Jalisa Chapter 7
I wasn’t happy about being relegated to a safe room while the men went to face the threat. It had to be Killer and his club. Who else could it be? I deserved to face him and ensure the son of a bitch was removed from this world.
I paced the room. Betty had taken me into what appeared to be a closet at the back of the clubhouse.
Only it had a false back, which opened to a staircase that led to a large room below the main building.
I was impressed by how they had it set up.
They didn’t take safety lightly. It made me wonder what kind of trouble they ran into to require this.
The Fiends didn’t have anything this nice or fancy.
“I should be up there,” I muttered.
“You need to be safe. There’s no way Wrath or the others will allow you to expose yourself to danger. It’s not how they’re made. Would your dad and the Fiends just let you grab a gun and tag along?” she asked.
I wanted to say yes, but it would be a lie. Sure, if I had to defend myself. I knew how, and they’d expect it, but I’d be told to stay back. Grrr, sometimes, I wish I were a man.
“No, but it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t. I hate being a woman and being thought of as weak.”
“Honey, I don’t see you as weak, nor do the men. They’re protective, overly so at times, but they know women aren’t useless.”
“And I detest that this is all happening because I was stupid and dated a guy who was a liar. I should’ve known he was lying.”
Betty came over and put her arms around me. “We’ve all been fooled at one time or another. I was with my ex-husband. I never imagined he’d become what he did.”
I hugged her back. She made me feel a tiny bit better. We eventually sat on a couch in the comfortable room. I was unsure how long we had been there, but it felt like hours to me before there was a knock and Shadow’s voice called out.
“I’m coming in. Everything is fine.”
It was a good thing he said it because Betty had shown me where the stash of weapons was in the safe room.
Mine were in my room. I hadn’t been carrying any, but that would change after tonight.
I had one of their guns in my hand. I was returning it to its place when Shadow came in.
He was a relatively quiet person. I’d found that while Crusher was an IT person who handled various research and club-related tasks, Shadow was a self-proclaimed, self-taught hacker.
He was brought in when extra hands or deep, dirty work was needed.
“Ladies, if you’ll come with me,” he said.
I finished putting the gun away, and then we exited the room. He went straight toward the common room.
“Who was at the gate?” I asked.
“Wait and see,” he answered.
We were still several feet down the hall when I heard loud voices and recognized them. I took off running. Racing into the common area, I found it was fuller than usual. It held not only Pagans but also Fiends. Psycho was the one yelling at Wrath. He was demanding to see me. I stomped up to them.
“What the hell are you doing here? And what’s with all the yelling and demanding?” I hollered.
My bellow made the whole room quiet down. I was small but had a mighty voice when I needed one. Dad claimed I was born screaming like there were three babies. I had my hands on my hips, tapping a foot, and glaring. Dad and the Fiends would know that look and what it meant. I was about to blow.
“Jae, sweetheart, there’s no need to get mad. I just want to see my child and make sure she’s okay. I need to know my nephew is as well. Dylan looks fine, but they weren’t producing you or saying where you were,” Psycho explained to placate me.
“Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t ride up with almost the entire club, like you were about to declare war, without giving someone a heads-up.
We thought it was the goddamn Black Outlaws coming.
What were they to do? Have me stand on the wall and shout, ‘Yoo hoo, here I am, guys!’” I yelled louder.
The Pagans were standing there listening without moving, wearing slight smirks. The Fiends behind Dad and Panther were slowly easing themselves back. They wore worried expressions. They knew more was to come. Some were whispering to each other while others were murmuring to nearby Pagans.
“No, we do not want you on the wall, and we realize we made a mistake. If we can just all calm down, we can explain why we’re here,” Panther stated.
“Lovey, come sit with your Uncle Scooter and let your dad explain,” Scooter asked sweetly.
I wasn’t in the mood to be tamed. I was upset with the Fiends, but wasn’t much happier with the Pagans. I whipped around to face Wrath. I pointed my finger at him.
“And what was up with telling me to go hide? I was left in a room where we had no clue what was happening. That safe room is great, but when you were putting it together, did none of you consider adding monitors that showed the outside of the compound or in the clubhouse? That way, whoever is in there can see and hear what’s happening and prepare themselves instead of sitting in there with their thumbs up their asses! ”
“Jalisa, that room —” Wrath began to defend himself, but I cut him off.
