by London Casey
Gaige was gorgeous and powerful, and he could do that for her.
“What are you thinking right now?” Gaige asked.
“Nothing makes sense,” Emily said.
“Welcome to my world, beautiful.”
Gaige inched closer. Emily was taken right back to the scene of the fights. When Gaige was about to kiss her. Right before all the bullets started flying. And yet here he was, getting very close again.
For a split second, Emily felt the touch of Gaige’s lips. The roar of a motorcycle sounded and it stole Gaige’s attention and the kiss he was about to share with Emily.
Emily tensed up even though she knew the motorcycle racing toward them had to be part of the motorcycle club. There was no way an enemy would have the opportunity to access the compound so easily. When the motorcycle came closer, under the spotlights high above the large lot, she saw the black hair and snake like eyes.
It was Blaine.
Emily couldn’t help herself as she looked behind Blaine, hopelessly hoping that Rachel would be straddling the motorcycle, her hands tight around his waist.
Emily hung her head and fought back tears. The reality of it all hadn’t quite settled in yet. It probably wouldn’t for a while. Not with how suddenly everything had changed course.
Blaine put his motorcycle in line and stepped off his bike. He slid his hands into his pockets and moved slowly but with enough swagger to make Emily angry. The guy had no care or consideration for what had just happened.
“Hey bro,” Blaine said to Gaige.
“What’s it like over there?” Gaige asked.
“It’s a mess.” Blaine put a hand to Gaige’s shoulder. He leaned close but Emily could still hear him. “Most of everyone cleared out. The two that were fighting were taken away. I don’t think there’s much blame there on us. But the shooters… man, they were pissed off. I don’t know how they didn’t put a bullet in my head for good measure.”
“How the hell did you get out of there?” Gaige asked.
“I can handle myself,” Blaine said. His eyes moved to Emily. “About your friend…”
“What about her?” Emily asked. She jumped from the rail.
“Wait a second,” Gaige ordered.
Emily refused. “What did you do?”
“Trying to give her some respect, that’s all,” Blaine said. “I took her to her car and put her in the driver’s seat. It was the best I could do. They’ll find here and start investigating, but there’s nothing else I can do. She’s gone, babe. She’s gone.”
“Babe?” Emily asked. “Who the hell…”
“Whoa,” Blaine said. He put his hands up. “I took care of her, okay?”
“You held her… she was shot…”
“Listen, babe, that first bullet was it. The rest, yeah, that was for my protection.”
Emily felt her blood boiling over. She looked at Gaige and saw him cross his arms. Maybe it was some kind of signal or sign, maybe it wasn’t.
“I mean, don’t get me wrong,” Blaine said, “if I could have my way with her… alive or gone…”
Emily snapped. She lunged at Blaine, knowing damn well the risk of trying to attack a biker.
She slapped Blaine across the face. Her hand stung. He touched his cheek and shook his head, then smiled. He smiled. He fucking smiled. Emily snapped again. She took both hands to his face, clawing at him, wanting to rip his eyes out. When she scratched him, Emily felt her nails ache as they pulled back. She was using all her strength, hell bent on actually hurting Blaine. This was all his fault. He did this. He flirted with Rachel. He confused her. He invited her to the illegal fights.
“You fucking killed her,” Emily yelled as she clawed and swung at Blaine.
Blaine simply stepped back, allowing Emily to have her peace with his face. When she stopped for a second, she saw deep scratches on his left cheek. He put his hands up and smiled. There was a smear of blood on his teeth.
“You calm yet, babe?”
“You took my best friend from me.”
“I didn’t, babe. The bullets did.” Blaine touched his chest. “I’m in pain too. It hurts.” He reached down and cupped himself. “I’m in pain here too. I wanted to fuck…”
Emily growled and spotted an earring at the top of Blaine’s ear. She reached out and stuck her finger through the loop and pulled. Blaine bent over and the earring ripped free. Emily let out a cry and stumbled back. She collided into Gaige and he wrapped his arms tight around her.
