Beginning of the Reckoning

by Vera Quinn

  “When I was pregnant…” I start but stop. I hadn’t thought about Adeline and Lucas today. I don’t know how I feel about that. I see a look in Tara’s eyes and I know she knows where my mind went. “I had morning sickness a few times with Adeline but with Lucas it was every day. Em, my sister, was lucky. She only had morning sickness a few times.”

  “I am on bir th control, so we don’t need to worry about me being pregnant,” Tara says as she is flipping through her calendar on her desk. “Oh, damn.” I look closely at Tara.

  “Something wrong?” I ask her but I can tell by the look on her face exactly what it is. Tara’s eyes swing to me and I can see the tears in her eyes. I get up and walk over to her. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m late, two weeks late. I’m never late.” Tara looks at me. “Maybe it is because of my nerves. I mean a freaking dead body was found in this apartment complex.” I give Tara a little smile.

  “That just happened. It wouldn’t make you two weeks late. When we go to lunch we can get a pregnancy test for you to take. It could be anything. Don’t freak on me now.” I try to be positive for Tara.

  “We can’t leave for lunch. The prospect has orders to keep us here so he can keep a close eye on us. Rome is a bit protective.” I laugh. “Aren’t all bikers with their woman and children?” I think about it and I know exactly who to contact and hope I don’t get her in trouble. I go to my desk and pick up my phone and send a text to Callie to bring two or three pregnancy tests. It doesn’t take long to get a response. “Callie is under house arrest too but she is sending Felix with what we need.”

  “Will Felix say anything to th e prospect out front about what he is bringing?” Tara is really upset. I send Callie a quick text asking her to tell Felix not to mention anything to anyone. It’s not long for the response to come back in. I laugh at her reaction. Tara is staring at me.

  “Callie asked me if the test was for me and I replied no to her. She’s telling Felix not to mention it and she is sending us some cookies that her and the children made to cover but she said not to eat the cookies.” I laugh as I reread her message. “The boys put the whole egg in the recipe when her back was turned so they have eggshells in them.” I shake my head. “Tara, it’ll be alright.”

  “I know. It’s just not how I had planned everything. I like to plan to get used to an idea.” Tara shakes her head but I can tell she is in her own head instead of paying attention to our conversation. “I’m getting ahead of myself. Everything is fine. Next year Rome and I are going to buy a home and then we are going to save a little money and then we will talk about children.” I hope if that is what Tara really wants that she gets it. She and Rome are good together and I can tell they love each other. I hope they get exactly the life they want. “It’ll be alright,” Tara says again. I go back to the applications and try to put my mind anywhere but on pregnancies and children. Tara is pacing the floor and I can tell she is on edge and I wish I could take her worries away but nothing but peeing on a stick and waiting a few minutes will do that. “Maybe I should call Rome.” I put the phone down and walk over to her and give her a hug. Tara is not a touchy-feely person but she finally relaxes.

  “There is no reason to call Rome. Do the test first and then there may not even be anything to call about. It’s not like if it is positive you won’t be taking a dozen more and then going to the clinic. Just wait. If it is positive then call and you two can freak out together.” I want to laugh at the poor girl but I sort of feel for her. She’s young and she has her plan she wants to stick to. Tara hasn’t realized in life sometimes your plan needs to adapt to change. It’s a lesson that is usually learned the hard way. Felix comes in the door and he takes in the scene of Tara freaking out.

  “Well Callie said the test wasn’t for you , Joy, and from Tara’s face I am guessing she is the lucky woman.” Felix half laughs. “I brought some pizza to go with the cookies that you do not want to eat. Love those boys to pieces but they not only put eggshells and all in the batter but they also poured the salt shaker in there.” I can just see the two boys doing exactly that but I do not get why Callie didn’t stop them.

  “Why didn’t Callie catch them?” I ask laughing. “That one is easy. Katy Bug is teething and had diarrhea and was crying. Callie was trying to soothe her and do the cookies with Kellan and Killian at the same time. She also had Hanna puking her guts up in the bathroom and trying to hold her own lunch in. Callie does not know how to say no to those boys. She had promised them they would do cookies and she didn’t want them to think she was picking the baby over them so super mom thought she could do it all.” Felix is shaking his head. “Then Hanna shows up sick. Long story short, Callie needs help at home. Sarah hasn’t been around for a few days so we are a hand short for help.”

