Page 31

CHAPTER

TEN

Brick

Watching Murder’s guys at work interrogating the four douches is like watching poetry in motion, that’s for sure. While me and my brothers will end them before Grim, Rael, and Shadow reap their rotting souls, I figured Murder needed first shot simply because they decided to fuck with his distribution routes.

“Thinking he’s not got much more to say,” I helpfully state, looking at the fucker formerly known as Clock, his yellow stained teeth now laying haphazardly around his feet as blood pours from his mouth. Not only that, but his tongue is half its size, Static getting pissed and slicing through it when Clock made the mistake of sticking it out, much like a child does when they’re having a temper tantrum.

“Very true, the good news is, they’re so fucking inept, they don’t appear to have a lot of customers yet, so we can just tweak our route slightly and be back in business,” Murder concurs, standing shoulder to shoulder with me.

“Well, you know if you ever need our help going through this area, you just have to ask, brother,” I tell him. “We’re working with Scorn now with regard to some new gun runs and shit so it’s definitely not a hardship for us to assist.”

“Will keep it in mind. Think your ol’ lady will be up to coming up for the wedding in a few weeks? Y’all are close enough so even with the snow, it shouldn’t be too bad of a trip,” he asks. “If the fucker would’ve waited until Spring, we coulda had more of a showing of Bastards, but no, his ol’ lady wanted a holiday themed wedding, so it’s been a challenge to get enough guests.”

“Can always throw a party when it warms up, too, brother,” I suggest. “I mean, we’re all always up for a fucking party and road trip.”

“True, true.”

“Regardless, yeah, see no reason why we can’t come on up. Need to start introducing her to others especially those with ol’ ladies so she has someone to reach out to.”

There’s something to be said about being in charge simply because all four of us presidents are leaning against the wall as we watch our brothers work all four men over.

I know all four douches have pissed and shit themselves through the interrogation more than once because the stench is horrific and foul. But if I saw a man completely change into something else like Shadow and Rael did, I expect my bowels would explode as well.

“Ban, you sure each of the ones who touched my ol’ lady has been dealt with yet?” I ask, amusement coating my tone. In addition to teeth, fingers now litter the floor since Banshee decided to amputate the digits of everyone who made the mistake of touching his little sister.

“Yeah, brother, they have. Too bad we’re not cannibals because we could have deep fried fingers,” he retorts, causing the four men to gag as we all cheerfully laugh.

“Y’know, she seems to have gotten in some good hits herself,” Murder muses, looking over all four of the dead douches. “Whoever’s been teaching her to protect herself did a good job.”

“Brew and Phantom took it on themselves to give her some basic self-defense lessons since she was living on her own just in case she ever ran into a problem. She needs to know more, though,” Banshee huffs out, kicking Clock in the ribs and knocking him sideways onto the floor. “Next!” he calls out, waving his hand to the other brothers waiting for their turn.

By the time everyone who wanted to get a few hits in does so, all four men are clinging to life by the skin of their well… gums, I guess, since none have teeth left.

As I watch Grim, Rael, and Shadow all completely morph into their Reapers, complete with the ghostly scythes which will take the souls to Hell, I barely hold back my shudder. As one, the three men make a slicing motion across their own throats and the four douches’ eyes widen when theirs split wide, spilling their lifeforce onto the floor.

Their black souls now begin to float transparently upward, only for the three Reapers to strike out with their scythes, slicing through them and causing the most hair-raising screams to echo around the room until a section of the floor opens. Heat transfers into the room from the flicking flames as the four bodies slip into the crevasse before the floor once again turns whole. There’s nothing left as a reminder, not one tooth or finger, which makes cleanup a helluva lot easier.

“Y’all make cleaning up a breeze, brother,” Banshee says once Grim has regained his normal visage.

“Right? One of the better things about this whole gig,” Rael enthuses, his Reaper still present as he chuckles maniacally.

“You’re a nutjob, brother,” Shadow snarks.

“And you’re not?” Rael returns. “Face it, we’re all Bastards so it’s not like we’ve got a straight shot into the Pearly Gates, brothers. But we can protect those out there who are pure and good, like our ol’ ladies and Rayleigh. If that means I’m Lucifer’s bitch, so be it. I’m good with my choice.”

