Chapter 10 #2
“No,” I found myself saying. “We’d still be here, only you would be Orla, crying into my shoulder. We’d still be at war trying to find you.”
“Orla…she’s tough,” Sheridan said. “So tough, but she’s also kind, caring, and loving. She is tough because she had to be. I don’t want her to have to be anymore. She’s soft with you, caring, happy. I want that back.”
“I do, too,” I replied, unable to form any other words to placate her. I needed her to be safe, to be back here with me. “When I find her, she’s never leaving this compound again.”
“Good luck with that,” Sheridan chuckled, but her laugh held no humour.
“We’ll set up a studio for her over there,” I pointed beside the garage. “She’ll tattoo here, and trust me, with the amount of bikers travelling every couple of weeks, she’ll be busy.”
“You’re serious.”
“Deadly,” I turned to Sheridan. “Orla will not leave my side again.”
I put my smoke out when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Pulling it out, I looked down at Kirby’s name.
“Fury?” Sheridan asked.
“It’s his call name,” I said. “For when he patches in.”
Answering the call, I got up off the porch and headed down to the gate where I knew he was on duty.
“Got a guy here, with a Broken Reapers cut on,” Kirby said. “Says he needs to talk to you.”
“Why me?”
“He said he needs to talk to Peter O’Leary’s kid,” Kirby replied.
“On my way.”
I was almost at the gate when I saw the familiar outline of the guy standing next to the familiar woman. I hesitated, before I continued down to the gate.
“You’re Shae’s contact.”
He inclined his head, no emotion in his eyes, no expression I could read.
“Let us in,” he said. “We need to talk…brother.”
All eyes were on me as my father’s other children from his marriage sat at the bar.
I felt nothing for them. They’d never been part of my life, or even part of this MC, no matter how high up their dad was.
The woman, my sister, Tierney, had gotten in touch with me a few years ago but nothing had happened.
Her mother still ruled her with an iron fist and refused to let her be friends with me.
It had been no real loss.
My brother, though, sat there, stubble making him look older than I remembered him. It also made him look a little like me and my dad, but not by much.
“Speak,” I said, my voice taking on a dangerous lilt to it. Shae stood by the wall, watching, her expression unreadable. “I swear to god Dempsey if you don’t speak, I’ll fucking flay you alive.”
“Relax, okay,” he held his hand up. “She’s safe. I made sure of it.”
“What do you mean?” Hawk asked before I could.
“We had to take her,” he said. “He was hellbent on taking someone and when the woman he wanted was gone, he told us where to go. I didn’t know who she was until…”
“Until what?” I asked, my temper getting a rise out of his bullshit.
“Can we talk privately, Alex?”
I looked to Ace who nodded and I showed him outside, where there were members of the club but not where I led him to.
“Speak.”
“He wants the redhead,” he said. “He couldn’t grab her so he went for her best friend. I’ve been able to get him to lay off her for a while, but he’s trying to get her to give in. He wants the redhead to trade places and trust me, he’s not going to stop until he gets that.”
“Then tell me where he’s holed up and I’ll go and blast the fucker open,” I said. “What’s the fucking delay?”
“Alex, you can’t…you’ll be outnumbered and you’ll get yourself killed before you even get close to her.”
“You don’t understand how messed up that fucker is, Dempsey.”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I do, but that’s why I’m there. My men won’t touch her, it’s the others who will.”
“So you joined a rival MC rather than the one your own father was part of?” I shifted the conversation. “I bet your mother loves that.”
“She didn’t,” he said. “But it’s no longer an issue. She died last year.”
I instantly felt a stab of remorse for what I’d said, but I didn't issue an apology.
“It wasn’t my mother who kept us apart as family, Alex, it was yours,” he offered. I wanted to scoff in his face. “I mean it, we tried to reach out, especially after dad died but your Ma pushed us back, threatened our lives if we tried.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“Wouldn’t she?” Dempsey looked me dead in the eye and I realised he may be telling the truth.
“Look, that’s for another time, I want to help you.
You are my family, whether you want to believe it or not, and I know you love this woman.
I will protect her with everything I have and continue to feed back information until you guys can come and get her. ”
“You know she’s mine.”
He nodded. “She told me. Before she realised I was there to help her, she told me that Bear would rip me limb from limb if I touched her.”
I smirked, loving how that felt that my woman knew I’d go shit crazy on anyone who dared to hurt her and that she would use that to warn people.
