Twisted Tales of Mayhem: 2019 MMM Special Edition Anthology

by Sapphire Knight

  “You looking for work?” asks Hammer as he drags a chair toward the booth.

  “Look, man, I was just shooting the shit with Tick here, having a bad fucking day, hell month. I’m on the bare bones of my ass.”

  Hammer gestures for me to sit down and I do and then he sits, staring at me intently.

  “Out of all the bars in this town and you chose to come here?” Hammer looks around the bar, one eyebrow cocked up.

  “It was the first bar I found.”

  “Really? The first bar you found and it’s an MC bar?” Hamm pauses then continues, “I call bullshit.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck rise. There’s too many of them to get out cleanly. I nod, my mind is scrambling for a reasonable explanation.

  “I knew it was an MC bar. I knew the Harbingers of Death owned this place. I need a job where no one asks too many questions, a place where my past…indiscretions won’t come into play.”

  Hammer cocks his head to the side and smiles big. “Indiscretions?” he asks. A smile tugs at his lips.

  “I was dishonorably discharged. It makes it hard to get a job. I guess I figured you’d have jobs going for someone like me.”

  Hammer stands, the men at the door go back to whatever it was they were doing and the conversations around the room go back to normal.

  “We ain’t hiring,” Hammer states as he walks away.

  “I have a particular skill set.”

  Hammer stops and looks back at me. “Don’t come back here again.” I nod at Tick and head for the door as I’m about to walk through it Hammer says, “Wait.”

  I stand stock still, not sure whether to bolt or do as he says. I turn and the whole bar is looking at me. Hammer clicks his fingers at Candy who hands him a pen and paper.

  “Write your name and a number where we can contact you.”

  I do as he says, Hammer nods at me and I keep walking. I don’t go back to the car, it’s not safe. The hairs on the back of my neck are still raised which means I’m either being followed, I’m in danger, or my paranoid delusions are in full swing, either way, it’s kept me alive for a long time, so I listen to it.

  Chapter 5

  Hammer

  “Rat!” I yell and he comes scurrying toward me.

  “Yes, Ham?”

  “Follow him. Tell me where he goes, who he speaks to.” Rat is skinny with beady eyes that dart around the room, the man knows the underside of this world. Rat has survived a junky mother and an abusive alcoholic father. “And Rat?”

  “Y-yes?”

  “Don’t get caught.”

  “Yes, Ham.”

  Rat hands me his cut and goes outside.

  “You think the guys a plant?” asks Darius.

  I shrug. “We’ve lost two and then this guy turns up? Not sure, but it pays to be safe. We follow him, if he’s clean and he does indeed have a particular skill set we’ll see how far he’s willing to go. If we can use him we will, if not he means nothing to us and we dispose of people who are of no use to us.”

  “Harbingers of Death forever.”

  “A-fucking-men, brother.”

  I slap him on the back point at Candy and head for the back room. Like the good little employee she is, she follows. I wait just inside the door, when she enters, I close and lock it.

  “Tell me.”

  “Fucking Tick! That bastard tried to get a bottle for free and he’s been talking to that guy all afternoon.”

  I walk toward her, not smiling, as I unbuckle my belt. Candy backs away until she hits the desk.

  “I’ll deal with Tick.”

  I reach down, grab her ass and pick her up, placing her on the desk.

  “This isn’t part of the deal.”

  “I’m changing the deal.”

  Reaching under her skirt, I pull down her panties and push her, so she’s laying on the desk, legs dangling over.

  “I’m just here to serve drinks, keep the peace and make sure no one steals from you, that’s what you said.”

  I spread her legs and push down my jeans.

  “What I said was, ‘you’re here to serve.’ And right now you’re going to service me.”

  I spit on hand, rub it over my erect cock and place it at her entrance. Candy’s been around the club long enough to know the deal. Candy is looking at me wide-eyed.

  “What?” I ask annoyed.

  “I don’t do bareback.”

  “You got condoms?”

