by Ker Dukey
“Doesn’t matter, she isn’t going,” Brenner announces, like he’s the law and his word is final. He snatches Rhiannon’s arm and begins to pull her away from us all.
“Brenner,” Slade barks, following him.
I’m left with Scorch, who has crushed the can of soda in his hand, dark liquid dripping to the floor. He’s not moving and I want to run out of this crazy shit and get back to Jenna. To a time when we were just two girls trying to have fun before college.
Jenna’s image flutters into my mind and I pull my cell phone out, excusing myself. I don’t think Scorch even hears me, so I just leave.
Bringing up her number, the ringing weakens my stomach. I don’t know why it brings such a helpless, daunting feeling, but it’s like I don’t even know her anymore. Brenner didn’t kill her, but he definitely murdered something inside her.
“Hello?” she croaks down the line.
“Jenna?” I breathe. “How are you? Where are you?”
“Avery?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t talk right now.”
“Bullshit, Jenna. Where are you?”
“I’m with Brenner.”
Why is she lying? Loneliness invades my soul.
“I’m at the clubhouse. Brenner just got back and is with his sister.”
“Fine, I’m not with him, but I’m still busy.”
I pace the ground and resort to begging. “Please, just come and talk to me. Please, Jenna. I miss you.”
Her breathing crackles the line and then she answers with a broken voice. “Okay, where are you? I’ll come find you.”
“I’m outside near the garage where they keep the trucks.”
The line goes dead and I stare at my cell for a few moments before shoving it back in my pocket. My teeth worry my lip as I wait and wonder if Slade’s even noticed I’ve left.
A couple of men are in the garage with a truck’s hood open, working on the engine. They look my way and nod their heads in acknowledgement. I find myself frowning, suspicious of kind gestures when, in reality, everyone at Lilith’s Army has been nothing but accepting and respectful of me; all except Brenner. The hood slams shut, making me jump out of my skin, and they hop inside and take off.
“Hey?” Jenna says meekly, walking up to me barefoot.
“Where are your shoes?”
She shrugs and squints from the sun. Looking around, she gestures with her head for us to walk away from the clubhouse. She looks like shit. There are no marks on her face or arms, but her eyes are red and there are dark circles beneath them. Her lips are cracked and she has hickeys all over her neck and tits. She’s wearing an old tee that is too big for her; without a doubt it’s Brenner’s.
“How can you sleep with him?” I find myself lashing out at her, instantly regretting my loose tongue when her chest deflates and her eyes brim with tears.
“What choice do I have?”
“You don’t have to stay here. I made that clear before I married Slade. The terms were for your freedom.”
Closing her eyes, she swallows, and the tears that threatened leak over and trickle down her cheeks. “And you thought that that would be it? That they would just leave me alone and hope I don’t tell anyone what they did?”
Oh God. What have they said to her to keep her here?
“Brenner knows my cousin, Casandra’s, address.” My legs weaken at her admission. “He said if I left here he would send those grim brothers after her. Do you know what they did to me? I couldn’t sit on the toilet without fear of tearing the wound they inflicted. My back is scarred so bad I’ll never be able to explain them away. I have to wear my hair like this because they ripped so much from my skull it’s not growing back. I could never allow them near her, Avery.”
“No. Tank said you could go.” I shake my head.
“Yeah, well, Brenner has other ideas. He said he would kill my father and mom, take everyone from me until I’m so alone and broken down that I’d beg him to put me out of my misery. I already want that.”
My hands go to my mouth to hold in the sob that wants to rip free. I’ve been tucked away with Slade and all this time Jenna’s been staying with Brenner through fear. “I’m going to speak with Tank right now and get this straightened out. I promise.” I choke back a cry.
She panics, grabbing at me and shaking me. “Don’t tell him I told you. Brenner will kill me and send those bastards for Casandra.”
“He won’t, I promise.”
She grabs at me, desperate and manic, digging her nails into my arms. “No, Avery. Don’t. Promise me?”
