by J. L. Drake
“Belladonna is poisonous if eaten. The root is the deadliest, then the leaves, then the flower.” My voice sounded eerie and calm; I rather liked this me. “It takes fifteen to twenty berries to kill an adult, but,” I held up my hand then rooted through my purse and held up the small vial, “if you ingest it in liquid form, you only need the tiniest drop. I gave you three.” I winked.
A sound came from her throat. “What was that, Mother? I can’t make you out. Yes, your own daughter has finally outmatched you.”
I moved to the seat next to her, took her hand, and scribbled her familiar signature on the paper. It wasn’t great, but it would do. I tucked it away back in my purse and leaned in to brush her hair that had fallen in her face.
“You stole a life from me once, so it’s only fitting I do the same to you.” I rubbed her arm to make sure her head was still with me. “Say hi to Clark for me.”
My mother’s jaw twitched as I held her hand, but she was too far gone. She had only minutes before her heart would stop, and I would finally be free.
I threaded my purse through my arm and set a tiny bottle of charcoal on the windowsill just out of her reach. It was too late to save her, but it satisfied something in me to let her see that one thing that could have saved her life was just slightly out of reach.
“Bye, Felicia.”
Chapter
Eighteen
Trigger
Mike: She didn’t speak to Savi, but you’re right, she’s in Vegas.
Trigger: Where?
Mike: 6 miles from you. 740 S. Decatur Blvd.
I dropped my joint on the ground, kicked my bike into gear, and turned north on the Strip. Lights shot by me in a blurred line of color. Traffic was light, so I made good time.
The hotel was attached to the casino, and I immediately spotted four bikes in the driveway, but they were crotch rockets and clearly nothing to do with a biker club.
The hotel was a giant rectangle inside. Each room had its own patio and front porch window.
I rang the bell, and a middle-aged man stepped out from behind the wall.
“How can I help you tonight?”
“Lookin’ for a girl, blonde, tattoo on her arm.” I held up my phone and showed a picture of Tess. “What room is she in?” I wasn’t in the mood to play games.
“I’m sorry, sir, I can’t give out that kind of information.”
“Holy shit,” I heard someone whisper behind me. “That’s Trigger. He’s the president of Devil’s Reach.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved the phone further in the guy’s face. “Her name is Tess Marin.”
“Like I said—”
“I won’t repeat myself again.” I fought the urge to pull my gun.
“Hey, man.” A guy came up to the counter. I could tell by the racing colors on his jacket he owned one of the bikes out front. “You looking for that smokin’ hot blonde with a long tat on the arm?”
“Yeah.”
“We saw her. She throat-punched my buddy when he grabbed her ass in the elevator.”
I half smirked.
“I swear he meant no harm. Just had too many beers.”
“What room is she in?”
He whistled to his friends that he was heading upstairs. They seemed uneasy about me but let him go.
“Last I saw, she was heading up there with a couple of guys.” He pointed to a door by the elevator. “She was pissed about something but seemed fine.”
I handed him a fifty and started to walk away. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, sure, anytime. Hey, I’m a huge fan. I’ve wanted to be in your club for as long as I can remember. So, do you have, like, a card or something, so I can look you up?”
Something came over me. Maybe it was because he reminded me of Denton, I wasn’t sure, but I turned and headed back to him.
“You ever kill a man with your bare hands, feel the life get sucked from his lungs, not stop until his soul had completely left his body?” The kid swallowed hard. “Have you ever stood in front of a judge and heard you’re facing three life counts, with no chance of parole?” He shook his head, and I leaned in close to drive my point home. “It’s not a life anyone would want once you’re in it, kid. If you need to be a part of something, pick anything else, because this shit will jack you up in ways you can’t even imagine.”
“Yes, sir.” He pulled back from me as he said it and hurried back the way we had come.
With that, I went up the stairs to the second floor. The moment I turned the corner, I heard Tess scream. I pulled my gun and rushed to the door. She screamed again, and everything went red.
I stood back and kicked the door with all my weight. It shot inward, and both men scrambled for their weapons. The last thing I wanted were spectators, so I slammed the door behind me and glanced at Tess. She had tears streaming down her face, but her eyes were like fire. She gathered the sheet in her hands and tied it around her, but not before I saw the scratch marks on her thighs.
Rage tore through every single fiber of my being.
They touched what’s mine. They hurt what’s mine.
“Tess, come to me.” I motioned for her to join me, but just as she moved, the guy closest to her grabbed her around the waist and stuck a gun in her mouth.
The wild things who were normally dormant when she was around began to scream. Their voices were so shrill they nearly split my head in two. My muscles twitched with hunger, and my focus clouded.
Right here, this is my hell.
I felt as though I was falling from a ledge, and the small hold I had on Nolan let go as the dark hole swallowed me up. My head pounded, and my vision shook with each heartbeat.
One moment I was by the door, and the next I was covered in their blood in the middle of the room.
What?
