Skid: Patch member since recently. Newest Devil’s member. Young, same age as Hannibal, maybe younger, and is lethal with his fist. Throw him in a cage with Chuck Norris and I’d put my money on this kid.
Flicker: Patch member. Longtime member. Patched in because his old man was one of the founding brothers. Weapon of choice: fire.
Dash: Prospect. New prospect. Beast got rid of a few that had come through, and Dash is the last man standing, so I’m guessing his redeeming quality has something to do with the fact that he has low latent inhibition. It basically means that he sees the world in pieces rather than as objects. The kid is a fucking genius. Next level.
That leaves another two prospects who have recently started and I’m not sure they will survive long enough to even give them thought. Beast is selective with who he lets into the club; you gotta bring something to the table or he’ll shoot you.
Pushing open the door to my Phantom, I walk towards the bar and up the old burnt wooden steps before pulling the heavy door open. Silence falls as I enter and I smirk inwardly. Finding Beast, Hella, and Frost tucked away in a corner, I walk towards them.
“Where’s your other hand?” Beast asks, gesturing to the seat in front of him.
“Miles?” I smirk, unbuttoning my suit jacket and removing it, taking a seat. I begin rolling up the sleeves to my dress shirt. “At home.”
“He doesn’t follow you around? You know, for backup?” Beast hints at me, pointing to the beer that he already ordered for me.
I smile. “Hmm, no.” Taking the beer, I lift it to my mouth and take a long pull while keeping my eyes on Beast.
“And why’s that?” Beast cocks his head. Hella sits beside him with his arms stretched over the seat and Frost sits on a single seat at the end of the table.
“Because I don’t need it.” I shrug, throwing my arms over the rim of the two chairs beside me. “Are we going to carry on with this pissing contest? Or can we get down to why I’m really fucking here?”
Beast laughs, sitting forward. “Alright, then…” He pauses. “How do I know I can trust you? How do I know this isn’t some trap? This,” he points to the table, “could start the biggest war in outlaw history. You’re talking about mafia families joining together.”
I pick up my drink. “Has Millie said anything about who I am?”
“We fucking know who you are, man.”
I shake my head. “Mmm, no. I’m talking about the civilian side of me, not The Army side.”
Beast leans back and crosses his arms. This is probably the first time I can see some similarity between the both of us. “Go on.”
I grin. “How much do you know about the underground? I’m not just talking mafia. I’m talking everything. From illegal poker games to street races to who keeps the peace between transaction deals… How much do you know about who makes sure everyone stays in line or they lose their head? How much do you know about the man who plays God?”
Beast and Hella shuffle in their seat. Hella puts his hand up. “I’ve heard about a kingpin, never met him personally.”
My grin deepens at Beast. I flick my hands up. “In the flesh.”
“Get the fuck outta here!” Hella slumps in his seat and Beast’s eyes darken.
“And why the fuck should I believe you?”
“Well, you don’t have to, but if you were smart, and I think you are, you’d know I wouldn’t bullshit about something like this.”
“How the fuck old are you?” Beast asks.
“Twenty-eight.”
“How the fuck did you get this position?”
“I was groomed for it since I was a kid. It was between me and you, but they chose me.” I can’t stop the cocky smile on my mouth.
“I’m feeling like I didn’t get the full experience of The Army,” Hella whispers to himself. Beast gives him a bored expression.
“You’re telling me that you hold the power in the underground world?”
I shake my head. “No. Just when shit goes down between families or transactions turn ugly, they all answer to me.”
“Jesus Christ,” Hella adds. “You’re a legend on both sides.”
I look back at Beast. “Ask me anything and I’ll tell you. This plan has been brewing for ten years.”
“Ten years? You’ve been planning this for ten years?”
I nod. “What? You think I’m daddy’s little psychopath?” I question with an arched brow. “No.”
“We were at the compound all our lives. We never saw you once. How do I know you’re not lying?”