I can’t do that. I can’t let her live this way.
“Promise me, Avery,” she begs as she shakes her head and releases me, her eyes frantic. Turning on her heel, she runs back to the clubhouse.
I follow her inside and stop when Slade blocks Jenna’s path. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She’s shaking, her entire frame rattling.
“She never left,” I grate out from behind her, searching the room for Brenner, who creeps from the corner like rot spreading, expanding, and polluting the space around it. His sister is glaring at his retreating back and Scorch is glaring at Tats who is ogling her.
My hands fist when Brenner marches toward Jenna.
“You sniveling cunt. What have you been telling her?” He snarls and grabs her, tugging her around Slade. He’s rough, making her stumble and try to right herself. I reach out for her but he’s too quick and I’m too far away.
“Nothing!”
All eyes are on them and no one is defending her, pulling her away from him. Fuck this. I push past Slade as Brenner mutters, “I warned you.”
But I hear him and so does Slade.
I launch toward him, grabbing her from his hold. “Get your fucking disgusting hands off her. She wasn’t a part of this!” I bellow to Slade, anger, hurt, and guilt taking over my body.
“Buzz, Tats, that job we spoke about,” Brenner calls, and sickness rises in my gullet.
“No, please! I didn’t say anything!” Jenna cries, pulling her arm free and rushing over to the bar.
My life sinks to the bottom of an endless ocean when she picks up a bottle and breaks it on the bar. They won’t let her kill him, there’s too many of them. They’ll subdue her before she gets the chance. She looks at me, tears pouring from her eyes and then jams the shard into her own throat. Shouts and screams ignite the air.
“No!” A tortured cry rattles from my chest as she stumbles toward me, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.
Slade catches her body as she falls, and my legs buckle, plunging me to the ground.
Pulling the bottle pieces from her neck, blood squirts like a hose that has sprung a fucking leak. Her eyes have closed and a puddle is already forming at our feet. The liquid claret of her life is leaking all over me and the stench of blood permeates the air. My little sister is sobbing in Scorch’s arms, and Brenner is glaring at him like he’s going to kill him. Well, fuck you, motherfucker. I’m going to kill you.
Avery’s scream is otherworldly and pierces me right through the heart.
Fucking Brenner.
The door to the Prez’s office opens and he spills out with two Cutters brothers behind him. “What the fuck is going on…?” His words halt when he sees the body of Jenna dead in my arms. His eyes drop to my wife hyperventilating on the floor, Kiwi by her side, holding her. Avery is clinging to her.
“Ain’t that Brig’s girl?” one of the Cutters asks, staring right at Avery.
“This shit’s fucked up.” Gears shakes his head, rubbing a hand over his mouth.
Prez points at Jenna and growls. “What the fuck is she doing in my club, bleeding to death?” My old man ignores the Cutters brother and asks me instead.
“Ask your other son,” I answer, desperate to get my hands on him.
“Fucking hell, Brenner. When are you going to stop being a fuck up?” Prez growls.
Brenner pulls a pistol from the
back of his jeans and I drop the girl to pull out my own.
“What the fuck?” Bullseye grunts, and Gears has his hands in the air, shaking his head between Brenner and his Prez.
Pop. Pop.
The two Cutters brothers fall to the floor and everyone yells. Gears actually fucking ducks.
“What the hell?” Prez bellows, his eyes wide on Brenner.
“They got their cell phones out. We couldn’t risk them telling their Prez, right?” He glares over to Avery. “We should just get rid of her too and tell Brig these two took her and ran.”
He slides his gun into Avery’s line of sight and I find my feet, marching to come toe to toe with him, my gun resting against his temple.
“Slade! Brenner!” Rhiannon screeches, pulling from Scorch’s hold.
“Put your fucking gun away before I do this entire club a favor and take you to ground!” I bark.
“Slade,” our father warns.
“You would really choose that Cutters whore over your own flesh and blood?”
