Chapter 7
SEVEN
WEST
As I laid my ass down in bed again, I flopped back against my pillow. A groan left my lips as my body sunk into the mattress, and all I wanted was to get a good night’s sleep. I had to be at my best if I was going to protect Chloe at all times, and I simply couldn’t do that if I was exhausted.
And yet, as I laid there staring at the ceiling, the only thing that popped up into my mind was her.
“It’s been a while,” I whispered.
I tucked my hands behind my head and smiled.
It had been a very long time since I’d been even remotely attracted to a woman.
Sure, I had hookups here and there. I mean, a man had needs, you know?
But nothing that ventured outside of a one-night stand.
Hell, most of the women I slept with were gone before fucking midnight, treated to a paid taxi ride via my own fucking wallet.
Yet, with Chloe, all I wanted was to talk with her.
Did I want to sleep with her? Of. Fucking.
Course. Her curves were something to be marveled and worshipped, and damn it I wanted to wrap my hand into her dirty blonde locks and pull while spanking that jiggly ass of hers.
But I wanted to know her, too. I wanted to hold her at night and kiss the back of her head while she slept.
I wanted to dote on her and get her the medication she needed to stay pain-free through her recovery.
I wanted nothing but the best for her, and there had only been one woman in my entire life that had ever made me feel that way.
And as my eyes fluttered closed, the memory of that woman haunted me in the dark recesses of my mind.
“West!” Tiff shrieked.
Her echoing voice wafted down the hallway as me and the guys crept closer.
A resounding crack followed by her sobs made me want to count the fingers I’d cut off the man that had just hit her.
Anger robbed me of my conscious mind. I pressed onward despite the protests from my president, holding my gun up to the man that hovered over Tiffany as I rounded the corner.
“Let her go,” I growled.
And without warning, the man pulled out a gun.
“No! Tiff!” I roared.
“Tiff!” I exclaimed.
I shot up like a bat out of hell and wiped at the sweat permeating my brow. I reached for my cell phone and drew in a few deep breaths as my heart rate slowly climbed higher than the clouds. The light of my phone screen practically blinded me, but the time completely mocked me.
“Six A.M. Fantastic,” I grumbled.
A whole two and a half hours of sleep.
I flopped back down into bed and quickly rolled over.
My pillow was soaked, which meant it was laundry day for me.
I tumbled all the way over to the other side of the bed and face-planted into the one clean pillow I had left.
I nuzzled against it, wiping away the sweat before I slithered beneath the covers.
Maybe I didn’t need a pillow to sleep. Maybe I could just wrap up in the blanket, slip into that effortless darkness, and sleep for one fucking second without a god damn nightmare plaguing me.
However, the second I saw Tiff’s lifeless eyes staring back at me, I ripped my own open.
“Nope,” I grunted as I sat up, “time to get the day started.”
I dragged ass into the bathroom and stripped myself down. A hot ass shower battered against my skin, sending my beads of sweat swirling down the drain. I hung my head and let the water fall down my skin. I allowed it to wash away my sins, hoping that it might also cleanse me of my unworthiness.
People die whenever they’re around me.
And as if my brain hadn’t tortured me enough, images of things that hadn’t even happened yet filtered to the forefront.
Images of Chloe on the back of my bike, holding on tight while she laughed as we drove the Pacific Coast Highway.
Images of her wrapping her arms around my neck and holding me close while peppering my cheeks with kisses.
Images of her being gunned down in the middle of the road by the cartel while I stood there, chained to the ground, unable to get to her.
“Fuck!” I roared.
I slammed my hand down against the showerhead control and it cut the water off.
I stormed out, ripping a towel from the hook on the wall as I tousled my hair and dried my arms. Not even being awake kept me from my thoughts.
From my memories. From my fears. And as I raised my head, I looked at myself in the foggy mirror.
“She’s much better off without you,” I whispered.
I felt worthless. Useless. Like I could no longer do what I was put on this planet to do.
I wrapped the towel around my hips and trudged out into the room in the hopes that Stone would leave us alone for the day.
All I wanted was to stuff my face, caffeinate myself, and watch movies all damn day.
I needed a rest day. A day where lives weren’t on the line simply because I existed.
However, a knock came at my door just as I perched on the edge of my bed.
“Whatever it is, no,” I called out.
My door cracked open. “Church in ten.”
I looked up at Stone. “No.”
He blinked as he stared at me. “Feel better?”
I sighed. “No, I don’t.”
He nodded softly. “Church in twenty, then. I’ll tell the guys.”
I snickered. “Yeah, thanks.”
I raked my hands through my hair as I swallowed hard.
Another day, another threat, another chance to die.
I shook my head as I forced myself back to my feet.
It took all I had just to get dressed instead of indulging in the anger, the frustration, and the sorrow that grabbed hold of the marrow of my bones.
It felt like my body had been filled with lead.
As I dragged myself out into the living room, I found the rest of the guys gathered and waiting.
“All right,” Stone said as he nodded toward me, “now that we’re all here, we need to talk about what happened last night.”
