Red (Hell’s Jury MC #5)

4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Red

On route to the cop shop, I replay the events in my head. To say I’m furious is grossly understating it. Yeah, I get it. I’m a big bad biker and I don’t pretend I’m anything else, but for fuck’s sake, Stella and her mother are loony tunes.

I need to sell that house and move out of the neighborhood. I can’t have that crackpot family fucking around with my bid to get full access to my daughter. Gabby’s too important.

I’m about to be charged with assault because of a fuckin’ spider and a red-headed siren. So fuckin’ messed up.

I kick the back of Kyle Levine’s seat. “This is bullshit! I wasn’t assaultin’ anyone.”

“Watch it, fucker,” Levine says. “Wouldn’t want to beat the shit out of you for resisting arrest.”

“Jesus Christ,” I say under my breath. Hangman, Hell’s Jury’s prez, doesn’t want us killing cops, but I think even he would make an exception over Levine.

When we get to the cop shop, they try to print me, but I’m not having any of that bullshit. “You get your fuckin’ facts straight before you book me!” I’m yelling so loud, I’d scare a fuckin’ lion. “Gimme my phone call right fuckin’ now.”

I think about kicking the feet from under Levine, dragging him to a cell, hurling him against the wall, and locking the fucking door. Good to have dreams.

Captain Jackson, the sonofabitch on the Jury’s payroll, comes barreling out of the office, stopping short when he sees me. He turns to Levine. “What the hell?”

“This bastard was assaulting two women in their driveway. The mom and daughter were screaming like banshees. What the fuck was I supposed to do?”

Jackson raises his eyebrows as he turns to me. “You were assaulting women?” He knows I wouldn’t. I don’t go around beating on anyone unless there’s a good reason. Especially women.

“No, I fuckin’ was not assaultin’ anyone.” A rush of heat hits my face when I realize how fucked up my explanation is going to be so I don’t give it. “Gimme my phone call.”

“Not until after you’ve been processed,” Levine sneers.

The captain puffs out his chest, trying to look like he’s in control. “Both of you in my office.”

“No,” I snarl. “I’m not gonna fuckin’ play kiss and makeup with this cocksucker. I want my phone call and I want privacy.”

Levine opens his mouth to protest, but Jackson says, “Go find a doughnut, Levine. I’ll take it from here.”

Levine stares at the captain for a few long seconds, then breaks eye contact. He looks at me. “I’m gonna get you, asshole. One of these days you’re gonna do something you can’t talk your way out of.”

Jackson gives me the same foul look as he says to the other cop on the scene. “Brant, take him into the conference room and let him have his call.” Then he says to me. “You got five minutes. No special treatment.”

When I get inside, I slump into a chair and pull the phone towards me. What the fuck am I gonna tell the prez?

The truth, buddy. Can’t explain it any other way.

I dial Hangman’s number.

He picks it up on the first ring. “What?” he barks.

Yeah, this is gonna be fun. “It’s Red. I got arrested.”

“What the fuck!” he yells in his gravelly voice. “What the hell did you do?”

Hangman’s hard to figure out. You wouldn’t know it on the outside, but he takes an interest in me that he doesn’t do with the other brothers. Never understood why, but he knows what I’m about, what I’m doin’ trying to get visitation rights with Gabby. He knows my mom through his older sister, Marissa. She and mom were friends growing up, but I think they lost touch when Marissa split town.

I take a deep breath. “Nothin’ really. There was this spider in some chick’s hair. She freaked so I was trying to get it out.”

Hangman interrupts. “You fuckin’ got arrested for killin’ a spider?”

It’s hard to tell if he’s being funny. He hardly ever smiles and his voice never changes from hostile, suspicious, dangerous.

“No. She was jumping around like a lunatic and I was rifling through her hair. Her mom drove up at the same time the leather on my wrist got caught in her curls.”

“Jesus fuck,” Hangman snarls.

I think about Stella, her thick curly hair. “Like really caught. It looked like I was assaulting her ‘cause she was hopping around like a lunatic.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re fuckin’ her.”

