Riggs' Ruin (Kings Reapers MC Book 1)

by Nicola Jane

  One girl eyes us as we pass by. Her hair is scraggly, and her black mascara is smudged under her eyes.

  An important-looking man approaches us and shakes Reggie’s hand. Reggie hands him a taped-up package. It’s the same as what the women were packing at the warehouse. “Thanks, man. Your girl is working hard today.” He smiles. “I told her about the new delivery, and she’s been working that ass since.”

  I look to where the man points and find Michelle is naked and straddling a fat, old man. My heart breaks all over again. For her, for Ziggy, and for Riggs, because he’s tried so hard to help her.

  “Good. Give her enough to keep her ass working here for years. I’ve had a lot of interest in her,” says Reggie.

  “Probably because she looks good at the minute. Once she’s taken this shit for a month, she’ll look like all the rest,” says the man.

  Reggie pulls out his cell and presses record. He points it to Michelle as she bounces on the old man. He records for about thirty seconds, then cuts it off. “A present for your biker boyfriend,” he says to me before stuffing his cell back in his pocket.

  By the time we get home, Malia is having her dinner. She smiles at me happily and I hate that I’ve hardly seen her for the last few days. “Can we watch a movie, daddy?” she asks.

  “Sure,” he mutters distractedly, staring down at his cell phone. “Go choose one and I’ll be in soon.” We decide on Moana because I know Reggie won’t join us.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Riggs

  I stare down at my cell. The video of Michelle screwing some fat, old bastard plays out. I’d had the same sort of recording last night, only she was snorting cocaine. Cree looks over my shoulder. “That’s Reggie’s whore club.”

  “Get the guys together. We need to make a move tonight.”

  “Just like that? You want to go right in?”

  “I’m tired of waiting. If this is his club, it’s where Michelle is at. We’re gonna take her back.”

  An hour later, I play the video for my brothers. “We go in tonight. I want this place burnt to the ground,” I say.

  “I have a connection that can take these women and put them up in a hostel. There are key workers there who can help the women get off the drugs and back into society,” says Cree.

  I smile gratefully. “The plan is, we get the girls out, we kill any of Reggie’s men who try to stop us, then we burn it,” I add.

  “The thing is, we have to get over the tracks unseen,” says Chains. He holds up a bunch of football shirts. “And it just so happens that Chelsea Football Club is playing tonight. So, we scrap the kuttes and pretend to be on a lads’ boozy night out to watch the match.” There are a few groans around the table, but that’s more to do with the choice of football club than anything else.

  “Who will stay behind to watch the families?” asks Rock.

  “You,” I say, and he laughs knowingly. Rock is a man mountain and I know he can handle anything back here at the club.

  We step out into the club parking lot. Two minibuses await us and we load up. We look ridiculous donning our football shirts and Mom insisted on a group photo for the club wall of fame.

  It’s not long before we arrive across the tracks and to Reggie’s dingy sex club. Cree fills us in on the way after speaking to a contact. Apparently, Reggie hooks the girls on his drugs, getting them into debt, then the only way to pay it off is to work here.

  I shudder at the thought of what the poor women are going through inside. The place is a dump. We gather around Cree, who goes through the layout briefly. Then he leads us towards the metal door and down some steps. He knocks three times and the door opens slightly. “There’s about fifteen of us,” says Cree to the bouncer. “We have cash.” He smiles, waving a bunch of notes. The door opens wider.

  “I need some identification,” growls the bouncer. “We take a copy off every guest.”

  “Sure, no problem,” says Cree. He reaches into his pocket and then pulls his fist out fast, connecting hard with the bouncer’s face. He stumbles backward and Cree hits him again. I lead the way inside, and as more security comes forward, fights begin to break out. Women scream and rush for the door. We left two of the brothers upstairs to lead the women to safety.

  I push my way through the women running and the brothers who are fighting until I spot Michelle. She’s passed out on a table and three men are lining up, waiting for the man currently fucking her to finish. Rage fills me and I punch the first guy in the head. He falls to the ground and the second turns to see what the fuss is. He sees me and holds his hands up. “I don’t want no trouble,” he says.

