by K E Osborn
Storming outside, I make my way to the gym. I need to punch something. Any-fucking-thing to settle this tornado of rage that’s completely out of control.
Honestly, I need to shoot shit up, but that will wake everyone so target practice is out. So, I will have to settle for a punching bag. I march straight over to it, without getting gloves or wraps, and land my fist one after the other into the tatty, black leather. My knuckles graze on the gritty texture instantly burning my skin, but I don’t care.
I need to feel pain right now.
I need to suffer for my past actions.
It might have only been a dream, but I felt it.
It was real to me.
I should suffer for my sins.
I should be punished for my actions.
Prinie deserves someone so much better than a man who has these types of urges.
My left fist hooks into the bag with so much force my knuckles tear, but I don’t stop. I slam my right into the bag, it swings to and fro as I continue to pummel the bag, hit after vicious hit. My hands go numb from the pain as it shoots electric shocks up my arms with each punch into the leather. Spittle flies out of my mouth, sweat trickles down my temple, dripping onto my chest as I pound the bag letting out all my self-hatred.
I hurt her.
Punch.
In my dream.
Punch.
A year ago.
Punch.
Just now walking away from her.
Punch.
I’m a fucking asshole.
Punch.
I’m slowly running out of steam as I hit the bag with so much force, it sways hard, but I can’t move out of the way quick enough before it flies back collecting me and knocking me on my ass. I fall to the ground panting for breath, trying to gather my thoughts. Bringing my knees up, I rest my head in my bloodied hands, trying to keep my shit together, but I’m failing.
I’m losing control.
I need to numb the searing pain in my chest.
I care about Prinie too fucking much.
That dream broke something inside of me.
I don’t ever want to experience the pain I felt when I saw her lying there lifeless in place of my mother.
The vision of her body flashes back in my mind as I let out a staggered breath.
What kind of fucking monster am I?
PRINIE
The Next Morning
Trying to sleep last night was useless. I thought Wraith might come back seeing as his cut, shoes, and shirt are all here, but nothing. I haven’t seen him for hours, not since I left him downstairs, then Phantom followed me up to check on me.
He’s a really good guy.
Always seems to be there in the wake of a Wraith storm.
Phantom sat with me until I felt calm enough to go to sleep. I didn’t tell him anything, not about our fight, if that’s what you can call it because I don’t even know if it qualifies. It’s more about Wraith shutting down and pushing me out. Yet again. I certainly wouldn’t tell Phantom anything Wraith told me in confidence. No fucking way. It’s not my story to tell. But it’s safe to say Phantom had gathered Wraith and I had been together. It was glaringly obvious. But he didn’t pry, just kept the topic light and tried to make me laugh.
But in the light of the morning, my head’s telling me everything Wraith and I shared last night wasn’t enough for him. I’m not enough for him to completely open up to me. Something happened. He dreamed about something which scared him, and even after everything he opened up to me about, he still managed to revert back to his old ways and shut down completely.
We were on the right path.
But he doesn’t want to try.
So why should I?
Standing from my bed, I walk over to my closet, ripping open the door with so much force the hinges squeal in disapproval. I reach inside for my bag, open it up and start hurling clothing inside. “Stupid, stubborn asshole. I’ll show him,” I say probably louder than I meant to as I shove in a sweater I don’t even need.
The door to my room creaks open.
I pause, waiting to see who the fuck is coming in without knocking.
Koda pops his head around, his eyes flare as he flings the door open wide and storms in, anger sweeping across his features. “So, shit gets tough, and you’re gonna bail on me, too?”
My chest squeezes in instant regret. Dammit! I didn’t stop to think about Koda in my haste to get out of here.
“You can come with me. In fact, you should. This club is a piece of shit. Everything about it is a shitshow.”
Koda bursts out laughing. “This club is home. You need to embrace it.” I stop packing as he walks to me. “I know you and Wraith have a lot going on. I’m not blind. But running every time shit doesn’t go your way is only going to keep you constantly fucking running.”
