Nine

Ana

I can’t move. It’s like I’m frozen in time, everything’s still going on around me but all I can do is watch as my mama falls to the floor, her blood splattering those around her. My mama. Dead. Shot with a single bullet.

I’m numb. I don’t think I believe what I’m seeing, maybe I’m just dreaming. That’s why I can’t move. I’m dreaming. But as I look back over at the bar, at the crowd of people surrounding my mama… My mama’s dead…?

I feel my knees give way beneath me, feel the scream rise up from the pit of my belly, spilling out of me as I sink to the floor. But almost as fast as I fell I feel hands hook under my arms, hauling me to my feet, dragging me up. Dragging me away… no! I need to be with my mama…

I turn my head. The man dragging me away is tall and strong with dark, dark eyes that fill me with a fear I can’t keep down, and I try to scream again but he slaps a hand over my mouth, slams me back against the wall, I don’t even know if I’m scared anymore. I think what I’m feeling now has gone way beyond fear.

I try to kick out, try to fight, but a second man appears: smacks me hard across the face as the other one keeps me pinned against the wall. I close my eyes, the pain in my jaw is so intense I can barely breathe, and the smell of them – whoever they are – it’s making me sick to my stomach.

They’re talking to each other, but their voices are so low I can’t make out what they’re saying, and then they laugh. A sound which fills me with a new kind of fear. Tears burn my cheeks, I’m scared, I’m so scared, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t… But the second I feel fingers writhe at the zipper on my jeans, I know I have to fight this, so I try to kick out again, try to scream, but it’s a reaction that’s met with a punch to the gut that knocks the breath right out of me.

I just want it to end now.

I want to be with my mama…

Joel

She falls to the floor, blood pumping from her chest, and I reach behind me, draw my gun, looking around for the bastards who saw fit to gate-crash our party. The screams almost drown out the gunfire, the roar of bikes outside, the battle call of our brothers, it’s all-out fucking war now.

I glance over at Sofia’s motionless body. Freja and Dag are beside her, they’re dealing with it. I have no idea where Ana is. Ana… Shit! I’m trying to find her but it’s fucking chaos in here. Where the hell is Skip? He isn’t with Sofia. Not anymore. And then I see him, hunkered down by the door, his head bowed. He’s covered in blood, it’s dripping from his fingertips, pooling around his feet, and I don’t know how much of that is his …

“Hey. Skip. Look at me, brother.”

He raises his head: glances briefly at me before turning away. “It should’ve been me, Joel. She just got in the way. It should’ve been me...”

That’s all he says, his gaze focused on Kasper and a number of our brothers as they check the yard over. It seems quiet out there now, but we trust no one, and that gate – the gate to the compound, that should’ve been closed. We should’ve kept it closed…

Skip hauls himself to his feet, pulls a cigarette from his pocket and lights up, drawing deep. “I couldn’t save her, Joel. I didn’t see it coming. She was in my fucking arms and I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t protect her.”

I don’t know what to say. I don’t even know if Sofia was the only casualty, did those assholes cost us men, too?

“Everything seems okay out there.” Kasper stops to catch his breath, glancing back behind him, just to make sure. “I think they just wanted to warn us.”

“They got Sofia.”

Kasper frowns, and then it dawns on him, the reality of what’s just happened here. “ Shit …! Where’s Ana?”

The scream rises above any other noise still filling the clubhouse. A wail so brutal it fills me with a coldness even I’ve rarely felt, and then it stops, just like that. And I grip my gun tighter as I make my way through the carnage to the back of the clubhouse, and that’s when I see her. Ana. When I see the Blackhawk patches on the back of their kuts as they paw at her, as she struggles to free herself, an action that’s met with a swipe to the side of her face so hard it knocks her head right back. And I don’t miss a beat, firing one shot at the bastard who’s got his hand between her legs, and another at the asshole behind her, felling them each with a single bullet, they had no time to react. They fall in a heap at her feet and I kick their bodies away like the sacks of crap they are, pull up her jeans and gently take her in my arms. She’s cold and taut, her body freezing up as I hold her, and when I look at her face it’s battered and bruised, those pieces of shit messed her up real bad.

