Chapter Twenty Six
Drew
Today is Connor’s second birthday and sadly Lauren has called off his birthday party because of everything that is happening and I get it. So after I’ve finished with work, I will be popping over to Lauren’s to see my gorgeous nephew on his birthday. Obviously Cyrus will have to come with me and thinking about it, I look over to him as he’s sat in the reception area, flicking through a magazine and looking so out of place. I am so fucking annoyed though, but not at Cyrus, at the customers. Every single woman who walks in cannot take their eyes from him and it’s really pissing me off.
“So, who’s the sexy biker over there?” My customer asks and I grit my teeth, holding back my initial comment.
“A friend of the club.” I answer back sweetly.
“Is he single?” She asks, licking her lips slightly and I hold back the eye roll.
“He’s a bit of a man whore.” Is all I say, trying to finish her nails before I snap because that’s not good for business. Typically though, she looks pleased with this information and I’m pleased that just ten minutes later I’ve finished and she can get the hell out of here. Most of the other girls have finished for the day already so the salon is now pretty empty. Once I’ve walked my chatty customer to the receptionist to pay, I run away to the staff room and head straight to the sofa. I sigh loudly as I throw myself down, leaning my head back and closing my eyes.
This curfew is going to mess with my plans. How the fuck am I going to be able to attend the next fight night when I’ve got the Redgrave brothers on my ass?
“You wanna drink?” I jump at the sound of Cyrus’ voice. I look up to see him standing near the door, watching me.
“No.” I shake my head. “As soon as Tasha locks up I’m going upstairs.”
Cyrus nods, coming to sit next to me when I get a text message. It’s from Lauren in the group message, wanting to meet us all and not with our babysitters.
“I need to go Lauren’s.” I stand, Cyrus immediately following. “Alone.”
“You know I can’t let you do that.” He laughs.
I walk out of the staff room, noticing Tasha locking up and she asks me if I’m going to see Lauren. I tell her I’m going in my own car and she says she’ll do the same.
“Why don’t you ride with me?” Cyrus asks when we’re alone.
I laugh. “I’d rather be warm in my car.”
“Then I’ll drive.” He quickly snatches my car keys from me.
“Hey!” I follow him out to my car, quickly locking and securing the rest of the doors as I go.
At first it’s quiet between us in the car, but then Cyrus can’t seem to help himself. “So, this an urgent club princess meeting?”
I frown over at him, ignoring his mocking smirk. “It is and you’re not welcome inside.” He’s about to argue but I interrupt him. “No, the rest of the guys aren’t allowed either. This is our meeting.”
Cyrus thinks this over as he drives, and when we reach Lauren and Grim’s place Baby and Ryder are outside by the front door. They look over as we get out of the car and I reach in the back to retrieve Connor’s birthday present.
“Where’s the others?” Cyrus asks as we walk closer.
“Duke and Zane are around the back.” Baby answers. “You know, just in case the girls plan on sneaking away.”
“Oh yeah.” I laugh, opening the front door. “We’re going to run away with the babies.”
I close the door behind me, rolling my eyes at my stupid brother. I hear the girls chatting away as soon as I enter the house and I take off my shoes, making my way into the living area and I scoop Connor up straight away, handing the bag with his presents in it to Lauren.
“Hey birthday boy!” I kiss his gorgeous chubby face and Connor giggles as I spin around in a circle.
Eventually I put him down and make a fuss of Madison before making myself comfortable.
“So Lauren, what’s the emergency?” I ask.
“Well, this morning Grim told me what has happened for them to call a curfew.” Lauren announces, shocking the hell out of all of us. “After everything that has happened and now that we have Connor, he wanted me to know.”
I really fucking respect my brother for doing that. After everything that Lauren has been through with the Devil Spawn MC, she has a right to know what the fuck is going down.
“Yeah.” Tasha nods. “Devlin told me too.”
“The fuck?” I look at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We wanted to tell you together.” Elise adds and I look at the three of them. I’m annoyed that Maci and I are the last to know, but those three are the ones that literally went through hell and back. I’m not mad at all, but I am happy that they’re about to tell me.
“So, what’s the bad news?” Maci asks, sounding very worried.
“Before we saying anything, Grim doesn’t even know that Devlin or Bomber have told Tasha and Elise. We need to keep this between us five and nobody else.”
We all nod in agreement and then Lauren goes on to tell Maci and me what happened the other night to get my dad is such a protective state. They’ve discovered that the Devil Chasers are behind Sketch’s death and I feel a little bad that I already knew that part, but I keep quiet and continue listening. After finding this out, they tracked them down to a warehouse and a few men, Cyrus, Zane, my brothers and dad included, went to the warehouse to hopefully end all this but unfortunately it was empty with not a Chaser in sight however they did find a note. It was from Venom.
