by Ryan Michele
“Got that,” Crow said, standing up. “Get this shit confirmed so we can get her taken care of.”
It was my turn to growl. Taken care of. Fuck me.
We had a way of doing things, and loyalty was everything. My club was everything.
But fuck, thinking we may have to take Hayden out twisted parts inside of me that I thought long died. Her laughter and easiness to talk to. The times we spent lying in bed, just being together. The way she looked at me, telling me with her eyes what her mouth couldn’t say.
She felt it. I knew she did.
We made our way down the hallway and to the huge steel door. “It’s gotta be in here. She hasn’t let me in.” I had fucked her in every available space in this house but that room, and I never asked to see it. She never offered.
I pulled out my kit and started in on the locks. A loud crunch came to my left as Crow pulled his hand out from the drywall he’d just concaved in. “Steel door, but not walls. Reach in and unlock it.”
Maybe using the pick was a way to delay the inevitable. Maybe it was a way to hold out a small bit of hope that this was all a nightmare. That I’d wake up and everything could go back to the way it was.
Entering the room, it was a computer nerds dream, everything laid out in order. Even in this situation, I could still appreciate her setup.
I sat in the chair and began to wake the screens up. Lots of different codes for a program appeared. There was one downloading from a server at a major company.
But it was when I saw the third computer to the right…
My chest constricted, and a ball of anger took hold.
She was hacking into our computers at Ravage. The symbols kept rolling, but the ones that stuck out were RRMC, which was what code I’d set us up with recently. Second after second it kept going.
Fuck. She’d played me. Fucking played me. Had her tight pussy wrapped around me just to lead me by my fucking dick.
I didn’t hold back as the words left my lips. “She’s doin’ it,” I told my brothers, feeling red fire rage flow through my veins.
The fucking bitch turned rat.
All for a paycheck? It didn’t matter.
No one fucked with Ravage. Not even Hayden.
26
Hayden
What do I do? What do I do? I took my time shaking out my hands, trying to get the blood flow back in place. The big brute behind me so far hadn’t balked at my actions. It was only a matter of time, though.
They left the door open, and I could hear Rocco in the other room. He was breathing heavy, a moan escaping here and there, but not screaming. I hoped they were staying away from him, but knew they wouldn’t if I didn’t get busy.
Since the guy with me knew computers, I thought I’d see how much I could get out of him with this task.
“How far have you gotten?” I asked, flexing my fingers back and forth.
The asshole bumped my chair. “Never you mind. Get to work.” His accent had me curious as to where he was from.
I tried something else. “Were you at least able to get the firewalls partially down?”
Really there was no partially here. It was either up or down, and I needed to know if he really knew what I was doing.
“No. That’s why you’re fuckin’ here.” He kicked the chair, sending me forward, my hands coming out to the table to steady myself. “Now get to work, or I call out and have your friend out there gutted.”
That didn’t go as planned either.
Fuck. Nerves racked through me. There had to be a solution. Or just something to get us out of this damn mess. Placing my fingers on the computer, I could see the slight tremble in them.
This was a lose-lose situation. I cracked Ravage and I’d be dead. I didn’t crack it and Rocco and I were dead.
Either way I was going to die, but Rocco could live. I could at least get him out of here.
There was no clear cut way for me to come out on the other side of this breathing.
Wrong Way would never forgive me for dipping into his accounts, security footage, and finances to just name a few. He would die for his club, and I would be the enemy.
He’d have no choice but to take me out. And knowing the man he was, he’d do it himself. That would be both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing because maybe he’d just put a bullet to my temple and be done. A curse because I’d have to see his face twisted in anger before I took my last breaths.
This life hadn’t given me much. Everything I had, I’d earned the hard way. I’d like to think I'd made something of my time on earth. I’d helped lots of people right wrongs that were put on them. It didn’t hide the dark side of my life, though, and I was sure karma would be at my doorstep as soon as I was gone.
The worst part would be Wrong Way thinking I betrayed him. Betrayed his club. That would forever haunt me for all of eternity. There was no getting around that.
It made me wish I would’ve told him how I felt about him. How I cared. How he meant more to me than any man in my life, in my bed. How he was something special. But none of those things would be able to cross my lips. Because the next time I saw Wrong Way, if I did, he’d hate me with everything inside of him, and that would kill me.
Tapping on the keys, I started.
I could feel the tears well up in my eyes. Even though I tried damn hard to hold them back, I felt a few roll down my cheeks. I wiped my face on my sleeve. Enough of that shit.
Thinking this brought back the memories of the first time I tried to leave home.
* * *
I’d done everything I could think of, and nothing had worked.
At school, they told us to talk about what went on at home. If you were scared or didn’t feel safe. I did that—yesterday. It took me months to get up enough courage to do it. And I’d almost chickened out.
I wished I had.
