by M. Kristine
“I’m late, fine me, kick me, punch me, swear at me I honestly don't care. I'm fucking exhausted.”
Aces eyes find mine as I fall into my chair my father shakes his head.
“So.” Cracking my knuckles I raise my eyebrow looking at the two men I respect and are bound to.
“So,” my father says a tick in his jaw has me looking at the other members of the club.
“What!” I snap out feeling like this is about to go west real fast.
“Wanna tell me what actually happened out there?” Ace questioned me but I knew it wasn't really a you can tell me if you like or not type of question it was a you’re going to tell me and now.
Raising my ass off the seat, I slipped out the packet of cigarettes from my pocket. Flicking a cigarette from the packet, tapping the tip on the table before raising it to my lips, lighting it and sucking down deep. As the tobacco taste rolled down my throat and into my lungs, burning and blowing it back out through my nose, I looked Ace in the eyes no need to keep it any longer.
“Halfway out on the run we are ambushed by what I actually have come to find out was their club, half of them anyway. They were trying to take half the guns and only pay for what I was delivering. We were outnumbered, they had guns more than what we had, I sent the boys and the Van off down a dirt track. Flame and I were shooting back at them trying to save on ammo but coming up short I dropped my bike and skidded off the road. Flame and Capone shot off into the distance pulling them back from me and the van. I just started shooting until I hit one of their guys and they fell back a little. So, I opened up again and I hit another and then another, I didn’t like kill shot them, just a warning- don't fuck with us or we will fuck with you back and then last night they tried that shit again. Well, I texted the dick and haven’t heard back.” Taking a gulp of my bitter coffee and shuddered as it sends a warmth into my soul that I wish I didn't have.
“Well, kill shot it worked because one of the guys you shot is dead and to really make it all that much more fucked. He's the brother of the dick you refer to.” My eyes snap to Ace as my hands balled into fists.
“Your loyalty and your honor to this club doesn’t go unnoticed, Viper,” my dad says as my eyes rise to meet his. I have been spoken to and I will show the valid form of respect. I hate having blood on my hands.
“I know this isn't idle, but it's happened, and we will fight. It's a war they want, it's a war they will get. You can’t try and fuck over this club and not pay,” Ace says as my eyes close taking the light and replacing it with a dark. The dark I like.
“A war that involves not only us but the women of this club. A war we wouldn't be having if…” I snap out through a clenched jaw as Ace cuts me off. He and dad both know that I had my doubts over this. They know they fucked up and now I have the blood to shed on my hands.
“We will hold our own and together we stand our ground and fight,” Ace says.
“At what cost though,” I bark back, tired and fucking just over it.
“I told you not to do this deal. I had a bad feeling about it and look now. Hey, look.” I snapped my eyes to theirs both of them. They both knew my concerns.
“Calling in favors, making deals, fixing up deals with favors it’s now started a fucking war. Guns, meth, crazy men. We don't run like them; we are not sheep we are shepherds and we have fallen into the easy path of running shit. YOU BOTH promised to not____” I didn't even finish I shook off Flame’s hand as he grabbed my arm. A warning to bite my tongue.
“Forget it. You two old men not wanting to listen will get us all fucking killed.”
“Viper,” my dad roared, and I mean he fucking roared so loud that it had the hairs on my arms standing up.
“Don't you walk,” he bellowed out.
“Stop me old man,” I called back as I kicked the door open and walked from the club to my bike. I saw her standing off to the side of all the bikes, Saylor and Lane with her.
Giving them a head lift, she gave me a weak smile before looking away at the girls and back to me. As I kicked my bike to life, she began to move toward me, stopping just before she reached me when I lifted up my hand.
“Don't, Babe,” I mouth to her. “Luca.” Her eyes darted back and forth searching mine.
“I can't,” I said. Opening my clutch, I took off, leaving her standing there with dust kicking up around her and me feeling like a right cunt. Good one Luca, fucking good one.
