Chapter Seven
Zack
“Well?” I asked, the moment Bones, Red, and Devon walked in.
“Nothing,” Devon replied. “Radio silence.”
I pursed my lips. “It means something.”
“It means the guy’s run off scared,” Red said with a smile that betrayed his immaturity.
“You don’t write a threatening letter in blood only to run off scared the next moment,” Devon said in the same mindset I was in.
“What if he only found out that Mila was connected to the Fallen Angels after he wrote the note?” Red suggested, almost hopefully.
“He didn’t,” Mila said, entering the living room. I noticed she was limping a little. I glanced down at her left ankle, and though the swelling had gone down a little, there was a noticeable bruise. The men turned to her as she sat down on one of the chairs opposite me. “He knew I had a brother in the Fallen Angels while we were… together.”
“Did you talk about Devon much?” I asked, leaning in. “While you were with the fucker?”
“Some,” Mila shrugged. “He seemed interested.”
“In me?” Devon asked, and his tone suggested suspicion.
“In you,” Mila nodded. “In the whole concept of a motorcycle club. He wanted to know how you did things here.”
“And what did you tell him?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Mila admitted. “I didn’t know enough to tell him anything. He knew that I didn’t spend a lot of time with Devon in the first place.”
“Odd that he was curious about it though,” Bones said, looking around the loose circle and making his own assumptions.
“Why?” Mila asked, reading the atmosphere in the room. “Do you think it’s important that he was interested in the club?”
“He wasn’t interested in the club,” I corrected her. “He was interested in how the club was run. He was working you.”
Mila frowned. “Working me?”
“This is not some random possessive boyfriend we’re talking about here,” I said. “This is a man with a motive. This is a man with a vendetta.”
“A vendetta against whom?” Mila asked.
“Who else?” I said. “Me… us… the Fallen Angels as a whole.”
“Fuck,” Devon said, looking towards me. “Do you think this is connected with the turf war that killed your father?”
“That’s the only thing that makes sense to me at the moment,” I said. “Mila happens to get involved with a man who’s interested in our club. Then, he disappears shortly after nearly strangling her to death, putting us all on high alert. We close ranks in order to protect her, and when he re-appears to claim what’s his, things escalate and—”
“We have another fight on our hands,” Devon finished for me.
“Exactly,” I nodded. “And Godwin has the excuse he needs to finish off the Angels once and for all.”
“He’s the one that brokered the truce with you,” Bones pointed out.
“Because we had his son’s body,” I said. “And he and his best man were cornered, and he was afraid if he didn’t suggest a truce, then his life would be forfeit too. Trust me… he wasn’t trying to be noble. He was trying to save his skin before we killed him.”
“Excuse me,” Mila said suddenly.
I realized how pale she looked, and for a moment I thought she was going to throw up. She turned and went back upstairs, obviously seeking refuge in her room. I watched her go and then turned to my men.
“I think he’s baiting us,” I said. “Mila was just a pawn in his game.”
“So what do you reckon?” Red asked. He sounded more excited than nervous. “What do you think his plan is?”
“I think he wants us to be the ones to break the truce first,” I said. “That way, he can open fire, and he can maintain the illusion of honor. His men won’t respect a leader who doesn’t keep his word. He needs us to come at him first.”
“We don’t know for sure that Godwin is mixed up in all of this,” Bones pointed out. “And until we do, we can’t make any moves. We need to wait and watch.”
It was the most difficult thing to do, but I happened to agree with Bones on this one. I favored tactical caution over headstrong bravery that more often than not amounted to sheer stupidity. I wanted revenge too, but I had to think about my men first.
“Keep digging,” I told my men. “We need to flush this guy out. The sooner we know who he is the better.”
As the men filtered out one by one, I went upstairs. Mila’s room door was closed, so this time I knocked before I barged in.
“Who is it?” Mila asked from the inside.
“It’s me,” I said, without bothering to say my name.
A second later, the door opened, and I walked inside. Mila still looked a little pale. She had a few bruises on her arms from the week of intensive training. She had made strides in a small window of time, and I was actually impressed by how determined she was.
“You don’t look so good,” I pointed out.
“I’m fine,” she said defensively.
I sprawled out on her bed and cocked my head to the side. “Doesn’t seem that way.”
“Do you mind?” Mila said, trying to knock my legs off her bed.
I refused to budge. Instead, I simply moved my legs a few inches to the side so that Mila could sit down on the edge of the bed. She groaned in frustration and sat down beside me.
“Why are you here?”
“Something was bothering you down there. I want to know what it was.”