  Candy nods. “In my bag.”

  “Get them then.”

  I move out of her way as she heads for the locked door and opens it, then I slam it shut again.

  “You better come back or send someone else in, cause my dick is getting dipped. Get me?”

  Candy nods as I let her leave the room.

  Chapter 6

  Candy

  Fucking bikers! Fucking Hammer!

  I am not a whore. Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with earning a living but that’s just not the way I choose to do things. I only took this mother fucking job because Hammer said I’d get to run the bar the way I wanted to and this is not how I want to run it.

  I pick up my bag as one of the club whores and part-time bar wench leans over the bar and grabs my arm.

  “You okay, Candy?”

  “Hey Mindy, yeah, just got something I need to do.”

  “You look pissed,” Mindy states as she lets go of my arm.

  I glance at the closed door and back at her.

  “Mindy, you’ve been around the guys for a while, yeah?”

  “Yeah, babe, going on three years.”

  Fuck me three years of fucking whoever they tell you to fuck, but she must like it, right?

  “Ahh, Hammer is right through that door…he’s looking for some company.”

  “Hammer?” Mindy shakes her head. “He’s a little…rough.”

  “Yeah.” I shrug, sling my bag over my shoulder and head for the door. “It’s been real.”

  “Candy?” asks Mindy as I get close to her. I look up with eyebrows raised. “He won’t be happy if someone doesn’t go in there.”

  “Not my problem,” I state.

  “It will be, you know how they get.”

  I look around the room, Debbie is over by the pool tables falling all over one of the guys.

  “What about her?” I ask gesturing toward her.

  “She’ll do anything for a bottle.”

  I open my bag and hand Mindy a twenty. “The bars all yours. Give her the cheapest bottle of whatever we have and send her to the backroom. I’m leaving.”

  “Hammer likes you, he’s not going to like this. You sure you want to cut and run?”

  “I got dreams, being a club whore ain’t one of them.”

  “Too good for us?” Mindy asks with an edge to her voice.

  “No love, I’m just on a different path.”

  Mindy squares her shoulders and nods. “Debbie! I’ve got a job for you!” Her eyes never leave mine.

  I reach out and grab her hand, squeezing it lightly. “Thank you. You take care.”

  “Right back at you.”

  I turn on my heel and double time it out the door, I don’t need this shit. My car is parked up the block. I get in it, slam the door shut and lock it. Not that it’ll do me any good if they come after me. Once I’ve got her running, I gun it and leave. I’ll need to clear out my apartment and move. New city, new life. I’ve been in and around these lowlifes long enough to know that if one of them gets it into his head that he can have me that the others aren’t far behind. I could’ve made some real money in that joint.

  As I pull in front of my apartment, I reach over to the back seat and put on a long-sleeved blue shirt. I run up the shitty staircase, open my door and smile, like I don’t have a care in the world.

  “Hey, little man!” I say to my five-year-old son, Jack.

  “Momma!”

  I sweep him up in my arms and rub my nose against his.

  “Suzann
ah, what are you doing home so early?” asks the sitter.

  “I missed my little man!” I say as I tickle Jack. “Linda, you can go home.” I put Jack down, open my wallet and give her a handful of notes. “This should make us square.”

  “Honey, it’s way too much!” protests Linda as she shoves it back at me.

  I place my hands over hers and shake my head. “No, you keep it.”

  “Suzannah?”

  In a quieter tone I say, “And if anyone comes looking for us, you don’t know us, got me?”

  A frown creases Linda’s features but she nods, looks down at Jack and ruffles his hair.

  “Be good little man.” Then she turns and leaves us.

  I walk into the area of our apartment that I’ve tried to block off as a bedroom. I pull the suitcase out from under the bed and begin throwing clothes into it.

  “Are we going somewhere, mommy?”

  “Yeah, baby, mommy has found us a new, nicer place to stay!” I say brightly as I continue to pack.

  “Will Linda be there?”

