Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 2: Gage ~ Cash ~ Knight (Vengeance MC series Book 8)

by Natasha Thomas

  “As hot as that was, I figured you’d want to know that Talon went to his room saying something about being scarred for life, and Adams took off not long after him. You two should really consider your audience, you know,” he smirks. “Not me, though. Just pretend like I’m not even in the room. I’m happy to watch and critique any time you want some pointers, big brother.”

  “Fuck off,” I scoff.

  Jump shrugs unconcerned by my order, dropping onto the sectional.

  “Boss called; he wants us back at the clubhouse in twenty. If you’re coming that is?” He questions, cocking an eyebrow at me.

  Before I can reply, Kennedy tugs on the hem of my shirt.

  “Please just promise me you won’t do anything that has the possibility of you getting incarcerated or ending up in the hospital.”

  The pleading tone in her voice breaks my heart, but she should know me better than that already. If I’m nothing else, I’m careful. Especially with something like this that has the capacity to affect my family.

  “Don’t worry, gorgeous. I’d never do anything to jeopardize being able to come home to you.”

  “Aw, how sweet,” Jump gags, springing out of his seat. “While you guys make googly eyes at each other, I’m going to tell the kid we’ll be back later.”

  Kennedy giggles at his stupidity, reminding me how much I love that sound coming from her.

  “Don’t encourage him, baby. He’s an overgrown kid, and I’m already fucking concerned he’s going to corrupt Talon.”

  Throwing her head back, she laughs before laying her head against my chest. I can feel the vibrations of her laughter across my skin, awakening nerve ending, and just like I’d expected, my cock too.

  When Kennedy gets herself under control, she looks up at me with nothing but love and adoration in her eyes. They’re so bright, so full of life and mischief that I could spend a lifetime staring at them and never get bored.

  “I think you should be more concerned about Jump corrupting Mia, than him corrupting Talon. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’m worried, Cash. Mia’s not weak like everyone thinks she is, but she is naïve. Jump is capable of breaking her heart so easily. Not intentionally; I don’t believe he would hurt her on purpose, but it would be heartbreak all the same.”

  Running my chin over the top of her head, I nod.

  “Yeah, me too. But have a little faith, gorgeous. I have a feeling it will all work out exactly the way it’s supposed to in the end.”

  And for the first time in my adult life, I truly fucking believe that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ~ Boss ~

  “I don’t get nearly enough credit for managing to not be a violent psychopath.”

  – Boss’ thoughts on dealing with his brothers

  What started off as a fucking magnificent day when I woke up to my wife’s lips suctioned around my cock, turned into the clusterfuck from hell only seconds after I blew my load down the back of her throat.

  I was pissed off to no end that I didn’t get to return the favor since some asshole was banging on my front door. Because truthfully, leaving my woman horny and wet is never advisable – she has a tendency to get herself off when I’m not around to watch which is a damn fucking shame.

  Coming face to face with six and a half feet and two hundred and seventy pounds of furious Jonas was not my idea of a good time first thing in the morning. Opening the door, I gesture him inside.

  “This better be important, brother,” I clip, heading for the coffee pot, Beth set to run last night.

  “It is,” he replies tersely, following me without needing to be told to.

  Once I’ve filled both mugs, I lean back against the counter and study the man. Regardless of his height, Jonas isn’t the same imposing figure I’ve known for almost forty years. Far from it.

  I can tell straight off the bat that he’s not sleeping. The dark circles under his eyes, the defeated slope of his shoulders, and his usual jovial personality are dead giveaways. I can’t say I’m surprised, though. The man’s been going through hell since his sister lost her fucking mind and kidnapped Aislinn and her friend, Meg.

  Waiting for him to start, thankfully, he doesn’t delay the inevitable too long. I already know why he’s here, and I know what he wants, but he had to be the one to come to me and ask for help. Under the circumstances, I couldn’t approach him about this, and he knows it.

  What his sister, Jess, did affected one of my brothers, and although I consider Jonas my brother as well, he isn’t part of the club, so I couldn’t be seen to be taking sides. People might not understand that, but that’s just the way things are. Like it or not, my first priority is my club.

  Clenching and unclenching his hands, Jonas drops and shakes his head.

  “How the hell did things get so fucked up? One day she was just a little kid asking me to teach her how to ride a bike, and the next, I’m visiting her in a holding room in the local county lockup.”

  There’s no good way to answer that, so I don’t. If Jonas needs to vent, I’ll listen, but talking about his sister is still a sore point for me. For Cash too. It was his woman that bore the brunt of Jess’ fucked up obsession with her best friend, Gage. Kennedy was an innocent bystander who happened to be walking past the warehouse and heard a noise of distress. She didn’t deserve a blade in the thigh for trying to help.

  Cash and Jonas’ friendship has noticeably cooled since the incident. Not that I can blame Cash, he’s understandably pissed off that the one woman he’s ever managed to have feelings for was hurt badly enough to need hospitalization. But that’s not to say I don’t get where my oldest friend is coming from too.

