My best guess was it was the O’Connell’s contact. King was pulling in a lot of fucking favors with those guys lately. I didn’t know what he was giving them in return but if they were going to help us get away with this, cover anything up, then it would be a big favor.
I called War as Ink finished and we pulled away. “We’re in the van.”
“Yeah, just getting in the car now…. What do you mean wait?” he wasn’t talking to me.
“Range,” I heard Casper say.
“Well hurry the fuck up,” War told him. “How’s King?” he asked me.
“He seemed okay, he was conscious, talking, but he had lost a lot of blood, I couldn’t see where the bullet hit him. We’ve got him going to a doctor nearby.”
War paused and I heard him breathing. “That was… he was like a fucking machine,” he said.
“I don’t think it went down the way he planned. Pretty sure he had things he wanted to say.”
“At least he got to look the bitch in the eye when he ended her.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. A distant thud drew all of our attention back to where Danica’s house was. It hadn’t sounded too loud from this distance, but it would have definitely alerted the other houses in the area something bad just happened. Casper detonated whatever he’d put in the basement.
“Okay, you can go,” I heard him calmly tell War.
“You’re a fucking lunatic,” War said to him. I heard Casper laughing. “Okay, get back to the compound,” War said. “Has Ink made the call?”
“He’s made a number of calls,” I looked at Ink. He glanced at me as he turned a corner, he nodded, letting me know whatever War wanted to know was done. “Yeah, it’s done. Waverley is with King, we need to go get her,” I protested. I didn’t want to leave her.
Ink didn’t stop driving in the direction of the Interstate, I had no idea which way Widow went.
“She’ll be alright, we go to the compound. Dirt will call when he can.”
“Fuck,” I should have gone with them. But this was an order from the VP. “Fine. Stay in touch.” I hung up and scrubbed both hands down my face.
This was a fucking disaster.
“Well, apart from that one minor hiccup, I’d say that was a fucking success,” Ink laughed.
“Minor hiccup?” I turned to him incredulously.
“He’ll be fine. He’s King Curtis.”
I hoped so, because King would be fucking pissed if we got through all of this, he got his revenge, and Danica ended up killing him too.
Epilogue
Three months later
“Do we have to go?”
Hudson chuckled into my neck. “I thought you wanted to be there. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t threatened everyone on the compound,” he licked my earlobe, then gently bit it, shifting his hips a little, making me gasp.
He wasn’t supposed to be back until tonight but his trip to New York had gone quicker than expected. He’d been gone for two days. I’d worried the whole time but it was just a meeting he said, no job, no danger, just catching up and agreeing plans. I wasn’t convinced, any meeting with the people he was with had danger written all over it.
He’d been given a new patch a couple of weeks ago, something King had decided to bring in, given the club was growing so big. He was now a Captain and he had four guys working on his crew.
I didn’t know the ins and outs of it but he was liaising with people out of New York. They’d helped out when King was hurt and now the Devil’s Chaos was doing a lot more work with them. Everyone kept telling me it was a good thing, didn’t mean I had to like knowing Hudson was going up there consorting with mobsters. I only had to hear thename O’Connell once and I’d found out they were a part of the Irish mafia who ran their business out of New York and New Jersey.
Since the night my dad almost died, I’d learnt a harsh lesson and King spent every waking moment reminding me of my place in the club. Don’t ask questions. Don’t get involved in anything club related and definitely stop trying to change things. I wasn’t about to stop though and Hudson learnt when to answer me and when to humor me. He gave me enough to keep me from getting into trouble. We’d settled into a nice little pattern.
I never thought when Warren and Hudson came to get me that fateful night, I would end up not just living on the compound, but in a house with Hudson Kelley. Just the two of us. It had been weird at first, I’d never really lived with anyone, besides my family before.
