by Addison Jane
I didn’t answer.
It was best at this stage that I didn’t say a single word.
The moment I tried to talk to him, I’d break, I’d fall to pieces, and he would know.
He would know I didn’t do it, and in great Austin fashion, he would go searching for the person who did. He would accuse the people I cared about, and he wouldn’t give up until he destroyed someone. Even if that someone was himself.
He opened his mouth to continue the lecture just as the door squeaked open and a polished business shoe stepped inside. Caleb had gone all out today. He looked like he’d just stepped off the runway at fashion week with his suit impeccable and his hair perfectly quaffed. And that was what happened when a man lost touch with what it took to be in law enforcement and spent too much time trying to dictate and puppeteer people into doing his bidding.
My dad always said never trust a policeman in a suit that cost more than a reasonably priced car. Suits were an everyday part of law enforcement. Detectives wore them every single day, but they were often made locally and fitted by trusted men who knew how to produce a suit that hid an officer’s gun and often their identity. These men weren’t afraid to chase down an offender. They weren’t afraid to get dirty. They didn’t let it impact how well they did their job because they were too scared to ruin the material, or send it to the dry cleaners to wash away the blood. Men like Caleb wore them because it made them look more powerful, more important, and just made them feel better than everyone else.
“I need to speak with Dakota, Austin,” he said sternly as he stepped into the room and held the door open, expecting my brother to just get up and leave.
Austin turned to him. “I need more time,” he responded through clenched teeth.
It was pointless really.
I wasn’t ever going to give him the answers he needed.
Not yet, at least.
“It’s fine, Austin,” I told him, my voice quiet and barely above a whisper. It sounded weak and broken, but I needed him to get out of there so I could face this asshole on my own, and not have him dragged into my mess any more than he already had been.
“You need a lawyer,” he threw back, shaking his head. “You shouldn’t be talking to anyone without a lawyer.”
“Dakota, would you like a lawyer present?” Caleb asked, the sharpness in his voice could easily be construed as a threat. It didn’t go unnoticed, and I shook my head.
“No,” I replied harshly, looking Caleb directly in the eye. “I’m passing my right to a lawyer.”
“Good.”
“Dakota…” Austin tried again, but I cut him off with a shake of my head.
“Stop, Austin. I’m a big girl. I’m capable of facing the consequences of what I’ve done. So, can you please just go and let me do that,” I pleaded, hanging my head and praying that for this one second he would hear me. I needed him out of there. I couldn’t have him there while I faced Caleb because I wasn’t really sure what was about to happen. But with the way his fists were clenched tightly at his side, I could only imagine. “Please.”
Austin’s eyes were glassy and that alone was almost enough to send my mental state over the edge of the cliff it was currently teetering on. It seemed that I’d gotten pretty damn good at destroying the people who cared about me the most. Between the way my big brother was looking at me right now to the way Ripley had stared almost right through me as I was dragged from the damn club, this was my own special kind of hell. This was that hell where they took everything you loved, and they turned it against you.
Give me sticks, give me stones, and give me any other kind of physical pain, please.
I would take that any day over this.
Eventually, Austin got up from his seat and pulled his shoulders back until he could walk out the door without breaking down. He didn’t even look back, and I was thankful for that at least.
The door shut and the sound of the lock turning from the outside resonated in the dark, drab space.
These doors couldn’t be locked from the inside. Maybe that was a good thing. It meant people could get in if shit when south. These rooms were often used for people who had been arrested for meeting with their lawyers. So that meant there were no cameras and no kinds of windows that watched inside. There was nothing to save me but a small window in the door, and a guy on the other side who I knew would have been given strict instructions to only open it for one person.
Caleb took the seat that Austin had vacated, unbuttoning his suit jacket as he sat.
I pressed my lips together. My smart mouth right at this moment wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I needed to be clever, and I needed to make it out of there while I was still breathing—something that I’m sure he was considering not letting me do given how much he had to lose.
“That was a really fucking stupid mistake, Dakota,” he said finally with a shake of his head like he was a disappointed father scolding his child. “Really fucking stupid.”
“You didn’t give me any other choice,” I replied, folding my arms across my chest.
He scoffed. “I thought you were smarter than that, I really did. I thought you were smart enough to take me seriously.”
“When you told me you were going to hurt my family?”
“When I warned you of what could happen,” he countered like he had no control over what happens next.
I leaned forward. “How many people have you done this to? How many times have you waltzed into a city and used blackmail and threats of violence to get your way?” A sadistic smiled formed on his face, and I instantly sat a little taller. “You’re pathetic. You’re not a real police officer. You force others to do the dirty work and sit back on your lazy ass.”
The smile was gone in a blink. And in that same time, his hand shot across the table and grabbed hold of my throat. I tried to pull away, but his fingers dug into my neck, his nails stabbing my skin, and his palm pressed against my windpipe making it difficult to breathe. He stood, squeezing tightly before shoving me backward with enough force to send the chair toppling over with me on it. I tumbled to the floor, the hard chair digging into my back as I hit the tiles with a thump and a groan.
