Chapter 22
Daredevil
“I feel alive!” Jordan shook his head wildly, while Mom stood in front of him, with a needle and thread in her hand. She was losing patience but her motherly feelings towards the members of the MC was shining through. Ace was sitting behind Jordan, trying to keep his head still while she stitched the wound on his forehead.
Jordan reached for the shot of whisky Big D had placed beside him on the counter. He tipped his head back and chugged it down.
“Wooohooo!” he cheered, his eyes wild with the pain and the drugging effects of the whisky. This was his third shot.
“Be still or I tell Big D to hold the drinks!” Mom snapped at him.
“You need to get stitched up brother,” Ace tried to pacify him but Jordan snapped his fingers in the air again, trying to get Big D’s attention. I could see Dad and Lewis in the background talking.
“Hold still, Jordan!” I barked at him and he smiled toothily at me. Ace held down his shoulders while Mom brought the needle to his eyebrows.
“I’ll tell ya, this is going to hurt,” she said and pierced his skin with the needle. Jordan clenched his jaws and I saw him gripping the edge of the counter, but he wasn’t going to scream. No matter how painful this was.
“What happened?” Hunter had appeared behind him now and Jordan tried to crane his neck to see.
Mom smacked his cheek, as hard as she used to smack mine when I was a kid and Jordan looked back at her apologetically.
“They jumped me,” he said.
“Who?” Hunter asked him, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Claws. I was at The Pussycats, collecting the dues from Mac,” he said, in a more sobered down voice now. I could see that he was reliving the moment.
“Dues? Our dues?” Hunter asked and Jordan nodded his head. His movement made Mom flick her hand on his cheek again, and he held still.
“Were you alone?”
“I was at the back, leaving. Mac had just handed me the dough,” Jordan said, his eyelids fluttering with pain while Mom dug the needle into his skin again. He gritted his teeth to stop from crying out and Hunter exchanged looks with me.
“How many of them were there?”
“Three. Those three from the warehouse. They shifted, right in the club. I didn’t have a chance to let the panther out or I would have had them. But I was drunk and you know I’m no good shifting when I am,” Jordan said, looking at me now and I clenched my jaw with rage. Ace was shaking his head behind Jordan. I knew what he was thinking. We should have popped them when we had the chance. But we didn’t have a chance. We were outnumbered!
“There. You’ll be good as new in a few days,” Mom said, stepping away from Jordan now to admire her handiwork. Jordan reached for another shot of whisky in reaction and downed it and smacked his lips.
“Didn’t feel a thing,” he said and Beasty let out a bellowing laugh.
“You might want to wipe the tears from your cheeks first, brother. It’s ruining your makeup,” he said and Ace laughed too. Jordan was still smiling.
“Come back to me in seven days, Jordan. Those stitches need to be removed before they start messing with your skin,” Mom said and wiped her hands with a rag.
I watched as she patted Hunter’s shoulder and threw me a look and nodded her head. No matter how much she disapproved of our lifestyle, she was always going to be there for the pride. I smiled at her reassuringly, but she was straight faced. She didn’t find the situation as amusing as Jordan did.
“I’ll see you at home,” she said and Dad leaned in to plant a quick kiss on her cheek and then slapped her behind when she walked away from him. I rolled my eyes and looked away.
“This needs to end,” Ace was wiping his bloodied hands on a rag now and he stood up from his chair. Some of the guys had already started a match with Jordan, they were downing whisky shots and bets were being placed. Ace and Beasty came up to Hunter and me and Lewis joined in.
“Yeah, this needs to be handled,” Lewis said and my father was nodding his head.
“Kill any Claw member you find on our territory,” he said, after a moment silence. Ace and I exchanged looks.
“Is that an order?” Beasty asked.
Hunter stared at him and then nodded his head again.
“Yes, do it,” he said and then turned from us and walked away, Lewis close on his heels.
Ace, Beasty and I stared at Jordan downing shots at the counter, jostling the other guys.
“We need to put the bastard to sleep,” Ace said and I shook my head.
“Justine has pumped enough pills in him. We don’t have to make him do anything,” Beasty said.
We watched Jordan for a few minutes longer, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Hunter had given us the order, shoot on sight. This was the beginning of a war, which meant that anything could happen.
