“Tell me you’re not going to kill that woman,” I said.

  They both looked at me. I’d interrupted club business. “Sorry.”

  “We can’t kill a fed. That would bring six different agencies down on the club.” Beats trained his eyes on Diesel. “We need to play our cards close to our chests. We need to make her think we have no idea who she is. Give her some bullshit information she can take back to her bosses and look like a dumbass when it turns out not to be true.”

  I raised my hand instead of speaking.

  Beast and laughed. “Go ahead.”

  “Don’t send her back. Take her with us.”

  The door opened, and Cinder came inside. “What the fuck is going on here?”

  The men hugged, and Beast and Diesel left with Cinder. When they did, Wendy and Skittles came in and closed the door.

  “That was a throwdown,” Skittles said. “You beat her to a pulp.”

  “I’m not going to stand around and let someone try and take what belongs to me.” I grabbed the bag and went into the bathroom. I changed and walked out like I’d bought my clothes at Walmart.

  “It’s the best they had,” Skittles said. She and Wendy giggled.

  “I’d date you for a night,” Wendy said.

  “Why’d you come back?” Skittles asked. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again until Arkansas.”

  “Charles showed up at my hotel, begging for a second chance. I was already fucked up from almost being killed so many times. I thought there was no fucking way I could ever be married to a biker and married to the shit he does or will bring to my doorstep.” I sat on the bed and thought about the way life was changing. “But damn, then Charles wanted to have sex, and it fucking sucked. I considered what life would be like if I returned to him and still worked for my father.”

  “I went through the same thing,” Skittles said. “ You have to weigh the good and the bad with every decision in life. Most people will take the easy, most comfortable way out.” She smiled and held my hand. “You definitely aren’t.”

  “How many more times am I going to have to fight?” I asked. No answer would surprise me.

  “I’d say with a man like Diesel, probably every other day,” Wendy said.

  “The same she’ll have to do with Brainiac,” Skittles said about Wendy.

  “Brains, muscles, and charm.” Wendy’s face glowed. “I’m ready to have his babies.”

  I rolled my eyes, not ready to have babies. “There’s a coffee shop across the street. I need my caffeine before I beat someone else up.”

  We left the room and passed Beast’s room, where Trixie watched us through the window. What would it mean for the club if she was a federal agent? I knew my father had government connections. What if she were working for my father as well? The one thing I was learning about the biker life was that you always had to look over your shoulder to see what was coming next.

  13

  Diesel

  “That woman was alive when I left the hotel,” I said. “She had a fucking smile on her face. And I know that was your bike across the street. That bitch Trixie saw it.”

  “Cinder, what the fuck were you doing back at the hotel?” Beast closed the motel room door. Brainiac sat at the small table, pecking away at his laptop. “This bitch is going to try and bring down the club if she doesn’t get some answers.”

  Cinder, as much as I loved the guy, was an asshole. If we expected anyone club member to fuck up, it would be him. He grabbed a beer from the fridge and sat on the bed. Beast and I stood, waiting for an explanation that wouldn’t bring holy hell down on the club.

  “Fuck, what’s the big deal? It’s just a piece of pussy,” Cinder said. He drank half the beer and stared at us, waiting for understanding. None came.

  Beast, pissed off, grabbed him by the kutte. “She wasn’t just a piece of pussy, you asshole. What the fuck did you do?”

  Cinder pointed at me. “You know she was a freaky-ass bitch.”

  Beast shoved Cinder back against the headboard and walked away. “Tell us everything, dumbass.”

  Brainiac stopped what he was doing and cleared his throat. “She’s an ATF agent. Works for a man in Little Rock named Tom Washington.”

  “Shit,” Beast said. “Tom and I went to school together.”

  Brainiac continued. “She’s telling the truth about her sister.”

  “Finish,” Beast said to Cinder. “Don’t leave shit out in case we have to cover this shit up.”

  Cinder finished his beer before talking. He needed his ass kicked for killing Kristen. There it was. I’d given the woman a name. Cinder needed to go to jail. I walked to the door.

