“What are you trying to say?” Devil asked, straddling
his bike. He saw one of his men, Butler, he believed, drive into the hospital.
A few months ago Butler had been one of the brothers who spent a great deal of
time at the bottom of a bottle and some coke rather than face whatever problems
he had. When Devil ordered rehab, Butler was one of the first men to take the
rehab and get better.
Butler pulled in front of him.
“I’m saying that I’m in talks with Ned. We’re going to
get a few of his men here within the week. The more men we have wanting to get
rid of Gonzalez the better we’ll be.”
“Okay, we’ll deal with it in a week. That what we
agreeing on, one week?”
“Yeah, I’m going to get Butch to put the women in a
secured location while we lure Gonzalez into the town hall. The aim is to have
minimal civilians present.”
“Eva’s been making plans then.”
“Yeah, she’s been having my balls, but I can’t argue
with her when I’m wrong.” Tiny sounded stressed even over the line.
“I’m going to start some retaliation here. I can’t let
shit like this stand. We’re agreeing on a week until the wedding. Don’t
worry,
we won’t be staying around too long.”
“Devil,” Tiny said.
“No, you called my women whores. I’m not going to just
forgive. We sort out this mess with Gonzalez, and then I suggest we go our
separate ways. I don’t agree with how you run the club or Alex’s involvement. Once
this is done, we’re done.”
Devil hung up the phone.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” Butler asked.
“You weren’t there when he called our women whores.
I’m not interested in what he’s got to say or do. I’ve got a club to run and
take care of.” Pocketing his cell phone, Devil took one last look at the
hospital. “Lexie’s alone in Judi’s room. Keep an eye on both of them. I don’t
want anything to happen to either of them. Protect them both as if they were
your own women.”
“I will. Judi and Lexie are our women. They’re
protected by the club. I’m not going to forget that.”
Devil agreed. “I’m going to join the rest of the men.”
He climbed onto his bike and kicked off.
Life was turning to shit faster than he liked. With
the danger this morning of losing his woman, Devil wasn’t in the best of moods.
Other people were going about their regular day getting ready for work, or
fucking their women. He was looking for a man to kill.
Thinking about Kayla, Devil gripped the handles of his
bike. He didn’t like or even love Kayla, but his woman did. Without Kayla, he
wouldn’t have met Lexie, and he did love that woman.
Today, he was going to do a hell of a lot more than
kill a man. He was going to set about taking down Gonzalez once and for all.
He drove toward the apartment block where he first met
Judi and discovered Lexie and his son. The buildings were not in a good
condition. In fact, on the outside they looked like a crumbling mess. Part of
the roofs on one of the buildings was bare. He hoped no one was being forced to
live in the top floor.
“This place is a fucking mess,” Death said.
“It’s a mess that we all need to deal with.” Devil cut
his engine as he looked toward the building. What he saw didn’t sit well with
him. Several girls, no older than fifteen, were sitting on the steps. Some of
them were dressed in chemises, displaying the goods, and some of them were
dressed as schoolgirls.
“What the fuck!” Death growled each word out as they
all took in the scene before them. This was worse than Judi.
No one seemed to care what was happening. The sight
before him sickened him. Seeing young girls, not even women, dressing to take
clients made Devil want to vomit. People called him a cradle snatcher because
of his love of Lexie. This was just plain fucking disgusting.
“This is what happened when Jerry got killed.” Devil
shook his head. He didn’t much like Jerry the pimp, but at least he didn’t go
for girls who weren’t legal. This was blatantly illegal, wrong, and Devil knew
he needed to put a stop to it. He didn’t care for anything legal, but he didn’t
agree to underage girls, or forced prostitution. “We did this,” Devil said.
“We didn’t do this,” Ripper said, disputing him.
“Who were the ones who transported girls? We were the
ones who did this. We brought them here and gave Gonzalez the perfect ground
for them to earn money because we didn’t stop it.” Devil’s stomach was turning
with every second that passed.
He watched one of the girls approach a car. She was
the one dressed as a schoolgirl. The man in the car was middle aged, wearing a
business suit.
“This has got to stop,” Devil said. Throwing his bike
to the ground, Devil pulled out the second gun he owned. Before driving to the
hospital, he’d taken the other gun out of the safe. He didn’t like going
without his firearms. They were what helped him to deal with the sudden threat
he faced.
Devil heard the other men behind him, preparing to
take out the fucker.
“How much will it be for a night?” the guy asked.
The closer Devil got, the more determined he was to
take this fucker out.
“It’s over two hundred,” the girl said, stammering
over her words. She was nothing more than a baby. He thought about Elizabeth.
The thought of his daughter having to do this to make
a living or because she was taken against her will filled him with rage. No
woman, no matter how old, should have to go through this kind of pain and
torture.
Loading the gun, he opened the passenger side of the
door and pressed the gun against the man’s temple. The girl jumped back as she
took in the whole crew.
“Scream and we’ll kill you,” Devil said, not meaning
the words but knowing he needed to keep her quiet.
The girl nodded. This was a touch of déjà vu for him. With
Judi he stopped the pimp from hurting her, and now he was stopping a man from
buying the girl’s services.
“Now, you sick fuck. You do know you’re buying the
services of a minor, right?” Devil asked, keeping the barrel of his gun pressed
to the man’s head.
“No, I didn’t.”
“I know you can’t be that stupid.”
“I was told I could come here for a bit of light
relief. No one mentioned the women were underage. Please, I swear, I didn’t
know her age.”
