Matt’s POV

“Where the hell is she going now?” I raged, watching MJ pinch the bridge of her nose as Dice rode off with those bikers.

I was really starting to think she had a death wish, and while part of me loved her wild side, the other was ready to strangle her. Did she not realize what she just went through? Was she not kidnapped by some deranged fuck? Dice should be at the fucking hospital, not risking her life in the streets of Vegas. God I was pissed. I just hoped she knew what she was doing because I was getting fucking sick of playing this cat and mouse game.

“She went to the race track…” Blondie massaged her temples as she pulled out a smoke. Trust me if MJ was stressed out about this, imagine how I fucking felt. Dice was supposed to my girlfriend after all and I was ready to kill her myself.

“Great!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air and I pacing the busy sidewalk. “Where is this fucking track because I swear I’m going to drag her back to Huntington Beach by her hair!” I wasn’t lying either—I would do it if she wouldn’t come willingly.

Gates chuckled and I turned on him with a glare. “What the fuck is your problem, Gates? You cant be taking her side on all of this!”

Gates shrugged and kicked away the cigarette butt between his fingers. “I just think you should save the foreplay for the bedroom.” Oh he could wipe that smirk off his face. So now this all was a fucking joke? Oh, I didn’t know how much more of this I could take before I was pushed over the edge. Right now I was so close to jumping that it wasn’t even funny, and you better be damn sure that I would take all these assholes with me. “It’s her fucking life and I think after what she just went through that she deserves a little bit of fun. Hell, I know I would…”

I turned around to look at him again with an angry glare. “You can’t be fucking serious?” I scoffed, pulling out my own pack of smokes. MJ was glaring at him too. Well, she wasn’t as dumb as she looked then.

“I am,” Gates shrugged. “If someone kidnapped me, held me hostage for days, and then I beat the shit out of the bitch that helped keep me there, I would wand to go out and plastered and forget everything too. You can’t blame her for that.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, not believing my ears. My best friend was on Dice’s side. Well, fuck him. “Just let her have some fun and she’ll come back.”

“Brian is right…” MJ said softly, my angry gaze falling on her next. “If we keep pushing her, she’ll shut us all out. We just have to let her deal with this her own way and give her some space. Dice will come around…she always does.”

So she had done shit like this before? Shit. That is not what I wanted to hear right now. I wanted to make sure that she was safe and that certainly wherever she was now with the bikers. Where the hell even was that? For all I knew, they were beating her up for backing out of the gang in the first place. I had to find her, plain and simple.

“Where is the fucking race track?” I growled, clenching my teeth. I turned to look at MJ who blew out a cloud of smoke and chewed her bottom lip, pissing me off even more.

“I don’t know…it changes…” she basically whispered, looking like it was the last place she wanted to go. Fuck, now we had to go. If MJ was nervous about it then it wasn’t a place I wanted Dice to be.

“Well is there anyway you can, I don’t know….find out?” I snapped, earning a glare from Gates. What? She wasn’t giving me the information I needed and if I had to scare it out of her, that’s what I would do. I couldn’t let Dice fucking run these streets. “I’ll be damned if she is going back to that biker gang!”

“About that…” MJ looked up at me with a sad look on her face. “She…kind of already asked Duke to be back in?”

“What?!” Gates and I both yelled, causing MJ to jump and pinch her eyes shut.

“What do you mean she rejoined the gang?” Oh, if I wasn’t seeing red before, I certainly was now.

Blondie nodded slowly and let out a long sigh. “I don’t know what to tell you besides that they told her she was back in. I tried to stop her…I really did but you know how she is—“

“A stubborn and pigheaded ass?” Gates finished for her, shaking his head. Good, maybe he was back on my side where he belonged.

“Yeah…so maybe we should just let her come back to us. I think chasing her around Vegas will only piss her off…” MJ looked down at the ground as she spoke, knowing that I wasn’t going to listen.

“Find out where the race is MJ, I swear to God,” I raged. “Someone needs to talk some sense into her—“

“Matt, I don’t—“

“JUST DO IT!” I screamed before walking away down the street. I had to get away from her before I literally strangled her pretty little neck. She was really pissing me off and I couldn’t believe that she let Dice do any of this. Wasn’t she her best friend? I was so angry that I couldn’t think straight.

MJ’s POV

I chewed my bottom lip as Matt stormed away. I hated when he got all worked up like this because he didn’t listen to anyone. Dice would be fucking pissed if I showed up with Matt, crashing her party. I didn’t want to be on her bad side, and going to the track would certainly earn me that title. That’s not even mentioning what might be going on at the track…The guys didn’t need to see that.

“We should just go back to the hotel room,” I said quietly as Brian pulled me into his arms. “Dice needs her space…” I insisted, my eyes meeting his.

