Thrash (30 page)

Once again, I underestimate her. I
expect her to tell me that she can’t, or she’s afraid. But she does
none of those things. She just stretches up on her tip toes and
gives me a kiss. When she pulls away, she walks over to the pool
table then moves to stand in front of Darren.

With watchful eyes, Wyatt comes to
stand beside me. He says, “I wouldn’t let my woman in on this
shit.”

I shake my head and say, “The only
woman you got is your right hand and the Lost Girls. Nic can handle
this shit. Remember who her dad is.”

Just as I finish my sentence, Nic
brings the wrench back and then slams it into the side of Darren’s
face. His head drops forward, but Jeremy pulls him back up so he’s
facing her. She leans over and screams in his face, “That was
one.”

She rears back and brings the wrench
down to his upper arms as hard as she can. I stand in silence,
realizing how angry she is and what she’s capable of. The sight
before me reminds me to never hurt her as bad as he has. She wasn’t
a woman she might be able to prospect, because fuck if she ain’t
handling her shit.

“
That’s two. You have
eight more,” she hisses.

Wyatt clears his throat and leans in
toward me and says, “I retract my comment. Chick is scary as fuck.”
Darren starts mumbling something I can’t understand, but it only
serves to piss her off further. She slams the wrench into his
abdomen twice more.

“
Oh, baby,” she says in a
mocking tone that’s half scream, half whisper. “Why do you make me
hit you? Why do you make me so mad? Is it because you don’t love
me?” And she goes on, delivering angry line after line of what I
can only guess is the shit he said to her. She gets in a total of
seven blows then stops. I think she’s done when she starts pacing,
and I take a step closer to her. The angry jerk of her head and her
anxious plea make me stop. “I have three more.”

“
Stop your crying,” she
screams at Darren, who has tears streaming down his face. She hits
him across the face again, this time on the other side. “Take it
like a man. You’re such a big, strong man, aren’t you? Fucking take
it!

“
You made me feel like
trash. You convinced me my family didn’t want me and that they
weren’t protecting me. So fuck you and your fucking tears,” she
snaps and swings at him again, this time at his side.

“
But you fucked up,” she
says lowly, leaning over to get in his face. “You think this is
bad? You fucked with the wrong bitch, because baby, my man is going
to end you. You hurt what’s his, and there’s only one way you can
pay for it.” She rights herself and brings the wrench down like
she’s swinging a fucking golf club and slams it into his dick. He
folds in on himself, screaming and crying with such force that
Diesel and Grady and Jeremy all lose a grip on him as he hits the
concrete. She backs away and strides over to me. Her face is blank
as she hands me the wrench and then leaves the room and turns down
the hall to my bedroom.

“
Holy shit,” Jeremy says,
breathing heavy as he helps Diesel and Grady lift Darren up. The
guy’s sobbing, and his mouth is bloody. “I am never giving her
attitude again.”

My brothers laugh and smile down at
Darren, who’s eyeing the room, his left moving slower than his
right. With each step I take that brings me closer to him, my body
relaxes just a little bit more. I got shit to deal with, but seeing
Nic fuck him up really helped me focus my energy. I crouch down in
front of him and signal to Wyatt for the screwdriver, which he
produces quickly. I pop it up in the air a few times and stay still
enough that Darren can follow my moves, even though it’s clearly a
struggle.

“
Your pussy daddy should
have taught you how to be a man, but since he didn’t, I will. I
didn’t even have a daddy, but even I know you don’t beat on women.
See, tonight? Found out I’m gonna be a daddy. Findin’ out I’m gonna
have a kid puts me in a special place. Makes me want to right all
the wrongs in the world. Lucky for you.” I stand to my full height
and lay a kick in his abdomen, then another one, and another.
Diesel and Grady struggle to keep him up as his body grows limp and
his heavy breathing turns into desperate gasps. I shove the
screwdriver in his face, making sure he sees it clearly.

“
This screwdriver? Well,
I’m not gonna shove my dick in your ass, now am I? You see, you
took something precious from my woman—you invaded her body—and she
won’t ever get that back. Do you believe in an eye for an eye?
Because I do,” I growl and then grab him by the throat and toss him
onto the concrete, stomach first.

When we’re done, he’s barely breathing.
A few of his fingers on his right hand twitch, but otherwise his
entire body is limp. Wyatt takes the wrench and screwdriver to the
shop to melt them down with the oxygen acetylene torch. Diesel gets
to work covering the concrete in bleach, and I have Jeremy help me
drag Darren’s bloody, broken body into the van.

“
Where ya dumpin’ him?”
Grady asks with his cell in his hands.

“
Don’t know,” I say. “I’ll
figure it out.” Grady nods and walks away with his phone to his
ear. In the distance, I can hear him bitching at Layla about
something or other, and he rushes off to his bike and peels out. It
isn’t until I’m in the passenger side of the van with Jeremy
driving that I figure out where his body needs to go.

Five minutes later, Jeremy cuts the
lights as we pull up to the Jennings residence. Darren’s parents’
house is on the outskirts of town, with a great view of the ocean
and some major real estate. The house itself is in perfect
condition, and the lawn is obviously professionally landscaped.
Everything about it is quiet, and wealthy, and peaceful.
Everything, with the exception of the bloody body of their son that
I toss in their driveway.

xxx

Days later, and Jeremy’s kept true to
his word that he wouldn’t say a thing about what we did. The club’s
figured it out by, now and they’re pissed off all right, but we got
bigger shit to worry about. Still, when the local news station
reports on the well-being of the poor comatose beating victim,
Darren Jennings, and the search for his attacker, both Nic and
Jeremy watch until the segment’s done. She knows I did it, but she
won’t ask. Since that night, she’s been a little softer and a
little less irritable, and being able to give her that matters to
me.

