Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Shadow
“Sleep, baby,” I murmur, pressing a kiss to the top of my woman’s head, holding her close as I reach for my phone on the nightstand.
“Hmm,” she utters in her sleepiness.
Not even an hour ago, I fucked her into exhaustion. Now, with my phone ringing, I don’t want to wake her.
I glance at the screen to find Lucifer’s name. He wouldn’t be calling me at one in the morning if it wasn’t something important. Hell, no one had best call me unless it was a dire emergency when they know I’ve got Della in my bed.
Usually, my ass would be at the clubhouse, the rodeo grounds, or Rodeo Roundup until about now, not in my bed. Though, I didn’t have Della then. With her, I’m content to be in bed next to her, enjoying her body pressed up against mine.
Over the past week of having Della in my bed, her body tucked close to me, I’ve never felt better.
She wouldn’t care if we stayed out late or went and stayed at the clubhouse, as long as she was next to me doing it.
I didn’t mind her sleeping in my room at the clubhouse.
There were going to be times she did it anyway.
However, I’ve wanted her all to myself at night when it’s just the two of us, where I could enjoy my woman’s body and not worry about anyone hearing her cries of pleasure.
Not that I cared about that. What I cared about was whether my brothers would tease her about it. My sweet little mouse didn’t need that until I knew she was comfortable around them enough that she could be fully relaxed.
The last cookout at the clubhouse, she’d been open, laughing, and having a good time. I knew she felt relaxed enough to be herself, and damn if I didn’t enjoy every moment of her being who she is and showing it to my brothers.
Answering the phone, I bring it to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Shit’s gone down at Rodeo Roundup. You better get here,” he states. The tone of his voice alert and pissed off.
Before he’s done talking, I gently roll out from under Della and get out of bed. “Amelia?”
“She’s fine, but someone’s hit the bar.”
“I’m on my way,” I tell him and disconnect.
“Everything okay?” Della’s sweet voice does nothing to ease the anger boiling in my veins.
“No,” I answer curtly and find my jeans from the floor where I’d shucked them off hours ago. “I gotta get going. You get some sleep. I’ll call you in a little while.”
“Please be careful,” she says quietly, sitting up in the middle of our bed, watching me in the dark room.
“Always, little mouse,” I tell her and finish getting dressed. Moving to the side of the bed, I lean into her, brushing my lips over hers. “Sleep and I’ll call you to check in later.”
Della nods but doesn’t lie back down as I head for the door. My gut twists and tightens with the need to punch something. I won’t blame her for me not being there tonight, but damn if I’m not feeling this shit right now.
* * *
The ride takes me far too long to get from my house to town. Takes me even longer to get the bar. The flashing lights of the firetrucks and sheriff deputy cars strike yet another punch to the gut at what I’m feeling regarding not already being here.
Parking my bike near the others, I swing off and find my brothers huddled together, off to the side. I spot Amelia sitting in the back of the ambulance being checked out. Now that I’m here, I know I need to make a call to Maddox.
I pull my phone out and find his number.
“It’s late,” Maddox answers after the first ring.
“I need you to go to Amelia’s apartment and grab Dylan. Take him back to the ranch with you.” My mind is on all the possibilities of someone hurting my family. All of them. If I stow them away at the ranch, no one can get to them there.
“Dylan is already with me. He’s been with me all night. Amelia is coming here when she gets off work. What the fuck is going on?”
Dylan’s already at the ranch? Relief hits me instantly.
“Thank fuck. Man, there was an explosion at the bar,” I clip out, nodding, clutching the phone in a tight grip.
“Where’s Amelia? Is she—”
“She’s okay,” I tell him. “I’m on my way there now. She’s shaken up, but she’s alive.”
“Fuck that. I’m coming to get her myself,” Maddox growls, his voice turning to ice.
“Stand down, Maddox,” I order. I need him there with Dylan.
So does Amelia. “I’m already here. I can’t leave, though.
Not until I got this shit sorted. I’m going to have one of my prospects bring her straight to you.