“Language, Koda!” I exhale as I reprimand him, then turn and walk over to my bed. I take a seat running my fingers down my thighs as he sits with me. “You’re right… I just don’t know what I’m doing anymore.”
“No one does. It’s called life!”
“When did you get so smart?”
“Watching you and Zero constantly fuck up.”
“You’re really starting to grow up, you know that?”
“I know. Now unpack, then come downstairs and play a game of pool with me. You need to unwind.”
“I’m just gonna kick your ass,” I tease.
“I know, but I will make this sacrifice for you. This time!”
Standing, I grab my bag upending it in the bottom of my closet.
Koda laughs while shaking his head. “And you wonder why we were living week to week in Chicago. You’re so unorganized.”
I scoff, kicking the clothes inside the door, quickly shutting it so I can’t see the mess. “I resent that remark, or maybe it should be I resemble that remark.” We both laugh.
Koda stands, walks with me, and we head for the hall. “C’mon. Everyone will be rising for the day. Let’s get to the pool table before Chains and Luc hog it all day.”
I snicker because it’s true. Those brothers from Chicago do love to play pool.
We head down the stairs, my senses on high alert searching the room for Wraith, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Thankfully.
Koda and I head to the empty pool table. He picks up a cue, hurtling it at me, and I grab it with a giggle. “Trying to put me off, little brother?”
“I gotta try and win somehow,” he quips.
“Rack ‘em up,” I call out.
He grabs the balls and the triangle pulling them all together at the head of the green felt.
Koda’s right, this is relaxing me from whatever the fuck state I was in before he came into my room. He lines up the white ball on the dot, then pushing his hand through the air. “Well, oh pool master… please take your aim.”
I smirk, moving to line up my shot. I bend down, threading the cue through my fingers, lining my eyesight to hit the ball dead on, when out of the corner of my eye I see Wraith walk in from outside. His knuckles are covered in congealed blood. He’s pale. Weak. His eyes look puffy. Tired.
The sight throws me as I shoot the pool cue forward, it skirts off on a crooked angle missing all the balls and slams into the side of the table.
I gulp when Wraith walks in, shirtless. It’s like he hasn’t gone upstairs since last night. Whatever happened after our argument, he’s only making his way inside now.
“Good shot, Prinie, your aim’s a little off,” Koda jokes, but I don’t engage.
My eyes stay transfixed on Wraith as he walks inside the main room. Everyone is fixated on him as he ambles for the stairs.
Suddenly, pounding footsteps echo down the staircase.
Wraith’s head jerks up.
A man wearing all black with a black beanie jumps in front of Wraith, hoists himself up on the rails of the staircase and dropkicks Wraith right in the stomach. He flies back toward the pool table as more black, clad men come barrelin
g down the staircase.
I reach out grabbing Koda, pulling him to me. My senses spiral into overdrive as I yank us down under the pool table. The assassin-looking men swarm the clubhouse as our men clamber for their weapons—those who have them. It’s early morning, so not everyone is carrying right now.
I bring my hands over my ears to block out the sounds as Wraith springs to his feet. He’s only wearing jeans. No shoes. Nowhere for a weapon. He’s out in the open as an assassin lunges for him. They fall back on the pool table. All I see are their feet wrestling in front of my eyes. My heart races so fucking fast I want to pass out.
Koda wraps his arm around me. Dammit! I should be the one comforting him right now.
My breathing is quick as Kevlar aims his gun at an assassin then pulls the trigger. Blood splatter coats the wall of the clubhouse right next to Chills. She clings on to Kobe, trying to keep away from the fight as Cherry and her huddle in the corner.
Chains and Luc are tag-teaming as they throw one assassin between them. Punch after punch, until the guy’s face resembles something like a Jackson Pollock painting. It’s gruesome, but no one raids the Houston Defiance clubhouse and lives to tell the tale.
A set of legs above me straighten dramatically then stop dead still.
My chest squeezes, hoping like hell that’s not Wraith as the set drop to the floor in front of me. I clench my eyes shut not being able to take the anxiety.
