Rumor's Fury (The Chosen One's Book 2)

by Harlow Brown

  "Man, she is going to be, but I got a little somethin' somethin' for Jay and Sully. They belong to me, they just don’t know it yet. I will own their souls."

  "Why the strong feelings towards them?"

  "Jay, because he is a chicken shit and is Sully's little puppet now. Whatever Sully says goes. It don’t matter who it hurts. We were best friends, dude, and he stabbed me in the fucking back. I don’t know for sure if it was Jay or Sully, but my garage burned down and I know one of those fuckers is behind it. They say my dad was in debt to them. I didn’t owe that debt, so I told them to fuck off. Then my place burned. Why do you care?"

  "I cut ties with Jay and we aren't business partners anymore. All of a sudden we have cops questioning us and telling us there have been leads of illegal activity stemming from the clubhouse. It’s all bullshit. We are straight. I know he is pissed, and I bet you he is out for revenge. I just don’t know how he plans on getting it yet."

  We both ordered our coffee and shot the shit for a while. He finally asked me what I needed him for.

  "I was thinking about seeing if you would help us with him. Sounds like you have plans for him and we want him to pay. It seems like we should work together."

  "Sure man. What do I get for helping you?"

  "You get to be in good with the club. You do us a favor, we do you a favor. You don’t have to worry about Roxxi being alone with Jay and Sully if you don’t want her to be. We will have someone go to Sunset Tattoo with her and sit until you can get there. Why don’t she just move off and leave their sorry asses anyhow?"

  "Sully says her dad owed him and now he is making her pay. See the trend?"

  "I think this could be a very beneficial partnership if you accept. Come to the house later on." I handed him a business card with our address on it. "We can go over details with the other boys."

  "See you later on then."

  We got up to leave right as a policeman walked into the diner and spotted me. He pressed the button on his walkie talkie, said something that I couldn’t make out, and walked over to me.

  "Sir." Sax acknowledged the officer.

  He looked me up and down, trying to intimidate me then said, "Legend. I hear we have a situation on our hands?"

  "Enlighten me." I barked.

  "Seems as if we have some illegal manufacturing and distributing of moonshine going on here in Panama City Beach and rumor has it, you and your gang are the ones running said operation."

  "Well, I'm not sure who is giving you bogus info, but my club don’t make moonshine. Where would we make it? On the back deck for all the beach goers to see? We don't sell it either. You can come see for yourself. We have nothing to hide."

  "No need. We will be in touch."

  After he turned to leave, Sax asked me if what he said was true. I denied the accusations again. "Look, come by the house later tonight and we will discuss things.”

  I paid for our coffees and we left. On the road back to the house, thoughts floated about the blonde I couldn’t seem to shake. I wish I could call Rumor. I could maybe soothe the burn I didn’t mean to cause. My mind raced wondering from subject to subject until I pulled into the driveway. I sat there and told myself that things worked out the way they were supposed to. I made my way inside to be greeted by Riddick's bruised face. He just let me by, without a word.

  "Chief, where are you?” I bellowed through the house.

  "In here," came ringing back the kitchen. I headed immediately in that general direction.

  "I got news. Shitty but news nonetheless. Chances are real good that Jay is behind this mess. He's called the cops and tipped them off, and I think he may have something else up his sleeve. I’m just not sure what. Sax told me that either Sully or Jay burned down his garage. Sax is after blood and is just pretty much waiting on the right opportunity. I think we could help him and he could help us. He could do the dirty work and we could cover for him, and perhaps he could prove himself and if he wanted to prospect he could? Regardless, he is an ally now. We need to help him. Sax wants blood for the wrongs Jay and Sully have done to his family and Roxxi, and so do we. He has fucked with the wrong club.

  "All of this from a cup of coffee this morning?"

  "He's legit. I can tell. He didn’t bullshit me. I saw the anger in his eyes when he spoke about his garage. I have a feeling that something special was lost, but I didn’t ask. He is supposed to come over later to discuss more."

