RUSH (A Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance) (11 page)

I considered that. “Do you think he’s cut out for it? That he’ll be patched in?”

“It’s too early to tell,” he acknowledged.  “But I think maybe so.”

“Please, protect him, Grey,” I whispered, barely daring to ask. “Please.”

“Seton,” he said gravely, “I can’t protect Cal from everything. I can’t protect him from the world, or from his choices. Neither can you. I can promise you that I do everything I can for my club and my brothers. I would die for any of them. They would die for each other.” His eyes were serious. “Cal won’t have the safest life in the world, but he won’t be stuck in a fucking cubicle day after day, either. And he’ll have a family in the club. It’s a brotherhood. It’s a hard life, but it’s a good one.”

A family
.  The words resonated in my head. Maybe in a way, Cal was looking for a family he didn’t have, I realized. With his father dead and an estranged brother, the only remaining actual family he had was me, and to a lesser extent my mom. There were no men for him to look up to, no men for him to emulate. Maybe Cal was just looking for a family, after all.

Grey noticed that I had grown quiet, and didn’t disrupt my thoughts. He stood and took the breakfast dishes away, putting them in the sink. He left the kitchen, and noises from the back of the house told me he was occupied with other things, so I sat and finished my coffee, pensive.

Some time later — I’m not sure how much time had passed — a loud curse interrupted my thoughts. Grey came back into the kitchen fully dressed, his jaw clenched.

“Get dressed,” he said through his teeth. “We have to go. Now.”

Grey

The blood drained from Seton’s face when I told her we had to leave. But to her credit, she didn’t waste time asking questions, and I was grateful for that. Without a word, she got up from the table and went to the bedroom. In less than a minute, she was back out in the living room, pulling her hair into a messy ponytail.

I held out my phone and showed her the text I’d gotten from Levi:

Go to the clubhouse ASAP. Something went bad with the run. Will call you

Seton’s eyes widened in fear as she read it. She opened her mouth but I cut her off. “I don’t know. Best thing we can do is get there right now. Levi’s on it. He’ll call me when he can talk.”

Her face was white as a sheet as I handed her the helmet and she silently got on my bike. I drove like a demon and we were there in six minutes. Levi pulled in right behind us and cut his engine.

“What?” I demanded.

“Driveby.” His eyes were murderous. “At Maisie’s.”

Maisie’s was a local diner the next town over that was friendly to bikers. It was a frequent hangout for the club when we came back from a ride.

I swore. “Who?”

“Trigger and Repo, for sure. The two prospects, too, I think.”

Behind me, Seton made a strangled sound.

“What do we know?” I demanded.

“Not much yet. At least one of them had an AR-15 or something like it. Sounds like they might have hit some civilians, too. At least one of ours is wounded. I sent Winger and Moose down there with the van.”

“Who got hit?”

“Trigger,” Levi responded.

Shit
. I nodded. “Okay. Seton, climb off.” She scrambled off the bike and almost fell to the ground. Levi caught her as she stumbled. I got off and took her from him, gathering her into my arms. She was trembling like a leaf.

“Seton,” I said gently, lifting her chin. “I’m going to take you inside. You’ll wait here. Levi and I are going down there.”

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “Okay,” she whispered.

I nodded to Levi to stay there. “Back in a second,” I said.

I led Seton inside. Repo’s old lady was there, as well as a few of the club whores. “This is Seton,” I said to them. “She’s with me. You ladies take care of her. One of the prospects is her brother.”

Jules, Repo’s old lady, nodded.  “Come on, honey. You and me’ll wait together. My man’s there, too.”

Seton allowed herself to be led over to an area with a bunch of couches. I leaned in to Jules and murmured, “We’ll call you as soon as we know anything.”

She nodded and put her hand over mine. “I know you will,” she said with a tremulous smile.

Levi was already on his bike when I got back outside. He nodded toward the clubhouse. “That new?” he asked, meaning Seton.

“Yeah.” I straddled the bike. “She’s Cal’s sister.”

His eyes widened. “Nice rack,” he said simply. I had to laugh.

“Come on, brother,” I replied grimly. “Let’s do this.”

We got to Maisie’s about twenty minutes later. Yellow police tape cordoned off the scene. Bullet holes riddled the front of the diner, and paramedics were attending to some of the less wounded people who looked like they had been injured by shattered glass.

