by Ambere Sabo
“Agreed,” Rodeo tells the room. “Alright, let’s figure out when this shit is going down and how. Any suggestions?”
Chapter 28
Angel
I sit at the bar with mi Reina and Lil, having a drink while we wait for the men to finish up with church. Usually, mi Reina is right beside Venom at the table, but tonight she sits out here with us, drinking her regular tequila. Lil has a Malibu and pineapple, which causes me to giggle.
Tilting her head at me, confusion crosses her face. “What’s so funny?” Lil asks.
My smile grows at the memory. “There’s a member of the Dominion who thought that would be my favorite drink,” I tell her, gesturing to her glass.
Picking it up, she takes a sip. A soft sigh escapes her as she swallows. “You don’t like it?”
“She’s a jack and coke girl, just like I knew she’d be,” Havoc says coming up behind me. “Come with me?” he asks holding his hand out to me.
Looking from his hand back to my friends, I ask Lil, “You good?” We’ve been sitting out here with her in comfortable silence for a while now. She was in Gunner’s room for almost an hour by herself after Wrecker was killed. Then she came out and asked us to drink with her. Neither mi Reina or myself asked her anything. We just did as she asked and drank.
Lil nods at me, and Cessy tells me with a smile, “I’ve got her, Angel. It’s ok. Go.”
Taking his hand, I hop down from the barstool and trail behind him to the garage. He walks to his bike and without so much as a word to me and climbs on. This puto has some nerve. He’s barely looked my direction in days, and he just expects me to jump on the back of his bike without so much as a word to where we're going? Who the hell does he think he is? Planting my hands on my hips, I tap my foot at him.
Noticing the tapping, he turns around at looks at me. His shoulders sag in defeat. “Look, sweet cheeks, I know I fucked up this week. I’m trying to make it up to you. Please get on the bike,” he pleads.
Huffing out a breath, I think about it for a minute. “Fine.” I climb on, making sure to keep some space between us. I can’t let myself lean into his warmth. It would hurt too much when he took it away again.
He drives out of the garage, and we just ride. The sun’s almost set, and the sky is gorgeous. The purples and pinks painted across the heavens calm me as I hug myself to Havoc. Damn, my body seems to have a mind of its own. Oh well. It’s just for a little while. He must’ve showered, thank God, because he smells of soap. He pulls off the road and rides for what feels like miles. He finally starts to slow down. I don’t have a clue where we are, but it’s beautiful.
In the distance, I see something that looks like a mountain of rock, but where we park is nothing but a field of grass. Scrambling off his bike, I put some distance between us and ask, “Where are we?”
Pointing to the dome, he squints and answers, “That’s Enchanted Rock. But where we are, is nowhere and everywhere all at once.” He pulls a light blanket from his saddlebag and gets off his bike.
Nowhere and everywhere, what the hell? Has he lost his mind? I don’t even know what that means.
Sighing out, he walks a few feet from me and spreads the blanket out on the ground. “This is my place to hide, Angel.” He spins in a circle, gesturing to the land around us. “Whenever I need a break from anything or anyone, I come here. Come sit with me,” he finishes, sitting down and patting the blanket beside him.
“My ma brought us out here every summer when we were kids. Well to the campground anyway. I’ve always loved it here.”
Moving to sit beside him, I ask, “Why?”
“Look up, sweet cheeks,” he tells me as he leans back on the blanket, sinking onto his elbows.
Turning my face to the sky, I see it. It isn’t dark just yet, but the stars are already on full display, twinkling without a care in the world. The sight takes my breath away. “It’s beautiful,” I whisper.
“So are you.”
Looking over at him, my eyes clash with his. He stares at me in a way no one has in a very long time, if ever at all. Like nothing else in the world matters but me.
Smirking, I try to lighten the moment, “Should we start calling you Casanova now?”
With a chuckle, he runs a hand through his shaggy locks. “You’re not going to make this easy on me, are ya, sweet cheeks?”
