“No, not particularly, but work is work,” I said, and she nodded, seeming to understand.
“What do you do, Ridley?” I asked as she struck hard.
“I’m a tattoo artist,” she said, seeming to finally be a bit winded.
“Impressive. That takes a lot of skill, and I love tattoos.” I lowered my mitts and showed her mine.
She peered at the tattoo of a sun with a knife sticking out of it.
“I like it,” she said. “You had a fantastic artist, but it looks like it could use some touching up. You should come in, and I’ll do it for you. I’ll even give you a discount for not being a little bitch on the mat.”
“Thanks,” I said, amused, and raised the mitts again.
When I had gotten my tattoo, I didn’t exactly know about proper tattoo maintenance. Unfortunately, when my skin peeled, it flaked off some of the color. So although the tattoo had faded in some areas the memory hadn’t. It seemed like yesterday my brother, our friend Easton, and me were in the tattoo parlor together. Just thinking of them left me longing. I longed for my brother, who was my best friend, and Easton, who I always wished saw me as more than Jared’s little sister.
Easton
“I’m telling you, man, that Allie has got a nice ass on her,” Spider said as he reclined in his chair and stretched his long legs under the table. His beady black eyes were offset by a single teardrop tattoo under his eye that symbolized a gory tale he has told time and time again, each time more elaborate than the last.
“She’s fine as hell,” Crow agreed, his jet black hair matching the name. “Only a matter of time now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. Finally interested in the conversation, my stomach twisted and was repulsed as much by the men in this room as it was the damp smell of mold that clung to the carpet.
Spider’s shrill laughter echoed through the small backroom. “Damn, I could choke that bitch out.” He grabbed his crotch to emphasize his point.
“She’s got great legs,” Crow offered. I hung my head back to stare at the ceiling as a slow puff of smoke escaped my lips. “She’s got great everything.”
“Just wait until Dante sees her, he’s gonna break her in.”
Dante, our president, was going to claim her as his only, and once he was tired of her, he would hand her off to the gang to fuck. I had seen him do it with Lucy, Makayla, and Tanzy.
“Has Dante finally seen enough to let everyone return to Sasha’s?” I asked. This was normal, if Sasha hired someone new, only a few members would go there at a time, sort of like a trial. But Dante never went, as the president he was definitely a local police most wanted. While the gang as a whole stayed away from Sasha’s, Dante would have the new person followed, just long enough to know they weren’t an undercover.
“Yeah, man, we’re headed up there in a bit,” Crow announced.
“I can’t wait until I get a go at the new girl. She is one fine piece of ass.” He laughed, a sickening sound that made the hairs in the back of my neck stand straight. “I’m going to rip that tight cunt open. She is going to love it. And if not, she’ll learn to.”
My jaw clenched as Spider and Crow burst into loud laughter. I had no choice but to play along.
God, I could only imagine the stories these walls would tell, most I wouldn’t want to hear. The odd stain patterns on the carpet reminded me that not everyone got out of here alive.
“Have you talked to her yet?” Crow asked as he’s placed a Marlboro Red between his teeth and struck a match.
“What’s there to talk about?” Spider asked and snapped his fingers, wanting one of Crow’s cigarettes.
“Easy?” Crow asked as he tossed me the pack of smokes, which I caught in one hand.
Before I joined the DT Coyotes, I hadn’t been a smoker, but it was expected. Being a DT Coyote meant keeping up appearances, and you never said no to what a senior member offered.
“Thanks,” I said and pulled out a stale cigarette before casting a longing glance toward the air conditioning box in the window. It whirred and cranked in a futile effort to provide some circulation to the room.
“What about you, Easy?” Spider asked and leaned forward on sinewy arms, tattooed with his signature spider’s web.
“What about me?” Everything about him screamed predator, from his lingering eyes, gaunt features, and intensity that put everyone on edge. I assumed he received the name because he simply reminded you of a spider—that feeling you’d get as a Black Widow crawled across your bedspread was the effect that this Spider had. It gave me some comfort to know that I was double his body weight, and a good head taller than him.
