by Jayne Blue
“I need you guys, they took her.”
“What?”
“She was kidnapped by the Hawks. They found us, and they took her, and, well… there’s more, but we have to hurry.”
“I’ll get Sawyer and the crew in here fast.”
It was fast. It was what I’d come to rely on, and it was my club, coming around me, even though I’d left them for Daniella.
I’d expected there’d be some blowback, anger, mistrust, but Sawyer and Steel brought me back in like I’d never left.
“You say she was taken?” Sawyer said.
“Yes, after I’d killed one of them,” I confessed it to a small group, only Steel, Ryder, Ridge, and Sawyer.
“Shit,” Sawyer said, and he was right. It was a world of shit now.
“Who saw you?” Sawyer asked me.
“No one, no one but Daniella.”
“And they’ve got her now,” Steel added with a look of worry. Ridge shook his head. They’d be ready to charge into the Hawks M.C. with me and take her back if I said go.
But Sawyer had a calmer plan in mind. He wanted to work it out between our clubs.
“We’ll set up a meeting. You two, get him up to speed. I’ll call and set this up for tomorrow.”
The four of us sat in the clubhouse. This was my home; this was my sanctuary. These were the people I trusted, the people I’d missed. And the people I’d given up for Daniella. I didn’t have a reason to think they’d help me get her back, I’d chosen her over this life. But they didn’t blink when I came back with a truck full of crisis and laid it in their laps.
“I know what this is man, you know I know. Jules’ dad was the ultimate evil asshole,” Ryder said. Jules had run from her father, from the Hawks, and he’d been willing to do anything to help her. I’d sort of forgotten all that during my own fucking drama.
“Yeah, I remember now. You two went through a lot.”
“Damn straight, it was hell, but worth it, except now she wants a baby.” Ryder put his head down on the table and Ridge patted him on the shoulder.
“Wow, Ryder, I can see you now with a car seat on the back of your hog,” Steel chimed in. I’d missed them. I’d missed this. But I couldn’t fully enjoy it, not knowing what they were doing to my Daniella.
“We’ll get her back. Sawyer’s on it.”
Sawyer found us after a short while.
“Tomorrow, noon, Lansing, that same place,” Sawyer said and indicated that the rest of the crew take a minute, so he could talk to me.
Sawyer sat down and put a hand on my shoulder.
“You look beat, man.”
“I’m fine. I just need to get her out of his fucking hands. I killed Dirt, that flunky of his. He beat the shit out of Daniella, so I smashed his head in. I don’t regret it.”
“That does complicate shit. Where’s the body?”
“It’s in the lake, safe, for now.”
Sawyer rubbed his mouth with his hand. He let out a sigh. The man had a lot of responsibilities. My job was to help lighten the load and instead, I’d dropped a truckload more on him today.
“Let me think on that one. Nothing we can do until tomorrow. We’ll hit the road early. Any of the club give you any trouble?”
“No, they’re cool. I don’t deserve it.”
“Yeah, you do. Now try to relax, get some sleep. You’ll need to be sharp when we get your girl. Your trailer is still fine. Stocked, hooked to electricity, and all that.”
“Thanks.”
I lived, like a few of the brothers, on the campus of the Great Wolves. My RV was all I needed. It was fucking sweet, and I liked it, but that was before. Now I was here, alone, and it was all I could do to not punch the walls around me.
I paced, I stressed, and I waited until it was time to make our way to Lansing.
We rode at dawn, Sawyer in the lead, then Ridge, Steel, Ryder, and me. I was overwhelmed again, watching them ride by my side, about how they trusted me, how they were there to do what I needed even after they’d been through a summer of bullshit from the Hellz Rebels and the Hawks. A summer I’d chosen Daniella over them. They weren’t pissed at me. They were still ready to handle my shit with me.
We arrived at the diner in Lansing first. We sat at the same long table in the center of the diner that we had when we first met with The Hawks. I had my wide eyes open, and I scanned the restaurant, hoping to catch a glimpse of Daniella, praying we weren’t going to be ambushed in some way by Hawks.
