Chapter 5
Priest
The door slammed behind me as my strides ate across the gravel driveway. My skin felt stretched too tightly across my bones, and if I didn’t get away from her, I’d do something there was no coming back from. A small part of my mind whispered to me that she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t deserve to suffer, but the snarling and angry rest of my brain was so damned pissed off. I grabbed a cigarette from the pack in my cut pocket and fished my lighter out of my jeans. I sat on a boulder on the west side of the clubhouse, set back away from the building. When Ellis was little, she came out here to this spot a lot; she called it her thinkin’ spot. She even etched her name into the rock when she was ten. I ran my fingers over the worn letters, taking a deep drag off my cig. I inhaled the burn and held it in my lungs before slowly exhaling. Every breath I took was one Ellis never got the chance to take, so I made sure each one slowly poisoned me.
Gravel crunched behind me, and I knew who it was before he even spoke.
“I thought you told Lorna you were going to quit?” Ratched and my mom were always harping on me to quit smoking and drinking so much.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t. Don’t worry, she’s used to disappointment.” I stubbed my cig out on the heel of my boot and put the butt into an empty beer can I kept out here for that purpose.
“You came out here to Ellis’s spot for a pity party? Coulda done that at the bar, man.” I turned, snarling at one of my oldest friends.
“What the fuck do you even know about it?”
“You aren’t the only person who lost someone, Priest! We all loved Ellis; we all miss her. Your mom is worrying herself sick for you, your dad is trying to be patient with you, and your brothers are here to support you. I know you’re disappointed that someone else got to Slyzec before you could…”
I grabbed Ratched by his cut and hauled him into me, getting in his face.
“Disappointed?” I spit. “I’m not fucking disappointed. I’m livid. I’m so goddamn angry that some crazy bitch off the street put an end to him like it was nothing when I’ve been trying to catch him for two years! I swore to her that I’d make him pay and…and I… fuck !” I shoved Ratched away from me, both of us breathing heavily.
Two years. For two years, she’d been gone, and I’d spent every spare moment I had away from the club searching for Roger fucking Slyzec so I could avenge my sister. I’d traveled all over Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California following leads. I’d pored over the case files on Slyzec’s victims and knew all their names. The ones law enforcement knew about anyway. Who knew how many victims he had that hadn’t been tied to him yet? That was the other reason I hated the psycho girl sitting at my mother’s dining table. She killed Slyzec, and now all the answers to my questions died with him. I couldn’t interrogate him, torture him, make him regret ever even thinking about hurting all those women. Killing Ellis. Now, I’d never get the chance…and it was all. Her. Fault.
I swallowed back my rage, tucking it behind my rib cage where it lived now. It had become part of me ever since the day they found Ellis’s body, like a second stomach. This one was always hungry, and nothing I did could quell the sharp pangs that gripped me. Hunting Slyzec helped suppress my appetite for revenge because I was actively doing something to satisfy the need. Now, I felt untethered and unsure how to ease this gnawing hunger for revenge. Not to mention the eternal guilt I’d always feel for how I behaved… what I’d said to Ellis before I knew those would be the last words I ever spoke to my sister. Slyzec killed her, but it was my fault she was dead.
I could feel my dinner rising up my gullet, and I turned my back on Ratched in an attempt to calm myself down. My guilt and rage spiral would have to wait until I didn’t have an audience. Clearing my throat, I turned back to Ratched.
“You and Bones talked to her. What do you think?”
Ratched sighed, taking the change of topic in stride.“She’s obviously malnourished but otherwise seems healthy enough. She has a screw loose upstairs, but I’m not a psychiatrist, so I can’t explain exactly what’s going on up there. It could be a trauma response. She gets agitated when her past or family are mentioned.”
I snorted back a derisive laugh, turning to face Ratched. “Great, another crazy white girl with daddy issues. How unique.”
“I think it’s more than that. Most chicks have a name, know their birth date, shit like that. Hell, they usually tell you their goddamn star sign. This girl is different. Something darker than a bad divorce happened. Her… man, her fingerprints were burned off. Someone went through a lot of trouble to make sure she couldn’t ever be identified. From what I could see, she has some pretty extensive scarring as well.” He was right, that wasn’t something you saw every day.
“What does Bones think?” Other than my dad, Bones, Ratched, and Cricket were the only people on the planet I trusted completely. Some shit went down in Mexico right before Bones and his mom immigrated to the US when he was a kid and it left an indelible mark on Bones’s soul. He ended up making his first kill, keeping a bone from the body in a small pouch in his pocket. The man carried around bones from murders he’s committed, yet I trusted his judgment one hundred percent.
