SLAM HER (23 page)

I was supposed to be out killing the man that killed Chief’s wife. Instead, he thought I was hurting his daughter.

Of all the bad shit my father ever did to me, there was one thing that stuck in my mind. He was hammered one night and he looked right at me. He said. “Son, stay away from pussy. It’ll kill you.”

Those words popped into my head.

Looks like my old man was right.

thirty-two

(belle)

*NOW*

I heard the pounding on my door and I jumped up. I scrambled to get dressed and ran out of bedroom to the kitchen to get a knife. When I answered the door and saw my father standing there, it was a complete shock to me.

“A knife to answer the door,” he said.

“Dad? What are you…”

“How long has he been following you?”

“What? Who?”

“Slam.”

My heart sank. My eyes went wide. “What are you… wait…”

“Longer than I thought,” he said. He curled his lip. “I knew this would happen. That scumbag gang is going after you to get to me.”

“What?”

“I’m going to show you what I do to people who mess with my daughter.”

“No. It’s not what you think.”

“We got him, Belle,” Dad said. “One of my guys has him on the side of the road. He’s cuffed. He can’t hurt you.”

I put the knife down. I shook my head. “He’s not hurting me. He’s not following me.”

“I got a call about him following you. Then I got another call of him leaving here. He was spying on you. Probably surveying the building for an attack.”

“No!” I called out. “Will you listen to me for once?”

“Belle…”

“Slam isn’t trying to attack me. Slam… we’re together. In love. For real.”

My father’s face dropped. “What?”

“He saved me from Kyle. That guy you were forcing on me? Kyle tried to hurt me. You wouldn’t listen. Slam did. He took care of things.”

“What did he do to him?”

“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Kyle left. I’m sorry if Slam’s a bad guy to you, but he’s not to me. We love each other.”

“So he was here…” My father’s eyes moved up and down me. “So that’s what he does? He comes here for a little while and then leaves you.”

“No. He said he had something to do. For me. Personal. I don’t know.”

“Jesus Christ,” Dad said. He swallowed hard. “This is what it’s come to? You and some biker?”

“I’m not sorry for that,” I said. “You don’t understand how good he is to me. What he means to me. He’s done more for me than you have. He listens. He cares. He loves me.”

My father nodded. “You think I don’t love you, Belle? You’re my only daughter.”

“You always waited for me to get killed next.”

“Christ.”

“It’s the truth. Now let him go, Dad. Slam has done nothing wrong. He wasn’t setting me up for anything. He was going to take care of something and then come right back here.”

“He’s been here before.”

“Plenty of times,” I said.

“How… long…”

“Long enough,” I said. “That’s how long. I didn’t just meet him last night. I’m not some whore.”

“Stop it,” Dad said. “I don’t want to think anything like that.” Dad then turned and took out a cell phone. He called someone and spoke in some kind of code. I wasn’t stupid. He was telling his crooked guys to stay away from my apartment and away from Slam. Then he faced me. “Belle…”

“What I don’t get is that you’re the same,” I said. “You arrest Slam for breaking the law but you do it too.”

“I have to do what I have to do to survive.”

“So does he.”

Dad reached for me. He touched my arm. “I’ve always loved you, Belle. I’m sorry if I’ve been a shitty father to you. Maybe someday you’ll understand the burden I’ve carried for years. But I can’t do that tonight. I have to get back to him.”

“Don’t hurt him,” I said.

“I’m not. I’m letting him go.”

Dad turned and started to walk away. I charged out of my apartment and called for him.

“Do you know what he’s planning on doing tonight?”

It looked like there were tears in my father’s eyes.

He nodded. “Yes, Belle, I do.
He’s going to do something I was never able to do.”

thirty-three

(slam)

*NOW*

I stood next to the cruiser then the SUV pulled up.

Fucking Chief Richards.

He climbed out, a shotgun in his hands, and he pumped the chamber. He pointed it right at me, his eyes locked to mine.

“Fuck,” I said.

“Told you,” the officer said.

“Andley, go home,” Chief said.

“What?”

“You heard me. Go the fuck home. Get in your cruiser and split. You saw nothing here tonight. Got that?”

“Sir, if you need…”

“Out!” Chief bellowed.

The officer did as he was told, climbing into his cruiser and pulling away.

Now it was just me and Chief Richards. And a shotgun. Which was then put to my chest.

“I can explain everything,” I said.

Chief swatted the barrel up, hitting my jaw. I quickly tasted blood.

“You listen first,” he said. “When my guys call and say that you’re tailing my daughter… fuck. Everything she told me, is it true?”

“Depends on what she said,” I replied.

“Don’t get fucking smart with me, Spencer.”

I swallowed. “Yeah. Everything is true.”

“Why her?”

“In the beginning, it was to get to you. That’s the truth. But then I saw how deep she was in with that asshole you wanted her to be with. So I stepped in to help her. I fell for her, Chief. I couldn’t help it. She’s the most important woman I’ve ever met.”

“Christ,” Chief said. “What did you do to Kyle?”

“Made him leave town.”

“How?”

“Does that matter?”

Chief gritted his teeth. “And you really love my daughter?”

“Yes. That’s why I did what I did with you. I fucking hate your guts, Chief. I wanted to get back at you for setting me up. But then I met Belle. And the violence in my heart gave way. That’s why I gave you Tommy. To show you what the Reap is capable of. And that’s why I was on my way to take care of your other problem. To get closure for you and for Belle.”

