Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (13 page)

Hannah shook her head. “No, but I’m not surprised. I didn’t hang out with the Abernathys a lot that last year of high school - Rush and I were too busy making out every free chance we had - but I could see that Rush loved them more than his own parents and younger brother. He said one time that Lain was his ‘brother of the heart,’ which I’d thought was a damn deep thing for a 17-year-old boy to say.”

They smiled at each other quietly for a moment. Hannah knew that Ella would be her friend forever then. The jury was still out on her and Rush, but when it came to her and Ella…there was no going back.

So she took a deep breath and said her deepest, darkest worry out loud. “Lain…he’s probably right not to trust me. Rush and I are facing all of the same problems that we were 13 years ago, it’s just that this time, we’re a little older. A little more mature. But the problems are just as real, and I have no idea if we’re going to be able to work them out. I keep telling myself that I should protect my heart, that I shouldn’t allow myself to fall in love with Rush again, but Ella—” her voice broke, “it’s so damn hard. I never got over Rush, either. I mean, I dated a little here and there, but it never got serious. I never found anyone who I loved like I’d loved Rush, and I wasn’t going to settle for ‘okay’ when I’d known ‘great.’”

They sat in silence for a moment, staring off into space, until Hannah finally spoke again, making an obvious attempt to change the subject. “So, tell me about you and Lain.” And then before Ella could even open up her mouth to respond, Hannah kept going. “Can I just tell you, in high school, Lain would date any cute girl with a pulse. Seriously. I always figured he’d end up with some dumb blonde.”

Realizing what she’d said, she clapped her hand over her mouth as she laughed in embarrassment. Ella laughed too, obviously not offended. “But,” Hannah said quickly, “Lain got lucky and ended up with some
smart
blonde. There, did I pull my foot out of my mouth fast enough??”

Ella laughed again and flipped her long, blond, gorgeous hair over her shoulder. “Well,” she said in a horrible imitation of a southern belle, “all I had to do was flutter my little eyelashes at him, and he just came a-running.”

They burst out laughing again, and Hannah realized that she hadn’t laughed this much in a long time. It was wonderful.

“No, really, Lain and I met when I came to Copper Lode to do an article on the Blue Devils. Have you ever heard of
Pout Magazine
?” It was Hannah’s turn to shake her head. “Well, it’s this fashion magazine in New York City that hired me right out of college.
Sons of Anarchy
is big, so my editor wanted to do a feature on a motorcycle gang. He’s actually from Copper Lode - maybe you know him? Dan Smith? He’s like four years your senior.”

“No, I only attended Copper High School my senior year, so I never met anyone who graduated before me.”

“Oh, right. Of course. Anyway, so Dan was from around here and thought that the Blue Devils would be the perfect motorcycle club to do a piece on.

“As you might imagine, Lain was an asshole from the moment we met. If I’d been able to reach high enough, I would’ve clocked him over the head with something heavy. And sharp. But the more we talked, the more I realized that he wasn’t a Caveman Special. Appearances can be deceiving.” She grinned at Hannah. “So, I gave my notice to
Pout
and actually, I just sent off that article for them, making them officially something I never have to worry about again. I decided to write motorcycle gang novels instead, because all you need there is an internet connection and I think even Copper Lode has found the internet.” They laughed together, and then Hannah stood up.

“I think we ought to splurge and drink a little wine while we hang out. Do you drink white or red?” She dug around in the fridge, looking for some bottles to pull out.

“White, please,” Ella said, standing up to find the wine glasses.

Wine poured, they moved to the living room and settled back into the couch to chat some more. Hannah wondered for a moment if Lain had any idea how lucky he was to find Ella; if he realized how far past his pay grade he managed to reach. Ella was gorgeous, funny, and smart as hell. If Lain knew what was good for him, he’d hold on with both hands and never let her go.

