Reckoning Read online

  “Of course. It was the least I could do. I’m sorry I can’t do anything else for you.”

  “You can,” she pipes up, and I look right at her.

  “I know there are many of you at the Skulls, but please watch out for her. Just make sure she stays safe and doesn’t do anything too stupid. Maria has always acted first and thought about those actions after the fact. She is like our Padre in that sense.” Camila doesn’t know this, but I don’t think I’ll have to be doing much watching over Maria. Pain and Chaos seem to have that shit covered. If I watched her any more than I did, I’d be pretty damn sure my eyes would be cut out.

  Camila scurries off with Ashley, Fist’s daughter, as Chaos comes walking up to me. “Want to tell me the deets on that? You plan on fucking her?”

  “Wouldn’t matter if I did, brother. But, no. I don’t plan on fucking Maria’s sister, and I hope you wouldn’t either. Pretty sure Boog has dibs on that.”

  Chaos’ eyes about pop out of his small fuckin’ head. “That’s Camila?”

  “Yep. The one and only. You can’t tell Maria she’s here, got me? It’s a safety issue, and when the time is right Maria will know that she’s here. I don’t give a fuck if you’re getting your dick wet. You don’t tell Maria jack shit. She finds out later. What’s that saying?” I ask him, praying his ass better respond back with what I want to hear.

  “Brothers before everything.”

  Boom. Looks like Chaos understands the weight of his patch.

  “Holy crap. Are you serious?” Saffron mutters, she’s a short little spitfire, and basically, she’s Fist’s personal whore. She’s maybe five two, a beautiful Asian girl with a killer body. Rumor has it she used to be an Ol’ Lady of one of the brothers who died.

  I listen, and I know the voice before I even have to see what it is.

  I want to know why the fuck I’m hearing a video play of Bellamy moaning and saying Zac’s name.

  Then, it hits me.

  He leaked a fucking video of her to the press, and there’s about to be hell to pay.

  To: Katya

  How did you get to Billings?

  From: Katya

  I flew.

  To: Katya

  I know that, Viper. Was it commercial, private?

  From: Katya

  Ah. Someone needs a ride?

  To: Katya

  Yeah, baby. When can we get wheels up?

  From: Katya

  Meet me at the airport in two hours. I will text you the details.

  I have never been more fucking thankful that my girl is rich as shit and has her own private jet. Fuck.

  It might be my lucky day, and it’s the last day Zac will be breathing.

  Chapter 21

  Not everyone likes me, but not everyone matters. - @AmbitionCircle

  Katya

  “Do you want to tell me why you are sitting there looking so angry, or will you continue to stew inside that head of yours?” I ask Junior, who looks as if his brain is going to explode into a million little pieces right in front of my eyes.

  The glare I get back shows me he doesn’t want to talk. It’s too bad that I don’t give a shit. I will get it out of him if it’s the last thing that I do.

  “We should try that again. Tell me what is on your mind or I’ll land this motherfucker, and you can walk to California.”

  As if his eyes turn into pure fire, he begins to speak. “If I talk about it, I will lose my fucking shit.”

  “Then lose it. It is no good keeping feelings bottled up. Why did you need to fly so urgently, what is going on?” I ask him out of genuine concern, knowing that something isn’t right. I have a bad feeling, and I just want him to calm down. Whatever this is, it is bothering him very much, and I don’t like it one bit.

  “Do you know who Bellamy is?” he asks, and immediately I don’t recognize her name, so I shake my head. “She’s Elena’s sister.” Ah, that rings a bell. Elena is Reed’s wife, who is the Prez of the Skulls.

  “Okay.”

  “Butch and I had to go on tour with her a year ago, as protection, since shit with the cartel was shady back then. Fuck, it still is. Only the cartel never acted out, and we were basically her security guys the entire time. Bells was with me when Chuckles was shredding my fucking face apart, she saw everything.”

