“I don’t understand where you are going with this.”
She sighed. “They never should have made your mother pay his debt. They had a chance to choose good, and instead, they choose money and being dill holes.”
I gasped, shocked by the fact she had just called Leo and Apollo Banachi dill holes. “And you are going to make them see how to choose good?” Greer seemed like a pretty cool chick, but for her to sit here and tell me that she was going to have Leo Banachi do the right thing seemed a long shot.
“It’s not exactly ‘making’ them, but more like steering them in the direction of good. I’ve already talked to Apollo, and he sees my point.”
“I have to ask.” I leaned forward and rested my elbows on the table. “I know being an ol’ lady of a MC means you don’t know the inner-dealings of what is going on. How is it that you know all about me and my situation? I assume being part of the mafia is similar to an MC.”
She winked and took another bite of her sandwich. “I have a way to get information out of my husband without him realizing.”
“But I find it hard to believe that you somehow convinced Leo to let me go without paying a penny.”
She took a sip of her water. “But you have paid a penny. For ten years, your mother took money from you to pay for a debt her husband made. She paid Leo money that when you get down to it, he doesn’t need. He won’t go bankrupt without your money, Mayra.”
“But we have a reputation to uphold.”
Greer jumped in her chair. “Jesus Christ, man. Must you sneak up on me like that?” She turned around and glared at Apollo. “Eavesdropping isn’t very attractive, dear.”
“And neither is telling our captive how you manage to wrap me around your finger.” Apollo moved into the room and pulled out the chair next to Greer. “Is that chicken salad?” he asked.
Greer handed him a sandwich and wiped her mouth with her napkin. “You know it is. That’s why you came in here.”
Apollo took a huge bite of the sandwich and sighed. “Damn, that is good.”
“I’m assuming since you’re here, you guys are done beating your chests and figured out what you are going to do with Mayra,” Greer retorted.
Apollo nodded. “For the most part. The Lords will be here in a few hours and everything will be ironed out then.”
“Ironed out in the sense that I’ll be leaving?” I asked hopefully.
“You’ll be there when they get here. That’s all I’m saying.” Apollo took another huge bite of his sandwich.
“You’re so full of crap,” Greer mumbled. She looked at me. “I bet you’ll be home before dinner. Though, if you aren’t, you get meatloaf which is almost as good as being home.”
Apollo groaned. “Meatloaf?” he said around a mouthful.
Greer rolled her eyes. “We’re only having meatloaf if Mayra is still here. If she’s not, you get a damn sandwich for dinner.”
“Chicken salad sandwich?”
“Did you actually come in here for a reason, or just to eat our food?”
“Both. I told you what I needed to, and now I’m going to eat.”
“If you don’t know how to cook, then you either need to learn or hire a cook, because it doesn’t matter the man, they all are ruled by their stomachs,” Greer advised.
“Hey,” Apollo protested. “I think I should be offended by that.”
“But are you?”
He shook his head and smiled. “Not at all.”
Greer and Apollo bickered back and forth while I slowly lost my appetite completely.
Apollo had said that for the most part things were figured out, but of course, my mind worried about what possibly couldn’t be ironed out. My dad owed a lot of money to the Banachi’s, and I knew that they weren’t going to let me walk away scot-free as much as Greer wanted them to.
I was going to have to pay, but I just didn’t know how.
*
Chapter Twenty-Two
Boink
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Slayer isn’t here yet,” Clash said.
“And where the fuck is, he?” Wrecker thundered.
“Last I saw, he was keeping an eye on Raven since Clash went to pick up Boink.”
“Freak,” Wrecker called.
Freak opened the door to church. “Yeah, boss?”
“Go find Slayer and tell him to get his ass here. Keep an eye on Raven too,” Wrecker ordered.
Freak nodded and closed the door behind him.
“You fuckers should take a page out of Freak’s book. He listens to me.” Of course, that would be why he thought we all needed to be like Freak.
“And he’s also angling to be a full patch member of the Lords,” Pipe snickered.
Nickel bumped his fist with Pipe’s. “I knew one of us was going to say it. Pretty sure when we were all prospects, we kissed ass.”
Slayer waltzed into the room as if he wasn’t ten minutes late.
“You think maybe you could move your ass a little faster?” I growled. “Kind of important shit going on.”
He twirled the toothpick in his mouth and sat down next to Clash. “Sorry, I was trying to keep Raven from climbing out the fucking window. My apologies.”
“The windows are all locked,” Brinks pointed out. “I spent three days doing in.”
Slayer shrugged. “Apparently they ain’t that great of locks ‘cause I just managed to grab Raven’s feet before she slipped out.” He cleared his throat. “Woman put up a fight like a banshee, but I managed to get her back in.”
“You saying my sister almost beat you up?” Wrecker asked.
Slayer cleared his throat and fidgeted in his chair. “She’s strong for being short.”
“Welcome to what I’ve been dealing with the past month,” Clash muttered.
“How did she even manage to get the window open?” Brinks asked, “And where was she going?”
“One of those hair things, and she said she was going to get Mayra since we weren’t doing anything.”
