by Brook Wilder
Fox clenched his jaw. “You ask a lot, my friend. How can I be certain they won’t be spies planted within our club?”
“Because,” Emilio said, his gaze narrowing. “I am not my brother. I am an honorable man. I keep my word and my word is that they will do the Legion’s work whenever you need them to.” He then drew in a breath. “Any man who doesn’t agree to this will be given the chance to leave the Cazadores without discipline.”
Fox arched a brow. “And what happens if they don’t leave?”
“Then they will be executed,” he answered with a shrug. Though his posture implied he felt casual acceptance of this plan, his dead-eyed stare met Fox’s gaze with the weight of what he was saying. “I will leave a man in charge to carry out my wishes for those who stay behind.”
Fox thought about it for a moment before giving a sharp nod. “Then I will accept your proposal provided I’m involved in choosing your man in charge.”
“Agreed,” Emilio said.
I watched this unfold, wondering what would happen once Emilio left. He’d pretty much just turned over the Cazadores to the Legion, and while we would hold up our end of the bargain, I wasn’t sure the same could be said of men who thought their leader had abandoned them. Both presidents were taking a huge risk.
The door burst open and one of the Legion members stood there, his face pale. I jumped to my feet as Fox and Emilio both rose, everyone thinking the worst. “Jared,” he forced out, breathing hard. “He’s back.”
I didn’t wait for the rest of the room, pushing the member aside and running down the hall to the great room, where a crowd was gathering.
“Get the fuck out of the way!” I shouted, pushing others aside until I could see what they were looking at.
Jared sat in the middle of the circle, naked as the day he was born, though someone had draped their jacket over his broad shoulders. Every inch of him, from his head to his damn toes, were bloodied and bruised. As he looked up at me, I saw the bleakness in his eyes.
Crouching down, I didn’t touch him. “Jared, can you hear me?”
His nostrils flared and he opened his mouth that was cut and crusted with old blood.
They’d tortured him.
“Pequeno Pollo,” he whispered.
“Shit,” Fox said from behind. “Give the man some space will you? Someone get the doctor!”
I leaned forward, catching Jared’s eye. “What? Who did this to you?”
“Pequeno Pollo,” he repeated, his voice hoarse. “Pequeno Pollo!”
“Little chicken,” Emilio translated, his voice tight. “That’s Marco’s nickname.”
Jared shrank back at the name and I felt helpless watching a man who wasn’t scared of shit cower at the sound of someone’s name. What had he been through?
“We’re gonna get you fixed up, man,” I whispered, taking a blanket someone handed me and wrapping it around his waist.
Standing, I looked at the crowd. “Don’t tell his wife yet. Let’s get him straight before she finds out.”
They all nodded, and I caught Emilio’s eye. The horror on his face was evident and I knew for sure that Marco had gravely overstepped his bounds. What the hell was Marco trying to prove?
Whatever it was, I needed to make sure Becky was safe. Stepping away from the crowd, I reached for my cell, dialing the number of one of the men stationed at the Gallery.
“Make sure you keep Becky in your sight at all times,” I forced out, tamping down the emotion in my voice. As much as I wanted to be there, Jared needed me. Becky was as safe as she could be right now withal the extra security around her.
“Got it,” the biker said. “She’s safe, Kid. Don’t worry.”
That was all I would do until she was in my arms again. I ended the call and looked back at Jared, who was now being helped to his feet by the resident doctor of the clubhouse. He looked nothing like the enforcer who had trained me. His cuts and bruises intermingled into a large, bloody mess and I knew if Lisa saw him like this, well, no man would want their wife to see them like this anyway. God knows what else they had done to him.
**
Three hours later, I drove my truck to Jared’s house, a silent Jared in the passenger seat. Despite numerous cuts, burns, and bruises, he didn’t seem to have any major wounds. He’d only needed a few stitches here or there. His face, damn his face looked like he’d gotten in a fight with a champion boxer. I knew he had to hurt. We’d tried to keep him in bed, tried to keep him still, but once we got a few bags of fluid in him, he’d wanted to go home.
I didn’t blame him.
Pulling up to the house, I shut off the truck, watching as he stared at the small house. “I… I never thought I would be back here,” he said in a small voice. “The entire fucking time they tortured me, I thought about her, about this place.”
“You survived,” I said.
He looked back at me. “Because of her.”
I gave him a sharp nod, understanding what he was saying. “She’ll be happy to see you, even though you look like you’ve been put through a meat grinder. I mean, you were ugly before, but now...”
Jared let out a raspy laugh, then groaned. “Don’t make me laugh. Hell, I don’t even want to move.”
My smile faded. “Are you sure you want to do this tonight? You can crash at my place.”
