by J Bree
He shakes his head and then motions for me to follow him. “You look a whole lot fucking better. If Diamond doesn’t hire you on the fucking spot I’m calling Tomi down here to get an eyeful of you. He’d put you on the books in a fucking heartbeat.”
Tomi.
That’s a weird sort of biker name.
“Does he control what happens around here?”
He walks me down the hall and over to the bar. Thankfully we don’t pass anyone and I get an extra minute to get my head straight.
“He’s patched in already and takes care of this place. Well, him and Rue but Rue would rather stick a fucking fork in his eyeballs then walk his ass in here. Coupla the girls are after him, makes it hard to come here without being fucking mauled.”
We stop at the bar to finish watching one of the other girls finish her dance. She’s really good at grinding and twirling around but she’s not a dancer. You can tell by the way she holds herself and that she’s just a little unsure on the platform stilettos covered in glitter and feathers.
My routine is going to wipe the floor with her.
Her ass is better than mine though.
“Is she one of them? I can’t imagine a guy saying no to her… not unless she’s an asshole.”
Speck grins and leans against the wall. “Is that your thing? You’re into girls and don’t want men getting close to you?”
Fuck.
Maybe I should say yes just to have that extra layer of security, but that feels so fucking wrong. “I’m just not interested. I want to dance, put food on my table, and do it all without some asshole trying to get something I don’t wanna give him.”
He nods and turns his attention back to the stage. “Rue doesn’t fuck strippers. Or biker bitches. If he comes down here you should just stay clear of him, he’s not the type. Fuck Tomi instead. He’s more than happy to try out the goods.”
Right.
So stay the fuck away from Tomi, got it.
“Like I said, I’m not interested.”
Speck shrugs like it doesn’t bother him either way, but then he pauses. “Whatever money the guys throw at you, leave it on the stage. Leave it for Diamond for tonight so she signs you on. Give her this one dance so she gives you a regular gig.”
I nod and let out a breath. If he thinks I can do this then I guess I’m fucking doing it. Hell, if Diamond still says no maybe he could call this Tomi guy and get me on the roster.
The music stops and Speck motions me forward again, stalking over to where Diamond is waiting at a table with a couple of the patrons, all of them laughing and drinking. There’s a private door to get on and off the stage so I’m not sure why exactly we’re out here on the floor with all of the guys watching me walk around but there’s a whole lot of interest in my tits and ass as I do walk. Speck sees it all too, walking a little slower so I’m closer to his body and I wish the music were a little quieter so I could thank him.
I’ve known him for less than an hour and he’s already shown me more respect than any other man has since my dad died.
“Well, well. I guess you have the right sort of body for this but I don’t see how the hell a dance is going to change my mind,” Diamond says as she looks me over, her eyes a little shuttered even in the dark.
She really doesn’t like me.
I shrug. “I’m a woman of action so I’ll get up there and show you exactly how I’m going to earn the cash.”
A couple of guys around us start chuckling and murmuring to each other, and the eagerness is clear in their tones.
Speck takes a seat with Diamond and I walk over to the stairs by myself. The guys at the table are all wearing patches as well, but I can see the difference in them now. They’re all members and not prospective like Speck. They have more of a vote here than he does.
I need to impress them all.
The Nasty Song by Lil Ru starts playing as I walk over to the pole, jeering and whistling starting up as the crowd sees fresh meat up here. I take a breath, forget what the hell I’m wearing, and then I let the song take me over.
It’s like riding a damn bike.
Muscle memory takes over and my body moves with the music, the heels are nothing to me after near-on fifteen years of dance classes and daily training. I did ballet, jazz, tap, and aerial. The pole is a little different to what I’m used to but the hour class I took last week in preparation was all I really needed to get the technique down and when I move from a simple swing into a Jade Split the whistling stops.
I’m pretty sure the breathing in the room stops too.
There isn’t a man alive who doesn’t appreciate a woman who can bend, my dance instructor once told me that and I was so fucking confused at the time but I’m old enough to get it now. Every man out there in the crowd is thinking all about the positions they could bend me into, all of the ways they could force their cocks into me, and although it fucking terrifies me for once I’m fucking glad for it.
The money starts to rain down onto the stage.
As I move into a new position I see guys walking away from other stages, all of them drawn to me like a fucking magnet, and I know I’m in.
I have to be.
When the song finally stops I walk out the private door and wait there for a minute until Speck turns the corner.
“Fuck. I don’t think I’ve ever been so fucking pissed off to not be someone’s type.”
I startle. “I’m sorry, what?”
He grins and shrugs. “You don’t want any of what I’m selling and after that dance, I’m fucking heartbroken about it. A girl who can do that shit with her legs? Fuck me. Seriously. You get an itch you need scratched, you call me.”
I force a smile and shrug. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
Diamond walks around the corner, stacks of bills in her hands, and she plucks a single crisp hundred dollar bill out to hand over to me. “We’ll see you tomorrow. Wear something white, it’s dirty angel night. Guess you’ll fit right in.”
Chapter Two
Tomi
Rotting corpses.
