by CM Genovese
His mouth opened wide in shock.
With all the rage I could summon, I turned toward the witch. Images hit me.
Caleb playing in the sandbox.
Myra excited about the dinosaur I gave her.
The kid on the street snatched up by the nun.
Carla’s apartment building and the nun following the boy into the stairwell.
The black car outside Tayla’s house.
The nun running after Caleb as he watched from the swing, terrified.
X and me side by side blasting the Black Volga with bullets and the demons staring back at us like it didn’t faze them.
It was all the witch’s doing. It was her fault.
“You want the boy’s blood?” I asked, staring at the boy and his bleeding chest. My eyes fell to the blood covering my ulu knife. “Here. Fucking have it!”
I leapt into the air and brought my ulu knife wielding fist down as hard as I could, shoving the blade through her gummy lips. It tore her mouth open wide, and I swear my fist traveled all the way to her throat. Her cheeks flapped open as her brittle skin tore like crepe paper.
She died staring back at me, watching my wicked grin.
“Fuck you,” I told her, “your curse will fucking die with you.”
To my right, the creepy, sickly-looking young man hopped up and down in his seat with his bare upper body glistening with sweat. His bare feet slapped the seat cushion each time he landed. He pointed at the dead old lady, his face twisted in fear.
“No,” he squeaked. “No… no… no…”
I spun Matt around and used my bloody ulu knife to cut the rope tied around his wrists.
“It’s over,” I told him as I looked back at the witch.
A cockroach climbed out of her mouth. As disgusted as I was, I couldn’t take my eyes off her as another and another roach climbed out, their antennae moving around as they tried to figure out where to go. Other random bugs joined them until a swarm of black creatures scurried from her throat, skittering in the darkness as they departed the black caverns of her soul. Beatles, spiders, and even a centipede spewed from her dead gullet.
Holding back the urge to puke, I stepped back to avoid the swarm and saw that Matt was gone. He’d fled the scene. I couldn’t blame him. Running was the smartest thing he could do right now. He’d remember this night forever.
As I turned toward the creepy little shit hopping up and down, he mumbled, “You’re going to die. You’re going to die. You’ll all die.”
I was about to charge him with my blade when Matt walked back into the purple haze of the back room. The fire was at his back, giving him a dramatic, wild appearance. I thought he was only keeping his word to stick around, but then I saw he held a gun in his hand. He raised it and pointed it at the bouncing interpreter.
“You’ll all die!” he yelled as he went up and down on the cushion.
“If you shoot him,” I warned Matt, “it’s going to stay with you.”
“They killed my family,” he said.
“This one didn’t.”
“But he was part of it.”
“The witch is gone, kid. I’ve killed enough. Let me handle it. You can walk out the door and forget this ever happened. I’ll take you home and you go on playing football, finger banging your girlfriend, and sneaking sips of alcohol with your buddies.”
He shook his head.
“Trust me, Matt,” I said. “This isn’t a road you want to go down.”
“They all deserve to die,” he said. “My aunt and uncle told me how my parents were killed. And that black car? The one you mentioned following you and trying to take your kid? I’ve seen it too. I’ve always seen it. Sometimes it’s parked outside my school.”
“It’s gone now,” I told him. “She got the blood she required.”
“How do you know?”
“Do you think killing this fucking creep is going to make things any different?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and as soon as the words left his mouth, I knew it was too late.
He pulled the trigger and blew the crazy asshole’s brains out the backside of his head. Then he turned toward the witch, wiped his hand across his chest, and squeezed his fist over her open, mangled mouth. Blood dripped into her body.
“Just to be sure,” he said before shooting her twice. Once in the head. The other right where her evil heart would have pumped.
He handed me the gun and walked away. “I’ll meet you in the parking lot,” he said.
The purple cave of the dead witch was covered in blood and gore. I did what anyone would do in this situation. I walked over to the bar. BP and the rest of my brothers had the last few Russians on their knees. Maxim was one of them. Flames roared all around them.
“You done with her?” BP asked.
“Almost,” I said as I searched for an undamaged bottle of alcohol.
Most of the stock was consumed by fire, but I spotted a handle of Fireball on the floor. It had been knocked far away from the bar when the vehicles came slamming through the walls. It was a miracle it hadn’t burst open, and it was perfectly fitting for the situation. I uncapped the bottle and took a swig, wincing with the burn that followed.
“Be right back,” I told BP as I made my way into the purple haze of the witch’s cave.
Two more pulls later, and I was done with the bottle. The rest of it needed to bathe the wicked bitch sitting lifeless in her chair.
“For coming after my family,” I said, “may you rest in hell.”
I doused her in Fireball, pouring it over her eyes, into her torn up mouth, and all down her arms, chest, and lap. From my pocket I drew a lighter, flicked it on, and dropped it onto her. She went up in flames, and the only thing that would have made the situation better would have been to hear her loud cackling laughter turn to screams of pain. But the bitch was already dead. This would have to do.
We needed to leave the Sly Paw before the roof collapsed. If we weren’t in such a shady part of town, sirens would already be blaring. I suspected cops and first responders would be on their way soon.
