THE DEVIL’S BRIDE

by April Lust

  “That’s not a plan, Ace! What’s going on?” she accused, suddenly suspicious. “Last night you were preaching safety and precaution, and now you’re talking about…” Katie stopped abruptly. “Does this have something to do with that girl? What were you two talking about the back office? If you were talking, that is,” she added derisively.

  Ace gave Katie a hard look. “Did you forget what fucking patch you were wearing?” he asked viciously.

  Striding over to her, Ace grabbed Katie by the elbows, pushing her back until she was pressed up against the wall. He turned her around roughly, ripping her leather vest off one arm at a time. Ignoring her protests, he spun her back to face him, shoving the vest in her face.

  Katie shoved her hair out of her eyes to see The Hell Brothers patch staring right at her. Ace’s finger was meaningfully pointed at the empty space near the top. Wrenching his own vest from the back of the door, Ace showed Katie his patch.

  “Right fucking there, Katie,” Ace said, pointing at the word Leader stamped across it. “I’m the leader, not you. That means I make the decisions, and I don’t have to tell you jack shit why, got it?” Ace crept close, his thrice broken nose inches away from Katie’s proud, straight one. “You let me know next time you need a reminder,” he threatened.

  Thinking that was that, Ace stormed his way down the stairs, hoping he would be able to still get some sausage. He realized he was starving. So focused on the food was he, that he never noticed Lucky stealthily creeping out of Riley’s room.

  Ace walked into the kitchen. All of the pots and pans were empty, and everyone at the table looked well-fed. He pouted, thinking of the missed food, and his stomach grumbled.

  Someone tapped Ace on the shoulder and he turned around. It was Smalls, holding a plate full of sausage, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. Ace couldn’t help it; he hugged Smalls, his arms barely fitting around the large man’s middle.

  “Easy there, boss,” Smalls laughed, patting Ace on the back with a meaty paw. “I made sure to keep some on the side for ya.”

  Ace sat down, shoveling the food in his mouth. A shadow fell over him and he looked up. It was Katie.

  “Can I eat first?” he asked her, irritated.

  “Absolutely,” Katie said, patting him on the back. Ace eyed her, dubious, but went back to eating.

  “Hey, everyone,” Katie called loudly. Ace swore, throwing down his fork. “Ace’s busy eating, but he wanted me to tell you all that we’re going to be attacking Alexei and the Russian mob. With no plan!” she added brightly.

  Immediately, the kitchen broke out into anarchy.

  Diego whooped loudly. “Dios mio, finally!” he cried.

  “Is that a good idea?” Smalls asked fretfully. “Alexei and his men outnumber us almost two to one.”

  Ace glared at Katie. “Was that really fucking necessary?”

  “Yes, Ace!” she exclaimed. “It’s necessary for your gang to know what’s going on! Especially if you’re counting on them to have your back!”

  He let out a half groan, half growl, and stood. “All right!” Ace roared over the din, standing on his chair to silence the crowd. A dozen pairs of eyes turned to stare at him. “Yes,” Ace said with conviction. “Last night I decided enough is enough! It’s time for Alexei and his mob to go back to Mother Russia.” He looked around, making sure to look each and every one of them in the eye. “They think this is their territory, and I think it’s time to show them otherwise.”

  Katie scoffed loudly, but no one heard her. They were too busy listening to Ace.

  “Some of you are scared. You’re worried Alexei is too strong for us.” He glanced at Katie, who scowled at him in return. “I’m here to tell you that when it came down to it, going after Alexei was an easy decision to make. That’s how much faith I have in us, in The Hell Brothers,” Ace continued, his voice rising in both pitch and volume. He punched his palm with his fist, emphasizing his words. The members began to excitedly press closer to him. “We, who were born in hellfire! We walk through life with the Devil on our right, and Death on our left! We are The Hell Brothers, and we will burn all those who stand in our way!” Ace was shouting with all his might; the crowd had worked itself into a frenzy.

  Despite the fact that it was ten in the morning, bottles of whiskey and cans of beer immediately began to get passed around, everyone cheering to Alexei’s imminent end, and the inevitable rise of The Hell Brothers.

  Ace hopped off of the chair, shaking hands and clapping backs with his members, promising to celebrate with them soon. He tried to slip out, but Katie caught him at the front door.

  “I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t mention any sort of plan, or the fact that the reason you changed your mind about Alexei is because of a cager,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “Why don’t you go tell them,” Ace said, shrugging on his leather jacket. “You seem to enjoy talking about shit you don’t understand.” He was rapidly losing patience with Katie and her jealous attacks on him. How did she expect a man like him to be faithful to one woman?

  His father hadn’t been; in fact, the first time his father had ever beaten his mother was because his mother just wouldn’t leave his father alone about the other women he was seeing. Ace knew he wasn’t a good man, but Katie was lucky he was a better one than his father had been—barely. Ace didn’t presume to think murderers ranked much higher than woman beaters in the eyes of God.

