Devil's Prey

by SE Chardou

  “Why the fuck did you tell her? You do realize this throws a major monkey-wrench into our plans,” Rasmus said in a voice laced with anger.

  “No, it doesn’t. She will think I wouldn’t hurt him because we are blood related but those two fucks might as well be strangers as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know them and didn’t grow up with them. The only thing we share in common is blood and genetics—that’s all,” Max explained casually as if he were discussing the weather.

  “Max, listen to yourself. You wanted out so you could hatch the perfect plan to take your brother down. The first part was stealing his girl—you got her. Walk the fuck away and leave the Saints alone. If you think we’re bad off now, what happens when we’re running not only from my father but your father’s crew? You don’t think they have friends? The Aces in California and Oregon. The goddamn Hells Horsemen in Montana—the fucking Silver Demons in New York, the Hellions in the south.

  “The Knights will back them and they—like the Saints—have charters in Europe. The UK and Germany become no-go zones! Where the fuck do you plan for us to set up house? Fucking Mexico? Aztecas Infierno control most of Baja and part of the mainland.”

  “Raz, you aren’t tellin’ me anything I don’t already know. I’m not going to do anything stupid—”

  “You’re already doin’ stupid shit,” his lover shouted back. “Take the fuckin’ girl and let’s get the hell out of dodge. Tell her the real plan for fuck’s sake. We stroll into The Heritage, we take out a couple of my father’s key men, steal some money and get the hell off the grid. I’m not leaving here without you. I don’t want to see you dead or worse—what if Dimitri finds out you don’t have a plan and never ever had any intention of assassinating Angelo. Did you ever think about that for a second and what it means for your precious Magnolia?”

  “Stop with the hysterics—you’re giving me a fucking migraine. We’ve got time to figure all this shit out and tell her the truth.”

  “No, we’ve run out of time, Max. I just got a call from a trusted source and Dimitri is on to you.”

  The words had barely left Rasmus’ mouth as I rushed down the rest of the stairs almost tripping over my own two feet but I righted myself just in time. I immediately marched directly to Max and slapped the shit out of him and his pretty boy fucking face.

  “You fuckin’ used me to get to Edward? Why?” I shouted in anger.

  My blood boiled in my veins, and the need to make him suffer was epic but I couldn’t do shit to him while he was threatening the life of the man I loved and his family.

  “Why else do you fuckin’ think, Mags? I want them to pay for what they did to me!” he exclaimed, his face heated with rage and resentment.

  I shook my head sadly as I reeled in my temper and held my arms down at my side, my fists clenched with tension radiating throughout my body. “When the fuck did you turn into such a little bitch boy, huh? Mommy and Daddy didn’t love you enough so now you want to murder your own father and brother? Newsflash! They don’t even know you exist, Max.”

  “That’s a lie,” he bit out coldly.

  “No, it isn’t. It’s the fucking truth!” I started to pace the floor in front of me out of frustration. “Edward has never once mentioned you and it wasn’t because he didn’t know who you were. All you are to him is Dimitri’s prized possession. I don’t know what the fuck happened between your mom and Sean but neither of them have a clue you’re their flesh and blood. Or if they do, they hold a tight fuckin’ lid on the knowledge, otherwise the whole underworld would know.

  “Twins?! Edward has been thinking he’s a singleton his whole life—at least that’s what he’s always told me. As far as he knows, his mother was a club whore who left his father shortly after he was born. If there’s more to this story, Sean sure as fuck hasn’t told anyone—not even his own son.”

  “Oh, there is a hell of lot more to this story, baby doll, but according to Raz here, we don’t have the time to get into it.”

  I glared into his aquamarine eyes coldly and through his anger, I could clearly see the resemblance to Edward and Sean. He had their trademark blue-green eyes, Irish complexion and temper. He was also built like Edward too except he was a bit more filled out than his brother who was all lean muscles and tattoos.

  Max had a few tats but nothing like the arm sleeves Edward had not to mention the tat on his back that clearly stated he was a member of the Lucifer’s Saints. Edward also played with his hair color a lot—more than any other man I knew of but his natural color was the same shade of brown as the hair on Max’s head.