  No matter what, Jess is his sister. To Jonas, family means everything. He struggled with helplessness for so long, watching his father beat his mom day in and day out. Years’ worth of witnessing his mom clean up her own blood, and patching her up when he got old enough, mean Jonas’ protective instincts are off the fucking charts.

  Jonas would do just about anything to fix his family’s problems, but this is one thing he has to accept is entirely out of his control. The second the police got involved, it turned into a criminal matter, whether Kennedy, Aislinn or Meg wanted to press charges or not.

  Being in possession of an unlicensed firearm, assault with a deadly weapon which the hospital was required by law to report, two counts of false imprisonment, and the big one, attempted murder isn’t something that could be overlooked. Nor should it be.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say here, brother,” I eventually admit. “I went to bat for you with Cash, and for the most part, he doesn’t want to tear your head off every time he looks at you, so that’s a step in the right direction. As for the rest of it; there’s not a damn thing I can do to help Jess, I told you that already. My connections only go so far; I don’t have judges or the DA in my back pocket, Jay.”

  “They’re saying she’s going to do twenty-five to life. The DA offered to run the sentences concurrently, but other than that, he’s not willing to play ball,” Jonas shares.

  That’s about what I’d expected in a case like this. Jess’ lawyer can prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Jess has significant and profound mental health issues. But insane? Not a chance. That would have been Jonas’ only chance of beginning negotiations with the prosecutor; having her deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, and declared insane. Since neither option is on the table, Jess is going to be tried as a competent adult, and inevitably convicted.

  “It probably sounds harsh to you because you’re her brother, Jay, but I’m not surprised. What she’s been charged with is fucking serious, brother. This isn’t petty crime we’re talking about; they’re felonies,” I reiterate what I’m sure he’s been told a thousand times already.

  “No shit,” he snarls. “Don’t for one-second think I don’t know what she did was wrong, and Jess deserves to be fucking punished for it. But twenty-five years? She’ll be fifty-four, Boss. Fifty fucking
four when she gets her first shot at parole.”

  Losing my cool, I fire back,

  “Yeah, and Kennedy will die with the memories of that fucking knife driving into her thigh, and the scar to remind her when or if she ever begins to forget.”

  Jonas lets out a pained groan before dropping his head into his hands.

  “I can’t give up on her, brother. I just can’t. She’s my sister. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I turned my back on her.”

  “No one’s remotely suggesting you do. It’s going to get worse before it gets better, Jay,” I warn him. “Jess is going to stand trial, and Aislinn, Meg, and Kennedy are going to have to testify. That’ll bring Cash’s anger back to the forefront for a while, but he’ll simmer down once he knows Kennedy’s moving on. Your mom isn’t coping well as it is, but I can only imagine when she sees her youngest daughter sitting at the defense table it’ll most likely break her. You need to focus on the family you can help, brother, not the one you can’t.”

  I pray my words don’t fall on deaf ears, but I have a feeling Jonas still isn’t ready to accept the fight was lost long before Jess was arrested. It was lost right around the time she drugged Aislinn and Meg and held a gun to their heads.

  *****

  Kissing my babies’ goodbye is almost as hard as walking away from my wife. It doesn’t make a lick of difference that I’ll be home in a few hours, leaving them for any reason doesn’t sit well with me.

  I truly believed I couldn’t feel more for Beth than I did the day I married her, but then my twin girls were born, and I knew I was wrong. I continued to be proven wrong every day as the intensity of my feeling for her grow to all-consuming levels that sometimes even scare me.

  Learning to compartmentalize is the only way I make it more than an hour without her. When I’m dealing with club business, our legitimate holding, my brothers, or any other number of bullshit tasks, Beth and my girls are never far from my mind, but they’re not the stars of the show either. I package them into a neat and tidy box and focus on what’s demanding my attention because that’s the only time I ever manage to get anything done.

  Today is no different. I walk into the clubhouse, bellowing,

  “Church. Five minutes.”

  No one blinks an eye at my current mood. I’ve been on edge more often after Diesel, my best friend’s death, and they all know to give me a wide berth if they want to make out the doors with their heads still attached to their shoulders.

  Taking my seat at the head of the table, my brothers file in silently, Fury pulling up the chair to my right, and Jump to my left.

  To say I was shocked by the revelation that Jump’s an addict is a gross understatement. I was livid, disappointed, but moreover, hurt. The fact that my newly appointed SAA didn’t feel like he could come to me and ask for help was akin to taking a solid kick in the gut delivered by a thousand-pound bull. My job in part is to manage these assholes and keep the club running smoothly, and by Jump keeping his addiction a secret he put that at risk. And that is something I most certainly intend to address today.

  Beginning without waiting for the last man to take his seat, I slam the gavel down on the table and call the meeting to order.

  “First piece of business we’ve got to discuss is the rumors that Briggs, Dog, and Ruger have gone vigilante and are out for retribution. Sly’s been working all the angles, and word just in is that they showed up in Wisconsin last night. I spoke to, Baxter, and he confirms they reported for re-patching just after midnight.”

