Page 25

Rebel

A s I was waiting patiently for the judge to give his decision on whether or not to drop the charges against Storm, I couldn’t help but think about the last few days with Lacey. If I wasn’t mistaken, I had gotten me an old lady. Being in a relationship had exceeded my expectations in every conceivable way. Over the course of a few months I went from being stressed, lonely, and engaging in meaningless sex with club girls to having a wonderful woman who was smart, loving and as crazy about me as I was about her. Lacey didn’t judge me for my flaws. Hell, she even saw some of them as advantages. I couldn’t have made a better choice than Lacey. God only knows why she fell for me but I’m glad she did.

This morning blew my everlovin’ mind. I know the likelihood of her being pregnant was slim, but the thought of her having my child made me giddy with excitement and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. If it turned out she wasn’t pregnant then I wondered if we should seriously think about starting a family now.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I glanced up to find our club attorney gesturing to the judge and the prosecuting attorney objecting. It didn’t get her very far because when the judge finally ruled, it was in Storm’s favor. Celt leaned over and whispered, “I saw that comin’. That woman does not know when to give up.”

“Yeah,” I responded quietly because they were still winding down the court proceeding. “I don’t think she likes our kind.”

Celt grinned like the mad Irishman he so clearly was, “Our kind being bikers, right?”

“No,” I teased him. The ‘our kind’ I was referring to were men who risk their necks and get shit done. She probably thinks we should sit around on our asses waiting for the cops to do their damn job. If it hadn’t been for Storm, Richie would be dead, and no one would even know about that sister of his being wronged by her parents.”

“Ain’t that for damn sure. That kid’s family did them both dirty. I’d like to get my hands on his old man for a few minutes.”

A cold female voice came from nearby, “Maybe you could hold off on plotting violence long enough to make it out of the courtroom.”

We both looked up to see the prosecuting attorney standing over us. I was about to apologize when Celt did what he always does in situations like this. He got to his feet and got mouthy in the wrong way.

“Why the hell are ye over here mouthing off to us when we’re sitting here minding our own business? Is this yer idea of flirtin’ or somethin’? ‘Cause I ain’t interested, lassie,”

“What? Of course not,” she said in a shocked and angry voice. “This is me putting you on notice that if you end up engaging in any kind of violence in my county, I’m going to prosecute you to the full letter of the law.”

Celt opened his mouth to say something to her, but Storm came up from behind and cut him off. “You’ve got balls of solid brass to be harassing my club brothers the minute the judge smacked you down for trying to charge me with shit I didn’t even do. It’s almost like you didn’t learn a thing.”

She whirled around and pointed at Storm one time, hard and fast before lowering her arm. “You should not be in our county, much less interfering in police raids.”’

“Look, I don’t have all day to argue with you about shit that the judge just declined to accept as fact. We were there to save a man’s life, and we did just that. Listen carefully, lady, you’re not in charge of anything. If we have a reason to be in this county again, you can bet your sweet ass that we’re gonna be. You can get pissed about it all day long but we both know you weren’t gonna go out to a crack house in the middle of the night to save someone from overdosing. So, maybe you need to get off our backs about the good deed we did.”

She looked like she was itching to continue the argument, but the bailiff stepped in. “I’m gonna need all of you to move along. We have another case to hear, and Judge Vega doesn’t tolerate distractions in his courtroom.”

She made a disgruntled sound, turned on her heel and stalked away, leaving us all staring behind her. This woman was a nasty piece of work that I hoped never to cross paths with again. I quickly came to my feet and all three of us silently headed for the door. When we got to the front, near the door, we approached the officer at the metal detector to retrieve our cell phones and keys.

On the way to my bike, I checked my messages and found one from Lacey that she’d sent a couple of hours ago.

Lacey: I just wanted to let you know my old boss just showed up at my office. I don’t know what he wants or even how he found me. I really don’t have time for his shit today.

I stopped in my tracks and immediately called her to check if she was okay after his visit. I saw Storm and Celt stop out of the corner of my eye and start walking back towards me.

As the phone rang out, Storm asked, “What’s going on, brother? You’re white as a sheet.”

“I hope nothing is wrong,” I told him. “Lacey sent me a text while we were in the courtroom. Her boss from LA showed up at her office and she said she doesn’t know what he wants or how he found her.”

Storm asked, “Is this the one that sent her weird messages for weeks begging her to come back?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“She complained about it to Zoe. I had Hacker run a background check on him just to be sure. He’s just a garden variety asshole that no one likes. He recently filed for divorce. That’s all he got, no arrests or anything.”

I left a voice message, “I got your message. Look, ladybug, I’m worried about you. Call me back when you get this message. I need to hear your beautiful voice.”

