by J. L. Leslie
If things had been that quick for me, I wouldn’t have spent months in the hospital. I wouldn’t have woken to find out my old lady was fucking my best friend. That after everything he took from me, he had her too.
I clench my jaw at the thought of Spencer. I’m not angry with her, not in the slightest. She was only doing what she had to in order to protect herself. I told her if anything ever happened to me that she should stay with them. There was no way she was going back to being a club whore. She was better than that. Now I need to do what I have to in order to protect my club.
“Yes, give him a call.”
Harper
I can hear cartoons blaring from the television before I get my front door open. I have lost count of how many times I’ve told Layla she can’t watch cartoons until she’s dressed and ready for school. I doubt that she’s ready and we need to leave in fifteen minutes.
When I get off work on time, I’m able to come in and fix her breakfast before getting her ready for school. Then I walk her the three blocks down to the elementary school. Thanks to Molly, she didn’t get any pancakes this morning.
“Layla!” I call out when I get inside. “You better be ready!”
I put my keys and purse on the small table I have in the foyer and then head to the living room. Layla sits on the sofa, completely dressed for school, and smiles at me while eating a Pop Tart.
“I’m ready,” she grins.
My neighbor and babysitter, Mackenzie, leans over and grabs the other Pop Tart from the pouch. “Did you doubt me?”
“I already had some eggs and toast, but I was still hungry,” Layla informs me.
“And you love Pop Tarts,” I tell her. “Could that be why you were still hungry?”
She giggles and shrugs. When she shrugs like that, it reminds me so much of her dad. She’s basically the spitting image of Gavin from her dark hair to her blue eyes.
“Finish up so we can head out,” I instruct. “Mackenzie, thanks so much for staying a little longer. I appreciate it.”
“Not a problem,” she lets me know. “But at some point, you need to put that trick in her place.”
“I’ll handle her,” I assure her.
As soon as Layla finishes up, she takes the wrapper to the garbage can and grabs her backpack off the sofa. She walks out the door without checking to see if I’m behind her. I’m sure it won’t be long, before she’ll be asking to walk to school by herself. I told her last year that we’d discuss that when she was twelve. She still has five years to go.
I grab my keys and head off to catch up with her. I hear Mackenzie let me know that she’ll lock up. I wave goodbye to her when I hear my door shut.
On the way to school, Layla tells me about how excited she is to get her library card today. I laugh because I know she enjoys reading as much as I do. I rarely have time these days due to working at the diner though. The moment she learned how, she wanted to read everything, including cereal boxes.
“Have a good day, baby. I’ll see you this afternoon.”
I give her a light kiss on the forehead and watch her run off. Now I can try to get some sleep before meeting up with the girls later. I know they’ll be expecting me. We meet every Tuesday, and I’ve started looking forward to it.
After Gavin died, I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself. He was there and then suddenly he was gone. I would never hear his voice again. Never see his smiling face.
Then the girls came along, and I became stronger. I had to take care of Layla, and they helped me. I knew as long as I had them, I could face anything. Even losing Gavin.
I get back to the house and strip as I walk through my bedroom. I want to wash away the smells of the diner from my body before I climb into my bed. I’m in and out of the shower in less than fifteen minutes. It’s surprising how quickly you can shower when you’re exhausted.
I towel dry my hair when I get out and notice that I have a message on my phone. My face pales when I read it and a knot forms in my stomach.
The fucker that killed Gavin is alive.
Chapter Three
Lucien
Word that I’m alive and not rotting in the ground spread around L.A. pretty quickly. Some are calling me a demon. Most are calling me the revenant. That’s what Jiminez called me when he sent word of his refusal to meet with me. Mr. Revenant. Said he couldn’t do business with the revenant. I didn’t take too kindly to that.
I don’t like being denied. His right-hand man telling Soco he won’t do business with us is one thing, but Jiminez himself denying my request is disrespectful as hell. Ford may have fucked him over, but I haven’t.
“You sure you want to do this, boss?” Reid asks, popping his knuckles.
“Jiminez believes working with me will bring a curse to his business,” I tell him. “Let’s show him what happens when he refuses me.”
Reid lets out a sadistic laugh, and it makes me wonder exactly what this young fucker has gone through. He looks like a damn squeaky-clean college kid. He can slap on a polo and khakis and walk on the UCLA campus unnoticed, or he can wear leather and shitkickers like a Sinner should. He can’t be more than twenty-five, and he’s one of the darkest fuckers I’ve ever seen. He has a problem with respect, but that can be taught.
I know he did some screwed up shit under Ford’s leadership. Soco and Wiggie told me he will do anything he’s ordered to do, but he still has some issues with learning how things work under my leadership. He likes to speak out of turn a little too often, but I think it’s a good quality as a Sinner that he’ll follow orders. Still, there are some things a man shouldn’t be ordered to do.
What we’re doing tonight though, is an order I want him following. I pull out my AR-15 and spray bullets at the small house in front of us. Reid follows suit, our bullets busting out the windows and splintering the wood. The house may look like any other on this rundown street, but it’s a pill mill for the Jiminez cartel.
