“Let’s not talk about Jase, he might overhear us and his ego doesn’t need the meal,” said Maggie after she took a hard hit and exhaled.
“Okay,” said Julie. “Do you want to talk about where you’ve been for the last eight months?”
Maggie didn’t. She really, really didn’t. But she looked up and saw Julie’s earnest expression, and knew it was the right thing to do. “Yeah, I guess we can do that.”
“I tried calling you, Maggie. I guess I feel like… like maybe I failed you as a friend. I wanted to help you up, I couldn’t get you to take my hand,” said Julie. She handed the joint to Maggie and adjusted to sit cross-legged on the carpet, her back leaning against the bed. “Jordan kept telling me there was nothing I could do, but I just couldn’t accept that.” She giggled a little to herself. “Obviously—how else would I be here right now? I could never just give up on you, you know?”
Shame tore through Maggie’s mind and heart. She let the joint’s embers burn out as she held it between her fingers. “Jordan wasn’t wrong. I saw you calling me, Julie… I found the note you left in my mailbox. I was just too afraid to respond to any of it. I didn’t want…” Maggie had to take a deep breath. “I didn’t want you to see what I had become.”
“Oh honey. We all have our dark times. You know I watched my older sister go through her alcoholism. I know it’s not apples to apples, but well….I just mean I care about you anyway, even if you don’t care about you.”
“Part of me wishes I had called you,” said Maggie. “But part of me could never live with involving you with dangerous people.” She felt a strange sensation that Henry had told her those exact words at some point in years passed. And like Henry had with her, Maggie kept Julie at the perimeter of her life.
Julie nodded sadly. “I’m sure none of your decisions were easy ones at that point.”
Maggie cleared her throat. “No, they weren’t. Neither was the one to cut loose and make a run for home. But things got out of my control. Evan had soothed some need in me for that first little while, and then suddenly it felt like I was sliding down a muddy hill with no way to stop myself.”
“Everything seemed to be going so well before you met him,” said Julie. “You didn’t seem unhappy. I’m surprised there was something missing that he somehow filled. You seemed like a whole person.”
Maggie had replayed those transitionary months so many times in her mind, but she had no answers for either Julie or herself. “I was, in a lot of ways. But I just… there’s something inside me that isn’t right, Julie. It’s been there since I can remember; since I was a little girl. It won’t settle or shut up, no matter what I do. It’s like a big black ocean that lives inside my chest, and it’s always sloshing around, always storming. I can never find a way to keep it still… at least not for very long.”
Julie’s eyes welled up with sympathetic tears. “Oh Maggie. You feel that way all the time?”
“Not all the time,” said Maggie before she could stop herself. “I mean, sometimes it’s… sometimes it’s still. Sometimes it’s calm.”
“Like when?”
Before Maggie could answer, two stern knocks came on the bedroom door. Jase stuck his head inside the bedroom and looked at Maggie.
Like now.
“Jesus,” said Jase as his face scrunched up. “First night in a new house, and you decide to hot box the place?” He waved his hand and watched the collected smoke from the joint swirl in the sunlight.
Both Maggie and Julie started to giggle. Maggie took advantage of the distraction and hoped Julie would forget about the question she had asked. She re-lit the joint, took a puff, and offered it up to Jase. “Don’t be jealous, we wouldn’t leave you out.”
Whatever humor had been on Jase’s face died the second she said the word ‘jealous’. She got no pleasure out of seeing the stricken look behind his eyes, too subtle and far away for Julie to pick up on. But neither did she want him around her after what he had done last night.
She expected anger, but instead she saw only exhaustion pass over his face.
Julie must have missed it. “Yeah, Jase, why don’t you come have a seat and join us? I’ve heard so much about you!” She gave Maggie a very obvious grin that Maggie returned with a stern, bitchy look, pulled tight to hide her embarrassment.
Red flushed across Jase’s face. His eyes widened just a bit. “Is that so?”
