“Will do. Pleasure ladies.” She tipped the brim of her hat and walked toward her patrol car.
“Starla…” Ani’s voice drifted off as she questioned what had just happened.
“Talk to your man, love,” she smiled warmly as she looked over at Ani. “It’s not my place.” Starla leaned over and kissed Ani’s temple lightly before making her way over to Jameson.
Ani stood in the compound yard as the last of the patrol cars sped down the driveway. What the hell was going on? Anonymous calls, guns, drugs? She swallowed back the lump forming in her throat. She made a promise to Knox that she’d be understanding, but this was going to have to take some getting used to. She brushed by Chloe who still dawned the black eye from last night’s tussle, and made her way over to Knox.
“Ok, full disclosure.” She grabbed his arm and he turned to her.
“You sure?” he questioned. Might as well.
“Yes,” she smiled weakly, “But I need coffee first.” She turned and walked into the clubhouse, a gasp escaping her mouth as she took in the damage.
The beautifully carved wooden doors were torn open, showing an elaborately carved table and chairs sitting around it. She saw various M.C. pictures and insignia hanging around the walls as she stepped closer to it. She felt a hand on her shoulder as she reached the door frame and turned, finding Knox standing behind her.
“This is all her fault,” Chloe chimed from the couch as she lit her cigarette, blowing out the smoke in Ani’s direction. “I think your boyfriend’s pissed that you’re fucking someone else.”
Ani stormed toward her until Knox’s arm caught around her stomach and pulled her back toward him. Ani let out a laugh as Chloe cringed in expectation of her attack. “Keep running that mouth and you’re gonna have matching black eyes.”
“Enough,” Knox commanded, causing Ani to stop her attempt to struggle free from his arms.
“Prez? You got something you want to tell us?” Charon asked as he picked up broken bottles from behind the bar.
“Aye, clean this fuckin’ place up,” Knox’s voice bellowed out across the room as he pulled Ani toward his room.
“If her relationship jeopardizes this club then it’s not just about you. It’s a club matter,” Rage said from behind them.
Knox set Ani down on the floor at the foot of the steps, gently brushing her hair from her face before placing a light kiss on her lips. She could see the anger brewing in his eyes as he turned to Rage.
“You wanna take a vote? You wanna take it to the chapel?” his voice was forced and tense as he stepped closer to Rage, swelling up with anger. “Then let’s go to the fuckin’ chapel, aye?” Knox’s hands landed hard against each of Rage’s shoulders, pushing him back and down onto the couch. “If this is a club matter then why the fuck are you bringin’ it up around everyone else?” his voice was booming off every wall as he shouted down at Rage.
“Calm down, brother!” Charon came up to Knox, attempting to calm him.
Ani didn’t want them fighting because of her. She stepped up next to Knox and spoke to the room, “Cash wouldn’t have done this. He might not like the choice I made, but he would never call in an anonymous tip,” she reached over and grabbed Knox’s hand apologetically before continuing, “Cash loves me too much to ever put me in harm’s way.” Her eyes left Kate’s as she looked down at the floor and turned to go up the stairs to Knox’s room.
“Wait,” Rage called after her. “Ani, wait.” He stood from the couch and attempted to make his way to her, only to be stopped by Knox’s arm.
“You wanna talk to my old lady, you do it where I can hear you,” Knox growled as he looked over at Rage.
“Ani, I know this isn’t your fault. I’m sorry,” Rage spoke from Knox’s side.
“Rage, you can believe whatever you want.” Ani eyed him before turning and heading up to Knox’s room.
She steadied herself outside of his door; if his room was anything like the rest of the house it would be completely trashed. She turned the handle and pushed the door open; the dresser was over turned and the mattress flipped up against the wall. The rest of the room was covered in loose papers and debris. She looked over to find her bag open and dumped down onto the floor. She grabbed a pair of her lace panties and threw them back in it in frustration.
