Chapter 10
Ace
It felt as if my head had just touched the pillow when my phone went off. Swearing, I reached out blindly for it before locating it on the night stand. I checked the time first, and then noticed that it was Gabe, the club's VP. Shit! Was I supposed to be somewhere?
"Yeah?" I grumbled into the phone, lying back onto the bed.
"Prez wants to know why our enforcer isn't here for church."
Oh, fuck. I released a heavy breath, relaxing a little. We held church first thing every morning at After Hours. Most of the time it was just to shoot the shit, but there'd been trouble lately with another MC visiting the area. They were staying in a few rooms at a cheap, rundown hotel on the beach, riding through town like they fucking owned it, stirring up shit in some of the bars. We didn't give a shit who came to our town, as long as they didn't bring trouble, and we'd assured Deputy Callahan that we'd keep eyes on the Hellraisers. In other words, we'd agreed to deal with the MC if they got out of hand.
"Be right there," I mumbled, disconnecting the call.
I sat up with a groan, planting my feet on the floor and running my hands through my long hair. I gave my head a shake to clear it, and then got to my feet and headed to the bathroom. I took a piss, jumped into the shower, threw on some clothes, and headed out, praying that there would be some coffee left when I got there.
I was fifteen minutes away from the bar. The roads were quiet at this time of morning, and After Hours was located right outside the busy town. I was stopped at a red light when I began to notice the familiar sound of motorcycles coming up behind me. The hair at the back of my neck stirred in warning. I turned and looked over my shoulder, taking in the five Hellraisers rolling up.
"Hey, brother," one of them acknowledged.
I gave him a chin lift. I didn't consider the fuckers my brothers, and I knew that his greeting was his way of pissing me off. I resisted the urge to reach back to make sure that I'd remembered to tuck my gun in my pants because my gut warned me that they were going to cause trouble.
The Hellraisers were based out of Georgia, but they were known for being a nomad club. They'd find a place, usually some small town off the map, settle down, do their damage, and then move on to the next place. Like a swarm of locusts. It amused me to think that they thought they were going to move in to Daytona and claim it.
"They let you out all alone?" the same man smirked, drawing laughter from his brothers.
"Don't piss him off, Bear, he's their fucking enforcer." More laughter followed. "We don't want the famous nerves of steel coming down on us."
"Ugly, motherfucker."
My lips quirked.
"But pretty ride. You get good pussy with that bike?"
I was riding a CVO Screamin Eagle. Anyone who knew bikes knew what they were looking at when they spied the popular 2010 Harley. Mine was maroon and gold and had taken some work to get back to its original condition. I took a deep breath and turned back around to face what was in front of me, waiting for them to make their move. They were obviously setting me up for something and trying to get a reaction out of me so they had an excuse to jump me. I casually reached up to my ear bud, tapped the talk button, and said Tanner's name.
"Where the fuck are you?" Tanner grumbled before I could get a word in.
"Got a situation here, brother," I mumbled low, glancing around so that it wasn't obvious that I was talking on the phone. "Got five Hellraisers behind me at a stop light pretending to make nice."
"Where?"
"Five minutes away." Tanner would know where I was. I took the same fucking route there every morning from my place.
"Stay cool," he ordered, hanging up.
He didn't need to worry about that. Five guns against one were not good odds. So far all the Hellraisers had done was talk shit, but if forced to it, I'd step off my bike and confront them.
"Hey, we're talking to you, asshole," one of them sneered when I ignored them.
The light had turned green, but I'd had enough. I set down my kickstand and got off my bike. Fuck staying cool. "You fuckers have a problem with me?" I snarled, facing them.
"We have a problem with you Sentinels thinking you own this fucking town," a ginger with a braided beard and missing teeth grumbled as he got off his bike. "The Hellraisers are taking over, and we're startin' with you."
I snorted. "You think you idiots are men enough to take on the Sentinels?" The others dismounted, too. I figured I could get in a few good hits before they took me down.
"Know we can," the oldest biker in the group said with grizzled confidence. "We're gonna make Daytona our town."
We were blocking traffic, but the occasional vehicle that approached went around us without hesitation. The Hellraisers were closing in, drawing the circle around me tighter in a classic move before they attacked. I decided that I wasn't going to wait for them to make the first move. I swung around and let my fist fly, clipping the man who'd been moving up behind me. His head flew back with the force of my punch, spit and blood flying from his mouth.
The four others were on me in a flash. I got in another good hit to someone's chin before a punch in my eye caused me to fall back several steps. I came back swinging. We were like a pack of wild dogs going at each other. Someone's ring caught me against my cheek, splitting it open. Blood immediately ran down the side of my face. I elbowed someone behind me, catching him in the gut. He doubled over with a grunt. A hit to my midsection winded me and hurt like a son of a bitch.
