~ ~ ~
Harlan jumped from the top of a picnic table. He threw a cigarette to the ground and embers danced along the pavement. He blew his smoke with a curled lip. His face was looking better now, but there were still some yellow fading bruises from where Tripp had gotten him.
“Round three?” Tripp asked as he walked by, holding my hand.
“Fuck you,” Harlan said.
He turned and walked away.
I didn’t know how Tripp could walk the way he did. Without fear, worry, even care. I mean, the Red Aces weren’t exactly the biggest MC in the world, but they were powerful. There were bodies of their enemies buried too close for comfort.
Stoney came walking from the back of the compound, wiping his hands with a towel.
“Didn’t expect to see you so soon,” Stoney said. “Figured you’d be making your calls and…”
The second Stoney got within range, Tripp grabbed him by his leather cut. I screamed and watched in horror as Tripp spun Stoney around and put him against a pole that was part of a canopy off the back of the clubhouse.
Stoney put his hands out.
There were ten guys charging toward Tripp, guns drawn, ready to take him out.
“No!” I yelled.
“You’re not going to have to them shoot me,” Tripp said. “So call them off.”
Stoney grinned. “Mind getting your fucking hands off me first?”
Tripp backed away.
One of Rocky’s friends, Pat, put a gun to the back of Tripp’s skull. “Stupid asshole.”
“Pull the trigger,” Tripp said. “Trust me, brother, do it.”
“Brother?”
“That’s good,” Stoney said. “Everyone stand down.” A few seconds later Stoney bellowed, “I said STAND DOWN!”
All the guys backed away and put their weapons away.
“I want everyone inside. This is personal business.”
“Boss,” Pat said. “If he…”
“Pat, get the hell out of my face,” Stoney said. “Or I will shoot you.”
Everyone cleared out.
Tripp looked at me and nodded.
I had no idea what he was planning on doing.
“Did you call Aldo?” Stoney said.
“No,” Tripp said. “You want to be afraid, be afraid. But I need to know what happened.”
“You know,” Stoney said.
“I know about the baby. What happened with Endo.”
Stoney looked at me, eyebrow raised. “Fuck.”
“Endo is in a coma right now,” Tripp said. “Someone tried killing him. They shot him.”
“What?” Stoney asked.
“If Skull X wants the baby, well, the kid, and is going after who knows… it’s not making sense to me, Stoney. Your hands aren’t as clean as you think, are they?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Stoney asked. “Rocky was my best friend. He was like my brother. He insisted on pushing on them.”
“Why?”
“Personal.”
“I don’t buy it.”
“Before Winter, there was a woman Rocky loved. Skull X took her out, okay? He always wanted revenge.”
“What does that have to do with Endo?”
“Rocky and Endo were close,” Stoney said. He looked at me again. “For obvious reasons. Maybe Rocky tried pulling Endo into something. All I know is that Rocky was on his own at the end there. He wouldn’t listen to me. We got into a fight, he took off, and he never came back again. I should have never let him leave alone. And I knew he was going to go right to them.”
Tripp shook his head. “It’s not adding up. Give me a contact for Skull X. I’ll go up there.”
Stoney laughed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You can’t go near them. They’ll tear you apart.”
“I have fists. I know how to fight. I’ll go up there and challenge them.”
“And say what? You tell them who you are, you’re dead.”
“I’ll stumble across them.”
“Talk sense into him,” Stoney said. He started to move away.
Tripp lunged forward. “Hey, I’m not done with you yet.”
Stoney shook away and turned, a gun in his hand, right between Tripp’s eyes. “I’ll tell you the same damn thing I told Rocky before he left. If you go near them, they will kill you. I won’t be held responsible for any of it.”
“Tripp, come on,” I said. “Don’t…”
“How can call yourself a leader when you’re afraid?” Tripp asked. “All those men in there ride behind you, fight for you, and you can’t even fight for them?”
“I’m protecting them,” Stoney said. “Just like you should be protecting her. If Skull X is going after everyone involved with that kid, Winter is going to be next. Mark my word. She will be next.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No,” Stoney said. “I don’t threaten. I take action.”
Tripp took a step back and turned. It was risky to turn your back on the Red Aces MC President.
I walked alongside him as we walked back to his car. It was a quiet walk. We were both tired from last night, and I knew in both our hearts were desperate to make sense of everything that had gone wrong.
But life was never that easy.
We got into his car and he backed up.
Stoney was no longer in sight.
“This is all wrong,” Tripp said. “I just have a feeling about it. Something is going to happen.”
