by Evelyn Glass
“Nice try!”
“We have a man inside with a gun on…” Scott paused as he tried to remember Val’s wife’s name.
“Jodi,” Ed supplied.
“Jodi! She and your kids are safe, but it’s up to you how safe they stay!”
“I’m not falling for your stupid amateur hour tricks, boy.”
“She’s wearing a light blue top and khaki shorts!” Scott lowered his voice. “Ed, call Angela! Have her give Jodi the phone and have her call Val.”
“I still think you’re lying!”
“Just wait! We’re contacting our man inside. She’s going to call you.”
“Angela!” Ed said when she answered the phone. “Pass the phone to Jodi. Have her call Val! We’ve got a situation out here!”
A moment later they heard a phone ring and Val muttering something before raising his voice. “Angela is your man inside?”
“All it takes is one pull of the trigger!” Scott replied. “Are you willing to take that chance?”
Val was quiet a moment. “No deal!”
“Fuck!” Scott snarled. “What now?”
Ed grimaced. “Damned if I know.”
“Anybody?” Scott asked, looking at the men behind the truck with him, but none of them had an answer.
“Val, this isn’t really about Jess. It’s about me!” Scott called, thinking furiously. “I’m the one that fucked everything up! You don’t want Jess. You want me.”
“Scott! No!” Jess hissed.
Scott put his fingers to his lips to hush her, waiting for Val to answer.
“If I let Jess go, you’ll stay, is that it?”
Scott handed Ed his weapon then stood up, hands up where Val could see them. All the Angels were spread out in a fan, peeking out from behind cover, with the exception of Val. He was standing in the middle of the yard, without cover, as if daring Scott to shoot him. “I believe you’re a sporting man. How about a wager? Just between you and me. You up for that?”
“Why shouldn’t I just kill you now?”
“Because a lot of innocent people are going to get hurt or killed, including your wife and kids. But I’m offering you a chance to get what you want without all of that.”
“I told you. No deal.”
“I’ve broken your club, Val, all by myself. Your men are joining me because they know you’re wrong. Hell, over half your club is already on my side, and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. You know why? Because I’m better than you.”
Scott ducked behind the truck just as Val shot, a bullet hole appearing above his head as the bullet passed all the way through the bed. “That got him,” Scott said, looking at Ed with a grin.
“What’s the matter, Val? Truth hurt?” Ed yelled.
“Ed?” Val asked. “You’re part of this? What the fuck?”
“Yeah! Me and a bunch more. You’re going to lose, Val.”
“I never fucking lose!”
“Then prove it!” Scott said, slowly standing up again. “Let’s see who the better man is. Mano a mano.”
Scott watched as Val looked at his men. Scott couldn’t see them all from his vantage point, but the two he could see were looking at Val expectantly.
“What do you want?” Val asked.
“Simple. Me and you, winner take all. If I win, I leave with Jess and you leave us alone forever.”
“And if I win?”
“Then you’ll have the satisfaction of killing me with your bare hands.”
“Scott! No!” Jess hissed again. She jumped to her feet beside him. “No! No deal!”
Val looked at Jess, his eyes hard. He hadn’t planned on agreeing with to Scott’s demands. If it weren’t for Angela holding a gun on his wife and kids, especially his kids, Scott would be dead already. But if Jess didn’t want it to happen, that sweetened the deal a little. He was going to break that little bitch and show her who was boss, and killing her boyfriend in front of her would be a good first step. “Done.”
“No!” Jess yelled.
The moment he agreed, Ed pushed send on his phone. A moment later, all the Angels phones announced the arrival of a text. The men cowering behind the truck looked at each other.
“Insurance,” Ed said with a grin.
“Done,” Scott agreed.
Randy pulled his phone out and read the text aloud. “Val and Scott, tonight, at the farm. Winner take all fight… no weapons. All come.”
“Scott, no…you don’t know Val! He’ll kill you!” Jess begged.
“That’s the only way he wins,” he said softly.
“You’re not leaving until this is settled.” Val said. “All of you, leave your weapons and step out from behind the truck.
Scott took Jess by the waist and led her from behind the truck, the rest of the Angels laying down their guns before standing and following.
“Kill them,” Val growled as the men stepped out from behind the Ford. He would deal with Angela next. When none of his men moved, Val shrugged and brought his gun up. “Fine. I’ll do it myself.”
“Don’t do it Val,” Chuck said, his weapon coming up to point at Val. You agreed to settle it old school.”
Val turned to look at his men, his eyes hard. “You would shoot me?”
“I won’t follow anyone I can’t trust. You agreed to this. I expect you to follow through.”
Val’s eyes roamed over his men. “That the way you all feel?”
