CAGE’S FALL: The Vulture’s MC Read online

  I wasn’t sure what else to say.

  “I’ll see you around Cage.” I went to walk past him, and he stood up at the same time.

  “I can’t change who I am. But you can change who you are,” he said and he pointed at my cousins. “The fact you are willing to do business with them tells me that you are getting into this lifestyle and not away from it.”

  Why did that matter? I frowned.

  “Of course. I’m not leaving the lifestyle. I was brought up in it. I was trained by my mom to hide cash from the books. Both my father’s taught me that the law just gets in the way of what you want.” I stepped closer to him. Looking up into his jet black eyes. “But I know when to walk away. And this is me, walking away from you. Not the club.”

  I turned my back to him, only to have his hand grab my arm, spinning me around. His lips landing on mine. There were a few wolf whistles from around the fire.

  I didn’t want to but I fucking did it. I kissed him back.

  Then he was the one to end it with a smirk on his face. Pulling back, looking into my eyes,

  “And that was me stopping you darling. When you fall, I’ll fucking be the one catching you. When you get screwed over with this business deal, I’ll be the one to fix it.” His hand on my cheek. “Shit feels right with you and I’m a selfish bastard. Not letting you go Autumn. You’re like fucking hot wires and I’d rather be electrocuted then let go.”

  I just stared at him unsure what the hell to say.

  Chapter Thirty Four

  CAGE

  I walked up the passage, pausing at my door when I saw Autumn’s door ajar. I frowned. Wasn’t like her to not have it locked. She had disappeared with F aka Fate, after I kissed her and told her I wasn’t letting her go.

  I brought my fist to the door knocking, only to hear the sound of vomiting. Fuck she must be sick. I walked in and headed for the ensuite.

  “Autumn you okay?” I said to the closed ensuite door.

  She groaned and that was enough for me to open the door. Seeing her on the ground, gripping the toilet bowl.

  “Usually the hangover kicks in, in the morning.” I said, lowering to my knees, my hand going to her back.

  “Alcohol and my meds don’t mix,” she said and I pulled her hair back. “You don’t have to be here Cage, you can go.”

  I smiled. Actually fucking smiled. Because she said my name and wasn’t forcing me to leave her. I had no plans but to pass out in my room for the rest of the night.

  “You finished?” I said, and she weakly nodded her head. I put my arm out for her to grasp as she got up. My other hand going to her side, guiding her up.

  “God, I smell like the fire.” She wrinkled her nose up. “And vomit as well. Geez real attractive Autumn,” she muttered.

  Still holding her up, I reached behind her and turned the shower taps on. “Nothing a shower won’t fix darling.”

  “I don’t think I can stand.”

  I knew what I wanted. But I knew I shouldn’t want it. So I kept my mouth shut. Then I saw the debate in her eyes, as if she was going to have a shower while feeling like this.

  I didn’t want her to think I was just trying to get with her. I wanted to get her to trust me again. So I gripped her top, taking it off, and pushing her jeans down.

  Then when she was naked, I guided her into the shower. Luckily I didn’t have my holster on.

  The water hit my back, and Autumn had her eyes pinched shut, so she didn’t realize. I was showering with my fucking clothes on, so she didn’t think I was taking advantage of her. Couldn’t help but think I was turning into a pussy and it was all Autumn’s fault.

  Her hands went to my chest, and she opened her eyes with the cutest frown on her face,

  “Why are you still clothed?” She said, and yeah I was asking myself the same fucking question as I grabbed the soap and went to wash her.

  “Being a fucking gentleman,” I muttered.

  She laughed. “And how’s that going for you?”

  I looked at her dryly. “Cold.”

  And that made her laugh harder.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  CAGE

  Leaning my bike to the side, I walked towards the brick house. Seeing her neighbors looking out their window. Made sense. Doubt they saw a biker around these nice suburbs.

  Bringing a fist to the door, I waited for half a minute before it opened and I looked at the woman that was currently causing the club a headache.

  She was meant to drop the fucking case. I had threatened her. But realized when she didn’t drop it that the insurance was coming into play. That insurance being me having fucked her.

  “You know I can ruin your career and life right?” I said, keeping my voice semi friendly. It was hard to do because she had ruined the progress I had made with Autumn. Now I was starting from scratch with her.

  Because I slept with this woman.

  What Autumn said ran through my mind again. She said that I’d always be loyal to the club, and that would be our problem.

  “Blackmailing me?” April said “Threatening my marriage, and my career, do you have no morals?”

  I leaned in, smirking. “No I don’t. And If I hear about the case again, I’ll fucking destroy everything you hold dear.” Heard the kids playing in the background. “Wonder if you’ll get custody if the judge sees me sitting front row. The man that you cheated with causing your marriage to end.”

  The terror on April’s face was enough for me to know that she was going to drop the case. So I turned and left. It had been dealt with.

  Autumn

  There was no antidote for this life. Once you are in, you’re in it for life. There is no getting clean or getting out. It just didn’t happen. You always had ties to the club, to the lifestyle.

  So you either embrace it, or run and pretend like you can get away from it.

