My heart was racing in my chest as he kept his hand out, urging me to go to him.
I rushed towards him and he pulled me into his arms.
It was Daddy who started clapping, and within seconds, every person in the bar was clapping too. It was strange to be in the arms of a man, in the presence of the whole MC, and nobody was trying to shoot him down.
I looked up at Girth, who surprisingly, was smiling too right now.
“Can I say I told you so?” I asked him and he grinned.
“Yes, Lila, you are always right. I’m slowly coming to realize it,” Girth said and we shared our first kiss in front of the MC.
26
Girth
Lewis was behind the bar, pouring me a drink and my head was spinning. Within minutes of Lewis declaring that he was not going to protest against Lila and me being together, the celebrations began.
It was only now that I was realizing that Lila had been single for years. Other than a few casual relationships she’d had in high school with boys who didn’t deserve her; she had never been in any serious relationships. So, even though it had taken the MC members and Lewis some time to warm to me being with her, everyone was in a good mood now just based on the fact that Lila finally had a man.
When I looked over my shoulder, I saw that Lila was sitting down on a chair, in the middle of a circle made up of Abe, Rodeo and some of her friends who were forcing shots down her throat. Lila’s loud throaty laugh filled the bar and I was beginning to feel a little light headed. This was not the reaction I was expecting when I told Lewis the truth.
I thought that I would have to leave Orlando, leave Lila and never come back. I was expecting Elwood to kick me out of the Rogue Rebels too. I didn’t think I deserved to belong to a brotherhood after I had broken the most basic rule. But instead, Lewis had filled a pint glass up with beer and now smacked it down in front of me on the counter.
“You, sir, deserve a drink,” Lewis said and wiped his hand with a rag. I thanked him and gulped some of the beer down my throat and Lewis was watching me with studious eyes.
“I don’t know what spell my daughter has cast on you, but you need my blessings and you need luck,” Lewis said and we smiled at each other.
“I don’t deserve her,” I said and Lewis nodded his head as he started pouring himself a drink as well.
“No, you don’t. Nobody does. In my eyes, in my world, Lila is a princess and she deserves to be treated like one,” Lewis said and I clenched my jaws.
“I intend on treating her as one,” I said and he smiled.
“I can see that you will. She has made the right decision and I’m relieved. I would have been happy to see her with Hugh too, but that was before I had even considered the two of you as a couple,” Lewis said.
I was guzzling my glass of beer down thirstily. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a drink. So much had happened since I first arrived here. I’d met and fallen for a woman who brought me to my knees. Everything about this city was bloody insane.
“I need you to know, Lewis, that I never intended on going against your MC or your rules,” I said, as Lewis took a sip of his drink too.
“And I want you to know that if you ever hurt my daughter, or do anything to make her cry…” Lewis began to say but I was nodding already.
“I’ll have your entire MC to answer to,” I said.
“And the Rogue Rebels. Elwood will not stand for Lila being hurt either,” he added.
I knew he was right, but I didn’t have any intention of hurting Lila. I wanted to hold on to this feeling, the way she was making me feel; all my life and I would fight it to my death to keep it that way.
Lila came up to us then, and I pulled her into my arms.
“I think I’ve had three shots of tequila,” Lila said and laughed.
“I think you have,” Lewis said and shook his head. Father and daughter smiled at each other, before they both turned to me again.
“Your man here was just telling me how he intends on treating you like a princess all your life,” Lewis said and I looked at Lila with a smile. She was shaking her head and had her brows crossed.
“I don’t want to be treated like a princess. I wanted to be treated like an actual adult woman. Can you do that for me, Girth?” she asked and I leaned towards her, drinking in the shape of her perfect pouty lips and the color of her clear blue eyes. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever set my eyes on.
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” I said and Lila closed the gap between us and we were kissing again.
When Lewis turned away from us, to talk to some of the other guys, Lila and I were staring into each other’s eyes.
“What about New York?” I asked her. I couldn’t exactly forget about it. She had cried in my arms over it. I knew exactly how badly she wanted to go. Lila shrugged her shoulders.
“What about it?” she asked and I looked at her with an indulgent expression on her face.
“Lila, I don’t want to turn into your father. I don’t want to keep you from doing what you really want to do,” I said and she watched me with her sparkling blue eyes as I chugged down the rest of the beer. Lila licked her lips and drew in a deep breath.
“The only reason I wanted to go to New York, was to have an adventure, to experience something new, to defy my father and to feel safe. I get all of those things from you, Girth and then some,” she said and she sank into my open arms again.
It was still strange to hold Lewis’ daughter in my arms, out in the open like that. I could feel the surge of adrenaline in my veins. This would take some getting used to.
Lila giggled as she looked up at me, and we knocked our foreheads together, just as the doors of the bar were thrown open.
“Lewis!” a voice shouted and we all turned our heads to see. It was Marcus one of the MC members I had been introduced to before.
He looked like he had been running. His shoulders were heaving, he was out of breath and his eyes were wild with fear and rage.