Koda squeezes me. “It’s okay,” he yells in my ear.
I slowly open my eyes to see the assassin, dead on the floor, his eyes rolled back into his head as Wraith takes off into the main room fighting off more of the assholes.
I don’t know who they are or what they want.
But I do know one thing—these men, my brothers, won’t let them get away with this.
I keep my eyes transfixed on Wraith as he lands blow after vicious blow into the black-dressed assholes. There’s so many of them, I don’t know how our brothers are going to defeat them all. The thing is, they didn’t come in here with weapons, only their fists. They can fight, though. So fucking well as they continue to annihilate my club.
Unexpectedly, something wraps around my ankle. I let out a scream as I turn. One of them is yanking me out from under the table. Koda grips hold of me while I kick at the asshole with my other foot, but he doesn’t give up grabbing my other foot with his other hand and yanking harder.
“Koda!” I call out as my grip on him slips.
“Prinie!” His fingers grasp tightly as the man yanks so hard it hurts being pulled in two directions.
Tears well in my eyes as I’m ripped away from my little brother and pulled out from under the pool table. My hands slide away from Koda’s but he rushes out after me.
The assassin pulls me up into his arms. “Let. Me. Go!” I kick back against him as he holds my back to his front.
Koda reaches out, his fingers digging in the assassin’s arms, but another starts walking over.
“Koda… run!” I yell as he turns, the second assassin landing his fist straight into Koda’s eye socket.
I let out a harrowing scream as tears flood my eyes, and Koda falls face-first to the concrete floor. He’s out like a light.
“Koda. Jesus, Koda.”
“C’mon, princess, you’re coming with us,” the assassin murmurs in my ear.
“No! Nooo. Wraith,” I call out, but over all the commotion, I’m not sure he can hear me.
Fear cripples me, and I freeze not being able to do anything as they yank me out the back door. There’s another four waiting. I cry hard as he hoists me up. I have no way of fighting, there’s simply too many of them as he walks with me over his shoulder to a hole they’ve burned out of the back fence. He shoves me through and into a waiting van. My body begins to shut down. My insides shuddering as they sit me in the rear. They bind my hands and feet, shove a rag in my mouth which makes me gag, then push me down on a mat of the van bed.
I have no idea what’s waiting for me.
But I guess I knew, someday, my life would come to this.
I knew this club would be the end of me.
WRAITH
Panting, I lean over, my hands on my knees, just trying to catch my breath. I have no fucking clue what that was. Where they came from or what the fuck they wanted. Not even to mention why the fuck they all just up and left like that. There’s more to this attack than I’m yet to realize. I need to gather myself and my thoughts, then take a look around and see what damage has been done to the clubhouse. There was a reason for them being here. Whether they took something while we were distracted, or planted something. I’m not sure, but I’m going to find the fuck out. Now!
“There’s one still alive here, pres,” Kevlar calls out.
I walk over to one of the guys on the floor with a bullet wound in his thigh. “Good. Take him to the Chamber.”
The asshole’s eyes widen. “What’s the Chamber?”
“Somewhere we will get the answers from you I need. Ax, take him, not sure I trust myself right now. I need you in there with me.”
Ax dips his chin, and he and Kevlar lift him, walking him toward the chapel where they will take him to the Chamber.
Inhaling, I have to find Prinie. Check she’s okay. My eyes shoot to the pool table, and she’s not there. I walk around the pool table, and that’s when my stomach leaps into my throat—Koda’s lying face-first on the concrete. “Chills! I need you over here. Right now!”
Chills rushes over, along with practically everyone else, as she bends down to Koda’s side, and she gently rolls him. I grimace seeing his eye has already swollen shut, and the bruising is purple.
Kid was knocked out.
“Shit! He gonna be okay?” I ask.
“He might have a concussion. Koda… Koda honey, can you hear me?” Chills asks while rubbing her fist into his chest.
