“NO!” We all said irritatedly. Hale sighs heavily.
“I think it’s about time I did though don’t you think?” Nick says and we all snap our heads in his direction.
“Are you serious your not messing with us are you?”
“Not at all, I was just waiting for Hale to come home. I can’t be voted in if there's a member missing can I?” Nick gives us a smile Hayden comes back with his gavel and bangs it on the table.
“Oh we are doing this now.”
“Alright boys lets get to voting.”
“Yay.”
“Yay.”
“Yay.”
“Yay.”
“Yay.”
"The Yays have it." Hayden says with a smile as he bangs the gavel on the table.
"Finally." We all said in unison. We all surrounded Nick and we did a group hug, I'm not the only one who's been waiting for this day to come. I look over to Jake and he has mixed emotions all over his face. I waved him over and I walked towards the back.
"How are you doing Jake?"
"Fine."
"Try again." Jake sighed in defeat.
"I understand why he had to leave, but what I don't understand is why he didn't tell me about it? Did he not trust me with that information or something?"
"No no no that's definitely not it at all Jake trust me on that. Have an open mind and let him explain why he didn’t tell you he was leaving for awhile.”
“Right now I can’t, it still hurts the fact that he left me with no word or explanation I thought I did something to upset him.”
“Fuck. You never said anything about that Jake.”
“I didn’t want anyone to know how much pain I was really in.”
“Shit I knew you were hurting I just didn’t know it was that bad. I’m sorry Jake.”
“You don’t need to apologize Tristan.”
“Yes I do, I let you down I should’ve known that you were in that much pain and I should’ve convinced him to tell you that he had to leave.” How the fuck did I miss this shit. I hugged him tightly his body went slack as all his emotions starts to flow out of him. I can’t express how pissed I feel for being apart of his pain. We were like that for ten minutes me holding him as he cried. I helped him wipe away his tears, I walked back and he said bye to everyone then I walked him out.
“Jake I promise I’ll make this up to you I will help you get back to how things were before all this shit went down.”
“That means alot to me I need some time to clear my head first.” Jake says with a small smile and I hate that he smiles are always big and bright that makes everyone want to smile with him.
“I understand. Call me anytime if you want to talk or even to curse us all out I’ll always be there no matter what.”
“I know thank you.” Jake gets in his car and drove away. I walk up to the door and punched it before walking back into the clubhouse with all of them staring at me.
"What's the problem?" Hayden asked with concern.
"We are the fucking problem we should've never went along with Hale’s plan to not tell Jake what was going on, we should've convinced him to telling him he was leaving. We are the reasons why he's in pain damn it."
"What are you talking about Tristan?" Troy asks with anger.
"Yeah Tristan we all know he's upset about what happened…"
"We didn't realize how much pain he really was in he hid it well, but we let him down and we have to make it up to him." Nick sighed heavily.
"I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize it was that bad."
"Shit." Adam says he punches the wall.
"What else did he say to you Tristan?" Hale asks with a pained face.
"He thought it was his fault that you left."
"WHAT?" Hale yelled as his eyes widen.
"Now that I think about it you two got into an argument a few days before you left maybe that's why he thinks that."
"Fuck." Hale punches the wall twice.
"I need to talk to him." Hale starts walking towards the door.
"Wait Hale."
"What now."
"He needs time to clear his head before talking to you."
"Is that what he said to you."
"He did and we owe him that much to listen to his request even if we don't like it. We all have to find a way to do right by him."
"Of course it's not going to be easy." Troy says with a sad tone.
"No it's not, but he's worth it Jake is our family."
"Damn right. Until then we have work to do tomorrow we need to put an end to this once and for all. Hayden says and we all nod our heads. We went home in silence since we are staying together until we fix the Dog problem. When we got home I went straight to my room and laid down thinking about Jake the fact that he's home alone in pain pisses me off it shouldn't be like this.
"It's not just your fault you know, we all let him down it doesn't have to weigh on just your shoulders Tristan." I look up and Nick climbs on top of me.
"Since you were a kid you always put the weight of the world on your shoulders each and every time something happened to us you always blamed yourself even though you had no control over it. You always put us before yourself I guess that's one of the reasons I fell for you in the first place and the reason why I always took care of you since you never took care of yourself." I grab his waist and pull him to me and kissed him softly.