“No,” he said, swallowing. “I have to see her.”
“Alright then,” I answered, opening the door. “Let’s get this reunion started.”
After helping Jared out of the truck, I slung an arm over his shoulder and supported his weight so we could get to the door. I reached out and ring the doorbell. It was late, but the light still flipped on right away and the door opened slowly.
Lisa stood there, her hands pausing on her robe when she realized I wasn’t alone. “Oh my god.”
“Hey babe,” Jared said as she opened the screen door. A sob escaped her, and he reached out to touch her face. “God, I missed you.”
I let him go then, and she melted into his arms, her sobs filling the night air. Jared didn’t waver, his legs finding strength as his arms wrapped around her. I stepped back, watching them with emotions high in my throat. Jared was home. After months of looking for him, he’d made his way back home on his own somehow.
Lisa looked over his shoulder, her face wet with tears. “Thank you,” she mouthed, relief in her eyes.
I gave her a nod before walking down the sidewalk, leaving them be. Later we would find out exactly what happened to him, but for now, he was right where he needed to be.
And that was good enough for us.
Chapter Twenty
Becky
I packed the money into the safe and closed it with a deep breath, glad this night was over with. It was well past two in the morning, but the last patron had just left, and we were officially closed for another night. The hefty amount of cash, even after I paid everyone, told me we’d experienced another record night. But instead of feeling elated, I was just tired. My shoulder was sore and I wanted my bed, and I wanted my bad boy biker in it.
My how things had changed.
“Ms. White, are you ready to go to your car?”
I turned, giving the biker a smile. For some reason he’d stuck to me like glue all night, not budging an inch when I’d told him he had no reason to be so aggressively protective.
But he’d just shrugged me off and told me he had orders, likely from Gary himself, which meant one of two things: either Gary was being overprotective, or something had happened tonight.
I couldn’t want to see him. “I can get there myself James, I promise.”
He shook his head. “No can do. I have to see this through.”
Standing with a grunt, wondering if my lower back muscles were somehow already tightening from the small life growing in my womb, I laughed. “I promise you, I’m good. Everyone’s gone.”
“I can walk her out,” Misty said as she gave the biker a sweet smile. She’d traded her dress fo
r her favorite sweats she liked after a long night. “We’re going the same way.”
“Misty is more than capable,” I added, grabbing my bag. “You’ve done an excellent job tonight. I’ll make sure Gary knows.”
He looked indecisive but we both gave him our best sweet smiles, and finally won him over. “Alright then, have a good night.”
“You, too,” I called out as he turned and walked away from the office. “I thought he would never leave.”
Misty giggled. “Well he took his job very seriously and I’ll do the same. Come on, let’s get you to your car.”
I gave her a smile. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you.”
She gave me a curious look. “I think this pregnancy is going to your brain already.”
I sighed as I followed her out of the office. “I think you’re right, but I do appreciate everything you do, Misty. I couldn’t ask for better.”
She didn’t respond, but we walked together to the back door, pushing it open so we could head out into the cool night. “You know,” she said after a moment. “We’ve had some good times together, haven’t we?”
I chuckled. “Probably more than some. Remember the bubble bath night?”
She laughed along with me. It’d been one of those crazy things she and I had done a few years ago, thinking two women in the bathtub on stage was a good idea. While we had enjoyed soaping each other up, I’d fell out of the damn thing trying to make a sexy exit, rewarding myself with a bruise that decorated my ass cheek for a week. Misty hadn’t let me live that one down for a very long time.
She slid her arm into mine, pulling me close. “You know, Beck, I look up to you. You have this fabulous place, men crawling at your feet to be with you, and women wanting to be you, and yet you’re throwing it all away.”
Surprised, I stopped our stroll. “Why do you say that?”
She stepped in front of me. “Well, you’re pregnant, for one. Me, I never want to be pregnant, all bloated and losing my figure over a brat. Look at you. You have this rocking figure that will never be the same again.”
“Thanks for your supportive insight,” I said thickly.
She waved a hand in front of me. “Of course, I will still love you. I’ve always loved you, even when you got yourself mixed up with that kid of a biker. I didn’t get jealous, not one bit. After all, a girl has to sow her oats, too, you know?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, getting a weird vibe from Misty. “Did you hit your head on stage tonight or something?”
She reached out and touched my hair, wrapping a lock around her finger. “And when you moped around about him leaving, I kept my distance, knowing you would snap out of it. That’s one of the things I loved about you, you know? You didn’t let him get to you, though I’m not so sure now.”
I swallowed, easing away from her so she wouldn’t think I would turn tail and run just yet. I mean I wanted to, but something told me to talk myself out of this first. I didn’t want to get shot again. “I’m still the same Becky.”
