I crawled out of my shell long enough today to call Toni and Chrissy. They both chewed me out, mostly for not telling them, but also for going behind Gage’s back. Chrissy asked Ron about him, but all he would say is that Gage has been staying at the clubhouse. I’m supposed to go to Miami in two days, and I really don’t want to leave things the way they are. Maybe I should just postpone the trip. I mean, I can go visit them any time. Gathering courage, I shower, dress, and drive to the clubhouse. When I walk in, I see him sitting at the bar, a Hound on his left and another on his right. Two empty whiskey bottles sit before him, and he’s starting on the third. All the guys are here, engaged in various activities, so no one pays attention to me. Except for Razor’s redhead, Cassidy. She wiggles her fingers at me.
“Raven, baby girl!” Rico shouts.
I give him a weak smile but get the feeling his outburst was more to alert Gage of my presence, than a greeting. Gage turns on his stool, regarding me with tired, bloodshot eyes as I approach.
“Get lost,” I tell the Hounds.
Holding my stare, Gage pulls one of the girls onto his lap. I turn to her with murder in my eyes.
“Don’t make me hurt you, bitch.”
She slinks back, looking to Gage for approval. He nods slowly, still staring at me. He’s never looked at me like this, not even when I almost crashed the car with him inside. I don’t know how to handle it. His eyes are cold, unfeeling. I know he’s hurt. I just never thought I’d ever be the one to cause him such pain.
“Can we talk?”
“Go ahead,” he says flatly, downing another glass of the liquor. As I look around, I notice everyone’s watching us now. Cassidy seems especially interested in what’s going on.
“In private?”
He scoffs but motions to the hallway. I precede him, leading the way to his room. He closes the door behind him and grabs the chair in the corner, turning it backward and straddling it. I watch him nervously, racking my brain for the right words to say.
“You haven’t been home.”
His expression doesn’t change, still watching me with those dead eyes. He doesn’t speak either, just waits for me to continue.
“I didn’t want to leave for Miami without… I didn’t want to leave things the way they are.”
“Oh? How are things, Raven?”
The frigid tone of his voice pierces my heart, and tears sting my eyes as they begin to form.
“Don’t you dare cry. You don’t get to cry,” he growls.
“I’m sorry! I was scared—”
“And you thought the best thing to do was lie to me? Deceive me for months?”
“I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“Yeah,” he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Great job on that one.”
“Gage…” I step forward but an icy glare stops me in my tracks. I break down, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. “Please… please. I can’t be without you. I can’t lose you.”
“You lost me the moment you decided to swallow that first pill.”
That’s the moment my heart stopped beating. He is my heart. Without him, how am I supposed to survive?
“You done talking?” He sneers.
I guess that’s it. There’s nothing left to say. I turn and walk dejectedly to the door. Without turning around, I softly say, “If you’re not coming to the house because I’m there… after tomorrow, I won’t be.”
I can’t stay there another day without him, and I can’t keep him away from his home. I’ll just have to find somewhere to go. Once the door is closed behind me and I know he can’t see me, I break out in a run. I need to get out of here. Chopper calls after me as I race through the bar, but I don’t stop. I get as far as my car before someone grabs me. Turning, I crash into Dr. E. He pulls me against him, trying to console me. It’s no use. I cry into his chest, fisting my hands in his shirt.
“It’s okay, Raven.”
“No! No, it’s not.”
“What the hell is going on?” Chopper demands as he approaches.
“I messed up, Chopper. I… I lied to him. I lied and now he doesn’t want me anymore.”
“Don’t worry, lil darlin’. I’ll deal with him. Einstein, take her home. I’ll have one of the boys pick you up.”
“You got it, Chopper.”
Dr. E leads me to the passenger side, buckling me in before climbing into the driver’s seat. I stare out the window at the passing landscape, tears blurring my vision. It all fades into insignificance because, plain as day, is the look in Gage’s eyes when he told me I’d lost him.
It’s over.
***Gage***
What kind of world do I live in where a man can’t drink and sulk in peace? Chopper’s been a constant nag in my ear, E won’t stop texting me even though he’s at work, and Allah’s been playing every break-up song he can think of. I grab my cut, hop in the Mustang and drive until I see the first bar. I’ve been trying to push her out of my mind with alcohol, but it’s not working. The more I drink, the more I think about her. I just keep going, hoping the next shot will wipe her from my thoughts.
She’s leaving tomorrow. It was only supposed to be for a week, but now… maybe she’ll just stay with her mother. Even with her gone, I can’t go back to that house. There are too many memories there. Not that every fucking place doesn’t have her mark on it. She’s a ghost, haunting me wherever I go.
Unlike the men at the clubhouse, the bartender leaves me alone, refilling my shot glass each time I tap the bar. I know I’m going to need a ride home, so I pull out my phone to text Charger before I’m too fucked up to do it. I’m interrupted before I can.
“Hi, Gage.”
I turn to the voice and find Cassidy standing next to me. Great. Just what I need.
“What are you doing here?”
“Um… it’s a public place. I was just leaving when I saw you sitting here.”
