by Jadyn Chase
“I’m not talking about that,” he snapped. “Why don’t you answer my texts?”
“Oh, that.” I brushed my bangs off my forehead.
“Yes, that,” he snarled. “I texted you last week to find out if you wanted to go out this weekend. You didn’t answer. Then I texted you yesterday to find out what was going on with you and you didn’t answer that, either. What’s the story?”
I fidgeted and looked right and left. How did I get into this mess? “I was going to answer, but I….”
“No, you weren’t. You’re lying. You never intended to answer. You were just going to let it go and hope to Hell you never saw me again. Weren’t you? Admit it. Why did you say you would see me later when you never intended to?”
I floundered for an answer that would make sense of all this. Nothing I could think of sounded sufficiently credible to even bother vocalizing. “You don’t understand. I….”
“You’re right. I don’t understand. You specifically said you would see me later. When I questioned if you really meant that, you said yes, you did, so why haven’t you answered my texts?”
“Look, Roman, I…..” I stammered.
“Shut it with that ‘Look, Roman’ crap!” he thundered. “Look me in the eye when you speak to me.”
The decibels of his order reverberated down the corridor. I wouldn’t have been surprised if half the hospital heard him.
I couldn’t ignore that voice. He sure had some experience giving orders and seeing them obeyed. My gaze snapped to his fuming countenance.
He growled through gritted teeth. “Just give me a straight answer for once in your life. Look me in the eye and tell me exactly what you’re doing. If you don’t want to see me again, just tell me. I’m big enough to handle it. You don’t have to treat me like I’m made of glass. Just give it to me straight so I know what the fuck is going on. Don’t spend the night with me and then sneak off like some kind of crook.”
I blinked—at least, I thought I did. Maybe I only tried to and failed. His eyes smoldered with such volcanic fury that I couldn’t break away. I would have given anything to lie again, to make up any story to sugar-coat the truth, but he wouldn’t let me.
“I…..I don’t think I can…. I mean…. I want to and everything, but I…. you know….”
“No, Maya,” he rumbled. “I don’t know because you won’t explain it to me. Do you want to see me again or not? A simple yes or no will do.”
“I do,” I blurted out, “but I don’t think I can. It’s not…. a good idea, you know. You’re…..you said you wanted to get out, but you didn’t. You’re still in it. You’re in a gang and you’re at war with another gang. I don’t think I can get mixed up in that. I…..I want you. Christ, that sounds awful!”
“No, it doesn’t,” he cut in. “It doesn’t sound awful except that you still won’t take ownership of your own answer. Is it yes or is it no?”
“I can’t!” I wailed. “Don’t you see? If I could take you by yourself—you and Anna—I would jump at the chance. I…. That’s what I want—just you and Anna—without all the rest of that shit. I can’t have that, though, can I? You’re never going to get out. You’ll always be in it, and if I take you, I have to take all that, too.”
There. I said it. If he couldn’t handle that, I couldn’t do any better.
He pulled his head back an inch. He puffed a small breath through his broad nostrils and jutted out his chin. “‘Shit’? You call that shit? Is that what you really think?”
“Come on, Roman,” I pleaded. “You know what I meant.”
“I know what you meant because you said it. You think my family and my community and my people are shit. You said so.”
“Don’t be like that, Roman,” I countered. “It’s just a figure of speech.”
“Not to you it isn’t.” He turned his shoulder side-on to me. “That’s all I needed to know. If you get in touch with the surg tech team, you can let Carlos know what they said. I appreciate your honesty.” He marched off down the corridor and back to Kane’s room.
That went about as disastrously as I could have imagined, but at least it was over. At least I wouldn’t have to talk to him again. I didn’t do a very good job of articulating my real feelings about him. He heard one word in all of what I said.
That was all he needed to hear. I couldn’t get involved with him if he was in a motorcycle club warring with the Chinese Longtails. I might be able to overlook him being a dragon and Anna being a dragon, but the fact remained that I never even got close to that.
As long as he was part of that motorcycle gang, what was the point of me even knowing he was a dragon? What difference did it make in the end? I could like him until the cows came home. We would never have any future together.
11
Roman
I swung away from the nurses’ station madder than I could remember being in my life. That filthy, two-faced bitch! Why did she have to lie about wanting to see me again? Why couldn’t she just tell me the truth straight up?
I never felt more like a cheap piece of tail than now. She used me and threw me away. I cursed her in the back of my mind. That hurt. I didn’t need to deny it. I never would have let myself get close to her if I’d known she would kick me in the teeth like that.
In the front of my mind, I shrugged her off. I didn’t need her. My life was better off without her in it. I still had all my brothers.
I veered around the corner headed back to Kane’s room and collided with Carlos. He braced his legs and swelled out his chest to repel me. When I caught my balance, I understood. He was waiting for me. He was standing close enough to the nurses’ station to hear every word I said to Maya.
He crossed his arms over his burly chest and his eyes flashed fire. “What are you doing?”
I jerked my thumb over my shoulder as though that could fool him. “I was checking with the nurse about the surgical tech team coming around and….”
“I’m not talking about that,” he barked. This was starting to sound familiar. “You dipped your toe in that, didn’t you?”
