Wire: A Wings of Diablo MC Novel

by Lake, Rae B.

  I didn’t know of anyone who had lived through that and would still lie. There was no way.

  * * *

  “Prez.” I walked out of my chambers and up to him slowly. “Something is off here. I think we got the wrong guy.”

  “Impossible.” He looked at me like I was spouting shit out of my mouth. “Gin says that is the guy. Maybe you are just losing your touch.” He raised his eyebrows.

  “Yeah?” I pointed to the door of my chamber and he followed. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he caught a glimpse of the boy. “You think you can do better?”

  Prez ran out of the room and emptied the contents of his stomach on the floor of the club. “What the fuck! What did you do to him?”

  “You asking me questions about my work now?” I didn’t like anyone challenging or questioning me, the only thing stopping me from coming out my face to him was the fact that he was my president.

  “Nah, you’re right. There’s no way the kid is lying.” He shook his head, probably trying to get the image of Scotty out of his head. “Can he be patched up?”

  “Patched up? Sure. He will never be the same again, though. I’m pretty sure I made him a eunuch, but sure I’ll get the doc in here.”

  “You do that. I’m going to have a word with Gin.” Prez stalked off, and I walked back into my chambers.

  Poor Scotty.

  Wire

  Prez was not one for killing folks that didn’t need killing, so we patched little Scotty up the best that we could and sent him on his way. Straight back to the Tears of Chaos MC club, where he was a prospect. We knew that there was going to be some backlash, hell we knew there was going to be all out war, I just wasn’t prepared to be caught out there alone. Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened, and here I was on this woman’s linoleum floor, seeping from a hole in my side.

  “What the fuck!” A deep voice called out.

  “He said not to take him to the hospital. I swear to god he better no die on my floor!” A high pitched squeal this time.

  “Did you pull this out?”

  “Yeah, he told me to.”

  “Anything come out with it?”

  “No!” Another high pitched squeal.

  “I got to get him to the Doc. Fuck…”

  I drifted off again, the sounds of those above me fading in and out.

  “Didn’t you hear me! I tried to! He said that he didn’t want to go to the hospital!”

  “Not a hospital, sweetness. We have a Doc at the club.”

  Bright lights burst behind my eyelids, jarring my semi-conscious state.

  “What the Fuck! Get off of me.” My eyes settled on the person standing above me. Clean was now trying to raise me off the floor.

  “Listen, you bastard. You want to bleed out on this woman’s floor?”

  I looked down at the blood that was pooling beneath me. Clean was right. I had to get out of here right away, or I wasn’t going to make it.

  “Alright, alright… Let’s go…” I slurred as I tried to roll over onto my knees, I didn’t make it.

  “Listen, I am going to pick you up and it's going to hurt like a bitch.” Clean stared into my eyes, letting me know that he was serious. This was going to be fucking painful.

  “On three…” Clean put his hands under my arms. “One...two…” Before he got to three, he wrenched me up.

  I screamed as blood shot out from the hole in my side.

  “Gut up, Wire!” Clean got me up to my feet with one arm draped around his shoulder. He was holding pressure on the wound as we began to walk out of the woman’s house.

  “Hey, sweetness…”

  “Don’t call me sweetness again, you barbarian! My name is Keeley!” She stood off to the side, eyes wide and nostrils flaring.

  “Whatever, Keeley,” Clean said her name with as much emphasis as possible, “you need to come with me.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Nah, man leave her here,” I said quietly. I wasn’t sure either one of them heard me.

  “Look, I have to drive the car. I can’t hold him and apply pressure to the wound. If you don’t want him to die, get your stuck-up ass in the car!” Clean screamed at her. If I had the energy, I would’ve punched him right in the gut. He was such a jackass.

  “Fine!” She screamed back at him, not putting up any more of a fight.

  “Oh shit. I think he’s passing out…” That high voice screeched in my ear as the darkness began to cloud my vision.

  * * *

  “Just keep pressure on it!” Clean was screaming.

  “What the fuck do you think I am doing, twiddling my goddamn thumbs?” Keeley yelled right back at him.

  “Is everything an argument with you! Damn, woman!”

  The car that we were in took a sharp left, making the wound on my side feel like it was ripping open. I groaned, causing them both to stop screaming at each other.

  “Oh, you’re awake! Thank God!” The woman looked at me with obvious concern. I guess things were going worse than I thought they were going.

  “Motherfucker, you’re messing up my ride. You better not die so you can get this shit cleaned out!”

  “I am working on it, bro.” I closed my eyes for a second, trying to get myself together. “Tell me we’re getting close.”

  “Yeah, the compound is just there. Hold on.”

  I felt every bump in the road, the usual short road to my clubhouse seemed to take forever.

  “We’re here, bro.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Keeley asked, still hovering over me. It wasn’t until I looked down that I saw that her hands were wrapped in a cloth and still holding down against the wound.

  “Shit, you’re going to have to come inside with me. I can’t hold him on my own,” Clean mumbled to her.,

  Bringing her into the clubhouse was a bad idea. I knew it and from the way that he spoke to her he knew it too. We never let outsiders into our club; it was a rule. We never wanted to risk someone else being too familiar with our layout. It would be easy for someone to roll on up on us and take everyone out.

