Brick (Brutal Chains MC #2)

Chapter 6

Six

Brick

That was the best sleep I've had in ages.

After being locked up, I didn't think I'd like to have to share my space again, but last night, just sleeping with Luna in the bed with me put me to sleep like a baby. Of course, there were other things I wanted to do besides sleep, but I didn't push my luck. She was absolutely beside herself with anxiety. I know that feeling, too.

I know what it's like to feel like people are coming for you from every corner. In fact, it was one of the main reasons I started up the Brutal Chains MC. It's a place where those who have everything going against them can know there are other people around who will have their back. One of the main rules on the prison yard is never go into a fight alone. Solidarity is the key to getting yourself killed.

I wish she would have let me take care of her more, and part of me is concerned as to why that is. I've never wanted to care for someone before outside of my family and my club, so why now and why her? It's like she was put on this earth to irritate and challenge me. Nothing about Luna is easy, and I don't think that fact is ever going to change with her.

I can feel the sun heating up the room, and I flip back the covers so I can cool down. I wonder if Luna is feeling as uncomfortable now as I am. Reaching over to find her in the large bed, it doesn't take long for me to realize that she's not here with me. My eyes pop open, and sure enough, the other side of the bed is empty.

"Shit," I mutter before jumping out of the bed, grabbing for my pants and rushing out of my room. I don't know where she is, but if she's tried to go home and find her sister without telling me, I'm going to be pissed the hell off. I don't know what the hell went down last night, but I know it's not safe for her to be out looking on her own.

"Uh, hey, Prez... something you want to tell us?" Light asks as he watches me skid to a stop in the main room.

My eyes settle on the raven-haired beauty sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in her hand. She's swarmed by my members. All of them have calm, pleasant looks on their faces, but I know what they are doing. They're making sure she doesn't move around within the compound. She's not even supposed to be here.

"What are you doing?" I bark at her as I make my way to where she's sitting.

"I'm drinking coffee; what does it look like I'm doing?" Luna snaps right back. So much for thinking she'd be in a better temperament after sleeping in my arms all night.

"I already told you that you're not supposed to be in here. Why would you leave the room without letting me know first?" I squint my eyes at her, trying to read her expression. "I left the room because I was awake and you snore. I left the room because I was hungry. I left the room because I'm a grown-ass woman and can move how I please. Now, from my explanations, you can choose the one you like the best, but you will also choose to fix that damn tone when you talk to me." Her eyes never leave mine, and I can feel my jaw dropping with every last word that comes out of her mouth.

Did she just reprimand me? Why was it hot?

"I'll talk to you how you deserve, and right now you deserve far worse than this." I reach down, grabbing the cup of coffee from her hands and yank her to her feet.

Pulling her, I do my best not to hurt her, but I keep a firm grip on her arm.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?" She tries to pull away, but this is one area she's not going to beat me at. She's just a small little thing. I could throw her over my shoulder and take her anywhere I want. In fact, I'm pretty sure anyone could if they had the right mind to do so.

"Close your mouth. For once, just do as you're told." I snap my eyes at her, and instead of her fighting back, she seals her mouth shut and glares at me. I'll take the glare over the arguing. Pulling her back into the room, I slam the door behind us so the rest of the guys know not to bother us. I'm going to have to go out and explain to them what she's doing here, but for right now, I have to make sure that Luna doesn't just walk around again.

"What part of you're not supposed to be here do you not understand?" I hiss at her.

"I'm already here, Brick. Honestly, what did you expect me to do, jump out the window so your parents don't find me?" She huffs out.

"No, don't be ridiculous." I shake my head and fist my hands over and over again. I'm not used to having to explain myself to anyone. I'm the president of this club, which means all explanations come my way, not the other way around.

"You're the one who's being ridiculous right now. If you didn't want me here, then you shouldn't have brought me here." I open my mouth to argue, but she raises her hand to stop me. "Even if you didn't want to leave me at home, there are hotels for this kind of thing."

