Chapter 21
Commando
The sound of the clock on the wall was loud in the quiet room. Dad was sitting across from me, behind his oak desk, his fingers steepled together. I knew Ava was safe at her friend’s house, I had just dropped her there. And when I returned to the Lucky Lady, I’d asked everyone to clear out the meeting room so I could talk to him alone.
“What is it, Kelley?” he asked, in a somber voice. He had judged from my eyes, from my demeanor that whatever it was, it was serious. He wasn’t in the habit of using my given name, at least not since I turned eighteen.
I needed to come clean with him, at least him. Things were getting out of hand with Ava and he needed to know.
“Ava Christenson,” I said her name and her red hair flashed before my eyes. For a moment Dad’s brows furrowed in confusion and then a knowing glaze washed over his face. I didn’t have to say anything else, he knew.
“When?” he asked.
“Couple of days ago.”
“How many times?”
“A few. She stayed over at my place.”
Dad banged the table with his fists, clenched his jaw and then looked away from me.
“You’re my son, Commando. The rules apply to everyone! But especially to you,” he barked and then settled himself.
“I wasn’t fucking on a mission to break the rules. This has never happened before,” I was speaking through gritted teeth and we glared at each other.
“So, what are you saying to me?” he said and I fought the urge to drop my eyes to my hands. I needed to hold his gaze. I needed him to know I was serious about what I was saying.
“She could be the one,” I told him and Dad ran a hand through his silvery hair and shook his head.
“Fuck, Commando!” he growled and I clenched my jaw. “I hoped this would never happen to you, son.”
“There is something about her.”
“There is something about your mother too. These women bring us to our knees and weaken us!” Dad growled and I glared at him.
“You don’t have to lecture me about your relationship with Mom.”
“I fucking love that woman!” he barked and I held my tongue. I knew he did. I knew he fucking did. But he had made her cry. Over and over again. He might have changed his ways now, but I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt Ava, the way he had hurt Mom. That was what I was really fighting.
Dad was thinking, he was silent for a few moments and then looked back at me with his piercing blue eyes.
“She’s been beaten up,” he said out of the blue and I had to grip the edge of the desk with my hands to not lash out at something. He had noticed the bruise on Ava’s arm.
“I know.”
“Do you know who did it?”
“Her ex boyfriend.”
“He needs to be taken care of. If she’s going to be your woman, you have to make sure she remains that way. I don’t want any trouble over a girl, Kelley. Handle it now before you get into anything,” Dad said and I felt like I could breathe again. This was his way of giving me permission to be with her, and that was all I needed to hear.
I got up from my chair to leave.
“Son,” he stopped me before I left the room.
“She’s a good kid and I hope she knows that you’re not,” he said and I looked him in the eye.
“She does,” I said even though I wasn’t sure if she did, or if she cared. I wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be with me. With everything else in my life, I had taken what I wanted, but with Ava, I wasn’t going to force her.
xxx
I left the meeting room, while already pulling my phone out of my pants. I dialed Ava’s number as I stepped outside the bar. It rang a few times, before she answered. Her hello was groggy, but I could hear the sound of the television in the background.
“Ava.”
“Hey…I’d fallen asleep. What time is it?”
“Doesn’t matter. I need to speak to you,” I said, walking over to my bike. When I saw the side view mirror, I was reminded of the way her t-shirt and bra were dangling from it while I plowed into her. It made me instantly hard; just the thought of her body.
“Okay, what did you want to talk about?”
“You need to tell me your ex boyfriend’s name,” I said and there was silence on the other end.
“Commando…”
“Just tell me his name, Ava. Don’t make this difficult for me,” I said, my voice deepening with anger. Dad was right. This asshole needed to be gone from the picture, before I could even think of having anything with her. My first priority was to ensure her safety, so that it wasn’t overwhelming all my thoughts all the time.
“Why? What are you going to do?” she said and I ran a hand through my hair.
“You don’t need to think about that. Just tell me who he is.”
“Yes, I do need to think about it, Commando. This is my ex boyfriend we’re talking about. Not some random guy on the road!” I heard the cackle in her voice, although she was speaking in a hushed voice. She didn’t want her friend to hear us arguing.
