Archer: A Wings of Diablo MC Novel

by Rae B. Lake

  I waited for her to talk after that but again more silence, “Please, Daria, please say something.” I looked up into her eyes pleading with my whole soul.

  “I don’t know what to think, I don’t know what to say, I can’t be a part of this. Just get out.”

  “Daria, just…”

  “No, get out of my life!” She turned her back on me and that was it. It felt like my soul left my body.

  I turned on my heel, and with my head held low. I walked out of her duplex and out of her life.

  Chapter 22

  It’s been three days since I have seen or heard from Daria. I didn’t try to reach out to her, she was very specific when she told me to fuck off.

  What did I expect, of course she wasn’t going to run into my open arms and tell me that it was all okay. Someone as perfect as her shouldn’t be with someone like me.

  I went right back to what I was doing in the days pre-Daria, just existing with all the self-doubt in my head. I was getting used to looking at the pretty colors in the bottom of empty whiskey bottles. No one in the crew dared to question me on what was going on with me. They all knew I lost my woman.

  The clubhouse had a bit of a buzz for the past couple of days, we didn’t have a full out party but after we found Larry’s sister there were quite a few extra people in the clubhouse. I walked out of my room, my head banging with the lack of alcohol running through my body. I had only woken up a few minutes ago but the first place I wanted to go is straight to the bar.

  I sat down on one of the stools, Mick walked over to me and put a glass and a bottle of whiskey in front of me.

  “You know-”

  I cut him off before he could give me any type of speech. I didn’t have the strength to even pretend that I was listening. “Just give me a fucking drink, Mick, I don’t want to hear nothing you have to say.”

  “You got it, son.” He walked away leaving me to wallow in my drink.

  It wasn’t until I started to hear screaming did I know that something was wrong.

  “Archer! Move your ass!” Mick called from behind the bar.

  Bullets were whizzing past my head faster than I could catch my breath and duck behind the bar. I poked my head up for a nanosecond to see what was happening. People were running and screaming all over the place, it was pure mayhem. Three men stood by the front door and were just randomly shooting into the crowd. Two of them had shotguns but one of them had what looked like a mini gun. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had seen many different types of weapons being used but I rarely saw anyone just toting around a mini gun. It was bold.

  I peeked again, I could see that one of the assailants had been shot and taken down. That left only one other man with a shotgun and the man with the mini gun. I could hear people screaming as they were trying to get out of the way. None of these people were in this life, they were just here to hang out, yet we had brought them into a war with a fucking cartel. Prez was crouched down near the left wall of the building screaming at folks to get down. There were children in the club, wives, friends, even members of some of our ally clubs but it didn’t seem to matter to these guys. “You fucking bastards! You think you can get away with this! No one is walking out of here! The Rolling Cobras will be on top by tonight!” The man with the mini gun stopped shooting for one second to scream his warning and more profanities to the folks that were running past him. It was only a three-second window and then he started up again. I didn’t know how much ammo he had, but he would destroy the walls of this club before he ran out. Soon there would be no more cover, no place for all these innocent people to hide.

  I heard one lone pop and then a thud from where the two Cobras were standing when I looked up again someone had taken out the bastard with the shotgun. All that was left was the man with the mini gun.

  I stood up and got behind some cover and drew my weapon. I had him straight in my sights, he was moving his arms and body erratically but his head was steady. I steadied my aim.

  “Take the shot, Archer!” Prez screamed from where he was crouched. Instantly my ears began to feel like they were being filled with water, I couldn’t hear any of the bullets flying. I could feel dust and soil flying on my face, I could feel the fatigues that I once wore grating against my skin. I could hear my lieutenant again screaming over the radio, “Take that shot, now!”

  I shook my head, I was losing it. I went to squeeze the trigger and before I could a slow motion re-enactment of Daria falling down after I shot her at that party long ago popped into my brain.

  A bullet struck the bar where I had my head poking slightly out and I was forced to drop back into cover.

  I couldn’t take the shot.

  I covered my ears yet I could still hear the people screaming and the mini gun going off. I moved from one area to the next, hoping to maybe get in a better position. I knew it didn’t matter what position I was in, I was fucked either way.

  I looked at the Cobra swing his arms from left to right and then finally out of nowhere, a long shiny machete appeared and slipped right under the man's arm. The knife made a long sweeping slice from his right nipple area to his left hip, his finger let go of the trigger of the mini gun stopping the onslaught of bullets that were sailing through the air. He looked surprised then fell to his knees, the wound in his midsection seemed to open up like a bag and his intestines came tumbling out. Wire stood up behind him still wielding the machete that he just used to gut the man and raised it to the man's throat. Wire swiped it one time quickly and the large Rolling Cobra member fell face down, a pool of his blood already on the floor when he landed.

  Just as quickly as it started the onslaught was over. People stood up from where they were hiding, others ran to people that were hit to see if they could help, I couldn’t believe what had just gone down.

