Chapter 31 Luca
Luca
It has been the longest twenty-hours of my life.
Worse than when Tor’s eardrums were burst in Mercy.
She has no idea how angry I am she went back to the city, but it doesn’t outweigh the anger I have for King.
I ride up to the clubhouse door and barely stick around to turn the engine off and flick out the kickstand.
Slamming the door open, I’m met by Leo. King stands at the bar and Warren and the prospect hover close by. To Leo, I say, “Thanks, brother.” Then I point at King. “I’ll come find you when I’ve seen my old lady.”
I don’t hang around for an answer. He has no fucking choice but to deal with me. Rudi is halfway down the stairs on my way up.
“She’s awake now. I gave her a mild sedative early this morning, she slept most of the day. She’s calm.”
“Thank you.”
I take the rest of the stairs two at a time and burst into our room, noting three spots of blood on the floor before I focus on my wife curled up on our bed.
“Babe?” I say quietly.
She rolls over, sees me, then rushes up. By the time I reach the bed, she is clinging to me, her nails digging into the back of my neck.
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
“I got here as soon as I could. I’m here. I’m here.”
I’m content to hold her for long minutes before I pull back and get a look at her face. My blood boils at the bruises and swelling. Her eye is closed and angry. The bite mark on her shoulder has me gritting my own teeth.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“I’m a little sore all over but nothing a couple of painkillers won’t help.”
Sitting on the bed beside her, I ask, “What made you come back?”
“River wouldn’t settle. Aspen has the twins, Myles has a bazillion kids now, and Mom hasn’t been sleeping well lately. I didn’t want to ask for their help so I brought him where he knows.”
“You could have gone to Leo’s.”
“Holly has Roman. I wanted to come home. It was only one night earlier than planned.”
“And look at what happened in that one night.”
“You don’t need to remind me. She was in our room, Luc, wearing my clothes. That’s where I found her snooping in our things when I got back. It got out of hand quickly, she wouldn’t stop coming at me. I had to shoot her. I’m sorry, I know this will cause you trouble.”
“Like that fuckin’ matters to me. The Mayor can go fuck himself before I give a shit what he thinks.”
“She was his daughter, he could open an investigation.”
“And they’ll find nothing. I won’t let anything else happen to you.”
She cuddles into me, and I wrap my arm around her and kiss the top of her head.
“Did you shower properly?” I ask noticing her nails are clipped extremely short.
“Yes, Rudi scrubbed me until I was red raw, and Leo told King to burn my clothes.”
“Good.” It’s the least the fucker could do.
“Be honest, how much trouble will this bring the club?” she asks.
Thinking it over, I tell her, “Not much, the Mayor made the deal with the Haywards. It seems like a ‘them’ problem to me.” Kissing the top of her head again, I say, “You kill anyone who comes at you, Tor. I don’t care what the fall out is, I choose you over anyone else any day.”
She sits up and stares at me. “You look tired.”
“I’m surprised you can see anything out of that eye.”
“It’s blurry, but Rudi assures me it’ll go down in a few days. She’s been giving me the good meds,” she informs me, then adds, “She thinks Annabel drugged King and Princess, that’s why they didn’t come to help me.”
Closing my eyes, I balance the anger toward King and the notion there was a reason he fucked up so bad.
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be back.”
With one last kiss, I pull myself away from her and close the door behind me on my way out. Now I don’t have to keep my face straight for her sake, I let the anger ripple through me. As soon as my boots hit the bottom step, I point at the prospect.
“Update.”
“I’ll have one by the end of next week.”
Rolling my neck, I look at Warren. “Still fuck all,” he tells me.
Flexing my hands into fists, I roll my shoulders. “You’re telling me not one of you has anything to tell me.” I settle on King. “And you, you had one order. Keep that cunt away from my wife. My wife!” I bellow. “Now she has blood on her hands and marks on her body.”
“Luc, we were here alone. Victoria was meant to be in Willow’s peak.”
“Regardless, you fucked up. Tor said she was in our room, wearing her clothes, going through our shit. She already had the slip on you before my old lady got back.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ve been told she might have drugged you but fuck your sorry. Outside, now.”
I storm outside, shrugging out of my cut and pulling my hoodie and tee over my head. Dumping them on the chair, I step into our ring. It hasn’t been used in a while but it’s perfect for tonight.
King steps across from me.
“Defend yourself, or I’ll end up killing you with my bare hands and until we know if you were drugged or just slept your ass off, I won’t end your life,” I warn him.
I bounce on the balls of my feet, not that I need amping up to kick his ass.
“I really am sorry, Prez.”
“Like I said, couldn’t give a fuck about your apologies. Consequences, King. We always have them.”
I strike. My fist shoots out and lands on his jaw before he can get his guard up.
He shakes it off and lurches back when I shoot forward and land a right hook quickly followed by an upper cut.
He blocks both. Darting around him, I kick at the back of his knee, and he drops to the floor like a sack of shit.
Before he can get back up onto his feet, I kick his ribs twice and drop down and rain down blows to his head and one to his shoulder when he goes to roll onto his side.
I slip and he takes advantage of my fuck up.
He scrambles unsteadily up to his feet and comes at me.
The anger of being hit unleashing. He lands two punches before I turn my back and spin back around to clock him straight on his nose.
