by Cerys du Lys
Goddamn alcoholics, the bunch of us.
The only one who didn’t seem to have a problem was Cain, but his back turned and I noticed that his eyes looked a little bit red.
Spotting me, he gave me a small, rare smile. Behind him, Crash looked annoyed.
“Spike.”
“Hey, brother.”
I grabbed him in a one-armed hug and slapped his back. The conversation I had with Julia last night still bothered me. I couldn’t look at him the same way.
“Listen, I’ve got a tip on a possible shipment of Red coming through the valley. We’re going to try a heist.”
Fucking great. More drugs in this town. That’s exactly what it needs.
“I need you to escort Julia to the pool halls and protect her.”
Why me? A different sort of excitement shot up my back as I realized I would spend the whole day with her. Stop thinking about your brother’s girl!
“Will do, brother.”
“I trust that you’ll keep her safe.”
His penetrating stare caught me off guard and I was suddenly extremely glad that he couldn’t hear my thoughts.
“Of course.”
He slapped me on my back and swept aside, calling for other members to join him. I watched him leave and sat down on a stool next to Crash.
“Isn’t it a little early for drinking, pops?”
Crash’s lined face looked even more tired than usual. He turned his head to the side and looked at me under hooded eyes.
“I need to talk to you privately.”
I raised my eyebrows. “All right.”
He stood up from the stool, looking a little shaky on his feet as he walked into the office. It was dark inside and the tiny window afforded little light. I waited for him to turn on the lights, but it was as if he wanted to stay in the darkness.
The leather-padded doors slammed shut. Crash’s eyes moved up and down as if he was sizing me up.
“Everyone likes you, Spike. Why do you think that is?”
Completely thrown by the question, I reached up and raked my fingers through my hair. “I’ve stunning looks and charm.”
He gave me a sharp look. Whatever he wanted from me, it wasn’t laughter.
“I’ve no idea. I’ve always been good with people.”
Crash nodded. “You’re a natural leader. Cain, on the other hand…” A shadow went over his face. “He inspires no love. No one will follow him unless they fear him.”
“What are you saying?”
“Tell me, what do you want this club to mean for you? Are you in it for the money, the access to the club whores? Do you like the lifestyle?”
That made me laugh. “I don’t need a club to get easy pussy. I joined because—I dunno. I grew up here. I wanted to make Victoria a safe place again and since law enforcement is all in the club’s pockets anyway.” I shrugged again and then looked at him seriously. “What the fuck are we talking about, here?”
It was too much of a complicated question. The reason why I joined was personal, and Crash knew it. I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’ve watched you since you were a kid, Spike. You didn’t know, but I had guys checking up on you, making sure you were safe. I always believed you’d make a great member, someday.”
He checked up on me? All those years and he never said hello?
“You’re a good man and you have a heart capable of mercy. Cain does not.” He stood closer to me as my eyes widened in the dark. “You’ve got to watch over Cain for me. He’s going to completely fuck over this club.”
An uncomfortable laugh left my throat as he continued to stare at me. “What? Where the hell is this coming from?”
His arm draped over mine with the warmth of fatherly affection. “Listen, kid. You know that I care about you, right? You know that I would give my life for this club, don’t you?”
“Yeah, of course—”
“One day I’m going to be too old for this shit. I want to retire knowing that the club is in good hands. If it’s in Cain’s hands, he’ll sink the goddamn club. All of this bullshit distributing Red is like a burning neon sign begging the Feds to RICO the shit out of our club. This chapter will be finished.”
He was an old dog and Cain was a young wolf. He wanted to sink his teeth in people and tear them apart. Cain wasn’t interested in longevity. It was all about the present. Yes, we needed to control Red distribution. We needed to keep it out of our town. It would bring more money, but more violence also and more innocent deaths. The fear in his voice resonated deep inside me. I cared about Crash. Christ, he was like an uncle to me. I respected him more than anyone in the world, but I worried about him drifting off when everyone else was committed to change.
“Honestly, Crash, you’re overthinking it. This is Cain we’re talking about. That motherfucker doesn’t make mistakes.”
“The guys who make the least mistakes should worry you the most. Usually when they fuck up something, it’s major.”
A smile spread across my face as he grabbed his drink. “You’re drunk off your ass and not making any sense.”
His arm shot out and grabbed me before I could leave the office. “I still remember when you came to the club after your parents were shot. You came to the club and demanded for help. Half of the club laughed at the skinny kid in raggedy clothes, staring daggers at me, but I saw something inside you.”
I swallowed hard as I slumped into my seat and remembered that day. How could he remind me of that now?
I took a bus and walked through seedy streets to get to the club. Both of my parents were shot dead at home while I was at school, and coming home to their bloodless bodies was the worst day of my life.
It was a miracle that I was at school, really. I skipped a lot of school because I was a little shithead. It drove my parents crazy. For some reason, I went to school that day. I hated myself for that. If I were home, maybe I could have helped them. Maybe I could have saved them.
A part of me died along with them. I never let myself get close to anyone again. What was the point in getting attached to someone when they were just going to get ripped away from you? People died all the time. Only a few months ago, a shopkeeper I knew since I was five was shot in her stomach as her convenience store was robbed. They never caught the motherless fuck who did it.