Brian sighed and looked down the street after Matt. “I know…but Shadz wont fucking relax until he is by her side. You’ve seen him this whole trip, he’s been on the edge and I don’t know how much more he could take,” he said honestly and I knew he was right.

“She’s not going to like this…” I sighed, my eyes following his gaze.

“I know, but he needs to deal with this his way, just like Dice needs to deal with it hers,” he shrugged, knowing just as well as I did that Matt would unleash Dice’s inner monster. “If this blows up in his face, then it’s his problem.”

“Can’t we just tell him I couldn’t find out?” I begged, pouting slighting in hopes that it would save Brian from seeing the Race or Die scene too. They raced for more than just cars over there—drugs, money, women, you name it they bet it.

“Do you want to pay for the damages to the hotel room? Make the call.”

“I’ll call Duke…” I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and found his number under my ‘do not call list’. Brian’s eyes burned a whole in the side of my head as I put the phone up to my ear. Listen here buddy, you told me to find out where the races were being held so don’t you give me that look.

“I was wondering how long it would take you to call, sweet lips,” Duke’s low timbre answered and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Couldn’t he take a hint? “Where do you want me to pick you up?”

“I’m not calling about that,” I sighed, turning away from those dark eyes. He told me to make the call. “Where are you guys? Where are the races?”

“Why? You got something you want to bet?” Duke laughed. “I know I’ve got something…”

“Please, Duke.” I looked up to see Matt coming back down the street, his eyes on me. “We need to know.”

“I love it when you beg, baby,” he laughed again. “Call me that name you used to call me way back then—“

“Duke…” I groaned, Brian holding out his hand for the phone. I held up my hand to him and took a step away. “Please.” My tone was almost desperate now. I couldn’t believe I was begging to find out the location where I didn’t actually want to be. This was all a disaster waiting to happen and Dice would undoubtedly blame me in the end. Ugh, why was I doing this again?

“Fine,” he sighed, his voice full of disappointment. “But you owe me when you get here….We are on the west side track. You remember where that is?”

Fuck, the west side track was were the really dirty and sketchy things went down. I remembered the last time I was there when some guy tried to get Duke to bet me in a race. Imagine how well that went over? Oh, the guys really didn’t need to see this hell hole called Race or Die…

“Yeah…thanks,” I said before hanging up the phone.

“You got it,” Matt and Brian asked and I nodded sadly. Oh this wasn’t going to end well.

Twenty minutes later we pulled up at track on the outskirts of the city. There was a line of cars as far as I could see and people standing all over doing their dealings. I nervously ran my fingers through my hair, looking around for Dice. The sooner we got this shit show over with, the quicker we could leave and move on.

Brian took my hand as we followed behind Matt toward the crowd and the smell of burning rubber. The sounds of cheers, fights, and screaming filled the area and to my horror as we approached I saw a familiar mop of red hair being dragged away from a laughing man.

“You fucking cheating bastard! Rematch!” Dice screamed as we approached. Thank god Ripper was holding her back because she looked like she was ready to kill the dark skinned man.

“Haha you keep telling yourself that sweetheart, that black beauty is mine fair and square!” he laughed, swinging a set of keys around his finger and walking back towards a very familiar looking Mustang.

“What the hell is going on?” Matt yelled, charging over towards Dice and Ripper who still hadn’t let her stand on her own two feet. Dice was struggling to get free and to do some major damage to the guy walking away with her beloved car.

“That’s my fucking car and I want it back you asshat!” she continued to scream. She looked like she was on the verge of losing it as Matt reached her and pulled her thrashing body away from Ripper. “I want my car back! It’s all I fucking have left!”

“Dice!” She continued to thrash but he refused to let her go, all eyes turning to watch the scene in front of us.

“Let me go! It’s mine! I’ll pay anything you want for it!” You could hear the emotion in Dice’s voice as she yelled, and I had never heard her voice shake so badly in all my life. I also had never seen her so close to losing it, well, not since we were kids. Must be losing the car for a second time in combination with what happened was too much for her to handle.

Matt pulled Dice tight into his chest, carefully holding her. “Dice, it’s okay. I’ll get it for you, please…just relax.” Brian and watched as he head snapped up to look at Matt like she just realized he was there for the first time. She gapped at him for a moment before collapsing into his chest. “Shh….let’s go home. I’ll make everything okay—“

“I’m not fucking going home with you, don’t you get that?” Dice suddenly snapped pushing him away. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“What the hell are you talking about? We came to get you!” Matt yelled back and ducked into Brian side. Oh, this is what I was afraid of. “What the hell is your problem.” Matt took a step toward her and grabbed her arm and I held my breath. This was light a nightmare in the making.

“You’re my fucking problem!” she growled, ripping her hand away and glaring at Matt. “Get the hell out of here! All of you!” And there were those fierce greens glowering at me. Fuck, I knew I would be in trouble for this. “It’s race or die and I don’t see you betting anything! Get lost.”