I squared my shoulders at him. “So what if I did? Ain’t nobody’s business if I did.”
“It’s my business as long as it’s my job to protect this club,” he returned. “I’m responsible for foreseeing every threat, even if it comes from you.”
“She’s not a threat. She’s just a….”
“She’s human,” he interrupted. “How can you say she’s not a threat? They’re all threats.” I shook my head, but he cut me off. “You know what they’re like. If she finds out…”
“She already knows,” I told him. “I told her the other night. She knows everything.”
He froze. His eyes glittered hard and dangerous. “You didn’t. You couldn’t.”
“Well, I did.” Now it was my turn to lock my gaze on him. “I told her everything. You don’t know what it’s been liking living without Laura all these years. You don’t know what it’s like raising a child on your own.”
He started to speak, but I raised my hand in front of his face.
“You have Maria and Kane has Rita. You’ve been there for me through it all, but you don’t know what it’s really like. When you try it for a little while, maybe you can tell me I shouldn’t have. I can’t do this anymore. Is it asking too much that a man should live his whole life alone without a woman who knows the truth?”
“You never had to live without a woman.” He waved his hand around. “You could take your pick of all Los Diablos. You know that.”
“Don’t you think I would if I could?” I jabbed my face within an inch of his nose. I would have bellowed at the top of my lungs if we hadn’t been standing in the middle of a public hospital with dozens of people around. As it was, I kept my voice to a hoarse croak forcing the words out. “Don’t you think I would have taken one of them in a heartbeat if I could?”
He retracted his head down between his shoulders. “Well, what’s stopping you?”
I jerked back. �
��You tell me.”
He didn’t reply. What did I mean by that? I struggled even to explain it to myself. I could have comforted myself with any woman from the club. No one would stop me.
They weren’t her. None of them would do because they weren’t Maya. Only Maya would do and now she was gone, too. I could destroy myself rather than accept that.
“She’s a threat,” he told me. “You can’t get away from that and now she’s turned against you. If she doesn’t come over to our side, you have to get rid of her. You know the rules. No one outside the club finds out. That’s the rule. It applies to you as much as to anyone else.”
“She’s no threat.” I felt the ground slipping away beneath my feet. “I’ll leave the club. You can take over. Then you won’t have anything to worry about from her.”
He lowered his voice to a murderous whisper. I never saw him like this before. “If you leave the club, you’ll become a threat the same as her. She just turned you down. She’s not going anywhere with you, and I don’t think you want to put her at risk doing that, do you?”
I blinked at him. Did my own cousin just threaten my daughter and me?
He stayed where he was for a few tense seconds. Then he jabbed his finger in my face. “Handle it.”
He stormed off down the corridor and left me standing there with my mouth open. I dared not go back to Kane’s room after that. I cast a guilty glance up and down the corridor, but no one was around. No one heard us—at least, I hoped to Christ no one did.
I ducked into the stairwell and beat it back to the house. I went to my office and buried myself in paperwork for three hours to block out what happened. Maya turned me down. Then Carlos threatened me to get rid of her to stop her from…. doing whatever.
She would never tell. I knew that. She wouldn’t tell a soul what I told her about our business. For some reason, I trusted her. Not even her rejecting me could touch that. If our secrets were ever safe, they were safe with her. I could trust her to take them to the grave even if I never saw her again.
A loud pounding knock vibrated my door toward late afternoon. I left Anna at the hospital, but that was nothing new. One of the guys must have given her a ride home, but she never knocked before entering our house before.
When I opened the door, I found Logan standing there. Five other Diablos sat on their bikes at the curb. Their shades concealed their eyes, but they kept swiveling their heads around to scan the neighborhood.
A jolt of alarm fired down my spine. I pointed my chin at Logan. “What’s up?”
He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the highway. “Carlos sent me to get you. The medics woke up Kane and he told us what happened. The Longtails jumped him and Augustino on their way to pick up the new shipment of ammo. They knocked both of them off their bikes in the middle of the freeway. Kane got thrown from the overpass. Another motorist saw the whole thing and called 911. The ambulance picked him up and brought him in, but a delivery truck hit Augustino and dragged him a mile down the expressway before it rolled over him. It cut him in half. By the time the cops got to the scene, there wasn’t enough of him to salvage. They took him straight to the morgue. We checked. That’s why he wasn’t at the hospital.”
I stiffened. “All right. We know what we have to do then.”
He nodded. “Carlos is waiting with the rest of the brothers at the warehouse. They’re just waiting on you.”
I grabbed my vest from its hook behind the door. I stepped out of the house and locked the door. I shrugged into the vest on my way to the garage.
The electric door rolled up and I slung my leg over my hog. I waited just long enough to tie my bandana across my face before I fired that beast up.
The others fell in line behind me driving up the on-ramp headed south. The wind hit me in the face. It felt good to go out to battle again. I left all the petty domestic concerns behind me and concentrated on the business at hand. No matter what anybody said about Anna or Maya or me or anything else, this was what Los Diablos was all about. We protected our own. If anyone messed with one of ours, we messed with them back twice as hard.
