Hate on Me (Knights of Retribution MC Book 3)

by Elizabeth Knox

  “You know, I’m bettin’ a party would calm your asses down. What’s it been? A month since the last one?” Judge speaks up out of nowhere. Shit, I totally forgot he was in the chapel. He comes up to the doorway and crosses his arms over his chest, smirkin’ like the fuckin’ devious piece of shit he is.

  Mammoth looks up to Judge. “Well, that might not be such a stupid idea. Needles here needs to get his ass laid. That’ll make him stop bein’ a damn dick.”

  “I have no problem gettin’ laid!” I holler over to him.

  The man snickers lowly, as Riva walks on over with Dahlia, their daughter, in the weird wrap thing she wears over her chest. In her hands she has a tray with a pitcher of what I believe is lemonade. There are glasses with ice in them too. Thank god Mammoth shacked up with a literal angel. “I figured you boys could use some refreshments.”

  “Mammoth, she’s far too good for you.” Judge pushes past us both to head up to Riva, taking the tray from her arms.

  “So, what’ve you guys accomplished today?” Riva asks, peering in the chapel a bit. Her eyes go wide when she sees what we’ve done, which is essentially demolish it a bit more.

  “Took up the subfloor and we’ll be putting new subfloor down by the end of the day as long as we don’t get heat stroke,” Mammoth tells his ol’ lady.

  She slaps his chest playfully. “Stop making jokes like that! It’s not funny anymore. We have a little girl now.”

  “God, this is so fuckin’ good. Can you put some liquor in this shit? Fuck, Riva. We need this at the party,” Judge moans after taking a sip of the lemonade.

  Riva whips her head around to Judge. “What party?”

  “The one I suggested we throw because Needles has a stick up his ass and needs to stick his dick in someone’s ass.”

  Riva shakes her head. “I can’t with you guys. I’m gonna go see Gamble and Ace so I’ll mention the party idea to her if you want.”

  “That would be fuckin’ awesome, babe,” Mammoth tells Riva, planting a kiss on her lips before she tears away and heads off toward Gamble and Hart’s place.

  Chapter Two

  She has been through hell. So, believe me when I say, fear her when she looks into a fire and smiles.

  ~ E. Corona

  Flora

  “Did you hear the club’s having a party on Friday night?” Benita asks as she comes into the house we share with the rest of the girls on the porn roster. In total, it’s eight of us. We were lucky enough to get the second biggest house on the property, about five hundred feet away from where the club sleeps. They have one of those big, metal buildings out front that they deem their physical clubhouse, and there’s a small cottage they refer to as the chapel. It’s what they’re renovating right now, saying it should be done in a few weeks or so.

  The girls and I managed to coax the guys into making us three bedrooms down in the basement and finish that off before they even started work on their beloved chapel. Before we had our last three bedrooms we were doubling up in the bedrooms, which was fine, but we all need our own space. Our porn studio is in another building that looks almost like what they’ve deemed their clubhouse, but it isn’t such a large, open space. Instead, it’s about four rooms, and one larger room in the middle.

  “Hello, earth to Flora,” Benita waves her hand in front of my face.

  “What? No.”

  Benita, as she takes a seat on the couch beside me, pulls her leg up under her butt and makes herself comfortable. “Mhm, I overheard Gamble saying we’re going to have a visitor too. Something about club business.”

  Weird. We don’t really have any visitors come to the club, ever. Then again, we’re not finished making the club what Gamble and the boys want it to be. “Cool, maybe they’ll like to party,” I mutter, not paying much attention. The truth is my relationship with Benita is strained as fuck. Some days I can barely stand being around her whereas others I want to spend the entire day with her. It doesn’t make sense to some people, and sometimes it doesn’t even make sense to me. I know a lot of the reason I hold so much resentment toward her is because of what happened two years ago. The bottom line is she could’ve saved me from experiencing so much pain, but she didn’t. Instead she chose to protect her father, and if it wasn’t for him having . . . having a soft spot for me . . . I wouldn’t have ever gotten out of that place. That horrific place.

