Havoc: Snakes Henchmen MC

by Grayson, Alivia

  “What’s your uncle’s name?” VJ asks.

  I answer before Wynter gets the chance. “Jack.” All eyes turn to me, but mine are firmly on Wynter. “It never occurred to me before because I had no reason to think about it. Just now, when you said that your uncle is a member of Snakes Henchmen, I realized who you are. Before we were married, your surname was Anderson,”

  “Jack Anderson.” Wrench mumbles. “Your uncle’s name is Jack Anderson?” He speaks loud enough for Wynter to hear him this time.

  “Yes. My father said that his brother goes by the name BlackJack. I’ve wanted to meet him since I found out about him, but the right time never seemed to come. When I left Havoc, I was so hurt that the last thing on my mind was finding Jack. Then when those men came,” She sighs.

  “What did they want with you, Wynter?”

  She shrugs her shoulders at VJ. “I have no idea. What is it that you want from me? I can’t give you names because I don’t know any.”

  “You need to give us something, Wynter. It’s the only way we can help you.” Wrench pushes past me and makes his way over to Wynter. She flinches when he lays his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are now, Wynter.”

  “Who are you?” She asks quietly.

  “They call me Wrench. My real name is Dominic Anderson. Jack is my father, and you are my cousin, Wynter.” I watch Wynter blink twice, a tear rolling down her cheek. “We’re family, Wynter, and family sticks together. Not one of us will let anything happen to you, especially not Havoc. You might know this already, but he’s a little on the crazy side.” He’s not wrong.

  Wynter laughs while nodding her head. She looks at me. “But he’s the best kind of crazy.” She still loves me; I can see it in her eyes. The Lord knows I love her.

  “Any information you can give us, no matter how small it may seem, could help us to find those men.”

  “I don’t know anything, Wrench.” Wynter closes her eyes for a second and breathes deeply. “They knew my name and kept saying that I had to go with them. I asked who they were and why they would think I’d go anywhere with them, but they wouldn’t listen.”

  Wynter’s eyes flick to me again. I can see that she genuinely doesn’t know what those men want from her, and that worries me. She’s also had enough for one day. Wynter doesn’t even know these men in front of her. She must feel uncomfortable with them all staring at her like this.

  “I think that’s enough for now.”

  “It’s enough when I say it is.”

  I stare VJ down and make my way over to Wynter. “It’s enough because I say it is!” I take Wynter’s arm in my hand, pulling her away from Wrench, and into my arms. I wondered if she’d pull away from me, but Wynter lays her head on my shoulder and wraps her arms around my waist. “She’s told you all she knows, VJ. Pushing her isn’t going to make her remember anything that could help. Wynter needs to rest. If she thinks of anything that could help find those men, I’ll let you know.”

  VJ rolls his eyes at me. “Fine. I’ve got places to be. Make sure you check in with Jett.” With that, he leaves, Bones following him.

  “Wynter?” She looks at Wrench without lifting her head from my shoulder. “If you need anything at all, Havoc knows how to get ahold of me.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Take care of her.” I nod my head at Wrench, then tip it at Cormack as they leave.

  I stroke the back of Wynter’s hair and kiss her head. “Everything will be all right. I promise.”

  Don’t make promises you’re not sure you can keep, Havoc.

  Oh, I’ll keep it. I’d burn the world to ash for this woman. Wynter is everything to me. We may have gotten lost along the way, but she’s back where she belongs, in my arms. This time, I’ll make her stay.

  Chapter Three

  Wynter

  “Do you think Jack will want to see me?” I ask as I snuggle into Havoc. Since he wrapped his arms around me earlier, I haven’t wanted Havoc to let go. I’ve missed the way he holds me, and being in his arms is the only place I’ve ever felt safe.

  Havoc pulls me closer. “I have no doubt that he’ll want to see you, Wynter. As soon as Wrench tells BlackJack about you, he’ll find you. Why didn’t you tell me that you were related to BlackJack when we first met?”

