Blackjack

by Elizabeth Knox

  “God help your damned self.” Cracker exhales hard. “To think you would bring her into this. Have you lost your fucking mind!”

  “Don’t look at me, old dog.” Grizzly holds his hands up, a laugh cracking from his foul chest. “I hadn’t a single clue what our boy had in mind when he told us he’d be showing up late to his own party.”

  “That’s horse shit!” Kade shouts from behind.

  “Doesn’t matter if it’s horse shit or bullshit, m’boy.” The Bears’ Prez scoffs.

  “You’ll lose everything tonight” Fist snaps, “We may match each other in numbers, but you know my men are better with guns then your little shits. We hunt, and it seems that bear is on the agenda tonight”

  “Look at you Lloyd, making threats when we have your lovely lil’ girl.” Grizzly gestures to Ashley with a knowing leer. “It’s up to you. Your daughter or war?”

  “Oh, fuck you!” Ashley spat at Harry’s feet only to send Grizzly a poisonous glare, “You honestly think you’re going to get away with this when you can’t even get dumbasses like him to get a job done in the first place?”

  “You bitch…” Her captor hisses through clenched teeth. Harry’s expression spoiled into rage when he heard her mention him. His fingers released her hair for a moment before he struck her hard in the face till she collapsed to the floor. At the sudden hit, Fist started to move forward, and I spotted Grizzly reaching behind him. He had a gun this entire fucking time.

  He was a sly fucking snake, that’s for sure. However, this could be the advantage that we’d been waiting for. I needed to be smart….acting too quickly would only hurt my girl. No, we needed to strike at the right time and at the same moment.

  Harry retreats a couple of steps, shaking his hand after hurting her. He wouldn’t have a hand left after I was done with him. I watched him carefully, every breath in my lungs growing still for a moment as he looks to his wounds and back to Ashley.

  “You see what you do to me, you fucking cunt!” His voice grows loud as he hisses at the swollen state of his wrist. “You leave me and go out spreading your legs like a fucking minx… making me drag you back to where you belong! Was it your fucking brothers?!”

  “Keep your mouth shut before I cut out your tongue and feed it to the dogs, boy.” Fist growls lowly.

  “Harry bites back, Lloyd.” Grizzly warns.

  “This is fucking ridiculous.” Zane whispers, shocked at what was unearthing before him. “This piece of shit has lost it.”

  Harry didn’t look like he heard a word of what was being said between both of our Prez’s as he dropped his wrist to give Ashley a good look. He lowered his arm down and takes Ashley by the shirt, dragging her up to his face as his lips drew into a thin line. “You tell me who the hell he is.” He demands in a hiss as he curls his hand back up to her neck, “Or so help me––”

  Everyone’s breath stopped the second he drew out a gun from behind him and poised it to Ashley’s temple hard. The click was initiated, and I automatically felt myself lose it in that moment. Ashley’s breath picked up quickly and I could feel her adrenaline rise with the panic. Only, it wasn’t panic that made her breathing rush through her lungs.

  It was a choked resemblance of a laugh as she leaned her head forward into her ex-husband’s gun, almost like a dare. She looks up at him now, blue eyes cut like the coldest steel I’d ever seen.

  “Do you think I’m stupid, Harry?” Her smile measures up to her lips, almost sad. “You don’t search every house on my Dad’s properties for your ex-wife unless you think you lost her to another man––and yeah, you did.”

  “Shut the hell up!” He nearly launches forward, repositioning the gun to the back of her head as he takes her hair again. “You don’t know shit!”

  Ashley’s face twists in pain but she continues despite it. “Are you really going to kill me because you can’t admit to yourself that I had the best passionate sex with someone who wasn’t balls deep in a whore or a 4-inch beer bottle for crying out––”

  “YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH.” He roars, the weight of his voice echoing through the entire warehouse. None of us moved or even dared to say anything as she continued.

  She shakes her head, her tears already dried by now. When she looked up at me, I could feel her eyes grow urgent. They moved from me to Grizzly and it was then that I knew what she was going to do.

