Hell on Heelz (Asphalt Gods' MC) (17 page)

“Why’d you do it?” I had to take the tape off her face, to feed her, so asked the girl why she killed my president. Thinking about it, I didn’t know if I could truly remember Shirley as a friend or a sister. She was our mother hen.

“She was going to kill Scar.”

“I don’t believe it.” I didn’t. Shirley talked about that boy like he hung the moon.

“Believe what you want. I saw it that bitch’s crazy eyes.”

I sputtered a laugh. That was the Banshee all right.

The woman went on. “It’d been a set up. She wanted to send me back to Manul for the money.”

He was the Mob Boss who was shelling out a hundred grand for her.

“All to pay off those white vested sons of bitches.”

“Mutherfukers,” I corrected her.

“Whatever.”

I was curious. “Why does the mob want you anyhow?”

“It’s Manul who wants me. He’s a sadistic man, playing games to ruin my life. I’m his stepdaughter, but he wants me to be much more than that.”

Eww,
I shivered as she went on with details. Her story was much like those of my sisters. Sick and twisted about a man who wanted to either own them or hurt them or both.

“I thought I was strong, but I escaped only because Manul let me and now he wants me back.”

“And how does Scar play into this?”

She raised up her shirt, showing me her property patch.

I rolled my eyes, laughing at her. “You gave yourself to another man?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Do you understand what they do? The Gods, all the motorcycle clubs. They’re no better than the Mob and Manul. They kill, cheat, steal, break every law in the book in the name of freedom when most of them end up in an early grave.”

“Scar’s different.”

“Psst… You’d be Scar’s Old Lady, cooking and cleaning, saddled with kids, while he finds excitement and fresh tail.” It didn’t sound too different than how my own marriage had gone.

“How are you women any different? Aren’t you all lowlife criminals?”

“We’re outlaws.” I told her. “Women just have the upper hand here.”

She’d finished eating so I taped her mouth back shut.

In the morning when my guard shift was over, I went to my cabin and tried to sleep, but I couldn’t get my mind off Mud. It’s not like him and I could never be together. I’d never be his property, and he’d never leave and betray his brothers for me. Nevertheless, I climbed on my Harley and went for a ride to see if he was still at the motel. It’d been a long shot, so I wasn’t surprised he was gone. What I was—was heartbroken. An unmistakable hollowness took up residence where he’d been. I missed him and not knowing when I’d hear from him again was the worst part.

For the better part of the day, I rode out my frustrations. I stopped at Shirley’s shop to check on Miss B and Short who were holding down the fort there. Next, I went to Legs’ house and paid my proper respects since I’d missed Shirley’s funeral. Star and her grandma fed me pie that been sent over by the Seville Quilting Club last week. Then Legs came out with a box. There wasn’t any wrapping, just a plain white box, but I had a feeling something important was inside.

“Open it,” Star said, all excited, so I had to.

Inside lay a cut with my name on it. I’d lost mine in Louisiana so it meant the world to me, even more so when Legs said, “Shirley was buried in the one she always wore, but this is her old one that she wore when she’d first started the Heelz.” She explained why there was more than one. “That was before she got her implants.”

Star and Legs accompanied me down the road to my president’s grave. The Banshee’s purple, fully dressed Hog was parked beside her headstone for the time being. Her beads hung out of its saddlebags, her stuffed tiger hanging on too. It was like she’d rode here and she’d be right back. Legs lifted little Star to sit on the bike and the red hair got me. Dropping to my knees, I had a good cry, finally mourning her.

Legs sniffed too, patting my shoulder saying, “She’d tell you to shake this off and be strong for the other girls.”

I nodded my head at her words. Shirley was a tough one, strong and mean enough for all of us, because she had to be. She was just like my mama, I thought, missing my own mom. Then my kids.

I called Neil when I got back to my place at the Roost to make sure we were still on, that he’d be getting me a ticket to visit my babies in December. Nothing had changed on that front. Calling my kids next, I couldn’t have been more cheered up, hearing their voices made me happy.

Sugar was next on my list. I went to Pepper’s to find him still in her bed, recovering.

“You ready to take him back?” Pepper looked put out.

