by J. L. Drake
“No one move unless I say otherwise.” My skin prickled when I heard the sound of steel being pulled from leather.
“How many, Morgan?”
“At least eighteen.”
“And?”
“You have about a minute and ten seconds.”
I signed to Cooper across the street to toss the spikes out. The light on the bikes wouldn’t see it until it was too late. He waved his hand when he was done.
I shifted to the center of the road and aimed my gun at the lead biker.
“Boom,” I whispered then counted out loud, and at the last second slipped back into the shadows.
It was like time stood still just to sweeten the moment.
The first bike hit the spikes straight on and flipped into the air like a carnival trick. The two after him reacted too slowly and landed on top of the first. The rest squealed their tires to a dead stop and dismounted. I shot around them to force them in the direction I wanted, away from the bar.
“Hold fire!” I shouted.
Flickers of light lit up the sky, outing where they were.
“Move out!”
We raced across the road and onto flat ground that ran for miles. I stopped at their downed president and let the rest run. I’d catch up with them later. I stared down and listened to his groans. The pavement had eaten away some of his leather and burned his flesh a few layers deep.
“I don’t like to repeat myself. I told you once, and now look where we are.”
“How did you know he sent for us?” he spat.
Who? “My father?”
What a sweet victory this turned out to be.
I barely heard him. My hunger for a good kill took over. Resting my gun in my waistband, I removed my jagged knife and carved his stomach. It was only a matter of minutes before he checked out.
“Jesus, Trig.” Cooper covered his mouth, but he didn’t question my action.
“Remove his cut and put it in my saddlebag.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“Cooper, document this.”
“Yeah, boss.”
A bullet grazed my shoulder and sent my demons into a frenzy. Cooper ducked but finished what I asked him to do.
I raced to catch up with the others. My feet beat against the dusty ground, and my shoulder oozed with blood.
I never felt more alive than when I was on this side of my head.
“Trigger!” Morgan waved from up ahead. “All but three are inside.”
The moment I reached them, I kicked the top of the crate and grabbed one of the bottles and lit the rag that hung out.
The guys followed my action but waited for my command. I whistled, and everything went silent.
“You didn’t bend to my club, you didn’t listen when I warned you to stay away, and you’ve plotted against me with the devil. Well, now you can all go to hell!” My voice bounced off the mountains. A few bullets pierced the silence. I stood where I was as the others took cover and waited. “You should have realized his son would be worse.”
I flung my arm back and threw the gasoline bottle at the side of the small trailer the owner of the bar used to sleep in during the weekends. My men mimicked me. Screams and wails tore through the night air. Some tried to run, but they were met with bullets and fists.
We didn’t leave until every last one of them was either burned or splattered across the desert floor.
Just as the sun started to show, I ordered Cooper and Cray to take a couple of guys to clean up anything visible from the road and to ditch their bikes.
“Boss,” Morgan came up behind me and handed me another cut, “I had no clue Jimmy Lawful was with them.”
I rested the joint between my lips and grinned at the lettering. Holy shit.
“Stripe Backs hooking up with Satan’s Serpents?” Brick asked, confused. “Fuck, they must be feeling the pressure!”
Morgan laughed. “Not bad wiping out both presidents either.”
“This will be a blow to my father.”
“What does Allen have to do with this?” Brick’s eyebrows pinched together.
“He sent for them.”
“How do you know that?” All my men’s focus was on me now.
“He told me,” I nodded at the Stripe Back president’s disemboweled body jammed up against a bush, “before I removed his insides.”
We sat in silence, happy with the outcome. I noticed Brick’s mood but ignored him.
I got up and walked over to my bike then jumped on and started it up. Just as I was about to slam it into drive, he stood in my way.
I flipped up my visor. “What?”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“And?” I was annoyed at his questioning.
“And you promised you wouldn’t keep silent on shit I needed to know.”
“You didn’t need to know that.”
He smiled and shook his head, then waited a beat before he stepped out of my way, and I slammed my bike into gear and rode free with my demons.
***
Tess
I woke to an empty bar, with the exception of Ryder, who was propped up against the door with a rifle in his hand.
The door was chained shut, the music was off, and the till hadn’t been opened since I closed down last night.
The only noise was my phone, which was lit up under the bar top. Seventeen missed text messages and three phone calls.
Shit. What the hell happened?
I lowered my phone as I hit call back and carefully slipped out back to the pool.
“Where have you been?” Venna hissed desperately. We hadn’t spoken much since she helped me escape from the house after I killed Bret. We both agreed to lay low.
My skin prickled with terror. Something was up, and I was sure I wasn’t going to like it.
“Sorry. We had a funeral yesterday. Things are heavy around here, and I misplaced my phone—”
“Tess,” her voice changed, “you should come back to the house.”
Ha! “I don’t think you could pay me enough to do that.” Wait. “Why are you back?”