Is there any smell on the fucking planet worse? Probably not and even with the mask over my nose and mouth I feel like that stink is coating my damn throat.
“We left this shit too long. Shoulda been out here last week to move ‘em,” Vic says, the shovel in his hands already coated in rotting flesh and bone shards.
“No shit, asshole. Maybe if you could keep your fucking temper we wouldn’t be moving bodies in the stinking hot Missi-fucking-ssippi nights,” Rue snarls, already over the entire fucking thing.
I get it.
I am too. I’m over dealing with hot-headed assholes who joined the Unseen to act rough and tough when really they’re pathetic fucking cry-babies over their egos.
All of it is bullshit.
“Fucking Serpents come around here and we kill them. Simple as that, if they roll into Coldstone they’re asking for bullets,” Vic snaps again, and Rue drops the shovel in his hand.
Great.
Here we fucking go.
I take a step towards him and Vic looks relieved for about a half second, right before he realizes I ain’t stopping the fight.
I’m joining it.
Cole and Axe both ignore us all, heads down and shovels moving like there isn’t about to be a beat down, but I don’t expect anything less from them. They know the score.
Rue and I are Callaghans.
The Unseen is ours for the taking, only a matter of time before the mantle is passed on to us and we rule it. Rue’s already shown his hand, ruthless and cutthroat. He’s never been one to fuck around and if there’s a body to be buried he’s showing up to get it done.
I’m the wild card.
No one expected a Callaghan to go off to college and get a computer science degree. They expected my homecoming even less. I was behind my cousin in patching in but only because I knew our club needed some fucking tech support and I was the only one with the brain for it.
I didn’t jo
in this club, I was born into it. I’ve always thought about the club first, myself second and that’s why assholes like Vic piss me off.
Thinks with his dick and his ego.
It’s gonna get him killed and I’ll be god-fucking-damned if I let him take the club down with him. Shit like this starts wars.
Wars get good men cold and six feet under.
Rue dives at Vic the second his eyes move over to me, the split second of distraction enough to get the man on the ground. Cole swears under his breath but doesn’t stop his work, digging and scooping up parts of dead Serpent to slop into the barrel we’re filling up. I keep my hand by my gun, ready to draw it if Vic does something stupid.
He always fucking does.
Rue beats the fuck outta him.
He’s a scrappy sort of fighter, dirty and fucking brutal, like he’ll do whatever the fuck it takes to win. I fight the same way because who the fuck cares about fair? This is a man’s world, ain’t nothing fair about it.
The crunching of boots has Rue pausing, his fist in the air and Vic choking on blood underneath him as we wait for who the fuck is out here to disturb us while we’re getting shit done.
King and Hellion stalk into the clearing.
I let out a breath but the thunderous look on my uncles’ faces don’t exactly spell out good fucking news for us. Rue punches Vic one last time and then stands up, shoving the asshole onto the ground again when he tries to stand up as well.
Hellion shakes his head at me with a warning look but I shrug back at him. Nothing about what’s happening here is a regret for me. Not a damn thing.
“What exactly is happening here?”
Rue is panting too much to speak and it’s probably best if he keeps his mouth shut so I answer for him. “We’re cleaning up after Vic.”
King stares at us all like we’re unruly children and I can feel Rue’s hackles rising. I don’t even have to look at him, I can feel that shit in my bones.
“Why exactly is he bleeding, Rue?”
Fuck.
Rue stares down at him and there’s nothing really human left in his eyes. “Because he ran his mouth. Needs to learn a fucking lesson about who the fuck he’s talking to.”
King stares at his son for a second and I can see the disaster starting there before he even speaks. “Vic’s been a member for longer than you’ve been alive, Rue. Simple as that, it’s a pecking order thing.”
Oh bad move.
Bad, bad move.
King has been gone for too long. Doesn’t know what shit went down while he was in prison, doesn’t know all of the ways his son has thrown down for the club. Doesn’t know what rules have slipped and let the brothers become too fucking relaxed about shit.
Vic is one of the worst.
“He fucked a Serpent’s old lady. That’s what happened here. He fucked a married fucking woman who was looking to piss her old man off in the worst way and when that Serpent of hers came looking Vic gutted him without a fucking thought of what that shit could do to this club. He thought with his dick and not his head and put every brother in the line of fire for it. So instead of spending the night at the bar for your homecoming or working on my hog or, fuck, finding my own piece of ass for the night, I’m out here cleaning up his fucking mess. Don’t talk to me about the pecking order and do not fucking talk to me about where the hell Vic sits on it. I’ve been cleaning up his messes for too long.”
Vic finally lurches to his feet and stumbles a little before getting his feet right under him. Cole and Axe both stop what they’re doing and give their full attention to their Prez, here in the flesh for the first time in over a decade. He’s fucking huge too, like being locked up for all that time means he spent it all working out.
He’s easily double the size of Hellion.
“That true, Vic? You fucking around on the club like that, risking us all?”
Vic spits blood on the ground, covering Rue’s boots and I watch the tick start up on Rue’s cheek as he grinds his teeth. He doesn’t hold his temper all that well. Doesn’t lie about shit either, if he hates you it’s right there on his fucking face.