  “I could give her a hand. Is there a virus going around?” I ask Felix. “The nine -month virus. Hanna is knocked up. I’m telling you that Devil needs to give my girl, Callie, a break. Callie’s test thankfully was negative but it won’t be long until he has her knocked up again.” Well, wow. I am running from babies and I have run right into a baby boom. “That is the reason there are three different kinds of pregnancy test in this bag. I already had to make a run to the pharmacy.” Tara’s face is pale. “I brought cheese pizza on half and meat lovers on the other half. Didn’t know what you both liked but I was picking me up one on the way to work and I thought you ladies might like a pizza since I know you are both on lock down just like Callie,” Felix finishes.

  “We can share with the prospect. What’s his name?” I look at Tara. “Bo…his name is Bo ,” Tara answers. Her head is still with those tests in the bag. Felix looks at me over her head and I smile at him and lift my shoulder. He shakes his head in understanding.

  “Well you ladies enjoy. I need to get to work and I hope everything turns alright with those.” Felix points at the bag he has set on Tara’s desk. Tara is looking at the bag like it might reach out and bite her. I guess it is time for me to put my big girl boots on and be the friend to Tara that she has been to me.

  “Later Felix and thank you for everything,” I tell Felix who is still looking at Tara like he wants to say something else. “Later beautiful ladies.” Felix walks out the d oor but I can tell he is going to be on the phone to Callie as soon as he is far enough away. She’ll be texting later for an update. I stand up from my desk and walk over to Tara’s and pick up the pizza and the bag with the pregnancy tests in it.

  “Why don’ t we take the pizza and this bag and go back up to my apartment so you can decide if you are ready for your answer.” Tara looks up to me and smiles. “That way we won’t be disturbed by Bo or anyone else. We can take an early lunch and eat while the pizza is hot.” Tara looks at the bag and then back at me. She takes a deep breath and stiffen her back.

  “Sounds like a plan. I want to do the test before I eat. I might as well get my answer. Everything will be alright. I love Rome and he loves me. We can do this. We just need to tell Bo that we are going upstairs,” Tara says.

  “Well we have to walk right by where he is parked so that isn’t a problem,” I tell her. “We need to lock the office up too. Rome said to lock it even if we are going to be gone just a few minutes. Security is tight.” I follow Tara to the door. She opens the door but stops and looks at me. “Thank you for being here for me and thinking of contacting Callie. I know I am a little weird about my planning things out but it is the only way I have been able to keep my life straight for so long. It’s a hard habit to break. I know I can lean on Rome now, but for so long, I was the only one but my brother Joey. It’s hard to realize I have a man and a bigger family and friends I can depend on. I like it, but it is still hard to grasp sometimes.” My heart is breaking for the things this woman must have been through. I don’t know her story except for a few things she has said here and there but I know she had a lonely childhood and she had to grow up fast to take care of her younger brother. Em and I always had each other. We may have chosen
different life paths but we have always just been a phone call or text away. I know how lucky that makes me. I hold the door open and Tara walks through it. I just hope she is ready for this because no matter what, her life is about to change. She can’t go back to having her head in a cloud after a pregnancy scare and the way she reacted. No, Tara’s life is going to change.

  I watch as the two women come out of the office and go up the stairs that leads to their apartments. This time next week one of the bitches will breathe her last breath. The Feral Steel have upped their security details on their families because they fear me. They need to fear me. It won’t be long until they find the second body and when they do it will fill them with the fear that I crave. I have the perfect place for them to find her. They need to feel the fear my family must have felt. I have taken one of their own this time and she will be dead by the time they find her. It was too easy but I need to have patience and patience has never been something I am good at. I will put my other plans in action while the Feral Steel scramble to keep their family safe. They can’t. I have planned everything out. I will not fail, failure is not acceptable. The Feral Steel took my family from me and now it is my turn to return the favor in spades. It is my time to make them bleed and when they think they have nothing left to lose I will prove to them that they do and it is just the beginning of the reckoning that I am going to rain down on every one of them. No one will be left untouched by my wrath. They are arrogant and they have gotten sloppy. Sloppy in their line of work will get you dead. They want everyone in this piss ant town to believe that they are working inside the law. It’s too late for them to be law abiding citizens. What about the people they destroyed along the way? I won’t let them forget. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a damn life and the Feral Steel MC and their families better be ready to pay with blood because that is the only payment I will accept. I have worked for two years to make this happen and I won’t be stopped. First, I need all the players in one place. My revenge doesn’t stop with the Feral Steel MC. It goes much deeper. I am going to make the innocent pay first so it will bring the club to their knees and then go in for the kill of the ones my plan is aimed at. The thing is that they are not even going to see me coming.

