Chapter One - FelixAthena #2
Leaning over, I grabbed a handful of peanuts from the bowl on the bar and popped as many as possible into my mouth, then swigged deeply from my beer. “He’s hoping his Viagra doesn’t go to waste.”
We snickered.
“That chick’s twenty, if she’s a day, Athena.
” Fendi had a thing about age. Now that she’d soon hit forty, she was even more insecure.
Instead of celebrating her hard-earned wisdom, she insisted laugh lines were wrinkles and a shaved pussy was better than one sprinkled with gray hair.
“He’d never look twice at me nowadays, although I was once his favorite fuck. ”
“It tracks. I just turned thirty, so I’m out too,” I said mildly, gulped more beer, then glanced around. “Besides, you don’t want Razor and never have.”
It had been, and still was, Louisiana. And Warrior. Distaste ran through me, but I shoved it aside. Meanwhile, I almost pitied her obsession with Louisiana, a man so in love with his wife, he forgot other women existed the moment he met Jinx.
As for Warrior…yeah. No . Fuck no! I wasn’t going there, so I stood on the footrails of the stool to see above the press of bikers, hang arounds, wannabees, club property, and bike hoppers, and made a production of looking around.
“I’m trying to scope out Reese and Louisiana in this crowd. Maybe, they’ll know where Jinx has gotten herself off to.”
Fendi smirked, never a fan of Louisiana’s ol’ lady, blaming Jinx for him throwing her over. “Maybe, she’s knocked up again,” she sneered. “That bitch should stop trying at this point. She’s old as well. Thirty-one.”
“Enough,” I warned, tired of Fendi’s cattiness, especially toward Jinx.
If Razor’s summons hadn’t come just as we were returning from a weeks-long run, I would’ve had my entire crew with me.
Razor insisted it was so important that we couldn’t go anywhere else before we checked in with him.
Personally, I would’ve finagled a postponement of the meeting until tomorrow, but my VP talked sense into me.
I could enjoy the reunion with my little sisters and our dog without the meeting hanging over my head.
Besides the last thing I needed was cuddle with Bob the Biter and catch up with Lake and Juno only to have Razor send me on another run, so instead of enjoying our annual Halloween party at the Haven, our clubhouse, not too far from the Devil’s Pit, with our club members, we had to wait until Razor arranged his fuck.
Once I became president, I negotiated the separate Halloween parties with Razor. Which had absolutely nothing to do with Warrior. I’d die on that fucking hill, too. I couldn’t weasel out of our mixed celebrations for Thanksgiving or our joint Christmas charity runs.
Unfortunately, Razor had outsmarted me, got me to his clubhouse on Halloween, and left me stuck with Fendi and her bitterness, fueled by her lack of confidence.
“You’ve discussed what a good fuck Louisiana is, but there are other motherfuckers out there who lay good dick,” I continued, hoping she’d get my words through her thick skull.
“I’ve had my fair share,” Fendi confirmed, “but I’m waiting for my man to come back to me.”
Maybe I was the dumbass for continuing to waste my breath on advice she refused to take.
“He isn’t your man,” I gritted. “He belongs to Jinx and has, legally, for the past ten years. You’re turning forty next month.” Tempering my annoyance and ignoring our complicated history, I laid a hand on her arm. “I know you want kids. We’ve talked about it—”
“I wanted kids. Keir’s ,” she said, referring to Louisiana’s given name. “Without him, my pussy is a one-way passage. Dicks go in, but babies don’t come out.”
“You’re fucking disgusting,” I said, shaking my head and laughing despite myself. “Come on. Let’s find one of the guys. They’ll point us to Louisiana. It’s just so fucking crowded tonight, so he and Jinx probably haven’t spotted us.”
“You’re fucking insane! I’m not hunting that motherfucker down. I’m the queen. He comes to me. Always has and always will.”
I clenched my jaw to keep from cursing her out. Louisiana did come to her, but not for the reasons she made it sound, and usually with Jinx. He loved the fuck out of that woman and didn’t want bullshit with her, who (guiltily), I preferred over Fendi.
Jinx could be a royal bitch when provoked, but Fendi was a fucking cunt on a good goddamn day. Again, it had nothing to do with Warrior, even if she’d fucked him for months not long after he and I split.
Water under the fucking bridge.
“Keir will be forty-three. I’m sure he’s ready for a kid,” Fendi chirped. “ Mine . That’s why my womb is closed to anyone else’s seed.”
Snorting, I rolled my eyes. “Are you sure you haven’t convinced yourself of that because you don’t want children?”
“I’m not getting into a great debate with you about this.
” Fendi’s sea-green eyes narrowed. As a child, she’d been a catalog model, but she fell in with the wrong crowd and everything went to shit, turning her into the hardened, cynical chick she was today.
