Page 3 of Colton (Raging Barons MC #17)

-:- COLTON -:-

It’s been a different kind of week with Lincoln, Bones, and Arrow following me around.

But the more time I spend with them the more I like them.

It's plain to see the strong bond between Jo and her brother.

His affection for her is unmistakable. When they only had each other all those years certainly gave them a tight bond.

Lincoln, Bones and Arrow have meshed with the brothers of the MC with ease. Axel, Buzz and Drag have spent time with them and it’s easy to see that the three have relaxed with them. Axel has had no issue with them being around Mia, the twins, and Summer, which says much about his trust.

We all know that without a second thought Axel would bury anyone that hurt his family.

It’s more than plain to see how much he loves them all.

He has softened over the last four or five years, but not enough to call him a soft touch.

He’s still the one that would not blink if he had to torture anyone that needed it.

He’s a fairly complicated man as he’s up for tricks and fun, but he can snap into serious mode in a second.

Mia is continuing with her therapy, and I’ve been her sounding board at times when I’ve been her designated driver to her sessions. She’s learned a lot about the damage being in prison caused her, and why she saw her position at the club as such a serious matter.

It's one of the reasons she made the slip with Cookie, and the girl gang having bikes. But to be fair, the girl gang love their bikes and have all thanked her for pushing them into at least trying. They often all go out for an afternoon ride after Sunday training .

According to her therapist, she had too much responsibility and didn’t know how to cope with it.

I can understand what made her bossy, if that’s what you wanted to call it.

She was juggling between looking after the twins, helping every one of the women involved with the club, assisting Meat, Heather, and everyone else.

On top of that, she was living with her own PTSD, which she didn’t realize she had.

Well, none of us did at that time. It wasn’t until the therapist told her the aftermath of the Gunner incident and prison had a long-term effect, that everyone realized she needed help and understanding and not vitriol or anger.

“What are you daydreaming about?”

Standing straight from where I’d been leaning on the door frame of TJs’ main door, I look at Lincoln who is working the door with me tonight.

“Fuck, I was thinking about Mia and all she’s gone through.

I honestly reckon she’s gone through more than most people in a lifetime.

We all have our own shit to live through and with, but you know she’s such a sweetheart that she never deserved all that shit. ”

Lincoln folds his arms across his chest with his head cocked to one side, obviously waiting for me to fill him in. Lowering my voice, I tell him the most relevant information, and I can see he’s thinking about how much Mia has suffered, and why I do so much for her.

“If you need me to step up, just let me know. I am a natural protector. It’s just who I am.

I jump first when I see a woman suffering and think later.

” Lincoln grins at some memory, then continues.

“Got me into trouble more than once. But, you know if it means a woman is safe I’ll do it again, and again. ”

Wings walks in and gives us both a chin lift as he passes.

I watch him walk over to the bar and speak with Beer who is working behind the bar tonight.

Then, when he can’t get the information he’s after, he speaks with Rhea one of the servers.

She shakes her head and walks away. This is interesting, and I’m going to watch what he does next.

After drinking a bottle of water and his eyes having scanned the bar, he makes his way over to where I’m standing with Lincoln. “Have either of you seen Chaos?”

“No, not for a couple of days. But then he works the shooting range, so unless he’s at the clubhouse I see little of him. We fight on Sunday mornings mind you,” I reply while trying to think where I saw him last.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Wings huffs then walks out of the club and turning to look at Lincoln, I raise an eyebrow before shaking my head, thinking it’s got nothing to do with me.

The rest of the evening goes past without a serious incident.

We kept our eye on a man who had obviously had too much to drink.

I then watched Lincoln grab the asshole by the back of his neck, and throw him out the front doors, under orders to not return.

His sin was shouting at his girlfriend, or wife, which had her cringing away from him with more than a slight look of fear on her face.

Lincoln made sure the woman was okay while I remained at the door, watching the pencil dick outside blustering.

When Lincoln returned next to me, he grinned.

“She’s got her father coming to get her.

Apparently, he doesn’t like this asshole and is happy to teach him a lesson.

” Rubbing his hands together while grinning, Lincoln's face looks similar to Axel’s when he goes feral.

Christ, I hope we are not going to have a problem on the first night of Lincoln’s door duty!

Sending a text to Mav to ask how his two are doing on the door, I’m relieved they are having an easy time of it. With no incident at all. Seems only I have the one that needs to be kept on a tight rein .

Thankfully, the asshole disappears, but the young woman’s father appears.

He looks disappointed that nothing is going to go down, and when Lincoln whispers something to him, the father stares at Lincoln a moment before getting his daughter in his vehicle and taking off.

No, I don’t ask what he whispered because that could lead me to getting into trouble when I don’t need to.

Fist arrives with Sentry and Cork. These three sometimes come for a night out, but usually Fist hangs around with Clay and Dice because they work together.

“Hi, Colton. How you doing, brother?” Fist asks as he’s entering behind the other two.

“Fine, all good here. What about you?” I reply, and introduce Lincoln, which has Fist laughing and pointing before commenting on having a sister like Jo, and he’s happy his sister is Carrie.

Now, Carrie is all settled down with Fox and they do wonders at the Furnishing Shop.

But the look on Lincoln’s face is damn amusing.

He’s not sure if he should be insulted or not.

“You got any fights going? I could do with blowing some fury.” Fist gives me a serious look, and I know from the past he loves a good fight. It’s how he got his name, after all.

“I’ll speak with Knuckles and see if he can get you set up with one.”

“Great.” Fist slaps my shoulder and heads towards the bar, but then turns and looks at me questioningly. “Oh, you have any idea why Chaos is staked out on River Road?”

