by LeAnn Ashers
“I bet you’re wondering why I have been gunning for you?” He tilts his head.
I don’t say a word because, honestly, I don’t give a fuck what the reason is. There is no excuse good enough for this dumb fucking person. I want to fucking beat him to within an inch of his life, over and over, because that is what he did to his kid. But that wouldn’t be enough, because Liam and his sister bear the emotional scars.
“It seems that my son gave my wife money to run away from me a year ago, and I had to wait until he came home to settle the score. But I saw him with you and I got a much better idea. Why not kill you right in front of him?”
I just stare at him, not giving him any reaction. This man doesn’t deserve anything. This man doesn’t deserve to breathe. He is a pure piece of shit who needs to die.
Liam’s dad walks over to the window. He looks at me and then back out the window. “Fuck, how did they find us already?”
I don’t say a word. He doesn't know that I have a tracker in my engagement ring.
He punches the wall and charges over to me. He roughly pulls me out of the chair and drags me through the house, my arm wrenched up painfully, the gun pressed against my temple. He looks down at me like he is disgusted by my presence.
You’re not the only one, fucker.
He throws the door open hard, and we are on the porch. Standing in the yard are Liam, Dad, and the other MC guys. Liam looks me up and down and I nod slightly, letting him know that I am okay. He takes his eyes off me, looking at his father head on. That’s my boy, show him what kind of person you are and that he means nothing to you.
“Derek, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Liam snarls, his voice unlike anything I’ve heard before.
Derek laughs loudly, like he is having the best time of his life. His breath brushes against my face, making me sick to my stomach, because the smell is unlike anything I have ever smelled before.
“You took something away from me, now I am here to do the same,” Derek tells Liam, like he is doing the most normal and sane thing in the world.
Liam looks at him like he is the stupidest person in the entire world. “What are you talking about?”
Derek shifts me in his arms, and I can see that he is getting angrier. “Don’t play these games, Liam. Stupid worthless fucker.”
You know what? I am done with this shit. I raise my arm, grab the gun, and snap on the safety. Then I bring my head back, breaking his nose. He lets me go.
“You like to fucking beat on your kids? I am going to show you what worthless fuckers like you deserve!” I scream at him. I hurt for Liam and Braelyn and what this person did to them. Their father hit them and let them go hungry. This is me getting revenge. With all of my might, I kick the gun right out of his hand. It flies across the ground.
Derek looks at me, his face full of rage.
“Not such a badass, are you now?” I taunt him, smirking. He charges me, and I kick him hard in the balls. He hits the ground like a ton of bricks. I stand over him, bend down, and pound his face with my fist.
My heart, body, and soul are growing lighter with every second. I hate this person so much and have for years. Tears are falling down my face with every single hit. I scream and grab his hair and smash his head into the ground.
“Stupid fucker, I hate you so much for what you have done to him!” I scream and kick his side hard, his whole body curling into a ball, protecting himself.
A hand touches my shoulder, and I stop and turn around. Liam is standing beside me looking totally amused.
“Uhh, I don’t think I needed rescuing,” I mutter, and he throws his head back laughing at me and pulls me into his chest. I lay my head against his chest, closing my eyes, and relax for the first time since I went to sleep hours ago. This has been one hell of a night.
“Stupid bitch,” Derek moans.
Liam lets me go and kicks him hard in the face. A tooth falls out of his mouth as he spits blood onto the ground. Dad comes over and takes me from Liam, pulling me away from the scene.
Liam
I bend down and look into the face of the person who made my life a living hell and enjoyed every second of it. Torch took Paisley and is going to take her away from this area until I’ve done what I need to do.
Derek stares at me with so much hate, and I will never fucking understand what made him this way. One day soon I want to be a dad, and I will do everything to love and protect my kid. This man isn’t a fucking man but a pitiful excuse for a human being.
“Long time, fucker,” I say. “Your fucking pain and misery ends here. This is where it stops, this is where I get my fucking peace. The shit that you tried to do didn’t work.”
I punch the ground by his face. I hate this person so fucking much. “Know that I am happy. I am going to marry the woman I have loved since I was seventeen years old, and I am going to have kids and they are going to have a good life.” I smile. “Braelyn is married, she has two kids and she is a very successful and happy woman. We are fucking happy, and that is something you will never know.”
Derek just fucking glares at me. “You took her away.”
Then it fucking clicks. “You mean your wife? I gave her five hundred bucks, and she used that shit to leave your sorry ass. Good for her.”
He tries to hit me in the face. I grab his fist and twist his arm, breaking it. “That will be the last time you will ever try to hit me, any last words?”
“Fuck you.”
I laugh and take out my gun. “Fuck you too, piece of shit.” I press the gun to his head, looking him dead in the eye, and pull the trigger. I close my eyes and stand up, and I turn around and look at my brothers. They are at my back, giving me support but giving me the space to do what I need to do.
“I need to call Ethan.”
I step away and make the call. “You okay?” is the first thing out of his mouth.
“He is dead.” I can hear him let out a deep breath.
