RAFE
Beth wasn’t home. I should have known better than to think the woman would actually listen to me, but I still held some hope she’d at least use her common sense.
The house was dark and silent when I pulled up to it sometime after five in the morning. Thinking she had managed to fall asleep, I let myself in, making another mental note to talk with her about the fucking lock on the door.
It was empty. Her bed hadn’t been touched, and other than a half-drunk can of generic soda on the counter there was no evidence she’d even been there. Dragging my hand through my hair I started to think of all the places she could have gone. I hadn’t slept. Not really. I closed my eyes for a few minutes in my room at the clubhouse, but no sleep actually happened. All I could think about was Maddie, and all the fucked up shit I was going to do with Gray once I got a hold of him.
I tried calling her again. Nothing. The fucking ringer just rang and rang, she didn’t even deny the call. I started to worry that she didn’t have her phone with her, or that it was dead.
As I walked back out to my bike, feeling like lead pebbles were stuck in my boots, I noticed Stephanie’s car pull up. She turned into Beth’s’ drive and I stood by my bike to wait for her.
“Rafe.” She slammed the car door and stood with her hands on her hips glaring at me. “You really know how to fuck things up.”
“Steph, I’m really not in the mood this morning for your attitude,” I growled.
“Too bad,” she shot at me. “Your girlfriend spent the night on my couch.”
“What?” My reaction got a snide little smirk out of her. I pushed my annoyance to side and questioned her about Beth.
“She’s fine. So far. Stubborn girl that one.” She pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head, pushing her chestnut curls out of the way of her eyes. “She told me about her kid.” Her voice dropped and she walked around her Camaro until she was standing in front of me. With the sun just starting to rise, her face looked soft. Like it used to before so much hatred and pain settled in her expression.
“Why is she by you? Why isn’t she here?” I sunk my hands into my front pockets, trying to keep my voice civil. Getting all hard on Steph would only send her packing back up into her car and heading out without giving me any information. And if Beth was hiding out there, Steph would make the fucking place a fortress to keep me out.
“She doesn’t want to see you, or want your help.” She leaned against her car. “Apparently, her friends are involved on the wrong side of this shit storm, and she doesn’t have anyone else.”
We never talked about family. She knew about my brother, but she didn’t talk about her family. Did she even have anyone other than that fucking ex of hers? “Did she finally get a hold of Brittany?”
“Yeah, well, sort of. Not that it was any help. The important call she got was from Gray.”
“Gray called her?” My hands came out of my pockets, balled into fists, and I took a step toward her. Stephanie weathered more than one shit storm, as she liked to call them, while married to Jason, she kept her ground, not even flinching.
“Yeah. He’s got the little girl. The fucking prick.” Her eyes widened and her mouth went taught. Jason never could get her to quit cursing like a biker, but I think it was one of the things he found so damn irresistible about her. She didn’t take shit from anyone, but she could sure as hell dish it out when she needed to.
“What did he want?”
“He wants to meet her. Said he’d give her back the kid if she meets him this morning at eleven.”
The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Beth wasn’t as seasoned as Stephanie. She was smart, but she wouldn’t see what Gray was trying to pull. She was only thinking of Maddie, her little girl. And fuck if I’d fault her for it. Up until she hooked up with me, Maddie had been the most complicated thing her life.
“Did you at least try to talk her out of it?” The sun crept up behind her, the blinding rays starting to get into my eyes. It was going to be a hot day. Did that prick at least have Maddie in an air conditioned place? I had to push the idea of her huddled in a dark, humid room away from my mind or I wouldn’t be able to think straight enough to find her.
“Of course I did. And of course I failed. You had to find the stubbornest woman in town to hook up with, didn’t you?” Her lips turned a little at the edge, and if I hadn’t just been on the receiving end of her temper the night before I would have thought she was starting to come around.
“Nope. Jason did that when he married you.” I pointed a finger at her, hoping to keep the situation light. I would need her help.
She looked away from me for a moment, taking a shaking breath. “Yeah, well. That may be true, but she’s still a hard head. She won’t listen to reason, took off this morning already. She said she had a few things to do before she went to meet him. Whatever the fuck that meant.”
My alerts began sounding. “Where’d she go, did she say?”
“No, that’s why I’m here.”
“She wouldn’t have gone into work,” I said, not for Stephanie’s benefit but just to start thinking. “She didn’t come here, although maybe she did and saw my bike and took off again. The woman’s a little pissed at me right now.”
“Yeah. I got that.” Stephanie bit her lower lip. “That’s probably my fault. I shouldn’t have said all those things last night. I mean, what happened to Jason, it wasn’t your fault.”
I didn’t say anything for a minute, I let her stew in her own juices—the way Jason used to when she tried weaseling him into forgiving her for some temper tantrum. It didn’t have the same effect when I did it though, she just shook her head and laughed. “I’ll find who’s responsible, Steph. He’ll pay for it. I promise that.” My words weren’t empty.
“You don’t think it’s Gray?” She sounded surprised.
“I’m damn sure it’s him, and when I can prove it, he’s dead.”
“But without proof you won’t touch him.” Her shoulders slouched a little, her eyes swept away from mine.
