The Queen of Carnage

by Wright, Candice

  “I say we take a second vote. I’m with Luna on this. I love this club but I never signed up for this shit,” Rebel calls from the crowd, stepping forward.

  “All those in favor of Orion taking over as President, say ‘aye,’” he calls out, staring at Joker.

  “Fuck you!” Joker yells as “ayes” ring out around the room.

  “Fuck you all!” he screams as Oz pushes the barrel of the gun harder against his temple.

  “Those in favor of Joker staying as the president.” Silence envelopes the room, leaving no doubt as to which way the vote has swung.

  “Congratulations, Orion, it looks like you’re the new King of Carnage,” Rebel tells him, shaking his hand as he recovers from his shock. The room erupts into cheers, making me smile.

  “I thought I raised you better than that, boy.” King’s voice quiets the room in an instant.

  “You agree with what he did? With what he was planning on doing to Luna?” Orion asks as Diesel steps up beside him.

  “It’s not about what I do or don’t agree with. If you don’t like the bylaws, bring it to church. You don’t air shit in front of strangers.” He waves his arm around the room. “This shows an utter lack of respect for the MC you swore to protect.”

  I snort, drawing his attention.

  I walk back over to Oz and Joker but I don’t look away from King, meeting his eyes and refusing to show him any mercy.

  “What happened to you? You were supposedly this great man and yet you let Joker turn this club into something of a joke. And you.” I turn back to Joker. “Some chick does you dirty so you just decide to punish all women for it? I don’t get it.”

  “She didn’t do him dirty, though. He was the one who fucked her over. He fucked you all over.” I turn at the sound of Ziggy’s voice and watch as he walks through the crowd with Megan. He’s watching her hands and translating as she talks. Everyone turns to see what the hell is going on now.

  “King, Joker, and John fell out over drugs. John wanted to sell them, King wanted to stick to running guns. Joker sided with King so John left and took a small bunch of nobodies and made them a formidable MC but he was pissed at King and wanted revenge.” She offers Diesel and Orion a sad smile before continuing.

  “He took our mother from the grocery store one day and sent word that the Kings of Carnage were not man enough for my mother and she had chosen John instead.” I look on with trepidation as Orion and Diesel watch her, knowing it’s their mother she’s talking about as unease spreads through the room.

  “She waited for you to come and save her. She knew if nothing else, you would know she would never leave her boys. But you never came for her.” Megan looks straight at King while she signs.

  “What the fuck is she talking about, Dad?” Diesel asks.

  “Lies. Melly made her choice. She had to live with it,” King rebuffs.

  “He kept her locked up until I was born. Then he used me to keep her in line, passing her around all of his men and keeping her on the side while he went home to his old lady.” Orion turns to face King.

  “What is she talking about? You said she was John’s old lady, that’s why she left and why our club had nothing to do with each other.” King glances over at Joker, a flicker of doubt crossing his brow.

  “It’s bullshit lies. Joker saw them playing happy family together. She sure as shit wasn’t a prisoner when he saw them or he would never have left her and he sure as hell would have told me. I can’t believe you would turn on your family like this.”

  “I’m protecting my family, something you failed to do. Joker fed you a line and you bought into his bullshit because your ego had been bruised. You let your pride get in the way of me having a mother,” Diesel yells at him.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you sanctimonious little prick. Joker, tell them.”

  Joker shrugs like he doesn’t have a care in the world. “She made her bed. She doesn’t get to cry when she’s expected to fuck in it.”

  “She was fucking kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and tortured because of you and when she finally managed to sneak a phone call to ask for help, you laughed at her and told her to fuck off.” Megan signs in an agitated flurry.

  Orion walks over to Joker and punches him in the face. He pulls back and punches him again and again before Diesel grabs his arm and pulls him away. Then Diesel kicks the chair, knocking Joker to the floor before turning to King. “You’re dead to me.” Diesel moves to stand next to his sister.