  “I’m going to make sure you never forget what it’s like to feel pain. Until your cousin tells my boss what he wants to know, you won’t rest. I’ll keep putting this needle inside you, making your body stay awake even when you’re exhausted.”

  His evil laughter rings in my mind, something I’ll never forget. The pain bringer is the antagonist in all of my nightmares. It’s been two years, and he still haunts my dreams. I guess I should be thankful the worst thing is the nightmares. In the beginning I used to be startled at sudden movements, had the most negative self-thoughts I think I’ve ever had. For a long time after that I felt shame, like it was my own fault I was put in that situation. I’d wondered what life would’ve been like if my uncle never took custody of me after my parents died, or if I would’ve left when I turned eighteen. After a while I realized that regardless of what happened, even if I had left, those people would’ve hunted me down and still used me to try to get Benita to turn on her father.

  A knock comes to the door and I rise, needing desperately to get out of my own head as well as away from Benita. I just need some fucking space. Pulling open the door, I see Maia, who’s one of the club’s barmaids. She and Cali are going to be the head bartenders at Pawns & Knights, the club’s restaurant that should be opening up in the next few weeks.

  “Hey, I need some extra help down at the restaurant. Would you mind coming down and lending me a hand?” Maia asks. She’s one of the sweeter girls, so I never mind helping out when she needs it.

  “Sure,” I immediately reply, grabbing my crossbody purse from the hook by the door, I look back to Benita. “I’m going to help Maia out at the bar, I’ll be back later.” Walking out of the house alongside Maia, I shut the door behind us and we walk over to her car.

  Maia and I haven’t always been on the best terms, but it’s completely my fault because I was a raging bitch a few months back when I first came to the club. And I mean raging. I had this intense crush on Mammoth after he fucked me in Puerto Rico and then he came back here to the States with us. Within a really short time he started dating Riva and I was a bit cunty to her too, but it’s all in the past. These days things are different, although I’m sure my apology really helped the situation.

  “Did you have some sort of tingling feeling that I needed help?” I ask Maia jokingly.

  She looks over to me in confusion, drawing her brows together. “No, why?”

  “Benita was just . . . overwhelming me,” I explain. No one here at the club knows about our past. It’s a hidden secret between Benita and I, but it’s not like I want to come out and tell the entire club I’m the niece of a man who works for a drug lord, who stole a kilo of cocaine, and then proceeded to be the reason I was tortured for months on end.

  “Gosh, I don’t know how you two get on each other’s nerves so much sometimes.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “We’re Latina, it’s second nature.”

  Maia busts out laughing at what I’ve said and elbows me in my side. “Well, I lucked out you were annoyed with her. Otherwise you might’ve told me to ask one of the other ladies.”

  She’s not wrong. There’s been plenty of other times I’ve done the same shit to her. “Yeah, and the last thing you want is Gigi to help you at the bar.”

  Maia huffs and doesn’t hold back her eyeroll. “Yeah, I don’t need more broken glasses. Gamble was so annoyed when I told her we needed to order another case of pilsners.”

  “I can only imagine. It would’ve been different if the chick slipped and fell, but she just dropped them when she saw Mugshot, so.”

  Maia grumbles, “The girl needs to
be less worried about Mugshot and more worried about helping out the club when we ask. But whatever, I’ll just ask you to lend a hand, especially when it helps you get a break from Benita too.” Maia opens the driver’s side door and I open the passenger side one. We both get in, buckle up, and before I know it, we’re on our way to Pawns & Knights.

  The ride takes a little less than ten minutes because Maia drives like a damn lunatic, but I’m not complaining. She definitely knows how to keep your adrenaline pumping and your heart rate up. She pulls behind the restaurant, parks her car, and we both get out. We go in through the back entrance after punching the keycode into the door.

