24. Raker
CHAPTER 24
Raker
“ P rez,” Teacher said, “you better come over here. It’s about Sunni.”
Those are the three words most guaranteed to make me stop what I’m doing and pay attention.
Saints MC had just finished up an interstate gun deal, and we were all standing around smoking.
Crumbling the cigarette in my fingers, I strode over to where the phone streaming my 24-7 security was.
“Listen to this jackass,” Teacher said, pointing to the screen.
It was Sunni and Leo standing in the driveway of the Saints Clubhouse.
Sunni’s shoulders looked tight with anger and I tensed inside.
Anyone who made her look like that was in trouble
“They’ll pay a lot if we can somehow capture him and bring him in. Enough for us to get a really nice house. Don’t you want to be more than Sunni Twenty-Four? We could be Leo and Sunday Nine or even Ten.”
Oh, this fucker
“I knew I should have killed him,” I grunted to Teacher.
Was Sunni going to agree to turn me in to the Elders? Frankly, I would have fucking deserved it. I had betrayed her trust and, despite what I had said, I knew there was a very real possibility I could keep her with me for life but she would never forgive me.
I would never stop trying, though.
But my little Sunni was tapping her toes impatiently.
“How can you even contemplate doing that? His actions have weakened the Elders! That’s what we want .”
“Grow up, Sunni. This is how the world works. You are not a child anymore, and if you want me to stick around and be a father to your child, you will cut this goddamn ridiculous fantasy about undermining the Elders.”
Shit
Leo was a fucking low-down skunk. I might personally think Willow and Elise were annoying with all their woo-woo shit, but they’ve been good to Sunni.
Besides, if anyone is going to tell her what to do, it’ll be me.
“I thought you believed in the same things as I did,” she said. “I thought we agreed that the system is screwed up. I thought we both wanted better.”
“I do want better. For you and me. Not all of your friends. I’ve been offered a new position with the Elders, and it’ll mean a huge increase in our water allowance. You can move in immediately and we can get started with our new life together.”
Sunni started backing away.
“No. No! How can you even suggest such a thing? Have you forgotten I’m married to Raker! Willow and Elise could get in trouble, too! Maybe even go to jail?”
“I can protect them.”
“You can’t be sure. You can’t possibly know that. And what about Raker?”
“What about him? You seem pretty fucking concerned about him for someone who is supposed to hate him!”
My fingers tightened on the tracker, outside noises fading until all I heard was the rushing of air in my ears, everything compressing my lungs.
“Just shut up. I’m not delivering him to the Elders.”
“ Him or me, Sunni ?”
She started backing away from him then.
“I refuse to play your games. We are through.”
Shit, I’ll take it
“Reject me?” Leo snarled. “I’ll make sure you regret that, Sunni. Both you and your bastard child. I’ll make sure the Elders know about your disobedience. You’ll be dropped down to the lowest water restrictions possible after they know what’s been going on here.”
He left in a little bitch fit, slamming the door of his little sporty car and riding off.
Where the fuck was he going? Nowhere good. Now I wanted her to call me and ask for help.
Come on, Sunni
I watched her on the screen, my eyes narrowed.
I wanted to see that moment when she picked up her phone, when she called me for help.
I needed her forgiveness now
But I was already moving to my motorcycle.
I didn’t take chances when it came to Sunni. Not anymore.
“ Prez,” Teacher said. “He’s kind of moving fast.”
Shit
“Get Builder and the other brothers,” I ordered over my shoulder. “Then come find me. I might need help with some bodies.”
“ Shit ,” Teacher said, but I heard him move.
With the tracker in my hand, I gunned my bike, my insides coalescing into hard steel.
I would have to ride like hell to catch him before he got a hold of an Elder. Because that’s undoubtedly where he was going.
To report Sunni to the Elders like the weak little bitch he was.
I spun my bike around the corners, gravel sputtering up under my wheels.
Shit
He was headed directly to the temple.
Entering the temple if you haven’t been invited in in a serious crime, a sign of blatant disrespect against the Elders.
But I don’t give a shit anymore.
If it’s my religion or Sunni, I’m going to pick Sunni every damn time.
My phone buzzed and I looked down, clicking my earbud.
“Hello, baby doll,” I said, feeling the deep-gut pleasure of her voice as I slammed my foot down on my kickstand.
Leo didn’t even turn around, the dumb motherfucker, but he did rush past the guards at the door to the temple.
I parked and stalked after him. The guards held their arms out to stop me, but I’m done playing around. I tried to be nice to her ex but now he has to die.
“Raker, there’s a problem,” she told me, in that sweet little angelic voice that drives me up the wall with desire.
“I can fix it,” I replied, my voice rough with how badly I want her. “Anything you need.”
The knives rest comfortably in my hands and I’ve slit both their throats without even slowing down.
“It’s Leo,” she said hesitatingly. “I’m—afraid he’s a danger to us now. I’m afraid he’s going to tell the Elders all about what we have been planning.”
