Unplugged: A Bad Boy Rockstar Romance (26 page)

“
Yeesh,
”
said Julie with a little laugh. She took
the joint Maggie still had outstretched.
“
Someone needs a n
ap.
”

Maggie
’
s smile faded.
“
No, Julie, you don’t get it. He
absolutely hates me. He told me to my face he doesn’t care about me.
”

Julie seemed like she was going to crack
another joke, but she stopped when she saw the real pain on Maggie
’
s face. “Hey, honey…”
she reached out and took Maggie
’
s hand. “It
’
s okay. He won’t be mad forever. I wasn’t kidding about
what I said earlier
—
you can see it all over him that he
cares about you, I don’t care what he says about it now. He’ll come around and
forgive you. He
’
s here protecting you, isn’t he? If that
’
s not love, I don’t know what is.
”

“
His job?
”
said Maggie.

“
You sure love to play dumb when you
don’t want to notice something. It
’
s that jazz guitarist at our Friday night flings all over
again,
”
said Julie with a grin and a quirk of
her eyebrow.
“
Jase will forgive you.
”

Maggie gave Julie a half-hearted smile.
In that moment she felt she deserved neither Jase
’
s forgiveness, nor Julie
’
s. “
Seeing you here today made me realize I
’
m just a shitty perso
n, Julie. I run and let people behind me clean up my mess,
”
said Maggie, staring at the ground.
“I
’
m sorry I left my mess for you in
Eagleton. I was scared and stupid. I didn’t think.
”

“
Honey, the fact that you ran back to
your daddy and your lost love
—
tha
t are both, apparently,
super-tough badass bikers, thanks for telling me
—
means that you were running from
something much bigger than a few knick-knacks in your apartment or your old
friend from work. It
’
s really okay. I
’
m just glad you got help, whether or
not it was from me,
”
said Julie. She had her hands on Maggie
’
s shoulders and gave them a soothing
squeeze.

Maggie couldn’t look her friend in the
eyes.
“
I wasn’t running from danger when I left
LeBeau the first time; when I left Jase.
”

Julie sighed and r
ubbed her arms.
“It
’
s not too late to heal all that, Maggie.
They still love you. You know that. You
’
re their family.
”

Maggie finally looked up with teary eyes
to meet her friend
’
s gaze. Julie gave her a hopeful smile and then pulled her
into a sweet hug.

From outside came the sudden squeal of
tires as someone rounded the corner going far too fast. Brakes slammed as soon
as the sound of the engine passed in front of Maggie
’
s house.

The world erupted into the sudden,
thunderous fury of automatic gunfire. B
ullets blasted
the glass out of the windows in the living room and Maggie
’
s bedroom. Both women screamed and
collapsed flat to the floor. Maggie pulled at Julie to follow her into the
windowless hallway, crawling over broken glass and shattered house debri
s.

The gunfire seemed endless. Maggie sat
tucked with her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around her ears, trying to
block out the deafening noise. Then the spray stopped as suddenly as it had
begun. Outside, tires screeched as the car pulled away at viol
ent speeds.

Her hearing was muffled, ears ringing,
heart pounding. Through the din, she could hear the low, fuzzy wail of Julie
’
s frightened crying, and instinctively
Maggie wrapped her arms around her shaking friend.

Jase
’
s voice bellowed her name, but i
t seemed so far away, like he was calling to her from
across a wide valley. Even then, she could hear the edge of fear to it. He
burst into the hallway, his face drained of blood. When he saw the women on the
floor, he dropped to his hands and knees and sc
rambled
over to them.

Julie cried, but Maggie and Jase said
nothing. They stared at each other from either side of Julie as she wept into
her own arms. The silence that filled the house was somehow more deafening than
the gunfire.

~
EIGHT ~

Jase
stared at
the wall of Maggie
’
s bedroom. He couldn’t have counted all the bullet holes if
he had wanted to. A few of them even made it through the thinner parts of the
exterior wall, spilling dappled sunshine into the room. Jase stuck his finger
in one of t
hem, and then turned away, distracted.

The floor under his boots was covered
with drywall and glass and other debris. Even the bed had been hit a few times.
If Maggie and Julie hadn’t gotten into the hallway, they would both probably be
dead. If he had be
en in the living room instead of
the backyard, he
’
d probably be dead, too.

Jase had been in a few small shoot-outs
in his time, but he
’
d never been in a drive-by. It had most likely been ten,
twenty seconds at the most, yet the memories burned into his
brain seemed like they lasted days. He had rushed in the
house as soon as he heard the brakes squeal out front. Pinned down behind the
kitchen counter once the shooting started, he couldn’t do a damn thing during
the chaos to help Maggie. All he could do w
as sit
there and listen to her scream, and pray it wasn’t because she had been hit.
When he saw her huddled in the hallway with no wounds, he thought his heart
might stop altogether.

His instincts fought between two
responses: call and wait for backup, or
get the women
to the clubhouse for safety immediately. He picked the latter, worried the
gunmen might swing back around to finish the job. During the drive, it felt
like every car was a tail stalking them, waiting to open fire. As soon as they
arrived, Bec
k deployed a group of men to investigate
and clean up. Maggie took Julie into one of the clubhouse bedrooms to allow
them time to calm down. Jase waited for Henry to finish checking on his
daughter, smoking cigarettes and pacing in front of the clubhouse.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins like unholy fire.

