by Erin Trejo
“That’s not our cut, brother,” Tic says as my eyes slide over his cut. Son of a bitch. I reach up and press the button on my ear piece.
“That’s Mouse shootin’. Not Soulless Bastards’ cut though.”
I hear cursing over the line before Declan comes in loud and clear. “I want him alive.”
Tic grunts and looks at me with a grin. “That should be easy enough,” he grumbles. “There ain’t thirty men with their guns aimed at him right now or anything.” I can’t help but laugh at that. It’s true. Pep’s boys are all standing there with guns aimed much like we are. Pep is one of the guys Declan has working at the warehouse.
“Hold your fire, Pep!” Declan roars from the other side of the warehouse. We all watch as he steps out, the rest of us following suit. When we all come into view, Mouse laughs hysterically.
“I knew you’d all be here!” he roars. I take a step closer when his eyes come to meet mine. They travel over my cut before he shakes his head.
“You got patched. I got shit on by these fuckers, but that didn’t stop me.” He nods at me.
“What do you want, Mouse? There’s nothin’ here for you,” I tell him trying to seem like the nice guy. I want his eyes on me so that the guys can move in.
“I wanted that patch you have on! I worked my ass off and got shit in return!” he growls.
I can see Dec motioning for the others to move around. “You didn’t do shit. You ran like a bitch, Mouse.” I antagonize him, keeping his eyes glued to mine.
“Oh, I didn’t? Well, maybe not with you guys, but my new crew seemed to like what I had to offer.” He chuckles looking down at the worn out cut he has on. That surely isn’t from any reputable club.
“That so? I don’t see your boys, Mouse. Where the fuck are they?” I take a step closer to him. He watches me intently before he opens his mouth again.
“My boys are off playin’ with your girls,” he says with a maniacal laugh. My eyes don’t stray from him. I keep them focused on him and only him. One false move and he could turn to see Dec and Mayhem getting ready to move in on him.
“I don’t think they are playin’ with anything that belongs to us,” I reply. His eyes flicker with something I can’t place. My chest tightens. Something is off, I can feel it.
“You sure about that?” he asks me in a harsh tone.
“Who you workin’ with?” I growl.
“Does the name Justin Murphy mean anything to you?”
Chapter 34
Cherry
“Ugh Brooke! This is the third store!” I whine as she drags me into another store.
“I know, but Kenderly wants pickle chips! I don’t even know what the hell a pickle chip is!” she yells, not at all happy about being out hunting things. We were told not to leave without one of the guys, but Kenderly was whining so much we didn’t have a choice. We walk up and down every damn isle of the grocery store before I spot a green bag.
“Brooke! Look! Dill flavored chips.” I grab the bag and throw them at her before grabbing the last five bags off the shelf.
“This is what she wants to eat? This looks disgusting. Why the hell would you make chips that taste like pickle? Why not eat the goddamn pickle!” She huffs making me laugh. We walk toward the front with our bags of chips.
“If I ever get pregnant, please don’t let me eat this shit,” I tell her laughing.
“Me either! Who would have thought little Kenderly would want this shit? She was on a health food kick for a while and now this.” She jiggles the bag in front of me while I laugh a little more. We set the bags on the counter and watch as the man that rings us up looks at us funny. I can’t even imagine what he must be thinking right now. We pass him the money and get our change, taking our bags of pickle chips as we walk out the front door. We head down the road when someone steps out from the alley, blocking our way.
“If you don’t scream, I won’t shoot,” the man says gruffly. I look at Brooke and the rage in her eyes doesn’t even surprise me.
“If you don’t shoot, I might kick your ass,” she tells him. Just as the words leave her mouth another person grabs her roughly, wrapping their arms around her. Her bags fall to the ground, her arms pinned. I stand there in a panic.
“Run, Cherry!” she screams but there is nowhere to go. I take one step and bile rises in my throat.
“Justin.” His name falls from my lips as he steps out of the shadow that was covering his face. He stands there looking proud of himself. My stomach drops.
