“Including me, five… four,” he said as he looked over at his dead comrade.
Jase removed the weapons from both the dead and wounded men and passed them out. He put a big boot on the man’s bleeding leg and leaned until the man screamed like he was on fire. The sound echoed out into the concrete hallways. Will and Ghost flanked Jase with their guns aiming towards the door.
The hollow sound of running footsteps approached. Someone in the hall yelled an unfamiliar name. Jase pressed on the man’s leg again and he cried out. The pain was too much for him to make any coherent word of warning; he could only sit helplessly and become the perfect bait.
Two more men rushed down the hallway and into the room to answer his cries. Ghost and Will opened fire on them before they had any chance to comprehend what had happened. Their bodies twisted and contorted and the collapsed in bloody heaps. Now the Black Dogs couldn’t be outgunned.
“Come with me,” said Jase to Will. “Ghost, stay here with our chum.” Ghost moved over to the wounded man with a nod and a smile.
Jase tore down the hallway with Will at his back, passing storage rooms that were dark and doorless, some with strong foul smells. As the end of the hall approached, he could see a big red metal door closed on the last room on the left, and knew immediately that Maggie was behind it.
Will posted up on the other side of the doorframe and waited for Jase’s signal. The door wasn’t bolted, but was open just a sliver of an inch, and inside Jase could hear a man talking lowly. He caught Will’s eye, gave him a nod, and kicked the door open with his full strength.
Maggie stood before him, crying but alive. From her wrists dangled the remnants of restraints, cut off ragged in a rush from the metal chair in the back of the room. A big hand covered her mouth, while the other held a gun against her head. Behind her, a skinny man with a long brown ponytail glared over her at Jase and Will.
“Put ‘em down, boys,” he said.
“You must be Evan,” said Jase. He kept his pistol aimed at Evan’s face.
“And you must be the new guy I’ve heard so much about. I’m sorry she dragged you into this, but I understand. She is pretty irresistible,” said Evan as he nuzzled against her. Maggie’s face went red and twisted in disgust, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it.
Rage flared through Jase’s veins. “You’re not getting out of here alive.”
“Then neither is Maggie,” said Evan. “I know the money is lost, I don’t give a fuck about that. She was never going back to her daddy, anyway. The money was just to pay those thugs.” He pressed his face against Maggie’s hair again. “I came here for her, and I’m going to leave here with her, or else you can just bury us together. Give us matching deathbeds.”
Maggie’s crying intensified. Jase felt his heart wrenching, mixing with his anger into some vile, righteous poison that burned through him. He didn’t have a clean enough shot.
“Put them down or I shoot her, and then stand here with a grin while you shoot me,” said Evan.
Jase couldn’t bring himself to lower his gun until he felt Will’s hand on his arm with gentle pressure. Both of them dropped their guns to the ground.
“Good. We’ll be leaving now, my lady and I,” said Evan. He kissed Maggie’s curls and made Jase sick.
Jase’s mind raced trying to think of a plan. He looked Maggie in the eyes and could feel her fear. He saw her gaze flicker towards Evan’s hand as he moved the gun away from her head to point towards Jase and Will as he attempted to switch places with them and access the door.
“Steady,” said Evan to them both as they danced in a delicate circle around the loaded magnum.
Jase looked back at Maggie’s eyes and saw something suddenly different there. He’d seen that look before. What was she—?
Maggie’s arm raised and her elbow reared back hard into Evan’s solar plexus. He gasped for sudden breath and bent in half. The hand on Maggie’s mouth fell away, and magnum in the other went slack. With swiftness she hadn’t shown drunk on the ridge, Maggie stepped outside of Evan’s stance and flipped him over her leg in a split second. He landed hard on the concrete floor. The magnum smacked against the wall next to the door mid-flip.
Maggie barely had time to get out of the way before Jase barreled towards Evan, who was shocked but already scrambling for a weapon. Will stomped a hard boot on Evan’s outstretched wrist, and he howled loudly against the concrete floor.
