THE DEVIL’S BABY

by Naomi West

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tank

  I knew something was wrong the second I pulled up to the house. Bringing my bike to a stop and getting off, I looked at the front of the house for any sign that something was off. Things looked normal, but I had the weirdest goddamn feeling in my gut.

  I walked through the front doors, the first thing I noticed being the lack of scent in the air. Star’d been putting that kitchen to good use, and I’d been lucky enough to come home to a home-cooked meal just about every day since she’d been here.

  But now, there was nothing.

  I went to the kitchen. The light was off, and the countertops were spotless.

  Something was up.

  “Star?” I called out, my voice echoing through the house.

  Nothing.

  “Star? You here?”

  Still, nothing.

  I checked the backyard, then the lounge, a hot feeling forming in my stomach as I did. No one out there, either. Next, I went up upstairs, knowing that if she wasn’t in her bedroom she wasn’t there at all. Throwing open the bedroom door, my suspicions were confirmed: she was gone.

  The room was a mess, and clothes were here and there. It looked pretty clear to me that she’d packed up some clothes in a hurry and made a break for it.

  Goddamn stupid girl, I thought. No idea how dangerous it is just to wander out into those woods.

  It was hard for me to describe how I felt when I realized that Star had gone. Betrayed—that was the first emotion. Betrayal gripped me hard; it felt like hot fingers around my heart. I don’t know why, exactly, that was the first feeling that I felt. After all, Star was property, basically a living fuck-doll that I’d bought for a goddamn pretty penny. Right? I mean, I should’ve felt frustrated more than anything, like if one of my TVs had sprouted a pair of legs and walked off.

  That was how I know I should’ve felt, at least. In reality, it was the betrayal. I felt like someone who I had … I dunno, trusted, had done me dirty. After all, I’d given her a good home here, kept her safe from Dakin, and … well, I’d even started getting used to her being around. I was starting to warm up to the idea of coming home to a home-cooked meal made by a woman with a smile that made me feel … some kind of way.

  I scolded myself as I paced around my house. That was some lovey-dovey shit, I told myself. Not the kind of way the leader of an MC should be feeling.

  But I couldn’t help it. I felt like I’d been abandoned, almost. The reality of the situation was that all this time this girl had been doing nothing more than playing me for a chance to leave. Every smile, every kind word, even those damn meals, they were all her way of getting me buttered up, making me let me guard down. Sure, I could’ve kept her locked in her bedroom—or worse, like some of those other guys did with their girls—but I wasn’t about that. I figured a happier woman would make for more pleasant company. Shows how fucking naïve I was.

  Before I could consider my feelings too deeply, however, I heard my phone buzz in the other room. Picking it up, I saw that it was Oslo.

  “What is it?” I asked, the frustration creeping into my voice.

  “Whoa, man—you good?” asked Oslo.

  I took a deep breath. I was fucking pissed, that was for goddamn sure, but I didn’t need to snap at my men over this kind of shit. That was a good way to get a reputation as an unreliable, unstable leader.

  “Yeah, man,” I said, evening the tone of my voice. “What’s up?”

  “It’s Dakin,” he said.

  Shit.

  I’d gotten so pissed about Star that I’d forgotten we were on the brink of war with Dakin and his men. That made Star’s leaving extra fucking infuriating. I hadn’t been planning on using her as the bargaining chip that Dakin wanted, but how the fuck was I going to convince him that she’d actually left and that this wasn’t some kind of little trick that I was pulling? Dakin didn’t exactly strike me as the kind of guy to believe something like this at face value. I’d have to do some convincing.

  “What about him?”

  “He wants to meet again,” said Oslo. “Wants to see if you’ve come to a decision.”

  Nothing to do but tell him the truth and hope he believed me.

  “Tell him that there’s been a … complication, and that we need to meet ASAP.”

  “That doesn’t sound good, boss,” said Oslo. “What kind of complication?”

  “I’ll let you and the boys know when I get there. Meet at The Winchester. I’ll be there in an hour.”

  As soon as I hung up I wanted to throw the goddamn phone across the room. Instead, I took a series of long, deep breaths, trying to get my mind right. I thought about where Star might’ve gone off to. She might’ve hitchhiked, but she was probably smart enough to not walk down the main road. After all, that’s how I got to the house; she wouldn’t risk me finding her like that.

  I remembered the little town in the woods a few miles down the way. She’d likely seen it at some point and figured that’d be her best bet. I didn’t have too much time to look around for her, but it was on the way. After I got my shit together, I got on my bike and headed down that way, reaching the town in about ten minutes. I asked around, asking if anyone’d seen a little blonde girl in the last day, but no one had. Place was full of truckers coming and going, so she’d probably hitched a ride with one of them back to Gainesville.

  No time to search the city—I’d need the whole crew for an operation like that. No option but to meet up with Dakin and give it to him straight, and hope that he didn’t fly too far off the handle.