  "Well, seeing as there is a fire bug running amuck, we should get rid of all things shine related, sooner rather than later. Get the boys on it now. Get rid of the mash in the garbage disposal. We can’t wait until tonight to take it to sea. This son of a bitch has already been accused of burning down one place, so he probably already has plans in motion for us, or at least the thought. It seems as if Jay and Sully try to burn out the people that don’t see eye to eye with them. If they aren’t on the winning end of things then they just burn houses and rip apart lives. Regardless, we have to get all still equipment and evidence out. If the place turns to soot and ash, our name must be clear. It can’t look like it was an accidental moonshine gig gone bad, which is what he is banking on. It’s all got to go," Chief ordered.

  I nodded my head in agreement, and left him there to find the rest of the boys.

  "Shooter, I need you to take the still and its parts to an iron and metal business. Sell it after you disassemble everything. Make sure it doesn’t resemble a still. Riddick, you get to take the mash and put it down the garbage disposal, one cup at a time. I hope you gag on the smell. Magnum, you are with me. Boys, if you have anything here that you don’t want up in flames, I suggest you get it out. I don’t know when or if it will burn, but Jay and the company he keeps seem to have a m.o. Get to it. We have to cover our asses now."

  Magnum stoically sauntered up to me, "What the actual fuck is happening?"

  "This is the biggest cover-our-ass production to date. I ain't kidding. If you want to keep it, you better get it out of here. I got a real bad feeling about this. I just don’t know when it is going to happen."

  "Where do you want to put everything?"

  "I don’t have much. I figure I can store it at your house."

  "Sure man. That's cool."

  "As far as everyone else's shit, well, they can let it burn, or they can get it out. Not my problem. Shooter has a good head on his shoulders and I figure he will take what stuff he has elsewhere. You clearly don’t have much here. Riddick is a dumbass and it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to see him not make it out alive, so I don’t care what happens to his stuff…or him."

  "Damn. Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?"

  "He completely disrespected Rumor with a cocky attitude right in front of me. He is on the eternal shit list."

  "You know, even drunk last night, and hung over this morning, I see that girl means something to you."

  "She is different from the whores around here. There’s no explaining it. I don’t want to either. I just want to rewind the last week or so, and not be here while Charlie and her girls were here. It's just like a woman to complicate things. I was content in my life, then a woman had to go and make me…"

  I stopped before I said outloud what I knew in my heart. I felt again. I didn’t want to admit it because I had spent the better part of four years trying to be numb. I was comfortable being numb. It was easy. Now, I felt things, not love, but companionship. It felt so right with Rumor. She was easy to be around. I could be as me as possible with her. I don’t think she gave two shits about my past. In her eyes, the abyss of her mystical icy blue eyes, I didn’t live there anymore and she didn’t care about the person I was before. She only wanted to know me now.

  "Look Fury, if you want her, go get her. It has been a real relief seeing you, dare I say, happy these last few days. It isn’t like you have a nine to five job or anything. Take a week off and go see her in Rudy. Surprise her and meet her there. Show her you are serious."

  "Am I contemplating taking a
dvice from a single fuck boy? What has this world come to?" So much for trying to convince anyone that I wanted nothing more from her.

  "I am just saying, the ball is in your court. You can't say you gave it your all if you don’t try. If you choose not to, then you deserve to wonder what could have been. "

  I starred at the idiot in front of me and realized he had a point. I couldn’t just leave right now though. The cops have already been tipped off and it would look suspicious if I left.

  "The cops are already looking at us. I can’t leave now. That would look too suspicious. I will think about it when things settle down here."

  "You know, you don’t have to be the only one here for things. Chief, Shooter, Riddick, and I are more than capable of handling cops, and who is to say you don’t have a family emergency? It isn't illegal to take care of family business." He hinted.

