CHAPTER 18

Flick

Nothing felt quite like how being wrapped around Taz on the back of his bike did. Especially with jeans on. So much better than a short skirt. Every few minutes, he’d put his palm on my thigh and give it a squeeze, like he needed to be sure I was still here. I was still damn sore from all the hits I’d taken, but I wasn’t going to let go and fall off any time soon.

Even with a helmet on, the sound of so many Harleys for four hours was enough to have my ears ringing by the time we pulled into the Charon’s clubhouse lot. I’d kinda hoped Taz would have taken me straight home, but I guess we needed to do some kind of debrief.

Taz took my hand and we followed the others into the front room. Once we were all in there, Scout called everyone’s attention.

“Thank you all for your help today. The Cowboys took one of ours, and I appreciate the way you all stepped up to help get her back. I know it’s late, so y’all head on home or upstairs and I’ll see everyone in church in the morning.” He then caught Taz’s gaze. “Not you, brother. We need to see you and Flick in church, now.”

It was a testament to how tired and sore I was that I didn’t pick up on anything being wrong until after I’d entered the room. Taz had dumped my bag that Viper had returned to me as we were leaving, along with his own phone in a locker outside the room. I’d tensed, but he’d told me it was normal and that no technology was allowed in church. Since he said it was normal, and the others were doing the same thing. I went with it without protest. I started to realize I was in trouble when it wasn’t just Scout that came in with us, but several of the older club members. But not Eagle or Mac. I knew Scout, Bulldog, Keys and of course Nitro, but the other man I didn’t know, and he didn’t look friendly.

The door was closed and Nitro stood in front of it with his arms crossed, a clear statement that particular exit was now closed.

“What the fuck is going on here, Scout? Starting to feel like an ambush.”

Nitro spoke up. “Not on you, brother, but her. Got something you want to tell us, darlin’?”

I slowly glanced at each of the men in the room. They knew. They fucking knew! Dammit.

“Why don’t you tell me what you think you know?”

The guy I didn’t know stepped forward. “Quit fucking around. You’re a fucking fed. An FBI spy sent in to do who knows what. And now we know, we need to fucking deal with you. Which is gonna be so much fucking fun considering it’s gonna involve ripping out my brother’s heart to do it.”

“You don’t touch her, Arrow. No one does.”

Scout pointed directly at Taz. “You don’t look surprised. You fucking knew who she was. Don’t think I won’t be asking you more about that in a minute, but first, I need you to shut the fuck up while we deal with Ms. Felicity Vaughn here.” He paused and turned his full attention on me. “It’s time to come clean and tell us why the fuck you were sent here. You can come clean now, or we can take you downstairs and you can tell us after we persuade you a little. Your choice.”

Taz growled, but didn’t say a word. I could feel the fury radiating out from him. My own heartbeat was pounding in my ears and I glanced around once more to check for exits. Nothing had magically appeared to save my ass. I clenched and released my fists a couple times. Not that I really had a choice. Going down to their basement would mean painful, bad things that I might not survive, no matter how much Taz tried to save me.

“Fine. Yes, I’m an undercover FBI agent. I was sent down here to gather intel on the Cowboys. Not the Charons. The feds had gotten word that the Cowboys had been focusing in on your club lately, and they want to know why. I believe they chose to send me because of my ties with Taz, through what happened to my brother. I haven’t made it a secret that I’ve been searching for the truth behind why my brother was booted from the USMC. My boss told me once the assignment was over, I could ask Taz, Mac and Eagle about my brother, if I found myself in a position to do so.”

“Were you aware your brother was with the Satan’s Cowboys before today?”

I shook my head. “No. Andrew vanished after he returned from his last deployment. Neither our parents nor I have heard from him since then. We’ve been extremely worried about him.”

“What have you reported back to your boss so far?”

“Not much. I reported that I had successfully become Taz’s girlfriend, but they don’t know about me being his old lady yet. I also had to tell them about Gus, since the hospital had me listed as my real name, not my cover. Is that how you found out?”

“Fuck, yeah. Their little hack on the hospital’s system was easy to spot.” Scout glared at Keys for speaking. “Sorry, prez.”

“Anything else?”

I was going to try to keep Taz, Mac and Eagle out of this shit storm, but I wasn’t sure it would be possible if Scout kept asking questions. Especially when the man had already worked out that Taz knew I was a fed before today. But that meant I couldn’t give him anything that I’d learned from Taz, only what I’d seen myself around the clubhouse. Which was fuck all.

“I don’t know anything else to tell them. Well, I do after today, but I haven’t had a chance to check in with my boss since you all so kindly came to my rescue.”

“And if we let you walk out of here, what do you intend on reporting?”

I didn’t have to fake my anger. “Well, first up, will be why they fucking ignored my distress call.”

That had Keys looking at me with interest again. “What call?”

