Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Drew
Icouldn’t concentrate confined inside the walls of the office.
The echoes of all the arguments I’d had within the last twenty-four hours were rattling off all the corners of my brain, until all I was left with was a white noise sound and the repetition of scrubbing my hands up and down my face.
In so many ways, life pre-prison had been easier.
There’d been no conscience. There’d been no need to consider anyone else’s feelings.
Once I’d been handed the chair, I was the man in charge.
I’d been the boss, the decision maker. The merciless fucker who took what he wanted, when he wanted and always had a back up plan.
Now… Now I felt like Mary fucking Poppins, except my bag only had so many tricks inside it.
I both loved and loathed it, mainly because I had something else to love now besides the club, and I was aware that that, too, was making me a selfish bastard in a whole new set of ways.
I was getting close to brain overload, and as much as I loved spending time with Ayda in our room, I knew what I needed before Slater even suggested it to me.
I needed a ride out.
After Jedd, Harry and Deeks left us, he took one look at me and told me to call him when I was ready. It was only as the numbers on the books started to jump over one another again that I realized exactly what he’d meant.
Grabbing my helmet from the edge of my desk, I spun it around on the ball of my finger as I walked casually through the bar and out to the yard.
Even though it was cold, the sun was shining for another day, and as my eyes flashed out to the sea of people walking across the gravel, there was only one person I was ever going to allow myself to focus in on.
Her little ass was sashaying around the place like she owned it, which in a way, she absolutely fucking did.
She owned me, so whatever I had was hers.
I was still trying to adjust to that.
Her excitement as she worked her way around the new wheels we had on court was adorable.
Deeks was only two steps behind her wherever she went, his slow nod and genuine smile following her as her hands flailed around while she told him whatever story she had to tell.
For reasons I’d probably never understand, the two of them loved one another without having to even say it.
It made me feel relaxed. It made me feel happy knowing she was happy—and wasn’t that a fucking foreign feeling if ever there was one?
When her eyes caught mine, I nodded to the side, giving her the silent communication that I had some shit to sort as I lifted my helmet up to her with one hand, then held up two fingers with the other.
Two hours at the most. I’d be two hours.
Then I planned on cashing in on my time with her charm.
Ayda’s lips curled into a smile as she bounced on her toes and continued to spin around as though she didn’t have time for me.
Another thing I was growing to love about her—the way she pretended those two hours apart wouldn’t be the worst of her day.
Slater pulled up beside me before I even fired up my bike, his feet landing on the ground as he adjusted the strap under his chin and shouted over the throaty roar of his engine.
“Ready?”
“I’m always ready.”
“You got some place specific in mind?”
Sniffing away the cold, I leaned over, gripping the handles and flexing my wrists as I stared at him and yelled back, “Actually, yeah, I do.”
“Strip joint?”
My smirk grew into a smile as I started up my bike and slapped the kickstand back. “Nope. Nice try, though.”
“What?” He laughed.
“You know what!” I shouted back, shaking my head and pulling out in front of him as I yelled over my shoulder. “Just trust me and take my lead.”
I didn’t miss the “’cause that’s worked out well for us before” that he threw back at me, but it only made me drop my head back between my shoulders and laugh.
Fuck knows why I was even laughing at all.
Nothing felt funny about that day. The tension in my stomach was growing with every passing second.
There was an unsettled feeling emerging from deep within, something that was warning me that I was trying to juggle too many fiery balls of destruction all at once.
That was the problem with the new me, the one who had crawled his way out of prison with old scars on his back and new ideals in his mind.
Nothing ever felt in sync. It was always a case of heart versus mind.
Angels versus demons. Each day there was a new victor.
I just never knew which one would come out on top from one moment to the next.
As soon as we pulled out onto the open road and I managed to let my body give in to the vibrations beneath me, I allowed myself to melt into the motion of the ride.
When tire met asphalt, everything that seemed such a big deal suddenly took a back seat.
