Chapter Eight #3
Once the straps were off, we rolled the mangled bike into the shop.
After Pike took off, I hung out at the shop for a little longer then headed back to the MC.
Seven had all the chairs on the tables and scrubbed the hardwood floors. Tank and Kodiak played a game of pool. I joined them, slumping into the couch.
“You ready for tomorrow night?” Tank asked.
Tomorrow, we’d be protecting a Bruno shipment coming in on the docks and hauled to the container yard. I wasn’t privy to the contents, only that we’d be fully armed.
I’d been in my share of fights, but I’d never pulled a gun on anyone.
Maybe it had more to do with my mom’s asshole husband.
The prick wore the badge. When he wasn’t beating my ass with a belt, he’d threaten to have it arrested.
He thought the gun and the badge gave him power over me, but it was my mom.
I was afraid she’d choose him over me, and then she did.
“I’m a little concerned,” I confessed.
Kodiak snorted and lined up his shot. Balls cracked, and I thought of McKelle. I pulled out my phone.
Cruz: Text me if you hear from Ryatt.
“Are you sure you should be wearing that patch?” Kodiak asked.
I glanced up from my phone. “Are you sure you should be asking me that? I’ve never worn another club’s colors.”
Kodiak laughed. “Fuck, kid, Hellers went to war over guns. I was running with Crawlers then, but the Heller reputation caused guys I knew to pussy out of a deal if it brought them into Heller territory. The patch means you don’t pussy out.”
Tank shifted his gaze to Kodiak. “The patch means we stand as one, but we don’t look for trouble. Doesn’t mean we take shit off anyone.” He turned to me. “You don’t carry a gun unless you’re willing to pull the trigger.”
I wouldn’t hesitate. The stories around the oil barrel reminisced about the war with the Crawlers, but also how those were the darkest days of the MC’s history.
“You need an unregistered gun. Talk to Jazzy. Sergeant at Arms has the key to the weapons locker.” He moved around the table.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.” He bent over the table.
“Get the gun tonight and meet me out at Bullet’s property tomorrow morning for target practice. You need to know how the weapon fires.”
One day wouldn’t make me a good shot, but at least I’d know if I couldn’t hit the side of a barn.
***
Later that night, the usual crowd gathered around the oil drum. Firewood snapped and sparked into the darkening sky. Sully, Bullet, and Rogue played cards with Butch and Seven.
Hana and the girls drank and danced. Blade and his crew sat at their table in the corner of the room. The president’s table had a perfect view of the chapel and the main doors.
I sat with Blue and Kiss. Kiss hadn’t seen Ryatt since the NA meeting this morning, and neither McKelle nor I had heard from him all day. McKelle was on her way.
A couple of scenarios formulated in my mind. I didn’t know Ryatt well enough to gauge his reactions. Had he lowkey been pissed this morning? He’d sat at the breakfast table like a member of McKelle’s family.
So maybe he’d changed his mind about prospecting for the MC because he’d be accountable to me. If it wasn’t the MC, maybe it was me. He wasn’t stupid. Just as I had to accept that she was going to continue fucking Ryatt, he had to realize she’d be back in my bed.
Another possibility had fear coiling in my gut and clawing at my thoughts. If he’d had a run-in with the Kings, he had no phone to call for help.
Romeo entered the MC with Dozer. “I’ll be right back,” I said to Blue then set my path to intercept them.
I’d wanted to wait, to have Ryatt as part of the conversation, but this was the reason for the patch. If Ryatt was in trouble, he wouldn’t face it alone. I trusted Dozer, and Romeo would want to have Ryatt’s back.
“Can we take a walk?”
They must have noted the serious tone of my voice because I headed out the door, and they followed.
Murph and some of the old timers stood around the oil drum. Vega and Kodiak revved the engine on Steele’s new ride.
“This is the second time today you’ve wanted to talk,” Dozer said.
“Same situation,” I said.