Chapter Thirteen
Senna
Watching Luca peel out of the clubhouse lot was difficult, knowing something bad happened in church. But the way he looked at me as he fired up his bike, gutted me. As if he couldn’t stand the sight of me. The pained look in his beautiful gray eyes undid me. If it wasn’t for my sister, I would be face down in the gravel. Saylor and Lane helped me into the clubhouse bypassing the onlookers, curious of what has happened to one of the club princesses.
We make it to my room and Saylor lays me down on the bed, pulling off my boots and jean shorts. Her and Lane exchange a few words but I’m too lost in my head to understand what they are saying. Honestly, I don’t give two shits. The pain that is coursing through my body is all I can focus on. The rejection that is tearing my heart in two.
I feel Saylor move under the covers beside me, pulling me to her and the damn breaks. Tears pour from my eyes as I sob into my sister’s chest. The noises coming from me are from deep within. If I didn’t know better, I’d think a dying animal was outside my window. Saylor runs her hand over my hair soothingly, attempting to calm me down.
In my haze of anguish and misery I don’t hear the door open or feel anyone climb into the bed behind me. I smell her before she wraps me in her arms, consoling me. She always smells like sugar and sunshine. They are my two favorite smells. I relate them to love and comfort. How lucky are we to have this amazing woman in our lives?
Mom just holds me letting me work through my emotions. I have no idea how long I’ve been crying and sobbing into her. She doesn’t talk, she just lets me feel all these unbearable emotions. Once the sobbing has stopped and the tears are dried up, she moves to sit up and I do the same.
“What happened Senna?” she asks, wiping my face with a warm washcloth that I’m assuming Saylor fetched from my in-suite bathroom. I really don’t want to tell her about Luca and me, but I know she won’t let this go until I do. One thing I know about mom, she would never tell Dad about the talk we are about to have.
“Oh, you know just the usual. My pining over a man who I’ll never have. Seeing the side of him that he only shows to the brothers and his blatant rejection. Like I said, the usual,” I say with as much sass as I can muster.
Mom looks at me as if she knows I’m leaving out important details. I am not talking to her about what we did on Devil’s peak. Nope, no way in hell!
“We may have fooled around before all the shit went down with the prospect, okay. Geesh!” I throw my arms up exasperated and just plain old pissed off. After what he did to me, he turns around and acts like that.
God he’s such an asshole!
“I know a lot has happened in the past few weeks. Your father has told me the bare minimum, but I know this is weighing on him and the club. I know how Luca feels about you and vice versa. He is at war with himself, sweetheart, between his love for the club and his love for you.”
“Love? Yeah right mom. I may love him, but he doesn’t feel the same toward me. It’s ingrained in him. The club princesses are off limits.”
“That may be true, but that doesn’t mean he listened. I mean you ‘fooled around’ earlier right? Is that being off limits?” she asks.
Huh... I guess not.
“It doesn’t matter, mom. When he left earlier it was like he couldn’t stand to even look at me. I can’t do this anymore. It’s not fair that I can’t be with him. I won’t make him choose between me and the club. The brotherhood will always be number one to him, as it should be.” I’ve made my decision and no matter what happens from here
on out, Luca Warren will never be mine.
Dad sat Saylor and I down a few days ago to go over the plan for us to move to the safe house. The club has three separate houses for us. Mom will be in one, Lane and her mom, Jolee, will be in the second, and Saylor and I in the third. Each house will have a member and a prospect at all times.
Only club members know where the houses are and we will be blindfolded when they move us, including the prospects. The reason is because they aren’t members and can’t be trusted not to squeal, if caught by the enemy.
I can handle the lockdown in the clubhouse and even being moved to an undisclosed house with my sister. I understand the need for the club to protect us since we were directly targeted. What burns my ass is that my protector is Luca. GAH! Why? What did I do in a past life to deserve such torture? I’d almost rather be kidnapped by the enemy and tortured than be stuck in a secluded house for who knows how long with the man I love but can’t ever have. God, I hate my life.
The only good in all of this, I get to have my sister with me. She will be the only way I can stay sane. If I was alone with him, I would surely go insane. She is in her own kind of hell. Yep, her protector is none other than Capone. This is going to suck major monkey balls!
