by Amo Jones
Wind claps over my skin, my hair flying out behind my body as Royce zips us forward, following the hearse onto the main highway that leads to Bonnie’s old neighborhood.
“Royce, I’m fine,” Mom says, patting my hand on her shoulder. She gazes absently out to the back lawn as her new little lapdog runs circles around the basketball court. Orson, Storm, Sloane, and Storm and Orson’s wives are here, with India, Orson’s wife pregnant with their second child. Jade and I arrived at Mom’s a couple days ago when Orson and Storm announced they were coming over. Naturally, that meant Sloane had to be here too. Mom isn’t okay. She’s fighting an uphill battle and only tends to react to Jade. I get it. Jade was the child who was always here, or maybe Mom thinks she owes her something. No one could have known how dark Kyle Kane was. No one. He hid it well. They all do. People expect monsters to come in nightmares, while forgetting to protect their dreams.
“Give it to Uncle Roy!” Orson’s little boy, Timmy, starts bouncing the ball over to me, passing India, Sloane, Jade, and Storm’s girlfriend, Lisa. She might be a bigger nerd than Storm.
I scoop up the little man in my arms and bounce him on my knee, grinning up at Orson and Storm as Mom walks out to place crackers and drinks over the outdoor dining table. “Who’s your favorite uncle?”
Timmy looks to his father, back to me, and then to Storm. He comes back to me and points. I grin, pointing to myself. “Me?”
He lets out his infectious giggle, his little head leaning back to laugh. I tickle his tummy before setting him back to his feet where he runs off to play with Mom’s little rat dog.
“You’re good with kids, Roy,” Sloane teases, and I turn toward all of them where Jade is staring at me blankly.
“Shut up, Sloane.”
“Welcome,” she sasses, popping a carrot stick in her mouth while bringing her glasses down over her eyes. Careful who you fall in love with, every girl has a crazy best friend. And if she doesn’t? She is the crazy best friend.
“Come here,” I mouth to Jade, who shuffles around the table and takes a seat on my lap. She has that same vacant look in her eyes that she had while watching me with Timmy. I curl her legs over mine and bring my lips to her ear so only she can hear me. “Are you pregnant?”
Nine Months Later
Today is a good day to die if your name is Kyle Kane. Isaac came through around the seven-month mark and told me he needed more time with delivering Kyle. They managed to bring down two other large rings globally and have now started a force specifically to target trafficking. People think this only happens in third world countries, but it doesn’t.
Taking the steps down to the basement of Allure, I crank my neck sideways until all the tiny bones in it crack.
Wicked is behind me, with Lion close behind. It’s us. Us and Kyle Kane.
We all enter the room and I remove my MC cut, placing it onto the counter that’s on the other side of the room. Closing my eyes and counting to ten.
I find Lion and Wicked. “Ready?”
Wicked nods his head.
Lion smirks.
Wicked moves closer to Kyle, where he’s tied and seated on a single chair in the middle of the room. Kyle’s screams pierce the room as Wicked moves forward. I hit the sound dock that’s on the counter, connecting to my phone’s Bluetooth and cranking the sound up so loudly the angry metal of “Walk with Me in Hell” from Lamb of God electrifies the energy into the room. Leaning back on the counter, I watch as Wicked works his magic. The art with which Wicked kills isn’t for the fainthearted, but he’s not killing Kyle. He’s just making the final moments Kyle has breathing on this earth the most excruciating minutes he would ever feel. We settled on Wicked’s torture, Lion’s wrath, and my signature. Adrenaline pulses through my veins as I remain steady on the other side of the room, Wicked picking up a screw from a toolbox to the side of Kyle and bringing it to the front. He pulls out a hammer, and nails Kyle’s foot into the ground. The veins in Kyle’s neck pop out angrily, his flesh bright red. Wicked doesn’t stop. He continues to move around Kyle, hammering nails into all sides of his body. This is personal for Wicked. It’s personal for all of us.
I hit repeat on the song as Wicked finishes by removing each of Kyle’s teeth, blood spilling out over his mouth. He is under strict orders to not kill Kyle, that’s on me, so he’s had to work around death, make death feel like the endgame. Kyle isn’t so lucky.
