“What abuse?” Chino asks as he bends down to her, eager for any morsel of information about what Genni endured, just to add it to his baggage of guilt. He closes the few feet between them and I cringe as I imagine her somehow ripping out of those ropes to gouge his eyes out.
“Fuck you!” she snaps and yanks on the ropes. I might’ve tied them too tight, but I didn’t have a choice when she was kneeing my balls and busting open Quinton’s lip. “Once I get out of these, I’m killing you both.”
I don’t doubt her for a second. My balls are still aching from her first attack. “We want to make sure Genni is safe,” I explain. “My brother is unstable and dangerous—”
“Looks like he was born with all the balls,” she grinds out, making me chuckle again.
“You’re like a raging pitbull,” Chino says with admiration. He shakes his head and falls into the chair beside me, his arms dangling over the sides as he drops his bloodied rag to the floor.
“Do you think for one second that Malik Charles will trade the woman he obviously loves for me?” she finally asks. There’s still a fight left in her eyes, but she’s calmed down enough to speak logically.
“He loves her?” I perk up at that and prop my elbows on my knees. “Did he say that?”
“I don’t know, I don’t follow them around all damn day and night. If he’s said it to her or not makes no fucking difference, I can see it. Same goes for my brother, who will right now be frantically searching for me while he packs his big ol’ gun. The scope on it is real sensitive and I hear he’s real meticulous about where he aims. He likes it spot-on dead center of the forehead.” Delia gives us a chilling grin as she bites into her lip, as if she’s hiding an explosive secret.
“Sorry to break it to you, but you’re not in the Steel Dragons compound,” I tell her. “You’re in a—”
“Undisclosed location?” she spits out and then laughs, the sound echoing off the walls around us. “Do you think this is something my brother has never prepared for? Tell me, are your cellphones on?”
My mouth runs dry as Chino curses and scrambles to grab his cell from the pocket of his cut. We sent a message to Diego’s cell phone, letting him know we had his sister and that she was safe, but in exchange, we wanted Genni back.
“There’s no way Diego has equipment to track our phones, right?” Chino asks as he powers down his cell and glares at Delia. I shrug and watch the girl in front of me, wondering if she had a hand in making Genni as strong as she is now. I’m not too worried about being tracked, I’m hoping to bring them here.
“Are you serious?” Delia scoffs. “You’re worried about Diego and Malik, but have you even stopped to think about V? She sent me out to get her favorite pastries today, and you guys have fucked with that. You may think your brother is unhinged”—she gives me a pointed look,—“and that my brother is equally disturbing with his rifle, but you two have no idea what she’s become. Once she figures out that you took meandthere are no pastries, you’re dead.”
“Did you train her?” I ask as I lean forward in my seat. “Can you tell me a little about what she’s like now? Before her father was murdered, I remember her as tough but soft, if that makes sense.” I know I’m rambling, but the more I talk, the more Delia’s eyes soften. I can feel Chino’s stare on the side of my face, soaking in every bit of information about the girl I know he loves but lost. “She was already training before that happened, and at the time, I knew someone was hurting her. I didn’t fight hard enough to find out who.” It’s almost like therapy as I admit these things to Diego’s sister, her body slowly relaxing into the chair.
“I did train her.” She gives me a brief nod, her voice still hard and laced with anger. “Until she surpassed me. She learned pretty fast, but most people do when they have vengeance on their mind. Do you know she asked me how to kill someone?” Her eyes narrow as she looks between me and Chino. “That’s how angry she was… still is. So the fact that you’ve taken me, hoping to get her back is just fucking selfish. You knew she was being hurt, but yet you want to put her back into that situation? You claim to care about her, but all I’m hearing and seeing is the opposite. How do I know you two aren’t the ones who were hurting her?”
“I did hurt her,” Chino admits as he shoves himself out of the chair. “I didn’t put my hands on her, but what I did was worse.”
“I’d say we got a few hours to talk it through before my brother gets here,” she offers and I nearly choke on another laugh. I think I like this one.
“I’m in a fucking club, you know? I swore my life to be loyal and dedicated to it. You get what I’m saying because your brother is in one,” Chino continues as he paces in front of Delia’s chair, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. This is the clearest I’ve seen him in months, and the skinniest. I think if he continued on the path he was on, he’d soon be in a grave next to his father. “Then she was there and suddenly she wasn’t my best friend’s annoying little sister anymore. Genni became something I craved, but could never have, and for a few moments, I pretended she was mine. I know I can never reverse the damage I’ve done, but I just want to tell her I’m sorry.”
“Are you two actual bikers?” Delia asks, her face a mask of scrutiny. “You’re doing an awful lot of whining.”
“I just want her to come to us so I can talk to her and confirm she’s okay.” Chino exhales as he sits back down.
“The only way to do that is to make some sort of trade,” I explain. “We don’t want to harm you and have no intention of doing so. I won’t even force her to stay, I just want to have a moment to speak to her without the club around us.”
“Are you two reneging against your club?” Her eyes widen as she looks between us.
“We want to better the club and our President,” Chino begins as I hiss at him. I don’t mind talking to her, but she can’t know how the inside of our club works. “What?” He looks at me incredulously. “I want to make sure she knows our motive for taking her.” He faces Delia again and says, “I don’t know everything that went down the night Genni was taken, but I have a feeling I’m missing a lot. I know she won’t tell me willingly because I was there, and I let Malik take her away.”
“First off, she hates the name Genni,” Delia tells us, her jaw hard with each word she spits out. “My brother calls her Genevieve and she seems to be okay with that. I call her V, and well, Malik calls her Slayer because of what she wants to do to your organization.”
“She wants to kill us.” Chino shoves up from his seat once more, his antsy energy suffocating inside the cramped room.
“Take a walk,” I bark at him and he turns to look at me, his face a mask of surprise. “You need to pull yourself together and remember why we're doing this.”
He looks at Diego’s sister and the smug smirk on her face, his shoulders dropping with acceptance. Hopefully he realizes she would never be on our side and the things she’s saying is meant to rile us up. With a quick nod, he heads outside, slamming the door behind him.
“I feel bad for that one,” Delia murmurs as the banging door echoes around the room. “He’s in love with her and she wants nothing more than to ruin you all.”
“Are you telling me she’s become unreasonable? That she wouldn’t be able to have a conversation with us? To hear us out?” I inquire, my eyes never moving from hers.
“Unreasonable? For what she went through because you and your club discarded her? I think not. My brother still looks at her with worry in his eyes because he saw her at her worst. He nursed her back from the brink of death. Malik saw enough too, and he’s almost feral when it comes to her protection. I would really reconsider this plan of yours because it’ll only get you killed. You seem like the brains of this two-man operation, if indeed it is just the two of you, and I’m imploring you to let me go.” The whole time she speaks a mischievous smile plays along her lips, like she’s almost excited for us to be found.
