Tess
“You seem different.” Peggy blocked my path when I went to wash down the tables.
“Go away, Peggy.” I pushed her aside, but she followed me.
“You do.” She stood beside me and stared. “But what is it?”
I closed my eyes and calmed my temper. The bar had a few stragglers, and I really didn’t need her shit right now.
She sucked in a breath. “Oh, my God.” She beamed with excitement. “Did Trigger dump you?”
“Fuck off, Peggy.” I tried to ignore her, but my grip on the rag was tight.
“Oh, this is great! Don’t feel bad, Tess. It was bound to happen. He gets bored. He’s a fuck and chuck kinda guy.”
“Good to know.” I moved on to the next table.
She kept going. “You love him, don’t you?”
It was too early for this shit.
I stopped and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Peggy, he’s all yours.”
She glared at me for a moment then one eyebrow rose with amusement. She pulled out some gloss and ran it over her fake lips. “Time to lube up the runway.”
“What a bumpy runway that is,” Rail chimed in as he whisked by.
“I’ve never blown you!”
“Yeah, ’cause I like my dick clean.”
“I’m clean, you jackass.”
Rail stuck his head around the corner. “Peggy, your vag is about as clean as a dirty hotdog in an alley.”
“Please, some of us are trying to eat!” Cooper dropped his fork and pushed his food away. “Fuck me, I’m getting a visual. I’m gonna be sick.”
“Are you fantasizing?” She licked her lips at Cooper, and he pretended to stab himself.
Jesus, what a crew.
I turned back to the table but froze. My stomach jolted, and vomit crept up the back of my throat.
“Wow, Gumdrop.” Clark’s gaze dragged down from my mouth to my thighs.
I was squeezed into a pair of tight jeans with a red corset-style top and heels. My hair was wavy because I didn’t have time to dry it. How I wished I was in sweats and a sweater like this morning. My mind was in a tailspin. I looked around, desperate to find a way out, and at the same time was terrified Trigger would come in.
“Well, now.” Peggy slithered into view like the slippery snake she was. “And who might you be?”
“Clark.” He extended his hand, and she took it with a giggle.
“How do you know Tess?”
“Peggy, leave,” I warned, but of course she didn’t listen.
“I’m an…” Clark smirked at me with that smile he used to get me into bed. “An old friend.”
I couldn’t move. I was stuck in this fuck hole of a situation.
How? How did he know where I was?
“Everything okay?” Big Joe asked, and I shot him a dirty look. Why did he let him in?
“He was cleared, Tess.”
What? Cleared by who?
Clark tossed a file on the table before he stepped forward and ran a hand down my arm. It burned like acid against my skin. “Damn, I’ve missed you.” He leaned down to kiss my lips, and I shoved him away. He was ready for it and hooked an arm around my waist to hold me in place. He leaned down again, but instead he brushed his lips by my ear. “I forgive you.”
“Get the fuck off me.”
“Keep talkin’ dirty to me, Tessa. I know how feisty you can get.”
This was a dream, a horrible dream that had sunk its claw deep and rattled my bones. I desperately needed to wake up. Clark here in Trigger’s club. It just couldn’t be happening.
I wiggled to get free, but he was too strong. Cooper suddenly appeared at my side.
“She said get off her. Respect the lady.”
“Respect.” Clark laughed. “Right, when did the MC world ever respect their women?”
“We respect family, asshole, and if you want to keep that hand, you better get it the fuck off her.” Cooper raised his voice. “Tess, you want me to get—”
“That won’t be necessary.” Clark cut him off and pulled his hand back. “I’m not staying long.”
If that was true, I’d rather deal with Clark myself than involve Trigger. He didn’t need to fight for me.
“Thanks, Cooper, but I’m okay.”
He thought for a moment then headed out back, I was sure to find Trigger.
I needed to be quick.
“Ouch,” I whimpered as he grabbed my wrist again and squeezed.