“Allie, What do you think about her?” Spider asked, his voice patient.
“I haven’t seen her,” I said, with a casual shrug, and took a long slow drag. “I haven’t gone in there. I figured if Dante was staying away, so was I.”
The door opened behind me. “Hello, Ladies,” Dante said as he strode in. His hoodie matching half of the other members. I couldn’t understand wearing a fucking sweatshirt in Orlando during late summer.
“Dante,” I said and internally cringed at the amount of grease he’d used to slick back his ink black hair.
He smiled, and the low light of the room created dangerous shadows under the sharp features of his face. “Let’s go,” Dante ordered. “I need some fucking food.”
We all fell into position. I wasn’t one of the New Jacks, what new members were called, in the gang, those members headed out the door first. As a middle position, I was put in back of the small entourage. The whole idea was that if we were attacked, the New Jacks would be targeted first, and anyone who tried to ambush us from behind would get me and the other middle-tier members before anyone ever got to Dante.
Sasha’s was only two blocks away, so we walked. Dante also preferred not having a lot of vehicles that would draw attention at the bar.
The hand painted sign outside of Sasha’s was faded and in disrepair. Someone had posted a Do Not Enter sign over the lettering.
“Dante, wait until you see the new bitch working here. She is grade A, prime USDA meat. God, the thought of sinking my dick into her,” Crow said loud enough for the entire group to hear.
I had been to Sasha’s thousands of times as I made my way up the ranks of the gang, but I couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about a new girl. Sasha went through several a year. I couldn’t figure out if that was because she was a tyrant of a boss or Dante and the others scared the girls off. I had a strange suspicion it was the latter.
Kobe
I pinned my hair up on top of my head as I walked into Sasha’s for work. My shoes stuck to the floor as I made my way behind the bar. I had no clue when the last time this place was cleaned, and I wasn’t sure that Sasha even cared. It wasn’t as if a health inspector would come here—they were too scared. Sasha’s was a place where you entered at your own risk.
The building itself looked more like an old shotgun style house where you could see the back door from the front door. The bar on the left held beer or one of three straight liquors: vodka, tequila, or whiskey. There were no mixers. Also behind the bar was an old industrial stove and oven combo where Sasha cooked one meal a day, and if you were hungry, you ate it without asking what it was.
“It’ll be busy tonight.”
“Why tonight? Something going on?”
“Nah. You ain’t stupid.”
I opened the spiral notebook next to the cash register and quickly reminded myself that I was Allie when I was here and even had the fake ID to prove it. Hell, it wasn’t like she gave me a paycheck, Sasha paid cash under the table for my hours. I wrote my name and then the time I was starting my shift.
As far as why we would be busy tonight, I figured it had something to do with why there weren’t any guys hanging around outside my apartment when I left. The first time I saw them following me home, I put two and two together and understood that was why I had only seen one or two members in he
re on the days I worked, they were monitoring me to see what I would do. I wasn’t worried they would learn anything, and I’ll already sold my house and moved just in case they knew that was where Jared had lived.
The door of the bar opened, and the sound of laughs filled the small space. And for the first time, I saw Dante, the gang president. He had a woman on each arm, and several of his closest gang members were on his heels. I had to turn away because he gave me the creeps, his eyes were the epitome of pure evil, no soul lurking behind their midnight depths.
“You be careful, you hear me?” Sasha asked.
“What do you mean?”
“This is the Coyote’s safe place. You do your job and mind your own business. These men, they take care of me, so you take care of them.”
I nodded not totally sure what she meant but as far as being careful, she didn’t need to remind me.
Immediately someone was sliding their phone into the stereo dock amplifier that Sasha kept in the corner on a shelf and the room was pumping with the lyrics from Gucci Mane. It was so loud that you wouldn’t be able to hear the person at the next table talking.
