Chapter Fourteen – Warren
I sighed as I fell back onto the couch. It was as if tension had lifted, but instead of relief, I was left with an ugly shade of melancholy.
I was brooding. So? I wasn’t afraid to admit it either. Well, admit it to myself. I sat on my couch guzzling whiskey and coddling my feelings. I could do that in the safety of my own home because I needed to get rid of the burning in my chest. Nothing seemed to fix it. I’d tried riding, and now I was trying liquor. I hoped it worked. It had to. How I was feeling wasn’t safe for my club, and they always came first. As the VP, I had to look out for them, but this damn ache in my chest was distracting. I knew it would make me react slower and where I lived, that could get you killed.
It had only been about an hour, but I was already regretting walking away. I should have stayed. I should have fought for us more…but I didn’t want to beg.
My phone rang, pulling me from my reverie.
“Talk.”
“The papers are ready.”
I wondered why Wiz called me instead of dialing Red. Her number was in the system. Then it hit me: Wiz was a perceptive guy for a man who kept his nose in electronics, and he was pretty good about noticing what others were too dumb to see. He probably noticed how sweet I was on Red, or I was more obvious than I thought I was.
“VP?”
I realized I hadn’t said anything in a while. “I’ll tell her,” I said briskly before hanging up. It was a little rude, but he was used to it. Our president wasn’t flowers and candy either.
I stood, mentally scanning myself. I had only just sat on the couch with my whiskey. I’d only had a large gulp. Sure that I wasn’t dizzy or tipsy and could see clearly, I climbed onto Heaven. This would probably be the last time I got to spend with Red before she left, so I drove to the motel quickly, thinking of ways I could prolong it. I pulled up to her room, confused as I drove past a car that looked exactly like Betsy. I walked over to it, looking for the unforgettable dent in the passenger side door. It was in the exact same spot as the car Red owned. But what was it doing here? Especially since I knew it was stolen before.
That mother fucker.
I didn’t think as I pulled my trusty Glock from my waistband and shot out the doorknob and where I estimated the lock would be before kicking in the door.
Cold washed through my system at Red unconscious and bloodied on the bed, under the motherfucker who hadn’t even thought to climb off her when he heard a gunshot. Red’s face was swollen and bleeding, and my heart clenched when I couldn’t tell if she was alive.
I took in the complete scene, unbelieving what I saw. Red was completely naked except for her bra, though it was pulled down, revealing bruised nipples. While Bryant was over here, clad only in his boxers. Perhaps I was too late, or he had been working up to having sex with her. It was clear he was enjoying her body in other ways and taking advantage of the fact she couldn’t fight back or say no.
“Would you please close the door?” Bryant said, as if this was a common mistake. Like I’d accidently walked into the wrong room and not shot through the fucking door. “As you can see, I’m in the middle of a conjugal visit.”
I saw red.
In that moment, the flash of anger protected me from the coming pain.
I’d failed her. I’d told Red I would protect her, and I failed. I should have done more. I should have been here and now this asshole wanted to pretend like everything was okay? Red made me a better man. Without her, I was just a biker outlaw, a fucking Bandit, and what I planned to do to her husband was criminal. Before I swung my first punch, I already had no regrets.
White-hot fire burned so bright and blinding, it swallowed my entire being. I saw red. I tasted red. I smelled red. Everything was colored in red, burning down in a fire I couldn’t contain. My whole world was red. I pocketed my gun and grabbed Bryant’s forearm, jerking him until he cried out and used his body weight to force me to the ground. It was easy to roll over until he was pinned beneath me as I clocked him in the face. His face felt hard against my fist, but I barely felt it as his nose crunched and spurted blood on my face and shirt. Everything was easy as the fire burned through my body.
My large hand wrapped around his thick neck. I dug into the skin there, leaning forward even more to choke him with all my strength. His arms waved in front of me, beating against me and trying to push to loosen my grip or make me stop. There was nothing he could do. His bloodied face turned a slight blue as I tightened my grip. He wasn’t willing to die like a gentleman. He clawed, scratching at my face, anything to get me away from his throat, but I was determined. His hand patted against my waist and I realized what he was grabbing for a little too late. I let go to flick the gun from his loose hands.
