Some and the Flame

by Michelle, Christine

  We all watched as the fucker glanced in the direction of the other man and clammed up at seeing the ruthless look on his face. He promised to do more harm to the man with one look than we could ever threaten. It didn’t matter that he’d been captured too. You wouldn’t know it by the menacing air he was putting off.

  “He sold us to that guy,” Lindsay, Shep’s sister, cried as she pointed to the tatted up bastard that was now staring daggers at her.

  “Get that fucker out of here,” I told Wren. He nodded his head and hit the guy with the butt of his gun. The man dropped like a sack of potatoes and, once he was out, they managed to find shit to tie him up with in the kitchen. Wren stuck around in the kitchen to stand guard and keep an eye on the back door while the rest of us gathered in the living room to figure out exactly what the fuck was going on.

  “Now, why would a man sell his wife and stepdaughter to some inked-up thug?” I asked. Chad Montgomery, the man in question, looked up at me and started laughing.

  “You think I’m afraid of you boys and your little bikes you ride? I’m not.”

  “He owes money,” Tammy pipped up.

  “Shut your fucking mouth, you stupid cunt!”

  “You can kiss my ass, Chad! You just sold my daughter to pay off your gambling debts!” Tammy shrieked across the living room at her piece of shit husband.

  “Sold you too, bitch!”

  “Yeah?” She asked, smugly. “How’d that work out for ya?”

  That was when the dick blanched, and finally realized the situation he was in. Either way, he wouldn’t be coming out of this shitstorm alive. If we didn’t take him out – and we would – the assholes he was dealing with sure as fuck would be back to try to claim what they thought was their rightful payment for his debts.

  After I let it sink for a minute, I gripped his greasy blond hair and pulled his head back so he could look me in the eyes. “Now that you figured out your lot in life – what’s left of it – maybe you want to start talking? We’ll make it quick and relatively painless if you do. Those other fucks don’t look like they’ll make it painless or quick for you.”

  “I can’t. They’ll know I talked.”

  “So, you’ll be dead,” Bender laughed. “What are they going to do? Bring you back?”

  “They’ll go after my wife and kids,” he shouted as the acrid smell of urine started to fill the room.

  “Did you just piss yourself?” I asked as my nose wrinkled up at the smell.

  “You already sold your wife and kid to them!” Shep yelled.

  “That cunt don’t mean shit to me, and that little bitch ain’t no kid of mine,” Chad snarled.

  “What?” Tammy shrieked.

  “That’s right, cunt. We ain’t legally married. I already have a real woman back home. We were just taking a break when I met you. Figured I could have you on the side, but fuck if you weren’t too much work. Thought you’d help pay some of the debt off since you work at the hospital, but I didn’t realize you were fucking downing in those credit cards.”

  “You sorry ass motherfucker!” She screeched and before anyone knew what was happened she jumped up, grabbed the shotgun we’d tossed to the side, and shot the fucker right in the head.

  “Jesus!” I yelled as I jumped back out of the way. Bender swore and dove out of the way too. Shep managed to tackle his mother, a little too late.

  “Momma?” Lindsay called out, shocked and sounding far younger than she looked at first glance only moments ago.

  “Oh God! What did I do?” Tammy started wailing.

  “Eto nereal'no,” We heard the other man mutter amidst his own laughter.

  “You have a basement here?” Wren asked from the kitchen?”

  “Yes,” Tammy told him as she stood there shaking like a leaf. Obviously, shock was starting to set in either over her circumstances or the fact that she’d just shot and killed her fake husband, I didn’t know.

  “Let’s get this mess down there too,” I told Bender. He nodded his head and helped me move the body as Chief did his best to shield Lindsay’s view of what was happening. Not that it mattered all that much after she was nearly abducted and watched her mom shoot the man she thought was her stepfather.

  “Do we have to find his family now?” Tammy was asking.

