Twisted Secrets

by Keta Kendric

  The asshole had the nerve to shout. “Please. I’ll pay you!”

  Ansel stood with has arms folded over his chest, shaking his head. He didn’t have an ounce of remorse for what he was witnessing if the wicked smile on his face was any indication.

  I twisted the grip I had on Sorio’s shirt until his head was aimed up at me. His distressed gaze met mine. “After what you did, you offer me money? That’s a fucking insult.”

  The frown on my face deepened, as a mixture of rage and anger consumed me. My hand released his shirt and he crumpled to the floor. I stood over Sorio staring down at him. His hand was raised as a weak barrier of protection. I raised the gun high, preparing to strike him again. I waited until his gaze connected with the raised gun. I wanted him to see it coming. I wanted him to anticipate the pain that would follow the blow.

  I glanced at his head, leading him to believe I’d go for his head again. Instead, I repeatedly swung the weapon into his body with relentless force, making him fold into a ball as he struggled for air. Once I had him attempting to protect his body, I aimed for that fucker’s head again.

  Ansel hopped back when a bloody tooth popped into the air and flew past his leg. Sorio’s attempted to block one of the blows resulted in the rifle connecting with his hand. His fingers crunched under the force of the strike. Three fingers on his left hand were bent backwards, dangling in an unnatural position.

  My uncaged anger sought retribution for what was done to Megan and Regina. Sorio’s wide mouth, contorted face, and pleading eyes, hinted at his vocal anguish, but I couldn’t hear anything. Rage fueled my mind and snuffed out the sound. However, the vibration of his shouts pulsed around me like the base from a speaker.

  The next strike connected with his jaw, knocking the bottom half of the right side apart from the top half. Strings of skin and tissue, stretched like gum between his broken apart jaw. Blood spilled from his damaged mouth as saliva and snot stretched down to his heaving chest.

  “Jesus!” I think I heard Ansel say.

  Sorio’s mouth was left contorted, one side hanging and ripped apart from his swollen and bloody face. His quivering body, gaping mouth and haunted gaze brought life to his pain. When he lost his strength to agony, he stopped trying to protect himself as he took the punishment I dished out. Blow after blow rained down on him, until the gun became slippery in my hands. It began to sound as if I were chopping wood as the blows ripped his body apart.

  “Aaron!” Ansel yelled, before he placed a hand on my shoulder. “Aaron that motherfucker’s dead!”

  Ansel’s words didn’t stop me. I’d beaten Sorio to death and still wasn’t done. I continued to pound on him until he was nothing but a crumpled pile of bloody flesh at my feet.

  Yelling and shaking me, Ansel tried to snap me out of my murderous haze.

  “Aaron, the motherfucker’s dead! Snap the fuck out of it!”

  I couldn’t help myself, I hit that dead bastard one more time for good measure before I stood staring down at the mess I’d made. Winded, my breaths heaved out as I sucked in deep gulps of air. My body had finally started to feel the impact of my actions.

  Sorio’s blood had been slug high enough to paint the ceiling of the garage and was splatted over the back of Ansel’s white car. Some had even reached the garage door to my rear and small red spots dotted the front of my clothes. My gun was soaked and dripping, and my hands appeared as if I’d dipped them into a bowl of blood.

  “And then there was none,” Ansel commented, while staring down at what was left of Sorio. White bone fragments peeked from the mangled mess of bloody clothes and ripped apart flesh. I couldn’t tell if I was seeing the white tips of his spine or his ribs peeking through the bloody disaster.

  “Do you realize that you’ve killed three out of the four targets?” Ansel asked.

  I shook my head absently at Ansel’s question not realizing I’d placed murderous hands on more than one Dominquez.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Aaron

  “Get out here!” Shark screamed.

  My gaze met Ansel’s before he keyed in the code that raised the garage door from the inside. As soon as we cleared the edge of the garage and were able to see a full view of the front yard, we saw a black Hummer that sat outside the gate, appearing to be trying to get in.

