by Cheri, Ann
He looked like he’d been hit by a truck.
Serves him right…
I smiled, stretching in the bed, trying to make my way out of it when the door crashed open. Acre stood looming in the open space, and he didn’t look happy.
“Get his ass up, we’ve got a fucking meeting.”
I looked over at Jude, lifting his arm and letting it fall again, turning back to give Acre a shrug.
“I’m not asking. Black wants Jude downstairs, do what you gotta do,” Acre said, storming off and slamming the door behind him. Jude didn’t even flinch. With the beating he’d taken and the fucking I’d given, Jude’s body needed time to sleep it off. I jumped out of bed, stumbling into the bathroom and turning on the sink faucet. Cupping my thin hands beneath the stream I let them fill with cold water before walking back into the room and dropping it straight on Jude’s face.
That worked, but I immediately regretted it. His eyes snapped open, boring holes into my head.
Murder eyes.
I tried to step backward, but he grabbed me up and rolled me onto the bed.
“Didn’t get enough last night?”
He pressed down on my chest, pushing the air out of me as he shifted his weight.
“Black… Meeting…” I coughed, trying to pull myself away.
“Ahh fuck,” Jude said, rolling off. He reached down, grabbing clothes and pulling his t-shirt over flexing and tattooed flesh. Something stirred inside me, I almost wanted him to stay. I could close my eyes and imagine someone else… Someone better. Someone worse for me than Jude ever was…
Almost…
“Take a shower, when I’m done down there I’m coming back for you.”
I shivered, balling myself up on the bed. Maybe he saw the fear in my insecurity, but he didn’t seem to pay it any heed.
“That’s right baby. I fucking love you, you know that.”
I nodded. It was never a question. His love was flawed, twisted, but it was never in doubt. Jude would never let me go, not as long as the sun rose in the morning.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
The shower had worked wonders for sobering me up, and by the time I heard a light knocking on the door, I was feeling more or less ready for Jude’s return.
Only Jude doesn’t knock. He crashes in and takes what he needs. Spinning curiously to watch the door, I held my breath.
The spitfire of a redhead caught me half dressed as she burst into the room, her green eyes almost as wild as her hair. I gasped, tossing arms across my chest as she threw hands on her hips and stared me down. “Don’t tell me I’m cleaning this place up by myself. You’re Jude’s old lady, right?”
“Yes…”
“Shame… The whole badass killer look was really working for me.”
Badass killer? She doesn’t know the half of it…
“Who the hell are you,” I asked, laughing as she stormed through the room shaking the blankets out and fixing the bed. This girl couldn’t stand still if she wanted to. She squirreled her nose up and gave me a little huff. “I’m Penny, hey, you know how to cook?”
“Cook?”
“Blackfast! Cover your tits, I need some help down here.”
Penny trotted out like the whole world should follow her. I let out a little laugh at her insanity, but without a second thought, I tossed my shirt back on and did exactly that. Walking out the door and down the stairs toward the main floor I was surprised to see the clubhouse empty and quiet. The cage loomed in the center of the space, and in stark contrast of last night, you could have heard a pin drop inside the large echoing room. I shivered, the cool air wrapping around me as I followed Penny through a sea of empty bottles and the remnants of last nights drunken revelry.
No wonder she wants some help.
Finally, voices began filtering through the air. Still walking behind the fiery redhead I turned my eyes to stare at the huge oaken doors closing off a big room near the far corner of the warehouse. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it was clearly the meeting Acre was yelling about. This wasn’t my first rodeo, I knew exactly why the club wanted Jude in that meeting. Give the fresh blood a job to do. We’d talked all about it since the first time Jude ran with the Rampant. In more ways than one, our lives were leading up to this for years…
“Do you know how to handle the meat?”
I about choked on my own tongue, laughing at the sparky redhead.
“Oh forget it! Get on eggs, I’ll handle the meat baby doll.”
We’d arrived at a makeshift kitchen. Both countertops were dominated by long griddles and I was instantly having flashbacks to my first job in a fast food restaurant when I was fifteen. Penny wasn’t waiting on me to respond, tossing sausage and bacon across the already heated griddle. My stomach grumbled as the smell of sizzling meats filled our space, the huge cooktop filled end to end. Turning to the second cooktop I fell into a rhythm, cracking eggs and filling the griddle, stopping to flip cooking eggs as I went. Penny raced around me like a woman possessed, tossing together toast and making a gravy to throw over biscuits. I focused on my task, juggling eggs to keep them from burning, stopping only when I felt thin hands wrap around my waist.
“Thank you for helping,” Penny whispered into my ear, sliding away from me just as quickly as she had drawn close. I felt her fingers tingle my sides as they pulled back. It was strangely intimate. I didn’t reply, but it didn’t feel like I had to. Spinning, I gave her a nod and a smile as we started filling plates, tossing them onto a rolling cart in the center of the kitchen.
