Beretta (MC#1)

Chapter 32- Him

It was the quiet feeling to the bar-turned-clubhouse that stirred me uneasy. Just something about the lack of buzz surrounding the gates when we reached them and the dullness of the blinking stars when I tilted my chin skywards.

"Doesn't something feel off?"

"Must be the lack of the beautiful women usually vying for you, VP", Rocket walked away grinning but I found humour in nothing and the reason all the club strippers steered clear of me was nowhere among the welcome wagon assembled outside the gates.

Then I realised, it wasn't something about the clubhouse or the sky- it was me. And the lack of her.

"Blaze, church in 10", Prez approached. Don tailing him as per usual gave me a once-over that seemed odd. And the duo seemed tenser than usual.

"Yeah. But have you...um, seen Rose?", he stiffened as he and Don exchanged a look. "I mean, I was just asking cause usually she's here and-"

"We can discuss in church", was all he said walking away.

What.the.fuck?

I jogged after him and the area above my heart tingled uneasily at the thought of what this could mean. Did they send her to scout? To speak to allies?

"Prez, where is she?"

"I told you we-"

"NO! Tell me, where is she?", I stared him down, "Where?"

He only stared as the rest of the men crowded into the room and stiffened at the sight of us locked in a staring match. In that moment all my thoughts quietened to just one. Where, where, where?

"Crow got Ghost and Shadow. He sent a message but Beretta intercepted it before he could bring it here and-", Prez side- stepped me and walked towards his chair on the table, "-she went to him willingly"

He looked at me as he said that while everyone else stared at him open-mouthed and horrified. They easily visualised a fragment of what I felt while I had difficulty even thinking over the ringing in my ears.

"WHAT?", Psycho snarled as he jumped from his seat and gathered his weapons all while glaring at Don. Hound and Maddog sprung up behind him, following suit.

"She left us some instructions in case her plan backfires", he motioned Psycho to take his seat. "According to her, the organisation Crow runs needs to be destroyed from within to ever have a chance of killing the man...We must wait for further information via channels set up by people Beretta trusts but for now-" Prez stole a quick glance at me as I struggled to breathe through the coldness eating through my chest, "For now, we wait"

Men wearing various degrees of pitying expression passed me by, none daring to touch me and something in my expression must've communicated my alarm because Don and Prez rushed forward.

"How could you?", I managed to grit . All I could think was Rose, her beauty and her bravery and the fierceness to live that she instilled in me. The way her hair always went wild with the wind as she shrieked from the back of my motorcycle, the way she always put others' safety before hers. And her eyes as she confessed she loved me.

"I didn't know. I only received her message a few hours later."

For one moment we all stood still as the situation dawned completely. Now, it was Beretta Rose Kingston against a self-proclaimed Underworld God.

I'll wait for you, she'd said. No matter what anyone says.

Prez and Don each gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze and I only realised I'd fallen to my knees when a drop of moisture splattered on the wooden floor below my gaze.

I swung my head up but found no seeping areas in the pristine ceiling.