“Edie, Pepper is nasty. If I’m here one more minute, no telling what I’ll catch.”

Pepper slapped the back of his head.

I looked around her cluttered and dusty cabin. “You’ve gotten used to my cleaning, have ya?”

“No, Pepper here has had one too many men up in here. Just last night, Squid…” Sugar had just wanted to gossip and went on as Pepper and I got ready for the evening.

At dusk, everyone showed up around the bar for a proper farewell to the Banshee and Dixie. Legs had finally got around to identifying her and notifying her family in Tallahassee. She’d advised us girls to stay away from Dixie’s service. Her family blamed us for her death.

All my sister’s came tonight, even those who’d done retired and the ones who lived elsewhere. Even Sugar Hips with his gun wound sat in a corner beside the bar, in a recliner he insisted we carry in for him. The Seville Slayers showed up to party, and Legs said even Mutherfukers were coming later to show their respect. Her tears dry, Legs took the rifle from over the bar and shot toward the ceiling, just like the Banshee always did.

Drinking out of a bottle of Jameson that reminded me of Mud, I sat with Miss B who seemed to think I’d know who Squid was with last night.

“Haven’t heard a thing,” I lied, not wanting to deal with the usual drama while celebrating our sisters.

As normal, Ripper gravitated toward me. Miss B decided to find Squid and ask him herself.

Ripper put his hand on my knee, like he always did. “I’m so sorry, hon…” He stopped and took his hand from my knee to my back.

I shoved his hands off me.

“You’re tense.” His fine brother Keg had come up behind me and started rubbing my shoulders. Oh, it felt good. I straightened up and closed my eyes.

Just when I thought things would settle down, I heard a crash and opened my eyes to see the Asphalt Gods crashing our party. I went for my gun, but it was too late. Someone had shot Legs right away and she lay on the floor, dead, a bullet in her forehead. My sisters were in shock and soon surrendering as the Gods grabbed some of the Slayers, threatening to blow their brains out too.

My gun still out and pointed toward one of them, I held my ground. A big old man rushed me. I shot, but he’d gotten to me first, knocking me to the side. Pinned down, I watched a woman waltz over to me. A patched member, she was dressed to ride. Tall, curvy, dark curly hair and a scorn on her face. She looked like a white version of me.

“The black one. That’s her,” she said.

The man picked me up, and I kicked and punched him as he carried me out back. Holding my hands behind my back, he sat me on the porch on my knees.

“Where’s Mud?” The woman asked. The porch light was on and I read Rosa on her vest.

A man I’d seen before walked out and stood beside her, looking down at me. He was the skinny president I’d seen while sitting handcuffed to Mud at the Neon Parrot. I read the name Skeeter on his vest.

The man behind me whispered in my ear. “You’ve messed with the wrong man, my daughter’s man and she’s gonna make a skunk skin shawl outta’ you.”

“This is her. I saw her with him in Louisiana,” Skeeter told the white me.

Rosa bent down, her angry face so familiar to the expression I saw when I looked in the mirror. “I’ll ask one more time. Where is he?”

I spat in her eye.

The skinny man laughed, saying, “I’ll spit in your eye, brown sugar.” He changed Rosa places, came in front of me, his crotch at my eye level. The big man behind me held me with his fat legs and all his weight as his hands moved to either side of my head to keep my head straight. I knew what was coming and that made it worse.

Skeeter unzipped his pants, and he put a flaccid cock against my lips. I clamped my lips tight as he tried to shove his dick in my mouth. To my horror, his dick just hardened against them. The hands on my head moved to jerk my jaw open. I tasted and felt the fleshy head of the man’s dick on my tongue and about gagged as Skeeter shoved it all the way in my mouth. Satisfied, the man behind loosened his grip on my jaw.

Enraged, I blew out my nose. I let the asshole think it was safe for a millisecond, before I bit down on his dick as hard as I could and reared back like it was taffy. Tasting blood, I was spitting and gagging next. Skeeter fell down, screaming bloody murder as I was being crushed by the three-hundred-pound man behind me. He wrapped his arms around me, picking me up, getting ready to break my back.

That’s when I heard a gunshot and thought I was as good as dead.