“You heard the lady,” Ripper said, stepping in between a gapping Matt and Dice. “You need to get back to town where you belong.”

“Come on, Shadz,” Brian took a step away from me towards Matt, grabbing his arms.

“I cant believe I’m saying this but listen to Gates. Go back to Huntington Beach and move on,” Dice said with narrow eyes, glaring at him. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I wouldn’t believe that she had shown a moment of weakness moments before. This was Batman talking now, not Lucy Reed that slipped out for a few moments of weakness.

“Fuck no, get out of my way,” Matt dodged around the Ripper and pulled Dice back to him, but she haled off and slapped him across the face. “I’m not leaving you here, Dice!”

“I. Don’t. Want. To. Be. With. You!” Dice hissed, getting up in his face. Matt shook his head and took a step towards her. I shifted nervously, not understanding what was going on. They looked like they were about ready to kill each other and I couldn’t believe they were doing all this so openly.

“So you lied when you said you loved me?” Matt’s voice was suddenly soft and Brian groaned and ran his hand over his face next to me. I looked over at him and he slowly started to pull me away but not before I heard Dice break Matt’s heart.

“No…I don’t. Now go,” I looked over my shoulder to see Matt hang his head. He slowly shook his head and walked over toward Duke, whispering something and handing him something from his wallet. Duke nodded and then walked down the track.

“Matt—“ I said when he joined us but he just held up his hand to stop me.

“Don’t…I don’t need to hear it. Let’s just get out of here,” he sighed and I have never seen him look so lost.

A week later I found myself pacing Dice’s small house, picking up everything that had been out of place and putting it away. I still hadn’t see my red headed best friends since the night at the races but Duke let me know she was okay. She even called me a few times with updates on her Dragon’s tasks that she had been on. Even though she claimed to be happy, I couldn’t deny t that something seemed very off with our group dynamic. Every thing was too quiet and there was just something about Dice’s tone that wasn’t normal. I was pretty sure she was trying to hide how miserable she actually was.

I moved over though the kitchen and put the new tray of chocolate covered bananas in the freezer, hoping that she would be home soon. She couldn’t stay in Vegas forever and would have to come home and face reality soon, especially since Johnny had been riding my ass to get her back on shift. You try telling your boss that your best friend had gone rouge again but she would be back eventually. Yeah, it doesn’t go over very well.

As I picked up the rest of the kitchen, I heard the familiar sound of Harley’s outside. Well, that could only mean one thing. And sure enough, a few moments later, Dice came through the front door with her arms full of shopping bags.

“Home sweet home!” she called but froze as soon as she saw me standing in the threshold. “What the hell are you doing here?” Dice asked, but she couldn’t hide her smile. I quickly darted across the room and pulled her into a hug just as Ripper came in the door behind her.

“Hey MJ,” Ripper smiled, saluting me. I nodded back before he turned and headed back out the door. “I’ll see you later tonight, Dice.”

“Thank god you’re home!” I sang, moving back and forth with her in my arms and ignoring her silent conversation with Ripper. “I was going crazy without you.”

“You’re such and idiot,” she chuckled, pushing me away and looking around the house. “What did you do, clean the whole place? Shouldn’t you beg in la casa del Gates?”

I shrugged moving around the island and resting my elbows on the counter. “He’s busy recording with the guys. They are just putting the finishing touches on it. We could go by the studio if you want…”

“No, I’m staying home and reacquainting my ass with that couch,” Dice announced before moving and jumping over the back and landing with a dull thud. Her cuts and bruises looked much better but she still looked pretty rough. “You make me any food? I’m fucking starving!”

“Would I be Mia Johnson if I didn’t?” I laughed, pulling out a few chocolate covered bananas and passing them over in a bowel.

“You are fucking amazing, MJ, really….but what are you really doing here?” She was smart and I would give her that.

“Cant I be here to help out my best friend in the world who I thought may have been dead?” I offered but she shot me a pointed look with those piercing green eyes. The look almost burned.

I sighed and moved over next to her on the couch, gently putting my hand on hers. She raised a brow at me before he eyes got really wide. “Oh my god, Gates fucking knocked you up, didn’t he?” she gasped and my jaw dropped.

“No…no I’m not pregnant!” I gasped in horror, my face bright red. I shook my head at the thought and then sighed.

“Then why so fucking serious? You know I hate this shit. Pass me the remote, I think Hoarders is on!” She just didn’t get this did she? Or did she forget she was kidnapped and was running rouge around Vegas. “Fine, if you wont do it…I will.” Dice climbed over me because I obviously didn’t respond fast enough.

“Dice…I’m worried about you…” I said just as the door burst open. I turned to see three familiar faces entering the room and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, fuck me…”

Notes