Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
SPIDER
Laying in my bed, I stare up at the ceiling as memories from a life forgotten continues to flash through my mind. Nightmares and horrors I had long buried. Secrets that had no right to resurface. “Shit,” I sigh. Rubbing my face, I decide to get up. I pull on my jeans, leaving them unbuttoned before I grab my cell and cigarettes, and head to the kitchen to make a coffee.
I walk outside, coffee in hand, and take a seat on a bench, noting how the early morning sun is already warming the ground. A noise to my right catches my attention, and I turn my head in that direction to see Nova dressed in a pair of skin-tight yoga pants and a sports bra, sitting on a mat doing yoga. I light my cigarette and take a sip of my coffee, just watching her. She bends down to the floor, her round peachy ass in the air taking all of my attention. If I didn’t dislike her so much, I would be tapping that ass. She moves into another position, this time facing me, catching me watching her. I give her a little wave and smile when her serene face turns to a look of annoyed fury. She starts marching towards me, and the way her tits are barely contained in the sports bra has my smile widening.
“Is there anywhere I can go where you aren’t?!” she snaps.
I take a long pull on my cigarette and smile while standing. “I wasn’t expecting a show with my morning coffee.”
She huffs, crossing her arms. “Why are you up?” she snaps.
I reach for my coffee, making sure I don’t break eye contact as I take a sip. “It’s morning. It’s when most people wake up,” I argue sarcastically.
She rolls her eyes. “Not bikers, and not this early. I thought most bikers would be just going to bed at this time.”
“I could go to bed, if that’s what you’re offering? I mean, I don’t fucking like you, but you have a decent body.” I shrug, goading her. “I’ve fucked worse.” She swings her hand back to slap me across the face, but I was expecting it. I grab her wrist before her palm hits. Keeping hold of her wrist, I force her back against the wall.
“Get off me,” she fumes.
Pinning both of her wrists above her head, I lean in. “What do we have here?” I ask, trailing my finger over a scar on her bare stomach.
She flinches. “Get off me,” she hisses.
Looking into her eyes, I see pain briefly flash through them. I frown. “What happened?” I ask in a softer tone.
She moves quickly, bringing her knee up and smashing me directly in the balls. “Fuck you!” she yells.
I drop to the floor like falling timber, clutching my dick. “Fuck!” I cough.
Nova leans over me. “You ever fucking touch me again, I will cut your fucking dick off,” she fumes while I roll around on the floor in fucking agony.
She turns and storms off back inside.
After this morning’s events with Nova, I was more intrigued with what she was hiding. I’ve pinned her before, and after that guy that grabbed her, she didn’t react like she did earlier this morning. It was only when I touched the scar on her stomach that she flipped out.
I swing my leg over my bike, about to go for a ride to clear my head when Scar walks out. “Church now,” he orders. I sigh and climb back off my bike. Heading back inside the club, I walk past Star holding Enzo. She looks me up and down.
“What?” I ask her, stopping.
She looks around. “Next fight I want to place a bet,” she whispers.
Enzo makes a babbling sound and blows some raspberries. “Sorry. Can’t help you,” I tell her before walking off.
“Oh, come on!” she pleads.
I turn around. “If I help you, it would be my balls on the line, and I don’t think they can take much more after the morning I’ve had,” I state.
She frowns. “What do you mean?” she asks confused.
I turn back around, leaving her guessing. Being the last one in the room, I shut the door behind me and take a seat. I go to light a cigarette, but Ghost shakes his head. “No smoking when Enzo is here,” he orders. I place it back in the packet and we all wait for why he’s called church. He sighs. “Cash, fill them in.”
Cash pulls out a folder and after he opens it, he begins to chuck pictures on the table. All of them are mugshots of Nova. I pick one up and look at it. Her face is gaunt, and there are dark circles under her eyes. “Nova Ward, age 25, date of birth January 19 th 1999. Lived with her mom and stepdad in a town called Reinton,” Cash states. Apart from her date of birth, I already knew this information. He pulls out another photo, and this is one that sends chills down my spine. “When she was 15, their house was burnt down. Arson. Her mother and stepfather died, both locked in their bedroom, cuffed to the headboard. Police never found out who did it. But that left Nova without any family. She ended up in a small all girls home, where she got into drugs and met Dean,” he states before he places down another picture of a dark haired guy with tattoos up his neck.
“Where was she?” I ask, interrupting.
“Where was she what?” Cash asks.
“Where was she if she didn’t die in the house?” I clarify.
“She was at her job, at the local pizza place,” he states. “She had an alibi. She didn’t start the fire,” Cash states.
I know she didn’t, I think to myself.
“Dean is a drug dealer,” Cash continues. “He’s a pimp and he sees himself as an entrepreneur.” Cash scoffs. “He’s a real fucking asshole. He gets the girls on drugs, gives it to them for free, then makes them repay their debt to him,” Cash states.
“Why don’t the police just take him down? If you know all of this, then surely they do,” I point out.
Cash smiles. “Why else would the authorities not take him down? They use his girls, which means he has them in his pocket, or he has filmed them and blackmails them.” Cash shrugs.
“So what? You think Nova is still a junkie?” Hawk asks.
“No, there ain’t no junkie that looks like she does, or does fucking yoga at 5 am,” I point out.
“What the fuck were you doing up at 5 am?” Hawk asks.
“Having a fucking wank, what do you think? I couldn’t sleep so I got up,” I snap.