  “Then get out of here,” I yell. He scuttles off like the dirtbag he is, followed closely by the third guy.

  “Wait your fucking turn,” shouts the man fucking her.

  “She’s passed out,” I yell.

  “She’s warm. I don’t give a crap if she’s passed out,” he snaps.

  I pull him away from her and throw him to the floor. He yells at me, but I don’t hear shit. I gently tap Michelle on the face. “Baby,” I whisper. “Wake up.” I feel for a pulse, but it’s very weak. I shrug out of the football shirt and put it on Michelle. I scoop her up in my arms and make my way back through the building. “Burn this shit to the ground,” I order.

  I stand by Michelle’s bed, watching her chest move up and down. A small part of me wishes I could love her like I used to. Maybe that would be enough for her to stay clean. But deep down, I don’t trust her, and I can’t put Ziggy through it all again. Cree got the other women to safety. The Women’s Aid shelter made sure they had workers on standby to help the women with the drug problem. It’s a long road for all of them, but for the ones who want that help, Cree made it happen. I insisted on bringing Michelle back to the club, where a doctor met us.

  He squeezes a bag of fluids into her drip. “She’s severely dehydrated. We need to get this into her as fast as possible. Do you have an ETA on a nurse?” he asks. He came straight from the hospital and he’s on call, so he’s anxious to get back.

  Leia pops her head around the door. “You wanted me?” she asks.

  “Just in time. You’re wanting to be a nurse, right?” I ask.

  “Erm, yeah, but I haven’t done enough to take over here unsupervised,” she says.

  “It’s fine. It’s basic care,” says the doctor, then he launches into a speech of what she needs to watch for and how to contact him.

  I find Cree in the main room drinking a bourbon. “We did good tonight,” he says.

  “I know. Just feel like now we’ve begun, we need to hit the next target quickly.”

  “Well, this would have all been done earlier if you’d have told the mayor about the warehouse,” he points out.

  “Anna was there today. I couldn’t call it in with her in the building,” I repeat.

  “And we still don’t know why she hasn’t told him about the cops watching that place. If he knew, he’d have moved that shit out by now.”

  I nod. I’d been thinking the same thing. She sounded like she needed desperately to build trust with him. “Maybe she was hoping he’d get caught?”

  “She knows he would have walked out of the police station within a day. We need to be careful that she isn’t siding with him. Maybe she’s falling for him?”

  I ball my fists. “That makes no sense. She would have told him about the cops to save his ass. I don’t know what’s going on there. Maybe she’s scared. He’d want to know how she knew, so maybe it just wasn’t worth telling him.”

  I go to my office and pick up the phone. I have the mayor on speed dial. “I’ve been waiting to hear from you,” he snaps.

  “Things were complicated. I’m going to text you the address of the warehouse. There are women inside packing the drugs. It’s at the back of the warehouse. You have to hit it tonight because during the day there’s a whole workforce packaging toys. Too many innocents.”

  “Did you get your kid back?” he asks.
>
  “Yeah.”

  “We have someone inside,” he says quietly. “Living in the house.”

  My body goes on alert. “What?”

  “I spoke with the Chief of Police yesterday. She’s been undercover for a few months, but things are getting worse. She’s not sure if she can stick it out. I’m meeting the chief tomorrow, so I’ll get more information then, but we’re hoping to get to him this way. It’s the first time we’ve ever managed to infiltrate into his life.”

  “My ex is there,” I blurt out. “In the house. She mentioned another woman.”

  “Well, if you have contact with her, don’t tell her about this. You can’t blow the officer’s cover. We’ll hit the warehouse tonight.”

  He disconnects the call and I quickly send him the address. I begin to feel hope. Maybe we can end Reggie, breaking down his businesses one by one until he has nothing.

  I sleep in the chair by Michelle’s bed. She’s improving hour by hour, and when I wake in the morning, she’s staring at me. “Why am I here?” she asks coldly.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I ask, my voice croaky from sleep. “I found you unconscious being fucked by some man who had teeth missing. There were three more waiting for a turn.”

