Thirty-Seven
I t definitely didn’t start well, and things only got worse from there. It was a day of people arriving, and hating on Micro in varying stages, including Ice, who showed up with Ryder and Has-Been. They’d arrived to work with Grease on putting up more cameras, and increasing his ability to monitor the entire compound, and none of them were overly friendly to Micro, although they were all very kind to me.
“Do you have to be so snippy with him?” I asked Ice, the fiftieth time he snapped at Micro for asking a question, and although Micro stroked my arm and said it was okay, it really wasn’t.
“I’m here on orders from my Pres, and I’m doing my job, love, I don’t have time to pander to that cunt, thanks.”
Oh my god. Stupidly, I reached out and smacked the back of Ice’s head, and he whirled on the spot with a snarl, which had Micro shoving in between us, and then Ryder cursing and pushing all of us apart.
“Look, the sooner we get this all done, the sooner we get out of your hair and back home. Why don’t you just leave this to us, and go focus on something that’s not right here?”
I flipped him off with both hands, and he barked out a laugh.
“Exactly, love, I knew you’d be on board. We just wanna get this done, and get back home to our old ladies, that’s all. It’s a shitty drive, you know that.”
They’d come in a van, because of the equipment they’d had to bring with them, so I guess they’d have enjoyed it more on motorbikes.
Micro left the room, but I hung back for a moment, while they placed two cameras in the ‘Church’, which was apparently just a meeting room.
“You should go with your old man, darlin’. We’ll get finished up and get gone.”
“He’s really trying, you know. He’s done so much good since he’s been here, since he’s been with me.”
Has-Been dragged the grey beanie off his head, and ran a hand over the spiky hair he generally kept covered up, then replaced the hat.
“The thing is, any good he does now doesn’t stop my old lady from waking up screaming, because of what he did. Imagine being a fucking virgin, and being trapped with a big guy who’s threatening all kinds of sexual assaults, and gets his cock out in front of you. Imagine fearing that that monster will end up being your first. He wasn’t, but she still lives that horror again and again. So he can do all the good he wants, but he will always be the fucker who terrorised the woman I love, and scarred her for life.”
He slammed down a box of equipment and stormed over to the far corner, and I swallowed hard.
“I guess I deserved that.”
Ryder sat me down, while the other two carried on working, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before he spoke.
“I think what you deserve is better than what you’re ending up with. I’m glad he’s a good man for you, but it’s too late for him to fix what he did, and he knows that. Right now what he’s trying to do is make amends in his own way, but there will always be a lack of trust with him, because we lived through the hell he created for us. I was lucky that my old lady wasn’t targeted by him, but four of them were, and that’s four too many.”
Damn . I knew that he was being honest with me, and I knew that Micro had done awful things in the past, while he tried to avenge a man who didn’t deserve it.
“How can you sit here and back him up, after what he did?” Has-Been was back, resting his palms on the table as he glared at me.
“How can you justify what he did, or decide that none of it matters, just because he’s nice now? What’s wrong in your head that he’s who you choose? I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but you can do better, and you should. You should get as far from him as you fucking can, because that’s all still inside him. He’s still a monster, and one of these days he’ll turn again, and when he does, you might be the only one in the fucking firing line.”
Ice hopped down from the ladder he was on, and let out a string of curses.
“If you two fuckers weren’t going to help me, you shoulda stayed at the fucking clubhouse.”
Ryder stood up again, grabbing the next set of equipment without a word.
“Listen,” Ice said, as he started to fill his arms with stuff, “if he turns nasty, you call me, you call Reacher, or Lissa, or fucking anyone. You call and say you need help getting away from him, and we get you out. I know my old lady thinks she can fix him, just like you do, and I hope to fuck you’re both right, because you stand to be the only one who gets destroyed before we can stop him. Never let it get to that point.”
I left that room after those words, and went to look for Micro, because their words were going around and around in my head, and starting to freak me out. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the man I’d met and fallen for, but it was more about the fact that they were starting to make me doubt what I’d seen in him. Was that the same thing? I wasn’t sure, but I needed to see him, to remind myself of who I was in love with, and when I found him, I’m not sure it helped at all.
He was holding a knife to the throat of one of his club members, and threatening to kill him, and the darkness in his eyes sent a bolt of terror right down my spine, as I felt like I was suddenly seeing the man they’d warned me he’d turn into.
“Soph?” I turned and ran from the room, and headed straight for my van, fully intending to get the hell out of here.
“Soph, Jesus, woman, will you wait?” Micro caught me up at the van, and used a gentle grip on my shoulder to turn me around, backing me up against the side of it. His fingers stroked my cheek, and there was no hint of that dark meanness in his eyes at all. Just concern. Worry. Fear .
