Raging Barons MC – Book Three – Silver

-:- SILVER -:-

Turning to look at the others, my mouth feels like a fish flapping up and down. I’m just shocked to hell that Mia went off like that and for Shar and Eden to follow her out, has left me speechless for a moment.

Axel storms up the stairs with us behind him. Target is chuckling quietly and Brad is saying nothing at all, he just keeps looking anywhere but at any of us.

Reaching the two tied up, Axel pulls his foot back and kicks the one we know is Tommo, like he’s playing soccer, hitting him right on his side, waking the fucker up. Thankfully, one of the women had taped his mouth shut, so all we can hear is his muffled cursing.

Squatting down so he’s eye level with Tommo, Axel speaks with such deadly calm that I feel all the hair on my neck stand up. “You won’t be hurting anyone ever again. I’m closing your whorehouse, I’m closing your drug business, and you’re going to be meeting the devil before the days out.”

Tommo is squealing and trying to break the binding that is tying him up, but I got to say, whoever did this did a damn good job. Target rips the tape off the other man’s mouth, squats down and asks. “Who are you?”

“I’m Tommo’s half-brother Simon. I only found out he was my brother four days ago, so I came to find him and see what he was like. I came here thinking he was coming to see his girlfriend. When he said all that shit to that woman, I’d have killed him myself if all three hadn’t jumped us so damn quick.” He looks sick, I have to admit.

Axel shakes his head, glares at Simon, then snarls. “Anymore fucking brothers I need to know about?”

Looking over at Axel, I can tell he’s not thinking clearly as yet, so I take the risk and speak up. “I think we need to take these two to the shed. This one, however, needs to give us proof of what he says and if he can, I’m happy to let him walk away. This one, I’m glad, will be meeting his maker soon.”

Axel takes a deep breath, takes out his cellphone and walks away from us while he speaks. I look at Target, who is keeping a close eye on Tommo. Brad looks like he’d like to be anywhere but here.

“You’ll be coming with us. If you can prove what you’ve just said, then I’m sure you’ll be able to walk away from this shit. Your brother is scum of the earth and the faster we bury him in it, the better.” I snarl at Simon, who nods in agreement and I have to say, has a look that he’s swallowed something nasty.

Axel walks back into the room, runs his hands over his head, then speaks, “Stitch and a prospect are on the way with a van. We’ll take them back to the compound. Simon here, I’ll speak to in my office, but only if he has the evidence to back up his claim of not being involved. Otherwise, he can go in the fuckin’ shed with this piece of shit,” and he kicks Tommo once more before walking out the front door to his bike.

Once Stitch and the prospect arrive, I grin as I notice Stitch stick a needle into Tommo who flops back unconscious within a couple of minutes, “That’ll keep the fucker quiet for now and make it easier to throw him in the van.” Stitch chuckles, places the cap back on the syringe and places it in his bag, which looks like the old-fashioned medical bags you see in a wild west movie.

Back at the clubhouse, I can hear Mia and Axel arguing in the office, and that’s something we’ve never heard before. Mia is giving Axel hell, she’s full-on steaming, and we all grin as we hear Axel trying to placate her and calm her down.

I’ve got my own placating to do so I rush up to find Eden, who I hope is not packing her bags, because she’s not leaving here, even if I have to lock us both in the room together.

What I find when I get upstairs surprises me, and has me stopping just outside Eden’s bedroom door. I can hear her and Meat talking, which shocks the shit outta me as he hardly says a word.

“You gotta understand that what you did was wrong. We all knew you were in danger and you knew it Eden, don’t pretend you didn’t know because you did. You also knew that if that fucker got his hands on you that we’d have a hard job getting you back, as he’d have put you somewhere deep or even sold you to some perverted prick.”

“I didn’t think Meat, if I’m honest, we just wanted to get out of here, get a few things, check my parents safe and then get back here, without someone looking over our shoulder. We checked all around the place before we went in and saw no-one hanging around, you know casing the joint,” to which she giggles at her own explanation. “We waited in the vehicle a long time before we went in, but as we locked the door once inside, these two just appeared and he spouted off some shit, you know the Tommo one. Then we just jumped him, and Meat, you’da been proud we did the eye gouge and the low-to-high strike. Mia stuck him in the chest with a damn nail file, but it can’t have hit anything serious as he didn’t die.”

“I’m sure you all did well, but the point is that you shouldn’t have had to do that in the first place. But I’m not going to knock you for protecting yourselves, that’s why I’m helping you,” I can hear the sigh Meat gives. ‘’Tomorrow morning we’re going to kick up the workout, so you get up earlier, I want you outside by 4:30 sharp, no later, you hear and no more of this nonsense of living in that house, you’re here and you’re staying here.”

