by Sierra Rose
Nothing.
"Is someone here? I'm not afraid to whoop your ass, so no jumping out at me." I moved past the full-length dinner table that everyone hovered around all the time and stopped by each curtain, yanking back the thick crimson drapes one at a time.
My heart was racing and fear pulsated deep in my chest, but I couldn't let it consume me. It was most likely nothing, but I wasn't taking any chances. I'd been in too many fucked up scenarios as of late to chance anything. I got to the last one and cringed as I pulled the curtain back.
A black bird darted from the window sill, leaving me stumbling back as a scream left me. I landed on my butt and let out a soft growl before climbing back up and shutting the window.
"Stupid bird," I muttered and walked back into the kitchen. "Like being in a goddamn horror movie."
Back in the kitchen, I made myself a cup of hot cocoa and turned to work on the safe as I heated it in the microwave behind me. The crowbar was too big, but I tried ten times to get it to work by turning it this way or the other. The last time it slipped and cut my finger.
A grunt left me as I jerked back. "Ouch!"
I chucked the crowbar across the counter and yelled in frustration. Nothing wanted to go right, and I just wanted something to do while I was sitting in the creepy ass house that should have brought me comfort, but it didn't. It terrified me. He terrified me.
"Why? Why me?" I walked back to the foyer and grabbed my pistol, slipping it into the back of my shorts and walking back out toward the warehouse. I didn't want to go back, and I was sure Lucky was going to skin my ass alive should he find out that I didn't listen, but I wanted in the safe more than I wanted to let it go and find something else to do.
Fear couldn't rule my life, or I wouldn't have one. Fear was a part of everything my father stood for, every move he made. It was the very foundation of his organization, and I was the next in line to take it.
I stopped half way to the old shed and realized that my father kept a small crowbar in his office. Turning, I ran back to the house like someone was after my ass. I was tough, but only so much. I slammed the door behind me and locked it before walking to my father's office and opening the door.
It smelled of stale cigars and sex. Bile rose in my throat at the thought, but I forced myself to ignore it. I pulled open the bottom drawer on his desk, a little surprised to see it open without a key. The miniature crowbar sat at the bottom of a stack of shit.
"Yes! Finally." I grabbed it and walked back to the kitchen without shutting the drawer or the door. I'd have the rest of the night to cover my tracks. I wanted to know what Dante was hiding. Did my father know he had the safe? He had to have, right?
I popped the lock within minutes and felt the first wave of victory as I pulled out three tapes, a bag of dope and three envelopes.
One was marked, 'Elec', one 'Lena', and one 'Boss'.
I opened the one with Elec's name on it, wondering what the fuck Dante wanted with my cousin. It seemed silly, but I figured starting with the less important envelope would help the buildup in case the contents were horrible.
Unfolding the file in my hand slowly, I paused, jerking my head up as the sound of flapping started again. "Fucking bird."
I opened the papers to find a birth certificate and nothing else. I tried to flip through the blank sheets to see if there was anything else and got nothing.
"Why do you have Elec's birth certificate?" I sat it down and rolled my eyes before reaching for the letter with my father's name on it. Inside was a letter from Dante to my father that simply stated that he had proof of my father killing my mother. He had it on tape.
I stepped back as my eyes moved to the tapes on the table in front of me. "No."
Heavy emotion rolled over me, and I pressed my hand to my mouth. The letters were blackmail, and the tapes were... evidence.
"Why do you need this?" I whispered roughly as realization dawned on me. Elec's birth certificate was evidence of what?
I picked it up and lifted it to my face, scanning through the details. The date was fine, the hospital the same I'd been born in. His mother was my aunt and his father was...
"No. What the fuck?" I dropped the paper as if it were on fire. Rafael Delgado was listed as Elec's father's name on the form. Had my dad slept with his brother's wife?
Elec's words about his father beating him because he didn't belong to him, but to another man rolled over me violently. He'd called himself my brother in the ambulance. He was helping me.
