Ashby Holler (27 page)

Kev chuckled, following Vinny around the backside of the clubhouse. “That’s how I felt when you and Sasha made prospect. I had just spent a year being club bitch, earned my runners patch, and thought I was hotshit. That’s why I was so brutal on you guys.”

“You call that brutal.” Vinny took the joint from Kev’s fingers and smiled. “As your new VP, I promise to show you the real meaning of brutal.”

“A tyrant already, I should’ve known. It’s always the quiet ones.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Sasha

Sasha wiggled under Dez’s arm, which had grown so heavy it squished her into the mattress. He slept soundly, despite the morning’s glare that beamed through her curtain. Not her, though. An incessant chirp had woken her twenty minutes ago, firing up the burn in her stomach. She now wished all birds would die and the sun would fade away. These symbols of a new day only meant dry heaving and twelve hours behind a wheel. Hidden in shadows with rough hands on her body, that’s where she longed to stay.

A knock rattled Sasha’s door, and Dez flinched, rolling away.

“Meeting in an hour,” a deep voice echoed behind the closed door before boots thumped down her stairs.

“Who the fuck was that?” Dez asked, taking his hand off the gun on the nightstand.

“One of those prospects.” Sasha crawled out of bed and dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door to shut behind her. A whirl took her knees to the tile. She hugged the toilet, and this time, her stomach made sure to save a bunch of its contents to bring up.

“Are you all right?” Dez asked.

The bathroom door inched open, and Sasha kicked it shut. “I’m good,” she yelled between gasps. “Just head down. I’ll catch up.”

Dez spouted out more words, but the solid wood of the wall separating them and the flush of the toilet blocked them out. Chills made Sasha’s teeth chatter. Strange, since she was so hot her flesh felt like it was damn near boiling. She sat on the cold floor and leaned against the wall, listening to footsteps shuffle around her room. Once the front door clicked and Dez’s boots thumped away, she drew her knees to her chest.

Nine months of this shit, with no cigarettes or liquor to boot. A punishment. Her body yearned for a woman’s soft touch, mind always on supple curves, yet she’d given herself to Dez so freely. The penalty for betraying her true nature was the fracture of her soul, given to the life that grew inside her. It didn’t seem fair for the baby. What could it have done to deserve a mother like her? If she couldn’t figure it out in the next fifteen minutes, she’d peel her ass off the floor, slap on a brave face, and plunge into ignorance.

***

Vinny

When Sasha’s door opened, Vinny jumped up from the bottom step. He stared up the narrow staircase, and Dez paused before thumping down the steps.

“What’s up, brother?” Dez asked, standing close. A little too close. “You weren’t at the party last night, and you haven’t said one word to me or Sasha since we got engaged.”

“Oh!” Vinny inched back, but Dez stayed inside his comfort zone. “No. It’s not like that. I’m really happy for you guys, seriously.”

“Yeah?” Dez glared, searching Vinny’s eyes for a buried truth.

“Yeah, man.” Vinny pushed his secrets down deeper and tossed a firm stare back. “I’m pissed about missing the party last night, but I had some club business to deal with.”

Dez smirked, backing away. “Listen to you. Big-time VP, dealing with business and shit.” He pointed to Sasha’s room while continuing to back away. “She’s up there, but I’d wait if I were you.”

Vinny waited until Dez disappeared into the clubhouse and then dashed up the stairs.

“Sasha?” After two quick knocks, Vinny opened the door and barged inside. He braced for barbed insults to fill his ears, but Sasha’s voice didn’t flow. An empty room greeted him, made even more hollow without her presence. “Sasha?”

The bathroom door creaked open, and Sasha looked up at Vinny from the floor. Misery clouded her honey-tinged eyes. She’d never looked so pathetic, so cute.

“Morning sickness.” Vinny sat beside Sasha, and she dropped her head onto his arm.

“You know a lot about this shit. How many chicks have you knocked up?”

Vinny chuckled. “None. I picked up a few books at the library yesterday. Did some reading.”

