by Rae B. Lake
“I’m going to knock you out and then pull you to safety.”
“Fuck that. They told me what happens when the door closes.”
“Either get knocked out or get dead. Your choice.”
“Fuck you.” The door closed, and the big man started to swing.
I ducked the few I could before I was pushed into the wall we’d come in through, it popped open. And I fell on top of the man they called Red.
Both Ruby and Harrington ran toward us. Storm raised his weapon toward my head.
“Vale, get them!” Harrington screamed, just as they began to get closer to me. Storm turned and shot Harrington in the chest. A look of shock on his face as he fell to the ground.
Ruby stopped for a split second just in time to see her husband’s body falling to the ground, she caught him and wailed, loud and primally.
Just like Storm had said seconds earlier, shit was popping off quickly. Guards were being shot and stabbed by the guests. The guests being the Wings of Diablo MC. Those that tried to run were taken out by snipers from a distance. Within a matter of minutes, all the guards were taken down, and The Wings converged into the area in perfect fucking formation.
I was so damn proud.
“What in the ever-loving shit was that?” Wire roared when he finally made it down to where mostly everyone was dead or cowering down.
“Double pan,” Mack said from where he was standing, the black on black suit doing wonders to make him look extra civilized.
“Double plan?” Clean said, deciphering what Mack had said.
“Yeah, Roth, set it up. Start plan.”
“I don’t give a fuck if it was a smart plan,” Wire looked around, “why the fuck wasn’t I told.”
“We couldn’t tell you. We needed it to be as real as possible.” Jameson replied.
“It was a solid fucking plan, though,” Archer said from where he was standing.
Jameson smiled and reached over to give him a dap. We’d taken out an entire camp of them without them even knowing we were right under their noses.
“Who the hell are you guys?” The man I’d been fighting in the box said from where he was lying on the floor. Mack put his hand out and helped him up. He was mesmerized. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had a new prospect on our hands.
“You know where the grounds room is?”
“Yeah,” Red said.
“Good, I need you to go get me some shovels and the cart so we can move this fucking box. Bring it to the back where the graves are.” I ordered, and he didn’t hesitate, just went off and did what I asked. Yeah, he’d make a good prospect.
I looked around for my next victim, and hopefully, my last.
Ruby and Harrington were already near the main house; he was still alive. I could tell by how she was carrying him it wouldn’t be for long. That was okay. I didn’t need him to be alive; it was Ruby that I wanted.
“Storm, let me see your gun?” I put my hand out but didn’t bother to look at him.
He gave it right away.
“You going to take care of that?” Clean asked from the side.
“Yeah, I got them. Wire, this is going to take a minute. You want to check out the house. See if there’s anyone in there we missed or anything we want to take, whatever.”
I followed Ruby, making sure to keep them in my sights but never rushing to get them. She turned to see me following her, she cried, but she didn’t stop moving. She knew what she had coming, and she was scared. She should be.
***
What I had planned for them took a bit longer, but I had time.
“Nico, you know you don’t want to do this. People will come for you. They will. You know they will.”
She’d been going on since I caught her and dragged her out here, on and on about how people were going to avenge her. It was bullshit, and everyone knew it. They didn’t have any friends; they had people they got shit for. Ruby and Harrington were going to be missed because of their business, not mourned for their fucking personalities.
“Nico, I treated you pretty good. I didn’t hurt you as bad as I could, and I barely touched that little girl. I don’t understand why you don’t see that.”
I continued to dig my hole. There was nothing she could say that was going to stop me from what I was doing. She was going to die. Slowly and painfully.
Finally, it was deep enough.
I got out of the hole and picked up the dead Harrington Giles, his body stiff from rigor mortis.
“Ink, you good?” Devin called out from where the boys were sitting, waiting for me to finish. All of them patient as I did what I had to do for closure.
I pulled the sizeable clear box closer to the hole. I had thought I would spend my last moments in that clear box. It turns out, I wouldn’t, but she would.
I put the Harrington into the box, and then I walked over to Ruby.
“No, no. Please, I don’t want to suffocate to death.” She tried to crawl away, but I caught by her hair and dragged her back. I tossed her in the glass box and took a mental picture of the way she crumbled against the wall on top of her dead husband.
“Nico, this isn’t you. You don’t want to do this. This isn’t you.”
“This is exactly me, Ruby. You should know. I am what you created.”
Her face crumpled in tears right before she broke out into psychotic laughter. “Yes, yes, Nico, you are exactly what I created.” She laughed hard.
I closed the door. The laughter I wanted to erase from my mind silencing when the door closed. I pushed the large box into the grave and watched as her eyes rolled back a few times. She was suffocating. That wouldn’t do.
I pulled the gun out of the waist of my pants and shot four holes into the box air rushing in, and her voice filtering out.
“You are me, Nico. You live for the pain, don’t deny it.” She whimpered.
I looked at her laughing, her scarred and haunting face disappearing as I covered the box with dirt. She wouldn’t suffocate. She would starve in the dark with her rotting husband. The maggots and bugs, crawling into the box to eat her alive. It was a beautiful vision.
