Raw: The Ultimate Mc Collection (75 page)

Sonny.

I took three steps out the front door and froze when I saw his boots sticking out from around the corner.  He was lying in front of my truck, unmoving.  My first thought was Rosie, and I ran back in the house to find her.

I was two steps down the hall when I saw them.  I froze, my heart stopped in my chest.

Todd and Rosie were standing near the back door. A creepy smile was spread across his face, and he had one hand on Rosie’s shoulder and a gun in his other hand, pointed directly at her.

Lil’ Mike growled at my side, and I picked him up and held him in my arms to keep him from charging them.

“Hi, Daisy,” he said.

“Todd.”  I was stunned.  My mind raced as I tried to assess the situation.  My gun was still in the truck inside my backpack, entirely too far away to do me any good.

“It is so good to see you, Daisy,” he said.  The fact that he was touching Rosie made me sick to my stomach.  The first thing I needed to do was get her away from him.

“Rosie, come here, sweetie,” I whispered.  She didn’t look scared, but she looked confused.  I sighed with the tiniest bit of relief when he didn’t stop her from walking over to me.  I put my free arm around her, and stood slightly in front of her.

“What are you doing here, Todd?” I said.  Growling, lil’ Mike struggled to get away from my grip.

“Now is that any kind of a greeting, sweetheart?  After all this time?  I’ve missed you so much, Daisy.”

“What do you want, Todd?” I asked. Surely, he didn’t expect me to possibly maintain any sense of politeness? His demeanor was making the hair on the back of my neck stand up, not to mention that there was a man unconscious outside.  No, there was no way Todd was here for polite conversation.

I had to get Rosie out of here. I had to get to my gun somehow.  The fact that I had a kitchen full of knives dawned on me as well.

“What do I want?” Todd said, as he began casually strolling around the living room.  He put his gun in the waistband of his slacks, and began picking up pictures as he went along, looking at them as if he were a guest for dinner.

I knew then that I couldn’t make any sudden movements.  I couldn’t take a risk of Rosie getting hurt.

“Who are you?” Rosie asked, leaning into me and putting her arms around my legs as she stood beside me.

“Who am I?” Todd asked, turning to face us.  He walked over and bent his knees, crouching down to look into Rosie’s eyes.  “I’m Todd, honey. And you’re Rosie, right?  You’re in the second grade, am I right?”

My skin crawled.  I didn’t want him anywhere near Rosie, let alone know anything about her.  I cringed thinking about what else he knew about her.

Rosie nodded, taking a step away from him, and hiding behind me slightly.  Kids could smell evil even better than adults.

“Todd, I want you to leave.”

He stood up and took a step towards me, standing so close to me I could smell him, but just out of the dog’s reach. The scent of his familiar aftershave sickened me.  I raised my chin defiantly.

“Leave.”  I said firmly.

“Oh, Daisy,” he said, smiling at me.  “I’m nowhere near ready to go just yet.”

“What do you want, Todd?”

He leaned in so close I could smell his breath this time, and it took all my willpower not to vomit on him.  The fear.  The hate.  The anger.  All of these things, mixed with the pure disdain that I felt for him, churned up inside me and I had never felt sicker in my life as his lips began moving mere millimeters from mine.

“I want you, Daisy. You’re mine. God told me so. I’m not leaving without you, my love.”

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

MIKE

I sat outside the clubhouse door with Demon, watching the smoke of his cigarette float up into the sky.  Sam had been working on Reaper for hours and there was still no change in his condition. I was ravaged with equal parts of fear, guilt and rage.  I took a long draw off of Demon’s cigarette, and poured a shot of whiskey down my throat.

I was hoping to fight off the demons inside of me, but today they were winning.

“Do you think he’s gonna make it, boss?” Demon asked.  I knew I wasn’t the only one worried. It never ceased to surprise us when one of us got hurt.  We went around like we were some kind of band of invincible beasts, like nothing could penetrate us, like we were fucking untouchable or something.

Days like this rattled us.  It reminded us that we were mortal.  A fact most of us spent our days trying desperately to deny.  But our bloody comrade was doing his damnedest to prove us all wrong.

“Of course he’s going to be okay,” I said, a little too gruffly, before grabbing the bottle and walking away into my office.  I just wouldn’t accept any other outcome.

My phone rang and I groaned when I saw it was Kelly.  I wouldn’t have answered it at all, but I had a feeling she might have some hint of what the word on the street was about the shit that went down at the hanger.

“Hey Mike,” she said, her voice instantly making me snarl. 

“What’s up, Kelly?”

“Just checking in.  Thought you might know something about a bloody airplane hanger we found outside of the airport.”  So she didn’t know much, after all.  “We found a whole bunch of blood, and no bodies, except one.”

“Just one, huh?”

“Yeah, our mutual friend, Jackson Sullivan. Thought you might know what happened?”

“Nope.” I was pretty sure she was just shooting in the dark.  If she had anything concrete to tie us to the scene, she would have said so right away.

“Word on the street is there were a lot of bikers in that area.  Cretins.  And I did hear last week that you were supposed to be doing a job for Sullivan.”

“Cretins, huh?  Well, then it sounds like you’re barking up the wrong tree to me. The Gypsy Riders decided not to take that job.”  Taking the van instead of our bikes to the job was a good idea.