Before I could open my mouth, a black car pulled up behind us, blocking our way out. The passenger door flew open and a man in a suit came out.
“Ah, fuck,” Tripp growled.
“What is it?”
He looked at me. He grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Darling, listen to me. Take my car back to your place. Park it around back. Go inside, lock the doors, leave all the lights off. Just hang. For as long as you can.”
“Tripp!”
The man opened the door and got out. I turned to watch what was about to happen. Tripp showed his hands and started to say something. The big man in the suit then punched Tripp in the stomach and threw him into the side of the car. Tripp ricocheted back and the guy caught him. He opened the back door and tossed Tripp inside. He slammed the door, got back into his seat, and the car drove away.
What the fuck just happened?
21.
(Tripp)
This was how it was going to go down. Something had gone wrong and my number was called. I shouldn’t have pushed and poked into Winter’s personal life. Now I knew too much or I did something to trigger something and I was a dead man.
I was huddled on the floor of the car, a gun pressed to the back of my head. A foot on my back. I was a bitch right now. There was no way in hell I was going out like this.
I put my hands to the floor of the car and pushed up.
“Hey, motherfucker, stay down!”
I made a quick move, throwing my right arm up and around, grabbing the guy’s ankle. I locked, twisted, and felt a pop sound. The guy let out a scream and the gun dropped, hitting me in the back.
I got up quick, pulling him by his ankle, putting him down on the floor. That’s when I unleashed punch after goddamn punch, gut, chest, face. Gut, chest, face. Gut. Chest. Face.
My body raged with an anger that was fresh, hungry for blood. I put my left hand to his chest and held him down. My right hand came back and punched at him over and over, not giving a damn about anything.
“Jesus Fuck!” someone screamed.
I felt something touch the side of my head.
Another gun.
I turned and saw the guy that had first hit me. “You’re next.”
“Like hell I am. You need to sit down.”
I fell back to the seat, breathing heavily.
“Jesus, Emilio,” the guy said. “Are you dead?”
The guy on the floor gurgled something as his lips moved.
“We have to get him to a hospital.?
??
“Give it time,” I said. “Then you can just take him to the morgue.”
“You’re a crazy motherfucker, man.”
“Where’s Aldo?” I asked.
“Waiting for you. We have to be secure about this. There’s risk.”
“There’s risk just sneaking up on me like that,” I said. “And you left Winter alone.”
“I’m not at liberty to talk,” the guy said and turned around.
The guy on the floor was wheezing now. I reached down and lifted him, grunting as I turned him.
“There,” I said. “So the blood flows out. You might survive.”
I sat back and caught my reflection in the rearview mirror. I was smiling. Smiling. Why? Because I had just beaten some guy half to death for no real reason? My smile faded. This was why Winter shouldn’t have been near me. We shouldn’t have slept together (over and over and over again). She shouldn’t have shown me pictures or anything.
I was in too deep.
Aldo probably knew it.
The car stopped and I was led into the back of a warehouse. It was some kind of storage center, no doubt a front for Aldo and his business connections. For every one legit storage unit rented, there was probably ten with bodies or stolen shit inside.
There were two men guarding the main office door. They frisked me, took my gun, and then opened the door.
And there he was.
Aldo.
Leaning against a desk, arms folded.
The office looked like any other normal office.
Aldo reached down and grabbed a picture frame from the desk. He turned it around and pointed to it. It was of a man and woman, cheek to cheek, smiling. They were on some mountain, smiling big.
“You know who this is?” Aldo asked.
“No idea,” I said.
“His name was Andrew. Worked here. Manager type. But then he kept poking at me. Got real fucking annoying. You know where he is now?”
“One of the storage units?” I asked.
“No. He loved his job so much. He told me that. This was his goddamn career. So I had him buried right beneath this floor.”
It made me shiver to think. Some guy tossed into concrete as it was poured for a new floor in the office.
But that was how Aldo and his family did business. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, and they generally acted upon emotion. And Aldo always kept his cool.
“How’s Endo?” I asked.
“Tripp, I know you’re a smart guy,” Aldo said. “It was always strange to me to see someone like you fighting on the streets. You were like a dog fighting for a piece of old meat. But you could fight. And you listened. You never asked for more than what I was willing to give you.”
That was probably the best form of a compliment I’d ever gotten from Aldo.
“Do you understand what I’m getting at?” Aldo asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“You came here to protect Winter. That was your job. You know, the Red Aces have come to me several times for assistance. No different this time. But I know what I was looking for. Guilt is a powerful thing, Tripp.”
“Guilt?” I asked.