“Venom is still alive?” I ask horrified.
Lauren nods her head. “Apparently so.”
“He’s the brother of Strike, right?” Maci asks and Tasha nods.
“Bomber told me Venom must be behind all of this.” Elise speaks up, looking haunted and I’m not fucking surprised. Her, Tasha and Lauren have been through a lot.
“So that’s why my dad has gone crazy protective.” I shake my head. “I’m glad we now know.”
Lauren nods. “It helps to know what we’re looking out for and now I understand why we have the men surrounding us.”
We all look outside to see Zane looking through the window and when he sees us all staring back, his face breaks into a huge smile and waves.
“You know, those brothers aren’t what I was expecting.” Maci laughs.
“That’s because you’re a part of their family.” I point out. “I wouldn’t want to get on their bad side.”
“Yeah, Grim told me their questioning techniques are insane.” Lauren winces.
We all agree to be on our best behaviour in respect of the stress the men are going though. I don’t mention my own plans for revenge though. That’s for me to keep to myself.
***
The next seven days are crazy. Wherever we go, the men follow and before I would have been pissed but after what the girls told me last week, it doesn’t really bother me. I know they’re there to look after us on my dad’s orders. However, the salon has been suspiciously busy since the curfew has been placed and I have a feeling it has something to do with our bodyguards. Of course the men eat it all up, especially the single ones and right now Cyrus and Zane are sat in the reception area while a bunch of women are giggling so fucking loud, flicking their hair and fluttering their eyelashes. As soon as I’ve finished with my client, I get up from my seat and storm over there.
“Hey Drew.” Zane smiles, sandwiched between two girls. Cyrus is in the same situation, one of the women is so close that she might as well be sat on his fucking lap!
“So who has an appointment?” I ask the women.
Two of the eight women put their hand up. Fuckin two!
“Are you fucking with me?” I snap and the women begin to look away from me, avoiding my eye contact. “If you’re not a paying customer, then you need to get the fuck out.”
Three of them stand, the other half staying put, their hands all over the brother and hoping they will save them.
“We can stay.” One giggles on Cyrus’ shoulder. “You want me to stay.”
Cyrus sighs, smirking as she puts her hand on his thigh and I see red. Not caring who hears my loud voice, I scream. “Get the fuck out of here bitch! This is my salon, and when I say get out I mean get the fuck out!”
At that, all of them, apart from the legit customers fuck off. I feel the eyes on me, I can even see Tasha looking over at me.
I point to the remaining girls, warning them to keep their knickers on and stop making a fool of themselves before returning to work. Hoping that I haven’t made a fool out of myself in the process.
I’ve been spending a lot of my time with Cyrus, more than anyone else this past week actually and it’s starting to become really intense between us. So when it’s Zane’s turn to look after me, it’s a lot easier as he really makes me laugh. Zane is surprisingly freaking hilarious and I always get the feeling that Cyrus doesn’t like me spending one on one time with his brother.
I can’t even go for a wee without someone asking me where I’m going, which is going to be a problem seeing as I’ve received a text from Suzy to let me know that the next fight night is tomorrow. I have to think of something because I have to go tomorrow night. I need to follow out my plan and kill the fuckers who killed Sketch. It’s always on my mind and it will be until I have done it, risking my own life at the same time, but in my eyes it’s worth it.
After I’ve finished with my next client, I tell Tasha that I’m not feeling very well and she looks concerned which makes me feel like shit, but I remember why I’m doing this and it doesn’t make me feel so bad. We move all my clients for the rest of the day to other girls and Tasha orders me to go upstairs and have some rest. Cyrus is right behind me when I leave the salon and go upstairs to my apartment.
“You don’t have to stay.” I let him know as I walk inside my home.
“I think I will.” He replies, making the both of us a drink in the kitchen.
I go to my room and change into my pyjamas, wrapping myself in a fluffy blanket and falling onto the sofa, gratefully taking the cup of tea Cyrus hands me. He watches me carefully but doesn’t say a word and when Maci returns from her shift at the clubhouse with Baby hot on her heels, I go to bed leaving Cyrus with the two of them. I feel bad for abandoning him but he’s not alone and this is all in aid of my carefully thought out plan tomorrow.
