Jaxson (Black Devils MC Book 1)

by K. J. Dahlen

  He whispered, “You don’t want to do that.”

  Deke couldn’t believe he’d said this. “Why not?” he demanded.

  Breaker just shook his head. Then he looked away and picked up his drink, not saying a word.

  “You mean to tell me you’re going to let him rape that girl and do nothing to stop him?” Deke fumed.

  Breaker shrugged but couldn’t meet Deke’s eyes. “It will hurt her less if she cooperates.”

  Deke pursed his lips together in his rage. “She doesn’t want him. I think she’s made that clear enough.”

  Breaker shrugged again. “But he wants her and right now, that’s all that matters to him. He’ll lose interest quick enough.”

  Deke pushed back his chair and got to his feet. Looking around the room, he glared at every man sitting there. No one could meet his eyes. They could all see what was happening, they could all hear her screams and not one of them had come to her aid.

  He looked over at Gator and saw the other man’s rage, then he swung his eyes to Breaker. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Not one of you here deserves the rank of being called a man. I always thought an MC meant something to the members. That being part of an MC meant being part of a brotherhood but this is not what a brotherhood means to me. You are letting a bastard of a man bully you into submission and that’s worse than being a snake. He’s got each and every one of you by the short hairs of your balls and you allowed that to happen. You people make me sick.”

  Growling, he walked toward the bedroom Bear and Gillian had went to and moments later, they all heard the sounds of a fight. Moments later, they saw Bear flying through the doorway as Deke threw him back into the main room. Bear got up off the floor and charged back into the bedroom then they heard more thuds against the wall. Bear flew out of the bedroom again, followed by Deke as they fought their way in the open space of the main room. Both men were bleeding and for a moment, it seemed as if Bear would win the fight as he had Deke down on the ground but Deke managed to throw a fist that stunned the other man. He nailed him in the groin with the first blow, then in the head with the second hit.

  Bear dropped to the ground and didn’t move for a moment or so. Deke got up slowly bending at his waist and took several deep breathes. Blood dripped on the floor from his broken nose as Gillian slowly emerged from the bedroom. Blood ran down her chin and her clothing was torn. Tears rolled down her face and she could barely walk. She hugged the wall as she passed the spot where Bear laid. Before she could take more than a step past him, he got to his feet and grabbed the knife at his hip. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her backward. She screamed and struggled to break free. Growling, he shook his head as if to clear it and stabbed her in the back.

  Her screams were cut short as she fell to the floor and no sound was heard from anyone as they witnessed what Bear had done.

  Bear just stood there glaring at the girl breathing deeply. His eyes were glazed over and he didn’t seem to care that he’d just killed someone.

  Deke growled and pulled his fist back in order to drop the other man when suddenly a gunshot barked out.

  Everyone watched as a wound burst open and blood sprayed from out of Bear’s forehead. His eyes crossed and he dropped to his knees falling forward to lay on the floor next to Gillian. For a brief second, he had a stunned look on his face then there was nothing.

  Deke slowly raised his shocked eyes to look over at the group of men sitting at the tables not far from where he stood.

  There he saw Breaker still holding his weapon pointed in his direction. Shock was on everyone’s face for a moment then Breaker carefully laid his weapon on the table. He got to his feet and stared at the body of his fallen leader.

  Deke slowly lowered his body down to check on Gillian. When he turned her over and saw her eyes were closed, he checked for a pulse but didn’t find one. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face and just stared at her for a moment. The bruises on her face stood out and he hated the fact they were there. The blood on her chin was drying and he could see the cut where Bear had split her lip with his fist. He pulled the blade from her back and threw it off to the side then gathered her up in his arms and carried her out of the club. No one tried to stop him and as he passed Gator, the other man fell in behind them.

  When they were going, Deke didn’t know. He carried her into the woods behind the club and after a while, he stopped and sat down on a stump. Still holding her in his arms, he glanced over at Gator with pain in his eyes. “I got her killed,” he whispered brokenly.

  “No you didn’t,” Gator insisted. “You tried to save her.”

  Deke shook his head.

  “Yes you did,” Gator argued. “You were the only one of all of them that cared enough to stand up for her. Those losers would have let him rape her.”

  “It doesn’t matter anymore does it?” Deke glared at him. “She’s still dead.”

  “So is he.”

  “No matter what her life was before she came here, she didn’t deserve this.” Deke shook his head. He and Gator had been the only ones who asked about her life before they met. Over the last few days, she’d told them how she was just another child to slip through the cracks. Only seventeen years old, she’d been on her own for the last two years since she left her mother behind her. Her mother had pimped her out at the age of fourteen for enough money to support her own crack habit. It had been a less than ideal life and she had gone with Bear that day because she needed a place to live and thought the MC would take care of her until she got back on her feet. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out the truth. She didn’t seem like she was crying about her life, she’d just stated the facts.

  “What are you going to do with her now?” Gator asked. “You can’t take her to the police without bringing heat down on the MC.”

  Deke scoffed. “And why should I give a rat’s ass about them? They didn’t give a shit about their own leader and what he was doing.”