  We go through a narrow hallway, passing the two offices, the storage room, and head straight into the kitchen. Cutting through the kitchen, we push open the double doors and are behind the bar. Gamble had a custom redwood bar top shipped from this guy out in California. I don’t even want to know how much she paid for it, but it’s fucking beautiful. The bar alone can probably seat thirty people because of its massive size. She had the remnants of the redwood put together to make table tops for the circular ones, and the booths.

  “What did you need help with tonight?” I ask Maia, figuring it’s something to do with setting up. The bar should be opening in a couple weeks, so hopefully it’s nothing too crazy. I have to film with King later tonight for a video we’re shooting, so I need to make sure I have enough time to get back to the house, freshen up, and all that.

  King and I aren’t in a relationship, but we work together, and he sure knows how to use his dick. God, thinking about it makes my core fire right up. He’s a hot man with his caramel skin and buzz cut, and god, if he’s wearing those gold-rimmed glasses it really magnifies the bad boy in him, but he’s not someone I could date. He’s total fuckboy material.

  “Honestly, I need help organizing. I want to put the pilsners here, then wine glasses, drafts, pints, martini glasses, etc. And I’m thinking I’ll put the normal glasses over in this cabinet with some of the ones that don’t have a stem on the bottom to be hung. Do you think that makes sense?”

  Why in the hell is she asking me? I put a hand on my hip and stare right at her. “You and Cali are the ones manning the bar, you should be asking her, not me.”

  Maia rolls her eyes. Ah, I see. She and Cali got into it. That’s why she isn’t here helping and Maia came to me. “Look, I don’t ask you about your shit with Benita, so don’t ask me about my shit with Cali. ‘Kay?”

  I raise my hands in surrender. “I wasn’t even gonna think about it. But, I have about an hour and a half before I need to head back to the club and get ready for my shoot with King.”

  “I’ll have you back around then, promise.”

  “Alright,” I reply, heading over to the edge of the bar where some of the glasses are sitting. “These clean, or am I doing dishes tonight too?”

  “They’re clean, we just need to put them up, and . . . I don’t know if I’ve said it yet, but thanks for your help tonight, Flora. I really appreciate it.”

  Chapter Three

  “There is one rule, above all others, for being a man. Whatever comes, face it on your feet.”

  ~ Robert Jordan

  Needles

  Oddly enough, this is the first time I’ve been in our clubhouse other than when I’ve been helping build it. For once, my ass is planted on the pleated leather couch underneath me. With my feet hanging up on the opposite side of the couch, the only other people in here with me right now are Gamble, Hart, and Ace. Ace is walking around, wobbling a little bit, but according to Gamble it’s normal given her brain injury. Though, through therapy they’re hoping she’ll be able to walk normally when the time comes.

  “We’re having the party on Friday. Not sure if Riva told you,” Hart speaks up, sitting a little straighter on the couch he’s sitting on with Gamble. He wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her in a bit closer.

  “Not yet, but you know her. She’ll send us all an Evite or some shit,” I say with a chuckle, running my hand over my head.

  “Nee—” Ace says, causing me to smile. Gamble’s been working with her every day to help improve her speech. Now, she can’t say full sentences, but she’s showing so much improvement. At a year-and-a-half old, she’s doing so good. Better than any of us could’ve ever imagined when we heard the news.

  “Yeah, I’m your uncle Needles, babygirl.” I smile big at the little one, seeing her mom in her more and more every day. It’s moments like this that prove we all made the right decision when we broke apart from the Royal Bastards. Thank fuck for Jameson too, he understood the situation and accepted it with grace. Shit, I mean, right after it happened, I thought he would’ve lost his head at some point, especially after hearing we were all going with Gamble, but he didn’t. The man understood why we were backing Gamble up, and it just proves he is the right leader for the Royal Bastards. Now, we still stay away from some charters since we’re technically a new club, but some of our oldest friends are Royal Bastards, like Murder, Hatchet, and Petros to name a few.