“None,” I respond, but know I’ll be having words with Wings when I get back to the clubhouse.

*** *

Back at the clubhouse Wings is nowhere to be seen so I presume he’s gone to bed. Bones is sitting at the bar with a bottle of beer which he’s not even drinking. I take a seat next to him and ponder what the fuck is going on with Chaos.

Taking out my phone, I text Target.

Colton: Is Chaos home?

It takes a while for Target to reply, as it’s 2:00 in the morning.

Target: No

I grin as I know he’s probably mumbling for me to fuck off at this time of the morning.

“What’s going on?” Bones asks, and I turn to look at him before explaining about Wings looking for Chaos, and Chaos being MIA, but doing a surveillance that no one seems to know about.

Jumping from the bar stool, I mumble, “I’m gonna see what the fucker is doing.”

“I’ll come. I can’t sleep, anyway.” Bones is right behind me, and instead of our bikes, which are too noisy to sneak up on anyone we take the SUV.

Traveling to River Road we hardly speak, but Bones eventually asks, “You think he’s sneaking around after a woman? You know, one he shouldn’t be after, like a married one?”

“It’s not really Chaos’ style. He has women all over him, so I don’t think he’s short of female company. He’s damn honorable too, so I can’t see him sneaking around to bone a woman.” I scrunch my nose up at the thought .

We say no more, and leaving the SUV one street over, we quickly and quietly make our way to River Road, looking everywhere for our missing brother.

“There…he’s behind that wall.” Bones points.

Walking up to Chaos, I don’t even try to hide the fact that I’ve caught him spying on someone. “Whatcha doing?” I ask with amusement in my tone.

“Fuck off, Colton. I’m doing recon.” Chaos turns back to look at the house he’s spying on.

I introduce Bones quickly, then hunker down next to Chaos. “What are we watching?”

Before he can respond, a scream rips through the still night.

Chaos is on his feet and runs full on into the door of the house, with me right behind him, and Bones behind me.

The scene in front of us when we rush into the living room has my blood boiling.

Some fucker has his hands around a woman’s throat and she’s going purple.

Chaos swings for the asshole, and I catch the woman. Bones kneels next to me where I’ve eased the woman into a sitting position. She is taking in breaths and giving us thank you looks. I turn and look at Chaos who has pummeled this dick until he’s passed out.

“Chaos!” I ask. “What’s going on?”

“This fucker has been beating on his wife. She’s been trying to get away from him, but he keeps finding her. She confessed to me when I saw him smacking her around outside the range a month ago. We need to get her away and keep him busy.” Chaos kicks the fucker in the head .

Bones stands. “Get some gear, Lady. Let’s get you on a fucking bus, train, or plane out of here. Him, he’s going nowhere, not yet anyway.”

Chaos sorts out the woman while Bones and I keep this fucker out cold. It’s been fun knocking him out each time he starts to come around.

Once Chaos has the woman sorted out, he leans down and whispers, “Graham and Tank are on their way.”

Nodding with what has to be a sick look on my face because I know, and he knows, this bastard is not going to be breathing much longer. He’s going to be a nice snack for Jaws and the other gators.

Wings is going to be more than disappointed he missed all the fun , as he calls it, when he finds out what went down, right before mumbling about Heather and what he can do next. Bones is finding the whole thing amusing, and after I explain about Nell’s place he looks more than a little impressed.

****

“What are you two doing?” Meat asks as he hands us a plate of breakfast.

“Well, not sure. We’ve not even been to bed. What do you have planned?” I ask. I know if he wants to know what we are doing he has something in mind for us all.

“Come on, you can join Lincoln, Arrow and Stitch.”

“To do what, Meat?” I ask again.

But as always, Meat only speaks when he wants to, so myself and Bones trail behind him, all the way up the compound.

Which is miles I have to add. When we get where he wants us, Lincoln, Arrow and Stitch are lounging about waiting.

But they have a crossbow each. Now, this could be fun, and I grin as I rub my hands together in anticipation of what is going on.

Bones frowns. “What’s happening?”

“Who knows, but you can bet your life it’s going to be fucking great,” I chuckle as I grab a crossbow that is laying on the grass near Stitch.

Bones takes the other on the ground, and we look at Meat, who is standing with his arms crossed over his chest and looking serious.

“You never know when you have to be quiet and deadly.” I know better than to interrupt, so remain quiet, and wait for Meat to continue.

“In, out, not seen, not heard. All they will hear is the twang of the weapon. Now, you have to hit the moving target…every…single…time.”

That is how we spend the day shooting bolts at moving targets. Some large, some small, some fast, some slow. It takes a lot of concentration, but as the day progressed we had gotten better, and better.

“You know the girl gang are not going to be happy when they find out we’ve been doing this?” Stitch grins, and we all know Gemmy loves to get into everything, so this is going to be a shitstorm for him when she finds out.

“No kids up here,” Meat states, and yeah, he’s right, the twins never come up this far. The other kids are not old enough, only babies really.

Then I let slip, “You know Meat taught the women to throw cleavers and knives. I’ll tell you they can hit anything that fuckin’ moves. ”

Lincoln spins around and pierces me with a look. I nod, which lets him know that yes, Jo is one of the women that can hit a target at thirty feet.

“I have to see that,” Arrow states.

“It’s a sight to be seen,” Stitch responds, and he’s grinning again. “Gemma could nail my ass to a tree if she wanted.”

“Fuckin’ hell,” Arrow chuckles, and I nod in agreement. “We need to see that…MEAT!!”

But Meat is already walking back to the clubhouse, his house or the treehouse. He has left us all to clear away all the shit as usual.