Gentleman Wanted 13

Gentleman Wanted 13
Gent

Some son of a bitch had set fire to my shop. There was no way it was an accident. The smell of the accelerant was strong even after the fire department had doused the flames. 

Someone had purposely set fire to my livelihood. The business I had spent years growing. All those memories were gone. And it was my only source of legit income. Income I needed to support my family.

Gemma and Bobby were my family. She would be worried about me. I had told her that I would check in as soon as I knew what was going on. With everything going on, I hadn’t managed to text her.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I frowned down at the screen.

She hadn’t replied to any of my earlier messages. She hadn’t even opened them. 

A niggling unease settled in the pit of my stomach. There was no reason for it, but I couldn’t deny it.

“You have insurance, don’t you?” Truth had obviously misunderstood the look on my face. 

“Yeah, of course.” 

“Then why do you suddenly look constipated?” As usual, nothing much got past Truth. Maybe it was all his years in the forces, or maybe he was just perceptive as fuck. 

“This isn’t my constipated look.” I tried to joke, but it came out flat. I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending danger that was twisting my gut into knots. “This is my worried look. Someone did this on purpose.” I glanced at the still smoking shell that was my shop and frowned. 

The loud sound of a siren pierced the early morning air, and my head turned back towards the road just in time to see two fire trucks fly down the street. 

It was a busy night for the fire brigade.

“Is that really it?”

“No,” I admitted. “No, I’m worried about Gem and Bobby. I don’t know why but I am.” I watched as the fire truck turned off the main strip and down a side road. The lights on top lighting up the sky in streaks of blue. 

“I get that. Wanna get out of here and go and see them?” 

I opened my mouth to say yes and shut it again with a snap as I caught sight of Wicked. He was talking on the phone, his face twisted and tense as he looked between me and the corner the fire truck had just disappeared around.

“No.” I shook my head, my feet already moving towards my bike. Wicked didn’t need to say anything. He didn’t need to explain. I already knew what was on fire. 



I was off my bike before it had even come fully to a stop. I let it clatter to the road, not caring at all as it hit the concrete.

Gem’s building was on fire. Smoke billowed out of the upstairs windows. Her windows. 

It was like I was in that burning building. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like my lungs were on fire.

Sprinting forward, I barrelled past a fireman who shouted after me. “Hey, wait, you can’t go in there.”

I felt the heavily muscled arm of Wicked curl around my waist, lifting me off my feet. I fought against his grip, snarling like a wild animal.

What the hell was wrong with him? My family was inside. If it had been Chelsea or Truth, he would have been in there without a second thought. So what made Gem and Bobby any different for me?

“Get the fuck off me.” I turned violently, trying to throw my fist into his face. “The fuck off.” I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe. 

Gemma and Bobby were in there.

My whole life. 

Was Gemma scared, trapped somewhere? Or had the smoke already overcome them? 

Were they dead?

The thought made me sag. The fight went out of me. 

Wicked loosened his grip just enough for me to bend over. I threw up over my boots. 

“Just breathe.” I had never heard Wicked sound like that before. Like he was comforting a child. And somehow, that made it worse. 

I could have handled him raving and being a jerk to me because that meant everything would be ok. What I couldn’t handle was that soft voice. It matched perfectly the utter despair on his face.

He thought they were dead.  I could see it on his face.

“Just let the fire department do their job, Gent. Let them bring them out. You kicking off will just get in their way.”

“There’s someone in there?” The firefighter nearest to us turned sharply. His black smudged face lined with worry. 

My heart fell. Why did he say it like that? “My…. my wife.” Ok, she wasn’t technically my wife. Not yet. But I couldn’t think of another word to describe her. “My wife and baby.” 

The man in front of me didn’t even pause. Patting me on the arm. “If they are in there, we will get them out.” He jogged away without another word. 

“What does he mean IF they are in there?” My legs buckled. I sat down in a heap in the middle of the road. What did he mean if they were in there? Where else would they be?

The whole street was bustling with people. The noise was deafening, but somehow it seemed silent. Like I was looking at a TV show that was on mute. I knew there was noise, that people were talking and shouting but I couldn’t hear any of it. 

I knew most of the Black Aces had arrived, their women and children too, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn around and greet them. 

I could do nothing but stare at the smoke and the flames, the strobing lights from the emergency services flashing across my face.

If Gem and Bobby were inside, they were dead. I couldn’t imagine anyone surviving the flames that continued to lick at the busted out windows. 

“Oh my god!” Avery’s voice was a screech, breaking through the weird silence that had wrapped around me. 

“Fuck, hold on to him!” 

Dimly I became aware of Ruin. He sounded rough, but I couldn’t turn to him to ask why he sounded like he did. 

I couldn’t tear my eyes from the firefighter who had stepped from the building. All I could see was the baby blue blanket in his arms. The one with the teddy bears all over it. 

The one I had bought Bobby the day he had been born.

I stumbled to my feet, tearing my arm out of Wickeds grasp. “Leave me the fuck alone.” I wanted to go over there. To see for myself what was in that blue blanket. But I couldn’t move.

It was like the world had opened up and swallowed me down. 

My whole world was gone. 

Gemma had been in my life for years, but I had had so little time with her. 

I needed more time.

Taking a step forward, I almost went down. I would have gone down if Wicked and Truth hadn’t caught me under the arms. 

Was my son in that blue blanket? Bobby might not be my blood, but he was my son. He would always be my son. 

