by Erin Trejo
“Stupid bitch!” one yells before another hit crashes into my face. I swing again, trying to connect but there’s no use. There are too many of them. The blows knock me to the ground. I’m held down by her squad yet I try to fight. It’s no use. I can’t fight them all off.
Chapter Eight
I crack my knuckles and my neck. My guns ready and tucked into the back of my jeans. The guys are all around me, armed and ready to move in. They’re just waiting on my signal. And when I give it, they all move.
We cross the empty parking lot, me pulling my gun from the back of my jeans as I move. We’re ready for this. Taking back what’s ours.
When we’re close enough to the door we can kick it in, Drake does and we all move in. Shots are fired immediately by all of us until I speak.
“We only want your prez!” I call out. The shots stop and someone growls. I know it’s him. The bastard who stole our shipment.
“Fire back!” he roars but no one listens. Instead, Dart, the VP walks out from behind the wall he was taking cover behind and strolls toward us, his gun in the air.
“Don’t want no problems,” he says.
“Already have those for stealin’ our shit!” I growl.
“Wasn’t on us, Demon. He gave the orders. We followed them.”
“Shut the fuck up, Dart!” There he is. The bastard of the moment. Brick.
“You wanna handle this the right way, Brick? Stealin’ from the Royal Bastards wasn’t your smartest move. You’re the only other MC in a fifty-mile radius and you think we wouldn’t figure that out?” I ask cocking my head to the side in a condescending way.
“It seems to be ours now. Don’t you think?” he asks in return.
“I don’t want any shit with your boys. Just you. I make them an offer and what do you think they’ll do?”
“What offer?” Dart asks. They are about ten feet apart but you can feel the tension between the two of them.
“Don’t fuckin’ matter what offer! You follow orders!”
“It does matter when I’m offerin’ a patch over. Your boys deserve a better club than this shit. Stealin’ what you can’t afford is bullshit,” I tell him, and as soon as the words leave my mouth, his gun is raised. I fire first watching his body drop to the ground before sauntering over. Raising my foot, I press it into his chest and stare down at him.
“Wrong choice, motherfucker.” Aiming my gun at his head, I pull the trigger and watch the life zap out of him. It’s always amazed me the quickness that you can kill someone with. One shot. That’s all it takes in the right place of course, but one shot could take a life.
“What do you think, Dart? You got any boys backin’ this motherfucker?” I ask motioning with my gun to the now dead guy on the floor.
“None. No one wanted this shit. I don’t even know how he got in,” he informs me, tucking his gun into the back of his jeans. The others slowly start to filter out from wherever they were taking cover and coming to stand in the middle of the room.
“Patch over or run this club. It’s all on you but I can tell you that runnin’ that shit so close to us isn’t smart.” It wasn’t a threat, more of a warning. No drugs or guns will run in this area but ours, and I’ll make sure of that.
“Patch over sounds fair to me.” I nod my head and look around at the others. There’s only about ten of them so the patch over isn’t anything over the top.
“Good. Let’s load this shit up,” I say to my guys. My guys all move but so do theirs. Our vans are loaded in no time and we’re on our way back to the clubhouse.
“You sure about this patch over?” Drake asks as we walk toward the bikes.
“Can’t hurt, yeah?”
“True. Let’s get the fuck home. I didn’t get enough blood here,” Drake says making me chuckle. The man is a beast.
The ride home doesn’t take long. We weren’t that far off to begin with, but now that our shit is back, we can roll with distribution. And we need to get this out so the money can come in.
One we get to the clubhouse, I climb off my bike and leave my helmet, pulling a cigarette from behind my ear and lighting it up. Taking a long drag, I sigh into the night. Things have been going good around here and I don’t see that changing anytime soon, but still there’s that lingering sense of dread which hasn’t left my side in a while. The unease that always seems to filter in when you least expect it to. I can feel that shit in my bones. I can feel it in the air.
