Chapter 5
Hades sat in his office in complete silence as he stared down at his sleeping nephew while twirling his obsidian ring around his middle finger.
When they had gotten back to his house, Harley and her mut went up to the room she was staying in to get her situated. Hades was fine with that because he had some shit to think about. After making a pit stop in the theater room in the basement, where Eris, Cade, and Lucifer were hanging out while Dante slept in his portable bassinet, he made his way up to his office. Dante tagged along with him… Well, technically, he stole him from his bassinet, but that was beside the point.
It was his first time holding his nephew, and he was completely enamored. He stared into his peaceful face and basked in his pure innocence. To think that he had once been a baby this small blew his mind. He couldn’t grasp that idea. It seemed as though life had spit him out as an adult and handed him situation after situation that only furthered his maturity.
“You ain’t ever gonna have to go through what I went through,” he muttered to Dante, who stayed asleep in the warmth of his uncle’s arms.
As he gazed at his nephew, Hades thought about Harley. What were the chances that the woman he was forcing to stay in his house was the ex-girlfriend of the nigga who had been causing him and the Obsidian Riders issues with the law?
His motorcycle club was no secret, and they proudly wore their leathers, merch, and patches everywhere they went. They could definitely be a rowdy crew, and Hades’s reputation preceded him, so of course when crime spiked in Ellwood, people needed someone to blame. The Obsidian Riders were the obvious choice, and though Hades had wreaked havoc on the city back in the day, it had been over a decade since he did anything illegal. He always had a plan: Hustle in order to live the life he wanted for himself and his siblings. That was it. When he got out of the game, Lucifer got out, and they never looked back.
But in the last three months, heat had been coming down on him and his crew. Everything from drug distribution, aggravated assault, robbery, and there was even an investigated murder.
It didn’t take him and Lucifer long to figure out that someone who stepped into the streets well after he left was the one responsible for sending the cops his way. He and Drew had a few run-ins that ended in their crews brawling, but Hades quickly realized that each time The Obsidian Riders knocked off one of Drew’s crew, the police came knocking.
In Hades’s mind, Drew wasn’t a real street nigga. He wasn’t thorough at all, and just because he wasn’t snitching on men in the streets, he was still fake snitching on the Obsidian Riders and working with the police. Hades didn’t doubt that Drew paid the police for their cooperation, and that was actual bullshit. Now he was under heavy scrutiny for no reason. He didn’t have shit to hide anymore. All he did was work at his custom motorcycle shop, kick it with his family, and ride through the city on his bike, but he felt like a setup was coming, and that kept him on edge.
The news outlets compared the spike in crime to the havoc the Ellway Boys caused in the city back in the ’90s. They were a group of teenaged boys that met their demise after they killed a young man in a robbery gone wrong. There had been a shootout when they got caught up in that, and the Ellway Boys didn’t make it out alive.
They were notorious in Ellwood, though, and their legend lived on. Hades had respected it for a long time. Those little niggas didn’t do anything but murder, steal, terrorize people, and spread drugs into the community, but Hades lived for that kind of chaos. His father made sure evil lived within him, so the legend of the Ellway Boys had always been entertaining to him.
That entertainment ended when he and the Obsidian Riders were compared to them because of some shit that had nothing to do with them.
His mind drifted back to Harley, and he wondered if he could even trust her. She seemed genuinely terrified of Drew, which told him she didn’t really fuck with him like that, but what were the odds that she landed in his house, and he and her ex were beefing?
The nigga was honestly lucky Hades didn’t close his eyes forever in Harley’s home, but over the years, he had learned to move a lot smarter than that. He knew he needed to come up with a solution, though, because there was no way Drew was going to let go of the way Hades put him to sleep earlier. Retaliation would definitely happen, and Hades knew he needed to be ready for it.
His thoughts scattered when a knock sounded on the door.