The shotgun started to shake in Chief’s hand. “You really know where the guy is?”

“Yeah. He’s more local than you could ever imagine, Chief.”

“The guy that killed my wife.”

“Yes.”

He lowered the shotgun. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it. I fucked it all up, Spencer. I put my wife right in the middle of a war. And now I’m supposed to accept my daughter with the same fate?”

“No offense, Chief, but on my side of the law there is no law. And I will protect Belle with every breath I have. Not find comfort in a bottle and an affair.”

“She told you everything.”

“Yeah.”

Chief Richards looked at me. His eyes were glistening. “Go get him, Slam.”

“That was my plan.”

Chief took the cuffs of me. He then grabbed my shoulder and stared at me. What a crazy moment in my life. We stared each other down.

“You’re not going to kill him though,” Chief said.

“Are you fucking serious?”

“Dead serious.”

“This prick shot your wife in cold blooded murder. And you’re not…”

“Slam. Go get him. And bring him to me.”

“He’s not going to sit the rest of his life in prison.”

“You’re right.”

“What are you saying?”

Chief flickered a little smile.
“I’m going to kill him.”

It was just before midnight when I rolled up on the house. Right at the edge of town, a known shit hole area for drugs and violence. Chief told me that there was no way he could ever build the right case against the guy that murdered his wife. His name was Stevie. His association had been infiltrated and ripped apart by Chief Richards, the local PD, and even some help from the federal level. But at the end of it all, Stevie did a little jail time here and there but was never brought to an actual trial for killing Belle’s mother. Her name was Rose. How fucking beautiful was that? A mother named Rose naming her daughter Belle.

It pained me to imagine the life Belle lived without a mother.

Knox rode shotgun, saying he wanted to help. To show faith with Chief and hope that beef between the Reap and the PD would come to rest for good.

For me, it was all personal.

I took the front door and Knox took the back.

We found Stevie sleeping in bed with some porno playing on a big screen TV. It was the nicest thing in the house. Lucky for us, he was sleeping and not jerking off.

Stevie woke up and reached for his gun. Knox had moved the gun and switched it out for the bottle of lotion on the bed. The fucking guy sat up and squirted lotion on himself, thinking he was popping shots at us.

Knox laughed. I didn’t.

I swung a right and smashed him in the mouth. I then took him to the floor and told him I wasn’t going to hurt him as long as he told me the truth. That’s when I got the confession. He was part of a gang that was being pressed hard by Chief Richards. In typical Chief fashion, he singled out the group and wouldn’t ease up on them. That’s when the decision was made to end Rose’s life. The original plan had been to kill Rose and kidnap Belle. They were going to use Belle as leverage before killing her too.

I kept to my word and I didn’t hurt Stevie. But I did stand him up and throw him at Knox. With a wicked left hooked Knox knocked Stevie out cold.

We tied him up and put him in the pickup truck.

And just like I’d done before with Tommy, I drove to Chief Richards’ house to make another delivery.

As we pulled up the driveway, Chief was outside, standing in a black shirt and black pants.

“This guy is crazy,” Knox said.

“Yeah. And now we have him, brother. We have control of the entire PD.”

“You did it,” Knox said. “You were right on course with all of this.”

I stopped the truck and climbed out. Then it was me and Knox facing off with Chief.

“He alive?” Chief asked.

“As you wanted him,” I said.

“You sure about this?” Knox asked.

“Yeah,” Chief said. “I have to get this guilt off my chest.”

“This isn’t going to solve it,” I said.

“But it’s worth the shot,” he said.

Chief took a step and Knox blocked him. “Let me get my part of this said before all hell breaks loose.” Chief looked at Knox. “You understand what the Reap does in this town. We aren’t the enemy. We aren’t the good guys either. You need to follow your line, I get that. But breaking our balls over nothing has to end. We do too much good for everyone. You know that.”

“Fair enough. But I’m not crossing the line.”

“Says the man about to commit murder,” Knox said.

“This is not murder,” Chief said. “This is settling an old debt. And as far as you two assholes are concerned, you dropped off a wanted criminal to me. Got that?”

“Got it,” I said.

Knox offered a hand and Chief Richards shook it.

That was a historical moment for the Reaper’s Bastards.

Knox walked back to the truck.

I walked to the bed with Chief and opened it. Just like I’d done with Tommy, I grabbed the legs of Stevie and pulled him out and to the ground.

“This is the man who murdered your wife,” I said. “I got his confession. He was going to kidnap Belle. They were going to fuck with you and then eventually kill Belle. Where do you want him?”

“In the shed,” Chief Richards said. “That’s where I have all my tools.”

It was strange putting Stevie in that little blue shed. A shed that was built to hold the lawnmower, some shovels, a chainsaw. But now the shed was going to be something very different.

Chief had a grave dug right there in the shed for Stevie. He also had concrete. The guy was smart. He was going to bury the prick that killed his wife right there and nobody would ever know.

I stepped out of the shed and Chief Richards offered his hand.

I took it.

“You were always a prick,” he said. “I’m damn sorry for how you grew up. I thought I was doing my duty by keeping a future criminal off the streets. I guess I got that wrong.”

“Yeah, well you have a chance to make it right,” I said.

“How so?”

I squeezed his hand tighter and then let it go. And then I told him exactly what I wanted.