Twisted Steel: An MC Romance Anthology

by Knox, Elizabeth

  “What the fuck, you deaf or some shit? I asked you your name. I really don’t have time.”

  I didn’t know who the fuck this lady was, but I didn’t like how she was talking to the girl.

  “Yo! What is your name?” Maven snapped her fingers at the woman again, not getting any more of a response than she had gotten the first time.

  I spoke up, “What is that going to help? It is obvious she is scared. Maybe if you take some of the weapons off and explain who you are, she will feel a little more willing to share.”

  Maven turned her attention toward me, a small smirk on her face. “Oh, you the one with the balls here, I see. No, I will not take my weapons off. You all are here in my home, where my husband and my children and my family is. I don’t know what your intentions are, I don’t know if any of you are here to spy on us, I don’t know shit besides someone either dropped you off or told you where to find us. I get that you all have been through some tough shit and I promise you that if you all are being real with me, we will help you as much as we can. But until I can trust you, this is what you are going to get.” She waved at herself.

  “I . . . I’m Tiffany.” The woman with the unnatural blonde hair finally spoke up. She wrapped her arms around herself, a small tremble constantly moving through her body. Fear. I walked over toward her slowly and linked my arm through hers. I didn’t know this woman, but I didn’t want her to feel like she was alone. We were all scared here. She looked at me briefly before she continued to talk to Maven. “I know Lemon. She works in one of your clubs, I think. We used to work the same streets years ago. She told me you guys might be able to help.”

  “Why didn’t you just come talk to us right there in Satin Wings? Why come all the way here to the main clubhouse,” Maven asked.

  “I have a pimp. I have been trying to get away from him for a long time. He is looking for me, and this is probably the only place I was sure he wouldn’t come.” The tears started trailing down her face as she lowered her head and pleaded her case to Maven. “I know I shouldn’t have come here. I know it.”

  “Shh, it’s okay. Like I said, we will help you as much as we can,” Maven reassured her from where she was standing by the door. “What about you two? You lovers or something?”

  They both popped their heads up. The one on the left answered, “No, we’re sisters. I’m Remy and this is Tati.”

  “Okay, and what is your story?”

  “We are from Solovetsky Island. A man in our hometown said they were looking for housekeepers in some of the newer hotels further inland. It was sort of a contract type of job. For the first two years, everything was great. We would work at hotels for a month or a few weeks and then we would be placed at a different hotel for a few weeks. We made our way to some hotels in Italy and were approached by a man who said there were more opportunities here in the States for contract work. We came, but instead of housekeeping work, he kept us locked up in a house and told us we would need to fuck his clients. He tricked us.”

  Maven took in the girls’ story and finally moved over to one of the seats near the kitchenette area. “How long have you been in the States?”

  “Only a few weeks,” Tati finally spoke.

  “You know English well for someone who has only been here for a few weeks.”

  Remy spoke this time. “We learned in school as our second language, and we had lots of practice at all the hotels we worked in over the past two years. They were filled with mostly American travelers.”

  “Fine, and what about you, my ringleader over there.” Maven looked in my direction.

  I wasn’t the ringleader of anything, but I wasn’t going to let her bully me either. “I’m Lana and I am running away from my husband. He is abusive. Maino brought me here.”

  “Alright, this is how this is going to go. You have two choices. You can either become a club bunny and party with the boys in there. They like to fuck, but most of them are some sort of gentleman and they tip well. Or you can come to one of my clubs and dance there. We are expanding rapidly and always looking for new dancers.”

  I heard Tati and Remy take a huge gasp and I could feel Tiffany tense up next to me. “No, we aren’t going to do either of those,” I spoke up. I had no right to tell this woman what I was going to accept, but I just couldn’t see myself swinging around a pole just to please some man.

  “Excuse me? You need help, we will give you help, but nothing in this world comes for free. You all are going to have to pull your weight. This isn’t a free ride sort of thing.”