“She can live in peace now,” he whispers and I can hear his relief. Ethan hates him. He has been wanting to kill him for years, but that shit is hard to do when you’re the chief of police. “Thank you, man.” He hangs up and I put my phone back in my pocket.
Then I walk to Paisley. I need to fucking hold her and make sure that she is okay. That shit is hard to swallow; her being taken and the fear of what could have happened is a killer. She is my heart. She is an extension of me and she is mine. Now we can rest.
If only it were that easy.
19
Two Months Later
“Harder!” I moan, gripping the counter hard. I am leaning over it with Liam pounding into me hard from behind.
“You want more, Baby?” he whispers into my ear, his breath making my whole body shiver.
“Yes, please,” I beg. My body is on fire and just about over the edge, but I need a little more. A hand lands on my ass hard, then he lets loose and lets me have what I need. My whole body stiffens, my toes curl, and I brace myself.
His hand comes between me and the kitchen cabinet, his thumb and finger pinch my clit, and I come hard, my whole body shaking and my knees giving out. He keeps pounding into me, and I’m not even standing up at this point. His hands are gripping my waist, holding me up. I am complete Jell-O.
He comes a few seconds later, and he slowly and gently slips out of me and picks me up off the ground. He hugs me to him, and my head is resting on his chest as I try to catch my breath.
“What time do we have to be at dinner at the club?” I ask Liam, my eyes closed and my fingers running down his back.
“We have three hours.” He kisses the side of my head. I hug him and let him carry me into the bathroom.
“We can have some more fun.” I wink at him.
He laughs and we step into the shower. The next hour is filled with hot, steamy sex. Every single time is like the first time all over again, intense and just amazing.
We walk into the club, and I am so excited to see my family and fri
ends. We haven’t had a party like this in a while, and we used to have them all the time. The cartel has backed away. The presidents of our club and the Grim Sinners have signed a peace treaty and, for the first time in months, we can breathe easy. The moment the peace treaty was signed, the relief was something that is hard to describe. I can live with Liam and we don’t have to constantly look over our shoulders anymore.
Liam’s dad was after us—on top of the cartel, which was gunning for the women of the club. Between the two of them, it was an absolute mess for me. Liam’s dad had a whole different agenda, but it overlapped and made it hard to figure out who was doing what.
I will never forget the moment we found out that it was Liam’s father who was gunning for me, to make him pay for giving his wife the five hundred dollars she needed to get away from him. The bitch was just as guilty as he was for letting stuff happen to her daughter and Liam, but I also know living with a very manipulative man will have a huge effect on someone.
Working in the ER I see it every day. I see the faces of women who deal with abuse every single day because their men have them so confused and brainwashed they accept it. It’s heartbreaking; no woman should have to feel the flesh of a man’s fist on her face. Knowing what Liam had to deal with, I have been thinking a lot about adopting a kid and giving that child the life that I wish Liam had growing up. He had it good after Braelyn took him in, and I am beyond thankful for that. I want to do that for a kid. I want to give them everything that they have been missing.
Liam is standing next to me, holding my hand while he talks to the guys. I am so happy. I am blessed with so much in my life. I slip my hand free from Liam’s and walk across the room to the food.
The door opens and a woman walks in. From this angle, it looks like the years haven’t been good to her at all. I start to walk toward her. She puts her hand in her pocket and takes out a gun. She points the gun at someone, and my heart stops in my chest when I realize it’s aimed at Liam.
I run, my heart pounding so hard. I tackle her hard from the side, right as the gun goes off. She hits the ground and the gun falls from her hand. I punch her hard in the face, and she groans and rolls over, holding her face. I look up at Liam to see him holding his shoulder. He was shot, stupid fucking bitch!
Shaylin runs over. “Don’t let this bitch up,” I tell her and run over to Liam. He is looking at the woman on the ground, and I touch his face to get his attention. “Baby, are you okay?”
He looks at me. “Yeah Baby, it was just a fucking graze. You saved my life.” He pulls me into him and kisses my forehead. I let out a deep breath. I could have lost him. I was so close to losing him.
“Who is she, Liam?” I ask.
“That is Braelyn’s mother, Derek’s wife,” he says, his voice completely devoid of emotion.
I am so angry. This woman is a worthless piece of shit. I look over at Kyle. “I want a room.”
He grins at me, his arms across his chest. “You got it, baby girl.”
“I am going to beat some ass,” I tell him and he laughs. Then the doctor swoops in to check out Liam’s shoulder.
Shaylin comes up beside me. Tyler is dragging Liam’s stepmother back to the room, screaming and fighting, I smile at her and she starts cussing at me. One by one the ole ladies file in beside me: Shaylin, Jean, Myra, Chrystal, Alisha, and Kayla. These women will be with me, helping me do exactly what I need to do, and that is beating some ass.
The door slams shut behind me, and the women stand by my side. Tyler brought Liam’s stepmother in, and she is hanging from the ceiling by her hands. I walk straight over to her and look into the face of the woman who fucked up so many lives. She may not have been the main abuser, but she let stuff happen.
“He killed him!” she screams, so loudly my ears are ringing.
