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CHAPTER 10

Rogue

I lay here with her draped over me sleeping. My cock is in revolt against me because he was so close to sliding in. I could have done it. Most men would have. I’m not most men and I want to know she’s completely with me before my cock is in her. It is obvious her head isn’t into this… yet. Even a club whore, I don’t fuck unless I know they are into what they are getting. I’m not about to play games with consent.

Her body wants me, her mind, however, is holding back.

My phone rings on the table and I shift her over to get it. She stirs waking up.

“Go on inside,” I tell her while I take the call from Creed.

“Yo,” I answer as she heads inside looking like the most beautiful mess I’ve ever laid eyes on. Her hair is wild, and knowing my t-shirt is the only thing covering her entices the caveman inside me to grab her, put her on my cock and fuck her all while my brother talks on the phone.

I’m hard again.

What about this woman drives me so crazy? I’ve fucked plenty of women, get off to get off. Getting hard because she walks by … never.

Not even my wife turned me on like this.

“Got some intel. Havoc wants you back, callin’ church. Sending a prospect out to her, so she’s covered.” Creed explains as I snag my t-shirt off the side of the couch.

“Tell Kitty, bring some girlie shit. She’s about her size. She needs some clothes. Let Kitty come too. Until we can get her cousin to her, maybe she needs some company.”

I hear him click his tongue. “You claimed her, you want club pussy around already?”

“Might not be the best idea I’ve ever had, but she needs to learn this life and fast. Kitty will be gentle with her.”

“You’re serious?”

I pause for a moment, think about the woman inside my house. The way she twists me up inside. The way week after week, she handles flowers for my daughter’s grave with care not even knowing what it’s for or about. My chest gets tight and I realize I haven’t felt this since the day I put Dominiks in the ground. Care for a female. It’s been missing since my daughter died.

Pain is love and love is pain.

“Soon as they get here, I’ll roll out.”

I end the call and stretch knowing Creed will take care of getting Kitty on board.

Moving back to the couch, I straighten up the pillows I had shifted around to rest last night and fold the blanket to drape on the back. The couch wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as I expected it to be for being some plastic whicker style thing. Granted, I didn’t sleep.

It isn’t safe for her to be on me and a nightmare come. A conversation to be had at a different time.

She emerges in another one of my shirts and a pair of my boxers rolled up but still sort of falling off her. She carries two mugs of coffee, handing one to me.

I take a sip letting the dark brew hit my belly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t know how you like it. Can get you cream and sugar if you want?”

I shake my head taking another swallow. “Black is fine. Drank mud in the Navy, this is much better.”

She studies me. I can read the look on her face, she wants to ask me something. “What’s on your mind, buttercup?”

“Jennings, why don’t you go inside.”

“Ain’t my home anymore. Hasn’t been for a long damn time. I don’t need to be in there wound up in something that never will be again.”

She nods, “Maybe being in it can bring some healing.”

“Baby, some wounds never heal. Losing a child, I hope you never feel that shit. It changed me. The man that lived in that house is as much a ghost as the mother and daughter in the pictures.”

“Is it hard to talk about them?”

I shrug, “yes and no. I’ll never not go a day without thinking of my daughter. What would she be into, what would she look like? Thinking of Dominiks means remembering Ayla. The single decision she made took them both away from me. Then I have to remember my part in all of this. Bringing her here from another country and leaving the way I did for work. It wasn’t fair. None of it.”

“Thank you for being open with me.”

I lock my eyes to hers, “told you, buttercup. I may not be a good man, but I’m an honest one. You ask and I will answer to the best of my abilities.”

“I have my clothing in the dryer. Once they finish, I’ll be heading out. Benny doesn’t know my car, I can drive to Giulia. I can give you money for the electricity while I’ve been here, or free flowers on Monday’s for a while.”

“Dismissing me already?” I ask pulling her to me.

“No, but you have your life, I have my mess. I appreciate your help.”

“Buttercup, please. I haven’t slept, I got a lot going on. Don’t go down this road.”

“What road is that,” she challenges.

“The one where your head tells you this isn’t real, it won’t work, or whatever else it is you women think to get away from a man who would move mountains to have you.”

She opens her mouth to speak then closes it.

“Look, Michele. You got a lot on you from your past. You don’t want to share, that’s fine. I got plenty of demons too. Won’t hide that shit from you. Me and the Kings are gonna keep you safe regardless. You’ve been in my house, a place no one goes. You have seen the life I had before it all blew up.”

