17. Chapter 16
Knuckles
I stare at the picture I stole from Kodi’s sketch book as I lean against the reception desk in the full gym, grunts echoing around me, the sound of flesh hitting flesh that would normally calm me now irritating me. I feel fucking alone, fuck, I feel like I made a massive fucking mistake.
I miss my girl.
I thought having a few days no contact would help me clear my head, to help me claim her and tell her that I love her, that I want forever with her, but all it has done is set my dangerous side higher.
I’m a fucking idiot.
I need her in order to function and it took for me to go radio silent with her to fucking realize it.
I’m a fucking idiot and instead of going to her, I’m at the gym because she’s working today and her dad will probably be there and I’m not a hundred percent sure if whether he was he one to smack her.
Killing him at the precinct probably isn’t the best idea if I want to spend the rest of my life with my girl.
I sigh as I shake my head. She shouldn’t be a police officer, she should be drawing, selling her own art, and she certainly shouldn’t be teaching art.
That isn’t her passion. I know she did it for a while at the community center until her father forced her to quit after he had found out she was seeing me.
There’s audio of the Chief saying his daughter will no longer be working for them, even threatening the center if they allowed her to come back like a jackass.
I’m beginning to see the man has been controlling her life, which I’m guessing started when he lost his wife, and it explains why she still lives at home and works at the precinct.
He’s either a controlling bastard or he’s scared of losing his daughter like he lost his wife.
“Brother,” I hear Trick call, then ask, “what is it you wanted to give me?”
I sigh, shaking my head as I turn and mutter, “I told you I’d give it to you when I come to the club,” just as cheering echoes from the ring, and I side eye to see Tray smirking and the fucker who bragged that he could take the prospect knocked out.
Trick snorts and shakes his head at Tray before he looks at me as he places his hands on his hips and reminds me, “You’ve barely been at the club because your mom is fucking the brothers openly again, like the bitch she is, and besides, I was passing by.”
I nod as I look down at the drawing, and I swallow hard.
She doesn’t know that I have it, and I doubt I’ll be able to get away with tearing another off and now I’m suddenly regretting saying that I had something for him.
Groaning quietly, I reluctantly hand over the sketch before I change my mind, knowing he’ll love it.
He frowns but takes it before his mouth parts in shock as he eyes the drawing of Willow and me grinning.
“Fuck me, this is amazing,” he says with awe as he looks at me then asks, “Who drew this?”
I half smile and admit, “My girl, but she doesn’t know I took it, and if she doesn’t rip my balls from my body for going radio silent these past two days so I could try to get my head straight, then she will because I took that.”
He freezes as his mouth drops before he chokes, “You tore something out of her private sketch book that Clark used to complain about because she never looked inside it?”
I wince but nod because yeah, I did, and he winces.
“Fuck, it was nice knowing you, brother,” he says, then confirms, “But you’re also not getting this back, it’s going into a frame.”
I chuckle but nod before I sigh as I look at the gym door, the urge to go to her pulling.
“Why don’t you give her a call?” Trick asks, but I just shake my head and mutter, “She’s working…” Just as the door opens and Benny and the Chief storm inside, both looking spitting mad, and I stand up straighter.
“What the fuck?” Trick mutters, and I tilt my head as the Chief looks around the room before he locks eyes with me, the fear in them making me suck in a breath, and I whisper, “Kodi…”
There’s no other reason why he would be here with his son, if he wanted to threaten me again he wouldn’t bring one of the officers that is on the clubs side.
Benny shoves past his dad and rushes my way before he tears my world apart as he says with panic, “Kodi is missing.”
“What do you mean missing?!” I demand as I take a menacing step forward, and the Chief, who stops near me, speaks.
He says, “She went out on a domestic case, but both she and Masters haven’t returned. Masters apparently ordered Lunes to take over with the arrest then nothing.”
His jaw is tight, his body locked, his mind probably going to where mine has.
Masters has taken my girl.
“How long has she been missing?” Trick demands as I stare at the Chief, who flinches as Benny replies, “Five hours.”
Son of a…
“And you’re only just coming here now?” I sneer as I take a menacing step forward, causing Trick and Benny to quickly step between us.
I knew the fucker hated Kodi and I together, but to wait five fucking hours to tell me she was missing is out of fucking line and he knows it.
“I thought she was ignoring us,” Marshalls admits, his voice croaky, and I flare my nostrils as Benny interjects, “I was trying to convince her to find a job around here, she’s taken one nearly three thousand miles away and has even given up her apartment so I, we, thought maybe she’d gone to yours instead of coming back to the precinct but then Lunes arrived and mentioned Masters never came back with them,” he looks at his petrified dad before he looks back at me and admits, “We realized something was wrong when she wouldn’t answer her phone to Lunes. ”
I growl loudly at Benny, causing his dad to take a step towards me. Benny puts his hand on his chest to stop him from attacking me while Trick states, “She’s not going to Boston, I’ve already fucked up her chances,” causing them to look at him wide-eyed.
“Did you really think I was going to let my girl leave?” I ask coldly, then admit, “Her position has already been filled.”
“But you haven’t spoken to her in two days,” Benny says with shock, and I shake my head.
“Because I’m trying to sort my fucking head out before I finally claim her and move her onto club property!” I snap back before I look at my brother and demand, “Trick?”
He glares at Marshalls while grabbing his phone and pressing one. Several phones in the place go off, the prospects all get the emergency church notification, and I demand, “Get in your fucking car because it looks like you’re about to attend church!”
Benny's eyes widen while Marshalls frowns, but I ignore him as I grab my phone and storm past them, trying not to knock the fuckers out as worry for my girl consumes me.
***
“What do we know?” Cage demands as he slams the door to the church shut, and I eye the TV on the wall, watching as Trick logs into his database before hacking the CCTV footage around town, my body tense, my nerves fucking shot.
