by Jessie Cooke
Maddox stood frozen to the spot, gun still smoking out in front of him. He watched, as if staring at a movie screen, while Blackheart rushed to pull his sister out from underneath the now dead man. He barely registered the feeling of the one they called Chance placing his big hand gently on Maddox’s arm and help him lower it. He released the gun, not knowing if Chance had a hold of it, or if it would fall to the floor at his feet, and not caring. Maddox hadn’t shot anyone since he retired from the army. He’d been worried about Blackheart’s being the wild card...but it had turned out to be him after all.
“You should sit down, man.” Gabriel, the other young Joker was at his other side, and never one to be helpless, he let those two young men guide him over to the couch against the wall and help him sit. He looked over at Blackheart again, sitting on the floor, holding and rocking his sister in his arms. God, she looked so much like Lizzie...but he hadn’t been able to save his wife. He hadn’t been able to hold her in his arms like that and tell her it was going to be okay. He hadn’t been there at all. Feeling sick, he leaned forward and placed his head in his hands, hearing the commotion of the clean-up and everything else that was going on around him, but not really processing it. He didn’t know how much time had passed when he felt someone sit down next to him. The weight of the couch shifted and Maddox looked up into Blackheart’s blue eyes. They seemed to be swimming with tears, but Maddox was sure not one of those tears would dare to fall out of his eyes and roll down his cheeks.
“You okay?”
Maddox nodded, suddenly embarrassed. “Yeah, I will be.”
Blackheart put a big hand on Maddox’s shoulder. “Good. You saved her life.”
Maddox snorted and glanced back over where Brigette was now on her knees, looking after Louis the butcher, who still seemed to be unconscious. Le Singe had come down at some point and he was on the phone. “Maybe,” Maddox said. “Maybe I risked it and all of ours. I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to...”
“He was going to kill her to get out of here. I couldn’t make myself shoot him. I was too fucking afraid of hitting her. You did it, and there will never be anything you ask me for, ever, that I’ll say no about. But right now I need to make sure she gets seen by a doctor, and Louis looks like he’s in pretty bad shape, so I have to ask...do you want to go before the cops get here?”
Maddox shook his head again. He’d shot that man because he had a gun to Brigette’s head, and there were plenty of witnesses to that. He wasn’t worried that he’d be arrested...and even if he was, Donovan would have him out in a matter of hours, if not minutes. “No. Call whoever you need to. Let’s get them to the hospital and get the fuck out of here.” Blackheart squeezed his shoulder and with a raspy voice that sounded like the tears had made it to the back of his throat he said:
“Thank you.” Maddox nodded again, but he still wasn’t sure he deserved to be thanked. He’d lost control...something a good soldier never does. When a soldier loses control, people die; Maddox knew that better than anyone.
It was after midnight before Maddox was told he could leave the police station. They never arrested him, and he didn’t think they would, but they’d had a shitload of questions. The other man in the house had been Vincent Tucci. Vincent had lawyered up the second they put cuffs on him, so he wasn’t talking. The one that Maddox had killed was a guy they called “Sammi Two-Fingers” and he was another one of the Tucci cousins. Louis was still unconscious, but according to Brigette, she’d gone over that Sunday morning after she got her coffee and doughnut, just to say hello. She and Louis had become friends and she stopped by on her walks every so often just to talk to him. She said she was in the front when she heard a horrible scream from the back. She dropped what was in her hands and ran to the back, finding Louis writhing in pain on the floor, and Frankie Tucci holding a bat and standing over him. Brigette didn’t know who Frankie was then, but she’d learned quickly afterward when he called his cousin Gianni and they’d stood over her for an hour, arguing about what to do with her. For a couple of hours, maybe, after Gianni showed up, they had put her and Louis in the freezer. Brigette said she thought they would die there and when she talked about how cold and scared she’d been, a cloud unlike anything Maddox had ever seen would cross behind Blackheart’s blue eyes.
Brigette told them that by the time they came back for her and Louis, the butcher shop had been so clean it actually smelled like bleach. They’d backed up a van to the loading dock of the shop where Louis got his meat deliveries, and they’d loaded her and Louis up. She didn’t know anything about the video surveillance, but Maddox was sure the police had it picked apart by then and knew the men had altered it. She and Louis were taken to that house in Baton Rouge and held in the basement for the entire time they’d been missing. She said they fed them once, sometimes twice a day and Louis had been getting sicker and sicker throughout. She told them she’d begged the men to get him some help, but they told her “in the end” that Louis was going to die anyway, so it didn’t matter what he died of. She said they routinely discussed having sex with her but that they’d been told by someone they called “The Boss” to not lay a finger on her. She said whoever this “boss” was, was the only reason she was still alive. She’d heard them talking about him trying to figure out a plan to get her back home and Blackheart never finding out they were involved...but obviously that had become harder than they thought it might be. She said that the day before Maddox and the Jokers found her things had changed somewhat. They didn’t come right out and tell her that they’d decided to kill her and Louis both, but she got the feeling that was where they were headed.
