Dodge

My blood pumped hard in my body. I wanted to go out and hurt some fucker. No, I wanted to kill Willow's cousin, and if her parents were still alive, I'd take them down, as well. Like so many I knew, she didn't deserve to be treated the way she was. Hell, she'd had no one since being a kid. How could a person like her turn out so normal after having fucked-up parents?

"You all right?" Pick asked as I walked into the kitchen at the back of the house.

Was I okay? Sure, it wasn't as if it had happened to me, so why was he even asking if I was okay?

His next sentence explained why. "You look like you wanna kill someone."

"I do," I barked.

"She seems so...together, even after the shit hand she was dealt," Dive commented as he sat at the table with Pick and Billy.

"Which is strange," Billy said. We all looked to him. "It's not that I don't trust her story, but come on, how does she not freak the fuck out being around us bikers and people if all she's known is heartache from her family?"

"She's strong, that's how," Dive said. "Anyone can see it, the light in her eyes. She holds out hope for a new life. From what she said, she's tried a few times to get away from her crap family, but they kept fuckin' her over. She wants a better life, and I reckon she's willing to fight for it."

"There's still so much we need to know, but fuck, she needs help. No one, not in this day and age, should be sold to some cockhead as a goddamn slave," I growled.

"She gonna stay here? We gonna help her out?" Dive asked, resting back into his chair more.

Pick was the first to nod and say, "Yes, she's under Hawks' protection now." I couldn't blame the guy. He'd also had a fucked-up upbringing.

"So, she's staying here?" Dive said again.

"What are you getting at, fool?" I asked, leaning against the wall, my arms crossed over my chest.

"It's just, you ain't the nicest person to a woman, only when you fuck 'em. Maybe she'd be more comfortable at my place. At least I'm nice."

No fucking way. Not happening.

Billy snorted. "She won't go anywhere else."

"Why not?" Dive asked.

"She feels safe with Dodge. He found her, and now she doesn't want anyone else to protect her," Billy said.

"I don't think that's—" I started.

"Brother," Pick interrupted, shaking his head. "She screamed out to stop the car because she couldn't see you. That's why we had to pull over until you were in front of us. Her eyes were glued to you the whole fuckin' way here."

Holy motherfuckin' shit.

"Serious?" I asked, just in case he was pulling my leg.

"Dead set, brother."

Rubbing a hand over my face, I asked, "How am I supposed to deal with that?"

"I don't know, but she's drawn a connection with you, sees you as her hero or some shit. And if you think to even fuck her over in any way, you need to put your foot down now and tell her where your head is."

"That's the problem." I sighed. "I don't know."

"You need to find out, and soon," Pick said and stood from the table as Josie walked into the room.

"Can someone help me get Willow to the bathroom? I don't want her walking on her feet just yet."

Dive stood quickly. Without thinking, I pushed the fucker back into his chair.

"Precious..."

"I'm okay, Caden." She smiled sadly. "Are you?" she asked, and Pick nodded as he and Billy moved to her side.

"We'll help her," Billy offered. Josie nodded and rested her head against his chest. Anything like what Willow's been through would cut a person up, but it'd be harder for Pick and Josie because of their fucked-up pasts. You could already see the bond Josie had formed with Willow. Josie wasn't one to touch a person, wasn't even one to talk really, even though the guys had brought her out of her shell more. She was great with people she'd known for a long time. Not strangers, though. Never strangers...except Willow.

There was just something about the woman in the living room that bloody touched us all.

Shaking my thoughts away, I walked out of the kitchen down the hall, past the bedrooms and bathroom and into the living room to find Willow still sitting on the couch. Her eyes were on the hallway, waiting, watching for someone to come back. I couldn't help but see her shoulders sag in...relief, maybe, when she saw it was me.

Christ.

Her soulful eyes did something to me, to my heart, making it beat faster, making it want to take a chance.

Fuck, you can't, dickhead. Look at what happened last time.

My hand went to the back of my neck and I rubbed it, trying to erase the sudden thoughts from my head.

"You, ah, need a hand to the bathroom?" I asked Willow, distracting myself. She nodded and gave me a small smile that somehow sent a message to my dick to harden.

Fuck.

Walking up to her without words, I slid one hand under her legs as the other went to her back. I picked her small body up with ease and made my way down the hall while my cock thought it was party time and grew even harder.

Control your fuckin' self.

The bathroom door in the hall was already open and I could hear water running. I took a step in to see Josie leaning in, fixing the water pressure on the shower.

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled before saying, "Thanks, Dodge. Please set Willow on the toilet and I'll help her from here."

I paused for a moment, because I liked the thought of me being the one to help her naked body in the shower, to wash away her troubles, but then my dick jerked under my jeans. I quickly placed her on the toilet. She looked up at me and uttered, "Thank you...for everything."

"Uh-huh," was my awesome reply. Stupid idiot.

Turning, I found Dive leaning against the doorframe. "If you ladies need any help in here, I'm totally up for it." He smiled but then the grin faded a little when he saw my glare. I started for him, and he quickly backed out and yelled, "Or not! Nope, I'm not helping at all, so don't ask."

Before leaving, I spun around and eyed Willow, who was already looking at me. "I need a favour," I said.

"Yes, anything."

"I want your cousin's address."

