Chapter 42

Austin
I ride to the clubhouse with Max by my side and Chance, Shane and Psych right behind me. It's a good thing I can ride to the clubhouse from my home in my sleep because my mind is not on the road. It's too wrapped up in a sexy as hell redhead I've got waiting for me at home. I don't know what prompted me to kiss her before I left. She gave me a panicked look as soon as I showed her the gun. I know she most likely won't need it, but I feel much more comfortable with her having something inside the house to defend herself with.
We arrive at the clubhouse and park our bikes. I had called a church meeting right after I left Snake this morning. He was right when he said he had some shit to show us. I walk inside, wait for everyone to line up and then begin the tale of what transpired this morning. I still cannot believe everything I've learned from this morning.
"You ready?" Chance asks me as I cut my bike off in front of the clubhouse.
I met him here instead of at my house because I didn't want to wake Max and Candice up. They both need as much rest as possible after these last few days.
"Fuck yeah. Snake wants to meet at six in the morning for something, must be important. Let's get moving."
I wait for Chance to straddle his bike and we take of side by side. Takes us about forty-five minutes to get to the Road Kings compound. It's made up of an old repair shop with about two thousand feet added on. The size is nothing on us but it's still a large place. I see a figure growing larger and larger as we pull up and once I make out who it is my anger gets the best of me once again.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing here Psych?" I shout.
I'm president, what I say goes. I know this fucknut has a few screws loose, but who the fuck does he think he is just showing up at one of our meets? Chance grabs me before I can throttle his neck. I am beyond pissed. Psych must sense it too, because his usual grin that he is always sporting is nowhere to be found. Instead, I have a fearful look of apprehension matching my gaze.
"Sorry Pres. No disrespect, know you had a meeting with Snake this morning and wanted to be sure you didn't need back up. I told Cage you didn't need him after all" He says.
I growl in his direction but then stop when I see a figure descending from the stairs. Snake is a very large man. He is at least six feet tall and a wall of muscles. He has a large scar coming down from his eye to the tip of his lip. He and my father always hated each other because of turf issues but when I became president Snake stopped the violence. He knew I wanted nothing to do with the very thing that took my father from me.
Another reason why he and I had respect for each other, was because of his son, Samuel, who was in Afghanistan with Max on his last tour. Max came back, Sam didn't.
"You go against what your president says again boy, and I'll kill you myself. If you ain't got no respect for the patch, you don't belong in a club." He addresses Psych while stopping on the last step.
Snake's right-hand man, Drift, stands right next to him. Last couple years I have heard almost nothing of this guy. He is a complete mystery to me, and I've had Torque look closely into him. I shrug out of Chance's hold and turn my gaze back to Snake. He has his massive arms crossed and eyes narrowed on Psych. I step up closer to him, making sure to bump Psych on my way. We will be talking about him disobeying me later.
"I'm here Snake. Want to explain what was so important at six o'clock in the goddamn morning?" I nearly shout.
"Relax boy. I'm sure it didn't kill you to be up early for something other than takin a piss. Let's roll. What I got to show you ain't here. It's almost an hour away. Follow us." He says as he and Drift walk over to their bikes.
I walk over to mine and see Chance and Psych mount up as well. We immediately drive out to this random location Snake is taking us to. I should be more alert, more aware of my surroundings just in case this is a trap, but something is telling me that Snake is telling the truth. As much that relieves me, another part of me is concerned. If it ain't the Road Kings trying to kill us, then who the hell is?
We pull up to a construction site about forty-five minutes later. Snake has us pull into a parking structure attached to the building. We are on the second floor and when we dismount Snake walks over to me and hands me some binoculars. I narrow my eyes at him in confusion, but he simply points to the empty cite full of abandoned rigs and mounds of dirt. I walk over and lay flat on my stomach, Chance stands on my right while Psych is on my left. I don't see Snake and Drift, but I am assuming they are in the back somewhere.
I lay there for about ten minutes waiting on something happen. Just as I'm about to get up and shout at Snake for wasting my time, I see four men walk out onto the cite. Three of them I don't recognize, one I most certainly do. I look back to Snake and he nods his head at me. He knew I would see what I'm seeing. I look back into the binoculars and try to get a better look at the three men. They are wearing cuts. I'm too far away to see the club's emblem but they don't look familiar.
We sit there for thirty minutes staring at these men converse. I'd do just about anything to know what they are taking about. When they finally leave and head inside, I get off the ground and walk over to Snake to give him the binoculars.
"How'd you know?" I ask Snake.
"Caught one of them in my shed about a week ago. He was planting explosives. He had on a fake cut. One that was a replica of yours. Good thing I'm not a hot head like you because I took the cut off and studied the hell out of it. It's not the same. Some similarities yes, and if I just happen to turn around and see it as a glance, then yeah, I'd assume you trying to come back into the business, but the differences are what had me questioning everything." Snake explains.