  I lift off of Havoc so that I can look at him. “I don’t know, Havoc.” I shrug. “I was going to tell you the day I told you who my father was. It just didn’t work out the way I planned.” I watch him staring at me, and I feel so guilty about what happened. I wish more than anything that I’d had more faith in my husband.

  I still wonder why Havoc kept me a secret from his family. My insecurities at not being good enough suddenly come rushing back to me.

  “What are you thinking, Wynter?”

  I bite the inside of my cheek. I need to be honest with Havoc. There’s no room for secrets any longer. “It’s just that I wonder why you never told anyone about me. I know our wedding was a spur of the moment thing, and I loved that it was. But in the short time, we were together; you never told your family about me.”

  “I was selfish in wanting to keep you to myself for a short while, Wynter. I planned a surprise for you, and I’d invited my family to come over because I wanted them to know you. When you left, you broke my heart.” I blink, and a tear falls from my eye, which Havoc wipes away with his thumb. “I told my parents and my siblings about you, Wynter. Even though you were gone, you were still in my heart.” I was never his secret. I know that now.

  Havoc tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “We can’t change the past, Wynter. There will always be regret, but we don’t have to hold onto the pain. I’ll always regret letting you walk away from me that day,”

  “I’ll always regret walking away.”

  He smiles at me, and it makes my heart beat faster. “Let’s forget what happened for a moment, Wynter.” I nod because the past doesn’t matter any longer. Talking about it, again and again, isn’t going to change what happened. “I still love you, baby.” I blink and smile. “I’ve been lost without you, Wynter. We had something special, you know it, and I know it. It’s why we clicked the second we met, and it’s why we got married so soon.”

  He cups my face, and I clutch his wrist in my hand. “I can’t have you going back out there, Wynter. I won’t let you leave me again because I need you here with me.” Havoc presses his forehead against mine. “Please, Wynter. I’ll keep you safe, no matter what it takes. I promise.”

  “I know you will.” I didn’t trust him before, and that was my mistake, but I trust him now. I take his face in my hands and kiss him softly. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. I can feel the pain I caused him flowing from him to me, and it hurts. “I love you so much.”

  Havoc kisses me hungrily, and I moan into his mouth. He pulls out of the kiss, forehead against mine, and a smile on his lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for days.”

  I open my mouth to reply, but a loud banging on the front door stops me. “Oh, god,” I grab at Havoc’s cut. “What if it’s those men? What if they’ve found me here?”

  Havoc grabs my face in his hands just at there’s another bang on the door. “Everything is okay, Wynter. I know you’re afraid of those men, but I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “Don’t answer it,” I tell him in a panic. However, Havoc kisses my head and tells me to wait here.

  Wait here?

  To do what?

  Shit myself in fear?

  I get out of my seat and pace the floor. So many things rush through my head all at once.

  What if Havoc opens that door and those men are standing on the other side?

  What if they shoot him dead before he has the chance to say anything?

  What if those men walk over Havoc’s body, walk into this room and kill me?

  Or worse, drag me off with them and do God only knows what to me?

  They could sell me in a sex trafficking ring to a monster tha
t would share me with his friends. I could be locked in a dark place for months until I learn to behave the way they want me to. Those men themselves could take turns raping me until I break.

  Christ, I wish I knew what they wanted from me.

  “Wynter?” I startle where I stand and look up at Havoc, standing in front of me. He cups my cheek and smiles. “It’s okay, beautiful.”

  “Was it them?” I’m guessing not as Havoc is smiling at me, but I need to know for sure.

  “No,” He shakes his head slightly. “It wasn’t them.” I let go of the breath held within me, my stomach unclenching with relief. “There is someone here that would like to speak with you, however.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t want to speak with anyone, Havoc. I’ve had enough for one day.” I’m exhausted, and I just want to sleep. There are things Havoc, and I need to talk about, but that can wait until tomorrow. Whomever this person is, can come back tomorrow.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but,” Havoc turns his head, and I spot the man standing behind him. There’s no need for me to ask his name. I know who he is. He hasn’t changed much from the photograph my father showed me. He’s older, of course, bigger, but no less handsome. Havoc looks at me. “He just wants to talk to you.”