***
The next day I carry on my fake illness and it surprisingly takes more effort than I had thought, especially the getting rid of Cyrus part, which I need to do in order for me to sneak away to the Black Ring. My dad warned me not to go anywhere I shouldn’t but I need this. I didn’t know how to continue without Sketch when he was cruelly taken away from me. I couldn’t face the world and I didn’t want to live anymore. I was in complete agony and I would do anything to bring him back to me. This revenge plan that I have been brewing has kept me going and was what initially got me out of bed and helped me put one foot in front of the other. The need to avenge Sketch has given me my strength to face the people that I love and care about and through that I have begun to live my life again and it’s so fucking hard without the man I love. I know it’s risky, but I have to do this for Sketch. For the life we could have had together.
“You want me to make you something to eat?” Cyrus asks when it gets to the middle of the day and I shake my head.
“I don’t think I could stomach anything.” Even though I could eat everything in my cupboards right now I’m that hungry, but I can’t let him know that. “I think I might just go back to bed.”
Cyrus frowns. “Maybe you should go to the doctor or some shit?”
I can’t help but smile. Cyrus can be caring when he wants to be. Having him look after me whilst I’ve been faking my illness has shown me that. He has his own way of course, but he doesn’t seem like the man who has been made almost famous in the MC world for his torture talents.
“I’ll be fine tomorrow.” I shrug. “Maybe you should just go, I feel bad that you’re going to be sat here all alone while I’m sleeping.”
Cyrus smirks, shaking his head. “I can’t do that darling.”
Hiding my annoyance, I go to hide in my bedroom and put my TV on low so at least I don’t die of boredom while I’m pretending to be resting in bed. I can hear Cyrus in the living room, watching TV and sometimes talking on his phone. If I were really ill, I think I would appreciate how much he’s wanting to take care of me. I know he’s here because of the curfew, but he doesn’t have to take care of me this much. Since I’ve been locked up in here he’s offered to cook for me, have some food delivered and even take me out for some fresh air. I felt like shit when I didn’t accept any of his offers.
After I’ve hidden away for four hours, I start to panic because I need to start getting ready to leave soon but I can’t with Cyrus here. I get out of the bed, not caring how I look because if I really were ill I wouldn’t care either. Cyrus looks over to me when I step into the living area, raising his eyebrows so I figure that I look like shit. No makeup, pyjamas on and I’ve been lying in bed for most of the day. I must look terrible.
“Hey.” He greets, getting up and following me to the kitchen. “You feeling any better?”
“Not really.” I grumble, pouring myself a glass of water. “I feel so bad that you’re at my home and are most likely bored out of your brain. Just go out for a little while, I’ll only be in bed anyway and I’ll be fine by myself.”
Cyrus sighs, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms across his chest. “I can’t Dee.”
“You can.” I giggle. “My dad secured this place as much as he could, so nobody would be getting in here without my say so.”
“Drew.” Cyrus whines and I can see I’m weighing him down.
“Look, I don’t want you here while I’m suffering. It’s not fair on you or me, so it’s probably best if you get out for at least a couple of hours. I’ll be perfectly fine.” I beg. “Please Cyrus, you’ll make me feel less guilty about leaving you alone all the time.”
Cyrus sighs heavily, and I know I’ve finally gotten my own way. “Ok, but I’ll pop in on you every so often.”
“No problem.” I smile widely and then I remember that I’m supposed to be ill, so I drop the smile and walk him to the front door, holding my dressing gown tightly.
“Don’t let anyone in and call me if you need me.” Cyrus warns and I quickly agree.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” I assure him and as soon as the door is closed behind him, I lock it up and run to my bedroom. I need to start to get ready for tonight and fast.
Sixty minutes later I’m dressed and ready, looking a lot fucking better than I did an hour ago. My hair is slicked back into a high pony tail and I’m dressed in my burgundy mini skirt and black vest top. Simple yet sexy. I look at my reflection and see that most of my tattoos are on show. Looking at them all I remember when I had them and the fun Sketch and I had while he was tattooing me. I can still remember the first one he gave me. I had begged him to do it and if I’m totally honest I only got it because I had fancied him and wanted some alone time together, but then I caught the bug and I had to have more. I only let Sketch do them and the more he did, the better we got to know each other and I fell in love pretty quickly. Tears gather in my eyes as I think back to our memories but I snap myself out of it when my phone vibrates, it’s my taxi letting me know that it’s arrived outside. I grab what I need, not forgetting the knife’s tucked away under my skirt and hidden in my boots.
I run outside into the bitter cold and let the driver know where I’m going. As he drives, I look out of my window and up into the sky, sending a silent message up to Sketch. I let him know that tonight is the night that his death will be avenged.