  “Just keep your mouth shut and don’t wander!” Clean said as we all kept moving forward. “I just need to get someone’s attention.”

  The intense bass of the music made the covered windows rattle. The thick mist of perfume floating off the working girls smacked me dead in the face. I never knew why the bike bunnies always laid the perfume on so thick; it was nauseating. I opened my eyes slightly to see Clean and Keeley trying to talk to each other.

  “Just drop me at my room, I'll be alright!” I screamed.

  “Shut the fuck up.”

  “I thought there was a doctor here!” I heard Keeley belt out over the blaring music.

  “Oh shit! What the fuck happened to him?”

  Gin ran up on me and pushed Keeley out of the way.

  “Hey, shitstain. Where are your manners?” Keeley yelled behind us.

  “Get her!” I yelled as hard as I could. It wasn’t loud enough and Clean kept on walking with Gin now on my side instead of Keeley.

  “Clean!” I straightened my legs, putting all the strength I had into stopping them moving. There was no way that we could leave her to wander the club, especially while there was a party going on. One of the other brothers might think that she was a bike bunny and take her.

  Yet another rule, the biker bunnies were club property. No one asked them if they wanted to get fucked. They just pushed them against the wall and fucked them.

  “What?” Clean looked at me. I guess I got his attention.

  “Keeley.” My mouth barely formed the word before he was looking all around us.

  “Shit, where is the girl?” Clean yelled out over my head to Gin.

  “What?”

  “The chick we came in with? Where is she?”

  “Oh, the Bunny? I left her back there.” Gin started to move forward again.

  “Fuck!” Clean roared. “She isn’t a bunny!”

/>   I felt my left side drop down as Clean went back to look for Keeley. He didn’t come back.

  “What the hell is this?” Prez walked up on Gin and me, jumping under my left arm and dragging me toward the back room.

  “What happened to you, Wire?”

  “Monte, he caught me alone. Had to hole up in some woman’s house,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Damn it. I knew this was going to blow back in our faces.”

  “Yeah, tell me about it.”

  “Get Doc upstairs right now!” Prez shouted to someone. “And shut this shit down; we got business to handle!”

  Within seconds the music was off and the lights were back on. All the strippers and bike bunnies scurried around, trying to get out of the way. When the Prez called business, everything else stopped.

  “I’m good, Prez, I can-” He cut me off before I could even complete my statement.

  “Nah kid, go get this taken care of. You’re leaking all over the floor.” He lightly chuckled as he passed me over to one of the prospects to take me upstairs.

  Wire

  I woke up the next morning, an IV in my arm and my side bandaged up. I felt beat up, but I was alive. That was more than I thought I was going to be. I had been beaten before but being that close to death was new for me. I was upset that I wasn’t more emotional about it. Then again, I was never emotional about anything.

  That was just how I was, since I was a little boy and my father’s boot became the only way he knew how to discipline me, begging, fear, even real pain had flown out of my repertoire of emotional responses.

  I jumped out of bed as quickly as I could. The pull of what I could only guess was stitching caused me to slow just a little.

  “Yo, Clean, you down there?” I called out. If he were in the club, he would have heard me. The way our club had been designed meant the bottom level was an open floor, the second floor was all bedrooms, and the doors all led out to an indoor balcony style walkway. Many a brother had been pushed over the railing when they had had one too many to drink.

  I always loved coming here, coming home. That rustic smell of the wood and whiskey always put me at ease.

  “Yeah bro, I’m down here. You good?” Clean called to me from somewhere downstairs.

  “Tell me you got some grub down there.”

  “Umm…” I heard the faint sound of rustling. “No, nothing.” The bastard was hiding his food.

  “I can hear you, dickwad.”

  “It's all done! There’s no more!”

  That means I had about thirty seconds to get downstairs before he shoved whatever he had in his mouth. I hobbled my ass to the door, looking off the balcony area. I could see that Clean was rummaging in the kitchen. Several others were laughing as they looked on from the sidelines. I rushed down the stairs the best I could. My mouth was watering; I was so hungry. Yesterday’s ordeal must have drained me.

  “Stop being a bastard,” I said as I stopped behind him.

  He sucked his teeth and turned around. A whole half of a hoagie still on a plate in front of him.

  “You weren’t going to share?”

  “I’m going to go with a strong no, on that one,” Clean said while handing me the untouched half of sandwich that was on his plate.

  “You two finished kissing up on each other, or should I give you a few more seconds?” Prez called out from behind us. He was standing in front of church as a few of the key members filed out behind him. They must have just finished a meeting.

  Clean and I put our game faces on and walked towards Prez; something must have been going down.

  “Prez, what’s up?” I asked.

  “Well, there’s no real good way to put this.” Prez shook his head. “We need to go make peace with Chaos.”

  “What the fuck?” Clean puffed out his chest. Out of all the crews in the area, Chaos was like our arch enemies. We’ve never gotten along with them. We always stayed on opposite ends of the county, making sure to stay out of each other’s way. Now Prez was telling us that we needed to tuck tail and ask for forgiveness? I was with Clean on this one. I didn’t even remotely think that my pride would let me do something like that.

