Chapter Sixteen
Iwanted to slap that bitch Marissa, not because I’m a guy who hits women, but because I felt like she’d done harm to the woman I was falling for, and that didn’t sit well with me. I wanted her smiling and happy. Hadn’t she been through enough?
“Thanks, man. I really appreciate the offer. I’m a bit light on cash right now, but she can’t stay here. It’s not good enough yet.”
He nodded, his gaze softening as he glanced at Claudia, who was crushed against my chest, crying quietly, while I held her tight.
I felt like her hero in this moment, and it wasn’t a feeling I was used to.
I was usually the asshole. The prick. The guy most likely to offend, but right now I felt like I was finally being the right version of me.
The one that might one day be good enough. Maybe.
“Okay, Grease, get Jay and go to their address. I want that bitch stopped before she gets inside. Rocket, you go too,” Micro was saying, issuing orders as he pointed.
“Ghost, get the van, and take Simon. I want bodies there to help and make this go fast. Henley, get on the phone to Lissa. I want her on standby just in case.” Then he turned to us.
“Brother, we’ll get this sorted. I know Henley’s putting you folks up for a few days, so that’s a good start. We should be all set for people to move in here next week, if all goes well with the decorating phase. You focus on your lady.”
Then he addressed Claudia, who I nudged to look at him. He offered his hand to shake.
“Claudia, I’m Micro, Club President. We’re gonna get you out, okay? Henley’s got somewhere for you to stay, somewhere safe. Your sister won’t get near you while we pack up your stuff. Is there other stuff to worry about? Joint finances or anything?”
She nodded slowly. “We have a joint bills account, and the mortgage is in both of our names.”
He sighed, glancing over his shoulder, before he looked at her again.
“We’ve got guys who can help with that stuff.
Grease is just heading out, so I’m gonna call Ice for help.
They won’t let you get screwed here, but…
” he stepped closer, his tone lowering a little, even though she wouldn’t know the difference, “I strongly suggest you consider some form of action to keep her away. Something legal.”
Claudia choked back a sob and buried her face in my chest, again giving me that superhero feeling, while simultaneously crushing my heart under a fucking rock.
“I don’t know how long this was going on, Pres. She’s been through a lot.”
“And if this were anyone else, right now you’d say something like ‘and now she’s stuck with you’,” he said with a wry grin, before he sobered again, “she’s going to be okay, brother.
Go do what needs to be done. You’ve got family with you to help get her out.
Once she’s settled at Henley’s, just drop me a message to let me know, and if you need anything.
Got it?” I nodded, feeling a lump in my throat at his tone, at the way he’d gone from being a guy who used to be as much of a prick as me, to the one who just fucking solved all our problems in one fell swoop. Most of them, anyway.
“Thanks, Pres. Give us five, yeah?” I caught Claudia’s attention, by lifting her chin to look at me.
“We’re gonna go back to my tent to take a breather, then we’re getting you out.”
She nodded, offering Micro a grateful smile.
“Thank you. Thank you all.”
I waited until we reached my tent, and then, without all the fucking eyes on us, I tipped her face up again.
“I’m so sorry you had to deal with all that, Claudia. I’m doing what I can to fix it, but I’ll try not to be as bad as her.”
Another tear trickled from her left eye and she drew in a ragged breath, her throat sounding even more raw than normal when she spoke.
“I don’t know what happened. She used to be fun, and sweet, and we were inseparable, and now I feel like she’s the monster hiding under the bed. That’s pathetic, isn’t it?”
I shook my head, catching the next tear with the back of my finger, lifting it away like it would do a damn thing to soothe her. I just wanted to stop her hurting like this.
“Maybe a break is all you both need. Maybe it was just too intense for you both being in close quarters like that. Maybe things can go back that way.”
She chewed on her bottom lip, the soft flesh pinched between her teeth, like she wanted to harm one of my favourite lips of all time.
“Micro’s a good guy,” I said, realising for the first time that it’d been the case for a long damn time, and it shouldn’t have taken me so long to voice that.
Whoa. I should really tell him at some point, instead of just being a prick.
“He’s got guys going with us, and keeping her from you. We have connections with the local police too, and other people you can’t even imagine. You’ll be safe, but she won’t be hurt either.”