“I know everything,” Aldo said. He pushed from the desk. “Everything.”
“Meaning?”
“You know why you’re here now,” he said. “Not to protect her, Tripp. I want to know where my granddaughter is.”
The words came at me, attacked me, and I stepped back.
“So you know,” Aldo said with a grin. He put a hand out. “I’m not mad at you, Tripp. You went above and beyond, like I knew you would. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist her. She’s a beautiful woman. Just tainted.”
“How?” I asked.
“Endo,” Aldo said. “The guilt. It was eating him up. See, we had a meeting about making him. Think of it as a promotion. He’d be on my level in the family. With that kind of power comes a responsibility that not many can take on. So he started talking. Told me about a deal he had with the Red Aces. About a woman he met. And how she fucked him over. Tricked him into getting her pregnant.”
“That’s not how it happened,” I said.
“You were there?”
“No. But Winter…”
“Is manipulative,” Aldo said. “The second she was done with Endo she moved on to the next guy. Rocky. Poor Rocky met his death and now she’s latched onto you. Right?”
I gritted my teeth, refusing to answer.
“Oh, come on, Tripp,” Aldo said. “You’re telling me you haven’t fucked her yet? I know you. You like to fight and fuck. That’s your gig.”
I swallowed hard and started to feel angry. I felt used. I felt like I was part of a plan that I wanted nothing to do with. Worse yet, my heart had been put in the middle of everything too. I really cared about Winter. I think I loved her.
“Trust me, I know I’m right,” Aldo said.
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “What do you want me to do?”
“She has to know,” Aldo said. “My son is in a hospital bed right now. We started talking about the kid before the fight and the gunshot. He was drunk as anything, almost weeping, feeling embarrassed that he hurt the bloodline. But the thing is, Tripp, all that shit is for the movies. It’s a guideline. And with Endo in a coma, that child is my only blood now. So I guess you could say there’s a provision.”
“You think Winter knows where she is?”
Aldo nodded. “Nobody just gives it up like that. That woman always has a motive. And I’m sure Endo knows, but he’s not waking up. And I’m not waiting any longer. Someone out there is my blood. Do you realize what that means to me?”
“No, I don’t, Aldo. I don’t know much about you. My job has been to fight and win you money.”
Aldo laughed. He crept forward and patted my cheek. “Too bad you’re the wrong blood. Bunch of Irishmen. Wild things. Can’t have that too close to me. Tripp, you’ve gone above and you need to keep going. Winter’s life is in danger, yes. But it’s going to be me who makes the call on her life. I want my granddaughter.”
Jesus Christ… I swallowed hard again. I forced myself to nod.
“You know, we talked,” I said. “She opened up.”
“Legs?”
“Her fucking heart,” I yelled. “She told me all she knows. Endo paid for the pregnancy to be hidden. He paid for her to deliver the baby and had everything arranged for the baby to be taken. That’s the last she knew. Endo left her hanging.”
“You really believe all that shit,” Aldo said. “Pull your head out of her pussy for a second.”
“Fine. The other thing I know about is Skull X. That’s where the answers are going to be.”
“Then find them.”
“Why can’t you?” I asked. “You have power.”
“The bloodline,” Aldo said. “This is touchy still. I can’t just run around like a damn fool.” Aldo came closer. “So here’s what you’re going to do. First, you’re going to keep your dick to yourself. No more fucking Winter. It’s done. Second, you’re going to go back to her with the assumption that she knows more than she’s been telling you. Remember who she is. A fucking stripper. She got paid to do that. Then she won over Endo. Then she won over Rocky. Put it all together for a second, Tripp.”
That was the problem. My mind was putting it together. And I hated that it made some kind of sense.
“Do you understand me?” Aldo asked.
“Sure.”
“You’re on your own from here. I want answers and I want my granddaughter.”
I thought for a second. “Aldo, if this Skull X group is serious… they killed Rocky. They went after Endo too. Do you understand that? If they…”
Aldo put a hand to my shoulder. He kissed my cheek. “Don’t fuck this up, Tripp. You’re still owed a bullet to the head. It’s just a matter of time and what you can do for me. As far as Rocky goes, I had to do something to bring this to life. Okay?”
For a seco
nd I thought my heart stopped.
Aldo killed Rocky.
“Now if you don’t mind, I have to go visit my son,” Aldo said.
Aldo left the room.
I stood there alone.
Everything I knew was a fucking lie.
Typical.
22.
(Winter)
I did as I was told.