Maddox was grilled about his gun, which he had to produce a license for, that he carried in the saddlebag of his bike. One of the detectives called to speak with Donovan, to confirm his employment as a PI, but Donovan had refused to talk to them, until they let him talk to Maddox. Once he made sure his old friend was okay, he told the police what they wanted to know, and although Maddox wasn’t privy to that conversation, he would bet that he also warned them that arresting Maddox would be a bad idea.
Maddox tried asking questions about Gianni and Mario and Frankie before they let him go, but he was simply told it was an “ongoing” investigation and they couldn’t share any information with him. By the time he left, however, he was sure that the cops hadn’t brought any of them in and he wondered, with Mario’s and the Tucci family’s resources, if they’d ever find them. He did his best to let it all go as he made his way back to the hotel. Carmella had left him two messages while all of this was going on, the first one asking if he was okay, and the second one saying she was thinking about him, a little worried, and to please call her. He didn’t call or text her. On top of already knowing he had to stop seeing her, he couldn’t imagine that she’d still want anything to do with him, once she knew he’d killed her uncle, or cousin...or however that Sammi guy was related to her. She had told him where to find them, but he doubted that she’d meant for him to go there and blow someone’s head off his shoulders. The thing was, he barely had the energy that night to think about it, much less have a conversation. So, he went straight back to the hotel, took a long, hot shower, and passed out, face down and naked on the bed.
15
Maddox woke up to the sunlight rudely pushing its way in through the cracked blinds, and a pounding on the door. He turned his head in the direction of the clock on the nightstand and the numbers read 3:15. He had slept for over twelve hours. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that. No dreams, or nightmares. No visits from his past...just blessed, restful sleep. If only the pounding on the door would stop, he might go another few hours.
“Maddox? Should I go get the concierge to open this door and make sure you’re not dead in there?” Shit. It’s Carmella. He’d never texted her back the night before. In a voice that sounded like he might be a three-pack-a-day smoker, he croaked out a “Just a sec,” and then he pulled his still tired, sore body up off the bed and reached for
a pair of shorts out of his unpacked bag that still lay next to the bed. He pulled those on and made his way to the door. When he pulled it open, Carmella ran her dark eyes from his face down to his feet. She looked gorgeous, but judging by the look on her face, she wouldn’t say the same about him.
“Wow, must have been some party.”
He gave her a half smile and stepped back out of the way so she could come inside. Once he closed the door he said, “I’m sorry I didn’t call last night...things got a little crazy and I was in the police station for hours...”
“Yeah, I know. Sammi is dead, my old man got ‘invited’ down to the police station, and Vinnie is behind bars...Oh, and no one can find Gianni and Frank.”
“Damn,” he said, unscrewing the cap off a six-dollar bottle of “complimentary” water. “You’re better informed than me.”
“Well, when I didn’t hear from you, I went back to my old man’s house to see what I could find out.”
Maddox sat down next to her, where she’d already taken a seat on the bed, and offered her the other bottle of water he’d picked up. She took it and he waited until she’d taken a drink before asking, “Did they tell you the whole story?”
“They didn’t tell me anything,” she said. “They never do. My old man still thinks I believe he’s a legitimate businessman, I think.” She rolled her eyes and said, “What I heard was first the old man on the phone with the cops, and second, his conversation with Gianni.”
Maddox wanted to ask her where Gianni was, but he hesitated. Was he putting her at risk by letting her be involved in this at all? It was unlikely her own father would harm her...but who knew what the rest of the losers that worked for that family might do? He reminded himself that his part of this was technically done. Louis and Brigette were safe, and that was all he’d been there for. So, he stayed quiet instead and let her go on.
“I heard him telling Gianni that Blackheart’s sister and Louis had been found at Frank’s mother’s house in Baton Rouge and they were alive...and Maddox, I heard him asking Gianni if he knew they were there.” Maddox had to wonder then if maybe Mario knew his daughter was listening, or maybe he just wasn’t sure who might be. “He sounded really angry about it, and maybe like he didn’t know what they’d been up to...” It was obvious to Maddox, and had been since he met her, that Carmella’s relationship with her old man was a complicated one. She didn’t necessarily like what he stood for, and maybe she didn’t even really like him as a person...but she loved him. He was still the only father she had, and she was still his little girl. She’d much rather believe he had nothing to do with the kidnapping and torture of two innocent people, and if Maddox could help it, he wasn’t going to be the one to shatter that illusion. He nodded and said:
“It’s entirely possible. Brigette never saw your dad. It was Gianni and Frank who took her, and Vincent and Sammi who were watching them off and on.” Of course there were a lot of mentions of “The Boss,” according to Brigette, but even the police weren’t going to be able to prove Mario had any knowledge of anything, unless one of his guys rolled on him...and that was highly doubtful.
There was a grateful look in her eyes, and then she laid her head on his shoulder, soft hair tickling his biceps, and said, “I know it was you who shot Sammi. I heard him talking about that too.” When she didn’t go on for what seemed like an eternally long time, Maddox said:
“I’m sorry. He had a gun to Brigette’s head...”
