Chapter 4
FOUR
Dempsey
Icouldn’t stop thinking about her. Last night had been fucking incredible, and then she was gone. I knew I had been stupid to think that after everything that would solve our problems but damn it, she could have at least stayed to talk.
“You good?” I heard Alex ask from behind me. I turned, almost spilling my coffee on the bar to take him in.
“Yeah.”
“Come on, we’ll go in there and start talking before the others get here,” he said.
I watched as he walked through the door to church as if he owned the place.
Dad would be so fucking proud right now.
I followed him after downing the last of my coffee and sat at the end.
Alex looked over me, wordless, as he usually did.
I’d give anything to hear what he was thinking.
“Hawk and Viper are on their way. Wolf is meeting with someone from the Outlaws as we speak.”
That piqued my interest. “They’re here?”
Alex shrugged. “I think a couple are looking for you. Wolf seems to have a line to some of the more senior Outlaws.”
I nodded. “Yeah, he was brought in by one of the older guys.”
“How does it work?” Alex asked.
“You get scouted, I guess is the right word,” I told him. “They come and see you, tell you the ways, you read over the code and if it’s for you, if you want to live that nomadic lifestyle, you take a vow.”
“Why did you do it?”
I sighed and thought back to that day when I made the decision.
I’d wanted to be like Dad, to make him proud even if he was no longer alive.
I wanted to do something with my life, and this way I didn’t have to play by anyone’s rules or feel bad that I wasn’t a Ghost Rebel, but I didn’t want to tell Alex that.
He’d feel bad, and I would never do that to him.
“I like the open road, brother,” I said quickly. “It was tantalising.”
He nodded, seeming to understand. I knew he had lived the nomadic lifestyle for more than fifteen years so he had to know what it felt like.
“Who recommended you?”
“His name was Demon,” I said. “He’s dead now.”
“So he can’t stand up for you?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Alex nodded, realising that if Demon had been still alive, he would have been able to solve this quickly.
I was alone.
It had been the scariest thought for the past year while I’d been running. Alone and when they found me, I would have no one to weep for me.
No one but Tierney that is.
“How’s T?” I asked him.
“You haven’t gone to see her?”
I shook my head.
“She’s good, but I’m sure she would want to see you, brother. When we finish up here, go and see her. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the meeting.”
It was an ominous thing to say, but I knew he was a take no shit kind of guy. I didn’t want to pull him down into this. He found happy ever after with Orla, and he was happy. I couldn’t do this to him.
“Why don’t you just let me know who to meet and I’ll go alone?”
Alex smirked at me. “One day, brother, you’ll know how fucking stupid that question was.”
I couldn’t respond. The door opened and in filed Hawk, Viper and Savage. They all took their spots at the long table.
“Right,” Alex said. “We got word that Wolf’s contact is in town.
He’s meeting with him now to find out what the Outlaws' ideas are and to plead Dempsey’s case here.
From what we’ve heard, Flynn has taken over for the Broken Reapers after what we did to them a year ago.
This could be good or bad, we don’t have a measure on it yet.
The Wolves are coming for him too. I can’t make heads or tails of who is in charge there. ”
“His name is Braden,” I told them. “I may have had a run in with him about three months ago. He was an enforcer up until we knocked off the last president and he rose fairly fucking quickly.”
They all looked at me.
“What’s he known by?” Savage asked.
“I honestly have no fucking idea,” I told him. “The Wolves are down though, I only saw a few men in the ranks and unless he’s recruited heavily over the last few months, he has maybe four men with him.”
“Don’t forget the Wolves have a chapter in Milan who owe them a favour or two,” Viper added.
Alex nodded. “Viper, can you go and find out what you can?”
He nodded and left the room without another word.
“Who do we take down first?” Savage asked. “We start taking aim and they’ll know who to gun for. We need to take apart the biggest and toughest MC first.”
“Reapers,” we all said in unison.
“Hawk,” Alex aimed at his VP. “Do you think Morena can tell you anything about what she knows?”
I raised my eyebrows, confused. Morena? Sweet little nurse Morena knows about the Reapers?
He nodded and left the room himself. I looked at Alex but he gave a slight shake of his head to tell me not to speak, and I knew that he’d tell me later.
Savage sat there, drumming his fingers over the top of the table.
“Something to say?” Alex asked him.
