Tyres' Wraith

by E. C. Land

  Great, here it comes. As much as my heart still belongs to Ike, his twin brother has always been special to me too. He was like a brother to me, and I feel bad for leaving him as well.

  “Cool,” Ike yells excitedly and takes off for his uncle’s bike.

  Brake’s demeanor changes, and Chains steps forward.

  “What are you doing here, Ris?” Brake snaps.

  “She’s Wren’s nanny,” Chains announces for me.

  “You knew it was Rissa that Tiny hired for Tyres and you didn’t stop it?”

  “Please, Jax, I didn’t know it was for Ike. If I knew . . .”

  “You’d what? Stay away even longer? Not tell my brother about his kid?” Brake sneers interrupting me.

  “Brother, calm down,” Chains says, stepping forward.

  “How are you not pissed, Chains?” Brake’s eyes flash to him.

  “Because I was smart this time when I allowed Tiny to hire her. I brought Fuse in on it to do a deep check on her.” Chains uses a tone all informative. “And I was waiting until she got here to speak to her myself about it rather than over the phone,” he states, turning to meet my gaze. “Just because I know doesn’t mean you’re not still in hot fuckin’ water, but rather, I get it.”

  My gut churns and I shake my head in denial. “You don’t know anything,” I whisper, fighting to keep the tears at bay.

  “No, you’re right, I don’t know, but then again, I know what information I have on you. And I’ll put it this way, you have two days to come clean to my VP about everything, or I give him the file.”

  No. No. No.

  Ike can never know.

  Not what my parents had done to me or afterward.

  Clearing my throat, needing to change the subject and steel myself against it all, I hold my hand out. “Can I have the key to mine and Ike’s new home? I would like to get him settled and see what we need to go get from the store.”

  Chains eyes me with a look, and I can feel the heat of Brake’s anger zeroing in on me. Shoot, I can nearly taste it.

  Whatever Chains thinks he knows, it’s not even the half of it. The scars on my neck and cheek are from my latest pains. If it wasn’t for a friend of mine, Ike would have been coming home to his dad without me.

  That threat isn’t gone. Not by a long shot, but they don’t know where I am now, which is the only thing that matters at this point.

  One Year Ago

  Coming home from work, I decided to take a hot bath and relax in the tub after being on my feet all day at the daycare center. After leaving Louisiana, I got my degree in early childhood education. It’s not what I wanted to do. Not really, but I’ve come to enjoy it. No, I’d wanted to get a degree and become a social worker to help children.

  However, working in a daycare help when Ike was little, and I could be close to him. I don’t like to be too far away from him. Thankfully, the school he’s now going to since we moved in two years ago is close to the center I work at.

  We’ve moved around a lot since he was born, and I always try to keep what I can. This time, we moved to Palestine, Texas. At the daycare I work at, I’ve become friends with the owner, who also has a son that goes to school with mine. They’re both really good friends, and tonight Ike’s spending it at their house.

  Lana, the owner and my friend, has been a godsend. Without her, I don’t think I’d ever feel I could let Ike out of my sight. See, her son’s dad, Daemon, is a member of a motorcycle club here in Texas. She and Daemon might not be together, but I’ve seen how they are with each other. They’re like friends who just so happen to share a child. It’s cool they can do that. But because of Daemon, I know nothing will happen to my son.

  Taking off my clothes, I turn the water on to fill the tub while I brush out my hair and pull it up on top of my head in a messy knot. My hair comes down well past the middle of my back and I’ve never had the urge to cut it. Sure, I trim the ends but never anything more than half an inch.

  I finish with my hair and put the brush back on the counter. I check the water in the tub and step in as it finishes filling up, letting the heated water touch my skin. It’s not scorching hot, but it’s hot enough to turn my skin red. Just what I need right now.

  With the tub full, I reach out to turn the water off. Leaning back against my bath pillow, I let the silence soothe me.

  I must have dozed off because the next thing I know, a gloved hand is coming to my mouth and there’s a knife at my throat.

