by CM Genovese
“He needs to worry,” X said. “Do you have children?”
“We do,” Tayla said.
“You do?” he asked, his brow furrowed. “Where are they now?”
“At my sister’s house,” Tayla said.
“You need to go get them now,” he said. “Right now. They are in danger if the Black Volga is after Pipe.”
BP wasn’t going to like hearing that I checked myself out of the hospital against doctor’s orders, but I had to go. Oosik wasn’t happy about letting me borrow his bike, leaving him stranded at the hospital, but this could be a life or death situation. I hadn’t meant to snap at him in the hospital lobby, but I didn’t have time to argue about it. He wanted to come with me instead of just giving me his damn bike. His gun and holster were surprisingly easy to pry away from him. By then, he must have realized I wasn’t fucking around.
Tayla wouldn’t stay behind. I tried to leave her with Oosik, but she followed me as I limped all the way to the parking lot. Then she got on the back of the bike and refused to let go of my waist. X laughed as he got on the Harley he borrowed from the clubhouse. Since he’d flown in, he wasn’t able to bring his own personal bike with him. The one thing our MC had plenty of was machinery. From motorcycles to trucks to snowmobiles. We had it all.
“These are my children,” Tayla said. “You are not going without me. Besides, Jamie would never turn them over to you without me there.”
“This could be dangerous,” I argued.
Tayla pulled out her cell phone and dialed her sister-in-law’s number, all while arguing with me. “Dangerous how? How could it be any more dangerous than—” Her attitude changed as her sister answered the phone. “Jamie? Yeah, it’s me. I’m fine. We were there at the arena, but we’re fine. Pipe… well, I’ll tell you about all that later. Listen, where are you right now? At the park?”
“At the park?” I asked. “What are they doing at the fucking park?”
I heard Jamie’s voice come through the phone, “What does he mean why am I at the park? The kids love the park. Why wouldn’t I be at the park? It’s a beautiful day.”
“OK,” Tayla said, “I’ll meet you there. Don’t leave.”
Tayla hung up the phone.
“You should have told her to go home,” I said.
“Just go. Drive us to the park,” she argued.
X laughed. “She’s a tough one, huh?”
I chuckled. “You have no idea. Her dad was a Royal Bastard.”
“Makes all the sense in the world then.”
“You know I’m right here, and I can hear you, right?” Tayla said.
We both laughed and rode out of the parking lot.
Side by side, we drove through Anchorage streets. I knew I was probably overreacting going to the park like this, but I couldn’t take the chance that witch bitch might send the Black Volga after the kids. I hadn’t even thought the plan through well enough to realize I wouldn’t be able to safely haul Caleb and Myra back to the clubhouse when we only had our two bikes. I’d have to give BP a call and see if someone could bring over one of the trucks. That or talk Jamie into bringing them to the MC for us.
“Dear God, please protect my babies,” Tayla prayed behind me.
I loved her more than words could say, and I couldn’t imagine how either of us would handle it if anything happened to the kids. To my son. To my soon to be stepdaughter.
They’ll be okay. You’re doing all you can. You’ll get there soon enough, and you’ll bring them back.
As much as I wanted to believe I was overreacting, the words of the scarred-face shooter came back to me. His final words. He’d said, “The witch wants you dead, and they do what she says. You, your club, your woman, your kids. You will all die.”
Your kids. You will all die.
I sped up. X did the same.
“Please God. Please keep my babies safe.” Tayla’s words repeated over and over with the wind whipping them away as soon as they left her lips.
I said my own silent prayer in my head.
God, please hear her words. Protect my kids. Keep them safe from that evil bitch and her demons.
X, a brother who owed me nothing, raced beside me. No more words needed to be exchanged between us. We’d created a brotherly bond. I would gladly take a bullet for him and he’d take one for me. He didn’t even know me, and he was here backing me up. If it weren’t for his visit, I wouldn’t even be going after the kids right now. Somehow, I knew he was sent here for this moment.
God was hearing my words by sending this one brother up from Charleston, West Virginia, with his hatred of the Russians, to deliver that message at the hospital.
You need to get them now. Right now. They are in danger if the Black Volga is after Pipe.
Nobody else seemed to believe me about the ghostly limousine full of demonic nuns. Yet, X had, without a single strand of doubt. He’d looked me right in the eyes and told me I needed to save the children before it was too late.
As I turned the corner into Jamie’s neighborhood, I got a sudden cramp in my gut. I knew something was wrong. I could feel it. It was like a supernatural guidance leading me on as I sped up, swerving around speedbumps and flying toward the park.
It was up ahead.
X was riding right behind me.
The park was so close.
Jamie was seated on a bench, the way Tayla always was when I visited her.
Caleb was on the swings, only twenty yards from the street.
Myra was climbing the ladder up to the slide.
I saw it all.
Then I saw the Black Volga. Its front hood pulled out of a side street. Its horn-like mirrors. Its pitch-black tires on silver rims. The windows were down a crack and hands slid out, what looked like hundreds of them, pale fingers with sharp, black fingernails.
“Do you see that?” I asked aloud.
“My God,” Tayla said.
