“We need time to vote,” Devil said.
They were all trapped. There was no choice.
“I vote yes,” Curse said. Everyone turned to look at him. He hoped the others knew what he was doing.
Pussy and Death agreed. Others started to nod their agreement.
“It looks like we’re the new Sheriffs in town,” Devil said.
“Good, I’ll take her with me now as well.” Frederick pointed at Ashley. “I like to look at her from the picture you sent me. We’ve got a deal.”
Curse looked at Ashley. She seemed to know this was going to happen.
“We only talked about you agreeing to take her. It wasn’t confirmed. I can’t allow you to take a woman without her consent.” Devil took a step away from Lexie.
“I’m going to go,” Ashley said. Her voice was small, but her tone said to all of them not to argue. “It’s time for me to move on, and I already talked with Jerry and Frederick about mending fences for the Chaos Bleeds crew.”
“Ashley, no,” Mia said.
“I’ve got to, honey. Jerry told me this could happen. He even suggested it to me. It’s time for me to get out of here, and I was already going to go.” She moved toward Mia. Curse let his woman go for a few minutes to allow the two women to hug. “I’m dying here. This is not my home.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“We’ll stay in touch. I promise you, I’ll be more than fine.” Ashley kissed her cheek. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” Curse said.
He watched as Ashley said goodbye to the club. She was giving up her freedom to help the club. This was why she’d come to him the other day to ask him to take care of Mia. Curse wanted to tell her to stop, but he couldn’t.
“I want to do this,” Ashley said. She moved toward Frederick’s side. All of the club watched the other man nod to his men.
****
“You can’t do this,” Mia said. Ashley simply smiled at her.
“Yes, I can. I can do what I want. You’re taken care of, and I’ve got nothing to worry about. Curse loves you, and I’ll be back in time for the wedding.” Ashley kissed her forehead. “You need to move on, and so do I.”
Mia’s heart was breaking. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I know, but I want to go just like you wanted to go to college, Mia.” Ashley wrapped her arms around her. Curse stepped back, giving them space.
“I love you,” Mia said.
“I love you. You’re my best friend, and I promise I’ll be fine. More than fine. You’ve got nothing to be afraid of.”
“She will be allowed to communicate with you,” Frederick said, clearing his throat. Mia looked over her friend’s shoulder at the handsome man waiting to take her away.
“You’ll take good care of her?” Mia asked.
“I will. Regardless of what people think I don’t make a habit of killing women myself.” Frederick gripped Ashley’s arm. Mia noticed he didn’t say anything about employing men to kill women for him.
“Jerry organized it with me,” Ashley said, turning to look at Devil. “I know you didn’t want us to do this after we talked, but we did.”
The president of the Chaos Bleeds nodded at Ashley. Mia watched it all feeling helpless.
“I look forward to doing business with you. I advise that you get rid of that body and pick up where Jerry left off,” Frederick said, flicking his wrist at the dead body of Jerry, the pimp.
Mia couldn’t look at him. Jerry didn’t deserve to die, but she was glad it was none of the people Curse cared about.
He gripped her shoulders, tugging her back against him. “Don’t worry about her.”
“I won’t.” Mia would always worry about her friend.
Within twenty minutes Frederick was gone, yet the tension in the clubhouse remained. Vincent was trying to calm Phoebe down. Lexie was crying and snuggled in close to Devil. Not one brother made a sound. Her throat felt tight, and her vision blurred as the tears started to build.
“She did us all a favor,” Pussy said.
“Jerry knew something bad was going to happen,” Devil said. “He probably didn’t expect to be killed. I knew Ashley was going to go. She came to me with Jerry’s plan.”
Turning toward the older man, Mia stared at him waiting.
“What do you mean?” Curse asked.
“Ashley spent time with Jerry and found out more about Frederick. It seems the pimp talked a lot with drink in his system. She offered to go with Frederick in the hope of helping us. She even talked with him.”
“How is she going to help?” Mia asked. “She’s just Ashley. She’s stupid and impulsive.” She shook her head. “You shouldn’t have let her go.”