5. Lash

5

LASH

There's nothing I hate more than sitting my ass in front of a computer all day. Unfortunately, that's what it takes when it comes to doing research on other clubs. I could go out and do some in-person research, but I'm a patched member and notorious at that. If there was anything worth hiding, the Hands of Hell would get rid of it the minute they saw me coming. No, right now I need to be helping this way.

"Lash, I was thinking about doing a Secret Santa type of thing for the guys. What do you think?" Nisa asks as she places a beer down in front of me. As Leo's ol' lady, I have to show her the utmost respect, and that's the only reason I don't tell her to take that idea and shove it up her ass. Why the hell would I or any of us want to do some Secret Santa bullshit? This isn't some office building; this is a clubhouse full of bikers, miscreants, and in some cases, murderers.

"Yeah, I don't think that's such a good idea." I lean back in my chair and grimace in her direction.

"Really? Tella, Spike, and Rumble all seemed to love it." Nisa shrugs, and my jaw nearly drops to my chest. Pansy-ass traitors. All of them.

"So what are you asking me for if you already got an answer from them?" I narrow my eyes at her, knowing exactly where she's going with this and hating every second of it.

"Well, honestly, I was just coming over here to see if you want to participate. Everyone else is." She smiles wider at me, and that's when I know this isn't a request but more of her letting me know that it's going down.

"Fine. Sign me up."

"Such a grinch." She laughs before she walks away from me. I don't know who I'm going to get for Secret Santa, but I know what they're going to get: the one gift I don't have to put much thought into—a bottle of liquor. We all drink, and who doesn't want their own bottle? I instantly x out of the page that I was using to look up information about the Hands of Hell and log into the site for the liquor warehouse. I put in an order for a high-label cognac to be shipped to the clubhouse.

Ho, ho, ho. That was easier than I expected. If Nisa thinks I'm going to wrap this shit, she's got another thing coming. They all better be happy that I'm even contributing to begin with.

I navigate back to the webpage I was using before and do my best to focus on that. Of course, just as soon as things go quiet in the clubhouse, I hear the chaos starting up outside.

"What the fuck is that?" Spike pipes up from where he is standing near the kitchen.

"Fuck, I don't know. Zero, report." I call out.

Zero is the prospect that is supposed to be guarding the door, but right now he's not replying. Either he's dead or something is happening outside that is keeping him from answering me. It's the only excuse that he's going to be able to give if he wants to continue on his prospect run.

Both Spike and I walk toward the front door at the same time.

"Lash, hurry the fuck up and figure out what's going on out there. Who the hell is that?" Leo barks at us from where he just walked out of his quarters. Nisa hurries to be by his side just in case something major is going on. It wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to come in here and kill her. I pray no one is stupid enough to do it again.

I pick up the pace toward the door, both Spike and I getting there at the same time almost.

"I don't care what the protocol is; I want to go inside and check for myself." I hear a woman's voice shrieking outside.

"Ma'am, I can't allow that. If you give me a second, I can get one of the higher-ups out here to talk to you," I hear Zero say, trying to calm the situation down.

"Ow... stop hitting me....Miss, wait."

"Stop fucking 'miss-ing' me!"

No way. It can't be.

I've heard that angry tone before—most recently in my daydreams all day.

I push my way out of the clubhouse to see Zero playing defensive line with Sienna. She's trying to get around him to get back into the clubhouse. I almost laugh at the ridiculous sight, but I don't want her to think that it's okay for her to just show up like this and demand to get inside. We don't roll like that. Not here. Not when my family's safety could be at risk.

"Sorry, Lash. I tried to tell her..." Zero huffs out, talking to me while still trying to keep Sienna from getting around him. "I tried to tell her that she couldn't just walk in, but she's not trying to hear me."

"What the hell is this?" Spike steps forward, but I put a hand up, patting his chest to stop him.

"I've got her," I tell him, and he instantly backs off, allowing me to take the lead in this.

"I already gave you the options last night. Did you change your mind all of a sudden?" I tilt my head to the side, and she literally snarls at me.

"I'm not thinking about you or that little dick you've got swinging between your legs. I want to know what you did to those girls." She snaps at me, and instantly all joking is out of my mind.

"What the fuck are you accusing me of?"

"Oh, it doesn't have to be you; it could be any one of your assholes in here. I want to know where they are."

"Who the hell is 'they'?" I ask, already getting frustrated by the way Sienna is talking to me.

"Don't play stupid with me now. Lia and Max. Where are they?" Sienna tries once again to get around Zero, but he's taking his job seriously, and both of them are out of breath.

"Zero, back off," I bark at him, and I watch his shoulders slump in relief as he takes a step back and allows Sienna to get close to me.

"I don't know who the fuck Lia and Max are, but they're not here." I look down at the spitting mad woman. For some reason, her red hair only makes her look more gorgeous now that she's staring up at me with murder in her eyes.

"I want to see that for myself," she glares at me.

"We don't let people in our clubhouse uninvited," I reply, not backing down even an inch. She may be angry, but she's not going to intimidate me.

"Then invite me in. Do what you have to do, but one way or another, I'm getting in there to check for my friends. I don't want to have to call the cops on you." She squints her eyes, and I know she's telling the truth. She'll call the authorities. Though it'll give us enough time to hide whatever we need to, we still don't like the Jakes poking their noses around in our business.