It is at that point that I let it be known I’m here and lean against the door frame with my arms folded over my chest, effectively blocking both Meat and Eden inside.

“Are you okay?” I ask, looking at Eden with my eyebrow cocked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry for what we did, but we didn’t mean any harm. We just wanted to get things from the safe in the basement.”

“Did you get what you wanted?” Meat asks her, then stands and steps towards the door.

“Yes, I’ve just got to check out what I found.”

“Okay, lunch soon, then we’re in the yard working on our project. The club can kiss our ass tonight, you’re staying here with me.” Meat states firmly, then shoves me out of the way as he walks out of the bedroom.

Stepping over to Eden, I sit on the bed next to her, throw my arm around her neck and pull her into my side. “Scared the shit outta me, Eden, when I knew you weren’t here. Don’t do that again. Your life is not something to play with and they have already hurt you more than you should have been, in more ways than one.”

“I’ll not do it again, Silver.” Eden sweetly says, then sighs and leans into me more, but before we can say anymore the door flies open and Mia stands with her hands on her hips and shouts, “Church, women only.” Storming away down the corridor and as we peer around the door, we see her pushing two brothers out of her way while she’s still talking to herself.

I kiss Eden on top of her head, then look down at her. “Well babe, I think you’re having your own Church meeting.”

Grinning, Eden, rushes down the corridor, but turns and shouts, “See you later babe,” which has me grinning as she’s warming up to me and I’m more than warmed up to her, so while she’s busy in Church I rub my hands together and get started on moving all her gear into my room.

-:- EDEN -:-

Stepping into the room where the men hold their meeting called Church, I see Mia sitting at the head of the table, looking mighty pleased with herself. Shar is with a smirk on her face and I didn’t even know she was here, so I’m a bit surprised.

“Close the door and lock it, Eden.” Mia instructs, leaning her elbows on the table as she watches me. Once I’ve locked the door, I take a seat near them both and wait to find out what the heck is going on.

“As you both know this is the meeting room, that the men call Church and although myself and Eden are the only ol’ ladies of the club, I’m going to hold meetings for us when we are fucked off with our men’s shenanigans.” Mia says. “Do either of you want to live in Eden’s house? I’ve got to say I’m happier staying here if I’m honest, and now my temper is cooler. I understand why the men were upset with us. If you’re both happy not to live in the house, then that’s okay with me, but I’ll live there if you both still want to do that, well you particularly Eden.” Mia looks embarrassed by her decision, but I quickly speak up.

“Well, I’m okay being here Mia. You know we’ve got work to do with Meat and we’ve our training, plus we have our jobs to do. It makes sense to stay here.” I give a grimace when I say it.

Shar speaks up. “Look, you both are happier here. We know that. Let’s not mess around. I’ve got my apartment and you’ve got your men, so let’s call it a day on that, but we can still give them grief when we can.” Which has all of us chuckling. We all give a nod at the decision to stay at the clubhouse.

Mia sits forward after taking her cellphone out of her back jeans pocket. “We need to take control of some things that are just dragging along. The state of the clubhouse rooms are disgusting. I’m sick of cleaning showers after this lot, so let’s find a cleaning company and get it locked down.”

Shar and I take out our cellphones and start searching for a company that would hopefully be local and have excellent reviews. We comment on ones we find but throw them out after reading reviews about shoddy work and poor attitudes, then Shar finds one. “Hey, this sounds good. It’s called ‘Helping Hands’ its for private and commercial properties. It has really high reviews. I’ve not found anyone not praising the company.”

Mia and I both look at the company website and give a nod to Shar. “Okay, who’s going to call them?” Shar asks, and Mia quickly taps the numbers into her cell and grins.

The call is picked up fairly quickly and I sit listening to Mia ask questions, jot down a few notes on a notepad that Shar handed to her and it sounding pretty positive from what I can hear.

Mia ends the call and grins, “The owner is Heather. She works, as well as doing the office work, and I caught her in the office, which was good for us. She’s going to come out tomorrow and have a look. Then give us a price once she knows how many people she’ll have to send and how many hours work we are talking about.” Holding her hand up Shar high fives with her then she turns to me and I do the same, all three of us grinning.

Mia rubs her hands together. “Okay, next we need another club or a bar. There has to be something around this area. Get your fingers looking, ladies.” She giggles, and we all three get checking the real estate agents that deal with commercial properties.

“Here’s one.” I comment and turn my cellphone to face them, for them both to look at. It’s a bar right on the edge of town, been closed for three years, reduced because of the state of the place, but it has excellent parking facilities, kitchen, restaurant area, bar which has a couple of pool tables and a jukebox.

Mia rubs her chin with a finger and thumb, then calls the number of the agents. Both Shar and I listen again to the conversation and I have to say she has a knack for speaking to people. It doesn’t take long before she agrees to visit the bar the day after tomorrow, sets a time and thanks the man. Grinning at us, she states, “I’m gonna get that place for a song. You just watch.”

