Marcus stood at the helm as usual and slammed his gavel to start the meeting. I moved in the folding chair, trying to find a comfortable position. A man my size didn’t do well with crap metal for a seat. Tick and I sat in the back of the room, we’d left our cuts behind—we wouldn’t be sitting at the table again.
I looked around the room, not recognizing most of the members. So many of them only stopped by the club to pick up their cuts and get their orders. What I once saw as a brotherhood now looked more like a clubhouse full of wanderers. Only a dozen or so of the men sitting around me were full time, who sat beside me day in and day out; and out of those not one had reached out to me over the last week. After I dropped off my cut, I was an afterthought. My decision sat good in my conscience. This wasn’t my family.
My family sat in a cottage up north, waiting for me get back to claim her.
“Most of you already know shit with the cartel has gone south. Bernardo’s brother, Julio, has taken over down there, which means he’s running shit up here too.” Marcus’s face sagged. He had a paler complexion than usual. Even his eyes looked faded. “Julio wants peace between us and the Disciples, but Jayson could give two shits about peace. A few runs back, the Disciples ran off with Jasper, saying he took off, scared of the cops. But we know that ain't how it went down. They gunned him down. Disciples wanted the whole job to themselves, so they concocted the lame ass story that our guy was chicken shit and ran away.”
I looked over at Tick. His jaw clenched as he watched the room erupt in anger. Vows to get revenge, promises to get them back, all thrown around the room. Why would Marcus suddenly believe that Jasper didn’t hightail it out of there that day?
“Jayson’s losing his grip over there. The Dsciples are talking about a new president, throwing Jayson aside. Jayson’s been trafficking women through his club for years. Treating them like animals, beating them, starving them. The club’s had enough, and I’ve had it, too. We have our share of whores and the like, but we don’t cage them up and beat them. We sure as hell don’t pimp them out to the public.” His eyes locked with me, but only for a moment, before he started his rant again. “So I say we join this little rebellion of theirs, help get Jayson the fuck out of their club.”
“Why’s their problem our business? Let them run Jayson out, what difference does it make to our club?”
“It’s not just a club problem. What they’re doing to those girls, it ain’t right.” He swept his gaze past me again, but I remained silent. It wasn’t my fight anymore. “Mason, you brought this to us a few months ago. I should have listened more then.” Heads turned, and dozens of pairs of eyes turned on me. Well, fuck. So much for staying out of this shit. “I know we are taking a vote tonight about your retirement, and we will. I only ask that you consider this last job, this last run for the club. Help us get Jayson the fuck off the street and put someone with more sense in his chair.”
And there it was. The trap. Saying no to Marcus, after that plea for my help, wouldn’t help me get out of there without a scratch. Retiring from the club was one thing, turning my back on them while I still held full membership would earn me a whole pile of shit I didn’t need to deal with. Not with Lucy sitting up in a cottage waiting for me. Not when Tick needed to get out and get back to his pregnant wife.
“What do you say, Mason?” Marcus leaned over the table, narrowing his gaze on me. You could have heard an angel fart in the room, it was so quiet.
“I say yeah. Of course I’m here for club.” I nodded. I heard Tick curse next to me, but he knew I had no choice.
“Tick, what about you?” Marcus turned him with a sly grin. If I said yeah, no way in hell Tick would back away.
“One more ride, hell yeah.” He gave a nod and grinned like it sounded like the best damn idea in a long time. Only I could see the tick in his neck start pulsating. The room erupted into shouts and cheers. Who knew they all wanted us to stay so badly? Fuck if I believed it.
“Let’s put it to the vote.” It took less than five minutes for the club to vote to help Lucas overthrow Jayson. None of it sat right with me. Even hating Jayson as much as I did, one club helping a rebellion in another didn’t feel right. “Good. Now we go on lockdown. Bring your families into the compound. We stay here until this is over. As soon as the shit starts flying, I don’t want any vulnerabilities outside these gates.”
The members disbanded, clearing out the room. Marcus quickly made his way over to me and Tick. “What about our vote?” Tick asked as soon as Marcus was within earshot.
“Shit. Sorry, I forgot with all the excitement. Don’t worry. We don't need a full member
meeting for that. We’ll get to it as soon as this shit behind us.” Maybe it was the way Marcus didn’t quite meet Tick’s gaze when he fed him that line of bullshit, or because his hands kept sliding in and out of his pockets, but I didn’t believe a word coming out of his fucking mouth.
Tick didn’t either, but he kept it hidden. “Yeah. Okay.”
“Go get Massy and get her ass behind these gates. And Mason, grab that short haired girl you’ve been pining for, she ain't safe out there, being your girl and all—she’s a risk for us. I don’t need Jayson dangling her out there, trying to draw us out.” His ran his tongue over his teeth.
“The girls went on a little vacation,” Tick said. “Down south to visit Massy’s family.”
“Massy ain’t got no family,” Marcus barked.