Jordan’s eyelids were beginning to droop as he held up another shot glass to his lips.
“Should he be mixing alcohol with the pills?” Ace asked and Beasty shrugged his shoulders.
“If this doesn’t kill him, something else will,” he said and we looked at each other. He was right. War with the Claws meant that any of us could die, but we had our orders and we had to carry them out.
Jordan’s head bobbed once and then he crashed, face forward on the counter and a loud Whoa erupted around us.
“C’mon. Bed time for you, little man,” Beasty said and grabbed Jordan and put him over his shoulder. He carried him upstairs to the bunk room where he deposited him for the night.
xxx
We were on our bikes. Ace, Beasty and I were out to scan the territory. It was the middle of the night, but my mind was buzzing. Too much had happened in one night. The Claws had just beaten up one of our brothers, on our territory.
There would have to be consequences.
“I’ll go north,” Beasty called out to us over the sound of our roaring engines and I nodded my head in agreement. Ace and I rode south. We were not going to give those weasels an opportunity to shake down or rob a business again. And we were definitely not going to give them an opportunity to beat up any of us again. This was going to end and we were going to win.
Gripping my bike tightly, Ace and I rode together, our eyes scanning every road and every corner that we rode past. I tried not to think of Melody and her ex, that would have to wait another day. At least she was safe for now. But it was difficult to separate the two feelings. My rage against her ex was fueled even more by what had happened to Jordan; even though the two things were not connected. If the Claws hadn’t messed with Jordan, Maxwell Salzburg would have been dead by now.
I was riding with Ace beside me and the sound of a gunshot alerted us.
“It came from the north!” Ace roared out and we both made a U-turn in unison, picking up speed. The gunshot had come from the direction that Beasty had gone. Another shot was fired and we rode even faster.
In the distance, we could see Beasty, standing on the pavement. He was clutching his shoulder, while his Harley lay flat on the ground. He had jumped off his bike at some point.
His free hand was pointed straight at the head of a Claws member. The guy was pressed up against a run down brick wall, with his hands up while Beasty stood in front of him. This was quickly becoming a common occurrence and I suppressed a smile.
Ace and I jumped off our bikes.
“You hurt, man?” Ace yelled at Beasty, while I slipped my gun out of my jeans. We joined Beasty, pointing our guns at the asshole against the wall.
“Just my shoulder,” Beasty grunted, and there was blood streaming from where he was clutching it with his other hand. I could see that arm shaking a little, and I met his eyes and tipped my head.
“We got this,” I said and Beasty lowered his gun.
I stepped towards the guy, who was snarling at us. He looked like a caged wolf, but he was outnumbered now, so he couldn’t really pull anything.
There was a backpack lying on the ground beside him.
“What’s in that?” I growled at him and kicked the backpack with my feet. It felt heavy, like it was filled with something metallic.
The guy said nothing and I heard Ace click his gun, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. I crouched down and unzipped the backpack.
It was full of guns. I exchanged looks with Ace and Beasty.
“You thought you could ride through our territory, with a bag full of guns?” I barked at him, and the guy spat at my face. My tiger roared, and I let it out. I could feel my hands turning into the claws I knew. But before the change could take over me completely I grabbed his collar and then punched my knuckles into his jaw. He shuddered, but took the punch well. When I stood up, he was wiping blood from his nose.
“Who said it’s yours?” I heard him say, as I pulled the backpack up and swung it over my shoulder. There had to be at least a dozen of them in there!
I turned to him, shook my head and then turned back towards my bike. This was not going to end well for him.
“Gonna go deposit these at the club. Beasty, go back and get stitched up. Call my mother,” I said and then thumped him on his back. “Damn she’s gonna be pissed, two shots in one night.”
With the backpack on my shoulders, I jumped back on my bike and revved up the engine. When Ace and I exchanged looks, I nodded my head.
With my helmet back on, and my engine roaring, I rode away, back in the direction of The Shifter Shack; but I heard the sound of the gun fire crisp and clear in the air. Two birds had just been killed with one stone. Hunter’s orders had been carried out, and Ace had just got his way.
What do they say about love and war? Anything is fair…