Vengeful Soul by Emma Creed

Another day, another fuck up. This time, it’s Jessie I piss off. We’ve been sent to one of the bars where Prez suspects the manager is holding out on us. Thorne has found more than a few discrepancies in the accounts over the past few months, and we’re done giving him the benefit of the doubt. What was meant to be a warning, turned in to an opportunity for me to relieve some tension. Jessie warned me not to pick a fight there. The place is out of town and renowned for attracting the wrong crowd.

The whole thing quickly turned into a massive bar brawl, with two of us against eight of them, and although we’d come out a lot better than the other fuckers, we’re both a little worse for wear.

When we get back to the club, Jessie parks his bike and scowls at me before walking inside. As soon as Crystal sees the state we’re in, she quickly pours out two tequilas. Without taking his eyes off me, Jessie downs his in one swallow.

“What’s the matter with you?” Troj asks, as he moves one of the bitches off his lap and heads toward us.

“Ask that asshole,” Jessie nods his head in my direction, slamming his glass down ready for another shot.

“What the fuck’s goin’ on?” Prez’s voice booms as he pushes the doors open and storms inside.

“I just spoke to Roswell, he reckons you boys caused quite the scene down at Fountain.”

“My bad.” I shrug, lifting up my glass for a third hit, and once it’s poured I tip it down my throat. Inside, I’m numb. The rips in my knuckles and the blood pouring from the cut above my eye aren’t causing me any pain. I’d have taken every fucker in that bar on alone if I had to, and it still wouldn’t have been enough.

Jessie suddenly has enough and launches for me, and Troj just about manages to stop him from getting to me with his long arm.

“You may not give a fuck what happens to you, asshole, but some of us got shit worth living for. You were reckless today,” he tells me through his teeth, shrugging Troj off and storming out the room.

“Get out of here, and get yourself cleaned up,” Prez tells me, shaking his head in disappointment. Moving past him, I return his harsh side glance right back at him. After riding up to my cabin, I find a bottle of jack and set to work on it. It doesn’t take long for the door to burst open, and I’m a little surprised when the feisty looking brunette who's married to my brother bursts through it. She slams the green med box she’s carrying on to the table and sits opposite me, opening it up and taking out some cotton wool and alcohol. I hiss when she dabs it harshly into the open cuts on my knuckles.

“Serves you right,” she snaps at me as she continues to sting me. We sit in silence as she cleans up my hands, then she takes out some steri-strips and more cotton, and begins cleaning the cut above my eye.

“Doc not around?” I ask her.

“Nope,” she bites back, yanking my head to the side so she can see the cut from a better angle.

“It’s not too deep, you might even get a nice little slit in this eyebrow to match the other,” she tells me sarcastically, referring to the scar I got in my left brow from a disagreement I had with Troj’s brother, Autumn, a few years back.

I stay silent and let her carefully place the strips over my cut.

“You’re a real asshole you know, Brax,” she tells me as she pieces me back together.

I choose to ignore her.

“You still haven’t spoken properly to Nyx since your chat a few weeks ago, and he won’t admit it but he’s hurting. You seem on a mission to destroy everything around you and you don’t give a shit who you drag into the gutter with you. You're selfish,” she tells me, checking out her handy work, and looking kinda pleased with herself.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I say, lighting up a smoke and taking a long swig from the bottle.

“You really think we don’t all know this is about Grace. Hell, Brax, if you want her, go fucking get her. Stop moping around, and stop putting yourself and the people who care about you in danger. It was Jessie today, it could be Nyx tomorrow.”

“You don’t know shit,” I swipe back at her harshly.

“I know that you love her, and you don’t want to admit it. I know that you don’t think you deserve her. And you probably don’t. But…” Ella stops to give herself fucking breath. “I also know that she loves you too, and that you can’t go on like this. You're gonna get yourself killed.” Ella snaps the lid of the box down then leaves before I have the chance to argue back, or thank her.

As much as I hate to admit it, Ella’s right. Being here is doing me no good. I’ve spent my entire adult life chasing revenge and convincing myself that I’ve been looking out for my kid brother, so far all I’ve done is cause him misery. I’m about as good for him as a termite is for wood.

His bitch is right about Gracie too, of course I love the fucking girl. I can’t get her out of my damn head. Nothing is gonna get her off my mind, no matter how much pain I cause myself or others.

There’s only one thing I can think of doing, it’s what I do best. It’s time for me to ride out again. I’ve spent too long at this Charter. I don’t belong around people like these. People who so readily put others before themselves. I’ve tried it with Nyx, and look how that turned out.

The door opens again, this time it’s Jessie who’s come to give me a lecture.

“I kinda lost my shit back there,” he admits, a thousand times calmer than he’d been back at the clubhouse.

“I deserved it.” I push the bottle of jack across the table at him.

“I spoke to Prez, he’s pissed as hell, but he’ll get over it. You just have to wind that shit in, Brax. I get it better than anyone. I’ve got even worse since I’ve been with Maddy. I wanna make this world a better place for her. But coming back home to her is what’s more important. You got to understand that, right?”

I nod my head because actually, I do. In the short time I had with Gracie here, I wanted to kill every fucker that might hurt her. I’d never given a lot of thought into what might happen to me or how she’d feel if it did.

“I’m just here to say we’re cool,” Jessie tells me. “And that I know you ain’t used to the whole Prez rule thing, being nomad, but if you wanna patch in and give this whole brother, uncle thing a go, you gotta rein it the fuck in.” He huffs out a laugh.