  Ace walks slowly and crosses the ten feet or so over to me, wobbling with every step. Most babies her age would be able to have a bit more security standing up, but not her. She reminds me of a newborn baby deer, shaking on all its legs. I pray each and every day that she continues to keep getting better, that the damage isn’t irreversible, but sadly we won’t know. It’s one of those things that we have to wait for, assessing everything over time and working with her as it passes. This little girl doesn’t know how lucky she is to have all these people behind her either, she’s, she’s just so damn precious. Mammoth and Riva’s little girl, Dahlia, is too. I’m sure when they get a little older, they’ll both be great friends.

  Reaching my hands out to Ace, I slide them under her armpits and lift her up into my lap. Plopping her down, she sticks her hand in her mouth and runs her alternate hand over my tattoos. She’s obsessed with them, constantly looking at them and grazing her hand along my arms. “I heard a rumor we’re having a visitor.” I did hear about us getting some company, but not about the party. Looking over to Gamble, she nods.

  “Yes, Deo is coming by.”

  “Deo, Luis’ son?” Deo is our drug supplier’s son. He’s been the head of his father’s business transactions with the club for a while, but he hasn’t come around for quite a while. I think the last time I remember Gamble mentioning him was when she went to the Caribbean and met up with him. It’s when we were dealing with someone copying our logo and selling bad shit on the streets. We created a new logo and started spreading around new drugs, under the name Incognito.

  “That’s the one,” Gamble confirms.

  “Interesting, I didn’t think we were still working with them.” I make my thoughts plain as day.

  Gamble cranes her neck a tad. “Of course we’re still working with him. We don’t just stop working with people.”

  I shrug my shoulders. “Sorry, just hadn’t heard about him in a long time.”

  “Because things have been going well. Hart and I have been checking in with him once every quarter. As long as they’re still receiving their payments, they don’t really mess in our business. I think they realize they don’t have to worry about us like they do with the rest of their clients.”

  “True, I didn’t think of that,” I admit.

  Gamble is an extremely responsible businesswoman. Honestly, she’s done some amazing shit since being Prez here, and I mean, it was really hard for me to accept a woman as Prez at first. But she’s more than proven herself to the club.

  Clearing my throat, I decide to bring up more club business. “Speaking of club business, you gonna give me the clear to go to the Ukraine soon?”

  Being stuck here is pissing me off more and more every day, especially when there’s a certain little girl sitting comfortably in my arms. And the man behind the hit on her is in the Ukraine, fucking whores and drinking vodka most likely.

  Gamble looks right into my eyes.
“Sooner than you think.”

  I accept her promise for what it is. We both want bloodshed, especially her and Hart. While Hart might not be Ace’s biological father, you’d never know that. Hart’s whole damn world lights up when Ace is around.

  Now that I know I’ll be heading off to the Ukraine soon, I can’t fucking wait for the party on Friday. I’ll be celebrating. What else is there to do when I’ve just been told the man responsible for almost killing Ace is going to get what’s coming to him?

  Chapter Four

  “I know my worth. I’ve paid dearly for every ounce of it.”

  ~ Alfa

  Flora

  I’ve never been into schoolgirl shit, but this plaid skirt and white top is hot as fuck. I have my long, black hair in a sexy low pigtail, tied with crimson colored ribbons. The same color that matches my lace bra and crotchless panties. I’ve rehearsed the script King made dozens of times already, knowing every word I have to say and how this movie is going to go.

  About two months ago King got our channel verified on a few of the big porn websites, registered us a domain, got our own website made, and made it functional to the point where anyone who finds one of our scenes on the free sites can go to the website he made for Knight Productions, which is our porn company’s name, pay an annual or monthly membership fee and it pays for the talent, keeping the lights on here, studio props, etc. The list can go on and on. The last time I checked in with him, we had over three thousand subscribers, and depending on whether they paid the yearly fee of three-hundred-and-fifty dollars, or roughly forty a month, the club is already profiting over a million dollars, to quite possibly almost one point four million. The porn industry is popping and I plan on making quite the chunk of change if I can, especially when it brings me joy too. It’s fun playing these parts, and I mean, I’ve always enjoyed sex. Sex is honestly where I get my confidence from. While some women dread having sex, I find it gives me some sort of power.