Red (Hell’s Jury MC #5)

34. Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

Red

My plan was to leave early and ride for a while, then check on Hawkeye’s. The auto shop ain’t open until 7 am, but I haven’t been there in days and I gotta catch up.

I’m furious at Stella. She doesn’t fuckin’ get it. She lives her life with her head in the clouds, thinking nothin’ will harm her. It makes me think of her white privilege. Of Stella’s best friend, Lexie. Black like Erin but the two are worlds apart. Lexie’s entitled; Erin’s life was shit.

Maybe I should be glad Theo’s in my ex’s life. Theo will protect her. Help her rise above all the prejudice.

He’s older than Erin by 10 years, an investment counselor with a big firm. He loves her, gives her stability, and has created a rock-solid home for her and Gabby.

The thought hurts but at the same time relieves me.

Theo looks more like Gabby than I do. Anyone who sees her, sees her Black-American roots, wouldn’t think for one minute that she’s my daughter, not with my Scottish genes.

I think of Hell’s Jury. As white as they come, except now we have X with her Mexican heritage and all the swagger that comes with it. Are we bigoted? Is Hangman? He knows Erin’s black. Knows I have a kid that looks just like her. Yet he brought me into the fold. Never said a word.

At the same time, he’s a fuckin’ psychopath who goes with the flow when it suits him. He’s sadistic, manipulative and a goddamned predator who doesn’t give two shits about anyone. The women love him though, all think they’ll be the one to tame him. He can’t be tamed; he’s not capable of love.

What the hell am I doing with Hell’s Jury? I have so fuckin’ much at stake. Two little girls. Sorcha needs me in her life, to care for her, love her. And Gabby. I need her so I feel whole. So I can convince myself that a shit start in life can be conquered.

I think of Eight, who has a kid. Oscar is too fuckin’ much like his dad. No one knew his mom or what happened to her. No one knows anything about Eight’s life except maybe Reaper. Eight’s not the best dad in the world, but next to Hangman, he’s father of the year.

Hangman thinks he’s invincible, but one day, his shit will catch up with him. He’ll die before he goes to prison. I see a shoot-out with the cops or an enemy catching him unawares. Last week was a case in point. Except the fucks killed my mom instead of him.

I ride for an hour, letting the bike take me where it wants. It’s getting fuckin’ cold, but that won’t stop any of us from riding. Not until it starts snowing. I’m almost frozen when I get to Hawkeye’s. It’s 6:30 and Zero’s just arrived. He’s Coyote’s prospect. An unassuming guy that never stops talking. Gives my brother, Jawbone, a run for his money.

“Howdy,” he says. “Long time, no see. Everything goin’ okay? Sorry about your mom.”

I interrupt before he gets going. “How’s it goin’ around here?” I look inside the garage. There’s some changes. “Where’s the tank?” The tank is a Hummer we’ve been restoring. It’s somethin’ we should’ve turned down because it’s a money pit for the owner and us.

“Done as much as we could. I told Pitbull.” He grimaces.

I think about Pitbull, an enforcer for a local mob. He’s twice the size as Zero and ten times as mean. “How’d that go?”

“As to be expected. He threatened my skinny ass, told me to finish it. I said I couldn’t. Hangman’s orders.”

“That’s bullshit. Hangman doesn’t give two fucks about what we do here.”

“Yeah, but I give two fucks, about the garage and my skinny ass,” Zero replies. “Hawkeye’s breaking even, but it was goin’ off the rails with that Hummer. I know nobody gives a rat’s ass whether the shop makes money or not, but we gotta draw the line somewhere. Anyway, it’s old news and there’s more interesting stuff goin’ on around the clubhouse, like those two clowns who tried to kill Hangman. Hangman says there’s a mole in the club, but no one can figure it out and –”

I cut him off before he gains momentum. “Gotta go and check the books.”

The info about the snitch is privileged, not something the prospects should know. Hangman’s right. The club is a cesspool of gossip.

It takes all morning to catch up on the office work. When I’ve had enough, I head to a nearby diner for lunch. Zero asks if he can join me. I tell him yes because I’m a masochist. Hangman would’ve told him to fuck off, and I’m relieved to know I’m not that guy.