  King, frozen in shock, looks down at Joker on the floor.

  “John’s old lady had two sons from a previous relationship, Crogan and Stokey. Crogan made my life hell. He sexually abused me for years before I turned sixteen and decided he wanted more. I was lucky the only thing I lost that night was my hearing.”

  “Fuck!” Orion yells. And he isn’t the only one pissed. None of the men in the room look any happier to hear this than I was down in the cells earlier.

  “We have to get Mom out of there, Orion, but somewhere far, far away from this piece of shit.” Diesel spits at his father.

  “Oh, god!” The words are out before I can stop them. Fuck, they don’t know she’s gone.

  “What?” Diesel looks between me and Megan in confusion but Orion has figured it out, I can already tell.

  “Tell me,” he grits out.

  “Crogan was pissed he never got to fuck me. As I was in the hospital, he decided to fuck my mother for the night and have her pretend to be me instead.” Yuk. She failed to mention that last time.

  “My—our mother stabbed him through the heart before taking his gun and shooting John. She then turned the gun on herself.” Megan is breathing heavily by the end of it but everyone else is quiet. Diesel picks up a chair and throws it across the room before picking up another and throwing that. Gage wraps his arms around him while Ziggy blocks Megan.

  Orion stares at me with an odd mix of anger and sorrow coating his features before drawing his gun and pointing it at Joker.

  I walk over and wrap my arms around him, holding on to him as hard as I can.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell him and I truly am. Sorry for the boy who lost his mom and to the man who just realized his heroes are anything but.

  “The VP let me go but I had to stay loyal to the club.” Megan continues to sign as Ziggy translates. “I never heard from them until this afternoon and it was only because they had seen Kings of Carnage coming into my shop.”

  “Which brings us to Weasel,” I sign and speak. She looks at me confused.

  “Who?”

  “The guy from the shop that I shot.”

  “You mean Stokey?”

  “What? How the fuck does the stepson of the president of the Chaos Demons become a patched member of a rival club without detection?” Halo asks.

  “They don’t, do they?” I spin to face Joker who is watching us from his spot on the floor.

  “You knew who Weasel was but you had no choice but to throw him out when everyone else realized he was selling guns to the Chaos Demons. Except it wasn’t just him, was it? It was you. Weasel was just your go-between.” I look at him with revulsion.

  “You have no fucking loyalty or respect for anything, do you? You had to know Weasel was filling them in on all the club business. You just didn’t care.”

  “I made this club a fortune, you fucking cunt. Who I do or don’t deal with is irrelevant.” He looks at Megan briefly before looking away.

  “Tell them,” Megan signs.

  He ignores her.

  She walks toward him, empowered by her words. “Fine, then I will tell them myself.” He makes a grab for her leg but Orion crunches down on his wrist with an audible snap.

  “I saw you. I should have been in bed but I had a nightmare and I saw you. I was too young to understand at the time. You were just another man and lord knows I had seen more than any eight-year-old should have by then. You were with my mother but she was blindfolded and gagged while John sat in t
he corner getting himself off. She was crying but then she always was. You were mean to her and I was scared of you so I ran and hid. I saw you a few times over the years but I never knew who you were and I always saw you in places I wasn’t supposed to be. Imagine my surprise when I found out years later who you really were.”

  “You were punishing her,” Diesel says, cutting through the confusion that swirls around us.

  “You were punishing Melinda because you believed she chose John instead of you. John gave you access to her in exchange for the guns.” Halo seethes.

  I look at King who isn’t looking so good as he stares down at Joker like he has had his heart cut from his chest.

  “No, that’s not it at all, is it? I don’t think you ever sided with King, to begin with. I think you sided with John. He gave you a cut of his profits from the drugs he distributed and you gave him guns that he couldn’t get from your supplier himself.” I stare at him, knowing he doesn’t have a flicker of remorse within him.

