Page 34 of Fury

“My prospect is a patient? You should have led with that first lady. Cannon, do the honors, please.” As we exit the room, we see Cannon scoop Barbara up, bridal style and step out of Whack’s way. Barbara lets out a girly squeal, but I notice she grabs onto Cannon’s neck and has a little smirk of her own going on.

Whack takes a step forward and then sees us. Mateo steps forward and Whack frowns at the sight of his cheek.

“We need an officers' meeting, and I want you, Jamie and Mateo present. Cannon, get it sorted for an hour's time. And put that damn woman down, will you?” Whack shakes his head and turns to leave, but before he does adds, “I’m glad you’re both okay, by the way.”

Cannon tries to put Barbara down, but she just hangs on to his neck, giving him goo-goo eyes the whole time. “I have to go now, Barbara,” he says after looking at her name badge.

She sighs as he places her feet down on the floor. “Well, you just need to come back so we can do that all over again. Maybe in private next time?” I’ve never seen Cannon blush so quickly and so deeply or move so fast as he left the practice.

An hour later, and we are all in the room where we hold Church. Jamie, Mateo and I are very conscious that we have been given seats close to where Pres sits. He calls everyone to order, which is pointless as we are all sitting quietly waiting for him to speak.

“I’m sure you’re all fully aware by now that another attempt has been made on Jamie’s life. A bomb, for Christ’s sake, thrown through her kitchen door in broad daylight. This asshole is either cocksure of himself or a raving lunatic. Bull, what have you found from digging into Jamie’s history. Anything we can use?”

This is where I stand up and must drop a bombshell of my own. Fortunately, I’ve had an hour to talk privately with Jamie, so she is aware of what I’m about to say. I hope everyone else takes it as well as she did.

“Can I just have everyone’s attention for a moment, please? Early this morning, when I left Jamie with Mateo, I had to make a call to Shawn. As you all know, he’s one of my go-to guys, outside of the MC, for information. He’s been trying to find out who is trying to kill Jamie, or who put a contract out on her. He hasn’t come up with a name, but he has got something.”

“For fuck’s sake, stop blabbering on and tell us what he found.” Whack is not a patient man at the best of times, and he didn’t bring any to this meeting, clearly.

“Jamie is the physical target, but I’m the intended victim of all this. Someone wants to hurt me by killing someone close to me, someone that I love.” The silence in the room is deafening, and I look around at all the astonished faces. This has obviously not gone down well. “I can’t for the life of me think who would want to do this, and I’m sorry that Jamie and the rest of you, have got caught up in something I simply don’t understand.”

“You love me?” Jamie says, and I look at her as though she has two heads.

“What?”

“You said you loved me.”

“Did I? When did I say that?” I’m totally off balance with this.

“Just now. You said, someone close to me, someone that I love. Those were your words,” Jamie repeats quietly.

“You did just say that, Fury.” Whack grins as he says this, and I see that everyone in the room has a huge grin on their faces too.

“Well, if that’s what I said, I’m holding myself to it. I love Jamie. I want her kept safe, then as soon as this shit gets put to bed, I think we should make it official, and not just with the club but with the whole world.” I puff my chest out and wait for the comments to fly.

“Well, aren’t you going to ask her if she’s okay with that?” Whack leans back in his chair and raises his eyebrows.

The realization of what he is saying hits me, and I look at Jamie. “I’m not proposing in front of this lot. I’ll do it properly and in a better setting than this. Can you wait for that, Jamie?”

“Yes, I’ll wait, but not for too long. My stalker, assassin, or whatever he is, might get wind of that and try to put a stop to it darn quick.” She tilts her head to one side and seems to be encouraging me to say more or think of something.

“That does not leave this room, understand? Not a whisper. That would put an even bigger target on Jamie’s back.”

“I guess with all this, I’m not going to be allowed to go back to work or stay at my own home? I’ll be a guest of the MC until further notice, is that about right?” Jamie looks around the room, and all the officers nod.

“Okay, we’ll get a room sorted for Jamie at the back of the clubhouse. Nothing that can be seen or targeted from outside of the compound. I want security upgraded for access to the rear, and we start having two-man patrols, too, day and night. Bull, get onto finding out anything from Fury’s past that would explain this. Fury, get your thinking head on and work closely with Bull.”

The door bangs open and Ghost steps in, a bloody knife in one hand, a cell in the other. We can see a body on the floor behind him.

“This could go a long way to helping find our killer,” and he tosses the phone onto the table in front of Bull. “Anya came to me a few moments ago and told me she had seen Floss listening at this door. When I saw her, she was on the phone, whispering to someone. She must have had a sixth sense or something because she ended the call and tried to stick me with this.” He holds up a wicked looking thin stiletto blade. “Unfortunately, instinct took over, and she’s dead. This thing is lethally sharp. It went through her flesh like a hot knife through butter. I’m sorry about that. She could have given us a lot of answers.”

“So, our killer already knows where Jamie is and what we were planning for security measures. Why would Floss be involved in all this? I don’t have any history with her other than the occasional poke.” Realizing Jamie is sitting there listening to all this, I turn to her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t need to throw that out here.”

“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t know, and it’s not going to happen with her again, anyway. Oh, and the killer now knows I’m even more important than I was just an hour ago. I bet she didn’t miss telling him that tidbit.” She shrugs at me and nods at the dead body.

“Find a prospect to get that piece of shit out of here, and we’ll deal with it properly later,” Whack states. “Great. Now we need a Plan B. Bull, get cracking with that phone and see what you can find. I’m not holding out any hope. I’ll bet that one, and that of our killer, are just burners.”

Ghost speaks up again. “Mateo, Jamie, would you give me a helping hand, and we’ll get rid of this right away?” They both go to help, and I step forward, too. “No, Fury, it’s okay. We got this, but thanks.”