Lion moves forward next once Wicked steps away, his eyes blank and teeth bared.
I smirk, taking a cigarette out of my pocket and lighting the end. Lion doesn’t fuck around, and excitement fills me when I feel how close I am to finally getting what I want.
What I’ve dreamed.
Lion’s take is simple. His knife goes between Kyle’s legs, cutting across roughly and slicing his balls and cock clean off. A cackle of laughter bursts out of me behind the screaming music, my head tilting back. Oh sweet fucking victory. Kyle’s head hunches over now, the pain clearly unbearable. I kick off the counter and take the steps I need to reach him.
Pulling my knife out of the back of my jeans, I flick it around my fingers, coming close to Kyle’s face, a cigarette hanging from my mouth. His eyes peel open softly, blood leaking from the edges. I will be the last thing he sees before he dies. Me. Bringing my knife below the bottom of his ear, I slowly slide the blade down his flesh and watch as it splits open, blood spilling from the wound. Continuing down unfazed, I take my cigarette out of my mouth with one hand, while dragging the tip of my blade down the whole half of his body. Over the middle of his palm, under his arms, over his ribs, down the side of his legs and continue all the way down around the top of his feet and up his inner thigh. Once I reach where Lion cut off his dick, I sink my blade over his raw wound over to his other thigh, down and tracing the same pattern I did on the other side until I’m near his ear. Blood and fluid spills out from him, but his eyes are still on mine, his mouth open and blood dripping out. He’s barely alive, and maybe under any other circumstances, he would be dead. Circumstances that wouldn’t involve Wicked using some sort of acupuncture to keep him alive for as long as possible.
I don’t stop, finally dragging my blade up the thin skin of his scalp, over to the other side to my starting point. Once the cut is joined, I drop my knife, placing my cigarette into my mouth and curl my fingers beneath the flesh of his scalp. Brain matter seeps between my fingers as I slowly peel the flesh from his body. The face is the hardest, separating such thin skin from muscles and fatty tissue. Ripping down roughly, I pull the flesh from his body in five minutes flat, my cigarette falling to the bloodied ground, where his skin now lays with the rest of his organs and fluid in a pool at his feet.
Wicked turns off the music finally, and that’s when I hear the deep breaths I’m inhaling and exhaling.
“Jesus,” Lion murmurs. “Seeing you rip is something I will never get used to.”
I turn to face the two of them, my lips curled and my brain frantic. The adrenaline that pulses through me after ripping is addictive. I wish I could say I try not to go there when I kill, but give me the chance and I’ll take it.
“We’ll send in the cleanup crew,” Lion says, reaching forward and pressing his finger into the flaming red muscle in Kyle’s thigh. He scrunches his face. “You’re a sick bastard. You know that, right?”
I smirk, running my tongue over my lips and swallowing the blood that had fallen. “One would say a Sicko.”
My phone vibrates in my jean pocket and I fish it out. “Hey, baby.”
“Roy,” she breathes into the phone. “I’m in labor.”
One year later
The sun sets off in the distance, ducking behind one of the many mountains that are on the edge of the ocean at what is now our cabin. The MC, our families, and close friends are over for dinner. Meat is grilling on the BBQ in the far distance, while people are scattered around the place, drinking and chatting. Royce has our princess on his lap near the fire pit, his eyes on mine as she cli
ngs to his index finger happily. My heart fills with warmth seeing them together. I will never get used to it. The night I went into labor, I was at the clubhouse helping my mom and Kara set the food up for the hog feast that was happening. Another chapter was in town, so naturally they were crashing at the club. My water broke right there in the kitchen. My doctor said that I’d have enough time to make it to the hospital, so I needn’t worry.
She was wrong.
I gave birth to Wolf Jade Kane exactly ten minutes after my water broke. We didn’t have time to get out of the house before I was giving birth to her on Wolf Pack soil. Made her papa proud, and her grandpa even more so.
Royce kisses the top of her blonde hair, her green eyes coming to mine from across the table.
“You know, you’re both in so much trouble with her,” Sloane says, sitting on one of the chairs beside me as Orson and Storm prepare the boat, tossing the wakeboards and life jackets on.
