Chapter Twenty Four
Nashville
When we first arrive at Elegance, everyone is in panic mode. Nero is climbing off his bike as Fury and I get to the door and we stop to wait for him.
“What happened?” Fury asks.
“Ellie’s hurt. Not sure how bad, she’s on her way to the hospital.”
He walks into the club and we follow. There are a few people still here but they’re all related to the MC. Over in the corner the dancers are huddled together but the one person I want to see isn’t among them.
Nero walks through the room without looking at anyone and heads for the security room. I don’t see Charley when we get inside.
Beast is in there with Walker and a couple of other brothers, all of them staring at one particular screen. All I want is to go find her, but until I know what we’re dealing with, I have to stay here. Nero would have told me if Charley was hurt.
Beast points at the screen as we come to a stop beside him.
“Freeze it there,” he snaps. Blaze does as he’s told and looks up at the screen.
My jaw tenses as I figure out what I’m looking at. A man is standing with Ellie, her mouth is hanging open, her back bent forward, the man looks like he’s hugging her. His face is clear in the shot and as we stare, Blaze gets out a laptop and starts transferring the images.
“Is she alright?” I ask.
“Don’t know,” Beast snaps.
“How bad is it?”
“I said I don’t fucking know,” Beast snaps at Nero. He closes his eyes for a second when he realizes who he just yelled at, but Nero doesn’t say anything. “She’s alive. For now.”
Nero nods. There is nothing we can do for Ellie, but we can figure out who the fuck this guy is and why he went after her.
“How the fuck did he get a knife past security?” Fury comes into the room and looks at the screen.
“Play it,” Nero says. “From the start.”
Beast takes a few steps back and folds his arms across his expansive chest. He never takes his eyes off the screen. For a moment I watch him, but I need to see what happened too.
I’m not sure how deep he is in with Ellie, or if what Charley and I witnessed was a one-off ,but from his reaction, this is hitting him hard. He's really scared for her.
My attention is caught on the blonde hair and sleek back of the woman I’m worried about as she walks on to the screen, moving through the tables carrying a tray. She stops at a booth just out of shot of the camera. This is about watching Ellie, not Charley.
We all stand still and watch what looks like the man hugging her and helping her into a seat but the knife is plain as fucking day before he has a chance to put it away.
“Fuck,” Nero curses under his breath as Ellie slumps into the chair.
He is about to say something else when a tray comes sailing out of shot and hits the man right in the side of his head almost knocking him on his ass. He grabs his head and stumbles just as a little spitfire brandishing a bottle comes running onto the screen.
I stare wide-eyed as Charley launches herself at the man hitting him with the bottle enough that he drops the knife and runs away. It’s clear she is caught in two minds about what to do but I’m pretty fucking pleased to see she signals someone then runs to Ellie and does not chase the madman.
“Did she just throw her tray at his head?”
“Yeah,” Fury answers Stryker’s question. Despite the situation there is a hint of amusement in his voice. “Managed to disarm him too.”
Nero casts a look at me, then goes back to the tape. We all watch as Charley helps Ellie, Walker coming into the shot, then the dancers show up and start moving things, gathering around Ellie, doing what they can to help.
“There, that’s when she does it.” Beast points.
We all see Ellie passing Charley something. My heart starts pounding. Did Charley withhold something?
“I don’t know how she got it, but Ellie somehow managed to get this off the asshole.” He holds out a bloody card. Nero takes it carefully and flips it over. “Blaze is working on the number.”
“Getting this facial recognition sorted first,” he says, not looking up from his laptop.
“She also told Charley it was about a storm.”
We all look at Beast. I’m not sure if any of us are really surprised but we’re all really fucking pissed.
“Those were the words she used?” Nero asks.
“Charley didn’t know what she meant, but it’s pretty fucking clear to us.”
Ellie knows what is going on with Storm because she has been helping Nero try to find him. I watch my president as everyone talks around us. His head is lost deep in thought. He cares about Ellie, we all do but he’s slept with her more than a few times, before Taylor came into the picture.
We all have a soft spot for her. She is as loyal to the club as any brother.
“Where is Charley?” Nero asks.
“She went to the hospital with Ellie. I sent three guys with them and told them not to let either one of them out of their sight.”
She’s not even here? Fucking hell. I pace back and forth until Nero gives me a look. If it was Taylor, he’d want to leave too but he wouldn’t, and he expects that I will be the same. We know she’s okay, she’s safe, but that isn’t helping right now.
“Got it,” Blaze leans back in his chair. Nero bends down to look at the laptop screen. “Timo Kivisto. He flew into Baltimore last night, got a reservation at the Woodland under one of his aliases.”
I’m not surprised Blaze knows as much as he does already, since we walked in he’s been sat there working on his laptop.
“I want men there, now. Fury, Stryker.”
Fury heads out without question, Stryker has a dark look on his face that would scare the ever living shit out of even the hardest of men as he nods and follows.