Then they walked in. I smelled the cigarette smoke before I even saw them. Lynch and a crew of assholes I’d never seen before sat down at the table across from us. Dirt was dead. The other one, Bunchie, wasn’t with his crew this time.
“I came to this meeting for one fucking reason. And that’s to let you know what’s what,” Lynch said to Sawyer.
“So what’s what?” Sawyer said it with a raised eyebrow. He said it in a way to let Lynch know he wasn’t afraid of his blustering and bullshit swagger. Lynch seemed like a poser when you stacked him against Sawyer, and Lynch knew it. Anyone who could see these two face-to-face like that knew it.
“Your boy here tell you about Dirt?” Sawyer sat still, he didn’t react.
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” Sawyer wasn’t going to risk confirming that fact. Lynch could use that information any number of ways. Sawyer bluffed, acted like he’d never heard a thing about it.
“Your boy here, a lovesick puppy that he is, killed Dirt. Dirt was there to collect her like you agreed to do at this very table and this fucker lost his shit,” Lynch said and looked at me with a vicious gleam in his eyes.
“You have proof about that?” Sawyer said with a calm, almost carefree, delivery.
“You can be sure I fucking do. Lots of it. I’m fucking the eyewitness so, it’s pretty rock solid.”
There was a thundering sound in my ears. I felt like the restaurant disappeared and there was a tunnel with Lynch at the end of it.
I tried to explode from the table and crush Lynch, but almost as soon as the rage erupted in me, there were iron bars around my arms in the form of my brothers, holding me back.
“GODDAMMIT!” I yelled. I felt like I spit. I couldn’t even describe the rage that propelled me toward him. I was going to kill him.
“Oh, right, no way he killed Dirt. Perfectly reasonable dude,” Lynch said, and his flunkies laughed.
“You can forget us helping you with the Hellz Rebels. The fucking opposite is going to happen. I’m going to cheer them on. I hope they take every inch of Grand City now since you fucked up the one thing we asked you to do.”
Lynch was treating Sawyer like he was an underling.
“Calm the fuck down,” Sawyer hissed, turning to me. I couldn’t. I wasn’t going to let Lynch walk out of here.
“Get your rabid dog under control, and while the Rebels take you from the west side, we’ll fucking ram that shit up your ass and take the rest of your pristine little town.”
Lynch was on fire. He was asking for a fight, but Sawyer stayed quiet, in control.
“You show up in Grand City, you’re dead,” Sawyer said, and Lynch’s smile faded as he stood up and walked out, his flunkies trailing behind him. I strained against Ridge and Ryder, who continued to keep an iron grip on me.
Lynch was going to get on his bike and leave, and I wasn’t getting any closer to Daniella.
“Come on. This isn’t getting us anywhere. Hurting Lynch isn’t going to get Daniella back, and it sounds like she may not want to be back,” Sawyer said, and I was enraged at him now.
“She wouldn’t willingly go with Lynch!”
Sawyer led us out of the restaurant and I searched the parking lot for the pack of Hawks.
What I saw next blew the last hinge off of my sanity.
There she was, on Lynch’s bike. He put his hands on her and she let him. He kissed her, and she kissed him back.
I yelled her name and my brothers, including Sawyer, had me pe
nned in again. I took a swing at Ryder, who ducked it. I was going to get to her. I had to get to her.
I saw Lynch put a hand on her leg. Motherfucker. Motherfucker!!!
They drove off and I was paralyzed. My brothers made it so I couldn’t act, couldn’t do a damn thing.
“Get your shit together!” Sawyer said to me. I struggled to get loose. I tried to jerk my arms free. The sound of Lynch’s bike was fading. He was taking her away from me.
“Dude, I hate this, but she played you,” Ryder said, and I wanted to spit in his face.
“You said she was a sweet and innocent but she’s dressed just like the rest of the gang banger bitches,” Ridge added his two cents. I tried not to see it. I took a breath. I slammed my eyes shut. She was kissing him back. She was letting him, what the hell?
