by Leah Wilde
The problem was that I had been reminded of what happened last time, and I wanted to forget it again. I wanted to pretend that I would be able to keep Julia away from Ivan and his men. I wanted to pretend that once all of this was over, I could whisk her off her feet. I wanted to believe that I could keep my feelings for her separate from the work I did for the MC.
The truth wasn’t nearly as neat and pretty. I’d known guys who had made it work, but a lot of times, the old ladies still ended up getting mixed up with club business. Now, for most of them, that didn’t present much of a problem. Most women who hung around bikers were cut from a similar cloth. Julia was not. Julia was as good as they came. She kept herself straight and followed the rules. I was sure she must have broken a few here or there, but nothing that would land her in prison for fifteen to twenty.
She certainly had no business hanging around while we beat and tortured someone for information on a rival operation. This wasn’t the life for someone like her, and I knew that if I wanted to make it work with her, I’d have to make some sort of adjustment in my life to accommodate her.
When we pulled up to the garage, it was already dark. My stomach was in knots from worrying about Julia and our future.
“Be careful with her,” Angelo warned again as we climbed out of the SUV.
“Yeah, I learned my lesson last time, I think. I’m going to do what I can to keep this one away from what’s going down in a couple of days,” I told him as we walked upstairs to the clubhouse.
I started for the stairs to the third floor to get Julia, but Ricky put a hand on my chest.
“Hold on, bro. First, let’s celebrate, just the five of us. Just the kings, bro.”
“You got it.” I smiled at him.
“Man, we’re about to be back on top,” Juarez bragged as we walked over to the bar at the far end of the room.
“Yes, sir, the Kings of Hell will be the Kings of Chicago again,” Chase added.
Ricky went around behind the bar and grabbed beers for everyone, sliding the bottles across the bar. Then he grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and poured shots for everyone.
“Alright,” I said, standing up from my barstool with my shot glass raised. “Here’s to the Kings, baby.”
The other guys held their shot glasses up to mine and uttered words to agree with me before we all downed our shots. There was something different about the burn of a shot on the verge of something big like what we were about to do.
We sat and drank and talked. We reminisced.
“Hey, Gage, remember how much fun we used to have, bro?” Ricky asked me from behind the bar.
“Oh, man, I remember going down and starting bar fights at Grant’s. I’d hit someone with a bottle and duck when they turned around. By the time the fight really got going, I’d be out the door. I wouldn’t even be involved. The law would get called out every time,” I recalled, laughing.
“Yeah, that’s why they shut the place down, bro,” Chase said bitterly.
“Hell, man, who needs a bar now? We just come up here and get whatever the hell we want, and the club pays for it,” Juarez said, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder and taking another swig from his bottle.
“Man, it used to be so much fun before all this business shit,” I mused. “But I can’t really complain, because the business side is what buys us alcohol, pays for this place, pays for my place, and keeps us going, right?”
“I’ll drink to that,” Angelo said, holding his bottle up to mine.
It was nice to see the guys laughing and joking around after all the seriousness lately. We’d been pushing to get back on top of things, especially to get back on top of Ivan and his operation.
Ivan was dealing in guns, drugs, and a lot of things we really didn’t want on our streets. There were rumors that he dabbled in human trafficking, bringing poor Russian girls over and setting them up with wealthy American men. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really a mail-order bride racket. It was slavery and prostitution. We didn’t need that.
We had been working so hard at getting back on top that we hadn’t really taken any time to enjoy ourselves in the meantime. Talking about the days when the four of us didn’t have to worry about any of the real responsibilities of the MC reminded me of why we’d gotten involved in the first place.
“Hey, Ricky, pour us another round of shots, bro,” I said, leaning across the bar.
When he passed them around, I stood up again, and we all held our glasses up.
“Guys, here’s to the good times. They’re coming back around again. You have my word. The good times will roll again soon enough. To the Kings of Hell!”
The guys shouted after me, “The Kings of Hell,” as we all took our shots.
And that’s the last shot, I told myself. I had other things I wanted to do to celebrate our upcoming victory over Ivan. My desire was already stirring for sexy little Julia and her tight little body with all its curves in the right places.
I imagined going upstairs and finding her still waiting for me on the bed. I could see my tattooed hands pulling her clothes off, revealing her fair, unmarked flesh. I took a sip of my beer, imagining that the tip of the bottle was really one of her pink little nipples. I sucked the beer down, draining my bottle as I pulled her hardening flesh into my mouth and cupped the breast around it.
I slammed my bottle on the bar.
“Guys, I’ve got other business to tend to tonight,” I told them as I got up from the bar.
Angelo eyed me, and the others booed me.