Henry looked furious when he emerged
from the clubhouse. As he stalked over, Jase braced for a lashing
—
and not just a verbal one. He felt like
he had failed again, letting lives get endangered and gaini
ng zero information on their enemy.

But Henry just stopped in front of him
and said,
“I
’
m glad you
’
re okay. You did good getting them over
here so quickly.
”

Surprised, Jase said nothing, only
nodded.

“We’ll
bring her stuff over and have her stay
in the c
lubhouse from now on. Obviously we
underestimated the situation.
”

“
That was a daylight attack, Prez. What
the fuck are these guys after?
”

“
I
don’t know. Something don’t feel right.
The way they
’
re coming so hard and fast, it makes no
sense with the info w
e’ve
got. We
’
re missin
’
something,
”
said Henry. The pit at the bottom of Jase
’
s stomach agreed, and he said so.

Henry said,
“
Do you think that friend of hers is a
part of this? That
’
s some timing.
”

“
Julie walked right up to the clubhouse
like she didn’t
know what she was going to find. She
was in the house with Maggie when it happened, could have easily died. That
doesn’t add up to me,
”
said Jase.
“
I think whoever
’
s behind this has already been here for
a time. Maybe the failure at Tamales is making them
desperate.
”

“
Desperate for
what?
”
said Henry.
“
That
’
s what don’t make sense, Jase. All this
risk, just to get back at Maggie for ghosting?
”

“
I know. Something
’
s up. But I
’
m confident it isn’t Julie or Maggie
hiding it.
”

Henry let out a big sigh and nodded.
“
I trust your judgment. But we need to get to the bottom of
this immediately.
”

A few scattered members were arriving as
the news of the drive-by spread. Drake stopped on his way inside and asked
Henry if he should work on getting Maggie another place to
stay.

“
I can find something closer to the
clubhouse,
”
said Drake.

“
No, she
’
s staying here until this is over. They
’
d be suicidal to attack us here
directly. She
’
s clearly not safe anywhere else,
”
said Henry.

Drake nodded and pulled his phone out of
his pocket. He gave Jase a small salute and headed into the clubhouse. Jase
waited until Will arrived, then the two headed over on their bikes to meet up
the members already at Maggie
’
s house investigating.

While W
ill
picked his way through the house slowly, Jase collected Maggie
’
s meager belongings. He became
distracted by the constellation of bullet holes now in residence in Maggie
’
s bedroom. Some part of his imagination,
intent on torturing him, played out the at
tack in a
parallel universe where Maggie hadn’t gotten out of the bedroom in time. He
could almost see the blood splatter tossed on the walls as if by some deranged
artist. He could see her lifeless body dusted in paint flecks and speckled
glass glitter. K
illed by some asshole that had hurt
her; a coward who had laid his hands on her, and hunted her down for trying to
escape.

Christ.
Jase tried to physically shake the
thoughts from his head. His stomach felt ice cold. Will found him leaning his
hand on the
grated wall, eyes closed, as he tried to
regain composure.

“Hey,”
said Will with a tap on his shoulder.
“
Are you alright?
”

Jase turned to look at him. He swallowed
a wave of nausea.
“Yeah,
I
’
m fine. Just didn’t sleep well last
night, and now all this.
”

“
This is warfare,
”
said Will.
“
There
’
s no shame in admitting it
’
s taking a toll. That
’
s its job, to terrorize.
”

“
Not to kill?
”
said Jase with some edge of dark
sarcasm.

“
This wasn’t to kill you,
”
said Will. He carefully stepped through
the room to admire the wall alongside Jase.
“
I mean, had any of you died, it would
have been a plus for them. But I think this was terrorism. They are trying to
scare Maggie, and by extension us.
”

“She
’
s plenty scare
d,
”
said Jase.

“
If they were just out to kill you, they
could do it quieter than this, is all I
’
m saying. Not to undermine what you guys
have just been through
…
but
tactically, this is a bark, not a bite.
”

Jase wasn’t sure if Will was right or
wrong.  It
was hard to look at all those bullet holes
and give the gunmen credit for anything more than homicidal rage. He realized
he was in no state of mind to assess anything. He sighed heavily.
“Can you—“

“
Yeah, man. Go catch some sleep, I’ve got
this under contr
ol,
”
said Will. He gave Jase a lop-sided
grin, and then headed out of the room. Jase closed his eyes and took a deep,
thankful breath.

He waved off a bunch of the guys as he
hopped on his bike and started down the street. The police barricade let him
pass without a hassle, and in a few minutes he was parking at the clubhouse.
The den buzzed with activity, as expected. Henry and Beck were
both on phone calls, and Drake pounded away at his own
touch screen in the corner. Other members looked over papers, maps, and had
their own talks. Jase didn’t bother to interrupt anyone. Truth told, he didn’t
want anyone knowing he was here.

Jase carefull
y
checked the bedrooms one at a time, knocking softly, before cracking the door
open for a small peek. Julie and Maggie were set up in the second one he tried,
the one with a larger queen-sized bed. Both of them had fallen asleep. He left
them where they l
ay and took up residence in the
full-sized bed in the room next door. The full weight of the last few days
began to hit him as soon as he sat down and he almost didn’t have the energy to
even get his boots off.

As he lay staring at the ceiling, the
imagine
d image of Maggie
’
s lifeless body kept popping up in the
back of his mind, keeping sleep at bay. He told himself over and over that she
was right here. She was right next door. She
’
s right here.
She
’
s right here.

He didn’t remember falling asleep.