Page 146 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
“Neither of us knew that we belonged to rival MCs,” I continued.
“Till last night,” Axel offered.
“Till last night. I tried to warn her about the prostitution ring, but she was stubborn. She wanted to be loyal to the club and we had an argument and I left to come here,” I said and Axel took in a deep breath.
“If we’re to believe you, then it was a simple mistake. Not something that can’t be rectified, and anyway, how does it matter now. If we have everything going to plan, then the DK’s will hopefully be obliterated by tonight,” Axel said and looked around the bar lazily.
I stepped towards me, and he jerked and looked back at me again.
“It’s more than that. I knew her brother,” I said and Axel’s brows crossed.
“You knew Luke? How? We never allowed our kids to mingle with each other,” Axel said and I shook my head.
“I knew him from Afghanistan. I was his company Captain. He died from a land mine, which he stepped on, under my watch,” I said and my gaze dropped to the floor.
There was pin drop silence in the bar and I could sense everyone’s eyes on me.
“And you’ve been carrying around this guilt? You feel responsible for Luke’s death?” Axel asked and I said nothing. Brooklyn had done a good job of making me feel better about the whole thing earlier, but it wasn’t just a switch I could turn off at will.
“Till last night, I didn’t know he was Brooklyn’s brother,” I said and met Axel’s eyes again. He was glaring at me, probably trying to figure out what the point of all this was.
“They have her now. The Dragon Knights. They saw me leaving her apartment. They opened fire at me. They have her and I know she’s going to be punished for being with me,” I said and that was probably when the point of the story began to sink in.
“Sounds like it’ll be tough for her,” Thor commented and Axel threw him a threatening look to shut him up.
“And you want us to help you rescue her?” he said to me instead and again, I only stared back at him instead of answering. What was the point? He knew what my answer to that would be.
“None of this is her fault. I’m responsible for putting her in this position. Just like I was responsible for her brother’s death,” I said and Axel took in a deep breath. He was thinking, and we were all waiting to hear what his decision would be.
“You know Adam Jenson and your father used to be friends,” he finally said and the revelation hit me in the face like a rock. I had no idea, and Axel could tell that from the expression on my face.
“Yeah, they used to be part of one MC. The Dragon Disciples. Adam and your dad, Nicholas, they were friends…the best if you want to tag it as such a thing. We all knew that one of them would eventually become President of The Dragon Disciples,” as Axel spoke, I could feel my mind whirring. My dad and Brooklyn’s dad were friends? How was that even possible? I’d never even heard of The Dragon Disciples.
“But your dad was idealistic. He didn’t want to stray from the rules, while Adam…Adam Jenson was a bit of a rebel. They were friends, but their friendship hit a roadblock because they couldn’t decide how to run the MC. They didn’t know how to coexist,” Axel said and a soft murmur had erupted in the bar again.
“Did they split and form two separate Clubs?” it was Sniper who asked the obvious question, voicing what we all were thinking anyway and Axel smiled at him and nodded his head.
“We were never rivals. Not forty years ago at least, but both our MCs grew in size and territory became an issue…and you all know the rest,” Axel said.
“Brooklyn’s life is in danger,” I interrupted him and Axel looked at me again with strained eyes. What was he thinking? I had no way of anticipating what he was about to say next. He only shook his head and fixed narrowed eyes on me.
“Adam Jenson was a rival. He became a rival, but his kids did nothing to us. Luke was a good guy and Brooklyn, definitely, is an innocent party here,” Axel said and I could see the frustration building up on Thor’s face. I knew he was going to try and interfere with any plan of support that Axel might have for me.
“We might have to alter our plan a bit, and we have to go now. Our first priority will be to get Brooklyn Jenson out of there, and then put a stop to the sex trade,” Axel said and stood up from his stool.
I could feel my nostrils flaring, the blood pumping hard trough my veins as Axel came up to me and thumped me three times on my back.
“Your father would have been proud of you, Gunner. This is what Bryce would have done too,” Axel said and then walked past me to talk to some of the others.
“Hope that ass was worth it,” Thor said in a growling mutter as he passed by me. If I wasn’t so focused on getting Brooklyn back, I would have knocked the teeth out of his head.
Chapter 19
Brooklyn
I tried to steady my heart as I stood a few feet from my door. I could hear Pike and Viper joking outside and continuing to bang on the door.
“Just a minute!” I called out, because I knew I needed more time before I could face them. I also wanted to give Gunner as much time to get away as possible.
“You don’t have to put on your makeup, sweetheart, it’s just us,” I heard Pike say, and Viper joined him in his laughter. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up. My teeth were on edge. I was disgusted with them.
Now that I had met Gunner, I had seen the other side. I was reminded again of how I should have been treated. No matter what kind of support I thought they were giving me since Luke’s death, they had no right to treat me like I was their property.
I cleared my throat and took in a deep breath, before placing my hand on the doorknob. With one swift pull, I opened the door and saw that it was only Viper and Pike outside. I’d pasted a forced smile on my face in the meantime and I stared at them, trying as hard as I could to convince them that nothing was wrong. All I had to focus on was getting them out of my building as quickly as possible and then finding my way to Gunner immediately after.
Wherever he’d gone; I knew he’d be waiting for me. He was the only person I could trust now.
Viper pushed past me into the apartment and Kevin followed, smiling at me indulgently as they looked around.
“What took you so long?” Viper turned to me then. Whatever bit of humor he was sharing with Kevin was now gone. Once he’d seen me again, he was back to being the rigid asshole that he always was.
“I was sleeping. I didn’t hear you knocking,” I said with a nervous smile and Viper narrowed his eyes at me.
“We’ve been banging on your door for the past ten minutes, sugar,” he said and came up close to me. Kevin was hanging about in the back, tracing his fingers over my furniture in the creepiest way possible. I knew I needed to spend as little time alone with these two bastards as possible.
“Yeah, well I’m hungover,” I said and Viper looked over my face, my body, and his eyes narrowed at the spot between my legs.
“You sure look it,” Kevin said with a laugh behind us and I tried not to show just how enraged I was.
“What do you want?” I asked Viper, trying to not grit my teeth. He was still watching me. Undressing me with his eyes and this was a different kind of naked that I felt under his stare. Unlike with Gunner, I felt like my skin was crawling and like I wanted to hide.
“Nothing much, sugar,” Viper said, stepping closer to me now and I stepped back, but he grabbed my waist and pulled me to himself. Pike only laughed in the background and my hands went cold.
“Look, Viper, if this is about last night…I’m very sorry, I was drunk and I didn’t know what I was doing,” I said and to my surprise, he only smiled and with his face that close to me, I couldn’t help but look at his slowly yellowing teeth. He might have appeared to be decent looking some time ago, but these days, I couldn’t stand the sight of him. He was making me sick.
“You’re sorry, huh?” he said, his voice slithering over my skin. “Just how sorry are
you, sugar? You know you’ve been getting a little naughty these days. Who’s been teaching you to be a bitch, huh? What would your precious brother have to say about that?” Viper continued and my legs felt weak, but I didn’t struggle. I knew there was no point trying to wriggle out of his grasp. He was much stronger than me.
“I can bet money that he would tell her to suck your dick…you know, just as an apology,” Pike said, with laughter in his voice as my blood ran cold.
“Yeah, that’s right, I agree,” Viper said, smiling at me.
And that was when we heard the shots being fired. Viper’s grip on my waist weakened, but he didn’t let me go. I screeched in horror and watched as Pike went running to the window.
“What’s that motherfucker doing here?” Pike yelled and Viper was dragging me to the window to look.
