Page 48 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
“This hot nerd with just-right-for-us titties and her head in some kind of medical textbook,” Hyena answers before I can. “And maybe there were other roadhouse girls milling around, waiting for the place to open. But all I saw was her. And when I looked over at Vampire and Des-E, they were staring at her too. She had all of us entranced at first sight. But I asked them anyway, ‘Her?” And Vampire and Des-E were like, ‘Hell, yeah. Her.’ So I rocked up to her to shoot our shot, and she looked up at me with these pretty smart-girl brown eyes. And there was this electricity like nothing I’d ever felt before buzzing between us. I had to ask for her name. But get this, she answered, “My name’s not open until six pm. Then maybe it will change to something else, depending on how far I get in this chapter.’”
Hyena chuckles, like me being rude is his fondest memory. “So, bet, I waited there and watched her study until six pm. She kept on peeping up at me as I stared. But when I asked her for her name again at six on the dot, she said, ‘You don’t need that. I’m never going upstairs with you.’ Then she asked if I wanted something to drink. I ordered three beers, and there was nobody else there yet, so we got to talking. She was as smart as she looked, and she had opinions that weren’t stupid or directly tied to the size of her tip. The way we were vibing. I’m telling you, Doc.”
He lays a hand on his chest and jerks back like he was hit with Cupid’s arrow. “I was practically panting like a dog. And she looked real intrigued when I pointed out Vampire and Des-E and asked her if she’d be willing to come upstairs with three guys who would make sure she had a damn good time. But then she said, 'Nah, I’m on Year One of a five-year plan, and you’re not on my checklist.’”
That he remembers me and our conversation so vividly sets my heart to pounding. Hyena shakes his head disbelievingly at me.
“She turned us down cold! That time and every other time I asked her out for the next four years straight…until one day, she finally called me, and less than twenty-four hours later, she asked us—and I’m really not kidding when I say this—to take her virginity.”
Hyena grins and sits up on his elbows, like he’s telling the story of winning the Mega-Millions lotto. “I was, like, to Des-E and Vampire, this girl was all about her books, sure. But she saved herself. For us. She could have chosen anybody to give that gift to. But we were the lucky bastards she picked. And she was everything I imagined she’d be and more. Even let me take care of her and show somebody my nurturing side. For two whole weeks, I was on cloud nine, thinking Vengeance finally got our perfect woman.”
Hyena’s smile dims. “But then, after asking us to take our relationship to the next level, she left. That’s what I think happened. Des-E, your turn.”
I’ll admit, I was on the edge of my proverbial seat listening to his story. And the ending punches me in the gut.
But I’m not sure why he’s telling me this, and before I can ask, Des-E stretches out beside me on the other side of the bed.
“My story doesn’t have any religion or abuse. I mean, sure, I’m Catholic. But church was just something we did on Sundays when crime took the day off,” he tells me. “I had a big family that all came up together in this Colombian village back in the seventies and eighties, during the height of the cocaine craze, and that’s what they built the family business on. By the time I was born, they had moved their operation to the States. But we still stayed together on this compound—it was safer that way. Anyway, that was the life I was born into. I was never allowed to go outside where we lived. My family was afraid I’d get kidnapped, or worse, if I did. They taught me to shoot and retaliate at an early age. But I had less freedom than kids who grew up legit in the suburbs. They monitored everything I did.”
Des-E shakes his head. “Let me tell you, mami, they were pissed when I joined the Army—same as Hyena, just a couple of months after getting my diploma. But there was nothing they could do about it.”
Des-E shrugs. “Anyway, my story’s the same as Hyena’s. Did my time in the Army. Thanks to Vampire, I didn’t die. Instead of joining my family’s business, I became a Reaper. My fam still hasn’t forgiven me for that. And they for real don’t approve of this brotherhood I’ve got going with Vampire and Hyena. That would never fly with them.”