“Man, I knew you two were fucking,” Chase teased. “It’s obvious when you look at each other.”
If Angelo’s eyebrow could have arched any harder, it would have folded in half.
“Guys, look, it’s complicated,” I told them, standing in the middle of them with my hands up.
“Oh shit. Gage, you’re not falling for her, are you?” Juarez joined in.
I took a deep breath and leveled my tipsy eyes on him. “Of course not, dumbass. She’s just a piece of ass,” I lied. “No, what I mean by complicated is I’m trying to keep it as under wraps as I can, you know? She’s working for us with Dimitri. She got the intel on the mayor for us. She knows Russian.”
“Okay. The job’s done, Gage. Just cut her loose,” Angelo chimed in. “Or, if you are feeling like this is something more permanent, bring her in, kid. Bring her in with us. Let her come down and have a few drinks.”
That was the best idea I’d heard all day. “You know what, Angelo, I just might do that,” I told him.
They all laughed.
“I’ll get her something special mixed up,” Ricky said, already grabbing a few bottles and a shaker.
I couldn’t fight back the stupid grin that was spreading across my face. “Alright, guys, let me go get her. Now, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to convince her to come down and drink with us, but I’m going to try. If I’m not back in fifteen, don’t come looking for me.” I turned from the group and started towards the stairs to the third floor.
Chapter 24
When I found my private room on the third floor empty, I didn’t panic. I figured she was downstairs trying to get more information out of Dimitri. I laughed to myself. She tried to act like she was against what we were doing, but her dedication to the cause betrayed her. She felt responsible for Dimitri, for what happened to him, and for what we found out from him. She felt a duty to continue her work, and regardless of what she said or what she wanted me to think, that spoke volumes about how she felt about me.
I smiled the whole way down to the basement. I paused at the steel door. I wanted to go right in and grab her. I wanted to take her away from our prisoner and tell him to kiss my ass while I took her upstairs for drinks with the guys. At the same time, I wanted to wait, to give her time to get what information she could out of him. Maybe he would tell her another name we could expect to find on Ivan’s yacht.
I leaned against the wall and waited. I couldn’t stop t
hinking about the opportunity ahead of us. More so than the opportunity facing the MC, I was excited about the prospect of being able to pursue Julia romantically.
“Man, what is it about that woman?” I asked myself out loud. “I can’t stop thinking about her.”
I looked at the door. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it felt like a lot. I wanted to know what was going on in there. My thoughts of her kept running through my head, but they were beginning to turn sour. I had suspected her of working with Dimitri at one point. I had honestly thought that she was hiding information he’d given her from me. Maybe she had been. Maybe he’d been slowly giving her information about the deal going down on Ivan’s yacht, and she had been waiting to tell me. That certainly would have been understandable.
“Fuck it,” I said as I pushed myself off the wall. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to go in and find out what was taking so damn long in that room.
I opened the door and started to walk in, giving my eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light. I didn’t hear anyone talking, and as my eyes adjusted, I didn’t see anyone sitting in the room.
“What the fuck?” I ran over to his chair and saw that the ropes had been cut. She had been working with him.
Suddenly, the growing sense of intoxication that had been clouding my mind faded back. I saw everything in high definition. She had helped him escape. She’d told me he asked her to help him get out of here. I should have known that he would keep trying.
I hurried upstairs to greet the disappointed faces of the other guys sitting at the bar.
“Couldn’t convince her to come down, huh?” Juarez joked.
I didn’t say anything but kept walking until I reached the bar.
“What’s wrong?” Angelo asked when he saw my face.
“She’s gone.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Ricky said.
“And so is Dimitri.”
“You never should have let her go down there alone,” Angelo said. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. When will you learn, kid?” He put a heavy hand on the back of my neck. “You gotta stop thinking with your dick, man.”
Chase and Juarez laughed uncomfortably.
“You guys are just playing with us, right?” Chase asked.
“Yeah, I’d be surprised if that tired old punching bag could walk, man. We worked him over pretty well,” Juarez added.
“It’s possible they helped each other escape. His ropes were cut. Dammit! She told me he kept asking her to help him escape.” I was so angry with myself for leaving her alone with him. All I could think was that this was going to turn into Lisa all over again. Julia was going to end up in the middle of everything, and I was going to lose her.
Angelo’s hand moved to my shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t beat yourself up again. This isn’t over. She’s not gone yet. We still have a chance to get her back.”
“Yeah, bro, we’ll help you find her.” Chase slugged my other shoulder and chugged the rest of his beer.
“The question is, where the hell would Dimitri take her?” Rick said from behind me.
“The yacht,” I said.
“Unless she was just using him for collateral to help get herself out of here,” Angelo argued. “Don’t count her out of this like that. Don’t underestimate her.”