I think about what Stella said this morning, accusing me of being like my dad. We gotta talk that one out. She can’t be afraid of me, but she also has to respect me. How’d she go from the girl who’d do anything for me to the hellion I saw this morning? It’s okay though, makes me happy for her. But she don’t get to have her way on this one. I gotta somehow get her to see how dangerous running in the dark is.

Zero pretty much talks nonstop over lunch, occasionally taking a breath. I tune him out, eat my burger, drink my beer. The server comes with the tab as I stand. I throw enough bills on the table to cover both our meals, then hit the clubhouse.

As I’m climbing off my bike, the phone rings. Stella. “Yeah,” I say, getting pissed off again about the fight we had this morning.

“Good news,” she says in a false bright tone. Then she stops talking.

I wait a few seconds, then say, “Stella, where’d you go?”

“Just a sec,” she replies, the phone jostling.

“What’s going on?” The question’s muffled and hostile, not directed at me.

Then the nightmare starts as I hear the deep rumble of a male voice. “You’re Stella, aren’t you? Red’s girlfriend.” Then a pause. “And you’re the little sister.”

“Is Lachlan coming?” Sorcha sounds scared.

A different, more aggressive male voice says, “Later. We’re going for a walk. You and the pretty little girl. You take her hand and stay next to me or she’ll get hurt.”

I’m frozen in spot as I listen to the conversation. My heart’s thumping, my hands are sweaty. I’ve never felt this kind of fear.

Then the phone jostles again and the line goes dead. “Jesus fuck!” I shout as I almost call Stella back but realize that would expose her. They’d take her phone if they haven’t already, but I can’t take that risk.

I stumble inside the clubhouse. “Where’s Hangman!” I shout.

“I’m here.” He’s shrugging into his leather jacket as he walks toward me, Joker following him.

“They’ve fuckin’ got Stella and Sorcha!” The panic in my voice is loud and clear. I’m so scared I feel like pukin’.

“Let’s go outside,” Joker says quietly as he takes my arm and steers me towards the front door.

“We know,” Hangman says as we stop outside. “We’ve already had the phone call from the cocksuckers.”

I stare at him, uncomprehending. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”

“The bounty on their heads was bullshit, but we had to tell you somethin’ or you’d have gone wild west on us.”

I’m stunned. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”

“We don’t fuckin’ have time for someone to narc. No one knows anything anyway, and if you didn’t have your head up the bitch’s cunt, you’d have figured out the plan was bullshit.”

I curl my fist. “What the fuck did you do?”

Joker’s voice is tired. “We set it up. Eight and Reaper had a convo in front of Chrissy. Lettin’ her know that Stella was at the university.”

I rub my face. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me. You used my girlfriend as bait?”

“I don’t see the problem,” Hangman barks. “We got our guys followin’ her everywhere. The plan was for her to get grabbed, then we’d fuckin’ go in.”

“Well, she fuckin got grabbed and so did Sorcha, because she’s with Stella.”

Hangman glares at me. “That’s on you fucker. We thought you had to keep the sister out of sight.”

I wanna kill him. I wanna rip every fuckin’ asshole in the club to shreds. I wanna put Chrissy’s head on a spike right next to Hangman’s. “What the fuck makes you think I tell you what’s goin’ on in my life? Why didn’t you fuckin’ tell me you were pullin’ this bullshit?”

“Because you’d get in the way. Try to stop us,” Hangman snaps back. “When we found out they had the kid too, I told the boys to step back. Don’t want us goin’ in with guns blazing.”

“So it don’t matter if Stella gets caught in the crossfire? She’s expendable. Like my mom?”

“It wasn’t supposed to play out like that and you fuckin’ know I have as much at stake as you do, so you should be thankin’ me for backing off.”

I grab my head as I walk away. Don’t kill him. Don’t kill the motherfuckin’ prick ’til you get Sorcha and Stella back. “Where are they?” I shout.

“Shut your mouth and listen,” Hangman booms. “I’m gonna call Trigger. See what’s goin’ on.”