“He kidnapped my little girl, he’s already dead, but I’ll need proof about Jason if I’m going to get the club to back me on that account. I can’t just take out the president without finding myself on the chopping block if I don’t have a damn good reason.”
“Your little girl?” Two dark eyebrows shot up and she smiled—small and soft, but it was a smile all the same.
“Those two belonged to me the moment I met Beth.”
“She’s not too into that idea right now.”
“She’ll learn. Once I get my girls home, things will be right themselves,” I vowed, and knew it was more a vow to myself than to her. No matter what happened I needed to get my girls home, safe and sound, and away from Gray.
“Fuck, Rafe. I’d say you love the girl.” Stephanie pushed off the car and her lips slid into a wide grin.
Loved her? Of course I fucking loved her. The very idea of never seeing her again, never touching her skin, or feeling her lips beneath mine was enough to make my heart stop. And Maddie only made everything better. That little girl crawled right into my heart. She hadn’t seen any of my defenses, she just barreled right through them like her mama.
“I love both my girls.”
“Then go get them, you asshole.” She kicked the loose pavement of the driveway and gave me a wink before rounding her car to get back in. “Where do you want me?”
“Want you?”
“Yeah. Do you want me to meet you at that warehouse or you want me at the club? Where do you want me?”
“I want you to keep your ass safe at home,” I growled. Not a single woman in my life had the sense the good heavens gave them.
She sighed. “Yeah, I bet you do, but that’s not gonna happen.”
“You know, I could just as easily take you over my knee—” I stopped my threat mid-sentence because she was laughing too damn loud to even hear me finish it.
“That’ll be the day. Only one man ever put his hand to my bare ass, and the next one ain’t gonna be you!” She jerked the car door open, the hinges crying for oil when she did so.
She knew I was full of shit; I’d never lay a hand on her, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect her with as much fierceness as I would my girls. “Steph, I want you to stay out of this.”
“I’m sure you do.” She nodded. A breeze picked up and blew through her hair. “Fine. I won’t go to the warehouse, but I am going down to the diner. Brittany’s sister is a waitress there, Beth said. I’m going to see what she knows. Maybe she can help us get Brittany to help get the kid away from Gray. We might need the club’s help with all this. You think you can get them to go against their president?”
“A few of them will. Not many were all that happy with him taking the chair and even more are suspicious since he’s done nothing to find the shooter.”
She braced her arms on the top of the car. “If he shot Jason, I want to kill him. Tell me you’ll give me that.”
No way she was going near Gray. “I’m not promising anything.” It was the best I could give her. Her eyes narrowed and her middle finger slipped up at me in response. “I don’t want you near him, Steph. I don’t want Beth near him. Just, for once, please do what I’m saying and stay away.”
“You don’t think I have the right?”
“I think that more than any of us you have the right. But I know what it’s like taking a man’s life, you don’t. You think it will make you feel better; you think you’ll feel like you’ve avenged Jason—except that’s all bullshit. You do it, you kill Gray, and you start to become the thing you hate about the club. You start down a road you can’t get off of. Once that bullet snuffs him out, you can’t undo it, Steph.”
Her bottom lip trembled when she took a deep breath, her eyes turned away from me. Jason wouldn’t want her involved, wouldn’t want Gray’s blood on her hands. Not even when avenging his own death. He wanted more for Steph, that was why when she turned her back after her brother was killed he didn’t force her back. He let her pull away, start her own business outside the clubhouse. If I let her be involved, let her pull that trigger, I’d be going against everything he wanted for her.
“So I’m supposed to sit home like some good girl and let the men handle this?” The sneer made its way back into her voice and at least I knew she’d be okay. Better angry at not getting to do what she wanted than spending the rest of her life trying to forget what she did.
“Go to the diner.” I nodded, it wasn’t a bad idea having her keep close tabs on Brittany’s sister. “See if you can find Chrissy, that’s Brittany’s sister. If you can find her, stick close to her, but I don’t want you near the warehouse and I don’t want you going near Brittany if she shows up.”
“What if she has the kid with her?”
“If Maddie is with her, you call me. Stick close but don’t do anything. I don’t want her getting spooked and running off with her.” I suddenly wished I had spent more time talking with the twins, getting to know them. I already knew Brittany was a bit wilder than her sister, but that wasn’t enough.
She shook her head but agreed anyway. “Fine. You call me when it’s done. The second it’s done, you got me, biker boy?” She stabbed her finger in the air at me.
I grinned. “I got it. Stay out of trouble so I can get my girls back, okay?”
After a long moment she gave me a curt nod and slid into the driver’s seat. Her engine echoed as she peeled out of the driveway and headed down the road.
Looking at my phone, I noted it was barely six in the morning. I had a few hours before I knew where Beth would be.
I sent a text out to several members, summoning them to Beth’s house. I doubted she would come home, but if she did, all the better. I couldn’t trust going to my place, and the clubhouse wouldn’t be a safer choice either. Not for the meeting I was planning.
If it all went to shit, I’d lose my fucking balls; if it failed completely, I could be setting myself up to get killed.
There were risks in going against your president, and involving other members to over throw him, and taking his ass down would be immediate death. If it didn’t work.