Page 2 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
Then the smile from Elwood’s face dropped and he fixed his eyes on me again.
“There was a hit on her,” he said flatly and leaned over the table towards me.
“On Lewis’ daughter?” I asked.
“Yeah, Lila is her name. A rival MC took a shot at her, in the middle of the day, in downtown Orlando. Can you fucking believe that?” Elwood said and shook his head.
“That’s fucked up. We don’t touch the women,” I stated and Elwood nodded his head and took in a deep breath.
“Exactly. I don’t blame Lewis for losing his shit over this. His precious daughter, his only child, and someone wants her dead to teach him a lesson,” Elwood said and he was looking at me firmly again.
I could sense that something big was coming. Elwood was about to drop a bomb.
“He needs my help with protection. Lila needs a twenty-four hour bodyguard, and there isn’t anyone better to do it than you,” he said.
***
Elwood wanted me to be a personal bodyguard to a woman I didn’t know. Someone’s daughter, neither of whom I’d met. They didn’t even belong to our MC. I felt no sense of loyalty towards this guy Lewis, or his daughter, but I could see that Elwood did and that should have been good enough for me.
This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I imagined Elwood having brand new responsibilities lined up for me.
“You want me to go to Orlando?” I asked and Elwood smirked as he leaned over the table. I sensed that he could hear the dismay in my voice at the news.
“Who better to do it?” he asked, and I had no response to that. I was flattered that Elwood considered me up for the task, and that he had confidence in my abilities. However, it wasn’t much of a task to begin with was it? Protecting a woman.
“Well, I don’t…” I began to say and Elwood shook his head and smiled.
“I know, Girth, what you’re going to say. You don’t think that it’s wise of me to use my resources this way. I don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to get rid of you. You are a valuable asset to this MC and this isn’t an easy decision for me. But I want to do right by my friend. He’s asked for help and this is the best way I can,” he continued and I tried to push down the lump that had formed in my throat.
What Elwood basically wanted me to do was to join a new MC.
“How long?” I asked, in a deep gruff voice.
“For as long as it takes for Lila to feel safe again. As long as it takes Lewis to end this shitstorm that he’s created,” Elwood replied, holding my gaze. I wanted to look away, I wanted to run a hand through my scruffy dark beard, but I didn’t want him to see my hesitation. I didn’t want Elwood to witness me hesitating in following orders, no matter how much I didn’t want to do it.
“And all I have to do is follow this girl around all day?” I asked and Elwood sat back in his chair again and smiled.
“I know what you’re thinking, Girth, that this is a task for a fresh-faced new member, who can’t handle the big stuff,” Elwood said and I clenched my jaws. That was exactly what I was thinking.
“I want Lila to be safe, just like Lewis does. She’s my Godchild,” Elwood revealed and finally, I could see where he was coming from. This girl wasn’t just the daughter of an old friend, Elwood felt partly responsible for her safety too.
“I haven’t seen this girl in a decade, but I remember her as a small naive little kid with a snappy big mouth, but she’s precious,” he continued and I had no other choice but to nod my head.
“You’re the best protection I can give that girl,” he added and I nodded my head again.
“I’ll do it. I’ll leave for Orlando today,” I said and stood up from my chair. Elwood stood up from his too.
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” he said and held out his hand for me to shake.
“Nobody is going to replace you here, Girth, and no matter how long it takes, when you come back, you’ll have your old place back,” Elwood said and I nodded.
“I’ll make sure she’s safe,” I replied.
“Lewis and his brothers will be waiting for you,” Elwood told me and I turned and walked out of his office.
The bar was empty this early in the morning. My brothers were all in their homes, recovering from last night’s hangovers. Hell, I could feel a headache coming on as well. I knew I had to leave for Orlando right away, it was going to be a long ride. It also meant that I wouldn’t have the time to say my goodbyes.
I walked out of the bar and got on my bike. I was going to ride back to my apartment, pack the handful of possessions I had in a duffel bag and then ride to Orlando.
If this task was going to be successfully completed in the shortest time possible, I would have to help the Marked Skulls eliminate the threat. That was the only way I could ensure that Lila Lewis could feel safe again, and that way, I could return to my own MC quickly.
Whatever and whoever was trying to get to Lila, would have to pay and then be destroyed.
I rode to my apartment and packed my bag. It was all done in a matter of twenty minutes. I looked around the place I’d been living in for the past three years, the space that had grown on me. I’d always considered myself a wayfarer, I didn’t want to call this apartment my home, but the truth was that it had become home.
Bound for Orlando, I jumped on my bike and pulled out my cell phone from the pocket of my pants. I sent a quick text to my brothers, to tell them I was leaving for Orlando on Elwood’s command. I hoped that in that one-sentence text, my brothers would get a sense of what I really wanted to say; that I would miss them.
Chapter 3
Lila
I was in my bedroom, sitting on the carpet with my back to the door.
I couldn’t tell if I was shivering because I was cold; even though I had no reason to be, or if I was just afraid. Still afraid. When would I stop being afraid?
Before the shooting, despite leading a rather unusual lifestyle, I had a pretty ‘normal’ life. It was the normal I knew and it was the life that my dad had worked very hard to give me. He hadn’t spared me any luxuries, and he wanted me to live well. Even though I hung out with the members of his MC, and I worked at the auto body shop, Daddy had managed to keep me far away from the violence and the life of crime that he and his friends had been involved with.
Now, that I had gotten a taste of his life on the outside; I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I’d had a brush with death and there was no way I could just forget about it.
Now I could hear the boys outside in my house, walking around, opening cans of beer and talking loudly. Since the day before, since the shooting; they hadn’t left me alone or let me have a moment to myself. There was always somebody in my house, either my dad and Fred, or Rodeo and Abe, or somebody else from the MC.
This was exactly the reason why I had bought this cottage on the other side of town, miles and miles away from the auto shop and the bar and where everyone else lived. I wanted to keep that aspect of my life—my association with my dad and the MC, separate from my personal life. Living this far away made it difficult for the others to keep coming to my place.
Now however, they had a reason to and they just refused to leave me alone.
I was afraid. No matter how many guns I saw around the bar, or the guns I saw in dad’s house or the ones that were openly stuffed into Rodeo and Abe’s belts…I had never imagined that a gun would ever be pointed at me.
Someone had taken a shot at me in broad daylight, in the middle of a crowd. That bullet had left me unharmed, but it could have killed me. It could have killed any of the other people around me on the road.
I had always assumed that despite everything, my dad would be able to keep this away from me. Never, not once, had I thought that my life could be in danger, and that was all that I was thinking about now.
I knocked the back of my head against the door and pressed my eyes closed. What kind of a life was this for me to lead? When I was afraid to step out of my house! When I was too scared
to go meet the kids at the foster care center? I’d had to cancel our ice cream outing at the last minute because I was shaken up. And since then, I hadn’t been able to leave the house. I had responsibilities, and it killed me to know that I couldn’t live up to them.
“Lila, mouse, sweetheart, will you come out and talk to us?” it was my dad knocking on the door again. They’d been trying to get me out of my bedroom the whole morning, but I didn’t want to see them.
All I wanted to do was remain locked up in this room, till all of this blew over. But when was it going to blow over? Was I ever going to be safe? I was horrified at the thought that I would never be able to go anywhere by myself, that I would never be able to walk down the road alone. I was afraid and depressed at the thought that I might always be looking over my shoulder.