Caleb started to move around the table, and I forced my body to roll to the side, fighting to catch my breath again while trying to keep the hell away from him. I managed to make it to my hands and knees, choking and coughing and sucking in a few deep lung-fulls of air, all while fighting to keep some kind of distance between us.
He was looking for blood.
I’d ruined his plans.
I’d ruined his reputation of getting things done, and he was scared I was going to talk.
Which meant he was looking for a way to shut me up—possibly permanently.
I managed to scramble to my feet before he could come much closer, my heartbeat skipping as I got up and faced him head-on.
“People look to me to do a job, exterminate the vermin, and I do whatever I have to do to get that job done.”
“So, you lie, and you cheat the system, and you hurt innocent people in the process?”
“That’s how life works, Dakota. Sacrifices need to be made in order to get the best results,” he answered with a shrug. “Lose a few to make the city better for the majority? You can’t argue with that.”
I shook my head unable to keep from smiling.
I saw the moment he knew something was up. He thought I would be scared, or angry, or maybe he even expected me to fall at his feet and pray for him to spare my life. But the thing was, he had come after the wrong girl. This may have worked in his favor before, but not today. And never again.
“I hope you got all of that, Huntsman,” I thundered, startling him.
His eyes scanned the room, looking for a hidden camera or some kind of recording device.
A deep baritone voice murmured in my ear. “I got it all, we’ll be there soon.”
We’ll be there soon.
We.
Please bring Rip.
<
br /> I need him.
In that moment, I didn’t even care that Caleb was possibly about to kill me. Because at least I knew right then that he wasn’t going to get away with what he’d done.
I’d kept everything.
And I hadn’t done it alone.
I took the earpiece out of my ear, and I leaned forward placing it down on the table. It was only tiny, but we both knew what it was. He’d gotten sloppy after doing this so many times, he never thought someone would dare go against him, he never thought anyone would dare take the risk.
But I did.
Because fuck him.
“What the hell have you done?” he whispered, his heavy glare only making my smile wider.
“Fucking ruined you, that’s what.”
RIPLEY
I watched Austin lead her out of the club. A stretcher with Keela on it wasn’t far behind her, the paramedics saying she was going to be okay.
The club continued to rage around us, people on the dance floor and in the VIP area completely oblivious to the destruction that was just caused. I wanted to go after her, demand the truth, demand to know what she’d done and why the hell she’d done it.
I gripped hard to the short glass in my hand and spun, launching it at the hallway wall just as Shake and Shotgun stepped out, the both of them protecting their face with their hands before looking down at the sparkling and dangerous mess on the carpet.
“You gonna clean that shit up?” Shake asked, the tone a little sarcastic and partially tired.
“I’m hoping that one of you can tell me what the fuck just happened, and why the hell all those uniformed assholes just filed out of here as quick as they came in,” I demanded, knowing my tone was harsh and snappy, but at this stage, I didn’t give a flying fuck. My club owned half of this place, the least they can give us is courtesy.
“Dakota said all the drugs were hers,” Shotgun answered, while Shake just looked like he wanted to fucking lay me out on the ground right here. “Cops took the evidence… including the bags they found stashed on our bikes.”
That was news.
It felt like there was static in my ears.
Like all I could hear was that fuzz you get on the television when you can’t find a channel.
“This isn’t happening…” I muttered, shaking my head.
“It’s happening,” Shake argued. “But I don’t believe it for a second.”
Neither did I.
But I’d fucking let it get the best of me and lost my shit at Dakota when I should have trusted her. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I was going to find out. “I gotta stop her,” I snapped, ducking around Shake and Shotgun and heading for the front doors where they’d just dragged the woman that I intended on making my Old Lady.
Me, the fucking asshole who had spent his whole life doing whatever humanly possible to avoid getting close enough to someone to allow myself to fall for them.
“Rip!” a voice called, and I froze for a second, turning on my heels with a raised brow. Lauren ran forward, a concerned look on her still bruised face. “Is everything okay? Is there anything I can do?”
“What are you doing here? You were only discharged a few days ago.”
She inhaled a deep breath. “I wanted to come say sorry to Dakota and apologize for being a bitch. I was searching for something, and I took it out on the two of you. That wasn’t fair, I just want you both to know that.”
This was the girl I knew.
This was the girl I’d grown up with.
“I—” my words were soon cut off by my cell phone buzzing in my pocket. I whipped it out and checked the caller before hitting answer. “Dad, shit’s going down. Dak—”
“I know, I need you all to get your fucking asses to the brothers’ clubhouse. Now.” I wanted to argue and go after Dakota instead, but I knew she was with her brother for one, and whether we saw eye to eye or not, he loved her more than life. I trusted he would watch out for her. And there was no way in hell they were going to let me see her until they had done interviews and shit anyway.
