Sentinel

by Brook Wilder

  Fox landed a punch into the Rebel junkie’s gut. He was known as Half-Pint, with some saying it had to do with his height, but in my opinion, it was because the elevator didn’t go all the way to the top. Nevertheless, Half-Pint likely had a shit load of information tucked inside his little brain, and Fox was determined to break it out.

  “Tell us where they’re keeping Jared.”

  “I-I don’t know,” he whined, straining against Derrek’s hold. “I’m just a peon, man.”

  I pushed away from the wall and strode to him, grabbing his neck with my bare hand. “Then tell us what you do know. I’m fucking tired of playing games with you.”

  He gurgled, but I didn’t remove my hand, knowing my grip wasn’t strong enough to kill him, yet. I felt like we’d done nothing but spin our wheels over and over again looking for Jared or trying to figure out why they’d killed Jack. I wanted answers.

  We all wanted answers.

  I released him and he fell into a heap onto the floor, coughing and spitting.

  “Tell us what you know,” Derrek repeated. “I can do this all night, but I have a woman who would be pissed off if I did.”

  Half-Pint got himself up onto his feet, wavering as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “They will kill me.”

  “I will kill you,” Fox growled, bracing his hand on the wall beside his head.

  Half-Pint hung his head. “It was Twitch, man. He… wanted the Legion to fall and thought killing Carry would make it happen.”

  “Shit,” Fox swore, punching the wall next to the man’s head. “I should have known that fucker had something to do with this! I’ll gut him for what he did.”

  “That’s not it,” Half-Pint continued, his mouth bloody, his eyes swelling from the beating he’d taken from us.

  “You want to tell us more?” Derrek countered, looking at him.

  “Might as well,” the man sighed, slumping against the wall. “I’m dead anyway.”

  “Go on,” Fox said, rubbing his hand.

  “Twitch ain’t done yet,” Half-Pint explained, wincing as he touched his jaw. “He’s going after that Diablo. You know, the lead one.”

  “He’s going after Emilio,” Fox finished for him.

  Derrek swore as Fox reached for his cell, walking away to likely give Emilio a heads up. I couldn’t believe Twitch would do something so stupid, singling out Emilio after what he’d done to Jack. The man wanted full control of Greenwood and beyond, to pave the way for the Rebels to control everything.

  We weren’t gonna let that happen.

  Derrek ran a hand through his hair as he joined me, waiting for the next word from Fox. “This is some shit, man.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I said, watching as Half-Pint slid down the wall, his head in his hands. “This is all out war, and if Twitch gets to Emilio...”

  “Then we’re all dead,” Derrek swallowed.

  Jack’s death had caused chaos within the Legion, but they killed Emilio as well, then there would be a power struggle within both clubs. Fox was doing all he could to keep the peace in the Legion and I couldn’t imagine what might happen if the Cazadores lost their leader.

  There would be bloodshed, far more than anyone could deal with.

  I nodded, thinking back to my plans for the future, to my future with Becky. I was so close, so close to having a life like my parents had, like my grandparents had. I’d waited all my life to have this and I wasn’t about to let some asshole like Twitch steal it all away. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one behind Becky’s near-fatal attack, trying to provoke the Legion into retaliating. Right now, I had two stationed men outside her house, with orders to kill anyone who wasn’t a fellow Legion member a first sight, and I’d be heading back there myself as soon as this shit with Half-Pint was over.

  No one was getting that close to Becky again.

  No one.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Becky

  I watched the dancers on stage, glad to see the crowd was yet again fairly large even on a normal night with only my girls dancing. There were three bachelor parties, as well as one bachelorette party, and though I didn’t like to do it, I’d doubled my security because of it. While some probably thought it was because of me getting shot, I was more concerned with this getting out of hand and some innocent bystander getting hurt.

  Still, it felt weird coming back to work. For the first time in my life really, I was nervous being in the Gallery. It’d always been my home, my place of refuge when life got too hard. It was my father’s legacy and usually when I walked through those doors, I felt his presence.

  But tonight, tonight I felt on edge for some reason. It’d been a week since I’d been shot. Gary thought it was too soon for me to come back to work. He and I had argued earlier and while I knew he was just trying to protect me, it was time to get back to it for my sanity if nothing else.

  Thinking of my strong biker, I couldn’t help but smile. Now Gary was that one bright spot in my life. For the last four days, he’d come back to me every night, sometimes even early in the morning after he finished up performing his Legion duties.

  No matter the time of night or morning, it was my bed he came to when he paused to rest. Even in such a short time, I’d grown used to his arms around me while I slept, the way he cradled my stomach when he thought I was asleep. His fascination with the life growing inside me made me want to give him the white picket fence home he’d always dreamed of, maybe give him more kids after this one.

