Chapter 42
Chapter
Forty-Two
“What the fuck?” I yell out as a bucket of ice-cold water is thrown over me. I jump out of my bed to see Nitro and Ice standing in the middle of my room, Doc in the doorway each one with a look of disdain. It’s been this way for last three days. Ever since I threw Marissa out of here. I know I was an arsehole, hell I know I was fucking irrational, but it made sense in my fucking head at the time.
I’ve felt like shit ever since, so every opportunity I’ve had, I’ve drank myself into a senseless stupor. I squint my eyes trying to focus on my brothers but the bottle of whiskey I downed last night is making it very fucking hard.
My head pounds and my stomach rolls as it threatens to empty itself of whatever is left in there. The whiskey was a good idea going down, but I know I’ll regret it when it comes back up.
“What the fuck was that for?” I ask. Did I just slur? Fuck am I still pissed?
I drop back down onto the edge of my bed and groan. “Oh fuck.” I forgot the bed was soaked. Fuckers.
“Sort yourself out, go take a fucking cold shower then come down to church twenty minutes,” Nitro tells me. He looks pissed.
I blow out a breath trying to give my stomach a minute to settle, I really am going to vomit.
“Think I’m gonna need more than twenty,” I reply and head toward the bathroom.
“Fucking make sure his arse is in his seat in twenty minutes, I don’t care what it takes,” I hear him tell my brothers as I close the door to the bathroom.
I drop to my knees and lean over the toilet, my arms resting on the seat. My stomach heaves and I empty the contents into the bowl. I don’t really feel any better, but at least now I feel well enough to stand in the shower. Judging by the speed in which I’m required, and the mood Nitro and the others are in something is clearly wrong.
As I leave the bathroom, I find Ice sitting on the chair in the corner of my room, his feet propped up on the bed which has been stripped of the wet bed sheets. I raise an eyebrow at him, and he laughs. “Do I look like the type to strip your bed?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No, you don’t.”
“I had one of the girls come in here and do it. Prospect is getting a new mattress as we speak.”
I nod. “Thanks. So, where’s the fire?” I ask him, but he doesn’t answer. His mood shifts and it puts me on edge. “Ice?”
He stands from the chair and throws a clean t-shirt at me. “Get dressed, we’ll talk in church.” He walks to the door and throws it open then turns to look at me. “Move.” He walks out the door and down the hall. What the fuck?
I quickly pull up my jeans and throw on a t-shirt. Slipping my feet into my boots, I lace them up, grab my kutte and follow him down to Church.
Walking through the main room everyone stares at me, I know they’re mad at me, but fucking hell this is intense. I made a fucking mistake, I yelled at her and kicked her out, it’s not like I fucking killed her. I roll my eyes, and head into Church closing the door behind me.
I stop before I even make it to my seat, even these fuckers are staring at me.
“You’re mad, I get it, but can we just move on from her.” I glance at Tongue, he looks like he wants my blood, I’ll have to remember not to turn my back on him.
“Brother,” Nitro calls and I turn to face him, his face full of emotion, anger, fear maybe. “Take a seat, we need to talk.’
I sigh and nod my head and then take my seat on his right. All eyes remain fixed on me and I don’t know where to look.
“I’m sorry ok? I fucked up. I saw here standing in the clubhouse and I just couldn’t handle it.” I dip my head I don’t want to look at them right now, I’ve spent the last few days drinking because I’m ashamed of my reaction.
Nitro lights up a cigarette and then blows the smoke in my direction. “We get it, you’re scared of falling for her. But it’s not us who you should apologise to.”
I lift my head and look at him. He’s right I need to talk to her, I need to say I’m sorry, I should explain why I lost it, she deserves that at the very least. But there’s something in Nitro’s eyes that has me pausing. “Brother?” I question.
He sighs and I feel my brothers shift in their seats. “What the fuck is going on, someone tell me?”
“Did you pull Prospect off her tail?” Nitro asks and I turn back to look at him.
“No. I’m a fucking arsehole, but I’m not an idiot. Why?”
“When he finally fished his keys out of the drain, she dropped them in, he headed straight to her flat. One of her neighbours confirmed she was home, and then he saw her turning on the light and closing the curtains. He sat outside her flat until one in the morning…”
Nitro stops talking and a knock on the door has us all turning. One of the new prospects enters with a two coffee pots, followed by Lou one of the club girls who carries a tray of empty cups and a bottle of milk. We sit in silence until they pour everyone coffees and then leave. I down my first cup and the pour myself another needing the caffeine hit.
“Prospect received a text message around one telling him that he was no longer required to watch Marissa and to head back to the clubhouse.”
I sit up straighter. “Wait, who the fuck text him that?”
“You,” Nitro tells me, and I shake my head at him.
“We know it wasn’t you,” Ice tells me. “You were fucking out of it by that point. Someone took your phone and messaged him.”
I look from Ice to Nitro and back again. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, I don’t understand.
“Wrath. Have you seen your phone since the day you kicked Marissa out of here?” Nitro asks, and I blink at him a couple of times before responding.
“Erm, no. I’ve been too drunk to notice.”
Data taps away on his laptop and the screen behind Nitro comes to life, showing screen shots of a text conversation. “These are a string of texts from your phone to that number at the top, these were sent after the text to the Prospect.”
My eyes flick back and forth over the screen reading the messages that were sent. I feel sick. The content is clear, it doesn’t say who they are talking about, but it’s clear. It can only be about one woman.
“Do we know who the number belongs to?” I ask my body beginning to sweat, I have no idea if it’s the aftereffects of the alcohol or because of fear.
“No. It’s a burner that has been turned off since that last text message. I managed to track your phone’s movements until it went off about fifteen hours ago, when the battery died,” Data tells us like it’s no big deal.
I push my chair back to stand, and begin pacing, my head is pounding. “I don’t fucking understand what’s going on. Someone please fucking explain this to me,” I grind out. I stop and stare at Nitro, he watches me and then turns to Data giving him a nod.
The screen flicks to life and I’m stunned when I see a video paused at Marissa’s front door. I look to Nitro and then to Data.
“We knew it wasn’t you who pulled the Prospect. Ice was right when he said you were out of it. After drinking yourself into a breakdown, you declared you loved her, something every one of us already knew. Everyone but you. Less than an hour later you passed out on the sofa in the main room, which was two hours before the text to Prospect.
We didn’t realise until nearly twenty hours later something wasn’t right. Data has been trying to figure out who’s doing this.”
I drop down into my chair and stare at my half-drunk cup of coffee.
Nitro sighs, “Data only managed to access your phone’s data today after we found it.” He stands, walking over to the unit on the side, he throws my phone on the table on front of me and takes his seat. “The phone was found stuck down the side of one of the sofas. Wrath, we think it was one of our men that did this, we think we have a traitor in our camp.”
“For fucks sake Nitro. Just fucking spit it out,” I yell, my patience wearing thin.
Data presses play and Nitro indicates to the screen. As Nitro talks, my eyes focus on the video playing in front of me, my mouth goes dry as I take in the signs of damage that someone has attempted to clear up. “Once we were able to access your phone it didn’t take us long to realise those messages were about Marissa. Ice took this footage a little over an hour ago when he went to check on your girl.” He leans forward placing a hand on my arm, and I pull my gaze from the screen to him.
“Your girl’s been taken brother. She’s gone.”