Chapter 16
Rueben
It’s been over two weeks since we rescued Amelia from the bastards of Flames of Hell, and so far, everything has been going as smoothly as one would expect.
Amelia has gotten used to the idea of being around us and having to be in hiding, although I know that she’s been bored. The guys have told me that much.
Although I wish I could be with her and provide her with some much-needed entertainment, no matter how little it is, I’m still the leader of a gang and I can't go MIA.
Being missing in action at this point will only serve to have specific eyes on us, and I can't jeopardize her safety and the location of the stash like that.
The Flames of Hell bastards do not deserve to have a penny from the stash, nor should they ever set their eyes on Amelia ever again.
I swallow as I think of what could happen if they ever get their hands on her again. I shake away the thought and focus on the bike in front of me.
From the corner of my eye, blonde hair catches my attention. I stand up straight as I wait for Jared to approach me, the frown on my face showing how unwelcome he is here.
I stare at him, instantly alert as are my men. They watch with wary eyes as he walks into the shop. They don’t need to know what’s happening to know that whenever the second in command of another gang comes into your shop, it’s not to exchange pleasantries. Especially not when it's the second in command of Flames of Hell.
Tanner, Josiah, and I had decided to tell no one about Amelia. They neither know she is with us nor that she is in our safe house. They’ll continue to remain ignorant on that front for as long as we think it important.
While the guys have proven themselves loyal so many times, we can't trust them with information as important as this. After all, the only reason we found Amelia was because Tanner was able to infiltrate the Flames of Hell gang.
It only takes one person to ruin what you have struggled to build for years.
“Jared, to what do I owe this visit?” I ask, maintaining a neutral pitch.
I can’t say that I am surprised to see him. With Amelia snatched from their clutches, I knew it was only a matter of time before they began poking around, trying to see if we know anything.
We already knew this would happen and had talked about how best to handle the situation when it did. Flames of Hell doesn’t know we have Amelia, and they never even told us about finding her. They are in a bit of an awkward position coming to us now, and I have no plans to make it easy.
I wipe my hands on a cloth as I wait for him to speak.
Jared stares at me with a small smile. Although he’s a golden boy with blonde locks and a pretty face, he manages to look like a creep. It’s something about his sleazy eyes.
“Rueben, it’s been so long since we last saw each other. You are happy to see me. Are you not?” he asks.
I frown. “What do you want, Jared?”
“Why so hostile, Rueben?” He laughs. “Chill.”
“You walk into my shop uninvited; surely you know my reaction is to be expected.”
“Oh, please, I’m just here to pay you a friendly visit.”
I scoff at this point.
Jared is obviously up to something. Maybe he knows about Amelia and suspects that we had something to do with her escape. I need to be smart. He’s playing a game and I must be at least two steps ahead.
“Damn!” He wolf whistles, admiring the shop and looking impressed. “This is some serious upgrade compared to the last time I was here. I like what you’ve done with the place, I must confess,” he says in praise.
“Cut to the chase, Jared. What the hell do you want?”
He takes out a cigar and lights it up. “Tell me, Rueben...” He let the smoke out. “How do you handle traitors among your people?”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Jared?”
“It means exactly what I asked.” He stares blankly at me.
“Well, you know the drill. They fuck up, we fuck them up,” I reply with a rather palpable frown. “Can you tell me now why the fuck you’re here?”
“Two weeks ago, we had somebody quite important taken from us and believe it was an inside job.”
“Okay…” I indulge him, tucking both hands in my pockets. “How do you know was an inside job?”
“It was a quick grab and run, and the operation was carried out in less than five minutes. Those motherfuckers had to be professionals.”
I’m smiling on the inside. Of course we’re professionals .
“Did you check the cameras?” I ask.
“Like I said, ‘professionals’. They wiped everything clean and left no traces for us to follow. They’re ghosts.” He stares at me suspiciously, as if trying to fish something out of me.
I sigh. “That’s unfortunate, Jared.”
“Hmm. It is, isn’t it?” He still doesn’t stop looking right at me.
“Fess up, Jared, and spit it out.” I walk toward him. “Is there something you want to say to me?” I halt before him, unhappy with his assumptions, and my displeasure is evident in my gaze.
My men notice my countenance, and they all subtly reach for their guns, alert for whatever comes next. Jared glances at them as some crack their knuckles and necks in readiness for a fight.
