by Karen Renee
I could feel my eyes bulging at Blood as I focused intently on him, but in my peripheral vision I noticed a couple of female figures sidle up to us. Then I watched Blood’s eyes close, and I knew he was seeking patience.
“She’s that girl’s best hope,” I heard Andrea say, in her gentle and soothing voice.
I could see Blood war with himself. Before he could decide anything, Jackie dangled a set of keys in front of me. His eyes should have set Jackie’s hand on fire, such was his fury.
“Jacqueline—”
“Don’t ‘Jacqueline’ me, Bledsoe!”
I wanted to laugh because her tone was amusing, but I also wanted to cringe because I hated being the reason they were arguing. I snagged the keys.
“Dammit, Trixie, too many of us care about you. I can’t let you—”
“No man gets to ‘let’ me do anything,” I snarled.
Blood snarled right back, and his was better. “You know what I mean. Shit’s already fucked up. Do not make it worse by goin’ in half-cocked. Those assholes are sure to kill you if you do. Then where does that leave Roll?”
My eyes bulged. “Where does it leave Roll if his niece is carved up and raped? She’s fuckin’ terrified, man. I’ve been there, and I got anything to do with it, she won’t be raped.”
“You’re right, but how about you two stop arguing and tell the rest of us where she is.”
This came from Beast, and while I didn’t know him that well because he was a recent transfer to the Jacksonville chapter, from the gleam in his eyes I knew he meant business.
“Shit,” I whispered, because Leah hadn’t been able to tell me that before she was interrupted.
Blood read the look on my face and luckily he didn’t gloat too much. Razor and Yak had joined our huddle, so Blood addressed them.
“Last I heard, the Lancers had a patch of land on the Northside, in-between Hilliard and Callahan. We’ll need to—”
He was interrupted by Vamp’s phone ringing. Vamp’s lips twisted and his silver hoop went with it, and I wondered if I could talk Roll into a piercing like that.
“Cal, not a good time, man. There’s a situa—”
His abrupt stop sent a shiver up my spine.
“Fuck. Yeah, that’s just it, man. The niece called Trixie and Trix is hell-bent to—”
Even from three feet away, I heard Cal on the line. “She is not fuckin’ in this shit.”
I lunged for the phone, but I found myself shuffled back, and Beast’s chiseled face was all I could see.
“Stop, woman. You’re coming with us, no matter what the others say.”
That was so unexpected, I was speechless and my mouth was hanging open.
“Before you get excited, though, you have to cool your jets. You understand? Blood’s right. This ain’t somethin’ we go into half-cocked. So get your shit together.”
Roll
Roll threw a leg over Brute’s bike and watched Har straddle the prospect’s bike. Once the prospect was in the SUV, Brute roared out of the gas station parking lot with half the Biloxi brothers following.
Roll had called Cal, and knew he was wrapping up at a jobsite nearby. Cal was notifying Vamp, who was back at the clubhouse, so Roll and Har would have even more reinforcements than the four Biloxi brothers with them. Before Roll could turn the ignition on the bike, his phone buzzed. The display showed it was Cal.
“Yo.”
“Your niece called Trixie tellin’ her they had her.”
“Fuck,” Roll growled. He had wanted to keep this shit away from Trixie, and he hated having his control undermined.
“She’s hell-bent on—”
“Yeah. Her history, there ain’t even a force of Mother Nature that could keep her away.”
There was a beat of silence.
“You cannot be cool with this, brother,” Cal muttered.
“I’m not, but she’ll do what she wants regardless, so I’m choosin’ my battles. We’re rollin’ to the Northside, what’s your ETA?”
“No more than ten minutes behind you.”
“Got it. Ride safe, brother.”
Brute’s bike rumbled to life, and Roll led Har and the other brothers to the Devil Lancers’ turf.
Fifteen minutes later, Roll was pushing eighty-five miles-per-hour, approaching the Pritchard Road exit when a Jeep Liberty passed him on the right. In the street lamps, he saw it was Jackie’s vehicle, but shook his head because he swore he saw Trixie driving. It didn’t make him happy, but there was nothing he could do about it. Trixie was forced to slow down at the exit, and Roll passed her half-a-mile later.
