I slowly pull out of her and reach around to my back pocket, pulling out a bandana and I wipe it slowly over her slit, and she takes my hand and helps me dry her, our eyes locked, and I know – I know that if anyone touches this girl; if anyone hurts her or even alludes to it I’ll kill the bastard dead in a fucking heartbeat. ‘Cause it’ll be the last one they’ll ever feel…
Mack
It’s still kinda strange, sitting at that table and not having that control. I still feel like Cooper’s looking down on me, and the disappointment he’s feeling, that’s a killer. But Laney, she’d understand. She was one hard, not-to-be-messed-with bitch when she wanted to be, but she also had a soft side she didn’t always show everyone else. But I seen it, when I was growing up. She told me it was OK to show emotion, to fall in love; she told me that was OK. But I shunned all that crap and shut myself down to anything that could distract me, but now – now I’m remembering everything my biker momma told me when Cooper wasn’t around. She told me emotion don’t make a man weak. Wanting to love; wanting to be loved don’t make a man weak. She told me to follow my heart, wherever that happened to take me. She told me to not be afraid to take a chance, no matter how dangerous or risky that chance might be. I might have let Cooper down, but I sure as hell ain’t gonna let Laney down, too.
‘You want a drink?’
I turn my head to see Zeb standing beside me. ‘We’re doing small talk now?’
He laughs quietly and signals to one of the prospects behind the bar to fetch us a couple of bourbons. ‘I ain’t here for that, Mack.’
‘Then what’s with the one-on-one, huh? I thought we were strictly business now.’
He downs his drink in one and looks at me. ‘We are. The last thing I want is to hang out with you, unless I absolutely have to.’
‘So, what’re we doing here, then? You come to warn me off, again?’
He fixes me with a look. ‘Do I have a reason to?’
‘No. You don’t.’
‘Good. Because I ain’t here to talk about Izzi, either.’ He reaches for the bottle of bourbon on the countertop and pours himself another measure, a large one.
‘What’s going on, Zeb?’
He looks down into his glass and swirls the dark liquid round and around, and he says nothing for a second. He just stares into his drink. ‘Come out back. I don’t wanna do this in here.’
I narrow my eyes as I stare at him, ‘cause I got no clue what’s going on here. ‘OK. I’ll be out in a minute.’
He downs his second drink and fixes me with another look, one that dares me to take longer than that minute, and then he heads out to the back yard and I wait, my hand dropping to the gun I got tucked down the back of my jeans. I ain’t taking no chances.
I move away from the bar and head out down the corridor that leads to the back yard, my head down, so I don’t see her coming my way. Not until my shoulder connects with hers and then my head shoots up, and her eyes meet mine, and she makes to leave straightaway because that’s what she’s been told to do. I reach out to grab her wrist but my hand slips and it catches hers and I feel her instantly tense up. She tries to pull her hand away but I ain’t letting that happen, not yet, so I keep my grip tight and pull her gently towards me.
‘You don’t have to stay here, Izzi. Not anymore. He doesn’t own you…’
‘He does. You told me he did. But the thing is, Mack… I like that he does. That he owns me. I like it.’
‘Izzi…’
She manages to yank her hand away from mine and I lean back against the wall and watch her walk away.
She told me I wasn’t her future.
I’m gonna prove her wrong.
Izzi
‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
I like that Cora hangs out at the clubhouse when she isn’t at Six. But it kind of creeps me out sometimes that she always happens to be around just when I need her the most. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve never really had a close girlfriend, someone who cares enough to make sure I’m OK; someone who senses when I actually might not be. ‘I don’t know if I can do this, Cora.’
She leans back against the bar and jerks her head at the prospect as he comes over to her. ‘Two beers, and a couple of tequila chasers.’
I can’t help but smile. ‘You know what tequila does to me.’
‘Then we could be in for some interesting entertainment later.’
I look at her, my mouth twitching up at the corner. ‘Zeb hasn’t asked for a repeat performance yet.’
