by Eden Rose
My eyes roll to the back of my head and I cradle Aidan’s head closer to my chest. “Will you knock it off?” I hiss. “He’s seen enough to today!”
“I’m taking my son home,” David states and tries to grab him from my arms by his shirt. I squeal and hold him tighter to me.
Flip and Bic both step up so they are planking his sides to stop him from taking Aidan.
“I think the kid needs his mother right now,” Bic growls.
“This isn’t over yet, Britney,” David states and stomps away from us.
I cry out a little and Aidan grasps onto my neck to get closer to me. “Mommy, please don’t make me go with daddy.”
Even though I don’t know if this is something I can promise, I do it anyways. “I’m not going to let him take you.”
FLIP
The damage that has been done to the clubhouse and the brotherhood is unrepairable. Slice’s ol’ lady, Jen’s family ruined fucking everything when they attacked us.
The Bear runs up to me with a pissed off glare on his face. “Did you expect them to fire back at us like this?” He grunts while shaking out a cigarette from his pack.
I shake my head and then wince. “What the fuck did you expect? We blew up their car and led them here like we left a bread crumb trail. They knew who we are and what we did.”
I’m pissed as fuck that I have to do what The Bear says as my president. I don’t always agree with what he says but I’m going to follow him like I do. I know it doesn’t make much sense, but he’s the president.
He squints his eyes. “Don’t practice showin’ your balls right now, Flip. I’m not in the fuckin’ mood for your shit. I have a bunch of our brothers’ families here who are going to be askin’ questions.”
“Yeah? Well I have my family here too! I have my ol’ lady who’s here with her son who witnessed this whole thing! What the fuck am I supposed to say? That we drew them here? That we are the reason why they attacked us like this?”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Slice demands from behind me.
My back stiffens because I knew that shit was about to be bad. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to figure out how to tell Slice what the hell happened. Luckily, I don’t have to do shit because this is The Bear’s job. This was his idea.
“Prez!”
I turn my back around and see Half Ball running up towards us with a smile on his face. “I caught one of the mother fuckers. He’s passed the fuck out but he’s willing to talk to us.”
I take a deep breath.
“Don’t you fuckin’ think about not telling what happened here,” Slice growls.
“Look, brother. We did what we had to do to flush them out. We needed to get Jen’s family over on our turf so we could fuckin’ kill them.”
“Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” Slice demands.
Britney’s walking over to me with Aidan attached to her hip and in this moment, I know that she’s meant to be mine. Everything about her is meant to be mine. I don’t give a shit about whether or not Aidan came from me, he’s mine too.
I tilt my head to the side to get Britney’s attention to go towards my room. “Baby, how about you take Aidan into my room and I’ll meet you there in a few minutes?” Even though I asked it like a question, it was more of an order. I needed her away from everyone because she is my distraction. A distraction that is too much to deal with while everything falls apart.
She smiles gently and walks towards my room with Aidan. I wait until the door is closed before I lose my shit. “I didn’t join up for this bull shit, guys. We’re brothers and we’re acting like a bunch of little fucking bitches. I’m not going to be a part of something that condones secrets and plans that are kept from everyone,” I seethe.
Slice’s eyes widen as he fully understands my rant for what it is. “I agree with this bastard. How can we be a club if we’re going to keep shit from each other? Did it ever occur to you that I should have known? It’s my woman, guys. Mine! My kid is planted in her belly and you invited a bunch of hitmen to our house? How could you?”
The Bear’s eyes gloss over and I know he feels the shame of what he had done. He should know that he could have ruined a lot of lives here. “I’m the president and I don’t need you to second guess my decisions,” he spits out.
“Come off it!” Bic shouts from the other end of the room. “I’m tired of you fuckers being little babies. Now, we got some real shit to handle and that’s squeezing the dick in the back to get info. You comin’ or are we going to hold hands and talk about our feelings?”
The fifteen of us who are standing in the main room of the clubhouse, walk to the back to ask the questions we have been dying to know the answer to.
“Hold on a minute,” The Bear states before walking into the courtyard again. He comes back in with a sickening smirk on his face.
“What the hell did you just do?” Bic asks him.
“Counting the bodies to make sure none of them are ours.”
This man is sick.
Out of the ten or so mother fuckers that crashed into our house and shook the safety of us, there is one left. Jen’s husband died and so did her father. I don’t have any idea how she’s handling it but I’m not going to sit around and ask.
Since I’m just a meat shield, or some stupid shit like that, I stay in the background and wait to see if I’m needed.
The Bear is slipping on his brass knuckles and so is Slice. I can tell that this is mainly going to be their show so I’m just going to wait to see what we gather from this asshole.
“Why did you come to my house?” Our president asks with venom.
The guy in the chair rolls his head to the side with more attitude than what was needed. “You trailer trash assholes-”
Slice punches him in the stomach. “No need for name calling,” he tsks.
With a grunt, the man rolls up to ease the pain in his stomach. “We want the money that the bitch stole from us.”
