Reckless

by Elizabeth Knox

  “He did, Maria. I know you don’t want to hear it, but it’s the truth. You need to trust me that Camila is in a safe place, and when the cartel is off our backs I promise that I will make sure you both are reunited.”

  I nod, grabbing Chaos’ hand and lead him back to the bedroom. When we’re out of earshot, I turn to him. “You said you could get me in contact with Camila, so do it”

  Chapter 5

  It all begins and ends in your mind. What you give power to, has power over you, if you allow it.

  - Anonymous

  Pain

  Reed and I split up a few miles back. I know he’s headed straight back to the club. He’s barely spent any time there since we all got word that Kyle was in the hospital. I’d go back to the club soon, but there’s someone I need to check up on. Ever since Chris called I’ve been worrying my ass off about Angel. She’s just the type of woman who’d make any man worry, there’s nothing she can do about it. I just think she inherited it from our Mom. Well, the drugs may add to my worry, but it’s mostly from Mom.

  It pays to have a friend in the force. Chris patrols the part of town where Angel frequents and when I can’t check up on her, I can always count on Chris to do it. Honestly, I check up on my sister more then Chaos does. He’s shaken his head too many times at her being a druggie but I think he forgets that we were all druggies once upon a time. The only difference is that we kicked our addictions, but Angel didn’t have the strength to do it. I don’t doubt that she could have the strength, cause she’s strong as fuck...she just needs the willpower and commitment to want to get clean. Unfortunately, that’s not something I can help her with. She has to do that on her own.

  A gust of wind brushes up against me out of nowhere and catches me off guard. Hard to believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone and Christmas will be here in a little over a month. I want to tug my cut a little closer to my body, the same cut that still reads prospect. I wonder if there will be a day that I’ll ever be a full patch...It’s wishful thinking, that’s for sure. Reed still holds what happened to Dais’ against me and has every right to do so. Until the end of time I will always carry the weight, knowing that my actions are the reasons those damn loan sharks got ahold of her and tortured her for months. I won’t ever forgive myself for allowing it to happen, for leaving her and going to save Angel...but if I didn’t go my sister would be dead. It may have been the most selfish thing I’ve ever done, but...if I didn’t do it then I’d be living with regret.

  The question is...which is better, guilt or regret?

  Neither.

  I pull up to her usual spot, a shitty little abandoned house on the edge of town, and take a deep breath. No matter how many times I’ve stopped here to check on her I always prepare myself to see her dead body, even if it’s the last thing that I want to imagine. I have to face myself with the potential of seeing that reality. Whenever I walk in and see that she’s alive, doped up like usual, I have to then swallow every bit of me wanting to help her. I remind myself that she’s homeless for a reason. It’s not like I don’t want to help her. I do. I just know my sister, and even though her name is Angel, she sure isn’t one.

  Angel would steal everything of value from the club and then use it to go get the best high of her life. That I can guarantee.

  I turn off my bike, dismount and walk straight up to the door. I don’t bother knocking, it’s not like anyone is going to be lucid enough to open it for me anyways. I push it open, listening to the awful creak it makes as it swings on its hinges. I leave the door wide open, and maybe something’s wrong with me for doing that this time of year. If the heroin hasn’t killed them then the cold sure as hell won’t. I’ll shut the door when I leave, it’ll be open for maybe ten minutes tops.

  Weaving in and out every room I come upon old mattresses strewn all over the floor. There are at least half a dozen of them- some of them occupied by people, others are empty. All of them are dirtied and stained. I don’t even want to think about what kind of stains those are, but there’s no mistaking the dried blood on some of them. Old newspaper covers the windows, barely letting in a sliver .

  “Still a prospect I see?” Angel’s voice comes out of nowhere. Her tone is teasing and her words are clear, telling me that she’s not high right at this moment. I wonder if she’s about to use, it’d be the only reason she’s at this house. Then again, where else would she go? She doesn’t have a home anymore.

