by Addison Jane
I sighed, my head bobbing in agreement before I offered my hand to Braydon, who was a little less serious and a little more distracted, his eyes taking in the inside of the clubhouse. There was excitement in his eyes, almost like a small child who’d been put in the middle of a playground and couldn’t decide what toy to play with first.
“Apologies about the whole gun thing,” Leo teased as he walked past and headed for the bar and patting Braydon on the back as he went by. “I’d offer you boys a beer, but you’re underage.”
Braydon instantly made a beeline for the bar, his eyes glued to the bottle of vodka in Leo’s hand. “Now, now, don’t judge me just because I have this perfect baby face. I can handle my alcohol better than most seasoned veterans,” he protested, leaping up onto one of the barstools snatching the short glass from the bar and holding it out. “Hit me.”
“Bray…” Heath growled following his brother, clearly unimpressed. He grabbed the back of Braydon’s collar in his fist. “You don’t just walk into a biker clubhouse and demand alcohol… or any fucking thing for that matter.”
“Yeah, we don’t give that shit away for free,” I added with a smirk while pulling Phee with me toward them. Leo was clearly amused by the balls this kid had tucked away in his designer pants and was chuckling under his breath. Braydon eagerly reached for his wallet, not even bothering to ask for a price. At least now I knew how Phee managed to get here from Cali so damn fast. I was imagining private planes.
“We trade for guns and cocaine,” Leo cut in, almost managing to hold a straight face. “The bottle will cost you a couple of ounces.”
“Seems a little steep,” Braydon responded like he was completely unfazed by the demand as he opened his leather Louis Vuitton wallet and eyed the contents for a few seconds before finally looking up. “I’ve got fifty bucks and half a joint.”
Leo snorted, and both Op and Wrench, who had already made their way into the meeting room waiting for us, roared with laughter.
Without hesitation, Leo cracked the bottle and poured the contents into Braydon’s glass. “I like you, kid.”
Shaking my head with a wide grin, I directed Phee toward the club’s meeting room.
Heath waved us off when Phee looked at him questioningly. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on him,” he assured her with a sigh pulling up a barstool next to his brother.
I closed the doors behind us before taking a seat at the table.
Wrench leaned back in his chair taking a deep breath before he laid down what he knew. “Ophelia is right… Romeo got into an altercation with a couple of guys in prison. Sounds like he gave as good as he got, though, but he sustained a few injuries that needed stitches and tending to.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “You think this is something to do with my visit? Someone recognized me? Had something against the club?”
“No, it was a warning,” Phee spoke up. “It’s not the first time Romeo has tried to leave the… business.” The way she said the word sent a shiver up my spine.
“How did you know that’s what happened?” Wrench asked curiously.
She inhaled deeply sneaking a peek at me out of the corner of her eye as if she was embarrassed. “I talked to him. He told me you’d been to visit, and that maybe this time he’d be able to get away. I could hear in his voice how just the idea of leaving it all behind had given him a lifeline.” She looked down at the table, her eyes following the deeply engraved pattern in the wood. “He has seen some bad shit. He’s had to do some things…” Her voice tapered off, and I hung my head feeling once again like a fucking failure. He’d hinted at a few things that had made me cringe, but given the environment we were in, he couldn’t go into much detail.
When I’d left, I was still unsure of whether he was going to take me up on my offer to have his back and fight for him to have a new and different life, but I hadn’t realized just how much it had meant to him.
It turned out my little brother had developed more of a poker face than I knew.
“What happened last time he tried to get out?” Op asked the question that I couldn’t.
I turned my head, watching as Phee pressed her lips together nervously. “His boss got wind of it—”
“He has a boss?” Wrench questioned with a deep frown. “I thought he basically worked for himself.”
“Me too…” I added in confusion.
Phee sighed. “It’s his story to tell, not mine. There’s one guy who I guess you could say introduced him to the business. Someone who holds a huge amount of power and isn’t afraid to use it to keep people in line.”
