I regarded the men perched on the bar’s stools, as they nursed tumblers of Glenfiddich, their eyes boiling with disgust at the offender who knelt in the middle of the room.
“No one is fucking asking what exactly led to the argument,” Dobson, an edgy, long-haired coward, spoke up in his defense. His hands were shaking with uneasy excitement. He was afraid of danger and yet fascinated by it as some people are fascinated by a venomous snake. “RJ could have a good—”
“Shut the fuck up, you pathetic bastard!” He was instantly shut down by Tyler, the club’s Sargent-at-Arms snarling at him like a wild animal. When he drew his 9 millimeter Sten and pointed it down at RJ’s face, we all snapped to attention. All that was needed for things to go sour had always been only a hair’s breadth away, and none of us ever wanted to be caught unawares.
“There’s no need for this.” Dog stepped in cautiously. Pulling out a dirty, screwed up handkerchief he wiped the sweat pouring down his temples with it. The fatty pouches under his eyes were a muddy brown color. “True, RJ did wrong, but for harassing him the way they did … and taking his vest. That’s unforgivable. It’s a disrespect that we cannot accept.”
Unmoved, Tyler cocked his gun.
Deathly silence followed the sound.
“Calm down, Tyler,’ Snake ordered coldly. He was a man black in heart, without culture or religion, violent, and avaricious. You only had to look into his eyes to know his soul was rotten.
“Tell us, idiot. How you gonna fucking fix this?” Tyler asked RJ, but he’d lowered his gun while a muscle high up along his right eye kept twitching restlessly.
RJ remained silent, but the rebellious glare of resentment he gave Tyler showed his complete lack of remorse for his actions. More importantly, he understood the danger was over, Snake had spoken. And he knew better than to question Snake. Especially not if he planned on becoming the Vice President of our club.
I knew Snake wanted RJ alive because of his eagerness to take on even the most distasteful tasks. Ones that even the most senior members may have had reservations in handling.
“We’re going to have to meet,” Snake said, moving his psychopathic stone-cold gray eyes slowly around the room. “There’s a drag race down at Route 89 in two weeks. We’re either going to get things resolved then, or escalate this into an all-out war.”
“War. Fuck that!” Rooster swore violently. Lighting his cigarette, he flicked the match at RJ’s bloody head. “If they refuse to back down, we’ll just offer this piece of shit’s head to them, and get the vest back.”
“How about we send a message over?” Skippy suggested, his pale eyes probing. He had a surprisingly soft voice for a man his size. “I’ll contact Buzzer and have him speak to his men. Otherwise, this could turn real ugly, real fucking fast.”
“No messages,” Tyler spat. “We’ll handle this at the race in two weeks.”
Cunningly, Snake allowed Tyler have the last word, as if the decision to handle the matter at the race in two weeks had always been his and not Snake’s.
I didn’t say a word. There was no need to. I’d learned a long time ago the less you spoke the better you fared.
Everybody agreed with Tyler and the hearing was concluded. RJ got off his knees and the men got back to getting drunk.
I made my way to my bedroom in the top corner attic of the club. The place was silent and my shoes made the wood of the stairs creak. I unlocked my door and walked in. It was small and stifling hot, but secluded enough and more importantly, it had a good escape down the rooftop if trouble ever came in a hail of bullets.
I walked around the small space to make sure everything remained exactly as I had left it. I had gone through a lot of trouble to earn this space, both in earnings to the club through arms and drugs sales, and in the house fees required of the members, so I didn’t take the invasion of my space lightly at all.
Then I picked up a bunch of clean clothes and after locking the door, went for a much-needed shower. I stepped into one of the five filthy bathrooms. The tiled floor was soiled and littered with wet toilet paper.
The state of the bathroom was the thing I hated most about living here. Choosing the least disgusting stall, I stripped and stepped under the scalding hot cascade after making a mental note to have a word with Tiffany. She was Tyler’s sister and, in my opinion, was way too lax in her heavily compensated duty of keeping the club house in order. Recently she had started giving me looks, but I wasn’t going there. The last thing I needed was beef with Tyler.
The sound of the gushing water drowned out every other sound, and if I tried hard enough, even my knowledge of where I was and the danger outside this stall. The prisoner forgets his prison. For that instant, I felt the rough bark of a tree, and smelt the scent of the beauty who let her cheek slither against my chest and opened her legs for me. I saw her amber eyes flashing blood and moonlight as I sent her into the deepest abyss I’d ever seen a woman fall into.
Her response had been unexpected.
Her hands had grabbed my hair so hard she ripped some out. I looked down and saw the reddened scrapes her nails had made across my chest when she’d tried to grasp my shirt. I couldn’t help the smile that lifted the corners of my lips. I was glad she left her mark on my body.
But she had been so ashamed she’d been unable to meet my eyes.
She made me feel things in the pit of my stomach I’d forgotten even existed over the last several years. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I’d been drawn to a woman. After the blows life had dealt over the last few years, I’d become numb. I hadn’t been with a woman for years. Every one of them turned my stomach. Their greedy eyes, their grasping hands. For a long time now, I even thought I’d gone off women for good.