“Nice to see you, sis,” he hisses between his teeth. My body instantly becomes rigid. My heart beats so loudly I can hear it in my ears. “Have you missed me?” He steps forward, running his finger along my jaw.
“Don’t touch her!” Brooke screams before I hear the crack.
“Don’t hurt her. You want me. Take me,” I beg Justin. He looks around me at Brooke before coming back to lock eyes with me.
“She isn’t my type. You are though, aren’t you Cherry?” His finger runs down my neck before stopping at my chest. Pulling roughly on my nipple, I cry. I don’t push his hand away because I don’t want to piss him off and risk Brooke getting hurt.
“Let her go, Justin. She won’t say anything,” I cry. Tears spill down my cheeks as I plead with him. He can’t hurt her.
“I know she won’t. At least not for a little while,” he says before nodding his head at the man holding Brooke. I turn in time to see the man stick a needle in the side of her neck and her eyes close slowly. Oh, God no!
“No! Brooke!” I turn and try to go to her but Justin grabs my arms. I fight him this time. I kick, I scream, I claw at him. His grip increases until I can feel the bruises forming on my skin, but I can’t stop.
“She’s not dead, you little bitch!” he growls in my ear.
I try to calm my anger, not wanting to give him anymore satisfaction than he’s already getting but when I see the other guy pulling Brooke’s body into the alley, I can’t stop. He can’t leave her there!
“No!” I scream and fight Justin some more.
“You want her to be next, Cherry? You want me to take her the way I do you?” he growls against my neck. I instantly stop fighting.
“That’s better. Now she will wake up in about twenty minutes with a headache from hell but she’ll live.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” I cry.
Justin spins me so I’m facing him, the look of pure anger etched across his face. “When I heard you didn’t die, I knew you were the one. I knew I found what I needed in a woman.”
What the hell is he talking about?
“You’re insane.” I grit my teeth and hiss at him. His friend comes out of the alley and nods at him.
“You see, your little boyfriend can’t save you this time, Cherry. He is meeting his own fate.”
A lump forms in my throat. No way does he have Nuts. That isn’t possible.
“Liar!” I scream.
His lips crash into mine trying to quiet my screams. His teeth sink into my lips as the taste of blood fills my mouth. When I he pulls back, he licks the blood from his own lip with a smile. The sick fuck is enjoying this way too much.
“No. I didn’t lie. Although there was a tiny lie involved in our lives, this wasn’t it.”
I look at him confused by what he’s saying. I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about.
“Let me go, Justin. If you care about me, you will let me go.” I try to reason with him but it does no good.
“Care about you? Oh, Cherry. I fucking hate you. Don’t you understand that? All of this was for your mom. It was all because of her.”
My mom? What does he mean?
“She’s our mom,” I say softly. Justin laughs as he drags me toward a car. I no longer fight as hard as I once had as I try to figure out what he meant.
“No. She was your mom. She wasn’t mine. Never was. She played that role well, didn’t she? Not even you suspected we weren’t related,” he says nearly laughing.
He
isn’t my brother? What the hell is going on? I don’t understand any of this. Justin shoves me roughly into the back of the car and climbs in behind me.
“I don’t understand,” I say softly trying to figure this out. The other guy climbs in the front and starts driving as Justin’s death grip stays on my arm. My heart is sinking by the second.
“You never understand anything, Cherry. Just wait. You will. You will see it all for yourself and why I fucking hate you,” he growls.
I sit in the seat with his hands digging into my skin trying to rationalize what he’s been saying, but I come up blank every time. None of this makes sense. He’s not my real brother? Who the hell is he? Why would my mom lie and say he was my brother this whole time?
Chapter 35
Nuts
His name burns its way through my body like a never-ending inferno. There are so many things rushing through me right now that I can barely see straight.
“One thing happens to her, you’re a dead man,” I growl.
Declan motions for Mayhem and Tic to move but it’s Ruger who moves first. His fist connects with the back of Mouse’s head, snapping it forward before he falls to the ground. We all look to Ruger, but he just grunts and shrugs. “He’ll wake up later.”