She was right about that. I'm sure I could have found a hotel last night if I wanted to, but then I wouldn't feel safe. With my brothers here, I know no one is going to catch me off guard. I have backup here.

"Look, I don't want to argue about this. I have things I need to do and people I need to get up to speed on what happened last night. You just stay in here until I come to get you."

She presses her wrists together in front of her body. "Are you sure you don't want to handcuff me to the bed? I mean, I might use the bathroom without your permission." She raises an eyebrow in my direction, and my mind plummets right into the gutter.

Did I want to handcuff her? Yes, I did, but it wasn't so she couldn't walk around. I'd love to see her completely submissive to me—to have a chance to silence that smart mouth with my cock between her lips.

"Luna, for fuck's sake." I run a hand through my hair, tugging at the strands while I turn on my heel and walk out of the room, making sure to close the door behind me. The rest of the club is still in the main area like I left them. Some of them have grim looks on their faces. I've broken protocol—the same rules I put into place, I went against them.

"Church," I call out and turn to walk to the designated room where I meet with the club for business. At once everyone follows behind me.

The large wooden table is the prominent piece of furniture in the room, but there are several heavy wooden chairs surrounding it. I make my way to the head of the table where my seat is and plop down. The well-rested feeling I had earlier is already draining away. I'm not even sure how that can happen after being awake for only a few minutes.

"So, who's that?" Pipe asks.

"That's the same girl from the warehouse. The one with the junkie sister," Hook replies before I can. I hate that he's already labeled her like that, but it's not a lie.

"Yeah, the woman in my room right now is Luna. She's Wendy's sister. A few weeks ago, Wendy nearly OD'd in one of the warehouses. We were able to get her to the hospital in time. Still, she's connected to me, so I've been keeping tabs somewhat on both of them."

"Keeping tabs on both of them or just Ms. Luna?" Semi chimes in, tilting his head to the side.

He's trying to read me—trying to see if I'm compromised in any way. It's typical prison yard behavior. Right now, he may be on my team, but if he feels like I'm losing my edge, he'll push back.

"Both of them," I snap at him, letting loose the fire inside so he knows I'm not to be fucked with right now. He nods his head and straightens up.

"Last night on my ride back, I ran into Luna. She was out looking for her sister, who is still missing at this point."

"Well, her sister is a junkie. Isn't that, I don't know, par for the course for her to go missing?" Torch asks.

"I would say yes, but Luna is adamant that her sister had gotten clean. I already explained to her that most addicts can relapse, but she's not budging." I shrug and wait for more questions. I know there will be more.

"Okay, that's all good, but what does that have to do with Luna being here this morning? If you wanted to help look for Wendy, we could've met her at her house or somewhere else," Hook speaks.

"Like I said, last night I ran into Luna looking for her sister, but when I dropped her off at home, someone was there waiting for her. They'd broken into her apartment and were trying to..." Just the memories of what I rushed into last night are enough to have me right back on edge. I stretch my neck from side to side. I don't have to say anything more about what I saw. I can tell by the looks on the guys' faces that they get it.

"Shit, you think this all has to do with her sister being missing?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely a possibility." I nod my head.

"So what do we know? Did you recognize the guys that were there?"

"No, and before I could chase after them, they jumped out her window. Luna was too shaken to be left alone." I look around the room, hoping that the group of men in here can come up with something else—something that I might have missed.

"Do you think it's possible that Luna herself is just into some bullshit? I mean, she's only been here for a short bit, but I can already tell she's a handful," Semi jokes, and I shake my head at that. There's no lie in his words. Luna is more than a fucking handful; she's a whole damn bucket of aggravation.

"Anything could be possible right now, but I know I need to figure out who is behind this before I can let her go back to the apartment. I don't want to risk something like this happening again." I nod my head and look around the room for someone to say something different. I'm waiting for them to push back.

"So are we just supposed to trust her? I mean, she seems okay, but I don't know her from a hole in the wall," Light speaks up.

