Romeo (Dark Knights MC/Blood Fury MC: Crossover)

Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Four

It took two more days before he was freed from the hospital hell where he’d been imprisoned.

Two more damn days before he could try to make amends with Maddie. Even using his replacement phone, she wouldn’t respond to his calls or texts. Since she wouldn’t, he planned on facing her in person.

Now that he knew her former boss used a commonly used last name to conceal his ties to the Russos, he was worried about her.

Since he was still stuck in casts, and would be for a few weeks yet, he couldn’t ride his sled over to her apartment. Instead, he was having a prospect drive him around in a cage and basically be his bitch.

Booger waited down in the lot while Romeo slowly hauled his injured ass up the steps to her apartment using only a single crutch due to his broken arm. Luckily, his broken arm and leg were on the opposite sides of his body, otherwise Booger might be pushing him around in a wheelchair. And carrying him up the stairs like a new bride since there wasn’t an elevator.

Propping the crutch under his arm, he leaned back against Maddie’s door since he was so damn out of breath after maneuvering the flight of steps to the second floor.

At least he didn’t tumble the fuck back down. That would’ve sucked and most likely landed him back in the hospital again.

Once he didn’t feel like he was about to die, he knocked on the door behind him and put his weight on his good leg so when she opened the door, he wouldn’t fall backwards and end up on his ass at her feet.

He was a goddamn mess.

With a groan, he turned around and knocked again. This time a little louder and yelled out a, “Maddie! Open the fucking door!” Fuck bothering her neighbors.

Again, he heard nothing. Not her voice. No footsteps. Not even a “fuck off.”

Did she find another job already and was currently at work?

He was such a dumbass. He should’ve made sure her cage was down in the lot before taking on the fucking chore of climbing a flight of steps.

Yeah , he was a goddamn mess.

The turn of a lock raised his hopes until he realized it wasn’t the door in front of him, but the one behind.

A blond man, maybe in his thirties, stepped out into the hallway. “If you’re looking for the girl who lived here, she moved out.”

She did what? Maybe she got a better job with a better salary and decided to upgrade her apartment.

Maybe he was also lying to himself. “When? ”

The man shrugged. “About a week ago, maybe? Sorry, I forgot to mark it on my calendar.”

Smart ass. “Did she take all her shit?”

The man shrugged again. “A bunch of guys, all wearing vests with the name of some gang on the back, were going in and out. I did notice they brought a boxed truck and a couple of vans.”

For fuck’s sake. Now the “apartment for rent” sign posted out in front of the building made sense.

“I had no idea she was affiliated with criminals, otherwise I would’ve complained to the landlord. While they were here, I figured it was safer for me to stay inside and keep my door locked.”

Jesus Christ. “Sounds like you stayed inside instead of doin’ the neighborly thing and helpin’ like the pussy you are.”

The man’s gaped mouth snapped shut. “And you’re trespassing since your friend no longer lives here. It’s best you leave before I call the cops.”

“Get out of my fuckin’ face,” Romeo growled. He about had enough of this asshole.

Maddie’s former neighbor snorted out a laugh and eyed Romeo up and down. “Who’s going to make me? You? It looks like someone already kicked your ass. Two times over.”

“Know those criminals who made you piss your pants? I got a vest like that, too. So do more than thirty of my brothers. Now… You were sayin’?”

“I was saying, ‘Hello, 911?’”

“Ain’t illegal to visit a friend, motherfucker. So, go ahead, call the fuckin’ pigs and see where that gets you.” He adjusted the crutch under his arm more securely and hobbled across the narrow hallway. “Just remember, I know where you fuckin’ live. ”

The closer he got, the wider the neighbor’s eyes got. “Is that a threat?”

“Damn right it is.” Really, there was no point in him wasting any more time here, so Romeo carefully pivoted on his good leg and hobbled toward the steps.

“I figured you’re all talk,” was heard right before the slam of the apartment door. Along with the turn of a lock.

“Not worth it,” Romeo muttered under his breath and did his best not to break the rest of his bones while heading back down the stairs.

“Where the fuck is she?”

“Who?” filled Romeo’s ear.

“You know who,” he responded impatiently.

“Ain’t learned your lesson yet?” Magnum asked.

Romeo pulled the phone from his ear, frowned at it for a few furious seconds before putting it back to his ear. “Since the Russos are involved, went to check on her and she’s gone.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah?” Romeo echoed.

“That’s what I said.”

“Where’d she go?”

“Brother, you think she shares her goddamn plans with me? Why don’t you fuckin’ call her.”

He had. Numerous times. “She don’t answer her phone.”

“Maybe that should tell you somethin’.”

Romeo dropped his head back and ground his teeth. “She’s just pissed right now. She’ll get over it.”

“You wanna know so fuckin’ bad, call Shade and ask him. ‘Cause you’re callin’ the wrong fuckin’ person. Got no fuckin’ clue where she is. My guess? She went as far away from you as she can get.”

This was going nowhere, so he pivoted. “What’s the plan?”

“For what?”

“To get those motherfuckers back.”

Magnum huffed. “You want us to go to war with the goddamn Mafia ?”

“Not war. Just take a coupla shots at ‘em.”

“A coupla shots lead to more. Look what they did to the Deadly Demons. They pretty much wiped out that MC after being crossed.”