  There was no mistaking the family resemblance but that didn’t make this news any less harder to digest. Not to mention if we were truly running out of time, how much did we have left before the jig was up and Dimitri sent his hooligans to kill us all?

  “Fine.” I turned toward Rasmus, ignoring Max completely. “How much fucking time do we have left?”

  “Not much. Maybe a couple of days. I was gonna tell loverboy here that bit of news before he decided to go up stairs and leisurely fuck you all evening.”

  I smirked, an expression that didn’t cross my face very often. “Jealous, are we? May I remind you that you got the hot beef injection long before I did so what difference does it make? Looks like I’m just a third motherfuckin’ wheel on you two hot guys’ highway to love.”

  “Fuck you, Magnolia,” Rasmus seethed as his icy blue eyes bore into mine. “Max and I are not a fucking couple. We just get off with each other but he’s always wanted someone like you. This isn’t one of your erotic, ménage fantasies where you get to have two guys plugging you all the time. You’re his—not mine—and there’s fuck all I can do about it. I might have known Max a lot longer than you but when all’s said and done, you two are gonna go all Bonnie and Clyde together. Hell, I don’t even have a voice when it comes to his situation with you.”

  His sudden revelation was like ice water dumped into my blood stream, working its way toward my heart where I’d started going numb. “I don’t understand. You don’t love me, Max—you don’t even like me. Why all the cloak and dagger shit to get to Edward? I let him go and he’s no longer an issue. Hell, you fuckin’ purchased me—drugs for my life—from the White Knights. I am yours, in every way a woman can belong to a man. You didn’t do all of that just to get back at Edward, did you?”

  Max strode to me and stopped mere inches away. “No, I didn’t. I did it because I could and I wanted to own someone he thought he had. Miranda’s not even an issue at this point because she would have never cheated on him but you . . . why wouldn’t I want you to be mine? You were just a nice little bonus, a reward for a job well done when I finished blowing both their brains out.”

  I shook my head adamantly. “I can’t let you do that. I’ll go to the Saints myself and tell them what you have planned. You won’t touch Edward or Sean because they are all Chantal has. Edward has sons for Christ’s sake. This petty revenge of yours might mean something to you but it means absolutely nothing to me.”

  “Relax, chickadee,” Rasmus cut in casually. “Max doesn’t have the time to take out two well protected bikers. He’s gotta get the fuck outta dodge and take you with him unless he wants Dimitri to carve you up like a fuckin’ chicken.”

  Max backed away from me slowly, the distance between us instantly felt. “We can’t do shit without money, Raz.”

  “Well, you know what that means, right?”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, what?” I questioned Rasmus, like a goddamned parrot.

  He smirked. “Time for Plan B.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Maxwell

  “What the fuck is Plan B?”

  Max glared at Rasmus, and would have gladly choked the life out of him if he had the energy or the effort. He was physically exhausted and run down. Fucking two people in the same day and dealing with the emotional fallout had not exactly been the way he’d planned this evening.

  Why couldn’t th
ey all be chilling in his California King bed, smoking some primo bud and talking about nonsensical bullshit? Instead, Raz had gotten a hair up his ass and decided to blow the whole operation wide open.

  He would have told Mags exactly what was going on in his own time but now that plan was shot to shit and so was the one with taking out the casino. If Dimitri knew what he was doing then they didn’t have the manpower or the time to make that happen.

  Max didn’t believe in a sure thing. He always made alternative plans just in case the prime one fell through but his Plan B was desperate and grasping at straws. It involved a woman who had absolutely no need to be on the inside and it could get her murdered.

  Scratch that—two women were involved—and although both were professionals, one had gotten soft and lax in her time. She didn’t need to be alert or ultra protective because Dimitri’s army of soldiers did that for her. However, knowing his mentor, he couldn’t be certain she wouldn’t see her death soon after they executed the plans he had in play. And that was a dangerous situation for any woman to be in period.

