Twisted Secrets

by Keta Kendric

A deep calming breath of air that I desperately needed filled my lungs before I spoke. “The famous DG6 gang. There isn’t a criminal around that doesn’t know what DG6 is.”

  The air started to seep out of the truck, growing thinner by the second, causing me to struggle for breaths.

  “So, your foster father was a member of the gang?”

  Megan unclamped her clammy hand from mine. Her leg started to bounce as she clenched her hands together and wrung them so hard that it looked painful. I didn’t like that far-off look in her eyes.

  “I killed Carlos when I was fourteen. That was ten years ago, Aaron. My foster father wasn’t just a member of DG6—he was one of the original six.”

  Her confirmation caused a cold chill to race through my body.

  “He and his five brothers started the gang. I didn’t find out that Carlos was a part of the gang until after I’d landed in his care. He was using his status as a foster father as a part of his cover—hiding in plain sight from some of the murders he and his brothers had committed.”

  Megan’s words stunned me, and I was virtually speechless for the first time in my life. DG6 had started out as a small gang that had spawn into a cartel that had the meth market locked so tight that only the suicidal were brave enough to challenge them.

  Megan remained silent, letting the words she’d spoken claw their way into my head.

  “You killed an original member of DG6?” I couldn’t believe I was sitting next to someone who’d survived DG6’s wrath. “And what about your foster brother and mother? Were they a part of the gang too?”

  She nodded her head, moving robotically.

  “David was Carlos’ blood nephew. Carlos’ wife had been with him since high school and was as much a part of DG6 as he and the nephew were.”

  Since there was very little oxygen in the cab of my truck, I found it difficult to form words and talk. My grip on the stirring wheel loosened, and my hands fell to my sides. I stared straight ahead, not seeing anything in front of me because a million thoughts sparked inside my brain at the same time.

  Megan’s confirmation explained why the foster mother hadn’t lifted a finger to help her and why her foster brother was as ruthless as his uncle. Megan had been placed in a house with a bunch of fucking poisonous vipers. It was a wonder she’d made it out of there with her life.

  “Fuck,” I uttered, more to myself than to her. “This explains some shit. That’s why they never released the family name to the public. That’s likely why they were able to put you away without going through the courts. It was to protect you. The law couldn’t allow your location to get out.” My body turned in the seat. I wanted to see Megan’s face when she answered my next question. “Your time in that asylum—you hadn’t actually lost your mind, had you?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I’d been daydreaming about killing my foster family for a long time. I didn’t have a choice. I had to kill Carlos.”

  She sounded as if she were still convincing herself that she’d done the right thing.

  “I couldn’t let him keep killing young girls. I also knew that if I killed him, being who he was—an original member of one of the most dangerous and deadly gangs in the country—I would have to stay hidden by any means necessary. I knew, even at fourteen, that his family was never going to stop hunting me. I knew they would kill me no matter what Carlos had done to me. When I killed him and his family, I purposefully pushed my brutality to the extreme. I had to look as crazy as possible in the hopes of getting into one of the most secure prisons or mental asylums in the country.”

  My gaze bore into the side of Megan’s head as she cleared her throat. She continued to glare into the windshield as she prepared to tell me the rest of the most unbelievable shit I’d ever heard.

  “I even went as far as making a list of the top five most secure mental asylums in the country. Even if I had gone to prison, I had planned to do everything in my power to get committed. While I was killing my foster family, I must have at some point really snapped because I went even further than I had planned. In the mist of stabbing Carlos, I figured why not stab him for each time he’d raped me. I did the same to David. Marina, I stabbed her ten times for each girl Carlos had killed and ten times for sitting by and allowing him to rape me. My actions ended up getting me thrown in number one—Ravencrest.”

  I knew from the media that Ravencrest was still known for being one of the most secure mental asylums in the country. The place rivaled some of the most secure super-max prisons.

  “Ravencrest was one of the places I knew DG6 would have a hard time getting to me.”