Once my round is empty, I approach the nearly demolished house, listening for any sound of life inside. I can hear grunts and groans when I kick the door open. Cash is scattered on the floor amongst hundreds of counterfeit pills. A pill press is knocked over, fentanyl spilled onto the carpet. This isn’t the side of the business I’m interested in, much too risky when people turn up dead from overdoses, but I’m pissed Jiminez denied me. No one fucking denies the Sinners. He’ll learn that tonight.
“It’s you!” one of the men says, fear in his voice. “It’s the Revenant!”
“You damn right it is!” I growl, stomping over to him.
He’s been shot in the leg, and he’s trying to scoot away from me, blood gushing from his wound. I press my shitkicker into his thigh, digging it into the gaping hole. He howls in pain.
“A couple of these assholes are still alive!” Reid calls out from the other room and then I hear gunshots. “Well, not anymore.”
He laughs, and two more shots ring out. Sadistic fucker.
The man lying beneath my boot squirms and the smell of urine permeates the air. He fucking pissed himself.
“Are you shitting me?” Reid comes into the room. “Just kill the fucker.”
I shake my head. “He gets to send a message for me.”
The man nods, tears streaming down his face. “Wh...wh...whatever you...n...n...need...Re...Revenant.”
He’s stammering so bad he can barely get his words out. Reid mocks him, repeating his words and pretending to cry. He’s childish as fuck but somewhat humorous. It fits the situation, making the man that much more nervous.
“Tell Jiminez if he wants his shit, to give me what I asked for.”
I dig my boot into his leg once more and then release him. I order Reid to get all of the cash and product, including the pill press and the fentanyl that’s left. I start gathering up the cash. I know all of this is replaceable, as easy as placing an order online, but it’s the principal of it that matters.
I’ve sent Jiminez a message by taking his product a
nd attacking this place. He’ll either retaliate or respect the fact that I had the balls to do it.
My guess? I’ve started a war with the Jiminez cartel. Good thing I’m prepared for a battle and not afraid to die.
Harper
I glance over at Layla as she watches television in the corner with the other kids. They’re all completely unaffected by our meeting. I suppose that’s a good thing. If they heard what we were saying, they would realize that their moms aren’t who they think they are.
Mackenzie gives me a nudge, and I manage a smile. She the one who sent me that text that turned my world upside down. I barely slept after reading it. I tried reading the latest romance book I snagged, but couldn’t concentrate. I wanted to know where he was. How he was still alive. I was told he burned to death. I wanted him to be dead. Gavin is dead, why isn’t he?
Losing Gavin was the most painful thing I’ve ever been through. We had just spoken to each other, just saw each other. Then, suddenly, he was gone. It wasn’t like he was killed in some horrific car accident or died of an illness that slowly took his life away.
No, he was murdered. He was beaten and burned to death as though his life meant absolutely nothing. Like he was nothing.
Well, he was everything to Layla and me. All we had. And this Lucien guy gets to live? How does that happen?
“He’s being called the revenant,” Mackenzie says as we sit down at the table in Donia’s basement. “Can you believe that shit? Like he’s some kind of zombie or something. Maybe the next time he’s killed, the asshole will stay that way.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” I ask her, cleaning my Beretta. We rotate going to the shooting range each week, and this week I went with Mackenzie, Crystal, and Annie. “I mean, I don’t even know what he looks like. How is he still alive?”
She pulls out her phone and scrolls through it a moment before coming to a video feed. It was recorded earlier tonight. I watch as two men shoot up a rundown house on Metzler Avenue.
“Who recorded this?”
“One of our girls was making a drop a couple houses down,” she replies. “Suzanne said she was finishing up the drop when she heard gunshots. It’s that one there. Lucien McNamara. Trust me, I was just as shocked as you when I saw this, but it’s him.”
I hold her phone and watch the recording again. I recognize the two men. How could I not? They were both in the diner just this morning. The one was staring at me. Now I know he’s the one who killed Gavin.
Gavin had a deal with the Sinners. I remember him telling me about it on the phone and telling me how no one would suspect that the Hades Riders would be working with them. I remember asking him why he would deal with them then, and he told me it was for the money. It was always for the money and the survival of the club.
It wasn’t long after that conversation with him that he was killed. Several of the Riders were killed the same night he was, some deal gone wrong. His funeral is still the hardest thing I’ve gone through. Holding Layla and thinking about how I would raise her without him.
The Hades Riders were figuring out what to do next. How to respond to the death of their president and other members. Before anything could be done, they were all slaughtered, and their bodies were displayed in the city for everyone to see. The women who loved those men were destroyed. Their lives forever changed. The Sinners were feared by everyone.
Layla was left without her father, and she wasn’t the only child who lost her dad. Families lost the men they loved. Brothers, uncles, and husbands died in some fucked up motorcycle club war, and then the rest of the world moved on as though it never happened. No arrests were made. No investigation was done. They were just gone. Gone and forgotten.
Well, we didn’t forget. And we won’t.
The saying says hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. We were scorned. And we’re still furious as hell about it.