  Especially when the woman involved was the only one who’d ever given a shit about him, clothed and fed him; and taken care of him the only way she knew how.

  Mila Koslakova—formerly known as Mila Zawadzka Boyle—hadn’t been involved in the business for years and there was no reason to bring her into his clusterfuck now. Yes, she was Dimitri’s wife and his mother. She was also Edward’s mother but more importantly, she was Karina Maria Koslakova’s mother. His fifteen-year-old half-sister and the only progeny Dimitri had left he actually claimed.

  Most of Dimitri’s business associates didn’t know he was married and that was with good reason. His mother jet-setted between Boca Raton, Manhattan and Paris, ate at the finest restaurants and shopped at the most expensive and outlandish boutiques on earth. Karina attended an elite Swiss boarding school, Rennes, which guarded its students efficiently and intensively. All of the young women there were from wealthy families but quite a few of them were from notorious, criminal empires who paid through the nose to have their children protected at all costs.

  Dimitri Koslakov was one of them.

  Sadly, when Max had decided to make going after his mother Plan B, he never thought he would actually have to go through with it. And now, he had no choice.

  The thought disturbed him right to his very core and stirred a conscience he wasn’t aware he still possessed.

  “What the hell is Plan B, Max?”

  He glared at Mags with empty, blue-green eyes. “One I should have never come up with and wouldn’t have if I’d been thinking straight.”

  “Problem is you were thinkin’ straight—now you’re just freezin’ up like a little bitch,” Raz sneered with heartless anger coloring his tone. “What the fuck happened to you, man? You fuck this bitch and all the sudden you turn into a motherfuckin’ pussy? The Max I know wouldn’t give a shit about going after that fuckin’ whore. What the fuck has she done for you anyway?”

  “She raised me, you fuckin’ momo! Put clothes on my back and made sure I had a roof over my head. What? Do you think it would be easy to kill your own fucking mother?” he roared back.

  “Yeah, but what has she done for you, lately?” Rasmus crossed his arms and glared at him with desolate eyes. “You tell your sweetie over here how your mom sold your ass down the river too? At least Magnolia’s parents loved her—can you say the same for that heartless bitch who handed you over to Dimitri when you were fourteen and told him she didn’t give a damn what he did to you?

  “The same monster who raped you repeatedly on the night of your fifteenth birthday and afterward? Tortured you within an inch of your life to teach you how to deal with pain? Turned you into an assassin at sixteen when he made you murder my mother and brother because he wanted to be with your mother and not part with an extra dime if he had to?

  “Yet lo and behold, you defend that whore as if anything she’s ever did in your life has been noble and just while you despise the very people who would probably take you in and accept you as you are—fucked up and all—no questions asked? Yeah, Max, I gotta hand it to you—your sense of loyalty, identity and humanity is seriously jacked up beyond all recognition.”

  He looked away from Raz and turned toward Mags who stared at him as if he was a science project gone wrong. “Is it true?”

  “Is what true?” Max turned away from both of them and headed to the bar where he grabbed a clean tumbler and poured a healthy dose of Macallan 25.

  “What Rasmus just said about your mother and . . . what she did to you?”

  “Yeah, that part is true but Raz has such a way with words, doesn’t he?” He smirked and finished off his scotch. “Fine, we go with Plan B.”

  He reached for the bottle of Macallan 25 but Mags was faster and snatched it quickly. “No! You can’t drink tonight away. If we have a limited amount of time then we need to start packing and get the fuck outta here, Max. You need a clear head and furthermore, we seem to be working on a matter of hours—minutes maybe—before the same henchmen you’ve worked with your whole adult life storm in here and cause some serious fucking trouble. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “My problem is despite what my mother did to me, I can’t fucking kill her!” he exclaimed. “Surely you can understand that. Could you kill your parents?”

  Mags’ pale green eyes focused on his before she shook her head. “They didn’t pimp me out to the WKs though either. They died trying to defend my honor. Your mother? I have absolutely no qualms with putting a bullet in the bitch’s head myself. Hell, we can even have a drink and toast to the good old days afterward.

