I lost Luke, I would stare at night at our text string. Would I be doomed to stare at this picture of my man after this mess was over?
“Please no. I can’t go through it again,” I pleaded in the dark. “It’ll kill me this time.”
Every time the screen went dark, my thumb would skate across it to bring his face back.
“Be safe. Be safe, baby. Please.”
3:33 and finally, there was a shadow in the hall. I had left the door open a crack and the light on. He’d never been in here yet, so I wanted it to be easy for him to find me.
Laura was at the opposite end of the apartment waiting for Dad in his room. When I’d gone to bed, Ella, Pippa, and Jenna were all camped out in the main room downstairs waiting in a central spot for their men to show up. That room, at least, had some furniture in it as the couches from the lounge above Deke’s Roadhouse were brought over.
“Right there, brother.”
“Thanks, Deke,” I heard Christian say.
“Night,” Dad said, and his shadow disappeared and the door opened a little.
“Baby?” Christian whispered.
I sat up. “Hey.”
Talk about relief. I wanted to hold onto him and never let him go.
“Hey.”
He threw his cut off and his shirt, before dropping his jeans as he kicked his boots and toed his socks off.
He dropped to his knees on the mattress and climbed up to me. I put my arms around him and squeezed.
“You’re here.”
“I’m here.”
“What happened?”
He blew out a breath. “We got Marlena.”
Thank god. I held him tighter. I never wanted to let go.
He kept talking. “Sarge, Larsen, my father, and Kylo took her to the shed. Larsen was either about to rape her when we got there, or he’d been finishing. No clue but she was nude. Laura and Jenna’ve got her now, lookin’ after her. They had two new prospects outside with guns and we had to take those two out.”
“Oh shit.”
“Poor fuckers probably had no idea who they were prospectin’ for. They gave her back in exchange for us backing off. We had seven weapons trained at them but Kylo had one pointed at her. We let ‘em go.”
My heart simultaneously sagged in relief and shriveled with the agony of that news. Marlena was most likely raped. But Marlena was alive. If it’d been the other way around, the Jackals would’ve never released the one woman. They’d have shot everyone. Our guys were good guys. I’d always known it and felt good in my soul every time it got confirmed.
“No more losses on our side?”
“Pudge’s doin’ all right at the hospital. Just O’Grady as a loss tonight, though that’s too fucking much.”
Sean “Blow” O’Grady had been around my whole life. He was a womanizer and loved to raise shit and party his face off. He, Rider, and Luke used to get in all sorts of shit together even though he was ten years older. He behaved like a perpetual teenager. But, he was also the first one to offer comic relief and he was tough as nails. Dad and him often butted heads because Blow wasn’t focused enough and still dabbled in the dirtier side of being a biker and I knew Dad wasn’t thrilled with Blow being his VP what with Dad trying to keep the club clean and avoiding being on the radar of the Feds.
Blow in a leadership role was something Rudy wanted, and Dad felt he had to go along. My father didn’t like playing politics, was a straight shooter, but his hands were tied there. More than once I’d heard him grumble about it. It was only supposed to be for a few years, as Blow wanted to start a chapter near Deadwood or take over presidency at Rapid City when Stoagie retired.
When we sat at the dinner table last year and Dad was discussing the move to Aberdeen and the plans for the club with my brothers, I was there to hear the news and the fact that Dad believed Blow hadn’t done near enough to earn it, in Dad’s opinion, my brother Deacon was better suited as the VP instead. Still… Blow was one of us. Blow was a brother and he was gone. Gone at the hands of a dirty Wyld Jackal. Dad would mourn him. We all would.
And Sarge, Kylo, Larsen, and Wild Will Forker were still out there.
“Anyone else out there for us to be worried about?” I asked.
“A few. Those are