Red Ink (Mad Jackals Brotherhood MC Book 2) (6 page)

“I don’t remember doing that on the first date.” Mia gives him a mock-serious look. “I was a nice girl and I’m pretty sure nice girls didn’t do that after dinner and a movie.”

Ray chuckles lightly against her ear, sending a buzz through her. She loves making him hot and out of control, but it’s more than that. She loves making him happy, hearing him laugh and knowing she’s the reason. It may just seem like a little thing, but, to her, it’s a whole world.

“Don’t worry, your dad would have been proud of you that night. After you slipped inside the house, I had to go home and have a couple of cold showers. God, I wanted you so much, I thought I was going to explode.” He grips hold of her waist at the memory.

“But you waited. You waited a long time, until I was ready.” Mia looks at him wonderingly, knowing full well that most guys in his position would just have moved on to the next girl, someone more willing to round the next base with them. “And by that time it was too late.” She drops her gaze, not wanting to remember the night she’d decided to go all the way with Ray was also the last night she had seen him for eight years.

“It wasn’t too late, Mia. It never could have been. Nothing would have kept me from coming back to you. Nothing.” He lifts her chin, forcing her to look at him, to see the earnestness in his bright blue eyes. “I love you, Mia.”

She smiles broadly, knowing she would never get tired of hearing him say those words. “I love you, too.” She rests her forehead against his, her hand finding its way over his heart, feeling comforted by the regular beats. “So, about this date…” Ray looks at her curiously and she answers him with a cheeky smile. “Could it be a late dinner and midnight showing?”

Ray smiles broadly, knowing exactly what she’s thinking. “If you like.” He shrugs nonchalantly. “But what should we do in-between time?” He looks at her innocently.

“Well, let me put it this way. I bought whipped cream at the store today.” Mia watches as Ray’s eyes darken at her words. Looking up into his eyes, she knows that in his arms is the only place that she ever wants to be.

He kisses her deeply, his fingers trailing a line down between her breasts, making her shiver. And just like that, whatever had brought them into her bedroom was forgotten. The bag hiding underneath the wardrobe was forgotten. The subject of the small fortune in cash wasn’t revisited. That had been a mistake.

Chapter Ten

Another few blissful days had gone by and Mia wondered if this is what is commonly called the honeymoon period. But she couldn’t imagine things being any different with Ray. She was definitely sleeping less than she used to, but she felt better than ever. Cassie had joked that good sex was better than a good night’s rest. She was inclined to agree with her.

Tonight they were going to see her dad and she was looking forward to the expression on his face when he set eyes on Ray. She knew how excited he would be to see the man that he’d looked upon as the son he never had.

Ray kisses her deeply at her door, leaning over the balcony to watch her as she walks away from him. There’s something sexy about the way that he’s so hungry for her all the time. Getting out of bed that morning had been a struggle and she smiles to herself at the thought. She hums lightly as she skips down the steps towards her car.

“What the -?” The shock at what she’s seeing her brings her brain crashing back down from Cloud Nine.

“Mia?” Ray was by her side in an instant. “What’s the matter?” He looks her over, concern plastered over his face like he’s expecting to find something physically wrong with her.

She just points towards her ancient car and Ray follows the direction of her finger, taking in the slashed tires of the sedan.

“Goddammit.” The anger in Ray’s voice is clear and he circles the car, taking a closer look at the damage.

“Do you think it was an accident?” Mia knows the answer before she’s even asked the question; even she isn’t quite that naïve.

Ray shakes his head. “They’ve all been slashed with a knife. The bastards have virtually ripped each one to shreds.” He rubs his forehead, staring at the car as if he’d just seen a ghost.

“Who would have done this?” She bites her bottom lip, angry that someone has been able to get to her through a petty act of vandalism.

Ray doesn’t answer her, but there’s something in his eyes, something that looks like guilt. But that didn’t make any sense. He obviously hadn’t done this.

“Come inside, Mia. You look like you’re about to fall over.” Rays hand is on the small of her back, leading her towards the stairs but she blinks hard, bringing herself to the here and now.

She shakes her head. “No, I can’t. I have to get to work. There’s a new girl arriving and we have an appointment.”

Anger flashes in Ray’s eyes. “Mia, don’t be stubborn. You’ve just had a shock; you need to calm down. I’m sure they can do without you at work for a few hours.”

