Authors: Kaylee Song
Thrash (9 page)
Thrash just nodded, still cold. “Yeah, man. Wrath?”
“He’s going to keep the gig afloat with Crowe and Mick. I need you on this with me.”
And just like that Thrash turned to me and said, “I have to go, Nora. Catch a ride with Layla or Emma. I’ll see you later.”
That was it. No goodbye, no kiss or eye contact. Just an instant wall and the chill of shutting the world out.
This man had it bad and he had just thrown it at me, too. I did not like that.
He left me suddenly standing there in the middle of a crowd of people that I didn’t know and couldn’t politely get away from. He walked across the lawn of the high school and right out of there.
Worse yet, his mother took one look at my face and read my mind. “Oh honey, this is the life. You date a man like him, this is how it is. And each time he goes, you hope it won’t be the last time.”
I wasn’t sure if I was going to hit the ground or throw up. Or scream. There was a small, suddenly violent part of me that wanted to scream.
“Over here, I found him,” I called to Rage.
It was Michael, one of the prospects.
We’d been searching the alleys in the North Hills around the bar for almost a half an hour before I finally saw him groaning up against a dumpster. His shoulder was dislocated. His face was all busted up and his wrist had been wrecked, but he was alive.
He’d live, too, even if he was screaming in pain.
“You alright?” I asked as I looked him over.
“Fuck, no, I’m not alright! Look at me.” Michael seethed as he held his arm in place. The shoulder was obviously dislocated.
We needed to call my sister. The shoulder I could fix, but Desiree would have to handle the rest.
I grabbed his shoulder and told him to breathe out. Before he could ask what I intended to do, I popped the shoulder back into place. He screamed like hell. Of course he did. That shit hurt. But then the pain settled and he started to breathe properly again. He’d be fine.
“Damn, how you learn to do that?” he muttered, an edge of grudging respect in his voice.
I shrugged. I’d trained to be an EMT like Desiree, but she was the one who ran with it, became a paramedic. And she was training to be a nurse. Just like our mom. But I was just too my like my father. And I knew where it was going to get me. She’d told me as much.
That didn’t stop me from dialing Desiree’s number.
“What.” Not even a question. She knew. And damn, was she pissed.
“Is that any way to greet your brother?” I asked.
“It is when drops his girlfriend and mother in the middle of a party his club is hosting,” she answered, her voice filled with snark.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice, DeMarcus. You chose to walk away.”
There it was. The high and mighty tone, just like my mother.
I gritted my teeth and ground out, “Look, I need you. Get to the club house?” I was done talking about this.
She paused a long moment, then cleared her throat. “Fine, but you’re paying my rate.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just get your ass to the clubhouse. We got a guy who needs you, Desiree.”
She wasn’t backing down. “Pay my rate, or he can go for the ambulance ride and he can pay their rates.”
“Fine.” I hung up the phone and looked at Michael.
“So, how’d you get this way?” I asked him, looking for Rage. He was a block down the street, stalking our way, anger flashing in his eyes.
“Fucking Bones,” the kid said.
“Did you see him?” Rage asked.
“Yeah, as he was bashing his hand into my face. Kinda hard to miss that shit. You said the guy was old and out of shape. This guy, he was older, but he was fucking built like a bull.” He took a deep breath between each sentence, but he winced. The kid was in some serious pain.
I patted his back. “Come on, man. Let’s get you back to the club, we can talk about it later.”
He winced but he didn’t let me shuffle him off. “No. No man, you need to know. Bones, he’s, he’s coming for us. Said he wasn’t afraid. Said he wasn’t hiding. Said he knows.” Michael pulled himself up with our help, and we supported his weight as we walked him over to the truck. He limped along until we got him in.
He was going to be fine, we just needed to get him medical attention now. His job was to hold out till then. My job was to convince my sister to come with me to see Strike’s brother, Hawk, when she was done with this kid.
I had a feeling that wasn’t going to go over well.
I heard him before I saw him, but I didn’t turn around to look at him. I didn’t even acknowledge his presence. I just stared at my canvas, a sketchbook out.
