Wrath Chapter 1 #3
The small complex was overall dark. I didn’t know if it meant everyone was in bed or if some were out for the night.
It was around midnight, so the former was more likely.
We allowed Dylan to show us where to park.
Shedding helmets after we turned off our engines and got off our bikes, we walked up the sidewalk.
He took us to the furthest point in the small complex.
It was one where the apartments were scattered like small bungalows, not stacked on each other.
Lights were shining brightly from one of the back ones. It was where he headed.
When we reached the door, he paused, pounded, and called out, “Jae, it’s me. I brought people. We’re coming in.”
There was no reply. Dylan took the key he had in his hand and unlocked the door. Entering, we found ourselves in a tiny entryway. Ryder shut the door behind us. We walked down the shortest hall I’d ever seen. As we did, Dylan called out again, “Where are you?”
“Kitchen,” a voice yelled back. I was taken aback. The voice belonged to a woman. Did his cousin Jae have someone over for the night? Did the issue involve her? I’d be knocking heads together if this were a lovers’ spat.
Stepping into the kitchen, I froze. There were so many things that caused it.
For one, there were bodies. And when I say bodies, I mean dead ones.
Lying on the floor, unmoving, was a man with a knife sticking out of his chest. It was a perfect stab to the heart by the looks of it.
His face was twisted in a grimace of pain.
Not far from him, there was another man.
This one appeared to have a bullet wound between his eyes.
He stared sightlessly up at the ceiling.
And a couple of feet to the left of them, there was a third man.
This one was alive and tied to a chair. His arms were behind him, and his legs were spread with his ankles tied to the chair legs.
He had a gag in his mouth. He was making noises.
But there was one other thing that kept my feet nailed to the floor as I heard Ryder whistle and then say, “What the fuck?”
It was the woman leaning casually against the far counter.
She was holding a shotgun, had a handgun tucked in the waist of her pajama shorts, and another handgun resting on the counter next to her.
That was enough to grab and keep anyone’s attention.
However, her appearance made me even more speechless.
She was a raven-haired, petite, sexy bombshell.
Since she was dressed in cotton shorts and a spaghetti-strapped top, most of her body was on display.
What a body it was. It was inappropriate, yet I found myself responding to her sexually.
My cock was hardening. I fought to contain myself—her golden skin against her long, black hair set off her green eyes.
Thick black lashes surrounded them. I caught sight of her tiny feet.
She had black nail polish on her toenails, and around her left ankle was a bracelet.
Jesus Christ, where was Jae, and who was this? Why would he leave her here alone?
Dylan rushed to her, jarring me from my scrutiny. She put down the shotgun. He wrapped her up in his arms and squeezed her tight, sending a surge of emotion through me. She sighed and smiled. After hugging for a moment or so, he eased back.
“What the fuck happened here, Jae? Who are these men?” he asked.
Jae? This was his cousin? Ryder and I exchanged startled looks. I guess he wasn’t expecting her to be his cousin, either.
“Is this all you brought?” were her first words.
“Yeah, you didn’t say what the problem was. I tried to call you back, but you didn’t answer,” he scolded.
“I was busy. I had to secure that one better and arm myself with more weapons in case more came. It took you long enough,” she scolded back. Dylan groaned. She glanced over at us.
“Well, aren’t you going to introduce me?”
Dylan moved further away from her and pointed to us. “This is my president, Wrath, and our enforcer, Ryder. Guys, this is Jae, Jalisa, my cousin, and the cause of this mess.”
“The cause! How the hell do you know I’m the cause of anything? This could be about you and your club, and I’m just the poor woman who got caught in the middle,” she protested.
“Jae, don’t pretend you’re poor or defenseless,” he admonished her. I was about to interrupt when her sad face morphed into a grin, and she nodded.
“Hello, gentlemen. Sorry to be meeting you this way. Yeah, you’re probably right, but at least I took care of two-thirds myself.
The only reason I called you was to have help to get rid of the bodies and to be here when I question fuckface over there.
He’s gonna tell us who sent him and why.