My heart skipped and my stomach churned when my eyes landed on Easton, my Easton. Well, not really mine, he was brother’s best friend, but he was the man of my dreams. Even at seventeen, I knew he was who I wanted. But he was here, with the Coyotes, the gang that killed my brother, I just knew it.
Easton held my gaze as he followed Dante to a table at the back of the bar.
“Don’t just stand there, Allie,” Sasha said and motioned toward the group of men and women, encouraging me to take orders.
Stepping forward, I ran my fingers through my hair, shaking the thick ponytail loose as it fell over my shoulders, and stood just within earshot.
“We got our party Friday night, as you know we will need something to celebrate. Which is why I’ve scheduled for a delivery of oxy,” Dante said with a slow grin, exposing teeth that were stained from years of cigarettes and coffee. “I want to nail down the details. I’m sending six of you,” he said, jerking his head back to the main part of the bar, where some of the other gang members were hanging out with the women that came with them. “Crow, you’re going to be lookout,” he said, and pointed a long finger at the burly man to my right. “Easy,” he continued and slapped his hand hard on the table, making me jump, “you’re taking point on this one.”
I glanced at Easton realizing that he was Easy to the gang.
“What?” Spider snarled.
Dante’s spine stiffened as he bared his teeth. “Problem, Spider?”
“Nah, we good,” Spider said, and looked down at his hands.
“I thought so,” Dante sniffed and turned back to me. “What do you say, Easy? You can handle it?”
“When?” Easton asked.
“Friday night, South Street overpass,” Dante’s chilling voice had my stomach flip flopping, “Friday—That’ll be your moment to shine, boys.” He clapped his hand on Easton’s broad shoulder. “And don’t worry. I’ll be sure to give you a taste for your troubles.”
“My heart pounded in my chest as I waited for them to notice me so I could take their order.
“Well, hello there,” Spider said, his eyes lingering on my denim shorts before dropping down the length of my bare legs.
“Hello, what can I get you?” I asked, and Dante’s eyes fixed on me, and my blood chilled. His lingering gaze fixated on parts of me and left me caught between wanting more clothes, and imagining my fists colliding with his leering smile.
“I’ll have my usual, Sugar,” Dante said as he licked his lower lip, not seeming to care if the bimbos at the table noticed it or not.
His usual, what the fuck was his usual? This was the first time I had ever seen him in here.
“Okay,” I said. “And you?” I turned to the one named Spider. He came in here often and always made me feel as if I’d been violated even though he’d never touched me. His slow smile peeled across his thin face, revealing crooked teeth. I found myself pitying every girl who ever felt that mouth against her skin.
“Whiskey,” he said, and I nodded as Crow echoed the order.
“Easy?” Crow asked, and I met Easton’s hard gaze. My pulse quickened as he sat silent, glaring at me. Those frown lines and tired eyes did nothing to diminish his handsome face, and I marveled that they’d chosen to call him Easy rather than Pretty or something along those lines.
“Tequila,” he said as he leaned back in the chair, giving me a slow look like the others, though his didn’t fill me with nausea, just a suffocating longing.
“I’ll get those ready,” I said and hurried away, disappearing behind the counter.
“Sasha, what is Dante’s usual? That is all he said, I didn’t want to interrupt him and ask him.”
“Good girl. He likes Jägermeister and Red Bull.”
“I didn’t think we carried Jägermeister.” Sasha’s wasn’t exactly a full stocked bar, she carried three drinks only.
“I hide it behind the whiskey, he’s the only one allowed to drink it,” Sasha explained.
“It’s a shot, right? Jager bomb?”
“Not for Dante, put it in a short glass.”
I nodded and then reached under the counter for empty glasses and ignored the looks Easton was shooting me from his table. I came up empty and looked toward the hallway that led to the kitchen.
“Fuck, I was going to wash those glasses but forgot,” Sasha said.
“No worries, I’ve got it.”
I gnawed on my lower lip as I stood a moment longer. I gave one final look to Easton’s table and excused myself to the kitchen.
