Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
Hella
The shower water swirls pink before turning dark, disappearing down the drain.
I slump against the cold tiles outside the bathroom, ears straining. Melissa’s in there scrubbing herself raw. Hasn’t made a sound since I put her down. Just drifted inside like she’s already half-gone, then clicked the door shut behind her.
Not locked. Just... shut. Like she’s too tired to even bother with that.
Beast stands next to me, arms crossed, jaw tense.
“She's going to want to go after her.” His voice is low enough that it won't carry. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah.” I run my hand through my hair. “I know.”
“And we can't let her.”
It’s the truth that I know Melissa isn’t gonna accept. “I know that too.”
The water shuts off. Movement inside. The soft rustle of fabric.
I should have stopped her from going outside. Should have kept her close. Should have — “Stop.” Beast's hand lands on my shoulder, as if my thoughts were carved all over my face. Fucker knows me too well. “This isn't on you.”
“Bullshit.” The word comes out flat. “I pushed her away. Made her think I didn't give a fuck. She wouldn't have been out there if—”
“If what?” Beast's voice hardens. “If you'd claimed her as your old lady in front of everyone? Triple Zero was always coming for Millie. Melissa was collateral.”
He's right. I know he's right. But it doesn't make the guilt sitting in my chest feel any lighter.
The bathroom door opens. Melissa steps out wearing one of my shirts and a pair of sweatpants Jada must have brought over. Her hair's damp, hanging loose around her shoulders. The blood's gone from her face, but I can see the faint outline of the numbers that were on her forehead.
She meets my eyes. Doesn't say anything. Looks at me like she's waiting for something.
“You good?” The question sounds stupid the moment it leaves my mouth.
She nods. Still not speaking.
“Olive's on FaceTime with Jada.” I gesture toward the living room. “Wants to talk to you.” It breaks through whatever wall she's building as her whole face softens, and she moves past me without another word.
I follow her out. Watch as she settles on the couch and takes the phone from Jada. Her entire body language changes the moment Olive's face fills the screen.
“Hi, baby.” Her voice is steady now. Warm. Like nothing ever happened. “Having fun with your cousins?”
Olive's excited chatter fills the room. Something about a fort and cookies and Nan-nan letting her help fix an old bike.
Knew it would only be a matter of time before the old girl would get Olive to call her nan-nan.
Hard not to. She'd been through too much in her life to not appreciate the innocence of young children, since her son won't be giving her any in his lifetime with the way things are going with Yana.
Melissa smiles. It doesn't reach her eyes. Pisses me off that one of those motherfuckers hit her enough to leave a gash in the back of her head. Thankfully one Olive can’t see that’s now glued back together from the club doc.
I turn away before she can catch me staring and head toward the bar where Beast's already pouring whiskey.
“How bad is it?” Frost appears from the back hallway. “Travis said she was naked when you found her.”
“She was.” I take the glass Beast offers. Down it in one swallow. “But not with the mark, it was his. Triple Zero.” My hands run over my face. “Legend says that those who are marked will be called upon, but there ain’t shit in the history tellings about his personal mark.”
“Fuck.” Frost shakes his head. “And the sister?”
“Gone.” Beast pours me another drink. “The Five Einherjar have her now and there ain’t shit we can do about it.”
The room goes dead quiet.
Ripper looks up from the pool table. “The five what?”
“Einherjar.” I set my empty glass down harder than necessary. “Norse mythology. Warriors chosen by the gods to fight in Ragnarok.”
“That's a story though.” Ripper's voice is uncertain. “Right?”
“Depends where you come from and what you believe.” Melissa announces. Olive must have hung up. “But these ones? They're real. I saw them. Five men in skull masks.”
She stands. Walks over to us with the phone clutched in her hand like a lifeline.
“I want everyone here.” She looks at Beast. “Everyone who needs to know what's happening. Not in the Chapel. Out here. No secrets.”
Beast nods slowly. “You sure about that?”
“I'm sure.” Her voice doesn't waver.
Twenty minutes later, the clubhouse is packed.
Everyone's here. Even the club girls, who usually get dismissed when shit gets serious.
Melissa insisted. Must be tapping into that softer, feminine side since becoming a mother.
