When I found my private room on the third floor empty, I didn’t panic. I figured she was downstairs trying to get more information out of Dimitri. I laughed to myself. She tried to act like she was against what we were doing, but her dedication to the cause betrayed her. She felt responsible for Dimitri, for what happened to him, and for what we found out from him. She felt a duty to continue her work, and regardless of what she said or what she wanted me to think, that spoke volumes about how she felt about me.
I smiled the whole way down to the basement. I paused at the steel door. I wanted to go right in and grab her. I wanted to take her away from our prisoner and tell him to kiss my ass while I took her upstairs for drinks with the guys. At the same time, I wanted to wait, to give her time to get what information she could out of him. Maybe he would tell her another name we could expect to find on Ivan’s yacht.
I leaned against the wall and waited. I couldn’t stop thinking about the opportunity ahead of us. More so than the opportunity facing the MC, I was excited about the prospect of being able to pursue Julia romantically.
“Man, what is it about that woman?” I asked myself out loud. “I can’t stop thinking about her.”
I looked at the door. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but it felt like a lot. I wanted to know what was going on in there. My thoughts of her kept running through my head, but they were beginning to turn sour. I had suspected her of working with Dimitri at one point. I had honestly thought that she was hiding information he’d given her from me. Maybe she had been. Maybe he’d been slowly giving her information about the deal going down on Ivan’s yacht, and she had been waiting to tell me. That certainly would have been understandable.
“Fuck it,” I said as I pushed myself off the wall. I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to go in and find out what was taking so damn long in that room.
I opened the door and started to walk in, giving my eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light. I didn’t hear anyone talking, and as my eyes adjusted, I didn’t see anyone sitting in the room.
“What the fuck?” I ran over to his chair and saw that the ropes had been cut. She had been working with him.
Suddenly, the growing sense of intoxication that had been clouding my mind faded back. I saw everything in high definition. She had helped him escape. She’d told me he asked her to help him get out of here. I should have known that he would keep trying.
I hurried upstairs to greet the disappointed faces of the other guys sitting at the bar.
“Couldn’t convince her to come down, huh?” Juarez joked.
I didn’t say anything but kept walking until I reached the bar.
“What’s wrong?” Angelo asked when he saw my face.
“She’s gone.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Ricky said.
“And so is Dimitri.”
“You never should have let her go down there alone,” Angelo said. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. When will you learn, kid?” He put a heavy hand on the back of my neck. “You gotta stop thinking with your dick, man.”
Chase and Juarez laughed uncomfortably.
“You guys are just playing with us, right?” Chase asked.
“Yeah, I’d be surprised if that tired old punching bag could walk, man. We worked him over pretty well,” Juarez added.
“It’s possible they helped each other escape. His ropes were cut. Dammit! She told me he kept asking her to help him escape.” I was so angry with myself for leaving her alone with him. All I could think was that this was going to turn into Lisa all over again. Julia was going to end up in the middle of everything, and I was going to lose her.
Angelo’s hand moved to my shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t beat yourself up again. This isn’t over. She’s not gone yet. We still have a chance to get her back.”
“Yeah, bro, we’ll help you find her.” Chase slugged my other shoulder and chugged the rest of his beer.
“The question is, where the hell would Dimitri take her?” Rick said from behind me.
“The yacht,” I said.
“Unless she was just using him for collateral to help get herself out of here,” Angelo argued. “Don’t count her out of this like that. Don’t underestimate her.”
I thought about it a moment. He was right. She was strong-willed enough to pull this off for herself instead of getting herself caught up with Dimitri because he promised to help her.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ve got a plan. You guys get ready to go out to Lake Michigan tonight in search of Ivan’s yacht. I’m going to search for her at her apartment and the university. If I don’t find her, we’ll head out to the lake when I get back.”
“Are you okay to drive?” Angelo asked.
I looked him dead in the eye. “Do I look drunk?” I asked him. “I can drive. I’m not losing this one, brother. Julia is not slipping through the cracks the way I let Lisa go.”
“Take it easy, bro. We’re here to help. Why don’t you get one of the princes to help?” Juarez asked. All the humor and playfulness was gone from his voice. I couldn’t remember another time when he sounded serious like that.
“Look, no matter what, I’ve got to get out of here and go look for her,” I insisted. “So, if you think someone else needs to drive, go ahead and get somebody, but none of you are sober enough to drive if I’m not.” I started toward the stairs.
“Gage Noll,” Angelo called in his authoritative tone. “You’re not going anywhere.”
I stopped and shook my head, laughing to myself. It always struck me as funny that we were so hardcore when it came to beating asses, selling guns and drugs, and picking up women, but, when it came to shit like DUI, the MC had always been pretty strict. We used to always tell members that we were violent criminals, but we weren’t idiots.
Well, I was a fucking idiot. I’d already proven that. I started walking again, taking the stairs down to the garage.
“Seriously, bro, wait up,” Chase called after me.
I stopped a few steps down. I could hear Juarez talking to one of the younger members. He was telling him I needed a ride to find the lady who’d been working with me. The kid sounded like he was agreeing. I walked back up to see who it was.
Juarez had his large inked arm around the prospect’s shoulders. This kid wasn’t even a prince, a junior member, yet. He was just a prospect. He wore a Metallica t-shirt and blue jeans. He didn’t even have a cut yet. We didn’t give out blank ones like some clubs did. Either you had your colors or you didn’t.
It was so easy to tell how long guys had been with us, too. The new kids were all skin and bones. Occasionally someone would come to us already ripped, or at least big and thick to begin with, but most of the kids were messes. They came from broken homes, dysfunctional families, or even families that were just too perfect for them. They came looking for something that made sense in their world. They thought we were it! That was some funny shit. They got in, started working, working out, and they realized that even we were fucked up.
I watched the hopeful kid with the long, shaggy hair come bouncing over to me.
“They said you need a ride, man. I don’t mind helping out,” he said.
I threw my arm around his bony, narrow shoulders. “Thanks, kid. Cliff, right?”
“Yeah, that’s me.” He perked up, proud that his president knew his name already.
“Yeah, you’re one of Juarez’s prospects. That makes you pretty good in my book already,” I told him as we started down the stairs together. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was a little relieved to have someone with me.
I fished the keys to the Suburban out of my pocket and handed them to Cliff as we reached the bottom of the stairs at the garage.
The sound of shattering glass suddenly filled the room around us. I looked up in time to see the last of the back window fall out of the Suburban.
“What the hell?” I asked, putting my arm up in front of Cliff and pushing him back against the wall. “That’s not right,” I told him.
Then, the unmistakable sound of gunshots rang out, and bullets flew past us.
“Get down!” I shoved Cliff to the floor just as a bullet whizzed past my head. We were under attack and needed to get out of the line of fire while securing the garage.
That bitch, I thought as I ducked down to avoid the hail of gunfire. I couldn’t believe she’d gone and turned us over to Ivan like this. I couldn’t believe it was going to end this way.