“It’s a button on my phone. I pressed it at the hospital when I leaned down to give Uncle Gus a kiss goodbye. Has anyone called him and let him know I’m okay?”

“Not yet, because it’s still to be decided if you will be.”

That had me backing up and swallowing past a sudden lump in my throat. Hands gripped my shoulders and I tensed.

“Don’t you dare fucking throw me again, woman.”

Taz’s rough voice had me moving back further, until my body was pressed against his. He was the only one here that was safe.

“Answer the fucking question already. What are you planning on telling them about today?”

“I– I don’t know. My head’s kind of a mess right now. I need to think it all through before I can report on any of it.”

“Well, we need to lock you down until you decide what you’re gonna do. Because if you decide wrong, this isn’t going to end well for you.”

I licked my lips. “What do you want me to report?”

“That depends on what you want at the end of all this. Is this just a fucking job to you? Are you going to be on your way as soon as you’re done here, without a care to the mess you leave behind?”

I went to speak and Scout cut me off. “And don’t fucking lie to me.”

“Originally that was the plan, but I didn’t expect to actually fall for Taz. To like the club. Even before today I’d already started having regrets about coming in like I had. Wishing I was just a normal woman who could hook up with whoever caught her eye.”

Scout fiddled with his bandana before re-crossing his arms over his chest.

“You’ll spend the rest of the night downstairs while we decide what we’re gonna fucking do with you. You’ll not come to any harm down there, but no Taz, no creature comforts.”

Shaking my head, I reached my palms back to grip his thighs. No Taz?

“Not negotiating here. Taz has his own issues we need to deal with. Now, you gonna be a good girl and go willingly or do I have to knock you out first? I’m not gonna tolerate you fighting your way through my men tonight.”

“If you promise I’m not going to come to any harm, then I’ll go willingly.”

“You won’t tonight. Tomorrow might be a different story, though.”

Taz pressed a kiss to the side of my head. An unspoken vow, he had my back. And considering I’d really rather stay conscious, I gave in.

“I’ll go willingly.”

Taz

Would this fucking day never end?

Watching Nitro and Arrow lead my girl out to take her downstairs was like having my guts ripped open with a rusty blade. Fuck.

When they returned, Mac and Eagle were following them. Fuck, shit was about to hit the fan in a big way. They both gave me a raised brow as they passed, but I just shook my head. We were all in deep shit no matter what I said at this point.

“Right, boys. Something tells me all three of you are involved with this shit. I’m also guessing you three have been keeping one hell of a fucking secret from us. It’s now time to tell us every-fucking-thing. Understand?”

I turned to face my Marine brothers. “Flick’s cover is blown.”

Mac nodded. “And ours, by the looks of it. We’ll tell you everything, but you need to hear us out before you act. Can you give us that at the least? And if worse comes to worse, you promise to take care of our women. Silk and Zara have nothing to do with any of this shit.”

Scout nodded. “Done. Now speak.”

“This is gonna take some time. Mind if we all sit down?”

Scout nodded but didn’t say a word, or move to sit. I followed Mac’s lead, taking a seat with him and Eagle. Mac had been our Gunnery Sergeant in the USMC, and it still felt natural to defer to him in things like this interrogation.

“Guess I’ll start at the beginning. We weren’t at that poker run by accident. Our CO had contacted us the week before and asked us if we’d consider going undercover. Apparently, the Charons were getting big enough to make the feds nervous and they wanted some eyes on the inside. We’d been riding around the country aimlessly for a while at that point and figured we might as well check you out and see if we could do a little more service to Uncle Sam.

“It didn’t take long for us to rethink our take on things, though. We were still prospects when we’d all felt like we’d found our place in the world with the Charons. We could clearly see you weren’t doing anything that the feds needed to be worrying about. When the shit went down with Silk and the L.A. mob, they got pushy. Started making threats, so we gave them a copy of John’s ledger on the mob. Figured it was fifteen years old and wouldn’t be much use anyhow. And it had no ties to the Charon MC.

“That was one harsh lesson on who we could trust. The bastards leaked it to them within days, the fuckers. Lucky for us, Runt was also doing the dirty on the club so he took the brunt of that when it came out. After that little fuck up, Eagle told them to piss off, that after they’d risked his girl like they had, he was out.”

Bulldog looked like he was ready to rip into Eagle. Silk was his niece and Eagle had already copped one beat down for falling for her. I really hoped this shit wasn’t gonna end with another round of beat downs. Although, that was a better outcome than a round of bullets.