  “Shark, Finn, Galvin, can any of you see who the hell that is?”

  “It’s Luke,” Finn informed us. “Let him in.”

  One side of the gate was so damaged that the loud grating of metal against concrete sounded as it slid open wide enough for Luke to drive through. We listened to the grating sound again as Rob attempted to close the damaged gate.

  We’d lost contact with Luke after the first mic check, so he’d been out there on his own. Luke stopped the vehicle near Ansel and me as we walked closer. He gave a rare smile and leaned his head towards the back seat.

  My gaze landed on a stack of dead bodies piled in the back seat. It was the backup team DG6 had on standby. Grinning, I shook my head at Luke. He’d been alone, but he most certainly wasn’t the one in danger.

  My father, Finn, and Galvin remained at their post to be our watching eyes until we were sure the authorities hadn’t been alerted to what had taken place at Ansel’s house. They were also waiting to see if any of the DG6’s guards had gotten a call out to anyone else that might show up.

  Luke put a call into his and Galvin’s company. They were flying out a special five-man cleanup crew. He claimed the crew could have Ansel’s house as good as new within twenty-four hours, including body disposal.

  We gathered in the living room for an impromptu debriefing of sorts as my father, Finn, and Galvin listened in. Ansel had made reservations and had plans to put everyone up at The Four Seasons for a week, all expenses paid. He’d divided up the million he’d gotten as the partial payout from DG6, so each man, including our men in Texas and Mexico, would walk away with about sixty grand. Ansel also wanted the men to stick around in case any DG6 stragglers decided to show up. Aside from Ansel being shot in the shoulder, which he seemed to have forgotten about, no one else was seriously injured.

  Knowing I was agitating his injured shoulder, I slapped Ansel’s back and watched him wince. “Let’s go and get our women,” I stated, waiting for him correct me on my comment. He never did.

  Even though she appeared to be clueless, I hadn’t missed the way Ansel’s eyes followed Regina’s every move. Did Regina know that she was a claimed woman? Ansel’s way of life wasn’t for the faint of heart, and I wasn’t talking about his criminal side either. Sorio had put Regina through enough hell, so Ansel and I were going to have a man-to-man talk about Regina.

  I followed him into that sin den he tortured women in. Glancing around the area, I took in instruments and devices that I didn’t know how to operate and didn’t have the slightest idea of what they did.

  Ansel slid the wall of sex toys aside and keyed in the code to a vaulted metal door before he walked into the safe room to greet the women. I could see Megan’s small arm go around his waist. When he reached out for Regina too, my grin widened.

  Although I couldn’t see her face, Megan’s shaky tone found my ears, “Aaron?”

  “I’m right here, Megan!” I called out to her.

  Her head darted around Ansel’s body before she ran and leaped into my arms, gripping me like we’d been apart for months. Her lips covered mine before she sprinkled kisses all over my dirty face. She didn’t care that I was dirty, smelly, and grimy from one of the craziest operations I’d ever participated in.

  ***

  The following day, more good news poured in as D and Dax reported success in eliminating their targets. Marcus and Scott had succeeded in taking out theirs as well. As promised, the cleaning team from Galvin and Luke’s security firm had Ansel’s house as fresh and as good as new.

  You’d have never have known that we’d killed twenty guards, four key members of DG6, and the four additional guards who Luke had killed
and driven in. We’d also blown up a Hummer with a helicopter and put out the fire to keep our hostile activities from being noticed. Regina had removed the bullet from Ansel’s shoulder, and he was pretending to be in pain so she’d take care of him.

  Although it was only a day later, the media hadn’t released any news about DG6 or the fact that key members of their leadership had gone missing. It likely meant the small fish were already nipping at each other, preparing to commit criminal genocide.

  It was also likely that the media was bound by high-ranking law officials to stay clear of reporting what was happening with DG6. If it were reported that the heads of DG6 had gone missing, it would unearth other vicious vultures that’d be ready to make a major move, not only in the meth industry but also to claim the top spot in the crime-boss category.

