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Authors: Jaxson Kidman

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twenty-four

 

(knox)

 

*THEN*

 

“I’m good,” Hammer said and pushed
away the white mountain of coke.

“Suit. Yourself.”

A guy named Larry Tool was wide
eyed and smiling as his took another snort of his own stuff. He told me he
could sell it for days because all he needed were his customers to see how he
reacted to taking it.

Larry turned to me and I denied the
offer.

I was sitting at a round table with
some of the Reap, a lot of Larry’s crew, and a potential customer. The
customer
was a group of men looking to move Larry’s magical powder into a more southern
region and they needed our help to make sure it got there safely. That meant
making sure the local PD was on board with the move, and it meant to have a
line of protection from other crews, MCs, and gangs along the way.

Hammer was the best at it. I got to
learn from the best. And I came from the best.

The old man folded his hands and
said, “We can get this going anytime you’re ready.”

“Ah, Hammer,” Larry said. He
grabbed the old man’s shoulder. “I fucking love you. If you had a set of tits
and a slit, I’d fuck you.”

“Good to know,” the old man said.
He looked at me.

Now it was my turn to shine. “We’ve
got a route that’s not normally used. It’ll take a little more time but we’ve
got it covered. We have two groups of our guys go on a ride. One is a
diversion. One is your protection. The diversion is going to stir up some
trouble, keeping all eyes on them. The shipment will be moved in regular old
piece of shit cars, trucks, whatever. A little in each. So nothing brings
attention.”

“You think of this, kiddo?” Larry
asked.

I fucking hated being called kid or
kiddo. Unless it was my father calling me that.

“I did,” I said.

“Good for you.” Larry then pointed
across the table. “Now these fucks owe me some cash. Pay up!”

That’s when things started to take
a turn.

The
customer
was led by a
guy named Will. His right hand man was Artie and he had a big mouth.

“So they call you
tool man
,”
Artie said. “Heard you have other names.”

“We’re here to discuss business,” my
old man said. “Leave the chit-chat for the bar.”

“You owe a hundred grand, Will,” Larry
said.

“That I do. That I intend to pay.
When my shipment arrives.”

“I don’t do that,” Larry said.

“Look,” I said, “we get our shit
where it has to go. End of discussion.”

“I’m not talking to you, son,” Will
said.

“Call me son again and I’ll rip
your fucking throat out.”

“Everyone relax,” the old man said.

“So what tool is it?” Artie asked. “Are
you the wrench? The needle nose pliers?”

Artie laughed.

Nobody else did.

I reached for my leather cut to get
a smoke and all hell broke loose.

Larry stood up, rage in his face.
He leaned over the table and reached into his suit jacket. The crazed son of a
bitch pulled out a screwdriver and drove it into the skull of Artie.

Then he looked at Will. “What do
you think the tool is?”

I sat there and muttered,
“Jesus
Christ
…”

Larry took the screwdriver out of
Artie’s skull. Artie slumped over the table.

Funny enough, Will quickly paid up.
We set the protection run. We got our payday for the work. Life went on. Well,
for everyone but Artie. Larry had his guys grind him up and take him to the
dump.

That was just a friendly reminder
of living life on the edge.

Sometimes you were Larry
’s
screwdriver and sometimes you were Artie
’s brain.

 

 

twenty-five

 

(knox)

 

*NOW*

 

You’d think such an important
meeting would be conducted indoors. Instead of that, we were in a parking lot
east of town. I stood next to my ride and watched as two black cars came down
the road. The first car stopped and out came two men.

Anthony and Tony. They were greased
up, looking like out of a movie, and they refused to shake my hand.

“You put Vinny in a corner,” Tony
said. “He’ll fucking kill you.”

“And I’ll be in charge of hiding
your body,” Anthony said.

“Thanks for the advice,” I said.

I stepped forward and Tony grabbed
my arm. “Hold up, tough guy. Weapons. Now.”

I took out my gun and my knife and
handed them back to Ari.

Anthony then patted me down to make
sure I wasn’t hiding anything.

I was then clear to approach the
other car.

