by Jayne Blue
It was still pitch dark out when I pulled into my driveway. I cut the ignition and sat there for a moment. The house was dark and quiet but I didn’t know if I’d be able to sleep. I checked my phone, but Deacon hadn’t called. I had a glass of wine waiting in the fridge and right then it sounded like heaven.
As I went through the garage, something didn’t seem right. The storm door was shut but the heavy wooden door leading to the basement was wide open. I set my purse on the kitchen counter and started flicking lights on.
I made it as far as the living room before a hand clamped over my mouth and dragged me back into the kitchen. I felt suspended in time as I tried to kick backward. The intruder was huge and strong; the scent of sweat and leather filled my nostrils. I bit down on the fleshy part of his hand. It was like biting steel.
He shoved me into the living room. I stumbled forward like a rag doll, bracing myself against the far wall. He was on me again, pressing his knee between my legs so I couldn’t kick back. He smashed my face against the wall. His breath came hot in my ear.
“Took me ten seconds to break that lock on your back door,” he said, his voice deep and gravelly. I squeezed my eyes shut past the tears that instantly sprang to them.
“I have money in my purse,” I said. “Take it. Then get out.”
He laughed. “Ain’t after money, sweetie. Just want to make sure you hear me loud and clear.”
I strained against him, but it was like trying to move two hundred pounds of granite. “I’m listening,” I gasped. Adrenaline coursed through me, making me light-headed. I could not faint. A million lessons from self-defense classes ran through my head. Don’t leave with him, no matter what.
I drew in a breath, getting ready to scream. He shoved me harder against the wall.
“Not gonna hurt you ... yet,” he said. “You tell your boyfriend I came here, I’ll slit your throat while you sleep. I got to you once. I can do it again. No matter where you are. Got it?”
“Yes!” I hissed. “What the hell do you want?”
“Just a warning,” he said. “You need to be careful the company you keep. Woman like you could get hurt. I’d hate to see that happen. Mrs. Wade.”
He paused before saying my name. My heart raced. Was he here about Sean or Deacon? Before I could ask, he licked my cheek with his rough tongue. My stomach turned.
“We’re watching you. Don’t ever forget that. We can get to you. We’ve always been able to get to you. At work. At home. Anywhere you think you can run. Remember that.”
“What? I don’t know what you even want from me.”
He laughed against my ear. “Just want you to know that. You’re only safe because we let you be. Won’t always.”
“I get it,” I said. Though fear raced through me, some logical part of my brain told me if he were here to really hurt me, he would have done it already.
“Have a nice day,” he said, shoving me hard to the floor. I shielded my eyes, expecting him to grab me again. But my attacker went straight out the front door, slamming it behind him. I scrambled to my feet. The motion light went on. The guy didn’t turn back but I could read the symbol and patch on the back of his leather vest plain as day.
Devils Hawks M.C.
He shook out his dirty blond hair then disappeared into the shadows on the other side of the street.
Chapter 14
Deacon
The day after Father Sanchez’s visit, Bear called a meeting. A hard knot formed in my stomach as I rode up to the clubhouse. I was the last to get there. He’d called it for midnight. A full moon hung low in the sky. Even Rufus seemed to know something was about to change. He usually charged around the side of the building when one of us rode up. Tonight, he sat vigil in front of the door, his crooked ears pricked. Not even Mama Bear came out to greet me. It meant Bear had sent her away.
I cut my engine and parked. Beth was still heavily on my mind. The priest’s words had settled over me, but I could barely process them. Let Beth go. Of course that was the safest thing to do. I’d done it before. She was better off without me. And yet, the thought of leaving her behind tore at me, making it hard to breathe.
I dismounted and headed for the front door. Before I got there, the shadows moved. Axle and Shep came around the other side of the building. Axle stepped under the floodlight, looking like a damn ghost. As club enforcer, the man was paid to look dangerous. In his case, he did more than just look the part. He fixed a hard stare at me and a look passed between him and Shep.