“Oh, yeah, Maggie could never shut up about you!” It wasn’t the truth—in fact, it had taken many months before Maggie trusted Julie enough to even mention his name—but truth wasn’t Julie’s goal. This was more of a mini-seduction into conversation.
Jase looked over to Maggie, as if to verify whether Julie was honest. Maggie could only look at him for a second or two before the discomfort became too much. She realized that probably made her look guilty of Julie’s charges, but she just took a hit and said nothing.
“I guess I’m one of those guys that’s better enjoyed from a distance, then,” said Jase. His flat voice made clear that he wasn’t in the mood for any cheeky antics regarding his feelings. He pointed at the joint in Maggie’s hand. “Don’t burn the house down, alright?” He didn’t wait for a response before he ducked out of the room, footsteps heavy down the hall towards the kitchen.
“Yeesh,” said Julie with a little laugh. She took the joint Maggie still had outstretched. “Someone needs a nap.”
Maggie’s smile faded. “No, Julie, you don’t get it. He absolutely hates me. He told me to my face he doesn’t care about me.”
Julie seemed like she was going to crack another joke, but she stopped when she saw the real pain on Maggie’s face. “Hey, honey…” she reached out and took Maggie’s hand. “It’s okay. He won’t be mad forever. I wasn’t kidding about what I said earlier—you can see it all over him that he cares about you, I don’t care what he says about it now. He’ll come around and forgive you. He’s here protecting you, isn’t he? If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.”
“His job?” said Maggie.
“You sure love to play dumb when you don’t want to notice something. It’s that jazz guitarist at our Friday night flings all over again,” said Julie with a grin and a quirk of her eyebrow. “Jase will forgive you.”
Maggie gave Julie a half-hearted smile. In that moment she felt she deserved neither Jase’s forgiveness, nor Julie’s. “Seeing you here today made me realize I’m just a shitty person, Julie. I run and let people behind me clean up my mess,” said Maggie, staring at the ground. “I’m sorry I left my mess for you in Eagleton. I was scared and stupid. I didn’t think.”
“Honey, the fact that you ran back to your daddy and your lost love—that are both, apparently, super-tough badass bikers, thanks for telling me—means that you were running from something much bigger than a few knick-knacks in your apartment or your old friend from work. It’s really okay. I’m just glad you got help, whether or not it was from me,” said Julie. She had her hands on Maggie’s shoulders and gave them a soothing squeeze.
Maggie couldn’t look her friend in the eyes. “I wasn’t running from danger when I left LeBeau the first time; when I left Jase.”
Julie sighed and rubbed her arms. “It’s not too late to heal all that, Maggie. They still love you. You know that. You’re their family.”
Maggie finally looked up with teary eyes to meet her friend’s gaze. Julie gave her a hopeful smile and then pulled her into a sweet hug.
From outside came the sudden squeal of tires as someone rounded the corner going far too fast. Brakes slammed as soon as the sound of the engine passed in front of Maggie’s house.
The world erupted into the sudden, thunderous fury of automatic gunfire. Bullets blasted the glass out of the windows in the living room and Maggie’s bedroom. Both women screamed and collapsed flat to the floor. Maggie pulled at Julie to follow her into the windowless hallway, crawling over broken glass and shattered house debris.
The gunfire seemed endless. Maggie sa
t tucked with her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her ears, trying to block out the deafening noise. Then the spray stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Outside, tires screeched as the car pulled away at violent speeds.
Her hearing was muffled, ears ringing, heart pounding. Through the din, she could hear the low, fuzzy wail of Julie’s frightened crying, and instinctively Maggie wrapped her arms around her shaking friend.
Jase’s voice bellowed her name, but it seemed so far away, like he was calling to her from across a wide valley. Even then, she could hear the edge of fear to it. He burst into the hallway, his face drained of blood. When he saw the women on the floor, he dropped to his hands and knees and scrambled over to them.
Julie cried, but Maggie and Jase said nothing. They stared at each other from either side of Julie as she wept into her own arms. The silence that filled the house was somehow more deafening than the gunfire.
