Page 24 of Found Through Fire

“Okay, so back to what I was saying before you decided to be a dick,” she continues in a scolding voice. “Do you know who you took?”

“Fuck. You. Cunt,” Roach huffs out, trying to breathe through the pain.

“It’s okay, take your time. I have all day for this. We can draw this out and make this really memorable for you,” Willow says. As she speaks, I can picture her pointed smirk that I have witnessed make full-grown men cower. She leans in toward his ear. “Can you keep a secret?” She giggles like a child with a fun toy. “I love it when they scream.”

She grabs another knife. I’ve seen her collection, but I never knew she took so many on jobs. This one is smaller than the rest and curved at the tip. “This one is my favorite, and only gets used on special occasions, like the nice china on Christmas. Did you know that my record for skinning someone alive is two hours? I mean, I may be racing the clock since you are losing so much blood already, but I feel like I can get through at least half before you slowly bleed out,” she says as she scrapes the knife against his arm. “I wanted to start with your bald head and work my way down, but head wounds bleed too much, and I don’t want to waste any more time than I need to. Hopefully you have a higher pain tolerance than the last guy I did this to. The pussy passed out from pain after fifteen minutes,” she says as she puts pressure on the knife and slowly starts to take a strip of skin from his arm.

“Fuck! Fine!” Roach says through the waves of pain. “We got a tip that your National Pres was going to drop by. We were hoping that he would be with his family when they went out. But the guy we had following said it was just his bitch and kid. We decided to take her anyways, since we didn’t think we’d get another chance,” he says through clenched teeth.

Out of nowhere, her fist flies, and the crunch of the bones in his face breaks the conversation as the blood starts flowing from his nose. “You really need to stop calling women ‘bitches.’ I feel like you should learn to read the room better.”

I can hear the annoyance in her voice growing. My chapter had to learn not to use that word in front of her.

“Who gave the tip?” Will asks in a bored tone, like she isn’t flaying some guy, and this is just a normal day for her.

“One of the girls from the club. She’s been fucking Pres since before he took over. She wants to be his ‘Ol Lady, but Pres will never let that happen. She’s old and used up by this point. He just keeps fucking her for a warm hole and info. I don’t know who it is, only the VP knows for sure,” Roach says when Will starts to move the knife towards his skin again.

“Good talk. Now usually, I would let you go to give a detailed description of the badass shit that I did here today, ya’ know, building up the fan base. But see, I went and fucked up and forgot my mask. So now, I have to kill everyone that was here today. But that’s okay, I got creative, so your MC can use their imagination,” she says with more excitement bleeding into her voice.

She leans over him and slits his throat and grabs the knife from his wrist, wiping the blood on his shirt before putting it back in the holster. She opens all the closed doors one by one. Finally, she opens one that has Sophia tied to a chair. She looks up and sees that it’s Will, and her eyes light up as she starts sobbing.

Will rushes to her and cuts the zip ties that are around her hands and feet, then gives her a hug, rubbing her back and letting her sob into her shirt. “It’s going to be okay, hon. I got you, and I’ll bring you back to your parents,” she says in a soft, soothing voice as she comforts Sophia.

“Okay, guys. I’ve got her and I’m heading back. Is the front door clear?” she asks her brothers.

“Yup, you’re good. The one that was doing patrols went back inside before you started killing everyone. You’re good to go to the bike,” her brother says over the audio. “And don’t forget your fuckin’ shoes!” he quickly adds as Will goes to turn off the bodycam, and the screen turns black. All I can think is that I have to make sure we up her Christmas presents this year.

CHAPTER 9

FLAME

Ithink I’ve found my soul mate. I’m a little freaked out and turned on at the same time. The video never showed her face, but watching her murder a shit ton of people and torture someone while speaking in the sexiest voice that I have ever heard is making me feel all tingly. I’ve only seen her face from a distance when Smoke was ripping our dads a new one and put the family pictures on the desk. I wish I would’ve picked up the picture and studied the face of my dream woman. I wonder if it would sound weird if I asked Smoke to see the picture again and keep the video to show our future kids when they ask how I met their mother.