One wrong move from anyone, and I’ll fucking snap. Masters will be a fucking dead man if he’s the one who has kidnapped my girl.
“I could arrest you for this,” Marshalls chokes, and his son snaps, “Shut the fuck up, Dad!”
Ignoring his slack jaw towards his son, Trick looks up and demands, “What was the address of the domestic?”
“Whites farm on the west side of town,” Marshalls instantly replies, then winces because now the fucker is implicated if he tried to arrest us.
The brothers smirk, but not me. Instead, I stand tense with my dad behind me and glare at the TV with regret hitting me fucking hard for ghosting her for two days to get my shit together.
I should have fucking tied her to the bed until I was ready to claim her, fuck’s sake, I should have told her what I was thinking.
Trick types away furiously before he snaps, “Fucking got it,” and a video link appears on the screen, and I take a step forward with a growl, seeing a uniformed officer with two Chargers flanking him and my girl standing rigid in a standoff with the soon to be dead men.
“Mother fucker!” Marshalls curses as Dad grips my arm to stop me from trashing a full church room that all the brothers are inside, while the prospects are in the common room.
“Masters is a dirty cop?” Benny sneers, and my body vibrates as I watch him hold something out towards my girl, and she tenses.
“Fuck, it’s his taser,” Marshalls chokes, and I take another step forward, causing another hand to grip my opposite arm as my body trembles while the brothers, who don’t know, look at me in confusion.
I ignore them and watch as my girl shoots and kills both Chargers without hesitation making me fucking proud, but before she can kill her partner, he tasers her, and I roar out as her body shakes before she falls to the floor.
Son of a…
Everything in me darkens, and without a second thought, I grab the chair before me, dislodging the grips on me, and throw the furniture against the back wall.
Arms quickly latch around me, and I roar out louder, trying to dislodge them as I watch the fucker who tased my girl drag her, unconscious, back to his car.
He’s dead, I’m going to fucking kill that bastard!
“What the fuck?” I hear in confusion, and Cage informs the brothers, “Kodi is Knuckles’ girl, they've been together for nearly five months,” and shock renders the brothers speechless to the point even my dad takes a step to the side, but I pay them no mind as I try my hardest to dislodge who has hold of me.
My eyes stay firmly on the frozen screen of my girl being shoved into a car.
Anger and fury take hold. I can’t fucking control it, and I shove whoever has me lodged, and I move towards the Chief who I am ninety percent sure smacked my girl, ready to kill the fucker, instantly blaming him for this, but arms grab me again so I point at Marshalls and shout, “You should have fucking come to me the moment you knew she didn’t come back to the station! ”
He flinches, his tears fall, and he chokes, “This is all my fault…” causing his son to flinch, but dislodge the arms again and shove who I know is Crusher before I storm out of church, banging the door in the process, causing the men in the common room to jump and look at me wide-eyed.
I ignore them and storm towards the front door, adamant to try and find my fucking girl before Masters hurts her.
***
Two Days Later
“Anything?” I hear my dad ask as I stare at Trick's screen.
“No,” Trick grunts, and I wipe my hand over my mouth with frustration and anger, trying my hardest not to take it out on the man who couldn’t be fucked with me over the years, who allowed my mom to treat me like shit.
Benny is in the common room, his dad is patrolling the town like I have done several times over the last two days, barely fucking sleeping, and my dad hasn’t left my side much, which is heightening my agitation.
I watch as Trick types furiously, logging into another neighboring town to see if the fucker drove through that way.
I found his car half an hour from the farm, abandoned, and there was no fucking CCTV or door cams in the area, fucking nothing, and I know he did that on purpose.
I look down and grip my hair as I breathe heavily, my body trembling.
Two fucking days, and nothing, I haven’t seen my girl in four days, and fuck, I feel like I can’t breathe, I feel like I’m breaking.
Where the fuck is she?
Is she hurt?
Did he… I shake my head, not able to think it and I tremble.
“We’ll find her, son,” my dad says softly, but I ignore him and his fake-ass concern.
I never should have gone silent. I should have kept in contact and explained what I was doing. I should have fucking been there, but instead, I had to focus on myself, didn’t I? I had to try and convince myself to claim her when I already fucking have when I tatted her name down my side.
I squeeze my eyes tight, the stinging behind my eyelids making me tense…fuck, I want to cry, no, I want to fucking sob.
“Fuck, I think I’ve found them,” Trick says suddenly, and I shoot my head up and look at the screen and see a still shot of Masters, his hand on a door handle of a warehouse that I recognize to be the Chargers, not far from here, his face pointed towards the camera.
I feel my heart pound as my dad asks, “How in the fuck did you know to check the their security?”
“I didn’t, I just thought I’d give it a shot because we’ve exhausted all our other options,” Trick asks, and I stand abruptly, and his eyes widen, “Brother?”
“I know which warehouse that is. I’ve done surveillance there before. I’ll head out on my own and call if I find her,” I grunt and head towards the door.
“But,” Trick begins, but Dad cuts him off and snaps, “you are not going alone!”
I look at him, ensuring to lock eyes with him and I say, “Why not? I’ve been alone all my life, Dad,” and he takes a step back like I’ve punched him but I ignore his reaction and state, “Just track me Trick and if you don’t hear from me in a few hours, then come find me, but don’t send any other brother other than the officer brothers because I don’t trust the rest,” and the man flinches as my dad chokes before I storm out of the room and head for the backdoor to miss the brothers so they can’t tag along.
All my life I have felt unwanted, I’ve been abused by my own mother, starved, neglected by my father and ignored by brothers I’m supposed to call family and me going alone shows the whole fucking club when they find out that I want fuck all to do with them.