When I shook my head, he jerked the gun from me as he backhanded me, and I stumbled across the kitchen. Landing on my butt with a thud, I sniffled.
“Fucking pussy. See what you’re raising?” He advanced on my Mama and held the gun to her head. My breath caught, and I froze.
“Giles, please,” my mama begged.
Suddenly, he started laughing loud. He pulled the trigger, and it clicked but nothing happened. “Boom,” he whispered, and a tear slipped from my eye.
“My boy is going to be a man, not a pussy like your bastard of a father,” he said to her before he walked out the door and we heard his motorcycle start up and drive off.
Mama dropped to her knees and walked on them to me. She gathered me in her arms, and I cried like a baby.
“I’m so sorry, Mama. I’m so sorry,” I said over and over.
“Shh, don’t. It’s okay, Ogun. It wasn’t your fault. Go to your room. Okay?” She smoothed my hair and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. I nodded and got up on shaky legs to do as she said. As I got to my door, she called down the hall, “I love you, Ogun.”
“Love you too, Mama.” I spent the rest of the day curled up on my bed with my ratty bear that I kept hidden between my bed and the wall. Papa said it was for babies, so I didn’t let him see it. Mama had gotten it out of the trash the last time he threw it away and told me to keep him safe.
That next night, as my father was at his clubhouse doing God knew what, my grandfather who I’d seen very little of in my six years came to our home. He was a huge man, with a thick dark beard streaked with gray.
“Ogun, you’re going to go far away with your mama. You’ll be safe, but I need you to promise me you’ll take good care of your mama, you hear?” he said as he crouched in front of me.
Nodding, I looked up at him through my long bangs. “Yes, sir,” I said softly.
“Good boy.” He stood and patted my head.
We got in the back seat of my grandmother’s car. Mama lay on the seat, and I crouched on the floor.
“Mama? You’re not bleeding,” I said, confused. She sucked in a breath at the same time my grandmother did.
“Not everything you see will come to pass, sweet boy,” my grandmother said, looking in the rearview mirror at me as I peeked over the seat. “Some things can be changed if you make the right choices. Never forget—Love always wins. Remember that, my boy. Over it all, love wins.”
At the time, I had no idea what that meant.
It would be years before I understood.
“Voodoo”—Godsmack
Approximately Twenty-Two Years Later…
“I know what you saw, boy. But you remember what I always told you.” My grandmother’s voice carried strong and powerfully over the phone line.
“Yes, I know, but I’ve seen it repeatedly, Granmè. I don’t like it.” My hand ran roughly through my hair.
“I’m being careful, and Jameson, that beau diable, has been checking on me. He even brought that pretty Sadie girl with him last time. I like her. She has a good soul, but she still carries a pain deep within her. They’re good for each other. They will heal each other. You will have that one day,” she said with certainty. I snorted in disbelief.
“Yeah, right.” Zaka nudged his cold nose into my hand, and I glanced down at him. As I listen to my grandmother go on about her need for great-grandbabies, I stroked his thick, black fur. Another call chimed in, and I pulled the phone from my head to see who it was.
Seeing Raptor’s name on my screen, I told her, “I have to go, Granmè.”
It was her turn to snort. “You’ll see, I’m right.”
“Love you,” I said, laughing. She replied in kind and we ended the call.
“Voodoo,” I answered.
“Venom wants you at the clubhouse.” His abrupt instruction caused me to roll my eyes.
“Would it kill you to say hello or acknowledge me before you bark out orders?” I grinned as I fucked with my VP.
He growled. “Get your ass over here. Church in thirty minutes.”
Chuckling, I shoved my phone in my pocket. He’d hung up as soon as he’d finished talking. He wasn’t an asshole; he just didn’t have a lot to say over the phone. He hated them.
“Sorry, Zaka. I gotta go. You guard,” I said as I ruffled his fur and grabbed the doorknob. He lay on the floor with his head on his paws, staring balefully at me. “You’re pathetic,” I mumbled with a hint of a smile to my lips.
