Page 50 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

L ars

Sixteen years ago

“I’m pregnant.”

The words catch me off guard.

When Alice texted me and said she had something to tell me, I wasn’t expecting her to drop a baby bomb.

The word echoes throughout my head.

Pregnant.

I look at my girlfriend of six months. She’s looking up at me with eyes full of expectation and love as she waits for me to say something.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“I did three tests, and I’m late.” Happiness and hope shimmer on every word. “I’m pregnant, Lars. We’re going to have a baby.”

“But we were being safe. We took precautions.”

“Well, something didn’t work.” Alice’s smile fades. “You’re not happy about it.”

I reach for her. “No, it’s not that…”

“Then why are you acting this way?” she asks, her eyes watering.

I pull her closer. “You caught me by surprise, is all.”

I struggle to swallow. Seventeen and I’m about to become a father.

I’m still a kid myself.

But fuck, a baby.

My baby.

There’s something pretty amazing about it.

I mean, my old man is going to kill me, but it will be worth it.

After all, having been raised in the Knights of St. Boniface motorcycle club, I know family is everything.

I always knew I wanted kids.

Just didn’t plan on them right now.

But damn, this feels like it’s a good thing .

A smile slowly spreads across my face. “We’re really going to have a baby?”

Tears shimmer in her eyes as she nods. “Yes, we are.”

Well, hot damn.

I lift up my girlfriend and twirl her around, loving the sound of her laughter.

I’m not in love with Alice. But I’ll get there. Especially now we’re going to be a family.

I met her when she started working at the gas station in town. We’d flirt when I filled up my tank. The flirting eventually led to a date. Which led to more dates. Which led to lots of great sex. Which led to this.

I wasn’t looking for a girlfriend when we met, but it happened naturally with Alice because she is so sweet and kind.

And I like spending time with her. But I haven’t fallen in love yet, which is awkward because I know she’s in love with me.

It’s in her eyes and her smile, and in the way she kisses me and says my name.

I set her down on her feet and brush my thumbs across the tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks.

A baby.

“You know what this means, right?” I say, looking into her eyes.

“That when you become a full patch member, I will be your old lady? ”

I smile. I hadn’t even thought of that. An old lady isn’t something on my radar, not in the near future anyway.

I’ve been too focused on performing as a prospect to think about anything like marriage. Becoming a fully patched Knight takes time and persistence.

My old man might be a fully patched member. Same with my grandfather and his father before him, and his before him. But I’ve still got to earn my patch. Go through my time as a prospect before I become a full member.

“One day,” I say. “But what I meant was, we need to celebrate.”

She grins. “Tacos?”

We’re both crazy for tacos.

I grin down at her. “The best damn celebratory tacos there are.”

She slides her hands under my cut and wraps her arms around my waist and rests her head against my chest.

She sighs with contentment as I hold her close.

I don’t love Alice.

But one day I will.

Two months later

Late afternoon sunlight glints on her long blonde hair as we stand at the edge of the park kissing in the warm spring air. Alice is still not showing, but according to the books she’s made me read about pregnancy, it won’t be long before her belly pops out.

A few yards away from us, the club celebrates a family day with a cookout in the park. Kids run around and play on the swings, while the Knights and their old ladies eat burgers and some of the best damn barbecue there is.

It’s been two months since Alice told me about the baby, but we haven’t told anyone about it yet. She wanted to wait until she was past the three-month stage, which is today.

Which means we’re about to drop a bomb on the cookout.

I’m hoping it’s going to go a lot better than what my gut tells me it is.

It will be a shock, but it’s good news. And good news is exactly what the club needs right now.

For the past few weeks, we’ve had several deals go bad and a rival club has been making its presence known.

Not to mention, a syndicate out of Chicago trying to muscle in on Knights’ territory.

Things have been tense. But they’re under control.

I break off our kiss.

“Are you ready to tell them?” I ask Alice.

She gives me a nervous smile and nods. “Are you?”

I grin. “Baby, I was born ready.”

She chuckles and then bites her lip. “They’re going to call us crazy.”

“And they’d be right. But I like crazy.” I take her face in my hands. “You know I’ve got you, right? We’re in this together. ”

“You’re a good man, Lars Andersson.”

She presses her lips to mine and slides her arms around my waist.

