Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4) (16 page)

I learned how to ride a bike.

K taught me to stop being such a girl.

Then came the absolute hardest, most gut-wrenching part of my training: leaving K.

I'm not going to lie; I cried like a baby.

It was pathetic, big, ugly, snot-crying.

He'd surprised me by wrapping me up and holding me tight while I bawled until there were no tears left. It was the only softness he'd ever really given me and it made it all the harder to turn away from him when he drove me to the lot in Staten Island where we practiced my motorcycle riding, handed me the keys, and told me to stay strong and kick ass.

But I couldn't run back to him. If I ran back to him it would scream desperation, and that was something he thought he had beaten out of me months before. So I bit into my lip hard and forced my legs to move forward. I climbed on the bike I hated more than I hated getting thrown onto my back in the ring and I turned it over and drove away.

Toward my new life in The Henchmen MC.

Eleven

Maze

The next day, despite K's warning and my own better judgment, I was paranoid as all hell. So when Repo came downstairs and dragged us all, sans Moose of course and Fox who quit too due to pressure from his brother no doubt, out of bed to force us to clean up the yard while he, Reign, Wolf, Cash, and half of the other members sat around and watched us, I was frazzled and distracted.

From the looks of Duke and Renny, they had eventually stopped being ragged on the night before and indulged a bit too much on the very abundant alcohol. Both were sluggish, swollen red-eyed, and cringed at every loud noise.

I had taken off to bed after my phone call, forcing myself to sleep to keep my mind from racing any more than it already had.

While the guys took a water break, I sneaked my phone out of my pocket and texted 'pineapple' to K before he got worried.

"Alright," Reign clapped loudly, drawing everyone's attention. "Probies, it's time to get out of the compound for a bit."

At that, I felt dread well up strong, almost overpowering. And, apparently, it must have been written all over my face because Repo's brows had drawn together.

"I'll be staying behind to pull the patrol. These fucks," he said, waving to Wolf, Cash, and Repo, "will be taking you out and testing you whatever the fuck way they see fit. We will do this three times until they each get a feel for you and your potential as members. Make your choices and roll out."

With that, Cash immediately went for Renny for reasons unknown. And Wolf, unsurprisingly went for Duke, leaving me feeling very much like a third grade leftover after choosing sides for dodge ball.

"That means you're with me," Repo said in a very bored, very disappointed way leaving me to wonder if he genuinely was unhappy with being stuck with me or if he was just putting on a show for everyone else. Either way, it stung a little bit.

"Oh joy," I said with an eye roll that made Reign chuckle slightly.

"Wear your cuts but you leave all your knives here," he said, pointedly looking at Duke and I like he somehow knew we both carried them. He turned back to his men, "Try not to kill them. It's a bitch to find good probates." With that, he walked out toward the front gates.

"Cuts," Repo barked. "Two minutes to the front gates or you're out on your asses."

We all ran off toward the compound, each grabbing the cuts from wherever we had them stashed. Duke took his knife out of his waistband. I took the one off my calf and one out of my boot, but left the other in my other boot. When I straightened with the two knives, Duke had a raised brow, but said nothing.

When we got out front, our bikes were all lined up beside Repo's, Wolf's, and Cash's. The sky had darkened to the point of definite rain clouds and I hoped whatever we were doing involved being indoors. Repo inclined his chin at me and I got on my bike, clipped on my helmet, and we waited until they all took off in different directions. I looked around the streets carefully, looking for any familiar faces in cars or alleys. "Where did they all head?" I found myself asking when Repo just continued to sit on his idling bike, not pulling out.

"Wolf probably took Duke hunting on his land. Cash likely took Renny to Hailstorm to suss out some of his... unique skills."

I fought the urge to ask what Renny's unique skills were, and asked instead, "Where are you taking me?"

To that, he lifted the back of his shirt, revealing two guns in his waistband. "Target practice." With that, he'd dropped his shirt and peeled off, leaving me to follow behind, my stomach twisted into knots at the punishing speed he kept.

I'd shot guns before. It had been part of my training, courtesy of Gabe who was the most skilled with them of K's colleagues. I couldn't claim to be good, but I usually managed to hit the chest cavity even on moving targets.

We drove thirty minutes out of town until we hit a more rural area, pulling off and parking in an abandoned field. "Here? In city limits?" I asked as I pulled off my helmet, my hair sweaty from the heat, watching a bit of heat lightening flash across the storm-dark sky.

"Nothing around for a good five miles. This is private property. No one will hear shit," he explained, moving off his bike and ambling off toward the tree line. I took a deep breath and followed behind, still a little off-put by his oddly distant behavior. I mean... we had made out the night before. He had
fingered
me the night before. We would have done a lot more had we not been interrupted.

Augh.

I was thinking like a girl.

K taught me better.

Even if we fucked in new and inventive ways, chances were a man was going to treat me no different the next day than he did before we fucked. That was just how men were. I needed to stop putting my thoughts and feelings on him.

"Alright," Repo said a long, hot, disgusting twenty-minute walk later, coming to a halt in a clearing where there were targets already set up, human shaped ones, the cliched bottles and tin cans on a downed tree limb, actual point targets. You named it, he had it there.

"Come here often?" I asked, slinging my sweaty hair out of my face.

"Some of the men practice at the compound, but you can't get the distance there," he said with a shrug.

"The distance?" I repeated, tilting my head to watch him load bullets from his pocket into his gun.

"I'm a good shot," he said simply, no real pride behind the words, just a relaying of facts. "What about you?" he asked, looking over at me for the first time since we left the compound.