Will secured the magnum while Jase wrestled Evan onto his back, landing punch after bloody punch into Evan’s face and kidneys until he stopped resisting Jase and only writhed in pain. Will handed Jase the heavy silver revolver.
Jase stood over Evan and cocked the gun. He fired off a single shot into Evan’s chest. Every part of Evan fell limp like a dropped stage curtain. Jase let the gun drop heavy onto the body.
“Jase…”
He whirled at the sound of Maggie’s voice. Tired and scared, shaking with tears, this was a version of her he had never seen before, and never wanted to see again. She stood tensely against the concrete wall, her eyes flicking from him to the body and back.
Suddenly every part of him ached. He said her name, but it barely came out a whisper against his tight breath. She rushed to his open arms and he felt as though he could collapse on top of her and still not be close enough. She cried into his chest and he wrapped her completely in his arms.
Everything else fell away from Jase’s mind in that moment. He laid his head on top of her hair and inhaled her scent. He soaked in every touch. He knew his life would be divided, now; the time before this moment, and the time after.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her hair. “I failed you the second they laid hands on you.”
Maggie shook her head against his chest. She looked up at him with steel in her wet eyes. “You saved me. You saved me, Jase. You always have.”
“I always will,” he said, pressing his forehead against hers. “I promise.”
“I know. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Eyes closed, he felt a gentle tapping on his shoulder. “This is beautiful. But we’re not secure here,” whispered Will. “The drop men could be back any minute.”
Jase opened his eyes. Maggie smiled up at him, though it was just a shade of its usual brightness. He kissed her forehead. “Don’t leave my side.”
“I won’t,” she said and shook her head.
Maggie on one hand and his gun on the other, Jase led them back down the hall with Will bringing up the back. They found Ghost lazily guarding the wounded man, who cried to himself.
“Do I get to kill him now?” said Ghost. The man erupted into sobs and inaudible begging.
“He can’t follow us,” said Will. “Let the other Crosses tear him to pieces when they find out he helped a plot against the Black Dogs president.”
Ghost seemed a little disappointed, but he only gave the man a kick as he passed and followed the group out. Halfway through the factory floor, they heard the rumble of bikes and trucks pulling up outside. The group stopped on instinct and listened.
“That’s a lot of vehicles,” said Will. “Not just the van from the drop.”
“Could be the backup from the Crosses,” said Ghost. “Let me scope it out.” He pushed ahead of the group on the narrow walkway and lifted his weapon as he swiftly approached the factory door. After a few tense moments, he yelled back, “All clear!” His voice carried across the room.
Henry, Beck, and the sheriff waited for them, along with the secondary riders from the MC outsourced to the police. Everyone was putting away their guns when Jase emerged with Maggie clinging to his side. Henry called out her name and she unlatched from Jase to run to his arms for an embrace. Henry held her tight and spoke to her too quietly for Jase to hear. He waited at a distance, watching, while the cops and Black Dogs swarmed around him and into the building to begin clean-up.
EMS arrived a few minutes after. Henry insisted Maggie get checked out, and Jase
followed them to the bus. He stood next to Henry at a distance as they both watched the paramedic assess her condition.
“Are you alright?” said Henry, putting a hand on Jase’s shoulder.
Jase nodded. He crossed his arms and kept his eyes on Maggie as she sat on the edge of the bus. “I am now.”
“I’ll never be able to repay you for this, Jase. Thank you for saving her.”
“Don’t thank me,” said Jase. “Even if you hadn’t already saved my life… she has. I owed her this.”
Henry said, “I guess there was never any stopping this thing between the two of you.”
Jase felt surprise, but his fear of this confrontation was gone. He gathered his words carefully before he spoke. “I’m not sure any of us knew that until today. And it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.”
