Rage (21 page)

Cullen

I woke to the ringing of my cell.  It was buried somewhere in my pants, so I lifted up Layla’s arm and hoped it wouldn’t wake her.  She looked so beautiful, so peaceful, her hair cascading down over her pillow, her eyes closed.  One of the only times I saw her looking at peace.  I turned away from her and after I did a quick search I found my cell buried in my cut pocket instead of my jeans.

Mick’s number flashed on my phone and I answered it, stepping into my bathroom and closing the door.

I wanted to keep her as far from this as possible.

“Yeah?” I wanted to know what he found out. 

Opening the curtain, I looked out and expected to see sunlight, but the pitch black of a moonless night greeted me instead.  What fucking time was it?

“Can’t get no outside help, Rage.  But don’t got no opposition, either.”

“Who you been talking to?”

“Snake.  He knew Bones was up to some shit, could tell by the way he kept ducking out of any obligation.  He won’t support him, but he won’t support us unless Bones brings in something from the outside.  Far as he is considered, this is nothing but a coup.  At least for now.”

I nodded.  “Makes sense.  Hell, I’m just glad he doesn’t want to use it as a chance to kick us in the face.”

“Joe ain’t like that.  Known him for a long time.” Mick’s voice was rough.  “Ain’t in the same club, but we were brought up together.  He’s a tough one, a son of a bitch, but he doesn’t double cross people for no reason.”

“I heard that about him, and I have to admit, I’m still nervous.”

“Don’t be.  If we need him, he’s got our back.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch, except good relations at the end.  Doesn’t want to absorb us or anything like that.”

Good.  That was what I needed to hear.

“Any word on Thrash?”

“Yeah.  Meet us at Kat’s.”

The pussy club was the last place I wanted to go, but it was our territory, and it was safe.  Thrash and I were the primary ones who provided protection, so it would make sense for us to be there.

“When?”

“Now.”

I looked at my phone.  It was three o'clock in the fucking morning.  No wonder the sun wasn’t up yet.  Jesus fucking Christ.

“Right.” We had to move on this and we had to move fast.  I hung up the phone without another word.

I needed to get down to the club without waking up Layla.  I snuck through the bedroom, grabbing my clothing and changing in the hall before I made my way down the stairs and out the door. 

I was on my bike just as my bedroom light turned on.

I took off, not bothering to look back.

It was better if she didn’t know what we were about to do until it was too late.  Keep her out of harms way if no one saw it coming.

***

I pulled up to the club and hoped to hell Brandy wasn’t going to be there.  It was the kind that was open 24/7, and there was always a chance, but damn.  She was the last thing I needed to deal with right now.

I walked through the door and right to Kat.  She owned the club, and was the kind of woman you’d expect to see working in the mayor’s office, not in this nasty little den of vice.

Her long brown hair flowed around her in wisps, her glasses low on her nose.  She was just barely forty, but the kind of down-home beautiful that made a lot of them who came in here do a double take.

“Kat.  Mick?” I asked.

“That’s all I get? No hello? No hug? I haven’t seen you around here.  Brandy scare you away?”

“What? No, been busy.  Got a lot of stuff going on.” I gave her a one armed hug and looked around.

“Stuff.  I get it.  Your boys are up in the VIP loft, lookin’ pretty pissed.  Anything I gotta be worried about?”

“Nah, nothing just a little tiff with a lady.”

“Donna busting Mick’s balls again?”

“Something like that.”

“I’ll send a round of brews up.  Anything else I can do to help?”

“Yeah, keep the strippers out, just until we get a chance to talk, you know?”

“Will do.” She winked at me and gave me a three finger salute, the kind with the ring finger down.  It was her signature move.

“Oh, and keep Brandy away from me if she shows up.  I can’t handle that bitch right now.”

Kat snorted.  “Pussy.”

“You know it.” I wove through the crowd and up the carpeted stairs.  They were nasty, gum and who knows what else ground into them, but I’d looked at them a hundred times.  For some reason they stood out to me, just like every little detail leaped into my eyes.

There was nothing like fear to heighten the senses.

