Tangled in a Web of Lies (20 page)

Maybe I should be horrified right now, but at this point I don’t think anything could shock me. That’s how I know all this has definitely left me with a little less sanity than before. As if I had sanity to spare.

“When the guys are done with Jaime, Rick will be the one getting that patch of skin. After all the bad blood between Jaime and the Kings, there’ll be no reason for him to suspect us.”

I have to admit, that’s a pretty smart plan. If it works. I feel myself relax a little, but not enough to let my guard down. The truth of it is, until Rick’s dead, I’ll be scared of every dark corner.

“Won’t that start some kind of war?” I ask. Surely if the Kings kill Jaime, the MC will be pissed!

“Fuck no! Jaime ain’t part of this club anymore. Rick will be alone in that war!”

I imagine Rick, riding into his death, blinded by rage. Maybe I’ll get really fucking lucky and he’ll take Sergio out on his way to hell.

Suddenly, I’m exhausted.

“I think I’m gonna head to bed,” I say, much more politely.

Cole nods. “We better wrap that hand up.”

“Don’t watch,” I say with my back turned to him. I peel my wet clothes off, and pull my jeans back on, followed by my sweater. Something heavy falls from my pocket, clinking on the cement and bouncing towards Cole.

He picks the brass knuckles up off the ground. They’re still a discolored shade of red.

“You want to keep these?” he asks jokingly.

“Can I keep them?”

Cole’s eyebrows lift, and he gives me a strange look. “Sick bitch,” he says shaking his head with a laugh.

“Shut up!” I roll my eyes at him.

“Might wanna at least clean the dried blood off of ‘em.”

Cole follows me into the kitchen, and sets the brass knuckles in a small bowl of straight bleach in Odin’s sink.

He puts some topical solution on my swollen hand, and wraps it up with an ace bandage. When he’s finished, he lifts my hand to inspect his work, and lays a gentle kiss on my knuckles, staring at me with wolf like eyes.

“You are so much like Odin, you know that?”

“Darlin’, I am way better than Odin. Just ask Keila.” Cole is dead serious. I gape at him, then shake my head. Right now, I don’t even want to know!

“Goodnight Cole,” I say, rolling my eyes at him one last time before going up the stairs.

I lie awake thinking of the moment Odin and I shared at the warehouse. Will everything be the same between us? Can they be the same? I want to believe they can, but there’s an anxious feeling in the back of my head, telling me no.

Devil’s Cut

Odin takes a seat in front of Jaime. At this point, there isn’t much left of him, but a mangled heap of skin, pouring blood, reeking of death and fear.

“Can you hear me motherfucker?”

Jaime nods, barely able to open his eyes enough to look at Odin who is still glaring at him, seething with hate.

“If you were pissed about the club taking your patch, you should have come to me. I might have let you live. Going after the woman I love, was a serious mistake.”

Jaime can’t say anything. A river of blood pools from his mouth, and his tongue is lying on the concrete floor. His whimpering has finally subsided.

Odin leans closer to Jaime’s ear where no one else will be able to hear his next words over the roaring of
Burn Motherfucker Burn
.

“Lila was pregnant. Good chance it was mine, we’d been fucking a lot. She aborted the baby because she was afraid it might be yours. Then she tried to kill herself. That’s why you’re going to die tonight,” Odin hisses, and a new wave of sobbing rushes over Jaime.
Pathetic piece of shit!

“I got a plan for your corpse too, wanna hear it?” Odin taunts Jaime. “First, I’m gonna take a patch of your skin.” Odin pulls out a fillet knife, standing and reaching across Jaime’s chest. Jaime’s arms have both been nailed to his chair in multiple places. He wiggles against them, only to find himself in even more pain as Odin slices off a small patch of flesh from his shoulder.

“I’m gonna put you in that drum,” says Odin, as Damien rolls a large purple drum though the door with the King’s crowns crested on it. “Then I’m gonna leave you in the middle of the desert, and send your worthless skin back to your old man, letting him know where he can pick up the body.”

Jaime frustrated, shakes his head back and forth, trying desperately to break free one last time. Blood oozes from the nails in his arms, he groans loudly, gargling on the blood in his mouth.

“Lastly I’m gonna sit back and watch while your Dad single handedly goes after the Kings. I’m curious to see how that works out.”

Felix and Micah laugh like devils behind Odin, taunting Jaime all the more. Odin viciously pries the nails from Jaime’s arms. Before untying his legs, Micah takes a baseball bat to his knees. Then, even if the fucker wanted to get up and run, he can’t.

He screams as the bones in his legs shatter under the bat. It’s more of a muffled gargling sound with all the blood his voice chokes over. Micah has quite the swing, smashing through both of Jaime’s kneecaps in just seconds. 

