Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (24 page)

~
SIX ~

Maggie was on her third cup of coffee
when Jase and her father returned from Hot Tamales. She waited with a large
group of men from the MC, all gathered to hear updates and receive orders. It
had been a very long time since the quiet din of LeBeau had been
shattered by anything more than a drunken fist-fight;
Henry worked hard, and sometimes with the police, to keep it that way. It was
as much self-preservation as it was philanthropy. Large-scale violence, no
matter the real cause, always blew back on the M
C. 

Maggie felt emotionally
—
and a bit literally
—
hung over from the night before, and did
her best to sink into the crowd unnoticed. Between the painful pulses of the
headache brewing at the back of her neck, she could occasionally hear Jase
’
s voice, clear as a bell.
I
don’t
care about you anymore.
When it would echo through her head,
she would rub her face and eyes like she could wipe the thought out of
existence if she found the right spot. Henry
’
s arrival acted as a welcome distraction
from
the broken record of heartbreak in her mind.

Leader that he was, Henry came right
into the den with Beck and Jase at his back. Henry launched immediately into
it.

“We’ve
got six wounded locals from the
shooting at the roadhouse last night. Witnesses sai
d
they were masked, three or four of them, and that they came in after midnight.
Plenty of armed folks were there, but no one was ready for it. Tamales never
got hit this bad, even in the old days.
”
Henry cleared his throat before he
continued.
”
No one is
totally
sure what they were after, but they definitely ran around like they were
looking for something, and they didn’t take a single bill from the registers.
Witnesses say they were targeting bikers wearing cuts. And we have some
suspicion that this is re
lated to my daughter.
”

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to
look at her, this newly arrived stranger hunkered over her cup of coffee at the
bar, looking a hot mess that hadn’t seen a mirror or a hairbrush that morning.
She felt her exhausted heart skip
a beat.

“
Related to Maggie? Why?
”
asked Tommy from the crowd.

“
That
’
s a good question, Tommy,
”
said Henry as he took a few steps
towards her.
“
You tell us, Maggie. Why does someone
want you dead bad enough to open fire on a packed roadhouse?
”

Everyone was
staring at her. She was grateful she had kept her sunglasses on; at least they
couldn’t see the fear in her eyes.
“
I told you why, Henry.
”

“
You want me to believe a couple of
street-rat opiate pushers had the time or money or fucks to give to follow you
over three-hundred miles to your hometown, just because you
wouldn’t play ball with them? I might have believed that story yesterday, young
lady, but today there are folks in the hospital right now who tell me you
’
re holding back.
”

The room fell quiet and
still as the grave. Like any good predator, Henry had
layers to his anger, and the one he was revealing now came straight from the
core. He was many men in this instance. He was a citizen distraught by
violence. He was a soldier upset at a tactical error.
He
was a general on display for the morale of his troops. And he was a father,
disappointed in his offspring, yet driven to defend her regardless.

Maggie took a deep breath and turned on
the barstool to face him. She recognized what he was doing.  She knew
she had to be honest with him now or lose his respect
forever, even if that meant having this conversation in front of Jase and the
entire MC. Henry had always reacted to her rebellion by forcing her to prove
herself in the most vulnerable of ways. Throwi
ng her
into the fire now, at this moment, didn’t faze her; it just felt like old
times.

At the rear of the room, Jase couldn’t
see the quick glances of him she stole from behind her sunglasses. Like
everyone else, he made no attempts to hide his own stari
ng.

She found a spot on the floor to stare
at as the spoke.
“
When I ran from here, I ran because I
felt like I didn’t belong,
”
she said.
“
So when I got to Eagleton, I tried to do what you had told
me I should do my whole life. See if maybe I did belong som
ewhere. I found an apartment and got a job at a pharmacy. I
found new, boring friends to do normal things like go to the movies and have
dinner parties. I paid my bills and wore my seatbelt. I did everything you were
always trying to push me into, Henry. I
tried to rise
above this life that was always good enough for you and mom, but never for me.
”
She stopped for a second to quell her
rising anger.
“
But I guess I
’
m your daughter no matter what either of
us wants, because before I knew it, I was hanging out
at dive bars and making dangerous friends.
”

Henry moved to speak and she stopped
talking. But he swallowed whatever he was going to say.