I whirled around to find the two men nearly ripped to shreds near the bathroom doorway, and Tess was huddled in a ball in the corner. My chest beat hard, my body shook, and I couldn’t pull what the hell just happened from my memory.
Shit!
“Tess.” I scooped her up and placed her on the bed. Madly, I grabbed her Chucks and slipped them on her feet. “Where’s your bag?”
She blinked a few times and snapped back to the present with me, but then I saw the blood on the sheet.
“Not mine,” she said before she pulled herself together and hurried to the bathroom, saying she had to change. A couple of minutes later, she came out and followed me back downstairs. I did the best I could to hide the bodies in the closet, but there was a lot of blood, and they were big guys. I knew no one should have reason to go into the room for a while, but I couldn’t chance it and didn’t want to waste time.
I grabbed her hand, closed the door softly, and we walked down the hall, just two people headed out for the night.
“Glad you found her,” the kid called from his table. I gave a slight nod and pushed open the main door and urged Tess along.
Instead of heading down the street toward home, I turned right. Tess didn’t say a word the whole drive, but I did notice her shake out her hands every few minutes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked through the mic.
“Hands are numb.”
“What from?”
“Adrenaline.”
She needed a break, and a drive of about four hours to home wasn’t the answer. After one phone call, I pulled into the Wynn parking lot, and we were soon escorted up to the penthouse where we were finally safe and out of the public eye.
“We’ll stay for the night and leave in the morning.” I set her bag down and tried to hold back my questions.
“I need a shower,” she said, her voice heavy.
“I need to know what happened.”
“I know, but just give me a few.” She headed for the bathroom with a slight waver in her step.
I poured myself a drink and texted Mike.
Trigger: Found her. Appreciate your help.
Mike: Happy to hear it. Anytime.
I
cracked my neck and changed chats.
Trigger: I need you to take care of a situation.
Two minutes later, my phone rang, and I stepped up to the window and explained to Cray where to go and what he needed to do to clear things up back at the hotel. I also needed him on standby for whatever other mess Tess might have created while she was here.
I glanced over at her bag and saw some documents sticking out. I pulled them out and scanned the wording.
What the fuck? She went back to the house to get these signed? What the hell was she thinking? The words “ownership” and “Tessa Marin” hit me hard. Was she planning on running the house here in Vegas?
Anger fueled me once again. I jammed the paperwork back into her bag and burst through the bathroom doors, only to find her standing in a towel as though in a trance in front of the mirror.
Her bloodshot eyes slowly dragged up to mine. Her chin quivered, and then she broke.
***
Tess
My knees gave out as Trigger’s hard body slammed into mine just in time. His arms wrapped around me, and he supported my weight when I couldn’t. It had been too long since I really felt him hold me the way he used to.
“I got you,” he whispered into my hair, and for a moment, I felt Nolan was there. I sobbed. I needed to release the heaviness from the last twenty-four hours. I knew my mother’s death wouldn’t bother me. She totally deserved everything she got, but I was human, and Trigger arriving precisely at the right time turned my world completely upside down.
Once I shed the emotional crap, I pulled away and dried my cheeks. Trigger stepped back but didn’t leave. He just watched as I slowly pulled on a tank top that barely covered my ass.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked. Anger still simmered. I could hear it in the timbre of his voice.
“Just a little sore, but nothing some Advil couldn’t fix. My mother always picks the lowest of assholes to protect her.”
He disappeared and returned with a bottle of water and some pills. I swallowed them down, and when I looked in the glass, he was directly behind me. His chest pressed into my back, and his hands clamped down on either side of the counter. His dark green eyes smoldered and held mine captive in the mirror as he pushed his erection through his jeans and against my opening.
I bit my bottom lip and let the prickle of lust race across my nerve endings.
His fingers started low at my thighs and traveled up under my shirt and flipped it over my bare ass before they brushed over my wetness.
I heard his jeans hit the floor and felt his hand pump his erection a few times.
I needed this.
Just as the tip broke my seal, I jerked forward with a tiny whimper.
My heart won the battle.
His hands fell away, his eyes darkened, and I could feel his internal conflict. A confused expression raced across his face, deepening the creases of his eyes.
“Who are you right now?”
His face softened, and he slid his hands up the curve of my spine.
“Does it matter?”
“It matters to me.” I held my ground, and he closed his eyes and took a breath. “I want you to come back.” I turned around to face him. “Fight for us, if not for yourself. I can’t handle the distance and uncertainty anymore.” I knew this next comment was going to sting. “Gus is dead, but you aren’t. Please don’t push me away and let them win.” I gently touched his temple to reference his demons. “You asked me to marry you, but…” His eyes opened wide, and I could see he was finally hearing me.
“But what?”
“But do you still even want to?”
Trigger’s face fell, and a grim line traced across his lips.
What just happened?
He backed up and left as I stood there and wondered if I was still engaged to the only man I truly loved.
I paced the bathroom, unsure what to do. We were always so up and down in our relationship. Just once I wished I knew where we stood.