  I looked at him and contemplated my options. We were being looked at, but it might actually make sense for one of us to leave. I could just call the officer that Sax and I saw at the diner and tell him that I have an emergency out of state, and if he has any questions that he is welcome to call Chief, Mag, or Shooter. That way it doesn’t look like we are hiding anything, and are actually cooperating with them. If we have nothing to hide, we are less suspicious. I could say to hell with them and go anyway.

  Chapter 14

  Rumor

  WE HAD BEEN in the car for what seemed like days. I realized it was hours, long boring hours, on the road. I missed him. How was it that a guy I didn’t want to know, had me in such an emotional turmoil? He lives states and hours away, but he is the one that said he wanted this.

  As we drove across the Tennessee line, into Arkansas, my ringtone started blaring. I saw it was from a blocked number, so I didn’t answer it. I never do. If it was terribly important they could leave a voice message and that they did.

  "I have missed you. I will explain everything soon."

  I dropped my phone and starred at it in disbelief. What the actual fuck did I just hear? Charlie heard the thud and turned to see me.

  "Rumor, what is it? Why are you white as a sheet? Who was that?"

  I said nothing. I could only stare blankly at the phone I dropped in the floor board.

  What could I say? Oh, you know, the boyfriend that just up and disappeared with no note, no anything, just left me a fucking message on my voice mail. That would make me sound crazy, but it is the truth. He just called and left me a message.

  "Whiskey, pull over at the next gas station. Something isn't right." Charlie said.

  "No. Uh. No, it's fine. Really. I am good."

  "You always were shit at lying. Spill it, Rumor. What happened on that phone call?"

  Instead of me sounding like a lunatic, I handed her the phone and let her listen to the voicemail. That way she was just as looney as I was if she thought the same thing I did.

  "What. The. Hell?" she paused after each word.

  Whiskey tuned in at that point, "What is going on? Enough with the secrets."

  I could tell he meant business, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to piss him off. Charlie gave me a nod and I came clean.

  "That was my boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend, or whatever the hell you call someone that disappeared with no trace or any explanation."

  "And?" He waited on an explanation.

  Instead of repeating it, I played it for them and turned on speaker phone.

  "Was that Creed?" Charlie half-asked, half-stated.

  "If it wasn’t, it is someone playing a sick joke. What the hell? First Fury, and now Creed? The universe hates me."

  I threw myself back against my seat and shut my eyes as I tried to wrap my mind around what I had just heard. So many questions circled in my head. Why? Why now? Is he back for good? Could I even deal with the reasoning he gave? When did he even get back?

  Just when I thought it was okay for me to move on, he calls back. It’s almost like he knew. It's impossible though. It was all a huge coincidence. The universe was playing its usual evil, cruel tricks on me.

  I began with my internal thoughts. Did I want him to be alive? Did I want him to come back around? Did I still love him? Had I moved on? Was this something we could over come? Was this something he would do again? Was his excuse or story going to be enough for me to forgive him? Did he even want me back? Did he have someone else? Was he with someone else the whole time we were apart? Dear God, I was with someone else. How would he handle that?

  All of the questions made my head hurt. I laid my head back and shut my eyes. Hoping and praying that I would fall asleep and wake up from this nightmare.

  I awoke as we were pulling into Winstead Acres, Charlie's house.

  "Damn, how long did I sleep?" I sleepily asked.

  "A solid four hours. You must have been wiped out." Whiskey answered quickly.

  I was mentally and emotionally drained. It didn’t look to get any better soon, I thought to myself, as I remembered Creed’s message.

  "Charlie, I have a favor to ask of you. It's kind of a big one."

  "What do you need? Anyhing. You know that." She reassured me.

  "Seeing as I haven't seen Creed in a couple of years, I don't really want to be alone with him. I have a feeling that he will case the house and I just don’t want to deal with that, not after he up and left me. I honestly don’t even know if I still want anything to do with him. There seemed to be something different about his voice, something I don’t quite trust. If he wants to meet me, can you and Whiskey go with?"