“Come in,” he said just loud enough for the person on the other side to hear him but not too loud as to disturb Dante. Eris had warned him that when he woke up, he would be hungry, and Hades wasn’t ready to give him up just yet. He needed a few more minutes of his innocence to help him clear his mind.
Lucifer poked his head in the door and chuckled when he spotted Hades sitting at his desk with his elbow propped on the arm of the chair, his chin resting in his hand, and Dante snuggled in the other arm. His legs were cocked, and he looked mannish and mean with a sleeping baby in his arm. Hades was for sure a walking contradiction.
“I still don’t understand how you call yourself stealing a newborn baby,” Lucifer said as he sat down on the couch along the wall of the large office.
“I ain’t steal him. His mama knows where he’s at.”
Lucifer shook his head and propped his elbows on his thighs as he leaned forward. “What’s on ya mind, man?”
It didn’t surprise Hades that Lucifer sensed something was on his mind. Lucifer was always the more empathetic of the two. That didn’t make him any less deadly, but he wasn’t as out of tune with his emotions or other people’s emotions as Hades was.
“Tink,” Hades finally said.
“You mean Harley?”
Hades shook his head but didn’t respond verbally to Lucifer’s correction. Instead, he said, “You know she used to date that nigga Drew?”
Lucifer seemed lost for a split second before his eyes grew wide. “Nah, man. Are you for real?”
“Put his ass to sleep at her house earlier when he popped up while we were grabbing her shit.”
“Permanently?” Lucifer asked.
Hades had to chuckle at his brother’s question. It was valid, but it had been a long time since he permanently put someone down. He thought about it often if someone pissed him off well enough, but he valued his freedom and was smart enough to know he had made it this far without getting locked up. If he kept moving like that, then he knew his luck wouldn’t last as it had been.
“Nah.” Hades sighed before filling his brother in on what happened.
When Hades finished, Lucifer sat back on the couch, stretching his arms across the back of it. “We already figured out that he was putting twelve on us because they needed someone to blame for the shit happening around the city. You know we could just call?—”
“Nah.” Hades knew what his brother was going to say, and he wasn’t about to go down that rabbit hole. He refused.
Lucifer sighed. “Aight, well, we had beef because Drew and his sorry ass crew keep blaming their shit on us, but man, you just made this shit personal. We have to do something before we end up in a full-blown war with them and some of us end up dead or in prison.”
“How did I make this shit personal?” Hades’s face frowned up as he mugged his brother. Drew popping up at Harley’s house wasn’t his fault. He did what anyone in his position would do. “He was in there talking crazy to Tink?—”
Lucifer’s laugh cut him off. “There it is. You did this because of her.”
Hades’s brows pulled together. “I ain’t say that.”
“But you did. How you know they aren’t still fuckin’ with each other?”
That thought pissed Hades off, and he didn’t understand why. Harley wasn’t his woman. She was fine as hell, but she definitely wasn’t his. The thought of her fucking on Drew caused lava to fill his veins as he bit down on his back teeth. “Trust me, they aren’t. Tink was scared of that nigga.” That thought only pissed him off more. It made him wonder what Drew did to make her afraid. He lived for people fearing him, but there was something about the look in Harley’s eyes when Drew spoke to her that didn’t sit right with him. He was the only one she should be afraid of.
He smirked at that thought, but a knock on the door made it melt away.
Lucifer stood up and opened the door, and there stood Harley with her mut right next to her, wagging her tail and looking all happy and shit. Hades grimaced at the dog, who walked right into his office as if it felt right at home.
“This your dog?” Lucifer asked as he caught the puppy just as she tried walking past him and lifted her up. He had always had a soft spot for animals. Hades didn’t get it.
“Yeah,” she muttered, a small smile playing on her lips as Pixie ate up all the attention. “Her name is Pixie.”
“Pixie and Tink, huh?”
“Harley,” she corrected.
“What you need?” Hades interrupted, hating how easily Harley spoke to his brother.
