by J. L. Drake
She shot me a glare before she eased into her seat and folded her napkin over her lap in a very conscious, ladylike manner. “Don’t start, Tessa.”
I dropped my head back with a throaty laugh. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’ve sent how many of your guard dogs to see if Clark was with me?”
She glanced around carefully again, and she lowered her voice. “Was he?”
Oh, how I wanted to lie through my teeth, but I thought the truth would be the best of all.
“I left because I found my happiness.”
“Oh, please, with your outlaw biker?”
“Yes.” I sipped my tea and savored the moment. “But Clark did come and visit me.”
Her head shot up, and her eyes widened.
“And?”
“And he wanted me back.”
Her throat contracted. “I suppose he was confused. He was thrown by Bret’s sudden death.”
I held my composure as I studied her reaction. Leon had promised me Felicia had never seen the tape, so she had no idea what really happened.
“You ladies ready to order?” The waitress broke our moment.
“Cheesecake for me, please.” I gave her a warm smile, but I let it drop as I saw my mother rub her stomach like she might get fat just from the damn air around her.
“Angel food cake and no whipped cream.”
Sounds yummy.
“Confused or not, Mother, there was still a part of Clark that wanted me over you.” I felt a sense of victory skip up my spine. “Yes, he came to visit me.” I couldn’t help but continue with my story. “It was so pathetic to watch a grown man grovel at my feet.”
“Enough.”
“He wanted me, Mother, not you.”
Her fists banged down on the table, rattling our glasses. A few people on the other terrace looked in our direction, but they couldn’t see us that well through all the flowers.
“I said enough, Tessa. You say that again, and I’ll—"
“You’ll what?” I leaned back in my chair and studied the pretty glass in my hand.
“I’ll…” She stumbled on her words and reached for her glass, took a sip, and swallowed. “I’ll have my men take you back to the house.”
“Well, you were the one who wanted to know about Clark, Mother.”
I dabbed the corners of my mouth and thought about my next play.
“After I killed Bret, I met Clark in the hallway and stole the flash drive.”
Her head snapped over to me, and some color drained from her face.
“What?”
“I found something rather interesting.”
She downed the rest of her tea and slammed the glass down. She drew in a long breath and went to say something, but I held up my hand to stop her.
“Seems our Clark had the skeleton key to the city. Well, not just our city, but a few others as well.” I reached for the paperwork in my purse and shifted gear. “You will be happy to know, Mother, that he signed over his share of the club to me a while back. Love can be a real bitch at times, hey?” I winked.
“Naturally. We are married, after all. I already knew that.” She tried to smile but seemed to know I had more.
“Well, did you also know that if anything happened to you, your share of the house and The Dirty Demons Club goes into my name?”
Her eyes bugged out, and I was pleased to see how much my news affected her.
I spread the paperwork out on her placemat. “The terms clearly state that if anything happens to you, or if you so graciously sign over your shares, I get the house, the club, and the cars.”
“What makes you think I would,” she cleared her throat again, “hand my hard-earned business over to you?”
“What choice do you have?”
“Over my dead body will you ever own—” She grabbed my water and tried to drink it. I smiled at her.
I sat perfectly still and watched her world crumble all around her.
“What did you do?” Her eyes were wild, and her hands flew to her chest.
“I had many fantasies of how I wanted you to die, Mother. A shot to the head, or perhaps a pair of weasels to feast on your stomach, a baseball bat.” I smirked almost more to myself than to her. “But I realized having the last word and forcing you to hear me without interruption would be the best way of all.”
Her pupils dilated, and the vein in her neck ticked.
“It’s not that hard to get. You just need to know the right people.” She started to turn blue, and her body was slowly becoming paralyzed. “It’s called belladonna.” My mother’s face looked waxy. I could see she realized she could no longer move. “In Latin, it means beautiful woman, which I found to be pretty ironic. It is also called the Devil’s Berry. See how the names are so perfectly suited to the situation?”
One of her men, who stood a little way from us, took a step closer, so I reached over and covered her hand with mine and gave her a smile as I talked. He seemed to buy it and went back to his post. I felt a little movement in her fingers underneath mine.
“Belladonna is poisonous if eaten. The root is the deadliest, then the leaves, then the flower.” My voice sounded eerie and calm; I rather liked this me. “It takes fifteen to twenty berries to kill an adult, but,” I held up my hand then rooted through my purse and held up the small vial, “if you ingest it in liquid form, you only need the tiniest drop. I gave you three.” I winked.
A sound came from her throat. “What was that, Mother? I can’t make you out. Yes, your own daughter has finally outmatched you.”
I moved to the seat next to her, took her hand, and scribbled her familiar signature on the paper. It wasn’t great, but it would do. I tucked it away back in my purse and leaned in to brush her hair that had fallen in her face.
“You stole a life from me once, so it’s only fitting I do the same to you.” I rubbed her arm to make sure her head was still with me. “Say hi to Clark for me.”
