Chapter 8
KEVLAR
Rosemary fights me, and I hold on tight. Like she did in the shower, she’s breaking down. But this time, it’s different. No longer her sadness, her grief. It’s her anger.
Through her screams, you can hear the fury.
By asking her what was in her head triggered it.
I know it. I can feel it in my gut. And I get it with what she says, even if it’s incoherent.
I was able to make out the words coming from her lips.
She doesn’t trust us. She doesn’t know the reason for her being taken.
Scooping Rosemary in my arms, I carry her toward my room and look at our club’s medic, Mace. “Get a sedative and bring it to my room.”
“On it.” He jerks his chin and heads in the opposite direction to where he’d set up a sort of clinic. The building’s big enough for it, so it’s not some closet-sized room. With his experience in the military, he worked on one of the medivacs, he knows what he’s doing.
I ignore the looks from the rest of the people gathering, including Rosemary’s dad and brother.
If I want to make things right with Rosemary, then I need to do this.
I’ve got to take care of her. Get her to talk to me.
I need to show her that I’m not the bad guy. That we didn’t stop looking for her.
Fuck me.
I’ve got to fix things between the two of us before we can go any further.
Inside my room, I keep a struggling Rosemary contained until Mace comes through the room, needle in hand.
“I need you to lift her sleeve,” Mace mutters.
“Here. Let me help,” Cobra growls, coming from behind, his dark eyes on his sister. He’s pissed, for sure. I get it, I mean, if I had a sister, I’d feel the same way.
Together, the three of us work and get straight.
I hold her still while Cobra lifts the sleeve of my hoodie, and Mace pricks her arm and presses the plunger of the needle, dosing her with the sedative.
It’ll soon take effect, and she’ll be able to rest. When she wakes, I’ll be here, and then the two of us will talk.
I’ll make sure of it. See to it, that she understands we didn’t have anything to do with her being kidnapped, taken, and used in the way she was.
I lay Rosemary on the bed and pull the blanket up over her as she stares, her eyes getting that faraway look in them as the medicine takes effect.
“I’m going to kill the bastards when we find them,” Cobra snarls.
“Get in line,” I remark, sitting on the side of the bed to stroke Rosemary’s hair out of her face. “I’ll be making sure that those responsible for putting her through all this pay a heavy price.”
“Right there with you on that one.” Viper growls, getting my attention.
I didn’t even know he followed us. Straightening from where he leaned against the door frame, he clears his throat.
“Jade wants to come sit with Rosemary for a while. We’ve got shit to discuss for ten minutes, and then we have church. ”
“Vulture got something?” I ask.
“From what he said, he’s got a shit load that we’re not gonna like.”
“Great. Just what I want to hear.” Shaking my head, I let out a sigh and look back to Rosemary.
“She’ll be out of it for at least a couple of hours, Kevlar,” Mace remarks. “You should be back in here in plenty of time.”
“Right.” I grunt and look toward Viper. “Give me five minutes, and Jade can come hang with her.”
Viper nods and turns, leaving the room along with Mace and Cobra. Nothing else needs to be said right now.
The door closes behind them, and I glance back down to take in Rosemary. Her eyelids droop, and she’s out. I lean in, press another kiss to her forehead, and whisper, “I’ll make things right, baby, swear it. Those fuckers will pay for what they did to you. All of them. I’ll burn them all.”
Taking my seat at the table, it’s not the first time, but it is the first for something like this. We’ve sat at this very table and voted on the shit we’re going to do with this charter. This time it’s different. It’s about Rosemary.
Viper takes his seat at the head of the table.
Instead of using a regular gavel, he’s got one that Jade had carved for him with the shape of a viper snake.
It’s pretty wicked and suits him as Prez.
He bangs the gavel down on the table, something two of my brothers worked hard on to create and design themselves with the Devil’s Riot MC insignia carved into the top with a clear coat sealing it.
“Vulture, tell us what you’ve found for us,” Viper orders, turning everyone’s attention toward the other man, including the two men who are only invited in here because they’re family to my woman.
The rest of Cobra’s club are sitting out in the main room, waiting to be filled in with what their President has to share. This meet is for us only.
“Donovan Rowe is the twin brother to Dominic Rowe. He mentioned the name while being questioned.”
“And the name Enyo?” Cobra spits out like the name’s a bad taste in his mouth.
“I’ll get to that one as soon as I finish with Dominic.
” Vulture’s tone is cool and mocking. One of the reasons he’s got the name.
He doesn’t give a shit and will go after the dead even when there’s nothing left.
At least, that’s what a couple others say about him.
He doesn’t rest until he’s done picking at what he’s got in his sights.
“As I was saying, Dominic Rowe. He’s one sick fucker, according to the records I’ve found on him.
