by Rae B. Lake
“Yeah, I understand.”
“So, what the hell you beat me down for? Wait, let me guess. Too pretty?” Clean asked, cutting over Wire. He gave his smile, but this time one of his lips didn’t go all the way up, his face still swollen.
“Shit, my bad.” I rubbed the back of my neck, “I thought you were there to kill me. I reacted.”
“Where the fuck did you learn to fight like that?” Devin asked, “I’ve seen professional fighters who weren’t as quick and deadly up close as you are. It was fucking impressive.”
I grunted, “Stall brawls, twenty-four, and zero.” I smiled slightly.
“What the hell is that?” Ryder asked.
Here we go back down memory lane. “Stall brawls, I was locked in a clear box about the size of two small bathroom stalls with another opponent. There is no airflow, so no oxygen, only what’s in the box and your lungs when the door closes. The doors only open after you kill the other person or both of you die from lack of air. Stall brawls were a big sport for the rich and cruel.”
“Fucking hell.” Wire said, raising his hand to his face and scrubbing his beard. “You did that twenty-four times?”
“Yeah. A lot of blood on my hands.”
Everyone around the table murmured and whispered about how fucked up that was for a second before Wire turned to Clean to see what he thought the punishment should be.
“Fuck that. I’m just glad the big fuck didn’t kill me. We all good over here.”
I was cleared of that one.
“Storm, why did you fuck with his bike.”
“Oh, I was deliberately trying to kill him.” I nodded my head.
“Well, fuck, that makes me feel better.” Storm said, laughing.
My head snapped in his direction; he even fucking sounded like Vale.
“Why are you trying to kill him, and is the issue dead now?” Wire asked, noting the death glare I was shooting at Storm.
“His brother.” I turned back to Wire, “His brother needs to die. I was going to kill Storm just because he shared the same blood as that piece of rotting shit.”
“Vale is alive?” Storm asked.
“Unfortunately.” I bit back. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I had to realize Storm wasn’t his brother, “Yes, he is still alive.”
“I am assuming since there is bad blood, it means he turned like we were told.”
I slid down a little further in my seat, “Turned like a five-dollar trick. He lasted maybe two hours before he traded his soul to the devil.”
“Motherfucker.” Storm dropped his head.
“He snitched on us?” Ryder asked.
“Yes, told the remaining two Vilanuevas brothers about shipment, supply, personnel, that was all I heard when they carried him out squealing like a pig.”
There was a collective groan that passed through the entire room. I am sure no one wanted to hear the word Vilanuevas again.
“He’s a snitch, but does that mean we have to go after his family, does it have to be death for him?” Storm asked his eyes cast down.
“What Vale did to me, what he did to Angel…”
“Angel is alive?” Prez asked, stopping me from what I was saying.
Finally, something that I could smile about, “Yes, Angel, is very much alive. Annoying as ever.”
Prez fisted his hair before getting up and coming over to me to hug me again. “Oh, thank you, brother. Thank you so much.”
I clapped him on the back and let him move away.
“Where is she?”
“She’s safe for now. She is with Jazmine.”
“What do you mean for now?” A new member named Ripper asked me.
“The real reason I came here.” I looked to Wire, he was the only one who could grant what I was asking, “We escaped a couple of weeks back, but the Giles’s are not going to go away. They are going to hunt us down. She thinks of us like her pets. I can handle it if she catches me, but I know she won’t leave without Angel too. We’ve been hiding out, but they are closing in. The owner of the store next to Jazmine’s was killed. My name plastered on a wall in every store on the pier. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Never. They are not taking you or that girl anywhere ever again.”
I spent the next few hours telling them everything; the room was silent by the end. Everyone was more than just a bit somber by my story.
Wire began organizing immediately. Like a well-oiled machine, everyone knew there part. Except for me, I was out of the loop. Clean began calling ally’s seeing if we could get a location for the next shipment the Giles family was going to make. Who they knew. Prez called Archer, the usually stoic sniper, whooping and hollering through the phone when he found out I was home. For the first time since I stepped foot on American soil as a free man, I felt safe. My brothers had my back.
