by Blair Grey
He was a good leader, and he cared about the women in the community. They didn’t have to be part of the club for him to bend over backwards making sure they were okay.
And with the rest of the club going along with anything he said, I knew we wouldn’t have any issue at all taking care of her. It was just a matter of time.
“Echo Mori?” Paisley asked when we pulled up in front of the bar, and I nodded.
“We use it as something of a clubhouse when we have things to talk about,” I told her. “I want you to come in with me and meet some of the guys. No doubt the guys on the committee are going to be in there having a few drinks, and now’s as good a time as any for you to meet them.”
“Okay,” she said uncertainly.
I put my hand on her thigh, feeling a jolt run up my arm as I did so. With the way she looked at me, I had a feeling the same electricity ran through her body at the touch of my hand, but she wasn’t going to pursue it.
She was too nervous about what was about to happen. But, I knew it would be okay.
Jett would have me put her in a safe house. There, I would know where she was and how to take care of her while we sorted out the rest of the mess with the other MC – and her ex.
I tried to tell myself I wasn’t going to take too much pleasure in what was about to go down, but I knew that was a lie. I couldn’t wait for the chance to get even with this prick once and for all. I couldn’t wait to make him feel the pain of what he had done.
He might have been able to manipulate his way out of his problems before, but those days were over. Now, I was coming for him, and he would pay up.
He’d messed with the wrong MC, that was for damn sure, and it was time to pay his debt.
I was more than happy to collect.
Chapter 14
Paisley
I looked in awe around the safe house, shocked that this was where they were going to keep me while they took care of things with my ex. I had been in some nice houses with Shade, but nothing that were as nice as this.
Of course, the houses he got for us had all been paid for with drug money. Or, they were the houses that were owned by those he was running drugs for, and we just happened to stay for one reason or another. This, however, was clearly a nice house, and I didn’t have to worry about paying for a thing.
Harley had been right about the other men in the club. For as much as it confused me, they were all willing to help out in any way they could. In fact, they were angry with the way Shade had treated me, and they all wanted to get the same revenge on him.
None of them were afraid of him. In fact, many of them laughed at his cowardice and the way he was so willing to throw me to the wolves to take the blame for his actions. I hadn’t thought about it that way before being with these men, and now, it was starting to sink in.
But, I still couldn’t understand why Harley was so insistent on helping me, or why they were all coming together to bring me to a safe place.
“Is this okay for you?” Harley asked as he followed me around the living room and into the kitchen. “I know it’s not huge, but it should be a safe enough place for you to be while we get this sorted out, and you won’t attract too much attention.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked as I looked at him in surprise. “This is the nicest place I’ve ever seen.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s safe, like I said,” he replied.
“It’s safe alright. Anywhere I don’t have to worry about my ex is safe,” I sighed.
“You’re right about that, and you don’t have to worry about him here. Trust me, we’re going to make sure we get this taken care of, and you’re not going to have to deal with this ass again,” Harley promised.
“I don’t know how I’m ever going to thank you,” I breathed. “I have nothing.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not doing this so you owe me something. I’m doing it because there’s no reason why a guy should get away with treating a woman like that. He fucked up, and I’m not going to let him take it out on you, trust me.”
“I appreciate it,” I said quietly. I continued to walk from room to room. The place was entirely furnished, and besides not having any clothes in the closet, it looked like there were people living there already.
“Do you always keep this place for people who are in trouble?” I asked.
“We keep it as a safe house, sure,” he replied. “But there are a lot of different reasons why we keep it so nice. We want it to be ready no matter who needs to use it, and quickly, too.”
“Well, this was a lot faster than I thought it would be,” I said with a shake of my head. “When Jett said we were going to move me into a safe house, I pictured some sort of jail cell or something. I had no idea it was an actual house, or that it would look like something out of a magazine.”
I felt silly, telling this man the things that were going through my mind, but I couldn’t help it. I really did feel out of place, like the house was meant for someone else, but Harley made it clear this was where I was going to stay for a while and didn’t seem to be worried at all by how long that would actually be.
“Some of the women from the club will come by and bring you some clothes in a while,” he said, the smile on his face from my admiration of the house. “I’m sure you’ll be able to find something that will work as long as you’re here.”
“Thank you,” I breathed again. It was almost too much, but I wasn’t going to argue with him anymore. I had tried telling him more than once this was too much. There wasn’t a hope for me to be able to repay them for what they were doing, and I wasn’t sure how to even try.
But, the more I offered to try to repay, the more he would insist there was no need. I was to accept the help and let them take care of the rest, and that was the end of that. He didn’t want money or anything else from me. He just wanted me to be okay.
I knew I should be grateful for that and not give it a second thought, but it was hard for me to do even that. It was hard for me to trust men, no matter who they were, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get over that struggle, either.