“Son…”
“You can kick me out of the club,” said Jase, even though he couldn’t look at Henry when he said it. “I’ve had it both ways, Henry. I know what life is like without her now, and it’s not the same. Even at its best with the MC, even the days I was happy, it wasn’t like this.” He shook his head. “I’m not losing her again.”
Jase turned. For the first time he could remember, he saw pain on Henry’s face, and deep in his eyes.
“Jase, that hadn’t even crossed my mind. Why would it? You saved my daughter. Without question you have done everything you can, every hour, to help me keep her safe since she arrived.”
Jase flushed and looked at his feet.
“Maybe you two weren’t certain until today, but I saw this coming years ago,” said Henry. He swiped self-consciously at a tear and let out a chuckle. “I saw this coming from the first time you two traded comic books with each other at the clubhouse. I had never seen a boy make Maggie laugh so much. And it was the first time I saw you acting normal since your dad died.”
Jase felt a deep, almost painful gratitude for Henry’s words, even as he laughed lightly at the memory.
“I should never have stood in the way,” said Henry. “It was a fool’s errand. I won’t keep it up now. Even if I wanted to, I owe you that much for saving her life.”
He turned and looked Henry in the eyes. “I love her, Henry; more than anything,” Jase answered.
Henry nodded and gave Jase an emotional smile. “Good. Keep it that way.”
The paramedic wanted Maggie to head to the hospital, worried she might have suffered some head trauma from the abuse or the rough van ride, but she refused to leave without Jase. Jase didn’t hesitate to climb into the bus with her and sit next to her stretcher, his hand curled into hers.
“Love you,” said Maggie to Henry as he stood at the edge of the open doors. “Thank you for saving me.”
“This is your home, sweetheart. We will always protect you here,” said Henry. “I’ll be right behind you once I get things sorted here.”
Jase nodded to Henry again before the paramedic closed the doors and signaled the driver to make his way down to the interstate.
~ NINETEEN ~
The doctors made Maggie spend a full overnight in the hospital for observation. Since the Taser knocked her unconscious, they didn’t want to take any chances. Despite the death or capture of nearly all the men involved, the sheriff put a deputy outside her door, to go along with the three Black Dogs already posted up there as her guards.
Well, four, counting the one in her hospital room. Jase refused to leave her side, and had no trouble barking commands to the others to make sure she still wanted for nothing. The pain meds kept her floating in and out of sleep, but every time she woke up, he was still there on the side of her bed, holding her hand. Sometimes, he was watching her sleep. Once, she couldn’t open her eyes, but could hear his soft breathing on the edge of her consciousness. And twice she woke only to find him sleeping with his head perched on her leg gently.
Maggie smiled and found the energy to lift her hand and stroke his raven-colored hair while he slept. He made a soft little groaning noise in his sleep, and moved a little under her touch. She didn’t want to wake him, but she played softly with his hair until she fell back asleep herself.
By afternoon the following day, she was feeling better, and the docs didn’t see any signs of worry. Like a patient guardian, Jase listened to a doctor describe her recovery treatment. Henry stood in the back of the room, waiting to help transport her home. Jase was careful as he scooped her up from the bed and into a wheelchair. Henry walked alongside her as Jase pushed. The doctor had offered, but Jase refused to let him.
Henry stood by as Jase helped her carefully into the passenger seat of his truck. Once she was belted in, he came up and took her hand. He planted a gentle kiss on top of it. “Tell me this is the end of the family curse.”
Maggie smirked at him, still not quite herself under the painkillers. “I hope so, dad.”
Henry had a confused smile on his face. “You haven’t called me dad in a long time.”
“I’m on a lot of drugs. I probably won’t remember it tomorrow, so don’t get used to it,” she said. For once, Henry just laughed at her backtalk. Jase climbed into the driver’s seat and double-checked her seatbelt before he started the ignition.
“Sheriff’s digging out the last of the Rebel Cross boys from their chapter in Howlett. Most of them had nothing to do with it, but he’s not taking any chances,” said Henry. “Things should be safe now with Evan eliminated, but keep your eyes out just in case for the next few days.”
