Nancy excused herself to go and get a prospect, and I rolled my eyes at Laney. “You’re not going out there alone. I’m fine for heading out. Besides, I think we can get what we need and get back here without any trouble.”
“Me too,” Charlie agreed. “I know things are going down right now, but the Rev’s men will all be at the meet, not watching the club.”
A few minutes later Rider stormed into the room, and Charlie groaned in annoyance and rolled her eyes. “Get your shit together, girls. Let me deal with this one,” she said over her shoulder as she walked to Rider.
“Don’t even start with me, Charlie. You need to stay put for the time being. Shit’s going down, and the last thing we need is anything to happen to you women.” Rider pointed at Charlie with his one good arm; the other was in a sling by his side, heavily bandaged up.
The man was beautiful even when mad. His hair and beard were silver gray, his eyes icy blue, and he was packing muscle upon muscle—each and every one made obvious by the fact that he didn’t ever wear a shirt and was only wearing a pair of faded denim jeans and his leather cut. It was also obvious that he was going crazy sitting around and not being out on the road with his brothers.
“Baby, you can’t pack forty people into a clubhouse with only beer and chips to get them by on! There’s kids here,” Charlie scoffed. “Laney and Harlow are going to get supplies, they’re going to take a prospect, and they’ll be back in thirty minutes. Right, girls?”
Rider pulled out his gun. “You try and leave this clubhouse and I’ll shoot you myself, Charlie. Goes for you too,” he said, pointing his gun at us.
He couldn’t possibly have been serious, and yet the calm look in his eye told me different.
“Now sit your fine ass down and settle in for the long haul.” He turned and walked out of the room, leaving Charlie open-mouthed, gaping at him.
She turned to look at us, shaking herself out of the stupor. “I’ll distract him. You two go—with or without a prospect. Be quick about, it though.” She started to walk out when I shouted after her.
“How will you distract him?”
“I’ve got a mouth like a vacuum. That man never turns down a blowjob from me,” she said with a grin and left the room.
I snorted on a laugh.
“Let’s go,” Laney said. “Nancy, looks like you’re watching River while Charlie distracts Rider.”
I followed Laney to the doorway and we both looked out, watching as Charlie sidled up to Rider and kissed him. One of his strong hands reached around to grab her ass and squeeze it, and she groaned against his mouth. She pulled out of the kiss and whispered something in his ear and we watched as he licked his lips, grabbed her hand, and pulled her into a side room.
We took that as our cue to leave and headed for the back door. A prospect was on guard and he cocked an eyebrow as we got closer.
“Rider said no one goes out,” he said, looking uncomfortable.
“I’m Shooter’s old lady and I’m supposed to be feeding everyone in here. I need to go to the store, now. So get out of my way. Shooter knows about it,” Laney said with a confidence I hadn’t heard from her before. She sounded more like Charlie than Laney just then. It was nice to hear.
“Rider said—”
Laney surprised the prospect and myself by punching him in the nose, making him, and me, yell out in surprise.
“Fuck! You bitch!”
“Unless you want Shooter to do ten times more damage than that, I suggest you get out of my way!” Laney bit out, her hands on her hips. “Or maybe you’d like to call him and get his approval instead of trusting my word.”
The prospect still looked uncertain, but he moved to one side. “Shooter okayed this for sure?”
“Of course,” Laney agreed, pushing open the back door.
I followed her, feeling guilty and wondering what would happen to the prospect if Rider found out he’d let us out, but decided I couldn’t worry about that right then. At the moment we needed to get food and water for the people hunkered down in the clubhouse. Nancy said it all would be over pretty quickly, but I didn’t think it would be. From what I knew so far of the Reverend, he wasn’t a man to back down easily. Lives would be lost today, that was for sure. I just hoped that it would be his men’s and not ours.
Laney climbed into her truck after lying to another prospect about us being okay to leave and get supplies, and I climbed into the passenger seat. Thoughts of what happened to River were at the forefront of my mind, but I pushed them away.
I had a bad feeling about this, but sometimes you had to take a risk to help others. I knew that motto well. So I kept my mouth shut and let Laney drive us to the store. She may have felt like she wasn’t ready to be Shooter’s right-hand woman, and to help guide the club women, but she was. She was strong—stronger than she realized.
The store was pretty busy for a Wednesday afternoon, but Laney and I rushed around the aisles as quickly as we could, grabbing crates of water, some candy for the kids, fruits and vegetables and burgers plus buns, and a lot of other things that the people at the clubhouse might need. When the cart was almost full, we made our way to the front of the store to the register so we could pay.
I lifted the heavy stuff for Laney without asking, and we loaded it all onto the conveyer belt. As we were bagging the groceries I looked outside, noticing a couple of bikers looking around our truck. I couldn’t tell if they were our men or not, but decided that it couldn’t be a good thing no matter who they were. We shouldn’t have left the clubhouse at all. It wasn’t safe; we’d been told this several times, but we’d still made the trip for the good of the club. Yet right then, all I could think about was how stupid we had been to think this was ever a good idea.
“What is it?” Laney asked after she’d paid. She flicked her long hair over her shoulders so it didn’t get caught in her purse strap, her gaze following mine outside.