8
Jase stared at the wall of Maggie’s bedroom. He couldn’t have counted all the bullet holes if he had wanted to. A few of them even made it through the thinner parts of the exterior wall, spilling dappled sunshine into the room. Jase stuck his finger in one of them, and then turned away, distracted.
The floor under his boots was covered with drywall and glass and other debris. Even the bed had been hit a few times. If Maggie and Julie hadn’t gotten into the hallway, they would both probably be dead. If he had been in the living room instead of the backyard, he’d probably be dead, too.
Jase had been in a few small shoot-outs in his time, but he’d never been in a drive-by. It had most likely been ten, twenty seconds at the most, yet the memories burned into his brain seemed like they lasted days. He had rushed in the house as soon as he heard the brakes squeal out front. Pinned down behind the kitchen counter once the shooting started, he couldn’t do a damn thing during the chaos to help Maggie. All he could do was sit there and listen to her scream, and pray it wasn’t because she had been hit. When he saw her huddled in the hallway with no wounds, he thought his heart might stop altogether.
His instincts fought between two responses: call and wait for backup, or get the women to the clubhouse for safety immediately. He picked the latter, worried the gunmen might swing back around to finish the job. During the drive, it felt like every car was a tail stalking them, waiting to open fire. As soon as they arrived, Beck deployed a group of men to investigate and clean up. Maggie took Julie into one of the clubhouse bedrooms to allow them time to calm down. Jase waited for Henry to finish checking on his daughter, smoking cigarettes and pacing in front of the clubhouse. Adrenaline pumped through his veins like unholy fire.
Henry looked furious when he emerged from the clubhouse. As he stalked over, Jase braced for a lashing—and not just a verbal one. He felt like he had failed again, letting lives get endangered and gaining zero information on their enemy.
But Henry just stopped in front of him and said, “I’m glad you’re okay. You did good getting them over here so quickly.”
Surprised, Jase said nothing, only nodded.
“We’ll bring her stuff over and have her stay in the clubhouse from now on. Obviously we underestimated the situation.”
“That was a daylight attack, Prez. What the fuck are these guys after?”
“I don’t know. Something don’t feel right. The way they’re coming so hard and fast, it makes no sense with the info we’ve got. We’re missin’ something,” said Henry. The pit at the bottom of Jase’s stomach agreed, and he said so.
Henry said, “Do you think that friend of hers is a part of this? That’s some timing.”
“Julie walked right up to the clubhouse like she didn’t know what she was going to find. She was in the house with Maggie when it happened, could have easily died. That doesn’t add up to me,” said Jase. “I think whoever’s behind this has already been here for a time. Maybe the failure at Tamales is making them desperate.”
“Desperate for what?” said Henry. “That’s what don’t make sense, Jase. All this risk, just to get back at Maggie for ghosting?”
“I know. Something’s up. But I’m confident it isn’t Julie or Maggie hiding it.”
Henry let out a big sigh and nodded. “I trust your judgment. But we need to get to the bottom of this immediately.”
A few scattered members were arriving as the news of the drive-by spread. Drake stopped on his way inside and asked Henry if he should work on getting Maggie another place to stay.
“I can find something closer to the clubhouse,” said Drake.
“No, she’s staying here until this is over. They’d be suicidal to attack us here directly. She’s clearly not safe anywhere else,” said Henry.
Drake nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He gave Jase a small salute and headed into the clubhouse. Jase waited until Will arrived, then the two headed over on their bikes to meet up the members already at Maggie’s house investigating.
While Will picked his way through the house slowly, Jase collected Maggie’s meager belongings. He became distracted by the constellation of bullet holes now in residence in Maggie’s bedroom. Some part of his imagination, intent on torturing him, played out the attack in a parallel universe where Maggie hadn’t gotten out of the bedroom in time. He could almost see the blood splatter tossed on the walls as if by some deranged artist. He could see her lifeless body dusted in paint flecks and speckled glass glitter. Killed by some asshole that had hurt her; a coward who had laid his hands on her, and hunted her down for trying to escape.
