“Thanks, Sweetheart.”
“Back to my brother, I know Aleck didn't want a relationship and had a valid reason, my brother is just a very stubborn loner.”
“Actually, your brother has a very good reason not to want a relationship.”
“How do you know?” All three of them look at me intently.
“As I said, he used to date my sister. We go way back.”
“I don't know you but I feel like there is something about you, something he needs. You seem to be the one who could soothe him and piece his heart back together. Whatever it is, if you hurt him, you’ll have to go through me. I don’t know what happened to him years ago, but I have a feeling you are a part of the reason he's been miserable for the past twelve years. I want my brother happy.”
“Trust me, we want the same thing. I'd never hurt Gabe, at least not on purpose.”
“Alright. I’ll give you a chance, I just hope he’s not the one breaking your heart. You seem pretty invested in this relationship already.”
“You have no idea how deep I am.” I sigh and we order our food and drinks when the waitress comes over.
I didn’t expect lunch to go this way. I mean, I like that Gabe’s little sister is protecting him and wants the best for him, but being told that I’m the one responsible for her brother being miserable for all those years is horrible.
Nicole slowly warmed up to me and any tension that was there left. I was glad that it went well, I didn’t want lunch to be awkward because of me. This is why, no matter where I go, I never make friends, whenever someone learns of my past I’m judged. Despite her warming up to me I can still feel her judgement, even more so now that she knows what happened between me and Gabe, and why we already knew each other.
CHAPTER 8
Gabe
Staying away from Viv has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long time.
I knew going to her was a bad idea. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay away once we kissed and fucked. It puts the both of us in danger, the Kings are already after me but when they find out she’s back, they will want her dead. That’s not something I’m willing to risk. I need to stay as far away from her as possible, all the while making sure she’s safe.
Ant and Aleck are back from their weekend away with their women. The three of us have a meeting and then another one later with Ray, the Bastards’ president, we don’t usually have private meetings without out the rest of the club but some things needs to be discussed in private considering all the attacks are due to personal vendettas against us, not the club.
I’m already sitting in the Chapel, waiting for these two fuckers to come back down from their little clouds. I’ve never been jealous, so to speak, of what they have with their women, but now that I’ve seen and had a taste of Viv, I want that but I don’t know how to go about it. There’s so much more at stake than just us being together. It could bring down the entire club, and I’m not sure we’d be able to recover from the shit storm that would come out of this.
“What’s up, Brother?” Ant greets me, pulling my thoughts.
“Just thinking about you two fuck faces.” I chuckle.
“Jealous?” Aleck smirks.
“Of you?” I scoff. “Not even one bit.” I hug my brothers and we sit at the table.
“A little birdie just texted me that you and Viv spent some quality time together this weekend.” Ant grins wide, proud of himself and Ayd for keeping him in the loop. I swear he’s worse than a woman.
“Fucking Ayd!” I glare at him and chuckle. “Yeah, what can I say? She couldn’t resist me.” I smirk.
“Or she was desperate? I’m leaning towards that. I mean Bennett, Ryan and Callum weren’t around or I’m sure she’d have picked one of them…or all three.” Aleck smirks and I throw my cigarette pack at his head, hitting him between the eyes.
“Oi! What was that for?” He rubs his forehead.
“For mocking me? Disrespecting Viv? Being a total jerk. Take your pick.” I shrug.
“Fucker.” He glares at me.
“Right back at you, Brother.” I chuckle and play with my lighter. I can’t believe I still have this. It was my twenty first birthday present from Viv, I always keep it with me.
“Will you two stop bickering? You’re worse than little kids.” Ant shakes his head.
Aleck goes to say something but stops himself. Smart decision.
“We’re just waiting for Sanders, he called me on our way here, something else happened to his wife. I don’t know what but he wanted to meet up.”
“Fuck, not the Kings again?” I ask him, hoping he’ll say it’s someone else but I already know the answer.