“That’s enough,” Gaige ordered. “No more, beautiful. No more.”
“It’s his fault,” Emily said as the tears filled her eyes. “He fucking did this…”
“No, he didn’t,” Gaige said. “I did. Turn around and fucking look at me.”
Emily slowly turned and looked up at Gaige. She blinked away the tears.
“I did it,” Gaige said. “This shit is on me. And I’ll make it right.”
“Hey, babe?” Blaine called out.
Gaige opened his arms and Emily turned. There was blood dripping from Blaine’s ear now.
“I’m sorry,” Emily whispered.
“No, don’t be. Fuck it. I have something for you.”
Blaine reached into his pocket and pulled out a fist. He reached for Emily’s hand with his other hand. He rolled her fingers open and placed his fist to her hand. He opened it and pulled away. Emily looked down at a necklace.
“I took it off her,” Blaine said. “Not sure if it means anything to you or not. I figured things are fucked as it is, right? At least you’ll have something to remember her by. At least that’s how we do it around here.”
Blaine lifted his hand and pointed to his pinky finger. There was a woman’s diamond ring on it.
Emily held the necklace up with her pointer finger. The necklace was a simple heart. It slowly twirled back and forth. At the clasp she noticed a little bit of blood, a haunting reminder of the fate of her best friend.
Emily looked at Blaine again and swallowed hard. “You brought it to me.”
“Yeah, I did,” Blaine said. “I’m not good at this shit, so I don’t know what to say to make you feel better.”
“You don’t have to say anything. Thank you for doing this. And I’m sorry about your face.”
Blaine smiled. “Don’t worry about it, babe. I actually like it rough. You pulled that earring out of my ear and I threw a hard one. I’m still kind of hard…”
“Blaine,” Gaige growled. “Get inside.”
Blaine touched between his legs and winced as he started to walk away. Emily held the necklace out and Gaige cupped his hand under it and lifted. He put his hand around Emily’s.
“You need to come inside. I have a meeting to attend.”
Emily looked back at Gaige and nodded.
He leaned down, gently pressing his lips to Emily’s.
Their first kiss… as she held her dead best friend’s bloody necklace…
seven.
Gaige lit a smoke and took a deep drag with his eyes shut. All he could see were Emily’s eyes. There was so much mystery hidden in them, and it was getting to him. As he exhaled, Gaige opened his eyes and pushed from the wall and went to the bar. He sat for a minute and called for a shot.
The first one stung like a bitch.
The second tasted better.
The third tasted like water.
His nerves started to relax.
Gaige got a beer and found Blaine sitting on a pool table with two relievers. Relievers were women who hung around Back Down Devil MC, hoping to eventually be picked up as an old lady by one of the club members. Until they were picked up, the relievers were to do as their name indicated. They relieved when asked. That meant cooking, cleaning, sucking, fucking, and anything else they were asked.
Blaine was with a blonde and brunette. In a sick way, the two women resembled Emily and Rachel. Gaige shook his head, knowing Blaine wouldn’t let his threesome fantasy rest until he had it. The blondie had her head on Blaine’
s shoulder and her hand between his legs. She was rubbing fast, helping to relieve Blaine of the problem that started when Emily attacked him. The brunette had her mouth over Blaine’s ear, sucking on it.
“Yeah, baby,” Blaine whispered in his rough voice. A cigarette hung from his mouth and he had his eyes closed. “Make my ear feel better, baby.”
Gaige took the smoke from Blaine’s lips, dropped it, and stepped on it.
“Hey, bro,” Blaine said. He opened his eyes and they were bloodshot and wild.
“You’re high as a fucking kite,” Gaige said.
“Make that a jumbo jet, brother,” Blaine said.
“You two,” Gaige said, nodding to the relievers, “take a fucking break.”
“Oh, come on…” the blondie said. She gripped Blaine tighter. “He’s so close.”
