Later on I lay in my bed, watching the reflection of passing cars’ headlights move across the ceiling. Things felt… different. I knew it was him. His larger than life presence was impossible to ignore, even if I kept trying to tell myself it was a bad idea.
Bad idea, or not, I was not going to be able to sleep until I knew he was alright. He’d put himself in danger for me and it was eating me up inside. I felt like I’d drunk twenty cups of coffee. The sense of unease had been growing all night, along with my gratitude towards him.
Damn it! He’d made me care about him against my better judgment! He couldn’t get hurt because of me. He couldn’t!
I gave up on sleep and rolled to my knees. I sat up with my hands clasped, closed my eyes and prayed.
Please keep Lucky safe. Please bring him back to me, even if it’s just for a little while. Please keep his big, stupid, overly generous head attached to his body.
I finished the way I finished all my prayers. With gratitude and a final request. The same request I always made.
Thank you for bringing Jacey into my life. Please heal my baby’s lungs.
Amen.
Chapter 15
Callaway
I pulled off my helmet and stared at the lunatic whom I’d followed over here. The guy who was fast with the jokes and always ready to party until dawn. Except he was different now.
I’d never seen him like this. The man was calm and clear-headed. Determined. Serious. He seemed to have matured overnight, even though he must have a death wish to tangle with the Margarellis. But he was. The man was on a mission.
Fucking Lucky had it bad.
I checked my phone to see if Mols had checked in. I smiled goofily at the picture of her belly she sent me. My baby was in there, warm and safe. There was also a reminder that I’d promised to rub her feet tomorrow.
And then there was the reminder that I’d promised her not to get killed. I texted her right back to let her know I was going in. I wasn’t worried about tonight, but it was always in the back of my mind that my life meant something more than it used to. I had people now. People who mattered more to me than life itself. Molly depended on me. And so did our unborn child. I’d even started wearing a helmet.
Molly knew where I was going. We told each other everything. She knew that the SOS was mostly above board, but that we straddled two worlds. The ‘regular’ world consisting of your average law-abiding citizen, and the seedier underground world, where the mafia, gambling, drugs and even prostitution were rampant.
I myself used to partake in the drug trade quite frequently.
Lucky was a gambling man.
None of us ever wanted or needed to visit a whorehouse, even back in our single days. The club itself attracted groupies and as the club tattoo master, I was offered sex literally every damn day. I didn’t think any of the guys partook in the flesh trade. But I knew it was happening all around us. In fact, we’d rescued Janet from the Vipers a few years ago when they’d tried to force her into the life.
Young women without strong family ties were the most vulnerable. Some of the crazier clubs even took part in the human trafficking trade, bringing the girls in from other places. Once here, they were utterly helpless and unable to escape, often not even speaking the language.
It was God fucking awful.
Jack had made it his personal mission to shut those places down as soon as he caught wind of a new one opening up. Massage parlors were often much more than a simple rub and tug. The gates were on the doors to keep the girls in, more than they were there to keep thieves out.
What were they going to steal anyway, coconut scented oil?
So yeah, under Devlin, the club didn’t even dabble in illegal shit anymore. We always stepped in when we could to protect women. And Jack had every single member of the club as backup when it came to saving those girls.
Confronting another rival club was par for the course. We were a big enough club that they usually didn’t mess with us. But we messed with them. The Vipers were a case in point. They had pushed back and lost, and now it was half the size it used to be.
But the mob was something else entirely.
Dev was on good terms with Vincent and his younger brother Antonio. They were reasonable men, even if they were scary as fuck. But the older generation of mobster were still off the charts crazy. They shot first and asked questions later. There were plenty of bodies in the woods and rivers around here. The last thing I wanted was a pair of cement shoes.