Shaking my head, I push that thought down and burst out of the double doors into the Louisiana sunshine. I walk to my bike and jump on, firing it up. The rumble of the engine drowns out some of my thoughts, and I’m able to breathe for the first time since I looked down at that little baby’s face.
Pulling out of the parking lot, I let the road take away everything – all the pain, all the memories, and everything that pulls me down into the darkness where I now reside. It’s not going to do me any fucking good to dwell on that shit so I just need to rebury it and move on. By the time I reach my house in Baton Rouge, I’m back to normal. Or as normal as I get, anyway.
Stomping up my front steps, I head for the door, and stop short when I see the plain white envelope leaning up against it. I glance around the neighborhood, my instincts telling me that something is up, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I reach down and grab it, ripping it open, and pulling out the contents. There is a three-inch thick stack of photos of me, doing everyday shit – washing my bike, hanging out at a bar with Kodiak, and driving one of the women we rescued to safety.
I flip through some more photos, getting angrier with each new photo. Someone has been following me for a while, and it pisses me the fuck off that I don’t know why. This is so fucking bad. If any of the husbands or boyfriends we rescue these girls from ever found out where they are, they would be in grave danger.
Stuffing the photos back into the envelope, I run to my bike, and shove the photos in my back pocket before starting it up and backing out of the driveway. As I race over to the clubhouse, I try to figure out who the fuck would be following me. It could be totally random. Just one of those guys trying to find his girl and he just happened to pick me. Either way, we’ve got to put an end to it. We won’t let any of these bastards get close to their girls again.
Images of the last girl we saved flash through my mind, and I shudder when I think about the fact that we almost didn’t get there in time. He came home early and caught her packing up. We usually always come early, just in case, but there was a huge accident and we got stuck in traffic. By the time we reached her, her whole body was covered in bruises, and he had left her for dead. We drove her two counties over to an emergency room, and we’ve got guards on her at all times until we can get her out of the state, but she’s got a helluva long road to recovery.
I’d love to just end any man that puts his hand on a woman but we mostly stay on the right side of the law now. I met Blaze when I was working at the motorcycle shop that the club owns and for a while, I never really thought about joining. But after the night that I lost everything, Blaze came to me and explained that he wanted to take things in a new direction, become more legitimate. At the time, I had nothing else to live for. In the years since, I’ve gotten a sense of purpose from the work we do and the women we save, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Til they lay me in the ground, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure these bastards never touch a woman again. There’s a special place in hell for men like them.
Pulling into the compound, I clear my head of all the shit that I’ve seen in the five years that I’ve been a member of this club and pull into a parking spot. Kodiak is sitting on one of the picnic tables, smoking, and I nod to him as I turn my bike off and swing my leg over. As I walk over to him, I pull the envelope out of my pocket.
“You seen Blaze?” I ask, and he nods.
“In his office,” he says, motioning to the clubhouse behind me. His gaze drops to the envelope in my hand before looking back up at me and blowing out a stream of smoke. “What ya got there?”
I look down at the envelope and shake my head. “Nothing good, man.”
Without another word, he tosses his cigarette on the ground and stomps on it before following me into the clubhouse. Kodiak and I usually work together when we transport a victim, and he’s a solid dude, always down for whatever needs to be done, and I know he’s got my back. We walk inside and music is blaring over the speakers. Chance and Smith are sitting at the bar bullshitting, and Moose and Fuzz are playing pool off in the corner. I nod a hello to Chance, and he nods his head at me. I met Chance when we were kids, and after I joined up, he wanted to join, too. I’m not sure that he really had any idea what he was getting into but we both found our place here in the club. I make my way through the club and reach Blaze’s office door, knocking.
“Yeah?” he calls out, and I shove it open, striding into the room as Kodiak pushes it closed behind him.
“We got a problem, boss,” I say, and he looks up from the papers in front of him and pulls his glasses off, setting them on the desk. He studies me for just a second, his gaze lingering on the envelope in my hand.
“What kind of problem?”
I toss the envelope in front of him, and it lands on his desk with a thump. His brow shoots up in question as he grabs it and pulls out the photos. He starts flipping through them faster and faster until he tosses them back on the desk.
“Shit. Where did you get these?”
“My front porch.”
Kodiak grabs the photos and starts flipping through them before tossing them back down and shaking his head. “Dude,” he says, drawing the word out. We all know just how bad this could be.
“You got any ideas?” Blaze asks, and I wish I could give him a good answer.
“Not a goddamn clue. And whoever it is, is fucking good because I haven’t noticed anyone hanging around.”
“Boyfriend or husband?” Kodiak asks, echoing my thoughts from earlier.
Blaze looks down at the photos again as he scrubs his hand across his face. “Naw, I don’t think so. If it was, why the fuck would they let you know they were watching you? If this was just about finding their girl, they would have stayed in the shadows.”
I nod, agreeing with him. “You got any idea who it is?”
“Not off the top of my fucking head,” he growls, and I know this is bothering him. He takes the safety of these women seriously - even more so since Emma was in danger.
“We got some enemies from the old days that might be coming for blood,” Kodiak says, and Blaze nods.
“Yeah, I know.”
“What do you want me to do?” I ask.
“Let me have Streak look into it. Just watch your back and maybe you should cool it on the rescues. We can’t risk the girls,” he says, and even though I hate it, I have to agree with him.
“Yeah, I hear ya, boss.”
“Good,” he shoots back, standing, and walking over to me. He shakes my hand and slaps me on the back as we head for the door. “I gotta get going but I’ll let everyone know what’s goin’ on at church later. It’s time for me to meet my grandkids.”
I smirk at the proud smile on his face and hope that we figure out who the hell this is and fast. As I head back out to my bike, I stop and look toward the stairs, wondering if I should just crash here for a little bit. If I’m not going to be going on runs, I’ll be cooped up at the house and that’ll drive me fucking crazy. Sighing, I run a hand through my hair and shake my head before jumping on my bike and heading back to the house that’s more like a jail cell.
Chapter Five
Alison