. Are you responsible for killing Jake’s wife? The mother of those poor children?”
“That weak-willed little shit killed herself,” Kent said. “Where and how she got her fix doesn’t matter. It was her choice to leave those kids and her choice alone. Jake has always been after the president’s position. He didn’t give a shit about anything but kicking me out of my own MC!”
“That’s not true!” Michelle exclaimed. Never had she considered Jake to be power hungry like that. What was wrong with her father?
“I had to take him down a peg or two. That’s why I got the heroin for Janie. That’s why!”
Michelle tried her best to cover the kid’s ears and shield their faces with her body.
“Stop! Just shut the hell up, you son of a –“
But Kent’s expression had gone slack, and his eyes were wild with an expression that chilled Michelle to the bone. What were they going to do?
Chapter 23
It took no time at all for Jake to locate the Raptor Kent had instructed him to find. He was poking around in Kent’s warehouse, taking notes and making stock of the weapons that the MC had stored there.
“Find anything interesting?” Jake asked. The Raptor jumped, startled from his task, but soon, a sly grin crept across his face.
“I have now,” he said.
Jake braced himself for the hit when the Raptor lunged at him and soon they were brawling. Jake knocked the kid acros
s the room and into one of the storage containers, and he hit hard, shouting out in pain.
Jake covered the distance between himself and the Raptor quickly, punching him square in the face and knocking him unconscious. He quickly searched the man’s pockets, easily finding the documents that Kent had promised would be in the Raptor’s possession.
He unfolded them quickly, eager to discover what it was that Kent had found to be so important.
“I know you were in my office. Joke’s on you.”
Jake furrowed his brow and read the message over again, flipping it over. Suddenly, he heard a cackle, and Leon and a huge group of Raptors were coming out of hiding from behind the crates in the warehouse.
“Kent set me up,” Jake said, the realization dawning on him. Normally, he would have been hurt, betrayed, and horrified. But the truth was that he was relieved. Because he had anticipated a bigger fight than what Kent had suggested, and he had his own band of Pythons outside just waiting for his signal.
“Well what took you so long to figure that out?” Leon asked, walking slowly toward Jake, balling his fists. They were both ready for a good fight.
“I knew it!” Jake shouted, loud enough for Tommy and the rest of the boys to hear.
A righteous roar of fury coming from just outside the warehouse wiped the smug grins off the faces of the Raptors, and soon the space was flooded with angry Pythons. The anger and betrayal on their faces was impossible to ignore, and they went after the Raptors with a vengeance. Tommy started toward Leon and Jake gripped his arm.
“That one is mine,” he said darkly. Tommy nodded, taking off into the crowd after a different Raptor.
Leon and Jake stared off, Jake’s fists clenched as he walked toward that piece of shit man. He had spent endless hours of his life imagining the sweet vengeance he would inflict on Leon when he got the chance, but Kent had always told him that it would be better to keep his anger at bay. Leon was the leader of the Raptors after all. Why bark up the wrong tree, right?
But now, there was nothing to keep him from going after Leon. Jake threw his fist at the man’s face, relishing in the satisfaction of landing the blow. He had waited far too long to do this. It felt good to finally get his revenge. Leon stumbled backward, he was a much smaller man than Jake and it almost seemed unfair to take all his rage out at once. Still, it felt too good to stop.
He went into a blind rage, his fists connecting with flesh until finally Tommy’s hands were on his shoulders and pulling him up.
“It’s done now, man,” Tommy said. “Time to go.”
Jake blinked hard and looked down at Leon’s face. It was a bloody heap and he was struggling to breathe. If his buddies didn’t take care of him, he wasn’t going to make it through the night. And good riddance.
Jake stood, glancing around the room at the carnage. The Pythons had done their damage, leaving injured and passed out bodies of Raptors everywhere. Most of the Pythons had scattered back to the MC for victory drinks. Jake had made it clear that he would take care of Kent himself if he was right about the betrayal. And now that he was, there was nothing he wanted more than to give that slimy piece of shit the beating of his life.
***
Jake headed immediately up to Kent’s office, not bothering to check on Michelle and the kids first. He burst through the door, and froze mid-step.
“Easy there, Jake,” Kent said, turning the gun on him. “Wouldn’t want anything funny to happen.”
Michelle’s eyes were wide, and she shook her head slightly. That’s when Jake noticed JJ and Mary, cowering behind her, silent tears streaming down their faces.
“What the fuck is going on here? Have you lost your mind?” Jake demanded.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Kent said, waving his gun in the air. “I don’t think you’re in any position to try talking tough.”
Jake considered this. If anything happened to Michelle or the kids on account of him, he would never forgive himself. But he had to do something.
“You know, my daughter has this obnoxious tendency to try to guilt trip me into second-guessing my strategies. You’d think she was the one who wanted to run the MC or something. But that’s ridiculous isn’t it.”
“You keep your filthy fucking hands off of her,” Jake warned. “And get away from my kids before you regret it.”