It’s been four days since I broke down and I’ve only seen Luca twice in passing. The asshole- which is how I will refer to him from now on- won’t even look at me. Maybe I’ll change it to fucking asshole- FA. Thinking back over all the shit he has done to make me feel shitty. Yep, FA it is.
Tomorrow, we will be moving to the safe houses and mine and Saylor’s torture will begin, so what are we doing you ask? Well, getting shitfaced of course. I mean we are locked in this damn clubhouse unable to go anywhere, and we’ll be stuck in a secret house with the men we want but can’t have, so yeah, we’re drinking.
Saylor pours us another shot and we clink glasses. I down the yummy brown liquid allowing the warmth to spread throughout my body. Damn this is what I needed. To escape the constant pain over FA and the ensuing pain that being locked in the same house with him will surely bring. Right now, I can just be Senna and fuck everything else. I’ll worry about that shit in the morning.
Saylor and I consume almost an entire bottle of whiskey and I’ve lost count of the beers I’ve drank. To say I’m drunk would be an understatement. The move is going to blow with the hangover from hell that I’ll no doubt be graced with in the morning. The porcelain god and myself will become good friends, I’m afraid.
Chapter Fourteen
Viper
Pushing the headphones into my ears and flicking my screen unlocked Senna's face, sleeping yet stunningly beautiful face, greets me as I look for my music list.
Scrolling through till I find the playlist I'm after. Five Finger Death Punch and their song Blue in Black starts to smash out into my eardrums sending a welcome warmth of normality over my tense and stained body.
Lifting the forty-pound weight discs on the leg press machine, making it an even one hundred and twenty on each side, I sit down onto the cool leather seat and push out my pent-up anger. Next, I'll do a forty-minute kickboxing set. I have been working out every day since I first arrived here last week sometime. I just couldn't go back, not after all that. I needed time. Still need time. Fuck, last week I had my mind made up to go rogue, to be nomad and just get my fucking shit in order. Then she happened. All sexy and alluring and shit. Showing me why I fell in love with her in the first place. Then I fucked it along with the sour gun deal that I didn't wanna take in the first place.
Day one, I walked in at 3am after running from my club. The look of destruction I left in Senna's eyes after turning her away made me sit on the outskirts of town at a seedy bar and drink cheap whisky and listen to some badass karaoke while a chick I didn't even know sucked me off under the table. I then took her filthy ass to the bathroom and fucked her so hard she was left in a shaking mess on the dirty bathroom floor not remembering her name.
See this is who I am. I am evil, mean. I have no remorse when it comes to shit like that. I will fuck what I want, when I want and how I want. I am Viper. I am a fucking outlaw with an outlaw mentality, much to my mother's disgust. She knows the Luca that lies beneath the facade that is the biker with a bad attitude. Senna also knows it, see it, feels it and fucking loves it. I see it every day, every fucking time she looks into my eyes. The love, adoration she has for a bad boy like me. She sees the good, not the ugly. Well, that was until that all changed the other night when I kicked the shit out of the fucking prospect.
That side of me she didn't like, and she didn't hold back in telling me. That one small sentence that fell from her lips held so much pain that it sliced through my dead soul causing me to bleed out in front of her. Turning and walking was all I could do. Just like yesterday, I couldn't allow her to look into my eyes and see that I had killed a man whose brother has now put a hit on all of their beautiful heads!
I am the reason. Me alone. Viper, the enforcer of this club. Who was meant to keep them safe? Keep her beautiful soul safe and alive!
Standing up from the leg press I run my hand through my hair. This place is where I feel I am me, the me I have always wanted to be. The Luca Warren I was meant to be. Having a father that is VP to a club that is in his blood had other plans for me though. So, this small place of sanity is where I fall whenever the weight of the club, his dream, his best friend’s vision falls too hard on my shoulders.