  My forehead creased. “So, what was your plan for when you got out?” I tried to shake off the idea that a fourteen-year-old could or had to think like this. This shit was unbelievable.

  “I honestly never thought I’d get out. I didn’t know the authorities had found a video of what was being done to me until I was up for release. The video is what helped to free me. It justified my actions, I suppose. Once I was released, I didn’t know how to work or co-exist around normal people anymore. The one thing I did have was my harsh upbringing that had taught me how to survive.”

  She took in a deep calming breath. I’m sure she had to prepare her mind to reveal the rest of the story she had buried in her head.

  “I lived on the streets for months and traveled across several states following other homeless teens. I was hiding in every crack and corner until my husband found me. I was eighteen, and he was twenty-one when we married. I was mindful that DG6 would always hunt for me, so I stayed indoors as much as I could. My husband’s military status kept us moving around, which was perfect for someone with my past. If my husband hadn’t been killed in the war, I would have left him. I believed DG6 would have eventually tracked me down and killed us both. After my husband’s death, I received an inheritance, and I’ve been running ever since.”

  So, that was how she’d been able to live and move around without an income. I turned my attention back over to Megan.

  “The longer I was on my own, the better I became at hiding and staying a step ahead of DG6. I tried to never let myself get comfortable in one place. I knew that DG6 wouldn’t stop until I was dead or worse, their prisoner. I’ve never been afraid to die. It’s why I do some of the crazy shit I do. However, I’m terrified of suffering. Seeing what DG6 does to their enemies and witnessing what Carlos had done to those girls is what’s kept me running all these years. I know it sounds crazy, but I’d rather die a quick death at the hands of a stranger than a slow agonizing demise at the hands of DG6.”

  “Fuck,” I said. Complete sentences escaped me. DG6 had been killing, raping, and taking the country by murderous storm for over a decade. They’d killed more cops and federal agents than any other gang in the country by blowing up three police stations. One was to keep a police informant from presenting information in court. The second one was to kill three rival gang members. Finally, they’d blown up a part of a police station because one of the cops inside had been having an affair with one of the DG6 member’s wife.

  DG6 didn’t care about killing innocent people or large groups of innocent bystanders to get what they wanted. Their merciless appetite for violence and destruction was what raised their danger meter well above groups like ours. They intimidated law officials to the point that most were afraid to even pursue them. Now, I understood why their hired guns were willing to stop at nothing to get their target—Megan.

  My eyes closed on a deep inhale that I released it slowly before placing my hand on Megan’s shoulder.

  “Okay, Megan, we can’t ever tell my MC that these motherfuckers are after you. My MC is ready to fight because those motherfuckers came into our hometown and started some shit. So, if this is DG6, let my MC think they are after me. Besides, I was the one who dragged you back into town in the first place. So, I’m the reason they’re here. It’s my responsibility to protect you, but I can’t protect you and keep my MC from doing something stupid at the sa
me time.”

  She stared, unmoving with her mouth agape.

  “Megan!”

  She jumped.

  “Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

  “Yes. Play dumb and don’t let anyone know I have a bunch of homicidal lunatics after me.”

  When I turned to climb out of my truck, Megan’s low passive voice stopped me.

  “Why are you doing this, Aaron? Let me disappear and lead these guys away from here.”

  For as smart as this woman was, she still didn’t get it. I reached across the seat, gripped her shoulder, and pulled her clean over the console until she was straddled across my lap. One hand gripped her waist as I clenched her jaw in the other.

  “You made me a promise, Megan. What was that promise?”

  “That I wouldn’t leave you again,” she answered.

  “I don’t care if the fucking entire Mexican cartel is after you.” Which was what DG6 may as well have been. “There is no way in the fucking world I’m letting you go, especially not off to someplace on your own while a bunch of fucking contract killers are chasing after you.”

  My face went cold as my eyes bore into hers, a hint of the killer in me peeking out.