Looking back to the sky, I answer, “Would I be the girl you’ve come to know if I did?”
The laugh that booms out of him catches me off guard, but I can’t help but smile. “No, sweet cheeks, you wouldn’t.”
Turning to his side he stretches out across the blanket, watching me take in the sky. It truly is a masterpiece. “I’m sorry for the last few days, sweet cheeks. I was angry for all the wrong reasons. But I took it out on you, and it wasn’t your fault.”
“Why were your reasons wrong?” I question, as my brows knit together and I turn to face him.
Reaching up he smooths out the skin, wrinkling my brow. His touch on my skin feels better than it should. “You’ll get wrinkles, beautiful.”
His finger continues stroking my skin, like he’s trying to get his fill of me in these few moments. He takes a minute to answer my question, but finally, with a sigh, he replies, “At the farm, all I could think about was my need for revenge. About how much I wanted to finally end that motherfucker. Hell, if you hadn’t been there I would have.” His fingers trace across my cheek, absentmindedly. He casts his eyes to the stars, gathering his thoughts.
With a sigh, he looks back at me and continues, “You were right though. We needed the answers that only he could give. We wouldn’t have a plan in place to get Rose back without them. I was angry with you for stopping me at the farm. But that anger was soon replaced by a more consuming rage. I was angry for all the shit Wrecker put me and my sisters through. By the time I realized what I was really mad about, I’d already been an ass to you. But instead of apologizing like I should have, I ignored you.”
Looking back to the sky like the answers to all the universe’s questions could be found there, he drops his hand from my cheek and clenches it into a fist at his side. His voice is low when he continues, “The things he said to me over the last few days…” A shudder wracks his body. “Reminding me of all the times he brought me along when he hurt people and made me watch. How I turned out just like he wanted me to. How he planned…” Trailing off, he doesn’t finish his thought, but I can see the wheels turning in his head.
Reaching up, I turn his face to mine. I can barely make out his features with the sun finally set. “Havoc, you are not your father.”
“How can you know that sweet cheeks,” his tone is raw, like the words scraped his throat on the way out. Damn, I wish I could see his face better.
“I may not have known you long, Havoc, but you’d never do the things Wrecker has. You had more than one opportunity to give me to the cartel in exchange for Rose. Hell, you had plenty of chances to leave me on the side of the road and be done with it, but you didn’t. Shit, you could’ve refused to even take me along with you in the first place. You may be a hardheaded ass, but you are not him.”
“But I hurt people, Angel.” The pain in his voice very nearly undoes me. “You saw that today when you walked in on me with Wrecker.”
Sighing, I answer, “Yes, yes you have, and you do. But you don’t purposely hurt people that haven’t done something to deserve it. You chose to listen to Lynch and Venom that day years ago. To stop hurting anyone and everyone in your path. Helping Venom is your outlet remember.”
His eyes track back and forth, searching mine. “And that doesn’t bother you?”
“I’m not saying that I want to watch you in action or anything. But I can understand it.”
“Do you think it was fate that brought you to me?” he asks. Where the hell did that question come from? My mind reels as I try to grasp onto an answer. He doesn’t give me a chance to answer though. Reaching over, he grasps me around the waist and pulls m
e to him, erasing the distance I had left between our bodies when I sat down. His other hand sinks into my hair, anchoring my head in place as he takes my mouth in a demanding kiss. The kiss is heat and lust. It’s heaven and need. It’s everything.
“Lay down, sweet cheeks,” he rasps out against my lips when he finally lets me come up for air.
Doing as he asks, I lie down on the blanket. I’ve never been a dress kind of girl, but right now as Havoc slides his hand under the short summer dress that Lil gave me, I may have to rethink that. Goosebumps follow the path of his fingers up my leg. Pushing my panties to the side, he slips two fingers into me. His eyes are intense, watchful of my reaction. Bending down, he places a soft kiss to my lips.
