Ruin and Rise (4 page)

“This is completely insane. Neither of you should be ready to shoot each other.”

“Dani, baby, what are you doing here?”

“I came the moment I got your text that you were going to meet my father.”

“Did you need her as protection against me?” Zeke asked, mocking.

Shakes pressed a little on the trigger.

“Stop it!” Dani yelled.

Only her raised voice made him ease up on the trigger.

“I want you both to lower your guns now!” The last word was once again yelled at them.

Neither of them lowered their guns. She growled at their lack of response.

“That’s it; if you two can’t get along, I’m gone, and you can finally kill each other,” Dani said.

The way she spoke had Shakes lowering his weapon the same time Zeke did. They both turned to her, and Shakes’ heart broke. Tears were glistening in her eyes, and he’d never known how upset she was that he and Zeke were at constant odds.

“Honey,” Zeke said.

“Baby,” Shakes said.

“No. No honey. No baby. No nothing.” She looked from one to the other. Her tears fell down her cheeks, and each tear was like a punch to the gut. He hated it. Shakes had promised to make her the happiest woman in the world, and he’d failed.

“I’m carrying a baby. An innocent life that you’re going to be the father to, and you’re going to be the grandfather to. I don’t have a mother. I don’t have anyone else. The two of you are all I’ve got.” She stopped, and he watched her take in a shuddering breath. “If you two can’t stop trying to kill each other, then I’ll do this alone. I don’t have a fucking clue how I’m going to raise this baby on my own, but I will. I don’t want to, but I will. I love you, Shakes, with all of my heart and soul. I don’t want to live without you. Dad, we’ve had a lot of problems, and we’re working through them. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting you.”

“Honey,” Zeke said.

She held her hand up silencing them both.

“No, I don’t want to hear it. You’ve got to learn to get along. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life worrying if my baby’s father is going to come home, or if its grandfather finally killed him. I don’t want to be scared about you two killing each other. It has to stop. It isn’t good for me or the baby.”

Dani had started to yell once again. He couldn’t blame her. Walking in on the two of them with their weapons drawn wasn’t good for any of them. She turned toward Zeke. “I get it, okay. I’m your daughter, and you can’t handle that I’m all grown up. I’m in love with Shakes. I am pregnant with his baby. Deal with it, because I had to deal with you fucking your whores all these years. I’ve had to listen to the kind of shit you do. I’m being blunt here for you, Dad. Deal with it, or be done with me, because I’m not going to run, not anymore.”

Shakes didn’t think she needed to be that blunt, but he was proud of the strength she had.

“I’m going to go home. If Shakes comes home, then this is the last time you draw a weapon on each other. We’re all a family, and it’s time you both started to realize that.”

She nodded at each of them before turning and walking away.

Shakes stared at Zeke, and Zeke returned the glare.

“Am I going home to my woman tonight?” Shakes asked.

“Do you think this is fucking funny?”

“No. If I thought it was funny, I’d be laughing. My woman has just given us an ultimatum. We either agree or we end this now. I agree with her. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder, waiting for you to strike.” Shakes rubbed the back of his head. “Kill me now, and be done with it. But just know that no matter what, even if I’m gone, I will always be in your life through my child. And you can tell my son or daughter why I’m not around. You can look your grandchild in the eyes and tell them that you took their father away.”

Zeke placed his gun on the counter. “I can’t kill you; Dani’s right. We can play this game for a long time, but the truth is that you’ve got a baby on the way. My daughter decided to pick you, and I’ve got to accept that. It’s not what I want, but we’re done.”

Shakes nodded.

“I spoke to Demon today,” Zeke said.

“Why?”

“He’ll fill you in on that. Just know what I did, I did for my daughter.”

Shakes knitted his brows. “Don’t fuck with the club, Zeke, and don’t fuck with Daniella’s life. I’m a part of it for the long haul.”

“Don’t you regret getting booted out of the club?” Zeke asked.

He stopped for a second and thought about the club. “No, I don’t regret it.”

“Why?”

“When you’re part of the club, you have to come to terms with death being the end game. I accepted death since I had nothing to live for.”

“And now?”

“I’ve got Dani to lose, and the club can’t give me anything that would make me want to risk losing her. Before Dani, I chose death; after Dani, I choose life.”

S
triker adjusted the
baseball cap on his head, pulled up the collar on his leather jacket, and moved toward the BDSM club. He’d heard this one was pretty fucking hardcore; he knew that the excitement he felt in his blood could be very dangerous. He was going into Zeke’s domain, onto his territory, and he needed to make sure he was on alert. He hadn’t worn his cut, wasn’t letting his club markings show.

Tonight, he was here to watch, to see if what he saw made him want more, want to play with a fire even hotter.

There was a bouncer waiting at the front door, and the brightly lit red neon sign that read
DOMINION
cast a ruby glow a few feet in front of the sidewalk. There wasn’t a line of people waiting inside, but there were people discreetly dressed coming and going through the front doors. He stopped at the front door to let two women go ahead of him; their long leather jackets hid something wicked underneath. He just fucking knew it, knew that once he stepped through these doors, he might not ever want to come out.

Striker liked certain things when he was fucking. He liked a woman a certain way, liked when they were on their knees, looking up at him with tears in their eyes, their submission clear on their faces. He didn’t consider himself a sick bastard, not in the sexual sense at least. He just liked a certain amount of pain with his pleasure, a certain amount of power when he fucked a woman.

