Chapter 10
KENZIE
It was nine o’clock before I made it over to the gang’s clubhouse.
People in full-on costumes were lined up down the block.
The music spilled out onto the street. I parked my van on the next block, facing the entryway to the clubhouse.
I sat in the driver’s seat, watching and waiting.
There didn’t seem to be much in the way of security at the front door.
A couple of huge bikers in black leather pants and their cuts a few years past from when they would have zipped up.
One had on a Spiderman mask and the other a Superman mask.
He added a red cape to complete his look.
They both looked ridiculous as they stood guard, waving some people in. Others were given stern looks, and they laughed as those people scurried on past in fear.
My foster mother used to tell me that if I walked around like I belonged, most people wouldn’t doubt me. She was talking about my first day of school, not infiltrating a biker gang.
No time like the present to put her theory to work.
I donned my mask and grabbed my utility belt. While the visible weapons were fake, I carried a knife strapped to my thigh and a little twenty-two strapped to my calf and hidden by my boot.
I’d pulled my hair up in a slick bun and wore colored contacts to disguise myself even more. Unfortunately, Sonny’s children inherited his unique eye color, and the idea was not to reveal myself to anyone except him. I wanted him to know who was putting him down.
I locked the van and slid the key into my utility belt pouch.
“Hey, cat woman. Meow.” A group of guys catcalled from the sidewalk. I rolled my eyes and pawed at them. They cackled. “Come over here and we’ll make you purrrrrrrr.”
Original.
I sauntered down the street and crossed at the corner where the clubhouse began.
It was a large metal structure. It took up the entire city block.
From what I could gather, the first floor was one big room, with the President’s office and conference room off to one side.
The second floor had several rooms where some of the members crashed.
It had no windows on the bottom floor, just a garage door in the back that led to a fenced-off area and a covered garage area where they parked their bikes.
“Well, what do we have here?” Spiderman stepped forward.
I approached the entrance and smiled up at him. “Meow.” I grabbed my tail and batted it against his chest.
“Well, well, well.” He slid his meaty paw down my arm and cradled my hand.
I tried to maintain my seductive pose as he licked his lips and kissed the back of it.
He smelled of beer and cigarettes. I threw up in my mouth a little bit while maintaining a straight face.
I batted my eyelashes and ran my tail across his chin.
“This is a private party, little pussycat.” He emphasized the word pussy.
A real class act.
I slapped him across the face with my tail to keep from kneeing him in the balls.
“Oh, you like to play.” He leaned forward and puckered his lips. I cowered back. “Oh, now you’re bashful.”
A few others stepped into the clubhouse, mostly men. A few couples.
“I’m sorry, little pussy.” He chuckled. “Only members and friends allowed.”
I pouted and tapped my chin with my fingers. I slid my hand down my neck and dragged the zipper. He practically salivated when I revealed more cleavage. His eyes were glued as I reached in and grabbed Reid’s card. I slid it out. Spiderman’s eye remained on my tits. I shook it in front of his face.
“What’s this?” He read it and his face went white. “Fuck me.”
Superman had joined us.
“What?” He reached for the card and skimmed it. “Get your hands off her and let her in.” They both stepped to the side and gestured for me to enter. It was such a formal and coordinated move, I half expected to hear trumpets, followed by my name being announced upon my arrival.
Stepping into the foyer, all I heard was noise.
Music on top of people yelling. The mass of the partygoers gathered around the left open space in the vast room.
I spotted the main bar along the back, but other makeshift tables were set up in the four corners with beer and liquor manned by women in scantily clad angel costumes.
I surveyed the room and discovered that only the women were in full costumes.
The men from the Infinity Kings and some other gangs wore leather jeans and their cuts.
Most with no shirts. They all wore some type of intricate lace or vinyl mask.
It felt like what I imagined a sex club in New Orleans would look like during Mardi Gras. Not that I’d ever been to one.
It was early, but the alcohol flowed, and people were getting more comfortable.
I grabbed a beer from the table to my right and then proceeded around the perimeter to the back of the club.
The sign stated that only members could use the hall leading to the private area.
I found an angle and watched as club members went in and out.
One or two, I recognized from the diner the other night.
No sign of Patrick or Reid.
I tried to keep my head down and stay inconspicuous. It didn’t work.
“Hey, cat woman.” One guy in a prospect cut approached with a drink in his hand. “I got you something a little stronger.”
I smiled and took the drink. A group of people danced close by. I stepped to the side and faked like the dancers bumped me and spilled the drink down the prospect’s front.
“Hey,” he screamed. “Fucking bitch!”
“Oh, my goodness.” I gasped. “I am so sorry.” I patted his front with my tail.
“What’s your problem, prospect?” The guy I bumped into pushed me behind him and squared off against the prospect.
“You have no right to speak to a woman like that.” He hit the kid on the back of the head.
I didn’t wait for the rest of his punishment.
I found another perch to survey the room and the hallway and waited for my opportunity to arrive.
Sonny finally arrived about an hour later.
