Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Levee

The second I heard my uncle’s voice on Jade’s phone, I knew shit had hit the fan.

The only thing I could think to ask was Is she alive? As my stomach cramped, as my heart dropped.

As soon as I had that information, I was running.

Out of my room, down the stairs, into the kitchen, where several heads turned to me in unison.

“What’s—“ Eddie started.

“Call Cato and Seeley. Tell ‘em to meet me at my uncle’s place.”

With that, I was out of the house, on my bike, and speeding like fucking hell to my old neighborhood. The whole drive, my mind raced with a million possibilities of what kind of trouble she could have gotten herself involved with, what could have happened to her.

Whatever it was, I knew it couldn’t be good if my uncle, of all people, came to her rescue.

I mean, I once saw him look the other way while a group of men street harassed a girl who couldn’t have been older than fifteen.

Sure, that was back when I was around that age too. Maybe the years had softened him a bit. Even if I hadn’t seen any signs of that myself.

He probably just had a soft side for Jade.

Who wouldn’t?

Except, of course, whatever fuck had put his hands on her.

Rage burned in my gut, made its way up my chest and throat.

By the time I pulled up at my old apartment building, I’d swear there was a hole in my esophagus from the heat of my anger.

Sure, I’d seen proof of someone putting their hands on her once already. I’d seen part of the nasty message on her whiteboard.

But it didn’t make it any more fathomable that anyone could put their hands on someone like her. Someone full of sweetness and sunshine. Someone who always wanted to do good for everyone else.

Whoever this person was, they were a fucking monster.

The time of night didn’t matter, there were always people milling around. I recognized that one tall, skinny kid I’d seen Jade talking to. His gaze, especially, was on me as I jumped off my bike and literally ran in the fucking building.

My heartbeat was hammering in my chest as I rushed down the hallway toward her apartment, pounding my fist on the door.

“Jade!” I yelled when the door didn’t immediately open.

There was the buzzing sound of my uncle’s electric wheelchair as he moved out of the way to open the door.

I noticed the shotgun next to his foot as I moved into the apartment.

“Seems like you two got a lot of shit to tell each other,” he said.

I ignored that.

Talking, that could come later.

I made my way over toward Jade who was sitting on the couch, just barely holding it together.

I dropped my ass down on the coffee table, reaching out to place one hand on her knee and the other went to her chin, lifting it, trying to get a good look at her.

I’d expected her to be beat to shit or bloodied with the way my uncle had described her as barely alive.

It wasn’t until I saw the bruises starting to darken her neck that I understood his meaning.

Someone had strangled her.

The signs were all there.

The bruises, the red eyes, the little red spots all around her eyes. Then there was her swollen lip, like maybe a hand had been placed there as well.

“Should have stopped to get you some ice pops, huh?” I asked, trying to ease the tension in the air between us.

The little snorting sound that escaped her quickly turned into a whimper, then full-on sobs.

“Hey, it’s alright now,” I assured her, moving onto the couch, and pulling her over my lap, holding her together as she fell apart. “I’m gonna fix this,” I told her as she slowly started to stop crying. “But I’m gonna need you to tell me what happened first.”

“I was sleeping,” she started, face still pressed against my shirt that was damp from her tears. “And then he was in here. His hand was over my mouth, then my throat. I couldn’t get him off,” she said, voice getting tighter again.

“Did he say anything?”

“He just… he was mad I wasn’t leaving it alone.”

“Leaving what alone? What’s been going on?”

“Someone left a nasty-gram on her whiteboard,” Uncle Will said, making both of us look over at him. “Yeah, I saw it,” he said, nodding. “See more than you think I do. Hear more too,” he said, the innuendo hanging heavy, making Jade squeeze her eyes shut in embarrassment over what he was saying he’d overheard.

“What did the whiteboard say?” I asked.

“Told her to mind her business,” Uncle Will said.

“Whose business are you minding?” I asked, scooting back just far enough to watch Jade’s face.

“7D,” she admitted. “Harvey. His business.”

“How about we start at the beginning?” I suggested.

“One day, I was bringing trash to the dumpster. And I came across four guys beating on a guy. I yelled. The guys ran.”

“7D was the guy?” I asked.

“Yeah. He… wasn’t exactly thankful for the interruption,” she admitted. But I thought that was the end of that.”

“Then?” I prompted when she didn’t go on.

My uncle’s wheelchair drew closer, and he held out a glass of water toward her.

She drank some of it, wincing as she swallowed, but went on. “Then one night, I heard a… scuffle upstairs. Then a loud thud. And when I went to the window, I saw a bunch of guys carrying something really heavy between them.”