“Yeah, Val. That’s how I feel. If I can’t trust the President to keep his word, who can I trust?” Danny said, and the others nodded.
Val glared at his men. “Fine. I’ll give you your fucking show. But after I break this fucker in half, there is going to be some changes.”
“I suspect so,” Ed said just loud enough for everyone to hear.
“They are not leaving, understood?” Val snarled, jabbing a thick finger in Scott’s direction.
“Understood,” Greg said, tucking his weapon away. “If he tries to leave, I’ll kill him myself.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Scott said. “This ends here, tonight, one way or the other. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”
“Put them in the barn,” Val ordered then thought of all the expensive toys housed there and what happened to his basement. “No! On second thought, put them in the basement. There is nothing else for them to break down there…and somebody go get that asshole Rick and dispose of the body. You’ll find him on the old logging road.”
Scott’s heart sank as Val spoke. That’s another one I owe you, you fucker, Scott thought to himself.
“All of them?” Danny asked.
“All of them and that bitch Angela, too.”
As they were escorted toward the house, Chuck stepped up beside Ed. “When this is all over, you and I have a score to settle.”
“Whenever you’re ready, Junior.”
“When I kick your ass, I’m taking my winnings out of Angela.”
Ed began to chuckle. “Son, she will break it off inside of her and then feed it to you.”
When they approached the door to the kitchen, Val stopped them. “Call her off or you’re dead right here.”
Scott nodded. “Angela, its Scott! Can you hear me?” he shouted loud enough for her to hear inside the house.
“Yeah! Everything okay?”
“More or less! We’re coming in! Don’t shoot!” He opened the door and stepped through, Jess right behind him. But when Val stepped through next, Angela’s smile disappeared in an instant.
“It’s okay. Give Val the gun,” Ed said, stepping into the room behind Val. Angela hesitated, unsure of what to do.
“It’s okay. Give him the gun,” Scott said.
She looked back to Ed, and when he nodded, she handed the gun over. The moment the gun was out of her hand, Jodi grabbed her by the arm, turned her, and punched her right in the face. Angela staggered back a couple of steps, blood pouring from her busted lip. She paused a moment as she shook of
f the blow, then spat a red mass onto the tile floor and charged Jodi.
Ed grabbed her and held her back. “Save it!”
Angela struggled against Ed a moment then stopped, spat again, and then wiped her mouth. “You’ll get yours,” she snarled.
“Come on, bitch!” Jodi sneered, calling Angela to her with her fingers.
“Knock it off!” Val bellowed. “Get them in the goddamn basement!”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
After being herded into the basement, Scott took Jess’s chin in his hand and gently turned her face from side to side. The left side was swelling, her lip split and puffy, and her shirt in tatters, not to mention the fact that she was also dirty, had leaves and twigs in her hair, and was covered in faint bruises and welts. In short, she looked like hell, but to him, she had never been more beautiful.
“I’ll kill Val for this.”
Jess smiled, as everyone stood around her, waiting to hear the tail of her ordeal. “This?” she asked, with a dismissive wave at her face. “Val didn’t do this. This was Karen.”
Scott looked to Ed, then Angela. “Karen Reaves. Marc Reaves’ wife,” Ed explained. Scott hadn’t been in Detroit long enough before the shit hit the fan to have met, much less remember, all the old ladies and who went with whom.
“Your Vice President?” Scott asked and then he looked back to Jess.
“I stabbed him with a piece of glass. She took exception to that.”
“I hope you kicked her ass!” Angela crowed.
“She was lying in the floor when I kneed Greg and escaped.”
“Wait! There were two of them?” Angela asked, impressed in spite of herself. She knew Jess was a tough cookie, but she didn’t realize just how tough. To have taken down Karen was feat enough, but to have taken out Greg, as well…
“Greg and Karen. The sick bastard just stood there with a hard-on and watched us try to kill each other.” Jess smiled as she remembers how much she enjoyed kneeing that asshole in the plums. “I told him I was horny from the fight and I wanted to fuck him. Then I kneed him and ran.”
“And you broke all this stuff in the fight?” Randy asked incredulously. He would never admit it, but that must have been one a hell of a fight and he wouldn’t have minded seeing that himself.
Jess smiled. “No. I did this all by myself. I was so pissed off I just went nuts.”
“But you’re okay now?” Scott asked.
She melted into his arms. “Better than okay,” she murmured as they held each other. All her aches and pains paled in comparison to the warmth she felt from being in Scott’s arms again. He had come to her rescue, once again, her eyes closing as she snuggled into his chest.
“I knew you would come for me,” she whispered, the rest of the Angels disappearing as his cheek rested against her head.
“I will go anywhere, do anything, for you, Jess,” he murmured. They stood like that for many long moments, the rest of the Angels huddling together on the other side of the room to give them some privacy. “I love you, Jess.”
