His to Protect: Midnight Riders MC

by April Lust

  One of the others must have followed orders, because I heard Daddy utter a pained grunt as a meaty slap resounded down the hallway. I didn’t dare move. I was too frozen by fear and the animal instinct to do what I was told.

  The first man continued, “You’ve been helping The Punishers for a long time. Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”

  “I swear, you’re wrong.” I’d never heard Daddy sound so pitiful.

  “Hit him again,” the man ordered. More thumps and moans broke out. The hallway amplified everything tenfold, making the grotesque sounds of the beating echo towards me that much louder and more vilely.

  “Marco Esposito has been getting very sick of your shit. You never pay on time, you never pay enough, and now we find out you’ve been helping our enemies? That was a very bad idea, I’m afraid.” The man’s voice was icy.

  “Please, God,” my father begged. “I can make it up to you, I promise.”

  The man answered doubtfully, “I don’t think you can, Antonio. Look at this piece of shit restaurant you run. You don’t make any fucking money. How are you going to pay up?”

  “I…I’ll find a way, I will, I swear. We’ll, um, we’ll extend our hours, or, or…” He trailed off, unable to come up with anything convincing.

  The man tutted. “I don’t think so. If you could make money, you’d have done it a long time ago. There’s not enough cash in this whole damn business for you to buy your life back.”

  “There must be something,” he moaned. “Please, just tell me how.”

  “I don’t know, Antonio. I just don’t know.”

  Another of the men spoke up. “Cosimo, what about the girl?”

  My heart plummeted. They were talking about me.

  “Hmm,” said the first men. That must be Cosimo. “That’s a good idea, Bruno. That’s a very good idea. Go get her.”

  I heard the thumping footsteps as one of the men came back from the hallway. He was headed for me. Fight or flight reactions took over, finally breaking through my immobility. I leaped up and started to sprint for the doorway. I almost made it out before a hand snaked around my waist and snagged me off the ground.

  “Now, now, princess, can’t be running away. That’s not nice,” the man murmured in my ear. He smelled disgusting. I kicked and writhed in his arms, but despite being short and wiry, he was surprisingly strong. I couldn’t get away.

  He carried me back down the hallway and dropped me to my feet in front of him, keeping his hands pinned on my shoulders and pressing me into the ground.

  Daddy was slumped against the wall, seated on the ground. The man with the hammer stood over him, keeping the tool resting gently on top of my father’s head. Leaning against the wall on the other side was the man who had been doing all the talking. Cosimo, they’d called him.

  He was of average height and build. His skin was perfectly unblemished, hair slicked straight back and glistening with grease. He studied me carefully with his pale eyes. They weren’t intelligent as much as they were cunning. Ruthless, even. Hungry, though for what, I couldn’t be sure.

  I could feel Bruno shifting around behind me. His nauseating smell still rolled around the confined space we were standing in. I wrinkled my nose, but I couldn’t peel my eyes away from Cosimo.

  He squatted in front of me, looking at me at eye level. “What’s your name, little girl?” he asked me softly.

  “Natalia,” I told him. My voice was coming out shaky and timid.

  “Cosimo, please don’t touch her,” my father gasped.

  He didn’t blink or look away even for a moment. He flicked a finger towards Daddy. The man standing over him reached down, picked up his hand, and pinned it against the wall, fingers splayed along the plaster. Two quick strikes of the hammer left my father gibbering in pain, his hand clutched against his chest. I flinched at the sound of the weapon landing on fragile bone.

  “Natalia. What a pretty name,” Cosimo murmured. His words were nice but beneath them there was something I hated. He was slimy, conniving, a snake in a human’s body. “How old are you, Natalia?”

  “I’m thirteen,” I answered.

  He hummed and nodded. “Almost a woman, then.”

  I didn’t answer.

  “Tell me, Natalia,” he continued, “do you know what it means to be a traitor?” I despised the way he said my name. When it came from his lips, it was almost like an insult. I couldn’t help but think of the way Nicholas had said it that day in the alley. That was the polar opposite. Out of Nicholas’s mouth, it was almost like a blessing.

  But I knew this man had a lot of power over what happened to Daddy and me. I had to do what he wanted. I nodded my head.

  “Why don’t you tell me what it means?” he prodded.

  I swallowed hard. “It means someone who betrays their friend.”

  Cosimo rocked back on his heels, looking pleased. “Very good. That’s exactly what it is.”

  “But Daddy’s not a traitor!” I yelped, unable to stop myself.

  He looked sad. Over my shoulder, I could hear Daddy still whimpering and rolling around on the ground. “Unfortunately, he is,” Cosimo said. He reached forward and placed his hands gently on my shoulders, replacing Bruno’s. “Your daddy betrayed us,” he continued as he looked straight at me. “And now he’s going to have to pay the price.”

  Rising to his feet, he spun me around so my back rested against his knees and we both faced my father. “Sit up, Antonio,” Cosimo said in a quiet voice. I watched in horror as Daddy struggled to a seat, his face twisted into a grimace of agony. I had a growing fear that something terrible was about to happen. Something I’d never forget.

