Mack: A Wings of Diablo MC Novel

by Lake, Rae B.

  * * *

  “What the fuck! Vexx, what the fuck is this shit?”

  My mind reels as I slowly gain consciousness. My hands and legs are tied to a chair, and there’s something over my head. A bag. I can’t see anything, but I can hear Wire. There’s a gag in my mouth as well. A muffled sound next to me tells me Devin is in the same position as me. At least we aren’t dead.

  Someone comes and tears the bag off my head and does the same to Devin. I look at him for a second and see that he’s, for the most part, still in good shape.

  I focus back on Wire. He is tied to the chair. Vexx is standing in front of him along with the other women of Eve’s Fury. There’s a man in the back, he looks familiar, but I can’t place him yet. His back is to me.

  Wire pulls at the binds, but I see he’s tied down tight.

  “You better pray I never get the fuck up, woman or not, I will kill every one of you!” Wire snaps at them.

  “Not today.” The man in the back of the room speaks, and the second he turns around, I instantly know who it is. What I don’t know is what the fuck he is doing here.

  “Roth?” Wire asks, caught off guard by his appearance.

  Is it them? Is it Vexx and the girls who moved against us?

  I can’t believe it.

  Wire curses and fights to get out of the chair. Roth is the brother of Ruby, the sadistic fuck who held Ink, Angel, and Siren captive. I pull at my binds as well, testing their strength.

  My eyes dart around to find a weapon, anything I can use to help Wire, but something else jumps out as interesting. All the women are crying. Visibly upset. I’ve seen how well they handle themselves in combat. I’ve seen them cut a man down and laugh right after. Why the fuck would they be crying if this is what they’ve been planning?

  Vexx rushes at Wire in the chair, “Wire, cut the shit. We saw the invoices! We saw the pictures. How could you do that? We fucking trusted you!” She screams in his face.

  I look at Devin, his eyes wide. They think we flipped. They have the wrong fucking information.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” Wire yells back at her.

  Roth comes back with a small table and rolls out a bag of goodies. Various tools he uses for torture, letting Wire see them.

  “I’ll make this simple. If you tell us where you’re keeping the girls, I’ll make this shit fast. If not, well, you know how long it can take to kill someone, especially if you enjoy their company. I have nothing but time on my hands.” Roth pulls up a vat of barbed wire and shows it to him.

  Fucking hell! What girls? They got it wrong. They are about to torture Wire for absolutely no reason.

  Instead of fighting, Wire just sits there and accepts his punishment. I can’t stand for that. I kick and pull at my binds, Devin does the same. We have to let them know what’s going on before they go through with this.

  Roth places the vat of barbed wire against his chest and, in one slow-motion cuts into his skin in a long swipe. Wire roars in pain.

  I pull with everything I got, and one hand breaks free.

  “Look at this fucker here.” Duchess makes her way over to me and tries to grab my arm. I manage to take the gag off my face before she can grip my wrist.

  “You’re wrong!” I yell.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Vexx asks, and Roth steps back from Wire. “His name is on everything. We have photos of him with that bastard. He sold off all those girls. All those women we swore to protect, and he just gave them to the highest fucking bidder to be raped and killed.”

  “What in the shirt?” I look at her like she is crazy. What is she talking about selling women? Wire wouldn’t do no shit like that.

  “What pictures?” Wire asks. “I’ve never sold a woman before in my life. I would never do shit like that.”

  Sugar is the one to go through the pile and pick up a few photos. “This man, baby, this is the bastard you were going through.”

  Wire looks at the photo, his eyes open wide before his head drops down and his shoulders began to shake. “How many?”

  “What?” Roth asks him, lowering the weapon in his hand down, “What do you mean how many?”

  “How fucking many did they sell off? He’s the man who runs the fetish shops in the midwest. The girls were supposed to be strippers and escorts, BDSM clubs. Shit like that. None of them were supposed to be sold off like trash. How many?” Wire’s voice is raw. Blow after blow.

  I don’t know how much more he can take.