  "You didn’t really think I was going to allow you to go alone did you?" Whiskey snapped.

  "Umm. I didn't realize that I didn't get a say. I guess I never really thought about it."

  "Look, you havent seen this numbnuts in how long now, and he just out of the blue decides to call? Something is up. If you get hurt, Charlie gets hurt. After all she has been through, I will not knowingly let her, or anyone she cares about, step into harms way. And besides that, Fury kinda has a thing for you and he would do the same thing for me," he matter-of-factly stated.

  "I figure he will attempt to meet me tonight. He never did like waiting for anything. I don’t really want him around here either though. Or my house, but I know that is where he is going to go."

  "Guess where you ain't stayin'?"

  "Bossy damn biker."

  I was glad he said that because it meant I was staying here. The place was big enough, for sure, and had borders of rock wall and an electric gate so I felt safe.

  "Rumor, you can stay here. Think nothing of it, it isn’t like there isn’t room for you." Charlie offered sweetly.

  I nodded in appreciation and asked her to lead me to the room she wanted me to stay in. I unloaded my bag and hung up my clothes. I had no idea how long I was staying, and I didn’t want to live out of my bag. I started processing the last and was overwhelmed by uncertainty. Uncertain of where Creed had been, uncertain of my feelings toward him now, uncertain how I was going to tell Fury. I got caught up in my thoughts about the million different things that he could have been doing. For all I know, he could be some super secret spy for the government, and had a top secret priority mission to go on. The chances of that are slim but hey, it could happen. He could have gotten in some kind of gambling trouble and had to escape or do something a little less than clean in order to save himself. He could have gotten tired of being in this little nothing town and needed to get away. The possibilities are endless and the truth is, I don’t have the slightest idea why he left, or where he went. I would find out tonight. He said he would call and I truly felt he would.

  After I finished hanging my clean clothes and washing the ones that were dirty, I joined Whiskey and Charlie in the kitchen.

  "So, what is on the agenda for tonight?" I asked.

  "Well, that kind of depends on when, and if your ex calls like he says he will. I assume we will meet him somewhere. I think it should be in a resturant though. I am hungry and there should be people around so
he can’t do anything real stupid," Whiskey said.

  "Do you really think he would try anything? Babes, look at you. You are a little intimidating."

  "True, but people are stupid."

  As if on cue, my cell rang. With nervous fingers I picked up the phone and saw the caller ID. It was the same unknown number.

  "Hello?"

  "I was hoping you would answer."

  "What do you want, Creed?"

  "Well, I really expected a nicer greeting, honestly. I havent heard from you in…"

  "Yeah in two fuckin' years, but guess what. That wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t to blame for that. I deserved an explanation, or a goodbye kiss, or a fuck-you-I-don’t-love-you-anymore, but I got nothing! What was I supposed to think? Did you expect me to save myself for you until you decided you should come home again? You don’t get to expect anything from me, Creed. Nothing. You can tell me now what you want or start explaining yourself," I snapped.

  "You have every right to be upset."

  "Damn right I do. You can’t just come in here thinking everything is going to be the way it was. That ship has sailed."

  "For good?"

  "I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I don’t know how I feel about you anymore and I don’t know if I want anything to do with you. I don’t know if I want to see you or if I want to throat punch you. What I do know is you broke me. You were the one that put me back together after Crosby and then you broke me again. I can’t trust you right now. I do know that." I said as the tears came down like rain.

  "I know I owe you a huge explanation, and apology. Meet me at the diner and let's talk."

  "You can't just waltz back into my life like nothing happened. You left me for two years. Two fucking years I worried about you. I wondered if you were dead or alive, waited on you to call me and explain yourself, and you never did. I waited for something and day after day I got nothing."

  "I'd very much like to try to explain myself over dinner."