There was a stretch of silence. “My old man has a new wife who doesn’t seem to like me.” Her voice dripped sarcasm. “I needed money, and she wanted me out. I didn’t want to put my dad in a difficult position, so I left.”
“I’m sorry, Ven, but you know you can come here, right?”
“I may someday, but right now I’m hearing shit that directly affects you, and you need to hear this.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“With Clark missing, your mother has lost her shit. She thinks you and him are living in Santa Monica, and she’s planning to send her A team after you, which means the club is about to get hit with some real dark shit.”
“Fuck,” I whispered and sank into a lawn chair. “That’s the last thing the club needs right now.” Given Trigger’s current state of mind, he might lose his shit altogether. He was incredibly unpredictable.
“Look, I only know what I know, but if I were you, I would deal with this right now, right here, and maybe stop it before they go after everybody there.”
I dropped my head and cursed a long stream of hatred toward my mother.
“Let me see if I can find a way there. I don’t feel comfortable driving a bike that far.” The memory of the last time I was in Vegas came crashing down.
“Can they help?”
I heard a loud noise as the front door opened and the guys spilled in with loud cheers. Bottles crashed, leaving no doubt that they were happy with whatever they’d been up to.
“Sorry, they just got back. Honestly, I don’t think so. I’ll be in touch, and thanks, Ven.” I hung up and made my way inside.
“Check it out, Tess!” Rail help up a bloody cut. “We scored a double hit. Stripes and Serpents no longer exist!”
“What?” I let the cut Rail shoved into my arms dangle from my fingertips. A stranger’s blood wasn’t something I needed on me at the moment. If it wasn’t my ki
ll, I didn’t want it. “I thought they were rivals too?”
“Allen rounded them up,” Brick added as he leaned in for kiss and hit my cheek. “That’s all I know.” He glanced back at Trigger, who had already downed half a glass of whiskey.
“Everything okay?” I always knew when Brick was bothered by something. He seemed quieter and uneasy in his own skin.
“Just waiting for him to come back.” Brick’s lips pulled into a thin line before he mouthed, “Be careful.”
“Um, Brick, I wanted to ask—”
“Brick,” Cooper popped his head through the door, “Minnie needs you.”
“Shit.” He rubbed his head. “Can you hang on a second? I agreed to take her to Santa Barbara this weekend.”
“Fun! Yeah, go.” I waved him off. Minnie needed to come first in his life. I knew where I stood with my friend, but I also knew Minnie meant a whole lot to him, and I refused to be that friend who got in the middle.
Ven: Not sure if you can survive a four-hour drive with her, but Shantee is in town. Maybe she can drive you here?
Tess: I’ll think about it. Thanks.
I would consider it, but right now, I could feel Trigger’s eyes on me.
“Well?” He leaned back in his seat. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I wasn’t aware you were heading out to kill them.”
I heard Tristen’s laugh from behind me. He and I apparently had a problem.
“You need to get something straight, chicky.” His arm wrapped around my shoulders, and I wanted to push him off but tried not to start another fight. “Pussies don’t get a say in a man’s world. They don’t get a say in anything at all. Other than what’s for dinner.”
Trigger licked his lips and slammed his glass down.
“Get the fuck off my girl.”
His arm dropped away, and I felt a bubble of warmth brew in my chest at Trigger’s words. It had been almost two weeks since he showed much of anything toward me, and frankly, I was tired of it.
“I’m just playing around.” He grinned at me. “Right, Tess?”
I matched his grin with a glare and straightened out my top. Trigger headed into his office and slammed the door behind him.
“What’s his problem?” Tristen laughed. “Trigger didn’t seem to mind the long pair of legs that found him last night.”
I rubbed my arms for a second before I turned to leave.
“He’s just startin’ shit,” Morgan said after me. “He’s not used to Trigger being with one woman, let alone one he’s gonna tie the knot with.”
“What the fuck?” Tristen shouted over my head. “No fucking way! He did not.” He grabbed my hand and studied my ring. “That’s just messed up. What the hell did you do to our pres?”
I yanked my hand away and pushed by Morgan.
“Tess, where you going?” he called.
“I have some things to do.”
I was seriously over men right now.
***
“What are you doing?” Trigger made me jump right out of my skin. He was propped up in the doorway, his jaw locked in place, and the rest of his body was tense. He was so different. I really missed my Trigger.
I hated to lie, but I wasn’t sure how he would handle this one.
“Brick and Minnie are going up to Santa Barbara for the weekend to visit a friend. They asked me along.”
“I never heard about this.”
I shrugged and totally acted like Brick was supposed to have told him. Some friend I was.
“You shouldn’t go.”
I went back to packing my stuff. I had made my decision to end this feud with my mother. I wasn’t going to allow her shit to blow back on the club.
“It’s just for the weekend.”
He cleared his throat and snapped his neck.
“Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. You’re not going.”
My movements slowed, but I kept talking. “Seems I won’t be missed.”
“Meaning?”
“Trigger…” I whirled around but knew Tristen was lying. He had to be. “Never mind.”
