An Outlaw Monster (Back Down Devil MC #10)(25)

Jasper shook his head. “Meaning it’s usually a body part.”

**

All I wanted was to get to Harlee. Before that, I had to see what the hell the O’Nuall family sent the MC.

The box was on a pool table and we all waited for Trev to give the orders.

Cade had done something to it to make sure it wasn’t a bomb. He had a laptop and something touching it, running tests. For as big and strong as he was, Cade could be a geek sometimes. His knowledge of money and tech stuff really helped the MC out a lot. Shit, he was going to have a heart attack when he found out we were on the hook for all those guns Ripper got from the O’Nuall family.

“We’re solid?” Trev asked.

“Yeah,” Cade said. “It could still be some kind of poisonous powder or something though.”

“Let me open it,” I said. I pushed forward.

“You’ve done enough today,” Duke said, staring at me. “You took a beating.”

“I won the fight though.”

Duke and I hadn’t spoken a word since our little rough up when Harlee came to the clubhouse.

Duke put his massive paw on the box. “I’ve been through this before. You can’t imagine the shit in boxes. Goddamn IED’s buried underground. Driving down a road, never knowing what was going to happen. Or the convoy in front of you going up in flames because they hit it before you did.”

“Open it up, Duke,” Trev said.

I nodded to him.

Duke peeled the box open and then jumped back. “Ah, f*ck.”

“What’s in it?” Cash asked.

I leaned over the box and quickly turned my head. “Shit.”

It was a severed head.

Luckily it wasn’t one of our own.

It was a member of Night Soul MC though. It was Mays. A table member for the club.

I looked at Trev and saw the concern on his face.

“They didn’t appreciate being pushed around,” I said. “So they went after Night Soul.”

“You don’t just call and f*ck with them,” Jasper said.

“We’re next,” Duke said. “This is a friendly warning.”

“It’s going to set Rocco off,” Kye said.

“Everyone shut up,” Trev said. “Package that up and get it out of here. Jasper, I want you in contact with Night Soul and tell them we have their brother’s head. Find out if they have the rest of the body. I want full guard on the clubhouse and lot. We keep track of each of us and our families.”

“Prez, what do you want me to do with Harlee?” I asked.

“You go to your place still,” Trev said. “Keep everything the same. Prospects will survey the town. We’re not going to lock this place down and show fear. This club doesn't operate on fear. Everything Night Soul has tried to do has failed. They can either retreat or push forward and keep failing. In this clubhouse, in this goddamn MC, nobody is retreating and nobody is f*cking failing.”

Everyone gave a nod and then got to work.

Trev grabbed for me. “Trent, I have to ask a tough question.”

“What?”

“What use is Harlee right now? They think she’s dead. We’ve used her to push back against Night Soul. There’s no other use for her.”

I felt the anger building again. “Yeah. Right.”

“We’ll keep her for another day or so, okay? Focus on the O’Nuall and the Night Soul problems right now. But she’s got to go.”

I nodded.

Trev was right.

Harlee had to go.

The problem… I didn’t want her to go.

**

I got to the apartment and found Harlee on the couch, passed out. The remote dangled off the edge of the coffee table. She was watching some dumb ass chick flick. Some dude stood in the doorway to a house, holding flowers, giving the big speech to get back into some chick’s panties.

Half a blanket was on Harlee so I grabbed it and covered her up. I needed to clean myself up and then I’d get her into bed. I still needed to be on the couch and keep things under guard for a while. She really had no idea what was going on around her and us. Truthfully, she should have been gone. Maybe not dead, but being anywhere near the MC was a risk.

I touched her hair and she let out a little groaning sound. She kicked her feet and they popped out from the bottom of the blanket. I noticed her toenails were sort of painted a red color. They were worn and chipped, obviously she had done it a while ago. Something about it all struck me. The thought of her in my apartment, in the shower, naked. That first night when she opened the door to ask for a towel. Those stares she kept giving me, damn near begging me to kiss her.

Gritting my teeth I went to the bedroom and stripped down to just my jeans. My leather cut was draped on the bed. My t-shirt in the garbage can. It was covered in a mix of my blood and Danny’s blood.

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and turned on the water. I washed my hands clean of the day, the fight, the night, everything. I collected water into my hands and splashed it on my face. It helped to clean up some of the blood but not all. I’d have a couple lingering cuts and bruises, but at least I got out of that mess alive. The f*cking Irish didn’t play games. It took guts for Rocco to call them, but he was paying his own price for that. It took years of trust building to get the O’Nuall family to take our call. There was a deep respect between us, even if Ripper had tried to ruin it.