Ashes Chapter 19

I groaned, seeing them all staring at me, waiting for me to tell the story of what a dick I'd been. Just what no man wanted to tell his woman. I threw up my hands. "Alright, I'll tell her. I warn you, I was an utter dickhead. When Raine was first with her guys, Piper was taken by some crazy woman. Anyone tell you about that?" I asked. She nodded yes. I kept going.

"Well, I was supposed to keep her at the compound. When she wanted to leave, I tried to stop her, and she punched me in the throat. I was pissed, and when I went after her and ran into her guys moments later, I angrily said she should learn to behave or get her ass spanked so she would. Or something along those lines. Suffice it to say, she wasn't happy with me, and all the old ladies thought I was a chauvinistic asshole. It took me a long time to get her to like me again and assure all of them that I didn't mean it the way it sounded."

"You're lucky it was her and not me that you said it to. If it had been me, I would've gone after you a second time and nailed you in the balls," our woman threatened.

I winced, imagining it. She was feisty enough to do it. I had no doubt from her earlier remark to her brother about going into the ring with him that she would fight. Not that we'd allow her to face him or anyone else knowingly.

"You tell him, Micaela," Skye egged her on.

"Has Ex not been spanking you enough, Skye?" I joked.

She didn't get angry. Instead, she smirked before answering me. "As a matter of fact, he has. Last night if you must know. Have you spanked Micaela yet?" she shot back, the minx.

I wasn't sure if I should say anything or not. Leave it up to my Sweet Thing to answer for me. "No, he hasn't, but I'm looking forward to it. I hope he can handle the response he gets. Well, I hope they all can," she winked, then blew us kisses after she said it.

I half rose to my feet as I said, "Time to go. No time for lunch. We've gotta get home."

This made them all chuckle. We spent a few minutes teasing back and forth before deciding what we wanted to eat. While we did, I noticed Vicious was texting. Moments later, my phone buzzed, and so did Dragon's. Taking mine out, I saw it was a joint text to the two of us from V.

Vicious: Sending a text to Phantom to order her property cut. OK?

Glancing at Dragon, I shrugged and then answered.

Me: Sure. Do it.

Dragon: The sooner, the better.

Vicious: Any preference for the order of our names?

While I'd love mine to be first, no doubt they would too.

Me: Let P decide the order. Makes it fair.

Dragon: Fair enough.

Vicious: Agree. Will send it now.

It wasn't long before we had our drinks and placed our orders. As we relaxed and chatted, I watched Micaela. She was enjoying herself. When Raine brought our food, we dug in. We were all talking about how good it was when I heard Micaela mutter, "Oh great." Her eyes were pointed toward the main part of the dining room. Following her gaze to see what had her attention, I saw right away why she said what she did.

Standing near the entrance was a couple. They were familiar to her and me. It was Sandy and Tav from our cooking class. I was immediately upset. Why was she still with that abusive jackass? I exchanged a frown and a roll of my eyes with Micaela. She shrugged and frowned back. Our interaction wasn't lost on our tablemates.

"What's wrong?" Dragon asked.

I didn't get a chance to answer before a raised voice had me glancing back at the front. It was Tav showing his ass. What a moron.

"What do you mean we have to wait? There are fucking tables over there with no one at them. Why can't we sit there? I don't have all day," he snarled at Jovie. She was moving away from him. He was gesturing in our direction. No way did I want his cretin self near us.

At this time of day, there weren't any bouncers here. It was up to the male bartender to either escort people who caused trouble out or to call the cops unless one of the club members was there to handle it. I wasn't sure if Pitbull was in his office, but in case he wasn't, I came to my feet along with my three brothers. As one, we moved to cut Tav off from Jovie and anyone else he might hurt. As we encircled him, he bristled, but not as much as he did when he caught sight of my face and recognized me.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Had to bring your buddies to try to beat my ass this time?" he smarted off. Sandy had backed up to put her back to the wall by the door. She reminded me of a trapped animal.

I laughed at him. "Tav, you must've taken a worse beating at our last meeting than I recall because it was you who got your ass whipped, not me. I didn't need help then, and I don't need it now. As for why I'm here, my club owns this place. Sandy, why are you still with this guy? He abuses you. You deserve better."

She gave me a shame-faced look, then lowered her head to stare at the floor.

"Don't talk to her! She's mine, and I don't need a prick like you trying to sweet-talk her. What happened to the piece of ass you were with that night? Did she get smart and go for a real man?"

His calling Micaela a piece of ass angered me. I took a step closer, but Ex grabbed my arm to stop me. "Don't. Not yet," he whispered.

"I'm right here, and no, I went and got two more just like him," came Micaela's voice behind me. As I turned, she became visible. Tav curled his upper lip when he saw her. She gave him a dismissive smirk and then glanced at Sandy.