  “Not all of them were like him.” He pointed out. “Most of them were decent guys, they just lacked proper leadership.”

  Deke glanced down at the girl in his arms. “Then I guess we’ll give her in death what she couldn’t find in life. A decent place to rest.” Laying her down on the grass, he bid Gator, “Wait here with her, so she isn’t alone. I’m going back to get a shovel.”

  A few minutes later, he walked back into the clubhouse. Glancing to where Bear’s body was he noted no one had moved it. Breaker and the others were still sitting at the tables drinking. There were no other sounds in the room.

  Breaker looked up at him. “What do you want us to do now?”

  “I don’t want you to do anything.” Deke growled. “I’m not your leader.”

  “You could be,” someone called out.

  Breaker nodded. “We were at one time, proud to carry these colors. Bear wasn’t a bad man at one point but he let the power of being the leader corrupt him. He lost his way and after a while, we couldn’t do anything but allow it. Most of us were going to walk away from him before this happened, we just lacked a valid reason, this I guess was just the turning point we needed.” He got to his feet.

  “You were right when you said we weren’t men anymore. But you wouldn’t have said that a year ago. The real brotherhood of this MC broke down slowly and over that time, Bear just smothered any resistance we had. The more power he got the less resistance we had. We forgot what that brotherhood meant until you pointed it out to us.” He looked over his shoulder at the fallen man behind him. Then he looked at Deke. “Bear has been wearing us down for a long time and we let him do it. We don’t want that anymore and if we had a strong man to lead us, we could take pride in ourselves again.”

  Deke glared at them for a moment. “I don’t want to be your leader. No one else should be in a position to have to tell you what to do and how to live. That’s something each of you has to do for yourselves.” He glanced around at the two dozen men sit
ting there.

  Most of them had a dazed look in their eyes.

  Breaker shook his head. “You don’t understand.” He ran his fingers threw his long hair. “Most of us have nowhere else to go. As bad a leader as he was, Bear held us together for a long time. He used fear and intimidation to keep his position. Over time, he made us weak and took away our pride, but it wasn’t always like that. When we started out, this MC was something we could say was a good thing. How we lost that and let him take over, no one knows but with the right leadership, we could be great again.”

  Deke shook his head. “But I’m no leader, hell I’m about the youngest one of you here. It would never work, most of you wouldn’t take orders from me on that fact alone.” He glanced around him again, then looked Breaker in the eye. “Me and Gator are looking for a place of our own too. We left Maine a few years ago under similar circumstances. I couldn’t stay with the MC there because I didn’t believe in what they stood for. We thought this place was a good place until it wasn’t anymore. We were on our way out the door when this happened.”

  “You and Gator haven’t been here more than a few days,” Breaker admitted.

  “It didn’t take us long to find out what we needed to know.” Deke shook his head.

  “Yeah, I know,” Breaker agreed. “It took you guys’ days to see what it took Bear years to accomplish. That’s not something we can be proud of. Most of us have been disgusted about this for a long time now.”

  “Like I said, that’s something you guys need to do as a club.” Deke looked around. “Now that you know what went wrong with Bear, it’s up to you not to let it happen again.”

  “We could do it quicker with a good leader,” Breaker urged. “Someone strong and young enough to mold us into better men.”

  Deke shook his head. “I’m looking for a club with values I can live with. I want to work every day towards a common goal, ones I don’t have to look over my shoulder to watch out for the cops or backstabbing members looking to gain power every day.”

  “You could have that here with us,” another man told him as he came to stand behind Breaker. “That was our dream at one time as well, then Bear got us into the drug trade and we lost our way quickly after that.” He looked around. “Some of us have wives and kids and this place isn’t safe for them. I know I’d never bring my girl out here.”

  Deke glanced around the room.

  Most of the guys were willing to meet his eyes and those that didn’t just glared at him. Those were the ones who had something to lose.

  “If I do this, things are gonna change and not everyone is gonna like it. For those who stay, there will be rules to follow. For those who chose to leave, you have to move out of town altogether. If this were my club, I’d want it to be clean and legit. I don’t care about the booze but it will be watched. No more drinking yourselves under the tables. There won’t be any drugs anymore. No dealing or using allowed. If you want to do that shit, you don’t do it here. From now on, we all pull our own weight by means of a job with the club getting ten percent right off the top. This town has a lot of potential for all of us to make a good living.”

  Breaker showed a moment of surprise then glanced around at his men. “Only ten percent?”

  Deke gave him a single nod.

  Breaker looked at his men. Most of them were nodding. “Bear took forty percent.”

  Deke shrugged. “I’m not Bear. I have a different plan for the club I lead. In fact, I was getting ready to move out. This club had nothing I wanted at this point.” He shifted his stance and stared at them. “I’ll be honest with all of you. When I got here, I saw a lot of potential in this town. I grew up in the MC life, it’s all I know, but this MC wasn’t what I was looking for. I wanted something I could be proud of and I wasn’t proud of this place at all.” Crossing his arms around his chest, he told them, “Gator said that most of you were decent men and while I agree with him until you demonstrate what you can do to make this a better MC, you’re all on notice. I will not tolerate disrespect at all. Not to me and not to each other.”