Finally, I headed out through the living room and into the kitchen where I plucked a bottle of tequila from the bar, three limes, a knife, some salt, and my phone. I noticed the spare room door was closed and figured he needed a moment alone.
I lined the cut limes on the wooden railing next to the bottle and snapped a picture and attached it to a text message.
Tess: To freedom.
I waited and saw the little bubbles appear before her text came through.
Ven: I can’t believe it! Now what?
I couldn’t help but smile. We both had been under my mother’s thumb for years.
Tess: Now I need to see you. Can you slip away for a bit? Meet me at the Wynn. I’ll leave your name at the desk.
Ven: Sure, the boss is gone, so I’m free as a bird. Be there in fifteen.
I laughed at our sick, twisted humor and took three shots to ease the discomfort the empty penthouse brought on.
The front desk assured me she could come straight up, and in only ten minutes, she arrived at the door and nearly knocked me over in greeting.
“Come,” I took her hand and pulled her out to the patio, “we have so much to talk about.”
“I really hope karma was watching when you did it.” Ven giggled as she took another shot after hearing my story.
“Why do you think I got away?” I raised an eyebrow and clicked my cup to hers. “She knew what we went through and knew what had to come.”
“I can’t believe her men followed you back to the hotel and tried to…”
The spare room door opened, and in came Trigger. He stopped short when he saw Venna sitting on the floor of the penthouse. I guessed he didn’t hear us. I noticed he had a tight grip on his phone.
“Hi,” she squeaked.
“Nice to see you again,” he greeted her kindly, which was almost a little scary.
He came over and eyed the paperwork that lay between us. “What are you doing?”
“You asked me before what happened and why I came here.” I pointed to the couch, and again to my surprise, he sat.
Ven looked at me for guidance, clearly wondering if she should leave. I shook my head. I wanted her to stay. She was a part of this now.
“So?” He leaned forward and eyed my outfit. I was still wearing the tank top and nothing else.
I reached for my purse and handed him the tiny vial of belladonna and let his eyes skim over the label.
“Deadly stuff. How did you get it?”
“A friend.”
His eyebrows rose, and he waited for me to explain further.
“Ven warned me that my mother was going to send some men to the club to get answers about Clark. I couldn’t let that happen again, so I hatched a plan to tell you that I was going to stay with Brick, when really I hitched a ride to Vegas.” He tilted his head to pop his neck.
Trigger eyed Venna, and she looked at me and swallowed hard.
“With who?”
Shit.
“Shantee.”
“Who?”
“She was the transsexual you helped save at the bar the other day when the men tried to hurt us.”
“Right. I first met her at the house, when you went back.” He licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. That was a hard memory for both of us.
“Then what?”
“I lured my mother to a spot where I knew I could carry out my plan.” I folded my legs under me and leaned my weight on one hand. “She showed, I said what I wanted, confessed to killing Clark, and that I knew about this.” I tossed him the ownership paperwork for the house and club. “Turns out Clark signed his shares of the house over to me a few years ago, to show his love for me or some shit. He had it worked out with the lawyer that if my mother died before he did, and he is legally still alive right now, or signed over the rest of the rights to me, that I would be the full owner of the house. Of course, that would never normally happen, but given some tasteless poison, I got her John Hancock. It was rather satisfying to watch her sign away h
er beloved career to the one person she loathed. I wasn’t about to wait for the paperwork to come through over her death. The signature will be faster.”
I smiled. Maybe Trigger could get the footage and I could bask in that moment over and over again.
“So, you’re working there now?” I could almost hear the hurt in his voice.
“Look,” I slowed the pace of the conversation so he would hear me out instead of jumping to conclusions, “normally, you couldn’t pay me enough to step foot in that house, but what I will do is appoint Venna the manager, and we run the place ourselves.” His eyes narrowed. “That place will forever haunt me, but it brings in a ton of money. The DR doesn’t have the Serpents contract anymore, so this will be a great source of income to hold us over until the drug deal comes through.”
Venna pulled out a folder and showed Trigger the annual income. “The house has made at least three hundred and sixty thousand consistently the past six years.” She moved her finger along a chart. “And as you can see, it’s growing.”
“You have my attention.”
“Dirty Demons could be Dirty Promises’s sister company, but,” I raised my hand, “I want to put twenty percent of the house yearly income into a fund for Lilly.” I lowered my voice. “My family killed her mother. It’s the least I can do.”
When I looked up, he was staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“What?”
“Every time I think I have you figured out, I don’t.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not…at all.” He shook his head in amazement, and I cleared my throat.
“Okay, kids,” Ven scooped the paperwork off the floor and stood. “I have a lot to prepare for, so I should be going.” She reached down and gave me a hug. “I can’t wait for the girls to hear about the new changes.”
I lifted my hand to stop her, but she beat me to it.
“I promise I won’t say a word until you give me the green light. But the first to go are those friggin’ house uniforms.”