31. Kaleb
Kaleb
Killing the motor of my bike, the silence lasts all of three seconds before it’s filled with the sound of grinding echoes in the North Haven Garage.
I’ve never really known what makes a place truly feel like a home, but this comes closer than anywhere else ever has. The place has barely changed over the years with its oil-stained concrete and rust that climbs the roller doors.
Tools are scattered everywhere, and motorbike parts litter where I can see inside. It looks like any other rundown workshop. It’s not.
The whirring cuts out in an instant, whoever is inside noticing me, Leon and Griff. Jules saunters out with grease staining his blonde hair.
“Well, look who remembered we exist,” he bites out, eyes narrowing on us.
He wipes his hands on a rag before tossing it aside, leaning on the front of an old Hilux. Its engine hangs from a chain, grease coating all the way up to Jules’s elbows. Despite the weather, his flannel shirt is tied around his waist, skin slick with sweat.
He’s angry. He should be.
Just this morning we got the call from his father, the old man swearing at Ash with his huge fucking balls. No one screams at the president of the Devils.
“This has gone too far,” Jules growls, his chest rising with his anger. “My brothers and I try to live a simple fuckin’ life out here. We do honest work. Then this is how we get treated.”
Griff stiffens beside me, always ready for a fucking fight. “Fix your tone, Morgan,” Griff growls.
Jules narrows his eyes, face twisting into a snarl.
“Or what?”
Fuck my life.
This is why I bring Kai to these things.
He doesn’t put his foot in his mouth and knows when to rein it in.
Unfortunately, my brother has decided to turn into a barnacle on the girl.
Even though I dragged Griff to them and offered his services as babysitter, he refused and hugged her body to his like a caveman.
So now I’m with these two pricks.
One with a penchant for violence. The other with a penchant for the one with a penchant for violence. Fucking great.
Breaking through the tension, Theo runs down the stairs, his dad hobbling behind.
“Leon!” he gasps.
Fuck. He looks like fucking shit. His face is a mess of purple and black bruises, one of his eyes still swollen shut. A deep cut is taped on his lower lip and his forearm is in a cast.
Leon runs, meeting the at the bottom of the stairs.
“Fuck, kid,” he shakes his head, gripping Theo by the shoulders and searching him from head to toe. “They got you good.”
Leon seems none the wiser to the way the youngest Morgan brother looks at him, stars twinkling in his eyes. He is practically vibrating, smiling despite the fact that this morning he was attacked, just because Leon is looking at him.
Poor kid.
The eighteen-year-old has no idea that Leon doesn’t spend a night alone. Anything was a pulse and Leon has fucked them.
Theo nods, wincing at the pain.
“I’ve missed you, Leon,” he murmurs, and I hear Griff beside me scoff.
Leon wraps his arms around Theo, lifting him off the ground and carrying him back upstairs, disappearing into the house above the garage.
Never taking this prick with me to anything important again.
Facing Graham, I almost feel sorry for him. His harsh face looks exhausted.
“Graham,” Griff nods.
He is one man who will always have the Devil’s respect. A Legacy.
“Boys,” he mutters. “Obviously, we need to talk.”
“Talk?” Jules spits. “We need to do more than talk. Pa, this is serious. First it’s Theo, what happens when they go for Nate? Or God forbid Stevie...”
Graham spins to his son. “I fucking know it’s serious, Jules.”
They glare at each other for a moment. The oldest Morgan brother facing off with his dad.
“What happened?” I interrupt their fatherly bonding time. We came for a reason.
Graham sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Theo went out with Stevie. They were drinking, and two men cornered them on their walk home. They were asking all sorts of things. Which bikes you ride. And Kai. They were asking about a girl. Roxanne?”
My blood runs cold.
“What were they asking about her?”
Graham tries to think. The sound of heels clicking draws our attention as Stevie walks through the garage.
A flannel is tied under her tits and baggy jeans ride down her slim hips.
Paired with heels and long flowing red hair, she looks like she belongs on a magazine for wannabe bikers to jerk over.
The fact that she is only sixteen is probably why Graham is as grey as he is.
“Hello boys,” she purrs.
“What did they want with Roxanne?” I ask her, since she was there.
She stops beside her dad, planting a kiss on his cheek.
“All sorts. Asking about which bike she’s on the back of. If we’ve seen her. Which Devil she’s fucking.”
