by V. Theia
The chair went out from underneath him as he stood, pushing it back with force, it bounced into the wall.
Hawk didn’t look at all surprised as he flipped his bottomless death-like eyes up at him and rose at a slower pace.
Hawk knew him. Inside and out.
Could anticipate Rider’s every move.
Proving it by asking. “We gonna go kill them then?”
“Yes.” Rider answered without hesitation.
Yeah, he was gonna kill them all.
Cut off the beast’s head before it could grow into a nightmare again.
His job wasn’t fun. It was following through with decisions no one else wanted to. The bad and the downright despicable decisions.
And he’d keep killing until every person who got the smart idea to put on a Raging Rebels cut in the future, sending a message they were taking their last breaths if that was their choice.
It would leave no one alive to put Hades’ organization into fruition again.
Not a worshipper of that mad fuck.
Relative, son or brother.
He’d kill them all without care.
Meeting Hawk’s eyes, he saw his VP and friend were on the same page.
“Do I need to call in the others?”
“No.” he answered, “you and me.”
“Fine by me. Let me call Gia.” Killing was nothing for Hawk, just like picking steak out of his teeth. And for once, Rider was grateful for his VP’s give no fucks attitude with ending a life.
He had to make a call too to Zara, and then to make sure Pretty-Boy could stay with her at the house. Fuck. His parents were there too.
And his father would smell trouble a mile off.
Dragging hands through his hair, Rider caught it in a messy heap and tied it back off his face. Hawk stepped out of the church to call his old lady, so Rider grabbed his phone and connected with his girl within a few rings.
Her voice, sweet as candy, went through him, hitting him square in the heart.
She was the other half of him; he did not doubt it.
If a man lacking in scruples and unethical as him could deserve her, then he knew she was his soulmate.
“My biker-man,” she smiled with her voice. “Only thirteen days, wheeee!”
He grinned. Fucking loved this woman until he ached with want for her. “Icy-baby, gonna be a few hours yet, need to take a ride, you good there? Have you and the kids' eaten dinner?”
“What haven’t we eaten?” She chuckled, and he smiled, hearing her happiness. She’d settled in the last few hours. That made his decision the right one. Nothing he wouldn’t give for her peace. “Your mom baked cookies with Harper, and I tried every one of them. I feel sugar sick. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, baby. I’ll let you know when I’m home. You don’t have to wait up for me.” He knew she would, and he wanted her waiting for him so he could hold her. “Hey, Zara?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Love you. You know that?”
She paused on the other end, the silence palpable in his ear, as if gauging his words and why he was saying it now. Then replied in a hot croak. “I love you, Ambrosio, more than ever. Is something wrong?”
“Not a thing. Marrying my girl, aren’t I?”
She chuckled lightly, “even if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming.”
“Hardly, been wanting it for a long time. Listen, can you put Mad-dog on the phone?”
“Rider…” he probably should have called Ajax directly; she knew he never voluntarily talked to his father unless he had to. Now she was suspicious. “Something is going on.” She whispered because his parents were somewhere in the background.
“There’s no danger, baby. Tell you when I’m home,” he repeated. “Mad-dog, Zara.”
“Okay.”
The next voice on the line was jagged in tenor.
They’d made some inroads into changing their father-son relationship since the kids came along, but they were never going fishing or doing other father-son shit. It wouldn’t suit either of them. Rider had Uncle Jed for that stuff.
“What’s up, Rider?”
“I gotta go on a ride for a few hours. Can you and mom make an excuse to stay there with Zara and the kids? Don’t freak her out. Act like you’re tired or some shit.”
Which was gonna be a big stretch seeing as their house was only a few blocks away, and they could walk it home.
There was stillness and then the sound of a door closing. “Okay, I’m outside. What the fuck is going on? Do I gotta hop in the truck?”
Rider laughed. Some tightness in his chest loosened at the thought of his aging father, a once-renowned biker VP, hardass extraordinaire, rolling into battle alongside him.
“Nah, need you at the house. Pretty-Boy will be outside too. Nothing is happening. Just feel better knowing someone is there with Zara. She saw a Raging Rebels the other day.”
“The fuck!” His father cursed.
“Yeah. A new branch forming in Hades’ footsteps. I talked to them already, supposedly innocent, but my gut says differently.”
The slew of expletives to come out of his father was fast-paced. Rider let him go on for a second. “You gonna stay at the house?”
“Of fuckin’ course I am. That girl is my family too, Rider. You’re getting rid of them?”
“Yes.”
“Good, Son.”
He hated that his father’s praise all this time later still had the power to warm his chest. Behind him, he felt Hawk’s presence come back into the room. “I gotta go. Be home in a few hours.”
“Watch your six.”
They disconnected.
Hawk held two hunting knives and two of the club guns that were usually locked in his office. He offered the guns to Rider, who took them and put them in the back of his jeans after checking they had magazines. He’d take spares with him.
Climbing onto their bikes, the only time the pair stopped on the long ride in the next two hours was for a piss break.
Get in.
Get it done.
It was his only aim.
A prez rarely had the fun jobs.
It would be another stain on his already murky soul.