“Yes which is how I know I’m not good enough for a man like you.”

I throw the mug of coffee off my front porch into the grass, grabbing hers and doing the same before taking her face in my hands and kissing her senseless.

“Stop that shit,” I say against her lips. “I have been married. I know love, passion, all that shit. I know how much it can destroy me and yet, I want to see what that is with you. Been fuckin’ dead inside since the moment the dirt covered Dominiks casket, until you screamed. Something inside me awoke, angel or demon, I don’t fuckin’ know, but I fuckin’ want this with you and only you. I’ll move mountains to be alive again, you bet your ass I will.”

“You were dead inside,” she whispers before wrapping her hands around my neck and jumping up in time for me to catch her as she then gets her legs around me. I move us where her back is against the front of my house as she attacks my mouth.

I have to pull away. “Buttercup, I want to devour you.”

“Then do it,” she challenges leaning forward to nip at my ear.

“Got shit to do. We get free of this shit haunting you, be rested because every inch of you is going to feel me for days,” I promise as the disappointment is visible in her face. “Our time will come, baby. I have a prospect and Kitty coming. She’s bringing clothes and he will keep guard until I can get back.”

“Promises, promises,” she teases but seems almost sad about me leaving.

“I’ll be back soon as I can. Need to know, though, you gonna be here when I get back? No taking off to your cousin. No seeking out Benny. I can keep you safe, but you gotta do your part. Can you do that so I can fix this and then I can have you?”

She bites her bottom lip. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Jennings.” She drops her legs and steadies herself. “People that get caught up in this, get dead.”

“Seen worse than Benincio Cartagena. This will be over for you like it should have been when you ended it years ago.”

She gasps, “you know?”

“I know you met Benincio Cartagena when he got hired to take out Giulia Bianchi. He used you to get intel on her. Infatuated with you, Benny flipped on the Irishmen who hired him. Bianchi took care of her enemies and had an agreement with Benny.”

She shakes her head, “no I met him at a charity event for the local hospital. Giulia had nothing to do with it.”

I cup her chin. “You should talk to your cousin. There is a reason she stopped supporting your relationship and it’s because she learned the truth. Knowing what she was up against, she took the path of least resistance with Cartagena. You got out of the picture, she put things in play to end him. Only Benny went underground while he looked for you.”

“Stop,” she whispers.

“Call Giulia, ask for yourself.” I explain as I hear the sounds of a motorcycle approaching.

“I will.” She seems determined to prove me wrong. “Where did you get your information.”

“Call your cousin,” I encourage. I got the information directly from the source, well, Havoc did that is.

Giulia knew it would break Michele’s heart to know she was played. She thought by now, the threat would have been eliminated and she would be able to let Michele live her life completely free from this baggage. Except things didn’t go according to plan. Tyrant text me everything last night after Havoc and him had a briefing from the Bianchi Madame.

“Kitty will get you sorted with some clothes. Prospect stays outside. You get her inside the house, use the code and arm the house. I’ll be back soon as I can.”

Still in shock from what I shared, she can only manage a nod as I back away from her. It kills me to leave her when I want to stay here and tell her everything. In order to give her real peace, I need to handle her ex.

I make my way to the hole. It’s a buried bunker some old moonshiners used to store their hooch in forever ago. When Havoc bought the property, a random day Henley decided to go out with a metal detector ended up finding this hidden gem, well the entrance to it.

There are three Legion’s Demons gagged and bound to chairs. The Demon cuts hang on the wall in front of them.

“Release the gags,” I tell Creed. Then I walk directly to the cuts.

Officers.

Each of them.

Interesting.

Chaplain.

Treasurer.

Secretary.

I look to each man, dropping the cuts one by one to the floor and walking over them. The oldest of them is full on gray haired and a long beard going down to his round belly.

“Which of these three officers would you happen to be?” I ask staring the man down.

“Chaplain,” he states rolling his shoulders back as if he has some sort of power.

“How can one be a chaplain and a demon?”

He doesn’t reply.

“History lesson in case you didn’t know, Legion is a demon mentioned by name in the Holy Bible.” I explain as Havoc, Tyrant, Creed, Zero, and Pug stand behind the chairs watching me.

“Legion is many demons in one,” the chaplain adds. “We are a mighty legion. You won’t break us.”

“Break you, that isn’t my intention.” I laugh. “What kind of dumb motherfucker are you?”

