Clementine
I heard voices all around me. It was the strangest thing, waking up after not realizing I had passed out. The last thing I could remember was staring at Falcon as two of the guys I had seen inside the firehouse pulled me away from the scene and stuffed me in the back of a black SUV. I had blacked out after that. I couldn’t even remember the ride to wherever I was now.
My chest and head hurt. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I was afraid it would only get worse. Instead, I stayed in the position I was in. I was seated, and it felt like I was tied to the chair I was in. My legs were held against the legs of the chair, and my hands were clasped behind my back. My head hung forward. My neck ached as I tried to tilt my head just a little. I had no idea how long I’d been sitting in that position.
I tried to listen to the voices around me, but I couldn’t distinguish one from another. I knew that in order to see where I was or who was around me, I would eventually have to lift my head and open my eyes, letting them know I was awake again.
So I did. I slowly tilted my head back, fighting the soreness in the muscles of my neck. I groaned involuntarily as I did so. It just hurt that bad.
“You’re back with us,” a familiar voice said. I knew the voice, but it was a voice I didn’t expect to hear.
I opened my eyes slowly, squinting against the light coming in from outside. I was no longer at Rogue Demons’s HQ. I was in an old warehouse, stuck in a chair in a room that appeared to be an old office with windows looking out at the open warehouse floor.
My brother stood in front of me. It was his voice I had heard, his voice that had seemed so out of place when I was expecting to wake up among Falcon’s men instead of Leo’s. He leaned down and looked into my eyes.
“Welcome back, dear sister,” he said.
Falcon’s last little warning came back to me then. He had told me I couldn’t trust my brother. Of course, since I couldn’t trust him either, I didn’t believe him. Now I did, but now was too late. And it had been too late by the time Falcon had warned me, too.
“It’s such a shame,” Leo said, shaking his head.
“What’s a shame?” I asked him. I pulled against the ties on my wrists, but they bit into my skin and quickly stopped me.
“You really shouldn’t have gotten involved, sis,” he said with mock concern dripping from his slimy voice.
“I don’t even know what the hell I’m involved in, Leo, so why don’t you enlighten me?” I snapped, fighting my bonds again.
“Calm down, Clementine,” he said. “You’ll find out soon enough. It won’t be long before your boyfriend comes looking for you.”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I growled. “He dumped me, Leo, because of you.”
“Yes, I heard.” He sighed. “I just wish you had listened to me. I could have kept you from getting in the middle of this, but I always knew you would end up just giving it away to some lowlife like Falcon.”
“Just tell me what the hell is going on here, Leo. I don’t care for all the damn talking,” I told him.
He pulled a chair from the other side of the desk and spun it around in front of me so he was sitting backwards in it, his legs straddling the back and his arms across it.
“I’ll tell you what I can. How about that?” he asked in his usual smart-assed tone.
“Fine,” I huffed.
“Okay, I figured you wouldn’t complain too much.” He was so smug and satisfied with himself.
I groaned and rolled my eyes.
“Don’t give me that,” he said. “You weren’t supposed to know about any of this. You were just supposed to be working and trying to figure out how the hell to get your business off the ground. Remember that when everything goes down. You got that?”
“Yeah, whatever you say, Leo.” Even tied to a chair in the middle of an old, abandoned warehouse, I wasn’t afraid of him. Even knowing that his men had set off the explosions at Rogue Demons’s HQ, I wasn’t afraid of my brother. There was nothing he could do to strike fear in my heart, simply because he was my big brother, and I knew he wasn’t about to do shit to me, no matter how much he liked to run his damn mouth.
“Well, we can see about adjusting your attitude later, I guess.” He sighed. “First, let me tell you want I want to do to your little boyfriend when he shows up.”
“He’s anything but little, Leo. Let me assure you of that,” I told him. I knew he hated the fact that Falcon and I had slept together, for whatever reason.
“So you admit that he’s your boyfriend. That’s funny, considering the only reason he fucked you was to get back at me,” he fired back.
“And I still don’t know what the hell you two are fighting about. I asked Falcon, but he told me it was your responsibility to tell me. He said he couldn’t rob you of that opportunity. You know, I don’t know why you little girls won’t tell me what the hell it is you’re fighting over. I’m tied to a fucking chair, and I had a building blow up in my face. I think I’ve earned it,” I fussed.
