Severed Justice (Severed MC Book 3) (14 page)

After making sure that the women are safe and settled, and they’ve stopped their hysterical crying, Prez calls us all to his office. He sits behind his desk, scratching at his stubble. He looks as confused as the rest of us. Silently, he looks around at us all, when his gaze reaches me in the corner he stops. I don’t like the sadness and pity that I see in his eyes. It makes me feel like I’m about to explode, and until I step out of this room, I can’t allow myself to do that.

“What the fuck happened?” He asks us, but none of us have an answer.

“It wasn’t like Danni had any threats against her.” Angel is the first to speak.

“She didn’t have any enemies that I know of.” Cowboy looks even worse than he did this morning, all this shit is destroying him.

“Yeah, everyone liked her.” Angel says calmly.

Everyone nods in agreement, and my anger erupts.

“It doesn’t fucking matter if she was loved or not! The fact is she’s dead. We need to find the fucker who did this, and deal with him.” I take a deep breath as they all look at me. I can’t look at them, they’re all wearing the same sympathetic expression as Prez and it’s killing me.

“That’s what we’re here for.” Angel stands beside me, and slaps me on the shoulder. “We’ll sort this out. You have my word.”

I look up at him, managing a tiny smile. I believe him.

From the way he suddenly becomes alert I can tell Cowboy has thought of something. His eyes are bright. “Fuck! Holly told me she’s spotted Ted hanging around.”

My body tenses. “When was this?”

“When we found her by the ambulance. She said she’d seen him the night she arrived here. She thought she must have been mistaken, so didn’t say anything, but then she said she thought she saw him again this morning, watching from a car as they went in the coffee shop.”

Anger takes over at the thought of that fucker coming here, and hurting my sister. Why the fuck didn’t she tell me?

“Ted?” Prez asks as he looks at me. “Is this the piece of shit who hurt my niece? The one you and Cowboy dealt with?”

I nod. “Sure is.” How the fuck did Prez know we’d dealt with him?

Cowboy chuckles. “Looks like he lived then.” If I weren’t so relieved at seeing him smile after all this time, I‘d have snapped at him. This isn’t funny.  Ted might be here on the hunt for my sister Holly.

“Wait.” Ink interrupts. “You don’t think this guy could have something to do with Danni’s death do you?”

Shit! I hadn’t thought of that. 

My body tenses. I want that little ‘piss his pants’ pansy in front of me, so I can bleed the life out of him. If he had anything to do with this, I’ll make that fucker pay with his life this time.

Prez looks over at me. “What do you think?”

“Did anyone ask the girls what happened?” Cowboy queries.

“Elle is making no sense at all.” Ink shakes his head.

“Eve just said they were all walking to the shop together when it happened.”

I look over at Angel. “Were those her exact words?”

“Well, shit Justice. I don’t know!” His tone is full of anger.

“I need to know.” I shout at him.

“Justice!” Prez roars, trying to bring me back down.  I’m about to lose my shit, and he knows it.

I turn to my uncle. “What? If Ted wants to harm Holly, he might have decided to do it through her best friend, or he could have killed Danni by mistake, meaning...”

“Holly was the target.” Prez finishes for me.

I let out a long breath, desperately trying to hold back my emotions. That is a possibility. This could be Ted, looking to take out his vengeance on my sister. Deliberate or mistake, he killed Danni. Her death has hurt Holly, and every member of Severed as well.

I just wish Holly had told me the first time she thought she saw him. Why didn’t she tell me today, why did she tell Cowboy instead?

“I agree.” Angel speaks up. “This Ted guy seems like the only person who’d have a reason to hurt Danni.”

Prez stands. “Everyone else agree?”  Everyone in the room does.  “Then we call Church and we decide what to do about this fucker.” He calmly states.

“Justice, stay behind.” Prez demands, as everyone else starts to leave his office.

When we’re alone he walks around his desk, he may be the president of Severed MC, but right now he’s just my uncle.