Kind of makes me proud. She's proper Old Lady material, would take any of them under her wing.
A change from the girl that I first met.
She's sitting at the bar now, hands wrapped around a glass of water she hasn't touched. Jada's on her left. Yana on her right. Both looking like they want to wrap her in bubble wrap and hide her somewhere safe.
I'm leaning against the far wall, watching. Waiting.
Beast stands in the center of the room. All eyes on him.
“Most of you know what happened.” His voice carries through the space. “Melissa and her sister Millie were taken. Melissa was returned. Millie wasn't.”
Murmurs ripple through the crowd. Beast holds up a hand for silence.
“What you don't know is who took them.” He pauses. Looks directly at Melissa. “This is your story to tell. You want me to handle it?”
She shakes her head. Stands. Moves to stand beside Beast even though I can see her legs shaking.
“My sister was being hunted by an organization called Triple Zero.” Her voice is steady despite the tremor in her limbs. “They're—” She stops. Swallows. “They're not like other criminal groups. They're bigger. More organized. More dangerous.”
“How much more dangerous?” Footy asks from the back.
“They control everything.” Melissa's hands clench at her sides.
“Human trafficking. Drug trade. Weapons.
Government officials. Corporate interests.
They're the puppet masters behind every major criminal enterprise you've ever heard of, but they're more than that. They're something else I can’t quite figure out and Millie didn’t have enough time to tell me.”
The room goes quiet again. Colder this time.
“Millie discovered what the nunnery was hiding in Prague.” Melissa continues. “She ran. They hunted her. And when they found her—” Her voice cracks. She clears her throat. “They took her. And left me.”
She reaches up and touches her forehead.
“Why did they let you go?” Shelby asks near the front, arms crossed. “If they're as dangerous as you say, why not kill you both?”
“I don't know.” Melissa's voice drops. “Maybe because I wasn't their target. Maybe because they wanted to send a message. Maybe—” She stops. Looks at Beast. “Maybe you should explain the rest.”
Beast nods, stepping forward and in front of Melissa.
“The men who took them weren't operatives.” His voice is grim. “They were the Five Einherjar.”
Several people shift uncomfortably. Most look confused.
“The five Einherjar are a legend in the criminal underworld.” Beast continues. “Five masked warriors who answer only to Triple Zero himself. They're ghosts. Shadows. They appear, they take what they want, and they disappear. No one who's encountered them has survived to tell about it.”
“Except Melissa.” Frost points out.
“Except Melissa.” Beast agrees. “Which means they let her go on purpose.”
“Why?” Yana asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
Beast looks to me to finish the rest, and I push off the wall and make my way toward my girl.
“Because keeping Millie alive serves a purpose.” I say it flat. Final. “They don't waste resources. If they wanted her dead, she'd be dead. The fact that they kept her means they have plans for her.”
“What kind of plans?” Melissa's voice breaks on the words.
I want to lie. Want to tell her it'll be okay. That we'll get Millie back. That everything will work out.
But I can't.
“I don't know.” The words taste like salt. “But whatever it is, it's not good.”
Melissa sways slightly. Jada reaches out to steady her.
“So what do we do?” Phoebe stands from where she's been sitting with Blake. As soon as they found out about Melissa, they were here in less than three hours. If I do the math, little “speedy” was living up to her nickname and gunning it over one-fifty the whole way. “We can't leave her there.”
“That's the complicated part.” Beast's voice goes even grimmer. “The five Einherjar—they're not like other enemies. They're not even Vanguard. They're worse.”
“How much worse?” Ripper asks, eyes narrowing.
“Put it this way.” I cross my arms. “Vanguard trains kids like me and Beast. Either as a Soldier, Agent, or a Honeytrap, but everyone is trained for one purpose. To kill. They’re untouchable because governments need places like this.
They see people on the streets as possible weapons, not as people who need help.
Vanguard taught us everything we know about violence, death, and survival.
And even they were scared of Triple Zero.
Even they knew better than to cross him.
” I pause, allowing the silence to be felt before I continue.
“But it wasn’t just street kids they’d pull in.
That famous serial killer that gets locked up and then suddenly dies in prison?
Yeah, nah, not dead.” It takes a minute, but when my words absorb into their brains, a range of murmurs rustle around the place.