So far, in the brief amount of time I’d known him, Harley had proven to be a lot different from any other man I’d ever known. He was caring, he was kind, and he clearly wanted what was best for me just for the sake of me being happy.
He didn’t ask for anything in return, just that I do as he said to make sure I was safe. It was so different from Shade, so different from any other man in my life. Even before Shade, I was so used to the men in my life using me until they no longer needed me, then they would hurt me.
There was physical abuse, there was verbal abuse, and there was any other kind of abuse in between. I could only assume the time would come when Harley would do the same thing, although the more I got to know him, the harder it was for me to see him doing anything hurtful.
He was strong and powerful, but he was also kind. He cared about me, though I couldn’t explain why, he did. I would just have to be okay with that.
At least for now, you should. You don’t know how long this is going to last, but then, you don’t need to. How many times when you were with Shade did you just have to make it through the day?
Do the same thing now. Now, you are with someone who doesn’t want to hurt you, and even though that might not last for long, you can make the most of it right now. After all, right now is all that matters. Right now, just focus on getting through the moment.
“There are women in the MC?” I asked, changing the subject to something besides me. I didn’t want to keep thinking about how I was going to get through this, but it was hard. It was hard to bring myself to trust this man, and it was hard for me to believe things were going to be okay.
For as much as I wanted to believe that very thing, the fact of the matter was that this was so different from anything I had ever known, I felt it was just a matter of time before things fell apart for me. And that made it hard to even foc
us on what we were doing.
“They aren’t patched in members,” Harley told me with a shrug. “Most of them are just women who hang around the club for themselves. You’ve got the sheep who are available to the men for any sexual escapade we might want to have.”
I shrugged, but Harley continued on as though he hadn’t even noticed.
“Then, you have those who are dating the other members in the club. Several of the members have their own old ladies, and a few of them are close to me. You’ll likely be seeing them later. Those are the women who often like to get involved when we are helping someone like you, you know?”
I nodded even though I had no idea what he was talking about. I didn’t know a lot about MCs or how they worked. All I knew was that I didn’t have any good experiences with any in the past, and I had assumed they were all the same.
But, if Harley was different than any other man I’d met in the past, then there wasn’t any reason to believe his MC would be the same as all the other MCs I’d dealt with in the past. No, I would have to keep an open mind if I was going to get through this.
It might be hard, but so were a lot of other things I had done in the past couple days. I could push through this as I had pushed through the others, and I would. I was done being scared of my ex and forever living under his thumb.
And, perhaps the day would come when I would be able to trust these men in this club. At least, maybe the day would come when I would be able to trust Harley. So far, he had proven to me he was only there to take care of me, and I hoped against hope that would last.
“That’s very kind of them,” I said.
Harley nodded. “We in the Steel Wings take care of our own.”
“I noticed,” I said with another nod.
“Why don’t you get some rest?” he suggested. “You’ve been through a lot, and it might do you some good.”
I tensed, but he put up his hand and made a small gesture around the place. “You are perfectly safe here. You need to relax and trust us to take care of you, okay?”
“I’ll try,” I said at last. “But it’s been a really long time since I’ve had the chance to relax. I can’t promise you it’s going to happen overnight.”
“Well, give it a try tonight and see what happens,” he said with a shrug. “You might be surprised how far you can come when you get some sleep.”
“Okay,” I said again. I sat on the edge of the couch before lying back a little further.
“I’ll stay up and let the girls in when they get here with the clothes. Don’t worry about it,” he told me.
“Okay,” I said again. I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and trying to let myself relax. As difficult as it was, I knew I should at least try. This man was here to help me, and he wasn’t going to let Shade anywhere near me.
This might be temporary, but it was something, and it was something to be grateful for. I closed my eyes, taking another deep breath. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but I was willing to push through it if I could be free when it was all over.
I didn’t know where I would go or what it would mean, but I knew the feeling would be better than I’d felt in years.
I couldn’t wait.
Chapter 15
Harley
Now that I had Paisley in the safe house and knew she was okay, I could shift my attention to something more pressing – something a lot more pressing.
My blood boiled when she showed up in front of my shop the morning before, and now, as I drank coffee and looked out the window in the kitchen, I thought about putting the plan I’d formed overnight into action.
Ever since she showed up needing my help, Paisley had been on the back of my mind. I knew I would find a way to take care of her, but it wasn’t easy when she didn’t want my help. Or, rather, when she wasn’t giving me any way to help her.
But now, now that she was here, I was able to take over the situation and make sure she was okay.
She still wasn’t sure how to handle this. I could see it in her face whenever I talked about what the next steps would be. But that was okay. She didn’t need to do anything but trust me to take care of her and the entire situation.
