"A ride to Chaz's," Repo broke in, voice calm, hands in pockets. "So quit your bitching and get your pretty ass in my car before I throw you in there."
Well then.
Normally, I'd want to gut him for the strong sexist undertone in that statement, but it was better than the pity and he was giving me what I wanted. But still... I couldn't just let it slide now, could I?
"Threaten to throw my ass anywhere again and I will find one of those beloved cars of yours and tear out all her guts, then set the bitch on fire, got it?"
"Low blow," Repo said, holding his gut, but giving me a smile. "I got it, Jstorm. Let's get going. Wolf doesn't like being locked up. We're wasting time standing here..."
"Clucking like a couple hens," I supplied, grabbed my bag, and took off outside.
I had a man to see about a good old fashioned passionate ass-kicking.
Twenty
Janie
Chaz's was a watering hole for the local bikers as evidenced by the half dozen chrome beauties parked out front at any time. The building was low and brick with a simple sign displaying the name. Nothing to write home about.
I parked Repo's obnoxious bright green old school muscle car. He had about six of various kinds of said cars that he was currently working on in the field behind the compound. Once they were finished, he lost interest in them and ended up selling them. Apparently, he made a pretty penny doing so.
"Try to tone down the 'tude in here," Repo said, grabbing the door handle at the same time as me and giving me a look until I let my hand drop and he could pull it open.
"Why? I know Helen Mallick, she's a pretty headstrong woman herself."
"There's headstrong women and there's homicidal, batshit crazy chicks. Today, honey, you're the latter of the two."
"Ew," I said, looking over my shoulder at him. "Don't call me honey, honey."
The inside of Chaz's was more upscale than the outside, thanks to Chaz's son Hunter who no longer worked for his dad. He got out a couple years ago, choosing instead to spend his life doing tattoos and making furniture in his spare time. He married a woman named Fiona who ran a phone sex center in town and they had settled down and started a family.
Everything inside was dark, but in a sophisticated, not seedy way. To the right was a bar and a pool table. To the left and back, were tables and booths.
At one of those tables, as was usual, sat Charlie Mallick and his son Ryan. Now there's something everyone knows about the Mallicks, aside from them being trouble with a capital T, and that was that they were all hot. As in hot. Each and every one of them was a towering wall of muscle and tattoos. Each of them had chiseled, masculine faces and midnight black hair that just begged you to run your fingers through it. On top of that, as if that wasn't enough, they all had these impossibly light, almost see-through blue eyes. That against the dark of their black lashes and brows... yeah... they were all panty-droppers to be sure.
Charlie was a perfect example of what all his sons would one day look like, still tall and strong and proud, his face no less striking with a few creases near his eyes, his hair no less touchable with a trace of gray at his temples.
"Hailstorm and The Henchmen today," Charlie said, tilting his head to the side. "You two make a good couple."
I made a noise of disgust and Repo let out a vehement 'no' at the same time. "Hey," I said, lowering my eyes at him. "That was rude."
"And your ick sound wasn't?" he countered.
"Passion makes for a good relationship," Charlie pressed kindly, but it hadn't escaped my notice that his other sons had moved in from wherever they had been, like they needed to present a strong front against us.
"She's Wolf's," Repo clarified and Charlie's eyes widened.
"Sorry to hear he got himself locked up, though I'm not sorry about why."
"I need to borrow your son for the day," I said, cutting through the crap.
Charlie smiled, waving a hand around him. "Which one?"
I met Charlie's eyes and my tone got heavy. "Eli."
"Aw, girl," Charlie said, shaking his head, "I see where your mind is going. I can't say I want to get one of mine involved though."
"If this was you, Chaz, and this was someone you loved being locked up for killing someone who the law failed to get off the streets for years..."
"I understand how you feel, Janie dear, but you're risking one of mine getting in the same position as your Wolf."
I sighed, looking over at Repo for a second, but seeing the TV flash with breaking news. I felt myself smile. They weren't even waiting for five.