She pulled her head up and looked at him again. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. First of all, I hated that guy, cousin or not. Second of all, he put himself in that situation and I think he got what he had coming. I’m sorry you had to do that. Are you okay?” He smiled and nodded at her and she smiled back and said, “Good. Are the butcher and that girl going to be okay?”
He nodded. “Brigette is fine. She was cleared last night and they sent her home. Louis was still unconscious last I heard, but the word was they didn’t see any injuries that might prove fatal. They think maybe he just got dehydrated, on top of being in so much pain from the beating he took at some point. Brigette said he gave her most of the water that was meant for him. I haven’t had a chance to meet him yet, but by all accounts he’s a good guy. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”
He felt her shudder against his side. “They beat him...fucking losers. But they didn’t hurt the woman?”
“Not really,” he said. “They didn’t beat her, anyway.”
She looked up at him and made a face and then said, “I know where Gianni probably is, and Frank too. They’re like two peas in a pod...”
Maddox was already shaking his head. “No. We have Louis and Brigette. The cops and Blackheart can look for them all they want now, but there’s no urgency. I don’t want you involved anymore.”
She sat all the way up straight then and put one hand on her hip. “I’m a big girl. I think I can make my own decisions about what I want to be involved in, or not.”
Maddox was adamant on this one. “No. Seriously, this is your family and I like to believe they wouldn’t hurt you and I’m guessing you’d like to believe that to. But because I don’t know that for sure, I don’t want you involved. My job here was to find the girl and Louis. That’s done and once I head back home...” The look in her eyes changed then and Maddox closed his for half a second, took a deep breath, and when he opened them he said, “You know I have to go back to California...?”
She stood up and he could see her face change again. She put on a look that said she didn’t care, but there was still something in her eyes that tugged at his heartstrings. “Of course,” she said, tossing all that long, thick, black hair over one shoulder. “I just thought you were going to stay until this was all wrapped up, but I get it. It’s been fun.”
“Carmella...”
“I have to go. I’m glad you’re okay. If you’re ever back this way, look me up.”
“Carmella...” Before he got her full name out of his mouth, she was pulling the door closed behind her. He told himself he didn’t go after her because he was half naked still...but the truth was that he was a big, fat, fucking coward. He wanted her to just know it was over, without having to look into her beautiful eyes and say the words. What a piece of shit he was. He sat there staring at the door for a long time, trying to convince himself that the situation was what it was...and it was also for the best. He’d had a couple of nights with a beautiful woman, now it was time for life to move on, and he was okay with that...or at least he was going to tell himself he was, until he actually believed it.
16
Carmella was raised around big, scary-looking men. Most of them were her family, however. She’d never been allowed to go out to places where the kind of men in the room she was standing in now hung out. Not that she hadn’t rebelled quite often as a teenager...but never to the level that would have taken her inside the walls of an MC clubhouse the likes of this one before. The place itself was foreboding, even if it hadn’t been filled with a dozen or more leather-clad men. The building looked like it tilted to one side and the walls appeared to have been patched with a dozen different kinds of wood, dozens of different times. There was a crooked bar that four large men, who looked like they might not take hygiene too seriously, sat belly-up to, but they twisted their necks around so that as they drank whatever they had in their hands, they could stare at her.
There was a sofa in the corner that looked like it might have come from a thrift store...or even the dump...and then been overused for a few more years. Another man in a Jokers vest sat on that with a skinny girl wearing cutoff jeans and a crop top perched in his lap. If Carmella wasn’t mistaken, one of his big hands was creeping up underneath those short shorts, right there for the whole room to see...but she looked away too quickly to really be sure. There were tables made out of whiskey barrels and surrounded by chrome chairs, strung haphazardly throughout the place as well. She could readily tell they knew nothing about decorating or Feng Shu
i. More big men and some overly made up, and mostly scantily clad women sat at those tables, eating, or drinking...and they all stared at her. The music from the jukebox, and the conversation, had been loud when she’d first walked in, but now as she stood waiting for the young guy who had gone to tell Blackheart she was there to come back, someone could drop a pin and the sound would have echoed off the walls.
She let out a breath that she didn’t even realize she’d been holding when the tall, young, nice-looking guy came out of a room in the back. He didn’t look like a biker. First of all, he looked really clean, and he didn’t have a stitch of hair on his face. His blond hair was kind of mussed, like the Hollywood stars wore theirs, and he had an easy smile...and perfectly straight, white teeth. He also didn’t have a single visible tattoo. His kutte said “Chance” and he smiled at her again when he made his way back over and said, “He said come on back.”
“Thank you,” she said, in a whisper. She hadn’t meant to whisper, but since everyone was still watching her and it was still dead silent, it seemed like the thing to do. She followed Chance and all the eyes in the place followed her until she was led into an office...of sorts...and Chance left her alone with the club president, closing the door behind him as he left. Blackheart stood up and put her somewhat at ease with a smile. He was probably her father’s age, but a really nice-looking man. Of course it was a little disconcerting that there was a seven- or eight-foot gator on the wall behind him, whose glass eyes seemed to be glued to her face, and whose large mouth was curled up in a smile, but she tried to ignore that and keep her eyes on Blackheart’s face.