“Glad we’ve got you on our side, brothers,” I advise all of them. “In all honesty, I think Jameson has done one helluva job building the Bastards into what they’ve become. We have brothers virtually everywhere and while we’ll likely build closer relationships to those who are nearby, the fact we can pick up the phone and put the word out and have thousands of brothers at our back in a time of need is fucking phenomenal.”

“Agreed. Now, let’s all get cleaned up and see what your ol’ lady has put together for us to eat, brother,” Banshee says.

“Then since we’ve slayed, we can sleigh, right?” Rael asks, laughing when Grim and Shadow smack him. “What? It’s snowed outside so they’ve got sleighs, right? You guys get it, don’t you?” he questions, looking at me and Banshee.

I shrug because at this point, nothing that comes out of any of their mouths surprises me.

“If you feel like you wanna go out sleighing, I’m sure the prospects can dig them up for y’all. The hills are steep enough, but count my ass out. I need more warm food, my ol’ lady wrapped in my arms, and about a decade worth of sleep.”

Dinner is a rousing success, with my ol’ lady, my pops, and the prospects appearing to be no worse for the wear. With the Devil Demon Douches , as Kracken couldn’t resist calling them, out of the picture, the beer and alcohol was flowing amongst the brothers while Pops regaled all of us with stories from the club’s past.

Now, I’m outside, freezing my damn balls off because my ol’ lady got all ‘super’ excited, her words not mine, when Rael said he and Shadow wanted to go sleighing.

Fuckers.

I heard them cackling like a bunch of teenage girls when they mentioned it right in front of her.

Troublemakers. Every damn one of ‘em.

“You’re showing remarkable restraint right now,” Grim says, standing alongside me as I watch the two assholes laughing their heads off, their Reapers on full display right now, as they chase each other down the huge hill not too far from the clubhouse. “I figured you’d have shot them at least when they pushed the issue and your ol’ lady wanted to do it too.”

“Aside from the fact I’ve already got a debt I’ll owe to Lucifer someday, she’s never had this, brother,” I quietly admit. “Those bastards took her when she was too little to know about building snowmen, or going sledding. Hell, I know the clubhouse looks like the North Pole vomited all over the place, glitter, and that tinsel shit she’s become obsessed with strewn everywhere, but she doesn’t ever remember celebrating Christmas as a kid. At all. So, it’s a small thing to stand out here freezing my nuts off to see her with that expression on her face.”

We gaze over to where Rael is now pulling the sled back up the hill, Rayleigh holding on to the sides, her head tilted back as her laughter rings out, echoing. I notice every brother standing by watching has a smile tilted up on the corner of their lips while watching her as she has a good time. Shadow’s hollering that it’s his turn to pull the princess but Rael keeps the sleigh just out of his reach.

“Yeah, I can’t say that I blame you one fucking bit. You know she’s gonna push to go shopping with her friend tomorrow.”

“Can’t keep her hidden, Grim. The threat’s gone. I’ll send the prospects with her, or hell, maybe my pops. It would serve his ass right.” We both chuckle then because like most men, my pops isn’t against shopping, as long as it involves wheels, lead, leather, or chains. In short, a Harley Davidson showroom or barring that, the local truck dealership. “You know, maybe I’ll put a bug in her ear that I wish I had a new wallet because then she’ll ask him, and he’ll offer to go. It’s a win-win situation.”

“Damn, Brick, you can’t hold it against him forever, brother.”

Like hell I can’t! “The asshole told her I was scared of fucking heights.” Which is one of the reasons why I’m not sledding with my ol’ lady. “But he failed to tell her the reason behind it, which is why he’s due some payback as far as I’m concerned.”

“Well, spill it, why are you?” Grim questions.

“Because when we were what, eight or nine? We thought we were gonna be tough little shits, so we climbed onto the top of the shed’s roof then tried to walk across the clothesline. We thought we were like those fucking assholes who would walk across tightropes over Niagara Falls and shit,” Banshee states, walking up next to us. “Brick went out first and of course, the line snapped, he fell about fifteen feet or so and busted up his leg and arm. Ended up having to have surgery and couldn’t ride that whole summer.”

“So, you’ve hated heights since then? Seems kinda harsh.”