“Bobby pin,” Pipe replied. We all turned to look at him. “What? I have a woman who uses the damn things,” he said defensively.
“I got a woman too but didn’t know what they were called,” Nickel laughed.
“All right,” Wrecker slammed his hand down on the table. “Enough talking about hair shit.”
Pipe rambled on. “It’s not like I know al—”
Wrecker silenced him with a look. “Boink has some info on Oakley.”
“How the hell do you got shit on Oakley?” Maniac asked.
“His woman told him it,” Clash laughed.
“Damn,” Slayer laughed. “Need to get me a woman who can tell me all the important shit. You all seem to have chicks that know everything before we ever do.”
“Shut it,” Wrecker thundered. “We have a meeting with Leo Banachi in four hours and it takes three hours to get there so we really don’t have time for your guys’ bullshit.”
Slayer cleared his throat and nodded his head. “Sorry, boss.”
Wrecker tipped his head to me. “Spit it out.”
I sat up in my chair and pulled the piece of paper from my pocket. “A few weeks ago, Mayra dropped a bombshell I didn’t see coming.” I unfolded the paper and held it up. “This is Oakley Mykel’s original birth certificate. Sandra Jykin is listed as the mother.”
“I hope he gets to the point soon,” Nickel mumbled.
Wrecker shot him a look to shut the hell up.
“Sandra Jykin is Mayra’s mom.”
“Whoa fuck,” Nickel gasped. “He got to the point.”
Wrecker leaned forward to grab the paper from me. “Give it here.”
He didn’t seem too surprised, though with Wrecker, it was always hard to tell what he was thinking.
He read it over and handed it to Nickel to pass around.
Wrecker steepled his hands in front of him. “I’m assuming he doesn’t know about her since she worked at his club, and when I asked hi
m about her, he didn’t even know her name.”
I shook my head. “No. She went there thinking he could help her with the Banachi’s but she never told him because she was afraid of him.”
“Smart woman,” Maniac mumbled. “Oakley Mykel isn’t anyone to mess with.”
“I’m sure he knows about the situation, but I doubt he realized his half-sister was working in his club for him.” Nickel handed the paper to Pipe. “So, what do we do with this information?”
Wrecker looked at me. “I’m assuming Mayra didn’t want you telling us this information”
“She doesn’t, and at the time, I didn’t think it was anything to tell. She was the only one who knew about the birth certificate.” Now the Lords knew, and I didn’t think it was going to be long until Oakley Mykel knew.
“I told Leo when I talked to him that we would have the money to pay off Mayra’s debt, but I don’t think we’re going to pay it off anymore.”
Everyone was shocked at Wrecker’s words.
“We're not leaving her there,” I growled. If I had to, I would sell everything I owned and get a fucking loan to pay of Mayra’s debt. The thought had already crossed my mind to do just that.
Wrecker sat back in his chair. “We aren’t going to leave her there, but I feel someone else could pay off her debt.”
“You really think Oakley is going to fork over 50k for a chick he didn’t even know existed?” Brinks asked.
“He’s either going to be glad to have a sister and do anything to help her. Or, he’s going to be pissed and will be willing to pay anything to make her and this birth certificate disappear.” Wrecker explained.
“What if how he plans to get rid of her is to kill her?” Clash asked.
That was exactly what I was worried about. I didn’t think Oakley was going to be excited by having Mayra as his sister.
“He won’t, because if he does, then that’ll fuck with the deal we have with him for the guns,” Wrecker explained.
“So, what do we do?” I asked. Wrecker had just said we only had four hours before the meeting with the Banachi's, and from the sound of it, we still had to drop a bomb on Oakley and hope he took our bait to give us the money for Mayra.
“We head to the Banachi’s and make a pit stop at Oakley’s.” Wrecker grabbed the birth certificate and stood up. “Slayer and Clash, you stay behind with Freak. Keep an eye on all the girls and make sure they don’t try to sneak out the window or anything.”
Slayer pointed at Clash. “You get Raven. I’ll take the rest of them.”
“Under normal circumstances, I would say you just gave yourself the short end of the stick, Slayer, but I think Clash is the one who got screwed on that deal,” Brinks laughed.
“We leave in five minutes. Load up, and let’s get the hell out of here.” Wrecker stalked out of the room without a backward glance.
“Anyone ever notice the vein in his forehead that throbs whenever he’s pissed?” Clash asked.
“You mean the one that always throbs because he’s always pissed about something?” Nickel joked.
They guys filed out of the room but I didn’t get up.
“You good, man?” Pipe asked by the door.
I looked up and nodded.
“We’ll get her back, brother. Don’t worry about it.”
I shook my head. “It’s just you never really know how you feel about someone until it gets taken away.” One month of having Mayra by my side wasn’t enough. I needed another thousand months before I would be even remotely okay with her not being with me.
“That’s called love, brother. You’ll get used to it.” Pipe walked out of the room with a smile on his face.
He was right.
I was in love with Mayra.
I had begun to realize it a few days before she had been kidnapped, but I wasn’t in a rush to tell her because I thought we had all the time in the world.
Now I knew I couldn’t wait to tell Mayra how I felt. As soon as she got out from the Banachi’s, I was going to tell her I loved her.
