“Yeah, Viper. But we’re a little different. We know how to throw a party, even if the one it’s for is a tyke.” He nods, holding onto my hand tighter as we continue to go through the crowd of bikers.
My other arm is grabbed forcefully, yanking me in another direction as Junior is pulling me the opposite way. “I almost did not recognize you.” Ksenia’s voice is not as I remember. She sounds stronger now, like her will has been rebuilt. She has always been such a little dove, it is her nickname. Our little broken dove. Maybe she is not so broken anymore.
“I needed a change. It is time for that, yes?” I ask her, Junior stops tugging on my arm, and I feel the pressure go limp almost as strongly as I can feel his eyes on me.
“You will never change, we both know of this,” she grumbles, glancing around the crowd. I wonder who it is she is looking for, and it takes me a mere moment to realize she is probably looking for Dmitri.
“All I have done is change, through our entire lives. I have changed myself into what I needed to be to keep us alive. Do you not see that?” Ksenia’s eyes go wide at my statement.
“No, you did not do what just needed to be done. You turned into a cold, hateful woman who is selfish and only does what she wants. You do not get to say that you have done things for me, or for us. You have done them for you and yourself only.”
My sister may be being a rude bitch to me right now, but I would lie to say I am not proud of her. She has come a long way from being the girl who barely uttered a word to anyone else. Now she has balls, speaking her mind – even if she does not know what she is saying.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I tell her, and she doesn’t. She does not truly know the meaning behind anything that I have done. At the end of the day I have always put her best interests in front of my own, even now. It is how she ended up here in the first place.
“What do you mean by that?” She tugs my arm as Junior releases me, and suddenly we are walking towards the back door of the club and we’re in the back hallway, slowly going further past a few people until we reach the back part of their communal area. I glance behind me and see he is right there, never allowing me too far out of his grasp. “You did not answer me. What did you mean by it!?”
“Why do you think you are here, Ksenia? Did you really think I did not know Dmitri was here?” I ask her, waiting for her to finally understand what I did. I didn’t put her in that container for no reason. Every bit of it was planned.
“No,” she mutters, shaking her head.
“Da,” I tell her.
Deep down I know that my dear sister does not view me as this awful person, this monster. I only do what is needed, that is all I have ever done. When I discovered that Dmitri was here I made sure to do everything that I could. She wasn’t happy in the life we had been living. I didn’t even know if she would be happy in this one. There was no way of knowing, but still I made sure she got here. I knew that there was this small chance that she could have the life she finally wanted, and I was willing to place bets that she would be happier with Dmitri than with me.
“I wanted you to be happy. I have always wanted that for you, and if you were not with me, then maybe you would not be a prisoner any longer. So, I made sure you got here. I knew that Dmitri would take care of you.” I did, and he has. I can see it very clearly.
Ksenia and I stare at one another; it’s as if the room goes silent around us. Maybe neither of us knows what to say. I don’t. “I always have put you first. You do not get to stand here and act like I am this monster that you and Dmitri have painted me to be. Not any more, not when I am the one who has made all the sacrifices so that you wouldn’t have to. I was the one who did what needed to be done when the time came, so they wouldn’t touch a hair on your pretty little head. It was me who fucked men, so we would stay safe. I was the one who got close to Sergei, so he wouldn’t sell us when he grew tired of us both. It was always me. I have done nothing but protect you, and all you have ever done is refused to see that. Why? Why do you want to believe I am as awful as she was? Do you really think I am our mother?” I ask her because it is like she thinks I am her, like I am the woman who sold us.
I have done questionable, terrible things to keep Ksenia and I out of harm’s way. But there is a significant difference in what I have done and what my mother did.
“I thought I told you to not come back here,” Dmitri’s voice growls from a few feet away. I see his girlfriend, Jenna right next to him. I must have been so caught up in my conversation with Ksenia that I did not take in my surroundings. That rarely happens. If this was business I would have been shot.