Chapter Thirteen

Rush

Lain brought the gavel down, bringing the bullshitting around the table to stop. Rush was sitting to Lain’s right as his VP. It was only the second meeting of the Blue Devils since Brock had been killed, and Rush was still trying to wrap his mind around what a difference Lain had brought to the table. Sure, they were a lot smaller now - half your MC leaving will do that to a club - but there was a deeper loyalty there that just hadn’t been present with Brock in charge.

“Crow and I went to Mexico yesterday with Juan Carlos as our translator,” Lain said, jumping right to the important shit. He wasn’t one to fuck around, especially with something important on the line. “We questioned Miguel, the spineless piece-of-shit bastard who sold out Hannah and those girls.” He also wasn’t one to beat around the bush…

“He told Hannah a long time ago about this fishing place he loved to go to on his days off, which makes him a spineless piece-of-shit
dumbass
bastard for choosing to hide there when shit got real.” The Blue Devils laughed and Lain quirked his mouth too, but quickly got serious. “Crow…convinced him to talk. Just like we thought, he was in on it. The
Chupacabras
had paid him to pull the bus over without any fuss, and them bashing him over the head with the butt of a gun was all for show. He was awake for the whole damn thing, just laying on the floor of the bus and pretending to be unconscious, letting those girls get taken.

“He told us some cock-n-bull story about the
Chupas
promising him that the girls were being given to families in the U.S. who couldn’t have kids of their own, and like I said, this
dumbass
actually fucking believed them. It wasn’t until one of the
Chupas
said that these girls were going to make good fuck toys,” Lain swallowed hard, “while they were unloading them from the bus that Miguel realized that they were being sold into child sex slavery.” He clenched his jaw tight and the room was dead silent. The anger building in it was a physical thing, tangible, and Rush could feel it welling up inside of him. Inside of all of them.

“The only reason this dumbass is still breathing is because he’s the one who saved Hannah’s life. After the
Chupas
left with the girls, he checked for a pulse on both of the teachers. The other teacher was dead, so he ditched her by the side of the road but he drove Hannah to the Doctors Without Borders clinic, shoved her out the door, and kept going, not stopping until he got to Lago Santa Teresa.

“Being the kind soul that he is,” Lain said with a grim smile, “Crow took it upon himself to do a little target practice, and Miguel’s little rowboat is now riddled with holes that, if you were to connect the dots, says ‘DIE.’ I considered it to be an English lesson, but since the boat is now at the bottom of the lake, I imagine Miguel will have a hard time learning to read by using it.”

The group roared with laughter. Even Rush smiled, although inside, he was panicking. If they didn’t find Isabel Lara…if he had to tell Blue that Isabel had been sold into child sex slavery…

It was literally unimaginable. He just couldn’t let it happen. He
couldn’t
.

“After Crow was done conducting his English lesson, I told the spineless bastard that if I ever laid eyes on him again, he would be dead, and warned him that this kidnaping had become an international headlines story. If he wanted to live, he better make himself scarce, because the
Chupas
and the American police were both after his ass.

“The trip wasn’t a total waste, I mean, other than Crow taking advantage of some target practice.” Crow leaned back in his chair, quiet, but he did quirk his lips, which Rush took as belly laughter. The man was a stone most of the time. “Well, we also had Crow get hit on by some hot piece of ass at a diner.” whistles and cheers broke out around the table at that but Lain just kept talking and the guys shut up to hear what he said, “but more importantly, the bus driver also told us that as the
Chupas
were abducting the girls, one of them mentioned Brownton. Miguel didn’t know if they were planning on taking the girls there, or if it was just a pass-through on their way to somewhere else, but I figured it was worth checking into. I need some Blue Devils to go with me, in case things get hairy.”

Rush looked around, surprised. Every man at the table had their hand raised, volunteering to go. No one made a noise but simply looked at Lain, ready for marching orders.

“Let’s go then,” Lain said simply. “Bulletproof vests, just in case, t-shirts and cuts over them. We don’t want to give the
Chupas
a heads-up on us wearing them.”