  “Where you going?” Beast asked.

  “I don’t want to listen to this asshole. Takes a cunt to beat up and kill a woman,” I said.

  “The fuck did you call me, asshole?” Cinder got up from the bed and came at me.

  I landed a fist square on Cinder’s jaw and knocked him into the nightstand, shattering the lamp.

  “Motherfuckers need to stop,” Beast yelled.

  Brainiac moved in front of me.

  “Get up, Cinder,” I said, squeezing my hands over my ears. The voices were talking again. I opened my eyes and peered at the man on the floor. “Get up, asshole.”

  “Fuck, Brainiac, keep him back,” Beast said, but I easily tossed Brainiac away.

  Beast came at me hard and heavy, throwing his full weight and knocking me to the floor. He held me down as I yelled at Cinder. Brainiac joined him, and the two men let me rage at Cinder. When The voices dissipated, I took a deep breath and relaxed. The men backed away, and we sat on the floor.

  “Continue,” Beast told Cinder. He pointed at me. “Let him finish.”

  I nodded but silently promised myself that if the day ever came to beat the fuck out of Cinder, I would.

  “I was in my father’s barbershop when I saw Diesel leaving the hotel. That’s when I remembered Kristen was still there.” He added emphasis to Kristen’s name in an obnoxious way, and it took everything I had not to knock his ass out. “I called her from the lobby, and she told me to come on up. So I did.” He grabbed the beer bottle and tossed it aside when he found it empty.

  “She opened the door, and I found her naked, still wet from the shower. She invited me in, a smile on her face. When she turned away, I saw the red handprints on her ass.”

  “She liked to be spanked,” I said and shrugged. “She requested that.”

  Beast shook his head. “I think we’re all going to need counseling when this fucked up story is over. Finish.”

  “She asked if I was into choking. I said fuck yeah. Said Diesel wouldn’t do it.” He looked at me as if I’d somehow let the woman down. “She finished drying off and then crawled onto the bed all sexy-like, showing me her ass and pussy. I got naked, and her eyes immediately shot to my big dick.”

  “Now we know he’s lying,” Brainiac said.

  “Let him fucking finish.” Beast scolded.

  “So I crawled onto the bed with her. She spread her legs, and I began eating that pussy like it was my last meal. Fuck she was good.” He looked away from us, reveling. “I stuck a finger in her wet hole and fucked while I ate her. Bitch came in seconds.” He looked up at us. “Then she asked me to fuck her, so I did. For some reason, I couldn’t blow a load.”

  “Figures,” I said, and Beast pointed at me.

  “She got bored. Asked me to put a hand around her throat, so I did. At first, it was just a hand around her throat, but as I fucked her harder, she asked me to squeeze a little. I did. She came again.”

  “Damn,” Brainiac said. I knew what Wendy had in her future.

  “She put her hand around mine and squeezed. The bitch begged me to fuck her harder.”

  “Her name is Kristen,” I said.

  “Kristen begged me to fuck her harder. Begged me to squeeze her neck harder. I did both.” Cinder shook his head and stared at the floor. “I was really getting it, hitting that pussy hard. I closed my fucking eyes and just went somewhere else. I didn’t even know my hand was getting tighter. I fucking came like I never had before. When I opened my eyes, she was dead.”

  Beast let out a loud breath. “Tell me you tried to revive her. Tell me you did something to help her.”

  Of course, he didn’t. That wasn’t Cinder’s way. He probably smoked a cigarette, relishing the fact he’d fucked a woman to death. I wanted to kill the man, regardless of what the voices were telling me to do.

  “For the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to do. I had no plan. I had no idea.” He got to his feet and went to the bathroom. I could see him splashing water on his face. I’d never hated a man more than I hated Cinder. There were some things a man just never did.

  “You just left her lying there,” I said. “Walked your ass right out of the room.”

  “Wait,” Brainiac interrupted. “The hotel clerk knew you were there. Cameras had to pick you up, coming and going. No pun intended.”

  “You paid off the clerk,” Beast said.