“Time to wake these fuckers up,” Penny said, pulling large pots of coffee down from the counter and placing them on the edge of the cart. I followed her without question because I knew exactly where she was going… I needed to know what was happening in that meeting. What did they want from Jude?
The doors flew open as Penny burst through them. A huge wooden table occupied the space, leather clad men sitting round it clearly caught deep in a serious discussion. Everyone went silent as we stepped into the room.
“How’s my favorite man?” Penny asked, stepping up to Marlo at the far edge of the table and forcefully pulling his chair free. Hoots and hollers filled the space, cutting the tension as she straddled one of his legs, dipping in to give him a long hard kiss. A second man reached out and smacked penny on the ass, laughing as she smashed her forehead into Marlo’s nose by surprise.
“I thought I was your favorite Penny?”
The redhead looked up at the other biker grinning, slipping back off Marlo’s lap. She kicked the other chair out, lifting a foot and bringing it down on the other man’s crotch. He squirmed in his seat, trying to draw away as she leaned in.
“You are so last week honey…”
The room erupted into laughs as she gave him a quick jab to the head, pulling away. I stayed silent behind the cart as Penny held the attention of the men. My eyes glanced upward to catch Jude’s gaze, but I suddenly realized he wasn’t the only one ignoring Penny’s antics.
Marcus Black was staring at me.
“You gonna serve us sweetheart?” Marcus asked, waving an arm toward the cart. Jude’s eyes narrowed as I smiled, pulling plates off the cart and tossing them onto the wooden table. Penny joined me, following the cart round the space and flirting with the men as she introduced me. There was Marlo of course, and an old grizzled man named Ash. The men blended together until we hit Acre. He sat at Marcus’s side, and I knew at once he must be the important. Black gave a soft thank you as we passed the plates. As we rounded the table toward Jude the conversation was already picking back up behind us, getting back to business. Acre spoke up first.
“Black, you know we can’t just sit here and let the Kings run their bullshit up in LA. We’ve got two hundred forty kilos coming through, we can’t risk that.”
I walked past Jude, wincing as he gave me a smack on the ass, tossing his plate down in front of him and continuing round the table. My breath had caught in my chest.
<
br /> Two hundred forty kilos of what? I wondered to myself. My ears were open as wide as they could go.
“The Kings won’t fuck with it,” Black replied sternly.
I tried not to look like I was listening, keeping my head down as Penny lay down more coffee and we finished our pass.
“What’s stopping them? Somebody’s talking. Kings ran down a Rampant just last week. We’re lucky they didn’t kill him. Think they won’t knock us down for five million in sugar?”
I glanced up to watch Marcus turn and smash his fist down on the table.
“They won’t fuck with it.”
The voice was unmistakably angry, Marcus Black was looking stern across the table but Acre wasn’t backing down. A pissing match had begun, and if I knew anything about boys, it wasn’t going to stop until someone threw a punch.
“And who’s gonna stop it?”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jude said, speaking up from his side of the table. My eyes shot over to him. He was grinning. I could see it in him, the desire, the anger. It played across his face like an electric billboard.
“Looks like the new boy has some balls. What the fuck happened to the rest of you? Carcetti and the Italians aren’t fucking around on this one. If the Kings are a problem, we deal with the kings,” Acre said, smirking.
“We’re trying to take this place legit Acre. We need out of the drug trade if we’re going to start setting up big money cage fights. I’ll set up a meet with the Kings. Cash talks. For now, we’ll give them a piece of the action and tell them to stay the fuck off the docks. Next, we shift the whole trade into their hands and let them take the fucking heat.”
Acre bristled, “Black, you’re just going to ignore all the shit the Kings have been pulling?”
Black turned, his face red with anger. “We need the Kings on this. They’ve got numbers and if we go to war, we’re going to lose men. Better for us to get them on our side. Bring the Kings in and make them do the dirty work. Once this Carcetti shipment goes through we’re taking the cash and picking up a pair of strip clubs and a bar on the south side.”
“Tits, liquor, and fighting?” Acre replied, an almost incredulous sound in his voice.
“Sounds like a good fucking time, and less likely to get any of us thrown in prison. Do I need to remind you what happened to Dekkar?” Black said.
Ash spoke up, his voice gritty and sounding as old as he looked. “Your father would never give up the drug trade to the Kings.”
“My father is dead, and so are too many of our brothers,” Black said firmly, waving at the table. My eyes followed his gesture, looking at the shattered skull engraved deep into the wood. Each piece had a name carved into it… So many pieces… So many people…
Black broke the silence, “You all know we can’t stand on that knife edge forever. We’re going to turn this thing into a business. A legit business. That means no more fucking guns, no more fucking crime, and no more fucking drugs.”