  I look down at my boy and his bottom lip is trembling. In his short life, we’ve moved, a lot.

  I crouch down in front of him and shake my head. “No honey. But I promise, it’ll be nicer than this.”

  Jack nods and my heart breaks, I draw him into my embrace.

  “What if we get a kitty, at the next home?”

  His little face breaks into a smile. “A kitty? Can I name him?”

  “Yeah, baby, you can.”

  And just like that, the thought of moving is banished from his little mind and he’s smiling. I grab another suitcase and put our meager possessions in it and we are ready to go.

  “Look around, Jack, is there anything momma forgot to pack?”

  Jack wanders over and picks up his favorite blanket and his toy bunny.

  “You forgot bunny.”

  “Well, that’s why I have you checking on me! What would momma do without you?” I ask with a laugh. “You ready?”

  “Yes, momma.”

  I open the front door, and roll my suitcases out. “Momma needs you to keep up, okay?”

  Jack nods and grasps the handrail with his tiny hand and together we go down the stairs and to the car. I place him in his seat, put the bags in the trunk and leave this shitty apartment building behind.

  As I turn the corner, the guy who was in the bar earlier talking to Tick, blocks my way. I contemplate running his ass over but Jack is in the car. So I put it in park, and roll down my window.

  Chapter 7

  Wraith

  I doubled back after leaving the bar, and yeah, I was being followed. The skinny mother-fucker looked cold without a jacket. No doubt he left his cut behind so I wouldn’t make him. Now, I’m following him and he looks like he’s desperately trying to find me. When we get near the entrance to an alley, I whistle he turns and I clock him one. The guy goes down with one punch, but I’m not buying it. I drag him into the alley and prop him up against a wall.

  “Okay, Pete,” I say to myself as I pretend to be talking to someone, “should we cut off his left or right hand?”

  My pursuers eyes fly open as he looks around the alley.

  “That’s better. Okay, who are you and what do you want?”

  “Hammer told me to follow you.”

  “Why?”

  “Wants to know if you’re legit.” The guy's beady eyes dart all around, I’m assuming looking for an escape route.

  “I’m legit and I don’t like being followed.”

  The guy shrugs and holds out his hand to me, I grasp it in mine and pull him up. A searing pain goes through my side and I look down to see a fucking knife sticking out of me.

  “Never underestimate a Harbinger, mother fucker.”

  A growl escapes me as I reach up and twist his head on his neck like a pretzel. Fuck! This is not how this was supposed to go. Sneaky mother-fucker! I look at both ends of the alley and no one is looking. I’ve been careless and let this fucker stick me. My DNA is all over him. I pull out the knife and more blood runs out of me. It doesn’t feel like a bad wound but it hurts like a bitch. I need a car. I go to the front of the alley, applying pressure to my wound and see if there are any cars available. Common sense kicks in, I go back, cover him up with rubbish that’s in the alley and go in search of a viable car.

  As I leave the alley a car zooms past with the bartender from the MC behind the wheel. I mentally take down the plate number as I walk quickly to find a car to steal.

  ***

  I walked three blocks before I was happy with the vehicle I stole. Once inside I pull out my phone and dial a number, from memory.

  “Johnston! How are you? It’s Jamison Felder.”

  “Felder? I thought you were out on leave?”

  “I was, I was, hey could you run a plate for me?”

  “Sure, of course, let me have it.”

  I rattle off the plate and wait as Johnston works his magic.

  “Okay, plate belongs to a Suzannah Stone, lives at apartment fifteen b, Harrow Street-”

  “Thanks, got it. You’re the man!”

  “Wait, so what are you working on? Can I get in on it? They’ve got me-”

  “Sorry, Johnston gotta go, but I’ll tell the bosses you were a great help.”

  I end the call, delete my phone’s history and go back to the alley. The skinny guy weighs next to nothing as I load him into the trunk of the car. I drive it close to where the bartender lives, get out of the car and she nearly runs me over.

