Climbing Out (8 page)

“Damn, Maxwell, clean up the fuckin’ place; it stinks in here,” Blue said with his upper lip raised in a grimace.

Max laughed. “Yeah. Just been a busy time for me, brothers. Busy time. Got new whores I been testin' out; they’re in some of the rooms. I’d be happy if you guys wanted to have a go at them.”

I looked at
my
brothers, his no longer since he left the club, and saw they both held the look of disgust I knew I had.

Blue whispered something to Talon, who nodded in return, and then I watched Blue walk to the front door. In the next second, Pick was in the house and heading down the corridor to the left. He was paying the whores a visit with, no doubt, a little warning.

Talon walked over to the kitchen table, and in one sweep of his arms, everything on it fell to the floor in a loud clatter. He leaned his arse against it and said with a chin lift, “Max, come and have a seat. Griz has some questions, but I have something to say first.” Talon waited until Maxwell was seated in the seat closest to him. He waited until Maxwell looked up at him, and then he took a breath, glared and said, “You no longer have the right to call us brothers. You left the club to deal with your whores and, I guess, run your fuckin’ life down the shit hole, but that was your choice. So you live by it.”

“All right, sure. Okay, bro—sir...um, Talon.”

We all laughed at how pathetic he was.

Pick cleared his throat behind all of us. We turned, he gave a chin lift and then he left the house. It was the all-clear for us to do what we had to, meaning—the whores were too high to know what was going on.

I walked over to the table and stood just in front of Maxwell.

“Tell me, Max; why in the fuck would you have a party at my ex’s
while
my daughter was in the same damned house?” I bellowed in his face.

“Look, man, I-I...shit! She...she needed some extra money. So, you know, I paid her for the night to fuck some customers, and then before we left...I had a go with her.”

“
You pimped her out while my child was there?
” I roared. Someone grabbed me from behind, because they knew I was ready to jump this fucker and rip his worthless head off.

“Why’d she need money, Max? Griz was giving her enough to help with the cost of their kid,” Talon asked.

“Um, shit. Ah...your woman—”

“She ain’t my woman, but she was still the fuckin’ mother of my child, so talk, dickface,” I growled. Blue let go of me and stepped back. He took out his phone, flipped it open and hit record. It was the same process we took every time we questioned anyone for anything.

“All right, okay. You see, she—ah, she got to like...a bit of crack.”

I grabbed him by his dirty white tee and pulled him up so our faces were only inches apart and his feet dangled off the ground.

“You meanin’ to tell me you sold crack to my ex?”

“Fuck no, man. I don’t deal with that shit—I promise, but...my new partner does.”

I threw him back into his chair and turned my back on him. “Tell me who.”

“I can’t, Griz. I can’t; he’ll kill me. He’s one mean motherfucker.”

Blue snorted. “And we won’t kill you if you don’t tell us?”

“Hell, please don’t do this.”

“Enough,” Talon growled. “Max, they’re selling crack in our territory. They will be dealt with, so just give us his name,” Talon barked.

“Whatever you do, he’ll want payback.”

“We’ll see,” Blue said.

“Shit. All right, but it didn’t come from me. Can you promise me that?”

“Sure, Max. Sure.” Talon smirked.

Fuckin' dipshit. Did he not see Blue recording this?

“His name’s Ryan Little, and he lives over in Delecombe.”

“Thanks, mate. We’ll figure out the rest.” Talon stood tall and pulled his gun—with a silencer—from his back holster and pointed it at Maxwell's head.

Max raised his hands and cried, “Wait, wait! Please, please don’t kill me. I told you who it was. I told you!”

Talon lowered his gun and sighed. “I guess that’s true.” He nodded to himself. In the next second, he fired his gun and hit Max in the left knee. As Maxwell screamed, Talon picked up a cloth from the floor and stuffed it into his mouth. “That’s for lettin' this shit happen in the first place. No one brings crack into my territory. Pass the word on.” He stood tall, turned and walked toward the front door, but I hadn’t moved. “Griz, brother,” Talon called. “Do what you want.” He glanced over his shoulder and walked out of the house with Blue following.

In his haste to get away, Maxwell fell to the floor shaking and holding his knee, still moaning in pain from the gunshot wound. I raised my foot and planted it in the side of his head. He fell to his side, whimpering like some lost little kid.

“You really should have never crossed me and my family, even if she was my ex. But what broke the respect I still had for you, was the fact you were stupid enough to do shit around my child. That—I can never forgive.”

It was my turn to remove my gun, which was also prepared with a silencer on the end, from my side holster. I aimed at Maxwell and fired a round into his other knee, and then another into his left arm. As I watched him roll around in pain, I smiled. At least the fucker, who played with not only the brotherhood, but my family, now knew not to.

I leaned over and hissed, “Keep the fuck outta trouble, Maxwell, or we will be back, and you know what will happen then. If I see your face again, there'll be a bullet between your eyes.”

Before parting, I fired another shot into his stomach. Hopefully he'd die before his whores found him.

Deanna

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A
fter being at work for an hour, I was, for once, enjoying the silence. I loved working here. I loved the smell of the books and watching what people chose to read. But on some days, the silence did get to me...only not today.

In the last twenty-four hours, I'd had my fill of noise, tension and company—well, except maybe Grady and Swan's.

Oh, well, would you fuckin' look at that? I counted Swan in the mix of things.

