Black Dogs Motorcycle Club: Full Series Box Set (5 page)

Maggie blinked hard, waiting, watching
him. He let her stew in her worry for a few moments, and then without warning,
he backhanded the beer she had been drinking from the bar. It went crashing
into the wall, spilling suds all over an ancient poster of Willie Nelson.

Jase bent down low towards Maggie
’
s
face. His whispered words pierced her heart in ways she didn’t know were
possible.
“
Go home.
”

With that, Jase turned abruptly and
stalked out of the den, down the hallway, and out of the clubhouse. Seconds
later, the sounds of a roaring bike echoed down the long driveway.

Shaking and pale, Maggie felt herself
rooted to the spot she was standing. She stared at the empty space where Jase
had been like she was caught in a bad dream.

“Jesus,”
said Drake from
the doorway of the den. He shoved his phone in his pocket and, completely
oblivious, thumbed towards the clubhouse front door.
“
Obviously
I
’
m not the only one who
didn’t know who she was.
”

~ THREE ~

Jase
had driven almost five miles outside of LeBeau before he realized he was
actually on his bike. The sudden rage that enveloped him when he saw Maggie
sitting at that bar was unlike anything he had ever felt in his relatively
young life
—
and that was saying a lot
for a guy who was professionally angry. One moment, he had been close enough to
kiss her; close enough to strangle her dead; close enough that he could still
smell her lingering perfume in his thick beard. Then he was suddenly aware of
the swirling colors of the falling twilight as he tore down a country road at
twice the speed limit, wind whipping his face without mercy. The moment spooked
him when he realized he had no idea what had happened between here and there.

He slowed his bike down as he came around
a curving hillside, and pulled her over at the first shoulder that was wide
enough to park safely. The bike rumbled between his legs for a few moments
before he killed the engine. Instantly the sounds of the coming night came
rushing in to fill the silence: bullfrogs, crickets, the final songs of day
birds. Jase tried to focus on the visual of his anger melting away like the
patient, slow drip of wax from a burning candle; sometimes he could daydream
his way into some level of calm. Some of the stars twinkled brightly, out early
in the night sky and he did his best to focus on them. But all he could see in
his head was Maggie, sitting there at the bar, like she had never left; joshing
around with Castillo; drinking the MC
’
s
beer and acting like she owned the place. Like she hadn’t just up and abandoned
it one sunny summer day much like this one.

The back of Jase
’
s
neck pulsed, tense with stress and heat. He moved to rub it away and was
shocked to see his hand trembling when he lifted it.

“Fuck,”
he sighed heavily and
felt suddenly weighted.

Why was she here? Why now? After all this
time
…
after Jase had worked so goddamn hard to stitch up the
bleeding wound she had left behind in him. A wound that was infected and
pulsing for over a year afterward; a wound that nearly drove him to
self-destruction. Only the guiding hand of the MC had saved him from himself.
It was the second time Henry and the boys had saved his life, and he wasn’t
even thirty yet. He owed them everything. And Maggie had almost made him lose
it.

He found himself wishing someone had
bothered to call or text him and warn him about her return, but Jase
immediately wondered if that really would have helped. He tried to imagine
calling himself about the news, trying to keep it from ending in rage, and he
failed. He knew deep in his heart that this was just a mini-apocalypse he would
have no choice but to face and endure. He used to rehearse this emergency on
nights when he couldn’t sleep, nights when he felt weak. He thought if he could
be prepared for it, he could find some way to make it easy to endure. But now
he felt that maybe there was never a way for it to be easy.

As the last light died from the sky, Jase
revved up his bike once more and headed back into town at a significantly
slower speed. Regardless of how calm he had felt on the country road, every
mile that led him back to LeBeau only recharged his anger a little at a time.
He didn’t have the luxury of taking time for it to completely die. He had to
talk to Henry and find out just what the hell was going on. No more surprises.

He pulled up to the MC and saw the strange
SUV he had noticed before was gone. It had to have belonged to Maggie; only he
hadn’t realized it at the time. He took a deep breath, grateful he wouldn’t
have to see her again.

When he passed through the den, Beck
shouted at him over the Roy Orbison on the jukebox and the sound of laughter at
the pool table that he needed to make a liquor store run. Jase tossed a hand at
the old man and didn’t reply. He headed straight through the den and up the
stairs to the conference room. Without thinking, he simply opened the doors and
barged in.

Henry sat at his place at the head of the
table, lost in thought. He jolted to attention when Jase entered, looking too
surprised to be mad at the show of insolence.

Jase took time to close the doors behind
him before he spoke.
“
How the fuck could
you not tell me she was here?
”
The
question came out bitter before Jase could do anything to stop it. But he
didn’t take it back and he didn’t apologize. He stood over Henry and waited for
an answer.