Waiting for the bullet to hit, I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer and a quick goodbye to my children. I felt the force but not the pain. Instead, I was freed and 2Kurrupt held me in his arms. I started crying when I realized I was alive and that the Mutherfukers had come—my sisters might make it out of this mess alive. 2Kurrupt hollered something and pointed his weapon out at the yard. I looked and saw Mud. 2Kurrupt fired before I could stop him, he wasn’t the type to miss.

Mud

Floating on cloud nine, I’d just had the best sex of my life when Edie suddenly said she had to go—that her sisters had captured someone. True to character, she wouldn’t tell me who. The woman had opened up and showed me inside her, telling me her darkest secrets, but she’d never place her girls in danger. Edie left, but I tried not to dwell on it. I planned on seeing her again and as often as I could get away. I didn’t know how it would happen, but I felt as determined as ever. I’d make her mine, come hell or high water. 

I was also certain that the Heelz had captured none other than Anne Marie, Scar’s woman who had a huge bounty on her. Leaving the motel right away, I planned to sneak around the Roost and find out the best time to release the woman from the Heelz and take her to my buddy Scar. I’d finally be paying him back for sparing Goose from a painful death. It was the brotherly thing to do and was important. For years, I’d thought my twin had had my back when nothing could be further from the truth. The Asphalt Gods were the only ones who’d always had my back. And if I’d known that for certain before now, I’d have expected what happened next.

I watched from afar for a day, making sure the Heelz’ prisoner hadn’t been transported out. She was still there, locked up in the barn, I discovered. The next night, I got closer, stole a gun from a front porch before I heard a gunshot coming from their clubhouse.

Peering in the window at the Roost, I counted the girls amongst men. They’d be the ones I had to worry about. All seemed fine. They were partying. As luck would have it, I had a straight view of the woman who’d consumed my thoughts since I’d met her. I was spying on Edie, aka Rage, having a good time with her sisters. Hot as ever dressed in her leather cut that had to be new, studs, lace and her fine rack and backside standing out, Rage was sitting with a man who liked to touch her a lot. Jackass kept putting his hands on her, on her knee, her back… Good, she pushed him off. I pumped my fists wanting to just bust in and shoot the fat fuck. Even from a far, I could tell this poser, with his Seville Slayer’s jacket and beer belly, didn’t impress her much. However, the other poser in the same jacket who stepped behind her and rubbed her shoulders did. She perked up and didn’t push him away.

Being distracted by my jealousy, I didn’t notice the headlights until it was too late. They turned them off, and the Heelz never saw them coming. I recognized a dozen of my brothers and sisters from the Asphalt Gods’ MC, some from Alabama’s chapter, some not as they busted through the door at the Roost.
Smoke, Toothpicks, Scooby, Captain Kirk, Mouth, Stella, Two Joe Jim, Radar, Skeeter, Fat Willi, Mad Dog and Rosa. I knew them all, and they came in armed and ready to fight. My eyes never left Edie as everything was settled quick. She tried. They all tried. For one thing, the Heelz had been caught unawares. With their leader gone, they seemed to give up easily, probably to prevent the impending slaughter of their whole crew and the local riders.

Skeeter was having my brother’s take the girls who were still standing upstairs to the stables. The ones who fought back were beat down. Rage was taken out the back on Mad Dog’s shoulder even though she thrashed.

I followed them.

“She’s the one,” I heard Rosa tell her father as he held Rage on her knees by her arms that he pulled way back. Skeeter was in front of Edie, unzipping his pants.  I rushed around the corner.

“Mud,” Rosa exclaimed as she ran to hug me. Skeeter screamed, and Mad Dog about broke Rage in two. I pulled my gun and pointed it at my president. Rosa backed off, confused. Rage had blood running down her mouth. Skeeter was a heap on the ground. But Mad Dog didn’t heed my warning, only tightened his hold on Rage. I shot him, and he fell. Just then, a Mutherfuker stepped out on the back porch and caught Rage who’d been about to fall with Mad Dog.

It was fucking 2Kurrupt. All Hell had broken loose as the Mutherfukers were defending the Heelz. Rosa had run to her father, and Rage, my Edie, clung to 2Kurrupt. She saw me, and the Mutherfuker did too, pointing his glock straight at me. I dived to the side of the building as he shot. Then I ran, ran like the wind to where they were hiding the girl. Scar’s woman.