“What happened, babe? Did one of those fuckers upset you? Hurt you?”
Did I just let their words get into my head, or was he really about to kill one of his members?
“I… what was happening in there?”
Micro blinked, cupping my cheek gently as he stared into my eyes.
“With Roadkill? That fucker just pulled the knife on me, and thought he’d take over the club. I’d disarmed him when you walked in, but I’m fine, I promise. He’s out though.”
Oh god. “You killed him?”
The rumble of a motorbike started up, and passed us, as Micro frowned at me, clearly wondering what the hell was going on with me.
“Did… you think I killed him? I mean, I coulda, but no, I told him to get the fuck out. They took his colours, and he just rode out. I’m not killing anyone who doesn’t deserve it, and he’s just some piss-ant, who thinks he can scare me.”
So I misjudged the whole situation, because of words put in my ear, by men who pretended to be doing the right thing. I was really starting to wonder who the real bad guys were, because everything kept shifting back and forth on me.
“I… I’m sorry. I guess I was freaked out when I saw the knife.”
Micro smiled gently, leaning forward to kiss my forehead.
“That’s a good reaction to seeing a knife, babe. Always run if you’re not sure you’re safe, but I’m hoping you’ll be running to me, rather than away from me, in future. Let me see if I can guess what happened. Those three cunts from back home put the fear of god into you, or more accurately, the fear of me, and then you saw the knife and thought you’d heard the truth.”
“God, I’m so sorry. I don’t want to listen to them, or believe them, but like Reaper, they’re determined to make me believe you’ll turn violent on me. I… I grew up in an abusive home, before… before my mum got out, and we moved here. I… it’s my greatest fear, that I’ll choose a man like my father, and live the hell my mum did.”
Micro
W hy the hell did they have to try fucking with her head? The poor thing had been through so much lately, and what she needed was to feel safe, and protected, and like the future would be fucking bright for her. I held her, until she stopped shaking, and then I begged her to head home, and get some rest, while I wrapped things up here. Once she’d driven off the site, I headed straight for those three fuckers, to sort it out once and for all.
“Okay, I can see you’re pissed, but wind it in. You have no legs to stand on, Micro.”
I shoved Ryder back a few paces, and glanced around for Has and Ice.
“You guys put the fear of god into that poor woman. What’s the matter with you?”
“Don’t like your old lady being messed with?” Has asked from behind me, and I turned, just in time to take yet another punch of the sucker variety. For fuck’s sake.
“Must suck to know you’re always going to be the fuck up, and never get away from what you did. She shouldn’t fucking trust you, and if I can find a way to get her away from you, I’ll do it.”
I dragged the back of my hand across my mouth, and there was blood. The fucker made me bleed.
“Has-Been, I didn’t know you hit like such a girl, but it’s all good. You got it out of your system, and you’re done. Can you all fuck off now?”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Sending us away like we’re your little bitches, here to do your bidding, instead of obeying our real fucking Club President. Something you could have done way back when, and you wouldn’t be a fucking leper now.”
Ice waited until I turned around, and smirked.
“I know you think you’re winning somehow with all this shit, but you’re just a tool Reacher’s using to get a job done.” He grabbed the front of my Rogues cut, a spare for now, because we’d just usurped a club, and lunged forward, hitting me in the face with his forehead. Jesus fuck.
I staggered back a few steps, when he shoved me back, and then I turned to look at Ryder.
“Your turn now?”
He shrugged. “They’re the ones whose old ladies went through hell thanks to you. I’m just here to see this gets done, and we get out of here. The cameras are up, and if you touch a single one, you’re toast. You don’t hold your business away from them, and you don’t hide a thing from us. Rocket, Stag, and Grease are here to keep you honest, and they’ll tell us every little thing you get up to. You think you can keep your old lady, good luck to you, but you so much as hurt a fucking hair on her head, and we’ll retrieve her, and leave you bleeding to death. Got it?”
I guess the important point there was that they’d take care of Soph if she needed it, even if I was the one she needed to be rescued from. Despite everything, I could respect that.
“Yeah, thanks. She’s good people.”
Ryder stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. Nothing you fuckers said was a lie, was it? I’m the cunt, and I know it. I promise you though, that woman is going to be treated like a fucking queen, and never need to call you guys for help, but I appreciate that you’ve got her back. So thanks. Can you fuck off now?”
They left, thank fuck, and I went to the bathroom to patch myself up, my face throbbing from Ice’s fucking headbutt, that fucker.
A gun barrel, pressing against the back of my head, as I straightened up, was just the icing on the fucking cake, wasn’t it? That click, when the gun was cocked… I knew that was the last sound I’d hear.