When I shoved my phone back into my pocket, both of my club brothers were staring at me. Finally, Storm said, “That was a little over the top, don’t you think?”

Celt added, “Flowery even.”

“What in the fuck are you two talking about?”

Celt responded with a grin, “Calm the feck down. We’re just messin’ with ye, brother.”

“Well, I don’t have time for jokes. That asshole is within striking distance of my old lady and now she’s not answering her phone. I need to get back to the office as soon as fucking possible.”

Storm sighed, sat down on his bike sideways, and pulled out his phone. He scrolled for a minute and then said, “We’ve got a brother four minutes from her office. I’m gonna get him to do a little wellness check. I’ll put it on speaker because I know how you are.”

My anxiety clicked down a notch and I didn’t even debate him on me being extra possessive. The courthouse was a good hour from her office but with our club president’s help I’d soon know if she was okay. I started pacing and worrying because that woman was the love of my fucking life, and the thought of anything happening to her pissed me off.

I waited while Storm made the call.

When a familiar voice answered, our club president said, “Hey Renegade, It’s Storm. We have an old lady in trouble and you’re the closest brother. It’s an emergency because her last visitor was a real asshole.”

Renegade’s voice turned dead serious. “I’m all in. Who and where?”

“Get to Livingstone Electrical as soon as possible. You’ll be looking for Rebel’s old lady.”

I could hear footsteps hitting the pavement. “The pretty brunette he just put in a property cut?”

“That would be the one.”

“Fuck, I’m halfway there and I’m packing. Is this guy dangerous?”

“He’s a wildcard that we practically know nothing about. Her life is worth moving heaven and earth to protect. His, not so much.” I realized I was overreacting, all because she hadn’t answered her phone. Sure her old boss might be an asshole, but here I was acting like a drama queen all because she’d probably decided to go for lunch with him.

“You know I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it lands me behind bars again,” Renegade said.

“It ain’t gonna come to that, brother. We have security cameras all over the place. If anything goes down, it’ll be on tape.”

As long as he acted in self-defense it was all good. God knows I didn’t want that man to end up serving time after already serving close to a decade behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

I heard him breathing heavy from being on a flat-out run. “I’m near the office now, is the door open?”

“There’s an entry keypad on the doorknob. Visitors usually use the doorbell, and she buzzes them into the office.”

Renegade muttered, “That’s a weird way to do business.”

I spoke up again, “Not really, she’s the only one in the office most days and we’re on the outskirts of town, you never know who might be hanging around.”

The footsteps stopped and I heard buzzing, then Renegade huffed out, “No one’s answering. I need an access code.

I stepped closer and said, “It’s one, nine, two, eight, five.”

Renegade mumbled, “I see what you did there. The code is an X with the center button pushed last.”

There was silence and footsteps. Then I heard Renegade curse, “Damn it to hell!”

“What’s happening brother?” I asked, hearing the tension in my voice.

“I’m in and it looks like he took her.”

“What the fuck do you mean it looks like he took her?”

“She’s not here and all the stuff has been shoved off her desk. There are half-empty food containers in the trash can. Her phone’s on the floor. The back door is hanging open, but your property cut is still on the coat rack.”

While Renegade was speaking on Storm’s phone, I got out mine and texted Hacker asking him to check the security feed for the office and see if he could get a location on Edward fucking Edwards.

“Right, I’ve locked up, you want me to take her phone to Hacker?” Renegade asked.

Storm answered for me, “Hell yeah, that’s a fucking outstanding idea.”

“Will do. Let me know if you need anything else.”

I stopped texting Hacker long enough to tell him, “Thanks brother. I owe you one.”

“Great, I’ll remember that,” he said brightly.

Storm chimed in, “You have my thanks as well, Renegade. Tell Piper I said hello.”

“You got it. Stay safe and call me if you need anything at all.”

Storm ended the call and then held his phone out to us to show the same address that Hacker had just sent me. Our club IT genius was on the ball already, “Looks like we’re heading to LA.”

“Let’s get moving,” I told him. “Hacker managed to track his van to the interstate. They got a head start of two hours and I don’t want him having any more time alone with her than absolutely necessary.”

“I’ll see that the fecker doesn’t,” Celt murmured. He started texting someone, his fingers flying across the screen.

Storm shoved his helmet down and grinned at me. “I keep forgetting we have a prospect in Los Angeles.”

I had already put on my helmet and responded as I snapped it into place, “Dusty’s boyfriend, Corey, right?”

Celt frowned as he shoved his phone into his pocket. “Yeah, and that pain in the ass is finally gonna prove his worth today.”