My mother’s jaw twitched as I held her hand, but she was too far gone. She had only minutes before her heart would stop, and I would finally be free.
I threaded my purse through my arm and set a tiny bottle of charcoal on the windowsill just out of her reach. It was too late to save her, but it satisfied something in me to let her see that one thing that could have saved her life was just slightly out of reach.
“Bye, Felicia.”
Chapter
Eighteen
Trigger
Mike: She didn’t speak to Savi, but you’re right, she’s in Vegas.
Trigger: Where?
Mike: 6 miles from you. 740 S. Decatur Blvd.
I dropped my joint on the ground, kicked my bike into gear, and turned north on the Strip. Lights shot by me in a blurred line of color. Traffic was light, so I made good time.
The hotel was attached to the casino, and I immediately spotted four bikes in the driveway, but they were crotch rockets and clearly nothing to do with a biker club.
The hotel was a giant rectangle inside. Each room had its own patio and front porch window.
I rang the bell, and a middle-aged man stepped out from behind the wall.
“How can I help you tonight?”
“Lookin’ for a girl, blonde, tattoo on her arm.” I held up my phone and showed a picture of Tess. “What room is she in?” I wasn’t in the mood to play games.
“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t give out that kind of information.”
“Holy shit,” I heard someone whisper behind me. “That’s Trigger. He’s the president of Devil’s Reach.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved the phone further in the guy’s face. “Her name is Tess Marin.”
“Like I said—”
“I won’t repeat myself again.” I fought the urge to pull my gun.
“Hey, man.” A guy came up to the counter. I could tell by the racing colors on his jacket he owned one of the bikes out front. “You looking for that
smokin’ hot blonde with a long tat on the arm?”
“Yeah.”
“We saw her. She throat-punched my buddy when he grabbed her ass in the elevator.”
I half smirked.
“I swear he meant no harm. Just had too many beers.”
“What room is she in?”
He whistled to his friends that he was heading upstairs. They seemed uneasy about me but let him go.
“Last I saw, she was heading up there with a couple of guys.” He pointed to a door by the elevator. “She was pissed about something but seemed fine.”
I handed him a fifty and started to walk away. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, sure, anytime. Hey, I’m a huge fan. I’ve wanted to be in your club for as long as I can remember. So, do you have, like, a card or something, so I can look you up?”
Something came over me. Maybe it was because he reminded me of Denton, I wasn’t sure, but I turned and headed back to him.
“You ever kill a man with your bare hands, feel the life get sucked from his lungs, not stop until his soul had completely left his body?” The kid swallowed hard. “Have you ever stood in front of a judge and heard you’re facing three life counts, with no chance of parole?” He shook his head, and I leaned in close to drive my point home. “It’s not a life anyone would want once you’re in it, kid. If you need to be a part of something, pick anything else, because this shit will jack you up in ways you can’t even imagine.”
“Yes, sir.” He pulled back from me as he said it and hurried back the way we had come.
With that, I went up the stairs to the second floor. The moment I turned the corner, I heard Tess scream. I pulled my gun and rushed to the door. She screamed again, and everything went red.
I stood back and kicked the door with all my weight. It shot inward, and both men scrambled for their weapons. The last thing I wanted were spectators, so I slammed the door behind me and glanced at Tess. She had tears streaming down her face, but her eyes were like fire. She gathered the sheet in her hands and tied it around her, but not before I saw the scratch marks on her thighs.
Rage tore through every single fiber of my being.
They touched what’s mine. They hurt what’s mine.
“Tess, come to me.” I motioned for her to join me, but just as she moved, the guy closest to her grabbed her around the waist and stuck a gun in her mouth.
The wild things who were normally dormant when she was around began to scream. Their voices were so shrill they nearly split my head in two. My muscles twitched with hunger, and my focus clouded.
Right here, this is my hell.
I felt as though I was falling from a ledge, and the small hold I had on Nolan let go as the dark hole swallowed me up. My head pounded, and my vision shook with each heartbeat.
One moment I was by the door, and the next I was covered in their blood in the middle of the room.
What?
I whirled around to find the two men nearly ripped to shreds near the bathroom doorway, and Tess was huddled in a ball in the corner. My chest beat hard, my body shook, and I couldn’t pull what the hell just happened from my memory.
Shit!
“Tess.” I scooped her up and placed her on the bed. Madly, I grabbed her Chucks and slipped them on her feet. “Where’s your bag?”
She blinked a few times and snapped back to the present with me, but then I saw the blood on the sheet.
“Not mine,” she said before she pulled herself together and hurried to the bathroom, saying she had to change. A couple of minutes later, she came out and followed me back downstairs. I did the best I could to hide the bodies in the closet, but there was a lot of blood, and they were big guys. I knew no one should have reason to go into the room for a while, but I couldn’t chance it and didn’t want to waste time.
I grabbed her hand, closed the door softly, and we walked down the hall, just two people headed out for the night.