I completely covered her with dirt, but I could still hear her laughing, the crazy bitch.
I walked away with her laughter, still floating in the air behind me.
It was over; she was gone, and no one was coming for her. I could relax for the first time since I escaped. She was gone. Eventually, she would be at least.
Chapter 28
“Let’s get out of here. If I never see this place again, it’ll be too soon. I tried to walk toward the exit. The cars and bikes were at least three miles behind us.
“Wait, you got to see this,” Yang said as he walked back into the house.
We followed him into the now empty estate.
“I was checking the lower levels, but something seems off, are you familiar with this here?”
I passed by my old room and kept on walking, and there was a hallway I’d never seen before. I kept following the hall. It was the first time I’d been this way the whole time I’d been at this location. Then all of a sudden, it was a dead end. It didn’t make sense; the building continued above in this direction. Why would there be this sudden dead end?
“This shouldn’t be here. The bricks don’t even look the same.” Clean said as he looked at the walls to the side.”
“Trick door?” Mack asked.
“Yeah, for sure. Start pressing on shit and see if anything moves.” We all touched and pressed where we could, but it was Mack who got the door to slide open.
The path continued down a dark and cold walkway.
“Hello?” Wire called out. His voice echoed, but no one replied.
“If there is anyone in here, you need to say something, or we’re going to fucking leave, and you’ll starve to death down here.”
“Hello?” A small voice croaked. “I’m here.”
“Hey. Don’t fucking leave me.”
“I’m here.”
I backed up in shock, my mouth hanging open as one person after another called out. How many were here? How long had they been here? What about the other locations?
For the first time since we took over this place, I looked for Roth. He was nowhere to be found, surprise, the fucking bastard.
“What the fuck are we going to do with all these people?” Jameson asked as he searched for a way to turn the lights on.
“Set them free. All of them.” I spoke clearly.
There were thirty-eight small rooms down the corridor; only fourteen of them had people left alive in them. Clean and Yang volunteered to take them back to the safe house and help them, by either getting them back to their families or setting them up in some sort of shelter.
The rest of us just wanted to get back to our families.
***
We made it back to the New Orleans clubhouse without a scratch on us. It was a complete victory. We even came back with two extra people; Red was determined to stay with us and find out what this MC life was about. It would be a lengthy vetting process, but I had a feeling he’d be a good prospect. The second person was unexpected. It wasn’t until we had pulled up to the New Orleans compound that Mack found her. Siren, bloodied and still shackled, had somehow managed to stow away in the trunk of his car. She rode for hours in the tight, cramped space and didn’t make a sound. The ordeal didn’t look like it had fazed her in the least, she’d been through worse.
“What the fuck?” Wire yelled when he saw her scramble from the trunk Mack opened.
“Oh, shit, that’s one of the girls from the fucking party. She was in that stall brawl shit you were talking about.” Jameson said from beside me. She backed up slowly.
“Grab her,” Wire said.
“I wouldn’t,” I said as Archer and Wyatt reached over to grab the woman. She head-butted Wyatt, breaking his nose and was choking Archer with her restraints before we could even help them.
Wire and the rest of us with guns, had them drawn and ready to blow her fucking head off the minute Archer’s head was out of the way.
Mack was the one to step up, “No. Stump. Just stump. Just here to help. Let go.” He said his words a scrambled mess. She stared at him for a second before letting Archer go. She said nothing, her eyes never moving from Mack.
He turned his back to her, not the smartest move, but she didn’t react.
“It’s okra. I’ll take her. I got it,” He said.
We all put our weapons down and watched as Mack pulled her into the clubhouse, I had no idea what the hell he was going to do with her, but I didn’t care. I had other things to do, and important people to see. I opened the clubhouse door and walked in.
Jazmine ran into my arms the second I walked through the doors. Her eyes were bloodshot and full of worry.
“What’s the matter? Why are you so upset?” I asked as I rubbed my thumb softly over her face.
“Last time my family went out for a job, none of them came back. I was worried. Is it over now?”
“Yeah, it’s all over. We don’t have to look over our shoulder any longer.”
She smiled and leaned up on her tippy toes so she could try and kiss me. I dropped my head to meet hers.
“You’ll keep me here, right?” I asked as my lips slowly drifted away from hers, “If you see me losing myself, you’ll bring me back. I was so lost. So lost, sometimes it feels like I’m going fall into a never-ending fucking pit. I don’t want that Jazmine. I don’t want to be like them.” I thought back on what Ruby had said to me as I buried her alive.
“Ink, I’m here. I will never let you lose yourself. I will never let you go.” She looked deep into my eyes, “No matter how far you fall, I’ll be here to help you back up.”
I kissed her hard, and I knew she meant it. I would never be like those sadistic fucks. If I slipped, I would have both her and my family to pull me back up. She ran her hands up under my shirt, using her fingers to softly scratch at my chest and abs.
After all the shit we’d been through in the past few days, I needed her. I just wanted to lose myself in her and forget about all this shit.
