Jaxson 3: The Last Vow (Black Devils MC) Read online

  A few weeks ago, I never would have thought a girl like me could be capable of violence of any kind. A college student looking to get a good wholesome 9 to 5 existence. Be normal. Have an apartment, a small car, lunch hour. How could it be possible that in just matter of weeks… I was different? Changed.

  If a man like that were put before a judge and jury, they would conclude that he wasn’t mentally competent. Unstable. Delusional. And thus, could not be held responsible for what he’d done. Evil ideas had started to spin in my mind. Well, a jury would never get a chance to excuse him or his ugly deeds. Antonio and his sick hatred for Jax started this but he was already dead. If the Devils couldn’t get Jumper for what he’d done, then I would. If Bruno couldn’t have it done, so be it. And I wouldn’t be sorry. I’d never be sorry.

  I wiped a tear from my eyes as I shook with a sudden fury. He deserved everything he was going to get.

  Chapter Seven

  Dino

  It was a biting cold Wednesday morning. Riding to work, the morning sun blared into my eyes. The wind howled and blew in the opposite direction, striking my face with icy kisses. Traveling down the long stretch of highway toward the Black Devils clubhouse, my mind drifted to the girl I’d seen at Border Patrol. She shouldn’t matter to me but she did. Whilst she was just another whore to them, she was something different to me. Not only was she the hottest girl I’d seen in a long while, but I saw something in her that needed my help.

  For now, I knew I’d have to force those thoughts out of my mind. Covering for Jax as president of the Devils had to be my priority. A leader is what this club desperately needed. It wasn’t only my job as VP. It was what Jax deserved. I had his back forever, as he had mine. Fuck, I owed him big time for everything he’d done for me in the past.

  One hour before, the clock in the front room of my apartment ticked and struck seven thirty. I’d prodded at my bowl of oatmeal with a spoon, without the appetite to eat anything. There was blankness in my soul as I’d fought the guilt I still carried for taking the bulletproof vest from Jax and putting him on death’s door. If he died, it would rip our club apart like a cloth torn in two. Ripped beyond repair. I could never fill the spot permanently.

  Arriving at the Devils clubhouse, I glanced at the bikes that stood outside. Everyone was here. I’d called them to assemble for church today. Everybody, except Bruno. It surprised me – it wasn’t in his character to be late for anything. The boys had heard by now that Jax had been shot, and I’d texted Marco to let him know Jax was alive when he’d made it out of surgery. Jax was now recovering at Border Patrol, but my brothers at the club didn’t know this.

  I kept my gaze trained on the ground as I moved toward the entrance of the clubhouse. I opened the door and stopped in the doorway, a hand on one side of the frame, and moved my eyes over each of my brothers who sat around our meetings table.

  Their silence said everything.

  “Bruno around yet?” I asked at last.

  No one responded. No one moved.

  “Come on fellas. We don’t wear this patch to mope around all day feeling sorry for ourselves.”

  Everyone looked up at me, but still nobody uttered a word.

  Crossing the room toward the bar, I took a mug from the cupboard on the far wall to get some coffee. On the way, I passed Kelsey, who sat on a stool in front of the bar where Antonio used to take his drinks. I took the pot off its electrical base and turned to find Spider standing behind me.

  Flicking his eyes toward Kelsey, Spider whispered, “She was shooting up in her room last night. I heard her crazy ass music playing. The kid always turns up the music loud when she’s using.”

  “You sure about that?” I questioned, glancing over at Kelsey, her elbows resting on the bar. The track marks on the underside of her right arm confirmed Spider’s statement. Since Antonio had died, that’s what her life had come down to. The poor girl sat a mere two feet or so from where her man was shot; the wall was still marked with the dent from the round Jax had fired at Antonio’s head. I did feel sorry for the girl. She was never an innocent, but still, she never did anything to warrant deserving a life like this.