  Call out! How long has it been since the Feral Steel MC got a call out at two in the morning? The last time a situation was going south for us. There is nothing besides a good party to call us out at two in the morning and the clubhouse was unusually quiet when I received the text that brought all the brothers on the road in the middle of the damn night. We don’t even know what the hell we are walking into or where we are going. Devil and Tito both received a picture from an anonymous number. Rome said that some of the surroundings look like the cabin he owns outside the city limits. That’s what brought us out here on this empty farm to market road. The place holds bad memories for Rome and Devil. It’s where Rome had to take his blood brother, Stacks, out. Stacks had to be put to ground because he was never going to stop trying to hurt Devil’s family. Stacks was a drug addict and he was convinced in his head that he was entitled to the Feral Steel MC and meant to take it by bringing Devil to his knees by taking Callie. Stacks found out that taking Callie from Devil was not an easy thing to do. Rome saw that Stacks would not stop so he did what he had to. In the process, family history was brought to light and Devil found out that Rome was his half-brother and it forged a bond between the two. Rome stuck around and prospected for the Feral Steel MC and he earned his cut. Now he is a Feral Steel brother. We finally turn down the dirt road that will take us back to the cabin. We travel slow down the dusty road so we don’t have to eat too much dust. Rome is leading us with Devil and myself close behind. Kane is the one that knows the road the best. The rest of the brothers are behind us. Rome slows down and pulls into the cabin drive. It’s more like a path. We stop the bikes and I look at the cabin and I can see the work Rome had started on before him and Tara decided to live in the apartment complex that Tara manages for the club. The grass has grown up and I see some fallen limbs from the storms we have had. I don’t think I would consider living in a cabin that was so far from neighbors. I may not like civilians around a lot but being with my club brothers is something I have become accustomed to. Then again, maybe I need to think about some distance with the way I have been feeling lately. The rest of the brothers are checking things out around the cabin like I am. None of us but Rome and Devil have been here often since Stacks’ death. Devil and Rome stop in front of the cabin. We all move in closer so we can hear what Rome is saying. “There is a pond about a half a mile down this path.” Rome is pointing to a walking trail at the side of the cabin. “About half of the way down this trail there will be a fork in the trail; both paths take you to the pond but on opposite sides. The pond is narrow but long. The trees in the picture could be on either side so we need to split up,” Rome tells us.

  “No. We a re going to be in three groups. Rome, Hacksaw and I will go to the right. Bowie. Thrasher, and Ridge go to the left. The rest of you stay with our bikes and check out the cabin. I don’t want someone coming at us from the rear. This could be a trap.” Devil looks at each of us. “Crockett, make sure someone keeps an eye on the road and do not let our bikes out of your sight. We are too easy of a target out here.”

  “Gotcha ,” Crockett answers. Rome starts down the path and it has briars and there are roots that try to trip us. This trail has not been used very much and we are careful to watch our step so we don’t land face first on the ground. We veer off to the right as the other brothers go left. I have a flashlight in my back pocket but I don’t want to have to use it because it will draw attention to us if someone is waiting to ambush us in the woods. The further back we go, the darker it gets. The moon is shielded by the tall trees. Rome stops and looks around. I see the flash of something on the other side of the pond. Someone has put a flashlight on but it is gone as fast as it was on. Rome stops and I see the trees that resemble the ones in the picture but there is nothing there but the trees. There is a foul smell. A skunk has sprayed the area.

  “Do either of you have a flashlight?” Devil asks. I go for mine but Rome already had his out and he flashes it in the trees and there is nothing there. “Maybe I was wrong. This could be a waste of our time,” Rome says. “Over here! Hurry, she’s still alive! We need an ambulance!” We all three take off towards where Bowie had yelled from. We try to hurry but on this trail, there is no hurrying. We make it over to the others and I still don’t see anything. I pull the flashlight out of my pocket and shine it on the trees and that is when I get the first glimpse of the woman hanging strung between two trees. I don’t recognize the bloodied woman.