The Bear growls. “Oh, you mean the money that my woman stole from you? You want it back?” He goads with a smirk. “Well, guess what. We will call it collateral damage since you fuckers charged through my clubhouse.”
“You shot up our cars! What the fuck did you think was going to happen?”
I roll my eyes. Our president was stupider than shit when he didn’t think about what could happen. The retaliation of every action is always going to be multiplied. Even the best laid plans, can still be destroyed.
I walk towards the outside of the room and grab a canister of gasoline. With a flick of my Bic, I draw the attention to me. “What the fuck were you planning?” I ask him nicely while dousing the floor around him with the gasoline.
Truth be told, I hate fucking fire but the fear of being burned alive is enough to get people talking and spilling their guts.
Half Nut, Trip and the other guys step back to watch me do what I do best. Intimidate the opponent. I flick the lighter again. “I want to know a few things about what you’re planning on doing. Are you going to talk or do I need to use force? I would hate to use force. You know, with the whole identifying the body shit… Might be kind of hard if you don’t have much of a body to identify.”
The man starts shaking in his chair at the thought of me burning him alive. I love the smell of fear and the adrenaline it gives me. “One more time. What was your plan?”
“Okay, okay, okay! Put the lighter away and I’ll tell you everything!” He begs.
My president nods his head to tell me to follow the direction given to me by this dumbass. I slip it into my breast pocket of my cut but I still hold the gasoline tank in my hand. Carefully, I shake it so it makes the splash sound.
“Go on,” The Bear instructs.
“Jen stole over sixty million dollars from Jimmy and that was money that was promised to us! That money was supposed to pay us off for finding her and getting her to give the money back. She stole hundreds of thousands of dollars years ago and disappeared and now she stole
millions from the bank. We need to get fucking paid!” He spits out.
The man looks like a typical hitman with his slicked back hair and stupid suit you would wear to a church thing.
I smirk. “You mean to tell me, that Ol’ Blue stole that much money from you losers and you’re just now trying to get it back? Where the hell did you learn how to be gangsters?” I joke with a laugh.
The guys behind me start to chuckle as well but it’s Bic that puts an end to everything. He walks up to the man in the chair and places his knife to his throat. Methodically, he presses it down just enough to draw blood.
“What was your plan after that? Why bring The Plague in?”
He gasps but tells us what we want to know. What we need to know to get these assholes wiped off the face of the earth. I spill a little more of the gasoline and breathe through my mouth so I don’t inhale the gas.
“They hate you as much as we do. They were just collateral damage. No one gives a shit about stupid ass bikers.”
Slice slips off his brass knuckles. “You mean, you don’t give a shit about bikers? You used them as pawns?”
For a second, it almost sounds as if he’s siding with The Plague. But I know better. He’s trying to extract the information from this idiot.
The man in the chair, shakes his head and hisses out to us. “We used them to get to you. They led us to your front door. They must really hate you fucking bastards to work with the mob.”
Knowing that it’s the end, I pour the rest of the gasoline on the floor and wait for everyone to get out of the room. Once all the brothers are out, I flick my Bic again but this time I drop it on the floor.
The sounds of him screaming echo in my ears but I don’t give two shits about what kind of shit he was spreading. I’m ready to get my woman and our kid out of here.
I walk towards my room as the brothers file away from the room that’s on fire with the body of a disgusting rodent in there. The mob is a nasty organization that needs to be destroyed, but I have other things to worry about now. I need to get my woman and get her out of here.
“Hey, precious,” I call through the door.
Britney’s spread out on my bed with Aidan curled up on her side. She’s got her phone out with a quizzical look on her face. “Hey, everything all right?” She asks me with sincerity.
“Yeah, it will be. Let’s go home.” I take long strides to get to her side to grab Aidan. Once he’s secured in my arms, I use the other arm to lead her out of here.
The men are staring at me with curiosity on their faces but I don’t give a shit. I need to get out of this clubhouse. For the first time in my lifetime of being a brother of the Lucifer’s Lair MC, I wonder why the fuck I joined up. This isn’t brotherhood. This is fucking a band of individuals.
“I’m gonna take my woman home,” I state and grab Britney’s elbow to lead her away.
I needed to be with her more than I needed to be around to watch Slice and The Bear have a lover’s quarrel over what happened. Plus, I don’t want to be here right now. It might make me a bad brother, but taking care of Britney is more important than taking care of the brotherhood.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re goin’?” The Bear orders.
“I’m takin’ my woman home. I’m gonna take care of her and Aidan. I’ll be back in a little while,” I state and walk away.
Before we could leave the compound, we walk right past Mack Truck who’s sitting in the back of the ambulance with a scowl on his face. I could tell he’s pissed about something but the last thing I need is for him to spit more shit to Brit.
“Brit! Wait!” He calls from the back of the ambulance. His shirt was cut off and the paramedics are giving him a once over to make sure he’s going to be okay.
I don’t have the time to deal with whatever bull shit he’s going to spit right now. I need to make sure that Brit’s going to be okay and take care of Aidan.
I lead Brit away but then I hear someone wrestling in the background. “Mr. Bradley! Get back here!” A feminine voice calls out.