” She sneered at the bound man in the chair.
“Jae, before we do anything to anyone, you need to sit down and tell us what happened. I dragged my president and enforcer here. You should’ve given more information over the phone.”
She frowned at him. “Are you nuts? You don’t talk about this kind of stuff over the phone. Sheesh, did you forget everything you were taught? Someone could listen in or get recordings,” she hissed, giving him a duh look.
I fought not to burst out laughing, although she was correct in most circumstances involving calls.
Talking over details like this wasn’t something you did.
However, he used a phone provided by the club, and Crusher, with a bit of help from Smoke and Everly in Dublin Falls, had that shit locked down tighter than a gnat’s ass. It was beyond encrypted.
“Whatever. Just tell us why you have two dead men on my kitchen floor and this other guy tied to a chair,” he said wearily.
“Stop acting like I did this on purpose, Dylan. It’s not like I did this so you’d stop hiding me like you hid your dirty magazines under your bed from your mom when you were a teenager,” she snarked.
Ryder lost it. He burst out laughing. I was fighting hard not to. Dylan’s face was beet red, and I was worried he might strangle her if I didn’t do something.
“U-uhm, I think an explanation would be best. First, Jalisa, are you alright? Do you need to take a minute or anything before we talk?”
She gave me a smile that made my heart skip a beat.
“Ahh, you’re sweet, but I’m not some candy-ass powder puff.
I’m fine. I’ll give you the condensed version.
I’d just gotten to sleep when I woke up to what sounded like more than one person moving around the apartment.
I knew Dylan wouldn’t be back tonight, so I slipped my knife and gun from under my pillow.
I went hunting and ran into the two in here.
“I didn’t want to alert the second one to my presence until I took care of the first one, so I stabbed him in the chest. He collapsed faster than expected and fell to the floor.
I tried to get to my knife, but his buddy was too fast. I had a choice to make, so I shot him.
The only problem is that I had no clue there was a third one in here until I heard him yelling.
So I waited for him with that cast-iron skillet I told you to get,” she directed at Dylan.
“When he came through the door, I slammed it off the back of his head and knocked his ass out. Once I got him secured, I called Dylan, and I’ve been waiting for you to get here.”
“How did you get him in that chair by yourself?” I asked. She was small, and while he wasn’t heavy, he was taller than her and outweighed her.
“Well, thankfully, he wasn’t your size. He’s tall but lanky.
I hefted his ass up there in a fireman’s carry, then I secured his arms behind his back.
When he woke up, my little friend here convinced him to behave before I got really pissed off.
I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours.
I’m tired and now, very cranky.” She patted the gun at her waist when she said little friend.
“We need to get some of the others over here, but not too many, or we’ll attract attention. Honestly, I don’t know how you don’t have the cops kicking down the doors,” Ryder said. He’d finally gotten a hold of himself.
“This is why,” she said, removing the gun she wore. What we hadn’t been able to see was that the handgun had a suppressor on it.
“You sleep with a suppressed gun?” Ryder asked incredulously.
“No, that would be ridiculous. I sleep with the gun and keep the suppressor on the nightstand in case I need it. When I heard them moving around, I twisted it on as I searched for them.”
I couldn’t take much more of this. Everything she said made me want to laugh, ask questions, or stare in disbelief.
However, those things needed to wait. The first order of business was to get these bodies and the prisoner out of there.
Once we accomplished that, we could question the living one to see why he was here.
I turned to Ryder. “Get Keno to bring us an enclosed van or something from the yard. Tell him to park it behind Dylan’s apartment. He knows where you live, doesn’t he?” I asked the prospect the last part. He nodded.
“He’s to come in and bring a big roll of plastic. No noise is a must. Between the four of us, we can get them out and loaded. Once that’s done, we can talk to this one away from here,” I told him.
As Ryder took out his phone to call our other prospect, Jalisa chimed in.
“You don’t need to drag this asshole off to get the information you need out of him.
There are no neighbors on either side of this apartment at the moment.
And you don’t need to break out all the fancy toys and spend hours torturing it out of him. Plus, I’m tired and want to go to bed.”
