Shooting me an “eat shit and die look”, Cheyenne shoved her hands off the bar in a huff and then went to snatch me a beer out of the fridge. After popping the top on it, she thrust it across the bar to me. But when I reached for it, she jerked it out of my reach. I narrowed my eyes at her. “Seriously, bitch, what the fuck is your problem tonight?”
She slammed the beer bottle down in front of me. “I think I’m the one who should be asking that question.”
“Excuse me?”
Cheyenne crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you fucking her?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an asshole, Deacon. You know exactly who I’m talking about. The little, white-bred bitch who has been making doe eyes at you since the day she walked in here.”
I took a long pull of my longneck. “Alexandra. Her name is Alexandra,” I replied.
At the mention of her name, Cheyenne’s nostrils flared in rage. “I don’t give a fuck what her name is. I do give a fuck about the fact that you’ve just waltzed in here with her scent all over you, not to the mention the fact you got fucked up hair and your lips are colored from her lipstick.”
“Last time I checked, you ain’t my old lady, and there ain’t no ‘Property of Deacon’ patch on your back. So you best not be sticking your nose in my business.”
My declaration caused the angry expression carved into her face to recede, and in its place, there was one of extreme hurt. “Deacon, you know how I feel about you—” she began in a shaky voice. My phone buzzing in my pocket interrupted her. I dug it out and glanced at the ID. Unease washed over me as I accepted the call.
“What’s wrong Archer?”
“Fuck man, some asshole shot out my back tire as I was tailing Alexandra. I skidded out. My bike is a fucking mess. Someone called the cops because I’m bleeding and shit, and then?—”
“I’ve got it from here. Call Rev. Give him the lowdown and have him and the boys meet me there.” Before Archer could sayanother word, I cut off the call. In a flash, I was off the stool and sprinting for the door.
“Deacon?” Cheyenne called after me.
I ignored her. As I threw open the clubhouse door, I eyed one of the older members leaned against the hood of his car, talking to one of the crow eaters. Pointing to the car, I said, “I need to borrow that. Now.”
Without a word, he tossed me the keys. After jerking open the car door, I slid across the leather seat and cranked up the engine. There was no way I was taking my bike. I would be too vulnerable and too suspect. A car could ease up to the house without notice to where the unmistakable sound of a cycle’s pipes would give me away.
I spun out of the parking lot, kicking up a cloud of dust and gravel. My hands gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. As I shifted in the seat, I felt like a caged animal. I knew in my gut that if Archer’s tire had been shot out, then Alex was in serious trouble. Sigel and his thugs had somehow worked out her connection to me.Fuck. I couldn’t focus on the extent of the danger Alexandra was in or I would completely lose my shit. I had to stay calm. I was no good to her or myself if I went off the deep end.
Instead I focused my rage on who I suspected was responsible. Sigel. He’d been lying low, searching for a way to draw me out. When it hadn’t worked with Willow, he’d moved on to someone else—someone he thought was very important to me.
In that moment as my mind spun with out-of-control thoughts, I realized how much Alex did mean to me. She was more than just Willow’s teacher. In the small, stolen moments we had spent together, I’d come to care about her more than I’d ever expected. While I wanted her physically so fucking bad, it was deeper than that. I’d wanted her body all along, and thisafternoon was just an example of how much. But there was more. I wanted to end Sigel for trying to take something from me I hadn’t yet gotten to claim.
When I reached Alex’s street, I parked three houses down from hers. I didn’t know how many of Sigel’s men had her. After I killed the engine, I escaped off the sidewalk and started sprinting through the heavily tree-lined yards. At the corner of her yard, I ducked behind a bush to survey the scene. From the street light overhead, I saw there was no car parked in Alex’s driveway. However, just down the street, a dark car sat outside a house with a For Sale sign in the yard.
Keeping low to the ground, I hustled across the driveway. With the garage door down, I made my way around the side of the house, searching for another way into the garage or the house. I found a side door that was locked. Taking my wallet out of the back of my pants, I used one of the oldest tricks in the book to shimmy the lock open.
I slipped inside the darkened garage, stepping lightly to avoid making any noise. I was halfway around the side of Alex’s car when the sound of struggling caused my chest to constrict. “You fucking cunt!” a man’s gruff voice shouted. When I got to the door, I peered inside. Rage burned within me at the sight of Alex bound, gagged, and unconscious. It took everything within me not to rush forward. But I had to keep my head and use reason in the situation. I’d come armed with only a gun, and anything that loud was going to alert a neighbor and the police. That was the last thing I wanted. I was going to take care of this fucker with my own hands.
But all reasoning went out the window when the man pushed up Alex’s skirt, revealing her thighs. Before his hand could go any farther, I stormed through the door. The man whirled around. Before he had the chance to raise his knife to me, I landed two hard punches in his jaw and gut. The knife clatteredto the floor. When he reached for it, the heel of my boot smashed down on his hand, grinding the heel into the back of his hand. As he cried out in pain, I brought my leg up to kick him hard in the chin. He went spiraling back.
I nailed him with two hard punches to the gut and then to the jaw. Blood spattered over my knuckles onto my hands. I grabbed him by the hair and began slamming his face into the stove. When he finally slumped over, signaling I had beaten him unconscious, I released his hair and shoved him onto the floor.
At the sound of a whimper, I whirled around. Alex must’ve woken up sometime while I was beating the scum who had dared to attack her. When I met her eyes, they were wide with fear. I took a few steps toward her and held up my hands. “Alex, it’s okay. It’s just me. No one is going to hurt you anymore.”
When I reached for her, she shrieked and shifted away from me. I didn’t know what kind of fucking shock she was in. I had expected her to fall into my arms. At that moment, Rev and Bishop, along with Case and Mac, came busting in the house from different entrances.
“House and perimeter are clear,” Case informed me.
“Good.”
“So it was just that one fucker?” Mac asking, motioning to the man crumpled in the kitchen floor.
“Yeah. Hopefully the piece of shit is down for awhile.” Glancing back at Alex, I said, “But I don’t know about her.”
