Give Me War

by Kate McCarthy

  “Yeah?” His expression perks up as if he’d love to see me try. “I’m going to enjoy touching you. Fucking a Valentine. Such do-gooders. You all make me sick.”

  “You don’t touch her,” Angel snaps, and her heel comes down hard on his foot with so much force even I jerk backwards. “No one does. Rider’s orders.”

  Kermit lets out an oof, his torso slackening and his hand slipping free from her pants. The reaction gives her room and while holding her right fist in her left hand, she elbows him hard in the gut, the move swift and practiced, as if she’s done it a thousand times before. Kermit curls in on himself as she turns. Putting her hands on his back for leverage, her knee comes up hard and his gut takes another hit.

  He growls and seems to rise taller than himself as he lands a punch to her face that would fell an elephant. She slams slideways into the wall before crumpling to the floor like a little bird, broken and still.

  Oh my God. Is she … ?

  My gaze shifts to Kermit, expecting him to come at me next. Except he doesn’t. He’s breathing hard, his hands fisted by his sides, and he’s staring at the woman like a kid who just broke his favourite toy.

  “Angel?” he croaks and takes a step forward.

  Movement from behind him catches my eye and Renny appears in the doorway, his appearance rumpled as if he just woke up. His eyes drop to Angel on the floor. “Fuck’s sake, Kermit.” His sigh is heavy and exasperated, as if this has happened before. “Pick her up.”

  Kermit’s brows snap together. “Told you before. I’m not Kermit.”

  “Too late for that.” Renny slaps him on the back. “Knight is gone, man. You’re Kermit now.”

  “She called me that once. Fucking once,” he complains. “And now I’m stuck with it for life? I’m not even green!”

  Having been known as Sandwich for most of mine, I’d tell him I feel his pain, but the man can go suck a bag of dicks and then choke on them.

  My eyes shift from Kermit to Renny, and then from Angel to the door. My heart is telling me I need to stay and make sure she’s okay, but my head is telling me to get the hell out of here while the two bikers are distracted.

  My kidnapping is going to start a war.

  A war.

  If I don’t leave, people are going to die. Possibly people that I love and care for with everything I have. Jared would be leading the charge, alongside my brother Coby and my best friends Henry and Casey. Alongside them would be Travis and Mitch, and right beside my eldest brother-in-law would be Kelly. And behind him would be a whole posse of Sentinels along with the Australian Federal Police.

  Then there’s Mac and Quinn, and Grace and Arcadia. Those four would definitely not be leading the charge because they would have a whole other charge of their own in the making, a plan within the plan, coming from an angle the Badass Brigade won’t have even anticipated because those are my girls, and that’s what they do. If you attack one of us, you attack all of us.

  I can’t lose a single one of them. I will not watch another coffin lower into the ground.

  With a silent apology to Angel for leaving her injured self behind, I start inching slowly to the door, trying to remain as unobtrusive as I can. I don’t know what kind of gauntlet I’ll be facing outside this room. I don’t even know where I am, but I can’t sit around and do nothing. I have to try.

  Renny turns his back to me completely as Kermit crouches, checking on Angel as Kermit collects her from the floor. That’s when I see it. The gun. It’s wedged into the back of Renny’s jeans.

  My heart begins to pound so hard in my chest it hurts.

  Changing direction, I yank it from his pants in one swift move, praying to the Gods of Weaponry that it’s loaded. Renny turns, as does Kermit, Angel dangling unresponsive in his arms. I step out of reach, pointing the gun at all of them.

  It’s then I find it. A settling calm. I welcome it like a soothing blanket, wrapping it around me. I’ve been here before and survived it. I can motherfucking do this.

  Not carrying an unconscious woman in his arms makes Renny the biggest threat, so I look to him first. “You ever hear about Jimmy Farrell?”

  “Yeah, I heard about that.” His expression is pissed as if he has a right to be. Freaking jerk. “He put two bullets in you.”

  “That’s right. He got lucky with two quick shots.” My voice cools like this is nothing. Like I deal in standoffs with a gun in my hand every other day. But my insides are quaking and I’m swallowing bile. “You know what the problem is with quick shots?”

