"Always a fucking pain in the ass," I agreed.
Demon burst through the door and the rest of us followed. I immediately scanned the large bar, taking in the slight chaos that still filled the room.
"Where the fuck is LD?"
The room quieted. Demon's shout drew everyone's attention to where he'd come to a stop.
Bull came out from somewhere in the back. "Gone, Prez. After the shooting died down he took some brothers after them."
"Did you see who the fuck did this?" I snarled.
"It was too dark to see, Brother."
"A fucking drive-by." The man who'd come to stand next to Bull had a patch that revealed that he was the secretary. "They hit fast and didn't hang around for introductions."
"What's the damage?" Demon asked.
Bull motioned to a brother who was sitting at one of the tables with two women fussing over him. It was obvious from the way they were dressed that they were club girls. Taking in the location of the blood on the wounded man, it looked as if he'd taken a hit to the arm and the leg.
"The prospect at the gate took a couple rounds. He heard them coming but didn't realize they meant trouble till shots were fired."
I nodded. "Good thing it was dark, or their aim would have been better."
"And we'd be planning a funeral," Bull said with a twist of disgust on his lips. "Had enough of that shit the last year."
No one said anything in response to that.
"Is Doc on the way?" I questioned, looking around.
"Yeah, I called him as soon as I heard gunfire." The secretary held out his hand. "I'm Blade, Brother." I grasped his hand. "Don't think I've met you before."
"Sax." We shook hands briefly. "I was away until recently." Normally I wouldn't have explained myself to anyone, but I felt it was necessary, considering that he was a brother and a patched officer to LD.
"Anyone else hurt?" Demon's gaze moved about the room, as if looking for the answer for himself.
"No, thank fuck," answered another brother whose name I didn't know.
"Fuck!"
"Oh, stop being a baby," a feminine voice scolded. I glanced to where the girls were trying to staunch the flow of blood running out of the prospect.
"What's your name, kid?"
He glanced up, his eyes wild and glossy from pain. "Morgan."
"Could you make out anything?"
He shook his head, his lips turned down at the corners. "Everything happened too fucking fast. Once they started shooting, I started shooting back and took off for cover. I can't even tell you how many there were, but I do know this—they were fucking bikers. I couldn't see their colors, but I recognized that at least."
I cut my eyes to Demon. "You think some of us should go after LD and the others for backup?"
"Yeah. This could have been a plan to get some of our brothers away from the clubhouse to ambush them."
I headed back toward the door. "Loco, Reid, Colton—you brothers are with me."
I knew that whoever had hit the clubhouse wasn’t heading back to Vegas because we would have met them on the road. We took off in the opposite direction, racing blindly in the night down a road that didn't have street lights, just the occasional reflector.
It wasn't long before we came upon LD and the rest of the brothers, heading back in our direction. We simultaneously slowed down and came to a slow crawl when we met up on the road. The savage look on LD's face revealed his anger and frustration, the brothers riding with him wearing the same tight-jawed expressions. They looked ready and geared up for war.
"Lost the fuckers!" LD shouted over the rumble of our bikes. "Too much of a head start!"
I gave him a chin lift and turned my bike around to head back to his clubhouse. It took us no more than five minutes to get back. "You think it was the Knights?" I asked as we headed inside.
"They're the only ones causing shit right now," LD snarled in a tone that said he thought so.
He nearly tore the door off the hinges when he snatched it open hard enough for it to slam back against the wall. I knew what he was looking for when his head snapped to the side, but Morgan wasn't there. Just some bloody rags.
"The girls are taking care of him in one of the rooms 'til Doc gets here."
I had a call coming in, and when I pulled my phone out, I saw Morty's name flash across the screen. He ran the tattoo shop for us. My first thought was that he must be working late tonight. "Yeah?" The first thing I heard in response was his rapid breathing, and a feeling in my gut told me that I wasn't going to like what he had to say.
"He's dead! He's dead! B-Bikers just sh-shot up the p-place!" He was tripping over his words in an effort to get them out. It was obvious he was scared shitless.