I parked the car. I rushed inside. I locked the doors. I kept the lights off. I sat at the side of the bed, waiting. The silence was horrible. Staring at the clock didn’t help at all. The minutes were going too slow. I had no idea how long I was supposed to wait for Tripp to come back, if he did come back.
What if he was killed?
What was I supposed to do then?
I hugged my knees and fought back tears.
It was hard to explain, but Tripp meant everything to me. Whatever circumstances brought us together didn’t matter. When he was near me, holding me, touching me, loving me, it gave me a reason to look forward to tomorrow. The hell of darkness had been lifted.
Until now.
I was stuck in a room, in darkness, waiting. Hiding. Hoping nobody came to get me.
My mind went back in time, too.
I never meant to get pregnant. I never expected to give up my child. It was the hardest decision I had to face and yet my decision didn’t matter. Either way I was going to lose Autumn.
I knew who she was with.
That part I didn’t tell Tripp about. Yet. Not that it mattered. I hadn’t been in contact with Andrea for a long time. The last I heard from Andrea was that Autumn had teeth cutting through her little gums…
That’s when I finally broke down.
I cried like I would never cry again.
I gripped my knees. I grabbed for the carpet. I ran my hands through my hair. I wanted to scream. I wanted to break something.
When I couldn’t calm down, I stood up. I turned and flicked on the lamp.
Fuck the light.
Fuck getting caught.
Fuck getting killed.
I made a fist and thought about Tripp. The way he liked to fight and the relief it gave him. I bit my lip and brought my fist back. I swung forward and smashed my fist against the wall. I wanted to put a hole in the wall. My fist hit the wall and bounced back. I spun around and screamed as pain shot up my hand.
But I won though.
There wasn’t a hole in the wall, but there was a crack.
I cracked the wall.
I heard a knock at the front door.
I jumped and gasped.
Tripp would knock, right? If someone wanted to attack me, they’d just come in and get me.
I slowly went to the front door, all the lights off outside the bedroom.
The knocking sounded again.
“Winter?”
It was Tripp’s voice.
I turned on a light and opened the door. I jumped at him, kissing him, never needing someone as badly as I needed Tripp.
He put his hands to my waist and pushed me away from him. I stumbled back, almost falling, forgetting his insane strength.
“Tripp?” I asked.
The rage in his eyes was fresh, real, simply raw.
He was dangerous.
He stepped into the house and slammed the door.
He took out his gun. He looked at the gun, then looked at me.
“Winter, I’m so sorry…”
My mind had one thought.
He’s going to kill me.
23.
(Tripp)
I didn’t want to take out my gun. At the same time, I didn’t want to believe that anything Aldo could have said to me would have been true. It was though. Endo, the kid, Red Aces, this Skull X group. Winter had been in the middle of it all. All these storms and she was the goddamn catalyst.
And I was in love with her.
It was bound to happen, right? Even the toughest would eventually fall for someone. Figures I’d pick a woman that was as fucked up in life as I was.
“Tripp…”
“No,” I said. “No. It’s time we get all the cards on the table.”
“What happened to you?”
“Aldo,” I said. “He needed to meet. That’s how he calls a meeting.”
“That guy attacked you.”
“You should have seen what I did to him.”
Winter froze. She was afraid of me, which was good. She should have been afraid of me. She should have been afraid from day one and stayed that way. We were too close, in everything.
“I’m going to tell you something,” I said. “And then you’re going to tell me everything Aldo wants to know.”
“Which is what?”
“Autumn. He wants her. That’s his granddaughter. He’s forgoing the family idea and wants his granddaughter. And he believes you know where she is.”
“I don’t,” Winter said. “I swear.”
“He painted a really different picture,” I said. “What happened with Endo. With Rocky. The Red Aces. And then me. Aldo sent me, knowing what would happen between us. That I’d fuck you. That you’d let me.”
“Fuck you,” Winter said.
“Is that your game here?”
“My game? There is no fucking game, Tripp. My life is in danger.”
“So is mine.”
“I don’t know what you want from me.”
“The entire truth,” I said. “Not just bits and pieces.”
“What do you… I don’t have her. I gave her up. Thanks for bringing that up again. Do you have any idea how much that hurts me to think about it? To talk about?”
I put the gun down and walked toward her. I didn’t touch her though. I kept my distance at about an inch. I stared down at her.
“Do you have any idea what it feels like to meet someone… you know what? Screw it. It doesn’t matter. I came here to tell you that I’ve only lost two fights in my life. The one that brought me here. The first one cost my best friend his life. And it was made very clear to me then that if I stood in the way of anyone in the family or lost a fight, it was my ass on the line. I came here to protect you, darling, and now I’m wondering if I should have been protecting myself.”
