Revenge (17 page)

“How did you get him to spill that easily?” Alex
asked.

“I didn’t. He slipped up. I don’t think he was meant
to tell me what was going to happen. This is our chance, Alex. We could get rid
of him.”

“Okay, I’ll make the necessary arrangements. If he
calls again try to get him to tell you what he has plans for
Eva.
I don’t like the thought of her being vulnerable, and Tiny will be pissed if
anything happened to her. It makes no sense why he would target her but leave
Lexie alone. Devil’s the one who pissed him off.”

“Maybe you should see this as more that he’s crazy and
doesn’t give a fuck
who
he hurts,” Butch said. “I need
a drink to get back to sleep. Are we good?”

“Yeah, I’m going to bed. Get some sleep before the
shit hits the fan.” Alex hit his shoulder and turned away. Leaving the
corridor, Butch walked down toward the bar. It was dark and quiet. For once
none of the men were lying around sleeping.

Pulling out his phone, he pressed the private number
for Danny.

“What do you have for me?” Danny asked.

“Not a lot. Gonzalez is going to hit out at The
Skulls.”

“When’s he coming to town?”

Now was his chance. Closing his eyes, Butch tapped the
bar wondering what the hell he should do.

“He’s coming to town for the wedding.”

“What wedding?”

“Two of our men are getting married. They’re doing it
at the clubhouse, so it should be his opportunity to take us down.” It wasn’t
the complete truth, but still, he couldn’t lie to them. Hearing Danny’s voice
reminded him of Lacey, and then he thought about his sister. He wasn’t doing
this to help Danny or the Savage Brothers; he was doing this for Lacey. The
girl deserved some peace of mind.

“Good, we’ll attack then.”

Hanging up, Butch poured
himself
a large scotch and flung it back.
You’re
not a rat, and you haven’t done anything wrong.

Leaving the bar, he walked back to his room. Cheryl
was still asleep. Climbing into bed, he wrapped his arm around her waist,
drawing her close.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“I thought you were asleep.”

“I heard your phone. What was it, or do I not want to
know?” she asked.

“Gonzalez called. I’m handling it.”

“Remember, Butch, The Skulls is where your loyalty
lies, nowhere else.”

He wasn’t loyal to the Savage Brothers. Kissing her
head, he hummed his agreement. Settling into bed, he thought about what
Gonzalez had said on the phone. What would he do to Eva? No, Butch couldn’t
think of anything happening to her.

It had to be a test.

How could he warn Tiny without alerting him to what he
was doing? Nothing he thought of was a good enough reason.

Closing his eyes, he waited for sleep to claim him.
Nothing happened for the longest time.

“Go to sleep, Butch. We’ll deal with this tomorrow.
Sleep will make everything okay,” Cheryl said.

Her words were intended to soothe, yet they did
nothing for him.

****

Gonzalez threw the phone against the wall, cursing.
He’d slipped up. Fuck, he shouldn’t have let that bastard know what he had
planned. Not that Butch would be affected. He liked the thought of having Butch
by his side while he took over each illegal business. In years to come these
days would seem like a walk in the park for what he had planned. Pushing the
woman off his dick, he yelled for her to fuck off. She couldn’t suck his dick
at all and was boring him more than entertaining him.

It was now he missed Ashley. No matter what he asked
of her, she always gave into him. The women he controlled did what he asked,
but they weren’t any good at it. Ashley had been a fucking pro, and she’d loved
sex.
Shouldn’t have
killed her.

He couldn’t exactly give Ashley back a head in the
hope of her giving him head. Chuckling at the joke, he grabbed a robe and
entered the sitting room of the hotel.

“What’s going on?” Gonzalez asked. Ronald was still
awake, watching the television. The man rarely slept, and when he did, it
wasn’t for long.

“Everett is doing what you asked.”

Sitting in the spare chair, Gonzalez grabbed the
carton of noodles on the table before him. “Get rid of the bitch in my room.
Kill her if you can. She’ll never make any money.”

“Give her a chance, you’re pretty fucking scary,
boss,” Ronald said.

“I was hard until she put her mouth on me and now I
can’t get hard. Bitch is a waste of time. I’m not going to have complaints. Get
rid of her, kill her, and be done with it.” Eating some noodles, Gonzalez
tapped his fork against the carton. “So you found Kayla Howard, Lexie’s
sister?”

“Yeah, she did a shit job in covering up her identity.
Tracked her down, and Everett is sorting out the problem as we speak.”

“I like this Everett guy. He’s got balls of steel.”

“For the right price, those balls of steel are all
yours,” Ronald said.

“Do we have anyone else willing to take over where
Homer was?”

“No. The only person I could find was Everett.”

“So no one wants to come and work for me. I’m
disappointed. I thought I was a damn good boss.” Gonzalez chuckled. He
scratched his head thinking about the many favors he’d pulled in to get Devil
and Tiny. Those favors were long gone, and people were disappearing away from
him faster than flies. Several people hadn’t called him back when he’d made
calls. He needed to get rid of the two MCs, as otherwise everything he planned
for was going to turn on him.

Ned Walker had protected his fighters, and not only
that, he’d come out stronger for it. No one could touch Walker or his men.
There had also been a reward put out along with a warning. If anyone touched
his daughter, Eva, and her family, then they were dead. If Ned couldn’t do it
himself, he’d pay someone handsomely to do the job for him.

You’re losing control.

His vision was still true, and he could fuck with both
clubs if he chose. Nothing was over until he said it was. He was going to swim
in the blood created by Devil, Tiny, and the two clubs. Gonzalez would even
watch Ned fall and bask in knowing he’d defeated them all.

