Thrash (22 page)

27

I clung to him until we got there. If we could have skipped the party, I would have been happier. Beers with friends at the clubhouse would have been one thing, but this was all going to be a performance. I’d have to be on guard, and not let anything slip, and not piss anyone off.

Sit there and look pretty and don’t do anything stupid.

Thrash would never talk to me like that. But I was pretty sure I would have to pretend to be a pretty doll around the men he worked with. Otherwise, they would start getting suspicious.

I struggled not to scowl. All I wanted to do tonight was go to sleep with my man.

I loved the way his body felt against mine, the way he let me lean into him, and the way he held me. I was starting to feel like we belonged together. Really belonged together in the way people talked about in stories.

It was a strange feeling. Rare and beautiful.

Hanging onto him while he drove his bike was the closest I was going to get to snuggling tonight, though, and I knew it.

He took me around the sharp turns, his body one with his bike. Before I knew it, we had turned down a dark alley and I heard the thumping music.

The entrance was nothing fancy. Just a back door to a brick building. An old office space that had seen better days. The surrounding buildings had been abandoned long ago.

Pittsburgh was littered with places like this.

I slid off this bike and handed Thrash my helmet.

“You ready?” he asked.

I nodded. I was as ready as I would ever be.

It was weirdly like confronting my debut for a second time. Namely, I was terrified. I plastered a harmless smile on my face and prayed no one would stare at me too closely.

This was completely different, too.

I walked into a group of loud, rowdy men. Most seemed to be near-drunk already. Their voices were so loud that they echoed against the plaster walls, reverberating throughout the building and down the halls. Layla had said these guys were hiding. I couldn’t imagine this group knew the meaning of the word.

Every muscle in my body locked up the moment we entered the room. Luckily, I didn’t care whether these people thought I was dumb. I just leaned into Thrash’s side and let his warmth wash over me, and kept my ears open.

“Hey, man! So the lady came, huh?” An older man, one who looked like he’d seen better days, approached us. His skin was tough as leather, but he was in pretty good shape.

I observed him, the way he held himself, the way he stood. It was obvious. He had to be the leader. Bones.

The way he looked me over, told me to stay out of his reach.

The way Thrash tensed warned me playing dumb wouldn’t work for long.

And the way the woman beside Bones glared at me told me he didn’t use the word “lady” often. She was pretty, her chestnut hair and large eyes making my fingers itch for a brush.

Unfortunately, she looked like she would gladly spit poison in my face. She smiled at me, but it wasn’t a nice smile. Not at all.

Oh,
crap
.

Bones was too drunk to notice the danger, though. “She’s a pretty one, that’s for sure,” he exclaimed loudly.

Audrey just turned to Thrash and bared that smile like a weapon.

“I’m surprised you’re here. I told Bones you would stay loyal to Cullen until the end.”

Thrash shook his head, his tone suddenly arrogant and alien to me. “Sean and Cullen were tight. They let me tag along. When Sean died, though, Cullen went his own way. Shit went down. I thought Bones betrayed me, too. Turns out I was wrong.”

It was as if I was standing beside a completely different person. He seemed so open, almost in pain, as he said it. If I didn’t know him better, I would’ve believed him. I would’ve believed all of it.

He was really good at lying.

I leaned into him a little harder, trying to ignore my worries. The noise in the room was making me dizzy. I pressed my body against his, trying to use him as a shield against the cacophony.

“Who is this?” Audrey asked, not addressing me directly.

Thrash threw his arm around my shoulders and squeezed me. “This is my girl, Nora.”

“You don’t know her?” Bones asked, suddenly keen-eyed.

Audrey was watching me carefully, too. “No, I don’t.”

“I figured she was one of the bunnies.”

Audrey shook her head. That bright, dangerous smile flashed across her lips again. “Nice to meet you, Nora. How long have you been with Thrash?”

“Not long,” I said, my eyes wide and confused. Playing dumb might not work, but showing half a brain around Audrey would get me skewered and tossed to the dogs. I’d seen women like this before in my youth. They’d been better dressed. They’d been just as rabid.

“Thrash and I met at a bar about a month ago. I was surprised he brought me back to meet his friends. Wasn’t sure we were at that point yet.” I smiled up at him languidly, as if I just drifted through life.