“What? You think they only had one? No. I was raised in the second sector, the one that’s not far from here.” I pause and take a pull of my beer. “Regarding your trust issues, I have a proposition. Has Millie said anything about the two girls I keep at my house?”
Hella shakes his head. “Nah, man. Melissa said that they talked when they got back last night, but when Melissa asked her about you, Millie shut down. She didn’t tell her shit, but Melissa could see she was hiding whatever she knew.”
Something about knowing Millie didn’t say shit fills me with something. Pride? Was I proud of her? Taken aback? A bit of both. She’d make the perfect boss wife, if someone could rein in her crazy side.
“Transaction. One of mine, for Millie, until this is over. That way, I’d have someone of importance to you and you would have someone of importance to me.”
“I’m not stupid, man. You don’t give a shit about either of those girls you have.”
I smirk. “Not entirely true. I personally don’t give a fuck. But business-wise? I guess one is an asset. But the other? She’s… I guess important to me.”
“How so?” Hella asks.
“Well, Cassia is the love child of the President of the United States of America. Ella…” I pause, turning my head to Beast. “Ella is our sister.”
“What!” Beast pushes up from the table. “What the fuck are you talking about? Just how many fucking kids did our mother have?”
“No one knows. Ella’s identity is to remain unknown, understood?”
Beast watches me closely before taking a seat back down. “How the fuck do you explain this shit?”
“She’s my full blood sister, your half. Kurr got our mother pregnant before he had a mission in Germany.”
“Was that in ‘95?” Beast asks, cocking his head. I nod and he continues. “I vaguely remember.”
“Anyway, you were gone for a few months. When you came back, Kurr met Ella and blew up.”
“Blew up how?” Beast asks.
“Beat the shit outta mom. I took Ella with me. Shit, she would have only been a couple weeks old. We hid under one of the bunk beds until Kurr had gone. Since then? I hated him. It was the first time I ever saw him put his hands on Mom and even though I knew what he was doing was wrong, I couldn’t stop him. I turned off all feelings for him since then and it only escalated as I got older. I turned my hate for him into fuel and took every chance I had to better myself in everything. I earned his trust. Fuck, he trusts me with his life.” I pause, running my hand over my hair. “Which is what I’ve always wanted. That’s why when I say this plan has been brewing for a long time, I mean it. It’s not just my ass running on this; there’s a lot of other powerful people, too. A lot of people he has pissed off over the years. When you fuckers blew up the compound, you almost ruined our plan, and that’s when he moved everything salvageable back to our base. Of course…” I stop and smile weakly. “Losing our mother wasn’t supposed to happen, and I only just found out a few months ago that she helped you do that.” Bringing up my mom in conversation isn’t easy but it isn’t hard. We had a close bond, but she was always a little frail.
“Why’d she do that?” Beast asks. “I mean, why the fuck did she stay in there and detonate that fucking bomb?”
I take a drink of my beer. “Mom wasn’t happy. She lived with regret for you. Her biggest mistake she said she ever made was allowing them to take you. It fucked her up. And then
me and Ella? She was in over her head and Mom was weak, man. Towards the end, she was weak and was going to be a liability, however, so I would have preferred her ass be planted somewhere locked in a cell rather than dead.”
I had plans to lock her up until everything had finished because truthfully, I knew deep down that my mom was going to fuck things up somehow. Her hate for Kurr was just as strong as mine, probably even more, but the difference between her and me is she let that hate consume her. Her hate had her by the fucking neck. So as much as I wanted to save her, deep down I knew that there was no way. My only regret is that she died for nothing because Kurr fucking lived.
“So this shit is legit?” Beast says.
“Completely.”
“Yeah, one problem!” Hella holds his hand up. “My woman is not going to let us just take Millie again.”
“So I’ll convince Millie,” I say with a shrug.
“You think she’s going to be that easy to convince?” Hella quirks his eyebrow. “She’s Melissa’s sister.”