“Yeah, them again. We all thought they would relent after what happened to Brian and the other rat, but obviously they were hoping we’d forget about them so they could strike again.” Ant sighs.
There’s a brief knock at the door and it opens straight away, Sanders pokes in his head. “Anything illegal going on I shouldn’t witness?”
Ant chuckles. “No, come in.”
“Thanks.” He sighs and walks in, sitting next to Aleck.
“What happened?” I asked, not wasting any time.
“Well, after what happened to Line, she moved back in with her parents just in case. Things have been quite rocky between us for the past couple of months because of all the problems with the club. She doesn’t like me being linked to you, she says someday something bad will happen and it’ll be too late to back away from you guys. Anyway, for a while she was okay at her folks. She fell into a routine and things started to get better, no more notes, no more people spying on her until two weeks ago. I just found out this morning but apparently, someone has been following her and the notes have started again, worse than before. Ranging from you’re going to die you fucking slut to, you’re next and there’s nothing your little detective husband can do about it. He can order all the protection he wants for you, we’ll strike when he least expects it. She is fucking terrified for her life and for her folks. She doesn’t feel safe anywhere and doesn’t know what to do, neither do I. Since I didn’t report the first few notes she got because they were clearly aimed at me for helping the club and the precinct couldn’t exactly know how much help I’ve provided you lot. We don’t have enough evidence so she can’t go into witness protection. I know we know who is after her, me, us, but as far as the law is concerned there is no proof. I need your help. It might not be the smartest idea to come to you because it is my helping you that has brought this on but I’m at loss as to what to do.” He sighs, defeated. I can’t believe they are targeting Sanders’ wife.
“Fuck. Look, I know hanging out and helping us is bad for you, both for your career and personal life, but we’ll do all we can to protect her and make sure no one comes after her. You’re not going to like what we will have to do to keep her safe, but we don’t have much choice. They are smart, they won’t fall for our games, but we have enough to take them down our way.” Ant tries to reassure Sanders.
“At this point, I don’t give a fuck how they are taken down. I want them all to pay for what they’ve done to all of us. I’m sure they are somehow behind what happened to Ayden.”
“Blades used to be in the Kings before he joined the Bastards.” I can’t help the rage that’s building up in me.
“How do you know?” Sanders asks looking into my eyes.
“He’s one of the guys responsible for the living hell I’ve been in for years.” I growl.
“Fuck!” All three men exclaim at the same time.
“You could say that.” I rub my face, being brought back to that night all over again. “We need to take them out, they’ve been fucking with us for long enough. I know the long standing war that’s been going on between us and the Kings is a part of our history but this has to stop. Not only just for our sakes but for our women as well, we can’t keep putting them at risk because of what we do.”
“I agree. They need to be dealt with once and
for all. Once we start though, it’s going to get really bloody. We’re all going to be risking our lives, so we need to ask everyone if they are in or not, give them a choice but we need as many men as possible to do this. The Kings vastly outnumber us but Ray is coming over later to discuss what we’re going to do and I’ll ask him to do a vote to find out who’s in from the Bastards and we’ll go from there,” Ant says.
“You guys need to act and fast.” Sanders says, looking at each one of us in turn. “We suspect the Kings have a huge drug deal in three days. It’s your chance to take down a good chunk of their club. Here’s the address of the exchange.” He slips a piece paper over to Ant.
“How do you know this is true and not some kind of trap?” Ant looks between the paper and Sanders.
“Because one of our cops infiltrated their club a couple of months ago, he’s been keeping tabs on them and reporting back to us. He managed to get himself in after the notes to my wife started, I trust him and sent him there myself. I hope it wasn’t a huge fucking mistake, he’s been living, breathing, eating and fucking like them. He’s going insane, what he’s had to witness is unbearable; it goes deeper and darker than what you could ever imagine.”
“I have a pretty good idea of what they’re capable of. I need you to do me a favor.” I look at him intensely.
“Name it.” He returns my glare and gives me a single nod.
