“It would be an absolute shame to prove you right on that score, so stop bitching and start moving.”
“No.”
Tommy stepped up close, and this time I saw my eyes reflected back at me as he brought the huge knife close to my face. “I will gut you and carve you just like the Hermanos did to your brother.”
Ella gasped from the sofa. I’d never confirmed who was actually responsible for their deaths. I was thankful she’d not been left with the lasting memory of her mother lying dead on the kitchen floor. I always felt she was safer if she didn’t know. I heard her sob from behind me and I wanted to take that knife and ram it up into his skull. Him being here wasn’t just dangerous. It was causing us both unimaginable emotional trauma and I was over it.
My heart was breaking because I knew what I had to do to keep them safe again.
“I’ll leave with you.” I forced the words out, knowing I was about to break my promise to Gears again. He was going to get home and find me gone. I only hoped he’d come and find me this time, otherwise I’d be in some serious trouble.
“Eager beaver, I like it.” His face was satisfied. He momentarily lowered the knife. “You keen to pick up where we left off?” I swallowed the puke in my mouth when he put his lips on me.
“No. I’d rather plunge that knife into my heart myself than let you touch me again, but if you’re still here when Gears gets home, he’ll do it for me.”
The self-satisfaction slipped, and he pushed me back towards the kitchen.
“Gigi!” Ella began to sob.
“Stay strong, Els. I’ll see you soon.”
We were getting closer to the outside door and I was running out of time to make my move, a move I still didn’t know I would be able to pull off.
“Touching, now fuck—”
Before he could finish his words, the connecting garage door flew open and Geraldine came at him wielding a claw hammer.
“No!” she shrieked, and swung it until it connected with the side of his head.
Tommy’s legs collapsed and as his knees hit the kitchen tiles, she swung it again, catching him in the same area, his skull making a horrible sound.
Ella was sobbing now, Geraldine was breathing heavily, like she’d run a marathon, and I was scarily in control.
Tommy dropped the knife as he struggled to find enough coordination to get his hands up to his head. “Fuck!” he slurred.
With much amazement, I watched as he moved one leg to climb back to his feet.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Fuck! He was going to get up.
It was clear he was only temporarily incapacitated and if he got back up, not only was I in trouble, but Ella and Geraldine would be, too.
I grabbed the knife, thinking only of protecting the people I loved with so much ferocity that I didn’t visualize any outcome other than his death. I stuck the knife into his throat just by his windpipe, so hard that I felt the tip judder through the neck muscles and into the bones at the top of his spine. Immediately, blood spurted from the wound like an out of control tap. The warmth of it hit me full in the chest and face, until I could taste it and my hands became wet and soaked as I tried to keep hold of the knife.
Tommy started to gargle. He was drowning in his own blood, his lungs painfully and slowly filling with liquid.
Geraldine cried and attempted to walk around the carnage in her kitchen. “Ella!” she yelled. “Stay there. I’m coming to you.”
I was finally alone with the man who had taken something so innocent from me.
I got down on my knees, putting me at eye level with the choking rapist, his blood soaking into the knees of my pants. “You deserved this. You don’t know this, but I forgave you for what you did to me, but I could never forgive you for making me leave Gears. Did you really think I was going to let you take me away from him again?”
I didn’t feel any measure of sadness or regret for taking his life. I felt satisfaction and closure. I’d been put on this earth to love Ella and Gears, and this was my way of making sure that continued. Nothing, no drastic action was too much to protect what we had.
Tommy was spitting blood now, his teeth a stark, white contrast against the life giving fluid his body couldn’t contain. With one last gasp, and an attempt to claw at the knife handle sticking out of his throat, he took his last breath and fell forward onto me, taking me to my back.
That was how Gears, Wolf and JP found us.
Ella and his mom, in each other’s arms, consoling one other in the living room.
And me, like something from a horror movie set, lying under a dead body in a pool of blood that continued to leak from Tommy’s body with every last pump of his heart until there was more outside of him than inside.
The whole scene was so gruesome it was hard for me to convince them that I was fine and hadn’t been stabbed in the melee.
But I didn’t care.
I’d protected my family. I’d kept them safe and finally, the last man standing who had taken away my innocence in such a brutal way had paid the ultimate price.
Edward was gone.
And now Tommy was dead, too.
It was the universe and God finally dishing out some karma, and from the look that Gears was giving me, he knew it.
Gears - Aged 48
“I don’t like it. I don’t like it one fucking bit.”
“Relax, he loves her. He’ll do right by her even if he is only eighteen,” my wife told me.
Gigi was deluded. Her notions of romance and love stories were up there with something from fucking Hallmark, clouded in daydreams and fairy stories.
“You’re not getting it, babe. Little Angel will eat him up. She takes the term cougar seriously. Next level shit, seriously.”
