Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Nearly two years ago
JD
“You’re fucking fired.”
My jaw clenched as the disbelief on Sasha’s face morphed into horror at the words I’d delivered as harshly as possible. It didn’t matter what my motives were, or that it was myself more than her I was angry at. Watching those men hold a gun on her had shoved me deep into a past I could NOT—would NOT—revisit. I could already feel the squeeze around my neck that signaled I had to get out now.
She had to go before any of this got worse and this was the best way to get that done. I’d taken my fear out on her, cutting her down as viciously as I could, and regretting none of it.
It had to be done.
I would not be fucking responsible for her death. Besides, she should be scared. I was the mother fucking king of a motorcycle club. I personified danger and everything about my life could hurt her or worse. It was high time she realized that and got the hell out of my life.
“Boss,” Tel whispered, low enough so only I heard his words. “You can’t fire her.”
I rounded on him, my fist clenched at my sides and a violent haze of anger coloring my vision. I’d had enough of people telling me what I could and couldn’t do. Especially when it came to the woman who’d managed to crawl under my skin and take up residence. A place she had no right to be.
This had to stop now.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want. And what I want is her out of here.” Unlike Tel, I did not lower my voice or choose my words carefully. And the gasp from the woman in question made it loud and fucking clear that she was getting my message.
Tel winced in the face of my anger and yet that didn’t stop him from continuing on. If I didn’t kill him for it now, I’d appreciate his willingness to stand up to me later.
“Yeah, Prez. That’s technically true. You’re the boss. What you say goes around here. But if you throw her out now, then she’ll be more vulnerable than ever. She’s already been connected to the club, and without our protection how long will it take before someone else gets wind of her and takes her? Then what? We’ll spends weeks of resources to find her and still be more than likely to bring her home in pieces.”
Fuck. Tel had delivered the exact words to freeze me in my tracks. My heart might have even stopped pumping.
This seriously could not be happening again. My head pounded and I half expected it to implode.
I glanced around the club where my guys were already starting to clean up the blood. They were avoiding looking at me directly, but I could feel their concern radiating in my direction.
Tel was right. I had little information on these nomad assholes that had invaded our territory and whether they were organized or not. It didn’t seem likely amongst this ragtag bunch of dicks, but I couldn’t risk retaliation. And unless I killed every one of these fuckers and their associates, word would get out about me losing my fucking mind over this woman. If we cut her loose now, our enemies would snatch her on day one.
“Fuck,” I swore again as I picked up a chair and slammed it against the wall.
“I don’t need you to do any favors for me. I’m out of here,” Sasha said from her perch on the stage next to me.
I turned and steadied my gaze on Tel, ignoring her and her outburst. “Fine,” I gritted out between clenched teeth. “But keep her the hell away from me. I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to hear about her. Keeping an eye on her is officially your job now.”
“Fuck you,” she spat from behind my back. “I don’t want anything from?—”
I jerked around so fast, the words coming out of her smart mouth died instantly, my hand going for her throat. I walked her backwards until her body crashed against the nearby wall.
“You don’t have a say in this, do you hear me? You do whatever he tells you to do. Nothing more and nothing less and he’ll keep you alive. Do. You. Understand?”
The fear in her eyes had grown exponentially, but I could see the moment my words sank in. Like it or not, she would be a part of our club until I could figure out how to get her loose. She tried to nod, but my grip around her neck was still too tight.
“Say the words,” I hissed.
“Yes.” Her bottom lip wobbled under the force. “I understand,” she whispered.
A sick smile twisted my lips. Despite the situation, I took too much pleasure in watching her lips tremble while her eyes shot daggers at me.
Whatever innocence she had inside her would soon die. Nothing sweet or good could survive in our world…
“Hey, Boss. Are you listening?”
Axel’s words yanked me from the past and pulled me back into the present. Everyone wanted to know when Sasha was coming home. It was a fair question. Only one I didn’t have the answer to. Remembering the first time I’d nearly got her killed didn’t help.
“I don’t know when she’s coming back.” Luckily, I managed to end my sentence there. Because if she was smart, she’d find a way to put us all in her rear view. Not that I wanted to get into the details of this conversation, but I had a feeling Axel was going to push no matter how little I said.
He nodded. “She’s been through a lot. I’m still so fucking pissed I didn’t get to her sooner. Maybe I could have saved her from some of this.”
“Don’t do that. No one could have predicted that a serial douchebag would get past our five layers of security, let alone blow up our fucking club with her in it. You saved her.”