  “If this is DG6, a lot of people are about to die, Megan. Either they die or we die. If our time comes, we are going to die like we lived—fighting. If I die before you, you fucking keep fighting. Promise me!”

  “I promise,” she choked out. She shook her head before leaning in to give me the most passionate kiss she’d ever laid on me. My dick jumped up the moment her lips covered mine. My dick obviously didn’t understand the difference between a compassionate kiss and a lusty one. When Megan sucked on my bottom lip and pressed it between hers, before slicing her tongue across it, I started to think that maybe my dick was smarter than I had given it credit for.

  I eagerly accepted her hot, moist tongue as the heat started in my face and rained down my body.

  “You keep that up, and I’m taking out my dick right here, parked in this damn yard.”

  She giggled at me but kept teasing me with her mouth.

  The cab of my truck became filled with our sighs. Anxious lips smacked and lustful moans sounded as our hands roamed and groped hard at soft parts that heaved and bobbed under our erotic movements.

  Bump! Bump! Bump! Went a loud pounding outside the window.

  Chapter Five

  Megan

  The sight of Aaron’s gun rising to the glass presented itself before my brain told my body to panic. Someone stood outside the truck knocking on Aaron’s window, and I wasn’t sure that they were aware that Aaron had a gun aimed at their head. We were parked in the front yard of Aaron’s safe house. Had the assassins tracked us down already?

  My first thought was that someone was about to shoot at us until I glanced up into the handsome face of a man who could’ve easily been Aaron’s brother. He didn’t have a beard, but the resemblance was undeniable. The dimming sun didn’t hide his intense and mysterious hazel eyes and his short, dark hair—features that seem to be the only difference between him and Aaron.

  Aaron didn’t turn me loose as he flipped the key in the ignition and flicked the button that rolled his screeching window down.

  “Cousin Ansel,” he said with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

  Cousin Ansel hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I’d glanced into his face.

  “What’s your name, sweetness?” he asked me, still not acknowledging his cousin. I swallowed and raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to make of him staring at me so intensely. I couldn’t tell if his intentions were good or bad.

  Ansel leaned in the window, and I backed off as his gaze strolled over the parts of my body he could see.

  “Put your fucking eyes back in your head, Ansel. She’s not on the MC’s menu.”

  Ansel held a hand up to his cousin, but the smirk on his face said he had no intention of stopping his flirty ways, especially not with me. His eyes still hadn’t met Aaron’s. He opened the truck door from the outside and it creaked and groaned from some of the damage it had endured during the attack.

  I climbed out of Aaron’s lap and let him get out first. I was mindful to grab my gun before I made a move to follow Aaron out of his side of the truck. Ansel stood there, reaching up to help me down after he’d shoved Aaron out of the way.

  Aaron stood next to his cousin, grinning and shaking his head. They were almost the exact same towering height and build. Their facial features were similar enough for them to be brothers instead of cousins.

  The smile on Aaron’s face let me know that it was okay to move. I inched closer to the edge of the driver’s seat, one hand gripping the back of the headrest and the other with a firm grip on the pistol.

  Ansel wiggled his fingers, extending his reach closer to me. I glanced at Aaron once more before I made my next move. His head nodded once in my direction, indicating that it was okay to allow his cousin to help me down.

  My mouth flew wide open when Ansel gripped my waist and lifted me from the truck like I didn’t weigh an ounce. The gun I had in my hand struck his shoulder from his quick body-grabbing movement and because I suddenly needed to find something to hang on to.

  Cousin Ansel didn’t seem to notice the heavy pistol lying atop his shoulder as I tried to steady my hovering body and keep a grip on the gun simultaneously. He was slow to set me on my feet, but when he did, his gaze roved over my body as he turned me around. I gasped at the sudden intrusion of his strong hands on my waist, spinning me. I felt like a rotisserie selection of meat being prepared to be devoured.