The atmosphere in the room is dark and thick, and everyone is standing on a knife’s edge. Everything has just changed in this room. Brenner killed two Cutters brothers here on business, and I’m threatening to kill him over a woman who has now passed out in Kiwi’s arms, the shock too much for her body to handle.
Silence hangs in the air until a chirping rings out and Scorch pats down his body and brings his cell to his ear.
“Not a good time, brother.” He hangs up.
“Frost.” Scorch frowns. “That was Echo. Something’s wrong.”
He’s holding up his cell phone and Brenner’s eyes dart to the corner of the room where Buzz is standing next to Rhiannon, who is covering her face with her hands.
“Lower your weapons. Now,” Prez orders. “Slade, take Avery to your room and then go see to Marie and Echo. Take Scorch. Buzz, get my daughter in my office now, and Brenner and Gears, you help me move these bodies.”
Everyone’s tense postures relax as Brenner and I lower our guns at the same time, our eyes locked, and then we do as we’re told.
Avery looks up at me with her beautiful but heartbroken eyes when I lay her on the bed. “I hate that I have to leave you,” I whisper, the ache in my heart speaking for me.
Her small hiccups obscure her words, but I understand them.
“Stay safe, Slade.”
Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I whisper, “Stay strong, my beautiful girl.”
She curls up and turns over, each distraught sob a knife to my soul. “Kiwi, look after her.”
She nods, for the first time her crassness subdued by her sadness for Avery. “I promise, Frost.”
I look down at my blood-soaked clothes and sigh. Pulling a fresh shirt from the dresser and taking one last look at Avery, I quietly close the door behind me.
I pull Bullseye over before I leave the clubhouse and ask him to stay here and stand guard, and if Brenner goes near my room, to shoot him in the leg.
Pulling the keys from the engine, I hop off my bike and head toward the motel room Echo has held Marie in until I can question her some more over Stormy’s stabbing. Scorch brought the truck so we can move locations if she’s not cooperative. He’s parking it around the back, but I need to get back to Avery ASAP and don’t wait for him.
Anxiety flashes though me when, on approaching the door, I find it slightly ajar.
“Echo?”
Silence and darkness greets me and I reach for the knife stashed in the back of my jeans.
“Echo? Marie?”
Feeling for the switch, I flick the lights on and stumble back at what meets me.
Marie is slumped against the bottom of the wall. A single gunshot to her forehead explains the splatters of blood on the wall behind her. It’s then I notice the slight bulge of her stomach and sickness stirs. She is–was–pregnant. Who shoots a fucking pregnant woman?
My eyes hastily scan the room in search of Echo.
“Shit!” I hiss, when I spot him on the floor behind the small bed, clutching his stomach in effort to stop the blood pouring from the two stab wounds to his chest.
“Man!” I rip the sheet from the bed and tear it into strips, winding them around him, endeavoring to stem the flow.
“Frost.” He voice is quiet and gruff, the pain he’s in making him breathe funny after trying to say my name.
“Shh,” I order. “Don’t try and talk.”
Scorch appears and hisses. “Fuck. I shouldn’t have left them.”
“If you hadn’t, you’d be lying here too,” I say, grateful for once for the affection he offers my sister.
“Your… your.” Echo gargles. Blood stains his lips; he isn’t going to be breathing when he leaves this room. He’s only twenty-three years old. A good brother. He grabs at me, digging his fingers into my wrist to push through the pain. “Brenner…” He gasps. “Bren and Tats….”
The blood in my veins freezes when I get the gist of what he’s trying to say. Saliva evaporates and the roof of my mouth sticks to my tongue, making it difficult to form words. “They did this?”
He half nods, his eyes closing.
“Stay awake for me, man. Stay awake.”
“I can’t,” he whispers as his eyes close fully and his chest stops rising and falling.
Attempting CPR is hopeless. I’m too late. My brother has gone.
“Jesus. Fuck. FUCK!”
“Why would Brenner want Marie dead?” Scorch asks the million dollar fucking question.
Pacing the room, I grab at my hair. “What the fuck?” I repeat over and over as the rampant thoughts in my head drive me crazy.
