Chapter 14
Idrag myself up out of the pool pit and wipe the blood from my lip. Then, staring at the beaten body laid out on the bottom of the empty pool, I wish it belonged to Cliff when I see the smug smile he’s giving me from
the other side of the yard.
Willow is standing by the clubhouse door and when I look across at her, she shakes her head with all the disappointment she’s got for me.
“You did good.” Ruckus interrupts our stare off, gives me an encouraging slap on the back, and when I look back up to see her again, she’s disappeared.
“It don’t feel fuckin’ good,” I growl, following him into the barroom, unwrapping the tape from around my knuckles and throwing it onto the bar in front of me.
“I get that, but you got a lot to prove to him. He doesn’t trust you,” Ruckus reminds me.
“Don’t see the point when he’s gonna be dead soon.” I seethe through my teeth as I watch the president of this club stroll inside and take his seat in the corner like it’s a fuckin’ throne. He’s got his two ass-lickers either side of him and about four needy whores worshiping the ground he walks on.
“Rocko and Saint are gonna dump the kid outside the hospital.” Dev joins us, nodding his head at the blonde behind the bar and looking every bit as pissed off as I am.
“He was just a fuckin’ kid. Same age as Asher.” He grips the edge of the bar in frustration.
“Chill, Dev.” Ruckus looks between us, reminding us both to keep it together.
“Chill? Are you kiddin’ me? Things are gettin’ outta fuckin’ control around here.” I can hear how angry Dev is from his tone, and once I’ve knocked back the tequila, Blondie just poured me, I scan the room looking for Willow. Her seeing me like that was not something I wanted to happen, and now I need to speak to her to explain that what she just saw wasn’t the real me. Dev is right, things are outta control here. Cliff knows why I’m here, or at least he thinks he does. He’s constantly playing games with me to test my perseverance and beating the crap outta that kid was just the latest in a long line of shit he’s put me through to prove my loyalty.
“We haven’t gotta hold out for much longer, we just have to keep our cool. He wants us to break.” Ruckus waits until there”s no one around us before he attempts to keep up our spirits.
“You heard anythin’ from Wrath?” Dev asks, keeping his voice low.
“Nothin’ since last week.” Ruckus shakes his head.
“And I’m assumin’ Jimmer still hasn’t got his answer from Raze.” Dev rolls his eyes.
“We ain’t supposed to know about that shit.” Ruckus throws him a warning look and reminds him to keep his voice down. In this place, you never know who’s listening.
“There ain’t no way Raze is gonna come back here, too many bad memories.” Sasquatch”s deep growl is just a whisper as he joins us.
“We gotta think positive.” Ruckus knocks back his beer, remaining focused.
“Well, it’s hard to be positive when we’re not gettin’ anywhere. Cliff is gettin’ worse, it’s almost like he knows what’s goin’ on and is tryin’ to expose the club so we all go down with him.” Dev cracks his knuckles as he stares across the room at our so-called leader.
“That’s exactly what he’s doin’.” I follow his eyeline to where Cliff and Rex have a girl, around Willow’s age, dancing for them. They howl to themselves as they throw bar nuts at her and order her to eat them off the floor like a fuckin’ dog.
“Jimmer needs to shut this down and he needs to do it fast.” Dev shakes his head before he knocks back his shot.
“Polly, have you seen Willow?” I ask the only whore that Willow ever speaks to around here. She’s kind and likes to take care of people. Kinda like Marilyn, except she gets on her knees and sucks cock like a crack pipe.
“I think she went to her room.” She smiles at me sadly.
“Her room? What do you mean, her room?” I get up from the stool I’m resting on.
“Cliff asked me to make her one up a few days ago. Apparently, he wants her to have her own space around here.”
“She doesn’t fuckin’ belong around here.” I push myself off the bar and start heading for the door.
“Whoa, where ya headin’?” Ruckus grabs my arm and holds me back.
“You know exactly where I’m goin’.” I shrug him off.
“C’mon, don’t be an idiot.” He shakes his head.
“I gotta speak to her, what she just saw?—”
“Was what her father wanted her to see. Tawk, he’s warned ya to stay away from her.”
“Then why is he putting her right under my fuckin’ nose?”
“Why d’ya think? He just needs a reason, Tawk,” Ruckus reminds me.
“You saw the way she looked at me.”
“Yeah, and we know the game Cliff’s playin’. He knows you’re here to be Prez’s eyes and he knows you’re here for her. He’s makin’ you pay for that. He’d love a reason to make you dead.”
“Then cover me.” I grip the top of his arm and hold it firm. “Please.”
“For fuck sake.” Ruckus gives up trying to make me see sense. “You got ten minutes, after that, I’ll kill you myself.”
I wait for Cliff to be distracted by a second whore before I head out the door, passing the pool where I kicked the kid’s ass and up the stairs to the second floor of the old motel building where Polly said her room was.
I try my best to unscramble all the words that I got going round my head so I can explain myself to her, and when I see the light on in one of the rooms that”s the door I decide to try first.
“Go away,” she calls out from inside before she even opens it.
“Willow, I have to talk to you, just open the door.”
“I don’t want to talk to you!” she shouts back, and I manage to stop my hand from slamming against the wall in frustration. This girl’s seen enough violence outta me tonight.
“Willow, what you just saw, it wasn’t me. I?—”
“It looked like you.” She swings the door open, catching me off guard and all I can do is stare at her and appreciate how fuckin’ beautiful she is. It’s been weeks since I actually laid eyes on her, Cliff’s kept her away from the club and made it very clear that she’s off limits. Which makes the fact she now has a permanent room here, all the more confusing.
“Tawk, I remember that boy from high school, he’s only a few years younger than me and you just beat the crap outta him. It wasn’t a fair fight, you”re twice his size.”
“I had to.” I take a step closer to her but she moves back and shakes her head like she’s all of a sudden become afraid of me. “My father’s not stupid Tawk, he knows we have something between us, he gave me this room and insisted I not be at home alone anymore because this is exactly what he wants me to see. You should have stayed in Colorado.” She goes to close the door but I grab it.
“Don’t say that, you know why I came here.”
“Yeah, Tawk, and look where it’s got us. Nowhere.”
“It’s better than me not being able to see you at all,” I disagree with her. Yeah, it’s shit, but there was no way I was gonna let her leave without me. I’ve lost too much in the past to just let her go.
“Is it, really? Because I don’t know about you, but I’m finding all this really difficult.” Her eyes fill up with tears.
“Willow, I promised you things would be changing, you just gotta have a little patience.”
“And watch you beat the crap out of innocent people in the meantime.” She shows me a little of the sass I remember her having in Colorado. Since we’ve been here I’ve seen less and less of that.
“Just hold on.” I can’t resist reaching out my hand and touching hers and she proves she still has a little faith in me when she lets me.
“I gotta get back.” I squeeze her fingers tight before I release them and before I can turn my back to leave she asks me something that makes me stop.
“Are they gonna kill him?”
“Willow…” I don’t know how to answer her question. I don’t wanna lie to her, nor do I wanna uncover any of Jimmer’s plans.
“I need to prepare myself.” She puts on a brave face. It never occurred to me that Willow would be sad about the death of her father, she’s shared with me some of the horrific things she knows he’s done and she spent as long as she could in Colorado avoiding him.
“Prepare yourself.” I smile at her sadly before walking away.