“Tell your guy that if he ever hears anything about a girl named Vivian, to let you know exactly what was said. I need to know if they’re after her or not.”
“You’ve got it, Gabe.” I nod at him.
“We’ll be there before the exchange. Do you know with whom they are doing the exchange?”
“The Fallen Angels. From what I gathered, the Kings have been trying to screw them over for with their last couple of deals and are holding two of the Angels’ women captive. I don’t know what they are playing at but they need to be stopped.”
“Alright, we’ll talk with Ray and see what can be done. I know he’s had a good relationship with the Angels in the past so we can try and get them on board as well. Everybody wants the Kings gone so it shouldn’t be hard to find clubs to help take them down.”
“Good. I want in too.”
“What?” All three of us look at Sanders, stunned.
“They are targeting my wife and I want in.” I’ve never seen him this serious.
Ant looks at him, gauging to see if he really wants in. “If you’re sure of what you’re doi-”
“Yes, I’m sure. If I don’t then I’m waiting, I’m doing nothing and driving myself insane when I can do something useful and help. Might not be the best thing for my career, but at this point, that’s the least of my worries.”
“Alright. You’re in. You can stay for the meeting with Ray, friendly warning though, he hates cops.” Ant smirks and we all laugh.
“I figured that much. Surprised none of you jumped my ass.”
“We need you and you need us. Call it a temporary truce, well an ongoing truce.” Ant chuckles.
We keep talking for a while about random things, trying to keep ourselves calm. We only have three days to plan the Kings’ demise, we need to be incredibly smart and plan every single detail, the last thing we need is for this to backfire on us.
Ant managed to get a hold of Ray before the meeting to ask him about the Angels. Hopefully he’ll be able to work something out with them without blowing the cops’ cover, if that happened it would bring everything crashing down before we even get started.
Two hours later, Ray shows up with a guy I’ve never seen who’s wearing a different cut.
“Ray.” Ant greets him.
“Ant. This is Ric, the president of the Fallen Angels. He wanted to listen to what you had to say about what was going to go down. Who’s he?” He nods in the direction of Sanders.
“Cop that’s on our side. Kings have been threatening his wife for a while now, he wants in.”
“Are you sure about what you’re getting yourself into? This is not some cat and mouse chase, this is fucking serious.” Ray asks Sanders.
“I’ve never been more serious in my life. I don’t know how things are going to go down, but if it’s my time to go, I want it to be when I’m fighting against the fucking assholes who have been threatening my wife and made our lives a living hell. Like it or not, I’m in.” We’re all surprised to see Sanders stand up to Ray and even more so when Ray chuckles.
“Fair enough. You’ve got balls for a cop. I’m surprised. As long as you’re fully aware of what you’re getting into, then be my guest and join us. Just don’t hold what you’ll hear or see against us.”
“I won’t. I’m grateful enough that you are all helping me out, even if it’s more to help your own clubs, but still, I appreciate it nonetheless.”
“Good, now that it’s out of the way, let’s discuss this plan.” Ric and Ray sit at the table, gauging everyone.
“Sanders.” Ant says and nods at him.
“The Fallen Angels have a planned drug deal going on with the Kings in three days, right?” Ric nods once, confused. “I can’t tell you how I know but I do, and I know they are going to try to screw you over again. They want your territory so they can expand their club even more and make themselves unstoppable. They are planning to arrive late and do a drive by, they figured there wouldn’t be a lot of you going to such a minor exchange so a drive by would be the most effective way to take you out without taking any hits themselves.”
“Motherfuckers!” Ric growls. “How do we take them down? I knew they were trying to screw us over, I just didn’t know how.”
“Since they are planning on arriving late, I’d suggest we all go there and have them surrounded. The area is in the middle of nowhere. We can hide in the woods nearby and wait for them just like we did last year, with the three clubs we’ll definitely outnumber them. Sanders, try to find out how many there will be so we can make sure we have enough of us to take them down.” Aleck suggests.