“A body kind of heavy?” I asked.

“That’s what I thought, yeah. And I couldn’t shake my curiosity. When I went up to check, the door was open. There were signs of a struggle. And blood on the floor.

“While I was in there, I heard people coming. So I ran and hid under the bed. They tossed the whole apartment.”

“Was that when you were attacked the first time?”

“No. I managed to get away that time unseen. Or so I thought. But I, uh, I didn’t know what to do. So I asked the super to check on him. I thought that, you know…”

“He would see the mess, see the blood, and call the cops for you.”

“Yeah.”

“That didn’t happen.”

“He said there was nothing to worry about.”

“But it didn’t stop there?”

“I… went to look one more time. The whole place was cleaned up. I guess… someone saw me. Wanted me to stop looking into it.”

“So they attacked you.”

“Yeah. I think it would have been a lot worse if Terrance hadn’t just so happened to pass by at the time and stop him.”

“If you stopped looking into this, why were you attacked tonight?”

“I didn’t exactly stop. I stopped snooping,” I admitted. “But I… I contacted some of Harvey’s friends and family online, mentioned that I hadn’t seen him around. I figured they might look into it for me.”

“Do you have any idea who might have been behind all of this?” I asked.

“Could be anyone,” Uncle Will said. “Lots of bad apples ‘round here.”

“Someone named T, I think, is in charge of the other men. I heard them talking when I was hiding under the bed. I heard Terrance and his friends mention T when I was passing too. But, uh, you showed up before I could ask anything else.”

“T. That gives me something to go on,” I said, nodding.

It wouldn’t be too hard.

In an area socioeconomically depressed as this, if I threw a little cash around, someone would point me in the right direction.

“No, you can’t do that,” Jade insisted, worry etching parallel lines between her brows.

“Think it’s your turn to confess some shit,” Uncle Will said, making Jade’s pretty face scrunch up in confusion.

“What’s he talking about?” she asked.

Guilt nagged at me.

But I reminded myself that we’d both been keeping secrets.

“So I told you about being a member of a biker club,” I started.

“Yeah…” she said, brows pinching. “I’ve been to the clubhouse,” she said as if I could have forgotten.

“I didn’t exactly mention that it was my work too.”

“How?”

“There were different kinds of bikers. Ones who just happen to have a bike. Ones who are in clubs and like to hang out together. And then ones who do it as a job.”

“How can that be a job?”

“For some clubs, it’s drugs, prostitution, enforcement…”

“And your club?” she asked.

“Guns,” I admitted, making her eyes widen.

“Guns? You sell guns? Illegally?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, prepared for her shock or outrage. But not for the laugh that suddenly escaped her.

“What’s funny?”

“I was wondering earlier where I might buy a gun,” she admitted. “Turns out I’ve been sleeping with a dealer and had no idea,” she added, her laugh going a little hysterical.

Uncle Will shot me a raised brow look just as I heard the stomp of footsteps moving down the hall.

My uncle reached for his shotgun as someone knocked on his door.

“It’s Seeley and Cato,” I said, giving Jade a squeeze before moving off of the couch and across the apartment to open the door. “In here,” I said, getting nods from them as they moved into Jade’s place.

“Oh, honey,” Seeley said, looking at Jade’s throat.

“Will,” Cato said, eyeing my uncle’s shotgun.

“We need to go do some… knocking on doors,” I told my oldest friends.

“Sounds fun,” Cato said. “Jade, do you think you’d want some company? Think Rynn would like to come hang out.”

And Rynn was capable of taking care of herself. Of the both of them.

As much as my uncle’s shotgun was some form of deterrent, a more highly-trained person with a gun would be even better.

“Or, if you’d rather, you can go hang out at Teddy’s fancy-ass penthouse,” Seeley offered, knowing Teddy would never turn down a woman in need of a place to stay. “With Rynn, if you’d like.”

Jade looked torn. Likely wanting an escape, but not feeling comfortable accepting help.

“I hear Teddy has the best selection of ice cream and ice pops in the greater Miami area,” I said, lying through my teeth, but Teddy had people who could get him anything he wanted at any time, day or night.

“You could also discuss his hopes for the art at the hotel while you’re there,” I went on.

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding.

“Why don’t you feed the fish and pack a little bag while we call Rynn and Teddy?” I said.

With that, we moved out into the hall, my uncle included.

“Thanks for coming to save her,” I told Uncle Will as the apartment door closed behind us.