  “Get Sarah down from there !” I hear Devil yell. I look at the young woman and I don’t recognize the woman hanging from the trees as Callie’s friend Sarah. I don’t know how Devil can be sure. Devil pushes past me, he must be seeing something that I am not. Rome is right behind Devil. I see Bowie and Ridge have the woman down but Devil takes her from them and lies her on the ground. I walk up to the two men that are trying to help the woman. I still don’t see how they can tell who she is with the cuts and bruises that cover her body. Her eyes are swollen shut. I flash the light down on her and I see the tattoo right below her collar bone. It’s a four-leaf clover. Early last year Sarah, Hanna, Callie and Felix went and got the same tattoo on a different part of their bodies. Sarah’s is done in metallic ink. They explained they were lucky the day they met each other when they started school and they have been friends ever since. Together they are unique but take one of them away and they become ordinary. I thought it was some of the corniest bullshit I had ever heard. The woman I have my eyes on now doesn’t even resemble Sarah. Her hair is full of dirt and blood. There are places on her head that have no hair. It looks like it was pulled out. She has so many cuts on her body and she only has a t-shirt on. She has blood running down her leg. She is unconscious and her breathing is shallow and labored. I see Bowie talking on t
he phone so I know an ambulance is on the way. “Sarah, can you hear me? Open your eyes for me. It’s Devil and we are here. You are safe.” Devil is talking soothingly to Sarah like he is talking to one of his children. I know the ambulance cannot drive down the path we came down.

  “Ridge, go and meet the ambulance. Bring them carefully down the path. See if there are any lights in the cabin so we can light that path.” We could try and move Sarah but I don’t think that is a good idea. We don’t know the extent of her injuries.

  “I’ll go with him. I know where the lanterns are ,” Rome says. I move in closer to Devil to help him keep Sarah’s body off the ground. When I get closer I flash my light on her to be able to see her wounds easier. That’s when I spot it. There’s blood all over her stomach but there is something carved into the skin. I shine my light on it and that is when Devil sees it too. I lay my flashlight down and take my cut off and remove my t-shirt and hand it to Devil. I put my cut back on and pick the flashlight up. I take the shirt from Devil and try to gently wipe some of the blood away. I hear the ambulance in the background. I see the first two words but only for a second. I wipe right below it and I see what the message is.

  “What does it say? Can you make it out?” Devil asks me. I see the brothers standing close waiting for my answer. “It says one of yours next,” I answer. “It has the number 1 and then of on the first part and then yours spelled urs and then next. It’s a message just like the one at Becky’s apartment. Whoever is doing this is sending us messages.” I feel the need to fucking kill someone for doing this to Sarah.

  “Te xt Creole and Edge to get my family locked down. The same with Tara and Gertie.” Devil looks down at Sarah. “Tell them to get Hanna, Felix and Joy too. I want our clubhouse locked up tighter than Fort Knox!” Devil is taking no chances. Devil looks down at Sarah. “Oh shit! She’s not breathing! Hacksaw get down here and help me.” I know the ambulance has pulled into the drive. What the hell is taking so long? I move in closer so I can help Devil. Devil positions Sarah so her head is tilted back. I have never done CPR before but once and it was on a brother. Devil bends down and breathes into Sarah’s mouth. He stops and looks at me and I start the chest compressions. I hope I don’t break something in this woman. Devil and I takes turns with Devil breathing into Sarah and my chest compressions until the paramedics make it to us. I move away as one of the men takes my place. Devil doesn’t want to let Sarah go but they finally get him out of the way. I don’t know how long they work on her but they finally get her to breathe again and they get her on the gurney. I don’t know which brother is more relieved when they say she is breathing. I think we were all holding our breaths for Sarah’s next breath. We follow up the trail with my flashlight helping us avoid the roots and briars. Bowie is in front so the paramedics can see their way. The paramedics get Sarah loaded up but she still has not regained consciousness. Devil has answered any questions he could to the paramedics. I see the sheriff has made it with backup. It’s not long after the ambulance leaves before the sheriff is approaching Devil. Sheriff Taylor does not like the Feral Steel MC so I know he is going to give Devil a hard time. I just don’t know if Devil can control his temper to answer his questions. Devil’s mind is with Sarah and with how he is going to tell his woman that one of her best friends is in bad shape and she has been attacked because of her association with the club. Callie is a strong woman but the people she loves are her weakness. I approach Devil from the other side and reach him just as the sheriff does.