What I wanted was finally starting to form in my mind and I wasn’t about to lose it just because of Thrash’s guilty conscience.
I had a job to do, too.
“Nora –”
I chopped a hand at the air beside my hand irritably. “I don’t want to hear it. I am too busy trying to think. I can’t just bail on this project, Thrash.” I couldn’t let him distract me, no matter how badly I wanted him to. I wasn’t going to bail on it the way he bailed on me. No, my work and my word meant more to me than that.
I was so extraordinarily mad, probably because he had really hurt me, more than our association could account for, more than I felt comfortable admitting. But the truth was I hadn’t trusted someone to get this close in… years.
“You have to look at me, Nora. You have to talk to me.” He took ahold my arm and, before I could argue or realize just what he was doing, he pulled me up and around to face him.
I gasped, amazed. He wasn’t the first man to sweep me off my feet – or in this case, my butt – but he was the first one whose eyes stole both my breath and my ability to think.
I couldn’t even swallow to break the spell. I just stood there, appallingly caught, my heart fluttering like a bird inside my chest.
His words eased some of the panic. “I’m sorry, Nora.” The way he looked at me, the sincerity in his eyes, told me he meant it. I was grateful he didn’t let go. I felt dizzy and I didn’t want to fall. But I didn’t want to lean on him too much.
His voice was kinder there
, as he looked into my eyes. “I had to go. It was club business. I have to do my job.” He looked at me. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
“You didn’t say goodbye,” I whispered. “You just shut everyone out… And you left me with your mother.”
“I know, I’m so sorry.”
My brows stayed drawn, but a faint smile quirked my lips. I was still upset with him, but…
“Well, I’m not. She still had a whole bunch of those cute little photos in her wallet. I got to see you at all your heights.” I grinned at him. It was true. I’d seen ever photo in that wallet and listened to all his mom’s stories. She loved him. And he had been a
cute
kid, with a round nose and full head of beautiful kinky curls.
“I knew I should’ve have left you with her,” he chuckled. “Did Layla and Emma get you home alright?”
I nodded. “They did, and they were perfect dates. Except all the stories.”
He flinched. I couldn’t help but smile. I did manage to stifle a giggle, but it wasn’t easy.
“Which ones?” he asked.
“Well, Layla told me about the time you jumped off the roof of the garage. Did you really break your leg?”
“I was eight years old…” he started. “Broke my arm and my pride with that stunt.”
“And your pants,” I giggled, remembering. “You ripped your pants. They made fun of you for a year.”
He huffed, his smile rueful. “And then some. So tell me, did they mention that Layla’s brother went off first?” Sean had been our ring leader, pushing us to our limits. He’d done it naturally, as if he didn’t know any other way to be. I had admired the hell out of him.
“Ah, so if his friend jumps, he jumps too.” I teased him but I was glowing. He really was sweet.
“I was eight.
Eight
,” he said vehemently.
Our eyes met and for some reason I forgot all about what I was teasing him about. My mouth opened and closed, and then my lungs remembered how to breathe and I looked down at my hands.
I had it bad. But I kind of liked it.
Thrash seemed to recollect himself, too, at least enough to say, “So, what do you say you let me take you on a real date? Make up for leaving you high and dry at the benefit?”
I considered that. “Maybe...” I smiled up at him. “A man who is loyal to his friends is a good guy. Even if it does result in broken bones.”
He rolled his eyes. “I was
eight
.”
I shook my head, half hiding my smile behind my hair. “Go on,” I nudged him. “I have some sketching to do, and I want to do it while I’m still here.”
“Do you have any ideas of what you’ll paint?”
“It’s coming to me,” I said, eyeing my sketchpad. “Do you know how unusual it is that your club didn’t choose your own design?”
Thrash surprised me. “Well, we did, but Layla convinced us that an artist needs to be able to work within her own creativity. We want to see what you produce.”
I fought off the butterflies that swarmed my stomach then. That was a lot of pressure. They meant well, though. I believed they wanted to give me space to work. It was a rare opportunity. But maybe I should ask Layla what their original plan was?