  I met up with the boys at The Winchester, and they were all eager to hear if war was actually going to happen. The way they squirmed in their seats made it clear that more than a few of them were itching to do some dirty work. It’d been a while since our last little scrap, and they were hungry for a fight.

  “This ain’t something we want to just walk into,” I said, standing in front of the men.

  “But we wiped the fuckin’ floor with the Bandits!” said Swift, one of the younger men of the crew.

  He was referring to the last crew we’d tussled with. Sure, he was right—we had taken out a couple of their men with no losses on our side and pushed them out of the state, but Dakin’s crew wasn’t an upstart crew of men too big for their fuckin’ britches. These guys hadn’t seen the kind of heat that Dakin’s crew had access too. It’s easy to talk big in the safety of one of our haunts; it’s a whole other thing to do it when some coked-up psycho’s firing a grenade launcher at you.

  As much as I still wanted to take Cruiser apart piece by piece for doing me dirty, he was right—a war with Dakin would possibly wipe us off the goddamn map.

  “Dakin’s crew ain’t one to fuck with,” said Oslo. “We scrap with them and we just might get taken out. And I don’t mean one or two of us—I mean the whole goddamn crew.”

  I nodded, letting the men know that I agreed with Oslo. He was one of the few cool heads in this place, and I’d been sizing him up as my new VP. Just had to give him a chance to see what he’d be like in the field when the chips were down.

  “What’d Dakin say, exactly?” I asked Oslo.

  “Just where to meet him, and that you better come with one other man and the girl.”

  “What the fuck’s so special about this girl?” asked Bowie. “Why Dakin want war over some piece of ass?”

  My heart felt hot again, and I wasn’t sure why. There was no way to explain all this shit to the men.

  “Who the fuck knows,” I said. “Dakin’s got a hard-on for her, but if I just throw in this girl with the rest of deal he’ll know that he can just walk all over us whenever the fuck he wants. Not gonna let that happen.”

  That answer seemed to satisfy the men. They didn’t need to know that there was more to it than that.

  “Oslo, you come with me to meet with Dakin,” I said, turning my eyes to the rest of the men. “Rest of you, hold tight until you get new marching orders. Shit might just go
sideways real fast, and if you don’t hear from me this time tomorrow, assume that war’s on.”

  The men nodded, some with grim faces, others with eager expressions. I gestured to Oslo, and he formed up at my side. We got on our bikes and a half hour later, we were back at that same house where I’d met Dakin, that strange house in the middle of nowhere. His crew was there, though there wasn’t quite the crowd that there’d been when that party was raging.

  “There’s the man I’ve been waiting to see,” said Dakin, waiting for us out front. “But no girl? Really fuckin’ interested to hear why that’s not the case …”

  Oslo and I shared a look as he hopped off their bikes.

  Here goes nothing … I thought to myself, doubt creeping in.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Star

  I gotta be fucking crazy, I thought to myself as I stepped out of the truck that was dropping me off at the small town near Tank’s place, the same town that I’d just left not a few hours ago.

  There was just no other reason for why I was doing what I was doing. I’d finally pulled off my escape, the thing I’d been planning ever since I’d been purchased at that damned auction. I was home free. But here I was, getting ready to head back to the place I’d just made a break from, back to the man who owned me like property.

  I had to be nuts.

  Crazy or not, however, I was soon back on the road to Tank’s. I didn’t care about being spotted this time, so I stayed near the road. It was dark out, and fumbling my way through the woods with only the light of the moon wasn’t exactly something that I felt up to doing. Every now and then a car would pass, the bright lights from its headlights overcoming my senses and disorienting me for a moment. As much as I hated to admit it, what I really wanted was to hear the growl of Tank’s motorcycle, followed by the grind of his tires into the gravel on the side of the road where I walked. I wanted him to look me up and down, hand me a helmet, and tell me to get on. Where we’d go was up to him. But I didn’t care, just as long as we were together.

  What the hell was wrong with me? Was this really what Grandma would’ve wanted?

  Then again, he did seem to give a damn about keeping me safe. Maybe a man like him was just what I needed.

  My mind went back and forth, but my path stayed the same. Soon, I could see the glow of Tank’s estate on the horizon, followed by the huge shape of the home. And as I drew closer, I could hear some kind of commotion.

  Was there some kind of party going on?

  I made my way closer, the lines of the fence surrounding the property now visible. Sure enough, I could see the outline of several men in front of the place. I figured that Tank was having some kind of meeting with the rest of his club.

  The gate was opened and, taking a deep breath, I walked through. Fear and anxiety had been building to a slow boil as I made my way to the house, and now that I was on the property, I was nearly overcome with them. What if Tank didn’t want to have anything to do with me? What if I’d betrayed the small amount of trust he’d shown me, and he’d figured that was it?

  What if he didn’t believe me when I said that I was starting to develop feelings for him?

