by Bella J
“Whose sister?”
Another drag. “Slither.” I breathed his name out with a cloud of smoke. “She’s Slither’s sister.”
“What?” Granite’s eyebrows curved with confusion. “He has a sister?”
“Yup.”
“Hold up,” Dutch joined in. “Wraith is Slither’s sister? How, when, and what the fuck?”
I flicked the cigarette on the side of the road. “She was a rat.”
“Jesus,” Granite breathed, pulling his hand through his hair, staring down at the ground. “What happened here?”
I hunched down, clenching my fists. “She came with Slither tonight, meeting the Sixes.”
“Why?”
I glanced up at him. “She’s the Pythons’ clubwhore. Well, sorta.”
“What are you talking about?”
I swallowed, the words too sharp to utter, afraid it would slice my insides into pieces. I indicated toward Manic, urging him to tell the story further.
He cleared his throat. “Slither brought her here tonight as part of the distraction.”
I cursed a string of f-bombs, the thought of another man touching her tearing me the fuck apart.
Unable to contain the rage, I jumped up and slammed my fist into the panel of the van, causing a huge dent…almost like the hole in my chest.
“Onyx.” I turned when I heard Crow’s voice. “I have to give it to you. Some stunt you pulled, finding a way out of the deal with Slither.” He looked at Granite. “You have my respect, man, putting your club’s needs before your own.”
Granite shrugged. “I’d do everything for my men.”
Crow glanced at me, eyes narrowed. “We down for business?”
“Yeah, man.” I probably should have been a little more excited over the fact that we just got our biggest client and ally back, but everything about this night felt off. Distorted. Fucked the hell up.
“Crow,” Granite started, “we got something you should know.”
“What?”
Granite shot me a knowing look, slightly nodding for me to chip in to the conversation.
I cleared my throat. “You probably heard about the new snow on the street.”
“Yeah, I heard. I’ve been tapping into every resource I have, but we can’t find the fuckers.”
“It’s the Pythons.”
Crow stiffened, dark eyes narrowed into angry slits. “Slither?”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah. This whole setup tonight was a ploy to keep you occupied while their next shipment hit town.”
Granite stepped up, holding out his phone so Crow could see the pictures they took. “It’s been the Pythons all along.”
Crow’s expression went from pale, to red, to downright fucking dark. “So, while this fucker has been taking my money, he’s been fucking with my business too?”
I shrugged. “Seems like it.”
Crow whistled, waving a few of his guys to join the conversation. He turned halfway, whispering something to his VP before facing us again. “Before the crack of dawn, Slither and his crew will take their last breath. You in?”
“Fuck, yes.” There was no need to check with my crew, no need to take a vote. I already knew where everyone’s minds were. This had been coming for years, the day when we finally took back what was rightfully ours, giving that son of bitch what he deserved. And after his latest stunt, using his sister as a rat, infiltrating us by fooling me—now I wanted his blood more than ever.
Crow nodded. “We ride now. Make sure you’re packing heavy shit.” He turned and walked off to the rest of his crew.
Granite stepped up to me. “You okay with this?”
“That’s shitty question, brother. Of course I’m okay with this. We’ve been waiting years for this.”
“Yeah, but this whole thing with Wraith complicates—”
“It ain’t complicating shit. She’s with our enemy, that makes her an enemy too.” Not wanting to spend another second on the topic, I faced Manic. “Call Ink. Tell him this shit is going down tonight. He’s finally getting the blood he wants.”
“Onyx—” Granite followed me to the van, but I held up my hand, my back turned to him.
“Don’t. I’m good. I just want all of this to end.” I hopped into the cage and slammed the door shut. “And tonight, it ends.”
“She’ll be there.”
“She made her choice.”
“Listen,” he placed his arm on the edge of the open window, “one thing I’ve learned, when it comes to Slither, nothing is as it seems.”
I glared his way. “What are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is I know you’re hurt. I know what it feels like to realize you have a weakness after thinking there was nothing that could limit you. Nothing that can break you.”
“What’s your point?” Last thing I needed was some psychobabble bullshit from my brother who suddenly thought he became an expert in life simply because he found an old lady to keep his bed warm at night.
“My point is don’t make harsh decisions without getting all the facts…especially when you’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
“Just like Ink’s fine?”
I pulled my eyes into slits. “Don’t compare me to Ink.”
“You’re both fueled by your emotions. Ink’s rage…and you, your pride.”
I clenched my jaw, and I had to fill my head with visions of Slither’s dead body rather than Wraith’s face, her tears. All it did was make me feel shit I didn’t want to feel.
“Are we sure there’s not a bigger picture here?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I dunno, man. I just think when it comes to Slither, there’s always a motherfucking bigger picture.”
Clutching the steering wheel, knuckles turning white, I thought back to our confrontation. Slither’s cocky attitude. Her tears. Crow’s surprise. And the goddamn knife in my back.
The image of that son of bitch standing next to her, having his hand on her—an act of possession—made me sick. How he looked at me with that smirk on his face, knowing exactly how fucked up it all was. At least there was one part of that entire conversation that went our way…the motherfucking look on his face when he realized we trumped his ass, that Granite was no longer president. The look of shock on his ugly face was priceless, the moment nothing short of triumphant glee. He never saw it coming.