“Did any of you ever stay in there for an extended period after you put it together? Had yourself forced into it while everyone else was out here doing whatever?” I asked. I scanned the Pagans’ faces. They all shook their heads.
“Men, I swear. If you want anyone to use it and not go stark-raving mad, put some damn monitors in there. Oh, but the weapons are a nice touch,” I added.
“Jesus Christ,” someone uttered, but I didn’t catch who said it.
“Is that all?” Wrath asked.
“At the moment.”
“Good, then you won’t mind allowing me to run my club and finding out what the hell is HAPPENING!” he roared. I cringed. Oops, he was mad.
“Everyone who’s staying, sit your asses down. Not a peep out of you unless you’re asked to speak. Anyone who can’t obey that, get the fuck out. Fiends, on that side of the table, Pagans on this one,” Wrath snarled, pointing to which side was what.
I wanted to know what was up, so I stepped toward the Fiend side.
Wrath snagged my arm and practically dragged me to the Pagan side.
I was gently yet firmly pushed into a chair that he yanked out, and then he sat beside me.
On the other side of him was Storm, and I had Ryder on the opposite side of me.
Everyone took their places, and no word was uttered—no one left.
“Now that we’re all here, you can see that Dylan and Jalisa are safe and unharmed. Let’s talk. I didn’t expect an in-person visit. We were to talk tomorrow night. What changed? And why didn’t you tell me?” Wrath asked. There was an undertone of displeasure.
“We intended to wait, but the more I thought about what happened, the more confident I became that our solution was the answer. I didn’t see the use in waiting. You’re only an hour away. It was stupid to wait to do it over a screen, so we got on our rides and came.” Psycho explained.
“And that may all be true, and I’m not faulting that.
What I have an issue with is that you ride up to our compound with no warning when we have an enemy out there looking for your daughter.
We thought it was them. You’re damn lucky we don’t shoot first, then look who’s pounding on our gate,” Wrath told him.
“He’s right, Psycho. We fucked up. We got excited and took off without thinking it through. We’re sorry, Wrath. We didn’t mean to scare you and your crew,” Panther stated.
“We weren’t scared. We were worried about protecting Jalisa and Betty. In our club, women and children are to be protected at all costs,” Wrath informed him.
“You’ll get no objections from us on that. We have a few women and kids in the club and have had more in the past. It was stupid of us. Apologies,” Scooter added.
Dad was sitting there with a disgruntled expression. I knew he was unhappy, but I wasn’t sure if it was because he’d been reprimanded or something else. It was hard to tell with him sometimes.
“It’s done and over. For future reference, if you need to come here, give us a heads-up. We’ll do the same if we ever need to visit your place,” Wrath said politely.
“Sounds good,” Panther said.
“Can we get to why we came? No offense, Wrath, but we need to implement this plan, and there’s no time to delay. We’ve heard that the Black Outlaws have been seen coming and going more frequently at their compound. We don’t know what it means, but it can’t be good,” Dad muttered.
“I was hoping for more time before discussing my plan. I haven’t ironed it all out yet. But since you’re here, why don’t you tell me your idea? Then I’ll explain mine. Jalisa, I’m sorry that it’s gonna be backward,” Wrath said. He reached over and took my hand and squeezed it.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he answered.
I was more impatient to get this started after hearing him say that. I glanced over at my dad. He was frowning across from me. His eyes were on my hand in Wrath’s. I didn’t remove it. When Dad didn’t say anything, Panther did.
“We’ve been debating what to do to accomplish what we want.
I think we all agree that the goals are to make Jalisa safe, remove Killer from the equation, and remove or neutralize his chapter.
If necessary, we’ll do it to the entire Black Outlaws charter.
That last one will take time and help if it becomes necessary.
I’ve reached out and asked for a meeting with the charter president.
I want to know if they all back the Greensboro chapter or if that one is going rogue on the overall charter.
There have been several of their chapters lately who have, it seems.”
“I take it from your remark that you don’t agree with kidnapping and selling people,” Storm asked.