Chapter 21 #2
“This is more personal. Come.” He gestured for Sheik to move closer into the room.
I noticed that as he moved, reluctantly, I might add, he avoided looking at any of the girls.
“A few weeks ago, I came across something rather… intriguing…” Elias’s voice was dripping with over-exaggerated joy.
It was like he was playing a part of a scene he’d rehearsed in his mind again and again.
“You and the Beasts have been loyal, for certain, these past few years. However, it has come at a price, no?”
Sheik stood beside my cell, but didn't even bother looking in at me.
He was staring at the floor, a sense of unwilling obedience permeating from his being.
But Elias was waiting for him to respond.
The suited devil stared at him, the tiniest, cruelest looking smile carved into his face as he stood before the biker, watching him as though he was enjoying how this man struggled with his feelings.
Elias was perfectly aware that this man disliked him, hell, probably that he hated him.
But he loved that this guy was stuck working beneath him.
“Yes, it has,” Sheik said, at last, his voice barely a whisper.
“You lost a lot, didn’t you?”
Again, a grimace, before he grunted, “Yes.”
“And you’ve done very well taking over leadership since your president was unfortunately removed. He was disappointing, I’ll admit. I’d rather liked Bull at first, but he was a coward… a Fils de pute.” He actually spit on the floor at the biker’s feet.
Even though it was ill-lit, I could see how his cheeks reddened at the insult to the previous president of the Beasts. I had no idea why Elias ended him, but I could imagine it wasn’t something the actual club supported.
“But, despite your allegiance, I sense a…” He deeply inhaled and sighed hard, as though he was lost in thought. “Rising hostility from you and your men?”
“We have done all that you’ve asked of us-”
“Reluctantly.”
“We’ve never failed a mission-”
“Yet.”
“I will not be held accountable now for any possible future mistakes!” Sheik snapped his head up, glaring into Elias’s smug face, pure loathing clear in his expression.
“You see, Sheik, that is what concerns me. Future mistakes. That isn’t something I accept from those who work for me. Mistakes are not an option, and your apparent disapproval of all that I do concerns me.”
Sheik said nothing to this. There was no denying it. If I could sense it after five minutes of hearing them talk in here, then I was sure Elias had noticed for some time.
“So I need to remind you of who the fuck you are dealing with!” Elias’s smile disappeared, his eyes burning in the low light, and his hand whipped out, grasping a handful of the biker’s hair at the back of his head, before twisting him around to slam his face between the bars of my prison.
I cried out as the man grunted and struggled against the hold, his cheeks red and eyes shining as he tried to push back.
“Look at the girl, Sheik,” Elias growled behind him, his tone filled with dark anticipation. “Look at her. Now !”
I sat absolutely still, staring up at the biker as he slowly raised his dark eyes to me. Even with his face crushed between the bars, I could still discern the features of this man, and I couldn’t help but think again of how familiar he looked.
I watched as the rage, the pain on his face, and his struggle against his hold paused, as though he’d been suddenly frozen in place.
Then, it melted away, his eyes, which had been squinting and narrowed, now widened in shock, his mouth falling open.
Elias must have relaxed his hold on the back of his head, because the biker was able to pull back the slightest bit, so he was not overly smothered by the metal bars.
His hands came up and they gripped the cold, metal cylinders separating us.
“You see it, then?” Elias confirmed.
But Sheik said nothing, only stared and stared, and I awkwardly shrank back again, completely confused as to what was happening.
“How?” he rumbled in response, his deep voice cracking slightly on the word.
“A byproduct of a one-nightstand with a woman named Liza?” Elias sneered, as his face appeared around the biker’s shoulder.
Wait… what the fuck did he just say?
“Liza…” Sheik murmured, his face still one of disbelief.
“How old are you, Miss Cooper?” Elias asked me, and I involuntarily flinched when his eyes moved to me. “Seventeen?”
“On the twenty-fourth,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Elias beamed, the sadistic smile not fooling me.
