Raven steps outside of the club and looks my way. Fuck she’s scary.

Her dark hair is pulled back tight, making her ominous eyes look demon-ish, and the way she wears a black fitted shirt and black cargo pants loaded with weapons, she looks like she’s ready for the army. The army of the Devil that is.

I head toward my bike but think better of it. We’ll be taking a body with us tonight, can’t take my bike for that job.

“You got a car?” I ask Raven.

She points to a black Mercedes in the corner of the parking lot, her silence strong. I feel confident I picked her for this job. She’s going to wreck this bitch.

“I’m driving,” I tell, not ask.

Opening the driver door, I slide in and she hands me the key fob to start it. The same song that was in the club plays through the speakers. “Bad Wolves.”

Tires screech when we peel out of the parking lot heading toward our target. I know where she lives, so I can take the freeway, then the back way where nobody can see us.

Side-eyeing Raven as I drive down the freeway, she pulls her pistol out, checking it for bullets. Satisfied with that, she pulls her knife from the holder on her leg and eyes the blade.

My brows furrow with how equipped she is. She’s ready for anything, and excited.

“So when we get there, just follow my lead,” I explain to her. Her lips purse, and that unnerves me. I swear to God if she goes in there thinking she’s running his show, I will pull her by her hair and lock her in her own fucking trunk.

Staying back a block, I pull close to Lopez’s house. One-story white house, with a palm tree planted in the front yard. Her car parked in the driveway.

“Ready?” I ask Raven. She smiles and opens her door to get out.

Following her, we head to the white house with red shingles. The shrubs outside dying, and walkway cracked from the heat. She’s not much for lawn keeping, is she.

Stepping onto the patio, Raven tucks her back up against the house so she’s not seen by Lopez, and I knock on the front door.

Seconds pass before Lieutenant Lopez opens the door. The smell of lemon and tea wafting around me. She’s wearing a baby blue slip, her nipples hard and poking through the sheer material. Her hair is down, and she’s makeup-free. Looks as if our little backstabber was readying herself for bed.

“You’ve been ignoring my calls,” her tone dry, and face smug. I shove my foot inside the door jamb and jerk the door open.

“I’ve been ignoring you because you’re fucking nuts!” I point to my head to indicate how screwed up she is thinking we were anything than fuck buddies.

“Mac, what is wrong with you?” She stumbles back, and I invite myself in. Stepping inside, Raven marches in right behind me like a shadow. Her face stoic, and eyes drawn on the target.

“Who are you?” Lopez’s voice wavers. Raven ignores her, and gently shuts and locks the door behind us.

“You’ve been a bad girl, Lieutenant Lopez.” I act aloof, running my finger along the table next to her front door. A candle, a bowl for keys, and loose change scattered about. Her house really is nice. Black plush sofa, nice entertainment center that hugs an entire wall. The interior not matching her unkempt yard.

She has the taste more than a lieutenant of a police department can afford that is for sure. She’s a dirty, dirty girl.

“Get out or I’m calling the—”

“Cops?” I finish for her and laugh. Her face falls, her hands searching behind her for something to protect herself as she stumbles backward. If she was going to call the cops, she should have before we came inside.

“You ain’t calling anyone.” Lowering my head, I let my eyes convey just how fucked she really is. She swallows, her throat bobbing as tears fill her eyes.

Sauntering toward her, she backs herself into a corner like an idiot. Everyone knows not to corner themselves. Her hands flat on the wall behind her, she lifts her chin; feigning confidence.

“What’s the matter, babe. You’re not so tough now, are you?” I run the pad of my finger up her delicate throat. “You can only scare defenseless pregnant women, huh?”

Her eyes widen as if she now understands what my visit is all about.

“Is this- is this about Simone?” Her voice colored with surprise.

My eyes widen at the mention of Simone’s name. Did Simone tell her, her name?

“How do you know her name?” Her tense body relaxes, a cocky grin spreading across her face.

“I know everything about Simone Ray.” Her tone of voice drives the final nail in her coffin. I turn away from her, feeling my hands shake with the longing to dismantle her pretty little face.

“Don’t- do not say her name.” I wave my hand at her mindlessly as I step into the kitchen. I jerk the fridge open. “You don’t deserve to say her name,” I mutter, trying to distract myself with the contents of her fridge.

“She wasn’t that hard to figure out actually.” Lopez laughs under her breath, and this grabs my attention.