Thrash had other matters on his mind. “Tomorrow, seven? Our date?” he asked.
I mentally checked my calendar. “Sure, but are you positive you won’t have to cancel?”
He looked me straight in the eye and said, “I have plans today, but not tomorrow. I’ll be there, I promise.”
“Alright.” I agreed.
He really was so handsome. The kinked curls had been shorn close to his scalp, revealing a finely shaped head and emphasizing the elegant curve of his cheekbones. He had a well-defined jaw and striking nose. My fingers itched to abandon the mural and try to capture the smoky caramel hue of his skin and the way it lay over that fine face.
I was in the middle of mooning, my fingers a bit too familiar with my pencil, when he spoke up.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at your place.”
He turned and walked out of the conference room. I promised myself I wasn’t going to stare when he did. But I couldn’t help it.
The way those tight jeans hugged his ass, and his leather vest fit him just right stole my breath and brought a nasty little quirk to my lips.
He was a masterpiece, and I was hoping I would get to do more with him that simply stare and sketch. Oh, my hands wanted so much more than that.
10
“Is this the place?” my sister asked.
“Oh stop screwing up your face like that, like you are mad at me for brining you. I saw the way you looked at him the last time you saw him. You’re interested.” I initially noticed it when she was stitching him up after the raid that had killed Strike’s father. Hawk was a pain in the ass, but he made my sister laugh. While the rest of us fought the urge to break his nose, Desiree had fought not smile.
That smile was rare these days. I was willing to take some heat from her if it meant getting her out of her usual angst.
When she demanded to be paid her normal rates plus an emergency fee, Strike agreed to it. I had vouched for her, and I didn’t vouch for anyone easily, family or not. So she was getting paid well for the work. An entire day’s pay for just a few hours.
“You, you think you can just call me and I’ll drop everything,” she groused, sounding more like my mother than ever. “You always have.”
I just hitched my shoulders. “To be fair, you are my sister. And you do drop everything, every time. Because I need you. And I appreciate what you do for us. And you know it.”
She scowled ferociously at me. “You and those boys don’t need anything other than a swift kick in the collective ass. Always getting yourselves into so much damn trouble... I’m tired of seeing your war room overflowing with wounded people.”
“That last time wasn’t our choice and you know it,” I argued. We worked for the mob – an extension of it anyway. Strike’s wing was on the wind these days and we weren’t sure what to call them these days. But they still had our backs so we had theirs. They had called us to help them out when infighting had caused a serious rift in their ranks. That rift had led to Strike and Hawk’s father getting killed.
We remembered. We had been there. We had owed them, and besides they promised us something even better. They promised to give us any and all information they had on Bones, the man who betrayed our club and left it to crumble. That was no small offer and it cost more than a few pretty words.
“Call it whatever you want, DeMarcus. You and your club aren’t on a great journey. You just make a mess of men. You were such a sweet boy, but you’ve been in trouble ever since that club was founded…” she trailed off.
I knew these accusations. They were the same words that came out of my mother’s mouth years ago when we were kids. That was before she left my father. He was one of the founding members, after all, and he had been responsible for the violence back then. At least in her eyes. It hurt to think my sister saw us as just violent. This wasn’t a choice. It was life. It was surviving. Bones wasn’t going to quit trying to destroy us if we played nicely. He had broken our rules. He had betrayed us, too. Hell, he had hung us out to dry. And if we let him get away with it, not only would every other group in town try to piss on us, he’d just come back and crush us.
No one was nice to you on the playground of life. They tried to take what was yours and kick you into the dirt while they were at it. You had to make sure they knew not to try it. And that meant that sometimes, you had to get your hands dirty.
I wouldn’t apologize for standing up for me and mine. I’d do it for Fire and Steel, and I would do it for her.
“I won’t fight about this, Desiree. You know the life. You’ve lived it, and you understand what is expected of you. What is expected of me. So quit giving me shit about something that isn’t going to change. It puts us both down.”