Running the tip of his gun down the man’s neck, Devil
laughed. “Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind.”
The car pulled away from the apartment block. The girl
stared at him with tears in her eyes.
“I needed to pull in enough money to stay here,” the
girl said.
“How old are you?” he asked.
She placed a hand on her hip giving him attitude. “I’m
eighteen.”
“Nice try, honey. You’re not a day older than sixteen.
Now tell me, how old are you?”
His men gathered around him ready to get the answer if
she wouldn’t give it to him. The girl licked her lips, looking nervous. She
wore too much makeup, and the attitude was starting to be replaced by fear.
“I just do what I have to do to survive.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen, and I’ll be sixteen in a few weeks. You
don’t understand. I’ve got to pull my weight otherwise they’ll give my spot to
another girl, and I don’t want to go working in the clubs. You can’t pick any
of the men you want, and you’ve got to have everyone. At least working here I
can take who I want.”
Her hands were shaking as she pushed some hair off her
face. Devil got a clear shot of the bruises along her arm. Underneath all the
makeup she wore, he imagined her face was bruised.
“Where’s your pimp?” Devil asked.
“Why?”
Was she going to protect him?
Devil wasn’t in the mood to start arguing with the
bitch.
“Look, you either tell me where he is, as otherwise
I’m going to start shooting. If he gets away and you survive he’s going to come
back for you.”
“He went out this morning. I was with him last night
so he could dish out his warning. He’s with Samantha on the third floor. Last
door on the right,” the girl said.
“Okay, don’t go anywhere.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because if you go somewhere then I won’t get the
chance to get you somewhere safe before someone else comes looking for you. If
you want to continue this line of work, then run.” Devil walked away. He didn’t
know if she was going to wait around or run.
Either way, the pimp was going to get it.
The women and girls moved out of the way. They were
bright enough to stay silent as Chaos Bleeds passed. Maybe it had something to
do with the guns they were holding, or it could be down to the fact no one
liked the pimp they were working for.
Walking up the stairs, Devil went in the direction of
where the girl said they should go. He wondered what her name was.
When they got to the third floor, Devil heard the
feminine cries of pain along with a masculine voice yelling.
“When a man tells you to suck his fucking dick, you
fucking suck his dick.”
Moving down the corridor, Devil heard the sound of
flesh on flesh.
“Please, stop.”
“A customer wants to take your ass without a fucking
rubber,
you bend down and beg him to fuck you.”
“This fucker needs ending.”
The door at the long corridor wasn’t even closed.
Whoever was in here knew he wouldn’t be disturbed. There was no fear of getting
caught or told not to do anything.
Pushing the door open, Devil was surprised it didn’t
creak on its hinges. Not moving from the doorway, Devil saw there was a single
ratty chair. The scent of cigarette smoke and stale sex hung in the air. In the
center of the room a large man was slapping a woman across the face. Blood ran
down from her nose, and one of her eyes was swollen shut. Her body was naked,
and he spotted more bruises from kicks and hits.
“You’re a fucking whore. You do what you’re told to
do. The only thing you fucking worship is cock and fucking me.” He landed
another blow.
Tired of seeing the woman being beaten, Devil aimed
and fired at the floor beside the pimp.
The pimp dropped the woman and turned around.
“Good, I’m glad I got your attention. I was starting
to get a little fucked off with waiting.”
“Who the
fuck are
you?” the
pimp asked. The girl started to crawl toward them. “I don’t fucking think so,
bitch. They want a slut for a gangbang,
then
you’re
fucking doing it.”
The woman could barely stand.
“You work for Gonzalez?” Devil asked.
“I work for my fucking self,” he said, growling.
“What’s your name?” Devil asked.
“What’s it to you?” The girl whimpered as he gripped
her hair, pulling her off the floor. This guy was fucking dead regardless of
what he did to Judi. Devil wasn’t going to allow this man to live with what
he’d seen.
“I’m a curious man. I want to know who’s working for
Gonzalez and selling underage girls,” Devil said.
“His name’s Donovan,” the girl said.
“What you
fucking say, bitch.”
“Devil, around his wrist, look,” Ripper said.
Focusing his gaze on the man’s wrist, he saw the
bracelet that Judi liked to wear. He didn’t know why she liked to wear it. She had
more than enough jewelry to replace it, but she enjoyed wearing it.
“Well, Donovan, this morning you paid a visit to a
woman for your boss.”
Donovan looked up at him as if he’d grown a second
head.
“That woman was once a working girl in these parts. I
bet that’s what he told you.”
“What’s it to you?”
He didn’t know how Ripper was containing his anger.
Devil knew if it was him, he’d be slaughtering this man.
“She’s a very important person to me and to the club.
Why did you go to her place today?”
“Gonzalez told me she was a whore who needed to be put
in her place.” Donovan released Samantha, finally seeing the danger he was in.
“What’s it got to do with you?”
“That woman is my fucking wife,” Ripper said, stepping
beside Devil. “She’s in a coma, and she’s not a fucking whore.”
Donovan started to walk backwards.
Samantha was smart. She pressed herself up against the
wall out of their way.
When Donovan made a run for it, Devil aimed at his
foot, catching the edge of his foot. The pimp went down screaming.
There was no satisfaction in the sound.
Grabbing a chair, Devil pulled it into the center of
the room.
“Get me some tape,” Devil said.
He was surprised when Samantha passed him the round of
tape.
Staring at her beaten face, he shook his head.