War & Mayhem Book 1: Stone

LOLITA

“How are you feeling?” I asked the man standing in front of me.

Yesterday, when he stumbled into my store, he looked so pale and weak. But when I saw blood covering his hands and shirt, I knew I had to help him. The patch should have made me turn in the other direction and run, but I wasn’t the type of person who did that sort of thing.

I’d seen the Highway Jokers around town. They were outlaws, and most of the people here in town knew to stay away from them. I just never thought that Daniel Moss would be one of them.

When I was treating him, waiting for his friends to show up, I couldn’t help but stare at his face. He had changed over the years. He wasn’t the goofy-looking kid anymore; he was a man with tattoos and a beard. And now that he was awake and standing in front of me, he towered over me with a purpose.

I was glad to see color back in his face. The beard and leather vest suited him. He had an air of danger around him, but a softness in his eyes. A shiver raced down my spine when I heard his voice.

“I feel like crap, but I’ll be fine.” The corner of his mouth twitched up. “Did you manage to see anything?” Daniel asked.

I placed my hands in my back pockets and fought to ignore the butterflies in my stomach. “No, I wasn’t here…but I did have footage.”

“Did?” He raised an eyebrow and the member who had introduced himself earlier as Redback came to stand beside him.

“I handed the footage of the CCTV over to the police when they were here earlier,” I said with a shrug.

The men in front of me shared a look.

“Do you remember anything from that footage that will give a clue as to who it was?” Daniel asked me, making me raise my eyebrow.

“No. Only saw a few men wearing all black and covering their faces with masks. I’m sure the police will look into it,” I told them.

“The police won’t do shit,” Daniel snapped, and I jumped a little. Daniel groaned as he ran his hand through his hair, mumbling, “Sorry.”

A phone rang, and Daniel pulled out his phone from his jean pocket, stepping away as he answered the call. After a few moments, he turned on his heels and stared at me.

“Got it.” He snapped before ending the call.

“What’s going on?” Redback asked Daniel.

“8Ball said someone broke into Lolita’s house.”

My eyes went wide. “What! How?”

My heart raced and my breathing went shallow. I pulled out my phone, but before I could dial triple 0, Daniel plucked my phone from my hands.

“What are you doing? If someone broke into my house I need to call the police.”

“The police aren’t going to do shit, sweetheart. We are,” he said before pocketing my phone in his jeans. He turned to Redback. “I’m taking her to the clubhouse.”

“Hang on just a minute, don’t I get a say in this?” Hot or not, this was my life Daniel was messing with. They both looked at me.

“No,” Daniel said.

“I’m not going with you. I’m going to the police.” I grabbed my bag from the counter and headed out the door. I got about five feet away from my coffee shop before Daniel was in front of me. He had a look in his eyes, telling me not to mess around.

But I wasn’t backing down.

“Move,” I said.

“You have a target on your back now, sweetheart. The only place you’ll be heading is the clubhouse.”

I stood there with my arms folded across my chest. But before I could speak, Daniel shrugged before taking a step toward me and hoisting me over his shoulder.

I screamed as he lifted me into the air and my cheeks flushed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I slapped his back, trying to get him to put me down.

He groaned in pain.

“I’m injured, sweetheart,” he warned me, walking past my shop and toward a truck. I was placed in the passenger seat of the truck before he slammed the door shut. I glared at him while he spoke with Redback, before he climbed into the driver’s side.

***

All through the drive, it had been dead silent. I was too mad to speak, which was good because I didn’t know what to say. As soon as the truck was parked in front of what I assumed was the clubhouse, I jumped out and slammed the door shut. I walked past Daniel, not even looking at him. I ripped open the clubhouse doors and stormed inside.

The clubhouse smelled like a bar and was covered in random things about motorcycles. A pool table sat in the corner next to a jukebox, but what had me raising an eyebrow was the stripper pole in the other corner of the room.

“Lita?”

My attention snapped to the person calling out my nickname. My stepbrother walked toward me, as well as other men I barely knew.

“Are you okay?” John asked me.

I nodded my head and hugged him.

“I’m fine… Can one of you tell me what the hell is going on?” I asked as I looked around the club.

“Let’s head into the chapel and have a chat.” Daniel was so close behind me, I jumped when I heard him speak. His hand gently pressed against my lower back, guiding me to some doors where we paused. “Your bag stays out here,” he said.

I glared up at him.

“The quicker you do it, the quicker you’ll have your answers.” His touch fell away, and I hated that I missed it.

I sighed and took off my bag, placing it on the table beside me.

“If anything goes missing from there, I’m coming after you,” I said, pointing at him before I walked into the chapel.

Daniel smirked and slipped my phone into my bag.

I had expected to see pews and an altar, but we walked into an informal conference room of sorts. Someone was already sitting at the head of a giant table in the center of the room. The Highway Joker patch was carved into the center of the table. I took the open seat next to John while Daniel took a seat at the other end of the table.

“Thank you for coming down here,” the guy at the head of the table spoke. It was the same guy I had met yesterday when I called about Daniel. The president of the Highway Jokers, Thrasher. He looked like a mean son of a bitch when I first met him. I guess you would have to be if you were the leader of an outlaw club.

“I didn’t have a choice,” I mumbled as my eyes locked onto Daniel’s. “I was going to the police station…” I looked back at Thrasher.

He hummed before he leaned back in his chair. “The thing is, we know exactly who shot up your store and broke into your house.” He held up his hand when I was about to speak. “I just need some information from you to figure out why.”

“I don’t know what I can give you.” I leaned back in my chair.

“When you helped Stone, did you see anything or anyone else strange?”

I thought about it for a moment. “No, I had some errands to do that morning so one of my staff members opened the shop. I had just arrived five minutes before I saw him stumbling into my shop,” I said, nodding my head to Daniel.

“Do you have any footage of this morning?” Thrasher asked.

“She gave it to the police,” Daniel spoke up.

Thrasher sighed and ran a hand over his face.

“8ball, hack into the coffee shop’s system,” Thrasher said.

I frowned. I was about to speak up, but John held out a hand stopping me.

Thrasher noticed.

“Need to add something else?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, what the hell? This is my business you’re messing around with. I saved one of your guys, who I might add is a big asshole and hasn’t changed one bit, but hacking into my store’s security is totally out of order.”

“Lolita,” my stepbrother warned me, but I ignored him.

“You obviously have a target on your back.” Thrasher sat forward. “Our enemies will want you dead now.” He looked me up and down before leaning back in his chair. He grabbed a cigarette from his pack and lit it up before he spoke again. “Because you saved one of my men, we’re helping you, which means your business becomes my business.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” I asked, looking around the room at the few men who sat in the chairs.

“If you want to be dead by morning, sure.” He shrugged like he didn’t care. “But because of yesterday, you are under our protection.”

“Which means?” I crossed my arms.

“You will be staying here until we have the situation under control, and everywhere you go, one of my men will follow you.”

“I have a business to run, I can’t stay here,” I snapped at the president of the Highway Jokers.

“Then someone will be there watching over you.”

There was no point in arguing with this man. He knew how to run things, but I was just a stubborn person.

“Saw and Mage will take you to your place to grab some clothes for a few days and anything important,” Thrasher said before he stood up and left the room.

This was bullshit.