I didn’t want this conversation to be witnessed or overheard. We walked around the side of the building. “I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
There was an old mausoleum behind the church. Kiss talked about how she would come out here with Blade, Romeo, and the others. They smoked their first cigarettes out here, drank their first beers, and shared their secrets.
“Fuck, Doze, I miss this place.” Romeo dropped onto the step.
“Good memories.” Dozer slipped a cigarette between his lips. The flare of his lighter illuminated the area around us. Overgrown weeds surrounded the cracked and crumbling concrete.
I inhaled hard through my nose. I didn’t share other people’s business because I hated anyone else in mine. I knew how to keep my mouth shut.
But I was worried. The kind of fear that seeped into your bones, twisted your mind, and poisoned your thoughts until all you could focus on were the fucked-up possibilities.
Ryatt was important to McKelle, and important to Romeo. After last night, and this morning, he was important to me. I lit a cigarette and spilled the fucking tea.
“Ryatt’s in trouble with the Kings. That’s why he bounced last night.
They cornered him in the parking lot of Chrome.
He took off, and he lost his phone in the chase.
” I gave them the abridged version of everything he told me last night.
Why they were after him, and his plan for keeping out of their territory.
“He was supposed to meet me here today. I’ve hung around the MC most of the day waiting on him. McKelle hasn’t heard from him. The phone she gave him still isn’t taking calls or texts. He’s living in a fucking halfway house, one junkie away from getting his ass handed over to the Kings.”
Romeo paced the porch of the mausoleum. “We need to find him.”
“McKelle doesn’t know where he lives. The guy is nomad, no connections to anyone. No family.”
Romeo turned to Dozer. “Who do we know?”
Dozer tipped his head toward me but spoke to Romeo. “I’d have gone to Cruz.” He turned to me. “You were hitting trap houses with Blue when you were looking for Kiss. Any of those in King territory?”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t flying Heller colors. I’m not sure I’d get the same welcome.”
“You won’t find out anything from users,” Romeo said. “Kings are down on Washington Street. Let’s get the guys and take a ride.”
“He needs the protection of the club,” I said. “Pike’s moving out at the end of the month. You think the board would give a waiver and let another prospect rent a room?” I wrapped my hand around the back of my neck. “He’s not just my prospect,” I said. “I’ll cover his rent for a while.”
Money wasn’t a problem now that I was working with Tank.
“It won’t be a problem as long as a patch doesn’t need the room,” Romeo said.
An engine screeched, and a motorcycle headlight cut through the darkness.
I rushed around the side of the church. It would either be McKelle or Ryatt. As much as I needed to see McKelle, I hoped it was Ryatt. The fucker had my gut tied in knots.
McKelle ripped her helmet off and shoved it onto her handlebar as I rushed over to her.
“He’s not here,” she whispered.
His bike would’ve been parked along the side of the building with hers. I admit, I felt like a dick for teasing her about parking next to my Harley. It wasn’t funny anymore.
I held her close. “We’re going to ride out and look for him.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Stay here,” I said. “We’re going down to Washington Street.”
“He’s not there,” she said. “I drove around. If he’s hiding, he wouldn’t be there.
If he ran into trouble, he wouldn’t be on the street.
I didn’t know what to do so I checked the community center and downtown around the courthouse, too.
I think that’s where his PO is. I even rode down Maple.
I think that’s where he said he lived, but I’ve never been to the halfway house. ”
“Christ, he’s running from the Kings. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“The same things you are. That he’s in trouble.” She jerked her helmet from the handlebars. “I’m going.”
I sucked in a deep breath through my nose. This girl would fight me on the color of the sky.
“If you want to fight about this, we can fight later…after we find him.”
Dozer approached. “Bullet might have a contact. He knows everyone.”
I had a contact, and it had everything to do with the situation Ryatt was in. “I know someone. He knows he can trust me, and he knows I’ll wreck his fucking life if he gives me up to the Kings.”