  Spider responded, “I wouldn’t lie to you, brother. I found her passed out in her room this morning when I went to check on her. Lying in a heap on the floor like a pile of bones. I sorted her out, but she wouldn’t let me take her to the hospital.”

  I nodded sagely. “I knew it. I knew she wouldn’t cope without him.” I was referring to Antonio; whom she relied upon for everything. The girl couldn’t even drive. She hadn’t even gotten her learner’s permit yet.

  Sitting there, Kelsey acted strangely agitated and anxious. As if she had something to hide. The thought that flashed through my mind wasn’t how did I not see this coming. I knew she was a junkie. But how could I allow this to happen. Jax would never have allowed this to happen. He’d kept her clean for the past four years she’d been with us since he saved her from the streets. She had a look about her that made me think, what else could she be hiding?

  A translucent spiral of steam rose from the water as I poured it into my coffee mug. No one had put in the coffee go rounds. “Fuck. This is just what we need right now,” I said, sarcastically.

  Shaking my head in resigned disapproval, I turned my attention back to my boys. They looked how I felt inside, but club business stopped for no man. If you stopped moving, stopped fighting, you became weak. And I wasn’t having the Devils become weak and vulnerable.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  Today’s job sheet was pinned to the corkboard on the wall. Marco always put this sheet together the night before work and secured it to the wall each morning. I made my way toward it and pulled the sheet free. Placing it on the main table in front of the guys, I said, “Jax will be fine, boys. Until he’s recovered, I’m taking his place,” I paused and looked around, making eye contact with every one of my club brothers, and continued, “For now, there’s work to be done. You don’t want Jax to come back to a fucking crumbling shadow of a club he once said he was proud of, do you? ” I asked, swinging both my hands in an upward motion for them to get off their asses and get to work.

  Several nods came back at me and slowly, the boys got up and got on with business.

  I took a seat to go over other lists for Bruno.

  A low mechanical growl drifted through the window, closer and closer until Bruno came into view on his Harley. I heard a loud crack of the front door and Bruno burst inside. We all stopped what we were doing.

  An instant later, a few of the guys rose from their seats, while others stayed seated, not knowing quite what to expect from our former president.

  Bruno seemed deep in thought, his brow furrowed, his hands clasped behind him.

  I got up and our eyes locked. Bruno made his way over to me, and the closer his face got to mine, the more concerned I became. Something looked broken in his eyes, as though part of his very DNA was missing.

  “How are you holding up?” I asked, rather stupidly. Jax was like a son to the man.

  Bruno looked at me but didn’t respond; he wasn’t ok. “Did you see Jax’s picture in the paper this morning?” he asked, his tone a simmering fury. He narrowed his eyes at the guys around the main table who listened intently to his every word.

  They quickly registered his message to get on with their work. And so they did.

  When Bruno turned back to me, I shook my head.

  “He made the front page under the headline, ‘local bandit gets his due in a shooting.’ The article called him a hooligan, a criminal, a murderer who was better off dead,” Bruno growled.

  There was thick silence between us for several beats. In the few seconds that slid by I could practically feel Bruno’s blood pressure rise. Bruno despised bad press about his club. But bad press about Jax would be enough to push him over the edge.

  Bruno’s voice transformed into a menacing roar, “Any reporters contact you, you say nothing, you hear!” His hands shook as he ra
ised a pointed finger at my face, speaking loud to make sure everyone heard him clearly.

  Bruno dug into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette to calm himself. Hands still vibrating, he lit up and took several deep drags. He closed his eyes, letting the fiery sensation fill his lungs.

  It was the first time I’d ever seen the man smoke in this clubhouse. The clubhouse that held such great sentimental value to him. My voice softened, “I know that. The boys know that too. None of us would ever betray you like that.”

  After another long draw from his cigarette, Bruno placed a hand on my shoulder. “My cousin Marco has secured me a visit with Viper. As my VP, Thunder, I’d like you to come with me,” he said, suddenly all business.

