Wild: Tiger's Blood MC (11 page)

Persephone

I sat around drinking beer with my girls and planning for the future for a few hours. Even with Vero there, things almost felt normal again, like they were going on the right track. I hadn’t heard anything about the cops so far that day, and as far as I knew, the weapons deal was still on for Saturday. That was only a few days away, and I was already worried about it.

“We’re going to have to do some planning when we come into more weapons,” I said sharply, pointing to a map of LA that was tacked on the wall. It was decorated with swirls of highlighter and pen, courtesy of me and Vero back when we were planning the original Amazons territory. Now we took up almost half of the map; there was a wide blue swath that belonged to Tiger’s Blood, and I had my sights on capturing all of it. “This is going to be dangerous,” I said. “People aren’t going to trust us at first, and we’re going to have some trouble selling. We have to make new clients, and we have to make them believe that we know exactly what we’re doing.”

“We’ll just send you, Sephy,” Anya said with a grin. “You always look like you know what you’re talking about.”

I rolled my eyes as the others laughed. This was the most upbeat around the girls that I’d felt in ages, especially in light of what had happened to Lydia. Since then, everything had been mostly quiet. We’d all been focused on our next goal, even though we were obviously still at odds.

“I do a good job pretending sometimes,” I said with a smirk. “But it’s really important that we throw all of our effort into this. If we’re going to bring down the biggest MC around, it’s going to take a lot of energy and a lot of money. We have to be prepared to show the Russians what we’re made of, and that we’re just as tough as the boys.”

Anya looked away. For a moment I’d forgotten that her boyfriend, Calvin, was a member of Tiger’s Blood. I half expected her to raise her voice and argue with me on the point but she didn’t say anything, instead looking moodily away into the distance.

“Yeah,” Lydia cheered. The other girls clapped and whistled. “We’re going to murder those shitlords!”

“Yeah!” Brienne cheered.

“Be quiet,” I said sharply. “We still need to figure out how we’re going to take over their territory with minimal disruption in service and payment. We need to make these buyers respect us.”

“So find out who the buyers are,” Anya said in the same moody voice. “I can ask Cal about it sometime.”

I shook my head. “He’d get suspicious,” I replied, but Anya was already dialing her phone and holding it up to her ear. “Wait,” I said sharply.

Anya frowned. She put the phone down in her lap. “It went right to voicemail,” she said dismally. “It never does that. He
always
picks up.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you an Amazon or not?” I shot at her. “You can’t be so mopey over a guy like this! It’s pathetic!”

Anya glared at me. “Just because you haven’t gotten laid in years doesn’t mean you need to treat us the same way,” she said sharply. “Lay off, Sephy.”

“It’s not about that,” I protested. “It’s about respecting yourself so men won’t walk all over you. This is why you joined a female MC, remember? You said you were sick of men dictating all the rules.”

Anya licked her lips. “That was before I met Calvin,” she said haughtily. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. “He’s calling me back,” she said excitedly. I sighed as she picked up the phone and answered with a, “Hello, boo!”

“Fucking pathetic,” I mumbled under my breath as I turned to face Lydia. “How are you feeling about this? You think we can handle all the new business?”

Lydia nodded. I could have hugged her. “I trust you,” she said softly. “Besides, I think the revenue will really increase our tracks around town,” she added. “You’ll figure out a way to make it work for us. I think we can even take on some new girls, too, even if they’re just prospects.”

I nodded. “We can have them do some of the ground work,” I mused. Having new blood for the club was going to be important if we were going to try to sell all of the weapons on our own. Normally, I wouldn’t trust newcomers to do that but right now I had a feeling it was going to be a real trial by fire. After all, we had a lot of ground to cover and these girls were going to have hustle like champions in order to really get anything done. Selling guns wasn’t easy, especially if the buyer didn’t know us. And we’d have more hardware than we could handle, especially at first. If Tiger’s Blood really controlled that huge part of the map, I knew we were going to be in deep shit if we couldn’t find the right buyers.

“You’ll get it done,” Lydia said confidently. She leaned in. “You have a much better head for these things than a lot of the girls do, Seph. You know that, and you know you’re right.”

Something about the way she was speaking was making my belly twitch. “Are you saying you
don’t
want revenge after all?” I looked at Lydia. “After what happened to you?”

Lydia bit her lip. “Of course I want revenge,” she said in a low voice. “But sometimes I don’t think the cops will bring me justice. Have you seen what happens to rapists?” She sniffed loudly. “They barely serve any time at all, Seph. Most of them don’t even have
probation
. This country hates women. We have to take justice into our own hands, and I think you had the smarter idea.” She reached out and touched my arm. Even though I felt a little angry with her for not speaking up before now, I appreciated the support. “I’m sorry I went against you. You were totally in the right and Vero was wrong. I don’t want the cops to tear this MC apart, Sephy.”

I swallowed hard and stood up. “Thanks,” I muttered. In the corner, Anya was crying and hunched over her phone. Great. Just when one problem got solved, another was right there to take its place.

“What’s wrong?” Lydia stood up with me and walked over to Anya. Anya glared at me with angry eyes, her forehead creased and her lips were wet with tears and saliva.