“No, Ray. No.” She lifts her chin, refusing to let whoever has done this to get to her anymore than they already have. “I need to get on with my day. I’ll call the garage from work to come and pick the car up.”

She watches as he takes a few deep breaths. He sees the steely determination in her eyes and it tells him that there’s no talking her out of her decision. “Fine, wait here. I’ll drive you. We should ask any of your neighbors if they saw anything suspicious last night, anyone who doesn’t look like they belong around here.”

Mia was already shaking her head. “There’s no point. Mrs. Bukowski is deaf and her eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. Whoever lives next door spends a lot of time away. I’ve only seen him once since he moved in a year ago. Jack’s kind of a recluse; he spends his days and most nights glued to reruns of bad soap operas. I used to take him dinner some nights, until I realized he didn’t eat real food.” Ray looks questioningly at her and she shrugs sadly. “He drinks his calories.” Ray nods in understanding, knowing how hard it is for her to talk about someone who’s fallen prey to alcohol.

“Great, not exactly the safest block you decided to live on.” He raises an eyebrow at her as Mia crosses her arms in her signature gesture of defiance.

“I can look after myself.” She taps her foot impatiently. “Now are you going to give me a lift or do I need to hitch a ride?”

Ray smiles ruefully. “Goddammit, woman, but you’re stubborn.” He shakes his head at her. “Let me get my keys. I’ll be right back.” He disappears, taking the stairs two at a time, leaving her to stare at her car and wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of doing this to her.

Chapter Eleven

Taco night had been a great success. Mia hadn’t seen her dad that happy in a long time and it did good things for her soul to see him smile like that. When she’d told him that Ray was alive, he’d been understandably shocked but he’d barely asked her any questions, something that Mia couldn’t quite get her head around. He just seemed pleased to have Ray back, whatever the reasons behind it. Perhaps she should take a leaf out of her father’s book, she thought to herself as she watched them bond as if no time had passed.

His expression had darkened when Mia had told him about her car. But she’d waved away his worry, telling him it was probably just some kids playing a prank. Ray had been strangely silent during that conversation, staring down at the table as if there had been something intensely interested to see there.

Before Mia had left, her father had hugged her hard, telling her how much he loved her. It was a tradition they had. After her mother had died, they’d always exchanged the words whenever they said goodbye. But that wasn’t all that he’d said.

“It’s good to see you so happy,
mi niña.
It makes my heart happy.” He’d laid a hand over his chest as if to illustrate the point and Mia had felt the tears well behind her eyes.

Mia jumps off the bike, wondering for a moment why her car isn’t parked in its usual spot until she remembers that the garage had towed it. They’d said it would be ready for her tomorrow, no big deal, but she could have done without spending her hard earned cash on four new tires. Ray had tried to pay for them, but, again, she’d refused, telling him it was nothing to do with him. He hadn’t liked that one bit but, as far as Mia was concerned, he needed to get over his need to make things easier on her. She was used to looking after herself.

They walk up the stairs to her apartment hand in hand. “I had a really good time tonight.” Ray’s voice is low as he lifts her hand, brushing a kiss over her knuckles.

“Me, too. I love seeing you guys together. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it.” She smiles up at Ray enjoying the way her words send a flash of pleasure through his eyes.

“Your dad’s a pretty great guy.” Ray lifts her chin, gathering her closer to him.

“I don’t want to talk about my dad right now.” She leans up, hooking her arms around Ray’s neck and pulling his head down to meet hers. The kiss starts slow and tender but quickly deepens, becoming something more desperate.

“Inside.” Ray’s voice breaks their kiss, moving towards her front door before he freezes.

“What? What is it?” Mia nudges him from behind, trying to get a look at whatever has caught his attention. That’s when she sees the damage to her door. Damage didn’t even really cover it; the door looked like it had been reduced to little more than splinters.

Ray steps over what’s left of her door, his boots crunching over the debris on the ground. He holds his arm out to the side of him as she follows him, covering her mouth in shock at what she’s seeing.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Mia feels her whole body start to shake as she sees the devastation wreaked in her home.

It’s not just the door that’s been destroyed; the whole place has been turned upside down. Her perfectly ordered tiny kitchen has had all the pots and pans pulled out of it, flour strewn all over the floor showing boot marks where the intruders had trampled.

Ray’s hand on her shoulder stops her as she goes further into the house. “Wait here. Don’t move.” He has a gun in his hand and Mia blinks hard.
Where the hell had that come from?