  “What?” he asks, taking a cautious step towards me.

  “Do not fucking move and put your hands up slowly.” Renny stops and raises his hands, cocking his head in an expression that tells me I’m going to pay for this. “The problem is the accuracy. You might get the first shot in but what does it matter when the other person takes an extra second to aim and drops you with a bullet to the head?”

  Renny’s chest rises and falls as he takes a slow, heavy breath. “Give me the gun, babe.”

  I cock the weapon with slow deliberation. “Call me babe again. I dare you.”

  He tips his chin. “Give me the gun, Evie.”

  “How about no?”

  “Damn, man.” Kermit’s eyes shift from Renny to me with a twisted expression of admiration. “Your woman be crazy.”

  I keep my gaze on Renny while I speak, knowing he’s liable to strike like the snake in the grass that he is. “I’m not his woman so shut your mouth, you goddamn muppet, or I’ll blow a hole in you and shut it up for good.”

  “Damn those Valentines. I told you,” Kermit says to Renny. “They get all the good ones.”

  Renny ignores him, watching me carefully. “Evie, this is stupid. You can’t waltz out of here with just that. Those bikers out there? They don’t care about you like I do. I’m the only reason you’re alive. There’s going to be a war and they’ll still get one if you’re dead.”

  He speaks some sense. Not the caring about me part, but the part where I can’t waltz out of here with just my wits and a gun.

  I jerk my head towards the door, my hand steady on the weapon. “Out.” My eyes shift to Kermit. “You stay. Set Angel on the bed and make sure she’s okay or so help me God, I will find you in the night and I’ll cut your dick off while you’re sleeping.”

  His nostrils flare but he carries the weight in his arms over to the bed and lowers her down with a gentleness I wasn’t expecting, brushing hair from her face.

  “Out!” I order Renny when he stops moving to watch the spectacle.

  He shuffles backwards out the door, keeping one eye on me and the other on where he’s walking. “Do you even know where you’re going?”

  “Yes. I’m betting you’ve got at least two other guns stashed somewhere. You’re going to take me to them. And then I won’t be waltzing out of here with just this,” I say, nodding at the gun in my hand. “I’ll be walking out of here with a goddamn chance.”

  Renny shakes his head and there’s something in his expression that I can’t decipher. Something soft that I’ve never seen before. “I should never have done it.”

  “Done what?”

  He laughs but the sound is rife with regret. “Let you go.”

  “Yeah? Tell that to the devil when you’re dead, Renny, because you had me once. Jared’s got me now, and I’ve got him, and I’m never letting him go.” My voice cracks with emotion. “He’s the goddamn light that I search for when everything goes dark, and you …” my eyes rake over him with withering indifference. “You’re just some asshole I used to know.”

  4

  JARED

  The previous day …

  “Evie’s pregnant.”

  Casey’s words are like a punch to the gut. I reel backwards, trying to catch my breath. Evie? Pregnant? No. I shake my head. She can’t be. If she was, I’d know. I’d know, wouldn’t I? “She’s not pregnant, Casey.”

  He steps forward, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I found
out this morning.”

  My head is still shaking, denial a hot, twisted ball inside my stomach. “She’s not.” I shrug off his hand. “You’re wrong.”

  If she was pregnant, she would tell me. She would tell me before anyone else. Wouldn’t she?

  These past weeks I’ve felt her distance even more. Maybe … maybe I’m the last person she’d want to tell. Maybe she’s realised that I’m not the man she thought I was. I know I’m not perfect. My temper can be short sometimes. Mostly when it comes to other guys. But the private messages they try sending her through social media makes me sick and ragey. She’s clearly married. Mine. And those pathetic bastards think they have some kind of chance? I can also be a irrational and act like a five-year-old when I don’t get my way. My God. I need to stop travelling down this path because I’m starting to wonder why she married me at all.

  Then my thoughts take a dark turn.

  Was she planning on leaving me?

  I drop that thought like a hot potato.

