Dearest Biker MC The Complete Series Box Set Page 67
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live in a place where the MC was part of the problem. How the Hell would you rest easy?
“There he is!” Jinx said, bringing my mind back to the present. He rose from the table and sauntered over to a man who was wearing a white leather jacket, and I looked at Spencer.
“You ready to do this?” I asked. “It’s been a while.”
“I’ve missed it, at least to a point,” he said with a small smile. “This is going to be fun.”
“Don’t tell Brooke?” I asked with a smirk, and he chuckled.
“She doesn’t know, but I’m sure she’s guessed,” he said with an amused grin. We could hear Jinx talking to the man in the jacket, but it didn’t seem as though it was going as well as he’d hoped.
He walked right up to the man and said the code phrase, but instead of replying with a phrase of his own, the man told him to fuck off, he didn’t know any dry cleaners. I exchanged a glance with Spencer, who, after looking back at me, turned his attention to Jinx and the man in the jacket.
The situation didn’t look like it was going well, but Jinx didn’t back down. I felt a knot form in the pit of my stomach as he took another step toward the man, and with a low voice asked him the same question.
“I said, fuck off!” the man snapped. He shoved Jinx, hard, right in the chest. Caught off guard, Jinx fell back, landing right in the middle of a table of drinks. The people at the table cried out and rose, stepping back and clearly pissed off. They were about to say something to Jinx, but he wasn’t interested in hearing about their spilled beverages.
In an instant, he was on his feet. Spencer and I didn’t wait. We knew this was only going to end in one way, and he was going to need backup. Adrenaline was pumping through me as we flew from the table and headed across the bar.
Sure, it might have been quite some time since Spencer and I got ourselves into a situation like this, but there was a part of me that was glad we did. I was down for a good fight with these guys, and I wanted to beat the shit out of someone who had hurt Tim.
If that was this guy, it would be a bonus.
If it wasn’t, hopefully they’d show up to get what was coming to them. Either way, we’d hold the upper hand throughout the entire fight, and we’d walk away on top, just like we always did.
We were Folded Flags, after all, and we meant business.
21
April
I didn’t like Aaron being out, not one bit. I had a bad feeling about the evening, and just knew something was going to happen. I didn’t want him meeting with anyone from the rival MC, let alone someone who might have been my brother’s murderer.
If that was the case, then there was no doubt in my mind this person would hesitate when it came to murdering Aaron as well. I didn’t care if he did have military experience, or if he was in this MC for most of his adult life. All I cared about was the fact that I wanted him home, and I wanted him home now.
Sabrina could sense my agitation. She was crying and fussing relentlessly, despite all the efforts I made to calm her. It was hard, having a crying baby when I myself was on the verge of tears. I didn’t know what to do, and I wanted to break down and hold her.
But, she was relying on me to be the strong one. I was her mother, after all, and I had to be happy and cheerful despite the fact I was a worried mess. I paced back and forth in the living room and into the kitchen and back again, rocking her in my arms and holding her close to my body, doing everything in my power to make sure she was happy.
It largely didn’t work, and I was at my wit’s end when she started screaming louder than ever. I knew I was just going to have to focus on taking care of her and let the rest of the night unfold as it did, trusting that Aaron would be back when he was done with his business in the other town.
Worrying about it wasn’t going to do any good, and there wasn’t any way I could get the cops involved. I had to just wait and hold the baby. As hard as it was, it was the only option, and I knew it.
I’d spent many sleepless nights walking back and forth with my daughter. It wasn’t easy, and I never expected it to be, but nights like tonight were harder than ever. She didn’t want to be held, but she didn’t want to be down. Her diaper was clean and she was fed.
She was bathed and she was in clean clothes. But, she was still crying. I decided it had to be my agitation that was getting to her, and I tried to be more cheerful, but babies were able to sense more than what their mothers showed. I knew that to be true, and I knew she was going to stay upset until she was ready to be happier.
Sabrina was crying so loud, I didn’t hear the glass breaking in the other room. I was walking into the kitchen with my back to the door, and when I turned around, I jumped with fright.
Hanson was standing there. Two other men in the same MC gear were with him, and at once I wrapped my hands around my daughter. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to take what’s mine,” he said. “You think I was kidding when I said I wasn’t going to get her? Bitch.”
He started for me, but I turned, protecting Sabrina with my body. I didn’t care hat he did to me, as long as she was safe. He tried to grab at her, but I kept my shoulder in the way. I wasn’t about to hand over my child, not to this monster.
I wanted to scream, and Sabrina continued to wail in my arms, only making it harder for me to hang onto her. She was fighting me, but I had to keep her tight against my body.
Hanson tried to grab around me and I turned the other way, only to be met with the back of his hand. I was dazed with the force he’d slapped me, and tried to fight him as he pulled my baby from me. I was crying and screaming, begging with him to give her back.
“You aren’t leaving this house with her!” I screamed. “Give me my baby!”
I leapt toward him, but Hanson was a lot bigger than I, and he was easily able to keep Sabrina out of my reach. He barked orders to the two men who had come with him.
