MJ’s POV

“MJ, baby, how the fuck are you?” I felt all the color drain from my face as that sinister voice filled my ears. No…it can’t be. This has to be some kind of joke. There is no way that Jay has Dice’s phone because that would mean he… Oh, I’m gonna be sick.

I gapped as I held my phone to my ear, hearing Jay sigh on the other end of the line. That fucking bastard knew exactly what he was doing, even if he did sound annoyed. Jay was taunting me by simply answering the phone, letting me know that he was in charge and that there was nothing I could do to save Dice. I suddenly felt helpless, just like I had countless times when I was with Malcolm. I wanted to scream at the thought alone and even beg for his mercy, but knowing the family, I knew it wouldn’t do any good. What had he done to Dice? I swear if he hurt her I would find some way to make his life a living hell. Tears stung my eyes at the thought of him doing unspeakable things to my best friend and I wanted him to pay for even being near her.

I took in a shaky breath, fighting the panic and fear that were causing my heart to palpitate as my chest rose and fell rapidly. Did that sick bastard just laugh at me? Oh, there was no doubt that Jay was crazy and this little thing right here, breathing heavily and laughing over the phone, proved it. It was like one of those awful horror movies Dice loved to watch. Call me a wuss but I couldn’t’ stand them. If you were to look at an old picture of us, I was the one screaming and crying under the blanket while Dice laughed her ass off. To this day I wasn’t sure if she had been laughing at the movie or me. Either way, I always warned her not to come crying to me when Freddy Kruger or whoever came after her. Why? ‘Cause I was chicken shit and would undoubtedly be hiding under my bed—obviously the place bad guys couldn’t get you. Everyone knows that and I was still a firm believer of that theory, even at twenty-four.

Too bad hiding under the bed wouldn’t solve this situation. At this moment, I was certain Dice was living in her own personal horror film and Jay was the evil villain. He was the nightmare that wouldn’t go away, that lurked around every corner, haunting your thoughts and scaring the shit out of you. Though I’m sure what she was enduring was much worse than fear, especially if Jay was anything like Malcolm. The thought of Knoxville brothers made my skin crawl. Oh, I was definitely going to be sick. No. Come on, MJ get a hold of yourself. You need to find your nerve and get the upper hand. But how the hell was I going to do that?

“MJ?” Brian’s eyes were etched with concerned as he and Matt watched me from the patio table. I held up my hand to stop him from coming over, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together if he touched me. I was on the edge of breaking down but I had to be strong for Dice right now.

“Where is she?” I hissed, turning my back to the guys knowing they wouldn’t listen. I was running on borrowed time. “I swear to god if you hurt her—“

“Find Duke!” Dice’s scream interrupted after what sounded like a small scuffle.

“Find Duke? What’s going on, Dice? Dice? Hello?” I practically screamed in response, hearing a loud screeching sound before the line went dead. “Oh God, Dice? Dice?” I cried, collapsing to the ground as I hopelessly looked down at my phone. “No. No. No. NO! This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.” I kept repeating, my body shaking as I rocked back and forth. I was terrified for Dice and now the one line of contact we had was gone.

“MJ? MJ breathe. What the hell is going on?” Brian pulled me into his arms, holding me close to his chest as I cried. I could hear Matt pacing nearby, cursing up a storm.

“She-She’s gone!” I sobbed, only to feel my face pulled up to meet Brian’s eyes. A deep crease appeared between his brows as his eyes looked at me intently.

“What do you mean she’s gone? She left?” I shook my head at Brian but obviously Matt didn’t see it because he started yelling.

“What do you mean she fucking left?! Are you kidding me right now?!” Matt raged, now standing next to me, glaring daggers. He angrily ran his hands over his face.

I took in a shaky breath as I tried to calm myself. “No…I-It’s so much worse…”I stammered, trying to wipe the tears from my eyes.

“What can be worse than her leaving yet a-fucking-gain?”

“Jay,” I said softly, the tears still running down my face.

“What. Do. You. Mean. Jay?” Matt spat, his jaw clenched tight. He was really starting to scare me with the increase number of angry outbursts he was having lately. When Matt got like this, he reminded me of Malcolm and I didn’t like that.