“You feel it too?” Drake asks as we walk toward the door. I nod my head knowing if anyone else felt that shit it would be him. He grunts his response and we head inside. That’s when I see it. The calm before the goddamn storm. Evie is on her knees in front of someone, wiping their face.
“What the fuck is this?” Cheryl’s head pops up and that’s when I see it. Her swollen eye, bloody face.
“What the fuck happened?” Anger eats at my insides as I watch her slowly struggle to her knees, trying to cover her face.
“It’s nothing,” she says.
“Really? It’s nothin’ but your face is all busted up.”
“What the hell happened?” Drake growls next to me. Evie stands to her feet, her hands on her hips and a nasty look on her face.
“What happened was the whore squad jumped her! They were pissed that she wouldn’t invite them into Demon’s room.”
“They know my rooms off limits. Is that true, Cheryl?” She looks to Evie for what? Help? Support? I don’t know but it bothers me anyway.
“Yes.”
“Fuckin’ bullshit!” Drake roars stalking toward Cheryl. I watch him kneel and grab Cheryl’s face a little too roughly, turning it from side to side to take in the marks before standing up and stepping back. “Nothin’s broke but this is fucked up.”
“No shit. Tomorrow I want church and we’ll deal with this,” I say loudly. I don’t know if any of the girls standing in here are the ones who did this, but I do know they will run back and tell whoever it was.
“Don’t do that. I’m nobody, Demon. Don’t kick your girls out,” Cheryl says quickly.
There’s a code amongst the club girls. I’ve always known it and I’ve seen it in action but this isn’t the way we work. We don’t hurt each other, and if the girls want to stick around they would have understood that. I walk over and stop in front of her, reaching down to caress her swollen cheek and looking into her eyes. She’s messing with my head again without even realizing it and I’m not sure how to handle that.
“You aren’t nobody and this doesn’t happen here. I’ll handle it. You did the right thing,” I tell her.
Evie giggles but when I look over at her she sucks her lips between her teeth. Little shit. Drake smirks but I ignore them both and focus on Cheryl. Her face is a mess and I see a bruise on her chest. Taking her hand in mine, I help her up and lead her down the hall to my room and inside. Closing the door behind us I motion for her to sit on the bed before I head into the bathroom and collect what I need to clean her up.
I return to the bed with a wet rag and slowly begin to clean up what Evie hadn’t gotten to. Her face is bruised and I can see the lump on her forehead. Yet I do something so out of character for me. I lean in and press my lips to hers. I kiss her. Not like I usually kiss either. This kiss is softer, easier.
“What was that?” she asks when she pulls back and looks at me, a look of confusion playing across her face.
I don’t have an answer for her. I don’t know what that was. Cheryl messes with my head and when I’m around her. I don’t want to hurt her. I want to kiss her, hold her. I want to tell her things will be okay because I’ll make them okay. Shaking my head, I shove off the bed and pace the floor.
“Tell me who did it.”
“No.”
“Why not? I can make them disappear,” I growl. That’s all I really want to do too. Make them disappear and I don’t know fucking know why.
“I’m not a snitch.”
“You spread your legs for every club member
and you’re not a snitch?” Hurt flashes in front of her eyes and there’s a pinch in my chest. Why did I just say that to her? What the hell is happening to me? I shouldn’t have said that and now seeing the look on her face, I know I hurt her. Fuck what did I do? Why am I trying to hurt her?
Chapter Nine
I shouldn’t have been hurt by his words but I was. Don’t ask me why either because I have no idea. They stung though, just like the cut on my lip does.
He’s asleep in his bed and I’m in the spare bed. I can hear him tossing and turning. It’s been hours. Hours of him groaning and moving to the point I can’t sleep either. I sigh and roll over when he calls out to me.
