by Jayne Blue
“Okay, get off me.” Behind Stone, smashed under the bar, was Dusty. Every part of her obscured by Stone. He moved forward and let her out from behind the human shield he had made.
The strong and silent Stone stood up and lifted Dusty up by the elbow.
“I got it I got it.” She was peevish for someone just saved from a bullet spray.
“Are you okay?” I asked her and looked to see that everything looked to be in the right place.
“Uh, yeah, Stone stepped in front of me. Jesus.” She saw the fresh bullet hole in his shoulder.
“What?” He looked and realized he had been hit.
“Don’t worry about it.” He said to her and I thanked God both of them were okay, despite Stone’s shoulder, they were standing and talking.
Victor and Hagen were not. I walked outside as sirens began to wail. My mental headcount continued.
“Where’s Ryder?” I asked Ridge.
“He took the one good bike and is chasing them.”
“Shit, go stop him if you can. We’re in a war and he can’t take it on by himself.” I turned back to the club and my boot hit a familiar brick. We had seen it at the jewelry store, at Bess’s house, and now here.
I expected it to say Bratva, but instead it was a different message.
Blood for Blood was scrawled upon it.
Fire for Fire. Blood for Blood. This was retaliation for the damage we did to their guy.
We had broken fingers and they had killed. The escalation was dramatic and on purpose.
The war I had known was coming was here. A motion on the second floor above the bar reminded me who was upstairs.
Bess. Jesus.
I had been trying to keep her safe and I had let her be this close to an M.C. versus Russian mob bloodbath.
My heart sank at what this meant for us. Had we stayed downstairs, had a bullet ricocheted, had just one tiny thing been different she could be in the same position as Hagen or Victor.
I had forgotten for a second how ugly this was. I had spent most of my adult life in one club war or another. It was so easy to block out the brutality. It didn’t take long for me to go soft in this moment of peace and prosperity for the M.C.
It was so easy to deny that this was a part of life
I knew what I had to do. I would have to stop the Russians for sure. Before I did, I would have to make sure Bess and I were through.
They were coming for me. That was fine. I’d be damned if I would let Bess get hurt.
I made fast and decisive moves every day. I made one more as the sun came up over The Wolf Den and the sirens got closer.
Chapter Fourteen
Bess
I stayed put for about five minutes. I had a gun in my hand and I was going to do what Sawyer said. I didn’t want to shoot it but I would. I hoped I could shoot straight. I huddled in the bathroom but didn’t hear any more gunfire.
I heard sirens in the distance. I needed to get out. I needed to get to Sawyer. My mind raced. All I could think of was him.
In those thirty seconds from when I left the bathroom to when I found him outside, flagging down an ambulance, I knew one thing. I loved him.
I loved him completely even though this was the most messed up night of my life. There were things that could be unseen in that club, but I knew without a doubt, that I was supposed to be with Sawyer McCall.
Seeing him directing the ambulance let me know he was okay. He was not hurt. He didn’t die trying to protect Ridge or Steel, or any of the other crazy names I had learned.
Larry came up to me and put an arm around me.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine, can I help?”
“Nothing’s going to help Hagan.”
“Oh, oh my god. I’m so sorry. He’s your VP right?”
“Yes, he was.” The man’s eyes looked as though they had aged a decade since we had shared a beer earlier in the night.
The paramedics rushed passed us to the man I learned was named Victor. He was still alive but it was dire. Steel, this mountain of muscle, was applying pressure to the wound and was soaked in blood. As the paramedics took over, one tried to assess Steel’s condition.
“It’s not my blood it’s all Victor’s.”
I stood in shock for a moment at the destruction wrought in such a short time.
I needed to be with Sawyer. To just hold his hand for a moment. Anything. I could not imagine what he was feeling.
I walked up to him as he talked to the police, they were asking him questions, everyone in the club questions, trying to piece together what happened.
“So you’re not an eyewitness?”
“No, I was asleep. I came down after the shots woke me up. I live up there.” Sawyer pointed to the light above The Wolf Den.
They asked me a few question and my story was the same. I had no idea what had happened though I had a good idea who it was.
The police moved on to all the club members they could as the paramedics took Victor in an ambulance. They also loaded Hagen.
I looked back and several of the bikers dropped their heads as a yellow tarp covered their former VP. It was awful.
I reached out a hand to Sawyer and he pulled it away.
It hurt my feelings in a way that surprised me. It almost felt like being slapped.
But what did I know? It had been a violent and traumatic night. I just had to be there for him however he would let me.
Sawyer walked back to the Den and issued orders.
“Dusty, start clean up when we get the clear from the cops. Stone, if that shoulder is okay, we will head to the hospital for Victor. Larry, make sure everyone knows we are on lockdown. This might not have been the last of it. Have we heard from Ryder?”
“Ridge caught up with him. He’s standing down,” Larry answered.
“Okay, I’m heading to the hospital. Victor may not make it and he doesn’t deserve to die alone.”