“Flynn ain’t going to be easy to crack,” Savage said. “You made him squirrel that woman of his away, so we can’t attack him personally.”
Alex shrugged. “There’s always a way in, Niall.”
I rose my eyebrows at that. Savage didn’t seem phased by his real name being called out. Rather he shrugged his shoulders like he thought this wasn’t going to work.
“Right,” Alex said, rising. “We’ll head out. Demps, go and see Tierney. Fuck knows what’s going to happen from here. I’m heading home to fuck my woman.”
I smirked as he left the room. I followed him out to see some of the club’s employees had arrived. Shona was wiping down the bar top as the coffee machine brewed behind her. Maree was fussing with the floorboards, wiping a large broom around as she chattered on her hands- free device.
I hung back, not sure if I should leave yet or not.
I didn’t know who was in town, and I had no idea who knew I was here.
As Savage shifted to the bar, Shona moved away without a word.
His shoulders slumped, defeated, before he got up and moved outside, his pack of smokes in his hand.
I wondered what happened there. Were they together?
Maree shook her head as she witnessed it herself, and told me to leave it alone.
I nodded quickly and headed out to my bike, bypassing Savage on the porch.
I jumped on my bike, pulling my helmet on and kicking my stand out before I tore out of the compound and down the long road that would lead into Kilkenny.
I moved down the road to Tierney’s house and pulled up in the driveway.
Her car was in the drive so I knew she was home.
I got off the bike and headed up to her door which opened before I had a chance to knock.
Her surprised and delighted eyes met mine and she pulled me inside to give me a soulful hug. I wrapped my arms around my little sister and hugged her back.
“I’ve missed you, you fucker,” she said, her voice strained with tears.
“Missed you, too,” I said. She was squeezing me so tight, I could feel my lungs burning for air. “Let me go.”
She did, wiping her eyes.
“Why are you crying?”
“I just missed you is all.”
“Come on,” I said, motioning for her to move into the kitchen. “I need a strong fucking coffee and we can catch up.”
Shae
My body hummed pleasantly from the sex last night.
I’d wanted to stay, and had regretted leaving in an emotional huff but there was no way I was going to lay there next to him and pretend like the last year was okay.
He didn’t trust me enough to have his back, and that was what the problem was here.
I would have done anything for Dempsey, and yet, he’d tossed me away like yesterday’s trash. It fucking hurt.
Instead of relishing in the post coital bliss that came from a rough fucking from Dempsey, I lost my shit and left, choosing to stay at the shop and cry myself to sleep. I looked in the mirror and saw the red ringed eyes.
Fuck.
I’d sworn he wouldn’t be the cause of my tears again, and yet here I was blubbering like a fucking baby over him.
The sex had been next level, better than I remembered, and yet I couldn’t let myself just be with him.
I had to remember that he would pick up and leave when the club helped him out. That’s what he did.
I still didn’t know why he was here or why the others hadn’t told me he was coming. I would have been almost certain Orla would have told me. She and I had become close since Dempsey broke me to pieces last time.
I moved into the office to grab a stale as shit biscuit to feed myself before I started my day. Work would help.
Work always helped.
My eyes cast over the desk and located the date on the calendar.
Fuck.
Tossing with the idea of what to do about it, I pulled my phone from my back pocket. My fingers hovered over the keypad, looking down at the name, and I felt my chest aching and my eyes burning with unshed tears.
How could one person do this to me?
How could ONE fucking man do this to me?
“Val?” I heard the voice of Morena, Hawk’s ol’ lady from outside and I put my phone back in my pocket and headed out to meet her. “There you are.”
Her bright and peppy little smile turned up when she saw me and was quickly replaced by a frown. “Oh god, what’s happened? Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Girl, you know I can see through that tough exterior, right?”
“What’s up, Mor?”
She sighed. “Casey told me to come by and tell you that they may need you to cover the shop today. Something’s come up, and they need all hands on deck.”
“They know I’m one of them, right?” I shot back at her.
“Of course they do,” she said, pulling my hand into hers. “I think…well, I think it has something to do with a visitor they have currently.”
“You mean Dempsey?”
She sighed. “Is that why you are sad? He’s back and you haven’t seen him?”
I choked back a laugh but it came out as a sob and Morena wrapped her arms around me. I didn’t want to admit how much the hug helped and I leaned into it, trying to silence my tears.