She looked disgusted but she nodded, and I sighed. We always got to the same place when we were alone. Hurt and anger always rose up, the ashes of my father sparking the discontent we both felt.
She had thrived off blaming him, and maybe it was different for her, but I relished his legacy.
I knocked on the door in front of me, sure that Hawk was behind it, laughing about our little quarrel, but his wasn’t the face that greeted me.
Instead, a large man I didn’t recognize blocked our entrance, his gaze beady and unpleasant, warning us not to start shit.
“You here for something?” he asked. He had to be a bodyguard. Little smartass was wise to have one. Or maybe it was his brother whose wisdom kept him alive.
I played the game. “Brought the medical care that was asked for,” I told the man. I didn’t share any details about who I was or why I was there. I just told him the information he needed to hear.
That was a trick no one taught you in school: never tell more than you had to. Unless you were gifted at the art of never sharing anything that didn’t suit you, running your mouth was a good way to wind up dead. That was, in a way, Hawk’s gift. The little shithead jawed off more than any sane person I’d ever met, and yet he was still alive, if only just barely.
Then again, that probably had more to do with luck than any skill on his part. He had the right brother.
The bodyguard eyed me a moment, then snapped, “In. Now.” He ushered us in. “You made a scene.”
I nodded. “Maybe that’ll throw them off,” I said.
Desiree grinned. “If you want me to really throw them off, I can start asking Thrash here about his new lady love.”
I glared at her fit to melt a damned mountain. This was not the time to be bringing up people like Nora. The woman was beautiful and sensitive and smarter than she let on. I could tell. She was also oblivious on how to protect herself from people like this.
I did not want her getting mixed up in this mess.
Desiree just smiled and strolled past the bodyguard. I had to push past a bit, but that was just showmanship.
We quickly found a very ashen Hawk crouched on a bed in the corner. He stared at the two of us, distinctly irritated.
“Are you two going to bicker all day, or did one of you come to actually tend my wounds?”
When I’d first seen Hawk I instantly disliked him. With his cynical attitude and his dark humor, he reminded me too much of me. I didn’t like the reflection as much as I wanted to.
His face was ripped open. His body had been beaten to the pulp, once when he was kidnapped, and then again, right after he had been released from the hospital.
Aggravating or not, this bastard had gotten a raw deal.
Then again, maybe if he learned to shut that big-ass mouth of his, he might be able to stay out trouble.
Of course, that idea would never occur to him.
“I thought you said you weren’t treating my ‘ungrateful ass’ ever again?” Hawk’s mouth screwed up into a shit-eating grin as he looked her over. He was enjoying every single moment of this, making Desiree squirm a little. But she was tougher than people gave her credit for.
She rallied like the best of them.
“They’re paying me a small fortune for this.” She pulled out her medical supplies and looked him over.
“Aww, now tell me how much I’m worth to you, pretty woman. Really make my day.” He laughed as he said it but he wasn’t fooling anyone.
The sheen of sweat against his pale grey skin indicated that infection had set in. His condition was worse than Strike let on, maybe even worse than he knew. He was out of breath just from sitting up to flirt with Desiree.
Desiree ignored him like a pro and took a loose measure of his temperature with the back of her hand. “You are hot. Really hot. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”
“Because you didn’t want to see me again, remember?” He said, the pain in his face evident. The fact that he let that opportunity go really did show how sick he was.
She grabbed a thermometer out of her bag and put it under his tongue. Then she lifted up his shirt.
The wounds were red and alarmingly swollen.
Desiree’s eyes widened. “You need powerful antibiotics, Hawk. I, I need to get you to the hospital.”
He shook his head and with good reason. “You remember that this –” He pointed to his face. “– happened to me the last time I got out of that fucking place? No. No hospitals. You’ll have to get what you need and fix me up, right here.” The steel in his eyes let us both know that, sick or not, he meant every word.
Desiree would find a solution, because she was that good, but for the first time, I worried that she might have to get her hands dirty to do it.
“Fine,” she told him. “I’ll do what I can. It won’t be easy, though. I’ll need supplies that I can’t – and won’t – take from the hospital.”
