Part 19 (2/2)
He found himself wis.h.i.+ng someone had bothered to call or text him and warn him about her return, but Jase immediately wondered if that really would have helped. He tried to imagine calling himself about the news, trying to keep it from ending in rage, and he failed. He knew deep in his heart that this was just a mini-apocalypse he would have no choice but to face and endure. He used to rehea.r.s.e this emergency on nights when he couldn't sleep, nights when he felt weak. He thought if he could be prepared for it, he could find some way to make it easy to endure. But now he felt that maybe there was never a way for it to be easy.
As the last light died from the sky, Jase revved up his bike once more and headed back into town at a significantly slower speed. Regardless of how calm he had felt on the country road, every mile that led him back to LeBeau only recharged his anger a little at a time. He didn't have the luxury of taking time for it to completely die. He had to talk to Henry and find out just what the h.e.l.l was going on. No more surprises.
He pulled up to the MC and saw the strange SUV he had noticed before was gone. It had to have belonged to Maggie; only he hadn't realized it at the time. He took a deep breath, grateful he wouldn't have to see her again.
When he pa.s.sed through the den, Beck shouted at him over the Roy Orbison on the jukebox and the sound of laughter at the pool table that he needed to make a liquor store run. Jase tossed a hand at the old man and didn't reply. He headed straight through the den and up the stairs to the conference room. Without thinking, he simply opened the doors and barged in.
Henry sat at his place at the head of the table, lost in thought. He jolted to attention when Jase entered, looking too surprised to be mad at the show of insolence.
Jase took time to close the doors behind him before he spoke. ”How the f.u.c.k could you not tell me she was here?” The question came out bitter before Jase could do anything to stop it. But he didn't take it back and he didn't apologize. He stood over Henry and waited for an answer.
Henry shook his head and waved a hand. ”It's not like that, son.”
”What is it like? Is your phone broken?”
”I know you're angry, Jase, and you have every right-”
”I don't f.u.c.king need your permission to be angry!”
That was the line. Henry jumped to his feet and met Jase with hard eyes. Jase put down the finger he realized he'd been pointing at his club president.
”Why don't you sit the h.e.l.l down and we talk about this like civilized men, eh?” said Henry. It was half-serious, half-sardonic. ”Or I guess we could just tear each other apart over her, like she's always wanted us to do.”
A few deep breaths later and Jase was feeling more himself. He apologized to Henry and slumped his way into Beck's chair. ”I never expected to walk into that room and see her sitting at that bar again. I feel like my last sanctuary has been... breached.”
”I'm sorry for that,” said Henry. ”She came with no warning. And I was still in too shocked to think about calling you.”
Jase nodded. ”What is she doing here?”
”She says she needs help. Some small-time dealers tried to bully her into a racketeering scheme at her job,” said Henry.
Jase frowned. ”Do you believe her?”
”I believe it would take something equally as dangerous or difficult to get her to come back here after all this time. Whether this is the actual truth, I don't know. But something big is going on. I really...” Henry trailed off, then cleared his throat and continued. ”I really believed I would never see her in LeBeau again.”
Silence fell as both men, for very different reasons, contemplated the return of Maggie Oliver. Already the clubhouse felt different to Jase. It felt like it was on the horizon of some growing storm.
”What did you say to her?” said Jase.
He had interrupted another daze. Henry blinked a few times and then said, ”She's my child, Jase. Of course I told her we would help.”
Jase nodded, but then stopped. ”Wait, we?”
”We, as in the MC, yes. Maggie seems pretty convinced that these a.s.sholes are threatening enough that she had to leave Eagleton just to feel safe. She will be a liability to us and to the town if we don't intervene... to say nothing of the fact that I'm not leaving my daughter out in the woods to be devoured by wolves.”
”I'm not saying you should...”
”Really?” said Henry. He looked Jase in the eyes. ”You sure about that, son? Didn't you just bust through my beautiful cherry-wood doors without knocking to tell me I should do just that?”
