3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
ACE
C hains and Razor both went at the fucker as he cowered behind the glass partition at the shop. I was getting sick of these low level fuckers who wouldn’t give up their boss. I needed to know who was running the drugs in town, so we could come to an agreement. I really didn’t relish the idea of getting violent all the time, especially when there was a better way to conduct business.
Bear moved to me, pocketing his phone. “We gotta get back. Hawk needs us.”
“Can’t Hawk do anything on his own?” I groaned.
“Apparently you’re not going to like it, so I’m guessing you need to be there.”
I closed my eyes in search of the strength to deal with something else that was going wrong in my life.
It had been days since I’d been in Sheridan and still she hadn’t come by, she hadn’t called and for the life of me I couldn’t find anyone in the clubhouse who had her number. I could find it, sure, but I wanted her to want me to have it.
If I asked Orla, I’d never hear the fucking end of it, so that was out. I was getting frustrated.
Pushing off the table I was sitting on while watching the show the enforcers were putting on, I signalled to them that I was leaving. Bear could stand by and give them whatever they needed. I grabbed my helmet and mounted my bike, ignoring the eyes on me, and took off back to the clubhouse. It was Tuesday afternoon. What could possibly be going down in the clubhouse that Hawk couldn’t control? He was my fucking VP for a reason, because I knew he could handle it.
The fucker.
I pulled into the compound, tossing my helmet on the back of my bike and heading down the gravel path to the clubhouse. Club members, tradesmen and some of the prospects were constructing the buildings around us, rebuilding them to be a hub for everything Ghost Rebel MC. This compound was going to be epic, and I couldn’t wait to see it when it was all done up.
One place we could stay indefinitely and keep everyone safe, and on the grounds. It had been a dream of my grandfather’s when he founded the damn chapter all those years ago.
I moved through the front doors and located Hawk behind the bar, a look of unease on his face as he motioned to the booth by the other side of the wall. I turned to see two women sitting there, worry written all over their faces.
No…not women.
Girls.
“What the fuck?” I ground out. “How old are you?”
The redhead looked to the other one, before addressing me. “Sixteen, sir.”
Sir?
Fuck me.
“Get the fuck out of my clubhouse,” I growled at them.
“Ace,” Hawk came over to me, his concern real grave now. “I’ve called their dad.”
“Okay, good.”
“No, man,” he said. “Their dad is Neal Foley. The police chief in town.”
I groaned in frustration. A different type of frustration from before. This was just fucking perfect.
I looked back over at the girls, both of them cowering, and suddenly I felt a little bad for going off on them.
“Did you really call our dad?” the blonde one asked.
“Yeah, kid,” Hawk said. “What did you expect me to do?”
“Maybe, call our Mama.”
“Well, the problem with that, kid, is I don’t know who that is. I’ve seen you with your dad in town.”
The redhead stood up and a familiar feeling hit me, but I couldn’t place it. She looked at me with deep green eyes that immediately brought me back to my school years when I looked into similar green eyes, pleading with me not to tell the teacher she’d copied my test.
My chest fluttered just as the doors to the clubhouse slammed open and I saw an infuriated Sheridan standing there, her eyes briefly locked onto mine, an expression of want on her face, before she turned on the girls.
“What the fuck do you think you girls were doing?” she screamed at them.
“Mama, I’m sorry,” the blonde one proclaimed. “It was Ryleigh’s idea.”
“Bitch, no it wasn’t,” the redhead spat back. “It was Shauna!”
“I don’t give a fuck, get out of this clubhouse before I beat your asses silly.”
“Oh fuck,” I heard Hawk mutter behind me, but I couldn’t turn to see his ass laughing as I realized that Sheridan…my Sheridan…had teenage daughters, and they had just come to the clubhouse during the day.
The girls filed out of the clubhouse and I saw Sheridan turn to me, a look of apology on her face. Hawk cleared the men out, leaving just us.
“I’m sorry, Cooper, I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Or at all.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t want you to know about them because of the way you’re looking at me right now. I don’t know…I just wanted to spend time with you again, like it was before. Before my life got shit. I didn’t actually think you’d want more than a tumble anyway.”
She was married .
To the fucking police chief.
It hurt. There was no denying that. A pain I’d never known possible levelled the breath from me to the point I couldn’t form the words to respond. She’d heard what I said…that I wanted her, that I was going to make her mine. Then she ghosted me, and now I find out she was married to the fucking police chief when she knows how bad that could get for the club.