“Then don’t be here,” Winter whispered. “Leave. I don’t give a shit.”
“I’m not leaving without knowing where Autumn is.”
“What are you going to do? Threaten me with a gun? Slap me? Punch me around?”
I shook my head. “No. I’d never do that to you.”
“Even if it cost you your life?”
I gritted my teeth so hard, my jaw hurt.
Was I willing to die for Winter? Or because of her?
Man, that was a hard question to answer.
I touched her face, hating that I was doing so. She looked ready to collapse into tears, but I had to hold off with her.
“I need to know,” I said. “Goddammit, darling, you don’t realize what he has planned.”
“He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?”
I wasn’t going to be a hypocrite and lie to her. “He’ll kill anyone who gets in his way. Or anyone who he thinks is lying.”
“And I’m a fucking liar, right?” Winter asked.
My hand slid around to the back of her neck. She put her head back, her mouth slightly parted. “Then stop fucking lying.”
“I’m not,” she whispered.
Then I kissed her.
It was a desperate kiss, a hopeless kiss. My addiction to her lips was so obvious and unruly. Maybe it was our last kiss, so I had to make it count.
I managed a few seconds before Winter broke it off. She clawed at my chest and pushed me away. Then her hand swung and slapped my face.
It stung. It surprised me.
“Just fucking leave then,” Winter said. “I’m sorry for everything.”
My rage started to boil over. I had two choices again. I could either grab her and carry her to the bedroom, or I could really leave. Once a
nd for all. Just be done with it. If she wasn’t going to tell me everything, what did it matter? We would both end up dead anyway.
So fuck it.
I nodded and then walked away.
I left the house and went to my car. I stood there and then swung my hand at it, hitting the side. I got in the car and started to drive.
I didn’t look back.
I was done.
And that’s when I knew what heartbreak felt like.
It didn’t feel good at all.
24.
(Winter)
He left.
He didn’t just walk away. He didn’t just leave the house. He left the house and kept going. I hurried to the kitchen window and watched him go. Pausing at his car, I feared the worst. I feared that he was going to get in the car and leave forever. That would be the death of both of us.
Tripp punched the car and walked.
I watched until he disappeared. Then I watched some more.
I had no idea what his boss had said to him. I didn’t know where Autumn was. I never had anything to do with her precious life other than carrying her in my belly and giving birth. After that she was in the arms of someone I trusted. Someone Endo trusted, too. Someone he paid to take Autumn and give her a good life.
Tears filled my eyes and I started to shake. Going back in time was not the way I intended on living my life. That meant I only had one choice.
I had to leave.
If Aldo thought Tripp was going to muscle information out of me, I had no choice. If I stayed, I was going to die. Or Stoney and the Red Aces were going to stake their claim on me. And everything had all become tied together with a neat ribbon on it, didn’t it?
In the bedroom, I ran to the box of pictures that were mostly burned. One swing of my foot sent the remaining pictures scattering. Another kick sent the bowl and the ashes floating through the air. I grabbed a bag, some clothes, and packed up.
There was only one person in this situation that deserved hell. It wasn’t me. It was Endo. For everything he’d done to me. Making me feel bad that I got pregnant. Forcing me to hide it from the world. Taking my baby away. And now, with him in a coma, I was the one who was going to pay for it.
Like hell.
It wasn’t going to be me.
It was all Endo’s fault. He and Stoney had something all worked out together. That much I could sense. That much I kind of knew. Endo kept close with certain members of the Red Aces, always telling me it was business. It was family. That I needed to keep my mouth shut.
No more.
I was gone.
With me gone, then everyone could go screw themselves. Maybe I’d eventually get caught and killed, but whatever. They’d find out that I knew nothing of Autumn. And if Tripp didn’t believe me, then what was the point of staying?
I had been thinking about leaving before. Then Rocky was killed. I thought I would have a chance to slip between the cracks and go. But then Stoney told me I was getting protection. That scared me enough to keep me here. The protection ended up being Tripp. And, yes, I started to fall in love with the man protecting me.
I wiped a tear from my cheek.
I could handle it.
I could handle the pain.
That part didn’t bother me. I had been through loss and letting go before.
I threw my bag over my shoulder and left the bedroom. My eyes saw the hole in the wall where Tripp had punched. I thought about the first night with him, getting drunk at the table. The next morning, him sleeping on the couch.
They were all memories now. They didn’t matter.
I got to the front door and opened.
Two men stood there, larger than life, meaner than a pissed off rattlesnake. They showed their teeth, then their guns.
I needed Tripp.