“Yeah, I do, because you’re going to help me.”
“Fuck,” he mutters in defeat.
I smirk, rising from my seat and dropping some cash on the table.
“What’s the deal with that?” Hella asks.
I notice he’s the one asking the questions now. Beast is just watching me closely and Frost has remained quiet throughout the entire conversation. “If we could skip the Millie part, that’d be great, because I have a meeting with Hachiro—who was the man who supposedly purchased Millie—in an hour.”
Beast nods. “What’s the plan then?”
“I’m setting up a meeting for two nights from today. At my house. Are you in?” I ask, drinking the rest of my beer.
Beast nods. “Yeah, we’re in. Oh, and Raze?” He looks at me with intensity. “You fuck us on this and I don’t give a fuck who you are, I’ll kill you myself.”
I smirk and walk towards the door. “I don’t second guess that at all, brother.”
MILLIE
I’d been back at the house for two days when I decided to pick up my cellphone and text Miles.
Me – Hey, how’re you?
Miles – Puddin’?
Me – Yep
Miles – Good. How’re you? We miss you around here…
Me – by “we” you mean you and Cassia, right?
Miles – Har, har. Almost forgot how funny you can be…
Me - :P
Miles – Put that tongue back in your mouth before I give it a job to do.
I burst out laughing, placing my phone onto the bathroom counter to twist my hair into a messy top-knot bun.
Me – Well lucky for you, she’s looking for work…
I really shouldn’t be teasing, but both Miles and I know it’s just friendly flirting. I wouldn’t dare act like this around anyone else.
Miles – Really? *wiggles eyebrows* full time or part time?
Me – For you, I’d say part time…
Miles – Okay quit teasing me now, my cock is testing the limits of my jeans…
Me – now that’s an image I don’t want to erase…
Miles – You’re going to get us both killed.
Me – How is he?
Talking about Raze for me is fine. I still get jealous when I think of him and Cassia, but I’ve calmed down enough to realize I feel something for him. Enough to know I care how he has been.
Miles – Truth or lie?
Me – Well lie of course.
Miles – Your sarcasm is not funny, puddin’. He’s been on edge.
Me – Shocking. Really, I’m shocked.
I place my phone back down and start on my makeup. The club is having a cookout tonight so I decided to go and show my appreciation for them coming to get me. They didn’t have to. I wasn’t their problem. Even if I was Melissa’s sister, I wasn’t anyone’s old lady; I wasn’t club property.
Miles – More than usual. What are you doing tonight?
Me – I’m heading to the clubhouse. They’re having a cookout so I thought I’d pop in and show my appreciation for what they’ve done for me.
He doesn’t text back right away, so I let my hair out to trail down my back from the bun it was in, fluffing it up with my fingers before walking into the media room to ruffle through the bag Miles packed for me.
Pulling out a pair of white skinny jeans and a tight t-shirt, I slip the clothes on and walk out of the media room, passing the bathroom on my way to get my phone and push it into my back pocket. Taking the stairs two at a time, I bolt into Melissa’s room and straight for her closet, finding some red Chuck Taylors and slipping them on.
“It’s like all those years you didn’t act like a sister have all been piled on top of each other at once,” Melissa chuckles from the doorway.
I frown, turning around to face her slowly. When she sees my face, she pushes off the doorframe and walks towards me. “Oh no, I didn’t mean it like that.”
I shake my head and smile, swallowing how that hurt me a little. I didn’t mean to be a neglectful sister, and had I known what that was doing to her, I might have spent more time with her instead of practicing my faith. “Have you called Mom?”
Melissa nods her head, walking in and dropping onto the bed. “Yeah, she knows you’re alive. You should call her, though. She’s been sick with worry.”
“I will,” I whisper. “I’ll call her tomorrow.”
Melissa nods. “You better, or she will fly here and be a whole new problem for us.”
I laugh, standing and brushing off my jeans.