We scanned the crowd for familiar faces, avoiding the police officers who were staring at us with a range of curiosity to outright hostility. Levi nudged me and pointed to Repo, who was coming toward us.  He had a large gash on his forehead that looked to be from flying glass, but looked to be otherwise okay.

He lifted his chin at us. I strode forward, Levi close behind me, and clapped Repo on the shoulder. “Good to see you, brother. What happened?”

His face was a stony mask. “Fucking assholes with semi-automatics mowed down the place.” He looked back toward the restaurant. “Couple civilians are probably gonna be in critical condition, maybe worse.”

Goddamnit.
The Stone Kings tried hard as hell to keep our business away from the community. “Any idea who it was?”

“Not sure. A witness said the gunfire came from a dark-colored van. Sped through the parking lot, sprayed the place with bullets, then drove away.” His face registered a look of disgust. “Our bikes are fucking torched, though, so it’s pretty clear we were the targets. None of them are drivable.”

“What about the brothers?” Levi cut in.

“Minor injuries. Trigger took the worst of it, a bullet to the leg. Winger and Moose came and got them all with the van, took Trig to see our doc to get patched up.”

I breathed a sigh of relief that Cal and the other prospect were okay, and that Trigger wouldn’t have to go to the hospital. The less contact we had with the authorities on this, the better. The Stone Kings would settle this on our own terms, once we figured out who was responsible.

“Who else was with you guys?” I queried.

“It was me and Trig and the two prospects,” Repo answered. “We got back from the run last night and ended up partying all night at the clubhouse. The prospects are pretty all right, by the way,” he grinned. High praise coming from Repo, who was notoriously tough on hangarounds and prospects. “This morning we were pretty raw, so we decided to come out to Maisie’s for a hangover special.” 

“You figure this was the Cannibals?” I asked Levi. “Payback for our run into their territory yesterday?”

“They’re fuckin’ lunatics, if it was,” he spit out. “Why the hell would they let us pass through with no reaction, and then come try to mow us down in our territory later?”

“Lunatics, or cowards,” I muttered. Word was that the Cannibals had just voted in a new president after the old one had been killed in a shootout with a rival MC. The new prez’s name was Skull, and I didn’t know much about him. If this was the Cannibals, it didn’t bode well for our future relationship with them, and meant that our territory was in danger of being compromised. Ultimately, this could end up in a war between the two clubs unless something could be done to prevent it. But if this was essentially a shot across the bow from them, it was a pretty clear indication that they didn’t intend to be reasonable. I briefly wondered if their new president had some sort of death wish.

“How did you find out about this?” I asked, turning to Levi.

“I called him,” Repo answered. “Right after they took off. Shitty service up here, though, the call cut out right after I made contact.”

Levi nodded his assent. “All I got was there was a problem, and where they were. So I texted you so we could meet at the clubhouse and ride out together.”

“You did the right thing.”

“So, what happens now?” Repo asked.

“I’ll be fucked if I know,” I answered honestly. “Whoever did this is gonna pay, though, and pay hard. First things first, we get an ID on that van. Probably too much to ask that it wasn’t stolen, but if we do get a positive ID that it’s theirs, that makes the rest of our decisions pretty fucking simple.” I looked at Levi. “Get some eyes on it.”

“You got it boss.” He stepped away and took out his phone.

I turned to Repo. “Your old lady is waiting at the clubhouse for you. You’ll want to let her know you’re okay.” He nodded and stepped away.

I thought about Seton, then. I knew I should call and let her know what happened. It was gonna seem like cold fucking comfort, though, for her to hear that her brother was okay but that he had been in a drive by shooting. I considered the very real possibility that she would be angry enough to break things off with me completely.

I couldn’t blame her. Hell, I should be the one to break things off with her, just to protect her from having one more person to worry about whenever shit like this went down. I couldn’t allow her to be part of this life, I realized as I walked back to my bike and texted Sag to make arrangements to pick up the bullet-ridden bikes. It wasn’t right for me to try to keep her, just because I was in love with her.

Because I was in love with her.

Just my fucking luck.

When Levi returned from his call, I motioned toward our two bikes. “Come on,” I said. “Let’s get out of here before the cops come over and start asking questions.”

Levi nodded, and then suddenly broke into a shit-eating grin. Repo hardly ever smiled.

“What?” I asked, frowning.

