CAGE’S FALL: The Vulture’s MC Page 16

  “Been better.” Her voice was still weak. “Cage?”

  “Yeah darling?”

  “Don’t let me take too many of those pills.” She murmured before falling asleep. I had no idea what she meant by that. But I should have fucking clicked that something was off when it came to her and medication.

  * * *

  “And so, the fucking club is brought into a war, without a fucking president to led it!” Aaron roared. “You have any idea, the heat ya started?”

  I remained quiet and continued to be quiet while Aaron went on and on about the fucking heat I had brought, well nearly brought to the club. Because N and F were taking the back lash from the murderous scene we created. They hadn’t pinned me to the club. So really Aaron had jack shit to complain about.

  N and F were handling it.

  When the meeting closed, I went to Jacob. He had been keeping a low profile at the club. Rumours were he had something going on the side, that the club wanted no part of. As much as I fucking wanted to know what it was, knew he wasn’t likely to tell me.

  “Jacob, can I have a word?” I asked, and he looked me up and down. Wondering if we would be having a conversation or a fight. Think he decided he was up for either, as he nodded his head.

  “It’s about Autumn.” I added, and he smirked.

  “Still hard up for my sister?”

  “You shouldn’t speak about her like that.”

  “Guess that’s a yes.” He paused. “What’s up?”

  “She won’t take the pain meds.”

  “I’ll have a word with her.” He said quickly- too quickly.

  “Or you could tell me why, she won’t take them?”

  “That’s family history.” His smirk dropped. “And some family secrets are meant to stay just that.”

  Autumn

  My hand gripped the wall for support as I tried to shower one handed. The pain was unbearable. I gritted my teeth, and it was the longest fucking shower in my life. It took me forever.

  Finally getting out, I grabbed a towel. Wrapping it around me. My left side was weaker than normal. But having a bullet go through you would do that. I walked into my room. Looking at my closet. The thought of putting anything on, made me cringe.

  There was a knock on my door. Keeping the towel wrapped around me, I said come in.

  The door opened and standing there was Cage. It was moments like this, I was reminded just how good looking he was. Fuck good looking. He was bloody hot. Boiling hot. I could think of more clinches.

  Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, as my eyes ran over, his pushed-up sleeves, the tattoos on his arms, hands, fingers. The thought of the back of his knuckles running down my body, ran through my mind, feeling the coldness of those rings.

  He ran a hand through his short black hair, and he had a five o’clock shadow. As if something else had his attention lately and shaving hadn’t made the priority list.

  I noticed the hesitation on his eyes now. Those jet-black eyes, that had locked with mine, when he kissed me. I swear when he kisses me, he kisses my soul.

  “You okay darling?” he said, as he closes the bedroom door.

  “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Not dressed.” He looked at me not impressed. “How bad is the pain?” His eyes then went to check to see if the pills he had tried to give me this morning, where still on the bedside table- and they were.

  “It’s fine.”

  “Why won’t you take the pain killers?”

  “Because.”

  “Because?”

  I looked at him dryly. “Cage, just drop it.”

  He opened his mouth and I dropped the towel causing his words to remain unspoken.

  I walked to my closet, opening a drawer and pulling out a dress. Then started to have an intently debate about how much this was going to hurt to get on. I threaded one arm through.

  “What about underwear?”

  “Can’t bend over.”

  “I can help you.”

  I managed to get the dress over my other arm. “I’m fine.”

  He groaned. “Darling, knowing ya commando will hurt me more than you know.”

  I held back my smirk. “Would you rather I was in pain?” I arched my eyebrows at him.

  Cage and I weren’t in a relationship. Cage and I weren’t anything. Or at least that was what I kept telling myself. I couldn’t take a leap of faith and be in a relationship with him. The thought of him and I- it scared the hell out of me.

  The thought of giving him my heart, to love or destroy- sent a chill down through my body.

  The thought of finding him with that woman, ran through my head. He didn’t make me any promises, I had made them for him. He never said he was mine. I never said I was his. So why did it still hurt me?

  I knew it was stupid. I knew he did it for the club. But there was so many unanswered questions. Like if he did make promises, would he break them like he broke my heart that day?

  “Darling you okay?”

  I blinked and was back in the moment. “Fine. I just need to…”

  He prompted me to continue.

  “Cage.” I knew we had to have this discussion. And why I was picking this moment. I don’t know. But I had, and here I was about to have the conversation. “What are we?” I said the words that terrified most males and by the looks on Cage’s face- him as well.

  “I’m not asking for a label. But you are acting like I’m your girlfriend. Last time you did that I got hurt.” I pointed out.

  He ran his hand through his hair.