My stomach churned, and I suddenly was wondering whether I should go back out there and take the bottle of vodka from the boys. My heart was thumping, my body alight. I wanted to get moving, get Romeo and run before anything else could happen, but I also wanted to hear what Phee had to say. I was conflicted and finding it hard to sit still.
“Basically, the guy got a hold of Romeo and told him that if he ever tried to leave, he’d hunt me down and sell me to the highest bidder,” she finally admitted, her entire body visibly shuddering. “It’s why we changed our names. He didn’t want you to come after us and get mixed up in that bullshit, and after… issues… I had in the group homes in Louisiana, there was nothing left for me there… so I ran.”
Despite the fact that my brother right now was in serious danger, I felt like a weight had just been lifted off my shoulders. Like I’d spent the last couple of weeks wondering whether my little brother and sister had changed their names so I wouldn’t be able to find them because they didn’t want anything to do with me.
Releasing a long breath, one I felt like I’d been holding onto for years, I slunk back into my chair and covered my face with my arm just needing that moment to let everything sink in and process.
“All right, let’s just cover where we’re at right now,” Wrench offered, taking over when he realized I was struggling because he was my brother, one of my brothers, and he was there when I needed him to be. “Romeo is technically being released in a few days. We need to make sure that he isn’t moved from the infirmary until then.”
“That’s the only thing between him and those guys who sent this message,” Op added. “And given we aren’t entirely sure what the message was…” He looked over at Phee who shook her head. “He just said it was a hard warning, one that could have easily turned out a lot different.”
I cleared my throat and rolled my shoulders as I sat up straight. “It was an ‘you better think hard before you try anything stupid’ message. They would have my details from the sign-in form. They would know I’m family. That I live far away, and if they know him as well as they do, they would know I hadn’t been around for a long time.”
“Someone will be watching him when he’s released. And if he goes anywhere but back to Las Vegas…” Wrench let the words hang in the air, but we all knew exactly what he was saying.
I’d given Romeo all my details, even deposited money into the prison bank account. Enough for him to get a plane ticket to Alabama when he was released, even though at that stage, I wasn’t sure whether he was even going to come.
I was trying to keep the ball in his court, make it feel like I wasn’t suddenly forcing my way back into his life, scared that he might back away.
Things had just escalated, though, and we were looking at a whole different situation.
Romeo wanted out. That had been confirmed. So as far as I was concerned, I was about to do anything I fucking could to get him here to a place where I could protect him from whoever this asshole was that was threatening my family.
“Guess we need to make sure when he walks out of there, he isn’t alone,” Op summarized, standing up from the table, his eyes looking to me. “Take whoever you need. Get hold of Romeo, tell him to do whatever he has to do to stay in the infirmary until he’s released… fake a stomach ache, flirt with the nurse, I don’t fucking know. Whatever he has to do to keep his ass alive until we ge
t some men there.”
“Already on it,” Wrench murmured, pulling his cell from his pocket.
Phee looked up at Op standing at the head of the table, her eyes brimming with tears. “Thank you,” she managed to force out, just as one of those tears dripped down onto her cheek.
Op nodded. “We protect ours,” he assured her before his face finally cracked into a smile. “Welcome to the family.”
“I’m glad you didn’t get suspended,” Callie murmured as she lay back with her eyes closed and her body glistening in the light as though she’d been dipped in diamonds.
Asha nodded, turning her head to look at me.
Asha and Callie were two friends who’d stuck with me through the past year.
I talked about not having many, or the fact that no one stepped up and had my back at the times I needed them. But these girls, I guess they almost gravitated toward me when I was at my worst rather than standing to the side like all the others. I instantly clicked with both of them.
They were sweet but sassy girls, definitely not what you would call popular, but more like the kind of girls who just liked to do their own thing and not be put into a box or stereotyped—the exact opposite of everything Nick stood for.
