Severed Justice (Severed MC Book 3) (13 page)

I walk my customer to the front of the shop, looking around for Emma. Where the fuck is she? She’s supposed to be here by now. As the customer walks outside the door, he stops to look down the road, and that’s when I hear it. There’s a hell of a ruckus outside.  If I didn’t know better I’d swear that was Elle screaming. 

I walk towards the door, pushing the man out of the way. Fuck! My heart hits the floor when I see it is Elle screaming.  What the fuck’s going on?

“Cowboy!” I shout. “Get out here.” He looks up at me from the chair where he’s made himself comfortable with one of my design books. I wish I could get through to my friend, but he’s just not been himself since he found Cassie, but now isn’t the time for his troubles. Something’s very wrong out there and my woman is in the middle of it.

The small crowd parts when I get there.  Sarah, the coffee shop owner is on the phone, screaming for an ambulance to hurry up.  The girls are sobbing and screaming.  What the fuck is going on here?

“Elle?” I ask quietly. I place my hand on her shoulder and she turns to look at me. What I see nearly brings me to my knees. Grief is written all across her face.  She holds her hands out to me, panic registering, tears drenching her face. I freak when I see that her hands are covered in blood. One question comes straight to mind. Whose blood is that?

I grab onto Elle’s shoulders and do a quick check of my girl. She’s crying and screaming, but she seems to be in one piece. 

“Ink.” She sobs, throwing herself against me. She’s shaking like a leaf and sobbing too hard to be able to get any words out. Now that she’s moved away from the group, I can see someone on the ground.  I still can’t grasp what’s happening here and I’m not getting anything out of Elle.  Moving myself closer, still holding onto Elle, I see Eve on the ground, cradling Danni’s head in her lap.  Emma is standing behind her, shock written all over her features, I recognize the girl she’s hugging as Holly, Justice’s sister.  I don’t know what the fuck has happened, but I do know we need to get him and the rest of the guys down here, now.

I look behind me to see Cowboy standing there in shock. “Cowboy, get Justice on the phone. Tell him there’s been an incident at the shop, and I need him here now!” He nods his head, immediately reaching for his phone. “Prez and Angel too.”

“What-” He starts to ask, but I cut him off.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Tell them to get here fucking quickly. Whatever happened here it doesn’t look good.”  Cowboy nods again, before dialing his phone.

“Elle, baby, talk to me. What happened?”  I move closer to Danni.  Her head still on Eve’s lap, and she looks to be unconscious, her eyes tightly shut.  Elle still can’t speak clearly enough for me to understand her.  “Eve?” 

Eve looks up at me with tear stained eyes. “She’s gone, Ink.”  Eve is stroking Danni’s hair gently off her face, as though she was a sleeping child.

“What do you mean she’s gone?” I’m still missing something here. What the fuck has happened?

Shit, with all the crying and the confusion my head is starting to hurt.

“I don’t know what happened.  One minute we’re all laughing and joking and coming over to see you, the next someone pushed into her.” A sob catches in her throat. “She was fine, and then she suddenly cried out and collapsed. She’s gone!” Eve’s crying loudly, but she’s more in control of it than Elle.

“Where’s the blood from?” If Danni collapsed then why are Elle’s hands covered in blood.

Holly sinks to the ground beside Eve and Danni. She looks from her friend on the ground and up to me, her bottom lip trembling. “It’s her back. I think… I think someone stabbed her, Ink.” 

What the fuck? None of this is making sense to me right now.

“Was she mugged?” I’m asking the question, yet know how stupid it sounds.  This isn’t the big city.  Yes, we’ve got a few areas that are rough but not the town center.  The only time we’ve not felt our women were safe here was when we had all that trouble with Satan, but that shit’s over with. 

“No.” Holly shakes her head and then breaks down. Her head is resting on Danni’s stomach as she cries.

Eve looks from Holly to me. Taking a calming breath. “It all happened so quickly. One minute we’re walking along, the next, this.” She looks so confused, and heartbroken.  Elle still hasn’t stopped sobbing.

