Rust: A Bad Boy Romance (Courage MC) (20 page)

“
W
here are we going
?” I said, opening my eyes. From what I could figure out, Avery was carrying me to the shower.

“Time to get up. Boss needs us to come in for something.” he simply said.

“What?” I rubbed my eyes, straining to see against the bathroom light. “Avery, stop it! What the hell is going on?”

He turned on the shower and checked the water temperature. “Get undressed.” he said.

“Get the hell out of here. I’m not undressing in front of you. Seriously Avery, tell me what’s going on or I’m leaving.” I said. Although judging by how he was blocking the door, I don’t think leaving was even an option at this point. I sighed. “Come on, Avery. I won’t do anything stupid. Just tell me. I’m not going to flip out.”

“You owe me a favor.” He said. He was so nice last night. What happened to him?

“I don't owe you anything, Avery. You haven't got my house back.” I argued, refusing to budge.

“Just get in, will ya? I ain't looking. Just do what I say and you'll get your stupid house back.” He shut the door, unwilling to discuss it with me. Well, I was up. I looked at the door to the bathroom and then glanced back at the shower. Might as well do it. I don't have much of a choice. Frankly, this was about more than my house. This was about my career. If I was going to rise back up in the ranks, I suspected I would be doing a lot of favors from now on.

I slid out of my tight jeans and shirt and ran my hands against my smooth thigh, slapping my ass lightly.
Hope
, you still got it. I thought to myself. I hadn't worked out in over a week, but my body still held its voluptuous shape.

I smiled at this thought and stepped into the hot water. Thoughts flooded my mind. Avery. Was this guy for real? He acted like he was some kind of a gangster or something. I knew him and his friends were part of a crew of sorts, but it couldn't be that legitimate could it?

As the water rushed through my hair, dripping down between my thighs and butt, I couldn't help but feel a slight exhilaration from the idea that maybe Avery was more powerful than I thought. I looked around at the porcelain bathroom. It was completely spotless. It looked brand new. How much money the man really had stored away was a good question, one I couldn't help but try and figure out the answer to.

I soaped my body, thinking about his massive cock. The other night was so perfect. The best one night stand I had ever had. And here I was, putting all of my trust in the man. What the hell was I thinking. His body though…and the control he exuded left me out of breath and soaking wet. I truly hadn't ever been with a man like Avery before…

I got out of the shower and dried myself off. Avery opened the door, “You ready? The boss is waiting.” he said.

“Get out!” I yelled, covering my enormous breasts. I never understood why men thought they could just open any door of their choosing without repercussions.

“Oh come on, it's nothing I ain't seen before.” he winked.

I got ready as fast as I could. If there was one thing I was good at, it was putting myself together quickly. We walked to the front of his house as I checked my phone. I had at least a dozen text messages, all from Jack. Not surprising, not one of them was important. I clicked to the top headlines of the day. And then I see it, the words I was expecting: “HOPE LAWRENCE DROPPED FROM MAJOR LABEL” Great.

“Let's go.” Avery said, walking out the front door. I followed him to his bike and got on, feeling the rumbling between my legs. Avery was rugged. I liked that. He was caring, yet he didn't take any shit. If something wasn't worth his time, he simply moved past it. There was something stoic about him. He was different from the rest of the bikers.

We took off speeding in a direction unknown to me. I held onto his strong chest for dear life as we whipped through stop signs and powered through tight corners. “Slow down.” I said against his ear. But he wasn't slowing down. In fact, he didn't even answer me. It didn't take long for me to realize this might be a serious meeting.

When we finally parked the bike, I found myself staring at a run down strip club. “We’re here.” He said. In front of us was an older man with a large beard. I saw him at the party the other night and figured he was pretty high up in the ranks considering he made the big toast and all.

“You work at a strip club?” I said, to my astonishment. Avery ignored me and embraced the old man. “Bruce. Meet Hope.”

Bruce took one look at me and burst out laughing. “Holy shit. The pop singer from the other night. Avery, you son of a bitch!” When he saw that our expressions remained unchanged, he motioned for us to come inside. “Well alright then. Follow me. I'm Bruce by the way.” he said, turning to me.

When I got inside, two strippers were barely dancing against the poles. They must have been around the age of 30, and they looked pretty worn out. I wasn't judging them, but the club looked awful. “Yeah we need some new talent.” Avery said loudly so they could hear him.

That wasn't the whole of it either. The bar was practically empty. The only customers that seemed to be present were bikers that belonged to Courage. They looked me up and down, eyeing me cautiously as I walked toward the back rooms. They were hungry for me. One guy stood up and pointed, “Hey, isn't that…?” Bruce shut him up by throwing a beer at him.

