I smiled then grabbed her arm. I wasn’t gentle. She gave me a shocked look as I dragged her toward the door of Bull’s office. She struggled and cried out. “What are you doing?”
“I’m taking out the trash. I don’t know where you get off thinking you can seduce me, but you can’t. I love Jessica and would never cheat on her with you or anyone else.”
She shrieked as I continued to pull her behind me into the common room. The room got silent as everyone saw us. The guys looked shocked, and the ladies pissed. I shoved her toward Payne.
“Get this whore out of here. She’s not going to see Jessica again. I want her gone before Jess comes out here.” Payne nodded and took a screaming Melody to the door. After he left, I looked around me.
Bull spoke up, “What in the hell is going on, Ajax? You let that woman practically maul you and then you go to my office. Now you bring her out here half undressed and tell Payne to throw her out. What the fuck?” Bull was almost yelling. I held up my hands. I didn’t want Jessica to hear him. I needed to be the one to tell her what happened.
“I did it to see how far she’d go, and she was willing to go all the way. That bitch and her mother made Jessica’s life hell. They’re the reason she had such a hard time believing I wanted her. She wouldn’t go into details, but from what Melody just said, I’d bet money that any guy interested in Jessica that whore seduced.”
My brothers swore and the ladies muttered. Payne came ambling back inside. He whistled. “That is, one pissed-off woman. So, tell me what I missed.”
“Fill him in, will you? I need to go get Jessica from my room and tell her what she missed. I don’t want this to spoil my surprise.” They all grinned. I hurried to my room. As I opened the unlocked door, the silence inside struck me. The lights were out. I flipped them on and looked around my room and then the bathroom. She wasn’t here! Heart pounding, I ran back to the common room. They looked at me in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” Rebel asked. He was standing with his arm around Madisen.
“She isn’t in my room. Are you sure no one saw her when I was dealing with that bitch, Melody?” I had a sick feeling in my stomach—one that said Jessica had witnessed her stepsister’s performance and me going off with her. If she did, she’d be thinking the worst. And who could blame her? I prayed I was wrong.
Outlaw got up from the table he was sitting at. “Let me check the tapes. Why don’t you check outside? Maybe she went out the back for some reason.” I went for the door. Most of my brothers went with me. Those who didn’t said they’d check the rest of the clubhouse.
I made it as far as the side parking lot and stopped. Her car was gone. Shit! I turned around and went back inside.
“Her car is gone. Damn it!” Outlaw came out shaking his head. “What did you see?” I asked, knowing his answer.
“She came up the hall and stopped. She saw the whole thing with her stepsister, including you going off with her. Jesus, man, her face. I don’t know if I ever saw anyone look that devastated before. She went back to your room and then out the back door. Let’s go ask Tate what she said. He let her leave. I saw it on the other camera.” I ran out the door and down to the gate.
Tate stood up when he saw me coming. “What happened?”
“You let Jessica leave! Why didn’t you stop her?” I yelled.
He reared back from me. “She said she forgot something at the apartment. Something for you. She said it wouldn’t take long.”
“Son of a bitch! I need to go find her,” I said to no one in particular. I headed toward my bike.
Bull stopped me. “Calm down. You can’t go riding your bike in the state you’re in. Rebel, Slash, and Joker go with him. One of you needs to drive him in his truck. We’ll get Outlaw to see if he can find anything else on the cameras around town like he did before. Go find our woman, brother.” I merely nodded. I couldn’t say anything around the lump in my throat.
Rebel was the one to drive me. All the way to town he tried to reassure me we’d find her, and I could explain. All of them had witnessed me throwing Melody’s ass out. I didn’t even let the truck come to a stop before bailing out and running to her apartment. My hands shook as I inserted the key in the lock. I didn’t bother to knock or call out.
Opening the door, I found it as empty and dark as my room. I almost fell to the floor. Walking down the hall to her bedroom, I steeled myself for what I would find. It looked like a whirlwind had come ripping through it–drawers were open, clothes spilled out. The closet was open with half her clothes missing. I sank down on the bed. I didn’t know what to do.
A hand on my shoulder had me looking up. Rebel was standing there with a look of pity on his face. He handed me something. Looking down, I saw it was the key to my room at the clubhouse and her phone.
“Where did you find these?”
“On the kitchen table. Let’s get out of here and back to the others. Outlaw can find her.”
“What if he can’t? What if she’s gone for good? What will I do, Reb? She’s my life now. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and because I had to find out what that bitch had done to her, I fucked that up. I should have gone and gotten Jessica and both of us confronted her.”
“You can’t think like that, Ajax. If you do, you’ll drive yourself insane. Let’s get back. That’s all we can do for now.” I slowly stood up and followed him out. Joker and Slash were waiting by the bikes and my truck. Slash gestured to me from across the parking lot. I looked over and saw he was pointing at her car. I ran over to it. The engine was barely warm. Where had she gone that she hadn’t taken her car? Questions swam around in my head.
“Come on, brother,” Rebel said. I followed him back to the truck in a haze. It was him pulling me out of the truck and into the clubhouse that finally roused me a little. Bull grabbed me and took me to Outlaw’s room. He shut the door behind us.
“What did you find, Outlaw?” he asked.
“She gave us the slip.”
“What do you mean, she gave us the slip?” I growled.