  The only thing I can think of right now is how I feel sorry for the girl, to have witnessed that could not have been easy whatsoever.

  “She’s a singer, so she’s in the spotlight. Her ex is this jackass named Zac, and he fucking leaked a sex video of them from when they were together to the press. It’s been blasted everywhere, and he leaked nudes of her over a year ago. The bastard has tried to destroy her reputation twice, and I’m not going to fucking stand for it anymore!” He snaps, standing up from his seat, pacing the few feet in front of me.

  “You love her,” I mutter, gauging his reaction.

  “Yeah, but not like you think. She’s like a baby sister to me, Viper. She went through that hellish day with me and continued to support me even when I was being the biggest dick on the planet. I fucking left, and she continued to call and text, even though I wasn’t responding at all. She’s the whole reason I even went back to the club in the first place. She is the reason I ended up meeting you. I owe Bells a lot…”

  “She is your family, then,” I say, smiling at the last bit. It is beautiful to me how Junior may not be related to this girl but loves her as though they are. At the same time, it also makes me feel worse about my family situation because Ksenia and Dmitri won’t even talk to me. Honestly, I might have a better chance at having a better relationship with Mariana versus those two. “So, you will do what needs to be done,” I add, and he nods, coming over to sit next to me.

  As he pulls me closer against him, he mutters “You seem to understand me.”

  “I think we understand each other, yes?”

  “Yep, baby. You’re exactly right.”

  ***

  Slasher

  I have never been more fucking excited to rip someone’s throat out than I am today, in this very moment. Zac Depp has had it coming for a really long fucking time, and maybe I should let Butch get this kill, but I’ll be damned if I let this little weasel get away or get another shot off at Bells.

  You don’t fuck with my family, period.

  It’s the last thing you’ll do, and Zac is gonna learn that first hand.

  Stupid motherfucker should’ve thought about what he was doing before he fucking did it. I’m gonna enjoy this way too much.

  As soon as we landed I called Reed and told him where I was. I don’t have to do that shit being a Nomad and all but given the situation I wanted him to know where I was and what I was planning on doing. He heard and saw… and so did everyone else. He told me Butch was in a blind filled rage and pretty much destroyed half the clubhouse. I’ve seen that fucker get pretty pissed, but when it came to Bells, he was a raging bull. I asked Reed for Lucien’s phone number. He’s this hacker slash computer tech dude that the club uses from time to time. Basically, he’s a friend of a friend, and we can use him whenever we need to. So, I used Lucien to find out everything about Zac Depp and his luxurious Beverly Hills home.

  Katya drove us from the airport to her house, and as we approached, names started popping out at me over and over again. Finally, we reached a gate and she punched in some keycodes, when the gate opened, I was shocked.

  Did she talk to Lucien too, and I just did not know about it?

  We drove up right to 315, and she slowed down. Right now, was my moment to get out and fuck him up, but then she kept driving further down the street until we reached the end, pulling into a garage.

  “Do you live here?”

  “Yes, this is my house.”

  I laugh, and I mean it, I fucking laughed.

  “Why do you laugh so much? What is so funny?”

  “The motherfucker I’m going to kill is your neighbor, baby.”

  The “O” that
her lips formed into made me laugh even more. This day couldn’t get any fucking better.

  Katya and I stay in her house for a few hours, and I pace most of the time, anxious to squeeze the life out of the bastard a few doors down. The sun goes down, and darkness starts to consume the area. “Most of them are out of town, they vacation all through the year. Since my… separation from Sergei I have stayed here most of the time. I have come accustom to when they come and go. I am one of the only who stay.” I listen to her explain her neighborhood a little better, and as she speaks she eases the few worries that were remaining in my mind. It’s always a risk to do something like this, and while Lucien gave me blueprints to the house and the passcodes to get through the alarm system, there were always unknown factors that came into play.

  Katya giving me more information prepared me in the best way that I could be.

