Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4)

by Jessica Gadziala

  That being said, Janie would string me up by my balls and carve a fucking Rosie the Riveter image into my flesh if she knew I was blindly following orders to make a girl's life a living hell so she would quit the MC just for the reason that she was a girl.

  "You disagree with Reign?" Cash asked, running a hand up the shaved side of his head.

  "That's not my place."

  "Chrissake, Repo, you can have an opinion. We all have opinions."

  "And yours?" I asked, leaning against the counter.

  Cash, maybe because he grew up with Reign, was a lot more free with his thoughts and feelings regarding club business. And Reign wasn't a dick. He was open to ideas and opinions though it was commonly known that the ultimate decision was his and his alone.

  Cash shrugged. "I don't feed too much into the sexism bullshit, but I can honestly see both sides here. This is and has always been a brotherhood. Bringing women into the fold could cause conflict with the older members. And Maze will have to put up with the guys being dicks to her all the time. This isn't exactly a gentlemen's club and most the members are used to seeing women just one way."

  "Maybe she's okay with having to eke her way up in the ranks."

  "Maybe. Maybe not. I guess time will tell. If you do your worst and she still doesn't break, I don't know what the fuck Reign is gonna do," he said, clamping a hand on my shoulder as he made his way back out into the main room.

  Yeah. I didn't know what the fuck I was going to do if I couldn't get her to quit.

  I'd never disappointed Reign before.

  I got on his good side when, as a probate still, I had tried my best to fight off the mother fucker who kidnapped his woman. Then, barely healed, I had charged in to fight her out of a shit situation at his side. I was pushed through to being patched as soon as possible after that.

  Since then, I held down shit at the compound. I was there when the bombs went off and blew Reign's torture shed to kingdom come. I kept the probates in line. I made the club money with my car restoration. I went on runs when they needed me to.

  It was maybe a little pathetic of me, but I needed Reign's approval. I needed his faith in me.

  So, while my opinion was that it was fucked up to haze a probate just because she happened to be a woman, I was going to do whatever was necessary to stay in my boss' favor.

  What that said about me as a person, as a man, well... fuck if I knew.

  And I was going to do my best to not harp on that.

  Three

  Maze

  I let out the breath I felt like I was holding as Repo walked away.

  "Barbie, you're so not getting a patch before me," Moose said as soon as Repo was out of earshot.

  "I dunno. If you can't keep a muzzle on that big fucking mouth of yours, I'm liking my chances."

  To that, Duke snorted, giving me a lip twitch that I figured was his badass equivalent of a smile. As per my training, I sized up Duke and Renny as fast as possible.

  Renny would be a friendly. He was a kid, laid-back, not overly ambitious. He was either unconcerned about a position in the MC or he had some reason to believe he didn't need to see all of us as competition. If I rubbed elbows with him a little, he could be a good ally to have on my side. Especially since I knew Moose and Fox were going to be an issue.

  Moose because he was a dick.

  Fox because he looked at me like a piece of meat.

  Duke was pretty much guaranteed a patch so long as he didn't fuck up royally and he knew that so my presence wasn't a threat to him. He might not go out of his way to make my life easier, but he wouldn't do anything to make it intentionally difficult either. I doubted I would make a friend of him, but he wasn't an enemy.

  And seeing as I didn't exactly have the favor of the president, I needed all the non-enemies I could get.

  "Listen, bitch..." Moose snapped, moving toward me in what he probably thought was a threatening way. To anyone else, it would have been scary. But my training had involved being attacked by men a lot bigger and badder than his immature, surly ass.

  "No, you listen, bitch," I said, approaching him so fast that he actually went back a step before my hand slammed into his chest and pushed him back another foot. "You and I don't have to be friends, but you're going to learn real quick that I'm not going to put up with your bully bullshit. Get used to me because I'm not fucking going anywhere."

  "Alright, alright," Renny broke in, climbing off the picnic table with an odd sort of grace. "Maze, wanna come see where you're staying before you take off to get your shit?"

  "Sure," I said, keeping my gaze on Moose for a long minute before turning and following Renny into the back door of the compound.

  The door led right into the great room, a big open space with couches, a pool table, a full bar, stereo system, and massive television. It looked like, because it was, a place for men to hang around and have a good time. The couches had stains. The walls had scratches and even the occasional fist-holes. The back bar was full of Jim, Johnnie, and Jose.

  "It's really a glorified frat house for grown ass men," Renny said, as if sensing my analysis. "Through here is the kitchen," he said, waving a hand toward a room on the left. He kept walking, leading me into a hall with a dozen or so doors. "These are the rooms for the patched members. Obviously off limits. And we, like the lowly peons we are, are relegated to the basement." He flicked on a light switch and started down the narrow stairs, leaving me to follow behind.

  The basement was, well, a basement. There were cinder block walls, cement floors, and a marked decrease of temperature. Straight ahead toward the back was a room with a steel security door.

  "The gun safe," Renny explained, nodding toward it. "Forbidden except for the top five."

  "Top five?" I repeated.

  "Reign, Cash, Wolf, Vin, and Repo."

  Repo? He seemed young to be considered a higher-up.