“Funnily enough, I think he likes her crazy ass. She’s unhinged, no doubt about that. Bones seems to believe there’s a method to her madness. He said that just because we didn’t understand it doesn’t mean it doesn’t make some kind of sense. I think it might be like we’re playing a game of telephone with her. She’s talking, making sense in her mind, but there’s just enough detail or context missing by the time we hear it, so it sounds like random nonsense to us.”
“A little thing like her fighting like she did, killing Slyzec and leaving him to rot in the desert…She wasn’t upset or guilty about killing him either. How does some random twentysomething woman remorselessly kill and kick ass like a trained fighter? Makes me wonder where she learned to do all that.”
Ratched tried to rationalize the situation. “She was in a heightened emotional state. A man had tried to abduct her. She was afraid, adrenaline was pumping, and when her fight-or-flight response kicked in, her body chose to fight.”
I shook my head. “Nah, man, you weren’t there. She wasn’t afraid of us. She was pissed . She fought us like an unhinged spider monkey. Bones, Cricket, Bard…they all went down. She knew exactly what she was doing, and fear definitely wasn’t a factor.”
Ratched scratched at his jaw, mulling over my words. “You think she’s had professional training?”
I nodded my head. “I don’t know who, or what kind of training, or why, obviously. I’d bet my bike that she’s had combat training, maybe weapons too. We need to find out more about her. She could be a threat or a plant. We don’t know what might set her off or what kind of trouble she could bring to our door.” I turned my back on Ellis’s spot and started heading back to the clubhouse. I knew Duke decided to lay down ground rules with our “guest” and I wanted to follow up with him and Bones to make sure we were all on the same page.
Ever since we lost Ellis, I’d been going through the motions with the club. I was the VP, primed to take over as prez when Duke stepped down, but I knew my head hadn’t been in the game in a long time. I did what needed to be done, but my heart hadn’t been in it, and my main focus and drive had been on catching my sister’s murderer. Bones was our sergeant-at-arms, so a lot of my slack fell to him. He carried it for me, like a brother would, and didn’t complain. It was time to rededicate myself to the club and protect it like I had failed to do for Ellis.
Ratched walked back with me, keeping pace silently at my side. The lot had emptied a bit while we were talking. The LC relatives would have taken their kids and women home by now, so the family-friendly portion of the evening was over. The night was still young for the rest of us. We walked through the front door and saw club girls scattered around the room, draped over brothers or throwing back shots at the bar. There was a reason club girls weren’t allowed in during family events; I could see several skanks grinding on each other on the small dance floor, giving the guys playing pool a show. On one of the couches, Bard was getting a lap dance from Amber, his flavor of the week. She swayed and undulated to whatever white trash stripper song was playing from the jukebox, her fake tits firmly in place. I don’t know why chicks got fake tits, they felt like shit. No jiggle. I shook my head… whatever, to each his own, I suppose. Mindy, Erica, and some new club girl I hadn’t messed around with yet were all over by the pool tables.
Lennon was behind the bar, serving beers and whiskey and making small talk with Tank while Sticks glared at them from a booth. Lennon grew up in the club like Ellis and I did, but now she was in a weird state of limbo. She wasn’t a patched-in member, so she held no official position in the club, but she wasn’t a club girl to fuck and chuck either. Sticks would annihilate anyone who disrespected his baby girl. Unfortunately, this left her on the outskirts a lot of the time—within and without, family but not a member, welcome but off-limits. I had no problem in that regard. Ellis and Lennon had been best friends growing up, and I viewed Lennon as a sibling or little cousin. There had been a time before… everything that I thought Bones might have been interested in her, but he hadn’t looked at her twice in years, so maybe I was wrong.
Lennon slid me a beer before returning to her conversation with Tank, and I tipped it to her in thanks before taking a healthy swig. Ratched nudged me with his elbow and lifted his chin toward the saloon doors in the back of the room. Duke came walking in, followed by Cricket, Bones, and her . Lennon waved her over with a smile, sliding a beer into one of her hands. The girl twisted the cap off and took a long drink before wiping her mouth on the back of her hand and letting out a distinctly un-feminine belch .
“Thanks, Lennon! I think you might be my new best friend. After Sheila of course. We should form a girl squad!” She gasped and clapped her hands. “We could be the Bad Bitch Besties! B3!” Lennon laughed and said something in response, but I didn’t really hear it. I was too busy watching the girl, trying to figure her out. She seemed innocent in a way, like she hadn’t experienced much of the world if she got excited about starting some kind of best friend’s club like a damn twelve-year-old. However, the state we’d found Slyzec in indicated that the girl wasn’t all cupcakes and rainbows. The way she’d attacked us when we found her in her van also lent credence to the theory that there was more to this chick than met the eye. Which one was the real girl: the innocent wacko or the ruthless killer?