"You didn't know Bea either. I trusted her, so it was on me. I'm sure Brick knows what he's doing."

"Luna and I are nothing like you and Bea." I stare pointedly at Hook, and for the first time, he laughs at me.

"Sure," Semi pipes in.

"It's not like that," I argue again. By now, there's a round of chuckles going around the table. No one believes me. I didn't bring Luna here because I was trying to get in her pants or because I think she could be my old lady. That's the last thing I need right now.

"You bastards. You take nothing seriously. I'm just trying to make sure the girl doesn't get dead and have the jakes running around here asking me what my part in all of this was. I need to get her clear so there's no ties to me." It was a reasonable explanation; at least in my head, it was.

"Brick, you're allowed to be happy. I don't know why you fight so hard against it." Hook keeps my gaze before turning to look at Light. He doesn't give me a chance to retort before he asks Light a question. "So we can figure out where Luna's house is; do you think you can pull up some CCTV footage of the area and maybe we can find out who shouldn't be there?"

Along with being a kick-ass electrician, Light was a whiz on the computer. He can find out information about people I'm sure they never wanted to be let out into the public. I knew it was the right play. The sooner I figure out who is hunting Luna, the sooner I can get her out of the clubhouse and back to her life. The both of us could go back to our lives. Alone.

Light nods his head. "Yeah, I'll look into it. I'll let you know as soon as I have something, but you need to be prepared for this to take some time. I can't guarantee that she'll be out of here by tonight." He winces slightly as he looks at me. That means I'm going to be forced to spend more time with this woman. Not exactly what I want to do right now, especially if it doesn't involve both of us naked.

"Yeah, I hear you." I bang my cuffed wrist on the table to signify the close of the meeting.

All of the patched-in members of the club wear a broken handcuff on their wrists to remind us what we are fighting for, to remind us never to go back. It links us all in this brotherhood. Right now, I don't have time to think about how my brothers are feeling in this situation. I have to explain to a hellcat of a woman that she's basically my prisoner until I say otherwise. I can't imagine that's going to go over well.

We all file out of the room designated for church. Some of the guys go back to their own rooms while others stay in the main area. I'm happy to see Light hustling right over to his room to get to work on locating something we can use from the CCTV cameras. I don't know his process, but I do know if I want him to get the answers I need, I'm going to have to leave him alone for a bit. I know what he's doing is illegal, but as long as the police can't track it back to him, I'm okay with it.

Slowly, I make my way back to my bedroom to find Luna sprawled out on my bed. Her hair is loose and laying across my sheets, and she's staring up at the ceiling. It didn't dawn on me that the girl could possibly be bored out of her mind in here. It's not like I have a TV or anything that she could do to keep herself occupied.

"Are you here to cut me loose?" she asks without looking at me or getting up from her position on the bed.

"No, actually..." The words trail off. I don't hesitate, but I know what I'm about to say is going to cause an argument, and I'm not looking forward to it.

"Actually what?" Luna asks as she pops up from the bed to stare at me.

"Actually, you're going to have to stay here for a while longer. I've got one of the guys looking into who was at your house last night, but it's going to take some time."

Her eyes go wide, and then she starts to laugh as if I'm telling her a joke. When she realizes that I'm not laughing along with her, her face goes serious again. "You can't be serious right now. You can't possibly think I'm going to stay here. I've got shit to do that doesn't involve me lounging in the bed all day." She storms in my direction as if she's about to walk out the door.

I shift my body to block her path. "Luna, it's not safe out there right now."

"I don't give a shit about safety or what you feel like you need to do. My sister is out there alone and possibly hurt. If you think you're going to keep me in here longer than I have to be, then you're out of your mind."

"What good are you to your sister if you get killed? I mean, honestly, why is it so hard for you to recognize that you may be in over your head? You need help, and I'm offering it."

"At what price?" she squints her eyes at me, and for a second, I'm caught off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"You're offering me help, but at what cost? Does that mean I have to give up my search for my sister? Do I have to be subservient to you? What do you want in exchange?"

