“Head count,” Pyro yells. “Prez?”
Our Prez shouts he’s good.
“Sniper?”
He shouts he’s fucking peachy.
“Shadow?”
“I’m fucking still intact,” I holler.
“Smokey?”
A few seconds go by before he answers in a pained voice. “Took one to the fuckin’ shoulder.”
“ZZ,” Pyro calls.
“I’m fucking here and my son is fucking dead!”
Fuck, this shit has just moved to an entirely new level.
“You bastards killed my brother’s fucking kid. You’re all going to hell,” Prez howls right before guns start roaring again.
I’m finished with ducking behind this bar like a fucking pussy. This shit just got real, and I am about to kill me some fucking assholes! I take out my pistol and grip it with my left hand while I stand, firing rapidly at anything that moves and isn’t one of my brothers. Thank fuck for the leather cuts. My eyes see nothing but red and orange flashes, and my ears hear nothing but the explosion of bullets hitting all around me.
The gunfire comes to halt when one last person is left standing on the opposing side.
Alec.
Go fucking figure his luck.
“ZZ, he’s yours,” Prez grits through his locked teeth. “Torture his sorry ass!”
I know just the place to take him so ZZ can unleash all his fury.
The dungeon.
“Grab a hold of him and follow me,” I say as I cough to clear my scratchy throat from the gun smoke and yelling.
My ears ring with echoes of the gunshots that linger inside of my head as we make our way to the dungeon. It isn’t a real dungeon, but it’s this club’s version of one. We ignore Alec’s cries of protests as I fling open the door and gesture them in with one hand. If they can’t figure out what to do with all the shit in here, then my brothers have no business torturing fuckers.
“Well, lookie there.” Sniper chuckles deviously at the sight of shackles hanging from the ceiling. “Chain him up so our brother can get his torch on.”
A smile lights my face and I grab one of Alec’s arms as the Prez grabs the other. We have him immobilized in less than a minute.
ZZ unclips a big ass knife from the holster on his hip and growls, “I ain’t playing games with this fucking piece of shit. I’m skinning him, and we’re gonna burn this fucking club to the ground with his ass still alive. I want him to feel the heat on his open flesh.”
If it weren’t such a good idea, I’d speak up about losing a perfectly good club, but this way, it will look like a kink accident gone wrong, while gangsters took a go at one another upstairs. Less cleanup for us is always a good thing.
A few things plague my mind. “Why the fuck were the Russians here, Alec?”
He doesn’t answer until ZZ holds his knife up to his throat, digs it into his flesh, and growls for him to answer my question.
“Fuck, okay.” He sputters. “I picked some random Russian strangers and paid them for protection.” He coughs and continues. “I apparently chose the wrong ones.”
“Yeah, no shit. Look where you are now, motherfucker. Poor intimidation tactics. Your assuming that we’re afraid of our enemies is the biggest mistake you made. Now, it will cost you your life.” Wait. “Where the fuck is Sabine?” I ask while I move away from Alec.
Smokey gestures behind him. “Thought she should see who the fuck she’s messing with. Bitch got her ass shot in the line of fire, too.” He hoots loudly.
The sound that comes from my mouth is anything but a sane one. The bitch fucking deserves the wound.
Alec’s whimpers grate on my nerves while we wait for ZZ to strip the flesh from his bones. This is going to be one nasty as hell torture session. ZZ keeps his leather gloves on and bitches that he’s about to ruin them. Chuckles light up the room, and they are anything but friendly.
“I think I’ll start with his back,” he murmurs while he cuts off Alec’s shirt.
I hold up my hand for ZZ to halt as I search for a ballgag. No way in hell can I take the excessive screaming for a minute longer. When I find a dirty one sitting on a shelf, it only lights my fury towards Alec. Fucking dumbass was slacking so bad.
“Use this germ infested fucker,” I growl as I toss it to ZZ.
He catches it, forces it into Alec’s mouth, and buckles the snaps in the back. “Look at that. We muffled the dog.”