“You’re late,” Axle said, his voice gruff.
“I’m here,” I answered. I’d take that kind of shit from Bear, but not Axle. Not tonight. I tried to walk past them, but Axle reached out and put a hand on the center of my chest, stopping me.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“And I think Bear’s waiting,” I answered. I didn’t like the look in Axle’s eyes.
“Where’ve you been, man?” he asked. Axle’s cheekbone was still swollen from his run-in the other day. Shep looked none the worse for wear, but he kept his arm in a sling beneath his leather cut.
“I’ve had some personal business I needed to take care of,” I said. These men were my brothers, but I still had secrets I needed to keep. They didn’t know about Beth. They didn’t know what I’d done to prove my loyalty to Bear all those years ago. For now, I still felt the fewer people knew about Beth, the better chance I could keep her clear of the danger that might come.
“You’ve been gone a lot lately,” Shep said. “Your timing’s lousy, Deacon.”
I reared back. Where the hell was this coming from? As far as I was concerned, only Bear needed to know where I was. And he did. So why were Shep and Axle busting my balls about it?
“I told you, I’ve had some personal business that couldn’t wait.”
“We’re your business,” Axle said, his eyes flashing. “Now’s not the time for any of us to be going off on any side projects.”
“What the hell, man,” I said. “What I do on my downtime isn’t for you to worry about. Bear knows what’s up. That’s all that matters. Now if it’s all the same to you, I wanna get inside. Last time I checked, Bear was president of this club, not you.”
Axle’s face changed. I knew what threw him. I was the peacemaker. Everyone’s confessor. He hadn’t expected a pushback like this from me. Tough shit. I had my own problems to deal with. For once, Axle and the others would have to look elsewhere for someone to lean on.
“It’s just not a good idea for anybody to go disappearing on their own, Deacon,” Shep said. All of a sudden, he picked up the peacemaker role. “Look what happened to Axle and me and we had each other’s six.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that,” I said. “But for now, I know how to take care of myself. Now, do you have more shit to give me or are we ready to go inside?”
“You ladies done gossiping?” E.Z.’s raspy voice cut through the air. He swung the front door open and glared at Shep. “We’re at the table!”
I didn’t wait for Shep or Axle to answer him. I brushed past E.Z. and headed into the clubhouse wondering what the hell that was all about. Axle held some kind of accusation in his eyes. Under other circumstances, that might have mattered. But the vibe in the room drove out any worry I had about it.
The rest of the crew were assembled at the conference table. Bear had cleared the rest of the clubhouse. Mama was gone, so were the prospects. Whatever happened here tonight, this was members only. I took my seat at the end of the table and waited for Axle and Shep to file in. When they did, Bo and Maddox shifted in their seats. The four of them exchanged a look then settled their stares at me. What the actual hell? There was a meeting about to take place, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was swirling around with those four.
Bear wasted no time on preamble. “We’ve got trouble, boys,” he said. “I was hoping the little dust-up Shep and Axle ran into last week would be just that. But as of now, we’ve lost the confidence of
our main gun supplier up the coast. I had a sit-down this morning and it didn’t go well.”
There were grumblings through the room but this was no surprise. I folded my hands in front of me and rested my elbows on the table.
“So we go over their head,” Zig said. “Let me rattle some cages and get the DiSalvo family involved.” Zig had married into one of the biggest crime families in the country. But even that kind of weight might not be enough to sway things if any more momentum shifted away from us.
No sooner had I thought it before Bear broke even worse news. “We’re losing contracts along the docks,” he said. “Businesses are pulling out. They don’t want anything to do with us when the shit hits the fan. We’re in a worst-case scenario.”
“You happy now?” E.Z. said it under his breath but the entire table heard it. This had been coming on for a very long time. E.Z. had been spoiling for war for months. It was Bear’s steady hand at the helm that had kept us from it. Now I knew more men at this table shared E.Z.’s sentiment.
“What do we know?” Chase asked.