“What’s going on?” Lila exclaimed and my first instinct was to hold her back and stop her from going any closer to the door.
Marcus was rushing towards Lewis now, who was staring at the man. We were all expecting bad news.
“It’s Fred. He’s been shot!” Marcus said.
Lewis walked around the bar counter, glaring at Marcus. He was obviously the kind of man who had a tendency of shooting the messenger.
“What the fuck happened? Where is Fred?” Lewis growled and Marcus’ eyes darted fishily around the bar.
“At the front of his house. Hugh got there, to take care of the scene. The Dark Legion did another drive-by shootout, like the one they attempted on Lila,” Marcus said and his eyes sought out Lila in the crowd, who was standing huddled up with me. I could sense her body stiffening with fright.
“Fuck ‘em. Fuck!” Lewis growled.
“Where is he shot? Have they taken him to hospital?” Lila was crying now, and I tried to hold her close to me. I knew that Fred was like a father-figure to her, and I respected him too. Marcus turned to us and drew in a deep breath.
“They got him in the heart. They’re taking him to the morgue,” Marcus said.
Fred was dead. They’d fucking killed Fred. This was war.
Rodeo
1
Rodeo
Fred was dead, and Marcus didn’t know anything else. We were all in shock, but I had charged right at Marcus, pushing him up against the wall of the bar. He had his hands up in defense, and was struggling against my grip on him.
“I don’t know anything else, man. This is all I know!” he screamed.
“Fuck! How did this happen?” Lewis was yelling behind us, and I heard Lila burst into tears.
“Who told you this? What the fuck do you mean he’s dead?” I was barking right at Marcus’ face and he was shaking his head.
“Little Will. He saw the cops. He said Fred was being carried out on a stretcher!” Marcus yelled back.
“The cops got there first? Fuck! Fuck!” Abe was growling. I could feel waves of rage washing over me as I kept Marcus pinned to the wall. He had given up struggling to get away from me. He knew I was stronger.
“Rodeo! Let him go,” Lewis said, in a calm and subdued voice behind me, but I was seeing red.
“What else do you know? Tell me what else you know!” I barked and some spittle flew out of my mouth and landed on Marcus’ face. He shook his head, his eyes were bloodshot.
“I don’t know anything else. I know whatever Little Will told me. I swear!” he yelled back.
“Rodeo!” Lewis called out to me again, and this time, I released the pressure of my hands on Marcus’ arms. He slid away from me the moment he got the chance and I ran a hand through my hair.
“How is this possible? How did they get Fred?” Abe was pacing around the bar, while Girth had Lila in his arms and he was consoling her.
Fred had been like a father to us, especially to Lila and me. I had nobody before I had Fred. I didn’t even have the MC before he pulled me out of the life I used to lead. He was the one who introduced me to the Marked Skulls. He changed my life, he saved me; and now he was dead.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“Was it the Dark Legion?” Abe asked and Marcus shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know man,” he replied.
“It has to be!” Lewis roared and when I looked at him, I could see the rage in his eyes too. Lewis and Fred had been best friends. Fred was Lewis’ right-hand-man, the MC’s vice president.
“When they realized that they can’t get to my daughter,” he continued and swung his head around to look at Lila who was still in Girth’s arms, “they decided to take out one of us.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him. I’m going to hunt him down and kill him, whoever this motherfucker is,” I growled and Lila burst into another fit of tears.
“I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe Fred is gone,” she blubbered, while Girth held her tightly. Lila was like a sister to me, I cared about her the same way I would have cared about my family if I had one. I was glad that she now had Girth in her life, so I didn’t have to worry about her.
“Where was he going? Where was he?” Abe asked, turning his heaving shoulders towards Marcus again. Marcus gulped before he spoke. He was clearly getting the wrong end of having to be the messenger.
“Don’t know. All Little Will said was that he was found on the corner of Shelby Street and 42nd, in front of some apartment building,” he replied, just as the doors of the bar burst open and Hugh Ashland rushed in.
He was a young beat cop who had long been working with our MC. He looked up to Lewis and Fred and helped cover up any shit that our MC got into. He was breathing hard when he came in and I charged at him next.
“What the fuck is going on, Hugh? Where have you been?” I growled at him and Hugh clenched his jaws.
“He got shot. He got shot by a drive-by shooter,” Hugh said, walking in towards us. The color had drained from his face. Fred had left his mark on a lot of people’s lives. He was a calm and composed man full of wisdom, who had seen the best in a couple of street-kids like me. Hugh used to admire him too.
He looked apologetic now as he came to a stop in the middle of the bar.
“What else do you know, Hugh?” Lewis asked him and he breathed heavily as he looked at each of us.
“All I know, all anyone knows at this point is that there was a single gunman on a bike and he got Fred right in the chest as he rode by,” Hugh said and there was another burst of tears from Lila. She was uncontrollable in her shock. A couple of weeks before this, she had been in a similar situation when the Dark Legion were trying to get to her to get to us. They wanted to teach Lewis and the rest of us a lesson for dealing weapons in their territory.