ZZ cranks his neck side to side before he scrapes his long blade down half of Alec’s back. Alec’s eyes widen as a scream chokes its way through the gag. Blood pours as ZZ peels his flesh straight down to the bone. Sabine screams that we’re killing him, and I am surprised our Prez doesn’t slap her. When ZZ removes the second ribbon of muscle on the back, Alec passes out.
“What a little pansy ass.” I snort. “He can dish out pain, but the motherfucker sure as shit can’t take it.”
“Can two of you put my son in that bitch’s car? I’ll only be a little longer. It’s no fun when they pass out.”
Smokey grabs Sabine by the arm, yanks her up, and follows Sniper out of the dungeon.
I throw my head back and roar with laughter. My fucked up demons laugh along with me as ZZ moves to Alec’s front and begins to cut him there.
Alec’s eyes fly open for a split second before he passes right back out.
“Jesus fuck! Really?” ZZ laughs while he knives his way down through the cartilage and muscle.
That is one fucking, disgusting ass sight.
“Brother, that shit is fucked up,” I joke. My shoulders heave as nausea hits me, and I push the urge to upchuck away.
“No shit,” Prez retorts. His shoulders follow suit of mine. “Smokey sent a text. They’re takin’ your son back to the compound,” he informs us.
When ZZ hears the Prez, he lets out an animalistic roar and tears the last bit of flesh off Alec’s chest.
“I’m done. Let’s get the hell out of here,” he says while he cleans his knife on his pants.
“Pyro, do your thing, brother,” Prez tells him as we walk out of the dungeon, through the ruined club, and into the parking lot.
It’s time for damage control because I know my girl is going to be fucked up in the head over her brother’s death. I don’t wait for the rest of them. I can’t. Tatiana is going to be so tore up over this, who knows how the hell she will handle it.
***
Chapter Twenty-Five
Breakneck Chapter
Aftermath
Winter
I glare at my sister as Doc patches up her gunshot wound. She whines from the pain, and I want to slap the shit out of her, but I can’t because I’m lying down in bed, angry that I can’t get up. She is the last person that should be allowed to cry. She got Mace Jr. killed. Her claws were sunk so far deep in him, he couldn’t see past her beauty, and it cost him his life.
My hands shake with so much anger as I dial my mother on my cell. It goes straight to her voicemail, and without hesitation, I leave the nastiest message I have ever left a human being before.
“It’s Winter. You have one day to come and get your cunt of a daughter, or I’ll let the tabloids know everything there is to know about her slutty behavior!” I hiss into the receiver before hanging up.
“No reason to be such a bitch!” Sabine growls.
“People are dead because of you!” Unbelievable.
Doc closes his case, mumbles that she’ll be fine if she keeps the wound clean, and then walks out of my bedroom without another word. Who’s to blame him? He’s had to clean up our messes a lot lately. I don’t even want to know what is going on downstairs. I’m sure it is filled with hysteria, and ZZ, Tatiana and Berry are more than a mess.
“You had a motive for sleeping with him, and we’re going to figure it out. And then you’ll be lucky if someone here doesn’t hunt your ass down. You walking out of here, still breathing? That’s a blessing. After you’re gone, don’t contact me again. I’m done wi
th you AND our mother.”
I reach for the bottle of water on my nightstand, and as it goes down my throat, I wish it was hardcore alcohol. The stress on me is too much, and Braxxon is going to rain fire down on Sabine when he finally makes it up here.
Mace Jr. was a fucking kid. A kid my stupid ass sister got killed because of her obviously addictive crotch. It has to be magical. It put little Mace under a spell that no one could break. He was so set on being accepted here, and then my sister came along and put him under some weird trance.
“He made his own decision to go to the club. I went along for the ride, and I got shot for it!”
Jesus, she thinks we’re going to believe that lie?