Gaige wasn’t in the mood. He grabbed the blondie by the hair and threw her from the table. “Did I fucking stutter?”
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry.”
“Get the fuck out of here,” Gaige ordered.
The two women hurried away.
“Wait for me,” Blaine called out and laughed.
“Christ, Blaine, you can’t wait a minute, can you?”
“What? I’m relaxing. Unwinding. It was a rough workday today, brother. And you stole my smoke.”
“Here,” Gaige said and gave Blaine his smoke.
Blaine inhaled deep and laughed as he exhaled.
“What the fuck is so funny?”
“Your girl, man,” Blaine said. “She ripped that fucking ring right outta my ear. Fuck. She’s wild, bro.”
“She’s hurting right now. Because of us.”
Blaine slapped Gaige in the face. “It’s all good. It’ll all be good. Now can I go fuck those women?”
“Yeah, go,” Gaige said. “I’ll need your proxy vote though.”
Blaine nodded. “I’m all in on this. We find the assholes that pulled the triggers and fucking gut them. No questions asked.”
“You realize it was retaliation because of something Nate and I did, right?”
“I don’t care,” Blaine said. “Nobody takes a shot at one of us. And nobody kills pussy I planned on fucking.”
“You’re fucking sick,” Gaige said.
Blaine jumped from the pool table. “Yeah, I am. So sick, bro.”
Blaine walked away, and a second later, Nate whistled and motioned for Gaige. He pointed to the hallway. It was time for the meeting to begin.
Only the members of Back Down Devil MC could vote at the meetings. The actual MC had hundreds of members spread across dozens of charters. From California up through Washington state and even into Canada. Spread south and east, the MC had charters in Arizona and up through Colorado. There was even a few lost men charters in the Dakotas. They were inhibited by guys who were ousted, voted out, or voluntarily left the main MC charters to survive on their own. They were still bound by the laws of the MC, but they weren’t given the same resources.
Down the hall and to the left, there was a steel door. Nate opened the door and Gaige walked in. The musky scent of cigarettes and weed filtered throughout the air. Each member had a beer and a shot glass in front of them. Handguns were placed on the table, facing the middle of the table where the ashes of the founding member of Back Down Devil MC sat. All the guns were pointed to the urn as a symbol of protection. To honor the club. To honor the purpose. To honor each other.
As Gaige walked along the table, he patted shoulders and shook hands with the crew that sat at the table. At the head of the table sat the president, Miller. He had the gavel as long as Gaige could remember. He was secretive yet loud. He could be a father figure and a dictator at the same time. His connections were deep and spanned many years, which is how the MC had a lot of the relationships it had.
Gaige hugged Miller and then took his seat directly to the left of Miller.
Next to Gaige sat Griffin. He was the brains and money behind the MC. An accountant who was caught stealing and then busted for insider trading, Griffin came to the table wearing a tie and traded it in for the open road and a leather cut to match. Then there was Landon. The opposite to the head of the table sat Nate and Shay. The last three seats were for Erik, Jace, and Blaine. The only empty seat was Blaine’s.
Gaige lit a fresh smoke and deferred to Miller.
“Where’s Blaine?”
“Three knuckles deep in pussy,” Nate said.
The table broke out in laughter.
“He gave me his proxy vote,” Gaige said.
“Fuck,” Miller said and shook his head. “He’s lucky he’s fucked enough in the head that we need him.”
“Hear, hear,” Shay called out and lifted his shot glass.
“Yeah,” Miller said. “Lift ‘em.”
Everyone at the table lifted their shot glass. Gaige lifted his beer bottle.
“I’m not going to say shit,” Miller said. “Let’s drink and let’s figure this out.”
Everyone drank and the shot glasses slammed against the table. Everyone kept smoking, staring at Miller, waiting for the next orders to come.
“What happened out there?” Miller asked.
He didn’t need to look at Gaige for Gaige to know the question was meant for him.
Gaige said, “I sent a message. My call to do it.”
