Odin
I see red. My inner beast is fully awake now and wants blood. I charge Midas and tackle him to the ground. I swing at him, punching him in the kidney. He groans as the air leaves his lungs. It doesn’t last long before he is trying to punch me back.
We roll around on the floor, taking hit after hit. Midas gives as good as he gets. He isn’t one to lose, but I have trained to be the toughest guy in the room. I could easily knock him out if I wanted to right now, but I need answers first.
“Why the hell did you leave that note in her room?” I pin his arms down and roar in his face. The fucker messed up last night, this morning, and now this. He will push her away from us if he doesn’t fix this shit now. I am not losing her. I don’t care about the fucking bet anymore. I care about her.
I have spent the last month watching her, and she is incredible. She is the sweetest girl I have ever seen, and not to mention the hottest. She goes out of her way to help people. She talks to everyone and never has a bad thing to say. She is an angel among men. A Queen among Kings. A beautiful dream among nightmares.
“I didn’t! Get the fuck off me.” He tries to throw me off, but he isn’t strong enough. I stare down at him, his eyes showing me he isn’t lying. I push off him and roll over on the floor onto my back. I am heaving in oxygen, feeling like I’m not getting enough. I throw my arm over my eyes, blocking the world and only focusing on Serena. That seems to be the only thing to calm the beast in me.
“Well, if you didn’t put the note in her room, who did?” Zeus asks the most logical question, but none of us have the answer.
I peek up at him. He is holding the note, reading it repeatedly, trying to figure out who could have sent it. I look over at Midas. His jaw is tense as he tries to figure it out. It can’t be the ex; he lives across the country. He isn’t going to fly all this way to leave a creepy note. So that means that someone else wants my girl. A growl leaves my chest. How dare someone try to scare my girl and try to take her from me.
She is ours and will be until my dying breath. I promise myself and her to find out who this is and make sure whoever it is suffers. Painfully. There will be nothing left of them when I am through with them.
I have no idea why I feel the way I do or even what I feel for her. It started as just a stupid bet for some pussy, but it’s not that anymore.
She is perfection. I’ve seen how she is with Zeus and how she has changed him. Serena has brought him out of his protective shell and is starting to turn him into the kid he once was.
Hell, she is even changing Midas. Not that the bastard realizes it yet. He used to go through girls like they were toilet paper. He didn’t give a damn about anyone but the three of us. Now he cares about this girl. Yeah, he still wants to fuck her and probably still wants to win- because he is a sore loser- but it’s more than before. He wants her. Like I do. Like Zeus does.
I wonder if I can convince them that we all should have her. We are all possessive, jealous assholes on a good day, so I can’t imagine how this would go. I want to try. I wouldn’t manage watching one of them with her if I couldn’t have her too. I’d probably kill them. I never thought I would think about killing my best friend, but I would for her.
First things first, I need to convince these assholes and then find out who left her that note. If it wasn’t us, then who else could it be? Who else has a thing for her? I’ve seen guys around school staring at her when she walks by. A few have tried to ask her out. She always politely declined because of her boyfriend back home. Now, she is single and could say yes.
I have been watching her. I haven’t seen any creepy or crazy guys. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but whoever they are, they are sneaky if they can get past me. I”ll commit to keeping a closer eye on her.
I don’t like to think of it as stalking. I like to think of it as keeping tabs on a valuable commodity, like when you lock your jewelry in a safe because you know nothing will happen to it. I am the safe, and Serena is the priceless diamond ring.
I finally get up off the floor and extend my hand to Midas. He takes it, and I help him up. I have never attacked him like that before. I have never taken a swing at him before. We didn’t fight, ever. Not like that, at least. These two are my brothers, my family. We have been best friends since we were born. My dad told me once that the only reason Zeus and I are here is that Midas’s dad accidentally knocked up some chick, and they all decided they would have kids at the same time. They wanted us to have the same bond they did, and we do.
I also know they shared a girlfriend in high school. Now, I have to convince my brothers to do the same thing, which will be a challenge. Ironically, we are following in their exact footsteps just like they want.
Maybe I should ask my dad what sharing his girl with his friends was like. I feel like it could get complicated at times. Jealousy would be a major factor to overcome.
My dad never really talks about her. The only time he ever talked about that girl was when he was so far past drunk that he slurred every word. I know he loved her and wanted to marry her. They all did. And it could have happened if she hadn’t left. My dad said she ran from them, but never why. He blames her for a lot in his life. He claims his only piece of happiness is gone.
What a great thing for a parent to say to their only kid.
I look over to Zeus, and he is practically shaking from fury. It’s a weird sight. He is the most controlled when it comes to his emotions, so to see him like this is peculiar. I grab the note from his hand and look it over again. This does sound like something Midas has said to her. So, either he has become the best liar I have ever seen, or this person has seen him with her and is trying to frame him. The latter seems more likely to me.
“So, how do we find this guy and kill him?” I ask to the room. Midas is lost in thought, and Zeus looks like he is about to erupt like Mount Vesuvius.
“I don’t know.” Midas sounds almost defeated.