“Say what?” Sasha leaned back, staring at Vinny as though they’d just met.

“Well, somebody needs to know what the fuck is going on and…” Vinny’s fingers flinched. He wanted to reach for Sasha’s hand. “Help you through this.”

A bright smile lifted Sasha’s pale cheeks, and she wrapped her arms around Vinny. Her head fell to his chest, its weight filling a void he’d been trying to seal for days.

“Is that why you’re here?” she asked into his chest. “You sensed me puking and ran up to hold my hair.”

“No,” Vinny snickered, resting his chin atop Sasha’s head. “I actually came up here to pump you for info.”

“Ooh. That sounds dirty.”

Sasha pinched Vinny’s side, and he squirmed away.

“C’mon, I’m serious.”

“Yeah, you are.” Sasha sat up straight, turning to face Vinny. “What?”

“Do you know why I wasn’t at your party last night?”

Her stare dropped, and she nodded. “Yeah.”

“Does everyone know everything but me?”

“Maybe.”

“That was rhetorical,” Vinny grumbled, looking down at his jittery hands. “Who are we gearing up for? How many people should we expect? When? Are we gonna fucking die?”

“Jesus Christ,” Sasha said, the rise of her voice echoing around the tiny bathroom. “Did you go see that
Terminator
movie? ‘Cause I told you it was gonna screw with your head.”

“No. It’s not even out yet, and I am going to see it.” Vinny looked at Sasha, captured by her deep eyes. “I got this feeling in my gut. It’s like…every time I see you, I feel like it’s the last time I’ll ever see you.”

“That’s crazy.” Sasha took Vinny’s hand into both of hers, sliding so close their hips pressed together. “I’m not going anywhere, and if I do, I’ll send you a postcard so you can join me.”

“It’s heavier than that, Sasha.”

“It’s really not.”

Sasha tried to jerk her arm away, but Vinny held tight. His gaze screamed his desire to be delivered from ignorance. He could only hope she could hear the silent call.

“Vinny, you’re putting me in a bad spot here.”

It nearly killed his conscience, he knew what Ellen would do to her, but he held his tight grip and hard glare.

“Fine, asshole!” Sasha yelled, narrowing her eyes. “No one’s coming after us. This is about my mom and some twisted foreplay she’s got going on with her ex, Dante.”

“Dante?” Vinny’s arms went limp, and Sasha’s hand slipped from his grasp. “You mean Dante, president of Satan’s Crew, Dante?”

“They’ve been mind-fucking each other for the last twenty years, among other things. He’s not coming for us, just her. And not to kill.”

“You sure about that?” Vinny asked, still trying to wipe the image of Ellen getting down with a biker from his mind. “Last night, Otis said shoot to kill, that everything would get sorted later.”

“Of course Otis wants you to kill Dante. The man’s his competition, but did my mother say anything like that at all?”

The look on Vinny’s face must have done all the talking, because Sasha let out a huff.

“You’re VP now. The only orders you take are from the president. If you kill her boy-toy without her consent…” Sasha covered her mouth, staring off for a second. “It would be bad. Worse than the cellar bad.”

“I can’t believe Otis would set me up like that.”

“I don’t think he meant to. He either doesn’t know about my mom and Dante, or he just thought she’d let you slide since you’re her favorite.”

Vinny sneered, and Sasha’s palm flew up.

“Please,” she said in a long, drawn-out groan. “You’re so her favorite, but I don’t think she’d let even you slide on this. Oh, great. Look at your face, man.” Sasha climbed off the floor, pulling on her pants and swapping out the long t-shirt for a tight tank top. “You’re never gonna be able to keep your cool through a whole meeting.”

“The fuck I can’t. And seeing your tits just now really helped.”

Sasha gasped, and Vinny grinned. She hammered his arm with her fist.

“Come on, perv. Let’s get this shit over with. I wanna get on the road by noon.”

Vinny took a moment to admire the sway of Sasha’s hips before pushing himself off the bathroom floor. He stepped behind Sasha, and she spun, jabbing her finger into his chest. “Don’t you tell anyone about what I told you.”