“They’re right. She wasn’t being coerced. It looked like she’s made her choice,” Steel said to me. He was a little softer about it. But the truth, if it was the truth, hurt. It stung, it was acid in my veins.
“We’re done with them, Hammer. You need to calm yourself, and stop thinking with your dick. If she can make you for killing Dirt, she’s in charge. So is Lynch. We’re done. You better behave, or they’ll use it.”
I didn’t want to believe they were right. I couldn’t.
We drove back to Grand City and it kept replaying over and over. She was back with Lynch. The worst thing I ever said to her was that she fucked bikers, just to fuck bikers. I hurt her with those words and beat myself up over it for days.
And yet, it looked fucking true today. She used me to fuck with him. She used me for whatever sick game she was playing. I killed for her.
I wanted to drown out the entire last few months. I wanted to erase her and what she’d meant to me from my brain.
I spent days in the RV, drunk, pissed, frustrated, and ultimately defeated. She’d played me, and finally, I had to be resigned to the fact that I had been burned as bad as you could be by a woman.
I emerged bitter, numb, and harder than I had thought was possible.
I don’t know how many days had gone by. I didn’t care.
I had given up months of my life for Daniella. I’d given up my family for her. I’d killed for her. And she was back with Lynch. I was just part of her sick game.
Or at the very least, to give her the benefit of the doubt, she went where the wind blew. If she was with me, that was fine, but if she was with Lynch, that was fine for her too. I turned it all over and over in my mind, a thousand times, a thousand lies, a thousand kisses from her that were now going to Lynch. I was getting nowhere.
It was a club job that brought me out of it.
“We’re going to the north side. Word is Hellz Rebels have been causing shit at Crary’s Tavern the last few nights,” Steel filled me in on the situation. They GWMC had spent the last few months pushing back against Hellz Rebels. They’d been pushing meth and causing shit wherever they could in Grand City. We’d been stopping it when we could.
“They’re like cockroaches.” The more activity they tried that was left unchecked in our town, the more they would try. I was glad Steel had come and insisted I go with him to root out the Hellz Rebels. It was better to be doing something, be on an assignment for the club, instead of wallowing over Daniella anymore.
“Yeah, you missed a lot in the last few months. They’re crawling all over the place. The bartender just called us.”
“Shit, yeah, okay.”
“You stink. This place stinks. You need to shake this off.” Steel had no idea what it was like to have your heart crushed to pieces. To have your guts spilled out over a woman. I hoped he never did. But he was right. I was an embarrassment. My fucking life might be a mess right now, but I was going to be useful to my club. I was going to rededicate myself to my brothers. And we were going to kick some ass. We road to Crary’s and I felt a click better to be back on my bike, back with the Great Wolves.
Crary’s was a dump, but it was a dump in our territory. We drove out, a dozen strong. As expected, there were several other bikes in the parking lot. We walked in and the bar, which was packed and loud, got quiet, fast.
It looked like we were evenly matched. A dozen bikers with the Rebelz patch stood up. We’d brought six, but that, in my estimation was a match for their twelve.
A biker by the name of Scut stood up and walked toward us. I was in front of my group. He spoke to me.
“You fucking have a problem?” He spat the words out, there was no way we weren’t going to fight this idiot.
“You’re going to need to get the fuck out of here and stay out,” I said. This wasn’t a negotiation.
“Oh yeah? Because the candy ass Wolves are going to fucking wag their tales at us?”
I hauled off and punched him in the face, square. Blood sprayed across the room and he managed to stay on his feet. But barely. The bar erupted. My brothers and I all had a piece of a Hellz Rebel, and the one who’d mouthed off got two decent shots in at me before I had my boot on his neck.
“Get the fuck out of here and tell your fucking Rebels they’ll get worse next time.” I picked him up and literally hauled his ass out the front door. Steel, Ridge, Ryder and my crew had done the job, fast and violently.
And it was what I needed. It was where I was supposed to be, with the Wolves, taking care of business. Not on some fucking fantasy world with a woman, any woman. The rest of the patrons were filling back into the tables they’d cleared when the fists started flying.
