Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Cheese, Man
S lade almost dropped his motorcycle as he rode onto the lot. He threw his helmet into the air and just started to run. When he saw Nelle sitting next to Fitz… Fitz with a knife at Nelle’s neck…
“What the fuck are you doing?” Slade called out.
“Listen, brother, we all just need to talk for a second. That’s all. We all just need…”
Slade became dizzy. The rage. The anger. Two wires in his head touching, zapping him, things… clicking…
“Holy shit,” Linc said. “Fitz, what the fuck, man? This is all settled with Nelle. What are you doing?”
“He’s the rat,” Slade said.
“Fitz,” Cyrus said as he approached the table Fitz and Nelle sat at. “Fitz… brother…”
Nelle sat there like stone. Her eyes filled with tears.
Oh, fuck, Slade thought. She didn’t get to see it. She didn’t get to see her father taken away…
“Rat,” Slade said.
“Whoa, wait a second,” Cyrus said.
“No, I know it. I’m a fucking idiot. I knew it…”
“How?” Linc asked.
“The kid. That little kid. The baby. With Marcus’s lady. Remember that? It was him. Fitz and Marcus. They were the ones who took Nova. Fuck. Fitz shot Marcus. So Marcus wouldn’t talk. And when Marcus’s lady showed up with the baby… the kid kept saying fish . But it wasn’t that. He was saying Fitz. He was fucking saying Fitz’s name!”
Slade began to scream. Fitz pressed the tip of the knife to Nelle’s throat, making her yelp in pain. Blood seeped just a little.
“Fitz,” Linc said. “You took Nova…”
“Listen to me,” Fitz said. “This isn’t what you think. I have information for you guys. For all of you. This was on purpose. I’m the inside guy here.”
“You’re the guy holding a knife to an inked-up woman,” Cyrus said. “Why is that? Huh?”
“I just need your attention for a minute, that’s all,” Fitz said.
“You’ve fucking got it,” Slade said. “Now let her go.”
“I can’t do that,” Fitz said. “I can’t risk getting shot before I tell you everything. Damien has a guy that turned rat. He’s talking to a detective. I can tell you everything. Okay? Names. Locations. Everything. I didn’t say anything that would hurt you guys. I’m not a fucking rat. I have information!”
“You have a date with the Reaper,” Slade said.
“I’m going to make you dig your own grave,” Linc said.
“Fitz, what the fuck are you saying right now?” Cyrus asked.
“Don’t you get it? That detective thought he was playing me! I was playing him!”
“You told him about the van,” Cyrus said. “You tried to set us up.”
“There was nothing in the van!” Fitz yelled.
“Nobody knew that,” Linc said. “You fucking scum fuck rat.”
Fitz pushed the knife harder to Nelle’s throat. She groaned. Slade stepped forward.
“Don’t do it, Slade,” Fitz said. “This has gone on for too long. I’ve been fucking tortured. And I’m done with it. Done with all of it!”
“Fitz, nobody here has tortured you,” Cyrus said. “We’re your brothers. We love you.”
“Fuck off. Fuck you.”
“Fitz, you have information about the Russian mafia? We need it. That’s a big help for us. Dead men don’t talk, right?”
Fitz looked tired, drunk, and paranoid. Slade kept a close eye on the tip of the knife pressing into Nelle’s neck. He inched forward little by little while Fitz and Cyrus talked. He just needed a chance to make a move.
From the corner of his left eye he saw something. Someone.
It was Maggie. Carrying a bag of trash. She froze when she saw the scene. Instinct kicked in for her and she put the trash bag down and walked toward Fitz. Without hesitation, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up to her chin. Her little, perky tits jumped free, one nipple pierced.
“What do you think, Fitz? Should I get my other nipple pierced?”
Fitz turned his head and his eyes went wide when he saw Maggie’s tits. Slade dove over the table at Fitz. The knife moved from Nelle’s neck, but it caught her right cheek, cutting her. She screamed.
Slade took Fitz to the ground and started throwing punches. Cyrus and Linc jumped in and Cyrus soon found himself barking at both Linc and Slade to get away from Fitz.
