Chapter EighteenRoman
I wanted to find a moment alone to think. Since I’d talked to my sister this morning, I’d felt like a mean fuckhead. As furious as I was with her, I couldn’t get over my cruelty. But did she know what the fuck she’d done? The position she’d put me in?
Ainsley was too smart to be so fucking na?ve, especially toward Nova. Of all the cunts to trust, she’d gone to her with news of her pregnancy. It didn’t matter if Nova fucked the entire Kansas City chapter of the Bastards. Her problem. Her life. Her father wouldn’t come under suspicion. His absolute hatred of the Royal Bastards was known far and wide.
Because of recent events, I was a different story.
Sighing, I nodded to the girl they gave me as my assistant to cater to every need I couldn’t handle myself. It was inevitable I give in and listen to the message Ainsley left. When she’d called me back, Kite had been in the room. He’d offered to put the phone on speaker and answer. Even if I hadn’t still been livid, I wouldn’t have allowed that motherfucker to hear our conversation.
Her devastation broke my fucking heart. I glanced away, not wanting the chick to see how affected I was. Every time we settled in a different place, I was given another girl. After the first two, I gave up asking their names. They wouldn’t be with me long and I’d forget them sooner rather than later. This one reminded me a little of Ainsley. She was young, dark-haired, and friendly.
She’d give me pussy just like the woman who’d been waiting for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to touch her.
“Do you need anything else?” the chick asked, setting my phone on the desk in my room.
I shook my head.
A knock sounded on my door before it swung open. Kite’s gaze traveled between my caretaker and me, then he smirked.
“Dinner, Roman.”
“I’ll take it in my room,” I said politely. “As I have been doing the past weeks.” I didn’t want anyone to see how much of an invalid I was. Usually, they honored that. “I’m not that hungry anyway.”
Kite grinned. “Bash wants all of us downstairs, so Boom Boom sent me up to get your ass.”
I wouldn’t get around it, so I nodded curtly and stood. “Put my phone in my pocket,” I said to the girl.
Once she complied, the three of us walked to the staircase and made our way down. Scorpion cutouts interspersed with American flags covered the walls in the main room. A curved bar was situated near the stage with a pole in the middle.
It was crowded, mostly with American Scorpions. Kite guided me to where four tables were put together to create one long table. Kite sat in the empty chair to the left of a motherfucker with pale green eyes, a bald head decorated with tattoos, and a face that had seen better days.
“Did I tell you to sit there?” he asked Kite.
A black dude walked up to the table. Motherfucker was huge, taller than my six feet three inches and acted as if he owned the place, even though we had the same rank—Enforcer.
“I’d hate for Cleaner to remind you of the error of disobeying me.”
Cleaner the Enforcer. Interesting road name.
Kite scowled, but glared at Bash, according to his patch, and got to his feet.
“Roman is better on this side of the table,” Boom Boom said. He nodded to my arms. “He needs help and that cunt you lent us has to sit next to him, so Kite should stay right where he is.”
Bash sniffed, dragged on his cigarette, and smiled as he released the smoke. “Cleaner.”
The girl’s panic registered a moment before Cleaner shot the fuck out of her.
“Now, she’s not a problem,” Bash said calmly. He crooked his finger at me. “Get over here and sit.”
Unable to believe he’d just shot an innocent woman, I gaped at the motherfucker.
“You heard him, Roman,” Boom Boom ordered, a touch of panic in his voice.
They didn’t intend to move her body. Bash beckoned me, his eyes bright with insanity.
Swallowing, I walked to the chair. She laid next to it, in a pool of blood, her eyes and mouth open. My stomach turned. Boom Boom tore off a paper towel from the roll on the table and dabbed his forehead. The Bloody Scorpions were shook. The American Scorpions continued as though there wasn’t a dead woman on the floor.
I pressed my lips together.
“Boom Boom has told me everything I need to know about Nova,” Bash said. “From her picture, she looks like a hot bitch. Hopefully, she has good pussy.”
“Excuse me?” I pushed out when no one spoke up on her behalf. Not even her own father.
“I’m selling Nova to Bash,” Boom Boom said. “Girl’s more like her momma every day. A fucking handful.”