  “Keeley! Lily!” Once the threat was over, Wire began to scream for his wife and his child. I didn’t see them downstairs. This was one of everyone’s greatest fears, bringing a family into this life meant that they could be taken away from you at any time.

  “We’re up here! We’re ok!” Keeley screamed from one of the rooms upstairs. I let out a sigh of relief.

  “Mick, get something to bandage this bleeding!” Clean screamed out, his hands pressed down on the leg of one of our prospects, the blood oozing from between his fingers.

  It was complete mayhem, I looked around at my family.

  A right cross from hell connected with my face knocking me straight over the bar and into the wood shelves behind it, “You fucking piece of shit!”

  Prez came around the bar and picked me up by my throat. Spittle flying out of his mouth at the effort it took. Instinctively I tried to break his grip to get some air, but he was enraged and not letting up.

  “Prez, no! No, you got to stop!”

  Just as the black of unconsciousness began to cloud my vision, Clean and Larry rushed over to Prez and pulled him off me.

  Clean held Prez’s arms back, but he was still coming, I was left on the floor sucking in air.

  “I’m tired of your shit, Archer! I don’t know what shit you’re going through or what you got to do to get through it, but I am tired of waiting for you to get your fucking head out of your ass. You had a clear shot, you could have taken him down and you didn’t. I have no room in this family for scared pussies.” Prez shook Clean off who knew better than to hold on to him longer than he needed. Prez walked back up to me staring straight into my eyes. “You know it’s one thing to take a shot and fuck up but to not even shoot, that makes it even worse. Either you’re in this family and are ready to protect this family or you get the fuck out and be happy elsewhere.” He stared me down a second longer just to make sure his point got across, then he walked back over to the main area to help those needing help.

  Chapter 23

  Five people were gunned down like dogs. Thankfully no women or children were hit but everyone in the clubhouse was rocked by what had happened. All the bystanders were mourning t
hose that were killed in the shootout while all of the patched members of the Wings of Diablo were itching for some payback.

  One of the shooters actually did survive the ordeal. Lucky for us, very unlucky for him. Wire had him now and as pissed as my brother was I knew that by the end of the session not only would we know everything about the attack, we would probably know the sins the poor boy committed when he was in grammar school.

  Wire did stop for a break and let us know that The Huasans had massacred everyone that was patched in at the Rolling Cobras MC Club. The only ones that survived were those that weren’t in the clubhouse. That included Thad, a rider named Mike and the three shooters that were in our club today.

  It was good news because we didn’t have to worry about the Rolling Cobras anymore apart from Thad but the bad news meant that the cartel was not afraid to find help elsewhere. It was only a matter of time for the next club to come up and start working for them. It was just trouble on top of trouble.

  Wire was back in there now to get the rest of the information. Poor kid.

  I looked around at the destruction and at all the emotional faces, there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t control this situation, and the one area that I could have controlled, it seemed like I no longer had the balls to do it.

  I am a fucking failure, a shooter who can’t fucking shoot.

  I bent over the dilapidated shot up bar and grabbed the first bottle I could reach.

  “Archer!” Mick called out as I ran to my room upstairs. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I didn’t want to be made to feel better. I didn’t want to have to think about what the next steps were. I just wanted to crawl in a hole.

  I got to my room and closed the door, taking five large gulps of the hard liquor. I didn’t even taste it as it went down my throat. I began to pace back and forth in the small confines of my room, my self-doubt kicking into overdrive.

  I’m a fucking useless piece of shit. I can’t protect my family. I can’t protect the public. I don’t deserve happiness. I deserve to rot in a nameless shallow grave on the side of the fucking interstate. I killed that baby. I let that man shoot up my home. I lost my woman.

  I stopped at that last thought, my eyes drifting up to the mirror hanging perfectly on my wall. All I saw was the monster that was me in the reflection.

  I lost my woman.

  “No!” I roared as I threw the bottle in my hand against the mirror. The fragile glass shattering, the pieces falling on the floor.

  I dropped to my knees and let the emotions erupt out of me, tears and curses flowing unbridled.

  “Bro, you good?” Clean was standing inside my room, the door closed behind him. I had no idea when he had walked in or what he had seen.

  “Yeah, I’m straight.”

  “You’re a piss poor liar, Archer.” Clean gave a slight smile and bent down to help me off the floor.

  “I can’t do this,” I admitted out loud for the first time.

  “You can’t do what?” Clean asked walking over to my dresser and picking up the only pen that I had there and began to twirl it between his fingers, completely ignoring the pieces of the broken mirror under his feet.

  “I’m no good to anyone like this, I almost got so many more people killed. I can’t be responsible. I’m too much of a fuck up.” I closed my eyes the weight of what I was about to say crushing my voice box, “I think I need to give up my patch.”

  I waited for him to tell me I was being an idiot or even to tell me that I should have given it up a long time ago but I got neither. I opened my eyes to look at Clean and he was like he always was, calm and non-judgmental.

  “We will still be your family if you give up your patch, do you think we’ll just go away? You’re my brother. A wing or not a wing, nothing is going to change that.”