Not only does he have his hands in death matches as a participant, but he also manages them, sets up the fights, anything and everything to do with the Death Match club, he takes care of it,” he says, going on to explain in deeper detail about the whole thing.
“Dominic has no problems leaving a trail behind him if you know where to look. Which now that we do, I was able to follow his trail and figure out how Rosemary was targeted.”
“How?” I demand, narrowing my eyes and clinching my jaw.
“Remember the guy she moved in with?” Vulture sneers, meeting my gaze as I nod.
“Well, it seems he got a hefty donation to the gym’s account about a month after she was taken.
We’d already ruled him out, considering we couldn’t find anything.
” I hadn’t ruled him out of shit, I just couldn’t find anything to link him to.
“Anyway, he sold Rosemary out to save his precious gym that was getting ready to go bankrupt.”
“I want that bastard picked up, tied up, and dragged down here,” Viper snarls, slamming his fist on the table.
“Already put a call into Stoney. He’s got men picking up and doing as you want.
” Vulture smirks. “Now, for more that needs to be said, Rosemary had already caught the attention of these people. She’s damn good in the ring, and I mean damn good.
That’s where Enyo comes in. See, Enyo is the actual person to which Dominic answers.
She is the one who pulls all the strings.
” Opening a folder, Vulture pulls out a picture and tosses it to the middle of the table.
“Does anyone recognize this woman here?”
I take a look at the image, not recognizing the woman. “I didn’t recognize her. Who is she?”
“I don’t recognize her,” Viper remarks, cocking a brow.
“It’s my ex-wife,” Big announces. “Rosemary’s mother.”
“I thought you said your wife was dead,” Viper growls, leaning forward in his seat, looking ready to come out of it.
“She is.” Big grunts and looks at his son. “Should have known this would come back to haunt her.”
“Want to enlighten us?” I sure as fuck want to know what’s going on.
“Violet, her real name is Violet, and she’s a bitch.
She tried to kill my daughter. Hated her from the moment she was born because she was no longer the center of attention.
Left when she was only a few months old after Cobra caught her trying to drown Rosemary.
The woman Rosemary knew as her mother was killed years ago, and we hid the truth from her.
She didn’t need to know that the reason her mother was killed was because Violet didn’t want Rosemary to have her.
Violet made it known before she disappeared, dropping off the radar. ”
We all listen to Big finish telling us about the shit that Rosemary knows nothing about. I have to respect what these men did to protect her from the truth, but it hurt her in the process. She lost them along the way.
“So, let me get this right, this Violet woman is Enyo, and she’s got a vendetta against Rosemary because she was born and took away her spotlight?” My voice heavy with sarcasm.
“Violet was always a bitch, only reason we married was ‘cause I knocked her ass up the first time. I was going to leave her, and she tricked me into having another kid, saying she wanted to give me another son. Instead, we had Rosemary. She hated how I was with my princess. It pissed her off because she wasn’t getting the attention she thought she deserved.”
“The woman was a psycho bitch,” Cobra says bitterly.
“And she killed the woman Rosemary knew as her mother?” Cyprus grunts.
“Stephanie.” Big grunts. “I hired her as a nanny and ended up marrying her.” He shrugs with mocking resignation.
“Never should have done that. Loved her, but not enough to protect her as I should have. That was on me. I let her go out when I knew there were threats. Told her about them, and she brushed them off. Violet got her hands on Steph and tormented her. She then made sure I knew that Rosemary would suffer next. It’s why we let her go the way we did.
To protect her. Fuck.” He lets out a breath.
“Should have known it was her behind this. She’s selfish and also big into fights.
It’s the one thing the two of them ever shared in common.
Only difference is my girl is damn good at it.
She grew up training and learning to fight.
She excelled at it and loved boxing. It was her passion, but she didn’t want to do competitions that much.
She’d do them, but she wanted to teach it.
Used to say she was going to own her own gym one day and teach kids what she learned. ”
Well, fuck.
“How do we take this bitch out?” Wolf asks, leaning back in his chair, arms stretched out, as he taps his fingers on the table.
“First, we have to find her.” I rock my head on my shoulders, stretching my muscles, trying to relieve the tension there. “We got Rosemary back way too easily after we found her. Why?”
“Because they’re playing games here,” Vulture declares, eyes gleaming. “According to Dominic’s phone records, he got a call just moments before the match started. It was all set up from there. They tricked us and got away.”
“This is just getting started,” Viper finishes, turning in his chair. From the side profile, you can visibly see his jaw clenching.
And he’s right. This is just getting started, and we need to figure out a game plan. They were one step ahead of us this time. We need to be prepared for them and what they might try to do next.