She turned to look at him before her eyes landed on Dante. Her expression softened as she walked over to him and invaded his space. Hades’s dick bricked up as he caught a whiff of her perfume.
“May I?” she asked, and he realized she was holding her hands out for Dante. He had been too busy looking at her titties.
“Nah.”
A frown formed on her face as she recoiled and placed a hand on her hip. “You’re making me stay here to keep an eye on him, yet you’re stopping me from doing my job. Can you make it make sense?”
Hades glared up at her for several long seconds and was impressed that she didn’t back down, though she did fidget. That was enough to cause triumph to swell within his chest. Finally, he slightly nodded his head, and she gently reached out and grabbed Dante from him.
“Hey there, sweet boy.” She cooed her words as she held Dante out in front of her. Hades watched as Dante stretched, opened his eyes, and then scrunched back into a little ball. “That newborn scrunch gets me every time.”
“Fuck you just say?”
Harley rolled her eyes as she adjusted Dante in her arms and used her stethoscope that was around her neck to listen to his chest.
While she did that, Lucifer put Pixie down, and she walked right over to Hades and put her front paws on his legs, wagging her tail happily. He frowned down at her for several seconds before leaning down and plucking her off the floor with one hand and holding her out and away from him.
Harley eyed him as she patted Dante’s back, since he was getting fussy. “You better not drop my baby.”
“Man, take care of my nephew. I got this over here. What kinda mut is this anyway?”
“My baby is not a mut.”
“That didn’t answer my question, Tink.”
“Her name is Pixie, not mut . Stop calling her that.”
“What kind of dog is this lil nigga, man?”
Harley giggled. “She isn’t a lil nigga either. She’s a puppy. Princess, if you’re feeling nice. Otherwise, it’s Pixie.” Hades looked at her in disgust, causing her to giggle more. “She’s a teacup Yorkie.”
“Even you gotta admit she’s cute, man,” Lucifer said from his seat on the couch.
“I ain’t gotta do shit but stay black and get my dick sucked from time to time.”
Harley choked on her spit as she looked at Lucifer. “Is he seriously always like this?”
“Since birth, I’m convinced,” Lucifer replied.
Hades ignored them as he finally allowed Pixie to sit in his lap. She walked around in a circle before curling up into a little ball and lying down. He looked at her for a moment before speaking to Harley. “My nephew good?”
“He is. He’s a strong little man. Just hungry.”
“Cool. Bring him to my sister. We gotta go.”
“Go? Where?” Harley asked.
“We’re going to church.” Hades didn’t miss the look of fear flicker through her eyes, and his dick jumped. He realized she probably thought he meant they were going to praise God, and he wondered what perverted pastor had gotten his hands on her. He wanted to find him and… He shook his head and refocused his thoughts. “I’m not talking about real church, shorty. Relax?—”
“I know what church is,” she whispered, and that surprised him. To a motorcycle club, church just meant they were holding a meeting. The fact that she understood the lingo intrigued him even more. He wanted to ask her about it, but she spoke again first. “But why do I have to go?”
“Because we’re going to talk about your ex, and I need you to give us all the information on him as you can.”
Harley closed her eyes as she rocked Dante, who was now crying. She shook her head and took a deep breath. “I don’t suppose I have a choice?” Her voice sounded sad, which made Hades want to know the reason behind it. He shook his head. “Fine. Hand me Pixie. I’ll see if Eris wants to watch?—”
“Nah. Leave her. I’ll bring her up to Eris before we leave.”
Harley eyed him as if she didn’t trust him with her mut, but Dante’s cries caused her to nod once and make a hasty exit.
Lucifer chuckled as he walked toward the door behind Harley. “Yeah, man. You got it bad.”
Hades stuck a lazy middle finger up at his brother’s back as he used his large hand to pet Pixie. “Fuck am I gonna do with these unruly niggas in my house?”
Pixie slightly lifted her head and peered up at him before sighing and laying her head back down, causing a rare chuckle to spill from Hades’s mouth.