Sanctum: A Motorcycle Club Romance Novel (6 page)

“Don’t…”
said Jase. The
word fell out of his mouth before he even realized it was in his brain.

“She
’
s
my daughter, Jase. My only child. I can’t risk anything happening to her,
despite our differences,
”
said
Henry. He sighed and wrapped his fingers together on the table. He leaned
forward towards Jase.
“
Maggie needs a
detail on her every minute until I am confident she hasn’t been tailed here.
Until we know more about these guys, I have to assume they
’
re
big and bad enough to have followed her out of town.
”

Jase closed his eyes.
“
Henry,
please
…”

“
Beck is not the soldier
he used to be. His eyes are getting worse. I need my best soldier on her, Jase.
And you are my best soldier.
”

“
Fuck that. What about
Will? Or Ghost?
”

Henry shook his head.
“
Will
is not a better soldier than you. A better spy, maybe. And Will is also not
going to intimidate anybody from a distance.
”
Henry
made a gesture from Jase
’
s
legs to his head, as if to say
you
’
re
a giant, kid, you know that!
 “
Ghost
is too fresh to the club for me to let him close to Maggie.
”

Jase pushed to his feet, angry and feeling
trapped.
“
Do you really understand
what it is you
’
re asking of me?
”

“I
’
m
not trying to put you in a world of pain, son, but my back is against the wall.
You
’
re the best man I’ve
got. She
’
s my only child. I
’
m
supposed to change my tactical plans based on the fact that you two fell in
love once?
”
Now Henry stood up to
meet his face.
“
If I put your
feelings, or hers, ahead of my battle instincts, then I might lose her for
good. Is that what you
’
re
asking me to do, Jase?
”

Jase froze, quiet. Of course, rational
Jase would never ask Henry to do anything like that. He trusted Henry with his
life. But rational Jase was currently losing the fight to emotional Jase, and
he couldn’t get his pounding heart to slow down at the thought of having to
spend entire days around the knife of a woman that had gutted him. He wanted to
give Henry the right answer, the answer he deserved, but it wouldn’t come out.
He stared at the floor in shame and shook his head. It was all he could do.

“
Trust that if I had
another option that worked this well, I would take it,
”
said Henry as he put a big hand on Jase
’
s
shoulder. Jase couldn’t return it, couldn’t look up to meet Henry
’
s
eyes. He was in too much pain, and he didn’t want Henry to see it.

“
I need you to be with
Maggie and keep an eye on her wherever she goes. Drake is with her right now,
setting her up with a temporary place to stay. I’ll give you the address and
have you go relieve him when you
’
re
ready. I’ll check in with you periodically to get updates, and let you know how
the intel search is going,
”
said
Henry.

Jase swallowed against a tight throat.
“
I
can be ready in a half-hour.
”

“
Thank you, son. I have
every ounce of trust in you. I know you will protect my little girl better than
anyone else in this MC could.
”

For whatever reason, that pierced Jase
’
s
heart as hard as the favor itself had. There was a whirlwind of emotions flying
around Jase
’
s mind as he
contemplated why. Shouldn’t he have every reason in the world to gladly see
Maggie get some comeuppance? Where was that hungry bear-heart that had made him
the most trusted young soldier the MC had in five counties? She was just a
woman, and he had had dozens of them. She was just another woman.

But that was a lie, and Jase knew it.

~ FOUR ~

Maggie took one more wandering tour around
the small house Drake had
“
acquired
”
from his realtor friend. It had the same kind of
Nuclear Age charm that the entire town of LeBeau held. It wasn’t the prettiest
property, but it had character. It was clean, not far from the clubhouse, and
the small bedrooms felt more cozy than confining. The sliding backdoor opened
into a modest yard ringed by giant, leafy trees and a six-foot privacy fence.
Had she actually been house-hunting, Maggie probably would have put this place
in her top five.

As far as Maggie could tell, Drake
’
s
connections with the realtor gave him and the MC access to rent a place for
straight cash as long as they needed it. Nothing was written down or signed, of
course. After their chat, Drake and the realtor in the fine black suit had gone
outside, and the realtor threw the
“
For
Sale
”
sign from the yard into the back of his big shiny
Escalade. Drake came back inside with the keys for her and the promise that it
was hers and paid for until she decided to move. He carried in the single box
of possessions she had managed to get out of Eagleton before she fled and put
it on the white Formica counter.

