Sizzle (15 page)

“It’s safer for you here. I know what I’m doing.”

She bites down on the skin at my neck and I’m glad she can’t see me smile. “She’ll be so scared and she’s seen me before. Please, Alex.”

I don’t have the heart to tell her that a child who lives in the environment Kiley does finds a way to cope. If not, she wouldn’t have survived this long. I’ve seen it one too many times in the families controlled by the Mexican cartels. Dead eyes. It’s the only way to describe the women and children who suffer such violence.

I deeply inhale Celina’s scent and give in. “You do everything I say.”

“Thank you.”

Celina

THE MAN INTRODUCED TO
me as Rack isn’t happy I’m here. His eyes cut to me every few minutes. Because of the house’s location outside Peach City, we’re waiting ten minutes away. Dax is going in alone and someone will most likely die with my niece in the room. So why the hell are we doing this? My nerves are shot and all I can think about is that I should have called the police. If I’m wrong about Dax and Alex and Moon, it will cost my niece her life.

I glance at Alex. He appears calm. Of course, he does. This is what he does for a living. I try to concentrate on the broad shoulders that fill out the T-shirt he’s wearing and his muscled arms that scream
ripped
without the slightest flex. It’s strange to see him dressed this casually. Throw in the sexy jeans with his sophisticated good looks and it makes no sense that he’s who he is. Shouldn’t someone this lethal look the part? They do in the movies. They’re ugly in the movies, or at least sinister looking. Even with dark glasses covering his chocolate eyes, he’s beautiful. The tinted windows of the car don’t keep all the sunlight out and a light beading of sweat is on his neck. Am I a horrible person because I want to lick it? I wish we were back in bed and not waiting for news that could destroy me. I’m selfish because I would rewind if I could.

Alex is focused on what’s about to go down and I’m well aware he doesn’t want me here. I’m actually surprised he gave in so easily. I do my best to calm my racing heart. The waiting is killing me. We’ve been here for thirty minutes and it feels like hours. It’s hot because we’re sitting with the air turned down low in the back of one of Moon’s black Cadillacs. Alex has my sweaty hand in one of his and his cell phone in the other. Even in an expensive car, you can’t sit and run the engine with full air in a hundred and ten degrees for an unlimited time. So we make do while I think nasty thoughts about licking his sweat. It helps me cope.

One of Alex’s men is on a motorcycle, loitering at a gas station around the corner from where they’re keeping Kiley. He’s there in case Kiley’s in serious trouble. Alex told me that more than just one man might give away that something’s going down.

They do this for a living
, is what keeps running through my head.

The minutes tick by, and in order not to lean in and kiss Alex’s neck, I gaze out the window at the rolling low hills of the Arizona desert. At this time of year it feels more like hell than a place any sane person would live. If we’re lucky enough to have rain in the early spring or late fall, the desert blossoms and its beauty is evident. I missed the spring desert this year due to finals. It’s hard to believe that I left school only two months ago, I was a naïve college student. Now I’m in a dangerous position with my young niece in a worse position and I wish the man beside me would fuck me in the back seat of the car.

Rolling waves of heat come off the desert floor and I can’t help thinking that the devil is looking for a place to hide out of the sun. I gaze at Alex and wonder if the devil has been beside me all this time. He turns his head and the corners of his lips tilt up. I have no doubt I would follow him to hell.

Dax

THE HARDEST PART WILL
be getting past Skull with the doll. I think he’s as fed up as I am, but I can’t risk Kiley’s life to find out. I’m prepared to kill him even if I’d rather not.

I stride up to the front door like I own the place. It’s a small two-bedroom home on the outskirts of Peach City. The town is mostly populated by anti-government, racist idiots with half of them living on government subsidies. I’ve never understood the philosophy. Fine, don’t support the establishment, but for God’s sake make your own way and don’t live under their thumb by taking handouts you didn’t earn. Each month I scrape together enough to pay my few bills and meet my obligations. Nothing like the money I made before I was an ex-con, but I get by and work hard.

This entire area, with their white supremacy leanings, is the scum-hole of Arizona. Prison never changed my mind that the color of someone’s skin made them good or bad. Living with dickheads who think they’re better than their brown or black counterparts hasn’t changed my mind either. Hopefully, that part of my life will be behind me in a few days. That, or I’ll be dead.

Savannah’s sweet smile flashes through my mind. I’m doing something she’d be proud of. It’s been a long time. I don’t actually believe in heaven or hell but there is a sense within me that in this vast universe there’s something more out there. Savannah died but her light never faded. She would have made a great mom. I pull up to the house, cut the engine, and take a deep breath. It’s time to save a little girl.

I give two short knocks followed by three in quick succession. I know I’ve already been spotted because I saw the curtain pull to the side when I drove up. My wrist hurts like a bitch, but I can’t chance what pain meds might do to me mentally. I need all my wits about me. The brace is bad enough and the last thing I need is to show any kind of weakness. The fracture is hairline. It still leaves my wrist swollen like a motherfucker.

“Hey, Skull,” I say as soon as he opens the front door. The odor of stale beer, sweat, and filth trails outside. Skull is somewhere in his forties but looks older. This kind of living does it to you. His beard is gray and his head is either shaved or he’s naturally bald. I never asked.