"You get any info out of him?" Asking him, already assuming they have gotten rid of the fucker.
"Yeah some, was paid heavily for making himself look like a Warrior. Said the piece of shit that hired him was trying to get our clubs to take each other out. Almost worked too. Guarantee that if you would have caught one of them you would have seen a fake fucking Kings cut."
"Fuck, thanks Snake. Appreciate it. Gonna head back to the clubhouse and let my men know what's going on. I want these fucks to pay but I have a feeling it's more complicated than this isn't it?" Snake nods his head at me and we all mount up and take off.
"Fuck Austin, so what do we do?" Snipp asks, dragging me from my story. He is a recent patch in and as big as the fucker is he is only twenty years old.
"Nothing. We can't let the fucker know we know anything. We play it cool. We need to keep an eye out on everything though. Me and Snake are going to try and come up with a plan of some type, but for now we don't need anyone going off the deep end on this asshole. Remember he has power and money behind him, so don't underestimate him.
Once everyone gives me their word that they won't try anything, we end church. My mind is completely exhausted. I still don't fully understand why in the world they would bring my club into everything. We have been going legit for the last two years and everyone knows it.
I make a quick phone call to Shock to see how Candice's family is holding up. He complains about her grandmother hitting on him all day, every day but other than that they are fine. Next, I call my mother and see how she is doing. Apparently interrupting someone while they are trying to knit is close to a crime.
"Sorry mom, just trying to see how you are doing?" I say sarcastically.
I'm fine honey. Just missing my boys as usual."
I know mom, I miss you too. After all this bullshit is done I promise I'll visit more." I don't point out to her that Max, Shane and I were just over there a few days ago.
"That's good honey, so what's her name?"
"What? Who's name?"
"Oh please Austin Ryder. I birthed you, I wiped your butt, I was the one you ran all the way home to when Dorinda Thomas told you no when you asked her out when you were eight years old. I know when someone is special in your life." She says. I thank God, the phone is not on speaker.
"There is no girl mom." I say, knowing full well she is not going to believe me.
"Whatever you say honey. Just make sure you bring her by soon, I want to meet her. Oh, and have that little prospect mow my lawn. He thinks he is inconspicuous, but I can see his ass every day." She says then hangs up laughing.
I look at my phone and chuckle. I can't believe she was able to tell I have been thinking about Candice. She is right, she knows me well, so I'm going to go with that as opposed to people being able to read me well.
Once I make my rounds, letting the brothers know what I need, I head home. I never told Candice what time I would be home until tonight but it's only three in the afternoon. I stop by a local restaurant and get some dinner for Candice and me. I want to treat her out but knowing we can't necessarily be seen with each other, so this is just going to work.
About a mile from my house my phone starts ringing. I pull over when I see it's Snake calling me.
"Yeah?" I shout over the sound of a car driving past me.
"My house was shot up." He says calmly.
"Fuck! Anybody hurt." I ask.
"Naw, no one home to hurt. I was at the clubhouse; old lady is out with her mom. We need a plan Austin. I don't take lightly to people shooting up my home. Don't even know how the hell the goon knew where I lived." He replies back.
"Hell of a coincidence Snake. Think he might have saw us today?"
"No, I'm always careful. Going to speak with my crew about this joker and you do the same. He has too many connections for us to be sloppy. Need a solid plan." He demands.
Once I agree I get back on the road and head home to Candice. I'm sick of this asshole making light of my club. Snake is right, we need to come up with a plan for this fucker to get out of our lives but first we need to figure out why he is after us in the first place. Once we do that we can go from there. It was bad enough when I had to make sure Candice's friend Lyla was protected. I didn't lie to her when I expressed that it was likely no one would go after, but I did put a brother on her just in case. Shane wasn't exactly happy that it wasn't him.
I pull up to my house and park my bike. Once I walk around the house and spot Miles, I walk over and let him know everything that transpired today. With Miles caught up, I head inside and stop in my tracks when I see a very panicked Candice running around the kitchen frantically. She grabs a cloth from the drawer, runs over to the dining room table to grab a chair, then pulls it over to the oven where there is a large cloud of smoke, and starts fanning. I stand there, arms crossed, and a smile on my face at her attempt at surprising me with dinner.
The table is set for two, with a candle right in the center. I didn't' even know I had candles. My smoke detector goes off and the sound causes Candice to shriek. I chuckle a little then freeze when she almost falls out of the chair. I rush over and catch her just as she is righting herself. Jesus, my heart stopped just because she might have hurt herself a little.
"Jesus Austin, you scared the hell out of me." She shrieks from my arms.