  I don’t know when it flipped in me. Perhaps when I realized that the club was and is family. Maybe that was when my attitude towards the club changed?

  I lit up a cigarette staring at the gym. This was going to my first move embracing the club life and making my own mark in the underworld.

  The gym was about to reopen, and I was going to be working the desk, till I trusted some of the club girls to run the desk. But to begin with, I’d be running it. I learned from Hawk that the less people that knew about your operation the better it ran, and the less chance of it getting exposed to the wrong people.

  The gym had been rebranded, with new signs, and a new attitude towards a ‘healthy’ lifestyle. The sign said above the building, The gym for addicts wanting the perfect body.

  I dropped my cigarette hearing the bikes coming.

  Aaron and Lit were coming to help me reorganize the equipment. I wanted a different set up from the previous owners.

  The bikes got louder, coming up the side road. Seeing the jet black bike, with the reaper painted on the side of the petrol tank, in white paint. My eyes went off Cage’s custom softail slim, and on to him. I was not expecting him.

  “Morning,” I said, watching Lit, Aaron, and Cage climb off their bikes.

  Lit gave me a look, as if to say he was here because he had to be and not because he wanted to be. Him and I still hadn’t smoothed things out. I knew we needed to because he wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was I.

  “Morning.” Aaron was the only one that replied to me.

  “Well let’s get this shit done. Is it unlocked?”

  I nodded my head, and they headed in. I waited for a moment, noticing a car going slowly past. Guess the boys always knew how to attract attention. The car came to a complete stop out the front of the gym.

  I tilted my head. Then it flashed through my head, the warning sign. But it was too fucking late. The window wound down. And my eyes landed on the AK barrel.

  I spun on my feet, running for the shelter of the gym. The glass shattering as I made it through the doorway, tripping down the stairs, my body hitting the ground as the loudn
ess of the gunfire deafening my ears.

  CAGE

  “Moving this equipment is going to be a nightmare,” Lit muttered, shrugging his vest off.

  “You hear that?” Aaron paused.

  I looked back for Autumn, only to see the car pulled up out the front, next thing I saw was her running. The glass around the front door started to shatter, her body hitting the floor. Didn’t think about it. Didn’t give it a fucking second thought. I pulled my gun from my holster.

  Moments like this, was when I was counted on. Moments like this was when my ability to take headshots was counted on. They were reloading, when I stood over Autumn, gun raised. I didn’t fire blindly back. No. I aimed and I fired.

  Didn’t need to breathe through it. I had been trained with a gun since I was running the streets as a thirteen-year-old.

  Learned the hard way what happens when you fucking miss your target. The boys stepped up behind me, cover firing. But my eyes were on the ski masked man with the AK. The same bastard that thought he could shoot at my girlfriend and live.

  One shot, and his body slumped. His head going to the side. The pressure could be tight, and boiling; regardless I would make that fucking head shot. The car took off. And Lit knew the drill. Someone was to go after them, firing shots, and chasing them down.

  He took off on his bike.

  While I holstered my gun I turned to look back. And then the fact Autumn wasn’t moving, sent panic through my body. The broken glass surrounded her.

  Then I must have seen it the same time as Aaron because his face dropped of any expression.

  I dropped to my knees, crushed glass piercing my jeans. The blood across the crushed glass. It was coming from her side.

  I pulled out my phone. Didn’t give a fuck what this looked like. I was calling an ambulance. But Aaron snatched the phone from my hand.

  “Can’t call the ambos.” Aaron was speaking logic but I didn’t fucking want to hear it.

  “She’s been shot!” Didn’t he see that was more important then if the club copped some heat from this!

  “We need to get her back to the clubhouse. Call the medics in.” Aaron was speaking like a fucking president, more worried about the club getting blow back. Then the fact that my woman was bleeding out.

  Fuck him.

  Aaron then locked his eyes with mine. “It’s not a suggestion Cage. It’s a fucking order. We don't involve citizens. Get her car keys, we’ll take her back to the clubhouse.”

  Right fucking then. In that moment. I knew, I no longer wanted to be the one taking orders. I wanted to be the one fucking giving them. Never had my eyes on the president patch but as I carried Autumn, who was going in and out of consciousness to her car.

  I wanted to be president and when I set my mind on something. I fucking got it. Didn’t know when. Didn’t know how I’d earn it. But I knew that president patch would be sewed onto my chest in the future, with mother Chapter underneath it.

  From this point on. I realized the club wouldn’t control me if I controlled it. It was a beast, and while most presidents keep aligned with the rules set by other presidents, I’d be fucking breaking those rules, and creating my own.

  Like I said it wasn’t if I’d be president- it was when.

  When I was the Mother Chapter President, I’d be controlling the beast of the club and when that happens, no one, and I mean no one, would cost me what I loved. As I sat in the back of Autumn’s car, my hand applying pressure to the wound on her side, I realized that Autumn said me being loyal to the club would be our problem. I didn’t know it till minutes ago, that our problem, wouldn’t be one if I controlled the club.