  Just like that, the man had his emotions in check ‒ focused and determined as ever ‒ typical Bruno style. The man was a legend among bikers and amongst the mafia as well. One that you never crossed or you wouldn’t live long to tell about it. Jumper had crossed him several times now and this ate at him, we all knew this. It made for an enraged and vicious Bruno. The responsible party would pay for it all, this I already knew.

  I followed him outside and we soon left. We rode to the jail, checking our mirrors the whole journey that we weren’t followed there. It was of particular importance now more than ever, because we weren’t going to be able to take our guns into the jail, meaning we would be unarmed when we came out.

  Upon arrival, I kicked down my stand and shrugged off my jacket as I stared up at the walls of the prison. A club jacket would only draw unnecessary attention to us from the cops. I looked up at the prison walls; it was fucking huge. A small flock of visitors gathered outside, waiting to be let in.

  “Ready?” Bruno asked, reaching into his jacket and pulling out two pistols. I took my gun from its holster and handed it to Bruno. He put all three weapons under the seat of his bike. No doubt, if we’d been busted with them, we’d have gone to jail.

  Inside, we signed in and went through a long ass security screening process, metal detectors, an interview, and a full body search.

  Finally, an hour and a half later, we walked into the visiting room and moved toward our seat assignment. I’d been in these rooms enough times before…no windows and no natural light. Whispers circulated around the room. Eight armed guards paced slowly about the room, watching and listening. Tension always hung in the air here, like animals in cages were placing back and forth waiting for a chance to release their rage at being incarcerated. The guards were walking through a sea of hate as murders could happen and did every hour in here.

  And they were actually animals when they lived here. Men when they came, animals when they left.

  Bruno and I sat down on the rigid plastic chairs on one side of our table. Bruno’s chair looked more like a piece of child’s toy furniture under his enormous body. We sat for more minutes. Waiting, before a guard came out holding a frail looking woman by the arm and sat her in front of us.

  I gave Bruno a sideways look. I didn’t expect what I saw. She looked grey and tired. I wondered how a small woman like her would cope in prison. The blonde hair of before had been a wig because she had a long brown ponytail, and she had not even a slap of her signature red lipstick. Besides her small frame, this woman didn’t look like The Viper at all, but I could sense it. With, or without her disguise, she had the most disturbing aura about her.

  The woman sat back in her chair, seemingly relaxed, and stared at Bruno with eyes that were an unearthly green.

  Then, Bruno stared back and I saw something in his eyes. She touched something deep inside Bruno that he’d never admit, not even to himself.

  “Thank you for agreeing to see me, Tori,” said Bruno, now addressing her by her real name, his hands clasped on the table in front of him.

  Something told me this calm and friendly exchange wouldn’t last.

  “Skip the pleasantries. What do you want, De Luca?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. Whether she felt something for Bruno too or not, she didn’t trust either of us enough to show it.

  “You know,” Bruno said, “Something has been bugging me, something I can’t make sense of…I need to know why you turned to the cartel all those years ago.”

  Tori gave no answer. There was a sudden thick tension between them, as though Bruno’s words had struck a nerve with Viper and his words now hovered uncomfortably in the air.

  I sat and wondered what he was getting at. In fact, I wondered why the hell we were here at all. Though, I followed Bruno and would to the bowels of hell probably. As would we all. It was part of the life. We never even questioned it.

  Changing the subject entirely, Tori asked, “You bring me anything nice, the food here is diabolical.”

  “You can starve in this place for all I care, Tori,” Bruno retorted.

  Tori gave him a sharp look. “Then go find somebody else to interrogate,” she hissed, leaning forward across the table.

  Bruno rolled his eyes.

  I got up from the table and went across to the wall on my left to get Tori some chocolate from the vending machine. Anything to get the information Bruno wanted and to get the hell out of this place. I looked across at them from queue for the vending machine, still able to hear them …

  Tori lowered her voice to a whisper and scoffed, “I’ve always been cartel. You were nothing but a fling to me.”