"And I love you for that you always stayed by me even when I'm spiraling out of control. You mean the world to me and I will treasure you for the rest of our lives." Nick leans in and kisses me.
"You can be such a sweet talker."
"Only with you." Nick smiles brightly I have always loved his smile it always makes me happy and at ease.
"We need to get some rest for tomorrow it's going to be a long day."
"I hear you." Nick places his head on my chest and I wrap my arm around. I hope Jake can get through this and forgive Hale one day soon hopefully. I love my brothers and my sister they are the most important people in my life even when they fuck up, but family is always going to be there to help you fix the mistakes you have made and know we all have to work together to make it up to Jake for letting him down. I just hope he will still talk to us, but I understand if it takes some time.
"Tristan stop worrying so much Jake is not going to disown us. We will make it up to him and Hale and Jake will get through this I'm sure of it."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because Jake loves us and I'm sure he doesn't blame us for what happened."
"Yeah I know, but…"
"Don't ever think it now go to bed."
"I hear you loud and clear baby." I kiss Nick’s head as I start to fall asleep.
Chapter Eight
Nick
Tristan and some of the guys are going out to find one of the members that's in town and I couldn't be more nervous than I am right now. Tristan grabs my waist and pulls me to his body.
"Don't worry so much we will all come back home once we get the information then you and Hale go there and get more information."
"I understand." Tristan kisses me softly before leaving the house. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Hale grabs my shoulders and squeezes them.
"We will get this settled and things will go back to normal. Once they give us information it’s our turn."
"Yeah I know." We sat on the couch waiting for the call. Waiting has never been one of my strong suits, but I need to be cool headed and calm. Hale starts to pace the hall after an hour of waiting and it’s starting to drive me nuts.
“Stop pacing like that you are not helping.”
“Sorry I guess it’s been awhile since I had to sit and wait.” Hale says as he stops right in front of me.
“I get that if anyone knows how you feel it’s me.”
“I know you been on the side lines for way to long my brother it good to finally have you officially a part of the club.”
“Thank you, I wai
ted too long to join in. I should’ve done it a long time ago.”
“That’s true, but better late than never.” Hale gives me a smile and I smile back.
It’s been about three hours since they left and the longer it stays quiet the more I’m starting to worry.
“Nick let’s go they sent us the address of someone who knows where the next safehouse is.”
“Alright let’s get going.” We got into the car and Hale starts drive out of town.
“Where are we going?”
“Two towns over.” He hands me his phone and I read the message and the picture of the guy we are looking for. It’s been awhile since I have been involved in anything that involved with the club. Growing up I always had mixed feelings about this part of the family I never thought being a part of this family would give me any happiness. I was filled with anger when my parents died no matter how much trouble I got into or how much I pushed them away they didn't give up on me I will always be grateful for that.
"We are getting close to his place keep your eyes on lookout in case he is outside."
"Funny that you mentioned that he's right there pop the trunk." I put my hoodie up and got out of my car. I grab the guy and smash his head to wall than put him in the trunk then went back in the car.
"Alright let's go." Hale starts driving to one of our warehouses that is a town over.
"How long do you think this is going to take us to deal with all these annoying ass Dogs?" I ask frustrated.
"To be honest I'm not sure maybe a week or two it all depends on how fast we can make them talk." Hale says as he squeezed his hands on the wheel. Hale pulls into the warehouse, I grab my gloves from the glove department and put them on.
“Alright Nick you get the door and I’ll grab the Dog.”
“Got it.” I got out of the car and went straight to the door and open it as Hale carried him into the warehouse. I helped Hale chain up the guy to the wall.
"Wake up you piece of trash." Hale says as he slaps Carlos.
"There you go Carlos we can do this the easy way or the hard way it's your choice. Where is the main safe house?" Hale demanded.
"Go fuck yourself Knight."
"That's not what I wanted to hear." Hale punched him and Carlos spit up blood.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know and even if I did I wouldn't tell you." That's it.
"Fine you want the hard way let's do it the hard way." I pulled out my pocket knife and waved it in front of his face.
"Do you still want to do this the hard way?"
"Give me what you got pretty boy." My eye twitched.
"Now you did it." I stabbed his side than pulled it out as he screams and stab him on the other side. I place the knife on his chest and slowly moved it across his body.