He’s still wailing when Micah and Felix stuff him into the barrel. The last thing Jaime ever sees, is Odin, right before Odin digs his thumbs into Jaime’s eyes, and tears them out with his bare hands. Then he seals the lid on Jaime’s tomb with Jaime still breathing inside.

“We can take it from here. We’ll get it cleaned up, and Felix and I will dump the body before morning. Supposed to be a hot one tomorrow.”

“I hope he fucking lives to feel it.” No amount of revenge can possibly make Odin feel better about what Jaime did.

“You get home to your woman. We’ll send the package to Rick tomorrow night,” says Micah, putting his hand on Odin’s shoulder. Odin nods, and gives Micah a hug, thanking him for having his back. He does the same to Felix, and Damien, who will be here for hours cleaning this mess up. Rick will never know his club’s warehouse is where his son met his end.
What a shame.

Odin cleans up, shedding his clothes into the burn pile and taking a shower before heading out in fresh clothes on his bike.

***

I hear Odin come in. He kicks his pants off, but leaves his shirt and boxers on when he climbs in behind me wrapping me in his arms. His cotton shirt is soft against my back, and he smells like a strange brand of soap. I press my butt into him. I can feel his cock press against me, stirring to life. He kisses behind my ears, but I can tell he’s hesitant to touch me.

I moan lightly, stirring my hips. I can feel his cock pulse against me, but he holds me still. The distance between us isn’t closing.

“I don’t know what to do here Lila. I can’t ask you to trust me. I don’t even feel right asking you to stay. I promised to protect you, and I let this happen.”

“Odin,” I try to cut him off, but he doesn’t let me.

“I should have been there,” he says unforgiving. “I should have been able to piece this together. The break up, the distance, the timing, I was an idiot. I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t want to believe it. I think it was easier to believe you just didn’t want me.”

“I shouldn’t have lied to you. It seemed like the only option at the time.”

Odin’s fingers lace with mine, squeezing my hands.

“I don’t blame you for lying, or for running. I love you Ly. I wish there was something I could do to change what happened. I thought somehow, hurting Jaime would make it better, but it doesn’t. After everything I did tonight, I still have this sick feeling that I don’t know what to do with. No amount of revenge is going to make it go away. I can’t fix this.” Odin sounds defeated. It’s humbling hearing the emotion in his voice. You wouldn’t think a man as strong and hard faced as Odin would have the capacity to feel the way he does. Even the toughest of men have a weakness.

I shake my head. “I don’t need to be fixed. All I need is for you to keep on loving me. I don’t want to be treated any differently. Obviously there are some things it will take time for me to be able to do again. But I just want to put this behind us. I want things to go back to the way they were, like none of this ever happened.”

“That’s insane,” he says.

“I’m insane! It’s no big secret I’ve never been a normal girl. Normal girls don’t fall for monsters like Jaime Mosley. Normal girls don’t stab a whole through a man’s testicle without batting an eye. I’m not normal. You wouldn’t know what to do with me if I was.”

“You’re probably right,” Odin admits, a hint of laughter in his voice that lightens the mood.

Odin’s quiet for a minute, then he takes a deep breath. “There’s a heavy metal music festival in San Bernardino next weekend. Bandits have all access passes through the promoter. Slipknot’s the headlining band. Feel like going?” he asks, effectively changing the subject.

“Fuck yeah! That sounds awesome.”

“I’ll tell Cole. They’re bringing their RV. Two days and all night camping.”

“Can’t wait.”

I turn in his arms, resting my head on his chest. He strokes my back, and I can feel his breath tickling through my hair.

“I love you, Delilah,” he whispers softly.

“I love you, too, Odin.”

Devil’s Cut

Something strange starts happening to Odin over the next week. No matter how many times Lila lays under him, screaming his name, cumming into his mouth, onto his hand, or around his dick, something about her just doesn’t feel like it’s his.

He needs to lay some sort of claim on her, reestablish ownership and bond her to him somehow. All the lies put too much distance between them. For the first time in his life, he’s feels not in control.

Somehow, he needs to gain that control back. Every time he fucks her, he can’t escape the image in the back of his head of Jaime, forcing himself on her. It fucks with his mind, makes it hard to finish inside of her.

She feels it too. It’s obvious in her silence, and the way she avoids looking him in the eye after sex. This isn’t how he wants it to be, but he can’t help it. He tries to compensate by doting on her, constantly telling her he loves her.

***

One Week Later

This weekend Odin and I are taking off for Knotfest, and I’m relieved to be ditching our everyday life for a small vacation. The past week has me feeling like shit.

Micah and Cole took the liberty of installing a home security system in my condo, and were even kind enough to place a few small firearms around the house for my protection. With Rick still roaming the streets, we can’t be too careful. Odin stays at my condo with me when he’s not at work.