  I look through the windshield and she’s got a kid in the backseat, I look back at her and she looks pissed but she winds down the driver’s side window. I approach her slowly with my hands up, forgetting they are covered in blood.

  “What the f-hell?” asks Suzannah.

  “I need your help, Suzannah Stone.”

  “How the hell do you know that?”

  “Never mind about that. I know who you are and…” I look past her to her son. “Do I really have to say more?”

  Suzannah stares straight ahead, chewing her bottom lip.

  “M-Momma?”

  She twists in her seat to stare at her son.

  “Yes, baby?”

  “Is the man okay?”

  “Yes, Jack, this a friend of Momma’s from work. He just needs our help and then we can go and get you that kitty, okay?”

  The little guy nods and Suzannah pins me with a look.

  “If you so much as look at him again, I will end you. Got me?”

  “Fair enough. I need you to follow me.” I stand, place my hand back over the wound then bend back down. “Don’t be stupid Suzannah, Jack depends on you.”

  I tap the hood of her car, get back in the stolen car and drive out of the city. When I feel like we are far enough away from the main highway, I stop. Suzannah gets out of the car and comes charging up to me.

  In a loud whisper, she says, “What the fuck? How do you know me? And what do I have to do to get my son and me away from you?”

  “Calm down. I don’t mean you any harm. I’m after Darius Todd and Thomas Strike.”

  “Darius is the VP of the Harbingers of Death and Thomas Strike is Hammer, you’ve already met him.”

  Fuck, Thomas Strike is Hammer?

  “Strike is Hammer?” I ask stupidly.

  “Yeah, get it? Strike,” Suzannah raises her hand in a fist and brings it down. “Hammer.”

  “Great,” I reply as I turn around and look up at the sky. I must be fucking tired not to put that together.

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “Need to torch the car. Then I need you to patch me up. Can you do that?”

  “I can do that. Then you’ll tell me how you know the real me and let me be on my way?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Safely?” Suzannah asks forcefully.

  “I got no beef with you.”

  Chapter 8

  Suzannah

  Before I’d let whoever he is in m
y car with my son, I grabbed a towel out of one of the suitcases and told him to keep it pressed to his side. I also didn’t want his blood in my car.

  “What do we call you?” I ask.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Jack and I need to call you something.”

  I glance at the kid and he smiles big at me.

  “Vince, you can call me Vince.”

  “How did you know my name and Jack’s?”

  He gives me a frown then sort of smiles to himself.

  “People in low places.”

  “Up here take the next exit then find the first drugstore. There’s a Super Eight not far from here. I can give you cash, but you book the room in your name.”

  “What do you need from the drugstore?”

  “Bandages, disinfectant, a needle and thread.”

  “That it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “If I help you, you have to let us go. Jack and I are leaving this city behind us.”

  “We’re getting a kitty!” yells Jack from the backseat.

  “Is that so, little man?” I ask.

  “That’s what Mommy calls me! How did you know that?”

  “You look like a little man, that’s all.”

  My son grins at this monster. He knows more about us than I thought, he knows our names and he knows my nickname for Jack. Who the hell is he?

  “There’s a drugstore up here,” I state.

  “Good. I’ll watch Jack while you get the supplies.”

  “No f-bloody way!”

  “I can tell you’re a good Mom by the way you censor yourself, Suzannah. I can’t go in there bleeding all over the place, someone will notice. Jack and I will be fine, won’t we Jack?”

  “Yes!” yells Jack from the backseat and I cast a glare at Vince.

  “I swear if you-”

  “Yeah I know, I know. Jack and I will be fine.”

  I pull up sharply into a carpark and look at Vince.

  “Be calm, Suzannah. Jack and I are going to sit here and see how high we can count. If we get to two hundred, well…let’s hope we don’t get to two hundred.”

  His meaning is clear. I want to reach over and scratch his eyes out but Jack is in the car. I’m shaking and can feel tears in my eyes, Vince stares at me and smiles. He fucking smiles. All I want to do is hurt him.