Behind Blue Eyes

by Jordan Abbott

  “That’s why I don’t have a wife,” Pipe replied. “They spend all of your money!”

  “More reasons than that why you don’t have a wife,” Nuke jested in an attempt to release some of the tension he was feeling.

  “Anyhow,” Medic said as he regained his composure. “The dead woman, she’s older, much older than our GSW in there. Women dressed like her and at her age don’t end up dead on the sidewalk by a biker clubhouse.”

  “Did the guy at least tell you if he’s 822 loyal?” Nuke asked.

  Medic shook his head.

  “I’ll make him talk!” Pipe said harshly.

  They opened the door and walked into the bedroom. The uninvited guest was on his side facing away from the door. His wavy blonde hair was stained with blood much like his clothes.

  Medic closed the door behind them and the wounded guy sprung up with an unmanly scream as he grabbed his side where he was shot.

  The first person he locked eyes with was Nuke.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Nuke’s voice and stance reflected his obvious dislike for the injured intruder.

  “I take it you know him?” Medic asked. He looked the guy over long and hard to see if he recognized him now, but he still didn’t.

  Nuke grunted out a grudging, “Yeah, I know that asshole!”

  “I can’t believe you have the balls to show your face up in here,” Pipe scowled. It was apparent that he, too, was familiar with their uninvited guest.

  “I need help,” the injured man responded in a raspy voice.

  “What’s going on here?” Medic asked. “Who is this guy?”

  The man groaned as he flung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I’m Holden. I’m his brother.” The hurt man pointed a shaky, bloodstained finger at Nuke.

  “Half-brother,” Nuke corrected him immediately. “Does your family know you’re here?” There was no hiding the anger Nuke was feeling.

  “It’s your family, too!” Holden found a bit of strength in his voice to reply.

  “You got a brother?” The shock was obvious on Medic’s face as he looked back and forth between the two men. There was a slight resemblance but Nuke was taller by at least four inches. His hair was more blonde, he had sharper features, and he was staring at his brother with deadly cobalt-blue eyes. Brown-eyed Holden, on the other hand, looked like a poster boy for the Gap. Medic eyeballed Nuke. “How many more of you is there?”

  “We have a sister,” Holden responded.

  “No love lost here I take it?” Medic alleged.

  “You got that right!” Nuke responded.

  “Did you do something low down and dirty to your brother?” Medic addressed his question to Holden.

  “Half-brother,” Holden quickly snapped with sarcasm.

  “Oh you got jokes now, motherfucker?” Nuke countered.

  “Where the fuck do we begin with the shit he’s done to Nuke. Tell you what; I’ll tell you the last thing he did. A-hole here had some gutter glitter on him. He stashed it on Nuke and Nuke ended up with a possessions charge. What kind of brother does that?” His own hatred of Holden was obvious in Pipe’s voice.

  Holden let out a deep sigh. A lot had gone down between him and Nuke over the years. If he was being honest with himself, he was jealous. Nuke did what he wanted when he wanted and damn anyone who didn’t like it. That kind of audacity didn’t come to Holden until recently.

  Everything Pipe said was true. He and Nuke had gone out bar hopping. They were sitting in his truck, passing in and out of a drunken state of consciousness. Nuke was in the passenger seat.

  The red spinning light of the police vehicle appeared in Holden’s rearview mirror. His blurry eyes sent a signal to his brain that things were about to go south. He was carrying half a gram of coke in his front pocket. He placed it on Nuke, who was still passed out.

  Nuke got arrested, did 180 days and had to pay a hefty fine. When Nuke was released from jail, Holden got the worst beat-down of his life. Nuke put him in the intensive care unit. Holden told their family that crazy Nuke had just snapped one day, beating him to a pulp for no reason. That was five years ago and the last time they had spoken.

  The incident drove an already huge wedge even further between Nuke and the rest of the family. Coming here was his last resort, but desperate men do desperate things, he told himself. Now Holden needed his big brother to get him out of a jam one last time.

