Claiming Slice

by Eden Rose

  The Bear scratches his chin and then slaps Mack Truck on the chest to get his attention from day dreaming. “What do you think?”

  Ever since we had to do the beat down on The Bear, he’s being more diplomatic than he used to be. A lot of it probably has to do with the fact that he kept so many secrets from us that now he needs to prove that he’s still a good president to us. I know that he is still the law but I’m liking the fact that he’s asking us what we think of shit like this.

  Mack Truck slips his phone back in his breast pocket before shrugging. “I dunno, man. All I know is we’re sitting ducks out here on enemy territory.”

  The Bear looks over everyone that’s standing in front of him with a look on their face that says are we going to do something or what? “This is the plan. I want Half Ball to smoke them out of their warehouse. Be creative in how you do it just don’t set their fuckin’ place on fire. We don’t need the fuzz over here before we’re done. Then after those fuckin’ rats get out, I want Fang to myself. The rest of you, don’t be a hero and think you gotta go Terminator on them.”

  “Aye!”

  Half Ball sucks his cigarette down but he keeps the bud of it lit. “Find me some dry grass.”

  We all search the yard for a dry piece of grass. “Over there,” Rabies says with a sick smile on his face.

  Smirking, Half Ball walks over there like he has all the time in the world. Then he drops his bud on the grass. It’s a slow run but we’re all running towards the clubhouse crouched down to not be seen. I look over towards the warehouse with a smile on my face. We are successfully surrounding the whole building within seconds.

  I look behind me at Half Ball then nod my head to show that we’re ready. Our guns are cocked and ready to go. The sizzling of the dry grass that is slowly being lit, hisses with a vengeance.

  “What the fuck?” Someone yells within the clubhouse.

  All our faces light up with pride that we got them before they got us.

  “What the fuck is goin’ on?” An angry voice shouts.

  The crashing of the chairs inside the warehouse are loud and pissed off. Then there’s the pounding of the footsteps that are running out.

  One by one, the fuckers are running out of the warehouse like they are about to be set on fire. The girls that are in the club are pretty much naked besides a white bra and white underwear. They’re all screaming and hollering about being caught doing something illegal.

  That was when the one person that we were wanting the most comes walking out of the warehouse. “What the fuck is goin’ on? Why is there a fuckin’ fire?”

  “Oh, are you afraid of a little fire?” The Bear taunts him.

  He makes a signal for us to sneak into the warehouse behind Fang to look around. The minute that I’m inside, I wish that I could leave. It fucking reeks. “Holy shit!” I wave my hand in the air to get rid of some of the stink. “Smells like someone died back here.”

  Surprisingly, for a drug warehouse, it’s pretty tidy which makes me more cautious. “Make sure everyone is out!” Bic yells from the other side. “Also, don’t touch anything! You get me? Nothing.”

  I fight my sarcastic thinking of saying no shit!

  The far end of the wall has a bunch of tables that are lining it with random test tubes of all different types. Not that I paid too much attention to chemistry, but this reminds me of a science experiment gone wrong. There’s cleaning products on the ground just kicked over like they’re trash.

  I’m fucking disgusted.

  Before when I mentioned that they had a clean workshop? Maybe I was high off the fumes in here because it’s not clean at all. Fuck, I wouldn’t let my enemy stay in here.

  “Where you think you’re goin’?” The Bear growls at someone just outside of the door to the warehouse.

  “Look, man. It’s not what you think!” Fang begs.

  I could just imagine what a little pussy he looks like right now with his hands in the air like it’s going to protect him. I’ve never liked Fang or his stupid fucking club so I don’t really give a shit. What I want to do is burn these baggies that are scattered across the tables and leave these assholes alone.

  Peering through the room, I see something hanging from the wall that got my attention. Why? Not a lot of people have blue hair besides the one woman that I’m trying to forget about. I stalk over to it and rip the picture off the wall to get a better look.

