CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
By the time we arrived in Dallas, thankfully, it was still dark. After getting that text from Kick, and having reluctantly left Zoe in my bed, I’d met Kick, Tiny, Riggs, Ink and Angel outside in the parking lot. Ky stayed back to keep an eye on things at the gym, as well as to watch over the women. With Bear and Knox, the most senior brothers left behind.
Kick had received news from Kon regarding Zoe’s estranged mother, a woman Zoe hardly saw or even spoke of these days. I wasn’t sure what it was, but if we’re riding to Dallas in the dead of night, then I was sure it wasn’t gonna be good.
Parking our bikes in the service way behind the house, we made our way on foot so that we didn’t wake up the neighborhood with the sound of the pipes from our sleds. The house was clean and looked well kept, with a green lawn and flowers blooming.
Walking up to the front door, it swung open; standing there was Kon, looking dishevelled and exhausted. I wondered what that was all about? Seeing him this way, and not his usual put together self, was a shock.
He stood back to let us enter, and what we came face to face with was a lot of gruesome.
“Fuck me.” I was the first to speak. I’ve been in the Devil’s Carnage MC for over a decade now, and we weren’t choirboys, but this was on another level of crazy. I turned to look at him, my brows arching.
“You’ve been here the whole time? With all this?”
“I didn’t want her to be alone,” he simply says.
I shake my head. “Is it okay for us to be here? What about the police?”
“The police won’t be here. We have free rein of the place.” Kon tells us, and I believe him, since he has most of the Dallas PD under his control, and he swiftly dealt with those who didn”t comply like the assholes that arrested me. I’d heard Detective Anderson suffered a stroke not long after I’d been let out of jail. Poor man can’t speak or even take care of himself now. What a shame. I’ve yet to thank Kon for that, though. I make a mental note to do so on this trip.
“What the fuck happened here?” I straight up asked. Everyone else seems to be speechless.
“You can see for yourself what happened,” Kon replies, shoving his hands into the pockets of his wrinkled pants.
Unfortunately, I could. But I wanted to scrub my eyes with bleach and unsee everything. But that was impossible.
Blood covered the room. On the coffee table sat a head—soon revealed to be Zoe’s mother’s—while her body lay a few feet away.
“What kind of sick motherfucker would do such a thing?” I inquire, looking from Kon to Kick, then back again.
“That’s why I called you guys.” A look passes between the two brothers, and a knot forms in my stomach, as it suddenly clicks.
“So, you called us to what, take us away from the clubhouse so that I couldn’t protect Zoe from the monster she married? And what about Max, her father?” I demand.
“Well, that’s the interesting bit,” Kon replies, retrieving his phone from pants pocket. Playing around with it for a few seconds, he hands the phone to Kick.
We crowd around the small screen as the video begins. It’s of a dark basement type room. Concrete all around, with no distinguishing features except for the man strung up by his wrists in the middle of the room. He’s covered in blood, and his face is black and blue, and his eyes virtually closed from the beating he’s received; his breaths coming out in a wheezing sound. Even with all of that, I recognize the man as Max. Zoe’s father.
“Motherfucker! How long has he had Zoe’s dad?”
“It’s hard to know, but judging by the look of him, he’s been there a while, at least a few days.”
“If he thinks that’s the way to get Zoe back, he’s stupider than I thought.” Kick pipes in, a little calmer than me. “He’s had so much time to just disappear and go to ground. We never would’ve found him. But now, I wanna string the son of a bitch up by his balls and watch him bleed.”
Handing back the phone to Kon, he takes his own out, and puts a call into Knox, telling him about the video with Max, and to find out ASAP where he was being held.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding when Kick spoke those words. It validated my wish to take the asshole down.
Just then, my phone rings, and I almost didn’t answer it, but remembered Zoe and the other women were alone and at the clubhouse. Seeing it’s the prospect Stingray, I step out onto the dark porch for some privacy before answering it.
“What’s up?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm and level.
“Sorry to bother you, but I thought you should know. Sin got into it with your woman.” I fisted my hand and gritted my teeth.
“She didn’t hurt Zoe, did she?” I demand. Thinking of all the things I would do to the bitch if she harmed one hair on my little one”s head.
“Not at all. In fact, it was your woman that gave Sin a bloody nose.”