“I’ll drive you to the hospital. I heard all the bike tires were slashed.” I put a hand on Sawyer’s shoulder. He turned and brushed it off.
“No, I’ve got a car here.”
“I’ll be right behind you then.”
“You’ll go home, immediately. You’ll stay away from here for good.”
“Sawyer let me help you.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this but we’re done.”
“What are you talking about? You’re in shock. Let’s just go help, Victor.”
“I said go home, you’ll not be hearing from me again. Goodbye, Bess.” His eyes, always warm and always connecting with mine were flat.
“Sawyer?” I felt sick and almost panicked. It was realer than the bullets we had awoken to.
“Make sure Ridge follows her home.” He turned his back. Sawyer’s long legs took him out of The Wolf Den and apparently out of my life.
What the fucking hell had just happened to the last eight hours in my world? Was this his reaction to the violence that we had just seen?
I really had no idea. An ache in my heart started to throb. The smell of blood began to sour my stomach.
Sawyer was gone in the same moment I knew I never wanted to live without him.
Sawyer
The cops would not let us bury Hagen until they did a complete autopsy. It could be more than a week.
The only good news was Victor. He was stronger than the bullet that sliced through his abdomen. Stone’s shoulder wound was a grazing. Thank God. As bad as it was, it could have been worse.
The doctors told me that Steel had in fact saved Victor’s life by staunching the blood.
The days that followed the Russian’s attack on The Wolf Den were filled with tough decisions, doctor reports, and police not believing much of what the guys said.
I sat at the table, now missing a VP, and laid it out.
“We are going to deal with this ourselves. We are going to do it smart. I don’t want small fights I want to wipe them out of Grand City.”
“S
o what do we know?” Larry asked. I asked Ryder to come to the table because he had followed the Russians out of the club.
“There were two of them that came in and shot the place up and one in the car they jumped into.”
“Was our Georgie one of them?”
“No,” Larry answered. The guys all agreed that they had never seen these particular Russians.
“And these aren’t the head of the Bratva, these are the guys they don’t really care it they get killed.”
“I can’t believe we didn’t kill them,” Ryder said. We had gotten a lazy about security. That was on me. The idea that we ran a bar and not an M.C. was dangerous to us. It had been late at night and no one had thought to lock up. The regular patrons were gone. That was the only good news. The casualties were all from the M.C.
“I want to keep the bar closed to the public for a time. I am not sure how long. But I don’t want to worry about customers in here.”
“What about revenue?” Ridge, the Treasurer, asked a valid question. We needed cash coming in.
“The Great Wolves Gym is doing fine. The Russians have actually helped business when it comes to Great Wolves Security.”
“Four new businesses signed on for protection,” Ridge said.
“How long can we be shut down here?” I asked.
“I’d say six weeks, two months tops,” Ridge said.
“Let’s do that then. Ryder, I want you to shift your focus from the auto body idea to clean up here. Dusty will tell you what we need.” We had broken windows, crushed tables, and a general feeling of death in the club. Not something anyone would want to be a part of. We needed to reset. We needed to get the Russians out of our town.
“Okay, Prez.”
“Now step out. We need have a vote.” Ryder got up and left me with the club officers.
“I need a VP. I want Larry to do it. You good with that, Larry?”
“If the rest of you are. We’re both from out of town.”
Larry and I were new to the Grand City M.C. but we had both been wolves for as long as we could remember.
The rest of the officers looked at each other and seemed to agree.
“All in favor of Larry as VP say eye.” Larry was voted VP unanimously. That was good. I needed complete unity for the next vote too.
“For now, Larry will do both secretary and VP. Now it’s time for another vote.”
“The Russians?” Larry asked.
“We’re going to war. The old way. I will do my best to be sure not to bring too much heat but there will be some. Great Wolves M.C. is going to kill every single one of those Russian bastards we find.”
“That’s the trick, finding them,” Ridge said.
“We’re closer than you think. As soon as I have more information, we will sit at the table again. I need to know we are all in for this plan. There will be blood.” I looked at each member to make sure that they understood.
“All in favor in declaring war on The Bratva say eye.”
“Eye,” said Larry.
“Eye,” said Ridge.
“Eye,” said Steel.
“Good, let’s be sure the rest of the club is up to speed. I’ve got some Russians to find.” I pounded my gavel and stood up.
I walked into the office and started going over everything I knew about the Bratva; every dirty thing they were into, and every method I had seen them use. I also had more information from my friends in France.
I had a message from Raleigh Gibson, my computer hacker, and I hoped it had the information I needed.
I also had several missed calls from Bess over the last few days. I wanted to answer them. I wanted to hear her voice. The farther she was from me, the safer she would be.
I had club members keeping an eye on her house, on her office, and I knew every move she made. I was making sure no one would get to her, least of all me.
She was safe as long as she stayed away. The pain of losing her in my life was bearable. The pain of losing her from this world was not.