“There’s a process!” Cyrus yelled. “We take it to prayer and decide his fate!”
Cyrus flipped Fitz to his front and stepped on his back. Maggie lowered her shirt and covered her mouth. Slade looked at Nelle and saw her holding her cheek with two hands, blood everywhere.
He jumped at Nelle and scooped her up, carrying her in his arms. He ran across the lot toward the van where Darrow was just climbing out.
“What the hell happened to her?” Darrow asked.
“Fitz is the rat and he tried to kill her,” Slade said.
That was all he had as far as conversation went.
He had to get Nelle to the hospital as quick as possible.
Five stitches later, Nelle looked at Slade and wanted to cry. Slade touched her face and nodded. She finally broke down. The doctor and two nurses excused themselves and Slade held his woman. That’s right.
His woman .
It was more than just ink. More than just respect or protection. It went beyond the leather cut and all the stuff SOFRAW brought with it. Slade kissed the top of Nelle’s head.
“I love you, sweetheart,” he said. “I have to say it. I can’t hold it back. I fucking love you, Nelle.”
Nelle looked up at Slade, eyes filled with tears. “I love you too, Slade. Can I ask you what your real name is? The initials are… SA …”
“ Slavochka Ader ,” Slade said with a slight grin. “Terrible name. Apparently it was my great-grandfathers name.”
“Oh. I like Slade better.”
“Me too, sweetheart. I’m so sorry about Fitz. I…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“He’s going to pay for what he did. What he took from you.”
Nelle nodded. “You were there and saw everything happen?”
“Yes. The deal went through. Cyrus and Damien worked it out.”
“My father is gone?”
“He’s gone, sweetheart.”
Nelle couldn’t believe herself when she started to smile. “He’s gone. Damien is going to torture him. Kill him. Leave him to rot somewhere. Nobody will ever find him. He’s going to die alone.”
“That’s right. If you ask me, that’s the least painful way for him to go after all he’s done. But if I can offer you something, Nelle. Something I learned in this life. You probably learned it in yours too. You can’t go back. Sometimes not everyone makes it. It fucking sucks. Who knows why it happens that way. Just makes you understand that each second matters.”
“Yeah, each second matters. And you’re wasting it talking about the past.”
“Oh, don’t fuck with me right now, sweetheart…”
“Or what?”
Slade glanced to his right. A glass door had been slid shut. A heavy curtain pulled across it. He reached down and pulled at Nelle’s jeans. She gasped.
“Don’t you dare fucking get shy on me now, sweetheart,” Slade growled.
Nelle’s jaw dropped. She hurried to undo her jeans and push them down. Slade left her panties on and just pulled them to the side like he did before. His mouth nestled between her legs and he took a deep breath of the sweet scent, then dipped his tongue into her cunt honey.
Nelle put a hand over her mouth to try and muffle her cries of pleasure. Just outside the hospital room door Darrow, Monte, and Deed stood with their arms folded. A nurse politely said excuse me and Monte leaned down and whispered in the cute nurse’s ear what was going on in the room.
The nurse’s face turned bright red and she backed away. Monte offered the cute nurse the same treatment. She hurried away and five minutes later Darrow, Monte, and Deed were escorted out of the hospital by security.
By then Slade’s tongue was stained with Nelle’s pleasure from a shivering, tight orgasm that made Nelle bit her bottom lip so hard—to prevent herself from screaming—that she drew blood. Her face was bright red and so was the cute nurse’s when she entered room. Slade and Nelle didn’t know Monte had told her what had been happening.
Nelle was quickly given paperwork and discharged. She rode back to the clubhouse on Slade’s motorcycle (which Darrow brought just in case Slade wanted it).
Nelle never felt so free as she rode on the back of the motorcycle. Her arms around Slade’s body. She rested the left side of her face against Slade’s back. The wind licked her fresh stitches and they hurt. She didn’t care. She could deal with any kind of pain.
For Nelle, Slade’s love could heal anything… forever.