  “Look I’m not asking to be the mother to your kid or something. I’m not asking to be your wife. I just want to know why the hell you do this.” I waved a hand at him “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Being in my room, worried about me in pain. Like what biker does that!” I said that last part more to myself then him. But he heard it.

  “It’s complicated.” He finally blew out and that sent a sad smile across my face.

  Complicated. Him and I. That was an understatement.

  I nodded my head. “Well in that case, I think you should um treat me like the rest.” I didn’t want that. I didn’t want him to treat me like I was every common girl at the club. But what was the point of thinking he wanted more, when he didn’t.

  I expected him to leave. “Ain’t gonna lie to you.” His eyes locked with mine. “Can’t make vows to you. Can’t pretend like I ain’t what I am. I’m a biker. I break the law. And yeah, being with me will most likely put you in danger.” And the list of reasons we shouldn’t be together, was just starting.

  He came to a stop in front of me. His knuckles running down my arm.

  “But like I said I ain’t gonna lie to you…” he looked me in the eye. “I feel something for you Autumn and fucked if I know what it is. But it scares the shit out of me.” He exhaled sharply. His knuckles pausing on my skin. His eyes still locked with mine. “But something is telling me that the good times will outweigh the storm that is you and I.”

  A smart girl would have run. A smart girl would have stared back into his jet-black eyes and tell him he would never have me. But when it came to Cage Hurley, common sense went out the window, and my heart drummed louder. Flooding my body with desire for him. Need for him. To want to believe that a man like him, could love me.

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  CAGE

  My eyes were on her from across the pub. As she stood at the bar, her blonde hair pulled the side. A smile on her face as she spoke with Lit. They seemed to be getting on lately. Jealousy didn’t flare through my veins as I watched her talk to him, because I knew come tonight, she would be in my bed.

  “You’re playing with fire.”

  My eyes went off Autumn and on to Wild.

  “What old man?”

  He leaned forward his bleary eyes locked with mine.

  “Autumn and your obsession with her. It’s playing with fire. You know she is considered off limits to anyone. You’ve got a death
wish.”

  Perhaps I did have a death wish but dying over Autumn, would be a fucking welcomed death in my books. I saw her move towards me out of the corner of my eye. Wild noticed it too and muttered that I was a mad man under his breath, As I opened my arm up, for her to sit on my lap.

  “How’s the party darling?” I said as she sat down on my lap.

  Wild got out of the booth, leaving, causing Autumn to frown. Her emerald eyes locking with mine.

  “Do you think people are acting weird and when I say people, I mean members?”

  I shrugged, picking up my cigarette from the ashtray.

  “Cage, I’m serious. People are looking at me like…”

  I looked at her. “Like what?” Was someone making her uncomfortable? Was it Lit?

  “Like what Autumn?” I growled needing answers. Had someone told her about tomorrow?

  She sighed. “Like I’m making a huge fucking mistake.”

  “You talking about us?” I butted the cigarette out in the ashtray.

  “No.” And that was one confident no. I arched my eyebrows at her, waiting for an explanation. She picked up the cigarette packet, pulling a smoke out. Her eyes on it.

  “When you touch me.” She blew out and looked at me, my hand instantly remembering I am allowed to touch her, so my hand ran down her back.

  “Like that.” She added, and her eyes were off me, she scanned the bar. “They look at you, with this look, like questioning if your sanity is there.” Her eyes dropped.

  “I feel like the club has drawn a line and you’re dancing on it, not caring whether they could cut you off.”

  My hand wrapped around the whiskey glass.

  “Cage, tell me you aren’t endangering your position at the club to be with me?”

  Endangering it? I had basically thrown gasoline and a match on it. Members had glints in their eyes, counting down the days until her father was out. Autumn was considered the golden girl of the MC. No man, no sane man would go after her; but then again when I touched her, when I was with her, I wasn’t a sane man. She drove me to insanity.

  Knew that there were two options of how this was going to play out. Lose my patch and her. Or become a President.

  But come tomorrow, the members would either get their wish to see me murdered or be forced to follow me.

  After all Hawk gets out tomorrow, early release, and Autumn had no idea about it.

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Autumn

  Moments. That is what frames everything. A moment in time, can put your perspective back into alignment. Like the moment Hawk walked into the bar, shocking me to the core. He was out four months early and I had no idea why.

  He went straight for the church boardroom, and it had been hours, no one had come out. Cage eyes had locked with mine for a few seconds before he went in, and I felt like he was telling me goodbye within those seconds.

  I blinked back tears, because he had been telling me goodbye. I thought the meeting was about nothing, but then I got back to the club after dealing with the books at the gym. That was when I learned that everything had changed.

