Reaper's Promise: A Wild Reapers MC by Kiki Leach (4)

"Some new bar?"

"Yeah, Vinnie's or something, near the coast," she told me. "I wouldn't be out too late but I haven't seen them in a few days and I think it might be fun."

"Are you calling me up to ask for my permission?"

She laughed. "I don't need your permission for anything. I was just calling to let you know about it so that you wouldn't come home expecting me to be there for you to get some."

"Babe." I snickered. "Where the hell are those kids with you talking to me like that?"

"Recess. They'll be back in about fifteen minutes or so but I wanted to call you while I had a break and no one else was in the classroom with me."

"Too bad you're not someplace a bit more closed off," I told her.

She chuckled. "Don't be nasty."

"Darlin', it's what you like best about me, yeah?" I tugged at my jeans. "Shit, as a matter of fact--"

"Brother." I turned as Atom rolled out of the club and jerked his chin at me. "Business," he mouthed to me.

"Shit." I dropped my head.

"What is it?" asked Colette.

"Club shit," I replied. "Listen, you be good out there tonight with the girls, alright? Make sure Checkers sticks with you the entire damn time too. Just like he does every day up at that school."

"I will. I love you, Roman," she said.

"Yeah, me too, darlin'. More than you know." After hanging up with her, I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and turned to Atom. "What is it?"

He walked over to me, his own phone in hand. "I just got a call from River, who's down here on some of his own club business with Blue."

I shrugged. "So?"

"I called them up last week to let them know about the Lorenzo shit on the low; didn't give them any details outside of him just wanting to work with us in the hopes of them giving some answers regarding anything we maybe didn't know about him before. Something we could use to maybe push him out or hold over his head. They didn't have anything for me then, but--"

"They've got something for you now?"

He bobbed his head. "River said that one of their computer savvy brothers was able to lockdown on some shit for us right before they made it out here," he said. "They're having lunch over there at that Kelly's Diner downtown. I want you to head out there with me."

I turned to look at the club and lifted my brows, then brought my attention back to him and asked, "Riggs know about any of this?"

"It's on the low, just like I said. Only other person who knows outside of me is you." He eyed me up and down and shoved his brows together, skeptical as shit when I didn't respond. "Are you good with this, brother? 'Cause I'm hoping anything they've got could really help us out."

I was unsure but bobbed my head anyway and muttered, "Yeah, I'm good."

"Alright then, let's roll out."

 

Roman

An hour later, we stepped into Kelly's Diner and found River and Blue taking up space in a booth near the back. It had been a good while since we had seen either one of them, and for the most part, aside from all the grey in their heads and on their faces, though I sure as hell couldn't talk for myself, they looked the same.

When we made our way over, Atom nodded at both and said, "'Sup, brother?"

River looked up from his plate of ham, steak and eggs and nodded.

To anybody else, he might've looked bigger than life even while sitting down. But since we were practically the same size give or take a few inches off his height or mine, I was never startled by him, nor did I fear him like I knew many in the MC world did, due in part to his temper. After standing up to shake Atom's hand, he then turned to me and did the same. Blue, who was much shorter in stature but still just as feared as River, given how quick he could be with his gun, jumped up next and shook my hand, then Atom's.

"Have a seat." We sat across from them and after the waitress came over, Atom ordered a coffee while I asked for ice water. When she walked away, I noticed that neither of them bothered to even peek at her, which told me that they must've been damn good and settled down in their new lives with their respective women. I was glad to finally have some of that for myself with Colette. River then turned to Atom and cleared his throat. "So what's up, brother? Been a long time since we've made our way out here and seen the likes of either one of you."

"Nothin's changed much," replied Atom. He opened his hands and shifted his eyes around the space of the diner. "As you can clearly see."

Blue chuckled and dragged his hand across his beard. "Yeah, brother, I can tell this place looks pretty goddamn old school. Food's not too bad for what it is though." He moved his head side to side and drank back the last of his coffee.

After the waitress came back with our drinks, I gave her a quick thanks, then took a sip of water and leaned over the table.

Blue sat his mug back down near his plate, then leaned in and lifted his shoulders. "So what's the deal with Lorenzo and this business that he's got goin' on with your club?" he asked, his gaze shifting between us in question. "I thought Riggs would've been smarter than to hook up with a shyster like him in the first place."

"That was my brother's fault," I said.

"That little skinny fucker from way back, Jeremiah?" asked River.

I nodded. "He got into business with Lorenzo and then turned him onto Riggs."

"Was he high?" asked Blue.

I frowned. "What?"

"Your brother," he said, "was he high? 'Cause that's the only explanation I could understand for anybody lookin' to go into business with or work for this asshole on their own. That, or you're desperate as shit."

"I'm thinking it might've been something of both," I told him.

"Listen, brothers, we don't have a lot of time out here," Atom blurted out, dropping back in the booth and placing his hands on the table. "And we don't wanna waste what you've got left of yours in the city. Is what you wanna tell us regarding this asshole something that can maybe help us take him down or out before he tries his best to run us straight into the ground for good?"

"What the hell makes you think he already hasn't?" River stared directly into Atom's eyes and pulled a large Manilla envelope from the inside pocket of his Shadow Riders jacket. He placed it flat on the table, then slid it over to him. "You and the rest of your brothers need to know that Bourne is smart," he said. "Smarter than that son of a bitch Fontaine ever was and that shit's saying a lot, considerin' his past actions and what he pulled off with us a few months back. But Lorenzo Bourne thinks of every scenario in the book to the point that he could've written the shit himself."

"And he's got a backup plan for each one of those backups that might fuck him over right after," said Blue, "and nine times out of ten, they pan out better than what he initially had in mind."

"This is the one time out of ten that it didn't, because this shit was sloppy and almost too easy to get a hold of." River glimpsed at Blue, then turned back to us. "Now we're not exactly sure who all he was dealing with back then as far as security and people for his casinos and strip clubs and all the other shit he's got going are concerned, but I'll just say they weren't all that careful either. And after findin' out about this shit, I'm startin' to think by choice."

Atom lifted the flap on the back of the envelope and pulled out what looked to be a copy of official documents stapled together. After scanning through each page and seemingly finding nothing of interest, it wasn't until reaching the last one that made him mutter, "Holy shit." I glanced at him and he turned to me with the widest grin on his face, looking like the goddamn joker. "I think we just might have this son of a bitch by the balls." He handed over the papers and pointed to a single highlighted paragraph at the top of the page. "Weak spot."

I bent down to get a better look and as I read through each line, I shook my head at damn near every word I came across. "Jesus Christ." I looked over at him and glowered. "You think she knows about this shit?"

Atom rattled his head at me. "Nope." He snatched the papers from the table, then placed them back inside the envelope and sealed it shut. He turned back to River and Blue and smirked. "One of your own brothers was able to find this shit?"

Blue nodded and stuffed his last piece of bacon into his mouth. "Son of a bitch is a computer-whiz like no other."

"Takes more than just some regular computer skills to be able to find something like that," I said. "Especially when there's no outside connections. He's gotta be some sort of PI in training or some shit."

"No doubt," replied Atom.

"He's good if you're thinkin' otherwise," River told us. "We've just upped our status in membership, that's all."

"Yeah, we're startin' to look for the real educated motherfuckers now," Blue chimed in wth a chuckle, "'specially with these older ones dyin' off. We can't do all this shit ourselves."

River looked aside and arched his brow. "And we don't want to."

"Yeah, that too."

Atom chortled and shoved the envelope inside his jacket and sighed. "Listen, what do we owe you for this info? 'Cause you sure as hell didn't have to let us know about any of this shit."

"Brother to brother and because we're good with your club, we thought you deserved to know," said River. "'Specially given the circumstances of the person involved. And regardless of what Riggs wants to do, this asshole is not good for bein' brought in like this. 'Cause once word gets out about him havin' control, other motherfuckers just like him will start seekin' out the rest of us and thinkin' that we'll be willin' to work out deals in the same way. And then when the shit won't end up bein' just as they want, all hell will start breakin' loose, leavin' not only our clubs, but our women and children vulnerable and susceptible to it. That's some shit I won't stand for on either coast or with any club we're choosin' to roll with."

"I hear you on that, brother," I said. He nodded at me.

Atom took in a deep breath, then exhaled. "I do too."

"So we're all good?" Blue opened his hands and moved his eyes between all of us.

"Yeah, I think we're good." I looked to Atom for assurance. He nodded in agreement.

After saying our goodbye's and heading out of the diner, we moved over to our bikes and prepared to head straight back to the club and garage.

I reached for my helmet and keys, but stopped as soon as my phone started vibrating inside my pocket. "Motherfuck." I reached inside my pants to yank it out and when I saw another unrecognizable number, I shook my head and grit my teeth. Then I flipped it open and answered with reluctance. "Yeah?" There was nothing but hard and heavy breathing just before my phone went dead again. "Christ." Listening to anybody but Colette make sounds like that wasn't something I was ever in the mood for, and especially not now. I slammed my phone shut and turned it all the way off, then stuffed it back inside my pocket.

Atom put on his riding gloves and sunglasses, then turned his head to look me in the face. "Another hang up?"

"Yep." I sat down on my bike and jammed the keys into the ignition.

Atom swung a leg over his bike and dropped down on top of the seat. "You don't want to try and call it back this time?" he hollered out after starting up his bike and revving the engine, creating a cloud of black smoke in the air that shot out from the tailpipe.

"Nah!" I hollered back. "Bastard has more than likely ditched it just like all the others after hearing my voice. And I've got no more time to put up with his bullshit after today. We've got some damn good leverage to hold over Lorenzo now, as well as some pricey fuckin' cars to fix back at the club. I don't need him ruining shit that's been going well so far. Whatever the deal is, the shit can wait 'til later."

He bobbed his head and I revved up my own engine, then we took off from the diner and sped back onto the road.

 

Colette

When the second bell signaling the end of the day finally sounded, each of my students quickly gathered their things from on top of and inside their desks, stuffed them into their backpacks and began lining up at the door.

"Okay, now remember to finish up the last parts of your coloring books tonight, guys," I said, standing up from my desk and moving around to the front. "The book fair is just three days away and I want to make sure that everyone has a chance to have their work put on display for the school and your parents." Abigail leaned to the side and raised her hand. "Yes, Abby?" I asked her.

"My daddy said he might not be able to come -- is he still going to be able to see it?" She twirled her hair around her finger as her big blue eyes stared up at me with hope.

I sucked in a deep breath and swallowed hard, knowing exactly where her father had planned to be that day instead; with my husband and his MC at the trash joint they called a strip club. "Well..." I started. Then I stopped to smile at her and nodded. "As soon as the fair is over, you'll be able to take your work home and he'll be able to see it." She smiled wide and jumped back in line. Just then Avida appeared in my doorway, waving at me with a giant smile on her face and ready for the kids. I waved back and nodded to acknowledge her. "Alright, guys." I bent forward and pressed my hands together, scanning my eyes across every tiny face standing in front of me. "Are there any more questions for me before Ms. Avida takes you outside to your parents?" Each student shook their heads, some until their hair went flying around their faces. I laughed. "Okay, then you all have a good afternoon. I can't believe that I'm not keeping any of you afterschool today and I'll miss having the help to clean up, but I'll see you in the morning."

"BYE MISS COLEMAN!" They all waved their hands and spoke in unison just before Avida walked them out of my classroom and down the hall.

Once alone, I sighed and pushed myself up from the desk, then moved around the room and began picking up toys and books, placing them all in their proper areas, chests and cubbies.

"Yo." I turned to the door upon hearing Checkers' deep voice. He dipped his head inside first, making sure all my students were gone, then stepped all the way in.

"I'll be just a minute," I told him.

"It's cool." He dropped his hands inside the pockets of his pants and shuffled around the room before stopping in front of my desk and leaning back against it.

"You know, if you want to be productive before heading out, you can help me out by wiping down the whiteboard."

He glanced over his shoulder to look at it, then turned back to me and said, "Darlin', I've been on my feet all goddamn day."

I turned on my heels to look him straight in the face, then folded my arms over my chest and frowned. "So have I."