“Take them home,” I told her, defeated.
“Cooper,” she tried to reach out, but I shrugged her off before her touch melted the ice forming in my chest. “Please.”
“I think it’s best you don’t come back here,” I said, anger lacing my tone. “You aren’t meant for the biker life.”
Sheridan nodded, tears falling down her cheeks silently. I wanted to reach out to her, but something pulled me back. I watched as she backed up and left the clubhouse.
I headed back to the room I had in the clubhouse for times when I was too drunk to ride home, and slammed the door. I leaned against the door, my breathing laboured with anger and hurt. Turning around, I swept everything off the top of the chest of drawers, letting it crash to the ground. My fist made its way into the wall, punching through the plywood. I pulled it out, blood dripping down to the ground as I moved back, and fell on the bed. My knuckles hurt, throbbed actually, but I didn’t care.
Sheridan had used me.
And I’d fucking let her.
SHERIDAN
“We’re sorry, mama,” Ryleigh said after I drove them out of the compound. I saw the tears running down their cheeks, and I felt my heart break for them. I’d been a dumb kid too, and probably did a lot worse than what they’d done. In fact, I spent many nights there, drinking with Cooper, Casey and Orla.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You’re teenagers, you need to act out. I just wish you didn’t act out on the week your dad has you. You know he’s really angry about this. Of all places to go, why would you go there?”
“Do you know those guys?” Shauna asked me. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw both of them looking at me with their innocent eyes and confusion.
“Yes, baby, I do,” I said. “I grew up with them, we went to school together.”
The way they looked at each other as if they had a silent, secret language had always freaked me out. Even as babies, they did it.
“That guy…he looked so confused when he saw you.”
“He didn’t know I had kids,” I told her, a pang of pain spreading throughout my chest. I hadn’t wanted him to know, because I didn’t want him to tell me he would take care of us and make all my problems go away. He couldn’t do that, so I didn’t want to feel that hope. Being with him had made me feel safe, it always did. Even back then before I knew about the deep, dark shit in the world. “I think he was just confused.”
“You must be really great friends, then,” Ryleigh scoffed. The two of them laughed, and I let them. I didn’t want them to think about the trouble they were about to be in when I got to Neal’s house. I dreaded to think what was about to happen, not to them, but to me. He never touched them, thankfully, but there was no way in hell I would escape without a little pain.
I grit my teeth and pushed forward. For them, I would take on every man in the town. For my babies, I would take every pain away from them.
I turned into the street Neal lived on, and I caught the glances between Ryleigh and Shauna in the backseat. They didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to be here either, but I knew I had no choice. He was powerful, and even if I ran from Kilkenny, he’d find me and bring the girls back.
It was better to confront Neal straight on than run and hide. I’d learned that the hard way.
“Maybe he’s not home,” Ryleigh said, her voice all but a whisper. When I turned into the driveway, we all looked over at his car, the Kilkenny Police Department insignia on the side.
“He’s home,” I said.
“You don’t have to come in,” Shauna said, leaning forward. “Just drop us off.”
I hated that she knew what was about to happen. There was only so much I could hide behind closed doors, especially when he got high and drank rum. He would start in the bedroom, and the punishment would continue everywhere else.
“Girls, you go inside and go to your rooms. Understand?” I said, grabbing my bag and opening the door to my car.
“Mama.”
“No,” I said, firmly. “You go straight upstairs and leave your father to me.”
They both nodded hesitantly before I got out and they followed me up to the front door of my former home. This home held so many bad memories. I couldn’t remember any good ones, but I was sure that there had to be some at least.
The door swung open before I could knock and I looked into the dark brown eyes of my ex-husband. I could immediately tell he’d been drinking, and let’s face it, he was probably high. I wish I didn’t have to take the girls back to this.
He moved his eyes from me to the girls, cowering behind me, and back to me. “Get the fuck inside.”
He stood to the side, and I pushed inside with the girls. I pointed upstairs for them to go.
“Where the fuck do you think you two are going?” he spat, slamming the front door, locking us in. They paused where they were.
“Neal, come on, they’re safe, that’s the main thing.”
The girls ran upstairs, leaving me with him towering over me, fury written all over his face. I braced myself for what was to come.
“Let’s face it, Sheridan, they’re taking after their slut mother.”