Cowboy has finished on the phone and is trying to comfort the girls.  He sees me looking at him, and nods to confirm the others are on their way. I place my hand on Eve’s shoulder, trying to offer her some comfort as well as Elle.  I feel pretty useless right now. Cowboy tries to pry Holly off Danni so he can get a better look, but she screams when he tries, so he leaves her too it. Shit, I don’t like seeing the girls like this at all.

It’s only a few moments until I hear the sirens. The cavalry has arrived.

***

Cowboy didn’t say much on the phone. He was pretty cryptic really, telling me shit had gone down and to get my ass to the tattoo shop now.  As I race for my bike I see Prez and Angel and some of the other guys running for their bikes.  I don’t know what the fuck has happened, but it must be bad for us all to be called in.

All the way over I mentally prepare myself for a fight.  What else would it be? 

As we park the bikes out front of the shop there’s a couple of police cars and an ambulance blocking the other side of the street.  Looks like the troubles over there.  Cowboy walks over to us, looking even more down than he has of late. Shit must be bad.

“Justice.” He pauses in front of me.  Angel and Prez exchange a look I don’t understand. “I’m sorry man.”

Why is Cowboy apologizing to me? What’s he done? 

He puts his arm on my shoulder as we start to walk towards the scene. I don’t understand.

“Gabe!” Eve shrieks, spotting her old man and throwing herself at him.  What’s Eve doing in the middle of all this?

I look to where Eve just came running from and see the ambulance guys placing a covered body in the back of the ambulance.  Ink is there with a hysterical Elle wrapped tight in his arms.  I freeze when I see Holly.  What’s happening here? Who’s in the ambulance?

Holly looks up at me, and her eyes are full of pain.  She’s doesn’t seem to be hysterical like Elle, or even sobbing like Eve is in Angel’s arms. She has dirty tear tracks down her cheeks telling me that she has been crying, but now she’s silent.  If anything she looks numb. Slowly I make my way over to her.

“What… what happened Holly?” Her doe like eyes move from the ambulance to my face.  Her mouth open and closes as she tries to get words out but fails.

Ink moves closer, supporting Elle in his arms.  Fuck. Why is Ink looking at me like that? 

“Justice man.  I’m so sorry.” Now that’s Cowboy and Ink, why are they sorry? What the fuck is going on here?

“What the fuck is going on, Ink?” I ignore the flinching of Elle and Holly. “Cowboy rang me and told me to get my ass down here but no one’s told me why?” I get in his face.

“Danni’s dead.”  The words are barely audible as Holly utters them softly.

“What?” I snap my head around to her; sure I’ve heard her wrong.

Holly sinks to the
ground, unable to continue.  I sit beside her, wrapping her in the comfort of my arms and turn her face to me.  “What’s happened, Hols?” I ask, as gently as I can.

She looks to be in shock.  One of the ambulance guys walks over and puts a blanket around her.  It’s clear he wants to check her over, but I ask for a moment.  He moves away to give us a little room.

“Hols, talk to me, babe. What the fuck happened?”

“It was so quick.” She murmurs. “We were walking Emma to work. Someone stumbled into Danni. Then she’s on the ground. Gone.” Holly looks to the spot in front of the café where I assume this happened. My heart drops when I see the blood on the ground. “They are saying she was stabbed, Justice.” As she says the words the last threads of her composure break, and her body heaves with sobs. “Danni girl has left me.”

It’s only been a few minutes since we arrived, but it feels like this is all happening in slow motion.  I nod to the paramedic, allowing him in to check out Holly. As he reaches for her she screams, she won’t let go of me. Cowboy helps release me and stays by her side as I go see if I can figure this shit out. I’m fucking praying to God that what I heard from Holly isn’t real, but the dread filling my body tells me otherwise.

Prez has been talking to one of the uniformed officers; he shakes his hand then walks over to me. “Justice, you okay man?”