“Our suppliers had a sit-down with A.J. Moss,” Bear said. His face turned ashen. Moss had been voted in as the Hawks’ president a few months ago.
“Well, that sure as shit didn’t take long,” E.Z. said, banging his fist against the table. “How many times did I have to say it? I know you wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but the minute their old prez got forced out, we were set on this path, Bear. You know it and I know it.”
Bear leaned back in his chair. He scratched his chin and let E.Z. rant. Sometimes, it was the best way to deal with him. E.Z. got to his feet and started to pace. “Half the guys under him hate his guts,” E.Z. said. “The only thing they hate more are the men in this room. A.J. needed this war to unite his club and you know it. But no, you tried to work with him!”
Bear was cool. He just stared at E.Z. with his killer eyes. “You’re damn right. And I’d make the same moves again if I had to do it over. The risk was worth taking. It just didn’t fall how we wanted. And here we are.”
“You gonna tell them the rest of it, or should I?” E.Z.’s voice rose even higher. In another minute, Bear might literally smack him down if he didn’t get a hold of himself. Shep looked ready to pop a vein in his neck. If E.Z. made even the slightest move toward Bear, he’d get his throat ripped out.
Bear looked straight at me. “Our contact at the Port Az P.D. called me an hour ago,” he said. “About Sean’s case. They found the shooter.”
I reared back like he’d delivered a blow to my solar plexus. “Why the hell wasn’t I on that call?”
“Because you weren’t here,” Shep answered. “Because lately you’re never here!”
“Enough!” Bear shouted. “We will have unity at this table tonight.” Bear met my eyes. “They’ve arrested Milo Higgins. A waitress at Digby’s fingered him dumping something in the alley the night they found Sean. She stuck her neck out for us on this one. The cops have her in protective custody.”
“Milo Higgins?” I said, not believing what I was hearing. Higgins was a patched-in member of the Laredo Hawks. Why in the hell would they let him get his hands dirty like this?
“They found the murder weapon and Milo’s prints all over it,” Bear said. “It’s messy as hell and I don’t understand it, but there’s no mistake. Sean was a Hawks hit. It means they’re changing the rules.”
E.Z. finally took his seat. I couldn’t breathe. The Hawks were changing the rules. They were going after families. Sure, Sean wasn’t a civilian, but he was still my brother.
“So the path before us is pretty clear,” Bear said. “But you all need to understand what this is going to mean for us if we go forward.”
“If?” This time Axle said it. We were all thinking it.
“It’s different now,” Bear said. “Most of you have families, or old ladies. People you care about. The Hawks know it. They’ve proven they’ll cross that line. Sean Wade was no choir boy, but he’s Deacon’s brother. That shit can’t stand.”
“Vote!” Zig shouted it. It drew a round of knocks across the table. Bear clenched the gavel in his fist. His face was hard as granite as he sat up straight and said the words.
“All right. We vote. We all know what we’re here for. We’re at war.” He didn’t even need to poll the table. A chorus of “Ayes” rose up. His knuckles white, Bear knocked the gavel against the table.
“We take it to them,” E.Z. said, his eyes glinting with bloodlust. I can’t help that it stirred mine too. Sean was my brother. Chances were, he’d have ended up just how he did no matter what. But he was my brother. And I’d already lost too much.
“You need to prepare yourselves,” Bear said. “Those of you with wives and children, Port Az won’t be safe for them for now. Nobody at this table travels alone again unless you clear it with me first. If you don’t have someplace safe to send your women to, send them here. The clubhouse is on lockdown until further notice. Only essential travel. We’re gonna hit ’em back hard. You need to be ready for it. No mistakes.”
Bear’s eyes met mine. “Time to tie up loose ends,” he said. “And everyone get their affairs in order. I don’t want to lose a single person at this table, but you know I can’t promise that. This is going to rip Port Azrael apart.”