All that was left were the sensations that ran through my body, the grip of the bars, the squeeze of my thighs, and the thunderous roar that started from the tips of my boots, shaking me all the way up to my helmet.
I was being cleansed. It was the next best thing to sex. Before Ayda, it had probably been better. It was hard to remember what came before her, which made it even harder to imagine a life without her at all.
Kenny flashed briefly through my mind, forcing my hand to pull down on the throttle as I tore through Babylon with no mind for anyone else.
Slater stayed the perfect distance behind me the whole way through, until we opened up to a wider road and he pulled up beside me. I cast him a quick glance, my smirk evident as he gave me the middle finger he’d just been sucking on. I loved that fucker like he was blood.
What I loved even more was seeing him pissed at the fact that I was leading him out to the unknown, and he couldn’t whine in my goddamn ear about it.
The minutes flew by out there.
But as we rode out of Babylon and made the turns we rarely took, I felt the air around me grow tense and I knew that, even though he hadn’t said it, Slater could sense what was going down.
We were going to Gun Barrel City.
The home of the Emperors.
He didn’t say a word, not until we started to make our way down their strip—the very place that changed all our lives just a few weeks ago—and I slowed to a crawl.
The bar they’d always resided in looked deserted when we pulled into their land, the dust from the unused and settled stones kicking up all around us until we were both parked side by side.
In the daylight, the building looked even more ancient than I remembered it.
Each wooden panel was worn and weary, the giant cracks in the material shining out as the sun showed all its faults like they were fucking trophies.
It was overused and under loved. Their absence gave it a sense of peace, like when someone dies and you bury them in the ground.
They’re finally allowed to rest. No more struggles.
No more putting up with shit they hated.
They just close their eyes on the world and finally exhale, letting all their faults shine.
That’s what their place was doing.
It was shining, even though it was creepy as fuck.
“Looks clear,” Slater coughed up beside me, his boots skidding out along the top of the loose stones as he repositioned himself on the bike.
“Hmm,” was all I could reply with. My eyes were fixed and narrowed on the clubhouse in front of us.
“Mind telling me why we’re here?”
I shrugged, my mouth turning down as I worked my helmet free before hooking it over the handles of the bike. “Let’s just say I’m working on instinct here.”
Slater groaned, his hands rubbing over the tops of his thighs as he spoke through a heavy sigh. “That’s what I was worried you would say.”
“Don’t get scared on me now, brother.” I laughed weakly, turning to face him as I swung my leg off to the right and made my way around to the front of my Harley. “You’ve never wussed out on me before.”
“Yeah, and don’t you live to fucking exploit that shit, Tucker,” he huffed out, hopping up and around until he was standing beside me again, his face angled up towards the Emps’ old base.
“There’s a good chance this place is rigged, in more ways than one.
Just because we’re in daylight doesn’t mean things can’t go boom. ”
“Boom?”
“Yeah, boom fucking boom.”
“I like boom.” I grinned, gripping his shoulder and squeezing it tight. “But there’ll be no bang bang today. Pretty sure I beat the last breath out of their explosives guy.”
“Hernandez?”
“Apparently so.”
“Well, fuck.”
“Besides,” I said quietly, following his gaze up to the place. “I’ve got no desire to go inside. I’m here to check out the tire tracks that lead to their old storage unit back there.”
“Tire tracks?”
I nodded slowly, my attention falling back to him as I waited for him to catch up. It took longer than it should have. Maybe one of the whores had sucked the last drop of fucking sense out of his dick the night before.
“Tire tracks…” he whispered. “This has to do with those bikes we saw drive past the other night.”
“Let’s give the man a prize,” I said through a smile. Moving around him quickly as I jumped over to the side of the pathway, I kept my footprints away from anything that could mess this up.
“I don’t know, Drew. The place looks pretty untouched to me. There’s fuck all around here. Not even the tracks of their bikes. This place hasn’t been touched for weeks.”
“Dust marks travel into places dust shouldn’t go,” I muttered over to him, keeping my eyes on the cabin up ahead as my feet hit the dry grass at the edge of the woodland that framed this place.