"Turn the volume on," I called to the bartender who immediately complied. I moved to the side, folded my arms against my chest, and watched.
The newscasters delivered the story I spoon fed them with looks of absolute horror and I knew they must have seen the images before they got edited for air. They saw all the gory details that the general public could only imagine. They did exactly as I expected them to, detailing the reign of terror Lex had inflicted on the women of Navesink Bank, covering the ineptitude of the NBPD, then seamlessly launching into the story about Lex's violent murder, at first thought inflicted by a wild animal, and then talking about the man who took him out. There was an image of Wolf on his way to the court house that morning, standing flanked by two officers and a glowing Marco, his honey-eyes looking right at the camera, his chin lifted. There wasn't a repentant bone in his body.
The news story moved to a close, promising an investigation further into the actions of the NBPD and I felt myself smile, wondering how hard Collings was scrambling to get those rape kits over to the lab.
"You've been busy," Shane said, walking in from the front of the bar, leaving me to wonder how long he had been standing there without me noticing. I was losing my touch. Shane was the biggest of the Mallicks, tall and broad, the kind of strong that came from owning a gym and taking liberal use of it. On his tail was his woman, Lea, who was just about the prettiest person I had ever seen, tall and womanly, with a mass of wavy brown hair and a sharp face.
"You don't fuck with what's mine," I said, lifting my chin.
"Hate to get on your bad side," he said, giving me a wink.
"Don't need to worry about getting on her bad side," Lea said, raising a brow at him. "Right now, you're on my bad side and, believe me, that's bad enough for you. So," Lea went on, seamlessly losing her anger as she gave me a small smile then turned to Charlie, "what does she want from us?"
"Eli," Shane supplied, watching me with keen eyes.
"Yes. Eli."
"For Marco," Shane went on, starting to freak me out with how easily he was reading the situation. I never pegged him for the brightest bulb, figuring he was all brawn, no brain. I guess I had to reconsider that stand.
"Yes," I agreed.
Lea pursed her lips for a second, then turned to Charlie in a way that tossed her hair like the chicks in movies that I didn't think happened in real life. "If you don't let her have Eli, I will go and kick that bastard's ass myself."
Something about the way she said it made it sound like she was capable. I made a mental note to look into her when things finally blew over. I knew so little about Lea and how she came to Navesink Bank. All I knew was she used to work for Fiona Mallick's phone sex business and live in the slums, almost across the street from the Third Street gang's headquarters. Next thing anyone knew, she and Shane were a thing, fighting and fucking and creating relationship goals for everyone they crossed paths with.
But I could tell by the confident way she squared off with the Mallicks and the threatening way she delivered her words, that she had a past of her own. She was, in some shape or form, a badass bitch just like me and Summer and Lo and Alex.
"Baby..." Shane tried, his tone both sweet and sexy at once.
Seemingly completely unaffected though even I was feeling the effects a little, Lea rolled her eyes. "Do you really think you can 'baby' me out of this? Have
we met? Hi, I'm Lea and I share your bed and your stupid warehouse apartment, and I put up with you never putting your shoes in the fucking closet. And I never, as in ever, bend just because you turn on the charm. That was for your little chippies before me. That shit has never worked on me."
"And don't I know it," Shane said, sighing dramatically, but he was smiling.
"For the love of God, I'll do it," Eli interrupted for the first time. All eyes swiveled in his direction. He was a little smaller than his brothers, just as tall, but not quite as muscular. He was... scrappy. That would be how Lo would describe him. Smaller and fast, wiry, good in a fight because he could easily out maneuver a bigger guy. "Don't give me that look," Eli said to his father, shaking his head. "We have two women threatening to start their own war and a good man going to jail for killing someone one of us should have taken out five years ago. Time to get involved, Pops, whatever the risks."
Charlie sighed, shaking his head. "Gotta do what you gotta do, E. But be smart."