He did like to leave his marks on the females, liked to show them he was the one in charge, and it was up to him to give them pleasure if he saw fit. He wanted them restrained, bound, and completely helpless to him. Their tears were an added touch; he was harder than rock when he saw those glistening droplets. He’d licked them off their cheeks before, making them cry harder when he whispered how much he’d enjoy beating them, leaving their pretty bodies black and blue.

But the women were always willing, always wanted what he gave them. They were pain sluts in every sense of the word, loved to submit to him solely for the fact that he was their Dominant and they wanted to obey him to heighten the pleasure.

He stopped in front of the bouncer, eyed the fucker up and down, and although he was big and bulky, muscular and tall, Striker was bigger, more powerful.

“You know the rules?” The bouncer asked, maybe sensing, or hell, just knowing Striker had never been here before. But before Striker could say anything, the bouncer was speaking again. “All are welcome, but the cover is a hundred.”

Striker handed over the money.

“You want to participate, you pay for a membership. Only willing participants are allowed, and if someone says their safe word, you stop or you get bones broke.” The bouncer stared at Striker. “Other than that, anything goes.” He pushed the door open for Striker, and without waiting for him to say anything else Striker went inside.

The walls on either side of him looked like black leather, the lighting the same red as the sign outside. There was another door at the end of the hallway where another bouncer waited. He opened the door when Striker was close enough, and Striker stepped into the massive room. The ceilings seemed a hundred feet high, the metal beams exposed, and a rush of adrenaline coursed through him.

He walked farther into the room, and the door closed behind him. But Striker didn’t care about anything except what was right in front of him.

The spanking benches, St. Andrew’s Cross, bondage beds, sawhorses, and an array of other BDSM equipment and play gear all increased his excitement and anticipation. He clenched his hands at his sides when he saw the racks of tools, whips, floggers, the tables filled with medical instruments, sensory tools, and anything else he could think of to torment and pleasure his submissive.

There were rooms in the back—private, VIP rooms where he knew he could be as sadistic as he wanted, as long as the woman he took back with him was willing to wear his marks.

It didn’t take Striker long to realize he wouldn’t just be watching tonight. No, he’d need to participate, need to get out this wild energy with a woman that was into the same kind of pleasure and pain he was.

Zeke decided to
walk to Dominion tonight, needed the air to clear his head. He was going to be a grandfather. Who in the fuck would have ever thought he’d be a father, let alone a grandfather? He shook his head, feeling this kind of happiness that was pure and felt right inside of him. Daniella might never fully understand that the things he’d done to make sure she was safe and taken care of. He’d work on his relationship with Shakes, even if the majority of the time he wanted to beat the living shit out of the little fucker.

He inhaled his cigarette, knowing he should quit smoking. However, he felt like his nerves were on edge, like he was about to jump right out of his fucking skin.

He was walking toward three punks leaning against the side of a building. They straightened from the wall and took a step toward him. One of them even took out a switchblade. Zeke stopped under the streetlight, inhaled again then exhaled slowly, and lowered his hand to his side to let them see who he was.

Their eyes widened, they held up their hands, and then they turned and left.

Zeke finished his cigarette, snubbed the butt out on the side of the building, and continued walking. He shoved his hands in his pockets, his mind on his daughter, on his unborn grandchild, and then onto the darker things like work.

He walked toward Dominion, the one that was more hardcore, had a more discrete clientele, and the only club where he was able to fully explore his own darker needs. The sound of a woman whimpering came through the darkness. He stopped, listened, and heard it again, across the street, and in the darkened alleyway.

Zeke might be a bastard, might kill people, torture his enemies, and do a lot of fucked up shit, but he wasn’t about to walk away from a woman who might be in trouble.

Crossing the street, he made his way toward the alleyway, and grabbed the gun tucked at the small of his back. He stepped into the dark, narrow space, and saw a woman pressed to the wall. A man stood close to her, his hand on her throat, a knife in his grip.

“You’ll do well to shut the fuck up and take this like a good little slut.”

She whimpered.

Zeke cocked his gun, loving the thrill of the violence right at the surface.

“Get the fuck out of here,” the guy said to Zeke without looking over at him.

“You better back the fuck off, or I’ll put a bullet through your dick before shooting you in the feet so you have to crawl out of here like the snake you are.” Zeke said in a deadly, calm voice.

The guy finally looked over at him, and Zeke could tell by the lack of fear on the man’s face that he had no clue who Zeke was. Well, he’d find out soon enough.

“I’m not going to ask again. Me even giving you a warning is more than I’d do for anyone else, motherfucker.”

The guy stepped forward, the knife raised high.

“Sweetheart, get the hell out of here,” Zeke said, holding his gaze on the man. The woman ran off, crying as she stumbled out of the alleyway.

“You some kind of vigilante or something?” The guy said and chuckled.

“Hardly.” Zeke pointed the gun at the asshole’s cock, and without thinking, just grinning, he shot the prick right in the, well, prick. The guy screamed, dropped the knife, and cupped himself. He’d bleed to death from that shot alone, but Zeke pulled the trigger, putting a bullet in the top of each of his feet. He fell to the ground, screaming, but there would be no one to help him. Zeke owned this city, and if he didn’t want anyone fucking touching this would-be rapist, then this little bastard would bleed out here on the dirty ground like the scumbag he was.