Jared laughs lightly and says, “Tell your men to stand down…there won’t be any need for violence.”
I hesitate for a moment before signaling them, and they lay down their guards.
“Who did the gang have that was taken?” I ask, feigning ignorance.
I can see the skepticism in his eyes as he finally says, “Okay… Don’t get mad, though.”
“And why the fuck would I do that?”
He sighs. “Well…it was Amelia Burke.”
“You say her name like I’m supposed to know who she is.”
“She’s William Burke’s daughter.”
“You’re kidding, right?” My eyebrows rise as if in disbelief and he shakes his head.
“And you kept this information from me?!” I burst out angrily.
“We were going to tell you though…”
“Oh, really? When?” I cut him off.
“Look. We were going to tell you. We just needed to be sure about what she knew first.”
I sigh, massaging my temples. “And were you able to get anything from her?”
“Unfortunately, no. She was snatched before that,” he says, murmuring that last part.
I fix him with my dead stare. “Oh. So you know how hard we’ve been working to find the stash, and you find a lead, you don’t tell me, and then you lose the lead.”
Jared visibly shrinks beneath my gaze. People typically struggle to look into my eyes, and he is no exception. He looks away quickly, taking a step away from me. “It’s a pretty bad situation we’ve got on our hands, you know. For both our gangs. We both need to keep our eyes open for any leads on her whereabouts,” he says.
I look at him lazily. “Oh. So now you need me, you tell me.”
He avoids my gaze and starts to back away, ready to leave. “I stopped by to pass you the information. Mission accomplished. Do have a nice day.”
Jared leaves, and I wait an hour before going back to the safe house. Josiah, Tanner, and Amelia are in the kitchen. Josiah laughs at something as Tanner and Amelia glare at each other.
“Good, you’re all here. I have news.”
“What is it?”
“Jared visited the shop today.”
“What?” Josiah whips around to face me.
“Did anything happen?” Tanner asks calmly.
“No, but there’s only one reason he would visit like that,” I say.
“Amelia.” There’s a realization in Josiah’s voice. “They were trying to feel you out to see if you knew anything about her.”
“I suppose the good news is, we can now rest in the knowledge that they truly don’t know we have her, otherwise they would be out here right now,” Tanner says, and I nod.
I turn to Amelia. “You need to tell us where the stash is.”
“The stash. Of course.” Her tone is sarcastic and her brows furrow in annoyance.
“Come on, Amelia. I think it’s time you let us know where it is. It’s the only way to keep you safe.”
She scoffs. “Do you want to keep me safe or keep the stash safe?”
She storms off before I can say anything more. I watch as she goes.
“Perhaps I should talk to her and see if I can calm her down,” Tanner says, making Josiah scoff.
“What? You don’t think I can do it? You think you can do it better than I can?”
Josiah nods. “Certainly better than you.”
Tanner glares at him, fighting back his laughter.
“I’ll talk to her myself.”
I walk away from them, their argument about who is better following after me.
“Amelia,” I knock, waiting until it opens.
Her lips are turned down in a frown, and her eyes are filled with grief that she’s clearly trying to hide with a blank expression, although she’s not doing a very good job of it.
“What do you want, Rueben?” she asks, standing by the door.
“Can I come in?”
She remains standing for a moment as if to make up her mind and then nods, pushing the door wide open for me to come in.
“So, there was a bit of confusion during the conversation we just had,” I say, trying to feel her out.
“Confusion?” Her tone is incredulous. “I don’t believe I’m confused. If anything, I have finally begun to understand exactly what is happening here.”
“And what is that, if you don’t mind?”
She regards me in silence for a moment, and I can’t tell if she finds my question annoying and not worthy of an answer.
“You think you can get me to trust you by playing the heroes who saved me from impending torture, so I can tell you where the stash is.”
My lip quivers as it starts to turn up in a smile, but I hold back. The last thing I want is for her to think that I’m mocking her.
“I’m sorry if we've given you any reason to doubt our intentions, but that could not be any further from the truth. You were right to trust us,” I say, moving towards her.
She takes a step back and folds her arms in front of her chest. Her anger deflates, and in the time since she’s been here, it’s the first time I’ve seen that defeated look on her face.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore or who to trust. I’m glad that you saved me, but I've only known you for such a short time, and despite what I might have heard in that video, asking me to trust you blindly seems like a lot.” Her voice is raised slightly, showing her frustration.