“Hey, where’s Mikki?” I asked Prez after he got off the phone with someone else.
“She’s over at Maven’s house. We sent all the wives away. We didn’t know if you were a threat.” He shrugged a little ashamed.
“I was a threat; you did right.”
“I know Mikki is going to be so fucking happy.”
I smiled thinking back to the girl at Jazmine’s house, she used to cry out for Mikki in her sleep, but it’s been years. “Prez, I don’t want you to get her hopes up. I don’t even know if Angel remembers her. She’s been through a lot. Four years is a long time for a little girl.”
“She will remember, and she has to meet her little sister.” He said proudly.
“Sister?”
“Yeah, bro, Lorelai. Mikki gave me my princess. She’s going to be two.” The man smiled and pulled out his phone to show me a picture. How fucking domestic was that shit?
I laughed and patted him on the back. “Good shit, I’m happy for you, Prez. The both of you.”
I looked around at the buzz in the clubhouse, as much as I wanted to stay and help, right now I knew I needed to get back to Jazmine. They were probably worrying like crazy. I looked for Wire to tell him I was leaving.
“I gotta get back to the house, let them know that everything is okay.”
Wire nodded his head, “Alright, you carrying?”
“Yeah, I’m straight.”
“Good, your room is still how you left it. We took the weapons out, but all your clothes and shit is in there.”
“Ha!” Clean laughed loudly, “Bro! You see how big this motherfucker is? It looks like he ate the old, Ink, a few times over. He could use his old shirts as a scarf for that big ass head of his, though.” He laughed harder.
“Motherfucker!” I pushed him, and he stumbled to the side.
I smiled and rubbed my head as I made my way out of the bustling clubhouse. My head wasn’t that fucking big.
Chapter 18
I rolled to a stop in front of Jazmine’s house. I checked behind me to see if anyone had followed me. Jazmine and Angel jumped me before I could even get the front door of the house open all the way.
“Jeez, you would think I was gone for years.” I laughed.
“Don’t you do that to me again!” Angel stomped hard on my foot.
“Ow, damn it. Little terrorist.” I made a funny face at her, and she was laughing now and hugging my waist again.
Jazmine swiped the jewel in her tongue against her pursed lips, tugging on it. “So, what happened? You’re not dead or minus body parts, so that must mean it was good?”
I smiled brightly, “Yeah, it’s all good.”
The roar of motorcycles caused me to whip my head back toward the door. Was it all good?
“Stay back and don’t come out until I tell you,” I ordered the two of them. They complied right away.
I took a step outside. It was my brothers. Prez, Ripper, and Devin parked up their bikes, and a car stopped behind them.
The doors opened as soon as the car was put into park. Mikki and Vida jumped out, a baby in Mikki’s arm, her head laying heavily in the crook of her
neck. Mikki and Vida were holding hands, their eyes searching for something familiar.
“Oh my god, is that Ink?” Mikki gasped as she took a few steps closer to the house.
“Yeah, that big ox over there is little skinny boy, Ink,” Prez replied before walking over to Mikki and taking the baby away. “Sorry, bro. They couldn’t wait. Can we see her?”
“Remember what I said,” I said softly to Prez. I didn’t want to break Mikki’s heart.
“I know. I’ll handle it.” Prez nodded.
I turned into the house and put my hand out for Angel, who was standing in the corner with Jazmine just in case something happened.
“It’s okay, Inkpop?” Angel asked as she slowly walked toward me.
“Yeah, baby, it’s okay.”
I pulled her outside, both Mikki and Vida gasped, crying out for her when they saw her. They ran toward her, but Angel darted behind me, gripping onto my pants tightly, hiding from the two women.
Prez put his free arm out to catch his wife and sister-in-law. “Wait, you got to wait.”