“What you wanna talk about?” Thrash asked as he sat there with Tommy and Drew, Mick leaning against the small bar in the room that had a pole attached to it and the ceiling.  For private dances.

“I-I didn’t know what it meant when I first heard him talking about it, but when Thrash told me what was going on, it just, it clicked.” Tommy stuttered as he looked from Thrash to me, back to Thrash.  Obviously the prospect was nervous.

“What?”

“He, he wants a takeover.”

“I need a little more than that, Tommy.” I was starting to get impatient.

“No, he was talking about expanding, you know, before Sean, well- before he died.  I didn’t know if he meant our protection services or what, but then, when they told me about HB, about how he asked them to take the fall.  Well, I -“

“Get to the point, Tommy.”

“He sounds like he wants to get rid of the whole family.  Said something about with Layla gone.  Thought they were going to send her back to Chicago.”

Layla.  Shit.  I should’ve known.  It wasn’t desire for her body that I saw in his eyes, it was desire for her death.  It’d be the last of a legacy gone, and a chance to turn the chapter on the family dynasty.

Fuck.

What was he so afraid of her finding out? What was he planning? Could Bones really have had something to do with her father’s death?

The only thing I could do was confront him.

“Come on, man.  We gotta get over to the fucking club.”

Chapter 15

Layla

I petted Killer absentmindedly as he curled up against me.  Ever since I fed him we’d been fast friends, and if I was sleeping in my bed he was right on my legs.  This morning, though, he was curled up against my rump purring loudly.

Three am in the morning and I was all alone.  Seriously? Where the hell was he, and why did he take off, bike screeching out of the damn driveway.  Not even a text.

Fuck.  I didn’t know if I could handle this.  What if some shit happened to him? What if he ended up like Sean?

Where are you?

I finally broke down and texted him.  I needed to know where he was and if he was safe.  It was just like him to think he could shut me out of everything at the last minute to keep me “safe.”

Don’t worry about it.  I got it taken care of. 
-
Cullen

Like hell he did.  I fumed, but there was nothing I could do besides sit on the sofa and wait, patiently petting Killer.

When you coming home? Can’t sleep without you. 
–Me

Tonight.  Got some work to do tonight, going to crash at the club.  Stay Safe. 
-Cullen

***

I must’ve dozed off, because a knock at the door woke me, the brisk wrapping on wood rousing me and the cat, who jumped off my lap and let out a lazy mew before trotting off.  I waited for it to subside, but it didn’t and I figured I was going to have to get up and answer it.  It could be Thrash, or someone important.

“I see, leave me to deal with it all alone, huh? I thought we were pals.” I got up and made my way toward the door, opening the curtain to see Audrey standing on the other side, the early morning sunlight streaming onto the porch lighting up the red highlights in her hair.

What the hell did she want?

I opened the door wide to her saccharine sweet smile. 

“Can I help you?”

“Came lookin’ for you, Lala.  Wanna talk.”

“Why?” I asked, not budging from the opening.

“We ain’t always gotten along the best, and since it seems like you’re Cullen’s old lady, I thought it was time I try and move past that.”

She was just club ass, and that was the truth.  There wasn’t much to work out.

“Seriously?”

“We’re both around the club a lot, saw you there just the other day.  I’m tired of avoiding you, avoiding the club.”

I couldn’t lie, if I saw her I usually ducked out of there myself.

“You have a point.”

“Let me in? I brought pie.” she held up the picnic basket that was dangling by her hip.  “Piece of pie and coffee for breakfast, come on, you can’t say no to that.”

Maybe she really was trying.  I stepped back from the door and let her in, trying not to look at her suspiciously.  It was morning, but I had no idea what time.

“Why’d you come by so early?” I asked, reaching up into the cabinet and pulling out a couple of plates and mugs.

“I knew that Cullen would already be over at the garage.  Wanted a chance to talk to you alone.” She pulled out a pie pan, unveiled what looked to be a blueberry pie and cut it into it, pulling out a piece for each of us and placing them on the plate.

It only took me a few minutes to get the coffee going, so I sat down across from her.

“What is this really about, Audrey?”