Nothing good could come from a man who smiled like that.
“One got away from me, James…” he murmured, his voice dropping to a low whisper.
“You know how displeased I was to find out what he had done. I like to play, and Shay denied me that.” Sheik, James, whatever his name was, gripped the bars tight, his knuckles turning white, and I could hear how quick his breathing was coming.
His eyes shined even more, and I knew he was struggling to hold back tears.
Elias leaned in, his mouth close to his ear, and whispered, “Well, it looks like I will get to play, after all.”
“Please,” Sheik moaned like he was in pain. “Please, don’t…”
“Begging? Not something I ever pictured you doing.” Elias shoved his head forward one last time before releasing him and stepping away, but the biker remained at the bars, watching me like his heart was absolutely shattering.
I stared back at him, my own tears now sliding down my face as it all clicked into place. My lip quivered, and my breath came out in small, little gasps as I stared up at my father… my real father.
“I always get what I want,” Elias said casually, pulling a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiping his hands on it, as though ridding himself of any trace of the man he’d just grabbed.
“Everything comes at a price. You knew that when that idiot Bull or Shawn or whatever the fuck his name was, came to me in the first place, begging for my help to back your pathetic MC so he could fuck over the Spades. I delivered on my end. So you must continue to honour the deal he made.”
“But… her… please.” Sheik was still begging, tears now spilling out of his eyes as he continued to hold onto the bars, like they were the only thing keeping him from falling to his knees. “Please leave her-”
“Sacrifices have to be made, do they not?” Elias threw his handkerchief aside, as though it was ruined now.
“Your son knew that. Now you have to face up to it, too.” He glanced over his shoulder at the biker, all amusement gone, and boredom now taking over.
He was through. “I’ll be shipping out the girls tonight.
And that one,” He nodded to me, “Will pay for your son’s ‘sacrifice’.
” He turned to his men, “Send the rest of the Beasts down here. I don’t fucking trust them for a second. ”
And he headed straight down the dark hall, his men following in his wake, leaving me, the girls, and my father alone.
“What is your name?” he asked, addressing me in a much gentler tone than when he’d spoken to Elias.
“Casey,” I whispered. “Casey Cooper.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, as though struggling to remember, before he finally muttered, “Keith?”
“Yes.”
He nodded, pressing his lips together tight as though refraining from saying anything about the man who I had grown up believing was my real dad.
But looking at James, searching his face, I could make out the features I’d just mistaken as my mother’s, only because I’d looked nothing like Keith Cooper.
I found that James’s dark eyes and mine were the same, while Mom had a lighter brown.
The dark bits of his hair that hadn’t turned grey yet, were the same shade as my natural colour.
While Mom’s had warmer undertones, ours was cold. But there was more…
While yes, I definitely had Mom’s nose and chin, James’ lips and mine had that same defined cupid’s bow, however Mom’s had been more rounded, and the same higher cheekbones.
“Where is Liza? How did they… how are you…” He kept stuttering over his sentences, and I could understand why. He wanted to know how I got here of all fucking places, caged with other girls.
“Mom,” I whispered, choking for a moment on the word, “She-she died over a month ago. Killed by a drunk driver…”
James squeezed his eyes shut tight, letting his forehead fall forward against the bars as he took in this information.
“How did you two… I mean, when did you…” I guess the stammering was catching, because now I couldn’t get the words out.
“She would come into my club whenever she and Keith fought. I always let her stay with me for a few days till he cooled off.” He didn’t move from where his head rested, his eyes still shut.
“But then she just stopped coming. Looked into it, but she’d married the guy.
So I moved on, met another woman, and married her.
” He sighed heavily and shook his head slightly from side to side.
“I liked Liza a lot. But I knew I was nothing more than a backup. When I heard she got married, I let it go. Never knew she had-” He stopped and looked at me, clenching his jaw, the hands on the bars flexing again and again.
“Have you… have you had a good life? You happy?” he asked.