  Medic arched an eyebrow as he turned to Nuke. “So what you want me to do about him?”

  Nuke exhaled. “I don’t know. We certainly can’t have two dead people on the compound.” Nuke was serious as he paused for a moment. “Call Fincher. Have him come over and deal with the body. I’ll handle my brother.”

  Medic nodded and left the room.

  “I really need your help,” Holden repeated. “I know I have no right to ask, but I’m in over my head. I don’t know what else to do.”

  Nuke stomped toward the bed, and Holden painfully scooted back. He started talking fast before Nuke could reach him. “A man that goes by the name of Nick Kordell wants me dead!”

  Nuke stopped and looked over at Pipe, then back to Holden.

  “Why does he want you dead?” Pipe and Nuke asked at the same time.

  “Because he thinks I stole money from him and he wants it back.”

  “Who’s the dead woman?” Nuke could read the apprehension in Holden’s brown eyes.

  “She was my girlfriend. Her name was Gracie Kordell.”

  “Kordell? Is she related to him?” Pipe asked.

  Holden nodded.

  There was dead silence for a moment. “Jesus! You were banging his wife, weren’t you?” Nuke asked. He already knew the answer because he knew his brother.

  Holden swallowed hard. “I was having some financial trouble around the same time Kordell had some money come up missing. I worked for him, as his accountant. He owns a kiosk at the mall and a used car lot.”

  “You’re avoiding my question!” Nuke yelled.

  “Yes, she was his wife!”

  “Now get to the good stuff like who shot the two of you?” Pipe questioned.

  “I’m not sure. Kordell maybe.”

  “Try again and tell the truth this time.” Nuke was losing what patience he had for his spoiled brother.

  Holden took a painful, deep breath. “He thinks I stole his money and her. I’m not sure who shot at both of us. She was leaving him for me. My car broke down on the highway. We were heading to Michigan. When the car died, I could only think of coming here for help. I thought maybe the garage could send out a tow truck. We were walking here. It could have been random for all I know, street gangs. The shots came out of nowhere.”

  “Neither one of you owned a cell phone?” Pipe asked.

  “We didn’t want to use them in case Kordell was trying to track us.”

  Nuke folded his arms across his chest. “You need to keep your dick out of pussy that belongs to someone else. Asshole here was sixteen when he tried to bang my ex-wife. Not that I gave a fuck but he could have asked first. That was the only time that woman did keep her legs closed.”

  “I love Gracie!”

  “You love her? You left her body outside on the street like she was trash!” Nuke shot back at him. “There’s no way in hell I would do something like that to Jasmine. You don’t disrespect the woman you love like that.”

  “Who’s Jasmine?”

  “She’s my wife!”

  Holden scrunched up his eyebrows. “I didn’t know you got married again.”

  “Why would I tell you?”

  “I guess you wouldn’t,” he said softly as he looked down at the floor. “Did you tell Mom, or…” He glanced up at Nuke.

  “Yeah, Mom and Megan know.”

  “When did you get married?”

  Nuke’s face was blank as he stared at Holden.

  Pipe’s jawline tensed. “Holden, you need to go!”

  “Can you please just hear me out for one se
cond longer?”

  “No!” Nuke angrily shook his head. “I don’t care about your problems.” He hauled Holden up by his left elbow. “Bad enough you left your deceased girlfriend right outside our fence! Do you have any idea the kind of problems that could bring to the club?”

  Holden staggered as Nuke dragged him toward the door. Blood began to seep through his bandages and onto his already soiled, tan button-down shirt.

  “Nuke, come on man, PLEASE! If you don’t help me, he’ll kill me.”

  “What the fuck you think I’ll do to you if you stay here?” Nuke shouted as he pulled him down the hallway and into the main lounge area.

  Pipe followed behind them with his bottled-up anger toward Holden ready to boil over. Nothing was worse than having a dishonest relative.

  “Get him out of here!” Nuke called over to one of the prospects standing near the bar. He shoved Holden forward. He was caught by the arm, spun around and thrown up against a wall. He came face to face with another full patch member of the Hells Vipers.

