by Jordan Marie
“Any word from Crush?”
“No, not since he stomped out of the school the other day.”
“He’ll come around, Bro’.”
“I’m not so sure, but that shit needed to be addressed.”
“What about Bull?” Dance asks, backing away from me as I look in the mirror. The tie is fixed perfectly.
“Who taught you how to do that shit?”
“I’m a man of many skills, Drag-o.”
“Whatever,” I say, adjusting the tie.
I’m tempted to yank that shit off, but I don’t. I’m already feeling guilty because I know I’m pushing Nicole into the wedding today. She would rather call it off and wait until we get Dani back and Kavanagh is not an issue. She told me what Kavanagh said he would do. I’m convinced going against him is the only way to draw him out. I need for him to lose control. Men who are not in control get sloppy—they make mistakes.
Plus, I want this marriage done. I do not want to wait. Hell, we’ve had too much of that shit and things keep coming our way. If I don’t get my ring on her finger soon, we may never get married and that is unacceptable.
“So, really, have you talked to Bull?” Dance asks again.
“No, something going on?”
“You see how he is. Brother’s got shit muddling in his brain Drag, I see it miles off, and I think he’s pissed at the ass chewing you gave him over Nicole.”
“She could have been killed, Dance. He knew better than to leave her alone.”
Dancer holds up his hand.
“I hear you, brother. I’m just saying, you’re doing an awful lot of ordering Bull around to do shit, that normally, a club enforcer does not do. And shit he used to do, you’re not relying on him to do. Brother has a crap load of shit to work through, but not having the trust of his Prez, well it ain’t going to help, Drag. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Moving in with a woman and living out of the club has turned you into a weeping whiney vagina,” I grumble, turning my back on him. He actually has a point. I haven’t been calling on Bull to handle shit. He needs time to recover and he has issues with strength right now. I should have talked it over with him though. If I can just get through this damn wedding, I will.
“Fuck you, I’m not the one wearing a tie and standing before a preacher.”
“You would if Carrie demanded it.”
“Care Bear wouldn’t. That’s why she’s perfect for me.”
“Whatever. She’s got a bun in the oven, women go bat-shit crazy when those hormones start talking.”
“Odd, from where I’m standing it’s you that seems all gung-ho for the wedding, not the bride.”
I flip him off. He’s right, and I don’t want to fucking talk about it.
Bull and Freak pick that minute to walk in. They’re dressed like Dance. Hell, maybe I should take the tie off too, just so we can match? Women like that shit, right?
“Drag, we got some problems.”
“What do you mean problems?” Fuck, I knew something was going to happen, I just knew it.
“Torch was going through surveillance video and found Kavanagh’s man visiting the church this morning,” Freak says, and I want to rip his face off.
“How the fuck was this not caught the minute he stepped foot on the fucking property?”
“Don’t look at me, it’s not like you put me in charge of security, Dragon,” Bull says and shit, he’s right, plus this just adds strength to Dancer’s remarks earlier.
“Do we know what that son of a bitch did while he was here?”
“Cameras lost sight of him for about five minutes so he couldn’t have done much,” Freak says, but he’s wrong.
“You can plant a motherfucking bomb in five minutes. Do we at least know in what direction he went?”
“Toward the rooms the women are using,” Freak says, raking his fingers through his beard.
I look at Bull. “You’re in charge, get this place on lockdown and find out what the son of a bitch did!”
Bull looks at me funny, but he doesn’t say anything. He nods once and takes off behind Freak. I follow them out the door with Dancer on my heels. I need to make sure Nicole is okay. Then I need to kill some people, because I’m pretty sure right now that’s all that will make me feel better.
17
Nicole
My wedding day. It should be a day filled with joy, excitement and dreams being fulfilled. Instead, it’s raining and the dark clouds outside seem like a beacon for evil. Evil that’s threatening me at every turn. I keep looking over my shoulder, expecting to see Michael or his goon, Donald. I’m anticipating the sound of gunfire and having dead bodies littering the church pews. These are not the visions a bride should have the day of her wedding.
I look in the mirror at my princess dress, fixing my hair one last time in the style that Dani and I had decided on. Dani. I don’t want to get married worried and scared about what is happening to her. I want her with me. Dragon told me to trust him. He told me to put this on his shoulders and just go through with the wedding. He’s convinced that we can do anything together, I love him and don’t want to disappoint him. So, I’m standing here at Faith Baptist Church, looking in a mirror at my perfect dress, and preparing to walk down the aisle to the man I love. My hands are shaking at the thought. Not because of bridal nerves, no, that would be too normal…I’m going against direct orders from Michael. What will he do to retaliate? It’s a situation no woman should have to face. How can I get married to Dragon with everything going on with Dani? Can I disappoint Dragon, knowing I love him with everything inside of me, and he’s convinced this is the right thing to do?
Before I can get lost in more dismal thoughts, there’s a quiet knock at the door. I turn around just as it opens, and Carrie is standing there in her pink bridesmaid dress, holding her bouquet of white roses. The opposite of mine, since I have pink roses for my bouquet. She really is beautiful. Dani and I decided to go sleek and sexy with the bridesmaid dresses, and I really love them. She’s also holding a small blue box with a matching ribbon on it.
