Raging Barons MC – Book Nine – Knuckles
Knuckles: Chapter 18

-:- KNUCKLES -:-

Jo is with Winter, safely on the roof of the mall. They are on the portion that is an overhanging roof of the main entrance, and I hope she’s going to be safe while we clear this place of the mafia assholes.

The door flies open and muscle bursts into the room. Meat doesn’t hesitate. He throws himself at one man, with Wings right behind him, selecting his own to take out.

Hearing a demented laugh, I turn my head to see Fist throw himself forward, and use the fists he was named for, but the look of delight as he’s landing the blows has my lip tic up with amusement.

Reaching the door, we step out and Tommaso is standing with a dozen men, all with weapons pointing our way. Coming to a halt, the six of us stop fighting and glare because that’s all we can do at this point.

“Where’s Jolene?” Tommaso has the brass balls to ask, but none of us say a word. I can see the tic next to his eye and can’t help the satisfaction that runs through me, knowing he’s lost his hold on Jo.

“You.” Tommaso points at Buzz. “You’re fighting next, and you best put on a show.”

Buzz doesn’t respond. He stands looking at Tommaso with hate glowing in his eyes. One fucker steps forward fast and before anyone can stop him, he pushes a cattle prod into Buzz’s stomach and sends a shock through his body. We can smell a burning on Buzz’s skin and rage runs through me, knowing my brother is being hurt because of me.

Throwing myself forward, I yank the prod out of the asshole’s hand and turn it to return the treatment, but he jumps back and nearly hides behind another man.

“Try to use one of those fuckers on us again, and I’ll shove it up your ass and light you up for all to see.” I glare at Tommaso, taking a step forward.

Buzz has recovered quickly and grips my arm, giving me a look, which I know means back down. “It’s okay Knuckles, we’ll be out of here soon enough.”

The shock on Tommaso’s face would be funny if this situation wasn’t getting serious. “You fuckers know each other!”

Meat and Wings laugh loudly, high-five each other and rush forward. I knew it was going to happen because standing behind the fuckers with the weapons were Axel and our brothers.

Mayhem ensues. Colton, Fist, Buzz, and I follow Meat, Wings, and Axel, and along with the brothers, we move up and have these fuckers between us getting battered from all sides.

“Where is he? Where’s the fucker gone?” I turn and see Tommaso has disappeared. The fucker has taken off while everyone is busy fighting. It’s what you would expect from someone who is basically a bully and a coward.

Lincoln appears on my left side. “Where the fuck did you come from?”

“I’ve been looking everywhere for Jo, and I can’t find her. Mav is here to help get you out too.” Lincoln states, pointing behind him where Mav is working his way through the crowd toward us.

“Jo is on the roof above the front doors. You’ll have to go out front and get her down. She has Winter with her, so be careful you don’t get shot ‘cause Winter will have a weapon. That’s a certainty.”

“Okay, are you going to get out now?”

“Yeah, I’ve my brothers here. Go get Jo and I’ll be right behind you.” I shout to Colton that I’m moving out, and he nods, quickly letting everyone else know. When I see Axel grinning after knocking out the last one of the assholes, we all turn to make our way through the crowd.

Losing sight of Lincoln and Mav in the crowd, I keep pushing, punching, and throwing bodies out of the way. The crowd is going wild, demanding their money back, shouting for fights to continue, then brawls starting amongst themselves. It’s total chaos and we are all now literally fighting our way out of the place.

Axel steps to the side of me. “Are the women here?”

“Yeah, they were, but they moved outside when we came back to get you. They better have stayed out there too or there will be hell to pay.” Axel growls.

Getting outside eventually I see Stitch, Chaos, BS, and Drag standing in front of the women, and boy, they are having a hard time of corralling them as they are determined to get back inside the building.

Axel shouts for everyone to get back to the clubhouse, and that’s when I see a van tearing past, a side door open and a body thrown to the ground. Stitch is the nearest, along with Chaos, and they run over to see who it is and if they are alive.

Stepping to the club’s vehicles, I see Winter with Mav heading towards Target who appeared from nowhere, and Lincoln walking with his arm around Jo. She has her arms around his waist hanging on to him tightly.

Quickening my pace, I reach Jo and gently take her from Lincoln and hug her to me. I realize her feet have left the ground, but I don’t really give a fuck. I need to know she’s alright.

Walking to one of the club’s SUVs, I stop when I notice Stitch carrying a woman, and I can’t help but close my eyes when I realize it’s the woman who was giving us food and water. She’s hardly recognizable as her face is black and blue, one of her eyes is badly swollen and her lip is cut in three places.

“Does anyone know who she is?” Stitch asks.

“She’s the woman who was giving us food and water.” Quickly stepping toward Stitch. “She was a prisoner, I think. She certainly wasn’t there of her own free will.”

