“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.
“Wooohooo!” he cheered, his eyes wild with the pain and the drugging effects of the whisky. This was his third shot.
“Be still or I tell Big D to hold the drinks!” Mom snapped at him.
“You need to get stitched up brother,” King tried to pacify him but Slade snapped his fingers in the air again, trying to get Big D’s attention. I could see Dad and Crawford in the background talking.
“Hold fucking still, Slade!” I barked at him and he smiled toothily at me. King held down his shoulders while Mom brought the needle to his eyebrows.
“I’ll tell ya, this is going to hurt,” she said and pierced his skin with the needle. Slade clenched his jaws and I saw him gripping the edge of the counter, but he wasn’t going to scream. No matter how painful this was.
“What happened?” Elwood had appeared behind him now and Slade tried to crane his neck to see.
Mom smacked his cheek, as hard as she used to smack mine when I was a kid and Slade looked back at her apologetically.
“They jumped me,” he said.
“Who?” Elwood asked him, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Black Skulls. I was at The Pussycats, collecting the dues from Mac,” he said, in a more sobered down voice now. I could see that he was reliving the moment.
“Dues? Our dues?” Elwood asked and Slade nodded his head. His movement made Mom flick her hand on his cheek again, and he held still.
“Were you alone?”
“I was at the back, leaving. Mac had just handed me the dough,” Slade said, his eyelids fluttering with pain while Mom dug the needle into his skin again. He gritted his teeth to stop from crying out and Elwood exchanged looks with me.
“How many of them were there?”
“Three. Those three motherfuckers from the warehouse,” Slade said, looking at me now and I clenched my jaw with rage. King was shaking his head behind Slade. I knew what he was thinking. We should have popped them when we had the chance. But we didn’t have a chance. We were fucking outnumbered!