“
You ready, baby?” she
asks as she shoves the last of the dirty dishes into the
dishwasher. Dressed in black jeans and a black and gray top with
her black leather boots on, she’s damn fuckable.

“
Think Chief would mind if
we skipped out?” I ask, letting my eyes slide over her
frame.

“
On his funeral?” she
asks. Her eyes are narrowed, and she shakes her head while giving
me a look like I’m the stupidest mother fucker on the
planet.

“
Yeah,” I say. She knows I
wouldn’t skip out on laying a brother to rest, but she’s so playful
now, and I like playful Nic. Still, I ain’t letting her in the
garage near my wrenches.

“
Yes. He absolutely would
mind,” she says. “Put your dick away for once.”

Standing from the table and walking
over to her, I place my hands on her sides and press my half hard
dick into her stomach.

“
I don’t like your last
name,” I say. “It’s confusing.” She stares up at me, only partially
confused. She gets where I’m going with this. She’s just in denial
about it right now. “Is it pronounced ‘Wee-len’ or
‘Whay-len’?”

“
And your last name’s any
better? Do you not remember what they called you in high school?
Joshua Will-Suck-Cocks ring any bells?”

I grin down at her, loving that she’s
playing along.

“
I remember who started
that,” I say and narrow my eyes at her playfully. She reaches up
and tugs on my beard with a huge smile on her face.

“
You trying to say you
want to make me an honest woman?” she asks on her tip
toes.

“
I don’t know about
honest,” I say to tease her. She scrunches her nose up and gives my
beard a pull, making my dick stand at attention. She knows damn
well how that shit gets me going.

“
I don’t know how I like
the name Nicole Wilcox,” she says and licks her lips.

“
How about Nicole
Will-Suck-Cocks, because baby you gotta know, having had it once,
I’m gonna need that on the regular now,” I say and lean in,
devouring her mouth with my own. She bucks her pelvis against mine,
and just when things are getting hot, a throat clears from the
hallway.

We both turn and look at Jeremy, who is
wearing all black and his prospect vest that Jim gave to him the
day after the shit with Darren. Almost took it back after finding
out where we left Darren, but Jim knows that wasn’t on Jeremy—that
was on me.

“
Okay, cool,” Jeremy says
with a smile on his face. “Making me an uncle, and a
brother-in-law, and one day—a brother,” he says as he pinches the
leather of his cut between his fingers. “Now how about getting your
own place?”

I pull away from Nic, proudly adjust my
dick, and smirk at the stupid punk.

“
We already got our own
place,” I say and clasp him on the shoulder, then stride out to the
car. I call behind me with a chuckle, “You’re the one who needs to
find his own place.”

My good mood falls instantly when I see
the plastic hospital band that’s tied around the windshield wiper.
I check the door to find that neither Jeremy nor Nic have made it
outside yet, and pull the band off the wiper blade and give it a
good look. On the band, there’s a bunch of information printed from
patient’s chart number to the date of admittance, and even special
instructions about allergies. But it’s the name, in bold print,
that reads JENNINGS, DARREN that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Playful laughter sounds from the doorway, and Nic comes out first,
then Jeremy. She’s too happy and in too good of a place to know
about this, so I shove the bracelet into my pocket and climb into
the car with my woman and the kid who will one day be my brother.
And we take off to say goodbye to an old friend.

Epilogue

Sometimes I feel it in my bones—Duke
loving me. Sometimes I don't feel anything but sheer terror at the
thought that he might be telling me the truth. Because when you
love and you are loved by someone else, you have something to lose.
And way too many times in my life have I lost things I've held dear
to my heart. But things are looking up. I tell myself that every
day, because the gifts I've been given are outweighing that which
has been taken from me. And it's because of him.

I turn over on my side and look down at
the most precious thing in my life—my daughter. She's covered in a
pile of blankets, nestled beneath the muted pinks and creams. And
even among a sea of pretty, she stands out. She’s gorgeous. Robin
is close to nine months old now. She grows so much every day, but
we’re often so busy I wonder if we’re missing some of it. And I
don’t want to miss a single second. She’s mobile and chatty and so
damn opinionated already. I love it.

Every moment I spend with her, the less
I understand my own mother’s bailing on me and Jeremy. Even when my
baby grows up and she’s all mouth and sass and her daddy’s piercing
blue eyes, I’m going to love her. And I’m not alone.

“
Wanna go see Daddy?” I
ask her. She kicks her chubby little legs out, makes a gurgling
sound that I swear is an excited affirmative, and smiles up at me
with the cutest, toothless grin on the planet.

“
Da,” s'he says. I know
she’s saying Daddy in her own little way, but I like to pretend
she’s saying “duh,” because that’s just funnier.

“
I love you so much I
think I’m gonna make myself sick,” I say as I scoop her up and walk
her out of the room and into the living room and try unsuccessfully
to ignore the dull ache from my right hip. The new tattoo on my hip
is a gift for Duke. After he got the tattoo on his lower left arm,
I knew I had to get something for him, too. On the inside of his
wrist is a tattoo of my signature, and on the other side is the
word forgiven. Once I told him that everything that’s in the past
is done and gone, he wanted to commemorate it in a very permanent
way.