Heathen hadn’t given up where Putt and File had taken Leah, and the gas station was too public for them to get more creative with forcing him to talk. This meant the Lancers could have Leah at their clubhouse, but seeing as how Iggy was missing-in-action, and now their President hadn’t checked in, Roll suspected they had Leah where they handled any dirty work.
Roll slowed the bike at the outskirts of Callahan. The sun hadn’t fully set yet, and he noticed a gap in the trees lining the highway. He turned into a dirt lane. Putting the bike in first gear, he idled down the path. It wasn’t well-worn, so he suspected they might be in the right place. After twenty feet, he pulled the bike to the side, cut the engine and swung off.
Har did the same.
“You sure this is it?” he asked in a whisper.
Roll shook his head and trudged down the path. They went fifty feet before Roll noticed a ramshackle building through the trees. He stopped and Har did too.
Blood appeared on Roll’s left. “Took a lot, but Andi and Trix are in the car, at the end of the drive.”
Roll lifted his chin and whispered, “You take the left side with three of the Biloxi brothers. Har, and the other Biloxi brother, and I’ll go around the right.”
All of the men jerked their heads behind them when a twig snapped. Cal approached with a haggard look on his face.
“Volt called. They want Heathen for Leah.”
It was on the tip of Roll’s tongue to say “No fuckin’ way,” when they heard a shrill scream from the building.
“Fuck that. Let’s move in,” Har said, pulling a Glock from behind his back.
“Shit,” Roll muttered realizing his gun was in his car. Blood held out a revolver. “Thought you might need a piece.”
Roll took it and checked the barrel. The four of them moved quickly to the building, and Har barged in the front door.
Leah was half-naked, lying on a filthy floor, her nose bloody and a jagged cut running from her shoulder to the inside of her left breast. The Devil Lancer known as File was standing in front of her, his jeans undone, and he was visibly aroused, the sick fucker. Roll had heard rumors over the years File’s name was short for ‘Pedophile’, but he had dismissed it. Now Roll wanted to kill the man in the worst way. He would gladly serve time for that crime.
“Where’s Heathen?” Putt asked, holding a rusty knife. He was standing behind Leah’s prone form.
Nobody said anything and File smiled exposing uneven and stained teeth. “Even exchange. No Heathen, the gash stays.”
Roll lunged at File calling his niece ‘gash’, but Cal stopped him. Putt made a move toward Leah, and Har shot him in the gut. Putt doubled over in pain, and Har caught the man before he could fall on Leah. At the same time, Blood threw a roundhouse punch at File, using his hand holding the gun, pistol-whipping him.
Cal nabbed File by his cut and held him at gunpoint.
“Get her out of here, Blood.”
Roll was already crouched by Leah’s side. “Did they hurt you anywhere else, Lee-Lee?”
“No,” she whimpered.
Blood squatted on her other side. “Honey, I’m gonna carry you to Trixie, unless you can walk there on your own.”
She looked between Blood and Roll. “Trixie’s here?”
Roll’s grin was wan. “Couldn’t keep her away if we tried. Let Blood get you outta here, Babycakes.”
“You’re dead, motherfucker.”
“Our club’ll come after you fucks,” Putt muttered from the wall where Har had shoved him.
Har chuckled sinisterly. “Your chapter’s charter has been dismantled.”
“Don’t have time for this shit,” Roll said, as he grabbed Putt’s blade off the floor. With it in hand, he advanced on File. “Saw you were hard for an underage girl. Before you reach the gates of hell, you’re damn well gonna suffer.”
Cal wasn’t the Jacksonville chapter’s Sergeant at Arms for nothing. He was good at restraining angry men, but as Roll gripped File’s dick, the asshole put up a struggle that put Cal to the test. As Putt realized Roll was going to unman his brother, he tried to struggle with Har, but Har punching him in the gut, where he was shot, subdued him.
