7. Lash

7

LASH

It doesn't take much to convince Sienna to go home and wait for me. She wanted to stay out looking for the girls, but once I told her there was no way she'd find them, she agreed that it was time for her to call it a night.

I know that I shouldn't be getting involved with this mess, but the fact that those bastards came into my clubhouse and abducted two girls—when the implications could point to us—had me hot under the collar. I only hope that Leo sees it the same way I do. He could order us to stand down and not look into this anymore. He was the one who told us to look for any dirt on the Hands of Hell that could come back to us since they wanted to collaborate on a deal with us. Kidnapping women could most definitely make us look bad.

The ride back to the clubhouse passes by in a blur. I'm usually completely present when I'm on my bike, but now all I can think about is the way Sienna practically begged me to do everything I could to find those two girls. She begged me to care about her issues, and as much as I don't want to, I feel like I don't have a choice. Something about her makes me want to take care of her. Makes me want her never to have to cry again.

I park my bike in the lot in front of my house. This time, it's Feather at the door. He quickly opens the door when he sees me coming in. The main area is bustling with energy as all the club members, a few hangarounds, and the prospect are just going about their night. Even when there's no party happening in here, there's still plenty to do. I'm not interested in taking my mind off anything tonight. In fact, I want to focus on what we can do to get those girls home. And that means going up against the Hands of Hell to accuse them of doing some shady shit.

Leo and Nisa are in the corner sitting together on a loveseat. She's draped over his lap, showing him some pictures in a lingerie magazine. Every few pages, Leo leans over and says something to Nisa that has her laughing and blushing like a madwoman. I hate to break up the cuteness, but I have business to attend to.

"Leo, I need to have a word." I walk over to him and cross my arms over my chest.

"You blind? Did you not see that I'm sitting here with my woman?" He flips his hand in my direction, effectively dismissing me, but I'm not going to be dismissed right now.

"Nah man, I need a word... now." I say again, this time a little louder. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to Nisa or my president, but we need to handle this right away.

Leo looks up at me; anger masks his face as he taps Nisa's legs so she can move and he can get up.

I don't wait for him to ask me any more questions. Instead, I turn on my heel and head straight for the church. The instant I do, the rest of the ranked members follow behind me.

"What the hell do you want that you had to pull me away from my woman?" Leo asks as he gets into the church and goes directly to his seat.

I'm angry. Not only at those Hands of Hell pricks but also at myself. I was looking straight at them. I allowed them to stay there and interact with the women who came to our place to have a good time. I shouldn't have sent them on their way, but I didn't.

Taking a deep breath, I make sure I do my best to keep the bulk of my anger tapered down. I don't want him or anyone else in the room to think my emotions are getting the best of me or, better yet, that some woman is playing me for a fool. If it wasn't for Sienna, I would have never thought to look for those two women.

"I think we might have a problem with the Hands of Hell," I say, and instantly everyone in the room is up in arms. This isn't the news that we need right now. Not when we are about to enter into a deal with them.

As it stands, the peace between Chrome Creed and the Hands of Hell is tentative at best. If we renege on a deal, it could turn into an all-out war, but I don't think even Leo would stand for those bastards coming in here and abducting people that we paid to entertain us. That's just not how we roll.

"Shut the fuck up!" Leo barks, and everyone gets quiet. "Explain yourself," Leo speaks to me.

"I went to check up on that woman who was here earlier. What she said really stuck with me, and I wanted to know more about what she was talking about."

"So what? She's already claimed by the Hands of Hell, and you overstepped?" Spike asks, and I glare at him. How the hell could he ever think someone like Sienna would be connected with anyone from the Hands of Hell? Of course, I don't know her that well either.

"No, nothing like that. I just told her I'd assist in her search." I shrug, and there are a few chuckles among the group.

"So you're turning into a softie on us. Since when do you care about the women that come in here?" Spike asks, and I have to fight not to bark at him. He's not wrong. I don't usually follow up on any of them.

"If you let me talk, I can tell you what the hell went down," I snap at Spike, which is the last thing I should be doing. He's the VP and higher up in the ranks than me. We don't tolerate disrespect in any form, and if he wanted, Spike could come across and smack the hell out of me like I was his child.

"Then fucking get to it," Leo leans forward in his seat.