  She’s not leaving.

  Not ever.

  I won’t let her.

  “I’m sorry,” Casey adds, sympathy in his tone for the way I’m finding out the news.

  I swipe both hands across my face. “How did you find out?”

  He shrugs. “I guessed.”

  My brows rise, incredulous. “You guessed?”

  I see her every day. She sleeps in my bed every night. I wake up with her every morning. And Casey, who only sees her for a surf every few days, guessed?

  Did I really pay her that little attention?

  Yes, you fucking idiot. You were so busy trying to hide your feelings by avoiding her that you forgot how important your attention was.

  She was up and out of bed before me every morning. Was it morning sickness? I would roll over on the mattress and feign sleep, swamped with relief that she wouldn’t see the ache of failure in my eyes.

  I did everything in the house. Making breakfast, doing dishes, laundry, dinner, pushing Evie away as I took charge. I couldn’t give her a baby but if I could take care of her and Wolf, and our house, she would see how much she still needed me.

  But as I stand here, absorbing Casey’s bombshell revelation, I realise that isn’t how she needed me at all, is it? I pushed her away in my efforts to stay in her life, and I can’t even comprehend that kind of dumb logic.

  All I had to do was open my mouth and tell her how much it hurt and hold her while she hurt too. And now … now ….

  My chest squeezes with fear.

  Now the Vipers have my wife and my unborn child.

  My little sister appears in our huddle, speaking to Casey. “Are you telling him?”

  “Telling him what?”

  “About Evie.” Her voice lowers to a harsh whisper. “The baby.”

  My eyes cut to hers. “You know?” I huff with frustration. “What was I thinking? Of course you know. Everyone does but me,” I bark, throwing my arms up. “Her own husband.”

  Mac narrows her gaze. “No time for a pity party, asshead. Besides, she didn’t tell me. I guessed.”

  I grit my teeth, looking beyond her shoulder and finding Henry now here, too. His face is pale but I don’t miss the sympathy in his eyes. Does he know too?

  All signs point to yes.

  “She was waiting until tomorrow to tell you, by the way. It’s supposed to be your Christmas present.” She turns her head a little, muttering under her breath. “A present you don’t deserve, you fucking f—”

  My voice is steel. “I can hear you.”

  Her eyes narrow further. “Fix this.”

  “I’m trying.” I wave a hand at her posse. “So get your little girl gang together and leave before Mitch gets here and sees you. He will lose his shit.”

  Pain rises in her eyes at the thought of hurting her brother any more than he still is, even now, years after losing Gabriella. Our eldest brother has a hair trigger when it comes to situations like this and the girls getting involved. Gabriella was trained. Experienced. And yet it still wasn’t enough to save her. Mac and her girls are just amateurs bumbling around in the dark and she knows it. “We’re not a little girl gang,” she mutters, pursing her lips.

  “You’re not. I’m sorry,” I say, not liking the pain in her eyes. “But you need to leave.” I can’t focus on finding Evie when I have to worry about my sister going rogue. Again. “Please, Mac.”

  The protest doesn’t come. Instead her eyes come back to me, her chin high. “Okay. We’ll leave.” Her expression takes on a note of warning. “But you bring her back, Jared.” Her voice cracks and she starts walking backwards, toward her girls, her voice rising. “You bring her back unharmed or I swear I’ll wipe the Earth clean of every Viper in existence.”

  Not before I do it first.

  The girls leave, just missing Mitch by a few minutes. He leaves his Subaru by the kerb and jogs over to our group. Sunglasses cover his eyes, and his badge is already tucked into his jeans and on display. My eldest brother looks to me first. “What do we know?”

  “The Vipers have her,” I tell him.

  He visibly reels and ducks his head, rubbing the back of his neck with a muttered curse.

  “Mitch.” I’m barely holding on. Seeing my eldest brother lose it is going to snap the tenuous hold on my panic.