"Yeah, but you get to teach little kids all day and sit down sometimes -- that shit seems like a blast. I'm helping to clean up toilets and vomit and mop floors that don't ever look like they're getting clean no matter how much of that shine shit I'm supposed to be using for them."

I rattled my head and spun away from him to continue picking up more toys and books. After Roman assigned him to keep an eye on me up here, I had helped to score him a job as the helper to the main janitor of the school so that he wouldn't be sitting inside my classroom all day, coloring with the children, and instantly pegged as someone who shouldn't be hanging around; his sleeves of tats and purple and white mohawk gave the parents pause but the students loved every bit of it.

"I asked if you wanted to work in the kitchen first and you kept saying no," I told him.

"I wasn't wearing one of those stupid assed bonnets over this thing." He pointed at his head. "Besides, at least if I'm doing this janitorial shit, I'm able to keep a better eye on you."

"And I'm sure having a little extra money doesn't hurt either."

"It doesn't." He laughed. "Extra green is always good to have in my pocket. Shit, maybe I'll spend it on something or somebody else tonight when we go out to the bar."

"Correction," I told him, "we are going out tonight, the girls. You're just coming along to check out the scenery."

After I finished cleaning the room and straightening up my desk for tomorrow morning, Checkers walked me out to my car, then hopped on his bike to follow me home. Once I pulled into the driveway and cut my engine, he parked right beside me and shut off his bike.

"Um, can you do me a favor and wait out here for me until I'm ready to go?" I grabbed my purse, hopped out of my car and slammed the door shut. He grimaced and squinted as the sun hovered over his face, bringing out the natural hazel color of his eyes. "I just need to take a shower and want to get ready in private, that's all."

"Sure, darlin'. But I wanna check out the place first as usual."

"Okay."

As we headed up to the porch, I grabbed onto my house key and unlocked the door. He drew his gun from his holster and stepped inside first, then moved around to every room of the house, making sure everything was just as intact as it had been this morning before we left. Once finished, he came back into the living room and nodded. "It's still clean."

"Good. Now, I shouldn't be too long in getting ready, especially since we're going straight from here to Perla's to meet up with everyone else."

"It's all good, darlin', you can take your time. I'll head out to have a smoke and call Rome to let him know that everything's still all good around here."

"Thanks."

When he headed back outside, I shut the door and locked it, then walked back into the bedroom, took my hair down and shook it out, and started removing my clothes. I turned on the warm water for a quick shower and once it was ready, I stepped inside, allowing every drop to pour over me as if I were standing beneath a giant waterfall. Normally I hated getting my hair even a little bit wet because of the time it often took to untangle my curls, but lately it seemed that being wet was all my body knew anymore.

I grabbed the bottle of soap to lather up my arms, breasts, stomach and legs, then quickly washed my face and all the more important areas before the water turned cold. After, I rinsed off and stepped out, snatching a fresh towel from the hook on the back of the door and wrapping it around myself before moving into the bedroom.

When I opened the door, I jumped back, startled. Jeremiah was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunched over with this elbows on his knees, his eyes facing the floor and a gun inside both hands with his index finger wrapped around the trigger.

Holy shit.

I tried to calm my breathing as it had suddenly picked up in speed and almost wanted to ease back into the bathroom and lock the door until he slowly turned his head and looked over at me. His eyes were bloodshot red; the normally blue color of his irises looked dark green for some reason and his normally translucent skin, which used to be one of the best parts about him aside from the chestnut curls of his hair, which was now completely gone from his head (though he had started sporting a terrible, unkempt beard that almost looked glued on, as well as a janky mustache), looked red, blotchy and splashed in certain places on his arms and face with either dirt or dried remnants of human feces. I wasn't sure and was too afraid of finding out but either way, it was clear the man hadn't bathed or slept in the last week and a half since taking off.

"Hi," I finally muttered, unsure of what the hell else to even say to him. I wasn't aware of what he knew or didn't know as far as the details of my relationship with Roman, but I had guessed pretty quickly after seeing him with the gun that he knew I was with him now in some respect. And after watching me walk out of his bathroom, wet and in nothing else but a towel, the shit was clearly pretty serious. "What the hell are you doing back here?" I asked him. "Where the hell have you even been all this time?"

He grinded his teeth and sat up straight while keeping his eyes directly focused on mine. His jaw, which used to be strong and thick, was so thin now that I was sure a single knock to it from his brother or hell, even one of my students, would've broken it in half. That's when I realized along with not sleeping and bathing, he also wasn't eating much food.

"You don't seem all that happy in having me back here, Colette." His voice was harsh and scratchy as if he had lost it in a screaming match with someone. God only knew what he had been through after plowing the hell out of Cherry in my bed, but in that moment I was more than grateful to have finally cut my losses with this guy. I was also grateful that my ring was still in the bathroom instead of on my finger. God knows if he had had the chance, he would've taken it from me and kept for himself to first be pissed off about, then pawn. "I can understand why you wouldn't be, given that you're happily fucking my brother's brains out as of late, but--"

"Hey." I stepped out of the bathroom and glared. Now I was pissed off and gun or no gun, he had no right to basically call me a slut to my face or otherwise after what the hell he had done, no matter his reason for it. "You don't get to come back here with attitude while flashing an extension of your penis in my face after the shit you pulled before leaving," I snapped. "What I do now and who I just so happen to do it with is my business--"

"Even if that business now includes you riding my brother's cock?" He stood up from the bed and kept the gun tight inside his hand with his finger still wrapped around that trigger. He pointed the muzzle toward the floor and I took a step back, now nervous that he might have been cracked out enough to actuallly shoot me. Suddenly, I was regretting my words and reaction to him. "But I'm not surprised," he said. "You've been eyeing him for years, just as he had been doing with you. Every time you came over here to see me, I knew that it was in part to see him. Those tight tanks and short ass skirts, making sure your tits and ass were always hanging out in all the right places just so he would take notice of you -- and he did. Every time, that asshole made sure to check you out and tell me once you were gone just how damn good you looked and how I needed to start complimenting you more before someone else started to do it in my place." He stopped and shook his head. "Never believed in a million years it would actually be him. Even if he felt it for you, taking you on as his wife not twenty-four hours after we were finished" -- he pointed between us -- "is a line that son of a bitch never should've crossed."

"We didn't expect for any of what happened out in Vegas to take place--!"

"SHUT UP!" he hollered out, his face turning bright red as spit flew out from the corner of his mouth. I jumped back as his voice boomed inside the room like the echo of a bomb going off. He rattled his hand while keeping hold of the gun, then dragged the other one up and down his face, and rubbed his eyes. I tightened my towel around myself, making sure that I wasn't showing anything I didn't need or want to, and looked toward the door.

"How the hell did you get in the house with Checkers out front?" I asked him. "Did you take him out?"

He dropped his hand and sighed heavily. "I came in through the patio," he admitted. "Idiot isn't all that great at checking this place like he should be."

"Then he's still out front?"

"For now," he replied. "Unless I decide to blast him, which all depends on you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I came back to the city because I need more cash from some high rollers out in Vegas, but they need me to hand over a down payment before giving me anything big in return."

I frowned. "If you don't even have enough for a down payment for these people..." I stopped and peered. "Are you getting this money for Lorenzo?" I questioned. "For what you stole from him and apparently no longer have to pay back?"

His eyes narrowed. "How the hell did you know about that?"

"How the hell did you find out that I was now married to your brother?"

He swallowed hard and looked me over. "Did Roman tell you about this shit? Because as far as I know, something like this would remain within the walls of the club."

"He told me enough so that I would know what the hell was going on and would be aware if anything ever went down. He thought Lorenzo might've been the one to pull something like this with me, but never you." I stopped and looked away from him.

"Is that why he has that cartoon character looking prick hanging around out front?"

I nodded and eyed him up and down, wincing at his tattered white t-shirt, ripped blue jeans and dirt covered tennis shoes that looked as if they had been snatched from someone's dumpster and thrown onto his feet just before showing up here.

"Are you going to use the money that you need from these people to pay back Lorenzo?" I asked him again.

"Colette, I've got serious debts to pay back to other people that need their money a hell of a lot more than fucking Lorenzo ever did."

"Are you serious?" I was becoming pissed off again but tried to keep my tone in check this time after my eyes darted back down to the gun. My words, however, I couldn't seem to force myself to hold back in how I used them with him. "Do you realize your stealing that money has put your brother's MC as well as his own life in jeopardy? Were you really that selfish to never think about the consequences of your actions before taking part in them? You never once thought about how the rest of us would be affected by what you did no matter the reasons for it all?"

"You seem to be doing just fine because of what I did, darlin'," he mocked.

"I'm only doing 'just fine' now because your brother helped to pick up the pieces that you broke in me and left behind," I snapped back. "We were the ones who were supposed to get married, remember that?! We were the ones who had been set up to spend our lives together -- I was all in--"

"Regardless of how you felt about Roman."

"Yes! Because I loved you--"

"You weren't in love with me," he interjected. "And that was the shit I knew from the minute I first introduced you to him as my girl right outside there." He pointed in the direction of the backyard. "That was the reason I bought you that piece of shit ring but never bothered going through with the actual plans of making it all official between us. Everything you should've been feeling for me as your man, you felt for him first, hardest and longest..." He paused. "What kind of stupid son of a bitch would I look like marrying you after knowing all that, huh?! It would've only been a matter of time before you two started sneaking around behind my back and making me feel and look like an even bigger dumbass in this town and in the faces of people we knew more than I already would've."

"You're turning this all around on me when I did nothing while we were together. Nine years and whatever I felt for your brother, I never once acted on it, never--"

"You thought about it."

"You had sex with a club whore inside my house, asshole!" I shouted. "Inside my own damn bed! And somehow you doing that while I maybe thought about being with your brother in any way at some point, is supposed to be no big deal because you only did it to get away from me? To make sure that I wouldn't come after you as a result? You know, the funny thing about it is that I never would've gone looking for you after that night anyway, never. I didn't want anything to do with you ever again after catching you in that position with her. And yeah, maybe I've always wanted Roman and the fact is that I should've been with him all along instead of wasting time with an unambitious thief who only decided to come back around because he's hard up again and needs my help in getting the cash for it. Apologies be damned, I guess, right?"

"You are really testing my fucking patience," he said, his hand tightening around the grip of the gun. "Were you always this much of a pain in the ass when we were together? Because I don't remember it and I'm shocked as hell that my brother is so damn willing to put up with it."

"Your brother appreciates this side of me."

"He's the only one," he shot back.

I folded my arms and cut my eyes away from him. "How much of what you stole from Lorenzo do you even have left, if anything?"

"About 15K."

I glowered. "What the hell did you do with the other 485?"

"Gambled with the hope of getting more and hired random women to suck my cock while thinking of you on top of my brother," he spat.

I wasn't sure if he was being honest or just pissing on my leg. Either way, it made my stomach turn and I wanted to gag. "If you already have the 15K, how much of a down payment are these people looking for from you?"

"More."

"How much more?" I asked him.

"More," he repeated.

I rolled my eyes, certain that we would be going around in circles if I asked him the same question again, even in a different tone. "Well, whatever the hell you're looking to hand off to them, I more than likely don't have it. In case you've forgotten, I'm still a teacher that owes money for schools I haven't even been to in the last seven years--"

"I'm not looking for you to give me cash to hand off to them, Colette. That part's covered."

"You said that you needed more of it?"

"I never said more of it," he replied. "I said that I needed more."

"What the hell is a down payment if it doesn't include more cash?"

"Your pussy," he snapped. My mouth dropped. He raised his hand and waved his gun toward the closet. "Now get dressed--"

"Colette!" Checkers called out to me from the living room. I had forgotten that Roman had given him a temporary key, just in case, which left me no time to be completely thrown for a complete loop or disgusted by Jeremiah and what he apparently 'needed' from me. "Colette!" Checkers called out to me again, his voice louder this time as he had moved closer to the bedroom door.