  I nodded to Renny as he waved a hand toward a dark corner where there was a chair with cuffs hanging off of it. "For obvious reasons," he said, then waved a hand to the right of the room where washers and driers were situated. "Get intimately acquainted with those. They make us do all the laundry," he explained casually. Grunt work, it was to be expected of the low men on the totem pole. I was sure I would also spend a lot of time scrubbing bikes and fetching drinks. "Here we are," Renny said, moving us toward the corner on the left where two sets of metal bunk beds were situated along with an old recliner. "Home sweet barracks."

  "There's only four beds," I observed somewhat unnecessarily.

  "I sleep here," Renny explained, throwing himself in the chair.

  "You sleep in a recliner?"

  "It's weird as shit, I know, but I can't sleep when I lay flat," he said with a shrug. He waved a hand to the bunks that were pushed against the wall on one side. "That's you and Duke."

  "Good," I said, eying the other set of bunks that were open on both sides. That was too exposed. Especially in an area that was going to be hostile for me.

  "Moose will adjust," Renny said as I looked at the piles of burst-open, overflowing duffel bags full of clothes on the floor.

  I leaned back against the bunk beds, crossing my arms, and giving him a small smile. "No he won't."

  "Hey, can't blame a guy for trying to be comforting," he said, giving me a sweet smile. He sat up suddenly, kicking in the footrest. "Can I ask you why you want to put yourself through what I think we both know you're going to go through to get in here?"

  "Would you ask Duke or Moose or Fox that?"

  "No, but they won't be putting up with extra bullshit like you will."

  I shrugged a shoulder. "I have thick skin. I'll be fine. I, like the rest of you, just want to be part of something I guess."

  "Sure, Violet. Whatever you say," he said, shaking his head at me like he could see right through the lie. "You better get a move on. Repo will boot your ass if you're late for the meeting."

  With that,
I nodded and tore up the stairs, slowing my pace once I got into the great room as to not draw too much attention to myself.

  I walked past Reign, Cash, and Repo as they leaned against the bar. I lifted my chin as I moved past, grabbing the door, hauling it open, and almost running into a giant wall of lumberjack biker.

  Yes, lumberjack biker.

  That was literally the only appropriate way to describe the man.

  He was six and a half feet tall and about five million feet wide and a thousand pounds of solid muscle. He had dark hair that was neatly trimmed with a long, full beard, and light honey-colored eyes.

  His head jerked back for a second before he stepped inside, making me take a step back. "Woman," he said, nodding his head at me and moving inside.

  Well, that was Wolf.

  I knew from my research that Wolf was a lot of things: The Henchmen MC road captain, Reign and Cash's best friend, a vicious, violent killer, and a man of very, very few words.

  I let myself out through the open front gates, got on my bike, and headed back to the motel. Once inside, I grabbed the burner phone I bought the day before and charged up as I moved around my room, and typed in the number for K's office.

  "K.C.E Boxing Emporium," Shelly's hospitality-pleasant, but slightly cool voice answered.

  "Vermont," I said and there was a slight pause as she looked through paperwork.

  "Hold for K," she said and there was only a small silence before the line picked up again.

  "Maisy," K's smooth voice met my ear, sounding a little winded and I imagine he had been training. He usually was. "How'd it go?"

  "I'm in. Just barely. Reign didn't want me," I said, holding a handful of panties with a feeling of ridiculous insecurity. I grabbed an old tee and stuffed the undies inside, then wrapped them up out of sight then stuffed the whole of it at the very bottom of my bag.

  "You convinced him?"

  "No. There was a woman there. Cash's woman. And she got pissed that they were going to turn me down and then she went into the compound and got Reign and Wolf's women and they all threw such a fit that Reign got sick of it and let me in."

  There was a second of silence. "That won't help you beyond this point. If I know anything about these guys, you're in for a tough ride. They don't want a woman in their ranks so they are going to do everything in their power to get you to quit."

  "Yeah," I agreed, feeling a pit of uncertainty settle in my belly.

  "Maisy, you need to focus. Stop stressing out. This is what we trained for. This is not a choice. This is a necessity for your safety."

  "I know," I said, my voice decidedly defeated-sounding.

  "Maze," his voice held warning.

  "I am going to do what it takes to gain the trust of the members. I am going to gain the favor of Reign and I am going to get a patch that guarantees my present and future safety," I recited.

  "Because if you don't..."

  "If I don't, they might find me."

  "And if they find you..."

  "They can't find me."

  "Because if they find you, you are going to die Maisy," he said, his tone even. It was brutal, but it was true. K wasn't in the business of sugar-coating facts or handling you with kid gloves. That wasn't why you went to him. You went to him because there was nowhere else to turn. You went to him because he was who you went to when there was no hope. He was the one person who was willing to take on the lost causes and dedicate his time to giving us a chance.

  In return, we were given no softness.

  I learned to love the sandpaper sensation of his words.

  Because I learned what they were doing. They were scraping away the me I used to be: weak, naive, gullible, clueless and replacing it with the woman I needed to be to survive.

  "Okay K. I have to get back. We all have a meeting with Repo in about fifteen and I'm clear across town."