“It’s okay,” I whisper, even though it’s so far from that. For her. We can deal with this crap, it’s our world, we play by these fucked-up rules. She doesn’t. She shouldn’t have had to. What the fuck was she thinking, coming here? “I’ve got you. Nothing’s going to happen to you now.”

I look behind me, beckoning Freja and Elise over.

“Take her into one of the rooms out back. Make sure someone stays with her.”

I carefully hand Ana over and make my way back to Skip and Kasper. They’ve been joined by Rik now. The police are here, and they’ll want answers, so this – this is where Rik proves his loyalty to us. This is where he earns his Vikings pay check: does the job we pay him to do.

“We’re all clear now,” Kasper tells me, and I nod, jerking my head back.

“Two bodies back there. Hawks.”

Rik looks at me. “You shot them?”

“Not sure they were up for negotiating.”

“Did you shoot them, Joel?”

“They were about to rape someone. Already messed her face up, you think I was just gonna stand there and let them kill her? They got what they deserved. We look after our own, we don’t tolerate assholes coming in here, taking what isn’t theirs.”

“Jesus, Joel…”

“They killed an innocent woman, Rik. And then they beat up her daughter, on our territory. In front of us. We don’t let that shit go, and you know that. You know that.”

Skip’s head shoots around to look at me, his eyes narrowing. “They tried to rape Ana?”

“Got the bastards just as they were about to stick their filthy fucking dicks in her. She’s out back. Freja and Elise are cleaning her up.”

“I’ll have to talk to her,” Rik sighs, looking around the clubhouse. Tables are overturned, smashed glass covers the floor, the smell of gunfire hangs heavy in the air. It’s nothing we’re not used to. And our law-enforcement man, he’s just going to have to get used to this shit, too. It’s not like he’s never seen it before. He’s just never been a part of it in this way, until now. “Is she up for that?”

“Leave her,” Skip instructs.

Rik frowns. “I will have to talk to her, Skip.”

“I said, leave her. We’ll deal with this, our way.”

“I can’t let you do that–”

“Do you remember anything about our last conversation, Rik?”

“Officers are already asking questions–”

“And we’ll be answering those questions the same way we always do when this happens. What you need to do is make sure we don’t get shit for defending ourselves. You still want to bring the Blackhawks down? You go for it, but believe me, Superintendent, we’ll be doing everything in our power to make sure that happens, too. And in this world, our power is way more forceful than yours.”

“Skip… Jesus! Come on…”

Skip strides off, heading toward the back of the clubhouse, and I step in front of Rik. I think we’re done now.

“We’ll take it from here.”

Rik bows his head, rubs the back of his neck before beckoning over the armed officers he brought with him. And then he looks at me, but his expression says it all. He knows the score. He knows what he signed up for. And he’s in way too deep to climb out now.

“None of your men died tonight, Joel. An innocent woman did. And just ’cause you got two of the bastards don’t think that’s going to help her daughter. She needs professional help, to deal with this…”

“She’ll get all the help she needs.”

He narrows his eyes. “How?”

“We’ll make sure she’s okay.”

“And that’s all I’m getting, huh?” He looks at me, but he knows I’m not even going to respond to that.

“Okay,” Rik sighs, dropping his head for a couple of beats. “Look, I’ve got to go back to the station, make out like this is all being sorted…”

“You know the deal. You know exactly why you came on board. And you know what’ll happen if you mess this up.”

He narrows his eyes as they once more meet mine. “You threatening me?”

“Do your job, Rik. And leave us to do ours.”

I step back, watch as he and the armed officers leave the clubhouse. And then I look at Kasper, jerk my head toward the door and Kasper follows them. It’s done. The necessary police visit is over. But the shit that went down tonight, that’s far from over. Rik wants the Blackhawks taken down just as much as we do, and I got a feeling that tonight those assholes just signed their own death warrant.