Raging Barons MC - Book Thirteen - TwoCents
CHAPTER ONE
-:- TwoCents -:-
“I’m going to the bank. I’ll be back in an hour,” I shout to Specs as I pass his office. I notice him giving me a nod and grin because that’s as much as I’ll get from him.
“I’ll come as your shotgun,” Sentry offers and steps up beside me as I walk out the front door to my hog, placing the takings to be deposited in the saddlebags.
“Thanks, Sentry. You have everything done here you needed done this morning?” I ask because I know how much pride he has in the compound, and keeping the gatehouse functioning at peak performance.
“I’m always on top of things, and if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be comin’ with you,” he replies, straddling his Fat Boy, which is his pride and joy.
Parking outside of the bank a while later, I take out the bag with the funds I want to deposit and place them inside my kutte. I have a body carrier that I had Amelia and Bitty make for me. It stops me carrying a large amount that would be visible to anyone and keeps it under wraps until I reach the teller.
“Wait here, I’ll not be long. Then we can stop at the coffee house ‘cause I’ve not been in and had a panini or a latte in a long time.”
“Okay, I could go for a pistachio latte.” Sentry stays straddled on his hog after resting his helmet on the seat between his legs.
I don’t open the carrier to take out the cash until I get to the teller, so I’m thankful I have both hands free when I step into the bank, and come to a halt when I see a man with a balaclava on his head and a weapon pointing at the teller. Until he sees me enter that is, and then he swings his arm around, pointing the fucking thing at me.
Staying calm because the stupidest thing you can do is make sudden movements when things like this happen. It’s a good thing I have a military history or I could be the one who gets shot through my own idiocy.
“Stand still and do nothing stupid.”
Now the asshole said what I was thinking, so I’ll go along with him. Raising my hands to show I’m not doing anything stupid, or intending to.
He glares before noticing my kutte, and panic crosses his face. “What the fuck!” and the asshole’s arm starts to shake, causing the two women customers to gasp, which has this idiot looking from one to the other.
“I’m doing nothing. Stay calm,” I murmur, keeping my voice low because I don’t need this prick doing anything crazy. My eyes flick around the bank but don’t see any accomplice, which is more than a little odd. Bank robberies are not that common these days and usually, they are attempted by more than one person.
“Don’t tell me what to do, asshole.” As he becomes more and more agitated, I stand my ground and refuse to waver in my attention towards him. But I can see the teller reach under the counter and hope she will have pressed the panic button, which will alert Forest at the Sheriff’s office.
Now, although it will be good to have Forest here, I don’t want him rushing in and causing this fucker to shoot at anyone. He looks unhinged enough as it is.
The woman customer furthest away lets out a small noise right before she faints, and as she falls I step forward instinctively to catch her, but hearing the idiot curse, I look up and notice him panic.
“Move and I’ll kill you. You’re nothing but biker scum.”
“Biker scum? Well, I am a biker, but I’m not here robbing a fuckin’ bank, am I? So, bud, that makes you scum.” I know I shouldn’t retaliate but fuck me, he’s nothing but an asshole.
“I’m gonna kill you, and any of your biker scum that steps in that door.”
“Well, I’d die happily in my kutte, for my club, more than I can say for you and your twitching body. On smack, are you? That why you need to rob the bank, take hard-working people’s money?” I’m past caring by this point and I’m ready to throw myself at him, or on the ground depending on his next move.
“FUCK YOU!” He bellows at me but his eyes are flying around the room, checking for anything he should be worried about at the same time.
“Nah, don’t think I want you to fuck me. I prefer pretty females to assholes like you.”
Now, everything happens fast. His head snaps directly to me and he straightens his arm as he confirms his aim, but before he can fire, the other woman that was left standing flies into him, shoving his arm upward.
The gun fires as his arm shoots toward the ceiling and a hole appears, with debris falling on top of him. It’s not much, but it hits the top of his head, distracting him for a couple of seconds.
He keeps hold of the weapon and recovers faster than I can get to him and turns, smacking the woman across her face, pistol whipping her in fact. She flies backwards and as she falls she hits her head hard on the front of the teller”s station, rendering her unconscious.
The door slams open as I lunge forward and tackle the fucker to the ground, but before I can get the third punch in, Forest, Dep, and Sentry are beside me. Dep has the fucker cuffed and cautioned before I can do anything more.
Forest is disarming the weapon and bagging it as evidence. I’m damned amazed how fast he and Dep have worked together to get this asshole tied down and hauled to the cruiser.
It only takes a moment before I rush over to the unconscious woman and see a pool of blood forming underneath her head. Forest walks over too and is already arranging for emergency paramedics.
“What do we do?” I ask Forest, as I’m about to pick her up.
“Don’t move her. She needs the paramedics to check her. If she’s hurt her neck, moving her could cause paralysis.” Forest is taking out a bandana from his back pocket, and sighs. “It’s clean, but if we can just stem that bleeding while we wait.”
I watch as he carefully slides his hand under her head with minimal movement, and holds the bandana on the massive lump that has appeared.
The bank manager rushes over to us. “I have everything on the CCTV. I’ll have it sent to you immediately, Sheriff Forest.”
“Okay, Benjamin, thank you. Dep will send Sober and Francis once he gets to the office,” Forest states and we all look up when the paramedics burst into the bank.