Pep steps out of the warehouse and gazes down at Mouse. “The fuck is all that?” He points his gun at the bullshit patches on his back. We all step closer and look down before Declan laughs.
“That’s bullshit, that’s what that is. That ain’t shit. It’s fake.” He laughs a little louder.
I pull my phone out and dial Cherry, but I get nothing. She doesn’t answer. She always answers her phone. If she doesn’t, something is wrong. I keep redialing hoping she will pick up while the guys all laugh at the patches on Mouse.
“He wasn’t playin’ about the girls,” I say loud enough that they all hear me. My body becomes a machine. A machine that could kill at the drop of a dime.
“What do you mean?” Mayhem asks stepping up next to me.
“I mean, Cherry isn’t answerin’ her phone!” I growl looking to Mouse. I want to snap his fucking neck. I want to kill him with my bare hands but not before I know where she is.
“Fuck!” Mayhem roars pulling his cell out. He dials it and holds it to his ear.
“Baby? You okay? Everything good there?” I can hear him talking so Taylor must have answered.
“All the girls there?” he asks. There’s a pause as I stare down at that bastard. “Where? Fuck!” Mayhem roars.
I can hear him talking, but I’ve blocked out all noise. I can’t hear shit except the sound of my own heart beating. It’s wild and unnatural. My mind goes in a direction that it never has before. I know I can kill if needed, but the thoughts that are surrounding me right now are not normal. Blood. Death. Carnage. That’s what I can see. I can feel it. Damn near taste it on the tip of my tongue. Cherry is mine, and if that motherfucker did anything to hurt her again, that’s all he will see. He will see me rip his world apart and toss it into the fiery pits of hell.
“Nuts!” Someone screaming my name and shaking me pulls me back to reality. I look up at Mayhem and see the fire in his eyes. “Brooke and Cherry went to the store and never came back.”
I don’t move. My face is void of emotion as I nod my head.
“Oh fuck. He’s gonna snap,” Mayhem says running his hand through his hair.
“He in shock?” Dec asks.
Mayhem shakes his head and tells him, “Hell no. Nuts is about to snap. I know that goddamn look. It’s the look Smokey and them southern Bastards get when they wanna kill, brother. That ain’t a good look.”
I listen to the words leaving his mouth, but they don’t make sense. All that I know is whoever has her will pay for touching her. Justin is going to die, and I’m going to be the motherfucker that kills him.
“Don’t talk shit about us southern Bastards. We might be a little more hardcore than you guys but damn,” Ruger grunts next to Mayhem. All Mayhem can do is laugh.
“Round this shit up. Get this motherfucker and let’s get back. Sorry, Pep. We gotta go,” Declan tells him.
Pep nods before glancing around. “You need backup, gimme a call, man. We got you.” Declan nods before Tic drags Mouse’s unconscious body toward the van. I walk in silence letting that motherfucker’s murder play out in my mind.
I know they all think I’m losing it, but I’m not. In fact, I’m zoning in, not out. I’m plotting a fucking murder in my head. I’m going to make my woman’s life that much easier. She will be able to sleep at night without worrying about that son of a bitch coming near her or touching her ever again. I climb on my bike when Dec grabs my arm.
“In the van, Nuts,” he says. I jerk my head around to look at him. He must be able to see the deadly glint in my eyes.
“Now, motherfucker! That’s a goddamn order!” he snaps. My lips curl into a sinister grin as I climb back off.
“You orderin’ me, Prez?” I step up in his face, ready to throw down if it comes to it. This new Nuts is one I’m not familiar with. The feelings that are working their way through my body are nothing I’ve ever felt before.