“Razor here with you?”
“No. I’m here alone.”
“Okay. Well… see ya.”
I down another shot, hoping she’ll take the hint.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
“Perfect.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” She scoffs. “See you around.”
She walks away and I tap the bar, telling the man to leave the bottle. A few minutes later, Cassidy returns. Fuck my life.
“Sorry to bother you, but my car won’t start—”
“Call a cab.” I cut her off.
“I just need a jump. I saw your car in the parking lot and thought you could help me out.”
“Call a cab,” I repeat.
“Please… it’s late and it’ll just be a few minutes, then you can come back and drink yourself stupid.”
With a deep sigh, I toss some money on the bar and follow her outside. If it wasn’t for Razor, I’d tell the bitch to fuck off. She leads me to her car which, incidentally, is parked next to mine. She slides in and turns the key in the ignition. The engine clicks but doesn’t start.
“I need a new battery.” She shrugs. “The cables are in the trunk.”
She pops it, and I walk to the back of the car to retrieve them. As I lean in, someone snatches my Glock from my waist. Before I can react, bolts of electricity radiate from my side, and zing through my body. Every muscle locks up and I fall forward into the trunk. With my already alcohol-dulled senses, and being fucking electrocuted, it takes me a while to grasp the situation. Enough time for whoever’s behind me to stick me in the trunk. I look up and see Cassidy’s devious smile before she jams a Taser into my ribs.
***
By the time we stop driving, my mind has cleared a bit. I tried to unlock it, and kick out the tail lights but it’s a tiny ass trunk and I could barely move. I knew having that bitch hanging around was a mistake. I’m going to fucking kill Razor when I get out of here.
“I’m going to open the trunk,” her voice comes from outside. “But I have your gun and I know how to use it. Don’t try anything
funny.”
When it pops open, I carefully climb out. She’s standing a few feet away, pointing my own fucking gun at me. I look around, and we’re at a cabin somewhere in the goddamn woods.
“I guess your battery is just fine.”
“Lucky for me, you didn’t check it before you went for the cable.”
“What’s going on, Cassidy? I thought we settled this shit before.”
“You settled. I didn’t.”
She jerks the gun to her left, indicating I should move. I turn and make my way toward the cabin. A quick look verifies there are no other buildings nearby. The door is open so I step inside. It looks lived in; not like this is a spur of the moment thing.
“You live here?” I ask.
“I’ve been fixing it up for us,” she answers excitedly.
“And how long you been doing that?”
“A while. I was just waiting for you to realize… Anyway, Raven’s out of the picture. We can be together now.”
I spin to face her. I haven’t been worried about myself so far, but just the mention of her name and I’m instantly on alert. “What do you mean ‘out of the picture’?”
“You broke up. I saw everything last night.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. She jerks the gun again, directing me to another room. I walk in and feel like I’ve stepped into a BDSM dungeon. There’s a single chair in the center, surrounded by various whips and crops. A table on one side is laden with blindfolds, handcuffs, and zip ties. She better not fucking think she’s going to turn me into some kind of sex slave.
“Sit,” she instructs me.
When I do, she tosses two zip ties at me. “Secure your ankles to the chair’s legs.”
I watch her while I fasten them, leaving some wiggle room. She grabs one of the handcuffs and moves behind me.
“Give me your hands.”
Once again, I do as she says. She clamps them around my wrists, then kneels before me, pulling the zip ties tighter.
“There,” she says with a smile.
She’s crazier than I thought if she believes this little plan of hers is going to work. It will take Tek two seconds to find me. Reaching into my pocket, she pulls out my cell phone and turns it off. Fuck.
“We don’t want any interruptions now, do we?”
“What do you think’s going to happen, Cassidy? Just because Raven’s out of the picture, doesn’t mean you’re in.”
“Why?” She loses the smile. “What does she have that I don’t?”
“She’s not fucking mental.”
“I had you first!” she screams. “You’re mine!”
“What about Razor?”
“He was a distraction… and a way to be close to you. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”
“And you think you’re going to get me by kidnapping me?”
“I just need you to sit still long enough to talk to me… so you’ll see….”
“See what?” I ask.
“That I love you.”
I chuckle even though nothing’s funny. Love. That’s a huge fucking joke. If I never hear that word again it will be too soon.
“Just let me go, Cassidy. I’ll even be willing to forget all this shit if I never see you again.”
“But—”
“No buts. I don’t want you… never did. That’s not gonna change because you tied me to a chair.”
She places the Glock and her purse on the table, then picks up an object. As she walks toward me, I see it’s a switchblade. The blade extends as a maniacal grin spreads across her lips.
“Oh, I can be very persuasive.”
CHAPTER 6
***Raven***
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” Laurelyn tries to persuade me. “You won’t feel like this forever.”
“Yes, I will,” I force out through my sobs. “You don’t understand.”
“I do. I was pretty much like you when I had to give up your father. But I moved on. I found Daniel, and look at us now.”
“You’re happy because Daddy wasn’t the one. Gage is.”
“You’re only eighteen—”
“This has nothing to do with my age.”