"How long do you think you can handle all this pain before you can't take it anymore. I'll make the pain go away if you just tell me what we want to know." He didn't say anything. Hale holds out his hand and I placed the knife in his hand. Hale grabs Carlos hand and cuts off his index finger and I wince as he screams.
"I told you it's better to do this the easy way didn't I?" Hale says.
"This is just going to get worse the longer you stay quiet." I tell him. Hale starts cutting his fingers for everytime he doesn't say what we want to know. Hale stabs his leg in anger than twists the knife inside, he's starting to get frustrated it's been forty minutes. I grab the knife from Hale’s hand and he walks away.
"If you don't say anything I will start with your left eye." His eyes widen in shock now we are getting somewhere.
"I don't know anything." He says in a panic voice. I place the knife on his eyelid.
"I swear I don't know." I put a little pressure and a little blood slides down.
"I don't know where the main safehouse is, but I do know where the next safehouse that's five towns south of here."
"That's much better where is it located?" Hale ask as I wipe of his blood on his shirt.
"My phone has a picture of him. His name is Zackary there's only one place that near the water you can't miss it." I grab his phone and showed him the picture.
"The one with blue hair." I zoomed in on the picture and took a picture on my phone then send it to Tristan with the information.
"I'll take care of this you go call Tristan." Hale says. I left the warehouse and dialed his number.
"Hey baby how is the clean up coming along?" Tristan asks.
"Hale is taking care of it. Are you heading over to that safehouse now?"
"Yeah we just stopped for gas and we are heading there now. Apparently there's only a few safe houses to go through since they shut down a lot of them in the past six months."
"That's a good thing isn't?"
"Yes it is. This might take awhile you and Hale should head back home for the time being."
"Understood. Be careful Tristan according to the guy there's a lot of them in that safehouse."
"Alright we will be careful I promise. Can you do me a favor when you get home?" Tristan says in a soft tone.
"Sure what is it?"
"Check on Jake make sure his okayish. And make sure you go to the nightclub keep things going while we are gone."
"Of course I'm all over it."
"Good I'll talk to you when I get the chance I love you Nick."
"I love you too Tristan." I hung up the phone and sighed heavily this might take a week or so and I hate being separated from him for so long. I don't think we have ever been separated for more than two days this is going to suck majorly. I got in the car and waited for Hale to come back. Twenty minutes had passed and Hale gets in the car.
"What did Tristan say?" Hale asked.
"He said to go home for now and keep things going while they are gone. And that it might take some time."
"Alright I understand let's head back then." When we got back home I took a long and nice shower. When I got out Hale was sitting on the couch waiting for me.
"Do you need me to help out around the club?"
"Do you really want to help or do you just want to see Jake?"
"Bit of both." I couldn't help the laughter that came out.
"I can use your help, but make sure you give him some space."
"I understand. I won't push it, but I won't give up on him."
"Of course not just give him time to clear his head that's all I'm saying. I will meet you there I have to do something before going to the club I'll see you soon."
"Got it. Let me know how he is doing."
"Don't I always keep you informed whenever you fuck up."
"That's true and I'm grateful for that everyday."
"I fucking hope so. Alright I'm leaving see you soon." I grab my car keys from the table than went to my car. It took me ten minutes to get to his house, I knock on his door. Nick opened the door and gives me a small smile.
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to check up on you see how your doing with everything."
"I'm okay how is the problem coming along?"
"It's coming along they are working on it we are just waiting for the next call."
"So until then businesses as usual."
"Exactly. Have you decided to talk to Hale yet?" I ask.
"Not yet I still need some time. Can I ask you something?"
"Of course what is it?"
"When he was gone was Hale involved with anyone?"
"NO! Definitely not, you are the only one for him Jake." He nods his head after sighing with relief.
"Alright let's get to work." Walking in the building the music was loud I can feel the base throughout my body. Jake goes straight to the bar people starting to pile in. I spot Hale in the corner looking at Jake I walk over to Hale. I hope he has learned his lesson and to never keep things from Jake ever again he looks so miserable.
"How are you doing Hale?"
"Not so great I feel like I'm slowly dying without him."
"I'm surprised you didn't try to li
e."
"What's the point of that I was never able to lie to you."
"That's very true. He's doing okay he needs a little more time before coming to you. And he will you just have to be patient."
"Do you really think he will come back to me?" Hale asks with pain all over his face.
Following My Heart Page 7