  “How the fuck do I know you’re telling the truth?” Vexx questions.

  “The club was attacked a couple of weeks back. Batters were convinced the Wings were into supplying drugs. Someone flipped. They left us all out to dry.” I explain, hoping they can understand me.

  Riot is the one to step up this time, “What do you mean? Who was attacked? Any casualties?” The concern creeps up her face.

  I nod my head.

  “Fuck. Who?” Vexx asks, her voice quiet.

  “Mikki,” I speak slowly, trying to make sure I get the words out correctly. “Alex.” I swallow loudly, “Victor, Maven’s unborn child.”

  Gasps and cries leave their mouths. “No, what the fuck? No.”

  “They raped all the women.” Wire spoke, his eyes bloodshot red and glazed over. “They killed all the guests on the charity yacht. They were looking for us. When they didn’t find us, they took everything else away from us. They destroyed our fucking lives.”

  The sadness in the room is consuming. They came here to get vengeance on the man they thought had betrayed them, only to find out he was the one betrayed.

  “Who did this?” Roth asks.

  “I don’t know who it is. We haven’t been able to find him, but the time he gave us is up, and we expect he’ll be showing his face sometime soon. Everyone is on guard. They said his name was Wren.”

  “Wren!” Roth asks loudly. I watched the color drain from his face before he runs over to the photos and pulls a few things out. He rushes back to Wire with a photo in his hand. “Is this the man?”

  “I don’t know. I didn’t see the guys, only the girls. But from what Siren, said it looks like that could be the guy.”

  “Oh shit, you’re dealing with Wren Georgetown. If that’s the man, you’re fucked, and I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way.” Roth reaches down and unties Wire. The second his hands and legs are free, Wire jumps up and catches Roth by the throat.

  “I should fucking kill you. Just like I said, I would. Who the fuck do you think you are? You are part of all this shit. You think just because you let Ink out, it gives you a pass on everything? I should stomp your face in for all the shit you’ve done before.” Wire growls.

  “Wire! We were all wrong. We saw the information and didn’t dig further. We never thought they were playing you too. If you need to punish him, then you need to punish all of us.” Vexx speaks up.

  “Fuck that, and fuck you, Vexx. You went against me. I should have you killed along with him.” Wire growls.

  “I can find him,” Roth offers, his voice coming out barely a whisper because of the force of Wire’s grip.

  “How?” I ask from my seat.

  Roth tries to turn and talk to me, but Wire still has a hold on him.

  “Mmm!” Devin is still tied up in the chair next to me. Finally, Riot comes over and frees him. “Wire, dammit it. Enough fucking killing. We can’t afford to kill off any allies, no matter how fucking unlikely they are. He has more information than any of us have right now.”

  Wire releases Roth and takes a few steps back but doesn’t let Roth out of his sight.

  Riot lets me up, and I walk over to Roth, kneeling on the floor, trying to catch his breath. “Tell us everything.”

  * * *

  Roth explains everything in extensive detail. How he is running down the list of fuckers who once worked with his sister and is trying to kill them. He’s on his hunt for redemption. He originally thought to come to
us for help, but once he saw who we associate with, he no longer thought he could trust us.

  I knew exactly what he meant. They’re too many fucking snakes in the grass.

  He pinpointed the traitors right away. They may be in the same boat as Wire and not know they are being played, but it doesn’t seem that way. Rooster is so deep into the drug game; he’s already popping up on the international radar. He has his hand in outsourcing to the Caribbean, South America, and that blue bunny was a real hit in Puerto Rico. Lucky seemed to be part of it. The one that hurt the most is Ripper. Roth is sure Ripper is on the take and that he personally had interactions with him, exchanging money.

  We made our way back to the clubhouse. This time the entire Eve’s Fury crew, along with Roth, is with us.

  “I don’t know about trysting this,” I say as Wire and I walk toward the doors.

  “I don’t know about it either, Mack, but we need to get to the bottom of this shit. As Devin said, he knows more than we do. Let’s just get this shit over with.” Wire runs his hands over his rugged face and opens the door.