“I have never been much of a good listener. I also do not give up easily, especially when us talking is a necessity. This is not a luxury. You will not tell me no. We must talk, and now. Time is being wasted each time you try to argue with me about this, Dmitri.” He stares me down, eyes darting from side to side as he measures me up. In this moment, he reminds me of our father. His mannerisms are almost the same.
“I’m not gonna stand here and listen to the bullshit spewing from your fucking mouth. You’re a snake. You can’t be trusted.”
“And you can?” I scoff, laughing. “I would not be here arguing with you if I did not have to be. It is no secret that you and Ksenia do not appreciate my presence, and if this wasn’t a life or death circumstance, I would be thousands of miles away from here.”
“All you do is lie, we both know this, which is exactly why we aren’t too keen on you being around,” Dmitri snaps, glaring at me and then to Junior who is right against my back. I can feel his hands on my hips, a protective move that I appreciate. “What the fuck? Are you two a thing now?”
“You can bet your ass we are,” Junior tells my brother, and I can almost see the grin he’s wearing, like I have eyes in the back of my head.
“I should’ve guessed. You two couldn’t be a more perfect pair. The motherfucker who said shit to my kotenok and my evil little sister.”
“Misery loves company.” If my brother wanted to be a dick, I would play along. No matter what, he will always view me in this light, and it is better if I accept this now. Dmitri doesn’t have to like me, he just needs to listen to me.
“Who in the fuck?” I hear one of the men say, peering out of the front windows. Suddenly, everyone has gone to them, looking out through the glass. I can’t see much from this far away. When the doors come crashing open, men running in with guns raised, I don’t know what to think. That is, until I see Ion Petran walking through with my sister. Even they both have guns raised, aimed at any man who dare try take a shot at them.
“I told you I would call later,” I tell Mariana, who smirks back at me.
“You were taking too long, and to be honest, I was growing impatient. It looks like you needed a little extra backup.” She glances around the room, taking in man after man. There is no way that she has enough men with her to help even if shit did go down, but then I realize, I am wrong as I hear cars screeching into the parking lot and see men start to pour in the club, guns raised, ready for war.
Just when I thought that nothing else shocking could happen, the back-door swings open, and in a man comes, charging like a raging bull.
“You motherfucker.” I know the man who is hissing at my brother, it is none other than Reed, the Prez of the Skulls Renegade MC. “You fucking piece of shit motherfucker. Why’d you do it, huh? Why’d you fucking do it?” Reed’s voice roars the few feet until he is on my brother, pounding his fist into every part of his body that he can. Junior grabs both me and Ksenia, ripping us back with him until we are a few feet out of the way, then he goes back for Jenna who kicks at him until he just lets her go.
“Reed, stop!” Jenna screams, running towards both Dmitri and Reed. Reed slams his fist into Dmitri’s face, and while Jenna grabs his arm, he flings his hand around and slaps her so loud that you can hear it echo through the entire room.
Reed startles for a moment. I think he is shocked in
what he just did, never did I think that Reed would be the type to slap a woman. When I met him the first time I did not even think he was the type who would purchase them, but here we are, and he has purchased many.
Dmitri quickly comes to his feet, looking at Jenna and glares at Reed with such ferociousness that I have never imagined him capable of. I think my brother is going to kill him. I blink, and within that split second, Reed is slammed against a wall. I can hear the glass of a picture cracking behind him, watching as Dmitri plummets into him over and over again.
“Why the fuck did you kill my Dad?” Reed roars before Dmitri’s fist meets his nose.
Jenna stands there in pure shock, and the rest of us aren’t far behind her.
CHAPTER 27
“I pushed everyone else away because they weren’t you,” -Anonymous
Slasher
There is no way in fuckin’ hell that I just heard him right. I must be dreaming or some shit. No fucking way.
“You piece of fucking shit. I want to know why you did it, why did you put that blade in his chest?” Reed is screaming at Dmitri like a wild fucking animal. I have seen Reed pissed, furious at times, but this is something else entirely. It’s like he’s lost all sense of control.
