Chas's Fervor: Insurgents Motorcycle Club (Insurgents MC Romance Book 3) (45 page)

With his foot, he pushed her and she landed on the couch. For a long while, he stared at her with daggers in his eyes. Fear looped around her nerves and muscles as she wondered when he was going to attack again. Ian was famous for playing intimidation games, and he always won. She’d forgotten how awful the wait was until he played his hand. She felt like a gazelle out in the brush, watching the lion before it pounced.

Before that night, Ian had never struck her. He’d verbally and emotionally assaulted her, but he never raised his hand against her. Her twisted life with him had turned a new leaf—a dangerous one.

When he handed her the phone, she flinched.

In a steely voice, he said, “You’re going to call him and tell him to come up here to pick you up because we had a fight and I took off. Convince him it’s over between us.”

Dampness glistened on her eyelashes as she looked up at him, her heart thumping so hard she was afraid it would burst. “Why am I doing this? I thought we were going to Chicago.”

“We are, but not before I take the trash out. You see,
sweetheart
, I have to clean up the mess you made. Fucking the asshole was stupid, getting pregnant by him was…well, it was simply moronic. You outdid yourself on being a dumbass. As usual, I have to fix everything. I’ll fix the biker, then we’ll deal with the bastard you’ve got in you when we get back home. Now, make the call. I’m not going to tell you again.”

Panic seized her nerves, making them pop and tweak as though jolts of electricity were zapping them. She couldn’t set Chas up.

“If you don’t do it now, I’ll have to kick the brat out of you.” Ian’s hard, cold voice sent shivers down her spine.

She dialed Chas’s number with trembling fingers.

Chas picked up on the third ring. “What do you want?”

Her stomach fluttered at the sound of his voice, but the iciness of it stabbed her heart. “How’ve you been?” she asked.

“Fine. Great, actually.” His voice was hard, cold. Addie wasn’t surprised—she knew she’d hurt him very much.

“That’s good. I’m glad to hear it.” She chewed her lower lip. Ian waved his hand about, gesturing her to speed up the chit chat and get to the point. “Ian and I are finished. We had a big fight and he left.”

“And this is supposed to mean something to me?”

“I’m sorry, Chas, for everything. I wish I could undo all of it, but I can’t. Sometimes, the only options we have are the ones that hurt the most but are the
safest
for the ones we love, you know?”

Silence. If Addie didn’t hear him breathing, she’d have thought he hung up on her. “Did you hear what I said?”

“I heard you. Are you trying to tell me you didn’t have a choice?”

“Not a good one.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“Indirectly.” Ian punched her arm and mouthed, “Get him here.”

Addie said, “Chas, can you hold for a sec?”

She covered the phone and hissed at Ian, “He doesn’t trust me at all, so I can’t just tell him to come here. I know how to handle this. And fucking don’t hit me again or I’ll slam down the phone. Move away from me. You’re making me nervous, and he’ll definitely pick up on that.”

Ian threw her a dirty look and sat on the chair opposite the couch. “Don’t do anything stupid. You got that?”

Ignoring his question, she placed the phone back to her ear. “You still there?”

“Yeah. He’s with you, isn’t he?”

“What do you think?”

“Addie, I need you to tell me the truth. Do you wanna be with him?”

“No.”

A long pause. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

She gasped as her stomach hardened, and she was at a loss for words.

“Addie? Talk to me.”

“I was going to.”

“When?”

“Of course, it was last week.”

“He’s listening to everything you say, right?”

“Of course.”

“Are you telling me you were gonna tell me the night I came over and found you two together?”

“Sure, you understand.”

“Where are you?” A bit of tenderness laced his voice, replacing the hard edge it had earlier in their conversation.

“I want you to come here. He left me all alone, and I’m stranded. I need to talk with you. I’m at the cabin. You know, my parents’ cabin.” Her heart ached when she thought about her parents; hatred for the man responsible for their deaths pumped through her veins.

“He wants me to come up there, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Will you come?”

“Yeah, I’ll come. I know the score. When?”