“You aren’t serious, then?” Audrey pried.

Thrash bristled a bit, and Bones patted her shoulder, silently warning her to back down on that topic.

I just blinked at her, and smiled bright as a silver spoon. “I love Thrash. He says he wants to marry me.” I giggled and looked up at him adoringly.

I had no idea where that came from. Badly written movies and every stereotype I had ever read, maybe, but it worked. Sad as that was, they bought my vapid, girl-wants-a-ring act.

“Not just yet, baby,” Thrash said, wrapping his hands around my waist. “Soon. We’re about to go big, right boss?”

Bones slapped him on the shoulder and got real close to me. He let me know: “Now, now. He’ll have quite a ring for you soon enough.”

”Congratulations,” Audrey purred.

“Audrey, right? Your eyes are gorgeous!” I gushed. The tone might have been fake, but my words were honest. She did have beautiful eyes. They were a green that almost bordered on yellow, and there were swirls of brown in there. She reminded me of a magical cat.

She smiled, obviously pleased.

“Oh, do keep this one,” Audrey urged Thrash, as though they had known one another forever. For all I knew, they had.

Before I could ask, Audrey grabbed my arm and pulled me away from Thrash. I looked at him, pleading for him to keep me next to him, but he looked away from me. Like it was boring to him.

My heart leapt into my throat. I knew he was playing the part, but that didn’t make it any harder to swallow.

And I was physically frightened of being alone with this woman.

“Come with me, I want us girls to get to know each other.” She smiled at me, and I felt a little sick.

There was a cruelty in Audrey’s eyes that scared the shit out of me. I had no idea how to do it, but I was rapidly figuring out that I had to make her like me.

If I stayed sweet and unthreatening, and flattered her with my presence, she would keep me close by. It was the best way to get the information I needed.

“Wow, this group is pretty big. Do they are belong to Thrash’s group?” I asked as I looked around. There had to be at least twenty guys there, drinking, playing cards or pool, or chasing some of the very scantily dressed women around.

“Bones’ group,” Audrey corrected me sharply.

“Yeah,” I giggled. “I don’t know what to call… them.” I waved at the men around us.

A woman was straddling a man at the nearest table, her skirt up around her hips, her shirt completely off. He was thrusting into her, fucking her, actually fucking her right there in front of other men while he played with her tits.

“Horny?” Audrey suggested, giggling.

I nodded, a little shocked.

“Kinda hot, isn’t it?” she suggested cattily.

I knew better than to play any games with that. I couldn’t just shut my mouth. If my cheeks were bright red, I had no idea how to explain why.

“You are new to this life, aren’t you?” Audrey said, taking me under her wing. She pointed to the woman. I wasn’t sure, but she might have been high. “That’s pretty damn normal. She’ll make her way around the room. One way or another.” The smirk that crossed Audrey’s lips told me that there wouldn’t be any “never mind”s allowed.

“Do they do that to you?” I asked, my voice breathless and a bit high.

She took in my wide eyes and pale face, taking note of the fear I couldn’t hide. “No,” she replied. “I’m claimed. I belong to Bones. You are also claimed. No one else will approach you. At least, as long as Thrash wants you. Bones respects Thrash, always has – and Thrash doesn’t like to share. Why, you want to join in a little fun?” She asked that last as she twirled her hair with her fingers.

“I don’t think so, no.” I managed to reply.

“
Aw
, too bad. But that’s okay, So, what do you do?”

The sudden change in topic was like whiplash, and I wasn’t sure I was standing up straight anymore.

“I work as a waitress,” I answered automatically. “You know, in a couple of bars over in Monroeville. I’m not very good, though. I drop stuff sometimes,” I trailed off.

It wasn’t a total lie, I had done some waitressing to try and earn extra money. And I really was a restaurant’s worst nightmare. I had ended up owing more money than I earned from all the dishware that I dropped.

Not wanting to look defenseless, I added, “I also punched a guy who slapped my ass.”

She giggled. “You know how to take care of yourself, that’s a good thing around here. If you slap a guy that touches you, and let him know you are claimed you might piss him off, but chances are, Bones will put him in his place.”