  “Don’t make a sound, or I go find that little boy and kill him,” the harsh tone of voice says into my ear.

  Panic starts to set in, but I have to be smart about this. I have to protect my son.

  “Slowly get out of the tub and step out of it,” he orders.

  I struggle to do what he says, but only because he’s holding a knife to my throat.

  Soaking wet, I stand naked in front of him. He guides me out of the bathroom and straight to my bed, where he pulls the knife from my throat and throws me down on top of my covers. Only then do I see the other person. A woman who’s also naked, but not just naked she’s wearing . . . oh God no.

  The man with the knife places it back against my throat. “You’ll let her fuck you while I hold this here,” he declares.

  I have to swallow the bile that comes up as I move my gaze from him to the woman. Her eyes are heated and filled with lust. She palms the thing strapped to her and grins wickedly before licking her lips.

  “Fuck her, Yvonne,” the man commands.

  The woman does just as he says.

  It’s during this invasion of my body that Lana came in. Yvonne and the man were consumed with what they were doing to me. They didn’t hear her coming in. She gasped and ran from the room. Yvonne didn’t get to finish toying with me because the man holding the knife to my throat ordered her to get dressed as he sliced the blade across my throat, breaking through the layer of skin but not deep enough to kill me.

  The man then meets my gaze and presses the tip of his blade to my cheek, where he then slices into me deeply there. “I’m not done with you.” With that, he leaves, and the sound of motorcycles coming in the distance can be heard.

  That day was one of the worse days of my life, and for the past year, Ike and I had been living with one of the brothers of the Satan’s Keepers MC. Tombstone, who is the enforcer of the club, allowed us to stay with him because not only was he one of the ones to find me after Lana called Daemon, but for reasons he told me, and I swore to keep to myself.

  Chains handing me the keys to the house pulls me from one of the worse times of my life. I blink up at him then down at the keys.

  “Thank you,” I mutter and pocket the key in the front pocket of my jean shorts.

  “Did you hear what I said?” he asks.

  “I’m sorry?” I blink.

  “I said the house is already stocked with food for you and Ike. You don’t start work until Monday, so that gives you the weekend to talk to Tyres and get shit straight. You don’t. I give him the file, and he finds out that way. And trust me when I say this, you want him to hear it from you.”

  Great.

  Like I’m really going to do that.

  Nope. Not going to happen.

  I’ll start looking right away for a new job. There’s no way in hell I can work for Ike taking care of his daughter, let alone tell him what my life has been like.

  Chapter Five

  Tyres

  For the past two days, I’ve been in a foul mood. Shit, both Brake and I have been. I know seeing Rissa again isn’t just fucking with my head, but his as well. Those two were close before she up and left. It gutted him. Rissa had been his best friend.

  Brake told me he spoke to my son and found out that his name is Ike. Rissa fuckin’ named him after me. Why the hell would she do that?

  Chains tried getting me to go speak to her. There’s no fuckin’ way I’m speaking to her. No way in hell.

  I told him and Tiny that Rissa wasn’t going to be wa
tching Wren either. Tiny had been pissed about this news. I don’t care. Wren’s my daughter, and no way in hell am I having her anywhere near a bitch who left me, taking the only happiness I knew with her.

  Lyrica stepped in and said she would watch Wren for me.

  Thank fuckin’ God.

  I trust Lyrica like no other. She went through hell for my little girl, and I would give anything to take away that pain that sometimes still haunts her eyes.

  Sighing, I torque the socket wrench I’m using to tighten a bolt on my bike back into place. I look down at my little girl, who’s sitting next to me, looking at what I’m doing while babbling on. She says a few words like dada, yums, etc. Her latest word makes me smile, bike. Wren loves to sit on the bike with me, and I make the pretend sounds for her cause I don’t want to hurt her ears with it being loud.

  I hear footsteps come up next to me on the other side as the people’s shadows come over me. I look up and find Brake, Breaker, and Chains standing there.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, standing and bringing Wren with me.