  “You gave her up. Offered her to John as a way to make King pay for not bending to your will.”

  “It was only a matter of time before she left anyway. She didn’t want me or John. All she cared about was fucking King.”

  “But she didn’t leave you, you left her. Again and again and again. You made her pay for sins she never committed. I wish she had never met you. I hope when you die, I’m the one who gets to do it,” Ziggy speaks for Megan.

  “You know nothing! She never loved me or John. It was always about King. Why do you think King is the only one with kids, huh? Because she wasn’t interested in having John’s or mine.” He roars but I can see he knows deep down it’s not true. He just couldn’t see through his hatred before.

  “Well, John changed that, didn’t he? He hated that Melly gave King sons but never gave him one. So he took the choice away from her. He must have been pissed when he realized his kid was nothing more than a piece of gash like her mother,” Joker yells, trying to place all the blame on John.

  “But that’s just it. John wasn’t really my father. You are. That’s why he hated me because, even after everything, he still couldn’t get that elusive son he craved.”

  He stares at her in horror. “No, that can’t be true, no.”

  “But I’m afraid it is, Daddy.”

  “No!” he roars before pulling a gun from his boot. He never gets a shot off before King drills him with a dozen bullets.

  When silence reigns again it’s because the dishonored president is dead and everything is about to change.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The mood is somber when the guys arrived back at the clubhouse after disposing of Chewy and the almost torn apart body of the former president of the club.

  “Hey. You doing okay?” I slip my hand into Orion’s as he looks down at the burning embers of Joker’s cut in the bonfire in front of him.

  He looks up at me and pulls me to him, my back to his front, and wraps his arms around my shoulders.

  “I’m doing okay. How’s Megan?” I look over to the left and see her sitting on the ground stroking King’s fur while watching Oz sign something to her.

  “She’s doing better than you, I think, but she already knew what kind of man her father was. For you and Diesel, finding out about Joker like this, it’s different. Where is Diesel, by the way?” I know he was here earlier.

  “I saw him head inside with Stacey.” I scrunch my face up but I don’t say anything. People deal with death in different ways. Some get blind drunk like most of the club around us and some fuck it out of their system. Who am I to judge?

  “Do you want to get out of here?” I ask him.

  He nods against me before pulling me toward his bike. I spot Halo and Gage making their way over to us so I tug on Orion’s hand to get him to stop.

  “Where are you two escaping to?” Halo asks, trailing his eyes over my legs. The high-waisted shorts and black tank leave plenty of skin on display.

  “Away from here. Want to join us? I have a bone to pick with our woman,” Orion tells him.

  “Hey! What did I do?”

  “You put yourself in danger!” Gage yells at me.

  “Repeatedly,” Halo adds

  “And you never listen to a goddamn word we say,” Orion finishes. My shoulders slump.

  “Yeah, okay, I did do all those things but, in my defense, I had a good reason for all of it. Which reminds me, I really need to talk to you guys about something.”

  Orion leans down and whispers in my ear, “Later. You will take your punishment like a good girl first.”

  “Wait, are we getting to the fucking part of the grief thing?”

  “As per usual, I have no idea what you’re talking about, Cherub, but if it ends with fucking, I’m game.”

  I laugh softly.

  “So, you're a mercenary?” Gage asks, walking beside us. He’s been exceptionally quiet since this all went down.

  I look at him, trying to gauge his reaction but he isn't giving me much to go on.

  “Not me personally, no. I just have a team of them at my disposal. I pick up the cases, deciding who needs us and who doesn't. I organize everything and collect the cash. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m a crack shot but I like my life the way it is,” I tell him honestly. It’s not like I haven't tried to bring it up with them before, it’s just that something always came up.

  “How did they even get here so fast?”

  “Most of the team were on a rescue job with my brothers so they’re on a little downtime at the moment. Almost all of them live up at the ranch so as soon as Ziggy called them, they mobilized.”

  “Yeah, but how did Ziggy know to call them?”