When Mackenzie came to me last year, I thought she was crazy. She said we could retaliate. Get revenge on the Sinners for taking those we loved away from us. For causing so much devastation.
Like I said, I thought she was crazy. We’re women, and although we’re angry about what happened to the Hades Riders, I thought the plan she was pitching to me was crazy.
But it wasn’t. It was already happening. I could be part of it or not. I could sit back and watch it happen, or I could be an active member and avenge Gavin’s death. It wasn’t a difficult decision for me to make.
Hell’s Fury welcomed me with open arms. The all-female club was exactly what I needed to give me strength. To show me that I wasn’t alone in my pain. That Gavin’s death would not go unanswered.
And although Lucien McNamara has the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen, they won’t stop me.
He won’t stop me. He can die just like Gavin did.
Chapter Four
Lucien
I knew there was a possibility I wouldn’t get the reaction I wanted from Jiminez. Launching an attack the way I did was a risk. It was a slap in the face for him to have his money and product stolen so easily. Fortunately for me, it paid off. He agreed to a meeting. It only took a little over a week. Thing is, he wants me to come alone.
I’m not that fucking stupid.
I’ve been with the Sinners for a long time. Fuck, I was barely eighteen when I joined with them. I had been in and out of foster care since I was two years old, and the moment I was released, I found a permanent family with them. I’ve learned a lot in fourteen years and one thing I learned is to never trust anyone.
Spencer nearly changed that mentality of mine. I was ready to leave my club for her, start a new life. I trusted in what we had and where we were going. I did more than trust her; I loved her.
But it didn’t take her long to move on after she was told of my death. And she moved on right to my closest friend.
Trust is not something that comes easily for me. So, when Jiminez asked that I come alone to meet with him right after I stole his shit, I knew better than to trust that asshole.
I ride in on my bike, coming to a stop close to the club. I can hear the music blaring when I kill the engine. At least it’s a public place. Exotico is one of Jiminez’s strip clubs, and it’s pretty damn popular.
The bouncer gives me a once-over and then nods his head, motioning for me to enter. When I walk inside, I glance around the massive club, making eye contact with my men. They’re not wearing their cuts, but that’s on my order. I want them to blend in, go unnoticed. The Sinners are good at that and always have been. We can be anyone, anywhere, any time.
Reid is getting a lap dance from a pretty blonde and Soco is playing pool with Warren. A few others are at the bar, but they are all on alert. If I give them the signal, their guns will be pulled.
I spot Jiminez standing at the railing on the second floor where the VIP lounge is. He glares down at me, his lip curled in hatred. I suppose I would hate me too if I were him. I stole thousands of dollars worth of his product. When I counted up the cash, it totaled to just over sixty-eight thousand. The pills I have are worth a pretty penny as well.
“You showed, Mr. Revenant.”
“I did.”
He waves his hand for me to have a seat and I find a spot so that I can still overlook the floor beneath me. So that I can see my men. Jiminez sits across from me, smoothing out the lapels of his jacket as he does.
“What you did was very unprofessional. Very foolish,” he begins, crossing his legs. “I would like my product, and my money returned.”
“I would like to negotiate terms.”
“You see, Mr. Revenant, I cannot do business with you. Not only do I consider your reputation, your history, a curse upon my business, I already have a business partner. I have made that clear. Besides, your former president negated on the terms of our business dealings. I don’t give second chances.”
I lean forward just slightly, resting my elbows on my knees. “Our club is under new leadership. Any future dealings will be handled accordingly,
and I will right the wrongs made by our former president, starting with paying our balance in full. We will not renege on any future deals. You have my word.”
I slide his payment across the table, and he takes it, placing it in his coat pocket. It seems for a moment I’m making headway, but it doesn’t last.
“Thank you for your payment. However, I have given my word to my business partner, and I cannot go back on that. Surely, you understand that since I believe loyalty is something you consider a standard in your club.”
I clench my jaw. “Who is this business partner? I didn’t think it was common for cartels to align themselves with only one dealer. Surely, that’s not very smart, Jiminez.”
He clicks his tongue and shakes his head. “I am not at liberty to say at this time but can tell you that this partner has beat all other offers and has made us a deal we cannot refuse. Part of their terms is that we cannot deal with anyone else.”
“We will match their offer.”
He laughs. “I’m afraid that is not possible.”
“Jiminez, this is business. Anything is possible. There’s always a price.”
He stands, letting me know our meeting is over. “Unless you can control the DEA like my partner can, there is no deal to be made with you, Mr. Revenant. Now return my product. I will not ask for it again.”
Harper
I tie the garbage bag and haul it over my shoulder. Donnie should be taking this out but he’s still cooking, and Molly actually showed up for work tonight. Good thing because we’ve been slammed and I’m on my period, so I really wasn’t in the mood for any of her excuses tonight.
We have both been non-stop since around seven p.m., and I’m considering this little outing to be a short reprieve from the customers. Must be teen night or some shit because the diner is packed with a bunch of pimply faced kids. I don’t think I’ve ever been so annoyed in my entire life. Who would’ve thought teenage boys could be so obnoxious! I swear it’s like they’ve never seen a woman before.