  “You haven’t spoken to Rissa yet,” Chains declares, speaking the obvious while holding up a file in one hand. The damn thing has to be nearly an inch thick.

  “So fuckin’ what?” I grumble.

  Shaking his head, he nods to the house. “Let’s go inside.”

  I nod, not wanting to get into it outside where any of our other brothers from the club could possibly see what will happen.

  Walking into the house, I place Wren in her play area that has a gate to protect her from going anywhere else without me seeing her. “Daddy’s just gonna be in the kitchen, baby girl, with your uncles.”

  Wren babbles and giggles before going to play with her toys.

  Never did I think I’d be buying a bunch of pink shit, but she loves it.

  Turning on my heel, I meet the others in my kitchen, finding them all sitting at the table with beers in front of them. There’s one sitting on the table for me as well.

  Taking my seat, I twist the top off my beer and take a long pull before setting it down. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

  Not that I want to anyway.

  “I had Fuse do a background check on any and all potential nannies for Wren. This was my stipulation with Tiny in picking one. When I saw Rissa’s file, I knew she needed to come back home. For the past two years, she’s been living in Palestine, Texas.” At the mention of the Satan’s Keepers MC territory, I stiffen. We might be friendly with them, but that doesn’t mean anything.

  “What the fuck was she doing there?” Brake beats me to the punch.

  “What I want to know is why the fuck are we talking about this bitch in the first place and why the hell we put her in Ryder’s house?” Breaker growls. He might not have been as close to Rissa as Brake, but Rissa was family to both him and Chains ten years ago.

  Chains tosses the thick file into the middle of the table, and it flies open.

  The first images on top make my gut churn. “Those images, I got straight from Reaper,” Chains informs us mentioning the president of the Satan’s Keepers MC.

  “What the hell happened to her?” Brake asks.

  “According to Reaper, Daemon’s baby momma, Lana, is friends with Rissa. Their son is best friends with Ike, and if it wasn’t for Lana going to Rissa’s to pick something up for Ike, Rissa would have been mutilated. Lana walked in on Rissa being raped by a woman while a man held a knife to her throat.”

  That explains the scar on her neck.

  “I told Rissa she needed to tell you this, but neither of you has attempted to see the other, and I told her she had two days to tell you. I’m telling you the basics,” Chains mutters.

  “Okay, so she was raped and hurt. That shit don’t tell me nothing about anything I wanna know. Like her keeping my son from me,” I sneer.

  “No, it don’t, but just so you know, her parents died six months ago in South Carolina. My guess? Whatever happened to make her leave has to do with them being a part of that sick cult that the Devil’s Riot MC has been dealing with. Those sick fuckers need to be exterminated, but her parents died during a situation that went down with one of the member’s ol’ lady.”

  Shaking my head, I don’t want to hear this shit. I don’t need this drama in my life.

  Not now.

  Wren doesn’t need it.

  “Still doesn’t say anything, brother.”

  “Brother, I think you need to talk to Rissa,” Brake says, losing all anger. His eyes are glued to a paper in front of him. “If not to clear the air between you and her, but for Ike.” Brake lifts his eyes from the paper and slides it over to me to look at.

  It’s Ike’s birth certificate.

  Ike Jaxson Garnier, born March 16th.

  Fuck.

  She named him not only after me but my brother as well.

  “I’ll fuckin’ talk to her. If only to at least know my son,” I mutter, slouching into my chair and meeting Brake’s gaze again. “Mind watching Wren?’

  “Nope, don’t mind at all. Tell Ike, Uncle Brake says ‘hey’.” That would be my brother. He told me about Ike after I got back that night from my ride. How Ike seemed to know who I was and was upset, thinking I wouldn’t want him. That I hated him.

  And that right there is another reason for me being pissed the fuck off with Rissa. She kept him away from me when she knew . . . she fuckin’ knew I would have wanted him.

  Now that she’s back, once I have my answer, she’ll suffer the consequences of her actions and feel my wrath for what she’s done.