Tie her up and bring her, but don’t cause a scene,” he said. “Let’s go.”
I fought with the two men who were trying to get the ties over my hands, but with Hanson taking Sabrina outside, I was desperate to go with them. I wasn’t going to let him disappear with her, that was for damn sure. I didn’t care what I had to do to get her back.
That was my daughter, and I would kill for her.
The men dragged me out of the house. I was trying to kick them off and scream for help, but with the two of them against me, I wasn’t able to break free. One of them had his hand over my mouth, and the other was halfway carrying me out the door.
I could fight as much as I wished, it wasn’t going to do any good. They were on top of me, working me toward the van. I saw Hanson get in the front seat with the baby, and I wanted to kill him. We couldn’t drive with Sabrina out of a car seat, it would be far too dangerous.
Of course, I knew there was no way he was going to put a car seat or any sort of safety in the vehicle. Hell, he didn’t care about her safety. He only wanted to take her from me. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew that it had come down to the wire. Aaron wasn’t around, and my worst fears were coming true. I was going to have to get through this, somehow, some way.
I didn’t know if Hanson was going to murder me, or if he was going to just kidnap us and take us with him. One was just as bad as the other in my mind, but I had to keep my daughter safe. She wasn’t his. He might have been the one who got me pregnant, but she wasn’t his.
Not by a long shot.
A father was a man who was there for her throughout everything. He hadn’t wanted a damn thing to do with her until just recently – until the death of Tim.
The two men shoved me in the back of the van, and immediately, I begged for Sabrina. “You have us in here, and you know we can’t get out, just give her to me!”
But, he ignored me. It was worse than him telling me no. Hanson just sat in the front seat of the van with my daughter in his arms. She was still cr
ying and pushing against him, but he was holding her and cooing, as though he’d be able to calm her down.
I wanted to murder him right through the back of the van. And, I knew if I could get away with it, I would have. But, I had to keep Sabrina safe. The only thing on my mind should be to keep her safe. I might have to play along with his sick plan for a while, but I was going to get her out of there.
Hell, if he even let a little bit of an opening come up, I was going to take it. I wasn’t going to let her go, not by a long shot, and I wasn’t going to let him turn her into whatever it was he wanted. There had to be some reason he had come for her, and I was going to stop it, no matter what that reason might be.
I couldn’t see where we were going. There were no windows in the back of the van, and the two that were in the very back had been blocked. The man who had climbed into the back to guard me wasn’t letting me move from my seat. It was hard to stay in one position with how crazy the driver was handling the journey, and I wanted to tell him to slow down.
Safety for my daughter was all I cared about, and I didn’t want them to do anything stupid along the way. Hell, I prayed to God cops wouldn’t come almost as much as I wanted them. I didn’t want this to turn into some sort of a high speed chase that resulted in a crash.
And with the way they were acting tonight, I had a feeling that’s what would happen.
We pulled onto a dirt road, and I tried to figure out where we might be. It was hard for me to even think straight with all the fear that had filled my mind. But, I knew if I was going to get us out of here, I was going to have to keep my head on straight.
Fear was the one way Hanson liked to control his victims. He had used the same tactic with me when I thought we were dating, telling me to do things for him or he would let Tim know what we were doing, or some other bad thing would happen.
Of course, I was too stupid at the time to think about leaving him, only wanting to impress him. Now, I knew how he worked. I was going to do everything I could to make sure I kept my mind clear and my head on straight, though every single time I saw Sabrina in his arms I wanted to break down in tears.
I hated that he had his hands on her. He shouldn’t be allowed to even touch her. But there he was, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I tried not to think about Aaron, or the fact that I’d told him I didn’t want him to go out that night.
This wasn’t his fault, but since I was alone and vulnerable – and now that the two of us had been abducted, I felt like it was partially his fault. I just needed protection, and I was left alone.
I knew it wasn’t true. He thought I was safe, just like I did. I didn’t know Hanson was crazy enough to go through with something like this, and part of me wondered if he had been planning this as a backup all along.
We pulled to a stop, and my gut wrenched when the doors opened. The two men once more took control of me, and Hanson carried Sabrina into a dark farmhouse. The place looked abandoned, and I wondered if this was where he was going to murder me.
We walked inside, me still trying to fight against the men as I also tried to keep Sabrina in sight. But, as before, they were too strong for me, walking me down the hall away from my daughter and trying me to a bed on top of a bare mattress in one of the bedrooms.
After checking the binds to makes sure they were secure, they left me with a laugh. I could hear Sabrina down the hall, still wailing for me. But now, all the courage I had had flown out the window, and I was nothing but a desperate mess, crying and sobbing myself as I fought against the bonds.
I just needed to get to my daughter.
22
Aaron
“Back, back, back!” Jinx had his arms out, pushing me and Spencer back from the guy. Though he was covered in alcohol and the people who were sitting at the broken table were pissed off, he wasn’t going to have us beating up on this man he’d annoyed. “This can’t be the right guy.”
“Then who the fuck is?” Spencer asked as he looked around the bar. Many of the customers were staring at us, but that guy was the only one in the white jacket.