“Angel. Oh, baby. Angel.” Mikki cried and fell to her knees. If someone were to tell me that Angel wasn’t her child, I wouldn’t believe them.
I put a hand up, telling them to give me a minute. I turned and bent down to speak with Angel.
“Ink, who is that?” She asked her eyes full of fear and uncertainty.
“You don’t know who that is? Can’t you remember them at all?”
Angel looked over my shoulder for a flash before she came back to hide, “No, I don’t know them. Can we go back to Jazmine now?”
How the fuck was I going to get her to remember without forcing it. The last thing I wanted was to push her into the arms of someone she didn’t feel comfortable with.
“I want you to think back, I know it was a long time ago, but what’s the first happy memory you can think of?”
She looked at me strangely, “Painting with Jazmine, the doggies.”
“No baby, that’s as far back as you can remember? I want you to think back to your first memory.”
“Syrup, I found a bottle of syrup. Then a lady came and picked me up and said-”
“I said that it would go much better on chocolate chip pancakes. I’d never seen a baby go through so many pancakes. You had at least four of them.” Mikki laughed softly, thinking about the memory.
Angel’s head darted out to the side again, looking at the woman she didn’t recognize seconds earlier. I watched as her eyebrows scrunched in, and her head tilt to the side, then her eyes go wide with recognition.
“Mikayla?” Angel took a step out from in front of me. “Mikki?”
Mikki cried harder as she spread her arms out, “Yes, Angel, it’s me.”
Angel’s face lit up as she ran into Mikki’s outstretched arms. She hugged her hard and then looked up at the woman standing next to her, “Vida?”
“Hey, shrimp.” Vida played as she fell to the ground next to her sister and Angel and hugged them both.
It was a beautiful sight. I had gotten her home to Mikki like I had promised her in the beginning.
The women all stood, wiping their tear-stained faces and smiling down at the little girl. “Oh boy, you’ve gotten so big. We have so much shopping to do. We have to get you new clothes.” Mikki started to pull her toward the car, and Angel pulled away roughly.
“No,” She looked up to me, the panic now back in her face, “Inkpop, are you sending me away? I’m not leaving without you. You have to come!”
“It’s okay, babe. I’m not sending you away. I’m coming too.” I smiled at her, and she visibly relaxed and walked back over to Mikki.
Sudden movement had my eyes shifting as I watched Vida run up onto the small porch and jump me. Her legs wrapping around my waist and her hands going into my hair, milliseconds before her lips crashed down on mine.
At first, my body balked at the intrusion to my personal space, but then a flood of memories assaulted me. I loved Vida; she was the woman I’d always wanted. She was my woman before I got taken. Our relationship was wild and full of passion. I could tell by how she kissed me that she was still that woman I had fallen in love with. I kissed her back, god, how I missed her.
She dropped down from around my waist, dragging her lips against mine one more time. “I can’t wait to get you home,” Vida smiled seductively before she turned and walked over to Mikki and Angel.
Slow footsteps.
My ears perked up, and I turned back toward the open door, Jazmine stared icily at me as she took another step backward.
Jazmine.
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back; she had just watched me kiss another woman.
“Prez, I need a few!” I called as I rushed into the house and slammed the door.
“Jazmine, hold on a minute.”
She turned toward me, seething mad. “No, I will not hold on a minute. I should have known. I guess you got what you needed from me; you can leave.” She gestured to the door.
“Stop that shit, you know it wasn’t like that! Fuck, you were the one who told me to find them! What the hell did you expect?” I yelled at her.
She punched me hard in the chest, “Don’t you fucking raise your voice at me. I expected a bit of fucking common decency. I expected, not be thrown aside like yesterday’s trash just because your old flame shows up. That’s what the hell I expected.”
“She’s not an old flame; I love her,” I said. I have loved Vida for as long as I could remember.
Jazmine squinted at me and walked up, getting closer to my face. “You love her? Did you love her when you were fucking me into oblivion? Did you love her when you were crying in my lap? Did you love her when you were holding me like you never wanted to let go?”