Mila seemed hesitant. “Have you actually… killed men?” she asked at last.
I paused. “Well… they were bad guys,” I said.
“That’s your justification?” she asked incredulously.
“I think it’s a pretty good one actually,” I said. “They were bad guys who were doing illegal shit.”
“And you don’t?”
“Don’t what?”
“You don’t do illegal shit?” Mila asked.
“No, we don’t,” I said. “That’s not what we were ever about. My father made sure of it.”
“But you have killed men?”
“Men who’ve had it coming.”
Mila shook her head. “And the police?”
“The police,” I scoffed. “Who do you think is behind half the cover-ups in this town?”
“Because they work for Godwin?” Mila asked.
“Half of them do,” I nodded. “And the other half are scared that they’ll lose their jobs if the higher ups know how badly out of control shit is down in this neck of the woods. So they contain it to a point, and allow us to sort out business on our own terms. To the general public, we’re seen as gang members, a dangerous menace to society. If a gang member dies, it’s not like anybody cares.”
“I would care,” Mila said unexpectedly.
I turned to her, wondering if that unexpected bout of compassion was directed towards me. “You would?” I asked, with raised eyebrows.
She seemed to get self-conscious all of a sudden. “Of course,” she nodded. “My brother is a part of that group.”
“Oh… right.”
Of course she was thinking about her brother. It was stupid of me to have thought otherwise. “I should go,” I said, standing up.
Mila stood with me. “I… I thought we could train tonight.”
“Tonight?” I repeated. “That doesn’t work for me. I’ll be out tonight.”
“Oh,” Mila said, and she sounded disappointed. “Where are you going?”
“A lot been happening these last few days,” I said, wondering if I could get a reaction out of her. “I need a good fuck to release some stress.”
I saw her expression turn hard immediately, and I almost smiled at her reaction. “Seriously?” she said bitingly.
“Yeah,” I nodded, with a shrug. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Who do you plan on fucking?” Mila asked, ignoring my question completely.
“Whomever,” I said uncaringly. “I don’t give a shit who she is… all I need is a warm and willing body for a couple of hours.”
Mila’s face contorted in disgust. “You are a pig.”
“And you…are jealous.”
Mila scoffed. “Please… I am not jealous.”
“No?”
“No,” she insisted firmly. “I’m just… disgusted and offended on behalf of all the women out there.”
“How noble of you,” I said, taking a step towards her.
She backed away from me and narrowed her eyes. “Do you get a kick out of treating women the way you do?” she demanded.
I smiled. “You act as though I’m a monster.”
“Maybe you are.”
“I don’t lie to anyone,” I said. “I don’t pretend to be someone I’m not. And I certainly don’t make these women any promises. It’s not like they care about me. It’s not like they want to know my name or my history either. So why can’t two consenting adults fuck each other silly and then forget each other the next day?”
Mila looked extremely uncomfortable now, and I could tell she was getting angry too. Her eyes flashed, and her body grew more tense. I could feel waves of heat wafting off her as though I had lit her on fire somehow. I was hard, but I didn’t let it show.
“You know what?” Mila said. “You can do whatever the fuck you want. It doesn’t matter to me.”
I smiled as I leaned into her just a little. “Really? Because it really seems like it does matter to you. There is one way to keep me here tonight, you know, and it’s a simple one.”
Mila frowned, but I knew she wouldn’t bring herself to actually ask what that was. I traced my finger down the side of her arm and whispered, “I could sneak into this room tonight, and you could fuck me.”
Mila’s eyes burned a little brighter for a moment and then she pushed past me roughly, breaking the magnetic connection between us. “Get the hell out of my room,” she spat.
“Don’t say you’re not intrigued by that suggestion.”
“Trust me, I’m not,” Mila assured me. “I wouldn’t come near you. You’re just a jumped-up chauvinist with no idea how to treat a woman.”
“On the contrary, I know exactly how to treat a woman,” I said confidently. “I’ve never met a woman I couldn’t make cum.”
I saw Mila’s body tense a little, and I thought I saw a shiver pass through her. “If you want, I can prove it to you right here and now,” I said. “I can make you cum over and over again until your body is spent and your pussy is raw.”
She was breathing heavily. I could see her chest rise and fall with every breath. She walked towards me, and for one giddy moment, I thought she was going to kiss me. But instead, she placed both hands on my chest and pushed me out her door.
“You’re not getting anywhere near my pussy,” Mila said coldly. “Have fun tonight.”
Then she slammed the door in my face, and I stood there with a raging erection and no satisfying way to get rid of it.