Kick, kick, jab. Kick, kick, jab. In my zone with my music blaring and my body moving with the bag. Jab, jab, duck, jab, duck, jab. This is food for my soul. This quells the dark, chases the monster and sets the demon free. Watching Flame walk in here kills that vibe and cuts the energy of me uncoiling from beast to man. The smug grin on his pretty boy face instantly pisses me off.
Locking eyes with him as he holds my bag, I jab and jab and fucking jab. His eyes zone in on mine, a smile licks his lips and he wink mouthing something I can't make out as Five Finger Death Punch’s Wrong Side of Heaven floats inside my ears. Stepping back onto my left foot, placing all my weight onto the ball of the foot, I raise my right leg and kick the bag hard and fast sending a whoosh of air around the bag. The tip of my toe grazed the side of Flame’s face before slamming into the bag with a snapping thud.
Spinning and turning to face him my eyes glaring into his. "What!" I hiss out, pulling the headphones from my ears as his hand rubs his cheek
“You’re one grumpy cunt when you let her get into your head, yeah!" he seethes out at me, his eyes looking in mine as mine narrow, egging him on.
"Don't know what you’re talking about, bro," I say swiping the towel from his outstretched hand.
"Like fuck you do, brother. You and Capone are just as bad as each other." Picking up the bottle of water I twist the cap and throw it at him.
"Unlike Capone I have my shit on lock down and my feelings are nil because I don't possess emotion," I reply, walking toward the stairs and up to my living quarters, I have worked so hard for, above the gym.
Flame follows, of course, his relentless sarcastic humor following him up and hitting my back, pissing me off. "We all see it, brother." Dropping his body down onto my couch and lighting a cig from my pack that’s sitting on my coffee table.
"Don't know what you’re all seeing there, brother." I smile at him as I unscrew the Jack lid, and pour it into my glass
"Don't you think that's enough of that?" he questions me, raising his eyebrows. Shaking my head as I take a swig from the glass, ice falling into my mouth. The cold is a welcome difference to the heat from the amber liquid. My jaw clenches biting down on the ice from my glass.
"Look, I don't care if you’re fucking her or you’re not! I don't care if you even love her but you and Capone both have two of the most fucking badass amazing humans this side of this fucked up world in love with your mugs! I have no clue how that even happened. But you both do and seeing as you have been MIA for like a week or so now, I lost count of the days. I was pickin
g up your slack and cleaning up your mess. Ace is moving the girls out to the safe houses tonight and you my fine friend are in charge of Senna's safety alone with Capone in charge of Saylor’s. In the same house too, I might add!" Grinning like a fucking Cheshire cat, my knuckles click with the pressure it takes to hold myself back from rearranging his face. He may be my best friend but fuck he's a right prick at times.
After one touch from her I became obsessed. Obsessed with the rush she gave me. Obsession is a bad thing for a guy like me. It leads to this shit right here second guessing and over fucking analyzing. Hyper Alert for her safety but knowing exactly what will come when we are left alone.
Now I sit outside the safe house looking in knowing Ace will have my balls for this, but I can't fucking do it. I can't keep hurting her. She doesn't deserve it. But it doesn't matter how many times I try to fuck her outta my mind with strangers, it's her eyes that slam into mine as I unload in their skank asses. Never fucking them front on. Only doggy and only gloved up! She hates everything that I am and now I have to walk in loving her with a bull’s eye taped to my back.
"I hope you’re going in their son." Snapping my head to the sound of Aces voice in the dark. All I can see walking toward me is the orange ember of his cigarette tip. He leans against my bike, his eyes finding mine and believe me you can't not see the anger swirling in them.
"I trust you with more than her life Viper," he grits out as I suck in a sharp breath, the cool hitting my burning lungs starved for air.
"This gun shit isn't on you. It's on me and I should have listened. I didn't and for that I am sorry. I'm well stuck, stuck in the old way of an outlaw life where it was different." Reaching my hand into the breast pocket of my cut, I pull out my cigarettes. Lighting one and taking a long drag I try to think of what I can say to a man who I have looked up to my whole life. Strived to be just like, who one day I will take over from.