CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
-:- TwoCents -:-
I run out of my office to my hog when Specs shouts that Garth and Pais have been attacked on the road. I don’t wait for more information. I need to get to Pais, and I need to get to her now.
By the time I’m on my hog, Axel, Buzz, Wings, BS, Drag, Meat and PT are all straddling their hogs. We fire up, and although I’ve no idea where we are going location-wise, I stick to the back of Axel and Drag who are leading us all out of the compound.
Reaching Pais, the first thing I see is the truck sitting on its roof by the roadside. The other is a blacked-out SUV with three bodies lying around it. I rush past and see Pais leaning against a tree with her eyes closed and her head back resting on the trunk.
“Pais, Pais, are you okay?” I whisper as I kneel in front of her. The last thing I want to do is frighten her.
Opening her eyes, Pais gives me a crooked smile before reaching forward and wrapping her arms around my neck while she shuffles herself so she’s straddling my thighs.
“I’m okay. Garth is my hero.”
“Hero? I’m your fuckin’ hero…What are you talking about, Pais?” Now, I’m not happy at all about Garth being her hero.
“Garth got me to safety before he faced those three and took them out. He was damn cool about it too, TwoCents. He did it just like you see in the movies.”
My head snaps around when I hear chuckling, and seeing my brothers’ amusement at Paisley’s comment, I give them the foulest look I can manage. Garth is smirking, and that’s not earning him bonus points either.
Axel steps over to us and gives Paisley a soft smile. That’s one of his rare ones, and only used on special occasions, but he’s giving it to Pais and she gives him a big smile in return.
“Are you really okay, Paisley?” Axel asks.
“I’m fine, thanks to Garth. I think he needs a bonus on his first week of work, because he was something to watch. Those three…” Pais points at the dead men, which doesn’t seem to faze her at all. “They tried to kill us, so I did just what Garth asked, but Axel, I dropped my freaking Sig. It was knocked out of my hand when the truck was hit and I could have used it. I’d have shot one of them myself.”
“Well, you never drop your weapons, Paisley, so you need to learn that lesson, and fast. No matter what, you keep hold of your weapon. You’d have got one, I’m sure.” Axel turns after patting Paisley on the shoulder, but he’s smirking as he walks over to the dead men.
A few minutes later, the tow truck arrives. Web and RoadRunner climb out and walk over calmly, looking at the three dead, but don’t show any sign of being bothered.
“Hi, Pres. Here to pick up the truck. Are you okay, Paisley?” He turns, giving her a smile, and I give Web a scowl, which he shrugs off.
“I’m good, thanks for asking, Web,” Paisley sweetly replies. Now I’ve had enough of this.
“Pais, get on the hog. We’re going back to the clubhouse.” I make sure she has my helmet on because I forgot to pick hers up in my rush. I give Axel a nod and get the hell away from all this, because they have to get rid of the SUV and the three bodies. I guess the gators are going to have an enjoyable meal tonight.
Later back at the clubhouse I have Pais settled in the kitchen, with Meat and the Three Stooges fussing over her before walking into Axel’s office, and listen to Garth giving his report.
“Nothing unusual had happened at the shop during the afternoon. We were traveling back to the clubhouse. Not a care in the world if you like. Then I noticed an SUV behind us. I took a few turns I didn’t need to, and slowed down, sped up, just to check it out.
“Realizing that the SUV was following us, I told Paisley to be ready because we had a tail. It was so strange, it was like someone shot them out of a gun as they suddenly surged forward and hit the back of the truck, causing it to spin, then we flipped and rolled when we hit something.
“I got out of the truck fast, fired off a few rounds, got Paisley out and behind a tree safely before I spun around and went into survival mode. I took them out one at a time before I even thought about being incarcerated for it.” Garth rubs his forehead before pinching the top of his nose.
“Don’t worry about that. The SUV will be ditched four towns over in the junkyard. He is in our pocket, so he’ll do a good job. The bodies will feed the gators tonight, so no evidence is left. Stop worrying and know we are grateful you acted quickly and eliminated the threat.” Axel is in President mode. “Go home, chill out with your wife and we’ll see you Monday. Paisley will be with TwoCents from now until Monday morning, so no need for you to work the weekend. I’ll ask Sentry to get any of your shifts at the shop covered.”
“Okay.” Garth turns to leave, but I stop him.
“Thank you. Pais is everything to me, and I am thankful you kept her safe. If you ever need me, just call.”
Garth gives me a nod, squeezes my shoulder, then leaves the office. I turn to look at Axel and he gives me a solid look as he speaks. “It’s all good now, TwoCents. Paisley is safe. We took out the threat, but we need to find Charles Irvin because we can guarantee the fucker is behind all this.”
The evening is calm and Pais is laughing and fooling around with Mia, Star and Jo. It’s good to see her relaxed after the day she’s had. My temper is still just underneath the calm exterior I’m throwing out to everyone, but I know it’s not passing by my closest brothers.
The next morning, I’m taking Pais to the range where I want her to get her temper out of her system. I thought she was cool last night, but when we retired for the night, she showed me how angry she really was about this Irvin character, and what he is trying to do.
Now, I think is a good time to take her and let her shoot it out of her system, but what I didn’t expect was Mia tagging along. Now I have the two of them standing side by side in lanes at the range. They are giving each other evil looks as they try to out-shoot each other.
“They are really going for it, TwoCents,” Chaos says as he stands beside me, watching.
“Yeah, Pais is riled up about what happened yesterday. I thought it would be good to bring her here, now I’m not so sure. She looks like she is enjoying every shot she’s firing, and the competition she and Mia have going on.”