“Can you come tomorrow afternoon?”

“I’ll be there tomorrow at three o’clock. Tell him I believed everything you said.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Oh, Chas? Thanks.”

The phone clicked without him saying goodbye. Addie knew he was angry and hurt, but he was still willing to help her so he must still have some feelings for her. She hoped everything would turn out as she wanted it to.

“Good girl. When’s your Romeo coming to save you?”

“He said around three o’clock.”

“Do you think he’ll show?” Ian walked over to her. “What were you talking about with him? Don’t lie. I don’t think you want to be punished.”

“He knows about the baby. I don’t know how, but he does. He was asking me about it. That’s all.”

A cruel smile curled Ian’s lips. “Excellent. He’ll be here for sure, and I’ll be ready for him.”

“What does that mean?”

Ian took out his briefcase and began to assemble his sniper rifle. Smiling at Addie, he says, “Before he knocks on the door, one bullet will take him out. I’ll be waiting for him. You see, my dear, the window of opportunity is when you strike. It’s when your target least expects it.”

As Addie covered her mouth, stifling her cries, Ian stared at her—a cold gleam in his eyes.

B
y the next
morning, the storm had stopped and the sun had come out to play, its reflection blinding as it bounced off the snow. A white blanket covered the whole town, and the frosty air invigorated Chas as he pulled up in front of the courthouse. The hearing for modifying the child custody order was set at nine o’clock. He was supposed to meet his attorney fifteen minutes before to go over some last-minute details.

As he waited on the wood bench in the courthouse’s hallway, Chas’s mind drifted to Addie. He’d suspected all along that Ian had threatened her in order to have her go with him. It pissed Chas off that Addie didn’t trust him or his club enough to know they would’ve dealt with the fucker. She didn’t have to do it alone. Once he dealt with Ian, Chas and Addie would have to have a long talk.

“Hello, Chas. Sorry I’m a bit late. The roads are terrible,” a well-dressed man said as he scurried down the hall, his voice echoing.

“Hey,” Chas greeted his attorney. “You gonna win this for me, right? I can’t lose Jack, and I don’t want my ex having him anymore.”

“I know,” the attorney answered as he rummaged through a thick file. “Let’s go inside the courtroom and go over a few things.”

Before Chas followed his lawyer, he heard footsteps reverberating on the waxed floor. He turned his head sideways and saw Brianna hanging on the arm of a guy who had his pants down low so his ass crack was visible to people who didn’t want to see it. Chas snorted and walked into the courtroom.

An hour later, Chas came out smiling.
Fuck yeah.
Jack is gonna live with me full-time.
His heart swelled when he replayed the judge’s words in his mind. Chas received full custody and Brianna had visitation every other weekend.
Fuck yeah!
Now all I have left to do is take care of the fucker who stole my woman, and everything will be sweet.

Brianna rushed over to Chas, anger disfiguring her face. Her dark wine lipstick made her lips look like a gash against her fuming face. “You fucking asshole. You took away my livelihood. Just wait and see. You think you won? Wait until
he
lives with you all the time. You’ll find out. Jerk,” she spat, her finger pointed in his face.

Chas gripped her arm tightly, his knuckles whitening. “Don’t
ever
point your finger at me again. And if I hear you’ve been verbally or emotionally abusing my son, I can promise you I’ll make sure you’re pushing up your favorite flowers from six feet under. And you know I never break a promise.”

Brianna jerked her arm out of Chas’s grip. “I’m so done with this shit. I don’t want Jack. You can take him and your fat slut and live happily ever after, for all I care. I have a real man, and we’re headed down south to Durango to start a new life. I can’t wait to get the fuck outta here.”

“That makes two of us. I can’t wait for your ass to get outta here, either. Good riddance.” Chas smiled smugly at her.

“You always were a jerk!”

“Whatever.” Chas watched her teeter off in her high heels, holding her new man’s hand as his pants fell further down his ass. He laughed as he and his attorney walked down the hall.