“No one is stopping you from going to bed. We’re here and can take it from here,” I assured her.
“Like hell, I’ll go to bed! I’m the one who caught these three. I deserve to be there and hear why they broke in here. If it’s just an incident of them picking the wrong place, they sure have shitty luck. You should’ve held up a bank. You would’ve had a better chance,” she told the gagged man.
Ryder laughed again. “Fuck, she’s a riot,” he muttered.
“Shut up,” Dylan hissed to her.
She gave him the middle finger. “Kiss my ass. I bagged them, I get to hear why.”
“Honey, we don’t let those who aren’t a part of our club be involved in our discussions,” I informed her.
“Honey, you can say torture rather than discussion. It’s not like I think you’re taking him back to read Bible verses to him until he can’t stand it anymore and cracks.
There’s going to be pain and blood, and I, for one, might have some ideas on how to get him to spill faster.
That way, I can get to bed sometime before dawn. ”
“You’re not coming with us. You stay here and try to stay out of trouble,” Dylan ordered.
“I was staying out of trouble. They came in here, not the other way around. And what if I stay while all of you are off playing, and their friends come looking for them? You expect me to remain here alone and have to take on more? I’m good, but even I have limits. Three is about it.”
She had a point. There was no guarantee that someone might not be with them and come hunting them.
The idea of her being here and men coming in and hurting her made my stomach twist. What could’ve happened if she hadn’t heard them and found a way to protect herself, ran through my mind.
She could’ve been beaten, raped, or murdered.
“I doubt anyone is with—” her cousin started to argue, but was cut off by her.
“Shall we call Daddy and find out what he thinks we should do?” she asked. Her one eyebrow was hiked up. She was glaring at her cousin.
“No!” both Dylan and I said at the same time. Ryder was giving me a puzzled look. I knew my time was running out. I’d have to come clean to everyone before this night was through.
My prospect shifted his gaze to me. I saw the plea in his eyes.
He wanted to know what he should do. With the threat of other men coming after these three, there was no other option in my mind.
We could drop her off at our clubhouse while we took care of business.
If Betty and Rage were back, I bet I could get Betty to sit with her.
“Go get dressed. You’re coming with us,” I said gruffly.
She let out a happy squeal and, in a flash, was rushing out of the room. I admit, I watched her go because of her ass in those shorts. Christ, that was a sight. Once she was out of sight, I took out my phone. I needed to get the club back to the compound as soon as possible.
“Wrath, I’m sorry. Maybe she can stay here. How likely is it that someone else will come?” Dylan asked weakly.
“I don’t know, but I’m not chancing it. She comes with us. Just hang on. We’ll get this figured out,” I reassured him. He didn’t appear convinced. As he and Ryder watched me, I sent the group text.
Me: AHOD 30
It was short for all hands on deck, thirty minutes. It was something Dad said due to his father, who’d been in the Navy. It had spilled over into the club, and we’d developed it as code for things. Everyone was taught them when they joined.
My phone dinged with confirmation after confirmation, which was a number one. In our shorthand, it stood for yes.
Ryder walked over and softly murmured so only I could hear him. “You have some explaining to do, Wrath.”
“Fuck, don’t I know it,” I groaned.
Jalisa was back in five minutes. She was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and boots.
Nothing unusual in our world, but for some reason, on her, they seemed far sexier.
The man tied to the chair glared at us all, but he had hate in his eyes when they landed on her.
I didn’t doubt that if he had the chance, he’d kill her.
It was a good thing he’d never get the chance.
Keno made it there in record time. Walking into the apartment, he was rather successful in toning down his surprise. I caught him checking out Jalisa. For some reason, it pissed me off. I snapped at him to get to work.
We were on our way in less time than I imagined it would take.
The whole time we loaded the men, no lights came on, and no one came out to investigate.
I didn’t want Jalisa riding with Keno, the bodies, and the captive.
I was saved from making a fool of myself when she insisted she’d drive herself.
With her in her car, a small convoy made its way through the night to the Pagans’ compound.