“Kitten. Come over here,” he says groggily. Tossing the blanket off my body, I climb out of bed and walk slowly over to his. My head is throbbing from the assault earlier as I stand next to his bed. “Get in.” He holds the blanket up for me to climb in and I do slowly. I’m unsure of all this. Of what he wants, but as soon as I lie down, he has me wrapped in his arms, his nose nuzzling into my hair.
“What is this?” I whisper not understanding what he wants from me.
“This is us sleepin’. I’m dead tired, Kitten. Dreams, faces, places. They all haunt me at night.”
“Is that why you toss and turn?” I ask softly.
“It is. I just can’t seem to find a middle ground. Nothin’ I try works. Drinkin’, fuckin’, pills. It all seems to bust through them and into my mind. You ever have that happen?” he asks, his warm breath dancing over my skin. I nod my head and curl into the warm cocoon he created for me. His hard cock is at my ass but he doesn’t make a move to try anything with me. He just…holds me.
“They seem so real at the time,” I whisper.
“They do. And you can’t stop them. They keep comin’ back.”
“I’m broken, Demon.”
“So am I. Unbreak me, Kitten.”
I don’t respond because I don’t know what to say. What is he asking me? What does he think I can do to help him? I can’t do anything. I’m screwed up from a past that I can’t seem to outrun. I’m messed up in the head and there’s no way to fix that.
His breathing evens out and I know he’s asleep. I slip out of his hold and sit on the edge of the bed glaring at him. He’s gorgeous. Long dark hair splayed over his pillow. His large tattooed hand resting on the pillow near his face. Nothing that beautiful should have the name Demon. His past made him but I don’t know his past. And he doesn’t know mine and I will make sure he never finds out the horrible things I’ve done. I will make sure he never has to hear those words.
Slipping out of his bed, I sneak back over to the spare bed and climb under the blankets. Lying on my side, I can watch him sleep peacefully while I stay awake. I don’t want the dreams to come back. I don’t want to be reminded of all the terrible things I’ve done.
As the hours march on, I toss and turn for much of the night when I feel him. He slips into the bed behind me, wrapping me in his arms like he did earlier in the night.
“Sleep, Kitten. I’ll keep them away,” he whispers.
“You can’t. No one can.”
“You kept mine away,” he says through a yawn. He can’t mean that. I didn’t do anything.
“You shouldn’t want me, Demon.”
“And yet I do.”
“I’m not the girl you need,” I whisper.
“You’re the girl I want. And I get what I want, Kitten. I don’t care about your past.”
“You should. The things I’ve done are disgusting,” I tell him although I won’t go any further.
“Just sleep. Now isn’t the time to talk about this. I have you right now and that’s it. You aren’t runnin’ from me,” he says in a tone that tells me not to argue with him. I close my eyes and sigh, Demon pulling me closer.
Just like he said, he kept them away. I didn’t dream about him or what he did to me. I didn’t dream about what he made me do. I was just sleeping. Happy and peaceful and when I wake up in the morning, Demon isn’t in the bed anymore and I find I miss his warmth. I miss his touch. But most of all, I miss the way he calmed the storms inside of me.
Chapter Ten
“The system isn’t workin’!” I growl into the line.
“No shit. That’s what we’re here for,” Venom, the Iowa Royal Bastards Prez, says.
“There’s three that slipped from the fuckin’ court system. Not guilty. Hell, we’re in fuckin’ Savannah and I have the goddamn proof in front of me. Figured I’d pass it along since you’re up there,” I tell him. I hate pedophiles. If there was one thing I enjoy it’s killing them. Children are a hard line for me. You cross that line and you cross me and my club. Most of the other Royal Bastards are the same, which is why when I heard about this shit, I called Venom.
“Send me what you got, brother. I’ll make sure I handle that shit in a timely manner. We don’t let shit like that fly around here,” Venom adds.
“I’ll get it to you now. You fuckers headin’ to the rally?”
“Not this time. We got too much shit on our plates to head that way. Catch you next round,” he says.
