Page 8 of The Biker’s Second Chance (Chrome Creed MC #2)

AND THE ANSWER IS NO

SPIKE

O nce again, the ride does nothing to calm me down.

Not only is this issue with Jayne quickly getting much larger than I wanted it to be, but it's clear that I'm going to have to pull the rest of the club in on it.

I park my bike in my usual space in front of the club and look around. There are many more empty spaces in the lot than there were when I left.

I guess the party is over.

It takes me a second to park, and then I'm shoving open the front door of the clubhouse, my eyes searching for my president.

Even in my most enraged state, I know I need to calm myself before I approach him. He was wrong to hide Jayne from me, but even I know better than to roll up on him like I'm ready to fight.

That won't end well for me. It would take the rest of the club thirty seconds to beat me down for disrespecting our president.

After taking a few seconds to breathe, I see Leo coming out of the back room. He probably just finished putting Nisa to sleep.

As of recently, none of us would see him again after he and Nisa went to bed, but I’m guessing with Jayne making her grand appearance, Leo must have known that he would need to get a handle on things.

“Spike, what did I tell you about just flying off the handle and racing out like that? You could’ve at least told someone where you were going,” Leo says as he makes his way over to me.

“Flying off the handle?” My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. It takes everything in me not to yell in his face right now.

Keep calm.

Calm.

“I wouldn’t have needed to fly off the handle if I had a heads up as to what was going on. How could you keep the fact that Jayne was in town hidden from me? You know what I went through when she left. Did you forget?”

He runs his hand through his hair and has the nerve to look a bit remorseful.

“No, brother, I didn’t forget. We all know what you were like back then.

That’s the reason I didn’t say anything in the first place.

Until I knew what she was here for, I didn’t want to risk getting you agitated.

If I had my way, I would’ve kept her a secret until she was out of town.

You don’t need to deal with this shit if you don’t have to. ”

I can understand what he’s saying, and even though it was logical, it still burned a little to know that I was the last to find out about Jayne.

Still, there was nothing for me to do about it now.

“Yeah, unfortunately, it seems like I’m not going to be able to pretend she’s not here. Jayne’s in some deep shit from the looks of it, brother.” I sigh and cross my arms over my chest.

“That’s not what I want to hear, Spike. We just got finished with this shit with Marc.” Leo groans.

“I know. She called me while I was on my ride. I went to the hotel. Leo, when I opened the door, it looked like a fucking bomb went off. Somewhat. It was strange. All of her stuff was thrown all over the place and they painted you can’t hide in blood on the wall.

I asked Eva if there was any possible way for Jayne to have done this on her own, but Eva said it was impossible. ”

“Yeah, something like that had gone down when you called for Zero to post for protection detail. So do we know who is behind it?” Leo asks, and I watch as he waves both Rumble and Virus over.

I hate the fact that more of my brothers are getting involved with this, but I knew this was the probable solution.

“Turns out, Jayne might have stumbled on some type of kidnapping situation with her next-door neighbor. The ringleader of this whole thing, some asshole named Xavier, has been keeping women hostage and forcing them to perform for other men.”

Rumble’s eyes narrow. “So what, you think this is some kind of pimp on a power trip?”

“No. Jayne said that’s what she thought at first too, but then he and his cronies started harassing her and talking about some group called the Burning Souls.

She didn’t know who they were, but from the sound of it, it doesn’t seem like this is a one-man show.

” I shake my head, already knowing that the road we are going down is going to get messy.

Leo huffs and drags his hand down his face.

“Alright, well let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Rumble, Virus, you two are in charge of getting any information about this Xavier and the Burning Souls.

Let’s figure out what’s going on with these guys, and then we can decide our next move.

” Leo catches all of our gazes. With that, Rumble and Virus nod and walk off to start on their research.

I, on the other hand, can feel the relief of dropping this problem off with someone else.

I turn to go to my room and get some rest.

“Hold up.” Leo grabs my arm to stop me from moving.

Giving him my undivided attention, I wait for him to speak. When he doesn’t, I shrug. “What?”

“What do you mean, what? What are you going to do about Jayne? You can’t think just pawning her off on the prospects is going to be enough.”

I look around. “Yeah, I mean, the prospects are skilled enough to handle anything that comes their way.”

“No. If some shit goes down, Jayne might not tell Zero. She needs to be around someone she trusts. Someone who can tell when she’s lying. That’s you.” Leo stares at me.

I’m surprised a fly hasn’t found a home in the back of my throat, my mouth is so wide open.

“You can’t be serious. I don’t need to be her personal bodyguard. If she wants the help, she better be forthcoming. If not, that’s her issue. I’m not going to force her to do what she needs to do in order to get out of trouble.”

