Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FREAK
I’d rather be captured and tortured by insurgents in some overseas hellhole than have to listen to what was being fed back through Trixie’s comms. While Genie couldn’t offer a guarantee that the positioning of her device would work, we’d fucking heard everything.
While I was still reeling from the strange desire to lock mouths with the woman who’d offered to put her life on the line to help my son, I’d had to hear her submitting to sex with two of the MDMC scum.
Like most of my club brothers, I don’t kiss club girls.
It’s an indication of intimacy. While I can only speak for myself as to the reason, in my case, I don’t want to lead them on.
At first, I excused my action as being down to her putting her life on the line to rescue Ace, but when I’d clenched her tightly, a rush of emotion had swept through me.
She might just be club property, but right then, she’d felt like she was mine.
I knew she’d hidden the comms device so no one would discover it.
I’d hoped she’d find some privacy and put it in her ear so we could have a two-way conversation.
I’d wished that even more when, after a torturous period when we didn’t know what she was up to, she’d managed to place it where we could just make out what was going on in the room where she found Ace.
Even though Toni had betrayed me, I didn’t like hearing her being hurt.
But when I heard Candyman threatening to take his belt to Ace, Tempest and Woody had to restrain me.
Then, when I heard Trixie come out of hiding and enter the room, again to save Ace, I’d fought like a madman to get free.
Candyman was going to rape her, and I knew it would have been brutal.
Somehow, my brothers had broken through the red haze that had consumed me and gotten my head back into gear.
But only when I realised they were ready to launch a rescue.
Now we’re speeding back to the clubhouse, wanting to put as much space between us and the fucking MDMC as quickly as we can.
As the immediate rush from getting him free starts to wear off, I begin worrying about the lasting effect the kidnapping will have on my son.
I’m anxious to discover the extent of his trauma, whether he’d known he was in danger all the time, or if he’d accepted whatever bullshit explanation Toni had given to him.
How fucking dare Candyman hold the MDMC up as paragons of virtue?
They’re the ones who are evil to the core.
We’re fucking angels compared to them. While for his mental health, I hope he’d remained in ignorance up close to the end, I suspect my son knew things were going pear-shaped the minute he saw Candyman’s cut.
Did he hate me for leaving him with Toni unprotected?
I’d held an entire conversation with Trixie, only by exchanging looks.
She’s on the same wavelength as I am, both knowing that Ace will need to be handled carefully.
But he’s here, he’s unhurt, and given time, will heal mentally.
It’s strange. I often know what my brothers – be it MC or those from when I served – are thinking without either of us having to say a word, but I never experienced that kind of communication with a woman until Trixie.
Now Toni’s trying to come up with some explanation of her behaviour, but that’s not going to fly.
She’s shown by her actions, confirmed by her words, that she never trusted me.
She let that asshole, whom she thought was her half-brother, poison her against my club.
And it’s all her fault that Ace ended up in danger.
I can’t be glad she’s obviously in pain, but prefer that it was her who bore the brunt of it. Trixie, thank fuck, seems to be unhurt.
If Trixie hadn’t put a tracker on him… Nah, I can’t bear to even think it.
They’d have tortured Ace to get his compliance and made him destroy the Kings.
I suspect when he came up with the roadblocks Pippa had acted swiftly to put in, they’d have really hurt him to get him to comply.
I know how men like them work. They’d have tortured him to the brink, and would have then pulled back because he was too valuable to lose.
Even they’re not stupid enough to kill a golden goose.
But he would have been hurt badly. My mind conjures up missing toes and broken legs.
They wouldn’t have touched his fingers, or beaten him around the head.
That my worst imaginings didn’t come true is all down to the woman seated beside him.
I can’t believe how I berated Trixie, told her she was overstepping when it was only her – and my ma, of course – who had suspicions about Toni.
Now I owe her fucking everything. You can’t put a price on the life of my son.
Tempest’s phone blasts through the vehicle. He’s got it on hands-free. Both he and I exchange glances when we see on the display who’s calling.
