Part 23 (1/2)

Drake nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He gave Jase a small salute and headed into the clubhouse. Jase waited until Will arrived, then the two headed over on their bikes to meet up the members already at Maggie's house investigating.

While Will picked his way through the house slowly, Jase collected Maggie's meager belongings. He became distracted by the constellation of bullet holes now in residence in Maggie's bedroom. Some part of his imagination, intent on torturing him, played out the attack in a parallel universe where Maggie hadn't gotten out of the bedroom in time. He could almost see the blood splatter tossed on the walls as if by some deranged artist. He could see her lifeless body dusted in paint flecks and speckled gla.s.s glitter. Killed by some a.s.shole that had hurt her; a coward who had laid his hands on her, and hunted her down for trying to escape.

Christ. Jase tried to physically shake the thoughts from his head. His stomach felt ice cold. Will found him leaning his hand on the grated wall, eyes closed, as he tried to regain composure.

”Hey,” said Will with a tap on his shoulder. ”Are you alright?”

Jase turned to look at him. He swallowed a wave of nausea. ”Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't sleep well last night, and now all this.”

”This is warfare,” said Will. ”There's no shame in admitting it's taking a toll. That's its job, to terrorize.”

”Not to kill?” said Jase with some edge of dark sarcasm.

”This wasn't to kill you,” said Will. He carefully stepped through the room to admire the wall alongside Jase. ”I mean, had any of you died, it would have been a plus for them. But I think this was terrorism. They are trying to scare Maggie, and by extension us.”

”She's plenty scared,” said Jase.

”If they were just out to kill you, they could do it quieter than this, is all I'm saying. Not to undermine what you guys have just been through... but tactically, this is a bark, not a bite.”

Jase wasn't sure if Will was right or wrong. It was hard to look at all those bullet holes and give the gunmen credit for anything more than homicidal rage. He realized he was in no state of mind to a.s.sess anything. He sighed heavily. ”Can you-”

”Yeah, man. Go catch some sleep, I've got this under control,” said Will. He gave Jase a lop-sided grin, and then headed out of the room. Jase closed his eyes and took a deep, thankful breath.

He waved off a bunch of the guys as he hopped on his bike and started down the street. The police barricade let him pa.s.s without a ha.s.sle, and in a few minutes he was parking at the clubhouse. The den buzzed with activity, as expected. Henry and Beck were both on phone calls, and Drake pounded away at his own touch screen in the corner. Other members looked over papers, maps, and had their own talks. Jase didn't bother to interrupt anyone. Truth told, he didn't want anyone knowing he was here.

Jase carefully checked the bedrooms one at a time, knocking softly, before cracking the door open for a small peek. Julie and Maggie were set up in the second one he tried, the one with a larger queen-sized bed. Both of them had fallen asleep. He left them where they lay and took up residence in the full-sized bed in the room next door. The full weight of the last few days began to hit him as soon as he sat down and he almost didn't have the energy to even get his boots off.

As he lay staring at the ceiling, the imagined image of Maggie's lifeless body kept popping up in the back of his mind, keeping sleep at bay. He told himself over and over that she was right here. She was right next door. She's right here. She's right here.

He didn't remember falling asleep.

~ Nine ~

Jase woke to find the last hours of daylight slowly melting down the bedroom window. His sleep had been a deep dive into the abyss of exhaustion, and he surfaced from it feeling better, and grateful that he felt better. Some of his muscle aches still remained, but now they were minor nuisances instead of nagging distraction. He could hear the quiet talk of a few people in the den. They must not have uncovered anything earth-shattering while he was napping or someone would have woken him up.

Jase took a few moments to stretch and use the small half-bath to splash some cold water on his face. He ran a big hand through the wild black mane that was his hair, screwed up from sleep, and decided he didn't care. He just smoothed it down a bit before heading out into the hallway.

Warm light spilled from the direction of the den, but Jase turned right instead, towards the other bedrooms. He put an ear to the door he knew Maggie was behind, listening. When he heard nothing, he raised a fist to knock, but the door swung open in front of him before he could.