“Whatever, Sabine. I won’t listen to it anymore, but I can’t let you leave this room until our mother gets here, because someone down there will most likely kill you if you so much as open your mouth. So sit there, shut the fuck up, and don’t fucking piss me off!”
***
Tatiana
I rock back and forth and shudder at the dried blood caked to my arms. I can’t clean it up. I can’t move. I can’t talk. All I can do is replay the image of them carrying my brother into the compound, blood still leaking from the bullet wound in his neck.
I don’t understand what happened. I can’t even imagine what went down, or why my brother is no longer alive. Everything is a big blur, and everyone shouting about what went wrong isn’t helping me.
Funny thing is I don’t even want to know. Knowing isn’t going to bring him back from the dead. All it will do is scar me more. I am making myself numb. It’s the only way I will survive living this life that I was born into.
The first person I lost to a tragic death was my grandfather, and after that, it was a non-stop ride on the train of death. It hasn’t stopped chugging. The evil in this world keeps stocking the engine with coal.
What is my dad going to tell his adoptive parents? How do you tell parents that their only son is dead?
I can’t bear it. I can’t. All these emotions swirl inside of me, designing a tapestry of hate.
And Sabine, she’s been here a few days, and she had my brother so wrapped up in her, he couldn’t see left from right, or good from bad. She is the reason he is dead, I suspect. If I hear that she is the cause, there is no telling what I might do. The anger makes me so hot that my ears heat.
“Tea, baby, you need to clean up,” Shadow says quietly as he bends down in front of my shaking body.
He needs to go away. I can’t deal with all the extra emotions that emanate from being near him. The atmosphere that radiates is too strong for me to handle as I grieve in my shocked state.
“No, leave me alone.” I push him away.
He doesn’t listen. Instead, he rests his knees on the carpet in front of me, takes me in his arms, and yanks me into his chest.
“Cry, darlin’. Don’t hold it in.”
I don’t want to cry. I want to sit here and bounce back and forth in peace. Can’t he see that? I want to be left the hell alone.
“Please, let go of me,” I whisper into his chest. “I need time to myself.”
***
Shadow
“Please, let go of me,” she whispers into my chest. “I need time to myself.”
The plea in her voice is like a knife to the gut. She isn’t even crying, and that worries me. Tatiana has always been one to express her feelings. She doesn’t keep them bottled in. When her arms break free, she shoves me away, and then kicks off with her rocking.
I stay where I am for a few more seconds and then stand. She isn’t going to allow me to comfort her. If she is pushing me away, it speaks a loud message to leave her the fuck alone. I wish I could clean the blood off her at least. She’s too beautiful to be covered in gore from her brother. I step back slowly, turn around, and make my way towards the commotion in the kitchen.
“I’m gonna kill that fucking bitch! He was a prospect. He shouldn’t have even been there,” ZZ yells at the top of his lungs.
Storm and Piper scoot away from him. His face is bright red and the veins pulsate in his forehead. Blood covers the floor, and his dead son lies on the kitchen table. Bloody rags litter the room, but no one dares to pick them up.
“He wasn’t even fucking nineteen years old,” ZZ shouts as his fist plows through one of the cabinet doors, snapping it right off the hinges.
Prez comes into the room and looks around as he rubs his temples. He is stressed to the maximum.
“Get her the fuck outta here, Prez.” ZZ tries to speak more calmly.
No shit. Sabine wanted adventure. Who the fuck says that when guns go off? The stupid bitch.
“Winter made a call to their mom and left a message. If she isn’t gone by tomorrow morning, I’ll escort her outta town myself,” Prez answers ZZ. “Brother, what do you want to do?”
We look from the Prez to ZZ, and then back down to Mace Jr. whose eyes are wide open. Jesus, no one bothered to shut them? I stalk towards him, take two fingers, and close his eyes.
“Have him cremated, and afterwards, I’ll take his ashes to the family that raised him,” ZZ says. Defeat is written in every line of his body.