Asher stood and it looked like he didn’t get a lick of sleep. “We have confirmed that Joker was gunned down by a van full of cartel syndicate workers. They’re tracking us down during our patrols, probably in a bid to intimidate us.”
Puck shook his head. “We can’t let that happen. We can’t just allow them to force us to hide out like this.”
I shrugged. “We can’t keep getting shot at either.”
Stone pointed at me. “We need a plan before we go doing anything. If we’re going to do this, it has to be smooth and it has to take everyone into consideration because that’s what it’s going to take. Everyone working together.”
I clicked my tongue. “Or we could storm them with all of the firepower we’ve got and blow them to hell.”
Even Texas nodded his head at my comment and a sea of heads followed.
All of us were done waiting around. We were done having to share our space with people we wanted to get away from.
Not that I didn’t love my brothers or the Celtic Riders for that matter.
But I missed my bed. My towels. My bathroom.
The rest of my fucking clothes, for crying out loud.
Stone had been all talk and no action ever since we had ended up in this fucking place.
And I was fed up with it.
“We need to strike,” I said.
Texas pointed at me. “We’ve needed to strike for a while.”
Puck nodded. “We all know the risks. We understood them when we all became prospects. And while I understand that we’re trying to protect our families, this isn’t even working at this point. We’ve got three or four people down, we’ve got pregnant women in the line of fire. Enough’s enough.”
Stone’s face wrinkled with annoyance. “I get that everyone is getting cabin fever, but we can’t get hasty with this.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Do you want to keep Hayley safe, Stone?”
The entire room fell silent as he turned to face me. “You better watch your next set of words, West.”
“Do you want Frost’s daughter safe?”
Stone growled. “Get to the point.”
“Once you answer my questions.”
His eyes darted around the room before he nodded. “Of course, I fucking want us all to be okay. Why do you think I’ve made the decisions that I have?”
I held out my arms. “Then, we need to get out of here. We need to get back home. We either need to end this or come up with some sort of truce, because I’m telling you, Stone, this is going to do us all in. They’re trying to wait us out; you know they are.”
Texas sighed. “He’s right. They’re trying to wait for us to get so cooped up that we turn on one another and divide ourselves. I think we’re closer to that point than we want to admit.”
Diego stepped up to the forefront. “And if intel is what you want before we retaliate, you know I’ve always got your back, Stone.
But I’m with them. This has gone on long enough.
Even if we don’t retaliate and finish this, they need to understand that they can’t go around gunning us down without consequences. ”
Stone locked eyes with the man. “All right. Since you know so much about the cartel, what can you tell us?”
Diego cleared his throat. “I can tell you that Carlos Banderas is a very paranoid man. There’s a reason why very few people in his organization have ever seen his face. He’ll question everything. So, let’s give him something to question.”
I grinned. “Like which one of us is gonna be the lucky asshole to kill him.”
Stone turned his attention to me. “West, take Diego and do your thing. Recon as best as you can, but no one steps a foot outside of this warehouse to recon out there until we’ve got a plan of action. Understood?”
My smile grew wild. “About fucking time. Give me until this afternoon and I’ll have everything we need. Diego?”
“Yep?”
“All I need you to do is bring me food and water. When I open that laptop, I’m lost.”
He chuckled. “I think we could all do with some breakfast and some coffee. I’ll get started on something Mama used to make me as a kid. Anyone up for helping?”
Stone raised his hand. “I could use a distraction.”
Asher sighed as he parted the crowd. “Same.”
And with that, church was dismissed. I practically sprinted down the hallway to get back to my bedroom.
“Here we go, you son of a bitch,” I murmured.
I leaned against the headboard of the bed and used pillows to prop up my laptop.
My fingers flew a thousand miles a second, digging up everything from traffic camera footage so we could see exactly what happened with the shooting last night all the way down to tracking the cartel’s footsteps.
I knew Stone hated taking risks like the ones I specialized in because he did everything he could to keep us off the Fed's radar.
But desperate times called for desperate measures.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even realize someone had brought me food until I looked up and saw the plate sitting on the bed.
“Oh, hell yeah,” I murmured.
As I set my laptop to the side and reached for the massive plate of food, I thought about Chloe.
My mind wandered to her and whether or not she was still sleeping.
Had she slept well? Did she suffer from nightmares, too?
Had she gotten back to sleep at all after witnessing what she had last night?
I shoveled food into my face, trying to push her out of my mind.
The last thing I needed was a distraction while I dug up everything I could on the organization trying to eradicate us.
And after I chugged back my lukewarm black coffee, I cracked my knuckles and got back to work.
But nothing could have prepared me for the treasure trove of information I stumbled upon after hacking into Carlos Banderas’ personal email.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
I scrolled through email after email that laid out not only a plan to figure out where the hell we were, but to blow it sky-high once they found it.
I found maps of areas they had charted corner to corner, and all of the red X’s on the map put them closer than I wanted them to be.
My jaw hit the floor as I picked up my laptop.
I rushed out the door and down the hallway to the media room where I had to plug in my laptop just to print shit off.
Then, one by one, I printed off everything I had found.
Before someone backtracked me and locked me out of the account for good.