  Cinder shook his head. “I didn’t. She took me back to the room where the cameras were recording, and I fucked her on the desk. She erased the footage. Told me if I came back again to fuck her again, she’d deny I was ever there.” He chuckled. “Still fucking her on the side to this day.”

  “You killed a federal agent’s sister.” Beast stood, his disgust for his V.P. evident. “And now, we have to clean this shit up somehow.”

  “She knows it was Cinder,” I said. “And she’s not going to stop pressing until she has his balls in her hands.”

  “I’m not going to send her back to Arkansas. We need to keep this bitch by our side until I can figure this shit out.” He pointed at Cinder. “You fucked this club.”

  “I’ll call Big Kentucky and get the guns moved to somewhere secure, someplace off club property.” Brainiac left the room with his laptop.

  “What’re we going to tell Trixie,” I asked. “She knows we’re in here talking about this.”

  “I can take care of that bitch,” Cinder said.

  “Fuck that.” Beast went to the door. “But you know what? That bitch is going to ride with you all the way to Boston. And you know what else? She’s riding all the way back to Pine Bluff with you as well.”

  “You’re going to let her live?’ Cinder asked. I couldn’t tell if he were a dumbfuck or if his mother had dropped him on his head as an infant.

  “You don’t touch that woman,” Beast said. “She’s alive when we get back to Pine Bluff.”

  Beast left the room. I didn’t.

  “I know what you were doing, asshole. I know why you walked away from her with not a worry in the world.” I refrained from hitting him again. “The cameras would show I was the last person to visit Kristen. They would pin that shit on me. I’d rot in Varner while you drank and smoked cigars at the club.”

  Cinder said nothing. Probably a smart move on his part.

  I left the room and closed the door. Trixie was still in Beast's room, but everyone else was standing outside by the bikes.

  “Where are we staying in Boston?” Beast asked.

  “My uncle has a big place. It’s really on the outskirts of Boston, hidden by trees and shit. We can all stay there. I’ll give him a call before we leave here.” I pointed at the room Cinder was in. “What’re we going to do about him and Trixie?”

  “Fuck if I know. Let’s get our asses to Boston and then figure it out. I fucking need breakfast.” He hooked his arm around Skitlles, and they walked across the street to a Cracker Barrel, Wendy and Brainiac following.

  “I missed you,” Gigi said.

  “Do me a favor, G. Never leave again. I need you. You keep me sane.”

  Gigi giggled. “How do I do that?”

  “There’s comfort in knowing someone cares about you, you know? I know the club cares about me, but that’s because I do things for them. But you? I feel like you genuinely care about me. About Ludwig and not just Diesel. That makes all the difference in the world.” I kissed the woman I loved but was too afraid to say those three little words. I’d wait until after Boston, and we safely returned to Pine Bluff.

  “Do you think before we go eat, we could go back to your room and have a little fun?”

  I stepped back and held out Gigi’s arms, studying her body and the new clothes. “Been a while since I had a Walmart special.”

  “Careful, you might just get a discounted blowjob.”

  I lifted G into my arms and carried her back to the room, passing Trixie, who continued staring out the window. I had no doubt she was figuring out her next move. The question for me? When she decided to kill Cinder, would I stop her?

  Five hours later, and thirty minutes from Boston, we turned off Interstate 90 right before the rain started.

  My uncle’s house, my future house when he kicked the bucket, sat back off the two-lane road two hundred yards away.

  Trees lay across most of the gravel drive leading to the house, and several times, Brainiac and I had to get off our bikes to move them. Weeds and overgrown bushes were also pressing down on the gravel road from each side. The Ushers had plenty of money for upkeep, so why had he let the place go? When he answered the phone after Gigi, and I was done fucking, all he said was okay to come, and there was plenty of room. That was the extent of the conversation.

  The fountain in front of the house was in crumbles. There had been a statue of a woman in the middle of the fountain, holding a spout. Half her body lay in the fountain, the other half outside.