I did so without an ounce of fear.
Shit, as far as I was concerned, if you had to hide behind thugs and tinted
windows, how powerful were you? My old man never stayed away from a
confrontation or a good fight. Ever. People knew who the President of the
Reaper’s Bastards was. Hammer was everywhere.

I’d live the same way.

The window slowly went down and I
saw a set of eyes. Crow

s
feet in the corners. Brown eyes. Eyes of power and pain.

“I’m not talking to a fucking set
of eyes, man,” I said.

The window then went down some
more. It was a skinny man with a very defined face. A scar at the corner of his
lip. He looked pissed off, but that wasn’t my problem.

“I’m Kn-”

“Knoxville,” Vinny said. “The son
of Hammer. The son of a man serving a life sentence. The son who decided to
bring his MC to life again. Yet he wears the wrong patch.”

“Trust me, Vinny, I’m wearing the
right patch,” I said. “Can we just get to our business?”

“Of course,” he said.

“I’m not looking to start a war,” I
said. “The Reap and your family has existed for a long time. I know some
relationships go deep. I’m fine with that. I’m here to just get a face to face.”

“Speaking of faces,” Vinny said. “I
know one of my men has a problem with you. Porter.”

“That’s another reason why I’m
here. What happened I couldn’t prevent. I did it with my bare hands and I would
do it again. What he did…”

Vinny waved a hand. “Personal stays
personal. Porter is a hard worker. Not the smartest. A little bit rogue
sometimes. You hurt his pride.”

“Good,” I said. “I don’t give a
shit.”

Vinny half smiled. “You remind me of
your father, Knoxville. But I don’t want to discuss memories or two men
fighting over a woman.”

“I’m warning you, Vinny, that if
Porter comes near me, I will kill him,” I said. “I’m not fucking around with
that.”

“It takes balls to stand there and
speak like that to me,” Vinny said. “Normally, I’d just give a nod and your
brains would be splattered all around.”

“Thanks for the hospitality,” I
said.

“But you’ve come with more
information.”

“I have. I have a piece of paper
with information about men you had taken out. Their names and exact locations
where they were buried. To the rest of your family these men went missing. They
were casualties of a war. But you and I both know you killed them on your own.
For your own benefit.”

Now that got Vinny’s attention. His
lip started to curl and I was half sure he was going to pull a gun on me and
shoot me.

“Here’s the thing,” I said. “I’m
not going to tell you the names or the places. I’m sure there’s more people so
you can think about it. I’m not going to blackmail you in a corner over this,
Vinny. I’m not going to hold you hostage for money or favors. I’m just making
it known the Reap is here. We’re not leaving our town, or our city. We can
exist peacefully or we can wage a war. That’s not up to me.”

“Oh, Knoxville, that’s where you’re
wrong,” Vinny said. “Every word we speak is a decision. Everything we touch,
taste, fuck, hit, kill… it’s all a decision. Now you’ve made your decision. I
respect that. Your father made his decision, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he did. He’s not here, but I
am. I want an open line of communication between us, Vinny. I’m not going
through your thugs. I want to contact you if there’s a problem. The same for
me.”

“Don’t worry, Knoxville, if I have
a problem, you’ll know about it.” Vinny paused and puckered his lips. He then
slowly reached out the window, offering me his hand. “I offer you my respect.
As long as you understand my position.”

I felt something shift in me. I
could see it in Vinny’s eyes that while there was respect, there was a great
sense of hatred brewing between us. That was good though. Hatred made respect
thicker, stronger.

I took his hand and shook it.

“I always keep my word,” I said. “I’m
sorry it’s come to this. The Reap should have never slowed after my old man got
popped. His life sentence isn’t going to be a life sentence for the MC.”

I wasn’t sure if Vinny gave a shit
about what I had said, but it felt good to say.

The window then went up and the
meeting was over.

I walked back to Ari and took my
gun and knife back.

Anthony and Tony stood with their
arms crossed.

I got back on my ride and sat
there, taking it all in. The black cars cruised away and Ari walked his
motorcycle next to mine.

“What are you thinking, brother?” he
asked me.

“I’m thinking this isn’t over,” I
said. “Too much weird shit is happening.”

“You don’t trust him?”