I waited for the swinging door to still and then glanced over my shoulder to ensure no one could see me before pulling out my phone and dialing Detective Getty.
His phone rang and chills racked down my body. I had to do this, this was for Jared but at the same time, I was scared shitless.
His phone rang again. My knees shook.
His phone rang once more before rolling to voicemail. I glanced around once more, “Friday night, South Street overpass, shipment of oxy.”
I hung up and slowly stilled my shaking nerves, then quickly washed some glasses.
Easton
I sat stony faced and stared where Kobe—AKA Allie—once stood behind the bar at Sasha’s. What was she doing here, this was no place for her. Jared and I had spent a great deal of effort sheltering her from this kind of lifestyle. Just like Jared and Kobe, I was born poor. My parents never had enough money to pay all of the bills. Just like Kobe, my house was in a seedy neighborhood. Somehow, crime seemed to engulf us on all sides. Jared and I spent most of our extra money buying shit for Kobe so she fit in at school. My chest tightened, I never wanted this for her.
“I was telling Easy earlier about how Dante claims all women first,’’ Spider said, pulling me from my memories. Spider’s voice was low and calculating, he was gauging my reaction as he leaned across the table. His dark eyes searched my face, and I could tell he wanted me to slip up, to make a scene in front of Dante who sat beside me, and as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t let that happen.
God, I hated the way they all had looked at her, the way they talked about her—it made my skin crawl. I wanted nothing more than to land my fist hard against Spider’s laughing face. I could almost hear the sick sound of my fist colliding against his flesh, and a smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Maybe I’d spent too much time with the DT Coyotes—I was becoming more comfortable with violence, and I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not. At least in Spider’s case, he would have it coming.
“Oh?” Dante asked, mildly interested as he followed my gaze to the bar. “What about it?”
“Allie,” he said as he licked his lips. “How you get all girls first and then hand them over to us so we can break them into our way of life. Whatcha think, Easy? You never did say.”
“Why does it matter what he thinks about it?” Dante asked as he
ran his hand along the thigh of one of the girls that he brought with us.
She smiled and angled her body toward him, giving him better access to her barely there skirt. It made me sick to think that their lives had been so awful that Dante seemed like an acceptable alternative, a viable option. The girl smiled seductively and her pretty blue eyes flickered down to his lips then back up again. I had to look away. “I think it matters,” Spider said, his voice careful as he cast a side glance at Dante. “He’s not part of our inner circle, he doesn’t know our ways yet, and I want to know his thoughts.” He leaned back in his chair, one arm outstretched on the table, and drummed his fingers, impatient for my reply.
“I’m not that fucking new,” I defended.
“He can think whatever the hell he wants,” snapped Dante, his eyes still on the curves of the woman next to him. “She’s mine, anyway.”
My body stiffened. “What did you say?” I demanded as Dante slowly withdrew his hand from under the girl’s skirt and turned to face me.
“The new girl is mine. I’ll take her.” My jaw snapped shut with an audible click, and Dante raised his brow at me.
“Got a problem with that?” Spider asked, his voice silky as he leaned toward the edge of his seat.
I think he wanted some kind of altercation, and as much as I wanted one too, I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Fuck, Kobe, why are you doing this? Now, I needed to figure out a way to protect her without screwing up my relationship with the DT Coyotes.
“It’s okay to be disappointed, Easy,” Spider said, his voice full of mock sympathy. A slow, sly grin creeped across his face, chilling my blood.
“No,” I said breathlessly. “She’s mine.”
Dante straightened and adjusted his body as he faced me. “That’s bullshit.”
“No, it’s not.” I inhaled and slowly stretched out my legs, hoping to appear relaxed. “She’s mine. She and I have been together for a while, that is why she’s at Sasha’s.” I stared at Dante, my eyes hard, despite my relaxed posture. “I understand you all wanting her, I want all kinds of things from her,” I said, my voice careful. “But the difference is, I get them.”
Kobe, Bad Blood (Blood Roses Book 1) Page 3