“Bikers,” I replied, pointing.
Two of the bikers had moved to another part of the parking lot, but they were still watching Laney’s truck intently…like they were waiting for us. And now it was clear who they were.
“Shit,” Laney said, her eyes widening. “They’re the Reverend’s men.”
“Of course they are,” I groaned sarcastically, my stomach sinking. “How did they know we were even here?”
Laney ignored my question. Instead she pulled out her cell phone and made a call to someone, but after six or seven rings she hung up. “Looks like we’re on our own. Shooter isn’t answering.”
“Try Rider?” I suggested, keeping my gaze on the two bikers. They weren’t doing anything that looked…dangerous? Scary? They were just sitting there, their gazes on roving around the parking lot as they chatted between themselves as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
Maybe we were wrong, and this was all a big coincidence?
Regardless, Laney nodded and pulled out her cell phone again and called Rider. He picked up on the third ring. “Rider, Harlow and I are umm, we’re stuck at the grocery store. There are two of the Reverend’s men outside.” She winced and pulled the phone away from her ear as he started shouting. I heard several words being yelled down the phone including bitch, motherfucker, and something about Shooter needing to tie her down. Laney rolled her eyes but didn’t argue with him. “Yes, we’ll wait right here.” She hung up and looked at me.
“I’m guessing he wasn’t too happy?” I snorted out an awkward laugh.
“Nope, not even a little bit. Said to wait right here and he’d come down with some of the prospects. Things are about to get messy, though, Harlow. The one thing I’ve learned about men is that they are all as stubborn as each other and there ain’t no way anyone is walking away from this without there being a shootout.” She looked around us at the families doing their grocery shopping—mothers with toddlers, old men and women, housewives, teenagers. The situation was dire, to say the least. She closed her eyes and dragged a hand down her face. “W
hat the fuck have I done? I should have stayed at the clubhouse like I was told.”
“Hey, don’t be like that. You were trying to do the right thing,” I soothed, but she was right—we should have stayed at the clubhouse. However, this was on all of us, not just her, and if we made it back there in one piece, we’d all stand up for Laney. I hadn’t ever had any real girl friends, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know about friendship and what was expected of you.
“Yeah, but now someone could end up dead because of me.” She shook her head. “An innocent person! I’m not cut out for this. Shooter is going to kill me—if those two outside don’t kill us first.” Her hand went to her stomach again and her eyes welled up. “Oh God.” She looked up at me. “What if something happens to my baby?”
I grabbed her and pulled her into my arms, hugging her tightly. I barely knew her, but I already felt close enough to do that. She was at breaking point, and so was I, yet it was important that I kept strong and steady and didn’t let her get too worked up. None of that would be good for the baby—a baby Shooter knew nothing about, damn it.
“Stop it, it’s going to be fine. You’re going to be fine, and so is that little nugget of yours, you hear me?” I said firmly. I pulled out of the hug and looked back outside, chewing on my bottom lip as I made a decision. “I’m going to go and get in the truck, and you’re going to wait here for Rider to come get you.”
“No! They’ll kill you, or worse!”
“No, they’ll probably follow me, leaving you alone. The clubhouse is ten minutes around the corner—five if I speed—and I’ll drive like a damn demon and get there, don’t you worry. They’ll follow me and Rider will come for you. No shootouts in the parking lot and no putting you, nugget, or me in any more danger than we can help.” I nodded firmly, wondering what the hell had come over me. I had never had much confidence before, and my whole life had been about survival—whether it be mental or physical—and yet here I was putting my life on the line for a woman I had barely known for a day. Clearly love was making me insane. Hell, I was pretty sure that was the description of love.
Love: it’s a beautiful and amazing thing that will set your soul on fire, but it’ll make you crazy, y’all!
“I don’t know, Harlow. I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to you,” Laney said, wiping at the tears on her cheeks. “And Casa, fuck, he’d probably kill me!”
“Well you’ll feel worse if something happens to that baby.” I pulled out my cell and started typing out a joint text to Dom and Casa. “And so will I.”
“Harlow, I can’t do this to you, I just can’t!” Laney grabbed my hands, to stop me from typing, and I looked away from my cell to look into her face.
“You have to,” I said, leaving no room for argument. “Shooter will kill me anyway if something happens to you or that baby. So let’s just do this and pray for the best, okay?” I looked back down at my cell once she nodded in agreement, though agreement might be too strong a word. She was not happy about me doing this, and I had no doubt in my mind that if she wasn’t pregnant there would be no chance she’d let me take her place. But she was pregnant, and that changed everything, for everyone.
I continued with my message to Casa and Dom, trying not to think too much about what was going to happen when I left the store. There was still too much I hadn’t had time to tell either man, and if I was going to get shot and killed, or beaten up and savaged by some bikers, I wanted both of the loves in my life to know exactly how much they meant to me. Today had turned into one crazy rollercoaster of a day, but I couldn’t dwell on it too much; if I did, I’d have a full blown panic attack. Because for the first time in a long, long time, I had something I wanted to live for—Casa.