  “Where the fuck have…” Ryder comes rushing to the door but stops in his tracks when he sees the group of us strolling in and Wire looking like he went one on one with a fucking lawnmower.

  “We have some information.” Wire announces, but he doesn’t have the chance to say anything more. Ink is already making his way over to us. His eyes are focused completely on Roth.

  “What the fuck is he doing here? Why the fuck would you bring this bastard where we fucking lay our heads? Have you lost your damn mind?” Ink screams at Wire but completely bypasses him and goes right to Roth.

  “Brother, no!” I put my hand up and try to push him back. Ink is a huge man; if he wants to fucking get past me, then he will. “Listen to me. It’s not what you trink.” I fight against him, but he ends up pushing me out of the way and grabs Roth, picking him up by the neck.

  “You piece of shit! You think because you’ve done one fucking good deed, you can just walk around like I won’t rip your heart out? I could squeeze the life out of you right now!”

  “What the fuck would that prude?” I push at Ink’s back to get him to turn around. He drops Roth and looks at me. “Look at the man; he wants to fucking die! You’d be helling him out. Rye now, he has information we need. He knows who we need to kill to avenge our women.”

  Ink’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. I’m sure there’s nothing more he wants besides killing the man who put their hands on Jazmine. “How?”

  “Oh, you know me,” Roth says as he tries to catch his breath for the second time today. “I know all the bad guys. We’re in the same club.”

  Roth stands up and quickly goes into who Wren Georgetown is, what he specializes in, and why he’s so fucking dangerous.

  He’s a high-rolling drug king from California. He’s somehow managed to escape prison twice already and has a reputation for going after the families of those who slight him. His only concern is his business, and anyone who dares to go against him finds themselves on the wrong end of a gun barrel. It would make sense he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. Most of his transactions are carried out through third parties. He doesn’t want to go back to jail, and he will do what he needs just to make sure the heat doesn’t corner him. He could have been speaking to anyone who said they were Wire. The problem is they have all the information.

  “If he says he’s coming back in two weeks, he’ll be back. He won’t come for you. He will take your women, your children, your parents, cousins, sisters, anyone who means anything to you, and he will destroy the very essence of who they are.” Roth warns.

  “Why the children?” Keeley asks. I’m not even sure where she came from.

  “He takes them, beats them, sterilizes them, and then puts them in his militia. He trains them to be killers for him. If they don’t perform, he just uses them as testers for his product. It’s all business for him. He doesn’t have a soft spot for children, and if they can further his business, that’s what he uses them for. Sorry. I wouldn’t let those little ones out of my sight if I were you.” Roth shrugs his shoulders and looks away from Keeley.

  Wire turns his head to his wife for a second before letting his gaze fall.

  “Well, look at what we have here. You’re very own snake.” Roth’s mouth tips up in a grin, and his eyes focus on someone behind the crowd.

  “Ripper,” I call for him. His face is ashen when he sees Roth. He glances over at Wire and then to me before he takes off in the opposite direction. Riot, Free, and Bee are all there and take him down before he can make his way to the doors.

  “Get the fuck off of me!” Ripper yells as he slaps one of the women down. I pounce and grab onto him.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Clean spits and runs over to help Ripper. He grabs onto me and tries to pull me off.

  “Clean, he’s a rut!” I bite my tongue at the misspoken word. “A traitor!” I yell at him.

  Clean lets me go, and the sudden release has both Ripper and myself falling backward. I stand up, and Ripper slowly stands as well.

  Wire moves to Ripper and pulls out a long knife. The same one Rooster lodged in Alex’s chest.

  “You better be very fucking clear about what you have to say.” Wire warns, keeping Rippers gaze

  “Did you sell those girls?” I ask.

  “I didn’t know…” Ripper starts, and I hit him hard across the face. He knew what the fuck we were about to be hit with. He knew what fucking around with Wren might mean for us, and he said nothing. He may not have taken part in it, but the rape of my girls and my nephew's death is on his hands as well.