Gigi burst out laughing. “I wouldn’t let her mother or Wolf hear you referring to her like that. He’s a big boy. He can handle himself. Besides, Gabe learned from the best.” She threw a smile my way. I knew her game. Distraction.
But nothing could distract me from the fact that my barely a man-child, eighteen-year- old son was on his first ‘camping trip’ with his girlfriend, Angelica Foster–Little Angel.
“It’s not like they haven’t been in a tent before anyway,” she chuckled.
“Not helping my fucking mood.” Catching them fully involved in a game of ‘you show me yours and I’ll show you mine’ at fifteen in a tent on the Sentinels’ land nearly caused a fucking war. Angel and Gigi stood by all starry eyed while Declan stormed off to the workshop, chanting the words, ‘gun and safe’ and ‘little punk’ way too loudly for my son’s safety.
“He’ll respect her.”
I threw the dish towel at the sink. “It’s not her I’m worried about. That little man eater will chew him up.”
Gigi came to me and pushed her body up against mine, forcing my ass to rest on the edge of the counter top. This woman was smarter than I ever gave her credit for. She knew exactly how to handle me and that was how this shit had gotten out of control. Little Angel was five years older than my boy and virtually fucking stole him from us the minute Gigi expelled him from her uterus. I should have put a stop to it then. I missed the switch from two cute kids being inseparable to two kids becoming soul mates. I hated that this had happened to them at such at young age, but it was history repeating itself. The same inexplicable link and need to be with our true mate had befallen all four of us, Dec and Angel, me and Gigi, so why I expected anything different from our spawn I had no idea.
She placed her hand on my cheek, forcing me to look at her. “Gears, honey, your boy has grown up a mini biker. He’s handsome—”
“Been lead astray,” I interrupted.
“He’s handsome and he loves her. Stop kidding yourself about his virginity. Just because they’re away on a long weekend in a tent—” every word she was using was only sending my fear up a level, “—doesn’t mean that this is their first time.”
“I fucking know that. That was fight number fou
r-hundred and five between me and the she-devil’s dad. Catching them in the fucking compound was not one of his smarter ideas. See, that’s what I’m getting at. He’s not smart. His dick is getting him into trouble.”
“Feel familiar? And she’s not a she-devil. She’s the girl he loves. Say it.”
“She’s not a she-devil,” I repeated morosely.
“And?”
“If my boy’s happy then I’m happy.” Those were words my wife had been forcing me to repeat for years in order to remind me of who we were and where we’d come from. If you were happy, nothing else mattered. Possessions didn’t mean a thing, and experiences were not truly enjoyed unless you were sharing them with someone you loved.
“And,” she pushed.
“She is who he fucking loves.”
“Let them be.” Gigi popped onto her tiptoes and dipped her tongue in my mouth, sending signals to my brain that usually meant in about ten minutes she’d fake drag me off to our bedroom where I’d fuck her until she couldn’t breathe. I’d just got my fingertips down inside the waistband of her shorts when we were interrupted.
“Oh, thank God you’re here, Gigi.” Ella crashed through the door to our family home—a home I’d had built on the land where the Livingston family home had once stood. Gigi had inherited that land, and even though I was opposed to it at first, she was keen to reinvent the place and build some happy memories on it. We’d even built in a place for my mom, who, in my view, was the oldest biker babe in history. To say she’d found her love for the life and been embraced by the boys as an honorary elder was an understatement. She didn’t dress like a biker babe, but that didn’t bother them when she called round to the autoshop daily with baked goods. Being part of our family had helped her heal and there was no way I was going to take that away from her.
“What’s the matter?” I asked Ella, trying to cover up my now semi hard dick which was screaming from being stopped mid play.
“Sorry,” she laughed, knowing full well what she’d cost me.
Ella had always been a part of my family. Helping to raise that girl was a present the universe had given me that I relished, and she’d turned out fucking beautiful. The Mexican that was only a hint in her father’s features and skin tone had got a full grip of her. Long chocolate wavy locks, deep, soul filled eyes and an attitude to rival any senorita that both Gigi and I had a hard time taming when her hormones kicked in. Now she was a young woman and thankfully studying to become some fucking animal doctor, it took up her time and meant she only dated guys, unlike my lovestruck fucking son. Gigi was pleased to have her close by. She still lived with us and had replaced me in my mom’s affections years ago.
Wave sauntered through the back door. “What are you doing here?
“Fireworks, brother,” was all he said. “Fireworks.
The front door flew open this time and my mom jumped, threw it closed and slumped against the back of it. “Hide!”
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Mouth, Griffin!” she chided, momentarily forgetting her urgent request. “Declan has just pulled up outside and he looks mad. The truck was virtually on two wheels when he came around the corner.”
My wife started to back me up against the counter top again. “Uh… honey.” Her words were very sheepish.
The front door handle went and then it was pushed open with mom still against the back of it. “Not now, Declan darling. We’re in the middle of a… a…”
“Momma Geary, please fucking move,” he hissed through a two inch door crack.