  “Son of a bitch!” I yell with the picture in my hand. It’s definitely a picture of Jen smiling at me that was taken at the fest. My hand is wrapped around her hip in the picture and it looks like we are about to kiss.

  I see red. I don’t give a shit about the damn plan that we had set in stone. No, what I need is answers. Because as of right now, someone is taking pictures of my girl without her knowing.

  All of my previous thoughts about being done with her have fled my mind. She’s mine and I’m not letting her go.

  Ever.

  JEN

  Coming home to an empty apartment is never easy. However, coming home to a trashed apartment is something else completely.

  From where I’m standing by the elevators, I can see shards of wood from my door that are scattered on the floor. “Fuck!” I curse while walking carefully to the door. “Someone here?” I ask from outside of the door.

  When no one answers me, I make the brave decision to walk into my trashed apartment. My table looks as if someone picked it up and chucked it across the room. My chairs are no better- all are broken.

  My panic rises as I go through each room to assess the carnage of my place. Without even knowing that I’m doing it, I’m rubbing my stomach to help soothe my baby. Don’t worry, mommy won’t let this shit happen to you.

  I walk through my house and notice that everything is turned over and fucked up. My papers are scattered throughout the apartment almost as if someone was looking for something altogether.

  “Jen. It’s been a while.”

  My blood boils and my nerves get jumpy just from hearing the voice of the devil himself. It’s been a long time since I have heard the voice of my husband in person. His trial was the last time that I had laid eyes on him knowing it was my time to move on from him.

  I rub my fingers over the ultrasound picture in hopes that it calms me from my insides warring against each other! Fuck! I want to stab him in the neck with a fork.

  “Jimmy,” I say casually, or at least I hope I sound casual. Spinning on my heels to look at him for the first time in three years, I squeeze my eyes shut. I’m positive that I don’t want to see him but I also don’t want him to see me with my face all blotchy.

  Once I’m turned around, I open my eyes slowly and take in the man that I lost my virginity to. The man that took my virginity. The man that destroyed everything in my life with just his lies. Everything about him has changed from the small-town man that I knew from before to the bad ass man in front of me. Everything is different.

  He’s dressed in an expensive suit that my father probably ordered for him but it’s the look on his face that pisses me off the most. He’s proud and confident that he has me locked in a space to spit his lies.

  “Well, this place isn’t what I expected for someone that ran away from home. I expected something nicer.”

  “You didn’t come all this way to comment about my apartment, did you?” I ask him trying to calm my nerves so I don’t break down in tears from being so upset.

  Jimmy steps over to me and places his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. It’s not comforting in the least but he seems to be thinking that it’s nice. I’m not liking him being in my space at all. I feel invaded.

  He smirks a little. “Oh, sweetie. I came to talk to you about everything that you didn’t give me the option to talk to you about.”

  Shrugging out of his hold, I back away from him. “Why did you trash my house?” I bite out.

  “Well,” Jimmy looks around before taking a giant step over to me. “When you moved out of our
house and took all my money, what did you do it?”

  Have you ever heard of the analogy the floor dropping from underneath you? I totally understand what that means at this moment. Feeling unbalanced, I do my best to figure out how to wade through all of this. “I was sixteen when we got married, Jimmy. I was a child when you got arrested! I had no job or work experience; how the hell was I supposed to get a job?”

  The angry Jimmy that I remembered from all those years ago escapes him and he comes charging at me. “You were supposed to hold everything down when I was gone! You weren’t supposed to be a little bitch and dip out when things didn’t go your way like the little spoiled princess you are!”

  His breath fans over my face causing me to shiver from it. I feel the wall on my back and then he’s pressing me against it with his whole-body weight. The air is knocked out of my lungs and chest with the force of his muscles pressing down on me. “Jimmy,” I gasp out trying to get the oxygen back.

  “No, I’ve waited a couple of years to have you here with me right now and we’re going to have a conversation. I already know about your biker boyfriend.”