“I need everyone to give a statement. Oh, what’s with that woman?” Forest asks. I’d completely forgotten about the one that had passed out but I quickly step over to her, and see she’s coming around on her own.
Forest and Benjamin pick the woman up and settle her on a chair. She’s checked by the paramedics and has to go with them for a checkup.
Turning, I hand the takings to Forest, “Have these put in the club”s account. I’m going to the hospital because that woman saved my life and I want to check that she’s going to be okay.”
“Can do, and I’ll be over to the hospital once things are sorted out here.” Forest gives my shoulder a squeeze as he takes the takings from me, and heads to the teller, who I have to say is taking all this in her stride. She’s not moved from her station or showed signs of panic. Impressive, or dumb, I’m not sure which.
“Sentry, follow me. We’re goin’ to the hospital.”
A short while later I’m standing arguing with a nurse who won’t allow me to see the woman, or give any information on how she’s doing. Now, I’m pissed as all hell at this point, and I lean over and get in this bitch’s face. “I need to see her. She’s my wife.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck, where did that come from? Well, shit, I’ve done it now and I’ll have to run with it. Sentry is looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, which I probably have, but she saved my life and I need to know she is going to be okay.
“What is your name?” Snooty bitch asks.
“Daniel Wilson, but everyone calls me TwoCents.” I remain calm because this has to be believable if I’m going to find out what’s happening with the woman.
“Your wife’s name?”
Shit, quick thinking needed here. “Carrie Wilson.”
“Fill in the form, then I can have you taken to your wife.”
Sentry leans over and whispers once the nurse has moved away to the computer on the other end of the station we are standing at. “What are you doing?”
“I have to know she’s okay. I just blurted out the first thing I could think of,” I mumble back, filling in all the details and false information, of course. I do not know how old she is, if she is allergic to jack-shit, or if she is someone else’s wife!
Handing the form back to the woman, I nod for Sentry to follow me, but he grabs my forearm, stopping me. “I’ll contact Pres and let him know all that’s gone on. Then I’ll come find you.”
“Okay, yeah, he’ll want to know.”
Stepping into the single room, I’m shocked to see the woman is still unconscious but has her head bandaged. She is a pretty woman, and her dark hair is short and curly. I can’t remember much about her as my attention was on the idiot the whole time.
I step closer to the bed and the nurse who had shown me to the room drags a chair over to the side of the bed. “Here you are, Mr. Wilson. The doctor will be in shortly to speak with you.”
“Thank you,” I respond, and take the seat, leaning towards the bed and taking in the woman’s features. Yeah, she sure is pretty, but she is very pale. I take her nearest hand and hold it between mine, rubbing my thumb over the top of it, and close my eyes a moment, silently thanking her for taking the risk.
The door opens and the doctor steps into the room. “Mr. Wilson, your wife has a severe concussion. We are watching for any undue brain swelling, but at this time after the emergency scan, it’s showing nothing for us to unduly worry about. We cannot say when she’ll wake, but she will be monitored closely.”
“Okay, thank you.” I turn to look at who I’ve called Carrie and worry that she’ll panic when she wakes and doesn’t know what’s happening.
“We will give her another scan later today because if her brain swells, we don’t want to miss it because unchecked it can kill her.” The doctor gives me a nod, then walks out of the room.
Turning, I look again at Carrie and hope she’ll wake soon, and not panic. I need to tell Forest what I’ve done because I don’t need him fucking arresting me.
It must be over an hour before the door opens again, and Forest walks into the room. “I’ve got her purse, so we have something to work with.”
“I have to tell you what I did.” Then I fill Forest in about saying she is my wife, giving her a false name and details. Rather than seeing the annoyed expression I expected, Forest has a huge smirk on his face.
“Got yourself a wife? An unusual way to get married, but hey, it takes all sorts,” Forest laughs, and I give him a scowl that should shut him up, but instead has him laughing harder. After handing me the purse, Forest leaves and I know he’ll do whatever is needed to make sure this all pans out as we need it to.
In the purse, I take out her driver’s license and see she is actually Sienna Roseberry, 32 years of age and lives locally. I take a snap of the license and send it to Specs so he can find out who she is and if she is safe to be around.
I get the reply message from Specs, which is a thumbs up emoji and know he’ll have something to tell me soon. I look around when the door opens and Axel, Drag, Wings and Stitch walk into the room.
Stitch will thoroughly look at all the medical shit and tell me in layman’s terms what’s happening. Axel peers at Sienna closely before rubbing the back of his neck.
“I’ve seen her somewhere, but fuck, I can’t think from where.” Axel is looking carefully at Sienna before he takes out his phone, snaps a picture and sends it to Specs and, surprising me, to Mia, too.
“Isn’t she the woman that’s opened up the Swap Shop?” Wings asks.
“Swap Shop! What’s that?” Drag asks, looking at Wings with an eyebrow raised questioningly.
“Well, it’s where people who live on the breadline take in kids’ clothing that is washed and clean, mind you, and swap it for another piece of clothing. They leave a $2.00 fee for administration costs and that’s it, done. Nobody knows how this woman keeps the place running because she can’t be making much money doing it,” Wings states, and is bending over Sienna, which has me push him back, growling at him because I don’t like him that close to her.
Sentry, who has entered slightly behind them chuckles, then laughs. “Hey, don’t get too close to his wife, Carrie.”
Now all heads snap to me and I have to fill them in on what has happened.