  “I am not asking for a free ride and I am sure the girls feel just as grateful as I do.” Remy and Tati walked toward me and stood at my back. “But I don’t think any of us here are equipped to deal with the world you are trying to throw us into. Tiffany, do you want to strip or fuck?” I turned toward the girl whose arm I was holding onto.

  “No, but I don’t want to get kicked out. I’ll do it if they keep Eamon away from me.”

  I turned to look at Maven. “That is the kind of help you guys are giving out here? The kind where we have to choose between being beat and degraded by one fuck or being fucked and degraded by someone else? There has to be something else we can do that doesn’t involve any of that shit.” I could feel the girls nodding behind me. Somehow, I had become the voice of the battered girls club I was in.

  Maven nodded, “I hear you. I don’t want that. You have any other suggestions then? I can’t leave here without you guys having some kind of work.” As hard as she came off, it did look like she was really trying to find a way to help us out.

  “How many clubs do you guys run?”

  “We are about to open our fourth one.”

  “What about housekeeping? I know these two have experience, and we could do it before the clubs opened for a fraction of the price I am sure you guys are paying right now.” It wasn’t something I really wanted to do, but I wasn’t above pushing a mop.

  “The dancers already do it,” Maven spoke.

  “When I saw Lemon the other day, the place was a sty. It was only half clean. You are going to start getting roaches and crusty sheets soon,” Tiffany said from the side of me. She was obviously down for that plan too.

  “Okay, I think we can get down with that. You four will clean all of our clubs and in return, you can use our trailer. You don’t have to worry about rent or any other bills, we can provide you with most of that, but we will give you a wage to split among the four of you. Twenty-five dollars apiece per day for four days a week. You guys will do the deep clean and the girls can still do the day-to-day maintenance. The last thing we want is crusty sheets.” Maven smiled at Tiffany. “You guys can start tomorrow. Oh, and one other thing— Lana, Maino dropped something off for you.”

  I followed the woman outside the trailer and walked over to the side. There was a bike there. It was broken down and looked like it had seen some better days, but I could see it was a hell of a machine.

  “What is this?” There was no way I could pay for this.

  “Maino dropped this off. He said he sold off your car for parts, and he had this laying around the shop. It was too small for his boys, so he fixed it up for you. He said you knew how to ride?”

  I shook my head. I never dreamed about having another bike, but now that it was here, I knew I didn’t want to travel any other way.

  “Alright, there is still work that needs to be done on it, but I’m sure after about two or three hundred bucks, this baby will take you anywhere you need to go. In the meantime, either Cherry or myself will drive you girls to the clubs. No one will mess with your stuff while you leave it here.”

  “Sounds good. Thanks.” I didn’t watch her as she walked away from me. My eyes were on my new baby, thinking about all the possibilities and all the new places I would be able to go on it.

  3

  Tati, Remy, Tiffany, and I became a sort of team over the next week. We were all from different walks of life, but for the most part, we all wanted the same t
hings. We never wanted to be scared again and we would do anything to stay away from the scumbags who were no doubt looking for us.

  “Who the hell told Eve to fuck with the damn apple? I hate that bitch,” Tiffany moaned out as I walked by.

  “What?”

  “Eve! That bitch! I hate her!” Tiffany sat up slowly and rearranged the heating pad that was pressed to her back.

  I laughed slightly. She had menstrual cramps. “Girl, you better get your ass up. You know we got to be ready before ten or Maven will get all pissy.”

  “Me no care, she always vex.” Tiffany spoke loudly, her Jamaican dialect sneaking out. That was before she got up and slowly started making moves.

  “What? How you going to say something but no one here understands what you are saying? That is just like Tati and Remy when they start arguing in Russian. I only speak English, girl, and bad English at that.”

  She laughed and looked back at me. “Girl, Patois is English. You just not listening.” Tiffany was born and raised in the States but her parents were both from Jamaica. She usually spoke with a normal American accent, but when she got mad or hurt, suddenly I couldn’t understand a word that was coming out of her mouth.