“You fuck him too?” Clark hissed at me. He was classic for mood swings, a sign that he was on steroids again.
“No.” I glared at him. “Not yet, at least.” I couldn’t help myself. Clark was a jealous asshole when it came to me and men. He hated Brick but had never met him.
“Bet you’re spreading for all these men.” His tone was nasty.
“Most.” I chuckled, and he lifted on his toes to use his body weight to squeeze me harder. I yelped, and he smirked. “How’s your wife?” The words were like acid on my tongue, but it was my slap in his face that he fucked me over by fucking my mother.
He let go, and I stepped back and rubbed at the sudden rush of pain when the blood returned to its normal path.
“I hate that you get me that crazy.” He switched back to calm, loving Clark.
“I hate that you hurt me. I hate a lot of things about you.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Gumdrop.”
“But yet you have, many times. Let’s start with you killing my best friend.” Anger corroded my insides.
“You should never have seen that video.”
“God!” I huffed in disbelief. “You’re insane! You can’t even see it. You killed her, and that very night, you came to my room. Have you no soul? No heart?”
He scratched his chin and turned away. “We’ve always had a unique relationship, haven’t we?”
Wow.
“You call it unique. Others call it abusive.” I glared at him and felt the surge of anger flow and take over the shock and fear his showing up had brought. The club was my home, and it gave me a sense of power. He was on my turf.
“Abusive? When have I ever truly hurt you?”
“Do you even hear me?”
His stare burned into mine, and I felt my power slowly being sucked away. I needed to move before Trigger got wind he was here. I was shocked he hadn’t stormed in yet.
“Why are you here?”
His eyes flickered with a darkness I had only seen a few times in the past.
Shit.
“You told me I could come.”
What? He was mad.
“When?”
“This morning. You sent me the address.” He held up his phone and showed me his messages.
“I never texted you that.”
“Someone did.” He shrugged, and I felt sick when I realized Trigger had done it.
Oh, my God. So, where the hell was Trigger, since he set up this fucking meeting?
“Whatever. Look, I wanted to give you an eyeopener about the man you think you know.”
I folded my arms and tried to control my temper.
“Such as?”
“Here?” He glanced around.
Perfect. Just the moment I was waiting for.
I waited a beat, rolled my eyes dramatically, and waved for him to follow me.
“Don’t touch me,” I snapped when his hand fell on my back.
“I need to touch you,” he grunted, but in a pathetic way. Funny how I was seeing things so clearly now. The tables had finally turned.
“You lost that privilege years ago.”
“And yet you keep coming back.”
I turned and faced him dead on. “Children who are mentally abused don’t see their abuser as the monster. It takes time, but I see you now.”
Before he could snap back at me, I changed our destination and skipped my bedroom. If we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.
I opened the door and waved him inside. His face dropped, and he choked on the smell.
“What is that?”
“Bleach.” I fought back my own cough. I needed to be strong. I could not afford to look scared. “Sit.” I pointed at a steel table with two metal chairs across from one another.
“Seriously? I feel like we’re on the set of Saw.”
“You wanted to talk alone, so talk.” I eased into the chair.
He flipped the file open.
“I’m guessing I have about ten minutes before your boyfriend shows up.” He pointed to the photo. “I thought you might like to know who you’re sleeping with.”
I slid the photo over and tried not to react at the image of Trigger doing a girl from behind at some party.
“Okay.”
He tossed over another of a different girl and Trigger. One by one, he piled the photos on top of each other until there were about eight different girls. It stung, but I had no right to Trigger before now, and he had none to me. I only hoped these were all before me.
“Hope he wears a rubber.” He snickered then pulled out another photo. “I’m guessing you’re curious if these were all before you?”
“I don’t really care.” That was a lie.
“You should, Tess.” He tossed another photo at me. “This was when you were with me. Check out his haircut.”