Father Sanchez’s exact same words burned through me. He was cautious. He was scared. I wasn’t. My fingers itched to pull the trigger of my Nine. The same thirst for revenge burned through me as the day I found my father’s bullet-riddled body. No matter what, I would protect what was mine. Even if it meant I had to send Beth away again. She’d have no choice. I would not lose her. Not like Sean. Not like my father. If I didn’t walk away from this, she would. So help me God.
War had come to Port Azrael. I knew none of our lives or this club would ever be the same again.
Chapter 15
Beth
“That ought to do you, ma’am.”
I stood with my arms folded against the far wall. The van in my driveway drew a crowd. Paul Sauter owned the only locksmith/home security business in town. He punched buttons on the keypad he’d just installed near the front door then snapped the box closed.
“Hit your code then enter if you want to shut it off. When it goes off, it’ll send a signal to our computers and then trip the 911 system. So if you don’t mean for it to go off, get in here and enter your credentials within sixty seconds.”
“Thanks, Paul,” I said. I signed the work order and let him out. The alarm system beeped once when I shut the door. I opened it again to make sure the thing was armed. As Paul backed his van out of the driveway, the gawkers across the street started to disperse. There was nothing to do now but go to work, such as it was.
Ed had been discharged from the hospital and Darlene was driving him to a rehab facility up the coast. My job was to head back to the courthouse and file motions on all his outstanding hearings. Then I had to try and smooth things over with the clients we had on the front burner. This time, there’d be no help for it. I would have to make arrangements for substitute counsel. Ed’s drinking had finally caught up with him. We were losing business.
I had three missed calls from Deacon and no idea what to do. The asshole who broke into my house made sure I saw his patch and knew exactly where he was from. If he didn’t really want Deacon to know about it, why on earth would he have made a point of all that? Only one thing made any sense. He wanted me to run to Deacon right away. He was trying to play us both. If I told Deacon a Hawk broke into my house and threatened me, Deacon and the club would retaliate.
After smoothing over what I could at the courthouse, I started back for the office. I made it as far as the town square before Sheriff Finch flagged me down.
“Hey, Beckett,” I said, painting on a smile. He had that concerned look in his eye as he crossed the street and came to me.
“Hey, yourself. Haven’t seen you around much. Everything going okay with Ed?”
&
nbsp; I adjusted the strap on my messenger bag. Beckett took me by the arm and led me to one of the park benches near the water fountain at the center of town. So this wasn’t going to just be a casual hello. I chewed my bottom lip and sat down.
“Ed is Ed,” I answered. “He’s getting some help. Hopefully it sticks this time.”
“Well, I sure hope so. Despite all his shortcomings, Ed Albright is one of the good ones.”
I don’t know why, but Beckett’s words brought a lump to my throat. I’d spent so much time covering for and defending Ed, it was nice to have someone else see past all his ... shortcomings ... for a change.
“I’ve been meaning to check in on you,” he said. “And look, I told you last time that I don’t relish stepping into your business, but I’m hoping you know you can come to me if you ever need anything.”
“Beckett, I appreciate it. I really do. And I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t really need you to step into my business. If that changes, I know how to ask for help. Promise.”
I knew he wasn’t satisfied with my answer. I also knew he’d probably already heard I had Paul’s security company at the house this morning. Life in a small town, I guess. Beckett Finch was also one of the good ones. There was no doubt in my mind enough people had seen me with Deacon for it to get back to Beckett. It wasn’t jealousy swirling in his eyes though, it was deep concern.
“Well,” he said, tipping his hat to me. “Then I won’t keep you. Except for one thing. I’ve heard some rumblings that have me worried. It’s the only reason I’m even willing to step over the line with you.”
“What rumblings?” I asked, shielding my eyes from the sun. Beckett had stood up and I looked up at him.
Squinting, he stared at a far-off point before answering. “Look, I don’t know if that guy from the Saints is a close friend of yours or a casual acquaintance. And I know neither is any of my damn business, Beth. But I have it on good authority that things are about to hit the fan with that club and the one over in Laredo. People are going to get hurt. I just want to do everything in my power to make sure it’s none of my people.”