Two other older men followed him. The area to the right was partitioned off with rows of chairs in front of a stage with a pole.
The lights dimmed, and the music shifted to a sultrier beat.
A woman appeared from behind a thick red curtain with two large feather-trimmed fans in each hand.
She strutted up and down the stage, waving the fans.
She wore gloves, stockings, heels, and nothing else.
The stage show was the perfect distraction.
The crowd surged forward, and I worked my way across the room and slipped into the member-only hallway as a biker walked out.
It led up a flight of stairs to a single door.
If someone walked back here, I’d have nowhere to hide. The guys at the door kept Reid’s card.
The door had a keypad like the others, but it was slightly ajar.
I pushed it open and peeked inside. It was empty.
The room comprised a sitting area on the left and a kitchenette on the right.
A large wooden desk sat in the middle to the back, with stacks of chairs near another door.
I scurried over and opened it. It was a closet filled with filing cabinets, some clothes, more stacks of chairs, and a couple of boxes and cases of beer.
I tried opening the first filing cabinet, but it wouldn’t budge. Before I could try another one, I heard voices entering the room.
“The call should come any minute.” It sounded like Reid. “You sure you’re still up for this?”
“Stop fucking asking me that.” The other voice sounded like Patrick. “I’m in this. Just like you.”
“I know.” Reid’s voice rose. “I just don’t want you to have to live with this in your head and regret it later.”
“Listen, Reid.” He paused, but they moved closer to me.
“I know you think you have to protect me, and we’ve gotten into some shit where you needed to.
But fuck. Seriously, about this, I’m good.
The quicker my father is out of the picture, the quicker we both will be free to live our lives.
Finish what we started seven years ago.”
“Yeah, back then it felt like a game.”
“With real consequences.” He grunted. “But it was all about doing the right thing, and this is the right thing.”
The room went quiet. I pressed my ear against the door.
“We have been trying to right the wrongs of the Infinity Kings since we were kids, and now we are so close to the finish line.” Patrick scoffed. “Maybe it’s not me who’s not up for it.”
“Patrick, you know I’ve always followed your lead.”
“You’ve never followed anyone’s lead.” He chuckled. “It’s me who’s followed yours. You’re such a fucking idiot if you don’t see it.”
They went quiet again.
“In a few months, when Sonny’s gone and the dust settles. We hold the first vote for our new leadership. It won’t be my name on those votes; it will be yours,” Patrick continued.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s true, and the fact you can’t see it makes me crazy.” Patrick laughed.
“The Infinity Kings is—”
“What we create it to be, not just us, but the guys, too. We’ve said that from the beginning, and if they choose you…” Patrick paused. “I choose you, but if you aren’t in it anymore, then you need to go now.”
“Go where?”
“Find her?”
“Who?”
They moved away from the back of the room, and I could only hear muffled sounds.
Who were they talking about? Then they came back closer.
“But if you can’t pull the trigger?” Reid asked.
I stepped out of the closet.
“Then I’ll do it.” I discovered my mistake immediately.
In a synchronized move, they both drew their weapons, stepped back, and pointed them at me. Thankfully, they looked before they shot.
I held my hands up and stumbled back.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Patrick stepped forward. I didn’t answer right away.
“Kenzie.” Reid lowered his weapon. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Patrick’s gun remained drawn and aimed at my head. He didn’t recognize me, but Reid did. How?
I guess when you’d been inside of someone, even a catsuit and color contacts weren’t enough of a disguise.
“Kenzie.” He stepped between me and the gun pointed at me. “How in the fuck did you even get back here?”
He looked around. Patrick hadn’t moved.
“Patrick.” He turned his back to me. That got Patrick to lower his gun.
“What is she doing here?” He holstered his gun. “You said she was on her way to Florida.”
“Well, apparently, honesty isn’t your sister’s strong suit.” He turned back toward me. “Answer my questions.”
“Well, since I have an issue with honesty, how do you know if I’m telling th—”
Reid’s hand shot up and wrapped around my neck. He pushed me back into the wall.
“This isn’t a game, Kenzie,” he yelled. “You could have gotten yourself killed coming here. Now I’m going to ask you one more time. What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Dude, what’s up?” Patrick was by Reid’s side but hadn’t pulled him off me. I guess I knew where his loyalties lay. Blood wasn’t thicker than water.
“Let her talk.” He shrugged. “Then we can get rid of her.”
My eyes grew wide, and my heart sank.
“Don’t worry, little sis.” Patrick walked over to the desk and sat in the chair behind it. “We’re not going to kill you. Right?”
Reid loosened his grip on my throat and grabbed my arm. He sat me in the chair opposite the desk, then rounded it to lean against the credenza behind Patrick.
“Okay, explain yourself.” The anger in Reid’s tone made me shiver. “What are you doing here?”
I looked back and forth between the two of them. Not sure if I could trust either of them, but if they were talking about what I thought they were talking about, then my revelation wouldn’t be too much of a shock. I hoped.
“I came here to kill my father.”