She was also a traitor, fucking Louisiana and guiding Ainsley down a path of rack and ruin.
“When I realized I can’t kill Nova—she’s my daughter after all—I decided to show you the same grace with Ainsley.”
They wanted to sell Ainsley? That couldn’t be right. I was misunderstanding Boom Boom’s meaning. Anger and resentment skewered my judgment. If he really meant to sell Nova, I couldn’t have cared less. It left me disappointed, though. That bitch was at the top of my fucking death list. She’d opened her fucking mouth to Boom Boom about Ainsley and she’d introduced her to Reese in the first place.
Bash shifted in his seat. “Tell me about Ainsley.”
My eyes flared. Fuck. I wasn’t mistaken.
“Instead of making you kill your own flesh and blood, I’m selling her,” Boom Boom confirmed as if he did me a great favor. “She wants to use her cunt against us? Then let her do something useful with it and make an acquaintance of mine some money. Bash will fuck her up when he’s tired of her.”
Bash lifted his eyebrows. “Flesh and blood?”
“That cunt is his sister,” Wizard said with distaste, nodding to me. “Let our enemy knock her up.”
“We don’t have time for pregnant bitches,” Cleaner said.
“Who asked you ?” Boom Boom sneered.
“Your mama when I fucked her last night,” he retorted.
“I take umbrage to any motherfucker talking about my momma,” Boom Boom said coldly, staring at Bash. “She was a saint. Bring your boy to heel or else.”
Although Cleaner looked ready to start shooting, Bash remained calm.
He tapped out his cigarette. “I’m not pointing out that boy in the context in which you say it can be taken as a grave insult.”
“What’s it to you, Bash?” Wizard said with a chuckle.
“A lot,” Bash declared. He nodded to Cleaner. “That’s my cousin you’re disparaging.”
I thought he was joking or even taking a dig at my heritage. Who knew what the fuck Boom Boom and company told him, but he was dead ass serious. He swept us with a cold look.
“I’m willing to overlook the affront to my family if it doesn’t happen again.”
Boom Boom smiled tightly. “Of course, Bash.”
It surprised me he hadn’t started shooting. Boom Boom resorted to violence at the slightest insult.
“When can we have our weapons back?” he asked.
Oh, so that explained it. The Bloody Scorpions had to give up their shit before they entered the premises. I didn’t have my guns or knives any longer. They were useless to me for the time being.
“A man feels naked without at least one gun,” Boom Boom went on.
“Soon,” Bash promised. “Now, leave so I can talk to this motherfucker.” He nodded to me. “Go to the bar. Enjoy the alcohol. We’ve have broads coming in soon to suck cock.”
It felt as if all eyes were on my club members and I, but they cleared away without any more argument. Cleaner followed them to the bar, then returned with two glasses, poured rum in each, then slid one to me and one to Bash.
I glared at the motherfucker. “Very fucking funny.”
“Flower!” Bash called.
A small blonde chick with big blue eyes and a gorgeous face walked to the side opposite the body.
“Help him to drink,” Bash said. “Don’t spill a drop and he better not have to ask for a sip. Got me?”
She trembled and nodded vigorously.
Whistling, Bash lit two cigarettes, then leaned over and stuffed one between my lips, holding it in place so I could take a drag, then removing it and setting it in the ashtray.
“He has a cigarette, too,” Bash declared.
“I don’t need it,” I said. She was about to piss herself, afraid to make a mistake while serving me. “I don’t know what deal Boom Boom offered, but my little sister isn’t for sale.”
Studying me, Bash smoked his cigarette. The motherfucker was trying to intimidate me, then he smiled.
“They’re a pain in the fucking ass, aren’t they?”
“What might that be?” I asked, allowing Flower to put the glass to my lips and tip it back.
“Little sisters.” He tasted his drink. “We’re always trying to protect their pussies and they give it up to the wrong motherfuckers anyway.”
I didn’t answer.
“We love them anyway, huh?” he pressed.
Right now, I didn’t know how the fuck I felt. I didn’t trust Bash and I already knew my own brothers were waiting for a reason to put me out of my fucking misery. All because Reese fucking Sinclair saved my life thanks to Ainsley.
