Guardian

by Brook Wilder

  “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” he said, switching off the TV and standing. “Um, where are you going?”

  I hefted the backpack.

  “I have to go to the library to study. Do you have a car or something?”

  He walked around the couch quickly, wiping his face with one of his hands. I noted the tremble as he did so and wondered if I was dealing with a man going through withdraws.

  “You can’t do that. We are supposed to stay here.”

  “I have things to do,” I countered gently, as I walked into the kitchen. “I’m sorry, but surely we can at least do that.”

  I wasn’t going to give up until I got my way.

  “And then I would like to see my mom.”

  He scratched at his arm as I pulled down one of Derrek’s travel mugs, setting the coffee to go.

  “We are supposed to stay here, Alice. I can’t let you get out of this apartment.”

  I placed the mug under the coffee pot, hitting a few buttons to start the steady stream of black liquid into the mug.

  “Well, I’m saying that you can’t stop me. No offense, but I’m tired of people telling me what I can and cannot do.”

  After yesterday, I realized I had lost complete control of my life. I had been hiding behind Derrek for the whole time.

  And he had left me as well. I still couldn’t believe it. The only consolation I had was that he had looked like he hadn’t wanted to leave either. I imagined he would be back at some point, and I was going to be ready to lay it in on him for leaving me.

  And then I would tell him that I loved him.

  I hated this separation between us, this pull we were both fighting, and if he turned down my love… Well, then I guess he wasn’t worth it in the first place.

  But at least I would know where I stood with Derrek and with my future.

  “Alice,” Andrew said with a sigh. “We gotta follow orders.”

  I stopped the flow of coffee and removed the mug, adding some sugar from the tin on the counter.

  “I’m tired of following orders.”

  I owed nothing to the Legion, nothing to my father, nothing to Derrek. I only wanted to make sure that my mom was going to be alright and that I didn’t blow this chance with school.

  I had already missed out on too much.

  Satisfied with the taste, I covered the mug and turned around, stopping in my tracks. The mug slipped out of my fingers and hit the floor, but it barely registered to me as I stared at Andrew.

  “What are you doing?”

  His hand trembled as he held the gun, constantly licking his lips.

  “I didn’t want it to be this way. If you had just listened to me, we could have done this differently.”

  “What?” I asked, holding up my hands.

  The gun was heavy in my pocket, but I knew I couldn’t get it out fast enough before his twitchy fingers would shoot me dead.

  “What are we doing?”

  “Waiting,” Andrew spit out, motioning with the gun. “Take the backpack off and no funny business, or I will shoot you.”

  “Derrek is going to kill you for this,” I reminded him, as I slid off the pack, glad I hadn’t put the gun in there instead. “But you can let me go now, and I won’t even tell him about this.”

  He shook his head slowly as the door opened behind him and two men stepped through, both wearing Diablo vests.

  “Sorry, Alice. I had no choice, alright?”

  I backed up into the kitchen, my heart beating rapidly in my chest as they approached. One was holding a black bag, and I realized they were going to put it over my head.

  Oh, no! I couldn’t deal with that!

  “Please,” I started, as he moved closer, a leer on his face. “Please, I will go quietly. Just don’t put that on me.”

  “No can do, lady,” he said, grabbing at my arm.

  I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong, and before I knew it I was enveloped in darkness.

  “You did good,” I heard them tell Andrew, as they forced me to walk toward the door, a tight grip on my arm so I couldn’t get away.

  The panic started to claw at the fringes of my brain, and I forced it back, thinking about the gun in my pocket. At least I wasn’t completely alone in this attack. I had means of protecting myself the first chance I got.

  Biting my lip, I let the tears course down my cheeks as I was forced outside. Derrek had called me strong once before.

  It was high time I proved to myself that I was the strong person he was expecting me to be.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Derrek

  I couldn’t concentrate.

  Throwing the wrench back into the tool box, I rubbed a hand over my face wearily. I had thought I could come to the shop and work on my bike like nothing was going on, but I had been dead wrong. The past twenty hours or so had been hell, and no amount of whiskey was dulling the sound of Alice’s pleas in my ears as I had walked away from her.

  There was still something odd about the request, though I had yet to get ahold of Jack to ask him about it. Andrew was probably the weakest guy he could send over, but maybe that was because he wanted Alice to feel at ease with someone other than a biker. Not only that, I would be out of my mind with jealousy if any other fucker had shown up to watch over her. Likely, I would have never left the apartment if it had been anyone other than Andrew.