Callie and I met during art class and bonded instantly over my love of sketching and her love of painting. Two very different art forms, but the passion behind it was the same. Asha had been my lab partner for a while when we were juniors, and since the both of us sucked majorly at science, the relationship there also came extremely easy.
“When you didn’t come back that day, we thought we were going to have to riot,” Asha added with a smile. The front strands of her thick blonde hair framed her face while the rest was pulled back and into a tight ponytail. “Nick came back the next day with two black eyes, a split lip, and looking like he’d gone a couple of rounds in the ring. I was impressed, but everyone was saying you were suspended or expelled.”
Cab, Asha’s boyfriend, laughed from beside us. Cab and Callie’s boyfriend, Trent, were sitting at a table just to the right of our loungers with a deck of cards, using potato crisps as betting chips. “Personally, I was hoping you’d come back for round two. You let him get off easy.”
The boys were on the football team with Nick. Though they had made it quite clear they didn’t like him from the start, and just like their girlfriends, they weren’t the type to suck up or be fake just because of who Nick was.
I scoffed. “I can’t take credit for all of that. The split lip and others were not courtesy of me.”
Both the girls sat up, obviously intrigued. “Your uncle didn’t finally get a hold of him, did he?” Asha asked, a little weary because well, Uncle Leo was kind of scary, but also sounding a little excited.
“I don’t know if you girls remember Ham—”
Callie cut me off with a burst of laughter. “Remember Ham? That boy followed you around for weeks.”
It was true. When Jayla’s granddad had pointed a gun at me and threatened to take me away, Hadley had protected me. And between her and Kev, they managed to eliminate him while I ran inside the clubhouse and hid.
Ham was the one to find me, and he knew exactly where I would be.
In his room under his bed.
Why I hadn’t run to Uncle Leo’s room was still a question I asked myself. Maybe I was scared I would lead some crazy lunatic to Macy’s room. Maybe I was scared it was the first place anyone would think to look for me.
Instead, I ran to the place where I felt the safest. Having him around me was a feeling I struggled for a long time to understand or explain. It was like warmth or a silent reassurance that things would be okay. It was the one place I didn’t second guess whether I would be okay. I always knew he would fight for me.
“Earth to Meyah!” Asha called with a gentle laugh reaching over and waving her hand in front of my face. “Are you saying Ham went after Nick?”
Blinking furiously, I attempted to focus. “Yep, stupid bloody idiot. He should have just left it alone, you know. I handled it.”
Callie rolled her eyes dramatically. “Ham possibly has a different definition of ‘handled it’ than you do. And, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want a guy like him standing up for you, fighting in your name, preferably without a shirt on...” Her words trailed off, her eyes looking slightly dazed as she mumbled on. I reached over and pinched her causing her to almost jump out of her skin.
“Uh… Hello?” Trent interrupted, waving his hand to try and get Callie’s attention.
She looked over at him and rolled her eyes. “You know I’m joking, Trent.”
He narrowed his eyes suspiciously but turned back to his game with Cab. When Callie looked back to face me, she shook her head and mouthed, I’m not joking.
I couldn’t hold in the giggles.
“So Ham finally stepped up.” Asha met my gaze with a smile. The girls knew a little about him. Obviously, it had been hard to miss the fact that after the shit hit the fan last time, he followed me to and from school for weeks. He was kind of hard to miss.
“Yeah, I guess he kind of stole round two,” I snorted lifting up my hand and rolling my wrist. “Which is probably a good thing since both he and my uncle said my punching technique left a lot to be desired. I ended up with bruised knuckles.”
“Maybe round two could just be you kneeing him in the balls,” Callie commented casually, trying to hide a devious smirk behind her bottle of water as she raised it to her lips. The green color of her bikini was striking, a perfect match for her deep red locks and the light smatter of freckles across her cheeks and nose. “That’s if you can find them. The second Nick sees you, I bet he’ll be so scared that they’ll crawl back up inside himself and hide.”