When I’d gotten close to the old barn, I saw I was too late. Fat Willi was hauling the pretty blonde I’d met weeks ago toward the Roost.

He saw me and stopped. “There you are boy. Shit, we’ve torn up tarnation looking for ye’”

“You’re here for me?” Confusion vanished as I understood. I’d not checked in for far too long. Like they always had, my brothers had my back. All of this had been for me and was my fault.

“Yes, went over Hell and half a Georgia. And bonus…” He threw the girl to me. “General wants this girl gone.”

Gone? I tightened my arm around her so she wouldn’t run off afraid. Anne Marie was Scar’s woman. I’d been there when he’d claimed her, getting her property patch, her tattoo. I’d not known exactly why Scar hadn’t wanted to go to our headquarters in Arizona, but I’m guessing he was having issues with his daddy. Scar, Bones, Cowboy and I had shaken on our deal. I wouldn’t go back on it.

Not wanting to shoot another of my brethren, I told Fat Willi, “I owe you boys for finding me. I’ll kill the girl.”

Fat Willi put his hand on my shoulder, saying, “No skin off my back, brother. We’ll kill this girl together.” He raised his eyebrows. “After we have some fun first.”

I pulled the gun and shot the fat bastard in his leg. He wailed, going down and rolling like a ball. Dragging the woman, I took off for the old rusty Harley that I’d hid down the road. When we’d gotten there, trying to start the old bike, I explained to the girl, I’m getting you back to Scar. I turned around when she didn’t answer and pulled the duct tape off her mouth.

“Thank God!” she said, remembering me and got on the back of the bike willingly.

We rode for days, staying off the main roads. I’d tried to get ahold of Scar every day by calling every number for our mother chapter I had, but no one in Arizona would get him to the phone.

The General warned me, “I put out a death order on that girl. I could do that to you too.”

The next time I called, Freedom answered. “Scar’s grievin’ his sister and his whore’s done run off too.”

“Let me talk to your husband.”

“He’s disappeared too.”

“Emery’s with me.” I knew the woman’s real name now. “If you love Scar like you claim, you’ll tell him.” I was an idiot for trying with her. “I’m sure you know the Heelz killed Hannibal. He’d been taking Emery through Mexico.”

There was silence on the line, but I was sure it wasn’t because there was a revelation on Freedom’s part.

“Takes a hard bitch to keep up such an act when her husband is dead.”

She hung up.

Since I was at a pay phone, I thought about calling Edie to see if she was alive and how things went down after I left. No, when I’d seen her with 2Kurrupt, I knew she’d live. My brother’s had come to ambush the Heelz, not start a war with the Mutherfukers. If I’d stayed, I’d been no use to her anyhow. I’d have been killed for shooting Mad Dog, whether he lived or not. Hearing from the General himself that my days were numbered, I decided against calling her. I’d already brought so much trouble to her door that she probably hated me now.

Three days later, I’d gotten Emery as far as I could before Rosa and Smoke caught up with us. Somewhere in Texas, we’d stopped for gas. Emery had been gone to the ladies’ room when I saw my brothers pull in. I couldn’t leave without her. Her blonde head rounded the corner as Smoke approached me with his knife out.

Rosa was running for Emery. She took off behind the station.

In for a penny, in for a pound, I stabbed the screwdriver I still had on me into Smoke’s upper thigh. It didn’t take the guy down but evened my odds. Hearing his moan, Rosa headed back to help secure me. Scar’s girl ran off into the night while I let Rosa haul me into the crash truck. It was obvious she wanted me worse than the girl, so I didn’t fight it. I let them take me so Emery could get away. I’d just have to let Scar know when I could get ahold of him.

“My daddy’s dead.” Rosa told me, answering that question, whether or not my bullet had killed him. She rode in the back of the van with me, just staring. Probably plotting my slow, agonizing death.

When the long ride to Alabama was over, I thought for sure my brothers would torture me, kill me, but Rosa had a better plan.