I stood there and took the abuse, like I did everytime.
“They’re teenagers, Neal, they’re going to do shit you don’t want them to do.”
“Maybe they’re just seeing you spread your legs for those filthy assholes and want to be like you. Maybe it’s time for me to take full custody for their sake.”
I started to breathe heavier, my mind reeling. How did he know I had been to the clubhouse?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.
His chuckle was dark, tinged with the danger I was in. “Really? You didn’t spread your filthy legs open for the president of the club at the lake last night?”
How the fuck did he know that?
He grabbed my face, his fingers squeezing my jaw painfully, shoving my mouth open like a fish. Neal shoved me against the wall.
“You think I don’t have eyes on you at all times, slut?” he asked, his voice all but a sneer. “This town knows you belong to me. You think you can go off and live your life, spreading your slut legs, and embarrass me?”
I tried to breathe through the pain he was causing in my face. His hand went to my jeans, pushing his hand roughly down the front of it to fondle me hard. I was drier than the sahara right now, so every poke and prod was painful as he tried to get his own rocks off. I didn’t try to pull away. I knew what would happen if I did.
“I don’t even want this anymore,” he said, pulling me off the wall before he shoved me back on it. The wind was knocked from my lungs for a moment as I tried to focus my breathing through the pain he was causing in my mouth. “God knows what you’ve picked up from those bikers. He probably shared you with the entire club.”
He let go of my face and immediately I tried to rub the area. He slapped me across the side of the face so hard that I felt my head snap to the side. My hands shook as I tried to hold myself up against the wall. If I fell, it would get worse.
“You will go to your apartment, pack your shit and move back in here,” he said with a malice I couldn’t comprehend. Where was the Neal I had married? Where did he go? “You won’t be seeing them anymore. In fact, they’ll be gone from Kilkenny by the end of the month. You will go back to being my loving and ready wife, whenever I want your cunt. Do you understand me?”
I didn’t respond.
That was a mistake.
He balled his fist and punched me in the stomach. I grunted in pain, bending over, trying everything to will everything in my stomach to stay put. I fell to my knees, clutching at my stomach, my face burning from his slap, unable to move.
“Oh, on your knees, huh?” he laughed, evilly. “Well, if you insist.”
The sound of his belt unbuckling and dropping to the ground had me jumping, even though I knew what was coming. I’d been in this position so many times, and I knew there was no way out of it. He was too hopped up on whatever it was he’d taken.
He wouldn’t be able to get hard.
It would be a soft, flaccid cock being shoved into my mouth a few times before he gave up. He’d punch me, and I would drop. He’d leave me alone.
I closed my eyes as he pulled his cock out, smacking me on the side of the face a few times, before he pushed on my jaw just like before, forcing my mouth open.
“Wider,” he ground out. My eyes opened, only to see his cock was hard.
Fuck.
He gripped the back of my head and slammed his cock into my mouth, hitting the back of my throat hard. I gagged around it, much to his desire as he slammed himself into my mouth, fucking my face hard. The grip he had on my hair was enough to force my head up and down his cock, as he threw his head back in pleasure. I could feel his precum in the back of my throat, making me want to throw up. I willed myself to do just that so he would stop, even if it meant I’d cop his wrath afterward. Nothing could be as bad as this.
I didn’t want his cock in my mouth. I wanted Cooper’s.
He’d been unbelievable the other night. I hadn’t wanted it to end. If I hadn’t needed to get back to my kids, I would have gone back to his place and let him show me all the things I’d missed.
My eyes watered, not just from the brutality of Neal, but from the loss of Cooper. I’d seen the way he looked at me.
He was furious.
A couple more pumps and I felt Neal pull out of me, jerking his release off onto my face and in my hair. I let the warm spools hit my face, counting down the minutes until I could wash it off.
“At least you’re good for something, whore,” he said viciously as he tucked his dick back into his pants and did them back up. I crumpled to the floor, feeling like I was going to pass out.
“Clean yourself off,” he said, angrily. I tried to make a move to do that when my arms gave out. “Stupid bitch.”
His foot landed in my side. Pain ricocheted throughout my entire body, all the way down to my feet. I cried out, which only forced him to do it again, and again. His cum dripped down into my eyes, forcing them closed from the pain as I tried to crawl up the stairs to the bathroom. I prayed the girls had stayed in their rooms as I’d told them to.
Please…don’t let them see me like this.