Jeremiah swore something under his breath, then swiftly walked over to me and pressed the muzzle of his gun against my throat. I swallowed against the cool metal tip and despite my attempt at a brave face, I started trembling. "Answer him," he said between his teeth.

"I ca--" I stopped to gulp back the rattle in my voice, then cleared my throat. "What is it?"

"Roman said he wants to talk to you before you head out. Are you decent yet?"

"No -- No, I'm--"

"Don't fuck this shit up, Colette, or he's dead," he mumbled. He pressed the gun down against my windpipe, making it hard as hell for me to even breathe.

I shut my eyes and blurted, "I'm still in a towel and trying to figure out what the hell to do with my hair."

"That's good," he muttered.

"Just tell him that I'll call him back before we head out."

There was a long pause before Checkers said another word to me. "Alright. He might be pissed about that, but --"

"I don't care!" I stopped again and rattled my head to keep from sounding as nervous as I felt. "I mean, he'll be fine. Just tell him that I need to finish getting ready so that we can leave here on time."

I didn't hear another word from him after that.

Jeremiah bobbed his head while looking directly into my eyes, and gradually lowered the gun from my throat. "Good girl," he said. "Now you just need to hurry up and get dressed so that we can head the hell out of here and--"

The bedroom door flung open in a flash. Checkers stood there with wild, shaky eyes while looking between us.

He didn't have his gun.

"What the fuck--?"

Jeremiah said no words to him as he lifted his arm to a 45-degree angle and pulled the trigger, shooting Checkers directly between the eyes. I screamed as the blood gushed from his face, as chunks of his head and parts of his brain went flying and splattered across the bedroom door. He fell to the ground with a thump like a human piece of led.

Tears poured from my eyes almost instantly and I covered my mouth as it hung open in absolute terror. I had never seen anything like that before in my entire damn life outside of television, and I was sure as hell after that, I never wanted to see it again.

Jeremiah walked over to him and lowered to a squat, looking him over as if he hadn't just blown his brains completely out of his head. Then he pat him down and flipped back the lapel of his cut, reached inside the pocket and yanked out what looked like Checkers' wallet. He opened it up to look inside and removed a few credit cards and pictures of naked women, then tossed it aside and stood back up to his feet. As he walked back over to me, I noticed the blood that was soaking into the floor had now 'decorated' the edges of his shoes.

"You need to get your ass dressed already," he told me, his hard tone unchanging despite what had just taken place. It was as if the man was a complete zombie; no feeling, no heart or care whatsoever. His was like the Tin Man without the desire to see OZ. "I promised these guys I'd get you there for them before midnight and you're wasting time."

I dropped my hand and looked up into his face as more tears streamed down my cheeks and throat. "You just killed a man in front of me and don't have anything else to say except that I need to get dressed because you're on a time crunch when it comes to pimping me out?!"

He lifted his gun again, this time putting it right at the center of my forehead. My eyes snapped shut and I released a shaky breath. "I don't want you to be next," he said. "Because I need you for this shit. These assholes saw one of your old pictures in my phone with your tits and ass hanging out, and promised me more cash if they could each take you for a few spins."

Slowly, I opened my eyes and stared up into his face. Disgusted couldn't even begin to explain what I felt for him anymore. I didn't think there was a word that ever could. "Who the hell are you anymore?" I asked him. "You were never perfect. You weren't even all that great of a person, but now you're just completely crazy and ready to kill anything that gets in your way and pimp me out for cash that you're not even going to use to pay back Lorenzo -- something that would help your brother and his club."

"I don't give a fuck about my brother or his club," he hollered out. "I never did, otherwise I would've been right there beside him, patched in like my old man wanted with you as MY old lady, and NOT his. But that's not how shit worked out, is it?" He stared at me and yanked the gun away from my face. "Put on the shortest skirt you can find along with the tightest tank top. No panties, no bra. Let's go."

"I--"

He reached out with his other hand and ripped the towel from my body. I immediately covered myself, feeling both exposed and embarrassed as hell in front of him.

He snickered. "You act like I haven't seen all of this before." He looked me up and down, leering. I couldn't believe this was once someone I had imagined spending the rest of my life or having children with. The thought now made me want to puke. "It still looks good despite being tainted by Roman now." He shoved my arm away from my breasts and used his muzzle to push my hand away from my sex. He leaned his head from side to side and nodded again. "But this is why you're going to get me paid. And if you're a really good girl, there might be something else in it for you too." He brought his eyes up to mine and smirked, then moved around to shove his hand into my back and pushed me across the room. "Now let's go."

 

Roman

After finishing up with my last car for the day, I headed back inside the club and grabbed a beer from behind the bar. I had planned to sit down and relax before trying to dial up Colette ahead of her leaving for her night out with the girls since she had yet to call me back as promised, but didn't have the chance once my cell started buzzing like crazy inside my back pocket. I reached inside to yank it out and stared down at the number, frowning when I noticed that it was Perla.

"Yeah?" I sat my beer down on top of the bar and stood up straight after answering.

"Rome, is Colette out there with you?"

I searched my eyes across the club and knit my brows. "What the hell are you talking about?" I asked her. "She's riding out to your place with Checkers, is she not?"

"Yeah, I thought so," she told me, "but I'm not getting an answer from either one of them. And she promised to call and let me know before she was leaving your house to make it here, which should've been about twenty minutes ago, at least."

I rolled my eyes up toward the clock on the wall to check the time. It was just after 7:20.

"You said you couldn't get in touch with Checkers either?" I asked her.

"No. I've called his cell three times and nothing."

"Shit." I dropped my head and swiped my hand back and forth across my forehead. I took a deep breath in to keep from losing my shit and slowly released it. "Listen, do me a favor and call up Atom, alright? Tell him to meet me at my house in ten."

"Okay."

"Thanks." After hanging up with her, I tried dialing up Colette myself. When it went straight to voicemail, I hung up and tried calling up Checkers instead, but his did the same thing. I slammed my cell shut and threw it back inside my pocket, then headed straight to the chapel and found Riggs and Tracker sitting at the table, reading over papers that had been faxed over to them earlier in the day by Lorenzo. Their heads were down and focused when I blurted out, "Colette's missing."

Tracker looked up first, arching a brow and staring at me as I stood in the doorway.

Riggs then lifted his head and narrowed his eyes. He shoved his brows together and muttered, "What?"

I darted my eyes between them and swallowed hard, then eased my way inside the room and balled my fists. It took everything I had not to competely lose my shit, but I knew if I did, it would get me nowhere good fast.

"I just got a call from Perla," I said, "letting me know that Colette never showed up to her house like she was supposed to with Checkers tonight."

"Maybe she's running late and forgot to call," said Tracker, shrugging it off and turning his eyes back down to the papers on the table. I clinched my teeth and glared at him. "I know it's your first time being married to one, but chicks do that sometimes, brother."

"I just called her up myself and the shit went straight to voicemail," I snapped.

"Then maybe she's just avoiding your ass."

I peered and knit my brows. "This isn't some kind of game, motherfucker!" I spat. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at me again, arching his brows and locking his jaw up tight. "This is my WIFE we're talking about here, alright?!" My eyes went wild and wide to the point of nearly shaking around inside my goddamn head. "She's not some random pussy I just found right off the goddamn street!"

"Nobody told your stupid ass to get hitched to her out there when you were supposed to be handling business as it was," he said. Then he pointed. "Matter of fact, your girl is part of the reason we're in this mess to begin with."

My face twitched. "WHAT?!"

"You heard what I said," he replied in a low voice as if to challenge me on something I had no clue about. He pressed his hands down on top of the table like a motherfucker and stood up from his chair. I stepped even further into the room and tightened my fists so hard, they turned red. "The shit that we're dealing with right now?" He threw out his hand and flicked the papers in front of him. "It could've all been avoided had you not been so caught up in her pussy for all these years and especially within the last few months when she was starting to come around here more with Jeremiah."

I grimaced and rattled my head. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!" I hollered out.

"You," he emphasized, "and the simple motherfuckin' fact that you were too busy wondering as of late when you'd finally get your spin with her to the point that you didn't even see what your brother had been pulling with Lorenzo the entire damn time!"

"That is a stretch if there ever was one!" I shot back. "Even for you. None of what happened is no more on Colette than it is on ME for wanting to be with her!"

"Your eyes were so focused on this chick that you couldn't pull them away for five seconds to prevent any of this shit from even happening--!"

"Jesus CHRIST!" I tossed hand out toward him and looked to Prez. "Do you believe what he's telling me?! This shit he's spewing as Colette might've been taken off to God knows where by Lorenzo or one of his people?!"

Tracker shrugged. "Maybe that shit's for the best."

I didn't even give myself a chance to think before barreling past Prez and decking Tracker just above the bridge of his nose. Blood spewed from his nostrils and the whites of his eyes turned bright red as he tumbled straight back and fell to the floor. Riggs wrapped a hand around my arm and jerked me back before I could reach for him again.

"ALRIGHT!" he hollered out, his face coloring as he shoved me back across the room. "Fuckin' Christ." He pointed at me as I glared at him, then turned to Tracker as he grabbed onto the edge of the table and pulled himself up to his feet, laughing like some kind of maniac. Blood continued pouring from his nose and down the front and corners of his mouth. He wiped his hand back and forth across it, and smeared it across the front of his shirt and cut.

"That was a damn good shot." He snorted and coughed up blood, then turned his head and spat to the floor. "Too bad it doesn't make what I said any less true."

I lunged for him again, but Prez threw his hands into my chest and shoved me back. "ALRIGHT!" he said again. "This shit is enough outta the both of you!" He looked over at Tracker as he brought his hands up to his waist and sniffed back more blood. "What's happening with the club is all on me, I take the fall for that shit, alright? I fucked up and as I've said, I own it. But if what Rome is saying is true and his girl is truly missing because of this prick, then we need to come together as brothers -- as a goddamn family. Decking each other and spewing bullshit to get the other one riled up just 'cause you're looking for an excuse to fight is not gonna get us where we need to be with all this shit." He turned back to me as I folded my arms and gulped, realizing just how much time we had wasted so far. "When is the last time you spoke to your girl?" he asked me.

"This afternoon when she called to tell me about spending time with the girls for Vetta's birthday."

"And you didn't have any more contact with her after that?"

I shook my head. "When they got back to the house, Checkers left me a voicemail while I was working on one of the cars to let me know everything was good. I called him back right after and asked to talk to Colette but she was screaming about needing to get ready. She said she'd call me back before they headed out and I hadn't heard anything since."

"Did you try calling Checkers again?"

"Right after Colette, but his shit did the same thing."

He looked over at Tracker again, who for the first time, started to look concerned.

When my phone started buzzing again, I yanked it out of my pocket even faster than before and stared down at the number. "It's Atom," I said before answering. "Yeah."

"Brother." He paused. "I'm at your house right now and Checkers was gunned down in the bedroom."

I dropped my head back and swallowed hard. "Jesus Christ. Where?"

"Right in the center of his head like an animal or some shit. Single shot is all it took," he said. Then he sighed. "But that's not all."

"What else?"

I heard him swallow and he paused another second before speaking again. "When I was searching around for anything to give me a clue about where your girl might've been taken or who might've done it, I came across her cell stuffed between the cushions of one of the couches out here in the living room. Apparently before taking off, she got that thing turned on to record, and brother... Jeremiah's the one that snatched her up."

It felt like I had just been punched in the chest with a steel fist.

"Jeremiah?!" I said. "What the fuck did he take her for?! Where the hell did they go?!"

"Vegas. Now, I wasn't able to get exactly where they were headed after that, but it seems as if he had promised her to some other assholes out there as a form of down payment to get more money from them for himself in return."

I combed my fingers through my hair and latched onto my scalp, breathing in deep and shutting my eyes to keep from exploding. "Son of a bitch must not even have two pennies to rub together anymore," I muttered. "Fuck."

"What should I do out here?" he asked me.

I stopped for a few seconds to think. "Load up Checkers and we'll take care of him later. Then I think you should call up Chute, Smack and the others and let them know that we're riding out to Vegas to meet up with Lorenzo." I glanced at Riggs from the corner of my eye and he nodded.