  No one would know the truth—that a small group of dangerous and determined men had organized a plan and were powerful enough to destroy an organization as infamous as DG6.

  Epilogue

  People in hell must be drinking cold sweating glasses of water with fat ice cubes—this was the thought roving through my brain as I glanced back at the ordained minister. Since I had as good as accepted it the first two weeks I’d spent with her, and Ansel had insisted she’d already earned the title, I figured I’d go ahead and make things official. I’d asked Megan to marry me.

  Yep, that’s right. A motherfucker like me was about to get married. Megan had said yes to the three words I’d blurted: “Let’s get married.” Once we’d finished our celebratory fuck, I called Ansel and updated him on our plans.

  At his insistence, of course, Regina had turned down my offer to stay with Megan and me and agreed to stay with Ansel instead. She claimed it was until she got back on her feet. He claimed it was to protect her from any of her family that were brave enough to come looking for her. They had agreed to stand as our witnesses at our wedding ceremony.

  After Megan said yes, I was prepared to march down to the justice of the peace, but she wanted to wait until D and Dax flew her friends from Texas into town. We’d decided to stay in California for a while since I’d discovered that my cousin had four other houses spread across the state. Also, my soon-to-be wife had millions tucked away, so we could have gone anywhere we wanted.

  A few days after we’d decided to tie the knot, I sat patiently in one of those hard, white plastic chairs in the justice of the peace’s office, and I observed as Megan reunited with her friends. The sight of them together made me glad I’d waited.

  The two of us becoming a legal couple probably meant something different to Megan than it meant to me. To her, it was holy matrimony, love, and happiness in sickness and in health. For me, I liked the idea of having her until death do us part. A legal marriage also gave me the right to kill a motherfucker if they touched my wife. As far as I was concerned, I was getting a license to kill.

  Ansel, Dax, D and I sat and watched the women hugging and laughing. The best thing about seeing them together was knowing that we’d eradicated the DG6 problem that had been preventing them from openly seeing each other.

  Laura, the smallest thing in the group, stepped away from the women and approached me with her arms folded over her chest.

  Dax seemed too tense before he said, “Oh shit,” under his breath and winced as he rubbed his sore side. He’d sustained a non-life-threatening gunshot wound during his portion of Operation Take Six.

  Laura parked her tiny feet inches from mine and stood waiting until my gaze locked with hers. She stared down her nose at me like I couldn’t just stand up and fling her little ass. One of her small fingers was aimed at me as she gave me the evil eye. “If Megan ever tells me you hit her or that you’ve done some vile shit to her, I’m coming for your ass, Mr. Biker.”

  Laura’s gaze filled with the kind of viciousness that I understood well.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

  I knew one when I saw one, had realized it the moment I’d first met her in Texas. Laura was a killer. Dax had also filled me in on how well she’d handled herself on their portion of Operation Take Six.

  Her gaze traveled down the line, ripping the rest of the men apart before she stepped away to join her friends who had pulled Regina into their circle.

  We sat there, watching the women huddled in a circle like they were over there making a fucking play book. Occasionally, I’d see Megan shaking her head, agreeing to something one of them had said.

  “So, what you think they’re talking about?” D asked in an amused tone.

  Ansel’s gaze roamed the group before he replied, “Man, with that group, those damn women are probably over there either trying to figure out how to cut your balls off, so Megan can tie them around her neck. Or they may be plotting on how they could get us to take down another fucking cartel, which they’ve likely started shit with. There isn’t anything about any of those women that’s innocent, so don’t let those sweet faces fool you. Think about it,” Ansel said, getting into professor mode. He’d been studying those women like his life depended on it.

  Ansel pointed. “That one, the one who looks like she could make a room full of priests start jacking off.”

  D’s smile grew wide. “That’s Beverly.”

  “After you told me about her skills with a blade, and now that I see her, she screams: danger, danger, danger.”

