Warlords MC – The Complete Series
Warlords MC: Book 5 – Joker : Chapter 8

Shay looked over at Ace and shook his head. “That girl comes with an awful lot of baggage. I hope he realizes that.”

“We all have baggage Shay,” Ace told him. “Just some more than others.” He paused then asked, “Are you really going to check on her grandpa?”

“Yeah, and I’m gonna check on the whereabouts of Jared Davis. I have a feeling he’s still around somewhere.” Shay nodded.

“When you replace him, rap him in the mouth for me will ya?” Ace asked him. “The hell he’s put her through, he deserves it.”

Shay glanced down the hall and had to agree with him.

Deuce stepped up to him and handed him a folded sheet of paper.

When Shay opened it, his eyes widened as he checked out the tracking system they peeled from Rowen’s shoulder this morning. He looked up at Deuce and the boys. “Now where in the hell would a biker like Grinder get his hands on something like this?”

“Good question,” Deuce said. “That’s what you get to figure out.”

Shay nodded. “I’ve seen this before or something very close to it. Only not here in the United States. This is something I’ve only seen in Saudi Arabia. Something only the royal family has access too as far as I knew.”

Joker placed Rowen on the bed and turned to leave but when he would have turned away, she reached out to grab his hand. “Can you stay with me for a while? I don’t want to be alone right now.”

Joker met her eyes. “Yeah baby girl, I can stay,” he said softly. He toed off his boots and laid down beside her.

She curled up at his side and laid her head on his chest. “Why do I feel so much at home here?” she whispered. “Something I haven’t felt since my parents were alive.”

“I think it’s this house,” he answered. When she snorted, he argued, “No I mean it. A year or so back, I came here looking for someone, actually it was a trail for a case we were working on. Some asshole picked a fight with me over Charli when she was working in the local diner here. And he got the drop on me.” …..

…..Charli screamed as Andy pulled her back and she dropped the plate in her hand. “Let me go you fool!” she shouted, as she struggled to get free of his hold.

Andy was pissed. “No you little whore, I won’t let you go. You don’t get to flirt with everyone else but me. You don’t get to ignore me without consequences. I’m tired of being the dirt on your shoe. You are gonna treat me the way I demand from now on.”

Charli fought with him the whole time. “I told you years ago, I wanted nothing to do with you, motherfucker. You just don’t listen. You don’t give a rats’ ass about me and you know it.”

“Yeah, I know it but you see, you never gave me the respect I demand either. You look at me like I was nothing in this town. Well, bitch, I am something, and I want respect from you and from everybody else.” He grabbed her face and turned her head to his. “Now, show me your respect, you little tease.” He lowered his mouth to hers and tried to kiss her but Charli bit his lower lip hard.

Andy screamed in pain and shoved her to the floor. His hand went to cover the blood running down his chin from her bite. He raised his foot as if he were going to stomp on her when he was tackled and thrown to the floor on the other side of the table.

“What the absolute fuck?” Andy shouted.

The table was shoved out of the way, chairs were moved as the other three men scattered to get free of the melee.

Charli scrambled to get away from the two men as well.

Breathing heavy, the two men stared at one another Andy on his back and Joker kneeling over him holding to his collar.

Andy got to his knees as he waited for Joker to make his next move. Joker let Andy go and the two men got to their feet staring one another down

Joker wasn’t even breathing heavy but he never lost eye contact with the man he faced. “Come on you fucking coward. You can’t mistreat a woman smaller than you, how about someone more your own size?”

“This ain’t none of your business, you fucking biker. Back off.” Andy growled. “She almost bit my lip off.”

“She should have bit your dick off,” Joker laughingly argued.

“Fuck you!” Andy screamed as he swung his fist at Joker. His face was red as his rage built up and he missed with the first punch. But his second and third swing caught Joker’s arm and jaw. He hit the other man with the second and third punches but Joker also got in a couple good hits.