  Chapter Six

  Rissa

  Getting off the phone, I sit on the back porch of the house Chains’ uncle, Ryder, is letting me rent. He came by on Saturday to meet Ike and talk to me. Something about Ryder makes you want to open up. I don’t know why.

  That afternoon though, I told him. Everything. About my parents. About moving place to place, keeping my son safe. I even told him about the threat against his nephew and how that was my sole reason for staying away. If I wasn’t anywhere close to Ike, then my parents would have no reason to go after him.

  Ryder told me I should have called him. He would have helped me back then, and then I wouldn’t have lost the time, not only being home but time with Ike.

  When he left, it was only after I promised never to up and leave again. Then with a kiss to my cheek right on my scar, he left me to my thoughts.

  Ike easily made friends with the neighbors. I met them briefly. A sweet lesbian couple with a son Ike’s age and a daughter who’s six.

  With it being Monday and me not going to Ike’s house to take care of his daughter, I’ve been sitting outside while Ike plays on his Xbox. He’s playing Call of Duty with Hendrik, Lana’s son.

  Sipping my coffee, I’m on my second pot for the day. I listen to the birds chirp and the sounds of the woods in front of my porch. The last two days have been where I find myself constantly. I pick up my tablet and start reading a book I downloaded the other day. It’s the first book to a series about an MC member finding the woman he thought he wouldn’t see again after she vanished four years ago.

  Their story is epic, and I can’t wait for her to put the second one out.

  “You’re still as deaf as ever when you have your nose in a book.” I jump and scream, snapping my head around to find Ike standing in the doorframe of my house.

  “How . . . how did you get in here?” I ask nervously, placing my tablet on the table next to my chair and stand to face him cautiously.

  Ike holds up a set of keys and waves it in his hand. “Got my own keys. Chains, Breaker, Brake, and I all do.”

  “Good to know,” I mutter, dropping my gaze to the floor, unable to meet his any longer without it hurting.

  “Mom,” my son calls out from inside. “You okay? I heard you scream.”

  Great.

  He’s been a little bit protective over the past year.

  “I’m okay, baby. Are you ready for lunch?�
�� I ask, trying to ignore the fact Ike is standing near me.

  I lift my gaze as I hear our son come to the back screen door that Ike still has open.

  His eyes get wide at seeing his dad standing there.

  “What are you doing here?” Ike asks apprehensively.

  “Came to talk to your mom about seeing if you and I can go grab a pizza or something so we can talk and get to know each other. Maybe let you meet your little sister,” Ike murmurs.

  “Little sister?”

  “Yeah, she’s at my house now with Uncle Brake.” His eyes come back to me for a brief second.

  “That’s cool. I always wanted a little sister, but Mom doesn’t date. Not even when Uncle Tombstone and Daemon encouraged her to go out. The only time she went anywhere was when Tombstone took her.” Oh God, save me. I can literally see the anger rolling off Ike in waves as my son talks about Tombstone.

  Tombstone would take me out on his bike every once in a while, but other than that night when I was hurt, I haven’t had sex in ten years. Sure I’ve taken care of myself; I have a nice stash of B.O.B.s that give me everything I need.

  “Is that so?” Ike asks, keeping his eyes on our son.

  “Yeah, she always said there wasn’t anyone who could replace my dad in her heart, so there was no reason for her to look.” God, I need to get my son to stop talking.

  Like now.

  “Ike, why don’t you go get your shoes and go out for that pizza. I’m sure your dad doesn’t want to hear anything about me,” I murmur softly.

  My son looks at me, then at his dad, and nods.

  “I wanna hear everything, little man,” Ike says, reaching out to rough our son’s hair. Hair that looks just like his long brown wavy strands, but where our son’s is up and off his neck, Ike’s is loose and nearly to his shoulders.

  “Cool.” With that, our son rushes off back into the house, and Ike turns his attention back to me as he steps forward.

  “I’m taking Ike out for pizza and then back to my house to spend time with his sister. Then I’m coming back here. It seems you and I have a hell of a lot more than I thought to talk about, and we’ll start with what your relationship is with Tombstone,” Ike growls.