Wirth (Dirty Aces MC Book 5)

by Lane Hart

  “That’s not my problem,” he replies, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “No, it’s not your problem. It’s mine. I just thought…I thought you were a good guy, one who wouldn’t like having the death of a stupid boy on your conscience.”

  “He apparently didn’t mind having a death on his,” Wirth points out before he lowers his arms and turns to start walking away from me. Without turning around, he calls out, “Get the fuck out of here, Maeve, before I tell everyone what you did!”

  And I know then it’s only a matter of time before I get a call or someone shows up at my door, telling me my brother is dead.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Wirth

  As soon I walk back into the pool hall, I go behind the bar, grab what’s left of the Crown Royal we have on hand, and start chugging.

  “Fighting with your old lady?” Devlin asks, leaning his forearms on the other side of the bar.

  “I don’t have an old lady,” I assure him.

  “That Maeve girl is pretty hot…” he trails off.

  After I swallow a quarter of the bottle, I tell him, “Maeve was a fucking mistake that I’ll regret for the rest of my life.”

  “Damn. That’s harsh, bro,” he says with a chuckle. “What the hell did she do to you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing? She did nothing and you’re over here drowning your liver in whiskey while badmouthing her?”

  “Guess so,” I tell him. “Shouldn’t you be home with your woman before shit goes down tomorrow night?”

  “Yeah, later. She took the Dickhead to some gamblers anonymous meeting. Like that’s going to help him be less of a fucking tool.”

  “What dickhead?” I ask in confusion. “You don’t mean her brother, do you? The one who knowingly pimped her out to a crime boss for a night?”

  “The one and the same,” Devlin says, yanking the bottle from my hand and taking a big gulp before slamming it on the table.

  “I can’t believe you let that shit fly.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” he asks. “Tell Jetta she can’t be around her own brother because he might sell her out again? I can’t make her choose between us. He’s her family and I’m just her fiancé, for now. We can’t pick our blood family, but we have to do our best to stand by them.”

  “I’m glad I don’t have any siblings,” I grumble.

  “Me too,” Devlin says.

  “Maeve’s brother is actually causing some…conflict,” I admit to him without going into details.

  “Oh yeah? You two only fucked once, and the family is already causing problems?” he jokes with a grin.

  “Something like that.”

  “Don’t make her choose between him or you. It won’t end well,” he says.

  “I wasn’t going to,” I huff. “But, ah, she wants me to help him because he’s young and stupid.”

  “How young?” Dev asks.

  “Eighteen.”

  “That is still young,” he agrees. “Dudes don’t mature until we’re, like, twenty-five or thirty.”

  “He’s old enough to vote and serve in the military,” I remark.

  “Yeah, but probably not smart enough to make good decisions yet. If you like her, maybe you should give him a break.”

  “You don’t know what that would mean…” I trail off, downing the rest of the whiskey.

  “Then don’t, I guess, if you never want to see her again.”

  “I don’t want to see her again,” I mutter.

  “Bullshit,” Dev says with a chuckle. “If you didn’t care about her, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. She wouldn’t have you all worked up.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Isn’t it always when it comes to women?” he asks.

  “They’re not worth the fucking trouble.”

  “Eh, I would beg to differ, but unlike you, I’ve got a woman waiting in my bed for me every single night, ready to take on the day with me when the sun comes up, no matter what happens. There’s no amount of trouble I wouldn’t endure for Jetta.”

  “And that’s what they call being pussy whipped,” I say with a roll of my eyes at his sappy ass.

  “That’s what they call loving someone – sticking by them through the good and the bad, even if the bad is their fault.”

  I can’t tell Devlin that it’s not the same for me with Maeve. I barely know the woman. We fucked a few times and that was it. I don’t owe her anything, and I certainly don’t have any loyalty to her brother, who is the MC’s enemy.

  In fact, I think I need to remind myself what he did.