“Spike, don’t be difficult…”

I can no longer hold back the anger I’m feeling. “Difficult? I don’t want to be anywhere around that woman. It’s like you don’t give a flying fuck about what this shit is doing to me.” I bellow at him.

Leo glares at me and takes a step into my space.

I’m grateful none of the other guys are out here right now.

“Spike, I’m going to assume you’re just in the midst of an existential crisis right now and that’s why you’re going out of your ever-loving mind.

So let me remind you. I’m the fucking president of this club.

I’m telling you that by tomorrow morning you need to relieve Zero and take over as Jayne’s protection detail.

It’s not a suggestion. It’s not a request. It’s a fucking order.

Either you do what you need to do, which is what I’m telling you to do, or you can go against my word and get your ass beat before I physically force your ass to stand as a guard for Jayne. ”

There’s no way out of this. No way for me to convince Leo that I don’t need to do this. I’m fucking stuck.

“I’m going to bed to lay with my woman. You should take a breath and try to get some rest yourself. Looks like you’re going to have a busy day tomorrow.” Leo looks me over one final time before he turns and walks away from me.

I want to push back, want to fight, but there’s no use. I’m not going to change his mind.

Slamming open the door to my room, I push it shut with more anger than is needed. I want to take out my emotions on someone. I wish a prospect was here right now.

No, I wish Jayne was here right now.

I'd yell and scream at her, force her to see how wrong she was for leaving. Force her to feel the anguish I feel.

I drop my head down so my chin is touching my chest.

I'm such a fucking liar.

There's no way I'd be able to do that. After five minutes of Jayne being in the same closed room with me, I'd be all over her.

I still have feelings for her, as much as I try to deny it to myself and everyone else. That woman can still play me like a damn fiddle.

Feeling extra defeated, I drop myself onto the bed and kick my shoes off.

It's late, but the silence of the clubhouse is a little bit unnerving. There's nothing more that I can do tonight and I know it. All that's left is for me to sit with my thoughts.

Instantly my mind jumps to the fact that I'm going to have to spend more time with Jayne than I want to. Over the past few years, I've gone through so much just to make sure that I'm not reminded of her. It's too hard to think about what could have been.

What should've been.

The truth of the matter is Jayne and I should still be together. I've spent the longest time still mad at her. Angry that she was the one who walked out the door, but that's not the whole truth.

Suddenly, Eva's outburst replays in my mind.

"I was there when you and Jayne split. I know what happened before. What you did to cause her to walk out. This is not all on her."

I can't ignore what she said, mostly because it's true.

Jayne is the one who walked out, but I was the one who pushed her out the door.

When Jayne and I first got together, probably the first thing that drew me to her was her take-charge, take-no-shit attitude. She didn't care about the patch on my back or who the fuck I knew. She saw through all the bullshit and looked right at my soul.

From the very start, she was the one who tried to make me see that I was more than just a biker. She tried to convince me that I had the power to change lives. She wanted me to do the right thing even when it was hard.

Unfortunately, that wasn't always the plan when it came to what was good for Chrome Creed.

One instance in particular, one of our rivals decided to step too far into our territory, and back in those days, there was no talking to Leo. If someone else pushed against us, they got dealt with.

Jayne knew what was going on and she pleaded with me just to hear the other side out.

To be better than just anger and violence.

I didn't pay her any mind. We decimated that group.

It turned out that every last one of those men were new recruits and had only restarted that club.

They didn't know the rules. Didn't know about Chrome Creed or what we would do.

It was easy for me to compartmentalize when the club did something I may not have morally agreed with, but not for Jayne. The more I seemed to just go along blindly with the rules Leo set forward, the more Jayne pulled away.

The last straw was when a woman came to the club looking for help for her and her children. I wanted to help. Jayne knew I wanted to help, but Leo knew getting involved with the victim would bring unwanted police heat down on our heads.

He ruled against it.

The victim was found dead and her children orphaned not a week later.

Suddenly, I wasn't the man Jayne thought I was.

Still, even after all that, I was sure that she would stay down for me. Sure that I could be less than ideal and she would still stay by my side. That wasn't the case.

She might have been the one to leave me, but I was the one who made sure she didn't have a reason to stay.

With a groan, I turn over in the bed and bury my face in the pillow.

Jayne was one of the best parts of my life, and it took me a long time to forget about her. Now she's back in my life and I'm going to have to relive all this shit again.

The question is not how I'm going to help her, but how am I going to make sure I make it through this without losing my mind wanting her to be back by my side.