“Sixty seconds.”
“You doin’ that whole make him bleed out thing?” Gauge asks with a chuckle.
“Damn right. Get to work,” I chuckle. The screams from his son pierce my ears and it amuses me a little more to watch Avery try to stand up and fail. He’s too weak. His blood loss is too much. Gauge carves him up pretty good before letting his body fall to the ground near his dad. Avery slowly drags himself over to him, tears building in his eyes. He’s too weak to even scream. His head lolls to the side before he finally falls over.
“Took long enough,” Gauge grumbles. I smirk as I look over at him.
“Could have drawn it out longer,” I tell him.
“Fuck that. I got shit to do.”
“You got a woman to do,” I mock.
“Don’t you?” He asks raising an eyebrow. “The question is, which one?”
“Are you shittin’ me?” I narrow my gaze at him.
“No. I saw that chick leavin’ your room, brother. What are you doin’ about Lauren?” That is the question of the day. I shrug and pull out a cigarette and light up.
“Haven’t thought much about it.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I motion for the prospects and when they walk over, I tell them, “Clean this shit up. Make sure he ain’t found.” They nod and get to work as I turn back to Gauge.
“Just what I said. I haven’t thought about it. She’s fuckin’ clingy, Gauge.” He laughs and turns to walk back toward where we parked the bikes as I follow.
“She’s been clingy since day one. You still asked her ass to marry you,” he reminds me.
“That was mistake number two.”
“What was one?” He glances over.
“Fuckin’ her. Now she’s hooked and won’t leave me alone. Do you know how many times I had to shut my goddamn phone off? If there was an emergency I would never know. That bitch just keeps callin’.” I take another long drag from my cigarette before stopping and leaning against a tree. Gauge turns to look at me, questions in his eyes. I can see them. I don’t want to answer them, but I know he’s going to ask anyway.
“Then break it off with her,” he says as if it’s nothing.
“You think she’d just go away?” I ask hopeful. Gauge laughs harder.
“Fuck no! That bitch is certifiable, brother. She’s gonna stalk you for the rest of your life.”
“Why do you say that shit?” He lifts his eyes and I follow his gaze when I see her storming toward me. “You gotta fuckin’ be kiddin’ me.”
“Not a chance in fuck,” Gauge says slapping a hand on my shoulder. He walks to his bike and climbs on just as Lauren stomps up in front of me, her hands on her hips.
“Why are you ignoring me?”
“I’m not,” I say gazing past her.
“You are! Now tell me why?” Sly, Gauge and Shaft all chuckle from their spots on their bikes. I flip them off with my free hand making them laugh harder. Lauren steps closer, her hands coming to rest on my chest. That spark that I have with Krista isn’t there with Lauren and that pisses me off for some unknown reason.
“We got church now! Get your asses back to the clubhouse!” Sly roars. I internally thank him but when I move toward my bike and Lauren follows, I groan.
“You can’t be there for that and you know it.”
“I’ll wait in your room,” she says confidently.
“Go home, Lauren.”
“No.”
“I mean it,” I warn her.
“I said no. I’m your fiancé damn it, Wolf!” Passing her the helmet, she grabs it quickly while I climb on the bike. There is no sense in arguing with her. She won’t listen, she’s stubborn as fuck. She climbs on the bike behind me, wrapping her hands around my waist. Usually my cock will get hard feeling a woman wrapped around me but not this time. This time it pisses me off a little more than it should. I rev up my bike and pull out behind the guys. I wonder how she knew where we were. I didn’t tell her, and I know for sure she didn’t overhear it from the club since she hasn’t been there. My nerves are already on edge and she is making it worse for me.
As soon as we pull up at the clubhouse, I climb off and storm inside not even waiting for her to get off my bike. I’m at the bar in seconds when the others come in.
“Church! I meant it,” Sly calls out. Thank fuck for that. I take my bottle and head toward the door when she comes in. She smiles at me and walks off toward my room. As soon as I step into the room, the questions fire off.
“How the fuck did she know where we were?” Sly’s eyes are cold and full of anger. I can’t say that I blame him in this situation either.
“No fuckin’ idea. I was wonderin’ that the whole way back,” I tell him bringing the bottle to my lips and taking a long pull.
“She followin’ you?” I shrug. “Don’t she have a day job?”
“Yeah. She works with the department of family services. She gets off at like five or somethin’.”
“So, she could have followed us,” Sly grumbles under his breath.
“Suppose so. I’ll talk to her.”
“Yeah you will,” Gauge adds with a slight smirk.
“Fuck you.”
“Enough. We need to talk about what Avery said. Others in the PD know. We don’t have connections with all of them. That’s gonna pose a risk,” Sly says looking around the room. He’s right and that’s not a good thing. We have connections all over the state, but our local boys haven’t really been playing nice lately. We lost a lot of good guys when they moved up in rank and out to better areas. It’s put a fucking strain on our relationships with the rest of the locals.
“Take them all out,” I say leaning back in my chair. All eyes come to rest on me.
“The whole department?” Shaft chuckles.
“Why not? Ain’t none of them worth a fuck. If we don’t have any we trust in there, what’s the fuckin’ use in keepin’ them around?” It’s a valid question. Avery was about the only one that bent to our will and now that he’s dead, we don’t need the rest. A new group will be brought in and we can work our fucking magic with them when the time comes.
“That will take some plannin’. What are you thinkin’?” Sly asks looking to me.
“We blow it. Find out when they have meetin’s that everyone attends. Blow them to hell and wave,” I say with a shrug.
“How are we gonna get that information with Avery dead?” The guys look around before coming back to me. I already know the answer to that and she’s currently sitting in my fucking room more than likely naked and waiting.
“Lauren works closely with the cops. She’ll know,” I add.
“You think she’s just gonna give you that information?” Shaft asks not sounding too confident. Hell, after the way I’ve been treating her I’m not all that sure either. I scrub my hand over my face, tugging at my beard.
“Fuck if I know. She’s pissed at me for blowin’ her off. I’m not tryin’ to keep her around, Prez. I’m tryin’ to get rid of her.”