I sigh, taking a seat on what used to be my bed. “You’re right. We're no better than strangers you've only just met. Perhaps if you get to know us better, it could help you to see that we're not the bad guys in all of this.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think there’s anything you could tell me that’ll make it better. I already did my research on you guys after I found your names in Dad’s journal.”
I pause at that. I know that what she’s found could not be pretty. I can’t honestly tell her that she’s wrong about whatever conclusions she’s come to. I usually don't feel the need to explain myself, but somehow, I find myself wanting to tell her. “Your findings are not wrong, but there are things you don’t know.”
Despite herself, her eyes glow with curiosity, and I tap the space beside me for her to sit. She hesitates, but joins me.
“What could you possibly have to tell me that could change my mind about you?” she asks.
“I’m not trying to change your mind,” I explain. “I just want you to understand my reasons a little more.”
Amelia cocks her head to the side.
I sigh. This is not a story I enjoy talking about; however, if it’ll help her get to know and trust us better, then I must do what I can. Even if it’s just for her safety and nothing else.
The words clog my throat for a moment as I struggle to get past the first words that’ll open the dam that has been sealed shut for so long.
“You know…there’s a part of me that envies you…” I begin, chuckling slightly when her forehead scrunches in confusion.
“Even when I didn’t know Captain’s true identity, I used to think he’d make a great father. It was one of the reasons I respected him so much. Seeing you, and the way you feel about him, I can tell that I was right.” I smile.
Amelia purses her lips, her pupils moving to the side as though she’s wondering what I’m getting at.
“I didn’t have a father like Captain.” My face goes dark as I say those words.
Amelia flinches from the very clear change in my tone. She remains silent, although her eyes show her worry.
“My father was an alcoholic, putting it simply. He would come home drunk and hit my mother and sometimes me. When she was unable to hide me, he would kick me and take the switch or belt to me. Whatever his hands landed on was the weapon of choice, really.” My mind goes far away as I speak, back to a time when I was a weak little boy…before I became a sinner.
“I often begged my mother to run away, but she would shake her head in fear of him finding us and wreaking havoc. She also couldn’t leave the man she loved so much, even though only the memories of him remained.”
She leans in closer, enchanted by my story. I find myself drifting back to that fateful day.
My mother and I were playing chess in the kitchen. She was laughing hard at something I had said after besting her at the game for the first time in my life. We were still talking and laughing when we heard the sound of Dad’s car pulling into the driveway.
Just like that, our blissful moment swiftly came to an end. I could see the fear in my mother’s eyes as Dad approached the front door. He opened it and barged inside. There was something very scary in the way he glared at us both, something evil that left us frozen. We heard the sound of his boots clicking against the floor as he walked toward us and saw the ominous shadow he cast over us. Mom held me tightly, tugging me behind her.
He halted before us without a word, even after she greeted him as politely as she could.
“Rueben,” she said softly, without taking her eyes off the man before her, the man she used to call “husband”. “Go to your room. Now!”
That instant, I took off and rushed upstairs, heading straight to my special hiding spot. It was an opening in the wooden wall in an empty room just across the hallway. I slipped myself in there, as I did every time his cruelty began. Mom used to think that he was possessed by an evil spirit or a demon. However, I believed that he was the one who actually possessed the demon; he was the real evil spirit.
As I squeezed in there with heavy breaths, I could hear Mom’s muffled voice, but I couldn’t make out what it was that she was saying. But it sure seemed like she was doing the usual: begging him to please calm down. My heart was racing faster than a galloping horse.
Soon, they started to argue, their voices growing louder by the second. It was strange because Mom, who rarely stood up to him, was actually arguing and exchanging words. I was impressed by her courage and her bravery, but then again, I knew she had pissed off that demon.
His voice was thunderous when he roared, “How dare you speak to me like this?”
What followed sounded like the bursting of a car tire. He had clearly struck her, as he usually did. The next thing that happened was even more surprising. My mom retaliated with the same energy, striking him back with all her might. I knew she had done that when I heard him hollering, “You bitch! You dare hit me? You are so dead!”
For the next few minutes, I heard the muffled noises of their struggle as they ran around the house, from the kitchen to the living room and probably everywhere else in between. I could tell that he was chasing her.