Am I okay? This is all happening too quickly. Too quick for me to digest. Looking at my Uncle Bill it hits me; I fight to keep my emotions hidden. I need to be a man, and find out what exactly fucking happened. I need to find Danni. Although I’m pretty fucking sure I know where wshe is.

“I don’t understand all this shit, Prez. What the fuck has happened here?” I look up at him.

He points to Emma sitting alone on the coffee shop front steps.  “The girls had a coffee with Emma this morning. They were walking her over to Ink’s shop when it looks like someone stabbed Danni from behind.  The officer says it was real quick, professional.” He hesitates before saying the next words. “She’s dead. Fuck man, Danni’s dead.”

I angrily run my hands through my hair. “Why?” I ask harshly.  I’m not addressing the question at anyone in particular, I’m asking the fucking universe. “This shit doesn’t make sense Prez!  Who the fuck would want to kill Danni? Everyone fucking loved her.” My breath hitches, and I cover my mouth, closing my eyes I try to get a hold of myself.

“We don’t know.” Prez sighs, shaking his head.  He looks around the normally quiet street, which is packed with onlookers.  His eyes are alert, watching for anything suspicious.

“Is this down to the club?” I take a step closer to him. “Is this because of me, Prez?” My question comes out as a whisper, but he doesn’t know.  I can see it in the way he stands, looking almost defeated.  My uncle’s a strong man.  This is the first time I’ve ever seen any weakness in him.  Fuck, he’s president of Severed MC. He’s like a God to me.  Being part of an MC we’re used to death, we’re used to dealing with some pretty tough shit.  The club’s just been through hell as it is.  But, Danni’s not part of this life.  Not really. I drove her away from her home; I brought her into the club. Guilt starts to eat at me.  Is Danni dead because of me? Did her death have anything to do with me?

The ambulance doors close, the sound bringing me back from my thoughts. I watch as it drives away, as Danni goes further away from me. Holly starts to cry again. I look over at my broken sister, crying in the arms of an awkward looking Cowboy. The police are still questioning witnesses.  Someone must have seen something.  A woman doesn’t just get stabbed in the street and no one sees anything. 

I quickly make my way back to Holly. “Tell me again what happened?” She flinches at the angry tone in my voice.

“Justice, let’s get the girls back to the compound.  They need to get away from here.  They can tell us what happened then.” Prez orders from behind me. Agreeing, I hold out my hand for her to take. But she stays in Cowboy’s arms, looking at me warily. Shit, I’ve scared her.  Prez holds his hand out to her, and she takes that instead.

“Holly, you come with me.” He offers. 

We’re leading the girls back to our bikes when Elle stops suddenly, breaking free of Ink’s hold and running back to the coffee shop.

“Emma! Emma!” She calls as she runs over to the hunched figure on the steps. I feel bad as I look over at her. We’ve all been so busy worrying about our girls, that she’s been ignored.  She’s sat hugging her knees and looking vacant.  Out of everyone, it’s Elle who runs up to her. I hope to fuck she’s not going to bitch slap her again. It wouldn’t exactly be appropriate right now.

Emma looks up as Elle reaches her, holding out her hand. “Emma, you’re coming with us.”

Emma shakes her head slowly.  “I can’t.” She looks so small and defeated. “This is my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Elle stands her ground, looking a little more like the tough cookie I know her to be. “Don’t talk crap, Emma.”  She looks around, realizing that we’ve all come on our bikes.  “Justice, can Emma ride back with you?”

Emma gasps at the suggestion, watching me with wide eyes.

“Yeah, sure.” Holly is riding back with Prez, so I have room on my bike.

I’ve never had a woman other than Holly on my bike before, not even Danni.  I cringe as more guilt eats away at me at the realization. I really didn’t treat Danni very well. I’m a fucking prick!

Emma reluctantly stands to walk over to me, and Elle wraps her in a hug.  Again, what the fuck is happening around here?

Am I in an alternate dimension or something here?  Nothing about this morning is making any sense to me. Last thing I knew, Elle hated her. 

I’ll never fucking understand women.