  "I want an update in two days. Then we will set up a new system."

  "Got it. Thanks, K," I said, feeling the gratitude down to my bones. But K wasn't the touchy-feely kind of guy and I knew that if I went and got all gushy on him, he would make me start repeating my mantras.

  "Stay safe and kick ass," he said before the silence told me he hung up.

  I slung my bag over my shoulder, feeling the weight of it. Not just the clothes and books, but the fact that it was literally all I had in the world anymore. I had a bug-out bag stashed in a locker at a train station in Pennsylvania in case something happened and I needed to get out of town with nothing but the clothes on my back.

  There were no more mementos. I didn't have any of the furniture I had spent months online pinning and un-pinning and re-pinning on Pinterest before finally purchasing. I didn't have the funky street art I had bought when I was walking one evening on my way home from work. I would never see the pair of pearl earrings that had been on my nightstand, a gift from my grandmother on my seventeenth birthday, again.

  Ignoring the stabbing sensation in my chest and the burning behind my eyes that threatened tears, I ran across the parking lot and threw myself on my loathed motorcycle and made my way back toward The Henchmen compound.

  My home.

  "Augh," I growled at the idea as I pulled up to the gates, parked, and went inside.

  "Just like a chick to be late," Moose grumbled as I walked past.

  "I still have ten minutes, jackass," I said, swinging into the seat between him and Duke, 'accidentally' hitting Moose as hard as possible with my bag. "Oops," I said, hoping I looked genuinely apologetic.

  From the smirk that Repo was giving me from across the room, though, I was pretty sure I failed. But whatever. No where in the 'outlaw MC handbook' did it say we had to get along with fellow probates. If anything, we were encouraged to fight, to show the patched members what we were made of.

  No one wanted a new member who was all sugar and honey.

  They wanted piss and vinegar.

  So that was what they were going to get from me.

  "Alright, let's get this over with," Repo said, pushing off the wall and moving toward where we were sitting at the bar. "New work assignments. Moose and Fox, you're on the gates in the afternoons. Duke and Renny, you'll do alternating overnights. Maze, you relieve Duke and Renny at four. That's not a problem, is it?"

  "Nope." If anything, it was the ideal assignment. I was part of that point-zero-zero-one percent of the population that was a die-hard morning person. The sun started peeking through the sky and I was wide awake. I was half-afraid he would have stuck me with the overnights.

  "She gets to patrol alone?" Moose asked, sounding dangerously close to whining.

  "Is that... safe?" Fox asked and I heard, for the first time, a hint of malice there. Maybe he wasn't unlike his brother after all.

  "Any of you want to get up and do a four A.M. patrol is welcome to join her. Otherwise shut your fucking mouths and do as you're told."

  With that, he left, moving out the back doors and across the field to where three different cars were in various stages of disrepair.

  "Fucking bullshit," Moose growled, jumping out of his chair.

  "That you're still here after talking back like that? I agree. Bullshit," I said, pushing away from the bar and moving off toward the basement.

  --

  I went to bed early. For one, because I needed to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to do my patrol. But also because it saved me from having to deal with Moose and Fox without Renny as a buffer. Duke didn't seem overly fond of the two either, but he didn't seem overly inclined to help me deal with them. Not that I blamed him. It was an 'every man for himself' kind of situation and, well, you couldn't exactly expect bikers to be the warm and mushy type.

  My alarm beeped once before I shot up and shut it off, looking around wildly, praying it hadn't woken anyone up. Across from me, Moose and Fox were both still passed out. I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and climbed down from the top bunk. My feet had just settled o
n the ground when I felt a big hand close around my right calf. I opened my mouth to scream, but clamped it shut at the last possible second, spinning with raised fists to find Duke sitting off the edge of his bed, watching me with a tilted head.

  "Jesus," I hissed quietly, feeling my heartbeat slam so hard that I felt like I was choking on it. "What's wrong with you?" I whisper-yelled at him, throwing up my hands.

  He gave me a small smile and I realized how attractive he actually was. His hair was out of its bun, flowing long and blond and soft-looking around his shoulders. It was dark and I couldn't make out the pleasant deep blue of his eyes, but they were crinkled up slightly with his smile as he reached for something sitting on the surface of his mattress. "Here," he said, holding out a pocket knife, flicking it open to reveal an illegally long, sharp, serrated blade. At my drawn-in brows, he shrugged. "They don't give probates guns. You need to have something to defend yourself. Not being sexist here... we all need something in case..."

  Okay, well. Maybe I was wrong about him after all.

  With a small smile of my own, I planted my bare foot on his bed beside his thigh, leaning down and rolling up the pant leg of my jeans to reveal the band I had strapped around my left calf with a knife attached. Granted, it wasn't as big and mean-looking as his was, but K assured me it would slice through human flesh like filet mignon. Those were his words, not mine. "Have another in each boot," I added because it was the damn truth. I wasn't walking into a compound full of armed gun runners without something to ensure I stood a chance of fighting out if it came to that.

  "Good for you," Duke said, nodding, and I felt a swell of pride inside. I got the impression that Duke wasn't an easy guy to impress, which made his approval all the more rewarding.