Roll had never touched another man and didn’t want to again, so he forced the dull blade through the penis as quickly as he could. Not because he was being merciful, but because it was repulsive, even if the asshole deserved it. The entire thing was perverse. Roll was squeamish at what he’d done, but it was extremely satisfying to hear the man scream as shrilly as he had made Leah scream minutes earlier.
Roll heard someone heaving. He looked at File. The man’s face was wrenched with pain as he screamed, but he was not about to vomit. Then he saw Putt was dry-heaving.
“You done?” Cal shouted over File’s wailing.
Roll lifted his chin, wiped the knife clean, then moved to Putt. The closer Roll came to him, the more Putt cowered.
Roll smiled as he put the knife into its sheath. “Don’t worry. Your dick’ll be safe, but your fuckin’ time’s up.”
He pulled the revolver from his waistband and shot him through the forehead. Seconds later, another shot rang out, and Roll saw Cal had shot File in the head.
***
“Jesus! You bastards do not shy away from mess.”
This came from Roman, one of the Biloxi brothers sitting at the clubhouse bar.
Yak was on the other side of Roll, and he leaned forward. “Neither do you assholes, Candle-boy.”
Roman shot Yak the bird, and all three of them chuckled.
“I don’t know,” Beast muttered. He was sitting next to Roman. “Don’t remember us ever having four messes to clean up.”
“Not feeling squeamish about coming to Jacksonville, are you?” asked Razor, who had sidled up to Yak’s left.
“No. But because of the dry winter, we couldn’t even torch the fuckin’ place,” Beast lamented
A sly smile twisted Roman’s face, and Beast narrowed his eyes.
“You didn’t?”
“Nope. I didn’t. Not my fault when people hire unlicensed electricians and build with shoddy materials.”
“It was damn sure shoddy,” Har said, from behind Roll.
The grin on Roll’s face died when he heard Trixie’s voice fill the room. “I don’t fuckin’ care how damn bitchy it makes me, but your damn biological brother is a goddamn asshole.”
He turned his head to see her eyes glitter with irritation, and it made his dick twitch. She was walking toward him, but stopped and planted a hand on her hip. “No. Wait. That’s being too damn nice. What’s the word Mallory loves to use?” She snapped her fingers when it hit her. “He’s a colossal asshole. If his daughters weren’t the bomb-dot-com, I would write his ass off, even if that put a strain in your relationship with him, Roll.”
She had finally made her way to him, and using an arm around her waist he yanked her to him and planted a long, wet kiss on her.
“Knew I loved you for a reason. You’re right. He’s a supreme asshole when biker shit hits the fan, but how in the fuck is my niece?”
She took a step back, and Roll thought she would answer the question, but he thought wrong.
“Another sure sign he’s a fucking asshole! You should have been able to stay, damn it. Hell, had Leah not been with it, I would’ve been given the heave-ho and I’ve been through tha—”
Roll cupped her cheeks. “Baby. Focus. How is Lee-Lee?”
Trixie took a deep breath forcing her tits to graze his chest. “She’s stitched up and her nose is not broken. They let her go home. I just pray your sister-in-law gets her shit together. She was doin’ the silent crying. I get it, bein’ grateful her daughter’s okay-ish. But, both those girls need a strong mom right now. Not to be wonderin’ why mom’s still weeping.”
Yes. His woman didn’t miss a trick.
Had Ray not blamed Roll for Leah’s abduction, and expressed it by trying to deck Roll, Dana might have been in a better place. His brother was so caught up in placing blame he didn’t do shit to calm his wife so she’d be a rock for Leah. It was what Roll feared would happen when he left, but Ray wouldn’t listen to a word Roll said.
Thinking on his brother’s behavior made Roll think of his mother. It had been a long, ugly day, and visiting hours started at the crack of dawn. He was determined to be the first person his mother saw, and therefore the first person to inform her about what happened.
“Sure you’ve had your fill of hospitals for the next year or better, but you feel up to hittin’ a rehab facility first thing in the morning? We hustle, we can see my mother before anyone else.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Trixie
Holy hell. Now he wanted to take me to meet his mother? Had he lost his mind?
