Say Yes, Senator

“Ava, stop, please, just don’t cry,” my voice had dropped by several decibels. I couldn’t stand another moment of hearing her cry. I would have smashed the glasses of the side mirrors if she didn’t. Her sobbing grew softer, and then she sniffed and I imagined her wiping her small nose with the back of her hand. I clenched my fists, hating myself for making her cry.

She hadn’t completely stopped, or she couldn’t stop and either way, I could still hear her sobbing.

“Fuck. Ava. Stop crying or you’ll make me come over there!” I growled deeply and her sobbing grew softer.

“Okay, I’m not crying anymore,” she said and I breathed in deeply.

“I don’t care what you think of me, Ava. This is what my life is and I’ll understand if you don’t want to be with me, but I want to fix this for you,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as I spoke to her. She sniffed again and then her breathing became more even.

“Blaine Salzburg. That’s his name,” she said and I pressed my eyes close. She had told me his name. I didn’t know what she was thinking. What she thought of me or if she still wanted to be with me, but this Blaine fucking Salzburg was a dead motherfucker.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay.”

There were a few seconds of silence between us.

“I’m afraid of what he’ll do if he finds me again, Commando,” she said and I gritted my teeth. This was exactly what I didn’t want her to feel.

“I’ll take care of him,” I said.

“What if he hurts my friend? What if he hurts Charity?” there was raw fear dripping from her voice and now I was glad that I had pried his name out of her. She was trying to be prideful and pretending to be strong earlier. The truth was that she was scared.

“I will make sure he never comes near you, Ava. I promise,” I said and she sniffed again.

“Okay.”

“I have to go now, you should get some rest,” I said and stopped myself from saying more. There were other things bubbling at the tip of my tongue. I was afraid of blurting something out that she didn’t want to hear, that I should not have been telling her. Not now. Not when she was going through this.

“Goodnight, Commando,” she said in a quiet voice and I hung up. The white noise of the cut call was loud in my ear. I had forced myself to hang up. I wanted to keep listening to her voice but there were other things that needed to be done first.

Blaine Salzburg needed to be taken care of.

Whatever Ava thought I was going to do to that bastard, I was going to do ten times worse. He would regret every word he ever said to her. Regret that he ever met her. I could feel my blood boiling. I was going to erupt. Finding him wouldn’t be hard, we had connections in the police department. And once I found him, he would have nowhere to escape.

“Commando!” Slade’s high pitched voice cut through the silence of the night. I turned to see him staggering off his bike. I hadn’t even heard him come up to the bar, I was completely fixated with Ava and our conversation.

“Slade?” I rushed towards him and now that his face came into view in the dark, I saw that he was beat up. There was blood coursing down his face, his forehead was split open. I grabbed him by the shoulders, just when he was about to stagger to the ground.

“What the fuck happened to you man?” I was yelling at him, while he tried to keep his eyes open. His clothes looked tattered and dusty and I looked over him to make sure there were no stab or gunshot wounds. He was just beaten up. He had got into a fucking fight!

Seriously. Tonight of all nights?

“I’m okay. Just a scratch,” he said, smiling as I wrapped his arm around my shoulder and helped him towards the bar. Slade was limping but at least he was able to walk.

I kicked the door open, and the loud music and chatter of the rest of the club enveloped us. Slade was dangling from my shoulder, trying to keep himself propped up. Some of the guys stopped what they were doing and looked at us. I could see Elwood at a table with Crawford and the others, and he looked over and met my eye.

“Someone call my mother. He needs fucking stitches!” I barked on top of my lungs.

Blaine Salzburg had one more night to live, because lucky for him, my MC always came first.

Chapter 22

Commando

“I feel alive!” Slade shook his head wildly, while Mom stood in front of him, with a needle and thread in her hand. She was losing patience but her motherly feelings towards the members of the MC was shining through. King was sitting behind Slade, trying to keep his head still while she stitched the wound on his forehead.

Slade reached for the shot of whisky Big D had placed beside him on the counter. He tipped his head back and chugged it down.