Her legs are trembling so much she doesn’t think she could take another step even if she wanted to. Who would do this to her? In all the years she’d lived in this town she’d never had so much as a cellphone stolen. Now someone had come into her home, invaded her private space, and destroyed everything they could find.

It could be seconds or minutes or hours before Ray appears again. Time seems to have slowed down or sped up. Either way, Mia feels disconnected, as if what she’s seeing isn’t real.

“The place is clear. No one else is here.” Ray settles a comforting hand on her shoulder, wedging the gun back into the waistband of his jeans. That’s when realization hits Mia of why he’d told her to stay put.

“You thought that whoever did this was still in my house.” Her voice sounds calmer than she would have thought possible under the circumstances. “You carry a gun.” She doesn’t sound like her, more like a monosyllabic version of herself.

“It’s all right. You’re all right.” Ray gathers her towards him, hugging her tight to his chest, fiercely almost.

That’s when she sees it, that’s when she sees the signs sprayed all over her walls. How could she have missed it when she first walked in? The walls were covered in black graffiti. Her eyes must have been drawn towards the carnage on the ground; she hadn’t even looked at the walls.

MJBMC. The five letter were repeated in black paint along the walls again and again. She blinks a few times, making sure she’s not seeing things. She knows when people go into shock sometimes they see things that aren’t there. She pushes Ray gently away and walks up to the wall that was made up of a collage of photos, the wall that had drawn Ray’s eye the first time he’d walked into her place. There were pictures of her and Cassie, her at Jacob’s bar, her with Eli when they’d first got together, pictures of her dad. But now most of them were ruined, black paint ran down the center of them, obscuring the people and events.

MJBMC

Chapter Twelve

“Mia.” Ray’s voice reaches her sounding like it’s far away.

But she doesn’t turn towards him. Her brain feels like it’s working slower than it should, as if she’s drunk. She follows the path of the devastation taking note of the pictures knocked off of their hooks, the paint sprayed all along her walls that she’d painted herself in a duck egg blue that made her calm just looking at it.

When she reaches her bedroom, her hands fly to her mouth. The mattress has been cut open, just like the pillows and the room is filled with white down and feathers, looking like an alternate fairy world. But there’s nothing beautiful or ethereal to be found here. Her clothes have been pulled out of her wardrobe, or what was left of it anyway. The mirror on her dresser has been shattered and, as she bends down to the floor, she retrieves the photograph of her mother and her, the one thing that she had always thought she would save if there were ever a fire.

The mirror in the bathroom seems to be the only thing left intact and when she takes in what it says, she wishes that it hadn’t been. There are only three letters this time and they make her mouth go dry as soon as she reads them.

Blindly, she stumbles back towards her front door, not wanting to stare at the message she’d been left. She finds Ray leaning against the kitchen counter, his head in his hands.

“I have to call the police.” Mia hears her voice as if it were coming from another person; she doesn’t recognize it as her own. She crouches down, retrieving her bag from where she’d dropped it so unceremoniously on the floor when she’d walked in. Ray’s voice stops her short.

“I can’t let you do that, Mia.” He sounds strained, but something else as well, he sounds afraid.

“What are you talking about? Someone’s just broken into my house! I have to call the police.” She’s barely listening to what Ray has said as she scrambles for her cell. She’s about dial the third digit when Ray grabs her arm and yanks her upright. “What the hell, Ray?” She looks at him in confusion, snatching her arm away and rubbing it where he’d twisted the skin.

“You can’t call the police, Mia. They’ll know and it’ll just make things worse.” Ray’s voice holds a warning and the seriousness of his tone makes her take a step back. “We need to get out of here.”

“They? You mean the Mad Jackals? They’re the ones that have ripped through my apartment! They’re the ones that have written RIP on my goddam bathroom wall. It doesn’t exactly take a genius to figure that out!” Mia knows that she’s shouting but she can’t quite manage to get her voice under control. She’s riding high on the adrenaline spiking through her body as soon as she’d walked through the door.

All color has drained out of Ray’s face at the mention of the three little letters written on her mirror. “I hadn’t seen that.” He rubs his forehead, pacing around in front of her like a caged animal. “We have to get out of town.” He looks over at her expectantly, like he thinks she’s just going to mutely follow him out the door.

Mia looks over at him with slack-jawed shock. “Are you friggin’ high? Why would I leave town? This is my home. I’m not going to let some idiots with a couple of cans of spray paint scare me away!” Mia crosses her arms over her chest, hoping that will stop her hands from shaking, or at least mask it.