  Ansel pointed at Regina. “Don’t get me started on the sexy doctor, who from what Aaron tells me has a penchant for burning men alive.”

  D and Dax straightened in their seats, staring at Ansel and me, probably thinking we were making this shit up.

  “And the littlest one, who just waltzed her barely one-hundred-pound ass over here and directly threatened a man who could devour her whole—”

  “Laura,” Dax said, and I couldn’t tell if it was irritation or admiration in his voice.

  “Laura,” Ansel continued. “She’ll slit your fucking throat and drink your blood.”

  A smile crept across Ansel’s face when he glanced at Megan. “And innocent-face Megan, who harbored enough secrets to start a fucking nationwide war and is the reason that we are all sitting in a fucking justice of the peace’s office about to witness a marriage that could very well slam the gates of hell shut.”

  As soon as I started laughing, the rest of the men joined in. Ansel was talking shit, but he wasn’t immune. Regina was going to have him so twisted up that he was going to need a fucking crew of sailors to untangle his ass. The good doctor was prim and proper but dealing with her family for the last three years had hardened her.

  Finally, the women broke up their cackling, so we could get on with this. Once we were ready, the justice of the peace rep called us all into a ceremony room. It was a small, nicely put-together wedding chapel with flowers and a row of seats for guests. The women had their phones out, snapping photos.

  I wore my usual jeans and T-shirt and Megan had taken the time to straighten her usual curls, applied light makeup, and wore a pale purple strapless dress that gave her a glamorous quality that I appreciated. Seeing her looking so beautiful had me feeling like the luckiest motherfucker on the planet.

  We approached and stood in front of the justice. The idea of what was about to happen socked me in the jaw and a moment of doubt hit me until I reminded myself of all that Megan and I had gone through.

  ***

  Megan

  I was a nervous, hot mess. I couldn’t believe Aaron and I were about to get married. Having my friends here with me was a blessing. Because of Aaron and the men sitting behind us, I didn’t have to hide or run anymore.

  The minister talked, but I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying until he’d directed Aaron and me to face each other and say our vows.

  “I take her as my wife,” Aaron stated in a firm tone that dared anyone listening to protest. When he didn’t say any more, the minister lifted his brows and faced me.

  “That’s a damn shame,” someone grumbled in the background.

 
“Umh, umh, uhm,” someone else said under their breath.

  “I take him too,” I declared before the minister glanced back and forth between us.

  What the hell was I supposed to say? Instead of keeping my thoughts to myself, I shrugged and started saying what I was thinking.

  “You and I have been to hell and back more than once, but we’re still standing together. There are no words that I can say that will describe what you mean to me. All I can do is to try to show you. I love you.”

  The smile on Aaron’s face meant everything.

  After we joined hands and repeated the words that were meant to bind us forever, the justice asked about rings. The idea of rings hadn’t crossed my mind. I wasn’t even sure if Aaron would wear one. When it came to traditional, Aaron and I were not it…not even close.

  When the minister prepared to conclude the ceremony, without the exchange of rings, Ansel stood and walked towards us. “I have the rings.”

  “You do?” Aaron and I asked in unison, staring a hole in Ansel.

  Ansel leaned into Aaron, but I could hear him speak. “Your ass is not getting off this easy. Here,” he huffed, shoving a small black box into Aaron’s hand. “Now, put a fucking ring on it, you fucking Neanderthal.”

  Ansel’s unapologetic gaze shot up to the justice. “Pardon my language, sir, but this bastard needs parental guidance sometimes. He hasn’t been fully domesticated as you can tell by that mangy-ass beard of his.” Ansel walked off, leaving the poor justice standing and looking just as shocked as Aaron and I were.

  Aaron opened the small black box that Ansel had shoved into his hand. He slid a beautiful, floral halo ring with sparkling purple diamonds on my finger. The thin white gold band fit my finger perfectly. I admired the ring before mouthing a big cheesy, “Thank you,” to Ansel who simply inclined his head.