She saw it. I wasn’t crazy.
“You see that?”
“Pipe! My babies!”
The hands slipping out of the Black Volga’s windows slithered over each other like they didn’t belong to people at all. They were pale arms with lives of their own, so many of them the entire window was blotted out. All that could be seen were these slithering demonic limbs frantically fighting to grab hold of something and pull it in with them.
To grab hold of your children. To pull your children into the depths of hell.
“My babies!” Tayla screamed.
The Black Volga shot forward and then slammed on the brakes beside the park. Jamie glanced up at the car but didn’t seem to understand what was going on. The passenger side door flew open and the hands reached out. Hundreds of grey hands clawing at the air. From within the hands came the face of the nun in her tan garb. The hands pushed her out of the center of them like she’d come straight from hell and it was the hands guiding her forward. She sprinted out the door and raced toward the playground.
I was fifty yards away when I jumped the curb and hauled ass across the grassy field. X might have followed. I wasn’t sure. All I knew was I needed to get to the kids.
The nun was halfway to Caleb when I slammed on the brakes. Tayla leapt off the bike.
“Get away from my babies!” Tayla yelled as she ran toward the nun.
I dumped my bike and sprinted toward the nun, pulling my gun from Oosik’s hip holster.
“Tayla, stay back!” I yelled.
I was faster than she was, but she was a mother terrified for her children and she was darting out in front of me, getting in the way of my shot. Caleb looked at the nun and let loose a scream that would have sent birds flying had any been around.
The nun looked at me, her face covered in her veil, and a tongue shot out. It slithered out of the veil and must have been a foot long, forked at the end, licking at the air as she hissed at me.
“Tayla move!” I yelled.
Tayla dove out of the way and I opened fire on the nun, sending a bullet
straight through that veil and into her face.
Jamie screamed.
Tayla ran to Caleb who was closest to the nun.
“Get Myra!” Tayla yelled at her sister.
The bullets slammed into the nun’s body and sank right in as if she were made of sand. She shrieked at me. A blast of wind with the scent of raw sewage shot out from under the veil as I sent more bullets into her torso. Her forked tongue continued lashing out at me. It grew another foot at least. Beside me, X appeared, firing his gun into the nun.
Another shriek came from our left, near the road, and the nun in front of us suddenly exploded in black smoke, her ashes scattering on the wind.
“It’s the Black Volga,” X said in awe as he turned and stared at the limousine.
I followed his stare and saw that standing outside the car were four more nuns. They all looked identical to the first. A click sounded off and the driver’s side door opened. A dark figure emerged and stood beside the door. He had his head down but wore a long black robe and a tall hat, like an evil version of a Russian Orthodox priest.
“Holy shit,” X said beside me.
I didn’t need any more prodding. These demonic fucks had messed with my family. Walking toward them, I pointed my gun and started shooting. Bullets flew into the nuns who continued to shriek at me. The hands from inside the car reached out at me and I shot at them too. The priest kept his head down, his face hidden, as I aimed his way.
X joined me in firing at the Black Volga. He shouted as he shot, expelling some of that hatred he’d held in since his childhood. I glanced at him once as my gun clicked dry. His facial expression was one of fury, and for a second, I thought I saw a tear run down his cheek.
Then I ejected my clip, shoved in another from Oosik’s belt, and fired again. I didn’t know what would happen when we reached that car, and I didn’t care. I wasn’t afraid of the curse this witch bitch had put on me, and I wanted these things, these wraiths or whatever they were, to see that.
We were only about ten feet away when the car, the hands, the nuns, and the priest – all of it – exploded in a cloud of black smoke.
My ears were ringing.
My mind was numb.
My leg throbbed so fucking badly.
But my kids were safe. Tayla was safe.
Looking over my shoulder, I watched Tayla hold both of her kids and squeeze them tightly. They were in danger because of me, and I thought once again that maybe they would all be better off without me. That conversation would have to come later.
“Take me to that witch,” X said. “Let’s end this.”
23
Revenge was on the menu. BP and all my other brothers were ready to take action on the Russians. I wanted to charge headstrong into the strip club and slaughter Maxim and his fucking witch. I could have. If I died in the process, it would be worth it. Then again, not following orders was what got Beezus hurt not so long ago. So, I needed to wait.
Yet, I couldn’t help thinking about the last time I waited when I should have taken action. Holly was murdered. Butchered like a fucking pig while her killers ate pizza beside her body.
As usual, my mind was a mess. No answer seemed to be the right one.
If I didn’t want to jeopardize my place in the Royal Bastards MC, I needed to follow orders and hope this was the right path. Even X seemed unsure about it, but he respected my decision to wait for my president’s say-so.
Jamie brought Tayla and the kids to the MC and agreed to hang out there with them for the evening. I gave Oosik his gun back and made sure mine was loaded and ready with plenty of extra bullets.
BP called church into session. There, sitting around the table, we discussed the evening’s plans. Only now things had changed.
“The witch is my priority,” I told them.
“Man, fuck that old hag,” BP said. “It’s Maxim we’re after. That motherfucker needs to burn for what he did at the arena.”