  But all of these questions were pushed to the side when I drew closer to the house and was able to make out a familiar figure standing on the stairs leading to Tank’s front doors.

  It was Dakin.

  I froze in place when I laid eyes on him. For a moment, I thought there was a chance that he didn’t see me, that maybe I’d be able to get out of there. My flight-or-fight instinct kicked in, and I felt blood begin to pump through my limbs. My vision went a little blurry, and everything seemed to happen through some sort of strange filter.

  “Hold a fuckin’ second!” called out Dakin.

  Looked like I wasn’t going to be as lucky as I thought.

  “Who’s that at the gate? Someone shine a goddamn light over there!”

  A ‘thunk’ sounded out, followed by an impossibly bright light shining down from the direction of the house. I held up my arm, blocking the light. Looking around at the ground around me, I saw that I was standing in the circular shape of a spotlight.

  So much for sneaking out of here.

  “It’s her!” shouted Dakin. “Grab her!”

  Before I could react, a pair of men rushed to my side and grabbed me by the arms. I struggled against their grasp, but it did me no good—they were just too strong. The men brought me up to the stairs, where Dakin stood looking down at me, a wild expression on his face and his hands on his hips. All around me were the members of Dakin’s crew, two dozen men, if not more. And I was the center of attention.

  “Well, well, well,” he said. “If it isn’t the fuckin’ girl of the hour.”

  I gathered my courage and spoke.

  “What’re you doing here?” I demanded.

  Dakin’s eyebrows raised at this.

  “Well, looks like girly’s got some spine to her!” he said.

  He trotted down from the stairs and approached me, stopping when he was only a few feet away.

  “Still just as sexy as I remember,” he said, making a slow, lazy circle around me as he looked me up and down.

  “Still think she’s worth half a mil?” asked one of the men holding me.

  “You kiddin’?” asked Dakin. “Piece of ass like this is worth at least that. Especially now that we got some more money to throw around, right, boys?”

  The men talked among themselves in lively tones.

  “What good’s money if you ain’t got pussy to spend it on?” asked Dakin, raising his voice for the crowd.

  The sounds from the men made it pretty damn clear that they agreed. I wanted to crawl out of my damn skin.

  “We thought you flew the coop, little birdie!” he said, his eyes now on my dove pendant.

  I didn’t say a word. I kept my mouth shut, figuring there wasn’t a thing I could say that would improve my position.

  “All right, where the fuck’s the lord of this goddamn castle?” asked Dakin, shouting towards the house. “T-aaank! Where aaare you?”

  Tank … I thought. What’s he going to say when he sees me here?

  Before I could ponder the issue for too long, the doors to the house creaked open, revealing the familiar, muscular shape of Tank. He stepped out onto the top of the stairs, his eyes on me, another member of his crew at his side.

  “Look who just showed up!” said Dakin, trotting up the stairs.

  Tank got close enough to look at me, and I felt small underneath his eyes.

  “She just came back?” asked Tank.

  “Yup,” responded Dakin. “Your little bargaining chip just waltzed back onto the lawn. And you said she was gone for good! Shows what you know, friend.”

  He gave Tank a hard slap on the shoulder, which Tank clearly didn’t appreciate.

  Bargaining chip? I wondered. Was Tank just using me as a something to strike deal with? Was he just going to pass me along to Dakin like I was nothing more than a goddamn bag of money?

  My heart sank. Here I’d been stupid enough to think that Tank might’ve actually … cared about me, and all I’d meant to him was something he could score cash with—after he’d had his fun with me, of course. At that moment I regretted coming back to the house more than I’d ever regretted anything in my life. Tears began to form in my eyes, and whatever fight I had went right out of me.

  And on top of everything, he was dealing with Dakin—the man who’d taken everything away from me.

  “OK!” said Dakin, his eager demeanor a sharp contrast to Tank’s brooding. “Here’s what I’m thinkin’. You brought me over here to prove to me that your little live-in fuckmaid was gone. And I was all ready to believe you. Hell, I still do. I mean, why the hell would she come back if this was some caper you were pullin’? Anyway, this is what I’ve got in mind: you give me this little piece of ass, and we can continue the deal as we’d planned. Good price on the guns and everything. Or … you can keep her all to yourself. I
n that case, deal’s off, and my boys and the Warhawks’ll have a little scrap. War or your girl—choice is yours, my man. Same deal as before, really.”

  Same deal as before. I wanted to puke. I couldn’t believe that all this time, while I’d been letting myself fall for Tank he’d been plotting this … shit behind my back, getting a good price for me so he could get some more guns to sell to criminals. I’d been a goddamn fool, and I had no one but myself and my stupid heart to blame.

  And Tank stood up there just as impassive as ever. Nothing could be detected on his face—no shame, no anger, no nothing.

  “So, big man?” asked Dakin. “What’s it gonna be?”