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go,” McKelle said.
“Ryatt won’t be there, but Kane might know who has him.” I turned to Dozer. “His place is a convenience store of partying. Open late, seven days a week.”
McKelle sucked in a sharp breath. At hearing Kane’s name, the color drained from her face.
Hayley was Kane’s sister. I’d fucked up when I’d fucked Hayley.
I hadn’t considered McKelle and I to be exclusive, but really, I’d just been the fuck who’d taken her for granted.
I’d been a total asshole when it came to her feelings.
Hayley was a black stain on my soul because of how my actions had made McKelle feel.
But, for her—because I’d almost lost her then—I’d changed.
“Listen to me. I’m in and out. I’m not even going to say her name because she doesn’t matter.” I banded my hand around her nape and brought our faces close together. “This is about Ryatt. Kane runs with Kings.”
Her lip trembled as she nodded.
“Baby, I’ll find him.”
“I need to go, too,” she whispered. “Don’t make me stay. I can’t sit around here and do nothing.”
“See if you can access your phone on the cloud. If he’s on wi-fi we might be able to get a location.” A long shot and one I doubted would work, but it would make her feel like she was helping.
“The phone is old. I already tried.”
“You’re going to need motivation,” Dozer said to me.
“Jazzy has the keys to the weapons locker,” Romeo said. “You can’t ask her for a gun, or she’ll want in on the fight.”
“She isn’t here.” He pulled his keys from his pocket. “Enforcer and SaA have keys.” He smiled. “I’ll be right back.” He headed into the MC, leaving Romeo with me and McKelle.
“What are we rolling into, Cruz?” Romeo leaned against the bricks of the old church.
“Not we. Just me. You and Dozer don’t want in on this.”
Romeo flipped his hair from his eyes and smiled. “I’m pretty sure we do.”
“Hellers can’t walk into a King’s trap house.” I shrugged out of my cut and handed it to McKelle. “This one is on me.”
Her eyes widened. I’d said nothing was more important than the patch, but I was wrong. She was, and when I thought of anything happening to Ryatt, my gut clenched, and a hot flare of regret burned in my chest.
I understood why McKelle had become attached. I could feel him sinking his claws into me, too.
I put an inch of space between us and whispered so only she could hear. “I’ll explain everything later, but Ryatt is in trouble because of me.”
Kings wanted Ryatt because their guys were hit hard in a sting. That night was wild. Blue found Kiss—high as fuck—at Kane’s crib. I was there. Blue was there. Fuck, even Kiss was there. But not Ryatt. He was taking heat for something Blue and I had done.
One of the King’s dealers was dead, found in a bathtub. I knew because that’s where Blue and I left him. Blue’d warned Sam what would happen if he ever stuck another needle in Kiss’s arm. Sam didn’t listen.
“Stay here. Stay where I know you’re safe.”
Dozer came around the side of the building. “My dad said you need this for work.” Dozer ejected the loaded magazine. “Small, good beginner weapon. Safety is on.” He handed it to me. “Dad said he’ll take you out later to practice.”
I curled my fingers around the butt of the gun. “Doze, I’ve never fired a gun.”
Perhaps because my dickhead of a stepdad enjoyed taunting me with his. Back then, if I’d had one, I would’ve used it.
“If it’s between you and a gang banging King. Safety off, aim, and pull the trigger. Never touch the bullets without gloves. The gun is altered and unregistered. The only way you go down is if you’re caught with it, standing over a dead body. So, don’t be stupid.”
McKelle pressed her trembling fingers to her lips. “Don’t go alone.”
“He won’t be alone,” Dozer said.
I held her hand as we walked around the building. “Promise me you’ll wait here.”
“If you promise to find him.”
“Fuck, Micki, I’m not coming back without something. Kane knows Kings. I’ll get names.” I couldn’t promise anything more because I wasn’t going to break my word to her ever again.