I angled my chopper to a stop in front of the warehouse, but I didn’t dismount. I observed in a bubble of silence while Carlos distributed guns and knives and chains and clubs and flails to the whole pack of marauders. He issued plenty of ammo to everyone until they couldn’t carry anymore.
I scanned the assembly and found a few notables absent. That was as it should be. Carlos was no slouch when it came to warfare on the streets of LA. Then again, maybe he was planning for the day he had to take over for me. I wouldn’t put it past him.
When everybody was ready, he sliced his forefinger through the air. I couldn’t hear his words from here, but when everyone got on their bikes, he glanced over at me. You’d never know they were all watching me for the signal, but the minute I dipped my chin once, they all fired up their engines at once.
The whole posse thumped out of the warehouse and hit the tarmac. We formed a convoy with Carlos and Logan at the front. I could see Logan becoming a real Diablo in this thing. If he proved himself in this battle, we would initiate him at the next meeting for certain.
I stuck to the middle. It never worked for The Boss to take the point in situations like this. For one thing, the enemy always targeted the man in front. They assumed he was the leader so they tried to take him out first. The club couldn’t function if the leader got hit every time they went into battle.
For another thing, the Longtails didn’t read English or Spanish well. They couldn’t tell one Diablo from another once the shit hit the fan. They wouldn’t take the time to read the fine print on one man’s chest that said El Capitan or The Boss, and they wouldn’t know the difference if they did. Only my short hair separated me from the rest of the pack, and the Longtails didn’t know enough to know about that.
The crew swirled around me in a cloud of leather and chrome. Man, what a sight! I loved nothing better than seeing them ride into battle and knowing full well we had our enemies on the front burner.
A mile down the expressway, Zander puttered from the on-ramp to join the crew. He eased through the pack to ride next to Carlos and gave him a nod. One by one, our scouts rejoined the group at strategic intersections. No words exchanged until the very last man merged. He pointed to a side exit cutting off the main freeway and Carlos angled toward it.
The whole pack flowed off the expressway onto a side street. The scouts eased to the front and led the convoy. All at once, with no warning, they yanked their bikes sideways and plowed through a narrow alley.
The surrounding walls offered only enough space for two bikes to ride abreast. The convoy slowed down, but in an instant, it emerged into a wide thoroughfare streaming three lanes going in both directions.
The bikes in front of me sped up. My pulse quickened. This was it. The men ahead parted to make more room, and the hombres behind closed the gap to catch up. In a few seconds, the pack reformed.
A tingle of excitement rippled through the men around me. No one batted an eye, but the palpable taste of metallic danger stung my tongue. My skin tightened all over my body.
Just then, Logan dodged his bike to the left. Between his and Carlos’s black shoulders, I spotted a flash of red and yellow. A few motorcycles appeared beyond the cars down the road.
At that moment, Carlos hit the throttle. His engine roared to life. All around me, more motors erupted to a deafening roar, and Los Diablos shot forward in a lightning storm of raging vengeance.
What happened next unfolded in a silent maelstrom of vicious confusion that synchronized in something like a symphony of blood and mayhem. Carlos and Logan charged the Longtail peloton. They flanked the rearmost riders before they drew their guns. No one could tell what they planned to do until the bullets ripped.
They drew level with two Longtail riders and unleashed their guns at the same moment. They sandwiched the two Chinese riders and blasted them off their bikes. The hogs folded under t
hem and the men flopped onto the pavement under the wheels of Los Diablos members rushing in from behind.
Zander bounced in his seat running one of them down. The next instant, all my brothers opened fire on the Longtail pack. They poured bullets into their backs and shot their tires out from under them. Bikes went down all over the place. The Longtails fell under cars and trucks on both sides.
I yanked my throttle and barreled into the mix. I didn’t have a gun, but I felt more deadly than if I had been packing one. I stuck my hand into my saddlebag and pulled out a six-foot chain. A spinning disk of sharpened blades twirled from its end.
I steered with one hand and swung the chain around my head like a lasso. It howled in my ear, and that sound growled its deadly song into my heart. Oh, yes. Oh, fuck, yes. Eyeing my helpless enemies gave me a thrill better than sex.
About ten Longtails remained in their seats. They cast hasty glances over their shoulders, and when they saw the chaos unfolding behind them, they took evasive action. They broke out of their pack and swept sideways into civilian traffic.
Most of the Diablos concentrated the bulk of their fire on the peloton. They closed around the last remaining riders to mow them down. They didn’t see a few escaping, but I did.
I put on speed to chase them down. We couldn’t let a single one get away. This would be retribution for Kane, we needed to send them a clear message. If the Longtails wanted to start a war with us, they would come out the losers. Anybody who tangled with Los Diablos always wound up regretting it in the end. That was how we managed to survive this long.
Four of them wove through the sluggish traffic. I spotted an exit up ahead. They were making a break for their own neighborhood. If they made it, we couldn’t chase them. Once they got onto their own streets, they would be safe. If the Longtails caught us down there, we would be as good as dead.
I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let them survive to take shelter on their own ground. I slalomed between cars gunning my motor. When I looked back, I didn’t see any of my own people following me. I was on my own.