“Jay answered her phone…” I whispered as Brian and Matt exchanged a glance. “Then Dice yell and the line went dead…” Oh, it was just as bad to relive a second time and I willed myself not to vomit.

“Fuck!” Matt nervously ran his hand over his head multiple times, pacing again as I held onto Brian. “This is all my fucking fault! If I hadn’t been such a dick last night she wouldn’t have left and he wouldn’t have got her!”

“It’s not your fault,” I said, pulling away from Brian and moving to try and comfort Matt. “Jay is a crazy bastard, I bet if you showed up with her, you’d both be dead. I wouldn’t put anything past him.” I lay a comforting hand on Matt’s arm as he dropped his head pinching the bridge of his nose.

“If that was supposed to make me feel better, MJ. It fucking sucked!” Matt fumed before an unsettling silence fell over the patio. “We can’t just sit around here. We have to fucking get her away from that asshole. I swear when I get my hands on him, I’ll fucking kill him.” He continued after a few moments of pacing.

“Look we know that Red can hold her own,” Brian said, his arm draping over my shoulders in a comforting manner. “But how the hell are we going to find her? That crazy bastard could have taken her anywhere.”

“We’ll hire a private detective,” Matt said as Dice’s last words popped back into my head.

“No, we have to call Duke,” I cut in as I pulled out my phone. I was positive I still had Crimson Dragon’s contact in my phone.

“As in your biker ex-boyfriend Duke?” Brian snorted. “Absolutely fucking not. We’ve got enough of a situation with Dice and we don’t need you sticking your nose back in that biker gang.”

“Gates is right. We should call the cops,” Matt agreed and I rolled my eyes, finding Sam’s name in my phone. She last I knew she was still working the bar that Duke and Ripper’s dad, Trigger, owned. She was the informant and could surely get me a meeting with them.

“No, the cops wont be fast enough. These guys are good and will take care of business quickly and effectively. They are our best bet of getting to Dice before something-something awful happens.” I quickly typed out a message to asking for a meeting, only to receive one seconds later. “Come on, we’ve got to be Grand Terrace in two hours and I still have to get ready.”

“Whoa, what the hell are you talking about you? You are not going to meet those guys, MJ,” Brian said firmly as I walked into the house, grabbing my things from the island. “If anyone is going it will be me and Matt. You’re fucking staying home.”

“Are you serious? You don’t even know where you’re going and if you walk into that bar barking and making demands, you’ll get your ass handed to you,” I snapped. They really had no idea how any of this worked. “Besides you cant get in without me. This is the only way to save Dice, so lets get moving, times’ a wasting!”

Within twenty minutes we were in Matt’s Audi headed towards my hometown, Grand Terrace, California. It was a good hour and a half from Huntington Beach and I only had time to run into Brian’s and change my clothes. Now, if you’re going to infiltrate a biker bar to ask for help from your ex, you better look good and look the part. I had seen that mission fail multiple times when girls would show up in a cute sundress. The regulars ate them alive before they even could ask their request, never to be seen again. Okay, so maybe that was a little drastic, but they ended up turning into the free woman at the bar and that wasn’t about to be me. So of course I went with the most successful route: I was wearing a pair of tight black leather pants, a black lace tank, my old leather Crimson Dragon’s jacket that Duke had given me, and knee high boots. However, I still needed to apply my layer of makeup to officially look the part and cover up my bruises but Brian wasn’t too pleased about all this. He hadn’t said a word to me since we left the house and kept glaring daggers at me from the passenger’s seat, especially when Matt started asking questions.

“Wait, so you guys weren’t in Hell’s Angels?” Matt asked as I put on mascara very skillfully in the car. I had just finished telling them about who we were going to see and what the plan was when we arrived. In the process of revealing my plan, I tried to ignore those angry browns. I just wished he would trust me and relax. I know what I’m doing.

I giggled lightly and shook my head, meeting his eyes in the mirror. “No, we rolled with the Crimson Dragon’s who are just as bad ass as Hell’s Angels, but with less news coverage. They do things more under the table here so the public doesn’t know.”

“I just hope this plan of yours works, Blondie,” he sighed, receiving a scoff from Brian.