"Fuck! Calm down," I ordered. "Who's dead?" The sudden silence in the room revealed that everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen to my conversation.
"A cu-customer! I'd just finished him." He was breathing as if he'd just run a marathon. "We were at the register when the shooting started. It happened so fast! I heard the bikes but thought they were you guys!"
"Did you see who it was?"
"The Knights!"
"Shit! You sure?"
"Yeah, I saw the back of their cuts. What do I do?"
A civilian had been killed. There was only one thing he could do. "Okay, listen up. Call 911. Don’t tell them or the cops that the shooters were bikers, just tell them it was a drive-by and you didn't see anything. Got it?"
I could hear Morty take a deep breath. "Yeah, okay."
"A couple brothers will be there in a few. Stay put."
I was about to put my phone away when another call came in. "The fuck?" I muttered to myself when I saw that it was Samson. He was the night manager at Grinders. I had a gut feeling we were in for more trouble. "What?"
As I listened to him relay what was going on, I noticed Demon and LD quietly step away from the brothers surrounding them and pulling out their phones, too.
Something was definitely going down.
Jesus Christ, the same fucking thing that had occurred here and at the tattoo shop had happened at Grinders! Bikers had driven by, shooting off their guns into the building. The whole time I listened to Samson explaining what had occurred, my only thought had been on Holly and whether or not she'd been working tonight. No one had been killed, but three people leaving the bar had been wounded in the parking lot. Samson had already called it in.
"Son-of-a-bitch!" LD snarled, when his call was over. "They hit the construction site we've been working."
"That was Trip," Demon began, pocketing his phone. "A couple of their businesses got hit, too." His sharp look encompassed everyone in the room, and I could tell that his mind was spinning.
Everyone looked to him for the answers. He had to be thinking about the brothels we owned and wondering when we'd get word that they'd been hit too. There was also the fact that we’d left our own clubhouse with low coverage.
"Fuck infiltrating the Knights," I snarled. "We need to do something about this shit now. They want war, we give it to them!"
More than one brother made his agreement known.
Demon and I locked eyes. I couldn't tell if he agreed with me or not, but as his VP I knew he'd weigh my words carefully. Maybe I’d overstepped my bounds, but after everything that had gone down tonight, we needed to retaliate sooner rather than later. Show those fuckers we weren't pussies.
"We need to go after those fuckers now!" Cappy, LD's VP, spoke up in a heated tone. He was an older brother, still in good shape, but right now his face was red, and I imagined that his blood pressure had risen, too.
"Agree!" LD said in a guttural tone, his jaw grinding and his eyes glittering with rage.
Demon took in the gazes of all the brothers in the room. He understood what we wanted. None of us wanted to wait to show the Knights that they were fucking with the wrong club. We were ready and eager now as we all stood looking at our president, waiting for his response.
Chapter 11
Holly
I'd wanted a baby so badly that I'd done a terrible thing. I'd stopped taking my birth control the month before Raven, Bobbie, and I had been kidnapped from the salon. I loved Sax more than life itself, but I couldn't give up my dream of having a child. I'd always dreamed of being a mother, and when JoJo and Ellie had their babies I’d allowed the longing to consume me. I'd sacrificed Sax, sacrificed all that we'd had together, for my selfish need to get what I'd wanted. And the worst part of all? I'd convinced myself that in the end he would come around, and if he didn’t, I was prepared to leave the man I loved.
So stupid.
So selfish.
I'd hurt us both with my decision. I was ashamed.
The stark silence in the room was telling. I'd shocked the women of the MC so much that they were speechless, staring at me in stunned disbelief. The only one who wasn’t there was Annabelle. Apparently, she and Jolene's younger brother, Danny, were in a serious relationship and spent all of their free time together. I felt mortified, tears swimming in my eyes after the awful truth I'd just spewed to them. Did they hate me now? I didn't see hate in their eyes, I didn't see condemnation. Maybe disappointment and regret because I'd done the wrong thing, which I had. As each one processed what I'd just confessed, I wiped my cheeks and held back the sobs by clenching my jaw.