She continued.
“
The crimes started small and harmless.
They got the shit I snuck them from work, and I got my thrills,
and extra money too. I started getting romantic with one
of them. Things were fine until the pharmacy caught on to my scam and fired me.
We blew through my savings in a couple of weeks and started doing riskier
robberies to make up for it. Everyone was cr
ashing at
my apartment by this point, and Evan
… my ex…
as soon as I lost my connection to the
pills, he dropped any act that he had ever cared and started beating me.
”

If there was one way to make a roomful
of tough-guy bikers tense up in discomforted rage
, it
was wife-beating. Nearly every pair of boots in the room shifted at the sounds
of that confession. Wood creaked under their feet. Maggie looked up and saw
Jase biting his lip, gaze on the floor.

“
When I realized he was planning to force
me into prosti
tution as a new way to make money, I
knew I had to get out. It took some maneuvering and longer than I wanted it to,
but I was finally able to sneak out one night. At first I didn’t know where I
would go even if I did leave
…
but where else could I go? I ha
d
to come back here.
”

The room was heavy and tense after she
finished. Henry spoke first.
“
Your ex and his cronies, do you think they could have done
the roadhouse shooting? Does it seem like their MO?
”

Maggie frowned as she thought.
“
Evan is certainly cra
zy enough to not care about killing innocent people
…
he popped off rounds during robberies
before just because he could. And he was controlling enough to want to get back
at me for running. But they’ve always been small-timers, easily distracted.
Maybe I j
ust underestimated them.
”

“
Or maybe they’ve got big friends,
”
said Beck.

“I
’
m sorry I didn’t tell you all this
before. I thought I would be safe once I was out of Eagleton. I really didn’t
think they would follow me.
”

Henry watched her for a few moments.
 
“You
’
re going to need to give the names of these bastards to the
sheriff, but I
’
m going to make sure it
’
s us who finds them first.
”

“
Something doesn’t make sense though,
”
said Maggie.
“
Evan and the gang didn’t know anything
about my life before Eagleton. I never talked about the MC. If they were the
shooters, how would they know to be looking for bikers at the roadhouse?
”

“
I
don’t know,
”
said Henry.
“
But however they found out, it sounds
like they know you
’
re getting protection with an MC.
”
He turned and addressed the group.
“
Everyone needs to be on high alert.
These bastards might shoot at any one of us if they think it will get them to
Maggie. Keep an ear to the ground about any out-of-
towners.
Tommy, run up to my gun cabinet and grab the 12-gauge and the Bersa 9mm with
some rounds.
”

Jase finally spoke from the doorway.
“
What’s the plan?
”

“
Maggie
’
s going to give us all the info on these
assholes she has, and we
’
re going to send it out
through
our contacts until we track them down. This just turned from a friendly chat
into something else,
”
said Henry. When Tommy brought him the guns he requested,
Henry took them and walked over to where Maggie still sat at the bar. He held
them out for
her.
“
Take both of these. The shotgun stays by
your bed, and the handgun is on you at all times. No discussion.
”

She carefully lay the 9mm on the counter
before using both hands to take the shotgun. It was heavier than it looked.
“
I never got to actually
u
se
the guns in our robberies, Henry.
”

“Jase,”
said Henry, and waved his fingers. Jase
hesitated only a second before he pushed through the group and came to stand
before Henry.
“
Our arrangement remains
—
you stay with Maggie at all times, day
and night. And
you need to make sure she gets
practice with these.
”
He pointed to the guns.

Jase and Maggie looked at each other. He
seemed to look as tired and resigned as she felt. His anger from the night
before was completely washed away by something new, something d
eeper, but just as dark.