She cocked her head to the side, a rueful smile on her lips. “That I do not believe. You’re in love with him. You said so yourself and then you got yourself knocked the fuck up. What am I supposed to do with you now? I can’t have you carrying a baby around with you inside the Gallery.”
“That’s not up to you to decide,” I said, wishing I had a gun so I could shoot her crazy ass. “I’m going home, alright?”
“Oh no you’re not,” she said in a low voice as I turned to go. A solid form blocked my path, and when my vision clarified on what it was, all the blood drained from my face.
“Querido,” Marco said, a grin on his face. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“What do you want?” I asked, fear icing through me.
He laughed, showing off his gleaming white teeth. “Oh, it’s not what I want. You see, I like to keep my girl happy, and you make her happy. So, she gets you, and I get both of you.”
I glanced back at Misty, who blew me a kiss, clearly off her rocker. I’d known Misty for years, and never had she acted like this before. This wasn’t her. I would have picked up on something this strange way before now.
“Oh, she’s very good at hiding her feelings. Making sure we’re able to carry out our plans,” Marco answered for me, gripping my upper arm tightly. “Misty is a special, special girl.”
I tried to shake him off, but he held firm. “What are you going to do with me?”
“Oh, that’s the fun part,” Misty said with a laugh as she slid her arm around my waist. “I have plans for you, Becky, loads of plans. I can do whatever I want, isn’t that right, baby?”
“That’s right,” Marco said, urging me to move forward. “Come on, let’s get this party started.”
I fought against the growing fear in me, knowing it would be my undoing. I had to think. I was torn between fighting them both and trying to calculate my next move. I had a child to think about, a man I desperately loved, and if they were this crazy, I doubted they would even hesitate to put a bullet in my brain.
I couldn’t let that happen. I had too much to live for and it started with keeping myself alive long enough for Gary to know I was missing. He would come after me. There was no doubt in my mind about that.
Marco pushed me toward a waiting van, and I forced my legs to step up into the back, sitting on the floor as they both shut the doors behind me. I was being kidnapped, while pregnant, by two crazy people.
I’d been through worse things.
The van rumbled away, and I briefly thought about flinging myself out the back. I could hope that the fall wouldn’t injure the baby, but in the same breath, I couldn’t one hundred percent guarantee it.
Wiping my face with my hand, I leaned my head back on the wall and prayed to anyone listening to help me out just a little bit. I was too close to having my happily ever after to die now.
**
Half-Pint
He waited until the van was out of sight before he scurried out of the hole he was hiding in, fumbling for his cell phone. His body ached from the beating he took from the Legion a few nights ago, but he’d never been at the right place, at the right time, like this. He’d followed Marco to see if there would be a moment he could beg for forgiveness for tattling on the Rebels. Marco had found out he’d given away the plan to kill the Diablo leader and since then, Half-Pint had been on the run.
He knew his days were numbered, but with this juicy bit of information now, the Legion would have to protect him from the ensuing Rebels.
The Kid answered on the second ring. “What the hell do you want?”
“They took her,” he forced out, excitement in his voice. “They took your woman.”
“What?” he asked.
“Becky,” Half-Pint stated, holding the phone close to his mouth so that the enforcer could understand what he was saying. His speech still wasn’t clear from the number they did on his mouth, the cuts and sores making it hard to form words. “Marco and his crazy bitch took her.”
“You’re shitting me, right,” the Kid said. “I swear, I’m gonna kill you.”
“I’m not!” Half-Pint protested. Here he was, trying to do something right in his life and no one would believe him. “She’s gone and they… you might want to hurry. They both sounded crazy.”
“Where are you?”
Half-Pint smiled as he heard the panic in the enforcer’s voice, knowing he’d done a good thing now. “I’m at the Gallery. I can tell you everything.”
The Kid clicked off without saying a word and Half-Pint shoved the phone back into his jeans, his eyes darting back and forth as he slunk back into the shadows to wait. It wasn’t just because of the protection that he’d called. Becky White had never done anything to him, even giving him a free drink every once and a while if he took out her trash from the club after a busy night.
And now she was carrying a baby. There was a time in his life he’d been expecting a kid himself, before the dr
ugs had gotten a hold of him. He’d lost everything then.
Clearing his throat at the sudden rush of emotion, Half-Pint nudged at the dirt with his boot, his brain running through familiar circles trying to come up with a way to score a hit after he pointed the Kid in the right direction. He rubbed hard at his thumb nail, focusing on the uncomfortable sensation to try to forget about a time in his life when things were normal, when any happy emotion didn’t mean the sense of crushing loss would be about to over-take him if he couldn’t find something to kill it first.