Maggie started, clearly not expecting the doorway obstruction. She was still blinking sleep out of her eyes when she looked up at him, squinting. ”Oh. Hi.”

”Are you okay?” he said. His voice came out dry and cracked.

”Huh?” said Maggie. ”Oh, yeah. Yeah we're okay. Julie wants to go home.”

s.h.i.+t, thought Jase. An unexpected concern. He leaned an arm on the doorway and spoke quietly. ”We have to check with Henry before she goes anywhere.”

Maggie gave him a fed-up look. ”She's a grown woman, Jase. I've explained the risks to her. I'm not letting the MC keep her prisoner. It's me they want.” Her eyes focused on something distant. ”Away from me is the safest place she could go.”

”If she's a danger to this operation, she's not going anywhere,” said Jase, standing up straight.

Maggie glared at him, very obviously loading up the gun in her mouth to fire off a shot straight between his eyes. Her jaw clenched a few times. She gave a little shake of her head and turned back towards the room. ”Go, ask your king. Pa.s.s the rule onto us peasants if it's not too much trouble.” Then she closed the door in his face.

Jase rolled his eyes, instantly infuriated. He couldn't understand how he could be so worried about the life of a woman who, half the time, he wanted to strangle himself. It's not that he didn't understand where she was coming from, but did she understand his world? Did she understand the things she asked him to risk? That she had always asked him to risk?

That you always risk for her, regardless of her understanding.

He waved a hand at the closed door as he turned toward the hallway, determined to blow the feelings off. He returned to his bedroom and called Henry on his now-charged phone. As suspected, Henry was somewhere with the sheriff; Jase could always tell by the feel of the clubhouse when its master was away.

”Maggie's friend wants to head home.”

”No,” said Henry immediately. ”She's safer here.”

Jase rubbed the bridge of his nose. ”I agree.” He paused, scolding himself internally for his next words. ”But...”

”But what?”

”Look, the more civilians around here we have to babysit, the trickier this all gets. Her car wasn't at the house for the gunmen to identify or follow home. And we have no reason to think she has anything to do with this.”

”If she gets attacked on the highway between here and Eagleton, her blood would be on our hands, Jase,” said Henry.

Jase bit his lip, thinking. ”We can make sure she understands that. She's just a scared woman, Prez, and unlike Maggie, she doesn't belong here. If she wants to go, we should let her.” He could see Maggie's face in his mind, smirking at him. He rolled his eyes and ran a hand over his face.

Henry was silent on the other end for so long, Jase checked the screen of his phone to make sure the call hadn't dropped. Finally he spoke. ”Get her a handgun. Send two of the rookies to escort her at least as far as North Haverbrook. They should make a pit stop there, and if they feel confident they haven't been tailed, they can let her go the rest of the way alone.”

Jase nodded. ”Thanks, boss. I'll take care of it. Any updates?”

”Nothing concrete yet, I'll keep you posted.” Then Henry cut the call.

Jase waited in the den with a few of the other boys, drinking coffee, until Maggie and Julie came out of their own accord. Julie's face was swollen and red, but she appeared much calmer than she had been. Tommy immediately set them up with cups of coffee and put a sweet hand on Julie's when she sat down. That kid's heart was too big for his own good. Maggie sat next to Jase at the short bar, but didn't look at him.

Jase thought about how angry he had been at her yesterday. He couldn't conjure that anger now, even when he thought about the punk blonde kid at the roadhouse with his hands all over her. The memory of that bullet-riddled wall acted like a pressure valve on his rage. It was only luck that had her sitting here next to him now, and his grat.i.tude overpowered his anger. The sensation of it felt strange.

After she had finished half her first cup, Jase said, ”Julie can go, if she takes a gun and an escort. Final offer.”

He didn't look over at Maggie. From his peripheral, though, he saw that she didn't right away look over at him, either. She was thinking first.

She said, ”Is that so?”

”Yep.”

Maggie licked her lips. He could hear it softly. ”Well, tell Henry thanks for being reasonable for once.” She emphasized the name, signaling to them both that she knew d.a.m.n well what he had done-and that the jab was for him.