“Heard her scream,” he said, shrugging. “Don’t even know if this thing works anymore,” he added, tapping his gun. “But it did the trick.”

I nodded at Seeley, who reached for a handgun, giving it to my uncle.

“Just in case,” I said. “That one works. We’re gonna handle this, but I want to make sure you’re prepared if anyone comes for you now that you’re involved. Never know how brutal local crews around here can be.”

I gave the guys a quick breakdown of the story before calling Teddy to request that Jade stay with him for a bit before making my way back into Jade’s apartment.

She was standing in front of the fish tank, a bag at her feet, watching the fish swim up to the surface of the water and eat the food she’d dropped in.

“You okay?” I asked, moving in behind her to wrap my arms around her waist.

She wasted no time turning in my arms, wrapping her arms around me and holding on tight.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.”

“Me too. About my shit,” I told her.

“In both of our defense, things are… new,” she said, nuzzling her face into the crook of my neck.

“Yeah,” I agreed as my hands drifted up and down her spine. “ Hey, I’m an arms-dealing biker isn’t exactly first or second date conversation.”

“Neither is Hey, some bad guys might be after me ,” she agreed. “I don’t want you to get hurt trying to put a stop to this.”

“I won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’ve got Cato and Seeley here with me. Trust me, we’ve handled bigger shit.”

“You’ll be careful, though, right?”

“Don’t worry. I got every intention of coming back to you,” I said, leaning down to press a kiss to her head. “You have everything you need?”

“I think so. But I can’t be gone more than a day or so with the fish.”

“It shouldn’t take longer than that. But if it does, someone will feed them, I promise.”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Oh, wait. I should grab my sketch book in case Teddy wants to talk about the art,” she said, pulling away to go grab her book.

“That’ll be Teddy,” I said as I looked out the window and saw a sleek limo pull up out front. As soon as it parked, someone climbed out of the passenger side.

Security, I’d bet.

“He rides in a limo?” she asked, following my gaze.

“He usually uses a town car, but he likes to pamper the women. Ready?” I asked as she clutched her sketch book to her chest.

“Yeah,” she agreed, nodding, but her body language was tense.

I put an arm around her then grabbed her bag before leading her out of the apartment.

A part of me wanted to stop and spend the time to comfort her. The other part just wanted to end this shit once and for all for her, knowing we’d have as much time together as we wanted afterward.

We walked out of the building flanked by Cato and Seeley, getting the eyes of all the people hanging about outside of the building.

As soon as we got to the limo, the guard opened the back door to reveal Rynn sitting there.

“We have slushees!” she declared, holding out a pink and blue swirled one. “I got you blueberry and strawberry. It’s the best combination,” she said.

Some of the tension left Jade’s shoulders then as she took the slushee and climbed in.

“I will be in contact soon, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed. “Be safe.”

“I will. Let Teddy spoil you. He likes it,” I told her, slipping her bag in at her feet, then closing the door.

I waited until they pulled away from the curb to look at Cato. “Is Rynn armed?”

“Always,” he said, nodding.

“Okay. Let’s get to work then,” I said, looking over at Seeley. “Who do you think is gonna talk?”

“The group of kids,” Seeley said, nodding back toward the building.

“I think that tall one is Terrance. He’s the one who saved Jade,” I said, reaching for my wallet, though I didn’t know how much cash I had on me.

“I stored up,” Seeley said, reaching for a wad of fifties.

With that, we made our way toward the kids. Two of them scattered immediately. But Terrance eyed me closely as we approached.

Seeley pulled a couple of fifties off of the wad. “Point us in the direction of a guy named T,” he demanded.

Seeley was good with this shit. Taking charge. Getting information. It was why he’d been the one to get involved with the Henchmen first, got on their good side, made himself invaluable, then asked to bring us in with him.

As much as this was my situation, I had to admit that Seeley was better to take the lead.

Until we found the fuck who put his hands on my girl. Then it was my time to shine.

“Not fucking with T and his crew,” another of the kids said, rushing off to catch up with his friends who—wisely—cut out already.

“She okay?” Terrance asked.

“Someone almost strangled her to death tonight,” I told him, watching him quickly tamp down the shock and concern that moved across his face. As much as I hated that this neighborhood did that to kids so young, it was good he’d developed a poker face early.

“Our only lead says we need to talk to someone named T. You gonna tell us where to find him?” I asked as Terrance’s glance moved to our cuts, the one-percenter badges on them.

“Building South,” he said under his breath, lips not even moving. “Can’t fucking help you, man. Leave me the fuck alone,” he said, louder, backing away from us.