“I dare them to try again,” said Jase with a grin as he started the truck. “The higher my body count, the sexier she thinks I am.”
“It’s true,” said Maggie. She laughed much harder at the joke than it deserved, which only made Jase and Henry laugh at her.
“Take care of my little girl, Jase,” said Henry before he closed the door.
Jase saluted him with serious eyes. “Always, boss.”
Maggie smiled at her father through the truck window and waved as they backed out of the hospital parking lot. For sure, she knew now, it was the painkillers giving her such ease of emotion. But as silly as she felt, it was a welcome relief from the horror of the past week. She let it envelop her as she turned to look at Jase in the driver’s seat, watching the road. His hand had already wandered over to find one of hers in her lap. Every now and again, he would sneak a look over at her, and she would already be watching him and grinning. Jase would laugh and turn red a bit before he went back to watching the road.
“I’m glad to see you sitting there,” he said at one stoplight. He squeezed her hand when she told him she was thinking the same thing.
Jase took them back to his house. He set her up in bed and demanded her orders. “Anything you want, I’ll get it for you. Just say the word.”
“Anything?”
“Yep.”
“A puppy?”
“Done. What else?”
“A glass of whiskey.”
“As long as you don’t tell the doc. Next?”
“Some crack cocaine?”
“Sure. Wait, what?” said Jase with a laugh.
Maggie said, “For real on the whiskey. And why don’t you tell me what the hell happened, while you’re at it.” She patted the bedspread for him to sit down.
Jase made her wait until he got them both two fingers of a very smooth whiskey he’d been keeping stashed away in his kitchen. They clinked a small ‘cheers’. The whiskey burned down her throat, and toasted up her insides nicely.
“What do you remember?” said Jase.
“Just what I told the sheriff. I couldn’t see anything on the van ride, didn’t know where we were. I didn’t recognize any of the Rebel Cross men… only Evan,” she said. “They left me in there for a while until suddenly I could hear gunfire from somewhere close. Gunfire came and went, and then Evan came in and started untying me. He kept saying we had to go, he had to get me out of there.”
“That was Will and Ghost,” said Jase. “If Will hadn’t called me about Dra
ke, I probably never would have found you.”
“I can’t believe that motherfucker had something to do with all of this,” said Maggie. Even as she said it, some part of her actually did believe it. He had never sat right with her.
“It’s always about the deals for him. That’s what made him so good for the club; he had connections to everyone. It was stupid of us to think he would keep us sacred,” said Jase. “But that opportunistic little fuck has cut his last deal around these parts.”
“Is that secret club business you’re sharing with me?” said Maggie.
Jase smiled and moved a bit of hair out of her face. “From now on, my love, I will be sharing all secret club business with you.”
Maggie raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Jase nodded, serious. “You might not wear a cut, but your blood is in the MC as much as any of us that do. Henry was wrong to try and keep you out of it. And if we’re going to be together, it makes no sense for me to try to keep you out of it, either. We have to trust each other.” He bent and pressed his forehead against hers. “We share it all.”
Maggie smiled to herself. “I like that.”
Jase pulled back and kissed her. Then he cleared his throat and looked away. “So I suppose you’ll just be staying here then, hmm?”
Maggie grinned widely, watching his face tint red. “You mean while I recover?” She teased.
“Well of course, yes-- plus the days after that.”
“Oh? How many days?”
“I don’t know, like….three or four? Or all of them?” said Jase with a grin he could no longer fight.
“I told you, Campbell, you gotta put a ring on it,” said Maggie, tapping her left hand sarcastically.
“Oh, right,” he said. He suddenly stood and started digging through his pockets, and Maggie felt her heart stop. She stared at him with wide eyes as he sat back down with something in his hand.
Jase turned and saw the look on her face and froze. Then he said, “Oh, this isn’t…. this isn’t that.”
Maggie slumped and started laughing at herself.
Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance Page 31