“What the fuck you doin’ here, Dagger?” Dagger is my club name. I don’t think any of them actually know my first or last name. I got the handle because of the knife I used to kill the man who killed my wife. I never said a word, but somehow the story was changed to a drunk-driving, illegal Mexican. The man was actually white and dressed in his golf clothes after playing eighteen holes. It came out at the trial that he enjoyed several shots of the hard stuff and half a dozen beers before he got behind the wheel. His family had money and they weren’t happy that I was found innocent of second degree murder and guilty of manslaughter, which held a lighter minimum sentence.

I hold up the bag. “Promised the brat a doll. Had a couple days off and thought she might not give you guys too much shit if I dropped it off.”

“Fuck man, Fox won’t like it.”

“Well, fuck him. Did Oho tell you about the rough time we had with her yesterday? If the fucking doll keeps the brat quiet, it’s worth it.”

Skull’s eyes remain suspicious. “Oho didn’t say shit, but that doesn’t surprise me. The kid never makes a peep when I’m here. It makes me nervous how quiet she is.” He glances over my shoulder and around the area before opening the door wider and letting me inside. “Hey, I’ll hit the can while you’re here. Cover for me after you hand over the doll.”

Skull walks to the hallway. He passes the bathroom and knocks on the bedroom door where they keep Kiley. “Dagger’s here and he’s covering for me while I take a dump.” He receives a mumbled reply from Metal, the man assigned to Kiley. He’s assigned to watch her because Fox knows he won’t hesitate to kill her if needed. Fox thinks the same about me too, which only shows how bad some of the shit I’ve done for the club is. Killing children is a line I will never cross and Fox and Metal’s willingness to do so will cost them their lives.

The bathroom is a few doors down from where Kiley is. Right before Skull closes the door, he turns. “You ain’t growing attached to the kid are you?” he asks softly.

I don’t want to kill Skull, but I will. He doesn’t like what the club stands for any more than I do. I’ve seen it in his eyes. But after this last remark, he’ll need to prove he’s on board with me. Anyone who’s willing to let a baby go into the hands of some fucked up pedophile needs to be taken out.

I growl and give a short laugh. “Hell no. I ain’t got room for no brat, especially one who came from between that whore Pauline’s legs.”

I can’t decipher the look in Skull’s eyes before he closes the bathroom door. I shake it off and walk down the hall. I need to take care of Metal first. I knock and turn the handle. Metal is stretched out on the bed and he looks up when I walk in. Kiley is in the corner being small. She knows what happens when she makes waves and she rarely does. She’s unkempt and I can smell her from here. She wet herself sometime in the last few hours.

I coached her when we spent time in the room alone together. There wasn’t much I could explain, but she seemed to understand my directions even if she didn’t speak. She looked up at me with her huge eyes and nodded so slightly I almost didn’t notice. I went over what I needed her to do when I brought the doll several times. Now, I need to trust that small nod.

I look down at the doll in my hand knowing it’s the first one she’s ever had. The doll is a type of rag doll that she can hold close. Pauline kept Kiley mostly at the clubhouse. I would see her in a corner or under a shelf behind the bar while her mother fucked every biker who would give her a few minutes of attention. Every minute of this child’s life has been filled with fucked up shit.

All six foot and over three hundred pounds of Metal slowly rises from the bed. “The fuck?” he grunts.

I hold up my wrapped wrist. “I laid down my bike and my fucking hand hurts like a bitch. Promised the kid a doll if she stopped her cryin’ shit yesterday. Her stomach hurt or some such shit and I couldn’t take it. Back the fuck off and let her have the doll. I’m out of here for some R and R as soon as Skull’s out of the can.”

“Fox will have your balls. The kid don’t need anything but an ass whippin’ for cryin’.”

I smile calmly, though I want to strangle him. “Fuck, almost lost my balls last night when a fuckin’ big rig pulled in front of me. It was fucking turn and lay down or take a monster wheel to the head.”

Metal laughs like I want him to. I walk to Kiley and bend down. I place the doll in her arms and wink. She doesn’t utter a sound, just pulls the doll in close and shuts her eyes like we rehearsed. It’s the best I can do.

I stand up and turn to Metal. He’s watching me with a sneer. The two of us have never liked each other. “I’ll wait out front for Skull, can’t stand the smell of the brat. You might try changing her now and then.”

“Fuck that. She can ask for the toilet.”

I walk by Metal, slip my knife out, and partially turn while concealing the weapon. “Hey, Metal,” I say. He has dismissed me and turned to the bed. He stops and before he can completely shift his stance, I step in close and slit his throat. It’s a deep, clean cut from ear to ear. Most people have no idea of the intricacies of killing someone this way. If you do it correctly, it accomplishes three things—you must
sever the trachea below the larynx to prevent sound, sever the carotid artery and prevent oxygenated blood from reaching the brain and sever the jugular so blood easily flows from the brain. I know what the fuck I’m doing.

Metal’s hands come up and his eyes are as round as his bald head. He tries to speak—his lips move in mute horror as his brain is deprived of oxygen and blood gurgles from his mouth and throat. He sinks to his knees. The fucker’s big and I don’t need a heavy thud. I grab his shoulders as his body starts to shake. He’s dead, his brain just doesn’t know it yet. I bring him forward, which gives me a nice jolt of pain to my injured wrist. I grit my teeth.