“Fine,” Seeley said, playing along, slipping his cash into his pocket once again. But as we walked away, he made sure the kid was watching as he dropped a couple of fifties behind the trash can.

Building South was at the end of the long, cracked sidewalk.

The building we all grew up in was only one of three in the immediate vicinity. North, South, and East. There’d been plans for a West, but I guess the funding never came in.

“You have no idea about this T guy?” I asked Seeley as we walked.

He’d always been someone who kept a finger on the pulse of all the local crews, somehow knowing more than anyone else even long after he moved out of the area.

He shook his head, though. “Fell off the past year or so. With Ama and… everything,” he said.

“It’s fine, man,” Cato said, shrugging. “We’ll figure it out.”

It wasn’t exactly complicated to find someone in this area. Especially if that someone was some sort of boss in a small-time crime syndicate.

Even if you weren’t from the area, even if you didn’t have experience spotting them so you didn’t accidentally cross them. Even if you weren’t a criminal yourself.

“What do you think?” Cato asked, jerking his chin toward a trio of men standing around close to the street sidewalk, likely for easy hand-off of whatever drug they were selling.

“Good as place as any to start,” Seeley said, heading in that direction.

“Thirty per pill,” one of the guys said without even looking our way.

“Fifty for information,” Seeley said.

“Ain’t a narc, man,” one of them shot back.

“Then we can do it this way,” Seeley said, pressing his gun to the guy’s back. “Where’s T?”

There was a whistle, making Cato and I turn to see a man who was just a dark shadow and a burning cigarette in the dark until he moved closer.

You never knew what to expect of a leader of a crew around here. They could be old men or kids still in high school.

T was somewhere in his thirties with a stocky build hazel eyes and a bump in his nose from being broken and not reset properly.

“The fuck is this?” he asked with a surprisingly thick Southern accent.

“Didn’t say shit, T,” the guy with a gun pressed into his back insisted.

“Believe it,” T said, looking over the three of us, his gaze landing on our cuts, making a muscle tick in his jaw. “Don’t want no smoke with your club.”

“No?” I asked, stepping forward. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have put your fucking hands on my girl.”

“Your girl,” T repeated, brows pinched. “Don’t know what you heard, but I don’t put my hands on no girls. Real gentlemanly and shit,” he said, shrugging it off.

Criminals were good liars. We had to be. But nothing about T suggested he was making shit up.

“What girl is yours anyway?” T asked.

“Gotta be that new chick,” one of the other guys said. “Walking ‘round with a black eye and cut-up face.”

“Nice pull,” T said, nodding at me. “But like I said, I don’t put my hands on girls. My crew don’t either.”

I glanced at Seeley and Cato. After decades of knowing one another, we could have whole conversations with just a look.

We were all thinking the same thing.

This didn’t feel quite right.

“Alright. Let’s pivot then,” I said. “What’s your deal with a guy named Harvey? 7D?”

“Oh, that fuck,” T said, snorting, shaking his head at us. “He owes me.”

“Money? Drugs? What does he owe you?”

“Both,” T admitted, surprisingly forthcoming.

“Did you kill him?”

“I wish,” T said. “Nah. He got good and beat to shit. Then… poof,” he said, making an exploding gesture with one of his hands. “Haven’t heard from ‘em since.”

That was why they’d gone back to his place. To look for him. When they didn’t find him, they ransacked the place to try to find money or pills.

But someone had still been threatening Jade.

Telling her to mind her business.

If it wasn’t T’s business she was minding… well… that just left Harvey himself, didn’t it?

“You haven’t seen Harvey since the night your guys roughed him up?” I asked.

“Wish I had,” T said, shrugging. “If you see that shit, send him my way.”

“One more thing,” Seeley called as he tucked his gun away again.

“Yeah?” T asked.

“What does T stand for?” Seeley asked with a smirk.

To that, T shook his head.

“Thaddeus.”

“Yeah, I’d go by T too,” I said with a laugh as we moved away.

“What’s the plan now?” Cato asked when we were back at Jade’s building.

“Check out 7D’s place,” Seeley said, reading my mind.

The thing was, as we were making our way to the door, the door to his apartment opened.

All three of us reached for our guns in unison, making the wall of a man stop short, body stiffening.

His hands shot up as he looked between us.

“You’re not Harvey,” I said, remembering Jade’s description of someone more average-sized.

“I’m the super,” the man said.

“Booth,” I recalled from Jade’s account of events.

“Yeah.”

“What are you doing in 7D’s apartment?” I asked.