“You are his lady?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“You seem like you run the place.” It was the truth. She walked around, unafraid. In fact, it was the men who avoided her. To be honest, I wanted to avoid her. She seemed like the sort of person who tortured small animals and gave away the pieces as sick gifts.

But she still liked to be flattered. She blushed at the compliment.

“I helped set this place up. Bones needed me a while back. I guess you can say I’m the club’s mother.”

“Club?” I asked, confused. “Is that what this is?”

“Yeah, they call themselves ‘Sweet Revenge.’ We’re a new Motorcycle Club.”

While she talked, I ooed and ahhed and giggled as needed, remembering the women who used to cater to my mother. Meanwhile, I was soaking up every detail I could of the place. All the rooms, all the exits. I wanted to see all of it.

I wished I could convince her to give me a tour, but I was afraid that would look too suspicious.

“Do you live here too?” I asked. It wasn’t a bad question. I knew Thrash was staying here.

Audrey smirked. “I have a room with Bones up on the top level, so yeah. I live here. He promised he would buy me a house, eventually. I don’t like being with the guys all the time, but at least I can keep my eyes on him this way.” Her eyes got a dark quality about them. “I don’t want him cheating on me.”

I nodded. She was dangerous. And volatile. I could tell by the way she spoke, the way she behaved, that she was so much more dangerous than anyone else I’d met.

I worried about what she might do if she got angry, and I realized I needed to do my best to stay on her side.

“You stick with me. I’ll show you around,” she insisted.

“Okay.”

“Maybe you could come and visit me here? You know, on your own. I so want a friend my age that isn’t a whore.”

As if to prove the point, she pointed to the other women. A couple of them were completely nude, teasing and playing with several of the biker members.

The guys were drunk. They looked like they thought they were in heaven, but they didn’t look healthy. Mean, yes, but not healthy.

Bones and Audrey made sure they got enough of their immediate wants to stay where they were. They could fuck and get drunk and piss away their money as they pleased as long as they picked up a gun and pointed it at whoever Bones told them to when the time came.

No one seemed to care what happened to the women at all.

The place was so different from Fire and Steel.

I felt sick to my stomach.

It was going to be a long night.

28

Bones make a decision yet?
Rage asked me through a text message.

I ran my hand over my head, rubbing the tight curls. Did he know how hard this was? I had to pretend like I was only in this for the new club. I couldn’t to ask too many questions. It would look suspicious.

The burner was a small, durable phone, the kind that didn’t come with internet. Texting took forever.

I was able to get to Nora last night, pry her away from Audrey, and tell her everything that had happened to me in the past week.

I told her about Alan, about the lodge. I gave her every detail that I could so that she could take it back and explain it to Rage. I wanted to make sure that the crew knew everything, but I wasn’t going to call or text it all. Too dangerous.

So I typed out meticulously. Not yet. I will let you know when I know. How is Nora?

She’d gone home after the party, steering clear of the clubhouse. I assumed she had called Cullen and talked to him.

I warned her what could happen if she wasn’t careful.

A little shaken, but okay. A lot to ask of her. Cullen responded.

Yeah, it was. I knew it was, but we were leaning on her, anyway. That was how much Rage trusted me. I trusted my girl, he trusted her, too.

I didn’t regret it. This was why I would give everything for the club.

I sighed.

A heavy sound came from the hall and I jumped, realizing I had maybe sixty seconds to stash the phone.

I shoved it back in the secret hole and made sure the brick was in place, before I leaning against it.

“What are you doing out here?” Turf asked. The guy who was with him, Nutz, just stared at me.

They didn’t trust me. Not really. None of them did. They knew I got shit done, and they liked that. They wanted women, I got them women willing to put out. They wanted booze, I made sure they had it. I also filtered their requests to Bones at good times, so the ones who were smart enough to recognize a good thing got what they wanted quicker than the idiots who second guessed me.

These two were idiots. Instead of working the change in their favor, they got hung up on the fact that I’d been brought in over them.

There was no pleasing some people.

I could feel the beading of nervous sweat rising on my brow. Fuck, it was going to give me away.

“Smoking.” I held up the cigarette and looked at them. I didn’t smoke, never had, but I’d lit one and let it burn down, making sure to tap it occasionally. I threw it on the ground and stomped it out. “You need me for something?”