I deserved whatever they threw at me.
"I'm a terrible person," I finally said to break the awful silence. I firmly believed that.
"No, no, no!" Jolene admonished sharply, rushing over to sit next to me on the sofa. She put her arm around me. "We've all made mistakes," she said firmly.
"Yeah, honey." Raven joined us on the couch and sat on the other side of me. "We've all done things we're not proud of."
"You can't undo it, but you can move on from it." Bobbie also came over to sit with us. "And you don't get to sit here and make yourself out to be a bad person, honey."
JoJo spoke up, sitting next to Bobbie. "We won't let you."
"So it's possible that Ava could be Sax's?" Annie asked.
I met her eyes where she sat across from me and nodded. "I'm afraid to find out."
"You can't let him think Ava is the result of, um, what those men did to you," Raven said in a firm tone. "Especially if it turns out that he's the father. That's not fair to either of you."
"Is this why you broke it off with Sax?" Bobbie asked with a frown.
I nodded without meeting her eyes. "As soon as I found out I was pregnant I told him we were over." I buried my face in my hands and broke down. "Don't you see? I stopped taking my pills so I would have Sax's baby. If it turns out that Ava is the result of the attack, then it's my fault. He'll never forgive me for that." I paused for a second. "I didn't have the guts to tell Sax when I found out I was pregnant."
"You were scared," JoJo said knowingly.
Among other things, I thought. "The guilt I felt..." I wiped my face and pushed my hair back behind my ears. "I still feel..."
"Honey, you have to come clean and tell Sax. And you have to get Ava tested to see if he's her daddy, and then go from there. Once that is done, you'll feel better."
I'd never feel better. I stared at Bobbie as if she were crazy. "I'll lose him forever!" I whisper yelled. "Either way, he'll never forgive me!" I firmly believed that. Trust was a big thing.
"Honey—" She took my hand. "Will it be any different than now? At least Sax will know the truth about why you broke it off with him. He'll know that it wasn't because you stopped loving him. Will he be angry? Most definitely. You know our men. But maybe once he processes it he'll surprise you."
I snorted. "You don't believe that any more than I do," I told her. "I do know our men. Trustworthiness is important to them. He'll never forgive me for this, especially if Ava isn't his. If I hadn't stopped taking my pills..."
"Oh, God, honey, you're being too hard on yourself." Raven grasped my other hand, drawing my eyes to her. "You didn't stop taking your pills to trap Sax."
No, but I did stop taking them to get pregnant, knowing that he didn't want children. That was worse.
Annie laughed softly. "You already have the man."
Had the man, I tought to myself, but I didn't correct her.
"Can I ask you something, honey?"
I nodded at JoJo's question, and waited.
"Did you ever find out why Sax feels so strongly about not having children?"
I shook my head sadly. "No. He won't talk about it, except to say he doesn't want to raise a child in the MC."
"Could it be that simple?" Raven murmured.
No one had a response to that, but I got the feeling that they didn't believe his reasons any more than I did. Our men were hard-core in a lot of ways, and they may have fought tooth and nail to convince their brothers that they didn't need a good woman by their sides, but when it happened they were all in. That included the babies that followed. Maybe that's what I'd been looking for with Sax.
"Thank you all for not hating me." I felt another bout of tears coming on, but managed to hold them off. I loved these ladies.
"We're here as your friends, not to judge you or your actions. We may not agree with what you did, but speaking for myself, I can certainly understand it. I know what it's like to want something so badly that you'd do just about anything to get it."
I was glad to hear something from Ellie. Up until that point she'd been silent. "I have to admit I feel better now that I've told all of you."
"Talking about shit does help," Jolene smiled.
"Sax has demanded a DNA test..."
"Well then he must already have suspicions that Ava could be his."
Bobbie and Annie nodded in agreement with Raven's comment.