“She’s got fire in her veins, Alex, don’t worry. I’ll keep her safe, but I have to get back to make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
“I need her back, Dempsey.”
He nodded. “It won’t be long. I just need them to trust me before I make my move. Keep that redhead here and away from Limerick.”
“Limerick?!”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s where we are.”
“Who at the Rabid Wolves is directing this?” I asked him.
“Flynn.”
I nodded as he went inside to retrieve Tierney. She offered me a half-hearted smile as they walked away, toward the gate. Everything that had been said was still hurting my brain, and I knew I had to trust him.
My brother.
Fuck, if only dad could see us now. He’d be cheering. It was all he ever wanted. Slowly, I turned, but stopped when I saw Tierney running back to me. I was confused until she grabbed hold of me and hugged me tightly. I stiffened, until I found myself hugging her back.
“Flynn has a secret family. Find them. He hides them because he loves them.”
She kissed my cheek and ran back to Dempsey before they left the compound.
She’d just given me the best chance I had at tearing the Wolves apart. I ran inside to tell them what I knew. Shae looked heartbroken, almost miserable as I found her slumped over the bar.
“Are you pissed that your leverage to rise in the club is gone?” I asked her, feeling hatred toward the woman. She rose to meet my eyes.
“Leverage? Tell me you’re joking, Bear. I didn’t want to keep it from you, but he told me I had to. I didn’t even know he was coming here, otherwise I would have told you earlier.”“Yeah…right.”
“I like Orla. I always have, she’s sassy and bright and funny, and she’s always had the biggest hard on for you for whatever reason. I want her out of their hands too, but I trust Dempsey. I didn’t even know he was your brother until just now.”
I could see the hurt in her eyes and wondered if there was more to it than that, but I didn’t have time to sugarcoat it.
“Are you with us or them? If it came down to a war between Reapers and Rebels, who would you stand next to?”
“The Rebels. I am not a traitor.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said, viciously, before I moved off to join Ace and Hawk in church. I was still seething from everything that had taken place. Orla had been in enemies’ hands for almost a full day now, and I still hadn’t slept. I couldn’t.
“What did they say?”
“Keep Sheridan and the girls locked up tight,” I told him. “He’s wanting to trade, and I think we all know Sheridan would do that. He’s going to keep Orla safe as much as he can, with his men, and send updates.”
Ace nodded. “You’re okay with this?”
“I have to be.”
He nodded. “I’ll send Sheridan and the girls with Shae to hide out. Casey, get Morena to go with them.”
“No,” I said, quickly. “I don’t trust her.”
“You know Shae,” Ace said. “She came to us and told us about the threat.”
“A little late, don’t you think?” I shot back. “Isn’t it just a little bit convenient?”
“Do you trust your brother?” Hawk asked.
“I guess so.”
“Then maybe Shae can be trusted in this. She tried. Neal wants Sheridan, not Orla, and yet Sheridan was saved. Think about it.”
I didn’t want to admit I was wrong, but I possibly was about this.
“He’s a Reaper,” I said. “He didn’t even come and patch in with us.”
Ace shrugged. “Maybe he wanted to give you this club. He was never part of the club, his mother made sure of that. It’s a territory thing.”
“Why would he join up with the Wolves though?” Hawk asked the question I’d been wondering myself. A throat clearing at the doorway had my back tensing. Shae pushed into the room. I shot her a look that had her shrinking back against the wall, but she didn’t leave. I had to give her props for that.
“He’s trying to change the charter at the Reapers,” she offered. “I didn’t believe him either, but when we spoke, he explained his reasons. I believe him. He seems to genuinely want to change the way they are.”
“Change it to what?” I asked, taking a seat at the table and turning to her.
“Keep it legal,” she said. “Well, as legal as he can. He doesn’t want to be in the sex trade anymore, he said what they are doing is disgusting. He said he’s gotten the ear of one of the higher ups, and he’s close to turning them over.”
“The Rabid Wolves won’t allow that,” Hawk was the one who spoke. He had his own history with the Reapers that told me he was taking a lot of faith here. Maybe I needed to as well.
“He’s hoping they end up being victims of happenstance,” she said, a slow smirk on her lips. “Either way, we all know there’s going to be a war that goes down.”
The smirk died, as realisation dawned on her; that there would be casualties.
“You and Dempsey a thing?” I asked, my thoughts making themselves known audibly. Everyone turned to me, then to Shae. She looked at me, those eyes giving away a lot more than she wanted to.
“I’m not a one man woman, Alex, you know that.”