“How come the men didn’t find this place before?” Shar asks Mia.

“The agent says that they listed it for sale at one time, but not for the last two years, because the owner died and the niece, who is the only beneficiary, couldn’t be bothered with it. She took it off the listing and told them to just leave it alone, but as they were cleaning their files three weeks ago, he noticed it and asked the niece if he could put it back up for just six months, she agreed, and here we are.” Mia is grinning. “She’s going to sell this cheap to get it off her hands, and we are going to buy it. Not the men, us. We are going to make it into a ladies’ bar.” She has the largest shit-eating grin I’ve ever seen, and both Shar and I laugh.

Shar turns to me and grins. “So, what was in the safe?”

“Shit, we’ve not looked yet,” I rush out of the room and grab the bag that I had stuffed the things in when I’d gotten back to the clubhouse, but I’d left it in the kitchen on the table. I run back and slam the door closed behind me, then sit in the chair and place the bag on the table.

Taking a deep breath, I open the bag, slip out the long black jewelry box and, with slightly shaking hands, I open it to see a beautiful necklace with emeralds in the middle of the gold chain. It has three decent sized emeralds and they are inside a filigree of gold. The whole thing is stunning. I pass the box to Mia, who gasps and runs her finger over it.

The next box is heavily taped, but I pull at it to get it open. When I’m not succeeding Shar tells me to stop and she leaves the room to get a knife and scissors.

While we wait for Shar to come back I open the envelope and see it’s a letter from my mother.

Dear Eden,

You will be reading this because I’m dead. That is the only way you would gain entry to the safe, and that is if or when you remember about it being in the basement.

I wanted to take a moment and say I’m so sorry for marrying Stan and I know it caused you problems. He really didn’t want you to have anything that should have come to you by rights, and I wanted to make a will to make sure you received the house. I hope I actually had done that by the time anything happened to me. If not, then I’m again very sorry.

I loved your father dearly and missed him so very much. When I married Stan, it was because I was lonely, but not that long into the marriage, I realized I should have stayed single. By that time, it was simply too late as it would have made him and Shirley homeless and I didn’t want that on my conscience along with what I was doing to you.

Know that both I and your father loved you to the moon and back and we wish we could have given you a sibling or siblings, but sadly it was not meant to be.

I’ve left you a parcel, which I hope you received from the safe along with this envelope. I hope it will help make your life a little easier.

The necklace was your grandmothers, my mother. She would have been thrilled to know you have it.

Love you always

Mom xx

Shar had returned to the room, and I passed the letter over to her as she passed me the knife and scissors. I made quick work of opening the box and when we saw the money inside; we looked at each other in shock.

Neatly packed into the box were stacks of $100 dollar bills. I look at Mia, who looks back at me and we both look at Shar, who is sitting with her hand over mouth and eyes as round as saucers. “Fucking hell girl, let’s count it.” Shar squeals as she grabs the first bundle and counts.

Mia is re-stacking the dollars in $5,000 piles and when we’ve finished, we sit looking at each other and I cannot help but giggle, because I’m looking at $100,000 dollars and it’s not that long that I was sleeping in my car and had nothing to eat but tinned stew and meal bars.

Mia stands, places her hands flat on the table and looks me in the eye. “So, let me get TwoCents and he can put this in the safe for you. Then I want you to think about what you’re going to do with it. Don’t waste it because it could set you up for life. It’s a nice amount, Eden.” I nod, because shit, what else can I do? I’m totally speechless at this point.

My mind is running through the fact that I’ve got the house now, but I don’t want to live in it anymore, and now I’ve this money. But if I sell the house and add it to this money, then it gives me a lot of options.

“Okay, Mia, I’m happy to put it in the safe for now. Will he come and get it or should we take it? I don’t want to bother him.”

“He’ll come and get it and give you a receipt for it, too.” She grins, then rushes out of the room.

Turning, I look at Shar, who is smiling at me. She grabs my hand and quietly says, “your mamma loved you babe, that’s a real nice thing to know.” I nod and feel my eyes water, but I lock them away because I’ve done a lot of crying and I don’t want to do any more.

Mia and TwoCents enters, he quickly counts the money, gives me a huge smirk, then hands over a receipt. “Here you go Eden. It’ll be all safe here. Whenever you want it, you just find me and we’ll sort it out.”

“Thank you. Do you think you could put the necklace with it too for safekeeping?” and when he nods and adds it to the receipt, he kisses my head then leaves the room.

“Okay, let’s go get a big drink and lunch.” Shar grins, and we all three head out of the meeting, walking straight to the bar, ignoring all the questioning looks we get along the way, but my head is still not on straight and I know I need to talk to Silver about what we found.