He never saw it coming.
“Wait.” My thoughts scattered.
“What is it?”
“He didn’t know.”
Granite frowned. “Didn’t know what?”
“But she did.”
“Onyx, you’re not making sense. What the fuck are you on about?”
“Wraith.” I looked at him. “She knew I was president. She knew you stepped down, and that I took your place.”
“How?
“I told her.”
“Okay.” He seemed confused.
I shifted in my seat, adrenaline swooshing through me. “Wraith knew, but Slither didn’t. That means she didn’t tell him.”
Granite tapped on the edge of the window. “It’s some big shit info for her to keep to herself if she was a rat.”
“Yeah. What the fuck does this mean, though?”
He shrugged. “Like I said, when it comes to Slither, there’s always a bigger picture.”
I put the van in gear. “I’m about to find out what that bigger fucking picture is.”
Manic got into the van. “Ink’s on his way.”
Granite stepped back, and I revved the engine. “This is it, brother, the day we’ve been waiting years for.”
Chapter Twenty
Wraith
For the last fifteen years, I didn’t think I had a heart. I lived my life like I had nothing to lose. Like I felt nothing. A void. A wraith. But now, my tears painted a different picture, created an image of someone who felt something. Who had a heart. Seeing the look on Onyx’s face made me die a slow death insid
e. I wasn’t even aware there was something that resembled a heartbeat in this black soul of mine, not until it cracked wide open when I watched Onyx realize I had betrayed him. Played him. Lied to him.
It was summer, yet I was clutching my arms tightly against my chest as if to ward off the cold. I was relieved when Slither didn’t get in the car with me, one of his prospects driving me home. I couldn’t face him, not when I felt so broken. He’d see it as a weakness, scold me for not turning off my feelings, my humanity. It was something I had mastered years ago, yet all it took was a few encounters and a passionate love affair with Onyx to make me forget I had the means to switch off my ability to feel. Now I cursed him for it. If he didn’t make me feel again, I wouldn’t have been sitting in the back seat of a car crying like I got my heart broken.
All these years, Slither was the one man I trusted. He was the one man I knew would protect me, keep the bad people away. But after tonight, I wasn’t so sure anymore. What if he was one of the bad people?
I pulled off my shoes as I got out of the car, refusing to torture myself further with stiletto heels, and ran barefoot into the building I’d called home for so long and straight to my room. My bedroom wasn’t much, but at least it was mine. Slither had the room soundproofed so I didn’t have to listen to their wild parties, fights, screaming, and chaos whenever it erupted. This was like my own little corner in the world where I was free of everything and everyone.
With a bed in the corner, lilac sheets draped over it, a bedside table with a matching chest of drawers, it was your typical female bedroom. But it was the only little space in the world I could call my own. Where I didn’t have to wear a mask or pretend to be this whole other person, when in fact, I was nothing but a broken porcelain doll. No matter how many times you tried to glue the pieces back together, the cracks would always remain. And all those times I had been with Onyx, he made me think the cracks were gone—that I had somehow gone from broken to undented. Especially when he touched me, something I never got pleasure from before him—a man’s touch. In the past, I had endured it, never relished it. Until him.
Tossing my shoes on the floor, I dragged my tired body over to the bed while unzipping the side of my dress, still seeing flashes of Onyx’s face in my head. Never in a million years did I think I’d regret hurting someone the way I hurt him.
Exhaling and closing my eyes, I stood there in the middle of the room thinking of birthday candles. If I had one more shot at making a wish, it would be to go back to the night I thrust myself into Onyx’s life for the first time. If I could have done it over, I would have walked right past his table and not glanced back once, then just end up telling Slither Onyx wasn’t interested. Shot me down on the very first try. Then I wouldn’t have been trapped in this shit-storm right now, and I wouldn’t have Onyx’s face haunting me.
“Care to tell me what the fuck happened tonight?”
“Jesus Christ, Slither.” I gulped. “Stop doing that. Don’t you fucking knock?”
He shrugged. “Not when it’s my house.” The door clicked closed behind him, and it instantly felt like all the oxygen was sucked out of the room, the space getting smaller and smaller with each passing second. “Did you know?”
“Did I know what?”
“That Onyx is president of the Kings.”
I swallowed hard, shifting from one leg to the other. There was no use in trying to lie. No one knew me as well as my brother did. He had the ability to see right through me, spot a lie even before I opened my mouth.
“Yes,” I breathed. “I knew.”
It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to react or to even think. The next thing I knew, Slither had his hand around my throat, slamming my back against the wall.
I grabbed at his wrist, trying to pull his hand away, but he was too strong, his grip only tightening, making it hard to breathe.
“You knew? You fucking knew and didn’t tell me?”
“You’re hurting me.”
His face came within inches of mine, his angry breaths burning my skin. “Because of you, I stood there looking like a fucking idiot.” He jerked my face toward him. “Because you didn’t tell me, those motherfuckers caught me off guard, and I looked weak. Stupid.”