  “And if we can agree with all of that?” Breaker asked.

  “Then we can try it.” Deke nodded. “Those of you who deal drugs are free to leave if you insist on that lifestyle. I know the money is good and all that but it’s not what I want for this club. Take your business elsewhere. I won’t stop you, nor will I take the money you make doing it. I want nothing to do with it. We have a lot to do to rebuild this club but it can be done.”

  Breaker nodded over at Bear’s body “And him? What do we do with him?”

  Deke glanced over at the body and stated flatly, “Drag his ass out to the woods and let the wild life finish him off. The circle of life will take care of him. We can’t exactly call the cops can we?” He turned to Breaker and asked, “I came in here for a shovel. Do you have one?”

  Breaker nodded and walked toward him. “We have tools in the garage.” Pausing he asked, “What are you going to do with the girl?”

  “I’m going to give her a final resting place, somewhere quiet and nice. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. She didn’t have any ID on her and we don’t really know anything about her except her first name. We can’t even notify her family but from what she told me about them, I doubt they would care anyway.”

  Breaker went over to a shed to grab a shovel and a tarp. Handing them to Deke he asked, “Are you going to stay and help us rebuild this club?”

  “I’ll think about it,” Deke replied. “But I meant what I said about the drugs. I won’t have them in my club. That’s not going to go over with some of your men. It’s good money and that’s not easy to give up.”

  “What else can we do?” Breaker frowned.

  “I told you, this town has potential. There’s a strip club not far from here and a couple of bars for sale. I was talking to a guy in town named Zipper and he had some ideas too.”

  Breaker chuckled. “Bear never saw you coming and that’s a good thing.” He shook his head. “I think you could be a good thing for us. I hope you consider staying here and turning this club around.”

  “It isn’t going to be easy. We’re bikers and most people look down on us for just that reason. I want to build a club that people don’t look at with fear and distrust. I love the biker life, hell it’s all I’ve ever known but I’ve seen the best and the worst of this life and I want something somewhere in the middle. It can be done but not without hard work and we’d all have to keep our noses clean.”

  “I think we can work with that.”

  Now twelve years later, Deke and Gator were running two strip clubs and three small bars, along with the MC. They were all pulling in a tidy profit. The rules were still in place and the men understood what happened when you broke them. They had some of the seedier members stay and they were each caught doing things that the club wouldn’t allow. Most were run out of town, and some disappeared. Deke knew some of the men took out the trash in their own way. Still, things were profitable and well run. The women who worked in their clubs came and applied for the jobs themselves. No female was ever treated without respect in his bars and clubs.

  Deke had a battle from the get go on his hands, as he took over the club. Cleaning out the riffraff and drugs had been hard but earning the respect of the remaining men had been worth the effort. It had taken two years to get to the point where they bought the first bar and strip club but slowly, they had worked hard to get to where they were today.

  The club was doing well and providing enough to be able to hold their heads up. The women and families of the men had come together and worked hard for the unity they shared. The men found they could trust Deke to keep his word. He listened to their concerns and ideas for the club then acted on the ones he thought would work. He became a good leader and had taken his place in the club with pride.

  Gator never liked the strip clubs like you would think a man would, no he preferred the bars to run and that was
okay with Deke, as long as he had men he trusted in each location.

  Deke had also invested in other properties around Troy. They were now looking into spreading out into other areas of business. Their accountant had proclaimed them solvent and making a damn good profit.

  Today, him and Gator stepped off the porch and made their way into the woods. Each of those twelve years had been a turning point for the club and each one had made it stronger.

  But this day was always hard for him. Each year made it worse in some ways. In other ways, every year gave him a tiny bit of peace. Their footsteps were softened by the leaves and debris on the floor of the woods. Both men made their way to a special place hidden there. Only they and Gator’s woman, Reva knew why this place was special. Several years ago, Reva wanted something special out here. Something they could all look at and something Gillian could be happy with. Gator had added a small manmade pond out here, one with a waterfalls and its own generator.

  Reva maintained the area and often came out here to think. She appreciated the quiet and would sometimes talk out her own problems here. She always said there was no one here to judge her and it helped her feel closer to inner peace. That no one person was perfect, least of all her and it helped her clear away the drudge of everyday life to come out here.

  When the two men broke into the clearing, they weren’t surprised to see her sitting there. Gator had added a bench for her several years ago and as they joined her, Reva smiled. “This place is perfect. I don’t know why you guys come out here but I’m glad you do.”

  Deke stared at the pond and to a spot just to the left of the water. Neither he nor Gator had ever told anyone where they buried the body all those years ago. They felt a secret wouldn’t stay a secret long if too many people knew it, so this was a secret only they shared.

  Gator reached out and took her hand. “Honey, this place is very special.” He glanced over at Deke and they stared at each other for a long moment. Deke gave the other man a brief incline of his head and Gator took a deep breath.