But this woman … I wanted to kiss her on her soft head and whisper that I would take care of her and that child she sheltered. I thought of the little girl. It was almost like my little angel had come back to me. One more chance for you, Daddy. Get it right this time, or I’ll go away again and never come back.
I thought of that night she died. I wasn’t even at the hospital. By the time I arrived they had pulled a fucking sheet over her head. The sight took the roar out of my lion heart. Everything I’d done since then was just another attempt to hasten the time I would hold her in my arms again.
My wife never forgave me. We broke up soon after. There wasn’t too much love there anyway, so it was gone the moment the glue that kept us together left. Since then I was a dead man walking.
With Della—something wanted to be resurrected.
From the first moment I lifted my eyes impatiently in the grocery store to see what the delay was and saw her, I’d wanted her. Desperately.
When I recalled how she’d tasted, my cock swelled thickly at the vivid memory. The feel of her breasts in my hand as I’d fondled her full soft mounds, and feel of her small ass, as I cupped it hard and grinded her sex against my cock.
“Fuck,” I swore, as my body filled with longing. My hand fisted my cock brutally. I was convinced now that in the release I sought, I would be able to relieve this need for her.
I imagined her kneeling down in front of me. Those big, beautiful eyes looking up at me as she begged me to fuck her mouth. I saw my cock disappearing into her sweet mouth. Again and again. God above, how I wanted her sweet lips stretched around my dick. Her mouth sucking hard, milking me. The hot stream of arousal began to buzz through my veins and a groan rattled out of my throat.
“Ahhh.” Blindingly hot pleasure shot through me at the force of my pumps. My knees buckled at the ripple of ecstasy that danced along the edges of my nerves, so close but still out of reach. The memory of her soft body arching and the whimpers as she’d cried out into my palm came to my mind and with one last pump, I exploded.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”
I slapped my hand against the tiled wall to steady myself as my entire body strained forward with the force of the surprise release. Gasping for breath, I glanced down to watc
h myself explode so thickly onto the wall that I was taken aback. It had been a long time. A very long time since I’d come this hard. I stroked my cock to ease out every ounce of pleasure still coursing through me.
I lathered shampoo on my head, finished my shower, and went back upstairs. I collapsed on the bed. Sleep for me was never like the rest of the world had. For me, it was six hours spent fighting ghouls and demons in the bitter cold and the sound of my angel calling for me while doors kept banging shut. One by one.
Tonight I fell into a deep sleep. Without dreams.
Della Ray
I couldn’t fall asleep.
I tossed and turned. My body was dampened with sweat and my mind dazed by the lingering buzz of the orgasm from a few hours earlier.
The hours ticked by slowly as I continuously and despairingly glanced at the clock by my bedside. I knew I’d have to be up in a few hours to begin another exhausting day.
I needed the rest.
The problem was I also needed to be fucked, out of my mind … by Bone.
Filled with frustration, I sat up angrily on the bed. Pushing my hair out of my face, I glanced restlessly into the darkened room. I actually felt possessed. The memory of his kisses and his fingers inside of me, coaxing me to what I now realized was the first real orgasm I’d ever experienced in my life.
And all from three of his damn fingers.
I couldn’t believe it … I was flustered and overheated and all because of three firm digits. What would happen then if he plunged his cock in me?
I wanted to find out.
Collapsing back on the bed, I pressed my swollen clit in search for some sort of relief, but my trembling fingers seemed ineffective and hopeless. Maybe I needed something more. For the first time I started to wonder why I had never thought of buying any toys.
Nichole didn’t have any either, and I wondered how uneventful both of our sex lives had been thus far, to not even having considered owning one. As I slipped my fingers into myself once again, I knew the answer to the question. We were both sexual innocents. I had most definitely never felt anything like this before and I was certain I could speak for her too.
I’d heard it was more the person than the act, but I ‘d never understood it until today. I didn’t even know his name, so what was it about Bone that made a good fuck the only way I could fall asleep tonight?
I wished more than anything I had at least taken his phone number. I swore the next time I laid eyes on him, if I ever laid eyes on him again, that was the first thing I would ask of him. It didn’t matter what he would think of me. My pride had no say whatsoever in this regard. After all, by now, he must think I was the biggest slut in town. Turning, I pounded my hand into my pillow and screamed soundlessly into it.
I froze when the door to my room creaked open.
I thought Nichole had heard me and come into my room, but when I didn’t hear much of a sound, I lifted my head and saw my beautiful baby at the door, sucking on her thumb as she cradled her favorite stuffed animal in her other hand.
I immediately sat up, alarmed. “Jess,” I called, holding out my hand to her.
She came over to me and I lifted her into my arms and onto my lap. “Are you all right?”
She buried her face in my neck silently.
This soft gentle act immediately calmed me. “Did you have a nightmare?” I asked.
When she didn’t respond, I laid with her on my bed and snuggled up to her warm soft body. “Go to sleep and we’ll water the wild flowers tomorrow, okay?”
That always worked. She gave a small nod.
I stroked her hair and slowly, she brought sanity back to me. I almost felt a bit of shame at the thoughts and the state I had been in before she came into the room. She was just the balm I need to calm the storm Bones had stirred up inside me. I listened to the gentle rise and fall of her breathing until I joined her in peaceful slumber.