“We all went silent on them after that, but we knew it wouldn’t last. And when Zara came to town with the shitstorm that followed her, they put the pressure on us again. We gave them the least we could, and never anything on the Charons. Our handler got really fucking pissed when he discovered I’d hooked up with Zara while I’d been telling him we hadn’t seen her. Not sure what he was playing at, but after everything shook out with the Iron Hammers, he vanished. Flick told Taz that he was dirty and no one has seen or heard from him since then. Guess he’s over the border, but I don’t really give a fuck. We’d hoped they’d forgotten about us, but we were shit-out-of-luck on that one because along came Flick.”

Scout cut him off with a question. “What was her real reason for coming in to town?”

Mac nodded my way. Great. My turn to try to save our asses.

“The FBI realized they’d lost Eagle and Mac as assets but they wanted to try to save me. They knew I wouldn’t turn on my club, so sent Flick in to charm me into helping her focus on taking down the Cowboys.”

“So, your relationship with her is all a lie?”

“Hell, no. It’s real. Trust me, all this shit would have been so much simpler if it was a lie. Flick made sure she had me hooked good before she admitted her real reason for being here.” I paused to blow out a breath. “If I didn’t give a shit about her, I would have just sent her on her way.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. She threatened to out us to Scout, to tell him we’d reported in on the Charons. Which is bullshit, by the way. We’ve never said a thing about the Charons to the feds.”

Mac was right. I would have. To keep us safe, and to stay with the club, I would have gone along with her plan.

“How does she feel about you? She just playing along?”

I took a moment to think over my answer. “She’s told me I’m not just an assignment. That she wants to be with me. That was when I asked her to be my old lady. I made it clear that was a permanent arrangement and if she intended to fuck off once her work was done, then she should say no. She said yes.”

Scout nodded. “Okay. Finally, what do you three want to happen at the end of this shit? Eagle?”

“I want to stay. I love being a Charon, love my life here. But I want my brothers by my side. It wouldn’t be the same without Mac or Taz with me. And I’m not giving up Silk. No fucking way. Only way I leave her is if I’m in the ground. However, I would prefer to stay breathing, to be here for the birth of our baby and to raise ‘em here in Bridgewater, in the safety of the club.”

Scout nodded again. “Mac?”

“Same as Eagle. I found where I belong here with the Charons, I don’t want to leave it. But I won’t leave my brothers either. Same as Eagle, I want to be above ground to see the birth of Zara’s and my child and to raise kids here in town with my Charon family.”

Another nod. “Taz?”

“Ditto to what they said. Didn’t think I’d find somewhere I fit after leaving USMC, but I did. Here with the Charons. I’m sorry we didn’t come to you before now about how we came to be here, but we didn’t want to risk what we had. I’d appreciate being able to keep Flick with me. Honestly didn’t expect to fall for anyone. Ever. But she’s a hell of a woman and I’m pretty sure she’s it for me. You take her out, I’m alone forever. Assuming you don’t put me in the same hole as she goes in.”

Fuck, I hated talking like this. This was my fucking family and here I was talking about them potentially putting me and my girl in the fucking ground. It was bullshit.

“Right. Well, we need to figure out what the fuck to do with you all. So, that means you three get locked down while we discuss it. Don’t need you running off on us, or trying to bust out your girl. You gonna be good and go down willingly?”

“If it means we’re more likely to be able to stay in the club, then yeah, we’ll go willingly.”

With an ache in my chest, I trailed behind Mac and Eagle as Nitro led us downstairs. What would we do if we all got kicked to the curb? I was sick of being told I wasn’t welcome. Sucks to be me, apparently.

After that fucking fire that took my mum and sister, and ripped my world apart, the only family I had left was my dad’s older sister here in the States. Child services shipped me over to her and left me there without so much as a second glance. Fairly certain, I would have done better with a foster home in Australia than with Aunt Pam.

She was ten years older than my dad had been, and was a bitter, nasty old woman. Having buried her brother and parents, she’d buried herself in her grief. Had let it eat at her. She’d never married and put all her time into running her ranch. Damn, but the fact she had all that land and cattle and horses had been a God-send to me. It had given me an escape from the house. Worked my ass off the entire time I lived there. When I hit eighteen, she made it clear she’d done her duty. I didn’t argue. It was hard to try and live somewhere you knew you weren’t wanted. Apparently the fact I looked just like my father was a major crime in Aunt Pam’s book.

I thought the USMC was going to be my new family for the rest of my life. But after that shit with Stone and those asshole Marines, things changed. I guess it made me take a good look at myself. At all the lives I’d taken and I didn’t really like the man I’d become anymore.

Leaving the Marines hadn’t been that hard to do really, not with Eagle and Mac with me. But being kicked to the curb by the Charons was gonna fucking hurt. Here with them, the three of us really had a chance at a life in a family that would always have our backs.

Fuck, we never should have agreed to go undercover. Should have said no way, then come down to that poker run to check the club out anyhow.

Too fucking late now, though. Because, like always, the past was what it was. Set in stone and unchangeable.

And wasn’t that a bitch?