“Heard that.” I hang up and run my thumb across my chin thinking about shit. I don’t like knowing there are pedophiles out there but you will never get rid of them all. But fuck if we won’t try!
The rally is in a few days and I’m excited to get there early. We do this every year and the underground fight ring is where you’ll find me most of the time. I love the fight. I love the pain and the adrenaline. I just hope my new kitten feels the same. She’s going with me whether she likes it or not.
Shoving out of my chair, I leave the office, heading into the main room. I spot her across the room with Evie and the baby again. She seems to spend a lot of time with her and it makes me wonder. The other girls haven’t taken to her aside from Cali and a few select others. And while I have an idea as to who jumped her, she still won’t give me names. For the most part, the majority of the girls don’t like her and I know why. They haven’t gotten their way and into my bed. Fucking the Prez is always high on a whore’s list of things to do.
“We have an announcement to make,” I call out catching everyone’s attention. Amy and her girls stand in the corner eyeing Cheryl before I jerk my gaze to theirs. They have to see the look in my eyes.
“Today somethin’ different is gonna take place. Today, these ladies will be leavin’ the clubhouse.” Just as I say the words, they all gasp and start to cry. Evie smirks when the smell hits me. What the hell is that?
“What the fuck?” Drake asks glancing around. It’s then that I notice why the girls are crying. Shit streams down their legs and onto the floor while Evie laughs hysterically.
“Evie! The fuck did you do?” I ask glaring at her while covering my nose. I was going to let the other girls that didn’t mess with Cheryl have a round at jumping the bitches but this is far more embarrassing than what I had planned. Evie laughs harder, doubled over while Cheryl stands there with her hand over her mouth. She didn’t have a clue what Evie was up to.
“I’m not sorry,” Evie laughs harder. “They had that shit coming. Get it?” The other girls that weren’t on the receiving end of Evie’s prank laugh along with her as they cover their faces. I can’t believe she did that. Amy and her girls turn and rush out of the clubhouse, leaving a mess in their wake.
“What did you do?” I ask her once more.
“Put a little something in their drinks. That’s all they do - drink and shit.” She laughs harder until her face turns red.
“You’re sick,” I remind her. She laughs and flips me off when Drake walks over and wraps his arms around her.
“Not as bloody as I was hopin’ but damn funny,” he says. I walk over to Cheryl and cock my head to the side.
“I didn’t know she was going to do that,” she says quickly.
“Didn’t figure you did. You ready for the rally? Got your bag packed?” She nods her head, still sucking her lips between
her teeth to keep from laughing.
“I’m good,” she squeaks out. I shake my head, smile on my face before we both explode into laughter. I nod for her to come to the room and she follows still giggling the whole way.
“You didn’t know about that for real?” I ask her.
“No, but that was hysterical,” she adds.
“I wanted to talk to you a little before we go. You probably heard about fight night, yeah?”
“At the club?”
“No. At the rally. It’s an underground fight ring. We do it every year. I’m doin’ it this year.” I watch her face for a reaction but I don’t get one. She keeps her looks schooled and under control, which bothers me. When she doesn’t say anything, I move to grab the paddle off the wall. Cheryl watches me intently unsure of my next move.
“Bend over the bed,” I tell her huskily. She shakes her head and turns to look at me. The air in the room thickens to the point I can’t breathe.
“Demon?”
“What?” he asks curiously.
“I want you to touch me.”
Those words will be my undoing. Dropping the paddle to the floor, I move toward her rapidly on instinct until I have her in my arms. My lips crash into hers, taking what I’ve been craving since the first time I kissed her. Our tongues tangle as our breathing becomes labored. I’m tearing at her dress, needing it and everything else off her body before doing the same to my own clothes. Her fingers run through my hair, tugging as she kisses me and pulls me against her. Her lips travel down my neck, bumps erupting on my skin. She feels so fucking good with her hands all over me. My hands move to cup her breasts through her bra and I groan at the feeling of her hardened nipples pressing through it.