“I was never with Cullen, not really.  I mean, yeah, we fucked a couple times, but I knew he didn’t want me.  It was just easy to hang on to what I thought was a thing.” She seemed wistful as she said it, not really looking at me, but away, like she was in a memory.

I nodded, numb to this information.  I knew they’d had a thing going on, but that was after I left. 

His life.  His business.

“Club’s done a lot for me,” she added.  “Took me in, you know?’

“I do.  I’m there myself.” I scooped put a piece of pie from my plate and tasted it.  Damn, this pie was really good.  Sweet with just the right amount of tart.  “Wow, Audrey, I didn’t know you could bake.”

“Yeah, Do it for most of the girls back at the club.  I’m kind of a mother hen.  Kind of the club mother, really.  Bones says it’s why he chose me.”

“Chose you?” Bones? Fear pricked at the back of my neck but I ignored it.  Of course she was fucking Bones.  She was club property, and that meant that she wouldn’t say no to any of the men if they asked.

“To be his main lady.  Ain’t his ol’ lady, though.  Not yet.  Gotta do this one last thing for him.”

Bones’ ol’ lady? Bones was the last person in the club I trusted, and I had unknowingly let in a girl who was volatile enough to believe that he would settle down with her.  He already had a woman.  What was happening?

That wasn’t who Bones was.  I knew that soon as I looked at him.

But that wasn’t what concerned me most.

He’d told her that she needed to interact with me.  That she needed to get involved with me.

“What, you mean make up with me? Consider that water under the bridge.  It was a million years ago.” I waved her off, taking another bite of pie.  “Aren’t you going to have some?”

I noticed she wasn’t eating.

“Oh, I will, but the ride over upset my stomach.  In a little bit.” She smiled.

Maybe she was thinking things up, and if I could assure her that it was all fine, she’d leave.  “It’s fine, Audrey, as long as you don’t come after what’s mine.”

“See, that’s the thing, Lala.  It’s all mine, and you’re coming around here messing with it.  Bones don’t like that much.  I don’t want to disappoint him.”

“What? What do you mean disa—” Each word she said after that was a blur, just a jumble of syllables that seemed to slow and then speed up until I was so tired that all I could do was lay my head down on the table and close my eyes.

Cullen

“
Fuck
.” The clubhouse was empty.  No one except for some club whores and the normal bar flies.  Dried up nomads and a couple of our guys who weren’t involved in executive decision making.

Everyone else was either passed out in a club bunk, or they were at their own homes.

Bones wasn’t there.  I opened the door to his apartment, busting the lock.  Shit.  What, it had to be six, where the fuck was he? He lived at the club whenever he was fighting with his ol’ lady.  Which was all the damn time.

Four in the morning and he wasn’t in his bed, I looked through the whole fucking flat.  He wasn’t even on the shitter.  “It’s clear in here, Mick.”

“Dammit.” Mick wheezed as he leaned against the doorjamb of Bones’ room.

“Get your fucking nebulizer, Mick.  Can’t have you keeling over before we can kick the shit out of that fucking asshole.”

“Gotta find him first.” Mick growled, turning and rumbling down the stairs.

“No shit.  Go home.  Get in bed with your wife, hold her tight.  Let the young guys handle this shit.  And go fucking do your breathing treatments, you old bastard.”

“You’ll be lucky to live as long as me, cocksucker.” Mick flipped me off as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, on the way through the hallway and out the back.

I cocked a short-lived smile.  At least he was gone.  I saw a wadded up bill beside Bones’ desk and picked it up, my mind still on Mick.

And I wouldn’t have to worry about him getting involved in what was going to happen next.  I uncrumpled the balled up piece of paper in my hand.  It was an electrical bill for an address I’d never heard of.  430 Washington Ave, North Versailles.  Shit, Fire and Steel Motors on the name. 

Had to be where Bones was hiding out.

430 Washington Ave. 

I headed down the stairs and out the front to find Thrash sitting on the picnic table with Tommy and Drew standing next to him, smoking cigarettes.

“You packin’?”

“Ain’t I always?”

“Good.  We’ve got to swing by and find Bones.  String him up by his motherfuckin’ balls and get the answers we’ve been lookin’ for.”