“No! I have to fix this!”
Brit tightens her back and glares at Mack Truck. “Don’t you dare!” She shouts but he keeps walking towards her. “Stop!” She yells louder than ever. “You said enough.”
“Please, listen to me! Please! You don’t understand,” he begs.
Knowing that my woman has had enough of all the shit that happened today, I lead her away from him. I can’t have her scared to come back here or for her to think that I’m going to allow him to spout this bull shit to her. He’s hurt her enough.
“Stop! Mack Truck, you’re my brother but you need to leave her alone!”
Before he could say anything else, I have both Brit and Aidan tucked in her car and we’re driving to her house.
By the time I pulled into her apartment’s parking lot, I look over at Britney’s stunned face. She’s quiet and so is Aidan. Aidan’s always been a pretty quiet kid so I’m not too worried about him but Britney’s got the short end of the stick today.
“Let’s go inside and get Aidan set up with a movie or something and we can talk,” she says to me with her melodic voice.
I’m nodding and turning off her car. There’s something about riding around in a cage that’s claustrophobic to me. It feels as if the insides of the car are squeezing me and about to make my eyeballs pop out or some shit. Melodramatic? No. Bikers are meant to ride and we’re not meant to be stuffed in cars like the civilians.
I open the door for Aidan to climb out of his car seat and he looks at me with wild eyes. “What happened, Flip?”
I ruffle the top of his head in hopes of it calming him down. “Little buddy, there are somethings that happen in this world that are hard to explain. You have to believe me when I say this was an accident.”
I’m lying to a kid right now because this wasn’t an accident. This was something that has been in the works for a while- ever since we killed Fang.
Jimmy McSimmons, Jen’s husband, or dead husband now, had been supplying meth and cocaine to The Plague in exchange for information on us. I know that he got enough information to track her down but other than that, I don’t know shit about this money that she supposedly stole.
If she stole money, that’s something she did on her own and it had nothing to do with the club. At least I fucking hope it didn’t.
As I lead a confused kid and his mother to her apartment, I’m trying harder and harder to wrap my mind around the fact that Lucifer’s Lair could have been held responsible for the money that had been moved around.
Brit’s got Aidan’s hand in hers and they are walking to her bedroom. I hear the television turn on and Aidan’s request to watch Cars. While she’s tending to him, I shrug out of my cut, folding it neatly before throwing it on her kitchen table.
I love my brothers, but right now I need to be Dylan Kingman and figure out what I’m going to do with my woman.
MACK TRUCK
I was cold. I was scared. I was too young to know what the hell to do to find Kayla. I knew that I needed to find her as quick as possible.
The worst part? We were too broke to have cell phones. There’s no way for me to know how to get to her.
It’s dark out. I’ve been searching through the woods for the past three hours- or at least it seems to be three hours. It’s been a long time.
“Kayla!” I yell into the woods with my voice growing hoarse from yelling. I’ve been yelling nonstop this whole time trying to see if I can find her.
Nothing. Not one sound.
“Kayla!” I yell again.
A branch snaps behind me before a hand lands on my shoulder.
I scream and jump out from under the hold. “What the-” I begin stubbornly.
“Son,” the man says from behind me.
Knowing that I’m already in trouble and I’m the only one who could find Kayla, I decide to push off the rage on him. “I’m not your son,” I spit.
I look up at the face
of the man who has stopped my search of my missing baby sister. He’s taller than me, huskier, too. He’s got nice eyes but I recognize that his uniform is a cop’s uniform.
He smiles at me hesitantly. “Boy, why are you yelling? You have scared the other campers into calling me. What’s got you so upset?” The cop questions me with a pad of paper and a pen in his hand.
For a second, I contemplate how to run away. From my experience and how I’ve grown up, cops are the last people you can trust. They only care about themselves and no one else. This guy is probably the same way.
I look to my left to see the cluster of trees. Squinting, I try to see if there’s a way that I can squeeze through the trees.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he says like he knows what I’m thinking.
“What was I gonna do?” I question him.
He crosses his arms. “I know a runaway kid when I see one. Who did you lose?”
Giving up, I tell him. “My sister. We were sleeping and she ran off. I can’t find her anywhere.”
The cop smiles sympathetically. “All right, where were you sleeping?”
I point to the tent’s direction that is lost in the cluster of trees. “Over there, in a tent.”
“When was the last time you saw her?” He’s writing information down now after uncrossing his arms.
“Last night. I don’t know where she could have gone.”
“Where are your parents?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
He smiles a little. “Kid, what’s your name?”
“Wayne,” I murmur while looking around the clearing in hopes of a clue as to where Kayla ran off to. “Wayne Bradley and my sister is Kayla Bradley.”
“Where ya from?”
Shit! I begin to panic while I try to find a way out of this. I know I’m in trouble already from running away but I also took Kayla. If he finds out where I’m from, he’s going to send us back and I can’t have that.
“I don’t know,” I answer again. This seems to be a common trend. I don’t know anything about anything besides getting Kayla and finding a way out of here.