“I know I’m only here temporarily,” X said, “but Pipe is right. The witch needs to die tonight. If she doesn’t, the curse on Pipe’s kids won’t end.”
“You believe in this curse shit too?” Frostbite asked.
X looked at me and I shook my head. They wouldn’t believe what we’d seen. Nobody would. How could they? I wished Tayla hadn’t seen it because she’d never be able to get that out of her mind. She was shaken to the core. Jamie was too.
“I’ve seen some things,” X said, “and I know what Russian witches are capable of. She needs to be put down.”
“I’ll leave that up to you two,” BP said, looking directly at me and then over at X. “But the plan remains the same. Pinky goes in, says she needs a job, sets the bar on fire.”
“She’ll get hurt,” I said. “Let me go in. I have the best distraction ever. But first, I need to go to Wasilla.”
“You’re fuckin’ injured, bro,” Rain said.
“I’m fine,” I replied, “but I could use a little help.”
“In Wasilla,” Rain replied.
“And it could make you an accessory to kidnapping.”
Snatching Matt Pride wasn’t as easy a task as I thought it would be. The kid was a fucking fighter, and as much as I wanted him to calm the hell down, I was proud of him for making it difficult on us.
“He fucking bit me!” X yelled. “The little bastard bit me.”
“Bite him back,” Rain said.
“Don’t fucking bite him back,” I replied. “Just get him in the damn van.”
Taking him was difficult but finding him wasn’t. We’d driven to the football field first and waited for the boys to finish practice. Then we followed him to his house. One of the coaches dropped him off. It took an hour for his buddies to show up to whisk him away for the evening.
We sat in the movie theater parking lot, sharpening our ulu knives while waiting for him to get out of the movie. X wore his on his fist, his hand wrapped around the handle and the blade out like a pair of brass knuckles, as we explained how we used it. The ulu knife was our trademark and damn if it didn’t come in handy in a nasty fight.
“These are fucking wild,” X said. “We need these back home.”
My original plan was to grab the kid when he exited the movie theater, but Rain convinced me to wait. He was right. If we did it then, his friends would see us. Maybe they would go someplace else where it would be easier to snatch him up.
Sure enough, they went to a liquor store after. Since he was the young one in the bunch, Matt stayed in the car while his two older friends went into the store. As soon as they were inside and out of earshot, I went around to the driver’s side door, opened it, and pointed a gun at him.
“You Matthew Pride?” I asked.
“Holy shit. Yessir.”
“Get out of the car and come with me. I’ll explain everything.”
“No fucking way. I know what happens when a kid gets in somebody’s car.”
“That’s fucking pedophiles and shit,” I told him. “Now, get out of the car before I put a fuckin’ bullet in your head.”
This time, he listened, but once I got him to the van and he saw my two mean looking friends. Rain with his scar across his neck and X with his big one on his cheek. I couldn’t blame him for wanting to run the hell away.
So here we were. The kid bit X and Rain was telling him to bite him back.
“Matt!” I yelled. “Stop fucking fighting. You’re gonna be fine.”
“You’re kidnapping me, man!” Matt yelled.
“Sorta, kinda,” I replied, “but you’ll be fine.”
“My family doesn’t have any money though.”
It was late, the sun had set, and Rain drove the van back toward Anchorage while I sat in the back with Matt. X was up in the front passenger seat. ‘Space Lord’ by Monster Magnet played on the stereo.
“You’re gonna be okay,” I lied to the kid.
It wasn’t exactly a lie as much as me not knowing what was going to happen. I’d saved this kid’s
life once, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him now, but my kids’ lives were the most important thing. If I took Matt to the witch, it would be a great distraction for my brothers, but it might also help me end this curse.
Shooting bullets into demonic apparitions wasn’t exactly the way to expire them forever. They’d be back. For all I knew, they were parked outside the clubhouse right now. If the witch wanted Matt’s blood, I’d have to bring it to her. It was the only way to stop the Black Volga.
“I won’t be okay,” Matt argued. “Nobody ever survives these situations. You guys are going to find out my family has no money, they can’t pay you, and then you’re going to kill me.”
“Matt, I don’t want your fucking money.”
“Yes, you do.”
He was seconds away from crying.
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but I was there the night your parents died.”
Matt finally shut up.
“I didn’t kill them,” I continued.
Rain and X were quiet in the front seat. They’d never heard this story before.
“I was nineteen when it happened,” I went on. “My girlfriend delivered a pizza to your parents while the people were there to kill them. They killed her too. I got there right after and you were the only one alive. I saved you. I took you out of your crib and far away from the evil sons of bitches who would’ve taken you.”
“That was you?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Are you the one who killed the guys who killed my parents?”
I was surprised he knew that much about the story. His aunt and uncle, the ones raising him, were more honest with him than most people would be. I probably should have lied to him. If he knew I’d avenged his parents’ death, or got revenge for Holly was more like it, he could turn me in. More than likely he wouldn’t say a word if he survived this night. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
“Yes,” I finally said. “I beat them both to death with a hammer.”
X looked back at me with his eyebrows raised. I nodded at him. Matt remained silent for a couple of minutes, staring into his lap. It was a lot to take in.