He kisses along my jaw, nipping at my ear, all while continuing to work his fingers in ways that make my heart race. Moving down my neck to my breasts, he bites at my peaked nipples through the thin cloth. Using his chin, he nudges the stretchy material of the neckline aside, and he takes my nipple into his mouth, sucking and licking. Between his mouth and fingers, I’m climaxing in no time at all. I’m not sure if the stars filling my vision are from the night sky or if my climax is making me see bursts of light behind my eyelids.
Pulling his hand from beneath my dress, he yanks my panties off. I only have a moment to catch my breath before he’s filling me again. He’s gentle with me, taking his time with each stroke. It’s too dark to see his face, but the sky is painted with stars, and it’s utterly breathtaking. I don’t know if I believe in fate or not, but at this moment, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here on this blanket with a man who just might have my heart.
Chapter 29
Havoc
Three weeks! I’m so frustrated with the waiting game. It’s been three damn weeks trying to get this fucking raid planned out. Hyde and Rodeo decided to coordinate with the EPPD task force. I get it, I really do. They know more about these fuckers than any of us do. But Jesus Christ, could they take any longer? We don’t need all the stars and planets in proper fucking alignment to go in.
Venom and I will be a part of the group that goes through the tunnel into the compound. Gunner and Dash from the Sons will be with us as well. From the Reapers, we’ve got Jekyll and Savage. Redneck and Ink will be with us from the Dominion club. A couple of guys from the task force will join us too.
Prez wanted a show of strength from the clubs, and he got one. All the other members of the Sons and Reapers will be riding out behind him and Wraith. We even have a couple sister chapters lending us some brothers as well. After losing some of their members in December, we weren’t sure how they’d feel about coming to our aid again, but some of them want the cartel dealt with as much as we do.
The Dominion members are going to hold down this side of the border. They’ll be posted at the warehouse where the tunnel is and ready to help us when we get out. I’m not looking forward to seeing Hoser’s fucking face when we get back stateside, but he’s a trained EMT and can help anyone who’s been injured, so I’ll fucking deal with it. The chances that no one will get hurt are pretty slim, and we all know that.
Tomorrow morning, we ride out to El Paso. The group of us going in the tunnel will leave first the next day. We have a hell of a walk with that tunnel. It's damn near seven miles long, and we have no clue what to expect when we get inside. The bikes would be too loud in a tunnel and defeat the purpose of a sneak attack, so walking is our only option.
Not that we have a damn clue if there’s any type of monitoring going on in the tunnel already. Not even Snoopy and his network of hackers could help us with that shit. I don’t like not knowing what we’re walking into, but I can’t let any of that negativity into my head right now. It’ll just make me overthink that shit and drive me fucking crazy.
When Cessy comes knocking at the door, I’m packing my shit. “What’s up?” I whisper. Angel is still sound asleep in my bed, and I’d rather not wake her. None of the females around here are very fucking happy at the moment, and I’m damn tired of fighting with them.
“We need to talk,” Cessy tells me. Her voice sounds off.
“Alright, give me a sec,” I tell her. Grabbing my cut from the chair, I kiss Angel's forehead and walk out the door.
I follow Cessy down to the bar area, making my stance known on the way, “If this is about tomorrow, Cess, you won’t get any help from me. I agree with the Rodeo a hundred percent about y’all not coming to Mexico with us.”
She makes a sharp turn and heads outside. Silence meets my statement. She doesn’t say a word to me until she sits down next to the pool, dropping her feet in the water. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asks as she turns to look at me.
“Tell you what, Cessy?” I ask, confused as hell. Lord knows what she thinks I didn’t tell her, and I’m not putting my foot in my fucking mouth until I know what she's talking about.
“About the dancer, you never told me that you knew about what Wrecker did to her.”
My body tenses, I don’t want to talk about this shit. If I’m honest with myself, I’ve been avoiding this conversation since she saw Wrecker’s face the day we ended his life.
Huffing out a breath, I pull up a chair to sit beside her. “It wasn’t something you needed to know.”