  Monroe, that’s too risky. I furrowed my brows as my thoughts rejected the idea. There wasn’t an ounce of her that was scared to take the opportunity.

  “Oh, Harry..” She exhales at last, “I’ll tell you who he is…”

  Harry’s lips pursed, but he waited for her answer. It was then that her eyes raised up to Grizzly and my stomach sank.

  “Only if your Prez hears it from me first.” Her voice falls heavy.

  Grizzly and Harry both look up to each other. Harry looks down to his ex-wife and takes a second to contemplate her request. She knew that he wasn’t in any position to say no unless he wanted to look like an idiot and undermine his Prez, Ash was always smart like that. It may have been smart but it didn’t leave me any time to think as to what would unravel before me. As Harry’s eyes paced back and forth between Ashley and the floor below them, time was ticking in the barrel of every man’s gun.

  “You know what…” Harry scoffs at last, “Have at her.”

  He pushes her forward in Grizzly’s direction before standing up to walk off into a corner distance. As Ashley brings herself back to her knees to rise, the Bear Prez himself walks in her direction and I could hear Fist’s breathing grow rapid. When he finally stoops down to the floor, Ashley leans forward to his ear in a low whisper.

  The room goes silent as we wait. No one speaks on either side. I tried to read her lips while a part of me was urging her not to do anything stupid.

  The Prez was just about to lean up until Ashley’s hand reaches up to his shoulder, urging him back down. Her voice grows louder with urgency and all of us could see the shocked expressions coming from both, though none of us understood what was shared between the two.

  As the Prez’s hand drops to the floor, Ashley looks down for a brief moment and cuts off her speech the second her hand comes up to his throat. What happened next made every man put his gun up to the scene the second they saw blood.

  “YOU BITCH!” Harry’s voice bellows in the distance.

  None of us saw it coming when she bit down on his ear and ripped it off like a vicious animal. Both the Bears and the Reapers pulled out their guns, trained on one another. Booger, being the trigger-happy bastard he is. started shooting up every Bear within site and soon, chaos had ensured. Bears and Reapers were fighting amongst each other, but I only had one concern. Monroe. As I ran to her, I noticed Harry’s dragging figure coming up just behind her with a gun low to his legs.

  Harry grabs her shoulder and my stomach clenches at the sight of his face. My feet ran harder than ever before as I pushed away every fucker that so much as got in my way. Harry tears Ashley away from his Prez before forcing her on her back with his pistol cocked to her forehead.

  “Blackjack…” She mouths in the stark distance.

  In that split second, I pulled out my gun and fired at the abusive bastard. Harry screamed harder than a bullet against steel.

  It was then that he looked up at me with bulging eyes, shaking in his own skin. “You…” He grits his teeth.

  “Let her go, Harry.” I demand, drawing myself from the floor without my eyes leaving him. “It’s over–––look around you!”

  He blinks fast, taking in the sight behind me without a word to deliver. “We’ve got the upper hand here! Your men are running out of this warehouse as we speak!”

  “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” He repeats, scrambling to his pants before pulls out a knife to Ashley’s throat, “Take one more step and I slit her fucking throat!”

  I stopped, not daring to move. I believed he was insane enough to do it. He’d lost everything in the last ten minut
es, and when people have lost everything – they become unpredictable.

  “You don’t want to do that, man.” I insist.

  “Listen to him, Harry.” Ashley urges weakly.

  “SHUT THE HELL UP.” He seethes before stopping in his words all too suddenly. “Oh, my fucking God… it’s him isn’t it.”

  I watched him carefully, unwilling to respond till I knew he would calm down. As the realization strikes him, his eyes swell up in anger.

  “I’ve seen you before! You’re HIM aren’t you!”

  “Harry, please.” Ashley whispers and closes her eyes.