It all happens so fast.

The bark of gunfire appears out of nowhere while I’m kissing my girl.

One minute her mouth is moving gently against mine, the next I feel her jerk against me, and her lips go soft.

Our eyes meet and I see the life drain out of hers.

Horror crashes through me when I see the red stain spread across her belly.

She starts to sink to the ground. I try to hold her up, but my hands lose strength, and I can’t stop her from falling.

That’s when I see the hole in the front of my shirt.

At first it is just a hole, but then blood begins to spill out of it.

I’ve been shot.

And it’s the last thing I think before my world vanishes into darkness.

“Hey, baby.” The soothing voice pulls me out from the gray. Before I open my eyes, the pain greets me. A sharp stab in the belly.

I blink awake and look up into my mom’s face. She’s leaning over me while I struggle to make sense of what has happened.

I was with Alice.

We were kissing .

Then there was gunfire.

Thinking I’m still on the ground in the park my eyes dart to my mom. “We’ve got to get to safety. We’ve got to get everyone out of here.”

“Oh baby, we’re not in the park anymore. You’re in the hospital. You’re safe.”

Frowning, I close my eyes. Everything is muddled. I can’t think straight. I was at the park. And now I am here.

If I’m here, then where’s Alice?

My eyes flick open, and I try to sit up, but the sudden movement shoots rays of pain into my abdomen. “Where’s Alice? I’ve got to help Alice.”

My mom’s eyes soften. “Take it easy, sweetheart. You’ve just had surgery to remove the bullet.”

But I don’t care.

I want to see my girlfriend.

“Where is she?” I demand, forcing myself to sit up despite the pain ripping apart my insides. “I want to see her.”

Oh God. The baby.

Fear crawls along my skin. “Is she okay? Where are they?”

Mom looks sad. “She didn’t make it, son. Alice died.”

I stare at her.

No .

That was not how this was meant to play out.

I shake my head. She was just in my arms.

“No, this isn’t right.” I pull back the covers. I need to find Alice.

“Buddy, you need to take it easy,” Beast says, stepping forward. My best friend since we were kids, he towers over the hospital bed. “You’ve taken a bullet to the gut. You need to rest.”

“I want to see my fucking girlfriend.”

“She’s dead,” Beast says. “It was a drive-by. The syndicate out of Chicago. Your old man and my old man have gone to take care of it.”

“Fuck you,” I growl, the fear and agitation and pain all colliding inside me. “She’s not dead.”

“She is, buddy.”

“The bullet passed through her and into you,” Mom says. “She died instantly.”

I struggle to swallow but a cold ache has closed around my throat.

“She’s pregnant,” I whisper, my brain scrambling to understand what is happening.

Beside me, my mom shakes her head sadly. “I’m sorry, son.”

What do I do?

I drop my head to my chest .

I don’t know how I feel.

I’m too numb to cry.

My girlfriend.

My baby.

Both gone.

Suddenly, all the numbness inside me goes, and I feel everything. All the pain. All the rage.

I lift my head. “I want to see her.”

Beast helps me into a wheelchair, and my mom takes me downstairs to the morgue where the morgue assistant leads me over to Alice.

Her eyes are closed, and she’s still dressed in the clothes she was wearing at the park.

A T-shirt with a sunflower on the front, the white fabric now stained with red.

Three other people died in the park today.

A Knight and his old lady, along with a club girl who’d just moved into the clubhouse with her older sister.

All of them are lying in the morgue with sheets over them waiting for the medical examiner.

Knowing I was coming, the morgue assistant has pulled the sheet down so I can see Alice for the last time.

My breath leaves me at the finality of it .

“I’ll give you some privacy,” the morgue assistant says, but I barely hear him.

All I can see is her.

All I can think about is how wrong this is.

I take her hand in mine and it’s stone cold.

Seeing her makes it all real. Feeling how cold she is breaks my heart.

They’re both gone.

I think about the beanie with the Knights of St. Boniface emblem stitched into the wool sitting in a drawer in my room at the clubhouse, and the pain that twists in my heart is like nothing I’ve ever known.

Overwhelmed, I fight the wave of agony, but can’t hold back my tears.

My face crumples and I let the tears fall.

I’m sorry, kid.

You were unexpected but I wanted you.