Unable to contain my laughter, even though the setting was awkwardly inappropriate, I found all eyes in the room zeroed in on me. Clearing my throat, I told him to throw her out of the club. Quickly ending the conversation with the prospect, before tapping on Zoe’s number, ignoring Kick’s harried look in my direction. I needed to make sure my girl was alright.
“Hello?” I hear her breathy voice answer on the other end, and my cock does an inappropriate dance in my jeans at the sound of her voice.
“How’s my slugger doing?” I ask, unable to keep the amusement and pride from my voice. She giggles, letting me know thankfully that she was okay.
“Wow, news travels fast.”
“Especially when a club bunny gets taken down by an ol’ lady.” I blurt out without thinking, feeling all eyes on me. I don’t give her a chance to reply, hoping against hope that she hadn’t heard me properly. The topic wasn’t something we should talk about over the phone. Especially at this moment.
“Don’t worry about her anymore, she won’t bother you again.” I tell her, trying to keep my anger over what happened with Sin in check. I continue without giving her a chance to reply, and to tell me that there won’t be an us. I won’t accept it. There’s only one way this is going to go, and that’s with her being my ol’ lady. That realization had an immense weight being lifted off my shoulders.
“We’ll talk when I get back, shouldn’t be too long, little one. Stick with the other women. Can’t wait to see you, and fuck you again.” I tell her, openly. Though I was certain a blush had crept up to color her cheeks at my words, I was almost sure of it. But I wasn’t sure how lucky I would get with her once I told her what happened here tonight.
“Me too.” She whispers, before ringing off.
I return inside, ignoring the curious looks from all of my brothers, placing my fists on my hips.
“Everything alright, brother?” Kick asks, seeing me trying to keep my anger in check.
“I told Stingray to get rid of Sin.” I tell him. “She attacked my woman in the kitchen this morning.” I quickly tell the group what happened, including that she lied to me about us spending the night together; and as one, they all agree Sin will need to go.
“Send her to one of my brothels here in Dallas, I’m sure I’ll have space for her.” Kon surprises me with his offer. I nod and thank him.
Returning to the matter at hand, Kick says, “So what the fuck happened here?”
Kon looks up from the drinks cart where he’s pouring two fingers of scotch into a crystal tumbler. Running a hand through his constantly mussed up hair, he looks at each of us, his gaze stopping at me. He knows my history with Zoe, and I know this news is going to devastate her.
“I found her like that. We were supposed to meet last night, but I was too busy at the office to get away.” Kon tells us, and my heart ached for my woman, because I know the devastation she will feel once she hears the news. Even if they hadn’t got along for a while now.
“Motherfucker!” Kick spat out. “You were seeing Zoe’s mother?
Kon arches a thick, dark brow. “Fuck you, little brother, don’t pass judgement on what you know nothing about. Not everyone is lucky enough to find their person, like you have. I’m sure once I do, I’ll be monogamous with that one person. But that day hasn’t happened, so shut the fuck up about my sex life.”
Kick lifts his hands in a placating motion, though the look on his face belied his feelings. He wasn’t happy, to say the least, when he found out that Everleigh and his brother Kon had a sexual relationship before she returned to Briar Creek. I shake my head. Kon’s a known player, even though he’s still technically married to a woman that had ended up in the loony bin. Most likely because of his douchebag behavior, I think to myself, with a snort.
“So, what happens now?” I ask, changing the subject before the two brothers come to blows. Because that’s all we need. I want nothing more than to leave this place and return home to my woman.
“Now, we go to one of my clubs to relax and unwind. I’ll call a clean-up crew to get rid of this shit.” Kon announces.
Spending time in one of his clubs wasn’t something I wanted to do because I’ve already been to several of Kon’s clubs in the past and enjoyed them way too much. But since I was now with Zoe, I didn’t need that sort of temptation in my life, so I politely declined.
Kick, Tiny, and I left to find a hotel with Kon’s recommendation; we booked a few rooms at the Fairmont, in downtown Dallas. It was way over the top, but since the fucker was paying for it, I’ll go with it.
I had planned to call Zoe once I arrived at the hotel, but I was so tired, I decided it would be better that I do it once I had a few hours” sleep. I wanted to be present. Kicking off my boots, I undressed down to my boxer briefs and slid beneath the covers. Not for the first time wishing that Zoe was here with me, as I closed my eyes and almost immediately fell into a fitful sleep.