"Will he know we're coming?" asked Atom.

"Yeah." I grinded my teeth until my jaw went stiff and tightly gripped the phone. "He's gonna fuckin' know about it."

"Alright."

After hanging up, I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and looked to Riggs and Tracker. "Checkers is dead," I told them. Tracker's shoulders sagged and he looked to the floor. This one had to hit him a bit, considering he had been one of his latest prospects and after only a few months, had shown more potential than even some of the brothers when they were first patched in. Shit, even some of them now. He cleared his throat and wiped his hand back and forth across his mouth again, removing more blood, then he gulped. "Jeremiah must've taken him out before snatching up Colette and dragging her out to Vegas someplace," I continued. "He's gonna try and pimp her out to some assholes that promised him money in return for having her."

"Goddamn," said Riggs. "This son of a bitch fell all the way down the hole and isn't even trying to crawl his way out of it anymore now, is he?"

I shook my head and stared down at the table, trying to keep focused. "No."

"What the hell happened to the 500k that bastard stole from Lorenzo that our asses are now on the line for paying back to him in his place?" asked Tracker. "If he's using your girl to get more money for himself--?"

"I don't know." I leveled my eyes with his and snarled. "But what I do know is that we've gotta head out to Vegas and get some info on this shit from Lorenzo."

"You really think he might know something and if he does, that he's gonna bother giving it up to us at this point?" he questioned. "How do we know he's not the one who got Jeremiah to take out my prospect and snatch up your girl to take her back to Vegas in the first place? Given how his mind operates, this could all be some kinda set up or trap for us to fall right into."

"Then that's just a chance I've gotta take," I said. "Whether you and the rest wanna take it with me or not, I don't care anymore. 'Cause this is my wife we're talking about here, alright, brother? My wife. It's not just about the club anymore; it's about her and me and what we've got together outside of all this shit. And I'm not gonna lose all that by just sitting out here and letting some asshole play grab ass with her all because my prick brother needs to get his hands on more green."

Tracker stared me in the face and shifted his jaw. Then slowly bobbed his head in understanding.

"We're riding with you, brother," said Riggs. "When I say that we're a family, it's not just words I'm throwing out there to keep the peace between us... that's what the brotherhood has always been about and the shit won't start changing up now for any reason whatsoever. No matter what goes down between us in house, this is where it starts and ends; always will."

Tracker cut his eyes between us and bobbed his head. "Yeah," he muttered. "I still think all this shit could've been avoided and I don't think your girl is all that innocent in it either. And if you ever attack me again, I'm shoving my foot up your ass and my fist down your goddamn throat -- Brawler or not." He paused. "But Prez is right, we're family, through thick and thin and all that other bull. So let's get our shit together and dial up this fucker, then head out there and put an end to his reign of terror over this club" -- he looked to me and jerked his chin -- "and your girl, once and for all."

I nodded at him in thanks.

We broke from chapel to make the necessary phone calls and readied ourselves with armor. Once the rest of the boys showed up, we discussed what needed to take place just in case shit went down, then hopped onto our bikes and hit the road straight back to Vegas.

 

Colette

"I thought her tits would be a lot bigger than that in person. Not exactly the size of her head, but maybe like a couple of melons in each cup or something."

A thick, scratchy voice followed up by a sharp grunt and the hard crunch into what sounded like a ripe, juicy apple forced my eyes to snap open from a nap I hadn't even realized I was taking. My head was pounding as if I had just been beaten in the back of it with a sledgehammer, and a set of fluorescent lights blaring above me were practically blinding.

I rolled over on my back and swallowed, which was difficult as hell to do since my throat was as dry as the damn desert. Then I closed my eyes before opening them again and staring up at the ceiling. I was in a bright white room with nothing but a box sized television set seated across from the kitchen, small rocking chair in the corner, a bathroom, lamp, nightstand and bed, which is what I soon realized I had been laying on top of despite it feeling like a giant rock.

I shifted my legs and slightly lifted them. Then when I felt a cool breeze fly up my skirt, I remembered that I wasn't wearing any underwear and quickly placed them back down.

"She's starting to wake up." Another voice spoke then, this one a bit lighter and much more familiar to me. "Listen, when she's ready, I'll bring her down there for you to test out before taking her on a full drive. I've just gotta get her cleaned up a little."

"Give her something to calm her ass down too. If she doesn't and you've gotta pop her again, then so be it."

Pop me? Shit. No wonder my head felt like it did.

When I heard the door easing shut, I brushed my hand over my hair and tried sitting up. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jeremiah making his way over to me. This time, he didn't have his precious gun in hand. I had the urge to kick, bite and scratch him with the hope of escaping right after, but I couldn't seem to find the strength in making any of it happen.

"How's your head?" he asked me. As if he cared.

I swung my legs around the side of the bed and placed my feet down flat on the floor. Then I leaned over and rested my hands at the edge as he stood over me, hovering. "Did you hit me?" I asked. "Hard enough to knock me out?"

"You started going off on me downstairs in the lobby as soon as they took my gun. It was just a smack across the face, you'll be alright."

I pressed the palm of my hand just above my right eye and that's when I felt a knot beginning to form. Just a slap? I thought. Not even close.

"Where the hell are we?" I asked him. "I don't remember much before getting down here."

He grunted and dropped down to a squat in front of me, then stared up into my face and said, "The DoubleShot on the Strip. It's a hotel owned by the Falucchi brothers, same ones that I promised you to for the night." He snickered. "Figured you might like that shit, seeing as how that's your thing now." He jumped up to his feet and moved across the room.

I followed him with my eyes and watched as he grabbed a glass from the drain near the sink in the kitchen and filled it with water. Then he pulled what looked like a small white pill from his front pocket and placed it in the center of his hand. I slightly wagged my head and gulped.

"How much are you getting in return for handing me over to these people?"

"It depends on how good you are; could be a few grand to six figures. They plan on taking turns for most of the night, so one might like you more than the other and in turn offer me more cash. If they like you equally then I just might be set for life."

"The other person I heard you talking to, was that one of them?" He walked back over to me and nodded, then handed me the glass of water and small pill from inside his hand. I frowned. "What the hell is that?"

"Something to help you relax," he said.

I looked up into his eyes as he stared down into mine with nothing but an appetite for greed and pussy. There was no care for me whatsoever as a person, as a woman or even someone he once claimed to love. Any part of him that ever gave a damn about me was not only long gone but after this, would never come back from this place of calamity ever again.

I took the glass and pill with caution, then lowered my hands down to my lap. "Are you going to use any of the money that you get from these men to pay back Lorenzo?"

"Christ, Colette, we've already been over this shit!" he snapped, throwing his hands up and spinning away from me in frustration. "I've got other people I need to worry about right now -- the club is going to be good for paying back Lorenzo the cash I owe him."

"They shouldn't have to be put on the line for something that YOU did! Your brother shouldn't be nearly screwed out of his livelihood just because you couldn't--"

"Fuck him, alright?! And you know what, fuck you too. I just need your pussy, tits and mouth wrapped around a Falucchi cock soon. Your opinion on this shit or anything else no longer matters. Just hurry up and take the damn pill or I'll be forced to make you swallow it back myself."

I wondered for a split second what would happen if I didn't. If instead I tossed the pill aside, threw the water in his face and tried leaving. Then I figured nothing good, given who he was now and what he had already done to me before and after coming here.

I pretended to toss the pill into my mouth while keeping it tight inside the creases of my palm. It was small enough to stay in place and not slip while also not being shown. I then drank back some of the water, which tasted like pure piss and quickly swallowed.

Jeremiah walked back over to me and grabbed my jaw. He pushed my head back and said, "Open up." I placed my hand down on top of the bed, trying to make it look flat though it wasn't, and opened my mouth wide enough for him to look inside. After he was satisfied enough, he snatched the glass from my hand, placed it on the nightstand and grabbed my arm to lift me up from the bed. Then he looked directly into my eyes again and without even a pinch of remorse muttered, "I'm going to take you down there and when they're ready to take you for themselves, they will, alright? No protest, no funny shit. Don't ask questions of things you know that you shouldn't. If you pull something like it with me or these assholes, this will end much worse for you tonight than initially planned, got it?" I nodded. "Then let's go."

As soon as he turned his head and started dragging me alongside him, I dropped the pill to the floor and stepped on it with the toe of my shoe. Then I prayed to God as Jeremiah shoved me out the door and hustled me toward the nearest elevator that something would strike them all dead before they had the chance to reel me in even further than they had already.

 

Roman

We showed up in Vegas within just a few hours and parked our bikes along the back of Lorenzo's packed casino in a single file line. After Riggs cut the engine on his bike and stood up from it, we all followed suit and gathered around him.

He stared each of us in the face, preparing himself to speak. "Remember what I said before taking off from the club," he said. "We don't start any shit with him and instead keep it cool and calm while listening to what the hell he's gotta say first. If shit starts going south, then we dive in. Anything before that, we let it ride out, alright?" He made a point to stare directly into my eyes while saying that last part. I tightened my jaw and gulped, and nodded at him. "Alright. Let's start making our way in."

We plowed through the crowd hanging around the front doors of the place like a pack of wild dogs, only to be stopped in our tracks by three Jolly Green Giant sized motherfuckers who came out of nowhere and blocked us off before we could even make it past the foot of the lobby. They each looked us over, seeming to size us up while mumbling into tiny mics hanging down from the end of their clear earpieces.

I balled my fists in case one of them tried taking a swing for no reason but relaxed when Riggs turned to stare me down and shook his head.

"The Reapers?" one of them said. Standing right in front of me with a head shaped like the tip of a limp cock, he looked me square in the face as if his green eyes couldn't move down a few inches just to take a quick read of the name of our club between the rows of patches on my cut.

"Yeah," I told him, my tone obvious as hell.

He eyed me up and down, then looked to the other two bald pricks on his left and right and nodded. "Lorenzo's up in VIP at the bar, but he's only looking to have a conversation with about four of your guys in particular."

Chute shrugged. "Who the hell are they?"

Baldy in the middle turned back to me and nodded. "This one here with the most pissed off look on his face. Your Prez, VP and another one named Atom."

Poker stared up and down the line, then focused all attention on Riggs and threw his arms out to his sides in irritation. "What the hell are the rest of us supposed to do in the meantime? Find a corner to jerk off?"

Riggs lifted his shoulders. "Play the slots and don't scope out any pussy." He pointed. "And stick close." Poker nodded.

As the other two giants remained in place with the rest of our crew, the four of us followed Baldy through the casino and straight down to the bar, which was overcrowded as hell and playing loud, shitty music that would've made even a dog's ears bleed out.

He walked us past a giant dancefloor filled with nothing but drunks and college kids sucking face and having open sex in any place they could find, then led us up a set of spiral stairs near the back and past a red curtain. Once we were all in place, he pulled the curtain back and waved his hand across himself, indicating that we step inside. Riggs moved in first, followed by Tracker and Atom.

I was last, and when I looked across the room, in which everything was red and white, including the lights flashing high above our heads, I frowned.

"Ho. Ly. Shit." Riggs stepped forward and opened his hands as his eyes shifted back and forth between Lorenzo and who we soon realized were none other than the Falucchi brothers. They were all seated along the edge of a red and white couch that was lined against the wall on the opposite side. A few topless girls had just finished serving them drinks, then snuck out the back without saying a single word to us or even looking in our direction. I noticed Tracker adjusting his cock as he moved up near Riggs, who continued staring. "What the fuck is this shit?" he asked.

"It's a party." Lorenzo grinned at each of us and slid back even further onto the couch.

"A party of what?" asked Atom. "What the fuck are the Falucchi brothers doing here? We've got no business with them."

"You've got no business with them, but Jeremiah does -- or so he thinks."

I moved past Riggs and focused my eyes down on Lorenzo's face. "What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Your brother, who also just so happens to be one of the biggest damn morons I've ever seen in my entire life." He chuckled. "I'll admit he was smart in stealing from me, but he was also stupid as hell in how he managed to lose that green just the same. At least most of it. But I guess it was better for me that he did, otherwise tracking him down wouldn't have been as easy as it turned out to be for me. Which also happens to work out well for you too. Great timing in dialing me up tonight, by the way. Meant to tell you that shit over the phone." He smirked.