  “I’m going to see Fiasco,” I tell Devlin. “Tell the guys I’ll see them later.”

  “Yeah, okay. Tell him we’re thinking about him.”

  “I will,” I agree before I head out on my bike. Thanks to the anger burning through my veins, I don’t even feel the slightest buzz from the whiskey.

  Maeve

  I call Rian as soon as I sit back down in Crystal’s car.

  “Yeah?” he answers.

  “The MC is planning something. It won’t be long before they come after the Irish.”

  “I’ve already told you that we’ll be ready for them. We’ve got cameras everywhere around this joint.”

  I hear the loud hum of a group of motorcycles right before a group pulls up across the street.

  “The MC is bringing in more guys, ones from out of town,” I tell Rian. “You all will be outnumbered.”

  “Not a problem. In fact, we figured that would happen. We’ve got a shitload of guns and ammo waiting. But it would be better if you could find out exactly when they’ll be here.”

  “I can’t do that! They’re not telling me anything else,” I say, refusing to admit to him that Wirth knows I’m a traitor and also unwilling to help my brother hurt anyone else. “Leave while you still can, before everything goes to hell!”

  “I can’t leave Cormac,” Rian says. “My job is to protect him.”

  “No, his job should be to protect you,” I argue. “You’re supposed to be the one they follow.”

  “Well, that’s not how it works right now, and I’m done talking about this shit with you.”

  “You know as well as I do that Cormac deserves everything that happens to his sorry ass!”

  “Don’t fucking say that!” Rian snaps at me, sounding so defensive and unlike my little brother. “You don’t know him like I do.”

  “No, I know him better. You’re fucking blind and think everyone is as loyal as you are,” I say with a roll of my eyes he can’t see before I end the call.

  My brother is too damn stubborn to admit when he’s wrong or when Cormac is in the wrong, and that error in judgment is probably going to cost him his life.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Wirth

  “Hey, Joanna. Sorry to bother you,” I say when the kind nurse opens her door later that night.

  “No, you’re fine,” she says in a rush as she reaches up to redo her ponytail that’s coming undone, her cheeks a little flushed. “And you came at the perfect time – he’s actually awake and talking!”

  “He is?” I say in surprise.

  “Yeah. Finally, right?” she laughs nervously. “Come on in.”

  “Thanks,” I say as I step into the house and go right to the bedroom.

  When I walk in, Fiasco is sitting up, his torso bare other than the bandage on his side under his ribs. “Oh, it’s just you,” he says before he falls backward on the pillow again.

  “Ah, just me? Thanks for that warm reception,” I joke with a grin, glad to see him not only conscious but more alert than I expected.

  “Sorry, that’s not what I meant,” he says just as Joanna comes in behind me.

  “Would you like something to drink, Wirth? What about you, Phillip?” Joanna asks.

  “Phillip?” I repeat in confusion. “Who the fuck is…oh.”

  All this time I’ve known Fiasco and I had no clue that his real name is
Phillip. Seems odd he has such a normal name for such an unusual man. And really, to the guys in the MC, he’ll always be Fiasco.

  “I would love some water,” Fiasco, aka Phillip, tells Joanna.

  “I’m fine, thanks,” I reply before she hurries out of the room.

  “So, how are you feeling?” I ask him. “You look better.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m good,” he says, watching the door intently before his wide brown eyes come back to me. “Wait. You’re not here to take me home, are you?”

  “Ah, I don’t know. I wasn’t even sure if you would be awake or not. Are you ready to go home?”

  “Fuck no!” he exclaims. Lowering his voice, he says, “Did you see the hot piece of ass waiting on me?”

  “She’s a nurse,” I remind him.

  “She’s a goddamn angel,” he says with a sigh as his head falls back onto the headboard.

  “Fine. But she’s also Nash’s sister, so don’t even think about…well, about the things you normally think!”

  “His sister?” Fiasco says, his jaw dropping. “I didn’t know he had a sister.”

