Smolder: A Devil Chaser's MC Romance (14 page)

“I tried to tell you that weeks ago, but you wouldn’t listen to me. Now, he’s put your life in danger, and I’ve got to find a way to fix it. I need to know what he saw on those tapes before the President gets to him.”

“What do you think he’s seen, Gage? He already knows that your MC is dealing drugs. The Devil Chasers don’t care. I’m sure there’s nothing there that even matters,” I tried to explain, but I wasn’t sure what I was even talking about. Who knew what they’d seen on those videos. Whatever it was, I could tell Gage was worried about it.

“Either way…. I need to find out what he knows, and you’re going help me.”

I stayed silent. There wasn’t a lot I could say, and I needed to come up with a plan for how to get away from my ex-boyfriend from hell. God, I was such an idiot.

When we made it to his clubhouse, no one was there. They didn’t even have anyone watching the main gate. It looked like an empty warehouse in the middle of a stupid cornfield. For a second I got my hopes up that I might be able to get away from Gage, but he pulled my car around back and dragged me inside quickly, before I even got a chance to fight back. He was agitated, and I was pretty sure he was close to breaking my arm again. I knew, without looking, there would be angry bruises already forming.

“Gage, you’re hurting me,” I said as I tried to appeal to him and keep the fear out of my voice.

“It wouldn’t have been like this if you’d just listened to me in the first place. I told you that Renegade was a piece of shit, and he’d never do right by you.”

Chapter 21

Renegade

“Hey, Renegade? I think you’ll want to see this before you leave!” Crack Nut called out just as Sheppard and I were heading out to Kentucky. I followed him as he ran back towards the room where his equipment was set up.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I finally found this. Isn’t that Tank pulling her into their clubhouse?”

“That’s him. Can you turn up the sound so we can hear what they’re saying?” I asked.

He nodded and turned up the volume. My heart stopped and stuttered slowly back to life at what I heard.

“Gage, you’re hurting me,” Taylor screamed.

“It wouldn’t have been like this if you’d just listened to me in the first place. I told you that Renegade was a piece of shit, and he’d never do right by you.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. None of this is Ren’s fault!” Taylor shouts.

“Of course this is his fault! It’s
all
his fault. He’s the reason your brother is dead. He’s the reason you never really gave us a chance. He’s the reason you’re here right now! Stop defending that asshole!” Tank shouted.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Gage! I
love
him. A part of me will
always
love him no matter what happens,” Taylor told him and even with the black and white video, I could see her tears.

“You’ll never learn, Taylor. Your life is in his hands now. I don’t care what they do with you.”

He pushed her into a room and locked her inside. My head was spinning. I couldn’t believe the words that just came out of her mouth. How could she love me after everything I’d put her through? Maybe I’d been wrong about everything.

I felt better knowing he’d left her alone for now. It bought me a little time. We decided to take the SUV, so we could all ride together. Bobby and Bishop were still going through all the video footage to see if there was anything we could use to our advantage. I hated knowing that this could cause the Devil Chasers to go to war with another club, but I had to focus on getting to Taylor before they had a chance to hurt her.

We had been driving for over an hour when I got a call from Bishop.

“I think we found something we can use,” Bishop stated.

“I was hoping you’d say that. What did you find?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you all about it when we get there, but I think the Red Dragon’s president will be very interested in what we found. Hopefully, it will be enough to get them to back down and let Taylor go.”

“How do you want to handle this?” I asked. It was up to him to decide where we went from there.

“I’m calling their president now. I’ll tell him I want to meet privately to discuss what we found. Hopefully, that will buy us more time. We’re loading everything up and heading your way.”

“You gonna meet us at Taylor’s place?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ll bring the rest of the crew with me in case we need back up. Tell Sheppard to have his guys ready. I’m not sure how this guy is going to handle the news.”

“He’s making the call now. I’ll see you at the apartment in a few hours.”

It was almost dark by the time we made it to Taylor’s place. I used my spare key to get in, and we tried to wait patiently for Bishop and the guys to get there. I couldn’t sit still. I’d been pacing around the apartment since we walked in. As I moved from room to room, I can’t help but notice that I actually really like her apartment. I even like all her damn throw pillows. I felt kind of bad for giving her a hard time about decorating my place on the lake. Just thinking about that day had me fighting the urge to go to the RD clubhouse on my own. I want to get Taylor out of that place. Every minute we wait, we put her life in more danger, but I have to trust Bishop on this.

My phone beeps with a text message from Bishop.

Bishop:

He agreed to the meet.

Renegade:

When?

Bishop:

Tonight at 10:00. He’ll send the address

Renegade:

Who’s going with you?

Bishop:

Just you. The others will be close by

Renegade:

Good

At least we had a plan now. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to Taylor because of me. This guy had turned out to be more trouble than I’d ever thought.

I was still pacing back and forth, when there was a light knock on Taylor’s door. I looked through the peephole and her neighbor was standing there with some kind of casserole dish. I opened the door to her smiling face. Would she be smiling if she knew I had failed to protect Taylor yet again? Hell no.

“Well, well… if it isn’t Taylor’s Renegade. It’s nice to see that you’ve come to your senses, young man.” At her words, my chest got tight.
Taylor’s Renegade
. I couldn’t deny that anymore, and I fucking loved the sound of it. What would happen if I never got the chance to tell her? To show her?

I cleared my throat from the emotion that was choking me. “Nice to see you again. How are you?” It’s was a lame ass question, but I couldn’t tell her anything about Taylor. We had to keep a lockdown on the situation, and I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even this woman who’d managed to save Taylor when I’d failed. Shit.