I’d bring her to the clubhouse, but I don’t know what the fuck is actually going on. The safest place is the ranch.”
Any other time, I’d send Amelia and Dylan to the clubhouse, but I know they’d be safe at the ranch with Maddox. Safer even since I don’t know who is behind this.
“Where’s Della?” he asks.
My gut tightens further, and my blood roars in my veins. “Della is safe. But I’m gonna need you to send one of your guys to my place to get her. It’ll be faster since we’re all tied up here.”
“I’ll call Wyatt,” he states. “Give it to me straight, Shadow. How bad is it?”
“Bad, brother. Amelia was in the back, closing out the drawer. Jess was tending to the remaining customers at the bar. One of them is dead, and Jess is in bad shape. Don’t know if she’s gonna make it. If Amelia—”
“How long?”
“Twenty minutes, max. She’s with the paramedics now. They’re checking her over.”
“Tell her Dylan’s fine. He’s asleep and safe.”
“Will do. I’ll check in later.” I disconnect, shove my phone in my pocket, and head straight to Amelia.
“You okay?”
Amelia nods without a word. Her eyes are wide, and I’m sure she’s in shock at what happened here tonight. I lean in, ignoring EMTs and give her a hug, thinking to myself, lucky she wasn’t hurt. She’s my family, and I don’t want to see something happen to her.
Lucifer’s standing close, along with a few of my brothers.
“What happened?” I demand as I meet his gaze.
Lucifer jerks his chin, motioning for me to follow him.
I glance back at Amelia and tell her, “Stick to Dread and Tormentor when the EMTs are done.”
As I follow Lucifer, Phantom joins us. “What the fuck happened here tonight?”
“Someone threw a Molotov through the front windows. Amelia, as you can see, wasn’t hurt, but the event definitely freaked her out,” Lucifer grunts.
“Shit,” I snarl and shake my head, hands planted on either side of my hips. “Hold on a second.”
Turning from Lucifer and Phantom, I move back to where Dread and Tormentor are standing with my cousin now that she’s done being looked over. I call out Stretch’s name, who’s standing just off to the side.
“Take Amelia to the ranch, then get your ass to the clubhouse.”
“You got it, VP.” Stretch nods.
I turn my attention to Amelia. “Stretch is gonna take you to the ranch. You’ll be staying there for the time being.”
I know telling Amelia what to do isn’t usually a good thing, but where she would have given me lip, she simply nods in agreement.
I pull her in for another hug before letting her go. “I’ll check with you later.”
“Okay, be careful,” Amelia says and moves to Stretch. He’ll get her to the ranch where she’ll be safe. I won’t have to worry about her. Just as I won’t have to worry about my woman.
Both women will be safe with Maddox watching over them.
We all wait for Amelia to be on the back of Stretch’s bike and heading out of there before anyone speaks further.
It’s Tormentor who speaks up first. “Who the fuck did this shit?”
“I’ll check the feed when we get back to the clubhouse, see if any of the outside cameras caught something.” Dread grunts, his body visibly shaking with anger.
“Could this be retaliation?” Mammon voices his thoughts.
“We’ll know more soon enough,” Lucifer growls harshly. “I don’t like this shit. Don’t know if it’s retaliation for the last run or something else.”
“What’s your guess?” I ask.
“I’m not sure. We’ve got our hands in a lot of jars.
Got enemies all over. I don’t want to take a wild guess on this shit.
” Lucifer lets out a frustrated breath. “We’ll deal with finding out who’s behind this after we get to the clubhouse.
But I’m not leaving until that fire is out and we see how fucked up the bar is. ”
“It’ll take a while for us to get it back up and running,” I point out.
“Yeah, good thing for insurance, otherwise this would be a bitch to fix when we’re already bleeding more money to other things.”
I get what Lucifer’s saying. The club just handed over a lot of cash to Fallen Meadows to start everything up for our part of the ranch.
