Angel
"We were always meant to say goodbye."
—-
Riley had been gone for days again. I wasn't surprised, even a little bit. I'd say I was close to giving up on her but everyone would know it was a fucking lie. That girl was my weakness.
"Just when I thought we would have her back," Wolf muttered at the breakfast table, drinking his coffee moodily, days after we last saw her. No one else seemed to have even suspected that the dead McKenna sister was pregnant. And It wasn't my place to say anything. Not at all.
A text dinged on Wolf's phone. I was next to him and could just barely see the screen. It said: Riley (Wolfpack): we need to talk. About Brynn.
Wolf grimaced, looking torn. He shoved the phone in the pocket of his VP cut, "Been summoned, man." I said nothing as he left. She didn't want me. I thought about asking if he needed back up but I didn't have the energy for the bullshit.
I carried on with my day, going through the motions, working at the garage for Wolf. It was around 7pm before Trace came and got me.
"Let's talk."
I scooted from under the engine of one of the vans that had been sounding funny. I followed him obediently. Trace needed me. I had a purpose.
He led me towards the lit fire pit. No one was around except Killer and Maven, chasing after each other. I smiled for the first time today, watching the dogs play. I sat down in an old lawn chair.
Trace threw a log on the fire, taking a seat next to me and placing his hands in front of him in a steeple motion. "I haven't heard back any of the information that I baited for the rat."
My eyes wandered up to his, slowly lighting a joint in the process. I didn't know what to do with my hands, and I was nervous. This wasn't good news for the club. At all.
"Alright..." what was he thinking?
"I think the only way we'll find out is if we pick Rage up again." I stared up at Trace, questioningly.
"And still let him go this time?" I asked, exhaling smoke slowly. It was no secret I wanted to kill him.
Trace sighed, taking the joint from me and puffing on it. "I've been thinking. I'm about at my wit's end with all of this. What we've been planning is huge. Detrimental, if it goes wrong. Fantastic for the club if it goes right. But a rat in the club will only make it wrong..." I nodded at him, letting him know I was with his train of thought. "So we need to know before the big hit. We can't afford for that mission to get fucked up."
I nodded again at him. "I agree completely. I'll find him tonight." Then I was walking away and gone.
-
Rage was expecting me. He sat calmly in his living room, puffing on a blunt. Passed out girls all around him, on the couch, on the floors. What did Riley ever see in him?
"Took you long enough. Maybe I'll actually kill her next time."
I shot him in the leg with my Smith & Wesson, then gagged him, tied him up and threw him in a van, all on my own. It almost felt better that way. I went through the motions, hauling him into the warehouse. I shot off a text, ready to get to it.
I tied him up to the chair in the play room, alone with him. Back up would be here soon enough.
"Finally smell me on her now, Angel, eh? Man enough to do something about it?" Rage mocked, his leg bleeding all over my floor.
"What do you know about being a man?" I asked as Wolf, Wes, and Kane arrived to the warehouse.
"Took y'all long enough to get me again." Rage grinned at Wolf. Wolf snapped completely and punched him.
"Shut the fuck up." Another punch.
Rage just smiled at my VP.
"Is it true?! Brynn was pregnant when y'all killed her!?" God, no leading up to it then. Riley must have told him. Just Air the Reaper dirty laundry to Wes and Kane, why not? I sighed heavily. Kane shook his head and turned away as Wes stared at me with wide eyes, rocking back on his heels in shock. Trace still didn't know then.
Rage paused, genuinely surprised at Wolf's questions. "Honestly.. I thought Riley would be the first to ask me. Has she known all this time?" His eyes danced, calculating, thinking over their every interaction.
Rage was taken aback.
"She doesn't know fucking shit, Bastard." I spoke clearly, covering for her. Protecting her. Fuck.
Rage nodded once, closing his eyes. "Guess you think I have answers, then."
"Damn right, we do." Wolf huffed, grabbing a nail gun and shooting his left bicep. Rage groaned but didn't scream. Wolf continued, determined to nail him to the metal chair. I just watched, wondering when he'd pass out from blood loss. What a fucking beast.
"What is it you think I know!?" Rage screamed, his arm bleeding all over the place.
Wolf smiled slowly, showing off his nickname. "I know you know something, motherfucker."
"You think I'm high up on the Raging Bastard's list for sharing information? Because I'm not. Even as VP and sergeant-at-arms, they don't respect me. Just ask Ri." He smirked tiredly. Oh, We were just getting started.
Wolf began punching him. So much that eventually I had to hold him back.
"Fuck dude. Remember why we're here." I muttered.
"No! Fuck this piece of shit! All our problems begin and end with you!" Wolf played his part so well I almost believed him.
"Yeah? Like your gun suppliers being so weak you gotta run to fucking South Carolina to the Tomahawks to get any money?" Rage spat. That was so far from the truth that it took me a moment to register it's importance. Bingo, looks like our rat gave Rage some answers.
"The fuck you going on about now bitch?" Wolf huffed, trying to swing for him again before Wes grabbed him.
"Hey now. Let's just talk to Prez before we kill him." Wolf snarled at Wes, irritated. Wes knew the plan.
Kane picked up a bat, nodding to Wes, "I got this." Wes walked out, shaking his head and muttering the whole way.
"Famous last words." Rage rolled his eyes to Kane.
Kane smiled confidently. "Nah, man. I never lose a fight. Just ask Grizz."
Rage snarled at that, watching him and the bat expectantly. "Fuck Grizzly."
"Ya. What's it gonna be, big shot? I'm open to suggestions." Kane wound up, tapping the bat on the concrete floor. It's metallic clink echoed.