I understood. My fucking life hadn’t been roses and sunshine, but I chose to still believe in happiness.
To look for the good. Not every fucking situation was a competition or meant as an affront.
“We all know you dream of a knight on steel and chrome to put a ring on your finger and resurrect the kid you lost.”
Ouch .
Since I didn’t have extra money for dental bills, I didn’t clamp my jaw any tighter and risk a fucking tooth.
Somehow, I managed not to answer her. If I clocked that bitch, Razor wouldn’t be happy.
He didn’t like his brothers fighting. He definitely wouldn’t tolerate it from me and my sisters.
In certain situations, I kept a certain facade in place, knew when to shut the fuck up, and followed most protocols and rules.
However, if anyone had heard her say that disrespectful shit to me, she’d be due an ass-beating when we returned to The Haven.
While I’d recently added diplomacy to my set of skills, violence was required in this life, and I’d never shied away from it.
Years ago, as a hang around, I quickly gained a warlike reputation, and Fendi—president of the KC chapter, until I unseated her two years ago—pegged me as the goddess of war.
I suggested Morrigan, although the Celtic goddess tended to turn into a crow, and I hated fucking birds. Almost as much as I hated hard liquor, seclusion, pumpkin anything , doctors, cops, lawyers, Bloody Femmes, Bloody Scorpions (except one), cooking, housework, jellybeans, and circus peanuts.
It didn’t matter. Fendi shot down Morrigan, Enyo, and Bellona, all more fitting in my estimation. And Fendi outright laughed when I suggested Freya.
“She’s the goddess of love and beauty, Athena. Neither of which are associated with you . That’s your sisters’ calling cards.”
Never mind that Freya was also the Norse goddess of war. As a prominent figure in their pantheon, she occupied several roles. I didn’t correct Fendi, though. At the time, I hadn’t been able to without consequences.
Almost a decade later, and those fucking words still left me salty. Like Fendi, the Harlots and their sisterhood came before any pettiness for me.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I turned partially.
“Razor’s ready to see you,” Warrior murmured.
He was the club’s treasurer, mean as a fucking snake to enemies, and as beautiful as Lucifer was rumored to be before he fell to Hell. Where Warrior belonged, in my estimation.
I’d worked at the strip club for two fucking weeks before the fine motherfucker blazed into Memphis on Royal Bastard business, came into the joint for a lap dance, and fucked me to within an inch of my goddamn life.
Back then, I needed a better way to help Mama and Daddy make ends meet.
Fast food work hadn’t cut it. On my eighteenth birthday, Mama introduced me to her johns, although she didn’t tell Daddy.
As her pimp, he wouldn’t have liked being cut out of our arrangement, but the stupid motherfucker just drank away the money she earned for our rent and utilities.
We had to do something so we wouldn’t end up on the fucking streets.
Just a few weeks in, and Mama and I decided the risk was too great.
If Daddy discovered our duplicity, he would’ve fucked us up.
Lake and Juno, then thirteen and eight, were still oblivious to shit, still happily in school during the week, and at Aunt Sheron’s during the weekend to play with our cousins.
My sisters were the reason I hadn’t moved away and got my own place. When Mama wasn’t around for them, I made sure I was. I didn’t want them to go through what I had, and if left up to my father, their virginity would’ve been sold to the highest bidder as soon as their tits started coming in.
With our joint decision that I leave streetwalking behind, Mama got me into a high-end strip club. We both thought prostitution within that framework would be safer. In the end, she regretted that decision because Warrior took me away.
I fell in love. Though Warrior later proved he was a motherfucker, he took care of my parents and little sisters so Lake and Juno would have chances I never did. And when our parents were killed when Lake was sixteen and Juno was eleven, he brought them to live with us.
We’d been so good together, him and me. I saw forever with him. Until forever came with conditions.
“Snap to it, babe,” Warrior ordered, ending my trip down memory lane.
Shrugging his hand away since he hadn’t moved it from my shoulder, I made a face at him.
Defying him wasn’t always an option, although when things had become too intense and I threw out my safe word, he’d stopped instantly.
“Don’t fucking touch me, fuckhead. You lost that goddamn right five years ago when you told me to choose.
” And then began sticking his cock in Fendi.
If not for her, maybe we could’ve found our way back to each other.
Sighing, Warrior squeezed the bridge of his nose. “And you chose, Michelle,” he snapped, inflaming my temper further. That fuckhead knew better than to call me by my name. “Wrong, in my fucking estimation, but do you see me with hard fucking feelings?”
I jumped to my feet and brought my booted foot down onto his. He barely flinched. “If you ever use my name again, you’ll be sorry,” I swore. “I’m Athena to you. From now until the end of the fucking world.”
“Fine,” he gritted, turned, and began weaving through the crowd, expecting me to fucking follow.
Knowing I had no choice burned my fucking ass.