  I felt Cosimo lean down behind me to whisper in my ear. “I want you to watch very closely, Natalia. This is what happens to traitors like your father. Now, cover your ears.”

  I clapped my hands over my ears. The world went silent. Everything was shapes and motion, no sound. A flash. Gunfire. A spray of blood. Some droplets landing wet and sticky on my face. Daddy’s chest exploding. Two more flashes. Then it was all over.

  I didn’t even notice I was crying.

  Cosimo’s fingers wrapped around my wrists and peeled my hands away, lowering them gently to my sides. “There, there,” he said, wiping tears away from my face. “It’s all over. That’s the end of it. Well,” he paused, correcting himself, “the end for him, at least. You’re coming with us.”

  And that was how my new life began.

  Chapter 7

  Nicholas

  Twelve Years Later

  I paused for a moment and looked in the mirror. Sometimes I hardly recognized the man looking back. The guy in the glass was a cold-hearted son of a bitch. Icy blue eyes that didn’t blink. Throw fists or fire bullets at me, it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t flinch. Nobody could scare me.

  I peeled off my leather driving gloves and looked down at my hands. A lesser man might be shaking, given everything that had just happened. Not me. My hands were calm and steady. I could perform surgery despite the adrenaline coursing through my system and the way my breath came in hot and heavy spurts. It didn’t matter. My hands never shook.

  To think this had become my normal life. Driving away from cops and criminals alike, engine blasting, true thugs riding shotgun as I got them away from whatever hit or theft they were carrying out that day.

  I was a driver for The Punishers. Not just any driver, I was the best. I was the one they called when the mission hung by a hair. When the streets were tight and the police were close, I was the only guy in the whole damn city good enough to get away. I’d never been caught. I didn’t think I ever would be.

  Driving came too easily to me. Nothing had changed since the day Smalls first popped open the door of that luxury sedan and swung it open, gesturing for me to slip inside. When I’d taken the driver’s seat and put my hands on the wheel, I knew right away this was where I was supposed to be. This was my horse.

  And every time I got in the car, I felt the same
click in my chest, like something settling into place, a big, resounding Yes from a place deep within. A man knew when he’d found his calling. No one could convince him otherwise. Driving was what I was born to do.

  The confidence in my face was obvious. But it wasn’t the flashy swagger I’d seen on the face of so many other drivers during my twelve years as a member of The Punishers. Cockiness got a driver killed. A sharp turn didn’t give a damn if you thought you were the best. All that mattered was that you respected it. In a job like mine, there was always something after me. Someone on my tail with anger pumping through their veins or the road trying to kill me at every turn, twisting just a bit more than it thought I could handle. But nothing got to me. I just didn’t let it.

  This city was filled with jokers and idiots. Arrogant teenagers popping wheelies on their bikes during street races were always thinking that they could step into my shoes and do it better than me. What they didn’t realize was that it wasn’t about the machine; it wasn’t about being willing to take a risk or whip around a turn faster than the next guy.

  It was about these steady hands. They didn’t shake. They never would.

  Tonight’s job had been routine. I’d picked up Luca, the hitman, just before midnight. He’d come lumping down the stairs, looking pudgy and dirty, though that was pretty much par for the course when it came to this particular specimen.

  “Evening, Nico,” he said as he slid into the passenger seat. He groaned as he shifted his weight to one side and pulled out a handgun from the waistband of his sweatpants. He kept talking as he took it apart, inspected it, and then put it back together one piece at a time. “Lookin’ forward to this one tonight. Real ugly son of a bitch we’re puttin’ down. You know, it just ain’t right to be slappin’ around a woman, is it now, Nico?” He didn’t wait for me to answer before going on. “It ain’t right at all. I don’t care if you are her pimp, still shouldn’t be beatin’ up on a lady.”

  Luca sucked his teeth and shook his head in dismay. The machinery in his hands clicked as he locked the silencer down into place. I executed a smooth turn through the sparse late-night traffic at the intersection, gliding down the dark road towards what would soon become a murder scene. I didn’t say a word. I kept my eyes on the road. The wheel hummed gently beneath my gloved fingertips.

  Luca lowered the window and pointed the weapon at himself in the rearview mirror. He squinted one eye as he looked down the sights. “Bang,” he said softly, pretending to pull the trigger. He let the gun recoil slightly from the fake shot.

  We cruised to a stop at a red light. I looked at him. “Shut the window,” I said.

  “Damn,” Luca whistled, “you really are a cold bastard, aren’t you, Nico? Don’t you think a fucker like this deserves to get put down?”

  The truth was, I did think that. I hated the scum who mucked around this city. Leeches and small-time predators lingered everywhere I looked, finding the nearest warm, innocent body and sucking it dry. There were as many gangs and renegade clubs as there were city blocks. We couldn’t stamp them out quick enough. Every time we took down one upstart crew of filth, two more sprung up in their place. It was a fool’s errand to keep trying. So I’d learned long ago to let the small time players eke out a living wherever they managed to find a foothold.