"Honey, you need to come with me. You shouldn't be with him or in the middle of this. Come on. I'll introduce you to a couple of friends." She held her hand out to her. As Sandy moved to go to her, Tav tried to grab her. It was Executioner who grabbed his arm to prevent him from touching Sandy. The two women walked off, leaving us to deal with the abusive fucker in front of us. As Sandy passed me, I noticed the bruising underneath her makeup. My fury spiked.

"Who's this asshole, Ashes?" Dragon asked.

"He's some guy Micaela and I met on our date. He caused issues, got mouthy, backhanded his woman, and thought he'd start on Mic. I took exception. We ended up outside, where we had a ‘discussion,' and he didn't like it. He ran when he heard the cops coming."

"He touch our woman?" Vicious snarled.

"If he had, he'd be dead," I answered.

"Sandy, get your fucking ass back here!" Tav yelled.

Not waiting to hear more, Ex twisted his arm behind his back and frog-marched him outside. We went with him. The Hangout had gotten quieter as we spoke to Tav, but it increased as soon as he was headed out. Once outdoors, Executioner pushed him around and behind the building. You could fight Executioner, but our sergeant-at-arms slash club enforcer was a huge guy who stood six-and-a-half feet tall. Ex let go of him and shoved him away once we were no longer in public view. Tav stumbled, then righted himself to whip around to face us. His face was red, and he was fuming mad. I wanted to tell him the cops in this town weren't likely to be on his side if called. Not when two of our brothers were on the force.

"Come on, I can take all of you, cocksuckers. When I'm done with you, I think I'll go back and see if that slut of yours wants a ride on my cock," he mouthed off.

Calling Micaela a slut, pissed me off, but I held back. V and Dragon let out deep growls, but what stunned the hell outta me was Vicious.

"I don't know who you are, and I don't give a flying fuck. You came into our town, our place, and you're running your mouth about our woman. I should let you go in there and see what she does to you. You'll be lucky if you can walk out in one piece once she's through with you. You mess with her, and she'll fuck you up. Although maybe if that poor woman with you sees another woman stand up to you, she'll leave your pathetic ass. Yeah, we should let Micaela handle him," he said, nodding and smiling at the rest of us.

Tav let out a roar and came charging at Vicious. I think he thought V wasn't paying attention to him, and he'd get in a cheap shot or something. He was wrong. When he got within arms' reach, Vicious let go with a punishing punch. It took Tav in the jaw and dropped him where he stood. He went down like a stone and lay on the ground unmoving.

"Damn, there goes our fun," Dragon muttered.

"I know," I agreed.

"Hey, you got to hit him the first time. Does this mean he'll be dumb enough to return for a third time, and I get him?" Dragon asked hopefully.

Executioner shook his head. "I swear, like a bunch of eager kids. Come on. We need to get him out of here. One of you wanna call and see if Wrecker or Cuffs can send one of their officers over here to take him away? Or should we have the prospects come get him and take him outside of town and drop his ass off? If we take his phone, he might end up walking for a while. Maybe that'll give us enough time to talk to Sandy and convince her to leave him. We can put her up at Soteria."

He was right. The club always found room for someone at our shelter. If not, we'd find somewhere she would be safe.

"I think we should let Cullen and Colton handle it," I said. The idea of him hoofing it for miles made me happy.

"Sounds good to me," Vicious agreed.

"That gets my vote," was Dragon's response.

"Then it's decided. Off to the country he goes. Let me see how fast they can get here?" Ex took out his phone and placed the call. As we waited to see what the wait time would be, Pitbull came out the back door.

"Damn, too late. What're we doing with him?"

We quickly informed while he explained he'd just returned from running an errand and was told we had a problem outside. Pitbull and Executioner told us to go inside and check on the women and let them know what was going on. They'd stay out here with the troublemaker. We were tasked with convincing Sandy to leave him for good and to go to Soteria.

However, when we returned to the ladies, we discovered they'd already gotten her to agree. We ended up sitting there as Sandy ate. She appeared shaky. She thanked all of us profusely, admitting she had tried to leave him and he had just found her and brought her back. That was the reason for her current bruises.

By the time Ex rejoined us, and we were all done eating, she was more than ready to get her things. She rode with Ex, Skye, and Desi, and we followed. The men stood guard at the apartment while the women went inside to help her pack her things. We had enough room between the various vehicles to haul it all. There would be no reason for her to come back again. Once Sandy was packed, they drove her to Soteria. After hearing about it at lunch, Micaela expressed interest in seeing it, so we went with them. Not exactly how I expected to spend part of our day, but it was worth saving another person from their abuser.