Turf eyed me a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, man. We need extra bodies. Got to go and enforce some shit in our territory. A certain business owner doesn’t want to pay up. You game for it?”

I winced. I knew that knocking heads together was a part of the life. We did it when we had to in Fire and Steel. Not so much for money, but we still did rounds, ran people out if necessary.

In special cases, we offered legitimate loans to help people out. We kept the Southside drug traffic out. We drove off the gangs. They had their turf, we had ours. That was just the way it was. Braddock preferred us. We watched out for it.

I had a feeling that Sweet Revenge offered little to its area beyond abuse and extortion.

“You in?” Nutz asked. He looked excited about this, like we were taking him to ice cream at the fair. It was sick.

I just nodded. I hated this shit.

“Good. Let’s go.”

Turf didn’t even ask me if I needed anything from my bunk. He jerked his head to the row of bikes. I knew better than to linger. I hopped on my Victory, firing it up and following.

There wasn’t time to put on my helmet. None of these guys rode with one on. Bones did, but he was the leader. He could do whatever the fuck he wanted. The rest of them acted like they couldn’t wait to scramble their brains on the asphalt. Sometimes bikes laid out. I’d never met a biker who hadn’t dropped at least once.

And if you were going any sort of speed, all it could take was a tap to turn you into a vegetable. Scars were fine. Drooling in a bed for the rest of my life because I was too stupid to wear a helmet sounded like the dumbest shit I could think of.

I tried to hold back my bile for my compatriots as I rode. I didn’t know where they were going, or what we were doing, not really. If I lost them, I wouldn’t just be able to catch up or blow it off. And these two would tell the story at its worst for weeks.

I wanted to spend as little time with these fucks as possible.

We weren’t driving for long. We slowed as we reached a little neighborhood littered with corner stores. Many of the shop signs were in languages that I didn’t recognize. Some kind of Middle Eastern scrawl. Maybe Indian.

Ah fuck…

I wasn’t as familiar with other languages as I was with works of literature, but I wished I was.

We pulled up to a small corner store. It had a little sign out front that read “Produce” in English. It had the markings of the other language as well, and my stomach dropped.

The prices were low and the place offered good stock to everybody. And we were about the beat guy up.

Fire and Steel would never have done that.

I paused for a moment while jag-off duo got off their bikes. Neither of them seemed impressed as they looked at me.

Finally, Turf spoke up. “You coming?” he asked.

I nodded. “We are just warning them, right?” I asked.

He knew the drill. He’d been in Fire and Steel for a long time. So when that nasty grin spread across his face, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.

“We aren’t soft like our old club, man. He didn’t pay. You know what happens when they don’t pay. So does he. All that matters is if we have time to carry out the sentence. Either come inside or stand outside the door and wait. We need a lookout, anyway.”

Nutz’s face fell. “I wanted to smash some heads, man.”

Fuck. I had to make a decision. Look like a pussy or piss off Nutz. I couldn’t afford to look like a pussy.

“Alright, fine.” I walked into the store with Turf, my shoulders back. Fuck. I hated this part. The way the store owner's eyes got real big, the way the customers filed out one by one, trying not to move too quickly or too slowly.

Everyone knew what was going to happen. It was all pre-meditated. Most of them were well aware of the consequences. But that didn’t make it any better.

Asking poor store owners to pay even more on top of their taxes and fees from the state was hard enough. The beating that came later was so much worse. I didn’t want to witness it, let alone dole it out.

But what had I expected.

I turned off my compassion and let the monster come out to play.

“I told you what was going to happen, didn’t I?” Turf asked. “I even brought a friend along to play this time.”

I could say I didn’t have a choice, but that was just a lie. I had a choice.

I chose to keep my cover. I chose to let Turf watch. I chose to draw back my fist, and I hoped to hell and high water that the beating I was about to dole out would hurt less than the one Turf had planned.

I chose to splatter a man’s blood all over the floor even though I knew a lesser reprimand would have gotten us better results. Because sometimes, in the face of stupidity, the long-term goal isn’t enough.

When a man had to work with short-sighted idiots, there was no such thing as a future.