“I cant believe we’re fucking doing this. Is all that really necessary?” Brian finally snapped, turning around to look at me as I put on my bright red lipstick.

“What other choice you do we have, Brian? And I’m sorry you don’t approve of my plan or my look but it’s going to work, okay,” I sighed with a small pout, hearing Matt chuckle.

“Of course he likes how you look, Blondie. That’s the problem. He doesn’t want anyone else to get the wrong idea—ow!” I looked up just to see Brian’s fist hit Matt’s arm.

“Shut the fuck up, Shads,” Brian growled, crossing his arms over his chest. What was his problem? Didn’t he want to help Dice? “I need a fucking drink.”

“We’ll we are going to a bar. A bar that her ex’s owns,” I really wished Matt would stop poking the sleeping bear because we both knew he was getting ready to explode. “What bothers you more, Gates, the fact that we are going to a biker bar for help, or the fact that MJ has to talk to her ex?”

“What bothers you more, Shads, the fact that Dice slept with everyone that will be in the bar or that she remembers all of their names?” Brian countered as we got off the exit. Matt’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel from squeezing it so hard.

“Will you two knock it off,” I groaned. “We’re almost there, take a left, Matt. Anyway, so when we get there, you’ll drop me off out front and wait in the car at the edge of the parking lot. I shouldn’t be too long, Sam said she had to squeeze me in.”

“Like hell you’re going in there alone!” Why couldn’t this just be easy? Someone always had something to say to my plans, granted it was usually Dice, but still, always a fucking critic.

“You are going to stick out like a sore thumb,” I closed my eyes and put my hand on my eyebrows. “Plus I don’t know if Trigger and Duke will see me if you two come in.” Though, at least Brian was wearing his scull cap beanie and baggy jeans today and Matt had on a ripped off flannel shirt and a wife beater. Maybe, just maybe, they wouldn’t stick out too badly, that is if they listened to directions. If we were lucky, they might pass as guys trying to get into the club.

“That’s a chance we’re going to have to take, babe. I’ll be damned if one of them lays a hand on you.” Brian climbed out of the car as soon as it stopped in front of Ricco’s Bar and lit up a cigarette, catching the attention of the group of bikers standing on the porch. And there went that idea.

I groaned and leaned my head back against the seat knowing that getting in was going to be hell now. Why couldn’t Brian just stick with the plan I made? Matt was surprisingly very compliant today but also very distant. I assumed he just wanted to make sure Dice was safe and felt guilty about the whole thing. But I didn’t have time to worry about this now, I had to make sure operation infiltrate Ricco’s was successful.

I climbed out of the car and pulled both Brian and Matt over to me. “Now listen carefully so we don’t mess this up. Stay behind me, don’t say anything, don’t make eye contact, and for the love of God, no fast movements.” I sounded brave but internally I felt like I was going to piss myself. I had never walked into Ricco’s alone, let alone without Dice and now here I was trying to get two guys in with me. It was easier for girls to get in to a biker joint, but bringing in two rock stars would be a challenge. “Here we go.”

I took a deep breath and lead the charge up to the wooden front porch. I forced myself to stand up to my full height as I walked, though I would like nothing more than to crumple into a ball. That is until Dice’s words ran through my head, Don’t show them fear or they’ll eat you alive.

As soon as we walked into the bar, I immediately felt like all eyes were on us. It was exactly how I remembered it—dark, musty, rotting wooden floor panels, and with a strong smell of heavy liquor and fried food. The room seemed to stop moving as we stopped in the doorway, all the big men turning to look at us. I swallowed thickly and took in a deep breath. You can do this, MJ. You have to.

“So much for not drawing attention to ourselves,” Matt chuckled behind me, though the smirk instantly fell off his face when the bouncer stopped us.

“What do you think you’re doing here, Blondie?”

“I have a meeting with Trigger and Viper, Ace.” I hoped that was his name. That’s what Dice called him. When I said his name, the big brute took off his sunglasses and looked me up and down before he gave me a small smile.

“MJ, is that you? How the fuck are you, darlin’?” He pulled me into a one armed hug.