I feel Griff stare at me sidelong, but I’m too pent up to care.
“What did they look like?”
Stevie’s playful expression disappears when she hears my tone. She folds her arms across her stomach, long hair sliding over one shoulder.
“Couldn’t tell you much. It was dark and all.” Her eyes flick towards the stairs where Theo disappeared up. “They were huge, though. Both had black hair. Creepy blue eyes, too. One was bigger, the other was a bit skinny.”
“Wraiths?” Griff asks.
She shrugs. “They weren’t wearing cuts.”
I can barely hear them talk. Blue eyes and black hair. I’m suddenly grateful that my brother has turned all caveman and won’t leave the girl’s sight.
“Did you say anything?” I grit, interrupting them.
She flinches, looking offended. “Of course we didn’t. Why do you think my brother looks like that? I ended up running off to call for help and found a Devil....”
And that would be fucking Benny. The Devil we found stabbed and dead on the sidewalk when we went to investigate.
Me and Griff share a look. My teeth grind.
“Anything else you’ve forgotten?”
Jules steps closer. “She’s told you everything. Now, how about you start talking.”
When I turn to him, I let loose every single ounce of fury, fear, and fucking wrath I feel. This family is protected by us. But if anyone hurts that fucking girl, I don’t give a single fuck who stands in my way. Don’t care who I have to kill.
“Careful,” I murmur.
He looks like he wants to keep pushing. His jaw feathers, and hands curl into fists. Luckily for both of us, he keeps his lips sealed.
Stevie pushes her hair over her shoulder, eyes flicking between us. “Is everything going to be okay?”
I don’t say anything. Because any truth I can give her won’t be what she wants to hear.
Without looking back, I march up the stairs, ready to rip Leon off Theo if I fucking have to. We need to get the hell out of here. First, to lay my eyes on the black cat. Make sure she’s where I left her. Secondly, to go hunt down those fucking Kavanagh brothers. Zeke be fucking damned.
“Call if you need anything,” Leon murmurs, brushing Theo’s blonde hair off his forehead.
He’s crouched beside Theo, who is now tucked into a soft lounge, a blanket wrapped around him. A book rests on his legs, one that is bright pink and has vines crawling over the title.
“Come visit me soon?” Theo sounds so damn hopeful.
Not like we aren’t the reason he was nearly beaten to death. None of his softness and innocence seems to have been beaten out of him. Which is unfortunate for him.
Leon nods, leaning down to kiss his forehead softly. “Get some rest, kid.”
When he glances up at me, I jerk my chin towards the exit, and he stands, following me out.
“I’m going to have to break his poor little heart,” Leon grumbles, boots clanging on the metal stairs.
I grunt.
Griff shakes Graham’s hand. “Call if you need us. We will keep you updated, sir.”
The older man nods, but I can see the worry lining his face. He can hear what we aren’t saying. He’s been through a war with the Devils himself. The one that started and ended with Ash killing his father.
And he knows this is worse.
Just as I’m swinging my leg over my bike, a low rumble of an engine reaches me. My hand stills on the handlebar, eyes flicking to the black truck. It slows down past the garage. Too fucking slow.
Every window is tinted so dark that I can’t see the driver. It slows even further, and for a second, I think it’s going to stop. My hand reaches for my gun, preparing for anything. But it speeds up, wheels screeching on the asphalt.
“Know that car?” Leon asks Jules.
Jules glares in the direction the car sped off . “Nope. And I don’t like the fuckin’ feel of it either.”
A grunt of agreement rumbles in Griff’s chest.
“Plate?" I bark.
“Covered,” Griff snarls.
Of fucking course it is. I’m already reaching for my helmet, revving the engine to life without looking back to the Morgans and their garage.
Just before I’m tearing off, a hand wraps around my arm. I’m two seconds away from breaking it as I turn to Jules.
The anger has slipped away into something worse.
“Kaleb,” he yells over the motor. “We will help with whatever this is. But if they touch Theo or Stevie again, we are gone. Done.”
I glare at him, our eyes locking in a silent battle.
“No one leaves the Devils. You should know that by now.”
I shrug my arm from his hold, and I’m off. The wind tears at me, and I squeeze the handlebars harder.
If I thought Roxy was a liability in this war, I was wrong. She’s the leverage.