“Still talking tough, huh?” Kent said, tsking and shaking his head. “You’d think losing your worthless wife would have wised you up a bit.”
“Oh, you know meatheads like me,” Jake said, walking slowly toward Kent. “It takes a lot to get that kind of thing through our heads.”
Kent opened his mouth to reply but Jake dodged out of the sight of the gun and tackled Kent around his waist. Kent cried out in surprise and flailed, waving the gun in the air. Jake gripped Kent’s wrist. He was tired of looking like a timid little puppy dog. Michelle may have brought out his softer side, but that didn’t mean he had to be neutered.
“Get the kids out of here,” Jake yelled. “Now!”
Michelle didn’t think twice before ushering the kids in front of her, using her body as a shield to protect them from her father. The sight filled Jake with conflicting emotions. Tenderness toward a woman who would give her life for his children, and hatred for the man who would make his own daughter make that choice.
“You’re going to regret ever coming near my family,” Jake growled into Kent’s face. “And the way you’ve treated your daughter.”
“What do you know about my daughter?” Kent sneered. Jake headbutted him hard, wiping the grin off his face.
“I know a hell of a lot more than you do. More than you ever will or deserve to know. And when I get rid of your slimy ass, I’m going to marry that woman. I’m going to make this our MC once and for all!”
Kent’s face filled with rage and he shouted out in fury, shoving Jake back with surprising strength. It caught him off guard, and Kent landed a blow on his face that sent Jake staggering backwards. He aimed his gun at Jake and fired.
Jake cried out in agony as the bullet tore through the flesh of his shoulder and gripped it. Kent laughed.
“You think you’re going to marry my daughter without my blessing?” Kent exclaimed, his hand shaking. He thought he had the upper hand, and seemed to be waiting for Jake to fall to his knees. He aimed the gun at Jake again, ready to fire.
Jake rolled out of the way just in time and reached into the holster inside his vest. He aimed at Kent and fired once, and Kent fell to the ground without a sound. Jake got to his feet and looked down at the bloody mess on the ground. It was a shame things couldn’t have ended better. But at least Michelle and his children were safe.
Still, breaking the news to Michelle would be difficult. Whether he was a twisted son of a bitch or not, he was still her father.
Jake heaved a heavy sigh and put his gun away in its holster. He wanted nothing more than to hold Michelle and his kids close and tell them that he would always be there for them, no matter what happened.
Chapter 24
Michelle rocked Mary gently as JJ squeezed her hand. They had heard the gunshots fire, and all of them were terrified about what the sounds might mean. Michelle knew that all of them were worried about the same thing: Jake.
She had retrieved her pistol after she rushed the kids into her apartment and locked the doors, unable to bring herself to leave the MC completely without knowing that Jake was okay. She hoped that her father wouldn’t have it in him to harm innocent children, but when he had held them hostage in his office, the only thing that seemed to matter was that they were Jake’s children.
Jake, her father claimed, had always been after the president’s position from the beginning. It had quickly become clear that her father had been going mad with paranoia, and Jake had been the target of all his madness. The kids had heard far too much and yet they seemed too shocked to cry now. All they could do was cling to Michelle and wait, hoping that their father and not Kent would come through the apartment door.
Michelle’s heart jolted in terror and desperate hope when she heard the rattling of the doorknob, and she ran to the door, leaving the kids on the couch.
“Go in the bedroom,” she hissed. “Quick and shut the door until I say.”
They got up slowly as if in a daze, but before they had a chance to run, the door opened slowly.
“Got room for one more?”
“Daddy!” The kids screamed in unison, rushing past Michelle to cling to their father. Jake cringed in pain but lifted both kids in his arms, kissing them all over before turning his gaze on Michelle.
“Your father is dead,” he said, his face tired.
Michelle’s heart lurched. “I know.”
Jake wouldn’t have left him alive. She had been kidding herself to think that he wasn’t a hardcore biker deep down. He would do anything to protect the people he cared about. But instead of being disgusted by it now, Michelle was glad. Tears of relief began to stream from her eyes and she embraced Jake and the kids. They all held each other tightly before Jake finally pulled away.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
***
“You’re hurt,” Michelle realized, once they made it back to Jake’s house. He had done everything to keep his face blank as they traveled away from the hellish nightmare at the MC, but now that they had put the kids to bed early and were sitting in the kitchen together, Michelle finally had a chance to examine Jake closely.
“It’s just a graze,” Jake said.
“Still, we have to make sure it doesn’t get infected. Come on.”
Jake sighed heavily and followed Michelle back into the big bathroom where he kept his first-aid supplies. She had him sit on the edge of the bathtub, like she had the first time, though it felt like centuries since she had treated him for a stab wound.
“I’m sorry, Michelle,” Jake said miserably after she had finished cleaning and bandaging his wound. They were laying together on Jake’s bed, and his eyes were narrowed with pain. “I killed your father.”