“I’m thinking of ridin’ out,” I admit. “So much shit has gone on around here. It don’t feel right for me to stay.”

“I think that’s a shame. You spent a long time looking out for Nyx, now you got the chance to make something of it. This Charter’s changing. Since Prez lost Hayley and gained Ella, protection is his main focus. We got good alliances, money in the pot and brothers we can trust. I think you could be happy here,” he shrugs before he gets up.

“How does she deal with it…?” My question stops him from leaving. “…Your old lady. How does she look at you when you come home from doing what you do?” I ask, not knowing what answer I want from him.

“She knows I need it,” he answers simply. “But she also knows I need her more. She’d never ask me to give it up, and that’s one of the reasons why I wouldn’t have to think twice about it if she asked me to.”

I nod back at him.

“Whatever it is you're looking for, Brax, I really hope you find it. Believe it or not, you deserve to be happy,” he tells me, before heading out. And I sit at my table and smoke cigarette after cigarette until the bottle’s dry. I decide to take myself to bed when my throat starts to burn. It still smells like her in my room, and I sleep on her side so I can smell her pillow as I drift off into an alcohol induced sleep, telling myself over and over in my head that what I’m doing is what’s best for her.

Sunlight pours through the blinds and stirs me back to life. When I check the time, it’s just past ten. But fuck it, what do I have to get up for?

I try to go back to sleep but my head thumps too hard, so I get up and get myself a glass of water from the kitchen. My cut is buzzing from the chair on the other side of the room, and I stumble my way over and answer before checking who’s calling.

“Brax.” I recognize the voice straight away. I've been expecting his call since my visit to Vex and right now, a job is just what I need.

“What’s up, Tuck?”

“The guy you wanted eyes on?” My interest peaks immediately when I realize this ain’t a call about Vex’s job, this is about Chop.

“Yeah.”

“I found him…” I feel the smirk tug on my face as I pull my cut over my shoulders.

“There’s a motel on interstate 70 he’s staying at. Don’t know for how long, but he was there last night. I’ll message you the address.”

“Thanks, Tucker,” I tell him, hanging up the phone and already walking out my front door.

“Whoa you look like shit!” I crash into Nyx just as I’m about to step off the porch.

“Rough night,” I tell him, marching passed him to get to my bike.

“I was just coming to get you, Prez called church.”

“Yeah, well I ain't gonna make it. Something came up.”

“Something like what? You know Prez is already pissed for the stunt you pulled yesterday.” Nyx narrows his eyes at me.

“Something I got to deal with,” I tell him as I straddle my bike.

“Don’t tell me this is what I think it is,” he says, and the nod I give him back is feeble but enough to let him know. He looks disappointed and I watch him tense up a little.

“I got you covered, bro,” he tells me, and it shocks the hell out of me. Nyx looks back at me with understanding. “Just be careful.”

“’Kay, lil’ brother,” I smirk back at him, starting up my bike.

“I’m fucking bigger than you,” he calls out over my engine, before I set off out the compound on to the main road and toward the 70.

The motel is about thirty miles away from the club, and when I arrive there are no signs of Chop, so I sit out of sight, and I wait. Patience is something I’ve adapted to over the years, and I’ve waited long enough for this fucker. It’s just before sunset when a rusty pick up pulls up outside room 7, intuition tells me it’s him, and I can already feel the satisfied hum in my chest knowing release ain’t far away.

A huge man climbs out of the cab wearing a baseball cap, his beard is longer than I remember it, but it’s him alright.

I’ve come face to face with Chop on more than one occasion when visiting the club. I saw him plenty when I was prospecting in Utah too, but I was a nobody back then and I’ve spent a lot of years learning from Vex since. Then I had Nyx to think about, I couldn’t risk being thrown out of the club. But now, Tobias Saunders doesn’t have his club. He doesn’t even have his pathetic weak son. He has no one, and it’s exactly how he’s gonna leave this world.

Alone.

I watch him go inside, my whole body tense and ready to strike. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for since I was twelve years old, and now a part of me is glad I didn’t kill Tommy the other day, maybe he will be the one who finds him after I’ve finished with him. Then he can carry the burden of losing a parent.

I think about Skid as I cross the street and approach the door, I feel for him, he will never get the satisfaction that I’m about to feel. The fact I fully intended on making him suffer for what he did to his own brother’s old lady won’t be much comfort to Skid, but this is a dog eat dog world, and I’ve been the better hunter.

My hand reaches out and clasps the brass door knob, and I take one final breath before I open the door and unleash mayhem on the man who’s blood I’ve been thirsting for almost twenty years. The vibrating in my inside pocket stops me, and I let out a frustrated huff as I check to see who it is.

Maddy, what the fuck does she want?

“What is it?” I step aside and whisper down the phone, the blood in my veins pumping so fast I feel it in my temples.

“Brax, I think you should get here now.” Something’s off, I can tell from the shake in her voice, it could be Nyx, maybe Jessie. I swear if any fucker’s hurt them. “It’s Grace… I think she might be in trouble.”

A heavy weight drops from my throat to my chest and before I can register what I’m doing, I rush from the motel porch and cross the street toward where I’ve hidden my bike. I start it up and tear back toward the club without giving Tobias Saunders another thought. I’ve waited this long for him, I can wait a little more. What I can’t live with, is anything happening to Gracie.