“Repo’s bike is fucked.  He’s gonna have to ride bitch,” he laughed.

I snorted. “Not my bitch. He’s all yours.”

Levi wandered over to Repo and said a few words. They came back toward me, Repo glowering and Levi almost jubilant.

“Get on, sweet butt,” Levi cooed, patting the seat behind him.

“Fuck you,” Repo muttered.

I got a phone call on the way back, and we stopped by the side of the road so I could take it. It was Moose, telling me that Trigger was all patched up, and that the prospects were fine, only some minor scratches. I relayed the info to Levi and Repo, and we finished the ride back to the clubhouse.

When we walked in pretty much the entire club was there waiting for us. The first thing I saw was Seton, who came running over to me, her eyes wide and dark.

“What happened?” Her hands clutched my arm. “Is Cal okay?”

“Cal’s fine, sweetheart,” I murmured. “Don’t worry. He’ll probably be back any minute.”

She let out a deep breath and tried to smile.  “Will you tell me what happened?”

“Eventually.” I put my arm around her. “Right now, I need to talk to the men. Why don’t I take you home?”

“No,” she said stubbornly. “I want to wait for Cal to get back.”

I pulled her close and kissed her. “Okay, you win. Stay here for now. I’ll take you back later.” Detaching myself from Seton, I walked over to Repo and his old lady, who were engaged in a reunion of their own. “Hey,” I nodded to them both. Jules smiled tremulously.

Turning to Repo, I said: “When Trigger and the rest of them get back, we need to have church. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Got it.” He looked at Jules. “I could use a beer.”

“Don’t go anywhere,” she smiled. “I got you.”  She kissed him and wandered over to the bar. 

Just then, the door opened. Winger and Moose strode in, followed by Trigger on crutches, and finally, Cal and Frankenstein.

“Hey, what’s Frankenstein’s actual name, anyway?” I asked Repo.

He grinned. “Chad.”

“Fuckin’
Chad
?” I sputtered. “Jesus H., Frankenstein is one hell of an improvement.”

“You’re tellin’ me,” he drawled.

We stood around and watched the happy faces as the men were welcomed back. Seton was talking to Cal, her face beaming with relief. I gave them a few minutes, then raised my voice above the din. “Church in three!”

A murmur of assent rose in response. I turned to Repo.

“I want the prospects at this meeting, too.”

He gave me a questioning look. Prospects were never allowed in church.

“They were there,” I said. “I want them to be part of this discussion. I want to know what they saw.”

“I see your point. Probably best to have all the intel we can.”

*   *   *

“I say we ride back into their territory and set fire to their fuckin’ clubhouse,” Moose bellowed loudly.  A few of the men voiced their agreement.

I had to admit it was tempting. The tension and anger in the room were palpable. The Stone Kings were out for blood. I looked around the table. “Did anybody who was there see anything that could tell us who it was?” I looked at the prospects. “You?”

Cal looked at Frankenstein, who shook his head. “All I saw was the barrel of an AR sticking out of a van.”

Cal agreed. “I didn’t see anything either. Fuck, glass and shit was flying all over the place so fast it was impossible to see anything.”

“Had to be the Cannibals,” Trigger said.

“What’s the message?” Repo asked. “Payback for driving into their territory? That makes no goddamn sense, to go out that hard.”

“Fuckin’ idiotic, doing a goddamn thing like that, with no context and civilians all over the goddamn place, I growled.”

“Could have been the Aztecs,” Tiny said.

“Nah,” Moose countered. “That’s not Aztecs’ M.O. Besides, we got no beef with them right now. I still think it’s the Cannibals.”

“What’s the message?” Repo repeated.

“Preemptive warning, maybe,” Trigger replied.

“Warning about what?”

“Who knows? A giant ‘don’t fuck with us’ message. A blanket statement?”

“Some warning, when they were too much of a bunch of fuckin’ pussies to even show us who they were,” spat Levi in disgust.

“All right.” I nodded at the prospects. “You two. You can leave.” They stood and filed out, closing the door behind them.

“Okay.” I leaned my elbows on the table and folded my fingers. “Here’s how we’re gonna play this. We don’t know who did this, but the Cannibals are the most likely culprits. Fact is, with them having a new president, we don’t know much about how they plan to operate going forward.” A change in leadership could alter a lot about the way it operated, for bad or for good. “So we’re gonna presume right now that this is the first move in a pissing contest.”