“For shit’s sake, Dec, stop being an asshole and don’t swear at Geraldine,” we heard Angel tell him.
“Ma, move.”
“Dammit, I tried,” she mumbled and opened the door, greeting them in full hostess mode. “Could I get you some refreshments?”
“No thanks, still absorbing that rocky road you dropped off three hours ago,” he told her, rubbing his belly in appreciation and smiling at her. Like many of us stood in this room, my ma was the only mom we’d ever known.
“Now, does someone wanna tell my why there’s a gathering in my fucking kitchen?” The kitchen door behind us opened and in walked Gabe and Little Angel. “Why are you here? You’re supposed to be knee deep in tents, s’mores, bushes and other outdoor shit.” I was kidding myself if I thought my son had packed s’mores ingredients, but one could hope.
“Oh, he’s been deep in a bush alright.”
“Dad, for fuck’s sake!” Little Angel groaned, her turn of phrase taking me back twenty years as she sounded just like her mom—a mom, who was now stood suspiciously close to my wife, with that same fucking Hallmark look.
“Dad…” Gabe, every inch the mini me in frame, size, hair color and features, walked up to me. He crossed his arms over his chest, mimicking a power play that the fucking Sentinel brothers had taught him for a joke, but scarily it worked for him and he looked at me. “I took Little Angel away this weekend to propose to her and she said yes.”
I wondered whether I should kill him before Wolf had the chance. After all, you couldn’t kill someone twice and I’d at least be quicker and kinder.
I looked to my wife and Wolf’s, and they were side by side with their arms looped, barely holding on to their happy shit.
I opened my mouth to ball him out, but Wolf intervened. “Tell him why, you little shit.” Wolf took a dangerous step closer to my son and I knew I wouldn’t kill Gabe. I’d step in the middle of him and my president and keep the peace like I always did.
“Dad.” He inhaled, and it somehow gave him an extra three inches in height. “We’re having a baby. Little Angel and I, we’re gonna have a family.”
Little Angel, the beautiful she-devil, stepped up and my boy put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead.
What started as sniffles from Gigi and Angel turned into full on tears as they were joined by my mom, who proceeded to wail, “I’m going to be a great granny!” Then she started to awkwardly high five people, only stopping when Ella rushed to the group and told her she was doing it wrong.
I couldn’t move a muscle. It was like someone had nailed my feet to the floor.
My boy was a man.
He’d opened his heart fully, like I had with his mom, and I knew he was sunk for Little Angel and nothing I said would ever change that. No matter how many times Wolf threatened to have a conversation with him in a basement, he wouldn’t walk away from her.
I looked at my boy, repeating the words he’d said to me in my head—we’re gonna have a family—before looking round at the craziness in my kitchen.
This was family. It was getting bigger, and it felt perfect, although I didn’t voice that out loud. Wolf was definitely going to need some time to get over this, after I’d hidden the keys to his basement and changed the combination to his gun safe.
THE END
Tammy Clarke at the Graphics Shed, I don’t know anyone else who works as hard as you do to bring someone else’s dream and vision to life. I feel lucky to have you as part of my book circle.
Heather Ross, you are more than just an editor, you are a friend. I also feel part of your family, a testament to how supportive you are of my work. Thank you.
Nikki Ashton, between our treadmill chats, walkie talkies and general messages you’ve kept me on the straight and narrow with this book. It probably still wouldn’t be finished today without you.
I wanted to write an MC world with a difference, some may say it’s a little tame, but most of you love where I’m coming from with my view point. I wanted the women to be more than just pretty girls, I wanted them to be a part of the world. I wanted the men to be brothers, but more than that, I wanted them to be family. I wanted the MC to be more than the thing that bonds them. Gigi’s story may be an unhappy one to start with, but she learns some valuable lessons. Firstly, never judge someone by appearance and secondly, you learn your lessons on the way up the mountain, not when you’re stood at the top.
Vict
oria Johns is a writer who enjoys sharing a happily ever after and believes that it’s every good girl’s dream to experience a steamy one. Growing up in North West England in a large family surrounded by love and support she found her Prince Charming many years ago and enjoys living the life they’ve made with their son.
She’s always had a creative imagination and decided that some of the stories bubbling in her head need to be given life and shared. This pen name gives them the freedom to be loved by others.
When she’s not writing, she’s sewing, cycling or chomping on crisps in front of the TV.
www.victoriajohnsbooks.com
The Soul Sisters Series
Fostering Love
Forgiving Love
Fated Love
Finding Love
Foundation Love – A novella
The Soul Mates Series
Survivor
Deserved
Alive
Forbidden
Heartstone – A Short Story
Part of the Titanic Tales Charity Anthology
The Black Sentinels MC Series
Angel
Collaboration Novel with Nikki Ashton
I wanna get laid by Kade
Gigi: A Black Sentinels MC Novel Page 29