“Better now that you’re here. I hope Taylor talked some sense into you. She’s a fine young lady, and you’d be lucky to have her.”

“You don’t need to tell me that, always known it. She’s just too good for the likes of me,” I explained.

“I doubt that. I doubt that very much indeed. She told me how you’ve always been there for her, and how you make her feel safe. Seems to me in today’s world that’s no small feat. Don’t throw away love, young man. Not everyone is blessed enough to get it.”

I couldn’t say anything. Her words washed over me and swelled, and I had no idea how to respond. “Taylor’s not here right now…” I said when I finally found
my voice. 

“I just wanted to bring over this poppy seed chicken. I thought she might be tired after going back to work and all.”

“That’s real nice of you. I’ll be sure to let her know.”

She handed me the casserole and said, “You know, everyone has a past. Sometimes, it’s what makes us who we are, but sometimes, it lets us know who we don’t ever want to be. I’m not sure what your past has been like, but I do know it doesn’t have to be your future. You’ve got a lot of good in you. You need to share it with Taylor.”

“I’m going to try my best,” I told her. She reached up and gave me a hug before she left the doorway. Who knows? Maybe she was right. I had to save Taylor. That was all I could focus on right then, but once I had her back? Fuck, I was never letting her go again. I couldn’t.

Chapter 22

Taylor

This was not how I expected my day to go when I got up this morning. I still didn’t understand what I was doing here. I don’t know what kind of information they expected to get from me, but there was no way I was going to tell them anything. Besides, I don’t really even know anything to tell them. I’ve never known what goes on in the Devil Chaser’s club. To me, they’re just part of my family.

I was clueless, and I was trying not to let my panic overtake me. I knew Ren would be there soon. I didn’t know how I was so sure of that, but I was. I just needed to keep a clear head until then.

Gage locked me in his room over an hour ago. I hadn’t heard much talking outside the door, so I was thinking there must not be many people around right then. I decided I needed to figure a way out of that damn room. Waiting for Ren was all well and good, but I’d been around Gage’s MC enough to know that I didn’t want to be there when they came looking for me.

I started searching around the room, hoping to find something to help me unlock the door. I found an old gift card in his bottom drawer, and I tried to shove it through the door frame. I had broken into my own apartment several times that way, but this lock wouldn’t budge.

I kept looking, but I could feel my fear bubbling up inside. I couldn’t find a way out, and I had no idea what they’d do to me when they found out I couldn’t help them. I might have recovered physically from Gage’s beating, but I wasn’t sure I could handle another one… or worse. I closed my eyes and tried to will my mind to rest. I couldn’t go there.

I decided to check the bathroom, praying I could find something there to pick the lock. I went through all the drawers and cabinets and couldn’t find one thing to help. I did find a couple of razor blades and hid those in my pockets. I didn’t want to try and fight them, figuring that would just piss them off more, but I felt better having something- anything that might help me survive.

I finally caught a break when I pulled back the curtain in the shower. There was a small window just above the shower, close to the ceiling. It was really small, but I thought I’d be able to wedge myself through it. I just had to get up there.

I went back into the bedroom and found a small metal trashcan that would give me enough height to reach the base of the window. I turned the trashcan upside down, placing it in the center of the tub. I held the curtain rod to balance myself. The window was difficult to get open, but I finally got it. My heart was beating out of my chest. After some major tugging, I finally pulled myself up enough to see that no one was outside. I kept wiggling my way through, and I was almost home free when I lost my footing and fell face first. It hurt like hell, but I couldn’t let it slow me down.

I pulled myself together and sprinted towards the field behind the clubhouse. My mind was running everywhere. I silently cursed to myself; I was in my dress pants. Too bad I didn’t wear my I’m-going-to-be-kidnapped-and-have-to-run-for-my-life-outfit today. I needed to make sure I had one of those… if I survived this. There was a large fence surrounding the entire area, so I had to find a way to climb over it. I slowly pulled myself up the fence by putting the tips of my shoes in the small holes and using my upper body strength to climb. This stuff was much easier when I was younger, but I managed to scale all the way up to the top without falling. There was a row of barbed wire attached to the top fence post, but I had to take my chances. The barbed wire pierced the flesh of my hands, causing me to lose my grip. When I threw my leg over the top, the wire caught my pants and ripped them. I felt the burn of pain, and I knew the wire had jabbed deep into my leg. It was a pretty bad cut, but I had to keep moving. I dropped to the ground on the other side, limping and bleeding, but I’d made it. That was all that mattered.

I looked over my shoulder quickly just to make sure I was free. I noticed someone coming out of the back door, so I took off running into the cornfield. I wasn’t sure if he saw me, but I wasn’t waiting to find out.

Chapter 23

Renegade

Bishop made arrangements for us to meet the President of the Red Dragons at Fat Moe’s Bar and Grill. Since it was the middle of the week, it was fairly quiet. We needed a place where we wouldn’t attract too much attention. Bishop and I walked into the bar, and I felt anxious. We had no way of knowing how this meeting would go. It could go either way. Bishop had the other guys waiting close by in case things turned ugly. Still, I knew if the roles were reversed, Bishop would be ready to destroy the other club for messing with the Devil Chasers.

The President was already sitting at a table in the corner with his Sergeant of Arms when we walked into the bar. The lights were dimmed, and there was soft music playing. There were a couple of men sitting at the bar, but no one else was really around. I followed Bishop over to their table.