“What do you think?” BP asked as I met up with the rest of them. “You took a bullet because of this asshole.”
“Well, Grandma’s dead,” I said.
Maxim lowered his head. The three remaining Russians behind him did the same.
“Kill them all,” X suggested. “The world will be a better place without them.”
“Please don’t kill me,” Maxim said. “We can work together. I will give you a higher percentage. I know you did not like the terms of our last deal, but I can make it better. We can all be rich.”
“I don’t need to be rich,” BP said. “All I need is something to drink…”
The rest of us, except X who didn’t know BP well enough to know his words, joined in to finish with, “… something to eat, and something to stick my dick in.”
Maxim laughed. “I like that. Ha. I have things to stick your dicks in. I do.”
“We’ve seen what you have to offer,” Slitz said, “and we don’t need your help in that department. We’ve got plenty of our own.”
“I say kill them all,” X suggested again.
He really didn’t like Russians.
BP shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know… I’m feeling kind of…”
“Generous?” Maxim asked.
“Aww fuck it,” BP said and shot Maxim in the forehead.
Rain, X, and I shot the remaining three men. All of them were dead. For now, the threat was over, but I feared it was only a matter of time before the full force of these Russian gangsters came at us. We’d have to face that when it came. For now, it was time to go home and celebrate.
None of the vehicles used were connected to us in any way and luckily, again, nobody would give a shit about a bunch of dead drug and weapons dealers. It was just another night in Anchorage’s underbelly. I was fucking exhausted and couldn’t wait to get home and be with my woman.
25
Matt wasn’t ready to go home. Once we made it back to the van, he told me he’d always felt off. Like life was moving on as a set of movie scenes playing out in front of him. Like he was there, acting in the scenes, but once the movie was over, he’d be left trying to find himself again. His aunt and uncle were great, but they weren’t his parents. He’d never known why he felt so wrong… until he met us.
He lied to his guardians and told them he was sleeping over at his friend’s house after a late party. They weren’t happy about it, but they were glad he was safe.
The truth was, he wanted to spend the night at the MC. He wanted to meet everyone. Tonight, was definitely a night of celebration. It was late when we made it back to the MC, but when we got there, the drinking started immediately.
Toni would be headed back to Seattle soon to be with her MC, the Hell’s Alleycats, so BP whisked her off to his room for the night with the promise to fuck all the night’s anxiety out of himself.
Rain and Cassie disappeared shortly after we entered the clubhouse. Slitz and Lena hung out with the rest of us for a while.
X seemed to take a bit of a liking to Jamie, Tayla’s sister-in-law. She wasn’t shy about returning the attention. I wasn’t sure what would go down, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was fucking her some place in the clubhouse by night’s end.
Even Carla seemed to be okay. She and Tayla were getting along. They’d both helped Cracker cook dinner while we were gone. Tayla offered to help Carla with the grand opening of the pub. Paddy’s new craft beer house. She’d wait tables if the crowd was overwhelming. With the threat from the Russians and Samoans gone, I figured it would be a good thing for us to all come together as a family and see this thing through. Paddy’s had become part of us all.
Matt had a blast. He learned how to throw hatchets with Oosik, he raced Beezus in chugging a beer, and he came really close to having a make out session with Pinky until I warned her about his age. In her defense, the kid looked older than he was, and she wasn’t very old herself. They might have to revisit that relationship later.
My choice to let him enjoy a few drinks was an easy one. The kid had blown the fucking brains out of something that belonged in a nightmare. He’d witnessed shit no boy his age should have. Not only that, but when we snatched him up, he’d been about to have a few drinks with his buddies. This was his night to get all that shit out of his system, and if it meant having a few beers, I was happy to give it to him.
While Tayla got the kids into bed, I sat with Matt for a few minutes outside on the log, a giant fallen tree that we decided to leave in place as an outdoor seating area. Slitz had cleaned it up a bit with a chainsaw. Now, it served as one of the few places at the MC one could go to get a moment of silence. Even there, music blared from inside the club. Matt and I had a conversation with ‘So Cold’ by Breaking Benjamin droning on behind us.
“This is really cool,” he said.
“It can be,” I agreed. “How’s your chest?”
He touched the spot where I’d cut him. It was bandaged up beneath his sweater. My sweater really, but he could keep it. I gave it to him since his shirt was soaked in blood.
“Fine now,” he said, “now that the pretty girl stitched me up.”
“Cassie’s good at that,” I agreed. “She’s learned. Kind of an on the job training type of thing.”
“She’s sexy,” he said. “A lot of the girls here are. Like Pinky. Holy shit.”
“Yeah, we’ve got some lookers,” I agreed, “but I wouldn’t tell Rain you think Cassie’s sexy.”
“Yeah, he might kick my ass.”
Matt looked up and watched the Northern Lights in the dark sky. After a brief moment of silence, he set his empty beer can down on the ground and asked, “Do you think I was wrong for shooting that… that thing?”
“No. It wouldn’t have survived without the witch. I think they were kind of a team.”
“Why do I feel bad then?”