When I was in the school counselor office, she’d smiled at me and made me feel safe—I thought I could trust her with my secret.
Instead, she called my father.
When he came in, his smile was wide, and no one would know the evil that lurked below. I did. I felt it every night. The sad thing was the smile was worse than the scowl. It always had been.
He talked to the counselor for only a few minutes, then he marched us out of the school.
My father waited until we got into the truck and we were away from the school to backhand me. Even knowing it was coming, I wasn’t prepared. He had that damn ring on again, and I could feel my skin tearing at his assault.
“You fuckin’ told on me, you little cunt! A fuckin’ rat. My own damn daughter.” His blows came repeatedly. I curled myself as close to the door as I could without falling out, but it didn’t help. His arms were too long. Each time they connected the tears became heavier.
* * *
That night was the worst it had ever been.
I had to get Rocco out of here. If I did nothing else, it would be that.
Then the fates could do with me what they would.
27
Wrong Way
“Well, we didn’t need that television anyway,” Phoenix taunted me. “Why don't you do that to the pool table. I think we need a new one.”
My angry eyes met his, and he held up his hands. “I get it. You got played by pussy and are pissed. Tearin’ up the fuckin’ clubhouse isn’t gonna solve shit. So get it out of your system and let’s get to work.”
Rationally, I knew he was right, but for a moment I wanted to be irrational and take my anger out on something. Since I didn’t want to fight with my brothers, tossing around the furniture appealed to me.
Fuck.
I ripped my hand through my hair, frustration and anger warring with each other.
Hayden fucking did it. She hacked into Ravage. As soon as we got to the clubhouse, I pulled all the plugs to the computers and turned the server completely off.
I just hoped it was enough to stop whatever in the fuck she had going on there. N
o telling where she had the information going either. When I tried to get into her computers, error kept coming up.
She was too smart for her own fucking good.
And she did play me. Like a fucking fool, and all my brothers knew it. Everything that happened now was on my shoulders, and I had to take the hit for it.
It was a blow to my pride as a man. Normally, I could smell something wrong with a person easily. Hayden, though, with those long fucking legs and sexy curves, reeled me in. She worked on me for months. Then as soon as I was in her bed waking up in the mornings, she did this shit.
Stole.
From me.
From Ravage.
From my family.
From our business.
I had her pegged all wrong. She even snowed over Grams, which was never easy. But she did. Hook, line, and fucking sinker.
“I’m good.” I threw myself into the chair, rested my head back, and tried to think.
The guys cleared the place out from the party, and half of them were still pretty drunk. They’d have to sober up and fast.
This was going to be all hands on deck.
“What do we do?” Brewer asked, looking down at me, his disapproval all over his face. That shit fucking killed.
“I shut down everything I could. Took the shit on the clouds, downloaded them to an external hard drive, and deleted them. To know exactly how much she got, only she would know that answer.”
Brewer started pacing. “Where would she be?”
“Fuck if I know. She was supposed to be at home,” I clipped, getting up and needing to move. Fuck settle. I could do that shit when I was dead.
Heaving out a breath, I continued. “Rocco, Stella, or Ms. Janey who works down at the shelter.” Those were the only ones she seemed close to. “Or my grams.”
“Then let’s roll.”
Crow held his hand up. “Middle of the fuckin’ night, brothers. We need to take the van. No pipes.”
On a nod we headed out.
For the first time in my entire life, I hoped we wouldn’t find her because killing her may just kill me.
28
Hayden
The code started rolling through the screen, and jackass brute man was looking over my shoulder. His breath was horrendous, and I hated having someone over my shoulder.
“Can you please move back. I have herpes, and if I cough you’ll get it too.”
His eyes widened. “You can get that shit through a cough?” No, you fucking moron, it’s from kissing or sex, neither of which you’re getting from me.
“Yep,” I lied through my teeth. If any situation required me to lie, this would be it. I didn’t feel one ounce of guilt about it either.
When he took a step back, I smiled inside. At least one thing was going my way. I groaned as my father entered the room. Seriously. If this shit could get worse, it obviously would.
And I shouldn’t have thought that because it was a recipe for disaster. Except, my brain was overloaded so I didn’t really control my thoughts anymore.
“Done?” my father barked, and my brows pinched.
“It’ll take me a while just to break through the security. Maybe even days.” God, I hoped not, but it was true. Sometimes it took me weeks to get a job done, and the Ravage MC wouldn’t skimp on that. This wasn’t some simple hack. The code laid out in their systems was no joke.
“How about you have five hours?” he said, growling at me.
The air left my body. There was no way in hell I’d have this together in that short of a time. I’d be lucky to break in by then. My head was still hurting, my heart was desperate for my friend, Rocco, to have relief, and for Wrong Way not to hate me when this was finished.
“I need more time.”