I watched numbly as Ruin stepped around me. Heading towards the man in his smoke-stained uniform. The one holding that blue blanket.

Bobby’s blue blanket.

That damn blanket was going to haunt me forever.  

Ruin started talking low and fast. Every now and then, he would glance in my direction with a frown on his face. 

I couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could tell it was bad from the look on his face. I braced myself for the news. 

Avery curled her hand around mine. Cali, on the other side, did the same. I was grateful for them. But I knew they were scared as well. 

We were all scared. All of us standing out in the smoky wet street were terrified. 

We were violent men. There was no denying that, but just waiting here to hear If someone had murdered a baby was enough to break us. 

“Gent.”

I lifted my head. If Ruin was about to tell me that my family was dead, I wanted to face it like a man. 

Gemma would want me to face it like a man. I told myself. 

No, she wouldn’t. Gemma had never wanted to come back. I was the one who told her it was safe. I had talked her into coming back here.

She had trusted me to keep her safe. To keep them both safe, and I had failed her.

Young Blood.

He was the one who had done this. There was no doubt in my mind. He had set the fire in the shop, knowing it would draw me away, and I had fallen for it. I had left Gem and Bobby unprotected.

Young Blood would die. He would die bloody and in pain, and still, it would not be enough. 

Nothing would ever be enough.

“Gent,” Ruin said again.

“Just say it.” I sounded clipped. Like I was barely holding on to my sanity. 

Cali squeezed my hand again. I could feel her shaking. 

“Gent. They aren’t there. The apartment is empty.”

For a second, I couldn’t understand him. His words made sense, but my brain just couldn’t work out their meaning.

“Thank God for that.” Avery sobbed against my arm. “Thank God, Gent, did you hear him? They aren’t in there.”

“Yeah, I heard him.” I tried to smile. To feel the same kind of relief that they all were, but all I felt was empty. 

“They got out, Gent, that’s good news”, Ruin was talking quietly. 

“Then where is she? If she had got out, she would have made sure we knew.” I took a deep breath. 

Young Blood.

“Young Blood has them. They didn’t get out. They were taken out. This is just another damn delay tactic, and we fell for it again. That asshole has them.”

Wicked cleared his throat loudly. His face guarded. “You don’t know that, Gent.”

But I did know it. 

Who else could it have been? Raising my chin, I caught Ruin’s eyes. For a heartbeat, he looked troubled and then he nodded. One single nod of his head. And I knew he agreed with me. He had my back.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Bobby was his half brother. His blood. 

“Yeah, I do. We all do.” I glanced around at my club brothers. “We might not want to admit it to ourselves, but we knew.” I met Wicked’s eyes. “You said so yourself, Wicked. You warned us that he would come for them.” I did a quick headcount. 

Ruin was here. So he was accounted for. I frowned. “Where are Chelsea and Parker?” My voice was sharp. 

Wicked looked around wildly like he was trying to figure out where Chelsea was. “She was right here?”

“I’m here.” Her small voice sounded from the back of the crowd. “I took Cali to go and sit in the car. She was getting some twinges.”

Truth took off into the crowd as his big brother wrapped Chelsea in his arms, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Don’t leave my sight. Stay where I can see you.”

“And Parker?”

My eyes met Ruin’s. 

“He’s at the clubhouse.” He blinked rapidly. “Shit, he’s at the clubhouse, and most of us are here.” 

At his side, Avery sobbed. 

“Then that’s where we need to go.” I sucked in a deep steadying breath. I had to be strong now. For Gem and Bobby. “Because that’s where he is. That’s where Young Blood is. Where he has our family.” I met Ruin’s eyes. “Where he has our kids.”



The gates to the clubhouse were open and unchained. But it wasn’t that which caught my attention as I slipped from my seriously dented bike.

It was the figure lying prone by Truth’s kneeling form. Truth raised his head, and even in the darkness, I could tell the man at his feet was dead. He didn’t need to shake his head to tell me.

I knew.

Just like I knew Young Blood was in there. 

“Who is he?” I glanced down at the ruins of the face. Half of it was gone, nothing but fragments of bone and white tendon mixed in with red meat. 

“Nomad.” Wicked spoke from behind me. “I asked him to stay behind.” He shook his head. “He shouldn’t have even been here. He was meant to ride out this morning. Shit.” Another shake of his head. “He had a family. He was a good man.”

“Young did this.” I sounded hollow. But this time, no one argued with me. “Where are Cali and the others?” I couldn’t see any of their cars on the deserted stretch of road.

“I sent them with Truth and a few of the others. He wouldn’t leave Cali. Not with her getting pains. He will keep them safe.”

Yeah, I had no doubt that Truth would. Or he would die trying. And I couldn’t blame him for refusing to leave his heavily pregnant fiancés side.

If I ever got Gem back, I would never let them out of my sight. 

Not if, I reminded myself. 

When I got them back. When I got Gemma and Bobby back, I would make sure they were with me at all times. 

“So, how are we going to do this?” I needed to do something. Anything. 

“I don’t know.” Wicked straightened his shoulders as he gazed into the dark compound. It hurt him to say the words. He was our president. The man who was meant to have the plan. “I really don’t fucking know. But somehow we have to get in there and-” he paused. “Young Blood needs to die.”

Now that was a plan I could get behind. Behind me, several people murmured their agreement. 

“Yeah, he does-” my words were cut off as Ruin’s phone started to ring. My eyes swivelled to him.

He held up a hand. “It’s him.”