  Looking down, I ran my finger over the ring on my thumb, the worn metal bringing tears to my eyes. He hadn’t explained it yet, but I could guess the significance behind the ring. It was something precious and he was letting me know I was, too. I was something precious to him.

  Gah, the man! All my life I’d done my own thing, stayed away from any emotional entanglement because I knew I’d lose my own identity.

  Gary, however, hadn’t asked me to change. He hadn’t asked me to give up what I held important in my life and even when he’d left, I could feel the void of something great inside me. The Gallery? It was no longer my entire life, my only future.

  Gary was.

  The Gallery could burn to the ground and I would be just fine. In fact, I was feeling like it wasn’t where I wanted to be. As much as I loved this place and the people who worked night after night to make it successful, I could walk away, sell it to one of them, and never turn back and wish I hadn’t. My life, it seemed, had taken turn and I was looking forward to the day Gary and I could walk away to whatever future was awaiting us.

  Would that day come? I wasn’t sure. He was an enforcer now, sworn to protect the Legion and its president, and I would never ask him to give that up. It was his dream and they were family. I couldn’t imagine not having them in my life.

  But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have our own happiness along with his commitment to the Legion. My how my dad would laugh if he could read my thoughts now! I was dreaming of a home like Gary’s parents, where I would take care of our kids and wait for my man to come home to me at night. Never in my life had I imagined I’d turn into that kind of person, but here I was.

  I wanted to be that person. This current life, the Gallery, it wasn’t me now. Maybe it hadn’t been for quite some time. Maybe I’d been trying to fit into something that wasn’t for me just so I could survive, but all along I was waiting for the moment I would meet someone who would change everything.

  It still worried me when I looked at what I’d built here. All this history and time. But despite all that, I knew I couldn’t turn away from a future with Gary. Even if I’d never gotten pregnant, I wouldn’t have let him go again. He was the man who made me happy, far too happy for me to even put into words.

  “Look at you! What’s going on with you, Becky? You are glowing!”

  Misty sidled up next to me, giving my hip a playful pinch. Her short black dress barely covered her body, and a mesh panel showed off her cleavage in the front whil
e narrow satin strips covered her nipples. A small triangle hid her privates, but not much else.

  She was any man’s hot, wet dream.

  Well and probably some women’s, too, given the looks she was getting tonight.

  “You look gorgeous.”

  “Thank you,” she said, blushing. “And you, I mean, really, what’s up with you? Something’s different, and I don’t mean your shoulder.”

  I grinned, feeling giddy for the first time in quite a while. “I, well… I think I’m in love.”

  Her eyes widened. “With the Kid?”

  I nodded, his nickname making me smirk. There wasn’t anything on Gary’s body to insinuate he was anything but a man. “I’m pregnant, Misty.”

  “P-pregnant?” she stuttered, shock radiating from her expression. “You?”

  I laughed, unable to help it. “Yes, me. I can get pregnant you know. I have all the parts.”

  Misty gave a little laugh. “I didn’t mean it like that, I just, I never thought you were the type to have kids, that’s all.”

  “Me neither,” I admitted, rubbing my finger over the ring once more. “But it’s funny how things change, you know?”

  “But what about the club?” Misty continued. “I mean, you are still planning on running it, right?”

  I shrugged. “I really don’t know. I’m not gonna shut it down if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Good,” she replied. Then she hesitated before she added, “Be careful getting wrapped up with a man. They’ll let you down in a heartbeat.”

  I looked at her, hearing the note of bitterness in her voice. I had been so busy with my own life, I hadn’t had time to pay attention to my friends. “Did something happen?”

  She waved a hand at me. “Just normal weak men trying to get a piece of me, that’s all.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, laying a hand on her arm. “I haven’t been a very good friend lately, have I?”

  Misty’s eyes found mine and I saw sadness in their depths.

  “It’s alright. You had a shit load of stuff going on lately. I just, well, it doesn’t matter. I guess we won’t be having fun for say… six months or so?”

  I gave her a smile. “No, not that kind of fun.”

  Misty and I did indeed enjoy paling around in and out of the Gallery, getting ourselves into all kinds of trouble and doing things I probably wouldn’t want this kid to ever find out about. Misty was one of the few people I’d call a girlfriend.

  “Well,” Misty said, giving my arm a little squeeze. “I guess I’ll go mingle then. I can’t say that I’m not jealous of you, Becky, and what you’ve found. You’re one of the lucky ones.”

  “Thanks,” I laughed as she disappeared off into the crowd. I did think of myself as lucky, lucky enough to have found a man who clearly loved me and gave me a happiness I didn’t know could exist.

  But what was I going to do with the Gallery? There were a lot of people who depended on this place, and the last thing I wanted to do was turn it over to someone who didn’t give a damn about it. And I hadn’t put my blood, sweat, and tears into it just to have it shut down.

