Michael

 

She was alive. Hurt, but alive. My heart started beating again when she finally moved, turning her head toward the door. I kicked away the gun lying beside Dean, just out of his reach, and got to her. Her cheek was already swollen, and blood continued to drip from her lower lip.

 

“Michael,” she whispered when she saw me, her head titling to one side. “I left the clubhouse.” Her confession made me smile, on the inside. On the outside my muscles were tense and my blood boiled.

 

“I see that.” I wiped the blood away from her lip and looked down at Dean, who was still holding his leg and trying to scoot his ass out of the room.

 

Seeing her with his hands on her like that brought back too many memories of finding her in her room huddled in the corner after her stepfather had gotten a hold of her. I had promised this woman that it would never happen again. I would protect her from all the bad shit. And here she was getting punched in the fucking face by this asshole.

 

“I’m gonna take care of this, don’t move.” I cut away the tape from the chair and peeled it away from her. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dean squirming his way out of the room. Tanner watched him, too, not making a move to stop him. I had five guys standing outside, I wasn’t worried. A few more were positioned at the entrance of the warehouse. He wasn’t going anywhere. “Stay right here, Lauren.” She nodded, the fear in her eyes from when I first entered the room morphed into something colder, withdrawn.

 

“Where you going?” I heard a voice outside in the hall. A garbled yelp told me Tony and Johnny had helped our little friend up off the ground.

 

“Don’t you leave either.” I pointed my knife at Tanner.

 

“I’ll stay right here.” He nodded and sat back in his chair.

 

I walked out into the hallway, already hearing Dean’s moans and groans from the fists being thrown into his gut and face. They both stopped and let him slide to the floor when I approached them. Squatting down, I used my knife to raise his chin, making him look at me through his already swollen eyes. “You hurt my girl,” I said in a low voice. “You hurt her friend. You tried to kill her not once but twice. It was you in that fucking car, wasn’t it?”

 

“She wasn’t supposed to die. I was just trying to send a message.” He was lying, I could see it in his face, a dying man grasping at the last string of hope. As much as I wanted to be the one to end him, to take the life out of his body the way he tried to do to my Lauren, I needed to get back to her. I needed to be sure she was safe.

 

“Mike.” Colton’s voice called to me from down the hall. “The fucker’s mine.” He joined our little group, squatting next to me, looking over Dean’s face. “Good, still awake.” I’d seen that smile of Colton’s before, and it always sent a shiver through my body. He had ideas for Dean. Ideas even I couldn’t stomach. How Lauren ever ended up with Colton was beyond me. Two total opposite sides of a spectrum they were.

 

“Guarantee me this asshole won’t see the light of day again. His last breath happens today.” I still held Dean’s chin up by my knife, letting it dig into his skin just enough to prick it and bring out a few drops of his blood.

 

“The club had a vote. He won’t be seen again. They are waiting back at the clubhouse. First, we need to make sure all his club tats are gone—I think they voted to use fire for that. Then we’ll start his punishment for acting without club permission, and joining up with assholes like Leonard. And if he’s still breathing after that, I will personally rip his throat out for touching a single hair on Lauren’s head.”

 

I’d heard of the Fallen rules for kicking out a club member. If they were lucky, they were allowed to cover their tats with ink or have them removed on their own; if they weren’t lucky, they met up with the club for removal.

 

Through garbled speech Dean tried talking, but Colton put his finger to the bloodied lips. “Shhh…no talking. It’s better this way.” He laughed. He brushed off my knife and looked toward the open door. “She okay?” he asked.

 

“She will be. He got a few punches in before I could get to her.” I folded my pocket knife and slipped it into my back pocket.

 

“I’ll clean up this mess; you go take care of that one. And, Mike, make sure Mickey knows Dean acted on his own. We never had anything to do with him coming to him with those threats.”

 

“I’ll be sure to pass it along.” I stepped away while Colton picked up the piece of shit off the ground and threw him over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.

 

“You aren’t going to tell him about the change in leadership?” Johnny asked as we watched him walk down the hall.

 

“Nah. Our club, our business,” I said. “I’m gonna get my girl and head home. Can you handle Mick, or do you need me there?”

 

“No, we got him. Man’s getting old; he didn’t even argue with me when I told him we’d be doing the vote this afternoon for his seat. I think all of this wore him down, showed him how fucked up things can get.”

 

“Good to see those leathers back on you, man.” Tony grinned at my kutte.

 

“Yeah, see how much you like it when I’m sitting in the VP chair and kicking your ass for missing your dues payment!” I left them and headed back to Lauren.

 

She sat in the chair right where I left her. Her eyes were downcast, her hair covered her face.

 

“She’s not talking,” Tanner said from his chair. “I didn’t send that message, Michael. You know that.”

 

“Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make you any less responsible for this shit. You should have protected her. You never should have gotten her involved with your shit.”

 

“Yeah. She needed the cash, wouldn’t just take it from me. I had to give her something to do so she earned it. At first, she just delivered small packages, next to nothing really. But she got comfortable and I did, too. But you’re right, I should have kept her away from Leonard. What are you going to do about his son?”

 

“Pierre? He’s being dealt with.” I scooped Lauren up in my arms. “C’mon, baby, let’s get you home and cleaned up.”

 

She rested her head on my shoulder and let out a small whimper when her cheek touched me. “I didn’t listen to you,” she confessed. “I should have.”

 

“Yeah, you should have,” I agreed as I made my way to the door. “Tanner, I assume you’ll clean up that mess behind you.”

 

“No worries.” He waved me off and looked behind him at the heap of a dead man.