“
The old lady who used to
live here died about four months ago,
”
said
Drake, even though she hadn’t asked.
“
But
her kids took their sweet-ass time getting her shit out of here, so it
’
s
only been on the market a few weeks.
”

“
She took care of the
place, at least,
”
said
Maggie. She distantly wiped her hand across the sill of the kitchen window.
“
Did
they leave a bed?
”

“
A what?
”
said Drake. He plucked away at the keypad on his phone
screen.

“A bed…”
said Maggie.
“
You
know, where people sleep and stuff.
”

Drake looked up at her with a scrunched
face. He wandered back to the bedroom without saying a word, then immediately
came back muttering curses under his breath
—
mostly
to himself, it sounded like. He walked right past the kitchen and into the
front yard, his phone already up against his ear and calling someone to solve
this new problem.

Maggie let out a low chuckle at him and
shook her head. He was a weird guy, but at least he
’
d
been mostly behaving himself since they left the clubhouse. That was not to say
he hadn’t made her uncomfortable, though. On the car ride over, Drake didn’t
hesitate to ask her why Jase had thrown her beer at the wall when he walked in.

“
Jase and I
…
go back,
”
she
had said. The anger in his eyes still simmered in her memory, rooted, refusing
to budge.
“
We have history.
”

“
What, did you break his
heart or something?
”

“
Why do you say that?
”
she asked, surprised.

Drake shrugged without moving his eyesight
from the road.
“I can’t
really think of any other thing that Jase would still be pissed about after all
these years. He’s a fighter, not a grudge-holder. He fixes his problems fast.
You musta done something deep. I’ve never seen him like that
—
well,
not outside of a legitimate fist-fight, anyway.
”

Maggie let the conversation fall into
silence. When they pulled up to the house, the realtor was already waiting in
his shiny black SUV, and Maggie was thankful to give the subject a chance to be
forgotten entirely.  The rest of the time had been spent nailing down the
details of her rental, and now she waited while Drake tried to find her an
actual place to sleep. The house was adorable, but there was no way the carpet
was soft enough for 40 winks.

“
Alright, alright! I’ll
owe you, Joey, just get this done for me, pronto!
”
Drake
ended whatever call he was on as he walked back through the open front door.
“
Sorry
about that, darlin
’
. I’ve
got a guy on the way with a few pieces. They may not be choice
…
.
Fuck, they might not even match
….”

“It
’
s
last minute,
”
said Maggie for him with
a wave of her hand.
“
I understand. As
long as I have a bed to sleep on that preferably hasn’t been died in, I’ll be
settled.
”

“We’ll
get you set up. It
’
s
gonna take about an hour or so, though.
”

Fuck
, thought Maggie. She was
over this day, through and through. She had faced her father, and practically
bent at the knee to him; she had faced Jase and his anger, even if just for a
moment. Maggie was exhausted, but it wasn’t necessarily just sleep that would
fix her. She really needed some time to step outside of the darkness for a
little while. Since sleep was off the table for the time being, she decided on
a new course of action.

“
I really need a drink,
”
said
Maggie.

Drake leaned on the counter and lit up a
cigarette.
“
There
’
s
a Sev just up the street, we could head over and grab something.
”

“
No, I need to get out. I
just feel
…
cooped,
”
said Maggie. She wanted to say
trapped
,
but she didn’t want to give this new guy the wrong impression. She was going to
need allies in the MC to survive this. Drake offered his box of smokes to her
and she pulled one out slowly.
“
Is
the roadhouse still open? The one with the neon-pink cowgirl sign?
”

Drake
’
s
silver lighter flipped open in front of her face.
“
Hot
Tamales? Yeah, of course they
’
re
open.
”

“
I think I
’
m
gonna head over and grab a drink there.
” 

Maggie took a long first exhale of smoke.
She expected him to be more resistant to her plan, but he was already half on
his phone again, texting someone.
“
Okay
girl. Well, look, if I head out to Tamales with you, I will almost certainly
lose track of time, and I don’t trust Joey as far as I can throw him. He won’t
wait for us if he gets here and we ain’t here.
”

“
I
don’t
mind going on my own.
”
In
fact, I prefer it.