  Sighing, I watched as a new girl took the stage, her music vibrating through my body. Maybe Gary could help me decide what to do when the time came. After all, it didn’t seem right that I’d eventually be waddling around a strip joint with a big pregnant belly.

  Just the thought of that situation made me think there had to be a bad joke somewhere in there.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gary

  I took a swallow of my beer, making a face when I realized it’d grown warm. For the last hour, I’d listened to Fox talk on the phone, waiting for the moment he would release us, and I could go get Becky from the Gallery. She’d insisted on going to work tonight, and while I hadn’t been too keen on the idea, especially with Marco still running around, I’d finally given up trying to persuade her in the end.

  Besides, we’d beefed up Legion presence there, knowing Marco probably wasn’t done. Whatever his reasoning, if he even had any, I was sure our trouble with him was far from over.

  The door opened to the war room and in walked Emilio, a frown on his face. The Diablo president looked exhausted, as we all were. “Have you found him yet?”

  Fox said something into the phone before hanging up, shaking his head as he did so. “No, we haven’t. Are you certain he’s still in the county?”

  Emilio sat down and picked at the worn surface of the table in front of him. “No, I’m not. I’ve checked everywhere I can think of. Marco is nowhere to be found. I was certain he’d have showed his ugly face by now.”

  I stared at the man, wondering how hard it must be for him to be searching for his own brother, a brother who had betrayed him for the sake of power. I guess not only him; the Nieto blood ran deep within the Cazadores. His brother was a traitor to all of them.

  Emilio had been shot in the head, but had somehow survived the assault unleashed by Twitch and the rest of the Rebels. All that remained of his nearly mortal wound was a faint line along his forehead. To me, it was a symbol of all our suffering somehow. Had we not intercepted Half-Pint and learned of the price on Emilio’s head, he might not be sitting with us now.

  “I’m fucking tired of this,” Fox announced, falling into one of the chairs around the table. “It’s never been this bad before. How the hell are we supposed to bring up our kids in this mess? How are we supposed to ensure their safety?”

  I swallowed, knowing we were all thinking the same thing. Hell, Derrek had a baby on the way and so did Fox. I didn’t know what kind of family Emilio had, if any, though there were rumors of his concubine house full of women vying for his attention.

  How the man handled more than one woman, I didn’t know.

  Emilio leaned back in his chair, resting his hands on his stomach. “I will end this even if I have to put a bullet through my brother’s brain.”

  “Twitch is mine,” Fox growled, looking around the table. “He killed Jack. It’s my responsibility to gain that revenge, understood?”

  Both Derrek and I nodded, hearing the fierceness in Fox’s voice. I could understand, even though I wanted to be the one who killed Twitch in the end. But Fox had been with Jack far longer me, and he was president because of Jack’s death. Though no one spoke of it, we could all see how Jack’s death had impacted our new president.

  Emilio leaned forward. “I know we haven’t discussed this before now, but I want to make the truce between our two clubs official before anything else happens.”

  Fox motioned for one of the other Legion members to leave the room, leaving only Derrek, myself, and Emilio seated at the table. I waited for him to make me leave as well, as I was not a ranking member of the Legion, but he didn’t. He only pulled his chair up to the table. “Go on.”

  “I wish for peace,” Emilio sighed, his shoulders slumping.

  “Do you want to combine the clubs?” Fox asked softly, surprising me. Combining the clubs would make us the largest club in Greenwood, as well as making a statement to the Rebels and other groups we all believed the same thing, had the same principles. It would be a large undertaking, one that would involve more bloodshed before the two parties could agree on a direction forward.

  But thankfully Emilio shook his head. “No, I wish to keep the Cazadores separate. There is a part of me that would like to move on after this shit is settled.”

  “You’re going to leave?” Derrek asked.

  “Perhaps,” Emilio said with a hint of a smile. “Do you not wish to see more of the world, your home country?”

  “Once upon a time,” Derrek answered. “But that was before I found everything I needed right here in Greenwood.”

  We all knew what he was talking about. The love of a good woman was enough to keep any biker grounded and that was what Derrek had found in the unlikeliest of women. I knew how he felt. While we’d come from different backgrounds, with different upbringings, I had no intentions of leaving Greenwo
od either.

  Becky’s love was already turning my focus to something beyond the Legion. I didn’t know what would happen with the three of us, Fox, Derrek, and I, and our impending families, but something told me we wouldn’t be the same once our children were born.

  Of course, Jack’s death had already brought so much change to us. If he could’ve seen us now, Likely he’d have been laughing his ass off. We were all about to become what he’d been to us for so many years.

  “What do you propose then?” Fox was asking Emilio. “Your club will be without a leader if you pull up stakes from Greenwood.”

  “I have some who might want to move on as well,” Emilio explained, his gaze on our president. “But if some do not wish to leave, will you allow them sanctuary within the Legion? I do not wish for them to lose their identity, but I do wish for their safety.”