"Listen, do you mind explaining just what the hell is going on in straight up English?" asked Tracker. "Some of us would like to move this shit along before the night's over. Hoping to get some from one of your girls in the back before all's said and done."

Lorenzo glanced between the Falucchi's before turning back to us. "After Jeremiah gambled, smoked and fucked away most of the cash he had stolen from me somewhere up in Atlantic City -- and within less than a few hours after taking off at that -- he headed back west and started sniffing around the strip again on the low." He wagged his head. "Idiot was hoping that someone off my radar would either take him up on his offer to work their books, or dole him out a loan that they both knew he was never going to pay back to keep up with his habit. For obvious reasons, most turned him down." He paused and leaned back. "Then he called up the Falucchi brothers as a last resort. Knowing that we had a falling out a few months back over a business deal gone wrong, he figured it would be nothing to just hit them up for a little cash while in the same stupid breath bragging about how much he had stolen from me without ever planning to pay it back. They realized he was bound to screw them over too and called me up."

"And that's why they're here?" I asked.

He nodded once. "See, what your dumbass kin failed to realize is that even though the three of us had cut our ties through business, the Falucchi's are second cousins on my mother's side. Meaning that any form of being screwed over by someone outside the family was going to take priority over anything that we had going on within it. Sort of like your club, I imagine."

I glanced over at Riggs, who kept his attention straight ahead.

"If all this shit you're saying is accurate, that means Colette being out here was a giant set up by you," said Tracker. "Just like I thought from the get go."

Lorenzo bent his head to the side and mumbled, "In a way."

"Not in a way," said Tracker, shifting his eyes between Atom and Riggs. "I was right -- I'm always fuckin' right. Especially when it comes to shit like this."

"I needed to draw Jeremiah out into the open and keep him put for a while," Lorenzo went on, ignoring Tracker's moment of victory and turning to me again. "The only way to do that was through your girl."

I stepped over to the table and lowered my head. "Where the hell is Colette right now?"

He reached inside the pocket of his suit, pulled out his giant cell and pushed a few buttons, then handed it over to me. "See for yourself." While staring down at the screen, I saw Colette alone and inside of a room with nothing but a bed on one side and a bathroom on the other. She was pacing back and forth across the carpet with a panicked look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest.

As my eyelids burned, a giant lump crept up into the back of my throat. I was beyond glad to know that she was okay, to know that she hadn't been hurt as I had feared. But I was pissed off that everything had managed to even get this far; pissed off at the fact that Tracker might've been more right than I was willing to give him credit for. Maybe it was my fault for not paying closer attention to Jeremiah. Maybe I could've prevented all this shit from happening to my wife and club.

When the screen turned black, I cleared my throat and swallowed. "Where the hell is this?"

"Our hotel," one of the Falucchi's said, his Italian accent as thick as the black toupee sitting on top of his head. "She's being kept in one of the overnight bunkers on the lower level at back that's usually set up for one of the maids."

"What about Jeremiah?" I placed the phone down on top of the table and leaned forward. "Where the hell is he?"

"This." Lorenzo stood up from the couch and yanked the lapels on his suit jacket. He looked between each of us and bobbed his head. "I think you might enjoy. Let's head back into my main office."

As the Falucchi brothers hung back to enjoy more women and liquor on their way up, Lorenzo waved his hand and led us through a separate door behind another curtain to the left of the couch. This led to an above ground tunnel with bright white lights flashing at us from every angle with each step we took moving forward.

Once we had finally reached the end, Lorenzo turned back to us and grinned. Then he wrapped his hand around the knob of another door and pushed back. Though I don't think what he saw on the other side of it was something to be expected.

"Holy fuckin' shit," I muttered, my eyes going wide as they shifted across the room.

There was blood everywhere, splattered across his walls and framed pictures, across the white leather of his couches and mixed into the cracks of his ceiling; some splattered across the top of his desk and along the edges of his bookcase behind it. The rest seemed to pour over his chair, which was knocked to its side on the floor. Laying behind it and flat on his back with his arms and legs spread wide was Baldy from earlier. His right eye hung by the edge of a nerve from the socket and dangled along the side of his face; his throat had been slit from ear to ear and his tongue was missing. His chest and stomach were mutilated as if chewed out by a thousand or more piranha; he was straight up gutted like a goddamn fish; his bones were cracked from one end to the other and poking out through pieces of his flesh.

Riggs moved forward, ahead all of us, and shook his head while staring at Lorenzo, whose face and eyes had burned bright red before turning completely white. "Are we at the part that we're supposed to be enjoying?" he asked. "'Cause to tell you the truth, I don't think we've hit it just yet."

"FUCK!" Lorenzo stormed over to his desk, spewing words in Italian, and reached for his phone, the only thing not covered in blood. He punched a few numbers and sucked in a deep breath, and while gritting his teeth, turned his eyes directly to me and tightened his fingers around the handset. "Where the fuck is this son of a bitch?!" he screamed into the phone. The brothers and I looked around at each other, pissed off. Lorenzo lowered his gaze from me and rattled his head, then waited a few seconds and hollered out, "SHIT! Who the fuck went looking for him?!" He stopped and shook his head again. "And nobody thought to mention this shit to me first?! He runs out of here covered head to toe in somebody else's blood and there's nothing brought to me about it?!" He paused again. "Shit, SHIT! NO," he said. "NO! I'll deal with you and the others' fuck ups later. Just send Connor and Romero back up here to inform the Falucchi brothers in VIP of what's going down. The rest of this shit is something I've got no choice but to take care of myself!"

After slamming the phone back down on the hook, he stepped over Baldy's body and hustled to a cabinet in the corner on the opposite side, unlocking and opening its doors, and searching through one helluva gun and knife collection that filled five rows.

I moved closer to him and clinched my jaw. "What the fuck is going on?" I asked him.

He stopped moving and looked aside. "What's going on is that brother of yours went apeshit in here." He turned back to the cabinet and continued searching. "After he brought Colette to the Falucchi's, I had my guys snatch him up from his room at the DoubleShot and brought back here to confront and eventually take out. Son of a bitch was supposed to be knocked out cold with a tranquilizer strong enough to put a bear to sleep, and got shot up with a high dosage of PCP from another vial instead."

"Jesus -- Where the hell did he take off to?"

He grabbed a small handgun from his bottom shelf, then slammed the doors shut and turned back to us. "My guess is after realizing that I fucked him over, he went straight back to the DoubleShot for Colette."

"Then let's go." I started for the door on the opposite side of his office that led out to the hallway. But Riggs threw his hand into my chest, holding me back. I stared down at it and shoved him away so hard that he nearly tripped over the back of his feet just before finding his footing again. "What the fuck, old man?!" I said, narrowing my eyes and balling my fists again, preparing to take him down if need be. "You realize the shit his now cracked out mind could be capable of?!"

Riggs peered and threw both of his hands into my chest. I fell back into Tracker, who held me steady before I could fall to the floor.

"I know it," he said between his teeth. He stepped forward and exhaled, staring down into my face as I steadied my feet and fixed my cut. "But we don't know if he's there yet, and that's the entire point of this shit." He turned to Lorenzo, who had slipped his gun into the holster inside his jacket. "Whip out your phone and let's see if this fucker's shown up for her yet." He glimpsed at me from the corner of his eye and brought his hands up to his waist. "We try to go in on him before knowing what's up, and we'll all be fucked. You might be willing to take a risk on that shit, but on this one, I'm not, brother."

Tracker stepped around me and moved closer to Riggs. He dragged his hand back and forth across his mouth, then down his chin "We've got our entire crew against a PCP filled fuck up, Prez," he told him. "Not much he can do to us if we all head out after him at once."

"Maybe not much he can do to us," I said. They both turned to me as I lowered my eyes and shoved my brows together; the fear rising high and flooding my bloodstream just as much as the rage. "But he'll damn sure have no problem in doing something to Colette. Or any other innocent bystander if he knows that we're coming."

"We also don't know if he's got his own crew set in place," replied Atom. "It's more than likely not the case, but they could also just be laying low 'til the time is right to strike back at us."

"He's right." Riggs turned back to Lorenzo, who stared down at his phone, pushing buttons again. "This asshole could have all kinds of tricks up his sleeve, setting traps up for us left and right."

"Yeah, one big trap that could be right here inside this room." Tracker looked to Lorenzo and narrowed his eyes. "How the hell do we know that this isn't just some set up you two cooked up together to fuck us all over from jump?

Lorenzo looked up from his phone and switched his eyes between all four of us. Then he brought them back to me and snickered. "Is he serious?"

"Fuck yeah, I'm serious," Tracker told him, regaining his attention. "This shit has been shady from the beginning and now one of your guards has been conveniently taken out by some measly prick who could barely knock the fly from a horse's ass? You think about that shit for a minute and tell me from your own mouth if it sounds right to you."

"I could think about that shit, or we can go and take this fucker out together before he takes out his girl," said Lorenzo, nodding his head toward me.

"That's a convenient answer." Tracker stared him in the face and bent his head to the side. "One that sounds full of guilt."

Lorenzo stepped forward and opened his hands. "You think I stole half a mil from my own business too?"

He shook his head. "Wouldn't put that shit past you if it meant getting what you wanted in the end, which was us underneath your thumb."

Lorenzo pointed in his face. "You're full of shit."

"Not as much as you."

"We are wasting valuable time here with all this back and forth dick wagging, motherfuckers," Atom interjected. "Now--"

My cell rang, disrupting him. The sound was loud and almost too damn clear for me to ignore. Tracker, Atom and Riggs all turned to look me in the face, as did Lorenzo. I ripped it from the pocket of my cut as quickly as I could and stared down at the number. When I recognized it as being Jeremiah's this time, I got a feeling in my gut that wasn't good.

"Yeah," I said after answering.

There was a long pause that put me on edge until the son of a bitch finally spoke. "I want you to meet me on the roof at the DoubleShot," he said between hard and erratic breaths. "Just you alone. None of the brothers or I put Colette down like a dog."

I swallowed hard and inhaled. "Where the fuck is she right now?" I asked him. "With you?"

He laughed and I wanted to put my fist straight through the phone. "You shouldn't even worry about where she is right at this very second unless you're not able to make it here within the next fifteen minutes, then you might need to," he told me. "And remember what I said." He hung up without another word and we were instantly disconnected.

Atom shoved himself between Riggs and Tracker and stood in front of me. "What the hell did he say, Rome?"

I stared down at the phone for a few seconds before stuffing it back inside my pocket. I flared my nostrils and gulped while trying to hold back the urge to lose my shit all over again. "He wants me to meet him on the roof at the DoubleShot alone."

"Jesus," he breathed. Then he stopped and made a face. "No," he said. "No way in hell are you going up there on your own with that fucker. You just said yourself that he's got a cracked-out mind and meeting you up on the goddamn roof of that building?" He leaned back and wagged his head. "Fuck no -- He's liable to shove you off that thing and send you flying straight down to your death at the bottom of that shit -- hell no."

I clamped my teeth together and flexed my jaw. "He's gonna put Colette to ground if I don't."

"Is she with him right now?" asked Riggs, looking to Lorenzo again.

"I can't get shit." Lorenzo tapped the screen of his phone and wagged his head. "Looks like the cams connected to my phone are down."

"What'd I tell ya," said Tracker. "Motherfucker's gotta be working with other people or this asshole is screwing us all over again."

I turned to Prez and knit my brows. "I'm going after her," I told him. "Trap or not, she's my wife and I'll be a damned if I allow that piece of shit brother of mine to have even an inch of a chance in taking that away from me."