“You’re pissed. You want blood. You want death in your hands, brother. I know that feelin’ all too well. Dec’s right. Ridin’ might not be the best of ideas for you right now. Trust me when I say that he’s doin’ you a favor. You want that blood on your hands, I’ll help you get it.” Ruger’s voice makes its way to me. Declan stares me down, not backing down from me either, but it’s Ruger’s words that hit me. I nod my head slowly before walking over and climbing in the van. My hands shake in my lap where I laid them. This isn’t going to end well for Justin.
Chapter 36
Cherry
“Don’t put your hands on me!” I fight him. If I’m going down, it’s not without a fight. I’ve let him hurt me in more ways than one in the past, but that time is over. He wants me to roll over and give in, he’s got another thing coming. Maybe at one point in my life, I have done just that because I had nothing more to live for. Now I have Nuts. I won’t let him down.
“Shut the fuck up, Cherry. You used to beg me to touch you,” Justin growls as he forces me into the front door. This house is huge, and I find myself wondering what the fuck he did to get here. Who he had to kill to use this place. No one in their right mind would let him near anything this nice.
“I never begged you for shit but to stop. Why do you hate me so much? What did I do to you?” I kick my feet hoping like hell to connect with his balls but he has me too tightly. With my back pressed into his chest, I do the best I can. Justin nods at another guy to open the door in front of us. When he steps in another voice vibrates through the room. This one holds more authority than anyone I’ve ever heard before.
“Let her go.” It booms through the room.
Justin leans in, pressing his lips close to my ear. “I hated you because you were you. I knew who you were. I knew what you could be if you knew who your father was. I fucking hated you for that. You had everything you wanted on a fucking pedestal just waiting for the right time to be dropped into your lap.”
“Justin, I said let her go!”
“Gladly,” Justin mumbles, shoving me roughly onto the floor.
My hands and knees smack hard before I say, “Asshole.”
“You can wait outside, Justin,” the man says.
I don’t know why, but I feel oddly comfortable with this man. I look up and see his eyes on me. He’s an older man, maybe in his sixties. He has greying hair and mustache but those eyes of his are so alluring.
“Are you okay?” he asks me.
I shove to my feet and definitely hold my head high. I don’t want him to see me as weak. “I’m fine. Can you tell me what the hell is going on?” I snap.
The man smiles as he takes me in, his old worn eyes wrinkling at the sides.
“You are a little spit fire, aren’t you?” he says.
My stomach tightens thinking of all the
things Justin must have told him. “Who are you? What do you want with me?” I ask trying to calm my tone because for whatever reason, I don’t feel threatened by this man.
“My name is Greg Pentum. I knew your mother many years ago.”
Shit… fuck. Great, he knew my whore of a mother. What did she do? Steal from him?
“If she stole something from you, I don’t know anything about it. Clearly she didn’t keep it around our apartment,” I tell him truthfully. We lived in shit. We didn’t have nice things. Never did.
“She stole something that couldn’t have a value attached to it,” he says sadly.
“Look, I don’t know what is going on here, but I want to go home and not with Justin.”
Greg looks at me intently before he says, “Justin. Has he ever hurt you?”
Seriously? Who is this fuck? How can Justin be working for him and he have no clue what the hell has been going on right under his nose?
“I’m not telling you shit.” I cross my arms over my chest. I hardly think that I’m going to tell my life story to a stranger that had me kidnapped.
“I can make him go away. Disappear.”
I jerk my eyes back to him now that he said that. My heart beats a little harder. Justin deserves nothing less.
“Who are you and what do you want with me?” I ask once more.
The man shoves out of the chair he’d been sitting in and walks toward me. He has a slight limp but that doesn’t make him look any less powerful. In fact, it only intensifies it.
“If I tell you who I am, will you tell me if Justin has done something?” He stands in front of me, taller than me. He has to be at least six feet tall. I nod my head somehow feeling calmer in his presence.
“I am your father, Cherry. Your mother took you away from me many years ago.”
I gasp. My mouth hangs open. No one knew who my dad was. They all know my mom was a whore. I shake my head and back away from him in shock.
“She was a whore. Not even Blu knew who my dad was.” At the mention of Blu’s name, the old man’s eyes soften.