“I’ll
take care of her.
”
The words dropped from Jase
’
s lips sincere and quiet. Maggie was
glad he couldn’t see her eyes behind her sunglasses.

~
SEVEN ~

After Henry had handed out some
individual assignments to the MC, he ad
journed the
meeting and all Maggie wanted to do was get back to bed. She had even procured
a few joints from Tommy, and she was looking forward to a day of lying around,
napping, and seeing Jase as little as possible.

She waited at the bar, smoking and fin
ishing off her coffee until Jase came to get her and the
new weapons Henry had gifted her. She had no energy to deal with what had
happened the night before, or even to be feisty with him. She knew control of
this situation was no longer hers
—
if it ever ha
d been. To be frank,
she was almost relieved to be letting someone else strong and decisive take the
wheel. Where had her own decisions led her to, anyway?

A few other bikers followed Maggie and
Jase out to the parking lot, lighting up cigarettes and rumbl
ing generally about the shooting. Maggie let Jase take the
shotgun and shoved the unloaded 9mm into the waistband of her pants. Still
feeling the general vulnerability of telling her story to all the men, she
tried to distance herself from the group when s
he
noticed a woman walking to the porch from the parking lot along the driveway.
There was something familiar about the pattern of clothes she was wearing, like
Maggie had seen the outfit before. The woman held a box in her thin arms.

“
Hey, state your busi
ness!
”
came a gruff male voice from somewhere in the group.
Instantly all the men turned and faced this potential threat. The woman froze
in her tracks, her eyes wide.

Maggie started.
“
Oh my God-- Julie?
”
She said as she took a few steps
forward.

“
Maggie,
stay
back,
”
said Jase.

Maggie ignored him and continued towards
her friend. Julie stared at her in half-confusion, half-fear. She was a waif of
a woman with gorgeous bone structure and a sweet personality. Maggie hadn’t
seen in her in months.
“
Julie, what
are you doing here?
”

Julie’
s eyes began to flit from Maggie, to the
gang of bikers looking ready to pounce, and back. The shotgun in Jase
’
s hand couldn’t have been comforting.
“
I-I brought you some of your stuff
…
your landlord called me to pick it up.
He
said he hadn’t seen you in a while and your
…
friends
…
they weren’t paying the rent.
”

Of course
, Maggie thought. Her whole focus had
been on escaping Eagleton. She hadn’t thought of what she was leaving behind
—
like poor Julie, her emergency contact,
having
to pick up the slack. The landlord
’
s threats of eviction in the week prior
to her escape had been the last thing on her mind. It occurred to her that this
wasn’t the first time she had made such a mistake. Judging by the feeling of
eyes burning into the ba
ck of her head, it was
probably occurring to Jase at that moment, too.

Maggie blinked a few times and looked
down, ashamed.
“
Julie, I’
m so sorry. I didn’t
mean to drag you into this. I was
…
. I had to leave in a hurry.
”
She took the box from Julie
’
s arms and thanked her.
“
How the hell did you find me here?
”

“
Well, I was
…”
Julie stopped, and made a few nervous
gestures towards the men.
“Can you…
can you tell them to relax? I feel like I
’
m about to get tackled.
”

“
Jesus Christ, guys, stand down!
”
Maggi
e
shouted, turning her head towards them. She heard shuffling in the gravel and
boots moving back up on the wood of the deck.
“
Sorry, they
’
re a bit on edge. Shit
’
s not going great right now. You were
saying?
”

“
When I got the call from your landlord,
I trie
d getting in touch with you again. I only had
your cell from when you worked at the pharmacy. I wasn’t even sure if it was
working. I left voicemails that never got returned. But I was really concerned
about you just disappearing and leaving things behind,
”
said Julie, twisting her rings around
her fingers as she talked.
“
I thought I remembered you telling me where you had moved
from, so I went back through my journals to see if I had written it down, and I
had: LeBeau.
”

“
You and those goddamn journals,
”
said Maggie with a grin.