Slater’s voice fell someway behind me, and I could hear him mumbling something that sounded a lot like me thinking like the old Drew he’d once known, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and kept advancing forward.
As much as the old Drew Tucker was still alive and well, he was the poster child for my youth, and the man now in charge was the one that was really holding the reins.
My legs crossed over one another as I moved forward, the twigs under my feet creaking and groaning as the soles of my heavy boots proved too much for them to handle.
A loud crashing sound followed by the scurrying of feet quickly had the two of us freezing in place, hands reaching to the backs of our belts for our guns.
“Fuck!” Slater blew out as we both watched a coyote run out from behind the back of the building, two empty crates crashing and rolling over the ground as it sped away like it knew the devil’s children had arrived.
“Coyote,” I blew out in a breath.
“I hate those bastards.”
“Rather them than an Emp.”
“I wouldn’t feel so bad about shooting an Emp.”
Closing my eyes, I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head.
The tension was mounting, making my chest tighter and that ball of something in my stomach even more prominent.
I rolled my shoulders in my cut, readjusting the leather around me and using it as some kind of security blanket as I opened them up again and continued to stalk closer.
When we eventually made it to the double doors and I saw there were only two locks holding the storage unit closed, I reached back around into the waistband of my jeans and pulled out my Glock, giving Slater a quick wink before I took aim and fired them off.
The sound of shots filled the air, my shoulders flinching back and the muscles in my arms tensing to stay firm and enjoy the messed up vibrations that rang through my bones.
Sparks flew off the metal until I knew twe were in, and I pushed up off my feet, flinging both doors open with an almighty shove as the old wood groaned against the ground.
I should have known their resistance meant something was wrong.
I should have faltered when I saw just how easy it was to break in, but I didn’t.
Before I could fully register what I was seeing and the fact that two lines of wire ran from the handles on the door, into something in the middle of the garage, the triggers had snapped and the shots were fired.
Slater’s shout filled the air as much as the blast did.
The only thing I could do was try to duck out of the way before anything hit, but it was too late.
The bullet whizzed past my ear, catching the edge and sending a jolt of fire down one side of my face as the deafening noise made me temporarily numb to everything.
“Drew!” Slater called out, skidding over to me once he’d pushed the doors out of the way.
Both hands flew up to cup my ear, my mouth set in a tight line and my face creased with pain as I hissed and cursed at the world that was suddenly ringing really damn loudly. “Fuck!”
“Shit, brother. Shit!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
“Talk to me. You okay? “
“Yeah,” I croaked.
“Let me see it.”
“The fuck was that?”
Slater pulled my hands away first, and I felt the small trickle of blood pour onto the creases of my lobe before dripping down onto my neck.
“You don’t want to know,” he muttered, brushing his thumb over the blood to wash it away. “How bad does it feel?”
Tipping my head to the side, I shook it slightly, watching as little droplets of red hit the dust covered ground. “Not too bad,” I lied. “Just skimmed the top.”
“You lucky bastard.”
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted a chunk of my fucking ear taken out.”
Turning back to look inside at what I’d already seen a glimpse of, I inhaled slowly, my nostrils flaring as the realization that I’d walked straight into a fucking trap started to sink in.
When we both stood in the doorway of the place that once held the life and soul of our rival’s beating heart, my lip curled up in anger and my hand flexed around my weapon.
Because as sure as I was the scum of the earth, there sat a single bike on a platform, two guns strapped to the handles, wired all the way to the front door.
Only it wasn’t the bike I’d been expecting to see.
Sitting smugly, taunting me with the epic fuck up I’d just made, was a pink fucking bicycle that a pre-schooler would have used, and on the white basket, with the bell sitting beside it, was a giant chalkboard displaying the words Smile for the camera written upon it.
We’d been expected. We were being watched.
It took thirty seconds for me to fire every bullet I had into the air and kill the surrounding cameras, but it was too little, too late. The damage had been done.