I thought about it a moment. He was right. She was strong-willed enough to pull this off for herself instead of getting herself caught up with Dimitri because he promised to help her.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ve got a plan. You guys get ready to go out to Lake Michigan tonight in search of Ivan’s yacht. I’m going to search for her at her apartment and the university. If I don’t find her, we’ll head out to the lake when I get back.”
“Are you okay to drive?” Angelo asked.
I looked him dead in the eye. “Do I look drunk?” I asked him. “I can drive. I’m not losing this one, brother. Julia is not slipping through the cracks the way I let Lisa go.”
“Take it easy, bro. We’re here to help. Why don’t you get one of the princes to help?” Juarez asked. All the humor and playfulness was gone from his voice. I couldn’t remember another time when he sounded serious like that.
“Look, no matter what, I’ve got to get out of here and go look for her,” I insisted. “So, if you think someone else needs to drive, go ahead and get somebody, but none of you are sober enough to drive if I’m not.” I started toward the stairs.
“Gage Noll,” Angelo called in his authoritative tone. “You’re not going anywhere.”
I stopped and shook my head, laughing to myself. It always struck me as funny that we were so hardcore when it came to beating asses, selling guns and drugs, and picking up women, but, when it came to shit like DUI, the MC had always been pretty strict. We used to always tell members that we were violent criminals, but we weren’t idiots.
Well, I was a fucking idiot. I’d already proven that. I started walking again, taking the stairs down to the garage.
“Seriously, bro, wait up,” Chase called after me.
I stopped a few steps down. I could hear Juarez talking to one of the younger members. He was telling him I needed a ride to find the lady who’d been working with me. The kid sounded like he was agreeing. I walked back up to see who it was.
Juarez had his large inked arm around the prospect’s shoulders. This kid wasn’t even a prince, a junior member, yet. He was just a prospect. He wore a Metallica t-shirt and blue jeans. He didn’t even have a cut yet. We didn’t give out blank ones like some clubs did. Either you had your colors or you didn’t.
It was so easy to tell how long guys had been with us, too. The new kids were all skin and bones. Occasionally someone would come to us already ripped, or at least big and thick to begin with, but most of the kids were messes. They came from broken homes, dysfunctional families, or even families that were just too perfect for them. They came looking for something that made sense in their world. They thought we were it! That was some funny shit. They got in, started working, working out, and they realized that even we were fucked up.
I watched the hopeful kid with the long, shaggy hair come bouncing over to me.
“They said you need a ride, man. I don’t mind helping out,” he said.
I threw my arm around his bony, narrow shoulders. “Thanks, kid. Cliff, right?”
“Yeah, that’s me.” He perked up, proud that his president knew his name already.
“Yeah, you’re one of Juarez’s prospects. That makes you pretty good in my book already,” I told him as we started down the stairs together. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was a little relieved to have someone with me.
I fished the keys to the Suburban out of my pocket and handed them to Cliff as we reached the bottom of the stairs at the garage.
The sound of shattering glass suddenly filled the room around us. I looked up in time to see the last of the back window fall out of the Suburban.
“What the hell?” I asked, putting my arm up in front of Cliff and pushing him back against the wall. “That’s not right,” I told him.
Then, the unmistakable sound of gunshots rang out, and bullets flew past us.
“Get down!” I shoved Cliff to the floor just as a bullet whizzed past my head. We were under attack and needed to get out of the line of fire while securing the garage.
That bitch, I thought as I ducked down to avoid the hail of gunfire. I couldn’t believe she’d gone and turned us over to Ivan like this. I couldn’t believe it was going to end this way.
Chapter 25
“Cliff, get down!!”
The kid stood up against my orders and whipped a gun out from the waistband of his jeans. He started firing on the group of men approaching HQ. I watched in amazement as a couple of them fell to the ground. It wasn’t clear how many of them Cliff actually hit because the boys upstairs were returning fire as well.
I had definitely gone soft, I realized. It had possibly happened before Julia even showed up. At some point
, I had stopped carrying a gun on me at all times. I reached for it now, crouched on the floor near the staircase, but it wasn’t there. I didn’t have my holster under my vest like I always used to. Things had been too quiet and too easy for far, far too long.
I looked around the room to see if there was a gun sitting out where I could get to it, but no such luck. My gun was upstairs in my personal room.
Cliff’s gun stopped firing, and I heard him fall before I saw him tumble to the ground. There was blood everywhere, but the lefty’s gun fell out of his hand and slid in my direction. I quietly thanked him as I reached for it. He had been a promising prospect, but at that moment, I needed the protection, and he was lying on the floor of the garage, either dead or dying.