“They’re not just idiots with spray paint, Mia!” Ray’s anger explodes. The animal he keeps inside is no longer caged. He advances on her slowly, stealthily but she refuses to back away, standing her ground although her knees are starting to quiver like leaves in the wind. “These guys are serious. They kill people and they won’t think twice about doing the same to you, to us.”

Mia holds fast in the face of Ray’s tirade, her brain struggling to catch up. “Kill me? Why would anyone want to kill me?” She shakes her head in confusion; it just doesn’t make any sense, none of it. She doesn’t have any enemies; the idea was something that belonged in films and the suspense thrillers that line her shelves. Or at least they did before the Jackals had seen to ripping the shelves out of the walls, leaving only angry holes and cracked paint behind.

“Mia. Focus.” Ray takes hold of her upper arms, shaking her lightly to bring her back from her musings. “We don’t have time for this. I’ll explain everything on the way. I promise. But now we really need to get out of here.”

“I’m not going anywhere, not with you, not until you tell me why someone would do this.” She stares up at him defiantly, not allowing herself to collapse against his chest and let him comfort her like she’s desperate for him to do.

“Mia.” The word is a warning and Ray’s eyes flash with anger.

But she is unmoved. If she were the betting kind, she wouldn’t hesitate to put money on the fact that between the two of them, she is angrier right now. “I need you to tell me what the fuck is going on, Ray!” She calms her hysterical voice with a supreme force of will. “I’ve been patient. I’ve waited. I’ve let you avoid all my goddam questions for long enough. And now this? What the hell am I supposed to think?” She lifts her arm to take in the devastation that’s been wrought on her apartment, on her ordered little life.

He locks eyes with her, as if he’s pitching his stubbornness against hers in a silent battle. When he realizes she has no intention of leaving before he gives her some answers, she watches as the anger slowly fades out of his eyes replaced by regret. For a second he looks distraught, broken almost and Mia opens her mouth to say something, to bring him some words of comfort. But the walls have already come up around him. He’s shut himself off from her brick by brick. “Turn around.” Ray’s voice comes out tight, like it’s taking a supreme effort to force the words out.

“Why?” Mia wavers, suddenly feeling scared.

“Because I can’t tell you what I need to with you looking at me. I’ll lose my nerve.” As if to demonstrate, Ray looks down at his feet, not meeting her eyes.

Mia can think of a million things to say, a million reasons she doesn’t need to turn away, a million ways to tell him that whatever it is they’ll face it together. But she knows that no matter what she says, Ray isn’t in a place to hear her now, not really hear her. So she does what he’s asked of her; she takes a deep breath and turns around, looking out though the front window of the apartment, zoning out the carnage around her. She hears him sigh deeply behind her and her whole body tenses at the sound, waiting for whatever is coming next.

“I left town to join the Mad Jackals.” Ray’s voice sounds tired and detached, like he’s telling a story about someone else.

“I already know that!” Mia interrupts him, urging him to get on with the story.

“I’m going to need you to keep quiet and to let me finish, Mia. I know you and I know you’ll have a lot of questions. But I have to get through this in one stretch.” Ray sighs deeply, as if he’s letting go of a heavy weight. “It’s the first time I’ve told another living soul what happened, all of it.”

Mia swallows hard, willing her already-frayed nerves to hold it together. “Go on. I won’t say anything until you’re done.” She squares her shoulders, forcing herself to remain still. There are a few beats of silence before Ray starts his story.

“You know that I left to join the Mad Jackals. What you don’t know is why.” Ray’s voice sounds strong, steely in its determination. “You asked me if I’d seen my mom since I left, if I knew what happened to her. I told you I didn’t know anything, that I hadn’t seen her. I lied.”

Mia clenches her fists, feeling her nails dig into the soft skin of her palms, giving her something to focus on outside of the sense of a coming storm, a storm that’s going to leave her shaking and alone.

“She was the reason that I had to leave town so quickly. The Jackals already knew I wanted to become a Prospect. I’d been in touch through one of their informants. That’s how things worked with them; you never got to speak directly to them, not until they were sure that they wanted you.” Ray pauses and Mia knows without turning around that he’s rubbing at his forehead. She can see the frown line in her mind. But this time she won’t turn around to smooth it out. “Anyway, when my mom ran off, the informant I’d been in touch with told me that the Jackals were ready for my initiation. He told me that if I was serious about becoming one of them that I had to leave right then. It was then or never. I didn’t have a choice. I left thinking that I’d be able to send word to you, to come back and let you know why I’d left town like that. I never thought that I would be gone for long. I would never have done that to you. You have to know that.”