  What choice do I have? The man is here now.

  I nod my head and take a deep breath.

  “Can get either of you anything?” Both Jack and I shake our heads. “Okay, I’ll leave the two of you to talk.” Havoc kisses my lips. “I’ll be in the kitchen. If you need me, just yell.”

  “You don’t have to go.”

  “You need privacy right now, beautiful.” He kisses me again. “I won’t be far away.” I nod and watch him leave the room.

  I stare at my uncle for a second and swallow hard. I have nothing to fear, but I’m nervous. I want to know him, but he may not want to know me. I could be a horrible reminder of the racist family Jack left behind.

  I tuck my hair behind my ear, and nervously, I smile at him. “Hi,”

  “Hello, Wynter,” He smiles at me. I don’t know why, but that smile makes me feel emotional. I know that he’s genuinely happy to meet me, and there is no animosity because of who my father is. I see in Jack’s eyes that he really is the kind man, Havoc assured me he is.

  “Would you like to take a seat?”

  Jack nods his head and sits down in the armchair next to the fire. Nervously, I sit down on the edge of the couch and swallow hard.

  I would never have guessed this man was related to my father. Jack, for a man of his age, is devastatingly handsome. He’s well-built, tall, has eyes as blue as Wrench, and a kind smile. It’s uncanny how much Wrench looks like his father. I know from what my father told me that Jack is in his early sixties now, but he doesn’t look anywhere near that age. It’s very obvious that he takes care of himself, not like my father. John Anderson is in his late sixties and looks at least fifteen years older. The years have not been kind to him, or maybe it was all the drugs he took in his life that aged him so badly.

  Jack says something while scratching his jaw with his thumbnail. I feel stupid that I didn’t catch half of what he said. “I’m sorry,” I shake my head, and Jack looks at me. “I didn’t hear what you said. I’m...”

  “Deaf, or almost,” He cuts me off with a kind smile. “Wrench did explain. I’m sorry, sweetheart,”

  When he called me sweetheart, I felt really emotional. I can’t explain why, but I get such a safe vibe from this man. I also get a not to be messed with, vibe from him.

  “That’s okay,” I smile. “I can hear to a degree. It’s just that sometimes I need to see a person’s mouth move so that I can read their lips.”

  “Of course,” Jack smiles and turns in his seat slightly. I realize that he did this so that I can better see his face. “So, Wrench tells me that you’re John’s daughter.”

  I swallow hard and nod my head.

  “I didn’t even know John had kids. But then I wouldn’t because I haven’t seen or heard from him since I was seventeen.”

  Strange when my father knew so much about Jack. Then again, a narcissist like him would keep tabs on people, especially his brother.

  “He told me that you left home and never came back.”

  “Did he tell you why?”

  I nod my head. “Because he nor your parents agreed with your choice to want to marry a black woman.”

  “That’s right,” He nods. “One thing you’ll come to learn about me, Wynter, is that nothing and no one means more to me than my wife. My kids and grandkids are a close second,” He winks, and I can’t help laughing. “From the moment I met Taylor, she was everything to me. People don’t always believe in fate, but I became a believer the day she bumped into me. Family is very important to me, Wynter, but sometimes you have to cut them out in order to be who you really are.”

  “I understand. I knew your parents a little, but not that they were racist. My mom couldn’t stand them. I never understood why, but I guess it’s because she didn’t believe in their views. She didn’t like my sister and me visiting with them, but John didn’t give her a choice.”

  “Will you tell me about your mother and sister?”