Rage smirked and said "your mama."
Kane smiled back. "Real original," before he slammed the bat into his abdomen. Over and over. Rage grunted, grinding his teeth and closing his eyes. Kane continued at it, blowing out both of his knees and jaw. Over and over. Rage made no sound and Kane just stared at his slumped body, shaking his head.
Kane slowly backed up, turning towards me. "Unless you want me to kill him, I'm not sure what else I have. I would love to kill him though." Kane muttered in my ear. He gritted his teeth, fuming as he stared back at Rage.
I stared into his eyes, seeing the truth in them. I nodded once, slapping him on the back. This was my brother, as much as we didn't know each other.
"It's all good man." I winked as Kane started to leave.
"Guess this means you lost, man." Rage rasped out to Kane. Kane stopped walking. He froze completely, clenching his fists a few times before continuing on.
"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" Wolf huffed, grabbing a water bucket and rag to waterboard Rage. He carried on for an hour.
I just watched, detached. Thinking that we already got our information about the rat, but no answers on Brynn.
I watched as Rage was made to think he was drowning. He didn't and wasn't, of course. That was the art of torture. But still.
"I got some things I'll try. Can you leave us?" I asked, not really asking. I was the sargeant-at-arms. I tortured. Wolf led. I was more equipped.
Wolf frowned but sighed and left. He paused at the garage doors, turning to face us. "Goodbye motherfucker. I'll see you in hell."
"Alone, at last." Rage tried to speak after a few minutes, unfazed by Wolf's exit. His voice was weak, his eyes rolling back in his head. He was bleeding all over the damn place.
"What's it gonna take for you to be honest?" I asked, walking close to him.
"Honest?" Rage rasped out. "I'm always honest."
I had to laugh at that. "That right?" I drawled out. "What's your obsession with Riley, then?"
Rage bit his lip, seeming to be thinking on it. "No idea. As soon as I set eyes on her, she was always fucking mine. I killed waiters, strippers, other Bastards, civilians for even looking at her. Reaper or not. Killed so many people, Angel."
My mind spun, slightly horrified. "It really is an obsession, then?"
Rage smirked, shaking his head. "The worst kind." He paused, blinking at me. "The first night you fucked her, I thought I would lose my shit. I thought i'd kill her. But I strangled the whore I was with, beat up a few of the strippers at my club, shot an officer." His eyes searched the floor. "None of it made me feel any better, either."
I frowned, unnerved. He had that affect on me. "Why not me?"
Rage laughed at that, happily. "Our time will come, brother."
"You think so? Who's to say it isn't tonight?" I asked, grabbing a pair of large pliers from the work bench near the wall.
Rage shook his head, blood flying about everywhere. "You and I both know it's not tonight. Nahhh.." Rage exhaled slowly, bitterly. "Something bigger is coming. I can feel it in the wind." Rage's eyes twinkled up at me, so intelligent.
"The wind, huh?" I straightened the arm that Wolf had put at least 50 nails in, inspecting it.
"I mean, no one from my club will even look at me anymore. Not that I mind much, they're all so fucking ugly." I grabbed his hand, holding it in mine like an intimate embrace.
"Is that right? Couldn't imagine why." Rage laughed at that, not able to move his hand away from me at all. He tried though, grunting through his teeth, frustrated. He slammed his head back in the chair in defeat, wrenching his eyes shut at my touch.
I looked at his fingers, debating. "Maybe it's because you're so obsessed with a Reaper bitch...that can't sit well."
Rage cracked his neck loudly. "I've always been obsessed with a Reaper bitch, that's just who I am."
"Why's that then, Rage? What's it about Riley that you can't stop thinking of?" A few things came to mind, but I wasn't crazy.
Rage hummed happily. "All our memories are haunted. Riley's been a shell of the firecracker she was when her sister was alive." He had the grace to look sorry.
"You have a part in that shit?"
"I didn't want us to burn out...I never wanted to hurt her." His eyes were far away.
"Then what happened?" I spoke gently, trying to let him live out the memories. I felt so close to the answers I could scream.
"The other McKenna sister was a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure the Reapers don't mention her much. If I was a storm, then she was a hurricane. A lot of people sighed in relief at her death." Rage spoke softly.
"Who got her pregnant?"
Rage clammed up, shaking his head. "I don't know."
"You're a terrible fucking liar." I snapped his pointer finger off at the knuckle with the pliers, watching as it spurted blood and twitched on the floor.
I grinned, licking my lips and moving to the middle finger. "You think I'm fucking stupid?" I snapped off the middle finger at the knuckle, laughing softly.
"Oh Rage. How good of a lover can you be without fingers?" I chopped the ring and pinky finger off in quick succession, my hatred for him bubbling up.
"It's all in in the tongue, sweetie." Rage stuck his tongue out at me, shaking it suggestively, unbothered that he lost all the fingers on his left hand. He never screamed.
"That's the only reason you're alive." I whispered menacingly close to his face. His pupils were so blown out it looked like he was high.
My lips hovered over his face, crawling over his skin sensually. "No no no. I think maybe you're the Bastard that got Brynn pregnant. If not you, Grizzly or Shooter. Couldn't have had Riley find out though, could you? She was so close to you all. And Riley's so sweet, but she was never all in with you. Even I know that. So when you found another McKenna who was, your dick was hard as stone, right? So hard."
Rage began to hyperventilate so fast that I knew I was close to the truth.
"Gotta wrap it, Rage." I grunted, dousing his body with gasoline and lighting it on fire so fast that he never saw it coming. I was the Reaper's Angel, but I was born with the name Ash for a reason.