Chapter Fifteen – Chuck
I rounded the corner back towards the compound, unable to keep the grin off my face.
I had just come back from spending the evening with Abbey and Cinnamon, and damn, I was getting to like this whole domestic side of things. It might not have been how I pictured my life going, but sometimes, things just made sense – and right now, nothing made more sense than hanging out with her and her cat, chilling with a movie, and spending the evening forgetting about our troubles with each other in bed.
I still couldn’t believe she wasn’t tired of me. But if anything, she seemed more into me than ever – the novelty of being together hadn’t worn off yet, and fuck, I hoped it never did. I loved being with her. Loved holding her, kissing her, fucking her – but loved talking to her, just chilling with her too. It had been a long time since I’d met someone who made me feel the way she did, and it felt dangerous, in a good way, to let that kind of thing into my life once more.
If I hadn’t had a meeting with the guys first thing tomorrow, I would have stayed the night there, but I had made sure she was doing okay, and then headed back. When she had arrived at my place earlier, I could tell there was something bothering her, but she seemed reluctant to share any more about what that might have been. Hell, fine by me – if she didn’t want to go spilling the details, that was her choice. Maybe it had just been a hit of paranoia and worry, nothing to get caught up about.
I knew it would be a while before she fully unwound from all the stress and fear Franco had put her through. There had been no sightings of him around the city, and I didn’t know if that meant he wasn’t here, or he was just damn good at keeping himself undercover. Either way, I hoped he was starting to get spooked now and would keep his distance from her, if he’d been there at all. My men were usually pretty good at shaking loose anyone in hiding, and if he was in Atwood somewhere, we would find him.
And I would make him pay for the fear he had instilled in her. Sometimes, when I looked at her, I could see the toll this had taken on her. I was reminded of Anna, of my sister, of how lost and how broken she had seemed in her final months. But I had sworn when I had lost her that I would never let someone going through the same thing navigate it alone again. I would do everything within my power to help them and keep them safe.
I rounded the corner to the back of the compound, to the door that led to my small apartment – it wasn’t much, but it was mine, and it gave me a base to work from, somewhere I knew everyone would always be able to find me. I knew I could have gone for somewhere bigger, with all the cash I was bringing in from the Dogs, but this had always been the homeground of the leader; I wasn’t going to change that. Tradition wasn’t a bad thing, especially when it came to unconventional set-ups like this one.
But, before I could so much as get the key in the lock, I froze, dead in my tracks.
”What the fuck...?” I muttered to myself, eyeing the scene in front of me. No way I could be seeing this right, no way...
Paint dripped from a fresh graffiti stain on my door. It could have just been a message from another club - fuck, if it had been anything other than this, maybe I could have believed it.
But I knew it wasn’t. I knew what this was. And I knew there was no way in hell I was going to let it slide.
It was her. A rough image, sure, but it was Abbey – the dark hair at that length, the green eyes, the small features. You might not clock it unless you knew her, but I did – and I wasn’t going to make the mistake of assuming it was anything other than a downright threat.
A dark red slash was sprayed across her throat in the image, the paint still wet and dribbling down the door to the compound. This was a message. This was a warning. Someone knew she had been here with me – and they had wanted to make damn sure that I knew I wasn’t going to get away with spending time with her without this kind of blowback.
I looked around, searching for someone, anyone, who might have been responsible for this. Abbey had told me what Franco looked like, but I had never actually seen him myself. Would I recognize him if I saw him fleeing the scene...?
But there was nobody around. Nothing. Just the heavy weight of silence pressing down around me. I ran a hand over my hair, a boiling rage rising up in me before I could stop myself.
No. I wasn’t going to let him get away with this shit. He didn’t get to level these threats against me, not a chance in hell.
I stormed into the compound and straight to the social space, where Jaxon and Lee were hanging out – Lee whipped his head around as soon as he heard me approaching, clearly sensing that there was something up.
”What’s going on?” he asked.
”Did you hear anyone?” I demanded. ”See anyone in the last hour?”
Jaxon frowned.
”What do you mean-”
”There’s graffiti on the door,” I replied, stabbing my finger back towards the entrance. ”He was here. Franco. I’m sure of it.”
”Shit,” Lee muttered, and he rushed past me to get a look at the image that had been left for me – and, when he saw what was waiting for him, his jaw dropped.
”Oh, fuck,” Jaxon breathed when he laid eyes on it. They knew as well as I did what this meant – what this was intended to warn us about. I gritted my teeth. We couldn’t let him walk free after this, we couldn’t let him just get away with it. He had been threatening Abbey for too long, and now? Now, he had brought it to the Dogs.
And we didn’t take well to people trying to scare us.
”You have your bikes?” I asked as I stepped behind the counter where we kept the booze. I popped open a lockbox and pulled out a revolver, stuffing it into my pants. In that blind rage I was feeling, I just wanted to plant it to Franco’s temple and pull the fucking trigger. Make him pay for everything he d done. Make him suffer.
”Yeah, why?” Lee replied.
”Get them now,” I told him. ”We’re going to turn this city over until we find him. Don’t stop at anything. I want him under my control by the end of the day. You hear me?”
Lee and Jaxon exchanged a look – but then, they both nodded. They knew better than to defy me when I had got something into my head like this, no matter how crazy it might have seemed. I wanted to ruin this man. I wanted to have his head on a fucking spike.
And I knew all these emotions rushing through me had as much to do with Anna as they did with Abbey, but I didn’t care. If that’s what it took for me to get to him, I would use everything I had in the process.
By the time the sun set tonight, Franco was going to be dealt with. Once and for all.
And he had no idea just what kind of hell was about to rain down on his shoulders.