His eyes slowly open, he blinks a few times, sits up abruptly, then grimaces grabbing at his head and wobbles. “Shit! Oh… I think I’m gonna be sick.”
“You’re okay, just lay back down,” Chills instructs him.
“Koda, what happened?”
His eyes widen meeting mine. “I tried… I swear, I tried.”
My skin prickles as the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention and not in a good way. “Koda… where’s Prinie?”
He starts turning pale as he breathes deeply to try to control his nausea. “Th-Th-They took her.”
A wave of fear crashes through me like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. I bring the palm of my hand to my forehead in anguish as I try to think. My eyes clench tight as panic washes over me.
I should have been watching her.
I should have been protecting her.
I’m. So. Fucking. Stupid.
I slam my palm against my forehead. “Did t-they h-hurt her?” my voice comes out more broken than I wanted to let on.
He winces. “No. She called out for you, but it was too noisy, and you didn’t hear her. I couldn’t do anything, I tried… I tried so hard.”
My lip curls in anger. At myself. Supposedly her protector. I want to run out that door and roam the streets searching for her, look for every fucking morsel of information I can find, then burn those fuckers to the ground.
But I’m the acting president.
I need to think like one.
“Chills take care of Koda. Make sure he’s okay. Take him to the hospital to get checked out if you need to. Texas, Chains, make sure everything else is squared away. Check on injuries, let Chills know if they need medical help. If they took anything else, we need to know. Neon, I need you to do a full sweep… fucking now! Make sure they didn’t plant anything. Bugs, bombs, a fucking speck of fucking dust. If they left it here, I wanna know about it. Blake, Luc, Phantom, find out where they got in and fucking fix it. We’ve had too many assholes getting into our clubhouse. They didn’t come in the front, so there must be another way in. Find it, fix it, make it so it doesn’t happen again
… Neon, I need you on that shit as well. I need to know how the fuck did they get in here undetected? I’m gonna find out who these bastards are, and I’m not coming back until I know where they took Prinie.”
“Here, here,” all the guys say as I take off for the chapel.
I thought I was going to let Ax handle this, but now I know they came in here with the sole purpose of taking Prinie, so maybe I need to get my hands a little dirty and maybe I will let myself enjoy it. I make my way into the chapel, past the table, to the club logo on the wall made of steel. I rotate it to the right, left, then back to the right. The floor slides open revealing the staircase down into the Chamber.
Every Defiance clubhouse has a secret chamber.
Some utilize it more than others.
Some thrive inside.
Others use it merely for the purpose of what it’s there to serve.
Defiance is 1%ers.
We don’t claim to be saints. The Chamber is a part of this club, and with it comes the blood of thousands of victims. Maybe ‘victims’ isn’t the right word because the men who visit the Chamber aren’t victims in our eyes, they’re men who have caused the club grief, done the club wrong, brought us pain and suffering, so we bring it back to them tenfold.
The Chamber is where all bets are off.
Men let their animals run wild.
Their inner demons roam free with the wind.
The Chamber is hell on earth for those sitting in the silver chair.
For the brothers in the room, though, it’s a rush. There’s nothing like getting what you want without care nor concern. Only the rush of letting out the biker you were born to be.
It’s where Zero let me free to be me, but also showed me how to control myself.
Well, I’m not going to control myself right now.
Walking down the concrete stairs, the rotten smell is only for the strong of heart. The further down you traverse, the more intense the smell becomes. I tread the final stair, taking in the dimly lit Chamber. The room is the same length as the main room, therefore its expanse is huge. The walls are made of toughened double concrete. It’s fucking freezing down here, especially because it’s underground. To my left against the wall there’s a giant sink system in place. We all know what’s that’s for—cleaning is fucking important. Either side on the walls are two giant cupboards made of steel. They’re starting to rust a little from all the moisture in the air, but it gives them an industrial feel. In the very center of the room is the infamous Defiance silver chair. Everyone knows if you’re destined for the Defiance silver chair, you’re in for a world of pain. We don’t use this room as often as we should, but when we do, we make it damn well count.