He sighed heavily, unsure as I could read it all over his face, the lines between his eyes, the wrinkles forming in the center of his forehead. Then he looked away from me and reluctantly nodded his head. "You make sure to keep your ass aware, alright?" he said. "I want Atom following behind out there" -- he turned to him and pointed -- "but I need you staying back far enough to keep from being seen. The last thing we need is this motherfucker being spooked and pulling some shit, yeah?" Atom nodded. Riggs looked to me again and stepped forward. "Head out and we'll deal with this prick." He stopped and turned to Lorenzo. "You get the Falucchi's to call their staff to let them know what's up and to stay outta the goddamn way. We don't need any more interference for chances of having this entire thing become even more fucked up than what it is already, got it?" Lorenzo lowered his eyes without responding. Riggs turned back to me. "We'll inform the other brothers of what's up."

"Alright--"

"But." I tried moving past but he put his hand out to stop me again. I grimaced. "You take too goddamn long to tell us what's going on out there or that this fucker has finally been taken out," he said, "and we start making our way out to you sooner rather than later, regardless of what's going down, you get it?"

I stared him in the face and gradually bobbed my head, then told him, "Yeah, Prez, I've got it," before shuffling past and finally making way out the door.

 

Colette

I was bored out of my mind but it was damn sure better than being taken advantage of or forced to satisfy someone against my will.

After Jeremiah had dragged me downstairs to the mediocre hotel bar to meet with two overweight men wearing grey suits, one of whom was wearing a black toupee that sat to the side of his head instead of directly in the middle of it, while the other decided that hiding behind fake hair was of no use and remained as bald as a cue ball, he had taken off to God knows where while leaving me completely alone with them. The bald one just stared up at me as soon as the three of us were alone without saying a single word; his dark green eyes were like two giant orbs burning bright beneath his slightly tanned lids.

The one with the crooked toupee stared up at me as well. But only for a few seconds before latching onto the table and rising from his chair. He then adjusted his jacket and smiled wide while turning to me and slinking a hand around my arm, murmuring, "Come with me."

My heart started beating out of my chest within an instant of us leaving the bar.

"Where are we going?" I asked him; he moved so fast through the lobby and kitchen, passing each of his cooks who kept their eyes focused elsewhere, never once looking in my direction, that I was practically tripping over my own feet once we finally made it through the back and down an elongated corridor. The other one moved in behind me before his brother could answer my question and shoved his hand into my back to hurry me along even more.

When I turned to look him in the face, he remained silent and only shook his head at me. Then he narrowed his eyes as if the very sight of me disgusted him, and turned straight ahead.

Moments later, we were standing in front of a giant white door. The brother with the toupee looked around me while tightening his grip on my arm and nodded at the other one, who then reached inside his pants pocket for a set of keys. I rolled my eyes up toward the ceiling and swallowed hard, wondering just how in the hell I was going to be able to get myself out of this without my neck possibly being snapped in half.

As soon as the brother with the keys unlocked and pushed the door back, I had opened my mouth to speak. But it was no use as the one holding onto my arm soon tossed me inside the room and shoved me down onto the bed face first. My skirt went flying up over my bare ass and I flipped over on my back as quickly as I could to pull it down. The brothers laughed and looked at each other; I noticed then that their bellies were so big, they were practically hanging over the front of their pants.

"I--" I started again, but the one wearing the toupee, which seemed to slip to the side even more than it had already, raised his hand to keep me quiet.

"What all did Jeremiah happen to mention to you about us?" he asked me.

I looked between the two of them and sat back even further onto the bed. "Just that you two owned the hotel," I told him. "And that you wanted me here as a form of down payment for him to be able to get more money from you."

The second brother leaned into his ear and mumbled something. He nodded his head.

"Alright, look. We needed you here for a specific reason, but not the one he initially told you about," he said.

I knit my brows and looked between them for the second time, confused as all hell. "Then why the hell am I here?" I asked.

"Collateral--"

"Enough questions," the bald one told me, cutting him off. Then he raised his arm and shoved back the sleeve of his jacket to stare down at the time on his watch. "We need to start heading out already," he said to his brother.

Toupee nodded again and turned back to me. "You're going to stay in here for the time being," he said. "At least until we receive word that you can come--"

"Receive word from who?" I jumped up from the bed and glowered. "What the hell is this?"

The bald one ripped what I quickly recognized as Jeremiah's gun from a pocket inside his jacket and pointed it directly in my face. "Sit back down, sweets," he told me in a gruff voice. Slowly, I eased myself back down to the edge of the bed, pressed my knees together and placed my hands inside my lap. He bent forward. "Nobody has time to explain any of this shit to you when we've got a meeting across the city." He looked over at his brother again and arched his brows. "We need to get the hell out of here already and head out to see this bastard before he blows his fuse with us again."

I racked my brain with ideas of who the hell they could be talking about; if not Jeremiah, then must have been Lorenzo. And it had to be about the money Jeremiah refused to pay back. Then again, if that were the case, why the hell was I being thrown into a random room inside a crappy hotel instead of being taken straight to Lorenzo himself?

My brain remained focused on that question until the two men finally left me alone inside the room, making sure to lock the door from the outside. I got up from the bed a few times and paced back and forth, wondering if Roman had ever managed to find my phone and listened to the recording of my conversation with his brother. Even if he were here now, there was no real way for him to find me unless he confronted Lorenzo about it first. And God only knew how the hell that was going to go when he did.

As I sat back down on the edge of the bed and wrapped my arms around my stomach, I leaned forward and bent over my knees, closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten to try and calm my ever-growing nerves. When I hit the last number, a loud bang came up from the other side of the door, damn near startling me out of my clothes.

"What the hell?" There were two more bangs followed up by the sound of gunshots.

I jumped up from the bed and screamed, then clamped my hand over my mouth and hurried to the other side of the room. The door swung open in that moment and Jeremiah, covered in head to toe with blood and what looked like the inside of human flesh on his face and in his hair, stepped forward. How the hell nobody managed to stop him while looking like that is beyond me.

"Let's go." He waved gun hand toward me, then dipped his head back to look out the door.

Anxious, I wagged my head at him and muttered, "Hell no."

"COLETTE!" he hollered out, forcing me to flinch. We stared at each other for what felt like forever. He didn't say another word and instead lunged forward and grabbed onto my wrist. Then he raised the gun to my face and as he slid his finger across the trigger, I shut my eyes, fearful that he would slip and pull back. "Let's. Go," he finally said.

"What the hell is on your face--?"

"I SAID LET'S GO!" He yanked me from the room and back down the corridor. Then as we wrapped around a few corners, he found a door that led to multiple flights of stairs. We made our way up I'm not even sure how many after what seemed like an eternity, but I knew that by the time we had finally reached the top of the last set, I was completely out of breath and ready to keel over. Though before I could, he grabbed onto my wrist again and after opening another door to the left of us, pushed me through to the other side.

I stumbled forward but caught my bearings before I could fall into the pile of gravel at my feet. Then I looked at my surroundings, studying every angle; we were outside, on the roof of the building. I lifted my eyes toward the sky and stared at the abundance of stars above my head. And while trying to catch my breath, I turned to face Jeremiah, whose expression had dimmed, whose eyes had gone completely black. I wanted to move closer to him but instead remained in place, asking, "What the hell are we doing up here?"

He stared straight into my eyes while his remained expressionless. Then he muttered, "Someone is going to die up here tonight." His voice was cool and calm, much quieter in comparison to before.

It scared the absolute shit out of me.

"Who is dying up here tonight, Jeremiah?" I asked him, my voice cautious as I tried like hell to keep it from rattling between words. "And why?"

He fell silent this time and raised his hand to point the gun toward my face again. And then he pulled the trigger.

Within seconds, I was on the ground flat on my back; my head landed on top of the gravel and my breathing turned shallow.

And then everything around me went completely black.

 

Roman

After pulling up to the DoubleShot, I immediately cut the engine on my bike, hopped off and started making way inside the building. Unsure if that whacked-out son of a bitch would be watching as soon as I showed up, I made sure to tell Atom to stay as far back as possible until I made it up to the roof. Even a hint of any leathers but my own and my brother was liable to take out my wife in the heat of his anger.

When I moved into the lobby and saw the front desk, I headed over to the two women standing behind it. One of them was on the phone but quickly looked me in the face once she noticed me walking over. She leaned over to the woman standing next to her and muttered a few words, then pulled back as soon as I was standing in front of them. The other woman was folding papers, but stopped and lifted her head when she noticed me staring her in the face.

She gulped. "May I help you... sir?" Her voice rattled. It was clear my size intimidated the hell out of her, but I had no time to pretend as if I gave a damn about it.

I bent forward and rested my arm on the edge of the desk. "How the hell do I get up to the roof of this place?"

Her dark brown eyes grew and she leaned away from me. Then she stared down at my jacket and soured upon looking over each of my patches. "Are you that member of the Reaper's they called us about?" I didn't respond. She looked to the girl next to her for a few seconds, who looked just as terrified while remaining on the phone, then returned her eyes to me and pointed. "Through the emergency doors at the back, there's a staircase. To the left of them is an elevator. The code to use it is 6145. Once you get on, push the button labeled 'R' and it will take you right up there."

I looked behind myself at the door and arched a brow, then turned back to her and asked, "If I head back there, will some kinda alarm start going off?"

She shook her head. "We turned it off before you showed up."

I looked between the two of them and nodded. "Thanks." I took off running, dodging people left and right as I made my way to that back door. After pushing through it, I found the stairs and elevator, just as the girl had said. I moved to push the code for the elevator and as soon as the doors flew open, I jumped on and pushed the 'R' for roof.

When I finally reached the top, I stepped off and shoved through the door leading outside. And not a second after it shut behind me did something hard and thick snap against the back of my neck, sending me damn near flying forward and to the other side of the roof.

I wrapped my hand around my neck and spun around on the ball of my foot. As soon as I saw my brother's face, what little of it wasn't covered in hair and blood, I gave no time to myself to think and instead just balled my fist and knocked him right between the eyes until I felt something inside of his face snap upon impact.

His arms went flying out to his sides as he stumbled back into a trashcan directly behind him. Then he tripped over his own goddamn foot and fell straight to the ground on his side. He groaned and rolled over to his hands and knees while keeping his fingers tight around the grip of that gun, which I soon realized is what he had managed to hit me with. I stepped over to him, cautiously, unsure if he was still high as a kite from the injection of PCP or was just being his normal asshole self and the shit had worn off him already.

"I guess you're sticking with 'Brawler', brother?" he asked. He raised his hand from the ground and wrapped it around his stomach. Then he leaned his head back and rolled his eyes up to stare me in the face. He arched a brow and bobbed his head, then used his other hand to push himself up from the ground and stand to his feet. The whites of his eyes were now bloodshot thanks to my fist. The bridge of his nose was turning purple as were the inside corners of his eyes.

I clinched my fists and darted my eyes across the roof. "Where the fuck is Colette?" I asked him, my tone hard. I was far past being pissed off and ready to end this asshole. Blood or not, he had finally reached past his expiration date.

He raised the gun to the side of his head and scratched it with the tip of the muzzle. He shoved his brows together and lowered his eyes from my face. It was as if he was trying to appear confused, but after knowing him for all his life, I knew better than to believe that he was anything at this very moment but full of complete shit. "Did I say anything to you about Colette being up here with me?" he asked. "Because I don't think I ever did."

"WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE?!" I roared, leaping toward him. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, my fists were so damn tight that my fingers were turning colors and going numb. I felt my face redden just from the heat burning the inside of my cheeks. And this bastard didn't even move an inch. "Where the fuck is my wife, Jeremiah?"

"Your wife?" He stepped back and chortled, then turned from me and moved across the roof. "YOUR WIFE!" he hollered out. "GodDAMN, isn't that some crazy shit?" He turned back to me and pointed the gun in my face. "Your. Wife." He laughed again and shook his head. "I've gotta tell you, brother, that out of every brother in that club, you were the last one I ever pictured in taking somebody as your own for more than a few weeks at a time. Then again, it hasn't even been a full fourteen days yet, so I guess there's still time to get out of this shit if you want." He pressed his lips together and smirked. He swallowed hard. "But then again, I know just how you've always felt about Colette. How you were always looking at her even when I was around. I just knew that you wanted to taste her and probably wanted to murder the fuck out of me for having it all to myself on damn near a nightly basis. While you were too busy either jerking off in the shower or bringing home some random bitch from the club and getting your rocks off just before sending her right back out the front door." He stopped and swallowed again. "She was mine. For years and years, she was mine and then you come in like a fucked up white knight savior on a motorcycle instead of a horse, swoop her off to Vegas and give her your last name... our last name," he said.