  Blowing out a breath, I shook my head. Either way, I was missing the hell out of her right now.

  “Shit,” I breathed, forcing myself to stand and looking at my watch.

  It was well after lunch, meaning Alice would likely had talked Andrew into going to visit Cheryl at the hospital. I should have told him to call me with regular updates. That way, I could at least have ensured everything was good on the home front.

  While I was trying to stay out of their way, my conscience was telling me to head over to the apartment, pop in, and check on them.

  But I would be heading to the hospital first to make sure Alice wasn’t there.

  After a quick change of clothes from the pile I kept at the shop, I pushed the bike out of the hold and fired it up, tearing off down the road to the hospital. I needed to see Alice, to make sure she was okay and holding up. That was one of the reasons I had left her in my apartment. She had grown comfortable there, and the last thing I wanted them to do was take her to another place she would have to learn.

  Hell, I would gladly sleep on a cot older than I was at the shop if it meant she was comfortable in my bed.

  I wanted to be there with her, and as soon as I found the old coot and explained my feelings for his daughter, I planned to be. Those past hours had shown me that the feelings I had for Alice were completely true.

  I was in love with her, completely. I wanted the damn white fence dream. I wanted the kids. I wanted to be related to Jack Carry by marrying his daughter. I wanted to provide for her mom and help out wherever I could.

  Hell, I would even get a real job if need be.

  But most of all, I wanted Alice. I didn’t want this separation between us. I didn’t want to spend another lonely night without her.

  The ride to the hospital was torturously long, and by the time I pulled the bike into a parking spot, my heart was hammering against my chest. If Alice was there, I was going to kiss the hell out of her, Jack or no Jack.

  Cheryl was now off the breathing machine and had been able to move to a regular room. But it wasn’t Alice I found in her mom’s new room.

  It was the man I had been looking for all along.

  “Jack.”

  “McMurray,” he said, looking beyond me. “Where’s Alice?”

  A cold chill swept through me.

  “What do you mean?” I forced out, my tongue suddenly thick.

  His eyes narrowed.

  “You didn’t bring her with you? I thought I told you not to let her out of your sight, dammit.”

  Shit!

  “You didn’t send Andrew, did
you.”

  It took Jack a minute to comprehend my statement, slowly rising from the chair beside the bed.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  I pulled out my cell, my hands suddenly trembling, as I rolled out into the hall, Jack on my heels.

  Andrew’s phone went straight to voicemail, and I swore, not believing the guy that I had grown up with, taken care of all these years, had double-crossed me.

  I was going to fucking kill him.

  **

  An hour later, I tapped the steering wheel nervously, as I pulled down another street, looking for any Diablo to stop and harass so that we could find out where Emilio Nieto was hiding.

  Likely, wherever he was, Alice would be as well.

  Jack sat next to me in the truck, his knee bouncing as he looked out the other side, neither of us really saying much. The first stop after the hospital had been my apartment. Other than a spilled cup of coffee, there was nothing out of place.

  The coffee had been enough. I had lost it, taking my frustrations out on a nearby wall, while Jack had started making some calls, letting the word circulate that Alice had been taken.

  I couldn’t believe it. Andrew had sunk to a new low by kidnapping her. Drug-fueled or not, either way he would be dead the moment I found him. There was little doubt that he was working for or with the Cazadores, and I imagined they had taken Alice to get our attention.

  Well, they had it, and I was ready to tear them apart to get her back. I had never felt so helpless in my life, as I search for her, knowing I had let her down.

  I hadn’t protected her like I had told her I would.

  “This ain’t your fault.”

  Jack’s quiet words penetrated my racing brain.

  “It is my damn fault.”

  “No, it’s not, boy,” he sighed, as I turned the truck down another street. “I just… Hell, do you know why I let you watch over my daughter?”

  I kept my eyes on the road, gripping the wheel tightly.

  “Why?”

  “Because,” he replied softly. “I trust you. I would have asked Fox, but he has Nat now, and I didn’t want him to have to leave her. You were the next-best choice.”

  I tried not to let his words have too much impact, though I couldn’t deny the thrill that shot through me.

  After all this time...

  “There,” Jack interrupted, pointing to an unassuming building on the end of the street. “I got an idea.”