Maybe this was her fault. Cash knew she was coming to see Knox last night and it can’t be hard for the cops to find out where this place was. Her stomach churned as she thought about the weekend she’d left Knox; Cash had picked her up from his cabin. He could have used the address there to find the address here. It all had to be in the same name. He’d been so drunk when she had left last night, that who knows what he had done. The worry coursing through her veins began turning into anger. How could he have done this?
Red, she could only see red as she stormed out the door. Knocking into Knox as she blazed past him. She could feel his hand reaching for her, but she dodged it and took off toward the door. She’d made it a few feet from her truck when she heard his voice, “Ani? What are you doin’?”
She turned to face him, “It was Cash. I know it was. He had to have called this shit in last night.”
“What are you gonna do, love? Go beat the information outta him?” Knox chuckled.
How could he find this funny? It wasn’t; their clubhouse had just been raided by the cops and he’s laughing. “Maybe. I can’t just let him get away with it.”
“Before you go starting a war, let’s go inside and talk,” he wrapped his arm around her shoulder as he turned and led her back into the house.
Three hours later they emerged from his bedroom. Ani’s head was spinning with all of the information she had just absorbed. Rival clubs, drug running, illegal guns, and so much more. Knox had given her one last chance when they had gotten to the room to jump ship and bail, but she chose to stay. It was almost unnerving how well she had stomached the rest. He’d told her about the problems they’d had in Ireland and what had been happening since they got to the states. He had thought in the beginning, that this would have been a chance to get away from it all, a fresh start; but it hadn’t.
They hadn’t had many problems with other clubs until three years ago. They were hard off for money and couldn’t find legal work. They had attempted to, but none of it was sufficient enough to satisfy the life they were all used to living. They had picked up a protection detail for a state senator, covering his illegal shipments to the next state over, when they had their first run in with the Renegades. The Renegades’ M.C. had been around for much longer and they thought they deserved a cut, considering that the Kings had to go through Gatlinburg; their self-proclaimed turf. However, that didn’t pan out and the Renegades were shut out of the deal altogether, with most of their charter getting slapped with charges of distribution and manufacturing of narcotics.
The Renegades had only just gotten out of state prison and they now had nothing but retaliation on their hands. They blamed the Kings for their arrest and looked at them as traitors to the life, even though they hadn’t had anything to do with the arrest. That was because of the Renegades’ own stupidity and carelessness. Jail time was part of the outlaw lifestyle. Every biker who ran in that lifestyle knew it.
“You ok, love?” Knox pulled her from her thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m ok.” She leaned up and kissed him gently as she helped him rummage through paperwork.
He had assured her that this sort of thing didn’t happen often, but that it was probably retaliation for their being in Gatlinburg the other weekend. Chief, the president of the Renegades’ M.C., who had been one of the unfortunate members to spend time behind bars, hadn’t been able to make his point in the nightclub. He’d gotten a shot off at Knox, but in an effort to avoid future jail time, they had split in the middle of the chaos. Ani hoped that this war between the two M.C.’s wouldn’t blow over at her work. She knew Chief came in to make deposits and she could only imagine what he would do now that he knew she was Kno
x’s old lady.
Chapter fourteen
The life
The next few months went by normally, more normal that Ani could have expected. They hadn’t seen or heard from the Renegades since the raid at the clubhouse and it had almost become a forgotten matter altogether. Work had been hectic and Kate had been out sporadically, battling a head cold that Ani refused to get. Ani spent her time split between being with her father and being with Knox, who had even gone so far as to build a stable for Catori at the M.C. clubhouse. It had been very humorous watching a group of badass bikers trying to figure out what to do with a horse.
Aside from a few accidental run-in’s she hadn’t seen or spoken to Cash since the night she found him drunk. Knox had been gone for the past week on a run upstate and Ani couldn’t wait for him to get back. He’d become her world over the past few months. She had gotten to know every aspect about his past life and she was falling deeper in love with him every day.
