Chapter Twenty-Nine
King
Just before the attack at The Bake Shoppe...
“Can’t say I’d ever had a police escort before,” Ravage said from the back seat. Maureen was in the passenger seat beside me as I drove, one hand on the wheel, the other being squeezed to death in hers.
I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but fuck if I wasn’t terrified.
“How are you doing, Maureen?”
“I’m fine, King. I have done this before.” She chuckled.
I scoffed. “Twenty-five fucking years ago.”
“Are you calling me old?”
Before I could answer, Ravage popped up between us. “Don’t do it, brother. It’s a fucking trap. That’s the shit she pulled on me in the kitchen.”
Maureen laughed, and I grinned. Maureen loved to bust our balls, and she did it every chance she got. I guess growing up with Dec and Sal meant she knew how to give as well as she got.
Maureen winced and squeezed my hand. Ravage must have seen the look on my face because he pried Maureen’s hand off mine and held it instead.
“You have names picked out?” Ravage asked. I knew he was trying to distract her.
“One name,” Maureen said through gritted teeth, as the contraction tightened around her belly. The only reason I knew what the fuck was happening was because Beck, Sam, and Ellie had sat around the clubhouse talking about everything they went through.
“What is it?” I asked. She and Dec had been pretty tight-lipped about the name. Saying some shit about not wanting to spoil the surprise.
“Bennett.”
When I heard the name, my head snapped to the side so I could look at her. She was staring at me when she said it. I hadn’t realized my foot had come off the gas until Ravage said something.
“Why the fuck are you slowing down?” he barked.
I shook my head and put my eyes back on the road. It took a minute before I could get the words out. “He’d have been so proud.” I cleared my throat. The emotions I hadn’t really dealt with from losing Hash made it hard to speak. Hell, it made it hard to fucking breathe.
Ravage looked up at me in the rearview mirror.
“Evan Bennett was the man we lost in the attack. He and Maureen were close.”
“I’m sorry,” Ravage murmured as he rubbed Maureen’s hand.
The three of us were quiet as we pulled into the hospital. Dec was there waiting to open Maureen’s door and lift her out.
“I can walk, Declan.” My big brother didn’t argue; he just carried his wife into the hospital.
“Go, I’ll park the car and meet you inside,” Ravage offered.
Beck and Colleen rushed toward the door; they both gave me a hug, and we moved inside to the waiting room. Colleen went to the nurse’s station to check on her mother.
Ravage came in and sat down.
“Why don’t you have a shirt on?” Beck asked.
I looked down at my chest and cursed. “I wasn’t wearing one and didn’t fucking think.”
“I called Johnny,” Beck said. “Grace and Karlyn are at Trudy’s. He’s bringing them here.”
I nodded but heard Ravage growl. “Johnny’s a good kid. He’ll protect them with his life,” I assured him, my eyes on the hallway, waiting to hear about Maureen.
We’d been through this three times in the last few months, and I knew it could take hours. But I also knew that with Maureen’s age, the risks were higher.
“Isn’t he a prospect?”
“Technically yes, but he’s overdue to be patched in. All this shit going on has delayed it.”
“Indigo, Eros, Ace, Zero, and Romeo are with them too,” Colleen added. When I looked over at her, she smiled. “Mob princess, remember? I know the score.”
“Mob?”
“Her uncle Duncan is second in command to Sal,” I explained absently.
“He’s your uncle too, King,” Colleen reminded me, and I snorted. Then she said to Ravage, “Yours too.”
“I’m sure Reaper will love knowing I’m related to the fucking Mob. Not that he can say shit. His wife is a fucking Russian princess.”
Brothers started pouring in as we waited for news about Maureen. Blade handed me a shirt and my cut.
“Thanks, brother.”
He shook his head and went to sit with Beck. Ravage paced the room while we waited for Grace and Karlyn to arrive. He’d tried to call Eros and Indigo, but neither of them answered.
I wasn’t worried. I trusted my brothers. I knew they would lay down their lives for my old lady. And my brother’s old lady as well.
I didn’t think anything of it when an ambulance pulled up to the front door.
This was a fucking hospital. Diamond Creek might be a small town, but shit happened all the time.
Kids got hurt, then moms freaked out and called an ambulance.
Or guys got hurt at work and the boss called to have a record of everything.
It wasn’t until Beck gasped that I even looked in that direction. And when I saw Johnny and Indigo being wheeled in on a stretcher, both covered in blood, I jumped to my feet and ran.
“What the fuck happened?” My hands braced on the gurney, halting its progress. Patch came running down the hall and pulled me back.
“King, let them go. They’ve both been shot and need medical attention.”
“Where the fuck is Grace?”
“I don’t know. I have to take care of them.” He took off down the hall, and I turned to stare at the entrance, willing my old lady to walk through the doors. I just fucking got my hands on her. I couldn’t fucking lose her.
Eros and Romeo ran in behind the paramedics. And Romeo came straight to me, Eros moving to Ravage. The look on his face told me I didn’t want to hear what he was about to say.
My brothers and the Gods of Mayhem surrounded Ravage and me as Romeo put his hands on my shoulders. “We’ll fucking find her.”