“You look gorgeous!” she says and it makes me smile.
“I was just about to say the same about you. Dancer will flip when he sees you.”
“I’m heading that way to show him. This was delivered to our room instead of yours and it has your name on it. It’s a Tiffany box, so I thought it might be something you want before your wedding.”
“Really? I wasn’t expecting anything.”
“I bet Dragon wanted to surprise you,” she says, handing the box to me. There’s no tag on it, other than the signature Tiffany blue box and ribbon.
“Damn! Care Bear, how am I supposed to let you walk down the aisle looking like that?”
I look up to see Dancer and Dragon come to the door. My eyes lock with Dragon’s. I see the worry etched in his face, and I hate that I put it there. I can’t change it though, and the fact that he has now seen me before the ceremony on our wedding day just jumps out at me. Like we need any more bad luck.
“Dragon! You’re not supposed to see me!”
“Bullshit, you’re mine. I want to see you, then I see you.”
Damn man is so irritatingly cocky. It’s a good thing I love him.
“It’s bad enough we slept together last night. God knows we don’t need any more bad luck.”
“Woman, you are not spending a night out of my bed. It’s not happening. Same with the other shit. We’re not going to listen to old wives’ tales.”
I just shake my head. I could talk until I’m blue in the face, and it wouldn’t do any good.
“Care Bear, I got something I want to talk to you about. Come outside with me for a bit by the church gazebo.”
“Something you want to talk to me about?” Carrie asks, and I laugh as I watch Dancer move his eyebrows back and forth.
“Let’s go outside and we’ll talk about the first thing that pops up.”
Carrie seems confused for a minute and the
n slaps him playfully on the arm.
“You’re like a giant kid,” she says, but I notice she lets him lead her from the room.
They laugh and joke as they leave, and I smile. I’m glad they finally seem to be happy. I look up at Dragon and the smile freezes on my face. He’s tense and worried. I’ve seen that look too many times to mistake it now.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing, baby, I was just checking on you, I needed to see you.”
He’s lying. I know it. I decide to let him get away with it.
“No word on the men you have searching for Dani?”
He shakes his head, and even though I knew the answer before I asked, the response still hurts.
“Come outside with me for a little bit. The men want to check the rooms and everything to make sure it’s safe.”
My world stops.
“Why wouldn’t it be safe?” I question, my voice coming out squeaky, and fear is bleeding through the words.
“One of the cameras picked up Kavanagh’s goon. I want to make sure he didn’t leave us any surprises.”
My heart picks up in speed at his answer. I grab my bouquet and the Tiffany box and let him lead me from the room.
“I told you we should have waited, Dragon. He told me not to go through with this.”
“I told you, I’ll handle him. I just have to find the son of a bitch first, and I will.”
I want to argue. It won’t do any good and to be honest, I’m just worn out. I think the term emotionally-drained applies well here.
“So much for a happy wedding. This is the wrong thing to do, Dragon.” Okay, so I’m a bitch, and I can’t help but voice my opinion for the hundredth time, just like I have for the last two days, even though he refuses to listen to me.
“Mama, damn it.”
I just shake my head. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to fight with him on our wedding day either. I decide to concentrate on something else. I look down at the Tiffany box I’m holding in my hand.
“What did you get me? The delivery man had it delivered to the wrong room, Carrie just brought it to me.”
“I didn’t get you anything Mama, maybe it’s from your…”
It takes me a minute to undo the lid because I’m holding my bouquet in one hand, but I finally get it. Dragon stops talking, or my scream drowns him out. It was one of those, because lying there in the blue Tiffany backdrop is a finger. A finger. Worse, I recognize the bright red nail polish. It’s Dani’s finger.
Dragon takes the box from my hand. He’s talking but his words are just blurred out by the bile churning in my stomach and begging for release. I can’t make his face out through my tears. I knew this would happen. I knew it. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. He begged me to put my faith in him, and I did and now look what I’ve done. Oh God, what did I do?
My bouquet drops to the ground, as people start making their way to us. I love Dragon. Right now, I long to wrap my arms around him, begging him to take me away. I can’t. I did this, we did this. I just keep replaying Michael’s words in my head. I should have listened. I didn’t. Dragon’s pleading with me, but I can’t ignore this. I don’t have a choice. I want to run to him but I can’t.
I run away.
18
Dragon
Motherfucker, that’s the word that enters my brain when Nicole starts screaming. I look down at the box and immediately know what that twisted fuck has done. It’s been done so many fucking times it’s cliché, but I guess that doesn’t matter to a psychopath. Worse, the fact that it’s a woman’s finger. No, scratch that, it’s Dani’s finger. I’m not stupid. I take the box from Nicole and close it quick. I know that doesn’t help, what has been seen can never be unseen.
Her beautiful blue eyes are looking at me so wounded. Tears are pouring down her face, but even through them, I can see the accusing glare. She asked me to postpone the wedding. She begged me, and I didn’t listen. I should have. I thought I could control things. I need to fix this, but for the life of me I don’t know how. Chances are Dani is dead. If she’s not, she probably wishes she was. I still believe she’d be that way, even if Nicole and I had called the wedding off. I expected Kavanagh to go off the deep end. I just thought he would strike back at me instead of a woman.
