Chapter 24
Angel
T he man’s jaw cracks, a tooth flies out, and blood spatters from his mouth as my fist connects with his chin. The skin of my knuckles splits open, like an orange splitting from its peel, but I barely notice. All I can focus on is my rage. The same rage I’ve felt since we discovered Skye’s betrayal.
The man falls to the ground, unconscious, but another takes his place, barreling toward me as he tries to tackle me to the ground. I dodge his attack, kicking out with my thick leather boots and connecting with his ribs. He doubles over, winded, and I unleash a flurry of fists. Around us, I can hear the sounds of Drifter, Gunner, and Buzz fighting, too, while the rest of our members jeer and watch the action as if it’s a live boxing match.
It’s been like this almost constantly since Brewer’s murder. Fights between the Angels of Havoc and the Demon Riders have become commonplace, it’s an all-out war. Mostly, they’ve been bar fights, but the trouble is escalating, they’ve started running our guys off the road and recently they even firebombed one of our warehouses. Each time we fight back with fury, giving as good as we get. Tonight, these assholes made the mistake of entering our turf. They came unarmed, which means they’re stupid or cocky, probably both. It seems they thought they could intimidate us and act like they weren’t scared of us. If they aren’t, they should be.
Having discovered that the woman we were falling for was playing us for fools, the four of us have a lot of rage to vent, even more than usual and we’re hardly teddy bears. Focusing on vengeance for Brewer and fighting the Demon Riders helps us block out thoughts of what we’ve lost.
I’m barely aware of what I’m doing, I’m just pummeling the guy on autopilot, lost under the red mist of rage, until I hear Gunner’s voice behind me.
“Angel. He’s had enough.”
My surroundings become clear once more and I realize that the man in front of me resembles an overripe tomato, face purple and red with bruises, eyes swelled shut. I release the grip I had on his shirt, and he collapses to the floor, his friends who aren’t as badly hurt tentatively get to their feet, defeated, holding up their hands in surrender and looking toward their friend. Waiting for my permission, worried they’ll be next.
“Go,” I say jerking my head toward their friend, “Take him with you. If you come back again, we’ll kill you.” They rush to do as they’re told, as they reach the exit I add, “Tell your president he’s a coward and an errand boy for the pigs and government, he goes against the biker’s code, and he’s not worthy of his title. The Demon Riders members should think long and hard about that. Brute picked the wrong side.”
They scuttle off to lick their wounds. We’ve sent a message. For now, they’ll leave us alone. But I don’t doubt that they’ll be back, next time with guns, their president, Brute, is testing the waters, looking for weaknesses. Even if Brute finds none, he’s a fool and too cocksure for his own good. He won’t let this go. Especially not if he feels like he’s got backing from the cops and Bill Anderson, plus millions of dollars to gain. He’s getting greedy, Brute wants what we have on top and it’s becoming clear he’ll do anything to get it.
With the action over, the patrons of the bar return to drinking as though nothing happened. Tammy and the club bunnies come out from their hiding places and return to business as usual, Tammy pouring beers, filling the many empty glasses there now are, and the girls return to flirting with the members and prospects.
Drifter approaches me, wiping sweat from his brow as he twists the top off his beer and throws me another bottle. “You alright, Prez?” he says, his voice concerned.
“Never better,” I say, taking a swig of beer.
“You sure ‘bout that? You almost beat a man to death,” he presses, evidently worried about me.
“Fuckers had it coming,” I grunt.
“And this has nothing to do with Skye?” Drifter asks.
“Don’t say her fucking name,” I growl.
He holds up his hands in surrender, “I’m just saying man, we’re all hurtin’. Just you know… you can talk to us. You know that right?”
I let out a sigh, the last thing I want is to take things out on my best friends. My brothers. They’re hurting as much as I am.
“Yeah. I know man,” I say, clapping him on the shoulder.
Buzz and Gunner cometo join us then and we sit in our usual spot downing beers, more or less in silence save for the odd comment about work, bikes, or football. Our PI is still looking into things for us, he was able to confirm that the company that supposedly bought the Angels of Havoc’s share of the land is associated with Bill Anderson. If Bill is able to convince a judge that the document is legitimate then all of the land becomes his, well his and his stepdaughter’s.
Seems as though Skye was in on this the whole time, perhaps they planned it together. Maybe they thought she could convince Brewer to sign it all over to her, figured a soft-hearted old man losing his marbles with not long to live would give it to the granddaughter figure he never had. The child of the man he loved like a son. I feel sick at how easily Skye manipulated us.
Never again will I let another woman get close enough to hurt me, to hurt us. It’s bad enough that I feel this way, but if I could, I’d take the pain of my brothers too. To seduce and manipulate me, or any one of us is one thing, but all four? That’s diabolical. Gunner’s been silent about the whole thing, no surprise there, but I’m sure it’s hit him the hardest. Buzz and Drifter are hurting, Drifter hides it with jokes as usual and Buzz has lost himself in investigating Bill Anderson and his whole family, convinced that Skye couldn’t have really been out to get us. For now, I’ll let him be in denial. I wish I could have his conviction that Skye is the girl we thought she was.
Our maudlin drinking session is interrupted by some unexpected visitors to the club. Three young women in their early twenties come busting through the door like there’s a fire. They look like they’ve come straight from a nightclub, which isn’t unusual for here, but they most certainly aren’t club bunnies. These girls look as out of place here as tofu in a barbecue joint.