  The dark-haired biker was muscular and tattooed; in fact, the tats started at his shoulders and went all the way down both arms and onto his hands. The ones on his neck were creeping their way up onto his face. He also had a bridge piercing, a left cheek piercing and a black goatee. His hair was cut so short you could see his scalp and he looked almost unrecognizable. He had changed tremendously since Holden had seen him last.

  The biker glanced over at Nuke, then back to him. “Holden,” Kevin said. “Long time no see, motherfucker! What the hell are you doing here?” He looked him up and down.

  “I need help,” Holden quickly responded.

  Kevin made a face as he took a step back, then he walked over to stand by Nuke. “We got problems, huh?”

  “That’s an understatement!” Nuke responded. “Do you want your position back? I could talk with Mitch.” Nuke was serious.

  “Nope, I don’t!” Kevin honestly answered with a grin.

  Holden held onto his bleeding side as he sluggishly moved forward. “Nuke, I know you hate me, but I’m your brother. I’m blood. If you don’t help me, Kordell might go after our family. You might despise me, but you don’t hate them, especially Mom. Please, I swear I’ll never ask you again for another favor. You’ll never see me again if that’s what you want but please just this one time, HELP ME!”

  “You did not just play the mom card?” Pipe jumped in.

  “Yeah he did. That’s low.” Kevin wanted to punch him in the face.

  “I’m not playing the mom card!” Holden defended himself. “I’m telling him what’s going to happen if he doesn’t help me!”

  “No,” Nuke calmly replied.

  “Nuke, I’m sorry!” Tears began to stream down Holden’s face.

  “You’re an asshole!” Pipe yelled to him.

  “I know you don’t have any reason to believe me, but Nuke, I’ve changed. I really have.”

  “You left a dead woman that you claim to love on the sidewalk!” Pipe reminded him.

  “I was trying to get us help. I couldn’t lift her, I’d been shot,” Holden quietly replied.

  “What do you want from me?” Nuke grimaced, regretting already that he was asking the question. He couldn’t let Holden and his idiotic behavior cause harm to his mother and sister. Even though his family didn’t like him, he still wasn’t going to let something bad happen to them if he could stop it.

  Holden would have smiled if he hadn’t been in so much pain. “I know that you deal with men like Kordell all of the time. Go to his house and reason with him for me!”

  Nuke bit down on the inside of his jaw. “How much money you take from him?” He had a little over fifteen-thousand stashed away. He and Jasmine were saving to buy some land where they could build a house. Until then, they were still living in his trailer. His Uncle Jim had worked on the plans for the future house. He was going to help them build it, along with members of the club when the time came. That was a long way away. He had to get more money and there was no way in the world he would wipe out the rest of their savings to help this loser.

  “He thinks I stole a hundred grand, but I didn’t! I swear!”

  Kevin let out a long whistle. “Go ahead, Nuke, write little bro a check.”

  “Yeah right, if I had that kind of money, I’d…”

  “You’d stay at home and keep Jasmine chained up all day,” Pipe interrupted with a laugh.

  Nuke turned up the corners of his mouth and nodded in agreement.

  “I’m not asking for money. I just need for you to deal with Kordell for me, please.”

  “He begs like a bitch,” Medic said as he walked back into the room. “I called Fincher; he’s on his way over.”

  “Good.” Nuke nodded. “And just how do you expect me to DEAL with Kordell?” He turned his attention back to Holden.

  “I…I don’t know. Just do what you people do!”

  “Did you just say, ‘you people’?” Pipe stomped up to him.

  Holden had nowhere to run to, even if he could run. “I meant no disrespect. I just mean…come on, cut me some slack! I’ve been shot!”

  “Stop being a pussy. Most of us have been shot or stabbed at one time or another!” Medic said. “You’re not dying! I did a damn good patch job on you.”

  Nuke snickered as he turned to Medic. “Set him up in one of the storage compartments. Post Ice outside. Ask Tech to check into Nick Kordell. Send the rest of the prospects and the hang arounds home ’til after the body’s been removed.”