I let him go, diving onto the floor, following the gun as he rolled over, coughing loudly and trying to catch his breath. He was barely breathing, but he stood, trying to get away like the coward he was. I ran towards him, not balancing my weight, and he used my determination to turn to the side and sent three jabs to my side. That fucker hit my kidney by the intense pain shooting up my body. I groaned and bent over, but was still not sated. He could have kill Red. He had hurt her. I should have just killed him as soon as I walked in, but I wanted to make him bleed with my own two hands.
Despite being dazed, I pulled him back to me, unwilling to let him go.
A voice whispered in the back of my head, begging me to stop. Red could still be alive. She might not be dead. If she was alive, I needed to stop. I needed to get her some help.
That voice made me loosen my grip, enough for him to step towards Red, and I realized he was dumber than I thought. Getting out of here alive wasn’t guaranteed, and he wanted to try and get out with Red?
He scrambled, once more going for the gun. I had half a mind to shoot him in fucking head since it was clear he was nothing but a chicken shit, too scared to fight me like a man, desperate to use a weapon instead of his own hands. He was big enough to use them with Red, though.
Fucking coward.
I threw my right fist and collided against the side of his head.
He staggered backwards a couple steps before regaining his footing. I didn’t allow him to make another move.
I’d had enough. I needed to get Red to a hospital as soon as possible. With my gun firmly in my grip, I thrust the gun to his crotch, right up against his dick, making him freeze and throw up his hands. Though his face still looked indignant, like any minute this could somehow all change in his favor.
I leaned forward until we were nose to nose. “Do not move, motherfucker, or I swear to fucking God I will pull this trigger! You ever want to piss out your dick again?”
He didn’t answer but ducked his head once. “Then I suggest you get the fuck out of here before I make that an unachievable dream. Walk out the door while you can.”
“You don’t know who you’re messing with. You think because you have this gun that you can run me off.” I was used to the villain feeling the need to spew their monologue. I listened halfheartedly, hoping he would talk himself out and get on his merry way. “You think I’ll stop. Well, I won’t. This isn’t over. You can’t have her. Tamara will always be mine.”
I shot him in the foot before I registered that my hand moved.
I yelled over his screams as he writhed on the floor, holding the carnage that was his foot. “You just had to keep talking. Didn’t you? You just couldn’t shut your fucking mouth. Do you want to say something else?”
This time he shook his head widely with large, pain-stricken eyes.
“That’s what I thought.” I stood over his body, trying to calm myself down. “Let me make myself very clear,” I said, leaning down until I could smell the musk of coward and see the pupils of his eyes. “If you look at Tamara, look for her, come near her, or so much as breathe her air again, I will kill you.” His eyes widened even more as I continued. “I won’t hesitate, and I won’t be caught. Do you understand?” He opened his mouth but I interrupted. “Don’t say another word!” I knew I would kill him if I heard his horrible voice again. “Nod your fucking head if you understand.” Bryant nodded, proving he did have some sense in his head. “Good! Now leave, and you better pray to God or whoever the hell you serve that she wakes up and nothing is broken, because if it is, I will find you and give you everything she has times two. I will break every bone in your body except your hand, so you can sign your fucking name on those divorce papers.”
He stood and limped towards the door as I opened my phone.
“Yeah?” Gus always sounded like he just finished a pack of cigarettes when he talked.
“I need a team, Pres.”
“Where?”
I crawled over to the bed and barely kept my whimpering inside.
“Red?”
She laid too still. Small shallow breaths.
“Oh baby. What did he do to you?”
I looked around the room for something to cover her body in grabbing the hotel robe slung over the chair beside the bed, wrapping it around her battered body.
I cradled Red’s body as I waited for the backup I called to arrive at the hotel, rocking her and whispering into her ear.
“Come on, baby. Push through for me. I need you to be strong. You have to come back for me. I’m so sorry, and I love you, but I need to see your eyes when I say the words. Come back to me.”
She didn’t appear to have heard me, though her chest raised and flattened slowly. Too slow for me to feel better.
It was rare I needed an MC escort, but I knew I needed my brothers. I didn’t trust an ambulance to get to her there fast enough, so with my brothers as my entourage, taking up the entire lane behind us, I cradled Red to my chest in the backseat until we were at the emergency lane of the hospital.
“Help!” I screamed at the few nurses loitering outside. “I need help!”
Thankfully, several staff and a doctor came out with a stretcher, they knew the drill.