“Yeah, I guess.  I just thought you might have heard some chatter about it.”

“Nope, not a word, sorry.”

“That’s alright.  How’s Rosie doing?”

I hated hearing my daughter’s name roll off this bitch’s tongue. Every time she said it, it sounded like a threat to me.

“She’s great.”  I wanted off the phone. She obviously had no information for me, and was completely useless to me.

“So, Mike.  When do I get to spend some time with you again?”

“You mean when do you get to blackmail me again?”  I asked.  I remembered the photos in my desk and smiled at the fact that I wouldn’t ever have to touch her again.  It felt good to have my power back, even if she didn’t know it yet.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic.”

“I’m busy, Kelly.  I got a lot of shit going on right now.  Maybe some other time?”  I wasn’t in the mood to unleash my newly gained knowledge of her secrets just yet.

“Yeah, yeah…but don’t wait too long, Mike.  I like your cock.”

She hung up without another word, and I rolled my eyes as I put my phone on the desk.  I was so sick of her bullshit.

I picked up the phone again and dialed Daisy’s number.  It rang three times before going to voice mail, and the sound of her sweet voice filled my bruised heart with happiness.  She was like a sweet, healing salve for my soul.

“Hey baby, just checking in on my two favorite girls.  Call me.”  I said after her voice mail beeped.

I knew Reaper was going to be okay.  And as long as I had Reaper and Rosie and Daisy in my life, I knew that I would be okay, too.  

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

DAISY

Todd and Rosie sat at the breakfast table, plates of pancakes in front of them, with Todd’s gun sitting next to his plate.

“Daisy, sit, sit!  I love pancakes, don’t you Rosie?  I’m sorry I interrupted your breakfast.  You know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, don’t you Rosie?  Have you learned that in school yet?”

I sat down at the table, my mind racing as I tried to figure out a way out of this.

Todd reached over and grabbed both of our hands, startling us both.

“Let’s pray,” he said, before bowing his head, his hand gripping mine tightly.  “Heavenly father, thank you for this food.  Thank you so much for guiding me here and showing me the light of your pure love.  Amen!”

He raised his head and I watched him with disgust as he let go of our hands and began digging into the pancakes in front of him.  He slathered them with butter and syrup, and ate sloppily.  His table manners had always disgusted me, and he knew it.  He had defended himself more than once by saying that as long as you said Grace before eating, how neatly you ate didn’t matter at all to God.

I looked over at Rosie, and saw her eyes were glued to his gun on the table.  Regret filled my heart.  I should have known Todd would show up, and I should have kept my distance from both Rosie and Mike.  We never would be sitting here if I had done that.

“These are great, Daisy!  You always were good at breakfast!” 

I scoffed at him.  

“Yeah, because you threw a hissy fit if something wasn’t cooked exactly to your specifications,”  I said.  I looked at his gun, fantasizing about grabbing it and blowing his head off, but Rosie was sitting mere inches from him, and I just couldn’t risk it.

“Oh, don’t be so nasty, Daisy!  It’s important to know how to cook properly.”

I responded with silence.  The last thing I wanted to do was get into some ridiculous conversation with him about the past.  I needed to get him out of here, or get us out of here, whichever was safest, fastest and easiest.  If Rosie wasn’t here, I would have had two bullets in his head before he knew what was happening.

“What’s your plan here, Todd?”  I asked finally, after he had eaten the last of the pancakes on his plate.

He looked over at me and met my eyes.  Evil shined from his soul as he replied eerily.

“I already told you, babe. You. You’re my plan. Together, we are God’s grand plan!”

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

MIKE

Sam walked towards me as I sat at the clubhouse bar, waiting impatiently for any news of Reaper.  I was grateful to see her.  Sitting at the bar and not hearing some awful jokes being thrown around by Reaper was completely foreign to me.  He was always there.  He had always been my side.

“How’s he doing, doc?” I asked hopefully, unable to read the expression her face.

“Not good.  It’s very touch and go.  I had to give him a blood transfusion and at this point, we just wait and see.  There’s not much more I can do. It’s up to him to fight at this point.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have better news, Mike.  I know how close you two are.”

“Yeah.  Thanks, doc,”  I said, putting my head down on the bar.  The waiting was the most frustrating part, and she just told me I had to wait some more.

“I’ll stay here with him.  I’ll let you know if there’s any change, okay?”  She patted my back, and when I didn’t look up, she turned and walked away.

“You’re the best, Sam.  Thank you so much,”  I said to her as she walked back into Reaper’s room.

Sandman was sitting beside me and heard the whole exchange.

“Boss, if there’s anything I can do let me know, okay?”

“Sure, man, thanks.  All we can do is wait, I guess.”

“Yeah.  Want another drink?” he asked.

“No, I’m going to go take a nap in my office.  Wake me up if you hear anything.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

I walked back to my office and pulled my phone out to call Daisy again.  When she didn’t answer, I frowned and put the phone down.  I had called Daisy’s cell twice in the last few hours and still hadn’t been able to reach her.  The last thing I wanted to do was bug her, and she would probably call me back at any moment.  I laid down on the couch in my office, put the phone on my chest, and drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

DAISY

“Todd, this is not going to end well.  You need to leave.  Let us go.  Please.”  I was trembling at this point, the ropes digging into my wrists.