“I think you need to take a step back from this one.”

“What?”  What the fuck is he talking about? There’s no way I’m stepping back on this.

“Listen Jack.” He starts, and I know he’s deadly serious. He never uses my real name. “I know you want to find him, and hand out your own punishment, but this is a club matter now. This affects us all. I think you need to let me handle this.  You shouldn’t have gone rogue on him last time.”

I stand my ground. “No fucking way! She’s my sister; I need to take care of this.  It could have been her; we’re lucky it wasn’t. It was Danni instead. She didn’t deserve this. I should be the one to deal with this. Holly’s my sister and Danni was my girl.” I protest.  He just shakes his head.  His word is final.

I’m so angry right now I want to hit him, instead I storm out of the office. I don’t look at anyone as I pass. I need to get back to my room, and be alone.

I can’t quite get my head around what’s happened.  It feels like some horrible nightmare and I’m hoping that I will wake from it soon.  I also can’t get away from this overpowering feeling of guilt.  If the girls hadn’t been walking me over to the shop they wouldn’t have been there. They’d have been off doing whatever else they had planned, and Danni would still be here. Out of everyone I know, she’s the last person to deserve this.

When I saw Justice outside the coffee shop, my guilt deepened.  Danni was his girl, for all his protests.  I saw the way her face lit up when she spoke about him in the coffee shop.  I’d decided then that I wouldn’t come between them, no matter how much I
was tempted. I am still tempted.  He’s got the hottest body I’ve ever seen.  There’s just something about him.  Don’t get me wrong. It was hot as fuck sleeping with Ink, but I’ve got a feeling that it would be better with Justice.  There’s something about him that draws me in.  Shit. I can’t think thoughts like this. Not now. Not with Danni dead.

The memories from this morning play like a movie on repeat in my mind.  One minute we’re all laughing about something stupid, a lipstick color or some crap like that I think.  Then everything happened so quickly.  Danni muttered something about whoever bumped into her being rude, and then suddenly she’s on the ground. Dead.

I’ve never seen anyone die before, and I don’t want to see it again. She didn’t even know what happened. Just before she slumped to the ground, she gave us her beautiful smile and laughed as she made a comment about her unknown attacker. The smile quickly fell from her face as the pain hit her, and that quickly she was taken from us.

As well as this guilt that’s eating deep at me, there’s another emotion. Anger.  I’m angry at whoever did this.  Someone took my new friend from me.  They took someone who was loved by everyone around me here at the clubhouse, and they cut her life short. 

Why Danni? What did she ever do to anyone?  That’s the question we’re all asking as we sit here.  What’s happened is shocking, but it’s this lack of comprehension that makes it worse.  There’s no reason for it all that we can see.

I can’t accept that this was random, that it could have been any of us, but that it just happened to be Danni because of where she was standing.  That means that it could as easily have been me.

There was no evidence of a robbery, no motive.  The police questioned us quickly before the guys arrived; enough to find out that none of us had seen anything.  We’ve got to go to the station later to give formal statements apparently. Prez persuaded them to let us come back here first.  I’m grateful for that.  I’m even more grateful that Elle thought to include me. I didn’t know what to do as I sat In front of the coffee shop. I was just sitting there, letting guilt consume me.

I look at the woman who just a few days ago hated me.  There’s strength of character in her I’d be proud to have.  It must have taken an incredible amount of courage for her to befriend me. I’m not sure if our roles were reversed that I’d have been so understanding, or forgiving.  She loves Ink that much is clear. It’s written all over her face when he walks in a room, and I envy that.  Not because it’s Ink and Elle, but because I want to feel like that about someone, and crave for the feeling to be returned. Danni had that look when she talked about Justice.  I wonder if I’ll ever be able to feel that strongly about anyone. 

The guys have gone off to some sort of meeting, leaving all us women alone.  Well, as alone as you can be in an MC. There are club whores, old ladies and club prospects around.  Does this place ever get empty I wonder?