  My sights were on the bigger target. I wanted to take down the biggest leech of them all—the Espositos.

  They had been terrorizing their swath of the city for decades. Damn near every business owner in their territory paid a fortune just to keep the Esposito enforcers from coming through and smashing their shops to pieces. In return, what did the Espositos provide? Nothing. The fees were called “protection money,” but the only thing the Espositos protected from was themselves.

  The only thing stopping the Espositos from expanding their vampire operation to encompass the rest of the city was us. The Punishers. That wasn’t to say we were the good guys. We weren’t, far from it. There were enough vices and scoundrels littered throughout our crew to make the local jailhouse look like a church choir. But in contrast to the Espositos, we might as well have been fucking angels.

  Luca was the type who would have been at home on either side of the war. He loved violence, no matter who he was inflicting it on or for. It was just a quirk of his birth that he’d been born on the Punishers’ side of the tracks.

  Here he was, on his way to take a man’s life—a man who deserved it, to be sure, but still, a human being—and he looked like a kid at the candy shop, too overwhelmed with excitement to know where to begin. He squeezed the handle of the gun with glee. His fingers tapped on the thigh of his greasy, stained sweats. A softly hummed song came from his pursed lips.

  We were different creatures, he and I. He loved blood for its own sake. It didn’t make a difference to him who it belonged to, why it had been spilled, what kinds of horrible things he left in his wake. All that mattered was the power he held when he stood over another man, or a woman, or even a child, with a weapon in his hand. It was a drug for him. I couldn’t understand that.

  The light changed green. I stared at Luca for a moment longer. “Just shut the window,” I repeated.

  We drove the rest of the way in silence.

  A few turns later, we pulled up outside a decrepit, two-story apartment building. No lights came from inside. I parked alongside the curb and looked at Luca. He ogled back, his froggy eyes bulging with eagerness, unshaven jowls quivering along with them. “Be back in a jiff, amigo,” he said mockingly. Then he scrambled out of the car and walked around to the rear of the building.

  Silence settled in once he had gone. I let loose the breath I’d been holding. I couldn’t deny that Luca was right. This man deserved to die. He was a notorious pimp with a predatory streak, well known for beating his hookers to the point that the ER closest to his turf had a special code they used whenever one of his girls came limping in, bloody and battered. He paid off law enforcement handsomely, so the ones who might have thought about wading through this shitty, dangerous neighborhood to arrest him were convinced to turn a blind eye. But he’d pissed off the wrong guy, and word passed through the criminal grapevine that a contract was out on his head. Ever the opportunist, Luca had volunteered the Punishers to take the job. So here we were, playing judge, jury, and God, all at the same time. Funny how the ones at trial were always guilty.

  I breathed deeply. My hands were resting lightly on the top of the wheel. The cooling engine made audible clicks and groans as it settled down. I checked my watch. Two minutes had passed. No sound or motion from inside.

  Then I saw the thump of something large and heavy hitting the other side of the curtains over the front window. It disappeared just as quickly. I started the car up again and rolled down the windows.

  Over the soft purr of the motor, I heard glass shattering from within. Two quick flashes that could only be gunfire. A brief lull in the action, then the front door burst open and Luca came waddling out, tucking his gun angrily into the back of his sweatpants and pressing a palm to a cut on his forehead. He grimaced as he pulled it away. Blood shone on his hand under the dim streetlight.

  He yanked open the side door and threw himself in, slamming it shut behind him with a thunk. The moment his weight was in the car, I pulled out. My eyes flitted back and forth from the road in front of me to both rearview mirrors, checking for anyone following us.

  “Goddamn bastard,” Luca cursed as he wadded up the bottom edge of his shirt and held it against the slice on his temple. “Threw a fucking lamp at me, can you believe that?”

  “You didn’t have to wake him up,” I said.

  “Where’s the fun in that? I want ’em to know why they’re gettin’ what they’re gettin’. No sport in killing a motherfucker when he’s balls deep in La La Land, counting sheep or whatever.”

  “It isn’t supposed to be fun. You should—”

  Blue lights behind us. Shit.

  “I should what?”

  “You should b
uckle up.”

  I depressed the clutch and cranked us up a few gears. The car shot down the dark road. In my mirror, I watched as the cops picked up speed to chase after us. Someone must have reported the gunfire.

  A dead end approached up ahead. I swerved left and applied more pressure to the gas pedal. We nosed forward faster. I glanced back. Two cop cars slid around the corner, tires screeching.

  Clutch down, another gear higher, and the motor in our car started really getting after it. I could feel the thrum of metal on all sides. My eyes narrowed in intense concentration. My hands gripped tighter on the wheel.

  Speed. Give it to me.

  The next few minutes were a blur of hairpin turns, screeching tires, and Luca, wide-eyed, clutching desperately at the armrests like he thought he was about to get ejected from the vehicle at any moment.

  The cops were good drivers, but I was better. I whipped a fast U-turn to give ourselves some breathing room, then scorched down a long residential street towards an alley at the far end. It was just big enough to allow the sporty sedan I was driving to pass through.