“I do want to meet your mother, but is it a good idea for this visit to happen first thing in the morning?”
Roll grinned at me. “She’s always at her best first thing in the morning. Plus, I suspect Raymond will have his hands full still, or at a minimum, he’ll be sleepin’ in.”
Now it was morning, and I wrapped a towel around my torso, lamenting not having all my clothes on hand. What in the hell was I supposed to wear to meet his mother?
“Get a fuckin’ grip, Trix,” I muttered to myself.
The bathroom door swung open and Roll stuck his head inside. “What’d you say, baby?”
I sighed quietly. “Nothin’. Be out in a minute.”
I put on my bra, panties, and deodorant before I went to my duffel bag by the bed. From my bag, I grabbed my bottle of expensive perfume, and loaded up on it. Why? Well, you could call me superstitious and cue up some Stevie Wonder while you were at it, but the first time I doused myself heavily with Krystal perfume that used to belong to my momma, it was also the first time Uncle Derrick couldn’t bring himself to touch me. Well, except for the bitch-slap to the face which preceded his clipped, “Don’t do that shit again.” Luckily for me, his insistence that I take a shower to get rid of the overwhelming scent fell on deaf ears, because I had already showered, and being a teenage girl, my shower was longer than it should’ve been, according to my father. No way was Dad going to tolerate me taking another shower that night.
Ever since, whenever I didn’t want people to fuck with me, I wore entirely too much perfume.
Pawing through my clothes, I again lamented my staunch biker-bitch ways. I had no idea what to wear!
Roll chuckling interrupted my thoughts. I glared at him.
“I know you’re not laughing at me,” I groused.
“Not exactly,” he drawled. His grin made my breath hitch and I nearly forgot he was bugging me. “I’m just surprised I have to tell you the same thing I told you before meeting Leah. Just the ages are different. She’s a sixty-eight-year-old woman. She knows a lot about you, and there’s no way she isn’t gonna love you. What you wear just doesn’t matter.”
My first thought was only a biker would say that, but the fact was, any man would say that shit.
“Whatever. You’ll never understand, the testosterone prohibits it.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
My eyes narrowed. “I don’t know it, and neither do you.”
“Get dressed, woman. I’ll be outta the shower in five, so please God, be
ready when I’m done.”
***
I had thought I was nervous while getting dressed, but it turned out I was wrong. That feeling was a walk in the park compared to the butterflies in my stomach and moisture turning my hands clammy now.
Roll decided it would be better for me to wait just outside his mother’s room while he explained what happened to Leah. I understood why he wanted to do it this way. The news about Leah was enough on its own. Add meeting me to the mix and it might be overload.
After what seemed like half-an-hour but was probably only fifteen minutes, Roll opened the door. He gestured for me to come inside, so I did.
His mother was wearing a loose-fitting, pale blue pajama top. She smiled at me as I entered, but the left side of her lips didn’t curve. I smiled back, and wished I could wave a magic wand to restore her facial muscles, because I could tell she gave Roll his fabulous grin.
“My boy asked if I wanted to meet you and I said I don’t want to meet her. I demand to meet the woman who saved my granddaughter last night.”
I took the hand she held out to me and shook it. “Oh. I didn’t save her.”
“Not what Leah said this morning.”
My eyebrows furrowed, because as far as I knew we were her first visitors of the day.
“Called Leah, babe. She says you got her through all the way to the hospital when her dad—”
I didn’t want Roll to badmouth his brother in front of his mother, so I interrupted. “Yes, her dad took over as he should.”
A female version of Roll’s chuckle sounded and I stared at Mrs. Rolland. “You don’t have to stand up for Raymond. Leah mentioned he didn’t treat you right.”
When she said ‘stand up,’ it came out sounding like ‘tand up’ and I realized this had to be taking it out of her.
“Mrs. Rolland—”
“Betty, please, dear.”
I smiled. “Betty, this must be exhausting. If you prefer—”
“Oh, no. I’m a wee bit tired, but you’re going to tell me about yourself.”
