TORTURE ME_ The Bandits MC(144)
She certainly had no business hanging around while we beat and tortured someone for information on a rival operation. This wasn’t the life for someone like her, and I knew that if I wanted to make it work with her, I’d have to make some sort of adjustment in my life to accommodate her.
When we pulled up to the garage, it was already dark. My stomach was in knots from worrying about Julia and our future.
“Be careful with her,” Angelo warned again as we climbed out of the SUV.
“Yeah, I learned my lesson last time, I think. I’m going to do what I can to keep this one away from what’s going down in a couple of days,” I told him as we walked upstairs to the clubhouse.
I started for the stairs to the third floor to get Julia, but Ricky put a hand on my chest.
“Hold on, bro. First, let’s celebrate, just the five of us. Just the kings, bro.”
“You got it.” I smiled at him.
“Man, we’re about to be back on top,” Juarez bragged as we walked over to the bar at the far end of the room.
“Yes, sir, the Kings of Hell will be the Kings of Chicago again,” Chase added.
Ricky went around behind the bar and grabbed beers for everyone, sliding the bottles across the bar. Then he grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and poured shots for everyone.
“Alright,” I said, standing up from my barstool with my shot glass raised. “Here’s to the Kings, baby.”
The other guys held their shot glasses up to mine and uttered words to agree with me before we all downed our shots. There was something different about the burn of a shot on the verge of something big like what we were about to do.
We sat and drank and talked. We reminisced.
“Hey, Gage, remember how much fun we used to have, bro?” Ricky asked me from behind the bar.
“Oh, man, I remember going down and starting bar fights at Grant’s. I’d hit someone with a bottle and duck when they turned around. By the time the fight really got going, I’d be out the door. I wouldn’t even be involved. The law would get called out every time,” I recalled, laughing.
“Yeah, that’s why they shut the place down, bro,” Chase said bitterly.
“Hell, man, who needs a bar now? We just come up here and get whatever the hell we want, and the club pays for it,” Juarez said, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder and taking another swig from his bottle.
“Man, it used to be so much fun before all this business shit,” I mused. “But I can’t really complain, because the business side is what buys us alcohol, pays for this place, pays for my place, and keeps us going, right?”
“I’ll drink to that,” Angelo said, holding his bottle up to mine.
It was nice to see the guys laughing and joking around after all the seriousness lately. We’d been pushing to get back on top of things, especially to get back on top of Ivan and his operation.
Ivan was dealing in guns, drugs, and a lot of things we really didn’t want on our streets. There were rumors that he dabbled in human trafficking, bringing poor Russian girls over and setting them up with wealthy American men. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really a mail-order bride racket. It was slavery and prostitution. We didn’t need that.
We had been working so hard at getting back on top that we hadn’t really taken any time to enjoy ourselves in the meantime. Talking about the days when the four of us didn’t have to worry about any of the real responsibilities of the MC reminded me of why we’d gotten involved in the first place.
“Hey, Ricky, pour us another round of shots, bro,” I said, leaning across the bar.
When he passed them around, I stood up again, and we all held our glasses up.
“Guys, here’s to the good times. They’re coming back around again. You have my word. The good times will roll again soon enough. To the Kings of Hell!”
The guys shouted after me, “The Kings of Hell,” as we all took our shots.
And that’s the last shot, I told myself. I had other things I wanted to do to celebrate our upcoming victory over Ivan. My desire was already stirring for sexy little Julia and her tight little body with all its curves in the right places.
I imagined going upstairs and finding her still waiting for me on the bed. I could see my tattooed hands pulling her clothes off, revealing her fair, unmarked flesh. I took a sip of my beer, imagining that the tip of the bottle was really one of her pink little nipples. I sucked the beer down, draining my bottle as I pulled her hardening flesh into my mouth and cupped the breast around it.
I slammed my bottle on the bar.