Soon, the struggles stopped and silence fell. I thought that it was over, but I still waited until a few more minutes had passed before coming out of hiding. Terror struck, I climbed down the steps coldly, unsure of the reason behind the sudden silence.
My jaw dropped in shock and fear overwhelmed me as I stood on the fourth step, frozen in place. I saw the image that would later haunt me every night. My father was standing over my mom’s body motionless body with a kitchen knife buried in her chest. His hands were bloody as he wiped them with his handkerchief.
“Mom?” I called out softly with a shaky voice, my lips trembling at the gruesome sight I beheld.
My father just stood there, flashing an evil smile at me. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Despite being a kid, I knew what it was for someone to be dead, but I didn’t want to believe that Mom was indeed dead.
“Why isn’t she moving?” I dared to ask him. When he didn’t reply, I roared angrily, “What have you done to her, you bastard?”
He smirked at me. “So, you’ve grown into a man overnight, huh? Let’s see how you do in a real fight.” He pointed a finger at me and added, “Your bitch mother finally croaked. And you’re joining her.”
I gasped in fear as he marched toward me. My heart skipped and I ran back upstairs. He quickly caught up with me and grabbed my leg, forcing me down to the steps. I heard my rib crack at that fall. With my foot, I kicked him hard in the groin and used his groan as a window for my escape. I rushed upstairs and hid in my spot. He found the room I’d entered, but couldn’t find me.
His presence was killing me. Fear was coursing through my veins, but I stayed calm without moving so much as a muscle. He paced around the room, daring me to come out and face him like a man. He checked under the bed, but I wasn’t there. He checked the closet and the bathroom, but still couldn’t find me.
He looked in my direction as though he had seen me, but I knew he hadn’t. One sound, though, and he would have caught me. I covered my mouth with both my palms and was sure to control my breaths. From the tiny slit in the wall, I could see him roaming the room like a roaring lion seeking to devour me.
“Okay then, have it your way. Since you’re too scared to face me like the man that you think you are, I am going to burn down this house and you will die like the coward that you are.”
I didn’t think that he would actually do it, but I was wrong. I heard his retreating footsteps, and barely five minutes later, I started to smell smoke. I was choking and wheezing, and it dawned on me that he was not bluffing.
By the time I came out of hiding, the curtains in the room were already on fire. In no time, the house began to burn. Smoke filled my lungs, threatening to choke me to death. I could feel the heat around me as flames crackled, destroying everything in their paths. I ran to Mom’s body and tried to pull her out, but I was too weak.
I knew Mom would want me to save myself, so with a heavy heart, I left her with tears in my eyes. I didn’t even have time to say goodbye. I withdrew the knife from her chest and summoned the courage to run through the flames. In the process, I got burned severely, and I could smell my own skin like a barbecue.
I screamed at the pain but did not slow down, and with all my might I smashed through a window, its glass shattering in the process. Groaning at my wounds, I managed to get on my feet, holding tightly to the hilt of that knife.
My father was loading his trunk with some luggage when I crept up behind him. As he slammed it shut and was about to turn, I drove the knife into his back. He groaned as I pulled it out and repeated the same action in the same spot.
With one swing of his backhand, I was knocked down. But I got back up, determined to end that bastard. I lunged at him after he dropped to his knees, weak and losing blood. The knife pierced through his heart and his eyes widened, with a painful groan escaping his lips.
I stabbed his heart over and over again, watching the life drain out of him. I wanted my eyes to be the last pair he ever saw as he died, and I made sure of that.
“Oh, God, Rueben…” Amelia’s voice is tender. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It’s fine,” I say to her. “Don’t feel sorry for me.”
She reaches out to hold my hand, and despite what I said, the comfort feels nice.
“No,” she says. “That is horrible. I mean…he was your dad… Maybe he was too drunk.”
I scoff. “He wasn’t drunk when he killed my mother and tried to do the same to me. He just didn’t care anymore. He fully meant to burn me alive in that house with my mom’s corpse. I got my first tattoo to cover up the burn scars on my back, and I just kept going until I covered every inch of myself.”
“Yeah… Why is only your face bare?” she asks.
“It is so that I can always see it and remind myself of what I am. A sinner. This is the face of a sinner.”
After I killed my dad, everything about me and about how I saw the world changed immediately. The moment that I decided to pick up that knife was the moment I chose my path in life.
I do not regret killing that monster and I would do it again if given the chance.