I wasn’t afraid of Shade, and I really wasn’t afraid of the MC he had gotten himself mixed up with. I wasn’t sure if he was part of them or just wished he was, but that didn’t matter so much, either. What mattered was getting to the bottom of that situation and making sure the other MC knew who was to blame for whatever it was they were pissed off about.
Even if Shade was a member of the MC – something I doubted was true – I knew he wasn’t the sort of member they would rally around. Hell, if he was willing to throw his girlfriend under the bus to make sure he saved his own skin, then there was no doubt in my mind he wasn’t in a good place with them.
And, that meant I would be able to figure out where he stood quickly, and how to work that information to our advantage. Of course, I wasn’t going to have to deal with any of this alone. I had the rest of my own MC behind me, and they had all agreed they would help me in any way they could.
No one wanted to see Paisley suffer, and since I was such an active member, they were even more willing to step in and do what we needed them to do to keep her safe.
And, just as I’d thought would happen, they were all more than happy to take the opportunity to flex our collective muscles against the other MC, whoever they were. Paisley hadn’t been much help on that front, either. She hadn’t known a lot of information she could pass on to me or Jett, but what she did have was enough for us to get a start.
I had laid awake most of the night staring up at the ceiling in the living room. The safe house was three bedrooms, but she had taken one of them, and though I could have taken another, I opted to lay in the living room on the couch.
Paisley had fallen asleep the day before on the couch for a few hours, but when she woke, she was only awake long enough to grab something to eat out of the fridge and head back to one of the bedrooms. I didn’t expect to see her again that night, and I was right.
It wasn’t long before I heard her close the door to the room, and I didn’t hear it open again. I watched TV for a while, and I took care of the clothes the other girls dropped off when they had the chance. Of course, they wanted to be able to talk to Paisley themselves and get some information about her, but she was too tired for the visit, and I wasn’t going to bother her to make her meet more people.
There was plenty of time for that, and I wasn’t going to push her to get more involved in the MC than she wanted to. It was clear she was still skeptical about all this in the first place, and I didn’t want to make the transition worse.
I was up shortly before the sun, wandering around the safe house and making sure it was all set up for Paisley to stay for a while. We had gone through the rooms the day before right after we arrived to make sure it was in working order, but now, I wanted the chance to look through everything to make sure I could leave her alone without her needing anything.
I had work to do, and I wasn’t going to sit at the house with her all the time. Of course, I’d do it if I thought it necessary for her safety, but I wasn’t so sure this guy was going to come for her with such a vengeance. Not yet, anyway. He was likely going to wake up pissed off more than she wanted to imagine, but he would have to be really fucking angry if it meant he was going to track her down.
We were on limited time, I knew that. It was just a matter of time before he came for her – I was no doubts about that considering the fact she had hit him and was taking the blame for whatever it was he had done.
But, it would be hard for him to find her while she was here, and I had a feeling he wasn’t going to prioritize that when he had to deal with getting a club off his back. Sure, he would blame her for everything – there was no doubt in my mind there – but at the same time, I didn’t think the club would come for her overnight. I would have the time to figure some of this out before things went down.
; I hoped so, anyway. With the other boys on the case with me, it wasn’t bound to take very long. They were all experienced in this sort of thing, and when they were on a mission, it was just a matter of time before they were able to get the answers they were after.
Jett wanted to know which MC we were dealing with, and he wanted to know what we could do to get them off Paisley’s back. I, of course, cared a lot more about the fact Paisley was caught in the crossfire here than with the fact we were dealing with a rival MC, but it would all come together in the end.
When we took care of one problem, we would be sure to take care of the other, and that was good enough for me. As long as Paisley was taken care of at the end of the day, I was happy.
And with me on the job now, she would be. I could do both – the auto shop and taking care of this problem for her. As long as she did her part listening to what I told her to do and didn’t get herself in more trouble with her ex, things would be fine.
It was just a matter of getting her to listen to me.
But, so far, she had been very cooperative with everything I’d asked her to do. I knew it was hard for her, but she was trying to trust me.
I didn’t know what it was about her that drew me in so strongly, but there was something. I was going to take care of her, no matter what.
I wasn’t the kind of guy to really care about a woman like this. In the past, I was more than happy to go through the motions of hooking up with a woman, moving on after the deed was done. There wasn’t any need to keep talking; unless, of course, I thought there was a chance the two of us could hook up again in the future.
But, with Paisley, things were a lot different. With Paisley, I wanted to make sure she was okay. I wanted her to be okay. I wanted so much for her, and I would have done anything to make sure she was safe. There were more feelings there than what I thought possible, and it was strange for me to admit that – even just to myself.
I might not be entirely sure what I was doing with her, but I knew I had to help her. I had to take care of her. That was happening, and I was glad that it was. She had become someone I cared for. Hell, there was a part of me that had already developed a strong attachment for her, and I wasn’t sure what to do with that.
