Savage Fire (Savage Angels MC #2) (19 page)

“You’ll need to give her time. I’ll let her tell you but it’s not as bad as it could have been.” I look into Doc’s eyes and he looks down. He shakes his head and goes back into the examination room, leaving me to stand in front of the door, alone.

From the moment I met Emily she has attracted trouble. There is a vulnerability about her but when we found her in the woods, she wasn’t broken, she was armed and ready. Even in the car, she positioned herself facing me. Perhaps she will find an inner strength, one she didn’t know she had. The door opens and Maggie is standing there. When she moves, I can see Emily, clean from the trauma of the past twenty-four hours.

Unfortunately, the wound both physical and emotional will not be overcome so quickly.

“How are you?” I ask, desperately wanting to hold her.

“Better, I feel so much better.” She lifts her foot that is now clean, and you can see that she will probably need stitches. “But this hurts. Maggie used some antibacterial wash on it and aggravated it, so now it hurts bad.”

I chuckle at her. “Hurts bad?”

“Yeah, hurts bad.” Then she smiles at me.

“Well, I’d best move out of the way so Doc can help you to...feel good.” “Thank you, Salvatore. Will you wait for me?”

“Amare, I would wait for you even if you didn’t want me to.” Then I move out of her way and watch as she is wheeled back to the doctor. Dane smiles at her and she gives him a slight nod.

I walk back to him and he says, “Doc is on board. My question to you is—what do you want to do with Guido and Johnnie?”

I am surprised he would ask. This is after all, his town, his rules. “They can’t be allowed to live. I am certain that he didn’t have permission to go after me but there is also the problem with a member of your MC undercutting us. What are you going to do about that?”

He rubs both hands over his face; he’s taller than me and built. His black wife‐beater strains at the arms as he does this.

“This is a major fuck up for me. Every which way I look at it, I look weak.” He looks me in the eyes. “I am trying to pull the club out of illegal activities.” I raise my eyebrows at him and he continues, “We have a garage in just about every Chapter, we have strip clubs all over and in some states, brothels. We treat the girls well; no one is forced into anything. We also have high‐class escorts in some of the major cities. Most of the Chapters steer clear of narcotics but it’s easy money. Just like running guns.”

“You said you were unaware of that,” I say, keeping eye contact.

“Yeah, man, I was. I let a little old lady, who I thought was my friend, trick us into guarding her shipments and then one of my men kept it going and expanded it. All without my fucking knowledge. I’m fucked every way you look at it.”

“No, if you find out how your man managed to do it, pay tribute to Don Abruzzi and kill your man to keep him quiet, no one needs to know.”

“My MC doesn’t run that way. Some of the boys already know about Fith. He will be dealt with but so will I.”

“You could still keep this under wraps and you know it. Don’t sacrifice yourself for some misplaced loyalty. Look at me, Guido Lamberti is the enforcer for the Abruzzi Family. I have been in and around this family my whole life and he was going to kill me, for what? More territory? Real Estate is where I make most of my money and playing the stock market. Not guns, not drugs and certainly not whores. The old ways are dying, if you don’t move with the times you’ll lose everything.”

“My loyalty to my MC is not misplaced. I will let them judge me and I will live with the outcome. But I will not give up my Presidency easily,” says Dane with a snarl.

The door to the examination room opens and Emily sits in a wheelchair with a blue gown on and the Savage Angels cut over it. I have to admit she looks good.

“Can you walk, Em, or do we need to hire you a wheelchair?” asks Dane.

“She’s to stay off her foot for a couple of days. You can keep the chair; I’ll give you some crutches too. But she’ll need someone to take care of her for at least a week,” says the Doc, staring straight at me.

“I will make the necessary arrangements,” I say.

“No,” says Emily.

We all stare at her and she smiles. I feel my chest constrict. My hand goes to my heart and I say, “You need help, Amare, please let me.”

“Yes, you can help but,” and she moves her gaze to Dane, “I know you have holiday rentals. I’ve looked on your website and they are fully self‐contained. If I could rent one of those, if you have any available I would appreciate it.”

I am surprised at her self‐assurance. I expected her to be little needier. I look at Dane and I can see him having an internal battle.