“The dumb motherfucker is you to think you aren’t at war now, King!” the man with the red hair mutters before spitting on my boot.

“Well there Lucky Charms, today is not your day because the rainbow lost its fuckin’ magic. Today, you three die. You serve no purpose.”

“You need to know who hired us,” leprechaun fucker says.

I lean over in his face, he jumps slightly but tries to hide it. “No, I don’t. I already know.”

“You don’t know shit,” the third one chimes in.

“Benincio Cartagena,” I say the name and they all grow quiet. “Oh now don’t quit talking. Come on, the fun is just getting started. I bet if I keep going, I know more than you do about your own fucked up situation.”

“You don’t know shit,” guy three, the youngest of them challenges.

“Well, young buck, seein’ as your elders here never taught you some shit, let me school you.”

“Oh fuck,” Tyrant says to Havoc, “he’s gonna make this kid wish his momma swallowed the night he was conceived.”

Havoc crosses his arms over his chest, “best show in town when we turn Rogue lose to play with the snakes.”

“Second favorite pastime, for me, other than fucking a bitch. Nothin’ better than watchin’ Rogue make a grown man beg.” This is Creed as he leans against the wall.

I straddle the young one’s chair. His hands are tied behind his back, his legs each tied to the bottom, he can’t move other than his head. As expected, once I got close enough he throws his head back.

I catch his forehead and push back, hyperextending his neck until he begins to tremble. “You’re cute. Your head ain’t hard enough to do damage to my balls. All you will do is make my cock think someone wants to play. You wanna suck my cock, young buck?”

He doesn’t reply and his other two brothers simply sit and stare. I push back against his forehead before stepping back and releasing his head. He rolls his neck no doubt in agony from the stretch.

“When you took the oath, served your shit duties, you vowed to your club,” I begin pacing in front of them. “Brothers above all others. This lifestyle ain’t for pussies. It’s about respect. You roll in another club’s territory, you give a call out.”

I stop in front of young buck. “You ain’t here because you took a job, you knuckle-headed fool. You’re here because your entire club is a bunch of disrespectful pricks. One call, hey, took a job, gonna ride through. Couldn’t fuckin’ find the balls to do that.”

He shakes his head in front of me.

“Oh I see, your boys are scared of a fuckin’ sicario. Benny boy ain’t shit compared to the Kings. You started war.” Reaching in my back pocket I retrieve my switchblade and pop it open. “Respect above anything in this life, you ever learn that young buck?”

He doesn’t speak as I hear the trickle of water hitting the concrete floor.

“Damn, he pissed his pants faster than anyone you ever fucked with before, Rogue,” Creed tells me pulling out a joint and lighting it. “I’m a little disappointed.”

I look to my brother, then to the man in front of me. He’s maybe twenty-five. And he has indeed peed all over himself and my floor. “It’s a shame. Coulda had a good life, if you had a man teach you how things work in a man’s world. Maybe Satan will personally greet you in Hell. I’ll see you there one day, but today it’s simply my job to send you there.” With that I jab the knife right into the artery of his neck and pull out. He opens and closes his mouth without words as the shock hits him. Blood squirts from his neck over to his neighbor.

“You’re a little older, little wiser,” I say standing in front of the man. “Did your daddy never teach you don’t walk on another man’s grass? That’s what they got sidewalks for.”

He doesn’t know what to say so he keeps his eyes locked to mine.

“Oh you wanna make this fun. I’ll watch you take your last breath,” I inform him as I send the knife into the flesh of his neck. Without flinching or blinking, I watch eyes locked to his until he takes his last breath.

By this point our chaplain is in tears. “We didn’t mean to disrespect your club. Let my Pres talk to yours, you’ll see it was just a job.”

I look to Havoc. “You feel up to conversatin’?”

He gives a sly smile. “Sure, give me the fucker’s phone.”

“You should know, in the King’s world, nothing is ever just a job,” I whisper to him as Havoc calls his Pres from his phone.

“Havoc here, we ended seven of yours. There is no truce to be called. We see you, any of you, far and wide, we end you just like today. Got me,” Havoc pauses. “Not just a job, fuck face. You started war.” He ends the call and I give the chaplain one last look.

Stepping in his personal space, I lean over, “the woman you came for, she’s mine. This was never just a job, it’s always been personal.” I give him the fatal stab, “I’ll see you in Hell too motherfucker.”