Strange.

The library doors opened and a regular came in. I was sure she was here every day—at least, every day I worked she was. Someone always accompanied her in, holding her arm and then seating her at a table with some audiobooks to listen to. It had taken me my second day of seeing her a month ago to realise she was blind, and the person who helped her in here had to be her sister. They looked alike in many ways. Both were slim, tall and red-haired, only the blind one's hair was shorter, styled in a pixy cut, where her sister had long hair, which was usually plaited down her back.

The only thing that annoyed the hell outta me was the way the one who wasn't blind would speak to her sister. It was like she was the dirt under her fingernail she wanted to get rid of. It took all my strength to not say anything.

What also annoyed me was the fact it was obvious the bitch sister had advised the other on what to wear. Where the bitch looked immaculate—perfect hair, light green eyes, flawless make-up and designer clothes—the blind one always wore tracksuit pants, baggy tees or hooded jumpers. Her hair was always scruffy-looking, like she'd just gotten out of bed.

The bitch left with a glare, and like every day I saw it, I wanted to go over and find out what in the hell was going on, but I had enough of my own shit to deal with, rather than adding someone else's to the mix.

One day I would, or I'd never forgive myself.

It was after lunch, and I was working the floor, replacing the returned books to their shelves when the front automatic doors swished open, and in walked Julian. He always looked good; today he wore a red polo shirt with dark blue jeans and black leather boots. I watched him scan the front desk and then the floor. When he spotted me, a smile lit his face and he bounced on over.

“Hello, bitch-face,” he said stopping in front of me.

I sent an eye roll his way and turned back to the shelf. “Afternoon, cum-sucker. What brings you here?”

He giggled, but then it abruptly stopped. I looked at him to see he was studying me.

Oh, crap, what's going to come out of his mouth now?

He gasped. “No way.”

“What?”

“O-M-G, no way.” He pulled his phone from his back pocket and dialled a number. “Hey, sugarplum, you know how I was going to the library to see how our Deanna was after last night and being blindsided by what she was going home to?” He waited for an answer. “Yes, well, I'm here and guess what I see...our woman’s glowing like she got some nom-nom last night!” he squealed.

“Julian,” I growled.

“I know,” he screeched. “Hang on; I'll put you on speaker.” He clicked a button and held out his phone. “Deanna Drake,” Zara's excited voice called out. “Tell me now what went on last night, and tell me why you haven't called me already to tell me what happened last night. Hun, I should have been the first one to be told. Holy cow, babe! Finally—you and Griz! This is soooo awesome. Oh, wow. I can't believe this. I'm so excited for you. Was it good? Did he treat you right?”

“Up-the-duff, if you'd let her actually speak, you'll hear what she has to say,” Julian said.

I sighed. “You losers will have to wait for the juicy details. I'm at work, and this is not the place to be talking about these things.”

“Deannaaaa,” Zara whined, but Julian pressed a button again and held it back up to his ear.

“Baby Maker, I see the seriousness in her eyes. She's not gonna budge. What? Oh, oh, good idea. Okay, I'll see you soon.” He ended the call and turned to me. “She'll be here when you finish up; we're going for a coffee down the road. This is exciting; I can't wait to hear it all,” he gushed, and then he turned, grabbed a book and walked over to the table where the blind woman sat.

I looked at the clock that sat above the attending desk and saw I had two hours left of work before the cheer crew wanted all the details. It wasn't that I didn't want to share, but I also didn't want to jinx what had happened with Grady. Maybe if I said it out loud it could change things. Though, I also knew they wouldn't give up without hearing everything.

Damn
.

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A
s soon as the clock hit four, Julian was up at the front desk smiling like he'd just given a head-job to his favourite actor. After clocking off, I walked around the desk and toward the front door.

“Zara said she would meet us at the coffee place. She just has to drop the monsters off with Mattie and Swan, and then she'll be here. Oh, and do you know that gorgeous woman I was sitting with is blind?”

“Yes.”

“I think she was really scared to talk to me at first, but then—you know how everyone loves me—she ended up opening up and talking back.”

“What's her deal?” I asked as we walked down the road.

“She has to come to the library every day while her sister works, because it isn't safe at home for her. I asked her what she meant by that, and she said her sister doesn't trust she’s capable at home on her own. I called bullshit and told her that. Sure, she may be blind, but a lot of blind people live in their own houses and can easily take care of themselves.”

Entering the coffee house, we found a seat to wait for Zara; although it wasn't hard, since the place was quiet with only a few business people scattered around.

“I've seen her sister, and she seems like a real bitch.” Julian raised an eyebrow at me. “A bigger bitch than me, even. Always bossing her around, never smiles...I don't know; I wouldn't trust her sister. She needs to get out of that situation.”

“That's what I said, but she won't. She said she has no money and her sister takes care of all that by working.”

“Maybe we can see what we...” I trailed off as I spotted a person in the far corner. “How long has Billy been following us?”

Billy was the youngest member in the Hawks Motorcycle Club...or as Zara would call him, the cookie-lovin' biker.

“Oh, he was out the front when I arrived.”

“Dammit, Grady's already got people following me and Jason isn't even out of jail yet.”

“Who's Grady? O-M-G, that's Griz, isn't it? I never knew his real name, but that is so hot for him. Why doesn't he go by that all the time?”