by Franca Storm
She smiled in that sweet way that did things to me. Reaching out, she took my hands. “Thank you for saying all of that. You know, you’re the first person who’s ever put me above their own self-interests and wants?” She squeezed my hands. “Sky’s offer is to overhaul the security at every one of her holdings. It’ll be a two-year contract, just to set it all up, and then a regular maintenance arrangement after that. I’d start off at that infamous nightclub of hers, Excite, then go from there. My home base would be here, Damien.”
“Here?”
She nodded, then went on, “Not only are two of the burlesque clubs going to be in and around Ridgefield, but her holdings are within a reasonable driving distance of the town.” Her smile widened. “I’m not leaving you.” Her face fell, though, as she grunted, “Not for long anyway.” She kissed my hands, then pulled back. “You know I have to go back home. So, I’ll go under lockdown like they want and once Haywire is dealt with, I’ll come right back here and get started with Sky. She knows the situation. Being involved with a MC member and doing repeat business with you guys too really helped out there. An outsider wouldn’t have understood.”
I couldn’t help grinning at her news.
She giggled. “You need to relax more, baby. You’re working yourself up for nothing.”
“Fucking Giggles.” I wrapped my arms around her. “I love you so goddamn much.”
“You… what did you just say?”
I grinned. “Is that gonna be a problem for you? Me loving you?”
She squeezed me tightly to her. I could hear her choking up a bit as she breathed against me, “No. No problem.”
“Good,” I said, stroking her hair.
“I love you too, Damien.”
Well, shit. Hearing those words from her was something else.
Hell, it was everything.
I held her tighter to me, not wanting any space between us.
I didn’t want to let her go.
I wouldn’t.
Not even for those few weeks back at the Lone Outlaws MC compound.
And now I knew what I had to do to stop it.
It was risky.
But she was worth all of that and more.
15
~Anarchy~
TWO HOURS.
Two fucking hours I’d been sitting literally twiddling my thumbs in the rear booth in this hole-in-the-wall diner in the middle of nowhere.
I glanced down at the phone in front of me and cringed.
Hayley’s phone.
Fuck.
A shitload of people weren’t gonna be happy about this.
I’d lifted her phone just before I’d dropped her off at the Iron Kings clubhouse last night. Thinking about her freaking out and searching frantically for it when she realized it was gone at some point in the last few hours didn’t sit well with me. Nor did the fact that I was doing this without club permission, behind everybody’s back.
But using the cautious, recon-only approach that both Spartan and Python were adhering to was taking way too long. And I didn’t have long. I had one day before I had to take Hayley back to her hometown where she’d be put under strict lockdown for hell knew how long.
Nah, it wasn’t happening.
She wasn’t gonna be locked up like that.
She wasn’t gonna have her life put on pause like that.
She wasn’t gonna be controlled like that.
She’d be free, move forward with her career via that great opportunity Sky had offered her. We’d move forward together, stay together.
Once this shit was taken care of, I was going to tell Python about us. I’d face the music, deal with the fallout, then we could be free of all the bullshit hanging over our heads and stifling us. No more hiding in the shadows and sneaking around. I’d finally be able to celebrate the best thing that had ever happened to me with all my closest brothers, my family. I’d finally be able to do normal couple stuff with her, like hold her hand in public, kiss her, take her out and all that.
I just had to make sure I dealt with this immediate situation very carefully.
If I fucked-up and made it worse, Hayley would be put in even more danger and I was pretty sure the club would kick my ass to the curb.
Jesus Christ. How had it come to this?
I scrubbed my hand over my face, reprimanding myself inwardly as I read through the texts I’d sent in Hayley’s name to that shithead, Haywire.
Hayley: Are you okay?
Haywire: Getting there, princess.
Hayley: I miss you at the club. Can you fix what happened? I’m sure my dad will hear you out if you give him some kind of reassurance that you just made a mistake.
Haywire: It’s said and done. I’m sorry.
Hayley: Will I ever see you again?
Haywire: Wanna meet for coffee?
Hayley: I think I can sneak out, yeah.
Haywire: You gotta come alone. The club ain’t happy with me right now. Don’t want them coming down on me, you know.
Hayley: I understand. Where and when?
Haywire: Tomorrow around 10am. Small diner way outta the way of everybody. I’ll send you directions.
Hayley: See you then.
Haywire: Can’t wait, princess.
I’d played heavily on the friendship she’d had with him before he’d gone rogue. I’d gotten the strong impression from talk around the Lone Outlaws clubhouse that he’d treated her like a little sister, having run protection on her when she’d been in high school. Outside of Grim, he’d been the main bodyguard. It was real fucking sad and no small amount of messed-up that he’d now become the guy threatening her very life.
I’d known he was twisted with the bullshit he’d pulled on Sky and Deviant. And this was right along those fucked-up lines. He was willing to use Hayley to get his foot in the door with another club, willing to let her damn well die for it.
It was sickening.
He was twisted beyond repair.
And there was only one way to handle somebody that far gone.
End them.