I walk over to the counter and place her down gently, then walk over and turn off the burner. Salmon, and it's burnt to a crisp. Candice jumps down and grabs the same cloth and starts blowing it in front of the smoke detector. She turns to face me with a defeated look upon her face and I can longer help it. I start cracking up. Not at the fact that she burnt dinner, I brought some home. I'm laughing at her face. She looks like a sad puppy you see in the little brown box outside a damn grocery store.
"Why are you laughing, Austin. I stressed out for three hours about how to make a perfect dinner, which I have never done for a guy by the way. Then I burn the damn food because I'm looking at old pictures in an album that your mother made you for your birthday last year. Which is like, the cutest thing I've ever seen. I mean, who the hell burns salmon. You barely even cook it." She's cute when she rambles.
"Picked up some dinner babe. Hope you like pasta. Looks like we both tried to surprise each other." I say with a smile.
"You aren't mad that I nearly caught your house on fire?" She says with a small voice. Shit, did she really think I would be upset?
"C'mere babe." I say as I walk over to her and lift her back up on the counter. "No, I'm not mad. It's just a house. I'm actually a little surprised. I've never had someone try and make me dinner."
It's the truth. I've never had someone attempt to get to know me at all. I've had women try and pin me down to be an old lady, but none have ever done something like this. She had a candlelit dinner ready for me. My club has brought her so much drama and yet, here she is trying to ease my day for me. I step in between her thighs and lean into her. Once she looks up to me, I see a bit of hesitation. I don't want to make her think she has to earn her way for out safety or anything like that, so I step back and help her down.
I walk her over to the dining room table chair and sit her down. I know we should talk about the kiss we had earlier, and I also need to tell her about everything that transpired this morning. Normally I wouldn't speak with anyone outside the club about our business, but she should know who could possibly come after her. I don't want her going in with a blind eye. She is due back at work soon and I know I can't be with her every second of every day.
"We need to talk about a few things babe." I begin as I sit down on the old wooden chair myself.
"About what?" she says looking back at the blackened salmon sitting atop the stove.
"The kiss for one." Candice tenses at my being so forward, so I grab her hand and give her a light squeeze of reassurance. I have no idea where her head is at. "I shouldn't have done that earlier. I mean, fuck, I wanted to, wanted to since I first met you to be honest but, I can tell you weren't expecting it. Gotta be honest with you babe, I like you, a lot, but I won't do anything you're not comfortable with."
"You think I didn't like it? I liked it Austin. Hell, I loved it, I guess I just wasn't expecting it, then I was wondering if you just wanted something in particular or if you liked me, then I was wondering if I should even be thinking of this kind of thing in the first place, I mean look at my situation and…. why are you laughing? Why do all you guys laugh at me?"
"Babe, you're fucking cute when you ramble." I say while chuckling. "Candice, this is new for me too. I don't necessarily walk around kissing women in distress. I feel something for you, and I know it's a fucked-up situation, but I have never been more serious about a woman in my life. I want to see where this goes, if you do?" I placed all my cards on the table, something I have never done before, but there is something about Candice that I can't quiet explain.
Candice stands, walks over to me and sits on my lap. I am instantly hard, normally I would act on it, but I want to be different for Candice. I want to be a man she deserves. She swivels around and clasps her hands behind my neck. I breath in her amazing scent of bananas and kiss her neck when she moves into me. She lifts her head and places a chaste kiss on my lips. I need to show her that I'm not the like the boys she has dated in the past, she told me liked the control I had, so I plan to show her more of it.
I gently take my face in hers and kiss the hell out of her. The feeling she gives me just from kissing is insane. I've never been ready to bust just from making out. When we eventually come up for air Candice gives me a smile that I plan on keeping on her face for a while.
"So, now what?" She asks is a small voice.
Now, we eat, I'm fucking starved babe." I get up and grab the paper bag from the couch and walk back over to the dining room table.
"So, what else did you want to speak with me about?" She asks pulling out both containers of food.
"My meeting this morning. Snake, the president of the men we thought were behind the attacks, confirmed it wasn't them. Someone is trying to set both clubs up to go against each other." Candice gives me her full attention. "We went to a construction site this morning and saw one of our old suppliers speaking with men that were dressed to look like us. Couldn't tell what they were saying but I want you to be careful. I don't know how much they know about you and I don't want them showing up at your work, so I'll be putting guys on you there too. Before you protest, they won't be seen by anyone, just know they will be watching."
"Jesus, why would this guy be after you all? Did you do something to anger him?"
"That's just it, I have no idea why all of a sudden this man would want us dead. He knows we have been out of the business, he still has Snake's club. Makes no fucking sense, which is why I'm telling you this in the first place. This man is clearly unstable, so I want you to be weary."
"Okay, I understand. This is getting a little scary Austin, but I trust you. I know you won't let anything happen to me or my family. So, what's the big wigs name, what's he look like?"
"Like a fucking stiff in a suit. You can google his name he's pretty popular. Little does the media know he lives a double life. His name is Nicholas Cole."