Jase (Kings of Korruption MC Book 3) (7 page)

After that, it
was a full-on war with those sons of bitches. When we retaliated,
they had been right in the middle of carrying out a deal with the
Crips, and a bunch of the gang’s members had gotten killed in the
process. They’d fought back, even managing to get off a few shots
of their own. One of them had shot me that night, taking off the
tip of my ear. To make matters worse, we’d taken care of the MC,
but one of the Crips had gotten away, and we’ve been waiting for
the fallback ever since. But so far, nothing’s happened. Some of
the guys had mentioned seeing them around a lot lately, but this is
the first time I’ve seen any of them since all that shit went
down.

When the light
turns green, I continue down the road, less relaxed than I’d been a
few minutes ago. Are these fuckers following me? Coming up to an
intersection, I get into the left lane, ready to make a turn. I
don’t need to go this way, but I wanna see if the Escalade turns
with me.

Sure
enough, now with only one car between us, the Escalade is right on
my tail.
Fuck
. I’m still
about ten minutes away from the compound, and pretty soon, I’ll be
in a less populated part of town. Not a place I need to be with a
bunch of pissed-off Crips on my tail.

Coming to a
four-way stop, I make a U-turn, looking directly at them as I drive
by. A small guy in the backseat lifts his hand and makes the hand
gesture of pointing a gun at me. It’s a warning. I lift my middle
finger and pull back on the throttle, knowing that I need to put
some distance between us.

I’m just
turning back onto the main road when I see the Escalade make a
U-turn as well. They’re coming. Driving faster than I should, I
weave through traffic, intent on making it back to the compound.
Surely these fuckers will disappear along the way.

I don’t see
them again for the rest of my ride back, and when I pull into the
compound, I park my bike and jump off, ready to go straight to
Gunner. Just as I’m walking across the lot, the Escalade comes up
the road, slowing as it approaches. I see the passenger extend his
arm, a real gun gripped tight in his hand, pointed right at me.

“
Get down,” I scream, alerting the people in the vicinity. I
fall to my belly, sure that this is the end, but I don’t take my
eyes off the shooter. His eyes are cold and hard, his face twisted
with hate. A single tear is tattooed under his right
eye.

It plays
out like a slow motion movie, no detail going unnoticed. I watch
his hand move and a shot rings out, right before the Escalade guns
the engine and tears off down the road. I can’t move.
Am I hit?

People start
pouring out of the garage and clubhouse, everyone yelling and
wanting to know what the hell is going on. Reaper comes over and
helps me off the ground. “He shot at me,” I say, feeling completely
disconnected from my body.

I watch as
people start to crowd around the front of the compound. “They
didn’t shoot you, Jase. For fuck’s sake, man. What is it with you
and always thinking you’ve been shot?”

“
Fuck you, Reaper. That last time, I did get shot.”

Reaper doesn’t
argue. He just shakes his head and moves to the front of the
compound to see what everyone’s looking at. “That’s what they
shot,” he drawls, motioning to something up ahead.

I crane my
neck and finally see what everyone else sees. Right above the
entrance to our main garage and place of business, is the Kings of
Korruption logo, and right in the centre of the skull is a
perfectly round hole. That fucker had perfect aim.

Ellen

 “
Why do we even have to be here?” Bryce
pouts.

Maybe I should
just tell him, but how much? I had made this appointment for this
evening, specifically because my neighbor, Linda, had said she
could watch Bryce for me. But Linda had fallen down the stairs and
twisted her ankle, resulting in a last-minute trip to the emergency
room. So now I’m stuck with an appointment that I have to keep, and
no way to shield my son from from the reason why.

“
I have a few things to talk to the lawyer about. I won’t be
long. You have your iPad, so just play a game out here in the
waiting room.”

Bryce stares
at me for a second before turning back to his game. I watch him as
he plays, head bent over the tablet, noticing not for the first
time, how much he looks like Paul. There is no question that he’s
his father’s son.

Bryce shares
his dad’s dark hair and wide shoulders. He’s taller and broader
than most boys his age, and the way he narrows his eyes on the
screen with a scrunched up nose is the same way I’d seen Paul
looking at papers on his desk at school, or reading a text on his
phone. Luckily, I see a lot of myself in him too. The smattering of
freckles across his nose, his chocolate brown, heavily lashed eyes,
and the tilt to his lips when he smiles are all me. Unfortunately,
he also got my sharp tongue and quick wit.

“
Miss McGrath?”

I look up
quickly at the sound of my name to see a sharply dressed woman
standing in the doorway. She doesn’t seem to have a speck of
make-up on her face, and her hair is pulled back into a severe bun
at the back of her head. She looks over the top of her glasses at
me, then to Bryce.

I stand and
begin walking towards her, calling back over my shoulder. “You wait
here, Bud.” He doesn’t reply.

I follow the
severe looking woman down the hall to a door off to the right. She
walks inside and indicates a chair opposite her large wooden desk
for me to sit in. The room is stuffy, and smells like the old legal
textbooks that line every inch of the walls.

I had chosen
Stella McRae as my lawyer because she accepts legal aide, and
because she could work around my work schedule. I have no idea if
she’s going to be good enough to keep Paul from my son, but I need
to hear what she has to say.

I watch as she
sits primly in her chair and pushes her glasses up on her nose. She
grabs a stack of papers and taps them against her desk, then turns
to me. “Miss McGrath, I have reviewed the affidavit provided by
your ex-husband’s attorney, and I must say, he has a strong
case.”