That didn’t trouble him. “I can arrange that.”
I was proud of my sister: she didn’t even bat an eye. “I know you can. I’ll also need to have double time pay and hazard pay on top of that.” She smiled at him, her most saccharine smile, and drove the bargain home. That smile was a lady’s verson of ‘take it or leave it, I can walk.’
I stared at them both. Hawk could have acquired any of a dozen of his own contacts to treat him.
Naturally, I had wondered why my sister?
The answer was obvious. The way they were looking at each other, circling and staging and testing boundaries. It had to be her. She didn’t take shit, and he was used to giving it.
Fuck, the last thing I wanted was my sister involved with the mob.
“You two done making eyes?” I snapped. “It’s time to get out of here.”
Desiree shook her head and waved me off. “He’s ripped a couple of his stitches, I’ll need to put new ones in, and clean and dress it. I have some antibiotic ointment with me, and ciprofloxacin in my bag.” Her fingers snapped for me to get them for her. This was how she was, and I caught Hawk smirk over her shoulder. I just gave him a look and took my time getting the meds.
“You sure it’ll work, my pretty woman?” he pushed.
She didn’t rise to that. Her voice stayed steady. “I’m not yours, and yes. It’ll work, but we need something to add to the cocktail.”
To his credit, he took the wall she put up in stride. His condition probably had a lot to do with it. “You got any painkillers in that bag?” he asked, seriously. Yeah, he was hurting.
“I do. I’ll give you dose of local before I do the stitches. These are going to hurt like hell.” She grabbed a needle and a bottle of what I assumed was local anesthetic and injected it into the meat of his shoulder following the curve of the swelling all the way down.
I looked away when Hawk’s lips quirked again. I was going to punch the mother-fucker.
As for Desiree, she made quick work of the stitches, then slathered the mess in a layer of antibiotic ointment.
“Feel better?”
He hitched a shoulder tentatively. “Numbed the pain a little.”
She nodded, “I’ll have to make arrangements to get back here. You get your brother to get in contact with Fire and Steel if you need to reach me, okay?” she asked. “If you contact me on my job I will refuse to treat you further.” She meant it, too. If he pushed her on that one, she would shut him out completely. Like him or not, her career meant everything to her.
“Yeah, I get it,” he muttered. “Oh, Thrash. I got word from Strike. It’s about Bones.”
My ears perked at that. “Why didn’t you say so?”
He shot me a shit-grin. “I wanted to make sure I got treated first, you know? Anyway, your asshole is teaming up with some real powerful people.”
“Who?”
For the first time since I’d met him, Hawk hesitated to open his mouth. When he did, he admitted, “The ones who are making our life a living hell.”
That sounded like Bones. Find the biggest, baddest motherfuckers in town and start building bridges. The man might be old and addicted, but he had begun as a damned fine President of a once-fine MC. Before he stabbed us in the back and nearly burned us to the ground.
We had been dealing with this for a few months now. We had been recovering well – better than he had guessed. If he hadn’t known it before, he definitely knew now that he needed more than his ill-advised crew if he was going to take us down any further.
“Do you know anything specific?” I asked, curious.
Hawk patted the bed a few times with a stiff hand, shaking his head. “I just know that he was seen meeting with Gerald Donovan down at the loading docks in the south side. I don’t really know anything else.” That expressive face was rueful. This was probably the closest he and I would ever be to getting along.
“It’s good. Thanks, man.” I stood and waited for Desiree to finish.
“Have Strike call the MC, okay?” she reiterated.
“I will.” That man wasn’t likely to forget – not unless he wanted to.
“And don’t forget about my payment terms.”
He chuckled.
”I won’t.” He was taking her seriously. I breathed a little easier. Business or no business, I’d finish tearing that skin off his face if he tried to make a fool of my sister. She could grill me till the sun stopped rising and I would watch her back. We were family. Blood.
And speaking of family, Gerald Donovan had joined the ranks of men who wanted to hurt my MC family.
I had to get back to the club. I had to talk to Rage.
He needed to know what was coming.