Everyone thinks that I don’t want to take an ‘Ol Lady. I do, but after losing my mom, I need to make sure that the woman I claim will be tough enough for this life. Someone that I don’t have to shelter from the world because she already knows how fucked up it is.

That’s why I mostly fuck club girls. They know “the life” and signed up for it. There is no sugar-coating shit, and they know to stay the fuck out of club business. My mom’s death wasn’t club related, but it did show me how easy it is to lose someone for noreason at all. Sprinkle that on top of the danger of our world, and it’s like tempting fate for them to be taken away from you.

The room is still silent as the other guys try to put together all of the puzzle pieces. I look over at Griz. The daughter that he never knew about was one of the most in-demand contract killers in our world, and he had no idea. He just knew about the cunt of a daughter that he raised with Andrea.

Maggie has been trying to get me to fuck her since we were teenagers. I knew how her and her mom treated Smoke, so I hated her on principle. Smoke is my best friend, and I will always have his back. I also know she is bat shit crazy, and I would rather take my chances with a club girl who knows the score instead of a stage-five clinger like her. Not to mention the drama and expectations of fucking a Brother’s daughter.

It looks like all of the color has drained from Griz’s face. He’s just looking at the now-blank screen where my future wife gave the performance of a lifetime. I try to decide if stalking her and making her fall in love with me would be a clear violation of “bro-code” or just a frowned-upon situation. Technically, Smoke didn’t know he had another sister two days ago, so I feel like this is a gray area.

“She’s yours, Griz?” Buck asks into the quiet room with awe in his voice, taking me out of my moral dilemma. I get that she is amazing, but he sounds too interested in my soon-to-be woman. I take a mental note to keep an eye on him when I bring her around the club.

“I never knew about her,” Griz says with an irritated tone. I’m not sure if he is pissed that he doesn’t get to take credit for this beautiful creature or if he’s upset about missing her life so far. Probably the first, because he would have to give a shit about his family for the second. He chose the club over his kids. The club is a main part of life for all of us, but you don’t just drop your kids because of it.

“She moved to town with her family a few months ago. My chapter is close to them, and her dad just moved his entire mercenary business outside of town. I was going to set up a meeting before everything went to shit,” Blitz explains, giving Red a pointed look.

That is something that should have been on our radar. More and more businesses are moving here from the surrounding cities, taking advantage of the cheaper real estate. It’s one thing for us to not notice new mom-and-pop shops coming to town, but to miss a mercenary operation moving in on our territory shows how much the current officers have been dropping the ball.

“Is Willow working for her dad?” Smoke asks, re-directing Blitz’s focus from my dad to him. He looks hesitant to answer, not wanting to share too much about these people that he clearly considers family. Fuck, from everything he said, this is the second time that she saved them. He is trying to walk the line of staying loyal to his family in the MC and his one outside of it.

“She doesn’t work for him. She will take some jobs when the situation calls for it, but she calls this her ‘freelancing.’ She prefers to work alone—says it gives her ‘creative liberties.’ She has other jobs that she does on a regular basis.” You can hear the fondness in his tone, which is freaking me out a little bit. Blitz is a cold asshole with no emotions. The guy shot a brother in the foot during Church when he made a comment about making Jaz a club girl so they could all take a turn. He doesn’t fuck around when it comes to the people that he cares about. I have seen him with his wife and kid, but never seen him show affection for someone outside of that.

My baby has everyone wrapped around her finger. Wait ‘till she figures out we are in love. But now, I see that I will have to go through a dad that has a mercenary business and my NationalPres to get her. Fuck! This could take a minute. I’m going to have to plan this out for once.

“We will arrange a meeting with Willow and her dad. Set some expectations for them working in our territory,” Red says in his tone that leaves no room for argument. His statement makes Blitz look at him with a raised eyebrow.