It was only fifteen minutes later when the Blue Devils pulled out of the shipping yard, the motors rumbling as they took off up the road as a group. Rush felt the thrill of the ride go through him, as it always did, but there was something else there too. A relief to finally be
doing
something. Hanging out with Blue, as fucking amazing as that was, was slowly driving him insane. He wanted to be finding these jackasses and stringing them up from the nearest tree.

He wanted to be sure that Blue was safe.

He wanted to bring Isabel back home with him and see Blue smile.

Yeah, he wanted a lot, and all of it was going to start with finding the
Chupas
and making them wish they never lived.

***

Brownton was tiny - Population 113, the sign said at the edge of town - so there was only one store owner to question. He insisted that he hadn’t heard or seen anything, so Lain ordered the Blue Devils to spread out and search every building, which wasn’t hard to do.

“Really, you had some hot piece of ass picking up on you?” Little John’s voice carried in the still air, needling Crow. Rush grinned to himself. It was true - Crow wasn’t usually one to be picking up chicks and his stoic nature usually dissuaded them from hitting on him. Rush didn’t wait around to hear Crow’s response - if he deigned to give one - but instead walked into the cool of an old, abandoned warehouse, Dumbo at his side. Pigeons fluttered around, but Rush didn’t pay them any mind. There was something in the corner…

Goddammit.
There was a pile of shoes, cheap sandals in a heap in the corner.

All small. All for children. With a jerk of the head, he sent Dumbo to the door to let out a loud whistle. The other Blue Devils filed in and then stood around the small mountain of shoes, staring down at them silently.

It was the first rule of kidnapping, of course - make it hard for your captive to escape. If you take away their shoes, especially in the Sonoran Desert, they weren’t going to go far. Too many cacti, too many snakes, too many poisonous plants.

The
Chupas
may be bastards, but they weren’t stupid bastards.

God-fucking-dammit.

On the ride back to the clubhouse, Rush contemplated his choices. How was he going to tell Blue that they hadn’t found the girls? Not only had they not found the girls, but they had no leads. The
Chupas
hadn’t exactly left a treasure map behind with a giant X marking the spot of their final destination.

When they got back to the clubhouse, Lain and Rush split off together and rode back to Rush’s house, each lost in their own thoughts. When they pulled up in front, Lain parked his bike under the shade of some acacia trees and said, “I’m going to stop by the Copper Lode police station after I pick up Ella, and give them an update on what we’ve found out.”

The words hung heavy in the air. Rush felt his chest squeeze, making it hard to breathe. He hadn’t expected it to be easy to find these assholes, but goddammit, he hadn’t expected it to be impossible either. How does an MC and 30 girls disappear without a trace?

Rush gave an abrupt nod of his head and said, “I’m going to go park my bike in the garage. Meet you in the house?”

While Lain chatted with the Blue Devils on duty, filling them in on what had been discovered, Rush opened his garage and parked his Harley off to the side. He felt an almost overwhelming desire to hop back on and go for a long ride and leave this fucked up world behind him, but he couldn’t. He knew Blue deserved to find out what had happened from him, not Lain.

He walked into the kitchen and up through to the living room, hearing the laughter and chatter of Ella and Blue.
At least she has a friend who understands.
He may not know Ella real well but so far, she seemed like a kickass girlfriend. Blue could use one of those right about now.

He found them curled up on the couch, each with an empty wine glass in hand, and an empty wine bottle on the table. Blue looked up at him and grinned widely.

“Hi baby!” she said enthusiastically, waving the hand around with the wine glass in it. “Ella and I were just comparing Lain stories. Wanna join in?”

“I think I’m going to be taking Ella home with me,” Lain said from the other doorway into the living room, startling Blue and Ella. This of course sent them into a fit of giggles.