The leader of the group, a leggy blonde who looks like an all-varsity cheerleader, marches over to the bar followed by her two companions—a cute-looking Asian chick in over-the-knee socks and a miniskirt that leaves little to the imagination, and a tall, rather shy girl with bangs.
“What in the Charlie’s Angels shit is this?” I mutter, watching them closely.
“Maybe they could be Angel’s Angels,” Drifter quips with a wink.
Tammy points us out and the blonde marches over followed by her nervous-looking friends.
“Oh shit, they really are looking for you!” Buzz guffaws.
“Angel?” the blonde demands, hands on her hips. “And I assume you must be Buzz, Drifter, and Gunner,” she adds looking at the others.
“Who’s asking, sweetheart?” I ask flashing her my signature smile that makes chicks melt, though my heart isn’t in it.
Unimpressed, the girl rolls her eyes. “Ew. No, gross. Skye might like that shit but…” she starts.
The Asian girl interrupts her, “Meghan! Can you get to the point? Skye’s in danger!”
This catches our attention. “You know Skye?” Buzz asks.
Though I don’t want to be, I’m immediately worried about Skye. “We’re not falling for any more of Skye’s tricks,” I grunt, swigging my beer and looking away from them.
“I told you they wouldn’t help us,” Meghan says to her friends.
“Please, just hear us out and then we’ll go, okay? We don’t want any trouble,” the Asian girl says.
“Then you came to the wrong place,” I reply coldly.
“Angel, I think we should hear what they have to say,” Buzz cuts in.
I stay silent and swig my beer which the girls take as approval. The Asian girl takes a breath and starts speaking, her voice panicked and frantic.
“We were at a club tonight. Skye felt sick and wanted to go home, I went for the others and when I came to the back entrance we were going to leave from I saw two big guys pushing her into the back of a van!”
“So… why come to us? Sounds like the cops’ problem,” I reply trying to sound unbothered though inside my mind is already racing thinking of what could be happening to Skye now.
“Because, dickwad, Lucy says the guys looked like you… bikers,” Meghan says accusingly glowering at us. I have to admit, this chick’s got balls.
Me and the guys share a look, could the Demon Riders have taken Skye?
“Well? Was it you?” Meghan demands.
“No. We didn’t take Skye,” Buzz answers.
“Then who did?” Lucy anxiously.
“There’s a rival club, the Demon Riders MC, they might have taken her. If they think she’s important to us…” Buzz says the worry evident on his face.
“Considering the Demon Riders are working with Skye’s dear old stepdad I think she’ll be just fine,” I drawl. “It’s probably a trap. You could be in on it.”
“Ugh, what did Skye ever see in you?” Meghan says, “You’re as stupid and pig-headed as you look. I can’t believe she’s spent weeks crying over you.”
“I’d watch your fucking mouth in my bar, little girl,” I snap, patience wearing thin.
“Would all of you cut it out! While you’re wasting time arguing Skye could be being hurt!” the tall one shouts, surprising us all into falling silent. She takes a deep breath, as surprised as us by her outburst. She looks at me, fixing me in the eyes though it seems to be hard for her to do so. “Look. You don’t have to help. But at least hear us out.”
“We wouldn’t be in this situation if they’d heard Skye out,” Meghan snaps.
“Meghan please!” the girl yells, holding her hand up to silence her friend. I nod for her to continue. “Yes. Skye didn’t tell you about Bill. But she didn’t come here because of him. She really did want to find out more about her dad, and who her mom is, all that was true. But she did have another reason for coming. We dared her to. You see, she was there that night at the gala, she saw you speaking to Bill, and she wanted to find out why. She hates him, she wants to find out the truth about Bill and expose him. She hasn’t spoken to him since she found out what he’s really like. She was always on your side.”
“And now these biker dudes have taken her to get to you and you can’t be bothered to help her!” Meghan jumps in.
“You expect us to believe that Skye’s stepfather just happened to decide to con an old man into half of his land, the half promised to the Angels of Havoc, and not the other half, the half that was left to none other than his stepdaughter, Skye, and she had no fucking idea? She had nothing to do with his plans?” I reply.
“Wait? What will? Skye doesn’t know anything about a will,” Trish adds, genuinely confused.
Before I can speak, Drifter finally weighs in. “Angel, I’m inclined to believe them.”
“Me too,” Buzz agrees enthusiastically, “I knew something was off, Skye couldn’t be that good an actress.”
“And you, Gunner?” I ask.
He thinks for a moment before speaking. “I think, no matter what Skye’s real motives are, if the Demon Riders have her it means nothing good. Either they think it will hurt us, and to let it slide is to seem weak, or they plan to force her into handing over her land or helping Bill in some way.”
He has a point. We should at least find out the Demon Riders’ motivation and get to the bottom of this once and for all. We can rescue Skye, we owe her that much. It doesn’t mean we have to forgive her. Though from the looks on the other’s faces, it seems they’re buying the girls’ story.
“Alright. We’ll find her,” I agree.
The collective relief from everyone else is palpable.
I sure as shit hope this girl is worth it. I should have sent her packing the moment she walked into our lives.
I can’t let go of the anger I feel toward Skye. Not yet. Because if I did, then the fear I feel for her life would overtake it. I don’t want to admit it to myself, but the thought of something happening to Skye hurts me more than anything she’s done.
I realize that no matter what, I’d ride into the depths of hell to save her.
And that’s pretty much what we’re about to do.