Ani walked up the stairs of the cabin toward Knox’s bedroom. It was finally a night that they had the house all to themselves; Kate, Rage, and the rest of the group were heading out to Helen, Georgia for a weekend long bike festival. Ani plopped down onto the bed, she was exhausted. Between work and keeping up with doctor’s appointments with her dad, she could barely keep her eyes open. She had insisted that she stay home with her dad, even offered Knox to come over too. But her dad had practically pushed her out the door. He was happy that she had a man in her life and he adored Knox. He hadn’t had the same hesitancy as she had at his rough and tough exterior.
She glanced around the room, hearing Knox’s heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. As he came in to the room she noticed the white box in his hand. What the hell is that?
“I want you to see something,” he sat on the bed next to her. He took off his leather cut and laid it onto the bed beside them as he opened the lid.
“What’s this?” Ani reached in and grabbed a picture of a pudgy little boy covered in mud.
“Forgot I had these. Old pictures, from back home,” he smiled as he grabbed a handful out and spread them across the bed.
Ani scanned each of them, absorbing every image of Knox. Some of him as a child and some of him as a teenager. He didn’t look much different as a teen as he did now, shorter hair and less facial hair, but still the same badass attitude. He held one of the pictures up, it was of a man who looked similar to him and a beautiful woman with a warm smile.
“Is that your mom?” Ani asked as she sat up onto the bed.
“Aye, she was a beautiful woman.” He handed her the picture.
It was an old black and white photo. They were at a carnival and his dad’s arms were draped around his mother’s waist. She had beautiful long dark hair and the same dark eyes as Knox. At her leg clung a small boy, probably three, with a brilliant smile. He held a stick of cotton candy in his hand as the family posed for the picture.
“She was beautiful, Knox.”
“Aye, she was. She was a wonderful mum. She used to tell me stories of the Lianhan Shee, I remember waitin’ up until she got home from work to hear her stories,” he smiled warmly as he stared down at the picture, “The Lianhan Shee was a love fairy, said to lure men in with her powers. If a man should refuse her, she was forever indebted to him; but if he didn’t, he would forever be her slave. It is said that she was best enjoyed in the afterlife, that all great poets and musicians loved her; so much so that they would wither away as they played their stories to her.”
“She sounds captivating,” Ani laughed.
“Aye, but I think I have found her.” His hand brushed the loose hair from her eyes, “She has already stolen my heart, my mind, and my soul. I may as well be in the afterlife if she were to ever leave me.”
She blinked back a tear, he may have not said it, but it was at that moment that she knew Knox loved her. No matter what happened, her heart wouldn’t allow her to ever leave his side. His hands skimmed down her shirt and again she was alive with excitement, the exhaustions of the rest of the world no longer fogging up her mind. He lifted her from the bed and onto his lap as he skimmed his fingers along her sides, pulling her shirt up over her head. His lips were warm as they pressed against hers. She could feel the fire flaming up through her body, she longed for them to engulf her as Knox laid claim over her body.
She walked to the window of the cabin as the familiar rumble came vibrating through the cracked window. Smiling, she pulled the curtain to the side and looked down, questioning why she saw Rage’s bike pull up first. Jameson, Charon, Repo, and Doc pulled up behind him, parking quickly before jumping off their bikes and sprinting toward the door. Ani’s stomach dropped, something was wrong. She turned and rushed downstairs to find the men in a fury. Kate stood amongst them in the living room, attempting to calm them enough to get an idea of what was going on.
Ani watched as Rage went running into his room, Kate dragging behind him as she clung to his arm. Doc, an older man in his fifties leaned against the counter out of breath. She could see the red stain of blood splattered across the belly of his white shirt. The room was a chaotic mess and she couldn’t get a clear grasp from the scattered voices speaking over the other. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, bringing her hand to her mouth and letting out a whistle loud enough to quiet the room.
She looked down at the four men, who were now staring at her with concern, “What happened?”
“We need to get you girls to the clubhouse, darlin’,” Doc said panting for breath.
“Doc, what happened?” She walked down to him, checking him over, “Where did this blood come from?”