  Does he know about the money that I moved around in his bank accounts? I wonder how often he checks those accounts.

  I tap his shoulder to get him to let me go but he doesn’t move. Maneuvering myself so I’m able to push on his chest. My strength is nothing compared to his. He doesn’t even move. “Jim…” I squeak out but still nothing.

  His hand slides over my side until he’s gripping the waistband of my pants. “Does he touch you like this?” He’s taunting me. I know he’s trying to get a rise out of me and it’s working. Jimmy’s hand begins to pull down the fabric of my pants. I gasp. He takes the opening and slams his mouth down on mine.

  I bite him. I bite him so hard that I can taste the blood from the lip that I have locked in my teeth. He jerks off me with a growl. “You fucking bitch!” He hollers at me while making a fist.

  I know what is about to happen and I know that it’s not going to end good for me. The pain of his hand coming down on my cheek breaks me more than anything he has ever done to me. Heat, shame and something else washes over me entirely taking me away from what is happening.

  Almost as if I’m not even here, he drags my pants down my legs quickly. I feel the fabric of them at my feet within seconds. That was when the front door opens and I hear the voice of an angel.

  “Jen? Are you here?”

  “Hello!” I cry out.

  Jimmy gets spooked and jumps back from me. He’s pulling up my pants with a look of crazy on him. “You breathe a word of this and your dead. You get me? Fucking dead. Everything that you have built up here, is going to be gone.”

  I nod my head just as Chantal walks around the corner. “What happened to your apartment?” She questions me. “Wait!” She hollers at Jimmy. “Who the fuck are you?”

  Turning on the charm that I know is fake, he smiles at her. “Hello, I’m Jimmy, Jen’s husband.”

  Mortified, I slink back against the wall.

  “Well, it doesn’t look as if you’re wanted here. It’s time to get out,” my friend demands with venom in her voice.

  My husband smiles at her. “I don’t think so.” His voice is dark and menacing. “I’m not going anywhere because I’m talking to my fucking wife. You get out.”

  I snap back into what is happening just in time to remember to grab my gun from my bedside table. I run towards my room and stumble over all the shit that he destroyed to grab my gun. With it in my hands, I walk back to the hallway just in time for Jimmy to reach behind his back to pull something out.

  I cock the gun to place it at the back of his head. “Leave!” I scream. “Get out of my house and out of my life!” I yell even louder.

  Jimmy throws his hands up in the air with fake surrender. “My darling wife, let’s talk about this before you do something like this.”

  Chantal’s eyes are bulging out of her head at the exchange that I’m having with my husband. “There’s nothing to talk about. I didn’t visit you for two years while you’ve been in prison. None of that made it clear that I’m not interested in being with you anymore?”

  He spins on his feet to look at me. I aim the gun to butt into his chest. Like the asshole that he is, he walks into the barrel of my gun with confidence. “We both know you’re not going to shoot me. You’re just embarrassing yourself.”

  I’m shaking with the gun in my hand. Holding a gun at a person is so much different than holding a gun and aiming at the target. It’s an intoxicating feeling. Everything has disappeared from me and around me. There’s no one here and nothing else matters besides ending the cycle of this bull shit life that I didn’t even want.

  I squeeze the trigger but he pulls his gun out first before I can follow through with it. Jimmy’s gun is aimed and pressed against my breast. “You think you got something on me? You think that you can best me? Fuck you. What kind of asshole do you think I am that I would allow you to shoot me? Oh, I remembered something that I was meaning to ask you. What did you do with my money that you stole?”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I say a little something to my baby in my mind. That was when my body is tossed aside like it doesn’t even matter.

  SLICE

  Armed with Jen’s photo in my hand, I stomp out of the warehouse until I’m facing my president. I’m pissed as shit right now and I want answers badly.

  Fang’s on the ground with his arms behind his head execution style. I smile a little at the irony of how I broke his hand for touching Jen but now he has a picture of her. Fuck him.