Henry shook his head and waved a hand.
“It
’
s
not like that, son.
”

“
What is it like? Is your
phone broken?
”

“
I know you
’
re
angry, Jase, and you have every right
—“

“
I
don’t
fucking need your permission to be angry!
”

That was the line. Henry jumped to his
feet and met Jase with hard eyes. Jase put down the finger he realized he
’
d
been pointing at his club president.

“
Why don’t you sit the
hell down and we talk about this like civilized men, eh?
”
said Henry. It was half-serious, half-sardonic.
“
Or
I guess we could just tear each other apart over her, like she
’
s
always wanted us to do.
”

A few deep breaths later and Jase was
feeling more himself. He apologized to Henry and slumped his way into Beck
’s
chair.
“
I
never expected to walk into that room and see her sitting at that bar again. I
feel like my last sanctuary has been
…
breached.
”

“I
’
m
sorry for that,
”
said
Henry.
“
She
came with no warning. And I was still in too shocked to think about calling
you.
”

Jase nodded.
“
What
is she doing here?
”

“
She says she needs help.
Some small-time dealers tried to bully her into a racketeering scheme at her
job,
”
said Henry.

Jase frowned.
“
Do
you believe her?
”

“
I believe it would take
something equally as dangerous or difficult to get her to come back here after
all this time. Whether this is the actual truth, I don’t know. But something
big is going on. I really
…”
Henry
trailed off, then cleared his throat and continued.
“
I
really believed I would never see her in LeBeau again.
”

Silence fell as both men, for very
different reasons, contemplated the return of Maggie Oliver. Already the
clubhouse felt different to Jase. It felt like it was on the horizon of some
growing storm.

“
What did you say to her?
”
said Jase.

He had interrupted another daze. Henry
blinked a few times and then said,
“She
’
s
my child, Jase. Of course I told her we would help.
”

Jase nodded, but then stopped.
“Wait
,
we?
”

“
We, as in the MC, yes.
Maggie seems pretty convinced that these assholes are threatening enough that
she had to leave Eagleton just to feel safe. She will be a liability to us and
to the town if we don’t
intervene…
to
say nothing of the fact that I
’
m
not leaving my daughter out in the woods to be devoured by wolves.
”

“I
’
m
not saying you should...
”

“
Really?
”
said Henry. He looked Jase in the eyes.
“
You
sure about that, son? Didn’t you just bust through my beautiful cherry-wood
doors without knocking to tell me I should do just that?
”

Jase felt uncomfortable at the insinuation
Henry was making. He was furious as all hell at Maggie, yes. He would be happy
never seeing her face again. But seeing her hurt? Or dead? Thoughts like that
turned his stomach to stone. He shook his head.
“
I
didn’t know she was in danger. She was just
…
suddenly
there at the bar. Like a bad dream. I wasn’t ready for it.
”

“
Yeah, I guess she picked
up a lot more about tactical thinking than I assumed,
”
said Henry. He actually chuckled to himself a little
at that.

“I
’
m
glad she came to us
—
to you
—
if
she
’
s in trouble,
”
said Jase.
“
But
to be perfectly frank, I
’
d
prefer it if she got the fuck out of town after all of it has blown over.
”

Henry was silent a minute as he looked at
Jase.
“You
don’t
want her stay to be extended, then?
”

“
Not if I have any say
about it, no,
”
said Jase. He put his
hands on his knees and leaned forward.
“
Maggie
left LeBeau. She abandoned it for a different life. She doesn’t get to come
back and just hit the reset button on all of that. This is our town and we
deserve to be here without her dragging up the ghosts of the past. We
’
re
the ones who stayed and took care of it.
”

Henry licked his lips. He took a breath
before he responded.
“
She may very well
not want to stay, anyway, Jase. Let
’
s
worry about one thing at a time.
”

“
Such as?
”

“
The sooner we can take
care of this threat against her, the sooner she can stop being on the run, and
start
…
well,
whatever life she ends up choosing,
”
said
Henry.

Jase nodded.
“
I
agree. What do you suggest?
”

“I
’
m
going to put some feelers out to some allies around Eagleton. We don’t have a
chapter very close to there, so we are going to need to hire some people to do
the work for us.
”

“You’ve
got an Afghani group up
there. We’ve never met them directly but I know they work for Aamir. Maybe he
could set up contacts.
”
Since
the wars in the Middle East, the MC had found their best gun-running allies in
the natives from that region, who happily sold American weapons back to the
States and out of the hands of insurgents.

Henry said,
“Yep, already on
my list. I’ve
also got a call in to the Broken Pillars
and the Gladiators, to see if they have anything we can use. Once we figure out
who these morons are, we’ll have a nice talk with them, make sure they are
settled to leave Maggie in the
‘
loss
’
column of their dipshit operation, and move on. We’ll
work the details of that out once we have more information on them.
”

“
Sounds like a plan. Let
me know how I can help.
”
I
want to get her out of here as fast as fucking possible.