Chapter 15
Van
Remain calm. That’s what I keep telling myself as I bring the cigarette to my lips and listen to Nicole tell the story one more time. I’ve made her repeat everything that had happened at least six times now, and it never gets easier for me. Something inside of me wants to snap, but I know that wouldn’t do anyone any good. So I repeat, stay calm in my head over and over again.
“And she said what?” I ask once more.
“She said to tell you thank you.”
“She didn’t want to go?” Mask asks her this time.
“No, Mask. You have to find her. You can’t let him hurt her,” she cries harder now. I sit back in my seat, just trying to reason this out in my head. He took her. I didn’t think he would. I didn’t see him as the type and yet, he did it. He took my girl. Now what the fuck do I do?
“What do you think about this?” Mask asks me. I take another drag from my cigarette and lean forward, resting my elbows on the table in front of me.
“I think I’m gonna kill him for touchin’ her. I think I’m gonna rip his goddamn spine out,” I tell him. Mask nods his head before taking a long pull from his beer. The atmosphere is calm as we talk about this. I have to be calm, or I’m going to lose it. I’m going to snap and lose it on everyone.
“Why are you so calm? Why aren’t you worried about this?” Nicole snaps at us.
“Oh, I’m worried, Nic. I’m pissed. I’m about to snap and lose it here. I’m hangin’ on by a thread, so don’t you fuckin’ tell me I’m not worried because it may be your ass I take it out on,” I warn her. I’m not playing with her. I’m barely holding my shit together right now. I want to snap and take her head off, but I can’t do that. I need to be rational and think about this.
“Where would he take her?” Pike interrupts, asking Nicole.
“I don’t know. I don’t know why he’d even go after her,” she tells him.
“He’s a dead man walkin’,” I add.
“I get you’re angry, Van, and you’re tryin’ to hold it together, but we have other things goin’ on too. We have the meet with that other MC comin’ up too.” I chuckle and lean back in my chair, looking at Mask as if he’s grown two heads.
“Do you think I care about that shit right now? That I give a fuck about that other MC? I told you to kill them all and be done with it, didn’t I?”
“I get this whole stay calm so you don’t snap shit, but I need you to focus here.”
“Focus? She’s pregnant, Mask! She’s fuckin’ carryin’ a baby, and he took her!” I snarl louder this time. Slowly, ever so slowly, I’m coming unhinged. I want blood on my hands, and I don’t care how I have to get it; I want Derrick.
“I know she is. He wants the baby. That’s the only rational thing I can come up with. He isn’t gonna hurt her or the baby,” he assures me.
“You don’t think so? You don’t think he’d hurt her? He fuckin’ hit her while she was pregnant, Mask! He doesn’t give a shit about hurtin’ her.”
“You need to stay calm, Van,” Free tells me. I take another drag of my cigarette and blow smoke into the air.
“I’m calm. I’m fuckin’ calm.”
“No, you’re about to snap.”
“How would you like me to act? Huh? Tell me exactly how I should be actin’ when the motherfucker took my girl!”
“We’ll get her back,” Mask tells me.
“You have to, Mask. You have to find her,” Nicole cries. I watch the tears as they stream down her cheeks, knowing Chy is her best friend. She’s worried, and she has every right to be.
“I’m gonna find her,” I tell her.
“She cares about you, Van. That has to mean something.”
“It does, Nic. It means a lot. I need you to keep it together,” I tell her. She nods her head, wiping her eyes with her hands.
“She needs her medicine,” she whispers softer now, causing my chest to clench. I hate this. I hate he’d do this to her right now. She has two more months. Two more fucking months of being pregnant, and that’s it.
“She’s gonna be fine. I don’t wanna hear shit, Nicole.”
“I’m just saying.”
“Well, don’t. Don’t fuckin’ say shit. She’s gonna be fine,” I snap at her when Pike’s hand lands on my shoulder. He squeezes it as I crack my neck from side to side.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers before I wave her off. I don’t want to hear her shit. I want to keep my shit together so I can focus.
“We need to find out where he’d take her. Where he might have her.”
“I don’t even know. The old apartment was rented out again, so he isn’t there,” she tells us.
“Where else would he go?” I ask more to myself than anyone else.
“He had to have rented somethin’ else. Mystic can get us that information.”
“Then call him,” I tell Mask. He nods his head and pulls his phone out before dialing. I listen to him have a conversation with Mystic, jotting something down on a piece of paper in front of him. When he finally hangs up, he drags his gaze to meet mine.
“He’s lookin’ into it. For now, he wants us to check warehouses and shit around here,” he tells me. I nod my head. I agree.
“I’ll do it.”
“Not alone, you won’t.”
“You said we have a meet with the other MC. Don’t you need to handle that?”
“You keepin’ her, Van?”
“Fuck yeah, I’m keepin’ her,” I tell him without thinking about it. I don’t need to think this shit over. I know what the fuck I feel, and I know what I need and want.
“Then we find her.”
“What about the meet?”
“I’ll handle it. You take some guys and go check around,” he says. I nod my head and shove out of the chair, heading for the door. I walk out and motion for a few of the guys to come to me when Free walks up next to me.
“I’m with you, brother.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Let’s find your girl,” he says, pulling his gun out and checking the ammo. I smirk at him. I knew he was ready for a kill, too.
“We’re headin’ out. My girl”s ex took her. We’re gonna find her. We check every fuckin’ warehouse and abandoned house around here,” I tell the guys. They nod and grunt their agreement before we turn on our heels and head for the door.
We’re on the bikes and hauling ass around town, checking every location possible. I even check the old abandoned restaurant downtown. She isn’t there. She isn’t anywhere, and that isn’t sitting well with me. She has to be here somewhere. There’s no way he could have made it that far with her.
Even after all the goddamn searching, we had the meet to deal with. I wasn’t in the right head space, but I knew that shit needed to be handled, and we did just that. Mask knew I needed something else to focus on, so he decided an ambush was the right way to go about things.
He knew I needed to get someone’s blood on my hands, and they were the perfect targets. Trying to push into our territory was a huge no-go, and they learned the hard way at our hands. I got my hands dirty, I released some of my built-up frustrations, and we ended the little fuckers who tried to step foot into our world.