‘He didn’t like it?’
‘On the contrary. What we did had his cock hard for hours afterwards.’
‘Pity I couldn’t stay and watch. I wanted to. But I guessed he wanted you all to himself.’
I look down, and then I raise my head and glance around the clubhouse.
‘You looking for someone, honey?’
I turn my head and my eyes meet hers. ‘No.’
‘You didn’t see him then? Mack? He was here a second ago…’
‘I don’t know what you want me to say, Cora. Do you want me to stand here and tell you I still love him? That I still want him, need him? Because I don’t. I don’t.’
‘You’d rather he just left, huh?’
‘Yes.’
‘So you and Zeb can get on with your lives, without him hanging around…’
‘Yes, Jesus, of course I’d rather he just left. That’s his intention, and I’d feel so much better if he walked away now because I…’ I stop talking, and I take a long, deep breath because I’m not entirely sure what’s going to come out of my mouth if I carry on.
‘You want my opinion, Izzi?’
‘Not really, no.’
She raises an eyebrow and downs her tequila shot and I watch as she sucks on the lemon wedge, her eyes fixed firmly on mine. ‘I gotta be at Six soon.’ She grabs her beer and leans in to me, her lips gently brushing my ear. ‘You take care, darlin’. And if you need me, you know where I am. That old man of yours, he don’t need to know everything.’ And then she pulls back and winks at me before she leaves the clubhouse, but not without flirting outrageously with a couple of the guys on the way out.
But I’m not taking her up on her veiled invitation. I don’t want to. All I want to do right now is go home, and sleep…
Zeb
I slam him up against the wall before the fucker can even register what’s happening.
‘I fucking told you, brother. You lay one finger on her and I fucking kill you.’
‘So kill me. Go on. I’m yours for the taking.’
Arrogant fucking asshole!
I let go of him and throw him back against the brickwork, raking both hands through my hair. I’m starting to look like a freakin’ idiot, making all these idol threats then carrying none of them out. But as much as I want to put a bullet in his messed-up brain, I got shit I need him to do first.
‘You think I didn’t see you in there, huh? Holding her hand and whispering in her ear? You think I didn’t see that?’
He holds his hands up in defeat, and it makes me want to punch his perfect jaw line ‘til it shatters. ‘She don’t want me, Zeb. She said so herself.’
I take a deep breath and try to calm the anger rising up in me, I can feel it, fighting its way to the surface, but I need to keep it in check, for now.
‘She don’t want me, brother. You did a good job on her, you almost got her completely brainwashed…’
I lunge towards him again but he’s got his gun out and raised in a second, and I step back, and try to batter that anger back down. There are other ways I can get to him. ‘You never met your momma, did you?’
He narrows his eyes and stares at me, but he keeps the gun raised. ‘What the hell has that got to do with anything…?’
‘It was my dad. My low-down fucker of a father, he killed your momma. He mowed her down and left her dying in the street like some worthless roadkill.’
He don’t say anything, but his expression
’s changing, he’s trying to take in what I’m telling him here.
‘My father, he killed your momma. And Sam, he knew. Not at the time, but he’s known for a long while now. He’s just been waiting for the right time to take his revenge…’
‘What the fuck are you talking about, Zeb?’
He slowly lowers his gun, but he keeps hold of it. And all I can feel is a numbness starting to take over, sweeping over me so fast there ain’t nothing I can do to stop it.
‘He didn’t want to tell you. Sam. He didn’t want to tell you just who it was who’d deprived you of your real momma, but I think you deserve to know the truth, Jesus, I had to hear it in all its messed-up reality, so why shouldn’t you, huh? Why shouldn’t you know who…?’
‘Enough, Zeb!’
Sam’s voice causes me to stop mid-sentence and I turn my head to look at him. His eyes are blazing and his face is a mask of anger, but I don’t give a fuck. This is gonna get sorted, my way. ‘Cause there ain’t nobody putting my wife’s life in danger. My asshole of a father, he ain’t getting that chance. But he ain’t making me his bitch, either.
