Nolan by Lane Hart, D.B. West
Chapter Twelve
Nolan
I’m angry as fuck on the two-hour ride back to Myrtle Beach from Cape Cartwright. How dare she act pissed off at me? And sure, she apologized for siccing her attack dog on me, but not once did she bother to thank me for everything I sacrificed for her five years ago.
That’s all I’ve wanted is two words – Thank you. Is that too much to ask for?
A fucking explanation as to why she didn’t bother visiting me or writing would be great too, but I don’t think I want to hear those words come out of her mouth.
She didn’t care about me enough to stick around while I was in prison. That’s what this comes down to.
What I want to do right now more than anything is to drink myself into a stupor and maybe find a warm body to lose myself in for the rest of the night.
Instead, Abel and Hugo are waiting for me outside of the MC’s clubhouse when I back my bike into a spot.
“What’s up?” I ask them as soon as I cut the engine on my Harley. They’re both smoking like freight trains, puffing down their cigarettes like they’re about to head out and it’s going to be a long ride.
“Roman’s looking for you.”
“Yeah? I’m not surprised,” I mutter, climbing off my bike, my fists clenched with the urge to hit something, anything. Taking all that anger into the bar and laying out our president wouldn’t be smart, though. Roman would give as good as he gets, and the former Marine may knock what little brains I have left out of my head.
“Where the hell have you been anyway? We’ve been calling you to give you a warning to lay low,” Abel says.
“I went to confront Rita,” I admit to them.
“Why the fuck would you want to go see that ungrateful bitch?” Hugo asks, making me wince at the insult. The old Rita I thought I knew and practically lived with for a few weeks wasn’t a bitch. She was sweet and self-conscious, just trying to be the best big sister she could be, taking care of her brother after they lost their parents so young.
“I wanted to know why she lied about us to that giant motherfucker,” I admit. “And maybe I thought she might finally show a little gratitude for me spending two years in a goddamn prison for her shithead brother.”
“I still can’t believe you took the fall for that kid,” Abel huffs. “She set you up, man.”
“She didn’t set me up,” I assure him. “She didn’t ask me to help him. That was my stupid ass decision. One I’m still paying for with monthly visits from my probation officer.” I take a deep breath trying to calm myself down before I go talk to Roman. The Myrtle Beach Savage Kings didn’t have to take the three of us nomads into their chapter three years ago when I needed to put down roots or get sent back to prison. One of us would’ve maybe been welcome, but three strangers in a new town where we didn’t know anyone was a huge risk – one Roman took to increase his numbers. I bet he’s regretting trusting us now that I’m somehow responsible for a beef with the giant of another MC.
“I just can’t understand why that bitch would lie about being married to you,” Hugo says.
“Either she’s crazy or desperate,” Abel agrees as he tosses his cigarette down to the pavement and stomps it out with the toe of his boot.
“Desperate?” I ask in confusion. Wait, I think Rita even said she was desperate… . “I was desperate, and your name was the first one I thought of.”
“Yeah, desperate to get the big fucker off her ass?” he offers. “Maybe he wanted to take her out and he wouldn’t take no for an answer until she lied and said she was married.”
“Even if that’s why she lied, she didn’t have to drag Nolan’s name into her shit,” Hugo mutters.
Abel shrugs and looks from him to me. “Unless you were the only name she could think of that might not get squashed under his boot like a fucking bug.”
“No. No fucking way!” I shout at him. “I’m not going to be her punching bag again. I’ve taken enough punishment for that woman without her thanking me even once!”
“True enough,” Abel agrees. “I didn’t say you should help her. I’m just trying to figure out where she’s coming from. If I were a woman, and someone was screwing with me that I didn’t want to fuck with, I would throw out the name of the toughest motherfucker I knew to get him off my back.”
Chuckling, Hugo says, “You think about being a woman often?”
“Fuck you. You know what I mean, right?” Abel asks me.
“Yeah, I think I do,” I agree just as Roman throws the front door open, drawing all of our attention to the man in charge.
“Get your ass in here, Nolan! I’d like to get home to my wife before midnight for once!”
“Yeah, sorry, prez,” I reply.
“Good fucking luck,” Hugo says under his breath.
“Been nice knowing you,” Abel adds. I flip them both off before following Roman inside. Instead of going to his office, he goes into the chapel, taking his seat at the head of the long wooden table with the bearded skull king logo carved in the center.
“Shut the door and sit down,” he orders.
I do as he asked, taking my seat on the far end of the table since us nomads were the last to join the MC, just before Leo patched in.