  “So what?” she snaps. “It was my choice.”

  “It was the drug’s choice,” I mutter. “Get clean. If you want to go back to that kind of thing after, then that’s your choice, but right now, the drugs are controlling you.”

  “I saw Anna. She’s always by his side, ya know. Everyone says they’re together again.”

  “Stop,” I snap. “You’re lucky I haven’t put a bullet in you. Do you realize what you did? I had to give up the docks to get my kid back. The kid you took out when I told you not to leave this place. You could have gotten him killed as well as yourself.”

  “You may as well put a bullet in me. Bringing me back here is like torture.”

  “Ziggy can’t sleep. The doctor has to medicate him, and he lays with me or Frankie all night. He’s hardly speaking. I could strangle you,” I hiss. “And you wake up from your drug-filled fucking and you don’t even ask me how he is? Did you even think about him at all?”

  “Of course, I did,” she mutters.

  “Until they gave you a hit!” I state angrily. “You’re staying in this room until you’re clean. Cold turkey,” I say, and she cries out. “That’s the punishment for what you did. I hope every day hurts. Then when you’re well again, I’m sending you to Scotland. I want you far away from me and Ziggy, where you can’t hurt us anymore.”

  “Scotland?” she screeches.

  “Yes. I have a friend there waiting with a room to rent and a job. You will get your life sorted.”

  “Riggs to the damn rescue,” she mutters.

  “Call me a fucking saint.” I sigh, then I leave, locking her in the room.

  My cell rings and I head for the office as I answer.

  “Riggs?” It’s Anna and I sigh in relief.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “I just called to find out if Ziggy is okay.”

  I smile. She’s putting herself in danger to call me and ask about Ziggy when his own mother doesn’t give a crap. “He’s okay. A little traumatised, as you can imagine.”

  “Good. I’m so glad. Reggie’s real mad,” she whispers. “He just found out about the club. Was that you?” Cree’s doubt haunts my brain and I withhold my answer.

  “Are you okay?” I repeat.

  “Yes. Please be careful. He’s screaming into his cell in his office. I don’t know what he’ll do next.”

  “Tell me about the woman you mentioned before,” I say.

  “Crystal?” she asks. “She met Reggie and fell in love. She said before I came home, he was good to her. Now, he’s awful. He abuses her, hits her, makes her serve me food.”

  “Anna, can I trust you?”

  “Of course, you can,” she cries. “Why are you asking me that?”

  I push Cree’s doubts to one side. “That woman is an undercover cop,” I say. Anna falls silent. “Are you there?”

  “Yes. She’s a cop? What the hell?”

  “You can’t fuck up and blow her cover. It’s very important, Anna.”

  “But he’s raping her. He’s doing awful things to her. Why doesn’t she leave or get her boss to get her out?”

  “They need something on him. You have to help her. Tell her whatever you know. The quicker you help her, the quicker you can get away.”

  “I have a towel,” she says. “I kept it because it has DNA on it. He beat a man . . . ” She pauses. “Marshall something.”

  “Ankers? Is he dead?” That would explain why I haven’t heard from him.

  “I think so. He told the men who watched to end him. He wiped his hands on the towel.”

  “Give it to her. I’m not sure it’s enough to get anything big on him, but it might help with the bigger picture.”

  “Anna!” I hear Reggie yelling. “Anna!”

  “Coming,” she answers. “I have to go. I love you, Riggs.” Then she’s gone. It’s the first time she’s said the words to me since all of this happened. I stare at the cell in my hand for some time after she’s hung up, absorbing the things she said. The thought that she’s forgiven me for the things I said gives me hope, and I smile.

  Cree sticks his head in the office and then waves a bottle of bourbon and two glasses at me. “I got us front row seats to the drug raid,” he says, placing the bottle on my desk. He opens up my laptop and presses a few buttons. “I know this nerd who hacked into the police body cams or some shit. Look,” he turns the screen towards me, and we see the live feed off one of the cops’ bodycam. They’re in a van, assumingly on their way to Reggie’s factory.