Ouch. The girl was on her knees giving him a blow job, or at least it looked that way. Trigger said he cut his hair right before he came to get me. He said he needed a change.
“How did you even get this shit?
“Please,” he sighed. “We both know Aaron is working for me. You give someone enough money, and they’ll be your bitch. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I have something on him too.”
“Which is?”
“Let’s just say he’s a dirty cop, but we’re not here to talk about Aaron. We’re here for you, Tessa.”
“Shit, is that it? That’s all you got? Him fucking a bunch of women?”
He picked up another picture. “Your twisted little biker family can go up in flames with one phone call from me, Tessa.” He handed me the picture, and I blinked a few times to register what I was seeing.
Trigger had blood on his hands and seemed to be surrounded by dead bodies. Brick was next to him, standing over a man, a rope dangled from his fingertips. Morgan and Cray were off in the background, and Rail was on the phone.
Sweat broke out along the back of my neck, my ears rang, and my heart pounded.
“It’s not proof they did it,” I whispered, terrified that my voice was gone. I was right. It outed me for being beyond terrified that the club could go down for murder.
“Does it matter? Dead bodies, weapons, right place at the right time. They never called it in. They just checked the men for something and left. Stellar MC family you got here, Gumdrop.”
His nickname made my stomach roll.
“So, now what? What now?” I could barely breathe as I eyed the door. Where the hell was Trigger?
He waited until I looked up at him. His face was serious, and his jaw was locked in place.
“I want you to come home for good. No more running. You will not date anyone else, and you will dance for the house, but nothing more. You will give yourself to me whenever I want. If not, I will hand-deliver these to the police tonight.”
I laughed out of shock at what I was hearing.
“You’re mad.”
“I’m in love.”
My anger burst through, and I knew my own fucking switch was about to be flipped.
“You had me! But you chose greed over love. You screwed my mother while you screwed me!” I dug deep for strength. “I have proof it was you.” My words came out like a hiss. “Proof you killed Mags. You’d be lucky to become someone’s bitch and not be sliced up under a bed sheet.” My lungs nearly popped at how hard I was drawing in air. His face snapped up to meet mine. “Don’t you get it? I came to kill you, not him.”
“Tessa!”
“No! You listen!” I rose out of my seat. I couldn’t feel my body as I pounded my fist on the table. “You knocked me up and let them butcher me! Forever scarring me, preventing me from ever having children. Now you’re here threatening my chance at being happy with these pictures of sex and violence.”
“Yes, I do!” he boomed as he jumped out of his chair and around the table. He walked me back a few steps and let his temper go. “I’ve loved you since I met in you in the common room of the house.”
“I was ten, you sick bastard! Ten and alone with no one to love me. You took advantage of a little girl and warped her so much that she will always second guess anything and anyone. How can you think that’s okay?” I hated him so much it was painful. I turned off my rational side and let my mouth go.
“Took advantage?” He came closer, and I held my ground. “You baited me, Tessa,” he gritted through his teeth.
“You’re insane, Clark. How I ever thought you were my savior, I will never know.”
He narrowed his eyes and hovered over me. “You know the best part of all this?” He pronounced the words perfectly, and my stomach dropped. “At least I know you can never have a child with Trigger. No chance at a family.”
Done.
I reached for whatever was on the wall and swung. The steel pipe smoked him across the side of the knees, and he fell to the ground with a shout. He reached for me, and I swung again and pounded his wrist with all my might.
“You fucking bitch!” he screamed and rolled around holding his hands to his chest. “You want to know why I let them carve that baby out of you?”
I froze.
“I saved it. You would have been a shitty mother. A mother who tried to kill herself over a man? Pathetic, weak, unlovable Tessa.”
I dropped the pipe and stepped back while he laughed like he thought he had gotten to me.
“I rest my case,” he cried. “Worthless.”
“I may be all those things, Clark, but you know what?” I waited for him to look at me. “You could have had one more blow to the head, but instead, I think I’ll return what you’ve given me.”