For love, he’d do anything.
For his Zara, he’d raise Hell.
TEN
“Going back in time to repeat the fun.” – Hawk
Only thirteen members, the Rebels new leader had claimed.
For anything else, he might have found a different direction. One that was less problematic for his club.
But this was about Rider’s old lady.
This was personally unforgivable how someone had put that cold fear inside her once more.
Innocent until proven guilty meant nothing in his world.
His gut told him guilty.
His fucking heart said guilty.
And his hunch was right when he and Hawk approached the shed on silent feet, having parked their bikes several blocks away.
“Listen.” Hawk mouthed outside of a back window, indicating to the voices they could hear from inside.
The darkness of night shrouded their approach. While Rider did the talking yesterday, Hawk’s watchful gaze had scouted out any security systems and saw none. It was going to make this easier if they didn’t need to wipe the videotape.
“Talked to the boss earlier,” that was Robert’s voice addressing his men.
The boss? Who the fuck was he if not the boss?
“He wants us to push through Denver. Westbank, especially Armado. Go hard, you hear? You don’t leave if you still have product.”
He and Hawk shared a fucking knew it glances.
“But for the love of God, use your goddamn heads this time, don’t wear your cuts. We don’t want anything to lead back to us, you listening? Next time I have to deal with Marinos before the boss is ready to and pretend like I’m a simpleton, I’ll fucking gut you.”
There was a grumble of agreement.
&n
bsp; Then Robert started dishing out orders for selling their cocaine and Molly. They planned to hit nightclubs, colleges, and bars in his territory.
Some jackass was trying to make a name for themselves in his city.
What Rider saw when he peered through the filthy window was a crate in the middle of their table. Robert was handing out packages and instructions on which town to hit. If he had to guess, they had the street value of half a million bucks’ worth of hard drugs there.
It took seconds for him and Hawk to put silencers on their guns.
Hawk liked the up close and personal approach, he preferred to see a man suffer as death came to collect him. But they were going in hard and fast while these men were in one place.
The element of surprise worked in their favor once Hawk picked the pitiful locks.
Pop.
Pop.
Pop!
It wasn’t even a surprise how well or how fast it happened.
Rider advanced with a solid stride, the pair watching each other’s back in the same way they’d done for years. Robert cowering on the floor, drugs spilled everywhere. Hawk did a walk around, making sure bodies were dead.
Pop.
Pop.
Pop!
“You disappoint me, Robert. What was it you said, you didn’t want Marinos back here again? Well, surprise, bitch. I’ll let you into a secret. If it looks like it stinks, and it stinks, then you know what, Robert? It fucking stinks. And you have a stench all over you.”
Hawk grunted, letting him know they had to get out of there.
“Please. Meant nothing by it. It was a job. A fucking job. I don’t deserve to die.”
“Oh, but I think you did mean it. Now, who the fuck is your boss?”
The guy crouched on the floor like he had no fucking spine. Some prez he made. “Will you let me live if I tell you? I ain’t got any loyalty to him. It was just for the money, you know? He said if we wore these cuts and sold his shit, he’d pay us ten G’s each.”
“You didn’t reform the Rebels?”
“Nah, man. This bastard approached me and my cuz a few months back in a bar, said if we did this, he’d set us up for life selling coke and Molly. He told me we could make big money, but we had to start here and then move it through Armado Springs. I wasn’t meant to get seen by you, not yet. Not until we flooded your city.” With Hawk holding a gun on Robert, Rider crouched down, unfazed by the smell of iron blood around him.
Some would say it made him evil. But who fucking cared?
Reaching into Robert’s inside pocket, he yanked out his cell phone. The pathetic guy didn’t even have it passcode protected, and he scrolled to the recent calls. Several rows to the same number under Boss.
“This him?”
“Yeah, yeah. That’s the boss. He laid it all out. We’re innocent.”
“Not so much, Robert, not so much.”
“Please, Rider, you don’t gotta do this. I can work for you, be a double agent. I know stuff.”
Hawk pushed the silencer to Robert’s forehead as the man whimpered and lost his bladder, stinking the place up with the smell of ammonia. Rider stepped a few feet away and hit call on the number.
A voice answered with one barked word, and Rider hung up.
Fire burning through his chest wall.
He gave the nod to Hawk without even glancing his way.
Another Pop! And the two of them headed to the door. Hawk already had a cylinder of gas out of his pocket. He sprayed it like confetti.
So much Déjà vu from the first Raging Rebels raid years ago.
The pair changed clothes, burning the ones they’d been wearing, while the shack behind them crackled and ignited in seconds.
They didn’t rush.
Didn’t celebrate.
But when they approached their Harley’s, Rider threw his leg over his first, followed by Hawk, who asked, “well? Who are we gunning for next?”
“Take a guess.”
It took Hawk only a second. “You’re fucking with me?”
Rider laughed, a dark unfunny sound because Hawk knew without being told, and he cursed the air blue.
“Bold motherfucker.”
“Maybe so. But as we know, Rex is not smart.”
Not at all.
And he’d be dead very soon.
