Chapter Eleven
P at didn’t have time to hunt down Ava. She had snuck out of his room. This was an entirely new experience to him. No woman in all his years had ever snuck out of his room. Only, Ava was not just some woman. She was the one woman he wanted more than anything in the world.
He wanted to go and find her, to make sure she was okay. Last night had been the best experience of his life. To top it off, he hadn’t expected to fall asleep, only to his surprise, he had fallen deeply to sleep.
He’d woken at seven-thirty, as most of the club was waking up, to an empty bed. The only remnants of Ava being in his room were the torn panties she left behind in his trash bin. She wasn’t answering her cell phone.
And Bull asked him to help recover a stranded vehicle, which he already had done. It was a single mother and her car had just stopped. At the garage they offered towing as part of the service. He’d loaded up the car, dropped the mother and child at home, and taken the car to be worked on.
So far, he couldn’t see why the car had broken down. Everything seemed to be in working order. Pat was staring at the car in confusion when Rusty made his way inside the garage. He wore his overalls and looked like he had just gotten out of bed.
“Rough night?” Pat asked.
“You could say that. Uh, can I ask you something?”
“If it is anything medical, I’d rather not.”
Rusty sighed. “Look, my balls are fine. Seriously, a guy makes a few mistakes and you think that’s all I want to ask you?”
Pat looked over and waited for him to keep ranting.
“Fine, fine, I made mistakes. My balls paid the price, but can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“What does it mean if a chick sneaks off in the morning?”
Pat did not like this. “Why are you asking me?”
“Look, just wondering. You know, asking why they do it? I mean, does that mean they like, look ugly in the morning, or are just getting themselves together? Does it mean they regret what happened that night? I mean, is there some kind of girl code?”
“I’m guessing someone snuck out on you and it’s not club pussy?” Pat asked.
“Yeah, you guess right.”
“You want to tell me who it is?”
“No,” Rusty said. “I do not.”
Pat rubbed the back of his head and blew out a breath. “I don’t know. I don’t know why a woman does it, or what her reasoning is. When you figure it out, let me know.”
Rusty mumbled something that Pat didn’t quite hear.
“Women, eh, we can’t live with them, and we can’t live without them.
” Rusty laughed. “You see, this is why you should just stick with club women, because they are not complicated. They want to ride the dick, no commitment. Once you’re done, you can kick them out of your room, or have your pick of some fresh pussy. ”
“And you wonder why this mystery woman snuck out on you.”
“I gave her a good night. I gave her a fucking incredible night,” Rusty said.
“And yet, she still snuck out on you. It sounds like you’re saying she did it because she regretted sleeping with you.”
Rusty glared at him. “You know, I think I preferred you when you were silent and glaring at shit. What are you glaring at now?”
Pat didn’t care for the insult. “I don’t get what is wrong with this car. It starts up fine, but we got the call to tow it. A mother and daughter were waiting in the cold to be picked up.”
Pat frowned. “There is nothing wrong with the car.”
Rusty frowned. “You sure? Maybe it is one of those diagnostic faults? You got to get the machine out and hook it up.”
Pat went to the machine and turned it over. “Listen.”
They were silent, and listened to the car.
Now Rusty was wearing a frown. “Well, shit, that sounds like a real sweet vehicle. Fresh. Like it has just recently been tuned up.”
Pat was about to open his mouth, but his senses kicked in. This developed in enemy territory, when anyone could make you a target.
He tensed up at the sound of the approaching car, then he grabbed Rusty a second before bullets started raining down upon them.
Pushing Rusty to the ground, he heard that the guns didn’t stop.
He had no choice but to move them to take cover behind the car, but it would not offer them much protection.
They took cover inside the main reception, putting more of the building between them.
“Are you okay?” Pat asked, raising his voice to be heard over the bullets.
“Fucking bastards got me,” Rusty said, groaning.
Pat looked over to see Rusty had been hit in the stomach. He applied some pressure, pulling at the man’s overalls to get more fabric.
“Press down on it, do not let it bleed out. I’ve got to get to Bull’s office.”
He didn’t stop, going to Bull’s safe, typing in the code that all the club knew in case this ever happened.
Pat learned at a young age to fire both guns. When he was a boy, he loved watching cowboy movies and would spend days learning to draw both weapons because he thought it looked cool.