Christ. Jase tried to physically shake the thoughts from his head. His stomach felt ice cold. Will found him leaning his hand on the grated wall, eyes closed, as he tried to regain composure.
“Hey,” said Will with a tap on his shoulder. “Are you alright?”
Jase turned to look at him. He swallowed a wave of nausea. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep well last night, and now all this.”
“This is warfare,” said Will. “There’s no shame in admitting it’s taking a toll. That’s its job, to terrorize.”
“Not to kill?” said Jase with some edge of dark sarcasm.
“This wasn’t to kill you,” said Will. He carefully stepped through the room to admire the wall alongside Jase. “I mean, had any of you died, it would have been a plus for them. But I think this was terrorism. They are trying to scare Maggie, and by extension us.”
“She’s plenty scared,” said Jase.
“If they were just out to kill you, they could do it quieter than this, is all I’m saying. Not to undermine what you guys have just been through… but tactically, this is a bark, not a bite.”
Jase wasn’t sure if Will was right or wrong. It was hard to look at all those bullet holes and give the gunmen credit for anything more than homicidal rage. He realized he was in no state of mind to assess anything. He sighed heavily. “Can you—“
“Yeah, man. Go catch some sleep, I’ve got this under control,” said Will. He gave Jase a lop-sided grin, and then headed out of the room. Jase closed his eyes and took a deep, thankful breath.
He waved off a bunch of the guys as he hopped on his bike and started down the street. The police barricade let him pass without a hassle, and in a few minutes he was parking at the clubhouse. The den buzzed with activity, as expected. Henry and Beck were both on phone calls, and Drake pounded away at his own touch screen in the corner. Other members looked over papers, maps, and had their own talks. Jase didn’t bother to interrupt anyone. Truth told, he didn’t want anyone knowing he was here.
Jase carefully checked the bedrooms one at a time, knocking softly, before cracking the door open for a small peek. Julie and Maggie were set up in the second one he tried, the one with a larger queen-sized bed. Both of them had fallen asleep. He left them where they lay and took up residence in the full-sized bed in the room next door. The full weight of the last few days began to hit him as soon as he sat down and he almost didn’t have the energy to even get his boots off.
&nb
sp; As he lay staring at the ceiling, the imagined image of Maggie’s lifeless body kept popping up in the back of his mind, keeping sleep at bay. He told himself over and over that she was right here. She was right next door. She’s right here. She’s right here.
He didn’t remember falling asleep.
9
Jase woke to find the last hours of daylight slowly melting down the bedroom window. His sleep had been a deep dive into the abyss of exhaustion, and he surfaced from it feeling better, and grateful that he felt better. Some of his muscle aches still remained, but now they were minor nuisances instead of nagging distraction. He could hear the quiet talk of a few people in the den. They must not have uncovered anything earth-shattering while he was napping or someone would have woken him up.
Jase took a few moments to stretch and use the small half-bath to splash some cold water on his face. He ran a big hand through the wild black mane that was his hair, screwed up from sleep, and decided he didn’t care. He just smoothed it down a bit before heading out into the hallway.
Warm light spilled from the direction of the den, but Jase turned right instead, towards the other bedrooms. He put an ear to the door he knew Maggie was behind, listening. When he heard nothing, he raised a fist to knock, but the door swung open in front of him before he could.
Maggie started, clearly not expecting the doorway obstruction. She was still blinking sleep out of her eyes when she looked up at him, squinting. “Oh. Hi.”
“Are you okay?” he said. His voice came out dry and cracked.
“Huh?” said Maggie. “Oh, yeah. Yeah we’re okay. Julie wants to go home.”
Shit, thought Jase. An unexpected concern. He leaned an arm on the doorway and spoke quietly. “We have to check with Henry before she goes anywhere.”
Maggie gave him a fed-up look. “She’s a grown woman, Jase. I’ve explained the risks to her. I’m not letting the MC keep her prisoner. It’s me they want.” Her eyes focused on something distant. “Away from me is the safest place she could go.”
PRIDE: A Bad Boy and Amish Girl Romance (The Brody Bunch#1) Page 25
