“I wouldn’t have to.” I tipped my head back toward Grunt. “That’s why he’s here.”
“Grunt would never,” she started to say and he pulled his sidearm and pointed it right at her head.
“Don’t tell me what I’d never do. You don’t know me, bitch. Never did. Never will. Now, get to spilling your guts before I…” he cocked his head in an eerie way and gave her a grim smile. “Spill your guts,” he finished. I could tell by the panic in her eyes that she believed the vibe he was throwing her way. Honestly, he resembled a crazy, biker version of Death personified. Instead of a scythe, he brandished his beloved Colt M1911.
“Now, start telling us your story beginning with who deposited the baby making juice in your mother to create you,” I said.
“No need to be crude, James.”
“It’s Knuckles and I don’t give a fuck what you think of me or the way I say shit. Answer the questions or Grunt can take over.”
“Fine. Sorry,” she hustled to say. “My father is Nero Abruzzo.” Grunt and I knew that name, though we didn’t let it show. He was one of the fuckers who had invaded our town. “He’s head of the Morelli Outfit in Chicago since he took out Carmine Morelli eighteen years ago. That was when he sent my mother and I here to hide us out. He was afraid of retaliation and we were supposedly the targets.”
“So, daddy loves you enough to save you?” I asked.
She sneered in my general direction. “Daddy loved me enough to save me because he could use me later. No made man ever has use of a daughter unless as a bargaining chip or a trade deal.”
“He certainly didn’t sell you to me in a marriage contract, so fill us in on how he used you.”
“When I was in sophomore year, he paid a visit to us and explained that the Rivera Cartel found out who my mother and I were. They reached out to him with a deal. I was to get close to one of the motorcycle members, so I could keep tabs on the MC for them. It was going to be a long-game scenario. As in life-long. At first, I was devastated.” Her eyes shifted to Grunt, “But then I thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I had my pick of whoever I would marry from the MC, so long as they proved to be a a fountain of knowledge.”
“I never told you shit about the MC when we were married.”
“You didn’t. No. Everyone around you did. Your brothers forgot that they were talking in the open sometimes. Their women heard more at home and gossiped about it when we all got together, especially Roxy. She was the best source of intel, since she was so close to Baffle for all those years. Damn shame she couldn’t seal the deal when I told her how to get him into bed. She was supposed to end up pregnant.”
“Like you did?”
Her eyes narrowed as they came up to meet mine. “Yes, like I did. You weren’t anything special, James.”
“Knuckles,” I corrected again. The only woman I wanted using my given name was upstairs being taken care of by my MC family.
“The cartel was supposed to leave me alone as long as I provided information about the club, but they had eyes on the town somehow. When they found out that I married you and that you didn’t appear linked to the club at all, they came forme. I tried to tell them that your best friend was prospecting for the club and it was only a matter of time before you did as well. They didn’t believe me because they already knew that you and Jasper weren’t speaking to one another anymore. That time I disappeared on a shopping trip with my mom and came back to have a miscarriage hours later, that was when Marco Delgado picked me up, took me to a cabin an hour away in Arizona and raped me repeatedly. He wasn’t gentle. In fact, he made sure to do his worst because he wanted me to lose the baby, so you would leave me and I could get in bed with a member of the MC.”
“I didn’t leave you.”
“Yeah, that’s when they started pressuring me to leave you.”
“And you kept yapping at me to join the MC because we needed the financial security they’d bring.”
“They were going to kill you,” she admitted. I couldn’t tell if that part was the truth, but I had no doubt the rest of it was.
“And you were trying to save me by pushing me to join the Kings?”
“Yes, dammit. We may have started out in a bad way, but you grew on me. In a perfect world where I didn’t have the mafia breathing down my neck and the cartel pulling my strings, I think we could have had something real.”
I laughed. That was a bunch of bullshit if I ever heard it. “Finish the fucking story without all the sappy fucking lies, Simone.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “Marco liked what he had when he was abusing me. He would come get me every so often. It started again the day you went to talk to the club about the land and joining. The only thing that saved us both that day was that Marco got word that you were at the clubhouse. He still took his sweet time with me that weekend. That’s why I sent the text telling you I went to see Cassidy. He kept me there and refused to let me go until he had his fill. Over the years, he sometimesbrought a buddy with him. When I got pregnant the second time, just before you found out that I was sleeping with other people, it was likely Marco’s.”
“Jesus, Simone,” I huffed. “I knew I had been careful with you.”
“You had. If you remember, I insisted on that because I didn’t want to get pregnant again. But the real reason was because they were never careful with me and I didn’t want to run the risk of catching something and giving it to you.
A shiver ran down my spine at the thought. “I swear to you,” she continued. “I never wanted to be with them. I forced to do it.”
“Why didn’t you tell your dad? To be sure, he didn’t mean for you to be used a free pussy for the cartel whenever they felt like scratching an itch.”
“I tried once and he didn’t believe me. He’s good friends with Emiliano and he would never take a woman against her will like that, but he doesn’t know that his men would and did. Often,” she sniffed the last word.