Everyone turned, staring at Acre as if they were expecting him to respond. He let out a sigh, pressing both his palms on the wood table. “Fine, we’ll talk to the Kings. I’ll set up the meet. Cash talks, maybe they’ll go along with it. I just want to know one thing though. If the Kings don’t play along, what do we do Black?”
“If they don’t want to play nice, we play rough. We bring up the Locos and see if they might be a little more pliable.”
Penny pulled my arm and the cart toward the door but I was mesmerized, staring back at Black. Looking up, I could see the cannon of a handgun Marcus had pulled from his vest and laid on the table. More guns came out, the fight club laying them on the table like knights with swords, swearing their allegiance in some ancient way. Walking out, I shivered inside.
“What the hell were you doing in there,” Penny asked as the door closed behind us? I stared at her, unsure what to say. The lithe redhead reached out and grabbed my chin, pulling me to stare at her.
“When they’re talking business, you get in, and you get out. You don’t listen and you don’t look. Forget you heard anything and don’t do anything stupid. Curiosity kills the cat.”
“I just want to know what’s going on.”
“You’re man is Rampant now. You don’t need to know anything else. Get used to it before you end up a name carved on that table in there.”
I tried to take her advice as we started cleaning up the main floor of the warehouse. Still, a part of me felt sick as I watched the men step out of that room, getting into their cars, and rolling out of the garage like thunder and hellfire.
Was this my life now? Cleaning up spilled beer and half snorted coke off a concrete floor while Jude went to play with his new family? Did I have to suffer his abuse and the indignity of wiping down this slop like some kind of filthy Cinderella?
Maybe I would cut myself again, draw a little line to remind me of this moment.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
“Didn’t you bring a change of clothes?”
I was slumped in one of the chairs, staring at the garage door waiting on the men to get back. Part of me was worried about Jude… The other part of me was worried about anyone who stood in his way. Looking up, I caught the eye of the thin Asian girl trying to talk with me.
The whores I’d met the night before had been cut from a mold. Most of them were blond, busty, and stupid enough to stick around even though they had no chance of locking down one of the men. Even Penny for all her fiery wild side was just being passed around from guy to guy. “No Rampant worth his fists is going to put a ring on a whore,” she’d told me. This one though, she seemed innocent… Clean… Different.
“Did you hear me?”
I smiled. “I left everything back at the apartment. I think we’re supposed to grab some clothes tonight…”
“Jude told me you’re not going back,” the girl started, her voice slow and beautifully accented. “You’re staying here…”
It was too much to take in. Jude was always possessive, but now he wanted even more control of my life. Here, he could keep an eye on me. Still, I thought about the apartment and realized how little I was losing. When I’d run away with Jude I’d left everything behind. There was a bed, and some clothing, but for the most part it was an empty shell. Suddenly, I narrowed in my focus, staring at the young girl who stood above me. She’d talked to Jude…
Lipstick…
It was unmistakable, a shade of delicate pink I knew all too well from the night before.
“I think you’re about my size. I won’t have any bras that fit you, but I have a few shirts you can borrow if you open a couple buttons.”
“Thanks, yeah, I could use some clothes,” I replied, smiling falsely. “I’m Kattlyn, what’s your name?”
“They call me Doc, but my name is Mina. Follow me.”
I stood up, a flare of jealousy and anger in my stomach. She’d been with Jude, and that meant those tight lips had wrapped around his cock. As much as I hated our relationship, as abusive as it was, the idea of Jude using one of the girls at the club boiled my blood. He wasn’t supposed to be off fucking other women. I was his wife! I gave him everything…
We entered into a back room that was done up differently than the rest of the warehouse. Instead of the alley the garage door opened up into, I realized it was facing the frontage street and had been turned into a small business. Several rooms lined each wall, and glancing inside I saw massage tables and could smell incense, candles, and oils. A soft music played from speakers overhead, and I felt myself calming down as we walked toward a door at the end of the hall. The unmistakable sound of a man moaning in pleasure came suddenly from a closed-off room to the side. It didn’t sound like the kind of moan that comes from a regular massage, and the loud high pitched woman’s orgasm that came swiftly afterward made it clear this wasn’t the kind of place you went for physical therapy…
Mina stepped through the door, a strange space opening up in front of us. It was small and crammed with thing
s, half of the room appearing to be a makeshift apartment, and the other half looking like an even more makeshift hospital room. A big chair dominated the space, with a variety of tools and a large pull down light hanging above it. I stared at the silver tray alongside the chair, an assortment of wicked looking stainless steel tools laid out across it.
“So… You’re the one who stitched Jude up?” I asked, some of the anger returning as she started shuffling through a closet of clothing. The living room seemed to double as a bedroom, butting right up against the more sterile tile space with the chair. “You a doctor?”
Mina smiled demurely, her voice softly accented as she replied. “I was… Back in North Korea… My degree isn’t valid here but I know a few things. Here, try this on.”