"No matter what happens after you tell Sax, no matter how the DNA results turn out, we're here for you. We'll help you get through it. Nothing will change the fact that you have a beautiful baby girl. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to find our own happiness."
I wondered if Ellie was speaking from experience. I gave her an appreciative smile. Her words meant a lot to me. "I don't know what I'd do without you guys." I meant it. "Your friendship and support means a lot to me." I wiped the remaining wetness from my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Oh, oh! I think I hear the thunder of motorcycles coming." The softness that came across Jolene's face and the look of happiness in her eyes revealed her excitement at the prospect of seeing LD.
I could hear it, too, and with every second that passed the rumbling grew louder. It was clear that there was more than one bike headed our way, and since we were at Jolene and LD's house it was a given that LD would be part of it. Anxiousness churned in my belly at the possibility that Sax was with them. I wasn't ready to face him after what I'd just divulged to the girls. I still felt guilt and shame over my actions, and I wondered if he'd see it on my face. He knew me, probably better than anyone else did.
My anxiety dropped several notches when none of the three men who entered the house was Sax.
Jolene rose to her feet upon seeing the state that LD was in. "Baby, what happened?"
Cole and Reid seemed to have the same hard looks on their faces, as they were also joined by their old ladies, Raven and Ellie. I sensed something bad was going on as I watched how the couples interacted with each other. It was clear that the girls knew instinctively that something was very wrong.
"Trouble." LD's one-word comment was brash and hard.
"Where's Izzy?" Reid wanted to know, his face shadowed with deep concern.
Ellie's expression quickly fell into a look of fear for the well-being of their daughter. "At the clubhouse. All the children are. Lulu is watching them." Reid's look relaxed slightly.
"Going on lockdown, Babe," Cole mumbled down at Raven.
"Both clubhouses?" Bobbie's brow furrowed as she rose to her feet.
LD nodded. "Yup. We need to get our families there."
"What's going on?"
LD stared silently down at Jolene, tightening his mouth.
"I know—club business." She reached up to give his chin a kiss.
"I need to get Ava." I knew that she was safe at the clubhouse, but I wanted to see her and hold her.
"You're going on lockdown, too, honey."
I looked at Cole. "But she's at Demon's clubhouse." There was no way that I was leaving my daughter there while I went to LD's clubhouse, and I was pretty sure that no one in the room expected that I would, either. I was in LD's territory when it came to lockdown.
"Doesn't matter what clubhouse you go to," Cole explained.
"We need to get a move on," LD snapped impatiently.
The man was scary when he was in full-on alpha mode. His size alone was enough to give someone nightmares if they didn't know him. He had his arm wrapped around Jolene and was holding her protectively against his body. They were a good fit—Jolene was tall and built like an Amazon goddess. She was beautiful, inside and out.
Cole and Reid were holding their women just as tightly. I missed the connection of having a man who looked out for me, one who would give up his life for me if it came down to it. I'd had that once with Sax.
I got to my feet, as did Bobbie, Annie, and JoJo.
"What about Annabelle and Danny?" Jolene questioned in her soft, Southern accent. "They went to some park today."
"Already got a handle on it, Babe. They'll be waiting for you at the clubhouse." LD's answer seemed to satisfy her. "Let's head out."
I knew one thing—I didn't have a room at either clubhouse, which also meant that I didn't have any clothes or toiletries. Not to mention that I had nothing for Ava. The other women would be able to go straight to the clubhouse, but I needed to get supplies. There was no telling how long we would be locked up. "I need to make a run to my house to pick up some things for me and Ava first."
"Figured that," Cole grinned. "Spider, the prospect outside will go with you, but make it quick, okay?"
I nodded, thankful that I had my own car. Lulu had come by earlier and picked up Ava so that I wouldn't have to make the trip to Demon's clubhouse twice. The others had come together in one of the club's large SUVs, having left their vehicles at the clubhouse. I exchanged looks with the girls, their concern evident on their faces.
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