My gaze sweeps over Alice’s sweet face and I breathe in a rough breath.

I bring her hand to my lips and press a kiss into her knuckles.

I’m sorry I didn’t love you back like I should’ve.

I thought I had time to fall.

Forcing myself to swallow back a new wave of tears and guilt, I let the darkness rise inside of me. A darkness I’ve always known was there, but one I’ve always fought to contain.

Now I decide to let it rise.

To protect me.

To distance me from this in the future.

To give me the strength to do the things I need to do to avenge this.

I let go of Alice’s hand, knowing life is different now.

I don’t know what lies ahead.

All I know is this fucking hurts.

And I don’t ever want to feel this way again.

I blend in with the shadows. Watching. Waiting. I move when he moves.

This man is the last of the three men I have been hunting for the past eight years. Three men who were in the car the day bullets rained down on a Knights of St. Boniface family day in the park.

After my old man and the president of the club waged war on the syndicate behind the attack, these men scattered to the wind. They disappeared into a cloud of protective smoke like they never even existed.

But I knew I’d track them down.

One after the other .

No matter how long it took.

In the meantime, I became a fully patched member of the club and sank deep into club life. Women. Sex. More sex. Anything to keep me numb.

Now I’m being considered for the enforcer role within the club. A role that requires strategy, strong instincts, and the brute force to back it up.

Hunting these men, I’ve learned all of that and more.

It’s almost a shame that this target is the last one.

First to go was the driver. I found him in an upscale brothel in Chicago, getting fucked by a six-foot blonde wearing a strap on.

I slipped into the bathroom undetected and waited behind the shower curtain.

When he came into the bathroom to piss, I stepped behind him, slid my hand across his mouth and whispered in his ear.

“This is for them.” And I ran my blade along his throat.

Second to go was the front passenger in the car.

The son of the slain syndicate leader. But he wasn’t nearly as rewarding as the first. I found him almost dead with a needle in his arm.

But I brought him back to life, so he was conscious and coherent enough to know exactly what was about to happen.

With satisfaction, I watched it click in his head.

Saw the moment he figured it out and waited with my arms crossed as the pleading set in. Then I killed him.

Looking back, I didn’t make him beg enough.

But this one.

This is the one I intend to savor .

He was the man who pulled the trigger and brought blood to the Knights of St. Boniface doorstep that day.

The asshole who took my girl and our unborn kid from me.

He walks through the streets of the small resort town like he has nothing to fear. But in a few minutes, he is going to learn he is wrong. He has the worst to fear.

For eight years, he has escaped capture.

While my darkness has grown stronger.

And tonight, I’m letting the darkness out to play.

I step in behind him. Follow him along the coastal path through town. Past the little restaurants and the cafés and along the boardwalk with the ocean beside us.

He leaves the safety of the well-lit area. Passes the movie theater and the bars down a small alleyway and starts to whistle to himself.

Fucking whistle.

He turns right into a more shadowy alleyway and it’s where I get him. I take him by surprise and push him into a doorway so we are face to face. It takes him a moment, but his surprise gives way to recognition and the fear sets in. His irises widen and he starts to panic.

“It was just a job. Just a fucking job.”

I bring the knife to his throat and tilt my head.

“This is for Alice and the baby. ”

I slam my knife into his belly and twist. His eyes widen and blood bubbles from his mouth.

He sags against the wall, his body wanting to fall.

“Oh, no you don’t,” I growl, gripping his chin and forcing him to look at me. “You’re not getting off that lightly. That wasn’t a wound that will kill you…”

I slam my blade in again.

“That one might …”

Then again.

“That one definitely will…”

And again.

“But that one was just meant to hurt…”

He coughs and splutters and starts to beg me to let him go. “It wasn’t personal.”

A new wave of rage crashes over me. “Oh, it was very fucking personal.”

Blood spills down his chin. “It was war.”

I grip his chin tighter. “And this is payback.”

I finally run the blade across his throat and a stream of red sprays into the twilight air.

But I don’t let him slump to the ground. I hold him up so I can watch the life drain slowly from him. Watch the fear and the panic swirl with the cold trickle of regret as his life leaves him .

Only when he is finally dead do I let him fall to the ground.

The retribution is done.

The circle is closed.

And a new enforcer for the Knights of St. Boniface has been born.