“I’ll do that. Sounds like a good plan. We’ll need to act fast if they are planning on doing a drive by.”
“We’ll manage. Don’t you worry about us, we’ve been doing this for years.” Ray smirks.
“Don’t tempt me to arrest you,” Sanders says seriously.
“Fair enough. A few members of each club should go, at least we’ll be able to trust each other if we really work together.”
“It’s not like we have much choice. We all want the same thing, the Kings gone and for that, we have to work together.”
“We will, don’t worry, we want them dead and our women back as soon as possible,” Ric says looking defeated.
“How long have they had them for?” I ask knowing all too well what he’s going through.
“Three weeks now. They won’t negotiate. We’ll get them back when all our deals with them are done. It’s their way to make sure we don’t screw them over, but since you said they were going to screw us over, I’m not sure they’re even still alive.” He sighs.
“I don’t know how, but we’ll find out if they are still alive. I promise.” I tell him, meaning every single word. He nods once.
We plan for hours, trying to cover every possible outcome. We know they don’t have many alliances so that’s in our favor, but it’s hard trying to figure out who would stand with them and who would be against them. It’s even tougher trying to figure out which clubs would do as ordered to save themselves from the Kings’ wrath and retaliation.
******
My phone rings, finally! Annie was supposed to call me two hours ago but I haven’t heard from her. I pick up, both happy to hear her voice and dreading what kind of bad news she’s going to tell me.
“Hey Darling.”
“Sorry, Gabriel. Not your sweet little girlfriend. You didn’t think we would never find out now, did you?” Jared chuckles darkly.
“Motherfucker! Where is she?” I scream into the phone.
“Easy.” He chu
ckles. “She’s right here with us, at the warehouse. Come alone if you want to see her alive. You’ve got half an hour or she’s dead.” He hangs up and I’m left speechless. It’s all my fucking fault! If I had been able to stay away from her as Cabe suggested, none of this would be happening. I scream out my frustration.
I’m shaking, lost, numb and fucking raging. I can’t call anyone from the club, they’ll show up and she’ll be killed. For all I know, she could be dead already but I’m not willing to risk anything happening to her. I just hope it’s not too late.
I drive to their warehouse, barely making it there within thirty minutes.
“Two more minutes and she’d be dead. You’re a lucky man. Go in.” He snarls and points a gun at me, waving me into the warehouse. I don’t have much choice but to walk in front of him with a gun to my back. I freeze in the entrance. I see Annie tied by her wrist to one of the bars going across the ceiling of the warehouse.
“Annie.” I whisper.
“Sweet little Annie. She’s a real stunner just like Vivian.” He smirks and points to Blades and the other guy who is holding on to Vivian. My heart crashes. Seeing both of them being held captive is making me sick.
“Please don’t hurt them,” I beg him.
“Aww, them? You love both of them don’t you?” He laughs. “Hey, I’m not judging you. I wouldn’t be against some twin action, but we don’t have time for that. It’s all about little Annie tonight. See, I told you to stay away from them that night, to mind your own business, that you’d regret interfering. I always keep my promises. It’s funny, I would’ve just scared you and roughed you up a little, but then you had to go and join a MC and not just any MC but our greatest rival. Big. Fucking. Mistake there, Gabe. I mean, it’s one thing to interfere in something that doesn’t concern you, but join a fucking MC, for what? Some protection? Look where it got you.” He forces me onto a chair and straps me in. I’m too stunned to fight back, another mistake. “Know what your second mistake was?”
“Shut the fuck up!” I yell at him and he punches me.
“Do. Not. Push. Me. I could end all three of you in a blink of an eye without a second thought. Your second mistake was to start dating Annie and think we would never find out. I mean, do you really think we were letting her roam free without keeping an eye on her? Especially after the night you decided to play knight in shining armor? You’re funny, Gabe. But you’re going to regret it, all of it,
Healing Gabe (Last Hangman MC Book 3) Page 7