"I'm fair. I'm better with..."

"Hand to hand," he finished for me, surprising me. How the heck could he have known that?

"Saw you fucking around with Renny. And then you were quick, practiced breaking up the fight between him and Duke. People without training don't move like you move. Where'd you learn?"

"I had a, ah, team of instructors. Boxing, Krav Maga, street fighting, you name it."

"It shows."

"Is that... actually a... compliment?" I asked, giving him a teasing smile.

"Oh fuck off, Maze. You know you're a good probate. You have your own unique set of skills. You don't need me stroking your ego left and right."

"Need it? No. But it's still nice to hear. Especially seeing as everyone else is really fond of pointing out my flaws."

"If you were looking for cheerleaders, you tried out for the wrong team, honey."

"Cheerleaders? No. But maybe I was hoping for some teammates. But whatever. I get it."

"You get it?"

I felt my lips turn up slightly. "Repo, this is nothing new. This sexism shit? It's old and familiar. It's the sneers from the boys on the playground when I wanted to play cops and robbers with them instead of hopscotch with the other girls. It's the middle school bra snapping. It's the high school pressure to be both a virgin and a slut somehow at the same time. It's the men who tried to take the jumper cables from me when I stopped to help them on the side of the road because they thought that, while I had the common sense to actually buy and keep cables in my car, that I was somehow too stupid to know how to use them properly. Believe me when I say I am familiar with all of this crap. If anything, I think it is worse now that women are becoming stronger and more independent. It's like it makes men even more aggressive and violent toward us. But they're all just going to have to buck up and deal with it because now that we all have a taste of power, we aren't going back to the fucking kitchen. The Henchmen are just going to have to adjust because I am not going any-fucking-where."

"I believe you," he said, nodding a little. "And I respect the determination, Maze. But I'm not sure it will be enough to get you a patch."

"Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see. So are we going to gab like chicks all day, or are we shooting?"

"Gab like chicks?" he repeated, lips twitching.

"You seem awfully interested in my thoughts and motivations for a guy," I said, shrugging, trying to be casual.

"You're a fucking piece of work," he said, shaking his head and turning toward the targets. "You'll go first," he said, taking my gun and replacing it with his since it was loaded.

I nodded, taking a deep breath as I moved out a couple feet. "From here?" I clarified.

"Yeah, that'll do for now," he said, sounding distracted, but I could feel his eyes on me.

I took a breath as I set my feet wide and raised the gun, holding the handle in my right hand with my left hand cupped around the front of the handle to steady it. On an exhale, like Gabe taught me, I slowly squeezed the trigger. The shot echoed across the empty area, making the birds scatter from their hiding places in the trees as my bullet buzzed and landed in the center of one of the human targets.

"Can you do a head shot?" he asked, moving in behind me, looking over my shoulder so that I felt his breath on my neck and, despite the sweltering heat, I felt a shiver move through me.

"We'll see," I said, taking aim and hitting just outside the left ear.

"Again," he instructed, but as I held my arms out, his hand moved to the inside of my elbow, putting pressure until I bent it. "Don't lock your arm, keep it loose." I nodded tightly and pulled the trigger again, hitting where the eye would be, cringing a little at the visual I got in my head. "That'll do it," he said moving away from me, taking the gun from my hand. "Go stand in front of the target."

I'm pretty sure my blood went immediately cold at that instruction. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked, turning to face him, brows drawn together.

"Go stand in front of the target," he said, checking the clip before looking up at me.

"You can't be fucking serious."

"Are you questioning an order?"

"I'm questioning your marksmanship and sanity."

To that, he chuckled. His hand raised, his thumb stroking gently down the side of my jaw. "Do you really think I'd tell you to do it if there was even a chance of my fucking up this face?"

I ignored the fluttering in my belly at him sort-of calling me attractive because, really, standing in front of a target was a much bigger priority. "Um, Repo, this isn't a carnival. The bullets aren't going to come in from the back of the target like a knife throwing wheel. And I may not have the most exciting life in the world, but I still very much like being alive to live it."

"Maze... trust me, okay?"

I closed my eyes on an exhale as his finger stroked down my cheek again before dropping. Then, every cell in my body screaming not to do it, I turned and walked toward the target.

"Hey," he called as I moved away, "tie up your hair," he commanded. Then, figuring there must have been a good reason for the instruction, I grabbed the band off my wrist and tied my hair up.

I took a deep breath as I pressed my back to the target, tucking my hands behind my ass, pulling my shoulders in, trying to shrink myself as best I could. Across the field, I watched Repo check the clip again before raising his arm. Yes, arm. Singular. He didn't even spread his legs to distribute his weight. He did none of the things I was taught were integral to a precise shot. Then I stood there, frozen in absolute horror as he squeezed off a succession of six bullets faster than I could draw a breath. The bullets whizzed past my body almost simultaneously, so fast and close that I could feel them move the air around me before they stabbed into the target behind me.

When he dropped his hand, I slid down the target on shaky legs until my ass hit the ground, pulling in my legs and wrapping my arms around them as I tried to stop the way my insides were shaking.

A minute later, Repo crouched down in front of me, resting a hand on my knee. And, well, I felt the anger well up as my head snapped up to look at me. "Did I pass your stupid fucking test?" I hissed, my jaw so tight that my teeth hurt from clenching them. "Out of curiosity, this hunting Wolf is doing... is Duke the deer? And this assessing of Renny's skills up at Hailstorm, does it involve being strapped to a chair with his eyes taped open while being injected with LSD ala Mel Gibson in
Conspiracy Theory
? You guys are so fucking twisted."