“You need a fuck or something?” she snapped, his grouchiness annoying her. “If you do, get one and stop snapping at us.”
Meggie got to her feet. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Can’t let you do that,” Arrow told her and frowned. “Outlaw want you in here and that’s where you’re staying.”
“Oh fuck.” Zoann popped to her feet. “I’ll talk to that bitch. Be right back, Meggie.”
Reaching the almost deserted main room, Zoann saw April leaning against the bar, arms folded. When she saw Zoann, she started, torn between relief, resentment and something else.
“Say what you have to say and then get the fuck off premises and don’t come back,” Zoann ordered. No use beating around the bush. Fair or not, she didn’t like April and didn’t want to have to look at her again.
The other woman’s nervous gaze darted around. She held her arms open. “Can I give you a hug to show I have no hard feelings?”
“Fuck off. I’m not interested in your games. Val isn’t here, so say—”
April smiled. “I’m not here for Val.”
“Even if you were, he’s no longer available. He’s mine.”
“He always has been yours. He’s loved you for a very long time. He was just too fucked up to realize it.” April lifted onto a stool, peeping behind her shoulder to the monitors that were off. “Do you know the night you saw us?”
“Shut up—”
“He didn’t want me, Zoann.”
“You could’ve fucking fooled me with the way his face was buried in your pussy.”
April shrugged, her mouth turning down before glancing away. “They were fun,” she said softly. “The guys? I was out for a good time and they were happy to give it to me. Val was…he was part of the original four and he was kind of the last one unattached in an official capacity. Unofficially, though, he was yours.”
“Get to your point,” Zoann said crossly. “You said you needed to tell me something about Digger.”
She bowed her head. “He’s with Peyton.”
“Who the fuck is that?”
“Ellen’s sister.”
Zoann didn’t know any of these people. Her patience waning, she snapped, “thanks for telling me. Now, everything’s so clear to me.”
“I…Ellen…Snake killed Ellen the day he buried Chr…Outlaw alive.”
Oh, God. “Wh-what’s Digger doing with her?” she asked, believing it couldn’t be good for April to have made a special trip to tell her. “Has she done him something? How do you know all of this?”
“I’m Peyton’s best friend and she…she…is involved with Adam. She’s been grieving so much. Her world changed when her sister was killed and—”
“Where’s Digger?” Zoann choked out. This was a world of revenge and retribution. Heaven must be littered with the tears of loved ones wishing to be reunited with those snatched too soon from them because, down here, it was all about retaliation. If Digger wasn’t already dead—
“He’d never purposely betray the club. Neither would I. You have to know that. The guys always took care of me.”
“You aren’t making any sense. What—”
The door tore open before April responded and a line of men with guns, badges and vests that had Sheriff’s Dept., ATF and FBI written on them, rushed the place, aiming the weapons at Zoann while pulling April to their side.
“Hands up!” one of the men ordered.
Not hesitating, Zoann threw her hands in the air, helpless as the agents swarmed around her, fanning down the hallways in both directions. The one who’d had the gun pointed at her, jerked her arms behind her back and fastened handcuffs around her while another began searching her.
A moment later, Arrow came marching out, furious and followed by an equally furious Meggie, both in handcuffs. The sound of CJ’s screams filled the air and Zoann realized the reason for Meggie’s anger. Another officer carried him into view.
“Take him. We’ll check this place out, then call child protective services.”
Meggie struggled against the officer’s hold. “No!” she cried.
“Mamamama,” CJ chanted, reaching his arms out to her.
Zoann’s insides froze. Ryan was outside, too. They were going to take him and handcuff Bailey.
God, what was going on? No, she knew what was happening. She just didn’t know why and couldn’t figure it out amidst the chaos of Meggie’s sobs, Arrow’s cursing and law enforcement’s barking orders.
She glanced at April, who’d gone pale, arguing with a man who seemed to be in charge. The other woman gestured wildly between Zoann and Meggie. The man turned away and she grabbed his sleeve but he jerked her off and headed to Zoann, signaling the officer in charge of Meggie over. “Take them in the room with the woman confined to the bed and do a body cavity search on all three of them.”
“A what?” Zoann gasped, the thought of anyone touching her and examining her…No, God. She had to get through this. She was clean, so they’d let her go and she could find her son. She…
“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Meggie snarled, elbowing the officer. “Female officers are supposed to do a strip search on women.”
He tightened his hold on her arms. “Think you know the law, huh, ma’am?” Meggie and Zoann winced at his sneering tone. He eyed her with distaste and shook her. “I don’t have women on this detail, so I’m doing the job. Before you go mouthing off, you remember when you look at me, you’re looking at the law. Here and now? I am the law,” he reiterated.
“I don’t have anything to hide, sir,” Meggie hissed with a sneer of her own. “I didn’t throw anything away when you came in.”
“Yeah. Our informant insists she sold one of you half a kilo of coke.”
“I didn’t!” April called, but then her words fell away as Zoann’s group reached the second hallway where Dinah’s room was located.
Agents were everywhere, in every room, tearing into mattresses, walls, pillows, sofas, rifling through clothes, toiletries, and closets, wrecking everything.