“Sure as fuck does. An aunt has a house on a lake, went for a girls’ weekend. They’ll be back next week. Safe as baby lambs down there.” Tick slapped Marcus on the back and gave him a wink before walking off.
“I still think they should be here.” Marcus turned to me. I nodded.
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“How far south they go?” he asked, picking his teeth with his pinkie nail. It was no wonder the man couldn’t keep a woman for more than a few nights, unless he paid them.
“About three hours.” I stayed noncommittal.
“Maybe you should go get them anyway. You can have them back here by midnight if you two leave soon.” He examined the sliver of food he’d scraped from his teeth, then flicked it away.
“Nah. Tick’s right. They are fine down there. Out of the way.” I slapped his back in the same manner as Tick and walked away, half expecting him to chase after me and demand I go down there to get them. Except they weren’t down south. And no way in hell was I bringing those two girls back into the compound.
***
“What’s his game?” Tick looked over his shoulder while we walked through the motor pool toward the garage. A bunch of the guys who hung back started taking up spaces in the clubhouse, and the bar area. Families began to pull into the lot, things were going to get a lot louder real quick.
Watching a crib get carried into the clubhouse made me think about Lucy. I imagined her belly swollen, carrying my baby. Fuck, the image made my dick hard. What would it be like to raise a kid? Lucy would make an awesome mom. I’d never met a woman with a heart bigger than hers. I’d have to talk to her about breastfeeding though, no way I was sharing—even with our baby.
At the thought of those beautiful, round breasts my pants tightened even more.
“Mason.” Tick gave me a shove, nearly pushing me right into a bike. If a man wanted to have his nose broken in a few places, all he had to do was knock over someone's bike.
“Dammit, Tick. I was thinking,” I growled.
“Yeah, but with which head.” He grinned. I sighed and adjusted my erection in my jeans.
Women bitched about all the torments they had just for being a woman, but at least when they got all hot under the collar for a guy, it wasn’t put on display. Their panties soaked up their juices.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Seriously, what’s his game? He doesn’t give a shit who’s running things over there, why get the whole club involved?”
I looked over at Marcus, who made his way through the groups of members and
their families, heading to the back apartment entrance. His apartment.
“I don’t know. He doesn’t give a shit. It’s not that he wants Lucas in charge, or that he cares about Julio. This is all one big cluster fuck.” I kicked the dirt with my boot. “But he did seem pretty damn interested in where our girls were.”
“Your girl,” Tick corrected me, running his hand back and forth over this smooth head. “He don’t give a shit about Massy. If I said she’s staying with family out of town, that would be all he needs. It’s your girl he’s after, Mason. He wants that pixie girl home.”
“That’s the impression I got,” I agreed with him. Marcus stood on the small porch outside his apartment, lighting a cigarette. “I told him the girls were about three hours south. Hopefully that’ll keep him busy. He’ll send a few guys down there. But we need to see which guys.”
“You think he’d send our own guys after her?”
“I don’t know what that fuck he’s capable of anymore. If it’s not our guys, it’s someone from the Disciples. But guys who are loyal to Jayson or loyal to Lucas?”
“Jesus fucking Christ, this is fucked up.” Tick pulled out a pack of smokes from his back pocket and shoved the crinkled cigarette between his lips.
“I thought you quit that shit.” Massy had hounded him for a solid month until he stopped smoking.
“I did.” He shrugged, holding the lit lighter up to the tobacco filled tip. “Massy isn’t here. I won't inhale. Okay?” He took a deep drag, and his eyes rolled with pleasure only a smoker would experience as the smoke hit the back of his throat. “Fuck.” He looked down at the cigarette in his hand. “That woman will have me drinking lattes and appletinis if I let her keep having her way.”
“Bullshit. Massy wouldn’t be seen dead with a latte.” I laughed. “And I’m pretty sure it was you who ordered that appletini the last time she dragged our asses into a decent restaurant.”
“Fuck you. I just wanted to try it.” He took another drag and nodded toward Marcus. “So what are we going to do with him?”
“For now, we wait and watch. We need to keep an eye on him at all times. We need to know who he’s in bed with before we can pull him out. I’m gonna call Lucy.” I pulled out my phone and headed away from him, needing some privacy.
“Okay, but no more phone sex. That girl slept like the dead for a good two hours last time you two talked on the phone. Massy had a hell of time waking her up.” I let out a loud laugh and kept on walking.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
LUCY
“What’d he say?” Massy asked me as soon as I stepped back in the living room.
“Which one? Your husband kept yelling things over Mason’s shoulder.” I laughed.
She rolled her eyes, but the grin she gave me told me she didn’t mind much about her husband. “Okay, what did my Neanderthal say, then yours.”
“Yours said, You tell that woman she better be resting. No hikes in those damn woods!”
Massy gripped her stomach and laughed hard. “You got his voice pretty good.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “Of course I'm resting.” She waved her hand over her body. With her feet propped up on a pillow, and a few more pillows behind her back, she looked like a queen riding in her boat down the Nile River. “Where am I gonna go? See, that man is just ornery to be ornery.”