“Yeah, well, the ground coming up to meet me as I was flying down toward it isn’t what I was looking forward to that particular day either, so there’s that,” I retort. “Took a shit ton of physical therapy to be able to walk right again and I came damn close to losing my arm when my stitches got infected.”

Grim’s about to say something else when Rayleigh comes running toward me, giggling over her shoulder at Rael and Shadow slipping and sliding as they try to keep up with her. “Help me, Brick! I’m frozen solid but these two want to keep sledding.”

“Looks like I need to warm my ol’ lady up now, brothers,” I convey with a wiggle of my eyebrows, pulling her into my arms.

“Thanks for letting me go sleighing with y’all,” she says over my shoulder as I turn and head back into the clubhouse, laughter ringing out around us.

Rayleigh

“I had fun tonight,” I whisper against his throat, my voice slightly slurred with fatigue. “I can’t wait to go shopping tomorrow with Cassie.”

“What else do you possibly need to shop for, Sprite? There are a million presents under the tree in here, and at least half a dozen more than that downstairs for everyone else.”

“I need to look for something called a butter hut.”

“What the fuck is that?”

“Something your dad wants, handsome.”

“Maybe he’ll go with you then, because I know your brother needs a new wallet and he’s partial to the ones they have at the Harley store in town.”

I perk up a little, then say, “I’ll ask him tomorrow morning at breakfast. When are your other club brothers going home?”

“Think they’re planning to take off at some point tomorrow since Christmas is just around the corner. They wanna get home to their own chapters and ol’ ladies.”

“Yeah, I’d hate it if you weren’t home with me too,” I murmur, nice and cozy in my after-sex happy place where the kitties purr around our heads and Brick’s holding me close. “I wonder how long before I’ll be able to feel the baby move.”

“Don’t know, but I need to find out from Pops’ nurse who will be the best doctor for you to use.”

“M’kay.”

I’m nearly asleep when he asks, “Rayleigh? Ban’s been on me for a bit now about what you want all of us to call you. Says it’s fucking with his head because he wants to call you Ry or RyRy like he did when we were kids, but you’ve been Rayleigh for as long as you can remember. I told him it was ultimately up to you.”

Unbidden, tears come to my eyes, thinking about the young boy who didn’t get to see his little sister grow up, and now doesn’t know what to call her. “Let me sleep on it tonight, so I can give you an answer in the morning, okay?”

“That’s fine, sweetheart. I love you, never forget that, okay?”

“Love you too.”

My sleep is full of nightmares as my heinous past merges with my beautiful present and much-anticipated future. Finally, to keep from waking Brick up, I ease out of bed then take a quick shower before I get dressed for the day. Since it’s so early and the sun hasn’t risen yet, I decide against going down to the common room, and instead, curl onto the couch by our tree, the soft lights as well as the fireplace lulling me into a sense of peace.

“Babe, you okay? It’s not the baby, is it?” His sleep-roughened voice caresses my senses, further enhancing my overall calm.

“I’m okay, Brick. Just couldn’t find any good, restful sleep so I got up because I didn’t want you to miss out on rest too.”

He comes over to the couch, lifts me up, settles down into the cushions, pulls me to him so that I’m sprawled across the top of his lap, then grabs the throw over the back and covers the two of us up.

“If you’re awake, then I want to be awake with you, sweetheart,” he whispers, softly kissing the top of my head. “What’s got you so troubled?”

“Last night you asked me what I wanted to be called, Rayleigh or Ryleigh. I guess that was in my head when I finally fell asleep because I had some pretty horrible nightmares, but I also had a few terrific dreams,” I start explaining, my hand stroking across his wide, expansive chest. I can feel the rumble against my palm and pat him a few times. “Rayleigh died in the ditch that day, Brick. From everything I’ve learned, Ryleigh was loved, cherished, and treasured by her family, so I think I’d rather be her from here on out since she never really got a chance to live.”

“Then Ryleigh it is, sweetheart. I’ll make sure it’s passed around too so folks get it right.”

“As long as you and our family here know what to call me, I’ll be fine.”

“No, no. Just like it’s a mark of respect for our road names to be used once we’ve been given them, it would be disrespectful for anyone who knows us or you to call you by your dead name and that’s what Rayleigh is from here on out, dead. Instead, the club’s princess, Ryleigh , is home, ready to reign over her kingdom at my side.”