Booth, as it turned out, wouldn’t be able to win a single hand of poker. His guilt was written all over his face.

“You working with him? Hiding shit from T?” I asked.

“No! No,” he said, more calmly. “Don’t get involved with anyone around here. Not like that. Harvey, he’s my sister’s kid. Just… keeping an eye out. That’s all.”

“Yeah?” I asked. “Then how’d you miss him beating up and trying to strangle my girl?” I asked, watching him lose his color.

“I didn’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t hide him if I knew he was fucking up that bad.”

“Where is he?” I asked.

Booth looked conflicted for a second. “My room. In the lower level,” he said. “Who’s your girl?” he asked, looking at me.

“6D.”

“With all the hair,” he said, making my brows pinch.

“Ah… yeah, I guess.”

“Guess she got you to deal with the drain now then,” he said, reaching into his pocket to produce a key. “To my place,” he said, looking torn, but seeming to know that we’d get to him one way or another, and not wanting to be collateral damage in the process.

With that, the three of us made our way to the stairs.

“What’s with the drain comment?” I asked aloud.

To that, Seeley smirked. “Clearly never lived with a woman,” Seeley said, shaking his head.

“Got special drain covers,” Cato piped in as we made our way to the lower level.

We knew our way around the place like the backs of our hands.

It was a sprawling, mostly-dark space full of tools and cleaning supplies with the super’s apartment far to one side.

On nights where our homes were miserable in unison, we’d sometimes sneak with some blankets and pillows and have a sleepover down there to get a break from it all.

Sure, it was filthy and musty and there was the telltale scratching and shrieking of rats existing down there with us, but that was still better than our families most of the time.

“Fan out,” Seeley said, nodding us each in different directions.

It was surprisingly noisy for a lower level, even in the middle of the night. Floors of TVs, music, conversation, fighting, footsteps.

After a few dozen feet, I couldn’t hear Seeley or Cato any longer.

Adrenaline surged through my system as I inched closer toward the apartment, not sure if he knew we were coming, if he was going to react like a caged animal.

But just as I was about to reach for the door, it swung open.

And out walked 7D.

Completely fucking oblivious until my gun cracked across his cheek, making him stagger back and curse.

I was on him then, rushing him back into his uncle’s apartment as my fists crashed into him again and again.

My knuckles hit his nose, making a crunching sound, and covering my fist in blood as it poured.

Somehow, though, that only made visions of Jade with her bloody nose flash through my mind, reigniting my rage as I kept pummeling the fucker.

Even as he fell to the ground.

My hand went to his throat, wanting him to know the fear and helplessness that Jade had felt when he’d been on her exactly like this. His head getting fuzzy. His chest getting tight. Knowing this was the end.

In the end, though, someone saved him just like someone saved her.

Two sets of hands grabbed me, pulling me off of Harvey, dragging me backward until I stopped struggling.

“Couldn’t let you kill him,” Seeley said as I tried to slow my frantic breathing. “Prez doesn’t even know what the fuck is going on,” he added.

“You made your point,” Cato added. “He’s not gonna go near Jade again.”

Seeley shoved me out of the apartment and kicked the door closed.

“I want him out of here,” I insisted, wiping his blood off on my shirt.

“Between this ass-kicking and T, I think he’s outta here. One way or another,” Cato assured me. “And you can be with Jade for the time being to make sure of that.”

That was true.

I could be at her place or she could come to the clubhouse. I didn’t care if I had to put up a fucking tank for her fish in my room.

As we walked back out of the lower level, my mind was suddenly on more permanent things than who was staying where to make sure she was safe.

Like browsing around the local listings for that bungalow she’d once mentioned.

An investment for all the money I had lying around. A place I could slowly over time move her into. Until it wasn’t just mine anymore, but ours.

“You can’t go get Jade looking like this,” Seeley said as we moved outside under a streetlamp. “And we have to talk to Huck now.”

As much as I wanted to run back to Jade, to pull her into my arms again, to tell her nothing was going to happen to her ever again, I knew Seeley was right.

First, because Jade was not the kind of woman who was going to enjoy the proof of my violence all over me.

Second, because we didn’t operate alone. Not anymore. We knew what it meant when we joined the club. We no longer had the complete freedom to do whatever the hell we wanted. We were supposed to get permission before we did shit. If shit got too crazy too fast for that, then we definitely needed to have a sit-down with the president to fill him in on all the details, so he could decide if there would be any blowback on the club.

“Besides,” Cato said as we all made our way toward the street where our bikes were waiting for us, “you gotta let the girl enjoy Teddy’s penthouse for a while.”