I walked up to the bartender.
“Round for everyone, on us,” I said, shoving some cash on the bar. I added another five hundred bucks and added, “Should cover the damages. And let me know if they come back.”
“Thanks, glad you came,” he said, a little shakily. I looked up at the bartender. The guy had a gash above his eyebrow.
“What happened?”
“Stray bottle,” he said.
“Shit, you need to get to the hospital?”
I felt bad, the man was skinny, nervous, and didn’t deserve the melee that had just happened in his dump. I hoped that was the last of it for a while.
“No, Doc’s already here.” I nodded and left him to it.
We’d done a good job, and we decided to enjoy a round ourselves. Steel and I found a corner in a booth and had a beer together as the rest of our crew did the same.
“That was good, having you here. Good to have you back,” Steel said, and we clinked the top of our bottles.
“I learned my lesson, I guess. She had me good.” I wasn’t ready to say much more, Steel got that.
“We just have to keep it together. We don’t want her ratting you out,” Steel said. And that was the hell of it. She had made her choice and she’d made sure I was going to accept it. She could put me away if she wanted to.
“Yep.”
I noticed an older man, who looked like he ought to be at a cheap golf course, instead of a cheap bar, helping the barkeep with his cut. Things settled down and back to normal in the bar, and it was probably time to get the hell back to the M.C. I felt more like myself than I’d felt in a long while, and the Hellz Rebels were on the run.
We got up to leave and I felt a tug on my leather.
“I need to talk to you for a minute.”
“Do I know you?”
“No, but we have a mutual friend.”
“Yeah?”
“Can we go outside?”
Steel looked at me. He wasn’t too sure about this guy and neither was I, but we headed out anyway.
“What do you need?” I said as we exited. The rest of the club was meandering out, headed for our bikes, but Steel stuck with me.
“Are you sure you want him to hear this?” the man asked.
“He’s with me, what’s your issue, old man?” Steel said.
“There’s a club in Flat Rock that I help out now and then. Stitches, overdoses, bullet wounds… you’re probably familiar with what I’m talking about.” Every club had someon
e to provide emergency meds, or they weren’t in business for long. Hospital E.R. staff had questions and forms and there were some injuries you didn’t want a paper trail with.
“Go on.”
We were talking about the fucking Hawks, I couldn’t get away from them.
“Well, one of their guys is afraid for this girl there.”
“Some junkie hanger-on? Who gives a shit?” Steel stepped in and tried to push this along.
“No, not a junkie, but she’s sick.”
“Sick how?”
“Look, you know. I think you know who I’m talking about. I had Cliff let me know when you were going to show up here. My fucking life’s on the line too with this.”
“What?”
“The Hawks are killing this woman, slowly. She’s sick, drugged to the gills. She barely eats and there’s an infection in a wound on her cheek. I’d given her something for pain, and swelling, and they’re not giving her that. They’re giving her Oxy but none of the antibiotics she needs. It’s been two weeks, and she’s deteriorating, fast. They won’t let me see her anymore.”
“Why are you telling us?” Steel said.
“Because my friend, the one I told you about, needs to get her out. She said a Wolf, you specifically” – the doctor looked at me – “could help him do that. He can’t do it himself.”
“How?”
“That I don’t know, but here’s a number. This guy, Bunchie, call him tonight. I’ve got to go, and you never saw me. You fucking owe me that. If this girl’s something to you, you better figure it out.” Doc looked around to see if anyone but Steel and I were watching. Then he walked quickly away to his car.
I looked at the number. I wasn’t going to wait. I started dialing.
“You sure, man? I mean this could be more bullshit from her.”
I shook my head; I wasn’t listening to him anymore. Even if she had fucked me over, the idea that Daniella was suffering, that she was hurting, it physically hurt me too.
Bunchie picked up after one ring.
“Yep.”
“It’s Hammer McCall.”
His voice was low, and he was talking quickly.
“I can’t talk long, you need to get Daniella. Now, tonight, there’s a window. Lynch is gone. He’s out partying with his boys, out in Detroit. Come now.”