“Now, Ripley,” Dad snapped. There was no room for disagreement or response even because just as quickly he was gone, the phone beeping with a dead line in my ear.
I turned to Shake and Shotgun. “We gotta go, Dad wants to see us at the clubhouse, right now.”
The clubhouse was less than a ten-minute drive from here, but I could sense the urgency in his voice, and I knew that we needed to make it in less than that.
I looked over at Lauren who was looking between the three of us. “Lauren can you help on the bar,” I ordered, knowing she was capable since that was one of her jobs when she was younger within the clubhouse.
She startled for a second. “Uh… yeah, it’s been a few years, but sure.” She took a couple of steps backward down the short hall. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
I forced a smile. “Yeah. Thanks.”
“Let’s go,” Shake ordered, walking off toward the back of the building where our rides were parked. Shotgun and I jogged to keep up. “I have a really shitty feeling about this.”
“No shit,” I agreed as we rushed for the back door. “I feel like I’m standing in a damn blender just waiting for someone to turn it on.”
Shotgun nodded. “Then we need to get the hell out of the blender, don’t we?”
Shake snorted. “Yeah, I don’t feel like being fish food today.”
We pulled up to the compound in record time, my dad’s sparkling Harley sitting proudly out the front, but the rest of the place looking reasonably quiet. With more of the men working security at Empire, I was beginning to think it was about time he brought in some new members and started to fill up a little.
I parked next to Dad’s bike and leaped off, not wasting a moment as I jogged inside.
Dad was sitting alone at one of the small round tables, and I made a beeline for him. “Empire got raided. Dakota got arrested. They took he—”
“I know, just shut the fuck up,” he responded, pointing to a walky-talky looking device down on the table. It was playing a conversation, and I frowned.
Was it going on right now or recorded?
It took another moment but as Shake and Shotgun both joined us, their ears perked up and their brows knitted together between their eyes. They were just as confused as I was because like them, I recognized the voices.
“I thought you were smarter than that, I really did.”
I clenched my jaw tightly and rolled my shoulders at the sound of Caleb speaking. I was going to kill him, whether today, tomorrow, or next Tuesday, I’d make him suffer.
“I thought you were smart enough to take me seriously.”
“When you told me you were going to hurt my family?”
Fuck! Dakota was with him.
“Hurt her family?” Shake questioned, looking from me to Dad with wide eyes.
“When I warned you of what could happen.”
Jesus Christ.
“How long have you known?” I barked at my father who was still watching the device intently, paying me no mind what-so-fucking-ever which annoyed me even more. This was fucking important. This was Dakota. This was the one woman who I’d let in, who I’d let get close, who turned me inside fucking out and forced me to face up to my demons. “I need to fucking know.” My voice echoed in the room, and it still took a few seconds for his eyes to move from the walky-talky up to me.
“Shut the fuck up and sit your ass down,” he ordered in a tone I didn’t like and had to keep myself from talking back. “You may not realize it, but this girl has had your back this whole fucking time. She’s had all of our backs without a fucking question, so the least you can fucking do is sit down and fucking listen to the hell she’s been going through the past few weeks, so she could somehow try and keep you guys out of harm’s way.”
We sat and listened. With each minute, my blood boiled and boiled. I should have been protecting her, but instead, she didn’t feel like she could
come to me.
“Why didn’t she come to me? Why the hell did she come to you?”
“Because you have a lot to learn when it comes to keeping your cool, and not losing your shit like fireworks on the fourth of fucking July,” Dad answered, his finger tapping against the table.
I gritted my teeth and shut my mouth fighting the urge to bite back and disrespect my father. The only reason I succeeded was because he was right. Especially when it came to Dakota because the feelings I had for her were still raw, they were still new, and what we had was something I had yet to experience. I had to fight the instincts that told me to do whatever I had to fucking do in order to keep her safe.
I’d come a long way, but I still had a long way to go when it came to learning how to be like my dad. He didn’t lose control, he didn’t lose his head, no matter the situation. I didn’t pretend like that wasn’t a part of my life where I didn’t have the control that I had now. And I didn’t try to blame it on the fact that I had issues other kids would never even consider.
I was just fighting to make myself a better person because it was okay to be an asshole sometimes, but there came a point where we had to fucking grow up. I was the next in line to be the president of this club. And no club member wanted a president who couldn’t hold their temper or be smart about the decisions they were making.
Sure, I might not take over for another ten years or more, but there was a point where I had to start making it a priority to show the members around me that I could do the job, and that I could do it well. And that I could do it just as well as my dad.
But I knew there was a reason Dakota had gone to him.
There was a reason she didn’t tell me how deep she was.
Because he knew what to do.
We all focused in on the walky-talky on the table, listening to the conversation, hearing Dakota fight this asshole, hearing the commotion within the room and listening to what sounded like her fighting to breathe. My foot tapped quickly as I waited desperately for her to speak again.