  “Prez, that’s just going to show weakness.”

  “Kid, we fucked up. What we did to that Scotty boy was more than just a beatdown, we destroyed that kid’s life. Chaos is going to keep coming at us until we make it right. I am down just like anyone else in this club to lay my life for my kutte but not over a dumbass’ mistake. You gotta learn to pick the right battles.”

  I knew what he was saying was right. We had to make amends, but knowing it was the right thing to do still didn’t make the idea any easier to swallow.

  “Ok, Prez, when do we move out?” I asked, squaring up, ready to take my licks even if they were coming from Monte and his crew.

  * * *

  “You must be out of your mind to call us up here if you think it's going to be anything less than death for you and yours,” Monte called out from his line.

  It was a good old fashion stare down. We were out in the fucking middle of no-mans-land, decaying buildings on either side of us, no witnesses, guns cocked and loaded at everyone's side.

  “Monte, I called you out here to talk like men. I’m man enough to know that retribution has to be paid when my crew fucks up.” Prez called out, the spearhead of our line.

  “When your crew fucks up?” Monte chuckled lightly, “You think what you had done to Scotty was just a mere fuck up? It was an unprovoked attack! You brought war on yourself and now you think a couple of words are going to fix it. Nah, not happening!” Monte yelled. There were about two car lengths between the Wings of Diablo and the Tears of Chaos. The club members lined up side by side with the Prez out in front. The air was crackling with tension, the muscle in my trigger finger tense with the need to pull. It would only take one second, one motion to lay Monte out, and after he tried to gut me on the side of the road, I was more than willing to lay him out.

  “Monte, are you going to hear us out or are you just going to talk shit?” Prez yelled back.

  “I’m trying not to hear the shit you’re sayin’, but if y’all want to sweep this under the rug, you can send me over that fucker, Wire.”

  The air around me stilled, they wanted me dead in a ditch somewhere. Prez had two choices here. He could give me up to them and let this drop and everyone would be safe for now or he could tell them all to kick rocks and die and we’d have a shoot out right here.

  “You expect me to believe that if I just hand over Wire to you, that’ll be the end of it? I have some serious doubts.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you think; I’m telling you what I want. Are you going to give it to me or not?”

  I dropped my head and took a deep breath; I would be fine if he decided to send me on my way, I wouldn’t feel any differently about my crew if they thought that I was expendable.

  “Well, you know what? I just don’t think that is going to happen today.”

  “Today, tomorrow or next week. No matter to me, I will have,” Monte pointed the barrel of his black Smith and Wesson at me, “his head on a platter.”

  “You can try to get him if you want,” Prez spat back at him as he began to back away. I looked up at my Prez with just a little more respect. He had chosen the hard road and I was grateful.

  We turned with our Prez as he went towards his truck. This meeting was over and so far, nothing crazy had popped off. Yet.

  “You think you can just turn your back on me?” Monte screamed while we all strode off. I did agree with him on one thing though, turning our backs on them was a bad idea.

  Things were silent as we made our way back toward our bikes and cars.

  Click-click, click-click, click-click

  The sound was barely audible, but it was getting closer and closer. I turned to see a pitbull almost on Prez’s ass.

  “Oh shit, Prez, watch out!’ I yelled as I pulled my Glock out, shooting twice at the dog
right before he got to Prez.

  The bullets began to fly then. All of Chaos and Diablo dived for whatever cover they could find and opened fire.

  I ducked to the side behind a building. This worn-down area was full of abandoned houses; the windows and walls were all the protection I needed at the moment. I sank down and let the whizz of the bullets flying by my ears lull me into a trance. A soft hum descended on my muscles, and I was at ease amongst the chaos.

  “Wire!” Was someone screaming for me?

  “Wire! Get your ass away from there, that awning is going to collapse any second!”

  I looked up above my head, the drywall that was attached to the awning was raining down white specs of debris with every bullet that hit it.

  “Wire.” A voice screamed for me again.

  I stood up slowly, not even thinking about the bullets that were flying past me. I lifted my cannon, aimed at the closest person to me and fired. The bullet hit square between his eyes. I watched as his now lifeless body dropped to the floor. His head made a sickening sound like a bat hitting a ball out of the park. I wonder if there’s a game on, weren’t the Yanks supposed to play today?

  I strolled over to where the rest of my crew was and waited for the next order. The sound of Prez roaring snapped me back to the present.

  “No!” Prez shouted, trying to come out of cover. Everyone near him was holding him back, trying to pull him away from where he was trying to reach. I looked over the barrier that I had knelt in front of and saw that Max, our club VP, was lying face down on the ground. He wasn’t moving. If both he and Prez were to get shot today, our club would be in fucking disarray. They were right to keep him from trying to run out into the open.

  “Come on. We have to get out of here as soon as we can.” Clean smacked me on the shoulder, as he loaded another clip into his gun.

  I turned my head as I heard the telltale sign of more trouble on the way... Cops.