“Glad you found her,” the kid called from his table. I gave a slight nod and pushed open the main door and urged Tess along.
Instead of heading down the street toward home, I turned right. Tess didn’t say a word the whole drive, but I did notice her shake out her hands every few minutes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked through the mic.
“Hands are numb.”
“What from?”
“Adrenaline.”
She needed a break, and a drive of about four hours to home wasn’t the answer. After one phone call, I pulled into the Wynn parking lot, and we were soon escorted up to the penthouse where we were finally safe and out of the public eye.
“We’ll stay for the night and leave in the morning.” I set her bag down and tried to hold back my questions.
“I need a shower,” she said, her voice heavy.
“I need to know what happened.”
“I know, but just give me a few.” She headed for the bathroom with a slight waver in her step.
I poured myself a drink and texted Mike.
Trigger: Found her. Appreciate your help.
Mike: Happy to hear it. Anytime.
I cracked my neck and changed chats.
Trigger: I need you to take care of a situation.
Two minutes later, my phone rang, and I stepped up to the window and explained to Cray where to go and what he needed to do to clear things up back at the hotel. I also needed him on standby for whatever other mess Tess might have created while she was here.
I glanced over at her bag and saw some documents sticking out. I pulled them out and scanned the wording.
What the fuck? She went back to the house to get these signed? What the hell was she thinking? The words “ownership” and “Tessa Marin” hit me hard. Was she planning on running the house here in Vegas?
Anger fueled me once again. I jammed the paperwork back into her bag and burst through the bathroom doors, only to find her standing in a towel as though in a trance in front of the mirror.
Her bloodshot eyes slowly dragged up to mine. Her chin quivered, and then she broke.
***
Tess
My knees gave out as Trigger’s hard body slammed into mine just in time. His arms wrapped around me, and he supported my weight when I couldn’t. It had been too long since I really felt him hold me the way he used to.
“I got you,” he whispered into my hair, and for a moment, I felt Nolan was there. I sobbed. I needed to release the heaviness from the last twenty-four hours. I knew my mother’s death wouldn’t bother me. She totally deserved everything she got, but I was human, and Trigger arriving precisely at the right time turned my world completely upside down.
Once I shed the emotional crap, I pulled away and dried my cheeks. Trigger stepped back but didn’t leave. He just watched as I slowly pulled on a tank top that barely covered my ass.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked. Anger still simmered. I could hear it in the timbre of his voice.
“Just a little sore, but nothing some Advil couldn’t fix. My mother always picks the lowest of assholes to protect her.”
He disappeared and returned with a bottle of water and some pills. I swallowed them down, and when I looked in the glass, he was directly behind me. His chest pressed into my back, and his hands clamped down on either side of the counter. His dark green eyes smoldered and held mine captive in the mirror as he pushed his erection through his jeans and against my opening.
I bit my bottom lip and let the prickle of lust race across my nerve endings.
His fingers started low at my thighs and traveled up under my shirt and flipped it over my bare ass before they brushed over my wetness.
I heard his jeans hit the floor and felt his hand pump his erection a few times.
I needed this.
Just as the tip broke my seal, I jerked forward with a tiny whimper.
My heart won the battle.
His hands fell away, his eyes darkened, and I could feel his internal conflict. A confused expression raced across his face, dee
pening the creases of his eyes.
“Who are you right now?”
His face softened, and he slid his hands up the curve of my spine.
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.” I held my ground, and he closed his eyes and took a breath. “I want you to come back.” I turned around to face him. “Fight for us, if not for yourself. I can’t handle the distance and uncertainty anymore.” I knew this next comment was going to sting. “Gus is dead, but you aren’t. Please don’t push me away and let them win.” I gently touched his temple to reference his demons. “You asked me to marry you, but…” His eyes opened wide, and I could see he was finally hearing me.
“But what?”
“But do you still even want to?”
Trigger’s face fell, and a grim line traced across his lips.
What just happened?
He backed up and left as I stood there and wondered if I was still engaged to the only man I truly loved.
I paced the bathroom, unsure what to do. We were always so up and down in our relationship. Just once I wished I knew where we stood.
Finally, I headed out through the living room and into the kitchen where I plucked a bottle of tequila from the bar, three limes, a knife, some salt, and my phone. I noticed the spare room door was closed and figured he needed a moment alone.
I lined the cut limes on the wooden railing next to the bottle and snapped a picture and attached it to a text message.
Tess: To freedom.
I waited and saw the little bubbles appear before her text came through.
Ven: I can’t believe it! Now what?
I couldn’t help but smile. We both had been under my mother’s thumb for years.
Tess: Now I need to see you. Can you slip away for a bit? Meet me at the Wynn. I’ll leave your name at the desk.
Ven: Sure, the boss is gone, so I’m free as a bird. Be there in fifteen.
I laughed at our sick, twisted humor and took three shots to ease the discomfort the empty penthouse brought on.