He cursed and flexed his arms like he was at war inside. I knew he was struggling, but how the fuck did I get him back? I was trying to handle so much here, with Gus’s death, the boys, avoiding a kidnapping by Allen, Zay’s sick obsession with me, and the list just kept growing. I was a strong person, but there were chips in my armor too.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he muttered.
I hooked my bag over my shoulder and stepped up to face him. His eyes flickered, but the darkness behind them made me feel disconnected from the man I loved.
“Which one of you doesn’t want me to leave?”
His eyes closed, and I felt the mood shift back to the demons.
“That’s an order, Tess.”
My heart dropped into my belly at his tone, and I knew he wasn’t there.
I leaned up on my toes and softly kissed his cheek then stepped around him and headed to meet Shantee.
What hurt the most was he let me leave.
***
Allen
“Is the podium in the center of the stage?”
“It’s in the center of the room, yes.” Zay tried to hide his sarcasm.
I knew he thought I had a flare for the dramatic, but I was very particular and liked to control my environment. I chuckled to myself because I had to admit I did like to add in a little drama for the fun of it.
“Father, I need to tell you something.”
“Not now, Zay.” I tugged at my shirt cuff. “I need to get my head space just right.”
“Seriously, you really need to hear this.”
I opened the door. “Everything can wait until I’m prepared.” He started to speak, and I glared. “Now,” I clapped my hands together with a hop in my step, “let’s do this.”
“This can’t wait.” He followed me down the hallway and tried to pull my arm as I burst through the doors of the rec center.
“Hellooo.” The word dragged out as I glanced around a “crowd” of only seven people.
What the hell?
“I tried to warn you,” Zay hissed behind me.
“Where the fuck are my Stripe Backs and Serpents?”
“Your son.” He stepped back as I felt my face flush with anger. I didn’t even have a moment to lose my shit before one of the men came up to me and removed his hat.
“I’m sorry, Father.” He fisted his hat between his hands. “I’d like nothing more than to see Trigger epically fall, but after what they did to the others last night…” He paused. “I just can’t join you. I have kids, and my brother is sick, and his family needs my help. It is too risky for me.”
My mouth nearly fell open as each man I had recruited to be part of my army quit because they were afraid of my fucking son. So, he had intercepted the last eighteen or so I had contacted. We would have succeeded in taking him down together if they weren’t such cowardly shits. I seemed to be made of stone and just stood there.
When the last one started to speak and the place was almost empty, I snapped. All my hard work was down the drain.
I reached for my gun and popped two in the man’s head. The three stragglers who raced for the door got bullets in their backs. They died like the cowards they were.
“Fine, leave! See if I care! Zay, get the names of all of those fuckers and leak them to Trigger. Let them die at the hands of the man they seem to fear most and show them who they really should be afraid of!”
I whirled around and sank into the chair. The podium stared at me—no, it mocked me.
“I wanted a goddamn army. I have so much to accomplish. Why am I being denied this? Why?”
“I can’t begin to come up with an answer.” Zay snickered.
“How the hell did my son even know they were coming?”
Zay unbuttoned his jacket and hopped up on the stage. “He has contacts everywhere.”
“Everything he has is mi
ne, damn him to hell! I will find a way to bring him down, with or without them. He is an abomination!” I raged. I jumped to my feet and threw my arms to the ceiling.
“He’s your son.”
How dare he talk to me that way? I hated this man and hated that he didn’t understand my suffering. He just sat there and enjoyed my failure. I knew I needed him, so I had to calm myself and swallow my desire to kill him.
“What would you do?” I waited to see what Zay the great would do.
“All our cards have been used up. We did do some damage, but they seem to always come out on top.”
“I asked what you would do, not a fucking recap.”
“Fine,” he tossed his hands in the air, “I would ditch the army idea. It’s obviously dead in the water anyway, they have the ace in the hole—the flash drive. I would take the guys we have left and come in hard and fast when they least expect it and open fire. Just take him out. It’s what I’d do.”
“What about your precious Tess? Wouldn’t she be caught in the crossfire?” I knew she was his weakness and couldn’t help the jab.
He hesitated. “No, I would make sure she wasn’t there.”
“What makes you think you could get her out of there? She hates you.” I waited for him to let that sink in.
“She would do anything to protect those kids. It worked before. I can use them again to lure her out.”
“I thought you didn’t hurt kids.” I couldn’t help but sneer at him. He was so damn high and mighty, sure of himself in everything.
“I didn’t say I would hurt them. I just don’t mind using them.”
“So, now you don’t mind playing dirty.” I cocked an eyebrow at him.
“I didn’t say I never play dirty, Father. I’m just not blinded by my own fantasy.”
Chapter
Seventeen
Trigger
I was in an unusually shitty mood by midnight. Most of the men scattered whenever I walked into a room, and Rail seemed uneasy about something. I knew he had tried a few times to bring it up to me.
“Fucking spit it out or leave,” I grunted when Rail buzzed by my door again.