  “You will do no such thing. That’s for the police to do, if they can identify him. I’m thinking the woman already knows he’s a peace of shit, considering they were on a long enough break that he was able to set up house with a new woman and be involved enough with you that you were willing to marry him.”

  I didn’t see or hear Tammy’s response, but I knew Chief was about to put the fear of God and the Aces High MC into both women. If they talked, and our involvement became known, that would be a problem for our club that was damn near ready for all its chapters to go 100 percent legit. We had done our time as one percenters and that time was coming to an end, because there was just too much loss involved. The risks didn’t outweigh the reward in this day and age.

  Once we had the body moved to the basement, we called up for Wren to send the other asshole down. He did, with a swift kick to the ass, the dipshit tumbled down the steps and landed in a heap at our feet. I knelt beside the man and realized, by the odd angle of his neck, that we weren’t going to get to question him either.

  “What the fuck, Wren?”

  “Sorry man, he was getting feisty.”

  “Well, he’s dead now,” I informed him as he came down the steps to see for himself.

  “Shit, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “Let’s get some pictures of his tats. Maybe they’ll lead us to whoever he was working for. My best guess though is Russians. That’s what this shit looks like,” I told them pointing out a few of the tattoos. “We had that one guy before,” I started to say, but couldn’t think of his name.

  “Yeah, I remember. He wanted to be a prospect, right?”

  “He was a hang around for a while until he ended up dead,” I confirmed. “He had similar shit inked on him.”

  “Okay, well it gives us a jumping off point,” Bender mentioned as he started pouring what looked like lighter fluid on the two bodies. “Go on upstairs and give me a shout when everyone’s clear. I’ll have this place torched in no time.”

  Thankfully, the house was not sitting terribly close to any of the others in the neighborhood. “Let’s go get the girls back home and hidden away for a while.”

  Once we were far enough away from the house, we let Bender know it was okay to light it up, and he took off too, catching up to us quickly, before we managed to haul ass out of there. We had managed to get some of the girls’ things into the truck before we took off, so at least they wouldn’t have to start over completely. We were clear of the area before we found a storage unit to put their belongings in, and then we doubled back and headed in the opposite direction of Cedar Falls. The stop to unload their shit was necessary because we didn’t want to be hauling a bunch of shit if we ended up with a tail of any kind. We managed to roll through Ohio and Pennsylvania, stopping there overnight at a piece of property we had with a few barns on it. We had converted one of them into a pretty sick shelter that was housed underground, beneath one of the barns. They all just looked like aging, decrepit buildings. As soon as we were all rested, we headed out again, stopping each day, for three days, in a new place. It was all done to throw the trail.

  From our last stop, we separated and went in different directions with the same destination in mind. I Was pretty sure Wren was headed back to report in with Ghost about the possible blowback from our trip. Bender and Chief took off on their own on the last day too. I helped Shep get the girls settled into a hotel just outside of Cedar Falls until he could figure out what to do with them. I wasn’t entirely sure four hours away from the scene of the crime was enough. Luckily, he agreed with me.

  Once everyone was settled, the only thing on my mind was getting back to Poppy. Little did I know, I was going to
have some explaining and groveling to do since I hadn’t had a phone with me, and apparently Chief hadn’t contacted her either. I knew a way to make it all up to her though. A couple days after we got back, I took her to her first Penguins game in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, we weren’t really able to do more than say hello to my brother afterward, but that didn’t seem to matter to Poppy. What mattered was us being there together, and it only endeared me to her even more.

  Chapter 5

  The hockey game had gone a long way toward winning Poppy’s good graces back. None of us had heard anything down the wire about what happened with Shep’s family either, which was a fucking miracle, and left us all feeling a bit on edge at the same time. There was no way, if this had been mafia related as we had originally assumed, that they would leave it. We all knew that war was a possibility on our horizon, and still, we were all determined to go about living our lives as if there was nothing any different brewing somewhere in the background. Sure, we were all a little more vigilant, but it wasn’t stopping us from living. I was in the process of living and working my latest shift at CFFRD when I glanced down at my new cell phone and saw a message there from my sister, Soph.