Her eyes widened, and her hand went to her throat. "But..."

"Little bird, don't protect that scum. Give it to me."

"No,"—she shook her head—"I would never protect him, not after...but you could get hurt." She nervously looked to the floor. My eyes glanced over at Josie to see her smiling then looked back at Willow.

Her words shocked the fuck outta me. She was worried I'd be hurt.

"Willow," Josie began. "Dodge will be fine. He'll have brothers at his back. He won't go in it alone. It's not how they work." She reassured the worried Willow, who still looked unsure as she bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brow.

"Promise things will go smoothly," I offered.

She looked up at me and nodded, then rattled off the address. My blood pumped hard in my body, causing my heart to tick faster; I was excited to hurt the fucking cousin, and hoped it would lead me to the cunt who wanted to buy her.

With a chin lift, I said, "You'll be safe here. Billy and Dive are staying."

"Pick's going with you?" Josie asked.

"Yeah, and he's ringin' in Dallas." She gave me a nod and I walked out of the room, listening to the door close behind me.

*  *  *  *

We stopped our Harleys a block away, just in case the dick did have friends with him. We wanted to go in quiet to see what we'd be in for—before I blew his brains out. Dallas went left, Pick went right, and I went head-on. There was a car in the drive, but other than that, there was nothing else. It was hard to tell if anyone was home; all the blinds were shut tight.

It crossed my mind it was a trap, but I wasn't backing away. I knew Pick and Dallas would be close by, so I went for the front door and knocked.

Nothing.

I knocked again and then I heard footsteps.

The door opened and in the doorway stood a skinny black fucker. His eyes widened and he took in my club vest. "Fuck," he hissed.

"You got that right." I smiled and shoved him backward. I walked in, closed the door, and turned on the light to see Pick and Dallas already standing in the living room. Her cousin turned, spotted them and screamed like a bitch.

"Look, I don't know where the bitch got to!" he yelled. "I'm looking for her as fast as I can, but you fuckers keep turning up and wasting my time."

So there were more hounding him.

We watched him study us. "Wait...fuck, fuck, fuck. You got nothing to do with the deal, do youse?"

"No, but we want to know who you are dealing with."

He backed up into the wall. "No, no. I can't say or they'll kill me." I got close and drew out my knife from my belt at the back of my pants.

"And you think we won't?" I snarled.

He shook his head. "No." The dick actually smiled. His eyes flicked to my patch and then back to my face. "I've heard about the Hawks MC. Youse don't deal in trouble."

"Wrong." It was my turn to smile before I forced my blade into his wrist against the wall. His scream was blocked off by Dallas's hand over his mouth. "Most of the members don't feel the need to deal in trouble because they have us to do it for them. You heard of the enforcers for the club?"

He shook his head. Tears fell down his cheeks and dripped onto Dallas's hand. "No?" I asked. "A pity, because that's who we are." I gave a chin lift to Dallas. He removed his hand and supported the guy's weight against the wall with an arm across his chest. I held the knife in place while blood pooled on the floor and dripped from his wrist.

"W-why are you gettin' involved?" the dick asked, sweat coating his forehead.

"We don't like cunts selling women."

"I needed the money!" he yelled. "She fucking deserved it. She had to pay me back for taking her in in some way."

"So you sold her?" I boomed.

"Dodge," Pick warned.

Taking a deep breath, I moved the knife up slowly, cutting through muscle, skin and tendons. The guy whimpered in agony. "Stop, stop. I'll tell you." His eyes closed, his breath came hard, but then he opened his eyes. "Wait, you know where she is."

"Tell us who bought her," I demanded through clenched teeth.

Pain laced his words, but he was still cocky. "You do, you have her," he said.

Removing the knife, I quickly placed it back in, only in his shoulder, causing him to scream once again.

"Tell me," I hissed.

"The Venom MC, someone from there."

Fuck, we'd guessed they’d been involved already.

"His name?" Pick asked.

"I don't know. He wouldn't give it. I was happy I paid off my debts. I didn't care about anything else."

"See," I started then shook my head before stepping back, removing my knife and pulling my gun with added silencer from my jeans. "That's where you should have cared. No one ought to sell a member of their fuckin' family out, no matter what," I said calmly before aiming and shooting him right between the eyes.

"Fuck," Dallas growled. "Next time, give me notice before you shoot a fucker." He turned to face me and I quickly hid my smirk. He was covered in brains and blood. "I'll get out of the goddamn way."

"Sorry, brother," I offered.

"Sorry, my arse. You'll pay for that, dickhead," Dallas grumbled as he picked up the bottom of his tee and wiped his face with it. "How we gonna find the guy from Venom?"

"We'll figure something out. We always do. We'll need to update Saxon and Lan with what's gone down. Don't want blowback for that shit," Pick said, jutting his chin out towards the dead fucker slumped on the ground. "For now, let's get outta here and back to the women."

"Gotta meet this bird if it's causing Dodge to act like a crazy man."

"What the fuck you talking about? I'm always crazy."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, true that. Lucky you like violence as much as me or I'd have to wonder about you." He started for the back door. "I'm going home for a shower. Meet at your house, brother. Gather the others."

"Done," I said.

Yeah, violence was what I enjoyed, especially if it kept the trouble from touching my brothers and family.

So what was Willow?

Fuck if I knew.