  “Don’t you fucking line!”

  “It was just some extra money. Rooster said all I would need to do was pick up the cash. We were always taking in these fucking strays, those sluts, and prostitutes were using us to get in our world. They didn’t deserve our help. When Wren came to me about the charity, I didn’t know Rooster had stopped supplying him. I thought he was looking for us to ask about striking up a deal. I didn’t know he’d do that. I didn’t know…”

  Clean roars and he jumps on Ripper. His best friend gave the enemy the information resulting in his wife being brutalized and losing his son. Ripper betrayed us all.

  “You fucking piece of shit!” Clean bellows and continues to stomp him out. Before long, everyone is in a circle beating Ripper down. All the anger and grief we feel is because he was doing it for a little extra money at Rooster's instruction.

  I don’t know how long we kick him, but when I take a step back, my heel slides on something round and mushy. When I look down, I recognize Ripper’s eye. It’s clear out of its socket.

  That one small reprieve is enough for me to take stock of my surroundings. All our women are out of their rooms, watching us beat Ripper to death.

  “Wire!” I scream for him. Keeley is in hysterics, immobile against the wall.

  He looks up at me, and I point to his wife. Recognition and shock flash to his face before he rushes to her.

  “Don’t you fucking touch me! I’m done! This is so fucking done!” Keeley screams before she turns around and walks back into church.

  All of my brothers turn and face the women we’re trying to avenge, standing together supporting each other. Siren is at the top of the stairs, not staring at me, but Roth.

  “Shit.” I take the stairs two at a time until I reach her.

  She doesn’t say a word. Her gaze still hasn’t leave Roth’s.

  “Siren, he’s not here to harm you. He’s not with the purple who hurt you before.”

  Her eyes flash to mine. “He’s not with those people? He is those fucking people!” She growls at me. “How could you bring him here!”

  I reach out for her, and she pulls away. She pushes back into my room and tries to slam the door in my face, but I put my hand out to stop it.

  “No, you don’t ghetto do that. What do you expect me to do? Just let it go? You think I
should sit back and look over my shoulder, waiting for some fuck to come bag and hurt my woman? Over some shit, we didn’t even do? No! If I have to tame information from Hades, I will.”

  “He’s a killer, Mack, even if Roth says he’s on the straight and narrow now, he sat back for years and let his sister and all those people kill innocents. I’ll never trust him.” Siren’s anger ebbs a little, but she’s still unsure.

  I grab onto her, pulling her into my arms. “I don’t trust him either, but I will use him.”

  The silence is broken with Wire yelling. “You’re not fucking going anywhere! Don’t do this shit now!”

  I poke my head out the door and can see Keeley and him fighting.

  “When the fuck should I do it, Dillon? When? When I get raped again? Maybe when another one of my family members is stomped out? How about when some crazy bastard comes in here and takes Lily? Should I fucking do it then?” Keeley screams louder than I have ever heard her before. “I told you when I first met you that I left my father because I didn’t want to deal with this shit. The drugs, the killing, the wars, revenge, none of this bullshit, Dillon. I stayed because I love you.” Her voice cracks as big tears roll down her face. “I love you, but now Lily is a target. You thought by running around with people who kill for fun, get people hopped up on smack for money, made them your allies, and now this club, your family is paying the price. I don’t want to lose you, but I will not let my child fight this. No way. It’s done.”

  “Keeley.” Cherry calls her name. “Don’t do this. We will get through this. We always do.”

  The front door to the club opens, and Red walks, escorting three men in pristine suits. You could smell mafia on them a mile away. Keeley must have had them waiting. I have no idea how they got here so fast. After everything that’s been going down, she must have had them waiting as her way out.

  Keeley looks over to Cherry, “No, Charity, we won’t. Not whole. Mikki and Alex lying in those graves is proof. Vincent is proof. We won’t get through this time. And even if we might, I won’t bet my child’s life on it.”