  Baxter, the President of the Hells Riders mother charter and I have always been on good terms, regardless of the issues my club has had with the Colorado chapter of his. Both of us can see why the hostilities escalated and agree that the time for war and unrest between our MC’s is over.

  Fury leans back, crossing his arms over his chest and asks,

  “Does that mean the threat is neutralized, or are we looking at a resurgence from them once everything’s had time to die down?”

  It’s a good question, but unfortunately not one I can answer with one hundred percent certainty because, in this lifestyle, nothing comes with a guarantee.

  “As far as the clubs are concerned the threat didn’t exist. I can’t speak for individual members and what they’ll do in the future, but Baxter has it on good authority that they were drunk and running their mouths. Nothing but bullshit between friends,” I reply. “Obviously, we’ll keep our ears to the ground, but I’m willing to take Baxter at face values until he proves otherwise.”

  A series of grunted agreements ring out around the room, which signals it’s time to move onto the next item on the agenda.

  “I want to make this clear before we go any further; I won’t tolerate mistrust in my club. We live and die as a whole, not individuals. Every single man in this room took that oath when he was patched in, and I expect it to be honored every day you wear Vengeance colors. Trusting each other is the thread that holds the fabric of the brotherhood together. Without it, everything falls apart. One unknown weakness can mean the difference between going home to your wife and kids at the end of the day, or ending up dead.”

  I let that settle in for a minute before going on to say,

  “That said, people make mistakes, and your job as brothers aren’t to judge them for it but to see them through it and out the other side.” Giving my SAA a pointed look that warns him his time has come, I add, “Jump’s got a few things to say, and we’re going to hear him out. Any of you have a problem with what he shares, you come to me.”

  At my nod, Jump clears his throat, but as I anticipated, the man has nerves of steel. It can’t be easy for him to look into the faces of the men who entrust their lives to him and admit that he’s been lying to them by omission for years. It’s got to be even harder to live with the knowledge that he may have irreparably damaged their level of respect for him.

  But this is why I chose Jump as my SAA over every other candidate. Not only is he fearless and a born leader with an ego to rival mine; he’s also got more courage, determination, and biggest heart of any man I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting.

  “The details don’t matter, they never have. Why, how, when, are irrelevant. I fucked up, and then I continued to fuck up, and I did it for years. I put the club at risk, you, my family, and myself. All I can say is that I’m sorry, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens again.” Jump takes a deep breath in through his nose before admitting, “I’m a drug addict.”

  Murmurs and whispers are immediate but are silenced just as quickly as the gavel meets the scarred timber of the table. I motion for Jump to go on once I know he again has the rooms’ undivided attention.

  “Cash and Kennedy have had me on lockdown while I detoxed at home, which is why I haven’t been around for a couple of weeks. I started attending NA meetings in Lower Falls when I’d been clean ten days, and I’ve gone every day since. I can’t promise I won’t relapse, but I’m hoping you’ll help me with that.”

  Jump goes quiet, so Cash takes over.

  “I’ll always support my brother, and as hard as this is to accept, I believe him. Anything Jump has put his mind to, he’s succeeded in. This is just another one of those things as far as I’m concerned.”

  Fury is the next to speak, offering his support.

  “I was there when Jump explained when his addiction started, and if you don’t trust him, then trust me. He had his reasons, and they were fucking good ones. It doesn’t make what he did right, and the fact that any of us could have been at risk from a deal gone bad doesn’t sit well with me. But he’s no less my brother now than he was a month ago, so you’ve got my promise to help keep you on the straight and narrow, brother,” he declares, holding his hand out for Jump to shake.

  “Mine too. Always have, boy, and always will,” Sarge adds gruffly.

  “No question, we’re here when you need us, brother,” Sly and Maddox both confirm.

  “I told you befor
e, and I’ll tell you again,” Gage rumbles. “Anything, anytime.”

  Dirty, who has been silent for the entire duration of church, and come to think of it, for a while now, appears to be affected worse than anyone else by Jump’s confession.

  “My brother, Landon has been in recovery for four months, so I’ve got an idea of what you’re going through and what you’re looking down the barrel of. This road you’re on is hard, brother, but you’ve got my love and support too. I just hope you’re smarter than Landon is and actually call on it when you need it most.”

  I make a note to take Dirty aside later to expand on what he’s just said, but now, it’s time for me to throw my hat into the ring.

  “It doesn’t bear a mention because you know where I stand. My loyalty has and always will be to my brothers, that hasn’t changed. It might take a while to trust you completely again, but it’ll come with time. All you’ve got to do is trust yourself as much as we trust you, and I guarantee you’ll beat this, Jump.”

  There’s only one other item left to address, but that’s not for here and now. My promise to Kennedy to keep her situation under wraps was a decision I came to easily. Her business has nothing to do with the club. The fact that the asshole, who is currently enjoying his accommodations in the meat shack, is also Cash and Jump’s father plays still doesn’t render it club business.