"I saw a photo of the two girls that went missing last night. It's the same two that the Hands of Hell were all over yesterday. The last I saw, they left with them." Leo doesn't look impressed.

"I'm not here to police who a woman has sex with," Leo remarks.

"I'm not saying to police who they have sex with, but when it comes to them being missing, it will all lead back to us. Everyone knows that the two of them were here last night. If the cops or anyone else gets involved, they're coming here first." I try to get my point across, trying to make it as important as I can.

"So what are you saying? The cops are going to think that we're abducting these women?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Those bastards knew what they were doing when they pulled those girls from here, and I'm not sure we should really be getting involved with a group that is known for trafficking girls. That's not what we're about. Right?" I look at Leo expectantly. He's always been fair. A brutal son of a bitch, but he's good at heart, mostly.

I watch as a flitter of emotions crosses my normally steel president. I wait for him to do the right thing. Wait for him not to leave me out on the edge of the unknown.

"You're right. I don't want to be dealing with that mess. But we don't know that for certain. We're going to need ironclad proof that they had something to do with those girls' disappearance. They could be over there right now having the time of their lives. We don't know." Leo shrugs, and I nod my head. He’s right about that in every sense of the word. I know Sienna likes to think these women are better than they are, and I’m sure some of them are, but most of them are messed up. They could literally be over there at the Hands of Hell clubhouse getting high or being used. We don't know that for sure.

"So what do you think we should do?" Rumble questions. "We can't just call them and ask to speak with the girls."

"No, but we do have a meeting with them tomorrow. It'll be best to know what kind of people I'm really dealing with. If they give us any shit about the girls, I'll call the deal off."

Creek groaned at the idea. "You know that's not going to be good for us, right? There's every chance they'll just start a war because of it."

"Yeah, I know. But like Lash said, that's not the kind of people we are. We want the community to be able to trust us in at least one regard. We don't go around allowing women to be abducted, especially when they're supposed to be in our care." Leo nods his head once, letting us all know that it's the end of the situation.

I don't have all the answers I wanted to get tonight, but at least I know something is going to happen.

"I guess this means we need to get ourselves ready for the backlash," Rumble says, and Leo stands from his seat.

"If it means helping Lash and his woman find these girls, then yes. We're going to get ready for war. Now everyone go back and continue the research; maybe there's something more that we're missing." Leo dismisses all of us, and I'm one of the last to leave the room. I wait for a second to see if Leo is going to have anything more to say to me, but when he doesn't, I turn and make my way out.

"Is she worth all this?" Tella stops me on my way to my room.

"What?" I ask, glaring at him.

"This little woman that seems to have your nose wide open. Is she truly worth all that's about to go down?"

"If those girls were taken, it happened while they were in our care. This has nothing to do with Sienna."

"Bullshit. You know it and so do I. If this were anyone else, you'd never even be involved with this shit. Let me guess, she promised to fuck you or something like that?" Tella jokes, and I take a step forward, getting in his face. I don't own Sienna, but the last thing I'm going to allow to happen is for someone to disrespect her—not that one.

"Watch what the fuck you're saying to me, Tella. I've got no problem knocking you the fuck out." I grit through my teeth, and his eyes widen.

"Oh shit. The big bad Lash is finally tamed? I never thought I'd see the day."

"I'm not fucking tamed," I argue, but even I can hear the petulance in my tone.

"You are, but it's a good thing. I just hope she understands what she's really in for. If you're going to make her your ol' lady, then of course we're going to do whatever we can to make this shit right. I'm not too old for a fight, especially when it's for family." Tella shrugs and walks on, leaving me standing in my own messed-up thoughts.

Sienna is a different breed of woman. I don't know if it's because of how much she cares about these other women, or her look, or more than likely the way she can continuously turn me down and still have me panting at her heels like a fucking puppy dog, but there's something about her that makes me want to throw all caution to the wind and take her—completely. I want to reach into her soul and brand my name there. I want everyone to know that she's my red.

The only issue is I'm not sure she realizes that yet.

Soon she'll know how quickly and deeply I'm becoming obsessed with her.

There's a good chance she might not be able to handle it, but like Tella said, I'm never too tired for a fight. I'll fight for her with every breath I have.