  She rolled her eyes. “I said, I don’t care, she always angry.”

  I thought back on what I heard her say and what she just translated the phrase to mean. It made sense, it just sounded strange to my ears. “Vex? That means angry?”

  “Yup, she a vex, he gon' be vex. Anger.”

  “I like that.” I understood anger— it was a well-known emotion in my life.

  “I bet you do. Vexx. It actually suits you. Lana is so good girl, but Vexx sounds more like the badass you are. Double the x’s and that is your new identity right there!”

  “I don’t know about all that. Maven is the badass.”

  “You ain’t far away, girl, I promise you that.”

  * * *

  We all walked into Lace Wings with buckets, mops and gloves in hand. There was a big party the night before, so the club was a mess. In fact, there were still a few stragglers in there.

  “Hey, what the fuck? Why the hell are these assholes still in here?” Maven screamed out and walked over to the side near the DJ booth.

  “Come on, guys, let’s start in the back near the locker rooms. I’m sure there is a ton of stuff back there to clean.” I started toward the back just as one of the stragglers stumbled near us.

  “Why don’t you start over here? I got a knob for you to clean.” He laughed, but all I could see was red.

  I stepped up to him, ready to curse him the hell out, but I knew I couldn’t do that. He was a customer and even though he wasn’t my customer, I didn’t want to disrespect Maven like that. The last thing I needed was to get fired. I couldn’t afford it.

  It wasn’t much, but the money I did get was used to fix up my bike little by little. I was surprised to find out how much I missed riding and how good it made me feel. In fact, the girls all saw how awesome it was and started hinting that they would get bikes too, only if I would teach them how to ride though.

  I took a breath and tried to walk past the man, but he reached out and grabbed my arm. “Aw, don’t be so mean.” He tried to pull me toward him, but a sharp knife appeared out of nowhere and was pressed against his throat. Maven was behind him.

  “Keep your hands on her and lose your life,” she whispered menacingly in the man’s ear.

  He released me immediately.

  “That’s a good man. Hope to see you and your boys here again soon.” Maven smiled and sheathed the knife on her hip. They all ran out the door and Maven stood there just looking at us.

  “Come on, Vexx, let’s get to work.” Tiffany tried to pull me with them, but I didn’t move.

  “You guys go ahead. I am going to talk to Lana for a second,” Maven said to the girls over my shoulder.

  “I’m sorry, Maven, it won’t happen again.”

  “You scared.”

  My eyes popped up to hers. “No, what the fuck do I have to be afraid of?”

  “That’s what I thought.” Maven reached down and grabbed my hand, lifting it up in the air and let her own hand drop. My hand was trembling bad. “This is anger then?”

  I looked away, not wanting to admit that furious was my default state of emotion.

  “Is that why Tiffany called you ‘Vexx’?”

  I nodded. “It was a joke because I get angry a lot.”

  “You do, and the name suits you. Vexx, this anger is going to eat you alive. You have to do something about it.” Maven spoke softly to me.

  I was so tired of people telling me I had so much to live for, that I should just put a smile on my face. “Let me guess, you want me to just forgive and forget, to turn the other cheek?”

  “No, what in the fuck for? Use that shit, let that anger fuel you. If you got to fuck someone up, do it. If you got to curse and scream, do it. It’s not the norm, so there may be consequences, but fuck it, it’s better than living with all this pent-up anger.”

  I blinked a few times. I wasn’t expecting that shit at all. “I’ll be alright.” I walked away from her and went toward the back where the other girls were already cleaning.

  I walked in to the locker room to see a full mess. There was costumes and makeup everywhere. Nail polish remover, hair extensions, condoms— you name it and it was somewhere in the area.

  I walked to the back to help Remy with the glitter pick up. That shit was a bitch to get off the floor.

  The door opened behind us, and I figured it must be Maven coming in to check on the girls.