For fuck’s sake. Fuckin’ Trigger. He’s a good brother but not the brightest of the group. “Why the hell did you make Trigger the point man? He’s probably off gettin’ a blowjob in an alley.”

I know he’s not. Trigger is so fucked up over Evanee that he barely notices other women, let alone drops his jeans for them. And he wouldn’t screw around with Stella and Socha’s lives.

“Enough fuckin’ talk,” Hangman rumbles as he walks away, phone to his ear.

I turn to Joker. “I thought you had more fuckin’ sense than to let this fucked up plan go down. You’re supposed to control that animal.”

Joker looks uncomfortable. “I was in favor of the plan. It was supposed to be just Stella. The guys thought she could hold her own.”

I think back to everything Stella has done since I met her. She’s gone to hearings, stood up for me. Had it out with Trula. Had the courage to come with me to see Gabby. She’s so fuckin’ disciplined and unafraid that she runs at 5 o’clock in the morning to fuckin’ warmup for a grueling three-hour basketball practice.

She can hold her own, but that don’t give anyone the right to fuck with her life. “It takes a fuckin’ split second to kill a person. Two bullets. One for Stella and one for Sorcha.” I blink the sting out of my eyes. “If those bastards kill my girls, I’ll burn this club to the ground.”

Hangman comes back. “Keep makin’ fuckin’ threats like that, you’re gonna find your ass in the chamber on the receivin’ end.”

The fear and panic give way to an icy certainty. “They die, you die. Put that in your fuckin’ chamber and shove it up your ass.”

Hangman ignores my threat. “They’re at the Shawshank Motel. The guys have it in their sights, rifle trained on the room.”

Fear blooms again. “Tell them to put the fuckin’ guns away. They get trigger happy, a stray bullet might get Stella or Sorcha.”

Hangman nods like it’s not something he already thought of, but who the fuck knows with him. “The brothers are waiting on us.”

I can barely see the road as we ride out, tunnel vision the only thing keepin’ me on the pavement. I have to get to them. I have no choice. My entire life is in that hotel room.

When we get close to Shawshank, we pull into a parking lot. I take off my helmet, thinking for a minute about caving Hangman’s head in with it.

“They want you alone,” Hangman says to me. “They see anyone else, they’ll kill the girls.”

He hands the photo to me. It’s a pic of the two pricks with a journalist at the same site where the journalist was murdered. They’ve been tryin’ to get it back since we got our hands on it.

“You and your goddamn games! If you’d handed this over to the cops when you got it, mom would still be alive.”

We’re almost nose to nose.

“I didn’t hear you objecting when we decided not to.”

Because I was a fucking prospect at the time. But I don’t say it aloud, mostly because it would make me a hypocrite. I would have followed the herd like I always do. Or used to.

Joker steps between us. “Quit your fuckin’ bickering. It ain’t gonna change anything.” To me, he says, “The plan is you walk in unarmed with the photo. Hangman calls and tells them you’re coming. One of them’s gonna meet you in the lobby and you’re gonna give him the picture. He’ll tell you where Sorcha and Stella are and while you get them, the fucks are gonna get in their car and drive away.”

“They’re fuckin’ stupid if they think that’s gonna happen.”

Joker pulls at his beard. “They say the room’s wired. We go near them, they’ll blow it up.”

I stagger away from him as fear turns my blood to ice. “Jesus fucking christ. They’re gonna kill my girls.”

Hangman curls his fist like he’s gonna punch me. “Now’s not the time to turn into someone’s bitch. You’re gonna stick exactly to the plan. You understand me? Don’t do nothin’ stupid.”

“Fuck you for putting them there.”

“Yeah. Already heard that shit. Go get them, you fuckin’ idiot.”

I make a move towards the hotel, but Joker stops me. “Take off the leather and sidearm. And any other weapons. You go in clean.”

I don’t have any other weapons but my gun. I left this morning thinkin’ I wasn’t gonna need them.

I shove everything into Joker’s arms and start to walk away.

“Don’t fuck it up,” Hangman growls to my back.