‘What the fuck is he talking about, Sam?’
‘Get him out of here, Izzi.’
I look at Izzi, and her face, man, I’m scaring her again, and that fills me with a pain so intense it physically hurts and I clutch my stomach as she comes over to me. But the second she touches me I shake her off, and she flinches like I just burned her or something, and that pain shoots through me again.
‘Sam? You gonna tell me what the fuck’s going on ‘cause, y’know, I feel like we’ve been down this road before and I ain’t a fan of secrets. So start talking.’
‘He needs to know the truth, Sam.’
‘You had no right to tell him anything, Zeb. That wasn’t your place.’
I can’t help the cold, humorless laugh that escapes and that causes Izzi to take another step back. ‘You have no fucking idea, do you…’
‘Get him out of here, Izzi. Now!’
I stare at Sam, and I shake my head but I’m done here. I ain’t got the energy no more. ‘I’m tired of this shit, Sam.’ I take Izzi’s hand and look at Mack. ‘It’s over.’
Izzi
‘What the hell was that?’
‘This ain’t your business, Izzi…’
‘Oh no. No. You don’t get to stand there and tell me this is…’
He raises a hand to my neck and pushes me back against the wall and the look in his eyes, it’s terrifying. And then it’s almost as if he’s suddenly broken out of a trance, his expression changes instantly and he lets go of me, steps back and drops to his haunches, clasping his hands together and dropping his head. And I can’t shake the fear, it won’t leave me.
I kneel down in front of him and tentatively touch his cheek, and he slowly raises his head.
‘I promised to keep you safe, princess. Didn’t I? I promised nothing would hurt you.’
‘Zeb…’
He stands up and starts dragging his hands through his hair, backwards and forwards, his eyes darting this way and that, it’s like he’s taken something, and I don’t want to feel scared, but I do. I am. I’m scared.
‘I’m gonna fucking finish this…’
He opens the door but I run over to him, slamming my hand down over his, and his eyes burn into mine, and that fear wells up inside me again.
‘You ain’t stopping me, Izzi.’
‘You think I’m just gonna let you walk out of here, to go Christ knows where, and do – what? What are you gonna do, Zeb, huh?’
‘I’m gonna fucking finish this.’
He pulls his hand away from mine and walks out of the room, and all I can do is watch him leave. And hope to God he comes back.
Mack
‘You had no fucking right to keep that shit from me, Sam.’
He don’t even put up an argument, and that aggravates the fuck outta me.
‘You knew, and you told him…’
I don’t even know where this is getting me; what good it’s doing. I was barely three days old when my momma was killed, I never knew her. So why the fuck am I so freakin’ angry about this now?
‘Why’d you tell him, Sam? Why’d you tell him and not me?’
‘Because I wanted Zeb to kill him. To kill Kes.’
His words slam into me so hard I have to lean back against the wall to steady myself and, Jesus, I thought I could be a cold-hearted bastard at times, but this one, he just knocked it right outta the park.
‘This is about revenge?’
He shrugs, and I can’t believe what I’m hearing. ‘Revenge, retribution, something like that. Just as Izzi felt the need to avenge her family’s murders, I feel that same need.’
‘But you ain’t man enough to do the job yourself, huh?’
He smiles, but it don’t reach his eyes.
I go over to him, and I’m right up in his face but still he don’t flinch, he don’t even blink. ‘And you don’t even think I was man enough to do the job? I mean, it was my momma he killed, not Zeb’s. So why him, huh? Why him and not me?’
‘You have enough to deal with.’
I laugh, I can’t fucking help it. What the fuck is this? ‘Jesus…’ I step back from him and start pacing. I can’t get my fucking head around any of this shit.
‘Zeb’s done this before…’
‘And I haven’t?’ I’m fucking angry now, I’m pissed off and I’m angry.
‘Your head hasn’t been in a good place for a while, Mack. I was just trying to…’
‘What? Spare me?’