Hawk fights back a smile. “There is more,” Cash states. We all look back to him. “Her bakery was trashed.”
“When?” I ask.
“The day after she arrived,” Cash adds.
“So, what? You think she knew that would happen and came here to hide?” Scar asks.
Cash nods. “Yeah, and I think we owe Spider an apology. She is in some deep shit, and whatever it is, or if it is this Dean guy, they are looking for her, hunting her down. Either she knows something she shouldn’t, or she has something he wants.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “Fuck,” I sigh.
“You fucking called it, brother. You said it was for more than Acid,” Ghost states. “One thing, though. Why were you so adamant that he didn’t have a sister?” Ghost asks.
I look around the table at my brothers, at the men I trust with my life, each of them staring back at me, all waiting for my answer. “Sorry Pres, but if I’m going to tell you all this, I’m going to need a smoke,” I state as I take one out of the packet and light it. “Fuck, we promised we would never fucking talk about this.” I sigh. “You know Acid and I were in the home together,” I state. My brothers all nod. I pause, feeling the betrayal of Acid hanging heavy on my chest. “I’m not going to tell you Acid’s story, because that’s his shit to tell. But what I will say is it was a fucking mess. Much like most of ours. He wanted payback, he wanted retribution for what he had suffered, and he had every fucking right.” I pause as I take a pull of my cigarette. “So we went to his old house, and they were asleep in their beds. Both off their fucking faces on whatever drugs they had taken. I cuffed them to the bed and locked their bedroom door while Acid poured gasoline all around the house.” I sigh. “We started the fire and hid, watching as the house became engulfed with flames. It wasn’t until a neighbour came running out of the house with the phone to their ear calling the fire department, that’s when we found out. Acid assumed his sister had been taken into care. He never knew she was sent back to live with them. Acid ran back to the house. He tried to get back in, but the flames had become too much. I dragged him back out.” I pause as images from that night flash through my mind. “I pinned him down. He was screaming, desperate to get in the house, desperate to rescue her, but he couldn’t. Neither of us could, because it was too late,” I state, pausing to clear the emotion from my throat.
“Acid has lived with that the entire time? Thinking that he had burned his own sister alive?” Ghost states, shaking his head. “The scar on his forearm?” he adds.
“Yeah, when he tried to get back inside the house, he burnt all along his forearm,” I answer. “Both of us have tortured ourselves over it our entire fucking lives. For years I blamed myself for not checking the house properly.”
“No wonder you two are so fucking fucked up,” Hawk tuts.
“We’ve lived through horrors, too many fucking times, but nothing stays with you quite like the guilt of knowing you had a hand in killing your best friend’s sister.” I sigh.
“What was the house made of?” Rage randomly asks.
I raise my brow and look at him. “Wood,” I answer.
He nods. “Yeah, if it was brick it still would have burnt to the ground, but at least it would have bought you a few extra seconds.”
“Even now, after all this time, I still have no fucking idea what goes through your head,” Hawk states, shaking his head at Rage.
“What? I was merely pointing out a state of facts. Not that it matters, because you didn’t kill her, and she is alive and just in the next room,” Rage argues.
“I mean, he has a point,” Scar adds.
I smirk, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I was so fucking sure she was a scammer, that she was here to just get what she could from us, from Acid. And you are 100 percent sure that she is his sister?” I press Cash.
“Apart from doing a full DNA, she is who she says she is. The mug shots, everything, it’s her,” Cash assures me.
“Fuck,” I breathe before I stamp out my cigarette on the floor. “We need to find Acid. He needs to know she is alive,” I state.
“We are trying,” Cash says with a shrug.
“We are hunting him down. It would fucking help if the son of a bitch fucking checked in,” Ghost snaps.
“So, what now? We tell her that we know her life story? That this Dean is hunting for her?” Scar asks.
Ghost rubs his chin. “She needs to know what happened to her business. I will tell her and give her the chance to come clean and tell us her story.”
“What if she doesn’t admit anything?” Hawk asks.
Ghost shrugs. “Well, then I will call her out on it, but I think she’s smart. She ain’t fucking stupid. As soon as we tell her about the bakery, she will know we’ve been looking into her.”
“So, we don’t tell her about Spider and Acid burning down her house and being the reason why she ended up in care and pimped out?” Rage asks.
Ghost looks to the ceiling. “Fuck no!” he mutters under his breath.
“We don’t tell her. That’s for Acid to do when he returns,” I snap.
“Or for you to do before you fuck her.” Hawk snorts.
“Fuck you. I don’t want to fuck her,” I snap back.
“So, does that mean I can then?” Scar asks.
“No!” I bark. All the brothers’ eyes come to me, and Hawk is grinning like the fucking Cheshire cat. “She is Acid’s sister,” I add.
“That may be brother, but that ain’t going to stop you or Scar wanting to fuck her.” Hawk laughs. “Let the games begin!” he bellows in a deep voice.
Ghost slams down the gavel. “End of fucking church. Now all fuck off,” he orders.
The brothers laugh as they stand. Sighing, I stand to follow them.
“Spider,” Ghost calls. He clicks his fingers and points to the cigarette butt on the ground. I bend down and pick it up, but as I turn to walk out of the room, Ghost calls me again. “And Spider?” He pauses, waiting for me to look at him. “You can’t fuck her. Acid is your brother in more ways than this patch,” he states, tapping the patch on his cut.
I nod. “Brothers formed in the depths of hell. Nothing can come between that.”