  I turn, surveying the room to look for her. When I see her emerge from a closet opening, it reminds me of something out of a horror flick. “What’s it matter to you?”

  She tilts her head, smirking as she walks, or shall I say weaves in my direction. “We both know it’s my fault you still wear that label. I wonder Pain...do you hate me for it?”

  I take a moment and really focus my eyes on her. I realize that she hasn’t used heroin but she has used something else. I’m just wondering what’s her poison of choice these days. “It’s a patch, not a label and we both know I couldn’t hate you even if I wanted to.”

  Angel curls her lips, approaching me and runs her hand over my forearm. “You’re adorable, you know. Even after everything, you still love me.”

  I close my eyes shut, rolling them. Dumb girl will never understand: she;s my baby sister; I’ll always love her. “What’re you on right now?” I regret asking the second my question slips out. Her eyes fall to something Bambi like, almost as if she forgets that I know she’s an addict.

  I have to fight every urge inside me to not do anything, to leave her here to fend for herself and hope that one day she’ll just decide to change, but I know it’s a load of horseshit. It’s the sole reason I grab my phone and text Trick to meet me here in a grocery getter. She’s not gonna like what I have planned, but at the end of the day I’m not going to let her do this to herself anymore. I’m tired of watching her circling the drain. If I don’t act now she’s going to die.

  There’s a huge risk with bringing her back to the club, especially now while everything else is going to shit. I just can’t live with myself any longer. Angel needs a home. She needs to know that people love her, even if Chaos has a hard time showing it. She has the both of us, and she always will.

  I stand here, surveying every part of her, noticing how she’s lost a bit more weight since the last time I’ve seen her. She’s calm as hell, but still has that mischievous spark. Her silence confirms she’s on something. I’ve never seen her this zen in my life. “It’s pills” I say aloud. Her eyes flicker up to me before she looks off into the distance.

  I text Chaos and tell him that I’m bringing Angel to the club. He’s not going to like it, but he’ll damn well deal with it. I can’t keep leaving her to live her life like this, if she even has much of one in the first place.

  The slam of a door alerts me back to my surroundings and then I see Trick walking into the house. “Over here,” I call out to him.

  He approaches me chuckling, instantly noticing Angel. “Well, what do we have here? How’d you know I’m into bad girls?”

  She giggles, moving from me over towards him. “I’m quite the bad girl.”

  I glare right at him, “Angel’s my sister and I need you to drive her back to the club.”

  “Oh, I bet you are sweetheart. You look like it.” He mumbles down to her. I know he can tell that she’s fucked up and needs our help.

  “I don’t think you’ll have any problems with her on the way over. She looks to be pretty calm right now” I comment and he nods.

  “No, she’s fucked up. Later is another story. I’ll get her in the grocery getter and back to the club stat, but brother...you need to tell Reed. I know he doesn’t care when it’s family...but shit, she’s gonna be stirrin’ things up when she starts going through withdrawal. That’s for sure.”

  “I know, Trick. Trust me, I know.”

  Chapter 6

  She was trouble, chaos really, but her smile...her smile dared me to fall in love with her.
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br />   - Atticus

  Chaos

  For the first time since I’ve known her, Maria is smiling ear to ear, sitting in the corner of my room rattling out words faster then I can follow. It doesn’t help that she’s speaking Spanish (so her words fly by without me catching their meaning), but I just stand here and lean my body against the dresser, watching her smile grow and hearing a different type of laughter from her. I’ve seen her happy before, but never the glow that she has right now.

  For a split second I think that calling Booger from the Reapers MC is a mistake, that Reed will end up reaming me for it...but when I see her face light up the second she hears Camila’s voice. Well, then it doesn’t matter what happens to me. The only thing that matters is keeping her happy.

  A while back I had the pleasure of meeting Camila, and she’s so much like her sister. Sassy, spitfire spirit, looks that could kill. There was no denying that they were blood. Those two could be beauty queens.

