“Since when did you get so bossy?” he asked as he took a bite and grinned at me.
“Since I met a stubborn ass man, who thinks he can tell me what to do but not vice versa. Don’t argue or you won’t get any of the pie I made earlier.” His eyes lit up. My man loved his pies. He didn’t care what kind, just as long as it was pie.
By the time we finished and got back to the clubhouse, it was full again. Everyone looked better after getting the soot and dirt off them. Bull was waiting. “I talked to Smoke and he’s already searching, Outlaw. Terror said if we need them, to call. I spoke to Scarelli. He’s putting in a call to the police chief in Sparta. He’ll let me know as soon as he hears something. I know we're all tired. I won’t keep you all night, but I do want to talk to all the men. That includes you guys from the Marauders and Souls. Prospects, you need to get back outside and I want you walking the perimeter of the walls. Ladies, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go have church.”
None of us argued. We watched them head to their meeting room as the prospects went outside. Ilara and the other ladies came to sit by me. I held out my hands and Jocelyn handed me Corinne. I needed to cuddle someone. We didn’t say anything. We just gave silent support to each other and waited to see if they would come out with any new information or insight. My gut was telling me it was too easy. No way would he have killed himself. I thought he was too selfish to do it.
Outlaw:
As we sat in church, I still couldn’t get over how the damn afternoon had gone. I never imagined Wade Wagner would be crazy enough to blow up the house he was in. Of course, that was assuming he’d been in the house. There was a slim chance he’d found another way out.
“Okay, let’s run through this again. From the time we last heard him yelling from inside the house to the time of the explosion, how long do you estimate that was?” Bull asked those of us who’d been with him, which was me, Bear, Payne, Ajax, Player, Demon, Slash, Rebel, and Ace. Mitch and Alex had come along to drive the van. We needed it to transport Wade back to the compound if we found him.
“Honestly, I’d say five to seven minutes, Pres,” Payne answered. Bull looked at the rest of us. We were all nodding our heads in agreement.
“And we had someone at every door and window on the first floor plus ones out at the road, keeping a watch. Right?” Bull added. Again, no one disagreed. We’d had the prospects standing out on the road, while we were close to the house. Luckily, our bikes and the van were far enough away that they hadn’t been blown up.
“Okay, we can’t be sure—” Bull was cut off by screaming from the common room and then we heard the sound of two gunshots, one right after the other. All of us jumped to our feet, pulled out our guns, and ran out to the common room.
We found the women and babies huddled together. They were pale and shaking. On the floor, close to the front door, was a body. The body was moaning and moving a little. Standing between the body and the front door was Mitch. He was holding a gun, and he looked like he was in shock.
Several of us ran over to the body. I went with Bear and the other men to check that the women and kids were alright. Tarin threw herself in my arms. We spent a precious minute or so hugging and kissing them. “Jesus Christ, are you alright, Jewel?” I whispered into her ear.
She nodded her head. “I’m fine, just startled and a little freaked out. He came out of nowhere.”
I looked over at the guy on the floor.
Payne shouted, “Oh you need to see this. Outlaw, Bear, come here.”
“Babe, stay here. I’ll be back.” I left her and went over to look at the body. I recognized the face from the photos we’d found of him. It was Wade Wagner. His face was scrunched up in a grimace of pain. He was holding his left shoulder with one hand and his stomach with the other. Blood was oozing through his fingers. On the floor next to him was a handgun. Payne kicked it out of his reach. I leaned down to look at him.
“Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. We were just talking about you, Wagner.”
He looked at me through pain-filled eyes and muttered, “Fuck you.”
I laughed. Then I looked up at Mitch. A couple of guys had gone to him. He looked a little shaken but otherwise okay.
“What the hell happened here, Mitch?” Rebel asked his brother-in-law.
“I-I shot him,” Mitch said.
“Yeah, we see that. How did he get in here and how did you see him or know he was in here?” Bull asked.
“I saw someone sneaking into the clubhouse. I knew the others were making rounds, so I ran over to see who it was. At first, I thought one of you might have come out to see what we were doing. By the time I got close enough to see it wasn’t, he was through the door. I knew I didn’t have time to get help, so I snuck in the door behind him. He had out his gun and was talking. I called out, and he swung around and I shot him.”
“Damn, that was some good shooting too. Did you know it was Wagner when you shot him?” Tank asked. Mitch shook his head no.
Wagner was on the floor, crying out in pain. “Help me. Goddamn it, help me, you bastards!”
“Why the hell would we help you? You came in here after my woman, didn’t you?” I sneered at him. Tarin came over and wrapped herself in my arms.
He saw her and he sneered at her. “I should have just shot you instead of saying anything. You don’t deserve to live. Merrill should be the one who's here, not you.”
“What the hell are you smoking, you crazy fucker? Merrill Mercer was a damn pedophile. He’s lucky he’s dead. Otherwise, I'd be ending his miserable life right now,” Bear growled.
“Oh, you're her real father, a dirty biker. I knew Carol was trash, but even I never thought she’d stoop to sleeping with a biker. When I heard she died and then Tarin had left, I wanted to know why. Imagine my disgust when I found out it was to find her real father! Merrill left those bitches his life savings, and she wasn’t even his!”
“What does it matter to you? You were his assistant. Obviously, you must like little kids too, if you have those pictures. She never did anything to you. Did you think he was going to leave his money to you?” I snarled. He wasn’t making a whole lot of sense. He acted like we’d killed his family.