I drew in a harsh breath.
“I have a huge family tree.” He laughed. “Vines and brambles. This one fucked that one and that one. It makes things very messy, but I only had one sister. Only daughter Daddy ever claimed. Why? Because my aunt Kimber loved her niece. Sisters see the best in us even when we’re fuckheads.”
Flower served me the drink again. I sidled a glance at the dead girl.
“Do you know what I hate, Roman?”
Probably a lot. Insane motherfuckers didn’t like much. “I don’t know you, so how the fuck would I know that?”
He ignored my sarcasm, drained his glass, and poured another one. “I hate motherfuckers who pretend they’re decent. More than I am.”
“And that is?”
“A heartless murderer without a conscience, and a motherfucker who runs women, sells them, and kills them. I don’t have time for their bullshit. Except Celia. My little sister.”
Begrudgingly, I applauded his self-awareness. “I see.”
“When Boom Boom called and said he had a deal for me, I told him to come on over. I knew it was a cunt he wanted to sell me. He told me all about her. Ainsley. She’d run afoul of the club and you would kill her as soon as you got hands. Then he said you could tell me more since you spent a lot of time with her. The one thing he didn’t say was she was your sister.”
“And that makes a difference to you?” I asked skeptically. This time, I didn’t sneak a glance at the dead chick. I looked at her pointedly.
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Even if I wasn’t distracted by a war with my little brother’s club, I wouldn’t be happy with Boom Boom.”
What did a war between two small-time organizations matter to me?
Flower brought the glass to my lips again. I welcomed the burn once I tasted the alcohol.
“Christopher Caldwell,” Bash said, and I choked. “Outlaw. The Death Dwellers. If it wasn’t for the little cunt he married, Daddy would still be alive and we could all live happily ever after.”
I stared at Bash. He was part of those American Scorpions? The destruction of their clubhouses, the deaths of their leaders, their near total annihilation had been fodder for the rumor mill for years. All orchestrated by Outlaw.
Bash gulped half his alcohol. “I have a contact in the club.”
“You’ve infiltrated the Dwellers?”
He shrugged. “Don’t concern yourself with that. Sometimes, seeing Christopher so happy makes me wonder if I’m missing anything. If I was just a little fucking better, would a woman love me the way his young cunt loves him?”
“Oh, he’s one of those. Forty or fifty with an eighteen-year-old.”
Bash’s eyes crinkled when he grinned. “Meggie’s in her thirties. She’s been with him since she was eighteen. But she adores him. She’s given him fine sons and beautiful daughters.”
“Does Outlaw have sisters?”
“He had five. Two are left. Cleaner’s father had the other three killed.”
Boom Boom moved restlessly on a stool at the bar and glowered at me. “I don’t know what all of this has to do with Ainsley.”
“I’m going to call a couple of my sons. I thought about bringing in a dumb ass who couldn’t see his cock for his balls if he had fucking illustrations.”
I couldn’t stop my laugh.
“But he’d be more of a fucking headache. I’d have to draw illustrations for him to understand.” Bash smiled and waved his hand. He dropped his voice to a confidential tone. “None of that concerns you. This is my plan: I’m going to offer to help you as a way to soothe Boom Boom’s annoyance. I’d just as well kill him, but I trust you’ll do that for me.”
I didn’t respond.
Bash sniffed and nodded in approval. “By the time you arrive home, I’ll see to it you have your prosthetics.” He leaned in. “Just use them wisely.”
“As much as I appreciate the offer, my answer is no.” I didn’t want to be indebted to this psychopath.
“Your call, Roman, but my guess is you’re going to need working fucking hands sooner rather than later to protect your little sister. Come on, brother. Have you ever heard of a handless hero?”
I still couldn’t trust that Boom Boom hadn’t put Bash up to this to test my loyalty. “Say I’d accept your offer. How much would you charge me?”
Bash drained another glass and smiled. “Not what I’d charge you. It’s what I’ll charge Boom Boom. He came seeking my money from the sale of your little sister and his daughter. By the time he leaves, his wallet will be much lighter.”
“You’re underestimating my president. He’s smart.”
“Perhaps.” He poured another glass and tipped it to me. “But I’m smarter.”