Chapter 23

We are all searching for someone whose demons play well with ours.
-Unknown

Kenna

It doesn’t even boggle my mind anymore at what my father did, how his actions snowballed into what happened. I want to shake my head, to not believe he chose to overlook a small boy - his child. I don’t know who I’m angrier at in this moment, my selfish father, or my sinister brother. In what part of being angry does it do me any good? It doesn’t. It makes me overanalyze things that were done in the past, things that I cannot control. In a sense, it helps me fuel the raging wildfire spreading through my veins. Brother or not, I don’t let anyone cross me, and I can promise Philip this, he will not live to breathe another day.

“You alright?” Phoenix asks, turning his head towards me as we reach a stop sign. I nod my head against his shoulder, trying not to think about the clusterfuck going on inside my head. Either way, shit’s going down. We may be paying a visit to Donnie, but I’ll be damned if we aren’t hot on Philip’s trail sooner or later. He didn’t just fuck with me, he fucked with my city - something he should have never done. He’s going to pay for it, though, and oh how I can’t wait for that moment.

I hold onto Phoenix snugly as he drives further, turn in and turn out until he starts to slow up. We’ve been following Leo the whole time, but we weren’t the only ones that left. We have an entire army with us. I may not have realized it before but fucking with me meant that the Rats were fucking with Phoenix and the club too. All in all, I think we’ve suddenly become exterminators and our rat problem will be dealt with. No lie, I can’t wait to get my hands a little bloody. An eye for an eye after all.

Leo was right, he found the shithole that these fucking rats have been holding up in - and that’s exactly what it is, a shithole. Down some country background with three trailers spread apart a few hundred feet from one another, beer cans littering the ground. I don’t know what I expected, but it isn’t this. Phoenix brings his bike to a stop, as do the other brothers as we each assess the area and dismount.

I do so quickly, only seeing seven bikes. Hmm, I wonder what happened to the rest of the rats. The door to the trailer that sets in the middle comes flying open, and before the guy can even finish coming through the doorway I hear a gunshot go off and watch as he falls on the small porch below him, agonizing sounds spilling from his mouth.

“Where’s your Prez, rat?” Leo shouts, I look over to him and see his gun aimed on the man. Well, we’ve found our shooter.

No sounds come from the man before us. I wait, thinking that some smart-ass remark will come out of his mouth, but nope, nothing. “Shit…I aimed too high. My bad, guys” Leo snickers and I fight to hide my smile. Yep, these are my type of people.

Almost as if none of these rats were paying attention, the other two trailer doors come blasting open, men standing in the front of both doorways with guns ready to be drawn. I take a glance behind me and see Glocks raised, pointing in the direction of our enemies.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Think the boys are feeling a little trigger happy tonight, honey?” I look to Phoenix, who simply smirks right back at me.

“I’d listen to the lady, she’s a lot smarter than the bunch of us”

“Well, well…well.” I hear his voice before I see him, he comes strutting down the porch of the shitty little trailer, like his shit don’t stink. I can’t tell you about the anger that boils through my blood, or the memories that suddenly resurface to the front of my mind. Almost like a haunting nightmare that you just can’t get rid of. I know that what I went through wasn’t the worst…that it could have been very bad, and how I should count myself lucky. I just can’t do that, not when my entire body aches with a pain that I cannot fathom; not when I want to cry every single time I move and yet I’m not because strong women do not break down. They grit their teeth, look their enemy dead in the eye and prove them wrong. That is what a strong woman does. 

I may very well be a Vernon, but I am my mother’s daughter. Silent like a storm, and as deadly as a hurricane.

“You want another round, sweet Kenna, or is this the tradeoff where you finally become my little bitch? You gettin’ tired of her this quick, Phoenix? Oh, I know. You just don’t know how to train them, do you?” Donnie smiles like the devil he is as every word falls from his mouth. I can’t wait to take that smug look off his face, to watch him as he begs for life. I’m going to get it, and no one will take that opportunity from me. Not even Phoenix.

I grab Phoenix’s Glock and point right at Donnie, shooting him in the left shoulder and then aim for his right kneecap. The second he falls to the ground, I smile like a poor girl who’s just won the lottery. Fuck Leo’s knife, I’ll save that for my brother. Donnie was getting to me a little too much.

“No one, and I repeat no one, trains this bitch,” I hiss at him as I walk over, gliding the barrel of the gun over his neck. I wonder how it feels, if goosebumps are breaking out over his body, if he’s feeling even the slightest amount of fear that I was when our positions were reversed.

I want him to know that he has no power in this situation, and more importantly - no power over me.