  Soph: What are you bringing tomorrow?

  Me: ?

  I had no clue what she was on about now. I was probably supposed to babysit Brantley again and forgot or something.

  Soph: Please, tell me you’re not coming with the tramp from Georgia!

  Me: Whoa! What the fuck, Soph?

  Soph: After Julie, that’s really what you want to hook yourself to? An already married woman?

  Me: Soph? What the hell is going on, and where do you expect I’ll be tomorrow?

  Soph: Club cook out tomorrow, idiot.

  Me: Shit, I forgot all about that.

  Sophie: No shit, Sherlock!

  Me: I guess I’ll be stopping by.

  Sophie: Without a guest, right?

  Me: This is the only warning you will get, little sister. Check your attitude! My decisions are just that. Mine!

  Soph: Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when it all blows up in your face and she runs back to Georgia with her ex. That’s how club bitches roll, and you know it. They find out he’s cheating, they leave. Then they miss club life, and go right back. All forgiven.

  Me: You seriously have no clue what you’re talking about, so stop.

  I couldn’t believe my sister had the nerve to talk about Poppy like that. Normally, Soph didn’t have a mean bone in her body so I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her. Just to be sure I wouldn’t have any trouble out of her, I sent a text to her man, my club brother.

  Me: You need to put your woman on a short leash tomorrow. The shit she just had to say about Poppy – Chief’s sister – was completely vile.

  Bender: Shit. I’ll have a talk with her.

  Me: Good luck with that. She gets in Poppy’s face tomorrow though, there will be problems. The woman is club even if she isn’t with me or her ex. She’s club because Chief would never allow her to be tossed aside.

  Bender: I know it. I’ll make sure your sister behaves.

  I shook my head as I glanced down at his message. I didn’t know when exactly my world had flipped upside down, but having to sic my sister’s old man on her was something completely new. I didn’t get much time to contemplate that though because we were up, and I had to get to my engine and roll out.

  “Two alarm,” someone called out as I rushed into my gear. Shit, that meant we were probably looking at a long call. Two alarms were rare in our area since everything was so spread out, but when we got them, they went one of two ways. Either the extra units were barely necessary, or we were quickly upgraded to a three alarm because of proximity to other buildings or the size of the original fire. It was obvious by the time we rolled up to the scene that this fire would fall into the latter category. I pulled in a deep breath and prepared myself for a long night just before I jumped into the action.

  When I finally got to knock off of my shift, I was already 52 minutes into my day off. We got slammed back to back with the two-alarm fire that became a three alarm before we even started, then there was a traffic accident followed by an overturned chemical truck we had to be on standby for. We had just rolled in from yet another accident where we had to use the jaws to get the driver out. I was beat, my muscles ached, and honestly all I wanted to do was ride out to Poppy’s place and wrap myself around her for a little while.

  Then I remembered I needed to check in with Gray since I was finally done with the damn shift from hell. He had texted me about needing to celebrate while I was in Pittsburgh with Poppy. I figured I better do it before I left work because once I got my woman back in my arms, I wasn’t about to let her go. I had the next two days off and nothing on the horizon with club business that would need to be handled. That meant I was going to be all hers for two whole days. I just hoped she was ready for that since we were still blurring the ‘just friends’ and ‘friends with benefits’ line a bit.

  If she wasn’t still married and dealing with all the shit her ex-asshole had put her through, I would have already claimed her properly. The fact of the matter was that going at her pace didn’t seem to be the easy task it should have been. I wanted more, and I was selfish enough to want it all right the fuck now. I shook the thought off, knowing it couldn’t happen that way, and I texted Gray.

  Me: What’s up with the need to celebrate? Just got off shift and want to spend the next two days off with Poppy, but if you need me, I’ll see if we can block out some time for you.

  It took about twenty minutes for Gray to respond.

  Gray: Fuck! Those bathrooms are nasty down the back hall, dude.