“Fuck no,” I deny almost regretfully. “The parents are my neighbors. I was just walking across the street with her ‘cause she wanted to introduce me to her mother. Then the fuckin’ spider thing happened.”

“So the mom went haywire and called the cops.”

“Yeah. Screamed and hollered and tried to get me off her fucking baby .” I rub at the scratches on my cheek. “But the more the girl jumped, the more my bracelet got caught. The cops set a speed record gettin’ there.”

“Joker!” Hangman yells for the VP. “Red got arrested.”

I hear Joker’s voice in the background. “For what?”

“Assaultin’ a spider.” Hangman snorts. “We gotta get down to the fuckin’ pig palace.”

“We gonna need backup?”

“Nah. You and me should do the trick.”

“Good. We got too much goin’ on to spare anyone else.”

“Get Zero to bring the cage so jail-boy’s got a ride.”

He turns his attention back to me. “Sit tight, fucker, and don’t do anything stupid.”

I end the call, get up and pound on the locked door. I don’t know why because they’re just gonna shove me in a cell.

Called it.

“Get your ass in the cell,” a new cop, name tag Schneider, sneers as he opens the cell door. Brant is standing in the hall with his hand on the butt of his Colt Special in case I go Kong on them.

“You fuckin’ watch yourself,” I snarl to the new asshole as I get in his face. “Or you won’t last long in this town.”

Schneider pales a little, but to his credit, doesn’t stop his posturing. “Get in the cell, you ugly fucker.”

As I step past him, I bump him hard with my shoulder, making him stumble back. “Oops, sorry ‘bout that. Fell on my head when I got arrested. Feelin’ dizzy.”

The door clangs behind me. Nothin’ I haven’t heard before. Nothin’ I won’t hear again.

I turn and stare down the hall, willing Hangman to get here fast. I gotta do some damage control and I can’t do it in here.

The gravity of the situation hits me hard. Whether I’m charged or not, it’ll go into the books as suspicion of assault and get reported back to the fuckers that decide if I get weekend custody of Gabby. And they’ll twist it around.

I curse. I wish I’d never moved into that fuckin’ neighborhood. I wish I’d never met that fuckin’ woman.

My dick calls bullshit on me as the image of Stella flits through my head. I’m screwed. I’m gonna have to fuck every passaround we got to get her out of my head, though something tells me that ain’t gonna work. Stella’s good and stuck there.

Ten minutes later the front door of the cop shop bangs opens. “‘Where the fuck is Jackson!” Hangman roars.

“Hey, let’s do this civilized, Hangman,” Joker says, his tone more moderate.

Joker’s shorter than me. Well, everyone is, but he seems bigger. Dominates the room, but not like Hangman who sucks the air out of it. And Joker has muscles like I’ve never seen. No leanness. Stronger than any fucker I’ve met, including me. When Hangman gets into a rage, Joker’s the only one who can handle him. It’s good he’s VP. Keeps the club running. Keeps the prez from hangin’ his own self.

“Fuck that,” Hangman says to Joker. “This is false arrestin’, entrapment, harassment, assaultin’ and bullshit!”

Hangman at his finest.

“Let’s just get the fucker out of jail,” Joker replies. “We can deal with the rest of the shit later.”

Jackson’s voice intrudes on the conversation. “Joker, we need to sort this out. The mom’s insisting we charge him with assault and I can’t just bury it.”

“She’s fuckin’ prejudice against Red because of his size and his association with us. I’ll fuckin’ sort her out. Where’s her bullshit witness statement,” Hangman replies.

“She hasn’t made one.”

Then I hear Stella. “I’m here to make one.”

My heart leaps but at the same time, my rage grows.

“Who the fuck are you?” Hangman says in a voice that would scare the devil.

It works on Stella. “I’m… uh… well…” She clears her throat. “I’m Stella Leith-Procter.”

“What the fuck is wrong with your name?”

“It’s hyphenated, Hangman,” Joker says.

“I fuckin’ know that, but who calls a kid Stella? How fuckin’ old are your parents? 90?”

“No, they’re in their forties.” Stella says, then stops. “Yeah, I think that’s right.”