"No fucking way." The sound of a door slamming caused a scream to rip from me. "Who's there?"
I grabbed the large crowbar as I moved down the hall, ignoring the fact that I hadn't opened my letter just yet. With any luck at all, I'd get to it shortly.
The flapping in the dining room was loud, and I walked in to find the light turned off. I hadn't turned it off, I was almost certain. Terror gripped me, but I forced myself to walk toward the window where the bird was last time.
I flapped the window and he flew off as I realized that I'd shut the damn thing minutes before.
Strong hands grabbed me from behind, and I turned to face Dante, his eyes wild, his breathing a little off.
"I know I shouldn't have, but I came for you. Your father's on his way, and he plans to lure in your boy and kill all of you one at a time. I want the punk dead, but I'm not sure I'd survive losing you." He gripped me tightly, lifting me off the ground and walking toward the hallway.
I couldn't let him go into the kitchen. If he knew that I'd broken into his personal safe and found out some of his secrets, he would go ballistic. He was high on something as it was. He was going to start killing, fucking or beating something soon, and I was the only one around.
"Stop. Put me down and let me talk to you for a minute."
He paused as if considering it but walked out into the hall. "We don't have time for your babbling. I just told you, Rafael is on his way."
"Then let's go out the front, Dante. He's going to find us if we…"
"What are hiding from me? Is that hood rat here with you? Did you let him touch you again? You belong to me, Selene." He sat me down and glared down at me before turning and walking toward the kitchen.
I moved into the dining room and turned off the light, pulling my gun from the back of my pants.
"Do I?" I whispered as tears blurred my vision.
"Selene! What the fuck are you doing in my stuff? This is my private safe. How dare you break into it? You little bitch, and here I trusted you. You're no different than your old man. Fucking whore." He barreled down the hall toward me, but I stepped out of the darkness and lifted my gun, which stopped him in his tracks.
"Don't move another fucking inch. I'll blow your head off your shoulders. I swear to God, I'll do it." I was shaking, but taking any of what little bit of energy I had left to stifle it wasn't going to happen.
"Put the gun down. I love you, and I have since the day we met. Don't you remember that party that night? I knew you didn't give out the drugs, but did I say anything? No. I protected you. I took the heat for that shit. I took the heat for you every time I covered your ass. I love you with every part of me. Put the gun down. Now." He took another step, and I jerked to the left a little, letting off a shot. It whizzed by him as he flinched, but didn't move out of the path of my aim.
The door behind him opened and my father walked in, the smile on his face enough to sicken me. Mateo and Elec were with him, both of them coming to a stop as they took a step back.
"Butterfly. Why are you hesitating? He's going to destroy me and you. He's not interested in taking care of you. He wants your position. Stop fucking around and take him out. It was his idea to set the building on fire." My father laughed and stopped just behind Dante. "Kill him. He's going to kill you."
"Shut the fuck up, or I'll kill you. It's you I want dead." I turned my gun toward him for only a moment as Dante took off toward me. We wrestled with the gun and it accidently went off. I screamed as h
e hit the ground with a sickening thud. Mateo pulled out his gun and aimed it at me.
I fired off two more warning shots. Grabbing a nearby vase, I watched the youngest of my cousins fall. A scream left me as I turned the gun on my father, but it was too late... He had a gun pressed to the underside of Elec's neck, his smile dark and eyes manic.
"Shoot, baby girl. The last thing that stands between me and you is this bastard." He chuckled and I shifted my gaze to Elec's.
"Do it. I'll die for you. Shoot me and him. Do it, Selene."
"I know you're my brother," I whispered as the door behind me opened.
Chapter 12
Lucky
"Everything alright?" Dane looked up from tinkering with the computer as I walked back in.
"Yeah. Lena was trying to find a crowbar for something. That woman is damn scary with a tool in her hands. She can make anything look like a weapon." I laughed and dropped down on the rickety stool just across from him.
"She pulled a knife on me when I walked into the office upstairs a little while ago. I was lucky I didn't get stabbed to death before she realized it was me." Dane glanced back down at his toys and let out a long sigh. "You think we'll figure this out and get through all of it?"
