—Boogeyman—
When I roll up to the clubhouse with Shelly on the back of my bike and see the full lot of motorcycles, shit starts to feel real. I know I have a lot to answer for and my punishment will be ugly but just. Whatever Hades decides I know he won’t touch Shelly. She has my patch on her arm. I park my bike and help her off. I can tell she’s trying to hold it together on the outside. I know the last time she was here she wasn’t welcomed with open arms.
I wrap my arms around her hips and stare deep into her caramel eyes. “No matter what is waiting on the other side of that door, you need to know that I love you, and I will come back to you. Might be with a few broken bones and bloodshed but I’m not fucking going anywhere.”
“I know.” She gives me a faint smile and then I kiss her hard and deep like it's the last time I will ever taste her lips, because it very well could be. I can’t predict my fate, but I won’t go down without a fight.
Tucking her hand in mine, I lead her inside. The moment we step through the door all the noise dies down. The jukebox cuts off and all eyes are on us.
Hades snarls at me the second our eyes meet. I give him a chin lift and walk toward him, dragging a reluctant Shelly behind me, shielding her with my body even though I don’t think she is in any real danger.
“I’m here. I think you know, Shelly.”
Hades rubs his jaw.
“Wish I could say it’s nice to see you again, Shelly, but you’re a risk. I don’t like loose ends.”
“Got nothing to worry about. She will keep her mouth shut. I know you aren’t like Marek, so you won’t touch her.” I pull the bandage off her arm, revealing her fresh ink. A Devils Reject’s property patch that reads: Boogeyman’s Dream.
“If I were anything like Marek you’d be tied to a damn chair and forced to watch while we all fucked your girl. But you know that isn’t my style.” He fingers her tattoo. “So, it’s like that, huh? She’s your bitch.” My nostrils flare as he stands up from his seat.
“Yeah, it’s like that.”
He motions to Terror. “Question his bitch.”
Terror smiles at me with a sadistic grin. That fucker is ex-military some special forces shit. His methods of interrogation are rough, but I know he won’t touch her unless he wants me to repay the favor with Amber.
My eyes darken as he grabs Shelly by her other arm. The one I didn't just tattoo. I don't like any man, brother or not, who isn’t me, touching her.
“You’ll be fine. Terror knows that however he treats you I’ll treat his woman with the same regard,” I remind him that I’m not to be fucked with. His smile fades and Shelly goes with him willingly.
Uno, Reaper, Cupid, Hades, and Zo Zo crowd around me. “Take his cut. He isn’t fit to wear it until I determine otherwise,” Hades barks the order, but I shrug the leather off before they can touch me.
Reaper grabs me by the back of the neck and shoves me toward the stairs that lead to the basement.
I’m not taken to church.
I am lead to one of the holding cells.
Hades steps in with me first. He doesn’t say a word goes straight for me, punching me square in the jaw. I think the bastard loosened a tooth. I spit a mouthful of blood on the ground but don’t raise a hand to defend myself. I earned his wrath and I’ll take it like a man.
“I should kill you for going against my orders. Make an example of you and your girl. I told you to end her. Is she worth it—worth losing your cut?”
“I’d go to war with anyone for her. So yeah, whatever you want to bring down on me fucking get to it.”
“She looks like your stepsister. Doesn't she. The girl’s portrait tattooed on your arm?” He raises my sleeve and stares at the tattoo for a minute. “I know you got demons, but you should have come to me. I don’t fucking like this shit. But as your Prez and your brother, I’m going to let you off this one fucking time. If she opens her mouth, it’s both your Goddamned heads. Don’t make me sorry I’m not putting a bullet through you both right now. Uno, he owes you for all the shit he’s been spouting your way. He’s all yours. Make it fucking count.”
Reaper hangs my cut on the top of the cell door and Uno steps in grinning at me. Hades and the rest of my brothers walk upstairs leaving the two of us alone.
Uno pulls his brass knuckles from the inner pocket of his cut.
I motion for him to come get some. “Come on, pretty boy. Show me how tough you are. I bet your bitch can hit harder than you.” Uno got his name because it only takes him one punch to lay someone out in a fight. He’s small but that fucker packs a punch.
He grins lazily at me and lands three well executed jabs to my ribs.
Pain shoots through my side and up my chest but I grimace and take it.
Another punch hits me right in the damn kidney. I am a tough bastard, but it takes me down on my knee. The fucker dances around me in a circle hitting me with fast jabs. My whole damn back is going to be bruised. He lands one final blow to my gut. I feel like I am going to puke but fight the urge down.
“That’s it?” I grin at him with bloody teeth.
“Nope. Need a favor.”
I go to laugh but it hurts too damn bad.
Uno stares me down. Something flashes behind his eyes that I can’t quite place.
“You know how to make people talk and you also know how to make them disappear. Stephanie told me she can’t have kids, but I think she’s full of shit. Need you to find out if she’s lying to me.”
“And if she is? Lying that is.”
“I want you to make her disappear.”
“Hades know about this?”
“Who do you think gave me the idea?” He gives me a half smile.
“You sure that it's what you want?”
He nods once. “I’m sure.” Then the bastard pops me right in the Goddamn nose and I am out cold.
———
When I come to, I feel like my balls have been soaking in ice water. I go to rub them but am stopped short by the cuffs attached to the headboard of the bed in my room at the clubhouse. I know it’s my room by the picture of Kristen framed on my dresser. Everything fucking hurts. It hurts to motherfucking breathe. I look around the room and find my Shelly between my legs with an ice cube between her lips, rubbing it up and down my shaft.
Her eyes meet mine and she crunches the melting cube between her teeth.
“What the hell are you doing?” I croak.
“Waking you up.” She flashes her sugary sweet smile at me.
“Are the cuffs necessary?”
“You’re a shit patient. And I am having too much fun. Payback’s a bitch.” She slides up over my body, being careful of my now taped ribs.
“How long was I out?”
“Two days. Terror gave you something for the pain. I made sure he stuck the needle in your ass.” She winks, and I growl.
“Fun’s over. Remove the cuffs so I can spank your ass.”
“They only come off with my key.” She grabs the key from the top of the nightstand by the head of the bed and taunts me with it, rubbing it up and down her cleavage.
“You aren’t playing fair.”
“I know.” Leaning forward she traces the outline of my lips with her tongue.
“Need to touch you, princess.”
“I’ll be doing the touching.” She leans back, and I see that she has on a denim skirt and no fucking panties. Her deft fingers move to her clit, rubbing in a circle as she throws her head back.
“Shelly, I will only warn you one time. Take the fucking cuffs off. I’m about damn near ready to piss the bed.”
That stops her in her tracks. “Fine.”
The cuffs come off and I move slowly to fully sit up. Goddamn my body aches.
“Let me help you.”
“I got it.” I wave her off.
It takes me a few minutes to make the short walk to the bathroom, but I do it on my own. I feel like I was ran over by a truck.
I relieve my bladder and wash up the best I can. I toss back a few painkillers and return to Shelly.
She’s sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for me, looking like a dream come true.
“What have you been doing while I was sleeping?” I sink down on the bed next to her.
“Getting to know my way around the club. I had dinner with Sara, Amber, and MaryAnn last night. They seem pretty chill.”
“Good. Glad you like them.”
“So…I have been talking to my dad…”
“And?” I raise a brow at her.
“He wants to meet you.”
“Not happening.”
“Please, Charlie. For me,” she pouts, and I can’t resist. I’d do anything for her.
She’s my dream girl.
The End.