“This will teach you not to call home,” she told me as she handed me off to a cop. She’d turned me in, and I was being booked into the county lock up for some outstanding warrant for a traffic violation, not anything that I’d done that the authorities could really get me for.

I laughed at my punishment until I was there a few days in the overcrowded cell full of assholes who thought they were tough shit. “What you in for man?” they’d ask.

The guards knew it, but I didn’t want to bring attention to the fact I was an Asphalt God. I wasn’t anymore. Couldn’t be. I’d killed my president, and I knew I’d pay with my life sometime soon.

I figured being in the county jail was my torture after a few nights of sleeping on the floor, not eating, not having a stitch of toilet paper and never being able to get in the shower. It’s not that I couldn’t tough it out. I could. And I was a big guy. If I’d chose to, I could’ve had it made, intimidating all the others prisoners into a corner as I took a cot and everything I needed. But being dirty, hungry, cold and sore took me back to the life Goose and I’d lived before the Gods took us in. Back when we were Nathan and Daniel, two orphaned teens who chose to run away from foster care to live out of dumpsters, all so we could be together. I’d killed my president, went against my brothers, so I punished myself by letting the other men in the cell run over me.

After three weeks of no court and no bail posted, I knew my brothers, having connections were punishing me. And so, I was shocked as shit and thankful to see my brother, my twin Goose sitting across from me at visitation, wearing his cut of all things.

“Welcome home brother.” He was posting my bail.

Lo and behold, I’d been had. Rosa had lied to me, lied to everyone. My brother had been in on it too. They’d been plotting against Rosa’s father, and I’d gone and killed Mad Dog for them, making it all the easier on them to get what they wanted. Her putting me in here was a way to keep me out of their way as Rosa and Goose took over the Alabama chapter of the Gods.

“With the General dying and all the shit happening in Tucson, it was easy,” Goose told me. “No one cares right now as long as we are paying double dues.”

He’d killed Will West and taken over his drug empire just last week, with the help of West’s disgruntled drug dealers who he’d been getting close to for the last couple of years while we’d been running protection for them.

He said his plan had been in the making for years.

“Why didn’t you let me in on it.”

“You’re too loyal, too honest. It’s going to get you killed.”

A week back home, I was still sore from sleeping on a mat no thinner than sliced cheese. I hadn’t left my trailer, but Rosa kept bringing me food.

She tried to explain more and more each day. “I know you’re judging me. Thinking, how could I plot to kill my own father, but you don’t know what that man put me through growing up. You don’t know what he let men do to me. I may have gone along with it, but I was too young to understand my self worth.”

“And Goose understands?”

“No, I never lied about my feelings for you. Goose and I had a business arrangement, that’s all.”

“Is that why I heard you’re living with him?”

“What can I say. Old habits die hard. Besides, it’s my house. He’s president now, only cause a woman can never be.”

My brother was president of Alabama and said since I’d played a hand, knowingly or not, I could be anything I wanted in the club as long as I didn’t leave. However, he wanted me to be his right hand. With the power of the Gods at his back and West’s crew too, I knew he would get his way, one way or another so I agreed.

After I ate, Rosa cleared my plate and sank to her knees to give me a blow job. I let her but told her to get the fuck out after I’d shot my load.

There were more than a few times in the last few months that I’d wanted to call the number Edie had given me. I’d memorized it, but Florida was off limits. Miami Mutherfukers were all over Florida even though they used the city in their name and any truce we had with them vanished when the Heelz made their own deal with the MMMC soon after the fight between the three of us.

I heard Rage survived, most of her sisters did, but their leader Legs had been killed. I’d seen that much with my own eyes. We lost three of our twelve or so that night, Mad Dog, by my hand but no one knew I was the one who killed him but Rosa, my brother Goose and Skeeter, who was quickly being renamed ‘no peeter’, ‘cause Rage about bit his dick off. My twin said he would only use it against me if I tried to leave. I was afraid Skeeter would be a problem for me at some point, but Rosa was appeased by getting to suck on my cock every now and again. With her cozied up to Goose, I hoped she didn’t start demanding more. Scooby and Two Joe Jim of South Carolina were killed by the other gangs.

My life was going back to normal. Hell, full of pussy and trouble, life had never been better except when I thought of Rage.