Settling on my bike, I slid my shades on and scanned the neighborhood. It was a nice but unassuming neighborhood in Ankeny, Iowa—the heart of the country and home to the Royal Bastards MC in this neck of the woods.
Something deep in my soul missed the bayous of Louisiana, even though I’d only lived there for the first six years of my life. But this was home, and I truly wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
The ride to the clubhouse didn’t take long, and I was thankful to see I wasn’t the last one there. The last one into church had to clean the shitters. After the party we had the night before, I’d fucking pass.
“Voodoo, you freaky sonofabitch. How’s it hanging?” Silver called out as I stepped into the dimly lit clubhouse.
Surprise hit me, because we hadn’t been notified he was coming. He grabbed me in a tight embrace and patted my back as his giant of a prospect stood behind him silently watching everything. Prospects didn’t join in church, so he’d be waiting outside the door when we went into the chapel.
Silver was the VP from our Detroit chapter. He called me freaky because of my beliefs, but rumor had it, he was certainly no angel.
“Hey, Silver. It’s all good. What the hell are you doing down here?” I asked him as we stepped back and took seats at the large table. His smile dropped, and he looked over his shoulder at Venom.
“We’re gonna discuss that in a minute, Voodoo. Where the fuck are Angel and Ghost?” Venom had barely gotten his question out when there was the sound of running feet. Angel and Ghost both slammed into the doorframe as they tried to burst through the door at the same time.
Ghost shoved at Angel and darted forward, tumbling into the nearest free seat. With a smug smile, he crossed his arms and gloated. “Angel’s cleaning the shitters.”
“Fuck you. You tripped me when I got off my bike, you asshole,” Angel grumbled.
“No rules. So all’s fair.” Ghost gave him a smart-ass look. Angel glared at him as he tossed his phone in the basket outside the door with the rest of them. Ghost tossed his phone to Angel, who caught it midair. “Be a sweetie.”
Angel flipped him off but tossed his phone in with the rest and closed the door.
“If you two don’t knock your shit off and sit down, I’m gonna kick your goddamn asses.” Venom growled. I tried not to smile as Ghost and Angel immediately calmed and sat quietly. No one wanted to push Venom too far and piss him off. It never ended well.
“Sorry, boss,” Angel said as he pouted from his chair. Dark hair fell in his eyes, and he glowered.
“Now that you’re all finally here, Silver has an offer for us. Listen up.” Venom gave the floor to Silver, who’d been silently stroking his heavily graying beard.
“Thanks, brother,” he said to Venom as he met each of our gazes one by one. “Due to the delicate nature of this request, it was unwise for us to relay it over open lines. We had a job request from Lorenzo De Luca. As I’m sure you know, he has retired to Texas, and his son Gabriel has taken the reins.” We nodded, as this wasn’t news. Lorenzo De Luca had been the head of the Sicilian mafia in Chicago until he’d retired. He’d been ruthless, but shrewd. His son Gabriel was no pushover, but from what we’d heard through the grapevine, he wasn’t as brutal as his father had been.
Silver continued. “He told us he has a job that he wants us to handle. One that he knows Gabriel will never approve of. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I can guess it has something to do with his youngest son being killed last month.”
The death of De Luca’s youngest son had
made national news. There wasn’t a soul in our world who didn’t realize it was no accident.
“No disrespect, but what does that have to do with us down here?” Raptor questioned.
“The job involves a disposal and cleanup. Since that’s your specialty and the job is in your backyard, that’s why I’m here. He reached out to us specifically because of our history with them. We said we’d talk to you to see if you were interested, then let him contact you directly if that was the case. He said to tell you the compensation would be worth your while.”
Raptor met Venom’s gaze, and the silent communication that went on between them wasn’t lost on us. None of us liked that Lorenzo De Luca had a job that was in our area, because the possible ramifications to that were endless.
Kicker raised a brow and stroked his red-and-gray beard. As our treasurer, he collected the money at our businesses and double-checked the books. Money was his language.
“We’ll put it to the vote. I’ll make a motion to talk to De Luca,” Venom announced.
“I second that motion,” replied Chains.