“Ouch. I won’t, jeez.”

“I’m not kidding, asshole.”

Sasha’s bony finger poked Vinny again, right between the ribs, and he pushed her arm away. “Okay. I won’t.” Vinny opened Sasha’s front door and held out his hand, presenting a rainy gray morning. “After you.”

He liked to let her go first. It made him feel like a gentleman, and he got to watch her ass shake as she strutted on her merry way.

***

Sasha

Sasha walked into the clubhouse, and Candy looked up at her from the couch. A nervous look crossed Candy’s face before she buried her nose in a magazine.

“Candy?” Sasha said, straining to keep from smiling at Candy’s guilty expression.

“I’m so sorry, Sasha. I’m never gonna drink again; I say the stupidest shit when I drink.”

Sasha plopped on the couch beside Candy, hoping it would quiet the girl’s loud mouth. “Shit, Candy, we talked about this.”

“I know, I know. Your name doesn’t pass my lips,” Candy said in a near whisper. “Did I ruin everything?”

“No.” Sasha stood up, flashing a smile. “And let’s keep it that way.”

Candy winked, and a chill ran down Sasha’s spine. She backed away before her feet could carry her forward.

“I got a meeting.”

With just half a turn, Sasha left Candy’s red lips to glimpse her mother’s frown.

“Last one at the table…again,” Ellen said, leaning back in her seat.

Sasha bit her tongue and closed the door, dropping into her chair. At this point, Vinny would nudge her arm and attempt a snide comment, except the space beside her sat bare while the two men she loved hovered at her mother’s side.

“Today, we need to vote on restocking.” Ellen slid an ashtray to the center of the table, a circle of fresh joints peeking from its top. “After Sasha takes her run, the warehouse will be spent. Kev, you know about the undercover fed we took care of yesterday, right?”

“Yeah. Otis filled me in.”

“Good.” Ellen leaned onto the table, glancing at the crew members seated around it. “I talked to the sheriff this morning, and he doesn’t think they have anything on us. They can’t even prove their agent was ever here. That leaves us with a vote. We can pick up our supply tomorrow like scheduled, or I can push it back a few weeks.”

Otis grabbed a joint from the ashtray and sparked it up. “If we hold the pickup, we’ll have to delay our drop-offs. We could lose clients.”

“We could lose a lot more than that,” Dez muttered, shifting in his chair.

“Even if the feds are watching,” Otis said from behind a cloud of smoke, “they couldn’t know our pickup times and location. Plus, the warehouse isn’t on our property or connected to any of us.”

Dez crashed his elbows on the table, leaning forward. “You’re not the one taking a risk on an eight-hour drive with kilos of drugs. Sasha is.”

“All right,” Ellen said, breaking the dick-wagging contest. “That’s why we’re gonna vote.”

“Right now,” Kev whined. “Shit, man.”

“I have a run.” Sasha looked at the dwindling pile of joints. In fact, she’d been staring at them this entire meeting. “There’s no other time.” That being said, she snatched a joint from the ashtray and lit her zippo.

“All in favor of business as usual?” Ellen asked.

Sasha’s hand went up. Why wouldn’t it? She brought the heat down on the club. The risk should be hers to take.

Arms raised on both sides of Vinny, and he scooted his chair back, its legs scraping the floor.

Kev looked between Sasha, Otis, and Ellen, all with their hands high, then slowly raised his arm.

“These votes are bullshit,” Dez said, jumping to his feet. His chair crashed to the ground, and he stormed out the door.

“I guess the meeting’s adjourned,” Ellen snickered, rising from her seat. “Careful on your run, Sasha.”

Otis slid a set of keys across the glossy table, right into Sasha’s palm. She looked at Vinny, who glared at the side of Otis’s face.

“Vinny,” Sasha called out, drawing Vinny’s and everyone’s attention. “Help me gas up the truck?”

“Yeah, sure,” Vinny muttered, shooting Otis another quick glare.

Sasha waited until Vinny left the room before following him outside.