She swallowed her tears. At that moment she realized that she was falling in love with him. He was everything she wanted in a man, kind, gentle, protective and understanding. “I love you, too,” she murmured, looking into his eyes until he brought his lips to hers to kiss her softly. Her lip hurt, but the discomfort was drowned out by the feelings of warmth and belonging that were pouring through her.
***
“Do you think Scott can take him?” Angela asked after Ed explained what had happened outside.
“I don’t know,” Ed admitted. “But we were really pinned in. We didn’t have a lot of options.”
“Scott is a tough son-of-a-bitch.”
“I know,” Ed agreed. “But Val is a brawler from way back. He fights dirty and has size and reach on him. I hope Scott can take him, but I don’t know.”
“What happens to us?”
“I don’t know that either,” Ed admitted. “If Val wins, it’s going to go hard for us, that much is certain. But even if Scott wins, I don’t know. But I had to do this, babe. This was wrong on so many levels.”
Angela pulled her man to her for a slow, lingering kiss. “I know. Thank you.” Angela looked at Ed and smiled. If it was all going to end tonight, then there was something she had to take care of first. “Ed and I have some business, alone, in the sauna,” she said as she began to walk backwards toward the small wooden room tucked into the corner. “Ignore the noise.”
The rest of the Angels laughed and ignored them as Angela led Ed into the room and closed the door.
***
“Let’s get you cleaned up and changed,” Scott said after taking a deep breath, relaxing his embrace on his lover. “Do you have any extra clothes?”
“Yeah. Mom brought me some.”
“Where?” Scott asked, looking around the room.
Jess stepped out of his embrace and picked up a paper bag from beside the couch. She pulled the last pair of clean pants, shirt, and panties from the bag. She would have to continue to go braless because she didn’t have another one. “There’s a shower in the bathroom.”
Even though there was no place for her to go, he didn’t want her out of his sight, even for a moment, so he followed her into the bathroom. It was irrational, and he knew it, but he had just gotten her back and he would be damned if he lost her again.
“Jesus, you really wrecked the place,” he said dryly as she sat her clothes on the toilet seat and he closed the door behind them.
“This? Karen and I did this. I ran in here and tried to lock the door, but I wasn’t fast enough.” She hissed in pain as she tried to get her shirt off. “I think I nearly broke my elbow when we were in the tub.”
“Jesus…you two were in the tub? Fighting?”
“Yeah. She was trying to kill me.” Jess paused a moment as she began to skin out of her pants. “Of course, to be fair, I was trying to kill her, too.”
Scott picked up the curtain and looked at it, but then tossed it aside. The bracket was broken, but considering all the damage in the basement, a little water in the floor was going to be the least of the Val’s problems.
“Jesus,” Scott muttered again as Jess continued to undress. She was covered in bruises and, though not dark yet, they were everywhere. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“To be honest…I’m starting to hurt. But, yeah, I’m okay now.” She stepped under the shower and let the water pour over her for several minutes, the warmth of it soothing the aches away.
After a moment, Jess picked up the shampoo and, after squirting a healthy dollop into her hand, began to scrub her hair, her face twisting in discomfort as she did.
“Here, let me help. Turn around,” Scott said, stepping up to the tub. She stepped out from under the water and put her hands down as he lathered her hair for her, picking bits of forest and trash out of it as he did. “Rinse,” he said when he had finished.
Jess stepped under the nozzle, allowing the cascading water to sluice away the shampoo, but made a face when she reached for her hair again. She didn’t know what she did to her shoulder, but every time she reached over her head, it hurt.
“Don’t,” Scott said softly. “Hand me the shampoo and I will wash your hair again, then I will help you rinse it out.”
“You’ll get wet,” she said as she handed him the bottle.
“It’s all right.” When she stepped out from under the water, he lathered her hair again, still picking out the occasional bit of leaf. Saying nothing, he nudged her back under the water. The water was going everywhere, wetting him down as it splattered off his hands and ran down his arms, but he didn’t care.
“There you go,” he said when he was confident all the soap was gone.
“Do the rest of me?”
“You want me to wash the rest of you?”
“Do you mind?”
“No, of course not. Hand me the soap.”
She handed him the soap and stood still as his hands roa
med her body, his touch gentle as he cleaned her. She was going to be sore as hell tomorrow, but for the moment, the warm water had eased her pains. “Did you hear that?” she asked as his hands slid slowly down her legs.
“Hear what?”
“Listen.”
They were quiet for a moment, Scott straining to hear anything other than the hiss of the shower, then he heard it. A moan of a woman in great pleasure, followed by a man’s muttering voice. He couldn’t understand the words, but it had to be Ed and Angela in the sauna that shared a wall with the bathroom.