“
That
’
s
fine,
”
said
Drake.
“
I
can wait here for Joey. I’ve been relieved of duty anyhow.
”
He looked up with a grin.

Before she could ask him what that was
supposed to mean, Drake
’
s
phone erupted in the light and sound of an incoming call. He accepted it and
immediately began berating whoever was on the other end as he walked off out
the front door and into the yard.

Maggie figured this was as good a chance
as any. Leaving Drake in a corner of the yard hollering into his phone, she
climbed in her car and configured her phone GPS to find Hot Tamales. She was
tired, it was dark, and she wasn’t sure she could find her way even through
familiar territory.

Construction on Spruce Avenue sent Maggie
on a GPS-guided detour through a relatively quiet neighborhood of the town.
Houses sat dark and soft, nestled in the early night. It was almost peaceful
until she heard the sound of a motorcycle a few cars behind her coming up loud
as a lion
’
s roar through her
open windows.  It was moving fast by the sounds of it, almost as if she were a
gazelle it was chasing.

Relieved of duty
,
she thought to herself, and rolled her eyes.
That
’
s
what Drake had meant. My next
“escort”
has
arrived.
She was so overcome with the anxiety of
the day that she hadn’t realized how fully her father would react to her
request for help. She was in danger, so of course he wasn’t going to let her
out of sight of the MC.

She pulled up to a stoplight and seethed
to herself. Knowing she had no choice but to accept this provision didn’t do
very much to lessen the weight of it on her shoulders; that feeling of being
treated like a child; of being powerless against the whims of powerful men. She
couldn’t get it to sit right in her stomach.

When Maggie finally got back on-route to
the roadhouse, she made a promise to herself that she would not take out her
aggression on whoever was unlucky enough to have been given
“
first
watch
”
by her father. She had likely never met him and none
of this was his fault. She would swallow the fact that she had a babysitter for
the time being.

Hot Tamales was right where Maggie had
left it, so to speak. The roadhouse had been built as one of the first
structures connecting LeBeau with the nearby town of Howlett, and had for
decades been a popular destination for bikers, truckers, and other professional
nomads and adventurers. The long flat building sprawled across what had once
been a verdant meadow tucked up against the foothills. While most of the meadow
was now under the building or the huge gravel parking lot, tufts of wildflowers
still bloomed in the spaces surrounding the dive. The hot pink outline of a
sexy cowgirl riding a bull had been the roadhouse
’
s
calling card since Maggie could remember, and the sign buzzed in the dark night
as she pulled up and parked her car. A few other cars were pulling in from the
opposite side of the lot, coming from the direction of Howlett. She heard some
of the cars behind her pass by with a
whoosh
, continuing down the
highway without pausing. The motorcycle driver was clearly breaking, however,
and pulling into the Tamales lot behind her. She sighed to herself. Part of her
had still been hoping it was a coincidence.

Maggie waited and saw the biker pass by in
the dark and park out of view. She gave herself a quick check in the visor
mirror. She was not terribly pleased with the tired, vaguely dusty reflection
that stared back at her but a bit of lipstick she found in the console seemed
to brighten her up enough. By the time she opened her door and hopped out of
the SUV, a huge dark figure was already leaning against the end of her car,
waiting.

She jumped a little.
“Oh,
hi,”
she said as soon as she saw the MC cut.
Backlit from the bright pink glow of the sign, she couldn’t make him out.
“I
’
m
Maggie. I guess you
’
re my bodyguard.”

“
Yeah, no shit.
”
It was a familiar voice from the dark. The man put a
cigarette to his lips and lit it, his familiar silhouette framed behind the
flame of the lighter.

Maggie
’
s
heart stopped. She felt a jolt run up her spine and down her legs, so strong
she thought she might take a tumble right there in the lot of Hot Tamales. Her
left hand instinctively shot out and grasped the SUV.  There was no recovering
composure after that.

“Jumpy?”
said Jase. There
was nothing playful in his voice, though. It was all brutish and bitter.