I backed up and looked at the woman whose life I had completely turned on its head. A woman who had trusted me just because of the look in my eyes.
“I have to go home. It’s what I’ve been fighting for. I didn’t mean to hurt…”
She threw her hand up, stopping me from continuing, “Save it Ink, go be with the woman you love. Get the hell out of here. Be safe.”
I turned, my body and soul feeling heavy. I felt like shit. “I’ll send some guys over here to make sure you’re okay until all my shit is resolved. My problems won’t mess with you.”
“Whatever.” She replied as she walked away from me and up the stairs out of my sight.
I closed the door and walked down to where the guys were. Ripper came up and gave me a key and a lid.
“Didn’t think you’d mind if I rode it to you.” He smiled and went to go to the car with Mikki, Lorelai, and Angel.
They had brought my bike. I hadn’t even recognized until I was right next to it. I smiled and jumped on the beautiful machine. I turned the engine over, and Vida came and jumped on behind me. Kissing me quickly on the cheek as she took my lid and put it on her head, just like old times.
One by one, we peeled off, the dust from our wheels clouding the air around Jazmine’s home. I laughed and pushed the bike faster. I was free. I was supposed to be, but there was still a large part of me locked down, I had a feeling the key to my binds was back with Jazmine.
Chapter 19
We made it back to the clubhouse in quick fashion. Everyone was still working and finding the connections we needed to make sure the Giles family was just a horrible memory for me. We would find them, and we would kill them no matter what.
That night though, a party was in full swing held in my honor. I was home, and it was a cause for celebration. Everyone came through, the club bunnies, the Spawns minus that crazy fuck Tex, a new club we were allies with called Eve’s Fury, our family was complete.
The music blared as the club bunnies did their best work on the portable stripper poles. Vida was dancing in the middle of the floor with a woman they called Bumblebee. It was very provocative, a little more so than what I would have liked for my woman, but she was having fun, so I let it be.
>
“What the fuck are you doing here without a drink brother!” Clean caught up to me and shoved a brew into my hand. He laughed and hugged me. “Oh, I bet you can’t wait to get Vida up to that room. It’s been long overdue!” He chuckled before his woman caught his attention, and he stumbled drunkenly over there.
“Yes! Get it, Vida!” A club bunny screamed, and I turned to see what Vida was doing. She was on the bar doing body shots off another woman’s chest. It was typical Vida, she was a wild child, but I didn’t like it. I shook it off, thinking I just had to loosen up. I hadn’t been to a party I had wanted to be at in years. This was fun. I would have fucking fun.
I caught up with a few more people, everyone welcoming me back and saying how happy they were to have me home finally.
“Ink, I feel like I’ve been waiting forever.” Vida strolled up behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist. I jumped at the touch.
“Jeez, take a pill, Ink. It’s just me.” She giggled as she grabbed my hand and pulled me toward her room.
It’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you.
Jazmine’s voice echoed in my head for a second before I focused back on the woman in front of me.
Vida pulled me into the room and before the door shut. She was trying to get her tongue down my throat, attempting to take control. I used to love that shit. I used to wait on Vida hand and foot, begging for the scraps of pleasure she gave me. That was then this was now. I wouldn’t be forced to wait for my pleasure by anyone unless it was my choice. I turned her around; my larger body easily overpowering hers. I grabbed her ass and pulled her core close to mine. She wiggled and moaned into my mouth.
“Yes, Ink.” She sucked on my lips, pulling them into her mouth. I put my hand under the small shirt she had on and pulled upwards. Her entire midsection was covered in new tats, most of them cheesy quotes or basic animals. They didn’t look that great, the more I was able to examine them.
She pulled back from me after noticing me looking at her, “Oh, you like? I had a kick-ass deal. I used to …” She stuttered for a second, “ hang out with the tattoo artist. He charged me next to nothing for all of them.”