I put my security code in, locking the house before heading for the grocery store. Odin asked me to load a few coolers with beer and food for Knotfest. I hardly manage to pile all the food into the trunk of the Mustang. As soon as I pull into the garage, I can feel two men walking up behind me, watching me as I step out of the mustang. They’re dressed too nicely to be thugs, but I watch their reflection in the back window, as I pop the trunk open.

“Delilah Winter?” asks the taller, gray haired man.

“Yes,” I answer, turning to face them, clutching my gun in my purse.

“I’m detective Ralph Morris, this is detective Rudy Garza,” the older man introduces the smaller, Hispanic officer and I loosen my grip on my pistol. Garza has a serious and already accusing look in his eye. I can tell, out of the two, he’s the hard cop. “If you have a minute, we’d like to ask you some questions.”

“I don’t talk to cops.” I tell them what everyone in the club tells. I’m sure they’re not expecting any less. Worst they can do is take you in for refusing to cooperate, but as soon as I call a lawyer, they’ll have to let me go, and they know it. Cops in this town have a long history with the Bandits and their associates.

“Miss Winter, are you aware that your husband’s body was found in the desert a few days ago?”

The surprise on my face is genuine. I knew Jaime was dead, but I had no idea he’d been found by local P.D.

“Ex husband,” I correct.

Does this mean Rick never found Jaime’s body?

“We’re aware that you filed for divorce several months ago, but Garza and I were hoping you could spare a few minutes of your time to help us catch whoever committed this heinous crime.”

The word heinous catches my attention, because I’m sure everything about Jaime’s death was exactly that.

“I haven’t seen or heard from Jaime in three months, since he got out of jail and we packed up the house. Sorry.” I shrug and turn back to my groceries.

“You don’t seem too upset to hear your husband’s dead,” says Garza behind my back, purposefully being an asshole.

“Ex- husband,” I correct him again. “Jaime Mosley is a criminal and a self righteous asshole. He has plenty of enemies, so I’m not surprised, and no I’m not too upset.” I look Garza directly in the eye as I say this.

“Miss Winter, something bad, is an understatement compared to what happened to Jaime. Whoever did this belongs in a steal cage. The slightest bit of information can put us on the track to finding his killer. Please, let us come inside and tell us who might have wanted to hurt him.”

The man who did this, belongs to me and I would never betray him. Everything he did, he did for me.

“Sorry, I don’t talk to cops.” I say one last time before making my way past them.

“Jaime was viciously tortured for hours. He was missing his teeth, tongue and eyes. He was scalded with hot water, and maliciously molested. Can you honestly tell me you have no idea who would have wanted to hurt him this bad?” asks Garza, putting himself in my personal space and pushing a mangled picture of Jaime’s corpse in my face.

I wouldn’t recognize him, if it weren’t for the star tattoo underneath his eye socket. Every inch of him has been burned, and beaten. I should be mortified, but I’m not. I could care less what Jaime endured prior to his death. Payback is a bitch, he taught me that.

I stare at Garza a moment, an idea forming in the back of my mind.

“Sergio Velasquez. He was trying to hunt Jaime down before he went to jail. His club wanted Jaime dead.”

“Is that a member of the Kings?” Garza presses me for more information.

“Yeah. And if he finds out I so much as mentioned him to you, he’ll probably want me dead. So, if you don’t mind, my beer is getting warm,” I say with as much attitude as I can muster. I push past the detectives with my groceries, and watch them leave out the dining room window.
Pigs.

Odin comes to my place after work, and I have a candle lit dinner in the making.

“Have I told you lately how much I fucking love you?” he says, taking in the sight of me, pulling lasagna out of the oven.

“Yes. But I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing it,” I smile at him.

Odin takes a seat at the table and I dish him out a plate, taking the seat next to him.

“How was work?”

“It was okay. We’re building a parking structure, pretty standard.” Odin has a string of cheese hanging down his chin, and I reach out with a napkin, wiping it away. He smiles, those deep blue eyes melting my heart. It’s hard to imagine the sweet man before me being the vicious killer I know he is. That mangled picture of Jaime’s corpse is all the proof I need to know exactly what Odin is capable of.

“How was your day?” he asks politely.

I take a deep breath, “Well, the cops came by.”

“Yeah, I heard they found Jaime. Bout time.”

“Should I be worried about Rick?” I ask cautiously. I can’t tell Odin that Cole revealed the plan for Rick to me. He never mentioned the cops getting involved.

“Doesn’t hurt to be cautious.” Odin doesn’t give anything away. “What did you tell the cops?”

“Well, at first, I told them to get lost. But then, they laid some sad sob story about his horrible death, so I had to tell them something before I sent them off. Otherwise I’d look like a heartless bitch who probably killed him myself.”

Odin laughs. “So, what did you tell them?”

“I told him he had beef with the Kings.”

“Smart,” he says warily.