I might’ve had a reputation as an adrenaline-junkie and the guy who found trouble even in the most unlikely of places, but I’d never been known as an emotional guy. I didn’t have a temper on me. I could keep all my emotions in check with the best of them. Hell, I was pretty damn close to Spartan’s level of insane control when it came to that. It’d been a major asset doing the work that I did for the club as an enforcer. I never let things get personal, I kept up a levelheaded state, no matter what. A lot of that ability had come from me basically walking around in a numbed state for so long, a side-effect from the brutal abandonment I’d experienced as a teen. I’d had to shut down, not only to survive, but to prevent anyone from ever getting close enough to me again to be able to hurt me like that, to break me like that.
But all of it had gone to hell when I’d met Hayley Calloway.
She’d lived a closed-off existence similar to mine. She’d spent so much of her life acting, being what everybody else expected her to be. The dutiful daughter. The ballsy, unaffected club princess. The good little girl. The docile woman kept in the corner.
In truth, she was none of those things.
She was so much more.
A ball of fire. Independent. Ambitious. A real go-getter. Sweet. Loving. Caring. Shy. Hilarious. Passionate. Damn, she was the whole package.
Without her, life just didn’t seem real. It wasn’t whole without her in it.
I wouldn’t let anyone come between what we had. I wouldn’t let them take away the light that she was. Now the sun had finally come up, there was no way either of us were going to sink back into the dark.
The roar of a bike snapped my focus back to the immediate.
I jerked my head at the window to see somebody pulling into the lot, riding a silver Suzuki. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I caught sight of his cut.
Was the guy literally insane? He was still wearing the cut of the Lone Outlaws MC, a club he�
�d been kicked out of in disgrace, a club he was now threatening? How he’d managed to walk with it, I had no fucking clue. He had a death wish, that was obvious. He’d been lucky enough Python had let him leave free, that he was more lenient now and not so up for putting anybody that even slightly crossed him to ground. I figured Haywire hadn’t had his club tat removed either. It would’ve been ordered by Python, probably giving him a couple of weeks to get it done.
Maybe he was wearing his cut for Hayley’s benefit, to lull her into a false sense of security by playing up his former role with her dad’s club, to show her there were no hard feelings. It was all bull. But he’d probably figured she’d been kept in the dark as usual. I’d had no idea what Python had told her when he’d ordered her back home, but I’d made sure I’d told her the whole truth. Not knowing the dangers around her was detrimental to her safety. She had to be aware. The whole situation with Wraith and Ashley had taught me that much. It’d saved everybody’s asses by making her aware of the threat back then.
I watched Eddie “Haywire” Griffith pull off his helmet, his straggly, long bleached blond hair right out of an 80’s hairband flying about against the harsh wind. The place was smack damn in the middle of a wind tunnel. His eyes were a real dark brown and void of emotion. It looked like there was nothing there at all, nothing inside. It was fucking creepy. He was a big guy, tall and wide. He was more bulk than toned muscle, though, with a surefire beer gut going on. He was decked out head-to-toe in gray leather.
I watched him come to a sudden stop when he caught sight of my bike parked over on the other side of the lot. It wasn’t that hard to spot, given that there were only two other vehicles there—cages belonging to the waitress and the couple that’d been making out in the opposite corner of the diner since I’d shown up here two hours ago. They had to be going for some kind of record.
He scanned the diner through the massive windows and laid eyes on me.
I took in his reaction out of the corner of my eye, not making direct eye contact. That would be a challenge to him and I was going for non-threatening and casual right now.
I wasn’t wearing my cut. That would’ve been a mistake on two fronts. First, he would’ve ridden out of here like a bat out of hell before I’d had a chance to sort this shit with him. Second, this wasn’t sanctioned by the club, so I couldn’t be seen as an Iron Kings member right now. If things went south, I didn’t want it coming back on them in any publicly identifiable way.
I was just lucky that he’d never laid eyes on me, not even when we’d been in the same location at the Reilly garden party a little ways back when I’d been helping out Deviant. We’d never actually come into direct contact.
Seemingly satisfied that the coast was clear, Haywire started up again and made his way into the diner, the bell above the door ringing like a foghorn through the all-too-silent establishment.
He walked right up to me and I forced a casual glance.
I saw him searching, scanning me, trying to figure me out.
“Sweet bike you got out there,” he spoke.
I leaned back in my seat and rested my right arm across the top of the booth, faking a relaxed state. Really, my whole body was tensed and on high alert.
“Yeah,” I responded, coolly.
“You run with a club?”
“Nah, I’m just a rider, man. Love my bike and the open road.” I gestured at his cut. “Looks like you do, though, yeah?”
Pride flashed in his eyes. “I’ll always be a club guy.”
Damn. He was messed-up, not just a loose cannon who’d made a big mistake, which was the way the Outlaws had been acting. That was the kind of thing that could happen in a MC with the extent of the loyalty you had to your brothers. Even when they stepped over the line, you didn’t want to write them off. It was the bad side of that. And we were all paying for it now.
“What brings you all the way out to the middle of nowhere?” I asked.
A disturbing smile spread across his face, as he said, “Looking for my meal ticket.” He glanced around the diner. “She ain’t here, though. Supposed to be.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking distressed. “Fuck.”