His eyes bulged as I slammed the pipe hard at his stomach.
Whack.
Whack.
Whack.
I pulled my phone free.
Karma really is a wonderful bitch.
***
Trigger
“Where is she?” I could barely see straight. The fire at the garage was small, but nonetheless a fire. We checked the cameras, and it wasn’t arson. Seemed like a faulty line in the office. Once it was under control and the fire department left, I raced back.
I slammed the door to the bar, and Peggy jumped and almost dropped a tray full of beer.
“Peggy, where the hell is Tess?”
“Last I saw her, the guy’s lips were on hers and they headed for her room.” She swayed her hips, making sucky sounds as she handed the guys their drinks. “Seems to me she was excited to get her freak on.”
“Was that before or after he grabbed her arms and made her scream?” Cooper barked. “She went out back.”
“We all know Tess likes it rough,” Peggy purred, and I wanted to slam her head into the beam next to her. “You can see where I got confused.”
“Peggy, shut the fuck up or you’re out of here,” I warned, which made her blink. “Where is she?”
My phone rang,
“Where are you?” My heart pounded so loud I had to focus on her voice.
“Slaughter room.”
“Brick.” He dropped his beer and hurried over.
We headed to the slaughter room. My fists pumped with excitement, but I also needed to know she was okay.
“Watch the door.”
Brick stood in place, and I tore open the door to hear Clark’s cries. Tess was holding a pipe. She looked fuckin’ sexy. She was breathing hard through her flared nose. Her eyes were shiny and wide.
“You okay?”
“Thought you should know your guest arrived.” Her voice sounded husky.
I deserved that.
“Thought this whole little situation should end now. Revenge doesn’t always end badly. It can be closure.”
She walked around Clark, and the pipe made an eerie sound as it bounced over the grooves in the tile floor. The sound echoed off the walls, and Clark’s breathing picked up. He was sweating and bleeding and wasn’t able to get up.
Tess suddenly swung and crushed his ribs with a hard blow.
“Ah!” He shook and tried to turn himself to see her. She dropped her arm and dragged the bar as she continued to circle him.
When she got to me, she reached in my pocket and removed my phone. I watched as she fumbled through my music and tapped on a song. It took a second, and then I heard Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So.” Interesting choice of music.
Clark’s head flicked over to her, and something passed between them.
Tess started to circle again, and I popped my neck, wanting a piece of him. He hurt her, therefore, he hurt me.
Once the chorus came on, Tess screamed and slammed the pipe right next to his head.
“Fuck, Tess!” He shook and curled into a ball. “I didn’t know you were watching us!”
“She did! She saw me watching you guys screw like rabbits while this fucking song looped over and over.” She dropped the pipe, crawled onto his stomach, and punched his face. He grabbed her shoulders and shoved her off. She went flying to the floor, and I couldn’t hold back anymore. I lunged and fisted his collar to haul him backward. He couldn’t stand. His knees were broken, but he could still hurt her.
Once he was far enough away, I stepped on his leg and rolled my shoe to rotate the broken bone. He bellowed and clawed at the floor. His nails broke away, and he foamed at the mouth.
He started to laugh hysterically.
“She tell you I made it so she can’t have kids? You can never have kids with her, Trigger!” He spat out blood.
I swallowed past my need to kill. I needed her to give me the green light. This was her kill, not mine.
She stood and walked over to the sink. I thought she was going to be sick, but to my surprise, she pulled the bleach down and poured it into a spray bottle.
As she drew closer, he started up again.
“I can still hear your screams for help as that doctor tore it from you. Sometimes it gets me off.”
She grabbed a handful of hair and sprayed the bleach into his wild eyes. He bucked, twisted, and screamed.
“Bitch!”
I let her go until she exhausted herself, then I stepped in, hauled back my fist, and slammed it down on top of his head. He dropped like a stone.
Quickly, I checked his pulse. He was still alive. Good.