“Fuck no. I just hope the message
was clear.” I looked at Ari. “My old man put his ass on the line to do this.”

“Should I give Uncle Jakey a call?”
he asked. “We can arrange something.”

I stared at the horizon. I felt a
deep burning inside me. It was hard to explain. The world was changing, again.
My world was changing. I couldn’t explain the feeling because I never felt it
before.

Then my cell rang and Ana was on
the other end.

She changed my life again.

I then understood the feeling.

 

 

twenty-six

 

(ana)

 

*THEN*

 

Lightening lit up the bedroom as we
sat on the bed next to each other. Less than a second later came a crack of
thunder that shook the house. I was tucked tight into Knox’s arm. He loved
storms like this. I didn’t understand it. We already lost power, which I hated.
But Knox was happy. He was such a weirdo sometimes, but I loved him.

“I hate this stuff,” I said.

“Darlin’, you’re shaking.”

“I don’t do storms.”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “Tell me
about your day.”

“You really want that?” Knox asked.
He grinned, knowing half the time I didn’t want to know and the other half he
couldn’t tell me.

“Fine.”

Knox took my hand and opened it. He
started to trace lines down my fingers and circles at my palm. It sent a
tingling feeling through my entire body. It made my toes curl and made my
panties soaked. Seriously. It was almost aggravating how attracted to Knox I
was.

He traced my hand a couple times
before I pulled away.

Another crack of thunder rolled
through the sky.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said. “A storm
is good. It cleans things up. The rain. The air gets cooler. It keeps us off
the streets. I have a night off.”

“That’s one way to look at it.”

Knox laughed. “What are you going
to do, Ana, find a town that never gets thunderstorms?”

“Exactly,” I said. “With a white
house. Two stories. A point at the top with one attic window. A wrap around
porch. A red door. Red shutters. A white fence. And a black mailbox at the end
of the driveway.”

“Nice,” Knox said. “Two car garage
with a basketball hoop attached to it?”

“Of course,” I said. “I thought
that was implied.”

“So a house that big means you’d
have some kids running around, right?”

“Sure,” I said.

Another flash of lightening.
Another crack of thunder.

I swallowed hard. I was going into
some touchy waters here with Knox.

“Where do you think this town is?” he
asked.

“I don’t know, Knox. I’m just
playing…”

He touched my face. “Darlin’, I
fucking love and hate hearing that shit. You know why?”

“Why, Knox?”

“I love hearing it because of the
way your eyes light up. The way you smile. I know it’s completely genuine. But
I hate it because I can’t give you that life, darlin’. I’m here. I have to be
in this town and I have to stay with the Reap.”

I knew that already. It pained me
to think about. Would I leave this town? Would I never end up with Knox for the
rest of my life? Those were questions that I tried to avoid facing. It wasn’t
easy to do though.

They were storms in my mind that
wouldn’t go away.

Maybe that’s why I hated real
thunderstorms so much.

We were in silence for a few
minutes.

More lightning. Another wicked
crack of thunder.

It made me cringe.

“Ana…”

“Knox, it’s fine,” I said. “We’re
still young.”

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” I looked at him. “I
thought it was the right thing to say.”

“We’re not young,” he said. “Young
was when we first met. We are who we are right now, darlin’. If you ever find
that house with two car garage and basketball hoop and all that shit… and you
find a man that’ll put you in that house…”

I touched Knox’s lips. “He’d never
be my outlaw, Knox. You are. I can sit in this room, in the dark, in a
thunderstorm, for the rest of my life, and I’d be happy.”

“That’s a complete lie,” Knox said.
“But I appreciate you saying that. I’ll always work hard for you, for us. That’s
the truth of what I can offer.”

Thunder boomed again and I jumped.

Knox’s hands touched my back and he
leaned into me.

We quickly started to kiss and even
quicker, we started to strip each other down.

He thrust deep inside me and I
arched my back. Lightning flashed outside the window as my nails dug into his
muscular back. For some reason I had a sudden vision of Knox coming inside me
and leaving a piece of him for me. Something that we’d create, I’d carry, and
then we’d have a family.

I cried out his name as he fucked
me harder, chasing that image away.

From that night on
… I
loved thunderstorms.

 

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