  I couldn’t help the laugh that forced its way out of my exhausted body. I remembered the days when I was a prospect. At least I had been much younger back then. Gray was a full-grown man and having to clean up after clubhouse rancidness was not something full grown men easily stooped to. That’s why those shit details showed a man’s mettle.

  Me: Remember those days – not fondly. What’s going on?

  Gray: Asked Ghost – the club – to help me with a poker run to raise some cash for Beth and Abby. Ghost said absul-fuckin-lutely. It’s on, already been planning.

  Me: Outstanding. Let me know what we can do to help.

  Gray: Can Poppy bake or cook? I want to get a bake sale type thing going at some of the stops along the run to help with raising more funds. Thinking about having the old ladies set up a swap meet style booth or table too towards the end. Then an auction.

  Me: Damn, man, you’re going all in. Sure, you don’t see more in Beth than just a man trying to help?

  Gray: Nah. She’s a sweet lady, her daughter is a cutie, but I think of her more as a sister that needs help since half her family just died.

  Me: Headed to Poppy now. I’ll give her your number. Sure, she’d be glad to help out.

  Gray: Thanks, dude.

  I chuckled at the last text. He just couldn’t help himself. Poor asshole was going to get landed with the Surfer moniker whether he liked it or not, and it was his own damn fault.

  That was all the thought I was willing to give Gray though. It was amazing what he was doing for a woman and her child that he only met because he was part of the emergency crew that showed up after the accident she was involved in. I had been there too, but in a different capacity. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have reacted the same way if I had been in his shoes, and in such close proximity to the woman’s heartache. She had lost her husband and two older children in that wreck. Both fire and rescue were trained that we were not supposed to get involved with the victims once we were relieved from our duties. Sometimes, that just wasn’t possible.

  In Gray’s case, he had been there with his hands on the woman, trying to stabilize her when she’d become conscious again. The first thing she saw was one of the dead children, then her husband, and she had lost her shit. Gray had talked her down and he stuck with her and
the baby that survived through the whole ordeal. Then, he went a step beyond and started going to check in on her and the baby, knowing they didn’t have anyone, and that it was impossible with Beth’s injuries for her to take care of certain things. Gray was one of the good ones. Even so, I was chucking him to the back of my mind, because the only thing I wanted more than the air that kept me alive was to be in Poppy’s arms. I wish I could play it cool and pretend I didn’t have intense feelings toward her from the very start, but I did. It was also unlike anything I’d ever experienced before and that was a revelation in and of itself considering how long I attached myself to my ex. How had I allowed myself to be lulled into the tedium of relationship that could be described that way? Hell, how had my family ever thought I was happy in that existence? More importantly, how the hell was I going to get Poppy to go along with the game plan of her and I being together for the long haul? Doubt niggled at my mind making me wonder if she’d even let me crawl into bed and curl up with her once I got to her house. I had just been heading there because of this desire I had to wrap my body around hers and take comfort from the warmth she gave so freely without even realizing she was doing it. It never dawned on me until I was pulling in her driveway that she might not feel the same.

  I’d just have to convince her to allow me to stay there. Her ex had done a number on her, and I was afraid that us meeting so soon after would have repercussions I wasn’t going to be happy with. The texts my sister had sent me earlier came to mind. While I was angry at Soph for the way she chose to deliver her message, it wasn’t honestly anything I hadn’t already considered. What if Poppy ended up back in Georgia? What if her ex won her over somehow? I wasn’t sure how I would handle that, because I was already well and truly attached to the woman. Even though I had my own concerns I thought Soph was wrong this time, but what did I know? My last woman had come on to my brother, offering to ‘trade up’ to him because she thought he was the better choice, and because he never told me about it I stayed with her for four more years. I shook my head. I just didn’t see Poppy being that type of person. It turned out that all my doubts were for nothing. She had no problem with me coming in and getting comfortable with her for a while. I’d take what I could get. For now.