Chapter 12
Quinn
I was just about sinking into Marco’s kiss when he pulled himself away. I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong but then I saw the look of terror in his eyes, which soon turned to rage. His body was stiff as he held me, and instantly, I knew something was wrong.
“Marco?” I said, just as he gripped me by my shoulders and shoved.
I screeched as I fell back, directly on the ground behind some of the bikes parked outside the Rusty Pelican. A gunshot rang out immediately after and I looked through the gaps between the bikes to see four men, armed with guns on big muscular bikes. They were shooting at Marco.
He was crouched in front of the bikes, dodging between them, trying to avoid getting shot.
“Marco!” I screeched his name, as another round of fire rang out. I could sense that Marco wasn’t armed because he would have taken his gun out by now.
I could feel my heart pounding against my chest, my voice was caught in my throat. The men were firing, and somehow Marco was still alive.
In all my years alive, I had never suspected my dad being involved in a situation like this. All I had known about him, was that he was owned his dive bar and rode a motorcycle with his friends. I felt foolish, as I sat behind the bikes, crouched and worried that one of the bullets was eventually going to get Marco. I didn’t even know how he had managed to escape being shot still. It had to be his military training, I figured.
He was constantly on the move, jumping from between bikes while the shots were fired. I continued to screech, continued to call his name.
“Stay down, Quinn!” he called back to me.
“Marco, you’re going to get shot!” I screamed back at him.
“Quinn, just stay the fuck down!” he shouted.
Just then, the doors of the Rusty Pelican banged open. I looked over my shoulders to see a group of the men from the bar, all wearing the same patched leather jacket that Marco had on now. They were carrying guns in their hands, and they came charging out of the bar with their weapons waving in the air.
One of them fired a round of bullets at the gunned bikers. They were clearly going to outnumber the men who had been firing at Marco.
At the back of the group was my dad. He had a gun in his hand too, but he didn’t have to take a shot yet. His friends…or rather, as I knew now, his men…were doing the shooting for him.
I remained crouched behind the bikes, but in front of me, everything seemed to be happening in a blur. Fires were exchanged, but most of the bullets came from my dad’s side. The four men on bikes were outnumbered, and one of them appeared to be wounded and bleeding now.
Within just a few minutes of my dad and his group bursting out from the bar, the other four guys were rushing away.
“Marco!” I screeched his name as I staggered and stood up. I couldn’t see him yet. I didn’t know if he’d been shot or if he was alive.
“Quinn! What the fuck are you doing out here?” I heard dad’s voice behind me. He had grabbed my shoulders and was now beginning to drag me back towards the bar.
“Marco!” I screamed again.
“Quinn! What are you doing? You need to be inside!” dad was hollering at me, while I continued to scream Marco’s name and struggle in his grip. But dad was stronger than me and heard had managed to pull me back into the bar. The doors banged shut behind me, and now I didn’t know where Marco was.
My breasts were heaving, I still couldn’t breathe properly, when dad brought me into the bar. The men who were there, surrounded us quickly, while dad pulled me in for a hug.
“Are you okay, honey?” he asked and stroked my hair. I pulled away from him and glared into his eyes.
“What’s going on dad? Why were there four men on bikes with guns taking a shot at us?” I barked at him. Dad could see the look of horror in my eyes, and he looked around at his friends before his eyes settled on me again.
“Honey, there is something you should know about me. It’s time now that you did. You’re mature enough to understand,” dad said.
“You’re the president of a motorcycle club, the kind that deals in certain kinds of businesses. Motorcycles aren’t just your hobby are they?” I blurted.
Dad appeared to be dumbfounded, while the men around us were silent too. Nobody knew what to say to that, because I knew, just as well as they did; that this was all true.
“Quinn, honey, I’m sorry that your mom and I couldn’t tell you sooner. We didn’t want to alarm you, and we wanted you to have as normal a childhood as possible,” dad said, in a small embarrassed voice.
I threw my arms around him, clinging to him as tightly as I could. I didn’t want him to be embarrassed about admitting the truth. I didn’t want him to ever doubt his life choices because that was what had made me who I was.
“It doesn’t matter to me, dad. I’ll always be proud of you, no matter what you do,” I said, and I felt his grip around me tighten. Deep down, I knew it was the truth. Him being involved with a motorcycle club didn’t bother me. I guessed it was because I always knew that something else was going on. I just wanted him to be safe.
“I’m glad you’re safe, honey,” he said.
Marco! He’d reminded me of Marco. I slithered away from his arms. I needed to go outside and see what had happened to him.
“Quinn, where are you going? You can’t go back out there just yet!” dad snapped as I began to walk away.
The doors of the Rusty Pelican opened, and Marco appeared, surrounded by the men who were his friends and brothers in arms. Apart from a few scratches on his face from rolling on the ground to avoid the gunfire, he looked completely unharmed.
My hand flew up to my mouth with relief, and a cry escaped my lips. But I couldn’t run to him yet because dad didn’t know how attached to Marco I had become.