  “Cousin, you’ve been holding out on me,” Ansel spoke to Aaron, but his curious eyes remained on me. His lips didn’t turn up, but the smile shining in his eyes deepened.

  “You have finally stepped out of the old-time regime your father rules and started dating real women. And she has a fucking gun in her hand. My dick’s getting hard.”

  Ansel’s statements were dramatic and animated like an actor auditioning for a part he knew he wouldn’t get. His eyes darted back and forth between the gun in my hand and my face. It was as if the idea of me having a gun in my hand was too much for his mind to comprehend.

  My teeth sank into the inside of my lip to keep from laughing because Cousin Ansel was clearly crazy, but not in a bad sort of way. I had assumed Aaron’s family was strictly against the whole mixing of races as far as dating or even socializing was concerned, but Cousin Ansel didn’t seem to care one bit.

  Aaron snickered at his cousin but glowered at him with a stern eye in the same breath.

  “Ansel, I know your crazy ass is into that Dom and sub shit, but this ain’t that. So, like I said before, put your fucking eyes back in your head. We aren’t in high school anymore.”

  I didn’t know what Aaron’s last statement meant, but he took my hand from his cousin’s and urged me forward with his other hand planted in the small of my back. This was about as formal as Aaron had ever been with me. Ansel trailed us, and I could sense those big, intense, green eyes locked on my body.

  Once we entered the living room, I found myself surrounded, treading water in an ocean of tall and well-built Caucasian men. At least five stood around the living room, talking so loudly that the sound echoed off the walls and rattled my insides. The moment they saw me with Aaron, you could have heard a mouse pissing on a cotton ball.

  Aaron bid the men a quick greeting, gripped my hand, and urged me to follow him. He led me across the living room where eyes, no doubt followed me into a small hall that separated the kitchen from a door that went down and into the basement. Each hard step I took downward represented a strike against the nails I was likely putting in my own coffin.

  Aaron didn’t seem all that worried, but if his MC found out that I was the reason they were in this safe house in the first place, they were going to kill me.

  I knew most of the men from the time I’d spent working for the August Knights. As I glanced around the dimly-lit, dreary base
ment, stumbling over my own feet, I questioned why Aaron had brought me down here. I wasn’t a member, would never be a member, and I most certainly didn’t feel welcomed.

  Shark watched me with a deadly gleam shining in his blue-eyed gaze. He stared at me from across the large table he sat behind as he rubbed his shoulder. Aaron had told me he’d been shot. Shark knew I’d infiltrated his MC by feeding him a false story. The fact that I had somehow managed to make his only living son fall in love with me probably ticked him off even more.

  After Aaron directed me to a seat, I sat with my body glued against the arm of a weathered, brown couch that sat behind Aaron’s chair at the table.

  While working for the MC, I learned that they didn’t allow women into their inner circle, especially not while they discussed business. I was likely the only woman in the entire house and I was sure I’d be the only one in this basement.

  After I shot someone the second day I worked for them, they started allowing me to see and hear things that most other women never would. Even now, I found it difficult to believe that they’d allowed me into the boardroom at their clubhouse while they conducted meetings.

  Although I’d earned a touch of respect from the MC, I knew enough not to push it. I knew the best thing I could do was stay in my place, remain silent, and play dumb.

  I sat on the couch unmoving, glad the big, high-sitting, heavy, dark-wood table and Aaron’s body kept me mostly out of their views.

  The basement was huge. The walls were a dusty blue. There were no windows, and from what I could tell, there were only a few small, vent-like square holes that acted as ventilation.

  The only way in or out of the area was up the steps. The wide area contained three large couches lining two walls and a large table surrounded by ten chairs in a setup like the one at the MC’s clubhouse. There were no pictures on the wall and no other furniture. The scent of leather and stale cigarettes permeated throughout the space.

  Although the area was open, the air around me tightened and grew more suffocating with each new member that entered the space. I watched member after member as they clumped down the steep, unpainted wooden steps.