Tess dropped the spray bottle, looking fuckin’ amazing. It took everything I had in me not to take her there. She looked at Clark, then at me, then turned and walked out.
A deep ache still burned in my chest. I dragged him to the center of the room, tied his hands and feet together to the hook above the drain, and flipped off the light.
“She’s outside.” Gus limped into the bar and saw my expression. “Although I say that loosely, as I’m not really sure Tess is home.” He pointed to his head. “Tried talking to her, but she didn’t answer me. She’s just sitting there.
I walked past him and out the door to where she was sitting by the pool. I wasn’t sure what to expect from her, so I approached her slowly.
When I got closer, I saw her cheeks were puffy and her eyes were bloodshot. Evidence she had come down off the high I knew only too well. This was one of those moments where I didn’t know if she wanted me to say something.
I reached over and gently stroked her arm.
“What can I do?” I whispered as quietly as possible.
She didn’t answer me.
Shit, I’m really tryin’, here.
“Tess, are you okay?” I changed the pitch of my voice to take a new approach. She turned to me, and I knew that look. Her mind was racing.
Her head rose ever so slowly, and her eyes were a dark gray that showed the wicked battle that held her mind hostage.
“He deserves to die.”
“He does. What did he say to you, Tess?”
“He told me something that will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I don’t know if I’m okay.” She fought the tears. I could see she was deeply wounded, and I knew the depth of that pain.
“Brick,” I glanced over to where he hovered a few feet away, “the cameras are on in the slaughter room. Have Jace monitor them.”
“Is she okay?”
I lifted my shoulders, unsure, and he walked over, stopped in front of Tess, bent down on his heels, and slowly traced a square on the back of her hand. She gave a tiny nod, and he turned and raced off to the house.
Once we were alone, I leaned toward her. “What all did he say to you?”
She smiled. “Where to begin?”
“How ’bout the start?”
“After you took my phone and invited him to come visit,” she glared at me for a second but broke eye contact before she went on, “he showed me a bunch of pornographic pictures of you and a bunch of women, then a photo of you and Brick, Rail, Morgan, and Cray standing around about eight dead guys.”
“What?” My hands went cold, and my mind raced. “I wonder who else has copies of the pictures. They can’t be the only ones.”
Her head snapped up, and the feisty tiger was back. “I don’t have any idea,” she huffed, “but I think they’re the originals.”
“But you’re not sure.” I needed a clear answer.
“No, I’m not.” She pointed to the house. “Why the hell do you think his knees were smashed and his hands were broken before you came in?”
I wanted to grin with pride, but now wasn’t the time.
“I’ll be back, okay?”
“I expect nothing less,” she muttered, and I felt a ping to the chest.
What the shit was that? I rubbed my chest over my heart and hoped I wasn’t about to have a heart attack. What fucking luck that would be. At least let me know I had put my father down there first.
Three hours later, I cleaned Clark off me and felt pretty sure Detective Aaron had the original photos. I had Brick and Rail on their phones, so we would be ready when the shit hit the fan.
“Still alive?” Morgan slid a beer at me from the bar and handed me my lunch.
“Just.” I bit into the burger and eyed Langley as he rounded the corner. “Don’t want to rush his leavin’.”
“Good morning, Mr. Morgan.” Langley gave a polite nod.
“Morgan,” he corrected. He hated being called Mister. It reminded him of his father. It was one of the many things Morgan and I had in common.
“Of course, Mr. Morgan.” He stopped in front of me. “You’ve been fighting.”
“Just dealing with something.”
“That will mess with your head. Deal with it now, or regret it later.”
“I’m not worried.”
“I am.” He pointed to a power drink in the mini fridge and thanked Morgan for it. “Oh,” he smiled warmly, “you must be Tess.”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Tess coming in from a run. When the hell did she start running, and when did she get those tight-ass leggings?