“We need to get you to the clubhouse,” Rage said as he drug Kate back out of the room. “darlin’ I will buy you all the clothes you need. But we need to go. Now.” He placed a light kiss on Kate’s lips and then turned back toward Ani, “We need to go and don’t stop until we’re at the club.” Rage glanced around at each of the guys who nodded back in understanding.
Ani watched as Rage tossed a handgun to Charon who stuck it in the back of his pants and made his way toward where Ani stood frozen with fear. “Charon, please tell me what’s going on.”
“We need to go, darlin’. We’ll talk about it at the club. You ride with me.” He protectively wrapped his arm around her shoulder and the group headed toward their bikes.
Before she could protest, Charon was taking off toward the clubhouse. She could tell he was uneasy, nervous, as he scanned the roads that jutted out from the main road they found themselves flying down. It was unfamiliar and uncomfortable being on the back of his bike. Why wouldn’t anyone tell her where Knox was at or what had happened? She tried to push the negative thoughts out of her mind. Knox would be ok, he had to be ok.
As they turned onto a paved road, shaded by the trees Ani heard Jameson’s voice yelling behind them to go faster. Ani gripped onto Charon as he took off down the road. She chanced a glance behind them to see a large black van following closely a few hundred yards back. She gripped onto Charon as a scream escaped her throat and a bullet shattered into a tree a few feet away from them. One sounded close, as Charon swerved and tensed. She could hear shots ringing out in every direction, both from the van and from Repo and Jameson as the tires of the van came to a screeching stop and swerved off the road and into a deep ravine. The group took off and before she knew it, they were pulling into the yard of the club. She felt a light tap on her hand as she removed her face from where it had been implanted in Charon’s back.
“It’s ok, Ani. We’re here,” Charon tried to calm her.
She peered up at him as she took in the blood dripping down from his shoulder, a few inches from where her head had been pressed into his back. She jumped off the back of his bike as Jameson and Repo rushed over and caught him, just before his lifeless body slumped off the side of his motorcycle and onto the ground; he’d taken a bullet for her. But how had he known they were trying to shoot at her too? They carried him toward the clubhouse as Ra
ge yelled for Doc. Ani stood frozen in place, who were those people and why were they shooting at them?
“We need to get inside, Ani. It’s not safe out here,” Lulu said as she grabbed Ani’s hand and pulled her toward the clubhouse.
Lulu was a lay, she wasn’t anyone’s old lady. She had been hanging around the clubhouse over the past few months. She was young, maybe twenty-one, and a quiet girl. She had shown up at one of the club parties and never left. She and Ani hit it off the first night they met and Ani now looked at her like a little sister. Lulu had her eyes on Charon from the moment she’d walked in the door, but he’d seemed almost clueless to her advances. She’d been a part of the M.C. life since she was a kid and knew what was expected of her since she wasn’t anyone’s old lady; only complicating things further in her pursuit of Charon. No one wants to be with an old lady that had been passed around the club a few times.
Ani stopped as they walked through the door and pulled Lulu into a tight hug. She felt her arms tighten around Ani’s waist as the flood of tears came out. Ani’s heart ached for her, she was scared for Knox just like Lulu was scared for Charon. She saw Rage come out from behind the elaborately carved doors, Charon’s lifeless body lay atop the large wooden table as Doc shot a needle of medication into his arm.
Doc was the resident club doctor, he’d earned his name from the many years he had practiced back in Ireland; losing his license after treating club patients off the books. He had come to the States with the rest of the M.C. in an effort to keep an eye on them. He was one of the original founding members and often reminded Ani of her dad with his warm demeanor and storytelling. Ani gently brushed Lulu’s hair trying to comfort her as Rage came toward them.
“Ani, I need you,” he said, his eyes filled with anxiety.
“Lulu, Charon will be ok. Why don’t you go in there and be with him while Doc gets him fixed up.” She flashed her eyes at Rage who nodded in approval.
Wild Heart (The Wild Heart Series) Page 15