  I take my gun out and cock it. “I need to have a fuckin’ word with this asshole,” I growl at my president.

  “By all means,” Joe says and steps away from Fang. I notice that he’s covered in blood from either him or Fang.

  “Dude!” I demand and point at his body.

  “Focus. Priorities, man. It’s not mine.”

  Calming down a little more, I step in front of Fang. I pick my knee up and slam it in his face. His nose instantly breaks from the force of me hitting him. “Why do you have this picture?” I demand and shove Jen’s photo in his face.

  Hunched over his own body and cradling his nose, he snarls at me. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”

  “Why do you have a picture of my girl?” I bite out in precise words. “The same girl that I broke your hand over earlier. What should I break now?” I ask him rhetorically.

  My brothers begin yelling and circling us with the look of back up. I feel secure that I’m going to be safe but I’m more worried about Jen than my own self.

  “If I were you,” Fang spits out, “I would run over to her and get her far away from that asshole. He’s going to kill her.”

  Shocked by how easily he gave that up, I straighten my back. “Who?” I demand.

  Joe has his gun out and it’s aimed at Fang’s head. “Who is goin’ to kill Jen?”

  Fang chuckles a little bit before admitting what we already know. “At the fest, a man said he’s looking for his wife. He paid me and I helped find her. Turns out, your little slut is a hotter commodity than I had thought.”

  What the fuck is he talking about? “Who sold you this shit?” Mack Truck asks from behind me. “Is it the same person that’s after Jen?”

  The amount rage that is going through me right now is astronomical. Truthfully, I feel like my blood pressure is at a stroke level. “God damn it! It’s her husband. It’s her husband that is supplying you and making you feel like you’re fuckin’ safe.”

  The look on the other president’s face just tells me exactly what I need to know. Without him saying anything, I kick him in the stomach with the steel toed boot. “You dirty ass mother fucker!”

  The Bear steps in between us and puts his hand on my chest. “Brother, go get your girl and find out what the fuck is goin’ on.”

  Out of instinct, I disagree with him. “Fuck that! I need to be here with you,” I argue.
Even as my sentence flew out of my mouth, I remembered who was at risk here. Jen. Even though things are not good right now, I would still do anything for her. Absolutely.

  My president’s face changes from menacing to downright pissed off in twenty seconds. “I’m gonna pretend you’re not arguin’ with me like a dumb ass. Go get your girl and talk to her.”

  I’m about to interject again but then I realized that she’s where I want to be. I’m still pissed off that she lied to me and didn’t tell me that she was fucking married but I should have given her the chance to talk to me about it.

  I’m a fucking fool.

  With one last look back at The Bear, I run over towards my bike with a purpose. “Keep him on ice!” I call back with a twisted thought in my mind. If things don’t go well, I’m going to need to use Fang as a punching bag.

  Revving up my bike, I hear another bike crank up next to me. With a smile on the evil bastard’s face, I knew that he was excited for this. “Hey, what are you doin’?” I holler over the engines and the wails from Fang.

  Mack Truck smiles bigger than ever. “Well, I figured this would be more fun than prez playing with Fang like a kitten with a mouse.”

  “Sure, man. Whatever you say!”

  I lead the way down the streets until I get towards Jen’s place. It’s not an easy ride with thoughts of what could be happening to her. I don’t know what the fuck her husband is going to do to her or if he’s even there. None of what Fang said was comforting at all.

  Mack Truck and I park our bikes in the front two spots of the parking lot while grabbing our Glocks. Mine has been loaded since the ambush on Fang’s operation but I’m hoping I won’t have to use it.

  We’re running up the steps to get to the front of the building and I’m hoping that I get there in time. It’s been so long since I’ve had a reason to fight for someone but I want to fight for her. For us. I’m done with this back and forth shit. It’s time to get everything out on the table.

  Stupid doubts plague the back of my mind reminding me that I could be too late. That our relationship has run it’s course and now there’s no going back to having fun together. To loving each other.