Jase felt uncomfortable at the insinuation Henry was making. He was furious as all h.e.l.l at Maggie, yes. He would be happy never seeing her face again. But seeing her hurt? Or dead? Thoughts like that turned his stomach to stone. He shook his head. ”I didn't know she was in danger. She was just... suddenly there at the bar. Like a bad dream. I wasn't ready for it.”
”Yeah, I guess she picked up a lot more about tactical thinking than I a.s.sumed,” said Henry. He actually chuckled to himself a little at that.
”I'm glad she came to us-to you-if she's in trouble,” said Jase. ”But to be perfectly frank, I'd prefer it if she got the f.u.c.k out of town after all of it has blown over.”
Henry was silent a minute as he looked at Jase. ”You don't want her stay to be extended, then?”
”Not if I have any say about it, no,” said Jase. He put his hands on his knees and leaned forward. ”Maggie left LeBeau. She abandoned it for a different life. She doesn't get to come back and just hit the reset b.u.t.ton on all of that. This is our town and we deserve to be here without her dragging up the ghosts of the past. We're the ones who stayed and took care of it.”
Henry licked his lips. He took a breath before he responded. ”She may very well not want to stay, anyway, Jase. Let's worry about one thing at a time.”
”Such as?”
”The sooner we can take care of this threat against her, the sooner she can stop being on the run, and start...well, whatever life she ends up choosing,” said Henry.
Jase nodded. ”I agree. What do you suggest?”
”I'm going to put some feelers out to some allies around Eagleton. We don't have a chapter very close to there, so we are going to need to hire some people to do the work for us.”
”You've got an Afghani group up there. We've never met them directly but I know they work for Aamir. Maybe he could set up contacts.” Since the wars in the Middle East, the MC had found their best gun-running allies in the natives from that region, who happily sold American weapons back to the States and out of the hands of insurgents.
Henry said, ”Yep, already on my list. I've also got a call in to the Broken Pillars and the Gladiators, to see if they have anything we can use. Once we figure out who these morons are, we'll have a nice talk with them, make sure they are settled to leave Maggie in the 'loss' column of their dips.h.i.+t operation, and move on. We'll work the details of that out once we have more information on them.”
”Sounds like a plan. Let me know how I can help.” I want to get her out of here as fast as f.u.c.king possible.
”Actually,” said Henry, and Jase's blood immediately went cold at his tone of voice. It was that tone he had heard a million times since the MC had 'taken him in', and since Henry Oliver had become his father figure. ”I do have a job for you, Jase.”
”Don't...” said Jase. The word fell out of his mouth before he even realized it was in his brain.
”She's my daughter, Jase. My only child. I can't risk anything happening to her, despite our differences,” said Henry. He sighed and wrapped his fingers together on the table. He leaned forward towards Jase. ”Maggie needs a detail on her every minute until I am confident she hasn't been tailed here. Until we know more about these guys, I have to a.s.sume they're big and bad enough to have followed her out of town.”
Jase closed his eyes. ”Henry, please...”
”Beck is not the soldier he used to be. His eyes are getting worse. I need my best soldier on her, Jase. And you are my best soldier.”
”f.u.c.k that. What about Will? Or Ghost?”
Henry shook his head. ”Will is not a better soldier than you. A better spy, maybe. And Will is also not going to intimidate anybody from a distance.” Henry made a gesture from Jase's legs to his head, as if to say you're a giant, kid, you know that! ”Ghost is too fresh to the club for me to let him close to Maggie.”
Jase pushed to his feet, angry and feeling trapped. ”Do you really understand what it is you're asking of me?”
”I'm not trying to put you in a world of pain, son, but my back is against the wall. You're the best man I've got. She's my only child. I'm supposed to change my tactical plans based on the fact that you two fell in love once?” Now Henry stood up to meet his face. ”If I put your feelings, or hers, ahead of my battle instincts, then I might lose her for good. Is that what you're asking me to do, Jase?”
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