Chapter Fifteen
Bess
Sawyer McCall had cut me out of his life completely. I was hurt. Hell, I was devastated. I tried for a couple of days to give him space, reach out, and let him process the violence at his club.
Sawyer built a brick wall and he did not want me to climb it.
I had seen Cassidy with a broken heart. The damage it had done to her when she and Craddock had separated for a time was something I could not repair. She had to feel the way she felt and then move on.
I understood it now in a way I had not then. Even my divorce was nothing compared to the sense of loss I was experiencing. It was a body blow I had not seen coming and was not prepare for. Divorce, at least in my case, was easier than total heartbreak.
I felt an ache in my chest when I tried to take a deep breath.
On paper, Sawyer was right. He and I did not belong together. Convincing my head, my heart, and every cell in my body was another thing entirely.
However, only young girls have the luxury of fully immersing themselves in heartbreak. I had shit to get done. Crying in my ice cream would have to wait. So I sucked it up, cried in the car when needed, and got the fuck on with my life.
Cassidy was beating herself up about DeAndra and I still had Kirstin on my mind. The only girl I could actually do anything about was Alexis. I needed her to do something that might be hard but it was critical to putting away the evil bastards.
Alexis would have to come in and look at a police lineup. Thanks to the photo I provided Detective Murray, he was able to round up a group of men for Alexis.
She was clear-eyed and focused on what we were about to do. She had also been thriving in the group home. I picked her up for our trip to the police station and ushered her into the room.
Detective Murray was there looking handsome and reassuring. From the accounts, Alexis had provided Georgie, the Russian, had not raped her. This was cold comfort but I hoped it meant that she could get through this without drudging up what happened after he had abducted her.
“Remember they can’t see you.” Detective Murray told Alexis.
“I’ve watched Law and Order you know,” she replied with her typical sass.
Murray hit the intercom. “File them in.”
Five men all of various heights, all with shaved heads walked into the lineup room. The last one was Georgie. He stared straight through the one-way mirror and into Alexis. She didn’t flinch. I did, however. He was bored and looked the opposite of concerned and with that he could be identified as a kidnapper.
“The last guy. That’s him.” Alexis said and took a step toward the glass and not away from it like I wanted to.
“That was fast. Are you sure?” Murray asked her and looked over her head at me.
“That’s him. His breath is going to smell like McDonald's hamburgers and cigarettes.”
“Okay, that’s all we need.” The men were ushered out of the room.
“You’ll need to witness this for her.” Alexis signed her name on a statement and I co-signed. The state was her legal guardian and I represented the state.
I left her a moment at a desk in the detective bureau. I needed to talk to Murray alone.
“So is it enough. Can you keep him?”
“I can keep him twenty-four hours and then it’s up to the judge.”
“What about getting the rest of them?”
“I’m going to ask for a search warrant for where we think they’re operating. That will also be the judge.”
“Okay, so what next?”
“Sit tight until you hear from me.”
“You’re fucking kidding me right.”
“I’m sorry. There are procedures I have to follow if you really want this Georgie guy put away.”
“I know. I know. I just want to make him pay for what he did to Alexis, and she is not the only one. You realize that right?”
“We’re trying. We really are.”
“Anything on Kirsti
n or DeAndra?” Murray rolled his eyes at me. I knew the answer was no but I had to ask. I had to push. Where were they? Had someone like Georgie gotten their hooks into them? Would there be another runaway file on my desk today? The loose ends threatened to strangle me.
I drove Alexis back to the home and this time, she had questions for me.
“Will they throw him in jail?”
“They’re going to for a while. You did all you could to make that happen. They’re also going to try to find the rest of his gang.”
“Good.”
“How much longer will I be at the group home?”
“Well, Cassidy is working on the right placement.”
“I like her.”
“I do too. She tried to run away a time or two in her day.”
“What do you mean?”
“She bolted, but it wasn’t like it is now.”
“I didn’t run away.” I looked at Alexis.
“What? Your foster parents told my office you had been on the internet a lot. That you had taken off with a boyfriend. You have not told be me what happened to that boyfriend but you do not have to talk about it. No crime in running away. What happened after is the crime.”
“But I didn’t run away. I went to the mall like I was allowed to do. I was going get food at the food court and then come home. And I’ve never had a boyfriend.”
I parked outside of the group home and Alexis undid her seatbelt.
“Why did your foster parents say you were a runaway if you weren’t?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really thought much about them since all this happened. I wasn’t with them very long.”
“This means that you were in the mall and straight up kidnapped. The police should have been alerted immediately.”
“The end result was the same.” Which I supposed was true in where she was concerned. But not to where I was concerned. She didn’t run? She didn’t have a boyfriend? Where had that information come from?
“I gotta go. It’s my turn to set the table.” An independent Alexis got out of my car and walked up to the home. She turned and looked back and gave me a wave.
Something was not right. Something was off. I could not figure out what that something was.
Alexis didn’t run away. Yet that is what was reported. No search. Marked off the priority list as a runaway.
