“Damien will look out for her, and then I’ll sort them out after we’re done.”

Jaxon gritted his teeth and turned away, steering me back out of the room with the wrestler man following. Just outside the door, he looked around the bar and then back down at me.

“I won’t be long. Damien will stand by in case anymore assholes try to touch you. If anyone gives you a hard time, you let me know immediately, okay?” When I nodded at his words, he leaned in and seared my mouth with his. It wasn’t a soft kiss, though. It was rough and we were borderline making out before he pulled away. With a glance around the bar again, he gave Damien a nod and then disappeared back into the office.

I stood awkwardly beside the door and crossed my arms, avoiding the escalating amount of stares. The place had gone still when he’d kissed me, and only now when the talking had finally picked up did I realize that. Trying to distract myself from making eye contact with any more men, I looked at the Damien instead. He was leaning against the wall beside the door, arms crossed, scanning the bar with a bored look on his face.

Decidedly wanting to speak to someone Jaxon knew well, I asked an obvious question. “So you’re Damien?”

His dark eyes met mine and he nodded. “Yeah.”

“How long have you known Jaxon?”

“Over three years now.” I waited for him to elaborate, maybe tell me how they met or at least ask me how long I had known him, but he didn’t do any of that. He said nothing else and introverted again, looking back at the crowd.

A few minutes passed by, and when I heard whoops of excitement, I finally looked up from my shoes and at the commotion. There were two women standing on the red wood bar counter dancing provocatively to the heavy rock music. Wearing tiny skirts, skin tight tops and high heels, they grinded against each other to the beat with giant smiles on their faces.

The men whistled and fought each other to get a look under their skirts. Hands ran up and down the women’s legs as they slowly tore off their tops. I tore my eyes away, and caught Damien’s stare. He had a smirk on his face, and I think it was because he saw how uncomfortable I was in what was clearly a place that was out of my element.

“What?” I snapped when he wouldn’t look away.

He shrugged casually, still smirking. “Just surprised.”

“Why are you surprised?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

“I want to know.” I sounded pushy and rude, but if he was going to bring something up, he might as well finish it.

“Didn’t figure you for Jaxon’s type.”

“What do you mean? What’s his type?”

He looked me up and down, inspecting every bit of me. I couldn’t help but blush at the attention. “You’re modest, and reserved. You go red the second a man looks at you, and you can’t even look at a girl undress without feeling uncomfortable. Even this conversation is making you fidget.”

He was embarrassingly right, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of telling him that.

“Jaxon’s always been with confident, loose chicks – the kind that hold no reservations to promiscuity.”

I scowled. “So what are you saying? I’m not good enough or something?”

He chuckled and moved over to me, until he was standing by my side. “No, Sara,” he muttered, shining his dark eyes down at me. “What I’m saying is he’s not good enough for you. He deserves the scum he roots around with. Just be mindful of him.”

“You don’t know anything about me. I could be just as bad.”

“I highly doubt that. I’ve kept an eye on you the last couple days. You wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

My heart stopped as I studied his painfully serious face. The smirk was long gone. “Kept an eye on me? Why?”

“Because Jaxon said so.” Suddenly ending the conversation, he walked over to where he’d stood before and turned his eyes back at the half-naked women who were now pouring all kinds of alcohol on their bodies and having a taste. Though his eyes were on them, it was obvious he wasn’t watching them – the disinterest in his face was palpable. He was lost in his own thoughts.

And so was I.

*****

We’d been waiting a very long time. I had no desire to drink any alcohol or mingle with drunks. Damien had left at one point and returned with a chair for me to sit on. I was grateful and thanked him, but he didn’t say a word. I guess conversations with the guy were far and few.

I stewed on his words and I couldn’t ignore the pain they ignited in me. He deserves the scum he roots around with. That line wouldn’t shut the hell up in my head, and you’d be surprised just how many ways one could dissect it.

I was still in the middle of dissection number fifty two when, from my peripheral, Damien stood straighter and took a step forward. He was concentrating on something from across the bar. His face darkened, and he ran a hand through his buzz before crossing his arms and moving to stand directly in front of the door.

I watched as a familiar looking man made his way toward us. He was tall and muscularly broad, with black shaggy hair and dark eyes. He had a light beard and silver chains around his neck. I zoned in on his black leather patch vest that had the initials VP on the front. He paused mid-step and turned around to look at something. When I saw the back of his jacket, I inhaled sharply. The words “Black-backed Jackals” in thick white letters were etched into the leather in thick, bold letters.

A Jackal. The Vice President no less.

Damien’s discomfort was apparent, and I wondered if there was a level of danger here. Then again, how could there be? He was alone and in the centre of a whole other gang entirely, one I was still in the middle of questioning. My instincts were screaming, there is something very wrong here!

He stopped in front of us, and I could smell a cigarettes and pleasant cologne from where he stood a few feet away from me. The smell was so familiar that a nostalgic chill ran down my spine.

“How’s it going, Day?” he asked Damien.

“It’s going,” Damien responded tightly.

He motioned to the door. “I gotta talk to the men.”

“They’re in the middle of something, man.”

“How long you gonna make me wait out here?”

“They’re in the middle of something,” he repeated sternly.

The familiar looking man that I couldn’t put a name to glared at Damien, impatience seeping out of him. Even though he was a huge guy himself, he was still half the size of Damien. Seeing him in front of what I would have taken as an everyday big guy made my eyes pop out even further. Damien was a wall of muscle and intimidation, and he stared down at the bikie without a care in the world that he was a vital part of a violent gang whose crimes ran incessant around these parts.

The man turned to leave when he stopped abruptly. Taking notice of me, he froze. He recognized me too. Question was from where?