‘If that’s how you want to put it. Yes.’
I laugh again, and that anger, it’s starting to grow now. This shit ain’t happening. ‘You should’ve told me, Sam.’ I lean back against the wall and look up at the sky. Clouds are gathering, black clouds. Soon everything’s gonna go dark and that storm, it’s gonna hit us, and the damge it could inflict, ain’t nobody can predict how bad that’ll be…
Chapter Twelve
Izzi
I’ve been at the clubhouse since half past three this morning, because I couldn’t sleep. Zeb hasn’t come home, and I can’t get in touch with him, so I couldn’t sleep. Coming here and keeping busy, that’s the only thing that’s working for me right now.
‘What you doing here so early?’
I turn to see Mack standing in the kitchen doorway, all dishevelled and tired, wearing nothing but battered jeans that hang loose on his hips. I’d forgotten he practically lives here, at the clubhouse. ‘I couldn’t sleep. Thought I could be useful here, keep myself busy.’
He raises an eyebrow. ‘At five in the morning?’
‘Why are you up so early?’
‘I heard a noise. You coulda been anyone, darlin’. And I might not be President of this club no more but I still gotta look after this place. So, why aren’t you running a mile from me, huh? Why aren’t you telling me to get outta here, I mean, we ain’t supposed to be anywhere near each other, are we?’
He walks into the room and goes over to the coffee machine, pouring himself a cup.
‘Zeb isn’t here.’
He looks at me over the rim of his mug. ‘He at home? He know you’re here? ‘Cause if he does I’m reckoning he ain’t gonna be far behind…’
‘I don’t know where he is.’
He narrows his eyes as he continues to look at me.
‘He left here yesterday, after you and him…’ I stop talking for a second and turn away.
‘Izzi?’
‘He said he was going to finish this – whatever the hell this is. And that was the last I saw of him. I don’t know where he went, and he isn’t answering my calls so…’ I turn back around to face Mack, and I shrug. I don’t know what else to do. ‘I couldn’t sleep. Without him. So I came here.’ And now I’m beginning to wonder why. Had I really just “forgotten” that Mack lives here? Or did I come here because I knew that only too well? And at this time in the morning, we’re the only two
people here. Did I realize that? When I rode down here in the dead of night?
He puts his mug down and walks over to me, and I don’t move, I make no attempt to stop him. I don’t know what’s happening anymore, I feel like I’m losing control of everything but I can’t let that happen. I can’t. Not now.
‘You don’t have to stay here, Izzi.’
‘I do,’ I whisper.
He shakes his head and reaches out to stroke my cheek with the back of his hand and the second he touches me I shiver, and I don’t pull away. I let it happen, because I’m scared, and I need just a moment of comfort, just one, brief moment. ‘Let’s get outta here, baby. Let’s leave, right now…’
‘I can’t, Mack.’ I take his hand and gently pull it away from my face, but I keep hold of it. And when his fingers slide between mine I respond by squeezing his hand, and I don’t know why. I can’t do this. Everything’s changed, and it really is too late for us now.
‘He doesn’t deserve you, Izzi.’
‘Please, Mack…’
I feel a wave of pain so unexpected, so intense rip right through me and I take a deep breath, my other hand flying to my stomach.
‘You’re worried about Zeb, I get that…’
‘You know what he’s capable of, Mack. And I don’t know where he is, what he’s planning to do… this whole messed-up scenario, it’s crazy and wrong and I don’t understand…’
‘Zeb isn’t a stupid man, Izzi.’
We both turn around to see Sam walk in, but Mack keeps hold of my hand, despite Sam’s eyes dropping to my fingers wrapped around his. I don’t want to let go. I don’t, because I’m scared.
‘Do you know where he is?’ I finally let go of Mack’s hand and walk over to Sam.
‘No, Izzi, I don’t know where he is. I just know that he won’t do anything stupid.’
Betrayed (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 2) Page 14