Trent screwed up his nose, and I couldn’t help but giggle as he squeezed his legs together, looking over at his girlfriend in horror. “Fuck, you’re brutal,” he croaked and leaned away dramatically. He looked over at Cab and shuddered. “Suddenly, I feel the need to find my man card again.”
Callie rolled her eyes waving him off. “Sometimes I wonder whether you can really handle me.”
“Nobody can handle you,” Asha murmured under her breath.
I lazed back on the recliner with a silent grin, closing my eyes and basking in the heat of the sun. It was just enough to warm my body and cause my skin to have a slight sheen of sweat. The water park was noisy and rowdy with ninety percent of our senior class here today causing mischief, and most of Huntsville High School’s graduating class, too. It was senior ditch day. The teachers gave up trying to ban them a long time ago, and now it was basically part of the school calendar.
“Meyah, you haven’t said much about prom tomorrow,” Asha prodded, letting her sunglasses fall onto her nose so I could see her eyes. They matched her baby blue one piece swimsuit which was different to what most of the other girls here were wearing. It wasn’t exactly surprising since Asha very rarely showed off parts of her body—unlike Callie, who was far too confident for her own good and grabbed any opportunity possible to flaunt what she had. And honestly, if I had the body she had, I probably would too.
I shrugged looking down and playing with the beads that adorned my pastel yellow bikini. The bottoms were tied at the side, a style I wouldn’t usually wear because I was acutely aware of how my hips were just a little wider than your average girl but that Sugar had insisted looked amazing against my skin. “There’s not much to tell, honestly.”
“Is Hamlet coming?” Callie asked, trying to keep it casual, but I could tell she was dying to know. “I would love to know what he looks like in a tux—”
“Right here,” Trent interrupted again.
“I bet he would need it specially fitted. His shoulders are broad and strong, but he has that super tapered sexy waist,” Callie continued, her eyes staring off into the distance dreamily as if Trent didn’t exist.
I wanted to tell her, yes, that he was coming, and the vindictive and immature part of me couldn’
t wait to walk in beside him knowing that every single girl in our senior class was going to wish he belonged to her.
Truth was, though, I wasn’t sure if it would be the case.
I rushed into the clubhouse, excitement and anticipation running through me, intertwined with my nerves.
I wanted to find him. The picture of my parents that Mom had given me was burning a hole in my pocket, and I was desperate to share what I had uncovered and get his opinion and advice on the situation. Maybe even if Ham was on board, we could go to my Uncle Leo and see if he had connections around who could possibly know my father.
Pausing in the doorway, I stalled for a moment in confusion.
The clubhouse was a flurry of activity. Members carrying backpacks, a couple on phone calls with deep frowns on their faces. The tension in the air was obvious. That mixed with the fact that there was a car parked out the front which I didn’t recognize made my stomach twist a little.
“Sky,” I called over the bar where Skylar was stacking glasses in the cabinet. “Do you know where Ham is?”
Her face fell, and her shoulders dropped. “He’s not here, babe.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? Is he working? Why does it feel so quiet?”
She laughed sadly and placed the last glass down before coming around the bar to stand beside me. “That’s one thing about these boys, when one of them calls, the rest of them come running.” She smiled warmly. “Go up and talk to your uncle, he’s upstairs with Hadley.”
My brows knitted together in confusion, but Skylar nodded toward the staircase urging me to go ahead. I took a deep and frustrated breath, stomping up the stairs. Uncle Leo and Hadley’s room was the first, and with the door already open, I just stepped inside.
Even though I was agitated and confused about what was going on, I stopped and smiled at the image of Hadley sitting on the edge of the bed, Uncle Leo crouched in front of her, his lips pressed to her stomach and moving in a soft whisper. They were both smiling, Hadley running her fingers through his short hair.