Sue and Diane are sitting with us, or perhaps I should say crying with us.  They’re as shocked as the rest of us.  Danni sure was popular around here.  You can feel the sadness all around. The prospects look down, old ladies are crying, and even the whores are shedding a few tears. Danni meant something to everyone here, and her death will affect the club whether she was an old lady or not.

Sue looks over to Eve. “Where’s Elizabeth? I could do with one of her cuddles right now.” Eve looks panicked for a moment, as though she’s forgotten something important.

Elle soothes her. “She’s fine Eve, don’t worry. Maggie will take care of her.”

“Maggie?” Sue questions. 

“Maggie, Scalp’s wife.” Eve explains.  “The kids got on so well together at the party that Maggie suggested a play date, and as Elle and I were heading out of town for the day it seemed a good idea.”

Sue looks uncomfortable, and I don’t know why.

“Honey, Maggie is Carnal MC. Are you sure that was such a good idea? They were at war with us just a short while ago.” Sue sounds concerned.

“Angel was fine with it.  He’s the one who invited them to the party after all.  That trouble was all down to Satan, it was never really the club.” Eve shifts uncomfortably. “Maybe I’d better ring her and ask her to bring Elizabeth home.”

“Don’t.” Diane interrupts. “This isn’t the place for that precious little girl today.  You need to be here for everyone, Eve. The club needs you. Let her have her fun.” She reasons.

I don’t know much about MC’s but I get that being the VP’s old lady, Eve needs to be here.  That said I haven’t seen Teresa, Prez’s w
ife yet.  I wonder where she is?

I look over at Holly; she’s still in shock. She and Danni had only just made up and repaired their friendship, only to watch her die the next day. The timing of this is so terrible. Life really can be a bitch.  She sees me watching her and drops her head, muttering.  I can’t hear her clearly so move to the seat next to her, putting my arm on hers to comfort her.

“It’s my fault. It’s my fault. I brought him here. It’s my fault.” She repeats her mantra quietly.  I don’t know why she thinks it’s her fault.  If anyone’s to blame it’s me.  I don’t know if I can live with this guilt.

We all look up as the guys leave the office.  Angel, Prez and Ink come over to join us, but Justice storms off in what I assume is the direction of his room. His heavy boots thumping loudly on the floor as he passes, and I notice Holly flinch.

Elle looks after him sadly, before turning to me. “You should go to him, Emma.”

Me? Why the hell would she say that?  What can I do for him? 

Elle sees the look of confusion on my face.  “He’s hurting.  Go to him, just hold him for a while.  He may be a big badass biker, but he’s only human.  He’s going to be hurting right now. Go help him.”

I’m about to protest that I’m the last person he’s going to want to see right now, but Ink stops me. “Elle’s right, Emma.” He assures me. “He’s hurting right now, thinking this is all his fault somehow.  Go talk to him, keep him company.” He requests.

I have a lot of respect for Ink.  If he says Justice needs me right now, then I’ll try. I’ll put my feelings aside for a moment and see if I can help.

I look at Angel and Prez. They nod their heads in agreement. I hold back my groan. Even if I don’t agree, I can’t say no now.

Elle tells me where to go, and I head in the direction of his room.  I stand outside the door, shaking a little from nerves.  How can I face him right now, knowing this is my fault?

Gingerly I raise my hand and knock on the door.  I can do this. I have to do this.

“Fuck off.” Comes the blunt reply. I nearly leave when he answers. “I wanna be alone.”

Then I think about the people back there who need me to look after their friend, and truthfully I’m a little worried about him. He’s a tough guy, but this is a tragedy. It can bring the strongest of people down.

I know I should just storm in there and check on him, but I’m not as strong as I thought.  Sighing deeply, I sink to the floor, my back against the wall. I’ll give it a minute or so for my courage to return, and then I’ll try again.  I’ve got to do this for him.