“We ain’t those Deadly Dumbasses.”

“Look, brother, thought long and fuckin’ hard about it and decided we gotta make the best decisions to keep this club in one piece. They got a shit-ton more scratch behind their organization with access to a lot more. They also got a fuckuva lot better firepower than us. They could easily pick us off one by one ’til there ain’t nothin’ left of our brotherhood. That what you want?”

Magnum’s response surprised him. When did that man ever back down from anything? Romeo swore he softened with age. “Assumin’ you had a sit-down with the Shadows about this.” That had to be where this was coming from.

“Not a sit-down but yeah, discussed our options about dealin’ with that kinda organization. This ain’t another MC. This ain’t those fucknut Warriors takin’ pot shots at us and the Angels. We’d need the whole fuckin’ alliance behind us to go head-to-head with a Sicilian army and that ain’t gonna happen. No one wants to start a goddamn war if we can avoid it. We got too much to fuckin’ lose.”

“Sounds like a bunch of pussies to me.”

A loud sigh hit Romeo’s ear. “Suggest lookin’ in the fuckin’ mirror, Rome, and ask yourself if you’re ready to go head-to-head with La Cosa Nostra in your fuckin’ condition.”

“Not sayin’ we need to do it this fuckin’ week, but we need to strike back. What he did to me can’t go unanswered.”

After a long pause, Magnum said, “This is personal shit, brother. This ain’t got fuck to do with the rest of us.”

“You sayin’ you won’t back your prez?”

“For fuck’s sake. Ain’t what I said. You stepped in shit I told you to avoid and now you want us to turn that into a shit storm? Be smart. Take your knocks for bein’ stupid and let it go.”

Romeo couldn’t do that. He understood what Magnum was saying but he didn’t have to like it. He also could handle Smith—or Russo or whatever the fuck his real name was—on his own. But he would not just “let it go.” Fuck that shit.

And, yeah , it was personal.

What Smith did to Maddie. What Smith did to him.

But he was still disappointed that his sergeant at arms wouldn’t have his back in this. “Old age really mellowed your ass out.”

“Unlike you, the older I get, the wiser I get. Also, my head’s a lot fuckin’ cooler now than it used to be. Remember that I gotta look out for the whole damn club, not just you.” A noise in the background had Magnum pausing again. “Gotta go. Got a baby who needs me and that baby ain’t you.”

The line went dead.

Maybe he should take this to Bishop and if his VP agreed, take it to the board for a vote. Magnum wasn’t the be-all, end-all. He might be on the board, he might be toward the top of the Knights’ chain of command, but he was only one of thirty-two patched members.

He’d worry about that shit later. Right now, he was on a mission. He needed to find Maddie and make sure she was okay.

He scrolled through his phone for LZ’s contact and when he found it, pressed Send.

“Didn’t know you had my fuckin’ number,” were the first words out of Zeke’s mouth.

Romeo wasn’t calling the cocky shit to have a friendly conversation. He only needed info. “Where she at?”

“She?” Zak Jamison’s firstborn asked. The kid Sophie Jamison should’ve swallowed.

“Know who I’m fuckin’ talkin’ about.”

“Not sure I do.”

Romeo gritted his teeth. The kid was a dick simply because he could be. “Where’d Maddie go?”

“After you got her ass fired? Where d’you think?”

“If I fuckin’ knew, wouldn’t be callin’ your ass. She get a better apartment?”

“Without a damn job, she couldn’t fuckin’ afford that apartment she already had. She had no fuckin’ choice but to move out, Rome. You should be the one payin’ her landlord for the broken lease, not her.”

“Know she moved, but where’d she go? Someone from the Angels take her in? Or did she move back north?”

“Gonna take a wild guess here… If she wanted you to know where the fuck she went, she woulda fuckin’ told you.”

Romeo wanted to shove one of his casts up LZ’s ass. The brat had no respect for his elders. “You’ll never be as good a prez as your pop.”

“Could be half as good as him and still be a thousand fuckin’ times better at it than you.”

Romeo stabbed the phone with his finger to end the call and closed his eyes, waiting until the rage simmered down. When it did, he tried Maddie again. As expected, it went directly to voicemail.

“Saw you moved. Lemme know you’re okay. Just a text or somethin’.” He hung up.

He was batting a goddamn thousand here. He tapped his cell phone against his forehead as he considered his next step.

Getting hold of Trip was out. Talking to Shade was definitely out. He went through a mental list of members in the Fury he could contact without ratting his ass out.

It hit him, then. Someone who might help.

Castle.

Black bikers had to stick together, right? And Castle would know if Maddie moved home. He also wouldn’t be a damn snitch.

Did Romeo even have Castle’s digits?

He scrolled through his contact list. He had a lot of numbers for a lot of bikers in the alliance, but Castle’s wasn’t one of them. He needed to fix that.

He wracked his brain on who might have Castle’s number. Maybe Cisco. Those two seemed to be tight every time the clubs got together.

He quickly texted the Knights’ road captain. U got Castle’s number?

Twenty minutes later, the only text he got was the ten digits he needed. Twenty minutes and thirty seconds later, he called the only Black Blood Fury member.

At twenty-one minutes, he had his answer.

In one way, he was relieved, in another he wasn’t because now he had to figure out a way to get his broken ass up to Manning Grove and keep it on the down-low.