  Holden let out a loud grunt to get the attention back on him. “In the storage compartments? Why can’t I go with you to your place, Nuke?” Holden attempted to move by Pipe but he was thrown back up against the wall.

  “Because, Holden, I don’t like you.”

  Medic then grabbed Holden by the upper arm and hustled him out of the room. Kevin twisted around to face Nuke. “Do you believe him?”

  “He’s desperate, that’s for sure!” Nuke replied. “However, that little bastard doesn’t know how to tell the truth.”

  Chapter Two

  The deeper the love

  It was after seven a.m. when Nuke finally arrived home. He walked to the bedroom and gently pushed the door open, peeking inside. Jasmine was sound asleep with her hand on her cell phone; she was wearing one of his shirts. It made him smile, but it also bothered him that she constantly worried about something bad happening to him. She always slept with the phone on the bed when he didn’t come home. That didn’t happen often. He tried hard to not go on runs that took him away for more than a few days. She went to rallies with him and the club, but when it came to certain club dealings, he shielded her from them as best he could.

  She was breaking one of his rules. He liked her naked in bed. Still, he smiled at how sexy she looked lying there in bed with his shirt on. They had a bond that only the two of them could understand.

  Easing his way into the room, he placed his cut on the arm of the chair in the bedroom. He quietly edged his way to the bathroom to take a shower.

  He was mentally exhausted and irritated at his brother. Things never went well when Holden was around. Admittedly, he’d tried over the years to have a relationship with Holden and his sister. After the last incident with Holden, he’d stopped. It wasn’t worth the effort. They had their opinion of him and he had his opinion of them.

  He returned to the room and climbed underneath the sheets. He scooted over and wrapped himself around her body and tried to calm himself down. It helped that she didn’t have anything on underneath his shirt. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. The smell of her always brought him comfort. He’d often joked that the smell of Jasmine was better than any psych medication he’d been on.

  The events of the early hours of the morning were on constant replay in his mind. The pieces of the evening involving Holden didn’t add up. Nothing with his brother ever turned out well.

  Nuke started to caress Jasmine’s stomach and
she stirred. His hand drifted up to her breasts and he began massaging, teasing her nipples, making them hard. He kissed her shoulder as she began to stir more.

  She soon awakened underneath his touch. “Baby,” she said as she turned over to face him. “Is everything okay?” Her voice was groggy. “I was worried about you.”

  He opened his eyes when she turned over. He held her gaze as he whispered the word, “no.” His fingers brushed through her messy hair and then lightly he caressed her frowning brow.

  “Is it something you want to talk about?”

  “No…I don’t know.”

  Her lips softly kissed his. “I can see it written all over your face and body, you’re wound up tight. I hate to see you like this.” Jasmine touched his cheek. She knew that sometimes she had to give Nuke his space before he decided to open up, if he decided to open up, but she still always offered an ear of support. He knew without a doubt she’d keep anything he said to herself.

  “You’re wearing my shirt in bed,” he said with a real smile, changing the subject.

  “Your shirts are comfy and I love the way you smell. Have you slept at all?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  “No. It’s so much going on, Jasmine,” Nuke moaned as he rolled over onto his back. His tone was flat and almost defeated.

  She scooted over and took her spot in the crook of his arm. She said nothing; she just laid there listening to him breathe as she caressed his chest and stomach. He hadn’t fully grasped his new position in the club. Nuke liked flying under the radar until he felt the need to be seen.

  The Sergeant-at-Arms was responsible for ensuring that the bylaws of the club were not violated. He was also responsible for seeing that the orders were carried out in an appropriate manner. Nuke was in charge of the safety and security of the club and all of its members, especially the club president Mitch. It was a heavy burden for him to bear and he was still fighting tooth and nail against the role, but Mitch wanted him in the position. He had “plans” for him is what he always said when Nuke got into one of his moods. Mitch, much like Jasmine, knew that you just had to let Nuke be and sooner than not he’d come around and always do what needed to be done in any situation.