And I would forever be grateful. Even if she hated me now. I scrubbed my hands over my face again, attempting to wipe away some of the nightmares of her trapped in that burning building.
“Still. I’ll feel a lot better when she gets back to where she belongs.”
I winced again.
Truth be told, she was too good for us. The best thing for her would be to get as far and as fast away from us as she could.
It was convenient for me to say us , and claim club life wasn’t for her, when in all actuality she only needed to get away from me. I wasn’t ever going to be good enough for her. I just wish she understood that. But like many of the women in our lives, she had a stubborn streak a mile wide.
One who never fucking listened.
I was a predator and the more time she spent with me meant the more likely she would become the prey. She was my weakness and I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable ever again.
“The doctors say she should have left the hospital a week ago.”
“What?!”
My head swiveled so sharply, another wave of pain stabbed at the back of my eyeballs.
Axel nodded. “I had a feeling you didn’t know. Patty says Sasha’s too scared to come back here and she doesn’t have anywhere else to go. No family. Apparently, she was a foster kid right up until she aged out.”
“I know.” I knew everything about my employees. Tel made sure of that. That man was a fucking genius on a computer and there wasn’t a firewall in existence that he couldn’t get through, or a sealed juvenile record for that matter, that he couldn’t open.
Reading hers had made me sick to my stomach. One foster home after another, all with the same results. No one had wanted to keep her. On paper she might have come across as a troublemaker, but the petty things she pulled weren’t likely to get her in much trouble. There was nothing wrong with doing whatever you had to in order to keep food in your stomach or a shelter over your head. The fact that my situation with her might seem eerily familiar jolted through me like a kick to the gut.
I’d hired her knowing she was the perfect mix of sweet and sass to appeal to our customers.
And keep them at the gambling tables with her at their side. However, before anyone could work in the ultra-exclusive poker club, they had to prove themselves in one of the other club businesses. It just so happened she’d auditioned to dance.
My stomach clenched again, remembering those nights of fucking torture. Of course, I’d been right about how people would react to her. I had an ability to read people that I’d honed to damned near perfection over the years. And Sasha had done extremely well. She’d quickly become our most popular dancer.
Unfortunately, she’d gotten entangled with one of our regular clients who didn’t like to be told no. He never crossed the line, but there had been more times than I could count where I wanted to take him out back and cut off his fucking balls and shove them down his throat.
What I hadn’t seen coming was the effect she would have on me. At least that’s the lie I continued to tell myself.
“I’ll talk to her.” I caught Axel’s side eye at that and clenched my jaw to keep from barking at him. We both knew that since she’d woken up in that damned hospital with no one by her side, she’d refused to see me, let alone talk to me.
“Is that going to work?” He sounded as skeptical as I felt.
“It fucking should. I’m the club president, and her boss.” Axel shook his head, and that pissed me off more. “Look, she’s a sweet girl. I know how much everyone likes her and I also know that everyone’s got it in their head that she would make a good old lady. But it’s not going to be with me. You know better than anyone that I have no intention of ever going there again. I’ve already got enough on my plate and I need to keep my head in the game. I’m not going to let anyone get as close as that Mazzeo fucker did ever again. Which means we have to find the traitor in our midst and to do that I need to stay focused.”
“And you’re sure it’s one of our guys?” He sounded skeptical, and I completely understood. After everything we’d been through as a club, it was hard to believe. So far, there’d been no whiff of who it might be.
“One hundred percent. The way our security was compromised, the information had to have come from the inside. No other option.”
“That’s a pretty short fucking list.”
I nodded. I’d thought of little else since the violation. My blood boiled with rage every time. When I found out who it was, they were not only going to regret turning on us but regret their whole fucking life. I’d finally have an outlet for all this pent-up anger.
“It makes me sick too,” I admitted. “But I’m going to figure it out, and If I have to step on some toes and backs on the way—so be it.”
Axel pulled into an available parking spot at the front entrance of the hospital and cut the engine. But neither of us made a move to get out. We were both angry, and the tension of it swirled thick in the cab.
“I’ll do whatever you want me to. I just hope the guys will forgive us when it’s all over. I fear this is the kind of thing that can break a club.”
I shrugged. I’d been in this position before and as much as I swore it would never happen again, here we were. I’d brought the club back from hell against their will once before, and I’d do it again if that’s what it took. And if experience had taught me anything, it was that there would be casualties.
The club would not be the same again.
But taking down the fucker who’d blown a hole into the side of our clubhouse and burned our poker room to the ground was not enough.