***
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tatiana
Last night, I watched as my brother’s body was loaded into a hearse, and was taken away from us to be cremated. He won’t even get a proper burial because of the way he died. How is that fair to him? He didn’t deserve to go out the way he did.
I shut down exactly twelve hours ago. I let my feelings dissipate into thin air. The logical side of my brain screams for me to open up, to let people in. I refuse to listen to it. My brain doesn’t experience my emotions. My heart does, and my heart is finished being broken.
The gate opens to allow Winter’s mother to waltz in with her guards. As if we don’t have enough going on.
“Why do you have these assholes with you?” Godfather laughs as he crosses his arms.
“I never go anywhere without them. I brought them the last time I was here. You should have expected this.” Iiana, Winter’s mom, answers.
“Take your fuckin’ trashy ass daughter, and get the fuck outta my town. My wife is stressed the fuck out.” Godfather yells, and before anyone has time to blink, Iiana’s men pull their guns.
The brothers waste no time drawing their own, and train them on Iiana’s men.
“You send your daughter to my town without askin’, and then you come here and draw on my family. Are you outta your fucking, goddamn mind?” Braxxon roars, his voice vicious and his entire body stiff with anger.
More guns. It is always more guns. There is never any peace here. I am so sick and tired of all this shit being brought to our door. I lost my brother last night, and now I have to worry about someone else I love being shot because of Sabine and her mother?
There comes a time in one’s life where she slams into the one wall that blocks her paths, and that person either gives up or knocks it down. I am not the person who gives up. I am going to be the bulldozer who plows it down. I’m done being nice. For years, they thought they kept this part of the business locked away from me. My ears were always listening, always paying attention to what was going on. Yeah, I was a spoiled brat, but this spoiled brat knows more than they think I do.
And if Winter’s mom thinks she is going to come in here and draw a gun on me, she is mistaken. I am not like most of the club members. If you pull a gun on me, you better intend to kill me.
Shadow jerks my arm to move me behind him, and I shove him while I grab the gun from the back of his pants. When I turn around, I aim it straight at the guy stupid enough to be holding his gun at me. I point at his gut and pull the trigger. I have no clue what kept everyone from opening fire after I did this. Everyone watches the guy fall to the ground with a loud cry as he grips at the bullet wound. My hands are steady, and no remorse flows through my veins.
“Get your bleeding man and your princess, and get the fuck off my prop
erty.” Braxxon explodes.
My gun remains aimed at the man on the ground. “You don’t point a gun at me unless you plan on using it,” I hiss.
My father comes up and gently lowers my arm. “Shh, baby, it’s okay,” he soothes.
I don’t respond as Dad fingers the gun from my grasp. ZZ is not a gentle character, and I’m alert enough to sense the tender, soothing way he uses to care for me. His actions and tone speak of his distress over what transpired a few moments ago. His daughter shot a man, a man who is laying there, bleeding to death, while I have no remorse whatsoever for doing it.
How can I feel bad for shooting this idiot? He was aiming a gun at me. If he were a patched member, he would know he shouldn’t have let mine or Shadow’s movements confuse him. He should have kept his eyes on my every move, and maybe then, he wouldn’t be dripping crimson all over the concrete of the compound.
“They weren’t going to shoot you. There was no reason for that.” Iiana chuckles.
I want to scream, “Don’t you give a shit about anything that is happening?” I shot her man down, and she’s over there laughing. Why would they pull their guns out if they didn’t plan on using them?
“Ma’am, I think I’m dying,” the guy I shot moans.
I roll my eyes. Of course he’s dying. I shot him directly in the gut. Who knows what organs I might have hit.
“Darlin’.” Shadow pulls me back against his body and keeps his gun trained on the enemies. “Don’t you fuckin’ move from my side, or so help me,” he growls low into my ear.
I try to jerk away. I am through caring about what everyone wants me to do. I’m going to do what I want, when I want, and how I want, from now on. If these assholes can, so can I. Having a vagina doesn’t make me inadequate.
“If you jerk me against you one more time, I swear to god,” I hiss back.
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