"Yep. We just need tapes of Rafael committing some heinous crime, just like you said. The house has to have evidence of drugs, too. I mean, come on... they've been dealing all sorts of shit for as long as we've been alive. You remember old Jimmy Johnson that overdosed at the park freshman year?"
"Yeah, and Mary Tillman our eighth grade summer?" Dane shivered. "That bastard is such a black plague to this town. Why hasn't anyone done anything about him? Why haven't the Stone Wolves just taken him out?"
"Because we're not murderers. Even though the fucker deserves it, and we'll be hopefully laying his ass to rest soon, we're not going to go in and kill someone in cold blood. It would have to be in self-defense."
"Even now? If Rafael showed up here and wanted to turn himself in? What would you do? You're saying that the Wolves have set the standard that would force you to let me arrest him after all he's done? That's crazy. I don't believe it. I know you too fucking well, Luck." Dane stood up and stretched, lifting his hands to the ceiling and giving me something to think about.
The surprising thing was that I didn't need to think about it. I knew exactly what I would do.
"I'd let you arrest him. Honestly." I shrugged and pulled out my phone as it buzzed. Blade.
"What's up, old--"
"We have eyes in the community that just told us that Delgado is in town. You need to make sure you keep close to Selene. Where are you guys?" The panic in his voice filled me with the same emotion.
"We're right across the street from her dad's clubhouse, in the small gas station." I moved to the window before jerking my head back toward Dane. "Flip through the cameras. Blade said Rafael has been spotted in town."
"You need to be careful. We're headed out there now. Sit tight," he barked at me like I was all of fifteen years old.
"No. We got this. It's fine. It's two or three of them at most." I let out a sigh and wiped at the dusty glass in front of me.
"I'm not kidding. This man is far more vile than any of you know, Lucky. I was there the night he killed Marilla. It was horrible. The worst thing I've ever seen in all my life, and yet there was nothing but my word against his. Don't budge. I'm serious."
"Who's Marilla?" I wanted to keep him on the phone until Dane and I were ready to hit the door running. If we could take out Rafael before any of my MC showed up, that would be the better plan. Putting anyone else that I loved in harm’s way was too much. I could take care of it. I would.
“Selene’s mother." He let out a long sigh. "She was... she was everything to me."
"What?" I jerked upright as my heart almost stopped in my chest. "What do you mean, 'she was everything to you'? What the fuck does that mean?" I turned as the room spun a little.
Dane reached out and grabbed a hold of me. "Hey dude. Get a hold of yourself. What's going on?"
"We were lovers. I know I'm older than all of you, but she was beautiful, and I fell in love. All of this between us started ages ago with Rafael's ancestors, but it's been fed to this level of intensity because of my affair with his wife. He shot her three times while I walked to my car, not knowing it was happening. Before I could get back to her... she was dead."
"This shit just keeps getting worse by the minute." I took a shaky breath. "Does Selene know this?"
"No. Not at all. Her father had become abusive and horrible to Marilla by then. I was going to help her get out. We were going to run, but she was pregnant with Selene then and decided to wait it out until the little girl was born. And once she was born, she was afraid to leave."
"Lena isn't yours... right?"
"No. I don't know. No. Fuck!" He growled and let out a string of curses. "I don't know, but I don't think so. It does matter. I love you and I care about the girl. Stay where you are, okay?"
"Alright," I whispered and dropped the call. I'd never had anyone in my whole life outside of Lena and Dane tell me that they loved me. Blade letting it slip was almost too much for me to handle.
"Spill. I couldn't hear what just happened. I want everything." Dane shook me a little, and I came to. I needed sleep and lots of it.
"Blade was having an affair with Lena's mom the night she died. Well, before then, but Rafael found them and killed the woman after she left Blade, I guess." I shrugged. "He doesn't know if he's Lena's father, but I'm not saying shit about that to her. He can tell her if he wants, and if not... none of my business."