Going down wasn't an option. I struggled to stay on my feet. I reached for the redhead, wrapping my arms around the back of his neck and bringing his head down and smashing his face against my rising knee. It was a violent move, and the momentum caused him to fly backwards and hit the ground hard. I didn't wait to see if he was down for the count. I still had four others punching and kicking at me in rapid, vicious movements that were intended to do more than just hurt me.
At some point in the fight I saw brass knuckles and then the flash of a knife. No wonder the hits to my body were so fucking painful. I saw the knife coming my way and grabbed the man's wrist to keep it away from me. Two of his friends grabbed my arms, pulling me back and leaving my torso exposed and the perfect target. As the knife came forward a second time, I summoned up enough strength to pull one of the men holding my arm forward into the blade.
He howled and dropped to his knees. A fist caught me in the mouth, splitting my lips and causing my teeth to cut into my cheek. The metallic taste of blood instantly filled my mouth, and I threw myself at the nearest man, using my head like a torpedo to knock him down. I went down too, catching a hard kick to my kidneys.
I heard the sound of approaching bikes before the Hellraisers began to scatter like fucking ants. I took savage delight in seeing that two of them had to be helped to their bikes, and then they were taking off like the cowards they were. Breathing hard and feeling like the shit had been beaten out of me; I managed to roll to my ass and waited for my brothers to arrive.
They all showed up. Tanner gave the signal for some of them to continue on after the Hellraisers while he, Sully, Mike, and Sid remained behind. They turned their bikes off, and then sat and stared down at me.
"Fuck, brother, you were supposed to play it cool until we got here."
I resisted giving Tanner the finger, glaring up at him instead.
"You okay?"
"Getting too old for this shit," I grumbled. Tomorrow I would really feel it. "The fuckers wanted a fight. I gave them a fight." I met Tanner's eyes. "They made it clear they want to take over our town."
He nodded as if he already knew that. "It's what they do--move from town to town like the fucking plague, and when they've done all the damage they can, they move on again."
I made it to my feet, wincing with the effort. Mike held out a handkerchief, and I took it to wipe some of the blood off my cheek. "They would mess up my good cheek," I joked, drawing a laugh.
"Come back to the club and have Emerson take a look at your booboos. Looks like they need some tender loving care."
I gave Sid a frown. "Thought she was off today."
Tanner's brows shot up with surprise. "Why would you know what her days off are? And she was supposed to be off, but Bonnie called in."
I was saved from having to answer by the sound of bikes as the others returned. I slowly made it to my bike.
"Need help getting on, old man?"
I shot Gabe the bird. I was sure that I looked every bit of my forty-seven years at the moment.
"You lose them?" Tanner asked his VP.
Gabe released a deep breath. "Nope. Ran right into a whole posse of the fuckers."
"Had to be at least twenty of them." Heath spit, just missing my boot. "Looked as if they were expecting trouble."
Sully nodded. "I'm sure once they saw Ace riding alone they notified the rest of their brothers to be ready in case they needed backup."
"Recognize any of them?"
Gabe was the one who responded to Tanner's question. He nodded. "Yeah, saw a few familiar faces. Their VP, Boomer, was there. So was their road captain, Hook, but I didn't see their prez, Maniac."
"Shit, that must mean their whole club has arrived," I snarled. We'd already done Intel on the MC and knew that their numbers were in the fifties.
"Fuck, brothers, we may need a little help in ridding our town of these assholes." Tanner glanced around the group. "Guess I'll put in a call to our Tennessee brothers later."
"We don't need help," I smirked, slowly getting onto my bike. "If everyone takes on five like I just did."
Several brothers snorted before Mark said, "I don't think my woman will want me coming home all messed up like you, brother."
A car pulled around us, reminding us that we were blocking the road.
"Come on, let's head back to the bar so Ace can get those cuts looked at."
Tanner took the lead, Gabe and me, as his officer’s, right behind him. As we neared After Hours I noticed Emerson's plum-colored PT Cruiser in the parking lot. I bet she was tired, having been out half the night. At least she hadn't been fucking pretty boy all night. I'd followed her home to make sure that she arrived there okay, but also to make sure she went in alone. He was lucky he wasn't lying in a gutter somewhere after the kiss I'd seen him plant on her.
We plowed our way back inside and headed to our usual spot, two tables that were pushed together at the front of the room. Coffee cups, napkins, and donuts littered the top.
"Emerson must be in the back."
"I don't need her. I'll just wash up in the bathroom."
Tanner had been on his way to the back when my comment caused him to pause. He looked back at me. "You sure, brother?"
I nodded. The thought of Emerson's hands on me was appealing, but after the way we'd parted last night, I doubted she'd want to play nurse with me.
"Okay. When you get back we'll get down to business about how we're going to handle the Hellraisers."