“Not great, we’re here for some help for Dice. She’s dug herself a deep hole,” I sighed, glancing over my shoulder at Brian who was scanning the room with a frown.

“Trigger will be able to help,” Ace said, just noticing Matt and Brian. “Who the hell are these guys?”

“Friends and we wont be here long,” I assured him.

Ace shook his head and crossed his arms over his muscular chest. “You better make sure they keep themselves in line, you feel me, MJ?”

“I feel you. Thanks Ace,” I nodded back at the guys and we walked deeper into the establishment, carefully maneuvering our way to the bar so we didn’t bump into anyone. In the biker world, an accidental bump meant you wanted to pick a fight or that you were interested in going to the back room for a romp, neither of which were on the agenda tonight.

As I walked towards the bar, I felt at least three different sets of hands reach out and slap my ass but I just kept walking. I just hoped Brian and Matt were holding themselves together behind me. I just wanted to get to Sam so I could get this over with.

Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed my by the arm, spinning me around. “Hey there, beautiful, where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Viper is looking for me,” I said with a small smile, catching Brian and Matt both standing clenched fists out of the corner of my eye. “Please excuse me.”

“He can wait, can’t he? You look like you could use a drink at my table.” Oh, this guy must not know that Viper is the President’s son.

“I don’t think he’d like that,” I frowned. “It would be a shame if I have to tell him you’re the reason I’m late.” And just like that, the man dropped my arm and stepped away.

“That guy almost hit the floor,” Brian whispered in my ear as we pulled up to the bar. “I sweat if one more of them touches you…” he growled.

“Relax, we’re almost in.”

“In where? We’re in the fucking bar, MJ!” Brian’s eyes met mine and I could see the worry and anger he was hiding there.

“Gates, let’s get a drink.” Thank god Matt still had some wits about him because if Brian kept it up he was going to cause a scene.

“MJ! Is that you?!” I looked up to see a brunette with big tits bouncing up and down behind the bar. “I haven’t seen you in ages! Come here, missy!” Sam pulled me into a rib-crunching hug, swinging me back and forth. “You look beautiful as always and let me just say, Viper looked excited when I told him you were coming in today. You looking to get back together or something?”

“No, just have a favor to ask,” I explained, ignoring the loud scoff behind me. “Dice is in trouble.”

“Shit, what did that bitch get herself into now?” Sam asked, pouring me a Jack on the rocks. “I swear you two have never had a dull moment in life.”

“You can say that again,” Brian muttered, swirling a glass of scotch.

“So who are these very attractive friends you brought with you?” Sam cooed, undressing Brian and Matt with her eyes. “You wouldn’t be interested in sharing, would you, Doll?”

“They’re both taken,” I took a sip, trying to ignore the little glint I saw in Brian’s eyes. Oh, god, please don’t tell me that Zacky was right.

However, I didn’t have time to think about it because seconds later I felt someone spin me around, pick me up, and press their lips firmly into mine. It took all my strength to push the muscular figure away, resulting in me panting when I finally stood back on my own two feet. My eyes traveled up the very muscular chest, to the shoulder length blond hair, and finally meet those dazzling blue eyes that I loved so much back in the day. Now? Nah, I was head over heels for the very jealous man being restrained by Matt behind me.

“Duke,” I said breathlessly.

“And what do I own this pleasure, Miss Mia?” Duke asked, leaning against the bar, looking me up and down. A blush fell over cheeks as he pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Decide to come back and ride with us again? I would love to have you back as my Old Lady.”

“No, I’m not interested in being an old lady,” I giggled, glancing at Brian over my shoulder with a small smile. “I-I need…I mean, we need your help.” Duke’s eyes shot over my shoulder to Brian and Matt before they landed back on me.

He sighed and ran his hands over his face, shaking his head. “Mia look…I don’t know what—“

“It’s Dice,” I interrupted, my eyes begging him. “Please.”

Duke hung his head before glancing over to his brother who had just appeared out of the back room. “Come on, let’s see what we can do. But you owe me, MJ.”

I stood up and followed behind Ripper and Viper, only for them both to stop when they saw Matt and Brian following.

“Just you, Mia. The dudes stay out here.”

Notes