Something across the room caught her attention because suddenly, she stopped gushing about friendship bracelets or whatever she was saying to Lennon and glared. I noticed that she was running her fingers over the tines of a dinner fork. Why the hell did she have that? Bones drifted over to the bar, but Duke stayed by the saloon doors. Both watched the girl as if invested somehow in what she’d do next.
“Hold my beer, bestie,” Girl said in a seductive purr. “It’s time to unleash my lady vengeance.”
“Uh, sure.” Lennon looked at me in confusion, but I had no idea what was happening.
“Don’t interfere,” Bones muttered to me quietly, never taking his eyes off the crazy chick making her way across the clubhouse toward the pool tables. “As punishment for disregarding his orders, Duke has decided to let chica loca have her pound of flesh in restitution.” My eyebrows almost met my hairline as I raised them in surprise. Disobeying the prez was a crime in the club, and club crimes met club justice by club hands. The fact that Duke was allowing this girl to mete out punishment said a lot. And I didn’t like it one bit.
The Girl
My plans to bond with my new friend had to be put on hold once my prey caught my eye. Pyro was playing pool with Cricket and a few other guys. My conscience and I really needed to discuss the company he kept. Pyro is a bad egg, and I should know. I’d seen so many very bad eggs in my time. I was egg-celent at spotting them. My lips curved in a demented little smile as I mentally high-fived myself for my pun. I’m so funny. Pyro might not think so in a few minutes, though. Well, he might. I’m pretty damn amusing, and laughter is for all. I’d never be stingy with something like laughter unless it was Uncle Roark. Fuck him.
“Hold my beer, bestie,” I said to Lennon. “It’s time to unleash my lady vengeance.” I walked with purpose across the room, dodging people dancing and talking in groups. The room was hazy with cigarette smoke, but I was laser-focused on Pyro. I casually stopped at the table where Pyro was playing and innocently looked up at Cricket. He was in on my talk with Duke and knew what was up.
“Hey there, Girl. You need something?” Tricksy Cricket, I loved that my conscience had a sense of humor. He’d need it with me. Pyro and the two other guys playing pool that I wasn’t familiar with stopped what they were doing to leer.
“I got what you need, Girl,” Pyro said, grabbing at his crotch and biting his lip. Ugh, barf. Had anyone ever seen him do that and been like oooh, yes please, tell me more! Like, seriously. Barf. Cricket stood back a little, giving me room to move because he knew what was coming. I sidled over to Pyro, batting my lashes .
“Oh yeah? And what is it I need?” Pyro was facing me now, his pool cue lying forgotten on the table at the prospect of whatever he thought was about to happen. I was quite a bit shorter than he was, so I was looking up through my lashes at him, pretending to be coy. Pyro reached out to tuck my hair behind my ear before painfully tugging a handful at the base of my neck. It was evident that he was used to handling women this way as he sneered, “My cock down your throat. Why don’t you be a good little slut and get on your knees for me.” Pyro watched my face, waiting for fear and obedience to override my senses. He was fixing to be very disappointed. It would take a lot more than Pyro’s weak, woman-beating ass to scare me.
Instead of dropping to my knees like Pyro suggested, I opted instead to stiffen my fingers and jab them right into his throat. Shocked, Pyro released his grip on my hair and grabbed his neck, coughing. I reared back and drop-kicked him right in the nads. That’s two. Pyro fell to the ground, where I straddled him and went to town, keeping count as I punched him. I was on nine, stabbing my fork into the meat of Pyro’s thigh, when someone grabbed my arms and hauled me off a very bloody Pyro who was coughing and gagging on the ground. Not to be short-changed, I managed one more kick and snarled, “That’s ten. We’re even now fuckwad. Lady vengeance!” Cricket held me by the arms, firmly but not hurting, and looked over at Duke.
The entire room had gone silent. I think they were in awe at seeing lady vengeance being meted out right in front of them. It’s a pretty intense thing to witness, I guess. Duke looked pissed. Maybe I had gone too far? I mean, I didn’t think so. I said I wouldn’t kill him, and he was definitely still breathing because dead men didn’t whimper.
“Pyro went against my direct order and abused a guest under my roof. Fuck around and find out. Pyro, clean yourself up and get to the infirmary. I don’t want to see your face for the rest of the night. The rest of you, show’s fucking over.” With his presidential address concluded, Cricket released my arms, and we were given a wide berth as we headed back to the bar.
“Damn, Girl, you’re fucking vicious. Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Cricket muttered. I smirked.