  Whispering, I go over to his side of the bed and tell him, “You still don’t. You can’t say a word! She doesn’t know yet.”

  “Oh. Okay,” he replies just as Joanna returns with a glass of water.

  “Here you go,” she says, coming to the side of the bed so that I have to step back out of the way. Then, she lifts the glass to Fiasco’s lips and holds it while he sips like a helpless child. Jesus Christ, he’s milking this for all it’s worth.

  “I brought you more pain killers too,” Joanna says. Fiasco opens his mouth wide, and she places a pill on his tongue that he swallows with the sip of water she gives, followed by a second. “Now, I’ll let you two have a little privacy.”

  “Thank you, angel,” Fiasco tells her retreating back, probably her ass, before she disappears, watching her like a lovesick puppy. When she’s gone, he says, “I never want to leave here.”

  “Oh, you’re going to leave here, just as soon as Joanna says you’re recovered enough,” I tell him. “She’s been taking time off of work after we busted in on her that night with three shooting victims.”

  “Three?” Fiasco asks. “Who else got shot?”

  “Oh. Ah, Malcolm’s shoulder got grazed, and Hunt, the president of the Knights, took one to the side of his head. Both are fine now.”

  “Do they know who it was? Who did the shooting?” he asks.

  “Did you see anyone?”

  “Ah, not that I remember. I had just finished coming for the second time. You know how it is after a release. I was floating high when I went down like I’d been, well, shot.”

  “We’re pretty sure it was the Irish. They’re not fans of the Knights showing up in the area and were trying to run them off.”

  “That was stupid,” he says. “Like a few bullets would scare us away?”

  “Yeah, stupid,” I agree, scrubbing my palms over my face.

  “So, what’s the plan? Aces going to hit them back?”

  “You know it,” I reply. “Tomorrow morning before the sun comes up, when the bar is empty other than their own people.”

  “Light ‘em up for me,” Fiasco says, clutching his side with a wince.

  “We will,” I promise him. “Take care of yourself.”

  “I’m so fucking tired,” he says. “Which is strange since Joanna said I have been sleeping all day.”

  “You’re recovering from taking two bullets. Your body needs to heal.”

  “Yeah, she said some shit like that too,” Fiasco mutters. “Pretty lucky she was around to help save me. I think I was going toward the light, man,” he says.

  “Well, I’m glad you stayed in the darkness,” I tease him.

  “I’d go to hell and back for Joanna,” he says with a goofy grin.

  “Watch yourself,” I warn him. “If you don’t, Nash might come after you with a gun.”

  “Yeah, okay,” he agrees. “Will you ask her to come back in here on your way out?”

  “Sure thing.”

  If the nurse’s attention is what he needs to recover, then that’s what he should get for now. I just hope he doesn’t get too attached.

  I find Joanna in the kitchen, leaning against the counter drinking what smells like coffee even though it’s late. “He’s asking for you,” I tell her.

  Sitting her mug down on the counter, she says, “I’ll go right on in.”

  “Not sure how you ever get any rest with him demanding care and taking over your bed,” I remark. “Just let us know when you’re ready for him to leave.”

  “Will do,” she says before she disappears into his room.

  I leave and mount my bike, intending to go back home or to the shop to work until I get tired, but instead, I find myself driving to Wilmington.

  It’s stupid, and I don’t even know why I’m going to sit outside Maeve’s apartment.

  Guess I want to torture myself a little more for giving in to her not once but twice.

  The same black sedan is parked there in her apartment complex. It doesn’t take long to see the redhead coming out of her apartment.

  From across the parking lot, I can’t see her face clearly, but I can hear her sobbing. “Please, Rian! Leave with me! Walk away from Cormac before he gets you killed! Please!”

  Maeve drops to her knees on the concrete and it looks like her face is buried in her hands as she cries loudly. But her brother seems unfazed. He just walks away and gets into his car to drive off, ignoring the emotional pleas of his older sister, who is trying her best to save his life.