I’d made it up to the bathroom, even though it had taken me several minutes, and looked in the mirror. I gasped when I saw my reflection. My lip had a cut on the side of it which was bleeding, his cum was all through the top of my hair and caked on my face. My eyes were wet, tear stains down on my cheeks. My body ached like nothing else, my eye stinging from the cum that had seeped into it. I turned on the faucet and grabbed one of the face washers to dab at my eye. My muscles ached, and I remembered back to the first time he’d shown me his true colours. The first time he’d raped me.
I’d been broken.
Unable to move, to feel, for days. He’d taken that as permission to continue to beat and rape my body while I went to another place. I thought of Cooper, and that dazzling smile. It had kept me from looking at his ugly, grunting face as he tried to take what he wanted from me.
I wiped the cum from my eye. The pain wasn’t subsiding, if anything, it was getting worse. A timid knock on the door told me the girls had come to check on me.
“Go to bed,” I called out but it didn’t come out very clearly. I looked back in the mirror when everything started to shift and blur. My hands slipped from the counter and I fell. Hard.
I was faintly aware of the door opening and my girls rushing to the floor where I laid.
“Mama, mama,” they shook me, their voices frantic.
“Call 999!”
“No,” I grumbled, forcing the energy to speak. “No, don’t call them. Put...put me in bed.”
“Mama, you’re bleeding and probably have a concussion.”
“No…don’t call them.”
“They’ll call Da, won’t they?” Shauna replied. She’d always been the smarter one, the one that caught on faster as to what was happening with Neal.
“Yes.”
“She needs help,” Ryleigh squealed, her voice trembling.
“Find her phone,” Shauna said. “Call Orla.”
“No,” I said loudly. I knew what she’d do, and I didn’t want her pulled down into this shit. She couldn’t tell the club. They’d go after him and then the whole of Kilkenny would be at war.
“Who then?”
“Just put me to bed.”
“Get her phone,” I heard Shauna yell. “Find the other number she called the most recently. There has to be someone who can help.”
Ryleigh ran down the stairs to get my bag, I could barely see or speak when she returned.
“There’s a number here for someone called Casey.”
No.
I tried to call out for them to stop, not to call him, but nothing came out. Ryleigh dialed the number just as everything started to fade to black.
ACE
I dropped my bag at the bar and looked over the papers Eagle had left to sign for the drinks for the bar. Bear and Hawk stood there, looking me up and down from where I tried to ignore them.
“Where we goin’?” Hawk asked me. He never left me alone, being my VP, he knew he needed to back me up, but I also didn’t want his voice of reason in my head.
“You aren’t invited,” I said to him without looking up. I signed what I needed and handed it back to Kirby. “I’m taking Savage and Viper with me.”
He sighed, but didn’t push the matter. His phone dinged and he looked down, his expression changing from annoyance to concern.
“What is it?”
He didn’t answer, just moved out of the clubhouse to take the call. It wasn’t like him to ignore me like that but I was too hopped up on anger to follow him.
“How long will you be gone?” Bear asked me.
“I’m going to see the Nomads over in Limerick. We’ll be back in a few weeks.”
Bear nodded. “You sure you don’t want anyone else?”
“I’ll take Kendrick with me. He needs to learn about the longer runs.”
Kirby ran off to tell Kendrick to get ready, leaving me with just Bear in the clubhouse. He was looking over at me with a brotherly concern, but I knew he was going to say something. He always did.
He loved Sheridan like a sister. She’d protected him when he couldn’t protect himself back then.
Hawk headed back inside, his face full of emotions I couldn’t read, but he didn’t say anything. Savage and Viper came out with their bags and I headed out the door. Kendrick could catch up with us at the gate.
I headed to my bike, remembering her on the back of it, like she belonged there. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to rid my mind of it, before I tied my bag to the back and mounted the bike.
Kendrick ran out with Bear at his back.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I asked him once he got to me.
“Shut up and lead us,” he said, tying his own bag to the back of his bike and joining us. Hawk was at the door of the clubhouse. I knew it was Hawk who sent Bear with me.
Somehow, he knew I would need someone that went back that far. If it couldn’t be him, he would send Bear. Some days I wish that fucker didn’t know me so well.
I revved my bike and led the boys out of the compound and down the road, headed out of Kilkenny. I ignored the passers by and pushed on, getting the distance between me and Sheridan that I needed.