  “I simply adore nostalgia, reminiscing and memories about the way shit used to be when we were young, wild and free. Before fate decided to butt fuck us gently with a chainsaw, putting a major fuckin’ monkey wrench in our plans to spend our adolescent years like most of the lucky dipshits in our useless Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and ‘let me take a selfie’ Facebook generation.”

  Raz laughed out loud. “Are you always this charming?”

  “Not usually,” Mags deadpanned. “But since I’ve been pleasantly fucked six ways to Sunday, my humor has a tendency to make an appearance.”

  “I just might get along with the new you.”

  They chuckled together before Max sliced them with a look that halted their casual back and forth banter.

  “I have an idea—why don’t I put you in charge?”

  She shook her head. “No, this is your plan, remember? I thought you were some big, badass alpha male but Rasmus is right, you’ve turned into a major fuckin’ pussy. I better check my pants just to make sure you didn’t steal mine. What the fuck is wrong with you, Max? This isn’t the time for getting drunk, long commiserating conversations or feeling guilty. Your mother knew who Dimitri was and as far as I’m concerned, she dug her own grave. If this is our plan then we own it—right here, right fucking now. If you wanna waffle, you can do that all you want but this girl is gettin’ the fuck outta dodge. I didn’t get away from the Knights just to be murdered by some pedophile Russian psychopath. If that’s how you wanna go out, be my motherfuckin’ guest but I didn’t sign up for this shit!”

  She turned to flounce off when the first stray bullet came through the front door and shattered the liquor bottle in her hand.

  Rasmus turned toward Max but he didn’t think—he only reacted. Quickly, he rushed over to Mags, grabbed her the by waist and they all ran up the stairs as one bullet turned into a fucking drive-by hail from various caliber weapons.

  “Get her to the safe room, Raz. I’ll be right there!” he shouted and tossed Mags in his direction before he scrambled to his bedroom and the safe he kept in his walk-in closet.

  The bullets continued to turn his house into cottage cheese but he wasn’t stupid. They couldn’t keep at it for long. Serenity Village was a quiet, peaceful community and the chances someone had already dialed nine-one-one was unquestionable at this p
oint.

  Of course that didn’t mean Dimitri wouldn’t send any of his crazier, kamikaze soldiers inside to make sure they’d completed the job—whether the cops were on their way or not. Most of them were disposable; lowly paid and tuned up on cocaine and methamphetamine when they weren’t in the gym ruining their bodies with steroid-abuse.

  Max dialed the combination and as soon as it clicked open, he grabbed both of his nine-millimeter Glock pistols, checked they were loaded and stuffed them into a duffel bag full of cash he kept on hand at all times. It was just enough money to get away—fifty thousand or so in small bills—but nothing to actually live on for any length of time.

  At this point, he knew his bank accounts were compromised. Dimitri wasn’t stupid and he would put men outside of each and every branch of Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase in the Tri-Towns area if he had to. He wouldn’t be able to get any money until he was out of the state.

  Fuck! This wasn’t how the operation was supposed to go down at all but it looked like this was the way it would happen after all.

  Despite all the shit his mother had put him through, he could never hate her. She still had given birth to him and most of all, she’d chosen to take him with her. She could have left him behind like she did Edward but he’d always been her baby boy. Born last and nearly two hours after his brother had screamed his way into the world.

  Deep down, he knew he hated the wrong people. Edward and Sean didn’t have anything to do with how fucked up his life had turned out. If they knew of his existence, they would take him in without a single thought. At least the motorcycle clubs got one thing right. They truly did believe in brotherhood. It wasn’t just some empty slogan they preached without follow-through. It was more than he’d ever had with Koslakov and being part of his so-called family.

  Not knowing whether your mentor would kiss or kill you every time you paid him a visit wasn’t only disconcerting, it was no way to fucking live. He felt bad about deceiving Mags this whole time with some made up story about how they would kill Angelo Abandonato but the truth was he’d had it with being alone.