  The old stone mansion, vine-covered and cracked in too many locations to count, was also in disarray. Candles glowed in each of the windows. The gas lights outside the front door flickered, threatening to extinguish against the growing wind.

  “Damn, Diesel. You sure this is the right place?” Beast walked to the fountain and picked up the woman’s head. He sat it on what was left of the fountain ledge. A streak of lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder erupted overhead moments later.

  “Yeah. I’m not sure what’s going on.” From the corner of my eye, I caught a shadow crossing one of the second-floor windows. “Come on. Let’s get inside.”

  The eight of us stood under the front door overhang as the rain fell more rapidly. Several lightning bolts flashed on the horizon, and the rumbles of thunder grew louder. Gray, puffy clouds practically turned day into night.

  I grabbed the lion-head door knocker to knock, but the rusted metal broke off in my hand. “What the fuck?” I tossed it away and knocked using my fist.

  We waited for several minutes, but nobody answered the door. I turned the rusted knob and pushed. The door opened, and we were met by candlelight from within. I stopped everyone from going inside.

  “My uncle is a strange man,” I said. “He’s eccentric. Practically everything in the house is from the late eighteenth century. There are pathways between walls, and the place creaks like a ninety-year-old man.”

  “The place is exactly how the story describes it,” Gigi said. She shrugged. “I reread the story after we talked about it.”

  “Get the fuck outta here,” Brainiac chided. “You saying that shit’s real?”

  “See for yourself.” I pushed the door open, and we stepped into the eighteenth century. “I told you so.” I closed the door as the breeze threatened the lit candles. The musty smell brought back childhood memories. Not much had changed, and I liked it like that.

  Cobwebs hung in every corner along the ceiling, glistening in the candlelight. Dust covered a mahogany table in the foyer, the gold patina and gold stenciling in dire need of shining. I regretted not being around more for my uncle.

  Gigi checked out the box sofa along the far wall, running a finger through the dust covering marble arms. The mahogany matched that of the table, the upholstery having changed since I last was in the house.

  Trixie started to sit in a walnut armchair, but I quickly stopped her. “It’s one of my uncle’s favorite pieces. It was built by a Philadelphia craftsman in the mid-1700s. When I was a kid, my uncle came here and stared at the chair for hours.”

  “The chandelier is beautiful,” Skittles said.

  “It’s a Palatial eighteenth-century French chandelier,” I said. “Carved Giltwood. He lights the thirty candles by lowering the chandelier with that rope attached to the wall.”

  “Ludwig,” my uncle said. He stood at the top of a staircase laced with red carpet. The sides of the carpet near the railing and the wall were decorated with golden lions holding golden crowns. “I’m so very happy to see you.”

  He looked as old as the house and moved with lethargy. The candelabra in his hand shook from his trembling. Wax dripped from the candles to his hand.

  “Let me help you, Uncle.” I took the candelabra and placed a hand under his elbow. We made it to the last step, and he acknowledged the others in the room.

  “Welcome to my home,” Uncle said. “All the necessary arrangements for your stay have been made.”

  “Sir, you should really be in bed.” A woman entered the foyer from the kitchen, and Uncle smiled, showing rotted teeth. She wore a red miniskirt and white top that showed a good portion of her breasts. My uncle elbowed my side. Black shoes led to white socks that led to her knees. In two words—fucking hot. “Can you help me get him back to bed? Then I’ll get you all settled in.”

  I nodded, and we helped Uncle back up the steps. Once we had him in his bed, I stopped the woman outside his room.

  “Who the fuck are you?” I asked.

  “Cloie. I’ve been helping your uncle for the past two years.” She played with one of her two ponytails.

  “Please tell me you aren’t fucking him.”

  Cloie laughed and started down the hall, back to the stairs. “He’s paying me, so I do whatever he wants me to do.”

  I returned to the room and his side. “You doing okay, Uncle?”

  “Do I look okay?” He smiled and placed a bony hand on mine. “Doctors say I could go any day.” He patted my hand. “All the paperwork is in order. Everything is left to you, the last known Usher.”