“Bullseye,” Tempest greets him. “Everyone okay?”
“First question, you got the Ace?”
I’m more than happy to tell him, though mindful of what I’m saying over an unsecured line, “All packages recovered. How about your side?”
“We gate-crashed a party, but they were all hammered. No fun to play with, and they didn’t appreciate the extra guests. It was noisy as fuck, and a few things got broken.”
Tempest takes his right hand off the wheel to fist-bump mine.
“The shindig wasn’t much to our taste, so Bigfoot’s guys and ours just had some fun outside.
Smooth got into an altercation, but Saint patched him up, and he’ll survive.
” He chuckles. “Not sure Smooth appreciated his not-so-gentle doctoring. Saint told him he got his just desserts for the antics he’d pulled at the wedding. ”
I snort. Yeah, Smooth, a member of the New Mexico Kings, had been the officiant at the double wedding of Saint and Pippa, and Short to Bronwyn.
I was surprised Saint refrained from killing him on the spot.
He’d come fucking close to it. As well as offering to run off with both brides and form a ménage, Smooth also managed to add in an advert for his services.
Of course, while the wedding parties were furious, the rest of us were busting our guts laughing.
Tempest barks a laugh now. “But other than that…”
“Nah. We didn’t overindulge, so all are fit to ride.” Bullseye’s voice grows serious. “We’ll see you back at home.” Relief sweeps through me as he ends the call, knowing we’ve taken no casualties.
The sky is lightening as we pull into the compound.
As soon as Tempest puts the SUV in park, I have my door open, rushing around to the back to open Ace’s side.
There hadn’t been time earlier when the rush had been to leave the MDMC compound behind, but now I pull my kid into my arms and hug him tight, feeling him clasp me just as hard.
I’ve been through hell over the last twenty hours, and he probably more so.
Suddenly, I realise my man/boy is sobbing against my chest. “I hoped you’d come, Dad.
I knew you’d be moving heaven and earth to find me.
But Candyman told Toni they move around all the time, and that the Kings wouldn’t be able to find their location.
I was planning to somehow get a message through to you when I pretended to hack into our systems, but Oscar knew his shit, and was watching everything I was doing. ”
“I got you.” I’m rocking him like I did so often when he was a baby and I was a dad with a motherless boy. “I got you, son.” I try to inject a little levity into the situation. “You know I’m never letting you out of my sight again, don’t you?”
He snorts, laughs, and sobs at the same time. “What, even when I’m like thirty?”
“Thirty, forty… Fifty might be pushing it, as I’ll be damn near eighty. But until then, you’re going to have your old man sticking close to you.”
“That will kind of cramp my style.”
“And?”
He pushes me away, and moans an elongated and exasperated, “Da….d.”
He’s here. He’s healthy. And one way or another, I’m going to make sure he’s alright.
Part of me was serious. Ace might be my son, but with his skills, as these events have shown, he’s also a valuable commodity to our enemies.
It’s something he needs to understand. Going forward, he has to keep quiet about his abilities and not speak of them, not even in front of someone who claims to be family or anyone else who gets close.
My thoughts lead me to Toni. Feeling Ace has become steady, I hold him at arm’s length.
“You’re going to be okay, yeah?” When he gives me a definite nod, I push him toward the doorway.
“Go inside and wait for me. I’ll be in in a moment.
Oh, and Ace?” I toss my phone at him, and he catches it in one hand.
“Go call your nana. Just tell her you’re okay and that you… ”
“I lost my phone. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it short.” He pauses and offers a grin. “Don’t want her turning up with her shotguns.”
As he leaves, my eyes follow him. Then I realise Trixie, Tempest, and Toni are standing a few feet away, waiting on me.
The sergeant-at-arms, I notice, is hovering behind Ace’s aunt.
I see from his expression that he’s waiting on me for direction, but fuck knows how I want her treated.
She’s a pathetic sight, her broken arm, temporarily doctored – another service selflessly performed by the woman who literally saved the day.