  Maria rambles something out quickly before she tosses my phone on the bed and comes walking over to me, holding her arms out to wrap me in a deep embrace. She nuzzles her face in my chest and I hear the faint sounds of her sobbing.

  She peers her head up, looking at me directly in my eyes. “Thank you, Chaos. Thank you so much for that.”

  “Anything for you, Taquita. I think you know I’d do anything for you.”

  She smiles brightly up at me and I flick the top of her button nose. “Yes, and if you refused to I would just have to make you do it.” This woman will always get what she wants. There is no doubt about it. “I think we should go out front. I heard Trick had something added!”

  I roll my eyes at her as she tears free from my embrace and walks out the bedroom door, seeking out the latest addition to the club that Trick had installed. Bastard comes back after being gone years and puts a damn stripper pole in the middle of the clubhouse, positioning couches all around it. Guess it’s not enough for him that we’ve got a couple poles in Bubba’s. Now we’ve gotta continue this shit at the club too. Not that I mind, but damn...if Maria decides to get on that pole I’ll be a goner.

  As soon as I walk in the main part of the club I see her swaying her ass, jumping on the platform and wrapping those dainty little hands of hers around the pole. It takes everything in me to not charge over there and rip her off and she hasn’t even done a damn thing yet. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what Maria wears, she’s sexy as all fuck in anything, whether it’s the sluttiest little g-string she can find or a pair of sweatpants.

  She twirls her body around the pole, standing on her tippy toes before she wraps a leg around and leaves me breathless. “How the fuck do you know how to do that?” I gasp, drool metaphorically spilling from my mouth.

  “You know we have one in the gym? Jenna was always fucking around with the pole and she showed me a few moves. Nothing fancy.” Nothing fancy my ass....

  Truth be told, I forget we even have a gym. It’s not like any of us use it. I remember Dmitri and Jenna used to be in there all the time, Jenna with her cardio and that pole and...well, who the fuck remembers what Dmitri did. Now that I’m thinkin’ about it, I’m wondering how Seamus stays so ripped all the time.

  “Uh...excuse me?” I shake my head and come back to reality, seeing Mar’ has taken off her shirt and her tits are barely being covered by that lacy bandeau thing she goes on about.

  “Damn...” I mutter, licking my lips, locking eyes with the little vixen in front of me. “If you wanted me to fuck you, you could’ve just asked.”

  Her lips curl up into a mischievous smirk, “I don’t ever ask for anything, I demand it.”

  I don’t even realize I’m up against her until my hand wraps around her neck and squeezes her ever so tightly. I push my thumb up against her jaw, tilting her face to look directly into my stone-cold eyes. “It’s best that you remember who you’re talking to little girl.”

  All I get in response is a soft purr from her. I make sure to position my body right against hers, digging the center of her back into the pole, chuckling as I hear her moan in discomfort. She loves it rough, in fact, she craves it filthy. As filthy as can fucking be.

  I yank my knife out from my pants, bringing the edge of the sharp blade against her lips. The soft fabric of her leggings is hardly even a barrier at all. “Don’t jump, baby. I don’t wanna cut you.” I soothe her, listening to the heavy pants of nervous air coming from her lips. Quickly, but carefully I cut along the seam, creating a tear right where I want it.

  Maria wraps her legs around me, pulling me into her chest, I suck and bite on her bountiful breasts, marking her as mine. Every brother in this place knows that she’s my bitch, and they’d never forget it either.

  I free my cock as I bite and suckle, teasing her as much as I can before I slam my throbbing cock into her wet center. She’s gushing, a damn waterfall. I swear, this bitch is never satisfied. It’s why we work so damn well together, why we fit like perfect little puzzle pieces.

  “All I’ve ever wanted is for you to claim me.” Maria whispers against my neck, biting my earlobe. “Since the very beginning, I always noticed you. I always wanted you to have me the way that you do. I just wanted to be one thing, Chaos - yours.”