  “If I don’t understand something, then why don’t you fucking explain it to me,” Katie shot back.” Katie could not for the life of her grasp why leaders always thought they were protecting people by keeping them in the dark. No matter what Ace had said in the kitchen, she didn’t think he had very much faith in them at all if he couldn’t tell them what was going on.

  “Look, Katie. I don’t have time for this right now,” Ace said, pulling on his boots. “I’ll be back later.”

  “Oh, you don’t have time to hash out a real plan with us, but you have time to spend all night with some civilian?” Katie asked bitingly.

  “Enough!” Ace bellowed. The party in the kitchen died down for a second, startled by the outburst, but then immediately resumed. “Not that you deserve to fucking know, but I’m going to get some intel on Alexei. We can’t make a plan without any information.” He threw open the door, pausing to look back at Katie, who stood with her arms folded and her eyes pointed at the floor. Ace sighed, the anger rushing out of him. “I know you’re just trying to help, Katie. But you are so far up my ass, I can’t even sit down to ride my bike. I’ll be back later and we can talk plans then.”

  Katie stepped forward, and Ace unconsciously pulled away from her. He knew she wanted a kiss, but he was feeling less than affectionate right now.

  “I’ll be back later,” he repeated as he hurried out the door, slamming it firmly shut behind him.

  ***

  As the morning came and went, the bright afternoon sun slowly began to make its way across the sky, filtering through the tiny crack in Fiona’s pale blue curtains, beaming straight through her eyelids.

  Fiona stirred, the shining light disrupting her sleep. She opened her eyes and immediately regretted it. It felt like her corneas had been burned away with a hot poker. Her head throbbed, and she groaned aloud.

  “Uhhh….” Arduously pushing herself into a sitting position, Fiona took stock of her surroundings.

  She was in a dark room. Fiona pushed her hair out of her face. The whole place instantly brightened and took shape. She was in her bedroom.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, she carefully stood up, one hand to her aching head. She didn’t think she drank that much last night, but apparently the Hawg Ear was so named because your tongue felt like one the next morning.

  “Ace?” Fiona called, wincing at the volume of her own voice.

  She reached behind her to grab the top sheet, wrapping it around her naked body as she shuffled over to the bathroom door. Fiona knocked gently, but the door wasn’t shut a
nd swung open—no one was inside.

  He’s probably in the kitchen, Fiona figured.

  After a night like that, who wouldn’t be hungry? She was ravenous, which meant Ace was to the point of starvation. Unfortunately, if he was trying to scrounge up something to eat, he was going to find himself shit out of luck. Fiona’s fridge was practically empty.

  She hurried to the kitchen as fast as her hangover would allow. “Sorry, I don’t have anything,” she said as she rounded the corner. “I meant to go grocery shopping…” Fiona stopped, realizing she was speaking to an empty room.

  She turned in a circle, double checking to make sure she hadn’t somehow missed him in her six-hundred-square-foot apartment. “Ace?” she called once more.

  Fiona peered out one of the bullet holes in her front door—a new, custom peek-hole courtesy of Alexei. Ace’s motorcycle was gone.

  Must have taken one look at the kitchen and gone out to get breakfast for us, Fiona optimistically thought, even as her stomach sank. She hobbled back to her bedroom to put on some clothes.

  As she was pulling a tank top over her head, she heard a loud pounding coming from the front of the house. Thinking it was Ace, she hurriedly went to answer it.

  She slowed suddenly. What if it was Alexei? Fiona bent into a crouch, and cautiously snuck over to the door, peeking through one of the lower holes in it.

  It wasn’t Ace or Alexei; it was Melanie.

  Fiona watched as her friend raised her fist to hammer the door again. She quickly shot up to quickly to open it, almost getting punched in the face in the process.

  “Come in, come in.” Fiona ushered Melanie inside where it was safe.

  Melanie said she was okay taking the risk, but Fiona didn’t see the need to hang around on front steps chatting, completely open and vulnerable to a certain Russian mobster who might decide he was tired of waiting around, and that today was a good day to go for a ride his car with an AK-47 hanging out the window.

  Fiona shut the door and turned to look at Melanie. “Do you have any food?” was the first thing out of her mouth.

  Melanie’s jaw dropped and she stared at Fiona. “Are you fucking kidding me?” Melanie asked. “After the shit you pulled last night, the first thing you do is ask me for food?”

  Fiona grimaced. “I’m sorry, but I’m really hungry.”

  She knew it wasn’t cool of her to be making requests from Melanie right now, especially when she was already doing so much to help Fiona.

  “Well, if we had gone home together like we had planned, I could have driven you to get breakfast this morning,” Melanie replied scathingly.

  Fiona felt bad, but she was in no mood to be yelled at right now. Her head and stomach felt like they were joining forces against her in an effort to make her life hell. “You’re pretty upset for someone who didn’t even seem to notice I was missing.”

  Melanie froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means,” Fiona began, growing angry, “I was gone for almost an hour, and when I get back, you were hooting and hollering, having a grand ol’ time with them! You had no idea where I was, and you were having too much fun to care—as usual.”