  “Do you want help?” she asks, putting her arms on the granite counter she has in her kitchen and sitting on the stone.

  “No, I’ll be alright. I have to do this alone,” I explain to her, knowing that she understands. One of the things I love about being around her is that I don’t have to over explain myself, she just accepts what it is that I’m telling her. Many can’t say that about being around the ones they care about.

  I tell Katya that I will be back later and make my way discreetly down the neighborhood until I find my destination. I make sure to stay out of the way of street lights and keep my hood up on the black hoodie I am wearing. If there are cameras, I want to be prepared. No part of me wants my face to be recorded. Granted, if it is, I will just have Lucien hack into the servers that house them and delete the footage. I will have him do that regardless tonight.

  I go around the back of the house, jumping over the small wooden fence that he has surrounding his property. The one thing I didn’t think about is how I can’t see jack shit in the fucking hail. I make do though, walking until I feel my feet hit stone, and then see a couple lights on in the house. I go up to the back door and pull it to the left, expecting it to be locked and having to break in, but when it isn’t, I am shocked. I guess that kills the plan of me having to disarm the house.

  I slide the door open, closing it shut behind me, making sure that it looks exactly as it was when I entered the home.

  I can hear footsteps coming from a small hallway that leads behind the kitchen. I turn the light off and make my way quietly to the edge of the kitchen. My heart is pounding in my fucking chest, beat after beat. For a second, I don’t think he’s coming, and then I see him step out in front of me.

  I grab onto his neck and throttle him into the wall a few feet away from us. “What the fuck?” he snaps as he crashes into it and then loses balance, falling onto the tile floor below him.

  “You think you could keep fucking with her and not have a visit like this? Pft. Idiot,” I calmly say, grabbing him by the collar and slamming his head into the tile again and again until his eyelids start to flutter. There’s no way he’s going to survive this. I had thought about torturing him for a long time. We all know that he deserved it, that he should’ve been granted a slow and painful death. I just can’t fucking do it. I can’t stand that this asshole is breathing the same air as our sweet Bellamy, so it’s simple. He won’t be breathing it for much longer.

  “I fuck… with a lot…” he stutters out slowly, having trouble forming words. I guess I’ve been slamming his head harder than I thought against the tile. It’s then when I can see the blood on the floor. Yep. Looks like I have been doing it quite hard.

  “Listen to me closely, asshole. You won’t be fucking with anyone anymore, not Bellamy, not anyone,” I seethe, picking him up like the little twig he is, dragging him to where the counter on his island is, slamming him against the corner of the stone. I can hear his head crack, a popping sound that I’ve never quite heard before.

  He drops to the ground below us, and I kick him a few times for good measure, waiting to see if he moves. I take my glove covered hands and move his neck, and that’s when I realize I broke his neck, and this motherfucker won’t be suddenly coming back to life. I wait a few minutes, just to be sure, and when he doesn’t breathe, I am at rest.

  No longer will this motherfucker hurt Bells again, or any other girl for that matter. He got what was coming to him tonight, the only thing I regret is that it wasn’t done sooner.

  I make my way out of his house and back down the street to Katya’s house, steering clear of street lights and make a call to Lucien to delete any footage that the neighborhood may have acquired. He tells me it’ll be done in the next few minutes. When I walk into her kitchen I come back to a note laying on her counter, I pull it up and read.

  I will be in New York. I am sorry that I could not be here when you got back. Stay, act as if this home is your own. I will call you when I land.

  XO,

  Katya

  I wasn’t expecting to come back to this, it makes me wonder what was so urgent that she had to fly out in the middle of the fucking night.

  Chapter 22

  I don’t know what the future holds. But I hope somewhere in it, I am holding you.

  - JM Storm

  Katya

  “Do you want to tell me what’s got you flying across the country?” he grumbles out, not even caring to greet me, as I answer his phone call.

  I forgot to call him when I landed, I headed straight for a hotel and rested my eyes. A few hours later I was waking up to the obnoxious ringing on the bedside table.