  It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever witnessed.

  In that moment, I can’t help but feel sorry for her.

  Like Jetta, Maeve loves her brother unconditionally, even though he’s making horrible decisions. Still, no matter how stupid he’s being, there’s nothing he could ever do for her to stop trying to protect him.

  My illogical fucking heart makes a decision that my head isn’t totally on board with. But that doesn’t seem to stop me from climbing off my bike and walking to her.

  Maeve is still on the ground sobbing when I reach her.

  Grabbing her shoulders, I start pulling her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s get you inside,” I tell her as I heft her up over my shoulder. Her body is limp; there’s no fight left in her. I could be anyone picking her up and taking her away and she wouldn’t care. All that matters to her is her brother.

  Inside her apartment, I lock the door behind me and then lower her to the sofa, laying her down on it with her head at one end and her feet at the other. She curls into the fetal position, facing me as she continues to cry.

  Kneeling down in front of her face, I brush her hair back and say, “Listen to me closely, Maeve. I’m only going to say this once.”

  Her glassy eyes finally blink open and look at me a second before she pulls the neck of her shirt up to dry her face. “W-Wirth? What are you doing here?” she asks, voice shaky.

  “Tomorrow morning, four a.m., there won’t be anything left of the Irish pub. Tell your brother. Call and come up with a reason for him to leave and come here. No one else! Do you hear me, Maeve? The rest of those assholes have to pay for what they did.”

  “T-tomorrow? At four a.m.?” she repeats, and I nod. “Oh my god! Thank you!” she exclaims as she throws her arms around my neck and squeezes with all the appreciation in her body. “Thank you,” she repeats.

  When Maeve pulls back, her lips brush against mine for an instant before I push her away and get to my feet.

  “No. That’s not happening again,” I tell her. “In fact, I never want to fucking see you again.”

  I turn around to leave before my dick tries to disagree with my pronouncement.

  “Wirth, wait!” Maeve calls out, and the bastard appendage twitches with interest just hearing her raspy voice say my name.

  “We’re fucking done,” I say without looking at her. “You better
not fuck me over on this shit either.”

  Maeve

  Watching Wirth walk away from me doesn’t hurt as much as seeing Rian do it to me, but I still ache all over.

  He didn’t have to tell me the MC’s plan. In fact, I can’t believe he did. I know how loyal those guys are to each other and have no doubt that Wirth has never done anything to betray his brothers until now.

  If they find out, he could be kicked out or even killed. The man is risking his life to help me, to help my brother, when I don’t deserve it.

  I wish there was some way to thank him, but now he doesn’t want anything to do with me. That’s fair, all things considered. But still, I can’t help but envy and hate the future woman who will come into his life one day.

  Drying my face, I sit up on the sofa and then get to my feet in search of my phone. When I find it in my bedroom on the nightstand charging, I pull it free, then sit down on the edge of the mattress intending to call Rian. First, I try to figure out what to say. Should I wait until three a.m. and make up some excuse for needing him to come over? What if he doesn’t answer the phone or his phone dies? No, I can’t take that chance.

  So even though Wirth isn’t going to be happy, I decide that it’s worth it to not only keep him safe, but all of the guys on the Irish side and the MC side.

  Rian, the asshole, doesn’t answer my call the first time or the second, which only makes me even more confident that I’m doing the right thing.

  Finally, on the third try, he picks up and says, “I’m not changing my mind about this, Maeve! I’m not leaving!”

  “I know you won’t leave! That’s not why I’m calling,” I say in a rush. “Don’t hang up. I have information about when the Dirty Aces are going to retaliate. I’ll give it to you if you promise to do just one thing for me.”

  “And how the hell do you know the specifics?” Rian asks, sounding skeptical. He’s right. It doesn’t matter who I was sleeping with, the men in the MC wouldn’t ever tell me their plans in advance for this very reason – in case I’m a traitor.