"Don't threaten me. Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'You get more with honey than shit'?" I cross my arms over my chest, and her eyes drop down. I watch one of her eyebrows hitch up just barely. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she had a thing for me—a thing she was trying so hard to deny.

"I don't want to have to threaten you, but all I know is the two of them were here last night. I saw them, and now today they are missing. No one knows where they went. Girls have been coming up missing for months, and no one does anything about it. If they are here getting high or getting fucked, I don't care; I just want to know they are alright." Sienna explains as she looks back up to my face. This time the bite in her words is softer. She's not really here to start trouble; instead, she's just here because she's concerned.

I look over my shoulder at Spike. Usually, I'd need authority from Leo to let a stranger inside, but I'm hoping he can see that we need to take care of this now and not have her call the cops to come looking for these missing girls.

Spike nods his head, letting me know he's on the same page as I am.

"Fine, you can walk through with me. But you stay at my side at all times. You understand?" I grab hold of her arm just above the elbow and walk her to the door.

"I can move on my own, you know." She snaps at me, but I don't let her go. The last thing I need right now is for her to run off and get somewhere unsupervised.

"What part of 'at my side' didn't you understand? You're going to move where I move. I'm not hearing shit else about it." I growl at her and wait for her quick-witted response, but I don't get one. Instead, she sighs and just does as I tell her.

"What the fuck is this? Are we just letting people in here without my say-so now?" Leo starts coming closer to me, and I'm ready to defend my decision, but Spike steps in to handle it for me. As the VP, Spike's word holds more weight than mine. I don't hear anything they are saying, but I notice Leo isn't coming for me anymore.

I take Sienna into the main open rooms first so she can look around, and then I start knocking on doors to our personal spaces. I'm surprised by how junky some of the spaces are, but I don't comment on it. I'm not showing her around to impress her; I'm showing her around so she can get this stupid idea out of her head that we'd have anything to do with two missing girls. The only women at our place are women who want to be here.

"Fuck no," Leo snarls as I get close to his door.

"What's wrong?" Nisa asks, moving forward.

"She thinks we're hiding two missing women in here. I'm just showing her that she's wrong."

Nisa nods her head and walks in front of me.

"Nisa!" Leo calls her back, but she only looks over her shoulder at him.

"There's no reason not to show her. If she's looking for her people, why not set her mind at ease?" Nisa walks over to her bedroom door and opens it for Sienna to look around.

"You don't know me or us, but I promise you we're not that kind of people," Nisa says to Sienna.

"I want to believe that; it's just that this was the last place, the only clue I have," Sienna explains, and I watch something unspoken pass between the two women.

Once that is done, I'm ready to escort Sienna back to the front door so she can leave.

"Wait. We didn't go in there." She points to the door that leads to church.

"Not gonna happen. No one is in there."

"If no one is in there, why won't you let me see?"

"Because it's off-limits," I snap at her and try once again to pull her to the door, but she digs her feet into the ground, stopping me.

"What the hell do you mean it's off-limits? Am I going to melt if I look inside? Are you hiding a magic rose like the Beast or some shit?" She furrows her eyebrows.

I turn so I'm facing her and lean down a bit so we are face to face. "You need to get one thing straight, Sienna. You are not some long-lost princess, and this isn't some fucking fairy tale. You're not supposed to be in here as it is. I'm showing you around as a courtesy, but you're pushing my patience."

She stares at me wide-eyed for a second, and part of me thinks I might have finally succeeded in scaring her, but moments later she shakes her head. "Can I at least knock on the door? Make sure I don't hear anything?"

I look over at Leo, who is watching this entire thing unfold in front of him. He nods his head, and I take Sienna to the door before I knock hard against the heavy wooden doors.

"Not like that. Who the hell would answer to someone who sounds like they're about to break the doors down?" She rolls her eyes again and knocks softer this time.

"Max, Lia, are you in there? It's me, Sienna. I just want to know you're okay."

I can hear the pain in this woman's voice. I don't know where her friends are, but I hate that they made her worry like this. She waits a second and knocks again. After a full minute of waiting, I pull her away from the door. "Satisfied?" I ask, and she nods her head.

"Good, now it's time for you to go." I pull her back to the front door and walk her outside into the crisp winter air.

"Can't say I enjoyed my visit." Sienna rubs the part of her arm that I was holding onto.

"Good, because the next time you come, things won't be so pleasant for you."

Her eyes lose a little bit of the fire I'm used to seeing in them as she stares at me.

"Not pleasant? You think I got any joy out of coming here and looking for those girls? Do you know what it means that I didn't find them here? It means they are either in a ditch somewhere dead or they are being hurt by someone else. I'm all these girls have, and you're standing here talking about making things pleasant for me." She steps forward and slaps the back of her hand against my chest. It's not hard enough to hurt, but it's enough to get her point across. "Please believe me, Lash, if I never see you again, it'll be too soon. Now go on back to your little club and play at keeping people safe, at least those that mean anything to you. I've got two young girls to find." She turns on her heels, leaving me reeling from her accusation and her truth.

I watch her get into her car and drive off, but even as I see her taillights turn the corner, I know one thing for sure: this most definitely won't be the last time I see Sienna. Not by a long shot.