Nothing matters.
The world was unfair and there was no justice in the world. The cops wouldn’t help me; they could barely pluck up the courage to show up to my apartment and remove the bodies. I lived in a shitty neighborhood where it was common to have drive-by shootings as gang initiations. My parents got blown away and I learned that I could not count on anyone, ever. Except the MC.
When Crash caught the man responsible for my parents’ murder, he handed me a gun. “Here, kid. Go ahead.”
The gun almost jumped out of my hand when I pulled the trigger, but I didn’t hesitate. That was the first time I did anyone. I was sixteen. He shit his pants before I pulled the trigger and then his head shot back as his brains blew out of the back of his head. The anger rustling in my chest didn’t disappear. It was done, but nothing and no one could ever replace the void I felt from losing my parents.
“You didn’t let me stay in the MC.”
At the time, it felt like another cruel blow. My parents were gone and the man who gave me justice refused to take me in.
“You were sixteen,” he grumbled, taking another shot of whiskey. “You needed to learn what it meant to be a man before I could accept you into the club.” His voice took a somber turn. “Besides, I was already grooming a kid to replace me and look how he turned out.”
He restlessly wiped the table with his thumb, clearing the dust away.
“What’s wrong with Cain?”
“He doesn’t listen to me anymore.”
That made me sneer. You groomed him into a killer and now you’re disappointed that he’s gained a bit of independence.
“Well, I don’t know what you ex
pect from me. If you can’t tell him what to do, I sure as shit won’t be able to.”
“Just watch him.”
I grudgingly agreed to keep a close eye on Cain and left the office. Then I walked towards the gorgeous blonde sulking near the exit.
“You ready to go?” It was hell forcing myself not to flirt with her. She’s Cain’s old lady. Still, every instinct screamed inside me to find any excuse to touch her.
She blinked wordlessly before she headed out the door. I sighed. It was going to be one of those nights.
* * *
“Just stay out of my way and let me work.”
“All right.”
Julia didn’t even stay long enough to hear me agree to her demand. With one small bounce of her golden hair, she was gone.
For whatever reason, the girl was determined to hate me. I was determined to get her to like me. I thought back to the strange conversation we had the other night and my chest tightened. Since when did I become such a coward?
All night I watched her do her thing in the dimly lit pool hall. My MC jacket made the customers give me a wide berth, but it also made the cute waitress bring me drink after drink. I grew steadily drunk as I watched the blonde bombshell out of the corner of my eye.
Goddamn. What does she want now?
The waitress, a cute and spunky brunette, pushed another shot into my hand. Those curves. Those eyes. My gaze lingered a little too long down her low cut shirt.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you’re trying to take advantage of me.” I downed the shot to be polite and smiled through wet lips.
“Maybe I am. You’re cute and you seem a lot nicer than the rest of those Dragon guys.”
“I’m not that nice, hon. Don’t be fooled by the smile and the charm.”
She giggled, the sound making me feel lighter. Then she grabbed my arm and wrote her number on my forearm. “Call me.”
My face hot, I watched her cute little ass bounce as she returned to the bar.
I glanced at Julia, who stared at me. She gave me a condescending smirk, having seen the whole exchange, and returned to her hustling. The girl was a pro. She conned every guy who was stupid enough to challenge her to a game. The ego boost I felt from the waitress hitting on me deflated.
You should call the girl and get whatever this is out of your damn system.
The night dragged on and I squirmed against the wall, growing bored. Hell, she didn’t need me. She had a piece in her purse just in case things got hairy, but my VP ordered me to protect her.
Somewhere in the smoke filled haze I heard a commotion. Men in white t-shirts under leather jackets entered the bar with bats in their hands. Faces of tigers were tattooed on their necks.
“Fuck.”
Every part of me surged to life as three Tigers stormed the bar. I ran to Julia and palmed her back. She uttered a scream and jumped from my hand as if I hurt her.
“What’s wrong?”
Her eyes gleamed as she shook her head. “N—nothing.”
That’s a lie.
She flinched as she heard a woman scream near the entrance of the bar.
“Follow me.” I took her hand and ran towards the back of the place. “I’m bringing you out the back door.”
What if there were Tigers waiting near the exit? I stopped in my tracks and Julia’s excited face turned towards me.
“Never mind that. You need to hide somewhere.”
A few girls yelled as I burst into the women’s bathroom and pushed her into a stall. I noticed with shock that she still held her pool cue.
“Stay here.”
Her pale, beautiful face nodded as I shut the door and ran out the bathroom. The sounds of glass breaking meant that the Tigers were smashing the whole bar. I peeked into the bar and saw the owner on the floor, clutching a phone to his ear. They ripped it out of his hands and swung down with their bats.
My hand moved to my waist automatically to remove my Colt, and I gunned them down, their bats falling to the floor with loud clatters. Blood sprayed all over the owner. I whirled around to meet my attacker and shot him in the chest.
Then something happened that made my heart sink. Six, seven Tigers streamed into the bar, all holding bludgeoning weapons. They weren’t here to kill—they were here to smash and hurt and disrupt.