He eventually says, “You can have one of the cottages, but it will be free of charge. I don’t have anyone staying out at the house at the moment either, so you are welcome to stay in my home. This is my preference.”

Emily shakes her head. “No, I don’t know you well enough to stay in your home. And I can’t stay in one of your cottages for free, it wouldn’t be right.”

“How about I agree to charge you a nominal fee? Please don’t argue with me, Em. I even have one that is wheelchair compatible. It’s nice.” He flicks his gaze to me. “Sal, you’ll take care of her? I have room in my house.”

His tone and meaning are clear. Interesting, he doesn’t want his sister to share a room with me. I smile at him and am about to answer when Emily beats me to it.

“Thank you so much for letting Salvatore stay in your home. That’s perfect.”

I smile at them both and nod. “I need to retrieve my car from the motel and I need to do some shopping too.”

“Shopping?” asks Dane.

“Yes, my friend, shopping. I only have the clothes on my back. Can I leave Emily in your capable hands while I attend to business?” Dane knows I have other issues to attend to, Guido and Johnnie. He nods at me and I bend, kiss Emily on the forehead and go to leave but she grabs my arm.

“You’ll be there before dark?” she says and I am surprised to see fear in her eyes.

“Yes, Amare, I will be an hour at most.”

She nods and takes a deep breath; the fear seems to seep away. “An hour? Good. Do you know where it is?”

“No, but Dane will send it to me.” I kiss her forehead again and smile at her. I nod at the doctor and give Dane a two-fingered wave as I head for the front of the medical practice.

I need clothes and I need to talk to Tony. My men arrived and managed to capture Johnnie without any kind of altercation, which is strange. He has to know that we are going to kill him or perhaps he believes he is too high up in the Family to be touched. Normally he would be correct but the Family doesn’t know that we are here. Don Abruzzi has not phoned me back so I do not have to apprise him of the situation here in Tourmaline. It does not sit well with me, but Guido has left me no choice.

***

I
’ve purchased new clothes and am making my way back to the motel. I can see Tony as he talks to Adelynn; he smiles at her, and I bet he’s using all his best lines. She is a fine looking woman but from the little I’ve spoken to her, I know he doesn’t have a chance in hell.

When I get closer, I do a chin lift and he waves. Adelynn turns and she smiles. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe he does have a chance in hell.

“Adelynn, Tony, how’s things?” I say trying to sound casual. I need to sit down with my men and run over all of our options; idle conversation is not something I want to do.

“Mr. Agostino, you’re good for business! Thank you for recommending that your friends stay here.” She looks genuinely happy. It’s not tourist season, so I’m guessing business must be slow.

“My pleasure, Adelynn, and please call me Salvatore. I hope Tony has been behaving himself.”

She giggles and says, “He’s been a complete gentleman! Now, I need to go back to work, but if you need anything you all know where I am.” Her smile is huge as she walks away and we both watch her.

I look at Tony and watch the smile fade from his face. “She was asking about Emily. Told her she went hiking and got lost and we found her. It’s a small town, Boss, someone might talk.”

“Agreed.” I walk towards my room. “Fuck, Tony, you ever been in this much fucking shit? You ever had a Boss come after you like this? What the fuck did I ever do to Guido anyway?” I open the door and I step in. Tony follows me.

“It’s a shitstorm, alright. Boss, the boys want to have a round table with you on this. I told them this is

your show and we will do as you say but I also said I’d let you know what they wanted,”

A round table meeting, it’s been a while since we’ve done that. I started it when we took Lorenzo on board; he was a loose cannon who could have betrayed us and what I was trying to build—he saw the light though and everyone knows I take care of my men. Basically, we all sit down; I still have the last say but I let them voice all their concerns and I talk through all of their objections. It’s good for me too; sometimes it’s hard to see all the angles.

“Yes, I was going to suggest it. I even know where we can have it. The Savage Angels have a room at their Compound where they have their own sit‐downs, their Church as they call it.”

“You want me to clear it with one of them first?” says Tony.