“Who gives a shit,” Hangman replies as if Stella raised the subject. “So you’re the fuckin’ bitch with the spider.”

Jesus Christ, Hangman. Don’t.

“I… uh… if you don’t mind. It’s just, it’s not nice to call women bitches anymore.” She stops and I can almost hear her thinking. “Well, it never was. Unless, of course, it’s girlfriend to girlfriend in that teasing sense.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

My temper’s rising because Hangman’s right. We can save the pc lesson ’til later. I rattle the bars and yell. “Could you just make the fuckin’ statement, Stella, and get the hell out of my life.”

“Red, settle down,” Joker shouts, then in a voice more measured, but no less hostile, says to Stella. “Make the statement. Get him out and then get the hell out of here.”

Jackson intrudes on the conversation. “She’s gonna to have to write it down and sign it.”

Hangman’s voice drips ice. “You and me are gonna be talkin’ real soon, pig.” Then to someone, he says, “Get a fucking pen and paper and write it down while she says it.”

“Yes, sir,” says a quiet female voice. The front desk clerk. A minute later, she says, “I’m ready.”

“Say what you gotta say,” Hangman says to Stella.

“Right. Well, Lachlan and I just met?—”

“Who the fuck is Lachlan?” Hangman snarls. He knows, but sometimes, for reasons I can’t fathom, he plays dumb, like he needs to entertain himself.

“You know. The… Lachlan… Red… he got arrested.”

“On fuckin’ trumped up charges.”

“Get on with the statement,” I yell, my rage towering now. “I got a fuckin’ mess to sort out because of you!”

“Right.” Stella’s soft voice makes me feel guilty. “We were walking across the street?—”

“What street?” Jackson says.

“Let her finish the fuckin’ statement,” Joker snaps. His impatience is growing.

“Lachlan’s house is exact opposite my parents’. We were walking across the street to meet my mom, when a spider got in my hair.” I hear her pause. In a faint voice, she says, “Spiders scare me so much. All of them. It’s a primitive evolutionary reaction.”

“I don’t give a fuck about evolution,” Hangman growls.

“Right, of course. Well, you see, I got in a panic, and Lachlan was trying to get it out, the spider, I mean and I was jumping around and almost crying because it was in my hair. Then my mom saw us and thought Lachlan was attacking me. Which he wasn’t. Then Lachlan’s leather bracelet got caught in my hair.” She pauses. “Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe mom didn’t think he was assaulting me until after he got his bracelet caught in my hair. It was all a blur at the time.”

“Jesus fuck, woman,” Hangman snarls. “Who gives a shit what came first?”

“Well, I thought it was important to have my facts straight. You know. For the statement.”

“Move on.” Hangman’s voice is flat and dangerous.

“I guess it doesn’t matter, but when he got the cuff caught, I really started to panic, because the spider was still in my hair.” She stops for a couple seconds, then adds, “I think.”

“Keep going,” Joker says impatiently.

“Okay. Lachlan couldn’t get the bracelet untangled. And mom was freaking out and called the cops and when they arrived, they yanked Lachlan off me which pulled out a chunk of my hair.”

“So the cops assaulted you?” Hangman says, turning the story around. “Must of fuckin’ hurt.”

“It did! The spider’s gone though, so Lachlan must’ve killed it or it just got away.”

“You got all that?” Joker says.

“Yes,” the front desk clerk replies quickly.

“Then sign the fuckin’ statement, Stella Leith-Whatever,” Hangman sneers.

There’s a moment of quiet, then, Hangman again. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“I’d like to talk to Lachlan first, if you don’t mind.”

“We mind,” Joker snaps. “Get going.”

“I’ll let him out,” Jackson says grimly as the front door opens and shuts.

I glare at Jackson as I stomp by, and when I reach the lobby, both Hangman and Joker glare at me.

Hangman gives me small shove. “You can’t fuckin’ keep it in your pants. What the hell is wrong with you?”

I ignore his insult. “I got the stink of cop on me. I need some fresh air.” I bolt outside to find Stella waiting for me.