He laughed arrogantly. “Maybe what you need is more incentive.” Helplessly I watched as he pulled out a gun from behind his back and brought it down hard on my cheekbone. I swore I heard a crack, but the pain and throbbing were taking over. My hand flew up to my face, and my father chuckled. “You are worthless. Always have been. Always will be. You stupid fucking cunt!” He roared the last words, and the demons of them came back to haunt me.
I’d thought they were gone, but they weren’t.
* * *
I told you to pick up your shit, cunt!
You’re nothing but a cunt like your mother!
Cunt, the dishes better be fuckin’ done by the time I get back.
No one wants to be friends with a little cunt.
* * *
That word. I detested that word and vowed never to use it in my life. Now here he was once again belting it out, and I was in a situation where I didn’t have any power or control.
But I did have the computer.
It was the one thing that had never let me down. It wasn’t the day to start now.
My father put the gun to my temple, but I knew he wouldn’t shoot.
At least, not yet.
“Get this shit done, cunt!” He moved the gun down and shot at my feet, missing the left by a breath. I screamed and tried to jump, but I was attached to a damn chair. “Like I said. Fast.”
All I could do was nod and get to work.
Don’t fail me now.
29
Wrong Way
“Clean!” Hornet called out from the back room of Rocco’s small apartment on the east side of Rebellion. It was two bedrooms, tiny as hell and empty. He didn’t have any roommates either.
“Fuck!” I growled out, warring inside if I was happy she wasn’t here or pissed off she wasn’t. I’d never been conflicted like this when it came to the club and someone outside of it. Club was always priority, but something inside of me was screaming, and I couldn’t figure out what.
Part of me wanted to drain the life from her body for dare taking on Ravage. The other wanted to shield her from the wrath.
Everything was twisted. I was so damn conflicted.
“Do a search,” Brewer said.
Rooster responded, “For what?”
“Anything,” Crow demanded, and we got to work.
I grabbed the laptop, sat on the bed, and opened it up. It was password protected, but I was through it in five seconds. Searching his files: Dropbox, Google Drive and trash, not much came up. When I clicked the pictures, though, I felt my chest squeeze.
Photo after photo of Rocco and Hayden growing through the years together. Some by themselves, others with people around them. Only a few appeared to be from their teen years, and the older they got, the more photos there were.
With this age of phones with cameras, that was to be expected.
Her beautiful eyes stared back at me. They were lit with happiness with small little creases on the outside. Two of them. Her beautiful face was scrunched up in a huge smile. A cake was in front of her with several burning candles. I counted nineteen of them.
Part of me wondered how many birthdays she had in her life. With running away and living on the streets, I’d bet that for Hayden the birthday didn’t matter. It was the people around her who did. When I clicked the next picture, it proved true.
An older woman, possibly in her forties, stood next to Hayden and Rocco stood on the other. Hayden’s eyes were different this time. She looked—blessed, thankful, honored to have people around her to trust and count on.
I felt a tickle in my throat, and I coughed it back down. My heart hurt.
She was a traitor. A rat. She was trying to take down my club. For what reason, I had no idea, but I would find out.
Anything that I felt for her didn’t matter anymore. It couldn’t matter. She would be dealt with, come hell or high water.
30
Hayden
The adrenaline was crashing, and my eyes were beginning to droop. Even working on computers regularly, my eyes needed a break from screen time. Except, I couldn’t. I didn’t have that privilege.
“It’s been four and a half hours. Should I put a bullet in you or him first?” my father asked, appearing
cool and calm just like before. Did anything shake this man? And better yet … who the hell was he now?
Thinking fast, I started, “They have premium cybersecurity on all their accounts, but they aren’t all linked to one main system.”
He growled, “Fuckin’ talk English. What the hell do you have for me?”
I looked over to the brute beside me who nodded at me, making me think maybe he didn’t know what the hell I was doing. That would be a blessing, but I couldn’t bank on it. Fuck, I couldn’t bank on anything.
“I was able to get into the security footage from two of their convenient stores.”
My father pulled out his gun and aimed it at my temple. “You know damn well that gives me shit!”
No shit. Why do you think I went with that first? I thought but did not say.
“I’m close to getting into financials.” It was a complete and utter lie.
I was nowhere close to it. Whoever did their computers was smart as hell, and I’d love to learn from them. My stomach sank because that would never happen. Could never happen.
“Like how to get their money?” my father asked.
Quickly I responded, “Yes.” Everyone was always in it for the money. Those things never changed, and if I could dangle this in the air, maybe he’d give me more time. I had a plan, but it wouldn’t get done fast by any means.
It could take days, but fuck I was willing to do it.
All of it.
“How long?”
My head shook. “It’ll depend on how easy I can break in. A few hours?” More like days, but any little bit counted.
“Maybe I need to go play with your boy toy in there. Maybe that’ll speed you up.”
“No. Please. I’m doing what you asked. I’ll get it. Swear.”