“No, I’ll do it since I’ve got Reynolds’ number, but first I’m having a shower. I need to change into some clean clothes. Take the boys to Betties Café for some good food. Be nice to the waitress; her name’s Rosie, and she’s a good girl. Feed her the story about Emily getting lost while hiking and how we found her, it’ll be around town in a heartbeat.” He nods at me. “And, Tony, watch the local Sheriff. He’s from our part of the country and he has a serious hard‐on for Guido. Play dumb if you run into him and do not piss him off, are we clear?”

“Boss, come on, I’m a nice guy!” he says, arms spread wide and a big grin on his face. “I’ll have this whole town eating out of my hand!”

“The Sheriff is a hard-ass. You’ve been warned,” I say over my shoulder as I walk into the bathroom.

Truth

I
have no idea how Kat can stand to live out here in the middle of fucking nowhere. It’s a nice town— pretty even—but no clubs, only a couple of bars and both of which belong to her boyfriend. The limousine pulls up in front of Kat’s house. I’m surprised; I thought we were going to Dane’s house. Dave winds down his window and puts in the code to open the gate. It’s not working and he punches the keys harder.

“Dave, man, does it occur to you that she’s changed the code?” I say.

“No, she gave me the new one!”

I climb out of the car, walk to the intercom and push the button. “Yo! My wild, wilderness‐loving, rocker!

Open the fucking gate before Dave breaks the keypad!” I say with fake enthusiasm.

Her front door flies open and she runs across the lawn towards us. That’s our girl, always running full on into anything. I can see some of her Savage Angels behind her, and they don’t look happy.

“Truth! Baby! So good to see you!” she yells.

“Well, let us the fuck in then!” I say with a grin.

She walks to the gate and punches in the codes, the main gate slowly opens but she opens the side gate to let me in. I take two steps and Kat launches herself into my embrace. This woman gives the best hugs; I think it’s because of her height. She just fits into your body well.

“So, my retired rocker, how are you?”

“Fuck that, you know I’m well and you know I’m happy, but why is Dave babysitting you?” She pulls back and looks up at me. “What’s wrong, Truth? Are you ok?”

That’s my girl, straight to the point. “Well, my...Kat, I’m fine.”

“Wow! You suck at lying! Fine, I’ll leave you alone for now but I will find out.” She pushes out of my embrace. “Come on, let’s go get Dave and you can see the modifications I’ve made to my home!” She does look happy as she drags me towards her front door.

“Katarina Saunders! Where’s my hello?” asks Dave with a small amount of impatience.

She laughs and runs to him. Her level of energy never ceases to amaze me. As she hugs Dave, I take her in. Her hair is longer, in fact, I think it’s the longest I’ve ever seen it on her; it’s past her ass and has blonde highlights. She has a tan too and radiates happiness. She’s one of those women that get better looking the older she gets—mind you, she’s only twenty‐eight. I’m pushing thirty and my family life has just gone to hell, so I feel ninety.

“Come on.” Kat grabs us both by the arms. “Come see what I’ve done! You’ll love the studio, Truth! I built you a little podium so you can sing from it and I got you a present!” She shrieks the last word. Kat is the only woman I know who more than loves presents, I mean, you can give her a fucking chocolate bar and so long as you say it’s a present, she’ll be stoked. She also loves giving presents; they are always over the top and too much but she never cares. You can tell she wants you to be happy because she normally tries really hard to find you what you absolutely want. She is more than generous and over the years, I have discovered it’s just one way for her to show you that she loves you.

Dave is, of course, just happy to be in her presence. He has always thought of her as his daughter. Even when I first joined the band, he made it clear that I was to stay away from his Princess. It’s funny; I never really looked at her that way. Don’t get me wrong, she’s five foot four of hotness but I felt it in my bones that it would wreck our relationship. It’s nice to have a little bit of sexual tension. I know she’d never go there but it’s fun to try.

We are dragged into what was her living room. It’s been completely remodeled into a studio. The booth where we perform is amazing.

“I had to replace the glass on that wall but apart from that, this room was really easy to convert!” says Kat.

“How come you didn’t cover it up?” I ask

“What and lose the view? Are you crazy?” She laughs.

“I see your point, now...where’s my present?”

Dave raises his eyebrows at me as she runs away to find it. When she leaves the room he says, “You ok?”

“Yeah, man. You didn’t need to bring me; I’m fine, really!”