I just hoped we weren’t going to be too late.
*
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mayra
“Let’s go.”
Bobby walked into my room, and my stomach rolled just at the sight of him. “Where?”
“To fucking tea, princess,” he spat. “To talk to Leo, what else do you think?”
From having lunch with Apollo and Greer to having to deal with Bobby, Leo really needed to figure out what kind of vibe he was going to have when it came to kidnapping. “Where’s Apollo?” I asked.
“What, you two best friends now?” he scowled. “He ain’t gonna fucking help you, bitch. You owe Leo a shit-ton of money, and he ain’t going to let you get away without paying him back.”
That wasn’t what Greer had told me. And though Apollo didn’t say exactly what Greer had, he gave me the feeling that things were going to be okay. Hopefully.
I walked to the door and skirted around Bobby. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close. His lips were close to my ear, and his slimy tongue licked my lobe. “Carnie didn’t think she was too good for me, not sure what makes you think you’re better than me.” I tried to yank my arm from his hold, but his fingers dug into my skin.
“Please, just let me go,” I pleaded.
“You’re a pain in the fucking ass, and I can’t wait ‘til Leo puts you in your place.” He yanked me through the door and down a long hallway. My feet struggled to keep up with him, and I stumbled the whole way.
He threw open a door and pushed me through. I landed on my knees and put my hands out to brace my fall.
“Mayra!”
It was Boink.
Boink was here.
“Bobby, what in the hell is wrong with you? You got a fucking screw loose or something?” Apollo came to my side and helped me up. My eyes instantly went to Boink, who was standing beside Wrecker who had an arm out holding him back. “I apologize for my knucklehead of a cousin. He thinks he’s some mob boss, when in reality, he’s just a lackey who didn’t have the brains enough to go to college,” Apollo went on.
“M-baby, are you okay?” Boink asked.
I nodded and wiped my hands on my jeans. “I’m all right,” I promised.
“It’s so hard to find good help these days. You think you can trust family, and then you get a numbskull like Bobby who falls from the tree and hit his head the whole way down,” a man sitting behind an elaborate desk stated. He rocked back in his chair and nodded at Apollo.
Apollo moved to a chair that was right in front of the desk. I sat down and looked over at Boink.
“Miss Zinker.” I looked over at the man behind the desk even though I didn’t want to take my eyes off Boink. I missed his handsome face and wanted to stare at it ‘til I died.
Hopefully dying didn’t happen soon, though.
“My name is Leo Banachi. I know you’ve heard of me, but we’ve never had the honor of meeting.”
He looked like a Leo.
He also looked like a mob boss who knew how to do his job well.
His dark brown hair was combed neatly, his suit was pressed perfectly, and his pale blue tie was pin straight. He was handsome enough, but he also looked as though he had seen a lot of things in life.
I didn’t know what to say. Engaging in conversation with a man who possibly wanted you dead wasn’t anything I was experienced with. “Uh, nice to meet you.” My mother had drilled manners into me pretty well.
The Fallen Lords, who were standing off to the side, all chuckled. A grin spread across Leo’s face. “If only all of the people I talked to were as nice as you, Mayra.”
“My mom raised me right,” I explained.
“That she did,” Leo agreed. “Is it okay if Wrecker sits by you while we talk? He is going to be part of our deal today.”
I bit my lip and nodded. I would have preferred to have Boink next to me, but I knew Boink trusted Wrecker so I was good with it.
/> “Relax, darlin’,” Wrecker whispered as he sat down.
I glanced over at the intimidating man. It was crazy to think the crazy Alice had somehow fallen in love with him. He always looked grumpy while Alice normally had a smile on her face. Opposites really did attract. “‘Kay.” Not like I actually was going to relax, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
“Your father borrowed a large sum of money from me, Miss Zinker,” Leo began.
“My father, not me,” I butted in.
Wrecker put his hand on my arm and shook his head.
I clamped my lips shut.
“A large sum he never tried to repay except for a few hundred dollars here and there,” Leo continued.
If my dad wasn’t already dead, I would have killed him for putting me and my mom through what he did.
“Your mom paid me close to fifty thousand dollars over the course of the past ten years.” Leo picked up a stack of papers and slid them across the desk. “Here are the receipts for each and every payment that she made on time without delay.”
Wrecker grabbed the papers and leafed through them.
My mother would make sure to pay back money that she didn’t borrow. If only some of my mom’s sense of responsibility had rubbed off on my father, I wouldn’t be here right now.
“If only everyone repaid you this well,” Wrecker mumbled.
“My thoughts exactly, Wrecker. Miss Zinker’s mother was a good woman who was just trying to fix her husband’s mistakes.”
My mother had gone hungry some days because instead of buying groceries, she paid Leo. She paid him money she needed to survive, while he was sitting in his mansion on a pile of money.
Life truly wasn’t fair.
“There is still an outstanding balance of fifty-three-thousand forty-nine dollars and twelve cents,” Leo said slowly.
“I don’t have the money. I don’t even have money to live. I can’t pay you something I don’t have,” I insisted.
Fallen Lords MC: Books 4-6 Page 30