Aiming both guns, he stepped outside and began to shoot back.
He knew he hit the main shooter, and that caused their attackers to panic, as they suddenly pressed their foot to the gas and took off.
Pat continued to fire, taking out a tire, and he memorized the license plate, as he rushed back into the main building where Rusty was.
The other man had started to sweat.
“Are you okay?” Pat asked.
“Fuck, no, I’ve been shot.” Rusty groaned. “Fuck me, it has been a long time since I felt like this. This fucking hurts.”
Pat pulled out his cell phone, dialing Bull’s number. It took several rings to get Bull on the phone.
“I need a car and I need it now. Rusty’s been hit.” He gave a quick rundown. Before he ended the call, Bull said Grant was on his way.
“What the fuck do you think this is?” Rusty asked. “A new enemy? The fucking cartel?”
“The cartel,” Pat said. “For fucking sure this was a cartel hit. How are you holding up?”
“Like I’ve been fucking shot. Pieces of shit.” Rusty growled. “I don’t like this, Pat. They’re on our turf and we didn’t even fucking know it. Pieces of shit.” He kept saying the same insult over and over again.
It wasn’t long before Grant arrived, entering the garage. “I’m here.”
Pat grabbed Rusty, who groaned.
“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding?” Grant asked.
Pat went from zero to a hundred in his rage, and after he got Rusty into the back of the car, he took one look at Grant and threw a punch. He didn’t hold anything back. Grant went down to the ground with a thump.
“What the fuck was that for?”
He was tempted to hit him again, but Pat had a motto for club brothers.
When they were down on the ground, he stopped.
He only hit them when they were on their feet.
Now, it was a completely different story as to whether or not they were even prepared to take a hit.
It wasn’t up to him to teach them to have their own backs.
“Kidding? Seriously. You think I’d joke about this.”
“I was just saying. I didn’t fucking mean it. Don’t you say shit in the heat of the moment, to try and cut through the tension?”
“Rusty is shot and bleeding, in case you haven’t seen. The garage just got fucking shot up, and you think this is the appropriate time to cut through the tension .” He tried his best to mimic Grant’s irritating voice.
“Well, with the way you’re behaving, I’m guessing not.”
Pat shook his head.
Grant was already on his feet.
“Look, I know you guys have a love-hate relationship going on, but can I just ask you guys to focus on me? You know, the guy that got shot, and it is really starting to fucking hurt.” Toward the end of his speech, Rusty started to yell.
Gone was the man who would laugh about his itchy balls, now he was a man in pain.
Grant climbed into the driver’s seat, and Pat rushed toward the passenger seat. Once inside, Grant pulled out, and they didn’t go to the hospital. That wouldn’t be safe. There was only one person they could go to and they rarely bothered him. It happened to be Pat’s father.
An old, retired Chaos and Carnage MC member, who was known as the Doctor, or Doc. He was a man in his seventies, but had retired out in the middle of nowhere. He was out of the club, out of the life, and Pat rarely went to see him.
Doc had been part of the club during Bull and Grant’s father’s reign.
He had seen the club flourish and go to shit.
Pat was aware of his father disagreeing with the Prez at the time, and for that he got hurt.
He got a nice long scar across his cheek that had disfigured half his face.
It hadn’t stopped his mother from loving him, though.
Nothing could have stopped their parents.
Until one of the man’s last jobs was to put a bullet inside Doc’s wife’s forehead, right in front of him.
This happened before Bull killed his father.
Doc had lost everything. After it was all done, Doc quit. He took everything he had, sold it, and retired. The only time he came to play was when one of the boys was seriously injured, like right now.
His father had also served time in the army, and he’d been one of the finest medics at the time.
A great doctor, who could have gone on to do good things.
Only, the war had messed with his mind, and instead he became a medic to a group of bikers, a full-fledged biker member, and it was the life Pat grew up in.
“Your dad is going to be pissed,” Rusty said.
Pat didn’t say a word.
It had been a long time since he last saw his father. The first time had been when he got off his tour of duty, and that was it. They argued. His father believed it was time for him to take life seriously. To forget the club, find a place, a nice girl, settle down, start a family.
Doc always said family and the club didn’t mix. Not that he could blame his father’s reasoning. After all, he lost his wife to the club.