  I take a deep breath in through my nose. “It’s hard. I lost them so long ago now, but it still feels like yesterday. I still have nightmares,” I swallow hard and try and fight the tears that are threatening to spill. Cassie and Havoc are the only people I’ve ever really spoken to about my mom and sister. It was always too hard to talk to anyone else. Of course, I spoke to a counselor, and it helped a little. However, talking about them makes the memory of how they died, rush back to me tenfold. The fact I lived, and they died, hurts so much.

  “You don’t have to tell me anything if it’s too painful, Wynter.”

  I nod my head in thanks, but I need to do this. “Mom was beautiful,” I admit. “She had stunning blue eyes, and long white hair, though she rarely smiled. When she did, it was only ever aimed at my sister and me. You see,” I push my hands between my knees. “My mom didn’t meet John and fall in love with him; he kidnapped her off the street.”

  Jack keeps his eyes on me as he listens to my story. My mother was out with some friends, celebrating her fifteenth birthday. Her father was a wealthy businessman, and he’d allowed her to go shopping for a party dress. Each year, he threw my mother a huge birthday party, and nothing was too much for her where he was concerned. She never told me her father’s name, nor the business he owned. I knew what happened because she one day sat my sister and I down and told us everything. Mom had finally had enough and wanted out.

  John took my mother, Julianne, to his home, and kept her locked in his basement for months. Of course, he kept her locked up because he wanted to wait until the hype had died down, and the case into searching for her had gone cold before moving her upstairs as his wife.

  John repeatedly raped Julianne, beat her, and made her believe that she’d never escape him. He screwed with her mind until he broke her spirit.

  John kept Julianne a prisoner in his basement for almost a year before he felt she was ready to move into the big house. By then, she was pregnant with his baby, and she was terrified.

  For fifteen years, John kept my mother a prisoner. He never let her out of the house without him. He told her the reason he’d taken her, in the first place, was because bad men were after her and that they’d killed her parents and siblings.

  When Mom sat my sister, Spring, and I down and explained all of this to us, she told us how she’d seen her brother. Of course, we were confused because she’d just gotten through telling us how he’d died. On her trip, the previous day to the supermarket with John, Julianne had seen her brother in the parking lot. She knew it was him because, even after fifteen years, he knew who she was. He’d called her name, and she’d recognized him and yelled his name in return. John dragged her back to his car and drove away. All the while, she was banging on the windows to get to her brother.

  M
y mother told us how the bruises she sported that day were from the beating John had given her because of her betrayal. In his mind, he’d been good to her all those years. In truth, he was nothing more than a monster in every way. My sister and I weren’t blind to the animal John was because he was our father. True, he wasn’t much of one, but we were just little girls.

  Mom explained to Spring and me how she planned to leave John and take us with her, but that we’d have to keep it our secret. Mom was scared. I could see it in her eyes. All those years, she’d been beaten down, but now she was finally ready to fight back.

  Spring and I had all these dreams about meeting our uncle, and how he would protect us from harm. That never happened. No matter how secret we kept things, how careful we were not to let anything slip, John found out. I believe that he planned to kill us all the moment my mother’s brother spotted her in that parking lot.

  I’ll never know why he killed my mom and sister while I was out of the house. I’ve asked him, but he won’t give me the answer. John just smirks as if there’s a reason I’m still here.

  The cops asked me how my sister and I were allowed out of the house if my mother never was. There’s an easy answer to that. John wasn’t afraid of Spring and me going to school; he knew we’d never tell anyone what went on at home. We were too scared of him to do that. Besides, he’d given my mother a new name, and made out to the outside world that he was the perfect husband, with a beautiful little family.

  We weren’t allowed friends as such, but Cassie was special. Meeting up with her that day saved my life. Would I have snuck out of the house to meet her if I’d known my family would be gone by the time I got back? Of course not. However, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here today.

  “They never found my sister’s body,” Jack breathes deeply through his nose, and shifts in his seat. “John had shot my mom three times, but she didn’t die right away. She died later in the hospital from her injuries. I don’t know what John did to Spring, nor where he hid her body. All I know is that she’s out there somewhere, her body rotted away, and her spirit is wandering, never finding peace.”