  Melanie was always trying to drag Fiona out to clubs and parties, saying Fiona worked too hard and needed to learn how to relax. However, these outings more often than not resulted in her abandoning Fiona to find a taxi home alone while Melanie caught a ride with a handsome stranger.

  “What did you want me to do, Fiona?” Melanie cried. “I’m in a biker bar, surrounded by people who wouldn’t think twice about murdering me, even if they didn’t know we were lying. Did you want me to completely freak out and demand you stay right there next to me?” Fiona looked at her feet. “I was terrified for you, Fiona,” Melanie said, putting her hand on Fiona’s shoulder. “You went into that back room all alone with that man, and then suddenly you were gone. I didn’t know what had happened to you, or what to do, so I stuck to our plan and I played the role of rowdy, partying biker babe.”

  Fiona hung her head. “I’m sorry, Melanie. I didn’t mean to leave you.”

  “Then why did you?” Melanie pushed. “What happened in there?”

  Fiona bit her lip, avoiding Melanie’s gaze. Suddenly, in the bright light of day, the harsh reality of what she was doing hit her full force. She burst into tears.

  Slowly, with many tissues and much coaxing from Melanie, Fiona told her how she had desperately pleaded with Ace for his help. “I told him I would do anything,” she said, sniffling. “He asked me if I meant…you know, anything, and I said yes.”

  Once again Melanie found herself with no idea what to do or say, except this time she didn’t have a character role to fall back on. She didn’t want to be judgmental, but Fiona was being incredibly reckless, and Melanie didn’t think she fully understood the gravity of the situation.

  Fiona was a little more reclusive than most, having often experienced the negative effects of partying secondhand from her father and brother. While that withdrawn lifestyle had protected Fiona from a lot, Melanie wasn’t sure that was a good thing in this situation. She worried it wasn’t in Fiona’s nature to even consider the possibility Ace might just screw her and then screw her over.

  “I see why you felt this was your only option, Fiona,” Melanie began carefully. “I’m just not sure if you’ve entirely thought this through.”

  Fiona frowned, puzzled. “Why do you say that?”

  Melanie hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. Thankfully, she was rescued by the sound of Fiona’s phone ringing in the other room. Fiona gave Melanie a long look, then hurried into her bedroom to retrieve her phone.

  Walking back to the living room, Fiona looked at the number on the screen. It was an unknown caller.

  “What if it’s Niko?” Fiona said hopefully to Melanie.

  “What if it’s Alexei?” Melanie countered.

  Fiona bit her lip, then tapped the answer button. “Niko, is that you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me, Fi.”

  Relief swept through Fiona’s body at the sound of her little brother’s voice. She nodded, answering Melanie’s questioning stare.

  “Where are you? Are you okay?” she asked frantically. “Why didn’t you call me from your cell phone?”

  “I had to ditch my phone; Alexei has William trace them for him to find runners like me all the time,” he replied. “I got a burner phone so he can’t send anyone after me. You should probably get one, too. He might have bugged your phone to listen in, so I probably shouldn’t say where I am.”

  “But you’re okay?” Fiona repeated. Her heart was racing and she knew she wouldn’t be able to calm down until Niko told her he was safe.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I was able to shake Alexei’s guy right away, so they have no idea which direction I’m headed in. I’ll keep moving though, just in case,” Niko told her.

  Fiona thought he sounded exhausted, but otherwise al lright. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding in.

  “Were you able to visit our friend?” Niko asked, carefully avoiding names in case Alexei did have someone eavesdropping on them. Ace wouldn’t be able to do much good if Alexei had a forewarning that he was coming.

  “Yes! I did. He promised he would help us, but he hasn’t said how yet,” Fiona told her brother, fervently hoping he wouldn’t ask how she managed to convince him to go after Alexei.

  “Really?” Niko exclaimed, shocked. “That’s awesome, Fi! What did you say to him?” he asked.

  Fiona froze, the word anything playing on a loop in her mind. She flashed back to Ace looming over her as she begged him from her knees and everything that followed. Images from last night kept creeping up on her, causing her to blush randomly throughout the day. At one point Melanie even asked her if she had a fever. Fiona blamed it on her hangover and hoped that excuse would suffice until she could control herself.

  “Don’t worry about it, Niko. Just focus on keeping yourself safe.” She sounded li
ke a liar even to her own ears.

  “What did you promise him, Fiona?” Niko asked suspiciously. “I can take care of myself; don’t give him something you can’t give for my sake,” he told her determinedly.

  “It’s not like that at all, Niko. Relax,” Fiona fibbed. “I just don’t want to talk about it on the phone. Alexei could be listening, remember? We should keep this short.”

  Melanie gave her a look and Fiona glared at her, turning her back to Melanie. Truthfully, Fiona didn’t want to hang up; she was terrified this could be the last time she spoke to her little brother, but she didn’t want to have to explain how she convinced Ace and The Hell Brothers to help them. Niko would come back immediately, and then Fiona would lose everything she ever cared about.

  “You’re probably right,” Niko said. “Thanks, Fi. You think of everything. I don’t know what I would do without you.”