“All in favor of talking to Lorenzo De Luca?” It was a unanimous vote. Though I had a bad feeling about this whole thing, it didn’t hurt to see what the guy wanted. Especially if the pay was as good as Silver was hinting at.
Raptor cleared his throat. “One other thing I need to mention is that the Bloody Scorpions have been nosing around in our area.”
“What the fuck? They know they don’t come up here.” Venom’s eyes flashed, and he growled in anger.
“Don’t know. They don’t seem to be doing anything, just riding through.” Raptor leaned to the side in his chair, throwing an arm across the back.
“Everyone keep an eye out. You see them anywhere, you phone in immediately. We’ll chase their asses all the way back to South Des Moines if we have to,” Venom stated. Everyone agreed.
“You sticking around for the party tonight?” Venom asked Silver, who grinned and nodded.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” he replied. “If you guys need any help with the Scorpions, you know we’d be here in a heartbeat.”
“I sure appreciate that, Silver,” Venom said. “Anyone got anything else? Or can we go get ready to party?”
Everyone around the table cheered for partying.
“Sure you’re gonna be able to hang, old man?” Raptor teased. Silver was out of his seat in the blink of an eye, reaching across the table for Raptor’s shirt. Venom’s hand made a cracking noise as he slapped it around Silver’s wrist to stop him. With his hands clenched, eyes narrowed, and nostrils flaring, Silver breathed heavily.
“Bro—it was a joke. Easy,” Venom said quietly. He was a bit of an empath, to the point that he could calm someone by touching them. It was a little unnerving at times, but who was I to judge, considering my own abilities. He let go of Silver’s wrist and sat in his seat.
“Seriously, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Raptor agreed, but I could tell he was ready to come unglued at a moment’s notice. Those crazy amber eyes damn near glowed.
“My apologies,” Silver said, but his jaw continued to tick. Slowly, he relaxed.
“We good, boys?” Venom asked. Though he appeared to be letting Raptor and Silver handle shit, I didn’t miss the way he was ready to jump out of his chair again if need be.
“Yeah, it’s all good,” Silver grudgingly offered.
Venom gave Raptor an exasperated stare that clearly said he should’ve known better. Silver was a dude who would beat the fuck out of someone for calling him “old.” Seriously, he was that sensitive about it, and we all knew it.
After Raptor shrugged in chagrin, Venom called an end to church. He and a now calm Silver sat at the table, catching up. Things had been a little tense for a minute, and I’d worried that as my chapter’s enforcer, I’d need to step in. It went against our code to lay hands on a brother without due cause, but we were all guilty of being a little edgy at times.
I pulled Shank, our SAA, to the side. “Hey bro, I need to take off for a bit, but I’ll be back tonight. You need anything before I go? I don’t want to interrupt while they’re talking.” I motioned to where Venom was laughing with Silver.
“Where you off to?” His dark eyes met mine as he pulled out his smokes and walked with me to the door. Once we were outside, he lit up and took a deep drag. The wrinkles on his face spoke of years in the sun.
“Got a vet appointment for Zaka. Shouldn’t take long.” I pulled my shades out of my inner pocket.
Shank nodded. “Hawk and your mama gonna come to the party tonight before they head down south?”
Shank was one of the older members and had been a prospect when Hawk, the man I called my dad, was a young member of the Ankeny chapter. Shank was a mean sonofabitch, but a loyal as hell brother.
“I doubt it. He and Mama were supposed to leave tonight for New Orleans; that’s why he was excused from church. His truck was acting up. Now they’re supposed to be leaving in the morning so they can check on Granmè and visit with the boys down there,” I told him. He nodded to me as he blew out a cloud of smoke.
“Well, I’ll sure as hell miss him, and I know everyone else will too,” he said. My dad had been a member of the club since he was twenty-two and fresh out of the army. That was another reason I’d joined. It made it a bit of a family tradition. Hawk was VP for several years, and only recently stepped down to “let the younger guys run shit,” as he put it. The Royal Bastards were family, though and they’d probably always be that way for all of us.