It’s not that we’ve ever hidden speaking about Vanguard, because Beast and I have always made sure to let our people know who they are, but speaking of them this in-depth does make me feel a little off.
“Wait.” Travis, bitch boy that we took off Westbeach’s hands, leans forward. “You're saying Vanguard—that has the fucking scariest motherfuckers alive on their side—was scared of this guy?”
“Terrified.” Beast confirms. “Triple Zero is the only person Vanguard could never control. Could never manipulate. Could never touch. Because he wasn't just deadly, he was smart. He built the five Einherjar without anyone knowing, flipped Vanguard on their ass and painted a clown face on them.”
“So they're untouchable.” Melissa's voice is hollow. “You're saying my sister is being held by people we can't fight.”
The silence that follows is answer enough.
“No.” She shakes her head. “No, there has to be—we can't—”
“Melissa.” I move to stand in front of her, forcing her eyes onto mine.
Don’t give a fuck who’s all around us right now, she’s gonna hear me.
“Listen to me. I've never seen the Five Einherjar.
Never encountered them directly. But I've heard the stories.
I've seen what they leave behind.” I pause.
Let the words sink in. “In all the years they've existed, in all the operations they've run, no one has survived being on the opposite end of their wrath. No one except you.”
“So what?” Her voice rises. “We give up? Let them keep her? Pretend she doesn't exist?”
“You’re not listening,” Beast’s voice drives through Melissa’s anger the only way a president can. “They didn’t catch her to kill her. They caught her to keep her.”
I watch as realisation settles over her face. For a minute, I think the words caught, but she shakes her head, eyes flying back to Beast.
“I can’t just let them keep her! What will they do with her?” She stops, and both Beast and I share a look. One that says we can think of a couple of things, but we’re not about to pile that onto her right now when she’s still got to process the fact that she can’t save her sister.
Her shoulders sag, and a sob leaves her mouth. “She’s all I have.”
“You have Olive.” I say it gently, brushing the tear that slips down her cheek away.
She stares at me. Through me. She wants to argue but can't find the words. Just when I think she’s gonna cuss me out or slap me, she pushes up from her chair and leaves. Everyone watches her go. No one speaks.
Once she’s gone, Beast dismisses everyone. They probably know more than they should now anyway, not that it matters. Yana and the girls head upstairs to find Melissa, and when it’s just a few of the brothers left behind, somehow the silence feels heavier than it was when the clubhouse was packed.
I turn to my brother, the fucking one constant I’ve counted on more than I like to admit. “You think there's a way to get Millie back?”
He holds my stare. “No. Listen, I’ve seen them once before.
Well, Triple Zero.” Beast’s jaw clenches.
“Long fucking story for an interaction that didn’t last more than thirty-seconds so I won’t bore you with the details, but our conversation was intense as much as it was short.
It could mean nothing, but I don’t know.
In the world of Vanguard and fucking folklore, anything could mean something. ”
He snickers at his own words, clearing his throat and taking another shot.
“I asked him about their masks, and if it was true that they mark the targets they return for. He said it was true, but only those with their mark. I didn’t know what the fuck that mark was at that time, but I think I said something like seems like a good way to get caught, as if it was some kind of evidence.
In hindsight, I see the ridiculousness of that now, but I was only maybe thirteen, fourteen at the time, and he would have been somewhere around the same age and already had built this fucking—” his hands fly around his face. “Whatever the fuck they are.”
I stretch my neck, the conversation making me itchy.
Beast continues. “I asked him how he chose the rest of the Five, and he mentioned something. About them receiving a different mark.” He pauses, and I shift closer.
“His agent numbers. He said it was a form of not ownership, but like a compadre, and that if I ever saw it, that it wouldn’t mean he wanted me, or the person wearing it, but that we were on the same team. ”
I try to unscramble his words in my head. “So he took Millie for you?”
Beast shakes his head, eyes flying around the room before resting back on me.
“No, he gave Melissa back for me. Whatever he has planned for Millie is out of our control, but the fact that she was kept alive someplace and not killed, only means one thing.” I hold my breath because he’s about to say the thing I’d been thinking. “She’s being delivered to Vanguard.”