“You went to see her,” Roman starts off the conversation before my elbows even hit the table.
I don’t bother trying to deny it. “Yeah, I did.”
“Is she going to drag you down yet again somehow? Is she a threat to the rest of us, to the club?”
“She said she was sorry and that she would take care of it…” I trail off, now trying to replay every word she said while thinking about Abel’s angle. Is she scared of the bastard? If she weren’t, she would be stupid…
And thanks to Reece’s intel, I know she’s living alone, her baby brother hundreds of miles away at college in Florida. There’s no man in her life, but the big boy apparently wants to change that.
“Reece said that the Rebel Henchmen MC is providing security for the strip club she works at, didn’t he?”
Roman nods. “Yeah, that’s what he said.”
“Fuck,” I mutter, burying my face in my palms.
“What?” Roman asks.
“Nothing.”
Rita said she wasn’t going to quit working at the club for at least another year, most likely once her dipshit brother graduates college. Which means, if she wants to stay, she’s going to have to give the big bastard what he wants – her.
“The only way I can help you is if you fucking talk to me!” Roman shouts. “You and your nomad buddies keep all your personal shit to yourselves. And that’s perfectly fine with me, until your messes start to spill over into my MC.”
“I don’t know what the fuck to do,” I admit to him, finally lifting my face again.
“Well, what are your options? Be honest with me for once, and I’ll try and help you decide what will hopefully lead to the least amount of bloodshed for everyone involved.”
“I already know what I should do – stay the fuck out of it.”
“But you’re not going to do that, are you?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. Rolling it over and over in my head isn’t helping any, so I decide to lay it all out to him. “If you hadn’t married your wife and you both went your separate ways years ago after she basically abandoned you when you needed her the most, then she needed help, would you try and help her even if she didn’t directly ask you for help or…”
“Yes,” Roman says without a second of hesitation before I even finish the question.
“Even though getting involved might drag the entire MC into seven feet of bullshit with another MC?”
Sighing heavily, Roman asks, “Do you think she is in imminent danger? Yes or no?”
“Fuck if I know!” I shout in anger, and then I’m shaking my head. “Yeah, I think she lied to try and keep the giant off of her. She said she would handle it…”
“Meaning she would fuck him to keep her job at the sleezy strip club even though she doesn’t want to?” Roman guesses correctly. My jaw is clenched tight as I picture her being at his mercy, and I nod once.
“Well, fuck,” our president grumbles.
“That’s where I’m at,” I agree. “Fucked.”
“Since there could be blowback for the MC, we’ll have to tell the rest of the guys,” he says, making my head snap up to finally look him in the face again. “If they vote for a search and rescue mission, you going to handle the rest?”
“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion.
“Reece said she’s working two jobs because she needs the money to pay her brother’s way through college. If we put our necks on the line to bring her ass back here, are you going to help her with the finances until she finds another job?”
“She won’t leave Cape Cartwright,” I tell him. “And if she did, he might try and follow her.”
“That’s why the whole table needs to understand all of the consequences,” Roman explains. “But I already know they’re going to want to help.”
“Why would they risk everything for me?” I blurt out. “They don’t give a shit about us nomads.”
“You three stopped being nomads years ago. The second you put our patch on the back of your cuts, you became one of us. You, Hugo, and Abel have already risked everything when we avenged Tessa, then when we killed the bastards running the porn studio, and again when we all stood up to the police chief who tried to take us out because of his beef with the twins. This brotherhood works both ways. And if any man at this table refuses to help you now when you need it, then I’ll put in the transfer to ship them out of town myself.”
“You would really transfer a brother if they don’t agree to do this bullshit for me?” I say in disbelief. “What if it’s Winston? Or Verek?”
“I’ve known those two and Marcus longer than anyone else. They won’t vote no,” Roman replies.
“Guess we’ll see.”
“Yeah, I guess we will,” he agrees, his jaw ticking as if he’s not as confident as he claims. But I believe him. If Roman says he’ll do something, he will. I just didn’t think he would ever risk so much of the club for someone like me.
“Thank you,” I tell him sincerely. “I wish I didn’t give a shit about her…”
“Don’t apologize for loving someone. It’s not a weakness. It’s a strength. Knowing how to make sacrifices for someone else makes you a better man.”
“Even if they wouldn’t do the same for me?” I ask with a non-humorous chuckle as I try and covertly wipe the corner of my eye on my shirtsleeve.
“Especially if they wouldn’t do the same. That’s the difference between being a selfish man and a selfless King.”