"You're not fit to hold it," I told him. "You're a worthless piece of shit and always have been. It's just more obvious now that you're too old to hide behind being a young and naive prick about it."

He dragged his arm back and forth across his nose and sniffed. "Is it?" he asked.

I nodded at him. "Yeah. You're a goddamn thief that has our old man spinning around in his grave because of all the shit that you've done."

"You're acting like I killed somebody," he shot back. "I just stole a little cash from a casino owner, that's all."

"You stole half a million dollars! An amount that the club is being forced to pay back when we should've never been dragged into this shit in the first place!" I paused and glared at him. "Is that why you turned Riggs onto Lorenzo? Knowing that if you snatched up his money and took off before the ink on their contract was even dry, he would put the debt onto the club?"

He shrugged and looked away from me, careless. "I didn't know for a fact but I assumed as much--"

"SON OF A BITCH!" I hollered out. He bugged his eyes and raised his gun toward me again but I barreled toward him, not giving a shit if he managed to shoot me or not. Though he didn't have the chance when I locked my arms around his waist and drove him back toward the edge of the roof. As soon as he landed, the gun went flying from his hand and behind his head. He tried twisting out of my grip, but I unlocked his waist and grabbed him by his blood-soaked shirt instead, jerking him toward me. "You were willing to sacrifice us as a club to Lorenzo on the hopes that you would be able to continue collecting more green! And then you brought Colette into this shit--!"

"I never meant to bring Colette into anything!" he spat. "But she was my only chance for scoring the money I needed!"

"Yeah, so you thought, asshole!" I told him. "How stupid were you to not see that this shit was a setup from jump?!"

"I didn't think the Falucchi's would consider calling up Lorenzo about this shit!" he said, his eyes wiggling with fear inside his sockets. "I thought they would go along with me in screwing him over!"

"They're his cousins, asshole! You getting involved with them is the reason Lorenzo wanted to use Colette as bait! He knew your stupid ass would go running without an incentive to keep you around, so he gave you one -- MY WIFE!" I spat. I shoved my hands away from him and stood back. He turned to the side and latched onto the edge of the roof, inhaling and exhaling as he looked toward the ground. "Why the hell were you calling me after taking off?" I asked him, slowly breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth to keep from knocking him dead where he stood.

He waited a few seconds and spat to the ground, then looked over at me and said, "Money, at first. I needed more of it."

"But you knew that Lorenzo was gonna come after the club. You wanted me to blindly hand off some dough via what, Western fuckin' Union? Only to find out later that I would need that same green to help out with the club."

"I told you I didn't know for a fact if he would put the debt on the club!"

I bobbed my head. "You knew," I told him. "And you didn't give a shit about it -- still don't."

He paused. "You know how I found out about you and Colette? The Falucchi's, who I guess learned about that shit from Lorenzo. That's why the phone calls started coming in for you from different numbers."

"You never said anything on the other end."

"I couldn't," he snapped. "What the fuck was I supposed to say, 'congratulations'?" He looked away from me and grinded his teeth. "You say that I didn't give a shit about you and the club to put you in all this, but you didn't give a shit about me in turning around and wifing up Colette behind my back."

I dropped back and made a face at him. Son of a bitch had lost his entire damn mind. "You're gonna stand there and play the role of a wounded brother now, asshole? When all you've ever done is treat her as if she never fuckin' mattered to you? You didn't deserve who she was -- you don't deserve who the hell she is now--"

"Neither do you," he replied. "You're under this deep impression that you two are going to work out?" He shook his head and sniffed. He adjusted his pants around his waist and looked aside. "She'll leave you for this, for the club and how deeply involved you are in everything. The one thing she ever told me consistently was that a life as the wife of a brother was never one she wanted to live for herself. No matter what the hell she felt or feels about you, she knows deep down inside herself that you can't do much of anything for her in the same way somebody outside of the club can. You can't give her what she needs--"

"I give her plenty of everything she needs and then some, brother," I shot back with a smirk. "Plenty of everything she'll ever need. More than you could ever give her, and that's something she enjoys the hell out of." I stepped forward and bent my head. "Only a limp dick motherfucker would think that she'd go from you to me be left unsatisfied."

He hurled toward me screaming his damn head off but was thrown back and flipped over the edge in damn near a flash before he could come near me. His feet went flying up and over his head as his neck snapped back and his arms jutted out beside him. A cloud of screams and honking horns from passing cars erupted in the darkness from down below as he flew like a goddamn bird and finally landed down on the pavement, cracking the remaining bones inside his body.

I looked over in shock; my heart racing like a motherfucker as I saw Colette lower her arms back down to her sides after having shoved her hands into his chest to send him over. She was staring out into the darkness and breathing so hard that her entire body was shaking from it.

"Babe," I called out to her in a calm voice. But she didn't move an inch. Gradually, I moved over to her and rested my hand at the small of her back. She jumped in fear and screamed out, then spun around on the heels of her feet and fell straight down into my arms. We collapsed together on the ground as she burst into a fit of tears and sobbed into my cut. I brushed my hand over the top of her hair and held her as close to me as I could as her entire body rattled against mine. Her heart was beating so fast that it slammed into me like the head of a hammer. She latched onto the lapel of my cut and tried dragging me even closer to her. We could never seem to be close enough. "It's alright, babe," I told her. "You're good now. You're good."

She raised her other hand and wrapped her arm around my neck, then lifted her mouth to my ear and muttered, "I'm so sorry, Roman. He shot his gun near my face, and I fell straight to the ground; the fear of it knocked me out... And then when I woke up and saw you two just now... saw him coming at you like that... Something inside me just snapped."

I shook my head at her and glowered. "Darlin', he was already dead long before you ever came near him, alright?" I told her. "The only thing you did was throw his body right down to where the rest of him had always been." Her grip tightened around me and with ease, I moved my arm beneath her legs and lifted her from the ground. "Come on. Let's get you back inside." I started for the door, but fell back when Atom came rushing through it, damn near tripping all over himself when he saw us standing there.

"Jesus Christ," he breathed, his wide eyes looking between us. Then he blinked a few times and turned his attention to the edge of the roof.

I followed his direction and peered. "Did you see?" I asked him.

He nodded. "Yeah. The brothers are on their way down here, along with Lorenzo and the Falucchi's."

"What about the people down there?" I asked him. "They'll be calling the cops and shit if they haven't already. And I don't know if anybody saw Colette, but the girl at the front desk is aware of me being up here."

"Brother, I've got that shit covered, alright? We're good there, with all of it. You don't need to worry about nothing else right now except for getting your girl back inside."

I nodded and moved past him, then headed back in as he said.

 

Roman

Once I got Colette covered up in my jacket and settled on a couch in the lobby with her third shot of gin, I made my way over to Reefer, Smack, Chute and Limb as they stood near the doors and watched men dressed as EMT's zip my brother up inside a black leather bag and haul him inside an ambulance. Across from them stood, Tracker, Atom, Riggs and Lorenzo, along with the Falucchi's, discussing with the police their version of what happened with him on the roof. If not for the fact that Lorenzo had these assholes in his back pocket, there was a chance of us all serving time for what happened tonight, regardless of what they said. Though I would've made damn sure that Colette wouldn't have had a part in serving any of it with us.

"Yo, brother." Axel stepped forward and jerked his chin toward Colette. "How's she doing with all this shit?" he asked me.

I looked over at her and sighed. "She's shaken up and shit, but I think in due time, she'll be alright," I told him. "At least better than she's been tonight." I stopped and shook my head. "Shit like that is not something she should've ever had to put up with, but--"

"It was necessary," said Tracker, making his way back inside, followed up by Atom. He glimpsed at me from the corner of his eye as he moved past me but kept his attention focused down on the floor. "Your brother was a continued liability for this club and had to go."

I turned to look him in the face and crinkled my brows. "Him needing to be put to ground was never a factor," I said. "I knew it was coming to that no matter what the outcome of all this shit would be. I just don't think that Colette should've ever been the one to have to take on that burden."

"He would've killed you otherwise, brother," said Poker, heading over to us from the hotel bar. "I figure it was either you going over that roof or him. I think in this case, the right decision was made; your girl is gonna realize that soon enough too."

"She will," said Atom. "She's freaked out now and that's understandable. But give her a bit and she'll be able to see that what happened tonight was more about saving your life and less about Jeremiah losing his. Son of a bitch had been driving down a highway straight to hell for years. It was only a matter of time before that road just finally gave out with him hanging right off the edge of the cliff."

I bobbed my head and he clamped his hand down on my shoulder. I wrapped my hand around him and gave him a hard pat on the back.

After Lorenzo and Riggs finished with the cops, they moved off to the side to speak with the Falucchi's in private for a few seconds, then headed inside and made their way over to us.

We all stood straight, preparing for what would come next. Except for Tracker who folded his arms over his chest, assuming the shit coming from them alone wouldn't be good.

"Alright, here's the deal," said Riggs. "The shit with the cops has been taken care of. What happened with Jeremiah is gonna be ruled an accident. And any tapes that might've caught something otherwise are on their way to being destroyed as we speak." He sighed. "The Falucchi's have agreed to keep shit kosher between us for the time being."

"Time being?" asked Patch. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"It means for the time being just as long as neither party fucks up between us and/or crosses red lines," he replied.

"What about this asshole?" asked Tracker, tossing his hand out toward Lorenzo.

Riggs glanced over at Lorenzo for less than a second before dragging his eyes back to us. "We're still on the hook for paying back what Jeremiah stole from him, sans the fifteen grand he still managed somehow hold onto."

"Fuck," Limb groaned.

Tracker dropped his head back to stare up at the ceiling and groaned. "Jesus fuckin' CHRIST!"

"So we still owe this bastard 485k?" asked Chute. Riggs nodded.

Lorenzo snickered. "485 of what you should be able to pay back in no time."

"You're a fuckin' idiot if you think that's the case," said Tracker. "I guarantee you, Prez, that he's just trying to sponge us 'til we're dry and desperate as shit. 'Til we won't need anybody else but him and his 'help'!"

"The shit's business," said Lorenzo. "This club was never going to be let off the hook for paying me back my money once it became clear that Jeremiah never had any intention in doing so himself. I have to fill that gap somehow and you're the only assholes around I know that could--"

"What about the D&C?" I chimed in. "You still own a portion of that along with the rest of us, yeah?" He bobbed his head. "The same amount as before?"

"Why would there be any changes to it?" he asked. "Just because your brother's now dead?"

"Why wouldn't there be any changes to it? And not because of my brother." I rested my hands in front of myself and straightened my back while staring into his face. "You haven't done shit to help us since taking it on and I think it's because Tracker's right, you want us to fail hard enough to need nobody but you in the end."

"I was more interested in getting my money back--"

"That shit hasn't changed," I said. "'Cause you still don't have it."

He narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth. "I'll be getting it back sooner before later," he replied. "Your club and Prez are going to make sure of that." He fixed his jacket and turned from me, then headed for the doors.

I stepped forward before he could make his way through them. "You know Cherry's a regular dancer at the D&C, yeah?" I called out. He stopped walking and turned halfway. "Wonder just how the hell she would feel in knowing that her old man was screwing us over to get paid, all while allowing her to continue selling herself on a stage for a few hundred bucks a night."

Riggs' head snapped in my direction. He grimaced. "What the fuck did you just say?" he questioned.

"Holy shit," said Patch, wrapping his hands around both sides of his head.

"Jesus." Smack looked to me and dipped his head. He furrowed his brows and deeply exhaled. "Is this legit?"

Before I could answer, Tracker stepped up next to me and threw the back of his hand into my arm. I turned to look him in the face. He pointed straight ahead at Lorenzo and asked, "What the fuck is this shit?" His tone was curious as hell and doubtful. "You're saying that Cherry is his daughter?" I nodded.