Rider theorized if Rex couldn’t get the Souls back for himself, then he’d make damn sure someone else pushed them out of the limelight as Plan B. At least, he’d tried to. He was already gonna kill him. Now he’d do it with fucking joy in his heart for what he’d tried to do here.
He’d been so desperate for any sense of power again, he’d partnered with the devil.
As with all devils, there was only one place to send them.
If Rider had any forgiveness in him, Rex made sure he’d eliminated it.
He was going to fucking love this more than he should.
ELEVEN
“A psycho misses all the fun.” - Lawless
Wedding: T-minus 12 days.
“I leave you alone for five minutes and look at the fun you’re having without me,” smirked Lawless, sitting across the white Formica table from Rider.
There were vending machine coffees in front of them, along with empty Pop-tarts wrappers, Rider had fished out of the machine for Lawless.
“Shit like that never stays gone for long. Knowing Hades, he has kids growing as we speak who will take up the mantle in fifteen years,” remarked Lawless with a click of his tongue. “Knox will have his hands full one day.”
Rider didn’t disagree. The life of a club prez wasn’t an easy one, nor was it a quiet life. If his son wanted to have the gavel one day, he’d need to know it wasn’t rainbows and days at the park. The work was grueling. But if Rider could do all he could now, then one day, it would be an easier—safer life for his kids. Rider didn’t want Knox to have to do the shit he’d done over the years to get where he was now. Compared to more than a decade ago, life was better. And it would keep going that way as long as Rider did the dirty work.
“Won’t that be a fun day when the spawn of Hades turns up,” joked Rider with a sour taste in his mouth. “I’ll have plenty of bullets to welcome them.”
“Count me in. I need a decent bloodbath.”
“Prison life getting to you?”
“It was getting to me on day two. I’m way past that now.” Slouched in the chair, Lawless smirked. His eyes as watchful as ever, Rider noted. He knew Lawless wasn’t catching any trouble from anyone. It wouldn’t surprise him if they revered the enforcer simply for existing. Rider knew Lawless had layers no one else had discovered yet. If you were in Lawless’ circle, then you were in, and he was loyal as fuck, but that didn’t mean he let people close to him. He could only imagine what jail time was doing to a psycho used to a much different lifestyle. Rider had done a few stints in his early twenties when Rex made him, and a few other prospects do drug runs. But that was only a few months each time, nothing like the time Lawless was doing.
“We can lean on a few officials if you need out now.”
“Nah, s’all good, Prez. I’m a whiny bitch. It’s not too bad. I have the run of the gym. Got all the food I want, even got a room to myself now my cellie was released. You’d think I was a bad roommate the way he split out of here,” he smirked. “How’s it going at the club, uncle fuckface falling into line?”
“Too easy, it’s almost not fun for me.”
“But it is, right?”
“Yep.” Grinned Rider. He went on to tell Lawless how Rex thought he was now a big-time MMA investor. Getting rid of Rex would not be difficult. Rider could have done it a year ago if not for the need to cripple the old bastard first. Sometimes it wasn’t about a straight death. Taking everything a man had was a worse fate than being buried six feet under. Rex hung importance on materialism, losing investment deals was a bigger hit for him. Rider doubted his uncle even valued his family over cash. Whereas Rider would give up everything and do it easily if it
meant he still had Zara and their kids. It wouldn’t even be a decision he had to make. His family came first.
Rex, on the other hand, was proving Rider right. The more the guy lost, the harder he tried to claw back.
“And you’re inviting him to the wedding?”
“He thinks so.” Answered Rider. “He ain’t gonna get the chance to taste the flame-grilled steak dinner.”
Lawless snickered his death-like sound. “I think you’ve taken up my sadistic mantle, Rider.”
“Someone had to fill your boots.”
“True enough.” Simpered the man who was used to sadistic dealings daily and was now on a low-fat diet.
The two-hour visit went by too fast, and the bell sounded for the end. Rider stood, Lawless followed suit, and the pair bumped fists. “You need something, gimme a call.” Rider told his enforcer. “Oh, thought you might wanna know, Angie started staying at your cabin on the weekends. Zara took her groceries the other day. She’s settled in with the ginger cat.”
“Good.” That was all he replied.
Rider watched Lawless stride out of the visiting room.
The club needed the enforcer back, but it would be some time yet before he strode into the compound again.
* * *
After picking her parents up from the airport, she drove to their Airbnb first to drop off the bags, then they all headed home to see the kids. It was still a question of confusion for them why Zara always had one or more of the Renegade Souls boys with her. “If there’s no trouble, why do you have a bodyguard?”
“Because Rider is a big softie.” She’d said, being honest. Zara told them it was Rider’s precaution for his peace of mind.
Maybe it made her a bad person, because she didn’t flinch once when Rider told her what he’d done to make her mental safety a sure thing.
Was she a bad person because she didn’t show an ounce of remorse for their deaths? She’d thought about it a lot, but this life of theirs would never be all roses or all pretty. It had cracks and shadowy sides to it.
Truth be told, she couldn’t pretend something she didn’t feel. Had Rider asked her what she wanted him to do. She was afraid she would have told him to kill those men.