“Meggie?” Dinah called as they entered her room, her eyes wide with fear.
“It’s okay, Momma,” Meggie promised in a trembling voice, wringing her hands after the handcuffs were removed. “Just cooperate for me and this will be over soon.”
“What? This is your husband’s fault. I hate him,” Dinah screeched. “He’s evil. He makes you stay away from me and he makes people dis—”
“Shut up, now,” Meggie ordered, heaving in a shuddering breath and glaring at her mother, “or I swear I’ll let Christopher send you away to whatever mental institution he wants to and I’ll never visit you.”
Dinah covered her face, her shoulders moving with the force of her tears.
“Gloves,” a voice said from the door and tossed a box of surgical gloves next to Dinah on the bed.
“No gloves necessary for whores,” the officer holding onto Zoann said with a humorless laugh.
“Maybe, you should. Never know what diseases these sluts carry.”
Zoann swallowed, willing herself not to throw up and fall apart.
“We can do this the hard way or the easy way,” her captor told her.
He nodded to Meggie, who was pulling off her shirt, the humiliation clear in her eyes, her face red with embarrassment. The officer leered at her bare breasts, his disappointment obvious. He wouldn’t be able to touch her. She wore no bra to search. Lifting her chin, she folded her arms across her breasts.
“Shy, huh?” the man taunted. “I bet. We know all about how you girls fuck each other for the bikers’ amusement.” He pointed toward the door. “Our informant told us.”
“Just get this done, so I can get to my son,” Meggie ordered coldly.
The officer shrugged, then nodded to her shorts. “You drop them or I take them off.”
Her nostrils flaring, Meggie chose the lesser of two evils and removed her shorts and thong herself before bowing her head, unable to meet any of their gazes.
He chuckled. “Not turned on by my foreplay?”
Meggie mumbled a response and flinched as he stepped away. “She’s clean.”
Not waiting for a prompt, Meggie scrambled back into her clothes and pulled her sleeves over her trembling fingers before wrapping her hands around her waist.
“This one is, too,” the man who’d examined Dinah exclaimed.
“Your turn,” the officer told Zoann and Meggie tensed, knowing Zoann’s history.
But she had to get through this to get to her son, so she’d endure it. She took off her shirt and stood still while the man searched her bra.
His thumb grazed her nipple and she shook.
“Oops, sorry,” he said without a shred of remorse. “Pants off and bend over, just like Goldilocks did.”
Stumbling through his orders, Zoann braced herself on the bed, clutching handfuls of Dinah’s comforter and biting her lip until it bled as the cop’s fingers invaded her.
“You’re fine, Zoann,” Meggie crooned in a soft, reedy voice.
Slanting a glance to her sister-in-law, she nodded, never more thankful for Meggie than she was just then. Her look encouraged her, let her know she wasn’t alone. Finally, it ended.
“She’s clean, too,” he said with disgust, kicking the wall. “Fuck.”
Meggie ran to Zoann, who stood in only her bra, and hugged her. “Let’s get you dressed.” She shoved Zoann’s panties and jeans to her and embraced her again. “Don’t ever, ever tell Christopher what happened in here. I know you’ve heard that before and I’m sorry to have to burden you with this again, but trust me. We’ll get through these memories together.”
“All right, you two—”
The man who’d thrown the gloves in stuck his head in the door again. “Clear out. Place is clean. We’ve torn it up. Searched the grounds—”
“Where’s my son?” Zoann demanded.
The man shrugged. “Your boy the kid with the big mouth and black hair?”
“That’s my son,” Meggie hissed, “and I want to be brought to him now.”
“Whatever. That’s the only kid we found.” He crooked his finger at Meggie. “Follow me.”
“C’mon,” Meggie called to Zoann. “Momma, one of us will be back as soon as we can.”
“Get out. I don’t ever want to see you again. I hate you,” Dinah responded.
Battling renewed tears, Meggie grabbed Zoann’s hand and tugged her forward. “Okay. Just remember. I’ll always love you.”
It seems as if the participants of the raid had just cleared out, giving April the go ahead to depart and leaving behind nothing but destruction when Matthew ran in, sawed-off shotgun in hand. Zoann had conducted her own search for her son and couldn’t find him anywhere. Meggie was in her and Christopher’s bedroom with CJ, who was whiny and fussy. Arrow sat with Dinah while Slipper and Cowboy began the task of clean-up.
Zoann barreled into Matthew and threw herself into his arms, ignoring the weapon and holding onto him. “I can’t find Ryan—”
“What the fuck happened?”
“A raid,” she cried, explaining the events—minus the strip search—as best and as fast as she could. If she told Matthew, he’d tell Christopher. “Now, I can’t find Ryan. Where’s my son?”
He sat his shotgun on the bar. “Bailey’s in Johnnie’s cave with Ryan. She heard the commotion and got him there, then called Mort.”
Sagging against him, Zoann laughed. “Remind me to kiss her and hug her.”
“Jesus H. Christ, it’s a fucking mess in here,” he began as the door opened and Christopher stalked in, blood and gore stuck to him.