“Mason was just as bad.” I patted her shoulder and headed for the recliner. Leaning back, I popped up the foot rest. “He did say they were stuck for a few more days, but wouldn’t give me any details. Just told me to sit tight and not worry. ’Cause that’s what I do best.” I looked out the window of the cottage at the tree line just outside. “Didn’t Tick leave a gun with you?”
“Yeah, it’s in the bedroom. Don’t worry, hon, no one is going to be knocking on that door.”
“No, no. I'm not worried about that. I was just thinking, since we have plenty of time to kill...you want to show me how to shoot?”
If I could have framed her face at that moment, I would have. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes nearly crossed. “What? You want to learn how to shoot a gun? Now? Here?”
“Sure. Why not? No time like the present, right? Besides, if something does happen, I'm not gonna feel all that great hiding behind a pregnant woman.”
She seemed to think about it for a minute, then mentally talked herself right out of it. “No. Tick would have my ass, Mason, too.”
“Mason would want me to be safe, and learning how to take care of myself is how I’ll be safe,” I pointed out. “What would be the harm? You show me, I shoot a few trees, we come back in for your afternoon nap.”
She chewed on her lower lip for another minute, then the determination sprung into her eyes. “Look what that man has done to me, making me sit here thinking about what he’s gonna think about it. Fuck that. Let’s go. You have pants? You can’t be walking around the woods in that dress.”
I looked down at my summer dress. Mason preferred them, so I wore them. Odd how quickly his preferences became second nature to me. “Yeah. I’m sure I have a pair of jeans in my bag.”
Thirty minutes later we stood shoulder to shoulder, staring down a pine tree. “Don’t go stiff, if you go stiff your shoulder’s gonna hurt from the recoil.”
“This little thing has a recoil?” I held up the gun. It looked too small to offer much of a bite, but she nodded.
“Hell yeah, and if you don’t hold it right you’ll mess up your elbow, too. Don’t hold it sideways like those idiots in the movies. You have to hold it straight, like this.” She moved to stand behind me, wrapping her arms around my body and getting my positioning straight. “Now, don’t put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to pull it, understand? If you put it there right away, you’ll end up pulling it on accident. So just keep it here, on the outside. Line up your sight, when you’re ready, just pull the trigger.”
She let go and stepped back. “Go ahead.” She covered her ears and nodded again. My arms tensed and took a long breath, trying to relax my body.
I lined up my shot with a large knot in the tree. Seemed a big enough target. A snap of a twig crackled in the air just as I pulled the trigger back. The gun fired, a hot pain shot up my arm and through my shoulder, and a scream echoed through the woods.
But I hadn’t screamed. I looked over at Massy, panicked that I managed to hit her behind me. She stared back at me with as much confusion as me. We both took a few steps toward the tree I had been aiming out and found where the noise came from.
Sting lay on the ground, holding his stomach, blood oozed from between his fingers. I must have looked pale, because Massy grabbed my arm and told me to breathe. “I’m fine.” I pushed her hands off me. It may have been the first time I’d seen a man dying before, and it sure as hell was the first time I’d shot someone, but I could handle anything. I didn’t need my hand held every step of the way.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” she whispered, even though his pained expression was fixed right on us as we made our way over to him. I looked around, making sure there wasn’t anyone else hiding behind the trees. I didn’t see anyone, but that didn’t mean shit. I hadn’t seen Sting there until he screamed like a little bitch.
“You bitch! You fucking shot me!” He tried to yell at me, but it all came out garbled and strained. More blood poured out from between his fingers, joining the large pool already collecting on the forest bed.
“I didn’t see you.” I knelt down next to him, pulling off my sweatshirt. “Here. We need to put pressure on it, try to get the bleeding to stop.”
“How’d you get here? How’d you know where we were?” Massy demanded, pointing the gun at him again. I’d dropped it when I heard the pained scream, she must have picked it back up.
“Jayson had me tail you.” He coughed, spraying blood over himself.
“We’ve been here almost two days, you’ve been sitting out here for hat long?” She cocked the gun.
“No...Shit. Okay…okay.” He put a bloo
died hand up. It didn’t matter if she shot him again or not, I couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. And abdominal gunshot wound needed medical care I couldn't provide in the middle of the woods, or in the middle of a hospital. He needed a doctor, a team of nurses, and an OR. I shot him. I shot a person. I pulled the trigger and the bullet went inside another human being. If he died, that made me a murderer.
“Marcus?” I looked up from his wound to his eyes. “Marcus sent you?”
“No, not that Reaper shit. Jayson’s looking for you everywhere. He wants your ass back in camp.” He took a shaky breath. “He’s losing ground with the rest of the club and Lucas is trying to make a move for president. He figures...if he had you...Mason would have to help him keep his seat...Fight back against Lucas and the cartel.”
“How’d you know we were here?” Massy asked again, louder, and moved closer to him.
Mason: Inked Reapers MC Page 21