She smiled.
“
I took a few vacation days and thought I
should come down and see if I could at least find your family
…
let them know what was going on. Or
maybe they had even heard from you. At the least, they probably wanted your t
hings.
”
She gestured to the box.
“
I asked at a few places when I got into
town if they knew the Olivers, or Maggie Oliver, and I got sent here.
”
Julie eyed the clubhouse.
“It
’
s not what I was expecting.
”

Maggie wanted to hug the woman.
“
You are too damn sw
eet for your own good, Julie. This was beyond thoughtful. I
’
m sorry to have worried you, and put you
through all this.
”

“I
’
m just glad you
’
re okay,”
said Julie.
“
I really thought something had happened to you.
”

“
Well, things did, but not
that
thing,
”
said Maggie with a genuine laugh.
“
You should come back to the house and we
can talk some more
—
if you don’t have to head right back,
that is.
”

“
I would like that,
”
said Julie.

Maggie turned at the sound of
approaching boot-steps on the gravel of the lot.
Jase
was sauntering up to them. Without asking, he took the large box from her in
one arm, shotgun still in the other.
“
She should ride with us. Her car will be
safe here, and we don’t want anyone connecting her with that house.
”

Julie’
s eyes widened again
and she looked at Maggie.
“
Wow, you weren’t kidding about things
happening?
”

“I wish,”
said Maggie.
“
Jase, this is Julie Montgomery. She
’
s a good friend that worked with me at
the pharmacy. Julie, this is Jase Campbell.
”

Hands full, Jase made an awkward c
losed-mouth grin and gestured with his fingers. Julie
smiled and nodded at him. He took the lead to the SUV.

Once he passed, Julie caught Maggie
’
s eyes. Her eyebrows were raised. She
gave an obvious look at Jase
’
s back and mouthed without speaking,
“
That
’
s
Jase?”

Maggie felt the blood drain from her
face. Julie couldn’t see how wide her own eyes were behind the big sunglasses.
Maggie shook her head and waved her hands in thick motions that could not be
misunderstood. In her head, she cursed herself for havi
ng actually acquired a friend that became close enough to tell some of
her secrets
—
even if she was also very grateful for
it.

Julie took her by the arm as they walked
to the SUV and gave it a playful, knowing squeeze. Maggie couldn’t help but
chuckle to h
erself, feeling better than she had in
days.

The ladies let Jase drive them back to
Maggie
’
s house. When shit started to really go
down with Evan, she had cut off all contact with the few friends she had, with
Julie being the closest.  She felt guilty abo
ut it at
the time, but then things got so intense that even that feeling was lost. Now,
sitting in backseat together, they were able to chat and catch up as if they
hadn’t lost months of time together.  Maggie thought she saw Jase smirking at
them from the
rear-view mirror a few times.

Julie was a big fan of the Golden Age of
Americana, and she immediately began gushing over Maggie
’
s temporary pre-war house. Maggie gave
her the short tour while Jase hauled in the box of possessions Julie had
brought down.
He waited for them in the kitchen when
they finished, drinking one of the beers Drake left. Maggie offered one to
Julie and teased Miss Cabernet Sauvignon when she actually accepted.

After a few minutes of light
conversation, Julie said,
“
This place is so
beautiful! How
long are you going to stay here?
”

On instinct, Maggie turned and looked up
at Jase. He was looking back at her with questions in his eyes. They both
turned away with a bit of embarrassment.
“I
’
m not sure,
”
said Maggie before she took a swig
of beer.
“
For the foreseeable future, at least.
”

“
At least you could ask for a worse place
to stay,
”
said Julie.
“
This is certainly an upgrade from the
apartment.
”

Maggie laughed.
“
Yeah, it is that.
”

Julie’
s question had more or less killed the
playfulness of the atmosphere. Jase cleared his throat and mumbled that he was
taking a cigarette outside. He wandered out to the shady backyard with his
beer.

Julie gave Maggie a look she had been
holding in the who
le drive over. It was that
wide-mouthed excitement that only women seemed to express, and it made Maggie
laugh despite herself. She felt a deep flush moving over her face.