“Message?” Miller said. “Thought the message would be the dead bodies they’d find in the morning.”
“Vultures ripping their eyes out, right?” Jace asked. His eyes were icy.
Gaige stared back at Jace. “I did what I had to do.”
“Which was what?” Miller asked.
“Three showed up,” Gaige said. “We took care of two and I sent one back with a clear message.”
“He did the right thing,” Nate said. “Eight Under has been sneaking around our backs for a while now. They needed the message.”
Miller made a fist and slammed it on the table. “And that fucking message came back to us. With bullets. At a fucking fight. You realize the heat I’m going to take for this? You want to step into that circle, Nate, and swing your big dick around, that’s fine. But bullets?”
“They need to be reminded of who we are again,” Gaige said.
“So the dead bodies weren’t the message?” Jace asked. “Did you… actually do anything to them?”
“Fuck you,” Gaige said.
“Come on,” Jace said. “Come on over and talk.”
Gaige slapped his beer bottle at Jace. The bottle spilled and Jace grabbed it. He smashed it off the table and held it toward Gaige, who grabbed his gun and pointed it at Jace.
“Jesus Christ,” Shay yelled.
“Cut the fucking shit,” Miller bellowed.
Gaige held his gun out until Jace dropped the broken bottle. Gaige put his gun down and shook his head.
“They almost took out Blaine, myself, and Nate,” Gaige said. “They had automatic weapons. They went right into the circle, shot the two fighting, and then looked for us. This was a blatant attack on Back Down Devil. There’s no fucking way that the guy we messed up was able to go back to his shithole club and have them send guys out for us.”
“So this was an attack before they knew of our attack?” Miller asked.
“Sounds right to me,” Nate said. “They want to rattle us. Shake us up.”
“They’re moving then,” Griffin said. “It’s a diversion. They want us to look at this while they do something else.”
“Then we spread wide,” Miller said. “We stop this before it becomes something.”
“It might already have become something,” Nate said. He looked at Gaige and nodded.
All eyes were on Gaige.
“What now?” Miller asked.
“Blaine had two women with him,” Gaige said.
“Shit,” Shay said.
“One of them was shot and killed,” Gaige said.
“Fuck,” Miller said. “The other?”
�
�She’s in my room,” Gaige said.
The table starting whistling and clapping.
“Whoa!” Landon called out. “Soothing the friend…”
“Hey,” Gaige called out. “Fuck off. All of you. Fuck off.”
“That’s a risky move, Gaige,” Miller said.
“No, it’s not,” Gaige said. “Blaine used her best friend as a fucking shield. Those bullets were meant to be in Blaine. He’s alive because of this woman’s friend. The least I can do… the least we can do… is make this right for her.”
“So what are we voting on?” Miller asked. “Settling this thing with Eight Under… or settling Gaige in bed with some girl?”
The table chuckled.
“We go after Eight Under,” Gaige said. “We stop the drugs. We find the two assholes that tried to take us out. And then send our message loud and clear.”
“Okay,” Miller said. “Let’s vote this then.”
“Blaine’s proxy vote… yes,” Gaige said. “As is mine.”
Miller nodded and looked at Griffin.
“Yeah,” Griffin said.
“Yup,” Landon said.
“Yes,” Nate said and tilted his beer bottle toward Gaige.
“Aye,” Shay said.
The other side of the table closed out with two more yes’s from Erik and Jace.
Finally, Miller raised the gavel and nodded. “Yes.” He slammed the gavel and then said, “We need to coordinate this properly. No running out there and just shooting. We need to find their next drug run and bust that up right there on the street.”
“I want the two guys who shot at us,” Gaige said.
“How are we going to know?” Jace asked.
“I don’t know,” Gaige said. “But I made a promise to someone.”
“A girl in your bed?”
“It’s a goddamn big deal,” Nate cut in. “She watched her best friend get lit up with bullets. And she had to deal with Blaine enjoying a dead body on him.”