“Calvin’s gone!” Anya wailed loudly. She pointed to the phone in her lap. “He got kidnapped or some shit! The leader of the MC fucking offered him up as
bait!
”

“What?” I frowned at her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Anya wiped her snotty nose on the back of her hand and shook her head bitterly. “Apparently the Russians showed up because
someone
told them the Tiger’s Blood guys wouldn’t be at the meeting point on Saturday. And they tried to take another guy but Elliot, that bastard, stepped in and told them to take Calvin!” She looked at me with frustration and anger on her pretty face. “And now I don’t know what to do! They could kill him, Seph!”

I swallowed hard. “This is bad, yeah,” I said. “But they had their reasons, I’m sure. Look, you’ve told me so many times that Calvin is a great guy and that he’s a good mechanic. What if they just wanted to work off some of their debt?”

Anya pouted. “I think it’s more likely that they just sent the new guy,” she replied angrily. “I want to kill him, that Elliot asshole,” she added through clenched teeth. “If my boyfriend comes away from this hurt at all, he’s going down!”

Lydia stared. “This is bad,” she breathed. “This is worse than I thought.”

“Look,” I said sharply. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, okay? There isn’t anything we can do right now. Vero is meeting up with the Russians later, and I’m going with her.”

Anya shook her head. “You don’t care about Calvin,” she said dismissively. A tear rolled down her cheek and she didn’t bother trying to wipe it away. “You don’t give a shit, Sephy. All you care about is yourself.”

“That’s not true!” I protested loudly. “This whole thing is happening in the first place because of Lydia! We have to be careful, Anya. It’s not like we can just storm in someplace and demand what we want. If we don’t plan these things out, they’re going to blow up in our faces.”

“So you’re telling me that when you meet up with the Russians, you’re not even going to
ask
about Calvin,” Anya said flatly. “Because you’re too focused on whatever this other goal is to even care!”

I sighed and ran a hand through my dark hair. “This is fucked up, okay? I acknowledge that. They shouldn’t have taken Calvin, and I don’t know who tipped them off about Saturday. Hell, I’m guessing that came as quite a shock to the Tiger’s Blood, too,” I added, crossing my arms over my chest and staring at my girls defiantly. “These guys aren’t impenetrable, Anya.”

Anya stood up and shook her hair, walking away in a huff before I could say anything else. When she’d left the room, the tension was palpable.

Vero looked over at me from the bar. “So, you’re coming with me later?” She raised her eyebrows. “That should be a real hoot.”

I nodded grimly. “I have to take care of this,” I said. “It’s my responsibility, whether or not I agree with what you’re doing. You know that.”

Vero raised her eyebrows at me and smirked. “Nice of you to admit that, Sephy,” she said. “The other girls and I wanna see some real change around here, and that’s a way to do that.”

I bit my lip. “We’re starting, at least,” I said smugly. Inside, anger roiled and rocked my stomach. I hated this. It took all the fun out of running an MC, took all the fun out of living the outlaw life. We were so caught up in blood feuds that we were forgetting all of the things that had really brought us together, like independence. After all, this was the complete opposite of that. If we spent all of our time fighting against another MC, that was going to drain our energy, our resources, and our livelihoods.

Sometimes I just wanted a “normal” life. I tried to think about how things would be if I was a normal woman in her mid-twenties. Would I still be thinking about blood and revenge all the time? Or would I go to happy hours with coworkers and talk about meaningless bullshit? One of the reasons I’d always wanted to lead an MC was because I didn’t like the looks of normal life. After all, my parents were pretty damn normal and they didn’t seem much happier than anyone else. I’d never wanted a regular life. I’d never wanted to go to college, or to have a job that made me wear tights and heels every day. I’d never cared about that shit. I didn’t want to pay taxes or have kids. I just wanted to make my living off the land, the way everyone did in this country before the population grew out of control.

But now I wasn’t so sure. Suddenly, it seemed like leading an MC was partially the reason why I was having so much trouble ensuring my own happiness. If I couldn’t take care of my girls and give them everything they’d ever wanted, then I was failing. Then I was doing a bad job. I probably didn’t even
deserve
to be president, at least in the eyes of Vero. Well, she’d have her turn. But for right now, the Amazons were still mine and I was going to do everything I could to make sure they’d stay that way.

“She’s really upset,” Lydia said. She touched my arm. “Do you know that Anya hasn’t ever had a boyfriend before?” She looked into my eyes. “This is a big deal for her; she doesn’t know how to relax and calm down.”

I bit my lip and shook my head. “It isn’t about that,” I said, feeling exasperated. “Get me another beer and we’ll talk about it.” Lydia obediently ran off in the direction of the bar and came back with two frosty bottles in her hand. We clinked and drank in silence for a few seconds.

“So, what’s it about, then?” Lydia looked up at me. “You don’t think Calvin’s the one who….” Her voice trailed off nervously. “You know, who…attacked me,” she finished, blushing beet red and hiding her face under her bangs. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s hard for me to talk about it.”

I shrugged and took another long pull of beer. “Anya doesn’t get it,” I said. “When you’re in a club like this, this is where your values and your loyalty lie. Don’t you understand that? She can’t be loyal to the Amazons if she’s dating someone in Tiger’s Blood,” I said irritably, drinking the rest of my beer in one swallow. “She’s going to be torn and that’s going to be bad news for both sides. I should have just kicked her out when I first found out that they were dating.”

Lydia frowned. “But some of us are going to wind up getting married or at least having boyfriends,” she said. “I mean, we can’t stay single forever.”