“Wait a second,” I said. “Who set this meeting up?”
“Hanson Hinks,” Jinx said. “He’s one of the top guys in the MC, and he swore we were going to have a drug guy here – someone who’s going to be able to tell us something about the money case.”
“Fuck,” I said. I walked back and forth. Thoughts were now running through my mind faster than I was able to keep up with, and I felt duped. And pissed. Hanson Hinks – the man who had threatened us on the steps of the courthouse after he lose the custody battle.
The same guy who had been after Sabrina ever since Tim’s death. The guy clearly knew where April lived – and ever since the story of the brick coming through the window, I had a feeling he was the one who was behind a lot of this shit. Though he hadn’t struck me as the smartest of men with his prosecution in court, that didn’t mean he didn’t have street smarts.
Perhaps he was right, and he really did know that the marriage I had to April was a sham. Maybe he’d been watching her ever since he first told her he was going to come for Sabrina at the funeral. If that was the case, then he would have known where she lived – and he would have known that I wasn’t home tonight.
“What’s wrong?” Spencer asked.
“Hinks – he’s the man who got April pregnant – the entire reason we’ve been married and all that shit!” I said. “If he somehow found out that Jinx was a spy, then he might have used our own man against us.”
“How much time did you spend with this Hanson?” Spencer asked.
“He was always around, but he didn’t really interact with me directly – much,” Jinx said. “Although he was the one who was always talking about the money and the murder.”
“I’m sure he also did that on purpose to figure out how we’d react,” Spencer said. “The more he could tell Jinx, the more he’d see what we knew. That would mean he’s been playing us for the fool from the beginning.”
“Fuck!” I snapped. “I’m going to call April. She might need to get out of the house!”
I hurried out of the bar with my phone in my hand, dialing her on the way out. I put the phone to my ear, but it only rang and rang before going to voicemail. I tried it three more times before I left the message.
“April, Hanson has been playing us for a fool – and I think you might be in danger. Get Sabrina out of the house right now. I don’t care what you’re doing or what’s going on, just get out of the house!” I said. “You can drive around for all I care, I’ll call you when I get back.”
I was livid. I put my phone in my pocket and stormed toward my bike.
“Aaron!” Spencer called. “What’s going on?”
“I couldn’t get a hold of her. That asshole better not have gone to my house!” I snapped. I’m going to break his neck with my bare hands.”
“Let’s get out there and see what’s going on,” Spencer replied. I nodded and the three of us got on our bikes, speeding as fast as we could back to Casa Rosa and to my house. I knew Spencer could relate to how I felt. He had been in a similar situation with Brooke, but he’d nearly lost her.
The thought of April being murdered – just like her brother – made me sick to my stomach. How dare anyone come to my house and break in? How dare they try to touch my daughter? I didn’t care if she was my biological child or not, that was my little girl, and I was going to kill whoever laid a finger on her.
We sped right up to the front of my house, but I didn’t even need to get off the bike to see that the place had been broken into. The window right next to the door had been broken, and the door was now unlocked and hanging open.
I didn’t have any sort of security system, so anyone who was able to get the jump on April would have been able to walk right in and take her out the front door. If they did it after it had gotten dark, it wasn’t likely that any of the neighbors had noticed the commotion, either.
I wanted to scr
eam when I saw there had been a struggle inside. Clearly, April had fought with all she had in her to keep Sabrina safe, but neither of them were in the house. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved to see April was gone or not. Part of me had been worried she was going to be murdered on the floor and my daughter would be gone.
If they were both gone, then there was a chance April was still alive.
“We’re going to find her,” Spencer said. He had walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder, then he turned to Jinx. “Do you have any idea where they might be?”
Jinx shook his head. “They didn’t say anything about any of the stash houses, but I wouldn’t trust it if they had. If he knew that I was a spy and he used me, then he wouldn’t go anywhere I would have known.”
“He has a point,” I said. I felt a lump in my throat.
“Think! Is there any way you can find out where she’s at?” Spencer shot back. “You aren’t going to give up. I’m not going to let you!”
I wracked my brain. I wanted to think, but it was hard to think clearly. My mind was spinning, and I couldn’t make sense of any of my thoughts. But then, I had an idea.
“I know what we can do!” I said. I ran out the door with Spencer and Jinx on my heels. They didn’t ask questions. They just knew that they should follow. I was going right to the one person I knew would help. I hoped would help anyway.
Mama Rose was the person April had trusted with all of this. She hadn’t even hesitated to go to the woman more than once, even when we were going out against Hanson. Though she didn’t know about this dark side of the man, I was more than happy to fill her in.
We flew down the street and around a few corners. I was glad it was late at night and there wasn’t any traffic on the road. The cops were all downtown keeping an eye on the bars, so we were free to press the speed limit as much as we could in the dark.
We pulled up in front of her house, and I ran up to the door, knocking loudly. I didn’t care if the old woman was in bed. I had to get her out and find out where April might be. If she was part of that MC – even if she wasn’t active any longer – then she would know about the stash houses.