  I pulled the truck over, and we got out. I grabbed my gun as we did so. We were deep in Diablo territory, and with the war raging on, anyone associated with the Legion would have a target on their back.

  Not to mention that I was travelling with the president.

  Jack pushed open the door to a small grocery mart and walked in like he owned the place, never once going for his own gun. The cashier behind the counter eyed us both as we looked around. Jack knew that this was probably one of the marts the Cazadores skimmed off.

  Then I understood what we were doing here. Jack was a fucking genius.

  “We are looking for Nieto,” Jack said, bracing his hands on the counter. “Give him a call.”

  The cashier raised his brow.

  “No one demands to talk to him. Leave before you cause trouble.”

  I arched a brow, pushing at a nearby rack until it tumbled to the floor.

  “Like this?”

  “Hey man come on!” the cashier shouted, as I knocked over another, spilling drinks all over the floor. “I just cleaned up!”

  Jack gave me a wink as he did the same, swiping his hand across the display on the counter.

  “Get Nieto, and we will stop.”

  “I… Come on,” the cashier whined, as I kicked over a case containing more drinks, the bottles crashing to the floor. “He’s going to fucking kill you both.”

  “That’s what we are gunning for,” Jack said darkly, tapping the butt of his gun in his holster.

  The cashier frowned but reached for the phone nevertheless, as I pushed over another display, taking out my frustrations on the store.

  I couldn’t deal with my feelings right now, the ones that had ‘panic’ and ‘scared shitless’ written all over them. My thoughts went to the absolute worst places imaginable, imagining what Nieto and his gang would be doing to her to get what they wanted.

  I couldn’t take it. I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. My nerves were frazzled and on edge. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms and know she was okay.

  I needed to know she was okay.

  A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I turned to find Jack staring at me, his face full of understanding.

  “I hope you are gonna tell her.”

  “What?” I asked, surprised.

  Jack let out a chuckle.

  “Boy, it’s written all over your face. You love Alice, don’t you?”

  I swallowed. It was one thing admitting it to Fox; it was completely another to admit it to her father.

  But Alice was everything to me, and I would shout it from the rooftops if it meant I could get her back.

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “I knew it,” he grinned. “I’ve seen that look before.”

  “So, you are alright with it?” I asked, surprised by his reaction.

  He sobered.

  “Of course not. She’s my daughter, my flesh and blood. She deserves to marry someone better than the lot of us.”

  She did that. But I doubted she would find anyone that would feel the way I did about her.

  I just needed the chance to tell her.

  “But,” Jack continued, his eye on the cashier, who was still on the phone, glancing nervously in our direction. “If she chooses to marry one of us, I’m glad it’s you.”

  Coming from Jack, it was like a gold seal of approval.

  “Thanks. I… That means a lot.”

  He sniffed.

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t done right by her like I should. I should have been in her life, helped out with Cheryl, and not left it up to her to carry the load. I thought money would be enough, but she needed me to be there, and I wasn’t.” He looked over at me. “I hope you don’t make that same mistake. I’m giving you my approval because I think you will be there for my daughter, and not just in the physical sense. You understand?”

  I looked him directly in the eye.

  “I have no plans to leave her again.”

  I meant it. Even if I had to move us away from there, I was going to never leave Alice again. Even if she hated me for leaving her, and I had to spend the rest of my life making it up to her, then I would.

  “Good,” Jack nodded as the cashier rounded the counter. “Let’s find our girl.”

  “Mr. Nieto is willing to meet with you,” he grumbled, fidgeting with his hands. “In the park at the Nines in thirty minutes.”

  Jack did a sweeping bow, a glint in his eyes.

  “Thank you for your assistance.”

  “What about this mess?” he asked helplessly, looking around the destroyed store. “It will take me hours to clean this!”

  “Then you better get started,” I said darkly as I walked to the door.

  The cashier let out an exasperated sound as we walked outside, toward the truck. My hands couldn’t wait to get around Nieto’s neck.

  We reached the truck, and I threw open the door and climbed inside. The Bodega Nines was Diablo territory, not far from the market store, and I knew we would be walking into a shit-load of trouble by going there.

  “I’m calling it in,” Jack said, reaching for his cell. “We are about to go to war, boy.”

  “It’s about time,” I grumbled, firing up the truck.

  This had been a long time coming and Alice had been the last straw.

  One of the clubs wouldn’t be walking away.

  Chapter Twenty-Four