Rage flashes in her eyes as she yells, “I didn’t need to know that Wrecker hurt that poor girl? And for what huh? Why did he do that to her?” She draws in a ragged breath, and I clench my fists in preparation of what she hurls at me next. “Or I didn’t need to know that you knew about it and didn’t say a fucking word? I could’ve talked to my pops. He could’ve made Wrecker pay for what he did to her.”
My fingers are clenched so tightly that they actually ache. She’s my best friend, and I love her, but I won’t stand for this shit. “You really think he didn’t fucking know, Reine,” I exclaim. “She was a dancer at the club. Do you think he didn’t know about all the shit that went down in that fucking place? That someone wouldn’t have told him that Wrecker cut up one of his dancers and put her in the damn hospital?”
“He would never have been okay with that,” she screams at me.
“How do you know about any of this shit anyway?” I growl.
“The girls always stayed away from Wrecker. Even when I was just a bartender there, they avoided him like the plague. He came in a few times, and only Tempest would willingly dance for him. All the others kept their distance, and I wanted to know why. Never did I imagine they’d tell me the story they did. He cut that girls face up over what? A dance?”
A cold laugh rumbles up from me, and Cessy is taken back by it. She has no fucking clue about what actually happened. “He did that because she was paid to fuck me, Reine. To make me a man when I was sixteen years old, and I ran from her. From that damn club. To Wrecker she didn’t deliver on services he’d already paid her for and when she couldn’t give him back his money he took it from her skin. And do you know what your pops did, Reine? Do you? He paid her to disappear.”
Gasping, she draws her hand to her mouth. Tears shimmer in her eyes. “He wouldn’t.”
“He would, and he did, Reine,” my voice a whisper now. I know what I’m telling her is hurting her, but I can’t lie to her anymore. “I don’t know the man you grew to love, but the man that was there when I ran from the Reapers was not the same guy you loved.”
“You’re lying,” she screams.
“That girl and I have more in common than you think, Reine. She may wear her scars out in the open, but that doesn’t mean I don’t bear my own. I know everything that happened to her, and I live with the guilt of it every damn day. Believe me or not about your pops, I don’t give a fuck.”
I stand to leave, completely over this conversation, when she challenges me in a way I never thought my best friend would.
“Prove it,” she demands.
Turning my back to her so I can walk away, I rip my shirt off over my head and let her see the scars of my past. No one but Angel has ever seen them. I ha
ven’t gone shirtless in front of someone else in over ten years. Her gasp is the only indication that she’s actually seen them. I don’t say a fucking word to her before I stomp back into the clubhouse heading for the only person who can calm me right now, Angel.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I ignore the wolf whistles from my brothers and the questions they throw out at me about my back. I’m done hiding, done being ashamed of what the scars represented. I didn’t hurt that girl. Wrecker did. Fuck what everyone else thinks. It’s time to move on from the sins of my father.
Chapter 30
Angel
Sitting in Ed’s right now fucking sucks! These pendejos wouldn’t let any of us go with them. Mi Reina, Lil and I all sit at the damn bar, mad as hell. They actually left Casanova and a few other members here to babysit us.
Do I understand their logic? Yes, but that doesn’t mean I have to fucking like it.
With all the commotion they’re trying to cause, I doubt the cartel would’ve even noticed the three of us in the crowd of people making that ride. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway. If we aren’t allowed to go, I wish we would’ve been able to stay at the Sons’ clubhouse.
At least it feels like home there, but their logic won, again. We have no clue if the cartel is anticipating an attack or watching us. The three of us would’ve been sitting ducks had we stayed at the clubhouse with no protection. Again, I get it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Besides being treated like a helpless little girl, the tension is so high. I can barely look at Cessy. I understand why Havoc never told her about that dancer and what happened to her. Or even what her father did. Right now, she’s too blinded by the love of her father to remember the man he was when she was younger. No matter what he did in the past, he was still her father. But she has to know that Havoc wouldn’t lie to her about such a thing. The fact that she had the nerve to imply he would, hurt him more than she understands.