A loud crash sounds beside me. I turn to the side and see Zeus. The table flipped over in front of him. His chest heaving. He isn”t breathing properly. He turns around and launches his fist into a wall, leaving a huge hole. He lets out an anguished roar and not from physical pain. His emotions are getting the better of him. I have rarely seen him like this. Midas hasn’t seen him like this ever.
Zeus always felt that because he would one day take the role of Vice President, he had to be as strong as Midas and never show him his weaknesses. He wanted to prove to Midas that he was worthy of the role.
After his accident, he stopped feeling. Emotions became foreign to him. It didn’t matter what I tried, he never showed how he felt again. Until Serena.
Midas’s jaw dropped. He looks so taken aback that he doesn’t know how to react. I rush over to Zeus and wrap my arms around his, holding his back to my chest. Restraining him so he can’t do any more damage to the room or himself. I whisper in his ear that we will find this son of a bitch, and we will end him. We will keep her safe.
His breathing eventually evens out, and he gives me a nod to let me know he is better. I tap his chest and let go. Midas is eyeing the two of us, not understanding what happened. We are as close as brothers, but Zeus and I have more in common than Midas. Midas will be the leader one day. He will take over everything, while Zeus and I will always be under him. Zeus and I accept our roles with no problems, but we understand each other better because it.
“You good man?” Midas asks. Zeus nods but doesn’t say anything. He won’t for a while. He is going into shutdown mode. Midas looks him over and gives him a nod back. “We have to convince her this wasn’t us and that she needs our help. Who knows who this guy is or what he wants.”
“I want to know how they got into her room?” I bite out. That’s what is pissing me off currently.
“I don’t know, but we will figure all this out.” He points at me and gives me his most determined face. He looks over to Zeus. “Do you have all your surveillance equipment at your dad’s place?”
Zeus shakes his head no. Which means they are at his mom’s house. I love going to his mom’s house. She was the best parent out of all of ours. She cared for all of us growing up. She was more of a mom to me than my own, who couldn’t bother to be sober long enough to try.
It’s a good idea. If we can watch Serena more effectively, we can keep her safer. She will never go for it. Knowing Midas, he won’t care. He will do it anyway. I don’t care either right now. She won’t want us to watch her. We will do it without her knowledge. It’s the best plan right now.
Midas points for both of us to sit down and devise a plan of action. Surveillance is the best option we have right now. We all agree that she needs us to watch her more closely and protect her however we can. I remind them that she wants nothing to do with us right now. Midas brushes it off. Zeus looks heartbroken by the thought. Same, bud.
Reluctantly, we all agree to give her some space right now. Wait until she calms down and comes to us, or something else happens. At least with the cameras, we should be able to stop this guy before it happens again.
I’m not as tech-smart as Zeus, but I remember him telling me the cameras are motion-censored. It would notify him every time motion was detected. There is also a constant live feed that we can look at when needed.
That solves the problem of her room. But when she is in class or out with her friends, we won’t be able to keep tabs on her. After class and on weekends will be challenging. I follow her when I can, but I can’t always. We will have to figure something out.
Midas’s phone starts to ring in the middle of our little discussion, and I can instantly tell who it is by his face. He grimaces at the phone, which means one thing. His dad. Which means we are being summoned for something. Fuck. This is not what I want to be doing right now. I grit my teeth and listen to Midas answer his dad. Midas only replies with yeah and a couple of uh-huhs before he hangs up the phone.
He gives us a look that spells trouble for someone. I look at Zeus to make sure he is all right enough to deal with this bullshit. For once, he appears excited to go. He cracks his knuckles and gives me a wicked smile. He needs to beat someone to get this energy out. I could think of something else he could do, but I don’t know if he would be into it. I shake that thought from my head and stand up.
Two years ago, we finally saved up enough to buy our dream bikes. I bought a red, black, and chrome 2011 Harley Davidson Dyna Street Bob. Zeus loves the classics. He bought a black and silver 1996 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail. Midas bought an all-matte black 2003 Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide Sport.
The rumble of our motorcycles blocks out the rest of the world. Nothing is more relaxing than riding my bike. With the wind in my face and the sense of freedom, nothing compares. Well, I feel like one thing would be even better.
It doesn’t take long for us to arrive at the clubhouse. We park our bikes next to all the others that line the front.
The Kings of Chaos Motorcycle Club. Home away from home. We grew up here.
The clubhouse is nothing special. It was once a single-story warehouse that Pops converted into this space. It has a dozen bedrooms in the back, for obvious reasons, a bar area, and Church—the place where the club makes all major decisions.
Next to the clubhouse is a garage. It’s a legitimate business, but we mainly used to launder the club’s money. The few cars or bikes that come through get charged on the books way more than needed, but the customers get the actual price. They pay, and the club launders the rest of the money. All the club members work here on paper, but I think a handful actually work.
Technically, the three of us are employees, but Zeus is the only one who knows what he is doing. Midas doesn’t want to get his hands full of grease, and I do all the other dirty work. It’s a compromise. Zeus also enjoys working on bikes. The tech nerd is also a grease monkey.
We head inside, greeted with the usual scene.