"You thought keeping her hostage would keep me in your fucking club?" Spit flew from my mouth, landed on his face. "If one fucking hair is hurt on her, one hair, I'm coming back here to jam this up your ass before I pull the fucking trigger. Where are they?"
"No, you can't go yet. First you have to help me with them." The prick had the balls to point over my shoulder at Lucas and Julio. "Help me get this deal back on our table-"
"Why is this deal so fucking important?" Tick asked casually from his chair. He hadn't gotten up or moved a fucking muscle since I jumped.
"Tell them," VP said. I looked up at him, wary and fed up as he nudged Marcus with his foot. "Fucking tell them."
"The books are empty," he sputtered. "The club's broke. The bank wants the clubhouse, the garage, everything. If we don't keep this deal, we'll lose everything."
"How'd that happen?" I turned my gaze on VP, asshole never said anything. In all the meetings, the nights siting around drinking ourselves stupid, he never let on Marcus was running the club into the ground.
"Fuck face there has a little gambling problem. I've been covering his ass for months, but it's too far gone."
"And you let it happen? You didn't come to the members with this shit?" Tick leaned forward in his chair. "What about our paydays? We haven't missed one."
"No, because I've been out hawking shit left and right. Old bikes, old parts. When we took this deal with the cartel it saved use for the past few months. But without it, there's nothing. Fuck head is five months late on the mortgages. Banker's knocking down the doors."
I took a ragged breath. "You stole from the club? You gambled away everything?" I pressed the gun to his forehead. Tears slipped out of his eyes. "You know what? Never mind, what'd you say earlier … right … not my circus. Where the fuck are Jayson and Lucy?"
"Old warehouse off 25. Apartment over the loading docks," he mumbled. "Mason, please. I need this club."
"You don't' deserve it. Neither of you do." I looked at Charlie, and uncocked my gun.
"Well, now that the entertainment portion of the evening is over-"
"You fuckers wait." Tick stood up with fists at his sides. "This asshole is gonna be dealt with by the club, with Mason and me heading out, there's no one really to take over. Most of the older members are setting up to retire soon, and the others, fuck, most of them only stick around for the pussy and money. Once the money dries up, the pussy will go next, and they'll follow that out of town."
"Tick, watch it," I warned.
"Take him back to the club, he'll fucking confess and lay it out for them. They join you, or they go nomad. But there's no Reapers anymore. If the bank's coming to take everything anyway, better to jump ship."
Lucas gave a curt nod. "We'll consider it. When you find Jayson-"
"He's dead. No way around that," I cut him off. There would be no deal making, no saving his sorry ass.
"That's what I wanted to hear."
"Safe travels." Julio raised his glass to us again. I shoved off Marcus, ignoring his grunt of pain.
"Yeah. You, too." I slid my pistol back where it belonged, tucked close to me, and walked out of the room. Tick made sure to step on Marcus's fat belly as he made his way out behind me.
"Thought you didn't care about Lucy," he commented as we reached our bikes.
"Don't make me hurt you, too."
CHAPTER FOURTY
LUCY
I sure did know how to make a fucking mess! Feeling like shit over walking away from Mason, I didn't see Jayson standing in the bus terminal. I saw Tick drive away, leaving me to live with my decision, and I stepped onto the bus.
Jayson jumped on right behind me. Calling me baby, he made a big ruckus about how I was on the wrong bus and that our honeymoon was in Vegas. The few people on the bus didn't even look up when I tried wrenching myself out of his grasp. He managed to get me off the bus before he threw me over his shoulder. He hollered something about heading off on our honeymoon, and carried me over to his bike. No matter how much wiggling and screaming I did, it didn't matter. A couple laughed as he walked us past them, commenting on how his bride liked to roleplay.
The only reason I didn't jump off his bike was because he had my wrists tied around his waist. My face pressed right up against his dirty leather jacket the whole time. I twisted this way and that, but I couldn't get the right leverage. It occurred to me to try to tip the bike, take us both down, but then I remembered Sting. I didn't need two murders on my hands.
"You awake?" Jayson kicked open the door of the tiny room he'd shoved me in. I leaned against the headboard of the twin bed, my wrists were sore from the rope he kept them tied with. Trying to wiggle free of them had only resulted in rope burns around my wrists.
"I haven't slept." I turned my head away from him. My lips burned when I moved them, the bottom lip had split open when he backhanded me the night before. I wouldn't open my mouth for his cock so he spent his energy smacking me around, and then he tore off my panties and did what he wanted anyway. And that's how he left me, laying on the bed, ass naked, and a swollen face.
He walked over to me with a tray, putting it on the TV stand near the bed. I didn't look over at it, but it smelled like shit. "Let me see your face." He sat on the bed, pulling my chin toward him. I wanted to spit in his face, but I was too tired to gather up enough saliva. "Fuck, you swell up good. Next time I tell you open your mouth, you open up. Got it?"
I turned my eyes to see what the foul smell on the plate was, completely ignoring him. Never again would I willingly open my mouth or my legs for anyone I didn't want to. "I think those eggs are rotten." I winced at the pain in my jaw.
He picked up the plate and sniffed them, making a face. "You might be right. But that's all you have, so eat if you're hungry, or don't. I don't much care." He got up from the bed, shifted his dick in his pants and looked me over. "Starting to get a little worn out. Rest up, I'll be back in an hour. Need to try Sting again." He took his phone out and started dialing.
I groaned and slid down on the bed until my head hit the flat pillow. Sting. He didn't know about Sting yet. Maybe he just didn't want to admit what he already knew. The asshole was dead. And I killed him. If he knew that part of the story, I wouldn't have been suffering from just a split lip and sore jaw. I'd be dead.
The time slipped past me. I had no idea what day it was or what time of day it was; Jayson had tacked up a blanket over the window after the tied a leash to my wrists. Getting off the bed to stretch was about as far as I could go, not an inch further.
Mason crept into my mind. How would he know to look for me? Would he even bother after I walked away from him like that? As far as he knew I took a bus north, never to see him again. Over and over again, I replayed that afternoon in the back of the diner. Thinking over what he said.
He was right. When shit got hard, I ran. Taking care of mom, that had been easy. Clean up the puke, wash her hair, drive her to the doctor, pay the bills. It was all methodical and I could put myself on autopilot. When she died though. All of that went out the window. I had no idea what to do with myself. Reinvent myself? Live for me and not her? How did I do that? So I ran.
Every excuse I came up with why I couldn't get away from Jayson had to do with protecting Mason. I couldn't let him hurt because of me, or anyone else. The truth was, though, that hiding in my little room at Jayson's club had become my new shelter. I knew what I was, who I was. Then Mason walked into my world and changed all that.
With him I could be something else. I wouldn't day dream about going to nursing school, I'd actually get to go. Was I just too scared to give him a chance? I'd run away once from him, wasn't I doing it again? Only this time, he let me. He didn't run after me.
I told him I didn't want him to give up his life for me, but the truth was I was too scared to change my life for him. A coward.
I heard Jayson start yelling through the door. I couldn't understand him though. He'd been rambling on and off since he dumped me in that room. His eyes looked crazed when they didn't look angry.