  “Look at what I found,” a man’s raspy voice sounded behind us.

  I turned quickly. “Look, the girls are not here yet. The club will open at six p.m. You gonna have to wait until then to get your rocks off,” I said to him, hoping he would take the hint.

  “Why the hell would I want all that used pussy when I have the pick of the litter right here with you dolls? Just be nice to me and I’ll make sure it is worth your time.”

  “Fuck you, man, we are not prostitutes. Get the hell out of here,” Tiffany said from her place on the other side of the room.

  “You will be cumsluts if I say you will, and guess what,” he reached out and grabbed Tati by her hair, pulling her to him, “today, I choose you.”

  “You fucking prick!” I screamed and charged at him, but he swung with his other hand and batted me away. I stumbled down and hit my head on one of the lockers. I tried to get back up, but my head was spinning. I could hear the girls screaming and trying to fight him off her, but he pushed Tiffany clear across the room and punched Remy so hard that she was knocked out on the floor. Tatianna fought with everything she had, but he was already tearing at her clothes, his pants unbuckled and the top of his dirty cock poking out of his underwear.

  I shook my head, trying desperately to get my bearings. I stood up and grabbed the first thing I could off the counter. It was the nail polish remover, I opened it and threw it on him. It doused his shirt and part of his pants.

  “What the fuck, bitch!” He let Tatianna go and turned toward me. I pulled the lighter out of my pocket and, as quickly as I could, I engaged it and pressed it to the still soaking man. He lit up like a Christmas tree.

  “Fuck!” He swung his arms and bounced around trying to put out the fire that was engulfing his body. A second later, he finally dropped hard down to the floor. He screamed and cried, and reached out and begged for help. Tiffany cried and Tatianna covered her eyes as I watched as he screamed, the skin on his face crackling and bubbling. The hair on his head singed off and the muscles in his arms were already showing from loss of skin.

  “What the fuck is going on!” Someone was banging on the door— a man.

  “Help!” the man on the floor screamed weakly. There was no way I was going to let anyone help him. I picked up one of the brooms from our supply and broke the wooden handle over my leg, the end was sharp and jagged, exactly what I was hoping
for. I stood over him and, with all the force I could muster, I brought the wooden stake down and shoved it straight through the soft part of his neck, his spine moving awkwardly to the side as the object plunged through to the other side. He stopped screaming.

  “Oh Shit! But a wah de blood-clath dis? Make we step!” Tiffany screamed and rushed over to me, trying to pull me toward the door.

  Someone was kicking at the door now. The bastard must have locked it. I turned my head to Tiffany and laughed slightly. “Girl, English!”

  She looked at me like I had lost my mind. I guess I had. Here I was laughing and everyone else was either freaking out or crying.

  “We gotta get out of here, Vexx!”

  Suddenly, the door boomed open to reveal Ripper, Clean, and Maven.

  “Oh shit!” Clean said and rushed to put out the still-burning man.

  Maven walked straight up to me and grabbed my shoulder hard, turning me toward her. “What the fuck happened here? Why in the shit is there a dead man burning in the middle of my fucking club locker room?” she screamed in my face.

  I pointed to Tatianna. “He was raping her. What the fuck would you have me do, sit back and watch?”

  Suddenly, everyone’s eyes were on her. The girl was bloody and bruised. She held onto the scraps of clothing she had left, trying desperately to cover her body.

  “Oh my God.” Maven forgot all about me and rushed over to where Tati was.

  “Hey, Rip, go get the smelling salts, man. Remy is out like a light.”

  Ripper ran out of the locker room and came back a few seconds later with a small tube. He waved it in front of Remy’s face and within a second, she came to.

  “Ugh, what, stop! Tati!” she screamed and got up to run to her sister. They embraced and hugged each other, crying and talking in Russian.

  I turned toward the door. Suddenly, I was feeling caged. I needed to get out. I needed to get on my bike. I needed to feel the wind in my hair.