“You know, I would feel sorry for you, but when I tried to warn you about Falcon, you didn’t listen. You got what you asked for, sis,” Leo said. “And he’s going to get what he’s been asking for when he gets here to rescue you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, though I already knew what he meant. I just wanted to hear him say it. I didn’t know what hearing it would prove to me, but I needed to hear it.
“It means that I’m going to kill him, Clementine. When Falcon shows up, he will be met by my men, who will kill anyone with him, disarm him, and bring him to me so I can finally put an end to his nonsense once and for all. He is going to die, so I hope the sex was worth it, because it won’t be happening again.” He got up with a thin smile across his face.
“What is wrong with you?” I asked him. “What the hell do you mean you’re going to kill him? I thought you were a legitimate businessman, Leo, not just some common street thug like Falcon and his men. I thought you were better than that.”
“Oh, I am better than they are, Clementine. That’s why I’m going to walk away today while they drown in a pool of their own blood.” His tone told me he took a sadistic pleasure in what he was telling me.
I was beginning to piece together what the conflict between my brother and Falcon must have been. They must have been fighting over what they considered business interests. It was pretty obvious now that my brother ran a criminal organization similar to Falcon’s, except that Leo dressed his business up in suits and ties. He made it look more prestigious, while Falcon was satisfied with the shocking imagery of street urchins. While Leo looked like he and his men walked out of offices, Rogue Demons all looked like they had stumbled off the sets of rock music videos.
“You’re sick,” I hissed.
“No, Clementine. I prefer twisted. Sick implies there’s a cure, and I assure you, little sister, there’s no cure for what I do.” He smiled and walked out of the room. He closed the door and spoke to the two men standing on either side of it before walking off and leaving me in there alone.
That was fine, I figured. I was better off alone than sitting there listening to him ramble on in twisted delight about how he looked forward to killing Falcon and his men. I had never seen that look in my brother’s eyes before. He was a monster.
That was when I realized I hadn’t actually spent a lot of time around him since he left me at home for the city. I wondered what all he had lied to me about over the years. I wondered if he had even lied to me about what happened to our parents.
I shook my head. I couldn’t even think it. It had to have been the other way around. Our parents’ deaths had to have been what got him started and not the other way around.
“Oh god,” I said, leaning my head over again. I couldn’t shake the question from my head. What if it had been the other way all along? What if his criminal lifestyle was the cause of our parents’ deaths?
I wished I could have reached my phone. I needed to call Falcon and warn him. I needed to call just make sure he was all right! The last time I saw him, he was clinging to consciousness on the ground in front of the old firehouse. I needed to make sure he made it out of there alive.
More of my memory started to come back to me. I remembered what happened just before the explosion. Falcon was walking me out of the MC headquarters. He was being nice and almost flirtatious again, despite how mean he had been in the boardroom just a few minutes before that.
I wondered if he was even going to come for me now. He probably thought I had set him up for the attack. He had told me when I showed up that he thought I was there because my brother had sent me.
“What have I done?” I groaned.
All hope wasn’t lost yet. If he didn’t show up, I figured all would be fine and Leo would just let me go after making me promise not to say anything. Still, I hoped he showed up. I wanted to see those two finally square off and end whatever ridiculous feud they had going on, regardless of who came out on top. I wanted it to be over so I could get the hell away from them and return to my quiet, normal life.
Sitting in the office in the old warehouse, tied to a chair, I realized Falcon hadn’t been lying when he told me he really did seek me out so he could use me to get to my brother. Leo had been right about him all along. He had just used me, and he had been trying to toss me away, but my insistence on trying to get answers was the only thing keeping him from being able to do that.
If they were both right about each other, though, and they were both as horrible as the other said they were, who was the good guy here? Who was supposed to come in at the last minute and save the day? Was it me? Was I supposed to save myself here? Was I supposed to stop relying on people like Falcon and my brother for my well-being? Was that what this was about?
My head started spinning with questions as I realized Falcon was using me to get to my brother, but Leo was using me to draw Falcon out. In the end, that would just leave me to my own devices. I didn’t know what the hell to think anymore. I didn’t know which one to trust. I didn’t know which one I wanted to win once things actually went down.
I just wanted out. I was done with both of them. I wanted out of the life they had pulled me into.
I watched as my brother walked back over to the door with his phone up to his ear. I tried to hear what he was saying, but sound travelled strangely in the warehouse. It was like it quickly dispersed, leaving silence where I should have heard someone talking.
He opened the door as he put his phone in his pocket.
“I’ve got good news and bad news,” he said.
My stomach sank.