"Whoa. What the fuck did you just say?" He moved around me. "Tell me later. We got company. Shit. There's three of them."
I ran over to the cameras and bent over. "Fuck. Dante is in the house. Let's go."
***
We were almost to the front door when the sound of gunshots rang out. The roar of motorcycles revved up behind us, and I was at a loss as to what to do. I needed to get into the house with Lena, but I knew Blade was going to be livid with me.
Nothing mattered but her, though. I burst though the front door with my gun pulled and Dane right beside me in time to see Mateo hit the ground. Dante was unconscious at Lena's feet, and she was trembling like a leaf.
"It's just me and Dane, baby. We're here now." I moved up toward her as the soft sound of her crying filled my ears. She was terrified…again.
I was a few minutes too late….again. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and pointed my gun at Elec and Rafael.
"Get away from Elec, old man. You know your fucking time is up. You bastards who sell your soul to the devil always know when death is coming." I moved in front of Lena and heard Dane working with her to lower the weapon. He needed to get her out of the house. Rafael shifted and let a round go off. It flew by me as I jerked to the side, and turned to make sure no one was hit.
"You're not taking my little girl anywhere. She's mine, and she will be leaving with me." He laughed maniacally and shifted over just enough to allow me to see one of his eyes. "I love how you think you’re going to be enough for her, Lucas Morrison. You're nothing but trailer trash. The Wolves have a pack mentality and needed a runt. That's where you came in."
"Fuck you, Rafael. You don't know shit about me." I moved over a little to my left. "Elec, man, I'm going to have to take you out if you can't find a way to jerk one way or the other."
"Do it. Kill me too. I'm good." Elec's gaze was steely, his resolve locked into place.
"No!" Lena screamed from behind me. "He's my brother, Lucky. Don't hurt him. Please."
"Her brother." Rafael smacked Elec in the side of the head. "He's a mistake I should have taken out a long time ago. He's like you Lucky, a speck in the eye of greatness."
"No clue what you're talking about, but your time is up, old man. Drop the weapon and I'll let the DEA agent with me arrest you. No one else needs to die today." I was reaching, but I had to try. I couldn't
shoot Elec, no matter what I'd uttered moments before. Dane was right. I was a Stone Wolf, and I had a pretty healthy grasp on the ethics that we believed in. Killing anyone was off the table, unless I was personally threatened or someone around me was.
Elec being threatened was enough, but I couldn't fucking get a clear shot on Rafael.
"I'm not going to jail. I'm going to kill every damn one of you and then walk through the carnage. That's what's going to happen." He fired again, and I heard Dane grunt from behind me.
"Just my arm. We're good." Dane patted my back as Lena screamed.
"Get her out of here!" I moved to my left and Rafael shifted Elec.
"No!" I'm going to put my next bullet in your fucking head, Stone Wolf. Leave the girl and get the fuck outta my house. You've overstayed your welcome. I'm going to count to ten and then I'll start firing. I got a body in front of me. I'm going to make it out of here alive." He laughed again, but time had started to move in slow motion for me.
Even though everything happened so damn fast.
The back door opened behind him, and Rafael turned to face the oncoming attack. He never got the chance to fully spin before Blade stepped in, pulled Lena's father against him and whispered something in his ear.
The next gunshot was for Rafael; half of his head was missing by the time Blade dropped his corpse to the ground.
Dante lurched at Blade out of nowhere. Just as he went to fire, Blade defended himself and shot him in the chest. He fell, and this time I was sure he was dead.
Rafael and Dante, two of the town’s biggest criminals, were dead.
I turned and raced toward Lena, pulling her into my arms as she let herself go. The frantic crying mixed with her screams was almost too much to bear, but I held on. She didn’t want it to go down like this. She didn’t want to see anybody die.
"I'm right here, baby. Right here, and I'm not going anywhere, okay? Just let it out. It's all over now. Elec's okay. You're okay. I'm okay." I looked over at Dane and he nodded. "Dane's okay, too."