Outside, he waved at his lawyer as Chas slid into the driver’s seat of his SUV. He’d head over to his parents’ house to tell them and Jack the good news. Since Jack’s school called a snow day, he’d eat lunch and play a video game with him before heading up to Addie’s cabin.

*     *     *

Chas hid in
the shadows of the snow-covered evergreens. Since he was a native to the area, he knew the trails like the back of his hand. He left his SUV down the mountain about a quarter of a mile and hiked in. Chas wanted to see what Ian was up to—he didn’t trust the fucker for shit.

At two-thirty, the cabin door squeaked open and Ian left the cabin, his sniper rifle in his hands. Chas observed him as he positioned himself behind the trees opposite the front door. Rage pumped through Chas’s veins as he realized the bastard was going to ambush him when he arrived at three o’clock. The sniper rifle Ian touted was a powerful sucker and no match for Chas’s Beretta semi-automatic 9mm. Chas knew the only hope he had was to disarm Ian. Without his hardware, Ian was nothing more than a pussy, and Chas had no doubt he could take Ian down. He would wait it out, draw Ian out from his hiding place then hit him in plain view when he least expected it.

The minutes ticked away to three-thirty. Addie opened the front door and stepped out on the porch. When Chas saw her bruised and swollen face, blood rushed to his head as rage twisted inside him and burned like fire hissing in his veins. Rigid with fury, his jaw tightened, and a primeval instinct began to possess him.
Steady, man. There’s time to punish the fucker for what he did to Addie. Fuck, how could he hurt her like that? I’m gonna kill his ass. I gotta play it cool. This guy’s a pro.
Chas pushed down his fury, letting it simmer just below his skin. Ian rustled out of his hiding place, a frown creasing his forehead. He pushed past Addie and went into the cabin for a brief moment. When he came back out, he didn’t have his rifle.

Fuck yeah.
Chas’s body stiffened in anticipation as the adrenaline gushed through him.

“Your lover isn’t coming. You didn’t convince him to come. I warned you,” Ian said in a hard voice.

“I did. Ian, you heard what I said,” Addie replied in a soft voice.

“I can’t believe I married such a fool. You’ve been sucking biker cock for weeks thinking the jerk cared about you, and he never gave a shit. All he wanted to do was fuck you. You were nothing more than a hole. He’s probably drinking and laughing about you at his clubhouse. How fucking stupid you are,” Ian snarled.

“That’s not true, Chas did care about me. It’s just that I hurt him deeply. He’s a proud man.” Her voice trailed off as she surveyed the area before her.

“I’m done with all this nature and hick-town living. We’re going back to Chicago. I’ll deal with the biker another time. Go on in and get packing.” Ian turned his back and pushed Addie toward the front door.

At that moment, Chas stepped out, gun in hand. “Get your fuckin’ hands off my woman, asshole. This shit stops here.” Chas glanced quickly at Addie’s sparkling eyes and large smile. “Addie, you’re coming with me.”

Ian turned around. “You’re more of a fool than I thought you were. Do you really think you can outsmart
me
?”

Chas took a few steps closer then lost his balance when his foot hit a rock buried under the snow. In the second it took Chas to recover, Ian swung Addie in front of him like a human shield and took out a hunting knife, holding it against her throat. She whimpered, and the sparkle in her eyes faded.

Ian moved slightly to the right, dragging Addie with him. “I’ll slit her delicate throat without even blinking an eye if you try anything stupid.”

Chas didn’t move a muscle, knowing Ian was serious.

Ian inched his way to a gold-colored SUV; his arm continued to pin Addie’s throat against the blade. After he forced her in the vehicle, Ian turned on the ignition and took off, the tip of the knife pressed under her chin.

Chas shot one bullet upward, and the rumble of an engine filled the air as Axe and Jax drove toward him, snow kicking up from the tires of their four-wheel-drive Land Rover as they came out of an alcove clearing nearby. They had come up two hours before Chas was to have met Addie, positioning themselves nearby in case he needed their help. A single bullet signified they were needed.