The door opened finally and relief swept me like a blanket when I saw Jaxon. Damien cleared the way for him, stepping to the side so he faced the man.

Jaxon was looking at the man strangely as he extended his hand out to me. I took it quickly and stood up.

“Remy,” he acknowledged the man with a single nod.

“Jaxon,” the man replied, glancing at our joined hands with an indecipherable expression.

“Did you want to see Finley?”

“Wanted to see Finley and you. I got a problem.”

Jaxon clenched his jaw. He wanted nothing more than to get out of there, and the inconvenience was clear in his demeanour. He exhaled wearily. “Come on in then.”

Remy flashed me a look again. “This your girl?”

“It is.”

“She staying at the Manor Motel by any chance?”

How had he known –

I held my breath as realization dawned on me.

“She was,” Jaxon replied.

“So was my brother, Brett. I saw her there.” Why was he talking about me like I wasn’t standing two feet away from him?

Jaxon didn’t respond. Remy pursed his lips. “I’ve been looking for my brother for a couple days now. I’ve got no word from him. He’s just up and disappeared. I came here to see if you guys have been in contact with him. Wonderin’ if he’s been hanging ‘round one of the whore houses I might not know about.”

I felt like I was going to be sick. My skin broke out in cold sweat as I looked up at Jaxon, and then at Damien. Jaxon looked void of emotion, not one thought hung on his sleeve. Damien was straight faced too, but he was locking eyes with me as if he knew my reaction might be ugly. He raised his eyebrows only slightly, but enough for me to notice and see the warning. I kept my mouth shut and focused on not looking like an open book.

“No,” Jaxon said casually. “I haven’t seen Brett since a week ago when he was caught raping one of our women. Finley told him to pack it away and saddle up in your clubhouse instead.”

Remy appeared unhappy with this answer. “How about your girl here?” he asked, pointing to me. “You seen my brother around the motel recently?”

I shook my head vigorously, tightening my grip around Jaxon’s hand as much as my sweaty palm would allow.

“She hasn’t been there for a couple days now,” Jaxon said gravely. “I took her out of there. It was unsafe for her in that part of town.”

“Couple days, huh?” He was looking at me intensely now, studying my reaction closely. Those eyes… I hadn’t seen them in the parking lot that night, yet they did something to me. I’d seen them before. Where?

“Anything else?”

Tearing his eyes away from me, he nodded at Jaxon. “Yeah, I’ll need to ask Finley and the boys. Then I need to discuss some things with you guys that would be… beneficial to our situation lately.”

Jaxon nodded and opened the door again. He gave me an apologetic look as he let go of my hand and disappeared inside with Remy. My stomach churned and I felt like I was going to vomit right there on the spot.

“Sit down,” Damien said gently.

I collapsed in the chair and tried to fight the shaking in my body. That was his brother. That was… I closed my eyes and recalled that big monster of a man pointing his grubby fingers at Remy at the parking lot that night I returned from Lucinda’s. They’d stopped and looked at me, the two of them. I didn’t think Remy would actually remember me. He’d seen me in the dark of night, after all. Now he was here asking around for his brother…

“Did you kill him?” I’d asked Jaxon.

He looked at me, half amused, half annoyed. “No, I didn’t.”

“I’m gonna be sick.” I got up and looked around for the toilets. When I saw the sign, I hurried through the crowd and pushed the door open. I collided with a few women before locking myself inside the first empty stall I saw.

Twenty Two

I don’t know how long I was kneeling over the toilet. Nothing had come up, but my stomach was still twisting in nausea.

Images of that night, of my near rape and the fear I’d felt were fresh as ever.

After a few minutes, I managed to steady my breathing and sat down on the toilet seat. I wasn’t sure how to take any of this. I was too stunned to process the obvious fact that Brett had met his demise, and most likely in Damien’s hands. But it would have been Jaxon that made the order.

I rubbed my eyes, smelling the sweat from my palms against my face. I tore off some toilet paper and vainly attempted to wipe the wet sweat from my skin. Then I pulled out my cell phone to send Lexi a text when I saw an unread text from a number I didn’t recognize.

Hi Sara, this is Rita. I was good friends with your mother. Father Mark said you might be interested in talking to me.  I will be out of town for the next two weeks, but if you’re still around after, I’d be more than happy to meet you and discuss whatever you wanted to know about Joanne. Call me anytime and we can arrange a date.

My heart thudded. I didn’t actually think she would contact me. In fact, I hadn’t even made up my mind on whether I wanted to talk to her either. A flame of jealousy reared its ugly head when I thought of how close she had been to my mother.

Not contacting her back and moving on would be the easiest action. However, I didn’t want to run away from this either. I reminded myself I had questions I wanted answers to.

I read the message over and over again when two pairs of heels clicked into the woman’s restroom. Two girls were laughing hysterically, not a care in the world that they were in this kind of place – a place where men with questionable motives and dirty hands reclined.

“Molly is such a slut,” one of them said. “I don’t know what she gets out of dancing on top of counters like that with her cunt flashed to the world.”

“She’s an attention seeker,” said the second girl that had a voice I thought I recognized.

“Well, she’s gotten all the attention she could get. Still wasn’t half as much as that chick Jaxon came strolling in with.”

I looked up from the phone and at the crease of the door where I could make out the two girls standing in front of the sinks doing their make up in front of the mirrors.

“I wonder how long he’ll fuck her before he tosses her aside,” she continued. “Wasn’t like him to go all ape shit with all the other guys. Why are you all quiet, Jade?”

I looked over at the second girl, dressed in a red mini-dress that matched her red flaming hair. My chest went tight. Jade?

“That was Sara,” Jade said, leaning into the mirror. “They used to be together. Seems like they’re back on or something.”