I guess this is it.
I squeezed off three more shots, one of them missing and striking a framed poster, shattering glass over his head. I tossed the gun aside and picked up a bat, but there were four of them, grinning with malice all over their faces.
“Come on, then.”
I swung hard but only managed to hit his bat. One of them got me in my kidneys and I dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Then I knew it was over. Huge radiating blow like a hundreds fists smashed into my body one after the other. I twisted and flailed on the filthy floor, and then I heard something crack.
BAM, BAM, BAM.
Male screams erupted around me and heavy bodies crashed on the floor. My body aching, I uncovered my head and saw Cain standing in the middle of the bar. It looked like a bomb had been set off in the middle of it. He looked furious. He made his way towards me, glass crunching under his boots.
He knelt next to me, looking worried for once. “Spike, where’s Julia?”
“Bathroom,” I managed to gasp.
He got up and sprinted to the back at once. I tried to raise myself on my elbows to follow, a stabbing pain shooting in my ribs. Were they broken? Fuck. I screwed up my face and managed to slump against the wall.
I heard a scream in the bathroom followed by a scuffling noise, heavy bodies slamming into walls. The other Dragons Cain brought followed the yells in the bathroom. Cain returned, dragging a squirming man through broken glass and blood on the floor. The Tiger grimaced as he dropped him next to my feet.
“No,” he said as one of them raised their gun. “Use the bats.”
What followed was a sickening, gruesome beating that the man deserved, but that I didn’t really want to watch. I did anyway.
I couldn’t stand listening to the sobbing, the gasping, wet sounds, and the horrifying crack of bone. The human body was a lot more fragile than I realized and I had to fight back vomit when I saw his caved-in head.
A high-pitched gasp made me turn my head to the right. Julia stood with her hands clapped around her mouth, staring in horror at me.
Her high heels stepped over the dead Tiger as she knelt to my side. Suddenly, her cool hands were on my face and her hair was tickling my chest and my heart beat like a jackhammer.
“Spike, you’re really hurt.”
I must really look like hell.
The emotion in her voice startled me. I looked at her trembling lips and managed a painful smile. “I’m okay.”
“You could have died, you idiot.”
I shrugged. “Anything for a pretty lady.”
She still held my face, looking close to tears. Her blonde hair whipped to the side as she gave Cain an accusatory stare. “We could have died, Cain.”
“Yes, I’m well aware. I do not plan on ignoring this.”
The chill in his voice almost made me feel sorry for them. “Seems like they’re getting bolder. We’ve pushed them too far.”
His eyebrows narrowed at that suggestion. Cain didn’t like being lectured about boundaries.
My eyes closed as Julia retrieved a wet rag from the bar and began wiping my face. It felt so good to be touched by her, to be the object of her attention. Only the gravelly voice of Cain snapped me out of the temporary relief.
“Can you walk?”
“Only one way to find out.”
“Tank, get over here and help me.” Cain swung my arm around his neck and stood up, gripping my sides.
Pain stabbed my chest as my muscles stretched. With every breath that expanded my chest, I felt shooting pain.
“Just fucking great. I probably fractured something. Cock suckers.” I kicked one of the bodies lying
on the floor and winced as pain shot up my sides.
“You’re making it worse.”
“Julia, I’m going to drop you both at the hospital, and then I want you to go to his place and stay with him. I need to deal with this shit.”
We moved slowly towards the door and I waited to hear her protest, but she kept looking at me with sad, hooded eyes as if it was all her fault. Her blonde head nodded.
* * *
Several hours later, I hobbled up the steps to my apartment with Julia clutching my side. I fractured two ribs and the doctors said it would take weeks to heal. Great.
“Just a little bit more,” she whispered in my ear.
“Yeah,” I grunted. I felt really fucking weak for relying on her to walk and I felt even weaker because I secretly enjoyed being so close to her. “Julia, I got this.”
Biting my lip hard, I opened the door to my apartment and winced when I walked inside. I hadn’t cleaned in a while and a flurry of embarrassment caught me from the state of my furniture. All of it was old and moth-eaten, but Julia didn’t say a word as I limped onto my couch.
“I’ll get you some ice.”
She closed the door and whisked to get ice from the fridge and the silence made me realize that I was alone with Julia in my apartment. Her lean body sank into the couch next to me. I was close enough to smell the lavender in her hair. She handed me the ice pack and I laid it on my face. I caught a few blows on my head and it was radiating heat.
“Thanks.”
“Can I get you anything?”
I shook my head, but after a few moments of silence she got up and bustled around the place, clearing the coffee table. My cheeks flushed.
“You don’t have to do that.”
Julia ignored me as she stood in the kitchen, taking sandwich making crap out of the fridge and dutifully chopping and cutting. I watched her as she tucked her long hair behind her ears and set it all on a tray for me.
My heart melted a little bit when she brought it out. A beautiful girl holding a tray of food, with an ice-cold bottle of beer stopped in front me. What made this image of perfection even better was the radiant smile on her face. I wished I could see it more often. She set it down on the coffee table and sat back down next to me.