  I smiled slightly, I knew he meant it. Clean was loyal to a fault. “I know, it’s true you guys will always be my brother’s but maybe if I leave I can get Daria back. I need her, she showed me a new way to be and I don’t think I can go back now.”

  “Archer, if you think you need her to thrive then go get your woman, there is no reason to sit here trying to protect your family when you’re dying on the inside. That is exactly what I see, a man that is dying.” He put the pen in his mouth like he was smoking a cigarette and began to make his way to the door, “But just think about this first. Being a member of the Wings of Diablo MC club didn’t make you the man you are and leaving to be with Daria is not going to change the man you are. You’re always going to be Archer. You’re always going to want to be in control and you are always going to be haunted by what your past. It’s about how you move on and use what you have in your life to grow. It’s not a competition between your woman, your club or your sanity. It’s about you accepting who you really are.”

  Clean clapped me on my back once and made a spectacle of placing the pen he took off my desk onto the floor by the door. He gave me one of his smiles and walked out of my room closing the door behind him.

  “Fucking bastard,” I mumbled between my teeth as I stood up and went to retrieve the pen he placed on the floor. That is not where it is supposed to be. Everything has a place.

  Everything had a place and there is a place for everything. My place was in this club no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I knew that to be true. And Daria’s place was by my side and I would do whatever I could to make her see that even if that meant waiting forever. She was meant to be mine.

  Chapter 24

  Daria’s POV

  I sat back in the chair listening to Mr. Lovell scream at me once again about how incompetent I was and how his website was once again not up to standards. I made the mistake of telling him about having a bit of hardship in the past few weeks and boy did he run with that.

  “Maybe if you were to get your personal life together you would be able to do a simple job. I have lost so much business thanks to you and your bullshit company. You better be glad that I don’t sue you for everything that you’re worth, not that it would be very much. I demand to be compensated for all your mistakes. Get this website made and functional by tonight and I will not pay you a fucking cent-”

  Enough is enough.

  “You know what Mr. Lovell, you can do whatever the fuck you want to do, but I’m going to tell you what I am going to do. I have completed this website to your precise specifications not once, not twice, but on three different occasions. You have been verbally abusive, inconsiderate of my time and talent, and just an all round prick. So, I will be taking this up with my lawyer since a contract was signed and you have yet to make good on your end.”

  “What…who…Let’s just…”

  He couldn’t get any of the words out of his mouth, apparently my out of character tirade was enough to get him to rethink what he was going to say before.

  “I want my compensation, and I want you to go about your business if you chose to recommend me to others that’s great if you don’t that’s equally great. Just do not call me again. Understood?” I waited for a response.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  I disconnected the phone call and fell back on my bed. I let my arm drape over my eyes willing the migraine that I was beginning to feel to go away.

  Archer would have been proud.

  I shook my head, it had been almost a week since Archer had come clean about everything he did. I should be completely disgusted with him, I should hate his guts. Instead, all I could think about was running straight back into his arms. We were only together for a small time but in that small time, I learned more about myself, my personality, my desires and even my limits. How do I just forget all that? As much I have been trying to, everything I did remind me of him.

  I opened my eyes to a buzz on my phone, I picked it up to see that Mr. Lovell had transferred the money he owed me. I smiled to myself, I had done a good job.

  I was all alone in the house today as the girls were out at a party as they were every night, I went downstairs to
the large living room and popped in my Blu-ray of Les Misérables. Hugh Jackman singing just makes my heart smile, he isn’t bad to look at either. I went to the kitchen grabbed a pint of ice cream and the entire bottle of dessert wine and sat back down on the couch to start my nightly therapy session.

  Just as I pressed play on the Blu-ray menu, the buzzer for the downstairs door rang. I got up and pressed it. It was probably someone who left their keys, I was missing vital seconds of Hugh Jackman and I didn’t care enough to ask who it was. I didn’t think anything of the mystery person until a few moments later someone was at my front door ringing the bell.

  I pressed pause and sat back for a second trying to calm myself down. The worst case scenario was that it was Archer at the door, the best case scenario was that it was Archer at the door. I wanted him to come for me and demand that I take him back but in the same breath I didn’t think I was ready to see him yet. I walked over to the door and looked through the peephole. I was disappointed to see that it wasn’t him. More disappointed then what I would have liked.

  I looked through the peephole again, it was a woman and a child. I didn’t know who she was but the first thing that I noticed about her was that she had the most striking eyes, almost like they were gold.

  “Who is it?” I called through the door.

  “Um, my name is Keeley. You don’t know me, but I was hoping I could have a moment of your time?”

  She seemed unsure but nice.

  “What is this about?” I asked with the door still closed.

  “Honestly, I mean no harm. It’s about Archer.”

  Archer, my Archer. Oh no, is he hurt?

  I swung the door open right away. “What’s happened? Is he ok?”

  “Oh, no, no, nothing is wrong. Everything is fine.” She raised the one hand that wasn’t holding the small child. “I just wanted to talk to you about a few things, if it’s ok?” She looked at me waiting for me to allow her in.