"How the hell did you learn about this?" asked Riggs.

Lorenzo turned to face us again just as Atom stepped forward.

"I called up River after you decided that you wanted to start working with this prick, Prez," he told him. "I wanted to see if we could find something on him that we could use for leverage, and--"

"You found out from him about Cherry?" Tracker interjected.

Atom bobbed his head. "We found out a lot of shit, including some racketeering. But Cherry being his kid is liable to fuck him up more than any jail cell probably ever would, if only 'cause she's got no clue about him being her old man. Not yet, anyway."

Lorenzo looked between all of us and anxiously wiped his hand back and forth across his mouth. Then he swallowed hard and stepped back over to us, jerking his shoulders and breathing in so hard that I could see his chest puff out. "Listen, asshole, I was young and dumb when I knocked up her mother--"

"Save the bullshit," I told him. "You knocked up her mother when you were both eighteen, fine. That shit isn't my concern."

"Then what is?" he asked.

I moved forward. "My concern is to continue making money for this club. At this rate, the D&C is the only other way that's going to happen 'sooner before later'. Or at least it would if the percentage in how much you owned dropped to damn near zero. 'Cause the thing is that we need your money and expertise. But we're not willing to continue selling our souls all so that you can continue screwing us over in the process." I paused. "You take five percent of the place and sign the ninety-five back over to the club. We agree to pay you back what we owe over time and keep quiet about Cherry."

"We also agree not to fuck her any more than what we have already," said Tracker with a smirk. "Unless you screw us over then we go back to screwing her, while the only 'daddy' she'll ever be calling out for will be me."

"Alright." Riggs stepped in front of Tracker and wagged his head. Then he looked Lorenzo in the face. "You are in fact Cherry's old man?" he asked him. "This isn't just some shit they pulled outta their asses?"

He gulped and rolled his eyes before answering. "I didn't know about her involvement in the club until a few years ago when I first made my way out here for a visit. Her mother told her I was dead and I've never seen any purpose for bringing up the truth to her otherwise."

"Anybody else would see a purpose in it," said Atom. "If not for you, for your other kid. But you're too much of a greedy motherfucker to see past all the green you'd be forced into giving up just by telling it to her."

Everyone fell silent. If there was one thing Atom couldn't stand more than Lorenzo himself, it was the fact that he had remained a deadbeat by choice.

I turned back to look at Colette; she had fallen asleep on the couch. I bobbed my head toward Riggs and muttered, "I need to get her outta here already."

He nodded. "Yeah, go take care of your girl, make sure she’s good. We'll handle all this shit here and have new contracts drawn up for the D&C."

"Contracts that we'll all be making damn sure to witness and sign this time," replied Tracker. He threw the back of his hand into my arm again and pointed behind him. "Go and take care of your girl."

I gave Lorenzo one last look of pure disgust before turning to Atom and jerking my chin.

As I headed back into the lounge for Colette, he followed beside me and shrugged his shoulders. "What's up, brother?"

I stopped walking and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm thinking it's best if we stay out here tonight -- not at this hotel, but in Vegas," I said. "I don't wanna have to put her on the back of a bike or in one of our trucks like this."

"Yeah, brother. We'll probably all stick around tonight, have the contracts drawn up in the morning and sign them before heading back out."

"Alright."

He glimpsed over at Colette, then brought his eyes back over to me and asked, "Where are you wanting to take her?"

"Back to where we started," I told him. "Except this time when she wakes up, there won't be any confusion as to how the hell we got there, or why she's mine."

He snickered and knocked me on the back of the arm as I made my way over to her and bent down to brush the hair from her face. Then I slipped an arm behind her back while snaking the other beneath her legs again and gently lifted her from the couch. As I cradled her close to me, she automatically draped her arms around my neck and pushed her body into mine.

"Yo," Atom hollered out as I moved past him. I stopped and turned halfway. "You plan on carrying her all the way just like that?"

I stared down at her, watching as she slept, and grinned. "I've got no problem with it if it means I get to keep holding her like this."

He chuckled and shook his head as I made my way back through the lobby, past my brothers and out the front doors.

 

Colette

I woke up in what felt like a haze inside an all too familiar room with Roman's arm tightly gripped around my stomach. Were we still in Vegas after everything that happened? I guess we had to be because I sure as hell had no memory of riding on the back of his bike last night. Though, I did remember him holding me tight inside his arms, and a few times at that. I also remembered him pulling me so close to him at one point as we slept together in bed that I was practically on top of him despite us both being on our sides. I squirmed against him a little to not only loosen his grip but to allow myself some room to breathe.

That's when I heard him grunt and he pulled me even closer to his hard body.

"Roman." I turned my head against the pillow and lifted my eyes to the ceiling. I peeked at him from the corner and noticed that his eyes were still closed, though his mouth remained open and pressed against my shoulder. "Roman," I called out to him again.

He grunted for the second time and shifted the lower half of his body against mine. As soon as I felt his dick rising to attention, I rolled the crack of my ass against it and moaned. He brought his hand up from my stomach and brushed his thumb across my bare breast. I shivered and flipped to the other side to face him completely. His eyes opened then, and even in a state of semi wonder and light confusion, he still looked so unbelievably handsome in the morning.

I raised my hand and brushed the back of it along the stubble surrounding his jawline. His delicious full lips curved into a smile that met his beautiful grey eyes. I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding onto and dragged my fingers alongside his throat, then lightly flipped them over and moved them down the front of his chest, slowly, making sure that he felt all I had to offer him in that very moment.

"Hi," I said to him.

"Hey, darlin'." His voice was thick, gruff, making me shiver again. He brought his hand up to my face and caressed my cheek.

"How did you sleep?"

"Damn good in knowing that you were still here with me," he replied. "You?"

"The same. But..." I shook my head against the pillow.

He frowned. "But what?"

"I feel like we need to talk about what happened last night," I said. "What I did?"

"You saved my life, babe," he told me. "And your own."

"I know that, but..." I lifted my eyes to his and knit my brows. "Jeremiah." I paused and gulped. "This wasn't just some random person off the street that we didn't know; this was your brother."

"He was my brother in name only. What he did to you, the shit he pulled with the club..." He rattled his head. "No brother who ever gave a damn about me would do some shit like that. And a motherfucker who ever gave a damn about you wouldn't have put you through all of this like he did, and with no remorse for it."

"But I--"

"Babe." He continued caressing my face. "You get to feel bad for what happened, alright? Nobody's denying you that right, sure as hell not me. But you don't get to blame yourself for what had to be done. Jeremiah had this all coming and he knew it. It's obvious he wanted to go out in some kinda blaze of glory and he got that shit in his own way. Might not have been the exact moment he wanted, but it happened. And we can't do shit about it anymore."

"I know, but..." I stopped again and looked away from him. "I just don't want to go to hell for what I did."

He chortled and closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them back up to me. "God knows what happened," he said. "He knows the how and the why. And maybe He'll make an exception to the rule because of it."

I turned back to him and frowned. "I don't think it works like that."

"Even if it doesn't," he said, "I don't want you spending the rest of our lives -- especially yours, beating yourself up over this shit, alright? You're safe now because of what you did, and I'm here with you because of what you did. And that's the only shit that needs to matter anymore from here on out, yeah?" His words were rough but his eyes had softened while speaking them to me. I looked away again, for about a second this time, then turned back to him and smiled while bobbing my head.

What I had done to Jeremiah was something that I knew I had to live with from here on out, regardless of how I felt about it or how Roman felt about it. But at the end of the day, at least I was still alive to be able to do it.

"What about my school?" I asked him. "My students and everything? I should probably call--"

"I already called to let them know you weren't coming in today, babe," he replied. "Shit's all taken care of."

I brushed my fingers across his chest again and he leaned in to kiss me, hard and slow. As his tongue mingled and pushed against mine for power, dominance of my mouth, I lifted my leg over the top of his and slid my hand down between us to reach for his cock. It was hard and so damn ready to be stroked. I wrapped my fingers around it and pumped him a few times. He groaned and deepened our kiss. I nearly keeled over despite already laying down in the bed, then shifted my body closer to his and brushed the tip of his cock against my opening.

"Fuck, babe," he muttered between my lips. "Goddamn, you're wet for me already."

"I'm always ready for you," I told him. "Now I just need you inside me again. Please." He nodded, and as I brought my left hand up to his shoulder to steady myself against him, his eyes shifted to the corner of his face and he glowered. I leaned back to stare at him and gulped. "What's wrong?" He brought his hand up to mine and rested them both between us. Then he brushed the tips of his fingers along the base of my ring finger. He shifted his eyes back to mine and I lifted my shoulder. "I left it back at home," I said. "I had just gotten out of the shower when I saw Jeremiah waiting for me in the bedroom and was so glad that I hadn't put it back on just yet. But now, for something I hadn't even realized I was wearing the first time we were in this room until you pointed it out to me, I feel completely naked without it."

"You shouldn't have to," he replied.

I knit my brows in confusion. "Wha--?"

He rolled away from me and reached down on the floor for his pants. I sat up a little, pressing my elbow down into the mattress, then leaned forward and dragged my hand down the center of his back, curling my fingers around the tail end of his coiled snake tattoo. He glanced at me over his shoulder and arched a brow, then smirked. I fell back to the bed and when he rolled back over to face me again, he was holding my ring between his forefinger and thumb.

"Oh my God." I sat up straight, my hair flying out behind me as I stared down at his hand to make sure that I wasn't seeing what I wanted and instead what was real. Then I looked directly into his eyes and swallowed back the flood of emotion creeping up inside that nearly forced me into a fit of tears. "How the hell were you able to get this?" I questioned. 

"Atom found it last night when he was taking care of Checkers," he said. "He had gone into the bathroom and found it near the sink. He stuffed it inside his pocket but had forgotten all about it in the middle of everything that happened last night. He dropped by here a few hours before you woke up to let me know about some club shit and to give it back to me. When you put your hand on my shoulder and weren't wearing it, that's when I remembered."

I lowered my eyes back down to it as he lifted it between us, and rattled my head. "Oh my God... Roman."

"I know you wanna have more than this someday." He tilted the ring back and forth, allowing the natural light from the window to shine across each layer of diamonds. I beamed with love and pride. "More than this room and the wedding you can't remember." He paused and stared down at the ring for himself. "I know that you deserve a helluva lot better than everything I've ever given you so far. But you're gonna have everything you've ever wanted, Colette and even more than that, babe. I'm gonna make damn sure it happens, no matter the cost."

"All I've ever needed or wanted in my life forever, Roman, was you. Everything else has always been just a bonus for me."

He grinned. "Me too, darlin'. Still doesn't mean that I won't go out of my way to give everything you've ever deserved from a man and more. My brother could never measure up to giving you what you needed because he didn't care. I will never in my life not care for what you need, babe. And I'll never stop fighting like hell to make sure you get to keep it." I smiled at him and his grin widened; he split his lips and leaned in to kiss me slow and deep. When I felt on the verge of fainting again, he pulled away from me, breathing heavily, and slid the diamond back onto my ring finger. "This stays on you 'til the end of fuckin' time."

I nodded at him and he bent forward to kiss me again. Then he slinked an arm around my back and rolled me on top of him as he lowered himself back down to the bed. I spread my legs alongside his hips and he dropped his hand down to his cock, pushing it deep inside me. I moaned and threw my head back, wrapped my hands around his thighs and grinded against him as my nails dug into his skin. "Roman, I'll love you forever," I told him.

He wrapped his hands around my waist and dragged me back down to him. "Forever will never be long enough for me anymore with you, darlin'." He swerved his hips and bucked them against me, deepening his cock inside me, reaching the height of my G-spot. I whimpered and wrapped my hands around his shoulders, then turned my head and nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck, licking and biting his skin as his fingers bit into both sides of my ass and crawled up the center of my back. God, I loved this man. "But it's good enough for now," he said.

"Yes... yes," I told him. "Forever is good enough for now."

 

The End

 

Miss Independent Series:

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Miss Independent: A Naughty vs. Nice Novella

 

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