I shoved my way past the gates, instantly spotting Leo talking to an Elder at the door to the temple.
“Sweetheart, he’s no danger to you at all. Trust me, you don’t have to worry about him.”
He finally turns around and spots me as I stride closer. I can taste blood under my tongue as my fingers tighten around my knives.
Maybe this should be a long process, torturing him until he’s aware in his last moments on this planet that disrespecting Sunni in any way is something I don’t allow.
But I’m too pissed to do this delicately.
“Someone stop this man!” he bleats out and takes a swing at me.
Leo is a tall, strong man, and I open my arms wide, the knives dripping with blood on either side of me, and I let him hit me.
Right in the jaw.
I do nothing, letting the little pop of pain sting, see if it cleanses me, see if it’s contrition enough, see if it’s enough pain to absolve me from what I did to Sunni.
It isn’t.
I let him hit me again, really sock me in the jaw, then again as the guards come up with heavy cudgels, trying to knock me out.
“He might. . .tell on us,” she squeaks in my ear. “I don’t want Willow and Elise to get in trouble. They’re very special to me.”
“I swear to you, Sunni,” I say as I charge forward, head-butting Leo and knocking him off balance. “No harm will come to Willow and Elise. If they are your friends, I’ll protect them.”
Then I slice forward with my knives, slitting Leo’s throat as he falls to the ground in a gurgling puddle of cowardly blood.
I plunge my other deep into Leo’s gut, and I twist it in deep, glorying in his death rattle.
One of the guards aims a kick into my ribs and I whip my fist back, just as I see Teacher roll in with Builder and the others.
“Thank you,” she says after a moment, in a small voice, and I goddamn hate that she doesn’t fully trust me, that she feels awkward about coming to me for help.
But there’s nothing to do except the good grind work every day of making sure she can trust what I say.
“Love you, baby girl. I’ll see you in a little bit,” I say, wiping a bright scarlet smear of blood off the screen.
Bloodlust rushes into my ears at the sight of the verdant, flowering green gardens, but I stop myself from killing anyone else.
Builder rolls Leo into a big sack as Teacher wipes his knife on the ground.
My VP stalks over to me. “All good, Prez?”
“Right on time,” I grin.
“What should I do with his body?” Builder asks.
“Take it outside town and let the birds have what’s left of him. I’m not wasting good water.”
The rest of the guards have fled and the temple is locked tight.
I itch to make the rest of the Elders pay for threatening Sunni, but it’s going to take some strategy to figure out how to defeat them. For one thing, I don’t know where their secret holy place is, their Celestial Abode that no one is allowed to see , but according to Willow it’s at the junction of the underground water sources. If we could only find where those are.
When we’ve dumped the dead bodies out in the desert, my brothers and I head back.
When we arrive, Sunni is already waiting for me in the driveway, wringing her hands together.
Shit, I hope she won’t be too mad about me killing her baby daddy.
“What happened?” she cries, rushing up to me. “Were you able to stop him? He didn’t tell anyone about Willow and Elise, did he?”
I have never been one for fucking sugar-coating anything, but for a moment I debated breaking it to her gently, pretending like maybe he’d just left town. But I couldn’t find a way for it not to hurt her, so I just told her the truth.
“Yes, I did stop him. He’s dead, Sunni.”
She gasped and covered her mouth quickly, her big brown eyes widening at me.
“Oh my god, is he really dead?”
“I didn’t do it for myself,” I said sharply. “I did it for you, baby girl. I couldn’t risk him ratting you out to the Elders. Fucking low-life.”
She still kept her hands over her mouth and I felt a cold sweat break out on my neck.
What if this meant she’d never trust me again? What if it meant I had screwed my chance?
“I’m sorry about your son,” I said roughly. “I will do everything I can to protect him and take care of him, no matter what happens. Even if you never forgive me. I promise to always care for you and protect you both. You have my word on that.”
She dropped her hands and her lips tightened.
“Why should I trust your word, Raker? You’ve always broken your promises to me.”
Her words landed on my chest harder than any blow Leo or the guards ever could have, punching the air from my chest and leaving me feeling like a hollow jackass.
“I am sorry for being a shithead. And you’re going to see you can trust me now. But even if you never forgive me, it’s my fault you had to turn to him. I’ll take care of you and your baby even if you hate me every day for the rest of my life. I won’t stop.”
“Why are you being like this?” she cried, turning away from me, but not before I saw tears hovering on her eyelashes.
“What’s wrong?” I asked roughly, and I couldn’t help drawing her into my arms, cradling her stiff and resistant body to my chest, craving her softness even though she wasn’t giving me any of it.
“Why now, Raker? Why are you being so nice now?”
“I’m not a good man,” I said, “And I’ve never been good with my words. But I screwed up with you and I want another chance. I’ll bring up your son like he was my own. And when he’s old enough, I’ll tell him that I killed his father and man up to it so he can hate me.”
Sunni turned her face up to mine. The tears clustered on her dark eyelashes.
“That would be a lie, Raker. Leo wasn’t the father of my baby. You are.”