* * *
I had snoozed the alarm clock twice and consequently was running late for my shift at the diner.
Nichole had left early, Jess had crept out of bed and was quietly playing with her toys in her room, so the house was quiet as I jumped out of bed in a panic. I quickly cleaned Jess and myself up, put on the nearest clothes we could find, poured some cereal down her throat, and was out of the house as swiftly as I could manage.
Not before I saw the message Nichole had left propped up on the kitchen counter.
Need to talk to you tonight.
Other than the three times we had to stop, so Jess could lovingly water the wild weeds growing between the sidewalks, we made good time and we arrived at her daycare on time. I couldn’t just drop her off like other parents though, I had to linger while Jess clasped my hand and didn’t let go with the usual fright in her eyes at being away from me for such an extended period of time. Her teacher had said once it was probably just her mirroring the concern always boiling in the pit of my stomach. I always felt terrified she would be bullied by the other children. She never was. The other children were extra gentle with her.
Eventually, I had to run and leave her to face the big bad world on her own.
I arrived to work almost fifteen minutes late, but luckily the owner, Sandy was also nowhere to be found. Sighing in relief, I got to work and tried to settle into the flow of the day. My heart however, kept jumping every time the bell dinged with the arrival of a new customer.
Then came the disappointment that it was not whom I hoped it would be. It turned my mood darker and darker with each passing hour.
He is not meant to be in your life, I reminded myself.
My head fully understood and accepted this fact, but my heart was deaf. I became jumpy and irritable, and by the time lunch break came around, I was more than ready to take the quick rest.
Gloria came over to perch in my corner, brimming with curiosity at how my perceived theft from her had worked out. “Did you go home with him last night?”
I almost choked on the sandwich I was trying to get through before my time ran out.
She wasn’t put off by the ‘what the hell’ look I gave her either.
“You snatched him away from me,” she stated with a shrug. “The least you can do is come back with some stories.”
I realized she was already over it, so I eased off and took things easy. “I didn’t go home with him, Gloria. I just owed him a little debt which I have now repaid.”
“Debt?” she asked her eyes gleaming with curiosity. “Wow! Did you borrow money from his club? That could get you killed if things went awry, you know.”
I swallowed the food in my mouth. “Why would I borrow money from them and why would things go awry?”
“Well, you have borrowed money from everyone in this diner before, so there’s nothing strange about that.”
I stilled.
But she went on, completely oblivious to the insult she had so casually thrown out, “And of course, things could go cockeyed. Don’t you know how vicious these outlaws are?”
“She’s right,” Allan commented as he flipped a patty. “My cousin Gusto was a hang-around for the outlaws for about two years before they even allowed him to become a prospect. It’s his third year and he’s still yet to receive his patch.”
“What’s a hang-around? And a prospect? And a patch? Is that their logo?”
They both turned to me in surprise.
“Outlaw clubs are quite active around here. How come you’re not the least bit aware of them?” Allan asked.
I knew they were quite active in town and had heard of the trouble they caused in certain drinking joints, but I had never had time to really consider them because my own life was in such a mess. I bit my lip and tried to sound natural. “Um … they’re into drug trafficking aren’t they?”
“Drug trafficking is the least of what they do.” Gloria shrugged. “They also deal in weapons. Worse, I heard they sometimes kidnap girls and gang rape them. After the girl dies from all the abuse, they bury them in the desert.
”
I stared at Gloria in horror.
“And they’re constantly having wars,” Allan added. “You didn’t hear of the mass shoot out at one of the Club’s parties last summer? Almost 200 members were arrested. Some of them were thrown in jail, but they have so much money, they just buy their way out.”
“Jesus …” I gulped.
“That’s right,” Gloria said, nodding with a knowing expression. “More than twenty-five ended up dead that night.”
“Oh, my God,” I whispered.
“It all started about six months ago when there was some sort of explosion in one of their clubhouses,” she continued. “It completely went up in flames and burned about six of their members alive. Ever since then, it’s been war between the clubs.”
I listened to them, terror slowly beginning to creep up my spine. “Why would they be involved in so much violence?”
“They’re fucking animals fighting for territory,” Allan explained calmly. “Even the cops are barely able to get a handle on them.”
“That’s not right,” Gloria said. “One of the rival clubs harassed another club’s member and took his vests from him. The club’s patch is attached to that vest and to them, that patch is a badge of honor like no other. The first one to go was the club’s president, Hammer. He was on his bike at a red light when a truck pulled up and he was blasted with seven bullets. Died on the spot. It was pure war from then on.”
I gaped at her, frozen in place.
Gloria burst into laughter at my expression. “Still, I would have slept with the one that came in last night.” Then she walked away to handle her section.
Allan looked at me with concern. “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” I responded quickly.
He dinged the bell to signify a readied order.
It made me jump.
“Why are you so shaken?” he asked.
“I’m not,” I retorted, embarrassed that I knew so little about life around me. Jumping up, I picked up the steaming plate from the counter and started walking away.
Saving Della-Ray Page 6