I clenched my jaws, fisted up the palms of my hands and tried to control the rage that was bubbling up inside me. We were a small MC, smaller than the Dark Legion and any of the other big players in the city but I wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing when Fred had been shot and killed. I wasn’t going to cower away in fear.
“So, there’s nothing else? We don’t know who exactly shot him?” it was Girth who spoke up now, and Hugh shook his head. Then slowly, he turned to look at me. Everyone knew the relationship I shared with Fred. Hugh narrowed his eyes at me before he spoke.
“But there is a witness,” he said.
2
Jordan
I was rocking myself back and forth while sitting on the couch in my living room. I had pulled the curtains on all the windows in my apartment, and I had my back turned to the window I saw it from.
I shouldn’t even have been standing there. I had no reason to be looking out of that window. It was early in the morning, and I was standing there with a mug of coffee in my hand and admiring the silence of the street. It was only that quiet early in the morning.
The man was walking down the street at first, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of a leather jacket. I watched him walking towards our apartment building and then he looked up at the building, right at my window. I remember feeling strange that he had seen me at the window. I didn’t recognize him, I definitely didn’t know him. The moment he looked away, I heard the sound of roaring engines. There was a bike approaching.
The man looked over his shoulder just when I saw the biker appear on the street. He was picking up speed now, and the man who was standing underneath my window dragged his hands out of his pockets and started running. I saw the biker pull out a gun, and within a matter of seconds, I heard the sound of one shot.
I squealed and stumbled away from the window, the coffee from my mug spilled on the floor. I was mumbling ‘oh my God’ under my breath and I ducked under the window. With my heart beating rapidly out of my chest, I slowly looked up, just above the ledge of the window.
The man on the street was lying face down in a pool of blood. The biker had stopped right beside him, and now, he was the one who was looking up at my window. He had seen me peeking out.
Yelping, I threw myself on the floor again.
The biker had taken his helmet off, his eyes were focused on me at the window. There was no mistaking the fact that he had seen me.
I had crawled along the floor, too afraid to make a sound or stand up. I crawled like that, all the way to my bedroom and banged the door shut behind me.
I didn’t want to call the cops. I was too afraid to leave my bedroom. Whoever that man on the bike was, was dangerous. In that split second, I had seen his leather cut, the tattoos on his arms, the rings on his ears. He was a part of a Motorcycle Club. That much was clear to me, and I knew exactly the kind of danger I was in now.
I didn’t leave my bedroom till there were knocks on my door. With my whole body shaking, I made my way towards the door. There was more banging.
“Police! Open up!” there were voices on the other side. I looked through the peephole and saw three armed and uniformed police officers on the other side. When they banged on the door again, I had no choice but to open up.
“We’re looking for any witnesses to the shooting that took place outside your building at five this morning,” one of the men said. I shook my head. The color had drained from my face, and my lips were quivering. I couldn’t get a single word out from my lips.
“Can we come in?” another one asked, and without waiting for a response, the three of them barged into my apartment.
“Ma’am, we need you to tell us if you saw anything,” one of them said and I shook my head again. I knew what the consequences of snitching would be. I had a clear view of the crime, I had a clear view of the shooter—I was the best witness that the police could have hoped for.
One of the officers walked to my window, and gently parted the curtains. He was looking down at the chalk outline of the man who had been shot on the street. I was staring at him with fear dripping from my eyes
. He turned to look at me, and just from the look on my face—I knew that he knew I had seen something.
“Did you see it happen?” he asked, taking a few steps towards me. I shook my head. I still hadn’t said a word to any of them.
“Ma’am, I’m Officer Ashland, and I want you to trust me. If you know something, tell me now,” he said, in a soft consoling voice. I couldn’t trust him, I couldn’t trust anybody. I shook my head again.
The other men were still looking around my apartment, while Officer Ashland remained with me, staring me up and down. I knew he had figured out that I had seen something.
“I want you to leave!” the words came bursting out of me. The cops looked at me and then exchanged looks amongst themselves.
“You have no right to be here without a search warrant. I didn’t invite you in. Leave, now!” I barked at them. I didn’t know where I was finding my strength to say these things. I didn’t even recognize my voice.
The cops looked at each other, looked at me again and then in silence, filed out of my apartment. Officer Ashland stopped at my door and turned to me.
“You can come down to the station any time. Ask for me if you have something to report,” he said and I slammed the door shut on his face.
Speaking to cops was asking for trouble. I had a feeling I was being watched. The shooter, the man in the leather cut definitely belonged to a gang of men who weren’t going to let a witness just slide. They were going to come after me and I knew the cops wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
* * *
I was on a journey of trying to get my life on track, and this new situation wasn’t going to help matters. It was exactly the sort of trouble I had been trying to steer clear of. Finally, I thought I had some peace in my life, that I could become somebody mom would have been proud of, and now that I was a witness to a shooting, I knew it was going to change my life.
Marked Skulls MC Series: Books 1-5 Page 15