“Yo, brother. Take a step back.” I don’t like Dmitri one fucking bit. He and I have butted heads too many times to be anything close to friends, but what Reed just did crosses the line. He hit a fucking woman, and he didn’t just hit any woman, he hit Jenna. I swear, if he had laid a hand on Viper, he wouldn’t be breathing right now.
“Stay out of this, Slasher,” Reed snarls back at me, and I watch Dmitri’s expression. He has mastered the poker face; no one could read the man if they even tried.
“I suggest you back away from my brother before I shoot your over heating head off your shoulders,” Mariana pipes up, gun raised and pointed at Reed, confident and determined with every word. It’s not hard to see that Katya and she are related – the women are both so incredibly strong. It truly amazes me.
Katya’s flat expression grows into a smirk. There’s no doubt that she is thinking exactly what I am right now.
Reed moves his hand over his gun. Ion catching the movement and speaking “Don’t even try. Before you even lift it up, I’ll have a bullet through your brain.”
“You really want to threaten me, asshole?” Reeds voice goes dark and his eyes simmer through the room, signaling every single one of us that shit is about to go down. Just like clockwork guns are drawn and pointed at each other. I keep my eye on everyone in the room, expecting someone to pull a trigger at a moment’s notice. I’m doing everything in my power to stay quick on my feet and protect Katya, who knows what is going to happen.
The back-door flies open, and guns head towards the direction. I see Seamus and Daisy, with Ryder in her arms, and Elena start to come in before he snaps at them. “Get the fuck out of here!”
Seamus hauls ass towards us, gun raised, pointed towards the one person who means more to me than anyone else. I don’t think, and I don’t have to. Instinct takes control over my entire fucking body. I pull out my gun and point it at the bastard himself. No one fucks with my girl, not even a man who I had called a brother.
There is brotherhood, and then there is family. I know what she is to me, I just wonder if they realize it yet. “Whose side are you on, Slash? Ours or theirs?” Reed asks me, I glance to him quickly before looking back to Seamus. I don’t have to answer him. I don’t even belong to this fucking club.
“I will give you one mother fucking minute to think about what you’re doing. If you ever want to be part of this club, you’d better aim that gun in the other direction,” he continues, making me confident in my decision. Fuck them.
“Tell Seamus to put his gun down,” I hiss out to Reed while glaring at Seamus. If he so much as even breathes in the wrong direction, a bullet is headed straight for his big ass fucking head.
“Why would I tell him to do that when we all know this bitch is our enemy?”
“Say it again, motherfucker,” I growl out.
“This is such a waste of time,” Mariana mutters right before Dmitri takes advantage of the situation we have in front of us and slams his fist into the side of Reed’s face. You can hear a loud popping sound as Reed sways from left to right, spitting out a tooth on the floor.
Jenna walks over to Dmitri, tugging on his arm, and he surveys her, looking over her reddened face quickly he turns back to Reed. “The only reason you are not dead is because of everything you have done for Elena. Do not mistake this as weakness.”
“We’re leaving. Now,” Mariana spits out, looking to me, Katya, Dmitri, and Jenna, and lastly her eyes survey over Ksenia.
“If you leave, I will hunt you all down to the ends of the earth, especially you; you traitorous asshole,” Reed looks to me, then to Dmitri, “and you, I have some special fucking shit planned for you.”
“I dare you to try,” Mariana challenges him. “Your little club will be nothing more than a figment of someone’s imagination. People will no longer remember the Skulls Renegade. I will obliterate you all and make it look as if you never existed, wiping your club from history.”
Reed stands there, staring her down. “Get in the cars. Now!” Mariana orders, and I grab Katya while Dmitri takes Jenna and grabs Ksenia’s arm.
Quickly, we each get into blacked out SUVs. I don’t pay attention to who goes where. The only thing that matters right now is that Katya is safe. It may be selfish of me, but she is the only thing I am concerned about right now.