As the fight went on, Andy was losing ground quickly and he knew it. He screamed at his friends to get him.

Token came around the back side of Joker and Charli tripped him. Token hit the floor hard and he kicked out at her. His foot hit her in the belly and knocked her breath out. She was gasping for breath when Token and Banger got into place as he grabbed Joker’s hair and held it tight.

Andy came up to the other man. Wiping the blood from his face, he glared at Joker. “Not so big now, are you motherfucker?” He sneered. Blood was running down his face from the cut above his right eye and the broken nose Joker had given him. His right eye was black and swollen and he had a bruise on his left jaw.

“Yeah well, I don’t need three other boys to get the better of you. I was doing just fine all on my own.” Joker snarled.

Andy lost what little control he had left at the other man’s statement. Reaching into his pocket, he brought out the switchblade he always carried. Flicking open the blade.

Charli got up and shouted, “Don’t hurt him Andy, you don’t need to hurt him!”

Andy slowly turned his head to glare at her, “No bitch I don’t need to hurt him, I need to kill him. I need to kill this motherfucker to send a message to you and everyone in this town not to mess with me.” He turned back to Joker and said, “Go to hell and burn in hell’s fire.” With that, he stabbed the other man in the belly four times. Each stab was hard and lethal.

Joker fell after the third strike, first to his knees but Token and Bangor and Chewy still held him up as much as they could. They looked shocked at Andy’s actions almost as much as Andy himself was.

Andy stopped at the fourth strike then gazed up at his friends. The rage seemed to fall away and he looked almost sick at the sight of the blood staining his hands…..

Joker finished his story, “Then Charli took me and dragged me out the back. I think? I was out, so I don’t recall. Then I woke up in the hayloft in her barn. She hid me from Andy, so he wouldn’t try to finish the job. She took care of me and saved my life.”

Rowen stared at him looking astonished by his story. “Then…”

He shrugged. “My brothers showed up. They thought I was dead. They followed her here and she informed them that I was indeed alive. Took me months to get back to normal. And I hear what you’re saying about this place, I felt it too. And that feeling hasn’t gone away. My brothers and I have lived all over the world as our dad was in the military. We joined as soon as we could too, and we all served at some point. We made our home in Wyoming. But my brothers came here to replace me and we just never left.”

“And Ace… well. You weren’t interested in Charli?” Rowen wanted to know.

Joker chuckled. “Not like that. Ace claimed her but she claimed him as well. Those two fought like crazy at first until she finally straightened his ass out. When we first got here, she lived here with her grandpa. He was a wise old man and he loved her. When he was killed it hurt us all. There are more of us Warlords in Wyoming but we settled here.”

“Do you know who the man is that brought me here?” she finally asked. “I never did get to see him but I would like to thank him for getting me out of that place.”

“His name is Traven but we don’t know if that’s his real name or not. He’s Luna’s brother. You met her earlier today. He’s on our side too.” He shrugged. “Maybe one day, he’ll join us, I know Luna would like that and I’m hoping he will too.”

“So what kind of MC are you guys anyway?” she dared to ask. “Do you move drugs and guns or something else?”

Joker stared down at her but she wouldn’t look back until he caught her chin and raised her head. “We don’t run drugs, guns or anything else. We spent the last four years hunting down a very bad group of men and we brought them down recently. We aren’t sure exactly what we’re going to be doing here anymore but whatever it is, it will be legit.” He paused then said, “We hate the fact that there are bikers like Grinder out there. He gives all of us a bad name.”

“What’s going to happen to me?” She suddenly panicked as she thought about leaving. She felt safe here and she didn’t want to give that up.

“We won’t let anything happen to you,” Joker assured her. “That’s not how we roll. We’ll make sure you’re safe.”

Rowen wrapped her arms around his waist as if to hold on to him. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent. It was woodsy and fresh… she liked it. She’d never smelled this scent before and she never wanted to forget it.