“Pres, I’m taking her back to the clubhouse.” Stitch is not asking; he’s telling Axel and I’m surprised because he’s usually one of the brothers that shows Axel high respect.

Axel looks at Stitch closely, then gives him a nod. “Okay, I’ll come and speak with you later. Make sure she’s comfortable and if we need to get her to the hospital, we’ll tell them she was trampled here in the rush to get out.”

Stitch seems happy with that and walks away with the woman in his arms. Chaos is right behind him, and they climb into one of the trucks and pull out of there fast.

“Will she be okay?” Jo asks, and that’s why I think she’s such a beautiful person. She’s been through hell, yet she’s thinking of someone else.

Mia, Eden, and Carrie rush over and grab Jo from me, hugging her and asking if she’s alright. I look up and Lincoln is grinning. “Now you know how I felt when you walked up and grabbed her.”

“Fuck off, Linc.” But I chuckle as I grab Jo once more and don’t pause when I place Jo in the SUV and climb in beside her. Drag is in the driver’s seat and Fist is in the passenger, and both are grinning and talking about how much fun that was.

“Fun? They think that was fun,” Jo exclaims, then laughs, but she’s looking at them like they are totally crazy.

Back at the clubhouse, we enter the common room and Axel quickly gets everyone organized. Prospects have a brother with them as they patrol the compound and three run up to the roof to replace the three that have been up there for hours.

Wings walks into the common room and looks like he’s searching for someone, then I realize that Meat isn’t among us. Shit, I hope he’s alright?

Amelia and Bitty walk into the room with the twins in their arms. Sybil is following and heads directly for Jo, where she gathers her in her arms and whispers to her.

Seeing Jo is now surrounded by the women of the club and I’ve no way of getting close to her, I walk into the kitchen to check on Meat. No sign of him here, and seeing Wings standing in the kitchen doorway, I walk over and see he’s looking towards Meat’s treehouse.

Stepping out of the kitchen, I steadily walk over to the treehouse and see the rope ladder is up and the hatch is closed. That tells me Meat doesn’t want visitors in his treehouse tonight.

Walking back towards the clubhouse kitchen door, I turn when I hear drums playing. Seeing Meat dressed as some type of warrior, I can’t stop the grin from appearing.

What I’m looking at is a loincloth, war paint of some sort, and he has a shield like a Zulu warrior would carry, and the longest damn spear I’ve ever seen. He’s standing looking up the compound, not a muscle moving and not showing any sign he’s seeing me standing here.

BS appears beside me and sighs. “He’ll be okay. We just have to watch and wait. This is him reconnecting with himself, I think. I’m only guessing because who the fuck knows what he’s thinking more than half the time?”

“Do you think he’ll be alright? Because I feel bad that he put himself in the position he was in to help get me and Jo out. He had to kill a lot of men, and Wings did, too. I don’t want him to lose himself.” I run a hand down the back of my neck.

BS looks at me closely before turning back to watch Meat, who has still not moved a muscle. “I’ll make sure he’s okay, and so will Chaos, Wings, and Target. We’ll not lose him now. He’s come too far to go back to how bad he was.”

Wings steps up beside us, Chaos and Target too, then one after another every brother who can arrives to stand here showing the support Meat may need.

Eventually, Meat turns to look at us all without saying a word. He steps into his treehouse and closes himself inside. The sound of the drums stops, and the compound becomes eerily quiet, but we all stay where we are for quite some time before BS tells us all to get back inside because Meat is not going to come out anytime soon.

Back inside, Axel walks over. “Did you hear anything while you were there about another location? Anywhere we can look for Tommaso.”

“No, nothing. We were in a cage in the basement. It was dark, and we were only given enough food and water to keep us alive. That woman, who Stitch brought here, she gave us food and water, but she was treated like shit. I’ve no idea who she is, but no one deserves what they did to her.” I see Jo looking tired on the far side of the common room, so I excuse myself and walk over to her. “Are you ready to get out of here? Get a shower and some real sleep?”

“Yes, are we staying at the clubhouse?” Jo is looking around for Lincoln, who is only a couple of tables away from where we are.

“We’ll stay here, and you’ll stay with me.”

“Okay, let me speak to Lincoln and we’ll go.” Jo rushes over to Lincoln and speaks to him before he hugs her tightly and gives me a pointed look.

In my room, I wait for Jo to shower and get ready for bed. Thankfully, when the brothers recovered the truck, they recovered all of Jo’s things and my kutte. Once Jo has finished and has climbed into bed, I head into the bathroom myself. I’m exhausted and filthy, and can’t wait to get cleaned up and into bed.

We still need to find the fucker and get him taken out. I can’t see Vitale resting until the fucker is dead, and I can’t see Axel sitting on it until it’s done, either.

Climbing into bed, I see Jo is already fast asleep, laying on her side with her hands tucked under her cheek. I lay behind her and wrap my body around hers, enjoying the feel of her against me, knowing she’s safe here now and we can both rest.

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