  “Anna called,” I say. “She said Reggie’s losing his mind over the club.” I smile. “She’s got a towel with DNA on it. Said she watched Reggie kill Marshall Ankers.”

  Cree stops mid-pour. “Marshall’s dead? Explains why he hasn’t been in touch.”

  “Yeah. He’s obviously not been found yet or the mayor would have known.”

  Cree sits down and pushes a glass towards me. “So, now we need a new supplier? We don’t know who Marshall was using.”

  “Last thing on my mind, brother.” I sigh. “Let’s get Reggie out of the way first.”

  “And get Anna back to you,” he grins.

  “I need her, man. This time without her has shown me just how much I fucking need her.”

  He nods in understanding. “Eva is missing her and Malia so badly.”

  “Yeah?” I ask. “You been talking to Eva?”

  “Not really.” He laughs. “I’ve been grunting at her and mainly listening. I’m good at listening.”

  I laugh and shake my head. “Any man can listen. She needs a man who talks to her, Cree. She won’t stay around forever. She already asked me when she can go back home, said she doesn’t feel right being here without Anna.” Cree sits up straighter in his chair, looking alarmed. “Don’t worry. I told her she’s staying put, her and her mom.” He visibly relaxes. “But I can’t keep her here forever. She thinks you’re not interested in her like that.”

  “I just can’t get my words out around her.” He sighs. “It’s a fucking joke. I can slit a man’s throat for running his mouth off, but I can’t talk to a girl I like.”

  The bodycam shows the officers getting out of the van and all moving towards the factory. Suddenly, there’s shouting and yelling as they run through the building, taking the drug workers by surprise. I sit back and take it all in with a satisfied smile on my face. The cops detain the women and the few men who were standing guard. We watch in silence, absorbing every detail with satisfaction.

  Almost an hour later, they are still loading up the drugs into evidence bags. Reggie would have flooded the streets with this crap, and he wouldn’t have been able to control it or the violence and crime it would have produced.

  The mayor calls me. “It’s do
ne” is all he says before disconnecting. I don’t get a chance to tell him that I already know.

  Screams ring out and I sit up alarmed in my bed. It takes me a few seconds to realize it’s Michelle that I can hear yelling and crying. I scrub my face with my hands and groan. It’s six in the morning. I tuck the sheets around my sleeping boy, thankful that she hasn’t woken him. I pad downstairs to her bedroom. The floor below mine is occupied by most of the brothers, so I’m guessing she’s woken just about everyone. I unlock the door and Michelle rushes towards me to try and escape. I catch her in time and pull her into my chest. She’s sweating and shaking and beating her clenched fists against my chest. “It’s okay,” I whisper. “You’re okay.”

  Eventually, she relaxes against me and sobs quietly. I slide down the door with her and she scrunches up into my lap. We sit like that for some time until her sobbing subsides.

  “I can’t do this,” she whispers. “I feel like I’m dying.”

  “You’re not dying. You’re gonna be just fine. We’re running tests on that shit you took to make sure it’s pure,” I say. Sometimes, dealers will add all kinds of toxins to fill out the product or make it more addictive. “The first few days are always the worst, but it will get easier.”

  “Few days!” she screeches. “I can’t do this for a few days. I want to claw my own fucking skin off.”

  “Darlin’, you don’t have a choice. I can’t send you to Scotland like this, and I can’t send you back out on the streets. You’re the mother of my son. I have a responsibility so that when Ziggy is old enough to ask me about you, I can tell him I did right by you.”

  “Well, isn’t that just sweet,” she grumbles, getting up off my lap. “But meanwhile, I’ve got to feel like this?”

  I stand. “Yup. Get a shower, it might help, and to be honest, you look a mess.”

  “You think I give a shit about that right now when my body hurts this bad? Why have you always got to be the fucking saint? The hero of the hour,” she spits. “It’s okay to just let me go, Riggs. You can tell Ziggy that you tried but I wanted the drugs more, because I do. I want the drugs more than you. More than him.” She begins to cry. “I just want one more hit. I need to stop this pain.” I shake my head and she tries to slap me across the face but misses. I catch her wrist and haul her ass towards me.