  My brother straightens, pushing away from my car, and I watch as he locks himself down until there’s nothing left on his face except determination and hard eyes. He does it like a trained professional, so well that when the words, “I can’t lose her,” leaves my terrified lips, he doesn’t even flinch. He just nods and turns his head, jabbing his finger at Kelly. “Call off your Sentinels,” he barks. “Right now.”

  Kelly shakes his head. “No fuckin’ way. You—”

  Mitch holds up a hand, cutting him off as he dials a number on his phone. He puts it to his ear and strides away.

  Kelly looks at me and I shake my head, knowing I need to trust my brother. “Just do what he says, Daniels. As much as I want to, we can’t rush into this until we know more.”

  “That’s your plan?” Kelly snarls in my face. “To just stand around and wait for the police to bumble their way through, wastin’ hours of time with their stupid paperwork and procedures?”

  “Daniels,” Fox interjects with a hand on his shoulder, holding Kelly back when it looks like he wants to come at me.

  The leash on my panic snaps and I come at him instead. That he would accuse me of sitting on my hands while some fucker has my wife? “What do you even know, huh? You’re ready to go all out guns blazing while we have no proof that the Vipers even have her.” I shove his chest hard. He stumbles back before leaping at me. Pushing me back. I take a swing but everyone jumps in, holding us back from each other, and I don’t land the hit I’m so aching to give. “You got proof, Sentinel?”

  “Whadda you want?” he yells. “A fuckin’ affidavit? Let me go waste a coupla hours while I write you one up.”

  “You sonofabitch.” I shove forward, pushing against the arms that hold me back. “Why should I trust you? Huh?”

  Kelly stops struggling at my words, pissed, and flings Fox and Jake away from him.

  We all stand there, a cyclone of wild, raging testosterone, until Casey steps in, his voice quiet as he looks at me. “You should trust him because I do.” Kelly freezes, looking to his brother. Casey nods at him, then looks at me. “He’s here because he has your back, just like we all do, okay? So what’s your plan?”

  I don’t have a goddamn plan. Instinct tells me to go in, all guns blazing just like I know Kelly would do given half the chance. But my head tells me we need to be smart about this. I can’t risk Evie being caught in the crossfire. She’s been there once before and I can’t believe we’re here again. In the same situation.

  I take a rough breath and meet Kelly’s frustrated blue eyes. Casey’s right. He doesn’t have to be here. He doesn’t have to risk anything. He’s on my side, for fucks sake, and having a Sent
inel on my side is a valuable thing. I give him a nod. “You’re with me.” Then I look to Coby, my brother-in-law. We started Jamieson and Valentine Consulting together. Just the two of us, before bringing Travis and Casey on board. He’s one of my best friends and I can’t blame him for pinning this on me. But we don’t have time to hash this out right now and he knows it. “You too.”

  I start walking, heading for the shops across the road. He falls into step beside me.

  “Jared!” Mitch yells at my back.

  I don’t stop.

  The shops along the strip are all open, though only one would’ve been open at the time Evie was at the beach. It’s also the closest shop to where she was parked. A bakery that also serves coffee. I go straight for it, pushing through a line of customers as I approach the server—a guy in his late teens with a slender frame, a harried expression, and a badge telling me his name is Theo. “Mate, you have cameras?”

  “Cameras? What?” Theo jerks his head at the griping customers behind me. “You want something, you need to get in line.”

  Coby is already canvassing the store. He looks to me and shakes his head. “No cameras.”

  Fuck.

  “What time did you start work?”

  “What?” He shakes his head like I’ve lost it. “Dude, you need to go.”

  Kelly’s voice is hard as he leans over the counter. “Answer the question.”

  “I’m not—”

  Mitch appears, flashing his badge.

  “Oh Jesus.” Theo visibly blanches and steps backwards. “I told them not to do it. I—”

  “Do what?” Mitch barks.

  “The iPad. I t-told them not to t-take it, but the car was unlocked and they—”

  “Step around from the counter,” Kelly orders him, done with all the bullshit. “You’re comin’ with us.”

  “Oh Jesus,” he moans again and sways as if he’s about to keel over.

  “We just need you to answer some questions,” Mitch interjects before the kid passes out.