  Fuck! The woman had balls all right. Or, she was too crazy to care what the hell she said.

  “You better remember who you’re fuckin talking to!” said Bruno, almost through gritted teeth, clenching his fists and looking like he were about to come undone. I don’t know what it was about this woman, but she knew how to get to Bruno and push his buttons.

  Tori rolled her eyes. “Oh, I know exactly who I’m taking to. The mistake it took me seventeen years to finally break free of,” she said.

  I turn to watch Bruno, staring at her in confusion.

  Tori laughed in her throat. “You and I both know what you were like with women back then. Couldn’t get enough, could you? You’d get your fill and then move on. I didn’t expect anything from you and that’s what I got, nothing. Except a kid,” Tori added bitterly.

  “And you didn’t think about telling me about it,” he said.

  A smug grin pulled at her lips as Bruno spoke. She laughed, and declared, “I named the kid Jason. But then you might know him better by a different name. The name you gave him. Jaxson.”

  I stopped in my tracks, and my eyes widened as I watched Tori’s face drop.

  This pair was Jax’s parents? Fuck. Was that what all this woman’s façade was about …the sunglasses covering her green eyes like Jax had, the peroxide blonde wig, the heavy makeup, the sucked up accent – she didn’t want Jax to recognize her.

  Bruno’s eyes blazed with fire. “Have you even had any thoughts of your son? The son you abandoned at the age of seventeen. I can’t even begin to imagine what could have happened to my boy had I not taken him into my club, and my home when he didn’t have one with you anymore. I bet you haven’t given a second thought to how he is doing after getting shot in the back?”

  Seemingly unaffected by what Bruno had told her, Tori shook her head. “I never wanted him in the first damn place but I gave birth to him and raised him the best I could and when I left I never thought of him again.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

  “Heartless bitch,” I muttered to myself. Instantly regretting spending a buck-fifty on a packet of chocolate for the woman.

  Bruno found composure and kept a stoic seriousness through Tori’s heartless explanation. Bruno had always felt Jax was the son he could never hope to claim as his own. Everybody knew it. Now we find he was his son. How long had Bruno known?

  Making my way back to the table, I heard Bruno repeat, “Why the fuck did you never tell me?”

  Well, there was my answer. I stood at the side of the table, placing the bag of chocolate in front of the bitch and crossing my arms.

  She assumed a rela
xed position and without acknowledging me, she reached for the bag, opened it up and started munching.

  Uncomfortable seconds ticked by until a smile pulled on Tori’s face.

  Bruno’s biceps contracted and relaxed as the man clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly under the desk.

  “Alright, De Luca.” She grinned, “You wanted to know my story with the cartel, well here it is. Years ago, when Jax chose to join the Devils, I decided to go back and work full time for my uncle. Jax was old enough by that time to make his own decisions and I knew you’d take care of the boy.” She paused, “But,” she added, “He made a fatal mistake with the job with the cartel. I told him my uncle was going to come after the Devils and wipe them off the map…”

  A guard appeared at my right and placed a hand on my shoulder. “You either sit down, or you I’ll show you the door, sir,” he said.

  Reluctantly, I took a seat again. I hadn’t even realized I was still standing in a stunned shock

  Viper looked around our table, remembering that their conversation had nosy eyes and ears watching and listening from all around. Then, in a confidential whisper told Bruno, “Your MC should have just done the deal and been done with it. But the cartel had plans to use the Devils for a very long time. Once they had done the deal, their connection would have been established and your MC would have been the cartels bitches until the cartel didn’t need them anymore. But after what went down that night, the cartel won’t wait, they will hit you hard and fast.”

  Bruno barely held back his frustration. “I won’t let anything happen to my club. And facing the cartel is better than working with you. You can’t be trusted.” He rose to his feet towering above the petite Tori. “You’ll do anything to turn a buck. How can you have no thoughts of your own son, shot and on death’s door? You’re sick in the head!” Bruno paused and sat down as a guard passed, regarding us.