“Oh, I know,” I say, smiling. “But look at how bad she has wrapped her daddy around her fingers.”
“Mmmhmmm,” Sloane jokes. “Not just your daddy. Now you have to share him.”
I roll my eyes at her lame joke just as Royce comes over, handing Wolf to Sloane. “You wanna come out for a shred?”
I shake my head. “I’m good.” I haven’t been out since I gave birth to Wolf. There’s no way I’m going out tonight, after a few beers.
“You sure?” He leans down, his arms bulging as he squeezes the side of my chair. “You were always keen for a ride on my board.”
I shove him. “Go play. I’ll stay here.”
“Alright, baby.” He kisses me on the head before planting one on Wolf and disappearing toward the dock.
“You two are so cute it’s disturbing, yet oddly satisfying,” Sloane says, kicking her feet up to rest on a log, just as Kara, Karli, Silver, Poppy and my mom and dad make their way over.
“I think it was bound to happen.” India shoves my shoulder, the playful tone in her voice evident while taking the seat beside me.
I chuckle, my head leaning back, watching as all the brothers scatter everywhere, drinking and eating the food that we prepared all day. This is my family and what family feels like.
“What you thinking, baby girl?” Dad asks, taking his pride and joy off Sloane.
I sigh. “Just that life couldn’t get much better than what it is right now.”
Poppy drops down onto the chair opposite me, with Wicked hovering not far behind her. That man is just like Royce when it comes to Poppy. I scoff to myself, thinking of the obvious crush Gypsy has on her. In his dreams. When Wicked moves closer to her, Billie follows.
Poppy and I have spoken a lot since everything went down. She filled me in on the blank parts and offered me a position within Anonymous. The boys don’t know that she’s in Anon. I think they suspect something, but they can’t prove it. Mom leads that group of women like a fierce queen. They’re now working closely with Isaac too while using Storm and Slim when they need anything tracked, coded, or wiped.
“Well, this is your life now, princess. Take it,” Dad announces, a grin on his mouth. I smile at him, and up at everyone that’s here.
He’s right.
I will take it.
“Baby!” Royce yells from behind me.
I spin around, eyes wide. “What?”
He tosses a basketball at me and I catch it with a thud as he takes long strides toward me. My fingers twitch over a lump that’s taped to the ball. I still, my stomach dropping to the ground when I see the white gold diamond ring that’s glistening against the burned orange sun.
“Ro—”
“Shhh.” His finger is at my mouth, a smirk on his. “Stop fucking talking for a second.”
“Okay,” I whisper, my throat throbbing from emotion.
He falls to one knee, a cocky smirk on his mouth as his eyes peer up at me from below. “Jade Olivia Kane, I can’t wait to fuck you, love you, and eat you for the rest of our life. Will you marry me?”
“Yes,” I say through choked tears, my hands coming to his cheeks.
“Oh, come on. Really?” Dad says. “Little fuck.”
We all start laughing as Royce scoops me up from the backs of my legs and throws me over his shoulder.
If I had to walk through hell all over again just to have my man finally beneath me, I’d do it one hundred times over. One hundred. Royce was my family before anyone else was. He and Mom invited me into their hearts and made me feel like the missing piece to their family. Sometimes it’s not about blood.
It’s about who is still standing beside you after seeing you at your worst.
I will love this man for the rest of my life, and when we both finally die, our souls will continue to find each other wherever we end up.
Because you can’t fuck with fate.
Midnight Mayhem
In Peace Lies Havoc
In Fury Lies Mischief
The Elite King’s Club
The Silver Swan
The Broken Puppet
Tacet a Mortuis
Malum: Part 1
Malum: Part 2
Razing Grace: Part 1
Razing Grace: Part 2
Perilous Love (Sinful Souls MC, #1)
Intricate Love (Sinful Souls MC, Volume 2)
Tainted Love (Sinful Souls MC, Volume 3)
Crowned by Hate (Crowned, #1)
One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil’s Own, #1)
Hellraiser (The Devil’s Own, #2)
The Devil’s Match (The Devil’s Own, #5)
F*ucker
Losing Traction (Westbeach, #1)
Flip Trick
Manik