“Ink, keep your game face on, I need my pain manager. Wyatt found the last piece.” Wire warned as he walked by me.
The last piece of what?
I pulled away from Jazmine and grabbed her hands before she could turn me on anymore. “Hold that thought.” I kissed her lips as I reached up and massaged one of her tits, that ring poking hard against the fabric of her bra. She groaned and then moved away. She knew I had business, and she wouldn’t bitch because she knew I would take care of her as soon as it was done.
I rushed to catch up to Wire. Archer, Prez, and Ryder already at the doors to where I assumed Archer called church.
“Storm, we need you too.” Wire called.
“Me?”
“Yeah, come on.”
He pushed the doors open, and for the second time today, I was rendered fucking speechless.
Vale was sitting in the room, bloodied, restrained, and beat to shit.
“You motherfucker!” Prez roared as he tried to jump over the table, separating him from us. Archer and Wire caught him before he could make it. “You piece of shit.” Prez turned to Wire, “Why is he still alive? He killed Vida! He tortured Angel and Ink. Why isn’t his fucking head off his god damn body?” He roared at my president.
Wire leaned his head in the direction of Storm. Vale had done some severely fucked up shit to this club and me, but he was still Storm’s blood brother. His twin. They shared the same goddamn uterus for a whole nine months.
“Wire. We have him. He can’t run off, and he can’t hurt us anymore. We can just beat him down. Strip him, fuck we can keep him locked up for the rest of his life. We can…” Storm searched desperately for a resolution that didn’t involve us putting a bullet in between his brother’s eyes.
“Storm, he has to die.”
“Wire, please. You can’t; he’s my brother. Please.” He begged.
“I’m sorry, we’re your brothers, he’s a traitor, and he’s going to die.” Wire put a hand on Storm’s shoulder. “I just wanted you to know straight from us that we were going to do it.”
Storm took a step back, his head down as his tears started to fall from his eyes. “Can I have a minute with him?” He looked back up to Wire, “You know, to say goodbye?”
“Yeah. Do what you have to do. Let us know when you’re done.”
We all walked out and left the two brothers in the room to say their goodbyes.
“Inkpop?” Angel’s small voice called out.
I turned to see the sad and pale little girl. Vida’s death had hit her hard, though, not harder than Mikki, who hadn’t eaten or spoken to anyone I knew of since we got here.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I keep going to sleep and waking up back in the room.” She cried and ran into my arms, “Is it really over? They aren’t going to get us? I keep thinking this is all a dream.”
I kissed her softly on her head; she would have this fear for a long time. So would I. “No, Angel. I promise you; we are never going back there. Never.”
“We win?”
I laughed at the little, “That’s right kid, we won.” I winked at her and pulled her back in for a hug.
A series of flashing lights started going off around the clubhouse. All the members of the New Orleans Chapter ran in one direction.
“Motherfucker.” Archer ran toward church.
“Archer, what the shit is that?” Wire screamed and ran right behind him.
I pushed Angel behind me. “What is it?”
Jazmine ran up and took Angel from me so I could go and find out what was going on. Prez rushed into the church.
“Fuck!” He yelled and stormed back out his gun in his hand.
I looked into the room, expecting the worse, and it was. The ropes that were used to restrain Vale were sliced through and discarded on the table, right on
top of Storm’s kutte. Vale and Storm were both missing. Vale had missed his day with the reaper, and Storm had abandoned his patch.
Now I would have to hunt down two of my brothers and kill them, just another day in the Wings of Diablo motorcycle club.
Epilogue- Ink
We searched well over a week for Vale and Storm, but they were nowhere to be found, and the trail had gone cold in the backwoods of Louisiana. They could be anywhere by now.
We went back home with loose ends hanging over our heads. I wasn’t going to let it drive me crazy, though. Vale would get his soon enough, and it would be slow and painful. Clean and Yang were already searching for him, and as soon as we had a hit, I’d be there with all my tools ready for a game of ‘how soon can I make you scream for your mommy?’.
Today though? Today I was going to enjoy being with my woman even if she was annoying the shit out of me right now.
“You act like I’ve never seen you naked before.” She dipped her brush into more acrylic paint and began to swipe the cold paint on my skin.
“Yeah, usually when I’m naked, so are you, and my dick is usually in your pussy. That’s the naked I like, this ‘let me make you into an art project’ naked is for the birds.”
She pouted, all phony, “You don’t want to be my art project?”
I let my head drop back, “Jazmine, ugh, just hurry this shit up.” I complained. This wasn’t what I thought she meant when she said that she had a surprise for me.
She painted on me for a few more minutes before she got a small piece of paper and started to fan her artwork. “Okay, it’s all done. I hope you like it.” I looked down at the intricate painting, it said something, but I was looking at it at a weird angle. I got up and walked to the mirror so I could see it clearly. The piece took my breath away. It was a full painting on my side of dark flowers, anchors and chain links, in between it all was her name. It was perfect.
“This shit is so hot. Are you dropping hints? I’d get this.” I examined it closer, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her through the mirror, getting undressed. My eyes scanning over her perfect body.