With that, I got my muscle.
As soon as it was dark, it would be time to go get my man.
At this point, I know I wasn't winning any favors with people. I was planning on having one of the very few not-crooked cop's ass kicked. It wasn't that I had no respect for law enforcement. I did, though I found their rampant mistakes and conclusion-jumping absolutely despicable and the amount of innocent men in jail was a statistic I could lay up at night being angry over. But did I like that they, once in a blue moon, dragged in a wife beater and threw the book at them? Sure. Did I like that they showed up at a car wreck and tried to save lives before EMS showed up? Of course.
But, come on, their investigative skills were downright elementary and their holier than thou bullshit was grating to anyone with two braincells to rub together.
Marco couldn't be swayed to accept a bribe or to leave the organizations to handle their business like they had always done. No one had investigated when The Henchmen, Richard Lyon, and Hailstorm took out V the year before. Because anyone with working gray matter realized that we did the world a good deed, taking a heartless skin trader out of the game. Whereas Collings and other members of the force managed to see a lot of gray in life, Marco saw only black and white, only good and bad.
And, well, if it wasn't me and Eli doing it, it would be someone else introducing him to the shades of gray. If he was particularly unlucky, it wouldn't be one of the friendleys. It would be the Italians or the Russians. It would be the Third Street guys. It would be one of the syndicates that didn't just want to scare him, but wanted to annihilate the threat.
Better he learn from me how things went in Navesink Bank than pay for that knowledge with his life.
So that put us in the alley next to Marco's too ritzy apartment in a too nice part of town for a cop salary. Eli gave me a look before he slipped into his gloves and mask. I tied my hair back and brought up my hood, but didn't cover my face. I was going to be standing off in the distance, keeping an eye on things, intervening only if I needed to.
"He drives a Mercedes?" Eli asked quietly as Marco pulled it into his space.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself, but out loud.
"Want to fall back till you know?" Eli asked, sounding deflated at the idea.
He hated the violence, but he also craved it. His body was humming with it. If I ventured a guess, afterward, he would be in need of a hard fuck to get the feelings out of his system. Calling him off would be like leaving him with blue balls.
"No. See what he says. Maybe he will give us something to go on. Who knows?"
Eli waited, then in a movement that was so fast I felt vertigo wash over me, he was across the alley and on Marco.
It wasn't what I expected.
It wasn't what Eli expected either.
Marco didn't fight with the predictability of a cop, practiced moves from endless hours of grappling. Marco fought like he was trained on the streets, not at the academy. I felt my heart start to slam beneath my ribcage, frantic as a hummingbird's wings.
Something was off, seriously off.
Fuck.
I didn't vet him.
I just figured he was a stupid, cocky rookie.
And, well, that made me a stupid, cocky, rookie.
I started walking into the alley, wincing when Eli took a hook to the jaw. But his blood lust was thick and he bent at the waist, running into Marco's center like a human battering ram, slamming him up against the wall. Marco's eyes snapped up and I got a good look at him. How had I missed the hollowness in his eyes before?
I watched as Eli finally let go of whatever control he was holding on to. One minute, Marco was still up and fighting, looking almost cocky. The next, he was on the ground and unconscious, Eli still pounding.
"Enough," I said, grabbing his arm before it landed another fist. "I said enough!" I yelled when he didn't immediately back off.
His head swiveled, eyes finding me, and exhaled a ragged breath. "Right." He climbed off of Marco's prone body, cracking his neck. "Was it just me or was something off there?"
"I need to find out who the fuck he is, because he's not just the squeaky clean cop I was thinking."
"Fights like a street kid," Eli said, reaching up to rub his jaw through his mask. We walked back out of the alley, Eli keeping his head ducked until we passed the last of the cameras, when he ripped off the mask and looked over at me. "Think this is a good or bad thing for you?"