He gave the destroyed main room a cursory glance. “Where’s Megan?”
“In your room,” she answered carefully, not wanting to give anything away.
“Val,” he bit out. “I moved fuckin’ April. You killed that bitch. You go fuckin’ get rid of her.”
“What?” Zoann said.
“Puff, don’t hate me. I had to. She…It’s bad enough about Moncette and him wanting to frame us, but April came here to plant shit on you. I swear I never hurt a girl before in my life, but she wanted to hurt you.”
She’d succeeded somewhat. They’d had to endure a strip search, have Meggie’s son ripped from her arms, make Zoann fear for her own child, and destroyed the club. All because of April.
Matthew brushed past her as she sat heavily in the chair and dropped her head in her hands.
“S’okay, Bitsy,” Christopher said gruffly. “Val all kinds of fucked up but he loves you. Don’t hold this shit against him.”
Zoann swallowed. “I’m used to it,” she admitted. He crouched down and hugged her. “I love you, Christopher.”
He kissed her cheek. “I love you, too, Zoann. Don’t ever let no motherfucker ever make you think different. Hear me?”
“Y-yes.”
He glanced around the main room again, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Megan called me and told me what the fuck happened.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. You okay after that? I know she kinda on the verge of fucked up, but what about you? You ain’t had no relapse or shit, huh?”
“M-Meggie said she wasn’t going to tell you.”
“Yeah, well. Megan ain’t keepin’ shit from me, so I know every-fuckin-thing.”
“Does Matthew know about it?”
“Fuck, yeah. But I wanna hear the shit from you, babe. So I can know what the fuck I’m dealin’ with. How bad shit is for Megan?”
“Oh, Christopher, it was just awful and they didn’t even use gloves when they searched us,” she said around sniffles.
“No?” He cocked his head. “Whatcha mean? Motherfucker just touched Megan pussy with his bare fingers?”
“Me, too.”
“Hey,” Meggie said from behind Zoann, and Christopher froze. “Wh-what’s up?”
Straightening to his full height, he folded his arms. “Me and Bitsy talkin’ ‘bout what went down.”
Meggie stopped next to the table, the question in her eyes confusing Zoann. “Yeah?” she asked casually. “She tell you the same thing? That the morons ruined the MC and took our son from me, not caring that he was screaming?”
Realizing she’d been had, Zoann jumped to her feet, but Christopher stopped her and pulled her into his arms.
“Me and Bitsy all made up, baby.”
“I knew one day you would be.”
He opened his other arm and Meggie stepped into it. He kissed Zoann’s forehead and the top of Meggie’s head. “I’m a lucky motherfucker. I got two gorgeous fuckin’ girls, who do any-fuckin-thing to protect me.”
“You found Digger?” Meggie asked, her cheek still pressed against Christopher’s chest.
“We takin’ care of him, baby,” he responded. “Don’t fuckin’ worry.”
A voice clearing interrupted any response from Meggie.
“Your man and son here, Bitsy.” Christopher kissed her again and released her. “Take care of my sister, motherfucker.”
“I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep her happy.”
Christopher studied him a little longer, then nodded. “Ain’t no better man for her, brother.”
Matthew blinked, surprise written all over his face. Blood stained his white shirt, but Zoann decided not to ask. “Thanks,” he said quietly. “That means a lot.”
“I’m goin’ love on my girl a little while, make sure she really fuckin’ fine.” He ruffled Ryan’s hair before disappearing with Meggie.
“Puff—”
She covered his mouth with her fingers and then kissed him. “Don’t. I don’t want to know. But I do understand why you did it.”
“Yeah?” he asked, transferring Ryan into her arms. He immediately grabbed her hair, j
ust as CJ did with Meggie all the time.
“Break the rules, suffer the consequences.”
He stared at her as if he couldn’t believe her words. Perhaps, a few weeks ago, she wouldn’t have believed she’d ever get to this point. With her history, she should’ve been leading the way to the police department. But it was her history that stopped her.
She belonged to them. Johnnie, Christopher, and, most importantly, Matthew. Even Big Joe to an extent. Their world was hers, something she could no longer deny. Nor did she want to.
She hugged Matthew, squishing Ryan between them. “I love you, Val.”
He started and she smiled, caressing his jaw and hoping she conveyed her acceptance of him and his lifestyle. “I love you, too, Zoann.”
The End
Misjudged
By Kathryn C. Kelly
Copyright © 2014 by Kathryn Kelly
Excerpt from Misguided Copyright ©2014 by Kathryn Kelly
Excerpt from Inferno Copyright ©2014 by Kathryn Kelly
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Manufactured in the United States of America
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Blurb
Have we ever misjudged a situation? Looked at life one way only to realize it’s something else entirely?
Christopher “Outlaw” Caldwell is at a crossroads. He worships his old lady, Megan. After almost losing her, he’s realizing marriage is harder than he thought, especially when he’s the president of one of the most notorious MCs around.
Megan Caldwell has been immersed in grief over her lost son, blaming herself for his death. She wants another baby and she wants to be the old lady her husband needs her to be.
Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books Page 161