My hands shoved at his chest, and he landed on his ass as I stared down at him and shouted, “What the fuck do you mean, we’ll fucking find her? Where the fuck is she?”
Big Ben locked his arms around me, and Gunner stepped in front of me.
“Prez, calm down.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eros and Firestride, along with Poseidon, trying to contain Ravage as I struggled to throw off Ben. He was almost as strong as Tank. Gunner towered over me, his hands on my head.
“We’ll fucking find her. But I need you to calm the fuck down before they throw us out.”
I stopped struggling. I took a deep breath, and Beck stepped between me and Gunner and stared at me. “Go,” she said. I knew what she was saying. “I’m here. Go.”
I pulled her against my chest and whispered, “Don’t fucking tell him anything.”
“I won’t.”
I walked across the room to my little brother. “Let him go,” I ordered.
Poseidon stepped back, but Eros and Firestride glared at me.
“Get your fucking hands off him,” I growled, then stepped forward ready to tear into both of them.
“Eros, enough,” Zeus ordered, and Eros reluctantly stepped back. Firestride continued to hold Ravage down; it wasn’t easy.
“Jackson!” I snapped. He looked up at me, and what I saw in his eyes scared the shit out of me, because I knew he saw the same thing in mine. “Let’s go.”
I walked out of the hospital knowing my little brother was right behind me, and my club brothers behind him. Ravage pushed past me to the SUV and climbed in behind the wheel. I closed my door, and for a moment, it was just the two of us.
“We need to go back to the clubhouse.”
“They aren’t at the fucking clubhouse,” he growled as he started the vehicle.
“No, but Nav is. And Sypher will be there too,” I said. “There are cameras at Trudy’s. I want to know exactly who the fuck took our women, because those motherfuckers don’t get a bullet in the head like the rest. Those motherfuckers we get to fucking play with.”
I stared out the window as Ravage drove us back to the clubhouse. I’d moved to this godforsaken state to have a quiet life. After Titan died, shit in the club took a turn. And when I thought Chasm fucking died, and that Steele was responsible for his death, I was fucking done.
I always figured my brothers would take on an old lady. Especially once Cash met Rachel. I loved Rach like a sister. She’d been a ballbuster, but she made a good first lady. She ran the clubhouse and the club girls. She kept my house in order.
I’d never planned to take on an old lady. Even after I met Grace. As much as I’d wanted her, as much as I loved her, she was too fucking good for this life. Even if we weren’t into all the illegal shit anymore.
I’d been such a fucking fool. I should have known I’d never be able to walk away. For more than two fucking years I’d watched her, protected her, visited her when I thought no one else knew.
All that fucking time wasted.
But this was the fucking reason why.
Steele was a fucking excuse. He’d been a good one. I kept telling myself I couldn’t touch her. She was off-limits. The truth was, I knew claiming her would put a fucking target on her back.
It didn’t matter that we were no longer a one-percenter club. The Mother Chapter was. As my old lady, she would always be at risk. There would always be someone who wanted to use her to get to me because bikers were fucking greedy as hell.
Nothing was ever enough. Money, guns, pussy, land. They were never fucking content with what they had. They always wanted more.
Colt was always spouting off scriptures when he was stressed or angry. Whenever the books weren’t lining up the way they should, his favorite was, ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’ He wasn’t fucking wrong.
Right at this moment, I considered giving it all up. For Grace. For her safety. I needed her to be safe. I needed her to be alive. If it meant walking away from everything for her, I might just do it.
But not until I killed every motherfucking one of them.
Ravage pulled into the lot at the clubhouse, and I was out of the vehicle before it stopped. I stomped up the front steps and shoved the door open, ignoring the sound of my brothers pulling in behind us.
“NAV!”
“In church, Prez.”
I stormed through the open door, knowing Ravage was right behind me, and went directly to look over Nav’s shoulder. Ignoring the few brothers that were in the room.
“What the fuck do you know?”
He pulled up the video from Trudy’s, and I watched as Grace and Karlyn sat by the window talking. Indigo and Johnny were inside with them. The others, I assumed, were spread out around the building.
When Ravage and I came out of church, my focus had been on Maureen. I hadn’t even realized the girls were gone. I should have checked. I should have looked for her and told her myself what was happening.
I’d fucked up so many things with her, I didn’t know if she’d ever forgive me.
I watched Karlyn reach over and put her hand on Grace’s. Whatever they talked about was serious. Then, Karlyn sat back, pulling her hand away. She looked upset about whatever Grace had said.
“Is there any fucking sound?” Ravage growled beside me.
“No, Trudy wouldn’t let us do sound. She said people came in there to talk things out with her, or others, and it would be an invasion of privacy.”
“Fuck that. I want sound on every fucking camera we have in town.”
“King—”
“Did I fucking stutter?” I snapped.
“No, Prez.” Nav sighed. I knew I was being irrational, but I wanted to know what Grace had said to Karlyn that had made her upset. If the two of them didn’t get along, I knew I’d never see Ravage again.
Johnny answered his phone, and by the look on his face, I knew that was when Beck called to tell him about Maureen. He spoke to the girls, then Grace went to pay, and I saw Trudy wave her off. She turned around, and that was when the glass shattered, and Johnny went down, Indigo right after him.