  No one was to know that on that day, after a drive-by shooting, it would change the direction of The Vultures future; and as a result, would one day change everything that club stood for and it would all be my doing. The blood baths that were to come, would all be my doing, and I’d be doing it for the sake of my love for a woman.

  The woman currently bleeding in my arms.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  CAGE

  I heard her cry in pain. And I clenched the bar that bit tighter. A lot of my sins couldn’t be forgiven, I knew that. I rode for an outlaw motorcycle club, and shit adds up against you as time goes on. Doesn’t matter how much you drink, there is no escaping the past.

  The only hope you get, is that you’ll do things differently in the future and learn from your mistakes. Or at least learn from the lessons.

  “Blow back from Hawk’s fight yesterday,” Aaron said coming into the bar. He had just confirmed our thoughts that this had happened because of blow back from the club. For them to know about the gym, meant they were reading Autumn’s letters to Hawk.

  “Hawk wanted answers if anyone was hurt.” Aaron gave me a stern look. “Told him no.”

  I scoffed, shaking my head. Furious rage flooding my body.

  “Where the fuck is she!”

  I turned seeing F storm in, looking as furious as I was. Aaron stepped in his way from getting to Autumn.

  “She’s getting treated,” Aaron said like the president he is.

  “This is bullshit! She should be in a hospital!”

  N stepped in front of F, looking like a ticking serial bomb. “This has to be answered. No one can shoot our blood and get away with it. Is the club responding?”

  “No. Hawk wants to leave it be,” Aaron said.

  I scoffed. “Because he doesn’t know they shot Autumn!” I wasn’t thinking straight I knew that. But my need for revenge was stronger, then the rights and wrongs of the club.

  N and F glared at Aaron. Aaron’s phone started ringing and he walked off taking it. Leaving N and F to stew.

  “Need to hit them back brother,” F said.

  “Fucking oath.” N said and lit up a cigarette. “Won’t be the first time we act when the club has stood on the side lines.” They shared a look.

  I threw back my shot, turning to look back at them. “Count me in.”

  Their eyes snapped to me. Both arching their eyebrows wanting an explanation.

  “It’s personal,” I added and I wasn’t saying anything else because that was exactly what it was. It was personal. They had hurt me personally, and now this need for revenge was running, boiling, through my blood. I wanted to pay back. Like I was going to sit back and take this. Like I wouldn’t act. The club should have known me better. After all, I was a nomad before I took a place at the table for a reason; because I was unpredictable.

  So I shared a look with the twins, knowing we needed to get away from the club eyes, and plan out our revenge.

  Didn’t know it then, but that was my first move as a leader.

  * * *

  I stumbled up the fucking passage way, knowing that the storm was coming from the club. Even though N and F made it clear that it was them running the pay back, I didn’t make my presence quiet. Took two lives tonight, and both were weighing on my conscious.

  Noticed a pattern when it came to killing. Some kills would roll off my back but the ones I had to get physical for, those ones, haunted me long after the kill was done.

  Just as I reached my door Holly came out of Autumn’s room.

  “Is she okay?” I was quickly said. Even though I was looking like a murdering son of a bitch. My white top was stained with blood. My vest patches tainted with the blood from the kill. Getting physical with a knife would do that.

  “She’s dosed up on meds.” Holly looked at the ground. “I’m a paramedic not a doctor. But it was a through and through, she should be fine. I’m reaching out to a surgeon I know who works with the mafia streets, to come check on her.”

  I nodded my head. “Thanks Holly. I know you hate shady shit.”

  She smiled. “Hard to hate it, now that it comes with who I date. You can go in if you want. Autumn was asking for you.”

  I hesitated. “Perhaps after I clean myself up.”

  Holly looked me up and down. “Good thinking Hurley. If she sees you lik
e this, she might think you went after those bastards and killed them.”

  I stared at her blankly.

  Her eyes widened. “You didn’t! Did you! Aaron said the club wasn’t to get involved.”

  “What I do in my spare time, isn’t any of the club’s business.”

  “Uh huh. You keep telling yourself that.” She muttered walking off.

  Her and I both knew that it wasn’t the case and come morning, Aaron will be jumping down my throat, wanting blood.

  I paused at Autumn’s door. If I showered and cleaned myself up, she wouldn’t be any the wiser of what I had done earlier tonight.

  * * *

  I never had a purpose. Sure the club gave me reason, but purpose- never fucking had one of those. As my eyes laid on Autumn, while she slept.

  Would I risk everything I had to protect her? Yes. Would I go against the brotherhood? Yes. And admitting those fucking choices to myself, was a reality call- and it scared the hell out of me.

  “Are you going to come to bed, or just stand there?” Her soft voice murmured, as I stood like a fucking creep by her bedside. She hadn’t opened her eyes, yet she knew who I was, at least I was hoping she knew it was me. “Cage please just lay down?” She sighed her eyes still closed.

  So she did know it was me, that caused my lips to twitch up.

  I stripped myself of my jeans and took my top off. My dog tags, which I had never taken off after my dishonourable discharge were still around my neck.

  Sliding into the bed, my arm went under her head.

  “You okay?” I spoke softly, not wanting to wake her fully up and also knowing she was high on medication.