We settle back into the leather seats of the SUV as we drive further away from the Skulls Renegade MC, a club that I had called my home away from home. “I am sorry, I did not expect anything to go as it did,” Katya tells me, looking up to me with glossy eyes. “I know how important they are to you, you may not say it, but I know it deep in my heart. I feel like you will never have them in your life ever again. I am so sorry.”
The woman next to me starts to cry, something I have never seen her do. She covers her face, hiding her tears from me as she hiccups softly. “Baby, I never once felt like I was a Skull. I’ve always felt like a guest in their club. Truly, I couldn’t give two shits if I never see any of them again.” Lie. The only two people I care about are Butch and Bellamy, I can only guess that they weren’t around to see the shit that went down because he’s with her on tour right now.
“I feel like I have taken your family from you. I made you choose.”
“No, baby. You are my family.”
CHAPTER 28
People are more what they hide than what they show. -Quotes ‘nd Notes
Katya
We rode in the car for hours upon hours, and after a while, I fell asleep in the comfort of Junior’s arms. Eventually, I woke up to him lifting me out of the car and walking me up to a huge house.
“Where are we?” I ask him, he looks down at me and smiles.
“You never can rest for long. We’re in Tennessee. From the looks of it, they had the drivers go around in multiple directions for hours in case anyone was following us. We’re just about sixty miles south of Nashville. I did my share of watching, and it seems we’re the only house around for miles.”
Junior walks me into the house, slowly setting me down I stand on my feet and look around the foyer. The entire inside is covered in beige and earthy tones. Open space surrounds us, giving us a look at a living room, dining room, and study. This place is grand yet holds a level of comfort with the plush furniture that fills the rooms. This isn’t just a home, it’s a family home.
“I had purchased this incase Dmitri and Ksenia wanted to stay in Gainesville, then at least we could be close to them if need be. Now, it seems like a safehouse of sorts. Funny how that worked out,” Mariana comments, holding a glass of red wine.
“I didn’t exactly expect things to work out this way,” I tell her, and it is nothing but the truth. The last thing that I expected was for us to be in this situatio
n, to find out that Dmitri had killed Reed and Kyle Michaels’ father. Mind blown couldn’t describe how I felt in that moment. Caught off guard was more like it.
As I look around, I can see that I was not the first to arrive, Dmitri appears from a corner with Jenna glued to his hip, and Ksenia is standing a few feet away in the distance. “Did you do it?” I ask him, my curiosity getting the best of me.
Dmitri simply nods, knowing that he does not have to explain. I do not expect him to do such a thing.
“Then, you had a reason,” Junior says clearly, staring at my brother. He is right. I may not have been close with my brother over the years for obvious reasons, but I do know his character. Dmitri is not a man who kills in cold blood, there must have been a reason and that is what intrigues me. What exactly was his reasoning behind it?
“What did he do to her?” Junior asks Dmitri, acting as if he knows more than I. Surely, he would have said something to me. “You aren’t the type to just kill a motherfucker unless your Prez orders it and seeing as Reed didn’t tell you to kill his Pops, I’m just wondering what he did to Jenna.”
What he’s assuming makes sense. I wonder if there is anything behind it, if maybe Junior is right.
“That’s a lot of ugly history that we don’t need to go into detail about,” Jenna pipes up, staring each of us in the eyes as she speaks. Whatever it is, she doesn’t want to deal her hand out to the rest of us just yet. I’m sure with trust, we will all learn more about one another. It’s no matter, we have bigger fish to fry. In all honesty, Reed Michaels is the least of our problems. I know that we all took part in the start of a war today, however, he is a small fish compared to our uncle.
I just hope that we are strong enough to destroy both of our enemies. First, we will work on my dear uncle, Valentin, and then see what to do with Reed. I have never liked the man much, but something tells me that this won’t be simple. Nothing about any of this is going to be simple.
“It’s been a long day. We should all get some much-needed rest and talk about things in the morning,” Ion says to the group of us.
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