Mia bites her lip, feeling her emotions squeezing her chest. He wants her to say that it’s all right, that she knows he would never have hurt her on purpose. But she can’t, not until she’s heard it all.

“When I met up with the Jackals they told me that there was a rival gang – the Red Rogues – that had been muscling in on their territory. They didn’t go into a whole lot of detail and I didn’t ask. I was just a Prospect; it wasn’t my place to question the club. I should have known better.” He breathes a sigh. “They gave me a gun and told me where a dealer for the Rogues was hiding out. They told me he was peddling his stuff to school-kids. That was my initiation, I was supposed to deal with him.”

“You were supposed to kill him?” Mia’s voice comes out strangled. She knows that she had promised to keep silent, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking the question.

“No, I was just supposed to scare him, send a message to the Rogues that they couldn’t get away with what they were doing. The Jackals protected the people in their territory and the Rogues were messing with that. That was the story I was told anyway. God, I was so stupid!” Mia can almost hear Ray shaking his head at the folly. “When I got there the dealer wasn’t alone; there were a couple of women with him, junkies. The place was disgusting, a broken down house, dark and full of rats. I thought I was going to puke when I walked in just from the smell. The dealer wasn’t even afraid. He sat there smoking on his crack pipe. I don’t think he even really realized I was there at first. I was just a kid. I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to be doing. All I knew was what I’d been told. But the Jackals hadn’t said anything about there being anyone else in the house. So I look around, checking the other rooms in the house, making sure that there weren’t any other surprises waiting for me. That’s when I found her.” Ray’s voice cracks and Mia feels her heart clench inside her chest.

“Who?” Her voice is a whisper, but in the tense silence between them it sounds like a shout.

“My mom.” Ray struggles to get his emotions under control. “She was in the back room, stretched across this dirty mattress, half-naked. She was all skin and bone. She still had the syringe in her hand. She’d been dead for a few days…She’d started to smell.”

Mia can’t hold back any longer, she spins around and closes the distance between them, holding him against her. “Ray, I’m so sorry.” She feels the wetness of her tears on her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. You should never have had to see that.”

But Ray’s arms don’t go around her in answer to her embrace. He stands, rigid as a board and she knows that in his mind he’s back in that dark house. “She’d OD’d on whatever shit the dealer had given her and he’d just left her there, like she was nothing. I was so mad. I don’t think I’ve ever been angry like that. I walked right up to the dealer and you know what he did? The fucker smiled at me!” Mia looks up and sees Ray shaking his head, his eyes glazed over like he’s still back in that place, reliving the moment. “I accused him of killing my mother. He was so high he didn’t even understand what I was trying to say to him. That made me even angrier. This piece of shit dealer had given my mom enough heroin to kill her and he just sat there smiling at me. I don’t even really remember doing it.” Ray takes a deep breath. “One minute I was standing there shouting at him, blaming him for getting rid of the only family that I had, the next the gun was in my hand and I shot him, right in the chest.”

“Oh, Jesus.” Mia buries her head against Ray’s chest, as if she’s trying to hide from what he’s telling her.

“That’s when all hell broke loose. The girls who had been smoking with him jumped up and started screaming at me, started shouting the house down. All I could think was that someone was going to hear them, that someone was going to call the cops. I turned to leave, but one of them jumped on my back. She was a scrawny little thing but she was strong and when I swung around the other one had my gun in her hand. She was probably only a little older than I was then, but she looked like she’d lived a hundred years. Her hands were shaking from the weight of the gun. She was so strung out she couldn’t hold onto it properly.” Ray swallows hard. “I tried to talk her down, but she was out of it. She fired once and I spun around. She hit the woman that was on my back. I remember there being all this blood and wondering if it was coming from me. I went into survival mode. I tried to grab the gun from the other woman who was screaming about how I’d killed her friend. She hadn’t even realized that she was the one who had fired the shot. We were both pulling at the gun. I was bigger than her, stronger, but I’d never hit a woman before. I should have punched her in the jaw and put an end to it. But, I didn’t want to hurt her!” Ray barks a mirthless laugh. “How fucked up is that?”