  “You’re FUCKING him?” His voice turns raw with an ugly tone. Shaking his head, he gives it all up in that moment. “You bitch… thinking you could get away with that…”

  The air turned dangerous as he started to push the knife down to her throat. I pulled my gun up, my pulse practically running up to the peaks of my fingers. As Ashley let out a sharp cry, two shots rang out in the moment and the man before her was painted in red.

  Fist’s bullet reached Harry’s head before I could so much as aim for the man’s face. Ashley laid there with her chest rising and falling hard. Harry’s last exhale fell with no words against her before he sank to the floor.

  I stood there in brief horror of what just happened, the deafening glaze of the bullet still kicking my eardrum into deafness. With his blood caked on her neck, Ashley pulled herself out from under him and kicked him away in a cry of horror. I raced down to her and dropped my gun to take her in my arms before I could so much as see her tears. Her arms reached out to me like nothing else mattered in her life and I could only let her voice replace the silence of the violence before us. Her breaths came out heavy, I tried everything to coax her to settle down. I needed her to, for both her and our baby.

  Fist’s footsteps were just behind me, more ominous of him than I’d ever felt before. As his boots stop an inch away from my back, he put his hand down on my shoulder and grants the only words I felt were necessary in the aftermath.

  “Take her home, Rob. Take her away from this shit show”

  Epilogue

  Ashley

  1 year later….

  Blackjack took me straight away from that shit show. He took me away, into the comfort of our own home. When Harry had ripped me from my house he broke almost everything in sight, it took a long time for me to be okay – to not be worried, to just…. forget about everything that had happened that day.

  I stuck to myself for a long time after that. I wouldn’t have called it depression, or even anxiety, but I knew I needed time to truly process everything that I had been through over the last year.

  I lost my child because the man I had loved didn’t want it, I was almost used as a pawn in a fucked up game because he was determined to please his Prez and in doing that, he could have taken everything that I held close to my heart. I came back home, broken and bruised – thinking that I’d never be myself ever again. The boys at the club brought me back to life, specifically Blackjack and my Dad.

  If it wasn’t for them, I feel like I would still be the same shell of a woman that came home over a year ago. I was able to flourish. I suppose I should thank Blackjack for most of that. With his unconditional love and support, he was able to bring me back. If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d be sitting here in my living room, rocking our baby girl Noelle in a chair overlooking the lake I’d told you that you lost your damn mind. Yet here we are.

  She’s the perfect mix of both of us, my light blonde hair, Blackjack’s dark eyes, and she even has the same freckles on her nose that Dex has, a trait that must’ve been passed down by their father. I never thought about motherhood being like this, sure I thought that it would be amazing, but I truly didn’t know how amazing that it would be. Granted, Rob and I were blessed with the best little girl ever. She sleeps through the night, hardly cries and smiles all the time. It’s as if she makes up for every horrible thing that we’ve endured over the last year.

  I’m torn from my thoughts when I hear the front door to the house whip open and close with a bang. I turn around quickly, ready to berate whoever the fuck just came through my door and could wake the sleeping bundle of joy in my arms. When I turn, I’m met with my brothers, Dad and Blackjack in tow right behind them.

  As usual, they all stop dead in their tracks to take off their boots. This is my house, and I do run a tight ship. There isn’t going to be dirt dragged through my entire place. Blackjack tears his boots off and rushes over to me and Noelle, he brushes his lips across my forehead and scoops her up into his arms. “How’s my favorite girl?” He coo’s.

  “I’m fine. Thanks for asking” I scoff with a smirk.

  He chuckles softly, leaning down to give me a lingering kiss on the lips. “My woman” He declares.

  “Mhm”

  “Would ya both stop that shit and give me my grand baby?” My Dad grumbles. I swear, ever since Noelle’s been born he hasn’t stayed away. He’s over at our house for breakfast and dinner, plus the weekends too. Blackjack hands Noelle over to my Dad, his smile lighting up like it was Christmas morning.

  “So, are any of you going to tell me why you barged into this house and almost woke up my sleeping little girl that I just got back down to sleep?” I look to Zane and Kade first, who look to Blackjack, who then looks to my father.