“Um…” She glanced at me, and I saw the weight still on her shoulders. “I am.”
He took her hand. “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Trigger’s ring trainer, Langley.”
“Ring trainer?” Her eyebrows pinched.
“Yes, I’m here to get him back into shape for the fight.”
Her face dropped, and the little color she had faded from her cheeks. “I wasn’t aware he was training for a fight.”
“No?” Langley glanced at me disapprovingly.
She glared at me. “I should go. It was nice to meet you, Langley.”
“You too.” He smacked my arm once she was out of earshot. “You’re an asshole.”
“I get that a lot.”
Guess I forgot to bring it up.
***
Three more nights to the fight, and I could barely sleep. Tess seemed to spend every free minute when she wasn’t working the bar on her newfound love of running, which in turn left Jace exhausted. I’d given him strict instructions to follow her to keep her away from the ring. I was almost disappointed she didn’t put up a fight when she found out about her escort. It was like she simply stopped caring in general.
I fucking hated it, and I needed to blow off the tension.
I felt around the wall and switched on the light that hung above him. His battered face tilted in the direction of my footsteps.
“Tessa?” Clark’s eyebrows rose over the black blindfold. “That you?”
I snapped my knuckles, ready to end this fight once and for all.
His face fell when he heard it was me, and he muttered something before he cleared his throat.
“I have money.”
Pathetic.
“Don’t want your money.”
“I can get you any woman you want. I have connections.”
“I have what I want.” I peeled off my cut and shirt and hung them away from potential spray.
His chest heaved, and his neck contracted. He was scared, as he should be.
“Please.” Saliva pooled at the corners of his mouth. “Please, there’s got to be some—” He stopped himself and sat a little straighter. “I can share what I have on you.”
My hand twitched as I pulled up a chair and settled in front of him. I was interested in what he thought he had on me, but at the same time, I did have a copy of the USB.
“It won’t help.” I grew annoyed with him, and my fingers ached for a good fight.
“I know you slept with Doyle’s sister.”
“Who doesn’t?” I tossed my phone onto the table behind me.
“Y-you killed those men in that New York bar after your fight at fifteen.”
I stood and kicked my chair away. “I’ve killed many.”
“Wait!” he screamed with a jolt, and the chains slapped the wall, filling the air with an ear-piercing sound. “Does Brick know you’ve located his brother?”
With my fist drawn back and my body weight behind it, I froze.
How the fuck did he know that?
“Ahh.” His demeanor relaxed. “So, he doesn’t know…”
“Time’s up!” I slammed my fist on the top of his head and caved it in. His neck snapped loudly, and he flopped to the ground.
Clark may have known more, but when you were faced with a life and death situation, most would spill their deepest secrets…or mine, and mine were hidden for a reason.
I nodded at the reaper who waited in the corner for me. His dark presence engulfed the room.
My part was finished.
***
“Coffee?” Morgan set the mug in front of me and eyed my swollen knuckles. “Are we down a guy?”
I started to speak when Tess came through the doors and over to the bar for a water. Jace tumbled in behind her and held onto a chair for support.
“Lookin’ good.” Brick laughed with me.
“Fuck off,” he wheezed, unable to speak.
“Tess,” I called as she went to leave, “come here.”
She hesitated. “I need a shower.”
“This will just take a minute.”
“Yeah?” She stood a few feet away, holding my gaze.
“Clark is dead.”
No emotion surfaced on her face. “Okay.”
Not what I wanted or expected.
Even Brick was stunned and cleared his throat. “You okay, Tess?”
She shrugged. “Why? I was part of it. I’m glad. Wish I’d finished him myself.”
“Tess,” Brick tried to get her to open up, “come on.”
“What do you want me to say?” She checked her phone. “One down, one to go?”
Her phone vibrated, and her eyes scanned side to side as she read it.
“I gotta go.”
Brick watched her leave before he turned around. “Christ, she’s turning into you.”
Lucky me.