“Glenn—”
I swallowed my words when the back of his hand collided with my cheek, the sting of his rage striking me in the face. He let go of my throat, and I tumbled to the floor, my aching knees nothing compared to the fire on my cheek. Tears burned as I pressed my palm against the searing flesh.
“What else do you know? What else did you keep from me?” He stalked closer, and I tried to crawl back, tried to get away from him. “What else?” he bellowed, spit flying from his seething mouth.
“Nothing. I know nothing else.”
“Liar!”
He grabbed my ankles, his grip tight and merciless. I tried fighting, kicking, begging him to let me go, but he dragged me across the floor, and with a hard jerk, he slid me headfirst into the wall, stars exploding around me.
Clutching my head, trying to think through the pain, he crouched, grabbing my throat and pulling me halfway off the floor. When I opened my eyes, staring into his, I gasped. Everything was dark, so dark. It was like the darkest pits of hell had consumed him, the scales on his skin coming to life and moving like a serpent about to strike. The last time I saw him like this was when…was the night he killed them.
“After everything I did for you, this is how you repay me?”
I sobbed, fear burning holes in my stomach. “Please—”
“I killed them for you. I became a murderer for you, and this is what you do to me?” His words were poison, lethal and fierce, aimed straight at my heart. “Maybe all the luxuries I’ve given you, this good life you’ve been living because of me, made you forget where you actually came from.”
“Good life?” I narrowed my eyes, and through the tears, I finally found my voice. “What good life? Like they all said tonight, I’m nothing but a clubwhore for you.”
“If you were a clubwhore I’d have my men fuck you in every motherfucking hole. But maybe that’s what you deserve since you betrayed me,” he snarled before striking another hand across my face. This time I tasted blood…my blood. The metallic taste brought back so many bad memories—memories of fists, faces, dirty words, and pain. So much pain.
I tried to turn on my front, tried to claw my way across the floor, when he reached for my hair, pulling me to my feet. “Glenn, stop! Please.”
“And then you even shared our secrets with him.”
“No.”
“You told him about our past. Jesus, you’re just an ungrateful whore.”
I reached back, nails clawing at the flesh of his arms, trying to get him to let go. But my fight only seemed to anger him more—adding more fuel to the already raging fire in him.
Pain burst through the side of my face when he slammed me into the wall again, this time pinning me in place with his body. There was no time for me to figure out what the hell was happening; all I knew was this wasn’t my brother. This was the man who murdered those who hurt us.
“Do you remember that night, sis?”
I closed my eyes, willing the memories away.
“Do you remember the flames? The smell of rotten, burning flesh?”
“Please—”
“I remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday.” He tightened his grip in my hair, pushing me harder against the wall. “I remember their screams, their blood. The way they begged me to stop, to not kill them.”
“Oh, God.” Bile started to move up my throat.
“But I showed them no mercy, just like they showed us none when we begged. When we pleaded for them to stop because Mom needed her fucking fix. And God knew, Mom couldn’t go without the fucking shit she pumped in her arm. But you know what I remember the most of that night?” He leaned closer. “You.” I felt the two parts of his tongue slither against my ear. “I remember the fifteen-year-old girl who st
ood in her doorway and watched while I hacked away at our mother, and our father, and the men they brought home that night.”
God, I remembered it too. I remembered the smell of the blood, the smell of death.
“You merely stood there, not saying a word, not moving. Doing nothing. To stop. Me. You liked it, didn’t you? You liked watching me and my friends butcher them. Say it.”
I whimpered, seeing their faces. Mom and Dad. Faces beaten. Arms and legs broken. Blood everywhere. Glenn’s friends killed the men Mom and Dad brought home that night, and they helped him butcher Dad. But Mom? He killed her himself, refused to let anyone else touch her. While I stood in the bedroom door watching as he tied her up, she cried out to me, held out her hand, pleading for me to help her. To save her—just like I had cried so many times for her to not let those dirty men take me. But I just stood there, watching as Glenn tore all her clothes off, ripping them to threads, humiliating her by letting her lie on the ground naked, tied up, and stuffing her dirty panties into her mouth to keep her from screaming.
I can still remember a part of me thinking it was wrong, that what they were doing was wrong. But another part of me, the biggest part, convinced me it was justice. It was payback, Mom’s atonement for what she had done to us—all because she needed her fucking drugs. After watching them torture her for an hour, slapping her, kicking her, pissing on her, I walked over, crouched beside her and gently tucked her hair behind her ear. And I can still remember the words I said to her that night, the soft words I whispered in her ear. “You’re a big girl now.” And then I walked out, closing the door behind me, leaving her alone with Glenn and his friends. With every step I took down that hall, every shackle my parents had locked around my soul broke into pieces. Every blood smear that was splattered on the wall and floors was like bricks laid on my path to freedom—a path where the demons could no longer hurt me. And I smiled. I smiled like my entire world got righted, and I owed it all to my brother.
I owed him everything…which was why I would have done anything for him. Even become his clubwhore.
Tears burned my flesh, the memories cracking through every bone in my body. “Glenn, please stop this.”