“Honestly, the women in the club are feisty as shit. Even Jo who was timid has come out of her shell. She gave Knuckles a real earbashing the other day. He just stood quietly waiting for her to finish, kissed her nose, then walked away.” Chaos throws his head back, laughing. “You’d have loved to see it, TwoCents.”
Both myself and Chaos stop speaking as we watch Mia and Pais take off their ear protectors. Then Mia asks, “Paisley, how did you choose the name Sienna Roseberry?”
Pais looks at Mia with surprise across her face, then smirks. “Well, I saw a stripper called Sienna, and she was stunning, honest to goodness she had a body to die for. So, I just thought, why not? I didn’t have her figure, but who the hell cares.” Giggling together, she continues. “Roseberry was a mix, really. I was sitting in a diner drinking rosehip tea and I thought the rose was nice sounding, and rosehip is a berry. So, Sienna Roseberry.”
“Cool, love it. But I like Paisley better.” Mia slams her ear protector back on and turns to the lane before getting back into the competition.
Eventually, they both get fed up with the competition, and I’m waiting out at the front reception, drinking coffee and listening to Chaos and Target talking about finding Irvin. It seems he is evading every attempt to grab him.
The afternoon rounds out and we organize to eat at Club Whisky because we have to step in and work the evening shift. We can’t keep leaving the staff to run the place, and although we have great staff, it is a club business.
“You ready, Pais?” I ask, picking up my kutte from the back of the chair in our room.
“Yeah, I’m done. I put on jeans tonight because I’m still edgy at what happened yesterday. I’ve got my Sig in my purse, too.”
“Come on, you shouldn’t need your Sig. We’re going to Club Whisky. Mav and Colton are on the door and all the staff are aware to be watching for anything out of the ordinary.”
I give Pais a kiss on her forehead and I slap her ass as she walks out of the room in front of me. I can’t help but watch her hips swaying gently as she walks. But when she gives them an extra swing, I look up and see her grinning over her shoulder.
“You’ll pay for that,” I growl.
Pais laughs and sing-songs, “Yeah, yeah, promises, promises.”
Pais works hard helping wherever she is needed. She’s been washing glassware behind the bar, carrying food from the kitchen to the servers, wiping tables and collecting dishes. Anything, or everything, and I”m damn proud of her. Only yesterday she was in that truck turned upside down and could have been killed, yet here she is working as though it never happened.
Stepping behind the bar, I speak with Sherman, who is managing the bar tonight. Gaz does the most bar managing, but he’s off tonight. I’ve been watching Sherman, and he’s doing a good job, and I’m going to mention that to Silver.
“Everything good, Sher?” I ask.
“Yep, all is good. We’ve been busy and I have to say I like that because the night passes faster than if we are standing around waiting.” Before he can say more he steps forward and serves a group of women that have stepped up to the bar.
“Hi, handsome,” I hear, but I ignore the voice. I am not going to get myself in a situation with some skank.
Sherman chuckles as he steps to my side while pouring a drink. “Gotta say these women are all so aggressive. They think we must hang around waiting for them to come in. Honestly, they are all shitty people. The quiet ones, or the ones that come in to have a good night with friends, are so different. Now one of those I would give the time of day to, these, not so much.”
“Hey, I was speaking to you.”
Turning my head, I give her an icy glare, because I don’t want nothing to do with her. She, however, sashays along the bar until she’s opposite where I’m standing.
“You wanna get together later?”
I don’t respond, I just stand, giving her an icy look. She’s not getting the hint because she just keeps talking. I keep ignoring her, and Sherman chuckles because he knows I’m not going to respond, no matter what she says.
“How many times are you going to be rude and not answer my questions?”
“Well, let’s see, shall we?” I hear and turn my head to see Paisley standing with her hands on her hips and looking like she’s going to murder this bitch.
“What do you mean, let’s see, shall we?”
“That man you are pestering is my husband and if you don’t fuck off, I’ll make you.” Now, it’s not nice that Pais is going head-to-head with this bitch, but fucking hell, it’s hot.
“I don’t care. I want to spend some time with him and you can wait at home.”
The bitch grins at Paisley. I’m sure she’s thinking nothing will happen, but Pais shrieks with a burst of anger and launches herself at the woman.
She grabs her by the hair and, to everyone’s horror, has two handfuls of false hair. I turn my nose up at the sight. The woman’s friends scream at the sight of their friend being attacked and step forward to join in. Before either Sherman or I can get around the bar, Helen and Fay, tonight”s servers, are next to Paisley and an all-out fight breaks out.
I’m not sure what the fuck to do if I’m honest. But before I can even get around the bar, Colton has the woman with very little hair left thrown over his shoulder and another grabbed in one hand. Mav has one grasped in each hand too, and the last one follows behind once she knows she’s the last one standing.
Paisley, however, is still pulling handfuls out of the screaming woman”s head, while Colton is laughing his ass off, carrying her out. How he is keeping hold of both women I don’t know and I don’t care. I grab Pais and carry her to the office, but she’s kicking and screaming all the way.
Slamming the office door, I push her back against it and kiss the shit out of her. Why? Because I want to and I can. Once I feel Pais settle into the kissing, I slow it down before looking down at her with a grin.
“Well, my little wildcat, you feeling better now?”
Pais giggles, rubs her hand down her face, then gives me a beaming smile. “Actually, yes I do. I needed that, I think, you know, to get all the negative out.”
“I can think of a way to get the negative out,” I murmur and earn myself a questioning look before she frowns and then grins.
“That’s all you think about, sex and more sex. Well, you can wait until we get home because I’m not having sex in the damn office of the club.”
“Okay, when we get home,” I wink before moving her out of the way, opening the door, and returning to the bar to check if Colton and Mav have things under control.