“Sorry about them.” He said. “They're animals.” We walked into Bruce’s office and I sat awkwardly on a couch, wondering what the hell was even going on.

“Hope Lawrence!” Bruce suddenly yelled. “Can't believe we got you here again. And this time it's free!” He laughed.

“What's going on Avery?” I asked, feeling a bit used. “Enough with the mystery, guys. Come on. Tell me what's going on already!”

Avery looked at Bruce. Bruce sighed and lit up a cigarette. “I ain't telling her.” he said.

Avery gave me a pained look and said, “We need you to do a little job for us.” He didn't elaborate any more than this.

“Okay.” I said.

“Someone we know…well, he just got out of prison. We’re gonna need you to cooperate and help us put him back behind bars.” Avery bit his lip, hoping my response would be positive.

“Are you kidding me?” I screamed. “No. Just no. I'm not participating in your thug-like operations. Take me home, Avery.”

“You don't have a home to be taken to, Hope. You don't even have a damn job anymore! You're all washed up.” Avery said. I couldn't help but start to tear up. What was wrong with him? He was absolutely evil. How could he say such horrible things to a woman?

Bruce was even worse, although he tried to come off as the nice guy. “We’re here to help, Hope. We want to see you up on those big stages again, not in shitty bars like this. We see big potential for you. I wouldn't say no to this offer if I were you.”

I took two steps back. I was out of my depth, I couldn't figure out how any of this had happened to me. Life used to be so good. Everything used to work out. Now I was stuck in a life of crime, surrounded by these biker thugs.

“Are … are you … threatening me?” I looked from Avery to Bruce, who was simply smiling and acting cheerful.

“Threatening? No, ‘course not, darlin’. Who would ever threaten a beautiful girl like you? All we’re saying is, good things come to those who help out around these parts…” Bruce took another drag and chucked it against the wall. “So what’s it gonna’ be?” he asked me, arms crossed and impatient.

I bit my lower lip and thought about it for a sec. “You’ll get my house back?” I asked them.

“Of course we will. We ain’t liars.” Bruce assured me.

But you are thugs, criminals, and law-breakers, I thought to myself. There was no use arguing. It was obvious they would have their way in the end. I was clearly dealing with some people who would use any type of force to get their way. I just wish I hadn’t of been so stupid to trust this Avery guy. “And my career? You’ll get that back for me?”

“I’ll tell you what.” Bruce began. “If you write another album, we’ll make sure it gets into the right hands.” He walked up to me and put his arms around my shoulders. “Look, you’re in a good place. It don’t look like it yet, but you are. We help people like you all the time. People don’t think much of us, but we get things done. I can at least say that about the Courage crew. We’ll sacrifice if you sacrifice for us.” Courage or death, right? What a great slogan.

“Okay. Fuck it. I’m in. What do I have to do?”

Bruce smiled. “Well, alright, little lady. Let’s go over the plan.”

“
S
o let
me get this straight,” she began, “I go on a couple dates with this guy, make sure he's distracted, and you plant the evidence in his garage?”

“More or less.” I said. That's not exactly how it would go down, but I didn't want to scare the girl or anything. Still, I had to at least warn her, or give her some sort of insight, before she signed up for the job. “It's going to take some time. It's not going to be easy.” Bruce looked at me angrily. I wasn't sure why Hope grabbed my attention like this, but lately she was always on my mind. This wasn't like me. Normally I didn't give a shit.

“I'll do it. Whatever it takes.” she said, looking at me, as if to say, ‘I know you'll protect me. I trust you.’ She shook Bruce’s hand. There it was. It was a deal.

“Listen, Bruce.” I said, rethinking the whole plan. Who knows, maybe this girl was worth something. I couldn’t just give her up to Bobby. But just as I was about to call the deal off, Angelo came running into the room, covered in blood.

“It's Luke…” he said. “He went crazy. Went and robbed The Sapo Boys. He ruined the whole truce, Bruce!” He was bleeding pretty bad out of his left leg.

“Someone get him to the fucking hospital!” I screamed. “Bruce, what're we gonna do?”

Bruce turned around and clenched his fist. His temper was starting up again, I could see it in plain sight. He wound his arm back and let out a large roar, “FUCK!” He punched the back wall, his fist making its way through the dry wall. We all jumped, including Angelo.

Bruce stormed out into the hallway, punching everything in sight. When he got into the main room of the club, he shut off the music and screamed, “Does anyone have any sense here? We got a man bleeding in the back!” No one moved, out of fear Bruce might turn on them. “God dammit, call an ambulance! Now!” He turned back around, running back into the room.

“I'm going to be okay, man.” Angelo sighed, tightly wrapping his shirt over the wound.

Hope looked as if she were about to faint. In her world, this kind of thing never happened. In our world, this happened all the time. “You need to go.” I said to her.