"I don't want anything from you." The disbelief and rage are building up to a crescendo peak inside of me.

"Bullshit. You're not going around here doing this for nothing. You want something in return." She pokes a hard finger into my chest, which causes me to stumble back a step. She's on fire right now.

"Luna, there is nothing you can offer me that I'll take for helping you out. I'm just doing this shit to make sure my name stays clear. The last thing I need right now is for someone to connect you and your sister to me. I'm not going back to jail for any fucking reason, so if I say that you have to stay here until we figure this shit out, that's just what's going to happen. End of the fucking discussion." By the end of my tirade, my voice had risen so loud I'm sure everyone outside heard us.

Luna's clear hazel eyes blink a few times as if she's trying to come to grips with what I've just said. I'm not sure which part she's getting caught up on, but I can guess. "What were you in jail for?" she asks, her voice a little softer. Here it comes—the typical judgment that comes from everyone who hears of my crimes. I prepare myself to be the bad guy. After all, that's all anyone ever sees me as. I should be used to it by now.

"Attempted murder, stalking, kidnapping." I go down the list of what I was charged with, and I watch as her body tenses up. This is when it'll start. I pull my hands behind my back just to let her know that I'm not a threat right now. I can be, and now she knows it. The last thing I want to do is scare her, but this is what I am. I'm a convicted felon. It's a stigma I'll never get away from.

I open my mouth to let her know that I'll leave her in the room by herself if it means she'll be more comfortable, but she surprises me by asking, "Why?" Now it's my turn to be blustered. No one has ever asked me why. I usually have to offer up my reasonings. It's a strange change of events.

"Why what?" I finally am able to speak.

"Why did you do it?" Luna continues to stare at me, but this time I can see that she's trying to gauge whether or not I'm telling the truth.

"My stepfather was abusive to both me and my mother. He killed her and got off because the police fouled some shit up." I let out a breath as I go into the past. Memories of hearing the judge call out mistrial and the feeling of absolute helplessness that overtook my body. Helplessness followed by blind fury. If the court officers didn't hold me back, I would've tried to murder my stepfather right there in that courtroom. The lawyers apologized. The cops apologized. Even the judge apologized that they couldn't put my stepfather away. They said it was justice and that there was nothing more they could do. It wasn't justice for me or my mother. That asshole was still free to do what he pleased.

"I stalked him, let him know that I wasn't going to let him get away with what he'd done to my mother. When I knew he was good and scared, the same way he kept my mother, I took him to one of my construction sites, tortured him, and would've killed him if a patrolling officer hadn't come around at that time. I was sent to prison, did my time, and was released. I would say that I'm sorry, but honestly, the only thing I'm sorry for was getting caught before that bastard took his last breath. I wish I would have killed him."

Luna stares at me for a few seconds before she walks over to me and wraps her arms around my midsection. I'm so confused and shocked by the display that I don't even hug her back.

"You're right. He deserved it. I would've done the same thing for my family." It was like the equivalent of her telling me I did a good job. I wasn't expecting that at all.

"Yeah, so you see. I'm not exactly the picture-perfect member of society right now, so I can't be connected with any missing girls. I have to help you find your sister. I've got to put this right."

She nods her head, and for the first time, things actually seem like they're going to go smoothly with her. She's not fighting back or trying to get under my skin. It's calm; I could get used to it.

"I hear you. I don't want you to get into trouble either, so can we make a compromise?"

I groan but jerk my head toward her for her to continue. I can at least listen to what she's got to say.

"I need to go look for my sister. If I don't, I'm liable to go crazy and take everyone in here down with me. Can we just go check out a few places while your friends do their digging on the computers? Maybe we'll be able to find her before they even have to do all that. I'll stay right by your side. I'm safe with you, right?" she asks.

"Yeah, of course."

"So then there's no need to worry. Please, help me."

And just like that I was done for. It didn't matter what she needed me to do, I was at her mercy.