  I know this look.

  “What is it?” I demand, wanting to know exactly is going through his mind.

  “We’ve got some news sweetheart.” Any time my father had news, it wasn’t good. I’d learned that from a very young age and since then, not much has changed. He still has the same way of making me nervous as all hell before he says a word.

  “Okay, so tell me”

  “It’s Kathryn.” Kat. I blink quickly, looking to the twins to find out if this is really the truth, they both nod and I’m overwhelmed with fear – I know what’s coming. They’ve finally found a body after all these years. “She’s alive.”

  “Wait……wh-what did you j-just say?” I ask, my lip trembling.

  Kat is my cousin. My Uncle Tex and Aunt Roxy’s lil’ girl. She’s my age, just a few weeks younger. When we were thirteen we went into Billings to go to the movies, it was the first time that we went by ourselves and we were absolutely thrilled. I couldn’t tell anyone how excited we were because it was our first taste of independence. We were thirteen going on thirty, so to speak.

  Long story short, one of us didn’t come home that day.

  Obviously, I was the one who came home.

  “Kathryn is alive baby girl. We know where she is and we’re gonna figure out a way to get her back, okay?”

  Kathryn, my cousin and my best friend. A girl who had been missing for years, a girl that we couldn’t find no matter how much we cowered the ends of the earth, and suddenly – we found her.

  “Where is she? I just….after all this time it’s hard to believe that you just magically found her. How do we even know it’s her? How?!” I ask, tears welling behind my eyes. I want my baby girl back so I can rock her, but I’d only be using the movement to soothe myself and not my little one.

  “You don’t want to know” Blackjack interjects.

  The twins stare at me, both of their faces filled with concern, and a dash of anger. “Where the F is my cousin?” I snap, keeping my voice low so I don’t startle Noelle into a crying fit.

  “Rage has her.” My father says lowly, “He’s had her this entire fucking time.”

  Rage.

  He’s the type of man that your mothers warn you about, the man who will take advantage and cripple you. He did exactly that to my aunt. She and I are the same in a lot of ways. We both left abusive marriages and moved on to something better. She married my uncle Tex and I married Blackjack. I shut my eyes for a moment, when I open them my father is staring out of my window, looking down to the lake.

  “We’re going to get her back. Whatever it takes.” He declares.

  “Wha
tever it takes” I agree, taking a few steps towards the window. As I overlook the crystal waters an idea hits me in the face. “Dad?”

  “Yeah sweetheart?”

  “Where’s Damon?” I ask, turning back towards them. I look to him and then to the twins who both have a knowing smirk.

  “Around” He mutters.

  “Good, cause Damon is gonna help us get Kat back.”

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  Chapter 1

  Elena

  “Are you sure you want to do this? You haven’t been in the field in six years. I’m not just your handler; I’m your best friend. I’m worried about you.” Kristie was my best friend; we had met at Quantico and went through the same training program. It was a pleasant surprise when we both were assigned to the Cincinnati field office. Kristie loved being a handler, but I didn’t. I took the job when things with Rich got serious because he expressed how worried he was for me if I was on the field. So, I made that sacrifice, for our relationship; I stopped doing what I loved and became a desk jockey.

  I loved being in the field, the rush, the thrill of it. The adrenaline pumping through my veins gave me the best feeling in the world. I felt invincible, and I was. I was until I got shot in the shoulder. The docs said I would never be able to return to field duty, but I never was one who liked to be told what was or wasn’t going to happen. So, what did I do? I proved all the docs wrong and came back stronger than ever.

  “Kristie, I need this. I gave up so much of myself for Rich, and then that bastard lied and cheated, throwing everything I did for him in the trash. I need to go back to being Elena, the kick ass field agent. I need to take down some bad guys. I need to feel like myself again.” It was the absolute truth. I was beginning to realize that over the past five years I had felt like a robot. Like I had only been here to please Rich, not to do anything for myself, but everything for him.