  Hearing those words come from her mouth I can only do one thing: I come, hard and fast. Our sexual energy is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. But it’s the way she gets me, truly understands my mind and my soul that has changed my life.

  ***

  Maria and I continued our fuck session for another hour, all over the damn club until I got a phone call saying that Kyle woke up. I drove as quickly as I could until I got to the hospital. I don’t know what we’re going to see, or if he’s even going to be lucid. so I take hold of Maria’s hand as we walk through the hallway.

  I spot Michelle sitting outside his room, with a few of the brothers gathered around her. “How is he?” Maria asks, that positivity flowing through her voice.

  “They haven’t let me see him yet. The doctors wanted to talk to him alone before I go in, to see how he’s doing or whatever” Michelle comments back. An idiot can tell she’s disappointed, and the one place that she really wants to be is with Kyle.

  Not even a few minutes later the door opens up to Kyle’s room and the Doc tells us that he can have a couple visitors. None of us listen, and instead we all pile into his room.

  “Oh my god...how are you feeling?” Michelle asks, taking his hand as she sits next to him.

  Kyle furrows his brows, staring at Michelle and then looks around to the rest of us before placing his eyes back on her. “Who are you?”

  Michelle stumbles back in her chair, horrified, the fear of God undoubtedly striking through her entire body. Maria squeezes my hand as hard as can and we wait. None of us say a damn thing, and then the unthinkable happens.

  Kyle laughs, slapping his hands together. “I got you all good!”

  “You asshole!” Michelle screams, and the rest of us break out into a bout of laughter.

  Chapter 7

  We all make mistakes but don’t let that be the reason you give up on somebody.

  - Anonymous

  Pain

  I got a group text from Reed telling us that Kyle is awake and doing okay. Thank fuck for that, hopefully he’ll be in such good spirits that I won’t get a bunch of shit from him for bringing Angel here. Honestly, I don’t think that he likes her the least bit in the first place. He’s never even met her before, but the one day where Daisy needed me to be there and guard her, I’d left because Angel needed me. He’ll probably associate Angel with Daisy being hurt, and I can’t blame him for that.

  Trick helped me get Angel into my room, and I made damn sure there’s nothing in there that can possibly hurt her. I haven’t even had a second to think about the next steps, or what the hell I’m going to do with her. I know I have to talk to Reed, but there is no plan for what to do when she starts going through withdrawal. I could go out and get some shit
for her, slowly wean her off...that’s given I know what she’s even on in the first place...or I can just let her go cold turkey, sweat it out, thrash and detox.

  “I want her.”

  I’m brought out of my overthinking by Trick’s voice, looking over to him I furrow my brows. “I want her.” He repeats himself, eyes trained on me.

  “I’m layin’ claim to that sister of yours here and now. I want her, and I don’t give up on things I want.” He states, crossing his arms. I can’t tell if he’s trying to intimidate me, or if he’s lost his damn mind.

  “You don’t even know her. She’s fuckin’ high as shit right now and you’re wanting to lay claim to her like you’ve been with her for years.”

  “Listen up, Prospect. I wasn’t asking for your permission. I’m telling you that Angel is my bitch now, she’s my fuckin’ ol’ lady and there’s nothing you can do about it. She’s my responsibility, and she’s family. She won’t have to worry about you anymore.” I stare at the old timer, who’s maybe in his mid to late forties, still not understanding what the hell he’s doing.

  It doesn’t make any damn sense to me.

  “She told me what happened, the day Daisy was taken. She got all sappy in the car and started laying that shit on me, about how you came and took her to the ER. You were the reason she was alive, but she’s the reason you’re barely living.” I brush my hand across my face at his words, taking in a deep breath, “She doesn’t wanna be your responsibility anymore, Pain. Let her be someone else’s. It’s about damn time I settled down anyway, been lookin’ for a crazy bitch to call my own and damn if your sister doesn’t seem crazy enough to keep me on my toes.”

  “You don’t know what she’s like.” I shake my head, mumbling to him.