“Tell me about her. I’ve been chilling here for a good while. I might’ve seen her come in.”
He started describing Hayley in great detail. Too much fucking detail. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to react and lunge across the table at him.
“You seen her then?” he pressed, when I didn’t respond.
“Nah, sorry.”
He grunted. “Damn bitches. Some of them just can’t follow simple instructions. Then they get upset when they get punished for it.”
Motherfucker!
I gripped the edge of the table so ferociously that I could feel the rough wood burning my fingers red raw. I’d never experienced this level of anger before. I could hardly see straight. Everything in my body was pushing me to dive across the table and rip the fucker’s head off.
But I couldn’t.
Not out in the open.
“Son of a bitch,” he said, continuing to mutter to himself as he spun around and headed for the exit.
I followed him, telling him, “There’s another diner a few miles down the road. Maybe she got confused.”
He frowned over his shoulder at me. “Another? Really? I didn’t see nothing else.”
“It’s hard to spot. A hidden gem.”
“Huh,” he said, as he pushed through the exit and held the door open for me.
“Here,” I said, once we got outside. I pointed to the rear of the diner where they kept their trash cans. It was a quiet area, nobody and nothing around. “You can see that other diner from here.”
I heard his footsteps crunching on the asphalt behind me.
I turned the corner, then waited.
“Where? Show me,” he demanded.
The second he rounded the corner, I grabbed his shoulders, used his hefty weight against him, and tossed him into the wall.
“What the fuck?” he cried, as his back jarred against it and he fumbled to keep his balance.
“You piece of shit!” I thundered, smashing my fist into his face, then following through with a brutally hard kick of my motorcycle boot into his gut.
He spluttered and doubled over. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m the guy standing between you and your meal ticket, fucker.”
His eyes widened, panic sparking.
It was gone all too soon though, as he recovered himself and shifted his weight into a classic boxer’s stance, holding his fists at the ready. “Iron Kings,” he surmised. “You gotta be. Heard old Prez was making a stupid-ass alliance with you shits. That’s why my eyes and ears ain’t picked her up nowhere near Outlaws land. She’s on yours.”
Fuck. He’d put too much together. Worst of all, he’d guessed Hayley’s location.
He smirked at the look on my face. “Yeah, bad move you made here. Trying to play the hero don’t always work out too well. I tell you, Hounds of Fury are gonna be real grateful to me for this intel. Turns out I ain’t gonna be needing the princess after all. Just the lead. They like doing their own dirty work anyhow.”
A snarl tore from me.
Rage exploded out of me.
Just the idea of her being in danger was too much.
I lost my shit and ran at him.
I tore into him with everything I had. Every ounce of power, bringing the speed and skill, bringing my goddamn best to the table.
There was just rage and determination.
I had to stop him.
Scaring him off wasn’t gonna be enough.
Putting him in the ICU wasn’t gonna be enough.
To protect my girl, he had to be stone-cold, fucking well buried.
He was bigger than me, but way too slow. It was clear he was untrained too and had probably just relied on his size and intimidation factor, because he couldn’t defend himself for shit. He couldn’t block a single hit from me. An
d he was too slow to get any of his own past me.
I had him on his knees before long.
I took in the state of him.
It was a fucking mess, enough to shock me back a step. Blood everywhere. His face barely recognizable from my brutal attack.
I tried to push past it and I managed to finger the butt of my gun holstered at my hip.
And then he looked at me, fear in his pleading eyes cutting through my rage.
Do it! Come on! Fucking well do it! You have no choice!
I shifted my weight and pulled my gun.
I had to.
I had to end him to protect Hayley. To protect the club.
I’d hurt people before to protect the club. But I’d never killed. I’d never ripped somebody’s life away.
I flipped off the safety.
Haywire pulled his own gun, cocked it, and moved to take aim.
A shot rang out, shocking the shit out of me.
It blew a chunk of his skull away, killing him instantly.
His body fell forward, collapsing face-first onto the dirtied ground.
What the hell?
I glanced down at my piece. Had I—had I fired without realizing? How?
Footsteps sounded behind me.
I spun around and choked out a gasp as I saw Wraith striding toward me. He was holstering his gun as he made his way over. “You? It was you?”
He nodded absently, then pulled out his cell. He was barking into it in the next second, “Target neutralized.” He listened for a few moments, then spoke again, “Roger that.” He hung up then and grasped my arm, drawing me away from Haywire’s dead body.
“How did you—what are you doing here?” I asked. “Who was that on the phone?”
The screeching of tires burning rubber interrupted my questioning and I looked to see an unmarked van speeding into the area.
Wraith gestured at the guy getting out. “The guy on the phone.”
“Jesse.” I frowned. “He’s in training with Spartan right now. How’s he out in the field?”
“Let’s just say that I know my way around Scott and leave it at that. This is between the three of us. Clear?”
“Crystal,” I responded automatically. I was in enough shit and adding Spartan to that would be a fucking nightmare. I was sure he’d find out eventually, but I’d take the calm before the storm for as long as it could possibly last.