It bursts open, blood gushing down his chin and onto his chest. I step back and roll my neck.
Now he’ll have two busted eyes thanks to the broken nose.
I shake my hands out and look up to the top floor.
I can’t have shit going down in my own clubhouse. It was my mistake for thinking I didn’t have to spell it out for everyone. King steps toward me and holds one hand to his nose and the other out to me. I clasp mine to his and pull him against me.
“I can’t reiterate how much that woman means to me.
Anything, and I mean anything, happens to her, this club won’t mean shit cause I’ll burn everything down.
When I give you an order and it has anything to do with my old lady, you don’t sleep, you don’t do anything that will distract you from it. You hear me?”
“It won’t happen again.”
“Go see Rudi, she’ll look at your nose.”
He walks off and Leo steps into the makeshift ring passing me my cut and hoodie. “I like the way you do things here.”
“It sorts shit out. I can’t have them or me walking around with grievances building up and blowing up in our faces.”
He nods, knowing I’m right.
“Are you good now you’ve seen Victoria?”
I roll my neck to release the tension still residing between my shoulder blades. “I’ll never be good with what’s happened to her tonight. That bitch is lucky she’s already dead or I would kill her myself.”
“I know you won’t give a shit, but this will blow back on you.”
“Then I better get everyone on the same page.”
Putting my fingers to my mouth, I let out a sharp whistle. “Back room, now.”
Walking with my brother, he lights a cigarette, and I refrain from taking it from him. He sits to my side, and I slam the gavel down.
“The only people who knew she was here was the Mayor and the Haywards. As far as they’re concerned, we all woke up this morning and she had left.
Took her shit and ran. We’ve been out all day looking.
” The brothers nod. “It goes without saying Tor didn’t fight with her, didn’t shoot her.
In fact, Annabel rarely spoke, just read her books while she was here. ”
“If this does end up coming back at us, it was me who shot her, I’ll take the fall,” King says.
“It won’t come to that, but if the worst is to happen, then yeah, you fuckin’ will.”
He nods.
Taking out my phone, I hit up Jamie Boy’s number.
“It’s Luca Jackson. You got a minute to talk?”
“What’s happened?”
“The Mayor’s daughter. She’s run off. Got up this morning and she was gone with her things. We rode around looking but she’s gone.”
“Nothing on your cameras?”
“No, it’s like she had checked out our blind spots.”
“I’m surprised you have any.”
“Not for much longer. Anyway, since you made the deal, I’ll let you handle the Mayor. In future, if I’m gonna be babysitting, make sure they don’t fuck me over.”
“Sure.”
The call ends and I slide my phone back into my pocket. I slam the gavel down, and the room empties. Leo and I hang back.
“It’s scary how believable you are when you lie. I almost believed you.”
I laugh at my brother. “When it comes to her, I could make anyone believe anything.”
“I don’t doubt ya, brother.” He smiles. “Anyway, I gotta head back. I’ve got my own shit going on.”
“Thanks for riding out. I trust my brothers but it’s my brother I trust most with her.”
“No worries. If I ever need a psycho to protect Holly, you’re the first one I’d call.”
“Damn right.”
I walk him out and go to light a cigarette, but I don’t. Fuck if I’ve needed one, it’s now.
We hug it out and I watch as he rides off with my prospect following behind, making sure he makes it safely out of the city. I hang around until their lights disappear and after one last look around, I head back inside. Angel is sat at the bar with Rudi close beside him.
“I’m heading up for the night. Seriously, unless the place is burning down, or we’re being attacked, don’t fuckin’ disturb me,” I tell my VP on the way up the stairs.
I start undressing once I’m behind my own door. River is sleeping away in his cot and I pull the covers back and slip in behind my woman.
“Why were you fighting King?”
“Because he failed me.” Stroking her hair, I ask, “How are you feeling?”
She said Rudi has been giving her good meds but sometimes nothing can truly take away pain.
“I’ve felt worser pain. At least nothing is broken. In a week’s time I’ll be as good as new.”
“And how are you doing mentally?”
“It keeps playing in my head but there was nothing else I could do. She wasn’t stopping.”
“I told Jamie Boy she ran off before any of us got up this morning. You don’t have to think of her again.”
“I think it’s going to take a while.”
“Nah, she was nothing but a blip. No one remembers the blips.”
She rolls over until she is facing me.
I can barely look at her eye without the rage building back up inside me.
“There’s been so much death this year. I thought earlier, my dad and grandpa would tell me the same as you. The same as Leo told me. That it was self-defence and she fuckin’ deserved it, and it scares me because I hundred per cent agree.”
“Then there’s no reason to keep thinking about it.
She’s gone. Nothing will come back on you.
All you have to do is keep being the great mother you are and my wife.
Tomorrow, the sun will rise, and you’ll go out and water your plants.
We’ll have breakfast. It will be the same as the last morning we spent together.
But the next time I ask you to stay somewhere, will you fuckin’ listen? ”
Her laughter is quiet as not to wake our son. “I promise you, I will never come back until you say.”
“You better mean that, cause the ride here was a new level of Hell I’ve never experienced. I nearly stacked my bike three times and came close to shooting some trucker who nearly took me out.”
“I promise. What you say, goes.”
I smirk. “Anything?”
“Asshole.”