Surely Brenner wouldn’t have stooped to this, to killing one of his own brothers?
Except, it’s the knowledge that he would do this that has me slumping on the bed in defeat. “You’ve gone too far this time, motherfucker!”
“We need to clean this up, Frost. Contain it.”
I need to get this mess cleaned up as quickly as possible, but it will take hours. Hours away from Avery.
“I’ll stay.” Scorch nods his head, reading my mind. “You go back to your old lady and send Bullseye or Gears to help me.”
“You sure?”
“Yes. Go.”
Getting up from the bed, I slap Scorch on the back and creep out of the room. I’m just about to call Prez when I spot the three cops circling my bike.
Can this shit get any worse?
“This yours?” one of them asks when I approach. The way he puffs out his broad chest notifies me that he’s gonna be trouble.
“Yup. Got papers. You need to see them?” I’m trying to keep calm but the gruesome image I know is in the room behind me is making my heart go crazy. Glad of the hot day, I pray they’ll assume the beads of sweat rolling down my face are because of the heat.
“License?”
Pulling it from my wallet, I hand it over. He inspects it and shows it to the other officer.
“Walker.” One of them nods, saying my name. “You do know it’s an offense to ride without headlights?”
I frown in confusion, glancing at my lights. “Yeah, I know. Nothin’ wrong with my lights.”
“You sure about that?” He smirks at me before smashing my headlight with his baton.
“What the fuck?” I step forward but the restriction of the other two cops grabbing hold of me stops me from tearing the motherfucker’s face off.
Sighing, dramatically when I struggle, the prick of a cop who busted my lights tuts at me. “And now resisting arrest. Gonna have to take you in!”
“What the fuck? You crazy motherfucker!”
I’m strong, but I ain’t no match for three heavyset cops as they bundle me in the back of the car. There’s only one consolation to this predicament; the fact that their vendetta against me kept them out of that motel room.
Blood. So much blood pumping from her neck. The pain is too intense and a sob rocks my body. I’m on Slade’s bed and Kiwi is lying next
to me, stroking my hair. Her perfume is overpowering and it’s making me nauseous.
I’m not sure how long I was out for, or how long I’ve been lying here staring at the wall while my world decays around me.
Jenna pulled the pin in the grenade I call a heart. Obliterated me. How could she feel so helpless, so trodden down and scared by that evil scum, that she would rather kill herself then risk his wrath?
My thoughts flit to her twelve-year-old cousin. She killed herself to stop them needing to use her as a threat. With no Jenna to talk, they will leave the kid alone.
What kind of life am I wedded into? I’ve always hated being who I am, and now, instead of freedom, I’ve given myself a life sentence to a life I was so desperate to escape.
My heart pounds at the thought of running. Not going back to daddy, but fleeing them all, changing my name, my looks and becoming someone new. Slade’s image taunts my thoughts and, despite it all, he has become a beacon of light in the chaotic darkness.
The door bursts open and Kiwi screeches, jumping from the bed, startled. I don’t have the energy or will to even care.
“What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Get the fuck out,” Brenner’s says to Kiwi, and my insides curdle. My hand trembles as I place it on the pillow and rise up from the bed.
“I won’t.” Kiwi stands firm, eyeing the doorway and standing between Brenner and the bed where I am.
“You dumb bitch!” He growls, grabbing her by the throat and punching his closed fist in her face. Once, twice, three times, until her legs go limp and her arms drop from protecting her face. And, still, he pulls his arm back to hit her again.
I leap from the bed, launching my body onto his back. Flashes from all those weeks ago when he laid into Dean until he was dead echo through my mind. I dig my fingers into his eye sockets and he drops Kiwi to the floor, her body landing with a sickening thud. Reaching behind him, he grabs a handful of my hair and launches me over his shoulders onto the bed. The wind wheezes from my chest and I claw at the air, trying to gain control.
“Your daddy is on his way to claim back his princess, but not before I’ve claimed you first.”