****

Lacey watched the men having a drink and playing
cards, all of them tense and waiting. She ran fingers through her new blue
locks, wondering why she’d gone radical with her hair. Ever since the attack on
the Savage Brothers twenty years ago she’d been fighting for revenge. She
wanted to know everything Gonzalez did, where he went. Finding out his son
killed the father, the one responsible for what happened to her, upset her. Now
her revenge would come at the price of the son. Gonzalez was an animal, there
was no doubt of that, but the revenge would be bittersweet. The true man who’d
ruined their lives at such a young age was already dead.

She hadn’t seen the son during her attack, but she’d
heard enough to know that he was present. Her revenge would have to be complete
knowing the Gonzalez line was dead. There was no other way for her to be at
peace.

“You’re thinking again,” Dalton said, coming to stand
behind her.

“We shouldn’t be putting Butch at risk like this. He
was a Savage Brother once.”

“Yeah, he’s not anymore, babe. You can’t do anything
to save him. He changed sides.”

“Yet we’ve not even talked with The Skulls or Chaos
Bleeds. We don’t want their territory. All we want is the pleasure of killing
Gonzalez. We have nothing, no one to depend on us. This is it, our family
unit.” None of them had left each other to start up families to make a life
away from it all. This was all they were about, revenge. It was sad when she
actually sat and thought about the depth of the club.

Dalton touched her shoulder, and she tensed. He’d
witnessed her in the worst part of her life. He had carried her to the hospital
to get fixed, when she’d been bleeding out, raped, beaten. Dalton had seen it.
Since then, he’d taken care of her, feeling responsible for her. In the months
after the attack, he was there to cuddle her when the demons got too bad.

From what she saw of the clubs, Whizz from The Skulls had
suffered just like her. They were not stupid or dumb. Each one of them had done
their homework on the club. She gathered information on Whizz. He’d been
attacked, raped, and left for dead. Since his attack, Whizz had changed. She
recognized the change within him, and knew exactly what he was going through.

He knew what it was like to be split open, chewed up
by the world, and then spit out as if they were nothing.

“You’ve got to stop feeling bad about what happened,”
Dalton said.

“I will. I’m going out for a while.” She moved toward
the door, grabbing a black jacket with a long hood. The only way she left the
Savage Brothers was under many layers, no matter what the time of year was.

“It’s not safe for you to go out.”

She continued to put the jacket on. “I’ve got
protection, Dalton. I don’t leave without a weapon.” She showed him the gun at
the base of her back. At her ankle she also carried a small knife. There was no
way she was ever going to be helpless again. She refused to be trapped by
anyone, let alone the men who considered themselves her family.

Once she woke up from the hospital, she got Dalton and
Danny to show her how to fight. It had taken years of training to get her confidence
back up. There were times the confidence disappeared and she’d be frozen in a
cold sweat, but those moments were dwindling.

Opening the door, she knew in her heart that Dalton
didn’t want her to leave.

“Please, I need air. You’ve got all your buddies to
keep you company.”

“They’re your buddies as well,” Dalton said, taking
hold of her hand.

“I know, but I need some girl time.” She withdrew from
his touch and left the makeshift home they had made in Fort Wills.

The sun was setting lighting up the night’s sky.
Folding her arms, she walked toward the town. There were times she preferred to
be alone rather than with a house full of men who knew the truth about her.

No one saw beyond the attack. Thirty years old and she
was defined by something that had happened to her when she was ten. She wished
she had the courage to leave the club to start a life for herself away from
them. They were always close to her, watching her, waiting for her to go off
the deep end. They knew too much about her.

Entering a coffee shop, she ordered a strong black
coffee and took a seat in the corner by the window. She took a sip of the dark
liquid before it had even cooled. In the middle of the coffee shop, she saw two
girls giggling, and one girl was showing off her hand. What would it be like to
be around other women? She’d never sat in a coffee shop laughing with the
girls, talking about shit that wasn’t really important but felt like it. Did
she even know how to have a good time? There was so much she didn’t know about
herself. Glancing around the coffee shop, she envied all of the people for
their easy lives, the carefree attitude they all displayed. Pausing, she saw
Whizz was working away at a computer oblivious to the looks coming his way from
women who wanted him. Some of the women were with men. He was huge, making the
booth he sat at seeming incredibly small. The pictures she had on him were
before the attack. He’d changed dramatically. The attack had affected him in
more ways than she ever imagined. Unlike some people who dealt with their pain
with other vices, Whizz seemed to work out all the time.

She wanted to talk to him. No, she
needed
to talk to him. For several
seconds she fought the need to talk to him. She should stay away. Danny wanted
to kill Gonzalez and leave Fort Wills.
He
doesn’t care what happens to the other MCs.
She wasn’t stupid. Danny
wouldn’t care who died so long as Gonzalez ended up dead. Getting up from her
seat, she grabbed her cup and made her way toward his table.

“This seat
taken?”
Before she gave him a chance to answer, she placed
her cup on the table and took a seat. She was so nervous, and it was hard to
stop
herself
from shaking. In all of her life, she’d
never been good at lying or hurting people. Staring at Whizz, she knew he’d
been hurt badly by his attack.
You’re
going to cause him more pain.
The very thought of her hurting him further
made her sick to her stomach.

Whizz frowned, looking at her when she sat down. “I
don’t know you.”

“So? I wanted to come and talk to you. You look
lonely.”
He hasn’t kicked you away yet.

“I’m working.”

He sat back, staring at her. His hands were flat on
the table, and he assessed her. Did he see her as a threat? What did he see
when he looked at her? Averting her gaze Lacey saw the scar down his face, the
evidence of what that monster had done to him. There would be more scars. She
knew all about living with the scars. The ones on the body would all fade with
time. It was the scars on the inside that wouldn’t go away. No one could take
the memories away or the fears of that time spent in pain. The way people
looked at you like they were there and understood what you want through. No one
knew what you went through.