By the time Mom and I got up to Iowa, Hawk was about twenty-five. It didn’t take long for romance to blossom between the two of them, but he’d already stepped up and, along with the other members, was more of a father figure than my own had been for the first six years of my life.
“You have any idea what it is De Luca wants with us?” he asked me quietly as he took another drag on his smoke.
“None,” I said with resignation.
“I guess we’ll wait and see. You better get going. Catch you tonight,” he said as he blew out the next cloud in a series of rings.
Giving him a chin lift, I walked to my bike, slid the shades on, and roared out of the lot with a wave to the brothers who were outside. The trip home took a bit longer than the way there because I got stuck behind a truck going slow as fuck.
Finally, I arrived at my house. Since I had to cage it to get Zaka to the vet, I pulled my bike into the garage. Zaka was raising hell when I shut the bike off. He recognized the sound of all of my vehicles and was always tripping out when I got home. If it was anyone else, he was quiet and stealthy until he knew if the person was friend or foe.
A giant, black, furry form barreled into me as soon as I stepped inside, head shoving into my stomach. “Sit,” I said firmly, and he immediately dropped to his haunches.
Dark brown eyes stared excitedly up at me, and his entire body quivered with anticipation. The jet-black German shepherd waited anxiously for me to play. He was going to be pissed when he realized where we were going.
“Wanna go for a ride?” I asked him. His thick tail started wagging. I grabbed his leash and opened the door to the garage. “Load up!”
He bounded up into the Jeep and sat on the seat with his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. If I’d had the doors on, he would’ve been whining to get in. With a chuckle, I put his harness on him and latched it to the rigging I’d installed on the seat. If I was gonna have to cage it, I didn’t want to feel enclosed, but I also didn’t want to take the chance of my dog falling out.
As I backed out, I looked over my shoulder, and he did the same. When we started down the road, he seemed to smile as the wind blew his hair. I chuckled at his antics.
The minute he figured out where we were going, I knew. His mouth snapped shut, his ears lay back, his eyes narrowed, and he swung his head in my direction as if to glare.
“Oh, come on, buddy. It’s not so bad. It’s just a checkup.
” He blinked at me, and I swear he fumed. “You like the doc,” I said with a grin. Hell, I liked the doc.
He stared me down the last few blocks until we parked and I shut off the Jeep. I unclipped the harness and jumped out of the driver seat.
“Let’s go,” I said as he continued to sit his big ass in the seat. I waited for him to get down. “Dammit, Zaka, come.”
Still, he refused. “You are not winning this battle of wills, young man,” I said as I rounded the hood. He sat there looking down his nose at me.
“Motherfucker,” I muttered as I reached in and lifted his big ass out of the Jeep. He had to grunt and grumble as I did it, too. Because it was clinic policy, I clipped the leash to the harness.
When I started toward the door, he wouldn’t budge.
“Oh, for crying out loud! It was a joke!” I said as I threw my arms out and leaned slightly toward him. He had the nerve to turn his head away.
Laughter sounded behind me, and I looked over my shoulder at the vet tech, Veronica, sticking her head out of the door. “Is he still mad from the last time, when you told him he was getting fixed?”
Palming my face, I nodded.
“Surely he didn’t really understand that?”
I raised a brow in question. “You think not?”
“I know how to get him in.” She gave me a teasing grin, chuckled, and slipped back inside.
“Now look what you’re doing. You’re making me look like a shitty owner. Like I can’t control my own dog,” I grumbled as I stood with my arms crossed. I gave the leash another tug and tried to coax him toward the door. He wouldn’t budge.
“Zaka. Don’t you want to come see me?” I didn’t have to turn around. I knew exactly who had spoken, because my dick was hard.
My traitorous dog tipped his head to look around me. His big, fat tongue fell out of his mouth, and I rolled my eyes. “You’re pathetic,” I muttered, like I wasn’t the one with a boner.
“Come, Zaka,” she said, and he hopped his ass up and followed her in the clinic with me following along at the end of the leash like a putz.
Voodoo (Royal Bastards MC: Ankeny IA) Page 2