“Okay, sweetheart. We can talk all about it when you get here. Call me when you get on your flight.”
“’Kay.”
I hang up and wipe at my tears with the backs of my hands. I need to get ready to go to the airport.
“Have you decided if you’re going to stay in Miami?” Chrissy asks.
“No. I don’t know,” I answer as I climb out of her bed.
“I think you should stay for a while… be with your mom. Maybe try to figure things out.”
“Maybe.”
My phone rings as I’m walking to the bathroom, and I turn back to answer it. It’s Chopper. I really don’t want to talk about Gage right now, but I answer because I know he’d worry if I didn’t pick up.
“Hi, Chopper.”
“Hey, darlin’. Have you seen Gage?”
“No. Why?”
“It’s nothin’ to worry about.”
“If it was, you wouldn’t have called me. What’s going on?”
I begin to panic. Ron says he’s been drinking himself silly, and now Chopper’s asking me if I’ve seen him. Something’s happened.
“No one’s seen him since last night. We thought maybe he was with you.”
“He’s not.”
Tears begin rolling down my cheeks again and I legit think I’m having a panic attack.
“It’s okay, darlin’. We’ll find him. As soon as—”
“I’m on my way.”
I end the call, pulling Chrissy behind me as I hurry downstairs.
“What happened?” she asks, starting to panic also.
“Gage is missing.”
We hop in my car and I make it to the clubhouse as fast as I can. When we walk inside, Chopper, Dr. E, Crow, Motor, and Rico are around the pool table. Chopper and Dr. E are engaged in a heated debate.
“Chopper?”
He looks up, immediately coming over and curling his arm around my shoulder.
“You shouldn’t be here, darlin’.”
“I’m not leaving. Have you heard anything?”
“Not yet.”
“What happened?”
He takes a deep breath, leading me to where the other men are standing.
“Got a call from Sheriff Renley this morning. Apparently Gage’s Mustang was in the parking lot of a bar all night. No one’s heard from him and it seems his phone is turned off.”
“Oh, God. This is my fault.”
“It’s not,” Dr. E says. “He’s the one who ran off all half-cocked.”
“Yeah, because of me.”
Tek walks in and everyone looks to him expectantly. He shakes his head, making Chopper run his fingers through his hair in frustration. Razor and Venom enter the clubhouse, their expressions just as bleak as everyone else’s.
“Nothing?” Dr. E asks.
“We checked everywhere. No sign of him.”
This is just getting worse by the second. Where is he? Is he okay? God, he could be hurt somewhere… or worse. I’ll never forgive myself if something has happened to him. Chopper’s phone rings and he answers, switching to speaker phone. Ron’s voice comes from the other end.
“Bartender says he was here. He had a few drinks then left with a redhead.”
I lean against the table, hanging on for dear life. He left with a redhead. He’s already over me. Chrissy wraps her arms around me, trying to pull me to the couch, but I stop when Ron speaks again.
“Thing is, description kinda sounds like Razor’s girl.”
“Cassidy?” Razor asks in disbelief. “Nah. No matter how drunk he was, the prez would never hook up with her.”
“Fuck!” Dr. E shouts.
They all look at each other and I know they’re all privy to some information I’m not. Cassidy. I knew that bitch was always too interested in what was going on between me
and him. But she’s Razor’s woman. Gage wouldn’t do that to his brother, would he? Razor pulls out his phone, calling who I assume is Cassidy. After a beat, he shakes his head.
“Her phone’s off.”
“Actually,” Tek pipes up. “I can do something with this. Let me have her number.”
Razor reels off the numbers and Tek disappears into the corridor. Everyone follows him so Chrissy and I do, too. We crowd into Tek’s room and I look around in awe. It’s like technology central in here. There are six monitors on his desk and several keyboards. He begins tapping away, shaking his head after only a few seconds.
“Not much on the phone, other than she was in the vicinity of the bar last night. But we can try her car. If he left with her, they must have taken it. Hopefully it has GPS.”
He turns back to his computers, and video feed from the camera out front starts up on one of the monitors. He quickly finds footage of Cassidy driving in, and freezes it.
“Make, model, license plate,” he says excitedly. Another minute and he jumps to his feet. “Got it!”
A printer in the corner goes off and he grabs the printout, handing it to Dr. E.
“That’s where the car is. Hopefully, that’s where the boss is, too.”
“Church. Now,” Dr. E growls.
They seem to have forgotten about me and Chrissy, leaving us standing in Tek’s room. I move to the monitor displaying the car’s location. I don’t know what happened with Cassidy before, but it has to be serious for them to be in Church over it. I move to the keyboard Tek was using, and print my own copy of the location.
“What are you doing?” Chrissy whispers.
“I’m going to find him.”
I grab the paper and head to Gage’s room to retrieve his black duffel bag. Whenever shit goes down, he takes it with him. Chrissy watches as I heave it to the bed and open it up. Holy shit. I didn’t know what was in here, but I wasn’t expecting an arsenal.
“Fuck. Me,” Chrissy says as she peers inside.
RAGE: President & First Lady Of The Death Dealers MC Page 57