“What exactly do you think you know about Simone?” I chuckle, pulling out shit to make a sandwich. Every time my adrenaline pumps like it is, I get hungry. It’s fucking crazy.

“I know why you’re hiding her… fucking her, and she’ll be gone very soon.” Her threat seals her fate. I see black and rage.

Dropping everything, I round the counter and grab Lopez by the throat, shoving her against the wall.

“You fuck with my club, you fuck with my girl, and now you can fuck with the reaper,” I snarl.

Jerking her against the wall, I give Raven a look letting her know she can take over.

“If I go missing—”

“Nobody will care. You’ll be replaced at the department, and someone else will move into this house playing out their life. Maybe they will be smart enough not to cross an Outlaw,” my voice dips with hostility.

“Mac, please. I just… I want us—”

I smash my lips against Lopez shutting her the fuck up and kissing her to her grave.

“There never was an us. Just a mediocre fuck, and you doing my dirty work,” I whisper against her lips. Her eyes widen at my harshness, but it’s the truth. What did she expect? For her to be my girlfriend or some shit. We’d never work. Turning away from her, I flick the dial on the stereo, the classical music she had on turning to Seether’s “Let You Down.”

Raven pulls her knife out, and Lopez screams. Raven slashes it against her arm, playing with her prey, and Lopez falls to the floor trying to crawl away from Raven. Droplets of blood trail behind her as she tries to escape and Raven laughs, causing chills to rise along the back of my neck.

Man, she’s wicked.

“Hide and seek? I can play that.” Raven cracks her neck, her face lit up like it’s Christmas morning as she chases down her wounded animal.

Nodding my head to the music, I turn it up a little more to cover the hysterics echoing down the hall. Biting into my sandwich, I hear Raven tear into Lopez. Screams echo down the hall, and shit being knocked over bangs into the wall.

This is a really good song, sad you don’t hear it very much anymore. I take a bite of my sandwich and decide to see if Raven has everything under control.

My feet pad on the carpet making sure to miss the blood trail, the pictures on the walls all sideways from Lopez falling into them dramatically. Finding the main bedroom, Lopez is on her back on the floor, tears streaming down her face as her eyes set on me.

“Shouldn’t have fucked with my girls,” I tsk, and Raven drives a bullet into Lopez’s head.

Her body jerks and the look of the lost crosses her face. I feel nothing for the loss of her life, but I sigh in relief knowing she can’t fuck with Simone or my club.

Looking over the room that looks like a scene from Stephen King, I shake my head.

“Damn, you made a mess,” I say with a mouth full of lettuce and turkey.

Raven laughs, proud of her murderous artwork.

“I did make a mess, didn’t I.” She scratches her forehead, blood smearing across her face. “We’re a good team,” she states, putting her gun away. I nod, looking the bloody scene over. Crazy how I’m used to a dead body, but not used to feeling for another person. You’d think it’d be the other way around. Well, for a normal person anyway. Goes to show just because I’m the quiet guy out of the Outlaws, I’m still far from normal.

I sigh, my shoulders sagging.

“Time for clean up, I guess.”

“I’ll call Machete to help,” Raven informs, pulling out her phone.

“Good, idea.” Machete is a pro at making bodies disappear, and quick about it.

“Your girls, huh?” Raven side-eyes me, and it occurs to me during Lopez’s final seconds I claimed Simone and the baby. “Can’t wait to meet them.” I inhale a ragged breath.

“I wouldn’t jinx them with my ownership,” I mutter, dropping my gaze to the stained carpet.

Raven stands straight, her face stoic.

“You’re just like Machete, you know?” She shakes her head.

I’m not anything like Machete.“What’s that supposed to mean?” I sneer.

“You self-sabotage yourself, just like he does. When anything good comes your way, you talk yourself into believing you’ll screw it up, or don’t deserve it,” she explains. “Respect yourself enough to take the best of things without imprisoning yourself into accepting imperfections.”

Rubbing my chin, I look at the dead body on the floor. Her and Machete are perfect for each other with their puzzling lectures. She’s right in every aspect though, I am a pro at self-sabotaging. But I can’t help it when I was brought into this world killing the only person that may ever care for me. My mother.

“They call it atelophobia—”

“I know what it’s called,” I mutter, Tinker, our main club chick told it to me once.

I turn, leaving Raven to make her phone call to Machete and me to finish my sandwich.