“To me, he is a random guy. A bastard who laid his hand on you. And it’s time that I dealt with it,” I growled into the phone, clutching it tightly to my ear.
“Dealt with it how, Commando? I don’t want you to kill him. I don’t want blood on your hands,” she said and a whimper entered her voice. I was silent for several moments and then she let out a gasping cry.
“There’s already blood on your hands, isn’t there? You’ve killed people before. This is normal for you!” she was sobbing as she spoke and the sound of her cries was driving me nuts. I wanted to break the phone, I wanted to burn my bike, I wanted to punch someone. Anything to make her stop crying!
“Ava, stop, please, just don’t cry,” my voice had dropped by several decibels. I couldn’t stand another moment of hearing her cry. I would have smashed the glasses of the side mirrors if she didn’t. Her sobbing grew softer, and then she sniffed and I imagined her wiping her small nose with the back of her hand. I clenched my fists, hating myself for making her cry.
She hadn’t completely stopped, or she couldn’t stop and either way, I could still hear her sobbing.
“Fuck. Ava. Stop crying or you’ll make me come over there!” I growled deeply and her sobbing grew softer.
“Okay, I’m not crying anymore,” she said and I breathed in deeply.
“I don’t care what you think of me, Ava. This is what my life is and I’ll understand if you don’t want to be with me, but I want to fix this for you,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as I spoke to her. She sniffed again and then her breathing became more even.
“Blaine Salzburg. That’s his name,” she said and I pressed my eyes close. She had told me his name. I didn’t know what she was thinking. What she thought of me or if she still wanted to be with me, but this Blaine fucking Salzburg was a dead motherfucker.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay.”
There were a few seconds of silence between us.
“I’m afraid of what he’ll do if he finds me again, Commando,” she said and I gritted my teeth. This was exactly what I didn’t want her to feel.
“I’ll take care of him,” I said.
“What if he hurts my friend? What if he hurts Charity?” there was raw fear dripping from her voice and now I was glad that I had pried his name out of her. She was trying to be prideful and pretending to be strong earlier. The truth was that she was scared.
“I will make sure he never comes near you, Ava. I promise,” I said and she sniffed again.
“Okay.”
“I have to go now, you should get some rest,” I said and stopped myself from saying more. There were other things bubbling at the tip of my tongue. I was afraid of blurting something out that she didn’t want to hear, that I should not have been telling her. Not now. Not when she was going through this.
“Goodnight, Commando,” she said in a quiet voice and I hung up. The white noise of the cut call was loud in my ear. I had forced myself to hang up. I wanted to keep listening to her voice but there were other things that needed to be done first.
Blaine Salzburg needed to be taken care of.
Whatever Ava thought I was going to do to that bastard, I was going to do ten times worse. He would regret every word he ever said to her. Regret that he ever met her. I could feel my blood boiling. I was going to erupt. Finding him wouldn’t be hard, we had connections in the police department. And once I found him, he would have nowhere to escape.
“Commando!” Slade’s high pitched voice cut through the silence of the night. I turned to see him staggering off his bike. I hadn’t even heard him come up to the bar, I was completely fixated with Ava and our conversation.
“Slade?” I rushed towards him and now that his face came into view in the dark, I saw that he was beat up. There was blood coursing down his face, his forehead was split open. I grabbed him by the shoulders, just when he was about to stagger to the ground.
“What the fuck happened to you man?” I was yelling at him, while he tried to keep his eyes open. His clothes looked tattered and dusty and I looked over him to make sure there were no stab or gunshot wounds. He was just beaten up. He had got into a fucking fight!
Seriously. Tonight of all nights?
“I’m okay. Just a scratch,” he said, smiling as I wrapped his arm around my shoulder and helped him towards the bar. Slade was limping but at least he was able to walk.
I kicked the door open, and the loud music and chatter of the rest of the club enveloped us. Slade was dangling from my shoulder, trying to keep himself propped up. Some of the guys stopped what they were doing and looked at us. I could see Elwood at a table with Crawford and the others, and he looked over and met my eye.
“Someone call my mother. He needs fucking stitches!” I barked on top of my lungs.
Blaine Salzburg had one more night to live, because lucky for him, my MC always came first.