  I went from numb, to furious within seconds and as I brought my fist to his door. I was feeling both emotions.

  I heard a come in. So I let myself in, seeing the boxes.

  “So it’s true.” I said, looking at the room he was packing up. Seeing him without a club cut on. “You’re leaving.” I choked out the words, and he just stared at me.

  Since I found out that Hawk had taken his patch, those two emotions would flood my body. One-minute anger, the next numbness. I closed the bedroom door.

  My eyes locked with his, as that anger boiled up in me.

  “How could you let them take your patch? You’re meant to die in club colors and what now, ya what?” I hissed, not being able to finish the sentence. “Let them say, sorry Cage, but you can’t be a member anymore! What the hell Cage!”

  He walked from the box, but I was already getting emotional.

  “You realize what this means right? You and I are over!” And my voice broke, that emotion flooding my body.

  “When you ride out of that lot, I’ll never see you again! When you leave, that’s it. Don’t you get it Cage!”

  I shook my head, furious again. “I let my guard down and then you do this! You didn’t even fight for us!”

  His hand gripped mine, and I pulled backwards, not wanting to be touched by him. But then he gripped me, pulling me into his chest, like he knew that I was seconds away from breaking and as soon as my head hit his chest; I broke.

  The tears suffocating me.

  “I know ya hurting darling,” he whispered in my ear before kissing my cheek. “But I didn’t go willingly. I fought Autumn, but it was hand the patch in, or end up in a body bag.”

  I broke, my hands clenching his shirt. As I shook in tears. Didn’t he get it, that my breathing depended on him being around?

  “I can’t…. I can’t be without you.” All this time this was exactly what I didn’t want. I didn’t want to be attached to him. I didn’t want to love him. I didn’t want this dependence. Yet here I was, shaking in his arms, crying because I was going to lose him.

  I don’t know how long we stayed there, him hugging me, while I broke down and gave him more reasons to leave.

  In the end, I fell asleep on his bed, and woke up to a room, with no brown boxes.

  Chapter Forty

  HAWK

  Two Weeks Later

  “We can’t keep fucking lying to her,” Jacob hissed at me, he was drunk and pissed off. “If she finds out from someone else-”

  “Stop it Jacob, she won’t be finding out shit. She’s basically wiped her hands of the club apart from the gym.”

  “Yeah cause she is running her own operation through it,” he scoffed. “I’m telling you,” he pointed his beer at me, “When the Severed Sons come knocking, Cage will be the one severing our heads for putting her through this,” he scoffed again. “If he hears how sick she is—”

  “Stop it!” I roared at him. “Autumn will get through this. I don’t need a reject of an Enforcer to be the one to fix my family.”

  Jacob rose to his feet. “When are you gonna see it! She ain’t your family. She’s mine. You,” he shoved me on the chest, “killed our father. Killed our mother. And then, when she just finally let someone in you fucking destroyed it!” Jacob was basically foaming at the mouth now, furious with me. We had this argument over and over.

  Jacob was positive that Cage being back with his family, could be our undoing. Severed Sons was Cage’s family club.

  Jacob spat at my foot and gave me a glare before walking off. I was beginning to think that his drinking was becoming a real problem. Couldn’t have him spitting facts like that freely.

  Autumn would get through this. She had been through the loss of her parents. She could over a goddamn man.

  I looked at the time, I needed to check on her.

  Autumn

  They say that depression lifts. That the sun will come out tomorrow. That feelings pass. That life moves on. That you will one day smile again.

  All of this, I knew. But as I looked at the razor. I couldn’t think of one reason not to act.

  Hawk was distant. Even though I should hate him. I didn’t. Cause in the end, I was bad news for Cage. How could I expect a man of strength, like Cage, to be with a woman who can’t even stop from hurting herself? A woman who just feels darkness.

  I blinked, as tears ran down my cheeks. It was numbing, crippling, and as I stared at the razor, my inner wisdom told me it wasn’t the answer. Yet, I picked it up anyway.

  Not because I wanted him back. Not for attention. Not to punish anyone. There was one simple reason why my hand ran that razor down my wrist.

  Because I couldn’t do it anymore.

  I don’t know how long I sat on the bathroom floor for, but I was going in and out of consciousness, one moment by myself, the next, against Hawk’s chest. Another blink of th
e eyes, and Jacob was standing there demanding for me to hold on. I blinked again, now in an ambulance, Jacob squeezing my hand. Hawk so pale.

  If I could have spoken, I would have said, please let me go.

  But my eyes got too heavy, and this time, they didn’t reopen; part of me thought I had gotten my wish for them to let me go.

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