I still kinda wanted to slap that bitch in the face, but again, it was a dumbass reaction to how she hurt Claudia, rather than something I’d actually do.
I’d never struck a woman, and I never would.
My aunt on my mum’s side ended up with a prick like that, and it took the whole family to get her out and away from him.
If we all needed to help Claudia like that, clearly we had enough people to do it.
Unless I was underestimating that bitch’s willingness to fuck with her own twin, or the club.
Collecting Claudia’s shit didn’t take too long with four of us there to help her. Grease’s old lady was helping him keep Marissa in her car and out of our way, so we just went in as a group, grabbed what she pointed to, and then I helped her pack her clothes.
“You want these?” I held up a handful of lacy underwear with a cheeky grin, like I thought I could make her smile with that shit. She lunged for them, tutting at me for waving them at her to get her attention.
“Put them away!”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said, grinning as I tossed them over my shoulder.
I don’t know why the fuck I was messing around like this when the aim was to get out fast, but she’d looked so sad packing her things up, that I wanted to make her smile.
Hell, I also got to touch her underwear, even if she wasn’t wearing it at the time.
“You wanna speed this up, asshole? They’re not going to keep that bitch in her car much longer,” Rocket yelled from the doorway, scaring the crap out of me.
I spun to glare at him. “Why the fuck are you shouting?”
He froze, his cheeks flushing red. “I uh… so you guys could hear me.”
“She’s deaf, dickhead. She can’t hear a single thing, but you said asshole, so were you calling her an asshole too?” I was already advancing on him, because that’s what you do when someone calls your woman something like that.
“Jesus fuck, chill out, brother. I was just trying to speed your asses up. How much more is there?”
I turned to see Claudia watching us warily, and groaned. I didn’t mean to cut her out of this, but I was pissed at Rocket.
“He’s just hurrying us up. Can we get these boxes out of here? And that suitcase?”
She nodded slowly, turning to look at the remains of her room. She ran her fingers over a pile of books and sighed.
I caught her fingers and waited until she looked at me.
“You can bring those too.”
She was chewing on her lip again, and I either wanted to be the lip or chew it myself. Either one would be hot, but she was doing it because she was torn.
“Claudia, you want your books, I’ll take them outside.” There were about fifteen or twenty of them, and some were hardcovers with colourfully painted page edges, so they were probably expensive.
“Shelf trophies,” she said softly, pointing at the books. Shelf trophies? She grabbed a tablet, and what looked like an eReader, and nodded at me.
“These and those books, and I’m ready.”
I grabbed the pile, my arms groaning a little at the weight of them. Fuck me. I might have to embarrass myself and make two fucking trips.
“You want me to take some of those?” Ghost asked, reaching for the pile, because sometimes there is a god, and it means you don’t have to wuss out in front of your lady.
“Yeah, that’d be great.” I let him take about half of the pile, and then I paused to catch Claudia’s eye again.
“You sure? We don’t go until you have everything you care about.”
She nodded, eyeing the room one last time, like she was leaving behind stuff she loved. Jesus. I called Rocket and handed him the books, and grabbed the tech bits from Claudia, telling him to go careful with them.
I caught Claudia’s hands and lowered my head to stare into her eyes.
“What else?”
She sagged a little. “I mean, there are things I never considered. My pillows are amazing, and the bedding is my favourite, and then there’s the box over there, that has some of my older books in, and-”
“Okay, this is fine. We’re not rushing. I’ll grab the bedding and send the others in to help. We’ll strip the room bare if that’s what you want.”
And that’s pretty much what happened in the end. The van was way fuller than I’d expected from one person’s bedroom, but then there were things all over the other rooms that she had to grab, including a framed picture of her with her sister when they were younger, and another with their parents.
I patted the back of the van to send the guys on their way to Henley’s, and then I pulled Claudia into my arms, hugging her trembling form tightly.
I wished I could murmur things to soothe her pain, but with her face turned away from me, words were useless. All I could do was offer her the physical comfort, and hope it’d be enough to steady her for the ride away from here.
Claudia
Icast one final sad look at my twin, who sat in her car, practically screeching at the bikers who were physically leaning against her doors to keep her inside it. Whatever Grease and his girlfriend had been doing clearly hadn’t worked this whole time.