“Girl, you look hot, but are you sure you wanna wear that?” Melissa gestures at me. “You know Frost has a little thing for you, right?”
I laugh, walking towards her and placing my hands on her shoulders. “He just liked the idea of sleeping with me. He told me himself.”
“When?” she asks, standing from the bed.
“One of the nights I was helping out in the kitchen. He’s brutally honest, but he told me flat out that he had this sick image of fucking me until the blood of my innocence trickled down my thighs…”
“Jesus, that man has no filter.”
I laugh. “Yeah, at the time it disturbed me. Now I think I admire his word play.”
“You like words, huh?” Melissa asks, hooking her arm in mine.
I smile. “Yeah, I guess I sort of do.”
“Hmmm,” she begins as we walk out of her bedroom. “Maybe you’ll be a badass author! That shit would be dope.”
***
“Okay, so rules.”
“Melissa, I don’t need rules.”
“But you’re all freaky and different. Do I need to remind you that you shouldn’t flirt with a patch member because he won’t think of it as harmless flirting?”
“Ew,” I answer. “No. Not that any of those men are classed as ‘ew’. They’re all… well, good-looking in different ways, even the old fellow.”
Melissa laughs. “Oh dude, no!” The bumpy road we’re traveling down has me bouncing up and down on my seat.
I laugh. “I’m just not interested in a man wearing a cut is all.”
“Don’t be ignorant!”
I narrow my eyes, glancing to the side before looking back to her. “How is that ignorant?”
“I don’t know.” She breaks her serious face by looking at me from the corner of her eye. “It just is.”
“Just personal preference is all.”
“You prefer a man who wears a scary ghost mask on the weekends and a killer suit during the week?” she teases, and I whip my head towards her. For a split second, I thought she might know about Raze, but then I figure she saw Raze’s house and that likely spoke volumes on how wealthy Raze was.
“No… not men who cheat.”
“Were you two exclusive?”
I know it was a genuine question. “No, I guess we weren’t, but it still shocked me.”
“What? Like the fact that he had another girlfriend didn’t
shock you enough?”
“He has two.”
“Two what?” she asks, looking towards me as we pull into the clubhouse and off the gravel dirt road.
“He has two girlfriend-things.”
She shakes her head. “Nope, just the one I think. But come on.” She taps my knee and squeezes the door handle. “We can talk more about this later. For now…” We both jump out of the car. “For now, let’s get drunk.”
“Yeah, I could do with a drink or ten.”
I follow her into the clubhouse knowing full well that I won’t be having any more than a few to calm my nerves. Unlike my sister, I don’t really enjoy it. My brain is crazy enough on its own, let alone adding alcohol into the equation.
Walking into the open barn house doors, a few wolf whistles sound out from beside me and I smile towards them, taking a dramatic bow.
“Come on,” Melissa takes hold of my hand. “The girls are over there.” I look around the clubhouse and not much has changed. The building used to be one monstrous barn but has been extended and modernized. The whole bottom level has the bar, a pool table area with a karaoke machine, and couches spread out around the place. The bar is lined with old oak and has laser lights lining the rim of the counter. There’s a strip of stools which seat around fifteen and the long glass cabinet that hangs behind the bar houses almost every kind of alcohol you can think of. The entire back of the bar is also opened out, though sometimes it’s closed off on rainy days. It opens onto a wide farm area that has a massive bonfire in the middle with planks of thick logs surrounding it for seating. There’s also a playground that is being built right now towards the back of the paddock and one big oak tree planted beside it where fairy lights light up all the branches and leaves at night. Back inside, there’s a second level to the barn where all the bedrooms lead off from one massive hallway which circles above your head only held by a metal railing. People who are walking around the top can see everything going on downstairs. Behind the bar is a room where they hold what they call “church”, which is basically like what Raze holds in his basement with his business meetings, but is for club members only. It’s, I guess, where they talk about their deals and whatever else it is that goes on in an MC; I don’t know much about it, but I know they’re outlaws.