  “I knew back at Megan’s shop that things were going to go tits up. I wanted someone in place to protect Megan. I’m glad I did.”

  “Chosaint,” Gage mutters, surprising me. “I looked it up after I heard you say it to your brother. You ordered them to protect Megan and they called in their squad.”

  I nod, not sure if he’s angry or what. When he doesn't speak anymore, he leaves us all in uncomfortable silence.

  “Gage, why don’t you take Luna back to your place? Halo and I will catch up. I just need to see Diesel about something first,” Orion suggests, looking at me.

  Gage nods and heads for the bikes. I look at Halo and Orion, unsure what to do.

  “Talk to him, sugar. Find out what’s going on in his head. We’ll be right behind you,” Halo says with a quick kiss. I forget how in tune with each other these guys are sometimes.

  “Okay,” I agree, giving Orion a quick kiss too before heading over to Gage.

  He doesn't say anything as I climb on behind him, reminding me of that night not too long ago. Let’s just hope this has a better outcome.

  By the time we pull up, the gray skies have opened and the rain lashes down around us. We’re both soaked through to the skin before we make it inside.

  “Shower?” I ask him, breaking the silence as I shiver lightly in the doorway.

  “You go ahead, Luna, I’m going to make some coffee,” He dismisses me and walks into the kitchen.

  Fuck this shit. I follow him into the kitchen.

  “Have I done something to piss you off?”

  “No. Go take a shower, Luna, before you get sick.”

  “No, Gage. You obviously have a bone to pick with me about something so just spit it out already.”

  “Luna—”

  I cut him off. “Gage.”

  “Fine, you want to do this now? Let’s do it. Why are you here, Luna?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Why are you here slumming it with a bunch of bikers when you have what you have at your disposal?”

  “At my disposal? What are you talking about?”

  “You have a whole fucking armed squad of men to protect you, Luna. Why the fuck do you even need us?”

  I stand in shock, trying to understand the crap coming out of his mouth.

  “You know
, I spend as much time plotting your murder as I do loving you. It’s fucking exhausting. I don't need you to protect me. I don't even need my men to protect me. I’m more than capable of taking care of myself. My guys are my family, we live together, joke together, and mourn together. It’s what families do. You should get that better than most.”

  “You love me?” he asks.

  I scoff, making him frown. “Why do you always ask me the most ridiculous questions? Of course, I fucking love you, you big giant pain in my ass. Why the hell do you think I’m here? Oh—” And now I get it.

  “That’s it, isn't it? It's not about my team or the fact I have my own ranch or truck or any of that shit. You want to know how I feel about you but you’re too stubborn-headed to just come out and ask me.”

  He stalks toward me, his eyes looking black and feral as he pins me against the wall.

  “One of these days that smart mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble, little girl,” he tells me as a hand snakes its way up to grip my throat in a firm but gentle hold.

  Feeding off his dominance, I pant out, “Well, then, maybe you should fill it for me.”

  “Are you mine?” he barks out, making my clit throb. “Answer me,” he roars, stroking my desire into a frenzy.

  “Yes, god, yes,” I moan.

  “You love me?” he questions, his voice sharp and lethal like the edge of a blade.

  “Yes,” I hiss out, needing something, anything.

  “Well then, I think you deserve a reward, don’t you, Cherub?”

  I nod my head rapidly when he loosens his hold on me.

  “On your knees, Luna.” I sink to the floor, not needing any more instructions.

  “Hands behind your back. This is about me, not you. This is for all the times you nearly gave me a fucking heart attack by putting yourself in harm’s way.” He unzips his pants and pulls his cock free.

  “Show me what you've got, baby.” He grunts as I open my mouth and welcome him inside.

  He isn't gentle, which is good, because I’m not looking for gentle right now. I need raw and dirty and as he grips my hair hard with both hands and starts fucking my mouth, that’s exactly what he gives me.