“Hi Lain!” Blue finally got out, just as enthusiastically as her greeting to Rush had been. Rush narrowed his eyes a little. It was fine - no, terrific - for Blue not to hate Lain, of course, but she didn’t have to be…enthusiastic.

Which was stupid, because the three of them had been great friends that last year in high school and he’d never had that thought before.

Lain shot Rush a long-suffering look and said drily, “Hi, Hannah. Now that you’ve gotten my girlfriend completely sauced, I’m going to take her home with me.” He took the wine glass from Ella’s hand and placed it on the table, then went to scoop up Ella into his arms.

“WAIT!” she hollered in his ear. She turned back to Blue. “Thanks, Hannah!!” She threw her arms around Hannah and hugged her close. Rush hurried to save the wine glass from Blue’s grasp before she accidentally whacked Ella over the head with it. As Lain and he stood there, looking down at the two drunk girls, whispering and laughing to each other on the couch, he couldn’t help but grin. It’d been a long time since he’d seen Blue this loose. This happy. If all it took was a bottle of wine, he was going to go clean out the grocery store shelves.

Finally, the whispering discussion was over, and Lain carried Ella out of the front door and down the sidewalk. As Rush was closing the door after him, he heard the whistles and catcalls of the Blue Devil guards. Lain probably wasn’t going to be able to live that down for a while.

He looked over at Blue, who’d stood up, wavering, from the couch. She had the wine glasses in one hand and the empty wine bottle in the other. She clearly felt like she had to clean up from their little party.

Rush hurried and grabbed those from her before she fell and cut herself on the glass.

“Hey, how you doing?” he asked, trying to juggle the glasses and empty bottle in one hand while propping her up with the other.

“Jussss fine!” she said proudly. “Ella’s real funny. You know dat? She’s hilarious. I should have her here every day.”

Rush guided her back down to the couch, hoping to keep her sitting while he ran the empties to the kitchen. “Yeah, that’d be fun. Except for the part where my girlfriend becomes a lush, I think that’d be great.” He grinned at her, teasing, until his own words struck him. He called Blue his
girlfriend
. Why? Old habit?

Her eyes crossed as she tried to focus on him. “Girlfriend?” she echoed.
Dammit. She’s drunk, but apparently not
that
drunk.

He went to throw the empty wine bottle away when he found another empty in the kitchen trashcan. No wonder Blue was sloshed! Other than the night they’d met up at her dad’s wedding, she never really drank, at least not in high school. Unless she became a big drinker after high school, he’d guess that today’s consumption was about what she usually had in the course of a year.

He came back into the living room with a glass of cold water and some aspirin in hand. “I don’t have a headache,” Blue protested while obediently swallowing them.

“Yeah, but you will,” Rush said, smiling. He didn't think she had much experience with hangovers.

“Ohhhhhh,” she said, as if he’d uttered great words of wisdom. “Rush, what happened today? You guys were gone for a looooonnnnngggggg time. Did you find anyshing?”

He sat down on the couch next to her, pulling her up against him. She snuggled down against his side happily and he wondered if she was going to fall asleep on him. “Well, I’m sorry, Miguel admitted that he was part of the kidnapping. The
Chupas
paid him to make it easy on them.”

Silence, and then, “I not surprised. I’s thinking about it and he has a family in Peru. He was always talkin’ about bringing dem up here but he didn’t have enough moolah. It’s no excuse but sometimes, people do stupid shit for der families.”

Rush was torn between wanting to put Blue to bed to sleep the alcohol off, and continuing to listen to her slur her words. Somehow, Blue made fall-down drunk absolutely adorable. It had to be a talent.

“Yes, well, he definitely did some stupid shit in this case,” Rush agreed. “He did tell us that the
Chupas
had mentioned Brownton so we took a quick trip up there and looked around. We found a pile of shoes in the corner of a warehouse. The
Chupas
made the girls strip off their shoes to make it harder for them to make a run for freedom.” He hurried on, not giving her a chance to reply.