  “Do you want to give me a proper greeting before you start barking at me?” I counter back, my tone laced with fire.

  There are many things that I can handle, but being greeted in such a tone when I am exhausted and do not have caffeine in my system, is not smart for him.

  He stays silent, not saying a word to me. He’s pissed, and I do understand that he has a right to be a little upset since I told him that I would call him as soon as I landed and failed to do that.

  “If you must know, I am here to see my sister.”

  “What is Ksenia doing in New York?”

  “She isn’t. I’m not talking about Ksenia,” I tell him bluntly, rolling over on my bed and sitting up on the side.

  “Then, what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Do you want the long version or the short one?”

  “I want the one that gives me all of the info with it being simple as shit. I am a man after all, I like simple.”

  “Short version it is. My mother re-married after she got rid of Dmitri, Ksenia, and I. She didn’t just marry a Joe-Schmo off the streets, she ended up marrying a Vasile. She was calculating and married the King of the Romanian mob and had a daughter with him, my sister, Mariana.” I used the phrase ‘get rid of’ lightly. She sold us, but I do not have to repeat myself to Junior. He knows that much because I told him already.

  “There is a bit of trouble going on with our uncle, and I am trying to keep us all safe. Dmitri and Ksenia included. That is why I have been at the club, to warn them about what to expect but neither of them will listen. They refuse to do so,” I tell him. Each time I think about Ksenia and Dmitri I worry. They may hate me for the things I had to do, but I have only done things to keep them safe. They are my family. I will do almost anything for them, even if I know they will not do the same for me.

  “Anyways, I knew Mariana did not know anything and went to speak with her. Her husband, Ion didn’t allow me to pass, but I told him the gist of it until he could confirm we were blood. I know how men in this life operate, they want proof before they even begin to listen to whatever it is one has to say.”

  “You’ve been holding out a bit of information on me, Viper.”

  “Yes, I know. But I did not plan on telling you everything at first. I will admit I trust you in a way that I do not really understand quite yet. But like we have said, we just seem to understand one another,” I mutter, pulling my hair over my shoulder, sitting on one leg while the other hangs of
f the side of the bed.

  “When do you meet with them?” he asks

  “There wasn’t a specific time dictated. Sometime tonight, I was hoping to get a couple more hours of sleep before I have to get ready and prepare for it.”

  I hear a “hmm” pass through his lips. “If you can get me up there I’m sure I can be there by six eastern time.”

  “You don’t have to be here. I can do this by myself,” I tell him. I am strong, and I do not need anyone by my side to make sure I do what needs to be done. I am no fragile little girl.

  “I know I don’t gotta be there. I’m just saying I can be there for you, if you want me to. You know you don’t have to go through all of this alone, don’t you?”

  I know I don’t, but I have always had to. I guess I am used to it at this point. Sure, I had Sergei, but it was completely different circumstances. I didn’t have him in the way that I think I have Junior. I stood beside Sergei, and from the looks of it, Junior stands with me.

  It is drastically different.

  He doesn’t have to be here. He wants to be here. “Okay, I will make arrangements, but after this, we must go back to Tennessee. I am sure my business with Mariana will be done with today, which means I need to talk to Dmitri and Ksenia again. They need to listen to me this time,” I add, not sure that they will listen to me at all. I don’t blame them, but they should give me a chance. I only have good intentions at heart.

  “Alright. You text me the info to the hotel, and I will meet you there after I land, and Viper?”

  “Yes?”

  “Sleep, sweet baby. I’ll be there in a few hours.”

  The line goes dead, and I make arrangements to get Junior to New York, then set my phone back down on the bedside table. Falling back, I think about the man who is flying across the country to support me. I am realizing that I compare him to Sergei, and I shouldn’t. Junior is so much better. He is an entirely different man, one that I can see myself falling for slowly. Maybe he is a man worthy of my love.