“Of course he did! He was a fucking waste of space,” I tell her straight out. I don’t give two fucks.
Her eyes narrow on me, and she grips the chains above her head tighter. Her legs kick out toward me, and I laugh because it’s pretty pathetic. Her stringy hair is in front of her face, which is covered with sores, dirt, and grime. Her clothes are covered in a bunch of stains, and a strange odor is coming from her. “He was a good man!” she screams in a shrill voice.
I look at her in absolute shock. “How was he a good man?”
She looks at the ground, and I can see that she is actually thinking about it. A minute later she looks at me. “He kept me from starving. I had a bed.”
I hold my hands up in the air. “Well, excuse fucking me, he fed you and gave you a bed to sleep in. Was that in between him beating your kids and you?”
She sucks her lips into her mouth, her face getting redder with every single word. “Well, at least I am not an ugly, pathetic bitch like you.”
I laugh because that was a pitiful attempt to get under my skin.
“I should have killed that stupid fucker when I had a chance, years ago, he should have never been born.”
Red, that is what I see at her words. Something takes over my body, and I punch her hard in the mouth. I grab her jaw hard, getting right in her face. “How dare you say such a thing! He is the most amazing person, and you’re a piece of shit that should have died years ago, you’re nothing.” I hate her too much. I don’t understand how someone can be mean to their child, and I will never understand why this woman let it happen to Liam and Braelyn. She was just as guilty as he was. She needs to be buried right beside him in the fucking woods. Let her be in hell for eternity, because that is one thing I know for certain: she will be paying.
“So this bitch let someone hurt kids? Did I hear that correctly?” Shaylin is smiling that manic smile, holding a knife that is Butcher’s. Shaylin is a badass bitch, a princess in the Grim Sinners club like I am a princess in the Devil Souls.
“I think we need to show this bitch what it’s like to get their ass beat, since this bitch let her kids get the same treatment over the years,” I tell the girls.
Then we let the bitch have it. We beat her ass, not caring that she is tied up and not able to fight back. Liam and Braelyn never had a chance to protect themselves. She should have done it.
Thirty minutes have passed, and her face is bloody, several teeth are missing, her jaw is lacerated, and a couple of fingers are broken.
She throws her head back, laughing. I step closer to her. What is she laughing at? That is only going to make me angrier. She looks at me, an evil smile on her face. “Please kill me and you will never know.” She goes back to smiling, and my stomach twists.
I look at Kayla and see that she is just as confused. This is probably a ploy to get out of dying. That is something that is going to happen no matter what she says.
“Never know what?” I ask her, pretending to take the bait.
She smiles even wider and brings her face closer to me. I ignore the horrible smell coming from her mouth. “I had a baby eight years ago.”
My heart hits the floor. Liam has a little brother or sister. She could be lying. I almost hope that she is because I hate the idea of another child having this kind of life.
“Boy or girl?”
“Boy.” She cackles, and my stomach twists. I open the door and run into the main room to find Liam. He needs to know.
Liam sees me running and walks toward me, along with the other guys. He catches me, holding me by my elbows. “What is it?”
“She just told me that she had a baby eight years ago, a boy.”
Liam’s face pales and I can see that he has the same kind of mindset I did. It is a scary thing to think that another child is in that situation. His dad is dead but where is the kid?
Is there even a kid?
20
Liam
I hope that she is lying, I hope that what she is saying is a bunch of shit to get out of dying and that I don’t have a little brother who is suffering the same way I fucking did.
I follow Paisley into the interrogation room where Shaylin is br
eaking her fingers. “Tell me!” she screams and breaks her pinky finger. Shaylin looks at all of us and takes a step back, and Paisley does the same.
I walk straight to her, and she is staring at me. “You are going to tell me where the fuck he is or I will enjoy slicing every single inch of your skin off your body, then I will sew you back-to-fucking-together and do it over and over again. I will make you suffer and I will keep you alive for months,” I snarl into her face, not giving a fuck that she is a woman. She is not a woman. She is a fucking piece of shit. I hate her more than my fucking father at this moment.
“Will you not kill me?”
“Not if you tell me where he is.” I am lying right through my fucking teeth. She will be dead by the end of the day. She is just choosing how easy her death will be.
She tells us an address next. “His name is Caiden, he is eight years old.” She stops and looks at my face like she is studying it. “You can’t miss him because he looks just like you.”
Fuck me.
I look at Kyle and he nods. “Let’s roll!” he yells and everyone walks out of the room. I look at Paisley, who just looks sad. I bend and kiss her forehead. “I will be back, Baby.” She nods and I follow my brothers.
I hope she is lying.
We find the address she gave us; it is a run-down drug house outside of town. We won’t allow places like this to be in our town, and this is why it’s just outside of our borders. We are all parked around this fucking house, and heads are sticking out of the windows and ducking back in.
It’s fucking chaos inside. I can hear people running and shit slamming against the walls. Kyle raises his hand, giving us the go-ahead to get off our bikes and approach the house. I hear people running inside in pure panic. They are thinking we are here to shut them down and, honestly, we will probably also fucking clean this place out of drugs. That shit ruins lives.