Della had already pointed out the area she wanted the dude ranch, and we were all waiting on a surveyor to come out and check out the property.
Once we got the all-clear, construction would begin.
The plan was for the dude ranch to be functioning within six months, a year at the latest.
Della had surprised me more by designing the logo for it with the same branding sign Tormentor made for the ranch. It looks the same, just added in the dude ranch part. She wanted to start advertising it right away and get people excited to book their time at ‘Playing Cowboy’.
Everything she’s been working on is behind the scenes, and prepping for it all, as the time comes, she’ll be able to run with it. This is just another thing about the woman I absolutely love. She doesn’t just sit and wait around. She focuses on what she can do in the here and now.
* * *
Hours later, my brothers and I finally move to sit around the table in church, the door closed, each of us with coffee in hand. None of us has slept, and we’re all dragging.
But regardless, that didn’t matter. Not when every one of us is rightfully pissed. Anger over what happened fills us all.
“Dread, pull up the feed for us,” Lucifer orders, getting right to the matter at hand.
A minute later, footage from tonight is playing on the flatscreen against the far wall for us all to view. My blood boils hotter as I watch the feed through the end.
“Whoever the fuck this person was, they were smart enough to keep their features concealed,” Dread grumbles, pausing the feed to enhance on the person in question. “It’s obvious whoever this person is, it’s a man. More than that, watch how they rush out of there and into the cargo van.”
“License plate?” Tormentor asks.
“No plates on it,” Dread states zooming in on the back of the van.
I didn’t like the fact we weren’t going to be able to get to the bottom of this quickly.
“Are we thinking retaliation?” Shade asks.
“Unless this is some fucked-up bullshit prank, it has to be,” Mammon retorts.
“Who would do it, though?” Tormentor demands.
“The only thing we can do is rule out the possibilities.”
“I hate to think it, but could this be blowback for Della standing up for Shadow against Deputy Norton?” Phantom asks.
Fuck.
I look at the feed again, focusing on the concealed man throwing the Molotov cocktail into Rodeo Roundup.
Could it be Norton behind this shit?
“I’ve been keeping an eye on that whole situation, regarding Norton,” Dread announces.
“Can’t be him. Norton was fired the day after Della got in his face.
After that, he packed up his shit and moved to Blackcreek with Marcy.
Seems whatever Senator Ricks said to him, spooked him enough not to come after Della. ”
“The fuck?” Nightmare sneers. “What the fuck is that shit about?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.” Dread shrugs. “All I know is it’s not him. So, that’s nixed one problem.”
“What about the last protection run?” Shade mentions. “Those two women we escorted for Esparza?”
“I’d have to call Esparza and find out, but we handed them off to the Grave Prowlers MC, who would make sure they were moved farther into hiding.”
The Grave Prowlers MC were allies of ours.
We had no issues with the other club. Like ours, they had legit businesses, including a mortuary each club owned.
My brothers had handed them off to Steel, and his men in Mississippi, who then took the package further up the coast to the North Carolina Charter who would take it from there.
“Think a call to Steel or Smoke would help? I could even reach out to Fool?” I ask. I know Fool. Not well, but I knew he was former military and now a member of the club. His brother, Hazard, was the Virginia Charter’s Enforcer.
“Fool was with Steel and his men. Him and his brother Hazard,” Shade grunts, giving us the details of those they met with.
Steel’s the President of the Mississippi charter, and Phoenix, being his VP, had been at the meet up along with Fool and Hazard. Since they were in town, they offered to take the package up the coast to Brim’s club in North Carolina. It makes sense they’d do it. Less headache for everyone involved.
“I’ll give them a call after I call Esparza,” Lucifer states, nodding.
“What if it doesn’t have anything to do with the protection run?” Tormentor asks.
“We dig and see who the fuck was behind it,” I state, my tone harsh and biting even to my own ears.
Whoever the fuck was behind this fucked with the wrong club this time around. No way in fuck I was playing around. I’ll put them in the ground where they belong right after I slit their motherfucking throat.