“I’m sure you’ll remember, but if you ever need a practical demonstration to remind you, I’ll be happy to oblige.”
“I’m sure you would, crazy girl. I’m sure you would.”
Cricket walked back to the bar with me, where Lennon gave out a whoop before handing my beer back to me.
“Holy shit, Girl, you’re my new hero! Please tell me you give ass-kicking lessons. I’ll be your padawan learner, no questions asked. This place has been an epicenter for testosterone poisoning, and we need some female badassery to balance it out.”
“I’ll teach you anything you want: how to kill a man with your hands tied behind your back, how to ninja sneak, how to be a Disney princess…” Priest, who had been silent thus far, chose to interrupt my verbal badass bitch résumé with a very rude scoff. Bones watched our interaction silently, his eyes flicking from Priest to me.
“How are you like a Disney princess? Maybe Aladdin, with your whole full-of-shit street rat vibe, but a princess? Please.”
“Well, Growly Gus,” I said, holding up three fingers. “First, I have a tragic backstory and no parents. Second, I have a trusty steed who goes by Sheila and a Cricket who’s my conscience.” Priest looked at Cricket over my shoulder like he was confused as to why I was bringing him into this, but if Cricket and Bones hadn’t informed Priest of our connection, I wasn’t going to burst his bubble. “Third, woodland creatures and other animals fucking love me. I made friends with a possum once, and it showed me this abandoned trailer where it lived with its babies. I crashed on her couch for a week and was one of the family. So, like I said. Mother. Fucking. Disney. Princess.” I mic dropped and took a swig of my beer, turning my back on Priest. He could go be growly somewhere else.
“Seems legit to me! What do you think, Tank?” Lennon snickered at Priest and slid a beer down the bar to a huge slab of man meat seated a few stools over. The dude was huge, at least 6’7”, and buff all over.
“For the love of all that’s holy Lennon, leave me out of it please.”
Interest piqued, I turned to Tank. “Why did you choose Tank as a road name?”
“Because”—Cricket snickered—“Built Like a Brick Shit House was already taken. ”
Tank must not have wanted to make friends at this juncture because he rose from his stool and stomped over to the pool tables. I really hoped he was a friendly giant.
Cricket gestured to Bones and Priest, and the three men relocated to the opposite end of the bar to gossip or whatever it was they didn’t want to discuss with Lennon and me listening in.
“Is there someplace we can work out and practice?” I asked, getting back on topic.
“Yeah, one of the outbuildings is a gym. It’s not much, but it has some weight-lifting equipment, a treadmill, and some mats. We can meet up there in the morning if you want?”
“Perfect. Just so you know, though…if teaching you I am, a Jedi you will not be. You can be my Sith apprentice.” I was excited at the prospect of teaching someone else what I knew, especially if it might accidentally on purpose lead to the formation of our own girl band someday where we sang by day and fought crime by night.
“Girl, you’ve got big Sith energy, and I am HERE for it,” Lennon cried, giving me a high five. We both cackled like the vicious bitches we were. Oh, I was really starting to like it here.
Priest
Bones and I followed Cricket away from the girls, far enough that we wouldn’t be overheard but not so far that we couldn’t keep an eye on our new wildcard. She was talking animatedly to Lennon, who threw her head back and laughed. It had been a long time since I’d seen her laugh like that, and it made me hate her a little more and a little less all at the same time. It was confusing, and I wasn’t in the mood to think about my damn feelings anymore tonight. I gave my head a little shake to clear my thoughts and noticed Bones studying me.
“Quit fucking looking at me, man. What happened after I left?”
“Oh, you mean after your tantrum, diaper baby?” Bones smirked at me, the prick. I ground my teeth and clenched my jaw, trying to rein in my frustration.
“Duke told chica loca she had to stay on the property unless escorted by a brother. She wasn’t happy but agreed for the time being. She also agreed to no violence unless it’s for self-defense and no snooping in restricted club areas. She can have more freedom if she gives us more information about herself and where she comes from. He dangled that carrot, but she wouldn’t bite. Whatever abusive ex or controlling dad she’s running from is scarier than we are in her mind.”
Cricket took a swig of his beer before he chimed in, “On that note, you said her prints weren’t an option for identifying her, but what about her DNA?” He held his hand up, a few of her blond locks dangling from his fingers. “When Pyro grabbed her hair, a few strands must have been pulled out. I swiped them when I pulled her off him. Think that’ll help?” I took the hair from Cricket and looked it over. A few had the follicle attached, and I hoped that this was enough for my contact in the local police department to run through their system. If she had a record, we’d find it. I didn’t like not knowing who or what we harbored under our own roof. She took my vengeance from me; I’d be damned if she took anything else.