“You took a life. It’s normal to feel bad, but I want you to think of all the children you might have saved by helping rid the world of that disgusting duo.”
He nodded. “Think I can come back here sometime?”
“We can keep in touch,” I told him. “You need to get back to that life you’re livin’. If you decide you want to come visit from time to time, maybe we can work something out, but for now, you need to let your aunt and uncle have the son they think they’ve got right now.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“They love you, kid. I can tell just by your attitude. They’ve raised you right. Better than I—”
I stopped.
Inside the clubhouse right now, back in my bedroom with Tayla, was my son. Here I was about to tell this boy his aunt and uncle had raised him better than I would have been able to, and my son was in a nearby room. He had no idea I was his daddy. Somehow, probably soon, he’d learn the truth. I needed to become the dad that would have raised Matt as well as his guardians.
Being an outlaw was no excuse for being a deadbeat dad.
When we finished chatting, I went back into the MC and made my way to my room. There, I found Tayla sitting beside Caleb and Myra. She was stroking Caleb’s hair and singing him a song.
“Mind if I come in?” I asked.
“Hoped you’d be here sooner,” she replied. “Want to talk about what went down tonight?”
“No. Not really.” I sat down next to her on the bed. “Maybe not ever.”
“Understood.”
“It’s all over though.”
“Come on,” she said as she got off the bed and sat down on the twin-size mattress on the floor. “Hold me.”
I slid down onto the mattress and under the blanket with her.
She lay her head on my chest. “The things I saw at the park. They don’t seem real.”
“Maybe we should pretend they weren’t.”
“Think it’ll be easier that way?”
“I think it’s the only way we’ll stay sane.”
She was quiet for a moment then asked, “Can we talk about something not related to any of this?”
I stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. “Yes, please.”
“When I divorce John, you’re going to marry me right?”
I chuckled. “Want me to make an honest woman out of you?”
She laughed. “That’s not an answer.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Tayla’s hand reached under the blanket and found me. I wasn’t hard yet, but one touch from her and I was growing.
I glanced up to my bed where Caleb and Myra were sleeping. In any situation where kids are in the same room, a person has to have that moment where they stop and consider what they’re about to do. It always seems wrong to get it on with children around. This was one of those moments. I saw Caleb’s sleeping form, his mouth open breathing, his adorable nose.
Maybe you shouldn’t.
Then the boy rolled over and faced the wall, and the decision was made.
Tayla squealed when I grabbed her and rolled her over onto her back.
“Make me that honest woman,” she whispered into my ear.
“I don’t know about honest,” I replied.
“Hey!” she hissed at me as she slapped my shoulder.
Then her eyes slammed shut and she bit her bottom lip as my cock eased its way into her.
“Pipe,” she whined in my ear.
“Tell me you love me. And mean it.”
“I love you, baby,” she said.
I couldn’t hide my smile as I drove into her repeatedly saying, “I fucking love you.”
Mean motherfuckers aren’t meant to melt. We’re supposed to be hardened assholes. Untouchable bastards. Evil embodied. I’d been through so much shit and my clock was still ticking. I was alive. I wasn’t supposed to come undone.
But there in her warmth, I fell apart. My walls crumbled down, and I knew I wasn’t alone anymore.
This was t
he story of the second woman I trusted. It was the story of how I learned I wasn’t George in Of Mice and Men. My past wouldn’t be my undoing. Tonight, I’d shoved a blood-slathered ulu knife down the throat of that past and then watched it burn.
As I told Carla that one night in the pub, the ground is not lava. With Tayla by my side, I wouldn’t simply tread softly over solid ground. We’d stomp through this world and own every single fucking day.
Starting with this one.
Pinning her wrists above her head, cupping one tit and thumbing her nipple, I took Tayla’s mouth with mine, and I pumped harder and faster until it was time to whisper, “Tay, I’m going to come.”
She spread her legs wide and said, “Give it to me.”
For the first time in all the times we’d made love, I knew this one would have no consequences. Whatever happened from here on out, we’d stick together through it all. When I let loose inside her, she smiled, and then she kissed me harder.
This was my fucking woman now.
The ground was not lava.
The end of this story.
To read more about the Royal Bastards MC, make sure you check out all the other authors’ books writing in this world. There’s a list on the next page. I’ll be bringing you another book with the Anchorage, Alaska Chapter soon. Keep your eyes open for that one.
If you like my style of MC books, make sure you check out my Razorblade Tumbleweeds MC series.
If you haven’t yet picked up the free prequel to the Razorblade Tumbleweeds MC series, click HERE.
Thank you so much for reading!
Royal Bastards Mc Series Second Run
E.C. Land: Cyclone of Chaos
Chelle C. Craze & Eli Abbot: Ghoul
Scarlett Black: Ice
Elizabeth Knox: Rely On Me
J.L. Leslie: Worth the Risk
Deja Voss: Lean In
Khloe Wren: Blaze of Honor
Misty Walker: Birdie’s Biker
J. Lynn Lombard: Capone’s Chaos
Ker Dukey: Rage
Crimson Syn: Scarred By Pain
M. Merin: Declan
Elle Boon: Royally F**ked