“What the fuck is going on?” Nero turns and looks at us. None of us answer, because none of us can. “They’re going after our people. Not the club, not the ones that can protect themselves. Innocent people.”
Rebel comes into the room and sees what we’re all looking at. “Fucking knife is ceramic. That’s how he got it past the metal wands. Who is he?”
“A Kivisto. Working for Storm.”
“Fucking hell,” he snarls. “We need to get a handle on this shit.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Nero turns on Rebel. “You think I’m happy about this shit? That Storm is coming at us from every direction and angle and we can’t figure out where the fuck he is?”
Rebel doesn’t answer him. That is the most animated I’ve seen Nero since the night we stormed his house to protect his family.
He doesn’t usually get rattled easily, but he’s right.
There are too many variables. It’s like Storm has contacted every bad person he can find to send after us. It makes no sense.
“We find this guy and we bring him in. Blaze keep looking into these guys I want to know everything about them. Beast, Elegance is shut down for now until we know what we’re dealing with.
Make sure the girls get home and reassure them they’re still getting paid. Once we’re done, we go the hospital.”
“Everyone?” Rebel asks.
“Ellie is one of us,” Nero says. “Anyone not doing something to track down these assholes goes to the hospital. Until we know she is out of the woods, we stand by her.”
“I’ll stay here, keep working on this,” Blaze says.
We leave him and head outside. I go with Beast to talk with the dancers. Some of the brothers, Walker and Leo will see them all home. Except Lily, I call her over.
“Is Ellie okay?” she asks straight away.
“Not sure. I need Charley’s things.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Not happening.”
She looks like she is about to lose her shit, her fists clenching.
“Charley might be with you, and you may think you’re the only thing she needs right now, but Nashville, she is my friend and so is Ellie. I want to be there for them, both of them. Please.” She adds on.
Maybe she’s right. “Fine, get her things, you have a car?” She nods. “I’ll follow you.”
Lily runs off to the dressing room to get Charley’s clothes and I let Beast know what’s going on. For a brief moment I think about asking how he is but his expression tells me not to even try. He doesn’t know I saw him and Ellie together.
Once Lily is back Beast goes out front to let them know I’ll be escorting Lily and we all set off to the hospital.
People watch us, staring open-mouthed or backing up as we enter the hospital but that is nothing new, it happens wherever we go.
None of us give a shit about it as we get on the elevator.
Lily stands right at the front by the doors, not in least perturbed about being surrounded by bikers.
When the elevator doors open, we step straight out into a waiting area.
Rebel goes ahead to talk to the nurse at the station who looked up as we all walked out.
Lily is heading for the people sitting in the small alcove but I move faster.
My vision has tunneled onto the one person I needed to see more than anything.
The relief that floods me at seeing she is safe almost makes my knees buckle.
I knew she was, everyone said she was fine, I've even watched the replay of the videos on the security cameras at Elegance but nothing compares to having her in my arms, seeing for myself that she is safe and unhurt.
I don’t give a shit about anything else, or what people are going to say or even think, I scoop her up and Charley wraps her legs around me as I walk away from everyone into the first empty room I see, and kick the door closed behind me.
“Callum, I’m okay,” she says, stroking her fingers through the back of my hair.
I stop her from saying anything more by covering her mouth with mine. After a few seconds of hesitation, probably thinking this is not the time or place for this, she kisses me back, lifting up by pushing her hips against me and gripping the back of my neck tighter.
Until this very moment, I haven’t been able to relax. The rest of the shit can be worried about later, all that matters now is the woman in my arms.
I set her down on a counter by the window but don’t back up. She’s wearing a big red coat that looks as if it belongs to a firefighter which pisses me off, and I open it to get her out of it, thinking I should have brought the bag off Lily but I pause when I look down.
She is wearing the tiny little apron and shorts that she wears at Elegance and my blood boils at the thought of her being out there like that in front of my brothers and all those strangers.
All of that rage dampens when I see the blood. Ellie’s blood. She has sat here this whole time with blood drying on her. Most of it is on the clothes but her hands have crusts of dried blood on them.
There is a bathroom beside me, so I grab what I need, then come back and help her out of the coat and clean her off, the whole time Charley is silent watching me. Once I’ve done the best I can with the paper towels, I take off my cut and unbutton the shirt I’m wearing over a T-shirt.
No one can see her here, but I stand in front of her shielding her in case anyone comes in, as I untie the apron at her neck and peel it down.
It’s natural instinct to look down at her bare tits, at how her nipples pebble in the chilly air.
She wraps her arms around me again when I pull her against me, stroking my fingertips up and down her spine.
“Fuck, Charley,” I press my forehead against hers. “I’m mad at you.”
“Why?” she tries to pull back but I grip her neck to keep her there.
“You tried to fight him.”
“He hurt Ellie.”
“I don’t care.”
“If you think I was going to stand there and watch-”
I cut her off again with another kiss, because she is right, Charley did just enough to make that asshole back off, God knows what else he would have done if she hadn’t.