My heart
sinks. “But—I haven’t heard your side of the story yet,” she
continues. “I have a long list of questions to ask you, and then
you can ask me any questions you might have. Sound good?”

I nod, my body
shaking with adrenaline. Just being in this office is my worst
nightmare. The fact that I have to answer this lady’s questions to
find out if I have a shot at keeping custody of my own son has me
wanting to curl up in a ball and cry.

She picks up
her pen and pulls a fresh legal sized pad of yellow paper from a
drawer in her desk. “How long were you and the plaintiff
married?”

“
We never married,” I say, my voice shaking as I try to calm
my trembling body. “Paul was my boyfriend in high school for a
couple of months. I got pregnant shortly after my sixteenth
birthday, but Paul couldn’t handle it. I never spoke to him after I
had Bryce until just over a year ago, when he contacted me on
Facebook.”

She eyes me
for a moment and sits back in her seat. She removes her glasses and
places the end of one arm between her lips as she stares at me. “So
you’re telling me that Bryce’s father has only known your son for a
year?”

I nod, and my
heart soars as a wolfish grin spreads across her face. “Oh, honey.
Start from the beginning.”

I tell her
everything, and it doesn’t take long. When it comes to Paul’s
involvement in our lives, there isn’t much to tell. She asks a lot
of questions, and I explain to her how my parents disowned me, and
that Jackie’s family had helped me out. I explain how I’d worked
two jobs and gone to university to get my nursing degree while
Bryce was just a toddler, and how Paul had kept Bryce out late, and
how he’d grabbed my arm. I even tell her about the shitty things
he’s said about me to my own son, causing him unnecessary stress.
She was especially interested when I told her about Bryce’s
behaviour since Paul came into his life.

When I finish,
Stella steeples her fingers and looks off into space. I sit
silently, waiting for what she has to say. With a deep breath, she
leans forward on her desk. “Okay, there’s good news and there’s bad
news. You choose which you want first.”

I don’t
hesitate. “Bad news.”

“
Access. He’s entitled to it.” I open my mouth to protest, but
she holds her hand up for me to stop. “No judge is going to deny a
willing father access to his child without reasonable cause. That
being said, if he’s as rough and gruff as you say he is, we most
definitely have a case of coercive behaviour here. I say we push
for supervised visits right off the bat, and strip him of that
right once we prove our case.”

Makes sense.
If the court is going to grant him access while we’re working this
out, I’d much rather it be supervised than not.

“
Now the good news. Your son is old enough to have a say in
this.”

My eyes widen.
“Bryce doesn’t know anything about this.”

“
I’m not trying to tell you how to parent your son, Miss
McGrath, but I have no doubt in my mind that he knows something’s
going on, especially if his behaviour has been off lately. Talk to
him. Kids are intelligent and extremely perceptive. I think you
might be surprised by what he has to say about all
this.”

I bite my lip,
trying to imagine Bryce’s reaction when he realizes that his father
wants to take him away from me. That kind of decision seems like an
awful lot to lay at the feet of a child. Damn Paul for putting us
through this.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jase

T
he sun is
shining and the birds are singing as I wait for Ellen to come out
of the nursing home. It’s a good fucking day. My second bike is
looking sexy as hell, and I already have a couple of buyers
interested in it. I haven’t seen any sign of any gang members with
guns following me, and I’m about to have a sexy nurse press her
tits into my back for the second time. Today is my fucking
day.

Ellen walks
out, her hand up to shield her eyes. When she sees me leaning
against my bike, she keeps walking. God, she’s gorgeous. Her short
blond hair is cut in a trendy style that leaves it long in the
front, sweeping off to the side, and buzzed short along the sides
and back.

Normally, I
like my women with long hair, but when it comes to Ellen’s, I don’t
even care. She could be fucking bald and my dick would still get
hard just looking at her. Besides, the short hair draws attention
to her bright eyes and high cheekbones.

I watch her
approach, wondering how a woman can make scrubs look so damn sexy,
when she says, “You don’t give up, do you?”

A grin spreads
across my face. “Not when I want something.”

She laughs,
handing me her purse to stow. I take it from her and widen my eyes
dramatically. “What the hell? This weighs at least ten pounds more
than it did yesterday. Seriously, woman, what do you have in this
fuckin’ thing?”

She’s already
fastening her own chin strap on the helmet, and doesn’t bother
answering me. I stow the bag and climb on, waiting until she
settles her ass on the seat behind me.

“
You gotta get home right away?” I ask, glancing at her over
my shoulder.

“
No, actually. Not today.”

I start up my
ride. “Good,” I call back. “I’m taking you on a tour.” With that, I
pull back on the throttle and we head straight for the road. She
wraps her arms tightly around my waist, and I revel in the feeling
of her body pressed against mine.

I’ve had a lot
of women on the back of my bike, but none of them ever had staying
power. They were only there as a way to get them from wherever they
were, and into my bed. Ellen is different. It feels natural having
her back there, like it’s her rightful place.

I keep my eyes
peeled for any signs of the Crips, but there are none. Maybe after
they delivered their message, they’re backing off, for now. Gunner
won’t stand for the bullshit they pulled yesterday. We have to
retaliate.

The Rockcliffe
Parkway is busier than I’d expected, but it’s a beautiful day.
Apparently, we’re not the only tourists out for a drive. We ride
along in silence, the only communication being when Ellen’s arm
comes up and points at something worth looking at. The green trees
and the crystal clear water are beautiful, and for the first time
in a long time, I don’t feel the pressure to entertain. I get to
relax and just enjoy her company.