“I think I'm going to be sick…” she moaned. I almost burst out laughing. It was a childish reaction, but if she couldn't stomach this, how was she going to put up with Bobby Farole? Bruce and Angelo were both staring at me, waiting for the right call. Now was the time to display some leadership.

“I said, you need to go!” I yelled. It was rude, but it had to be done. We had gotten what we needed from her anyway. In our world, your word meant everything. She was escorted outside the club and I could tell she was regretting her decision. This was a different kind of life for her, one that required the stomach to handle seeing some pretty tough things. Angelo bleeding all over the carpet like this was nothing. I had seen men’s souls leave their bodies. I'd probably seen worse than that too if I went through my memories. After a certain point though, you tended to keep all that stuff locked up and buried.

“The Sapo Boys? Shit, Angelo.” I sighed. The Sapo Boys were a crew down south of us. Probably our best hook up with the purest cocaine you you’ve ever thrown up your nose. A bad deal with The Sapo Boys means big fucking trouble. It meant we had no product. No product means a hell of a loss. We're talking millions every month, gone.

Bruce was sweating more than Angelo was. I could see the anger in his eyes. “That deal was everything.” he said, clenching his teeth.

“No. It was more than everything.” I said. “That deal was our dignity, our salary, and our fucking future. Where is he?”

Angelo sat out of breath on the ground, leaking blood everywhere. “He … he just drove off. He came there and unloaded on everyone, Bruce. I don't know what happened. He left me to die back there.”

Bruce sat down, shaking his head. This kind of betrayal was unimaginable in our crew. Nothing had happened like this in years. We all trusted each other. Well, I knew this was going to be bad. First the boys see what happened, next thing no one trusts anyone anymore. That's how a crew dies. I couldn't let that happen. I stood up.

“We find Luke and we bring him to trial. We do things our way.” I closed the door, locking it. “This stays in this room. Luke ain't our brother no more.”

“This is too personal for you.” Bruce said. “I gotta take some time to think about it.”

Angelo was infuriated. He wore a shade of sickly pale. He needed a doctor fast. “What's there to think about? He got me shot. He killed three of The Sapo Boys! Bruce, I'm sorry to stand against you on this, but I was there. I saw what happened. If this were ten years ago, we would have brought him to the basement and killed him in a second.” Even with half his blood gone, Angelo was a scary bastard.

“He's right, Bruce. We can't wait around to decide. You're right, this is personal. Luke will get us all killed if we don't do something about this, so excuse me if I get a little personal about this.” I said more out of fear than anger. With Luke and Bobby going wild on the streets, terrible things were bound to happen.

“Okay. We’ll assemble a damn team. We’ll find him and deliver justice. Avery, you want your first test of being a leader?” I nodded. Of course I did. It's practically all I had been thinking about the past few days. Well, that and Hope’s gorgeous ass… How did I get her involved in all this mess? What have I done? And why did I even care?

“Good. ‘Cause you're in charge of this whole operation now. That means you go and meet with The Sapo Boys. Whatever you do, go in with a calm mind, you hear?” A calm mind? Yeah, like that was going to be easy.

Rumor had it that The Sapo Boys got their name from their old world initiation rites and strange addictions. Their crew went way back. I mean, all the way back to South America. Their family practically runs the Amazon to this day. Now they own a portion of the Colorado. Go figure. Well, the rumor was that they used to hoard these poisoned frogs. They'd dip an old quill or wooden stick into its puss-filled back and extract the poison. Yeah, they'd stick the poison into those lucky enough to be chosen. But that's not all. Oddly enough, their elite candidates underwent the same treatment as their enemies. They'd drink a hallucinogenic tea that would force them to face all their demons. I don’t know about you, but I didn't want to get on their bad side.

Even with all the knowledge of their mysterious tradition, I was all for proving myself. I knew I was the best man for the task. “You got it boss. You can trust me on this. I'll get it done. You have my word.”

The boss looked satisfied. He tucked in his shirt and took a deep breath. “Well alright then. It's settled. In the meantime, keep Hope close. Do what you can to get her that house back. Marry her for all I care. She's already seen too much. We need her to keep her mouth shut, Avery. Don't let me down.”

You know, it wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe I would marry her. It would give me an added layer of respect from the old school bikers, and it would keep her in my sights. I wasn’t enamored by the broad, but not all marriages came from a place of deep love. She had a perfect body at least.

“Don't worry, I got this.” I said. Angelo was still on the floor. He had stopped the blood for the time being but it was obvious he needed to get to a hospital.

“Come on. Help me get Angelo into my truck.” Bruce said. “I'll take him in.” And just like that, the cards were put in my hands. If I fucked this up, there was no telling what would happen…