“I’m so sorry, Harlow. I never meant for any of this.” Laney opened her purse, reached in, and grabbed something. “Open your purse,” she whispered, and I did as she asked. She placed a small handgun inside. “Just in case.” Her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke, guilt drowning her.
I nodded. “I’m sure it won’t even come to that. Surely they won’t be stupid enough to try and grab me in front of all these witnesses!” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince—Laney or me.
“I’m so sorry!” she said again, and leaned in and hugged me, and that time it took everything I had to pull out of it. Because I didn’t want to go outside. No freaking way. I wasn’t hero. I wasn’t brave. I wasn’t strong. Yet something strange had happened to me since I had fallen in love with Casa. He’d somehow started filling me up with his strength and his bravery. Slowly, his love and Dom’s love had given me something I had never believed I could have. But I had a feeling it was something that had been buried in me all along, and I just hadn’t known was there: courage.
I pulled out of our hug and nodded at Laney. “Stay behind the racks so they don’t see you.” She did as I asked and I stepped outside, one hand in my purse ready to shoot anyone who tried to grab me and the other clutching Laney’s truck key so I could climb in quickly and get the hell back to the clubhouse.
My footsteps were loud—boomingly so. Each step across the cold, gray concrete echoed with only the ramming of my heartbeat against my ribs to break up the noise. I glanced briefly at the two bikers, seeing that they were still sitting in their parking spots, though both of them were watching me as I walked. Well, they could watch all they wanted. As long as they stayed the hell away from me, that was fine.
The parking lot was filled with people either loading up their groceries or parking. Families, with children and wives and people that had no business getting stuck in the middle of all of this drama. For their sake more than mine, I hoped these asshole bikers stayed away from me.
I reached the driver’s side and climbed in, locking the doors immediately and breathing a sigh of relief. And then I put on my seatbelt and started backing out of the parking space. I started to drive, relieved that the bikers hadn’t approached me and glancing briefly back at the store, knowing that Laney was watching me. I hoped that Rider hurried up and came to get her.
The sound of motorbikes behind me made me grit my teeth, and I checked my mirrors and watched the two bikers start to follow me. I wasn’t too worried—after all, I was the one in the truck, so surely if they tried anything I could just ram them off the road. And I was armed, thanks to Laney.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” I whispered to myself.
I watched the road carefully and forced myself to keep breathing.
“I’m okay,” I said again.
“You sure about that?” a deep voice replied from behind me, and moments later I felt the barrel of a gun on the back of my head.
I let out a short, sharp scream in surprise, my foot automatically pressing on the accelerator.
“Easy there,” the voice from behind me said and I eased off it. “Just keep on driving and maybe we’ll let you live.”
I glanced in my mirror, seeing a pair of cold, dark eyes staring back, and then I continued to drive, grateful that I had sent my message to Casa and Dom because I didn’t see any way out of this situation.
If I died that day, at least they would know exactly how I felt and how happy they had both made me. How, no matter what happened, it was all worth it.
Chapter thirty-three:
Casa
“All right, brother, this is the place,” Dom said, his voice a deep whisper.
Seven of us were hunkered down in the back of a van, with another van following us and filled with even more brothers—two of them being nomads that I didn’t know too much about. Only that the one and only time I did meet them, I’d quickly realized that they were two of the baddest motherfuckers I’d ever met. Shooter had renamed them the Recyclers after that last encounter, and the name was pretty damn apt after what I saw. Because those brothers took out the trash, recycling those bodies back into the ground.
Dom pulled the van to a stop and turned to look at us crouched in the back. “Looks pretty quiet, Gaug
e. Ain’t nobody around.”
His eyes were hooded by heavy lids and ringed with black. Tiredness was getting to him. The man didn’t look like he’d slept in weeks—wouldn’t surprise me if he hadn’t, either. After the bar fight earlier, I’d realized how close to the edge he had gotten. Couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed sooner, if I was honest with myself. Hopefully—after this shit with the Rev was done and our revenge delivered to those that deserved it—hopefully he could start to move on. Maybe. I had a feeling that if he didn’t move on, he’d sink even further into the black vortex he had created for himself, and he might just not make it back out.
“Gauge?” Shooter asked, shoving extra ammo in his pockets. A cigarette dangled between his lips as he spoke.
“Don’t matter how quiet it is,” Gauge said with a scowl. “The Rev’s in there. Intel said there was a bunker under the warehouse where he sits on his motherfucking throne.”
Shooter stubbed out his cigarette and stared at us, his eyes full of fire. “Let’s do this then,” he said between gritted teeth. “We go in quick and quiet, and then we give them hell. Let’s show ’em who they fucked with.”
“I’m burning the Rev’s fucking throne to the ground,” Axle said, standing up. He grabbed the handle on the van and pushed the door open before jumping out.
I looked at Gauge briefly as the other brothers followed Axle.
“Y’all think he knows the whole throne thing was a euphemism?” I asked, pulling out my gun. “I mean, you’re not seriously telling me the Rev is sitting in there on a fucking throne, right?”
Gauge swatted the back of my head. “Get out of the van, you dumb fuck.”
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