Chapter Forty One

Alexander’s Point of View:

I sat at the bar, staring down at the drink on the side in front of me. I could hear everyone behind me rushing around, making phone calls, panicking, but I couldn’t bring myself to do the same. All I could think about over and over was I shouldn’t have left her last night. I should have come back and spent the night with her or seen her this morning or this afternoon or at some point, If I had done any of those things, I’d have known she was gone sooner and could have done something.

Maybe I could have stopped it? Maybe this is all my fault.

I felt the presence of someone sit down next to me, but didn’t look.

‘Are you ok, brother?’ Tommy asked me. I just shrugged. No, I really wasn’t, but this wasn’t about me. ‘We will find her.’

‘How do you know that? If one of those scumbags from Portland has her... you know as well as I do what they are capable of!' I kept my voice low, not wanting to get anyone else’s attention.

‘Look at me’. I did. ‘We. Will. Find. Her brother’. I just looked away again. I wanted to believe that, I really did **

I was in the bathroom when I suddenly heard shouting. I listened for a few minutes before it became obvious it was Ron.

Oh, what now? I dried my hands and quickly headed out to see what was going on. As soon as I rounded the corner, I saw what was going on.

He was in Sarah’s face, screaming at her, telling her it was her fault Harley was done. Well, now, that’s not exactly fair.

‘Are you that fucking stupid?! Why send her home in a taxi, alone, drunk?!’

‘II’

‘You what?! I knew you were a dumb whore, but really, Sarah?!’

‘Hey, now, Ron, that’s enough!' Harry finally stepped in and defended his wife.

‘No, Harry, Harley is gone!'

‘Yeah, But that’s not Sarah’s fault!' I walked over to them, Agreeing that Sarah shouldn’t get the blame.

‘If you didn’t call me and Harry away last night, we would have been with them’. I told him, He turned his attention to me.

‘Who asked you!?’

‘Ok, ok, this isn’t helping, boys, ok, let’s just calm down’. Jackson stood between all of us, acting as a barrier.

‘He has no right—’

‘Enough!' Jackson cut Ron off again before he could start. ‘We all love and care for Harley. We’re all worried about what is happening, so instead of fighting about it, let’s just calm down and think!’ I patted his shoulder, he was right. No matter what a complete and utter asshole Ron was being, none of this was going to help find her.

‘If I can just interrupt your family spat here’. I looked over as Allan was walking through the door. Jemma had called him and told him what was going on, he said he was going to look into it, he must have found something...

‘What have you found?’ Ron pushed passed us and went over to him.

‘I contacted the cab company and spoke to the drive, Apparently, he kicked her out not far from here last night after she threw up and ruined his back seats’.

‘He just left her on the street in her condition?!’

‘Looks that way’. I looked at Harry and gestured for him to take Sarah out the room, I could well imagine that if Ron saw her right now, he would go back to blaming her for this.

Ron took Allan into the back room and closed the door, though I can’t see what is so private that we couldn’t know about.

‘We will find her’. Jackson told me, putting his hand back on my shoulder. I just smiled at him and went back over to my drink.

Everyone was just talking among themselves, but the longer I just sat there, the more anxious I got. Where was she? Was she safe? Did someone take her? Is someone hurting her? Just question after question filled my head. As darker thoughts started to creep in, Jemma came and sat down with me.

‘How are you doing, darlin’?’

‘I’m really worried about her Jem’. She wrapped her arms around mine and rested her head on my shoulder.

‘You’ll get her back, safe and sound, just watch’. I smiled sadly at her. It was nice she was trying to comfort me. ‘I’d never admit it to Ron, but she’s good for you. You’re good for each other’.

‘You think so?’

‘I do. The past is less than ideal but I love you both and I really hope it all works out for you’.

‘Thanks, Jem’.

‘If you ever tell Ron I said that I’ll deny it’. We shared a laugh but the sounds of a phone ringing cut through all the mindless chatter and I turned in my seat, to look where it was coming from. Ron walked out the back room, staring down at his phone.

‘Who is it?’ Jackson was the one to ask.

‘Unknown number’. Ron told us before answering it and putting the phone to his ear. As it wasn’t on loudspeaker, none of us could hear what was being said, but we could all tell by the look on Ron’s face, it was about Harley.

Fear.

There was fear all over Ron's face. Hardly anything worries or scares Ron, so it could only be bad news relating to Harley now, that would make him look like this. He turned back around and walked into the back room again, closing the door, leaving everyone worrying and waiting to see what was what when he came back...

***

It felt like hours crawled by until Ron opened the door again and stepped out. I stood up and waited, not even sure if I wanted to know what that call was—or who it was from.

‘Meeting’. He announced and then went back inside. I shared a look with the other guys as we made our way in and closed the door so the others in the club wouldn’t be able to hear.

‘Who was on the phone?’ Pulp asked before anyone else could.

‘That was the VP of the CK’. As soon as he said it, my insides went cold. The CK had her?! Christ.

‘Why?’

‘Apparently, they didn’t take too kindly to us shooting up their warehouse and killing some of their guys when we took our trip to Portland’.

‘Why would they take Harley?’ I asked, already knowing the answer.

‘Because she’s my daughter and they want to hurt me—hurt us. The club.’ Everyone stayed quiet. Not wanting to ask the question we were all wondering.

‘What are you going to do with her?’ Ron sighed and rubbed his face, stressed before turning in his chair and facing away from us, hiding his expression.

‘They said that they won’t do anything... as long as we give them what they want.’

‘What do they want? They can have it!' Again, it was Jackson who spoke.

‘They want 2 million, all our weapons... and the head of an SS member to make up for the ones we killed in the shootout. If they don’t get that... They said they will rape her bloody and send her back to us in pieces.’ My fists balled under the table. I had to keep my cool, but I just wanted to go and find these bastards and rip their heads off!

‘We can’t that much money on a whim.’ Pulp said sadly.

‘Yeah, and we can't kill a brother for his head’. Jackson added. They were both right, but I knew they also both fell shit saying it because it would mean the very bad alternative for Harley.

‘We have 48 hours’.

‘We can’t do it’. Again, Jackson was right. We couldn’t.

‘We don’t have a choice!'

The meeting carried on for a little while as we tried to figure out what we were going to do, but there wasn’t anything we COULD do.

We all left feeling very flat and worried, not knowing what the next few days were going to hold. It will be impossible to meet their demands, but the alternative just isn’t something any of us could allow to happen.

While the guys went off to do their own thing, I headed to Harley's room and closed and locked the door behind me. I wanted to be alone for a while. I took my shoes off and climbed into the bed, pulling one of the pillows close and smelling it. It smelt like Harley. I closed my eyes and just laid there, wishing she was in my arms and safe...