I want to take Nicole in my arms, but I have the damn box. So instead, I just stand there.
“Mama, stop. I’ll get him. He’s starting to lose control. That’s what we need,” I say, but my words sound hollow to me.
“Lose control?” she screams. “He cut off her finger. He did exactly what he threatened! We shouldn’t have gone through with this! I told you! I begged you to listen to me. This is our fault, Dragon. Ours!”
“No, Nicole. He would have done something like this either way, he feeds off fear. We can’t give in. We just have to make him get sloppy now.”
“I’m done listening to you,” she says, and the pain in her voice alone could bring me to my knees.
I’m trying to explain. I can see it’s not helping. I’m at a loss. I can do nothing, but watch her walk away. Watch as the woman I love leaves me standing by her bouquet. The bouquet it took her a fucking month to pick out is now thrown down like garbage. It lays there on the broken sidewalk, mocking me. Nicole leaves me standing, without a backwards glance.
“Fuck, Boss, what’s going on?” Freak asks, as Bull, Frog, Dancer, and Hawk come running.
I look at Bull. He’s club enforcer I know, but he’s also the one Nicole trusts the most, besides me and Crusher.
“I need you to go after Nicole, get the other women and take them all to the club. Get Six and the prospects, and put the club on lockdown. Don’t let her leave, Bull, she’s going to want to. You can’t let that happen.”
“Boss…,” Bull starts to argue. I just shake my head no.
“Please man, she’s not thinking with her head right now.” I’ve never said please to one of my brothers before. Fuck, other than it having to do with Nicole and sex, I don’t think the word is in my vocabulary.
Bull must understand how desperate I am. He nods, slapping me on the shoulder. I toss him my keys to the Tahoe I drove this morning.
“Take Frog with you.”
He nods and starts to turn away.
“Bull?”
“Yeah, Boss?”
“Keep her safe.” He gives me a grim smile, takes the keys and tosses them to Frog.
“I got my truck. I’ll pick Nic up. You get the other girls and get them to the club,” Bull tells Frog, and I agree. I need everyone safe and accounted for.
“I’ll go help Hawk settle the crowd and have the girls meet me out front. We’ll be there in thirty or forty minutes at the most,” Frog says. Bull waves in acknowledgment and then takes off.
“I want Kavanagh found, and I want him found like yesterday. You feel me?” I tell the other men. They nod in agreement. “Freak, you’re in charge, do whatever you have to do, call in any marker, make a deal with the fucking devil himself! I do not care, but I want the fucker under surveillance by nightfall. Hawk, go with Frog, shut the wedding down and make sure the women are back at the club, safe. Dance, you’re with me.” I turn away ignoring everyone else, still clutching the box in my hand.
“Drag, man, what the fuck happened?”
I shove the box at him.
“He sent Nicole a present! Dani’s motherfucking finger! I want him found, then I’m going to kill him!”
“Fuck…”
“Yeah.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I got a plan. He thinks he has brought us down and has Nicole and Dani where he wants them. I’m going to let him think he’s won.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’ll explain on the way back to the club. Any luck finding Crusher yet?”
“No, man. Freak has a few of the new prospects out searching for him in the usual haunts, he’ll show soon.”
“Let’s hope so. I need
him, but only if his head is clear.”
“Well, that box ain’t going to help.”
I don’t argue. I know it won’t.
“Where’s your ride?” I ask. “You can drive while I fill you in on what I want to do to trap this fuck-wad.”
“Parked beside yours, man.”
I let him lead and glance over my shoulder, one last time, in the direction that Nicole disappeared to. I hope Bull can keep her from leaving the compound. I know she has it in her head to go to Kavanagh, and that can’t happen.
We pile into the Tahoe. I watch through the windshield, as Freak, Hawk and Frog walk back towards the main chapel. The sight of the church hurts me. Fuck, Nicole may never talk to me again.
My phone rings, and I look at the number on the display. Shit. I wonder what other fuck-ups happened today.
“Yeah motherfucker, want to tell me where you’ve been?”
“Drag, listen quick man.”
Crush’s voice comes over my phone, there are pops and crackling in the line, and I can barely make him out.
“Where in fuck are you? Do you know what went down today?”
“Do…. Use… today…”
“What are you saying asshole, I can barely hear you?”
“Man… Car… Just now… got Dani but …”
“You got Dani? Fuck, man your signal sucks. Where’d you find her? We’ll…”
“Listen can’t…. you got to…use it today…get Freak to…”
The phone goes dead with me holding it in my hand.
What the fuck?
Dancer starts the vehicle up, and Frog walks by with a slap on our hood. He climbs into my vehicle as I turn back to Dancer.
“What was that?”
“Crusher, I couldn’t make out what he said, he said he had Dani… but he was trying to tell me something. Shit man, I couldn’t make a…”
I don’t get the chance to finish my sentence. The world erupts as pain hits me everywhere all at once and in all directions. An explosion blasts, and heat rocks through the air.
19