He fucking loathes Vic.
“So I fucked some bitch, who the fuck cares? I took care of shit when it came calling so what does it matter?”
I scoff at him. “You buried his body on our fucking land, asshole. Cadaver dogs ever get brought out here and we’re fucked. Now we gotta dig him up and move the body and any fucking sand that mighta touched him too, pray we get it all just in-fucking-case. You didn’t take care of shit, you just made the problem ten times fucking bigger.”
King watches between the two of us and then motions Vic over to him like they’re old friends. I guess his homecoming means he wants things to be a little more fucking peaceful and he’s going to talk his old friend’s way outta this shit.
I turn away because I don’t need to see them both yakking it up, to see the fucking brotherhood on the two of them while we’re out here busting our asses to keep shit in line, and as I bend down to grab a shovel I hear the quiet pop sounds of a bullet through a silencer.
I straighten up to find Vic’s sightless eye staring up at me, the other one missing along with half his fucking skull.
King slips his gun into his waistband and stalks over to grab a shovel. “Good call, boys. Let’s get this shit cleaned up before Keely comes after us for missing my own party. I’ll get Hawk out here tomorrow to get the smell taken care of.”
Rue stands there like a fucking statue for a second before finally turning and helping move the last of the rotting flesh.
Between the six of us it’s still another hour before both bodies are sealed in the barrels, no signs of what’s being stored inside and the ground is torn up to hell but there’s nothing there to suggest the carnage we’ve just dug up.
Cole and Axe start moving one while Rue and I snap the shovels and get them jammed into the second barrel with Vic. Thank fuck we thought ahead and got two, originally to get just the shovels disposed of but with some effort we make it work. Hellion stalks off after the other two, quietly directing them on where to go while King watches the two of us work together.
Once it’s done Rue seals the barrel up and huffs out a breath.
“Shouldn’t there be a vote? If you’re killing a brother, a patched member of your own club, shouldn’t there be a vote?”
If that isn’t my cousin, I don’t know what is. Questioning fucking everything, even if he wanted Vic gone, just to make sure that it’s what’s best for the club.
He’s going to make the best Prez someday.
“We’re on the edge of war with the Demons right now, and even with other Unseen charters. There’s rats in our club left, right, and fucking center. We’ve got women and children to protect. Speck isn’t fully patched in yet and Lawson and Lyndon are still a year away from prospecting. We can’t afford to have sloppy bullshit and he’s been given chances. Too many of ‘em because I was doing time. That’s over with now. Everyone toes the line, everyone pulls their weight, everyone lives and bleeds for this club. Vic was only the first to go… there’s going to be a helluva lot more deaths before this is over.”
The chill down my spine tells me there isn’t a word of a lie coming out of him.
I just didn’t really see it coming.
The clubhouse is fucking writhing with bodies.
I knew from the parking lot it was going to be bad but I have to force my way through the crowd just to get out to the hallway and into my room. I have a private bathroom, thank fuck, and I take my time to wash the dirt and gore off of my skin. It’s fucking everywhere, even with me wearing gloves I can still see flecks of black under my fingernails which is a sure sign I’ll be smelling corpse stank until I’ve scrubbed myself raw.
There are some downsides to the one percent-er life.
I’m scrubbing my hair down for the third time when my phone starts buzzing like crazy on the countertop. It’s never a good sign when it blows up and
I open the shower door to grab it.
Have you seen the new girl?
It’s from Law and I curse him through my fucking teeth.
You’re seventeen. Get your ass outta my fucking strip club before someone sees you and we get raided.
I drop it back on the countertop and finish washing up. It takes him a minute but he does eventually reply.
I’m leaving now, King sent me for more booze and the club is the only place that never runs out. But man, you gotta see this girl.
I don’t have time for a stripper right now, no matter how badly I wanna bend one over and fuck her into tomorrow. It’s been about a week since I last shot my load down a woman’s throat and that is at least six days too long. Fucking Vic and his bullshit has taken up too much of my time.
That and Rue going off the fucking rails over King coming home.
I mean, he’s only been waiting for this night every second of the day since he was twelve and his pops got pinned for shit he didn’t do. Problem was he wasn’t expecting the man King has become, the one who has just lost twelve years of his life and now he’s got a club riddled with rats who are trying to take our fucking business out from underneath us. To take away everything we’ve fought and killed and fucking died for.
The club my grandfather started, the brotherhood he built and bled for, these rats want to fucking spit on.
Over my dead fucking body.
Whatever it takes, I’ll burn them all out like a shot of penicillin straight into the bloodstream. Whatever it fucking takes.
Send me a photo of her.
I get dry and dressed, checking one last time that there isn’t any evidence of my night’s work as I pull my shit on. I slip my phone into my pocket and then forget all about this new girl as I get my head together before heading out.
My mom and my sister are going to be out there. My mom doesn’t need to be fretting about a goddamn thing and if Trink knew about shit going on… I don’t need that sort of fucking headache.
When I slip out of my room Rue’s getting out of his too, a frown still on his face but he’s clean and freshly shaved, the shadows on his face cleared up just a little.