I shrugged. "Why is he so gung-ho to take down Wolf if he's crooked or connected in some way? Is he trying to take out possible competition? If so, that's definitely a bad thing. Especially if whoever he works for is after The Henchmen in particular. That means they want the gun trade. The last thing this area needs is another war over the gun trade. Last time it was disastrous," I said, thinking of Reign and Cash's dad and half of the other members getting killed or locked away. In the end, they managed to push out the competition, but I wasn't sure if the club had ever recovered enough to take on a new threat. They had systematically been vetting and adding new members over the years, but their numbers were still depleted, Reign being much more particular in the kinds of members he would accept.
"He saw your face," Eli reminded me as we closed in on his car, parked several blocks away. Mine was a block down a side street.
"Yeah."
"If he's connected..."
"Yeah," I agreed. I never much worried about being seen by the bad guys. It was kind of hard to be afraid of anything when you lived at Hailstorm with dozens of other people ready to defend you at anytime. "I'm staying at the compound until this blows over," I informed him.
"Smart move. You need anything else..." he extended and I gave him a tight smile.
"I appreciate it, Eli."
With that, I turned and jogged off down the side street, suddenly a little more paranoid than I liked to admit. I threw myself into my car and drove onto the main street, seeing that Eli had waited to leave until he was sure I was safe.
I was surrounded by good men, I realized with a warm feeling in my chest.
The compound was buzzing when I returned, loud music blaring, alcohol flowing, club whores on full display. I felt my lips curl up slightly, wondering how many of them Wolf had slept with in the past before I reminded myself that that was ridiculous. He was a man. He had a sexual history. I couldn't be pissed about that.
"It takes some getting used to," a familiar female voice said beside me as I realized I had been standing there staring.
I turned, taking in the long, wavy red hair, the delicate face, the big gray eyes. The last time I had seen her, I had asked her to hold a dinner party and invite Cash, Wolf, Lo, and her father. I didn't tell her why, just that it would help keep them safe. In a way. She fed them as I set bombs at all their headquarters.
Summer.
She was Reign's woman.
"What does?" I asked.
"The women mostly. I mean the mus
ic and the drinking can get old, but the women... they can eat at you. Doesn't take a genius to know our men have slept with most of them," she said, her lip curling much the same way mine had. As she said that, my eyes landed on one of the women in particular who whipped off her top while she sat on the lap of one of the men. Yeah she wasn't wearing a bra. And no one else seemed the least bit phased. "Reign is faithful. Cash is too," she added, nodding to where the two in question were sitting at the bar, chatting with a few of the older members of the club. "But you get it, it never sits right that they are around all this."
"That why you're here?"
"No, I usually avoid coming when the women are here. I come earlier in the day and leave before they call them in. But Reign is worried about Wolf so I thought I should be around." While she was speaking, her eyes were on Reign, looking soft and warm. As if sensing her, he looked over and gave her a small smile before turning back to his men. "Come on," Summer said, tugging the sleeve of my shirt. "I'll take you to Wolf's room. I put all your stuff up there when they started showing up," she waved a hand to the place as a whole. "They're nice guys and all but sometimes they forget that they can't rest an open beer on a laptop."
She led me up a hallway past a dozen or so doors, some open, some closed with unmistakable noises coming from behind them. I was hit with a stab of longing so strong it was a wonder my legs could keep me moving forward. Summer fished a key out of her pocket and unlocked the door. "This is yours now," she said, handing it to me as we went inside.
The room wasn't huge and it was dominated by another giant bed like at the cabin. This one had a black and gray plaid comforter and I felt the tears sting my eyes at seeing it. The room smelled like him too. I had been so busy working on trying to get him free that I hadn't given myself much time to think about him, miss him. It all hit me right then, standing in the doorway, making my heart hurt and the air hard to breathe.
"I washed the bedding," Summer supplied, snapping me out of my sadness. "When Reign first stuck me in his room, he didn't think twice about sleeping on the skeezy sheets. Figured I'd save you from having to strip the bed and bear the basement."
Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3) Page 18
